flamethearsoncat/Instagram(GREENVILLE, S.C.) -- The firefighters at Belmont Fire Department in Greenville, South Carolina, rescued this stray orange kitty after finding him malnourished wandering around the outside of their station about two years ago. But now, theyll be the first to admit that hes actually the one who has rescued them.



Flame the Arson Cat, as hes now appropriately named, is like their shadow in the fire house, always there when you need him to provide that mental break, firefighter engineer Jordan Lide told ABC News.



Fire Chief Anthony Segars was unsure about having pets in the fire station at first, but now realizes just how helpful the cat is to have around.



My guys, they see horrible accidents, horrible things every day, Segars said. Were involved in something weekly that stresses to them to some degree and he is a tremendous stress relief to these guys. He is therapeutic after a bad call comes in.



Lide remembers the day he found Flame like it was yesterday.



It was getting a little bit later and guys were making their way inside and I heard a meowing sound out in the grass, he recalled. I could see this small cat but he didnt run. He was really skinny and malnourished. I think he was scared and timid but kind of desperate at the same time.



I started edging my way towards him, squatting down and talking to him, he added. Eventually, after 15 to 20 minutes, he let me get to him and as soon as I pet him for the first time, it was game on. He started climbing all over my lap and I could tell how malnourished he was.



Now, Hes just part of the crew, the chief said.



The firefighters said theyve gotten him neutered and up to date with his shots.



Flame has also become a huge hit on Instagram, serving as the fire stations mascot of sorts. But to the firefighters, hes so much more.



You dont realize hes therapeutic until youre playing with him and he starts rubbing up on you. Its a mental break, Lide said. Were on shift for 24 hours running calls and working, and we see the worst side of stuff sometimes, and the innocence of him, he just wants to be loved on and played with, and then you forget you were in a bad fire.



Lide said the loyal cat will remain in place at the fire station, patiently waiting on their return from a call.



First he rubs up on the truck to see where weve been and then he follows us over to the lockers and then hell come and jump up on the bumper and sits next to you on the bumper, he said.



The firefighters even call Flame The Chief now.



He has his own department picture and everything, Lide said with a laugh. Its something you can count on because hes always there. Especially in the morning, he sets the tone for the day. He just gives you that sense of, Take a step back, relax, take it one call at a time. Hes definitely a part of the guys. Hes a part of our everyday lives.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
9AA: Wall tops Parkston for first state football title in 28 years
Mia's first day program day July 2016

By Kim Rossi



My daughter Mia has autism and is in a day program here in Connecticut. She goes five days per week with transportation. While she is at her program I work and earn a living running Age of Autism, writing and consulting. I take care of Mia's sisters, who also have autism.



Today, a letter came home from the non-profit that runs her program (and dozens of other programs) that they are implementing furlough days for employees. And families will have to pay out of pocket for the program and transportation - to the tune of more than $225 for the day. There are six furlough days scheduled because Connecticut's budget is a train wreck and our DEMOCRAT Governor thinks cutting the bone first is a fine idea. We have so much WEALTH in this state! And yet somehow services for the most vulnerable population is on the cutting block.



I am my lodging protest right here, Governor Malloy. Mia and her peers have a right to safe, healthy day. Imagine if your local hospital or Alzheimer's unit said, "We'll be closed tomorrow. Good luck!" Is care for those truly unable to care for themselves a privilege? Privilege is the hedge fund life further down the Merritt in Greenwich and Stamford. Asking parents who've spent at LEAST 22 years taking care of their loved ones 24/7/365 to pony up hundreds of dollars because the STATE, one of the wealthiest states in the nation by the way, can't balance a budget is bulllroar. We lost GE headquarters a few years ago. We are one of the LEAST business friendly states in America in terms of taxes and cost of living. So what are we? We're not Republican. We're not Democrat. We're Draconiats? Nonsense.



How about I bring Mia and her peers to the statehouse and YOU help them manage their day. Feed them. Change those who need diapers. Work on their behaviors. Push their wheelchairs. Translate their non-verbal communication. Sound good, Governor Malloy and the Democrats. Oh, can I suggest you change out of your fine suit for this day? It's going to be messy.



Here's an article describing the situation further.

MERIDEN  Days from now when Connecticut begins operating without a budget, services around the state will be cut.

Governor Malloys Resource Allocation Plan balances $2.1 billion through cuts alone because he does not have the power to add revenue in his executive authority. This will be the state's reality until a budget is passed. Democrats in the House of Representatives say they plan to vote on a budget on July 18.

In the meantime, agencies like MidState Arc, formerly Arc of Meriden-Wallingford, are bracing for the effects of these emergency cuts. The Arc helps more than 300 people a day throughout central Connecticut. It provides services to help people with disabilities find work and learn life skills so they can gain their own independence.

Many of MidState Arcs programs are funded under the Department of Developmental Services, which is cut by more than $4 million in the current no budget plan. CEO Pamela Fields said it will cost them about $50,000 a month and they would have to eliminate seven positions.

Im not feeling comfortable that it is temporary or if it is temporary, how temporary is it? The longer those cuts are in place the more impactful it will be on the agency and the less sustainable it will be for us to move forward, said Fields.
WASHINGTON  Americans, you need to start paying attention. Like, really paying attention  to the issues that actually matter.

Stop getting distracted!

Take this Russian collusion nonsense. Lots of Americans are obsessed with it, but its just a shiny distraction.

Yeah, sure, it looks as though members of the Trump campaign lied repeatedly, including on live TV and in Senate testimony and on security clearance forms, about their contacts with Russians. It looks as though they may have been eager to get their hands on possibly illegally obtained information from a hostile nation. I love it, Donald Trump Jr. wrote when offered dirt on Hillary Clinton explicitly offered as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

But thats merely what the nine-dimensional-chess players in the White House want you to be obsessing over.

Focusing on the terrible things Team Trump did during the campaign and transition conveniently distracts you from all the terrible things Team Trump is doing during the presidency.

The administration is repealing consumer and environmental protections left and right. The Education Department is making it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students. The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed an air pollution rule that the agency had determined would likely prevent the poisoning of children.

The Trump deregulatory team is rife with former lobbyists and others who have conflicts of interest. President Trump and his family members likewise appear to be financially benefiting from his role in the White House.

Yet fussing over regulatory decisions and vaguely sleazy behavior is itself a distraction from an even more important issue: the fact that Republicans are trying to remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy, largely in secret, while ripping health insurance away from 22 million Americans.

Theyre laying out changes opposed by insurers, providers and patient advocacy groups. They are doing so with no hearings and no expert input, and reportedly with a scheme to sideline the one neutral referee of the laws potential impact, the Congressional Budget Office. Attention must be paid!

However, all the noise over health care reform is itself a ruse intended to distract voters from Republicans real policy agenda: tax cuts for the rich.

The entire point of the Obamacare repeal, at least for House Speaker Paul Ryan, is to pave the way for tax cuts. Slashing Medicaid and tax subsidies for people on the individual insurance market would help offset the costs of repealing taxes on rich people imposed by the Affordable Care Act.

The latest Senate health care bill has complicated that plan somewhat, but plans for major tax cuts for rich people and corporations are still advancing behind the scenes and garnering precious little news coverage.

What scant awareness is being given to tax cuts, however, is diverting the publics deficient attention from a far more insidious scheme: efforts to systematically undermine democratic values and institutions.

Theres the Election Integrity Commissions fishing expedition for state voter data  which may have been deliberately bungled in an attempt to distract voters from Republicans real, secret goal of dismantling the National Voter Registration Act, or Motor Voter law.

There are also the unending attacks on freedom of the press and other First Amendment rights. This includes a fight picked with MSNBC hosts, which White House aides lamented as a distraction from the far more important fight with CNN.

But wait. All of this silliness is really a form of misdirection so that Americans will forget North Korea recently fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting Alaska. And that no one is even nominated for critical diplomatic and national security posts, such as ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.

But worry about such personnel vacancies is of course a distraction from the fact that the man at the top of the food chain is impulsively tweeting out provocations to both enemies and allies.

And Trumps tasteless Twitter feed is also cleverly designed to distract you from noticing that an iceberg nearly the size of Delaware just broke off Antarctica.

Getting drawn into a debate about whether climate change is to blame, and whether American global leadership could make a difference either way, would surely sidetrack us from the vital question of whether our president is in hock to Russia.

And second verse, same as the first.

Welcome to 2017, the ouroboros of distractions, where every terrible thing is a head-fake for a ruse for a diversion for a misdirection from something else much, much worse.
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Assyrians Propose a Safe Haven in Iraq

His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Syriac-Orthodox Church and His Beatitude Mar Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch, Syriac-Catholic Church. ( Charlie Weimers) In the very land from which Christianity was born, the Faithful have suffered terrible, unspeakable oppression, blatant discrimination, torture and holy martyrdom at the hands of those who reject peace and love. Now, that the failed "ISIL" is in rapid retreat, having unleashed untold suffering on the region and deaths over the past three-years, plans are in the work to keep the remainder of Christians in the region safe from more unsolicited, gratuitous violence.

A high-level European Parliament meeting in Brussels, entitled "A Future for Christians in Iraq" discussed the possibility of offering the remnant of Christians who have withstood one of the worst threats to the Faith's existence since its inception. Representatives of the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac Christian political parties produced a position paper which outlines their desire to establish self-governance. On January 21, 2014, the Iraq Council of Ministers approved a plan to establish three new provinces in Iraq. One province would be in Fallujah, in central Iraq; a second would be in north Iraq, in Tuz Khormato; the third would also be in north Iraq, in the Nineveh Plain. This last region would be a safe haven for persecuted minorities including Christians. A few months after this meeting, Islamic terrorist organization "ISIS" invaded Mosul, Iraq's second largest city claiming it as the capital of their new capital in the misguided attempt at reviving a "caliphate" which had been disbanded in the early part of the 20th century by Mustafa Kemal (Atat
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
July 14, 2017

A pervasive perception in US policy circles and among US allies is that Iran seeks hegemony in the Middle East. Israel and other regional states often claim that Iran wishes to "revive the Persian Empire." While such claims would be dismissed as farcical by any Iranian official, it is important to note that such sentiment lies at the root of the current standoff between Iran, its regional rivals and the United States.

Contrary to mantras such as the above, Iranians broadly view their contemporary history as one of falling victim to aggressive outside powers and struggling to maintain a sense of security. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a series of events and factors have led Tehran to believe that Washington and its regional allies seek regime change and Iran's territorial dismemberment. This perception is fueled by comments such as that of US Defense Secretary James Mattis earlier this week, who said that regime change will be necessary before the US and Iran can have substantially positive relations.

Broadly speaking, six factors have shaped Iran's threat perceptions since 1979.

First are the challenges of the 1980s, namely the Iran-Iraq War and separatist rebellions in Iran's Kurdistan and Khuzestan provinces, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damages. The United States and allied Persian Gulf littoral states played a decisive role in exacerbating these crises, including by buttressing separatists and providing Saddam Hussein with every means of support, including ballistic missiles and chemical weapons, which were used to deadly effect. Toward the end of the war, the United States also directly attacked Iranian oil platforms and even shot down an Iranian civilian airliner.

Second, Iran has faced a military buildup on its borders since the Islamic Revolution. Iran is not only ringed by US military bases, but US-made weapons regularly flow into the region  especially the Persian Gulf. Under Barack Obama, the United States sold Saudi Arabia roughly $115 billion worth of weapons, which is more than any previous administration. Donald Trump is poised to outdo his predecessor. Yet Iran spends one-fifth of what Saudi Arabia spends on defense  despite having twice the population. Even the United Arab Emirates, with a native population of 1.4 million, has double the military spending of Iran.

The third factor is the unparalleled sanctions Iran has been subject to since 1979. Even as Iran is carefully abiding by the historic July 2015 nuclear deal, Congress is pushing through a set of sanctions. Such sanctions have long been promoted by Israel and Saudi Arabia, who wish to cripple Iran's economy.

Fourth comes covert warfare in the form of cyberattacks, assassinations and the propping up of terrorist organizations like the notorious Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Such tactics are set to be stepped up with the recent creation of a special CIA unit focused on Iran under the leadership of the ultra-aggressive Michael D'Andrea. Indeed, every US administration has since 1979 pursued an "all options on the table" policy against Iran.

The fifth factor involves Saudi Arabia's confrontational stance toward the Islamic Republic while apparently establishing a strategic relationship with Israel. As part of the goodwill foreign policy of the late Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a diplomatic detente, negotiated by myself and then-Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, which resulted in good relations from 1996 onwards. Around the same time, then-Supreme National Security Council Secretary Hassan Rouhani and then-Saudi Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef also reached a landmark security pact. However, over the course of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure (2005-2013), Saudi Arabia drifted away from these agreements, as the international environment became conducive for pressuring Iran and even provoking a war. Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates proclaimed in 2010 how the Saudis always want to "fight the Iranians to the last American" while former Secretary of State John Kerry has also stated that regional countries called on Obama to "bomb these guys."

Sixth, Iran faces serious threats on its borders, whether from terrorist organizations or Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria or a fragile nuclear-weapons state like Pakistan. As one Iranian military official has said, roughly 60% of Iran's borders are "not controlled by the neighboring country."

These realities have compelled Iran to establish a proactive and pre-emptive presence in the region to secure its borders, sovereignty and integrity. To these ends, Iran's foreign policy goals center on warding off threats, fostering regional stability and improving self-sufficiency in establishing conventional military deterrence, including its ballistic missile capability.

At its root, the underlying reason behind misconstrued perceptions of Iran's foreign policy intentions is the lack of dialogue between regional powers. As things stand, there are no fora for regional powers to communicate their concerns and grievances to one another. Instead, rival states resort to self-serving narratives to gain influence in the realm of public opinion.

Regional stability and the eradication of terrorism rest on understanding and collective cooperation between regional and global powers. With reference to the fight against terrorism, contrary to the common framing of a "nefarious" Iranian pursuit of hegemony, Tehran in fact played an instrumental role in ousting the Islamic State (IS) from Fallujah, Mosul, Aleppo and other key areas across Iraq and Syria.

Top Iraqi officials have stressed how Baghdad may have fallen to IS if not for Iranian assistance. Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has also stated that "Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons and ammunition" as Erbil was on the verge of collapse.

While the Trump administration's regional policy appears to be centered on military intervention, no regional crisis can be durably resolved without inclusive diplomacy. In that respect, it should be noted that the negotiations that resulted in the nuclear deal provide a useful model for multilateral diplomacy to resolve a seemingly intractable crisis, demonstrating the impact that external great powers can have in terms of facilitating confliction resolution in the region.

The Trump administration should take to heart the words of a group of top retired US generals and admirals, who emphasized in a recent open letter that "without diplomatic connections, minor conflicts can easily spiral out of control." Indeed, rather than stepping up military intervention, demonizing Iran or undermining the nuclear deal, Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should pursue robust diplomatic engagement with all relevant parties to resolve regional crises and perhaps more importantly, help foster the creation of a system for institutionalized regional cooperation.
July 13, 2017

Turkey has mobilized thousands of troops to combat the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, Syria, and made sure those moves were well-publicized. There were even media reports that July 5 would be the launch date. The areas around Afrin and nearby Tel Rifaat occasionally came under Turkish artillery fire to add credence to predictions that war was around the corner.

As we were all waiting for a war to break out, Ankara began to whine about US and Russian stalling tactics to obstruct the operation Turkey was planning with the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Turkey began vacillating between rhetoric and reality. Just as Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield in Syria was carried out with a green light from Russia as the United States looked the other way, the feasibility of Turkey's move on Afrin also requires their assent.

Just look at the field to understand what is going on.

As opposition forces battle the Syrian regime, and Turkey is using some of those opposition forces to target its perpetual enemy  the Kurds  Russia is supporting the Syrian regime while helping a US-led coalition (with the aid of some Kurds) to fight the Islamic State (IS). If Turkey attacks the Kurds in Afrin, the United States fears that could detract from the Kurdish help it's getting to fight IS.

A final agreement for deconfliction zones in the Syrian civil war was to be signed July 4 in Astana, Kazakhstan, as a prelude to the Afrin operation. If there was a hitch at Astana, then Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to try, during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, to sell US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Afrin move anyway. An agreement was not reached at Astana, and Erdogan couldnt exploit the crack between the United States and Russia, and so returned from Hamburg empty-handed.

Pro-government daily Yeni Safak expressed its disappointment: The same ploy used against Turkey at Manbij is now being staged at Afrin. The US did not deliver on its promise that the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist group] would evacuate Manbij [at that time], and is now obstructing our intervention at Afrin and playing for time. If Turkeys intervention  with the 17,000 FSA fighters it prepared  is delayed, then the PKK will start hitting our borders.

Ankara was trying to secure a Russian green light for the Afrin operation in return for Turkeys assistance with a Russian deconfliction zone at Idlib. There were media reports that Russia had agreed to this deal and was even preparing to set up a joint base with Turkey at Idlib.

Meanwhile, Kurdish media outlets reported that because the United States shot down a Syrian plane back in June, Russia had decided to help Turkey, even work jointly with it to prevent the YPG from crossing to the west of the Euphrates with US support, and to compel the Kurds to cooperate with the Syrian regime.

What is always overlooked in the tense politics between Turkey and the Kurds is that an amplified Turkish military presence disturbs both Russia and Syria. No wonder the Syrian Foreign Ministry denounced Turkey's shelling of Afrin to the United Nations, accusing Turkey of being a "partner" in terrorism and of pursuing an expansionist policy.

As for Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova summarized Moscow's attitude: Nobody involved in the Syrian process should threaten that countrys laws, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Russia does not want the deployment of the Turkish army and Syrian Hayat Tahrir al Sham. Moscow wants to use military police detachments from friendly, Muslim countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to enforce law and order at Idlib. After the Syrian army took over Aleppo, Russia deployed a 250-strong elite military police force from Chechnya and Ingushetia.

Moscow sees the Turkish threat as a useful instrument of political manipulation, but fears it would further complicate the process. The United States fears a Turkish operation against Afrin will hamper the operation at Raqqa, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (of which the YPG is a part) is trying to drive out IS. An interruption to that effort would further deepen the US-Turkey rift.

Ankara was comforted a bit by several factors: the US intention to deploy at Tabqa air base; its targeting of Syrian regime forces approaching the training base the United States had set up at the Jordanian border; and, finally, its shooting down of the Syrian plane. But the agreement between the United States and Russia last week for a deconfliction area that will cover Daraa, Suwayda and Quneitra could have opened the door a bit for cooperation between the two major powers. This meant Turkey's effort of taking advantage of a split between the two powers was futile.

Meanwhile, the people of Afrin, not to be left without a voice, demonstrated their will to resist a Turkish invasion. Media outlets reported in early July that tens of thousands of citizens hit the streets to protest Turkeys intervention plans, shouting "Live Forever, YPG!"

In response, Turkish-supported groups organized smaller-scale demonstrations to accuse the Kurds of occupying Arab and Turkmen villages and to call for an operation against Afrin.

Although the US-Russia accord over Syria and their opposition toward Turkish designs could be stumbling blocks, it doesnt mean the Turkish military and the local militias it supports will abandon their pressure on Afrin and Tel Rifaat. Afrin was in Turkeys sights even before Operation Euphrates Shield. Fehim Isa, commander of the Sultan Murad Division, said, In February, Turkey instructed us to prepare for an attack against Afrin immediately after the al-Bab operation.

Kurdish sources say Turkey, by deploying artillery and Katyusha rocket launchers to the Azaz, Mining and Marea areas, is continuing preparations to hit Afrin.

Two factors allow Turkey to strike Kurdish areas whenever the opportunity arises:

The United States, which uses Incirlik Air Base, still needs Turkey. Moreover, Washington wants to halt the Turkish slide toward Russia, hence the need to calm down Turkey about the Kurds.

Putin at Hamburg said, We cant do it without Turkey, acknowledging it cant alone sustain its hold over the northern front.

So as long as the United States and Russia need Turkey to make progress in Syria, pressure on Afrin will continue  up to a point.
Let's face it, (almost) everyone loves ice cream. And if you're really craving a frozen treat during these hot Alabama days, then we have a place you have to try: Kreme Delite in Athens. By Haley Laurence l hlaurence@al.com

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Huntsville Times file photo

The walk-up dairy bar is a Limestone County institution: It's not only where the locals go -- it's also a place that people go out of their way to get to.

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Warning:

You'll probably find a long line during the super busy summer months. It's worth the wait, though.

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Huntsville Times file photo

Kreme Delite's specialty?

The upside-down banana split. It's served in a plastic cup, so there's much less mess and you can eat it easier on the go.

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Let's just look at that one more time:

Are you hungry yet?

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But there's much more than just the banana split, of course.

You can find standard ice cream shop fare, like vanilla-and-chocolate swirl.

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(Don't forget the sprinkles.)

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And if you're in the mood for chocolate ...

... try the dipped cone. You won't regret it.

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But no matter what you get ...

... it'll be super Instagram-able. (And delicious!)

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Best of all?

At night, Kreme Delite's old-fashioned sign is lit up, and isn't it pretty?

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Want to go?

Address: 401 W. Washington St., Athens

Phone: 256-232-9130

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Haley Laurence | hlaurence@al.com

More Alabama food stories

This Alabama bakery serves the most epic cupcakes

Alabama pizza trail

50 must-try meals under $10

Try these cheesy Alabama dishes

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Haley Laurence | hlaurence@al.com

Even more Alabama stories ...

This new Alabama restaurant serves hot dogs from a treehouse

Alabama barbecue trail

Vintage Alabama menus

This unique ice cream treat has made its way to Alabama
In an effort to silence claims of police brutality made in a viral Facebook post, Rainbow City police have released body camera video of a traffic stop that occurred Thursday night.

The post, which has been shared 28,600 times as of early Friday evening, claims officers beat, use a stun gun and pushed a man off a bridge around 10 p.m. The post says the man was taken to a Gadsden hospital and airlifted to UAB Hospital, but next of kin was not notified. Photos of the man in a hospital bed with a bloody mouth were also posted.

"Rainbow city beat him half to death and pushed him off a bridge," the post said. "The people who are supposed to serve and protect. He's trying to talk but his whole front row of teeth are knocked out, he had to have his tongue sewed back together and his femur bone is broken he has to have surgery on it."

The post and photos were taken down from Facebook on Saturday, but a screenshot of it shows the extent of his injuries.

Warning: photos are graphic.

A screenshot of the original post on Facebook.

Chief Jonathon Horton said he found out about the Facebook post Friday morning. He released a 30-minute video of the incident Friday night, which shows the man jumping off the bridge during the traffic stop.

The video does not show what happened before the man ran from officers and jumped off the bridge.

Horton said an officer conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle at Black Creek Parkway for not having a tail light at 8:40 p.m. As the officer was giving the female driver a warning for the tail light, Horton said the officer noticed the male passenger was acting nervous. The officer asked for the passenger's identification, but the passenger told police he did not have an Alabama driver's license, Horton said, though he did give law enforcement a name and a date of birth, Horton said.

When the officer tried to look up the passenger's information, nothing popped up, Horton said. Horton said the passenger then produced an Alabama license, but the passenger did not look like the person in the photo. The passenger told the officer he lost a lot of weight while he was in jail, Horton said.

The female driver was then interviewed separately from the male. The female gave the officer the male's real name, Horton said. When the passenger's real name was searched in the system, Horton said, police found a probation revocation for two felony warrants for dangerous drugs and misdemeanor traffic warrants, according to Horton.

The video shows the officer going back to the car to talk to the man. Horton said the passenger seemed calm until he unexpectedly ran from the car, crossing two lanes of oncoming traffic toward the median and jumped over the barrier, which is a 19-foot drop.

The video shows the officer shouting at the man, "Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands.He's crawling. He's crawling. He's right there in the bushes."

The video is from the perspective of the officer who guided other officers with his flashlight from the bridge and not from the officers who were searching for the man below the bridge. Horton said the man took off his pants while attempting to jump into the river. Another officer went below the bridge to find the man. Horton said the man continued to run from police and did not show his hands. An officer used a stun gun on the man, at which point he stopped running.

The officer on the bridge then descends to the scene below. At 3:12 of the video, the man starts screaming about pain in his leg. Shortly after, you can hear the officer informing dispatchers that a Taser has been deployed. He also asked dispatchers to send a medic, according to the video.

Horton said it looks like the injuries shown in the photos online were results from the 19-foot fall.

"He jumped off the bridge," Horton said. "There wasn't any physical contact (between him and the officer) other than him being Tased."

The video shows officers giving aide to the man before he was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Horton said charges are pending against the individual.
Alabama's Republican candidates in the special election for the U.S. Senate generally downplayed the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer to receive information damaging to Hillary Clinton during the campaign last summer.

AL.com asked the GOP candidates if the revelation refuted President Trump's assertion that the investigation into whether there was collusion between his campaign and Russia was a "witch hunt."

Trump Jr.'s emails showed that he was told that the efforts to incriminate Clinton were part of the Russian government's support of his father's campaign. Trump Jr. said the information turned out to be worthless and was not used.

AL.com asked the candidates if Trump Jr. was wrong to agree to the meeting and if they supported continuing the investigation into Russian meddling in the campaign.

U.S. Rep Mo Brooks and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore declined to respond to the questions.

Montgomery physician Randy Brinson said much remains unknown about the meeting.

"Before we make comments we need the facts," Brinson said in a text message. "A lot of this is innuendo and media hype. Was Donald Trump Jr. set up? Is this a way for Democrats to taint Republicans since they lost the race."

As for whether Trump Jr. was wrong to have the meeting, Brinson said, "What was the premise of the meeting? Again, we need the facts. I'm sure Donald Trump Jr. has done business with many people across the world. Meetings are a part of business."

Trump Jr.'s emails indicated he set up the meeting to receive the information about Clinton.

Brinson said the investigation into possible collusion so far has led to a dead end.

"The facts don't add up," Brinson said. "Do we keep wasting resources? Donald Trump has done a great job leading our country. I believe we need to focus on the future."

Sen. Luther Strange issued a statement through his campaign spokeswoman:

"I've said for weeks that I trust the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee and professionals at the FBI to get to the bottom of this investigation and follow the truth wherever it leads," Strange said.

Strange didn't answer whether he thought Trump Jr. was wrong to hold the meeting.

State Sen. Trip Pittman said Trump Jr. encountered what Pittman said is commonplace during campaigns, an unsolicited offer of information. Such offers often turn out to be useless or disingenuous, Pittman said.

"In politics, you get less than genuine motives a lot of times," Pittman said.

As to whether Trump Jr. was wrong to agree to the meeting, Pittman said, "This happened over a year ago. I think Donald Trump Jr. said in hindsight he should have handled it differently and probably should not have had that meeting."

As to whether the investigation should continue, Pittman noted that former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been hired to carry it out.

"I think since he's been appointed he should follow through with what he's been appointed to look at," Pittman said.

Birmingham business consultant Bryan Peeples said the meeting should not have happened.

"I understand why he took it and the optics look bad on the meeting even if it was nothing contextually," Peeples said in a message on Facebook.

"If any foreign national approaches you with information, regardless of if they represent a government or not, regarding a political opponent, it needs to be directed to the FBI."

Peeples said he believes Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting because of his inexperience in politics.

"Everything else surrounding it though is still speculation and there is no real substance to the collusion narrative," Peeples said.

Physician James Beretta of Pelham declined to comment on the Trump Jr. meeting other than to say there were far more important issues, including the Senate's efforts to address legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

"It's much more pertinent right now," Beretta said.

Former state Rep. Perry Hooper Jr. of Montgomery, who campaigned for Trump, is not a candidate for the Senate, although he considered entering the race and sought the appointment to the seat from former Gov. Robert Bentley.

Hooper said he believed the news story about Trump Jr. was timed to hurt the president's efforts to get the Senate to repeal Obamacare.

"I think the president is spot on," Hooper said. "I think it's a witch hunt. But more than that, I think it's just more distraction tactics in order to keep the president from being successful with his legislative agenda."

Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle, who also campaigned for Trump, dismissed the Trump Jr. story as unimportant.

"It has no bearing on anything that's going on," said Henry, who at one point announced he would run for the Senate seat but changed his mind. "You're in a campaign, somebody says we have opposition research, would you like to see it? Yes."

Henry was asked if it would matter if the information is coming from a foreign government?

"Why? If they know something about what's going on, why would you not find out?" Henry said.

Henry said ISIS is America's arch-enemy, not Russia. He said the general public has no interest in whether there were connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"The only people that care about the Russian, whatever, are the media," Henry said. "You go out and you talk to anybody out in the community, and you say anything about Russia this, Russia that, no one cares. It's not a topic. No one is concerned about it."

Updated at noon on July 15 to add comments from Randy Brinson.
Cullman police arrested a man earlier this month for printing counterfeit money at his home.

Police said on July 7, officers went to a home on County Road 1435 after receiving information that someone may be making counterfeit money there. Officers searched the home and found several different denominations of counterfeit U.S. currency, printers, and other items used in the counterfeiting process.

Investigators also found drug paraphernalia, including several coffee filters which contained methamphetamine.

Mark Anthony Nix, the homeowner, was arrested for first-degree forgery, first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, criminal possession of forgery device, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Nix was taken to the Cullman County Detention Center and has since been released on bond.

(Courtesy of Cullman police Facebook)

Sgt. Chris Thomason said on the department's Facebook page there have been a high number of counterfeit bills given to Cullman businesses lately, and all businesses should be on alert for counterfeit $5's, $10's, $20's and $100's.

Anyone who believes they may have been paid with a fake bill should call the Cullman Police Department at 256-734-1434 or 256-775-7179.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is in Rhode Island for the National Governors Association summer meeting, where governors are discussing how their states could be affected by health care legislation under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

Ivey appeared in a short interview on MSNBC this afternoon to talk about health care reforms.

Ivey was asked about the possibility that the federal government could shift more of the cost burden for Medicaid to the state level. That could hit especially hard in Alabama, a relatively poor state where about one million people receive some form of Medicaid coverage.

Ivey said she supports greater flexibility for states in managing Medicaid but acknowledged changes would be difficult.

"Every governor knows better how to manage and provide for quality health care in their respective states than does one-size-fits-all at the federal government level," Ivey said. "So while it will be very, very difficult to go through the transition, the federal government down to the states, there can some very positive advantages if we work through it. But be assured, it will be a very difficult, arduous task for all governors in every state."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to build support for a revamped bill intended to make good on the GOP's longstanding promise to repeal former President Obama's Affordable Care Act. President Trump is urging the Senate to pass the legislation.

Among many changes, the plan would eliminate the federal funding for Medicaid expansion that was a key part of Obamacare. Alabama was one of 19 states that did not expand its Medicaid program under the law, however.

Republican governors from some states that did expand Medicaid, including Brian Sandoval of Nevada and John Kashich of Ohio, say the McConnell legislation cuts Medicaid too deeply, the Associated Press reported.
Maggie Bowles, a 6-year-old girl from Trussville, died on Friday from injuries suffered in a July 8 car crash, family confirmed on Facebook.

Maggie died in the intensive care unit of Children's of Alabama, her aunt Leigh Stovall confirmed in the Facebook group, Miracles for Maggie.

Trussville Fire and Rescue Chief Tim Schotts said Maggie was seriously injured when the vehicle her father, Shawn, was driving was struck from behind, which caused his vehicle to crash into another vehicle.

The crash occurred at just after 2 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Happy Hollow Road and Riverbend. Schott said no other motorists were injured.

According to the Miracles for Maggie page, Shawn Bowles was stopped to turn into a driveway, when an SUV crashed into the back of his Honda Accord. Maggie was unconscious at the scene and suffered a head injury.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office hadn't been notified of Maggie Bowles' death as of early Friday afternoon.

"There once was a strong and sassy girl. She was not afraid to meet you and talk, laugh and cry, joke and learn. Her light was bright. So bright that her light shone across the world," Stovall wrote on Facebook.

"The events that unfolded around her touched people and mobilized the body of Christ. They cried and prayed. Her story made people talk and hug. These events reminded everyone how fragile and precious life is. People loved more and found it easier to be honest and vulnerable in a world that expects you to be perfect and without fault or trouble."

Stovall asked the more than 18,338 members of the Miracles for Maggie Facebook page to "post a scripture or song lyric that will share God's love to us and everyone reading."
A woman was seriously injured in what appears to be a domestic-related shooting in Birmingham's Ensley neighborhood on Friday afternoon.

The suspect of a domestic-related shooting that seriously injured a woman tried to hide in this abandon home not far from the shooting scene on 31st Street Ensley before he was captured on Friday, July 14, 2017.

Birmingham Police Lt. Sean Edwards said a man shot a woman at a home located in the 1500 block of 31st Street Ensley at around 3:28 p.m. At least a half a dozen police cars and rescue vehicles responded to the call. An ambulance arrived to transport the woman to the hospital with serious injuries, Edwards said.

Edwards said the suspect, who has not been identified yet, left the scene and tried to flee from police. Officers were able to detain the suspect, who hid in an abandoned home not far from the scene at around 4:06 p.m. He has been taken to police headquarters.

Police are still investigating the circumstances of the shooting. It is unknown at this time if the victim and the suspect are related to each other or if they are in a relationship together.
Travelling inland from its mouth, the River Congo holds many stories of slavery, colonialism and independence.

Democratic Republic of Congo  The River Congo has always inspired reverence.

Our River Congo spills violently into the ocean, which is unable to stop its passage, Engeye Nbondwange, an aging naval officer and amateur historian, says as he vigorously gesticulates on the beach at Banana Point, a spit of land where the land, river and ocean collide.

Our River Congo discharges 50,000 cubic metres of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean, he says, as he marvels at the 160km-long gorge the powerful river has bored into the seafloor over thousands of years.

Aided by a homemade map and wooden stick, Nbondwange has become a semi-permanent fixture at Banana Peninsula, a sandy piece of land that juts into the mouth of the River Congo at the southern tip of the countrys tiny slither of coastline. He energetically dispenses lessons about the river, which ejects more water into the ocean than any other in the world other than the Amazon.

Banana Penisula has been a naval base since Congo was a Belgian colony. Today, there is little sign of any operational military hardware but hundreds of impoverished soldiers are still stationed here. Anyone wishing to reach the beach has to hand over a couple of dollars to a bored recruit to pass through the roadblock at the camps entrance.

While Nbondwange fizzes with enthusiasm as he tells the rivers stories, most of the men here have little to do other than sit outside their dilapidated houses.

A variety of vessels  from oceangoing container ships to motorboats weighed down by smuggled petrol to fishermens wooden canoes  can be seen at the rivers mouth. The larger boats are headed upstream to the town of Boma and the city of Matadi to offload their goods.

As Nbondwange moves from the rivers geography to its history, he begins to tell the stories of the white men who arrived at the rivers vast estuary more than 530 years ago.

Slave trade

First among them was Diogo Cao, a Portuguese captain who made his way down the coast of West Africa in 1482, becoming the first European to come across the River Congo.

Dispatched on a second voyage by the Portuguese king two years later, Cao forged friendly relations with the manikongo, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, an independent state founded in the late-14th century. The kingdom included a lengthy section of the river and stretched hundreds of miles inland to include parts of todays Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo), Angola, Republic of Congo and Gabon.

In 1491, priests, soldiers, farmers and others sent by the then Portuguese king were welcomed by the manikongo.

Adam Hochschild in his book, King Leopolds Ghost, wrote that the arrival of this party marked the beginning of the first sustained encounter between Europeans and a black African nation.

This relationship would prove to have a traumatic effect on the inhabitants of this part of Central Africa for hundreds of years.

According to Hochschild, Pende oral historian Mukonzo Kioko described the devastation triggered by the enduring interest of Europeans in his land: Our fathers were living comfortably  They had cattle and crops; they had salt marshes and banana trees. Suddenly, they saw a big boat rising out of the great ocean  White men came out of the water and spoke words that no one understood  From that time to our days now, the whites have brought us nothing but wars and miseries.

READ MORE: Tattoos in Kinshasa: Overcoming conflict and taboos

Slavery had already existed in Kongo, but the Portuguese, with the connivance of the kingdoms elite, introduced its domestic marketplace to the rapidly growing international slave trade. African middlemen sold slaves to the Portuguese, which were then shipped mainly to the plantations of Sao Tome or Portugal, and later to Brazil, the Caribbean and North America. By the 17th century, 15,000 slaves a year were leaving Kongo.

In 1816, a British Royal Navy captain, James H Tuckey, led an expedition up the River Congo. He was sent by the British government to locate its source, but Tuckey and much of his crew died of fever after giving up their mission.

Prior to his death, Tuckey encountered slave ships and local merchants who supplied the cargo.

Because some European states had outlawed the trade they had previously exploited, Tuckey wrote in his account of the journey that he had to offer a local chief his assurances of not coming to prevent the slave trade, or to make war in order to continue his journey upstream.

Upstream to Boulambemba island and Matadi

Among the places Tuckey came across was Boulambemba, an island a short boat ride from Banana Point through a labyrinth of mangroves.

Today, Boulambemba sits inside a wildlife park where Ranger Pierre Manene hacks his way through the vegetation for several minutes as he makes a path towards an abandoned watchtower and several enormous cannons, which were once trained on the rivers mouth to defend Belgian Congo during World War II.

The Belgians were afraid that the Germans would attack their colony, Manene tells Al Jazeera as he scrambles over the rusty barrels. In the first decade of independence, Boulambemba was repurposed as a political prison.

Less than 160km inland from Boulambemba, the River Congo becomes impassable. This is where Matadi, a major city and Congos main international port, is located.

Established in 1879, Matadi played an integral part in allowing the European colonists to open up a huge swath of Central Africa and unleash decades of physical and economic exploitation on its inhabitants.

In 1885, European powers granted Belgian King Leopold II private possession of the territory that would become Congo. As his approached the end of his life, Leopold was forced to hand over the state to the Belgian government in 1908, but the colony would exist for another 52 years before Congo gained its independence in 1960.

The architect of the new colony was Welsh-born explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who in the 1870s led a mission across Africa, east to west, and followed the river for 1,600 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.

FAULT LINES  Conflicted: The Fight over Congos Minerals

Historian Martin Meredith wrote in The Fortunes of Africa that Stanleys expedition unlocked the entire Congo region [by proving] that beyond the cataracts and canyons that had hitherto blocked exploration inland lay a web of interconnecting rivers, navigable by steamboat, running for thousands of miles into the interior.

The upriver voyages of both Cao and Tuckey had been frustrated by the Yellala Falls, which sits just upstream from todays Matadi. From here, ships are blocked from travelling upstream by more than 30 sets of rapids spread over 290km until Malebo Pool, a wide river basin. Here Stanley established a trading station called Leopoldville on the pools south bank in 1881, which eventually became Congos capital of Kinshasa.

Stanley, who understood that overcoming the impenetrable section of the river was the key to profiting from the colonys riches, declared in the late-19th century that without the railroad, the Congo is not worth a penny.

The railway

Construction of the first railway between Matadi and Kinshasa started in 1890 and took eight years to finish.

It was a modest engineering success and a major human disaster, wrote Hochschild in King Leopolds Ghost, referring to the thousands of workers from West Africa, the West Indies, Hong Kong, Macau and Europe who died from sickness and accidents during railways construction.

Before the railway was built, it would take porters nearly three weeks to travel between Matadi and Malebo Pool. After its completion, the journey took just two days and greatly aided what the writer Joseph Conrad called the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience. Today, the trip takes eight hours.

While the railway was being built, there was a dramatic increase in the global demand for rubber sap due to the invention of the pneumatic tyre.

The Congolese rainforest was full of this newly coveted commodity. Companies, licensed or controlled by King Leopold, brutalised villages by taking hostages, whipping, mutilation and murder to obtain as much rubber as possible at minimum expense.

After years of inactivity, Matadis colonial-era station has been renovated and painted in the colours of Congos flag, as has the train which sat on the tracks and has trundled from Kinshasa and back once a week since mid-2015.

In contrast with the battered minibuses which line the road to the Congolese capital, the second-hand carriages are clean and the seats padded. A sharp hoot and, at 7.30am, the locomotive grumbles into action.

The churning river lies below as the train winds around a series of steep cliffs and over a succession of bridges. It runs between walls of rock close enough for passengers to touch before making its way through rolling hills and grasslands.

Kingatoko, Kasangulu, Kisantu, Kenge are all stations along the way to Kinshasa. At each stop, the train transforms into a farmers market as an army of women and children selling tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, charcoal and watermelons runs towards it. Business is done briskly through windows and doorways.

Congos rail network, which was a source of pride for the colonists, has not fared well in recent decades. Since the 1980s, much of the countrys crucial infrastructure, including its mines and the railways deteriorated and collapsed as Mobutu Sese Seko, who was president for 32 years, sucked dry the productive parts of the economy. The overthrow of the dictator in 1997 heralded not a new dawn, but a civil war that cost millions of Congolese their lives.

Since 2003, most of Congo has been peaceful but the government has largely squandered opportunities to improve the lives of the population, which remains among the poorest in the world. One symptom of the countrys dysfunction is how badly connected it is, by road and rail. The Matadi-Kinshasa service stuttered along until 2003 when a train derailed and two carriages landed in the river, killing 11 people. It took nearly 12 years to reopen the route.

Kinshasa

In a dining car on the train to Kinshasa, the smell of the fish being fried by the trains cook, Dadine, is overpowering. Beer bottles are spread across a table occupied by a man and two women. By midday, the trio, drinking steadily, are laughing raucously.

At the back of the train is chief controller Mbala Ndombasa, who sits quietly and unbothered as he does paperwork. He shrugs and smiles when asked why the railway was out of order for more than a decade.

We didnt have a locomotive, he says, as if explaining something obvious.

Another member of the trains staff says money, like always is the reason why the train service was halted for so long.

OPINION: Congo  A dictators dilemma

The railway may be operating again, but precarious finances are still an existential problem, as they are for the entire Congolese state.

Several days later, at his office in Kinshasa, Valentin Gerengo-Nvene, the transport director at the public company that owns the railway and several ports, says the freight service is dealing with an economic slowdown.

In the case of passenger traffic, tariffs dont cover the operating costs, Gerengo-Nvene tells Al Jazeera, adding that the passenger train is running at a chronic loss. The company itself has been plagued by strikes over unpaid salaries.

Back on the train, some eight hours after its departure from Matadi, Kinshasa comes into view. The slums of corrugated iron and timber built atop compacted rubbish suddenly give way to the pristine central station.

The Gare de lEst station is at one end of Gombe, a riverside Kinshasa commune of pricey restaurants, expatriate housing, foreign embassies and government ministries.

In this gilded domain, Kinshasas population of at least 12 million is largely severed from the River Congo by high walls behind which lie private ports, ambassadorial residences and multimillion-dollar real estate.

Most Congolese are cut off from the river, and Lieutenant Nbondwange, back at Banana Point, would be sad to see it.
Palestinians have denounced the closure, which follows a deadly shooting attack, as a violation of religious freedoms.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank  Palestinian religious and political figures have denounced the ongoing closure of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling it a violation of their religious freedoms.

Al-Aqsa remained closed on Saturday, a day after a deadly shooting attack outside an entrance to the holy site in occupied East Jerusalem.

There is no excuse for the closure of al-Aqsa Mosque, and we oppose this decision, said Sheikh Yusuf Idis, the Palestinian Authoritys minister of religious affairs. The freedom to worship is a right guaranteed in law and any violation of that right is rejected.

INTERACTIVE: Inside al-Aqsa

The compound has been shuttered by Israeli police since three Palestinian assailants shot and killed two Israeli policemen in Jerusalems Old City on Friday morning. The attackers were subsequently shot dead by Israeli forces inside the compound.

It was the first time that Friday prayers at al-Aqsa had been cancelled in decades, and Israeli authorities later extended the closure until Sunday at the earliest, citing security concerns.

Hundreds of additional Israeli forces were deployed in parts of the Old City and at checkpoints throughout. Many worshippers who had planned to pray at al-Aqsa ended up praying in the streets of Jerusalem instead.

Al-Aqsa is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, who refer to the site as the Temple Mount.

The Jerusalem mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, was briefly detained by police and released on bail on Friday after he attempted to gain access to the site and led open-air prayers close to the compound.

This is a decision that aims to deter further attacks and it will be interpreted by most Palestinians as collective punishment. by Ofer Zalzberg, senior analyst for Israel/Palestine at the International Crisis Group

Analysts warned that the decision to prohibit entry to the sacred site  which was last closed to Muslim worshippers in 2014, following the shooting of Yehuda Glick, a prominent Temple Mount activist who is now a Knesset member  would probably exacerbate tensions in the city in the short term.

This is a decision that aims to deter further attacks and it will be interpreted by most Palestinians as collective punishment, said Ofer Zalzberg, a senior analyst for Israel/Palestine at the International Crisis Group.

Late on Friday, Israeli police released security camera footage of the early stages of the attack, which appeared to show the armed assailants approach the officers from inside the compound.

Some Israeli right-wing Knesset members have subsequently called for dramatic changes to security and the uneasy status quo at the site, where non-Muslim worship has been prohibited since Israel captured East Jerusalem 50 years ago.

Israel must bolster its rule and control over the [holy sites], and to ensure that all Jews can pray there at any time in safety, said Eli Ben Dahan, Israels deputy defence minister and a member of the Jewish Home right-wing faction, in response to the attack.

Jewish Home MK Moti Yegev said the holy site should be closed to Muslim [worshippers] for a long time, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the compound was shut for security reasons, noting that the status quo would be preserved.

WATCH: Fight for Jerusalem continues 50 years after the war

Still, given the growing influence of the Israeli religious right in domestic politics, some Palestinians fear that any such incident could be used as an excuse for a broader policy shift that would lead to a change in the status quo.

Zalzberg said that for the time being, such a shift was unlikely.

[Netanyahu] needs to do crisis management and he does not want to find himself losing relations with Jordan, when strategically they need each other so much in south Syria. He doesnt want to ruin the emerging relations that hes trying to build with the Gulf, Zalzberg told Al Jazeera.

Fridays violent attack shattered a period of relative calm around al-Aqsa that had lasted since late 2015, when Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Jordan reaffirmed their commitments to the status quo.

However, in recent weeks, a number of incidents around al-Aqsa have increased tensions.

Late last month, Israeli police prevented Muslim worshippers under the age of 40 from accessing al-Aqsa compound while a group of more than 100 Jews visited the site to mark the anniversary of the killing of Hallel Ariel.

Earlier in June, Israeli police forcefully entered the site and detained two Palestinians, while police have allowed Temple Mount activists to serve food and drinks next to the holy site on Jewish holidays.

Tensions could spike further in late July when a ban preventing members of the Israeli parliament from visiting the site is due to expire.

Netanyahu has granted MKs access for a five-day trial period beginning on July 23, in order to assess the potential security issues of allowing them to visit the site for the first time since 2015.
Israeli prime ministers office says the compound will be accessible gradually from Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalems Old City will reopen on Sunday, two days after the unprecedented closure heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Netanyahus office said in a statement late on Saturday that the compound would be accessible gradually for the faithful, visitors and tourists.

The sensitive site was shut down on Friday after three Arab citizens of Israel shot two Israeli officers dead in the Old City before fleeing to the al-Aqsa compound where they were killed by police.

READ MORE: Israeli policemen killed in Jerusalem shooting attack

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the former grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian territories, said on Saturday that the closure was a collective punishment that affected thousands of worshippers.

This is unprecedented. The mosque has not been closed for centuries. The situation is dangerous, said Adnan Husseini, Palestinian Authoritys Jerusalem governor, on Saturday.

Israeli authorities are inflating this situation, he said. We live in a conflict and theres violence almost daily. Palestinians are killed in cold blood almost daily at checkpoints.

Bassam al-Halaq, a senior official of Awqaf, an Islamic authority in charge of al-Aqsa, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli police were searching the entire compound, breaking through doors.

To this point, the noble sanctuary remains closed and all chambers inside it are being searched by the Israeli police. If a chamber is locked, the lock is broken. Only three Awqaf employees are allowed on the site, including the chief electrical engineer, he said.





The sensitive site

The mosque compound is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif while Jews call it Temple Mount.

In 2015, Israeli soldiers stormed the mosque which resulted in days of violence and clashes. Palestinians fear an increased incursion of Israeli right-wing groups into the mosque compound.

Jordan, the custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, has urged Israel to immediately reopen it, while the Arab League called its closure dangerous.

Netanyahu has promised to honour long-standing access agreements, saying the status quo governing the site will be preserved.

The compound lies in occupied East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move that was never recognised by the international community.

Jews are allowed to visit, but are banned from praying there to avoid provoking tensions. They pray at the western wall of the compound, which is considered the holiest site for Jews.

In a phone call with Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the incident and rejected any act of violence from any side, especially in places of worship, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, has warned the attack could trigger more violence and urged all sides to avoid escalation.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini
Nabeel Rajab must be released unconditionally and immediately, says UN human rights office.

The UN human rights office has called on Bahrain to unconditionally and immediately release rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced to two years in jail this week.

Rajab, a leading figure in a 2011 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the government, was sentenced on Monday, supporters said, for allegedly making false or malicious statements about authorities.

Human rights defenders in Bahrain must be able to carry out their work without fear of reprisals and should not face detention or prosecution for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Criticising the government should not be a crime, UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a Geneva news briefing on Friday.

We note that Mr Rajab has been detention since June 2016. We call on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him, she said.

Sentenced in absentia

Rajab, 52, was sentenced in absentia as he has been hospitalised since April, said the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy earlier this week.

It denounced the verdict, saying Rajab had been sentenced for speaking to journalists and that he had spent over a year in pre-trial detention, largely in solitary confinement.

His lawyers state he was denied basic fair trial guarantees, the group said in a statement.

Amnesty International also denounced the decision, saying it exposes a relentless campaign by authorities in Bahrain to wipe out dissent.

Imprisoning Nabeel Rajab simply for sharing his opinion is a flagrant violation of human rights, and an alarming sign that the Bahraini authorities will go to any length to silence criticism, said Amnestys Secretary-General Salil Shetty.

Bahrains government and judiciary have once again tightened their chokehold on freedom of expression and branded him a criminal, Shetty was quoted as saying in a statement.

The US state department has expressed concern over Rajabs arrest and curbs on freedom of expression in Bahrain.

We believe societies are strengthened, not threatened, by expressions of opinion and dissent, and that opposition voices can play a vital role helping societies become more tolerant and inclusive, read a statement released by the US Department of State on Monday.

The US statement called for Rajabs immediate release.

Arrested multiple times

Rajab had been arrested multiple times in recent years over protests that the government said were unauthorised.

The activist was pardoned for health reasons in 2015 before being rearrested in June 2016.

He also faces trial for a series of tweets criticising a Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, with a hearing due on August 7, according to the Bahrain Institute.

It said he faces up to 15 years if convicted in that trial.

Bahrain has been the scene of frequent protests and clashes with police since security forces quelled nationwide protests that called for political reforms in 2011.
Trump announced tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba and reaffirmed existing US trade embargo last month.

Donald Trumps hardline stance towards Cuba marks a setback in its relations with the United States after ties were gradually restored in 2015, President Raul Castro said.

Castro criticised Trumps partial rollback of his predecessor Barack Obamas rapprochement with the communist island in comments made less than a week before the second anniversary of Havana embassys reopening in Washington on July 20.

The announcements made by the current president  mean a setback in bilateral relations, Castro said in remarks, broadcast on state television, at the closing of the first session of Cubas Parliament on Friday.





Castros remarks came after Trump in June  standing before a crowd of anti-Castro activists in Miamis Little Havana  announced tightened rules for Americans travelling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.

The Cuban president called the new measures a toughening of the US embargo against the island, imposed since 1962, saying they evoked an old and hostile rhetoric that characterised the Cold War.

In his first public riposte to Trump since the latter unveiled his new Cuba policy last month, Castro told the national assembly that any attempt to topple the revolution would fail, as it had under 11 previous US presidents.

We reject the manipulation of the topic of human rights against Cuba, that can be proud of much in this area, and does not need to receive lessons from the United States nor anyone.

Castro said Cuba remained open to negotiating matters of bilateral interest with the US, sticking to the relatively conciliatory tone it has struck of late.

Cuba and the United States can cooperate and live side by side, respecting their differences, he said. But no one should expect that for this, one should have to make concessions inherent to ones sovereignty and independence.

Castro said Trump had clearly been ill-informed about Cubas history with the US and Cubans patriotism.

Castro has seven months to go before he steps down as president, although he will remain head of the Communist Party, in which political power is vested in Cuba. His generation, which has ruled Cuba since the 1959 revolution, is dying.
Liu died from multiple organ failure on Thursday, having not been allowed to leave the country for cancer treatment.

The body of Chinas Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has been cremated after a private ceremony attended by his wife and friends.

Lius body was cremated in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs in the northeastern city of Shenyang, said Zhang Qingyang, an official from the municipal office.

Officials released photos showing his wife, Liu Xia, with her brother, Liu Xiaobos brother and friends in front of the body surrounded by white flowers at a funeral home.





Mozarts Requiem was played at the funeral, Zhang said.

Liu, a prominent dissident since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, died from multiple organ failure at a Shenyang hospital on Thursday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison due to late-stage liver cancer.

Chinas government has come under international criticism after it ignored pleas to let Liu get treatment abroad as he had wished.

It now faces calls to free Lius wife from the strict house arrest she has lived under for years even though she has not been convicted of any crime.

As far as I know, Liu Xia is in a free condition, Zhang said, though it was unclear whether she was released.

She has just lost her husband, so she is currently emotionally grieving, he said, adding that it was best for her not to receive too much outside interference during this period.

However, Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu Xiaobo, said Liu Xia has been held incommunicado since his death.

The world needs to mobilise to rescue her  and fast, he said in a statement.

OBITUARY: Liu Xiaobo

Tributes have rolled in from around the world to mourn Liu, but there is little mention of him in Chinas heavily censored state media and social networking platforms.

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion a year later.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo.

The leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which, to Beijings ire, awarded Liu the Peace Prize, said the Chinese government bore a heavy responsibility for his death.

The ruling Communist Party considered Lius writings subversive and imprisoned him four times.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made another joke about rape, condemning the crime while saying he would congratulate a rapist who could carry out his crime on an international pageant winner, even knowing that he could be executed later.

Duterte made the joke in a speech to Filipino diplomats in his southern home town of Davao, as he defended his war on drugs, which has left thousands dead since he took office last year.

What I dont like are kids (being raped.) You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die, for your crime, he said on Friday, implying the rapist would be lynched.

READ MORE: Duterte makes rape joke for martial law troops

It was the latest in a series of off-colour jokes by Duterte who openly boasts of having mistresses and often makes sexual remarks about women.

In May, he joked that soldiers, who are involved in an ongoing operation in the southern city of Marawi, could rape up to three women.

During his campaign for president in 2016, he was also criticised for joking about an Australian missionary worker, who was raped and later killed in Davao in 1989, while he was mayor of the city.

I was angry that she was raped. But she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been the first. What a waste, he was quoted as saying in Filipino.

Dutertes glaring incompetencies

Ana Santos, a Manila-based international journalist and womens rights advocate, said Dutertes repeated jokes about rape have reached a point of maddening frustration.

Scarier and more upsetting for me is that people still laugh at them, she said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

I think the challenge for us now is to not get used to it. The first thing we need to do is to stop laughing at these rape jokes because they are not funny.





She also said Duterte could be doing his latest word stunts to divert the countrys attention from his most glaring incompetencies, the governments battle against the ISIL-inspired Maute Group in Marawi, which has been going on for almost two months.

In the latest incident, Duterte, who was speaking in his rambling style, also boasted to the diplomats that he faked tuberculosis to escape mandatory military training in college.

But he also reiterated his vow to continue his bloody war on drugs despite accusations that thousands of suspects had been killed by police and vigilantes since he took office.

Human rights? That is bullshit to me, he said, recalling how he called then US President Barack Obama a son of a whore after Washington criticised the wave of killings.

Police said at least 3,200 people were slain in their anti-drug operations but Human Rights Watch said that at least 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers were killed since Duterte took office in 2016.
UN Syria envoy de Mistura says the Syrian regime has not budged in its unwillingness to discuss political transition.

The seventh round of intra-Syria talks aimed at helping to end the countrys six-year-old war wrapped up with no breakthrough, no breakdown.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Friday the Syrian government has not budged in its unwillingness to discuss political transition at the talks in Geneva while President Bashar al-Assads representatives have pursued an almost incessant theme of the fight against terrorism.





Saying Assads envoys claim to be the only ones talking about the fight against terrorist groups, de Mistura said no side should have ownership of that issue.

I felt that there was an expectation for the UN to indicate where we are in the fight against terrorism, which is becoming the main issue being discussed at the highest possible level elsewhere, de Mistura said during a news conference.

Syrias main opposition group has striven unsuccessfully to put the talks spotlight on political transition in their country, something sought by a UN Security Council resolution in December 2015.

The political process is in danger because, after all these rounds, the international committee doesnt put enough pressure on the regime and its allies to engage in this negotiation, Nasser alHariri, the lead opposition negotiator, told Al Jazeera.

Now we are coming for rounds of negotiations without a framework, without direct negotiations, without sharing or exchanging papers and now returning back without specific results.

READ MORE: Syrias de-escalation zones explained

De Mistura said he has seen no sign that Assads representatives would ever discuss political transition.

I have been asking them for the next round to be ready to address the political process, he said.

De Mistura also noted recent progress in Syria through international diplomacy, such as a temporary truce in parts of southern Syria that was brokered by Jordan, Russia and the United States.





He warmly welcomed a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for the creation of a contact group that would support a political road map for Syria after its war ends.

In New York, Frances ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, said a contact group would aim to support de Misturas efforts. The plan would enlist the five permanent Security Council members  the US, Russia, China, Britain and France  and regional players.

But the opposition believes that the end of terrorism would not be possible without stability in Syria.

Mr Macron knows well that Bashar al-Assad is the enemy of the Syrian people, but he at the same time is also the enemy of humanity. We cannot ignore a criminal like Assad who used chemical weapons on civilians, Hariri told Al Jazeera.

Next round of talks

Referring to the September round of talks, de Mistura said, We will see whether by that time the international momentum  may be able to actually push all sides to finally sit in the same room and start talking about substance.

The sides have been meeting separately with de Mistura and his team, never speaking face to face.

The head of the Syrian government delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari, said on Friday that his team has not been asked to hold direct talks.

Meanwhile in Syria, at least eight civilians, many of them children, died when warplanes, presumably part of a US coalition, launched air raids on an area of eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) forces on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

READ MORE: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning

The attacks targeted houses in the city of al-Mayadeen, in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor. The fatalities included six children and two women.

Saturdays toll raises to 244 the number of civilians killed amid air bombardment operations in al-Mayadeen since May, the Observatory added.

On May 26, more than 100 people were killed in an alliance air bombing in al-Mayadeen that struck buildings housing families of ISIL fighters fleeing from the northeastern city of Raqqa, the groups de facto capital in Syria, the watchdog reported at the time.

The conflict spiralled into a multi-sided civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced about half the prewar population of 22 million.
French Foreign Minister says his country is very concerned by the sudden deterioration of the situation in the Gulf.

France has called for a swift lifting of sanctions that target Qatari nationals in an effort to ease a month-long rift between the Gulf country and a Saudi Arabia-led group.

In his visit to the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said his country is very concerned by the sudden deterioration of the situation in the region.

France calls for the lifting, as soon as possible, of the measures that affect the populations, in particular, bi-national families that have been separated or students, Le Drian told reporters in Doha, after he met his counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

READ MORE: The turning point of the GCC crisis

Le Drian also met Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, following the steps of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the Gulf this week to help to find a solution the regional impasse.

He is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia later on Saturday and will visit Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.

France should be a facilitator in the mediation led by Kuwait, Le Drian told reporters.

Kuwait is trying to mediate the dispute.

France is talking to all these countries to help in the search for a solution, he said, calling for dialogue and calm between the Arab states concerned.

Le Drian also said France counted on reinforcing cooperation with Qatar in the fight against terrorism, particularly in combating terrorism financing.

Political, intellectual terrorism

For his part, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman said that the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar are disrupting the regional effort to combat terrorism.

Combating terrorism also cannot be through practising political and intellectual terrorism against a state, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman said.

Aside from France, officials from Britain and Germany also visited the region in recent weeks.





In an interview with Al Jazeera, Samer Shehata of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, however, said that while Frances voice lends more support for Qatar, it does not have a tremendous amount of influence in the crisis.

The United States has the most pressure it can potentially exert on the parties involved, particularly the Saudis and the Emiratis, he said.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed sanctions on Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing armed groups and allying with Saudi Arabias regional ally, Iran  allegations that Doha denied.

On June 22, the Saudi-led group issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions.

Doha rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list null and void.

On July 11, US and Qatar signed an agreement to help combat terrorism financing. But the Saudi-led group called it insufficient.
President Erdogan addresses tens of thousands of people who turned out with flags on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at a massive rally in Istanbul, marking one year since the defeat of the coup aimed at overthrowing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Joining the crowd gathered on Saturday at the Bosphorus Bridge, now known as the July 15 Martyrs Bridge, Erdogan threatened to chop off the heads of those involved in the coup.

First of all we will chop off the heads of those traitors, Erdogan said as he reaffirmed previous comments to sign any bill passed restoring capital punishment.

READ MORE: Middle Eastern supporters of Turkeys failed coup

We are a state governed by rule of law. If it comes to me after parliament, I will sign it, he said. Restoring the death penalty would effectively end Turkeys European Union membership ambitions.

Erdogan also praised the peoples faith in facing up the armed coup plotters.

Erdogan arrived from the capital Ankara on his official plane accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet, AFP news agency reported.

The authorities declared July 15 an annual national holiday of democracy and unity, billing the foiling of the putsch as a historic victory for Turkish democracy.

Its one year since the darkest night was turned into an epic, Binali Yildirim, Turkeys prime minister, told a special session of parliament that kicked off a day of celebrations set to last until dawn.

He said the night of July 15 was a second War of Independence after the war that led to the creation of the modern Turkish state in the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

About 249 people, not including the plotters, were killed when a disgruntled faction of the army sent tanks into the streets and war planes into the sky in a bid to overthrow Erdogan.

But they were thwarted within hours as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Erdogan, who blamed followers of his ally turned nemesis, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.





Tens of thousands carried the Turkish flag while others brandished pictures of the martyrs who died defeating the coup bid as a sea of people stretched from the bridge.

People chanted we are soldiers of Tayyip [Erdogan] and called for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the coup plotters, with some even brandishing nooses.

At 21:00 GMT, people across Turkey took part in democracy watches, rallies commemorating how people poured out into the streets.

Post-coup purge

In the wake of the failed coup bid, authorities embarked on the biggest purge in Turkeys history, arresting 50,000 people and sacking almost three times as many.

Erdogan also shored up his position by winning a referendum on enhancing his powers earlier this year.

In the latest dismissals, another 7,563 police, soldiers and other state employees were fired late on Friday under the state of emergency that has been in place since July 20 last year.

Turkeys opposition put political disputes aside on the night of the putsch.





Erdogan, who was present at the session, gazed down stonily from the VIP balcony.

Erdogan later returned to Ankara and, at 23:00 GMT, gave a speech to parliament to mark the time the building was bombed last year.

Al Jazeeras Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Ankara, said Erdogan, in his speech in front of parliament, said the fight against treason would continue.

In front of the parliament, the president emphasised its importance. He also said they will continue efforts to clean the institution of the Gulen group within the state, she said.

Erdogan also named the coup plotters as traitors, saying the fight against treason will continue.

The coup bid also frayed ties between the US and European Union with NATO member Turkey, which accused its allies of failing to show solidarity.

Gulen has always denied involvement and, in a new statement on Friday that condemned the witch-hunt of Erdogans critics, dismissed the accusations as baseless, politically motivated slanders.
Pentagon says Abu Sayed was killed earlier this week in an attack on his headquarters in Kunar province.

The head of ISIL in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed, was killed in an attack on his headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement on Friday that other members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) were killed in the raid on Tuesday.

US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria  Khorasan Province (ISIS-K)  in a strike on the groups headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11, White said in the statement, referring to ISILs other acronym.

The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror groups plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan.

Sayed is the third ISIL leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2016.

Sayed had led the group since late April after the previous leader, Abdul Hasib, had been killed by US forces. Hasibs predecessor Hafiz Sayed Khan was also killed by US forces.

READ MORE: Is the military strategy in Afghanistan flawed?

The US military had said Hasibs death would help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017.

The compound used by Hasib in Nangarhar province was not far from the spot where on April 13, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, hitting ISIL positions.

The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 fighters, according to the Afghan defence ministry, but fighting in the area has continued.

ISIL established a presence in Afghanistan in 2015 and overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border.

However, their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban.
Clerics and worshipers barred from entering al-Aqsa Mosque compound for second day after gun attack leaves five dead.

A senior Palestinian cleric has denounced Israels closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque following a rare gun attack, calling the measures collective punishment that affects thousands of worshippers.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the former grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian territories, said on Saturday that Israeli authorities have barred Muslim leaders from entering the mosque and banned prayers there for a second day after a shootout near the compound left five people dead.

This is unprecedented. The mosque has not been closed for centuries. The situation is dangerous, said Adnan Husseini, Palestinian Authoritys Jerusalem governor, at a press conference on Saturday.

Israeli authorities are inflating this situation, he said. We live in a conflict and theres violence almost daily. Palestinians are killed in cold blood almost daily at checkpoints.

Bassam al-Halaq, a senior official of Awqaf, an Islamic authority in charge of al-Aqsa, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli police were searching the entire compound, breaking through doors.

To this point, the noble sanctuary remains closed and all chambers inside it are being searched by the Israeli police. If a chamber is locked, the lock is broken. Only three Awqaf employees are allowed on the site, including the chief electrical engineer, he said.

Israeli authorities have deployed hundreds of troops and erected roadblocks at the entrances of Jerusalems Old City after the attack in which three Palestinian assailants and two Israeli policemen were killed.

Non-residents, including shop keepers and doctors who work there, have been barred entry to the Old City.

We reject the current Israeli violations against the al-Aqsa Mosque and call for their immediate withdrawal, said Sabri, adding that the mosque was last closed for prayers in 1969 in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967.

READ MORE: Jerusalem  Israeli policemen killed in shooting attack

Sabris successor, Sheikh Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, was briefly detained by Israeli authorities, which closed the Muslim-administered compound, the third holiest site in Islam, for Friday prayers after the deadly attack.

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from West Jerusalem, said the Old City remains on lock down on Saturday.

There is a heavy police presence in the Old City. People there say they are having to hunker down in their homes  they feel as if theres a de facto curfew going on, he said.





In a statement on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the holy site would be gradually reopened to worshippers and visitors based on a security estimate that will be made Sunday.

The mosque compound is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif while Jews call it Temple Mount.

In 2015, Israeli soldiers stormed the mosque that resulted in days of violence and clashes. Palestinians fear an increased incursion of Israeli right-wing groups into the mosque compound.

Jordan, the custodian of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, has urged Israel to immediately reopen it, while the Arab League called its closure dangerous.

Netanyahu has promised to honour long-standing access agreements, saying the status quo governing the site will be preserved.

The compound lies in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move that was never recognised by the international community.

Jews are allowed to visit, but are banned from praying there to avoid provoking tensions. They pray at the western wall of the compound, which is considered the holiest site for Jews.

In a phone call with Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the incident and rejected any act of violence from any side, especially in places of worship, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the attack could spark more violence and urged all sides to avoid escalation.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini
Federal judge in Hawaii expanded list of family relationships needed by people for US visas from six Muslim countries.

The US Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to block a judges ruling that prevented President Donald Trumps Muslim ban from being applied to grandparents of US citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies.

In a court filing on Friday, the administration asked the justices to overturn Thursdays decision by a US district judge in Hawaii, which limited the scope of the administrations temporary ban on refugees and travellers from six Muslim countries.





The latest round in the fight over Trumps March 6 executive order, which he says is needed for national security reasons, came after the Supreme Court intervened last month to partially revive the two bans, which were blocked by lower courts.

The Supreme Court said then that the ban could take effect, but that people with a bona fide relationship to a US person or entity could not be barred.

The administration had narrowly interpreted that language, saying the ban would apply to grandparents and other family members, prompting the state of Hawaii to ask Hawaii-based US District Judge Derrick Watson to expand the definition of who could be admitted.

He ruled for the state late on Thursday.

Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents, US District Judge Derrick Watson said in his ruling.

Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members.

READ MORE: US judge rules grandparents exempt from Trumps Muslim ban

In the court filing, the Department of Justice said Watsons ruling on refugees would make the Supreme Courts decision on that part of the executive order effectively meaningless.

The ruling, if left in place, means refugees can continue to be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive order.

That limit was reached this week.

The Supreme Courts decision last month revived parts of Trumps March 6 executive order banning travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as refugees for 120 days.

The Trump administration then decided that spouses, parents, children, fiances and siblings would be exempt from the ban, while grandparents and other family members travelling from those countries would still be excluded.

The Trump administration also said that all refugees without a close family tie would be blocked from the country for four months.
Right groups welcome Supreme Courts decision ordering investigation into the killing of more than 1,500 people.

Human rights groups have welcomed Indian Supreme Courts decision ordering a probe into allegations of extrajudicial killings by security forces in the northeastern state of Manipur.

The court made the call on Friday after hearing a public interest litigation seeking a probe and compensation for 1,528 alleged extrajudicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by the army, paramilitary and police forces.

It sends a strong message that accountability will finally take place, Suhas Chakma, the director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

The individuals who committed these crimes and those who made it possible should be prosecuted. These crimes should never have taken place. The government and security forces should now fully cooperated with investigators, Chakma said.

It sends a strong message that accountability will finally take place by Suhas Chakma, director, Asian Centre for Human Rights

Indian forces deny the allegations by human rights groups and blame the deaths on rebel groups that have been fighting in the tiny state, bordering Myanmar.

Emergency law

Rights groups have accused Indian security forces of misusing an emergency law which has led to rights abuses in rebel-hit areas like Manipur and India-administered Kashmir.

They allege the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) gives sweeping powers to security forces to search, arrest and shoot-to-kill in an effort to tackle armed groups in troubled areas.

Fighting militant groups requires governments to make difficult decisions, but they cannot come at the cost of the rights to life and liberty, Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watchs South Asia Director, said in a statement on Friday.

To restore public confidence and prevent such abuses in the future, the Indian government should promptly repeal AFSPA, Ganguly said.

Meanwhile, some security officers have admitted to carrying out extrajudicial killings are calling on the government to admit their role.

In order to stop fake encounters  I have come out confessing that I am the killer in this case, Thounaojam Herojit Singh, head constable at Manipur police, told Al Jazeera.

After realising that this was wrong  I have come out to stop the fake encounters. The so-called higher authority should stop giving rampant orders, Singh said.
Indonesia says armed groups use Telegrams channels for recruitment and to spread methods for carrying out attacks.

Indonesia is blocking web versions of the encrypted Telegram instant messaging app and will ban the app completely if it continues to be a forum for propaganda and calls for violence, officials said.

In a statement on Friday evening, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said it has asked internet companies to block access to 11 addresses that the web version is available through.

This has to be done because there are many channels on this service that are full of radical and terrorist propaganda, hatred, ways to make bombs, how to carry out attacks, disturbing images, which are all in conflict with Indonesian law, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Samuel Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at the ministry, said they are preparing for the complete closure of Telegram in Indonesia if it does not develop procedures to block unlawful content.

READ MORE: Indonesia signs decree to ban extremist groups

The move comes amid heightened concerns over the growing presence and influence of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim nation, has seen a resurgence in attacks, inspired in large part by ISIL; a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus station in May killed three police officers and wounded several others.

Public outcry

The partial block has sparked public outcry in Indonesia, with Twitter and Facebook exploding with negative comments and some people reporting they were unable to access the web.telegram.org domain.

Indonesians are among of the worlds biggest users of social media.

https://twitter.com/TweetNAT45/status/885905722503905280



https://twitter.com/CondetWarrior/status/885889033330544641

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the application is a free messaging service that can be used as a smartphone app and on computers through a web interface or desktop messenger.

Pavel Durov, Telegrams founder, in a tweet on Friday called the block strange.

[W]e have never received any requests/complaints from the Indonesian government, he said.

Suspected fighters arrested by Indonesian police recently have told authorities that they have communicated with fellow members of their group via Telegram and received orders and directions to carry out attacks through the app, including from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian with the ISIL group in Syria accused of orchestrating several attacks in the past 18 months.

Its strong encryption has contributed to its popularity with those concerned about privacy and secure communications in the digital era but also made it useful to armed groups and other criminal groups.
Young man in Varanasi city survives but suffers 50 percent burns after setting himself on fire shouting freedom.

A Tibetan student has self-immolated in India after shouting freedom, police said on Saturday, injuring himself critically.

Tenzin Choeying set himself on fire on Friday at the Central University for Tibetan Studies in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state.

Self-immolation has regularly been used as a protest against Chinas actions in Tibet. But Indian police said they are also investigating the 20-year-olds recent exam failures as being a possible cause for his actions.

The International Campaign for Tibet identified the student as Tenzin Choeying. It quoted Chime Namgyal, head of the Tibetan Youth Congress activist group in Varanasi, as saying Choeying shouted Victory to Tibet.

Tenzin Tsundue, who visited Choeying at the hospital in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that the patient is expected to survive.

He is stable, the next five days are crucial, the doctor says, he wrote in a Whatsapp message to Al Jazeera.

My concern, as his brother, is to arrange for him the best treatment, and get him back to life.

Tsundue also sent to Al Jazeera a note, which he said Choeying wrote before the incident.

In it, Choeying wrote in English, Please dont cry. Tell everyone that my body is for Tibet.

Police said they were still investigating and will take statements from Choeying and his family. The boy is recovering at the hospital. He can speak but has around 50 percent burns, Sanjay Tripathi, a Varanasi police spokesman, told AFP news agency.

Religious repression accusations

China says its troops liberated Tibet in 1951, but many Tibetans accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture.

China rejects the accusations and blames the Dalai Lama, Tibets spiritual leader who lives in exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, of inciting self-immolations in a bid to split Tibet from the rest of the nation.

A young farmer self-immolated in southwest China in March, the first Tibetan to set himself on fire in 2017.

The Tibetan government-in-exile in India said he was the 146th Tibetan to self-immolate since 2009.

Choeying is the not the first Tibetan to set himself on fire in India. A Tibetan exile set himself alight and died two days later in New Delhi in 2012.
US president also rules out moving the US airbase from Qatar despite the blockade by the Saudi-led group.

The United States will maintain good relations with Qatar, President Donald Trump has told an American news channel, adding that the US airbase will not be moved out of the Middle Eastern country despite the diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Doha by the Saudi-led group.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar on June 5.

Qatar is home to the Al-Udeid airbase that holds the forward headquarters of Central Command and hosts around 10,000 American troops.





But while saying there are 10 countries willing to build us another base, Trump said, we will not have a problem with the military base.

We are going to have a good relationship with Qatar and not going to have a problem with the military base, Trump said in an interview with CBN News aired on Wednesday.

If we ever had to leave, wed have 10 countries willing to build us another one. And theyll pay for it. The days of us paying for things are largely over.

Following the Arab countries decision to impose the blockade on Qatar last month, Trump, in a series of tweets, seemed to back the move, saying his trip to the Middle East is already paying off after he stated there can no longer be funding of radical Ideology.

I made a speech in Saudi. I said we got to stop funding of terrorism. They [Qatar] were known as funders of terrorism. We cant have wealthy countries funding terrorism, Trump said in Wednesdays interview.

He visited Saudi Arabia in May on the first leg of his first foreign trip since taking office and held a series of meetings with the king and other Arab and Muslim leaders.





During the two-day visit, Trump also signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth almost $110bn  something he alluded to in the interview.

Saudi Arabia put up hundreds of billions of dollars of money going into buying our planes and our military equipment and investing in our country. And I said, You have to do that otherwise I am not going. So they spent hundreds of billions of dollars right in front of us, Trump said.

I mean they were signing big people from the biggest countries and companies, General Electric and all of the big companies, many of them were there getting contracts, all good work for our workers  that was one of the things.

Qatar is also among the countries which purchase military equipment from the US.

Last month, the US and Qatar signed a deal for the purchase of F-15 fighter jets with an initial cost of $12bn.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis  All the latest updates

On Thursday, the White House said Trump spoke to the Saudi King Salman by phone and discussed efforts to resolve the dispute.

The anti-Doha quartet issued a list of 13 demands that included shutting down Qatars Al Jazeera Media Network, sever all alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and with other groups, including Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and ISIL (also known as ISIS), limiting Qatars ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country.

Qatar denies the charges of extremism and called the demands unrealistic.

In an interview published by The Times newspaper on Wednesday, Noura Al Kaabi, the UAE minister for the federal national council, said the Emirates sought fundamental change and restructuring of Al Jazeera rather than to shut it.

The staff at the channel can keep their jobs and Qatar can still fund a TV channel but not one which provides a platform for extremists and where the English channel is a protective shield for the much more radical Arabic one, Al Kaabi told The Times.

Foreign diplomats, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, visited the region and called for direct talks to solve the crisis.

During Tillersons visit to Doha, Qatar and the US also signed an agreement to help combat terrorism financing.
A total of 7,563 people, including police, have been dismissed in the latest purge, the Anadolu news agency reports.

Turkeys government has issued a new executive decree under the ongoing state of emergency imposed after last years failed coup, dismissing more than 7,000 police, civil servants and academics.

A total of 7,563 people  including police  have been dismissed in the latest purge, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkish authorities also stripped 342 retired army personnel of their rank, Anadolu said.

The new decree came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of the failed coup, which Ankara says was organised by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen denies the accusations.

More than 240 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the failed coup attempt.

In all, Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials and arrested some 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, academia and other sectors.

Extend state of emergency

Turkeys government is looking to extend the ongoing state of emergency by another three months, with President Erdogan saying the sweeping powers will only be lifted when unrest ends.

Given the current outlook, we still need state of emergency, Erdogan said on Friday, as he addressed a human rights seminar before the anniversary of the failed coup.

The state of emergency, put in place days after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, grants the government wide-ranging powers, allowing it to rule by decree, including carrying out mass arrests and purges.

Parliament, which is dominated by Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), would have to approve the request of extending the state of emergency with a simple majority.
Thousands join calls for harsher punishment and tougher measures to buy corrosive substances amid rise in attacks.

Survivors of acid attacks in the UK have raised a call for tougher laws against perpetrators and demanded stricter measures for the purchasing of corrosive substances after a spate of assaults in recent weeks.

Sulphuric acid in drain cleaners, bleaches and corrosive alkalis in battery fluid can be easily bought in shops across the UK at a low price.

Resham Khan, who was recently attacked in east London, launched a petition as she recovers from serious burns from her hospital bed.

Hundreds of thousands of Britons supported the campaign on Friday, the same day two teenage boys earlier threw acid at five people in east London  leaving one victim with life-changing injuries.

An attack like this could happen to anyone, said Khans change.org petition, which is titled to prohibit the purchase of acid to those without a licence. It is about time that the law changes for the purchase of corrosive substances  right now you can buy it easily from any hardware store if you are 18 and over.

Corrosive acids like sulphuric acid are very lethal and life damaging substances. You should only be allowed to purchase corrosive substances with a licence to buy. The person purchasing should go through checks so their details are held on a database or hold a licence.

By early Saturday, almost 400,000 people had signed the 21-year-olds bid.

As Khan celebrated her birthday on June 21 with her cousin Jameel Mukhtar, chief suspect John Tomlin threw a substance through their car window.

Tomlin, who is white, then fled the scene after attacking the pair, who are of South Asian descent, but eventually turned himself in. Police described the attack as a hate crime.

Mukhtar has said he believes they were targeted because of their Islamic faith.

Although I will send this letter directly to numerous members of parliament and retailers of corrosive substances, I also extend this letter to the public, said Khan.

My plans are in pieces; my pain is unbearable, and I write this letter in hospital whilst I patiently wait for the return of my face  Why did this attack happen? What led to the event? But more importantly: Why is acid, or corrosive substances, so easy to obtain and be used as a weapon?

Calls to restrict sales

Following Fridays attack in east London, which saw the two teenage attackers spraying acid on victims from their mopeds, chief inspector Ben Clark from Hackney Borough, said: Of late, we have seen more attacks using corrosive substances in London.

I would urge businesses and parents to challenge those who they think may be trying to obtain or carry these substances as this could help prevent serious offences and life changing injuries being caused.

Londons Metropolitan Police say the number of reported attacks in the capital rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016, a rise of 74 percent, according to British media.

In the first four months of 2017, there were more than 100 attacks, police said, Londons Metro newspaper said.

WATCH: Black Roses and Red Dresses (24:59)

Katie Piper, another British survivor, also launched a campaign on Friday.

In 2008, when she was 24 years old, she was raped by her partner who later arranged for someone to throw sulphuric acid at her face.

That attack left Piper severely burned and blind in one eye.

In an open letter demanding government action, she wrote: At present, it is all too easy for someone to buy a corrosive substance and throw it, sometimes from a distance, at another person. It is vital that we do everything we can to halt these types of attack.

She also raised concerns regarding sentencing.

The current legislation does not always recognise the severity of the offence and, therefore, the sentencing does not reflect the severity of the crime in some cases, Piper said.

Tougher sentencing would surely act as a deterrent to further attacks. The issue of penalties for carrying corrosive substances needs to be addressed and restrictions on the sale of corrosive substances need to be looked at seriously and methodically through a scientific and well-resourced approach that leads to swift action.

Following Fridays attack, Prime Minister Theresa May said the government was working with the police to see what more could be done to prevent attacks.

It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm. And anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH (Assault occasioning actual bodily harm) and GBH (Grievous bodily harm). We are working with the police to see what more we could do, May told a Westminster briefing.

The rise in attacks has set off debate on social media. Here are some reactions:

My thoughts are with the victims of horrific acid attacks in North London. More must be done to tackle acid attacks, which have been rising.  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 14, 2017

80% of 400 annual acid attacks in UK are by white men. Imagine if 80% were by brown immigrants? The country would be in chaos. https://t.co/K3tzFr877V  Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) July 11, 2017

London has on average 3 acid attacks a week. The approach needs to change. Tougher punishment and licensing needed!  Saqlain (@Saqlain_Ch_) July 9, 2017

we have one of the highest rates of acid attacks in the world  but the government is only just talking about doing something  why?  CamembertElectrique (@ElectriCheese) July 15, 2017

Acid attacks are also a form of terrorism, a person's life virtually destroyed #AcidAttacks  Faraz Shaikh (@TheFarazShaikh) July 15, 2017

Absolutely horrified by news of a spate of acid attacks last night. A heinous crime. The perpetrators must feel the full force of the law.  David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 14, 2017

How is acid violence in the UK different? Rather than targeting women, men are primarily the victims #ASTI #London #EndAcidViolence pic.twitter.com/ZT43E1gj2Q  Acid Survivors Trust International (@Acid_Survivors) May 5, 2017

Somebody tell me why these acid attacks aren't called terrorist attacks by the media.  Alvin Carpio (@AlvinCarpio) July 14, 2017
A 16-year-old boy was arrested after five acid attacks on moped riders in less than 90 minutes on Thursday.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged in relation to five acid attacks in London on Thursday, British police said.

The 15 charges include grievous bodily harm, possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance, and robbery.

The boy is due to appear before Stratford Youth Court on Monday, Londons Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Saturday.

On Friday, British police had arrested two teenagers suspected of throwing acid at several victims in less than 90 minutes across east London on Thursday left them with facial burns. At least one victim sustained life-changing injuries.

Police said the investigation was ongoing.

The assaults come weeks after a separate incident that saw a man throw acid at an aspiring model, Resham Khan, and her cousin.

Khan and other survivors of acid attacks in the UK have raised a call for tougher laws against perpetrators and demanded stricter measures for the purchasing of corrosive substances following the spate of assaults.

READ MORE: UK acid attack survivors demand government action

Khan, who was attacked in east London on June 21, launched a petition on Saturday as she recovered from serious burns from her hospital bed.

An attack like this could happen to anyone, said Khans change.org petition, which is titled, Prohibit the purchase of acid to those without a licence.

Hundreds of thousands have signed Khans bid.

It is about time that the law changes for the purchase of corrosive substances  right now you can buy it easily from any hardware store if you are 18 and over, she added.

Corrosive acids like sulphuric acid are very lethal and life damaging substances. You should only be allowed to purchase corrosive substances with a licence to buy. The person purchasing should go through checks so their details are held on a database or hold a licence.

Londons Metropolitan Police say the number of reported attacks in the capital rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016, a rise of 74 percent, according to British media.
Chinas most prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer but many hold the Chinese government responsible.

Liu Xiaobo was banned from making speeches, barred from publishing his writings, locked up and left to die in state custody.

The body of Chinas most prominent dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner was cremated in a private ceremony and his ashes scattered at sea.

He died on Thursday after suffering from liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence because of his calls for peaceful democratic reforms.

Tributes have poured in from all over the world but there is little mention of him in his own country.

And there are concerns for his wife. Liu Xia was allowed to attend her husbands funeral. But she is unwell after being under house arrest since he became a Nobel laureate seven years ago.

Liu was the first to die in state custody since 1938.

What does his loss mean for Chinas democracy movement?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Einar Tangen  International politics and economics commentator

Andreas Fulda  Assistant professor at the University of Nottingham

William Nee  Researcher at Amnesty International

Berit Reiss Andersen  Head of the Norwegian Nobel committee
Dr Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and author and is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Hill is known for his work addressing the intersections of race, justice, politics and culture. His latest best-selling book is We Still Here: Pandemics, Policing, Protest and Possibility which follows on the success of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable from Flint to Ferguson. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the US National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have launched a co-publication on promoting connectivity in Africa, focusing on the role of Aid for Trade (AfT) in boosting intra-African trade as well as the importance of increasing the capacity of developing countries. The regional report, titled Promoting connectivity in Africa: The []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
You are invited to attend a Media Briefing for the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) in partnership with First National Bank (FNB) and a signing ceremony presided by the Honourable Minister, Dr Rob Davies. The dti and FNB are working together to improve access to finance for manufacturers, particularly the previously disadvantaged and/or []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Even if, as the likes of Charles Krauthammer insist, Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian lawyer invited in by President Barack Hussein Obama and his Attorney General Loretta Lynch is empirical evidence of collusion between Team Trump and Russia, the correct answer is so what?

Collusion in not a crime. Exchanging government favors for donations would be a crime, and neither Dr. Krauthammer nor anyone else has provided any evidence that any favor was granted as a result of that meeting, or that the Trump campaign benefited in any way from the meeting.

One cannot say the same thing about Hillary Clinton and her role in the Uranium One deal with Russia. Clinton played a pivotal role in the Uranium One deal which ended up giving Russian interests control of 20 percent of our uranium supply in exchange for donations of $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a federal crime. As Clinton Cash author Peter Schweitzer has noted:

Tuesday on Fox Business Network, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Breitbart editor at large and the author of Clinton Cash, Peter Schweizer said there needs to be a federal investigation into the Russian uranium deal then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons State Department approved after the Clinton Foundation receiving $145 million from the shareholders of Uranium One. Discussing the Clinton Foundation receiving $145 million from the shareholders of Uranium One, he continued, Look there are couple of things that are extremely troubling about the deal we touched on. number one is the amount of money $145 million. We are not talking about a super PAC giving a million dollars to support a candidate. We are not talking about campaign donations. We are talking about $145 million which by the way is 75 percent or more of the annual budget of the Clinton Foundation itself so its a huge sum of money. Second of all we are talking about a fundamental issue of national security which is uranium  its not like oil and gas that you can find all sorts of places. They are precious few places you can mine for uranium, in the United States is one of those areas. And number three we are talking about the Russian government. A lot of people dont realize it now, in parts of the Midwest American soil is owned by Vladimir Putins government because this deal went through. And in addition to the $145 million Bill Clinton got half a billion dollars, $500,000 for a 20-minute speech from a Russian investment bank tied to the Kremlin, two months before the State Department signed off on this deal. It just stinks to high heaven and I think it requires a major investigation by the federal government.

Yet seemingly the only thing warranting a major federal investigation is a wasted 20 minutes of Donald Trump Jr.s life that he will never get back. Democrats and the media and, again, apologies for the redundancy, had no problem with Bill and Hillary Clinton brokering deals giving Russia and Putin 20 percent of our uranium supply to benefit Clinton Foundation donors, including Canadian billionaire Frank Giustra.

Giustra earlier had a cozy relationship with Bill Clinton and participated in and benefitted from his involvement in a scam run by the Clinton Foundation in Colombia.

Clinton donor Giustra benefited significantly from his association, even if the people of Columbia didnt: When we met him (Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo) in his wood-paneled office in Colombias Capitol building in May, his desk was stacked high with papers related to Pacific Rubialess labor practices, the result of years of investigative work by his staff. He did not see the Clinton Foundation and its partnership with Giustras Pacific Rubiales as either progressive or positive. The territory where Pacific Rubiales operated, he said, thumbing through pages of alleged human-rights violations, was a type of concentration camp for workers. In September 2005, Giustra and Clinton flew to Kazakhstan together to meet the Central Asian nations president. Shortly thereafter, Giustra secured a lucrative concession to mine Kazakh uranium, despite his companys lack of experience with the radioactive ore. As Bill Clinton opened doors for Giustra, the financier gave generously to Clintons foundation.

As the New York Times reported, this mutual back-scratching gave Clinton donor Giustra control of a significant portion of the worlds uranium supply:

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them. Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clintons charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustras more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clintons inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges. In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Mr. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia, would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share.

Frank Giustra and Bill Clinton

Both the Clintons and their donor made off handsomely. Uranium One, which was gradually taken over by the Russians, would later be involved in a curious deal involving Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. As the New York Times reported:

At the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family. Members of that group built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium One. Beyond mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States. Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clintons wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium Ones chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well. Soon, Uranium One began to snap up companies with assets in the United States. In April 2007, it announced the purchase of a uranium mill in Utah and more than 38,000 acres of uranium exploration properties in four Western states, followed quickly by the acquisition of the Energy Metals Corporation and its uranium holdings in Wyoming, Texas and Utah.

So Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with husband Bill, in exchange for donations, gave nuclear power Russia and Putin control of 20 percent of the worlds uranium supply. Is that what Hillary Clinton meant by a Russian reset? Yet neither Congressional Democrats, who accuse Trump and his son of being too cozy with Moscow, nor their wholly owned subsidiary, the mainstream media, are eager to talk about the Clinton uranium deals with Russia.

Sadly the GOP heads of the applicable Congressional committees are AWOL on this pay-for-plat crime soree, If Sen. Kaine wants to talk about treason let us talk about Hillary and Uranium One. Investigate Hillary Clinton, not Michael Flynn or Donald Trump Jr.

Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
Charlie Gard, the 11-month-old British baby who suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, an extremely debilitating and rare neurological disease, was given an 11-day stay of execution by a British judge on July 14. That may be a sensational way of describing the situation facing the child and his parents, but in terms of the potential outcome, it is essentially accurate.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being kept alive and given only palliative care while his future is fought out in court, have said his condition is hopeless and he should be allowed to die  which is expected to happen as soon as life support in hospital is removed. His parents want to take him to the United States, where treatment has been offered by Columbia University in a department that specializes in a range of neurological disorders including the one that Charlie has.



Michio Hirano, M.D.

On July 14, it was announced that Michio Hirano, M.D., an acknowledged American expert in the field at Columbia, would travel to England next week to assess the boy's condition and, presumably, testify in person in court that Columbia's experimental treatment has an "11% to 56% chance of clinically meaningful improvement" in Charlie's condition. That is the essence of the testimony Dr. Hirano gave to the court in his communication by video from New York on Thursday, July 13. Dr. Hirano also told the court that "the baby's MRI scan did not necessarily indicate structural damage to the brain"  which contradicts what the physicians in Britain are claiming. In response to the emergency hearing on July 13, the judge of the High Court said he would hear more evidence in the case and render a final verdict of life or death for Charlie by July 25.

Dr. Hirano's page at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons presents a picture of a world-renowned genius-level researcher and clinician. Dr. Hirano, a physician with 30 years' experience, received his B.A. from Harvard College and M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He currently serves as chief of the Neuromuscular Division, co-director of the CUMC (Columbia University Medical Center) Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic, and director of the H. Houston Merritt Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases. His research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies. Since 2005, Dr. Hirano has received individually or with his colleagues almost two dozen research grants from the National Institutes of Health. He has authored or co-authored scores of scientific articles in his specialty published in the peer-reviewed medical literature.



Connie Yates and Chris Gard, Charlie Gard's parents, leaving the High Court on July 13

To the credit of Charlie's parents, they have managed to connect with the clinician and researcher, who appears to be one of the  if not the  world's leading expert(s) on Charlie's condition. Meanwhile, Dr. Hirano and his colleagues at Columbia are willing to treat Charlie.

In the medically backward United Kingdom that has suffered under the yoke of socialized medicine since 1948, innovations in medicine and leading research are seriously lacking. For example, Great Britain has nothing resembling a facility like Dr. Hirano's at Columbia University. The country, where rationing of medical care has become a fact of life due to limitations in funding imposed by the government, also claims the power to control the lives of its citizens cradle to grave, including, as in this case, the right of a minor patient to be taken to another country by his parents for treatment. Sitting here in the relative freedom of the United States, it is difficult to imagine the draconian power over the citizenry that resides in the U.K.'s National Health Service and the country's courts that are employed, when deemed necessary, to uphold the opinions of doctors.

The reluctance of Charlie Gard's doctors and the courts in the U.K. to see any hope for the boy in an innovative experimental therapy has received a surprising amount of support in the U.S., including from author and commentator Charles Krauthammer, himself a medical doctor and a psychiatrist, who called reports that the boy might be helped by therapy in the U.S. "a cruel hoax."

More typical of concerns about the case expressed by American conservatives were comments by Ed Morrisey who, on July 14, wrote at Hot Air:

It's mighty generous of the judge to allow for an outside opinion by a specialist in the field. Until now, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the courts have all claimed to have the entirety of information needed to deny the child any other attempts at care, despite the private resources his parents have raised to get it. Remember well that had this court and the Great Ormond Street Hospital gotten its way, this would have been an autopsy rather than an examination. Charlie Gard was supposed to have been disconnected from the ventilator two weeks ago.

The situation regarding the fate of Charlie Gard that is playing out in England, which has captured world attention, is the clearest current example of what government-controlled, socialized medicine results in  that is, total control of the population, with bureaucrats able to directly and with finality influence the course of everyone's life and death. The news about Charlie Gard (or his parents) vs. the state should raise serious alarms here as Democrat politicians in the United States increasingly promote the imposition of a scheme similar to the one in the U.K.  single-payer socialized medicine. In this author's opinion, it's a prescription for death.

Peter Barry Chowka has reported on health care, with an emphasis on alternative medicine, since 1972. Between 1992 and 1994 he was an adviser to the National Institutes of Health. His new website is AltMedNews.net.
On top of high taxes, crumbling roads, a huge imported underclass, one third of the nation's poverty population, and overpaid bureaucrats, this is just what California needs to complete the destruction of its business environment and quality of life. Elizabeth Olson writes in the New York Times:

California has long had a reputation for having one of the most difficult bar exams in the country. Now, with passage rates sagging, the state will make it easier to pass the test, which is required to be licensed as a practicing lawyer. The California Supreme Court, the ultimate authority over the bar exam, has decided to change the way the certification score is set. The court has not yet decided where the threshold will be set, but the changes will take effect in January.

I suppose it is theoretically possible they could raise the standards, but it does not look like that is in the cards:

The move follows a sometimes furious debate in California legal circles over whether the state's passing score, or "cut score"  144  was unrealistic. Each state offers its own bar exam, but many are moving toward more uniform exams, especially in the multiple-choice portion. What differentiates states is where they set the line for passage. For years, California had set the threshold for passing the exam higher than any other state but Delaware. Last year, just 62 percent of first-time test takers passed the California bar exam, compared with 83 percent in New York.

Why is this a problem for the public? High standards are good. They weed out the less qualified in favor of those who work hard and are intelligent, qualities we want lawyers to have. Of course, it is a bit embarrassing for institutions that charge a lot of money to educate lawyers:

And only 51 percent of the graduates of the University of California Hastings College of the Law passed the state's exam in July 2016. That result, the school's dean, David L. Faigman, wrote the California Committee of Bar Examiners last December, was "outrageous and constitutes unconscionable conduct on the part of a trade association that masquerades as a state agency."

So Dean Faigman of the taxpayer-supported University of California is taking the position that the barrier to entry of high test score requirements limits the supply and raises prices of legal services and the income for those lawyers smart enough to pass the bar. The law of supply and demand does work, so he has a point.

But is lowering the quality to increase the supply of lawyers desirable? No doubt, it will increase the litigiousness in California, since lawyers have to do something to keep busy once they pass the easier bar exam. How many of those who flunked in previous years will take a shot at the new lower standard, assuming that the CaliSupremes go ahead and lower it? How big a one-time bump can we expect from the rejects of previous years?

The thing is, even a stupid lawyer can bring a lawsuit.

How does this benefit Californians?

The elites who run California are determined to wreck the choicest (earthquake faults aside) piece of real estate on the continent. Another nail in the coffin.

For the wealthy, nuisance lawsuits are a cost of living item. But for businesses and individuals, they can cause catastrophic financial damage.

But the move would be good news for Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa (the former Tony Villar, who changed his name when he got married, adding his wife's last name, Raigosa):
One prominent talk radio host said a while back that Americans shouldn't rely on health care insurance. They should pay their medical bills out of their own pocket. That's what his parents did. Then he added a note of sympathy: of course, not everyone is rich, so he understands.

Then, on July 13, 2017, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian who ran as a Republican, said on the Michael Medved show that GOP politicians promised repeal, and then he omitted the "replace." Clever.

We have been trending toward big government since FDR, aided and abetted by liberal Republicans like Nixon. And so the problem facing purists is how to break this formula:

1. Self-interest + government handouts = need or love for big government.

How do purists who dominate talk radio and TV and various websites wean the public off that formula without breaking this one?

2. Self-interest + taking away government handouts = public anger and shock = losing elections.

How to break the first one without the second one breaking the purists (and conservatism generally)? Or maybe they believe that the second formula is a mirage. Better not. Let's assume that the second one is real.

Can purist celebrities talk America out of the first formula? Just how powerful and influential are the radio and TV and political purists? How big is their audience relative to the total number of voters? Can they talk Americans into rejecting Social Security and Medicare? Not likely. See the second formula.

Do they preach to America  or the few who tune in  that Americans need to get their act together and stop depending on big government and that they should stop being selfish? Grow up, America!

Do they talk about the blessedness of Constitutionalism that seems to assume a Jeffersonian America of small, independent farms? Can we ever get back to such simple utopianism?

Do they express on the air that GOP politicians never did promise replace (Sen. Paul seems to think this) or that they shouldn't have promised it in the first place? Too late. They did.

America (barely) elected a semi-conservative or a neo-conservative or some sort of hybrid to serve as president. Were it not for the Electoral College, they almost elected a full-on liberal in Hillary. How effective are the media purists, anyway?

Or maybe conservatism is not the same as the brand the purists have in mind. Maybe moderate redistribution of money to pay for a safety net is baked into human nature so deeply that such redistribution will never go away or lose the field or see its momentum stopped, because justice or a sense of compassion demands a safety net. Social Security and Medicare again are examples.

It's a tough place to live  to fight the government trend that has never lost since FDR. The GOP had better get a replacement for Obamacare; otherwise, they will have broken their promise, however impure the replacement will appear in the eyes of the purists. Then the GOP can improve it as new law rolls out to the public.

In the bigger picture, one answer to the challenge of conservative purity in the face of a big-government winning streak is incrementalism. We need to roll back big government inch by inch, like a twenty-percent (or you pick the percentage) budget cut of all government agencies. No talk of annihilating any agency. Too scary. See the second formula.

Whatever needs to be done requires time and patience  the very virtue purists appear to lack.

James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has finished posting his Timeline and Outline series on Western Civilization, beginning with the Timeline of the Age of Affluence.
Democrats have always dismissed Republican concerns about illegal voter registrations and evidence of fraudulent voting as pure fantasy. Why, no illegal immigrant would dream of voting in a U.S. election, despite demonstrating a penchant for lawbreaking by entering the U.S. illegally. There's no such thing as a multiple-county or multiple-state voters despite the assorted convictions of ACORN operatives, which tell a different story. There is no such thing as an illegal immigrant casting a ballot  despite big money for voter registration efforts in illegal immigrant areas. Meanwhile, the very idea that illegal votes would be heavily slanted toward benefiting Democrats  who, in the Hugo Chavez style, offer free stuff from others' pockets  is unimaginable!

Turns out that what's going on in Colorado refutes each and every one of those echo-chamber "narratives."

Top officials in the Democratic National Committee are worried about a sudden drop in voter registrations in Colorado, concerned that President Donald Trump's new election commission is encouraging Democrats across the country to remove themselves from the electoral grid for fear of revealing personal information to the GOP leadership. Led by DNC Chairman Tom Perez, they've begun an effort  in conjunction with the Colorado Democratic Party  to persuade other members of the party's rank-and-file to stay registered.

Now, make no mistake: the mainstream media are trying to spin the entire issue as one of "privacy" and "voter intimidation" just as the Democrats themselves are doing. Not once, for instance, in this piece, does the writer bring up that perhaps illegal aliens have registered in large numbers and now want to pull their names off the radar one step ahead of the law as the integrity of voter registrations and voting records is at long last being scrutinized  at the same time as an illegal immigration crackdown.

There's reason to think de-registrations are happening precisely because illegally registered voters don't want their records of illegal voting known. If they were known, they would become prosecutable crimes and would likely take the perpetrators out of the running for any sort of amnesty or other opportunity for naturalization in the future. Illegal aliens have their interests like anyone else, and they act in their interests. It's reasonable to suggest that illegally registered voters  who had been illegally voting in broad daylight  are now scurrying for the shadows. They took a benefit that didn't belong to them, canceled out the votes of legitimate citizens in a very purple swing state, and now wish to avoid any consequences.

Yet the media keep spinning the mass de-registrations as "privacy" concerns despite the fact that voter registrations are already all public. It's an unsubstantiated claim, in part because they sure as heck haven't provided even individual sob stories with names attached to demonstrate this claim. People who do have real privacy concerns (unrelated to the "privacy" of their illegally cast ballots) have options other than de-registering as a means of alleviating their concerns: Colorado allows for the provision of "private" registration for voters with a reasonable fear of jeopardy for one reason or another, were their data to be made public. Colorado voters use it. But not one of the 3,400 de-registrants running from the federal voter integrity team in Colorado seems to have done it.

Democrats are taking the privacy narrative a step farther by loudly claiming voter suppression without a drop of evidence there, either, claiming (probably falsely) that they are going to expend great effort beyond their loud noisemaking now to get those 3,400 de-registered voters (all of whom they imply are legitimate) back on the voter rolls.

"If you unregister, you are giving a victory to proponents of voter suppression," [DNC chair Tom] Perez said in an interview with McClatchy.

It's disingenuous, given the likely real reason the de-registrations are happening. Voter suppression? As if an illegal immigrant really would be concerned about his illegal vote being "suppressed" over the prospect of a one-way deportation ticket back to Honduras  where some real voter suppression might be found. Or, as if illegal aliens just naturally put Democrat victory interests in Colorado above their own prospects for amnesty and a green card, or ACORN multi-voters put Democratic Party victory interests above their prospects for another stretch in the hoosegow. Sorry, Tom, the whole claim won't wash.

Perez's yelling is a bid to cover up the likely reality that the 3,400 de-registered voters signal rampant illegal voting registration in exactly the place you would expect to find it  in an ultra-swing state whose elections have been won by razor-thin margins in at least the last three general elections. That it is Perez speaking out suggests a threatened rice bowl  and points to the reality that illegal voters vote Democrat. When the truth comes out from the commission on the de-registrations  and those 3,400 public documents should be examined by the federal commission as well  it may be a black mark on the history of the Democratic Party that they had won so many elections based on fraudulent Democrat votes cast by foreigners and criminals.

Forecast: The Tom Perez re-registration gambit will fail. And we won't hear a word about it in the coming media "narrative."
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed nearly 800,000 children of illegal aliens to avoid deportation may die as a result of court challenges. The Obama executive order that exempted massive numbers of illegal aliens who were children under 16 when they were brought into the U.S. by their parents will not be defended in court by the Trump administration, leading to its almost certain demise.

Fox News:

Kelly met privately with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, to alert them that the Trump Administration may stand by and let legal challenges defeat the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that permits people brought to the states illegally as children stay on temporary visas. Since March, 770,477 people had been granted temporary status through DACA waivers. "I was encouraged that Secretary Kelly said he personally supports the DACA policy," Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) told Fox News. "But, you know, also discouraged that he couldn't say the administration would defend it or not." The program would need to be defended in court if the Trump administration doesn't rescind it fully by September 5. That's because officials in 10 states are threatening to file suit challenging the constitutionality of DACA, which was created by an executive order signed by President Obama. Some Republicans say they look forward to the litigation. "Hats off to the state Attorneys General that have brought this," Rep Steve King (R-IA) told FOX News. But ire across the aisle is now directed at Secretary Kelly. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) slammed Kelly as the most "unknowledgable member of the cabinet that I've ever met in my 25 years here," and accused Kelly of "trying to make a fool out of us by trying to say, 'oh it's the courts'." The sentiment doesn't quite square with Kelly's own public appearances on Capitol Hill this summer. A month ago, he told lawmakers that to make temporary status permanent for young people brought here illegally, they should turn President Obama's executive order into legislation. "I'm not going to let you off the hook," Kelly told Congress. "You've got to solve this problem." Kelly's boss, President Donald Trump, told reporters aboard Air Force One this week that he doesn't know what will happen with DACA. "It's a decision that I make, and it's a decision that's very, very hard to make," Trump said.

The rationale for Obama's executive order was that children should not be held responsible for the crimes of their parents. But the question is, should children be used as an excuse to allow their illegal alien parents to stay in the country?

The program does not grant legal status to any illegal alien, child or not. It allows only the illegal to avoid deportation and only as long as the government does not enforce the law.

Proponents of DACA claim there is no difference between granting a few thousand children a stay of deportation and the 1.7 million illegals who are eligible for DACA. Numbers are irrelevant, they say. What matters is that the president has the authority to refrain from deporting anyone he chooses in any number.

Republican governors in ten states are challenging that notion, claiming that DACA is unconstitutional because it bypasses Congress. It is the Congress who is responsible for immigration policy, not the executive. It is one thing for a president to carve out a small number of exemptions to the law and quite another to create a massive loophole in immigration enforcement.

Without a defense from the administration of DACA, federal courts are likely to agree with the governors. There will not be an immediate deportation of tens of thousands of former DACA participants. But once the program is dropped, those who were eligible for DACA will be taking their chances of being deported just like any other illegal alien.
For a month, everyone has been talking about how Europe and President Trump do not get along. Perhaps they don't, but they still need for Mr. Trump to succeed  or better put, for the U.S. economy to start growing.

This is from Bloomberg:

Donald Trump famously said in February that "Paris is no longer Paris." After Emmanuel Macron showed him the town and met with him at the gilded Elysee Palace, the American president ladled praise on the French capital and the country's 39-year-old leader. He even suggested that his opposition to the Paris climate accord isn't set in stone. It was Macron's fourth meeting with Trump since his election in May. The two have acrimoniously clashed over climate change and Macron has made not-so-hidden allusions to his opposition to building "walls," but in this latest encounter they stressed their common positions, from trade to terrorism. Preceding the visit, French officials laid out their strategy to approach Trump: hold your ground where you disagree, and pivot to areas of agreement. And don't forget his love of pomp and the military. As both leaders prepare to attend the Bastille Day parade together on Friday, that strategy appears to have worked. "You have a great president, and I think you're going to have a very peaceful and beautiful Paris, and I'm coming back," Trump said on Thursday at a news conference with Macron.

Why is everyone so surprised? Macron needs a strong U.S. economy desperately.

According to a report last April, France has a weak GDP growth (1.2%), projected to be only 1.7% in 2017. Also, youth unemployment, a social time bomb like no other, is 20-something percent. Generous welfare benefits are inching to being unsustainable. And the health care system needs more cash.

And let's not forget the war on terror. France has recently been ground zero for terrorist attacks.

So Macron needs a strong U.S. president a lot. I think he has found that man in Trump after the weakness, and slow economic growth, of the Obama years.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) (YouTube) and follow me on Twitter.
A few days ago, Thomas Lifson reported on the bigoted case of a journalist for a Chicago newspaper aimed at homosexuals who was transferred from her reporting job to one behind the scenes because she dared to write about the plight of three Jewish lesbians forcibly expelled from a "Dyke March" because their "pride" multicolored flag sported a prominent Jewish star.

The Algemeiner Journal, a newspaper on Jewish news based in New York, picked up on the story. The reporter, Gretchen Rachel Hammond, a man who calls himself a woman, spoke at the Algemeiner's Summer Benefit in New York on Thursday, mentioning his personal background plus insights on the implications of the whole incident.

I found the landscape in which our silos were placed was vast and beautiful but also capable of great ugliness in no small part because, as Laverne Cox once reminded us, "hurt people hurt people." Two weeks ago, I ran afoul of that ugliness by reporting on a growing cancer from within the community. Instead of sticking to the narrative that all our issues were the result of far right-wing attackers, I simply wrote about a scene which demonstrated that we are pretty good at causing problems for ourselves. Any song of freedom has to be belted out with a clear voice. The jarring, discordant racket of voices wailing notes like intersectionality, privilege, systems of oppression, safe spaces and pink-washing may have sounded perfectly logical coming out of the mouth of some semi-stoned professor at CUNY or UIC but when, put into practice, basically had us tearing into each other like shoppers at a Walmart Thanksgiving Day Sale and mud wrestling competition. The rest of the world shook their heads, some in astonishment, some with a smug, "What did we tell you?," while the voices of three Jewish girls who went to a Pride march were silenced and then the reporter who told their story. ... They say our profession is dying. They say that we are obsolete or fake. But as long as we can see our communities, as long as we are brave enough to amplify their voices and as long as we make sure we never lose our own, our stories will not be silenced. Thank you for making sure mine never was.

Hammond's story, his voice was not suppressed because a Jewish newspaper in New York and a conservative site, Breitbart, reported that a half-Indian (from India) man calling himself a woman was punished for penning an article that doesn't fit the narrative his bosses desired.

This was another victory in exposing how the left deals with those who don't adhere to the proper left narrative. It was another victory for real news, not the fake stuff that passes for news in most media.
Why indeed? Obamacare was passed in 2009 without a single Republican vote. Everyone who paid attention to its details knew that it was designed to fail, miserably. Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber bragged about how getting it passed depended on the stupidity of the American people. But people would not be able to keep their own doctors as promised. No one's premiums went down by $2,500. They all went up and up and up. Those who are paying for it cannot afford to use it because the deductibles are too high. It is a monstrosity of catastrophic proportions. The insurance companies were on board; they knew they would reap billions of taxpayer dollars, and they have. They have been subsidized with billions in government largesse and still have jacked up the cost of premiums each year. The insurance companies loved the plan despite the fact that it was built as well to be fraud-friendly, like Medicaid and Medicare. It was and remains a giant boondoggle. For eight years, Republicans have campaigned for office in order to repeal it. The House voted repeatedly to repeal it.

Now they have the House, the Senate, and the White House and suddenly cannot do what they have promised to do all these years despite having all the power to do it. The range of their fatuous excuses and infighting is too much to bear. Suddenly, all those Republicans who once held conservative ideals are conservative no longer. Medicaid, which provides little if any actual medical care, now must be expanded, not cut! Where does all that money go? Not to doctors. Not to care for the indigent. Susan Collins, for example, should admit she is a give-it-all-away Democrat. She does not advocate for personal responsibility or reducing government spending. Not one bit. Every word out of her mouth is a statist, big-government mantra.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania let the cat of the bag as to the Republicans' pathetic inaction at a recent town hall: "We did not expect Trump to win." So these Republicans who have been promising to repeal Obamacare once they achieved maximum power were just faking it. They had no plan to actually repeal Obamacare, and it appears now that they never had any intention to do it. They did not really want to wield the power they now have! They preferred being underdogs; they are, most of them, lazy.

The Democrats, statist scoundrels all, would never be so pathetically weak. They have no power but are still running the show because the establishment Republicans are so infuriatingly inept. Because Trump did win, the Republicans in Congress have been caught in a poisonous spider's web of their own making. Now we all know that they are weak, sycophantic do-nothings who would rather fight among themselves than solve a problem or actually legislate. They are like a clan of meerkats staring vacantly in the same, unfocused direction. Paul Ryan and McConnell, the alleged miracle workers of vote-whipping, are failures. On purpose? Who knows? Seems like it.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's idea that an Obamacare plan remain available to anyone who wants it is brilliant. But no, can't have that. Direct care, the most obvious solution, is a non-starter with our cowardly representatives in Congress. No, no, no. We cannot possibly advocate for personal responsibility and affordable health care that allows individual Americans to choose their own doctors or their own insurance plans, according to their own needs. There are so many ways to care for the truly needy, and for those with pre-existing conditions, without bankrupting the nation, but our wimpy Republicans are too scared to go there. It is cowardice that characterizes the party  cowardice and contempt for their own president because he is not one of them. To this day, they cannot accept that fact he won precisely because he is not one of them. But can they learn and embrace the man? No. They are trying to sabotage him. And for this they are earning the contempt of the voters who put them in office.

They are cowards, too, when it comes to defending their president. Like Toomey, none of them expected Trump to win, but he did. But so afraid of actually supporting the man who is now the leader of their party, nearly all of them are cowering in the corners of Congress. So afraid of the leftist media, they are trying to become a minority again themselves. Who among them has passionately called out the nonsense that is the media's obsession with "Trump colluded with Russia"? Not even Cruz or Gowdy or Rubio or Lee!

What is wrong with these people? What on Earth has become of the Republican party? If they do not begin to stand up to the vicious media and conspiratorial left, we will be left to the devices of shameless pols like Schumer, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, etc., etc. There are too many Democrats who are non compos mentis, yet the Republicans are letting them have their way with us all.

By now, eight months into the Trump administration, conservatives have to admit that their elected representatives in Congress do not actually represent them. They are excellent at one thing: capitulation to the left. These yellow-bellies who are pretend conservatives need to either step up to the plate or resign and let new and legitimate conservatives take their places.
Obama and the Democrats passed Obamacare without any Republican votes on a slick parliamentary move by Harry Reid. Republicans vowed to repeal Obamacare. Next, Obamacare was saved by the vote of Justice Roberts when he decided that it is constitutional as a tax even though Obama and the Dems did not pass it as a tax. Republicans again vowed to repeal Obamacare.

Republicans said Obamacare is designed to fail so we end up with a single-payer system. The passage of Obamacare energized the Republican base, leading to a Tea Party, and a revival of conservative politics. We won the House in 2010 and have retained it since. We won the Senate in 2012 and have retained it since.

Republicans ran on the promise to repeal Obamacare, which resulted in a Republican Congress. During the Obama administration, the Republicans passed numerous bills to repeal Obamacare. They did not become law because Obama was president, who had veto power.

Donald Trump won in 2016. He ran on a platform to sign a bill to repeal Obamacare. Now we have a Republican House and Senate and a Republican president. All that is necessary is a simple bill to repeal Obamacare, which President Trump would sign. Send the same bill that was passed and sent to Obama.

Instead, we became bogged into a "repeal and replace" to craft a bill to replace Obamacare. The House had difficulty in passing a bill. Now the Senate is having difficulty in passing a bill. The Republican leadership has had since Trump's election but is still fumbling around to put together a bill acceptable to 52 Republican senators.

The problem is that any bill will be a version of Obamacare because the Republicans are trying to legislate a comprehensive health care bill to satisfy all interests, from Rand Paul, who wants a repeal, to Susan Collins, who wants Obamacare Lite. Some are pushing to expand Medicare so that it becomes the default for the uninsured.

Democrats will oppose any Republican bill. The bottom line is that many Republicans want to pass a more efficient and fair Obamacare plan rather than simply repeal Obamacare.

We do not need a comprehensive health care bill, same as we did not need a "Comprehensive Immigration Bill" that McCain, Graham, and Bush tried to sell in in 2007.

The Republicans should pass a simple repeal of Obamacare. If they have to get rid of cloture, then do it, just as Harry Reid used his moves.

Then Republicans should pass specific bills to deal with specific issues, such as waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, portability of insurance from employer to employer, using HSA to pay for premiums, increasing the amount for HSA, allowing consumers to choose coverage, selling policies across state lines, allowing income tax deduction for all medical bills from gross income, using VA hospitals to treat the uninsured and those with pre-existing conditions that have not yet met the time limits, and other issues.

There should be debate on each of these where Democrats are forced to vote on specific bills, instead of just allowing the Dems to vote no on one bill so they can say they are trying to save health care for all.

The repeal of Obamacare highlights the weakness and ineffectiveness of Congress. We still have reduction of income tax rates and simplification of the tax code, confirmation of federal judges and another Supreme Court justice, and funding for the wall. The only achievement so far by Congress is Neal Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

Worse, the congressional Republicans do not support Trump by defending him against the daily onslaught by the Opposition Party, consisting of the Democrats and the Destroy Trump Media. It seems that Never-Trump senators, such as McCain, Collins, Graham, Sasse, Lee, Toomey, and others are willing to see Trump destroyed.

But if Obamacare is not repealed, and there is no tax cut, no funding of the wall, and Trump is not supported, the Democrats will take the House in 2018.

Republicans had better wake up and remember why they were elected.
LINCOLN  Cara Freeburg found out Thursday night via Facebook that her October wedding might be facing some complications.

Freeburg and her bridesmaids all got their dresses from Alfred Angelo Bridal, a national chain with a Lincoln location at 4848 Normal Blvd.

Alfred Angelo closed all its stores Thursday night without warning, and reportedly plans to file for bankruptcy.

That threw Freeburg and thousands of other brides across the country into limbo.

Luckily for her, she ordered her dress last fall and already has it. Three of her bridesmaids have their dresses in hand and a fourth expects to have hers sent to her.

But two bridesmaids who live out-of-state may be out of luck.

Freeburg said she might have to change color schemes and may wind up paying for dresses for the other two bridesmaids.

"I'm super irritated about it," the Lincoln woman said.

Irritation seemed to be the theme as brides across the country found out Thursday night that they might have to find other dresses on short notice.

In Lincoln, some brides apparently started showing up at the store Thursday night after hearing the news. Lincoln police said they had to dispatch three officers to the store about 7:30 p.m. to deal with a report of angry brides making threats against the store.

LPD said it did not make any arrests.

Other brides took out their frustration on social media.

Several posted that they were told by store employees that ordered items that had arrived at the store would be sent to people via FedEx.

However, it's not clear what will happen to ordered items that had not yet been delivered to the store.

Megan McDonough said she was in the store last week and was told they were no longer taking orders. She said store employees asked if she wanted to pick up her bridal dress, but she told them she would wait until she got back from a trip.

Thursday night, she found out via text from one of her bridesmaids that the store has closed.

McDonough said she was told her dress has been shipped to her.

"I hope it's the correct one with all the accessories," McDonough said in an email. "I'm also worried about my bridesmaids. One has a dress and the others don't. I hope they get refunded. All were paid for."

Other retailers were stepping up to help.

David's Bridal, which has a Lincoln store at Gateway Mall, posted on its Facebook page Friday morning that it would offer "special discounts" on bride and bridesmaids dresses to anyone with an Alfred Angelo receipt.

Just a block away from Alfred Angelo's shop, Cause for Paws thrift shop was trying to get the word out Friday that it has more than 100 wedding gowns for sale.

Sue Sturgis, president of Cause for Paws, said the dresses were donated by Ellynne Bridal. She said they're all new, heavily discounted and are "absolutely gorgeous."
To the editor:

Medicaid is a lifeline for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The U.S. Congress is attempting to cut that lifeline.

In May, the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act. That act would radically restructure Medicaid. The result: less funding and fewer services for people with disabilities.

In June, the Senate revealed their version of the proposed legislation, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Although it was a different name, it would do the same damage to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: less funding and fewer services.

Members of Congress are trying to portray this proposed legislation as reigning in spending, cutting taxes and giving new flexibility to states. The truth: funding is directed away from people with disabilities, the elderly and the poor; taxes are cut only for the wealthiest among us; and more flexibility means that states will have to make the hard decisions about who will no longer get the services they need once federal funding is diminished.

This is not good for people with disabilities, it is not good for our nation, it is not good for people in Nebraska. We must do better.

Through my work as the executive director at Mosaic in Northeast Nebraska (Columbus, Fremont, Norfolk, Ponca and Wayne), I see firsthand the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am concerned about what would happen to them if the proposed legislation were to pass. Denial of services? Longer waiting lists? Move from communities and back to institutions?

I cannot answer those questions but I know with certainty the actions that would stem from this proposed legislation will negatively impact the people I serve every day.

The health care system does need reform. But it should not come at the expense of some of our most vulnerable citizens.

Tracey Schlegel

Executive director

Mosaic, Northeast Nebraska




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
The bulk of the action is centred in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden and his family arrived from Afghanistan following the US invasion of 2001.

The Exile is a sledgehammer of a book: its a thriller, a historical record, a masterpiece of investigative journalism and above all a captivating inside story of this centurys greatest villain, the Al Qaeda.

Two British journalists, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, chart the hurried flight of the worlds most notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden from the interiors of Afghanistan to the Tora Bora caves and eventually to Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The book, they stress, is no official history but an account painfully reconstructed from interviews with persons affiliated or related to Osama bin Laden, officials and some members of his vast extended family. The result, the authors claim, is a book that tells the story of Al Qaeda from the inside.

The bulk of the action is centred in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden and his family arrived from Afghanistan following the US invasion of 2001. Iran too plays a part with the Islamist regime trying to use Al Qaeda to its advantage.

The narratives accounts of the machinations inside Pakistan, the workings of the ISI and the complexities of relations between Islamabad and Washington make for fascinating reading. The pace is relentless as Al Qaeda agents secure themselves in Pakistan and fend off conflicting national and internal interests.

The book puts together little-known details such as the manner in which Abu Faraj al-Libi, Al Qaedas number three, had chosen Osama bin Ladens final hideout in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, and directed the Kuwaiti brothers Ibrahim and Abrar to buy the land and build a safehouse.

The brothers not only built the house and its 18-feet high boundary wall but also installed anti-snooping devices and other precautions. A disguised Osama bin Laden and his family arrived in Abbottabad at the end of August [2015], settling on the second floor, while the Kuwaitis lived downstairs in a self-contained apartment cut off from the rest of the house by a locked metal gate.

Some six years later a US SEAL team would break into the house to shoot dead Osama bin Laden and call their mission commander in Washington with the now famous phrase: For God and country, I pass Geronimo, Geronimo EKIA. Enemy killed in action.

The two authors are no stranger to Pakistan or its powerful Army establishment. Levy worked in Pakistan as a correspondent for many years and used his experience to write Deception (also co-authored with Scott-Clark), another blockbuster of a book revealing how Pakistan stealthily built the bomb with the tacit compliance of Washington.

The two have built a reputation for being hard-nosed investigative journalists penetrating areas where few would dare to tread. Apart from Pakistan, they have written on Kashmir terrorism and the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Scott-Clark, a freelance journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker, has reported from Bosnia, Rwanda, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iran among other countries.

But the hunt for Osama bin Ladens trail from his base in Afghanistan to his exodus to Pakistan and ultimate assassination at Abbottabad must have been the duos hardest hunt yet.

Where the book disappoints, at least to those Indians who are aware that Pakistans military is elbow deep in the global terrorism cauldron, is its whitewashing of the generals in Rawalpindi. The authors conclude that the top generals did not know anything about Osama bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad and were as astonished as the rest of the world when he was discovered and killed.

This is as hard to believe as is the assertion that the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden was only known to the late jihadi general Hamid Gul, and a so-called S section of the ISI, which believe it or not, supposedly works independently of both the ISI and the Pakistan Army. Come on!

Its the little things like this that jar. The preface too seems a little contrived, the authors arguing that theirs is the real version of Osama bin Ladens exile while the versions put out by the US government in particular about his life and ignominious end are nothing but pernicious propaganda.

The authors portray themselves as rebels against an authoritarian system that manipulates public opinion and twists facts.

While falsehoods were advanced, behind the scenes the Pentagon and White House aggressively pursued those who broke real storiesAll of which made it more essential than ever to get behind the history that was being told, they write.

So here is essentially an alternative view of history. Which one are we to believe? The common reader is left adrift, not having access to the mass of documents, untold stories, secret files and what have you. History is ultimately what we make of the past.

Despite its flaws, the book must be highly recommended; it is a gripping narrative of our times and all the darkness hidden in the nooks and crannies of our complex world, and despite its bulk and excruciating details the authors have dug up, the books ends up as a bloody good read.

Indranil Banerjie is an independent commentator on political and security issues
The taxpayer will be able to submit online explanation without any need to visit income tax office.

In phase first 17.92 lakh people were identified for large deposits and asked to e-verify their bank deposits during demonetisation last year.

New Delhi: As part of Operation Clean Money second phase, income tax department claimed on Friday that it has identified 5.56 lakh new people whose bank deposits during demonetisation was higher than claimed in tax returns.

These are persons whose tax profiles were found to be inconsistent with the cash deposits made by them during the demonetisation period, the I-T department said.

All identified persons are being informed through email and SMS for submitting their response online

In phase first 17.92 lakh people were identified for large deposits and asked to e-verify their bank deposits during demonetisation last year. Some 9.72 lakh people had submitted online response.

IT department said that another one lakh persons who did not disclose all bank accounts during e-verification in the first phase of Operation Clean Money have also been identified.

The information in respect of the cases and accounts identified by the I-T department has been made available in the e-filing window of the PAN holder in the e-filing portal of the I-T department.

The taxpayer will be able to submit online explanation without any need to visit income tax office.

The PAN holder can view the information using the link Cash Transactions 2016 under Compliance section of the portal.

All identified persons are being informed through email and SMS for submitting response online, the I-T department said.

I-T department has on-boarded two specialised data analytics agencies and a business process management agency to augment departmental capability in analysing large volumes of cash deposit data, track the compliance status of taxpayers and reporting entities.

While launching a new website on Operation Clean Money, CBDT in May had claimed that its searches after demonetisation has resulted in people admitting undisclosed income of `16,398 crore and seized assets of Rs 900 crore (Rs 636 crore in cash).
Swara Bhaskar has carved for herself an unmistakable niche in the industry, courtesy her gritty and incredibly layered portrayals on-screen.

Swara Bhaskar has carved for herself an unmistakable niche in the industry, courtesy her gritty and incredibly layered portrayals on-screen. The actress has often also been lauded for her liberal views and unabashedness when it comes to expressing those views, in person, or across her social media platforms.

And now, the actress has come out in support of Alankrita Shrivastavas sensational Lipstick Under My Burkha. The film, which has had a major run-in with the CBFC and its infamous chief Pahlaj Nihalani, has given rise to a quirky initiative christened the Lipstick Rebellion, where celebrities have been vouching for the film, with a lipstick perfectly aligned with their middle fingers. Swara herself posted a picture to join the movement.

Them: Ur not heroine material Me: #NilBatteySannata #AnaarkaliOfAarah #NoSteretype #LipstickREbellion #lipstickundermyburkha, (sic) she captioned it.

The post itself has caused a few ripples among Swaras fans, with some of them calling her out for supporting what they see as a vulgar film, and another faction that is backing her and the film completely.

It remains to be seen if the film will live up to the massive expectations riding on it.
The general consensus at the meeting was that the government must try and engage with China diplomatically & resolve the issue through negotiations.

New Delhi: Ahead of the Parliaments Monsoon Session, the government on Friday briefed Opposition parties on two contentious issues  the ongoing stand-off with China and the prevailing security situation in Kashmir after the Amarnath attack. The government wants to build consensus on the two sensitive issues and wants to project a united front, specially on key security matters during the monsoon session, which starts on Monday.

Home minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by his senior Cabinet colleagues external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Arun Jaitley gave a detailed briefing to senior Opposition leaders on both issues. National security advisor Ajit Doval and other senior officials were also present during the meeting.

The general consensus at the meeting was that the government must try and engage with China diplomatically and resolve the issue through negotiations.

The government also emphasised on the unique nature of the very close and longstanding India-Bhutan relationship in the context of the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area of Bhutan and has stressed on the responsibility to protect Bhutans territorial integrity.

On the Amarnath killings, some parties cornered the government on the issue of a security failure of the forces. The Centre tried to assure the parties that sufficient security arrangements were made, but the Opposition parties remained unconvinced.

The government, however, assured that it would deal firmly with the violence in Kashmir, including the subversive elements responsible for the recent Amarnath killings. The Opposition was also informed about the increased security measures put in place, including along the border and LoC, to contain violence in the Valley following the killing of top Hizbul Mujahideen commander.

From the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad attended the meeting. Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Sitaram Yechury from CPM, Sharad Yadav and K.C. Tyagi of JD(U), Tariq Anwar from NCP and Derek O Brien from Trinamul Congress were also a part of the meeting.

Opposition, especially, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been critical of the governments handling of tension with China in the Sikkim sector and the security situation in the Valley.

Mr Gandhi had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on the China stand-off and even expressed concern on the Kashmir situation alleging that Centre was pursuing only short term political gains from the PDP-BJP alliance in the state.

On the China issue, sources said that the government maintained that it wanted good relations with its neighbours but did not want to compromise on the countrys security and strategic interests. Following the meeting, Mr OBrien said that while all parties listened to governments response on China, the general sense was that India should also engage diplomatically with the neighbouring country.

The TMC leader also said that the government did not provide answers the Opposition parties were looking for. We asked the government some tough questions, but didnt get the answers we were looking for, Mr OBrien said.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that the foreign minister briefed the parties on the China situation and all parties expressed solidarity and support. Congress leader Anand Sharma said that for Congress national security was paramount and the party advised the government to handle the China issue diplomatically rising above petty politics and national interest as both were important.

Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury added that national interest was paramount in whatever the government does and suggested that the issue be resolved through negotiations.
Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday to discuss the law and order situation in the state and security to Amarnath pilgrims, officials said.

Kashmir me hum law and order ki ladaai nahi ladd rahe. Jab tak pura mulk, political parties saath nahi dete tab tak ye jang nahi jeet sakte (The war we are fighting in Kashmir isnt that of law and order problems. We cant win this war unless different political parties and the entire country supports us), she said after meeting the Home Minister.

CM Mufti went on to say that President Pranab Mukherjee re-affirmed that utmost attention will be given to section 370. When we passed GST bill in J&K assembly, President Pranab Mukherjee reaffirmed that section 370 will be given utmost attention. Our emotions are attached to section 370, Mufti said.

During the meeting that lasted about half-an-hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.
Swamy further said that the same approach was adopted by the Congress in Mahatma Gandhi's murder, but they failed there as well.

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party leader P Chidambaram should be charged with perjury for implicating that Rashtriya Swayamseak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat perpetrated so-called Hindu terror', said BJP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday.

"The government should set up something to register an FIR and make Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram as accused in a conspiracy to subvert the country and falsification of information, tantamounting to perjury (sic)," Swamy told ANI.

Swamy said he was already aware of the conspiracy hatched by the UPA Government to implicate Bhagwat.

Swamy further alleged that Congress introduced the term Hindu terror to implicate Bhagwat.

"They (Congress) did a somersault here and started a new FIR citing so-called Hindu terror. The whole objective was to somehow implicate Mohan Bhagwat because he is the head of the largest voluntary organisation of the world, and it is the backbone of the BJP, as far as workers are concerned, he claimed.

Therefore, this cultural organisation was sought to be defamed that during elections, people out of fright, would decide not to vote for the BJP and give it to UPA. But the gamble failed, because by the time they could get to summon and subject Bhagwat to third-degree methods, the police (NIA level) said they wanted further proof and so it was delayed. So when the elections came, we won," Swamy said.

Swamy further said that the same approach was adopted by the Congress in Mahatma Gandhi's murder, but they failed there as well.

They used the media control they had to propagate against the RSS. Now, we won't allow them to do this. They should be brought to book," he said.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said members of such nationalist parties were there in the hit-list since the beginning. However, the forces who tried to malign them were exposed in the past and will be exposed now as well.

As per reports, after the extreme violence in Ajmer and Malegaon blast, the UPA Government had pressurised the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to implicate Bhagwat as per their 'Hindu terror' theory.
Its hope for trilateral understanding seems to have dashed after deadlock in Bhutan.

Sikkim, which became a part of India in May 1976, is the only state which has a demarcated border with China. (Photo: Representational/File)

New Delhi: Indias time-tested friend Russia is growing increasingly anxious about the Sino-Indian military standoff in the Doklam area of Bhutan as it has dashed Moscows hopes of any Russia-China-India alliance or triangle.

Russia was banking on a trilateral understanding between the three countries as its ties with the United States have nose-dived even under the Trump administration.

Sources told this newspaper that Moscow is extremely worried over the developments. Russia has had a time-tested relationship with India that has withstood occasional strains caused by Indias growing proximity to the United States and Moscows perceived retaliatory move at firming up ties with Chinas all-weather friend Pakistan. But even Russia has realised that Pakistan can never supplant India in any such triangle. This leaves Moscow with the unenviable task of balancing its ties with New Delhi and Beijing amid deterioration in Sino-Indian ties.

Sources said Moscow is closely watching the developments in Doklam, even as Indian troops have dug in their heels with the Chinese are stepping the rhetoric with daily warnings to India. Indian troops entered Doklam to protect Bhutans territorial integrity after Chinese troops insisted on road construction in the area and brushed off attempts by the Bhutanese Army to stop them.

With the Kremlins ties souring with the west, especially over the conflict in Ukraine and the political situation in Syria, Russia has had no other option except growing closer to China. The move is ironical since China had military tensions and border skirmishes with the erstwhile Soviet Union five decades ago.

But things have drastically changed since then. Beijing no longer considers Moscow a threat. With US President Donald Trumps perceived proximity to Moscow, Russia was hopeful of a rather dramatic improvement in its ties with Washington. But to its disappointment, things havent exactly worked out that way.
Nitish, who was to sit next to deputy CM, asked for a change of seat.

Patna: In a clear sign of a deepening rift in the ruling coalition in Bihar, Lalu Yadavs son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav skipped an event where he was to share a dais with chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The organisers of the event removed his nameplate before the chief minister arrived at the spot. Nitish Kumar was to sit beside Tejashwi and another RJD minister. However, he had asked for a change of seat.

Sources said the political situation was likely to aggravate as the deadline set by the JD(U) for Tejashwi Yadav to furnish a public explanation of the corruption charges against him expired on Saturday. JD(U) had hinted that Mr Kumar wanted Mr Yadav to quit the government if he failed to prove his innocence.

After returning from Ranchi on Friday, RJD chief Lalu Yadav had clarified that his son would not resign from the post of deputy chief minister.

Lalu Yadav had said, Tejashwi was elected by the people and an FIR is not enough reason for resignation. He will not quit under any circumstances.

Mr Kumar seems to have toughened his stand after Mr Yadavs statement on Friday. The JD(U) is expected to discuss the issue during a legislative party meet in Patna on Sunday.

Tejashwi Yadav, too, has repeatedly said that cases against him and his family were a well-planned conspiracy by the BJP to damage Lalu Yadavs campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sources, however, said that discussions were being initiated to find a middle path to end the ongoing political turmoil in Bihar and also, to save the grand secular alliance government.

Mr Yadav has said that his party would not leave the Mahagathbandhan in the state. Observers said that the turmoil between RJD and JD (U) would not only lead to a political crisis but might also affect the unity of Opposition parties at the national level against the BJP.

This is a strange situation Nitish Kumar is facing in his long political career, where his hands seem to be tied and he is unable to take a decision.

When he had formed a government in alliance with the BJP in Bihar he had taken no time in seeking resignation from ministers after their names had surfaced in various cases.

This time, so far he has failed to show a firm grip on the administration and his alliance partners. That could be because his party is numerically weaker to the RJD and from the beginning, the chief minister has been under pressure from Lalu Yadav.

Since RJD is the largest party with 80 seats and Lalu Yadav is a bigger leader, so whatever decision he takes will be final, senior RJD leader Bhai Virendra had said.

The BJP which has 53 seats in Bihar Assembly also looks eager to form the government. Earlier, BJP state president Nityanand Rai had said, Discussions with the parliamentary board can be initiated, in case the RJD and the Congress broke the alliance in Bihar.

On Saturday, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Prem Kumar said, The central leadership of the party has been keeping a close watch on the developments and their decisions on the issue will be final.
What effect it may or may not have on a subsequent election is not what has to be taken into account, it added.

Bhopal: In a significant development, the Delhi high court on Friday rejected Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishras plea challenging his disqualification by the Election Commission in a paid news case and that he should be allowed to vote in the presidential poll.

The petition is without any merit. Dismissed, it said. The court said that as per the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, disqualification of a candidate has to be from the date of the order.

What effect it may or may not have on a subsequent election is not what has to be taken into account, it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court directed the Delhi high court to take up the matter for hearing and dispose of the case before July 17, following a petition by Mr Mishra in the apex court pleading to decide the issue as early as possible to give him the opportunity to participate in the presidential elections.

The Delhi high court has rejected my petition seeking stay on the EC order. I fear I may not be able to participate in the July 17 presidential elections following the development. However, I am exploring legal options to challenge the Delhi high courts order in the two-bench court of Delhi high court. I may also move the Supreme Court seeking justice, Mr Mishra said.
Munakata Taisha, shrine which owns Okinoshima, has decided to ban travel for anyone apart from priests from next year to protect island.

Tiny landmass of Okinoshima, where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site last week (Photo: AFP)

Tokyo: Visitors will not be allowed to set foot on a men-only UNESCO World Heritage island in Japan from next year, an official said on Saturday.

The tiny landmass of Okinoshima, where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site last week.

Limited numbers are currently permitted to land on the island in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) -- this year it was 200 -- for a yearly festival that lasts just two hours, but they must adhere to strict rules.

But Munakata Taisha, the shrine which owns Okinoshima, has decided to ban travel for anyone apart from priests from next year to protect the island from being damaged, a spokesman told AFP.

"A strict preservation is required now that the island has got the UNESCO listing," he said. "It will be risky if 200 visitors continue to come to the island," he said, adding that Okinoshima is "the island protected by Shinto priests".

The island is permanently manned by a Shinto priest who prays to the island's goddess, in a tradition that has been kept up for centuries.

However, academics will be allowed to land on the island for research and preservation purposes, he added.

The island, which sits off the northwest coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, was an important window for foreign trade in Japan since ancient times, forming part of a route that linked the archipelago to the Korean peninsula and China.
Her body was found at her home on Saturday, with a slit throat and multiple stab wounds on her stomach, police said.

New Delhi: A 52-year-old woman was brutally killed allegedly by some unidentified persons in east Delhi's Shakarpur area, police said on Saturday.

Her body was found at her home on Saturday, with a slit throat and multiple stab wounds on her stomach, they said.

The woman, Sangeeta Bansal, lived in a flat on the first floor of a house in Lalita Park area of Shakkarpur locality.

Her body was discovered by her sister-in-law who came to check on her this morning, the police said.

Bansal's husband had passed away in 2016 and her two daughters are married and stay in Delhi and Bhopal, respectively.

Her husband was a financier and police suspect that she might have been killed by someone who owed money to her husband. The police suspects it to be a case of personal enmity.

The police said they have identified the killer and efforts are on to nab him.

They also said that the killing appears to be a case of personal enmity.

Bansal worked as a caretaker at a paying guest accommodation. Since there was no signs of forced entry and the house had not been ransacked, the police suspect that the accused was known to her. She had also bought some snacks from a nearby shop to serve some guests.

Police have also procured CCTV footages from nearby spots and are scanning her cell phone records to for clues.
The surgery is feasible only on 25 per cent of the survivors.

The twins - Jagannath and Balram  from Kandhamal district in Odisha, were taken to AIIMS after they were brought here from Bhubaneshwar on Friday afternoon.

New Delhi: Doctors at AIIMS are examining two-year-old twins joined at the head, and will assess whether surgery can be performed to separate them.

The twins - Jagannath and Balram  from Kandhamal district in Odisha, were taken to AIIMS after they were brought here from Bhubaneshwar on Friday afternoon.

They are accompanied by their parents and assistant manager of the National Adolescent Health Programme, Soumya Samantray. Dr A. K. Mahapatra, chief of neuro sciences centre at AIIMS said the twins will be undergoing a series of tests such as MRI, CT scan, and angiogram, to see to what extent the veins in their brains are fused and whether surgery is feasible.

They are craniopagus twins, that is who are connected at the head. This is a rare condition. It is very difficult at this stage to say if surgery is feasible to separate them. They will undergo several tests in the next 10-12 days, Dr Mahapatra said.

Deepak Gupta, professor of neurosurgery, said that the conjoined twins are suffering from a rare condition which afflicts one in 30 lakh children, of which 50 per cent die either at birth or within 24 hours. Surgery is feasible only on 25 per cent of the survivors while the rest continue to live with the condition.

Also, there is less than a 20 per cent chance of survival among those who undergo this surgery. Such type of operations are extremely challenging and doctors from plastic surgery, paediatric surgery, anaesthetists and radiologists, among others, will be involved, Dr Gupta said.

Jagannath and Balrams parents, who are poor farmers, expressed the hope that doctors would perform the surgery and separate their sons.

We have come all the way from Odisha with a hope that the lives of our children will be transformed after the surgery. The rest is up to god, we human beings can only hope for the best, their mother said. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, who came to know about the twins travelling on the Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani to Delhi, had ensured medical facilities for them on board during the journey. The railway minister also arranged transport to bring the twins to AIIMS from Odisha.
The South district police filed an FIR on Tuesday at Safdarjung Enclave police station under relevant Sections of IPC and Arms Act.

The accused, Himmat Sher Singh, claims inheritance of the royal possession as the reason for storing these many cartridges and guns. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Delhi police has booked a member of an erstwhile royal family after heavy quantity of arms and ammunition from the World War II era was seized from his house in Safdarjung Enclave.

The South district police filed an FIR on Tuesday at Safdarjung Enclave police station under relevant Sections of IPC and Arms Act.

The accused, Himmat Sher Singh, claims inheritance of the royal possession as the reason for storing these many cartridges and guns. All of the weapons and cartridges belong to his grandfather, Raja Ravi Sher Singh, Sardar Sahib of Kalsia, who died in 1946. He had a number of guns and did not need a license as the ruler of Kalsia. After his death, his son Karan Sher Singh, an Ashok Chakra winner Indian Air Force officer who died in a plane crash in 1961, possessed all of the ammunitions. He too did not need license as a ruler of Kalsia.

Mr Singh failed to provide the necessary documents and such a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions could endanger the safety of others. He never took any permission and neither informed the police about the ammunitions at his house, said a senior police official.

Some of these weapons and ammunitions were manufactured in the 19th century and even predates the Second World War. The seizure includes as many as four guns and 736 cartridges, many of them live ones, of different makes and meant to be used in different firearms. There are at least 17 kinds of cartridges and among those, 160 are too old or rusted to be identifiede.

Interestingly, the matter surfaced when Mr Singh informed the police about a burglary at his house in Safdurjung Enclave on July 11.
The workers had complained of attack and threats to them from a Union, which is protesting.

New Delhi: In the wake of attacks on several anganwadi centers in the last few days, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday met a number of Anganwadi workers on Saturday at his residence and assured of all possible help.

Security of all of you is our responsibility. I will talk to the honble LG and will also meet him to apprise of the situation. I will ask him to direct the Delhi police to do the needful, said the chief minister.

The workers had complained of attack and threats to them from a Union, which is protesting. They said that the protesting union was upset with them as they were working, while the union wants them to stop their work.

The workers also demanded for a salary hike to which the chief minister replied in affirmative. Wait for a week or so, you are going to get a salary hike and that too a handsome percentage hike. We are here for you and will take care of everything, he said.

On the complaint of the quality of food at the centres, the chief minister said that the quality will be changed and it will be done in consultation with the Aanganwadi workers.

Some Aanganwadi workers complained of the poor facilities at their centres.

We have started our model Aanganwadi centre, the first one is in Pitampura where there are four centres and all of them are better than the private creches. We will come up with similar centres in the times to come all over Delhi. We together have to make centres so good that people start sending their kids to our centres rather than a private creche, he added.

He cited the example of Delhi government schools and the quality of education being imparted at these schools. Mr Kejriwal said that the centres would be equipped with modern facilities and best equipment. The CM also said that none of the staff will lose job because of any mergers of centres, an apprehension that has been expressed by the protesters. There are around 11,000 anganwadi centres in Delhi, where workers and helpers collectively number around 22,000. Workers are paid `5,000 while helpers earn around Rs 2,500 per month
Bihar's deputy chief minister was recently charged of corruption by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.

Amid reports of an apparent rift between the parties, Tyagi called the alliance their baby and said nothing will be done to harm it. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Janata Dal (United) on Saturday, said that party leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not asked Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav to resign.

The JD-U, however, demanded that Tejaswi should come out 'clean'.

Tejaswi was recently charged of corruption by the Central Bureau of India and the Enforcement directorate.

Bihar's ruling coalition partner's assertion came after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav dismissed the resignation of his son Tejashwi Yadav.

"Nitish Kumar is a person of high moral values. Whatever he has had to say has been said during the Vidhan Mandal meeting earlier. Nitishji did not demand resignation. However, to continue to uphold the principles of the party, it is necessary that the concerned minister comes out clean," JD (U) leader KC Tyagi told ANI here.

In response to Lalu's earlier remark of an FIR being insufficient to resign, Tyagi said an FIR is lodged only on the basis of thorough preliminary investigation.

He further urged the necessity to bring the truth to the forefront.

Amid reports of an apparent rift between the parties, Tyagi called the alliance their baby and said nothing will be done to harm it.

"The JD (U) and Nitish Kumar are the last people who will do anything to tamper with the mahagathbandhan. It is our baby, which was initiated by Nitish Kumar. There is no question at all of ending it," he said.

Speaking exclusively to ANI, Lalu had earlier stated that the grand alliance in Bihar is an unbreakable bond, adding that the RJD will not let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) break the alliance between the JD (U), Congress and the RJD.

However there have speculations of a split in the coalition after after the JD (U) urged Tejashwi Yadav to come out clean on the corruption charges imposed by the CBI and the ED and asked Lalu to declare his assets and reveal the source of income.

Earlier last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P.K. Goyal; and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejaswi.

However, Lalu on Friday said that his son Tejaswi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

"The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejaswi Yadav will not resign," Lalu told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

"An FIR is not sufficient reason for the resignation," he added.

This assertion from the RJD chief thus brought an end to speculations that Tejaswi Yadav might step down from the post to save the ruling alliance.
Mr Shah said that 19 departments and 10 prakalps have been formed through which the organisation will function now.

New Delhi: On the concluding day of the two day pravas in the national capital, BJP president Amit Shah said that party workers should not work as election machines for the country but rather work for the national mission of cultural nationalism and Antyodaya.

Mr Shah said that 19 departments and 10 prakalps have been formed through which the organisation will function now.

Addressing the office bearers of the newly formed departments and prakalps, Mr Shah stressed upon the importance of the responsibilities given to them. The responsibilities given to you are not an opportunity of self propagation but a challenge to serve the people. Departments and prakalps will on the one hand serve as a medium to run the organisation in a smooth manner and on the other it will help the people to get the benefits of the policies of the government, said Mr Shah. Mr Shah explained that keeping in view with the principles of cultural nationalism and Antyodaya the change made in the organisational functioning is the resolve of the party. With this change the party should become an organisation of 11 crore workers whose objective should be filled with socio-cultural and Indian nationalism, Mr Shah added. BJP national general secretary Mr Ramlal asked the department heads to work for the government schemes.
Mr Shinde also said his party leadership never opposed the Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway project.

Mumbai: Amid growing farmer protests, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has assured that fertile land will not be used for the Samruddhi Expressway project and that project affected people (PAP) will be given adequate compensation.

Sena wants development but not at the cost of farmers. There are two areas of concern for farmers  they will have to abandon their fertile land and compensation should be good. We have been engaging in a dialogue with farmers and will see that development does not occur with farmers getting ruined, he said.

Pointing to PWD minister (public undertaking) Eknath Shinde taking the initiative for the project, Mr Thackeray said that this was perhaps the first time any minister had hit the ground to discuss with farmers their problems. I want farmers to bring to our notice if they are being forced to part with their fertile lands or have not been given adequate compensation. We will ensure that their demands are met, he said.

The Sena chief also denied that his party was divided over the project with reports that Mr Shinde was approaching farmers and negotiating with them to sell their land to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the project.

He said, There have been false reports that Mr Shinde is acquiring the lands of farmers against my wishes. I have instructed him to visit project affected villages, meet farmers and understand their grievances and hand over their lands for the corridor only if they are satisfied with every aspect of the states decision.

Mr Shinde also said his party leadership never opposed the Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway project. The Sena leadership was never against Samru-ddhi Mahamarg. We only wanted to protect farmersinterests and hence, I visited Nagpur for witnessing the signing of land sale deeds. It's a development project and we will not oppose it if issues raised by land owners are addressed, he said.
It is true that there can be no foolproof shield against a committed terrorist.

On July 10, 2017, terrorists attacked a bus carrying pilgrims who were part of the annual Amarnath yatra. Such an attack on pilgrims, which claimed the lives of seven Hindu pilgrims of which six were women, took place after a decade and a half. It was a barbaric and inhuman attack, with the specific aim of creating communal tension and worsening the already tense situation in the Valley. All political parties emphatically condemned the attack, as did ordinary Kashmiris irrespective of whether they were Hindus or Muslims.

The terrorists who perpetrate such dastardly crimes know that the Amarnath shrine is a symbol of Kashmiriyat, where Muslims and Hindus have a common stake in the preservation of a religious tradition that has been nurtured by both communities. Although the shrine has very ancient origins, it is well-known that a Muslim shepherd, Buta Malik, rediscovered the Amarnath cave some 150 years ago, and even today his family receives some part of the alms offered by pilgrims. The Hindu devotees who flock in lakhs for the annual pilgrimage provide income to Muslims in the tourist industry in J&K. The entire event binds residents of the Valley in a shared project, and is a symbol of the composite culture that underlines this troubled region.

It is true that there can be no foolproof shield against a committed terrorist. This is particularly so in Kashmir where jihadis trained, funded and equipped by Pakistan are sent across the border and have misguided or brainwashed supporters among the local populace. It is precisely for this reason that elaborate security arrangements on a massive scale are made for the yatris every year. Terrorist attacks during the 48-day July-August annual Hindu pilgrimage have occurred in the past. In August 2000, pro-Pakistan Islamic terrorists from the Hizbul Mujahideen massacred 21 unarmed Hindu pilgrims, seven Muslim shopkeepers and three security force officers. In July 2001, terrorists threw two grenade bombs and fired indiscriminately on a pilgrim shelter killing 13 and injuring many more. In August 2002, terrorist from al-Mansuriya, a front group of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, massacred nine pilgrims and injured 30 (including several Muslims) near the Nunwan pilgrimage base camp.

It is no mean achievement that for the last 15 years our security forces managed to foil or prevent terrorist attacks during the yatra, in which the number of pilgrims are measured in lakhs, and they trek unarmed through territory vulnerable to ambush and attack. And yet, if such an attack did recur, is it wrong to ask whether the attack was preventable? Was there any element of negligence or lack of planning and anticipation, or improper intelligence appraisal that enabled terrorists to strike again? For instance, there are reports that an intelligence alert about the possibility of such an attack was issued by the SSP of Anantnag in the last week of June. Was this intelligence ignored, or was the intelligence alert itself worded in much too generalised a way, so as to make concrete follow-up difficult?

To ask such questions is a perfectly legitimate exercise in a democracy that is premised on the principle of accountability of those in authority. It is one thing to mindlessly politicise tragedy by blaming reflexively and only for the purposes of short-term political gain, a political opponent. In the aftermath of a tragedy, there is something distasteful in trying to score political brownie points. But is one anti-national if, in the interest of preventing such attacks in the future, one asks for an inquiry into why this attack happened, so that lessons can be learnt and the guilty, if any, can be identified and responsibility be fixed?

I would think not. But it was surprising that many in the BJP, both at the Centre and in the BJP-PDP alliance in the state, took precisely such an approach. Even more surprising was the endorsement provided by several media channels. A hysterical tirade in the name of nationalism was carried out against anyone who had the temerity to ask any questions on whether such an attack could have been prevented. Even those who constructively suggested that an inquiry should be held so that any intelligence failure or administrative lapse could be identified and corrective action taken for the future were dismissed out of hand as anti-national.

Frankly, the attempt to invoke nationalism to cover every act of omission or commission committed by the ruling dispensation has gone much too far. While many in the Opposition seek to play a constructive role and unhesitatingly laud the government on many of its security initiatives, such as the surgical strike against the Pakistani Army along the border (even though the ceasefire violations by Pakistan and terrorist action has shown no sign of abating since then), the BJP, with full support from some sections of the media, has used nationalism as a shield to evade accountability whenever there is a security breach by simplistically but aggressively labelling those who ask any questions as anti-national.

In this particular case, even the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, minced no words in blaming the ineffective BJP-PDP alliance and the BJP government for the failure to stem the continuous terrorist attacks in Kashmir. Is the Shiv Sena then anti-national? And would the BJP, if such an incident would have happened when a non-BJP government was in power at the Centre and in the state, been less than strident in its immediate criticism? Any attempt to counter such criticism would then have been labelled as anti-national! Double standards in politics can go only so far before they are revealed to be what they are.

This being as it may, the real hero in this ugly and tragic episode is Saleem Mirza, the driver of the bus that was attacked. It was his courage and presence of mind that saved the lives of many more pilgrims. When hailed for his act of bravery, he simply said, God gave me strength to save lives of people. In this simple statement lies the reason why India will survive all attempts to break it.
It seems that the ghost of the 1962 India-China war continues to haunt the defence and external affairs ministries.

The BJP appears to be blowing hot and cold as far as its veteran leader L.K. Advani is concerned. Already sidelined after the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo took control of the party three years ago, the BJP-led government then went a step further and gave permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation to frame criminal conspiracy charges against Mr Advani and other party leaders for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But lately, there is talk in the BJP that it is considering the possibility of conferring Mr Advani with the Bharat Ratna. There is a section in the BJP which believes that Mr Advanis contributions to the growth of the party should be recognised. It is pointed out that since the BJP failed to project the senior leader as its prime ministerial candidate in 2014 and then denied him the Presidents post, it is only fair that he is honoured with a Bharat Ratna. Atal Behari Vajpayee, they argue, has also been conferred the countrys highest civilian award. On the other hand, Mr Advanis detractors maintain that it will be difficult to confer the award on him till he is cleared of criminal conspiracy charges by the courts. And that may well prove to be a long haul.

It is difficult to imagine but BJP president Amit Shah and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi could actually have something in common. Both leaders have practised Vipassana meditation. While Mr Gandhi is known to travel to a special meditation centre in Burma to rid himself of tensions, Mr Shah is learnt to have given up after 40 sessions. The BJP chief apparently decided to opt out when he realised that by the time he reached the last stage of the meditation course, he would become more or less indolent.

Mr Shahs Ahmedabad-based guru tried to dissuade him from quitting and wondered if he was afraid to continue. But Mr Shah was very clear that he did not wish to stay and told his guru that if he continued, he would be incapable of doing his work, which is essentially the pursuit of power, the antithesis of what Vipassana teaches. As it happens, it turned out to be the right decision as far as the BJP is concerned given how it has benefited from Mr Shahs organisational skills. There is also a lesson here for Mr Gandhi who can take a leaf from Mr Shahs book and quit Vipassana before indolence sets in. Or maybe it is too late.

It seems that the ghost of the 1962 India-China war continues to haunt the defence and external affairs ministries. That probably explains the Indian establishments contrasting responses to the ongoing standoff with China and to the Pakistan-sponsored terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley. While mediapersons are routinely invited for briefings by officials in both ministries for a dose of Pakistan-bashing, they have maintained a studied silence on China. There is a total clampdown in the defence ministry with officials stating that all queries should be directed to the external affairs ministry. Defence minister Arun Jaitley did remark initially that the India of 2017 was not the same as 1962, but nothing more has been heard on this issue from him after Beijing hit back to say that China of 2017 was also different from the China of 1962. By and large, China is being treated with kid gloves by the external affairs ministry, which has, so far, made only two brief and measured statements on the standoff in the Sikkim sector. But it is open season as far as Islamabad is concerned as television news channels are encouraged to literally wage war against Pakistan in their studios. And many of them are happy to oblige.

After lying low for over a year, textile minister Smriti Irani is centrestage once again after she managed to ensure the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior Union ministers at the inaugural of the three-day conference Textile India 2017 in Gandhinagar last week. Attended by over 25,000 international buyers and thousands of domestic exporters and fashion designers, the mega trade event was meant to showcase the rich variety of Indian textiles and create a global market for local handicrafts. All very laudable but most participants, who paid a hefty sum of money to attend the conference, came back complaining about how poorly the event had been organised. Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the venue as computers and microphones did not function properly, the canteen was littered with brooms and toilets with broken sinks were a filthy sight. The visitors were particularly taken aback at the mismanagement as they had expected far better arrangements in Mr Modis home state, which is often held up for its superior infrastructure. Clearly, the Prime Ministers flagship schemes like Swachh Bharat and Digital India have a long way to go.
Jio has repeatedly denied any breach took place and said that names, telephone numbers and email addresses of Jio users.

Fears Indian telecom upstart Reliance Jio suffered a major data breach, compromising the personal data of over 100 million customers, have prompted calls for India to adopt more robust laws to protect consumers.

Jio has repeatedly denied any breach took place and said that names, telephone numbers and email addresses of Jio users on a website called "Magicapk" appeared to be "unauthentic." The website was later shut down.

The company, part of conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, said on Monday that its subscriber data was safe and protected by the highest levels of security.

However, Jio filed a complaint the same day alleging unlawful access to its systems, police have told Reuters.

Jio did not respond to requests for comment.

In contrast to companies in the European Union, which has stringent data protection standards, companies in India do not have to disclose data breaches to clients, information security professionals said.

"It raises questions of security and accountability," said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a research organization.

People complained on Twitter about personal information of Jio users being available on the Magicapk site. Several local news outlets said their checks had led them to believe a leak had occurred.

"A rule to report breaches exists, but it is unenforceable," says Prakash. "It says you're not liable if you're following reasonable security practices. What 'reasonable' means is not defined."

Advocates of stronger laws in India say a data breach in countries with more stringent cyber laws, such as Britain or the United States, would prompt an inquiry by regulators.

After reports of a data leak at Verizon earlier this week, for example, the U.S. telecoms firm quickly responded with an explanation of what had occurred, how it had happened and the extent of the problem.

"India is at a nascent stage. For good norms in Asia, look to Singapore. It's been praised for not having cyber security issues by the UN," Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher, said.

Not a Priority

"We don't have full-menu data protection laws," said Apar Gupta, a Supreme Court lawyer working on data privacy issues. "We don't even have an institutional framework or expert body to implement the limited data protection regulations that do exist. It's so limited it's more accurate to say no law exists."

In May alone, there were two data security incidents in India.

The records of 17 million customers of Zomato, a popular food-delivery app, were put on sale online. Zomato initially advised customers that their passwords were secure, but later advised users to change them.

Separately, a CIS report said the Aadhaar numbers of as many as 135 million Indians had leaked from government databases and could be found online.

The number, similar to a US social security number, is unique to each Indian citizen and the Aadhaar database also stores a user's biometric data. The government is pushing for Aadhaar numbers to be used in everything from opening bank accounts to filing tax returns.

For India, data privacy is not a priority, said Amry Junaideen, a risk advisor at audit firm Deloitte.

"From an organizational perspective there's really no incentive other than being a good corporate citizen, to report a breach," he said, noting that in the European Union and United States the regulatory framework is basically for the good of the consumer, but that this is not the case in India.

India, home to the back offices of many large multinationals and outsourcing companies, has also unsuccessfully sought "data-secure" status from the European Union since 2012.

The status is vital for information sharing between entities in the EU and India, because it means the EU is satisfied that data protection rules in a country meet its standards, so data of EU citizens can be sent to that jurisdiction.

Raman Chima, policy director at Access Now, which advocates stronger digital rights, says weak data privacy laws are likely the main stumbling block to "data-secure" status.

In 2010, a European Union study of data protection in India noted there were "no aspects of India's data protection which would unequivocally be regarded as 'adequate' by European Union standards as yet".
Rinat Akhmetshin, denies current ties to Russian spy agencies and says meeting involving Trump campaign members was not substantive.

Washington: The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting at Trump Tower last year is a former military officer who has attracted congressional scrutiny over his political activities and has been shadowed by allegations of connections to Russian intelligence that he denies.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation in the meeting to The Associated Press on Friday, providing new details of a June 2016 sit-down that included a Russian lawyer and President Donald Trump's oldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman.

His attendance at the meeting and his lobbying background created a new wrinkle to a story that has hounded the White House for days and added to questions about potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Akhmetshin is well-known in Washington for his advocacy efforts. He's been outspoken in recent years about a US law levying sanctions on Russians and has worked to undermine the public narrative used to justify the bill. And his name has also surfaced in multiple American lawsuits, including one involving the hacking of a company's computer systems.

Emails released this week by Donald Trump Jr. show the president's son agreed to the Trump Tower meeting with the idea that he would receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton from someone described to him as a "Russian government attorney." Akhmetshin began working with that attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in 2015, after a public relations person he declined to name introduced them.

The Russian government has denied any involvement or knowledge of the meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: "We don't know anything about this person."

In an interview, Akhmetshin denied suggestions made in media reports, congressional letters and litigation that he is a former officer in Russia's military intelligence service known as the GRU, dismissing the allegations as a "smear campaign."

He told the AP that he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft. He said his unit operated in the Baltics and was "loosely part of counterintelligence."

Akhmetshin, a naturalized American citizen who has lived in Washington since the early 1990s, and Veselnitskaya are known for lobbying efforts involving the Magnitsky Act, a brace of economic sanctions targeting Russian officials and individuals

The act passed by Congress was named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009 after accusing Russian government officials and takeover raiders of a $230 million tax fraud scheme in the seizure of an investment firm.

The original Magnitsky Act leveled US financial sanctions on 18 Russian officials and individuals suspected of complicity in Magnitsky's prosecution, imprisonment and death.

A Global Magnitsky Act that passed in December 2016 gives the president power to impose visa bans and freeze US assets of anyone who suppresses basic human rights or targets whistleblowers exposing corruption.

Early in 2016, Akhmetshin said, he helped set up a non-profit foundation based in Delaware to lobby US officials in an effort to strip Magnitsky's name from the law, though he maintains that he was not attempting to undercut it.

As an adjunct to the foundation's lobbying, Veselnitskaya also organized and attended a screening of an anti-Magnitsky documentary film that played at the Newseum in Washington four days after she met with Trump Jr. in New York. Akhmetshin acknowledged he was also involved in promoting the film.

Several wealthy Russian oligarchs agreed to provide financial backing for the foundation's lobbying, Akhmetshin said, providing at least $300,000.

Among them, he said, was Dennis Katsyv, the owner of a real estate investment firm who was battling against a Justice Department lawsuit at the time connected to the seized investment firm.

The federal government this year settled with Katsyv's firm, allowing the company to pay a $6 million fine without admitting guilt. Congressional lobbying documents show that the foundation Akhmentshin helped set up spent $290,000 last year on lobbying. At least $10,000, the records indicate, was paid directly to Akhmetshim as a lobbyist.

Akhmetshin's name has also surfaced in lawsuits, including a New York court case in which a mining company branded him a "former Soviet military counterintelligence officer" and accused him of involvement in the hacking of its computer systems.

Those claims were withdrawn last year, court records show. In a separate case, he described his business as "strategic communications" with clients including national governments and high-ranking officials of those governments. Disclosure of his communications, he said, could put lives at risk.

Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by the special counsel's office or the FBI about the meeting with Trump Jr. He said he's willing to talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman has pressed the Justice Department about why Akhmetshin has not registered as a foreign agent.

The chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said in a March letter that Akhmetshin has "reportedly admitted to being a 'Soviet counterintelligence officer' and has a long history of lobbying the US government for pro-Russia matters."

Akhmetshin said the Justice Department prodded him several months ago to register as a foreign agent because of his lobbying work, though he said he doesn't believe he needs to do so. He has previously registered with Congress for the lobbying, and he plans to raise this issue before Grassley's committee. "I think I have a legal right to tell my story," he said.
Trudeau said he doesn't think it's appropriate for one country to lecture another on how it should govern itself.

Providence: Vice President Mike Pence told a bipartisan gathering of governors on Friday that he and President Donald Trump believe the revised health care bill before the US Senate is the "right bill at the right time to begin the end of Obamacare."

"The president said he wanted a health care system that in his words is far less expensive and far better," the Republican vice president said during a conference of the National Governors Association. "We believe the Senate health care bill begins to make the president's vision a reality."

Pence urged governors to support the plan, which was written by Republicans and would make major changes to the signature domestic policy of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

"I want to challenge each one of you to work together with this administration, to give the American people access to the world-class health care they deserve," he said.

But several governors, Democratic and Republican, expressed concern about the bill and even outright opposition. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said Republicans in Congress are "still trying to put lipstick on a pig. But guess what: It's still a pig."

Major cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, the disabled and nursing home residents, is a key sticking point for many governors, especially those in states that expanded it under Obama's health care law.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed Pence in addressing the governors from about 30 states. Trudeau, when asked about the debate over health care in the US compared to Canada's national health care system, said he doesn't think it's appropriate for one country to lecture another on how it should govern itself.

He focused his speech on the fundamental importance of the relationship between the US and Canada and how he'd like to see "a thinner border for trade, not a thicker one." He told the governors that barriers to trade between the countries kill growth and don't help working families.

Trudeau said the North American Free Trade Agreement should be modernized," as it has been in the past, and he's confident its renegotiation will be done to the benefit of all countries.

Pence also spoke about modernizing NAFTA so it's a "win, win, win" for all the trading partners. Pence and Trudeau met to talk about trade on the sidelines of the meeting.

Pence, after his address, met with several governors, including Republicans Brian Sandoval, of Nevada, and Asa Hutchinson, of Arkansas.

Sandoval had characterized his reaction to the latest Republican health care bill as one of "great concern" immediately after it was released Thursday.

Hutchinson was more receptive, but both said they worried about Congress shifting costs to the states to maintain the same level of Medicaid coverage they have committed to.

Nevada and Arkansas are among the 31 states that expanded Medicaid under the Obama-era law, adding coverage for roughly 11 million Americans.

Sandoval said Pence had some very positive things to say about the effort to make the bill better. He praised funding that was added to help states confront the opioid epidemic but said he remains concerned about making sure the 210,000 Nevada residents who gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion don't lose that coverage.

Meanwhile, several Democratic governors met Friday to publicly criticize the revised health care bill and talk about how unwinding the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act would hurt their states.

Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said she planned to voice strong opposition to Pence. "There's a high degree of anxiety," she said. "Even Republican governors will say that they're worried, especially the ones that have taken the Medicaid expansion."

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell plans to keep in place Medicaid cuts that Republican governors and Senate moderates have objected to. No Democrats support the plan.

The latest changes are geared toward increasing access to bare-bones private insurance. There's also an additional $45 billion to help states confronting the opioid epidemic.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, called that funding a "fig leaf." Many of the "flimsy" policies that will be allowed under the legislation wouldn't cover substance abuse treatment, he said.

A governors-only session on Saturday will give them a chance to ask questions of US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.
All the 3 legislative amendments to the USD 651 billion NDAA 2018 were adopted by a voice vote by the lower house of the Congress on Friday.

Washington: The US House of Representatives has voted for three legislative amendments to impose tougher conditions for reimbursement of defence funding to Pakistan, making it conditional to Islamabad showing satisfactory progress in the fight against terrorism.

The conditions are related to Pakistan's support to terrorists and terror outfits, about which several top US officials and lawmakers have repeatedly expressed concern about in the past.

All the three legislative amendments to the USD 651 billion National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018 were adopted by a voice vote by the lower house of the Congress on Friday.

NDAA-2018, which authorises the annual defence expenses for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2017 was adopted by the House 344-81.

The bill, as passed by the House requires the Secretary of Defence to certify, prior to making any reimbursement to Pakistan, that Islamabad is maintaining security along the Ground Lines of Communication through Pakistan, taking demonstrable steps to support counterterrorism operations, disrupting cross border attacks, and countering the threat of improvised explosive devices.

It also specifies that of the total amount of reimbursement and support authorised for Pakistan during the period beginning on October 1, 2017, and ending on December 31, 2018 USD 400 million would not be eligible for a national security waiver unless the Secretary of Defence certifies that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations against the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan.

The Defence Secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan is demonstrating commitment to preventing the Haqqani network from using North Waziristan as a safe haven, and is actively coordinating with the Government of Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, including the Haqqani Network, along the Pak-Afghan border.

Two of these amendments were moved by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and one by Ted Poe. "Today, Congress took a step forward to end Pakistan's betrayal of the US with the addition of an additional certification requirement," said Poe, a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation & Trade.

One of Poe's amendment, as passed by the House proposes to withhold reimbursement funding for Pakistan unless the Secretary of Defence can certify that Pakistan is not providing military, financial, or logistical support to any individuals designated by the US as a terrorist operating in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

NDAA, as passed by the House, now requires that the Pentagon assess Pakistan's support for known terrorists before handing over US dollars to Islamabad, Poe said.

"Making excess military equipment available to federal, state, and law enforcement agencies along our southern border will provide much-needed? support and reinforcements to the men and women who are our first line of defence," he said.

"It is well known that Pakistan is a Benedict Arnold ally who supports multiple terrorist organisations, including groups that target Americans working to stabilise Afghanistan.

"But current limitations on military reimbursement funding to Pakistan only apply to one terrorist group: the Haqqani Network," Poe said in a statement.

The legislative amendment moved by Rohrabacher adds a stipulation requiring that, prior to the disbursement of certain funds, the Secretary of Defence certify to Congress that Pakistan is not using its military or any funds or equipment provided by the US to persecute minority groups seeking political or religious freedom.

Another Rohrabacher amendment expresses a sense of Congress that Shakil Afridi is an international hero and that the Government of Pakistan should release him immediately from prison.

"Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician, is a hero to whom the people of the United States, Pakistan and the world owe a debt of gratitude for his help in finally locating Osama bin Laden before 10 more innocent American, Pakistani and other lives were lost to this terrorist leader," the amendment said.

Pakistan's imprisonment of Afridi presents a serious and growing impediment to the United States' bilateral relations with Pakistan, said the amendment as passed by the House of Representatives.
Liu died from multiple organ failure on Thursday, having not been allowed to leave the country for cancer treatment.

China says the body of Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer, has been cremated. The government of the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, where Liu was treated, said in a briefing that the cremation took place Saturday morning in a ceremony attended by family and friends. (Photo: AP)

Shenyang (China): China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished.

The government of the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, where Liu had been treated for advanced liver cancer, said in a briefing that the cremation took place Saturday morning in a ceremony attended by family and friends.

The wife and other family members of China's best-known political prisoner have been closely guarded by Chinese authorities and largely out of contact with the outside world.

Liu died Thursday from multiple organ failure that followed a battle with liver cancer while serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power. He was 61.

Foreign governments and Liu's supporters had urged China to release Liu and his wife to allow them to seek treatment abroad but Beijing dismissed those requests.

Tributes have rolled in from around the world to mourn Liu, but there is little mention of him in China's heavily-censored state media and social networking platforms.

One notable exception was a report by a newspaper published by the ruling Communist Party, which on Friday dismissed Liu as a pawn of the West whose legacy will soon fade.

The newspaper's editorial marked a rare mention of Liu in the Chinese-language media, possibly indicating a desire to guide popular opinion amid widespread reporting of his death overseas s and on social media platforms such as Twitter that are blocked in China.

Liu lived a "tragic life" because he sought to confront Chinese mainstream society with outside support, The Global Times said in its editorial headlined "Liu Xiaobo a victim led astray by West."

"Liu's last days were politicized by the forces overseas. They used Liu's illness as a tool to boost their image and demonize China," the paper said. "The West has bestowed upon Liu a halo, which will not linger," it said. "By granting him the Nobel Prize, the West has 'kidnapped' Liu. However, the West only puts a halo on those useful to them."

While Liu did have considerable renown abroad - official censorship made him virtually a non-person at home - the party frequently uses the specter of Western manipulation to demonize its critics.

"Liu lived in an era when China witnessed the most rapid growth in recent history, but he attempted to confront Chinese mainstream society under Western support. This has determined his tragic life," the paper continued. "If he could live longer, he would never have achieved political goals that are in opposition to the path of history."

President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were among Western leaders offering praise for Liu. Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer called Liu a "poet, scholar, and courageous advocate," who "dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty."

They also urged China to free Liu's wife, the artist and poet Liu Xia, from the strict house arrest she has lived under for years even though she has not been convicted of any crime.

Responding to such calls early Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang chastised foreign officials for "making improper comments on Liu Xiaobo's death of illness."

"China is a country under the rule of law. The handling of Liu Xiaobo' s case belongs to China's internal affairs, and foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks," Geng said.

Geng's comments were issued by the ministry's official social media account. But the statement did not appear on its website, where transcripts of daily news briefings have been scrubbed clean of all mentions of Liu.

Liu rose to prominence during the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and became one of hundreds of Chinese imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations after they were crushed by the military. It was the first of four imprisonments. His last was for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document circulated in 2008 that called for an end to one-party rule.

He was in prison when he was awarded the Nobel in 2010 by a committee that lauded Liu's "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

The government condemned the award as an insult to its political and legal systems and put Liu's wife under house arrest even though she has never been charged with any crimes.

Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics.

The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.
Russia would also move to deny US diplomats use of a dacha compound and a warehouse in Moscow,Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Moscow: Russia said on Friday that too many American spies operated in Moscow under diplomatic cover and said it might expel some of them to retaliate against the United States over Washington's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year.

The warning, delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, reflects rising frustration in Moscow over the Trump administration's refusal to hand back two Russian diplomatic compounds which were seized at the same time as some of Russia's diplomats were sent home last year.

Barack Obama, US president at the time, ordered the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies in December, along with the seizure of the two diplomatic compounds, over what he said was the hacking of US political groups during the 2016 presidential election, something Russia has flatly denied.

President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate immediately at the time, saying he would wait to see what the new administration of Donald Trump would do.

Zakharova complained on Friday that US officials were not issuing visas to Russian diplomats to allow Moscow to replace the expelled employees and get its embassy back up to full strength.

"We have a way of responding," she told a news briefing. "The number of staff at the US embassy in Moscow exceeds the number of our embassy employees in Washington by a big margin. One of our options, apart from a tit-for-tat expulsion of Americans, would be to even out the numbers."

If there was no movement in the US-Russia dispute soon, she said Moscow would have to reluctantly retaliate and suggested US spies working in Russia would be among those to be expelled.

"There are too many employees of the CIA and the Pentagon's espionage unit working under the roof of the American diplomatic mission whose activity does not correspond at all with their status," said Zakharova.

'Time Running Out'

Russia would also move to deny US diplomats use of a dacha compound and a warehouse in Moscow, she made clear.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not yet taken any decision on retaliation. He said Russia rejected the idea of linking the dispute to other issues.

Peskov was responding to comments made to CNN by Sebastian Gorka, a Trump adviser, which appeared to link the compounds' return to Russia's behavior in Syria. Zakharova said time for Washington to act "was running out."

"We don't want to resort to extreme measures. (But) if it's the only way to make our American partners understand we will have to act."

Asked when Moscow might retaliate, she suggested a lot would depend on the outcome of a meeting in Washington on Monday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

Russia expected US officials to use the meeting to set out "detailed proposals" on the matter, she said.

"There is no precise deadline. Everything depends on the reaction of the U.S. side, its concrete actions, and on the results of the consultations which will now take place in Washington."
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates say the counterterrorism agreement does not go far enough to end the dispute.

Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu shakes hands with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, during their meeting in Istanbul. (Photo: AP)

Ankara: Qatar's foreign minister said Friday it would be unfair to describe US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's shuttle diplomacy to find a solution for a major feud in the Persian Gulf as a failure, insisting that the crisis "cannot be solved in a day."

During a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also told reporters in Ankara that Qatar would continue to work with the United States and Kuwait to end the standoff with its four Arab neighbors.

Tillerson concluded his mediation efforts on Thursday, making no promise of an imminent breakthrough but voicing optimism that Qatar and its neighbors might soon be willing to talk face to face.

"There is no criterion or evidence that indicates that (Tillerson's visit) was a failure," al-Thani said. "We cannot expect such a tense crisis to be solved in a day."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose nation has supported Qatar in the dispute, said he believed a solution would be possible "in the mid-term."

The Qatari minister again denied accusations his nation provides support to terror groups, accusing the four Arab states lined up against Doha of failing to provide "single evidence" against the tiny oil-rich nation.

Cavusoglu said that under a recent pact, Qatar agreed with the US to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts, citing this as evidence of Doha's "sincerety" in countering extremist groups.

Qatar vehemently denies allegation of supporting extremist groups, though it has provided aid that helps Islamist groups that others have branded as terrorists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates say the counterterrorism agreement does not go far enough to end the dispute.

The Arab quartet insists that Qatar agree to a 13-point list of demands, including shutting down Qatar's flagship Al-Jazeera network and other news outlets, cutting ties with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limiting Qatar's ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the tiny Gulf country.

The White House said that President Donald Trump spoke on Friday from Air Force One with Saudi King Salman and that the two discussed the recent diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab quartet's dispute with Qatar.

In particular, the statement said, Trump emphasized the need to cut all funding for terrorism and discredit extremist ideology.
Jadhav on June 22 filed a mercy petition before Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Lahore: Pakistan should grant a visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother on humanitarian grounds as it is an opportunity to lower the temperature in the ties and show that humanity can still shine, Pakistan's leading daily said on Saturday.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied India consular access to Jadhav, and his mother's visa application to visit Pakistan to see her son is pending with the authorities for approval.

In an editorial, the Dawn newspaper said the Pakistan government should grant Jadhav's mother a visa on humanitarian grounds to demonstrate "humanity can still shine through".

Read: Consular access, Jadhavs 'fake' passport: Paks defence at ICJ in detail

It said the visa application was the "latest opportunity" for the two countries to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other.

"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which is any case being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice," the paper said, asserting that the meeting would not undermine Pakistan's case against Jadhav.

"Small gestures can have a way of lowering the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures. Pakistan and India are caught in a trough in relations; the request by Jadhav's mother is an opportunity for both sides to show that humanity can still shine," it said.

Read: Pak rejects consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav for 18th time

Jadhav on June 22 filed a mercy petition before Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

He had been sentenced to death by a military court in April for espionage and terrorism. International Court of Justice in May halted his execution on India's appeal.

Pakistan claims to have arrested Jadhav from Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.
The accused was moved to another place after rumours that religious groups intend to attack police station

Soon after arresting the suspect the police shifted him to an undisclosed location. (Photo: Representational/ File)

Lahore: A Christian man has been arrested on the charges of blasphemy in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Soon after arresting the suspect the police shifted him to an undisclosed location on the fear that the area people led by religious groups might attack the police station. The incident took place at Kharian Gujrat, some 200 kms from Lahore, the capital of Punjab.

Nadeem Ahmed, owner of an electric shop in Dinga town, filed a complaint with the police that a friend of his informed him on Thursday that a Christian sweeper allegedly had uttered remarks against the Prophet, according to Superintendent of Police Maaz Zafar.

The sweeper worked at a private hospital. A case against the suspect has been registered. Zafar said the police raided the whereabouts of the sweeper and arrested him. He said the situation in the area is under control and police personnel are patrolling the town.

Blasphemy is very sensitive issue in Pakistan and those accused of it have become an easy target for extremists.
More than 3,300 undocumented workers were detained after Malaysia began cracking down the day after deadline for regularisation. For Cambodian lawmaker Mu Sochua, nothing can be an excuse to further victimise the vulnerable. Malaysia has two million documented foreign workers and another two million who are undocumented. Since the start of the year, more than 30,000 undocumented workers have been sent back to their home countries.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Southeast Asian lawmakers on Wednesday called on Malaysia to treat undocumented workers fairly and respect their human rights. This comes as Kuala Lumpur carries on with an immigration crackdown that has rounded up more than 3,300 foreigners this month, according to government figures.

As of 10 pm 12 July (local time), immigration agents had detained 3,323 workers without proper papers since the crackdown began on 1 July, Malaysias Immigration Department said.

The detainees are mostly from Southeast Asia and South Asia. They include 1,230 Bangladeshis, 825 Indonesians, 273 Myanmar nationals, 119 Vietnamese, 123 Thais and 95 Filipinos, department officials said.

Malaysia launched the crackdown a day after the governments deadline for workers to register with the immigration authorities expired.

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) issued a statement expressing concern over the round-up taking place in Malaysia.

A desire to decrease the number of undocumented workers in the country can never be an excuse to further victimise the vulnerable, said Mu Sochua, an APHR board member and member of the Cambodian National Assembly.

The group describes itself as a collective of regional lawmakers made up of current, former and retired parliamentarians from across the ten-nation ASEAN bloc.

According to the parliamentarians, the government was able to register only 161,000 undocumented migrants through its Foreign Worker Temporary E-Card Program. This was done to give employers an opportunity to regularise the status of the undocumented workers on their pay.

At the same time, 63 employers allegedly involved in hiring undocumented workers have also been arrested, said Mustafar Ali, the director-general of the immigration department. More than 30,000 of such workers have been repatriated since the beginning of this year, he added.

According to NGOs, about two million legally registered migrant workers and at least two million undocumented workers live in Malaysia, which has a population of about 32 million.

Most undocumented immigrants work in construction, palm oil plantations, factories and cleaning services, doing what locals describe as 3D  dangerous, difficult and dirty  jobs.

Malaysia, a federation of 13 states and three federal territories, has experienced a surge in the number of low-income workers mainly from Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh after its economy posted robust growth in the past few years.
The compound will remain closed until tomorrow when an Israeli security cabinet meeting will be held. Two Israeli Druze policemen die. Netanyahu promises no changes to the status quo, but the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif remains at the centre of tensions and violence.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Israel shut down the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) until Sunday following an incident yesterday morning in which three Israeli-Arab attackers and two Israeli Druze police officers died.

Following the attack, Israeli police detained 58 employees of the Waqf (Islamic Charitable Endowment), including janitors, to question them about the incident.

Israeli forces also detained the grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein in the afternoon as he led Friday prayers near the Damascus Gate. Before his arrest, he condemned the closure of the mosque compound. He was released hours later.

The area will remain closed until tomorrow, to be reopened gradually to Muslims following a meeting of Israels security cabinet.

Waqf sources told Haaretz that this is the first time Friday prayers did not take place in the area since 1969.

The decision was met with relative calm from the Palestinians, and no further violence occurred.

In a phone conversation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that no changes would take place. For his part, Abbas condemned the attack.

Israel has maintained a compromise with the Islamic trust that controls the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to not allow non-Muslim prayers in the area.

Nevertheless, the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif remains a sore point between the two parties. Many Palestinians fear that the status quo is being undermined as tensions are fuelled by repeated incursions by Jewish extremists who demand that the mosque be destroyed and replaced by a Jewish temple.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) plans to offer the tenders in two or three months with minimum exploration expenditures of US$ 16 million to US$ 90 million. Western and Russian oil giants are interested. This sheds the fears of many European and non-European companies.

Tehran (AsiaNews)  Tehran is getting ready for the first oil and gas tenders since the partial removal of sanctions by the West in the next two to three months, hoping to attract the likes of BP and Gazprom, an Iranian energy official said on Monday.

Sitting on some of the world's biggest energy reserves, the Islamic Republic has already been working on deals to develop existing fields such as South Pars, South Azadegan, Yadavaran, West Karoon, Mansuri and Abe-Teymur.

Last week, France's Total became the first major to sign a post-sanctions development deal with Iran. Iran's ambassador to Paris said Total, by signing a contract with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), has opened the doors to all other energy majors of the world to join projects in Iran.

Ali Ahani said the deal broke taboos of working and investing in Iran among international companies, adding the deal shed the fears of many European and non-European companies about investing in Iran.

Potential investors include Russias Lukoil, Denmarks Maersk, Austrias OMV, Italys Edison and Petronas, Malaysias state-owned company.

Most of the exploration blocks are in the Zagros, Koppet Dagh, and Middle Eastern Gulf regions and would require minimum exploration expenditures of between US$ 16 million and US$ 90 million.

The oil and natural gas sector will play a decisive in rebooting Irans economy in the post-sanction period, with growth exceeding 8 per cent.

Faster GDP growth comes from greater oil sales, following the historic deal on Irans nuclear programme, which led to the partial easing of Western economic sanctions.

The oil industry is also one of the sectors now open to women, especially thanks to recent government orders that removed barriers that denied women top career opportunities.

Some 17,000 women are employed in Irans oil industry, 7,000 full time and 10,000 on contract. That is 8 per cent of the workforce, 7 per cent if management jobs are counted. (DS)
SILVA

Pete Silva, PepsiCo's acclaimed fleet director, retired Monday after 32 years of service, including the last 14 in fleet operations and purchasing for the multinational food-and-beverage corporation.

Silva leaves his role as senior director of fleet procurement at PepsiCo and indirect purchasing for FritoLay. Silva is highly regarded in the commercial fleet industry, and served on many client advisory boards. In 2008, Silva was named the Fleet Executive of the Year by Fleet Financials magazine.

"I worked for a great company and learned a lot about the fleet industry thanks to Automotive Fleet magazine and the many other periodicals produced by Bobit Business Media," said Silva. "I look forward to starting the next phase of my career and life. As for today, I'm out fishing!"

Silva's most significant accomplishment at PepsiCo has been developing purchasing synergy between the company's operating units and its bottlers. Prior to Silva's leadership, each operating unit executed its own purchasing contracts and processes, which led to an inconsistent vendor base and pricing structure. By consolidating the purchasing effort, strategic alliances were developed with suppliers, and the operating units could share best practices and benefit from volume leveraged pricing.

Silva started at PepsiCo/FritoLay in 1982, working in plant operations management. During the next 16 years, Silva worked in plant operations in California (Rancho Cucamonga, Kern, Casa Grande, and Pleasanton) and later in Irving, Texas; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Plano, Texas.

Silva got his start in fleet in 1998 working as the fleet director for FritoLay, a position he held until 2004. He started his working career in 1980 while still at college as a co-op industrial engineer at The Walt Disney Company.

By Mike Antich
This video from Boobz & Tubez shows the promoted activity of the event, but also incidentally shows the dangers on active river waters. The video ends with recent drone footage of the Kern at the mouth of the canyon.
"Austin Powers" actor Joseph Son was found not guilty Monday of what was effectively a murder charge in the beating death of his cellmate in a
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iStock/Thinkstock(GREENVILLE, S.C.) -- A South Carolina mother and her two children were found dead after she allegedly killed a woman tied to her estranged husband, according to police in Greenville, South Carolina.

Jessica Edens, 36, allegedly shot and killed 28-year-old Meredith Rahme, a female acquaintance of her husband's, and before turning the gun on herself, she shot her own 5-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, Greenville Police said.

Rahme's body was found in her car in the apartment complex's parking garage on Thursday, police said. Edens and her two children, Hayden and Harper, were found dead in a black Jeep in a gas station parking lot, according to police. All were shot with a .40 caliber handgun, according to Greenville Police.

Authorities said Rahme worked with Ben Edens and lived in the same apartment complex as him. Edens and her husband Ben were separated at the time of the shooting, according to Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller, who added that there were "custody issues" regarding 5-year-old Harper.

Police called it a domestic situation that had escalated to online harassment, according to ABC affiliate WLOS-TV. WLOS-TV reports there was a post on Homewrecker.com with a photo that appeared to be Rahme and text that read, "This little girl has no self-respect and no morals."

Rahme and Ben Edens called police to report the online harrassment several times.

"Over the course of the last, maybe, three weeks, there were three calls to police -- two here in Greenville, in the city, one to Easley. The one to Easley occurred, I believe, Tuesday to ask Easley police to check on the welfare of the children," Miller said according to WLOS-TV.

Diane Lloyd, a neighbor of the Edens, told WLOS-TV she used to watch the two young kids play across the street.

"My god, what would you say to them, you know, before you were going to kill them," Lloyd said to WLOS-TV. "I just... it breaks my heart."

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The recent completion of exterior painting finishes the work necessary to preserve the Craighead House in South Middleton Township for future generations.

Supporters gathered Friday morning to mark the milestone event with the official placement of a bronze plaque listing the home at 318 E. Old York Road on the Cumberland County Register of Historic Places.

Once a drab gray color, the building along the Yellow Breeches Creek is now white with gold and green trim. The effort presses on to transform the 1886 home into an educational center on nature and local history.

The paint job really brightened it up, said Johnson Coyle, board president of the Craighead House Committee Corp., the nonprofit organization behind the effort.

Its quite an improvement, he said. Weve gotten a lot of comments from the neighborhood and people driving by. People are asking What is happening with the Craighead House?

The house was in desperate need of repair when it was first acquired in 2012 from the grandchildren of original owners Charles and Agnes Craighead, said Tom Benjey, a board member and local historian. With the generosity of several local organizations and hundreds of individual donors, the houses underpinnings were shored up, the porches were rebuilt from the ground up and the roofs were replaced.

Craighead legacy

The final exterior project was to repaint the building in a color scheme matching how it looked in the mid-1930s during its heyday as a summer retreat for two generations of naturalists who made contributions to world ecology and literature.

Frank Craighead Sr. became the chief forest entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1950, he wrote Insect Enemies of the Eastern Forest, which remains the definitive book on the subject.

His brother Eugene Craighead became an entomologist for the state who specialized in insects that affect orchards. A renowned fly fisherman, Eugene invented lures and tested them out in the waterways around the family home.

Twins Frank Jr. and John Craighead became naturalists credited with saving the grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park and drafting language that became the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Their younger sister Jean Craighead George wrote over 100 young adult books relating to nature, including the Summer of the Falcon, which documented what it was like to grow up in central Pennsylvania during the 1930s while living in the house.

The Cumberland County Historical Society has placed about 25 properties on its register, which is patterned after the National Register of Historic Places, an entirely separate listing with stricter nomination and eligibility requirements.

The county register recognizes significant people, places and architecture in the county, said Jason Illari, CCHS executive director. He said the register also acknowledges the hard work of volunteers who preserve places we hold near and dear.

It has been a big help to us, Coyle said of the designation. People can look at the list and see the Craighead House.

A grant from the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau funded two-third of the costs of the exterior painting, Benjey said.

The tourism draw

CVVB has awarded about $30,000 in grants to the Craighead House project, Promotions Manager Ashley Kurtz said Friday. These funds are being used to set a backdrop for the story they want to tell. Were very excited about the work that is happening here. Were very proud of this gem, and we cant wait to share it.

Aside from the exterior paint job, CVVB funds have been used to develop and print a brochure on the Craighead House and to pay for a roadside sign directing visitors to the house, its parking lot and its creek-side access.

The Craighead House matches two of the top three tourism draws to Cumberland County  the outdoors and history, said Kristen Rowe, communications manager for CVVB. The third draw is the car shows.

The Craighead House is a national story, said Valerie Copenhaver, CVVB director of marketing. We believe that people will travel for that story. Were trying to bring an increase in participation.

Parking lot next

CVVB has awarded a $15,000 grant for improvements to the Craighead House parking lot as required by South Middleton Township and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The corporation board is also seeking grants from the Cumberland County Planning Department, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Work covered by those grant requests would narrow and pave the driveway entrance off Old York Road; grade, gravel and mark the parking lot for 15 spaces; pave a handicapped accessible parking space and pathway from the parking lot to the house; and build a handicapped accessible restroom adjacent to the pathway.

The corporation board has until June to complete the driveway entrance phase of the parking lot project, Benjey said. The rest of the work can be phased in as money becomes available. Its a function of when we get the funding, he said.

The board had to submit a parking lot design as part of the minor subdivision plan approved by the township supervisors, Benjey said. That plan expires in four years. He is confident the board could raise the money in time to complete the work.

Ideally, the board would like to do all the parking lot work at once instead of piecemeal, Benjey said. The total cost is estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. Once the parking lot improvements are complete, attention will shift to improving the interior of the house.

The first floor rooms could be used as conference and meeting space while the second floor bedrooms could be converted into offices, Coyle said. He added, in keeping with the legacy of the building, one goal of the restoration is to facilitate groups that promote conservation.

The bedroom of Jean Craighead George will be developed into a museum exhibit in recognition of her career as a writer, which started when she was a teenager staying at the Craighead family retreat, Coyle said.

To learn more about the Craighead House project, visit its website at www.craigheadhouse.org or contact board members at craigheadhouse@gmail.com. Volunteers and donations are welcome.
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A Magnolia mother died in the hospital Friday after a boating crash on Lake Conroe killed her husband and injured their 10-year-old daughter.

A family friend said doctors took Sara Clark, 38, who was rushed to the hospital after the crash, off of life support sometime Friday. Her husband, Jason Clark, 39, died on scene after the family's boat was struck by another boat on the south side of the lake.

The crash happened around 9:30 p.m. near the Diamondhead community off Texas 105 near April Sound. An angler participating in a fishing tournament was heading ashore to weigh his catch when he crashed into the family in the dark of night.

The impact caused the angler's boat to overturn and sink, launching that boat's operator and a male passenger into the water. While those two suffered minor injuries, the Clark family endured a loss not many can even imagine.

Jason Clark was pronounced dead on scene while Sara Clark and the couple's 10-year-old daughter, Reilee, were both rushed to the hospital. Reilee was released from the hospital in stable condition hours after the crash, although Sara was hospitalized in critical condition. She died around 4 p.m. Friday.

The couple also has an 18-year-old son, Alex.

Amanda Carter, who has known the family for years, asked for the community's support.

"Please pray for Alex and Reilee during this difficult time that God will guide them both in the right direction," Carter stated in a Facebook post. "My heart is absolutely broken."

Anyone wishing to help the family financially can donate at www.youcaring.com/jasonandsaraclarkandfamily-875501. More than 400 donors have already raised close to $30,000 as of press time Friday.
The following health IT vendor contracts and go-lives were reported during the past week.

Three ACOs in Florida  Central Florida ACO, Next ACO of Nature Coast and Space Coast ACO  will deploy eClinicalWorks' population health management solution.

La Crosse, Wis.-based Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare is the first of Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Health System's locations to implement the systemwide Epic EHR.

The University College London Hospitals is working with Epic to design, build and implement a new EHR as part of its digital transformation strategy.

Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare developed an app, in collaboration with Gozio Health, that helps patients and visitors navigate the Piedmont campus by providing directions

UC San Diego Health's Moores Cancer Center in La Jolla, Calif., selected Tempus to provide molecular sequencing, clinical analysis and decision support tools.
The House Appropriations Committee on July 12 proposed an HHS budget of $77.6 billion for fiscal year 2018, a $542 million funding decrease from 2017.

Although the $77.6 billion represents a decrease in funding, the proposal is $14.5 billion more than President Donald Trump's budget request. However, the House proposal provides roughly $38 million for the ONC, a 37 percent cut from the $60 million it received in 2017. This proposal backs President Trump's previous funding request for ONC, which was also $38 million for 2018.

The bill  which includes funding for programs within HHS, the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, along with other related agencies  is meant to cut funding for "lower-priority" programs while targeting investment in select priorities, according to a House Appropriations Committee statement.

"This bill reflects Republican priorities to cut spending and focus investments in programs our people need the most  public health and medical research, biodefense, fundamental education and proven programs that increase job growth, for example," said House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen. "It also includes important provisions to stop government overreach."

Click here to view the proposed budget.
The so-called "warmth/competence trade-off"  in which people perceive an inverse relationship between empathy and competence  may not hold true for physicians, according to a recent study from Yale University, published in PLOS ONE.

Based on the study's findings, patients perceive their physicians as more competent when they demonstrate empathy through nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact and body language. Researchers conducted the study online by asking participants to judge a physician's warmth and competence based on still photographs of empathetic and "unemphathetic" nonverbal behavior between a physician and patient, coupled with the same script. They also tested the script with photographs of physicians wearing white coats and those not wearing white coats.

The results indicated patients perceived physicians who demonstrated empathetic nonverbal behaviors as more warm and competent, regardless of the presence of a white coat.

"Our findings might reflect a changing concept of the role of doctors in our society," study author Gordon Kraft-Todd, a PhD student in Yale's Human Cooperation Laboratory, wrote in an article on the study for Scientific American. "No longer are they judged solely on their technical competence  that is, their ability to perform medical procedures. Rather they may increasingly be judged on their interpersonal competence  that is, their ability to navigate the difficult social interactions inherent in managing patients' illness and wellness."

These findings are important because the relationship between perceived warmth and competence does not always go hand in hand. In some scenarios when a person is perceived as friendlier, research indicates people tend to perceive them as less confident, and vice versa, Mr. Kraft-Todd writes. However, the study demonstrates physicians should practice both hard and soft skills to best manage patients' experience and health.

More articles on integration and physician issues:

Why primary care physicians leave rural healthcare: 5 things to know

West Virginia physician to run for US House seat in 2018

These are the most Googled medical issues by state
Four out of five opioid prescriptions written after surgery from 2013 to 2015 at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic exceed opioid prescribing draft guidelines developed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to an internal Mayo study published in the Annals of Surgery.

To assess opioid prescribing practices across Mayo's campuses, researchers with the health system examined 7,181 opioid prescriptions administered after five common surgeries from January 2013 to December 2015 at Mayo's locations in Rochester, Phoenix and Jacksonville, Fla.

Among the 5,756 surgical patients who had not used opioids 90 days prior to surgery, the median opioid prescription after surgery was equivalent to 50 pills of five-milligram oxycodone. This figure is nearly double the recommended maximum prescription established by Minnesota draft guidelines, which amounts to a seven-day course of five-milligram oxycodone, or 27 pills. Additionally, the median prescription varied across the three campuses with 40 pills at the Minnesota campus, 50 pills at the Arizona campus and 60 pills at the Florida campus.

"In light of the opioid epidemic, physicians across the country know overprescribing is a problem, and they know there is an opportunity to improve," said Elizabeth Habermann, PhD, scientific director of surgical outcomes research in the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery in Rochester and the study's senior author. "This is the first step in determining what is optimal for certain surgeries and, eventually, the individual patient."

While the study does show room for improvement in opioid prescribing practices at Mayo, researchers determined the draft guidelines established by the Minnesota DHS are likely inappropriate in some cases.

"For some of the procedures, the guideline is probably appropriate, and we have an opportunity to reduce the amount prescribed," said Dr. Habermann. "For some of the more painful procedures, in orthopedics, for example, the draft guideline is likely too low."

More articles on opioids:

1 in 3 Medicare Part D beneficiaries received opioids in 2016, finds OIG

Survey: Less than half of Americans think opioid addiction is treatable

Ohio education board to stock naloxone at Akron public schools
An arson attack has caused damage to a house in east Belfast.

It happened in Island Street on Friday night.

PSNI detective constable Johnston said: "It is understood this attack occurred shortly before midnight and was started in a shed at the back of the property before spreading throughout it causing mainly smoke damage.

"Fortunately, the property is currently unoccupied."

Police have appealed for information.
Sinn Fein's Westminster boycott and refusal to re-enter into Stormont power-sharing are to blame for the rise of dissident groups including the New IRA, the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson claimed last night

Sinn Fein's Westminster boycott and refusal to re-enter into Stormont power-sharing are to blame for the rise of dissident groups including the New IRA, the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson claimed last night.

The MP lambasted the republican party for creating a "political vacuum" that has allowed the terrorists to thrive.

He hit out at Sinn Fein after it was revealed yesterday that the New IRA is now considered the biggest republican terror threat in Ireland since the Provisionals' 1994 ceasefire.

Mr Donaldson, whose cousins Sam and Alex Donaldson were killed by the IRA, said the DUP would now be asking PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton for a fresh security assessment on the dissident threat level from the New IRA.

He added that the party was also prepared to ask Prime Minister Theresa May for more funds so the PSNI was "fully equipped to fight dissident groups".

Michael O'Sullivan, Assistant Garda Commissioner in charge of security, yesterday revealed the New IRA was more dangerous than any other dissident mob including Oglaigh na hEireann or the Continuity IRA.

Mr Donaldson said: "Sinn Fein's refusal to enter into a new power-sharing agreement at Stormont and their long standing policy of abstention from the UK Parliament has created a political vacuum that has allowed groups such as the New IRA to breathe and thrive.

"It's so disappointing that given the residual terrorist threat to Northern Ireland from extremists in the UK and the rest of the world, that Sinn Fein can't work within the existing democratic and political framework to show terrorists they have no place in today's world. They are not sending the message to dissident terrorists that they support the rule of law that will stop them winning."

In an exclusive interview with Belfast Telegraph sister paper the Irish Independent, Mr O'Sullivan said the rise in the New IRA was listed as 'severe' in Northern Ireland (the second highest level) while it is 'substantial' in Britain - meaning there is a strong possibility of an attack. He added: "This is the highest level since the Provisionals declared their ceasefire."

The New IRA is also believed to be more advanced in its capabilities to build explosive devices than any of its dissident counterparts, and has become skilled at counter-surveillance after its members trained in eastern Europe. It is said to have more than 50 activists listed as persons of interests to the Garda and intelligence services, with an army of more than 200 supporters willing to provide logistical support such as vehicles and safe houses.

In November 2012 it murdered prison officer David Black (52) on the M1 as he drove to work at Maghaberry. Last year prison warder Adrian Ismay (52) died after a being injured in a New IRA bomb detonated underneath his van in east Belfast.

Some of its members were also involved in the 2011 murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr and the earlier murders of off-duty British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar as they took delivery of a pizza outside Massereene barracks in Antrim.

Mr Donaldson added last night the DUP was supporting the Tories' counter-terrorism strategy as part of the 1bn deal to prop up Theresa May's administration. "We will be working closely with the Government to ensure the PSNI have the resources they need to fight these terrorists," he said.

Secretary of State James Brokenshire extended the June 29 deadline on power-sharing talks after the DUP and Sinn Fein reached a stalemate.
A 30-year-old man has been arrested following an armed robbery in south Belfast.

It happened at around 10.45pm on Friday, at a post office on the Ormeau Road.

According to police, a man armed with a bottle, robbed the post office before fleeing with a sum of cash.

Police later located a man matching the suspects description in University Street. He ran from police but officers gave chase and he was detained in Lavinia Square.

The man remains in custody.

Police are appealing for information.
A terminally ill single mother is "over the Moon" following a funding U-turn that means she is eligible for a life-prolonging drug that could give her more time with her young sons.

Breast cancer sufferer Melanie Kennedy, who was told she had five years to live in 2014, has just learned that she - along with hundreds of other Northern Ireland women - can now receive Kadcyla on the NHS.

The 'miracle' drug, which the 40-year-old mum-of-two believes offers one of her last hopes of seeing sons Josh (16) and five-year-old AJ grow up, has already cost her almost 10,000.

That's because although it has been available free of charge in Scotland, it was only administered privately here until last month, when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) struck a deal with Roche, the producers of Kadcyla, to offer it for use on the NHS.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph after receiving the news, the former accountant said that although it was a step in the right direction, her fight for cancer drug availability in Northern Ireland was far from over.

"My oncologist told me he'd applied for Kadcyla on my behalf as it can now be accessed and paid for on the NHS on a need basis," she said. "He said he was just sorry that he couldn't get me the money back for the drugs that I'd already paid for.

"Still, it's brilliant news - for this one drug."

The Bangor woman discovered she had breast cancer in January 2013, six months after giving birth to AJ. She subsequently had a mastectomy, chemotheraphy and radiotheraphy as part of her ongoing battle against the disease.

A year after her initial diagnosis, however, doctors told her the cancer had spread to her liver and that her condition was terminal.

But when Melanie realised that Kadcyla - which could help her stay healthy and alive for longer - wasn't available on the NHS here, she launched a Facebook page, NI Cancer Advocacy Movement, and then raised money through crowdfunding.

"I'm a bit disappointed that I had to crowdfund in the first place to be able to get the drug but I'm delighted that it's now available for anybody who needs it in Northern Ireland," she said.

"I'm also determined that it doesn't stop here. There are plenty of other drugs that we can't get because of the postcode lottery and this has made me even more determined to continue campaigning so that we can avail of the same drugs as the rest of the UK."

Up until now Melanie, who said she feels "fantastic", explained she has had "two rounds of kadcyla at 4,500 each", while she also had to "pay for a white cell boosting injection costing 700", which came out of the fundraising kitty.

"In total I raised about 26,000 but some of that went to JustGiving, so I ended up with around 24,000," she explained.

"There will be about 14,000 left over, plus some funds that are still to come in from people who've raised money for me, which is fantastic."

With regard to the excess in the piggy bank, the ardent cancer campaigner said there was a top secret project in the offing.

"Myself and my colleagues have asked permission to use the remaining funds to help other people in my shoes," she said.

"It will take a lot of work so we're not going to reveal what it is just yet, but we hope to make the most of the large pot of money to help everybody who can't access drugs in Northern Ireland."

She added: "With the drugs and treatment available for cancer in the 21st century there's no reason why illnesses can't be managed. That's what I'm trying to change - even if your prognosis is incurable, you can still be around."
Two held after hoax bomb found in Londonderry

Two men are being held by police following the discovery of a hoax bomb in Londonderry.

At around 11pm on Friday, police received a report of a suspicious device having been left close to the entrance to a house on Clooney Terrace.

Police and army bomb teams attended the scene, before declaring it a hoax.

Two men, aged 24 and 58, have been detained by police, and are assisting them with their enquiries.

Police have appealed for information.
The cause of death of a young Irish woman who had travelled to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity is being investigated.

It is understood that Majella Duffy (35) had travelled to Tanzania to scale the mountain in memory of her father, who died from a heart attack when she was a teenager.

Ms Duffy, who was from Fermoy in Cork, had travelled with a group from Ireland on July 8 to tackle the highest peak in Africa.

It is understood they were at an altitude of approximately 4,000 metres when she became unwell.

Earth's Edge, which organises adventure holidays, issued a brief statement: "A client of ours has passed away on the 14th July 2017 at 8.15am local time while on Kilimanjaro. Our thoughts and condolences are with her family."

It later added that the team member had "died of unknown causes while being attended to by a doctor at the scene".

Ms Duffy, who was well-known in the bodybuilding community in Ireland, had recently taken to Instagram to thank people who had supported her appeal for the Irish Heart Foundation, in which she raised more than 8,000 to do the climb.

"I'm inspired by the work of the Irish Heart Foundation," she wrote previously. "I lost my dad who was only 47 years old to a massive heart attack 15 years ago. My entire life turned upside down in just a few minutes and was never going to be the same again.

Fermoy councillor Deirdre O'Brien said that Ms Duffy's former workmates in Laya Healthcare in Cork were heartbroken by her sudden death.

"Everyone in Laya is just devastated to hear the news," she told the Irish Daily Mail. "My thoughts are with her family, her mother and her grandmother."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed officials were liaising with the victims family in relation to the repatriation of the body.
A syndicate has been revealed as the winners of the huge Euromillions jackpot.

The 29 million euro EuroMillions jackpot was won by a syndicate from the west of Ireland.

Lottery chiefs revealed the group collected their cheque in the offices in Dublin and chose to keep their identities secret.

A spokesman for the group said the life-changing impact of the win is only just sinking in.

"This has come as a huge shock but we are thrilled. This will certainly make life easier for us all and will secure our futures," one of the winners said.

The syndicate only began to get word of the huge jackpot win when one of the members checked the EuroMillions' numbers last Saturday.

"It has been a roller coaster week with lots of butterflies in our stomachs and lots of different emotions," one of the winners said.

"But we are keeping level heads and we will try to take it all in and we will give it time before we decide what to do with our winnings."

The winning quick pick ticket was purchased from Umesh Kumar's Garryduff XL Store on Pound Road in Castlebar Co Mayo last Friday.

National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin said he was delighted to hand over the winning cheque to the syndicate.

"It is important these winners take the time and space to let the news sink in," he said.

"This is an incredible amount of money to win, and we have recommended that the winners get independent financial and legal advice."

It is the second EuroMillions jackpot win for Castlebar.

In April 2014, a jackpot prize worth a massive 15 million euro was claimed on a ticket sold in Staunton's Costcutter Express in Castlebar. On that occasion, the winner did not go public.

It is also the 11th time a EuroMillions jackpot has been won in Ireland.

It follows the win for a Dublin work syndicate in January this year when they shared out an 88.5 million euro jackpot.

The country's biggest win remains Dolores McNamara from Limerick, who took home 115 million euro in 2005.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told hospital workers their strike action for better pay is justified, branding their treatment exploitation.

He was speaking at a rally at the Royal London Hospital in east London in support of hundreds of striking low-paid cleaners, porters and security guards employed by Serco at Barts Health NHS Trust.

On Saturday the workers were on the fifth day of a seven-day strike, having already taken three days of industrial action between July 4 and July 7.

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Mr McDonnell said: You have my 100% support in this dispute. Jeremy Corbyn has gone down to the Tolpuddle celebrations this weekend, so he cant be here. But I bring you a message of solidarity from Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party.

I want you to know that we are with you. The reason you have my 100% support is because your cause is just.

It is not much to ask, is it? In the fifth-richest country in the world, in the richest city in the fifth-richest country in the world, to earn a decent wage where you can feed your children and house your family.

Its not much to ask when you know the company that has privatised these services are making multimillion profits every year. And their directors and their managers are lining their pockets at your expense.

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Do you know, theres a word for this? And its exploitation. And thats what we are seeing.

To be frank, theyre not bothered about the workers they employ and theyre not bothered about the service they provide. This strike is justified.

Mr McDonnell spoke to hundreds of people who had gathered at the east London hospital waving banners bearing messages including: Serco Pay Up and Low Pay, No Way!

They have warned Barts they are prepared to stage a 14-day stoppage, starting on July 25.

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Workers are protesting over low pay and poor treatment, and asking for a pay increase of 30p per hour.

The dispute involves workers at Whipps Cross University Hospital, Royal London Hospital, St Bartholomews Hospital and Mile End Hospital.

Earlier in the week, Phil Mitchell, Sercos contract director, said: We believe strongly in ensuring our dedicated team are rewarded fairly, which is why we agreed with the Trust to pay all our team members a minimum of the London Living Wage from day one.

This resulted in an increase in pay for over 230 team members and benefited over 110 permanent staff by an average of 3.5%. For those team members on higher salaries, we have offered a pay increase for this year which is in line with that for NHS staff.

Were determined to ensure that Unites action does not impact on patients. We have robust plans in place aimed at ensuring we can continue to support the Trusts hospitals to operate as normal during the planned action.
Donald Trump gives the thumbs-up as the look the the crowd from his viewing stand during the US Women's Open Golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (AP)

The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting with Trump campaign officials last year has denied that he is connected to Russian intelligence.

Rinat Akhmetshin has confirmed he was part of a June 2016 sit-down with a Russian lawyer and President Donald Trump's oldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman.

Mr Akhmetshin's attendance and his lobbying background has created a new facet to a story that has hounded the White House for days.

It has also added to questions about potential co-ordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Mr Akhmetshin told the Associated Press he served in the Soviet military for two years in the 1980s.

Now a naturalised American citizen, he has lived in Washington since the early 1990s. He is well-known for his advocacy efforts.
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People visit an outdoor photo exhibition, featuring photographs of the July 15 2016 coup attempt, in Istanbul (AP)

Tens of thousands of people have joined a national unity march in Istanbul, converging at the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge to mark the anniversary of the failed military coup attempt that 250 people died resisting.

As part of the commemoration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul on Saturday and was photographed waving at a fighter jet escorting his aircraft.

Accompanied by his grandchildren and relatives of the deceased, Mr Erdogan then joined the crowd on the bridge to unveil a Martyrs' Memorial to honour those who died opposing the coup.

The massive crowd waved large red Turkish flags on the bridge and the road connecting to it, while photographs of the "martyrs" were displayed on monitors and their names were read out.

Marches were also taking place in the capital Ankara.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke at a special parliamentary session in Ankara attended by Mr Erdogan.

"It has been exactly one year since Turkey's darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the people's legend," Mr Yildirim said.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016.

The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Mr Erdogan had been on holiday.

But the president had already left and the coup attempt was quashed by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks.

Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

Mr Yildirim thanked the thousands who heeded a call by Mr Erdogan to flood the streets to resist the coup.

"We are able to come together again here today because of our 250 heroic martyrs, 2,193 heroic veterans and the great Turkish people. Your country is grateful to you," Mr Yildirim said.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since, which has allowed the government to rule by decree and to dismiss tens of thousands of people from their jobs.

More than 50,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for orchestrating the failed coup, and other terror groups. Mr Gulen has denied the allegations.

In the latest government decree published on Friday evening, 7,395 more state employees were fired, including teachers, academics, military and police officers, bringing the number of dismissed to more than 110,000.

The government calls the crackdown necessary to purge state institutions of those linked to Mr Gulen, but critics say the dismissals are arbitrary.

The US State Department issued a statement on Saturday praising the bravery of the Turkish people who took to the streets to "preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society" one year ago.

"The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms," the agency said, warning that curbs on those key freedoms erode "the foundations of democratic society".

The statement added: "More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times."

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg paid homage to those who lost lives resisting the coup and said attempts to undermine democracy in any one of the allied nations is "unacceptable".

AP
Two tourists died and four others were hurt in Friday's incident (AP)

The Egyptian university graduate who stabbed two German women to death at a popular Red Sea resort first sat and spoke to them before producing a large kitchen knife and attacking them, security officials have said.

Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, 29, then left the women for dead and fled the scene in Hurghada, chased by hotel workers and security guards.

He rushed into the hotel next door where he attacked and injured four female tourists who, according to local media reports, included two Armenians, one from Ukraine and another from the Czech Republic.

"Stay back, I am not after Egyptians," Shaaban shouted in Arabic at his pursuers, according to the officials. They eventually caught up with him, disarmed and pinned him down and later handed him over to police.

Shaaban stabbed the women in the face, neck and feet.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it appears to have been inspired by recent calls made by the local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group on its followers to attack Egypt's minority Christians and foreign tourists.

The officials said Shaaban hails from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh where he attended the business school of the local branch of Al-Azhar University - the world's foremost seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the target of mounting criticism in recent months over its alleged radical teachings and doctrinal rigidity.

Investigators are still trying to determine how Shaaban came to be in Hurghada, one of Egypt's main Red Sea resorts popular for its year-round sunny weather and diving.

A statement by the national security prosecution's office, which is questioning Shaaban in Cairo, said his motives and ideological convictions remain unclear.

"The characterisation of the action committed by the culprit, whether it is an individual act, criminal or terrorist, is not clear to the prosecution at this time," said the statement.

Police are interviewing 15 hotel workers to piece together what happened.

Germany on Saturday gave the first official confirmation that the two tourists killed by Shaaban were German nationals, but gave no other information. Local German media reports, however, said the two were residing in Hurghada, and were not tourists.

In a statement, the German Foreign Ministry said: "According to everything that we know, this act was aimed at foreign tourists - a particularly perfidious and criminal act that leaves us sad, dismayed and angry."

The attack on the tourists took place just hours after five policemen were killed in a shooting near some of Egypt's most famous pyramids in the greater Cairo area.

No group claimed responsibility for that attack, which bore the hallmarks of a militant group known as Hasm that has been behind similar assaults in recent months.

Authorities say Hasm is a splinter faction of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that was outlawed and declared a terrorist organisation several months after the military in July 2013 ousted Mohammed Morsi, a senior leader of the Brotherhood who was elected president in 2012.

Friday's attacks are likely to further impact Egypt's tourism industry - a backbone of the country's economy that employs millions of people but which has been decimated by the political turmoil and lacking security roiling the country since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

On Saturday, tight security was in place at Hurghada, with additional checkpoints at the city's entry and exit points and reinforced security at tourist sites, including where the attack took place.

AP
Betty Shelby has submitted her resignation from the Tulsa police force, her lawyer said (AP/Sue Ogrocki)

A white police officer recently acquitted over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in the US has resigned, saying the desk job she was given made her feel isolated from fellow officers.

Officer Betty Shelby was acquitted in May of manslaughter over the death of Terence Crutcher.

She has been working in an administrative role at Tulsa police department since May 19, two days after her acquittal.

She had been on unpaid leave since September 22, when prosecutors charged her

Ms Shelby's resignation is effective from August 3, the Tulsa branch of a national police union said.

She said she was praying for healing for the family of Mr Crutcher, who died after she opened fire in September.

"As I have stated before, the incident with Terence Crutcher was a tragedy for everyone involved, and I am sorry he lost his life," Ms Shelby said.

"I will continue to pray for the unity of our community, the safety of our citizens and our police officers."

Tulsa police spokesman Sargeant Shane Tuell said it is not clear whether the police chief has received her letter, adding that he could not comment until it is in hand.

Ms Shelby's lawyer, Shannon McMurray, said she not sure what the 43-year-old will do next.

Ms McMurray said there had been no agreement in place for a payout if Ms Shelby stayed in the desk job for a certain amount of time.

The officer was on patrol on September 16 2016 when she shot Mr Crutcher next to his SUV, which was stopped in the middle of the road.

Ms Shelby testified that she was scared because he appeared to be under the influence of drugs, did not obey her commands and looked like he was reaching inside his vehicle.

Prosecutors told jurors that Ms Shelby overreacted, noting that videos from a patrol car dashboard and a police helicopter showed Mr Crutcher had his hands in the air.

On the day Ms Shelby was reinstated at the police department, the foreman of the jury said in a court filing that if she had thought to use her stun gun before Mr Crutcher reached his SUV, the decision "could have saved his life".

The foreman wrote that many on the jury were not comfortable with the concept of Ms Shelby being "blameless" over Mr Crutcher's death.

One minister said her swift return to the force was "a slap in the face".

Mr Crutcher's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in June against Ms Shelby and the city of Tulsa.

The suit seeks at least 75,000 US dollars (57,000) in damages and calls for widespread reform in the Tulsa police department, including mandatory training for officers on managing suspects with mental health or substance abuse issues.

Race relations in Tulsa have been strained for more than 100 years. The city has yet to fully heal from a 1921 race riot that killed 300 black residents and burned down a thriving business district.

Last week, a jury deadlocked for the third time in less than a year and forced a mistrial in the murder case of a white former Tulsa officer accused of killing his daughter's black boyfriend.

AP
Donald and Melania Trump with Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron in Paris yesterday

US President Donald Trump has been captured on video complimenting the French president's wife's appearance as he toured a famous Paris landmark.

Footage shows Mr Trump, French leader Emmanuel Macron (39) and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying goodbye, Mr Trump turned to Brigitte Macron and gestured toward her body. "You know, you're in such good shape," he said, before repeating the observation to her husband. "Beautiful," he added.

Mrs Macron (64) was her husband's high school teacher and their relationship has drawn attention because of their age difference.
Wikicommons

Radios permeated the airwaves of breaking news that Japanese planes bombed a U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The results of the attack killed more than 2,400 Americans as well as destroying 8 Navy battleships and more than 100 planes.

The U.S. was outnumbered.

U.S. intelligence broke the Japanese naval code.

The casualties of war were significant for Japan.

The location was important.

The Japanse attacked Alaska.

It became a turning point in the Pacific.

Corine Gatti-Santillo is a freelance digital journalist, editor, and content producer. She is also the The Christian Post Voices Editor. She is also a former editor at Beliefnet.com.

The response was swift from the U.S."Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941  a date which will live in infamy  the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan," President Franklin D. Roosevelt said. Months later, on June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway (Midway Islands) would draw the line for the American military by becoming a crucial victory in the war against Japan."We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us, this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war," Roosevelt added. There was a strategic reasoning behind Japan choosing Midway, which runs 1,000 miles Northwest of Honolulu. Japan knew that the U.S. didn't have much of a military presence at Midway and drawing them out would weaken them further after Pearl Harbor. The battle was a decisive win for the U.S., which became a turning point in the war. Here are 6 significance facts on the Battle of Midway.The Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying key Japanese aircraft carriers, despite being outmatched.The USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier was damaged at the Battle of Coral (a naval battle between the Japanese Navy, the U.S. and Australia) and survived Midway. The Lexington, another aircraft carrier, was destroyed during the bombing. As a result of the battle, "Japan lost most of its best naval pilots and first-line aircraft carriers and, in consequence, its ability to wage an offensive war in the Pacific. The U.S. gained control of the Pacific," history.com reported. American planes also sank the Japanese carrier Shoho. Military historian John Keegan said it was "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Isoroku Yamamoto, who was the principle architect of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, believed a victory for his country was imminent.The U.S. intelligence broke the Japanese naval code, allowing the Americans to expect a visit from their enemies of the Pacific. "The Japanese had brought 124 ships, including 6 carriers against Americas 40 ships including only a few carriers," scout.com reported. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz of the U.S. Pacific Fleet knew what the moves of the Japanese were going to be and planned accordingly. We can thank naval code breaker, Joe Rochefort for this. Rochefort felt enormous guilt for not predicting the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and worked on decoding the Japanese naval code for 6 months.His persistence paid off and he received the Navy's Distinguished Service Medal a decade after his death.The Japanese not only lost 248 planes, but they lost 3,057 of their men. The U.S. suffered the losses of 307 men. U.S. airmen Wesley Osmus, Frank O'Flaherty and Bruno Gaido were captured by the Japanese during the battle. All of them were tortured and killed by being tied to water-filled kerosene cans and thrown overboard.The Japanese's were already dominant in the Pacific before Midway. The had victories in Singapore, Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, taking the U.S. at Midway Island made sense because most of the American aircrafts were stationed in Hawaii. By drawing the Americans out further, they could weaken their defenses. "Yamamoto knew that Midway was important to America as it was a vital outpost of Pearl Harbor. America would thus be compelled to defend it giving Japan an opportunity to crush their fleet when it would be drawn out," scout.com also reported.The Japanese attacked Alaska in an attempt to draw away American fleets from Midway. They seized Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands and also bombed the Dutch Harbor. The U.S. needed to counter as this could create a path for Japan towards the U.S. mainland. On May 11, 1943, U.S. forces landed on Attu and after 19 days of battle, the Japanese left due to harsh weather and being outmatched.The battle would be considered the first major win against the Japanese in the Pacific. "Historians see Midway as the turning point in the Pacific theater of the war, after which Americans rode straight to Tokyo; others view it as a cusp in the war, after which initiative hung in the balance, to swing toward the Allies," history.com shared. Today Midway Island is a territory of the U.S.The world might be a different place if the Battle of Midway was never won by the U.S. The Germans were looking to form an alliance with the Japanese to assist them against the U.S. and the Allies in Europe. But the U.S. fortuitously was able to arrest the Japanese and help prevent Germany from conceivably taking over the Pacific and perhaps, North America (a goal of Adolf Hitler).
In our exuberance for the outdoors  whether we hunt, fish, camp, hike to a magical overlook, or canoe to a special island  telling others about the enjoyment, even excitement, of the moment comes easily and details flow endlessly.

For the most part.

If youre hearing a fish tale, there is the anglers proud accounting of the total length on his stringer and (maybe) the type of bait used with an exaggeration only slightly of the size of the biggest one.

The steep climb up the hillside on a summer morning is filled with details about burning quadriceps, cool water from an icy plastic bottle, and the awesome power of the view as a high-rise reward.

The bucks path is remembered step by step in the story, antler total included in the first sentence. The deers reaction when the trigger is tripped is clear.

Specifics of the who, what, how and when of our adventures are all there, as they are in any good story.

Whats not there, is the where.

Its an important detail withheld so that we might reserve the same pleasure for another time. All to ourselves.

Who gives up their honeyhole of a hunting or fishing spot? What hiker advertises the unforgettable ascension, so they might share it with a horde the next time?

It was the same anxiety I felt earlier this week at the peak of a paddle down the Susquehanna River between York and Lancaster counties.

There, etched onto the outer edges of giant rocks, were ancient Native American petroglyphs. The carvings could be as old as 1,000 years. They show themselves with a swipe of a magic sponge. It is simply a light coating of water that darkens the top surface, allowing the symbols to remain dry and lightly colored.

They are the ancient art of the Susquehannock Indians, the Algonquin-speaking Shenks Ferry people before them, and others.

Paul Nevin provided some of the details. Paul is responsible for helping to rediscover the petroglyphs more than 30 years ago.

Paul said that while visiting the rock islands that bear the carvings, he realized the carvings werent a big deal to a lot of the rivers regular hunters and anglers. They knew the etchings were there.

The lower Susquehanna is said to have the highest concentration of petroglyphs in the Northeast. From southern Lancaster County to below the Mason-Dixon Line, there could be as many as 1,000 carvings at 10 locations.

A wave of a little water against the hard surface beneath your feet returns chiseled images of supernatural animals, mystical thunderbirds (some of the higher ranking members have feathers), medicine men and women, snakes, suns, and human and bear feet.

The work of these spirit-guided hands so many years ago continue to silently tell stories in the place where sky, earth and water meet.

Its hard to keep such a sacred place to yourself.

Bass seasons stand

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is standing pat for another year with its suite of bass fishing rules, seasons and creel limits.

Bass season on the middle and lower Susquehanna and lower Juniata will remain closed during the traditional spawning period, May 1 through mid-June.

At its January meeting the commission proposed taking away the spring closed season after fish surveys from 2013-16 showed increasing numbers of adult smallmouth bass, whereas numbers had been greatly reduced from 2005-2012.

The latest decision made Tuesday gives the commission another year to check data from 2017 adult bass surveys, scheduled to begin in September.

A closed season for smallmouth and largemouth bass from May 1 through June 16 has been in place since 2012 on about 98 miles of the Susquehanna River from Sunbury downstream to the Holtwood Dam and on 31.7 miles of the Juniata River from Port Royal downstream to the mouth. Anglers can target bass during the remainder of the year, but only on a catch-and-immediate-release basis.

The commission said about half of the public comments received on changing the bass season opposed the idea.

On another note, the commission took a big step toward dropping the requirement that anglers display their fishing license on a hat, vest or other article of clothing when fishing. The measure awaits approval at a later date.

Anglers would instead have to have their fishing license in their possession when fishing and show it to a waterways conservation officer when asked. Keeping up with the digital age, anglers would be allowed to keep a copy of their fishing license on a mobile device, which could then be shown to a WCO.

If youve got a comment about the decision to keep the spawning bass season closed, email me.

Plank Man returns!

Heads-up, Yellow Breeches. Plank Man is back!

Tomorrow is our annual tubing adventure. Ill consider it a success to finish upright.

Two years ago, a borrowed inflated donut sprung a leak midway to Simpson Park. The dead mans float was fun as a kid at Jacks pool. But riding what was left of a sad, limp, plastic donut was the only way a buttocks was going to avoid the rocky speedbumps along the way.

When the Brotherhood of the Breeches reunited last summer, my tube made it all of 100 yards below the covered bridge at Messiah College before I felt the slow leak. Downstream and while wrestling with a deflated tube, my wedding band slipped into the watery depths.

Setting himself up to be fooled a third time, Plank Man will give it another try tomorrow. This time with no jewelry, and an extra tube in tow.
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US House of Representatives passes Bill on defence co-operation with India

Published: July 15, 2017

The United States House of Representatives has passed an amendment to National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA), 2018, a $621.5 billion defence expenditure bill to advance defence cooperation with India.

India related amendment in the bill was adopted by a voice vote in the House by 344-81. Now, NDAA needs to be passed by the US Senate before it can be sent to US President Donald Trump to sign into law.

Key Facts

The India-related amendment in NDAA 2018, requires the US Secretary of Defence, in consultation with the Secretary of State to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between US and India.

The amendment asks the State Department and Pentagon to develop a strategy to addresses common security challenges, the role of US partners and allies in India-US defence relationship, and role of the defence technology and trade initiative. It also asks them to address issues to advance communications interoperability and security memorandum of agreement and the basic exchange and cooperation agreement for geospatial cooperation.

National Defense Authorisation Act

The NDAA is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defence. Each years NDAA also includes other provisions. The US Congress oversees the defence budget primarily through two yearly bills: the NDAA and Defense appropriations bills.

They are authorization bill that determines the US agencies responsible for defence, establishes funding levels and sets the policies under which money will be spent. The NDAA-2017 had designated India as a major defence partner of US. This designation had brought India at par with closest partners of US in terms of defence trade and technology transfer.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017

Topics: Defence  India-US  International Relations  National

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President Trump's performance at the G-20 summit in Germany produced a wave of commentary claiming the United States has abdicated its role as world leader.

ABC News contemplated "A World Without U.S. Leadership." CNN reported that Trump exchanged "an aggressive, traditional American leadership role for isolation in a club of one." The liberal activist Neera Tanden tweeted, "Can we just admit that the era of American global leadership is over under Trump?"

The talking point quickly became conventional wisdom in Europe. In the UK, the Independent wrote, "The G-20 proves it. Because of Trump, the world no longer looks to America for leadership."

While there were disagreements in Hamburg between Trump and the other 19 nations on lots of things, including trade, the main factor in all the end-of-American-leadership talk was the president's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

The idea is that, by not going along with the other 19 nations -- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the European Union -- the United States is no longer leading.

In other words: One can only lead by following the group.

It's an odd formulation, reminiscent of the old Barack Obama "leading from behind" jokes, but it's the principle underlying the end-of-American-leadership talk. And it's not working with some of the president's key supporters on Capitol Hill.

"I'm glad that President Trump cares more about electricity rates in Paris, Arkansas than he does the Paris Climate Accord," Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said in a text exchange Sunday. "Hollow agreements aside, the United States will continue to lead the world in environmental protection, while also exporting oil and gas abroad. In particular, American global energy dominance will help break Europe's dependence on Russian oil and gas, if only Germany would stop posturing at one moment, while cozying up to Putin in the next."

Indeed, it seems safe to say that as the U.S. further develops its energy output, it will also achieve its own voluntary emissions goals for 2020 and beyond. (Each country in the non-binding Paris deal got to set its own.) But if Trump sticks with his decision, the U.S. will not take part in the vast, billions-and-billions-of-dollars global wealth-redistribution system that is part of the Paris Agreement.

It was of course well known ahead of time that the other G-20 leaders opposed Trump's move. The question in Hamburg was what they would say about it in a formal statement. The Guardian reported that "tensions ran particularly high between French and U.S. officials," who fought over whether the final G-20 statement would include a mention of the U.S. helping other countries "to access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently." (It did.)

At the same time, Trump's decision made the other countries want to showcase the depth of their commitment to the Paris deal. "We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement," the G-20 leaders' final declaration said. Then: "The leaders of the other G-20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible."

To American ears, the "irreversible" part sounded a little strange. In the context of government, what does "irreversible" mean? Americans, like all other humans, reverse things all the time. Even the Constitution can be amended. But the Paris Agreement -- which former President Obama imposed by executive authority without seeking the approval of the Senate in the normal treaty process -- that is "irreversible"?

And even for the G-20, what does "irreversible" mean? It certainly does not mean "inflexible." The 19 leaders noted that they are "moving swiftly towards its full implementation in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances." In other words, in a non-binding agreement like Paris, individual countries can do what they gotta do.

That, according to the commentators, is the definition of leadership. Donald Trump chose to take the United States on a different course, which according to the same commentators is the abdication of leadership.

In an alternate universe, one could imagine analysis of Trump's European trip noting that the president is in fact leading -- leading, for example, in the defense of Western values. Bob Dole, the former Republican presidential candidate and senator, said just that, praising Trump for restoring "proud and strong American leadership" and helping "restore our position as leader of the free world."

But Dole, and Cotton, and other Trump supporters don't see leadership in the same way as the critics. For Trump's opponents, at least as far as the G-20 is concerned, leading is following, and following is leading.

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.
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Chris Shipley/Allentown Morning Call/TNS via Getty Images(SOLEBURY, Pa.) -- Two 20-year-old men have been charged with multiple counts of homicide in the slayings of four young men in southeast Pennsylvania, authorities said.



Cosmo DiNardo, of Bensalem, and Sean Kratz, of Philadelphia, were both charged with criminal homicide in the July 7 deaths of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township, Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township, and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg.



Investigators found the bodies of the three men Wednesday in a roughly 12-foot-deep grave on a sprawling property in Solebury Township owned by DiNardo's parents, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.



DiNardo is also accused of killing Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, July 5, and burying him in a single grave elsewhere on the same property. DiNardo told detectives he used a backhoe to dig both graves.



DiNardo and Kratz have each provided statements to investigators, and DiNardo has described Kratz as his cousin, according to the district attorney's office.



Court documents obtained by ABC News show both men also face multiple counts of conspiracy, robbery and abuse of a corpse.



DiNardo and Kratz were arraigned Friday afternoon before Magisterial District Judge Maggie Snow of Buckingham Township. Neither were able to post bail. They are scheduled for a July 31 preliminary hearing before Snow, the District Attorney's Office announced Friday night.



At a news conference this afternoon, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said he made an "agreement" with DiNardo that allowed investigators to locate Patrick's body, which was buried as far as a half-mile away from where the three other bodies were found. The agreement includes not seeking the death penalty, Weintraub said.



Patrick went missing July 5, while Finocchiaro, Meo and Sturgis all disappeared July 7.



All four men were shot and each victim has been positively identified. Their family members were briefed on details of the case this morning, according to the district attorney's office.



When asked about a motive, Weintraub said, "I don't know that and I'm not sure we'll ever know."



According to court documents, here is an account of what happened:



DiNardo told detectives he had agreed to sell Patrick four pounds of marijuana for $8,000. DiNardo said he picked up Patrick at the man's home in Newtown on July 5 and drove him to the DiNardo family's property in Solebury Township.



DiNardo told investigators Patrick only had $800 so he instead agreed to sell the man a shotgun for that amount. They then walked to a remote part of the property where DiNardo said he fatally shot Patrick with a .22-caliber rifle. DiNardo said he then drove a backhoe that was on the property to where Patrick lay, dug a hole no more than 6 feet deep and buried his body, according to the court documents.



DiNardo also told detectives he agreed to sell Finocchiaro a quarter-pound of marijuana for about $700 on July 7. DiNardo said he picked up Kratz and drove to Finocchiaro's home in Middletown, agreeing on the way there that they would rob the man. DiNardo said he handed Kratz a .357 handgun that belongs to his mother, according to the court documents.



DiNardo told investigators he drove Kratz and Finocchiaro to his family's property in Solebury Township, where he said Kratz shot Finocchiaro in the head as they were leaving a barn on the land. DiNardo said he then took the gun and shot Finocchiaro a second time while the victim was lying face down on the ground but claimed the man was already dead, according to the court documents.



DiNardo told detectives he wrapped Finocchiaro's body in a blue tarp and used the backhoe to remove him from the barn before placing the body into a metal tank, which he referred to as the "pig roaster," according to the court documents.



That same night, DiNardo said, he met Meo and Sturgis together at a parking lot in Peddlers Village. DiNardo told investigators he had a "deal" set up with Meo. DiNardo told investigators he directed Meo and Sturgis to follow him to the Solebury Township property and told Meo to park his car there. DiNardo then drove Meo and Sturgis to an adjacent property where Kratz was waiting, according to the court documents.



After Meo and Sturgis exited his vehicle, DiNardo said he shot Meo in the back with the .357 handgun. Meo fell to the ground and was screaming, he said. DiNardo told detectives he then fired several times at Sturgis as the man attempted to flee. Sturgis was struck and also fell to the ground. DiNardo said he had run out of ammunition, so he ran over Meo with the backhoe. He then used the machine to lift both bodies into the metal tank where he had already placed Finocchiaro's corpse, according to the court documents.



The next day, DiNardo told investigators, he and Kratz returned to the same property, where DiNardo used the backhoe to dig a deep hole and bury the metal tank containing the three bodies.



Kratz gave a similar statement to detectives on Thursday night but claimed that it was DiNardo who shot Finocchiaro, not him, according to court documents.



DiNardo was initially arrested Monday on charges relating to illegal possession of a shotgun and ammunition. He was named a person of interest in the case of the missing men Tuesday but was released from custody after he posted a $1 million bail, 10 percent of which was paid in cash.



But authorities arrested DiNardo Wednesday on charges he tried to sell Meo's 1996 Nissan Maxima a day after the man was last seen. DiNardo's bail was set at $5 million in cash, the highest the judge said she has ever set.



One of his defense attorneys, Paul Lang, told reporters Thursday that DiNardo confessed to killing the four men and told authorities the location of the bodies.



The motive for the killings will come out in time, he added.



DiNardo felt "deep remorse" and was "very emotional," Lang told ABC News.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jumping out of a plane hasnt been this easy in a long time.

And thats a good thing, according to a skydiving instructor who is visiting Brandon for three days and trying to encourage people to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Tim Eason is whats called a tandem master with Adventure Skydiving in Steinbach.

Submitted Adventure Skydiving instructor Tim Eason free falls with his niece Katie Hamm at a jump held at the companys Steinbach location.

We get a lot of people who actually come from Brandon. They drive the three hours and they jump at our site, Eason said. There seems to be a lot of thrill-seeking people living around this area, so we figured that we should come to them and make it a little bit easier for them to jump out of a plane.

To that end, Adventure Skydiving is bringing Eason, another instructor, a pilot, a packer (who packs the parachute afterwards), an office representative and their airplane, a Cessna 182, to the Brandon Municipal Airport for a weekend of skydiving.

Adventure Skydiving was jumping out of Souris a decade ago, and since then another company hasnt offered skydiving in Westman, Eason understands.

A weekend in Brandon is their opportunity to respond to market demand, he explains.

Forty-fifty people have signed up for tandem skydives, running throughout the day Friday to Sunday, with available spots for dozens more at a cost of $324 per person.

Eason said skydiving is an unforgettable adventure.

Its not a normal thing to jump from a plane, but its the most freeing experience you could ever have.

Beyond the thrill, he added jumpers feel an immense sense of accomplishment once they land.

For each jump, the skydiver is fastened to a tandem instructor, the expert who ensures proper body positioning and initiates the canopy opening.

The duo reach a velocity of approximately 120 miles per hour during their 20-second free fall from 9,000 feet high, followed by a much more leisurely five-minute canopy ride.

Ninety-five percent of people who jump with Adventure Skydiving are first-timers, Eason shared. Each of them is at least a little nervous.

I even tell my passengers this: If theyre not nervous than Im nervous, because it means theres something very wrong with them, he said. Nervousness is absolutely expected and totally normal.

A veteran of thousands of skydives, Eason couldnt put into words how good the feeling is to skydive for the first time.

If you havent done it, there is nothing I could say that would ever be able to describe it to you.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ianfroese
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion within the Canadian military community on whether the federal government made the right call issuing an apology and a $10.5-million settlement to Omar Khadr is as divisive as it is among the public.

Two retired Brandon soldiers demonstrate just that  one, a veteran with 25 years of service under his belt, supports the settlement 100 per cent, while the other, a formal corporal injured in Afghanistan, is disgusted with the governments decision to compensate Khadr.

Public backlash and division on the settlement also havent quieted. An Angus Reid survey this week showed 71 per cent of Canadians believe the government made the wrong decision, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation delivered a petition to the Prime Ministers Office on Thursday, signed by more than 133,000 Canadians opposing it.

CP Pte. Glen Kirkland, in a wheelchair, one of five soldiers injured in a direct fire explosion, attends a ramp ceremony for fallen comrades Cpl. Andrew Grenon, Cpl. Mike Seggie and Pte. Chad Horn, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2008.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week he understands why Canadians are angry, but insisted that letting Khadrs lawsuit  over the abuse he suffered as a teenager while detained at Guantanamo Bay  go through the courts could have cost taxpayers $20 to $30 million more.

The justification is little comfort to Glen Kirkland, who described the settlement and apology as deplorable.

(Khadr) is a murderer. He killed one of our allies  a medic, it wasnt even someone trying to cause him harm. He committed the worst sin and what were doing is compensating him, Kirkland said. The guy is the epitome of a terrorist, his only compensation is that he has his life.

Kirkland was wounded in Afghanistan in 2008, when the tank he was driving was bombed. He was the only survivor.

What is hardest to understand, he said, is why the Canadian government didnt want to fight Khadr in court, but it is fighting veterans in court over financial compensation.

I was on fire and sprayed with shrapnel  I was pulling pieces of shrapnel out of my body. Im blind in one eye. I have to inject between 12 to 14 needles every day or else I will die, and I dont get a disability pension, I dont think a lot of people realize that, Kirkland said.

To see this terrorist  which is what he was  get compensated multimillion dollars  its sickening.

For Marc George, who served as an artillery officer for 25 years and spent four years in the National Defence Headquarters, the treatment of Khadr since his capture in 2002 felt like it tarnished Georges service to Canada, he said, adding hes glad to see they made it right.

The problem for me is that you either stand for something or you dont. We say that Canada stands for human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and that it gives us a moral responsibility to intervene in places where those values are not being upheld, George said.

But we certainly cannot, with any legitimacy, demonize our opponents as being lawless terrorists if we then ignore our own laws and terrorize them once theyre captured. It completely erodes any position of moral right that we claim to hold We always have to walk the walk, and this is a case where we clearly failed by our own standard to do the right thing  we were complicit with torturing someone and illegally incarcerating them.

As a soldier, George said he also had severe concerns about Khadrs treatment in captivity and how it could impact Canadian soldiers, should they be imprisoned by the enemy.

We cannot demand the highest ethical standards of treatment for people that our enemies capture from us if we do not in turn adhere to those standards with people that we capture from them, George said. By not following the rules, (the government was) potentially placing a great risk on Canadians or coalition soldiers who may fall into the hands of these organizations  justifying their bad behaviour toward our own soldiers.

Canadians who fought in the Second World War set clear standards for dealing with war criminals in a legal way, George said.

Nazi Germany is one of the most evil regimes in the history of the world responsible for the deaths of millions of people  murdering millions of people  and yet at the end of the Second World War, (Canadians) treated them fairly, George said.

George used the example of Kurt Meyer, a high-ranking member in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany convicted of war crimes for his role in the Ardenne Abbey massacre, the killing of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy.

In Meyers closing statement before sentencing, he said the Canadian Army had treated him as a soldier, and the trial was fairly conducted.

If Canadians who fought against the Nazis can treat fairly an SS general who they had found guilty of murdering 18 Canadian soldiers, surely we could have treated a 15-year-old child soldier  who only confessed to having killed someone as a result of torture  surely we could have treated him fairly, George said.

File Royal Canadian Artillery Museum director Marc George speaks to a gathering outside the museum in this 2014 photo.

The difference for Kirkland is that he believes Khadr wasnt a child soldier, but a terrorist, he said.

They called him a child soldier, but he wasnt a child. Under the NATO rules, you have to be 14 years or under to be a child, and (Khadr) was seven days away from turning 16 years old. If he would have committed those same crimes in Canada, he would have been tried as an adult, Kirkland said. The definition of a soldier is a uniformed soldier, part of an organization with a proper chain in command, which he wasnt. He was building IEDs and killing civilians and soldiers  Now he has his life and a life of luxury. Its so inappropriate that we as Canadians are paying for that.

Khadrs hand in building IEDs is especially bothersome to Kirkland, he said, as he has lost a lot of friends to IEDs over the years.

So many Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan due to IED strikes  and this guy made them. I have lost sleep over this, it really bothers me, Kirkland said.

Kirkland is also skeptical of the torture Khadr experienced in Guantanamo Bay, and to what extent the Canadian government is responsible for it, he said.

He was committing a crime in a foreign country, so who are we to be the judge and jury on that? If he wants to sue the United States for his treatment, then by all means, Kirkland said. As far as Im concerned, he was arrested (by the United States) and we have to let their core process dictate. Thats their rules  If you did the crime, youve got to do the time.

In the same vein, Khadrs experience in Guantanamo Bay also raises questions surrounding his confession, George said, which he believes was false.

I worked for military intelligence for four years, and theres no question in my mind that any information you obtain as a result of torturing someone is not going to be valid or reliable. Theyre going to tell you whatever they think you want to hear to stop the torment  I dont think theres a shred of evidence that would stand up in a real court, George said. Now there would have been a way to erase that doubt in my mind, and that would have been to treat him properly and have him tried in a proper court.

Both George and Kirkland share similar sentiments, however, when it comes to Tabitha Speer, the widow of Sgt. Christopher Speer. They believe the U.S. special forces medics death was a tragedy that no family should have to live through.

I feel great sympathy for the widow of Sgt. Speer  It is a terrible thing to lose a member of your family in war, George said.

Khadr says he just wants to go live a normal life, well what about the widow and the two children who dont have a dad anymore? What about their normal life?, Kirkland said. Its incredibly disheartening.

 edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @erindebooy
Parsifal said: He's not the only one, the internet is loaded with Hillary voters with the same, and many are truly unhinged.



IDK if a source is right, but there could be something brewing that will decimate both parties for dealings with Russia. Trump may be the bearer of that information, he may be the one who truly will drain the swamp. Meanwhile, the Dims, and RINO's are still plotting a soft coup. Click to expand...

Throw this in the mix.Your side has been set up to believe anything Trump or Fox News says. Trump has been set up in the minds of tens of millions or more, to be the final arbiter of truth, justice, and the American Way. Not only that, but members of your side hold Putin in high esteem.All sides suffer from chronic confirmation bias. A given.Since 2012, both sides have completely exchanged positions on what presents the gravest threat "to the West." If that's not a living example of the people being yo-yoed, I'm not sure what would provide a good example.Some people think thoroughly looking into the available evidence is a good idea. Some don't even want to talk about it, period. I say some, but I should have said most. On both sides. It's terrible, truly terrible.Only the people can save the people. Love thy neighbor. Ultimately, we have two choices: Either to love our neighbor like we love ourselves, or else **** our neighbor before he ***** us. Both of those plans seem to "work."
A Connemara campaign group claims they're being discriminated against, because of a lack of ambulance services for the region.

The Ambulance Crisis Group is planning a protest in Galway's Eyre Square next Wednesday at 2pm over what they claim is an infringement of their human rights.
Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ireland says the DUP's involvement in the Westminster government has complicated power-sharing efforts.

Talks have been ongoing since March but both sides have yet to reach an agreement.
Update 2.15pm: A spokesman for Leo Varadkar says the Taoiseach has "nothing to add" to comments he made about the Jobstown protest on Wednesday.

It comes as Solidarity's Paul Murphy makes a formal complaint to Dail authorities - saying the Taoiseach defamed him.

He's complained that Mr Varadkar unfairly linked him to water balloons, bad language and violent behaviour in which he had no role.

Mr Murphy says Mr Varadkar's comments were clearly planned, after concern he had undermined the role of Gardai last week.

Earlier: Paul Murphy has accused the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of defaming him, and is to make an official complaint to the Dail authorities.

He says Mr Varadkar accused him of criminal behaviour in the Dail on Wednesday, and is also complaining about four other Fine Gael TDs.

Mr Murphys already facing investigation by the Dails disciplinary committee over his own alleged abuse of privilege in exchanges on Wednesday.

However, he is now attempting to turn the tables by accusing the Taoiseach of defaming him in exactly the same exchange.

He says Varadkars claims of thuggery are defamatory and that by describing the protest as "ugly, violent and nasty", he is accusing Murphy of involvement he did not have.

In a letter to be delivered to Leinster House authorities today, he also takes issue with references to water balloons, complaining that Murphy had no connection to this, and that he is therefore being defamed.

Varadkar is not the only subject of complaint - Murphy and his party colleagues also believe Charlie Flanagan, Heather Humphreys, Bernard Durkan, and Mary Mitchell OConnor are ALL also in breach of Dail rules.
SIPTU is calling on the Government to decide what calibre of 'Early Years' workers they want.

Yesterday Montessori and pre-school workers handed postcards into the Department of Finance calling for fairer pay.
Turkey has dismissed almost 7,400 civil servants over alleged links to terror groups in a government decree, the latest in a wave of dismissals since authorities quashed last summer's coup attempt.

Teachers, academics, military and police officers were sacked late on Friday, including former Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu, who was jailed last August for alleged links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey blames Mr Gulen for masterminding the July 15 coup attempt, but he denies the allegations.

The country imposed a state of emergency following the coup, allowing the government to rule by decrees.

The latest wave of dismissals brings the number of sacked civil servants to more than 110,000 people. The order reinstated 313 people to their jobs.

The government decree also stripped nearly 350 soldiers of their ranks and former national football team players Hakan Sukur and Arif Erdem of their medals.

Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has attended a special session in parliament to mark one year since authorities quashed the coup.

Recounting the events of July 15 2016, Ismail Kahraman, speaker of the Turkish parliament, said it was the Turkish people who had defeated the coup.

During the uprising, F-16 fighter jets piloted by plotters bombed Turkey's parliament 11 times, forcing members of parliament who convened for an emergency session to seek shelter in the basement.

Some 250 people were killed in the failed coup attempt, and more than 2,000 were injured.

Thousands of people expected to turn out for "national unity marches" in Istanbul and Ankara over the weekend, and Mr Erdogan will unveil the "Martyrs' Memorial" on an iconic Istanbul bridge to remember those who died opposing the coup.

"It has been exactly one year since Turkey's darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the people's legend," Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday in a special parliamentary session attended by Mr Erdogan.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15 last year.

The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Mr Erdogan had been holidaying. But the president had already left and the coup attempt was put down by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks.

Mr Yildirim thanked the thousands of people who heeded a call by the president to flood the streets to resist the coup.

"We are able to come together again here today because of our 250 heroic martyrs, 2,193 heroic veterans and the great Turkish people. Your country is grateful to you," he said.

July 15 has been declared a national holiday.

Public transportation in Istanbul and Ankara are free over the weekend, and bus destination signs displayed messages of congratulations.
An American specialist who has offered to treat Charlie Gard is preparing to fly to London to examine the terminally-ill baby for the first time.

Michio Hirano is scheduled to visit Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where 11-month-old Charlie is being cared for, over two days next week.

Dr Hirano is due to arrive at the hospital on Monday and discuss Charlie's condition with doctors treating the boy and with independent specialists.

Detail of the plan emerged on Friday during the latest round of a legal fight between Great Ormond Street bosses and Charlie's parents.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates want the judge to rule that their 11-month-old son, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in New York.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street say the therapy is experimental and will not help.

They say life support treatment should stop.

Charlie's parents, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They have also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

But the couple say there is new evidence and want Mr Justice Francis to carry out a fresh analysis of their case.

In April, the judge ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Mr Justice Francis has considered their claims at preliminary hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He is due to stage further hearings later this month following next week's gathering of specialists.

Dr Hirano gave evidence, via a link from New York, at a hearing on Thursday.

The judge said he wanted to hear what Dr Hirano believed had changed since he gave his ruling in April.

Dr Hirano said he had clinical data which was not available in April and he still believed that the therapy was ''worth trying''.

The doctor estimated that there could be a 10% chance of improvement in muscle strength and a ''small but significant'' improvement in brain function.

He told the judge that he had never seen or examined Charlie.

Mr Justice Francis suggested that a visit to Great Ormond Street and discussions with specialists treating Charlie would be a good idea.

The judge said Charlie's mother could attend a specialists' meeting at Great Ormond Street next week.

Lawyers representing Great Ormond Street initially said neither of Charlie's parents should feature in a meeting of specialists next week.

They said the aim of the meeting was to allow medical experts to have a detailed scientific discussion.

Lawyers representing Charlie's parents objected to the meeting being staged in the absence of both parents.

Both sides agreed, after discussions, that Charlie's mother could take part.

Speaking on behalf of Charlie's family, spokesman Alasdair Seton-Marsden said outside court: "Today GOSH tried to block the parents of Charlie Gard from attending a meeting about their own child.

"After protracted legal discussions the court decided mum could attend that meeting.

"GOSH seem to want to exclude the parents at every stage.

"We are delighted that Charlie's mother, Connie, will be present at the meeting that Prof Michio Hirano, the world's leading expert on Charlie's condition, will attend.

"The professor will be flying in from Columbia University Medical Centre, New York, for a meeting this Monday to see Charlie.

"This is excellent news."

Mr Seton-Marsden added: "We have heard reports that threats have been made against the judiciary and medical staff at GOSH.

"In no possible circumstances whatsoever does any member of Charlie's family or any of Charlie's true supporters condone any such action."
"We want to give all our devotion and attention to this area." This is just the second time that Project Wing have tested their drone delivery service in Australia. In 2014 a farmer in outback Queensland became the first person not affiliated with X to receive a delivery. It was of Cherry Ripes. Mr Burgess said the drone is capable of delivering up to 1.5 kilograms of goods, and could carry anything from milk to medicines. He said that having prior experience in Australia and a good relationship with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority helped the decision to come to the region.

Googong presented an interesting opportunity for Project Wing as it is a rapidly growing area but one that is not serviced by a shopping precinct. Having participants that are forced to travel for basic supplies "shows the value proposition of what we offer," said Mr Burgess. Testing of the drones will occur in the Fernleigh Park area for the next two to three weeks, with expansion expected from there. Mr Burgess said the company's intention is to test in suburbs of Canberra, however, he couldn't confirm a timeframe for when this would take place. "We have the approvals and regulations [from CASA] we can comply with to date for these tests, and then we're working towards ongoing approval and further expansion of the tests for a later date," Mr Burgess said.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the authority was eager to see autonomous aircraft have a future in Australia. "We're very keen to foster this innovation and development, providing the safety precautions are met," Mr Gibson said. Managing the safety of those involved in the tests had been a major focus for the Project Wing team. The drone is a very different model to the one tested in Queensland, notably for its 12 hover motors that allow for different motors to be utilised in case of an emergency. "Safety comes first for us," Mr Burgess said.

"There are risks in everyday situations. Even with a delivery driver taking an automobile, that's not a zero-risk. He said their approach was to have better safety rates than existing transport technologies. While the drone is capable of fully automated operation, all flights in the Fernleigh Park tests will be under supervision of a pilot on the ground that can override controls if necessary. Residents of Fernleigh Park were consulted about the plans to test delivery drones on Saturday at a community event. They will have the opportunity to opt-in to the tests and receive packages via drone. Mr Burgess said they were in conversation with a number of interested residents.

Moving forward with the testing depends on the feedback received in the initial stages, Mr Burgess said. Testing in this region will focus on how users of the service found the experience rather than technical capabilities of the drones, which has largely been tested in the USA. Coming from the highly competitive world of Silicon Valley, most of the company's previous projects - including self-driving cars and Google Brain - have been kept tightly under wraps. While Mr Burgess said that expansion into other parts of Australia may happen eventually, the focus now is on the Canberra region. "We expect to be maintaining a continuous presence in the Canberra and NSW area," he said.
Volunteers behind a project to build safe, supportive and long-term accommodation for people with serious mental health issues say the government is ignoring people most in need.

The not-for-profit group My Home in Canberra, which proposed the initiative in 2013, said the ACT government needed to act with greater urgency to provide basic human rights for people with mental health problems who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Shukry Sahhar and John Tucker at the site of the proposed supported accomodation project in Curtin. Credit:Rohan Thomson

President John Tucker said the provision of supportive housing was sidelined by the government again.

"They have not designated any specific money for My Home," Mr Tucker said of the recent ACT budget.
guy39 said:







HaIl KeK There was also several, actually the majority of companies on that list that was not. Nice try. You got caught cherry picking.HaIl KeK Click to expand...

Cherry picking? Really? Regarding which conclusion that could be formed from the data that was provided when you cited that article with that list of companies? Indeed, cherry picking of that dataset most certainly could not occur regarding your conclusion that "Billions so far not trillions" of "government money (is) being pissed away" since the monies listed in that dataset could not possibly be used to determine that "Billions so far not trillions" of "government money (is) being pissed away." In fact, that article that you cited quite clearly and accurately stated, "the amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered."So then, once again, how exactly did you conclude that "Billions so far not trillions" of "government money (is) being pissed away?"
In their 44 years of marriage, Peter Low often handed his wife documents to sign.

Like many in a marriage, Jennifer Low never bothered much with the fine print and, trusting her husband, always signed the dotted line.

Rien Low with his sister Brooke and mother Jenny, who is in an uphill battle with Suncorp Bank. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

But her decision to disengage with their financial dealings would be one she would regret, when Mr Low died unexpectedly and five outstanding bank loans in excess of $1 million were revealed.

"Mum had no idea. There were five loans of over $1 million, and her name was all over the paperwork," said their son Rien Low, who spoke to Fairfax Media on Mrs Low's behalf.
They are the four women who stood up to Eman Sharobeem as she rorted taxpayer funds for the needy.

Workers who spoke out about their boss at two not-for-profit community groups for newly arrived immigrant women  despite what some perceived as her bullying, manipulative behaviour and indifference from boards and government departments to their complaints.

Nevine Ghaly arrives at ICAC. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Watfa El-Baf, Marie Abboud, Nevine Ghaly and Chanthaneth 'Neth' Chanthalangsy burst the bubble of the former Australian of the Year awards finalist's fraudulent reign at the Immigrant Women's Health Service and the Non-English Speaking Housing organisation.

Their action stands in contrast to state and federal politicians, government departments and agencies, and publicly funded organisations like the National Australia Day Council and SBS, who promoted a woman whose fraudulent back story and behaviour none appear to have checked.
Three men have been stabbed at a bar in Sydney's south after another man who was evicted from the premises allegedly returned with a knife.

Police say two men had been arguing at Rocksia Hotel on the Princes Highway at Arncliffe in the early hours of Sunday.

A man aged in his 30s was escorted off the premises but allegedly returned with a knife and stabbed three men before fleeing.

One man suffered cuts to his hand, one man had wounds to his stomach and shoulder and the third suffered a chest wound.

Witnesses chased the alleged offender and held him until police arrived.
Drugs, weapons and counterfeit currency have been seized during raids across south-east Queensland, which resulted in a dozen people being arrested and charged.

Eight search warrants were executed at residences in Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast on Friday morning, targeting an alleged criminal syndicate distributing methylamphetamine.

Drugs, weapons and counterfeit cash were seized by Queensland and Federal police officers during the raids as part of Operation Marconi. Credit:Queensland Police Service

Police said officers seized a variety of dangerous drugs, including half-a-kilogram each of cocaine, cannabis and methylamphetamine. Weapons were also allegedly located including hand guns, a double-barreled shotgun and a taser, along with more than $4000 of counterfeit cash and a printer used in the production.

Police charged 12 people with 76 offences. The main targets of the raids were a 24-year-old Upper Coomera man, who was charged with possession and distribution of counterfeit money as well as trafficking and possession of dangerous drugs.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has shrugged off accusations from the Queensland government that he has not provided enough money for Tropical Cyclone Debbie relief.

On Friday night the federal government advised Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk they would approve an assistance package of $58.6 million of the $220 million requested to help cyclone-hit communities rebuild.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks at the LNP state conference in Brisbane on Saturday. Credit:AAP

Ms Palaszczuk said the Prime Minister had "abandoned" these communities, and delegates at the state LNP conference in Brisbane should call on the Prime Minister to rethink his decision.

At the conference on Saturday morning, Mr Turnbull said the federal government already provided Queensland with plenty of disaster funding.
Four men who were reported missing on Saturday after their dinghy failed to return, have been found safe and well.

The boat left Wujal Wujal, 350 kilometres north of Cairns, about 11am on Saturday and was believed to be headed towards the nearby Hope Islands or Pickersgill Reef.

Water police along with two rescue helicopters searched for a missing dinghy off the far north Queensland coast. Credit:Queensland Police Service

It was expected to return by late afternoon but failed to do so, triggering an air and marine search by the evening.

However, about 9.20am on Sunday the vessel was spotted after it had run aground on a reef. All four men on board were airlifted to Cooktown Hospital for assessment.
A humpback whale calf has died off the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon, while its mother was freed after being found entangled in shark nets.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, they were notified of the mother whale in distress off Kurrawa Beach about 1pm and sent out a rescue team, as did Sea World.

A juvenile Humpback whale caught in a shark net off the Gold Coast in 2005 (file picture). Credit:Gold Coast Bulletin

Rescuers managed to free the whale, but as the mammal swam away they noticed the dead calf on the sea bed.

The spokesman said either the calf had been stillborn and the stress caused the mother to swim into the nets, or the calf had been stillborn due to the mother's stress of being caught.
A man has died after crashing his four-wheel-drive on the central Queensland coast during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Just before 4am a white Toyota Landcruiser left the Bruce Highway and crashed in Ogmore, about 155 kilometres north of Rockhampton.

The driver, a 29-year-old man from nearby St Lawrence, was declared dead at the scene and anyone who witnessed the crash was being urged to come forward.

Meanwhile, a pedestrian has been seriously injured after being hit by a car on the Gold Coast.

A 32-year-old man was hit on the Gold Coast Highway in Miami about 1.30am and was left in the Gold Coast University Hospital with serious head injuries.
A teenage boy has been airlifted to Brisbane in a critical condition after being hit by a four-wheel-drive in Rainbow Beach on Saturday morning.

The 13-year-old boy was riding his bicycle on Carlo Street when he was hit and the RACQ Lifeflight Rescue helicopter was called to the scene about 9.20am.

The 13-year-old boy was riding his bicycle along Carlo Street in Rainbow Beach when he was hit (file picture).

The victim was airlifted to the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in a critical condition, suffering serious head and lower leg injures as well as possible spinal injuries.

It was the second time the boy had been airlifted by RACQ LifeFlight Rescue, after he had a skateboarding accident two years ago.
Australian schools are tracking what students do on their mobile phones using technology that can also disable their cameras.

In a bid to protect students from pornography, predators and other online dangers, some schools are turning to technology that notifies teachers, parents and welfare staff when students access concerning material on their mobile phones.

Australian schools are monitoring what students do on their mobile phones using technology that can also disable their cameras.

But students and privacy experts have raised concerns about the initiative, which they say erodes trust and puts children under unnecessary surveillance.

The surveillance tool, which has been developed by Australian company Family Zone and is being rolled out at 40 schools, can also block students' access to inappropriate internet sites and "distracting" phone apps.
A coyote sprinted through the Marys Peak meadow Friday morning as Dave Eckert was using a pair of long-handled loppers to remove baby noble fir trees from the ground.

Eckert was surrounded by orange tiger lily flowers and leafy bracken fern. A pair of white-and-black swallowtail butterflies fluttered past.

It is this ecosystem of plants and animals that Eckert is working to preserve. He was one of a dozen Marys Peak Alliance volunteers who gathered Friday to cut young noble fir trees from the meadows at the summit of the mountain.

Meadows actually are very important pieces of the entire ecology of the coastal mountains, Eckert said.

The meadow restoration began with a U.S. Forest Service project, he said. Several years ago, experts reviewed aerial photos of Marys Peak from 1948 and saw the demarcation between the noble fir forest and the meadows had moved: Trees were growing into the meadows. So, in 2015, the Forest Service began removing trees from the meadows.

The meadows now have the chance to recover, Eckert said.

There are many hypotheses as to why the trees began growing in the meadows, he said. Soil disturbance caused by human activity is a likely culprit.

From 1946 through 1984, thousands of people visited the meadows each year for the Marys Peak Trek, a fundraiser for Shriners Hospital, Eckert said. People would disturb the soil in the meadows by driving on them and digging fire pits. When cones fall from the fir trees and spread seeds on the ground, the seeds are more likely to take root where the soil had been disturbed, he said.

Global climate change is also a possible contributor to the meadow encroachment, Eckert said. As the atmosphere warms and winters are not as cold, noble fir trees begin to grow at a higher elevation, he said.

Frank Davis, a retired Forest Service planner who was volunteering with the Marys Peak Alliance on Friday, said visitors to the mountain should stay on official trails so they dont disturb the soil in the meadows. People interested in assisting in the meadow restoration can contact the nonprofit.

Keeping a balance between the forest and meadows will be an ongoing project, Davis said.

This could happen 20 times a year and it may not be enough, he said.

Davis said hes unsure how many trees the Forest Service and volunteers have removed.

It feels like billions at the end of the day, he said.

Marty Stein, a Forest Service botanist, said he hopes visitors to Marys Peak appreciate the continued maintenance carried out by people who love the mountain.

Shuo Liu, a junior business management student at Oregon State University, was helping to remove trees Friday with peers from his sustainability class.

I loved this mountain for four years and I saw it as an opportunity to do something back for this community, said Liu, who is from China.

Cindy McCain, a retired Forest Service ecologist who organized Fridays efforts, said she feels a responsibility to preserve the white yarrow flowers, blue Roemer's fescue grass and purple lupine flowers that are among the species growing in the Marys Peak meadows.

Were losing the meadows very quickly and if we dont act now we wont have any meadows left to work with, McCain said.
A pedestrian has died after a crash in Heidelberg Heights on Friday night in Melbourne's north-east.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the man, who is yet to be formally identified, left a premises on Bell Street about 10.45pm and crossed the road when he was struck by a vehicle.

The man was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.

The driver of the vehicle, an 82-year-old Coburg man, is assisting police with enquiries.
One of Western Australia's last "old country pubs" has been gutted by fire in the state's South West.

The Quinninup tavern was a former timber milling company's worker's social club, nestled amongst tall Karri trees between Manjimup and Pemberton, around 350 kilometres from Perth.

The Quinninup tavern was destroyed in the blaze. Credit:Michael Eastwood

The tavern was part of the Karri Lake area, which was established after the mill's closure in 1982 to bring tourists and holidaymakers to the region.

Manjimup police said fire tore through the historic building on Friday, destroying it despite the efforts of local firefighters and volunteers.
New York: Picture the scene from the 1984 Ghostbusters movie in which Dr Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, complains about being "slimed". Then multiply that a thousandfold, and you'll get some idea of what happened on a coastal highway in Depoe Bay, Oregon.

A truck hauling 3.4 tonnes of hagfish (Myxinidae), also known as slime eels, was travelling on Highway 101 around noon on Thursday, transporting the fish to be exported to South Korea, where some diners consider them a delicacy.

Traffic was halted for road construction, but truck driver Salvatore Tragale was unable to stop. The truck's load shifted, causing one of the containers carrying the hagfish to "fly across the highway," the Oregon State Police said.

The other containers - there were 13 in total, then spilled, leading to a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles, and coating the road and cars in copious amounts of the slime the wriggling fish produce for protection when stressed.
Over 1,200 mail-in votes added to Montco totals; Bucks still in limbo

Two of Montgomery County's three commissioners said they did not support disenfranchising more than 1,200 voters because of a handful of rule breakers
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
LEBANON  Organizers of last year's "Berniestock," a free music festival dedicated to progressive politics, are putting together "Berniestock II" on Sunday, July 30.

The event will be from noon to dusk at Ralston Park in Lebanon and will feature local arts and crafts, information booths, food carts and music from at least seven bands.

Last year's festival was meant in part to spur interest in and support for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was a candidate for president of the United States. Sanders won Oregon's Democratic primary but lost the nomination to Hillary Clinton, who then went on to lose to Republican Donald Trump for the presidency.

Sanders is no longer running for office, but the mission of this year's event is "community-building and celebration," according to the group of eight organizers.

"Although it is not an election year, it is important to keep going because it is what Bernie has instilled in us. He wants us to start in our own towns. Working together at the local level to build that sense of community," said Sara Steeves of Lebanon, a co-organizer. "This event is to keep that feeling going; to encourage people to get involved and to inspire them to be the change they want to see."

Steeves said voter registration booths will be a part of the festival. Lack of voter turnout, she said, was a concern of the group during the 2016 election.

"If this year is as successful as last year we definitely intend to have Berniestock III next year," she said. "Being a midterm election year, it will be very important."
A few of those who attended music maestro AR Rahman's concert in London took to Twitter to express their displeasure because the Chennai-born Rahman played a couple of Tamil tracks alongside Hindi ones. Some in the audience felt that this was a disgrace since it was Hindi music that brought him international fame.
Director Christopher Nolan has praised the ensemble cast of "Dunkirk" at the film's world premiere in London.

Prince Harry was a special guest at the event, which took place at Leicester Square, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nolan's WWII epic is a true story of trapped Allied troops being rescued from the beaches of in 1940.

Actors Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles were in attendance at the premiere.

"I passionately believe that this is one of the greatest casts put together for any movie," Nolan said, also offering his admiration to the 13 British army veterans who were in attendance at the premiere.

"One of the things I love about the film is that it doesn't set itself up to be important," said Branagh, who plays a Navy commander, adding that it is focused mainly on ordinary lives. "And it's all the more moving for it."

Styles, meanwhile, joked that may be his first and only film.

"Maybe I've peaked too soon," he said, adding that movie had made him "better at swimming.




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Over 1.86 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir Himalayas, so far.

"Today, on the 16th day of the yatra, 9,719 yatris paid obeisance at the holy cave and cumulatively 1,86,853 pilgrims have had its darshan since the beginning of the pilgrimage," an official spokesman said.

Escorted by the CRPF and the police personnel, the fresh batch, consisting of 3,111 males, 892 females and 102 sadhus and sadhvis, left in a convoy of 191 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base-camps this morning, officials said.

Several Kashmiri Pandits today gathered at the Jantar Mantar here to pay tribute to the victims of the recent terror attack on Amarnath yatris.

Various NGOs of the community led by Kashmiri Samiti Delhi along with All Party Migrant Coordination Committee, Panun Kashmir, Roots in Kashmir and Youth For Panun Kashmir express their solidarity with the injured and the family of those killed.

They lighted lamps and prayed for the deceased.

They also vowed to fight against "separatism" and for the unity and integrity of India.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed when their bus was attacked by terrorists in Anantnag on July 10.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Practising medicine in the United Kingdom in the year 1998 showed Dharminder Nagar the way in more ways than one.
A senior Pakistan army official has accused Indian's external intelligence agency - The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) -- of targeting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Zubair Mehmood Hayat made these remarks on Saturday while addressing the passing out ceremony for Midshipmen Commissioning and Short Service Commission (SSC) at the Pakistan Naval Academy in Karachi.

"We are aware of the enemies' designs to hamper CPEC," Geo News quoted General Hayat, as saying.

Emphasising that the armed forces of Pakistan will defeat all plans of enemies, General Hayat said the army was taking synergetic efforts to deal with such challenges.

The ceremony was attended by 100 officers, including 28 cadets from Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. He said the armed forces aim to get Pakistan rid of terrorism.

Reiterating that Pakistan seeks harmonious co-existence with its neighbours, General Hayat said that peace in Afghanistan is fundamental to peace in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah was also present at the ceremony.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday to discuss the security situation in the valley in the wake of the Amarnath terror attack and said that "unfortunately China has also started interfering" in matters pertaining to the state.

After the 30-minute meeting at his residence here, she told the media that Monday night's attack on the Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in which seven devotees were killed was aimed at "disturbing communal harmony".

She blamed the unrest on "external forces" and thanked Singh for "supporting us in tough times".

"External forces are involved in this fight, there is infiltration, militants are coming. Their attempt is to spoil the atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir," Mehbooba said, adding "Now, unfortunately, China has also started interfering."

"The way communal harmony was maintained in the whole country...The enemy wanted to cause communal riots in the whole country by this attack.

"I am thankful to the people of my country and the Home Minister that in this difficult situation they supported us, and in this situation, which involves external forces... I am happy that all our political parties are together," she said.

"We are not fighting for law and order situation in Kashmir... Until the whole nation and all political parties are united, we cannot win this fight," she said.

Asked if there was any discussion on Article 370, she said: "When the GST (Goods and Services Tax) was passed, the President reaffirmed that Article 370 will be taken in account... Article 370 is linked to the sentiments of people of Kashmir."

Seven pilgrims were killed and 14 others, including policemen, injured when a bus of Amarnath Yatris was attacked in Anantang district. The bus was carrying pilgrims back from Baltal after the yatra.

China on Wednesday said it was ready to play a "constructive role" in improving India-Pakistan ties over Kashmir, where the "situation has attracted the attention of the international community".

However, India rebuffed Beijing's offer, saying "We are ready to talk Kashmir with Pakistan, but no third party mediation."

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the academic year about to begin, the takes a slew of measures to ensure ragging-free and disciplined campus.

In its proctorial meeting with officials of the DTC, Delhi Metro and the Delhi police held today, decisions to make the campuses women-friendly were also taken.

The university will set up two control rooms in North and South campus from July 20 to August 2 for easing the induction process of the freshers.

The Delhi police will deploy women police personnel in plain clothes in the varsity premises to curb ragging or eve- teasing incidents, according to a release issued by the university.

All colleges will get police picket points with a special assistance to women colleges. Besides, all eating joints on the campus will be under extra vigil.

"The Delhi Metro has been requested to make announcements in trains and stations about the varsity being intolerant towards ragging," the release said.

Defacing of walls with graffiti and sensitive posters, unauthorised entry of outsiders to hostels have been prohibited, according to the release.

Sensitive areas in the campus have been put under electronic surveillance as a measure to curb ragging and maintain discipline.

Ragging can be reported to on anti-ragging helpline 1800 180 5522 or the North Campus control room (27667221) or on South Campus number 24119832.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will be holding a conclave here from Tuesday, in its first such meet in and Kashmir, during which issues related to the situation in the state and various other topics will be discussed.

The three-day Akhil Bhartiya Pracharak conference is meant to send a message to separatists and militants in Kashmir, according to the organisers.

As many as 195 pracharaks, heads of all allied organisations and top leaders will take part in the conference, sources said.

All issues concerning the country, party and society and also situation in Kashmir, besides organisational matters and programmes in the state, will be debated.

Sources indicated that increasing militancy, the functioning of the PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, stone-pelting and the attacks on security forces will be key topic tabled for discussion during the meeting.

chief Mohan Bhagwat, senior leaders Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal arrived in on Saturday for the meet, they said.

Bhagwat will chair different meetings of core groups from July 15 to July 17 to seek feedback and to finalise the agenda for the conference, in which all state heads of the RSS, regional heads and officer bearers will take part.
HALSEY  The Central Linn School Board has appointed David Karo to fill a position left open by the death of Chris Wyne.

Karo, 39, appointed at the board's June 12 meeting, will be a part of the board's first meeting of its new fiscal year on Aug. 14.

Wyne, who was first elected to represent Zone 7 on the board in 2005, had filed for re-election before his death April 10 at age 60. He was running unopposed on the May 16 ballot for a four-year term and voters chose him anyway, giving him 297 votes over 112 votes for write-in candidates.

Karo was one of two applicants for Wyne's position, which ends June 30, 2019. The other candidate did not live in the correct zone, according to the district office.

"I felt like the district had a need, and I felt qualified, so basically I was presenting myself as a qualified and willing individual," he said. "I thought, if I don't do it, who's going to?"

Karo is engineering manager for Clarke's Sheet Metal in Eugene and a volunteer with the Brownsville Rural Fire Protection District. He was born in Brownsville and graduated from Central Linn High School in 1995.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a torpedoman on board the USS Michigan out of Bangor, Washington, before moving to Corvallis to obtain a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University. He lived in Portland and Ohio before moving back to Brownsville with his family in 2015. This is his third round of volunteering with the fire department, having served just out of high school and also during his time at OSU.

In his application for the position, Karo said he had heard Wyne was considering stepping down from the board, so he started attending meetings to get up to speed on district issues.

"I was relieved that he decided to run again, and then saddened by his sudden passing," Karo wrote.

Karo told the board in his application his primary goal as a member will be to get a new school for the district. He said he believes the district is "on the cusp of a new era" and that "new facilities would be a game changer."

He told the Democrat-Herald he's leaning toward new construction but is open to the idea of repairs if that's what the district finds most feasible.

"The tragedy of public buildings is, of course, we have to pay prevailing wages, and prevailing are just not realistic in our area," he said. "Its going to cost the school district a lot of money, even if we just do repairs."

Karo said he would support a new bond measure for the district and said he believes the key to passing it is better marketing.

Karo and his wife have two children, one not yet ready for school and one who will be a first-grader this fall.
An aggresive China did not anticipate India stepping in a strong manner to defend Bhutan's territorial sovereignty during its unilateral move to build a motorable road from Dokala in Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp in Zornpelri, according to Ryszard Czarnecki, vice president of the European Parliament.

In an article written for EP Today, Czarnecki has exposed Beijing's lie of assuring the international community that its 'peaceful rise' would not in any way threaten the established order, but instead promote a peaceful international environment.

He clearly states that China has been following a foreign policy that squarely infringes on internationally accepted norms.

Referring specifically to the tri-junction politico-military impasse in Doklam involving China, India and Bhutan, Czarnecki said, "On June 16, China's unilateral move to build a motorable road from Dokala in Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp in Zornpelri is an illustration of this policy .. Bhutan's objection to construction activities by China in the disputed Doklam area, conveyed through diplomatic channels, was possibly expected by China. However, what China may not have foreseen was India stepping in to defend Bhutan's territorial sovereignty."



"(The) Chinese action in the Doklam plateau can be seen as a part of the country's recent tendency to unilaterally change the ground situation in areas that are disputed. The most well-reported example has been China's deliberate move to disrupt the status quo in the South China Sea.. by conveniently ignoring the maritime territorial claims of Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines in the region .. expanding its strategic outreach in the area," says the European Parliament vice president.

China, he opines, may have only gambled, anticipated and calculated that Bhutan would not be able to retaliate through force, and believed that the construction of the road would be completed within weeks, giving it a clear strategic advantage.

However, all didn't go as planned. The movement of Indian troops, done in consultation with the Government of Bhutan and with the principal objective to maintain status quo, was probably not anticipated by China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and its state-owned media reacted predictably to the Indian action with strong rhetoric, including reminding India of its defeat in the Indo-China war in 1962.

"China's propaganda machinery has gone into an overdrive to implicate India for the border stand-off, conveniently glossing over the fact that China had taken the first step to change the status quo of the tri-junction area that it had committed to maintain under the Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity, signed with India in 1993. China is now insisting that it would not hold any dialogue on the matter till Indian troops withdrew from the area," Czarnecki says in his article.

He concludes by saying that "China needs to realize that its unprecedented economic and military growth must go hand in hand with respect for international rules. Without that, it will be hard to believe in assurances of 'win-win' and 'shared destiny' by the Chinese leadership.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Friday urged the government to engage diplomatically with China to deescalate the situation in Doklam and resolve the border crisis without compromising on India's interests.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mallikarjun Kharge attended a meeting where top Union ministers and officials briefed the political parties on the standoff between India and China.

The Congress leaders also alleged security lapses in Jammu and Kashmir that led to the attack on Amarnath pilgrims and asked the government to engage with the local population and help improve the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

The Congress made it clear that when it comes to security, all the parties are with the government as security was the party's priority.

"We stand united when it comes to India's national interests," Sharma said.

"We had concerns. We told the government to deescalate the situation and resolve the crisis by diplomatically engaging with China without compromising on India's security interests," he said.

The Congress had earlier raised concerns over the situation in Doklam area where the armies of China and India are in a border standoff for a month now after Indian troops objected to road construction in the area.

Sources said the opposition was informed about the ground situation in Dokalam area and what the government intended to do to de-escalate the border tension.

Azad also said that all opposition parties have assured the government that when it comes to territorial integrity of the country they all stand united.

He also raised the issue of the overall internal security situation in the country in the wake of rising incidents of lynchings and vigilantism.

He also urged the government on the need to initiate engagement in Kashmir to improve the situation in the valley after all-round condemnation of attacks on Amarnath pilgrims.

The Congress has been critical of the government for not keeping it informed over the developments on the border standoff with China and on the internal security situation.

During the meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affiars Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders of various political parties on the situation in Dokalam area and the steps being taken by the government in this regard.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were also present and gave detailed presentations also.

The briefing comes ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning on Monday, and is being viewed as an attempt to apparently build a consensus to deal with India's biggest neighbour as well as on the Kashmir issue.

AICC media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala earlier in the day took a jibe at the government, saying it was "satisfying" to see that the NDA government had "finally woken up" after three years to brief the opposition on the issues concerning the nation.

Criticising the Modi government, he said the previous Congress-led UPA regime had always kept the opposition in the loop on such critical issues.

He alleged that the present situation in Kashmir was the result of the "immaturity and failure" of the PDP-BJP government in the state, and the Centre.

"Unfortunately, the prime minister and the BJP government think they have all the answers. They have not taken the opposition into confidence on the issue. We hope they take us into confidence," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three militants were killed on Saturday in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, defence sources said.

The anti-terror operation was still on in the densely forested Satoora area of Tral.

Two of the slain militants were locals affiliated with the Zakir Musa group. Their bodies were being recovered, the sources added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There is nothing about Indiranagar, Bengalurus middle class suburb, to suggest subversion might be brewing here. Least of all at the Suryawanshi restaurant, an open-air dhaba-type establishment, which serves authentic Maharashtrian food: misal-pav, fragrant lavender-coloured sol kadi and batata vada. You can pay using good ol cash, credit card, mobile wallet... and also bitcoin. Suyawanshi reported its first bitcoin transaction last month.
Saudi Arabias ambassador to India, Saud Mohammed Alsati, tells Aditi Phadnis that his country along with three others cut diplomatic and consular ties with Qatar because it reneged on its past commitments and assurances and continued to shelter extremist and terror groups.
In a first, the Odisha government would come up with a single portal that will cater to the whole gamut of approvals needed by investors to set up shop in the state. This portal to replace the existing E-Biz portal is designed to track the entire stage of an investment  from proposal to production and also post allotment issues.
Solar photovoltaic modules are the most important components of a plant and developing a robust local manufacturing capability is key to creating jobs, reducing forex outflows and increasing foreign investment. Domestic solar manufacturers need to be supported, to enable them to compete in the domestic and international markets against the implicit subsidies provided to imported modules. This article focuses on the current market scenario for domestic modules, and recommends a roadmap.
CIC organised seminar on Land Records and RTI Act, 2005

The Central Information Commission (CIC) organised a seminar on Land Records and Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005", here today. Addressing the seminar, Chief Information Commissioner Shri Radha Krishna Mathur said that almost half of the RTI queries received by the State Information Commissions relate to Land Records. He said Land Resources primarily being a State subject, it is incumbent upon the State Governments to put out information on Land Records in the public domain. Shri Mathur said that Land issues are at the heart of administrative India and majority of crimes in the society are related to land disputes. He said that the digitization of Land Records will bring about clarity in land holdings, thereby help reduce criminal cases, cut pendency of court cases and also result in huge savings to the public exchequer.Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dinesh Singh, Secretary, Department of Land Resources (DLR), said Land Records is fundamental to every citizen and affects every individual. He said that an integrated Land Information Management System is under implementation which will serve as a single window database for the various stakeholders such as the land owner(s) and civic agencies and linking this database with the Aadhar number will eventually eliminate benami transactions.Prof M. Sridhar Acharyulu, Information Commissioner, CIC, said almost 66% court cases in the country are related to land disputes costing a whopping Rs.58,000 crore in litigation, both civil and criminal. He said Land Records digitization can help accelerate Indias GDP by as much as 1.3%.Shri Hukum Singh Meena, Joint Secretary, DLR, Ministry of Rural Development, said Land Records Modernization Programme has been implemented in 31 States and UTs. The process of integrating Aadhar Number and linking it with the Record of Right (RoR) has been undertaken in five States, he added.Speakers included Shri Himangshu Sekhar Das, CIC, Assam, Shri Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, CIC, Jammu & Kashmir, Shri K. Ramanujam, CIC, Tamil Nadu, Dr.

Namita Wahi of the Centre for Policy Research and Founding Director of the Land Rights Initiative, Ms. Mridula Singh of The World Bank, Shri Kedar Prasad Burande, Joint Director, Defence Estates, Shri Vikram Singh Chauhan, Special Secretary (Revenue), Government of Rajasthan, Dr. C. S. Kumar, Principal Secretary of Revenue & DM Department, Government of Odisha, and experts including Shri Rahul Matthan, Shri M. Sunil Kumar, Shri Amlanjyoti Goswami, Dr. Reshmy Nair, Shri B. H. Veeresha and Shri Baladevan Rangaraju. Information Commissioner, CIC, Shri Yashovardhan Azad, chaired the proceedings during the seminar. The seminar was attended by Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of State Governments Land Resources/ Revenue Departments, Chief Information Commissioners and Information Commissioners from State Information Commissions and Central Information Commission. In addition, some NGOs working in the area of land records also participated.
President of India addresses Ex-Servicemen rally at Nabagram Military Station

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee addressed an Ex-servicemen rally at Nabagram Military Station in West Bengal today (July 15, 2017).Addressing the gathering, the President expressed happiness at getting this one last chance to meet the jawans, Veer Naris and Ex-servicemen of the region prior to his demitting office. He applauded the discipline and organisational capacity of the Ex-servicemen and expressed hope that Nabagram would not only become a model military station but also bring about all round development of the area in terms of creation of jobs and infrastructure.

He expressed his reverence for the Veer Naris and said that though their loss could never be replaced, the government would continue to look after them. He also applauded the efforts made by the GOC-in-C, EC to ensure fast development of the military station. On the occasion, the President also felicitated six Veer Naris and two Ex-soldiers. The first Ex-Servicemen rally at Nabagram Military Station, organised by the Brahmastra Corps of Army's Eastern Command was attended by more than two thousand veterans and Veer Naris from Murshidabad and neighbouring areas.
LINN COUNY COURTHOUSE

Meth dealer arraigned  3 p.m. Friday. Ricardo Viramontes, 42, was charged with delivery of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school. Citing Viramontes' 12 other arrests for similar charges in Illinois, as well as a pending prison sentence for meth dealing, the state announced it would seek an enhanced sentence, should Viramontes be convicted. He was ordered held on $100,000 security.

Meth-dealing and resisting arrest  3 p.m. Friday. Rikkiah May Alexander, 29, faces 11 criminal charges, including delivery if methamphetamine, resisting arrest, and failure to appear. Prosecutor Colleen Cerda told the court Alexander has eight failures to appear on her record. Alexander argued she had only once not checked in with her probation officer, but Judge Thomas McHill learned otherwise when he checked her record. She was ordered held on $10,000 security.

Out-of-state fugitive  3 p.m. Friday. Leeoduis Hill, 31, was charged with reckless driving and possession of methamphetamine. He also faces an out-of-state fugitive warrant, for which he will be extradited. He was held on $55,000 security.
China freed the most prominent dissident jailed under President Xi Jinping, drawing further attention to the countrys human-rights record amid an outcry over the death of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.
The US forces have killed Abu Sayed, the leader of ISIS-Khorasan, the terror group's Afghanistan affiliate, said a CNN report.

Quoting Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White, the CNN report said, "The 'Emir' of ISIS-K was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province on July 11."

US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces Afghanistan, said Sayed was killed in an airstrike by a US drone. The initial Pentagon statement described Sayed being killed in a "raid".

The CNN reported Secretary of Defence James Mattis as saying that "the death of a leader like Sayed is obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back, it's the right direction".

Gen. John Nicholson, Commander, US Forces Afghanistan said in a statement, "This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017. Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan."

Hafiz Sayed Khan was killed in July 2016 and another emir Abdul Hasib was killed during a joint US-Afghan commando raid in April.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country was prepared to banish American diplomats if the United States (US) does not undo its decision to expel 35 Russian diplomats and block access to Russian diplomatic estates.

CNN quoted the ministry's spokeswoman, Maria V Zakharova, as saying that after US President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin last week, Russia expected the US "to take a more constructive approach" to resolving the dispute.

"The time is ticking," Zakharova said. "We know how to respond."

In December, former US President Barack Obama ordered the removal of 35 Russians suspected of being spies after American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Adding to this, Obama administration announced that it would close two Russian waterfront compounds outside Washington and New York, describing them as spy nests, CNN reported.

At the time, Russian President Putin said that his would not respond in kind, suggesting that he expected a different relationship with Trump administration.

Zakharova described Obama's moves as a "provocation" intended at derailing Trump's attempts to improve bilateral relations.

"We gave time for the new administration to examine this disgusting legacy and begin to build the bilateral relationship on the basis of mutual respect," Zakharova said. "Half a year has passed and we don't see any concrete steps."

The US is now denying issuing visas to Russian diplomats waiting to replace those who were expelled, according to Zakharova.

Russia could expel more than 35 Americans, Zakharova said, making sure that the same number of diplomats works in the US Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Washington.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The meeting that Donald Trump Jr. had in June 2016 with a woman billed as a Russian government lawyer included at least one other person with long-standing ties to Russia.
Grab, Uber Technologies Inc's biggest rival in Southeast Asia, is raising as much as $2 billion in funding from Japan's SoftBank Group and China's top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The deal, which could close in the next few weeks, would value Singapore-based Grab at more than $5 billion, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The reported funding comes amid efforts by Grab to transform into a consumer technology firm that also offers loans, electronic money transfer and money-market funds.

Grab declined to comment, while SoftBank and Didi did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Grab, which operates its ride-hailing platform in 55 cities across seven countries, raised $750 million in a funding round in September, with sources then valuing the five-year-old startup at over $3 billion.

The reported deal also comes at a time when San Francisco-based Uber, the world's largest ride-hailing service, faces setbacks at home ranging from accusations of a sexist work culture and driver protests.

Uber's challenges have culminated in the departure of co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, who stepped down under investor pressure last month.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Despite remaining dependent on imports for over 55 per cent of its edible oil demand, India is set to see around a fifth of its soybean output going uncrushed this season, thanks to a sharp fall in prices and cheap oil imports from Indonesia and Malaysia.
An American journalist and three other security guards are still missing the militia attack on a security station, local media reports said.

At least 10 people had gone missing after an attack on Friday by the Mai Mai militia outside the town of Mambasa in Congo's Okapi Wildlife Reserve.

No detail about the missing journalist was immediately available. Army reinforcements have been deployed since Friday night to search for those missing.

The reports said that six Congolese rangers were found on Saturday in a large forest reserve in Congo's northeast.

Two British journalists and five other park rangers, part of the same team, escaped after the attack, making their way to another Okapi reserve base.

The park rangers are part of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SWEET HOME  New battery-powered extrication tools valued at nearly $65,000 have been delivered to the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, replacing equipment that is 28 years old.

Fire Chief Dave Barringer said the new equipment is being paid for through a 31 cents per $1,000 property value bond approved by voters in 2016.

We had budgeted $100,000 for these tools, but were able to get significant savings, Barringer said.

The tools include two cutters, two spreaders, two combination tools  cutter and spreader in one  and a ram.

The tools they are replacing are hydraulic, powered by a generator. The new one are powered by long-lasting batteries.

They are lighter, much faster and because they are battery-powered, they can go just about anywhere we need them, Barringer said.

Barringer said the old tools performed well and were well-maintained.

But there has just been such a big improvement in technology since 1989, Barringer said. The new tools are so much better and we are amazed at how fast they work.

Barringer said the fire and ambulance district boundaries include some rugged terrain, extending to the top of the Santiam Pass. Vehicles have ended up in some precarious places over the years.

We also have the option of plugging these tools into a power outlet, Barringer said.

The technology behind the tools is called eDraulics."

The tools will be set up on four emergency units.

The battery component makes these tools much more versatile, Barringer said.

Staff members demonstrated tools from four different companies and tore apart five cars with Hurst leading the pack.

The tools come with a full 10-year warranty, Barringer said.

The old tools will be retained as back-up resources.

Firefighter Josh Starha was involved in assessing purchase of the tools and said paid staff and volunteers of all experience levels found them easy to use and well-balanced.

We have volunteers with little experience and some with lots of experience and they all said these tools were super easy to use, he said.

Barringer said bond money is also being used to move an older medical unit box onto a new chassis at a shop in Ohio at a cost of $104,000, half the price of a new medic unit.

We also purchased a military surplus six-by-six chassis and are installing a 3,000-gallon tank to make it into a water tender, Barringer said.

It will be used for brush fires.

Barringer said the district will also receive a $339,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to add two staff members for the next three years.

The grant will allow the department to increase daily full-time staff from three to four people.
The Tehran Police on Saturday shot the attacker who had assaulted people waiting in Tehran's Shahr-e Rey Subway Station.

The security forces shot the attacker in one of his legs when he snubbed a police warning to surrender his weapon, IRNA news agency reported.

Four bystanders were also injured in the attack.

According to the report, the attacker supposedly died on the way to the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Excited about being in New York for IIFA, actress Alia Bhatt, who has collaborated with the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) for the first time this year, said being in the "Big Apple" for the event is like being at home.

Decked up in an attire designed by Manish Malhotra, the 24-year-old said, "I'm really excited as it's my first time at IIFA. So, a lot of things are happening for the first time."

"It's so exciting to be here in New York. You really don't feel like you are away from home, even though you are so far away. It's been really lovely so far," she said.

Talking about her debut performance, the 'Dear Zindagi' said, "I'm super excited, because we are performing at the MetLife Stadium and it's a huge stadium with 40,000 capacity. So, you can imagine what the energy would be like. I'm just hoping I remember all my steps."

The IIFA Rocks 2017 on day two celebrates 25 years of Oscar and Grammy winner A.R. Rahman in the music industry and features a special medley by the maestro along with musicians Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri.

Actors Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul will be hosting the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar must resign so that the fresh elections are conducted in the state.

Talking to ANI, BJP leader Rameshwar Chaurasia said that Nitish should resign as he is not working as per the spirit of the mandate that he got from people of Bihar.

The BJP's assertion came after Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, his son Tejashwi Yadav and other family members are facing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Income Tax probes over corruption allegations.

Chaurasia said that Bihar will never develop under such circumstances. Nitish Kumar must resign as he is not working according to the mandate that he got and pave way for elections.

Lalu Yadav said that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

"The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign," Lalu told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

"An FIR is not sufficient reason for the resignation," he added.

This assertion from the RJD chief thus brought an end to speculations that Tejashwi Yadav might step down from the post to save the ruling alliance.

The current crisis was sparked by the CBI raids last week on Lalu's residence and cases filed against him, Tejashwi and others in an alleged land-for-hotels scandal.

Since then, the two parties have directed barbs at each other, increasing pressure on chief minister Nitish Kumar to sack Tejashwi to protect an image of clean governance.

Earlier last week, the CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P.K. Goyal; and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejashwi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The national capital recently welcomed it's very first international and premium club, lounge and fine dine property Lithiyum at Hotel Ashok, Chankyapuri.

The big bang launch party, which held on July 13, was attended by all famous food and hospitality people and influencers.

Brainchild of Saurabh Katyal, Lithiyum has the most professional sound system in the world by Outline, which is an Italy based company.

The property is divided into three sections that consists of a Club Room, Drawing Room and an Arena.

Lithiyum is a never before luxurious amalgamation of a superior fine dine, gastropub nightclub and a cocktaileria.

"I am thrilled and overwhelmed by the response we have got from all the guests today. At Lithiyum, we promise to take the F&B industry a step forward with all the world class music system, lights, ambience, and fusion food," said MD Lithiyum, Saurabh Katyal.

At Lithiyum, one can relish the never before presented high end service with top-class butlers along with multicuisine food delicacies that are curated by internationally renowned celebrity Chef Akshay Nayyar.

"We are happy to make this launch a success. Lithiyum synchronizes with energy and surely the Place ends up your search for a perfect celebration," said Director Marketing Lithiyum, Ashutosh Sharma.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shahi Imam of Shahi Masjid Fatehpuri Mufti Mukarram Ahmad on Saturday said Kashmir is India's internal problem and dialogues must be held with Pakistan to find a permanent solution to the ongoing strife in the Valley.

Shahai Imam Ahmad's remarks came hours after Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, wrote a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, urging him to to resolve the unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

"Kashmir is India's internal problem. We have always advocated for peace in Kashmir and talks should be initiated with them who are creating disturbances. If Pakistan is anyhow being involved, then it is right to talk with them; if it is not, then there is no point in talking with them," Mukarram Ahmad told ANI.

The Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri Masjid said the government's top priority should be to resolve conflict in the Valley.

"India and Pakistan should hold dialogue to resolve the Kashmir dispute. We want peace and no outside person should be involved in India's integral matter," he added.

The Imam of Jama Masjid, in his letter, appealed to all stakeholders - the governments of India and Pakistan, Kashmiri leaders and militant youth - to declare ceasefire and resolve the issue through a dialogue.

In the June 22 letter, Bukhari stated that the peaceful valley has now become a valley of tears, which was once known as the paradise on earth.

"The Kashmir situation is becoming volatile day by day, resulting in an increase in tensions between the two countries (India and Pakistan) as days pass. I think that more delay in the creation of a favourable environment for peace shall make the settlement of the Kashmir issue more difficult," Bukhari said in his letter to Sharif.

"Therefore, with all the intellect, wisdom and prudence at our disposal, we must make every effort to safe Kashmir from the dangerous destruction and devastation it faces and pave the way for the establishment of peace there. The common people of Kashmir are in a state of terror and helplessness as they find their dreams for peace shattered," he added.

He warned and cautioned that the Kashmir issue can neither be solved through guns and stones nor through military expeditions.

"We should create an environment conducive for the talks at the earliest. Through exchange of views and dialogue on the larger issues, we all should formulate a strategy that is in the interest of both nations," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
France and Saudi Arabia have pledged to combat terrorism.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, in a bilateral meeting, agreed to take collective efforts to counter terrorism and extremism and stop terror financing, reports Al- Arabia.

They also discussed bilateral relations, aspects of cooperation and ways to promote them.

Le Drian commended Saudi Arabia's leadership in the fight against terrorism at a joint press conference with Saudi FM Jubeir in Jeddah.

Jubeir said he has assured the French foreign minister of the kingdom's "refusal to finance and support terrorism," also stating that they will provide France with a full file of the abuses committed by Qatar.

France is seeking to mediate in the Qatar crisis. Drian also visited Qatar said such punitive measures should end.

Addressing a press conference in Doha with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Drian said, "France is calling for these measures to be lifted, especially ones that affect the (Qatari) population, specifically measures that impact bi-national families that have been separated."

French Foreign Minister's visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar comes in the backdrop of ongoing Qatar crisis, which began when Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar in June 2017.

The Saudi-led coalition cited Qatar's alleged support for terrorism as the main reason for their actions, insisting Qatar has violated a 2014 agreement with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Qatar claims that it has assisted the United States in the War on Terror and the ongoing military intervention against Islamic State.

Saudi Arabia's move was welcomed by United States president Donald Trump despite a large U.S. presence at the Al Udeid Air Base, the primary base of U.S. air operations against the Islamic State.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, who will join the inimitable Karan Johar to host the 18th edition of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards here, says the event is going to be a lot of fun as the two have worked hard on the script.

At the IIFA Rocks green carpet, the Nawab of Bollywood told ANI, "I am hosting after a long time. KJo and I have worked a lot on the script and have tried it to make it interesting and funny."

He added: "We'll make fun of ourselves and a bit of others too! I am sure it's going to be a lot of fun. It's a huge stadium, lots of people will be here, and the whole world will see the program, I am sure they will like it."

Starting its journey in the year 2000 in London, IIFA has taken place at 15 locations across 12 countries and four continents.

Talking about one of Bollywood's biggest awards, the 'Rangoon' star said, "IIFA is like a gala and not just a normal award function. It has become a three-day cultural event now."

The IIFA Rocks 2017 on day two celebrates 25 years of Oscar and Grammy winner A.R. Rahman in the music industry and features a special medley by the maestro along with musicians Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri.

Actors Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul will be hosting the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Extremely excited to attend International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) award function, Bollywood actor Boman Irani on Saturday said that attending this award function annually has been like a family affair where the entire film fraternity spends time together away from their busy schedule.

While talking to ANI, the 57-year-old said, "I am always excited about IIFA because it's been like a family affair to me. My first IIFA was when I did 'Munna Bhai MBBS' and suddenly my whole world changed and I said 'this is wow, this is so fantastic, where the entire film industry gets together'."

"We never meet in Bombay, where everybody is doing there shooting and everybody is busy doing their thing. And suddenly we all are here together, plus we all have wonderful fans here, who really make you feel special," he added.

Talking about the efforts put in by Wizcraft for making this event a big success every year, the 'Happy New Year' star said, "I cannot state how important it is and how brave is of wizcraft to put up this show in a foreign land; get permissions and making people watch."

Reminiscing his past experiences with IIFA, the 'PK' star said that in a very spiritual way, he has been part of this IIFA family as he has hosted the event almost seven times.

Talking about his career, Boman said that he has completed three films - 'Drive' by Tarun Mansukhani under Dharma Productions, 'Parmanu' with John Abrahim, based on nuclear tests and a children's film called 'Jhalki'.

IIFA celebrates the achievements of Bollywood in different cities across the world, but this year it is being held at the iconic MetLife Stadium in New York from July 13-15.

The IIFA Rocks 2017 on day two will celebrate 25 years of Oscar and Grammy winner Rahman in the music industry and feature a special medley by the maestro along with musicians Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri.

This event will be hosted by Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul.

Besides Bollywood celebrities, several Hollywood stars have also been part of IIFA, including Angelina Jolie, action star Jackie Chan, Australian pop-star Kylie Minogue, British actor Colin Firth, Hollywood stars Hillary Swank, Kevin Spacey and John Travolta.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Support to the India-United States (US) engagement is bipartisan, said Indian Ambassador to US Navtej Sarna on Saturday.

He added that the support is across the US political spectrum that India has been appreciative of.

He was participating in a conversation with Democrat Tulsi Gabbard during FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum meeting here.

He termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent US visit as a landmark visit.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent US visit was really a landmark visit in the sense that it came very early in the new administration (Donald Trump administration). It came at a time when the new administration has not appointed everybody that it has to appoint. But, it came because there was a desire on the both sides that the two leaders should establish one to one relationship," Sarna said.

He further added that the entire White House experience was very warm and cordial.

"The meeting has given leverage to bureaucrats like us to pick up from where the previous Obama administration had left off and take this relationship forward," the Indian Ambassador said.

Sarna asserted that the broad theme of PM Modi and President Trump's meeting was theme of convergence.

"The one broad theme of the PM Modi's visit was theme of convergence. There was convergence on strategic issues, there was convergence on economic issues, there was convergence on global good."

Gabbard, the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, said that this is the most exciting time of India, US partnership.

"There is an alignment both on the political and economic fronts. The partnership is flourishing in other areas like technology, education, culture and even in arts. Having IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) here is more appropriate not only for Indian Americans but also for Americans, who have interest in Indian films," Gabbard said, adding that "these are the areas where those of us on the India caucus are very much looking forward to and very much excited about the opportunities that are beneficial for both the countries".

She said that the India-US joint statement that came out during PM Modi's US visit is quite impressive and extensive covering a number of different sectors.

It has laid down the path forward for the two countries, Gabbard said.

She also maintained that the India-US relations enjoy bipartisan support.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Indian medical student studying in a private university in Chittagong was stabbed to death during a dispute with a roommate .

The deceased identified as Ateef Sheikh is an Indian national of Manipuri ethnicity and was a final-year medical student at University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC).

Dhaka Tribune quoted a police official as saying that the incident took place at a flat in Lakeview society's Abdul Hamid Road late Friday night.

According to the report, Ateef was living with three other Indian medical students studying at USTC.

Ateef was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) as his throat was hit with something sharp that caused severe bleeding during the dispute.

However, he died before reaching the hospital. Police is investigating the matter.

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Indian ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna on Saturday said the Indo-US commitment towards eliminating terrorism has strengthened post Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington D.C.

"With Prime Minister Modi's visit, the Indo-US commitment on counter terrorism has strengthened," Sarna told ANI, on the sidelines of the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum meeting here.

Citing the joint statement addressed by Prime Minister Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump, Ambassador Sarna re-iterated that a strong message has been sent to Pakistan to take necessary action for curbing terrorism.

"The two leaders in their joint statement called upon Pakistan to not allow terrorism to come out of its territory. It also sets into motion a consultative mechanism for designation of terrorist organisations and individuals," he said.

In their joint press statement, Trump stressed on eliminating and destroying radical Islamic terrorism and emphasised on how both nations - the U.S. and India - are deeply affected by the malaise of terrorism.

"Both nations have been struck by the evils of terrorism and are determined to destroy it, especially the radical Islamic terrorism. We will be enhancing the military cooperation and next month, will join the Japan Navy to take part in the largest Maritime exercise in the vast Indian Ocean. I appreciate India's efforts in Afghanistan," Trump said.

"The leaders called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries," said the joint statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The statement added that they further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, Pathankot, and other cross-border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups.

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The head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for Afghanistan has reportedly been killed by the U.S. security forces in strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar province.

"The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan," Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White said today in a statement.

ISIS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group, which is an affiliate of ISIS, after Afghan and U.S. forces, killed the previous ISIS-K leaders - Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016, and Abdul Hasib, in late April this year, she said.

According to the statement, Afghan and U.S. forces launched a counter-ISIS-K offensive in early March to drive fighters from Nangarhar province, which borders Kunar to the south, and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan.

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A militant was apprehended for injuring a soldier of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by lobbing a grenade at the troops at Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Saturday.

Assistant Sub Inspector Rajinder of the 18th battalion sustained a splinter injury on his left knee and is undergoing treatment in a district hospital.

The apprehended accused was later handed over to the Kulgam Police after he confessed about the grenade lobbing.

The injured CRPF personnel is now out of danger and under treatment.

Further details are awaited.

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The police on Friday arrested two persons in possession of smuggled heroin worth Rs. 20 crore, weighing around 15 kilograms.

The arrests were made when the high grade heroin packets were being taken to Amritsar from Kashmir for selling purposes.

Along with heroin, police also seized four mobile phones from the arrested persons, who were reportedly travelling in a taxi with a Srinagar-registered number plate.

The police also established that a relative of one of the two persons nabbed had a past history of terrorist activities.

Inspector General of Police S.D. Singh said preliminary interrogation of the duo revealed that the drugs were sent from Pakistan and Karnah. Singh also said the seized drugs packets had a Pakistan marking on them.

Most part of the India-Pakistan border in the state is fenced. However, some pockets remain open, through which smuggling of contraband is frequent.

Further details are awaited as the investigation is underway.

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A leading Pakistani daily has voiced its support in favour of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother, saying that she should be granted Visa to visit Pakistan on 'humanitarian grounds.'

The Dawn, in an editorial, said that a Visa application by the mother of convicted Jadhav is the latest opportunity for India and Pakistan to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other.

"The reasons for Jadhav's conviction and incarceration suggest that Pakistan may not be legally required to allow his mother to visit him or indeed grant her a Visa at all, but it ought to be considered on humanitarian grounds," the editorial read.

The daily said a meeting between mother and son would be humane and in no way undermine Pakistan's case against him.

The Visa application of Jadhav's mother to visit Pakistan to see her son is pending with the authorities for approval.

"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which is any case being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice," it said.

The daily sees granting of Visa to Jadhav's mother as a small gesture which can lower the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures.

India, in April this year, had requested Islamabad to facilitate Pakistan visas for Jadhav's family to meet him.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, earlier on Monday, castigated Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz for not entertaining the request for visa to the mother of former naval officer Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage.

Following this, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said they were considering granting a Visa to Jadhav's mother on Sushma Swaraj's request.

Jadhav was arrested on March 3 last year from Balochistan allegedly for espionage attributes.

He was later awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court.

India had then moved the International Court of Justice against the death penalty, which, in its verdict on May 18, had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of the fire that broke out at King George Medical University's Trauma Center late on Saturday evening, District Magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma clarified that the situation is under control and added that over 150 patients have been admitted to eight other hospitals.

"The fire was set only in one room of a godown, and was contained within that room itself. Presently, it is believed that the cause of the fire is the breaking of an Air Conditioner duct. All the patients have been safely admitted to eight other hospitals, and the water from the AC ducts is being cleaned," he said.

Sharma also added that a team of fire and electrical safety are looking into the cause of the fire in detail, and are expected to present a report on the same.

Meanwhile, chief secretary, health and education, Anita Bhatnagar confirmed that no casualties were reported, and the fire was doused on time.

A massive fire broke out on the second floor of the Medicine Department of King George Medical College Trauma Center late on Saturday evening.

The center was evacuated by the hospital staff and the patients taken out.

"The fire is massive. It is a medicine ward. Property has been destroyed. The complete ward has been evacuated. The patients of the OT have been shifted to the Shatabdi Hospital," said one of the doctors of the hospital.

Another hospital administrative official said the situation is under control, but there is a lot of smoke in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

"There is no risk on the fifth and the fourth floor. All the patients are safe. Rest of the floors has been evacuated," he said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Brajesh Pathak said the Trauma Center caught fire due to short circuit.

"Nearly 150 patients have been shifted to another hospital and all of them are safe. The fire tenders have been able to douse the fire," he said.

Pathak assured to probe into the matter and said that an action will be taken against the responsible persons for this carelessness.

"If the fire broke out, that simply means that there were some lapses on the part of the administration, but it is difficult to point out a specific person at this time. We will first probe the matter," he assured.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda also took to his Twitter to express his concern over the same.

"Spoken to @sidharthnsingh ,Health Minister UP & inquired about fire accident in KGMC. Health Secretary,GOI is in touch with state officials," he tweeted.

Spoken to @sidharthnsingh ,Health Minister UP & inquired about fire accident in KGMC. Health Secretary,GOI is in touch with state officials https://t.co/RCGWn5uUqr  Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) July 15, 2017
After Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said that his son Tejashwi Yadav would not resign as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, the former's party on Saturday maintained that Lalu and his family are being targeted and the state and its government is with them.

Speaking to ANI, RJD leader Manoj Jha said, "You should see the matter in totality; we wanted a message to be conveyed as to why he should resign and also all the party members do not want this to happen. People of Bihar from all communities are worried and tensed. They believe Lalu and his family are being targeted. We all know that Sonia ji with Lalu and Nitish are trying to unite this alliance under very difficult circumstances.

Further slamming the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Jha stated that they divide people and create violence in the country.

"Whether it is true or just to make the headline, the kind of language that RSS speaks divides people. Their statement usually creates violence and riots between people," Jha said.

Resonating similar views, JD-U leader Sanjay Singh stated that to have a better political state Tejashwi should abide by rules and stand by the party.

"Leading a social life is totally different from personal; both can't be related together and creating an image in both is the most important thing. My concern towards the issue is when many people were killed in a rail accident during Lalu Prasad Yadav time; he resigned from his post. So, to have a better political state Tejashwi should abide by rules and stand by the party".

Yesterday, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav averred that the grand alliance in Bihar is an unbreakable bond.

In an exclusive interview to ANI, Yadav said that the RJD will not let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) break the alliance between JD(U), Congress and the RJD.

"For us, the priority is the Presidential elections. There are reports of a rift in the alliance. Media reports are showing that Sonia ji has held talks with me and Nitish ji, all this is false. Our alliance is unbreakable. The RJD will not give the BJP and the RSS any space to enter Bihar. This all song and dance with the CBI reports and the ED reports is an attempt by the BJP to break our alliance in Bihar," said Yadav.

"All tangible and intangible assets of Lalu Yadav and his family are in public domain. The RJD will not let anybody break our alliance," he added.

After JD(U) urged Tejashwi Yadav to come out clean on the corruption charges imposed by the CBI and the ED and asked Lalu to declare his assets and reveal the source of income, the rift between the alliance partners in the state seemed to have widened and indicated that the ruling grand alliance is inching towards a split.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Nagaland with former chief minister T.R. Zeliang's claiming the Government, Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu on Saturday rejected Governor Padmanabha Balkrishna Acharya directive to go seek trust votes, saying the government is going strong and there is no point to go on floor test.

"Politics is a numbers' game, I know that I have less numbers, but I am holding the fort. If no confidence motion is tabled against me, there is no point going to the floor. This is my strength and I will continue with this. I have all the party with me and the government is going strong," Liezietsu told ANI.

Referring to the situation of Nagaland as 'shameful,' Liezietsu said he is running the state normally and that his party stands united with him.

"Many of our friends have gone away, they are the prodigal sons. We are still holding the fort here. They have run away from home, parents. They are staying in Assam and can't claim government from there. If they really want to discuss the problems, they should come and discuss with me. From a distance, if they claim the government, we will not agree to it," he said.

Liezietsu's statement comes after the Kohima bench of the Guwahati High Court, earlier in the day, stayed the Nagaland Governor's directive to the chief minister to seek a trust vote in the Assembly on or before July 15.

The bench stayed the order on a plea by Liezietsu, where he stated that the Governor's directive was ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution.

Earlier, Governor Acharya stated that he was prima facie convinced that Zeliang enjoys majority support.

The press release issued by the Raj Bhavan stated that Liezietsu did not disprove Zeliang's claim that he enjoyed the support of 44 MLAs in a House with a total strength of 59.

Zeliang, in his letter, also mentioned that the MLAs have urged the incumbent Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu, who is a non-MLA, to resign and pave way for him to take over as the Chief Minister.

Liezietsu became the Chief Minister on February 22 this year, following the resignation of Zeliang after the violent protest by tribal groups, who opposed his bid to hold civic polls with 33 percent reservation for women.

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The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has granted approval to China's Tibet Airlines, which will fly four days a week on Kathmandu-Chengdu-Kathmandu route. It will be the fifth Chinese airlines entering into the Nepali market.

"Growth in tourist movement, business and trade opportunities has encouraged more and more chinese carriers to fly to Nepal," Kathmandu post quoted Subash Jha, deputy director of Air Transport Division at CAAN as saying.

The Lhasa-based Tibet Airlines will be joining the Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from July 20, thus enhancing air connectivity with five airlines from the northern neighbour. China has announced Nepal Tourism Promotion Year 2017 in a bid to encourage its citizens to visit the Himalayan republic.

Currently, four Chinese carriers-Air China, China Southern, China Eastern and Sichuan Airlines are operating flights to Nepal.

China Southern operates two daily flights on the Kathmandu-Guangzhou route, while China Eastern and Air China operate daily flights linking Kathmandu with Kunming and Lhasa, respectively. Sichuan operates four weekly flights on the Chengdu-Lhasa-Kathmandu sector. "Despite the growth in airlines, the airfare in the routes has not become competitive still," said Jha.

Nepal and China signed a bilateral air services agreement (ASA) in February 2014, allowing 70 flights a week on a reciprocal basis from 2016.

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The Janata Dal (United) on Saturday said that party leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not demanded resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has been named in a First Information Report (FIR).

The JD-U, however, demanded that Tejashwi should come out 'clean'.

Bihar's ruling coalition partner's assertion came after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav dismissed the resignation of his son Tejashwi Yadav.

"Nitish Kumar is a person of high moral values. Whatever he has had to say has been said during the Vidhan Mandal meeting earlier. Nitishji did not demand resignation. However, to continue to uphold the principles of the party, it is necessary that the concerned minister come out clean," JD (U) leader KC Tyagi told ANI here.

In response to Lalu's earlier remark of an FIR being insufficient to resign, Tyagi said an FIR is lodged only on the basis of thorough preliminary investigation.

He further urged the necessity to bring the truth to the forefront.

With regards to reports of an apparent rift in the RJD-JD (U) 'mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance, Tyagi re-iterated Lalu's stance on it, and said nothing will be done to harm their 'baby'.

"The JD (U) and Nitish Kumar are the last people who will do anything to tamper with the mahagathbandhan. It is our baby, which was initiated by Nitish Kumar. There is no question at all of ending it," he said.

Speaking exclusively to ANI, Lalu had earlier stated that the grand alliance in Bihar is an unbreakable bond, adding that the RJD will not let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) break the alliance between the JD (U), Congress and the RJD.

It is being said that after the JD (U) urged Tejashwi Yadav to come out clean on the corruption charges imposed by the CBI and the ED and asked Lalu to declare his assets and reveal the source of income, the rift between the alliance partners in the state seemed to have widened, indicating that the alliance is inching towards a split.

Earlier last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P.K. Goyal; and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejaswi.

However, Lalu on Friday said that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

"The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign," Lalu told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

"An FIR is not sufficient reason for the resignation," he added.

This assertion from the RJD chief thus brought an end to speculations that Tejaswi Yadav might step down from the post to save the ruling alliance.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)








Saanvi Puri (VIII) won three gold medals and four silver medals. She also won the position of the school top scholar. Hargun Johar, Paridhi Gupta, Amish Malhotra, Khushi Vij, Arsh Slach, Aditya Tandon, Anshuman, Aryan Luthra, Ishan Kalra, Chaitanya Rawal, Dhruv Gulati, Sarthak Luthra, Jai Sachdeva and Kavin Lamba also made the school proud by winning medals in various categories. Three VIS teams qualified for the finals to be held in Yale University.



The students showcased a mesmerizing performance in Scholars Talent by performing Punjabi Folk dance. Forty countries participated with 3600 students across the world in the entire event.

The World Scholars Cup, 2017 Global Round took place in Hanoi, Vietnam from 25 June to 30 June 2017. Out of fourteen qualified teams in the regional round of the event, five junior teams participated in the Global round. The series of competitions were team debate, individual debate, collaborative writing, scholars challenge, scholars bowl including multimedia quizzing, Da-vinci scholars.The students displayed wonderful talents through splendid performance.
Amid the ongoing political turmoil in the state, Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya on Saturday asserted that the one who has got the majority of votes should be the Chief Minister of the state, adding that the political stability is a must in the state.

"Political stability in the state is needed at this point of time in Nagaland. Whoever has got the majority of votes should just prove it. At present TR Zeliang has got the majority of the support of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) members and he has claimed his leadership. I am acting as per the Constitution of India," Acharya told ANI.

He said that incumbent Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu is not a leader of the house, as he is not elected, while Zeliang is a leader as well as the chairman of the DAN, adding Shurhozelie, anyhow, had to go on polling in next six months.

"I have nothing to do with the appointment of the Chief Minister. I am acting as per the letter of the Zeliang which had the signature of 35 or 36 leaders of Naga People's Front (NPF). He claimed that he has the majority of votes," he said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu rejected Governor Acharya's directive to seek trust votes, saying the government is going strong and there is no point to go on floor test.

"Politics is a numbers' game, I know that I have less numbers, but I am holding the fort. If no confidence motion is tabled against me, there is no point going to the floor. This is my strength and I will continue with this. I have all the party with me and the government is going strong," Liezietsu told ANI.

Referring to the situation of Nagaland as 'shameful,' Liezietsu said he is running the state normally and that his party stands united with him.

Liezietsu's statement came after the Kohima bench of the Guwahati High Court, earlier in the day, stayed the Nagaland Governor's directive to the chief minister to seek a trust vote in the Assembly on or before July 15.

The bench stayed the order on a plea by Liezietsu, where he stated that the Governor's directive was ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution.

Earlier, Governor Acharya stated that he was prima facie convinced that Zeliang enjoys majority support.

The press release issued by the Raj Bhavan stated that Liezietsu did not disprove Zeliang's claim that he enjoyed the support of 44 MLAs in a House with a total strength of 59.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Afghan security forces have launched a military operation

on Saturday to re-capture Nawa district of Helmand province after the Taliban seized control

of the strategic area nine months ago .

"The large scale military operation was kicked off on Saturday morning and that troops are

moving in from three different directions,"Tolo News quoted Omar Zowak, the provincial

governor's spokesman as saying.

Since the launch of the operation, 12 Taliban insurgents have been killed, Zowak said. Two

policemen were wounded, Zowad added.

The Taliban controls several large districts in Helmand, and its forces have surrounded and

attempted to attack the capital city, Lashkargah, for months.

Nawa district is located about 15km from Lashkargah city and collapsed to the Taliban nine

months ago.

On 29th March, Afghan forces conducted air raids in Helmand province in which as many as 45

Taliban insurgents were killed and 29 others were wounded. The strike was conducted in Bolan

and Spina Kota areas close to Lashkargah city of Helmand province, the office said in the statement.

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Marking fifty percent completion of the targets of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ujjwala Yojana, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that these are the days of prosperity for the Indian government and Indian women that such schemes are being announced.

Pradhan was speaking at an event which saw President Pranab Mukherjee distributing LPG connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries in his former Lok Sabha Constituency Jangipur.

Pradhan, while addressing the audience, said that the yojana was started in Uttar Pradesh 14 months back on May 1, 2016, and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi.

"These are the days of honour for the government and for the poor women that such schemes are being launched in India," he said.

He further added that in India, every year five lakh women die because of lung problems caused due to smoke by traditional mode of creating fire.

"This is equivalent to smoking 400 cigarettes, which has been report by World Health Organization (WHO)," Pradhan said.

He added that to stop that shameful system, the government started this scheme.

"Since then there has been a 2.5 crore of collection in Jhangipur and till now Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have the highest connection," he said.

He said that three lakh new connections have also come up in different districts of West Bengal.

Abhijeet Mukherjee, Congress MP from Jangipur, was also present at the occasion. Abhijeet won the Jangipur constituency twice after his father became the president in 2012.

This programme was a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mission to provide "clean fuel better life" to all the BPL families.

Pradhan Mantri is an ambitious social welfare scheme of Prime Minister Modi-led government launched on May 1, 2016 from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.

Under this scheme, the government aims to provide LPG connections to BPL households in the country. The scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in the rural India with the clean and more efficient LPG.

The government has set a target of five crore LPG connections to be distributed to the BPL households across the country under the scheme.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The security has been beefed up at the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after explosive powder, Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), was found inside the assembly yesterday.

The entry has been prohibited to those who do not have the Assembly pass.

Everyone entering the secretariat is being thoroughly checked.

According to the members if the same security lines were being followed since the beginning then nothing like yesterday would have happened.

Earlier, no passes were asked to show.

Everyone needs to be supportive in the security of the Legislative Assembly, the members of the Assembly said.

Meanwhile, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against unknown persons today after explosive materials were found in Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The case has been registered under Unlawful (Activities) Prevention 2004, and Explosive Substances Act 1908.

Uttar Pradesh's Inspector General of the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), Aseem Arun has said the discovery of the explosive powder -- PETN - hinted the possibility of a terrorist activity.

"We will scan through the CCTV footage and will do a detailed investigation of the spot today," Aseem Arun said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for a investigative Agency (NIA) probe.

"The packet of the explosive was found under the chair of the Opposition's leader. It was 150 gm of PETN. 500 gm of PETN is enough to blow the whole Assembly off. This shows the severity of the situation. I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," he said.

"It's unfortunate that the largest Assembly of the country doesn't have a QRT," he added.

Adityanath also said that this incident could be in connivance with a terrorist or militant group and that the security of the state and the country is paramount.

Earlier yesterday, 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found in the UP Assembly during an ongoing session, which was later sent to forensic lab for testing.

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The United States President Donald Trump has appointed federal prosecutor Ty Cobb as White House special counsel to oversee the legal and media response to the investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election and alleged collusion by the Trump campaign, reports CNN.

Cobb is a partner in the investigations practice of the law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

He earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and attended Harvard University as an undergraduate.

The appointment assumes significance after Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. He accepted the meeting on the premise that he would be offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to emails Trump Jr. posted on Twitter earlier this week.

Friday news broke that the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Trump Jr., Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort included at least eight people, sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.

Trump Jr.'s explanations of the reason for the meeting evolved after The New York Times published several stories about the meeting in recent days.

The United States Intelligence Community has concluded with high confidence that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A January 2017 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that Russian leadership preferred presidential candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to harm Clinton's electoral chances and "undermine public faith in the US democratic process".

Several investigations about Russian influence on the election have been underway: a counter-intelligence investigation by the FBI, hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, and inquiries about possible links and financial ties between the Kremlin and Trump associates.

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US President Donald Trump, in his conversation aboard Air Force One with media personnel, talked about issues ranging from his eldest son testifying before Congress on Russian meddling in 2016 election, North Korea, Healthcare, China and Trade.

The conversation between President Trump and members of the press corps as they flew to Paris were released on Thursday by the White House.

Trump said he is in full support of his eldest son 'If he wants to' testify before the Congress to address about Russian meddling in 2016 election.

There are reports that top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are considering to call on Donald Trump Jr. to testify after the younger Trump disclosed emails showing he was eager to obtain incriminating information on Hillary Clinton from someone described as a 'Russian government attorney'.

"Don is -- as many of you know Don -- he's a good boy. He's a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting. It was a short meeting, as he told me -- because I only heard about it two or three days ago," Trump said.

"Honestly, in a of politics, most people are going to take that meeting. If somebody called and said, 'Hey' -- and you're a Democrat -- and by the way, they have taken them -- 'Hey, I have ... some information on Donald Trump. You're running against Donald Trump. Can I see you?' I mean, how many people are not going to take the meeting?" Trump asked.

Donald Trump Jr., who has been caught at the centre of the controversy surrounding Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, on Tuesday released an email chain that shows him discussing plans to hear damaging information on Hillary Clinton that were described as "part of Russia and its government's support for Donald Trump."

Trump Jr. tweeted that he was releasing the emails to be "totally transparent" quelling reports that cited that he was told before his meeting with a Russian lawyer that he would be offered compromising information about Hillary Clinton.

According to reports, the unreported meeting, which took place on June 9, 2016 at Trump Tower in Manhattan, was attended by Trump's campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Though, it is still unclear whether Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually fulfilled the promised compromising information about Clinton or not.

Donald Trump Jr. in a statement had said he had met the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance.

When asked about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20,Trump said: "I said to him, were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling. He said, I was not -- absolutely not."

On the issue of North Korea, who has recently tested ICBM, Trump signaled he could use the US-China trading relationship as to pressure China to force North Korea to act, Trump said, "Somebody said, what cards you have? I said, very simple -- trade. We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals. We have the worst of all trade deals is with China," Trump said.

"But the biggest strength we have is these horrendous trade deals, like with China. That's our strength. But we're going to fix them. But in terms of North Korea, our strength is trade."

"We have to fix the trade. We have to fix the trade. But we have to fix the trade with China because it's very, very none-reciprocal.

On the Mexico Border wall which President has promised since the very first day of his presidential campaign, Trump told the wall he plans to build on the southern US border will need to be transparent - "literally".

"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can't see through that wall -- so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall," Trump said.

Trump also made clear that the idea he has floated of putting solar panels on the border wall was not a joke.

"No, not joking, no. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall," Trump said. "We have major companies looking at that. Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border -- the southern border. And there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good. But there is a very good chance we could do a solar wall.

The wall, Trump said, would only need to cover "700 to 900 miles," not the full 2,000 mile-long border. Trump also signaled during the campaign that natural barriers made it unnecessary for the border wall to cover the full length of the US-Mexico border.

Sternly addressing on the steel tariffs, Trump said, "Not only China, but others are also dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop. There are two ways - quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both".

On healthcare, President Trump said, " I'd say the only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare. It's like this narrow road that about a quarter of an inch wide. Healthcare is tough.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkey on Saturday sacked 7400 government officials on the occasion of first anniversary of a failed military coup. Thousands of people are participating in marches in Istanbul and Ankara this weekend.

The latest dismissals include 2,303 police officers, 1,486 interior ministry staff, 546 navy and air force personnel, 418 justice ministry officials, 789 from the health ministry, 551 from religious affairs, 302 academics and 102 education ministry employees, reports UPI.

It further adds that the Turkish government had earlier dismissed than 100,000 public sector workers and arrested around 50,000 officials of military and police, members from judiciary, education and press.

While the government terms these dismissals and arrests as an effort to root out the coup supporters, critics say the government is attempting to purge dissent.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renamed the iconic Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul as Martyrs' Bridge -- the scene of clashes between civilians and military tanks in 2016. He will also unveil a martyrs' memorial on the bridge.

He would also be delivering a speech in parliament at Ankara at 2:32 a.m. on Sunday -- the exact moment the assembly was attacked a year ago.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has termed the coup attempt as "Turkey's darkest and longest night," which was "transformed into a bright day."

On 15 July 2016, a coup was attempted in Turkey against state institutions, including, but not limited to the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The attempt was carried out by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves as the Peace at Home Council.

They attempted to seize control of several key places in Ankara, Istanbul, and elsewhere, but failed to do so after forces loyal to the state defeated them. Roughly 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others were injured. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.

The government accused the coup leaders of being linked to the Gulen movement, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish businessman and cleric who lives in Pennsylvania. Erdogan accuses Gulen of being behind the coup-a claim that Gulen denies-and accused the United States of harbouring him.

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Expressing disappointment over the issue of a suspicious white powder packet found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the opposition Samajwadi Party said Saturday that the security set-up is somewhere lacking and needs to be looked into.

"This is a sad incident that explosives have been found in the assembly, which means security is at fault, and which should be looked into. It is the responsibility of the government to look after the security of the assembly," Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav told media here.

Meanwhile, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against unknown persons today after explosive materials were found in Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The case has been registered under Unlawful (Activities) Prevention 2004, and Explosive Substances Act 1908.

Uttar Pradesh's Inspector General of the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), Aseem Arun has said the discovery of the explosive powder -- Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) - hinted the possibility of a terrorist activity.

"We will scan through the CCTV footage and will do a detailed investigation of the spot today," Aseem Arun said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for a investigative Agency (NIA) probe.

"The packet of the explosive was found under the chair of the Opposition's leader. It was 150 gm of PETN. 500 gm of PETN is enough to blow the whole Assembly off. This shows the severity of the situation. I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," he said.

"It's unfortunate that the largest Assembly of the country doesn't have a QRT," he added.

Adityanath also said that this incident could be in connivance with a terrorist or militant group and that the security of the state and the country is paramount.

Earlier yesterday, 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found in the UP Assembly during an ongoing session, which was later sent to forensic lab for testing.

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On 27 July 2017

Banaras Beads will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 27 July 2017, to consider and take on record the Un-audited Financial Results (Provisional) and Limited Review Report for quarter ended on 30th June 2017 and compliance of other Provisions of the Listing Agreements.

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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- U.S. forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of ISIS-K, in a July 11 strike on the group's headquarters in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Friday.



ISIS-K, or ISIS-Khorasan, is the Afghanistan branch of the terror group operating in the Khorasan region of the country. The groups headquarters are located in the Kunar Province.



Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters on Friday that Sayeds death was a victory on the [American] side in terms of setting them [ISIS] back.



Significance is, you kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back for a day, a week, a month, depending on who it is, what kind of people are below them[This] is the right direction, Mattis said.



Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said the strike also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror groups plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan.



ISIS chose Abu Sayed to lead the group as its "third emir" after U.S. and Afghan forces killed previous two emirs, Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016 and Abdul Hasib in late April.



U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Commander General John W. Nicholson called Sayed's death "another success" in the campaign against ISIS-K.

Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year, and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan, tweeted Nicholson.

USFOR-A killed the leader of ISIS-K, Abu Sayed, on July 11th. Full DoD statement: https://t.co/qD3sVYTUBb pic.twitter.com/VwVTqJF1R0  USForces Afghanistan (@USFOR_A) July 14, 2017

ISIS has begun to lose many of its stronghold territories in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.



The Iraqi Army declared a total victory over ISIS in Mosul on Monday, three years after the group took control of Iraq's second largest city.



The U.S. currently has 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, training and advising the Afghan military in the fight against the Taliban and the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan. Mattis has indicated a possibility of sending a few more thousand troops to the region, with a review of the U.S. policy in Afghanistan expected mid-July.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
At least eight civilians were killed on Saturday when the US-led international coalition bombarded the northeastern Syrian city of Al-Mayadin, held by the Islamic State terror group, according to a war monitoring group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the airstrikes struck several houses near a school, Efe news reported.

Among the fatalities were six minors and two women, although the UK-based watchdog said the figure could rise because several people had sustained serious injuries and others were still under the rubble.

Since May 22, the SOHR has documented the deaths of 244 civilians in bombings allegedly carried out by the coalition in Al-Mayadin.

--IANS

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All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) may vote for the United Progressive Alliance's candidate Meira Kumar in July 17 presidential polls, party sources said on Saturday.

Party president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and nine legislators of the party in Telangana and Maharashtra may cast their votes for the Congress leader.

AIMIM, a former constituent of UPA, is believed to have taken a decision after weighing all pros and cons.

The party has seven members in Telangana Assembly and two in Maharashtra Assembly. Meira Kumar had written a letter to AIMIM, seeking its support.

AIMIM's move is significant, considering the bitter relations with the Congress ever since snapping of ties in 2012. The party had been under attack from Congress leaders for contesting elections in various states as they felt that this was leading to split of secular votes.

AIMIM's move is also seen as an affront to Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which has announced its support to National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind. The party is an ally of TRS.

Owaisi's support to NDA candidate was ruled out as the BJP which heads the alliance remains his number one political rival. He had been slamming the candidature of Kovind while citing his alleged statement that "Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation"'

However, the party was not likely to support the UPA candidate either. It was believed that it will stay away from polling.

In the previous presidential elections, AIMIM had voted for UPA candidate Pranab Mukerjee.

--IANS

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Utter confusion is prevailing in the political circles of Bihar. While the leaders from both the JD-U and RJD claim that the state's ruling Grand Alliance is intact, the legislators and spokespersons of the two parties continue to attack each other publicly.

The apparent discord between the Janata Dal-United (JU-U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), notwithstanding the occasional bonhomie exhibited by both sides, points to the fact that the Grand Alliance is in the midst of a serious crisis.

The crisis became more pronounced on Saturday when Lalu Prasad's younger son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav chose to skip an official function with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The name plaque of the Deputy Chief Minister had to be first covered with a piece of cloth and then removed altogether from the dais.

According to officials, Tejashwi Yadav's name plaque was earlier kept on the table along with that of Nitish Kumar at the official programme to mark "Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas" at the local Gyan Bhawan. But it was finally removed before the programme began.

Tejashwi Yadav's name was also mentioned in the invitation for the function.

However, those keenly watching the goings-on expect the culmination of this crisis only after the presidential election early next week.

A day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad said Tejashwi Yadav would not resign, JD-U spokesperson Sanjay Singh said he should read the writing on the wall. "Probity in public life is a must," he said.

A senior RJD legislator Shrinarayan Yadav said the JD-U leaders were speaking the language of the BJP, and went on to add: "If JD-U wants to go with BJP, it is free to do so."

Meanwhile, ahead of the presidential poll on Monday, all the 71 JD-U legislators are scheduled to attend a Nitish Kumar-chaired meeting at his official residence on Sunday. This meeting has assumed extra significance in the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in the Grand Alliance.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis over the demand for the resignation of Tejashwi Yadav after the CBI registered a case against him in a benami property case and also raided his premises last week.

JD-U General Secretary Shayam Razak, considered close to the Chief Minister, on Saturday said his party's stand was very clear that it would not compromise on corruption.

"JD-U will not go back on its own stand against corruption. Lalu Prasad has become old," he said in a clear reference to the RJD chief declaring that his younger son Tejashwi Yadav would not resign and that the "Mahagathbandhan is intact".

The Congress party is the third constituent of the ruling Grand Alliance.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) process can be moved faster by building market institutions, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) chairperson M.S. Sahoo said here on Saturday.

"We have not completely moved to market model as of now but IPO (initial public offering) is a complete model hub market, takeover almost. I think if we can build institutions of market probably that will all help the M&As to move faster," said Sahoo while addressing an Assocham conference on M&As.

Highlighting how the M&A resolution process should be in the hands of market participants, Sahoo said the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has segregated the commercial aspects of insolvency from the judicial aspects.

"The IBC has put the commercial aspects in hands of stakeholders and judicial aspects with tribunal and with all that it has put a timeline with firm consequences. It says if you do not do that in 180 days time, the company will compulsorily go into liquidation," said Sahoo.

The IBBI chief said M&As are very important activities for economies of scale, economies of scope, from micro and macro point of views and it affects the rights and interests of two sets of people.

"It does readjustments of financial rights of an enterprise, equity holders or debt holders and it also affects the rights of the consumers of the products produced by an enterprise," he said.

Talking about three very high-level principles in the M&A sector, Sahoo said: "It should gel well with current reforms of last three years in Indian economy whereby we have almost moved on many matters so that decisions are taken by the parties themselves (and) not by any third person, government or court."

"We are looking at such regulations and facilitations, regulations essentially to protect interests of various stakeholders while in case of acquisitions we look at the people who would be exiting they get a fair opportunity to exit and exit at the highest possible price and all those who exit they get the same price but with least disruption to business," he added.

Sahoo pointed out that there must be enough legal protection, clarity for those coming in, least possible financial and regulatory burden with tax and it should be completed in an orderly and time-bound manner and not linger for years.

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, said more benches and members would be joining the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

"Increase in capacity is a work in progress and that will happen over the course of next couple of months and you will have more benches, more members joining in," said Bhatia.

Bhatia said creation of national company law tribunals is the foremost thing that has happened, as the cases have shifted from the courts.

"That is a huge change as it provides the opportunity to all the professionals, it has widened the scope for chartered accountants and company secretaries to practice before the tribunal."

Bhatia added that the tribunals have also been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the processes are completed in an efficient manner.

--IANS

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A CRPF trooper was injured on Saturday in a grenade attack by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, police said.

Police said militants lobbed a grenade at a security force check post in Laroo village of Kulgam, and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel sustained splinter injuries in the blast.

He has been admitted to hospital for treatment.

--IANS

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Cuban President Raul Castro has ratified his administration's willingness to continue engagement with the US despite a setback in relations between the two countries.

At the closing of the parliament's plenary session in its 8th Legislature on Friday, Castro expressed the island's desire to push forward negotiations on pending bilateral issues "on the basis of equality and the respect for sovereignty and independence", reports Xinhua news agency.

"Cuba and the US can cooperate and coexist by respecting their differences and promoting everything that benefits their peoples," Castro said, referring to the change of American policy towards Cuba -- announced by President Donald Trump on June 16 -- as a "setback in bilateral relations".

Castro said that Trump's decisions ignored large sectors of the US and most Cuban emigrants in support of lifting the embargo and normalising bilateral ties, and merely satisfied a small group in Florida.

Castro recalled the previous US administration of Barack Obama, who restored the diplomatic ties with Havana and made progress on issues of mutual interest "on the basis of bilateral respect".

"We demonstrated that it is possible to live in a civilized way despite our profound differences," the Cuban leader told members of parliament gathered for an ordinary session at the Havana Convention Centre.

"Cuba will not make concessions concerning to its sovereignty and independence, nor negotiate its principles," Castro added.

Formal ties between Cuba and the US broke off in March 1961 due to ideological differences during the Cold War, and were resumed in July 2015 after more than a year of secret negotiations by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.

Since then the two nations agreed to cooperate in such areas as combating drug and human trafficking, transportation and protecting the environment.

Trump proclaimed during his presidential campaign that if he were elected he would roll back ties with Cuba due to human rights concerns and seek "a better deal with its government".

He fulfilled his promise in June by signing a set of measures in Miami that limit American business opportunities and travels on the island.

--IANS

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An Indian Army soldier was killed on Saturday in heavy shelling and firing by Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

The soldier, identified as Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, was killed in Karkundi area on the LoC, an official said.

India on Saturday "strongly retaliated" to the Pakistani firing in Rajouri and Poonch districts.

"The Pakistan ceasefire violation started at 1.30 p.m. in both these places. They are using small arms, automatics and mortars. Indian positions have effectively and strongly retaliated at both these places," the sources said.

"Shelling and firing exchanges were continuing at both places when last reports came," the sources added.

--IANS

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India and Nepal have failed to adequately cash in on their geographic similarity for years to build up better connectivity while cross-border infrastructure also did not receive the requisite focus and commitment in the past, Nepal's envoy to this country has said.

"Cross border infrastructure and state of the art connectivity means are the fundamental prerequisites of strong economic engagement and this is the area that did not receive adequate focus and commitment from us in the past," Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay said in a speech read in his absentia at the release of a report at the Observer Research Foundation here.

The speech was read in his absence at the programme on Friday.

Underscoring the geographical proximity between India and Nepal, Upadhyay said this advantage could have been utilised long ago to boost up trade, tourism and other economic engagements between the two countries.

"There are at least a dozen points in the proximity of Nepal-India international border where Indian railway heads reached decades ago. We could have extended the railways by some kilometres to reach Nepal to speed up trade, transit, flow of tourists and movements of common people in those points," he said.

Hailing the ongoing cross border rail and road projects as a positive step to build up better connectivity, Upadhyay said his country was hopeful about the "early concretization" of the projects.

"We are implementing cross border railway projects at two principal border points while three more such projects are in the pipeline. The news of linking Katmandu with Indian railways was welcomed in our country. Our roads are turning out to be better on both sides," he mentioned.

The envoy also urged both the governments to speed up the work for road connectivity between Nepal and India to avoid certain bottlenecks that unnecessarily delay the transportation.

"The cross-border roads still pass through the bottlenecks of crowded marketplace and the trucks have to wait for ridiculously long hours to ply on these stretches of few kilometres," Upadhyay said.

"What's required is some more speed in the implementation of projects like ICPs and the roads linking highways on both sides," he added.
Russian and Irani navy forces attended a joint exercise in the Caspian Sea, the media reported.

Citing Tasnim news agency, Xinhua reported on Saturday that the Russian fleet, including Russia's Makhachkala battleship from the country's Caspian Sea Marine Brigade, took part in the drills.

The fleet had berthed at Iran's northern port city of Anzali on Wednesday as part of programs intended to boost military cooperation between the two countries.

It was the fifth Russian naval flotilla visiting the Iranian Caspian port in the past decade as parts of their naval vessels making regular "friendly port calls."

Iran has also dispatched fleets to the Russian ports on similar missions.

In October 2016, a Russian naval flotilla arrived in Anzali in response to the dispatch of Iran's naval fleets to Astrakhan in southern Russia in September. The visits aimed to convey messages of peace and to help improve bilateral ties.

More fleets from Caspian littoral states would arrive in Iran's northern ports in the future, said Iran's Rear Admiral Afshin Rezaei Haddad.

He added that the navies of five Caspian littoral countries are cooperating to secure it as the sea for peace, mutual respect and good-neighborliness.

Iran has sent several fleets with the same mission from the country's northern and southern waters to the high seas.

--IANS

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The Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a charge-sheet before the Special NIA Court here against three cadres of the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for intending to wage war against the country.

The charge-sheet was filed against commander-in-chief of the anti-talk faction of the outfit Paresh Baruah alias Paresh Asom alias Kamruj Zaman Khan alias Nur-uz-Zaman alias Zaman Bhai alias Pradip alias Paban Baruah, the outfit's chairman, Dr. Abhijit Asom alias Dr. Abhizeet Asom alias Abhijit Barman alias Dr. Mukul Hazarika and against Gagan Hazarika alias Joydeep Cheleng.

While Gagan Hazarika is already in police custody, the two other are absconding, according to a statement from the central investigating agency.

The charge-sheet was filed under sections 17, 18, 18A, 18B and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and under sections 121A, 124A, 120B and 385 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A case was registered at the NIA, Guwahati, in December 2013 under various sections of the IPC as well as Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

It stated that the anti-talk faction of ULFA headed by Paresh Baruah and other members are trying to revive terrorist activities by recruiting new cadres and organising terrorist camps within as well as beyond Indian territories.

They are also resorting to extortion and kidnapping to raise funds for attacking Indian security forces and government establishments and infrastructure, thereby intending to wage war against the government of India, according to the case details.

The NIA has claimed to have collected sufficient material, technical as well as circumstantial evidence, against the accused persons during its investigation and established the allegations against each accused person.

While accused Paresh Baruah has been in Myanmar, Mukul Hazarika alias Abhijit Asom has been in the United Kingdom. They have been declared absconders and further action has been initiated.

The NIA will carry out further investigations against Drishti Rajkhowa and other senior leaders of the ULFA.

--IANS

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The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Saturday condemned Israel's closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque as a crime against Muslims.

OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen slammed the Israeli move, the first time since 1969, as "a crime, a serious precedent and a blatant attack on the holy sites as well as the rights and freedom of Palestinians to practice their religion", Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel has closed the mosque compound and banned Arab prayers since Friday's clashes near the compound between Israeli police and three Arab citizens, in which the three Arabs and two Israeli police officers were killed.

He called on the international community to act immediately to deter repeated Israeli attacks against Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem and to stop Israel's racist violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and their holy sites.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, holy to both Muslims and Jews, is one of the most sensitive sites in the region. It is revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

On Friday, after joining the morning prayer at the mosque, three Arab citizens of Israel opened fire at a group of Israeli police officers near the gates of the compound, injuring two officers who later died in hospital from their wounds, and injuring a third officer.

The Arab gunmen were subsequently shot and killed by police, and Israel closed the mosque to Muslim prayers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday spoke over the phone with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, assuring him Israel will keep the status quo in East Jerusalem's holy compound.

--IANS

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President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday applauded the discipline and organisational efficiency that the ex-servicemen carry with them even after leaving active service.

Mukherjee was speaking after inaugurating the first ex-servicemen's rally organised by the Brahmastra Corps of the Army's Eastern Command at the newly-built Nabagram Military Station in Murshidabad district of the state.

He also saluted the "veer naris" (widows of army men), saying while the slain army men's loss would leave a void for ever, the government would continue to take good care of their widows.

The President, who completes his five year term on July 24, expressed happiness at getting this one last chance to meet the jawans, "veer naris" and ex-servicemen of the region as the Head of State.

Mukherjee had inaugurated the Nabagram Military station on October 8, 2016. Built as a model military station, it covers an area of 252 acres.

The President had also laid the foundation stone of the project in 2014.

"I hope Nabagram will not only become a model military station but also bring about all-round development in the area in terms of creation of jobs and infrastructure in the township of Nabagram," he said.

Six "veer naris" and two ex-soldiers who had suffered injuries during military operations were felicitated by the President.

Over two thousand veterans and "veer naris" from Murshidabad and neighbouring areas were present at the event.

--IANS

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Pregnant women with restless legs syndrome (RLS) are more likely to have poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness and poor daytime function, researchers say.

RLS is a condition characterised by a nearly irresistible urge to move the legs, typically in the evenings.

The results showed that 36 per cent of women in their third trimester experienced RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms, at least four times per week.

"While we expected that RLS would be relatively common in pregnant women, we were surprised to observe just how many had a severe form," said lead author Galit Levi Dunietz, post-doctoral research student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, US.

Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness.

"These sleep-wake disturbances are considered common symptoms in pregnancy and are frequently attributed to physiological changes that occur in normal pregnancy, but our data suggests that RLS is an additional contributor to these symptoms," said Dunietz.

The high prevalence of RLS during pregnancy has been attributed to hemodynamic and hormonal changes, iron and folate metabolism, and psychomotor behaviour, the researchers said.

In addition, a positive dose-response relationship was found between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, involved 1,563 pregnant women with an average age of 30 years, each of whom was in her third trimester.

According to the authors, health care providers often dismiss patient complaints of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness during pregnancy.

The identification and treatment of RLS in pregnancy -- using non-pharmacological approaches -- may alleviate the burden of these symptoms for many women, the researchers suggested.

--IANS

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At least three persons were injured when a school was destroyed in an airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunduz province on Saturday, an official said.

A fighter pounded the Khawja Mashad area in Kunduz city, 250 km north of Kabul, also destroying a house in the morning, Xinhua news agency quoted Education Department Director Janat Gul Nasiri as saying.

Three children in the nearby house were injured in the attack, he said.

The official said 13 shops close to the school were also damaged.

"Since it was early in the morning and there was no student in the school, hence there was no loss of life," Nasiri said.

He blamed the US-led coalition forces for the attack.

Kunduz has been the scene of heavy fighting over the past several months as the Taliban militants have been attempting to overrun the city.

--IANS

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena left Dhaka for Colombo on Saturday ending his three-day visit to Bangladesh and pledging to strengthen bilateral relations. The two countries signed 14 agreements for greater trade and investment cooperation.

In a joint statement, Sirisena and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed their "deep satisfaction" after the signing on Friday of 14 agreements of cooperation in trade and investment, agriculture, information and communication technology, higher education, finance and people-to-people connectivity, bdnews24.com reported.

The leaders also directed the authorities for early finalisation of the agreements on customs cooperation, avoidance of double taxation and promotion and protection of investment between the countries.

Sirisena and Hasina also welcomed the signing of the memorandum of understanding on economic partnership between the countries which they believed "should pave way for conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement by end-2017".

If done, that would be the first FTA of Bangladesh with any country. The leaders also underlined the need for a peaceful, stable, inclusive and sustainable South Asian region, the report said.

In this regard, they agreed to deepen cooperation in various sub-regional and regional cooperation mechanisms, and to work towards focussed and result-oriented regional economic cooperation in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) and Saarc.

Recognising the threats arising out of terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation on any religious or societal pretext, Hasina and Sirisena pledged to work together to counteract all such challenges in both countries and beyond.

Prior to his departure, Sirisena as the Chief Guest attended a high-level business/economic dialogue in Dhaka with the participation of Sri Lanka as well as Bangladesh investors and entrepreneurs.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Hassan Mahmood Ali also addressed the meeting.

Ali said that the Sri Lankan President's Bangladesh visit would usher in a new era in bilateral relations particularly with the signing of the FTA.

Sirisena also extended an invitation to the Bangladesh Prime Minister to visit Colombo in 2018.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Iran on Saturday slammed the US President Trump's description of the country as a rogue state, media reports said.

"Trump ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying.

Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them".

Senior Iranian officials have blamed US-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.

--IANS

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Irish band The Script have unveiled "Rain", their first release in three years.

"Rain", released on Friday, is the first single from their upcoming fifth studio.

The three-piece band, consisting of Danny O'Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power, describe the track as a "feel-good summer tune".

"After a very long process of making 'Album 5', the song 'Rain' came right at the end. It's a summer song so we thought, only The Script can make it 'Rain in Summer'", the band said in a statement.

Details of the upcoming album will be announced soon. Their fourth album "No Sound Without Silence" released in 2014.

--IANS

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Twenty-one-year-old Jaspal Singh walked down the corridor of a city police station sporting a mud-smeared t-shirt, blue shorts and black turban -- the same clothes he was wearing hours back when he tried in vain to rescue his father and three others from an underground tank.

The four persons died while cleaning the tank.

According to the families of deceased, the four persons died after inhaling poisonous gaseous while cleaning a water harvesting tank, which was connected with waste material carrying pipes, including with toilets.

The deceased have been identified as Swarn Singh, 45, Deepu, 28, Anil, 32, and Billu, 28 -- all residents of Mehrauli in south Delhi.

Outside their house in Punjabi Colony in Mehrauli, Jaspal's twin brother Satpal Singh said that Jaspal along with Deepu, Anil and Billu left their house at around 9 a.m in a car to the under-construction building in Ghitorni to clean the tank.

"First Anil climbed down the tank. After a while Billu followed. But as there was no response from both of them, Deepu also went in," Jaspal said.

The underground tank was about nine-feet-deep and 12-feet-wide and had a three-feet-wide opening, according to the bereaved families.

Jaspal called out their names from the entrance of the tank, but he didn't get an response. A worried Jaspal then called up his father Swarn Singh.

"Dad came and fastened a rope around his body and went down the tank," he said.

As he reached the bottom of the tank, Swarn Singh unfastened the rope and tried to attach it to one of the other persons who was unconscious, in a bid to save him. But by that time, he also fell unconscious.

As his father was not responding to his calls, Jaspal jumped into the pit.

"There was this much deep water in the tank," Jaspal said touching his angle. "It was completely dark."

Jaspal said that he could feel the intense gas and before he could realise anything he also fainted.

Later, it was fire services personnel who rescued Jaspal from the tank.

On Saturday evening, as he went back into the room of an officer at the police station, he had only one thing to say: "We need action against the accused."

Outside one of the buildings of Safdarjung Hospital, Satnam Singh, 60, was waiting for a call on Saturday evening. On hearing his name, he went inside to identify his son and came out of the building -- mortuary of the hospital.

Satnam said that his son Billu didn't even have breakfast on Saturday morning as he was rushing out for work.

"The owner never told us that it was a sewage tank," the hexagenerian said. "All families will together file the case."

Deepu's brother said that the landlord had cheated his brother by hiding the information about actual nature of the tank.

Anil was the eldest of his six siblings and stayed in a slum in south Delhi.

On Saturday night, Anil's sister Sunita, 26, was waiting at the police station with a white envelope in her hands.

Taking a passport size photo out of the envelope, Sunita requested: "Sir, please help us get justice. Nothing else."

She said they had to go through a lot of trouble to find Anil's body at the AIIMS trauma centre. "No one helped us -- police or doctors. No one is talking to us," she complained.

--IANS

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The US Justice Department said on Friday that it will ask the Supreme Court to reverse a ruling by a federal judge in Hawaii that the administration's definition of close family in allowing exemptions to President Donald Trump's ban on US entry for residents of six Muslim-majority countries is too narrow.

"(W)e will now reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the Executive Branch's duty to protect the nation," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, Efe reported.

Last month, the Supreme Court set aside injunctions issued by federal appellate courts and said that portions of Trump's March 6 executive order could take effect.

That document barred citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and excluded all refugees for 120 days.

In allowing the order to take effect, the Supreme Court said that the restrictions could not be applied to people with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States.

Under the Trump administration guidelines, spouses, parents, parents-in-law, children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, fiances and siblings of those already in the country can be admitted. But grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law are excluded.

Thursday's ruling by the judge in Hawaii struck down those exclusions.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," US District Judge Derrick Watson found. "Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Besides expanding the definition of close family, Watson said that the government could not prohibit entry by refugees assured of placement in the United States by recognized refugee agencies.

The judge said that such assurances constituted a bona fide relationship with a US entity.

Sessions, however, said that "the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for that of the Executive branch, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the Executive Branch and the directive of the Supreme Court."

"The district court has issued decisions that are entrusted to the Executive Branch, undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion, and violated a proper respect for separation of powers," the attorney general said.

--IANS

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Turkey was on Saturday gearing up to commemorate the first anniversary of the failed military coup attempt, with various events to take place, including the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the 249 people who lost their lives.

Saturday's events would begin with a massive march at 3.30 p.m. to the First Bridge over the Bosporus, renamed 15 July Martyrs Bridge following last year's failed coup, Efe news reported.

On the night of the coup bid in July last year, the bridge was the scene of deadly clashes between civilians and a unit of soldiers, who blocked the bridge with tanks.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be visiting the bridge and meeting relatives of those who were killed in the attempt. The monument in honour of people who lost their lives during the failed coup will be unveiled at 8.30 p.m. following readings and a light show.

Huge rallies will take place later in the day, with Erdogan addressing Parliament at the exact time that it was bombed during the coup attempt. The day was declared an annual holiday, BBC reported.

The Turkish authorities accused a movement loyal to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of organising the July 2016 plot to bring down Erdogan.

Gulen, who remains in the US, denied any involvement. Washington had so far resisted calls from the Turkish authorities to extradite the cleric.

Since a state of emergency was declared on July 20 last year, purges were carried out to remove officials with alleged close ties to Gulen.

On Friday, a further 7,000 officials, including 2,303 police officers, were dismissed from their positions, taking the number of public employees to have lost their jobs since the failed coup to about 140,000.

Around 50,000 people remained in preventative custody awaiting trial for alleged links to the coup attempt.

--IANS

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To encourage giving, many charities that serve people in need use photos depicting either happy people or sad ones in their pitches. These pictures symbolize the people who will benefit from donations made in response to those appeals.

Lei Jia, a doctoral student in marketing, and I, a professor who studies how and why messages communicated through various media may influence the audiences attitudes and behavior, wanted to discover which works best.

Happy vs. sad faces

Plenty of research backs the rationales for both approaches.

Seeing a smile can make people feel happy. And when they feel happy, theyre inclined to evaluate a fundraising pitch in a more favorable light and then donate to maintain their happy feelings, according to a study published by Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Smiling faces also remind people of the potential benefits of their donations. That can spur giving by increasing a sense of accomplishment for donors.

Seeing sad faces, on the other hand, can boost donations by highlighting the severity of a problem and the acuteness of a need. Images conveying distress may also increase giving by arousing negative emotions, such as guilt or sadness. The impulse to avoid negativeemotions means that people may donate to quell unhappyfeelings  by trying to resolve the problem the sad picture illustrates.

Charitable habits

Whether smiles or frowns work best may depend on what experts call involvement with charities  how much someone cares about charitable missions in general, how often they volunteer or participate in fundraising events and whether they regularly donate to nonprofits.

Because these people already help people in need, they would like to know their donations make a difference.

Sad images remind potential donors of hardships. That may make solving those problems seem insurmountable for people who are already involved with charities, thereby discouraging them from donating. Happy pictures should work better for these people because they affirm the significance of individual action and showcase the positiveimpact one persons generosity can make.

People who arent very involved with charities, on the other hand, are less easily swayed to support a given mission or to believe in its urgency. Because sad images highlight problems and the extent of unmet needs, unhappy faces should do a better job of eliciting donations from these potential donors.

An online experiment

To test the two approaches, we conducted an online experiment among 201 American adults, using eight similar ads. These ads simulated pitches to raise money for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to treat children with cancer and conduct related research. The ads bore the face of either a happy or a sad child and the words: Small change, big difference. You can help fight childhood cancer.

We used eight pictures split evenly between happy-faced and sad-faced kids. Each participant was randomly assigned to see only one ad.

We measured participants charitable involvement by asking to what extent they agree or disagree with a number of statements, such as giving to charities means a great deal to me. After seeing the ad, they were asked about their willingness to support St. Judes.

As we explained in the Nonprofit Management & Leadership journal, we found that participants with high levels of charitable involvement were more likely to express an intent to donate in response to happy pictures. People who were less involved with charities were more likely to say they were interested in donating after seeing sad images.

What this means

What should fundraisers learn from our findings? Nonprofits may want to tailor their materials based on their target audience. Specifically, campaigns should use sad-faced ads to target people with weaker ties to charities. But for people with stronger connections, happy-faced ads may be a safer bet.

Here are some words of caution about our study: We built our research around a well-known nonprofit organization with a strong reputation. Because brand familiarity can influence how people respond to charitable appeals, we dont know whether our findings would also apply to fundraising for more obscure charities.

Moreover, we measured only intentions to give. Although decades of psychological research suggests that intentions are a strong predictor of actual behavior, donors dont always follow through.

Still, our work should help nonprofits see the advantages of tailoring fundraising appeals to different kinds of people.
The Left Front, headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), might be singing praises of the qualities of head and heart of the joint Opposition candidate for vice-president, Gopalkrishna Gandhi. But not too long ago, it wanted him ousted from the West Bengal governors post at any cost. It is Kolkatas worst-kept secret that when the Left Front was in power in 2009, it wanted to see the last of Gandhi after he criticised the state government on the continuing post-poll violence in the state. Left Front chairman and CPI-M state secretary at the time, Biman Bose, accused Gandhi of being biased towards the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
State-owned airline Air Indias decision to eliminate non-vegetarian meals from its economy class flights may not quite be in the same category as various state governments decisions to ban cow slaughter and the selling of beef. A meal served on board a domestic flight should hardly be a matter of much controversy  few journeys exceed two hours, after all. But there is good reason for the uproar that has erupted on social media, and it concerns the rationale for the decision. Air India's management claims the move is aimed at cost-reduction: Eliminating non-vegetarian food for economy class travel will slim down the airlines annual Rs 400 crore food bill by Rs 8 crore. It will also, or so the airline says, reduce waste and simplify matters for the crew by enabling each flight to carry the exact number of meals rather than two options for unspecified numbers of vegetarian and non-vegetarian passengers. None of these reasons passes closer scrutiny. It is possible to argue that every saving, however small, counts for an airline that has been on taxpayer life support since 2012. Even so, a two per cent reduction in a food bill is surely a waste of management bandwidth when the airline is reportedly reeling under losses of over Rs 3,000 crore  and has been hauled up by the Comptroller and Auditor General for, basically, fudging its 2015-16 performance by claiming an operating profit.
After silently watching the events in Bihar from the sidelines for days, Congress President finally intervened in the ongoing tug-of-war between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United).
Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said today.

"Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted yesterday by the Mai-Mai Simba," Alfred Bongwalanga, administrator of Mambasa district in the province of Ituri, told AFP.

Separately, a senior official with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "Eleven RFO park wardens and an American journalist are missing, while two Britons and five other wardens escaped, when they were attacked by the Mai-Mai Simba."



In Washington, a US official said the State Department was "aware of reports" that a US citizen had been kidnapped -- a formulation that is normally used in these circumstances and seen as a confirmation.

"The US Department of State has no higher priority than the protection of US citizens overseas. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment," the official added.

The vice governor of Ituri, Pacifique Keta, said the armed forces and "every service" had been informed of the incident.

The names of the missing wardens and female journalist were not given.

A former Belgian colony, the DR Congo is a vast country rich in minerals and timber but wracked by decades of war and poverty.

The east of the country is especially troubled. It has been gripped by more than 20 years of armed conflict among domestic and foreign groups, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

The Mai-Mai Simba is a self-described "self-defence" militia drawn from the Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities as well as rivals from the Nyaturu, who represent ethnic Hutus.

Many of these groups were armed during the DR Congo's second war -- a conflict that ran from 1998-2003 -- to fight incursion by Rwandan or Ugandan combatants, and have never been disarmed.

The RFO, a World Heritage site, covers nearly 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 square miles), protecting much of the Ituri forest near the borders with Sudan and Uganda.

The park is notably home to the okapi, an endangered zebra-like species that is a cousin of the giraffe. It is also home to the Mbutu and Efe pygmies, hunter-gatherers who are "among the last true 'forest people' on Earth," according to the Okapi Conservation Project website.

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Railway police have apprehended a 15-year-old youth for allegedly molesting a woman at the Churchgate station in south Mumbai.

The incident took place on July 8, when the 22-year-old woman was standing on platform three, waiting for train, said a Government Railway Police officer.

The youth walked up to her and molested her before trying to flee, but some other commuters and RPF personnels present on the spot caught him.

A case under IPC section 354 (outraging woman's modesty) was registered against him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three people, including two teenage boys, were killed by an explosion in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state today, a police officer said.

Police were investigating if the mine had been laid intentionally or if the victims had accidentally struck unexploded ordnance leftover from a previous conflict, an officer told AFP.

"According to our initial information, it was a homemade mine," the officer said, requesting anonymity.

"It exploded around 10:30am this morning in a field," he said, adding that an elderly man and two boys aged 15 and 17 were killed by the blast.

A 13-year-old boy was hospitalised with injuries.

The north of Rakhine state is an impoverished area scarred by a brutal army crackdown on its Muslim Rohingya population.

The campaign was launched in October in response to deadly raids staged by Rohingya militants, who say they are fighting for political rights of for stateless minority, which Myanmar has been accused of mistreating for years.

The army crackdown has displaced more than 92,000 Rohingya.

The majority fled across the border to Bangladesh, where they gave harrowing accounts of security officers slaughtering babies, burning people alive and staging gang rapes.

The UN has ordered an investigation into the alleged army abuses, saying they may amount to crimes against humanity.

But Myanmar has vowed to block visas for the UN fact- finding team, with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi warning that their probe would inflame tensions in the region.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner, has faced global censure for not taking a stronger stance on the Rohingya's plight since coming to power last year.

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Hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteers today gathered at the residence of former party leader and activist Anjali Damania in suburban Santacruz requesting her to rejoin the political outfit.

Damania, however, refused to give in to their request saying there were no such plans as of now.

Over 300 volunteers from across the state assembled at the activist's residence around 9 am and stayed there till 1 pm requesting her to return to the party which she left in 2015.

Simultaneously volunteers ran a hashtag #AAPneedsAnjali from the her residence that kept trending for few hours on micro-blogging site Twitter.

"You can see, Mumbai's torrential rains too have not deterred AAP volunteers from reaching Damania's house at 9 am in the morning. We volunteers make a sincere and humble request to our party leaders to convince Anjali Damania to come back to AAP," an AAP volunteer said in a video message.

Another volunteer, Abhishek Bhat said, "It's about morals and principles which the Aam Aadmi Party stands for. We volunteers want good leaders like Anjali Damania to fight the muscle and monetary might of corrupt politicians in Maharashtra.

"We request our Delhi leaders too to convince Damania to join AAP Maharashtra again."



Deepak Dubey, another AAP volunteer said, "Ever since, Damania left AAP, she has never joined any other political outfit and she still remains with the AAP emotionally."



However, Damania, denied any possibility of rejoining the party.

"It was an emotional moment to find my volunteers appealing to me to come back in the party. I respect their feelings and AAP was once very very close to my heart, but at the moment I am not thinking about it," Damania told PTI.

Damania had quit AAP on March 12, 2015, alleging that party leadership had compromised on principles that were laid down during its formation.

Damania had left party in protest after Arvind Kejriwal allegedly tried to poach Congress MLAs to form the government in the national capital.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has sought Union minister Nitin Gadkari's intervention in expediting the approvals, pending before his ministry, to upgrade two-lane national highways to four or six lanes.

In a letter to the Union minister for road, transport, highways and shipping, the chief minister said only four of Punjab's 22 districts are still connected with two-lane national highways, while the rest are already linked with four or six-lane national highways.

He wants to upgrade these two-lane highways in the districts -- Ferozpur, Mansa, Muktsar and Fazilka -- to four or six lanes, whose approvals are pending with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said an official statement.

Besides, he sought the formal notification of the Khanna-Malerkotla-Raikot-Jagraon-Nakodar and Banga- Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib road as new national highways, for which the Centre has given in-principle approval. The updgrade of Talwandi-Ferozpur and Muktsar-Malout section is also on the radar.

He further urged the ministry to resolve the pending issues related to four-laning of Ludhiana-Talwandi Bhai section of NH-95, for which work was started in March, 2012 on a PPP model (public-private partnership), but subsequently stopped. "The suspension of work was causing a lot of inconvenience to the people," he said.

While the Union ministry has budgeted Rs 1,049 crore, only one Rs 158-crore project has been allocated in the first phase.

The chief minister has also pitched for the four-laning projects be handed over to the state PWD, which have the competent workers to implement national highway projects.

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An Indian Army jawan was killed today in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Rajouri sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence spokesman said here.

Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said.

There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas.

"In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries," he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.

"The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added.

On July 12, two Jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistani Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir.

Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shellingand firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district.

The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.

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The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Sunday as seven more deaths were reported and nearly 1.2 million people in 24 districts were affected by the deluge.

Two persons lost their lives in Sivasagar and one each at in Morigaon, Bongaigaon, South Salmara, Sonitpur and Jorhat districts in flood related incidents, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said



With this, the toll in this year's flood related cases has gone up to 59, including eight in Guwahati.

Nearly 1.2 million people are affected at present in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Karimganj and Cachar districts, the ASDMA said.

Till Saturday, 1.5 million people were affected in the latest wave of flood across 25 districts in the state.

Meanwhile, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government has sufficient funds available for relief and rehabilitation of the victims across the state.

"We had provided relief money to the deputy commissioners before the floods this year and we can provide money as sought by them.

"Funds for flood relief were left unspent last year and Rs 300-400 crore is still lying in the state coffers, meant for this year's relief," he said.

Sarma also announced at a press conference that the Assam government, for the first time, will provide free textbooks to school students, whose books have been damaged in floods.

At the Kaziranga Park, 93 anti-poaching camps or 52 per cent of the area is under water, leaving some animals dead and some moving to nearby highlands.

Some animals were killed by speeding vehicles on the Highway 37, which passes through the Park.

ASDMA said 1,795 villages are under water at present and more than 66,500 hectares of crop areas are inundated.

The worst affected is South Salmara, where over 3.07 lakh people have been affected by the deluge, followed by Dhubri with more than 1.94 lakh people.

In Guwahati, also, water logging incidents have been reported, ASDMA said.

Authorities are running 279 relief camps and distribution centres in 16 districts, where 24,423 people are currently taking shelter.

The government has distributed 4,631.32 quintals of rice, 855.30 quintals of dal, 349.82 quintals of salt and 416.46 litres of mustard oil among the flood victims during the last 24 hours, ASDMA said.

Due to the impact of the flood waters, many roads, embankments and bridges have been damaged in many districts, including Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Barpeta, Morigaon, Nagaon, Karimganj and Chirang.

Currently, the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at four places  Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, along with Goalpara and Dhubri towns.

Other rivers like Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat, Barak at Badarpurghat in Karimganj and Kushiyara at Karimganj town are flowing above the danger marks.
Michael Caputo, a former top adviser to Donald Trump's campaign with strong ties to Russia, firmly denied having knowledge of any alleged contacts between the campaign and Russia after testifying privately to the House intelligence committee Friday.

"I spent my time in front of the committee detailing the fact that I had no contact with Russians, that I never heard of anyone with the Trump campaign talking with Russians, that I was never asked questions about my time in Russia, that I never even spoke to anyone about Russia, that I never heard the word 'Russia,' and we did not use Russian dressing," Caputo told reporters in a press conference after the closed-door testimony. "There was absolutely no discussion of Russia on the Trump campaign 'til the day I left."

Caputo resigned from the campaign on June 20, 2016 after celebrating the dismissal of then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski with a tweet that said, "Ding Dong the witch is dead." Paul Manafort, who brought Caputo into the national campaign in April 2016 after his success with the New York primary, replaced Lewandowski as chairman.

The session before the House intelligence committee on Friday lasted three and a half hours -- an hour and a half longer than expected, Caputo's lawyer told reporters at the start of the press briefing, citing repetitive questions from lawmakers as the reason for the length.

Caputo was strongly critical of California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, who in March said he was part of a "tarantula web" of links to Russia and called him Russian President Vladimir Putin's "image consultant."

"There was no way I was Vladimir Putin's image consultant," Caputo said. "You have to be very naive and uninformed or have a team of really bad interns to come up with that analysis."

Sounding emotional, he also said his family received threats in the aftermath of Speier's comments and said he expects an apology from Speier.

Caputo said he has distanced himself from Trump because his name has been brought up in regard to the federal investigation into Russia's efforts to influence last year's election and any potential collusion by the Trump campaign.

"Nobody in the administration or the White House needs my telephone number on their call list, needs me on their visitor logs, or needs emails from me," he said.

Caputo said he would like to get back in touch with the White House down the road.

Florida Republican Tom Rooney, California Democrat Adam Schiff, California Democrat Eric Swalwell, and Washington Democrat Denny Heck attended, Caputo's lawyer, Dennis Vacco, said.

Heck told CNN's Jim Acosta shortly after the hearing that it was "probably the most fascinating three hours of time I've spent in my nearly five years in the United States House of Representatives."

"I'm not going to comment on the content of that exchange because the truth of the matter is that could conceivably compromise this investigation," Heck said. "And if there is anything I think we can conclude about this entire matter, it is that at the end of it, the American public needs to have confidence that it was conducted with integrity."

Caputo posted his opening and closing statements on Twitter.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the date Caputo joined Trump's national campaign.
A British pilot reported missing in the French Alps was found dead today in the debris of his crashed glider, the prosecutor for the Gap region said.

Mountain rescue had been alerted late yesterday to the disappearance of the 69-year-old pilot, who had taken off earlier that day from the Serres-La Batie aerodrome.

Rescuers found the body of the British pilot and the crashed glider at an altitude of some 2300 metres (7,500 feet).

According to the Gap prosecutor, the pilot, whose name was not released, smashed into a mountain summit near the commune of Val-des-Pres, north of Briancon in southeastern France.

Aviation authorities have been called to investigate the cause of the crash.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
'Cancer Clinics', a start-up venture for dedicated cancer treatment, was launched here today.

It offers screening, information, advice on nutrition, relaxation classes, psychologist and nursing support, among others, for cancer patients, Managing Director Sonali Srungaram said.

Cancer Clinics is a speciality facility that provides a set of curated services for cancer patients to enhance their wellbeing through integrative care.

"Our aspiration is to solve cancer patients' needs for integrative care and to ease their struggle to find it," she said.

'Cancer Clinics' follows Srungaram's first pan-India venture 'Cancer Helpline' that "exposed her and her team to challenges of navigating the health system for cancer treatment," a release issued by the promoters said.

Cancer Clinics, established with a planned investment of Rs 3.5 crore, was launched by CEO and co-chairperson of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, G V Prasad.

Noting that "navigation" of the healthcare systems in hospitals is often confusing, Prasad lauded the promoters for offering different services under one roof.

"To really integrate many aspects of treatment, psychological counselling, financial counselling; cancer is not



only a difficult disease, financially it is burdensome.

"We make a lot of drugs, we see how difficult it is for a patient...People sell their homes, there is nobody to guide them after the first cycle, nobody tells them what is the journey like. Even educated people find it difficult. So, something like this is fantastic," he said.

Early detection is very important in treating cancer, Prasad stressed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Christian man has been arrested on the charges of blasphemy in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Soon after arresting the suspect the police shifted him to an undisclosed location on the fear that the area people led by religious groups might attack the police station.

The incident took place at Kharian Gujrat, some 200 kms from Lahore, the capital of Punjab.

Nadeem Ahmed, owner of an electric shop in Dinga town, filed a complaint with the police that a friend of his informed him on Thursday that a Christian sweeper allegedly had uttered remarks against the Prophet, according to Superintendent of Police Maaz Zafar.

The sweeper worked at a private hospital.

A case against the suspect has been registered.

Zafar said the police raided the whereabouts of the sweeper and arrested him.

He said the situation in the area is under control and police personnel are patrolling the town.

Blasphemy is very sensitive issue in Pakistan and those accused of it have become an easy target for extremists.

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Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today urged farmers to bring to his notice their grievances about Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's ambitious Samruddhi expressway project.

The project, the brainchild of Fadnavis government, promises to transform the economy of drought prone regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada by connecting Mumbai to Nagpur.

Thackeray also dismissed as false media reports stating that Sena is divided over the project and that party minister Eknath Shinde is approaching farmers and negotiating with them to sell their land to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the project.

"The Sena wants development but not at the cost of farmers. I have myself spoken to chief minister Fadnavis and told him that he will have to compromise on certain areas of the expressway to meet farmers demands or finishing the project will be difficult," Thackeray told reporters here.

"I want farmers to bring to our notice if they are being forced to part with their fertile lands or have not been given adequate compensation. We will ensure their demands are met," he said.

Thackeray said there are two areas of concern for the farmers -- they having to part with their fertile land and compensation.

"We have been engaging in a dialogue with farmers and will see that development does not happen at the cost of ruining the farmers," he said.

"There have been false reports in the media that my stand and my party minister's stand over the issue are different and that Eknath Shinde is acquiring lands of farmers against my wishes. But being a minister, he is a staunch Sainik," Thackeray said.

Thackeray said that he had instructed Shinde to visit project affected villages, meet farmers and understand their grievances and hand over their lands for the corridor only if they are satisfied with every aspect of the government's decision.

Meanwhile, Thackeray said NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind had called him to express his gratitude for the Sena's support for his candidature.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ruling CPI-M and opposition BJP today appealed to the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) to withdraw its indefinite blockade of the national highway and railway tracks in Tripura, which entered sixth day today.

Tripura state secretary of CPI-M, Bijan Dhar, said the indefinite blockade of the national highway and lone railway track at Baramura range in West Tripura district was creating problems for the local tribals and hindering movement of vehicles and people.

"We do not succumb to the pressure of IPFT for creating a new state by carving out the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. But, we are in favour of more autonomy to the tribals, who are comparatively backward. We appeal to the agitators to withdraw their movement for the interest of the people", Dhar told reporters.

He also appealed to the state government to take all possible measures to maintain peace and tranquillity in the state.

BJP also appealed to the IPFT to withdraw the movement.

"We discard the demand for separate state, because it would divide the state and people. We appeal to IPFT to withdraw the movement because it is harmful for the common masses and bringing adverse impact on economy of the state", Central observer and in-charge of Tripura, Sunil Deodhar said.

"Manik Sarkar is an inactive Chief Minister, who failed to withdraw the movement. It is his responsibility to ensure smooth movement of traffic on the national highway and protect people so that they do not face any problem," he said.

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Ecuador informed Peru that it has decided to halt construction of a border wall, an issue that had inflamed tensions between the two nations.

Quito's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa yesterday announced her government's decision to halt the controversial construction project during a visit to Peru.

"The foreign ministry of Ecuador confirms the suspension of the construction of the wall," Espinosa said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Peru recalled its ambassador from Quito to express outrage over the decision by Ecuador to press ahead with the wall despite Lima's objections.

Ecuador had planned a four-meter (13-foot) high barrier along the western side of its southern city of Huaquillas to separate it from the Peruvian town of Aguas Verdes, lying just across a river.

The issue of border walls has become especially sensitive in Latin America after US President Donald Trump promised to build a barrier along the entire southern edge of his country, to prevent undocumented immigrants from crossing over from Mexico.

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The Aurangabad police and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) today claimed to have busted an electricity meter tampering racket in a joint operation.

Seven people have been arrested in the case.

City police commissioner Yashaswi Yadav said today evening that the racket may have caused revenue loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to power firms in Maharashtra.

The culprits -- some of them electricians -- tampered with electricity meters of individual customers for money. They installed an electronic circuit inside, which the customer could manipulate through a remote control device so that the meter reading would be much less than the actual power consumption, he said.

These devices were imported from China, Yadav said, adding that the remotes could be potentially used even to detonate bombs.

"We are going to write to the Home Minister's office asking them to ban the import of such remotes in the interest of national security," he said.

Joint Managing Director of MSEDCL Omprakash Bakoria said the distribution firm had under its scanner several household meters from affluent areas which consistently recorded consumption of less than 30 units per month.

According to the police, the accused learnt how to rig the meters from YouTube videos.

Cases of power theft have been registered at four police stations in the city under the relevant IPC sections, the commissioner said, without giving more details.

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Following are the top stories from the northern region at 1930 hrs:



DES 16 PB-GIRLS-DROWN-FAKE STORY



Gurdaspur (Pb): The two girls who were believed to have drowned in a canal here while taking selfies had concocted the story and have actually run away from their homes, says police.

DES 19 UP-ADITYANATH-JOBS



Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government fixes a target to provide jobs to 70 lakh people in five years, says Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

DES 17 BUKHARI-GOVT-ANIMALS



New Delhi: The Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, writes to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, urges him to take steps to ensure that those ferrying buffaloes and goats for sacrifice on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha are not attacked.

DES 9 UP-BOVINE-SMUGGLERS



Badaun: Bovine smugglers allegedly kill at least half-a- dozen stray cattle and fire at people in a village in Badaun district, prompting immediate suspension of the entire Dial 100 team.

DES 13 JK-GRENADE ATTACK



Srinagar: CRPF officer injured as militants carry out a grenade attack in Kulgam district of south Kashmir, says a police official.

DES 3 JK-AMARNATH BATCH



Jammu: Amid tight security, the sixteenth batch of 3,398 pilgrims leave Jammu for the 3,888-metre Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in the south Kashmir Himalayas.

DEL 6 JK-ATTACK-DRIVER-ARREST



Srinagar: A policeman serving as a PDP MLA's driver has been arrested in connection with investigations into the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims this week, say police sources.

DES 8 JK-SWARAJ-FORGED LETTERS



Jammu: A man is arrested for allegedly using forged letters of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to get heli-tickets to the Mata Vaishnodevi cave shrine.

DES 11 CUSTOMS-SEIZURES



New Delhi: Foreign currency worth about Rs 93 lakh seized from a man by the customs at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here, says officials.

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The BJP in Uttar Pradesh today asked all its workers to plant at least one sapling each in their area, as it launched a campaign to boost and inculcate concern for the environment among its cadre.

The plantation drive, which will include MPs and MLAs also, has been initiated to commemorate the birth centenary celebration of party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay. It will continue till July 25.

"During this period, party workers at the booth-level will plant at least one sapling and also ensure that it is properly nurtured and looked after," UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi told PTI.

Noting that the present weather is absolutely conducive for undertaking plantation, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party's effort is to inculcate a feeling of concern for the environment among its cadres.

"This will benefit the environment in the long run," Tripathi added.

He said the entire exercise is being conducted under the supervision of UP general secretary Ashok Kataria, even as the party will be monitoring the plantation programme on a daily basis from Lucknow and seek feedback and daily progress reports from all districts.

"The endeavour is to ensure that plantation is done at the ground level and does not remain confined to rhetoric," he said.

However, the choice of the sapling has been left to party workers, who will taken the decision keeping in mind the weather and geography of their area, he added.

"The booth-level committees are complete at 1.08 lakh booths across the state. Each committee has 20 members. Arithmetically, we can expect that more than 20 lakh saplings will be planted during the period from July 15 to July 25," Tripathi said.

After this, he said, party workers will hold seminars from July 26 to July 31 on a variety of issues.

"From August 1 to August 7, blood testing programmes will be held, which will be followed by Seva Sahyogi Sangam from August 8 to August 13. A blood donation programme will be held on August 9 and a quiz competition on August 20," Tripathi said.

He said various programmes of different cells/wings of the party, including those of farmers, youth, women and scheduled castes, will be held from August 15 to September 15.

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Fourteen people were killed and 26 injured when a bus drove off the highway in central Ecuador, flipped and caught fire, local police said today.

The accident took place around 10 pm (local time) yesterday on the highway between the capital Quito and Andean city of La Mana, police Colonel Cristian Barreiro said in a video released by the Ecu911 emergency service.

The survivors were rushed to hospitals in Quito and the Santo Domingo province, while authorities said they were working to identify the fatalities.

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The Nevada State Water Engineers office recently contacted Nevada Farm Bureau regarding the administrative rulemaking process that is underway to define how Humboldt River Decreed water rights and groundwater rights will be conjunctively managed. This administrative rulemaking process requires the need to obtain and consider the impact of a regulation on small businesses and this is the focus in current efforts.

As part of the evaluation process for determining impact of the proposed rule, Nevada Farm Bureau has worked with the State Engineers office to set up a series of information meetings along the Humboldt River corridor. Farm Bureau members have been contacted to participate in these meetings and the general public are also strongly encouraged to attend/participate as well.

In the initial form of the preliminary regulation, the plan is to use the amount of impairment each groundwater well has on Humboldt River surface water rights. The mitigation would take the form of an annual financial assessment to be paid by each groundwater well to make the senior surface water right owners whole for their loss of water. Groundwater wells are junior water rights to the senior surface water rights and under Nevadas prior appropriations law, the senior water rights cannot be impaired by junior water rights. This link will provide the Preliminary Draft Regulations being proposed by the State Engineer.

The conjunctive water management system will incorporate use of the findings of a four-year study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Desert Research Institute, which is underway in the 34 groundwater basins that adjoin the Humboldt River corridor. This study seeks to identify which groundwater wells, on an individual basis, are connected to the surface water flows of the Humboldt River and the degree to which each well is interconnected with the river water. From the models established through this study, the impact of groundwater pumping from each well will be determined.

From the information provided by the State Engineer, the preliminary analysis indicates that groundwater pumping from 8 to 12 miles of the river would be assessed through this program. The exact amount of the assessment cannot be determined until the hydrologic studies are completed (at the end of the 4-year study) and an analysis of water valuation (dollars per acre foot) is established.

While the preliminary determination for the proposed regulation is likely to be a significant economic burden, the impact would be less than an alternative of elimination of groundwater pumping which impacts water in the Humboldt River.

In litigation brought forward by the Pershing County Water Conservation District and currently before the 11th Judicial District Court, initiated August 12, 2015 and amended in petition November 2, 2016, the court could rule the State Engineer to move forward with curtailment of groundwater pumping in 19 of the 34 groundwater basins.

These groundwater basins would include: Dixie Creek-Tenmile, Elko Segment, Maggie Creek, Boulder Flat, Lower Reese River Valley, Clovers Area, Paradise Valley, Winnemucca Segment, Grass Valley, Oreana Subarea, Lovelock Valley.

In addition any groundwater right that depletes the Humboldt River, regardless of its priority, would be subject to curtailment.

Nevada Farm Bureau is working with the State Engineers Office to organize information meetings to discuss these issues and gather input on the effect of the proposed regulations. As these details are finalized, we will be mailing Farm Bureau members invites to attend a local meeting in their areas.

Along with spreading the word for these critically important meetings to all impacted Farm Bureau members, we hope that every effort will be made to have all groundwater well owners in the areas be made aware of what is taking shape and encourage strong participation at the local meetings.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has announced that a sequel to their blockbuster 2013 musical comedy "Frozen" will arrive in theatres on November 27, 2019.

Kristen Bell as the voice of Anna and Josh Gad as Olaf are reprising their roles in an all-new story.

The film will be directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who also helmed the original movie that has become a classic.

Peter Del Vecho is producing the project.

Chief creative officer of Disney's Pixar John Lasseter, Bell and Gad, both 36, shared with "Frozen" fans a behind- the-scenes video at the ongoing D23 expo here, showcasing the filmmakers' recent research trip to Norway, Finland and Iceland.

But before the second installment in the popular animated film franchise releases, fans will get to see a new 21-minute holiday featurette titled, "Olaf's Frozen Adventure".

Bell introduced fans to this new semi-sequel, while Gad surprised the crowd with a live performance of the all-new original song "That Time of Year", written by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson from the featurette that will hit the theatres on November 22 this year.

Joining Bell and Gad in the "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" are Idina Menzel as the voice of Elsa and Jonathan Groff as Kristoff. The two are also reprising their roles in "Frozen 2".

The featurette is directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton. Roy Conli is producing the project.

The original film was released on November 27, 2013. It won two Academy Awards for the best animated feature and the best original song "Let It Go".

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Gaza's militant Hamas rulers has called on Palestinians to attack Israeli forces in Jerusalem after a sacred site was closed following a deadly assault there.

Hamas described the closure of the site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount in a statement as a "religious war" and Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on the Palestinian "uprising" to target the Israeli army and West Bank settlers.

Israel made the rare move after three Palestinian assailants opened fire there Friday, killing two Israeli police officers before being shot dead. The attackers were devout Muslim citizens of Israel.

Yesterday, the White House condemned the attack in a strongly-worded statement.

Hamas staged a rally celebrating the attack



The Muslim-administered site is revered by both Muslims and Jews. Israel says it won't reopen before Sunday.

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India's Harinder Pal Sandhu is one step away from winning his fourth title as he defeated Piedro Schweertman of the Netherlands to reach the final of the Victorian Open in Melbourne today.

The third-seed Sandhu beat second-seed Piedro 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 in the semi-final.

Sandhu, who has been in good touch, has not dropped a game enroute to the final where he will now meet the top seed Rex Hedrick of Australia in the PSA world tour event, said a SRFI press release here.

As in the earlier matches, fluency marked the Indian's show as he took just 35 minutes to complete the win.

Sandhu, who won the South Australian Open for his third title of the year, had beaten Piedro with a degree of difficulty in Adelaide at the semi-final stage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 25-year-old medical student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot who then tried to commit suicide at their flat in Bangladesh's northeastern port city of Chittagong, police said today.

Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on their fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area last night, the police said.

Sheikh, a final year student of the private University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.

"Four Indian medical students hired the apartment where one of them killed a fellow student and then attempted suicide," a police officer said.

Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, police said.

The four students hailed from Manipur, they said, adding that it appeared to be an incident of involuntary murder as a sequel of altercations between Singh and Sheikh.

Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body.

"The fellow residents of the apartment tried to save both of them by taking them first to the USTC Hospital and then the (state-run) Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where doctors declared Sheikh dead," said officer-in-charge of the city's Akbar Shah police station Alamgir Hossain.

Singh was being treated at the facility but his condition was critical, CMCH doctors said.

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The third edition of Bonjour India festival, celebrating Indo-French partnership in innovation and creativity, will be held from November 2017 to February 2018, Consul General of France in Mumbai, Yves Perrin said.

The festival comprises a series of exhibitions, concerts, literary meetings, film festivals, debates, conferences, food festivals and economic, educational and scientific exchanges.

The first two editions of Bonjour India were held in 2009 and 2013, Perrin said, speaking at an event here last night on the occasion of Bastille Day, the French National Day, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year.

Bonjour India seeks to establish an exhilarating platform for showcasing the various facets of Indian and French contemporary creation, he said.

"The main objective of the third edition of Bonjour India is to strengthen the Indo-French ties," Perrin said.

"This dynamic dialogue (between France and India) furthered with the first edition of Bonjour India travelling across India, followed by the Namaste France festival of India in France," he said.

"This platform will give an opportunity to Indian and French artists, students, researchers and professionals, to work together and deepen their mutual understanding," Perrin said.

"Bonjour India will be a platform for innovation and creativity focused on social, technological and environmental innovation," the French diplomat said.

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Indonesia has blocked web-based access to a popular messaging service and threatened a full ban on the app due to its "terrorism" content, the government said.

The communications ministry said in a statement that "so many channels in the (Telegram) service contain radicalism and terrorism... Encouragement and tips to assemble bombs or launch attacks" that it needed to block it.

The partial ban came as the country suffered from a string of attacks, including one carried out by a man police said was radicalised after reading radical material on Telegram.

The government has so far bocked only access to the app via computer, but is preparing to impose a full ban.

"We are now preparing a process to close down Telegram app in full throughout Indonesia if Telegram does not come up with a standard operating procedure to handle law-violating contents," the communications ministry said in a statement issued late yesterday.

In June, a lone wolf attacker stabbed two police officers in a mosque. Police said the man had no links to militant groups but had been radicalised through material he read on Telegram.

Telegram is a free Russian-designed messaging app that lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000. It has attracted about 100 million users since its launch in 2013.

The app has come under fire in Russia after the state communications watchdog threatened to ban it in June, saying the company behind the service had failed to submit company details for registration.

Russia's FSB security agency also said Telegram was used by those behind April's Saint Petersburg metro bombing.

Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, said the firm will investigate the Indonesia charges.

"We have never received any requests/complaints from the Indonesian government," Durov said on Twitter.

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Israel said today it will reopen the ultra-sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City whose closure after deadly shootings sparked anger from Muslims and Jordan, the holy site's custodian.

The decision to reopen the compound, also holy to Jews who call it the Temple Mount, was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was leaving for an official visit to France.

"It has been decided to reopen the Temple Mount gradually tomorrow (Sunday) for the faithful, visitors and tourists," the premier's office said in a statement.

Three Arab Israeli assailants opened fire on Israeli police yesterday in the Old City before fleeing to the nearby Haram al-Sharif compound -- Islam's third holiest site -- where they were shot dead by police.

Israeli authorities said they had come from the flashpoint holy site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, to commit the attack.

The White House "strongly" condemned yesterday's attack, saying "there must be zero tolerance for terrorism".

After the attack Israeli authorities took the highly unusual decision to close the holy site for Friday prayers, angering Muslims and drawing the ire of Jordan which administers the compound.

Wael Arabiyat, Jordan's Islamic affairs minister, warned that keeping Al-Aqsa mosque closed is "dangerous" and "unprecedented", after Amman called for its immediate reopening.

Hundreds of Jordanians, responding to a Muslim Brotherhood call, demonstrated in Amman today, calling for the "liberation of Al-Aqsa".

Netanyahu had said the compound could reopen tomorrow after security was assessed, and rejected Jordan's criticism.

Today, Israeli security forces locked down parts of Jerusalem's Old City, restricting access through Damascus Gate, the main entrance used by Palestinians.

Only residents with identification were allowed to pass.

"This is not security. This is punishment," said Bader Jweihan, 53, an accountant who was denied entry.

Musa Abdelmenam Qussam, 73 and with poor eyesight, was helped by a grandson as he walked with a cane and sought to enter.

But the owner of a book wholesale shop in the Old City was also turned away.

"This mosque is not only for Muslims. Tourists come," he said, adding that he usually prays at Al-Aqsa every day.

"This city is for all the world. It must be open."



Jaffa Gate, heavily used by tourists and near the Old City's Jewish Quarter, was open but with a heavy police presence.

A group of tourists from Poland said they were concerned when they heard about yesterday's shooting but wanted to continue their visit.

"It stressed me a little," said Ewa, who did not want to give her last name.

At Lions Gate near the site of the attack, police guarded the entrance and restricted access, checking IDs.

The attack and aftermath was one of the most serious incidents in Jerusalem in recent years.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Netanyahu spoke by phone yesterday as tensions rose.

Israeli authorities also detained Jerusalem's top Muslim cleric, grand mufti Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, as crowds gathered at the gates of the Old City after the attack, his son said.

Hussein was released later yesterday after being questioned, another of his sons said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind today met MLAs and MPs of the BJP and its allies in Maharashtra and called up Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to thank him for supporting his candidature in the July 17 poll.

Lawmakers of the BJP and its allies, the Shiv Sena, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and the RPI(A), were present at the meeting where Kovind outlined his priorities once he is elected to the country's top constitutional post.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Raosaheb Danve, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ramdas Athawale (RPI-A), Anant Geete (Shiv Sena), BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and state minister Mahadev Jankar (RSP), and a few Independent MLAs were among those present.

Though Kovind did not visit Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' at suburban Bandra, he spoke with the Sena chief over phone and thanked him for his party's support to him.

Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited 'Matoshree' and met then Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The party had broken ranks with the BJP-led NDA in the past two presidential elections (2007, 2012) and voted for the Congress-backed nominees.

Addressing the MLAs and MPs, Kovind said he would uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and work towards ensuring justice for all after he became the president.

"We all have the duty to preserve the importance of the Constitution of India. I would ensure equal justice to all and avoid discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender and region," he said.

The former Bihar governor, who was in Mumbai for merely three hours after which he left for Goa, said there should be a comprehensive growth of all the states.

"My priority would be to address the aspirations of the youth and push for promotion and modernisation of education," he said.

According to a senior BJP leader, of the 239 elected NDA representatives from the state, where the BJP is in power in alliance with the Shiv Sena and some smaller parties, not even 150 attended the meeting.

"It was expected that all the representatives would attend the meet. We can understand Union ministers like Piyush Goyal (a Rajya Sabha member from the state) not attending the meet due to their busy schedule, but MLAs and MPs, who are comparatively free, could have attended the meeting," the BJP leader said.

The ruling BJP has 122 MLAs, while Shiv Sena has 63 legislators in the state. The NDA's total number of voters in the presidential polls from Maharashtra, with the MPs and Rajya Sabha members put together, is 239.

Gadkari described Kovind as an "outstanding person" who had "great dedication" for public service.

"The NDA has chosen the right candidate for the post of president. He will get overwhelming support from Maharashtra," the Union minister said.

Fadnavis said Kovind had organisational and administrative skills and was also a constitutional expert.

Danve spoke about Kovind's clean image, simplicity and modesty and asserted, "His victory is certain as there are 239 voters from Maharashtra who are with the NDA while the UPA has only 98 voters (from the state)."



Maharashtra minister and senior Sena leader Subhash Desai said Thackeray had asked the party legislators to ensure the victory of the NDA candidate.

Athawale said everyone was happy that Kovind, who is associated with the Dalit movement started by B R Ambedkar, would be the country's next president.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra minister Eknath Shinde sought to downplay the issue of Kovind not visiting 'Matoshree'.

"We have already extended our support to Kovind. As per Uddhav Thackeray's orders, all the MLAs and MPs of Shiv Sena have decided to vote for him," he said.

"Kovind thanked Uddhav Thackeray today in his speech for extending support to his candidature. As Kovind had to visit a couple of more states after the Mumbai tour, we did not insist on him visiting 'Matoshree'," Shinde said.

A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' at suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary.

MP Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetakari Sanghatana, who was present when Kovind filed his nomination, was absent today as he was busy with a farmers' rally.

Maharashtra is the second largest state in terms of Assembly and Parliamentary seats.

The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on Monday and the counting will take place on July 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind today met BJP MLAs and MPs from Gujarat in Gandhinagar as part of his nationwide tour to garner support.

Before heading to Gandhinagar to meet MPs, MLAs, and core committee members of the ruling BJP, Kovind was accorded grand welcome at the airport here in the presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya were accompanying Kovind.

Kovind was felicitated by the leaders of the Koli community to which he belongs.

In a brief address at the airport soon after landing here, Kovind said Gujarat is his "second home" after Uttar Pradesh, his home state.

"Gujarat is not new to me. I have been frequently visiting the state since last 30-32 years. The name of the state is associated with Bapu (M K Gandhi) and Sardar Patel. But this state has given two prime ministers, and I got a chance to work with respected Morarji Desai for three years," Kovind said.

"Since 1970, I used to come to south Gujarat, in Surat and Valsad. And after that, I have visited all of Saurashtra. I some time say that Gujarat is my second state. Uttar Pradesh is my home state, and when I started my contact tour (sampark yatra) as a presidential candidate, on the first day I went to my Maa, my Matrubhumi (home state) Uttar Pradesh," he said.

Kovind said he has so far visited twenty five states, with Gujarat being the 25th.

"It is said that when you start out for a big work, pious work, you visit two houses. First is where you were born, and second the state which I have considered as my home state, which is Gujarat," the ex-Bihar Governor said.

He also said he will get blessings from people of Gujarat.

BJP president Amit Shah and state party in-charge Bhupendra Yadav were also scheduled to arrive here with Kovind but had to cancel their tour as they had to attend a programme in Delhi, the party sources said.

The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on Monday and the counting will take place on July 20.

The electoral college, which elects the president through the system of proportional representation, comprises elected MPs and members of state legislative assemblies.

Interestingly, Opposition Presidential nominee Meira Kumar had started her nation-wide campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, who was in Mumbai today to interact with MPs and state legislators, spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over phone and thanked him for supporting his candidature.

A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary which had raised eyebrows.

However, he made a phone call to Thackeray and thanked him for supporting his candidature for the July 17 presidential election, Shiv Sena sources said.

Kovind held a meeting with elected representatives of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies at the Garware Club in south Mumbai.

Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the party had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

Thackeray had announced his party's support for Kovind after a meeting of Shiv Sena leaders here last month.

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Kolkata Police today initiated an inquiry against state BJP President Dilip Ghosh for threatening to torch West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence if the police tried to arrest him under false cases.

According to a Kolkata Police office, a complaint was lodged at Sinthee police station in the city today by a Trinamool Congress leader against Ghosh for saying this at a public rally yesterday in Kharagpur.

"We have initiated an inquiry into the matter," the officer said.

Ghosh had yesterday threatened that he will torch Banerjee's residence if the state police tried to arrest him under false cases.

The BJP state president was addressing at a public rally at Malancha near Kharagpur in West Midnapore district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a very simple tax and several misunderstandings are being spread about this new taxation system, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

" is a very simple tax and those who follow the law will not be called to the office for assessment. For them, everything, including the return and the assessment orders will be made online," Jaitley said here today.

But, the minister made it clear that who tried to be "over clever" and tried to "circumvent the law" will face the music.

The union minister was addressing a rally after laying foundation stone for new office of the BJP near Gill road grain market here today.

Just as strong rumours and misconceptions were spread when mobile phones were introduced in the market, several misunderstandings are being created about the GST, he added.

He further said Jammu and Kashmir has also accepted the in the financial interests of the state.

On terrorism, Jaitley said that the BJP was the only party that openly condemned the terrorism, while there were some parties who did not mind using objectionable words against the Army that was fighting a battle on the front for security of the country.

"Whatever our ideologies may be, we must be together in fighting for the unity and integrity of the country," said the minister.

Earlier, he addressed a function in the Sat Pal Mittal School organised by the Bharti Foundation for its 'Satya Bharti Abhiyan'.

There he also met a joint delegation of Bharti Kisan Union (Rahnewale) and BKU (Lakhowal). Farmers' outfits were demanding roll back of on agriculture inputs and machinery.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today emphasised on imparting skill development of youths who can immensely contribute to the development of both the state and the country.

"Bihar has the highest number of youths who are our capital. Bihar can not develop without the overall growth of youths," Kumar said while addressing at a function organised on the occasion of 'World Youth Skill Day' here.

"Youths' income will rise manifold if they are given training for the development of various skills and in turn, it will not only spur development of Bihar but also contribute in nation's growth," Kumar said.

Stating that the state government has put 'skill development' programme of youths in the foreground of its agenda by including it in its 'seven resolve' programme, Kumar said that out of the seven resolves, two resolves are dedicated for youths development.

There are one of the five components of 'Arthik Hal Yuvaon Ka Bal' programme enumerated in the seven resolves, he said and added that giving training for the development of various skills to youths one of them apart from student credit card, Rs 1000 monthly self help assistance for two years, wi- fi at universities and college campuses and venture capital fund.

Bihar's youths are talented and hard working and if they are properly trained or imparted skills, they would get opportunities, he said.

Stating that Bihar's youths have a complex due to their inability to speak English and operate basic computer skill, Kumar said the government has decided to impart its youths three types of skills - English and Hindi communication skill, computer skill and behavioural skill.

Of the 1.13 lakh students who have registered themselves for availing various skill development training across the state since its launch on December 15, 2016, around 42,000 youths have availed training, the CM said.

Merely 1978 students had enrolled themselves at 48 skill development centres across the state at the time of launch of the programme, he added.

Kumar also talked about his government's commitment to build institutions in the state and how he had to put in efforts to build these institutions like IIT, Patna Centre of BIT Mesra, Chanakya National Law University, Chandragupt Institute of Management, NIFT, Arbhatta Knowledge University and various other medical and engineering colleges.

As part of seven resolves, the state government is committed to set up an engineering college, ITI, women's ITI, GNM Institute in every district, he said and expressed hope that his efforts will reduce the number of students going outside the state to pursue higher education.

Praising the talent and hard working nature of Bihar's people, Kumar said that Biharis are not only contributing in Bihar's development rather they are also contributing and help running various parts of the country.

If they (Biharis) decide just for one day that they will not come (for a day), Delhi will come to a standstill, Kumar said and added that no one can do without Biharis.

During the programme, Nitish Kumar, who was sitting beside Labour Resources minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, swapped his seat with Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh who was sitting right to the CM, thus making a distance with the RJD minister.

Later, Industries minister and JD(U) leader Jai Kumar Singh said that the CM changed his seat in order to have better view of the screen (TV monitor) fitted in front of him.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's nameplate was there on the dais but later it was removed thus making it clear that the DyCM, who was special guest on the occasion, would not come.

Replying to a query posed by mediapersons, Jai Kumar Singh said that "I can not say as what was the circumstances in which he (Dy CM) did not come...Labour Resources Department organised the function and I can tell you about myself as I was invited to the function.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's top military officer today accused India of targeting the USD 50 billion China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through "subversive activities".

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

As it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India has raised objection to the project.

Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, alleged that India's Research and Analysis Wing was targeting the CPEC thorough "subversive activities".

The highest-ranking military officer in the Pakistan Defense Forces made the remarks while addressing a passing out parade of the Navy Cadets here.

Zubair, the only four-star general besides army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Pakistan was aware of "enemy designs" and was taking effective counter measures for national security.

He also said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional security.

Pakistan regularly accuses India of carrying out sabotage activities. India has repeatedly dismissed all such allegations and asserted that cross border terrorism being perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups must stop.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan should grant a visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother on humanitarian grounds as it is an opportunity to lower the temperature in the ties and show that humanity can still shine, Pakistan's leading daily said today.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied India consular access to Jadhav, and his mother's visa application to visit Pakistan to see her son is pending with the authorities for approval.

In an editorial, the Dawn newspaper said the Pakistan government should grant Jadhav's mother a visa on humanitarian grounds to demonstrate "humanity can still shine through".

It said the visa application was the "latest opportunity" for the two countries to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other.

"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which is any case being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice," the paper said, asserting that the meeting would not undermine Pakistan's case against Jadhav.

"Small gestures can have a way of lowering the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures. Pakistan and India are caught in a trough in relations; the request by Jadhav's mother is an opportunity for both sides to show that humanity can still shine," it said.

Jadhav on June 22 filed a mercy petition before Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

He had been sentenced to death by a military court in April for espionage and terrorism. International Court of Justice in May halted his execution on India's appeal.

Pakistan claims to have arrested Jadhav from Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

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In his last interaction with ex-servicemen as supreme commander of the armed forces, President Pranab Mukherjee today lauded their contribution to society after their retirement.

Addressing ex-servicemen at the newly-built army base here which will be manned by the Army Aviation, Mukherjee said the military veterans carry discipline and organisational capacity in whatever field they venture into.

He also honoured 'Veer Naris' - widows of soldiers who laid down their lives in battle, on the occasion.

He felicitated six 'Veer Naris' and two battle casualties - soldiers critically injured in war.

The president expressed his reverence for the 'Veer Naris' and said though their loss could never be replaced, the government would continue to look after them.

He expressed happiness at getting this one last chance to meet the jawans, Veer Naris and ex-servicemen of the region prior to demitting office.

"After 10 days, my tenure as president will end. I am happy that I got this last chance to meet the ex-servicemen," he said.

This was the first ex-servicemen's rally at Nabagram Military Station, organised by the Brahmastra Corps of the Army's Eastern Command and was attended by more than 2,000 veterans and Veer Naris from Murshidabad.

Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, General Officer Commanding-in- Chief, Eastern Command, thanked Mukherjee and Member of Parliament Abhijeet Mukherjee for making available 250 acres of land.

He said once the military station is completed it will also aid development in neighbouring areas.

Lt Gen Bakshi said the station after completion will also start recruitment rallies bringing new employment opportunities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress today said the Union government should provide relief to shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs under the Goods and Services Tax.

It was stated by Randeep Singh Surjewala, media incharge of All India Congress Committee & Senior Congress Leader, was addressing a 'Vyapar Bachao, Dukandaar Bachao Sammelan' at Safidon in Jind district of Haryana.

Surjewala claimed that tax rate slabs of GST were not fixed while passing the new law in Parliament but the BJP government fixed the tax slab rates through GST Council.

The Congress and other opposition parties were not taken into confidence before deciding the tax rates, he said. He said the new GST regime has unleashed 'Inspector Raj' as it does not have any "safeguards" for the traders and shopkeepers.

Addressing the traders' meeting, Surjewala said the GST proposed by previous Congress government was entirely different than the present GST.

He said that UPA's GST was simple and pro-people in which maximum tax slab was of 18 per cent whereas, the present GST of BJP is "complicated and anti-people".

"BJP's GST is so complicated that the tax-payer shall be entangled in a maze of filing 37 returns every year. The grief of the businessmen can be gauged from the fact that if a tax-payer does his business in 36 States/Union Territories, he shall have to file 1,332 returns in a year," Surjewala said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Raiganj bandh called by the Raiganj Merchants Association today affected normal life in the district headquarters town of North Dinajpur district.

Shops, business establishments, schools and colleges were closed, private vehicles were off the road.

There was no report of any untoward incident, the police said.

The Raiganj Merchants Association had called the bandh to protest the burning of many shops and business establishments during yesterday's Adivasi rally in the town.

They are also demanding that the state government pay compensation to those shop owners whose shops or business establishments were vandalised or set on fire during the Adivasi rally.

A rally taken out by Adivasis to protest against the alleged rape of four tribal girls turned violent yesterday setting fire to a number of shops, buildings and damaged vehicles in Raiganj town.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The weather played a spoilsport at the MetLife stadium, NY, as the Bollywood celebrities stayed away from walking the green carpet for the IIFA Rocks event.

The event, which was scheduled to welcome the who's who of Bollywood, was cancelled by the organisers.

Thousands of people braved the bone-chilling cold just to catch a glimpse of their favourite Indian stars at the event.

Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Anupam Kher, Diljit Dosanjh, Kamal Khan and Riteish Deshmukh among others are attending the IFFA Rocks event.

Taking to Twitter, Salman shared, "It's raining in #NewYork, loving the weather. If it does rain tomorrow it will be awesome dancing in the rain at #IIFA."



While, an excited Shahid wrote, "#IIFA rocks. Rain can't stop the party."



The second day of the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) Awards 2017 - IIFA Rocks - will celebrate the journey of AR Rahman in the film industry.

It will feature a never-seen-before medley of musicians, including Rahman, Diljit Dosanjh, Javed Ali, Jonita Gandhi, Benny Dayal, Neeti Mohan and Haricharan Seshadri.

The organisers had said they are expecting a crowd of over 25,000.

The event will be hosted by Riteish Deshmukh and Maniesh Paul.

The 18th edition of the awards ceremony is a three-day extravaganza that started from July 13 with a press conference, followed by IIFA Rocks event today and the main event tomorrow.

Adequate security arrangements have been made at the stadium to ensure the safety of people here. However, a few media persons complained that the security guards were rude to them and even threw them out of the green carpet area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Serbian police say they have arrested a Turkish citizen wanted for alleged terrorism.

Police said today that the man was arrested at the Horgos border crossing with Serbia's northern neighbor Hungary. They say he was sought on an international warrant on suspicion of terrorism.

The police statement only identifies the man by his initials, A R It adds he was born in 1975. No other details were immediately available.

Police say an extradition procedure is pending.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

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EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

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The acrimony between the JD(U) and the RJD seems to have reached a flashpoint with Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav today skipping a government function, which was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The organisers initially covered the nameplate of Tejaswi, the special guest at the function whose seat was next to the chief minister's, but later removed it.

The function was held to mark the World Youth Skill Day.

The matter did not end here.

Kumar, who was sitting next to Labour Resources Minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, subsequently swapped his seat with JD(U) minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, who was sitting on his right. This was seen as an attempt by the chief minister to maintain a distance with the RJD minister.

The episode was captured in still as well as video cameras of the electronic media to show how the acrimony between the two Grand Alliance partners was growing with every passing day in the wake of the CBI registering an FIR against Tejaswi and others in connection with a land-for-hotels scam case.

The developments on the dais at the newly-built Gyan Bhawan here came a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad rejected the possibility of his son Tejaswi putting in his papers, a move seen as being dismissive of the JD(U) putting pressure on the deputy chief minister to quit.

When the reporters bombarded the chief minister with questions on Tejaswi skipping the function, he only smiled and extended skill day greetings to the scribes.

Labour Minister Vijay Prakash, who is from the RJD, said, "I do not know why Tejaswiji did not come to the function."



On Kumar "distancing" himself from Prakash, minister Jai Kumar Singh of the JD(U) claimed that the chief minister changed his seat to have a "better view" of the television screen.

With both the JD(U) and RJD hardening their stand, the rift within the Grand Alliance in the wake of the CBI lodging an FIR against Tejaswi, Lalu, Rabri Devi and five others, following raids in connection with the land-for-hotels case is festering on, posing a question mark on the survival of the coalition, in which the Congress is the third party.

The RJD and the Congress have called a joint meeting of their MLAs tomorrow to discuss the presidential poll strategy, while the JD(U) has convened a separate meeting of its MLAs at the chief minister's official residence.

Lalu, on his return from Ranchi late last night after appearing in courts in connection with fodder scam cases, had categorically said that Tejaswi would not resign and claimed that the case against him was "politically motivated".

On the JD(U) seeking a point-by-point explanation to the public on the charges against the deputy chief minister and the CBI lodging an FIR subsequently, Lalu had said they would let the people know everything in detail at an RJD rally on August 27.

He had also said that he would like to see the ruling coalition to grow from strength to strength.

JD(U) Deputy Leader in the Assembly Shyam Rajak, however said, "Everybody should maintain transparency in public life.... Otherwise, the people would show them the door."



On Lalu ruling out Tejaswi's resignation, Rajak, who was earlier in the RJD, said, "He (Lalu) is an elderly and experienced leader. I once again say that everybody in public life should maintain transparency."



JD(U) chief general secretary K C Tyagi told PTI that Kumar, at a party meeting on Tuesday, had dwelt on the importance of morality in and stressed on " of principles".

The chief minister had cited the examples of L K Advani and Sharad Yadav quitting following charge sheets against them in the Hawala case to emphasise that in case of an FIR or a charge sheet, the accused must come clean, he added.

Tyagi, however, said Kumar had not fixed any time-frame for Tejaswi to come clean.

On Tuesday, senior JD(U) leader Ramai Ram had said that a four-day time period, which expired today, was fixed for Tejaswi to give an explanation on the accusations.

Meanwhile, RJD spokesman Manoj Jha blamed the media for triggering the crisis in the Grand Alliance.

"After creating political turbulence, now a nameplate has been made a hero.... I give 100 out of 100 to the media," he said on Tejaswi skipping the function.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three soldiers died after shooting erupted overnight at a base in the West African state of Ivory Coast, which has been gripped by tensions within the military, security sources said today.

Gunfire was heard coming from the barracks at Korhogo, a city in the north of the country, at around 1:00 am (0100 GMT), Adama Coulibaly, a local carpenter reached by phone said.

"There are three dead soldiers," an officer told AFP separately, without giving further details.

A source at the local morgue said three bodies in military fatigues and with gunshot wounds had been taken to the facility.

In a separate incident, shooting was heard from a former UN base near Abidjan, lasting from about 1.30 am to after 3:00 am, a local resident in the nearby district of Abobo said.

"We were all very scared. We don't know what's going on," another resident said. Calm returned on Saturday morning.

The incident takes place against a backdrop of months- long tensions within the country's armed forces.

The former French colony suffered a decade-long civil war, splitting the country in two.

Thousands of rebels were then incorporated into the army after President Laurent Gbagbo was ousted in 2011 by Alassane Ouattara.

But a string of revolts erupted from January to May this year after they mutinied to press demands for a promised bonus. They eventually received a payoff of 12,000 CFA francs (18,000 euros) per head from the state.

There are also 6,000 "demobilised" rebels who have not been integrated into the military, and are also demanding a bonus.

Four of them were shot dead in May when security forces intervened to disperse a protest.

And on Tuesday, two former rebel leaders who obstructed a road in the central city of Bouake were jailed.

The government last year unveiled plans to modernise the 22,000-man military, part of which would involve the departure of several thousand men, particularly ex-rebels.

But falling cocoa prices have severely crimped the government's coffers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police, soldiers and ministry officials under a new decree published today under a state of emergency imposed after last year's failed coup, state media reported.

A total of 7,563 people -- including police -- have been dismissed in the latest purge, the Anadolu agency reported.

Turkish authorities also stripped 342 retired army personnel of their rank, Anadolu said.

Earlier, Hurriyet daily reported that 7,348 people including 2,303 police -- were dismissed in total.

The new decree came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of a military-led bid to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey blamed the failed putsch on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who denies the accusations, and vowed to root out his "virus" from state institutions.

Since then some 50,000 people have been arrested and over 100,000 fired or suspended from their jobs.

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US officials say that after months of delay, the Trump administration is finalising plans to revamp the nation's military command for defencive and offencive cyber operations.

They say the intention is eventually to split it from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyber war against the Islamic State group and other foes.

Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision in the coming weeks. The officials weren't authorised to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity.

They say the goal is to give US Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA. The NSA is responsible for collecting intelligence a responsibility that can clash with military objectives.

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The wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has suffered minor injuries in an accident involving the presidential motorcade after the 93-year-old leader's return from a trip for medical treatment.

State broadcaster ZBC reported that Grace Mugabe was taken to a hospital on Saturday to be treated for bruises on her right ankle following a "freak car incident," and was later discharged.

State media have provided no further details on the accident, which happened after the Mugabes left the airport in Harare, the capital.

The couple had left for Singapore on July 7 in what Zimbabwean authorities described as a routine medical checkup for the president. It was Mugabe's third trip to Singapore this year.

Grace Mugabe has assumed an increasingly political role in recent years.

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A 20-year-old woman, accused in a kidnapping case, fled after shoving Kolkata police personnel accompanying her at the Bangla Bhawan here, the police said today.

Mamta Molla pushed the women police personnel and escaped from their custody yesterday, they said.

A case has been registered at the Barakhamba Road police station after sub inspector Prosenjit Jana informed the police about the incident.

Jana said they had arrested two persons - Molla and Sukhdev Das - in a kidnapping case on July 4.

They duo was in police remand and were in Delhi for further investigation. Along with the accused, two sub- inspectors, two women police personnel and two other constables were staying at the Bangla Bhawan, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Its morning. You pick up your cuppa and head for the computer, which was set to download a torrent file of Wonder Woman before you went to sleep. Youre looking forward to watching WW over the weekend on your fancy home theatre system. Everything looks fine. The machine is running and the screensaver is on.
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At the June Cache Water District meeting, representatives from Pacificcorp, residents of Logan City and other residents in addition to representatives from an organization called Dont Raise Cutler were on hand to discuss and debate various options for Cutler Reservoir. Pacificcorp has proposed that they raise water levels 3 feet to better maximize the reservoir for their value.

Some have said the effects this could have on the Great Salt Lake as far as water levels are concerned could turn Northern Utah into a dust storm, even if the Great Salt Lake were to go down just a few inches. Jason Watterson of the Dont Raise Cutler citizen group was a guest on KVNUs For the People on Thursday.

Im not an activist, thats not my world, its not something that I plan on doing. But my family has been farming along the banks of the Bear River and Cutler Reservoir since 1860.and over subsequent different times when they realized(with)the reservoir weve lost additional property through erosion and the company coming in and raising water. And so thats how I really got involved to start with when Pacificcorp proposed raising the dam , said Watterson.

Since he started his Facebook page Dont Raise Cutler hundreds of people have expressed interest, including groups that, under different circumstances, might not get along, such as environmental groups, municipalities, recreationalists, hunters and others. He said the ultimate goal in raising the water level is to deliver water to the Wasatch Front.

Watterson said an information meeting will be held Saturday morning (July 15) at 1030 A.M. at the Logan Library that will include a presentation by the Utah Rivers Council. You can get more information at www.dontraisecutler.org
Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

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I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments
President Xi Jinping called on the central bank to play a stronger role in Chinas macro-prudential management of the financial system. Photo: Visual China.

(Beijing)  China will set up a financial stability committee under the State Council, the cabinet, to strengthen supervision and coordinate regulation of the financial sector, President Xi Jinping said at a high-level policy meeting in Beijing.

Speaking at the National Financial Work Conference, Xi called on the central bank to play a stronger role in managing the countrys financial markets and in averting systemic risks, according to the state broadcaster China Central Television on Saturday

The closed-door meeting Friday and Saturday has been convened every five years since 1997 and is seen as a key event to set the tone for financial reforms. This years meeting came amid widespread discussion and expectation of financial regulatory reforms to better deal with emerging internet-related financial activities and innovative products. These new elements have largely fallen outside the current supervision network consisting of the central bank and three commissions overseeing the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

No details about the new supervisory committees functions or membership were disclosed. But analysts said its creation signaled the leading role of the central bank in Chinas macro-prudential management of the financial system.

An economist said at an internal meeting of Everbright Securities late Friday that an important task for the financial stability committee will be to promote coordination among the central bank and the three regulatory commissions to improve the quality and efficiency of financial supervision. This economist, who declined to be identified, said the committee should participate in major monetary policy-setting.

At the meeting, Xi emphasized Chinas commitment to further deepen financial reforms, including improving coordination of financial regulation and plugging regulatory loopholes. Regulators should also share data and supervision information and should assume greater accountability to enhance supervision, the president said.

Xi also stressed Chinas continued efforts to expand financial market openness, reform the exchange rate regime of the yuan and promote the currencys internationalization.

The government will continue to deleverage the economy by firmly taking a prudent monetary policy and prioritizing reduced leverage for state-owned enterprises, Xi said.

Contact reporter (weihan@caixin.com)
BEIJING -- China maintained a tough crackdown on human trafficking in 2016, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Over the past year, China has cracked 184 cases in joint anti-trafficking operations with Vietnam, with 290 suspects arrested and 207 Vietnamese women and one child rescued, the MPS said.

According to the MPS, China has signed inter-governmental anti-trafficking agreements with Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. A total of eight anti-trafficking liaison offices have been established along borders with these countries.

In a campaign against the trafficking of hearing-impaired people, police in 13 provincial regions arrested 464 suspects and saved 98 victims between November 2015 and October 2016, the MPS said.

A total of 1,274 missing children have been found over the past year following the launch of an app in May 2016.

The app helps to ensure efficient sharing of information with the public by sending push notifications about missing children, including photos and descriptions. The app also encourages witnesses to report the whereabouts of these children, the MPS said.

In order to let information reach more people, the MPS app has formed a cooperative partnership with mainstream new media and mobile applications, including Taobao, Baidu and QQ.

During the period, 110 billion items of information about 1,317 missing children were sent, according to the MPS.

The MPS released a notice in February that announced it would solve 153 cases of child trafficking in 2017.

A MPS official said police authorities nationwide will continue carrying out the action plan for fighting human trafficking (2013-2020) publicized in 2013.
"Overcoming that barrier in a climb is not just a physical thing, you may have to get stronger to be able to pull on it but you also have to get passed that barrier of saying 'I can't do it, I can't do it,'" she said.
Ever been keen to put snail mucus on your face? Neither have we. But turns out the secretion is actually very good for your skin. A range of products from Korea has tapped into this slightly unusual ingredient, and you can buy a whole range of it at Seoul Flower, a kiosk dedicated to Korean skincare. Unfortunately they don't do the facials at the store, but you can buy the products to take home (and they can share a few secrets on how to get the most out of it too). We tested out the full range of snail skincare products and can confirm they're actually quite pleasant.
"Optus understands the community's concern about electro magnetic emissions and can assure residents that we rely on the expert advice of national and international health authorities such as the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, and the World Health Organisation for overall assessments of health and safety impacts," the spokesman said.
"Once those projects get underway there is going to be a great need for rental accommodation for that workforce, which may only be for a couple of years, but that will underpin the current increases in rent," he said.
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.
Ford has teamed up with Coolhaus to celebrate National Ice Cream Day with a new flavor inspired by the 2018 Mustang.



Dubbed Orange Fury, the ice cream has the same name as one of the new colors available on the updated pony car.

The ice cream will be sandwiched between two Vanilla Whoopie cookies and given out for free at various locations in New York City. Fans who dont live in New York arent completely out of luck as Orange Fury will also be offered at the Coolhaus shop in Culver City, California.

According to Coolhaus CEO Natasha Case, Ive always been a fan of the Mustang and was super excited when they came to us with such a special project. She added, We couldnt be happier that one of the original American classics chose Coolhaus, a new American classic, as a way to add excitement to their latest innovation.

While its hard to get excited about a limited edition ice cream sandwich, Ford confirmed the 2018 Mustang configurator will be launched on July 25th. This likely means well learn a lot more about the car in the next two weeks.

In the meantime, the automaker has already revealed the Mustang will come equipped with a retuned suspension and a new digital instrument cluster. Other highlights include an upgraded V8 engine, a new 10-speed automatic transmission, and a retro-inspired Pony Package.

Photo Gallery
Honda is about to reveal a new, standalone hybrid model for the mainstream market at the upcoming Tokyo Auto Show, with sales to begin in 2018. The new hybrid Honda will be built at the U.S. and will not be a variant of any existing model, but a compact model with its own sheet metal, Car and Driver reports.



What we dont know is whether the new hybrid will be a regular car or a crossover; sales of the Toyota Prius have seen significantly better days after all, and right now more and more customers are opting for SUVs, something that might be a good incentive for Honda to cast its new standalone hybrid as a crossover.

Honda is also gearing up to launch more electrified versions of its existing models, with the hybrid powertrain of the Accord Hybrid soon to be found in the CR-V. The company will also use the hybrid powertrain of the Acura MDX Sport Hybrid for the upcoming Honda Odyssey Hybrid, giving its minivan not only better fuel economy figures but also all-wheel drive.

Moreover, Honda is developing its first longer-range electric vehicles, with the first one set to arrive in China in 2019. We are not trying to catch up with the others; were trying to achieve something very unique to us, said Hondas global president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo. That also means that fuel-cell systems will remain at Hondas spotlight, especially with larger models.

Note: Honda Clarity pictured

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: File photo

The Okanagan remains under a smoky skies advisory from the Ministry of Environment and Interior Health.

Smoke from numerous Interior forest fires has lessened considerably, but could return with a change in the wind.

The bulletin says smoke concentrations vary region by region, as winds, fire behaviour and temperatures change.

People in smokier areas are recommended to avoid strenuous outdoor activity.

If you experience difficulty in breathing, chest pain or discomfort and sudden onset of cough or irritation of airways, you should consult a health-care provider immediately.

Exposure is of particular concern for infants, the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, lung or heart disease.

The bulletin, first issued Tuesday, is in effect until further notice.
Photo: Contributed Police are reminding people to keep their windows locked at night.

The current heat wave is making for easy access to homes for bad guys.

Vancouver police have arrested a man following two early morning break ins in which he gained access to the homes through open windows.

The VPD are again reminding residents to secure their windows and doors at night to prevent thieves from entering their homes while they sleep, said Const. Jason Doucette

The break-ins occurred around 3 a.m. on July 2 and 9 near West 25th Avenue and Dunbar Street. In both incidents, the suspect allegedly gained access to their homes through open windows. Residents were asleep in their beds during the July 9 incident.

We are again reminding the public that many thieves are opportunists. An open door or window, including above the ground floor, can be used by criminals anytime of the day  even if you are home, said Doucette. These are preventable crimes. Something as simple as making sure your windows and doors are locked can stop a thief.

Vancouver resident Todd Edward Stephens, 34, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of break and enter.
Photo: Steve Tobias A helicopter drops water on the wildfire near Princeton last week.

UPDATE: 12:05 p.m.

The BC Wildfire Service expects this weekend's major wind event to cause a substantial increase in wildfire activity.

Winds are expected to gust to 70 km/h in the Interior, which the BC Wildfire Service says could cause current fires to grow significantly, while lightning may start new blazes.

Firefighting crews have spent the last few days preparing for this wind event, but containment efforts will be challenged by hot and dry conditions and gusting winds, said Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer.

Given the proximity of existing wildfires to communities, infrastructure and transportation corridors, people throughout the Cariboo region and the southern Interior should be prepared for potential evacuations.

ORIGINAL: 7:20 a.m.

After calmer winds gave fire fighters a leg up on the fires burning across much of the province this week, heavy winds are still expected to kick up in the Interior today.

Environment Canada's weather alert for high winds remains in place, after it was first issued Friday.

The warning says those in the Okanagan and the Cariboo regions can expect 20 to 50 km/h winds, gusting to 70 km/h in some places.

The winds are expected in the Northern, Central and Southern Okanagan Saturday afternoon, moving north to the Cariboo Sunday morning.

Unfortunately for those affected by fires, the wind is not expected to bring any rain, other than north of the Cariboo region, but lightning may occur.

Significant rain continues to elude the southern half of the province for the foreseeable future, the alert states.

According to the BC Wildfire Service, this forecast weather has the potential to challenge their efforts to contain the many large wildfires currently burning across southern B.C., and could cause growth on a number of these incidents.

Growth in the wildfire burning near Ashcroft forced the evacuation of Loon Lake Friday evening, and put the Village of Clinton on evacuation alert.

The entire town of Williams Lake remains under an evacuation alert, as several wildfires burn nearby, and many resident have already left town.
Photo: CTV A multi-vehicle crash closed Highway 1 in Langley for hours Friday.

Four people were sent to hospital in a multi-vehicle pile up on Highway 1 in Langley Friday morning, snarling traffic for the majority of the day.

The crash occurred just before 9:30 a.m. in the westbound lanes near 245th Street, and involved several semi-trucks.

Ervin Gordon was driving one of the semi-trucks that got rear-ended.

"When you see those trucks coming in behind me, you're going, 'Oh crap. This isn't good,'" he told CTV News.

I was trapped in my truck because my doors wouldnt open and then the firemen showed up and opened a cubby hole and I crawled through to get out.

A five-tonne truck was also heavily damaged in the crash.

The van driver was sitting on the side (of the road) just vibrating and shaking, said Gerry McConnell, another semi-truck driver who was rear-ended. He was pretty shaken up. They took him away in an ambulance.

The four people sent to hospital suffered minor injuries, according to police.

The westbound lanes of the highway were closed until 6:30 p.m.

- With files from CTV Vancouver
An extremely close call just outside of Logan Lake was caught on a semi-truck driver's dashcam, and the trucker involved says the incident is indicative of the things he sees everyday.

Allan was driving west along Highway 97D, towards Logan Lake on Friday afternoon, when he noticed a dark-coloured minivan tailgating him.

Despite several safe opportunities to pass, Allan says the driver tailgated him for some time.

I had a 10-foot wide load so I wasn't extremely wide or anything, and I usually drive over to one side so people can see around me a little, Allan said.

Allan was travelling at about 96 km/h along the 90 km/h-maximum highway, but the minivan eventually pulled out to pass, at an extremely inopportune time.

A black Dodge Ram was travelling in the oncoming lane, and was forced to pull right over onto the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision.

I wasn't sure they were going to make it, but luckily the guy coming the other way moved way over, Allan said. I had no room to move over.

Allan's been driving trucks for 20 years and says he sees incidents like this on a daily basis.

I bought a dashcam just so I could show my friends and family some of the garbage, he said.
Photo: Twitter There has been some growth in fires near Princeton and Cache Creek.

The good news is there was little growth at the Princeton fire since Friday, the bad news is winds are expected in the area today and tomorrow which will literally fan the flames.

Justine Hunse, BC fire information officer, said the Princeton fire grew by 300 hectares since yesterday, bringing it to 3,300 ha.

Hunse said that fire is currently 35 per cent contained and crews will be conducting back burns today in an effort to remove ground fuels.

Along with the back burns, crews are continuing to build hand guards around the blaze.

There are currently 139 firefighters working the wildfire along with an incident management team from Saskatchewan, nine helicopters and 30 pieces of heavy equipment.

They are working really hard out there, she said.

All evacuation orders and alerts remain in place.

More information can be found on the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen website.

Meanwhile the Ashcroft Reserve Fire has grown to 14,700 ha. from 13,100 ha. Friday morning.

We did see a significant increase in wind at that fire yesterday afternoon, she said. We did see a spike in fire behaviour. The fire moved closer to Highway 97 near the Highway 9 junction.

In that area as well evacuation orders and alerts were expended yesterday.

Hunse said 220 firefighters are on the line today along with an incident management team, 11 helicopters and air tankers that will be used at north-west flank of fire to protect property

The big concern at the moment is wind, with gusts up to 50 km/h expected later today and tomorrow.

We are not seeing a huge run in numbers, but we are expecting to see an increase in wind activity at the Princeton and Cache Creek areas, she said. We are expecting fire activity in both of those areas to increase today and tomorrow. There might be an increase in smoke and fire activity.

More information on the Ashcroft Reserve Fire can be found on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District website.
Photo: The Canadian Press Tourists walk on the Giftun Island beach as the sun sets over the Red Sea in Hurghada, Egypt. Egypt's Interior Ministry said Friday, July 14, six foreign tourists, of various nationalities, were wounded when a man attacked them with a knife in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

The Egyptian university graduate who stabbed two German women to death at a popular Red Sea resort first sat and spoke to them in fluent German before producing a large kitchen knife and attacking them, security officials said Saturday.

Leaving them for dead, 29-year-old Abdel-Rahman Shaaban fled the scene, chased by hotel workers and security guards. He rushed into the hotel next door where he attacked and wounded four female tourists who, according to local media reports, included two Armenians, one from Ukraine and another from the Czech Republic.

"Stay back, I am not after Egyptians," Shaaban shouted in Arabic at his pursuers, according to the officials. They eventually caught up with him, disarmed and pinned him down and later handed him over to the police. Shaaban stabbed the women in the face, neck and feet, said the officials.

No group claimed responsibility for the Friday attack, but it appeared to have been inspired by recent calls made by the local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group on its followers to attack Egypt's minority Christians and foreign tourists.

The officials said Abdel-Rahman hails from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh where he attended the business school of the local branch of Al-Azhar University  the world's foremost seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the target of mounting criticism in recent months over its alleged radical teachings and doctrinal rigidity.

Investigators were still trying to determine how Shaaban came to be in Hurghada, one of Egypt's main Red Sea resorts, popular for its year-round sunny weather and diving.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

A statement by the national security prosecution's office, which is questioning Shaaban in Cairo, said Saturday that his motives and ideological convictions remained unclear. "The characterization of the action committed by the culprit, whether it is an individual act, criminal or terrorist, is not clear to the prosecution at this time," said the statement.
Photo: File photo Clashes have broken out in northwestern Syria between two of the most powerful insurgent groups there raising fears of widespread violence.

Clashes have broken out in northwestern Syria between two of the most powerful insurgent groups there raising fears of widespread violence in the rebel-held province of Idlib, the groups and an opposition monitor said Saturday.

The fighting between the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham  Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee  that is also known as HTS, are the first serious acts of violence since both sides reached a truce in February. Wider clashes between the two former allies could affect their fight against President Bashar Assad's forces who have been gaining ground over the past year under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

Idlib has taken on greater significance in Syria's civil war as opposition fighters and militants head, or are driven, there from the country's central and northern regions. Bordering Turkey, Idlib has welcomed thousands of insurgents who left the country's largest city of Aleppo when it fell to Assad's forces in December in the government's biggest victory since the crisis began in March 2011.

Hundreds of others also headed to Idlib this year from suburbs of the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs as part of population transfer deals with the government.

Ahrar al-Sham said in a statement Saturday that the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee is sending reinforcements to the town of Saraqeb and the Jabal al-Zawiya region in preparation for an attack. It accused HTS of acts of "tyranny."

The Ibaa News Agency of HTS accused Ahrar al-Sham of setting up checkpoints and detaining one of its commanders and his bodyguard, adding that HTS removed the checkpoints later by force.
Photo: File photo An evacuation order has been issued for homes in the McCarthy Lake area.

UPDATE: 9 p.m.

Because of the potential danger to life and health, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District

has ordered everyone to evacuate the following properties immediately:

Electoral Area A:

950 to 1936 Dunn Lake Rd

If you are in the described area, you must leave immediately. It is suggested that evacuees turn off the power and propane to their residences. If you have large animals/livestock in need of shelter, please contact the TNRD EOC at 1-866-377-7188.

If you require support services such as food and accommodation please register at the Sandman Centre at 300 Lorne Street, Kamloops.

UPDATE: 4:46 p.m.

An evacuation alert has also been issued for Lower North Thompson, Little Fort South.

The alert is for the following properties:

-8321 to 8880 Dunn Lake Rd

-8385 to 8960 Hwy 5

-8919 Thuya Creek Rd

UPDATE: 4:29 p.m.

An evacuation alert has been issued by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District for several properties south of Clearwater.

A wildfire south of Clearwater is posing an imminent threat to people and property.

Properties within Electoral Area A:

 18 to 46 Blackpool Rd

 2128 to 2256 Blackwater Rd  1014 to 1193 Caroline Rd

 1421 Cutts Rd

 10 to 52 Davoren Rd

 9 to 33 Decosmos Rd

 9 to 155 Ferry Rd

 311 to 380 Foote Rd

 1224, 1238 Ford Rd

 1242 to 1290 Gaggin Rd

 1204 to 1272 Hern Rd

 569 to 3970 Hwy 5

 11 to 350 Jenkins Rd

Properties within Electoral Area O:

 25 to 148 Johnston Rd

 1247 to 1285 Kidd Rd

 2020 to 2164 Mann Rd

 761 to 2048 Old North Thompson Hwy  2204 to 2382 Petrol Rd

 204 to 329 Phillips Rd

 2232 to 2358 Pumping Station Rd  97, 148 Ray Rd

 3253 to 3558 Round Top Rd

 1010, 1030 School Rd

 1214 to 1328 Thompson Dr

 1593, 1597 Tomyn Rd

 1070 to 1193 Traub Rd

ORIGINAL: 3:34 p.m.

An evacuation order has been issued by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District for homes in the McCarthy Lake area due to a fast-moving wildfire.

Because of the potential danger to life and health, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District has ordered everyone to evacuate the following properties immediately:

2357 to 3141 Auldgirth Rd

285 Bradshaw Rd

1939 to 3085 Dunn Lake Rd

60, 61 Emery Rd

2560 to 2790 McCarthy Creek Rd

9840 Windpass Rd

Evacuees are asked to leave immediately and report to the Emergency Social Services (ESS) reception centre at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Old Main Building, 900 McGill Rd. in Kamloops.

It is also suggested evacuees turn off the power and propane to their residences.

Anyone with large animals/livestock and is in need of shelter, is asked to contact the Kamloops EOC at 1-866-377-7188.

An evacuation alert has also been issued for residents of Clearwater.
Photo: The Canadian Press The Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound is seen in Jerusalem's Old City Saturday, July 15, 2017. On Friday, three Palestinian assailants opened fire from a sacred site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, inside the walled Old City, killing two Israeli police officers before being shot dead.

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers on Saturday called on Palestinians to attack Israeli forces in Jerusalem after a sacred site was closed following a deadly assault there.

Hamas described the closure of the site  known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount  in a statement as a "religious war" and Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on the Palestinian "uprising" to target the Israeli army and West Bank settlers.

Israel made the rare move after three Palestinian assailants opened fire there Friday, killing two Israeli police officers before being shot dead. The attackers were devout Muslim citizens of Israel.

On Saturday, the White House condemned the attack in a strongly-worded statement.

"The people of the United States are heartbroken that terrorists brutally gunned down two Israeli police officers," said Press Secretary Sean Spicer. "There must be zero tolerance for terrorism. It is incompatible with achieving peace and we must condemn it in the strongest terms, defeat it, and eradicate it."

Hamas staged a rally celebrating the attack

The Muslim-administered site is revered by both Muslims and Jews. Israel says it won't reopen before Sunday.
Photo: The Canadian Press Activists protest at the base of the Edward Cornwallis statue after city staff covered it with a black sheet in Cornwallis Park in Halifax on Saturday.

Protesters who pledged to remove a statue of Halifax's controversial founder Saturday say they came away victorious after the monument to Edward Cornwallis was covered in a tarp.

More than 100 people looked up at a municipal worker, hoisted by a crane in a city-owned truck, as he draped a black tarp over the bronze statue at the centre of Halifax's Cornwallis Park.

A Facebook event called "Removing Cornwallis" invited protesters to "peacefully remove" the statue, but organizers didn't initially say how they planned to make that happen.

Cornwallis, as governor of Nova Scotia, founded Halifax in 1749 and soon after issued a bounty on Mi'kmaq scalps in response to an attack on colonists. The Mi'kmaq have long called for removal of tributes to Cornwallis, some calling his actions a form of genocide.

Organizer Elizabeth Marshall said she wanted to see the statue toppled, but at the advice of Indigenous elders, they decided to symbolically bury Cornwallis with a black tarp.

"(The elders) didn't say take him down in violence. They said we want him taken down in our way," Marshall told the crowd. "We want to take him down in love. We want to counteract their hatred."

Mayor Mike Savage  who had voiced concerns about "violent action" at the protest earlier in the week  linked hands with protesters as they formed two concentric circles and danced around the shrouded monument to the beat of a drum.

Savage spoke out against the removal plan Tuesday, noting that removing the statue by force is not condoned by the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mikmaq Chiefs.

Maryanne Junta, a 16-year-old member of Eskasoni First Nation, said the mayor's mischaracterization of the event could have invited violence against protesters.

"(Mayor) Savage, shame on you for publicly making false accusations against us in the media, claiming that we are dangerous when our intentions were addressed to be peaceful," Junta said in a speech. "But, I understand that you are here. I appreciate you making your presence and keeping the peace as we promised."

Savage told reporters that he never doubted organizers' intentions, but he was concerned about social media posts suggesting the event could turn violent.

On Canada Day, a group of off-duty Canadian military men disrupted a spiritual event at the statue marking the suffering of Indigenous Peoples.

The men, who are now facing a military investigation and possible expulsion from the Forces, said they were members of the Proud Boys, a self-declared group of "Western Chauvinists" who say they are tired of apologizing for "creating the modern world."
Photo: Contributed

Connecticut authorities say a person possibly seeking to steal an air conditioner broke into a hospital's nuclear medicine lab, triggering a hazmat response to a possible spill of a radioactive substance.

New Haven Assistant Fire Chief Mark Vendetto said Saturday there was no release of radio-isotope at the former St. Raphael's Hospital, which is now part of Yale New Haven Hospital. Officials had said earlier some employees were exposed to radioactive material.

Authorities say a security worker reported a "compromised window" around 8 a.m. Fire officials say employees found that an air conditioning unit had been removed and the room ransacked.

The report led to a full hazmat response. Officials say about a dozen employees were screened for radioactive exposure.

Vendetto says there was no contamination.

A message was left at the hospital.
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SAN FRANCISCO  Faced with a burgeoning sexual harassment crisis, leaders in Silicon Valley have come up with a very Silicon Valley solution: Use technology to create a blacklist.

One of the region's most prominent firms recently emailed an online reporting form to 3,500 entrepreneurs, encouraging them to blow the whistle on sexual harassment by venture capitalists. Now it is spearheading an effort to create an app that could provide reviews of financiers, akin to Yelp or the workplace-review site Glassdoor.

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"We don't call it a blacklist, but that is essentially what is happening," Kat Manalac, a partner at the influential start-up incubator Y Combinator, said of the blast email. "There has always been a whisper network, where investors and entrepreneurs know which other investors are bad actors." Two other groups are also launching tech start-ups to help victims share their experiences.

The efforts by Y Combinator and others are part of the industry's urgent search for answers in the wake of sexual harassment scandals that have cemented Silicon Valley's reputation as hostile to women.

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But for all the success the tech industry has had in building products based on ratings systems and online feedback, this is uncharted territory for Silicon Valley and may be fraught with risk, legal experts say.

Anonymous apps, blacklists and databases could backfire - on the makers of the apps, on people who felt unfairly accused or on women themselves - and exacerbate the problem of gender discrimination and harassment, said Debra Katz, a partner with Katz, Marshall and Banks, a Washington, D.C.-based firm specializing in employment law.

Silicon Valley's long-standing problem with gender discrimination and harassment came to a head in recent weeks, as the Internet lit up with unprecedented outpourings of rage, soul-searching and stories from female start-up founders who publicly said they had been violated by prominent venture capitalists.

The testimonies highlighted the unusual amount of power that venture capitalists - almost all of whom are male - hold in Silicon Valley. Companies have human resources departments with defined sexual harassment policies, but no formal rules govern the relationship between entrepreneurs and financiers, whose whims can make or break a start-up idea.

Some women said they were harassed or touched inappropriately when they went to pitch their companies or sought advice. Others said they were pressured to have sex with promises that their business plans would be funded.

A report last month in the technology publication the Information included detailed descriptions by six women of unwanted advances by Justin Caldbeck, a well-known local investor. The women said Caldbeck sent unwanted explicit text messages in the middle of the night, groped one underneath a hotel bar, and tried to have sex with several when they sought funding. The news sent shock waves through the clubby tech world. Caldbeck resigned from his post, but the fallout continued when his partners quit and investors began to pull money from his firm, Binary Capital.

After similar stories appeared in mainstream media outlets, other venture capitalists apologized and resigned from their companies, including Dave McClure, founder of the start-up incubator 500 Startups.

"When you are in a mind-set when you need to raise money, you will bend over backwards, and a lot of investors take advantage of that," said Elizabeth Yin, one of the 500 Startups partners who quit in disgust after news emerged that her firm had not acted quickly on news of McClure's inappropriate behavior. "The power dynamic is appalling."

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Chris Sacca, an early-stage investor in Twitter, Uber and Instagram, who retired from investing this year, was also named in a report by the New York Times and issued a public apology online. "In social settings, under the guise of joking, being collegial, flirting, or having a good time, I undoubtedly caused some women to question themselves, retreat, feel alone, and worry they can't be their authentic selves," Sacca wrote on the blogging site Medium.

Their mea culpas highlighted the challenges women face and the stark gender inequality in the Valley. But solutions have not come easy.

One group of women has already founded a start-up, BetterBrave, that aims to be an online hub for female workers who felt they were sexually harassed at work. SheWorx, composed of female entrepreneurs, is planning an online database that would enable women and others to report unethical behavior by investors.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman called on all venture capital firms to sign a decency pledge, while a group of venture capitalists published template wording for a sexual harassment policy that firms could adopt.

A number of firms have tweeted support for the pledge, but several prominent women in the industry say that none of these efforts requires companies to make concrete commitments such as a binding agreement to hire more women, disclose harassment to funders or fire people who have broken pledges or policies.

"We're seeing this movement in Silicon Valley toward pledges, mea culpas and quick fixes," said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, a Silicon Valley recruiter who focuses on diversity. "I think that's dangerous. That doesn't get at the heart of what's really driving our issues with sexual harassment."

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Y Combinator's recent email blast to thousands of entrepreneurs asked them to fill out a form with the names of investors who may have engaged in "inappropriate sexual or romantic behavior" toward company founders. Accusers could choose to remain anonymous, the email stated. Those named could be cut off from Demo Day, Y Combinator's highly anticipated biannual event when entrepreneurs pitch venture capitalists on some of the year's hottest deals. Partners at Y Combinator are also discussing funding an app that would expose harassers.

Y Combinator said maintaining such a list could protect more women from being victimized and, perhaps for the first time, create real consequences for people who act inappropriately. For legal reasons, Y Combinator changed the reporting form last week to no longer be anonymous.

In addition, the incubator is using its clout to shame investors who behave badly. "Investor at demo day asked a female founder to babysit his kids," Y Combinator partner Adora Cheung tweeted in March. "He's been uninvited from future events. Can't make this stuff up."

She also tweeted that Y Combinator had disinvited an investor who was trying to replace a female chief executive with a white male.

Manalac said she was struck by reports from women saying they felt that they had no choice but to tolerate harassment, because they felt it was simply the cost of being a nonwhite female executive.

She has doubts about creating a public app such as Glassdoor. She was concerned about whether it could be manipulated by certain users - to act out vendettas against rivals, for example - and whether it would be tainted by conflicts of interests, because it would be funded by the very investors being rated.

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"I still have reservations," she said. "But I'm starting to think that maybe it's time for a resource like that to exist."

Researchers say gender dynamics in Silicon Valley are worse than in other industries because of a confluence of factors: the bleak male-to-female ratio in venture firms and at tech companies; the informal nature of venture fundraising and of start-up culture; and financial power imbalances between women and men.

Venture capital is more of a boys club than even Wall Street. Of the five top venture firms - Sequoia, Greylock, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark - three lack a female general partner. (Sequoia has a female investing partner. Benchmark, the largest investor in Uber, has one female partner, whom it poached from Greylock in May, amid the controversies at the ride-hailing giant.)

The tech industry has the biggest gender gap of any profession, with less than 15 percent of the most sought-after and highly compensated engineering roles in Silicon Valley companies filled by women, according to a database of 272 start-ups maintained by Tracy Chou, a Pinterest engineer and founding member of Project Include, a diversity program for chief executives.

Many insiders worry that the efforts could cause a backlash.

"We are hearing VCs saying that they won't take women entrepreneurs out to dinner or get drinks - only meetings at the office," said Hutchinson, the recruiter. "Then women will be at a further disadvantage."

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The Washington Post's Jena McGregor in Washington contributed to this report.
Skokie Fire Chief Jim Walters showed off the Skokie Fire Departments new truck, in this Dec. 6, 2016, file photo, during a special ceremony. The chief announced he will resign at the end of July to accept a job as fire chief in Schaumburg. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press )

Less than two years after Jim Walters was sworn in as Skokie's new fire chief, he will leave the village to accept a job as chief in Schaumburg, he said.

The 32-year Skokie Fire Department veteran said his career until now has only been with Skokie where he started as firefighter and moved through a series of promotions until he became chief in 2015.

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But at age 55, Walters said, he wanted a new challenge in the last phase of his career, and he saw Schaumburg as a good fit for him. He said he will work in Skokie through the end of the month.

"My intent was not to leave," he said. "My intent was to stay and finish out my career with Skokie. I'm on the back nine of my career, though, and an opportunity came along. I saw this opportunity as a challenge to see what else is out there."

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Walters said he is leaving the fire department in good hands and is advocating for the next chief to be an internal pick, which was the case with his rise to chief. The village has not yet announced his replacement.

"The reason I feel comfortable leaving is the fact that we have internal people that are ready and able to fill this role and keep the department moving in the direction that we've established," Walters said. "In any situation, you're always better if you can promote from inside."

Walters leaves a department that has a top credit rating. The department had an $11.8 million budget for fiscal year 2017, according to village financial documents.

The Skokie Fire Department last year again achieved a Class 1 rating from the Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO), which is the highest achievable rating from ISO.

Skokie first received the designation of exemplary public protection in 1995 and has retained the distinction in each subsequent ISO evaluation.

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said the fire department is "among the best in the nation," one of 57 fire departments in the country with the ISO Class 1 rating, and one of 26 agencies to also hold accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.

Schaumburg's fire department also has a high rating, Walters said, but not as high as Skokie's.

According to Walters, the Skokie Fire Department has 87 firefighters, 117 sworn officers, slightly smaller than the Schaumburg department, which is a larger municipality.

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Like Skokie, however, the town has a large shopping mall (Woodfield) and some other similarities, although Skokie is much more landlocked, he said.

Walters said this is likely to be the last part of his career after following in the footsteps of his father.

His father was a firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department and he has sons who have also become firefighters, Walters said.

After starting as firefighter, Walters then trained as a paramedic before ascending the ranks, he said.

"When I began, I remember my career objective was to become the squad driver," Walters said, reflecting on his promotion to the top two years ago. "In the early days, after the first couple years, that's what I had my eyes on. I got there and realized I might want to do a little more."

He was in the department for 14 years when he took and passed the promotional exam for lieutenant. Walters was also one of a few firefighters who created the department's technical rescue team, and that came before today's coordinated team training from the Northeastern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy was in place, he said.

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Walters steps down from an annual salary of $164,063, he said.

His job in Schaumburg will pay him closer to $150,000, he said, but he will also collect a pension from Skokie because of his retirement.

He will make more money from the two sources, but he said that income was not the primary reason for the move.

"This was not an easy decision at all," he said. "I did not take it lightly. Skokie has been very good to me and has been my career. When this job presented itself, I just felt invigorated by accepting a new challenge."

What he will most, he said, are those with whom he worked over more than three decades. He is hoping one of them becomes the next Skokie chief, he said.

"I've seen so many people grow and develop here," he said. "You form a real bond, a real relationship with the people you work with when you're a firefighter. These are my guys."

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misaacs@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @SKReview_Mike
Most books' publication dates fall on Tuesdays  that's just the industry standard. So the fact that Curtis Dawkins' debut story collection, "The Graybar Hotel," had July 4 as its official release date is not that surprising  the Fourth of July happened to land on a Tuesday this year. Rather, the irony lies in that Independence Day should be the launch date for a book by a man who will theoretically never be free.

Dawkins, a Louisville, Ill., native who earned his master's degree in fiction writing from Western Michigan University in 2000, is serving life without the possibility of parole at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, Mich., for a drug-related homicide he committed during a home invasion in 2004. In the acknowledgments, he admits and expresses remorse for his crime: "The night I killed a man was a horrible ordeal, especially for his family, my family  everyone traumatized by my actions. I still struggle with guilt and sorrow. There's often so much sadness and grief in my heart, it feels like I might explode."

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Almost every one of the 14 short stories in the collection seems to have originated from something Dawkins experienced or witnessed in jail or prison, and almost every one reflects with devastating compassion on the guilt and regrets of the criminals inside. In "Sunshine," he writes, "When you're separated from the people you know and love, every emotion is multiplied. ... We were all responsible for being there, of course  none of us were innocent. But that only makes you feel worse."

"A Human Number" takes as its subject a prisoner so consumed by loneliness that he places collect calls to strangers simply to connect with people outside: "You're supposed to record your name, so when the person picks up, the generic computer operator asks if you will accept a call from so-and-so from jail. Mine says, Hey, it's me. Just something I came up with. Not many people know someone with my name, but everyone knows a me."

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In "573543"  whose title comes from Dawkins' prisoner number  a man receives the number of another inmate who had died, this detail of impersonal bureaucracy speaking volumes about the bleak texture of life within such a vast, harsh system. "According to the Department of Corrections," he writes, "the prisoner has been 'released by death.'"

In perhaps the best story in the collection for its inextricable mix of humor and sadness, "Engulfed," a prisoner makes a list of 152 of his fellow inmate's lies, including "Julia Roberts was a penpal" and "He died twice and met God both times."

Besides the prison setting, the constant that binds these stories together is the atrocious tedium and isolation of an imprisoned existence  the monotony of being locked away from free society in the name of punishment.

It's hard to read "The Graybar Hotel" and not think about the prison crisis in America, with 2.3 million people behind bars, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy group seeking reforms to address mass incarceration. Also about the fact that white people make up 64 percent of the U.S. population but only 39 percent of the incarcerated population, whereas black people make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but a disproportionate 40 percent of the incarcerated one.

It's hard, too, not to wonder about the privilege of the author, a white man, and consider how many other incarcerated authors  perhaps people of color, perhaps women, perhaps both  might be struggling to have their voices heard.

And that maybe is the biggest benefit of this book's existence. It's well-written and worth reading for Dawkins' craft and insight, but it's also an occasion to consider an industry that has little to do with rehabilitation, and that makes it nearly impossible for its participants to recuperate their lives. As Dawkins himself says on the book's final page: "I pray that we all find forgiveness, freedom, and peace. Inside and out."

Kathleen Rooney is the author, most recently, of the novel "Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk."

'The Graybar Hotel'

By Curtis Dawkins, Scribner, 224 pages, $26

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AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- A group of Chinese villagers at a court in Amsterdam on Friday demanded that a collector reveal the identity of the individual from whom he bought a purportedly stolen Buddha statue, saying the figure must be returned to its rightful temple in China.

The Buddha statue with an intact mummified body inside was bought by Amsterdam collector Oscar van Overeem in 1996, who now claims to have swapped with another buyer for several Buddhist art objects.

Villagers in China's southeastern province of Fujian recognized it as their stolen Zhang Gong statue when the statue was on exhibition in Hungary in March 2015.

Van Overeem agreed that the Buddha comes from the province of Fujian, but insisted that it is not the statue stolen from the villagers' temple.

He once agreed to return it if his conditions were met. When negotiations failed, the villagers filed a lawsuit against him in the Dutch court.

WHO IS THE NEW HOLDER

At the hearing, van Overeem stated that the new holder of the statue is a "collector-investor-intermediary," who "is aware of the mummy controversy and political sensitivities and prefers to remain anonymous."

When asked to disclose the name of the new holder, or email exchanges that reflect the negotiation of the deal and the conditions under which there was an exchange, the Dutch collector refused.

Under the Dutch Civil Code, such an agreement is contrary to good morals, and is an affront to decency and public order, therefore is void, Dutch lawyer Jan Holthuis representing the Chinese villagers told the court.

The lawyer cited an email signed and submitted by Van Overeem as proof which states that the Dutch collector reached this agreement when he learned that the villagers hired lawyers to take legal action in the Netherlands.

"By taking the statue away, the collector caused a presumption of a fraudulent act, namely preventing the enforcement of a claim to return Zhang Gong, if the court would so decide," commented Holthuis.

Two weeks ago, the villagers filed a demand asking the court to require the defendant to disclose the identity of the new holder.

Van Overeem asked the court to dismiss the demand by the villagers immediately on formal grounds. But the judge refused and ordered him to submit a statement to challenge the claim within six weeks.

"This is good. The other party has the right to make a statement on the reason why they think they cannot disclose the identity, and we can still reply to their statement. Then the judge will make a decision on it. It might take months," Holthuis told the press.

When the new holder is known, the Chinese villagers will seek to make him part of the legal proceedings to answer their claims that the Zhang Gong Buddha statue should return home, he said.

IS THE BUDDHA ZHANG GONG?

The nearly three-hour hearing was also dominated by the debate over the identity of the statue. Is he Zhang Gong, the 11th century monk who has been worshipped for generations in two Chinese villages, or not?

"It is not their statue," van Overeem reiterated to Xinhua after the hearing.

In court he read several reports, emails and a CT scan to show that a hole in the hand and a wobbling head, two characteristics of the Zhang Gong statue, did not exist in the statue he bought.

When asked about the Chinese characters of "Liu Quan," the name of Zhang Gong, as well as "Pu Zhao Tang," the name of the village temple, written on the linen roll found in the statue, he said "the linens were added 200, 250 years later. It is not an automatic proof that it belongs to the mummy."

When the judge inquired about the possibility of seeing the Buddha for an evidence check, van Overeem said the new holder wants to remain unanimous.

On behalf of the villagers, Holthuis showed the court numerous similarities between the statue and Zhang Gong, arguing that the villagers are entitled to have their statue returned to its original place.

"There is objective evidence that Zhang Gong is Zhang Gong. Each time Mr. Van Overeem comes back to two arguments -- no hole in one hand and no loose head. But we have no independent investigation because he did the CT scan, and now the Buddha is no longer in his possession," he told Xinhua.

BURDEN OF PROOF

The Dutch lawyer argued for "reversal of the burden of proof" in this case.

"Mr. Van Overeem does not have a purchase invoice, nor any document to show the origin of the Buddha," Holthuis told the court. "Registers of the Chinese government do not show any export permit for this Buddha. Besides, a permit for export of the Zhang Gong Buddha would never have been granted."

"A comparative study of the statue for proof or return is no longer possible because of his actions," he added.

Invoking recommendations adopted by the Ekkart Committee, a Dutch government body in charge of returning looted artworks from World War II that remain in the hands of the Dutch state, the lawyer argued that it is up to van Overeem to prove that the statue is not Zhang Gong.

Its recommendations are recognized by the Dutch Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the parliament.

Since the villagers' ownership of the Buddha statue has been proven with a high degree of probability and van Overeem has not provided legally convincing indications to the contrary, "it is up to Mr. Van Overeem to prove that the Buddha is not Zhang Gong," Holthuis told Xinhua.

A UNIQUE CASE

Other issues were brought up in court such as the legality of Chinese villagers standing in Dutch court, whether or not van Overeem bought the statue in good faith and questions over the mummified monk being a 'corpse' and therefore not subject to ownership under Dutch law.

The defendant claimed that the "Chinese village committee is not to be referred to as a natural person or legal person" under the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure and "the claimants should be declared inadmissible in their claims."

"We already argued that the village committee is a special legal person under the Chinese law and there is jurisprudence or case law in the Netherlands saying that even when you do not have legal presentation in terms of a legal entity, you can still file a claim," Holthuis told the press.

The lawyer nonetheless admitted the case is an interesting and unique one.

"A lot of issues of this case have no case law," he told Xinhua. "Each time we almost have to invent the next step. But it doesn't mean we will fail."
A public planning process is underway to come up with ideas to improve North Lake Shore Drive for drivers, bikers and pedestrians. (Jonathon Berlin)

Today's column is about urban edges  not the literal borders between a city and its suburbs, but the sharp contrasts in density and character that give cities their distinctive identity. In particular, I'm thinking about the spectacular meetings of water, land and buildings that make Chicago one of the world's most dramatic cityscapes.

Imagine if the vast expanse of Lake Michigan turned into land tomorrow. The city wouldn't look, or feel, the same. The skyline would bleed into its surroundings instead of being set apart by a watery forecourt. Actually, that's the way it looks from the west  impressive enough, but nowhere near as majestic as it appears from the east. Without the lake's urban edge, Chicago would be a bigger version of Indianapolis. Ho hum.

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I'm thinking about urban edges for two reasons: City and state transportation officials on Wednesday revealed concept drawings for a future redevelopment of North Lake Shore Drive. And the Chicago Riverwalk is celebrating its first summer of activity since its ceremonial completion last October. Both the Drive and the Riverwalk form integral parts of the waterfront edges that are signature features of Chicago.

It's important to point out that not all these edges serve benevolent purposes. Think of Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway, which separated white ethnic neighborhoods from public housing projects largely filled by blacks when it opened in the early 1960s. Likewise, North Lake Shore Drive has morphed from its 19th Century origins, when it was a scenic boulevard for horse-drawn carriages, into a manic highway plagued by traffic bottlenecks and crashes.

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But urban edges, especially those that are man-made, can be changed to suit new values and visions. Take the concept plans for the roughly 80-year-old, seven-mile stretch of the Drive between Grand and Hollywood avenues, which were shaped by Itasca-based Civiltech Engineering. They reflect a post-industrial mindset that views urban edges holistically, not simply as corridors of transportation.

One "before and after" sequence shows a complete revamp of the Drive's notorious "S" curve, now crammed between skyscrapers and Oak Street Beach. New landfill would untie this knot, shifting beach eastward and opening the way for new parkland. A portion of the road would be lowered beneath surrounding parkland. A pedestrian bridge would sweep over the depressed roadway, linking to separate bike and pedestrian paths.

In this vision, North Lake Shore Drive would no longer be a road that bisects a park; it would become a road enveloped within a park. It also might emerge a safer road; it now averages three crashes a day, officials say. And the new parkland would serve as a sponge that would soak up water pushed ashore by storms.

A pedestrian walks under a mist of water on the Chicago Riverwalk on a hot Monday morning, June 12, 2017. The water came from workers on the Dearborn Street Bridge, who were washing it from above. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune )

How much will this cost? And who will pay? That's not the point right now. You need a vision before you ask U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin to wring the necessary funds from the feds. While there are still lots of knotty issues to work through, it's encouraging that officials are treating the Drive's redevelopment as more than an ordinary road project. But be patient for the results. The current design phase isn't scheduled to be completed until 2020. Construction won't start until sometime in the next decade.

The Riverwalk, on the other hand, has already established itself as a vital part of city life.

Since 2009, newly-built sections of the pathway have joined with older ones to create a promenade, more than a mile long, that reaches west from Lake Michigan to the confluence of the Chicago River's north and south branches at Lake Street. The success of that promenade is beyond argument: A constant stream of walkers, joggers and cyclists flows along the trail. The water is still polluted, but the view over it is soothing  provided your view isn't blocked. After work, the crowds of millennials frequenting the Riverwalk's wine bars and restaurants can be so thick that it's hard to make your way through them.

In some ways, the Riverwalk is broadening its appeal beyond that core audience of downtown workers and residents. Kids taking part in a Chicago Park District summer camp program go fishing on the handsomely-designed piers that reach like fingers into the water. Yet other new sections of the pathway are pretty dull. Besides an oversized sculpture of a deer, for example, the grassy section at the Riverwalk's west end remains empty.

That's OK. It takes time to create great urban edges. It also takes top design talent, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel seemed to understand in March when he announced something called the Chicago Urban River Edges Ideas Lab.

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The program will ask leading architects and landscape architects to develop concepts that will form "a unified design aesthetic" for Chicago's riverfront," the city said in a statement. The roster of architects, which includes Riverwalk co-designers Ross Barney Architects of Chicago and Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., is impressive. Let's see what they come up with.

In the meantime, especially while it's warm, enjoy the splendor of Chicago's dramatic meetings of land, water and buildings.

The city wouldn't be the same without them.

bkamin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BlairKamin
A 20-year-old man is scheduled to appear in court Saturday afternoon accused of several robberies of Chicago mobile phone stores, according to police.

Christopher Taylor is charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of robbery and one count of attempted aggravated robbery, police said.

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During a hearing Saturday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge Peggy Chiampas set bail at $250,000 for Taylor, who has another court date next week.

Taylor is of the 14000 block of South Atlantic Avenue in the village of Riverdale.

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Taylor was arrested Friday afternoon by a gang enforcement team in Riverdale after a business alert implicated him in multiple robberies of Boost Mobile phone stores in Chicago, police said.

Check back for details.
This portion of the Fox River Trail in Montgomery dealt with some flooding issues Monday. (Judy Pochel / The Beacon-News)

The Fox River is so high that the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has restricted boating from the Chain O'Lakes to the Montgomery Dam, because of the danger posed by floodwaters. But that didn't stop two kayakers from entering the river at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles, officials said.

St. Charles Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Byrne said he wasn't sure if the kayakers knew the river was closed to watercraft. All official boat launch ramps in St. Charles were closed because of flooding, but, he said, anyone with a kayak could take it out on the river in any number of entry points accessible by foot. They might have thought a kayaking trip would be more fun because the river level increased, Byrne said, adding that he didn't know about the skill level of the men who were rescued.

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"I think they just wanted to go kayaking, and they got into a precarious spot because of the swiftness of the current, and they realized they couldn't paddle fast enough to get back to shore," Byrne said Saturday.

About 7:30 p.m. Friday the St. Charles Fire Department was called to the Main Street Bridge for a river rescue, Fire Chief Joseph Schelstreet wrote in a news release.

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Units that responded "discovered that two subjects had gone over the (St. Charles) Dam in kayaks and were in distress," the release said. A police officer in the area first told dispatchers that several bystanders came up to the officer to report people in the river having difficulty. Dispatchers then called out the fire department and the dive team, officials said.

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"They didn't actually enter the river, they were just on standby," Byrne said of the dive team.

One of the kayakers was injured after having hit a rock, and he was able to make it to shore behind a BMO Harris Bank branch at Walnut and Riverside avenues. The other kayaker was swept by the current to the bridge at Illinois and Riverside avenues, the news release said. One of the kayakers was treated at Delnor Community Hospital while the other signed a release refusing medical attention, officials said.

Neither of the rescued men was wearing any type of floatation device, helmet or personal safety equipment, according to the news release.

Brad Winters with the IDNR's Office of Water Resources said that the agency had never before seen the flow volumes into the waterway system, and that it could crest Sunday or Monday. The Fox River in New Munster, Wis., crested Thursday and had started to go down, but not before it hit a record high that was two feet over the 2004 record for the river and Chain O'Lakes area.

After a second kayaker rescue, that one in Oswego on Saturday, Byrne said it's important for kayakers to remember that area rivers are currently unpredictable because of the flooding.

kdouglas@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @312BreakingNews
A judge Friday sentenced a man to 80 years after a sexual assault in the Robert Taylor Homes neighborhood in 2013, authorities said.

Robert Barnes, 44, was convicted by a jury in January of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon and aggravated kidnapping, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office.

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On Friday, a judge at the Leighton Criminal Court Building sentenced Barnes to 80 years, to be served at 85 percent, the office said.

The assault occurred February 3, 2013, in the 5300 block of South State Street.

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Further details were not immediately available.
The Wall Street Journal in June 2017 published a story about Peter Smith, a longtime Republican political operative from the Chicago area. The story focused on Smiths possible connections to the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. Heres how it unfolded. (Jonathon Berlin / Chicago Tribune) (Jonathon Berlin / Chicago Tribune)

ROCHESTER, Minn.  Months after he said he'd started to quietly work to contact Russian hackers to look for a cache of Hillary Clinton's emails, Peter W. Smith called The Wall Street Journal on May 4 to explain.

The next day, the longtime Republican operative and donor checked into a hotel near the Mayo Clinic, far from his Chicago-area home, police records show. Smith, 81, would kill himself there fewer than 10 days later.

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The detailed notes he left behind spoke to failing health since January. Also in January, his son David entered a state prison following a conviction on aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges, state records show. The notes also cite an expiring $5 million life insurance policy, and property records show he sold his Gold Coast condo last year amid a foreclosure threat.

"NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER - ALL SELF INFLICTED," Smith's note read in part. "NO PARTY ASSISTED OR HAD KNOWLEDGE AS AN ACCOMPLICE BEFORE THE FACT."

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A worker at the Aspen Suites in Rochester said Smith was pacing in the lobby area the morning he died. "He would get up from his chair, walk over to the newspapers, then go back to his chair and sit down for about 30 seconds and then get up and walk over to the newspapers again," the employee said. "It seemed like he had a lot on his mind."

Police records say he killed himself later on May 14, more than a month before his name would be thrust into the political spotlight via the Journal's report about his claims. They would be deemed explosive at a time when both Congress and former FBI chief Robert Mueller are investigating possible links between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The Journal reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Trump's campaign, an ally. Flynn briefly was President Trump's national security adviser and resigned after it was determined he had failed to disclose contacts with Russia. Flynn's attorney declined to comment.

In today's political world, Smith's suicide sparked conspiracy theories and questions on social media after the Tribune first reported his cause of death Thursday. Police on Friday said they notified the FBI "as a courtesy" and made it clear that all the evidence pointed to Smith taking his own life.

Aspen Suites hotel in Rochester, Minn., is where Republican political operative Peter W. Smith killed himself, according to police records. (Elizabeth Nida Obert/Rochester Post-Bulletin)

"We are providing limited follow-up on this case as it has been determined a suicide, which is normal protocol for our agency," said Rochester police Lt. Mike Sadauskis.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat and the only Illinois member of Congress on an intelligence committee, said Friday he read the stories about Smith with great interest. "It is obviously an area that I think this (House Intelligence) committee should investigate," he said.

By Friday, Rochester police and staff at the hotel had become wary of further media questions about the case. Police said they would not answer questions, and hotel staff referred questions to corporate managers.

Among the questions raised about Smith's death was his insurance policy. In the notes he left in the Rochester hotel room, he wrote that the timing of his suicide was related to an old $5 million life insurance policy expiring.

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Professor Ezra Friedman of Northwestern Law School said Friday that as a general rule, insurance companies must pay life insurance benefits if people commit suicide providing a certain period of time has passed since the policy was taken out.

"Usually after you buy life insurance, after a year or two, and it might be more in some states, they have to pay no matter what," said Friedman, who specializes in law and economics, torts and insurance law.

All the details of Smith's policy were not known, and a spokeswoman for the insurer, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., had no comment.

Smith's obituary said he was involved in public affairs for more than 60 years. Police records show he wrote much of his obit himself, touting political work but not mentioning the push for emails he described to a Journal reporter.

In the obit, he touted his work with GOPAC, a political committee affiliated with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Georgia. "The focus of his national political campaign activity since 1992 has been on independent expenditures, including Troopergate disclosures involving President Clinton," the obit read, before listing the family Smith left behind.

In the "Troopergate" probe he touted, political enemies of Bill Clinton gathered information suggesting that Arkansas state troopers had helped the then-governor arrange and cover up extramarital affairs.

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According to "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story" by Michael Isikoff, Smith gave $5,000 in research funds to David Brock, who wrote an explosive article in the American Spectator about Clinton's sex life. Isikoff said Smith gave $25,000 more to a "whistleblower fund" for troopers who talked about Clinton's alleged affairs.

Also in the key final documents he left behind, Smith wrote: "No Chicago residence has been maintained for past 15 months."

In addition to having a home in Lake Forest, Smith and his wife, Janet Smith, purchased a $582,000 condo in Chicago's exclusive Gold Coast neighborhood in 1999, public records show. The two-bedroom on East Delaware Pl. is atop the Four Seasons Chicago Hotel. The property was sold in January 2016 for $705,000 to a private firm amid a pending foreclosure, which was dismissed, records show.

On June 7, Rochester authorities mailed Smith's cell phone, credit cards and passport to a daughter in Lake Forest, police said. Smith suffered from heart problems, according to a former employee.

At the top of the key document that spelled out his health concerns and insurance motivations for taking his life, Smith addressed the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office.

"Sorry to have involved you," he wrote, "and appreciate your assistance."

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Skiba reported from Washington, D.C. Heinzmann reported from Rochester, Minn. Lighty reported from Chicago. Christy Gutowski contributed.

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

dheinzmann@chicagotribune.com

tlighty@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Katherine Skiba

Twitter @DavidHeinzmann

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Twitter @TLighty
KINSHASA, Congo  Six Congolese rangers were found Saturday in a large forest reserve in Congo's northeast a day after a security station was attacked by militia, but an American journalist and at least three security guards remain missing, a local official said Saturday.

At least 10 people had gone missing after an attack Friday by the Mai Mai militia outside the town of Mambasa in Congo's Okapi Wildlife Reserve, said Mambasa territory administrator Alfred Bongwalanga Efoloko. He confirmed that the six had been found but had no information on their conditions. The park rangers are part of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation.

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No details about the missing journalist were immediately available and authorities had no proof the attack was an abduction, he said. Army reinforcements have been searching since Friday night for those still missing, he said.

"I am optimistic they will all be found," Efoloko told The Associated Press by telephone. "The forest is very big. Maybe they fled in another direction. According to testimony of their colleagues, the attack came as the team wanted to go have a meal" and there was a lot of crossfire.

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In Washington, the State Department said it was "aware of reports that a U.S. citizen was kidnapped" in Congo.

"The U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas," a State Department official said on background. "Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."

Two British journalists and five other park rangers, part of the same team, escaped after the attack, making their way to another Okapi reserve base, Efoloko said.

The Center for Studies of Peace and Defense of Human Rights said earlier Saturday that a journalist had disappeared with 11 park security guards. It also identified Friday's attackers as the Mai Mai SIMBA, saying they attacked in Bapela, 25 miles south of Mambasa. The group's executive director, Omar Kavota, expressed concern for the missing.

A Congolese civilian was also kidnapped Friday near Mambasa by armed men, he said in a statement.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in eastern Congo.

A separate attack Saturday by the Mai Mai in the country's North Kivu province killed two soldiers.
Wisconsin state Rep. Dale Kooyenga, seen here on May 4, 2017, stole a 80-year-old man's anti-Republican sign from the state Capitol this spring in an effort to uphold "decorum" in the building. (John Har / AP)

A Wisconsin Republican lawmaker admitted Friday that he removed an 80-year-old man's anti-Republican sign from the state Capitol rotunda without permission in May in an effort to uphold "decorum" in the building.

Rep. Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield released a police report detailing the incident, saying in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he had heard Democrats were trying to obtain the report and he wanted to get out ahead of them.

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According to the report, 80-year-old Donald E. Johnson told Capitol Police on May 23 that his permitted sign was missing and it was worth $40. Surveillance video showed Kooyenga walking off with it.

The report said the sign was "very critical of President Trump, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Governor Scott Walker and the GOP in general." Kooyenga said in the telephone interview with AP that the sign called all the Republicans "gropers" and said "Damn All Republicans."

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One of Kooyenga's aides told an officer that the sign was in Kooyenga's office, where the officer recovered it, according to the police report. Police later returned the sign to Johnson.

Kooyenga told a detective that he didn't believe taking the sign was a "big deal." He said he took the sign as a joke and because it contained the words "groper" and "damn" and children in the Capitol saw it.

According to the report, he told the detective that he planned to turn the sign over to the state Department of Administration, which oversees the Capitol building and its police officers. He wasn't aware the sign was permitted, he said.

The detective wrote that he informed Kooyenga of the seriousness of taking others' property. Kooyenga responded it would never be an issue in the future.

Kooyenga, who sits on the Legislature's powerful budget-writing committee, was not cited or charged. The report said the case would be re-opened if officers receive more complaints.

Kooyenga attached a statement to the police report saying that he felt the sign was inappropriate and shouldn't have been in plain view of children.

"I am sorry I took the sign without permission," the statement said. "However I am not sorry for trying to uphold appropriate decorum in our State Capitol."
Vice President Mike Pence waves goodbye as he wraps up an address at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting on July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Stephan Savoia / AP)

The White House launched an aggressive drive Friday to persuade key Republican governors to stop criticizing a Senate proposal to overhaul the nation's health-care system, urgently pressuring them in public and private ahead of a decisive week for the controversial legislation.

Despite the administration's sales pitch, however, four influential governors reiterated their concerns about the bill's impact on their states' most vulnerable individuals - underscoring the challenge facing the White House and Senate Republicans as they seek to fulfill a seven-year GOP promise to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

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"I've still got to come back to my concerns with regard to the Medicaid population," said Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, R, on his way to a private session with Vice President Mike Pence here at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association. Pence had earlier delivered a detailed speech to the entire group defending the bill.

Sandoval's views, along with those of three other governors whose states expanded Medicaid under the ACA - John Kasich of Ohio, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas - could prove decisive in determining whether the Senate passes legislation next week. Republican senators from those states are closely watching how their governors respond to the newly revamped legislation as they decide whether to support it.

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Kasich, who did not attend, issued a statement calling the revised Senate plan "still unacceptable" because of its Medicaid cuts and possible impact on the private ACA insurance market.

Gov. John Kasichs statement on the Senate health care reform bill: pic.twitter.com/0LCBu5B0xh  John Kasich (@JohnKasich) July 14, 2017

Pence joined Tom Price, President Donald Trump's health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to work governors in front of cameras and behind the scenes Friday in this waterfront city.

They offered a detailed pitch contrasting with the more general and sometimes contradictory rhetoric Trump has delivered on health care - but one that contained inaccuracies and quickly met with rebukes from health advocates. They claimed, for instance, that the bill would not throw millions off insurance and that disabled Americans have been denied care because of the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, which is also known as Obamacare.

In his speech, Pence also said the ACA's expansion of Medicaid put "far too many able-bodied adults" on the program.

"I know Governor Kasich isn't with us, but I suspect that he's very troubled to know that in Ohio alone, nearly 60,000 disabled citizens are stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the care they need for months or even years," said Pence.

The waiting lists Pence referred to apply to Medicaid's home and community-based services, and have not been affected by the program's expansion under the ACA. States have long had waiting lists for these services, and the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation's executive vice president, Diane Rowland, noted that waiting lists in non-expansion states are often longer than in expansion states, which currently receive a 95 percent federal match for their newly covered beneficiaries.

Kasich spokesman Jon Keeling said in an interview that Pence's suggestion that 60,000 disabled Ohioans remain on waiting lists "is not accurate," adding that to suggest Medicaid expansion hurt the state's developmentally disabled "system is false, as it is just the opposite of what actually happened."

"That waiting list is nothing new, and to attribute it to expansion is absurd," said Families USA's senior director of health policy, Eliot Fishman.

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Moreover, the expansion population is not solely composed of able-bodied beneficiaries: It includes low-income parents and childless adults, some of whom have chronic illnesses.

The Senate Republican proposal would cut $772 billion from Medicaid over the next decade by phasing out the expansion population, and it makes even deeper cuts starting in 2025. By 2036, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the government would spend 35 percent less on Medicaid than under the current law.

Among the GOP senators who have questioned aspects of the Senate proposal, at least half a dozen hail from Medicaid-expansion states. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, expanded Medicaid in his state.

Under the Senate bill, roughly 15 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage within a decade, according to the CBO, which is expected to provide an updated score on the revised legislation next week. But Trump officials are arguing that the administration can cushion the bill's financial blow to the states through a combination of legislative provisions and administrative measures.

In a departure from the president, who often has seemed to have little grasp of health policy details and the effect of them on everyday people, Pence delivered a speech in which he recounted stories of individuals he has met across the country who he said have been harmed by the ACA.

He named a Kentucky small-business owner who he said was struggling under increasing premiums, a disabled Ohio woman who he said lost her plan and doctor, and a Wisconsin grandmother who he said had to choose between paying for coverage and buying Christmas presents.

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At least one Republican governor may have been swayed by the pitch: Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

Haslam, whose state did not enter into the expanded Medicaid program, nonetheless had some concerns about the Senate legislation's impact on Tennessee, but he said he came away feeling better about the bill after hearing from administration officials.

"I definitely feel more positive about it," he said. "I was generally much more favorably impressed than I expected to be. They had a lot better story to tell than I thought."

GOP leaders have no margin for error as they seek to persuade several wavering senators to embrace the Senate plan. With the vice president prepared to cast the tiebreaking vote, 50 out of 52 Republican senators would have to approve the measure for it to pass.

Two already have said they object to voting on the bill in its current form: conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky and centrist Susan Collins from Maine. A third, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday that the proposal did not address the concerns his governor has raised and that he would seek to change it.

Ducey met with Pence and his colleagues but said he still has reservations about the Senate bill. "It needs work," he said. "We're communicating with Senator McCain. We've given him specific language that we think will dramatically improve the bill, and the ball's in the Senate's court."

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Until now, the White House has taken a largely hands-off approach to the Senate process, although Trump has said he would be "angry" if the bill fails and compared the effort of brokering a deal in the Senate to the quest for Mideast peace.

Sandoval, who is very popular in Nevada and whose reservations helped prompt Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., to come out against the original measure before the July Fourth recess, reiterated his dislike of the latest version of the bill as he made his way to an early meeting here Friday.

"My position has been consistent all along with regard to protecting the Medicaid expansion population," he said. "For Nevada that means 210,000 lives. I want to ensure that their health care is protected, so they can lead healthy and happy lives."

He said he had not spoken with Heller since Senate leaders unveiled their newest iteration of the legislation but hoped to have a conversation with him on Friday.

Kasich was more scathing in the statement he released before Pence spoke, saying the measure's "cuts to Medicaid are too deep and at the same time it fails to give states the ability to innovate to cope with those reductions."

"It also doesn't do enough to stabilize the insurance market, where costs are rising unsustainably and companies are simply dropping coverage," Kasich added.

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Hutchinson welcomed some of the changes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made to the bill after weeks of consultations with elected officials. He described "some very significant improvements to the bill," including additional funds to help middle- and lower-income Americans buy private insurance.

But in an interview after Pence's speech - and before a scheduled meeting with the vice president - he said the Senate bill remained a "deep concern" to him "in terms of the cost shift we see to the states under the reduced growth rate for Medicaid spending."

Hutchinson said he has spoken to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., "continually" about the bill, which he said is "moving in the right direction." But he said he was not ready to support it yet.

The latest draft of the bill adds $70 billion to a $112 billion state stabilization fund to be used over the course of a decade for several purposes, including helping consumers pay for insurance. It also changes the amount of funding each state receives under the Disproportionate Share Hospital program to be calculated off the state's uninsured rate, rather than its Medicaid enrollment.

Hutchinson said that he had asked for both those changes, as well as one that would allow states to include their Medicaid-expansion population in any calculations for future block grant funding of the program.

Sandoval said the stabilization fund - which Verma has been touting to Republicans from Medicaid-expansion states as a mechanism for minimizing the number of newly uninsured people - is an intriguing idea. But he was not sold yet.

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"On its surface it sounds like it could be a good thing," said Sandoval. "But, you know, at the end of the day, I've got to see what it means in 2020 all the way to 2026."

Fishman's group did an analysis Friday showing that even if the entire fund was used over eight years, it would not cover insurance for the 11 million individuals who stand to lose their existing coverage. "The numbers just don't add up," he said.

Kasich, who has been working behind the scenes with both Republican and Democratic governors, criticized Senate leaders' decision to focus exclusively on passing a bill with only Republican support.

"These shortcomings flow from the fact that the Senate plan commits the same error as Obamacare - it's not bipartisan," Kasich said. "We can still fix this and repeal and replace Obamacare with ideas that will work, but it means having leaders from both sides sitting down together and working in good faith on solutions that responsibly manage Medicaid and stabilize our insurance market."

Early Saturday morning, Price and Verma will speak at a governors-only breakfast on the future of health-care. Later, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney will speak at a legislative briefing.

Asked Friday whether he could support the measure without the changes he has proposed, Ducey said, "I think they're deliberating. So let's let them deliberate."

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Eilperin reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Abby Phillip in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration is seeking to close a legal window opened for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, appealing a federal judge's order directly to the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson had ordered the government to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States. His order also vastly expanded the list of U.S. family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.

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In its appeal Friday night, the Justice Department said Watson's interpretation of the Supreme Court's ruling on what family relationships qualify refugees and visitors from the six Muslim-majority countries to enter the U.S. "empties the court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members. Treating all of these relationships as 'close familial relationship(s)' reads the term 'close' out of the Court's decision."

Only the Supreme Court can decide these issues surrounding the travel ban, the Justice Department said. "Only this Court can definitively settle whether the government's reasonable implementation is consistent with this Court's stay," it said.

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On Saturday, the U.S. Justice Department asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to put Watson's ruling on hold while the Supreme Court considers its appeal.

The long, tangled legal fight is expected to culminate with arguments before the nation's high court in October.

Watson's ruling could help more than 24,000 refugees already vetted and approved by the United States but barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

"Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety," she said. "This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely."

Citing a need to review its vetting process to ensure national security, the administration capped refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, a ceiling it hit this week.

The federal budget can accommodate up to 75,000 refugees, but admissions have slowed under Trump, and the government could hold them to a trickle, resettlement agencies say.

"Absolutely this is good news for refugees, but there's a lot of uncertainty," said Melanie Nezer, spokeswoman for HIAS, a resettlement agency. "It's really going to depend on how the administration reacts to this."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions had said the administration would ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, bypassing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

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The Supreme Court allowed a scaled-back version of the travel ban to take effect last month.

"Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security," Sessions said. "By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats."

The administration took a first step by filing a notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit, allowing it to use a rule to petition the high court directly. There was no timetable for the Supreme Court to act, but the administration sought quick action to clarify the court's June opinion.

The justices now are scattered during their summer recess, so any short-term action would come in written filings.

The administration has lost most legal challenges on the travel ban, which applies to citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

The Supreme Court's ruling exempted a large swath of refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or an entity in the U.S. The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.

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The Trump administration defined the relationships as people who had a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the U.S.

Watson enlarged that group to include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin, who sought the broader definition, said Thursday's ruling "makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit."

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough," Chin said.

Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu, Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Sadie Gurman and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
Perhaps, then, it should become a private, not public, commission and thus be rebranded as Toni Preckwinkle's Commission on Women's Issues, all members being careful not to spend county time or dollars while meeting.

We are being led down a very slippery slope when public commissioners such as Palos Township Trustee Sharon Brannigan (or any citizens) are denied their right of free speech, regardless of whether we like it or not.

 Sue Bergeron, Gurnee
Consul General Phung The Long (second from left) takes photo with business representatives from Western Australia State (Photo: VNA)



Consul General Phung The Long said Vietnam is the 16th trade partner, the 15th exporter, and the third biggest farm produce importer of the State, adding that the two sides should actively explore and optimise their huge cooperation potential.

Vo Hong Duc, Director at Australias national energy supervision committee and head of the business and economic research group at the Ho Chi Minh City Open University, highlighted potential cooperative fields such as education, agriculture and consultancy.

He also pointed to difficulties that Western Australian companies should thoroughly study before building business and investment plans in Vietnam.

He introduced that Vietnam has a population of over 90 million people with new emerging economic zones in major cities like Hai Phong, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Can Tho, which are potential destinations for Western Australian firms.

Vo The Truyen from Australias vegetable growers association said Vietnam and Australia are big suppliers of farm produce, especially fruits, therefore, the two sides could shake hands in this sphere.

He noted that companies and farms in the Western Australian State have a lot of advantages and experience in preserving, packaging and post-harvest technologies and cultivation techniques, which could be transferred to Vietnamese farmers.

Bruno Delfante, Manager Business Migration Centre under the Small Business Development Corporation of Australia, updated information on the policy of attracting business immigration of the Australian government for Vietnamese businesses.

Consul General Long pledged to accompany and support Western Australian and Vietnamese entrepreneurs with regularly provision of information.

With the participation of over 70 business representatives, the workshop is expected to create positive changes in the relations between Vietnam and the Western Australian State./.
Condolences to the family and friends of Carolyn MacLean Swanson, news of whose death earlier this year at age 50 reached me several days ago.



The name may ring a bell. Swanson was the Wheaton College junior who made international headlines in spring 1988 when she vanished along with the man she had secretly married one week earlier, Scott Swanson, a senior at the school.



Police found Carolyn's car, its engine running, in a Loop alley. Credit cards, clothing and Scott's wallet were in the trunk. Nearly everyone feared the worst, particularly as the days and weeks passed and extensive searches on land and in the air turned up no trace of the couple.



They were good looking, straight-arrow young adults, which heightened the preoccupation of the media with this real-life mystery.



Then, nearly four months later, they surfaced, living under assumed names and working menial jobs in Mission Beach, Calif., just outside of San Diego.



"Scott and I loved each other so much that we wanted to give up everything for each other," she told reporters at the time. She and Scott ran off because of "an overwhelming love for each other." They wanted "a completely unadorned love," she said, one that would also be free of the military obligation Scott had incurred due to his ROTC scholarship.



They finally reached out by mail, she said, because they missed their families.



Some were touched to learn of the spectacular ambition of their flight from reality. We're all fools for love at one time or another, after all, and in their naivete they set something of a standard.



Others were annoyed by the distress they'd caused and by the expenses incurred by police agencies that had searched for them.



But even those slow to forgive forgot quickly enough about the Wheaton College couple and their search for perfect love in an imperfect world. They were lucky enough to have been famous before 24/7 cable news stations would have made fading back into obscurity impossible.



I was sad to learn of her death in Salinas, Calif., in February. She was survived by two adult children and by Scott Swanson, to whom she was still married. But I was glad to hear from a family friend that she and Scott, who later fulfilled his military obligation, had put their crazy start in the past and went on to build "a great life together."



The online obituary said she was a personal trainer and an artist but did not list a cause of death. Her family declined, through the friend, to provide any more details.



Let history simply record, then, that the hopeless romantics who blazed across our imaginations long ago ended up finding a love that lasted until they were parted, too soon, by death.
After four years of searching, a man wanted in connection with a fatal crash that killed a woman in Aurora has been found.

Gustavo Villarreal, 48, whose last known address was in the 1600 block of Dearborn Avenue in an unincorporated area near Aurora, was wanted in connection with the Jan. 21, 2013, crash that killed Theresa Burns, 57, of Des Plaines. The crash occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Church Road, just north of Corporate Boulevard on Aurora's northeast side, according to a Aurora police Facebook post.

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Burns, a residential counselor at the Northern Illinois Academy, was trying to assist a student who had run from the school and sat down in the roadway. Burns and another staff member were able to move the student, an 18-year-old woman, but were struck by a 1997 Geo Metro allegedly driven by Villarreal, according to reports in The Beacon-News.

Burns was pronounced dead a short while later. Her co-worker was not badly injured, the reports said.

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After the crash, Villarreal stopped the car and ran away, leaving the vehicle behind, police said.

Villarreal was able to elude police capture and ostensibly fled to Mexico, police said. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agents took him into custody Wednesday after they found him hiding in a tractor trailer in Falfurrias, Texas, about 70 miles north of the Rio Grande River.

He was in the custody of Brooks County Sheriff's Police in Texas on Friday, awaiting extradition to Illinois.

Villarreal's charges include leaving the scene of an accident involving death, a Class 1 felony; leaving the scene of an accident involving injury, which is a Class 2 felony; and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving death or injury, which are Class 4 felonies, police said in the Facebook post. His arrest warrant indicates a bond of $1 million.
A dam along the Fox River is seen earlier this week in Montgomery. (Judy Pochel / The Beacon-News)

Oswego firefighters rescued three kayakers from the Fox River on Saturday afternoon, one of whom was found clinging to a tree branch.

Emergency responders were called to an area near the 5500 block of Route 71 about 12:30 p.m., where they were able to get the first person out of the water and transport them to a nearby hospital for treatment of minor injuries, the Oswego Fire Department said in a news release.

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Another two kayakers also needed assistance about a quarter of a mile downstream from the first site but were not injured, the release said.

Because high water levels have created a treacherous current, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has closed the Fox River to boaters.
Canoe and kayak enthusiasts practiced on the Fox River in Yorkville on Saturday before competing in the fourth annual Illinois Whitewater Festival, which was part of the annual Yorkville River Fest. (David Sharos / Beacon-News )

Friends Lorrie Justus, Julie Foster and Charlene Markley made a spontaneous decision to head to Yorkville Saturday.

"We were looking to have a girls weekend (so) this morning I just decided to Google 'summer festivals' and we found this place," Foster said of their road trip, which took them about three hours from their hometown of Cuba in downstate Fulton County, The three were having lunch along the Fox River, and enjoying their first visit to Yorkville.

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"This looks like a nice town, and we're going to check it out before coming back tonight," Foster said.

The Yorkville River Fest, which kicked off Friday night and continued Saturday, featured a variety of activities, including ribs and other food, a human foosball game, a cardboard canoe race, country music, bounce houses, face painting, and beer and whiskey tastings. Among the highlights was the fourth annual Illinois Whitewater Festival on the Marge Cline Whitewater course, with competitions for canoes and kayaks.

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This is the first time the city has combined two events under one banner, according to Shay Remus, Yorkville's superintendent of recreation.

"In the past, we used to have River Night on Friday and the Ribs on the River fest on Saturday," Remus said. "We joined with the Chamber of Commerce a while back to combine the two. We still have the ribs today as the reigning champion, the Knights of Columbus, is offering their ribs, and we've added the country music, which was really popular last night."

Remus said the two-day event usually draws about 5,000 people but based on Friday's attendance, this year's crowd could end up being bigger.

"To me, what makes this great is that it's easy to get to, it's inexpensive and it's not overly crowded," said Bob Kampf, of Aurora. "I've not been to this particular venue before, but for me it's pretty simple. I'm looking for a funnel cake and a beer."

Homewood resident Ken Mahorney said he and his family weren't aware of the festival when they decided to come to Yorkville for some fun on the Fox River Saturday but had no trouble making the most of it.

"We planned to come here and do some tubing and didn't check out the fact there are races being held on the river today," Mahorney said. "We had no idea that was going on, so I'm having a beer and we're all enjoying a picnic. We just happened upon this by accident and this reminds me of the things we do back home in Homewood."

Mahorney's daughter Grace, 14, said she was enjoying the river and found it "peaceful."

"The thing about water is that it's doing something. It's always moving and I just like looking at it," she said.

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Steve Voss, of McHenry, said he came for the canoeing and kayaking, something he's been enjoying for 40 years.

"We're competing in two canoe events as well as a kayak outfitted like a canoe where you have to kneel," he said. "For myself, I paddle around in everything. I still enjoy the challenge after all these years and this course is about precision and power."

Paul McPherson, also of McHenry, said he started whitewater racing at the age of 40 and now, at 56, he remains "a glutton for punishment."

"We do the racing circuit in Wisconsin as well, and while there are some risks, I like the fact that when you're strapped to the boat, it's very solid and you feel every movement," he said. "I love that feeling and being part of the river."

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Now that Tinley Park police are no longer required to live in the village, officials are looking at relaxing the rule for most all other full-time employees.

But in preliminary discussions at a committee meeting last week, the mayor and trustees appeared to be in agreement that jobs, such as police and fire chief, as well as the village manager, should still be required to live in Tinley Park.

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Tinley Park recently agreed with an arbitrator's decision that, as part of the village's new contract with the union representing police, that officers would be able to live within a 30-mile radius of the village.

Police won't be able to live outside of Illinois, and that same restriction would be in place should the village do away with the residency rule for other workers, trustees said.

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Village Manager Dave Niemeyer told trustees that the residency restriction has made it "difficult to recruit" applicants for positions. He noted that, last year, the top candidate for the position of community development director rejected the village's job offer because of the residency requirement.

The manager said he wanted some preliminary direction from the Village Board before restarting the process of seeking applicants for that job as well as for the position of building inspector.

If the mayor and board were to agree on eliminating the residency rule for full-time workers, the same 30-mile radius would apply, he said.

Niemeyer said that he didn't expect an "exodus" of employees bolting Tinley Park if the rule were lifted or modified.

"Tinley Park is a great place to live," he told board members.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Trustees were not in agreement as far as whether the residency rule should be lifted, or if it is, what jobs it should apply to.

Trustee Michael Pannitto was adamant that the residency requirement remain intact, saying it "has a real value in motivating people" and makes the job about "more than a paycheck."

Trustee Michael Glotz said he believed those in management positions should at least be required to live in the village, while Trustee Michael Mangin said that finding quality employees should take priority over whether they live in town or not.

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"I think we are missing out on opportunities," he said at the meeting.

The residency issue for police went to arbitration after the village and union couldn't come to an agreement. The union proposed officers be allowed to live within a 55-mile radius while the village sought a radius of eight miles. The arbitrator, in his decision, noted that towns comparable to Tinley Park, such as Oak Lawn and Orland Park, do not have an in-town residency requirement, using the radius rule instead.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Twitter @mnolan_J
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain addresses officials on hand as part of Metra's railroad safety tour from Chicago to Elgin on July 14, 2017. ( )

In 1994, Lanny Wilson's teenage daughter was struck and killed by a train. Her death has since inspired his efforts to raise awareness on railroad safety, such as his involvement in creating the DuPage Railroad Safety Council.

Trains are a daily occurrence many Chicagoans and people everywhere take for granted, he said  whether they commute on one or wait for one as it approaches a railroad crossing.

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"There's a domino effect whenever a train hits someone or something," said Wilson, a physician as well as the safety council's chairman.

On Friday, Wilson was one of dozens of officials on board a "safety train" Metra from Union Station to Elgin's National Street station. The Metra-led excursion gave riders a chance to observe safety measures the suburban commuter agency has adopted to reduce incidents and fatalities on railroads.

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"This train is a good way to seal people in, spend some time together and see the challenges and enormity of the Metra system," said Joseph Schweiterman, a DePaul University professor who studies transportation.

The train, which bore signs on its exterior such as, "Cars vs. Train (It's no Contest)," traveled most of the 40-mile Milwaukee District West line, which is one of Metra's busiest. Specially-installed TV monitors displayed indoors what they would pass outside. Over the train's PA system, officials would point out certain features they were passing by. There was also a quick video highlighting some of Metra's efforts, such as Operation Lifesaver dialogues with students, its Confidential Close Call Reporting System, and its Positive Train Control computerized system.

A Metra train prepares to depart Elgins National Street station for Chicago on Friday. The train carried dozens of officials and representatives of towns and cities along the Milwaukee District West commuter line as part of a railroad safety event. (Rafael Guerrero / The Courier-News )

This is the third safety train event conducted by Metra, said CEO Don Orseno. Friday's trip to Elgin was the first on the Milwaukee District West.

"This is a very positive thing that we reach out to the communities," Orseno said. "We have here mayors, police chiefs, RTA board members, Metra board members," elected officials, local government representatives and others, he said.

Upon arriving at Elgin, Mayor Dave Kaptain welcomed the contingent to the city, which he said has been increasing efforts to reduce railroad incidents, injuries and fatalities.

He noted Elgin's Liquor Control Commission decision this week to disallow sales of single-serve hard liquor and of single bottles of beer downtown, which is of close proximity to a Metra station and railroads.

"We are going to reduce the amount of alcohol that's sold near the train stations to make sure that people are safe," Kaptain said. "We don't always make the best judgments when we have a few drinks, things get less secure for us."

Metra board member and Elgin native Manny Barbosa was a first-time rider of the safety train. Barbosa, a retired federal judge, said safety is of great concern to the board.

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He mentioned one often-forgotten aspect of railroad deaths and incidents: suicide, which Barbosa said is on the rise.

Wilson added that suicides did see an uptick. Last year, the DuPage Railroad Safety Council presented supporting data on suicides, such as its steady growth from 2012-15. Trespassing and intentional death fatalities make up the majority of railroad-related deaths, according to the data.

Orseno said the agency is planning a more robust effort in raising awareness of suicide prevention, such as training some staff in the psychology behind suicide and suicidal thoughts.

"One of the biggest focuses now is to reduce suicides (on the railroads)," Wilson said. His safety council has listed a goal of reducing trespasser and suicide deaths by 50 percent over the next decade.

raguerrero@tribpub.com
It was one of the important agenda during Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binhs visit to Singapore from July 13th-15th at the invitation of Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Both sides agreed to continue facilitating all-level visits and exchanges on the Party, State and government channels and people-to-people exchange, effectively tap strategic consultation mechanisms and enhance ties between the two countries defence forces, particularly in naval and aviation fields, anti-piracy cooperation and search and rescue.

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh in Singapore (Source: VNA)



The Singaporean side pledged to boost security collaboration with Vietnam, especially in cyber security, sharing of anti-terrorism intelligence information, immigration management, information security and personnel training.

Underscoring the strong growth of trade and investment, considering it a pillar in the bilateral strategic partnership, Singapore vowed to assist Vietnam in economic reform, constructive government building and market opening while encouraging Vietnamese firms to join the global supply chain and serve as a bridge connecting Vietnam and the Southeast Asia.

The host side shared experience in policy making regarding urban management, corruption prevention, administrative reform, e-government, personnel training, and expressed readiness to share information and send experts to Vietnam to offer training.

On regional and global issues, they called attention to building a united ASEAN which plays a central role in dealing with strategic issues in the region, especially the East Sea issue.

Both sides affirmed the importance of the peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), respect to diplomatic and legal process without the use of force or threat to use force and full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards reaching a legally-binding and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Deputy PM Binh spoke highly of Singapores role in coordinating ASEAN- China ties and affirmed that Vietnam would continue working closely with Singapore to help the country successfully assume the role of ASEAN Chair in 2018.

During the three-day visit, Binh held talks with and attended a banquet hosted by Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean, paid courtesy calls to President Tony Tan Keng Yam and PM Lee Hsien Loong, attended a luncheon hosted by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and held working sessions with Singaporean agencies.

On the occasion, he laid a wreath at a monument dedicated to late President Ho Chi Minh and is scheduled to meet Vietnamese nationals in Singapore on July 15th./.
Chris Theordorou of Washington, D.C. carves gyros meat Friday afteroon at the St. Sophias Greek Fest in Elgin. The 38th annual gathering wraps up Sunday night. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

An Elgin tradition is underway this weekend as St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church hosts its 38th annual Greek Fest, replete with veteran volunteers ready to serve up meals, music and Mediterranean mirth.

According to Dan Savas, about 10,000 visits are made over the three days of the event each year, with attendance up the past few summers. Savas and his wife, Sieglinde, live in Crystal Lake. For a dozen years they have been overseeing the gathering at the church, which they attend.

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Helping out for their 20th year are brother and sister Maria and Chris Theodorou, who grew up in West Dundee. Friday afternoon, Maria was assisting with putting cartons of food together for customers, while Chris was carving gyros meat for sandwiches.

Maria lives in Riverside now and is a doctor of internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Chris is a hospital consultant who flew in from his home in the Washington D.C. area to volunteer.

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"This is our community," Chris said of why he comes back for the occasion. "It's like big family party for the weekend."

Under a tent where homemade baked goods are sold, Pam Argyris of Bartlett was working as she has since 1982. Argyris not only clerks the stand, but said she is one of more than 20 people who prepare the 12 styles of pastries and an assortment of breads and cookies available at the fest.

The most popular pastry, Argyris said, is baklava, a dessert made with phyllo dough, nuts and honey. She expected the fest would sell about 3,000 pieces of baklava along with 3,000 other bakery items over the three days.

Argyris said the most difficult and labor intensive pastry sold at St. Sophia's is diples which is made of thin, delicate sheets of dough.

"You have to find the right person to roll it out and the right person who knows the way to deep fry the dough. Then you dip it in honey, so you have to be careful not to break it," Argyris said.

More than 200 people help with the festival, 5-year volunteer Alden Hutchison of Hoffman Estates said, including about 40 who assist at the drive-through area he oversees.

Hutchison said that the drive-through area, at the front of the church grounds facing Tollgate Road, has been part of the festival for the last several summers and is based on a similar setup at the annual fest held at St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church in Palatine.

Over the three-day event, Hutchison said typically 1,000 orders have been picked up at the drive-through. It's a way for people who have other plans or the elderly who might not be able to walk about the church grounds to enjoy a taste of what the festival has to offer, he said.

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As for the biggest seller on festival grounds or as carryout, Hutchison said by far it was gyros.

"We call it the Greek hot dog," Hutchison said.

Greek Fest continues until 10 p.m. Sunday night at St. Sophia's, 525 Church Road, Elgin. In addition to the food, offerings Sunday include Greek musical act Hellenic 5, a cooking demonstration, music played by DJ Bobby Styles, the Agape Dance Troupe and a raffle.

For information, go to www.st-sophia.com/greekfest/.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
A 30-plus-year-old record fell on Saturday as water levels on the Des Plaines River, already in major flood stage following torrential rains early in the week, continued to creep toward its anticipated crest.

As of 4:30 p.m., the Des Plaines was reported to be at 12.03 feet at Gurnee, topping the record of 11.9 in September 1986. The forecast calls for the level to hit 12.2 feet later on Saturday before starting to drop on Sunday. The long-range forecast calls for the river to fall below its 7-foot flood stage by Wednesday into Thursday.

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Gurnee officials posted an alert through social media Saturday asking for more help keeping the water at bay around Grand Avenue and O'Plaine Road.

"Volunteers needed immediately to help sandbag at (Warren Township High School) O'Plaine Campus (500 O'Plaine Road). We are out of sandbags, and volunteers will help considerably."

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Anyone traveling to or through the area was asked to use Washington Street. Grand Avenue (Route 132) was closed east of Milwaukee Avenue (Route 21).

Among the Gurnee residents battling Mother Nature all week was Daneli Oborny, who said she's tried to keep a good attitude throughout the ordeal that began at 1 a.m. Wednesday, when her son Julian Amoa woke her and her husband to tell them there was water coming into the basement from the walls and windows.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 82 The home of Marty Evanson sustained extensive damage over the last several days as a result of flooding along West Anchorage Lane in Fox Lake on Thursday, July 20, 2017. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The backyard of her home on the corner of McClure Avenue and O'Plaine Road  less than a quarter mile east of the Des Plaines  looked like a waterpark on Saturday, with a swing set in more than two feet of water.

Although the river had receded Friday, Oborny said she woke up to more water in her yard Saturday.

"There's nothing we can do but try to save our things and push the water out," Oborny said. "My cousins joke that now I have a lakefront property."

Half her basement floor still had a few inches of water, while the rest had hoses that were sucking the water into a sump pump.

A large wooden dresser that belongs to her daughter will have to be carried out at some point and thrown away.

"We won't do it now, because it's really heavy, and all we can do now is wait to see if more water will come," Oborny added.

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During the 2013 flood, Oborny's home also sustained water damage in the basement, but she said Wednesday's flash flood was unlike anything she's dealt with before.

"It just happened so fast, and it wasn't letting up," she said. "We were in state of panic watching water seep through walls and windows, and all we could do was grab towels, but that was doing nothing."

On Friday, Gov. Bruce Rauner visited the Gurnee flood zone, and later in the day he issued a disaster proclamation for Lake, McHenry and Kane counties. U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider were among the officials touring the area Saturday afternoon.

Durbin thanked all the volunteers and officials who have been working overtime.

To officials, he said not to promise residents things they can't deliver.

"Don't tell people the federal government is going to ride to the rescue. There's certain dollar amounts that have to be hit before certain federal programs kick in," Durbin said. "We're gong to track everything that we can with cooperation with state and local officials and do our best to bring home very dollar we can to help this crisis."

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Farther north at Russell Road in Wadsworth, the old record level of 11.1 feet was passed on Thursday, and the river crested at 12.15 feet on Friday. On Saturday afternoon, the water had receded to 11.68 feet and is also expected to be below flood stage by Wednesday.

In Lincolnshire, the Des Plaines crested at 15.53 feet on Wednesday, more than a foot above major flood stage, and stood at 15.82 on Saturday afternoon. The weather service predicts a second rise on Sunday as water flows from the north, but the river is expected to start dropping again on Monday.

The forecast farther downriver in Des Plaines called for the floodwater to continue dropping after reaching a crest of 19.88 feet  just below the village's record of 20.9 feet  on Friday. The weather service forecast calls for the river to fall below flood stage in Des Plaines around mid-week.

In Libertyville, the river was just a few feet from the bottom of the Old Rockland Road bridge on Saturday. Dave and Fran Bats have lived on Rockland Road since 1974, and Dave said this flood has not reached the level it did in 2004.

"We've been here for the 1986, 2004, 2013 and now 2017 floods, and it looks like we crested today," he said, with floodwaters still a vertical 25 inches from reaching the floor of their living room, which has a beautiful view of the river.

"We need another six inches to go to (the 2004 level)," he said.

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"All the time we've lived here, it has never flooded," said his wife. "It looks bad outside, but it's not inside."

Dave Bats, who has a background in engineering, said the levee at the Libertyville Estates neighborhood saved it from a lot of flooding. The levee was built toward the end of the 1990s for just over $2.5 million.

The barrier at the Des Plaines River included pumps on the neighborhood side to capture any water that filters through the levee, which stands approximately 8 feet tall, spans about 40 feet at the base and has a flat top 8 to 10 feet wide, according to Lake County News-Sun records.

It took 30,000 cubic yards of clay in addition to a 20-foot-deep steel floodwall covering the area of the levee at the northeast corner of the subdivision off Buckley Road. A stream was rerouted out of the neighborhood.

That corner had been sandbagged this week as a precaution, according to workers who did not want to be identified. The next neighborhood east, Countryside Manor, has some water near homes and filling ditches and parts of the roadway, but it was relatively quiet Saturday with no one sandbagging.

Some people on Sandstone Drive in Libertyville, where homes are along the shoreline of Lake Minear, have been sandbagging, but the lake doesn't look like it will overrun homes. Oak Spring Road, which runs along Lake Minear, is flooded at the Des Plaines River crossing and remains closed.

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The U.S. Weather Service said no major rain is expected over the weekend, saying in a flood-warning statement on Saturday morning that "the Des Plaines river will continue to remain very high through the weekend. Scattered thunderstorms are possible overnight, but they are not expected to add much rainfall to the basin."

Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor said Saturday that residents affected by flood damage can participate in an online damage assessment posted at lakecounty.il.gov (https://veoci.com/veoci/p/form/23etmmr27jsq#tab=entryForm) to receive information about what resources can be made available to them and how soon.

County officials reached out to the public via social media, saying in a message posted on the county's Facebook page that "assistance is based on knowing where damage occurred."

"Lake County Illinois was impacted by intense rain in July that led to widespread flooding. We are working to compile detailed information about the impacts of these storms and flooding, and greatly appreciate your assistance."

A Saturday-night forecast that called for a chance of rain added to concern about not just how high the Des Plaines would go but how long its overflow would linger on the landscape.

"Until that crest occurs, there's only so much that can go out of the dam in Algonquin," Lake County Administrator Barry Burton said. "We believe it will be up to two weeks before we see those water levels go below flood stage."

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Yadira Sanchez Olson is a freelance reporter and Frank Abderholden is a staff writer for the News-Sun.
A recent aerial view of the main hangar, far left, that serves the Naper Aero Club/Aero Estates flight community off Route 59 in Naperville. (Naper Aero Club)

Even by California's sometimes eccentric standards, Jim Carey's neighbors in Long Beach probably thought him a bit odd devoting countless hours to building a light airplane in his home's garage.

But a work-related move to the Naperville area nearly six years ago put Carey in the company of kindred spirits, and in October he made his maiden flight in his Vans RV10 airplane from the Naper Aero Club/Aero Estates subdivision.

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The club is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and its 105 equity members are a more eclectic group than one might think. While dozens of homeowners still regularly fly their small, single-engine aircraft from the airport that anchors their community near 83rd Street and Route 59, others are using their personal airplane hangars to house collections of boats, classic cars and, in one case, antique tractors.

There are about 625 private residential airpark communities throughout the United States, 18 of them in Illinois, according to the online Living With Your Plane Association. Naper Aero Club/Aero Estates traces its ancestry to the 1950s and three couples: Alvin and Viola Beidelman, Vern and Mary Kathryn Finzer and Harold and Eva White, the latter of whom founded the Naperville Sun.

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"They are the ones who bought the farmland and established Naper Aero (Club), and we then had Unit Numbers One and Two built on the old original Aero Drive" circa 1956, said Suzette Selig, a veteran pilot, flight instructor, nurse and senior member of the club, who serves as their unofficial historian.

Vern Finzer and the Whites were pilots, and the home the Whites built in Aero Estates stands to this day, Selig said.

Developers Harold Moser and Ralph Smykal bought the Feeney family farm aross the street in the 1980s and added Chandelle, Skylane and Stearman drives, the subdivision's three other main streets, Selig said. Most of the homes in Aero Estates were built after 1987, according to the Naperville Heritage Society.

A mother of three now-grown daughters, Selig learned to fly more than 50 years ago while attending high school in Evanston. She is a member of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots.

In 2013, she and her late husband, Nick, received Master Pilot awards from the Federal Aviation Administration. They bought their home in Aero Estates in 1967.

"There are two grass runways and one paved runway out here," said Selig, who flies a classic airplane and has worked for 38 years as a registered nurse at Edward Hospital in Naperville. Houses and hangars are linked to the runways by taxiways, she said.

About 50 percent of the current homeowners don't fly, Selig said. "The people that don't fly came out here because of the size of the lots and because it has a rural feel. We just want to make sure that the airport remains as an airport for airplanes, (and as) an aviation community."

Homeowner and pilot Mike Pastore is a mechanical engineer with a consulting business, and president of the club's board of directors. He, like Selig, is passionate about the community and its laid-back, tranquil way of life.

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"The first thing is, the aviation lifestyle is great," said Pastore, a transplant from Wheaton who has flown out of Aero Estates for 20 years and lived there for the past eight. "But Naper Aero also represents what is known as grassroots aviation, which has been part of the culture of our country for over 100 years.

"I and a lot of people use (our) aircraft for business and for pleasure flights," said Pastore, who flies an antique 1947 Cessna 140. "This is a close-knit community with almost a rural lifestyle, which we all enjoy.

"The airport is functioning the same way it was 40 or 50 years ago," he said. "These are still all small aircraft that fly in and out of here, nothing large."

But things have changed as well, he added

"Now we do have a lot of newer, more advanced aircraft (on the grounds), and a lot of people like to (use their hangars) for boats or RVs or car collections," Pastore said. "We also have a number of biplanes, including a 1945 Stearman and a T-34" used by the Lima Lima Flight Team, he said.

One homeowner keeps a helicopter on his premises, he said, "and we even have a couple of power parachutists," flyers who outfit their parachutes with small engines.

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Carey's position with Toyota Financial Services brought him, his wife Sara and their children to Naperville from California. They were not strangers to the area, having visited the club several times prior to moving.

"It's so unique," Carey said of Aero Estates. "A lot of airparks are out in the countryside, and this is in a nice kind of a suburban setting."

Carey's handmade Vans RV10 is a high-performance, single-engine plane that can carry four people. It took him eight years to complete.

"The thing that appeals to me most of all, even if you're doing something as strange as building an airplane in your garage, is that it's just nice to be with like-minded people who share the same passion for aviation as I do," he said.

Two organizations for pilots  the Naperville Flying Club and the BFC Flying Club  are affiliated with Aero Estates. Some club members lives in the subdivision, while others, like Naperville Flying Club insurance officer Bill Seith, live elsewhere, in his case Hinsdale.

"Ours is an equity fund club" and limited by corporate charter to 50 members, Seith said. Each member owns a share in all four of the club's single-engine planes that are housed at Aero Estates, he said.

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"Our club is as old as the airport," Seith said. "Basically, we have a system online" for reserving use of any of the planes, "and we provide flight instruction (exclusively) for our members, from basic training for getting your pilot's license all the way to more advanced ratings."

Aero Estates has proven to be a remarkably safe place. Selig recalled one accident occurring when a pilot "took off westbound and wound up in a willow tree," in the 1970s and another when a flyer "went off the runway and went nose-first" into the foundation of an under-construction house in the 1980s.

The most serious mishap occurred on Oct. 6, 2010, as residents Lloyd and Maureen McKee were flying their Piper PA-32R-300 to Pittsburgh. Lloyd McKee, who was behind the controls, could not gain sufficient altitude, causing the plane to slam into a tower at the XSport Fitness health center southeast of 75th Street and Route 59, in the plane's flightpath.

The McKees were seriously hurt but ultimately recovered from their injuries. No one at the health club and on the ground were injured.

Despite her traditionalist's attitude toward Aero Estates and flying, Selig is friendly with her earthbound neighbors, who include Tom Priz and his wife, Roberta Becker Priz.

Tom Priz received his pilot's license in 1970 while flying at the club. He said he flew 152, 172 and 182 Cessnas over the years from the club's main hangar.

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Roberta Becker Priz had her heart so set on living in Aero Estates that when an acquaintance announced he was selling his house there, she bought it without consulting her husband. "We've lived there now for 16 years," Tom Priz said.

Priz said his passion has shifted from flying to collecting and preserving antique and classic cars, several of which he keeps in his hangar. His prizes include a 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air, a 1959 Chevrolet El Camino, a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair convertible.

His is not even the most exotic collection of vehicles to be found in the area. Priz's friend, Richard Benck, is a collector of antique tractors.

Benck, a former pilot who restored commercial aircraft during his career, has restored an early 1950s-era Allis-Chalmers WD45 tractor and plow. The equipment will eventually be on display at Naper Settlement as part of an agrarian exhibit.

And while such concerns as location and having plenty of elbow room figured into the decision to buy a home at Aero Estates, Priz said he often takes some of the best benefits for granted.

"You can see sunsets and sunrises where we live," he said.

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What to expect next in the Frisch vs. Boebert CD-3 race

Final results in the race won't be known until Friday, Nov. 18, after clerks in all 27 counties upload final counts. So what happens between now and then?
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China, US plan to make cartoon of Chinese folk hero Nezha in battle with Transformers. [File photo]

The Decepticons will meet a new opponent soon: Nezha, a Chinese folk hero with three heads and six arms who cannot be harmed by steel weapons.

The scene when the boy-sized Nezha fights a metallic Transformer is expected to hit the big screen soon, as China and the US are working together on creating a cartoon starring the two classic figures.

The announcement was unveiled on July 6 on the official website of China Central Television (CCTV). A statement said that Hasbro representatives and its CEO recently visited CCTV to discuss cooperation on project "Nezha and the Transformer," which is marked as a milestone in Sino-US cartoon cooperation.

"Consensus has been reached on the production scale, time of airing, the ownership of the IP right and other legal matters," said the statement, adding that both sides agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation partnership and further tap into the brand value of classic cartoons.

The announcement received a lot of attention, and many began to try to calculate Nezhas chance of winning.

In Chinese folklore, Nezha was born into the family of a general in the Shang Dynasty. He was born in the shape of a ball after his mothers three-year-and-six-month-long pregnancy. Nezha was later accepted by the immortal Taiyi Zhenren as a student. Nezha is depicted as a young boy who has the ability to fly on his "wind fire wheels." His weapons include a spear and a special silk-like red rope that can grow back if cut or on Nezhas order.

This also marks the first official project on classic cartoons. In the 1990s, several comic books were published in China, featuring Chinese cartoon characters battling against those from the US and Japan.

In one of them, the Decepticons were driven away from the Earth after losing a battle with Huluwa, or the Bottle Gourd Brothers. The seven brothers born out of bottle gourds have seven different special abilities, including invisibility and water or fire breathing. The brothers, however, won the battle with the help of a deity who equipped them with advanced weapons to defeat the Decepticons.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Friday issued a revised regulation on inspection, in a renewed effort to improve supervision and governance of its more than 89 million members.

Shifting its focus from fighting corruption and Party rule violations in the initial rounds of inspections, the amendment lifted political inspection to a more prominent place on its supervision agenda.

The revised rules clearly stipulate that "political inspection should be deepened, and inspections should mainly focus on upholding the Party leadership, improving Party building, and advancing comprehensive and strict rule of the Party."

The inspections should staunchly safeguard the authority and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and ensure the CPC is always the firm and core leadership of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, it said.

"Political inspection is a major innovation in both theory and practice of the inspection work of the 18th CPC Central Committee," said Yang Xiaochao, member of the inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee.

"Incorporating requirements of political inspection into the regulation is a key point and highlight of the latest revision," Yang noted.

At a meeting on May 26, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to amend the Party's regulation on inspection work, to reflect the latest innovative practices.

The CPC inspection regulation was first put into force on a trial basis in 2009. This is the third version of the regulation following the release of a revised version in August 2015.

The regulation made public Friday also stipulates that Party committees at both the central and provincial levels should conduct inspections on Party organizations of all localities, departments, public institutions and enterprises under their jurisdiction.

In addition, Party committees at the municipal and county levels are also required to establish special agencies to conduct inspections.

On June 21, the CPC discipline agency published the results of its 12th round of inspections into CPC organizations in provincial-level regions, central CPC and government organs, major state-owned enterprises, central financial institutions and centrally-administered universities.

This was the final round of such inspections during the term of the 18th CPC Central Committee, as the 19th CPC National Congress will be held in Beijing later this year. The 18th CPC Central Committee thus became the first in the Party's history that has successfully inspected all these entities in its term.

Such internal supervision has proven effective in exposing problems.

According to the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, more than 50 percent of investigations into centrally-administered officials were as a result of information found by discipline inspectors, since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

The municipal- and county-level inspections should pay special attention to corruption and bad work styles which hamper the interests of the general populace or alienate Party members from the public, such as major corruption scandals committed by low-level officials or village bullies, said Yang, of the inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee..

"With inspections extending from the central to the county level, the comprehensive and strict rule of the Party can be expected to reach the grassroots," he said.
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China's environmental inspectors found that nearly two-thirds of the more than 32,000 enterprises they checked have violated environmental rules.

The findings came after three months of inspections across 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and other nearby areas, which resulted in the discovery of problems including excessive emissions and insufficient pollution control equipment, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said Friday.

The inspectors, who are on a year-long on-site investigation to discover the sources of air pollution in the region, exposed 6,662 companies with unauthorized locations, lacking relevant certificates, or failing to meet emission standards.

The teams also found nearly 2,000 companies have been operating without any pollutant treatment facilities, while another 1,732 companies have pollutant treatment facilities that have been malfunctioning.

MEP official Tian Weiyong said the ministry will urge local authorities to further investigate these firms and rectify the problems.

The MEP will also send inspectors to recheck these companies, ensuring the problems be rectified, he said.

The inspections are part of China's campaign to fight pollution and environmental degradation as decades of growth have left the country saddled with smog and contaminated soil.

China started the inspections amid widespread concerns about smog in its northern region.

Tian said such inspections have helped control air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and other nearby areas.
Macao's former chief prosecutor Ho Chio Meng was found guilty for more than over 1,000 charges and sentenced to 21 years in prison, the special administrative region (SAR)'s Court of Final Appeal said in its final judgment on Friday.

The judges agreed that the accused had violated so many laws in a long period of time, which makes his cases very rare and severe.

As a top official of the public prosecutions office of the Macao SAR, Ho had carried out legal practice for many years but he abused the power in his position and ignored law and discipline.

The former chief prosecutor was brought to trial in December 2016 in Court of Final Appeal on charges such as fraud and abuse of power.

His cases involved about 76 million patacas (about 9.5 million U.S. dollars).
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Japanese police confirmed the two bodies found near Tokyo are the missing Chinese nationals, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Friday.

Media reported that the two bodies found stuffed inside suitcases abandoned in a mountainous forest near Tokyo were suspected to be the missing Chinese sisters.

After the daily news briefing, Geng said the Chinese embassy in Japan confirmed Tuesday that two Chinese women had disappeared from Yokohama, Japan since July 6.

The Chinese embassy launched an emergency mechanism and met with Japanese police, requesting a full scale search for the missing women with progress reports to be given to the Chinese side in a timely fashion, he said.

On Friday, the Chinese embassy in Japan immediately contacted Japanese police after learning that they had found two bodies suspected to be missing Chinese nationals, Geng said.

"We send condolences to the victims, express sincere sympathy to their relatives, and strongly condemn the brutality of the murderer," he said.

The Chinese embassy in Japan will closely follow the development of the case, and provide assistance for the relatives while they are in Japan, Geng said.
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Support rate for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet has dropped to a record low of 29.9 percent, the first time below 30 percent since the prime minister returned to office in December 2012, according to a Jiji Press survey released on Friday.

According to the monthly opinion survey conducted from July 7 to 10, support rate for the prime minister's cabinet dropped to 29.9 percent, down 15.2 percentage points from a month earlier and the biggest monthly fall since December 2012, while the disapproval rate stood at 48.6 percent, up 14.7 points.

The biggest reason cited for disapproving the cabinet was a lack of trust in Abe, as 27.5 percent of the respondents not supporting the cabinet cited this reason, up 8.7 percentage points from the previous month, while 21.9 percent said it was because they had no expectation for the cabinet.

As for the allegations that Abe had used his influence to open a new department at a university run by a close friend in a government-designated special economic zone, 67.3 percent of the respondents said they were not convinced by Abe's explanations, while only 11.5 percent said the opposite.

Meanwhile, 79.9 percent of the respondents said the prime minister had not done his duty of making sufficient explanations to the people about the incident while 7.1 percent said the explanations were enough.

Support rate for Abe's cabinet has been declining sharply recently over a series of scandals implicating the prime minister and some of his cabinet members, as well as the ruling coalition's unorthodox way of forcing through the controversial "conspiracy" legislation in the parliament.

A survey released by Nippon News Network last week showed that the cabinet's support rate has plunged to a record low of 31.9 percent, down 7.9 percentage points from a month earlier, while the disapproval rate stood at 49.2 percent, up 7.4 points.
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Peru's former President Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and his wife were imprisoned on Friday on charges of corruption, state news agency Andina said.

Humala became his country's third ex-president to serve jail time after former presidents Augusto B. Leguia and Alberto Fujimori.

Humala was taken to the Barbadillo de la Diroes penitentiary in the Ate Vitarte district of the capital Lima, where Alberto Fujimori is also an inmate.

His wife, Nadine Heredia de Humala, was taken to the Virgen de Fatima women's prison in Lima's Chorrillos district.

The Humalas, who handed themselves in to authorities on Thursday, are considered flight risks, which is why chief prosecutor Rafael Vela called for 18 months in preventive custody while the investigation into the charges continues.

Peruvian ex-President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) has also been charged with corruption, but remains in hiding in the United States.

Humala, Heredia and Toledo have been accused of accepting millions in bribes, in the form of illegal campaign contributions, from major firms, including Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which were later granted lucrative public works contracts.

Odebrecht has admitted to spending hundreds of millions over a decade or so to bribe public officials throughout Latin America.
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Combo photo shows that missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying (L) and Brendt Christensen (R), arrested in connection with the disappearance of Zhang on June 9, 2017, in Champaign, the U.S. state of Illinois. (Courtesy: Macon County Sheriff's Office)

Champaign County Crime Stoppers Friday announced to raise the reward for clues leading to whereabouts of missing Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang to 50,000 U.S. dollars at the request of Zhang's family.

Representatives of Champaing County Crime Stoppers, a crime victim service in Champaign in the U.S. state of Illinois, and Zhang's family jointly made the statement at a news conference held in the auditorium of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, Champaign.

The reward money will come from community donations to an online fundraising effort.

With the 10,000 U.S. dollars already offered by FBI, the total reward will be 60,000 dollars.

Zhang's family hoped that new information could aid the ongoing investigation.

At the news conference, Zhang's family expressed their gratitude for the help and support they have got. "Yingying is our pride and joy. She is smart, hard-working, brave and kind," Zhang's family said. "We continue to maintain hope that she has survived this ordeal until we find her."

Zhang's family said they would consider additional reward if anyone can bring Zhang back safely.

26-year-old Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was last seen entering a black Saturn Astra car driven by 28-year-old Brendt Christensen on June 9. Police arrested Christensen for kidnapping Zhang on June 30, but Zhang's location is still unknown.

The FBI believes Zhang is deceased, based on facts presented in court and court documents and other facts uncovered during the ongoing investigation.

Christensen was indicted on July 12 by a federal grand jury on a criminal charge related to Zhang's abduction. He remains in custody.
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U.S. President Donald Trump demanded the renegotiation on free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, which in turn resolved to squarely face his call by preparing for the expected negotiations on the amendment or modification of the bilateral FTA.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer sent a letter on Wednesday to South Korean Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan to hold a special session of the joint committee on the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which came into force in 2012.

Under the bilateral free trade deal, either side can ask for the special session. The other side, in principle, is required to accept the request within 30 days.

On his flight to Paris for a summit meeting with his French counterpart Wednesday, Trump described the U.S.-South Korea FTA as a "horrible deal," vowing to put things right by "renegotiating" the deal.

The U.S. leader initially took issue with the pact during a joint press conference in Washington following his summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for two days through June 30.

In response, President Moon instructed his aides Thursday to prepare for all possibilities, saying it needed to weigh whether the U.S.-South Korea FTA increased the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea.

Local newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported Friday that Moon's comments indicated the bilateral FTA was not a direct cause of the increased U.S. deficit in trade with South Korea.

A senior Blue House official, who declined to be identified, told local reporters Thursday that the growing U.S. trade deficit with South Korea was not directly caused by the free trade deal.

During his meeting with senior secretaries, President Moon stressed that South Korea should squarely face the call from the U.S. side, saying that if negotiations on the FTA kick off, the South Korean side would have what it wants in the bilateral deal.

"The signing of the FTA would not necessarily mean the everlasting deal. Upgrade or review of the FTA is possible at any time. The USTR also premised the modification," Bong Young-shik, a research fellow at Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Xinhua.

Trump used the word of "renegotiating" which hinted at the wholesale revision or even the repealing of the FTA, but the South Korean government said the USTR only mentioned "follow-up negotiations" to revise a part of the pact.

Bong said Trump used an aggressive word of renegotiation to give an impression of honoring his campaign pledge to "domestic audience" for political purpose, forecasting a pragmatic approach by the U.S. side to the negotiations.

As the Rust Belt of the U.S. Midwest states was the major supporting base for Trump, the U.S. side would try hard to win concessions in steel and auto sectors from the South Korean side, the researcher forecast.

According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) data, South Korea's auto exports to the United States reached 15.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, about nine times bigger than 1.68 billion dollars of the U.S. car exports to South Korea.

Citing the local auto industry, the Korea Economic Daily newspaper said the nine-fold gap was mainly attributable to lack of competitiveness of U.S. models compared with German and Japanese cars that surged in sales in recent years.

For the past five years since the U.S.-South Korea FTA took effect in 2012, South Korea's car exports to the U.S. rose at an annual average rate of 12.4 percent, much lower than 35.5 percent of growth in the U.S. auto exports to South Korea.

The newspaper said the U.S. deficit in steel trade with South Korea stemmed mainly from global supply glut, noting that the U.S. side has already imposed anti-dumping and counter-vailing duties on South Korean steelmakers.

In the upcoming negotiations, South Korea would be able to make a give-and-take deal with the United States given that South Korea had posted a lot of deficit with the United States in the services trade.

South Korea's services deficit with the United States worsened from 10.9 billion dollars in 2011 to 14.3 billion dollars in 2016.

During the same period, South Korea's overall trade surplus with the United States increased from 13.3 billion dollars to 27.7 billion dollars.
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The U.S. Department of Defense said on Friday the leader of the Islamic States (IS) group in Afghanistan Abu Sayed was killed by U.S. forces in a raid earlier this week.

The airstrike, which occurred on July 11 on the IS headquarters in Kunar province, also killed other extremist members, said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White in a statement.

The strike was believed to "significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan," according to the statement.

Sayed was the third IS leader in Afghanistan that has been killed by Afghan and U.S. forces in the past 12 months. His predecessors were dead in late July 2016 and late April this year respectively.
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Michal Ludwikowski, member of the Polish People's Party Supreme Council and general director of Polish Economic Congress Foundation.

The Belt and Road Initiative is winning increasing plaudits from political parties in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as concrete projects have already offered visible benefits to the region, according to delegates attending the 2017 China-CEE Countries Political Parties Dialogue ending yesterday in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

This is especially true after four years of development of the Initiative since it was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. Many countries have begun to shift from looking-on to full participation as they get to know more about the Initiative and discover how it can be tailored or exploited to meet their own needs.

"There are few things all political parties in Poland agree on, but the Belt and Road Initiative is certainly one are looking forward to," said Michal Ludwikowski, member of the Polish People's Party Supreme Council and general director of Polish Economic Congress Foundation.

Ludwikowski said his party, the oldest in Poland, is an active participation. Together with Chinese partners, Poland has established a Joint Committee for Advancement of the Belt and Road with offices in Warsaw and Beijing. Its flagship project is to establishment of an accounting currency for international trade and settlement purposes, especially between countries involved in the Initiative.
Workers operate at a steel plant in Dalian, Liaoning province. [Photo/China Daily]

First-half financial performance strong on back of supply-side reform

China's ferrous metal industry is set to post a strong performance in the first half of the year on the back of government measures to cut overcapacity and optimize the industry's structure, experts said.

"With the reduction of excess capacity, there is a tight supply of iron and steel, leading to high prices, especially wires and rebars," said Wang Guoqing, research director at the Lange Steel Information Research Center in Beijing.

The government's thrust on supply-side reforms has produced positives, Wang said.

Around 20 listed firms in the iron and steel sector have forecast their earnings for the January-June period.

HBIS Co Ltd said its first-half profit will likely be between 1.15 billion yuan ($148 million) and 1.27 billion yuan, up 181-210 percent year-on-year.

If its forecast holds, that would be the third highest growth rate in the 20 years since the company listed on the A-share market.

Similarly, Fujian Sansteel Minguang Co Ltd said it expects its first-half profit to rise 200 percent year-on-year to 1.08 billion yuan.

"The main reason (for the good performance) is the government's efforts to eliminate outdated capacity, especially inferior steel," said Li Xinchuang, president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.

By June 30, China had shut all companies that produce inferior steel. More than 500 such companies whose combined capacity was 119 million metric tons were shut, according to a statement from the China Iron and Steel Association.

On Thursday, the Lange Steel Composite Steel Price Index reached 144.9, up 7.4 percent from the beginning of the year.

The Long Steel Products Price Index was at 159.8, up almost 19 percent from early January. The Flat Steel Products Price Index, however, was down almost 3 percent at 131.9.

Long steel products include rebars and wires, and flat plate steel products are hot-rolled steel plates, cool-rolled plates and medium plates.

The rebar price is 3, 928 yuan per ton, up by 676 yuan from the beginning of the year.

"Although data show that the total steel output has increased in the January-June period, the demand has shifted from informal products such as inferior steel to qualified steel made by major steel companies. That means, the supply is not adequate to meet the current demand," said Wang.

At the same time, iron ore prices are comparatively low thanks to rising output, oversupply, and high port inventories, Wang said. "Low material prices help keep steel production costs at relatively low levels."

China imported 539 million tons of iron ore in the first half, up 9.3 percent year-on-year, while the country's iron ore production was 508 million tons in the first five months, up 10.4 percent, according to data from the Lange Steel Cloud Platform. Low costs and high prices are expected to boost companies' profits.

Li said rising infrastructure investment, automobile production and machinery manufacturing in the first half of the year will also likely expand steel consumption.

Total profit of major iron and steel companies was 37.9 billion yuan in the first five months of this year, exceeding full-year combined profit of 33.15 billion yuan in 2016, according to the China Iron and Steel Industry Association.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the January-May operating income of the ferrous metal smelting and rolling process industry was 3.02 trillion yuan that generated a profit of 105.3 billion yuan, up 93.5 percent year-on-year.

Gan Yong, president of the Chinese Society for Metals, however, said overcapacity reduction should be continued with the same level of determination in spite of the current profits. "Once the companies increase their output production, prices will decline immediately."
Tourists pose in a lavender plantation at Huocheng county, based in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on June 17, 2017. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd is optimistic about the world's second biggest economy and it plans to bet more on consumer-related sectors in China, two of its leading executives said.

Wu Yibing, joint China head, said Temasek is targeting sectors such as healthcare, tourism, and education that will benefit from the rise of the Chinese middle class and the rebalance of the economy toward a consumption and service-driven one.

"Overall, we are cautiously optimistic about the Chinese economy and we believe the country is capable of achieving a successful economic rebalance," Wu said.

The firm is comfortable about seeing slower but more sustainable growth in China, which will allow greater room for the government to push through necessary reforms including cutting excess industrial capacity, reducing leverage and curbing systemic financial risks, Wu added.

China remained the biggest country by portfolio exposure for Temasek's investments outside Singapore for its financial year to end-March, accounting for 25 percent of its net portfolio.

Temasek, posting its full year results earlier this week, reported a 13 percent shareholder return, while the value of its portfolio reaching a record S$275 billion ($197 billion). Longer term 10 year and 20 year returns on its assets were 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

For the first time since 2009, the firm reported that it was in a net divestment position, investing S$16 billion but divesting S$18 billion of its portfolio. Temasek said the change underscored its concern about high market valuations globally and possible credit tightening in the US and Europe.

The firm sold part of its holding in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and State-owned China Construction Bank Ltd, while investing in Chinese online travel site Ctrip.com International Ltd and genomics information company Wuxi Nextcode Genomics Inc.

Wu Hai, a managing director for China, said the firm was encouraged by the reform in the Chinese medical and healthcare sectors, which would boost innovation and generate more investment opportunities for Temasek.

The Singaporean firm also invested in Chinese express delivery company ZTO Express last year and retained its holding in JD.com Inc, the domestic rival of Alibaba.

The firm said its portfolio mix in China is in line with an adjustment in its global investment theme, with more focus being placed on new areas such technology, agriculture, life sciences, healthcare, non-bank financial services, energy and resources.
Traders work at the Coty Inc booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. [Photo/Agencies]

The thriving Chinese middle class and its huge spending power keep attracting more foreign brands to open stores here, but unlike the traditional method of entering a new market, many brands opt for establishing their presence on the giant Tmall, a B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba and regarded as the dominant force in China's e-commerce world.

One of the latest to join the trend is New York-based Coty Inc; its philosophy brand enters the Chinese market on Saturday, with its initial presence on the Tmall site.

Camillo Pane, CEO of Coty Inc, said the company is launching its US skincare brand on Tmall because officials believe this is now the best way to reach young Chinese consumers.

"It is just the beginning," Pane said, adding that company officials have plans for introducing other Coty brands onto the Tmall storefront.

"It's no doubt that we are going to strengthen our capability in e-commerce; this is our current focus," said the CEO.

He noted that the digital channel is especially helpful in enabling companies to reach their consumers in smaller cities, which contribute most of the growth.

Qi Xiaozhai, director of the Shanghai Commercial Economic Research Center, noted that "many brands in China take their products online first, which, in my opinion, is a safer choice especially in consideration of the much higher cost of going to brick-and-mortar store."

"Brands can learn the actual market demand, consumers' preferences in a specific market, and make follow-up expansion plans accordingly. From the perspective of consumers, they also need time to know and accept a new brand. So the online platform is an ideal venue for their meeting," Qi said.

The popularity of smartphones has enabled 70 percent of Chinese consumers to choose buying beauty and personal care products online instead of physical stores for convenience and lower prices, and 37 percent of people polled said they will go online for homework before making a purchase, according to a report from Mintel Group Ltd.
Editor's Note: China's top policymakers will gather this weekend at the Central Financial Work Conference in Beijing to discuss and formulate policies for the country's financial sector. The meeting, which is held once in five years, will set the tone for the country's financial policies and reform in coming years with a focus on strengthening coordination among various regulators and preventing systemic financial risks. This curtain raiser presents insights and views of regulators from the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

Insurers urged to take precautions against risks

Chen Wenhui, vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said China's insurance industry is facing a number of risks, including liquidity pressure and reputation management. He urged insurers to take precautions against such risks.

Chen Wenhui, vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"Most traditional large and medium-sized insurance companies keep risks under control, while for some radical firms, hidden risks loom large as they experienced surprisingly fast business expansion in recent years," Chen told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"The asset size of China's insurance industry exceeds 16 trillion yuan ($2.4 trillion). However, the industry's liquidity risk is mainly caused by a few companies," Chen said, suggesting that those companies should slim down by chopping off non-core businesses to ease liquidity pressure in the short term.

The CIRC has made targeted risk warning, supervision and disposition plans for the industry, according to Chen.

The insurance regulator will continue to guide insurers to focus on core businesses. Insurance funds will be guided to serve national strategies and infrastructure, Chen said.

The regulator will also strengthen the sector's role in supporting the real economy, Chen added.

Risks in China's banking sector controllable

The deputy head of China's banking regulator said risks in the sector are generally controllable despite lingering uncertainties. Wang Zhaoxing, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said the commission has made headway in the prevention and control of risk.

Wang Zhaoxing, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"More energy has been channeled into dissolving non-performing loans ... and violations in financial markets have been contained, with competition more rational and business operation more normal," Wang said, adding that illegal fund raising cases have dropped substantially.

Bad loans have remained at a low level in China. The NPL ratio of Chinese banks stood at 1.86 percent by the end of May, with stable liquidity and abundant capital and provision.

"Banks' profitability and risk resistance are good compared with global peers, and the international influence is also on the rise," Wang said.

Wang's remarks came amid the country's ongoing campaign to rein in financial risks and deleverage as a firm economy provides more leeway to such measures, which partly aim to cushion the impact of US rate hikes.

Banks and other financial institutions have been subject to stricter supervision, and action has been taken against irregularities, such as shadow banking.

Wang noted that the situation remains grim and told the commission that "not a single risk will be neglected and not a single hazard will be let go."

He warned of more defaults from debt-ridden companies, increasing cross-market and cross-industry financial activities, and sharper fluctuations.

CSRC pledges stronger market supervision

China will strengthen oversight on the securities market to keep it fair, open and impartial, Jiang Yang, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in response to questions about priorities in the next phase of the CSRC's work.

Jiang Yang, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"The regulator will continue to crack down on violations of securities laws and regulations, including insider trading and market manipulation," Jiang said.

So far this year, the CSRC has imposed administrative penalties on 113 cases and slapped total fines of 6.4 billion yuan, which is 1.5 times last year's total.

Meanwhile, the CSRC has prohibited 30 people from entering the market, almost equivalent to the total number in 2016, Jiang said.

China will advance reforms to make the capital market better serve the real economy. And the capital market will open wider to foreign investors in a steady way and domestic brokerages will expand business overseas, Jiang said.
BEIJING - China hopes that Germany and the European Union (EU) are free from the distraction of protectionism, and avoid releasing confused and negative signals, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Friday.

Germany Wednesday tightened investment rules to protect strategically important industries from non-EU foreign bidders. According to reports, Germany, along with France and Italy, will call for a similar European mechanism. These movements reflected concerns that Chinese companies could obtain German technological know-how through takeovers, according to reports.

China is aware of the trends in Germany and the EU, Geng said at a daily press briefing, reiterating that the nature of economic and trade cooperation between China and other countries including Germany is to achieve mutual benefit.

It is obvious that economic and trade cooperation between China and Europe has been productive and has benefited the companies and peoples of both sides, Geng said.

Under the current situation, China is willing to facilitate free trade and investment with Germany and the EU, said Geng, identifying that efforts should be made on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and in line with the principle of mutual benefit and common development.
The number of pregnant women older than 35 in China is expected to exceed 3 million each year between 2017 and 2020, an increase of 30 percent compared with the average level in the past several years, a senior health official said.

The increase, a result of the universal second-child policy adopted at the beginning of last year, will impose great challenges on the country's health system, Ma Xiaowei, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in Beijing on Thursday at a video conference on ensuring maternal safety.

"For the present and a certain period in the future, ensuring the safety of mother and baby is a heavy task that deserves no optimism," Ma said, calling for efforts to improve distribution of obstetrics and pediatrics resources.

"Surveys show many couples born in the 1970s, who were hesitant about having a second child during the initial period when the universal second-child policy was adopted, are now hurrying and preparing to give birth to a second child so they will not miss that last chance."

Although the commission did not disclose the number of pregnant woman over 35 for last year, the number of births at hospitals last year in China was 18.46 million, an increase of 11.5 percent compared with 2015.

The number of births at hospitals between January and May reached 7.4 million, a rise of 7.8 percent compared with the same period last year, he said.

Ma urged health authorities at various levels to give priority to maternal safety and intensify measures to ensure the safety of mothers and babies, such as thoroughly conducting risk evaluations for the pregnant to eliminate risks and improving their capacities for treatment and rescue of mothers and babies in critical condition.

Hospitals across China will add 89,000 obstetrics beds by 2020 to meet increasing demands, and the commission will cooperate with other departments to provide training to produce 140,000 additional obstetricians and midwives over the next few years, the commission said earlier.

China adopted the universal second-child policy last year, allowing all couples in China to have a second child. Of all the 90 million women made eligible to have a second baby in China with the new policy, 60 percent are older than 35, according to commission figures.

Pregnant women of that age group are regarded to be more likely to suffer pregnancy-related diseases or complications and give birth to children with defects, according to the commission.

Qin Geng, chief of women's and children's health at the commission, said at the conference on Thursday that since the adoption of the second-child policy, the demand for giving birth by many Chinese couples, which had been suppressed for many years, has been realized during a relatively short period of time.

But despite the surge in pregnancies and births, the mortality rate of pregnant women in China has not seen a significant increase and remained at 15.8 for every 100,000 in the first half of the year, due to various efforts to improve maternal services, he said.

Gu Hong, a pediatrician at Anzhen Hospital in Beijing, said the number of pregnant women over 35 received by the hospital has continued to increase since last year, posing great challenges for the doctors there.
The situation developing in Russia with the possible shipment of Siemens-manufactured turbines to Crimea bypassing the sanctions regime existing between the European Union and Russia is detrimental to foreign investors' confidence in Russian partners, a European diplomatic source in Moscow has told Interfax.

"Such actions on the part of Russian partners seriously undermine confidence in economic relations while securing and implementing contracts, which sends a negative signal to foreign investors," the source said.

As reported, Siemens turbines were shipped for the construction of a power plant in Taman. Commissioner, Technopromexport, then put this equipment for sale, but unsuccessfully. Sources said following it that two turbines had been shipped to Crimea.

Russian power plant builder Technopromexport (TPE), which is building the plants in Crimea, issued a statement on July 6 saying that it had acquired four gas turbine sets for the Crimean power plants on the secondary market. TPE said it modernized the turbines at Russian plants with the help of Russian engineering companies. The project initially factored in certain technical solutions, and the acquired turbines had to be brought in line with the initial conditions and requirements of the project.

On July 11, Siemens filed a lawsuit against TPE with Moscow's Arbitration Court.
Residents outside the high court hold placards and shout slogans on Friday to support the disqualification of four lawmakers who did not follow the requirements when they took their oaths to serve on the Legislative Council in October last year. [Photo by ROY LIU/CHINA DAILY]

Hong Kong's High Court has thrown out four lawmakers of the Legislative Council for violating the legal requirements of oath-taking when being sworn in.

They are the second group of legislators to be disqualified for not taking the oath properly, after two separatist lawmakers were ousted in November.

In a written judgment handed down on Friday, Court of First Instance Judge Thomas Au Hing-cheung said the oaths by the four lawmakersLeung Kwok-hung, Edward Yiu Chung-yim, Lau Siu-lai and Nathan Law Kwun-chungdidn't follow the strict wording and solemnity as required by law. Therefore, the court ordered the four to be disqualified with immediate effect. Their Legislative Council membership was deemed invalid from Oct 12, 2016.

The four lawmakers were found to have deviated from the statutory wording of the oath, which amounted to an unlawful swearing-in, according to the National People's Congress Standing Committee's interpretation of the Basic Law, the city's constitutional document.

The court was told that during the solemn swearing-in, Leung was chanting political slogans and Yiu added words to his oath.

Lau read her oath with a six-second interval between each Chinese character deliberately, as she admitted, to profane the oath.

Law changed his tone when pledging allegiance to China to make it sound like a question.

The judicial review to challenge the eligibility of the four was moved by Leung Chun-ying, the former chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung in December.

In November, two lawmakers were disqualified after they advocated independence and insulted the nation during their swearing-in in October.

Outside the courtroom on Friday, a group of Hong Kong people applauded the court's decision.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she respects the judgment. She said the basis of a healthy executive-legislative relation is the rule of law.

Legislative Council President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen said the council's Secretariat will send a letter to each of the disqualified lawmakers to inform them to move out of their offices in two weeks. The Legislative Council Commission will discuss later how much salary and remuneration the lawmakers should pay back.

He said previous Legislative Council voting results will not be affected.

The disqualification of the four lawmakers will also temporarily give the pro-establishment camp an upper hand in Hong Kong's legislature. That means that before a by-election, the opposition won't have enough seats to veto motions or bills proposed by the government, even if they vote en bloc. It may help the pro-establishment camp to put an end to the long-standing stalling tactic, known as filibustering, that is frequently used by the "pan-democratic" camp.

The Legislative Council will have its summer recess from the end of July to early October. A by-election is expected in several months.

The city's legal professionals supported the court's decision. Barrister and legislator Priscilla Leung Mei-fun said the judgment "gave back the dignity" to the Legislative Council and clarified the requirement laid down in the "one country, two systems" principle and the Basic Law.
A mass-produced CH-5 reconnaissance/combat drone takes off for a test flight at an airport in Hebei province on Friday. [Photo by WANG JING/CHINA DAILY]

China is ready to mass-produce the CH-5 reconnaissance/combat drone, the nation's latest offering to the international military drone market.

The first mass-production CH-5 made its debut flight, in which it was airborne for more than 20 minutes, at an airport in Hebei province on Friday afternoon.

Ou Zhongming, project manager of the Caihong, or Rainbow, series of drones at the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics in Beijing, said after the test that several nations, including current users of other CH models and new clients, are in talks with the academy on procurement of the CH-5, which is believed to be one of the best unmanned military aircraft in the world.

"Today's flight means the CH-5's design has been finalized and we are ready to mass-produce it," he said, refusing to name potential buyers.

The China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics is the country's largest military drone exporter by the number of products sold overseas. Its CH-series drones have been sold to militaries in more than 10 countries, making it the largest drone family the country has exported, according to statistics from the academy.

Shi Wen, chief designer of the CH series, said the CH-5 outperforms all of its Chinese-made counterparts when it comes to operational endurance and payload capacity. The plane is as good as the US-made General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, a hunter-killer drone often deemed by Western analysts as the best of its kind, he added.

The prototype CH-5 was first flown in August 2015. The drone is made of composite materials and has a wingspan of 21 meters. Twice as big as its predecessors in the CH family, the drone can stay in the air for 60 hours, almost three times that of other Chinese models. Its maximum operational range is designed at 10,000 kilometers, according to Shi.

The drone's 1-metric-ton payload capacity enables it to bring as many as 24 missiles on a single mission, strong enough to take out a convoy of armored vehicles.

The unmanned aircraft is also able to carry an airborne early warning system to act as a platform for regional surveillance and battlefield command and control. It also can carry electronic warfare instruments to collect electronic intelligence and to jam enemy communications or radar.

Moreover, the CH-5 can detect underwater targets such as submarines when mounted with certain devices, Shi said.

The CH-5 can also use high-resolution cameras, radar and radio transmitters to serve a wide range of civilian and public sectors.
A "canteen" for wildlife in Southwest China's Yunnan province will be expanded to reduce friction between villagers and wild elephants that eat crops due to a food shortage.

The "canteen", named Lianhuatang, was set up in 2008 in Mengyang, part of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in southern Yunnan. It will be expanded to 67 hectares, or double its current size, according to the Lianhuatang National Nature Reserve Administration.

In the past two months, 12 cameras have taken more than 12,000 pictures and nearly 1,300 videos showing that wild Asian elephants, sambar deer and boars have come for meals at the "canteen".

"Our surveillance shows that the 'canteen' is welcomed by the elephants. After we provided the food source, elephants paid many fewer visits to farmland, and their conflicts with farmers have been eased in recent years," said Guo Xianming, deputy director of the natural reserve's research institute.

Statistics from the administration show that China has fewer than 300 wild Asian elephants, a nationally protected species, all of which live in the Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture. Their population is now less than that of giant pandas.

An adult Asian elephant usually weighs between 3 and 5 tons and consumes 150 to 200 kilograms of food each day, according to Guo.

According to the Xishuangbanna forestry bureau, 153,000 cases involving conflicts between wild animals and local people were recorded from 1991 to 2010. Most involved wild elephants. A total of 33 people died and 165 were injured in the conflicts, resulting in a financial loss of 270 million yuan ($39.8 million).

In July 2013, a couple in Wanjiaoshan village in Xishuangbanna were attacked by a group of wild elephants, and the wife was killed.

Wang Hongbin, a villager in Mengban town of Xishuangbanna, said some farmers used to broadcast loud music to drive the elephants away. "It worked in the beginning, but soon became nonthreatening to the elephants. And our sound equipment was all stomped on by them," he said.

A lack of food is the root of the problem. According to Guo, the amount of the elephants' favorite foodplume grasshas dropped because of the expansion of some invasive plants.
A mainland spokesman said on Friday that repeated, arbitrary attacks on the mainland by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and its leaders constitute dangerous behavior.

Taiwan authorities and the DPP have made reckless remarks on the mainland's political system following Liu Xiaobo's death from illness, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.

Ma said that Liu was convicted of violating Chinese law. Following his diagnosis of liver cancer, relevant departments and medical institutions of China made all-out efforts to treat him humanely in accordance with the law.

Ma said that the DPP and its leader had lifted the deceptive veil of "maintaining the current situation", attacked the mainland repeatedly and also aggravated cross-Straits conflicts, attempting to pull cross-Straits relations back to turbulence.

"Such behavior is very dangerous," Ma said. Only people on the mainland have the right to judge the mainland's political, economic and social development, he said.

Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail in December 2009 for inciting subversion of State power. He was released on medical parole after a diagnosis of liver cancer and died of multiple organ failure due to the cancer on Thursday at age 61.

The hospital where Liu received medical treatment did its best to save his life, his main doctor, Liu Yunpeng, said on Thursday night.

"Since the day Liu Xiaobo was admitted, the hospital made every effort in his treatment," said the doctor, who is with the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

Well-known experts from China as well as Germany and the United States were also invited for joint consultations, said Liu Yunpeng, also director of the medical oncology department at the hospital. Doctors with the hospital held 25 consultations, had five joint diagnoses with Chinese experts from outside, and briefed Liu Xiaobo's family on his illness 23 times, Liu Yunpeng said.

Professor Markus Buechler of the University of Heidelberg in Germany and Professor Joseph Herman of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the United States were also invited to the hospital for joint consultations.

Asked why the patient was not transferred overseas for treatment, Liu Yunpeng said the patient was in critical condition, which did not allow him to be moved.

"The situation was very dangerous. He might have been in need of surgery at any time," the doctor said.

"US and German experts spoke highly of the hospital's work, believing the patient had received quality treatment. They held that hospitals in their own countries could not have done a better job," he said. He also said Liu Xiaobo's type of liver cancer was very hard to diagnose at an early stage and it developed very quickly.

During his last hours, Liu Xiaobo was accompanied by his wife, Liu Xia, and several relatives, according to the hospital.

The arrangements for Liu Xiaobo's funeral will respect the wishes of his family and local customs, with relevant authorities providing assistance if the family requests, China News Service reported on Friday.

The authorities will protect Liu Xia's legitimate rights and interests as a Chinese citizen, the report said.
BEIJING -- China's meteorological authority on Saturday issued a blue alert, the lowest level in a four-tier warning system, for heavy rain in some eastern and southern regions.

From Saturday to Sunday, heavy rain is expected in a vast part between the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, as well as parts of Hainan and Guangdong provinces, the National Meteorological Center said.

Provinces of Anhui, Shandong, Jiangsu and Hainan may see torrential rain of up to 140 mm in 24 hours.

The center cautioned that local governments should take measures against storms, cut off outdoor power supplies in dangerous regions and prevent potential disasters, including mountain floods and landslides.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system for heavy rain, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Japan should "get used to" the Chinese military's legal passage through the Miyako Strait, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Six Chinese bombers flew through the strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa islands on Thursday, according to Japan's Ministry of Defense. However, the Chinese planes did not violate Japan's airspace, it added.

The Chinese military planes were conducting a routine exercise and passed through the strait legally, said Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for China's Defense Ministry.
China is on track to meet its target to cut coal production capacity this year - and would likely top the goal - with further reductions expected in the second half, according to a leading expert on the sector.

"By the end of April, China had cut its coal capacity by 68.97 million metric tons, meeting 46 percent of this year's target," said Wu Lixin, deputy director of the strategic planning research department at the China Coal Research Institute.

Speaking at a workshop hosted by the institute on coal industry reform in Beijing on Wednesday, Wu said that cutting overcapacity remained one of the core issues for the industry, as well as the increasing debt of coal enterprises, high tax and transportation costs, and the lack of a scientific management system to analyze and synthesize workflows to improve economic efficiency.
Editor's Note: China's top policymakers will gather this weekend at the Central Financial Work Conference in Beijing to discuss and formulate policies for the country's financial sector. The meeting, which is held once in five years, will set the tone for the country's financial policies and reform in coming years with a focus on strengthening coordination among various regulators and preventing systemic financial risks. This curtain raiser presents insights and views of regulators from the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

Insurers urged to take precautions against risks

Chen Wenhui, vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said China's insurance industry is facing a number of risks, including liquidity pressure and reputation management. He urged insurers to take precautions against such risks.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The United States' top diplomat concluded a week of shuttle diplomacy in the Persian Gulf crisis on Thursday, bearing no promise of a breakthrough but voicing optimism that Qatar and its four Arab neighbors might soon at least be willing to talk face to face.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Qatar for a second time for a lunch meeting with 37-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, following talks earlier in the week in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. As he flew back to Washington, Tillerson told reporters that the discussions had been "helpful" and that the US planned to keep at it.

"In my view, there's a changed sense of willingness to at least be open to talking to one another, and that was not the case before I came," Tillerson said.
Artists from China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region dance in Alexandria, Egypt on July 10.[Photo/Xinhua]

Performances strike a chord with excited crowds in Alexandria

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which represented China as the guest of honor at the 15th International Summer Festival held from July 10 to August 26 at Egypt's seaside historical city of Alexandria, thrilled viewers with its performances on Monday.

The shows by different ethnic groups from Xinjiang, with their colorful traditional outfits and music impressed the viewers at the Bibliotheca Alexandria, one of the largest venues for cultural and artistic activities in the Middle East.

"The shows were really beautiful. It is the first time that I am seeing such beautiful performances. We hope more such activities are held in Egypt," says Amal Ali, an employee in her early 50s.

The performances included Uygur, Tajik, Kirgiz, Kazak, Mongolian and Han group dances, in a style referred to as "DanSinging in the Air" for combining both dancing and singing, in addition to male and female solo singing.

Besides the group dancing and singing, the acrobatic performances were also appreciated.

Speaking about the performances, Ashraqat Hamdy, a junior college student at Alexandria University says: "I really enjoyed the shows. Such events bring the peoples of Egypt and China closer and will encourage Egyptians to start learning Chinese and make Chinese friends."
Contract with Thailand for supply of Oplot tanks will be executed in full

Ukraine will fully execute the contract signed in 2011 for the supply to Thailand of new Oplot-T tracked armored vehicles manufactured at Malyshev Plant (Kharkiv), Ukroboronprom state concern has stated.

"It [the contract] will be executed in accordance with all the agreements provided. The executor of this order and the manufacturer of Oplot tanks is Malyshev plant, which is part of the concern," a press release from the state concern reads.

Ukroboronprom Director General Roman Romanov stated the state concern also has enough production capacity to fulfill the order for the deliveries of Oplot armored vehicles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Ukroboronprom is able to produce the best Oplot tanks for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the mass production of these vehicles is well established," he said.
Japan should 'get used to' Chinese military in strait 2017-07-15 06:37:02 China Daily ZHANG ZHIHAO Japan should "get used to" the Chinese military's legal passage through the Miyako Strait, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Japan should "get used to" the Chinese military's legal passage through the Miyako Strait, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Six Chinese bombers flew through the strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa islands on Thursday, according to Japan's Ministry of Defense. However, the Chinese planes did not violate Japan's airspace, it added.

The Chinese military planes were conducting a routine exercise and passed through the strait legally, said Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for China's Defense Ministry.

The Chinese military will organize similar exercises far out at sea according to the regional situation and mission needs in the future, he added. Such activities should cause neither alarm nor too much speculation, and relevant parties should "get used to it," said Ren.

Japan's constant hyping of Chinese military activities is to fan the so-called Chinese threat and pave the way to amend its Constitution to legitimize its self-defense forces, experts said.

Miyako Strait is a strategic entryway into the western Pacific that has been regularly used by the Chinese military for drills far out at sea.

In April, Chinese naval ships passed through the strait for such a regular drill. In early March, Japan scrambled fighter jets after a total of 13 Chinese naval aircraft were spotted flying through the strait.

China's Air Force first flew over the strait in May 2015, but naval fleets have been transiting through the strait since 2009.

Lyu Yaodong, a researcher of Japanese foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Japan often prided itself as the powerhouse in Asia in the 20th century, but this status has been challenged by China's rise.

"As a result, Japan will try everything to contain China's geopolitical influence, from the East China Sea to the South China Sea," he said. "Japan paints China's growing military strength as a looming threat so that its government can amend the constitution and legitimize its self-defense forces."

Major General Zhu Chenghu, a professor at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University, said Japan and the United States often use the so-called Chinese threat to justify their military presence in the region.

"The Miyako Strait is an international waterway and any military can pass through it legally," he said. "It is unfair to scrutinize the Chinese military for its passage. The Chinese military should pass it more often, so it will become normal and nobody will fuss over it anymore."
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at a news conference in the National Library in Riga, Latvia, Nov 5, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is currently embarked on an epic Eurasia grand tour encompassing many of the countries along Chinas One Belt, One Road (OBOR) Initiative, particularly those on the New Silk Road Economic Belt. Premier Li just attended the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Government in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and is making a historic visit to Riga, Latvia, for the Fifth Summit of China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The geopolitical significance of Premier Lis trip cannot be overstated. The two visits, plus bilateral stopovers in Kazakhstan and Russia, are not disconnected  they herald the Chinese leaderships unveiling of a new Eurasia economic vision and strategy to be implemented in large measure through the OBOR Initiative.

Moving away from its traditional role as solely a regional security forum, the SCO meeting in Bishkek focused on an ambitious, far-reaching economic agenda. Premier Li set forth a six-pronged proposal and the SCO membership issued a joint communique highlighting the agendas main points.

China and other SCO members stressed the importance of increased inter-connectivity between their economies. A joint taskforce is to be set up to address streamlined customs and harmonized border control, inspection, quarantine as well as certification and accreditation. The members also adopted the List of Events comprising 38 measures, which will guide SCO practical cooperation (2017-2021) in seven areas ranging from trade and investment to customs and agriculture. Premier Li particularly stressed the need for international production capacity cooperation, which will accelerate industrialization of other SCO countries and serve as a pathway towards regional economic integration.

At the same time, the members will make use of the SCO Environmental Information Sharing Platform to promote best ecological practices, environmental technology innovation and clean energy development. China also advocated for the establishment of a SCO e-commerce alliance to advance trade facilitation, customs clearance, cross-border e-commerce and logistics capabilities. On the crucial and sometimes contentious issue of SCO regional infrastructure finance, Premier Li emphasized the need to establish the SCO Development Bank, while also relying on other investment and financing platforms, including the SCO Inter-Bank Consortium, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Silk Road Fund, China-Eurasia Economic Cooperation Fund and the BRICS New Development Bank.

In light of a recent accord between China and Russia, the SCO membership is now seeking to enhance synergies between Chinas One Belt and One Road (OBOR) Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian initiative. A major feature of such cooperation, discussed at the Bishkek meeting, is the eventual creation of a SCO Free Trade Area, with FTA feasibility studies soon commencing. This would be a major development which would place the SCO on similar footing to that of EEU and could be the basis of a fully-fledged future Eurasian Mega-regional. It also underlines the commitment of SCO membership, including Russia, to link their national development strategies to greater regional economic integration via Chinas OBOR.

At the CEE or 16+1 Summit in Riga, Latvia, we can expect further deepening European economic cooperation with China in regards to production capacity, transport, infrastructure and finance. From Chinas perspective, the CEE countries play a pivotal role in OBOR, which includes several transport corridors linking China with Europe. Three proposed corridors to Western Europe pass through the CEE region - from Greek ports via Southern Europe and the Balkans, via Poland, and via the Baltic States.

China-CEE relations are already well developed, and actually have a long history dating back to the Soviet era. The Fifth CEE Summit is founded on substantial progress made since 2012, including the Suzhou Guidelines (for 2016), the Medium-Term Agenda for Cooperation between China and CEE Countries (2016-2020) and the Belgrade Guidelines (2014). Infrastructure construction and the expansion of transport links have understandably been featured prominently, including the development of roads, railways, ports, telecommunications and pipelines. The Suzhou Guidelines also include a customs facilitation agreement for goods in transit and means of transport.

At the 16+1 Summit, we can expect renewed emphasis on the three-sea harbor district cooperation initiative. This initiative, proposed by Premier Li, refers to cooperation programs covering the Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Baltic Sea. Latvias port of Riga, in particular, is seen as a vitally important harbor link to the Baltic Sea and Latvia is considered a key transit point for China-EU trade. Latvia plans to create a transportation network involving China, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and set up a 16+1 Secretariat for transport and logistics. The small Baltic State will also sign a MoU with China concerning its participation in OBOR during the CEE Summit. The MoU covers a range of sectors including transport, logistics, infrastructure, trade, finance, technology and culture.

Premier Li has made it clear that China-CEE relations are intended to be conducive to a renewed, balanced development of Europe and its integration, notwithstanding Brexit, and are situated within the larger context of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

The author is a Director of the Centre for International Economic Law, Trade & Development (CIELTD).
President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at Peru's congress.[Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping arrived in Lima, Peru, this past weekend, for the 24th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. His presence at the APEC 2016 Peru Summit marks a watershed, a historic milestone not just in terms of China's rise as a great power, but, of equal importance, as a palpable manifestation of its new status as Asia Pacific's preeminent leader in promoting globalization, trade liberalization, and regional economic integration.

The foremost topic on the APEC 2016 Peru Summit agenda was Asia Pacific regional economic integration through the creation of a new trading bloc: the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific (FTAAP). The historic nature of the Peru Summit stems from the confluence of two major events: US President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign pronouncements that the cornerstone of America's pivot to Asia, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), is unworthy of support and should be scrapped and, by stark contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping's steadfast adherence to globalization, opposition to protectionism, and his proposal that Asia Pacific should move to the next level by adopting a larger model for Asia Pacific economic integration, namely, FTAAP.

In advance of the APEC Summit, China spearheaded a seminal FTAAP feasibility study, the Collective Strategic Study on Issues Related to the Realization of the FTAAP. The Collective Strategic Study was first authorized during the APEC Beijing Summit in 2014 at China's insistence - also known as the Beijing Roadmap. The Study formed the basis for APEC's ringing endorsement of FTAAP implementation at the Peru Summit over the weekend, in particular, the 2016 Leaders' Declaration and, even more definitively, the Lima Declaration on FTAAP (Annex A. to the Declaration.)

In the Lima FTAAP Declaration, the APEC leadership formally recognized FTAAP as a major instrument to realize APEC's goals of Asia Pacific regional economic integration. They also made clear that FTAAP would encompass all 21 APEC economies, including China, the United States, and Russia. Notwithstanding the considerable uncertainty surrounding TPP, APEC continues to maintain that there are essentially two "pathways to FTAAP"  TPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the latter being strongly supported by China.

The APEC leadership further announced that all APEC economies should immediately begin a stock-take on how regional trade and investment issues, including RTAs and FTAs as well as differential levels of economic development amongst APEC Members, should be tackled within the FTAAP framework. APEC is also likely to embark on concrete work programs to actualize FTAAP. Such work programs will include: i) improved market access and reciprocal tariff reductions; ii) elimination of NTMs (non-tariff measures); iii) liberalization of trade in services; iv) investment convergence and liberalization; and v) harmonized preferential rules of origin (ROOs).

Although TPP is mentioned as a FTAAP "pathway" in the Lima FTAAP Declaration, its future is in serious doubt in light of Trump's anti-trade campaign rhetoric. At present, the more viable "pathway" to achieve FTAAP is through RCEP, which has been championed by China and is characterized by so-called ASEAN Centrality (RCEP is also known as ASEAN +6). It is worth observing that, at present, seven of the 12 TPP countries are also RCEP participants - Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand. Moreover, 12 of the 16 RCEP countries are APEC members. These overlapping memberships make it easier for RCEP to become the primary "pathway" for the formation of FTAAP.

There have been reports circulating in Lima that certain TPP countries, which are also RCEP members, such as Australia, Japan, and Malaysia, may now be seriously considering focusing more vigorously on RCEP, rather than TPP. This renewed emphasis on RCEP - especially by such influential, trade-savvy TPP countries - could result in a much higher quality agreement, which in turn, would make RCEP more attractive as the APEC-preferred vehicle to achieve FTAAP. Such further refinements would also presumably open RCEP to a larger membership in the future, including APEC countries from Latin America.

At present, however, RCEP constitutes a more modest, significantly less ambitious RTA when compared to TPP. The current RCEP negotiations, of which there have been 15 rounds to date, cover, among others, trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical co-operation, intellectual property, competition, e-commerce, and dispute settlement. There has been a strong emphasis placed on market access and tariff concessions to facilitate global supply chains, rather than on non-tariff barriers. Unlike TPP, the RCEP does not include provisions on environmental, labor, and food safety standards, has less coverage of cyber/internet issues, and does not address the treatment of state-owned enterprises. Nonetheless, through more active intervention by concurrent TPP-RCEP member countries, we could potentially see a melding of more advanced TPP provisions into the fabric of RCEP. Alternately, TPP elements could percolate into the APEC-driven FTAAP negotiations, particularly if the US decides to take an active role, as it should, in the just-announced Lima FTAAP Declaration work programs.

President Xi's resounding success in Lima in pushing forward with FTAAP, and gaining adherents to RCEP as the primary "pathway" to achieve FTAAP, represents a monumental "double-win" for China of truly historic proportions. This coupled with the apparent demise of TPP constitutes a massive blow to US standing and credibility in Asia Pacific, the consequences of which are still unclear, but are likely to be far-reaching.

China appears at this juncture to have assumed the mantle of Asia Pacific trade and economic torchbearer. It remains to be seen how Trump will respond.

Donald J. Lewis, Director, Centre for International Economic Law, Trade & Development, London Centre of International Law Practice
The opening meeting of the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5. [Chen Yehua / Xinhua]

The presentation of the Government Work Report during the two sessions in Beijing last week is always reason for discussion and reflection. As an observer and researcher of Chinese innovation for over a decade, I pay particular attention to the support and regulation regarding innovation. In recent years innovation has been a key strategic direction for reform, increase of productivity and overall economic development. In this years report also we see innovation as one of the most important work items on the governments list. Here I will assess both the two sessions attention to innovation and the press release by Minister of Science & Technology Wan Gang on March 11, 2017. In general, the policy is steering towards more openness and autonomy while lacking sufficient emphasis on domestic talent development for innovation.

First, the fundamental support for 15 large-scale science & technology projects toward 2030 will push the boundaries of technology in areas such as information technology, new materials and electronic devices. Second, particular focus is on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and the promotion of open research with crowdsourcing of ideas, open innovation initiatives and an overall open approach to developing AI applications. Third, loosening of monitoring and control of science and research funding to increase autonomy of the researchers. Fourth, focus on the internationalization of high technology from China, especially emphasizing the bridging role of the 17 national independent innovation demonstration zones. These initiatives all point towards more openness of technology development and innovation and increased autonomy.

However, an underappreciated but crucial component is talent development. While the above policy directions are certainly in favor of developing science and technology, funding and research is only one of the pillars of an innovative economy. Bringing back talent from abroad to launch innovative ventures or lead scientific discovery is great, but not enough. A venture or project cannot be run by one returnee talent, a team and organization of talents is necessary to make it happen. Although reform in education is on the agenda, I believe that part of those reforms should specifically address the sustainability of innovation in China. China cannot and should not rely on overseas returnees alone for innovation. Educating and fostering an innovative and professional workforce domestically is crucial. And this starts at the kindergarten and primary school all the way through middle  and high school to university.

Innovation is a journey that starts with creativity and discovery and ends with commercialization via entrepreneurship. In the early phases of education, the curriculum for children should at least facilitate the development of creative skills, creative thinking and problem solving and relentlessly motivating children to develop curiosity and a sense of discovery. Practically this means including not only skills courses, such as the arts, but in particular enough time for and the right facilitation of experimentation, discovery and reflection via projects and experiential learning. Moreover, educational concepts of Chinese teachers also need to be steered accordingly. Please note, fostering creative skills and discovery thinking does not create a workforce of artists but a talent pool of innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs that may make changes and improvements in society.

The policy directions appear to favor science and technology driven innovation and that may not be a bad thing. If education and more fundamental talent development can be added to the mix, the future of a sustainable innovative China is bright.

Mark Greeven is an associate professor at the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department of Zhejiang University's School of Management.
President Xi Jinping and first lady Peng Liyuan arrive in Hamburg, Germany, on July 6, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

After successfully hosting the G20 in 2016, China's participation in the G20 in Hamburg this year may prove an important next step to further integrate and lead important global developments. As former US vice-minister for energyProfessor Terrance Sandalow vividly expressed during his Beijing trip last year, China is now holding a mirror to the rest of the world. China's vision for an emerging world order may be less fiction and soon more reality.

The topics discussed during the G20 are often large and abstract, as is the case this year. The focus is on globalization, free trade, stability and reforms to improve the world's response to crisis. The latter is of interest, especially from a Chinese perspective.

According to Chen Fengying from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, China is expected to outline possible solutions to questions of globalization and sustainable development. In my opinion, with the seeming retreat of the United Statesfrom the global stage by President Donald Trump, there may be an important role and, perhaps, opportunity for China's government to step into discussions such as security, international trade and climate change. Two major policy initiatives with global ambitions  and consequences  stand out: the Belt and Road Initiative and Made in China 2025.

China's Belt and Road Initiative is clearly positioning China as a leader for globalization in Eurasia. More broadly, Chinese companies have been going global for a while now and innovations from China are starting to reach the US and Europe. If China's Belt and Road Initiative succeeds in entering markets in Eurasia, China will be able to leverage large (emerging) markets while also having a foothold in advanced markets. However, China needs to develop the international talent needed to operate and lead all those initiatives, companies and organizations.

Similarly, the Made in China 2025 initiative is focused on making China a global leader of smart manufacturing. With a strong manufacturing base, plenty of capital, an army of entrepreneurs, scalability in the domestic market and a science and engineering tradition, China is well-positioned. In particular, Chinese companies are well-positioned to drive the IT transformation in technologies such as Internet of Things, big data and the cloud. While Silicon Valley used to be the place to go, China's new generation of change makers is increasingly attracting investors and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley to China nowadays. However, the Made in China 2025 initiative requires a strong innovative talent pool.

An innovative global talent pool can be built several ways. First, China's domestic education is strong and improving, but a deeper and more widespread reform on educational methodologies is required. The future is not in routine tasks and standardized operations, it is in complex problem solving, cross-cultural skills and creative thinking. An educational system that combines strong basic training in combination with problem solving and creativity will prove to be a winner. Second, China's universities need to step up their initiative to attract foreign students. Not just for Chinese language or short term exchanges but for degree programs in all subjects. Why can a Chinese university not become a preferred choice for international students? Third, bringing back overseas Chinese students and alumni can reverse the brain drain. China has been effective in this and an increasing number of students are indeed coming back to China. While attractive policies are still the dominant reason, local opportunities are increasingly important. Fourth, sustainable, long term job opportunities for foreign talent in China will be crucial. While the recent reforms for work permits for foreigners are a step in the right direction, the key question is how to get the top talent to China in the first place. Why can China not be the preferred choice to work and live for international talent?

China has neither the ability nor the intent to challenge the US global leadership position, and nobody wins if relations between China and the US sour. But, as an educator I think the main opportunity for China is to strive to become a leader in innovative global talent development and successfully implement the Belt and Road and Made in China 2025 initiatives.

Mark Greeven is an associate professor at the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department of Zhejiang University's School of Management.
Huang Yuxian, an 8-month-old boy who was trafficked from Guangdong to a small village in Central China's Henan province, was rescued. His mother held him tightly in her arms at the airport in Guangzhou on Sept 23, 2012. Provided by Yangcheng Evening News

The seriousness of transnational human trafficking, especially the trafficking of women and children, makes close international cooperation absolutely necessary to address this heinous crime. As a signatory to international treaties on human trafficking, China has always attached importance to international cooperation in the fight against such transnational crimes. China signed the supplementary protocol of the UN Convention against Organized Transnational Crime aimed at preventing and prohibiting human trafficking, and punishing the perpetrators on Dec 26, 2009, and ratified it in February 2010.

As a UN convention, the protocol provides the legal basis for global cooperation in combating and preventing human trafficking. Till May 5 last year, China had signed 121 criminal, civil judicial assistance and extradition treaties with 67 countries. By September 2014, the Ministry of Public Security had established bilateral police cooperation mechanisms with 83 countries and regions to investigate and collect evidence in human trafficking cases, as well as extradite criminal suspects.

China has also formulated action plans for international cooperation to combat human trafficking. Its 2013-20 action plan, released in March 2013, sets concrete targets and measures for the global fight against transnational human trafficking and assigns different responsibilities to different departments.

On the multilateral level, the Public Security Ministry and the All-China Women's Federation started cooperating with international agencies, such as UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization, to combat human trafficking. Since 1999, the ministry and federation have also been closely cooperating with UNICEF to especially combat trafficking of and violence against women and children.

In June 2000, China joined the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Mekong River Sub-region, which also includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. With funding from Save The Children UK, the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council, the ILO and other agencies organized a symposium in Kunming, Yunnan province, in July 2004, to discuss how to intensify the crackdown on and prevent the trafficking of women and children in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Anhui provinces. In October 2004, a Chinese delegation comprising officials from multiple departments attended a ministerial-level meeting in Myanmar to combat human trafficking in the Mekong River Sub-region, during which China signed memorandums of understanding with the other five countries on fighting human trafficking in the region.

Besides, China has also joined the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking which started in 2004, and approved a sub-regional action plan (2005-07) covering policy proposals for 11 projects. In December 2007, the Chinese government sponsored the second ministerial-level meeting on cooperation to combat human trafficking in the Mekong River Sub-region and signed a joint declaration with the other five countries.

Aside from multilateral cooperation, China has also effectively cooperated with neighboring countries on the bilateral level. For example, it has signed police cooperation agreements with Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia to combat trafficking of women and children.

Since April 2004, the Public Security Ministry has held high-level consultations with police authorities from Vietnam, Myanmar and other neighboring countries on how to intensify the crackdown on transnational human trafficking and strengthen bilateral cooperation. And regular meeting mechanisms have been established and liaison offices set up in the border regions with other countries to facilitate cooperation in this area.

Moreover, China has signed an intergovernmental accord on anti-human trafficking with Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and maintained police cooperation with Angola, Congo, Indonesia, Spain, Austria and other countries, which have helped smash several transnational gangs involved in trafficking women and running prostitution rackets.

China's cooperation with the international community in the fight against human trafficking is reflected not only in its efforts to undertake global treaty obligations, but also in a series of bilateral and multilateral cooperation programs and concrete actions it has carried out.

The author is a professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University, and a council member of China Society for Human Rights Studies. The article was first published in the Overseas Edition of People's Daily.
The G20 meeting 2017 is held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7-8. [File photo]

Vowing to push for "interconnected" growth, leaders at the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, decided to take concrete actions to build economic resilience, improve sustainability, and assume global responsibility. They also resolved to tackle common challenges facing the international community, including terrorism, people's displacement, poverty, hunger, health problems, unemployment, climate change, energy security and inequality to ensure sustainable development.

The G20, which accounts for 85 percent of the world economy and 80 percent of global trade, used macro-level economic policy coordination to control the damage caused by the 2008 global financial crisis. The coordinated actions of the G20 members from 2009 to 2012 helped inject liquidity into markets, recapitalize international financial institutions, as well as provide a formula for global economic recovery and avoid crises.

Its efforts are also an exemplar of cooperation between developed and emerging economies. The rotating G20 chair allowed developing countries to help improve global economic governance. For countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa, which for decades have been at the receiving end of global economic policies set by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, this opportunity has been invaluable. As the G20 chair last year, China brought issues that are vital to developing countries, such as trade in services, climate change and innovation, into the global economic governance framework.

Some doubt whether the G20 should have ventured beyond its original mandate of fixing the global financial architecture to take up noneconomic issues such as climate change, healthcare, migration and terrorism. But under pressure to address the larger socio-economic needs of its members, the G20 began to also focus on issues such as economic inequality, jobless growth and sustainable development challenges. As such, the G20's role has evolved logically.

Looking at the G20 from the perspective of effective global economic governance, one is tempted to ask: Do the G20 members see the grouping as a constellation of great economic powers or are they ready to act as guardians of global welfare? The G20 can achieve both objectives.

First, due to the G20's unique economic and political weight, its members have the special responsibility to facilitate free trade and take anti-protectionist measures. Sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved globally until every G20 member realizes it within its economy. To demonstrate sincerity toward their commitments, the G20 members should take measures to ensure free trade, investment and financing to also help improve the well-being of people across the world. This will boost domestic employment while helping correct global imbalances.

Second, the G20 members should work together to help the world economy to adopt low-carbon and resource-efficient growth models. They also need to establish coherent policy frameworks for inclusive growth anchored on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris climate agreement, and urge multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions to follow social and environmental standards set by the international community.

Third, the G20 economies should work out new institutional arrangements for North-South and South-South knowledge sharing to address global economic and social challenges, as well as to break the hold of major Organization for Economic Cooperation Development member countries on international knowledge networks. Innovative knowledge solutions can become effective on a global scale only if they are co-created by participants from different regions and reflect pluralistic ideas and approaches. The G20 should, therefore, establish an inclusive knowledge network to support its future actions and to interact with policymakers, as well as businesses and civil society across the world.

The G20 has gathered enough experience in global economic governance. As well as expanding its economic role, now it should also make efforts to transform itself from a club of economic powers to a genuine guardian of global welfare.

The author is a senior economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.
Residents outside the high court hold placards and shout slogans on Friday to support the disqualification of four lawmakers who did not follow the requirements when they took their oaths to serve on the Legislative Council in October last year. [Photo by ROY LIU/CHINA DAILY]

In a written ruling on Friday, the Court of First Instance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region disqualified four opposition members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) on the ground that they deliberately messed up their oaths of office at the swearing-in ceremony last October and therefore violated Article 104 of the Basic Law and Section 21 of Hong Kong's Oaths and Declarations Ordinance.

The ruling concluded court deliberations over a judicial review filed by Leung Chun-ying, then Hong Kong chief executive, and the Department of Justice challenging the legitimacy of the four wayward politicians' LegCo membership.

It is a ruling Hong Kong residents had been waiting for since the High Court began hearing the case and yet another proof the rule of law in the SAR is still sound and effective.

The fourLeung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Yiu Chung-yimnow join former lawmakers-elect Sixtus Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching, who were disqualified for the same reason late last year. They all changed the text of the oath of office and/or put on acts of mockery to show they reject the whole idea of taking the oath according to the Basic Law, which is mandatory for all legislators-elect. And the failure to do so means disqualification from LegCo.

The two cases show that certain political figures have no respect for the rule of law and hold a particular grudge against the Basic Law because it is a law of the People's Republic of China, the sovereign state Hong Kong is a part of.

The latest court decision deems Leung, Lau, Law and Yiu disqualified from office the day they messed up with their oaths of office last October, which means they have no right to participate in LegCo business any longer.

However, all four of them, with the support of their fellow legislators, refused to leave the conference room when the chairman of the LegCo finance committee, which was in session at that time, told them to leave after hearing the news about the court ruling. As a result the chairman had to adjourn the meeting till Saturday. That some so-called lawmakers are hell-bent on defying court rulings shows their true color. And one could imagine how much respect these now-disqualified lawmakers have for the legal system.

Apart from the six disqualified legislators, some other LegCo members, too, didn't take the oath of office according to relevant laws. Several others are suspect and may have to face justice in the near future. Some of them had indulged in equally deplorable acts on a previous occasion and got away with it. The court ruling shows no one can violate the law and expect to escape justice.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

A fresh injection of ideas and joint efforts are giving area some touristic vim

It sometimes takes a fresh set of eyes to spot the obvious, when those who are overly familiar with a place cannot see the wood for the trees. That is what happened after You Linshan, 32, returned from the United States, after working there for five years, to live in Nyingchi, Tibet autonomous region, two years ago.

You, originally from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, was touring the Nyingchi area and met Tasha, a villager there. Before long they had decided to marry, and You decided to move to Nyingchi.

As they set about planning their future, the couple decided to do a bit of market research on business opportunities in Nyingchi and found that there seemed to be great demand for environmentally friendly products from the area. In this respect, Nyingchi's products of the forest such as matsu take and many kinds of fruits offer great opportunities, You says.

"More and more people are willing to splash out on healthy, environmentally friendly food as they adopt upmarket spending habits. At the moment you can't find that many agricultural products from Nyingchi around China, but demand will grow as more tourists come here and discover them."

In October the couple opened an agricultural processing cooperative factory in their village, in Pai town, part of Nyingchi.

They invested 460,000 yuan ($68,000), and another 18 families from the village chipped in more than 1.2 million yuan.

The factory freeze-dries the local organic products so they can be transported without losing nutritional value and preserving their flavor, You says.

"I hope that eventually it will not only be Nyingchi's beautiful scenery that leaves a mark on tourists, but its rich diversity of organic foods, too."

The factory now has a staff of five, and the plan is to recruit a dozen more villagers as workers, who will be sent to the cities to be trained for the job. Professional marketing teams have also been drafted in to help promote the products around the country, You says.

Wu Yong, 40, is optimistic about the market in Nyingchi for high-end rural inns, and already has solid evidence that this confidence is well founded.
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There was no political will for the adoption of a medical reform in Ukraine, Acting Minister of Health Ulana Suprun believes.

"Our team worked effectively to prepare the reform, but there was no political will to continue this at the top level," she told journalists in Kyiv.

"If the head of the parliamentary health committee does not even come to meetings where the bill is being prepared for second reading and does not sign the committee's ready conclusion, this cannot be called a mistake - it is simply a failure to fulfill her duties," Suprun noted.

According to the acting minister, she has not met and has not talked to head of the health committee Olha Bohomolets, but "many people tried but failed to get through to her on Wednesday."

Suprun earlier stated Bohomolets had refused to sign the positive conclusion of the Verkhovna Rada committee on bill No. 6327 on the medical reform, issued on July 12 after a two-day review.

Bohomolets, in turn, told Interfax-Ukraine that Suprun's statement is not true.
LONDON - "Hope" the blue whale took over as the centerpiece of the revamped atrium of London's Natural History Museum on Thursday despite a spirited campaign to keep its much-loved predecessor, "Dippy" the dinosaur.

The towering replica diplodocus skeleton had been in the museum for more than 100 years and news of its impending demise in 2015 sparked an outcry from dinosaur fans.

Some 14,000 people signed a petition on Twitter to stop the move.

But the museum said the skeleton of the blue whale, the largest animal to have lived on Earth and which has been hunted to near extinction, would better raise awareness of mankind's impact on nature.

The 25.2-meter real skeleton suspended from the ceiling is proof that "by using science and evidence, we can make good choices about the future, about sustainability," said museum director Michael Dixon.

Richard Sabin, the museum's leading whale expert, said exhibiting Hope in the atrium also showed that the Natural History Museum was "a museum of the future, a relevant museum that can be used to have debates, to answer those big questions in society".

Center stage

The whale was previously in the mammals section but was not fully in view and will now take center stage in the diving lunge feeding position in Hintze Hall, a cathedral-like space built in the late 19th century.

Fans of "Dippy" need not despair as the replica dinosaur will be preserved for posterity in a bronze cast to be placed outside the museum.

There were estimated to be around 250,000 blue whales in the world's oceans in the 1800s but commercial hunting brought the species to the brink of extinction in the 1960s with just 400 specimens left.

Legal protection from hunting has since seen their levels rise up to around 20,000 now.

The skeleton on display is of a whale that became stranded in Wexford Harbour in Ireland in 1891, 10 years after the opening of the Natural History Museum.

Afp - Reuters

(China Daily 07/15/2017 page9)
LONDON - There's no divorce without paperwork.

Just over a year after Britons voted to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom government on Thursday unveiled the first piece of legislation to make it a reality a 62-page bill that anti-Brexit politicians are already vowing to block.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill aims to convert some 12,000 EU laws and regulations into UK statute on the day the country leaves the bloc. That is scheduled to be in March 2019.

All those rules can then be kept, amended or scrapped by Britain's Parliament, fulfilling the promise of anti-EU campaigners to "take back control" from Brussels to London.

But opponents of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government fear the legislation gives officials powers to change laws without sufficient scrutiny by lawmakers. They worry the government could water down environmental standards, employment regulations or other measures brought to Britain via EU law since it joined the bloc in 1973.

The divorce is the easy part. Leaving the EU takes up just a single line in the bill, repealing the European Communities Act through which Britain entered the bloc.

The bulk of the bill describes how all EU laws will be converted into British statute. The government says that will ensure continuity law on the day after Brexit will be the same as on the day before.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said the legislation will allow Britain to leave the EU with "maximum certainty, continuity and control".

In a commentary, the Guardian newspaper said the repeal bill contains controversial new powers for ministers to tweak laws and create new institutions, where these are deemed necessary to make EU law work when it is transferred to UK law.

But, contentiously, it gives the government powers to fix "deficiencies" in EU law by what's known as statutory instruments, which can be used without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legislation.

The powers are temporary, expiring two years after Brexit day. Even so, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon branded the bill a "naked power grab".

The bill is not expected to face debate in Parliament until the fall, and May's minority government weakened after a battering in last month's general election faces a fight.

The main opposition Labour Party has said it would oppose the bill unless it met six conditions, including guarantees for workers' rights. Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he would work to soften May's stance, promising the prime minister that "this will be hell".

Ap - Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 07/15/2017 page8)
US leader ends French visit, saying relationship is 'stronger than ever'

The US Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel during the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris, France, on Friday.Philippe Wojazer / Reuters

PARIS - US President Donald Trump watched US and French soldiers march together through the Paris sunshine on Friday in a double celebration marking 100 years since the United States entered World War I and France's annual Bastille Day holiday.

The occasion, also featuring a binational fly-past of fighter jets symbolizing military cooperation in the Middle East and elsewhere, followed a day of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, a first ladies' tour of Paris, and a dinner for the four at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

"Great evening with President Emmanuel Macron & Mrs Macron. Went to Eiffel Tower for dinner. Relationship with France stronger than ever," Trump said in a tweet.

The ceremonies bring to an end a visit Macron needs as a boost to France's standing on the world stage - one which could also help a US leader left short of international friends by his stance on free trade and climate change.

Trump, also dogged at home by an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US election last year, said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House but added that now was not the right time for that.

Also, he appeared on Thursday to leave the door open for more talks on the Paris accord which he pulled the US out of earlier this year.
SAN FRANCISCO - A trade and investment forum between provinces in China and the US state of Washington is scheduled for later this month.

The event, to take place on July 20 in Seattle, is organized by the Trade Development Bureau of China's Commerce Ministry and the US Commerce Department of Washington, and supported by the Consulate General of China in San Francisco and the State Government of Washington.

While announcing the upcoming event on Friday, China's Consulate General in San Francisco said the forum is a follow-up to the "Hundred Days Plan" initiated after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Largo in April.

Over 100 Chinese representatives from the provinces of Shaanxi, Liaoning, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hunan will discuss with their counterparts cooperating in the information industry, high-end manufacturing, life sciences, financial services, e-commerce, food processing and real estate.

China has become Washington's largest trading partner outside North America in recent years.
Kabul -- A senior commander of Islamic State (IS) has been killed following a US airstrikes in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, US forces in Afghanistan said in a statement released on Saturday.

"US Forces-Afghanistan confirms that Abu Sayed, the Emir of Islamic State, Khorasan Province in Afghanistan was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province on July 11," said the statement.

"This operation is another success for defeating IS in Afghanistan", the statement said.

"Abu Sayed was the third IS leader we have killed since the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated," NATO-led Resolute Support mission commander Gen. Nicholson said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Afghan forces have killed nine IS fighters and injured five others during a military operation in Pachiragam district of eastern Nangarhar province, the provincial government spokesperson Attaullah Khogiani told Xinhua.

Hundreds of IS militants including their top three commanders have been killed during the Afghan and NATO forces operations over the past year.

In April, US forces dropped a massive bomb on IS complex tunnel and hideout in Nangarhar province and reportedly killed more than 100 fighters.
TEHRAN -- Police forces shot the attacker of Tehran subway station dead on Saturday morning, Hadi Tamhidi, the governor of Shahr-e-Ray district in the south of Iran's capital Tehran, said.

On the day, a person attacked a cleric with a knife in the Shahr-e-Ray subway station and injured him. The cleric was transferred to the hospital, Tamhidi told state IRIB TV.

In the attack, another person who helped the cleric, was injured by the attacker, he said.

The assailant, who had been injured by the police fire, died later, he added.

After a halt in the operation of subway station for a period of time, the gates were opened and the situation turned back to its normal status, Tamhidi said.

The identity of the assailant has not been revealed, and there has been no report about the terrorist intentions in the attack so far.
The entrance of the beach of the Zahabia hotel resort, seen after an Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others in Hurghada, south of the capital Cairo, Egypt, July 14, 2017.[Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO -- Berlin on Saturday said the two women killed after being stabbed in an Egyptian beach resort of Hurghada were German nationals, Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada," the ministry said.

It added that employees of the German embassy in Cairo are now at the place of attack, and they are in constant communication with the Egyptian authorities.

"Berlin considered the crime that targeted foreign tourists is a criminal act that made our hearts full of sadness, anger and sorrow," the statement added.

Four other tourists were wounded when an assailant stabbed them at the beach resort in the Sinai Peninsula.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the attacker, who had swum ashore, was arrested and was being questioned.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most popular beach resorts, especially for European tourists.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's stabbing.

Local media assumed that the attack could be a terror act.

Egypt has been suffering waves of terror attacks after the military ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

Earlier on Friday, five security personnel were killed when militants opened fire randomly on a checkpoint in the Egyptian province of Giza.

The Islamic State branch in North Sinai claimed responsibility for most of the attacks which have so far left hundreds dead in Egypt.
Is China the Answer? Nine Years On.

Sometimes, the answer will be yes, sometimes it will be no, and sometimes it will be something in between. For those for whom the answer is yes, the China they encounter (or continue to encounter) is one that is much changed from that of 2013. But many of the fundamentals remain the same. Keeping your nose clean is no guarantee of a smooth ride, but not keeping your nose clean is pretty much a guarantee of trouble.
Verkhovna Rada member from the People's Front parliamentary faction Yevhen Deidei was wounded in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) area near the town of Avdiyivka in Donetsk region on Friday, MP from the Radical Party parliamentary faction Ihor Mosiychuk has said.

"Our fellow lawmaker, Yevhen Deidei, has just been injured severely on the front in the east, near Avdiyivka. He urgently needs blood transfusion," Mosiychuk wrote on Facebook on Friday.

In turn, the 'Kyiv' special police regiment's press service informed that Deidei had received a shrapnel wound in his leg from an 82mm projectile. He is in hospital at the moment.
The police have identified three local residents of Donetsk region's Volnovakha district who passed classified information to Russian-backed militants about whereabouts, relocations and the number of Ukrainian troops, which was used for attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Police's main department in Donetsk region has reported.

"A 64-year-old female resident from the town of Mykolayivka, located on the contact line at a distance of few kilometers from the occupied town of Dokuchayevsk, had been working at school for all her life, and in 2014 [...] she decided to support the invaders [...] She would call and inform about the deployment of our military and their number in the woods near the village which was followed by intensive shelling few hours later," the report says.

According to the law enforcers, the woman provided operational information useful for militants almost half a hundred times.

A similar case was recorded by law enforcers in the small town of Myrne, where a wedded couple directly transmitted data to their relative  the enemy's spotter. They informed about dislocations, movements of servicemen of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in such settlements as Myrne, Svobodne, Kamyanka and Kalchyk," the regional police department reported.

Criminal proceedings were opened under Part 1 of Article 256 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (assistance to participants in criminal organizations and concealment of their criminal activities) based on all the given facts, which are punishable by imprisonment for up to five years.
A bill in Oregon State that requires private insurance to cover the cost of abortion procedures was passed by the Oregon Senate on July 5.

House Bill 3391, also named the Reproductive Health Equity Act, now awaits signature by Governor Kate Brown.

The bill passed in the Oregon House with a 33-23 vote on July 1 and in the Oregon Senate with a 17-13 vote on July 5, both along party lines.

Representative Julie Fahey said in a statement that, affordable access to reproductive health care shouldnt depend on who you are, where you live, or how much you earn, adding that, health care is a basic human right.

The bill aims to provide the service of abortion procedure at no cost to patients. However, some of the financial costs will come out of taxpayer money. House Bill 3391 will allocate almost $500,000 during the next two-year period, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

These services will be available both for those private insured and those that are a part of the states Medicaid program, which currently pays for about 3,500 abortions within the state, spending almost $2 million a year. However, undocumented residents who are ineligible for Medicaid can take also part in these services, with the costs being paid for the states general fund, according to the bill.

Oregons $10 million health care bill requires health plans to cover the costs of various services other than abortion such as vasectomies, prenatal and postpartum services, as well as screenings for breast cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

The bill states that employers may receive religious-based exemptions only if the insurer notifies in writing all employees who may be enrolled in the health benefit plan of the contraceptives or procedures the employer refuses to cover for religious reasons. Those eligible for these exemptions are those who employ and serve people who share the religious views of the employer, as well as religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations, as stated in Oregon state statutes.

Supporters lauded the passage of the bill, saying HB 3391 will provide access to more comprehensive reproductive health services in the state in the midst of efforts from the Trump administration and Republican members in Congress to restrict those services under the Affordable Care Act.

However, opponents cited concerns that the bill will cause an increase in the rate of abortions taking place in the state.

Will House Bill 3391 increase or decrease the number of abortions in the state of Oregon? If it will decrease the number then sign me up. But Im afraid we all know thats not the case, stated Representative Werner Reschke.
Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan, received a $458,502 grant on June 29 to address the decline of church attendance and religious affiliation among youth.

Through the three-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., Hope College aims to bring young adults back to the church.

Hope College announced that the grant will support an initiative called, Generation Spark: Mentoring Tomorrows Church Leaders.

The college said in its campus news article that the programs approach is to work with churches to focus on millennials and young adults who no longer take part in faith based organizations, and reconnect them. Hope College stated in a press release that as the project runs, the youth-adult teams at the churches will identify and begin working on problems that interest them within church or community.

Virgil Gulker, servant-leader in residence with Hopes Center for Leadership and the program director for the new project, stated that it is time to suggest a practical strategy to move church leaders from frustrated awareness to an action plan designed to not simply retain youth and older adults but to actually attract and engage them.

Gulker pointed to studies that say that 70 percent of people raised within the church no longer attend by their 20s.

High school and college students at the colleges Center for Leadership researched the cause of the decline in church attendance and millennial participation in 2014, finding the reason to be the absence of any meaningful plan to involve youth with the church, its adult members or its vision, Gulker explained.

The program will be implemented within the churches of the Reformed Church in America and Christian Reformed Church in North America, stated the college. With denominations each connecting with six churches in urban, rural, and suburban settings, it hopes to begin resolving the disconnect between the church and young adults, according to a press release from the college.

The college stated that the end goal of the initial implementation of Generation Spark is to create a model in which congregations can implement this project in their own churches.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a family owned private foundation from Indianapolis that was created in 1937. The foundations primarily focuses on the efforts of religion, education, and community development, as stated in their website.
U.S. District Judge Derrick K.Watson ruled Thursday that grandparents and other relatives should also be allowed exemption status, in regards to the motion filed by the state of Hawaii in federal court to challenge the Trump administrations definition of bona fide relationship and to enlarge the scope of those that can be exempt from the 90-day suspension.

Watson stated in his judgment that grandparents are the epitome of close family members.

The Governments definition excludes them, said Watson. That simply cannot be.

In response to Hawaiis earlier motion, Watson stated in his judgment that, this court will not upset the Supreme Courts careful balancing and equitable judgment brought to bear when tailor(ing) a stay in this matter, denying the request to clarify what bona fide relationship entailed.

The clarification to the modifications that the parties seek should be more appropriately sought in the Supreme Court, added Watson, claiming the Supreme Court to be the more appropriate place to seek clarification because it was the Supreme Courts ruling to partially reinstate part of the travel ban.

This time around, however, Watson stated that legal assistance was imperative because the plaintiffs established sufficient charges.

The Supreme Court reinstated a part of the travel ban on June 26. Its ruling on two lawsuits against the Trump administration maintained a 90-day suspension for foreign residents requesting entry into the country from six specific countries. The Supreme Court stated in their judgment that suspension may not be enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

An official from the Trump administration clarified during a briefing on June 29 that bona fide relationships include parents, spouses, children, adult son or daughters, sons and daughter-in-laws, and siblings. The transcript of the briefing shows that State Department officials later included fiances to be considered close family members, thus allowing them to be eligible for exemption.

Those who currently do not make the cut for exemptions include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, and other relatives.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, tweeted, U.S. now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians.
Hundreds gathered in Toronto in late June for one of the largest prayer meetings held on behalf of Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, the Korean Canadian pastor who is currently detained in North Korea.

Lim, who was arrested and detained in February of 2015, was sentenced to life in prison. Since then, multiple prayer gatherings for his safe return have taken place in Canada, the U.S., and South Korea.

This recent gathering drew more than 800 people, according to Radio Free Asia. Pastors from the surrounding community led prayers for the government to handle the situation wisely, and for Lim's health.

We heard that a direct interview with Reverend Lim took place at the Swedish embassy last month, Rev. Jason Noh, who currently leads Light Presbyterian Church where Lim used to pastor, said at the gathering. They took a photo of Reverend Lim and sent it to his family.

Noh added concerns that Lims health seems to be deteriorating, as his weight has dropped from 90 to 60 kilograms.

The efforts of our Canadian government thus far, though appreciated, have failed to capture the seriousness of this issue, Richard Ha, a spokesperson for Light Presbyterian, was quoted as saying by The Star.

Indeed, the family expressed increasing concern for Lim after Otto Warmbier, an American university student who was also detained in North Korea, died after his return.

The family is very concerned at this point, Lisa Pak, a spokeswoman for Lims family, was quoted as saying by Reuters at the time. They are hoping the Canadian government will turn (efforts) up a few notches in terms of active diplomacy and really start engaging.

The prayer gathering also included a time to pray for Warmbiers family and loved ones.
Dear Abby:

I am concerned about my niece. She's 18 and a senior in high school. Her father - my younger brother - is incarcerated and has been for 13 years.

Our families have been alienated, but I'm trying to reach out to my niece. Although she has been hesitant to get close, we've had a couple of face-to-face visits during the past year. She is needy for family, and I know her mother has been overwhelmed having had to raise her on her own.

Long story short, my niece has been dating - for the second time - a man her father's age. She lives a few hours away, so most of what I see is on social media. I don't understand how this man thinks it's OK. My niece looks like she's only 13. It makes me cringe, yet I feel this isn't my business or within my power to change. You can tell me this is none of my business and I should just walk away, but I'm worried about her.

Worried Aunt in Texas

Dear Worried Aunt:

Your niece may be vulnerable in your opinion, but she also is 18. She may have father issues that need to be ironed out, but considering the man has been absent since she was 5, that's not surprising.

I agree that this isn't within your power to change. My advice is to be there for her when she will allow it, be as supportive as you can, resist the urge to try to fill a parental role and do a lot of listening.

Dear Abby:

I am 64. When I was an insecure 15-year-old, I liked showing off for my two best friends. We often made fun of other kids behind their backs. With them, my smart mouth got me the attention I craved.

One day I slipped up and whispered something too loudly. The girl heard what I said about her, and the stricken look on her face told me how much it hurt.

I looked for her at our 20th reunion wanting to apologize, but she was absent. I wish I could take back what I said, but I can't. However, I have spent the last 49 years trying to be kind to others to make up for it.

If there are people who read your column who remember a stinging remark that was aimed at them, please let them know that some of us regret it very much. I hope they find forgiveness so they can be free of bitterness and hurt.

Miss Smart Mouth

Dear Miss Smart Mouth:

An apology to your classmate was definitely in order, even if 20 years late. Too bad the woman wasn't around to hear it.

I'll share something with you a trial lawyer once told me. He said, "You can't unring the bell." What he meant by it was that a judge can instruct a jury to "disregard that statement," but once something is out there, it's very hard to erase from memory. The context may be different, but it applies to relationships, too.

DearAbby.comDear AbbyP.O. Box 69440Los Angeles, CA 90069Andrews McMeel Syndication
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A 26-year-old San Antonian is venturing into uncharted territory for a chance to win big for her family.

Leanne Rae Garcia is in the running to become Jetset Magazine's next cover model. The international competition started out with thousands of women, but only one will be awarded the cover and a cash prize of $100,000.

"Usually, I don't go for stuff like that," Garcia said, who has been modeling commercially for the past five years. "I'm going to do it for my sister and my mom. That's my motivation."

READ ALSO: S.A. woman loses 90 pounds and now leads free fitness class

Last Christmas, Garcia's 28-year-old sister who is a Type 1 diabetic began to experience renal failure. She'll have a double transplant in August - kidney and pancreas.

"Because she is a Type 1 diabetic, she automatically qualifies for a new pancreas," Garcia said, adding her mom is a match for the kidney transplant.

But the surgeries will require her single mother to take time off work and the family could greatly benefit from Garcia winning the prize.

Both her sister and mother reside in South Texas, but the procedures will take place in San Antonio. While her family is here, Garcia said they will be staying in her tiny one bedroom apartment.

RELATED: San Antonio firefighter, Navy vet wins title of 'Sexiest Vegan Next Door'

"If I win this money, I can put them up in a hotel and they can be comfortable," Garcia said.

The model has already beat out thousands of competitors in the last few weeks and is currently in the "Wildcard" round. With five days left to become a finalist, Garcia said, "we are getting to the wire."

The last woman standing will be flown by private jet to the magazine and stay in a luxury hotel for a three-day photo shoot.

Visit Miss Jetset Magazine for more information on the contest and to place your vote.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
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The terminator has found love in a Texas BBQ store.

On Wednesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q in Austin leaving the actor and former California governor smitten. The BBQ joint's first location was in San Antonio.

RELATED: S.A. snags 2 spots on Texas Monthly's new Top 50 BBQ list

"Just had the best meal I've ever had at a gas station here," Schwarzenegger said on a Snapchat story, rebutting the store's "worst bar-b-q in Texas," tagline. "It was the best of the best."

According to his selfie video, it was love after first bite of Rudy's ribs.

A Rudy's spokesperson told mySA.com it's unclear why Schwarzenegger was in Central Texas, but the actor clearly enjoyed his time at the popular Austin spot.

READ ALSO: Watch The Rock Butcher His Arnold Schwarzenegger Impersonation (Video)

In May, dining guide and blog Eater Austin, reported that Schwarzenegger visited Killen's Barbecue in Houston, scribbling his claim-to-fame, "I'll be back," on the restaurant's wall of fame.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
FRAUD

A Friendswood woman received requests for revealing photographs and videos from an unidentified contact using Snapchat and Kik, according to a July 3 police report. She later discovered a clone of her Facebook profile that featured beach photos of her from a friend's page. The contact said he would release more revealing photos if she did not comply with his request for photos and videos, police said.

A Friendswood man discovered an unauthorized check written to Kroger after reviewing his bank account online, according to a July 5 police report. The information on the check reportedly was incorrect, but the routing number and account number belonged to his account, police said.

A Friendswood business owner was told by his bank that someone attempted to pass a fraudulent check at a Tomball Home Depot, according to a July 5 police report. The female suspect presented identification with the check, police said.

A Friendswood woman learned someone had fraudulently opened a line of credit for $1,000 at Cash Center using her identifying information in April, according to a July 5 police report. A credit monitoring service also notified her about an attempt to open a Speedy Cash account in her name.

A Friendswood man's AT&T account was compromised, according to a July 7 police report. The suspect allegedly attempted to purchase electronics equipment in Florida.

BURGLARY

A wallet was stolen from a vehicle July 4 at First Baptist Church, 111 E. Heritage Drive, police said.

A pressure washer was stolen out of a work van July 8 at Baywood Apartments, 5025 FM 2351. The driver's-side window was smashed, and the suspect left the front doors ajar.

THEFT

A customer at Walgreens, 102 N. Friendswood Drive, may have left her wallet at the pharmacy counter June 26, according to a July 3 police report. She contacted Walgreens later but no one had turned in the lost wallet. She also discovered her bank had canceled her credit card June 26 after a fraudulent attempt to use it, police said.

Two men are suspected of theft July 3 at One Stop Liquor Store, 520 N. Friendswood Drive, police said. One of the men approached the counter with a liquor bottle while the other suspect put a bottle of Grand Marnier in his pocket and walked out without paying. That suspect is described as a white male in his late 20s to early 30s with a medium build and bald head wearing a black shirt, black shorts and lime green shoes. The accomplice was described as a white male with a slender build wearing a black hat, white shirt and gray shorts.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

A vehicle's rear window was shattered July 4 in the 16700 block of Hibiscus Lane, police said.

The word "Titan" was spray-painted on the tailgate of a vehicle July 4 or July 5 at Bridgestone Apartments, 4949 FM 2351, police said.

A Friendswood city employee found the lock and bolt assembly broken off the door at a water tower station in the 700 block of Greenbriar, according to a July 6 police report. No damage was reported, and nothing appeared to be missing.

Officers responding to a suspicious activity call July 7 in the 16400 block of Tibet Road met a resident who said she heard and saw individuals knocking on her windows and running in her backyard. Police also found part of the back fence torn down. The suspects may have been fleeing from police responding to a party in the 16500 block of Barcelona, authorities said.

TRAFFIC

A Friendswood man, 21, was cited for operating an all-terrain vehicle on a public street after a passenger was thrown from the ATV during a police chase July 5 that began in the 700 block of West Parkwood Avenue, authorities said. The passenger, a 22-year-old Friendswood man, was transported to the hospital, police said.

Police warn against Facebook imposters

Friendswood police offered an important tip last week for dealing with fake Facebook profiles.

"Accounts that impersonate other people are not allowed on Facebook," according to a department advisory. "If someone creates an account pretending to be you, you should go to the profile page that is impersonating you. Click on the '' on the cover photo and select 'Report.' Follow the onscreen instructions for impersonation to file a report."

Experts teach kids self-defense class

Children between the ages of 8 and 12 can learn how to resist aggression during a 10-hour program presented by Friendswood Police Department.

RadKIDS, $25, teaches bullying prevention, strategies against abduction and internet safety, 5-7:30 p.m. July 31 to Aug. 3 at Friendswood United Methodist Church, 110 N. Friendswood Drive.

Attendance each day is required, as is parent involvement. For details, contact officer Kevin Crouch, kcrouch@friendswood.com or 281-996-3316.

Police collecting school supplies for Children's Assessment Center

Friendswood officers are collecting backpacks and school supplies through July 22 for more than 900 child victims of sexual assault serviced by the Children's Assessment Center.

Supplies and backpacks may be dropped off at the Arden C. Hill Jr. Public Safety Building, 1600 Whitaker Drive.
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An apparent second arrest has been made in the slaying of the beloved 79-year-old Hedwig Village woman, according to the Hedwig Village Police Department.

Janeil Bernard was found on July 3 by her maid. Timesha Wilson, 22, is charged with capital murder, police said.

"She was located today, voluntarily came to our station and gave a statement admitting that she was present but she denied taking any part in the crime," said Hedwig Police Chief David A. Gott.

Wilson told police that she thought they were going to Bernard's to get extra money and that she didn't know a murder was planned. She also has no prior criminal history, so police have not yet been able to link her fingerprints or DNA to the crime scene.

Michael Susberry - the maid's son - is also facing a capital murder charge after confessing to the brutal slaying, police said at a press conference earlier this week.

"She knew him," Gott said. "She recognized him. She gave him something to drink. She allowed him to sit on the couch to rest."

In the course of the robbery, Susberry grabbed Bernard, headbutted her and knocked her to the ground. Then he pulled out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly, police said.

Afterward, police realized Bernard's car and wallet appeared stolen.

The vehicle - a red Cadillac sedan with a Texas license plate - turned up in southwest Houston, near State Highway 288. The keys were found about 200 feet away.

Bernard had been a resident of Hedwig Village for 50 years, Gott said. She worked as a schoolteacher in Spring Branch ISD before staying at home to take care of her two sons. Later in life, she became an accountant and eventually settled down to a quiet life brightened by dancing and family. She also had two grandchildren who adored her, Gott said.

A Metro pass and surveillance footage helped police figure out Susberry was involved in the killing. After figuring out Susberry's identity, the police called him in for questioning.

He eventually came into the police station voluntarily and confessed to the crime.

Susberry told police that Wilson did not participate in the killing.

During the press conference, police displayed surveillance video of Wilson and Susberry riding the Metro bus together to the neighborhood. It also shows them walking towards Bernard's house.

The 22-year-old was apparently Susberry's caretaker. They lived in the same south Houston neighborhood, Gott said.

Wilson is still being held at the Hedwig Village jail, but should be transported to Harris County jail sometime later Friday evening.

Keri Blakinger contributed to this report.
More than 20 aircraft from the Navy, Air and Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the U.S. Navy took part in air training within the Sea Breeze 2017 international exercises in Mykolaiv.

The press service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine said participants in the exercises worked out tactical flights on board P-8 Poseidon aircraft, Mi-14, Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters, and advanced Su-25 jet aircraft.

"A demonstration flight on board a CV-24 convertible aircraft was carried out, ground attacks during compound maneuvers by MiG-29 aircraft were simulated, the evacuation of a victim from a Ka-27 helicopter was carried out, and the landing of marines and a rescue parachute group from An-2 was done," the report reads.

All the elements and actions of the multinational headquarters and forces were worked out according to NATO standards.
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This week fans of chic Louis Vuitton and the Supreme streetwear brand began camping out days before a reported limited release at The Galleria.

Though details about the supposed release were sketchy at best, a line of devotees began appearing outside days ago in the hopes of scoring an item or two, mainly to turn over on the secondary market.

PREVIOUS: What's up with line of shoppers outside Galleria?

A quick search of the Vuitton website, though, showed no record of a limited release in Houston. That didn't seem to stop anyone, though.

On Friday morning KPRC-TV reported that police were going to let the stragglers left outside into the store to see that they aren't missing out on anything but air conditioning.

As previously reported by Chron.com, inside the brand was unveiling its Tambour Horizon watch, its first fully-connected timepiece. The smartwatch watch has a "My Flight" feature that keeps up with flight times, terminal and gate information, reports of delays and much more. Its "City Guide" function provides the not-to-be-missed sights of seven of the most visited cities in the world.

Now Playing: The Louis Vuitton x Supreme Collection is bringing out all the LV fans. Angeli Kakade (@angelikakade) has the scoop. Video: JW Player

According to Footwear News, Supreme and Louis Vuitton's collaboration, which was released in June, includes apparel, footwear, leather goods and accessories. A highlight of this collaboration is a red Louis Vuitton bag with the "Supreme" logo.

The runway-meet-streetwear collaboration has held pop-up stores in cities like London, Sydney, Paris and Seoul. Earlier this month, a popup in Los Angeles was closed due to a disorderly crowd.

But Houston was not on the list of popup cities. A rumor on Instagram began to spread like wildfire, unsubstantiated.

GET TO SHOPPING: Newest Galleria wing opens for shopping

KHOU-TV reported late Thursday that there was still a group of people waiting outside the Galleria just in case the whole thing was a ruse. Many people were still in line hoping that things changed.

GQ reported that the collection release hasn't been canceled, but it likely wasn't happening on Friday, wherever it was supposed to happen.
A ban on the sale of alcohol at night is a European practice, which Kyiv must follow from now on, and therefore such a ban must be valid, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has stated.

According to him, currently there is a significant opposition to such a decision of Kyiv City Council.

"The alcohol mafia lobbied for consideration in courts of the issue of cancelling the ban on alcohol sales at night," Klitschko said on the NewsOne channel.

At the same time, the Kyiv mayor noted he receives daily summaries of criminal offenses in the capital and the overwhelming majority of them are carried out by persons in a state of intoxication.

"I can say banning the sale of alcohol at night will make it possible to reduce the number of offenses. This is not an invention of Kyiv City Council. This is a European practice. Therefore we must adopt the best experience. And one of the examples is the prohibition of alcohol sales at night," he said.
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yangheld phone conversations with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Friday night, exchanging views on China-US economic relations and the first round of a comprehensive economic dialogue between the two countries.

During the upcoming dialogue which will be held on July 19 in Washington D.C. and co-chaired by Wang Yang, Steven Mnuchin, and Wilbur Ross, the two countries will exchange views on economic and trade issues of common concern.

The consensus was reached by Chinese President Xi Jinpingand his US counterpart Donald Trumpon the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit held in Hamburg, Germany early this month.
A Houston man and woman were sentenced Friday to more than 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy convictions, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Jazsmine Joseph, 28, and Xavier Cooper, 32, to 262 months in prison, and required them to serve five years of supervised release when they finish their time.

The two also have to register as sex offenders, according to a press release from Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez.

A federal jury convicted the pair in September after six hours of deliberation following a week-long trial.

Joseph and Cooper enticed, transported and harbored a minor girl to engage in commercial sex from October 2014 to March 2015. Joseph additionally paid for and directed the posting of prostitution ads online, according to the release.

Joseph also rented hotel rooms where the girl participated in commercial sex acts. However, Joseph said during the trial that she was "just helping a friend" by renting the hotel room and posting the prostitution ads.

She said that she was trying to help the victim and protect her from Cooper. The girl apparently participated in numerous sex acts, but was recovered on March 31, 2015 during a highly publicized sting operation.

The jury also saw text messages between Joseph and Cooper, where they discussed the minor victim and her "customers."

Both will remain in custody while they wait to be transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.

The investigation was conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety with assistance from FBI Assistant U.S. Attorneys.
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A New York-based company has created one of the most Texas guns you'll ever see.

What does New York know about Texans and their guns? Well, perhaps more than you would have thought.

Kimber is creating 800 of its limited-edition "Texas Edition 1911 pistols." The handgun features "Come and Take It" on the left of an ivory grip and the Lone Star flag on the right. (We're pretty sure we've seen this tattooed on Texans all over the state. Now they can have it on their firearm too.)

ITS OFFICIAL: Texans love guns more than any other state

"Whether you're looking to make a statement at an upcoming barbecue, round out your collection, or utilize the proven 1911 design for personal protection, the new Texas Edition pistol will not disappoint!," Kimber spokesman Winslow Potter told guns.com.

The release is meant to celebrates Texans' "superior American values and 2nd Amendment rights activism."



In case you were wondering, this is only "one of the most Texas guns you'll ever see" because we're pretty sure this German Sig Sauer 1911 actually is the most Texas gun you'll ever see.

Its silver inlay is engraved with a quote from Sam Houston that says: "Texas has yet to learn suppression to any oppression" on the left and the Lone Star on the right.

Come and take that, New York.

If you've seen a more Texas gun let us know in the comments below.
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Texas' Republican senators formally recommended Ryan Patrick - a former state district judge and son of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick - as their choice for the U.S. attorney's post in the Southern District of Texas, according to a source familiar with the process.

The recommendation sets in motion a nomination process - including White House vetting - that could take months before President Donald Trump decides whether to formally nominate him for the job.

Ultimately, Patrick would need approval of the U.S. Senate before taking charge of the Houston region, a plum position that oversees the busiest criminal docket in the nation.

Patrick declined to comment Friday about the latest development.

The Chronicle reported Thursday that the former judge had been chosen by Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, according to an internal email sent by Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez in Houston.

Martinez sent the email Thursday to staff in the 43 counties that make up the sprawling Southern District of Texas. Martinez said he would not comment on the email, which he said was not intended for public distribution.

Patrick, 38, confirmed Thursday that he traveled to Washington, D.C. several weeks ago to interview for the position with the two senators.

The Southern District of Texas stretches from the Louisiana border through Houston, Galveston, and Corpus Christi to the Mexican border in Laredo. The district sees a massive influx of immigration, drug and human trafficking cases and oversees expansive Medicare fraud and white-collar investigations.

The U.S. attorney's post has been vacant since March, when Ken Magidson was asked to resign by the Trump administration along with 45 other U.S. attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama.

Officials with Cruz and Cornyn have likewise declined to comment.

Ryan Patrick, a popular judge who has impeccable Republican credentials, has been in private practice since he lost a 2016 bid to retain his position as state district judge for the 177th court in Harris County. Democrats swept all the judgeships on the ballot in November, pushing out Patrick and a number of other Republicans.

A graduate of South Texas College of Law in Houston, Ryan Patrick worked six years as a Harris County assistant district attorney before being appointed in 2012 to the state district court seat in Harris County by Gov. Rick Perry, who now serves in Trump's cabinet.

Patrick's father has been an ardent supporter of Trump, calling the president's victory "the most historic presidential election in the history of this nation."
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If you're a native Texan, at some point you probably gazed at the majestic orange and white W as you drove into the parking lot of the Texas-based chain Whataburger.

You've probably craved the honey butter chicken biscuit at odd hours. You've probably argued with others who don't deem it the best burger in Texas.

And possibly you've pocketed a "table tent" number that marks your order number.

WE ALL DO IT: 21 things Texans do that would be weird anywhere else

(Story continues below.)

If you haven't --- well, what have you been doing? A Wall Street Journal story published Friday discussed the notably Texas trend of mozying off with the numbers when no one is looking.

"Misappropriating an orange-and-white-striped Whataburger order number has become a rite of passage of sorts in the Lone Star State, where some posit you can't be truly Texan unless you've filched a tent or two ... or 10," the story reads.

One teenager from Cypress told the Wall Street Journal that the tradition is "a big Texas thing."

The practice became craze-making for cops in Cross Roads, a small town in northeast Denton County, according to a story in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. Teens were taking so many table tents that at one point the police station had more tents than the local Whataburger.

They warned teens in February that taking the tents could be cited as theft of property.

But it isn't just rebellious teens nabbing the markers, but police officers too.

KPRC cameras show the numbers being used to mark a shooting scene in March on West Little York Drive.

Apparently, police officers use whatever they can to mark evidence --- even orange and white numbers from a fast food chain.

HPD spokesman Victor Senties told the Wall Street Journal that Whataburger tents can pose a contamination risk.

"In a pinch, they utilize whatever they can get their hands on," Senties said.

Whataburgers are located across other southern states too, but with the Lone Star State hailing the most restaurants at 668, it's not a stretch to understand why the practice has become a Texas one.

Blake Miller, who got a Whataburger-themed tattoo, told the Wall Street Journal the place is a hometown tradition.

"It's just where we go, like a second home," he said.
Living in Texas can be dangerous business.

Luckily, Texans and visitors to the state have the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to save them.

Here's the latest set of field notes from the department.

Remote Recovery

On the evening of July 2, Val Verde County game wardens responded to a call for help on a medical emergency from canoers that were paddling the Devils River. The group of 12 paddlers were reporting a death of one of the group along a very remote section of the river. The wardens coordinated with State Parks personnel to get the County Sheriff's Evidence/Crime Scene Unit and the justice of the peace to the location. Due to the remote area of the incident, the coordination for extraction of the deceased, the 11 remaining paddlers, their equipment and canoes and transport of all personnel turned into a 12 hour operation. The 25-year-old victim had died of natural causes.

Running from the Law

Game wardens were checking bank fishermen in Delta County when they encountered a subject whom they had arrested recently on drug possession and weapons charges. During a pat down search of the subject, drug paraphernalia was found in his pants pocket. When the wardens attempted to arrest the subject, he violently resisted and assaulted both wardens. The wardens were able to subdue the suspect and take him into custody. However, while waiting for a transport unit from the Greenville Police Department to arrive, the subject fled on foot while handcuffed. Wardens gave chase and captured the subject, who was attempting to hide near a fence. Multiple felony charges were filed against the subject.

Stuck in the Mud

Harris County game wardens were patrolling an area for reported poaching activity. At dusk, they spotted a truck trespassing along a power line easement on county property. The truck attempted to drive away and the wardens split up and moved to intercept it at one of two exit points further ahead of the vehicle. After dark, the truck and its occupants were located near the easement stuck in the mud on a flood control levee. After discharging a 12 gauge shotgun in an effort to signal others, the suspects were detained. Subsequent interviews revealed the subjects were trespassing and hunting hogs on county property without landowner consent. A 12 gauge shotgun, ammunition and a flashlight were seized. Charges are pending.

Caught on Camera Stealing Cameras

A Grimes County game warden responded to a call from a landowner stating he had captured video of an individual stealing game cameras and battery packs off his property. After reviewing the video evidence, the warden was able to link this case to an investigation earlier this year regarding the same individual. The suspect was found to be awaiting trial in the Brazos County Jail for burglary of a habitation. The warden made contact with the Brazos County district attorney and handed over all information regarding the suspect on this case. New charges of criminal trespassing and theft are currently pending.

Mullet Runner

A Matagorda County game warden was checking bank fisherman when he observed an individual throwing a cast net and placing mullet in a large ice chest. When the warden made contact with the individual, he admitted to not having a fishing license, and did not have any other identification. He also stated he was catching mullet to sell to bait camps for another person under their bait dealer's license. The warden could smell marijuana when he approached the individual, and when he asked about it, the subject took off running. The warden gave chase and observed the subject throw some kind of substance in the salt grass while running. He was able to catch the subject and place him into handcuffs. The subject admitted that he had a small amount of marijuana and he threw it while running away. A brief search along their back trail revealed a small clear plastic bag that contained marijuana residue. The subject told the warden that he was scared and did not want to go back to jail. He was just released from jail the day before, after being placed on probation for running from the police. The warden transported the subject to the Matagorda County Jail where he was charged with evading arrest/detention, tampering with physical evidence, and no fishing license.

A Downed Fence is Still a Fence

A Dimmit County game warden was patrolling for fishing enforcement when he spotted a pickup truck parked behind a cluster of trees, up against a fence, quite a distance from the river bridge. Upon closer inspection, several fishing related items were in the bed of the pickup. Figuring that the person, or persons, possibly jumped the fence next to the truck to fish further down river, the warden and an assisting county sheriff's deputy, initiated a search for the vehicle's owner. They made contact with a local man and his son who were returning from the river through the private property and led them back to the truck. When the man was informed that they were trespassing, the man stated, "I thought it was OK to go into the property because part of the fence was pushed down from the last flood." The man was issued a citation for trespassing. The case is pending.

Failed Illegal Entry

Game wardens were patrolling the Rio Grande by boat when they observed five individuals swimming across the river in an attempt to make illegal entry into the United States. Upon seeing the wardens, the individuals turned back for the Mexican shoreline. Four of the five successfully returned to Mexico, but one struggled on the U.S. side of the river. The individual was unable to stay above water and began actively drowning. The wardens rescued the individual and pulled him aboard their vessel. The individual was brought back to the boat ramp and turned over to U.S. Border Patrol.

Going Overboard

Over the July 4 extended holiday weekend, game wardens patrolling Lake Travis around Lakeway and Rough Hollow observed a boat pass by with an individual standing up at the front bow "surfing." Upon seeing the warden boat, the subject sat down and several other occupants appeared to be hiding/stowing items in several compartments as a stop was initiated by the wardens. In all, there were 10 people on the boat ranging in age from 15-18 years old. A strong odor of alcohol was apparent along with a large quantity of evidence of alcoholic beverage consumption. The boat and occupants were escorted ashore where field sobriety tests were administered on the vessel operator, who was later identified as being 16 years of age with a blood alcohol level of 0.196. Due to the level of intoxication of the teenagers, their demeanor, and several attempts by a few to leave the scene or incite violence and interfere with the investigation, the wardens called for assistance from other law enforcement agencies. Multiple cases were filed and are pending.

Snagged in the Act of Snagging

Smith County game wardens were patrolling by truck around Lake Palestine when they observed a man in the water at an old boat ramp using a metal pole with a large treble hook affixed to one end trying to catch flathead catfish. After making contact, citations were issued for fishing with illegal means and methods and no fishing license.

Bucked Off and Busted

A Montgomery County game warden responded to a reported boat accident on Lake Conroe where a personal watercraft operator had hit a wave, was ejected from his jet ski and could not pull himself back on. When the warden was asking the operator about the accident, he believed alcohol could be involved. After a complete investigation, the operator was arrested for boating while intoxicated. The case is pending.
If you're afraid of snakes, don't watch this video.

Scott Mollett of Sunnyvale, Texas said he recently came across a cottonmouth snake while he and his daughter were trimming trees in his yard. Wanting to keep his daughters and animals safe, Mollett beheaded the snake, with a surprising result.

TEXAS SNAKES: Copperhead snakes take multiple bites out of North Texas man

Despite being severed from the body, the snake's head continues to move, it's nerves still twitching even though it was dead.

Story continues below...

"It definitely still could have bitten anyone," Mollett said.

Mollett said he's seen a lot of articles vilifying him after the video went viral. Metro, a United Kingdom outlet, called it an "unfortunate snake" and cited the Snake Removal Nationwide Service, saying they should have left the snake alone. AOL and Mashable reported the story in a similar fashion, citing Wildlife Removal USA.

Mollett said he was shocked that outlets have condemned him for removing a venomous animal.

"A lot of people ask why didn't you call animal control or the police. My town doesn't even have a police force," Mollett said. He added animal control operations are generally heavily underfunded and don't have time to respond to every call about snakes. "We don't have those resources or options. We have to protect ourselves."

SNAKE CHARMER: Texas officer charms snake found in a house while his sergeant screams out of fear

Mollet said he used the opportunity to teach his daughters about venomous snakes and how to properly dispose of them. Since he didn't have a gun, he said he chose to sever the head, as he was taught growing up.

"There are some things that we can't have living around our house and one of them is venomous snakes," Mollett told Chron.com.

He added that he grew up on a farm and does not hate animals. Mollett said he doesn't kill non-venomous snakes.

Click through the slideshow above to learn how to identify snakes.
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A 17-year-old Austin man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly shot a man to death after a Backpage.com meet-up turned sour.

Julian Jose Medrano now faces a charge of murder. He remains in the Travis County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

RELATED: Former county emergency services official accused of stealing at least $30,000

According to a statement from the Austin Police Department, Medrano's victim, 43-year-old Dunieski Castillo-Leyva, and two other acquaintances responded to a "sexually-oriented ad" on Backpage.com.

The three men drove to an apartment in the 2500 block of Anken Drive around 1 a.m. on Sunday to receive the proffered services, but during the transaction, an argument broke out when the services were not given.

"When Castillo-Leyva and his companions requested their money be returned a violent argument ensued," according to the Austin Police Department.

RELATED: Man admits to fondling boys at San Antonio golf course

Castillo-Leyva and the other men then fled the apartment to Castillo-Leyva's truck and began to back out, but Medrano, who is associated with the apartment in some way, ran out and allegedly fired one gunshot at the vehicle.

The bullet struck Castillo-Leyva and killed him. His truck, still in gear, crashed into several other vehicles before coming to a stop, according to police.

Police expect Medrano to face additional charges in connection with the slaying.

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cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
AUSTIN -- Mike Ward is on special assignment, traveling to Washington this week, so I tackled the podcast duties solo today. Here's some of what's happening on the show:

It's official: Governor Greg Abbott announced his re-election campaign just after 3 p.m. Friday in San Antonio, where he also announced his first gubernatorial campaign exactly four years ago.

"It's great to be back in a town where I once waited on tables," Abbott said as he first took the stage following an introduction from his daughter, Aubrey Abbott, who joked about how tough it had been on her father when she chose to go to college in California.

As of yet, Abbott is facing no serious gubernatorial opponents, so he turned to George Soros and Nancy Pelosi to rile up the crowd against "far left liberals."

While he was scaring the base of the GOP with that, we also took a look at what average Texans are saying now that Gov. Abbott is once again running for the state's top elected position.

RELATED: Abbott in 2018? Texas governor makes it official

With less than a week to go before the start of the special session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shifted his focus to address Speaker Joe Straus' top priority: Public education. As has been the case all year, they do not see eye to eye on a path forward. The speaker, however, welcomed Patrick to the debate he's been asking for all along.

Lt. Gov. Patrick said that his plan to bolster school finance was a "serious plan" compared to the Speaker's preferred blueprint carried by Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Kingwood, during the regular session.

"That was nothing more than an education 'Ponzi scheme,'" Patrick said.

"Let me remind you that the Speaker's school finance plan took $1.5 billion dollars from the foundation school plan. It will have delayed paying school districts one month, to give them the same money back," Patrick said. "Of course, as you all know, that money would have to be paid back at some point. Again, I want to emphasize: there was no funding in the Speaker's finance plan. It was a 'Ponzi scheme.'"

In response, Straus threw some shade.

"It's encouraging to see the Lieutenant Governor's newfound focus on school finance reform," Straus said. "Nothing could be more important in this special session than beginning to fix our school finance system so that we improve education, keep more local dollars in local schools, and provide real property tax relief, just as the House overwhelmingly approved in the regular session."

Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso congressman taking on Sen. Ted Cruz for his seat next year was able to out-raise Cruz for this reporting period. O'Rourke's campaign announced it had raised $2.1 million in April, May, and June to Cruz's $1.6 million. Cruz has 5.7 million cash on hand to O'Rourke's $1.9 million.

As always, we've got the lowdown on all the political meltdowns on the Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand. From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading podcast about Lone Star politics.
Lakehead Public Schools math camp participants show off the fruits of their labour, including their certificates of completion, at the end of a three-week pilot project which combined teaching math with learning carpentry. At left from front to back are Cheyenne Belmore, Zahraa Alsumadi, Tienchee Liu, Hailey Lester and Ceara Jarva-Anderson. At right from front to back are Bryce Meservier, Tye Dobson, Jacob Turek and Josh Semple.
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.
Watches are not rocket science. Or are they? Watches are not rocket...

Perhaps you dont have a PhD. Well, thats a shame, because with some watches, youll need one to understand how to tell the time. Perhaps you dont have a PhD. Well,...
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Chennai, July 15 : The first look of actor Jayam Ravi-starrer "Tik Tik Tik", said to be Tamil cinemas first space film, will be unveiled on July 17, its makers announced on Saturday.The film, which is on the verge of completion, marks the reunion of Ravi and director Shakti Soundar Rajan after last year's Tamil zombie thriller "Miruthan".



Tipped to be a race against time thriller, the film also stars Nivetha Pethuraj and Singaporean actor Aziz Aaron.Talking about the film, Shakti told IANS: "We have explored the space genre in a commercial set up. It's very challenging to engage audience when the story shifts to space as there are not too many elements to play with.""Our film has no romance and even the songs have been shot as montages but we have elements we think will appeal to everybody." Produced by Hitesh Jhabak, the film has music by D. Imman.
Copiii cu nevoi speciale din Stefan Voda au conditii de reabilitare mai bune, datorita UE si Fundatiei Soros Moldova
PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- Trespassing, breaking and entering, theft; numerous locations: A Cleveland man, 56, on parole for previous break-ins and thefts now faces a slew of additional charges at multiple area racquet and country clubs since his release from prison in May.

The suspect was picked up and held on July 4 by officers in Lyndhurst, based on security footage circulated among other departments by Pepper Pike police from the recent thefts.

The same man was arrested by Pepper Pike police back in 2006 for similar offenses.

He is believed to have gone right back to his old modus operandi of breaking into men's locker rooms at various country clubs -- at least four so far -- and stealing cash, credit cards and any other valuables he could exchange for drugs.

Police declined to elaborate until additional formal charges are filed.

Drunk driving (felony), driving under suspension, wrong way around one-way rotary traffic islands (roundabouts), no seat belt; Brainard Circle: A Canton man, 28, was stopped around 4:30 a.m. on July 9 going the wrong way around Brainard Circle -- which happens to run past City Hall and the police station.

He refused a Breathalyzer, although police said he appeared to be intoxicated and also had prior convictions, leading to the charge being elevated to a felony.

Driving under suspension, warrant served; Chagrin Boulevard: A Cleveland man, 35, was turned over to Bentleyville police July 11 on one of two active warrants a Pepper Pike patrol officer found through a random registration check that also showed his license was suspended. His car was towed from the scene.



Fraud, Pinetree Road: A real estate agent reported July 9 that a house she is selling was the subject fraudulent post in which a scammer advertised a rent reduced by more than half along with a $775 "security deposit" that would result in money being wired to the criminal's account.

The listing was removed and the post was forwarded to the FBI Internet Crime Unit.

Fraud, illegal use of credit cards; Fairmount Boulevard: A resident, 81, came to the police station on July 6 to make a credit card fraud report, with an investigation pending.

Drunk driving, car crash, hit-skip, assured clear distance; Brainard Road: Police responded to a hit-and-run accident in the area of South Woodland and Brainard roads just before 7 p.m. on July 6 in which the occupants of the other car, a Pepper Pike couple, were not seriously injured after being rear-ended. The driver of the other car fled the scene as Beachwood police arrived.

Police caught up with the suspect, a Solon man, 36, a short time later on Brainard just south of Shaker Boulevard, where they said an obvious odor of alcohol was detected from within his car. He refused to perform any sobriety tests but was still charged with high threshold alcohol levels.

Impaired driving, drug abuse, Brainard and South Woodland roads: Police responded to a reported car crash around 4:45 p.m. on July 5, with a Beachwood man, 24, taken into custody, along with an unlabeled prescription bottle containing 11 pills.

Damage to property, Chagrin Boulevard: Shortly after 7 p.m. on July 4, police responded to an alarm at the old Orange Library. They found the exterior pane of glass on a south door had been broken with a rock, although the interior pane was still intact.

The building was secure and no entry was made, with dispatchers contacting building maintenance to board up the door.

Driving under suspension, expired plates, auto towed; Lander Road: A Pepper Pike woman, 27, was stopped and cited July 2 after an unsuccessful attempt to evade police who found a suspended license during a random registration check on her plate -- which was also expired.

Marijuana possession, drug paraphernalia; Chagrin Boulevard: A Solon boy, 17, was stopped near Orange High School where he was driving at a high rate of speed around 7:30 p.m. on July 2. He was cited and released after police found suspected marijuana, as well as an electronic cigarette and glass tip.

Fraud, Edgewood Drive: A resident, 55, came to the police station on July 13 to report someone had opened up an account using his personal information through the Sprint network.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
Two German tourists were killed and four other tourists injured at a resort in Hurghada when a man attacked them with a knife, Al-Ahram Arabic reported on Friday afternoon.

The injured include one Czech woman and two Armenian women, a source at Hurghada General Hospital told Ahram Online.

The nationality of the fourth tourist was not immediately clear. All of those attacked are women.

According to a short statement from the Egyptian interior ministry, the assailant, who was arrested after the attack, had swum to the resort from a nearby public beach.

Security sources in Hurghada security directorate told Al-Ahram Arabic's correspondent in the city that the suspect was named as Abdel-Rahman Shams El-Din, 28, an Egyptian from the Nile Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh.

Al-Ahram named the resort where events took place as Sunny Days Palacio.

The German foreign ministry released a statement condemning the attacks, and added that the German nationality of the two slain tourists had not yet been confirmed.

The interior ministry has not issued any more details about the assailant or his motives, nor any details about the injured tourists.

The governor of Red Sea governorate, Ahmed Abdullah, cut short his holiday in Cairo and returned to the governorate, where resort town Hurghada is located, to follow up on the incident, Al-Ahram reported.

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EUCLID, Ohio -- Icis Shufford wants her mother to be remembered after she was found dead in a Euclid apartment Tuesday.

She described her mother, LaMia Lanay Williams, as an "amazing mother."

"She was a laugher," she said. "She was always smiling in person. She always lit up the room."

Williams, 35, was found dead in an apartment at the Normandy Towers on Lake Shore Boulevard near East 250th Street.

Williams' death was ruled a homicide.

Edwin Watkins, 40, also was found dead in the apartment, records show. Officials have not determined the manner of death for Watkins.

Neither the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office nor the Euclid Police Department have said how they died.

Watkins was Williams' long-time boyfriend and they lived together in the apartment, Shufford said.

Shufford saw her mother two weeks ago when she came to visit her in Florida. She always liked to spend time with her children and did everything her children wanted to do, Shufford said. Shufford has a brother.

"Every time she comes to see me we always go to the animal shelter," she said.

Williams did other things with her children when they were together like visiting farmers markets, shopping at thrift stores, roller skating or just sitting at home watching movies.

Shufford said she can't be sad because she knows that her mother is in a much happier place now.

"I want her to be remembered as much as possible," she said. "I don't want people to think about what happened, I want them to remember the memories they had with my mother."

Williams worked in retail most of her life, with the majority of her time at Target, Shufford said.

But she got a new job making airplane parts not long before she was killed, Shufford said.

Shufford wants to keep her mother's spirit alive and plans to bring her mother up in conversation whenever she can and do activities that her mother liked to do as if she were still here.

Euclid police have not released a copy of the incident report or any 911 calls related to the incident.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying desperately to get a health care plan through his chamber before the end of the month, but he's hit several roadblocks along the way. Protesters have swarmed his caucus members' offices and the bill holds an approval rating in the teens.

As with most things politics, Ohio is playing an outsized role in the national debate, especially with two key Republican players in Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.

The two fill very different roles - Kasich as the intra-party opposition force and Portman as one of the key votes in moving the legislation forward.

What's the rush?

One word: reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a tool in the Senate that bypasses the legislative filibuster and requires only 51 votes to pass. In the case of Republicans, they would only need 50, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the deciding tie-breaker vote.

To use reconciliation, a bill cannot increase the deficit significantly within a 10-year window. Congress has until Sep. 30 to use reconciliation. Should they not reach that deadline, they would have to pass another budget resolution, further delaying the vote.

Beyond that, Republicans also want to move on to other issues like tax reform and infrastructure, but largely feel hamstrung after six years of promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

Also looming is the need to increase the debt ceiling - a once routine procedure that has been anything but in recent years - as well as a spending bill - the first of President Donald Trump's administration.

Should they fail, their base could abandon them in upcoming elections.

Kasich

Kasich has been at the forefront of Republican opposition to the bill as possibly the most vocal detractor of the plan.

He's vehemently opposed each iteration of the bill, fearing the steep Medicaid cuts could boot Ohioans from their health care coverage.

"The Senate plan is still unacceptable," Kasich said in a statement Friday. "... These shortcomings flow from the fact that the Senate plan commits the same error as Obamacare -- it's not bipartisan. It fails to bring solutions from both sides to the table that can ensure we aren't simply replacing one divisive plan with another."

Gov. John Kasichs statement on the Senate health care reform bill: pic.twitter.com/0LCBu5B0xh  John Kasich (@JohnKasich) July 14, 2017

Under Obamacare, states had the option of expanding their Medicaid rolls to cover people earning 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less.

Kasich was one of those governors who elected to expand Medicaid. As a result, 700,000 Ohioans who previously did not qualify for health insurance received coverage.

Kasich's taken on the role of the "compassionate conservative" in this debate, a holdover from his presidential campaign where he pushed a much softer stance than the hard lines of Trump and even the likes of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas.

For Kasich, the health care debate is also another cog in his ongoing criticism of the Trump administration.

Other governors have followed suit, especially those from Medicaid expansion states like Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican and close friend of Kasich's, who has also been highly critical of congressional Republicans' attempts at repealing Obamacare.

Portman

Portman, while not as vocal, is probably much more crucial to Senate leadership in the debate.

Why? He gets a vote and holds some sway.

Portman is one of the leaders of the more moderate group of Republicans in the Senate and his vote means everything to this debate. He came out against the previous Senate plan in a joint statement with U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, hours after McConnell announced he was delaying the vote.

One of Portman's main sticking points was funding for opioid treatment, much of which comes from Medicaid.

Portman's voice is magnified by his reputation as center-right Republican who doesn't strictly adhere to party dogma and a former director of the Office of Management and Budget.

There are a few scenarios that could play out as the debate moves forward. The bill released Thursday teeters more to the right to woo conservative members who felt the original plan was a sort of Obamacare-light.

The motion to proceed

Before senators can even debate on the bill, they must first vote on a "motion to proceed." Basically, it means Republicans need 51 votes to move forward to floor debate where any number of amendments can be introduced.

Right now, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky are no votes on the motion to proceed. With Democrats unified in voting no, that leaves it at an even 50-50 split, enough to move forward with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence.

Portman hasn't indicated how he would eventually vote on a motion to proceed, but if he says no, the bill is essentially dead.

Floor votes

If Republicans are successful in bringing the bill to the floor, Portman's vote is even more crucial. While he doesn't control the whole moderate caucus, he does function as a sort of barometer for moderate members.

Let's assume the bill is altered so conservatives like Cruz and Paul get on board.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, a Republican up for reelection in 2018 who represents a Medicaid expansion state that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, is currently a no. Heller will likely get a pass from leadership since he is electorally vulnerable.

Collins of Maine is already a steadfast no and seems unlikely to be swayed into voting for a bill that cuts Medicaid.

Again, this puts the vote back at 50-50, with a handful of moderates still not on board.

Basically, leadership can't afford to give Portman a pass on the bill. He's not up for reelection until 2022 and more vulnerable members like Heller, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Cory Gardner of Colorado face impending elections in swing states in both 2018 and 2020.

The buyout

When Portman came out against the Senate plan several weeks ago, he cited opioid treatment as one of his chief concerns.

"For months, I have engaged with my colleagues on solutions that I believe are necessary to ensure that we improve our health care system and combat this opioid epidemic," Portman said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the Senate draft falls short and therefore I cannot support it in its current form."

Tucked into revisions of the bill is $45 billion in funding for combating opioids, a likely attempt to buy off Portman and Capito, who also came out against the bill.

The big question is if this is enough to change Portman's mind.

Kasich said the funding was like "spitting in the ocean."

But the funding does give Portman some cover if he decides to vote yes, especially after his statement on the original version of the bill - a "look what I brought home" defense to any of his detractors.

If Portman votes yes

If Portman votes yes, expect several other moderate senators to also defer to yes. As previously stated, he doesn't necessarily control the vote, but is a barometer and well-respected member of the caucus.

So where is Portman?

He said in a statement he is reviewing the new version and wants to see a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimated 22 million more people would be uninsured by 2026 under the earlier Senate plan.

Trump and Pence

Trump has mostly been quiet on negotiations, save for a few statements and some tweets.

The administration does have a lot of clout in Ohio, though. An 8-point victory in the state helped seal one of the biggest presidential election upsets in history.

Since then, he's made his presence known. During elections for party chair, Trump personally called central committee members to lobby for Jane Timken, who eventually won the spot. He also visited the state during his victory lap.

But perhaps more telling is Pence's numerous visits to Ohio. Pence is Trump's chief negotiator at the Capitol, having served in Congress and knowing many of the players.

Pence's work helped garner support from Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan's far-right conservative House Freedom Caucus during the House debate over Obamacare, which proved crucial to its passage.

Pence has visited the state several times. During a visit in June, he guaranteed a version of "repeal and replace" would make its way to the president's desk.

The vice president is also slated to be in Columbus for a fundraiser for the Ohio Republican Party next weekend, where he will no doubt address health care.

What's next?

Kasich doesn't appear to be anywhere close to persuadable on the bill and will likely remain the most vocal Republican against the plan.

Portman is another story.

His statements indicate opposition, but have left the door open to him voting yes. He hasn't been remotely as outspoken as Kasich, or even some of his colleagues like Collins and Heller, so he could switch sides in theory.

All the while, Portman is between a rock and a hard place. Kasich's public pleas to find a different solution could put pressure on the senator. The governor is still fairly popular and even though he will be term-limited in 2018, his words carry a lot of weight, especially as he makes the rounds on cable news and the Sunday talk shows.

Kasich recently vetoed portions of the state budget from Republicans in Columbus to freeze the Medicaid expansion in Ohio. The Legislature failed to overturn those vetoes.

Meanwhile, leadership is trying to lean on Portman to come to their side. The administration's presence in the state and Trump's popularity complicate Portman's decision to either stand with the governor or go along with the administration.
When Ohioans get their electric bills every month, whatever thought crosses their minds, this one doesn't: "Hey, the legislature and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio are really holding down rates."

In Ohio, lobbies for public utilities, insurance companies and banks sit pretty at the Statehouse, with Ohio's nursing home and oil-and-gas lobbies also at the head table. No surprise, then, that Ohio's Republican-run House overrode some Medicaid-related budget items that Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed. If the Senate, also GOP-run, also overrides those item-vetoes, the net effect would be to limit Kasich's options for managing the Ohio Medicaid program's nursing home costs.

Then there's the Kasich item-veto about a hot-button environmental issue: gas and oil exploration.

The fracking boom in heavily Republican Appalachia seems to have made oil and gas lobbyists nothing but good guys in the eyes of Republican legislators. So, they've spurned Kasich's bids to raise Ohio's puny severance taxes.

In 2011, Kasich signed a bill passed by the legislature's Republicans that opened state parks to oil and gas exploration. (Got a hard hat, Bambi?) The bill also created the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission. The commission's job is to select the "highest and best" bidders for oil and gas leases of state-owned land.

But Kasich hasn't appointed anyone to the commission. No commissioners, no leases; no leases, no drilling.

That evidently has ticked off some Republicans in the General Assembly. They folded an amendment into House Bill 49, Ohio's new budget. The amendment would strip Kasich of the power to appoint the members of the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission. Instead, the budget amendment would give Ohio House Speaker Clifford Rosenberger, of southwest Ohio's Clinton County, and state Senate President Larry Obhof, of Medina, both Republicans, the power to appoint the Leasing Commission's members.

True, in the early 1800s, the (first) Ohio Constitution did give the General Assembly the power to make appointments. But legislators abused it; Ohio's first attorney general, Henry Stanbery, said General Assembly members had brought "into odium" the legislature's "great patronage and power of appointment."

So, since 1851, ten years before the Civil War, the (second) Ohio Constitution has said "no appointing power shall be exercised by the General Assembly."

Kasich (as he should have) item-vetoed the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission budget amendment, saying that what the legislature was trying to do "would transfer appointment authority ... from the governor to the General Assembly." Actually, that's not exactly what the HB 49 amendment said. It said the legislature's two leaders, not the legislature as a whole, would appoint the commission's members.

The House, in a 68-29 tally, overrode Kasich's line-item veto. If the Senate does, too, someone just might consider asking a court what separation of powers means in Ohio. At the moment, the answer seems to be, "Not much."

If you pull at that thread at the right time in front of the right judges, a lot might unravel, as when Greater Clevelanders challenged gerrymandering of the General Assembly (the late James D. Nolan) or unfair property tax assessments (the late David W. Swetland in the Park Investment litigation). Those cases spawned sea changes in Ohio.

Lawyering aside, there's this: Why should an officeholder last elected with the support of 38,000 voters (House Speaker Rosenberger) or 114,000 votes (Senate President Obhof) have arguably more sway than Kasich, last elected with 1.9 million votes, over land that belongs to all Ohioans? To ask the question is to answer it.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689

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But in a story told on the next episode of CNBC's "American Greed," Clarke and Carlile would end up dead  extreme examples of the danger of not doing a proper background check, which in Henrikson's case would have turned up multiple arrests for assault, drugs, weapons violations and fraud.

Kristopher "KC" Clarke, an old motorcycle racing buddy of Henrikson's from Washington state, agreed to sign on as operations manager. Then a few years later, when Henrikson decided to branch out into oil drilling, he took on a partner  construction contractor Doug Carlile.

Thirty-two years old and exuding charisma, Henrikson had something everyone wanted during those go-go days in 2006. At a time when half the battle in North Dakota was getting workers, equipment and oil from place to place, Henrikson owned a trucking business  Blackstone Trucking.

Willingham says beware of commercial web sites that claim to allow you to do a complete background check  one-stop shopping  for a price.

It may seem intimidating at first, but most court documents are public records, and you have every right to see them. Of course, it helps to know what you are looking for. Willingham says many states have central repositories where you can search for criminal records. In many states  and the number is increasing all the time  the records are available online. So you can start at the state level and see if you need to make a trip to the courthouse.

"Criminal history is one of ... the basic steps to determine whether somebody or not has any issues in their past," Willingham said.

Sometimes there is no substitute for some good old-fashioned legwork. That may mean going to the local courthouse to see if the person has a criminal past.

But that does not have to mean hiring an expensive private eye. Willingham, a private investigator with more than 15 years experience and a Certified Fraud Examiner, shared some of his secrets exclusively with "American Greed."

"Anytime there's a lot of risk, whether it's financial, personal, you might want to look into somebody's background to see if there's any potential red flags that you may identify about what they've done in their past," Willingham said.

New York private investigator Brian Willingham, founder of the Diligentia Group , says no matter how well you think you know a person, once the relationship moves to a position of trust, you need to protect yourself.

Anytime there's a lot of risk, whether it's financial, personal, you might want to look into somebody's background to see if there's any potential red flags that you may identify about what they've done in their past.

"There's no such thing as sort of a nationwide criminal records search," Willingham said. "A lot of these databases will claim to have records that cover the entire nation, but the reality is that something like 70 or 80 percent of criminal records are not available online."

But you can do your own nationwide search of the federal courts, where some of the most serious criminal cases are tried. Most federal court records  particularly from cases in the past 20 years  are available online through a government database known as Pacer, for public access to court electronic records.

"Pacer is a phenomenal source, partly because you can access court documents directly from there," Willingham said.

The first step is to set up a Pacer account online. The service is not free, but it is not expensive either  just 10 cents per page, with a maximum of $3 per document. And if your charges do not exceed $15 in a quarter, you won't get billed at all.

In addition to criminal cases, Pacer allows you to search civil cases. That can uncover disputes your subject might have had with previous business partners. It will also show whether your subject has had trouble with regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which bring charges in civil rather than criminal courts.

Federal court is also where all bankruptcy proceedings take place  business and personal  so you can use Pacer to see if your subject or any of his companies ever went bankrupt, who his creditors were and how things turned out.

License, please

You might be surprised to know how many jobs require a license in many states.

Even if the job has nothing to do with the reason you and your new business partner are getting together, you can learn a lot from his or her history with state regulators. Maybe he was a barber, a contractor, or an auto mechanic. Wouldn't it be good to know how he got along with his customers? Check with your state's office of professional regulation or secretary of state's office to get started. And if the subject is involved in a profession, there is a treasure trove of information available.

"As an investment professional you need to be licensed," Willingham said. "A private investigator needs to be licensed, doctors, lawyers, and each state has boards that regulate these licenses. So that would be one of the first things I would check on somebody's background is to verify that one, that they have a license, and two, whether any of these licenses have any regulatory actions, complaints filed against them."

In the case of an attorney, be sure to check with the bar association in the state where he or she is licensed. The American Bar Association has an online directory of state chapters where you can see if the attorney is operating in good standing.

For a financial professional, check out the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) online Broker Check, which will give you the person's employment and disciplinary history.

Give me the news

There was a time when private investigators looking for dirt on a subject would have to go to the local newspaper, trying to get an overworked employee to let them search through back issues for bad publicity.

Nowadays, of course, there is Google. But Willingham says that should just be your starting point.

Some newspapers will let your search their entire archives online for free, or for just the cost of a subscription. There are also paid databases such as LexisNexis, but they can be expensive. So Willingham suggests a seemingly old school approach: going to the library.

"A lot of times you'll find local libraries will have access to historical newspaper databases, so you can go down to your local library and in many cases you can log in through your local library and get that information," he said. "So it's a great source of information that should not be missed."

And while you are online at the library or at home, do not forget social media, where pretty much everyone  intentionally or otherwise  reveals things about themselves.

"In some cases, they're posting things to make themselves look bigger and grander than they really are. For example, an investment professional might be posting pictures of their beautiful house, or their beautiful cars, to kind of show the public that they are very wealthy or they have an enormous amount of wealth to give the impression that they have a lot of things," Willingham said. "Obviously you want to look for the red flags. If they're saying horrible things about certain groups of people or types of people, if they are sort of flashing their wealth, that's something that I certainly would be concerned about."
Guterres was keen to communicate with Shoukry ahead of his Holy Land visit to learn about Egypts evaluation of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories

Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received a phone call Friday from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ahead of the latters visit to Palestine and Israel, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement read.

Guterres was keen to communicate with Shoukry ahead of his Holy Land visit to learn about Egypts evaluation of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the statement read.

Egypt recently hosted a Hamas delegation for talks with Egyptian officials on the resumption of Palestinian national reconciliation efforts, followed by a visit from Palestines President Mahmoud Abbas who discussed with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi latest efforts to revive Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

Egypt has repeatedly underlined the importance of reaching a fair and comprehensive political settlement to the Palestinian issue, arguing that it would contribute to stability in the Middle East.

The ministry statement also said that Guterres discussed with Shoukry latest developments in Libya as well as the Qatar crisis.

Four Arab states  Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt  severed diplomatic relations with Qatar 5 June, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and Iran, charges Doha has denied. A number of other Arab and Muslim countries followed suit.

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The city of Tracy, California, is flanked by clusters of warehouses on its east and west sides. The names on the buildings are familiar: Amazon , Costco , FedEx , Safeway, Crate and Barrel and others.

Located in California's Central Valley, Tracy's proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area has turned it into a prime spot for distribution hubs, and it's not alone.

With the boom in e-commerce and online shopping, companies have flocked to areas like the Central Valley, the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, central New Jersey and Dallas, Texas, to build their distribution and fulfillment centers. All these regions are close to major metropolitan areas and major roadways. For the residents of these regions, it means new job opportunities as an entire industry around e-commerce takes shape.

Tracy Mayor Robert Rickman said the benefits of this boom are widespread.

"The people who come to our jobs here in Tracy are not just from Tracy, but all throughout the region, and it increases our daytime population and in turn attracts other businesses here  restaurants, retail and commercial," Rickman said. "It's a trickling effect."

Tracy is close to major highways, the Port of Oakland and a nearby airport, making it an ideal location for e-commerce facilities, Rickman said. "The distribution centers and fulfillment centers can ship their goods pretty much anywhere from here in a very short amount of time."
Emmanuel Wong | Getty Images

Speculation is rife that China could create a "super regulator" at a major policy meeting this weekend as part of its efforts to curb risk in its financial system. The gathering, called the National Financial Work Conference, occurs every five years and started in 1997 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The closed-door meeting of top Chinese finance officials has addressed ways to manage the country's financial system and help support economic growth. This year's conference is expected to focus on reining in risks and on improving coordination among regulators. Chinese state financial paper, China Security Times, suggested that the current system of having one central bank and three regulatory agencies for banking, securities, and insurance, has entrenched interests which could present challenges.

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"It is a hard nut to crack to change this model," the Times said. "The biggest obstacle is attempting to re-assign responsibilities, power, and personnel." China's financial markets are monitored and regulated by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, and China Insurance Regulatory Commission. At times, the regulatory bodies do not act in tandem. The creation of a super regulator has been widely discussed within financial circles for years and gained traction after the 2015 stock market turmoil. At that time, President Xi Jinping ordered a plan to streamline financial oversight. President Xi is said to be attending this year's conference. One option believed to be debated is to consolidate regulatory power at the PBOC. Another proposal is to create a coordinating committee within the central bank. Either way, economists such as Xu Hongcai feel encouraged by the conference's agenda. "In grey areas in the financial markets, none of the (three regulatory commissions) were taking responsibility to fully monitor the situation," Xu, deputy chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told CNBC. "So certain products were left to grow wildly and this has created a lot of risk and fostered bribery and corruption."

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Source: Combat Gentlemen

Combatant Gentlemen, a technology-focused menswear start-up that developed a wide following for catering to "ballers on a budget," has apologized for a litany of customer service problems that prompted angry clients to publicly shame the company. For at least several months, the start-up  which launched in 2012 to sell men's clothing for bargain prices online and via its mobile app  has taken a beating on social media. Irate customers have festooned Combatant Gentlemen's social media pages with angry complaints over lengthy shipment delays, or not getting what they ordered at all.

On Friday, Combatant Gentlemen founder and CEO Vishaal Melwani was forced to acknowledge as much in an emotional letter he sent to customers. Melwani, a University of California, Irvine graduate and the son of tailors who worked for Versace, wrote that his company has been "struggling to fulfill [its] mission." Combat Gent's woes have coincided with the peak of the summer wedding season  a time when grooms and groomsmen flock to the company to purchase tuxedos at reasonable prices. "You may have seen the explanations  orders stuck on shipping containers, sizes out of stock, items backordered due to demand," the CEO wrote. "And while this all remains true, it really comes down to one thing: keeping up has proven incredibly difficult."

Trouble in 'baller' paradise?

From left, Scott Raio, Vishaal Melwani and Mohit Melwani of Combat Gentlemen Source: Combat Gentlemen

Combat Gent sells modern suits, tuxedos and business casual attire, with suit prices that range between $140 and $200. The company's curated approach to selling menswear has invited comparisons to Netflix and Amazon , using on-demand applications that generate recommendations based on user preferences. In a 2016 interview with CNBC, Melwani said the start-up viewed itself as "technology first and fashion second," for men who have an "innate need  to try and make money and still live a 'baller-esque' lifestyle." Combat Gent "tries to master fit and understand the guy from a data set," he added. In an interview with Business Insider published on Friday, Melwani faulted a factory in China which abruptly told the company it would not be able to fill an order for suits  which caused a "bottleneck" throughout Combat Gent's entire supply chain. "It literally sent shockwaves down us," Melwani told the publication. "When you scale fast, you have to be ready for the repercussions, and that's what we're learning."

Yet those production troubles have left countless numbers of dissatisfied clients in its wake. The company's troubles became apparent in the spring, when a number of complaints surfaced on Twitter , Instagram, Reddit and other platforms. Some complaints  which stretched back on Reddit to at least 2015  ranged from clients that had placed small orders like an overnight bag, to others that claim to have spent thousands of dollars to outfit an entire wedding party. The negative feedback loop forced the company to quietly sanitize its Instagram and Facebook pages this week, although CNBC managed to capture several images prior to them being erased.
For the last three years, 29-year-old entrepreneur Dushime Gashugi has been determined to get advice from the most successful and powerful people in the world. To that end, Gashugi travels from his home in California to the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho every July and hangs around the annual top secret Allen & Company conference, which attracts A-list CEOs, founders and venture capitalists. This year's attendees include Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Ivanka Trump. And, according to him, his plan has worked. Gashugi, founder of Gashugi Advisors, says he's gotten advice from moguls, executives and venture capitalists. Some have even become mini-mentors, he says, in that he reaches out to them when he has a question.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., waves after the morning session during the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Getty Images | Bloomberg

So how did he pull it off? It all started in 2014, when Gashugi's first business, a small investment fund, tanked. "I was not listening to anyone or taking advice," he tells CNBC. With the goal of one day being the best CEO in the world, he wanted to find a way to ask the smartest and the best business people for guidance. The Allen & Co. conference seemed like the place to go. "I thought, 'I'm just going to show up,'" says Gashugi, who has a degree in economics from the University of Chicago. In 2015, he put together a list of people he wanted to talk to, booked an Airbnb and drove 14 hours to Sun Valley. That first year, he hung around inside Sun Valley Resort as the conference was taking place, he says. Security was light. "I would just walk around the premises  only in the public areas  and if I saw someone on my list, I'd walk up and say, 'Hi.'"

The grounds of the Sun Valley resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Getty Images | Bloomberg

Gashugi would then ask the billionaire or VC or CEO if they had a moment to give him some advice. "I asked them the question: Who do I need to become to produce on your level? You have 24 hours in a day, I have 24 hours in a day, so what's the difference between us?" To the Allen & Co. attendees, Gashugi was just some random guy. Yet so many took the time to talk to him. He was humbled. In those moments, those powerful people "made me feel like their most important client," he says. Many said no one else had ever tried to talk to them during the Sun Valley retreat. Gashugi declines to publicly name the attendees he has spoken to, out of respect for their privacy, but he claims that some of the most helpful included a billionaire fashion mogul, the founder of a company that does about half a billion in annual revenue, and several billionaire VCs. It inspired him. "They don't have anything to prove. They're not looking for anything in return," he says. "How can I not treat people at least as kindly as they treated me?" In 2015, Gashugi made a list of the top 25 people on the Forbes' billionaires list, which ranks the richest people in the world. And he developed a new tactic: He read all their books, and when he saw one of them in Sun Valley, he used their work as an ice breaker. Then he boldly asked for their contact information. One of his goals was to build a priceless network of mentors before his 30th birthday. According to the entrepreneur, he met about six people on that list. His visit was cut short, however, after security guards asked him to leave. This year, Gashugi was back, but he stuck to the town square in nearby Ketchum, less than a mile from the resort. According to him, attendees often drive between Sun Valley and Ketchum to eat, network and broker deals.

Michael Bloomberg attends the fourth day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 14, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Getty Images | Drew Angerer
Kevin Weil

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had a key role to fill in early 2016. He was seeking to revamp the photo-sharing service he'd co-founded with Mike Krieger six years earlier, and which Facebook had bought in 2012. After keeping Instagram's executive ranks intentionally small, Systrom was putting together a team to help him overhaul the site. The objective was to get usersespecially younger onesto post more content on Instagram. At the time, Snapchat was growing fast among youthful social media users, thanks to fun features like funny photo filters and disappearing videos. Systrom had already poached some big names from Silicon Valley rivals, getting Ian Spalter from YouTube as head of design in early 2015 and hiring Yahoo's James Everingham as head of engineering six months later. Now he needed someone to get the features and tools being designed and built onto the site and into the hands of Instagram users. As he searched for someone to help him implement his product roadmap, Systrom asked a friend, venture capitalist Elizabeth Weil, to arrange a dinner. Weil, who'd spent four years as a partner at the marquee investment firm Andreessen Horowitz before becoming managing partner of a new firm, 137 Ventures, is married to Kevin Weil, whom she'd met when they were both students at Stanford University. Kevin Weil had quit the university's Ph.D. program in theoretical physics to start working at Twitter in 2009, when the social media service had just 40 employees. After seven years at Twitter, he had worked his way up to executive vice president overseeing all of the company's products, including its consumer-facing site, advertising products and the Vine and Periscope video tools. Elizabeth Weil arranged the dinner. During it, Systrom offered Kevin Weil a job running product for Instagram, according to an on-stage interview Weil gave in May to Stanford professor Tina Seelig, as part of the university's discussion program for prospective entrepreneurs. Weil says he turned Systrom down. He'd already resigned from Twitter, where user growth had begun to wane, and planned to take six months off to train for a 50-mile foot race that traveled the course of the American River in California's Central Valley. What's more, he and his wife had started a family. Weil, who is 34, was enjoying time off and had just attended the Super Bowl, which was held that year in Santa Clara, California, according to his Twitter feed.

'I like running long races'

But then he reconsidered. "I said 'no,' then said to myself: Why should I turn this down?" Weil said in the video. Weil, a whiz at math and later at physics, grew up in Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft, where his dad had worked for two decades. After his own long stint with one company, Weil told Seelig, "I wanted to see how other companies did things." Weil took the job in March 2016and then finished the American River 50 in April, where he placed fifth. "I like running long races," Weil stated, a comment that should put fear into the hearts of Snap investors. "There's not a lot of tricks to running a 50-mile race, you just start running and keep going. People underestimate the value of fighting through it," he said. Equally as impressive is what Weil, and the rest of the team Systrom put together, have managed to pull off in the last year and a half. "He was a great hire...a key player," said Krishna Subramanian, CEO of Captiv8, a startup that provides analytics to social media sites and their users who create popular content. "He's been a critical part of their success," said Subramanian, who's sold several companies he's co-founded previously, including Mobclix and BlueLithium. Within months of Weil's arrival, the site began to roll out a raft of new tools and features to match what Snapchat was doing. The key was Instagram Stories, a feature that let users share photos and videos for up to 24 hours before they disappeared, mimicking the similar Snapchat Stories feature. In November, it began letting users post images and videos that disappeared right awaythe feature that originally made Snapchat famousand in May 2017 it added face filters, one of Snapchat's most popular features.

Source: Instagram

Soon Instagram's growth in both users and ads began to surge. It was aided not only by the tools Weil and others helped get out the door but also by a savvy digital marketing plan: Facebook sent repeated notifications to its own users telling them which of their online friends were already on Instagram. The plan worked. In June 2016, Instagram had 500 million monthly users. By April 2017, it had grown 40 percent to 700 million. More users brought more online marketers. In late March, Instagram hit 1 million advertisers, double the 500,000 it had last September. As its growth accelerated, Snapchat's began to flatten out. In the first quarter, Snapchats number of daily users grew only 36 percent from the previous year, to 166 million. Instagram Stories, meanwhile, has grown to 250 million daily users in less than a year on the market. "It's the fastest-growing product I've ever seen," Weil stated in the video. Instagram, which Zuckerberg bought for $1 billion five years ago, is expected to post sales of $3.6 billion in 2017, according to the market research firm eMarketer.

How Instagram did it

When Weil joined in spring 2016, he said in the the Instagram brass had come to a conclusion. "A year ago, Instagram was a product for your highlights," rather than a place where users posted content about more routine events in their lives, Weil said in the video. In other words, it had not changed much since Systrom had started it as a sort of daily photo diary back in 2010.

If you start simple, systems will get more complex (eventually)...If you start complex, you're in trouble. Kevin Weil Head of Product, Instagram

"If people are going to post multiple times throughout the day, the product needs to be more 'person-oriented' than 'feed-oriented," Weil explained. That meant allowing users to post not only square photos but videos of varying shapes, sizes and lengths. Instagram also has a culture designed for doing "the simple things first." In the video, he says, "If you start simple, systems will get more complex (eventually)...If you start complex, you're in trouble." Also, while big product launches are important, "what people miss are the little changes...Facebook and Instagram are better at that than anyone," he says. Weil, whose 30-person team (as of May) work "all in the same room," also credits Systrom and Zuckerberg for maintaining Instagram's independence. "I give a lot of credit to the two founders..We're a tiny company that gets to be a superpower because we're part of Facebook," according to Weil. As for Snapchat, Weil gives it its due up to a point. "Snapchat was the first to create the format...more power to them, they did a fantastic job," he said.

An 'insane' personal life
The two were stabbed and killed in Hurghada Friday, with four others injured and the attacker detained

Related Two tourists killed in knife attack in Hurghada

Germany has confirmed that two tourists killed Friday after being stabbed in the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada were German nationals, a foreign ministry statement said.

Two were killed and four others injured on a beach when a man attacked them with a knife. Earlier reports Friday identified the dead tourists as Ukrainian or German, while the injured include one Czech woman and two Armenian women, a source at Hurghada General Hospital told Ahram Online Friday.

Based on what we know now, that crime has targeted foreign tourists, a criminal act of the highest degree, which fills our hearts with feelings of sorrow, and anger, the ministry said in a statement Saturday.

The statement added that officials of the German embassy in Cairo are currently at the scene of the attack and in contact with Egyptian authorities.

The assailant, who was arrested after the attack, had swum to the resort from a nearby public beach, according to a short statement from the Egyptian interior ministry shortly after the incident Friday.

Following the incident, the German foreign ministry released a statement condemning the attack, yet adding that the nationality of the two slain tourists had not been confirmed.

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What is the Conservative Party for? What is the purpose of having a Conservative Government? This week Bernard Jenkin, proposed that the Conservative Party should have a mission statement. He rather spoilt it by proposing that it should include to advance the cause of equality. Im certainly happy to sign up to equality before the law and equality in the eyes of God. But economic equality? That drab egalitarian formula of equal shares of misery. Im disappointed that Jenkin sees that as our mission.

Even equality of opportunity is nonsense  unless you are proposing some Communist notion of banning parents passing on any wealth to their children. Fighting poverty should certainly be a key Conservative objective  that is a very different matter.

Michael Howard (or probably Maurice Saatchi) produced a pretty good mission statement for us in 2004. It had a positive, ambitious tone with a strong emphasis on freedom.

Perhaps Theresa May would like to revisit this initiative. There needs to a sense of purpose  not just identifying problems but our proposed Conservative solutions. However it is understandable that voters will judge the Conservatives on what her Government does. Or at least tries to do.

James Forsyth, writing in The Sun this morning says:

One of Downing Streets great fears is that the public ends up seeing this as a zombie government  in office but not actually alive. The problem for Theresa May is that the way British governments normally show they are doing things is either by introducing legislation or spending money. But it is hard for her to do either.

On Tuesday, Mays new chief of staff, the former Tory minister Gavin Barwell, set out to the Political Cabinet how he thought they could avoid looking like zombies. He argued that they should be prepared to bring forward ideas and dare their opponents to knock them back.

Barwell is right. It is better to lose a few Commons votes than just give up and do nothing. Harold Wilson got a lot of important laws passed in 1974 despite a hung Parliament.

It was also clear that the laws that were being passed were not just an indication of activity. It was not just managerialism. There was a clear direction (in his case, of course, a shift towards socialism).

Elsewhere in the newspapers this morning we are reminded of one important priority for the Conservatives. One bit of any Conservative mission statement that few of us would argue with is to uphold the rule of law. Overall crime has fallen and that is an important achievement. But moped thefts in the capital have hugely increased  the stolen mopeds are then used to facilitate more crime. Due to the penalties for carrying knives the weapon of choice is increasingly acid.

The Times this morning says in its leader():

The government should seek to make the possession of acid without clear justification an offence. It should be illegal for teenagers to carry acid to school in water bottles, but it is not. On the same basis retailers should be required to see proof of identification and address from anyone who brings acid to the till. The law already says that if a buyer refuses to show ID, the shop can report the purchase. Vendors should be expected to use every opportunity to put criminals off, and the courts should consider tougher penalties for those who are not deterred.

Tougher sentencing is also proposed. Given that cleaning products cant be outlawed, it will doubtless be the case that further restrictions will not eliminate the problem  but if practical measures would help then they should be pursued.

There is another aspect to this (which I wrote about last year.) If the culprit stealing a moped is not wearing a helmet the police are under instructions not to pursue them for health and safety reasons. That needs to change.

A Deliveroo delivery driver working in east London might not spend too much time on textual analysis of Conservative pronouncements. But he needs to be shown that under a Conservative Government law and order is a priority. He needs to be confident that the Government will do all it can to prevent people throwing acid in his face. That must be our mission.
Security forces received a tip that terrorists involved in killing the leader of a local tribe were hiding in a deserted house in Ismailia's Galbana area

Egyptian police killed four terrorists on Saturday in a shootout while conducting a raid in Ismailia governorate, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Security forces received a tip that terrorists involved in killing the leader of a local tribe were hiding in a deserted house in Ismailia's Galbana area.

The police found no identification documents on the suspects, who were in possession of four firearms.

On Thursday, unknown assailants shot dead Attalah Hamada Ouda at his house east of Ismailia and stole his car. Ouda, 61, was the leader of a North Sinai tribe.

Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency that is mainly concentrated in the restive northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Militants have also struck elsewhere in the country, however, including the capital, often targeting police and army personnel.

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Egypt's high state prosecution said on Saturday that the motive behind the attack on Friday where a man stabbed two tourists to death at a Hurghada resort is not yet clear.

"The perpetrator of the attack is being investigated by the prosecution. It has not yet been proven whether this was an individual act, a criminal act, an act of terrorism, or otherwise," the prosecution said in a statement reported by state-owned news agency MENA.

Two German tourists were killed and four others were injured on a Hurghada beach on Friday when a man attacked them with a knife. The injured include one Czech woman and two Armenian women, a source at Hurghada General Hospital told Ahram Online on Friday.

The assailant, who was arrested after the attack, had swum to the resort from a nearby public beach, according to a short statement by the Egyptian interior ministry shortly after the attack.

The German foreign ministry said in a statement early on Saturday that the two women killed were German nationals, adding that based on what we know, this attack targeted foreign tourists, which is a criminal act of the highest degree that fills our hearts with sorrow, dismay and anger."

The Egyptian prosecution called on the media not to jump to any conclusions or speculate on the nature of the attack.

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Inspiring Products

Microsoft wasn't the only company trying to get partners' attention for its products during Inspire this week. Scores of tech firms set up on the show floor during the conference in Washington, D.C., looking to attract the attention of Microsoft's massive partner base. In many cases, the products serve to augment the capabilities of Microsoft offerings such as Office 365, Dynamics 365 and the Azure cloud. In the following slides, we've rounded up 10 of the products that caught our attention during Microsoft Inspire 2017.
Two assailants believed to be behind Fridays attack on a Giza security checkpoint were killed on Saturday by Egyptian security forces, a security directorate source told Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

The source said the suspects were killed in a desert area near the attack scene.

On Friday, gunmen attacked a checkpoint in the Giza town of El-Badrashein, killing two policemen and three conscripts.

Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency centred in North Sinai, though militants have also struck elsewhere in the country, including the capital, often targeting police and army personnel.

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NEW MILFORDWhen Bob Coppola returned from his two years serving in the Vietnam War, he tried not to talk about his time in the army.

I was very careful not to mention my experience, because it would have invoked debates that I didnt feel I was part of, he said.

Coppola, a sergeant, said he left his teaching position in Massachusetts after being drafted because it was his duty as an American citizen. But when he and his fellow soldiers came home from the war, they felt far from honored.

For him, and for the other nearly 100 veterans on the Village Green Saturday afternoon, the unveiling of New Milfords Vietnam Veterans Memorial symbolized a long-awaited recognition for their service.

It finally gives us some closure, Coppola said. It seems that our community and other communities are finally recognizing that we were soldiers and we did the job that we were required to do.

The memorial, a bronze plaque mounted on black granite, was added to the back of the All War Monument on the south end of the green. It was revealed in a ceremony Saturday after nearly a year of planning by the towns Veterans Committee and other town officials.

New Milford resident and veteran Ray Crawford, who designed the memorial, said he went through about 10 drafts before landing on the final design. He decided to use black granite to match the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., which had inspired the towns own memorial after a 250-foot replica of the Washington version, called the Wall That Heals, visited New Milford last year.

Mayor David Gronbach said that it was after the five-day installation of the replica that Ray Crawford and other veterans began thinking of how to create a memorial for the towns Vietnam veterans. The Town Council voted in April to spend $3,500 to pay for the project.

New Milford is home to a tremendous amount of veterans, Gronbach said, many of whom are just recently making their stories known.

Were trying to bring these people out to say thank you and give them the thank you they never got, Gronbach said. People keep telling me their personal stories from when they came back. They didnt get a handshake and a salute, I mean, they had people spitting on them and they couldnt wear their uniform. So, having this recognition 40 years after the fact it means a lot to them.

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), who is on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, told the crowd Saturday that the new memorial will mirror the meaning of the Wall That Heals as New Milfords own permanent wall of respect and rememberance.

Youd be hard pressed to find a community not only in Connecticut but anywhere in America that treasures and honors its veterans as much as New Milford does, she said.

Another Vietnam veteran, Martin Titus, said the New Milford memorial is even more meaningful to him than when he visited the Washington version, because its in his own community.

Titus friend Rich MacNeil, who served in the Navy, said it was emotional to see the New Milford memorial finally unveiled.

Its about time, MacNeil said. Its nice to finally have a thank you.

aquinn@newstimes.com
The water was only knee deep, but Frankie Delgado III's parents watched him closely as he splashed in the Texas City Dike on Memorial Day weekend. Based on what they saw, they thought their 4-year-old was safe.

But shortly after the outing, Frankie started vomiting and had diarrhea, his family told Houston's ABC affiliate KTRK.

On June 3, the boy told his father that his shoulders hurt and then laid down for a nap. He jolted awake a few hours later, his father said.

"Out of nowhere, he just woke up," Frankie Delgado Jr. told the station. "He said 'ahhh,' he took his last breath - and I didn't know what to do no more."

Delgado called 911, and his child was rushed to the hospital.

Helpless, the parents watched as doctors tried - unsuccessfully - to save their son.

"I walked in. I could see him lying there; they were still working on him," his mother, Tara Delgado, told CBS affiliate KHOU. "I'm screaming, 'Let me just touch my baby! Maybe he needs his mama's touch.' "

Although Frankie's autopsy results are pending, the family told local news outlets that doctors think he was a victim of "dry drowning," in which a person is killed by liquid trapped in the respiratory system after he or she has left the water.

Doctors found fluid in Frankie's lungs and around his heart, according to KTRK. His parents told Texas media outlets that they were sharing their son's tragic story to prevent other such deaths. The family did not respond to messages from The Washington Post seeking comment.

It's a rare affliction that can strike hours or even days after a child has left the water, doctors say. Everyday, 10 people die from unintentional drowning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, two are 14 or younger. Drowning is the second-leading cause of "injury death" among children ages 1 to 14. The agency does not collect statistics on "dry drowning."

Doctors have shied away from the terms "dry drowning" and "secondary drowning," preferring to specify the circumstances of someone's death to improve resuscitation treatments. In 2002, the World Congress on Drowning produced a comprehensive definition of drowning and rejected terms such as "wet drowning" and "secondary drowning." But the terms are still used as an imprecise shorthand to describe atypical drownings.

In dry drowning, a person's larynx closes in an attempt to stop water from seeping into the respiratory system, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But air can't get through, either, depriving the body of oxygen. In secondary drowning, water is trapped in the respiratory system. It causes the lungs to spasm, making it difficult for a person to catch a breath. The lungs can also get irritated and fill with fluid.

But Michael McHugh, the acting chair of the pediatric critical care unit at the Cleveland Clinic, stressed that doctors have tried to avoid catchall phrases such as "dry drowning" so they can improve treatments for specific circumstances.

A patient's treatment "depends on where in this whole process a rescue may have occurred and an intervention may have taken place," McHugh told The Washington Post.

He said it was premature to say that Frankie's death was the result of an atypical drowning, noting that symptoms of hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, usually manifest rapidly.

"If a child or adult had been under long enough and had been starved of oxygen long enough, they wouldn't be acting normal," he said.

The Harris County coroner said autopsy results are pending. The doctor performing the examination has requested additional lab work.

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Keeping your kid safe near the water

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http://wapo.st/1U71m4x
Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police, civil servants and academics on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of last year's attempted coup.

The latest decree is part of a crackdown triggered by the failed coup, which Turkey says was organised by U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen denies the allegation.

In all, Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials, and arrested some 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, academia and other sectors.

The latest decree dismissed 2,303 police, including some from senior ranks, alongside 302 academics from universities across the country. The decree also stripped 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks and grades.

More than 240 people, most of them civilians, were killed last July when rogue soldiers tried to overthrow Erdogan's government.

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Turkey on Saturday marked one year since the defeat of the coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with mass rallies seeking to showcase national unity in a divided society and his grip on power.



The authorities have declared July 15 an annual national holiday of "democracy and unity", billing the foiling of the putsch as a historic victory of Turkish democracy.



"It's one year since the darkest night was turned into an epic," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a special session of parliament that kicked off a day of celebrations set to last until dawn.



He said the night of July 15 was a "second War of Independence" after the war that led to the creation of the modern Turkish state in the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.



Two hundred and forty nine people, not including the plotters, were killed when a disgruntled faction of the army sent tanks into the streets and war planes into the sky in a bid to overthrow Erdogan after one-and-a-half decades in power.



But they were thwarted within hours as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Erdogan, who blamed followers of his ally-turned-nemesis, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.



Hundreds of thousands were gathering on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul to hear a speech by Erdogan, who earlier arrived from Ankara on his official plane accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet, an AFP correspondent said.



Some carried the Turkish flag while others brandished pictures of the "martyrs" who died defeating the coup bid as a sea of people stretched from the bridge, which has since been renamed Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.



People chanted "we are soldiers of Tayyip (Erdogan)" and called for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the coup plotters, with some even brandishing nooses.



"We are here for the victims, for democracy, for our country for our people and our flag," said Hakan, a resident of Istanbul.

At midnight local time (2100 GMT) people across Turkey will take part in "democracy watches", rallies commemorating how people poured out into the streets.



In the wake of the failed coup bid, authorities embarked on the biggest purge in Turkey's history, arresting 50,000 people and sacking almost three times as many. Erdogan also shored up his position by winning a referendum on enhancing his powers earlier this year.



In the latest dismissals, another 7,563 police, soldiers and other state employees were fired late Friday under the state of emergency that has been in place since July 20 last year.



Turkey's opposition put political disputes aside on the night of the putsch but the scale of the purge has intensified political divisions.

The celebrations come less than a week after the head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu held the largest opposition rally in Turkey in years, pushing for "justice".



"Over the last year, the judicial proceedings... moved outside the framework of the law," Kilicdaroglu, whose party will boycott commemoration ceremonies later in the day, told parliament.



He also called for full clarity over what happened on the night of July 15, with questions still remaining over when the authorities first found out an uprising was afoot.



"The details need to be made clear in the name of the martyrs and the heroes," he said, accusing the authorities of "hindering" efforts to find out the truth.



Erdogan, who was present at the session, gazed down stonily from the VIP balcony.



The coup bid also frayed ties between the United States and European Union with NATO member Turkey, which accused its allies of failing to show solidarity.



Gulen has always denied involvement and in a new statement Friday said the accusations were "baseless, politically motivated slanders" and slammed a "witch hunt" of Erdogan's critics.



The scale of Saturday's nationwide commemorations is aimed at etching July 15, 2016 into the minds of Turks as a key date in the history of the modern state.



Giant posters designed by the presidency have sprung up across billboards in Istanbul showing gaudy paintings that portray the key events of the coup night with the slogan "the epic of July 15".



Public transport is free in Istanbul and Ankara over the weekend while mobile operator Turkcell has sent text messages to clients promising them a free extra gigabyte of data from July 15.



Illuminated anti-coup slogans have been hung between the minarets of some of Istanbul's greatest Ottoman mosques.

Erdogan will later return to Ankara and at 2300 GMT give a speech in parliament to mark the time it was bombed.



A giant monument to those killed -- showing people holding up the Turkish star and crescent insignia -- will then be unveiled outside his palace in the capital as the dawn call to prayer rings out.

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Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean
Parliament rises for the summer recess shortly and Theresa May is entitled to relish the chance to escape the bear-pit of Westminster.

For the past two months have been the worst of her political career. Having been the most popular politician in Britain, she is now wounded and her authority is weakened.

Indeed, this week Mrs May conceded how she has suffered, saying she shed a little tear and was hugged by her husband when he told her about the General Election exit poll that predicted she was to lose her majority.

July 2016: The last two months have been the worst of Theresa May's political career

However, unlike many Westminster watchers, I do not believe that the Prime Minister is finished.

True, the gloss has come off her premiership, but never ignore the fact that Mrs May retains a granite-strong integrity and sense of public duty.

Above all, she won the election, is ensconced in Downing Street and no rival Tory has dared to come forward to challenge her for her crown. Despite much loose talk, I cant see any immediate candidates.

That said, there are Tories who wish that Mrs May would leave No 10 as soon as possible. Principal among these is the malevolent ex-Chancellor George Osborne who makes no secret of his hatred.

He will never forget the humiliating way she sacked him when she became PM, telling him that he ought to get to know the party better. His friends say he has been on a revenge mission ever since.

July 2017: The gloss has come off Theresa May's premiership, but she retains granite-strong integrity

This is low politics. His rancid conduct diminishes him and degrades voters respect for those in public life.

As Mrs May marks her first year in Downing Street, I believe she can ignore such meddlesome malcontents.

There is a reliable axiom in politics. It is: that which does not destroy you, makes you stronger. I believe this saying applies well to Mrs May.

But to do this, she must change her defensive image and stop making foolish mistakes. Above all, she must accentuate the positive. And there is much to be positive about.

This week, her Government was blessed by economic news which disproves Jeremy Corbyns claim that our economy is heading for the rocks and we are a divided society. Official statistics showed unemployment is lower than at any point since 1975. Any other government would have milked this news. Imagine how Tony Blairs spin doctor Alastair Campbell would have reacted!

Mr Corbyns accusation about a divided society was also nailed as a lie. Analysis showed the UK has the third most equal income distribution in the G7 group of developed nations. In blunt terms, the gap between rich and poor has shrunk under the Conservatives.

Statistics show unemployment is lower than any time since 1975 - disproving Jeremy Corbyn's claim that that the economy is headed to the rocks

Yet Mrs May and her advisers seem incapable of trumpeting their successes. Too many ministers seem scarred by the fact they are in a minority government, frozen into inactivity.

Worse, some are trying to promote their careers at the expense of the national interest and long-term survival of the Government.

In such circumstances, I am convinced that, like Margaret Thatcher, Mrs May needs a consigliere of authority to give her wise advice and wield a stick at her doubters.

Mrs Thatcher had Willie Whitelaw, a war hero and party grandee who stood by her through good times and bad. Sadly, they dont make men like him these days. However, three names stand out and are, I believe, capable of stepping into the breach.

First, William Hague. He was a disappointment as Tory leader and Foreign Secretary.

But there is no doubting his experience and popularity with the Tory rank and file.

Another candidate would be veteran Tory Andrew Tyrie.

Mrs May needs a consigliere of authority to give her wise advice and wield a stick at her doubters

The decision by the 60-year-old former Commons Treasury Select Committee chairman to stand down as an MP at the General Election was a huge loss. He commands respect  especially on the partys left.

The choice I prefer, however, is former Home Secretary and one-time party leader Michael Howard. Both courageous and loyal, he has consummate political skills, an intellect undimmed by age, and strongly held pro-Brexit views.

Mrs May may be on the ropes, but she still has the chance to become a substantial Prime Minister.

To do so, though, she must take a leaf out of the book of Margaret Thatcher  and get herself a Great Protector.

Vengeful George and a vicious plot to dump Boris

A shabby campaign has been launched to wreck the political career of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

He is accused by his Tory enemies of plotting to seize the premiership from Theresa May and of being a loose cannon over Brexit. I am convinced, however, that his adversaries are wrong.

Few Cabinet ministers have been more supportive to the PM than Mr Johnson.

He has been respectful and  in sharp contrast to some scheming Cabinet colleagues  is exemplarily loyal. Again and again, he has come to the aid of an embattled Mrs May.

Boris is being accused by his enemies of plotting to seize the premiership from Theresa May

And contrary to his enemies claims, Im told by Foreign Office officials that they are impressed by their bosss ability to master his brief. (Of course, over the years, attention to detail has never been seen as Mr Johnsons strong point.)

So what lies behind this campaign to denigrate and destroy him?

Part of it, I regret to say, is down to envy. Westminster mediocrities have long resented Boris Johnsons raw political talent.

Also, David Camerons friends have still not forgotten or forgiven Mr Johnsons brave and principled decision to campaign for Brexit. Certainly, pro-Europeans are in the vanguard of these attacks.

George Osborne is now waging a constant war against Brexiteers in his new job at the London Evening Standard

Above all, a treacherous role is being played by the Spectator magazine, of which Mr Johnson was editor for five years. (I should declare an interest here: I was its political editor for much of that time.) The magazines current political editor, James Forsyth, has written a venomous attack on Mr Johnson this week.

Im sure its no coincidence that Mr Forsyth is close to former Chancellor George Osborne who, himself, is waging a constant war against Brexiteers in his new job as editor of the London Evening Standard. I hope Theresa May has the mettle and support to see off this plotting and stand firm behind Boris Johnson.

Rising Tory MP Tom Tugendhats election as chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has been hailed by the Financial Times as a triumph for moderation. I fundamentally disagree.

Yes, the ambitious former soldier has a bright future. But his views make him totally the wrong person to head such an influential committee.

He criticised President Obamas admirable deal for nuclear peace with Iran. He opposed British support for the UN vote condemning Israels settlement programme in the West Bank. He supported Western military intervention in Syria. And he is ambiguous about Saudi Arabias murderous campaign of bombing in Yemen (though, to be fair, he has expressed reservations about some of the methods).

By calling Mr Tugendhat a moderate, the implication is that his predecessor as committee chairman, Crispin Blunt, is an extremist.

In fact, Mr Blunt was widely admired for holding the Foreign Office to account whenever it failed.

I fear Mr Tugendhat owes his job to backers of the Iraq War. He has a big challenge to prove he is not a Cabinet stooge.

Tim Farron spoke eloquently yesterday on the painful choice he faced as Lib Dem leader when his Christian beliefs were out of line with his partys policies on gay sex and abortion.

His words were moving, but come far too late.

It would have been better if Mr Farron refused to give in when under pressure (particularly from Channel 4 News) to betray his principles and answer questions on whether being gay is a sin.

This week, I celebrated my 60th birthday. Now, I am entitled to free bus travel and big discounts on rail journeys.

Like others of a similar age, I have paid large amounts of tax over the years and therefore I feel these concessions are my due.

But I cant help wondering about the social justice of such generous entitlements.

At the other end of the age scale, the young struggle to find jobs and are often poorly paid. Why should they have to subsidise well-paid and financially secure old men such as me?
In the constant battle to prevent infections in hospitals, scientists have come up with a stark new proposition  surgeons should operate naked.

Physicians found that nude surgeons shed significantly less bacteria than those wearing scrubs.

They say it is because the surgical scrubs rub against the skin, causing bacteria to fall off and spread through the air of the operating theatre.

In another challenge to conventional practice, the scientists said there was little difference between surgeons operating in their normal clothes rather than changing into surgical gowns.

A paper published by the University of Washington in the US found surgeons would spread less bacteria if they operated in the nude (file picture)

The University of Washington paper, based on existing research, also observed that male surgeons shed twice as many germs as women, and that women wearing tights in the operating room were a greater health risk than those with bare legs.

Lead commentator Dr Patchen Dellinger said: In terms of shedding bacteria into the air, naked people shed less bacteria than people in clothes.

The way bacteria gets into the air is through our little skin flakes called squames, and if you are wearing clothing it rubs on the squames and sends them out into the air. If you are naked that doesnt happen.

Dr Dellinger added: When I was training in the 1970s, nurses were required to wear skirts and stockings but there is very good evidence that nurses with bare legs shed far fewer bacteria than nurses wearing stockings.

A new guideline has come out that says you have to wear a special bouffant hat to cover every hair on your head, and again there is no data that it makes any difference.

'Naked surgery probably wont happen and I dont think it will be studied!

Dr Dellinger, 73, said he was not about to change his operating attire just yet.

He said: The normal clothes we wear around town are more tightly woven and have smaller cuffs on the pants and on the shirts than we do on our scrub suits.

'But I am not going to wear my jacket and tie in the O R because I dont want it to get messed up.

The paper noted naked surgeries were unlikely ever to happen however (file picture)

'Im going to wear my scrub suit to protect my clothing, but not to protect the patient.

Dr Dellinger admitted there was no Level 1 evidence  where a procedure undergoes a high-quality, rigorous and controlled trial  about the pros and cons of surgeons wearing gowns, but added: I would enjoy it if I were only allowed to do things with my patients with Level 1 evidence, because I could be home by ten in the morning.

We have a huge number of things that we do with, and for, our patients that makes sense, that appears to get good results but does not have Level 1 evidence.

In the UK, guidelines issued by NICE recommend a sterile gown and that operating theatre staff are bare below the elbows.
OnePlus 5

449, oneplus.net

Theres a mesmerising clip of then-Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer overcome with mirth in 2007 as he describes the first iPhone as the most expensive phone in the world.

Its one of those classic, 24-carat errors  like the moment Gerald Ratner said an item of his own jewellery was crap. Over the next ten years, the iPhone shifted more than a billion units, becoming arguably the most successful product in human history.

But one of the cleverest bits of Apples magic slab wasnt the phone  it was the way we all paid for it, with the alarmingly vast price broken down into monthly payments. Ten years on, were still doing it  and the phones are now edging inexorably towards the thousand-pound mark.

Looks-wise theres not a massive difference between the last OnePlus 3T and the 5

Chinese firm OnePlus swims against the tide  with high-end phones for a price that doesnt make you feel as if youve been kicked in the stomach by a horse.

The new OnePlus 5 is pricier than its predecessors, at 449. But its still far, far cheaper than the iPhones 7 and Samsung S8  and offers a serious amount of geek appeal.

Basically, if youre the sort of stick-in-the-mud who delights in buying supermarket own-brand because its just the same as the branded stuff, youre going to love this.

Looks-wise theres not a massive difference between the last OnePlus 3T and the 5 (theres no 4, as the numbers bad luck in China), but the phones slim, sleek and ludicrously fast, thanks to 8GB of RAM under the bonnet. And the 5.7in HD screen is sharp and colourful.

The cameras genuinely great, with dual lenses creating colourful, vibrant snaps as good as iPhone or Googles Pixel  and you can top up the battery at speed courtesy of Dash Charge, which will half-fill your phone in 30 minutes.

But by far the best bit is how you can chew peoples ears off endlessly about how good value it is. Basically its like being one of those bores who rattles on about Apple all day long  but on the cheap
Xu

30 Rupert St, Soho, London W1

xulondon.com

Rating:

When it comes to Far Eastern eating, Taiwan is more hidden dragon than crouching tiger. Because here on this lush and lovely island, 112 miles off the east coast of China, youll find some of the most fragrant, thrilling and downright knockout tucker on Earth. From hearty beef noodles, serious street food and lip-tingling Sichuan to elegant Cantonese, fluffy bao buns and sensational Japanese food, this country has it all.

Yet to most of us, Taiwan is little more than an electrical afterthought, the subject of a Made In... sticker that graces a million hi-fis, alarm clocks and VCRs. Many believe its part of China. In fact, the Chinese very much believe its part of China, describing it as the Taiwan Authorities, a sort of free-trade zone like Hong Kong and Macau. And most certainly not the Republic of China, as its known officially by its inhabitants, an independent sovereign state with a democratically elected president, freedom of speech and liberal government.

From the left: Lotus crisps, chicken wing with sanbei glaze and caviar, taro dumplings, gold coin and garlic shoots with asparagus

Hell no. To the Chinese, the ROC is illegal and illegitimate and there are allegedly 1,600 cruise and ballistic missiles pointed in their general direction. A deterrent, of the most explosive kind.

Still, this strange and fractious state of affairs doesnt seem to affect everyday life. In fact, trade with China is crucial. And over one-and-a-half centuries of Chinese rule and immigration (two million alone in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek fled here with his Nationalists), mixed with 50 years of Japanese supremacy, makes for some pretty spectacular eating. Add in ingredients of the very highest quality, and its little wonder that Taiwan is such a gastronomic star.

FROM THE MENU Bak kwa 7 Cuttlefish toast 5 Tomato and smoked eel 5.25 Chilli egg drop crab 16.50 Mapo tofu 11.50 Advertisement

Xu (pronounced Chu), in Sohos Rupert Street, is a sort of Taiwanese version of Gymkhana. Lots of smart, dark, elegant wood, languorously whirring fans, marble bars and delicately decorated screens. A tribute, apparently, to the cinematic style of Thirties Taiwan. So it comes as little surprise that it comes from the same stable as Gymkhana, and is run by the team behind Bao, another Taiwanese star. Restaurant parentage doesnt get much better than that. The two floors are not exactly spacious, but cleverly converted all the same, smart without being smug, with nattily dressed, well-drilled and smiling service.

Bak Kwa, or Taiwanese jerky, soft strips of cured beef, lamb and pork, wear their spice like expensive scent, seductively chewy and served with a sharp Sichuan pickle. And Sichuan flavours are big here, particularly Ma La, or hot and numbing. An exquisite dish of beef tendon, sliced rice- paper-thin, is cool and cartilaginous, with crunch both peanutty and verdant (chopped coriander stalks), a tingling nudge of Sichuan pepper and a throaty gasp of chilli oil. Mapo Tofu has still more heat and tingle, but never so much that it bludgeons the palate into shivering submission. The tofu is sexily silken, and green Sichuan peppercorns have a citrus-infused vibrancy that explodes in the gob like pungent firecrackers.

Lots of smart, dark, elegant wood, languorously whirring fans, marble bars and delicately decorated screens

Tomato and smoked eel melds Japan and China, a sharp, fresh tomato broth, with a subtle chilli edge, studded with tiny nuggets of eel. Clean grin meets richly fatty grunt. A dish of quiet brilliance. Cuttlefish toast, dark, devious and black as despair, comes with a blob of intense whipped cods roe, while a juicily burnished chicken wing is topped with a teasing of caviar. Street food meets the seriously loaded.

Steamed egg is winsomely wobbly, invalid food with a whiff of black truffle, its concupiscent curds hiding pert fresh green peas. Theres a whole Caribinero prawn, trembling and just translucent, with a slick of homemade XO sauce; and lamb sweetbreads with fermented greens, gentle, soft and subtle, yet with a pleasing whisper of bosk and decay. Every dish shows true kitchen prowess, both in cooking and seasoning. They know when to tone down, and turn up. And are in thrall to the eternal importance of texture.

Beef comes in multiple forms  braised short rib mixed with bone marrow, and topped with crunchy potato crumbs, then wrapped in the thinnest of pancakes with slivers of cucumber and punchy pickles.

Or rice tossed with lots of luscious dripping. And rump, cooked pink, with a sweetly peppery glaze, and oozing fried egg. Oh, and dont miss the chilli egg drop crab, spicy as a harlots wink, salty as a sea dogs tongue. With lots of lasciviously wobbling egg. Sublime.

Not everything reaches such heady heights  a fried chicken foot is brittle and plain unpleasant  while some dishes can err towards the dull. But Xu proves that theres so much more to this delectable island than mere bao buns. However fine they may be.

What it does is set the standard, imprinting Taiwan firmly upon Londons culinary map. Not as part of China, rather a country standing firmly and proudly on its own.

Lunch for two: 80

What Tom ate this week

Friday

To Melbourne, in midwinter. Excellent mezze on Quantas. Sushi in the Emirates Lounge in Dubai. Then good mezze and chicken schnitzel sandwich en route.

Saturday

Arrive late. Old-school pizza at Topolinos in St Kilda. Bed, only to awake in a couple of hours, blighted by jetlag.

Sunday

Lunch at David Thompsons Long Chim. Fragrant larb, excellent miang kham and noodles. But all a little too well behaved, lacking the bosk and brilliance of Nahm. Dinner is another decent pizza at Classico, downstairs at my hotel.

Monday

Intercontinental discombobulation mucks around with my appetite. But all is well at Chin Chin for dinner with my old mate Scott. We eat furiously fiery isarn chicken, wonderful duck larb, Wagyu beef pad seuw and crunchy prawns. Still my favourite restaurant in Melbourne.
War For The Planet Of The Apes Cert: 12A 2hrs 20mins

Rating:

Fairs fair, the makers of War For The Planet Of The Apes do eventually get their own Ape-ocalypse Now joke in  in the form of a scrawled piece of sewer-pipe graffiti  and its just as well because if they hadnt, someone else definitely would have.

Six years and three films into the rebooted franchise, this climactic-feeling instalment sees Caesar and his hairy friends journeying into the heart of darkness in search of an increasingly unhinged colonel well on the way to going the full Kurtz. Oh, the horror, the horror.

This is also the film in which director Matt Reeves, responsible for the last two Apes films, goes all out to get Andy Serkis, the British king of motion-capture performance, some sort of major acting award nomination for his quietly powerful ape-leader, Caesar.

Six years and three films into the rebooted franchise, this climactic-feeling instalment sees Caesar and his hairy friends journeying into the heart of darkness in search of an increasingly unhinged colonel well on the way to going the full Kurtz

We have long moments of Caesar looking noble, Caesar looking grief-stricken, Caesar looking hell-bent on revenge

While I wont begrudge Serkis  who was also responsible for Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings  a moment or two in the limelight come next awards season, the overall effect, at times, is to slow the film almost to a halt.

Throw in an ill-advised and seriously annoying new character  Bad Ape, an ageing zoo-chimp who cant speak proper ape and who, in terms of winning personality, could easily be the love-child of Gollum and Jar Jar Binks  and you have a film that undoubtedly aims high but never quite delivers.

As the new film begins, Caesar and his ape-army have retreated to the forests, hoping to live a peaceful life, avoiding all contact and possible conflict with surviving humans

At the end of the day, this is still a film about pharmaceutically enhanced apes that can speak English, ride horses and, when their opposable thumbs are working well, fire the odd weapon too.

Oh, and they do all this just when the human race has been virtually wiped out by the so-called Simian Flu virus.

As the new film begins, Caesar and his ape-army have retreated to the forests, hoping to live a peaceful life, avoiding all contact and possible conflict with surviving humans.

Amiah Miller in a scene from War for the Planet of the Apes.

But theyve reckoned without the megalomaniacally inclined colonel (Woody Harrelson), whose first raiding party is nevertheless repulsed. Caesar even sends some of their human prisoners back, tied to their horses but still alive, as a message.

He will see we are not savages, he says, in a way that makes you think he might be being just a touch optimistic. So it predictably turns out.

The colonel, the sort of soldier to force captured apes to work as slaves  or donkeys  in his human army, takes a particularly awful revenge, leaving Caesar with no choice. He will have to go after the human leader himself. Its game on: apes v humans. Again.

IT'S A FACT The line 'Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape' from the original 1968 film Planet Of The Apes has been voted the most memorable in movie history. Advertisement

Visual effects are crucial for this sort of film and theyre a big improvement on those on show three years ago in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, which too often failed to convince.

Yes, every now and then something still just looks ridiculous  a huge gorilla on a horse?  but this is an easier ape world to believe in. As a result, tension levels are often enjoyably high, first as the colonels men close in on the apes and then, particularly, as the apes close in on the colonel.

Its difficult to know what to say about performances when most of the actors are wearing body-suits with ping-pong-ball-like targets that allow their movements to be captured, before their body is electronically transformed into that of a walking, talking, hair-covered ape.

There is currently an argument in the film industry  partially sparked by Serkis himself and his comments about digital make-up  over how much of what ends up on the big screen is down to the actor and how much down to the visual-effects artists.

Theres no doubt the end result here is impressive. But if Serkis does ever win anything, hed be wise to make the visual-effects team first on his list of people to thank.

Its difficult to know what to say about performances when most of the actors are wearing body-suits with ping-pong-ball-like targets that allow their movements to be captured, before their body is electronically transformed into that of a walking, talking, hair-covered ape

By contrast, its easier to say that Harrelson is very good as the unstable colonel, a man fighting apes on one hand, humans on the other, and wrestling with the knowledge that a new, awful and literally unspoken danger has arrived.

Parents should be warned that for a film with a 12A certificate, War is heading somewhere frightening, with the colonel running what is effectively a concentration camp, complete with starvation, cruelty and executions. But theres an excellent late twist and, to lighten the mood a little, an amusing poo fight.

And while a big final scene could just bring the franchise to an end, I suspect its more a case of it pausing for breath while contracts are renegotiated. Not quite time to hang up the motion-capture suits, then.

SECOND SCREEN

The Beguiled (15)

Rating:

Cars 3 (U)

Rating:

Julius Caesar (15)

Rating:

In the seven decades that the Cannes Film Festival has been in existence, there has been only one female winner of the coveted Palme dOr: Jane Campion, who won in 1993 for The Piano.

That dismal record didnt change this year either, when, in the face of mounting pressure to start redressing the gender balance, the jury awarded the top prize to yet another man, Ruben Ostlund.

But there was some consolation further down the prize list, where Sofia Coppola won Best Director for The Beguiled, becoming only the second female film-maker to win that category. The last was the Soviet director Yuliya Solntseva way back in 1961.

The Beguiled arrives in our cinemas and very good, in an unexpectedly lightweight way

Now The Beguiled arrives in our cinemas and very good, in an unexpectedly lightweight way, it is too.

It shares certain themes with Campions film  female desire and isolation  but serves them up in a way that is as gorgeous to look at as it is accessible, entertaining and  be warned  occasionally rather grim.

The surprise is that its been made by a woman, given that it certainly isnt a conventional story of female empowerment.

Set during the American Civil War and based on a novel by Thomas Cullinan, also filmed by Don Siegel with Clint Eastwood in 1971, its the story of how the female teachers and pupils of a girls boarding school in the Confederate South are reduced to a giggling hormonal tizzy by the arrival of a badly wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell).

The schools head (Nicole Kidman), her frustrated main teacher (Kirsten Dunst) and their oldest pupil (Elle Fanning) are definitely all of a flutter.

Ah, but who is being beguiled? Youll enjoy finding out in this richly atmospheric and surprisingly gothic southern tale.

Cars 3 delivers a story that too often falls flat, has too many new characters and not enough old favourites

Cars has always been my least favourite Pixar franchise and Cars 3 does nothing to change that. There is more charm and magic packed into the five minutes of Lou, the anti-bullying film that precedes it, than there is in the whole 100 minutes-plus of the endless main feature.

This one sees Lightning McQueen, the little red racing car voiced by Owen Wilson, hitting an unexpected bump in his career  suddenly theres a new generation of cars on the oval tracks and cars that are faster and meaner than him. So does he just train harder or is it time to call it a day?

As ever, the background animation is stunning but Brian Fee, who steps up from storyboard artist to both direct and co-write for the first time, delivers a story that too often falls flat, has too many new characters and not enough old favourites.

Live coverage of difficult-to-get-into theatre performances has become a big earner for cinemas, but I suspect the specially made film-of the-performance  perhaps released long after the stage show has closed  will be a tougher sell.

Julius Caesar  a film of a controversial all-female Donmar Warehouse production led by Harriet Walter that first saw the light of day in 2012  gives us a chance to find out.

Traditionalists may be horrified, not just by the all-female cast but by the show-within-a-show structure that sees the play being put on by the inmates of a womens prison for no good reason other than director Phyllida Lloyd, of Mamma Mia! fame, thinking it was a good idea.

Performances are big, the punk rock music between scenes is awful but its worth the ticket price alone to see Jade Anouka as a thrillingly good Mark Antony. First in a trilogy that will eventually take in Henry IV and The Tempest.
Queen Anne

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Until Sept 30, 2hrs 45mins

Rating:

Ill do it tonight for England, says a periwigged actor wearing vast tie-on breasts and a huge pregnant belly.

This scurrilous, Gillray-like sketch begins Helen Edmundsons fitfully fascinating play, and the person being sent up is the childless monarch Queen Anne, who is desperately eager to secure the Protestant succession.

History has unkindly overlooked Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714 and is seldom mentioned but to describe an elegant, gracious style of house.

Emma Cunniffes Anne (above, right, with Romola Garai) is a charmless, graceless, needy lump, rather stupid and very plain, her legs swollen with gout

Those adjectives are in sharp contrast to the Queen herself, as presented here. Emma Cunniffes Anne is a charmless, graceless, needy lump, rather stupid and very plain, her legs swollen with gout.

The opening send-up of Anne turns out to be downright cruel when it transpires that of the Queens 17 pregnancies, most ended in miscarriage or stillbirth, and of the three children who survived, two daughters were killed by smallpox and her son died shortly after his 11th birthday. Astonishingly, she remained sane and became a queen of substance who reigned with grace.

The focus of Edmundsons play, however, is her relationship with Sarah Churchill, played by Romola Garai as a spirited Gainsborough beauty whose luscious red gowns beautifully set off her blonde ringlets. The Queen is besotted with her.

Charismatic, clever and politically canny, Churchill  a Whig who loathes the Tories  does what she can to influence the Queen. If that means submitting to a kiss and a cuddle and the odd sleepover, so be it. All the more so when the Queen insists on spoiling her favourite with the construction of Blenheim Palace.

But when the relationship sours, and the Queen transfers her affections to her lowly, pock-marked but astute chambermaid, Abigail Hill (Beth Park), viciously vengeful and possibly genuinely jealous, Sarah arranges publication of a defamatory pamphlet suggesting the Queens lesbian tendencies. An early example of kissing and telling.

Natalie Abrahamis pacy RSC production is at pains to point up Annes likeness to our own charmless, luckless, needy PM, and every mention of Scottish devolution and tensions with Europe comes with a metaphorical boom-boom.

If history  theres a lot of exposition here  occasionally swamps the drama, the play remains an intriguing expose of political passion and power-mongering then, but also now.

Tribes

Sheffield Crucible, until Saturday, 2hrs 15mins

Rating:

What happens in a family where a child is deaf and everyone else can hear? Thats the set-up in this boisterous play by Nina Raine about a bickering family.

Mums a writer, Dads an over-opinionated academic, the three kids have not yet left home.

The ignored youngest is Billy, who speaks but was born almost deaf. When he falls in love with going-deaf Sylvia, who teaches him sign language, Billy stops talking and starts furiously signing to his family. It turns out that not speaking is the only way to get them to listen.

Ciaran Alexander Stewart (above with Louisa Connolly-Burnham as Ruth), as frustrated Billy, is terrific, while Sylvia is glowingly played by Emily Howlett

Ciaran Alexander Stewart, as frustrated Billy, is terrific. Sylvia is glowingly played by Emily Howlett, whose sorrow at losing the world of sound you can almost feel.

Its a very sweary-kitchen-table sort of play but director Kate Hewitts cast uses sign and speech to great poetic effect. The result is a moving, utterly unsoppy look at just how deaf hearing people can be.

Robert Gore-Langton

Titus Andronicus

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Until September 2, 3hrs

Rating:

Is there a Shakespearean drama that speaks more vividly than Titus Andronicus to an era characterised by barbarism and saturated with pornography, in which there are ritual beheadings and arguments raging about the rights of certain people to reside in a particular country?

Is there a Shakespearean drama that speaks more vividly than Titus Andronicus to an era characterised by barbarism and saturated with pornography?

Its a question posed by Shakespearean scholar Jonathan Bate in the programme for Blanche McIntyres crisp, clear, modern-dress account of Shakespeares early and messy gore-fest. In making a revenge play very much of its own time into a play for today, McIntyres production becomes a persuasive no.

Outside the steel fencing surrounding the rulers classy, glassy residence, urban aggro and anarchy rules. Austerity kills, screams a sign. And the people are revolting. Rival tribes are kicking the hell out of one another, scuffling with the police, looting shops and occasionally stopping to mark the moment with a selfie.

The distinctly old-school Roman soldier Titus (David Troughton) marches on, victorious from the wars against the Goths, accompanied by his personal brass band (a lovely touch).

Tituss terrible grief and descent into madness suddenly suggests itself as a rehearsal for the later tragedy, King Lear. Above: Sean Hart, Luke MacGregor, Hannah Morrish and Nia Gwynne

Casually killing one of his captives, a son of their Queen Tamora (a lean, obscenely mean Nia Gwynne), however, is a bad move, for Tamoras revenge is boundless. McIntyre does not temper the brutality and blood-letting. There is a truly devastating scene in which Titus confronts the bloody, torn and ravaged figure of his daughter Lavinia, who has been raped and had her tongue cut out by Tamoras sons. A silent, still Hannah Morrish seems catatonic, her only means of expression the blood seeping from her wounds.

Tituss terrible grief and descent into madness suddenly suggests itself as a rehearsal for the later tragedy, King Lear. Revelatory.
This Was My Dad: The Rise And Fall Of Geoffrey Matthews

Monday, BBC4

Rating:

In The Dark

Tuesday, BBC1

Rating:

Poldark

Sunday, BBC1

Rating:

It is rare that television catches you off guard. The new crime drama, In The Dark, opened with a body being buried in the woods, at night, in the rain, as per, so that did not catch me off guard. Poldark does not catch me off guard. (That said, perhaps Dr Enyss giant beard did catch me a little off guard initially, but Im accustomed now.)

Fans of Game Of Thrones would, I suppose, say they are always being caught off guard by some little hobgoblin that is suddenly killed off by a fire-axe but, at this stage of the proceedings, wouldnt it make sense to be on guard for being caught off guard by the little hobgoblin who is suddenly killed off by a fire-axe?

The new series starts tomorrow and I am minded to go into hiding for the next seven weeks, but then I wouldnt be paid, which would be quite a blow. I have overheads. This is a long way of saying that there are only ever occasional surprises, and This Was My Dad: The Rise And Fall Of Geoffrey Matthews was such a one.

Geoffrey Matthews in This Was My Dad. It was film-length but unswitchoffable

A documentary filmed by Bafta-award-winning director Morgan Matthews over a period of more than a decade, it charted the life, and death, of his father. It was film-length but unswitchoffable.

It was highly personal but had the ability to pierce your heart repeatedly. It was textured, layered, subtle, evocative. Its amazing what you can do without dragons sometimes. In his day, Geoffrey had been a superstar car designer. He invented the people-carrier and was head of design at Citroen but he was not a corporate man.

I had to butter up people who were my bosses and were shallow, ignorant and stupid. If only I could have said, Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, but I couldnt do it.

He seems to have had quite a few children by quite a few wives and was not an irreproachable father. He forgot birthdays. He didnt call. Morgan, you sensed, began this project to rebuild the relationship.

Painful for him, and painful for us as we, too, watched Geoffrey descend yet further into bankruptcy and alcoholism. At one point he lay drunk on the bathroom floor, weeping, and telling Morgan: I wish we were closer. Love you. Youre the best boy Love you.

Morgan has a stepmother, Anna, who is compellingly posh and eccentric: blows bubbles for the dogs; buys two alpacas when their funds are at their most critical; reflects, albeit briefly, on her own spectacularly dysfunctional childhood. Morgan is neither reproachful nor judgmental. He accepts them for who they are. And thats what made it so moving, I think.

We were at the hospital bedside, or as good as, when Geoffrey, who was suffering from emphysema and cancer, died. But there was a fascinating endnote. Having been adopted, Morgan discovers that Geoffreys biological father is still alive, miraculously, and he flies to Canada to meet him.

He also discovers the letter Geoffreys biological mother first wrote to his adoptive parents, as well as the little pair of shoes she had once sent him, still in the original box. It pierced your heart, over and over. And no dragons.

Now, In The Dark which, as I said, opened in the woods but then cut straight to our detective, Helen Weeks (MyAnna Buring), who wants to return to her home town to help a childhood friend whose husband has been accused of abducting two young girls. (Always two young girls; never a butchers boy and his dog.) Her superior is reluctant to allow her to return. No, he says, absolutely not. But then he breaks. OK, he says, but only so long as you dont tread on anyones toes.

They might just as well have put it in skywriting: Lots of toe-treading to come! The whole set-up is preposterous. Would a detective be allowed to sniff round an investigation while supporting the suspects wife and accompanying her to police interviews? There was no tension.

The direction involved many close-ups of Buring as she double-blinked blandly. The first episode ended on what was supposed to be an Elizabeth Warleggan-style bombshell: Helen is pregnant, but is the baby her husbands? More pertinently, do we care?

Poldark, series three, episode five, the recap: Ross executed a prison break in the manner of James Bond. Ross was aided by Captain Henshawe (RIP) who, luckily, had a bomb in his pocket. Drakes literacy has come on leaps and bounds. Dwight and Caroline were reunited and she snogged his face off, despite the giant beard, and despite the scurvy, which is admirable. (Last time a man with a giant beard and scurvy wanted to snog my face off, I declined.)

George is furious to discover Ross had saved Lord Falmouths nephew, and if we can all agree on one thing it would probably have to be this: that nephew, doesnt he scrub up nicely? Doesnt he?
Lashings of fun

Five Go Mad In Buxton

Underground at The Old Clubhouse, Buxton, until Jul 23. Ages 5+

buxtonfringe.org.uk

Julian, Dick, George, Anne and dog Timmy try to thwart their treacherous Uncle Quentin in this family-friendly parody of Enid Blytons Famous Five books. Expect lashings of ginger beer.

The Little Beasts is a dark but comic musical follows a little girl who runs away from home and discovers a menagerie filled with animals that used to be children before their naughtiness brought them to untimely ends

Something wild

The Little Beasts

The Other Palace, London,

until Jul 29. Ages 7+

theotherpalace.co.uk

This dark but comic musical follows a little girl who runs away from home and discovers a menagerie filled with animals that used to be children before their naughtiness brought them to untimely ends. The audience is encouraged to give feedback.

This midday musical at the Edinburgh Fringe is based on Beatrix Potters stories

Ooh arr!

Treasure Island

Williamson Park, Lancaster,

until Aug 12.

Ages For all pirates 5+

dukes-lancaster.org

This is a walkabout production from the company The Dukes, whose shows, since 1987, have transformed Williamson Park in Lancaster into Middle Earth, Neverland, Oz and Ancient Greece. Now the park and its centrepiece, the Ashton Memorial, becomes Treasure Island, with the audience following the action along its winding paths and through its woodlands.

Quackers for potter

The Tales Of Peter Rabbit And Jemima Puddle-Duck

Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh, Aug 526. Ages 3+ underbellyedinburgh.co.uk

This midday musical at the Edinburgh Fringe based on Beatrix Potters stories features award-winning soprano and actress Michelle Todd, accompanied by Scotlands Childrens Classic Concerts Festival Ensemble. The venue is the temporary circus hub on The Meadows, the Edinburgh park south of the city centre.

Musical mole

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13  The Musical

Menier Chocolate Factory, London, until Sept 9.

Ages 12+ menierchocolatefactory.com

Sue Townsends character gets a musical make-over at the theatre where the on-site restaurant has themed menus for each show. This started life in Leicester  Moles home city, of course.

Hippos Hercules Waldorf-Franklin III and ingenious Sheila, with creator David Walliams, compete to be the first of their species to land on the lunar surface

A twist in the tale

Oliver Twist Created For Everyone Aged Six And Over

Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, London, Jul 17Aug 5.

Ages 6+ openairtheatre.com

This daytime show, adapted from Dickenss novel, comes with an activity sheet that allows you to colour in the likes of Fagin and Nancy, and gives you a more-ish Delia Smith biscuit recipe  as an alternative use for the oats in Olivers workhouse gruel.

Gran-tastic

Gangsta Granny

Garrick Theatre, London, Jul 26Sept 3. Ages 5 to 105! nimaxtheatres.com

David Walliams popular book comes to the West End in the form of this show from the Birmingham Stage Company, the producers of Horrible Histories. The production, starring Gilly Tompkins, ought to be flawless  the company has been touring it since 2015.

David Walliams popular book comes to the West End in the form of this show from the Birmingham Stage Company, the producers of Horrible Histories

Hipster hippo

The First Hippo On The Moon

Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh,

Aug 220. Ages all pleasance.co.uk

Hippos Hercules Waldorf-Franklin III and ingenious Sheila, with creator David Walliams, compete to be the first of their species to land on the lunar surface. The hour-long midday show is part of the Edinburgh Fringe and promises to be a visual treat  it is produced by Les Petits, the childrens arm of the innovative theatre company Les Enfants Terribles.

If you go down to goodwood today...

Philip Pullmans Grimm Tales For Young And Old

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex,

Aug 419.

Ages 8+ cft.org.uk

The audience follows Philip Pullmans retelling of the original sweetly dark stories by the Brothers Grimm through the sculpture park on the Goodwood Estate. Chichester Festival Youth Theatre weaves together the likes of Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel And Gretel.

Using puppetry and song, this hour-long part of Homers Odyssey shows Odysseus battling gods and monsters, as he tries to make his way home from Troy

Long way Homer

The Odyssey Part One: A Great Big Ancient Greek Adventure

The Scoop, London, Aug 9Sept 3.

Ages all freeopenairtheatre.org

Using puppetry and song, this hour-long part of Homers Odyssey shows Odysseus battling gods and monsters, as he tries to make his way home from Troy. Later in the evening, two more parts of the story  at this free, outdoor venue near City Hall  turn more adult in theme, as Odysseus and his gang are tempted by sirens and then our hero struggles to reclaim his family.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Doha on Saturday that Paris wants to assist Kuwait-led mediation on the crisis between Qatar and four other Arab states.

"France should be a facilitator in the mediation" led by Kuwait, Le Drian told reporters following talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

Le Drian arrived in Qatar for a Gulf tour aimed at helping defuse the crisis pitting Qatar against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt.

"France is very concerned by the sudden deterioration in relations between Qatar and many of its neighbours," he said.

"France is talking to all these countries to help in the search for a solution," he said, calling for "dialogue and calm" between the Arab states concerned.

Le Drian is to travel on to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, following a four-day mediation mission by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that made little progress in defusing mounting tensions in the Gulf.

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar, accusing the oil-rich Gulf state of supporting terrorism and maintaining close ties with Iran. Doha has denied the accusations.

Last week, the four Arab countries pledged new measures against Doha following the small Gulf countrys refusal of their initial list of 13 demands to resolve the crisis.

*The story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Advice to my teenage self? Start writing now

Guilty pleasure? Watching myself act on television. I particularly love reruns of 3rd Rock from the Sun. Its the only thing Ive done that I can watch with complete abandon and laugh myself silly.

Where is home? I live in Los Angeles, but my heart is in New York City because so many of my friends live there and I return regularly to do theatre. I always feel at home in London, too.

As a child you wanted to be...? A painter. Even when I was seven years old, I had that talent. I dont know where it came from.

Career plan B? I was determined to become a painter well into my teens. I grew up in a theatre family  my mother was an actress, my father a theatrical producer  and I did not want to go into the family business. But then I went off to Harvard and fell in with the theatre gang, and when you hear applause and laughter at a young age, you just want more. That was it. I still paint, but just as a hobby and not nearly as often as Id like.

Who would play you in a movie of your life? Im probably be the best casting for the more recent years, but I wouldnt mind Ryan Gosling as my younger self  hes just not quite tall enough. Im 6ft 4in. [Gosling is just 6ft.]

Biggest bugbear? Hypocrisy  theres a lot of that around these days, mainly political.

Earliest memory? Standing on the front doorstep of our new house in Yellow Springs, Ohio when I was about two and a half. We lived in about 10 different places when I was a kid because of my fathers career - we were always moving.

Secret to a happy relationship? A shared sense of humour.

Your best quality? My optimism. But I am quickly disappointed.

And your worst? My subsequent pessimism.

Most romantic thing youve ever done? I was in London for eight months last year filming the Netflix drama The Crown, where I played Sir Winston Churchill. I only had to work about half the time. My wife [Mary Yeager, a history professor at UCLA] and I took frequent trips to European cities  St Petersburg, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Paris. Our goal was to make them as romantic as possible.

Last meal on earth? Pasta with pesto.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party? Everyone I met at LAMDA when I studied there 50 years ago  and all the alumni Ive met since. Top of the list would be Dame Harriet Walter, Jim Broadbent, David Oyelowo and David Suchet.

Advice to your teenage self? Start writing now. Its a source of creativity that doesnt depend on other people hiring you. Ive written 11 books for children.

Cat or dog? Dog. Particularly an Australian shepherd dog named Blue, who used to be a big part of my life.

John won a Fulbright scholarship to study acting at the West London drama school Lamda in 1969. The school opened its new 28 million centre for drama training last month
They dont share an office space  or even a postcode. We meet three pairs of successful entrepreneurs who collaborate remotely

Who needs an office when you can run your business using the cloud? Dress, Biba, from House of Fraser. Dress, Vero Moda, from Littlewoods.com. Jeans, Intropia. Shoes, Superga, from Schuh.

The pamper party pair

KELLY SKIPPER and CHARLOTTE MAXWELL, both 44, founded Glo in 2006 as a mobile wellbeing agency to supply massage and treatments for parties and in the workplace. Until 2012 they worked together in London before Charlotte moved to Bath and then, three years ago, Kelly moved to Los Angeles for her husbands job in the music industry. Both are married. Charlotte has a five-year-old son and Kelly has five-year-old twins.

Kelly Skipper co-runs British wellbeing company Glo despite being based in LA

Kelly says

Working apart has made our roles more clearly defined. We are a UK-based company, meaning I cant be at events or meetings with clients, so Charlotte does the person-facing side of things while I deal with finance and long-term strategy for growing the business.

When I told Charlotte I was moving, she panicked. I felt guilty and tried to take on as much of the burden as I could so that my move would not impact on her too much. Inevitably, it did. We had always taken turns to be on call at weekends to deal with issues, from a therapist not turning up to someone wanting extra treatments. I was determined to keep doing my bit which meant every other weekend Id start taking calls at 2am. After a year we hired another member of staff  my move forced us to take that step.

To make it work weve needed an amazing level of communication. We met through my husband but were never close friends, which means we can speak openly about everything without worrying about how it will affect our friendship. We can be incredibly efficient and businesslike about things, though its great that our children are the same age and, of course, we talk about them a lot.

One big advantage of my move has been the lengthening of Glos business day. When I was in the UK we would both clock off at 6pm. But now  with the eight-hour time difference  one of us is on at almost any given time. Because people tend to go online in the evening in the UK, its ideal. Technology that diverts calls from the company number to the mobile of whoever is on duty is key. Clients dial a UK number with no idea they are speaking to a woman in Los Angeles!

Charlotte and I are respectful of each others personal lives. It is massively important to both of us to maintain a good work/life balance. Previously, I worked long hours in the music industry and Charlotte was in a high-level marketing job. A big reason for setting up this business was to have more of a balance and the ethos of the company is helping other people to attain that.

Charlotte Maxwell is the British-based partner of Glo

Charlotte says

When Kelly first told me she was moving to LA, I went, Oh, God I had worked there for three years in my 20s, so I was familiar with the time difference. I knew how disorientating it could be, but also how it is possible to adapt. Kelly and I were already working different days of the week because we both had small children so I felt confident we could use the time difference in a similar way, to share the responsibilities.

Since Kellys move we have both become more autonomous in our decision-making. Whereas before we discussed everything, now we have to be confident about our own decisions  from how much to spend on ads to what prices to charge for services. There are so many situations where the buck stops with you. Because I know Kelly so well, I can anticipate her position on most things.

We meet face to face about once a year. If something is urgent I will WhatsApp Kelly saying check your emails, then if we need to discuss it we will speak on Skype. This usually involves me staying up late to speak to her when its morning in LA. It does feel odd that by that point Im at the end of my working day and Kelly has just woken up.

If we were in an office wed bounce ideas off each other more often. Some creativity slips through the net when youre communicating via email and phone every day without face-to-face contact; thats the only downside.

We didnt know if remote working was going to be a good fit for us. But we thought, weve got to give it a go. Kelly is the most determined person I know. But she could have arrived in California and thought: My life is different now. I dont want to do this. Luckily, she didnt. And the fact that she is in LA  with its focus on health and beauty  has been a huge help in terms of inspiration.

glo-pamper.co.uk

The dressmakers

ANGIE BRADLEY, 53, who has recently moved from Cambridgeshire to Wiltshire, and ESTELLE BLOOMFIELD, 44, who is based in Worthing, West Sussex, started clothing company H W2 in 2013. The pair had previously worked together for 15 years for fashion labels Ghost and Handwritten in London. When those companies were respectively sold and shut down they went into business together remotely to launch a clothes label inspired by the same floaty, easy-to-wear aesthetic. Both are married. Estelle has a ten-year-old son and Angie has a 19-year-old son.

Angie Bradley (left) and Estelle Bloomfield went into business together remotely to launch their fashion company HW2

Angie says

We are very different so it feels right that we inhabit separate worlds. Estelle is in charge of design and pattern-cutting; I run the business side of things. Estelle is the social-media-savvy one. Shes constantly uploading images to Instagram and Pinterest, while I dont even understand what a hashtag is!

Estelle and I bonded over our shared desire never to work in an office again. We saw how Tanya [Sarne, creator of Ghost and Handwritten] struggled with overheads  office space, insurance, warehousing  and thought why would you do that? We dont need a warehouse: were lucky I still have my house in Cambridgeshire where we store and dispatch our clothing which is made in Romania from Italian fabrics. Rents are becoming more expensive than ever, plus you can get so much more done working from home. In my old job I used to hate it when I would be in my flow with work and someone in the office would interrupt to ask an unrelated question.

My favourite technology is the WhatsApp mic. It allows us to leave voice memos for each other so we can hear each other speaking  which somehow feels important  but can cut straight to the chase without wasting time on small talk as we would in a face-to-face conversation. Its a brilliant tool.

Trust is the key to our arrangement. The idea that you would throw away money on rent just to be able to keep an eye on each other is madness. You each need to believe the other is equally motivated  whether that is at 6am or 9pm doesnt matter as long as the job gets done. Estelle is more of an early bird because her son is school-aged; I have a slower start in the mornings. But we graft as hard as each other.

I dont think remote working would be right for someone shy. Unless you are an extrovert  as we both are  and interact with people wherever you are, you could feel isolated and might prefer having your business partner by your side; you might become a bit insular. Luckily, thats never been a worry for us.

Estelle says

I am chatty so sometimes I miss having someone to talk to during the day and the laughter of being around other people. But then my husband will come home complaining about his annoying colleagues and Im reminded of the politics and silliness and feel happy that my office is the dining-room table.

Angie and I are like family. We worked together for so many years; we know each other inside out. I love seeing her face to face, which we do at least once a month, usually at one of the Soho House clubs in London. I think, Its so nice to be sitting down with someone Im really comfortable with who isnt my husband!

I love that I can do washing and ironing in between work tasks. I am very structured: I take my son to school and get straight down to business, but I do take breaks to deal with domestic life. I hope more women will start working the way we do because there is no reason people should feel they have to choose between having a satisfying career and looking after their family when you can do both.

Pinging messages in a WhatsApp group is our version of a business meeting. We include suppliers and others who work with us too. Its great because its instant and everyone gets straight to the point  its so much more efficient than a meeting.

Living near one another would probably place a strain on the business. We are so used to working autonomously. Angie recently moved from Cambridge to Wiltshire  so shes just as far from me, but in the other direction. Had she moved closer, it would have felt strange and maybe a bit like stepping on each others toes.

hw-2.com

The beauty entrepreneurs

CHARLOTTE SEMLER, 46, creator of lingerie label Myla, and ARABELLA PRESTON, 38, who gave the Duchess of Cambridge make-up lessons before her wedding, founded skincare company Votary two years ago. Arabella had previously worked for Charlotte when she did the PR and marketing for Myla. Since launching Votary (which produces natural facial oils), they have never been based in the same place, with Charlotte in Oxford and Arabella formerly in London and, for the past year, in Kent. Both are married. Arabella has a son, nine, and daughter, seven, and Charlotte has 11-year-old twins.

Charlotte says

'Google Docs is crucial: we use it for all our paperwork,' says Charlotte Semler who co-runs Votary

The way we work is like a Venn diagram. There are areas where we overlap and the peripheries where we each have our own speciality. When we are dealing in the overlap area  in our case, brand development  we collaborate on FaceTime. Otherwise, Arabella is concerned with the creative side of Votary, mainly new product development and marketing through social media; I do finance and logistics.

The non-synchronisation of working apart is not an issue thanks to email. If Arabella and I were in an office wed chat about things and much would get forgotten. With email, there is a record of everything: it enables us to send and receive documents as attachments and acts as a virtual to-do list. I avoid using text, WhatsApp or social media messaging services for anything work-related as I find it confusing to have lots of in-trays. Google Docs is crucial: we use it for all our paperwork  purchase orders and product copy  and can work on the same document at the same time. Who needs to be in the same room?

Being located in different settings stops us from being narrow-minded. We bring different ideas to the table. Oxford and Kent are on opposite sides of the country and, in many ways, feel worlds apart, and, as I see it, that is a good thing.

Social media connects us. If, say, over the weekend I see a photo I like on Instagram that feels in some way relevant to our business, I will do a screen grab and email it to Ari so she can have a look and act on it on Monday morning.

Business meetings are such an inefficient concept. Who wants to waste 45 minutes talking to colleagues about something that may or may not happen when you can just get your work done and be on time to collect your children from school? Given the number of people they employ, large organisations probably dont achieve as much as they could  Im convinced its down to the chitchat.

Arabella says

Arabella Preston co-runs Votary from her home office in Kent

The iPhone changed my life. Between leaving Myla and starting Votary, I spent several years as a freelance make-up artist, so I knew how a smartphone made working remotely possible. Wherever you are, if you have a free five minutes, you can use it to send an invoice or get on top of admin. With social media I can be a one-woman marketing and PR department. It doesnt matter where I am as long as I can Instagram products and upload videos on to YouTube. So when Charlotte and I talked about setting up together, I knew it would be fine.

Moving to Kent felt scary. Because we dont have an office, having me located in London was handy in the first year of the business. If a beauty editor wanted a sample, I could courier it over. Now we need to be more organised but we have adapted. We love meeting in London every week.

A large home is not essential to remote working. There are many ways to store and ship products: our oils are blended in the Midlands and stored and dispatched from a fulfilment house in the north. It works seamlessly. One upside of my home now is that I have a spacious room to work in. The one essential is high-speed broadband: when my husband, who is also self-employed, and I left London, we bought a house in a village where there was a good connection. If we had been 200 metres down the lane, it would have been a disaster.

FaceTime is great for day-to-day stuff, but face-to-face time is also crucial. When were physically in the same place we do our blue-sky thinking and talk through long-term goals. Because were not together all the time, when we are, theres a creative adrenalin that rushes through the room. Working remotely can be lonely. Part of the reason Charlotte and I chat on FaceTime every day is to keep each other company. We dont just talk about work, we catch up  we are friends and Charlotte is even a godmother to my daughter.

votary.co.uk

How will it work for you?

CARY COOPER, professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester, flags up potential remote working pitfalls

Remote working is ideal for micro-businesses and those that are knowledge- and service-based. Dress, Karen Millen. Shoes, Schuh. Jumpsuit, Yas, from littlewoods.com

Dont let the business grow too big. Remote working is ideal for micro-businesses and those that are knowledge- and service-based. Once your manufacturing output reaches a certain level, the advantages of remote working are negated by having to produce more and you end up needing headquarters.

Beware of email. Its the business failsafe, but it can be dangerous. Its too detached from empathy. People can get frustrated and write something they dont mean, which then gets misinterpreted. And with none of what we call the nonverbals  eye contact, for instance  to smooth things out, unpleasant email exchanges can be difficult to resolve.

When things arent gelling, go eyeball to eyeball. Even Skype and FaceTime arent a substitute. Body language and empathy get lost through a screen. And with privacy and hacking risks, people often wont talk about anything important or sensitive unless it is in person in a safe space.

Clarity about roles is essential. In small businesses people tend to want to have their fingers in all the pies but with remote working this isnt viable. From the outset it must be a case of thats your area, this is mine or you will sow confusion, sacrificing productivity because youve doubled up on a task. Overlap doesnt always work.

Dont communicate across too many platforms. Material will be lost because no one will remember whether it was on WhatsApp or Facebook, or people wont have checked and seen what you sent. Choose the ones that work for you and stick with them.

Trust is everything. The right CV means nothing unless your business partner has integrity. When working remotely you wont be able to look over your shoulder so before you commit make certain you wont have to. Ask yourself: does this person have the competencies and interpersonal skills that the company needs?

Photographers assistant: Lorna Allan. Styling: Joanne Toolan. Models: Amanda at Mot Models, Rosie at BMA Models. Photographers assistant: Lorna Allan. Styling: Joanne Toolan. Models: Amanda at MOT Models, Rosie at BMA models.
Ram Nath Kovind: NDA member and government candidate for the forthcoming presidential election

Indian lawmakers are set to elect the country's next president on Monday.

The result is expected to further tighten the control of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing associates on positions of power.

Ram Nath Kovind's ascent to the highest public office will be the first for a leader reared in the RSS or National Volunteers' Association, the ideological mentor of Modi's ruling BJP and its affiliates.

Under India's constitution, the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues wield executive power and the president remains above the fray.

But the president has a key role during political crises, such as when a parliament election is inconclusive, by deciding which political party is in the best position to form a government.

Some presidents, such as the current incumbent, Pranab Mukherjee, have tried to act as conscience-keepers, using their constitutional authority as the head of state to defend India's founding principles as a secular and diverse democracy.

Kovind, 72, a low-caste Dalit politician who served as the government's lawyer in the Supreme Court as well as a state governor, said he would uphold the dignity of the president's office.

'Ever since I took over as governor, I have no political affiliation. The president of India is above politics,' he said, while filing his nomination last month.

The BJP itself has been playing up Kovind's credentials as a candidate from the lowest Dalit caste in the Hindu social hierarchy which has been oppressed for centuries but is now being wooed by political parties for its votes.

But the opposition said Kovind's roots in the RSS, which has long espoused a Hindu India, remain a concern at a time when the Modi government is pursuing a partisan agenda and Hindu hardliners have whipped up an atmosphere of fear among the country's minorities.

The BJP itself has been playing up Kovind's credentials as a candidate from the lowest Dalit caste in the Hindu social hierarchy which has been oppressed for centuries but is now being wooed by political parties for its vote

Meira Kumar, the opposition candidate put up by the centrist Congress and communist parties, said her candidacy aimed to fight the ideology Kovind represents.

'This is an election to the country's highest office,' she said. 'I respect Kovindji. My fight is not against him but the ideology he represents.'

Kovind's victory is considered a certainty because the electoral college, consisting of members of both houses of the federal parliament and state assemblies across the country, is loaded in favour of the ruling BJP.

Current President Pranab Mukherjee (centre) with Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind (right) and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (left) inaugurating the celebration of Champaran Satyagrah

Voting concludes on Monday and votes will be counted on Thursday.

Kovind's election will cap a series of top appointments Modi has made, strengthening the grip of the Hindu right on public offices, such as state chief ministers and governors, but also academic institutions and thinktanks.

In March, Modi picked Hindu hardliner Yogi Adityanath, who has been accused of inciting violence against India's Muslim minority, to lead the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh after his party won a landslide victory.

He has supported strong measures for cow protection, and also said minority groups that oppose yoga should either leave the country or drown themselves in the sea.

A long-time propagandist of the RSS runs the state of Haryana, neighbouring Delhi and home to the global outsourcing industry, while more than half-a-dozen governors have had early training in the RSS drills and patriotic lessons held countrywide at dawn each day.

A background in the RSS, known for its service to the country, can only help those in public life, the editor of an RSS mouthpiece said.

'A swayamsevak thinks about the motherland and unity of society. Anyone who is associated with this ideology should be widely respected,' said Hitesh Shankar, editor of Panchjanya.
The Capital is a on cocaine high, keeping the police and anti-drug sleuths busy. Apart from targeting peddlers, cops are now tailing party-goers, the rich-young blood of the city.

According to Narcotics Control Bureau data, around 30 kg cocaine worth Rs 210 crore in the international market has been seized in Delhi this year. Last year till August, only 11 kg of the drug was recovered.

Just in case you haven't seen it in the movies, cocaine is a powerfully stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. People snort the powder through the nose, or rub it into their gums. Others dissolve it in water and inject it into the bloodstream.

Due to its high price 'coke' has only recently emerged as a popular drug in India (file pic)

Effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation.

'The threefold rise has forced the drug enforcement agency to collaborate with Delhi Police in nabbing the consumers as well.

'They are likely to conduct frequent raids in pubs, rave parties, concerts, universities and other areas where the addicts snort the drug,' said an officer, requesting anonymity.

According to sources, the sudden surge in demand of cocaine in the city has come as a boon for dealers, who are mostly foreigners.

'With high demand, the rate of cocaine has also shot up. Last year, the cost of cocaine was around Rs 3,000 (35) per gram, but it has now gone up to Rs 5,000 (59),' said a source.

Describing the latest trend, an officer who wished to remain nameless said upper class youngsters living in the city are usually the consumers of cocaine.

Addiction is a problem, but another one is peer pressure. The discovery was made when cellphone records of peddlers, who were recently nabbed, were scrutinised.

Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and mental tasks more quickly, though others experience the opposite effect. Large amounts of the drug can lead to bizarre, unpredictable, and violent behaviour. Be it at a pub or a rave party, people in the 20-35 age range can be seen snorting cocaine publicly, in washrooms or inside their cars.

At times, they also mix the drug with their drinks. Foreigners residing in Delhi are also potential customers for peddlers as they prefer cocaine over heroin and other stimulants.

With the rise in smuggling rate, agencies have alerted their ground staff to be more vigilant about any suspicious person or material, a senior police official posted at IGI airport told Mail Today.

According to sources, the sudden surge in demand of cocaine in the city has come as a boon for dealers

Police say said upper class urban youngsters are the consumers of cocaine (pictured - the Royal Navy stopping 160 million worth of heroin in the Indian Ocean)

During investigation, it was learnt that most of the cocaine is brought to India from Latin American countries, especially Brazil, mainly by air through carriers who conceal it in their personal baggage by creating false cavities or hiding it in food products such as milk powder.

'Professional ''swallowers'' also traffic cocaine stuffed in small capsules ensheathed in cellophane, rubber or gelatin coverings. The swallowed capsules are retrieved after passing out the stool in the destination country.

Besides this, cocaine also reaches India from Brazil concealed in courier parcels,' said another officer who has interrogated several traffickers.

'Sources say that lax security at African airports, particularly Addis Ababa and Lome, have made them attractive places for cocaine transit. In most of the cases, female foreign nationals are being used to smuggle drugs into India.

'Once it reaches Delhi, the consignment is distributed among party-goers. The remains are supplied to neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

'However, a majority of the consignment is reserved for Delhi itself as the demand of cocaine is comparatively higher here,' said an officer.

'Since the demand has gone up, peddlers confessed to adulterating the powdered drug with medicines, especially by crushing paracetamol tablets, a source said, quoting confessional statements of suppliers.
The insensitivity of hospital staff in India forced a man to carry the body of his nine-year-old granddaughter on his shoulder for her last rites.

The incident occurred at Badshah Khan hospital in Faridabad on Friday afternoon after the hospital administration refused to send an ambulance.

This is not the first time such appalling apathy has been seen in the actions of hospital staff in India. In August last year in Odisha's Kalahandi, a tribal man carried the body of his wife on his shoulder for 10 km after the district hospital refused so send an ambulance (video below).

Nine-year-old Laxmi died of fever. Her family (pictured) has alleged medical negligence

In Faridabad, Laxmi, the nine-year-old girl, was suffering from high fever for two days. Around 1 am last night, her mother gave her a syrup, following which her body temperature reduced.

Around 4 am, she was gripped by high fever once again, and her parents admitted her to a private hospital.

The hospital staff informed them the treatment would cost Rs 5,000 (59) - Rs 6,000 (71).

They then decided to shift her to the Faridabad civil hospital (Badshah Khan hospital). Laxmi's parents allege that doctors did not give her adequate attention, due to which she had to lose her life.

'We repeatedly urged doctors for proper medication as her body temperature rose abruptly. No doctor or nurse visited her despite the critical condition. Around 11.30 am, she lost her life,' the deceased's maternal grandfather Hardev said.

New day, same story: In August last year in Odisha's Kalahandi, a tribal man carried the body of his wife on his shoulder for 10 km after the district hospital refused so send an ambulance

As soon as Laxmi died, hospital staff started putting pressure on her family to take away the body.

'We had little money that we had already deposited in the private hospital. We walked from that hospital to the civil hospital carrying Laxmi as we did not have money.

'We urged the civil hospital staff to provide ambulance so that we could at least carry the body, but they did not listen to us. Eventually, we decided to carry the body and walk home,' Hardev added.

While he was carrying the body on his shoulder with other weeping family members tagging along, they were spotted by some media persons outside the hospital premises.

The journalists then made arrangements for a private ambulance.

When the media personnel called up the civil surgeon, he did not receive calls. Neither did the principal medical officer.

The journalists then called up a Red Cross Society ambulance only to be told by the driver that his vehicle was not working.

They finally booked a private ambulance for the family to carry the body home.
They call themselves cow protectors but are in fact common crooks looking to make hay while the right-wing sun shines on India.

An India Today TV investigation has unmasked how self-styled gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) extort money from beef sellers and transporters near Mumbai. If the sellers refuse - they are threatened with lynching and their cargo is destroyed.

The revelation comes amid a wave of attacks in India on Muslims and Dalits suspected of either storing meat or transporting cattle for slaughter.

An India Today TV investigation has unmasked self-styled gau rakshaks

The first sting operation was carried out on the outskirts of the financial capital at the Wada-Bhiwandi highway, which links Thane, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

This is the most dreaded route for businessmen buying and selling beef from Gujarat.

On this very stretch is a famous cow shelter, Gopala Gaushala, in a village named Angaon. People from the shelter patrol the highway and nearby areas regularly with the help of Bajrang Dal activists.

The team, called Gashti Pathak, evokes fear among meat traders as it destroys freights of beef found being transported irrespective of whether it's cow, bull or buffalo meat.

Cattle tethered at the Nagaur Cattle Fair, Rajasthan

There's been a renewed thrust by the BJP government to protect cows, considered sacred by many Hindus.

The undercover India Today TV team approached a key Gashti Pathak member, seeking protection for a fictitious beef consignment being brought from Gujarat to be sold in Mumbai.

After multiple meetings, the avowed cow protector agreed to safeguard the goods in exchange for a tidy sum. He also assured that once he was in the vehicle transporting the beef, no one, including the police, would get in the way.

The reporters then met a Bajrang Dal activist and, posing as Samaritans, tipped him off regarding a beef consignment.

He helped the team get in touch with Vasudev Patil, another member of the Gashti Pathak and a self-styled cow protector.

They called up Vasudev while pretending to be beef traders and sought protection for a consignment on Wada-Bhiwandi highway.

He finally showed up at an isolated spot for a meeting that was recorded on secret camera.

Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi, right, joins other to protest against a spate of violent attacks across the country targeting the country's Muslim minority, in Mumbai, India

'I will get your consignment delivered safely to the destination. You don't have to worry as now you are in touch with me. Just let me know when the vehicle arrives.

I will personally sit in the vehicle and when I am around, no Bajrang Dal activists or even police will dare to stop the vehicle,' he told the reporters.

Vasudev then quoted his price. He would need Rs 20,000 (237) for each vehicle, the avowed gau rakshak said. Finally, the deal was fixed at Rs 15,000 per vehicle.

The second sting was conducted in Navi Mumbai. A large amount of meat including beef is brought here from areas such as Pune, Ahmednagar and nearby parts.

The cow vigilantes are seen extorting money from beef sellers and threatening to lynch them if they refuse

Citizens hold placards during a silent protest Not in My Name against the targeted lynching, at Janter Manter in New delhi on wednesday

This is where another group of gau rakshaks, allegedly associated with the Shiv Sena, is on the prowl.

The reporters met a person identified as DN Mishra who said he is a former shakha pramukh of the Maharashtrian party in Navi Mumbai.

The undercover team got a call from his associate, Rajesh, who works as a manager for Mishra. Both had contested civic elections in Panvel but lost.

Cows are revered in the Hindu scriptures as the 'mother' of civilisation and many worshippers equate the slaughter of cows or eating beef as blasphemy

Rajesh took the reporters to his boss's Shiv Sena office. Mishra asked about the consignment and the documents for transporting it.

'We will settle with the zonal DCP and also assist you with the documents with help of a doctor. Bringing cow beef is risky but you can bring it by mixing it with buffalo beef,' Rajesh said.

'This is our Shiv Sena office. We also have an office on the highway. We carry out patrolling the whole night looking for suspicious vehicles carrying beef.

'Locals respect us over here. We have done a lot of work for them in the area,' he said.
A military court has pulled up the Air Force in a case involving a woman regarded as the poster girl for rising woman power in the Indian armed forces.

In a major victory for Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, the Armed Forces Tribunal has reinstated her in the service, and asked the Air Force to consider her 'without ill will' for granting her a permanent commission.

Thakur became the symbol of PM Modi's showcasing of women power or 'stree shakti' in the defence force when she became the first woman officer in India to lead a guard of honour for American President Barack Obama in 2015.

New Delhi: Wing Commander Pooja Thakur

But, after being denied an extension in service, Thakur had gone to the court, to hear her case against the Air Force following her discharge and denial of permanent commission in service.

'We direct the reinstatement of Wg Cdr Thakur into service with direction that she will be considered by the Air Force expeditiously as permissible by constituting a board for grant of permanent commission, subject to there being a vacancy and her meeting with the other parameters prescribed,' said Justice VK Shali, who heads up the Armed Forces Tribunal bench.

The military court said Thakur's lawyer Maj SS Pandey have expressed apprehension during the course of arguments that she may not be given fair treatment.

'We only hope and trust that the case of the applicant shall be considered without any rancor and ill will for having approached the tribunal for grant of Permanent Commission,' the court added.

Delhi

However, the tribunal made it clear that while Thakur shall be reinstated with continuity of service for consideration of grant of permanent commission, she will not be entitled to remuneration or back wages for the period when she is assumed to have remained out of service and has not worked.

'Even if we assume she had made a request to remain in Delhi or in and around Delhi, it is the Air Force who have been obliging her.... Therefore, these submissions are in our view, totally irrelevant for deciding the question of grant of Permanent Commission,' the Tribunal said.

The court noted that the Air Force was opposing the applicant rather than being gracious enough to consider her case sympathetically.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Thakur became the symbol of the PM's showcasing of women power in the defence force

'This was reflected from the fact that as many as five officers of fairly senior rank from the department of Judge Advocate General (legal Branch) were opposing the petition which gave a sense of vindictiveness as if at some point of time, being a female officer she had ruffled the feathers of her male counterparts,' the court said.

The court also said the granting of permanent commission, especially to women officers, must be taken liberally and should be interpreted in a manner which would be beneficial to the women officers rather than the employer.

Commenting on the verdict, Thakur's lawyer Maj Pandey said the court had directed the Air Force to act fairly in considering Wg Cdr Thakur for permanent commission.

Permanent commission allows a woman officer to have an opportunity to rise to the rank of lieutenant general and retire at 60 with full benefits, which their male counterparts receive.

Over a month after filing the case, Thakur's tenure came to an end and she retired with her case still pending for final decision.
Infosys Ltd, the country's second biggest software services exporter scraped through with a mere 1.4% increase in net profit to Rs 3,480 crore for the April-June quarter.

However, the outlook for higher earnings going ahead remains hazy due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates and an increase in the salary bill due to more local hiring in the US.

The Infosys result announced on Friday was better than bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services which on Thursday posted a 6 per cent drop in its first-quarter profit at Rs 5,945 crore.

India's more than $150 billion software services sector faces headwinds in its biggest market, the United States, as clients hold back technology spending amid concerns about President Donald Trump cracking down on outsourcing of US jobs.

Dr Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys

Infosys retained its annual revenue outlook at between 6.5 per cent and 8.5 per cent growth on a constant currency basis.

But Mumbai brokerage Emkay said in a client note that the company's failure to lift its revenue guidance indicated firstquarter pricing gains were not sustainable and profitability could see a 'downtick' in the coming quarter on lower growth, wage hikes and rupee appreciation.

President Donald Trump has targeted the American H-1B visa program that tech firms such as Infosys have heavily relied upon to bring in skilled Indians

Trump: Great for India? (pictured - a charity event hosted by the Republican Hindu Coalition)

After Trump targeted outsourcing firms, Infosys said in May it plans to hire 10,000 U.S. workers in the next two years - a move that will likely lead to higher labour costs.

It is also due to give annual salary increases to employees this month.

'We'll be announcing the compensation hikes and we are also ramping up the U.S. talent model,' Finance Chief M.D. Ranganath told reporters.

Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, right, greets Dr. Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys, following an announcement at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, plans for Infosys to increase its operations in the U.S, establishing four new state-of-the-art technology and innovation hubs in the U.S., with the first one in Indiana

The rupee has also risen 5.4 per cent against the U.S. dollar this year, adding to the woes of outsourcers who bill for the majority of their services in foreign currencies.

Shares in Infosys, valued at about $35 billion, ended 0.5 percent lower.

Infosys has gone through a rough year with some founders and former executives of the company publicly accusing its board of lapses in governance.
If Uttar Pradesh top cop Sulkhan Singh is to be believed, traffic in Noida and adjoining Ghaziabad will cease to be the daily torture travellers go through by the end of the year.

The traffic police have identified the road problems faced by the twin cities bordering Delhi and are all set to take steps to fix the situation.

A recent Mail Today investigation into why the daily traffic nightmare is now the norm in Noida found that staff shortages, defective signals, nuisance by public transport, lack of lane discipline, illegal parking and encroachment onto roads were the biggest reasons behind the routine chaos.

Huge traffic jams are the norm

'We plan to roll out the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) by this year-end. Automatic signaling at all crossings will be part of it. Two crossings will be synchronised with each other.

'For example, if one crossing is open, by the time the vehicle reaches the other crossing, it will be open. Now we have only standalone signals and they are not synchronised at all', the UP DGP said.

Sulkhan Singh

About 8.5 million vehicles ply the traffic-choked roads of Delhi and its surrounding areas every day as the congestion adds to the toxic air in the city that is one of the most polluted in the world, according to international agencies.

As part of Singh's plan, traffic along expressways will be closely monitored.

There will also be a mechanism to alert commuters of vehicular movements and ensure swift response to them.

It will provide real-time advisory to motorists through electronic display boards.

Nine other cities in which the systems are likely to be implemented are Kanpur, Agra, Allahabad, Varanasi, Meerut, Aligarh, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Moradabad, the officer said.

High levels of particulates are a major cause of asthmatic attacks

Increasing the number of traffic policemen at crossings and junctions is high on the list of priorities, the DGP added.

According to Noida Police, there are only 140 traffic cops along with 100 home guards to manage traffic in the area.

However, out of these 240 personnel, only 40 are allowed to challan violators.

'Recently, a letter has been written to the authority concerned to provide at least 500 traffic cops to manage Noida traffic better,' an official said.

Fuming cars

According to the department, there are 315 traffic junctions in Noida but only 240 personnel to keep vigil at these points.

Even cops who have been deployed are not equipped to track down violators.

The traffic department in the city has only four cars and around 25 motorcycles.

Many cops use their personal vehicles.

The state police chief said there is need to crack down on illegal parking near junctions and crossings and more intensive challaning (penalising).

Noida: Traffic jam at Noida Gate on Wednesday

'There is also a need to remove encroachments on roads. These need to be done before any major measure is initiated to decongest roads. Local authorities will be advised to remove encroachments on roads as police have no role in it,' he said.

'Noida and Ghaziabad developed so suddenly that we could not increase the number of traffic personnel on roads commensurate to requirement.

'We could not keep pace with the development. Urgent corrective measures are called for. Roads are too cramped to handle the present volume of traffic,' the DGP said.

'I too travel often between Ghaziabad and Noida and I find the roads are so narrow. These aspects should have been taken care of during town planning. However, we will see what can be done within the available road width.'
Delhi Police have busted a home-based gambling racket, snaring 15 people as a result.

'The total cash recovered is worth `2,37,920 and the weight of the recovered gold jewellery is 80.75 gm,' said Nupur Prasad, DCP (Shahadara district).

Officers raided the gambling racket that was being run in a residential area in Geeta Colony.

All bets are off at gambling den after police recovered jewellery and cash

According to a senior police official, during a monthly meeting on the 'Ears and Eyes' scheme in the Shahdara district, Kushal Pal Singh, ACP, Geeta Colony, received information that a gambling racket was being run in a house.

During the ensuing raid, 15 people were caught playing cards, with jewellery and cash at stake.

One of those arrested, Vikram, allegedly used to regularly organise gambling operations in the area.

The gambling den was raided (stock photo)

The premises are owned by Vikram's uncle, Kishan Lal.

'Vikram would arrange gambling parties at his uncle's house and only his close friends could participate in these parties,' the senior officer said.

'They never called outsiders for betting without proper verification. Vikram was running the racket over the past few months and had managed to earn a hefty amount,' the officer added.

Vikram allegedly lured the customers by suggesting they could earn up to 90 times the amount they were gambling, and these customers would then put money and jewellery at stake.

Delhi police station

All 15 people have been booked under the Delhi Gambling Act.

The families of the people held were unaware of their gambling addiction.

Sources close to the investigation said Vikram had bigger plans in mind and allegedly wanted to expand his gambling operations.

'Vikram was planning to purchase a second-hand casino table to enlarge his gambling den and attract more customers,' said a police source.

In January, an illegal casino operating out of a house in Shahdara district was busted by the Delhi Police (stock photo)

In February this year, Shahdara district police arrested 48 people during raids in three places.

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that all the accused were gambling in Geeta Colony, Vivek Vihar and Seemapuri.

And in January, an illegal casino operating out of a house in Shahdara district was busted by the Delhi Police.

One person was arrested and `2,421 in cash, one casino stock used for gambling and 34 quarters of illicit liquor were recovered as a result.
Foreign direct investments in Egypt have risen 12 percent to reach $6.6 billion in the fiscal year 2016/17, compared to $5.9 billion in the same period last year, Egypts investment and international cooperation ministry said on Saturday.

The $6.6 billion figure was for the period from July 2016 to March 2017. The countrys fiscal year begins on 1 July and ends on 30 June.

The ministry also said that 1,120 companies were newly established or expanded with a capital of EGP 4.2 billion.

Out of the 1,120 companies, 960 were in June 2017 with a capital of EGP 2.2 billion, compared to 913 companies with a capital of EGP 2.4 billion in June 2016.

The newly established companies are set to offer 4,800 job opportunities, compared to around 8,100 opportunities in May 2017 and 6,300 in June 2016.

The ministry also shed light on its international cooperation efforts, pointing to a tranche received from the World Bank to develop Upper Egypt.

In June, Egypt received $125 million from the World Bank to support the Upper Egypt Development Programme.

The money is the first tranche of a World Bank fund worth $500 million to be pumped into growing investment and industrial development in the governorates of Sohag and Qena, according to the ministry's official website.

In June, Egypt also signed three economic agreements with Germany worth 203 million euros, covering renewable energy, education, irrigation and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The first agreement, worth 141.5 million euros, prioritises four areas of investment in Egypt, including the development of renewable energy in the Gulf of Suez

The second is the Economic and Developmental Cooperation Agreement, worth 50 million euros, to fund solar-energy installations in Egypt and a technical and professional education project.

A third agreement, worth 12 million euros, aims to "support different development sectors," including investment in Egypt's education sector and reform of Egypt's governmental bodies.

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With the price of the average wedding held in Britain now topping 25,000, many couples are thinking about heading abroad to trim costs when they tie the knot.

By going overseas it is possible to get hitched for a third of the price of a ceremony at home.

Equally, while some are opting to wed abroad for financial reasons, others like the idea of smaller venues and fewer guests, coupled with the promise of a stunning backdrop  giving them an excuse to bust the budget.

La Dolce Vita: Natalie and Giles will marry on the Amalfi Coast (read their story below)

Steph Bishop from website Marryabroad, says: 'There are many potential benefits to getting married overseas, including better weather, a distinctive wedding, a smaller guest list, the chance to combine a wedding and a honeymoon  and lower costs.'

This is a view shared by Neil James Cartwright from travel website Momondo, but he warns that couples are at the mercy of foreign exchange rates that can play havoc with their plans.

He says: 'While getting married abroad can sometimes mean a more intimate and affordable celebration, getting wed outside of the UK may not always work out cheaper.

'A lot will depend on the country and location you choose, the exchange rate, and how efficient you are at transferring money abroad.'

STRETCH YOUR POUNDS

The pound has had a rocky ride against key foreign currencies since the Brexit vote last year, making the likes of eurozone destinations and America a more expensive bet.

But if you are not set on a particular destination, you may want to look for one with a favourable exchange rate.

The best-value wedding destinations include the exotic climes of Argentina and Brazil, as well as the tropical beaches of Gambia, Jamaica and Mexico, according to currency dealer FairFX.

Other top-value destinations include South Africa and Tanzania, along with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Seychelles and Sri Lanka.

Ian Strafford-Taylor of FairFX, says: 'Savvy planners won't just be looking at the most idyllic wedding destinations, they will be making a financial assessment too.

'Choosing a country where currency is more favourable is a smart way of getting the most bang for your buck  and more wedding for your money.'

For example, the pound has improved by six per cent against the Argentine peso over the past six months, and is 43 per cent stronger than two years ago, according to FairFX. Compared to five years ago, it is 200 per cent stronger.

Strafford-Taylor adds: 'This gives you 13,695 Argentine pesos more for every 1,000 spent  equivalent to 667 more.'

WE WILL SAVE MONEY BY MARRYING IN ITALY Natalie Dent and Giles Barber (pictured top), both aged 28, are busy planning ahead for their wedding in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast in Italy next June. The couple from West Sussex met at school, and have been an item since they were 15. Natalie now works as a marketing manager for a telecoms company, while Giles is an account manager for an airline. Giles popped the question last December as a surprise on Natalie's birthday. As the couple have always loved taking holidays in Italy, they dreamed of tying the knot in the Italian sun. Natalie says: 'We are rapidly reaching the budget we set of 25,000. It is a lot of money, but will be worth it to have the wedding we always dreamt of.' The couple make payments in chunks every few months to an Italian wedding planner and send money to other overseas suppliers. They are not stinting on food and drink for guests. Natalie says: 'One of the biggest costs is the catering and food, as we have opted for a package which works at around 130 (115) per head  including some drinks. With plans to invite 80 guests, costs have mounted up.' Another of the big costs is the photographer and videographer, with a price tag of around 2,000 (1,770). 'In addition, we hadn't realised there would be quite so many taxes  including royalties for the band,' says Natalie. They opted to make the payments using TransferWise, which takes a fee of just 0.5 per cent each time. Natalie says: 'This is cheaper  and simpler  than transferring money through my bank. 'We also use a 'rate alert' tool, which means we get a notification when the euro rate has moved to an acceptable level. We then quickly take advantage of this opportunity to send money abroad.' The couple will take their honeymoon on the nearby Amalfi Coast after the ceremony, neatly saving on extra travel costs.

FIND A GOOD CURRENCY DEAL

Couples planning a wedding abroad should not overlook how they make payments to the overseas suppliers they deal with. Often big sums will need transferring to pay the venue owner or catering company and a poor deal could chop hundreds of pounds out of the bridal budget.

While a couple's first instinct may be to turn to their bank for convenience, this is likely to be costly due to poor exchange rates and hidden fees.

The key to avoid getting ripped off is to move money through a currency specialist, as these firms can offer better exchange rates, and do not apply extra fees. Transfer times are also faster, and may be as short as a day.

Try firms such as FairFX, Caxton FX, HiFX, Currencies Direct or TransferWise.

Nilan Peiris of TransferWise, says: 'When paying deposits and upfront costs to lots of different suppliers  such as caterers, venues and DJs  the cost can really mount up, especially if you are being charged transfer fees as well as a poor exchange rate each time.

'This will make it hard to stay in control of your budget.'

BEWARE EXTRA CHARGES

It is not always obvious where the extra charges lurk.

A couple wanting to transfer 1,000 to a supplier in Europe using a high-street bank, such as Santander, for example, could end up paying 15 in fees plus an extra 31 or so due to the poor exchange rate, according to an independent study by research firm Consumer Intelligence.

If you opted for the Post Office you might be tempted by its promise of no fees. But customers end up paying 48 due to an uncompetitive exchange rate.

The same transfer using TransferWise, would cost just over 5.

I do: A marriage abroad is a holiday  with (wedding) bells on

TIME YOUR PAYMENTS

Think carefully about when to make overseas payments, especially when moving significant sums.

Phil McHugh from Currencies Direct, says: 'As exchange rates are always moving, it can be difficult to pick the best time to send money abroad. By subscribing to a market update, you can keep an eye on exchange rates and plan your currency transfer for when the rate has moved in your favour.'

With some currency providers, you can also set up a 'rate alert' which will notify you as soon as the market moves to the level you have chosen.

FOLLOW THE RULES

Deliver documents: Most countries have a set timeframe for receiving legal paperwork. Check what is required at gov.uk/marriage-abroad.

Residency rules: In some countries you cannot have a legal wedding unless you or a close relative are resident. In France, for instance, you, your partner or one of your parents need to have lived in the town where you want to marry for at least 40 days.

Timing nuptials: Couples will need to register their 'intent to marry' on arrival in the country  so a ceremony may well be a few days after arriving. But in Florida and some Caribbean countries, you can arrive and marry the same day.

Name accuracy: Ensure the name on your passport is the name on all legal and travel documents.

Delegate organisation:Consider using a local wedding planner to save time, money and hassle. A planner will know the area and can suggest locations and suppliers  they can also smooth out any problems.

Baggage check: Most airlines will allow a bride to be to bring the wedding dress as hand luggage  but check before booking.

Consider cover: A marriage abroad is a holiday  with (wedding) bells on  so travel insurance should reflect the difference.

Amber Moon, of insurer Holidaysafe, says: 'You need to purchase travel insurance that includes all aspects of a destination wedding, such as loss of rings, gifts and wedding attire, and problems with the photographer.

If your wedding is doubling as your honeymoon, it is important to ensure your travel insurance covers both the big day and the vacation afterwards.'

Event add-on: Find out if a policy offers a separate 'wedding extension' to the basic travel cover. Alternatively, look at standalone overseas wedding policies. This should offer protection for a range of eventualities.

This might be covering the costs of an alternative supplier if a pre-booked service provider goes bankrupt or fails to turn up or if the wedding has to be postponed due to illness. Unfortunately, being jilted at the altar is not included.

PRUNE BRIDAL BUDGET

Free weddings: Many Caribbean resorts offer a 'free' wedding if you book to stay there  a great way to combine the ceremony and honeymoon.

Guests with benefits: Find out if your resort will give you a free room if you bring a certain number of guests.

Marry out of season: Brides and grooms who are flexible with dates can trim costs dramatically. Getting married outside your chosen country's peak tourist season should yield lower villa rental and hotel rates.

Forget the pricey photographer: Ask your guests to tap into their inner David Bailey to upload their Instagram-worthy shots to a photo-sharing app, such as WedPics.

HERE COMES THE BILL - FOR GUESTS

Millions of people will attend weddings as guests this year and spend hundreds of pounds.

Research from credit card provider American Express says nearly a third of people will attend one wedding this year, spending an average of 432.

But like Hugh Grant in the famous wedding-themed romcom, some will attend an average of four celebrations this year, seeing their bills mount with each of the nuptials.

Invite: Abbey Sutton is keen to do all she can to manage the costs of being a guest

The largest expense for guests is usually the wedding gift (85), followed by hotel accommodation (74), and an outfit (71).

Those invited overseas will see bills rocket.

Separate research carried out by the Post Office reveals Britons are willing to travel up to 1,163 miles on average to a close relation or best friend's wedding  and invest a hefty 827 on being a guest.

Its findings also suggest a third of people welcome the idea of a wedding abroad.

That said, it is still worth taking all the steps you can to keep costs down, and avoid an overseas wedding burning a hole in your pocket.

KEEP COSTS DOWN

- Book both accommodation and travel well in advance.

- Team up with others. If the accommodation offered at a venue is too expensive get in touch other guests to share a local Airbnb property.

- Be canny on flights. Try flight comparison websites such as Momondo and Skyscanner.

Neil James Cartwright, from travel site Momondo, says: 'Book your flights in advance and bear in mind that departures between 6pm and midnight typically offer the cheapest fares, while Tuesday is generally the cheapest day to fly.'

- If the wedding is part of a package holiday, see whether you can get a group rate if you all book together.

- Shop wisely for outfits, gifts, travel and accommodation, and make use of discount, voucher and cashback websites such as Voucher Codes, HotUKDeals and TopCashback.
A Republican congressman from Texas is calling on President Donald Trump to remove his family members from the White House.

Rep. Bill Flores says that the recent revelations about meetings which took place between Russian nationals and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, and his son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner during the 2016 campaign have become a distraction.

'I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the President's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House,' Flores told KBTX-TV.

He said that this applies 'not only [to] Donald Trump [Jr], but Ivanka and Jared Kushner.'

Flores said he views the meeting as problematic, particularly in light of fresh revelations that the sit-down was attended by individuals with links to Russian intelligence services.

Rep. Bill Flores, a Republican congressman from Texas, is calling on President Donald Trump to remove his family members from the White House

Flores says that the recent revelations about meetings which took place between Russian nationals and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, and his son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner (seen above with his wife, Ivanka Trump) during the 2016 campaign have become a distraction

Don Jr (left) has been in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya (right), who had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton

'I do find issues with the meeting. It's a meeting that should not have taken place,' said Flores.

'I think he thought he was looking out for his father's best interest.'

Trump's eldest son Don Jr may be in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.

But the latest revelation in the burgeoning scandal has added to the pressure on another family member who was at the meeting and is already in the crosshairs of investigators - Kushner, the president's influential son-in-law.

Democrats are up in arms, demanding that the 36-year-old Kushner - a senior adviser to the president with an office in the White House - be stripped of his security clearance.

Flores said he views the meeting as problematic, particularly in light of fresh revelations that the sit-down was attended by individuals with links to Russian intelligence services. President Trump is seen above during a joint news conference in Paris on Thursday

'There doesn't seem to be any ethical standard in the White House,' Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Thursday.

'Jared Kushner's security clearance must be immediately revoked.'

While Donald Jr has no role in his father's administration - he is helping run his corporate empire - Kushner is one of Trump's closest advisors.

The Harvard graduate is also the progeny of a powerful New York real estate family, and has long been in Trump's inner circle.

It was actually an omission on a government security clearance application filed by Kushner that led to the revelation of the meeting between himself, Donald Jr, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer.

NBC News reported on Friday that the meeting was also attended by a lobbyist believed to have been a Soviet counter-intelligence officer.

The revelation also led Donald Jr to release an email chain about the planning of that meeting - which is now being cited as the most serious evidence yet of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In the June 2016 emails, Donald Jr eagerly agrees to a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who is said to possess incriminating information about Clinton and invites Kushner and Manafort to come along.

Kushner's various dealings with Russian figures are under scrutiny, including a meeting with Moscow's now-outgoing ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak

Kushner, filing a security clearance document known as an SF-86, initially neglected to mention that he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya - as well as contacts he had with several other Russians, including Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya came to light only after Kushner filed an amended SF-86 form.

Veselnitskaya confirmed to CNN and MSNBC that Kushner attended the meeting but said he was there for only 'seven to 10 minutes' and she had never intended to hand over damaging information about Clinton anyway.

But even before revelations of the Veselnitskaya meeting came to light, Kushner's other dealings with Russian officials have been facing scrutiny.

According to The Washington Post, Kushner - at a December 2016 meeting with Kislyak - raised the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications link between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

That same month, Kushner also met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Vnesheconombank and a former member of Russian intelligence.

The bank, a key arm of the Russian government, is under tough US sanctions.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is the special counsel examining whether Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon

The Post reported last month that Kushner's finances and business dealings were being examined as part of the probe led by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign teamed with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon.

And this week, the McClatchy newspaper group reported that congressional and Justice Department investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign helped Russian cyber operatives bombard key voting districts with 'fake news' about Clinton.

Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaign's digital operations.

He now plays a major role in shaping foreign policy.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a massive effort to swing the election to Trump, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

Trump has vehemently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a 'witch hunt' by the media and sore loser Democrats.

Kushner is expected to discuss his Russian contacts at some point with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading one of the several probes into Russian election interference.

But ahead of that testimony - and with unanswered questions mounting around him - opposition Democrats are demanding action now.

'It is unclear why Mr. Kushner continues to have access to classified information while these allegations are being investigated,' said a letter from nearly 20 members of the House Oversight Committee sent to the White House last month.
A federal jury has awarded $7million in damages to the family of a woman killed by two police officers in Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday, saying the officers used unreasonable force.

The civil lawsuit was brought by relatives of 26-year-old Ashley DiPiazza, who was shot to death in 2014 while holed up at her apartment with a gun.

Dane County prosecutors previously cleared the officers, Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja, of any criminal liability during the incident in which they shot DiPiazza 11 times.

A federal jury awarded Ashley DiPiazza's family $7million in damages after she was shot 11 times by two Madison, Wisconsin police officers while she was holding a gun to her head

A federal jury found that Wisconsin police officers Justin Bailey (left) and Gary Pihlaja used unreasonable force when trying to subdue DiPiazza while she held a gun to her own head

During the trial, DiPiazza's family said that the officers shot her even though she threatened no one but herself. Their lawsuit claimed that the police had violated DiPiazza's constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizures when they killed her, reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

In 2014, police were called to DiPiazza's apartment when her boyfriend claimed that they had had a heated, 'relationship-ending' argument and that DiPiazza was drinking and in possession of his gun.

When the officers arrived, DiPiazza came out of her bedroom with the gun pointed at her own head. After attempting to talk DiPiazza down for 30 minutes with the help of a negotiator, Bailey and Pihlaja  each of whom had limited cover  fatally shot her.

The officers testified that they shot DiPiazza when she emerged from a bedroom with a gun to her head and ignored their commands to drop the weapon.

Ultimately, the jury decided that the officers had used unreasonable force when trying to subdue DiPiazza and declared that her family should receive $4million in compensatory damages, with an additional $3million in punitive damages.

DiPiazza's father, Joe (pictured with her mother, Tami), said that the jury 'ruled loud and clear for justice' for their daughter the verdict was read

Unlike during criminal trials, the DiPiazza family only had to convince the jury that their claims were probably true, instead of having to offer proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they were true.

'The jury ruled loud and clear for justice for Ashley DiPiazza,' said DiPiazza's father, Joe, following the verdict.

In contrast, Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, told the State Journal that the verdict actually send 'a message that officers have to wait to be fired upon or have a gun directed at them before taking action to protect themselves,' which flies in the face of their training.

Palmer added that the verdict 'sends a disconcerting message to officers because this will lead to second-guessing that puts officers at risk.'

In addition to being cleared of criminal liability by the state, both Bailey and Gary Pihlaja were cleared by an internal Madison police review that stated that neither officer violated departmental policy during the shooting incident.
The widow of a man who died after suffering a heart attack blames her late husband's doctor for his death.

Krystal Parnell believes her lover's symptoms were wrongly diagnosed as an asthma attack rather than those of heart failure which took his life on October 13 2014.

She told A Current Affair that in a conversation she had with her partner, 32-year-old Anthony Parnell, his doctor offered a special inhaler for smokers just 24 hours before he died.

The widow (pictured) of a man who died after suffering a heart attack blames her late husband's doctor for his death

Anthony Parnell (pictured) died on October 13 2014 from heart failure, only 24 hours after visiting the doctor

Mrs Parnell (pictured right) claims that in a conversation she had with her partner (left) his doctor offered a special inhaler for smokers just 24 hours before he died

Mrs Parnell says she had recorded a phone conversation she had with Anthony after the appointment he had with GP Dr Farid Zaer when it was said he was offered the inhaler.

'(He's) never been asthmatic,' she said.

Dr Zaer doesn't believe he did anything outside of the correct procedure and denies accusations he prescribed the father-of-six an inhaler.

Two years after he died a coroner ruled the health care he had received was a factor in his death.

Dr Zaer said he didn't do anything outside of the correct procedure and denies accusations he prescribed the father-of-six an inhaler

Mrs Parnell has lodged a complain to health regulators around the handling of Dr Zaer's treatment which has prompted legal action

'This consultation represented a missed opportunity to have excluded or further investigated a cardiac cause,' the coroner found.

In retrospect Dr Zaer admits he could have checked for Mr Parnell's coronary artery disease but said it's isn't something expected in a 32-year-old male.

Mrs Parnell has lodged a complain to health regulators around the handling of Dr Zaer's treatment of her husband which has prompted legal action.

Her lawyer, John Watson, has indicated their belief is that, should his case been thoroughly investigated, Mr Parnell would not have died.
Doubling down on his denials of any wrongdoing, Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has come out firing at his detractors.

The 52-year-old took aim at 'scandalmongers,' and demanded an end to public speculation about allegations that he helped his younger girlfriend get a job at Sydney Airport.

The Border Force chief again denied acting inappropriately, and is looking forward to resuming his public service career, he said in a statement to The Australian.

Roman Quaedvlieg (pictured) has released a fiery statement, denying allegations against him

Mr Quaedvlieg said he is eager to contribute at a time when Australia is 'threatened by splintering, but still pernicious, global ideologies that motivate individuals and groups to commit senseless acts of terrorism on innocent populations.'

The head of Australia's Border Force, who is currently taking leave from his role as his relationship with a young staffer is investigated, has denied he acted inappropriately.

Mr Quaedvlieg had separated from his wife Christine when he began a relationship with a young woman, who had already landed a low-level job at Sydney airport, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The father-of-three reportedly denied to superiors he did anything to help the woman secure the job, and said he took pointed steps to stay out of the recruitment process.

The Border Force boss, who earns more than $700,000 a year, has been off work for five weeks waiting to be questioned by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, but has so far heard nothing.

Colleagues of the woman at the centre of the scandal speculated she had received a promotion after their relationship began, News Corp reported earlier.

Roman Quaedvlieg (pictured), the head of Australia's Border Force, has denied allegations he's acted inappropriately, reportedly telling superiors he did not begin a relationship with a low-level staffer until she had landed a job scanning passports at Sydney Airport

Mr Quaedvlieg's leave of absence was confirmed on Monday, with the ABF issuing a brief statement noting that there was a matter under investigation.

But a former Border Force media manager took to Twitter to hint that the matter is a 'personal' one, and has little to do with his official duties.

Former spin doctor Sandi Logan claimed Quaedvlieg had been suspended, not put on leave, and that an 'external investigation' was taking place.

The last tweet to come from Quaedvlieg's official account was on May 25.

It has been suggested the complaint could have been politically motivated, as Quaedvlieg's strict work environment has previously been criticised.

It has now been claimed Mr Quaedvlieg, who has separated from his wife, was allegedly involved in a relationship with a fellow ABF employee aged in her early 20s. Some inside the ABF believe she may have been handed a promotion since her relationship with Mr Quaedvlieg began

The 52-year-old's name has also been thrown around for the position of Homeland Security Secretary, should the Government choose to reorder its approach to national security and develop a department specifically for keeping terrorists at bay.

No official information has been released as to why Quaedvlieg has taken leave, with authorities remaining tight lipped.

An inside source earlier told Fairfax Media the Commissioner's sudden departure is related to his personal behaviour as opposed to the carrying out of his official duties.

'The ABF Commissioner is on leave,' the statement from the office of Minister for Justice Michael Keenan said.

'A matter is under investigation by appropriate authorities.

'There will be no further comment until that process is complete.'

Mr Quaedvlieg was previously the chief police officer of ACT Policing, and has been the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force since its creation in 2015.

He made headlines in 2004 when he was caught up in a tsunami with his estranged wife Christine.
Scott Ludlam may be forced to pay back $1.6million in wages he received during his time as Greens Senator after it was revealed he 'forgot' he held dual New Zealand-Australian citizenship.

The party's co-deputy leader said it was recently brought to his attention that he holds dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand.

Under section 44 of the constitution, that makes him ineligible to hold elected office.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam is leaving federal parliament effectively immediately after finding out he was improperly elected more than a decade ago (stock image)

Senator Ludlam made the announcement on Friday during a press conference

Ludlam's Kiwi citizenship, resulting in his shock resignation, was exposed by Perth Perth barrister Dr John Cameron (pictured)

Mr Ludlam said he could not afford to pay back the money, but was confident it would not get to that point.

'It's going to be millions of dollars and my total assets amount to a fast computer and some nice shoes,' he told the ABC.

Ludlam's Kiwi citizenship, resulting in his shock resignation, was exposed by Perth Perth barrister Dr John Cameron, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The highly regarded barrister obtained proof Senator Ludlam still holds New Zealand citizenship and is ineligible for politics in Australia.

It is understood Mr Cameron obtained documents not publicly available from New Zealand Authorities.

Senator Ludlam labelled it a 'ridiculous oversight'.

The party's co-deputy leader announced on Friday that it was recently brought to his attention that he holds dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand (stock image)

The party's co-deputy leader announced on Friday that it was recently brought to his attention that he holds dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand (stock image)

'I apologise unreservedly for this mistake,' he said in a statement on Friday.

'This was my error, something I should have checked when I first nominated for preselection in 2006.'

Instead of going through protracted legal proceedings, he is resigning as a senator for Western Australia and co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens.

Senator Ludlam was born in Palmerston North in New Zealand and left the country with his family when he was three.

He settled in Australia not long before his ninth birthday, before being naturalised when he was in his mid-teens.

'(I) assumed that was the end of my New Zealand citizenship.'

'It is entirely my responsibility - it wasn't the way I was hoping to go out.'

Senator Ludlam took to Twitter after his announcement to apologize once again.

'Hey everyone. I'm sorry about this, but it's a thing. I'll really miss it, but there are other ways to make trouble. Love and thanks.'

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was devastated at the news, but Senator Ludlam's decision to deal with the issue directly and immediately showed his integrity and character.

'Scott has been an outstanding member of the parliament and of the Greens,' he said in a statement.

'He has been a strong representative for the people of WA and the nation on a range of issues.'

He lauded Senator Ludlam's intelligence on issues from digital rights to homelessness.

'He will continue to be a champion of the Greens movement and a dear friend.'

The Senate is expected to refer the matter to the Court of Disputed Returns, which the Greens think will call for a countback of votes from the 2016 election.

Senator Ludlam is the fourth senator to leave the upper house this parliamentary term

Senator Ludlam took to Twitter after his announcement to apologize once again (pictured)

University student Jordan Steele-John, 21, has been touted the frontrunner to take the vacant seat.

Mr Steele-John, who has cerebral palsy, had to give up his British citizenship to run for parliament back in 2013.

Senator Ludlam is the fourth senator to leave the upper house this parliamentary term.

Bob Day and Rod Culleton were both ruled ineligible for constitutional reasons, while Liberal senator Chris Back resigned.

In October, Mr Day resigned as a Family First senator for South Australia after it emerged the former company director's building company had gone bust, making him a bankrupt and therefore ineligible to be in parliament.

Mr Day's Home Australia group of companies has been placed into liquidation, halting construction on 207 new homes in SA, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and NSW.

He also had a commercial interest in his Adelaide electorate office, breaching Section 44 (5) of the constitution, which bans federal members of parliament from having a financial contract with the Commonwealth.

In January, the High Court ruled that former One Nation senator for Western Australia Rod Culleton's election to parliament was invalid because he had been charged with stealing a $7.50 truck key.
A decades-long search for a fugitive accused of killing a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980 came to a dramatic end when authorities identified his remains, which were buried in the backyard of his ex-wife's home.

Donald Eugene Webb, who was on the FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' list from 1981 to 2007, allegedly shot and killed Saxonburg police chief Gregory Adams in December 1980 during a traffic stop before going on the run.

Thirty-seven years later, his ex-wife Lillian Webb showed police on Thursday where her ex-husband was buried in her backyard in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Police believe Donald Eugene Webb (left) shot Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams (right) during a traffic stop 37 years ago in Pennsylvania

Officials are seen walking on Webb's ex-wife's property during Thursday's search, where they found the fugitive's remains

Police were led to Webb's body Thursday by his ex-wife, Lillian Webb, who showed them where he was buried in her back yard in Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Webb disappeared after the killing, but his car was found two weeks later in a parking lot in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Within weeks, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Webb after he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and charged in Pennsylvania with first-degree murder.

The FBI has offered $100,000 for information leading to Webb's capture or his remains. Webb would be in his 80s now, if he is still alive, WJAR reports.

FBI agents said Webb may have hidden out in a secret room in Lillian Webb's home

Last month, lawyer Thomas King III filed a notice in court saying the police chief's widow, Mary Ann Jones planned to sue Lillian Webb and her adult son for civil conspiracy claims.

The move came after FBI agents said Webb may have hidden out in a secret room in Lillian Webb's home during short stints in the 1990s. A cane was found in the room.

King said Friday that Jones agreed to drop her claims after Lillian Webb agreed to tell authorities where her ex-husband was buried.

On Thursday, she led police to her ex-husband's remains, which were buried in her back yard in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

The FBI said investigators believe Webb died about 17 years ago.

Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said Webb's cause of death has not yet been determined, but it 'does not appear his death was the result of a violent act.'

Investigators believe Webb was trying to case a jewelry store in 1980 when Adams pulled him over (the chief's cruiser above)

The police chief's widow, Mary Ann Jones, (the couple pictured above with their two kids) said she is livid that Lillian Webb kept her ex-husband's whereabouts hidden for years

The police chief's widow, Mary Ann Jones, said she is livid that Lillian Webb kept her ex-husband's whereabouts hidden for years, as Jones and her two sons struggled with their loss and the thought that the killer was still at large.

'I guess I'm angry at her at this point because she could do that to my family - hide him for years and then bury him so we never know,' Jones said. 'Why hide him? Why not allow us closure?'

Lillian Webb could not be reached for comment Friday. A message was left at her home.

Adams was 31 when he was killed, leaving his wife to raise two young sons. She eventually remarried.

Police at the time released these images as they desperately attempted to find the suspected killer

Joseph Beachem, the current police chief of Saxonburg, praised the FBI and police in both states for never giving up on finding Webb.

'The biggest question in the history of Saxonburg has been answered,' Beachem said.

'Our thoughts are with the family and we hope this eases their minds, if even only slightly. While the hurt will continue, at least doubt about what happened that day has been eliminated.'

'The biggest question in the history of Saxonburg has been answered,' Joseph Beachem, the current police chief of Saxonburg, said

State police detectives assigned to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office obtained a search warrant for Lillian Webb's property as part of a separate investigation into an illegal gambling operation that led to the discovery of Webb's body.

The application for the search warrant said police were looking for Webb's body and evidence of him living in the house before his death.

The FBI offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Webb or his remains, but said Friday that the reward will not be paid because Webb's remains were found as part of the investigation.
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Mark Zuckerberg finally made an appearance in Sun Valley on Friday for the annual Allen & Co conference, with the Facebook founder skipping the first three days of the event while touring nearby South Dakota.

The 33-year-old entrepreneur looked a little tense as he made his way through the campus in the afternoon, outfitted as always in a simple pair of jeans and gray t-shirt along with some Nikes.

Zuckerberg will now be coming face-to-face with two people who could not be more different than the self-made billionaire, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

They were also seen strolling the campus around the same time as Zuckerberg, looking calm and collected as they walked hand-in-hand and smiled for the cameras.

The real estate scions, who were recently appointed to jobs in the White House by Ivanka's father, also opted for a more dressed-up and designer-heavy look than Zuckerberg.

It will be at the Sun Valley Lodge on Friday afternoon that the three will likely come face-to-face for the first time since Zuckerberg began to display signs hinting at the fact that he was eyeing a run for the president in 2020 - against Trump.

Future world leader?: Mark Zuckerberg arrived at the annual Allen & Co conference on Friday after skipping the first three days while touring South Dakota

Solo sojourn: Zuckerberg was not joined by his wife Priscilla on the trip to Sun Valley this year as she is pregnant and they have a young child

New kids on the block: He will likely come face-to-face with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on Friday, as rumors of his possible presidential run reach a fever pitch

PDA-packed outings: Jared and Ivanka were once again happily holding hands in public on the trip

Older kids on the same block: Rupert Murdoch was also seen out at the event on Friday, chatting with son Lachlan

Jared and Ivanka have not addressed these rumors, which Zuckberg has denied much like all politicians do in the beginning, but they did spend Thursday morning with a vocal critic of the Harvard dropout, Home Depot founder Ken Langone.

It was Langone who took aim at Zuckerberg and his arguments in support of raising the minimum wage by stating: 'Tell you what, since #MarkZuckerberg suggested it, he should lay the groundwork and pay every #Facebook user at least $100 dollars to start.'

That same day, Facebook welcomed their two-billionth member to the social network, which no doubt lessened the sting of that social media swipe for Zuckerberg.

An assortment of billionaires, titans and moguls turned the walkways at the famed Sun Valley Lodge into their very own catwalks as they headed off to breakfast and the first session of the day in a colorful assortment of casualwear.

It was one of the rare times that many of the men and women in attendance could been seen unsuited and unbuttoned, and while most of the men stuck to a basic khaki or jean paired with their blue vest or windbreaker, there were a few notable exceptions.

Ivanka showed her fashion flair in a jean jacket and oversized chandelier earrings with a pink dress designer by Diabne von Furstenberg.

And to finish off the look, Ivanka went all out and popped the collar on her designer denim.

Jared also rocked some serious color, opting to wear a blue oxford under his heather sweater.

And while that may seem muted by comparison, it does mark one of the few times he has been seen out and about without a piece of black or white clothing.

Poppin' collars: Ivanka Trump (above) was photographed on Friday morning in a jean jacket and chandelier earrings at the Allen & Co conference

Rainbow Brite: Michael Bloomberg proved himself to be the most colorful man in attendance, with the former NYC mayor wearing a blue, orange and red ensemble

Leader of the pack: Alice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet (above) was the style star for the ladies yet again, wearing a blue lace coat over jeans and t-shirt of her own design

On Fridays we wear white. And jeans. And sandals: Megha Tolia and Lucy Page were twinning the day for the ladies

Tickled pink: President of Columbia Juan Manuel Santos and his daughter Maria Antonia Santos

Black mirror: As is always the case, venture capitalist Aviv Nevo was in head to toe black

Kisses all around: Sara Blakely posted a photo of herself and Diane von Furstenberg on Thursday night

Benjamin Horowitz, co-founder and partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Felicia Horowitz wearing a coat featuring the women of the civil rights movement

Partners in pastel: Mike Volpi, partner at Index Ventures, former CSO of Cisco Systems and John Elkann, CEO of Exor

The color parade finished off on a high note with the emergence of Alice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet, who has managed to walk away each year as the unofficial Allen & Co style star.

She kicked things off with a green look on Wednesday morning and a red lace dress later that day, then did a pretty in pink homage Thursday morning before naring her midriff in a floral look later that evening.

A new days calls for a new color, and on Friday that was blue for Ms. Bendet, who was one of the last to man the walkway.

She wore a stunning blue lace coat over her shoulders snd t-shirt that read 'eye candy' with her standard uniform of hiked-up platforms and over-sized sunglasses.

Boys in dark blue: Ted Sarandos, COO of Netflix, in simple khakis and a blue oxford with a navy blue coat

Boys in bright blue: Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, in a shiny jacket on Friday

Boys in light blue: Ben Sherwood, co-chair of Disney Media Networks, and President of Disney ABC Television Group

Boys walking and talking in blue: Sam Chainani, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, on Friday

Boys smilin' and stylin' in blue: Mark L. Casey, portfolio manager at Capital Group and Carrie Casey

Boys side-eyein' in blue: Mark L. Casey, portfolio manager at Capital Group and Carrie Casey

And more boys in dark blue: Henry Ellenbogen, VP and Analyst at T. Rowe Price, on Friday

Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg almost had her beat however, with the former NYC mayor looking like half a rainbow in his ensemble of blue shorts, a red vest, and bright orange shirt.

He added further color with a light blue belt, but failed to fully embrace the casual look by tossing on a pair of pricey Italian loafer and olive-colored peds.

President Juan Manuel Santos of Columbia also proved himself to be a leader in the style department, with a country-club casual look of driving shoes, loafers and pink shirt, with the top three buttons left undone.

Aviv Nevo on the other hand kept his entire wardrobe as black and as form-fitting as possible, which has become standard practice for the Israeli businessman.

Heading out in heels: Diana Taylor, the former New York State Superintendent of Banks and Bloomberg's partner

Backpack and vest and sensible shoes: William Danoff, VP and portfolio manager of Fidelity Contrafund, on Friday

Leggy lad: Ricky Sandler of Eminence Capital was one of the few men who wore shorts on Friday in Idaho

Luxury leisurewear: John Nallen, CFO of 21st Century Fox, walks through the campus in blue windpants and bright blue sneakers

Three's company: Elaine Langone, Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, and Rebecca Cooper on Friday

Extreme networking: Retired general Stanley McChrystaland his wife Annie attend the fourth day of the annual Allen & Company, but look to be sneaking off for some fly fishing

Meta moment: Talia Oringer, Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO of Shutterstock and Daniel Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal, in a Shutterstock photo

Game of Thrones fan: Mike Stone of Westwind Investor Management Co. on Friday in Sun Valley

Designer denim, designer slides: Tom Rutledge, the CEO of Charter Communications, walks the campus on Friday

Jared and Ivanka will likely be doing their best to sneak in and out of back entrances for the next few days at the conference, as the two are no doubt eager to avoid the gaggle of reporters, photographers and media members camped out in front of the Sun Valley Lodge.

The couple would no doubt be pressed to answer questions about the meeting Donald Trump Jr. accepted in June of 2016 with a shadowy Russian lawyer who promised him damaging information about Hillary Clinton that had been obtained by the Kremlin.

Jared was actually in attendance at that meeting, but left after only 10 minutes according to the lawyer who claimed to have the damning information, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

He has not made any comment about the meeting at this time.

The annual conference has become known as a dealmaker's dream, with some of the media and technology industries' biggest sales taking place in the sleepy Idaho town.

This year could be the most eventful yet on that front thanks to the pro-business policies being touted and put in place by the new commander-in-chief.

Jared and Ivanka headed west early Wednesday morning from their new home in Washington DC.

The couple are reportedly paying their own way to attend the conference as well, and not using any taxpayer money for their flights to and from Idaho or their lodging.

Reports began to roll in that the two had arrived on the scene in the late afternoon on Wednesday, with the two making their way from the nearby airfield to the campus, where they will attend sessions through Sunday with some of America's wealthiest and most well-connected moguls.

It is also a decidedly liberal and Democratic crowd that has gathered, filled with many of President Trump's most vocal opponents.

Bringing straight fire red: Gustavo Cisneros, Chairman of Grupo Cisneros and hios wife Pattie

Pretty pair: Stephen J. Luczo, the CEO of Seagate Technology , walks with hsi wife Agatha on Friday

Buddy system: Nicholas Griffin, Co-head of Transactions and Restructuring Financial Services Practice at KPMG LLP United Kingdom, and Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Grupo Cisneros

Wearing all of the hates: Gabriela Perez Rocchietti and Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, CEO of Intercorp, managing general partner of Nexus Group, and chairman of Interbank

Diller is one of those Trump critics, and kicked things off by taking aim at President Trump.

'He hasn't done anything, really. I think it's just a joke. Hopefully it will be over relatively soon,' The chairman if IAC said in an interview with CNBC from The Gem State.

'It inexplicably began and it will inexplicably end.'

Diller said that he would not air his grievances and complaints however with Ivanka and Jared upon their arrival at the event.

'I can't blame them for the current situation,' explained Diller.

'What would be the point of bringing it up to someone who has no curiosity, doesn't listen, etc.? Why would anybody bother?'

He also spoke about his problems with President Trump's immigration ban, saying that it is ultiamtely going to hurt the country.

'We're going to lose talent, rather than importing talent that we always need,' argued Diller.

'The immigration policies are reprehensible.'

He did however voice his support of some tax reform measures, including the planned reductions on how much if withheld from foreign earnings.

There were a few notable names absent from the gathering of the rich and famous on Thursday.

Self-made billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey both have yet to be seen at the event, while Rupert Murdoch is also a no-show thus far for the second straight year.

Marissa Mayer, who did not make the cut last year, was also once again left off the list of invitees as the recently ousted Yahoo head is busy plotting her next move.

Recently ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is also not in Sun Valley, though it is not known if that was his choice or if the organizers left the embattled executive off the list.

Disney head Bob Iger will also not attend the conference, but the company will be represented by a number of his lieutenants, including the head of the TV division Ben Sherwood and CFO Christine McCarthy.
Randi Zurenko, 34, was jailed on Thursday after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with two female teenage students while teaching at a Pennsylvania high school

A married Catholic school teacher has been jailed for just 23 months after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with two of her female teenage students.

Randi Zurenko, 34, begged a Pennsylvania judge for leniency for the sake of her own young children when being sentenced on Thursday.

The mother-of-five was jailed for up to 23 months with four years probation and must register as a sex offender for 25 years.

She had been charged with more than 200 child sex offences during her time as a teacher at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg.

Police said Zurenko sexually abused her two victims, aged 16 and 17, hundreds of times between 2013 and 2016.

She pleaded guilty to multiple charges of institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, possessing child pornography and disseminating obscene materials to minors.

Her lawyer, Lee Cohen, had asked for Judge Richard A. Lewis on Thursday to sentence Zurenko to house arrest for her young children and claimed she was 'truly in love with her victims,' Penn Live reports.

'I am ashamed to be here,' Zurenko told the judge. 'I have never coerced anyone. I have never taken advantage of anyone.

'I'm asking you today for grace and mercy and to take my children into consideration when you determine my sentence.'

Police said Zurenko sexually abused her two victims, aged 16 and 17, hundreds of times between 2013 and 2016

The mother of five had been charged with more than 200 child sex offences during her time as a teacher at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg

The judge said he considered Zurenko's own children, but also noted the pain the two victims had endured.

He described Zurenko as having a 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality.

One victim told the court Zurenko had manipulated her psychologically for years. Police said Zurenko once massaged the girl and undid her bra. She also repeatedly gave her alcohol.

The mother of five was jailed for up to 23 months with four years probation and must register as a sex offender for 25 years

'You stunted my growth because I depended on you,' the girl said in court.

'I felt so confused and abandoned and trapped. I trusted nobody... You took everything that was mine.

'I'm still feeling the impact. I don't think it's close to over. You took my innocence. You used my love.'

Following her arrest, Dauphin County's District Attorney's Office said Zurenko abused one of the girls from January of 2013 to October of 2016. The girl, who has since graduated from the school, was underage at all times.

Zurenko allegedly went on to abuse the second girl from 2015 to 2016, taking photographs of her half-nude and of them together while they had sex.

She sent her nude 'selfies' and also admitted to taking photographs of the student on her phone.

They are alleged to have sex in a number of different locations including Zurenko's home. Their last encounter was just four days before her arrest.

'During the course of the interview Zurenko admitted to providing both victim 1 and victim 2 alcohol while they were students at Bishop McDevitt.

'She also admitted that, while employed as a teacher at Bishop McDevitt High School, she had a sexual relationship with victim 2, a current student at the school.

'Zurenko also admitted to taking nude photographs of victim 2,' a statement released by the District Attorney's Office said.

The school immediately suspended the teacher.
Andreas Erazo, 18, has been charged with murder in the death of his 11-year-old neighbor Abbiegail Smith (pictured)

Authorities have arrested an 18-year-old neighbor in the slaying of an 11-year-old New Jersey girl who had been reported missing.

The Monmouth County prosecutor has charged Andreas Erazo with murder in the death of Abbiegail Smith. Erazo is expected to make a court appearance on Friday afternoon, around 1:30pm.

Abbiegail's body was found Thursday morning near the apartment building where she lived in Keansburg. The prosecutor says Erazo lived in an upstairs apartment.

She was found in what has been described as a large container, WABC reported. Officials had to climb down from a low roof to get to her body.

She was last seen in her apartment around 7:45pm Wednesday and reported missing by her mother about an hour later.

The prosecutor had described it as an 'isolated crime.'

Authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine how the girl died.

No other information is available.

Her body was found Thursday morning, in a larger container near her apartment building, and police had to climb from a low roof to get to it. They used a tarp to cover the body

Authorities say Erazo and the girl lived in the same apartment building in Keansburg, New Jersey

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni (pictured) said at a press conference Thursday: 'We were really hopeful that we would find her. It's a punch in the gut for all of us here in the community, especially in law enforcement'

The medical examiner will determine the girl's cause of death

One of Smith's neighbors told NJ.com that the family moved into the apartment complex about three or four months ago.

Abbiegail was reported missing Wednesday night and her body was found Thursday morning

The neighbor said Smith's mother was strict and didn't let her daughter leave the apartment without supervision.

Smith attended Joseph R. Bolger Middle School in Keansburg.

Keansburg school superintendent John Niesz released a statement about the 11-year-old's passing.

He said: 'It is a very sad day for our school district. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Keansburg School community go out to the Smith family.

'Abbiegail was a wonderful young girl who was a Titan through and through. She will be greatly missed by the entire Keansburg School District family, especially her friends and teachers.

'We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Abbiegail Smith. Please keep the Smith family in your thoughts and prayers.'
At a ground-floor apartment on one of the tranquil streets of Maadi, a group of young photographers gather five days a week to exchange experiences, attend classes, put up exhibitions or simply pursue job opportunities.



The place, Beit El-Sura (The House of the Picture), has been there for less than a year but as its founder, photographer Ahmed Hayman, says, It has been living up to the expectations of an expanding community of young men and women photographers, amateurs and professionals."



During the past few years, since the 2011 revolution in particular, there has been a growing passion or even obsession among young Egyptians for photography.



I think it is about many things: the story of the 18 days of the revolution with the endless images that photojournalists so cleverly captured of the spirit of Tahrir and other squares around the country, and the growing hype of social media, first with Facebook and Twitter and now with Instagram, Hayman argued.



Hayman himself has started as a photojournalist, after having studied mass communication. Having been a participant in a prominent training programme for photography in Denmark in late 2010, Hayman came back to join the masses during the 18-day uprising and to document in images these monumental times.





Between training programmes in Europe and the US, and between photography jobs with newspapers and independent studios, Haymen developed an awareness of the need for a Cairo-based photography learning hub.Beit El-Sura is not the first but it is certainly adding a new volume to this growing community of photographers who like to share experiences and join up for projects  in Egypt and elsewhere  with other young photographers, he said.

Since its opening a little over nine months ago, Beit El-Sura has helped professional and amateur photographers to develop their skills through a wide range of classes, from basic photography training to specialised courses on food and travel photography.



In his early 30s, a computer engineer with a keen interest in photography, Youssef Swellam joined Beit El-Sura to develop skills he had developed on his own over the course of 10 years since he bought his first Nikon D5100 after his last year in the school of engineering.



It was through street photography, Swellam said, that this engineer became close to photography. The ability to capture those very spontaneous moments of joy, pain and anger.



Swellam used his association with Beit El-Sura to develop his wedding photography skills. Now he is a computer engineer in the mornings and a wedding photographer in the evenings.



The concept of wedding photography has been revolutionised; it is no more about static bride and groom, but rather the dynamic groom and dancing bride. And of course it is about pre-wedding photo sessions, Swellam said.

It was also in Beit El-Sura that marketing student Hala Yosery expanded originally self-taught skills developed since she grabbed the Canon 60D that her father had bought for casual purposes to harness for her up and coming marketing career.It is not just classes that have developed the skills of Yosery and Swellam. Also the chance to exhibit their work. I am convinced that learning photography is something more layered than going through the technical details of cameras. It is about joining projects and hearing the stories of a photo or a photographer, Hayman said.Hayman believes that personal stories produced the best photos, whether from the January Revolution, the plight of Gaza residents during the 2009 Israeli war on the Strip, or destitute of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.I think when we talk about the revolution that the social media has introduced into the world photography we are not just talking about the growing interest in photography but also about the changing mood of photography. This is something that Beit El-Sura is particularly attune to, Hayman said.

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A man has had his ear slashed after an alleged glassing at a pub in Sydney's inner west.

Police and ambulance officers were called to the pub on Marrickville Road in Dulwich Hill just after midnight on Saturday on reports of an assault.

Police said the men, who knew each other, became involved in an altercation and one of the men hit the second man, 20, with a glass, causing a laceration to his ear.

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A 20-year-old man (pictured) has had his ear slashed after an alleged glassing at a pub in Sydney's inner west

Police said the men, who knew each other, became involved in an altercation and one of the men hit the second man, 20, with a glass, causing a laceration to his ear

NSW Ambulance paramedics attended the scene and provided treatment to the 20-year-old man.

Footage shows him sitting on a bench on the side of the road with his head bandaged, being treated by an ambulance officer.

The 20-year-old man was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for treatment.

Officers from Marrickville Local Area Command are investigating the incident and inquiries are continuing.

Police and ambulance officers were called to the pub on Marrickville Road (pictured) in Dulwich Hill just after midnight on Saturday on reports of an assault
A Serbian man charged in the beating death of American tourist Bakari Henderson claimed he was an innocent bystander in the 'wrong place at the wrong time' after he was released on bail.

Nenad Jovanovic, who was released on bail with another Serb, said the two did not participate in the mob that was captured on CCTV footage attacking Henderson on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

The 22-year-old Jovanovic told B92: 'I saw big chaos, pushing around, nothing else. I feel bad that we were there in the first place.'

Nine people were arrested and charged with intentional homicide after a fight broke out over Henderson's selfie with a waitress at the Bar Code bar in the tourist area of Laganas, according to Greek police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos.

Six other suspects - a Greek bartender, a British citizen of Serbian origin, and four other Serbs - are jailed pending trial.

The last of the nine suspects is slated to appear before an investigating judge on Sunday before a decision is made about whether he will be held pending trial or released on bail.

Henderson, who had just graduated from the University of Arizona in May, was in Greece doing a photoshoot to launch his own fashion line, his family said.

Nenad Jovanovic (left), who was released on bail along with another Serb, said the two did not participate in the mob that was captured on CCTV footage attacking Bakari Henderson (right)

Nine people were arrested and charged with intentional homicide after a fight broke out over Henderson's selfie with a waitress at the Bar Code bar (file photo) on the island of Zakynthos

Serbian media reported that the two who were released on bail had returned to their homes in southern Serbia.

Jovanovic told B92 he was not involved in the fight that ended Henderson's life, and said he was 'at the wrong place at the wrong time'.

He said: '"I saw big chaos, pushing around, nothing else.'

Jovanovic said he expected to move on with his life, adding: 'I feel bad that we were there in the first place...I am sorry about the young man. Nobody deserves that.'

CCTV from a nearby bar where Henderson had been partying shows the recent college graduate fleeing from a mob

Henderson is quickly grabbed and body-slammed to the ground by one of the angry men before the rest are seen joining in, kicking and punching him repeatedly for 20 seconds

According to the Greek Security Division the incident began at 3.15am on Friday at Bar Code.

Henderson was at the bar on a night devoted to Serbians when he reportedly asked to take a selfie with a waitress.

A 33-year-old Serbian took issue with this and got into an argument with the waitress before he hit Henderson, who smashed a beer bottle on another table, according to Chronopoulos.

In the CCTV footage, obtained by Greek newspaper Protothema from a bar on the same street as Bar Code, Henderson can be seen running along the sidewalk trying to get away from a mob that was in pursuit.

A man can be seen body slamming Henderson into the front of a car from the right hand side and the 22-year-old begins to fall to the floor.

As he goes down, one attacker kicks him in the back, another punches him in the face and the first assailant kicks him again.

The mob then continues to kick him during the 20-second assault.

Henderson was at the bar on a night devoted to Serbians when he reportedly asked to take a selfie with a waitress. A fight soon broke out

'They kicked and punched him to his body and his head. His death came from hits in his head,' Chronopoulos said. Pictured above, Henderson, who was starting his own fashion line

'They kicked and punched him to his body and his head. His death came from hits in his head,' Chronopoulos told the Washington Post.

Henderson did not get up and the attackers milled around over his body, leaving him bleeding on the street.

After five minutes paramedics arrived and Henderson was taken away on a stretcher.

Police are not seen in the footage; this is the first summer that Laganas does not have its own police station due to government cuts.

Six suspects - a Greek bartender, a British citizen of Serbian origin, and four other Serbs - are jailed pending trial. Pictured, two suspects being brought into court




A breakthrough in diabetes treatment will see patients fitted with an 'artificial pancreas'.

The new development is an addition to the already available insulin pump, which continually pumps insulin into the body, but needs to be manually adjusted often.

Australian patients trialling the new technology will now be fitted with a glucose monitor, which uses radio frequency to send information to the pump every five minutes, Channel Nine reported.

This allows the pump to adjust the amount of insulin delivered automatically.

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The new trial sees diabetes patients fitted with a glucose monitor (left) which transmits to an insulin pump (right) via radiofrequency every five minutes, allowing it to update automatically

Professor Richard MacIsaac from St Vincent's Hospital said the new system is 'trying to take over some of the functions that the pancreas would do automatically'.

Associate Professor David O'Neal told Medical Xpress the new device 'does not represent a cure for diabetes' - but could change the lives of patients with type 1 diabetes.

'It has the potential to very significantly improve control of glucose levels, thereby reducing damage to the body resulting from [having] glucose levels outside a healthy range, and also improve the quality of life of people with type 1 diabetes,' he said.

Previous studies on the system showed automated insulin delivery provided more effective control of glucose levels than traditional treatments.

The trial has showed the new system provided more effective control of glucose levels than traditional treatments

Leanne Foster, 47, was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 11. She joined the trial in July, and said it began to help her straight away.

'It's very exciting. It's amazing technology. My blood sugar levels are the closest they have been to a non-diabetic person in 36 years,' she said.

About 1.7million Australians are living with diabetes, according to Diabetes Australia.

A Medtronic insulin pump, which needs to be manually adjusted, currently costs $9,500.

It is hoped that when the new technology is released for public use, it will be subsidised.


Harris Farm Markets will be banning plastic bags from their stores, just hours after major competitors Woolworths and Coles made the same announcement.

The grocery chain said by January 1, 2018, they will no longer use plastic bags at any of their checkouts in all of its stores across the country.

Announcing the matter on its official Facebook page, the company said they would replaced the ban plastic bags with other alternatives.

Harris Farm Markets has explained the reasoning behind the ban on its official Facebook page

'By then, we will offer a range of small single use paper bags for free, cardboard fruit boxes for free or reusable paper bags sold at the cheaper of 15 cents or cost price,' the company said.

'Thank you to all of our customers for supporting our #BanTheBag campaign which saw our customers say no to plastic bags over 800,000 times since April. As a result of this, Harris Farm Markets will be donating over $40,000 to Clean Up Australia.

'Currently, Australians use five billion plastic bags each year. Thats about 10 million bags every day.

'Plastic bags require precious fossil fuels in production, they add an enormous amount of waste to landfill and are a threat to our birds and marine life.

Harris Farm has announced on Facebook that it will ban the use of plastic bags for good

'We support a NSW and national ban on single-use plastic bags, and strongly encourage our government to #BanTheBag #SayNoToPlastic,' the company said.

The announcement comes hours after Coles and Woolworths made similar calls to end the use of plastic bans in all its stores on Friday.

Coles Chief Customer Officer Simon McDowell the ban would affect Coles stores in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia to line with Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT, where Coles has already banned the bags.

Harris Farm Markets will no longer offer plastic bags at its check counters by January 1

Coles (pictured) has announced they will be banning the use of plastic bags in their stores

'We know customers like the convenience of single-use bags, so we'll make sure we have plenty of other options for them if they forget to bring their own bags from home,' Mr McDowell said.

Coles said the announcement comes to improve their environmental outcomes.

The initiative was unveiled on Friday, with all Woolworths Group stores across Australia, including supermarkets, BIG W, BWS and online expected to be plastic-bag free from June 30, 2018.

While Woolworths announced the plastic bag ban earlier on Friday, their ban will only include New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia stores to line with those in states and territories where a ban on plastic bags has been legislated, where the ban will not include Queensland.

Woolworths (pictured) says customers will continue to have access to a range of alternative shopping bag options including thicker reusable versions

'As a Group we are committed to listening to our customers and also doing the right thing for the environment, and we feel this is an issue we need to take a stand on,' Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement.

'We currently give out more than 3.2 billion lightweight plastic bags a year and hence can play a significant role in reducing overall plastic bag usage.

'[Friday's] commitment shows we are committed to taking our environmental and community responsibilities seriously.

'Whilst we know this is a major decision, we will work very closely with all of our store teams to ensure the transition for our customers is as simple as possible.'

Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci (pictured) said 'we are committed to listening to our customers and also doing the right thing for the environment'

The Woolworths Group says customers will continue to have access to a range of alternative shopping bag options across its network of stores, including thicker reusable versions.

They will be offered at different price points, including 15 cents at Woolworths supermarkets, with Big W yet to decide whether they will be offered for free.

Dan Murphy's and Cellarmasters are already single-use plastic bag free, the Woolworths Group said in the statement.
On the night of the Grenfell Tower fire, nurse Georgia van Zantvoort watched the tragedy unfold from the window of her nearby flat.

The 24-year-old used to work at New Zealands busiest hospital casualty department and says: I know how to save lives. I was minutes from the tower block. I wanted to be there helping. But because Im not a registered NHS nurse, there was nothing I could do.

Georgia is one of many qualified nurses from Australia and New Zealand living in the UK who are desperate for an NHS post but find that strict entrance tests and red tape bar their way.

In our overstretched health service, 40,000 more nurses are urgently needed to fill vacant posts. Indeed, Englands largest hospital trust, Barts Health in London, has 1,732 unfilled jobs, while applications for university nurse training are down by 23 per cent this year after bursaries were scrapped.

In this picture are 11 nurses who came to Britain hoping to join the NHS, yet none has been able to do so

Meanwhile, the NHS turns down many highly trained foreign nurses, who are being forced to make ends meet in the UK as waitresses, nannies and classroom assistants.

This unhappy state of affairs was highlighted by 26-year-old Claire Brady, an Australian living in Hammersmith, West London, after it was revealed that the NHS has launched a recruitment drive to hire Indian nurses because of the staffing crisis.

Claire, a nurse trained in emergency and recovery who now works six days a week as a carer in London, said: I am flabbergasted that the NHS makes it so difficult for people from Australia and New Zealand to work in the nursing profession in which they are trained.

The process of registering as a nurse in the NHS can take up to a year and cost more than 3,000.

It involves a compulsory English language test, which is surely superfluous to native speakers from New Zealand and Australia. Her experience is shared by many other Australian and New Zealand nurses here.

In this picture are 11 who came to Britain hoping to join the NHS, yet none has been able to do so.

Many blame the unnecessary and difficult English language test, which is compulsory for all foreign nurses, even if they are from English-speaking countries.

All nurses from overseas must pass this language test to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council before they can work at an NHS hospital. The test has four elements  speaking, listening, reading and writing. Foreign nurses also have to do a computer-based theory test and a practical clinical test.

If nurses are recruited by NHS trusts, which head-hunt in India and the Philippines, they can be sponsored for a five-year visa and do the bulk of the testing before they arrive here.

In our overstretched health service, 40,000 more nurses are urgently needed to fill vacant posts

If, however, like many Australian and New Zealand nurses, they come here on a standard two-year working visa, they often take the tests in the UK  a process they have criticised as overly demanding and slow.

Calls for an easier English language test in particular have come after devastating revelations about the failure rates.

This week, one hospital trust revealed that only three of 111 applicants for NHS jobs from the Philippines had passed the exam.

Directors at Walsall Manor Hospital in the West Midlands said the exam overseen by the Nursing and Midwifery Council is too tough.

But critics see a particular irony in the fact that the test, which asks candidates to understand complex medical and academic articles, is obstructing nurses who speak English as a first language.

Campaigners for a change in the rules say the standards of the English test, in which candidates need to score seven out of a possible nine marks to pass, are the equivalent of Oxford Universitys English language requirements for its international undergraduates.

Another problem for disappointed Australian and New Zealand nurses is what they see as long-winded bureaucracy and lengthy paper trails. Here are some of their stories . . .

1. Courtney Brown

Working as an agency carer, Courtney, 29, lives in London.

I started trying to be an NHS nurse in January 2016 so it has taken 19 months so far, says the critical care nurse from the Melbourne Royal Childrens Hospital in Australia.

Everything has to be sent by post. There was a problem because two of my references were emailed by mistake. My visa runs out in May and if I dont get the registration Ill have to go home.

2. Claire Brady

The 26-year-old Australian is personal carer for an elderly man in Chelsea. Claire has a nursing degree and experience in emergency and recovery. She says: There are a huge number of nurses from my country and New Zealand in the UK whose skills are going to waste in roles such as nannying, personal care and waitressing.

3. Georgia van Zantvoort

The 24-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, lives in Shepherds Bush, West London, and works as an adviser for an East London occupational health company.

Back home Im an accident and emergency nurse. I have a two-year visa and I know it can take nearly that time to complete the tests leading up to NHS registration. It can cost more than 3,000 and I might only be a nurse here for a few months.

4. Miriam Petterson

She has a nursing degree and worked for six years in a GP practice in New Zealand. At 29, Miriam also passed a specialist diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Yet she is a nanny in Essex. Bizarrely, she failed the English test the first time, although her degree was in English. I thought it was odd. I feel they set you up for failure.

5. Mel Reed

The 23-year-old New Zealander has a nursing degree but works as an ophthalmic technician in Harley Street, London.

My visa is for two years and becoming an NHS nurse is such a long process. I decided that by the time I took the exams and did all the paperwork, I would have to go home again.

6. Ingrid Matthews

A live-in nanny for a family in Putney, South-West London, Ingrid, 25, is from Melbourne, Australia. She has a degree in nursing and midwifery and came to London last September hoping to join the NHS. But the lengthy process has discouraged her. A lot of nursing practice in my country originated here in London, yet still we cant get a job here.

7. Sophie Newcombe

The specialised respiratory nurse lives in Bayswater, West London, and is working as a nanny and switchboard operator. She was put off trying to become an NHS nurse because the process is so daunting.

Sophie, 25, says: The nursing school I went to is one of the top ones in New Zealand. It took me three years at university and a year of postgraduate study to get my qualification, and apparently it means nothing here in the UK.

8. Sarah Hindmarsh

A 29-year-old from Wellington, New Zealand, Sarah has a nursing degree but works as an adviser for an occupational health company in East London. She has a British passport (because her mother emigrated from Kent) and back home she ran a night ward.

However, she has twice failed the practical exam to become an NHS nurse and has given up. I would now have to start again and that would cost another 3,000.

9. Taylah Brackin

The Australian, 23, has a nursing degree and worked for two years at a large Queensland hospital before arriving here in April.

I started the process of registration by sitting the English test. I needed a mark of seven but got 6.5. I have a two-year visa and the whole process was going to last months, then Id only have a short time left to work as a nurse.

Now a teaching assistant living in Clapham, South London, she adds: My nursing experience is being wasted.

10. Chloe Horton

A general nurse from New Zealand living in Peterborough, 30-year-old Chloe works as a hospital healthcare assistant. She has been in the UK for 18 months and failed part of the clinical test necessary to be an NHS nurse.

Her visa runs out in November and because of time delays she is going to go home: I am told half the nurses from Australia and New Zealand fail this clinical test the first time. Its unfair we have to do an English language exam.

11. Charlotte Rosenberg

Working as a nanny and living in Wandsworth Common, London, Charlotte, 25, has a nursing degree and was an orthopaedic nurse for 18 months before coming to Britain five weeks ago.

She is to start taking the exams leading to NHS registration soon. The English exam, the first, costs about 160: English is the only language I speak and to be tested on it is so frustrating.

Additional research by KiwiOz Nannies London
For one moment, it looked as if he would never go. Donald Trump had Emmanuel Macron by the hand, not so much shaking it as apprehending its owner.

At one point yesterday, the French President almost lost his balance as Mr Trumps vice-like grip persisted while the pair of them walked across the Place de la Concorde.

It then flipped upwards, morphing into an arm wrestle, whereupon Mr Trump used his other hand to grab Madame Macron.

Political analysts are so fascinated by Mr Trumps handshakes that its only a matter of time before someone does a PhD on the subject.

One second: It's a good start as Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump warmly shake hands

Four seconds: There's no letting go but President Trump pats Mr Macron's hand several times

Eight seconds: They're still holding leaving President Macron to gesture with his free hand

Yesterdays departure from Paris was a collectors item. But it was also emblematic of a gentle shift in transatlantic relations, one which does no favours to Britain.

For France can certainly congratulate itself on a new, enhanced rapport with the most powerful man in the world.

Yesterday, the two leaders watched an extraordinary Bastille Day parade featuring American troops and US Air Force jets.

It took as its central theme the centenary of the USAs entry in to the First World War on the Allied side. Note that there was no mention of any other Allies yesterday.

To listen to Messrs Macron and Trump this week, the Great War was fought and won entirely by the French and Americans.

Of Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the rest, we heard not a squeak.

Just as the French government has been making a huge fuss of the US President, so the French public have followed suit.

As Air Force One took off from Orly Airport yesterday afternoon, French police reported that the total number of arrests in connection with the Trump visit had been, er, zero.

With great chunks of the Metro system closed for the parade, I had to walk miles to get to my perch opposite the presidential grandstand yesterday morning. Not once did I hear a single chant or heckle, let alone spot a disobliging placard. I couldnt even see any relevant graffiti in a city that has more than its fair share.

The French are past-masters at protest and rioting. But aside from a small anti-Trump rally on the other side of Paris, he has been made very welcome.

France might have very clear, very public differences with Mr Trump over his ripping up of the Paris climate accord but, equally, it has been very pleased to have him in Paris, showering his hosts with compliments about the people, food, architecture and, above all, Frances historic (and revolutionary) ties to the US.

Thirteen seconds: There's a change of grip and the pair now take up an arm-wrestling position

Britain should, by now, have started sketching a plan for Mr Trumps state visit, originally scheduled for this autumn. This weeks faultlessly majestic welcome for the King of Spain shows precisely the sort of thing which the Queen, her Royal Mews and her Household Cavalry do so well.

However, the relentless, corrosive mockery and name-calling directed at Mr Trump by Britains liberal establishment and Leftist screechers has not gone unnoticed in Washington. For all the splendour of a carriage-ride with the Queen, its appeal had rather lost its shine given the prospect of protesters hurling abuse at Britains most important ally over past remarks about women and immigration.

While it is deemed perfectly acceptable for Labour politicians like as John lynch the bitch McDonnell to make crude remarks about women in public, it is not acceptable for an American president to make them in private 12 years before taking office. So, the Trump visit has now been nudged back to next year or beyond.

Nineteen seconds: President Trump leans forward to kiss First Lady Brigitte Macron before reaching out to hold her hand while still gripping her husband's ten seconds later

That we have missed a trick was abundantly clear as we watched Mr Trump lapping up the pageantry yesterday.

That, after all, is something Britain does better than anyone. But the French do it very well, too.

This was a parade on a scale we never see in Britain. In fact, you would probably have to go to Moscow or North Korea to see something similar. For the best part of two hours, every uniformed element of the French state came marching down the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde  in their thousands.

We had tanks, missile launchers, Napoleonic cavalry units, armoured cars, fire engines and motorbikes along with two entirely separate flypasts  one fixed wing, one for helicopters  and many, many bands. The two presidents spoke animatedly throughout, no doubt swapping notes on military hardware, though the occasion seemed less enthralling for the two First Ladies, placed on either side.

Once again, Melania Trump was in another long dress, by Valentino, while Brigitte Macrons hemlines just keep on rising above the knee. Any higher and yesterdays outfit might have qualified as a miniskirt.

The loudest cheers were for the Foreign Legion bringing up the rear at their famously slow pace (88 steps a minute, whereas the other units were doing 120).

Mr Trump was on his feet clapping every last contingent, including prison officers, the police cadets and even a unit of French customs officers.

Interestingly, the douaniers not only had their own regimental standard but they also carried rifles with fixed bayonets. You dont find a lot of those at HM Customs and Excise.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has sparked a furious sexism row after saying driving trains is so easy 'even' a woman can do it.

He made the remark in front of the whole Cabinet  including Theresa May  earlier this week. It led to a withering slap-down from the Prime Minister and infuriated female colleagues.

During a discussion about rail strikes on Tuesday Mr Hammond, 61, asked why it is so rare to see female train drivers.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has sparked a furious sexism row after saying driving trains is so easy 'even' a woman can do it

He argued that driving a modern locomotive was so simple now that 'even they can do it'.

His remark caused fury around the table and, when he tried to dig himself out of the hole, Mrs May stepped in and said: 'Chancellor, I am going to take your shovel away from you.'

Pauline Cawood, 53, a train driver for more than 20 years, told The Sun: 'It's an old-fashioned, sexist comment.

'He ought to be ashamed of himself. What's that man been doing for the past 50-odd years? Probably sat in a gentleman's club smoking cigars and drinking whisky.'

There are 19,000 train drivers in Britain  5.5 per cent of which are female. This is up from 4.2 per cent in 2012.

Last night, Labour MP Jess Phillips said: 'Philip Hammond has disgraced himself with this remark, as well as managing to insult half the country's population.'

Mr Hammond (left) made the remark in front of the whole Cabinet - including Theresa May (right). It led to a withering slap-down from the PM and infuriated female colleagues

The Treasury refused to comment on Mr Hammond's statement.

Earlier this year the Chancellor was accused of sexism after telling a female Labour MP not to be 'hysterical'.

Mary Creagh asked Philip Hammond about the effect of Brexit on British businesses with bases in Ireland.

He told her 'not to be hysterical about these things'  provoking anger from other MPs.

Mr Hammond later said: 'If my comments have caused any offence, I of course withdraw them unreservedly.'

A Cabinet source said: 'It was uncomfortable.'

In the run up to the election, there was speculation that Mr Hammond would be replaced by Amber Rudd after alleged clashes with the Prime Minister over his Budget.

But following the result Theresa May confirmed he would remain as Chancellor  a necessary move to keep her majority.

The Prime Minister has previously condemned lewd comments made by Donald Trump with regards to women.

On the Andrew Marr show earlier this year, when asked if she would personally confront the President when they first met, she said: 'The biggest statement that will be made about the role of women is the fact that I will be there as a female Prime Minister.'

In the run up to the election, there was speculation that Mr Hammond (left) would be replaced by Amber Rudd after alleged clashes with the Prime Minister (right) over his Budget. But Theresa May confirmed he would remain as Chancellor- a necessary move to keep her majority

She later added she was 'proud to be only the second female prime minister that the UK has had'.

Labour accused David Cameron of sexism in 2011 after he told Angela Eagle to 'calm down dear' during a Commons exchange.

The then prime minister borrowed the catchphrase  made famous by Michael Winner in a series of TV adverts  during a row about NHS reforms.

Miss Eagle, then shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said 'a modern man' would not have 'expressed himself that way'.

It took until 1979 for there to be the first female train driver in the UK.

Trailblazer Karen Harrison, who died in 2011, went on to become an active union member and campaigner for women in the rail industry, and described how she encountered frequent sexism from male train drivers.
He has dealt with a barrage of criticism for his inappropriate comments about women since he ran for office.

Now Donald Trump is facing another backlash after commenting that French president Emmanuel Macrons wife Brigitte was in such good shape.

A clip of the comment, after which he repeats the point to Mr Macron, was posted on the French governments Facebook page on Thursday.

Standing in the Hotel National des Invalides in Paris on his first state visit to the country, Mr Trump then appears to turn back to Frances first lady, 64, and say: Beautiful.

Donald Trump is facing another backlash after commenting that French president Emmanuel Macrons wife Brigitte was in such good shape

When he was introduced to her, he gripped her tightly on her upper arms as he kissed her on the cheek.

Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, tweeted: Creepy, totally inappropriate and sexist. Another user said: That was truly creepy. She tried to take her hand away and he held firm and pulled her towards him.

The French were more restrained about Mr Trumps comments.

France24 said they went unnoticed, while womens magazine La Parisienne said: Even if it were not a sexist remark or a reference to her age, the formulation appears at least clumsy.

Adelia Lellouche, 21, told the French Press: Maybe the Americans are getting angry, but French people are not that worried.

A clip of the comment, after which he repeats the point to Mr Macron, was posted on the French governments Facebook page on Thursday

Mrs Macron is a retired lady, and perhaps she might be happy with someone saying nice things about her. There is a lot of sexism in French politics, but this incident does not seem like a very big one.

In October last year, while on the presidential campaign trail, Mr Trump became embroiled in a huge row after leaked video footage emerged of him discussing grabbing women by the p****.

Just last month, he was accused of sexism after interrupting a phone call with incoming Irish leader Leo Varadkar to compliment Irish journalist Caitriona Perrys nice smile.
A doctor who worked for 76-hours straight is one of many working in Australia's health system at a higher risk of fatigue, the nation's peak medical body says.

Shocking new figures released by the Australian Medical Association on Saturday reveal one-in-two public hospital doctors are working unsafe hours.

An audit of 716 doctors found shifts of 72 hours, 59 hours, 58 hours, and 53 hours had also been worked, impacting on the level of care they can provide patients.

One-in-two public hospital doctors in Australia are working unsafe hours, an audit by the Australian Medical Association has found (stock image)

'The Audit warns that the demands on many doctors continue to be extreme,' AMA President Dr Michael Gannon said.

'It is disappointing that work and rostering practices in some hospitals are still contributing to doctor fatigue and stress, which ultimately affect patient safety and quality of care and the health of the doctor.'

The doctors audited, including doctors-in-training and hospital-based doctors, were required to keep an online diary of their hours of work, on-call hours, non-work hours and sleep time over a one-week in November last year.

The AMA said the number of doctors working unsafe hours had fallen from 78 per cent in 2001 but there was no change on 2011 figures.

'The Audit warns that the demands on many doctors continue to be extreme', Australian Medical Association President Dr Michael Gannon (pictured) said

'We are dismayed that one doctor reported working a 76-hour shift in 2016, almost double the longest shift reported in 2011,' Dr Gannon said.

'It is also a great concern the maximum total hours worked during the 2016 survey week was 118 hours, the same as 2006  no improvement in a decade.'

Intensive Care Physicians and Surgeons were the most stressed, the audit found.

Dr Gannon has called on hospital administrators to provide doctors with better rosters and safer work practices.

'It could be a case of smarter rostering practices, improved staffing levels, and better access to appropriate rest and leave provisions so that doctors get a chance to recover from extended unbroken periods of work,' he said.

An audit of 716 doctors found shifts of 72 hours, 59 hours, 58 hours, and 53 hours had been worked (stock image)

It is the fourth audit carried out by the AMA since 2001.

Doctors have told how many were finishing their shift exhausted because of the long hours they were required to work.

'I have seen people fall asleep, trying to catch a 20-minute power nap in the emergency department in front of a computer, and a colleague slept in her car,' Sydney paediatric registrar Tessa Kennedy told The Daily Telegraph.

'Doctors end up not eating, not peeing for hours, and they get home exhausted.'
The timing couldnt have been worse.

Just as Lord Adonis was castigating the greed of Britains highest paid university boss Dame Glynis Breakwell, the remuneration panel that sets her salary was meeting to discuss whether she should have another rise.

Judging by the lavish perks the vice chancellor of Bath University already receives, it is hard to see quite what she spends her vast pay packet on anyway.

She lives rent-free in a Grade 1-listed property in the citys most prestigious Georgian conservation area, and many of her everyday expenses are taken care of.

Lord Adonis slammed University of Bath vice-chancellor Dame Glynis Breakwell, left with Prince Edward, over her pay packet, while she lives rent-free in a Grade 1-listed property in the citys most prestigious Georgian conservation area

Her generous annual allowances include 8,738 simply to pay for a housekeeper  thats not far short of the 9,000 students at Bath have to fork out each year for their studies.

Not that Dame Glynis, 64, who studied psychology at university, has ever displayed the slightest sign of discomfort at her fabulous earnings which dwarf the amount paid to every other vice chancellor in the country, including those who have more than twice the number of students of Bath.

Im worth it, she has said whenever asked to justify the deal which means she is paid more than three times the Prime Minister.

As if to emphasise this lack of humility she airily insisted: Ive been in the job a long time and you do tend to get increases over time in most jobs.

It has all meant that the engineers daughter from the West Midlands has lived an extremely comfortable life since rising through the ranks of academia to her current post 16 years ago.

For example, take that five-bedroom grace and favour house in the heart of the historic centre of Bath and near the famous Royal Crescent.

It was bought by the university in 2002 for 1.6 million, a year after her arrival when her salary even then was in excess of 176,000.

According to Lord Adonis it is a benefit in kind worth 20,000 a year.

At the time, the university said the purchase had been made as part of a drive to become more involved in the life of the city.

More recently, amid growing criticism over the property, Bath said it was also used for university business adding: This includes hosting events with visitors to our university such as honorary graduates, academics from other institutions and industry partners.

The university is the second largest employer in the city of Bath, providing jobs for more than 3,000 people.

'We use all our buildingsto build new partnerships and promote our teaching and research.

But it has hardly come cheap.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request last year revealed that Dame Glynis claimed 713 for electricity, 4,767 for gas and 290 for water and sewage costs.

There were also claims of 550 towards maintaining the railings in the elegant crescent, 1,933 for council tax, 406 for cleaning products and 132 for a vacuum cleaner and a steam mop. The FoI also disclosed that she had claimed 2 on biscuits.

This year, Dame Glynis, left with the Prince, got an 11 per cent pay rise  despite the Governments 1 per cent cap on non-managerial staff across higher education  to take her salary and benefits to 451,000

Little wonder that Lord Adonis, a former Labour minister, used a debate on public sector pay to tear into Dame Glynis, and Bath, which he described as a mid-ranking university with barely a fifth of the income of Cambridge.

Yet this year, Dame Glynis got an 11 per cent pay rise  despite the Governments 1 per cent cap on non-managerial staff across higher education  to take her salary and benefits to 451,000.

On top of this, she also got 27,000 from non-executive directorships, which she apparently has time to undertake alongside being a full-time vice chancellor.

Certainly her accumulation of wealth has been steady. By the time she was made a dame in 2011 for her services to higher education, her salary was 284,000. The following year it shot up to 356,000.

By 2015, she was the eighth highest paid vice chancellor in the country, earning 395,000.

But this year, she is head and shoulders above her academic rivals in the pay stakes.

Apart from an Apple watch and a taste for gold jewellery, Dame Glynis is far from ostentatious with her riches.

She and her long-term partner Colin Rowett  she has never married and has no children  own a home in a village near Guildford, Surrey.

It was bought for 629,000 in 2000 in her name only and appears to be mortgage-free.

Brought up in West Bromwich an only child, Dame Glynis was educated at a comprehensive school in Sandwell and was the first member of her family to go to university.

After several years of post-graduate work, she spent two years as a social psychology lecturer at Bradford university before joining Surrey University where by 1994 she had been appointed pro-vice chancellor.

Had she not been an academic, Dame Glynis says she would like to have been an artist.

A number of her own paintings are on the walls of her office at Bath.

If Baths remuneration panel increase her pay again  and yesterday they were stubbornly standing by their right to pay her what ever they like  Dame Glynis might wish to replace her amateur efforts with some more expensive works of art.
About 20 girls accompanied by their mothers enter and then disappear in the changing room. Moment later, they reappear with their hair tied in buns, dressed in princess dresses or short skirts with stretch pants underneath, a few wearing justacorps on top. The outfits vary in style but the girls goal is the same: they want to learn classical dance, and they love it.



"We do not miss any session," many girls tell me.



Silence falls on the little girls as their trainer enters the hall, a place where they do all the physical expression. The girls align themselves next to the barre and begin basic movements. Backs straight, arms rounded and hands at the level of the navel, they begin with their legs, then stand on tiptoe to do a few pirouettes.

We are in the ballet school for girls, the first of its kind in Assiut (350 kilometres from Cairo), in Upper Egypt. Last June, the school celebrated the first anniversary of its establishment. It is a centre that has for its objective giving the girls of Assiut an opportunity to learn classical dance.



It all started in 2013 when Rofayda Mohamed, today in her thirties, moved from Assiut to Alexandria to follow her husband who worked in the Mediterranean city for two years. Rofayda practiced fitness and dance in one of Alexandrias centres.



Back in Assiut, Rofayda began searching for a place to launch her own creative endeavour, but to no avail. But then two of her friends, Shorouk Mosfafa and Dina Omar, decided to join her in the pursuit and later on became her business partners in what soon became the first ballet centres in the city.





Dina Omar underlines that the goal was not necessarily to create star dancers out of young girls. The dance sessions have an important impact on the participants self-esteem; they boost the girls confidence and as such create an impact on their future choices."Ballet is a tool that can give hope. If you have enough confidence in yourself, you can go wherever you wish, become whoever you want; you can shape your future and noone will be able to tell you what you ought to be. It's up to you to decide. That's what we teach, Omar comments.But before launching the project, the three partners had to overcome many challenges.Opening a classical dance school in Upper Egypt proved to be very difficult, putting in mind the very conservative social environment where morals and traditions are deeply rooted in people's minds."Opening a dance school is a scandal for strict Muslims. There are people who look at classical dance as a great sin, probably bigger than being under the influence of alcohol. People were telling us how crazy we must be to wanting to launch such project in Egypts south. What kind of woman will take her daughter into a dance class? What kind of father will accept his offspring to practice ballet and in such short and tight outfit? were among the many comments we have heard.The situation became even worse when the three young women started receiving threatening letters stating that their children would be kidnapped. Other letters arrived with drawings of coffins and skulls on them. The threats continued even after opening of the school, whether in letters or through phone calls."When the death threats started emerging, the Assiut police opened an investigation. Security guards and bodybuilders protected and monitored the premises, says Rofayda, adding that she decided to react and demand respect for the initiative.On the other hand, she spoke a lot to the girls parents, inviting them  especially the fathers  to join their daughters in the centre and watch the sessions. She wanted to persuade fathers that their daughters practiced an activity that was neither dishonourable nor degrading. She even offered several classes for free.In June 2016, only four girls enrolled in dance classes, but today they are 120, thanks to the perseverance of the three partners as well as support and ploys used by mothers who want to offer a better future to their daughters and one more open than theirs.The stories are as many as they are empowering for those young girls.Among the attendees of those first sessions was Assala Al-Naggar, a 32-year-old woman who wears niqab yet brought her young daughter to the centre."At first, of course, my husband refused: No, dance is not made for Saidi (South of Egypt) girls," she recalls his reaction when she first mentioned the centre to him.

Al-Naggar decided to act behind her husbands back. She told her daughter, You will do whatever you want, but for now you will not tell your dad anything."



"The first time I told my husband that his 9-year-old daughter was taking dance lessons, it was at a show that took place at the school. He thought his daughter was doing karate. On our way back home, he reproached me for hiding it from him but I could see that deep inside, he was happy and proud of his daughter.

More painful is the story of Amal Lotfy, a Christian woman, and her 12-year-old daughter Gina, both of whom had to disguise in a niqab to avoid being recognised by relatives and neighbours.



A few weeks into this practice, the grandfather started having doubts, and eventually caught them red-handed. He asked the mother and daughter to stop visiting him.



"You take your stuff and you join the dancers. My daughter is dead. I do not have a daughter anymore," Amal recalls her father saying.



The ban on visiting her was a tough test for Amal, but she continues to move forward in order to realise her daughter's dream of learning classical dance.



At home, the girls father still doesnt know about the ballet sessions. Gina has to wait for her father to fall asleep so she can practice new movements before going back to the next session.



Amal is proud of her daughter saying, "Gina, has made great progress; she is a mixture of grace, elegance and refinement. She attends the dance classes regularly, and it has become her favourite activity. After each workout, she looks forward to the next Thursday. She dances relentlessly, even when she is arranging her room or getting ready to go to school. Since she began dancing she has become happy and fulfilled.



Amal is still waiting for the right moment to reveal her secret to her husband.





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Back in the ballet centre trainer Maria Alfonse leads the girls aged four and five. "Hold the barre with one hand. Always right first, the left leg must be closer to the barre. Turn to the left, repeat this exercise twice to the right and twice to the left, she says. Alfonse has walked a long way and struggled a lot to become a dancer herself in a conservative society.Dressed in jeans and a flowered shirt, she studies at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Assiut. She began learning classical dance by watching videos on YouTube at the age of 16, against her fathers will. Obsessed by this art, Maria asked her maternal uncle who lives in Beheira, Egypts north, to convince her father to let her go to Mexico for a month and a half, to attend ballet classes there.What seemed to be a very brave and unorthodox request was eventually accepted by her father, but under three conditions: that he would accompany her, that she must wear trousers under her dress during classes, and that she would only dance solo, so no man would touch her.In 2014, Maria and her father embarked overseas. Upon their return, the father became more flexible and acceptant of the ballet allowing his daughter to enroll in classes at the Cairo Opera. It is also at the opera where Maria learnt the basic pedagogy of dance. Today, she is capable of leading a class and in parallel she talks with the parents of her young students about the importance of this art form and its many genres."For me, dancing is something I really need, a bit like the air you breathe, the food you eat. It is essential to me, even vital. I cannot live without dancing, Maria comments, adding that at the beginning of her career as a teacher she was a bit worried. I found out, however, that there are many similarities between those young girls and myself.""We live under the same conditions, we understand one another hence things became simpler and easier, she explains with great enthusiasm, while observing the movements of her students.Maria invited the girls mothers to a session tailored especially for them, once a month. This aims at gaining their confidence and showing them that their girls are in a respectable environment.On the day of family training, mothers try to do the same exercises as their daughters.I am happy and my daughter too, because I train with her. She wants me to attend all classes! comments the mother of Nadine, a 12-year-old, who was trying to teach her a few dance steps and was surprised to see that her mum had talent. What a beautiful moment of sharing between mother and daughter.Undoubtedly, all girls attending dance school aspire to a fine career in the world of ballet. They might very well be at the beginning of that road.The girls prepare for shows in front of Ahlam Younes, head of the Academy of Arts in Cairo and a former ballerina herself. She promised to orchestrate a big show at the Cairo Opera in which the Assiut talents would take part, reveals Rofayda.Looking with hope into the future, the Assiut girls still have a lot of challenges to overcome. Many questions arise about their possibility to continue, in the face of all cultural and family restrictions. Meanwhile, Rofayda keeps pushing the centres activities, still under pressure by locals, yet still not giving up.
King's College London will replace busts and portraits of its founding fathers with ethnic minorities amid pressure from students, according to a dean.

The world famous institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience plans to move portraits of former faculty staff from the main entrance wall.

They will be replaced with likenesses of more black and minority ethnic scholars, it has been reported.

The decision follows concern among academics that the current teaching is too intimidating for ethnic minorities.

King's College London is believed to be planning to replace busts and portraits of founding fathers Dr Henry Maudsley, left, and Sir Frederick Mott, right

The proposals were revealed by Professor Patrick Leman, the institutes dean of education, who said that the faculty should not just be filled with busts of 1920s bearded men.

He insists they are not throwing anything into the bin  but trying to make the institute feel less alienating.

The institute, founded in 1924 as a hospital medical school, only exists because of a donation from Dr Henry Maudsley, a pioneering British psychiatrist.

His bust, along with that of Sir Frederick Mott, who drew up plans for university courses for training in the field of psychiatry in 1896, are believed to be the subject of Professor Lemans remarks.

He said that the portraits lining the main entrance are almost entirely white middle-aged men and will be replaced with a wall of diversity.

He added that all current portraits of former deans would be taken down and rehung, and that teaching materials, such as diagrams of the human anatomy, will be changed to feature a range of ethnic groups.

Were trying to reflect the diversity in terms of students we have, but also trying to be more inter-cultural, more international in terms of how we develop the science, he told The Telegraph.

King's College London is making the changes due to pressure from students to honour more scholars from ethnic minorities

We are making sure that the space in which students learn... doesnt just have the busts of the bearded 1920s men, but also has pictures of people from different ethnic groups, different cultures. Its not that were throwing anything into the bin.

Keith Mott, a systems engineer and direct descendant of Sir Frederick Mott, said that whilst he was not offended by the plans, he would caution against universities seeking to erase controversial parts of their history.

Meanwhile, Sam Barrett, President of the Kings Conservative Association said it was political correctness gone mad as he accused the university of caving to students demands.

The decision comes two years after Kings sparked controversy for removing a photograph of Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, in response to his opposition to gay marriage.
The EU could give Britain back some control over immigration in a bid to halt Brexit, according to Tony Blair.

The former Prime Minister claims he has held talks with leaders about how the UK could stay within a reformed Europe.

In a lengthy article, published today by his own Institute for Global Change, he states that the EU is willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain, including around freedom of movement.

The former Prime Minister claims he has held talks with leaders about how the UK could stay (file photo)

In his piece he insists that such a compromise should be up for negotiation.

Last year the EU rejected all but the smallest of concessions asked for by David Cameron, but Mr Blair suggests President Macrons election in France has changed the political dynamics.

He suggests Britain could team up with other Eurosceptic countries to form an outer circle of the EU.

Downing Street has only just been forced to play down Brexit Secretary David Daviss claim that the UK must pay a hefty EU divorce bill to get a good trade deal.

In a statement slipped out on Wednesday, Mr Davis said the UK had obligations to fulfil that would survive the UKs withdrawal  sparking fears he had buckled over Brussels 85billion demands.

But a spokeswoman for Theresa May stressed the size of the bill was still being debated, adding: Our position is we will need to discuss a fair settlement.
Elaine McIver, 43, pictured, was killed in the Manchester bomb attack in May. Her family have called for tougher laws to cover terror suspects

The public will be given greater powers to challenge soft jail sentences for terrorists under new plans.

Ministers will give anyone the right to ask for a review of punishments for those convicted of certain terror-related offences.

It is the first pledge in Theresa Mays promised fightback against extremism after she warned enough is enough in the wake of the London Bridge attack.

Under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, anyone can ask the Attorney General to examine sentences they believe to be very low.

The cases are reviewed and can be sent to the Court of Appeal, which will then determine whether the sentence should stay the same, or be increased.

It comes as the family of off-duty police officer Elaine McIver, 43, who was killed in the Manchester bomb attack in May, called for tougher laws to cover terror suspects.

After her funeral at Chester Cathedral yesterday, her sister, Lynda, 49, pointed out that the bomber Salman Abedi, 22, was known to the authorities, adding: I would like to see changes so that we have more resources and more powers to ensure any suspects are not allowed back on to our streets to wreak havoc and devastation.

The public will be given greater powers to challenge soft jail sentences for terrorists under new plans. The cases will be reviewed and sent to the Court of Appeal in London, pictured (stock photo)

For the first time, crimes including encouraging terrorism, sharing terrorist propaganda and belonging to banned organisations will now be covered.

The programme already covers the most serious terror offences and crimes including murder and rape, but lower grade terror offences were excluded.

From next month, sentences for 19 offences under anti-terrorism legislation will become eligible for review.

Mrs May vowed to crackdown on terrorism after declaring that there was far too much tolerance of extremism in the UK.

Speaking after the London Bridge attack, she pledged to step up the fight against Islamic terrorism in a number of ways.

One was to increase prison terms for terrorism offences, including ones at the lower end of the scale.

Calls for the scheme to be extended emerged last year after the cleric Anjem Choudary, pictured, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for inviting support for Islamic State

Another was to tackle the spread of extremism on the internet and safe spaces in the real world, following attacks in Westminster and Manchester.

Calls for the scheme to be extended emerged last year after the cleric Anjem Choudary was jailed for five-and-a-half years for inviting support for Islamic State.

The new measure, which was first announced last year, will take effect on August 8.

Any sentences on or after that date will be subject to the scheme, but it will not be applied retrospectively to previous cases.

Justice Minister Dominic Raab said: We want the most robust sentences for any terrorist crimes and for victims to have every opportunity to see justice delivered.

Our action will reinforce our focus on deterring people who help radicalise terrorists, and punishing those who wilfully turn a blind eye to terrorist activity.

In 2015, the Attorney Generals office referred 136 cases to the Court of Appeal, with the Court increasing the sentences of 102 offenders.

The Ministry of Justice said that though it was right that the public could request reviews, the small number of referrals suggested the justice system mostly got it right.

Only a small proportion of the 80,000 Crown Court cases heard each year are reviewed, it said.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC said: The scheme allows victims of crime, their families and the public to request a sentence review if they feel its too low.

Widening the scheme to include terrorism offences will allow us to challenge more sentences and is a welcome first step to extending it even further.

Crimes of this nature will not be tolerated in our society and those convicted of terrorism will receive the sentence they deserve.
Police have issued a second amber alert in a desperate attempt to track down two missing children who haven't been heard from for more than 48 hours.

Hayleigh, 12, and Luke Smith, 11, are believed to have been taken from a home in Caringbah South by their mother Nicole Boyle, 36, and a man, Neville Kerslake, aged 50 on Thursday afternoon.

They haven't been heard from since their disappearance and police hold 'serious concern' for their welfare.

NSW Police have issues an amber alert for two missing children (pictured) who have not been seen since 4:30pm yesterday

Hayleigh Smith (pictured), is aged 12, of Caucasian appearance, very thin build and about 150cm tall

Luke Smith (pictured), 11, is of Caucasian appearance, has a thin build, and is about 105cm tall

18 hours after police first sought urgent public assistance in finding the children they issued a second alert - urging members of the public for immediate assistance.

The children could be travelling in a blue 2005 Ford Falcon with DNJ 48E, according to police.

Luke Smith is described as being thin, of Caucasian appearance, about 105cm tall.

His sister Hayleigh, 12, is described as being very thin, of Caucasian appearance and about 150cm tall.

Neville Kerslake (pictured), 50, is of Caucasian appearance, medium build, about 175cm tall with brown eyes with grey hair

The children's mother Nicole Boyle (pictured) is of Caucasian appearance, large build, about 155cm tall, and has brown eyes and brown hair

Police have released another picture of the children in their second alert and said they could still be in NSW

Police have released another picture of the children in their second alert and said they could still be in NSW.

Police have also distributed photographs of the adults police believe the children are with.

Their mother Nicole Boyle is also described as being Caucasian, she had brown eyes and hair is of a large build and is 155cm tall.

Neville Kerslake, also Caucasian is about 175cm tall, of medium build and has grey hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information should call Triple Zero (000) immediately.
A delivery driver who was on her way to work in the early hours of Friday thought she was going to die after being of a victim of an unexpected road rage attack.

Leah Jokic, from North Dandalup in Western Australia, was on her way to work at 4.30am when she came across an accident, and stopped to help the men involved.

However this resulted in her being chased by one of them at 140km/h down a highway before she fled into a service station, fearing for her life.

'I thought I was going to die,' Ms Jokic told Daily Mail Australia.

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'I thought I was going to die': Leah Jokic recalls horrifying road rage ordeal which saw her chased down a highway and her car stolen

The woman explained that when she stopped at the scene, one of the men - believed to be a New Zealander - warned her about the other male.

'I saw an accident and so I turned around to see if they were okay and then this Kiwi guy had warned me about the other guy that was there with him telling me that he was crazy,' Ms Jokic said.

'I was still in my car when the Kiwi guy asked me for the cop's number, I told him 000 and took off because the other guy did look scary,' she said.

Ms Jokic said she was then chased by the other man at the scene along the South Western Highway, and was speeding to avoid him catching her.

'I was doing a 140 km/hour and on the phone to 000 screaming at them to help me and telling them where I was.

'He was right up in my a***, and then he would go the wrong side of the road and would come beside my car.

'If I was hit, I could have been gone,' she said.

The woman then pulled over at a service station, and fled inside leaving her Hyundai running in the parking lot.

'As soon as I got in the service station, I told them to lock the doors,' she said.

Ms Jokic said the man - who she believes is in his 30s or 40s with a slim build - then sped off with her car which had her handbag and other belongings in it.

Ms Jokic later found that that her attacker was involved in another accident earlier where he had rammed into another woman's car forcing her to crash into trees.

'I still haven't got my car back,' Ms Jokic said.

'They have found it and they have got to wait for forensics and stuff as there were four cars involved.

'I have done a statement with the cops and the man is currently in custody and in jail.

Ms Jokic says she will be off work for some time as she is too traumatised to drive.

Melissa Hahn and her son sustained injuries after the man rammed their car off the highway

The man's other victim Melissa Hahn from Serpertine told Daily Mail Australia that she too was traumatised to return to work after being rammed off by the same man at 4.10am while sending her 20-year-old son Ben Gower to the airport.

'We spotted the man standing with what we now know as a stolen car in the middle of the road asking us to slow down but we didn't stop because my son said he looked off,' he said.

'And as soon as we left, he gave chase. I was doing 120 km/hour and he was bumping into me from behind.

They soon crashed and rolled into the trees.

She said the man left once a rubbish truck arrived to their aid.

'My son and I both sustained injuries and my son had to miss his 5am flight to the mines for work. We had to climb out from the car window to get out of the car,' she said.

But what makes Ms Hahn especially sad is the fact that her Nissan Navara was uninsured and the damaged caused by the man might run into the thousands for her.

Melissa Hahn's four wheel drive had crashed into the trees when he man gave chase to them

'I used the car to travel to work and now I don't have a car to go to work,' she said crying.

WA police in a statement said they have charged the 31-year-old man from Mandurah over a series of incidents on Friday which includes terrorising Ms Jokic and Ms Hahn.

He was arrested by police while he was trying to break into a house and has been taken to the Armadale police station where he remains in custody.

He was charged with almost 20 offences and will appear before the Perth Magistrates Court on Saturday.
A nationwide Krispy Kreme sale paralyzed traffic across the country as some fans waited three hours to get their hands on some doughnuts.

Krispy Kreme celebrated its 80th birthday by holding a promotional sale on Friday offering 80-cent doughnuts for customers who paid the regular price for the first dozen.

The sale sent the country into a frenzy and Luke Reasoner, who lives just five miles away from his local Krispy Kreme in Charleston, South Carolina, spent three hours in line before sharing them with his co-workers, who hailed him a hero.

A nationwide Krispy Kreme sale paralyzed traffic across the country as some fans waited three hours to get their hands on some doughnuts

In some cases, police officers stepped in and redirected traffic. One woman in South Carolina said the entire process took her longer than four hours

Krispy Kreme celebrated its 80th birthday by holding a promotional sale (pictured, the traffic in South Carolina)

At one point Luke Reasoner tweeted: 'Less than a mile away and still crawling. Could run faster than this.' Pictured, the line out the door

Reasoner, who lives just five miles away from his local Krispy Kreme in Charleston, South Carolina, spent three hours in line

Fans were happy to save about 30percent on each doughnut after the first dozen, which costs around $8 to $10, depending on the state.

One woman in South Carolina told WCSC-TV she spent two hours in line once she actually reached the Krispy Kreme, saying the drive there took even longer.

Reasoner, who works at the The Post and Courier in Charleston, shared pictures of the traffic and tweeted: 'Less than a mile away and still crawling. Could run faster than this.'

He later added: 'Gotta feel for the officers. They do a great job controlling traffic in this heat all because we want doughnuts. Thank you @CharlestonPD'

Many shared their excitement over the deal on social media

While some people gloated on Facebook that they were in and out within minutes, others shared their disappointment over the long lines.

Joan Stanley Harmon, who lives in Coats, North Carolina, wrote on Facebook: 'So disappointed.....our local Krispy Kreme was out of glazed donuts at 6:00pm.

'They said it would be hours before they got more. My husband and I planned to get them for our 27th Anniversary and share them with our grandchildren.'

Others complained that the stores were not equipped to handle the high demand, while some social media users complained about the deal itself.

User @youshookh0e wrote: 'So you have to buy a dozen krispy kreme donuts at full price to get a dozen for 80 cents? I should've known it was too good to be true lol'
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was spotted looking buff as he arrived at this week's Sun Valley tech gathering.

The Silicon Valley billionaire didn't look a day of his 53 years as he was seen striding into the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference with a tight T-shirt to show off his beefy arms.

But for Bezos and his ilk, it isn't enough just to look young - they want to stay young forever. And they just might do it.

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Swole-con Valley: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, 53, looks buff and youthful at Sun Valley tech conference this year (left), especially compared to his appearance in 2012 (right)

Amazon warrior: Bezos' buff physique isn't a surprise - he's been focused on extending his life for years, as have numerous other tech billionaires, who are heavily funding research into it

Keeping fit: Venture capitalist Aviv 'Vivi' Nevo (left) and retired general Stanley McChrystal (right) also looked like they'd been keeping in condition as they arrived at Sun Valley

Bezos is one of a number of tech billionaires pumping vast amounts of money into technologies aimed to slow - or stop - the aging process or enable immortality.

His investment company has plowed cash into Unity, a Bay area company that hopes to stop the aging process - and which had raised $116 million in funding by October last year.

The company hopes to find a way to eject senescent cells - which stop cancer cells, but build up over time and go on to cause macular degeneration and arthritis - from the body.

A study performed on mice suggests that removing the cells 'can prevent or delay tissue dysfunction and extend healthspan.'

Bezos isn't the only one hoping to delay - or stop - the process of aging.

PayPal founder Peter Thiel, 49, has also contributed to Unity, and has long expressed an interest in stopping the aging process.

'Most diseases are linked to aging,' Thiel said at Web Summit in 2016. 'You have a one in a thousand chance of getting cancer in the next year at age 30, you have a one in ten chance of getting cancer in the next year at age 80.

'So we definitely want to find a cure for cancer, maybe if we find a cure for aging we cure cancer along the way.'

Working out: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group (right) have both clearly been keeping fit - the better to enjoy their riches

Forever young: PayPal founder Peter Thiel (pictured), 49, wants to find eternal youth, and like Bezos has put millions into a research program looking at stopping the body from aging. He's reportedly also expressed interest in having young people's blood transfused into him

In the meantime, Thiel has reportedly expressed an interest in a more gruesome solution: vampirism.

Last August, Vulture reported that Thiel had contacted Ambrosia, a California company running a clinical trial to see whether blood transfusions can stop the aging process.

The company charges $8,000 for those wanting to take part in the trial, in which healthy people over 35 are transfused with the blood of healthy people under 25, and the effect on their systems measured.

That claim hasn't been confirmed by Thiel, but in August Inc. reported that in 2015 he said he had 'looked into doing [blood transfusions] but I haven't quite, quite, quite started yet.'

Staying young is only the first step, however; the truly ambitious hope to live forever.

The human body appears to have an age limit: A study from October last year suggests that most people's bodies just give up at around 115.

But some Silicon Valley billionaires hope to blast through that limit - and they're not afraid to put their money where their mouth is.

To date, Larry Ellison, 72, co-founder of software company Oracle, has spent more than $430 million of his own money on research into immortality.

Eternal life? Larry Ellison (pictured), 72, hopes that full-on immortality can be found, and has put $430 million of his own money into the project

'How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?' Ellison - who lost his mother to cancer - once asked Forbes.

He founded the Ellison Medical Foundation, which is dedicated to biomedical research on aging, including into the hormone DHEA, which could slow the process.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 43, also got in on the act this year, attending the launch of the National Academy of Medicine's Grand Challenge in Health Longevity in May.

The academy - which is also backed by actress Goldie Hawn, who ironically played an beauty seeking eternal life in Death Becomes Her - has put $25 million into research hoping to 'end aging forever.'

But that's peanuts compared to Google's Calico (short for California Life Company), which has ploughed an entire $1 billion into anti-aging research.

Brin hoping not just for youth, but immortality.

Youthful: Goldie Hawn (left in March, right in 1992 immortality comedy Death Becomes her), 71, joined Google creator Sergey Brin in supporting an academy into slowing aging

His girlfriend, Nicole Shanahan, told NBC that he found himself mentioned in a book about living forever, 'singled out' as one doomed to die.

Author Yuval Noah Hararai wrote that Google's ambitious plan 'probably won't solve death in time to make Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin immortal.'

Brin told her: 'Yes, I was singled out for death; no, I'm not actually planning to die.'

Still, even if he can't outrun death, he might still be able to cheat it, thanks to cryonics companies like Alcor, which freezes the dead in the hope that they can be reanimated at some distant point in the future.

It costs $200,000 to have your entire body frozen in liquid nitrogen - and if you consider that charging and arm and a leg, you can opt to just have your head placed in cryonic suspension for $80,000.

It might sound bizarre, but Thiel has it as a backup if Unity and blood transfusions fail; he has also invested in Alcor.
Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith on Friday assailed the 'mind-boggling deception' by the Trump administration in explaining its role in the ongoing Russia investigation.

In a segment with his network colleague Chris Wallace, Smith was offering commentary about the latest revelations in the unfolding scandal.

He did not hold back when he spoke about the revelations that President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, failed to disclose the fact that there were more participants in his June 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American dual national and former Soviet spy who became a lobbyist, was also at the meeting in Trump Tower attended by Trump Jr, then-campaign chair Paul Manafort, top adviser Jared Kushner, and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

'The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling,' Smith told Wallace.

Smith's network is usually sympathetic to the Trump administration, however he has criticized the president multiple times in the past.

Smith continued: 'And there are still people who are out there who believe we're making it up. And one day they're gonna realize we're not and look around and go, Where are we, and why are we getting told all these lies?'

This is not the first time that Smith has aimed criticism at the Trump White House.

Shep Smith: "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling...why are we getting told all these lies?"



Chris Wallace: "I don't know what to say" pic.twitter.com/DQKOAC8a2o  Leanne Naramore (@LeanneNaramore) July 14, 2017

Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith on Friday assailed the 'mind-boggling deception' by the Trump administration in explaining its role in the ongoing Russia investigation

The inconsistencies and revisions in Trump Jr's recollection of events outraged Smith, who went on a lengthy rant taking the administration to task for failing to be forthcoming

'And there are still people who are out there who believe we're making it up,' Smith said. 'And one day they're gonna realize we're not and look around and go, Where are we, and why are we getting told all these lies?'

Chris Wallace, at a loss for words, stared into the camera for a few moments before saying: 'I don't know what to say'

'LIE AFTER LIE': FULL TEXT OF SHEPARD SMITH'S COMMENTARY 'Were still not clean on this, Chris [Wallace]. 'If theres nothing there  and thats what they tell us, they tell us theres nothing to this and nothing came of it, theres a nothingburger, it wasnt even memorable, didnt write it down, didnt tell you about it, because it wasnt anything so I didnt even remember it  with a Russian interpreter in the room at Trump Tower? 'If all of that, why all these lies? Why is it lie after lie after lie? If you clean, come on clean, you know? 'My grandmother used to say when first we practice to  Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. 'The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling. And there are still people who are out there who believe were making it up. 'And one day theyre gonna realize were not and look around and go, Where are we, and why are we getting told all these lies?' Advertisement

In early March, angry viewers of Fox News tweeted that Smith should 'go to CNN' after he lambasted Trump for not releasing his tax returns.

Last month, Smith praised CNN - which has been the target of scorn from Trump and his supporters who view it as 'fake news' - for retracting a story about a Trump official who allegedly had ties to a Russian investment fund, according to Media Matters.

Just days after Trump was sworn in to office, Smith denounced the new president for failing to provide evidence for his claim that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton due to massive voter fraud, according to Business Insider.

In December 2015, as Trump was emerging as the lead candidate in the Republican primaries, Smith blasted him as 'representing the worst, darkest part of all that is America,' according to Mediaite.

Smith was reacting to some of Trump's more controversial policy proposals, including banning Muslims from the United States.

The inconsistencies and revisions in Trump Jr's recollection of events outraged Smith, who went on a lengthy rant taking the administration to task for failing to be forthcoming.

'We're still not clean on this, Chris,' Smith told Wallace on the air Friday.

'If there's nothing there - and that's what they tell us, they tell us there's nothing to this and nothing came of it, there's a nothingburger, it wasn't even memorable, didn't write it down, didn't tell you about it, because it wasn't anything so I didn't even remember it - with a Russian interpreter in the room at Trump Tower?

'If all of that, why all these lies? Why is it lie after lie after lie? If you clean, come on clean, you know?'

It was learned Friday that President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr (above), failed to disclose the fact that there were more participants in his June 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin (background in glasses) was working with Natalia Veselnitskaya on an effort to kill the Global Magnitsky Act around the same time as the Trump Tower meet-up. He confirmed to the AP he attended the controversial get-together

Wallace, at a loss for words, stared into the camera for a few moments before saying: 'I don't know what to say.'

The Fox News Channel is widely considered to be the cable news outlet that is most sympathetic to Trump.

The president often retweets clips from Fox News programming, particularly Fox & Friends, and promotes appearances by his family members on the channel.

Its primetime stars, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, have been vocal supporters of the president who have cast doubt on claims that the Trump campaign broke laws by maintaining contacts with Russian nationals during the election.

Smith and Wallace, however, have been critical of the administration in the past.

Donald Trump Jr faced damaging new claims on Friday that he lied about his meeting with a Russian lawyer, as an ex-Soviet intelligence officer revealed he was there too and claimed a trove of claims about Democrats and 'bad money' was handed over.

Akhmetshin - who U.S. intelligence think may still be a spy - told the Associated Press that he was part of the Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr.

Don Jr brought Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law who is now one of President Donald Trump's , and Paul Manafort, then the campaign chairman.

But on Friday Akhmetshin and other sources revealed stunning new details about the meeting which put Don Jr on the ropes.

Akmetshin's disclosure of being there blew apart Don Jr's claim on Tuesday to have told 'everything' there was to say about the meeting - because the president's son had only admitted to the presence of Veselnitskaya.

Then Akhmetshin, a former Soviet military intelligence officer, piled on the pressure with a bombshell claim that Veselnitskaya had brought a plastic folder full of printed documents which contained claims of the Democratic National Committee receiving dirty Russian money.

NBC News reported Friday morning that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr and campaign aides, was accompanied by a man with ties to Russian intelligence, something the individual has denied

PR executive Rob Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr to set the controversial meeting up. He confirmed to the Associated Press that he participated in the gathering. Next to be revealed to be there was interpreter Anatoli Samochornov (right)

Off course: Donald Trump returned to the U.S. and went to the U.S. Women's Open Championship at his Bedminster golf course on Friday, while his administration faced crisis

Grip and grin: Jared Kushner was at the meeting too. His presence kicked off the whole affair because he disclosed it in his security clearance forms

That directly contradicted Don Jr's account that no information had been received from the visiting Russians.

Don Jr was uncharacteristically silent on twitter as disclosure followed disclosure.

In contrast his brother-in-law Jared Kushner was grinning and relaxed as he and his wife Ivanka mingled with media moguls at Sun Valley in Idaho.

Democrats are beginning to seize on the claims with Bernie Sanders telling an Associated Press reporter: 'These are very, very, very serious allegations.'

He added that there should not be a rush to judgment.

The most damage of the day was done to Don Jr's credibility.

As well as the disclosure that documents were left, the list of who was in the meeting grew, with portly British PR Rob Goldstone admitting to the Associated Press that he was in the room, and a New York Times reporter revealing on MSNBC that there was also an interpreter present.

Anatoli Samochornov, a US citizen who has worked for Veselnitskaya for some time was with him, reporter Ken Vogel said.

There could have been even more people there as CNN reported that there was an associate of pop star Emin present. Emin is the son of Aras Agalarov, the billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin and CNN said a representative of the Agalarov family was there.

Trump Jr never noted the presence of any individuals outside the campaign's senior officials - Kushner and Manafort - and the lawyer, Veselnitskaya.
The schizophrenic who confessed to killing four men during drug deals is said to have murdered one of his victims by running him over with an earth mover, because he ran out of ammunition.

Cosmo DiNardo made a deal to sell marijuana to Tom Meo and Mark Sturgis and the three met behind a church to head to DiNardo's property together.

He planned to rob them with the help of his suspected accomplice, Sean Kratz.

DiNardo first shot Meo first and he screamed, then Sturgis started running away and DiNardo shot him until he ran out of ammunition.

He then drove over Meo, who may have still been alive, with the backhoe. Kratz told police his cousin 'basically crushed' Meo with the backhoe.

Then, DiNardo used the backhoe to move their bodies. The cousins put the corpses in the pig roaster with Finocchiaro, poured in gasoline and set it on fire.

They dug a 12.5 foot grave with the same backhoe the next day and placed the bodies and the container inside.

DiNardo and Kratz, both 20, have been charged with murder, conspiracy and abuse of corpse in connection with the slayings of the four men.

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Cosmo DiNardo (left) is said to have murdered one of his victims by running him over with an earth mover (similar vehicle pictured right), because he ran out of ammunition

DiNardo, 20, confessed to the four murders to avoid the death penalty on Friday. He killed Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, Mark Sturgis, 21, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21

Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz (pictured) were charged Friday with murder, conspiracy and abuse of corpse and robbery

DiNardo confessed to murdering the four missing men and burning their bodies on his family's Bucks County, Pennsylvania farm. Kratz was charged with three of the murders.

They were arraigned on Friday and are being held in separate prisons with no bail.

District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said in a press conference DiNardo confessed to putting the bodies in a metal tank converted into a cooker he called a 'pig roaster'. He took a deal to reveal where the bodies were buried to avoid the death penalty.

He offered to sell Jimi Taro Patrick a shotgun and four pounds of marijuana for $8,000, but when he went to pick him up on July 5, he only had $800. DiNardo shot him with his mother's gun and buried his body 'far away' from the other three in a six-foot grave.

The other three were killed on July 7 by Kratz and DiNardo jointly.

Dean Finocchiaro was shot by both after DiNardo agreed to sell him a quarter pound of pot for $700. He conspired with Kratz to rob Finocchiaro on the way to pick him up.

Kratz shot Finocchiaro then DiNardo fired at his body after he had died.

Then his body was wrapped in a blue tarp from a corn crib and he was thrown into the pig roaster.

Weintraub said DiNardo confessed to dousing the bodies inside the pig roaster with gasoline. But the DA said his attempt was unsuccessful. He said at the press conference: 'There was an attempt to burn the bodies.. but I don't believe that was successful.'

DiNardo said he did so because he felt threatened or cheated when he tried to sell them marijuana, a source close to the investigation has said. He also told police where to find the rest of the bodies.

Thursday night police arrested a Sean Kratz following Dinardo's confession

This map shows the location of the farm where the remains were found and the location of the second arrest

Both were charged Friday with murder, conspiracy and abuse of corpse and robbery

On Thursday, a source said DiNardos motive behind the slayings was that he felt threatened or cheated by the men who came to him wanting to buy marijuana.

The insider also said a co-conspirator was involved in three of the killings.

Later on Thursday evening, police took Kratz into custody in northeast Philadelphia.

Pictures posted online show a number of police cars outside a home just moments after he was arrested at around 11pm.

DiNardo is seen above being led away in handcuffs on Thursday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Paul Lang, his attorney, says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation

DINARDO'S LAWYER WAS ON BILL COSBY'S LEGAL TEAM One of confessed killer Cosmo DiNardos powerhouse attorneys was part of the team representing Bill Cosby at his sexual assault trial last month which was declared a mistrial following a hung jury. Fortunato N Perri Jr, was part of the disgraced comedians criminal defense along with another partner in his Philadelphia-based firm, Brian J. McGonagle. Perri Jr left the Bucks County Courthouse on Thursday, telling reporters he was defending DiNardo who has confessed to killing four young men who went missing last week. He made no further comment after releasing a statement the day before on behalf of DiNardos parents: 'As parents, Mr and Mrs DiNardo sympathize with the parents and families of the missing young men and they are cooperating in every way possible with the investigation being conducted by law enforcement.' DiNardos parents have built a multimillion-dollar real estate, trucking and concrete empire in rural Pennsylvania. Perri Jr started out as a prosecutor in Philadelphia District Attorneys Office and is now considered a top criminal litigator in one of Pennsylvanias premium firms. He has also represented rapper Beanie Sigel and hip-hop star Cassidy. Sigel was acquitted of attempted murder in 2005 and Cassidy was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after originally being charged with murder, and was released from prison in 2006 after serving 15 months. Advertisement

The 20-year-old DiNardo was described as a 'paranoid dealer' who was prone to feeling slighted by buyers after he sold drugs.

In 2016, he was banned from Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pennsylvania for complaints filed against him regarding 'verbal interactions with members of the university community.'

He attended the college for the fall semester of 2015 before dropping out and tried to re-enroll in 2016.

According to CBS News, his parents received a letter saying if he showed up to the campus again he would be trespassing.

Police sources said DiNardo was known to sell as much as a quarter pound of pot for several thousand dollars.

He would also include handguns in these transactions.

'Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one theres a killing,' the source said.

The Associated Press reported that the four men were killed after three separate transactions.

Before Friday, authorities have only identified one body, and they are still working to identify other remains found in the same grave.

The identified remains belong to 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. His body was found in a 12-foot-deep grave on the farm. The remains were found by sniffer dogs.

It was the discovery of Meo's car on the property that first led police to believe DiNardo was connected to the then-disappearances.

Patrick went to college in Maryland. He and DiNardo had attended the same Catholic high school for boys.

DiNardo told other Snapchat users that he wasn't concerned about the whereabouts of his friend Finocchiaro just days after he vanished

Antonio DiNardo, the father of Cosmo DiNardo, gets into a SUV to be driven away from a Bucks County government building on Thursday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Paul Lang (left), Cosmo DiNardo's defense attorney, and another lawyer, Michael Parlow, are seen walking out of the Bucks County Courthouse on Thursday

In the wake of his confession to the 'four murders', prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table, according to DiNardo's lawyer, Paul Lang.

DiNardo and his parents met with authorities at a courthouse for several hours Thursday.

As DiNardo was led away in handcuffs, he said, 'Im sorry.'

Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting that DiNardo has had as many as 30 interactions with police since 2011.

DiNardo was smiling at the news chopper as he was led into police custody for attempting to sell one of the missing men's car after he disappeared

According to a friend of Tom Meo, one of the three men who are still missing, DiNardo sold guns and marijuana and in the past has bragged about having someone killed over a debt

Most of those contacts did not lead to arrests.

Before he was arrested this week, his most recent run-in with law enforcement was in May 2017, when he received a citation for not having proper boater's education paperwork and other equipment.

Locals in Bensalem Township told ABC News that there was something 'off' with DiNardo.

They said an ATV accident which took place about seven months ago changed him, according to ABC News.

Police spent Wednesday searching the farmland of Cosmo DiNardo's parents' farmland. He was arrested for the second time since the four young men's disappearance on Wednesday and is being held on a $5 million bond

Four young men went missing from towns in Pennsylvania on Wednesday and Friday last week. Police tracked one man's cell phone signal to the DiNardo property and one man's father said one of their cars had also been found there

Earlier on Thursday, Lang said his client is ready to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, and that he felt a 'deep remorse' for what he has done.

The developments Thursday night came as information regarding the confessed killer's social habits.

Snapchat users involved in a group chat with him shared two photos of him posing menacingly with a revolver. DiNardo's identity in the photos was confirmed by Philly.com.

The newspaper also reported DiNardo told other Snapchat users that he wasn't concerned about the whereabouts of his friend Finocchiaro just days after he vanished.

Jimi Patrick, 19, (left) was the first to go missing and was last seen at 6pm on Wednesday. Finocchiaro, 19, (right) vanished on Friday

Tom Meo (left) and Mark Sturgis (right) were the other two young men to go missing. They both worked for Sturgis' father's construction business and are friends

'Cosmo isnt your buddy Dean missing,' one acquaintance asked DiNardo in a group message last weekend. 'Arent you worried about buddydead [sic] dean.'

'I mean I know the kid but yeah I feel bad for his parents. He's a pill-popping junky who had 2 duis  He prob just jumped parole Or probation.'

The disappearance of the four young men sparked panic and desperate searches in the Philadelphia area in recent days, after the first victim vanished on Wednesday.

Locals were clearly upset by the disappearances and subsequent revelations regarding the violent ends all four have met.

GRANDPARENTS OF JIMI TARO PATRICK SPEAK OUT Sharon and Rich Patrick, grandparents of missing teen Jimi Taro Patrick shared a biography of their grandson on Thursday Jimi Taro Patrick Jimi Taro Patrick lives in Newtown, PA with his grandparents, Sharon and Rich Patrick. He recently completed his freshman year at Loyola University, MD. Majoring in business, Jimi attends Loyola on a full scholarship and was awarded academic recognition on the Dean's list. Jimi is currently employed at a restaurant in Buckingham, PA. In the past, he worked in the food service at D'Youville Manor Yardley. He attended Holy Ghost Preparatory High School (Bensalem, PA) where he not only received distinguished honors for his academic performance, but also participated in numerous community service projects. Jimi was a member of the Holy Ghost Prep baseball team. He attended St Andrew School in Newtown and is a member of St Andrew Parish, Newtown, PA. As a child, Jimi played baseball for the Council Rock School District (Newtown) Little League. He was an excellent pitcher and hitter. As a result, he was a member of the Newtown travel team which won several tournaments and league trophies. Jimi also played basketball in the St Andrew CYO leage. Sharon & Rich Patrick Advertisement

The announcement that authorities found human remains was made by Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub (seen during a news conference at midnight on Thursday)

Dozens of people gathered in New Hope, Pennsylvania, just after midnight on Thusday to listen to Weintraub's press conference

WHAT LED POLICE TO FINDING HUMAN REMAINS ON THE PENNSYLVANIA FARM July 5: Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, is seen for the last time. He appears to be the first of the men to go missing. July 7: Dean Finocchiaro, 19, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21, are all seen for the last time. July 9: All four men have been reported missing, and a search warrant is executed at a home in Solebury Township, where investigators find Meo's car. July 10: Officials search a Solebury Township farm owned by Antonio and Sandra DiNardo. Their son, 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo is taken into custody on firearms charges that appeared to be unrelated to the missing persons case. July 11: DiNardo is released on bail. July 12: Authorities find human remains of multiple bodies on the farm. The remains of Finocchiaro are identified. DiNardo is arrested for a second time and charged with trying to sell a vehicle belonging to one of the missing men. Advertisement

'It's been very unnerving. It's very spooky,' said Laura Hefty, who lives a few miles from the gravesite in Solebury Township, where farms bump up against new residential developments.

Many people, she said, are trying to convince themselves something like this could ever happen to their kids.

'They feel incredibly sad. Some people are pretty angry, too,' and are asking, 'How did it get this bad?' she said.

Eric Beitz, who said he had hung out with DiNardo in recent weeks, told Philly.com the 20-year-old routinely sold guns and on multiple occasions had talked 'about weird things like killing people and having people killed.'
A major freeway through Perth has been turned into a crime scene after police found a woman's body being driven through the West Australian city.

Homicide detectives have been forced to block two lanes of the Mitchell Freeway near Cedric Road at Silverton in the city's north following the discovery.

Police said the woman's body was found inside the car at 12.35 on Saturday morning - prompting them to have a discussion with the driver.

Homicide detectives have been forced to block two lanes of the Mitchell Freeway, pictured, near Cedric Road at Silverton in the city's north after a body was found in a car

The man, who was driving a Mitsubishi Lancer, is 'assisting police' with their inquiries.

The ABC reports a man who had stopped near the ramp at 12.30am spoke to the driver of the Mitsubishi who told him he had a body in his car and was being chased.

The witness had been involved in an accident before speaking to the Mitsubishi driver.

According to the West Australian the freeway incident has caused chaos on surrounding roads.

Police have urged drivers to avoid the area - and posted a traffic management crew at the site to help with the congestion.

The Cedric Street off ramp, which is where the crime scene is located, is a popular freeway exit - with a major IKEA outlet trading nearby.

A car hit a barricade, a man was taken to hospital as a result of the accident.

Police have urged drivers to avoid the area - and posted a traffic management crew at the site to help with the congestion




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!)
People who drank two or more cups per day were 18 percent less likely to die.It doesn't apply if people add a lot of cream and sugar

People who drink the most coffee are less likely to die than those who drink the least or none, according to two new studies that followed nearly three quarters of a million people for about 16 years.

The results don't necessarily mean coffee directly prevents people from dying, but researchers suggest they should at least reassure people who can't get by without their daily cup of joe.

"Its premature that people start consuming coffee to improve health outcomes," said Alice Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. "However, if they do so, they should probably do it without a lot of concern."

"I think for some people, its going to put their minds at ease," said Lichtenstein, who wasn't involved with either of the new studies.

Previous research from the United States and Japan found a reduced risk of death among coffee drinkers, but little was known about whether such a link also existed in Europe, where coffee-drinking habits vary between countries.

People in Denmark drink larger quantities of coffee than Italians who drink smaller and stronger drinks like espresso, for example.

For one of the new studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the authors examined data collected over about 16 years from 521,330 people living in 10 European countries. There were 41,693 deaths over the study period.

Men who reported drinking the most coffee were about 12 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period, compared to men who didn't drink coffee. Similarly, women who drank the most coffee were about 7 percent less likely to die during that time than women who didn't drink any.

Despite the people being so different from country to country, the researchers saw a consistent relationship, said co-lead author Neil Murphy, of the Inter Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.

They found coffee tied to a reduced risk of death from digestive diseases among both men and women, along with a decreased risk of death from circulatory and cerebrovascular diseases among women. Women with the biggest coffee habit, however, had an increased risk of death from ovarian cancer.

"A lot more research is needed to tease apart what it is in coffee that might be having these effects," Murphy told Reuters Health.

Until more is known, he, too, said the findings at least suggest coffee isn't detrimental to people's health.

A second study also looked at coffee consumption among diverse populations in the U.S.

"Finding in one population doesnt necessarily apply to others," said V. Wendy Setiawan, of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

For their study, the researchers analyzed data on 185,855 people aged 45 to 75 years who were African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino or white.

Over roughly 16 years of follow up, 58,397 people died.

Compared to people who drank no coffee, those who drank one cup per day were 12 percent less likely to die during follow up. People who drank two or more cups per day were 18 percent less likely to die.

Setiawan also said their study can't say what is behind the link between coffee and lower risk of death.

"Caffeine is the most studied compound, but we see similar patterns among people who drink decaffeinated," she said.

Lichtenstein also said it could be that people who drink coffee aren't drinking other beverages with a lot of calories like apple juice.

"I always felt its one of the few things that I enjoy that doesnt have calories," she said.

Of course, she said that doesn't apply if people add a lot of cream and sugar

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Friends of London Bridge terror victim Kirsty Boden have paid tribute to her strength, bravery and positivity in an emotional memorial service in Sydney.

Surf lifesavers paddled into the ocean off Tamarama Beach and threw sunflowers into the waves as one of Ms Boden's favourite Ed Sheeran songs played on Saturday morning.

The sunflowers were released to 'symbolise the warmth [Ms Boden] brought to everyone and everything she did'.

Friends and family of South Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, who was killed in the London bridge terror attack, gathered for a memorial service at Sydney's Tamarama surf life saving club on Saturday morning

Kirsty Boden (pictured) was killed by knife-wielding terrorists as she ran to help another victim of the barbaric attack on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market

Emotional mourners held sunflowers at the service as they heard how Ms Boden 'always had so much love and happiness for another day'

Surf lifesavers paddled into the ocean off Tamarama Beach before coming together to remember the life of Ms Boden

Friends of Ms Boden paid tribute to her strength, bravery and positivity at an emotional memorial service at Tamarama Beach

The 28-year-old was one of two Australians killed in the London terror attacks in June.

Ms Boden had lived and worked in the UK since 2013 but before then spent a number of years in Sydney where she was a volunteer at the Tamarama surf life saving club.

One of her former housemates, Kate Williams, told a gathering of about 100 mourners at the surf club her friend 'always had so much love and happiness for another day'.

'I don't know how to go on, knowing she has become the angel we all knew she was, but the only thing I am holding on to... is the strength and sheer bravery she had every day of her life,' she said.

Mourners at the service heard a tribute from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, where he said Ms Boden 'showed the world the best of our Australian character'

Young and old carried sunflowers to 'symbolise the warmth Ms Boden brought to everyone and everything she did'

About 100 people gathered for the Sydney memorial service for Ms Boden, who had been living in the UK since 2013 where she was working as a nurse

Mourners gathered at the Tamarama surf live saving club where Ms Boden was a volunteer while she lived in Sydney

Surf lifesavers threw sunflowers into the waves off Tamarama Beach during the memorial service

Ms Boden, originally from Loxton, South Australia, was killed by knife-wielding terrorists as she ran to help another victim of the barbaric attack on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market.

'On that awful night, when Kirsty Boden ran towards the injured and the dying to render aid, she showed the world the best of our Australian character,' a tribute from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, read out by Waverley mayor Sally Betts, said, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Ms Boden had been working in London as a theatre recovery nurse at Guy's Hospital, near London Bridge.

Mourners heard eulogies from Ms Boden's friends and club mates of the Tamarama surf life saving club

Ms Boden was known as 'fearless and compassionate' while she was a volunteer at the Tamarama surf life saving club

Surf lifesavers made their way into the water on Saturday morning as one of Ms Boden's favourite Ed Sheeran songs played
A former Columbia University student settled a gender discrimination lawsuit against the school after he was accused of raping a fellow student who received widespread attention for her performance art piece.

Paul Nungesser was accused of raping Emma Sulkowicz in 2012, and the case made international headlines when she carried a mattress on campus for nine months to protest the school's response.

Nungesser was not charged with a crime, and a university investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

In 2015, he filed a gender discrimination lawsuit saying Columbia failed to protect him against backlash and harassment.

The details of his settlement remain unclear, but his lawyer announced Thursday: 'We hope that the resolution of the case also ensures that no student will ever have to endure what Paul went through after he was exonerated.'

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Paul Nungesser was accused of raping fellow student Emma Sulkowicz in 2012, who started carrying a mattress around Columbia University in protest of the school's handling of the case

Sulkowicz's senior thesis and performance art piece received widespread attention. Nungesser, who was cleared by the school, filed a Title IX lawsuit against Columbia in 2015

Nungesser's lawyer Andrew Miltenberg, told the Washington Post: 'Together with Paul and his parents, we have fought for three long years.

'It gives Paul a chance to go on with his life and recover from the false accusation against him. We hope that the resolution of the case also ensures that no student will ever have to endure what Paul went through after he was exonerated.'

Sulkowicz, a visual art major at Columbia, claimed Nungesser was a 'serial rapist' and said she and two other young women at the school reported him.

But Columbia cleared Nungesser after a 'diligent and thorough investigation'.

In her senior year, Sulkowicz earned course credit for carrying a 50-pound mattress around campus for a thesis project titled 'Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)', which was framed as a protest against the university's alleged tolerance of sexual assault.

Sulkowicz, who said she would continue the piece until he was expelled, carried the mattress on stage to receive her diploma at graduation while Nungesser and his parents sat in the crowd.

'Carry that Weight' made international news, and the piece was hailed by art critics as one of the most important art works of the year.

In 2015, Nungesser filed a Title IX lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court, which stated: 'Columbia University's effective sponsorship of the gender-based harassment and defamation of Paul resulted in an intimidating, hostile, demeaning ... learning and living environment.'

The lawsuit, which did not name Sulkowicz as a defendant, also claimed Columbia presented the rape allegations as fact on a university-owned website.

On Thursday, Nungesser's lawyer announced a settlement had been reached on Thursday. Pictured, Sulkowicz, who carried the mattress to her graduation

Nungesser's lawsuit was dismissed twice before he appealed. Both parties filed to withdraw the case on July 7, before a settlement was announced Thursday.

The school released a statement that read: 'Columbia recognizes that after the conclusion of the investigation, Pauls remaining time at Columbia became very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience.

'Columbia will continue to review and update its policies toward ensuring that every student - accuser and accused, including those like Paul who are found not responsible - is treated respectfully and as a full member of the Columbia community.'

Miltenberg said: 'I think this case fits into the larger debate in that the mark of being called a rapist is a significant one, and it follows you regardless of whether or not the university finds you responsible.'
A baby humpback whale who became caught in shark nets while swimming alongside its mother has died.

Rescue crews carried out a frantic operation off Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast on Saturday but the newborn calf could not be saved.

'These two humpbacks were just slightly entangled,' one rescuer told Nine News.

Rescue crews carried out an operation off a Gold Coast beach on Saturday after reports of two whales being caught in shark nets

A female humpback whale was able to swim free of the shark net but its newborn calf died

'The juvenile calf was caught around the pec [pectoral fin] and the mother just around the head.

'As you can see by [Saturday's] sea conditions they were perfect. The mother did survive and swam on but the calf is now deceased.'

Witnesses had alerted authorities to the trapped whales about 11.30am, with the mother, measuring about nine metres, freed close to two hours later.

Trevor Long, head of Marine Science at Sea World, described the death as a 'sad day' to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

'Especially at this time of year we're calling for drum lines instead of nets,' Mr Long said.
Two former AFL executives have been described as 'high quality people' by the code's chief after they were forced to resign over workplace affairs with younger women - as it is revealed they will 'probably' be given another chance.

AFL Chief Gillon McDonald publicly condemned the inappropriate relationships of Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss on Friday before sticking up for their good character just hours later.

McDonald said he's confident his friends will be 'given another chance' the Herald Sun reports.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan (pictured) announced the resignation of two of its senior executives at a press conference on Friday - before describing them as 'high quality people'

Simon Lethlean (pictured), who is the head of football operations, is one of the executives who has resigned from the AFL

The AFL's general manager of commercial, Richard Simkiss (pictured) has also resigned

'I know the industry is forgiving. They are high quality people and unbelievable executives,' he said.

Fairfax Media reported Mr Lethlean had a brief relationship with Maddi Blomberg, while Mr Simkiss was said to have had a relationship with Ali Gronow.

Ms Blomberg is the long-term partner of Wallabies rugby star Kurtley Beale and until September last year worked for the AFL Auskick program.

Ms Gronow is an AFL legal staffer who is currently on leave, according to The Age.

Mr Lethlean has since apologised following his resignation, saying he was 'truly sorry for the hurt I have caused'.

'The relationship should never have happened. As a husband and a leader of this organisation it is up to me to set the example. What I did was wrong,' he said.

Mr Simkiss has also issued an apology for his reported relationship with Gronow.

'My actions did not live up to the values of the AFL and is something I am truly sorry for,' he said.

Maddi Blomberg (right), the long-term partner of rugby union player Kurtley Beale (left), reportedly had a brief relationship with AFL senior executive Simon Lethlean

Ali Gronow (pictured), an AFL legal staffer who is currently on leave, according to The Age, reportedly had a relationship with Richard Simkiss

In a press conference at AFL House, Mr McLachlan said he had accepted the resignations of Mr Lethlean and Mr Simkiss.

'They are separate matters and distressing to a number of people,' Mr McLachlan said.

'Both men have been honest and forthright to me and did not want the AFL to be affected by their actions.

'We are committed to the process of change. It is being seen and felt across our industry.'

Mr McLachlan said he was 'clearly disappointed' about what had happened, but said the men had taken accountability and 'that's all you can ask for'.

'People make mistakes but what defines an organisation is how they're dealt with,' she said.
This is the student taking an online gambling giant to court after the firm refused to pay her and accused her of cheating.

Megan McCann, 20, has filed a writ against bet365 after they failed to shell out her winnings of almost 1million after she struck lucky on a horse racing bet.

The firm claims Miss McCann was supplied the 25,000 she staked on 12 horses across four races in June 2016 from a third party.

The young woman has been identified by neighbours as a hardworking student from the affluent area of County Down, Northern Ireland.

Megan McCann, 20, has filed a writ against gambling giant bet365 after they failed to pay out her winnings. Neighbours locally have identified her as Miss McCann of Kilkeel (pictured above)

But Miss McCann denied it was her when approached by a reporter.

A neighbour who knows the family says the student, lives with her mother, a housewife and father, a builder.

It is thought Miss McCann attended St Louis Grammar School and lives in a large manor house, set in its own grounds with a sweeping drive.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Miss McCann filed a writ in the High Court in Northern Ireland accusing the firm of breach of contract.

The paper reported documents show the student was 'congratulated' by bet365 on winning her wager on a live chat on its website.

Miss McCann won 985,000 plus her initial bet back but the bookies later they won't honour the wager because it believes Miss McCann's stake was provided by a third party.

Bet365 claim Megan McCann, 20, was supplied the 25,000 she staked on 12 horses across four races in June 2016 from a third party

Neighbours say the student, who lives in the affluent area of Kilkeel in County Down, Northern Ireland, lives with her a mother, a housewife and father, a builder

A day later she was told the money would be processed within 48 hours after passing a series of questions around her identity, including her star sign.

But her account was then suspended and closed, with bet365 understood to be accusing Miss McCann of 'fraud and cheating', which she denies.

The bets were made on races at Bath, Kempton and Naas in Ireland on June 22, 2016, through 960 13 each way bets on 12 horses.

They were made via 'lucky 15' bets, which are a special form of accumulator that require a person to make four selections - in this case horses - and can result on up to 15 payouts depending on how many selections come in.

Student Megan McCann said she is entitled to 1million winnings after a successful 25,000 wager on horse races at events including Bath, pictured (file picture)

Miss McCann is demanding damages of more than 1million for breach of contract after lawyers filed her writ in Belfast against bet365, which is licensed and regulated by the government of Gibraltar.

According to the Telegraph, she claims the rule about staking her own bet was 'buried in the terms and conditions' which were 'too lengthy and complex' and 'much too vague' to understand.

One legal document written to bet365's representatives seen by the paper said: 'Our client's case is very straightforward. She placed a bet with your client. She won. She is entitled to her winnings'.

Bet365 has confirmed an investigation took place into the circumstances of the wager and that the firm was 'satisfied' winnings are 'not payable' and expects any trial to uphold its decision.

MailOnline has contacted bet365 for comment.
Two young men have been charged after an assault outside a Sydney pub in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police were called to the licensed premises on Church Street, near the intersection of The Great Western Highway in Parramatta about 4.30am on Saturday.

They attended following reports a man was assaulted after he had left the premises. The 39-year-old man was taken to Westmead Hospital with facial bruising and bleeding.

Police were called to the licensed premises on Church Street, near the intersection of The Great Western Highway in Parramatta (pictured) about 4.30am on Saturday

Four men were arrested shortly after the incident and taken to Parramatta Police Station.

Two of the men, aged 21 and 20, were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The 20-year-old was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

They older man was granted conditional bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday.

The other two men were released without charge.
A disgusted easyJet passenger has complained after having to sit next to a man and woman while they had sex.

Gary Power posted his gripe to the airline's Facebook page yesterday after boarding his flight to Alicante from Manchester Airport.

The tourist said he boarded the EZY1917 service at 7.10am on Monday and was revolted when the man and women adjacent to him began their romp.

He said: 'Well done @easyjet - got on my flight from Manchester to Alicante and what happened during the flight?

Gary Power said he boarded the EZY1917 service at 7.10am on Monday and was revolted when the man and women adjacent to him began their romp

'The man and woman sat next to me proper going for it...and not even being discreet!

'My particular favourites from the whole experience was that the 2 elderly women sat opposite, whilst distracting (I presume their about 5 year-old granddaughter) so she didn't see it, couldn't get enough of it - eyes popping out of their head with disbelief but still having a good nosey.

'Oh yeah, and the fella sat in front of them who even had the cheek of tell me to move my head so he could get a better look. My eyes have never been so glued to m my iPad so much! 1-0 Brits abroad.'

Gary took to Twitter to complain to the airline. He said an elderly couple watched in disbelief as the mystery couple had sex next to them

easyJet responded to Gary asking him to send them a private message. A spokesman for the company said the romp was not reported to airline staff

It comes amid a spate of lewd and crude behaviour on board flights from Britain to Spain

It comes amid a spate of lewd and crude behaviour on board flights from Britain to Spain, which has airline bosses worried.

In June, Tracey Bolton, 39, and Shaun Edmondson, 31, were accused of having sex on board a Ryanair flight to Ibiza.

Ms Bolton has kept her head down since the video went viral on social media.

Friends of Tracey Bolton, 39, said the mother was told to straddle Shaun Edmondson, 31, because he was upset to have left his pregnant fiancee in the UK

The two people involved in the latest mid-flight romp are yet to be identified.

An easyJet spokesman said: 'As this alleged activity was not reported to the crew on the flight, they were not able to intervene.

'We have contacted the passenger who posted the details on social media and have apologised for his experience.'
Police chief Cressida Dick says talks are under way to stop the surge in acid attacks

New rules on corrosive substances are being considered by the Government after demands for new legislation to tackle the acid attack menace.

Police chiefs believe sentences should be increased to reflect the horrific life-changing injuries caused by corrosive liquids.

Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick said talks are already under way to see what changes could stem a surge in attacks.

Campaigners want to see it made harder to purchase potentially deadly chemicals.

But they have already been warned it is virtually impossible to completely block them as they have many common uses, especially as drain cleaners.

Earlier this month Home Office officials met with senior officers, medical experts and representatives of the retail trade to broker a deal.

Prime Minister Theresa May suggested action is an urgent priority as she denounced the horrific attacks.

Mrs Dick, the countrys most senior police officer, branded the use of chemicals as a weapon as completely barbaric.

She said: The acid can cause horrendous injuries, the ones last night involved a series of robberies we believe are linked  I am glad to see we have arrested somebody, she said.

And it is not, I dont want people to think this is happening all over London all the time, it is really not, but we are concerned because the numbers appear to be going up.

We will arrest people, we will enforce the law as we can, and we are working very closely with the Home Office to try to see if there is any changes in the law required.

Police officers were seen pouring bottle after bottle of water over a victim, understood to be Mr Hussain, in a video that appeared on Twitter from Hackney Road

Experts say acid is becoming the weapon of choice for many criminals, say experts.

This is because while attacking someone with a corrosive substance is illegal, it is not illegal to carry.

Caustic fluid such as sulphuric acid or drain cleaner can be bought online in or in shops for as little as 7 or 8 a litre, and there is no age restriction on its purchase. Campaigners and one of the victims of Thursdays attacks have called for penalties for those caught carrying corrosive liquid to be brought in line with laws around knife crime.

Under current laws, a knife attacker can face attempted murder charges, whereas an acid attack would be classified as grievous bodily harm.

Jabed Hussain says he was lucky not to be more seriously injured after he was the first victim of a gang who sprayed acid in the faces of delivery drivers on mopeds last night

Executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust, Jaf Shah, said carrying acid in public should carry the same penalty as possessing a knife after the number of similar incidents had effectively doubled in the UK over three years.

In a way, its almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy, he said.

Recorded numbers of acid attacks in Britain are now higher than in countries such as Colombia, India and Pakistan.

Mr Shah called on the Government to introduce a licensing system, requiring registration with the Home office for the legitimate purchase of concentrated acid, which is used in agriculture, as well as the jewellery and clothing industries.

He also suggested banning cash sales and introducing an age restriction.

Jabed Hussain, who was attacked on Hackney Road, said: Teenagers cannot even buy cigarettes in shops, but they can buy something like this which can melt somebodys face.

The number of assaults involving corrosive substances has risen by more than 30 per cent in the last two years.

Two men on a moped carried out five acid attacks in a 72-minute period in London on Thursday night, leaving one victim with life-changing injuries on Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road (pictured). Other delivery drivers rushed to the scene after the attack

There have been more than 1,800 reports of acid used in murders, robberies and rapes since 2010 and the frequency of attacks is increasing.

The attacks also combined the worrying trend in moped thefts, in which rampant gangs of youths are snatching hundreds of machines to use in further crimes. Last year there were 454 crimes in London in which a corrosive was used or used as a threat, compared to 261 in 2015, according to the Met.

Almost a third of these were carried out in the east London borough of Newham.

Last month, aspiring model Resham Khan and her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with life changing injuries as they went out for a drive to celebrate her 21st birthday.

An attacker threw a corrosive substance through the driver and passenger windows of their car as they stopped at traffic lights in Canning Town, east London.

East Ham Labour MP Stephen Timms said there should be tougher and more consistent sentences are needed for those found guilty of acid attacks.

The former Government minister wants carrying acid to be made an offence and suggested the purchase of sulphuric acid could be licensed.

He said: I think that the sentences for attacks of this kind should be reviewed - the guidelines for sentencing.

I think we should have tougher and also more consistent sentences for those who are found guilty of carrying out these attacks.

Mr Timms said carrying a bottle of sulphuric acid without justification should be treated as an offence, like carrying a knife, and said there was a case to re-examine when it is appropriate to use stop and search powers.

He said: I think that carrying acid should in itself be an offence, in the same way that carrying a knife wouldnt have been an offence some years ago.

I think theres been a pretty effective change - I think the same change should be made for acid.

A Downing Street spokesman said: It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm and anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH and GBH.

There was a meeting at the Home Office on 4 July and we are continuing to work with the police, health professionals and retailers to do more.

The Prime Minister believes the use of acid in this way is horrific and we want to work with stakeholders to see what more can be done.

It is clearly an extremely serious issue, which is why we are carrying out work to see what more we can do.
Police area appealing for witnesses after a man was stabbed to death by two assailants on a moped as a spate of horrific attacks continue across the capital.

The 31-year-old victim was fatally wounded during a clash in which shots were also fired in King William Walk, Greenwich, the Metropolitan Police said.

He had first been approached by the pair at 12.15am on Saturday.

The assailants, both male, then fled the scene - close to Greenwich Maritime Museum - on the moped and emergency services arrived to find the man with stab injuries.

Detective Inspector Jo Sidaway, who is leading the investigation, said: 'At this early stage it is understood the victim was approached on King William Walk by two suspects on a moped.

The killers, who launched their attack at King William Walk, London, are now on the run from police, who say they are keeping an open mind as to the motive of the murder

'One suspect is believed to have been in possession of what appeared to be a firearm, the other a knife.

'During an altercation between the suspects and the victim, the victim was stabbed. The suspected firearm was discharged but enquiries continue regarding this.

'The suspects then fled the scene on the moped, and the victim then managed to make his way to a nearby address to ask for help. He was later pronounced dead there.

'I am appealing for any witnesses to any part of the incident, or anyone with any information, to contact our incident room and assist our investigation.'

Emergency services rushed to the King William Walk and despite efforts the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Despite the efforts of the police and the London Ambulance Service, he was declared dead at the scene.

The killers are now on the run from police, who say they are keeping an open mind as to the motive of the murder.

With the killers still at large, anyone with information was urged to call police via 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Victim Mr Hussain said he saw others with worse injuries, including one with 'the left hand side of his face all burned'

The killing is the latest harrowing crime to hit the capital in which the perpetrators were riding a moped.

On Thursday, UberEats and Deliveroo drivers were specifically targeted for their mopeds in a spate of horrific acid attacks across east London.

One rider was attacked and robbed while another man was heard 'screaming in agony' after suffering catastrophic injuries when doused with flesh-burning liquid.

Another victim who also had his moped stolen was filmed having litres of water poured over his face by police to wash acid from his eyes by the side of the road in Hackney.

The two-man gang went on a rampage across east London as they sprayed five men between 10.25pm and 11.37pm in Stoke Newington, Hackney and Islington.

One of the drivers was confirmed to work for Deliveroo, while another was a father-of-one UberEats driver who said he was 'saved by his moped helmet'.

Map: This graphic illustrates where the shocking acid attacks took place last night - one suspect has been held and the other is on the run

A 15-year-old boy was arrested at an address in Stoke Newington on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery, after a 16-year-old was detained earlier this morning.

Jabed Hussain suffered burns to his lip when a corrosive liquid was squirted through his helmet at traffic lights before robbers snatched his 'pride and joy' moped.

The father-of-one is understood to have been the first of five victims sprayed with acid by two attackers who rode around Hackney on Thursday night.

Mr Hussain, 32, says he considers himself lucky after seeing the other victims nursing more serious injuries when he was treated in Whitechapel's Royal London Hospital.

Mr Hussain said:' The delivery driver of four years said: 'I was lucky because I was wearing a helmet which is totally burnt as was the hoodie I was wearing, the colours are completely different, like it has been exposed to fire.

Two men on a moped carried out five acid attacks in a 72-minute period in London on Thursday night, leaving one victim with life-changing injuries on Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road (pictured). Other delivery drivers rushed to the scene after the attack

'I had just finished work and was going home, I was stuck in traffic. Then suddenly I felt water on my face and I looked up and there were two boys on a bike.

'My face was burning but nobody opened their windows, I was screaming for help and as the liquid on my face was drying it was getting more and more burnt. I opened my helmet, I didn't know what to do, but I knew I needed water.

Call for knife-style crackdown Acid attacks should be treated in the same way as knife crime, say campaigners. Under current laws, a knife attacker can face attempted murder charges, whereas an acid attack would be classified as grievous bodily harm. It is also illegal to sell a knife of any kind to anyone under 18 or carry one in public without good reason. However, while attacking someone with a corrosive substance is illegal, it is not against the law to carry it. This means that it is increasingly the weapon of choice for many criminals, as caustic fluid can be bought for as little as 7 a litre, and there is no age restriction on its purchase. Jaf Shah, executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust, called for carrying acid in public to have the same penalty as possessing a knife. He added: 'In a way, [an acid attack] is almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy.' Advertisement

'One lady asked me what happened and I said that someone had put acid on my face.

'I said I need water on my face, it is burning, she went and got water from Co-Op and others got water too.

He was later rushed to hospital, where he saw other victims with worse injuries.

He added: 'One man I walked past at the Royal London Hospital had the left hand side of his face all burned.

'When my daughter saw my face...she was screaming and crying, she recognised me but she was looking at me in a different way.'

He spoke as police arrested a second suspect over the 72-minute spree across east London n Thursday night.

Witnesses said one attacker riding pillion would jump off and steal the victim's scooter with the other thief speeding away on the moped they arrived on.

Some of the victims were food delivery drivers and one Deliveroo employee has revealed 40 of his colleagues in east London are now refusing to work after dark.

He said groups of up to 12 youths are stealing their motorcycles when they visit housing estates and some drivers are now even carrying weapons to fight them off.

Scotland Yard said that a 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. The arrest of the 15-year-old was announced this afternoon.

Chief Inspector Ben Clark, from Hackney Borough police, said: 'Each of these offences took place in busy locations and we know there may be witnesses who have not yet contacted us.

Police officers were seen pouring bottle after bottle of water over a victim, understood to be Mr Hussain, in a video that appeared on Twitter from Hackney Road

'If you saw something or managed to film or photograph anything that might help us please get in touch.

'These are hideous offences and must have been very frightening for all of the victims.

'I'm aware of rumours circulating that the victims were all food delivery riders set up in advance of the attacks. This is not the case.

'All victims were riding mopeds at the time of the attacks, but were from a variety of backgrounds.

'Of late we have seen more attacks using corrosive substances in London. I would urge businesses and parents to challenge those who they think may be trying to obtain or carry these substances as this could help prevent serious offences and life changing injuries being caused.'

A specialist NHS unit help one of the victims on the side of the road in Upper Clapton at just before midnight (left)

One of the victims was a Deliveroo rider, a spokesman for the company confirmed.

'These are truly shocking attacks and we are working with the authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice,' the spokesman added.

'We are in touch with the rider and will be providing him with support.

'We have been in touch with all riders who were working in these areas at the time of last night's attacks to check whether they were a victim of these horrific crimes and to gather further information that might help the police with their inquiries.'

The shocking incidents come after a spate of acid attacks across Britain, including one on a 21-year-old model who was left with horrific burns to her face.

Experts say acid is becoming the weapon of choice for many criminals because it is not illegal to carry and can be bought freely from any hardware store.

Assaults using acid have more than doubled in England since 2012 - up from 183 five years ago to 504 in the year to March 2017. The majority have been in east London.

There were more than 1,800 reports of acid used in murders, robberies and rapes since 2010.

Last year acid was used in 454 crimes, up from 261 the previous year, with almost a third of the attacks carried out in the borough of Newham in east London, the figures show.

The problem has got so bad for Deliveroo drivers in east London that many are refusing to work past 9.30pm.

One worker revealed he was surrounded by up to 12 youths who threatened to attack him unless he handed over his moped.

The scene after two men on a moped carried out five acids attacks during a spree across the capital which lasted less than 90 minutes

He told the Hackney Gazette that 40 out of 50 staff will not work night shifts.

He said last week: 'In the past month physical attacks with knives have started. Drivers are being held at knifepoint, mostly in Shoreditch or Hackney Central.

'You can be riding along and they chase you on another moped.

'We're seeing groups of boys on three or four mopeds, with people on the back, running drivers off the road and taking their mopeds.

Aspiring model Resham Khan, 21, suffered 'life-changing' injuries in the acid attack

'On Queensbridge Road last week a driver was stopped at the lights and 10 boys on bikes said: 'Get off your bike.'

Revealing the anger among drivers he said: 'They are talking about forming packs of drivers to go back and get justice themselves. Drivers don't want to carry weapons but I know some that will.'

Last night the most serious incident has left a man with 'life-changing injuries' in Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington.

Local baker Samuel Leibowitz, 49, said he rushed to the scene to find the victim 'screaming in agony' and surrounded by 50 to 60 people who had flooded out of their houses.

He said: 'I got a call from a friend of mine saying there was an attack. I came running down the road and I saw a gentleman leaning on the wall with a cloth over his face.

'He was screaming in agony. There were people shouting and swearing. He was in a lot of pain'.

Samuel said he believes the victim was in his mid-20s.

He added: 'I could not see his face as he was holding the cloth and he was in a lot of pain. There were lots of people around him.

Miss Khan has said she wants to ensure 'no one ever goes through the living nightmare I have endured' after being left with horrific face and neck injuries after the incident

'People said he was attacked. I thought he must have been attacked with a knife or something but I saw the cloth and there were lots of people around him, so I didn't actually approach him.

'I realised there was no blood so I thought there must have been another acid attack.'

Last night police were called to the first attack at junction of Hackney Road and Queensbridge Road in Hackney at about 10.25pm.

The 32-year-old victim was sprayed in the face by the scooter gang after they pulled alongside him.

Miss Khan's cousin Jameel Muhktar also suffered 'life-changing' burns in the attack on June 21. John Tomlin has been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent

One of the riders then took his moped and his accomplice followed behind on the scooter they arrived on.

Witness Sarah Cobbold looked out from her flat near the Hackney Road attack to see police pouring huge bottles of water over the victim on her doorstep.

She said: 'It was just outside my flat, the victim was literally stood on my doorstep.

'Police had cordoned off the little area around the pavement and there was just a guy standing on my doorway and they were pouring huge, five-litre bottles of water over his head'.

Sophie Hall (pictured, left, as she set off for the club) was taken to a specialist burns hospital in Essex after acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club on Easter Monday

As she watched, around 25 moped riders arrived - many appearing to be from fast-food delivery companies such as UberEats and Deliveroo.

She said: 'I'm guessing maybe they had heard what happened and came down because they can't have all been driving round together'.

'I had thought someone must have chucked petrol or acid on him or something because they were covering him in water, but I have never seen that reaction to an attack, I thought maybe there had been an accident.

Little more than 20 minutes later, at around 10.50pm, another victim had been sprayed with searing liquid by the pair at the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner, Islington.

The victim was taken to hospital in north London.

Then at around 11.05pm, the fast-moving attackers swooped on a man in Shoreditch High Street, tossing a substance in his face.

His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

Quick thinking pub staff poured vinegar over him.

Horrified eyewitnesses said the victim, believed to be in his 40s, had stopped at traffic lights when another moped with a pillion passenger stopped less than a metre in front of him.

Staff at the Drunken Monkey on Shoreditch High Street saw the pillion passenger turn around and spray an ammonia-like liquid in his face.

Treat acid the same as knives, says MP Tougher and more consistent sentences are needed for those found guilty of acid attacks, a former minister has said. Stephen Timms (pictured) called for carrying acid to be made an offence and suggested licensing the purchase of sulphuric acid as he urged a change in sentencing guidelines. The Labour MP, who will lead an adjournment debate on acid attacks in the Commons on Monday, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think that the sentences for attacks of this kind should be reviewed - the guidelines for sentencing. 'I think we should have tougher and also more consistent sentences for those who are found guilty of carrying out these attacks.' Mr Timms said carrying a bottle of sulphuric acid without justification should be treated as an offence, like carrying a knife, and said there was a case to re-examine when it is appropriate to use stop and search powers. He said: 'I think that carrying acid should in itself be an offence, in the same way that carrying a knife wouldn't have been an offence some years ago. 'I think there's been a pretty effective change - I think the same change should be made for acid.' Mr Timms also called for sulphuric acid to be re-categorised so that a licence is required to buy the chemical, telling the programme: 'Sulphuric acid is already covered by the Explosives Precursor Regulations introduced last year, but it's in a kind of lower category in those regulations. 'I think it should be raised to the higher category, which would mean you'd have to have a licence in order to buy it.' Home Office Minister Sarah Newton said the Government was working on the three points raised by Mr Timms. Ms Newton told the same programme: 'I and my colleagues in the Home Office have been increasingly concerned about the escalation of incidents, especially in London, so we have been working with the Metropolitan Police and community policing on this for some months now.' She added: 'We are going through each and every one of those to make sure if there is more we can do, yes we will take more action.' Mr Timms' calls for tougher sentencing come after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes, according to police. Figures show a sharp rise in both over recent years. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told LBC: 'Acid attacks are completely barbaric. I think, until recently, we haven't seent this at all, incredibly infrequent in the UK. It's something that has been used in other countries... I've known it in some Caribbean countries, I think it has been used in South America. 'I don't want people to think this is happening all over London all of the time, it's not. But we are concerned but it seems to be going up. We will arrest people, we will enforce the law. 'We are working with the Home Office to see if there can be any changes in the law.' Theresa May denounced the acid attacks as 'horrific'. A Downing Street spokesman said: 'It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm and anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH and GBH. 'There was a meeting at the Home Office on July 4 and we are continuing to work with the police, health professionals and retailers to do more. 'The Prime Minister believes the use of acid in this way is horrific and we want to work with stakeholders to see what more can be done. 'It is clearly an extremely serious issue, which is why we are carrying out work to see what more we can do.' Advertisement

The brave delivery man fought back to prevent the thugs stealing his scooter despite being sprayed with the liquid.

He was the third of five people to be attacked in just 72 minutes by the moped thugs on Thursday night.

The eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said: 'One guy was on a moped at traffic lights when another moped stopped in front of him, and the passenger turned around and sprayed liquid at him.

'He had his visor down which helped him.

'The guy on the moped sat there in shock and then a kid pushed him off and tried to nick his bike.

'But he went back over to them and pushed the kid off and then both took off on their moped.

'They didn't manage to nick his bike. They rode off. They were just kids, about 17 or 18 years old.

'We got him into here and poured vinegar on his face while a friend of mine went to get his bike.

'I think it was ammonia they sprayed, I could smell it. When the police got here they poured litres and litres of water on his face'.

Within 15 minutes, they appeared to have struck again, launching their corrosive load at a man in Cazenove Road and causing 'life-changing' facial injuries.

The final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic in Chatsworth Road.

After again spraying a liquid in a victim's face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.

A woman who lives in flats off Upper Clapton Road, who did not want to be named, said she heard shouting coming from outside.

'I just saw blue flashing lights and heard a load of shouting,' she said, adding that she heard someone shout 'Oi, what do you think you're doing'?'

She said: 'I just thought it was a fight broke out because it was the time people would have been coming home from the pub.

'There was so much shouting going on. I looked out my window in case it was a woman being mugged or attacked.'

Hazardous area response units were sent by the ambulance service to four of the scenes, while the victim of the Chatsworth Road attack took himself to hospital.

The Met Police said in a statement: 'Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

'All five incidents are being treated as linked at this time.

'A male, in his teens has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. He is currently in custody at an east London police station.

'Enquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating'.

The string of assaults comes just days after a man appeared in court accused of throwing acid at an aspiring model and her cousin.

Resham Khan, 21, and Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with life-changing injuries after the attack on Ms Khan's 21st birthday in Beckton, east London.

John Tomlin appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on Tuesday charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent.

A mass acid attack has also previously hit the capital this year.

On Easter Monday, acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club night, leaving two revellers partially blinded and others disfigured.

Arthur Collins, the former boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was charged in connection with the attack.

Anyone with information or in possession of footage of the incidents is urged to contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC. Alternatively, they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Michael Pattemore has denied being a gold-digger, claiming Lynda Bellingham was 50,000 in debt when she died

Lynda Bellingham's widower has denied being a gold-digger, claiming that the TV star was 50,000 in debt when she died.

Michael Pattemore, 61, was reacting to claims that he blew his stepsons' inheritance following the Loose Women star's death from colon cancer in 2014 at the age of 66.

Ms Bellingham's sons Michael, 34, and Robbie, 29, claimed their stepfather had only given them a small sum from their mother's estate, the entirety of which she left to Mr Pattemore.

The pair later said they were not contesting the will that their mother signed before her death.

Following his wife's death, Mr Pattemore reportedly bought an eight-bedroom mansion for 605,000 and spent thousands on exotic holidays.

He also sparked controversy when he claimed he had had sex with his late wife's ghost.

But in an interview with The Mirror, Mr Pattemore said he had 'been painted in such a bad light', adding that he wanted to clear things up for the sake of his children and grandchildren.

Ms Bellingham's sons Michael, 34, (pictured left) and Robbie, 29, (second left) claimed their stepfather had only given them a small sum from their mother's estate, the entirety of which she left to Mr Pattemore. pictured: Actress Lynda Bellingham holds her OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) with husband Michael Pattemore (2nd-L) with step-son Bradley (R)

Responding to the accusations by his stepsons, he said: 'I wish the boys all the best, I honestly do from the bottom of my heart, but one person can only take so much.

'I'm sorry but how could I be splurging her sons' inheritance? There was no money. Lynda was 50,000 in debt when she died.

'She had a 25,000 overdraft and the rest was spread over a number of credit cards. And Im the one whos got to pay them off now that weve finally been granted probate on her will.'

He insisted that the money he had spent in the wake of Ms Bellingham's death came from his own pocket, much of it from the sale of his book My Lynda.

Robbie Peluso (left) and (right) with his brother Michael. The pair later said they were not contesting the will that their mother signed before she lost her life

Lynda Bellingham and Michael Pattemore. Mr Pattemore insisted that the money he had spent in the wake of Ms Bellingham's death came from his own pocket, much of it from the sale of his book My Lynda

He also claimed that he even shelled out thousands in tuition fees for Robbie while he was in sixth form and has given the boys a flat valued between 750,000 and 800,000 which was jointly owned by him and Lynda.

But for now, at least, there is no sign of reconciliation between Mr Pattemore and his stepsons.

Earlier this year in April, The Mirror reported that Mr Pattemore was not invited to Robbie's wedding in New York.

Ms Bellingham split from her son's father, Italian taxi driver Nunzio Peluso, in 1994, and it was just the three of them until she met Mr Pattemore ten years later.

During the 1980s Ms Bellingham was dubbed the 'nation's favourite mum' thanks to her role on the Oxo adverts as the loving wife who cooked up mouthwatering meals for her family.

In more recent times, she became better known as a presenter on the ITV daytime chat show Loose Women.
Acid attackers have struck again as a rider has been targeted with poisonous substance in a new attempted moped theft in east London.

The victim was left with injuries less than 24 hours after five were attacked with acid on Thursday night.

Police were called at around 5pm on Friday to reports of an attempted robbery of a moped in Ballards Road, Dagenham, Scotland Yard said.

Police were called at around 5pm on Friday to reports of an attempted robbery of a moped in Ballards Road, Dagenham, after a man was attacked with a noxious substance (stock)

The victim - a man aged in his 20s - was approached by two males on a moped who squirted what was described as a 'noxious substance' at him.

They attempted to steal his moped but were unsuccessful, and the man was taken to hospital.

Police said he does not have lasting injuries and has been discharged.

There have been no arrests.

The incident took place the day after five separate male victims were targeted by two moped-riding attackers in the north and the east of the capital.

Two of the assaults saw mopeds stolen, while another victim had 'life-changing' injuries inflicted after being sprayed.

The latest attack comes after two muggers on a moped carried out five assaults in just 90 minutes on Thursday.

Another victim has been struck with acid in a suspected moped theft in east London. This comes less than 24 hours after five were targeted across London. Pictured: Police officers seen pouring bottle after bottle of water over a victim on Thursday night

Police were called at around 5pm on Friday to reports of an attempted robbery of a moped in Ballards Road, Dagenham, Scotland Yard said. Pictured above: Javed Hussain, who was targeted on Thursday night

Two teenagers have been arrested after two suspects carried out the depraved attacks and robberies in Stoke Newington, Hackney and Islington.

Victims, who were all reportedly fast-food delivery drivers, were rushed to hospital after having the corrosive substance either thrown or sprayed in their faces.

UberEats driver Jabed Hussain, 32, sustained burns to his lip when he was sprayed with a corrosive liquid at traffic lights near Hackney Road before the robbers snatched his motorbike, on Thursday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was pictured waving at a fighter jet escorting his aircraft as he flew to Istanbul to mark the first anniversary of a failed coup that tried to end his regime.

Waving large red Turkish flags, tens of thousands of people joined a national unity march in the city today, converging at the iconic July 15 Martyrs' Bridge to mark one year since the event.

President Erdogan joined the crowds to unveil a Martyrs' Memorial to honour the 250 who died opposing the coup. Marches and events are also taking place in Ankara, the capital.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke at a special parliamentary session in Ankara attended by Erdogan.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waving to an F-16 fighter jet

The jet escorting the Turkish premier from Ankara to Istanbul

President Erdogan joined crowds in the city to unveil a Martyrs' Memorial to honour the 250 who died opposing the coup

People gather at the July 15 Martyr's bridge on a 'National Unity March'

July 15 has since been declared a national holiday in Turkey

He said: 'It has been exactly one year since Turkey's darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the people's legend.'

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016.

The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Erdogan had been on vacation.

President Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan greet supports during a rally

But Erdogan had already left and the coup attempt was put down by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks.

As well as those who died more than 2,000 were injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

Yildirim thanked the thousands who heeded a call by Erdogan to flood the streets to resist the coup.

'We are able to come together again here today because of our 250 heroic martyrs, 2,193 heroic veterans and the great Turkish people. Your country is grateful to you,' Yildirim said.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since, which has allowed the government to rule by decree and to dismiss tens of thousands of people from their jobs.

More than 50,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for orchestrating the failed coup, and other terror groups.

A man wrapped in a flag depicting Turkish president Erdogan

Gulen has denied the allegations.

In the latest government decree published Friday evening, 7,395 more state employees were fired, including teachers, academics, military and police officers, bringing the number of dismissed to more than 110,000.

The government calls the crackdown necessary to purge state institutions of those linked to Gulen, but critics say the dismissals are arbitrary and the victims' paths to recourse severely curtailed.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday issued a statement praising the bravery of the Turkish people who took to the streets to 'preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society.'

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim talks during a special session in Turkey's Parliament in Ankara

The president also attended the Parliament session

Politicians stand to honour the anniversary of the event in which 250 people were killed

Crowds on Saturday were massing at the bridge via a major highway that was closed off for the commemorative event

People pose with a hangman's knot. In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since

'The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms,' the agency said, warning that curbs on those key freedoms erode 'the foundations of democratic society.'

'More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times,' the statement said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg paid homage to those who lost lives resisting the coup and said attempts to undermine democracy in any one of the allied nations was 'unacceptable.'

People walk towards the July 15 Martyr's bridge

As well as those who died more than 2,000 were injured across Turkey in the struggle

The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Erdogan had been on vacation

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters last year

After midnight Saturday mosques across Turkey will simultaneously recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets

July 15 has been declared a national holiday in Turkey.

Public transportation in Istanbul and Ankara is free over the weekend and bus destination signs displayed messages of congratulations.

As they did on the night of the 2016 coup attempt, after midnight Saturday mosques across Turkey will simultaneously recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets.

A man with a flag of President Erdogan looks from an overpass as people walk towards the July 15 Martyr's bridge

Men chant slogans and wave flags during the march

People pick banners depicting the victims of the coup

A man kisses the Turkish flag during the march
A 16-year-old high school student is generating serious cash-flow from an egg farming business, initially started as an initiative to buy some lego.

With 9,000 chickens at his disposal on his family farm, Josh Murray is able to supply 55,000 eggs to supermarkets across Australia.

'I started when I was ninemum said 'Hey, if you want some pocket money, you can sell the eggs',' Josh told the Today Show on Saturday.

A 16-year-old high school student is generating serious cash-flow from an egg farming business, initially started as an initiative to buy some lego

With 9,000 chickens at his disposal on his family farm, Josh Murray is able to supply 55,000 eggs to supermarkets across Australia

His very own range, Josh's Rainbow Egg's, can be found in supermarkets around in the country, including Coles and Woolworths

When he first got started the cunning entrepreneur began supplying eggs to neighbours before taking on farmers markets in the area.

His very own range, Josh's Rainbow Egg's, can be found in supermarkets around in the country, including Coles and Woolworths, 9 News reported.

Josh says the way his chickens are looked after is a key point of difference.

'We have movable sheds, small flockswe do everything we can to ensure the chickens have the best possible life.'

He started selling eggs to his neighbours before moving to farmers markets

Josh works on the farm three nights out of a week while juggling his high school responsibilities

As the youngster works to expand his business he also is balancing his studies.

He does work on the farm three nights a week and on the weekends and will only ditch school if there is a vitally important meeting, but he says that rarely happens.

When he completes school he would like to travel to Sweeden for an overseas experience before coming back to attend university, where he will look at a business or entrepreneurship degree.
Footage has emerged showing a British man and his Cambodian girlfriend shuffle from court into their hell-hole prison as they begin their lengthy jail sentences for selling crystal meth.

Andrew Sloman, 51, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, had been staying in the country when he sent his partner Chang Sreypheak, 28, to sell meth, known as 'ice'.

She was caught with 1.4 grams of the substance in October last year sparking a police raid on Sloman's hotel where he had 40g of the drug and paraphernalia.

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Andrew Sloman (left), 51, from Aylesbury, Buckingshire, had been staying in the country when he sent his partner Chang Sreypheak (right), 28, to sell meth, known as 'ice'

Footage has emerged showing Sloman (right) him handcuffed to another prisoner, shuffling out of the court followed moments later by his girlfriend (left) as they were taken to a prison described as a 'hell hole'

The pair had spent eight months awaiting trial in prison in capital Phnom Phem. Sloman denied the charges but was found guilty on Monday of dealing the drug and on Wednesday jailed for three years.

Footage shows him handcuffed to another prison, shuffling out of the court followed moments later by his girlfriend as he makes his way to a hell-hole Cambodia prison.

Lim Lim, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge, said Sloman was charged with 'purchasing, storing or consuming 40 grams of Crystal Meth under Article 40 of the Law on Drugs Management' and 'trading and supplying' the substance.

Judge Lim said: 'Chang Sreypheak admitted that she had taken the drugs three times from Mr Andrew Sloman for sale in exchange for $10 or $15 from customers.'

The judge said: 'She responded that she and Andy used the drugs, they slept together and he also took Viagra for sexual enhancement.

'Mr Andrew Sloman denied the charges but the court found against him.'

The court heard that on the day of their arrest, ordered his Cambodian girlfriend to take 1.41grams of illegal drugs to a woman for a price of $55.

But police caught her in the Daun Penh district of the city and raided the 9 Star Guesthouse they had been staying at, where they found a haul of the crystal meth, also known as ice.

Sloman claimed the drugs were for personal use and he had not sent his partner out to sell them.

He was found guilty and jailed for three years while Sreypeak was sentenced to two-and-and-a half years.
A 15-year-old girl has died after suffering an adverse reaction after taking a suspected legal high drug in a park with friends.

The schoolgirl was found unconscious by paramedics in Baker's Park in Newton Abbot, Devon in the early hours of this morning.

She and two teenage girls were taken to Torbay District Hospital at around 4.50am, where she later died.

A 15-year-old girl has died after suffering an adverse reaction after taking drugs in a park with friends. Pictured above, an officer on scene watch in Newton Abbot, Devon, this afternoon

Investigating: Police say the girl died after taking a suspected 'legal high' drug in Baker's Park, Newton Abbot, Devon

The schoolgirl was found unconscious by paramedics in Baker's Park in Newton Abbot, Devon in the early hours of this morning. Pictured above, police searching the area

Pictured: An empty vodka bottle alongside fizzy pop and beer bottles discovered in the park this afternoon as police investigate the death of a 15-year-old girl

Police have cordoned off Baker's Park in Newton Abbot today after a teenager was found dead

The other two schoolgirls are said to be uninjured and were taken as a precaution.

The family of the girl have been told of her death, police said.

An appeal for witnesses has been launched with anyone with information about the incident asked to come forward.

Today officers have been combing the park, located in the town of Newton Abbot, for evidence.

Pictured at the scene was an area strewn with empty alcohol bottles, suggesting a group had been drinking in the park on the evening of the incident.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said they believed the girls had taken a new psychoactive substance, more commonly referred to as 'legal highs'.

Cordoned off: The play area, popular with families and nearby residents, has been closed off today as officers comb the park for evidence

Empty cans of alcohol found at the park suggest a group had been drinking in the area around the time of the incident

He said police believed she had suffered an adverse reaction to the drug.

Police are looking to speak to anyone with information in connection with the incident, including anyone who was in Bakers Park, Newton Abbot in the early hours of this morning.

Posting to their Facebook page this morning, local police wrote: 'Officers in South Devon are this morning dealing with a distressing incident where a teenager has died after apparently taking drugs.'

The statement highlighted a case from last year where a student died after taking legal highs in Totnes, near the River Dart.

A status from the Kingsbridge Police account urged parents to have an open dialogue with their children about drugs.

The post read: 'Please speak to your children about the dangers of drugs, and (formerly known as) legal highs. They can cause death even if taken just once.

The tragic news has been with an outpouring of grief online, with dozens offering their condolences.

One woman, who lives in town where the tragedy happened, posted to Facebook: 'This is just awful. I can't even imagine how people close to her must be feeling, it could be any one of our teens.

'Unfortunately it probably won't be the last time that something like this happens because of legal highs. Kids in my local park are at it on a Friday/ Saturday night drinking being loud taking substances. It'd be nice to think it'd be a lesson learnt though.'

Another wrote: 'Sad for yet another family. I've done training on legal highs and the amounts of illegal chemicals they contain is horrendous.'

While one woman posted: 'A sad waste of a young life. Why people take this potentially lethal man made drug, with heaven knows what in it is beyond me. It was only last year a young lad died of the same thing in Totnes. My thoughts go to her poor family. So sad.'
A 16-year-old stole the show at his high school prom in an extravagant fashion - with the help of smoke bombs, a film production crew and a 500,000 fleet of cars.

Sharp-suited teenager Zain Kayani made the grand entrance after older brother Amir hired the vehicles, including a 350,000 Rolls-Royce for the party in Bolton last week.

Amir made the grand gesture for his sibling because he was proud of how hard he worked during his GCSE year.

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Zain Kayani made a grand entrance surrounded by blue smoke at the school prom after his brother decided to hire a fleet of cars

The teenager was surrounded by a film crew, and a video showed him arrive like a celebrity at the event

The sharp-suited teenager made the grand entrance after older brother Amir Kayani hired the vehicles, including a 350,000 Rolls-Royce for the party in Bolton last week

And the youngster's journey from his home to the formal dinner at Bolton Wanderers' Macron Stadium was captured by a professional production company armed with swanky HD cameras and smoke bombs for the cars.

Research in 2016 found that the average cost of UK proms had rocketed 72 per cent in the previous five years, with parents splashing out thousands of pounds on designer dresses and make-up.

But the American influence hasn't stopped there, with sharp-suited Zain's 300 hip-hop style video showing him and seven pals enjoying their big day like celebrities.

Zain said: 'Prom is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I wanted to make it look big and do it with style.

The 300 hip-hop style video showing him and seven pals enjoying their big day like celebrities

Zain was filmed getting into another car as he left the prom, and he said afterwards: 'It was a super day'

'It was the last day I was going to see everyone and all my friends and family were all there as well.

'It was a super day. I had my friends and my brothers in the car with me.

'I rode in three cars throughout the video - a Maserati, a Mitsubishi Evo and a Rolls-Royce. I just felt like 'wow'.

'We left in the Maserati for my house then drive five minutes to pick my friends up from [a local pub] where I changed into a Rolls-Royce. Then when I left prom, I exited in a Mitsubishi Evo.

'It felt amazing to be part of making the video and experience that. I have a huge passion for cars.

Zain Kayani (left) and his brother Amir (right), who went all out to ensure the teenager had a prom he would never forget

Amir is pictured editing the video of his brother's big night alongside co-producer Yousef Patel

'The video took quite a few takes because I had to make the right movements for the slow-motion clips.

'Everyone said they couldn't top it. As I pulled up on the car park, everyone was looking out the stadium windows at me.'

In the video, Zain and his friends can be seen riding from his house to the venue with The Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Hypnotize' playing in the background, as coloured smoke fills the cars attracting more attention.

Proud of his younger brother's hard work during GCSE year, Amir, 24, said he wanted to give Zain an extra special birthday surprise.

Amir, co-director of Asian wedding planners Shaadi Shine, contacted his friend, Zain Rehan, who owns production company ZRehan Films, and arranged to help Zain produce the video.

Amir, 24, said: 'Zain has revised his backside off over the past six months. He said to us he just wanted money for his birthday but I knew I had to make it special'

In the video, Zain and his friends can be seen riding from his house to the venue with The Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Hypnotize' playing in the background, as coloured smoke fills the cars attracting more attention

Amir, 24, said: 'Zain has revised his backside off over the past six months. He said to us he just wanted money for his birthday but I knew I had to make it special.

'This just shows how much love we all have for him. It made his day.

'In September, he'll start college but I'm sure he'll never forget his prom..'

Zain Rehan and his business partner Yousaf Patel decided to help the young lad produce his dream video because they'd never heard of anything of its kind before.

Zain Rehan said: 'We knew people would talk about this for a long time afterwards.

Proud of his younger brother's hard work during GCSE year, Amir, 24 (right) said he wanted to give Zain (left) an extra special birthday surprise

Zain's brother said he was proud of how hard he had worked during his GCSE year, and wanted to make a big gesture to help him celebrate

'It was something different - we usually cover weddings. We arrived about five minutes late and all the students were already inside and looking out the windows.

'The first thing that caught people's attention were the smoke grenades in all the cars.

'There was a whole row of cars that pulled up with different colours of smoke coming out of the doors.

'In total there were about six cars and six or seven of Zain's friends.

'We've seen a lot of people talking about it online and we've had people calling us saying we absolutely knocked it out of the park.

'When someone has a prom these days, they'll usually try and improve on the cars they arrive in. Zain completely took this to the next level. I even joked to him 'When I pulled up at prom, it was in a Ford Focus."'
A man has been stabbed to death at a home in Sydney's west in an alleged domestic incident.

Police from the Mt Druitt Local Area Command set up at crime scene at Waikanda Crescent, Whalan, after the fatal stabbing.

A 50-year-old man died at the scene from multiple knife wounds at 5:30pm on Saturday.

A 50-year-old man (pictured) has died after a suspected domestic incident in Whalan, western Sydney on Saturday

Police from Mt Druitt Local Area Command (pictured) arrested a 20-year-old man shortly after the alleged murder

Two others present at the scene, a woman and a child, were unhurt.

Police arrested a 20-year-old man shortly after the alleged murder, and he was taken to Mt Druitt Police Station.

The crime scene will be examined by forensic specialists, according to NSW Police.

A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the man was still in custody at 9pm and continues to 'assist police with inquiries.'

Local resident Sandra Shepherd told AAP she saw police at the townhouses at the end of her street, which backs onto Waikanda.

'There was a helicopter circling, this type of thing happens a lot,' she said.

The alleged victim died at the scene from multiple stab wounds, the arrested man (pictured) was taken to Mt Druitt Police Station and is helping police with inquiries

Police (pictured) set up a crime scene which will soon be examined by forensic specialists

The fatal stabbing took place at 5:30pm on Saturday at Waikanda Crescent, Whalan (pictured)
A fire broke out at a six-storey building near Marble Arch as firefighters battle flames underneath plumes of black smoke.

Six crews were dispatched to the blaze in a restaurant near this morning, close to the junction between Edgware Road and Connaught Street this morning.

The fire ignited inside a restaurant's ventilation system between the basement and first floors of the building and has now been brought under control.

Around 35 firefighters and police officers were called to the scene at 10.49am.

Firefighters were called to the scene at 10.49am and the fire is affecting a shop and residential properties above the premises

The fire ignited inside ventilation between the ground and first floors of the building

Police cordoned off part of the road to traffic as firefighters worked to tackle the blaze, which spread to an adjacent block of flats.

A spokesman for London Metropolitan Police told MailOnline: 'One lane of the road is still closed to traffic.'

They added that a 'small number of people' had to be evacuated from nearby buildings.

The cordon remains in place and motorists are advised to avoid the area.

The fire spread to residential properties above Ranoush Juice in central London, near the junction between Edgware Road and Connaught Street

Six crews were dispatched to the blaze at the tourist Hotspot in Edgware Road, London this morning

Crews are battling flames at the premises which has residential properties situated above

Video posted to Twitter shows black smoke rising from the six-storey building

London Fire Brigade said the blaze starting in the restaurant's ventilation extraction system, which caused the basement and first floor to sustain fire damage.

Flames also through external ducting to an adjacent block of flats which were also damaged.

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said: 'Restaurant and takeaway owners should always make sure their extraction systems are clean because built-up food and grease within the filters can lead to a fire.'
This is the heart-stopping moment a pick-up lorry flew off a bridge into the sea below but the driver lived to tell the tale thanks to a series of coincidences.

The horrific accident happened in Cadiz, Spain on Friday after the tow truck carrying a car veered to the right to avoid smashing into two vehicles which had already hit each other.

Although the driver heroically managed to avoid a mass pile-up, he could not stop his heavy truck from flying across the carriageway, smashing through the bridge barriers and plummeting into the ocean below.

Drop: The lorry starts its descent down the bridge that leads to the city of Cadiz

Impact: As the car hits the sea a splash of water can be seen

Drop: The lorry starts its descent down the bridge that leads to the city of Cadiz

He was then saved from drowning thanks to the swift actions of an off-duty police officer.

The dramatic scene was captured on CCTV by the Spanish traffic department and was described by witnesses as 'something straight out of a movie!'

The driver was able to get out of his cab through a half-open window after his lorry hit the water and started to sink. He later revealed the window was only open because the air conditioning was broken.

By sheer chance, an off-duty police officer, Miguel Angel Comesana saw the accident and stopped to help the other injured drivers.

He the looked over the bridge and saw the man in the water and knew he 'had to act very quickly.'

He drove to the port where he asked to borrow an inflatable dinghy and he and two sailing instructors rowed to the scene.

'I didn't know what I was going to find,' he told the Spanish press afterwards. 'It took five minutes but we found the driver clinging to a pillar of the bridge like it was a tree.

Impact: As the car hits the sea a splash of water can be seen

The officer added: 'Without out doubt he has been born again.'

Comesana also said that the driver told him that his partner is pregnant and that he didn't want to discuss the incident with her immediately after the event.

The drama happened yesterday morning on the Carranza bridge at the entrance to Cadiz and started when two cars crashed head-on.

The driver of the pick-up truck said he managed to get his seat-belt off as the cab started to fill with water.

Part of the bridge was closed for the rest of the day and night and there will continue to be diversions until the barrier is repaired.

One of the drivers of the two cars involved was slightly injured and the other had to be cut free from the wreckage by firemen.

A full investigation is now underway and efforts will start today to try and retrieve both the pick-up truck and the car it had on board which are both sitting on the seabed.
A baby has been stopping in tourists in their tracks due to his uncanny resemblance to Prince George.

Three-year-old Nolan Romero, who lives in Gibraltar, has been dubbed the spitting image of the world-famous royal.

His mother Charmaine Romero said people often stop in the street to point out the likeness between the pair.

Uncanny! Three-year-old Nolan Romero (left), who lives in Gibraltar, has been dubbed the spitting image of the world-famous royal (right)

Two Princes: With floppy blonde hair and big brown eyes, the duo look so similar Nolan's mother says people have been pointing it out since he was born

Like his famous doppelganger, Nolan has soft blonde hair, styled in a side-parting and big eyes.

His chubby cheeks and m-shaped mouth make him a dead ringer for the first born of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Speaking to The Mirror, Mrs Romero said: 'A week ago a couple of tourists stopped and said Nolan could be George's brother and I thought I don't see it that bad but I think I don't see it because he's my son.'

The only difference between the duo is their hair parting - which falls on opposite sides.

The 33-year-old mother said: 'His mouth is the same you can see he has an M-shape at the top and the chubby lip at the bottom and his nose is pretty much the same and even the shape of the eyes. The only thing is that George's hair is parted on one side and Nolan's is parted on the other.'

People have been pointing out the likeness since Nolan was small but his mother says she wasn't convinced.

Family portrait: Mrs Romero, pictured with her husband Nolan and son Nolan Jnr and daughter Analia

It was only when photographs were laid side by side did she and his father Nolan Senior spot the remarkable likeness.

Both even have a sister - though while George is the eldest in the family, Nolan is the youngest to elder sister Analia, six.

And their birthdays are even close - as George turns four later this month, Nolan will turn the same age in August.

But that is where the similarities end, his mother said.

'I wish I looked like Kate Middleton but sadly I don't,' said Nolan's blonde-haired mother.

She added that Analia and her her husband Nolan also bore no resemblance to the rest of the family.

And while George's parents busy themselves with royal duties and charity visits, life for the Romero's is more down to earth.

Father Nolan Romero, 42, is an inspector in the Royal Gibraltan Police while

Dad, who is also called Nolan, 42, is an inspector in the Royal Gibraltan Police and Charmaine is an accountant in a law firm while Analia is at school and Nolan at nursery.

Charmaine thinks the boys might continue to look alike as she has compared them over a number of years.

'You can see there's a picture of when he was younger and a picture taken not that long ago and you can see that they still have similar looks.'

So far the Duke and Ducchess of Cambridge have not had the chance to visit the British territory but if they do perhaps Charmaine might be able to compare the two boys for real.
A Detroit man who has been in prison for almost 30 years for drug crimes committed when he was a teenager has finally been granted parole.

Richard Wershe Jr., known on the streets as 'White Boy Rick', was sentenced to life in prison in 1988 when he was just 17 years old for intending to deliver cocaine.

He was arrested after police found he had stashed about 15 pounds of the high-grade powdered drug and nearly $30,000 beneath a neighbor's porch.

The Michigan Parole Board voted unanimously on Friday to grant the 47-year-old parole after almost three decades behind bars.

Richard Wershe Jr., known on the streets as 'White Boy Rick', was granted parole in Michigan on Friday after being sentenced to life in prison in 1988

'I'm coming home,' an emotional Wershe told his lawyer's secretary in a brief phone call after hearing the news.

He is due to be released by mid-August.

Wershe, a father of three and a grandfather, doesn't deny the crime he was convicted for but had argued in parole hearings that he has served his debt to society.

He told parole board members in June that he had grown up and been rehabilitated in prison and vowed never to return to drug dealing.

'I know that the drugs I sold destroyed people's lives,' he said.

Wersche said last month that he wanted to lead a simple life and spend time with his family if he was granted parole.

'The first thing I want to do is visit my grandparents' grave,' Wershe told Click on Detroit.

'I'd like to see them and see my kids and grandkids, check on my mom and try and get back to whatever normal life I can and make it as normal as I can.'

He was arrested after police found he had stashed about 15 pounds of the high-grade powdered drug and nearly $30,000 beneath a neighbor's porch

Wershe, a father of three and a grandfather, told parole board members in June that he had grown up and been rehabilitated in prison and vowed never to return to drug dealing

Wershe, pictured with his mother, doesn't deny the crime he was convicted for but had argued in parole hearings that he has served his debt to society

Wershe got involved in Detroit's underbelly drug scene when he was just 14 when the FBI approached him to work as an informant. He had connections to drug dealers and information on the neighborhood given he was raised there.

The teen was told after several years that his services were no longer needed. He decided to make use of the connections he had made to become a drug dealer himself.

Following his arrest, Wershe helped the FBI capture nearly a dozen corrupt Detroit police officers who were assisting or doing drug deals themselves.

Wershe said despite his work as an informant, he was not given any leniency in his drug sentence.

Retired FBI agent Gregg Schwarz, who worked with Wershe when he was an informant, issued a statement following the parole board's decision.

'Finally, after 29 years, a juvenile who was incarcerated and deserved a sentence of between five and 10 years is finally free,' he said.

'The case of Richard Wershe Junior should now remain as the gold standard for city, state, and even federal government corruption.'

Wershe got involved in Detroit's underbelly drug scene when he was just 14 when the FBI approached him to work as an informant given his connections to drug dealers

Wersche (above in 2015) said last month that he wanted to lead a simple life and spend time with his family if he was granted parole

The story of his lengthy incarceration, which many have argued was unjust, is set to become a feature film next year starring Matthew McConaughey.

The Hollywood star will play the role of Wershe's father, Richard Wershe Sr.

McConaughey spent several hours in the Michigan prison speaking with Wershe earlier this year and offered to help him get back on his feet once he was released.

'He's just a genuine person and I'm glad that he's the one playing the part of my dad,' Wershe said. 'We talked about life in general, my family, spending all this time in here, life after getting out of here.

'It was good, just general conversation. He came up and said he wanted to meet me. I think he's real passionate about the story and he sees the injustice in it.'

Wershe will be released from jail as early as mid-August, but the Michigan Department of Corrections believes he will then be transported to Florida to serve several years on an outstanding jail sentence.

'Wershe was sentenced to serve five years in prison in Florida after being convicted on racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges in 2006,' a corrections spokeswoman said.

'The crimes happened while he was incarcerated in Florida as part of the federal witness protection program.

'Florida officials will be responsible for making arrangements for his transfer to serve his sentence there.'
A mother has shared the horrific injuries her teenage son suffered when he was left for dead by a drunk business who crashed into him and then fled in his Mercedes.

Kiernan Roberts was left with a broken neck and severe head injuries when Owen Finn, 64, crashed into him on a dark country road near Grimsby on October 7 last year. The 16-year-old's head was severely disfigured in the smash.

Instead of stopping, Finn, who had been downing wine, spirits and cocktails at a function attended by former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard and Geoffrey Boycott, drove 130 miles to his mother's home in Birmingham with a broken windscreen.

Kiernan Roberts received a broken neck and severe head injuries when Owen Finn, 64, crashed into him on a dark country road near Grimsby

Instead of stopping, Finn, who had been downing wine, spirits and cocktails at a function attended by former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, drove 130 miles to his mother's home in Birmingham with a broken windscreen

Finn, from Birmingham, was branded a 'coward' in court. He admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years.

He was sentenced to a further four months, to be served concurrently, for failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident and drink-driving.

Kiernan's family released the photographs to show the pain and suffering drink driving can cause.

His mother Marie Roberts told the Grimsby Telegraph: 'He has suffered massive distress due to his head disfigurement and we did not want to add to that.

'But we want Finn to see what he has taken from Kiernan. We want him to see for himself what Kiernan has lost.

'We partly want Finn to see what he has done and not simply think he can dismiss it as a simple 'bad thing', as described by his defending barrister in court.

Before the crash Kiernan (left) was star pupil at his sixth form. He is now learning to walk and talk again

Finn was branded a 'coward' in court. He admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years

'And we also want people to see the sheer grit and determination Kiernan has shown over the last nine months, plus the amazing care he has received at Hull Royal and Castle Hill as he has been on the continuing journey.'

Judge Richardson told the court that Kiernan had sustained a fractured skull, spinal chord injuries and had been left paralysed on his right-hand side.

The teenager, who had been a star pupil at his sixth form and dreamed of growing up to be the 'next Jeremy Paxman', is now learning to walk and talk again.

Kiernan's family released the photographs to show the pain and suffering drink driving can cause

The court heard Kiernan has just this week been released from hospital - nine months on from the horrific crash after having life-saving surgery.

In December, Kiernan underwent a second emergency operation to remove a build-up of fluid on the brain and was left with a misshapen head where his skull was removed.

A shunt was implanted in his brain and the excess fluid was transported to his stomach, which will remain for the rest of his life.

He suffered psychological distress because of his disfigurement and also had severe headaches, as well as the complete loss of use on his right-side upper limb and significantly reduced mobility in his right lower limb.

Kiernan lost three and a half stone and, by March, underwent a third operation to replace the missing skull with a large titanium plate to help correct its shape.

Judge Richardson said: 'You have shattered the life of a much-loved boy of 16 years. You have also wrecked the life of his loving family.

'You were drunk at the wheel of a high-powered car having been at a social event. You literally ploughed into that boy, who was riding his bike home in a prudent way.'

The court was told how the impact with Kiernan had smashed the windscreen of Finn's Mercedes was smashed on the passenger side.

Judge Richardson added: 'His injuries were truly grievous and there will be life-long consequences.

'You will one day come out of prison and begin to rebuild your life but your victim has had his life permanently sabotaged. That boy will have a real and enduring struggle throughout his life. You are the cause of that.'
This is the moment the guide for the ill-fated skydiving group from which two people died appears to joke they could land off course because 'sh** happens.'

Footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows the man telling the group 'if you're lucky,' they might 'get a good instructor'  just hours before a Singaporean man in his 20s and an instructor aged in his 60s plunged to their deaths.

A woman in the same Sydney Skydivers group told Daily Mail Australia she was kept in the dark about the tragedy until arriving back in Sydney.

Police were called to the scene, about 85 kilometres south-west of Sydney, after a resident found the bodies of the two men on his driveway.

The guide for the skydiving group appears to joke around before the deadly accident

'You get your suit, your harness, and your instructor. If you're lucky. You might get a good one, you might not,' the guide can be heard telling the group.

It is understood the Singaporean man, who was in Australia on a working visa, was among the group watching the speech.

'If you're really, really lucky you land out the front. If you don't, sh** happens.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sydney Skydivers for comment.

Colombian student Catalina Grandos, who is holidaying in Sydney, said she was left in shock after discovering what had happened.

'I was in shock, I couldn't believe it. The conditions on the flight were good and I never imagined this could happen,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

The guide is seen telling the group they may get a good instructor 'if you're lucky'

The skydiver and Singaporean man were found dead at the front of a property on in Wilton

Two men have died after crash landing in NSW's south west (pictured) during a tandem skydive

She caught the bus from Sydney with the Singaporean man, but only found out afterwards why he was not on the return journey.

'They didn't tell us what happened until we got back to Sydney. We were waiting so long without knowing what happened. It was terrible.'

Earlier, a spokesperson for Sydney Skydivers confirmed the fatality to Daily Mail Australia, and explained the accident happened during a skydiving lesson.

'There was a fatality involving an instructor and a student,' she said.

'The cause is not yet known. More information will become available when police and the Australian Parachute Federation complete their preliminary investigation.'

Sydney Skydivers owner Phil Onis, told Daily Telegraph the skydiver had 20 years of experience.

Colombian student Catalina Grandos (centre) , who is holidaying in Sydney, said she was kept in the dark about the accident by the company until arriving back in Sydney

She caught the bus from Sydney with the Singaporean man, but only found out afterwards why he was not on the return journey

Police were called to a property in Wilton after a resident raised alarm

The pair crashed on to a residential property in Wilton, near Camden about 2pm

'He was an experienced skydiver...This has never happened before.'

The men had been skydiving with the company, who have a landing place on Picton Road. It is less than a kilometre from where the pair crash-landed.

The co-owner of the property the men crashed in to told the Telegraph his seven-year-old daughter saw the men's bodies after impact.

'She hasn't seen them hit the ground but she is pretty traumatised. It's a shocking thing for a young girl to see,' said Chase Stephenson.

The girl has already spoken to a counsellor, but is 'very shaken up'.

Officers have established a crime scene and an investigation is underway.

A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

In 2012, a 27-year-old skydiver died in hospital after colliding heavily with the ground while he attempted to perform a manoeuvre in the air.

A seven-year-old girl saw the bodies after impact, and her father says she is 'very shaken'
Italian government officials have threatened to issue temporary EU visas to thousands of migrants in an effort to deal with Italy's escalating migrant and refugee crisis that would allow new arrivals to travel north.

In what has been described as a 'nuclear option,' Italian government officials have threatened to allow 200,000 migrants who enter the country to travel across Europe by using a Brussels directive, The Times reports.

Italy has previously called on its EU neighbours to help with the escalating humanitarian crisis but it has been disappointed by their lack of action.

Migrants wait to disembark from the NGO (Non-government organization) Medecins Sans Frontier Vos Prudence ship after being rescued at sea, at Salerno's harbor, Italy, on Friday

Due to its geographic location, Italy has been one of the first entry points for people fleeing from the south to reach Europe.

More than 86,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy already this year.

Italy has been struggling to cope with a huge increase in people fleeing north Africa.

Hundreds of asylum seekers are now packed into overcrowded centres in small villages throughout the country which have been dubbed 'human warehouses' by locals.

Mattia Toaldo, a senior analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Times: 'If migrants continue to arrive and Italy decides to give them papers to cross borders and leave Italy it would be a nuclear option.

'Italians have lost any hope of getting help from the EU and may say, 'If you won't make it a common challenge, we will.'

Migrants landed from the 'Vos Prudence' Ship of Doctors Without Borders in the port of Salerno on Friday. On board were 118 women, 5 newborns, over 100 unaccompanied minors

Mario Giro, the deputy foreign minister, and Luigi Manconi, a senator with the ruling Democratic Party, told The Times that issuing migrants with temporary visas was under discussion.

Mr Giro believes that Italy can exploit European Council Directive 2001/55, developed after the Balkans conflict to give temporary European entry permits to a large number of displaced people.

If Italy does pursue this course of action, support for the Schengen scheme, which allows all EU citizens to travel freely across the Continent, may be in jeopardy.

The Italian rescue ship Vos Prudence run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) arrives in the port of Salerno carrying 935 migrants, including 16 children and 7 pregnant women on Friday

It may also seriously escalate tensions with neighbouring France and Austria, which have used dogs and the threat of armoured vehicles to push back migrants who try to enter by that route previously.

France 24 reports that vast white tents erected in a former military zone on the outskirts of the tiny village of Conetta, house some 1,400 men from across Africa, packed onto endless rows of bunks.

And even when they escape the tent confines they are often encounter hostile banners calling for them to leave as tensions mount in the country.

Migrants wait to disembark from Medecins Sans Frontier's Vos Prudence ship after being rescued at sea. Italy is struggling to cope with the numbers of people arriving on its shores

'I used to call this place a modern lager,' Cona mayor Albero Panfilio told AFP, referring to concentration camps. The commune of Cona includes the little village of Conetta.

'After two years this is (still) a place where human beings are squashed in together, with no hope for the future.

Men, women and children disembark at Salerno's harbor, Italy, after being rescued at sea

'Now I call it a human warehouse. The migrants arrive, they don't know where to put them, they have a warehouse, they dump them here.' The asylum seekers were treated 'like garbage', he added.

Around 10 kilometres away (6.2 miles) in Bagnoli di Sopra, some 700 migrants are crowded into another former military base surrounded by barbed wire fences with no access to journalists.
A teenager has been arrested in Spain for videoing naked minors playing on a beach popular with British tourists.

The 19-year-old Spanish man was caught recording footage with his phone on the Cabopino beach in Marbella on the Costa del Sol.

Reports from Spain suggest he held the phone behind a book and directed the camera towards two naked boys on the shore.

The arrested man is walked down the corridor of a police station

His home was later searched where more footage of naked children was found, reports El Pais

The beach is a hotspot for British holiday makers and their families although it is unconfirmed if he was filming Britons specifically.

He was reported to the National Police patrol by a tourist who spotted him close to the children on the beach.

Before the police arrived he tried in vain to delete the images he had supposedly just captured.

He was subsequently arrested by officers on a nearby beach.

Video later emerged of the yet to identified man being walked down the corridor of a police station by two officers on either side.

Another clips shows him sat in a chair in an office surrounded by police personnel.

After his arrest on Friday, officers descended on his registered address where they found hundreds of photos and videos of naked children on other Marbella beaches stacked on a laptop and a USB stick.

The files had been stored in a number of 'hidden folders.'

Police also found footage from the inside of a gym in the city, El Pais reported.
Ivana Trump has been spotted drinking with friends on a yacht in St Tropez in the same week her son Don Jr. became embroiled in the White House-Russia scandal and her ex-husband Donald visited Paris.

Donald Trump's ex-wife donned a tropical-inspired blue mini dress as she relaxed with friends in the French town.

The 68-year-old former fashion model was barefoot as she chatted and soaked up the sun on the super yacht.

Ivana Trump has been spotted drinking with friends on a yacht in St Tropez in southern France as she soaked up the sunshine

Her blue wraparound, v-neck dress featured teal green and grey palm trees, which she paired with matching teal earrings and a necklace.

The Czech-American, who shares her three children Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric with President Trump, wore her hair swept up in her usual classic up-do.

Her vacation in southern France came as the President visited Paris with First Lady Melania for Bastille Day celebrations.

She was last spotted in St Tropez earlier this month with her ex-husband and on-again, off-again lover Rossano Rubicondi, 44.

Donald Trump's ex-wife donned a tropical-inspired blue mini dress and went barefoot as she relaxed with friends in the French town

Her blue wraparound, v-neck dress featured teal green and grey palm trees, which she paired with matching teal earrings and a necklace

The Czech-American, who shares her three children Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric with President Trump, wore her hair swept up in her usual classic up-do

Ivana's son Don Jr. also made headlines this week when it was revealed he met a Russian lawyer after being offered incriminating information about Hillary Clinton prior to the election.

Don Jr. faced damaging new claims on Friday that he lied about his meeting with a Russian lawyer, as an ex-Soviet intelligence officer revealed he was there too and claimed a trove of claims about Democrats and 'bad money' was handed over.

Akhmetshin - who US intelligence think may still be a spy - told the Associated Press that he was part of the Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr.

Don Jr brought Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law who is now one of President Donald Trump's , and Paul Manafort, then the campaign chairman.
The accomplice who stuck up a bank with the grandson of mobster John Gotti waiting outside in the getaway car has admitted his role in the heist.

Michael Guidici, 22, pleaded guilty on Friday in the 2012 robbery of the Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan in Queens, New York, where he handed the teller a note reading 'I HAVE A BOMB'.

Prosecutors say that teller was in on the scheme and was the then-girlfriend of John J. Gotti, the now 23-year-old grandson of the infamous Gambino crime boss of the same name.

She handed over $5,491 to Guidici, who ran from the bank and fled the scene with Matthew 'Fat Matt' Rullan, who has pleaded guilty in the April 18, 2012 heist, and Gotti driving his Jaguar as the getaway car.

Michael Guidici is seen robbing the Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan in 2012, when he was 17. Guidici pleaded guilty to the $5,500 heist in Brooklyn court on Friday

John J. Gotti (seen last August in custody on drug charges) drove his Jaguar as the getaway car in the bank heist, and his girlfriend working at the bank was in on the scheme, say prosecutors

Young Gotti is the grandson of Gambino crime boss John Gotti, aka 'The Dapper Don', seen above in 1987. He died behind bars of complications from throat cancer in 2002

Guidici's lawyer noted that he was only 17 at the time of the robbery.

'Hes a kid,' lawyer Vivian Shevitz told the Brooklyn Eagle. 'He just got dragged in.'

Guidici faces up to 20 years in prison at his November sentencing, but his attorney has asked for probation and he remains free on $1million bail, with an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Gotti, who has admitted his role in the the bank heist, is already serving eight years for running a massive $1.6million oxcodone drug ring.

The young Gotti also awaits sentencing for torching a car in a road rage incident along with 'Fat Matt' and Vincent Asaro, the 83-year-old suspect in the infamous Lufthansa robbery.

Gotti, 'Fat Matt' and Asaro were arrested on March 22 in that case, on an indictment that also contained the bank robbery charges.

In that arson, Asaro ordered Gotti to firebomb a man's car in 2012 because he was angry at the victim over a traffic dispute that occurred in Howard Beach.

John Gotti, 23, and Vincent Asaro, 83, pleaded guilty to torching a man's car in a road rage attack last month, on an indictment that also included the robbery charges

Bonnano capo Vincent Asaro ordered Gotti to firebomb a man's car in 2012 because he was angry at the victim over a traffic dispute

John Gotti 's girlfriend Eleonor Gabrielle (above in 2015) was also arrested on charges of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Prosecutors say a girlfriend was in on the 2012 bank heist, but it is unknown if Gabrielle is the same woman

In 2015, a Brooklyn jury found Asaro not guilty of charges he orchestrated the robbery of the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in 1978 with James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke.

A turncoat mob associate testified that Asaro and Burke killed a suspected informant with a dog chain. The defense argued Asaro was framed.

The legendary airport heist, which saw mobsters get away with $6million in cash and jewels, was the largest robbery ever at the time and it was later immortalized in Martin Scorsese's cult classic 'Goodfellas.'

Last month, Rullan's attorney Eric Franz said: 'He's relieved to put this behind him. This conduct happened over five years ago, when he was much younger, and he's hoping the judge will exercise leniency.'

Gotti's namesake grandfather known as 'Teflon Don' (right) died in a federal prison in 2002 while serving a sentence for murder and racketeering
Students at a Rhode Island high school have been sharing explicit images of female students in a Dropbox account for at least two years.

Police are investigating an account on the online file-sharing site that was found to have sexually explicit images of at least 48 female students from Burrillville High School.

The school's Vice Principal David Alba reported the account to police in May after a male student gave him the login information to the account, which several other students could access.

The account was made anonymously in February, though some former students have said distribution of the graphic images of female students has been going on for at least two years.

Students at Burrillville High School (pictured) in Rhode Island have been sharing explicit images of female students in a Dropbox account for at least two years, some former students say

'Ive heard about the Dropbox since I was a senior in high school and I think it actually may have started when we were juniors, so its been going on for about two years or more now,' 2015 graduate Jaymee Volante told NBC 10.

The account that was made in February has separate folders titled with names or nicknames of different female students.

There were also three other folders: 'requests' where other users would ask for images of specific girls, 'random' that included other sexually explicit content and 'unknown' where users identified pictures of unknown female students.

One female student told the Providence Journal that girls would send explicit pictures to boys, even sometimes their boyfriends, who would upload the images to an account that was shared among male students.

If an account got shut down, another one would be set up and distributed.

Police are investigating the account on the online file-sharing site that was found to have sexually explicit images of at least 48 female students

The account was made anonymously in February and many of girls whose images are on the account were underage when their pictures were taken

The Burrillville Police Department is looking for the creators and accomplices involved in the explicit accounts.

In June they interviewed at least 42 of the girls whose images were on the account and police found that most of the girls were under the age of 18 when their pictures were taken.

Some girls had already reported that their images were being distributed on Dropbox and on other platforms.

In a statement, the school superintendent said: 'Once school officials were made aware of the situation, police were immediately contacted and the investigation is ongoing.

'Students need to respect themselves and respect others and they need to make smart and good choices.'

No arrests have been made and no charges have been filed yet.

Police have not commented on the ongoing investigation, but they said they view it as a crime of child pornography distribution and child exploitation.
A decision is likely to be taken in August and come into force for 2018

April and March may be re-designated as high season increasing prices further

Cruise ship passengers are also likely to be targeted with a new levy

The tax hike is a bid to attract quality visitors and stamp out drunken behaviour

The Balearic Government may increase the ecotax payed by tourists in 2018

Tourists heading for Mallorca and Ibiza may have to pay more cash for the islands' so-called 'ecotax' in 2018 as the Balearic Government strives to stamp out drunken behaviour.

Supporters of a hike in the charge payable per day by holidaymakers say it might act as a deterrent and also help to put a cap on the number of people who are flooding into the popular destination.

Talks are about to start on what level the ecotax should be next year and in some cases, it may double.

Ibiza has been working to shrug off its party-loving reputation while building a more sustainable form of tourism as its infrastructure has struggled to cope with the vast numbers

Cruise ship passengers are also likely to be targeted with a levy which would apply to every arrival in the Balearics.

At the moment, cruise ship tourists only pay the ecotax if they stay on one of the islands for more than 12 hours.

The government is also being urged to consider taking April and possibly March as well out of the low season and putting the months into the 'high' category so visitors will once again have to pay more.

A decision on the way forward is likely to be taken in August and come into force for 2018 when another record number of tourists is expected.

The Balearic islands are now to discuss raising the ecotax it charges which it designed to offset the costs of coping with the huge numbers of tourists putting pressure on its infrastructure

There is huge debate in the Balearics as to whether arrivals should be capped to safeguard the amenities of the islands and head off complaints from locals about saturated services, overcrowded beaches, noise, litter, drunken antics and general disturbances.

Spanish newspapers in Mallorca and Ibiza claim the government has already decided to raise the ecotax but a final decision has not yet been taken. It will need to go through Parliament and talks will be held with the political party Podemos which has a say in the coalition.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma and Parc del Mar, Mallorca, Spain. Cruise ship passengers may now also be charged a levy, even if they visit the island only briefly

The law as it stands at the moment gives a reduction of 50 per cent on the ecotax in the period between November 1 of each year and April 30 of the following year.

The government is being urged to knock off the whole of April for the discount and possibly March as well.

Some elements of the executive are pressing for steeper ecotax rises at the lower end of the scale ie for those who stay in hostels or B and Bs as these are likely to be the younger tourist.

At the moment, they pay 50 centimos a night which is reduced to 25 centimos in the low season.

Others say those who use five star hotels should be hit the most as they can afford a higher charge if they are willing to pay out 200 euros or so for a room a night.

Ibiza is synonymous with beach parties and booze for many Btrits but the island now aims to forge a new identity and it has been promoting its food culture and ecotourism in recent years

Guests in five and four star establishments currently pay two euros in ecotax a night which reduces to a euro in the low season.

Supporters of a hike in this rate say such visitors could afford to pay more.

Cruise ship passengers who stay for more than 12 hours currently pay a euro a night but the 2018 charge is likely to apply to all of them.

The Balearic Government has always argued that the introduction of the ecotax for the first time this summer was NOT motivated by income but as a way of regulating tourist numbers.

However, the island is set for a record 2017 although the number of cruise ship passengers is likely to show a decrease.
Detectives investigating Madeleine McCann's disappearance made just two flights to Portugal last year

Just months after British detectives announced 'critical' new leads in the Madeleine McCann case, and 85,000 in extra funding, Mail Online can reveal officers have significantly scaled back some aspects of the investigation.

Detectives investigating the toddler's disappearance, codenamed Operation Grange, made just two flights to Portugal last year.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the flights cost 500 and just 100 was spent on overnight expenses by senior investigating officer, DCI Nicola Wall, during the trips.

In 2014 Operation Grange officers spent almost 16,000 on 67 return flights in search of three-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her parent's Portuguese holiday villa in 2007.

So far the police operation has cost more than 11m and parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they were 'very grateful' for an 85,000 cash injection from the Home Office in March this year.

So far the police operation has cost more than 11m and parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they were 'very grateful' for an 85,000 cash injection in March

The funding boost came as Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley said there were still 'critical' leads of 'great interest' in the case.

He also ruled out that Madeleine's parents were involved in her abduction and said she could still be alive.

As the couple faced the agonising 10th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, Mr Rowley also revealed that detectives were pursuing new information regarding the youngster's disappearance.

He said: 'I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing, and because it's worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we've gone through it I won't know whether we are going to get there or not.

In 2014 Operation Grange officers spent almost 16,000 on 67 return flights in search of three-year-old Madeleine (left and right) , who vanished from her parent's Portuguese holiday villa in 2007

'Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don't want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out publicly.'

At the time he declined to expand on the nature of the working theories or reveal whether any suspects were currently being considered, claiming that disclosing further detail would not help the investigation.

Mr Rowley said: 'We've got some critical lines of inquiry, those link to particular hypotheses, but I'm not going to discuss those because those are very much live investigation.

In April this year Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley (pictured) said there were still 'critical' leads of 'great interest' in the case

'We've got some thoughts on what we think the most likely explanations might be and we are pursuing those.'

A MET Police spokesman told MailOnline that detectives are going through a 'vast amount of material' related to the case in the UK.

He added: 'The investigation continues with focus and determination.'

Mail Online has contacted the McCann's representative for comment.
Victorian Police say thousands of tap-and-go fraud offences are not reported each year while admitting they don't know just how much crooks are getting away with.

In the last financial year more than $400 million was stolen through unsolicited use of debit and credit cards and in many cases customers didn't move to alert authorities.

'Across the country there is quite a number of incidents happening. I can't tell you how many because we don't know,' fraud investigator Superintendent Pat Boyle told the Herald Sun.

Victorian Police say thousands of tap-and-go fraud offences are not reported each year while admitting they don't know just how much crooks are getting away with

'The crooks know that the only way they are getting caught is if the bank reports it to us or if we catch them. There is a loss for the banks but they refund it,' he said.

Supt Boyle believes Victoria Police would be overwhelmed with cases if they were notified about every offence.

Across the country thieves collected $34 million from lost or stolen cards and $8 million from the theft of cards in the mail.

An estimated $401 million was lifted from account details or card information misused.

Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville understands the position of citizens who have money nabbed from their accounts after she had $1000 stolen when offenders cloned her card.

'Across the country there is quite a number of incidents happening. I can't tell you how many because we don't know.' fraud investigator Superintendent Pat Boyle (pictured) said

Despite this she does not believe card theft should be reported to police.

'Victorians like tap-and-go for its convenience, but we all have a responsibility around this type of cyber crime. I think there is room to think about whether convenience outweighs some risks.'

She believes reporting would take up valuable police hours and impact crime statistics.

Australian Payments Network chief Dr Leila Fourie said the industry is working hard to prevent fraud.
The schizophrenic who confessed to killing four men during drug deals said he felt 'bad' for the parents of one of his victims just before his arrest in a conversation on Snapchat.

Cosmo DiNardo confessed to killing Tom Meo, Mark Sturgis, Jimi Taro Patrick and Dean Finocchiaro and burning their bodies on his family's Bucks County, Pennsylvania farm.

Before his arrest Thursday, DiNardo shared two photos of himself posing menacingly with a revolver in a private group on Snapchat.

He told other members of the group chat that he wasn't concerned about the whereabouts of his friend Finocchiaro just days after he had vanished.

'Cosmo isnt your buddy Dean missing,' one acquaintance asked DiNardo in a group message last weekend. 'Arent you worried about buddydead [sic] dean.'

'I mean I know the kid but yeah I feel bad for his parents. He's a pill-popping junky who had 2 duis (sic) and got popped for stolen bikes and guns He prob just jumped parole Or probation.'

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Cosmo DiNardo (left) is said to have murdered one of his victims by running him over with an earth mover (similar vehicle pictured right), because he ran out of ammunition

DiNardo, 20, confessed to the four murders to avoid the death penalty on Friday. He killed Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, Mark Sturgis, 21, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21

DiNardo told other Snapchat users that he wasn't concerned about the whereabouts of his friend Finocchiaro just days after he vanished

DiNardomade a deal to sell marijuana to Tom Meo and Mark Sturgis and the three met behind a church to head to DiNardo's property together.

He planned to rob them with the help of his suspected accomplice, Sean Kratz.

DiNardo first shot Meo first and he screamed, then Sturgis started running away and DiNardo shot him until he ran out of ammunition.

He then drove over Meo, who may have still been alive, with an earth mover because he ran out of ammunition. Kratz told police his cousin 'basically crushed' Meo with the backhoe.

Then, DiNardo used the backhoe to move their bodies. The cousins put the corpses in the pig roaster with Finocchiaro, poured in gasoline and set it on fire.

They dug a 12.5-foot grave with the same backhoe the next day and placed the bodies and the container inside.

DiNardo and Kratz, both 20, have been charged with murder, conspiracy and abuse of corpse in connection with the slayings of the four men.

Kratz was charged with three of the murders.

They were arraigned on Friday and are being held in separate prisons with no bail.

Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz (pictured) were charged Friday with murder, conspiracy and abuse of corpse and robbery

District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said in a press conference that DiNardo confessed to putting the bodies in a metal tank converted into a cooker he called a 'pig roaster'. He took a deal to reveal where the bodies were buried to avoid the death penalty.

He offered to sell Jimi Taro Patrick a shotgun and four pounds of marijuana for $8,000, but when he went to pick him up on July 5, he only had $800. DiNardo shot him with his mother's gun and buried his body 'far away' from the other three in a six-foot grave.

The other three were killed on July 7 by Kratz and DiNardo jointly.

Dean Finocchiaro was shot by both after DiNardo agreed to sell him a quarter pound of pot for $700. He conspired with Kratz to rob Finocchiaro on the way to pick him up.

Kratz shot Finocchiaro then DiNardo fired at his body after he had died.

Then his body was wrapped in a blue tarp from a corn crib and he was thrown into the pig roaster.

Weintraub said DiNardo confessed to dousing the bodies inside the pig roaster with gasoline. But the DA said his attempt was unsuccessful. He said at the press conference: 'There was an attempt to burn the bodies.. but I don't believe that was successful.'

DiNardo said he did so because he felt threatened or cheated when he tried to sell them marijuana, a source close to the investigation has said. He also told police where to find the rest of the bodies.

Thursday night police arrested a Sean Kratz following Dinardo's confession

This map shows the location of the farm where the remains were found and the location of the second arrest

DiNardo and Kratz were arraigned on Friday and are being held in separate prisons with no bail

A source said DiNardos motive behind the slayings was that he felt threatened or cheated by the men who came to him wanting to buy marijuana.

The insider also said a co-conspirator was involved in three of the killings.

Police took Kratz into custody in northeast Philadelphia on Thursday.

Pictures posted online show a number of police cars outside a home just moments after he was arrested at around 11pm.

DiNardo is seen above being led away in handcuffs on Thursday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Paul Lang, his attorney, says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation

DINARDO'S LAWYER WAS ON BILL COSBY'S LEGAL TEAM One of confessed killer Cosmo DiNardos powerhouse attorneys was part of the team representing Bill Cosby at his sexual assault trial last month which was declared a mistrial following a hung jury. Fortunato N Perri Jr, was part of the disgraced comedians criminal defense along with another partner in his Philadelphia-based firm, Brian J. McGonagle. Perri Jr left the Bucks County Courthouse on Thursday, telling reporters he was defending DiNardo who has confessed to killing four young men who went missing last week. He made no further comment after releasing a statement the day before on behalf of DiNardos parents: 'As parents, Mr and Mrs DiNardo sympathize with the parents and families of the missing young men and they are cooperating in every way possible with the investigation being conducted by law enforcement.' DiNardos parents have built a multimillion-dollar real estate, trucking and concrete empire in rural Pennsylvania. Perri Jr started out as a prosecutor in Philadelphia District Attorneys Office and is now considered a top criminal litigator in one of Pennsylvanias premium firms. He has also represented rapper Beanie Sigel and hip-hop star Cassidy. Sigel was acquitted of attempted murder in 2005 and Cassidy was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after originally being charged with murder, and was released from prison in 2006 after serving 15 months. Advertisement

The 20-year-old DiNardo was described as a 'paranoid dealer' who was prone to feeling slighted by buyers after he sold drugs.

In 2016, he was banned from Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pennsylvania for complaints filed against him regarding 'verbal interactions with members of the university community.'

He attended the college for the fall semester of 2015 before dropping out and tried to re-enroll in 2016.

According to CBS News, his parents received a letter saying if he showed up to the campus again he would be trespassing.

Police sources said DiNardo was known to sell as much as a quarter pound of pot for several thousand dollars.

He would also include handguns in these transactions.

'Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one theres a killing,' the source said.

The Associated Press reported that the four men were killed after three separate transactions.

Before Friday, authorities had only identified one body, and were still working to identify other remains found in the same grave.

The identified remains belong to 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. His body was found in a 12-foot-deep grave on the farm. The remains were found by sniffer dogs.

It was the discovery of Meo's car on the property that first led police to believe DiNardo was connected to the then-disappearances.

Patrick went to college in Maryland. He and DiNardo had attended the same Catholic high school for boys.

Antonio DiNardo, the father of Cosmo DiNardo, gets into a SUV to be driven away from a Bucks County government building on Thursday in Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Paul Lang (left), Cosmo DiNardo's defense attorney, and another lawyer, Michael Parlow, are seen walking out of the Bucks County Courthouse on Thursday

In the wake of his confession to the 'four murders', prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table, according to DiNardo's lawyer, Paul Lang.

DiNardo and his parents met with authorities at a courthouse for several hours Thursday.

As DiNardo was led away in handcuffs, he said, 'Im sorry.'

Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting that DiNardo has had as many as 30 interactions with police since 2011.

DiNardo was smiling at the news chopper as he was led into police custody for attempting to sell one of the missing men's car after he disappeared

According to a friend of Tom Meo, one of the three men who are still missing, DiNardo sold guns and marijuana and in the past has bragged about having someone killed over a debt

Most of those contacts did not lead to arrests.

Before he was arrested this week, his most recent run-in with law enforcement was in May 2017, when he received a citation for not having proper boater's education paperwork and other equipment.

Locals in Bensalem Township told ABC News that there was something 'off' with DiNardo.

They said an ATV accident which took place about seven months ago changed him, according to ABC News.

Police spent searched the property of Cosmo DiNardo's parents' farmland. He was arrested for the second time since the four young men's disappearance and is being held on a $5million bond

Four young men went missing from towns in Pennsylvania in early July. Police tracked one man's cell phone signal to the DiNardo property and one man's father said one of their cars had also been found there

Earlier on Thursday, Lang said his client is ready to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, and that he felt a 'deep remorse' for what he has done.

The developments Thursday night came at the same time as information regarding the confessed killer's social habits through his messages on a private Snapchat group.

Other members of the group shared two photos of him posing menacingly with a revolver that he had posted. DiNardo's identity in the photos was confirmed by Philly.com.

The newspaper also reported DiNardo told other Snapchat users that he wasn't concerned about the whereabouts of his friend Finocchiaro just days after he vanished.

The disappearance of the four young men sparked panic and desperate searches in the Philadelphia area in recent days, after the first victim vanished on July 5.

Locals were clearly upset by the disappearances and subsequent revelations regarding the violent ends all four have met.

Jimi Patrick, 19, (left) was the first to go missing and was last seen at 6pm on July 5. Finocchiaro, 19, (right) vanished on July 7

Tom Meo (left) and Mark Sturgis (right) were the other two young men to go missing. They both worked for Sturgis' father's construction business and are friends

GRANDPARENTS OF JIMI TARO PATRICK SPEAK OUT Sharon and Rich Patrick, grandparents of missing teen Jimi Taro Patrick shared a biography of their grandson on Thursday Jimi Taro Patrick Jimi Taro Patrick lives in Newtown, PA with his grandparents, Sharon and Rich Patrick. He recently completed his freshman year at Loyola University, MD. Majoring in business, Jimi attends Loyola on a full scholarship and was awarded academic recognition on the Dean's list. Jimi is currently employed at a restaurant in Buckingham, PA. In the past, he worked in the food service at D'Youville Manor Yardley. He attended Holy Ghost Preparatory High School (Bensalem, PA) where he not only received distinguished honors for his academic performance, but also participated in numerous community service projects. Jimi was a member of the Holy Ghost Prep baseball team. He attended St Andrew School in Newtown and is a member of St Andrew Parish, Newtown, PA. As a child, Jimi played baseball for the Council Rock School District (Newtown) Little League. He was an excellent pitcher and hitter. As a result, he was a member of the Newtown travel team which won several tournaments and league trophies. Jimi also played basketball in the St Andrew CYO leage. Sharon & Rich Patrick Advertisement

The announcement that authorities found human remains was made by Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub (seen during a news conference)

Dozens of people gathered in New Hope, Pennsylvania, to listen to Weintraub's press conference

WHAT LED POLICE TO FINDING HUMAN REMAINS ON THE PENNSYLVANIA FARM July 5: Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, is seen for the last time. He appears to be the first of the men to go missing. July 7: Dean Finocchiaro, 19, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21, are all seen for the last time. July 9: All four men have been reported missing, and a search warrant is executed at a home in Solebury Township, where investigators find Meo's car. July 10: Officials search a Solebury Township farm owned by Antonio and Sandra DiNardo. Their son, 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo is taken into custody on firearms charges that appeared to be unrelated to the missing persons case. July 11: DiNardo is released on bail. July 12: Authorities find human remains of multiple bodies on the farm. The remains of Finocchiaro are identified. DiNardo is arrested for a second time and charged with trying to sell a vehicle belonging to one of the missing men. Advertisement

'It's been very unnerving. It's very spooky,' said Laura Hefty, who lives a few miles from the gravesite in Solebury Township, where farms bump up against new residential developments.

Many people, she said, are trying to convince themselves something like this could ever happen to their kids.

'They feel incredibly sad. Some people are pretty angry, too,' and are asking, 'How did it get this bad?' she said.

Eric Beitz, who said he had hung out with DiNardo in recent weeks, told Philly.com the 20-year-old routinely sold guns and on multiple occasions had talked 'about weird things like killing people and having people killed.'
An Italian mayor has banned dogs from being ring bearers in her town, arguing that 'marriage is an important, serious thing'.

Gigliola Breviario, the mayor of the Pontirolo Novo in northern Italy, thought it was a step too far when a couple requested that two Bullmastiffs could take on the role for their big day.

'I would have been willing to accept dogs in the hall, on a leash and muzzled,' Ms Breviario told local newspaper Eco di Bergamo.

But the traditionalist mayor refused the couple's wishes, meaning the couple had to drop their three and four-year-old pups from the guest list.

Puppy love: A couple in the north Italian town for Pontirolo Novo had hoped for their two dogs to be ring bearers on their big day

While the local politician accepted that dogs were 'important', she insisted that 'marriage is an important, serious thing'.

The disappointed couple are said to be looking for an alternative, dog-friendly venue to Pontirolo Nuovo town hall.

At least 92 percent of the Italian population who own pets consider dogs as part of the family.

One if four even allow their precious pooches to slumber next to them in bed.

It comes after a priest in Genzano, near Rome, told a member of his congregation to take her dog outside - sparking protests from animal rights activists.

Police were called in to disperse the group of around 12 campaigners who had gatecrashed a Sunday Mass at the church.

Pontirolo Nuovo town hall: The disappointed couple are said to be looking for an alternative, dog-friendly venue

Barking mad?: Some aspects of the country's legal system do call for pets to be treated similarly to family members

The protesters may even be banged up for two years in prison because it is illegal under Italian law to disrupt religious worship.

However some aspects of the country's legal system do call for pets to be treated similarly to family members.

A court ruled in November 2016 that dogs should like children and not property during divorce cases.
The majority of fire services would have immediately sent a high ladder to Grenfell Tower if the blaze had broken out in a block in their district, according to the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Of the 44 fire services in the UK that have high-rise blocks in their areas, 31 would have immediately dispatched a high ladder to a similar fire, a report by Newsnight has found.

It took half an hour for a high 'aerial' ladder to arrive at Grenfell Tower, as the device was not part of London Fire Brigade's predetermined attendance plan (PDA) for such a blaze.

The so-called 'aerial' or high ladder did not arrive at Grenfell Tower until more than half an hour after the first fire engines were dispatched at 00.55 because the device was not part of the London Fire Brigade's predetermined attendance plan (PDA)

A PDA is the number and type of vehicles and equipment a service sends initially as standard to a certain type of fire.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told the programme such an appliance arriving earlier 'could have made a big difference'.

He said: 'An aerial appliance applying large quantities of water to the outside of the building could have made a big difference. It clearly did make a difference when it arrived.'

The London Fire Brigade has since changed its PDA for tower blocks to five fire engines and an 'aerial appliance' high ladder.

An aerial appliance applying large quantities of water to the outside of the tower was later in place. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told the programme such an appliance arriving earlier 'could have made a big difference'

Workers in the 24-storey tower block in the days after the North Kensington fire in June. The police chief leading the investigation said conditions in the tower 'verge on indescribable'

It says this was in response to government inspections of cladding on high-rise buildings, rather than to the blaze at the 24-storey residence in west London itself.

Newsnight found that, as well as London's fire service, three others have now altered their PDAs post-Grenfell and nine fire brigades still do not automatically send an aerial ladder to respond to fires in tower blocks.

The programme also found that PDAs for similar fires vary widely across the country.

Three fire engines would be the first response to a tower block fire in Kent, while a similar blaze in Surrey would get six fire engines and a high ladder.

The different standards in how fire services can respond to life threatening tower block fires have been described as a 'postcode lottery' by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

There are 125 aerial ladder/platform vehicles, which have long ladders or platforms to reach fires in high buildings, in England - but only 33 of them are available round-the-clock because there is a lack of fire crews, according to FBU research.

Location and resources are key to how firefighters can respond to an emergency and the pre-determined attendance (PDA) plan which can be triggered. This relates to the numbers of fire engines that should automatically be sent.

Around 300 people are believed to have lived in the block. Most got out on their own. The fire brigade rescued 65 people but at least 80 people are believed to have died

A firefighter and a man embrace at the Latymer Community Centre, before observing a minute's silence near to Grenfell Tower in west London

Kent, Humberside and Nottinghamshire have just three fire engines and no aerial platforms - while Hampshire has a PDA of eight fire engines and an aerial vehicle.

The FBU also states that the size of a fire crew can also vary between four or five firefighters per fire engine.

Mr Wrack described these findings as 'extremely concerning' in the light of the Grenfell Tower fire, and branded this situation as 'utterly unacceptable'.

He said: 'We find it staggering that nothing has been done to address this grossly unjust postcode lottery of resources, and the fact that governments in all parts of the UK appear not to have even considered it is a disgrace.

'They now need to urgently instruct fire services to improve their fire and rescue planning to ensure a full and professional response to such incidents all over the UK.

'Citizens everywhere need to feel safe and confident that those in authority are taking their safety seriously. Anything less is, frankly, obscene.'

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the FBU had hoped that an urgent review of greatly differing standards and approaches adopted by various fire and rescue services across the country would have been set up.

Mr Wrack, in a letter written to the Prime Minster today, said: 'This appears not to have been done, which causes us concern and alarm.'

Around 300 people are believed to have lived in the block. Most got out on their own. The fire brigade rescued 65 people but at least 80 people are believed to have died.
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The weird and the wonderful has been celebrated as some of the world's most heavily-inked tattoo addicts descended on Colombia.

The annual Expo Tattoo Fair is held in the city of Medellin, with a bewildering array of designs on display.

Among those at the event is distinctive Colombian performer Jacobo Angel, who calls himself Death Angel. His face and body are covered with tattoos, and he has 24 piercings.

He has performed on television branding himself as a real Colombian vampire, and was one of the star turns at this year's three day event, which started yesterday.

Every year the fair attracts the biggest stars of the body art scene to test their skills against each other in competitions, swap techniques and tips and hold seminars for those wanting to learn more.

Wearing angel wings and distinctive makeup, Jacobo Angel is one of the more terrifying figures featuing at the three day exhibition in Colombia

Jacobo Angel, who calls himself Death Angel, poses for a photograph during the Expo Tattoo Fair in Medellin, which attracts heavily-inked tattoo enthusiasts from around the world

The father-of-one, who has 24 piercings has appeared on Colombian television, branding himself a real vampire

The event attracts some of the world's top tattoo artists, and a woman is seen being inked during the three day convention

Colombian body modifier Carlos Dehaquiz is pictured posing for a photograph during the eighth Expo Tattoo Convention

A tattoo artist works on an intricate design on a man's back. There has been no shortage of volunteers for artists to test their skills on

Many at the convention sported weird and wonderful tattoos, including this man who had ink over most of his face

A tattoo artist carefully draws an image of a wolf on a man's shoulder as some of the best in the world showed off their craft

The convention attracts well-inked people from across the world, and many of the globe's top tattoo artists are in Medellin for the three-day event

Japanese tattoo artist Yoichi Tanaka, himself heavily inked, tattoos a man during the eighth Expo Tattoo Fair in Medellin

A woman looks at the new design which has just been painted on her thigh (left), while a work-in-progress image shows a picture of a woman being inked onto an enthusiast's back

A man is given a back tattoo as four artists tackle different parts of a complex design being mapped out on his flesh

A woman is pictured having made the bold decision to have a floral design tattooed on her face at the three day event

Heavily-tattooed Carlos Dehaquiz poses for a photograph during the Expo Tattoo Fair in Medellin, where weird and wonderful designs are on show

A tattoo enthusiast known as Iverson was among those who have been heavily inked all over their body. He has extensive tattoos on his face and neck

The terrifying-looking Jacobo Angel, who claims to be a real life vampire snarls at the convention in the Colombian city of Medillin

A tattoo enthusiast with a sliced tongue poses for a photograph during the Expo Tattoo convention, which lasts for three days in Medellin, Colombia

A woman is given a tattoo on her arm during the event, which is a key date in the calendar for fans of body art

Four man work on a tattoo during the showcase event for fans of being inked, which is being held over three days in Colombia
These are the chilling last moments of a skydiving instructor and his student before they plunged to their deaths in a tragic accident.

Footage obtained by Daily Telegraph shows the experienced Sydney skydiver and the Singaporean man strapped to him for a tandem jump smiling before their deadly descent.

Police were called to the Wilton property, about 85 kilometres south-west of Sydney, after a resident saw the men fatally land on his driveway.

Footage shows the experienced Sydney skydiver and the Singaporean man smiling before their deadly descent

The GoPro camera footage taken by fellow skydiver Dustin Leonard, who described the incident as a 'fluke accident.'

'I think it's just tragic. It's just a fluke accident,' said Mr Leonard, who jumped seconds before them.

'We got notified that some guys might have landed far awayI don't think anyone knew something bad had happened.'

A woman in the same group told Daily Mail Australia she was kept in the dark about what had happened until arriving back in Sydney.

Colombian student Catalina Grandos, who is holidaying in Sydney, said she was left in shock when she discovered the tragedy.

'They didn't tell us what happened until we got back to Sydney. We were waiting so long without knowing what happened. It was terrible.'

The now chilling GoPro camera footage taken by fellow skydiver Dustin Leonard (pictured), who jumped seconds before them

Police were called to the Wilton property after a resident saw the men fatally land on his driveway

Two men have died after crash landing in NSW's south west (pictured) during a tandem skydive

She caught the bus from Sydney with the Singaporean man, but only found out afterwards why he was not on the return journey.

'I was in shock, I couldn't believe it. The conditions on the flight were good, I never imagined this could happen.'

A spokesperson for Sydney Skydivers confirmed the fatality to Daily Mail Australia, and explained the accident happened during a skydiving lesson.

'There was a fatality involving an instructor and a student,' she said.

'The cause is not yet known. More information will become available when police and the Australian Parachute Federation complete their preliminary investigation.'

Sydney Skydivers owner Phil Onis, told The Telegraph the skydiver had 20 years of experience.

Colombian student Catalina Grandos (centre) , who is holidaying in Sydney, said she was kept in the dark about the accident by the company until arriving back in Sydney

She caught the bus from Sydney with the Singaporean man, but only found out afterwards why he was not on the return journey

Police were called to a property in Wilton after a resident raised alarm

'He was an experienced skydiver...This has never happened before.'

The men had been skydiving with the company, who have a landing place on Picton Road. It is less than a kilometre from where the pair crash-landed.

The co-owner of the property the men crashed in to told the publication his seven-year-old daughter saw the men's bodies after impact.

The pair crashed on to a residential property in Wilton, near Camden about 2pm

'She hasn't seen them hit the ground but she is pretty traumatised. It's a shocking thing for a young girl to see,' said Chase Stephenson.

The girl has already spoken to a counsellor, but is 'very shaken up'.

Officers have established a crime scene and an investigation is underway.

A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

In 2012, a 27-year-old skydiver died in hospital after colliding heavily with the ground while he attempted to perform a manoeuvre in the air.

A seven-year-old girl saw the bodies after impact, and her father says she is 'very shaken'
Thousands of people have signed a petition to spare an aggressive grizzly bear that menaced a high school rugby practice from being put down.

Bear 148, as the six-year-old female bear is known, has repeatedly threatened humans near Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, but nearly 5,000 locals are are asking officials to show mercy.

'Bears don't understand borders,' resident Bree Todd wrote in the petition, referring to Bear 148's habit of wandering into the town of Canmore, surrounded on three sides by park land.

'She belongs here and on our landscape, the only home she knows and should not be executed for simply being a bear,' Todd pleaded.

Bear 148, as the six-year-old female bear is known, has repeatedly threatened humans near Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, but locals are are asking officials to show mercy

The bear terrified high school children by wandering onto the school rugby pitch during practice in May, one of several troubling encounters she's had with humans

Bree Todd started the petition last week, after park officials said Bear 148 would be euthanized if she continued to menace humans

Bear 148 began her menacing spree this spring, charging a woman who was kicksledding with her two dogs on a trail in the national park.

'I turned around and looked over my shoulder, and just went "oh my gosh",' hiker Annette Young told the Calgary Herald.

'Youre just thinking "oh my gosh this cant be happening for real", realizing it is truly happening for real, so what do I do now, and how am I going to react to get out of this,' said Young.

Young tried to escape, but as the bear quickly closed ground on her, she made the snap decision to turn and face it, hollering while she pulled out her bear spray.

The bear stared at her without reacting, so Young resumed her attempt to escape.

Bear 148 continued following her until she reached the parking lot of the park, and then broke off pursuit.

Bear 148 wears a radio tracking collar which broadcasts her location every two hours, and park officials attempt to keep her from wandering into the nearby town

The bear, which wears a GPS tracking collar, was relocated to a far end of the park, but quickly returned to her former range.

Then in May, Bear 148 got even bolder, chasing three female hikers and their dogs along a park trail.

Two days later, she wandered onto the rugby pitch during a high school team practice.

About 80 children were on the field, who quickly clustered into groups and moved away to safety.

Last week, Bear 148 charged at a man hiking with a baby stroller and a dog.

After that incident, the bear was captured by park officials. They have released her, but warned that any further displays of aggressive behavior would result in her being euthanized.

Park officials have warned that any further displays of aggressive behavior toward humans would result in Bear 148 being euthanized

'If she wanted to kill people and dogs, she could have killed people and dogs already,' Todd, who started the petition to save Bear 148, told the CBC.

'She is just as much of a local as I am,' added Todd, who has lived in the area for 11 years.

Park officials appeared to soften their stance in response to the outcry, saying euthanization would only be a last resort.

They warn that dogs seem to be a trigger for aggression in Bear 148 and other grizzlies, and warn hikers to leave their canine companions at home.

'Our intent isn't to euthanize her,' Brett Boukall, a senior wildlife biologist with the province, told the broadcaster.

'We share the public's concern for maintaining bears on the landscape. At the end of the day, our number one priority is public safety.'
U.S. officials interviewing refugees held in an Australian-run offshore detention centre left the facility abruptly, three detainees said on Saturday, throwing further doubt over a plan to resettle many of the detainees in America.

Officials halted screening interviews and departed the Pacific island of Nauru on Friday, two weeks short of their scheduled timetable and a day after Washington said the United States had reached its annual refugee intake cap.

'U.S. (officials) were scheduled to be on Nauru until July 26 but they left on Friday,' one refugee told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he did not want to jeopardize his application for U.S. resettlement.

U.S. officials interviewing refugees held in an Australian-run offshore detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru (pictured) left the facility abruptly

Their abrupt departure has cast doubt on a refugee swap deal between the United States and Australia

In the United States, a senior member of the union that represents refugee officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a Department of Homeland Security agency, told Reuters his own trip to Nauru was not going forward as scheduled.

Jason Marks, chief steward of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924, told Reuters his trip has now been pushed back and it was unclear whether it will actually happen. The USCIS did not respond to requests for comment.

The Australian Immigration Department declined to comment on the whereabouts of the U.S. officials or the future of a refugee swap agreement between Australia and the United States that President Donald Trump earlier this year branded a 'dumb deal'.

An indefinite postponement of the deal would have significant repercussions for Australia's pledge to close a second detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus island on Oct 31. Only 70 refugees, less than 10 percent of the total detainees held in the camp, have completed U.S. processing.

'The U.S. deal looks more and more doubtful,' Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said. 'The U.S. deal was never the solution the Australian government pretended it to be.'

Former U.S. President Obama agreed a deal with Australia late last year to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers, a deal the Trump administration said it would only honor to maintain a strong relationship with Australia and then only on condition that refugees satisfied strict checks.

An indefinite postponement of the deal would have significant repercussions for Australia's pledge to close a second detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus island on Oct 31

In exchange, Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a center in Costa Rica, where the United States has taken in a larger number of people in recent years.

The swap is designed, in part, to help Australia close both Manus and Nauru, which are expensive to run and have been widely criticized by the United Nations and others over treatment of detainees.

A State Department spokeswoman said on Friday that USCIS 'has not yet concluded adjudications of any refugees being considered for resettlement out of Australian facilities in Nauru and Manus islands,' and referred questions on timing to USCIS.

The U.S. government confirmed on Thursday that its refugee intake cap of 50,000 people had been reached with the new intake year not due to begin until Oct. 1.

Exemptions could be made for those who have a 'credible claim to a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States', following a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court last month reviving elements of Trump's travel ban while it considers the legality of the order.

Given the risky boat journey the refugees in Manus and Nauru undertook to reach Australia, it is unlikely many of them have strong family ties to the United States, experts said. The majority of the detainees interviewed on both Manus and Nauru by U.S. officials in April are from Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Australia's hardline immigration policy requires asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent for processing to camps at Manus and on the South Pacific island of Nauru. They are told they will never be settled in Australia.

Trump's resistance to the refugee deal had strained relations with a key Asia Pacific ally, triggering a fractious phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year.

Trump's concession and a series of high-level visits by U.S. dignities has since help mend connections between the two countries.

Australia has already offered detainees up to $25,000 to voluntarily return to their home countries, an offer few have taken up.
The moment a young driver who was allegedly drunk and high on drugs slid out of control during a burnout, narrowly missing a pedestrian, has been caught on CCTV.

A Holden Commodore ute can be seen screeching through a roundabout at Broad Beach on the Gold Coast about 11.45pm on Saturday night.

The man allegedly behind the wheel is 23-year-old plasterer Stephen Zelovic.

Plastered: The man allegedly behind the wheel was 23-year-old plasterer Stephen Zelovic (pictured)

The moment a young driver who was allegedly drunk and high on drugs slid out of control during a burnout, narrowly missing a pedestrian, has been caught on CCTV

In footage obtained by 7 News, moments after the burnout the ute races off.

A police car parked across the road witnessed the incident and made chase.

The man then got out of the car and allegedly tried to escape on foot before he was tackled by a member of the public.

Zelovic is also accused of assaulting a police officer during the arrest.

He later allegedly registered a blood alcohol reading of .191 which is four times over the legal limit.

Upon leaving the watch house on Saturday morning he spoke to 7 News: 'Honestly I can't remember exactly what happened because I was quite intoxicated,' he said.

The man then got out of the car and tried to escape on foot before he was tackled by a member of the public

'If you drink and drive you definitely can kill somebody that's why you shouldn't drink and drive.

'I'm a bloody f****** idiot, I'm an absolute idiot.'

He has been released on bail and is set to appear in court at a later date.
Police are appealing for help to find a missing autistic woman from Westminster.

Natalie Jerdi, 22, was last seen just before 4pm yesterday on a road in Kilburn, northwest London. Natalie, who has autism, is described as white, 5ft tall, of large build with brown hair.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'Officers are growing increasingly concerned for her welfare.'

Missing: Natalie Jerdi (pictured), 22, was last seen just before 4pm yesterday in Kilburn

Anyone who has seen Natalie should contact officers at Westminster via 101.

The appeal to find Natalie was released just hours before another search was launched - this time for a teenage girl from Ilford, in the northeast of the capital.

Ayesha Alohan-Eke, 16, was last seen yesterday morning. She is described as black, 5ft 5ins tall, of slim build and with black hair.

Appeal: Ayesha Alohan-Eke, 16, was last seen yesterday morning. She is described as black, 5ft 5ins tall, of slim build and with black hair

When last seen, Ayesha was wearing a black hooded jacket, navy blue trousers and grey trainers. She was carrying a black rucksack.

Officers believe she may have travelled to the Whitechapel area before disappearing.

Anyone who has seen Ayesha is asked to call 101 to speak to the East Area Command Unit based at Ilford.
An Oregon mother has been accused of endangering her two kids after she towed them in a little red wagon behind her car.

Alana Nicole Donahue had her two children tailing her on a roundabout in Springfield, Oregon when police received calls from concerned motorist.

According to Lt. Scott McKee, the mother-of-two said to police that she 'didn't understand what the problem was because she was only driving 5 mph and she just wanted to show the kids a good time.'

Alana Nicole Donahue had her two children tailing her in a plastic wagon on a roundabout in Springfield, Oregon when police received calls from concerned motorist

At least four drivers called police saying they had seen a woman in a white Ford Taurus pulling a wagon in the traffic roundabout in the area.

The plastic wagon was tied to the vehicle with a strap and held two kids - aged three and five - according to police dispatch logs.

According to drivers' reports, Donahue allegedly waved at vehicles to go around her as she drove in circles and one even reported that they had even almost hit the children.

When several drivers stopped to confront the mother, she would just drive away.

Donahue was not intoxicated but the mother was charged with reckless endangerment. The Department of Human Services have places the children in the care of another person according to the police log

She would stop eventually and put the wagon in the vehicle and allegedly said to one doctor to 'be and adult about it,' the log adds.

It goes on to state that at least one witness took photos and videos.

Donahue attempted to walk away from her car with her children when police arrived and eventually arrested her.

According to McKee, Donahue was not intoxicated.

The mother was charged with reckless endangerment.

The Department of Human Services have places the children in the care of another person according to the police log.
The Labour leadership has dismissed a call by Tony Blair to leave open the option of Britain remaining a member of a reformed European Union.

In his latest foray into the Brexit debate, the former prime minister said the election of French President Emmanuel Macron had opened up the prospect of real change in Brussels which could enable Britain to stay in the bloc.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party respected the outcome of last year's referendum vote to Leave, while shadow chancellor John McDonnell insisted there was no desire to reopen the divisions over Brexit.

Mr Corbyn told Sky News: 'Anyone's entitled to give their views and I listen to all of them.

'The views we have are that we want to see tariff-free access to the European market, protection of European nationals and protection of the labour rights and environmental conditions and consumer rights that we achieve through EU membership.

'I hope Tony Blair and everybody else recognises that is what our position is and that we do recognise the results of the referendum a year ago.'

Tony Blair, pictured left, said the election of French President Emmanuel Macron opened up the potential of Britain staying in the EU. But current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured right, hit back at the suggestion

Speaking at a strike rally for low-paid hospital workers in east London, Mr McDonnell said Labour was confident it would be able to negotiate continued access to European markets after Brexit.

He said: 'If you listen to ordinary people in this country now, what they want is basically a Brexit that will protect their jobs and protect the economy.

'We believe we can achieve that traditional British compromise of bringing people back together again. That is what we need now.

'What we don't want is to have divisions in the country again.

'To be frank, Mr Blair hasn't really listened to the nature of the debate that is going on in the pubs, the clubs and school gates.'

For the Conservatives, Brexit Minister Robin Walker echoed Labour's accusation that Mr Blair had lost touch with voters.

He said: 'The majority of British people voted to leave the EU. The majority of MPs, including Blair's own Labour Party, voted to trigger Article 50.

Mr Corbyn is pictured speaking at the Bournemouth West Cliff Hotel during a visit there today

Mr Corbyn, pictured today in Bournemouth, told Sky News: 'We do recognise the results of the referendum of a year ago'

Earlier, Mr Blair praised Mr Corbyn's 'remarkable' result in last month's general election - robbing Theresa May of her overall Commons majority - but warned that hard left policies would be a disaster for the economy

'By calling for the will of the people and Parliament to be overturned, Tony Blair is demonstrating once again that he is out of touch.'

Mr Blair said his contacts with senior European figures had convinced him the EU was ready to change and that the option of Britain remaining a member should be left on the table.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'This is a completely changed situation in Europe. I'm not going to disclose conversations I've had within Europe, but I'm not saying this literally on the basis of a whim.

'Europe itself is now looking at its own reform programme. They will have an inner circle in the EU that will be part of the eurozone and an outer circle.

'They will make reforms that I think will make it much more comfortable for Britain to fit itself in that outer circle.'

Earlier, Mr Blair praised Mr Corbyn's 'remarkable' result in last month's general election - robbing Theresa May of her overall Commons majority - but warned that his hard left policies would be a disaster for the economy.

In an article for his Institute for Global Change, Mr Blair wrote: 'If a right-wing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a left-wing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count.'
CCTV footage captured the moment the robber knocked on the door

Flying Squad detectives are hunting an eastern European gunman who stole more than 125,000 worth of jewelry.

The robber pretended to be a delivery driver when he knocked on the door of an address in East Barnet on the morning of 26 January.

When the victim, a woman in her 60s, appeared at the door, the suspect pushed into the house and pistol-whipped her.

The gunman then tied the victim's hands behind her back with tape and cable ties before forcing her upstairs.

There he stole several extremely valuable items of jewellery, including a diamond-encrusted Cartier white gold love bangle valued at 35,000.

He also took a pair of Cartier earings worth 15,000 and a Tiffany diamond ring valued at 75,000.

The gunman then left the house and made off in a black Vauxhall Insignia, driven by an accomplice.

The shocking incident happened on Caddington Close, near East Barnet village.

This stolen Cartier love bangle was encrusted with diamonds, and valued at 35,000

Detectives are only now releasing the CCTV images because they have exhausted their initial leads.

They hope that a member of the public might have seen one of the pieces of jewellery.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Flying Squad officers in Putney on 101.
The infamous meeting Donald Trump Jr. held with Russians at Trump Tower last year came just days before a hacker suspected of being connected to the Russian government unleashed thousands of documents online related to the Democrats.

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin - who US intelligence think may still be a spy - told the Associated Press on Friday that he was part of the Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr. and other Trump campaign officials in June 2016.

Akhmetshin has claimed that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya had brought a plastic folder full of printed documents that promised to deliver damaging information on the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

It is unclear if those documents were directly linked to the ones leaked to WikiLeaks several days later.

Donald Trump Jr met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June at Trump Tower, after being promised by an intermediary dirt on Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Kremlin

The documents allegedly presented to the Trump campaign contained claims of the DNC receiving dirty Russian money, according to Akhmetshin.

He added that Veselnitskaya left the folder behind at Trump Tower after the meeting.

That claim directly contradicted Don Jr's account that no information had been received from the visiting Russians.

Days after the meeting at Trump Tower, which Don Jr. publicly dismissed as 'nothing', a trove of documents was released online by WikiLeaks that were believed to have been stolen from the DNC server.

A hacker known as 'Guccifer 2.0' - who is reportedly a front for Russian intelligence services - quickly took credit for passing the DNC's documents along.

'Here I upload a new part of docs from the DNC network,' Guccifer 2.0 said at the time.

'It appears there are a lot of financial reports, donors lists and their detailed personal information including e-mail addresses and private cell phone numbers... I got tons of files and docs!!!'

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin (background in glasses) claimed that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya brought a plastic folder full of printed documents that promised to deliver damaging information on the Democratic National Committee to the meeting

Akhmetshin claims Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya left the folder containing the documents behind at Trump Tower after the meeting in June 2016

The details of the documents appear to be similar to those described by Akhmetshin, but it is not clear if that is the case.

Lawyer Veselnitskaya this week denied providing the Trump campaign with records of DNC finances.

'I told (Don Jr.) that not only I don't have any financial records of that time - there was no chance that I could somehow, anyhow, have such records,' she told NBC.

The revelations over the past week about Don Jr.'s contact with the Russian lawyer underscores the White House's inability to shake off the Russia story and close the book on a narrative that casts a shadow over Trump's presidency.

Don Jr.'s account of his Trump Tower meeting has seemingly changed on an almost daily basis. At first, the meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about campaign rival Hillary Clinton.

PR executive Rob Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr to set the controversial meeting up. He confirmed to the Associated Press that he participated in the gathering. Next to be revealed to be there was interpreter Anatoli Samochornov (right)

Jared Kushner (pictured in Idaho on Friday) was at the Trump Tower meeting too. His presence kicked off the whole affair because he disclosed it in his security clearance forms

Finally, Don Jr. was forced to release emails - mere moments before The New York Times planned to do so - that revealed he had told an associate that he would "love" Russia's help in obtaining negative details about the Democratic nominee.

Even the number of people who attended the meeting has changed.

As well as the disclosure that documents were left, the list of who was in the meeting grew, with portly British PR Rob Goldstone admitting to the Associated Press that he was in the room, and a New York Times reporter revealing on MSNBC that there was also an interpreter present.

Anatoli Samochornov, a U.S. citizen who has worked for Veselnitskaya for some time was with him, reporter Ken Vogel said.

There could have been even more people there as CNN reported that there was an associate of pop star Emin present. Emin is the son of Aras Agalarov, the billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin and CNN said a representative of the Agalarov family was there.

Trump Jr never noted the presence of any individuals outside the campaign's senior officials - Kushner and Manafort - and the lawyer, Veselnitskaya.
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The blackout that hit New York on July 13, 1977, was emblematic of the crippling times that had grasped the city.

A steep economic decline along with rising crime rates and the war on drugs made for an already gloomy Big Apple that was just further darkened by the Son of Sam murders that gripped the city.

Lightning strikes wiped out a power line in Westchester causing the Indian Point generating station that lit most of the city to crash as well.

And the damage during the 25 hour blackout was vast - the New York Times reported that 1,000 fires had been set by arsonist and 1,600 stores ransacked.

A reported 3,373 people were also arrested for looting and vandalism.

Everything was up for grabs to be stolen as well as cars, jewelry, televisions and even large pieces of furniture.

But even throughout all the turmoil, folks still managed to enjoy some aspects of the blackout, convening on the street for late night partying and opportunities to make a quick buck.

Pictures from the blackout, which just marked its 40th anniversary, show thousands of people out on the streets stranded in the darkness as they tried to stay safe from looters.

The Manhattan Skyline on the dawn of July 14 as the city coped with the blackness of the buildings around them

With the power outage shutting down the subway system, people were forced to crowd the Brooklyn bridge if they wanted to go from one part to the next borough

Chaos ensued during the blackout as the train system was down and traffic lights didn't work, causing numerous accidents

A restaurant only has liquor left, writing that it doesn't have any lights or food as a result of the blackout

Arson was common during those 25 hours as seen in this photo of a burning building in Brooklyn, New York

Most people remained outside during the blackout - even though there was a heat wave - as they were often the only way people could see what was around them

A time lapse photo showing vehicles as the only source of light throughout most of the city in Manhattan

Thousands were arrested during the blackout. So many would be detained at a time that police had to have looters handcuffed in lines as shown in the photo

But not all was negative during the time as a group of people sit outside a restaurant in SOHO and throw themselves a party

Medical attention was required all over the city as people demanded the limited aid of an exhausted police department and fire rescue

Police stand in front of a damaged storefront and looked out unto a debris filled street. People can be seen standing amongst the trash in the crowded streets

Shattered glass and mangled mannequins litter the ground of a store along upper Broadway as a result of looting that occurred in the area

Two men carry a large chest down the street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. A reported 3,373 people were arrested for looting and vandalism
Walmart Canada is removing a onesie from its shelves after a picture of the child's clothing item sparked outrage on social media and was called racist.

Elizabeth Sault, who works at the Niagara Regional Native Center in Niagara-on-the-Lake, was in an Ontario Walmart when she saw it Monday.

The white onesie is decorated with teepees and an arrow and says: 'I still live with my parents'.

The intended joke is meant to poke fun at the fact that a child so young has not yet moved out of the house.

However, because of Canada's history with Indigenous children being taken out of their homes by the government, many have called the onesie racist.

Sault immediately realized how offensive it was and posted a picture of it on Facebook.

Walmart Canada is removing a onesie (pictured) from its shelves after a picture of the child's clothing item sparked outrage on social media and was called racist. The intended joke is meant to poke fun at the fact that a child so young has not yet moved out of the house, but Canada's government has a history of taking Indigenous children out of their homes

After people expressed their outrage at the onesie on social media, Walmart Canada apologized and said they would take the onesie, from their George brand, off shelves

'Given my profession, my first thought went right towards child welfare and we have the highest rate of children in care in Canada,' she told APTN.

'I was with my daughter, she is 13, I thought what a great education for her and how inappropriate it is,' Sault said.

'At first she was just like oh mom stop, because Im always educating her  and she is probably also of that mindset that its no big deal but now she sees that its gaining some momentum.'

Sault's picture got attention on social media, sparking outrage on social media and leading people accusing the onesie of being racist, insensitive and disrespectful.

One person tweeted: 'You know that indigenous children are taken into foster care disproportionately don't you?'

Another said: 'Is this for real?! You can't seriously be a Canadian corporate organization and not understand the offence of this product.'

Someone else added: 'This is beyond disgusting. They need to fire whoever decided to let this racist filth into their stores and issue an apology.'

For more than 100 years in Canada, the Indian residential school system took about 150,000 children from their homes and put them into boarding schools so they would not be influenced by their own culture.

Thousands of those children died while in the school system.

About 20,000 Indigenous children were also taken from their homes and put up for adoption or into the foster care system during the 1960s, which is referred to as the Sixties Scoop.

Walmart Canada eventually apologized for the onesie.

Senior manager of corporate affairs, Anika Malik, said the onesie would be taken down off the shelves.

'We thank our customers for bringing this matter to our attention. The graphic on this item does not represent Walmarts beliefs and has no place in our stores.

'We are removing the product immediately and sincerely apologize for any unintended offense this has caused.'
Gabrielle Ali will forever be defined by one moment of bravery  a moment that saved the life of her son. Unable to walk, talk or communicate, ten-year-old Elijah lay plugged in to a life-support machine at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) when Gabrielle was told the hospital authorities wanted to switch the machine off.

But like the embattled parents of baby Charlie Gard, her answer was a determined No.

Today, following a shattering three-year fight, Gabrielles instincts have been proved triumphantly correct.

Gabrielle Ali fought to keep her son, Elijah, alive after doctors said she should turn off his life support machine. Now 13, he breathes on his own, can move his arms and head, and communicates through computer technology and by blinking

It is the sort of news Charlies parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, will be longing to hear as they fight the hospital to give their child one last chance

Although once in a vegetative state like Charlie, Elijah has made miraculous progress.

Now 13, he breathes on his own, can move his arms and head, and communicates through computer technology and by blinking.

With support, he can sit upright, he can follow some commands, and, if held, can kick a ball.

It is the sort of news Charlies parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, will be longing to hear as they fight the hospital to give their child one last chance.

The similarities are clear. Both children fell into what doctors described as a vegetative state, suffered severe brain damage and could breathe only with the aid of life-support systems.

In both cases, doctors argued that they could never recover with any quality of life.

Charlie, who suffers from an inherited condition called mitrochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, cannot move or see, and his parents have been pressing for him to be taken to America to have a revolutionary new drug treatment. A court decision is expected this week.

Now Gabrielle has decided to speak out against senior medics who, she says, are determined to play God.

I know and understand what Charlies parents are going through first-hand, she says from her home in Hertfordshire. It was an almost identical situation to the one we faced.

And if Elijah has a chance after being clinically dead and brought back to life and hes doing so well, then Charlie has a chance too. Elijah defied all their predictions. He is proof that doctors can get it wrong. Proof that miracles can happen.

Although once in a vegetative state like Charlie, Elijah has made miraculous progress

Pictured is Charlie after his first hair cut. He suffers from an inherited condition called mitrochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, meaning he cannot move or see

Doctors were determined to turn off Elijahs life-support machine.

They said he would never breathe on his own, was blind, and, if he lived, would be in constant pain. But I refused to agree. I kept researching what could be done to help him.

I just kept pushing. I wouldnt give up on my son.

Doctors said he was blind, but he is not  he communicates with me by blinking for Yes, and widening his eyes for No.

He can move his head and his arms  hes able to eat pureed food. He makes sounds.

Recently he has just started to smile again.

Despite early health problems, including congenital heart defects, Elijah had grown into a lively little boy who practised the martial art ju jitsu and played the drums and piano when, in April 2014, catastrophe struck.

Gabrielle says Elijah was given a blood thinner, heparin  against her wishes, but on the guidance of doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Elijah went into immediate cardiac arrest in Gabrielles arms and in the time it took to restart his heart, he suffered severe brain damage. Precisely what happened and who was to blame remain the subject of legal dispute between Gabrielle, GOSH and Watford General Hospital.

But there was no disputing the damage. Despite emergency brain surgery, at one point Elijah was judged to be clinically dead.

And only a few hours after he was put on the life-support machine, the hospital told Gabrielle that her sons case was hopeless.

Aside from her sheer determination, Gabrielle had another important weapon: she works as a scientist in hospital laboratories. Knowing the NHS from the inside, she felt strong enough to make her case, she says, and at one point even went to the lengths of videoing her son to prove he still had movement in his limbs.

I could see signs of life but they were adamant that his life-support should be turned off, she says. I refused because I thought the doctors were wrong. I could still see signs of life.

Gabrielle said: 'I know and understand what Charlies parents are going through first-hand. It was an almost identical situation to the one we faced'

She added: 'And if Elijah has a chance after being clinically dead and brought back to life and hes doing so well, then Charlie has a chance too. Elijah defied all their predictions'

She says the hospital threatened legal action to enforce their decision, although her steady determination seemed to hold them off.

I think I won that battle with my persistence, almost by default, Gabrielle says.

And she was proved correct. On May 15, 2014, when Elijahs support was switched off, it was found that he could breathe on his own and, bit by bit, started to recover.

It would be two years  including seven months in intensive care  before Gabrielle would have her little boy back home.

And every week of that, she says, has been a battle with the medical authorities.

This includes her fight to put Elijah on Zolpidem, a drug which is normally used for insomnia but which has been shown to help brain-damaged patients.

She says that despite the scepticism of GOSH, tests with Dr Ralf Clauss, a South African expert who is a lead consultant at Guildford in Surrey, showed Elijahs brain responded to the drug. And she is convinced the result is continued improvement in her son.

He uses Eyegaze computer technology for communication which uses his eyes looking at the computer screen to control images happening on the screen.

Soon he will begin hydrotherapy which we hope may ultimately help him to walk again.

Today Elijah uses a Pod Book, an A3-sized book with words and pictures. You look at where hes looking to see what he is thinking and feeling.

He now also makes sounds to express how he feels. There is evidence, Gabrielle says, he may be trying to form words. He has come a very, very long way and I believe he will come still further.

For all her optimism, however, Gabrielle remains deeply hurt at the way she claims her family has been treated.

A lot of doctors are getting this God complex, she says. But the only person who is God is God.

They need to understand these children were given to us as a gift. There are things we mothers know that are inexplicable.

During our time at the hospital [GOSH intensive care] in 2014, many babies died. Many of the mothers told me they felt bullied, pushed into a corner by the doctors and just couldnt fight any more.

I dont understand why those like myself  and Charlie Gards parents  who want to fight for their children, are not given an opportunity to do so.

Today Elijah uses a Pod Book, an A3-sized book with words and pictures. You look at where hes looking to see what he is thinking and feeling

If were happy to live with a disabled child and live with what we know will be a struggle why cant we have that? Its our decision.

All these children have is us. Im a mother. I know my son.

I know what he feels and what he doesnt feel.

If I had given up he wouldnt be here today. Hed be dead. Now she has launched a website  elijahsmiracles.com  to help other parents who want to fight for their childs right to life. And next year she will start training as a doctor, convinced that things must be done differently in the future.

Critics  not least doctors  continue to ask Gabrielle what quality of life Elijah has. He is still largely immobile and Gabrielle needs a team of seven carers to help her with her sons day-to-day needs.

I think he has a good quality of life given the condition he is in, she says. I make the point that a morbidly obese person also cant move, wash themselves or do anything much at all. Are we suggesting they too should die?

Yes, it is a difficult situation but Im more than happy to take on these difficulties as Elijah grows.

In this day and age, technology makes many things possible and I have more and more optimism.

We have taken him to the seaside in Brighton, to Sea Life, the theatre. Its difficult. But its achievable. Were planning to take him to Disneyland next year. It was always one of his dreams.

I know he wants to live, even though his condition would not be his choice.

A spokesman for Great Ormond Street Hospital said: For patient confidentiality reasons, we cannot discuss the specific details of Elijahs care.

At Great Ormond Street Hospital we always seek to work carefully and sensitively with families to ensure every child entrusted to our care receives the best possible treatment and support.

It is always disappointing when we hear from patients and families who are not happy with the treatment we provide and we work very hard to resolve any dispute.
Soaring house prices led to nearly 160,000 fewer British children being born over the past two decades, a study claims.

Researchers say couples are having smaller families than they would like because they are either stuck in rented accommodation or cannot afford larger homes.

The shortage of affordable properties also means a generation of children may never know their grandparents because women are waiting until they are much older to start a family.

Researchers say couples are having smaller families because they are stuck in smaller homes

The landmark study by the Adam Smith Institute think-tank warns that the falling birth rate in Britain could result in a demographic time bomb, with fewer working-age people paying taxes, while the numbers living beyond the age of 85 soars.

That would put the NHS and care services under severe strain and could also fuel greater demand for migrant workers in the UK  even after Brexit. Report author Andrew Sabisky said: The housing crisis is wrecking the lives of the people of this country, preventing them from having the children they want to have. This private tragedy will, in the long-run, entail massive knock-on costs to public finances.

His report calls on Ministers to cut red tape and allow more housebuilding on green belt land.

It also argues that stamp duty should be scrapped to help elderly homeowners downsize from larger family homes without buyers suffering a serious financial penalty.

Average house prices in England tripled between 1995 and 2016, rising from 67,000 to 232,000.

The reports calls on Ministers to cut red tape and allow more housebuilding on the green belt

The study, entitled Children Of When, claims this caused a 1.3 per cent fall in the number of births between 1996 and 2014, equating to 157,000 fewer children being born.

Mr Sabisky said a lack of adequate housing had a substantial psychological impact on families. He added: Shrinking family size means that the old increasingly cannot rely on their close family to care for them in their protracted dotage. Higher house prices mean higher deposits, and higher rents make deposits harder to save for.

In the ten years between 2004 and 2014, home ownership fell from 60 per cent to 35 per cent among 25- to 34-year-olds  the key child-bearing demographic.

Money that would otherwise be spent on children must instead be redirected towards rent and deposit-saving. The property they are able to buy will often be too small to fit a large family.

The lack of housing and falling birth rate could result in a 'demographic time bomb'

Even when young people are able to buy a suitable property, the process of saving can often take up many years, pushing women towards older motherhood.

This, in turn, has a limiting effect on family size, in no small part because the time it takes to conceive rises with maternal age.

Last year, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that 3.7 billion would be spent to address the crisis, with the aim of building an additional 140,000 homes by 2020 for rent and sale.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: We set out a number of measures to increase and speed up house-building in our White Paper.

Councils will have a new responsibility to plan for the right number of homes and get them built on time, and we will provide the tools they need to make this happen. Thousands of new homes will be built for young, first-time buyers.
Maryam Mirzakhani, the first and only woman to receive the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics, died on Saturday aged 40 after a battle with breast cancer.

Officials at Stanford University, the California school where she taught, confirmed the death of the Tehran-born Mirzakhani, who specialized in theoretical mathematics. It came three years after she received the Fields Medal at an event in Seoul.

The prize is handed out every four years to honor mathematicians under 40 who make major contributions.

Mirzakhani was 37 when in 2014 she became the first woman to win the prize, which was established in 1936 and is equivalent to the Nobel Prize for mathematics.

Maryam Mirzakhani, the first and only woman to receive the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics, died on Saturday at age 40. She is seen above being awarded the 2014 Fields medal by then South Korean president, Park Geun-hye at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea on August 13, 2014

Mirzakhani at the time of being given the award said she had dreamed of becoming a writer when she was young, before taking an interest in mathematical problems. She is seen above during a press conference after the awards ceremony in 2014

The mathematician received the medal for her work in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces, Stanford officials said in 2014.

Mirzakhani at the time said she had dreamed of becoming a writer when she was young, before taking an interest in mathematical problems.

'It is fun; it's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case,' she said in 2014.

Growing up in Iran, she attended an all-girls high school and gained recognition as a teenager in the 1994 and 1995 competitions of the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Mirzakhani is survived by her husband, Jan Vondrak, and six-year-old daughter, Anahita, pictured above

She later graduated from Sharif University in Tehran and then headed to Harvard University in Massachusetts, to obtain her doctorate in mathematics.

Mirzakhani joined the faculty at Stanford in the San Francisco Bay area in 2008.

In recent years, she worked with Alex Eskin at the University of Chicago to investigate the trajectory of a billiard ball as it bounces around a polygonal table. The complexities in the ball's movement have long bedeviled physicists.

Mirzakhani, while solving mathematical problems, often drew on large sheets of paper while scribbling formulas on the edges, an approach that her young daughter believed to be a form of painting, according to Stanford.

Mirzakhani is survived by her husband, Jan Vondrak, and six-year-old daughter, Anahita.

She died in hospital after a four year battle with cancer.
Russian hackers are thought to have attacked the UK's national grid sparking fears that electricity supplies could be cut by cyber terrorists.

Security analysts say that a group backed by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin targeted the Republic of Ireland's energy sector and tried to infiltrate control systems.

Senior engineers at the country's Electricity Supply Board were hit with a 'phishing' email last month that tried to trick staff into downloading malicious software, according to The Times.

While no evidence of disruption has been uncovered, analysts fear that the hackers could have stolen sensitive information including top-secret passwords that could later be used to access systems.

Russian hackers are thought to have attacked the UK's national grid sparking fears that electricity supplies could be cut by cyber terrorists (stock photo)

Experts said that the attackers are using Ireland to test out their cyber weaponry with the country hosting the offices of a number of major corporations including Apple and Facebook.

Some of the fake emails sent to engineers reportedly contained inside technical knowledge about the plants that the hackers were trying to access.

It is now feared that similar attack bids could be launched on other parts of the UK's critical infrastructure.

It comes amid a renewed focus on cyber security following recent ransomware attacks across the globe.

Late last month hackers unleashed a major assault on computer systems around the world causing huge disruption to companies and governments in countries including the UK, US and Russia.

The Petya ransomware hijacked victims' computers before encrypting their files and holding them hostage until a fee was paid.

Security analysts say that a group backed by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin targeted the Republic of Ireland's energy sector and tried to infiltrate control systems. The Russian President is pictured on Friday

Chernobyl's radiation monitoring system was hit by the attack with its sensors shut down while UK advertising giant WPP, the largest agency in the world, was among dozens of firms affected.

The ransomware appeared to have been spread through popular accounting software and specifically targeted at bringing down business IT systems.

The outage began in Ukraine as the country's power grid, airport, national bank and communications firms were first to report problems, before it spread rapidly throughout Europe.

Companies in the US, Germany, Norway, Russia, Denmark and France were among those affected.

In June wo 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.
Officials found 400 pounds of marijuana inside Mexican-manufactured cars that had been delivered to dealerships in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania.

During a delivery inspection at a Ford dealership in Kent, Ohio, employees found a suspicious package in the spare tire compartment of a new Ford Fusion.

It turned out to be marijuana compressed to fit into the small space.

Packages were found in 14 other Ford Fusions in Portage, Stark and Columbiana counties in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania, totaling 400 pounds of marijuana.

Officials found 400 pounds of marijuana inside 15 Ford Fusions that had been delivered to dealerships in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania. The cars were manufactured in Sonora, Mexico, crossed the border through Arizona and had all gone through a rail yard in Warren, Ohio (stock photo)

The cars were manufactured in Sonora, Mexico, crossed the border through Arizona and had all gone through a rail yard in Warren, Ohio.

'They were marked so they could visually checked by whoever was going to receive the drugs,' Portage County Sheriff David Doak told the Record-Courier.

'We found 15 packages in all, over $1million in street value.'

This isn't the first time marijuana has been smuggled through cars from Mexico into the US.

'There was a dealership in Minnesota,' Doak said. 'The authorities said the cars left a Mexico plant.

At street value, the marijuana costs at least $1million. The packages of pot had been compressed and stored in the spare tire compartments of the new cars (stock photo)

'Someone boarded the train to pack the drugs and discard the spare tires and the smugglers board the train to retrieve the shipment.

'That was a while ago, but it's part of what we're looking at.'

Bob Bolanzo, the head of the Youngstown Federal Drug Enforcement Administration told local outlet The Vindicator that this is the first marijuana smuggling operation of its kind in the northeast Ohio area.

The Youngstown DEA and the Portage County Sheriff's Office are conducting the ongoing investigation.
Robert Roy Farmer may have to register as a sex offender after he killed 21 cats in 2015

A man who killed 21 cats and sexually abused a dead one has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Robert Roy Farmer, 25, was sentenced on Friday in Santa Clara, California, where a judge gave him double credit for 21 months already served. He will not have to register as a sex offender once released.

Before the sentencing, Farmer's attorney Wesley Schroeder read aloud a letter to the court written by his client.

'It feels like another man committed these crimes, but I know it was me,' the letter said, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

'I stole a member of their family. The fact that I was out of my mind was no excuse,' the letter went on.

Last year, Farmer (pictured in court) pleaded guilty to 21 counts of felony animal cruelty. On Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison

Farmer, the son of a retired San Jose Police captain, was arrested October 8, 2015 after a month-long killing spree.

His lawyer has said that he was on methamphetamine at the time of the crimes.

Cops found him in a Home Depot parking lot, sleeping in his car with a dead cat curled up in the center console.

In his car, police found chunks of fur, blood, fur-covered gloves, a hunting knife and the collars of other cats.

A San Jose Animal Care and Services necropsy report determined the orange female tabby cat found dead in his car of blunt force trauma had dilated genitals.

The report also showed that a DNA match between Farmer and the cat was found under its claws. DNA tests linked Farmer to all 21 cats that were killed.

Farmer's attorney, Wesley Schroeder, argued that there was no evidence of a sexual motive, saying in an email to NBC that the '(tuolidine blue) test designed to highlight abrasions or subtle trauma from sexual assault failed to show any evidence of even the most minuscule trauma.'

Victim: Go-Go's (pictured) owner, Miriam Petrova said they never found her 17-year-old cat's body. Only four of the animal's bodies have been recovered

Investigators said Farmer rounded up the cats, that he sometimes mutilated and abused, from Cambrian Park over a two-month period.

Surveillance video captured Farmer in the act as he chased and picked up one cat named Go-Go, leading police to him, according to ABC 7.

'Farmer just took our sense of safety because he took it from our front yard,' Miriam Petrova told NBC in 2016.

Petrova's 17-year-old cat Go-Go, was one of Farmer's first victims. 'We never found Go-Go's body,' she said. Only four of the animal's bodies have been recovered.

Residents had urged the judge to sentence Farmer to life in prison, asking supporters to sign onto 'Justice for our CATZ.'

The 16 year sentence he received was the maximum sentence for his crimes.
A major airline recently loss rapper ScHoolboy Q's dog.

On Friday night, United Airlines accidentally flew the rapper's dog, Yeeerndamean, to the wrong city during a layover.

'You guys r idiots @united HOW U PUT MY DOG ON THE WRONG FLIGHT???? I need answers,' the Collard Greens rapper angrily said on Twitter.

Scroll down for video

On Friday night, United Airlines accidentally flew the ScHoolboy Q's dog, Yeeerndamean, to the wrong city during a layover

Quincy Matthew Hanley, the artist's real name, said he was traveling between Missouri and to Burbank, California when the airline mistakenly switched his dog with another during a layover in Denver

'You guys r idiots @united HOW U PUT MY DOG ON THE WRONG FLIGHT???? I need answers,' the Collard Greens rapper angrily said on Twitter

United responded to the tweet, asking for more details.

They said: 'We want to look into this further. Please DM us the airway bill. ^MD'

Quincy Matthew Hanley, the artist's real name, said he was traveling between Missouri and to Burbank, California when the airline mistakenly switched his dog with another during a layover in Denver.

United responded to the tweet, asking for more details. They said: 'We want to look into this further. Please DM us the airway bill. ^MD'

United had flown his dog to Chicago.

'My little dog been moving around since the A.M., prolly has pee and number 2 all in his cage smh,' the rapper said in a text message to CNN.

'....I plan on suing.'

United Airlines released a statement saying the dog was well taken care of.

They said: 'We're working as quickly as possible to reunite the pet with their owner later this evening.

United Airlines released a statement saying the dog was well taken care of. They said: 'Pets are part of our customers' family, and their safety and wellbeing is of the upmost importance to us'

'We have reached out to our customer and sincerely apologize for this mistake and are providing a refund.

'Pets are part of our customers' family, and their safety and wellbeing is of the upmost importance to us.'

But social media had a field day with the airline's transgression.

One user tweeted a photo of their dog holding a gun and said: 'My dog on the look out.'

Another user, Taalib, shared similar sentiments and said: 'Never ever ever play with a mans dog.'

'Home Alone 6?' said reporter Corey Seidman.

The rapper was eventually reconnected with his dog and posted some snaps of it on his Snapchat feed.

'Yeeerndamean Made it,' he said in one post.

'Dey jealous,' he said in another post with his dog playing with another.

One user tweeted a photo of their dog holding a gun and said: 'My dog on the look out'

Another user, Taalib, shared similar sentiments and said: 'Never ever ever play with a mans dog'

'Home Alone 6?' said reporter Corey Seidman
France has boasted to City of London chiefs that it will use Brexit to sabotage the British economy, according to a bombshell leaked memo.

The memo, sent to Ministers, says the French government and banking chiefs are plotting to actively disrupt and destroy the UKs multi-billion-pound financial sector when Britain leaves the EU  even if France gains nothing.

The missive blames the giddy effect of newly elected President Emmanuel Macron for an assertive collective endeavour to wreck the City, which is worth 66 billion a year to the Treasury in tax receipts  around half of the entire budget for NHS England.

The 'giddy' effect of newly elected Emmanuel Macron is said to be blamed for the new French plot to 'actively disrupt' the City

The memo was written after the City of Londons Brexit envoy  former Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne  held talks in Paris earlier this month at the French finance ministry, state-owned Banque de France, the French Senate and the British Embassy. He met banking chiefs, senior politicians and diplomats.

His message to UK Treasury Ministers and MPs says Macrons France has effectively declared open war on Londons Square Mile. And he warns starkly: They are crystal clear about their underlying objective: the weakening of Britain, the on-going degradation of the City of London.

He pointed to French representatives crashing around London offering big sums to firms to move to Paris.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire was appointed by Mr Macron earlier this year after being lauded for saying Brexit provided a fabulous opportunity for France. And the countrys banking bosses are just as belligerent, says Mr Browne.

He writes: The meeting with the French Central Bank was the worst I have had anywhere in the EU. They are in favour of the hardest Brexit. They want disruption. They actively seek disaggregation of financial services provision.

The City of Londons Brexit envoy Jeremy Browne (pictured) has warned UK Treasury Ministers that Macrons France has effectively declared open war on Londons Square Mile

Reinforcing his warning, Mr Browne says: The clear messages emanating from Paris are not just the musings of a rogue senior official in the French government or central bank. France could not be clearer about their intentions. They see Britain and the City of London as adversaries, not partners. The memo suggests that other EU nations who wanted good relations with the UK over Brexit were alarmed by Frances hostile conduct but were powerless  or unwilling  to stop them.

Mr Browne says: There is plenty of anxiety elsewhere in the EU about the French throwing their weight around so aggressively, but their destructive impulses are not being confined, and other EU countries that want a friendly relationship with Britain and the City of London are being marginalised.

The memo states that the 'on-going degradation of the City of London' is a key objective for French bankers and politicians

The French were commendably honest about their true intentions  which makes the exchanges more meaningful.

Mr Browne even hints they were acting out of spite, making a virtue of rejecting a partnership with Britain and happy to see outcomes detrimental to the City  even if Paris is not the beneficiary.

Make no mistake, he warns, France sees the UK and the City as adversaries, not partners.

HYSTERICAL? NO, I STAND BY MY 'APPEASEMENT' WARNING Comment by Andrew Adonis, Labour Peer Hysterical. Over-excited. In need of therapy even. As extreme as it was predictable, this is how I was labelled by arch-Brexiteers after I warned that quitting the EU could be Britains worst mistake since the 1930s appeasement of Hitler. No reasoned argument, no carefully calibrated response just the implication that I had taken leave of my senses by making a comparison with those dark days leading up to the Second World War. But I stand by every word. To recap, I warned that if badly handled, Brexit could lead to this nations greatest blunder since appeasement because it could have such a dreadful effect on our people. A blunt, ideologically driven break with Europe could lead to millions of Britons being thrown into poverty  made worse by the fact that in last years referendum, they were sold false promises of a new dawn. Adonis: I was saying that a botched Brexit would have such huge ramifications that it could only be compared to our misguided appeasing of Hitler By invoking the era of appeasement, I was not trying to depict Theresa May as some latter-day Neville Chamberlain or, as Margaret Thatchers official biographer suggested, portray Jeremy Corbyn as a modern-day Winston Churchill. I was saying that a botched Brexit would have such huge ramifications for ordinary working people that it could only be compared in the sweep of British history to our misguided appeasing of Hitler. I confess to having been a long-time supporter of British membership of the EU since my student days. But unfortunately for my Brexiteer critics, I do not fit the identikit photo of a swivel-eyed Brussels obsessive. My political career has been almost entirely spent tackling challenges nearer home. For 20 years I have been on a mission to improve Englands education and transport systems, which were bywords for failure and poor service. I left the EU for others to worry about. But ahead of a Westminster debate on the subject, I buried myself in the House of Lords library and underwent two weeks of immersion in the details of the EUs customs union and single market to understand what they meant for British jobs and trade. It was a Damascene conversion. I already feared that Brexit  or hard Brexit at any rate  was unwise and risky. But I discovered it was extreme, dangerous folly; and that any Brexit which involves leaving the central economic institutions of the EU will imperil millions of jobs. It would make us the poor relation of France and Germany for as long as we remain isolated. It is not just that hard Brexit involves imposing tariffs on our trade with Ireland, France, Germany and the other 24 EU states, which between them account for 44 per cent of our exports. There is the enormous practical issue of imposing customs controls, including border checks, on so much trade that previously flowed freely. As for Empire 2.0  the supposed riches of trading with the English-speaking world  the EUs trade treaty with Canada took effect just two weeks ago! If you take all 75 nations covered by the EUs existing trade treaties, they account for 18 per cent of British exports over and above the 44 per cent going to the EU 27. Thats more than 60 per cent of exports going either to the EU or to countries beyond, made possible by our customs union membership. So, before a single kilo  sorry, ounce  of new trade can be secured, David Davis and Liam Fox have first to negotiate a trade treaty with the 27 remaining EU states, no less favourable than the existing customs union. Then they must negotiate deals, also no less favourable than the EUs existing deals, with a further 75 countries. All in the next 20 months. Dream on! The challenge of the next decade and beyond is to prevent Brexit from consuming the jobs and livelihoods of millions of hard-working Brits. So whatever the brickbats and insults aimed at me, I will not move from my warning. Advertisement

It was much more serious than the wily French merely putting down a Brexit talks marker as the opening shots in a long negotiating process, says Mr Browne.

French industry was barely more conciliatory than French finance and banking, and offered no life raft for Britain. They were by a big margin, much worse than the norm elsewhere in the EU.

Observing that it was Wimbledon fortnight, Mr Browne says the Government must do more to combat the French threat by putting some more balls back on the other side of the court.

Diplomats son Mr Browne, 47, was a Lib Dem Minister in David Cameron and Nick Cleggs Coalition, serving in the Foreign Office and Home Office. He campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU but was seen as a Lib Dem Eurosceptic and supported cutting the top rate of tax. It led to reports that he was considering defecting to the Conservatives.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire (pictured right) said earlier this year that Brexit provided a fabulous opportunity for France

He became the City of London Corporations Brexit envoy on a six-figure salary after losing his Commons seat in 2015. The jet- setting job has taken him to 26 EU countries in 18 months to make sure the Citys voice is heard before Brexit.

Financial experts say the City is particularly vulnerable to the disruptive effects of Brexit, with knock-on effects for the rest of the economy. Nearly 12 per cent of the UKs tax revenues come from the financial services industry, which employs more than seven per cent of all UK workers.

It has been claimed the banking and financial services sector could lose tens of thousands of jobs as a result of Brexit.
A British grandmother on Death Row for drug-smuggling faces losing her last chance to escape the firing squad after thousands of pounds to fund a final appeal went missing.

Well-wishers and church groups raised 40,000 to help Lindsay Sandiford, 61, appeal against the death penalty for smuggling 10 lb of cocaine into Bali in 2012.

The money was paid into accounts controlled by Indonesian legal advocate Ursa Supit, who used to work with British charity Reprieve.

A British grandmother on Death Row for drug-smuggling faces losing her last chance to escape the firing squad after thousands of pounds to fund a final appeal went missing

But 18 months after receiving the funds, Supit has failed to lodge an appeal  despite withdrawing 7,800 to make the arrangements.

She has also refused requests from Sandiford to produce bank statements to account for the remaining money and has now cut off all contact with her.

Friends of Supit say the 45-year-old is a drug addict and is unable to account for the funds.

Sandiford, of Redcar, Teesside, said: I could now be taken away and executed at any time.

Well-wishers and church groups raised 40,000 to help Lindsay Sandiford, 61, appeal against the death penalty for smuggling 10 lb of cocaine into Bali in 2012. The money was paid into accounts controlled by Indonesian legal advocate Ursa Supit, who used to work with British charity Reprieve

Supit is living on an island near Bali where she bought a three-year lease on a complex of holiday bungalows.

She did not respond to calls from The Mail on Sunday.

Sandiford has had no legal representation since her previous lawyer was jailed for corruption in an unrelated case in 2015.

The British Government has refused to fund her appeal.
Shia LaBeouf looked haggard in photographs that show the troubled star for the first time since he hurled racial abuse at police officers during his arrest on Saturday.

The 31-year-old actor furrowed his brows and sported a scruffy beard while walking to the set of the film The Peanut Butter Falcon wearing a striped t-shirt, sweat shorts and white ankle socks on Friday.

LaBeouf yelled 'F*** you b****' and ranted about 'black' porn before he was arrested in a Georgia hotel lobby at 4am on Saturday by the Savannah Police Department. He was later released after posting $7,000 bond.

LaBeouf, who issued an apology after body camera footage of his arrest was released, wrote on Wednesday: 'I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and make no excuses for it.'

Scroll down for video

Shia LaBeouf looked haggard in photographs that show the troubled star for the first time since he hurled racial abuse at police officers during his arrest on Saturday

The 31-year-old actor furrowed his brows and sported a scruffy beard while walking to the set of the film The Peanut Butter Falcon

According to police, the incident was sparked when LaBeouf was rebuked by a bystander he asked for a cigarette on Saturday.

Police said he then became disorderly and abused an officer, before he ran to his hotel in an attempt to avoid being arrested.

But LaBeouf was booked and charged with public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and obstruction.

In a video obtained byTMZ, the Hollywood star can be seen ranting and raving at police while he was being held inside the station prior to his release.

'F*** you b****, f*** you b****,' he is heard telling the white police officer at the start of the first clip.

'Hey, when you go home to your wife, what do you tell her at night? You know she watches porn, she probably watches the x-f***ing big boys and s***, like looking at black d***.

LaBeouf (left and right) is seen in a police body camera video during his arrest in Georgia over the weekend

'Don't you feel f***ed up being white about that? Don't you feel like 'f*** man, I ain't got all the goods'. Don't you feel like a white joke?'

The video then ends as he is led away by two other officers.

However, he continues the racist tirade  this time at a black police officer  in another video showing him being booked into the system.

LaBeouf was released from a Georgia jail after posting $7,000 bond for charges of public drunkenness after getting aggressive over a cigarette

The 31-year-old actor was sat at a desk while a white police officer was entering some information on a computer, but LaBeouf took offense with a black cop also sat at the table.

'You're going to hell, straight to hell, bro,' he said, seemingly to the white cop, before switching his attack to the black officer.

'You especially that's sad as f***, because he's a black man.'

The white cop is then heard replying, 'that don't mean he's going to hell', to which the actor responded: 'It means a whole lot, bro.'

LaBeouf tweeted out an apology on Wednesday night after the videos of his arrest were published

LaBeouf then complained that he was arrested because the police were 'racist', saying: 'You got me in here on a f***ing hold from a black man who arrested me for being white.

'I'm sitting around asking three black people to have a cigarette, you motherf***ers want to call me a racist.

'It happened just like that, it's super simple. You call me whatever you want you have me sitting here for this dumb a** s*** for no reason it's your word against my word.'

The new videos were released after footage emerged Monday showing part of his arrest.

LaBeouf launched into a tirade at the officers by first declaring: 'I have rights! I'm an American!'

He continued on to demand to know why he was being taken into custody at his hotel, before he is seen in the video being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser, all the while heaping verbal abuse on the officers.

An officer then attempted to have a conversation with LaBeouf, but the refused, shouting about his handcuffs: 'You gonna put these s***s off my arms or you'll be f***ing f***ed.'

LaBeouf then turned political in his rant, telling the black officer: 'You got a president that don't give a s*** about you, and you're stuck in a police force that don't give a f*** about you, so you wanna arrest white people who give a f***, who ask for cigarettes?'

The incensed actor is then seen in the clip ramping up the vitriol, declaring: 'I came up to you trying to be nice, you stupid b****, I came up to you asking for a cigarette, you dumb f***. Why would I ask for a cigarette if I was racist, you stupid b****?'

He then boasted: 'I got more millionaire lawyers than you know what to do with, you stupid b****.'

The footage, which appears to have been edited down, concludes with LaBeouf standing against a wall and lamenting that his handcuffs are too tight.

'Why am I in custody? Why am I in custody?' he shouted in the video.

A second video obtained by DailyMail.com on Monday afternoon showed the actor continuing to hurl abuse at the officers and rant about race as he was being taken to jail.

'You're a pirate, b****!' LaBeouf howled from the back of the squad car in the clip, adding: 'And you put your own kind in the pen for nothing.'

He continued: 'You put a white man in the pen, for what, you f***ing b****?' for asking a black man for a cigarette?'

The Hollywood star then once again brought up his high-priced attorney, yelling: 'I pay my taxes, you dumb b****. You're about to meet my lawyer...and you'll feel like a stupid, slimy w****. Enjoy your life, that's your legacy, you f***ing coward.'

The video then ended with the actor seen being stood up against the wall, with his hands still restrained.

He issued a statement on Wednesday that read: 'I don't know if these statements are too frequent, or not shared often enough, but I am certain that my actions warrant a very sincere apology to the arresting officers, and I am grateful for their restraint.

'The severity of my behavior is not lost on me.'

He continued: 'My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst.

'It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom. I have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps towards securing my sobriety and hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes.'

The actor is currently in the Savannah area filming his new movie, The Peanut Butter Falcon, along with Dakota Johnson, playing an outlaw on the run in a modern-day rendition of what is being dubbed a Mark Twain tale.

The actor has had a number of run-ins with police, having been arrested earlier this year after an altercation at an anti-Trump performance he was staging in January.

He was also arrested in 2005 and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, after ramming a neighbor's car with his in a road rage incident, in 2008 for drunk driving, in 2014 for disorderly conduct and criminal trespass at New York's Studio 54 theater, and on two more occasions in 2007 and 2008.
A Special Forces commando told last night how he was hounded out after being falsely accused of killing three civilians during a fierce battle in Afghanistan.

The Special Boat Service sergeant resigned in disgust following a year-long Royal Military Police (RMP) investigation into the deaths of two women and a child.

The inquiry was launched after one of their relatives, a village elder, made a 15,000 compensation claim.

A Special Forces commando told last night how he was hounded out after being falsely accused of killing three civilians during a fierce battle in Afghanistan (Stock image)

RMP detectives accused the sergeant of indiscriminately firing grenades into the home of an Afghan family, even though official records confirmed the SBS unit had not used the weapon.

Following the battle, SBS troops returned the same number of grenades to base that they had been issued with.

The commando told The Mail on Sunday how he was questioned four times by military police, who challenged his testimony and the post-battle reports signed off by UK commanders.

The sergeant was eventually exonerated but as the experience left him feeling harassed, he chose to end his distinguished 19-year career.

The Special Boat Service sergeant resigned in disgust following a year-long Royal Military Police (RMP) investigation into the deaths of two women and a child. Attack helicopters were called in

His distressing account comes after The Mail on Sunday exposed flaws in the RMPs 6 million war crimes probe, Operation Northmoor, which troops have labelled a witch-hunt.

The former sergeant said: Each time I was questioned, the RMP insisted Id killed three civilians by firing an under-slung grenade launcher (UGL) into their house. The police wouldnt take No for an answer... The accusations continued for a year, ruining how I felt about my career and almost my marriage because I was so fed up. Afterwards I never wanted to serve my country again. So I resigned.

The official report into the 2011 battle, which was written by the sergeant and approved by Special Forces chiefs, reveals the dangers faced by the troops as they approached a Taliban stronghold on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and how they prioritised the safety of local people.

The elders 15,000 claim was dismissed

It reads: Within minutes of our arrival, radio intercepts revealed the enemy were present in large numbers and they were reinforcing. I was concerned about the risk of civilian casualties and that we could be drawn into a 360 (when troops are surrounded by enemy on all sides). Our mission had been compromised, probably by Afghan National Security Forces.

Then at 0450hrs the enemy launched their first rocket-propelled grenade strike. Another SBS trooper climbed on to the roof of a compound and identified their firing position.

I then called in an attack helicopter (AH) for support. Fearing an AH attack, seven enemy moved into two pick-up trucks.

We engaged both. One got away and one crashed. Four enemy in the second pick-up were KIA (killed in action)... We did not fire UGL and at no point did I see any civilians.

The sergeant continued: The RMP interviewers wanted to prove something against me, which simply hadnt happened. It felt like harassment, like they thought I was a war criminal. It made me call time on my military career.

The elders 15,000 claim was dismissed. An MoD spokesman said: Our military served with great courage and professionalism... Where credible allegations are raised it is right they are effectively investigated by an independent police force like the Royal Military Police.

They have found no evidence of criminal behaviour by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, have discontinued over 90 per cent of the 675 allegations made and fewer than ten investigations now remain.
The older brother of Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestones estranged husband left just 220,000 after his unexplained death last year.

Lee Stunt, 37, was found dead in September at his parents home in Surrey amid speculation that he took an accidental overdose of prescription pills.

In contrast to his brother James, 35, who has been described as a billionaire and is in the throes of a bitter divorce from socialite Petra, court documents show he left a gross estate of 242,329.

Lee Stunt (left), 37, was found dead in September at his parents home in Surrey amid speculation that he took an accidental overdose of prescription pills

That was reduced to a net figure of 226,229 after his financial affairs were resolved.

Because he failed to make a will, his wife Elizabeth, 34, who lived with him in a modest house near Bracknell in Berkshire, will inherit his estate.

Lee Stunt was chief operating officer of Stunt & Co, one of his younger brothers companies, which sells gold bullion to investors.

Despite turning over more than 43 million, the company made a loss of 840,000 between November 2014 and March last year, according to the latest available accounts.

The companys website said Lee had more than 15 years experience in printing production, digital marketing, and cable distribution.

In contrast to his brother James (right), 35, who has been described as a billionaire and is in the throes of a bitter divorce from socialite Petra (left), court documents show he left a gross estate of 242,329

According to reports, Lees body was found by his publishing director father Geoffrey at his parents 3.5 million mansion on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water.

An inquest has yet to take place.

Lees brother James, who boasts of a collection of vintage cars, fine wines and art, married former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestones daughter Petra in 2011.

Their 12 million wedding took place in an Italian castle, but they are now locked in a divorce battle.
To be reminded of India on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District is surprising. But that's the case during a stay in The Malabar near Sedbergh, which, as it happens, has just been crowned Cumbria's Bed & Breakfast of the Year.

Indian flavour: The Malabar's plush sitting room, where you can enjoy afternoon tea (or a G&T)

Another accolade for the Lake District, which was awarded Unesco World Heritage status this week.

The owners, Graham and Fiona Lappin, lived in Mumbai for five years and returned with enviable baggage from their travels.

Sleep well: Rooms are furnished with luxury textiles from Indian interiors company Good Earth

Our room, the Ladbroke, named after a bungalow on the Munnar tea plantation has a planter's chair, ornate chest and gorgeous textiles from Good Earth, a luxury Indian furnishing company.

Bed Tea, as it's called, is brought to the door in the morning on the back of an elephant (no, not a real one). Outside in the hallway is the back of a tuk tuk, the words 'horn please!' emblazoned across it.

Breakfast is greedily gorgeous  you can combine a Cumbrian fry-up (plus homemade beans) with a spiced lassi. Walks are easily accessible  you'll need them.

The couple will even drive you to the start of a trail head. We are deposited below a waterfall leading up to Cautley Spout. Near the top, we meet a group of ramblers led by a chap in his 80s. They're made of stern stuff around here.

Revival time: Rooms come with painted baths - such as the bright yellow of sunny Camellia

In Sedbergh, we watch runners finishing a Fell run and marvel that they can sprint the steep slope we stomped. It's enough to make you hungry and, happily, Sedbergh is well-served.

The Three Hares Cafe on the High Street is a homely spot for lunch and the Dalesman pub is the sort of hearty place to serve calamari and chunky chips for a starter and jugs of gravy as a side. Again, you'll need the walks.

Wonderful walks: Tread the Dales Way route to burn off the excellent Cumbrian pub grub

In the evening sun, we wander down to the grand old railway viaduct, which you pass on the Dales Way. Then back to the hotel for a gin and tonic in The Malabar's sitting room.

The Lappins say they feel lucky to live in such a special place. We feel lucky to stay with them.
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Kocabahce is its name but everybody, even the Turks, calls it Sailors Paradise.

Its exactly that, a rustic restaurant and home-made jetty at the head of a pocket fjord in probably the prettiest bay, on the loveliest coastline in the Aegean. Its just around the corner from Bodrum.

My wife and I have been sailing here for 20 years. Weve watched the palm trees and the oleander grow up to frame the simple wooden building.

Sailor's delight: BBC Journalist Michael Buerk returned to Bodrum in Turkey once again, having sailed there for 20 years

Weve been greedy with the best meze in the Gulf and drunk raki late into the night with Mehmet, the mournful little man whos put his heart and soul into this wonderful place.

He has much to be mournful about. The boats are largely gone. The tourist gangs of middle-aged German men head for Croatia. The English have moved to Greece. The flotillas have fled.

Its not paradise lost, its paradise abandoned.

Turkish tourism fell by as much as 50 per cent last year, and this year it seems worse. But tourists dont know much about Turkey, and even less about geography, and are spooked by recent events. No matter the Syrian war is roughly 1,000 miles away  as far as Ukraine is from us.

No matter the bombings have been in Istanbul and Ankara, farther away from somewhere like Marmaris than Cologne is from London. The truth is that Turkeys resorts feel free, calm, safe and determinedly secular. Selfishly, all this is great.

The anchorages this year are largely deserted, the restaurants and traders keen, verging on desperate. So we decided it was the ideal time to go to Bodrum, a town we have avoided because it is buzzy, fashionable  the so-called St Tropez of Turkey.

Glorious: The white-washed houses on Bodrum's harbour are charming. The town is dominated by its Castle of St Peter

An added incentive was a chance to sample the newest and possibly most luxurious development.

We squeezed our shabby little boat onto the jetty of the Caresse hotel, between the hotels sleek gulet boat and its jet-set speedboat, with such lack of skill we nearly destroyed them both.

The reception committee hid any alarm behind fixed smiles and stepped smartly forward with welcome cocktails and chilled towels.

Its taken five years and, according to the locals, 116 million to build Caresse. The locations perfect. Its on the edge of Bodrum, ranked down a steep hillside above the sea. It looks over the most beautiful, unspoilt view of Black Island and the Gulf of Gokova.

You can see it from nearly all of the 67 rooms and nine suites, let alone the infinity pools, the beach of imported sand, the two restaurants, bars and acres of the finest Burmese teak decking which, on its own, is said to have cost 1.5 million. Its determinedly modern and high tech.

Caresse is doing better than many Bodrum hotels. But it was launched when Bodrum was getting a million tourists a year and this drastic downturn makes even the very top end a (comparative) bargain.

Sumptuous: Michael stayed at the Caresse Hotel, which has taken some five years and an eye-watering 116 million to build

Caresses spa helped make it European Resort of the Year. Ive always been sniffy about massage. But the Thai therapists with fists like jackhammers gave me the kind of brisk going-over that had my muscles still singing at sundown.

Bodrum itself was better than I remembered. Attractive even.

The white-washed, blue-edged houses are charming and the town is dominated by the Castle of St Peter, built in the 15th century. It houses a fine underwater archaeology exhibition  including the wreck of a ship that sank in 400 BC.

Bodrum has long been the town of choice for the Istanbul glitterati and foreign tourists who still go. The downturn has done us all a favour. The night club party boats seem to have been an early casualty. Even our puny pound goes a long way in Turkey these days.

The people have always been warm, the food excellent, the coastline beautiful and studded with antiquity, the climate ideal. Now its even cheaper and were spoiled for choice.
Rating:

Once in a while a new hotel comes along and you want it to succeed so badly.

Not because its a bargain (it isnt), nor because everything is perfect (far from it), but because you can tell how much effort (and money) has gone into it.

The Lalit is the Lalit Suri groups first venture outside Asia, occupying a former school near Tower Bridge, and its been brought back to life in spectacular fashion.

Makeover: The Lalit is the Lalit Suri groups first venture outside Asia, occupying a former school near Tower Bridge - which has been brought back to life in spectacular fashion

It was the dream of the founder, Lalit Suri, to open a hotel in London, but he did not live to see it fulfilled. A candle is lit every day beneath his portrait near reception.

There are 70 classrooms  Cosy, Junior and Senior. Ours is a Junior (were upgraded without having to ask) and its, well, top of the class, with a wood floor, embroidered bedhead, furniture and mirrors from India, marble shower room, and loo that squirts water in all the right places if you so wish.

The school theme continues downstairs  the bar is The Headmasters Room; Teachers Room is a small den; and then theres the Great Hall, which houses Baluchi restaurant.

Problem is that creating a jolly atmosphere in a huge, vaulted assembly hall is tricky. The blue ceiling, dark wood and garish blue chandeliers try their hardest, but you never get away from a sense of being institutionalised.

Inventive and intriguing: The building alone puts to shame some of the dreary new-builds along the riverbank, the Inspector notes. All it needs is a spark to bring the place alive

The food is posh Indian, which means expensive. Our restaurant bill with just one glass of wine and no desserts comes to 120. Only two other tables are occupied. Its all spookily quiet.

But everyone is trying hard. The doorman in full Indian tunic longs to welcome the throng; the waitresses want you to savour every morsel of the chefs Kashmiri rogan josh.

The Mayor of Londons office is a hop and a skip away  and he should encourage his staff to look in for a drink if nothing else.

The building alone puts to shame some of the dreary new-builds along the riverbank. All it needs is a spark to bring the place alive.

We havent done a lot of marketing yet, says a member of staff. No, but someone needs to get on the case pronto.
For many holidaymakers heading abroad this summer, one irksome cost has disappeared.

Roaming charges for using a mobile phone in most of Europe were outlawed last month under European Commission rules.

The changes mean we now pay the same as we do in the UK to make calls, send texts and use data when we are in any of the 27 other European Union countries.

As of last month, we now pay the same as we do in the UK to make calls, send texts and use data when we are in any of the 27 other European Union countries

The new roam like at home rules also apply in European Economic Area countries  Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

This is great news, but be warned: there are potential pitfalls. For example, dont fall into the trap of thinking that roaming is now free wherever you are in Europe.

Some operators have extended roaming at no extra cost beyond EU countries  for example, with Vodafone to the Channel Islands, Albania, Switzerland and Turkey. However, with EE, O2 and Three, you still have to pay high fees to roam in Turkey.

Operators are also allowed to impose fair use restrictions for data usage where domestic plans include unlimited data, and charge if you exceed their limits.

But while some operators have decided to set such a limit  with Three for a contract customer it is 12GB a month  not all are following suit, so check with your provider.

Beyond those European countries where roaming charges have been abolished, staying connected when travelling can still be very expensive.

Some operators have extended roaming at no extra cost beyond EU countries  for example, with Vodafone to Turkey (pictured). With EE, O2 and Three, though, this is not the case

With O2, for example, the standard rate for pay-monthly customers in popular holiday destinations such as Barbados, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates is 1.50 a minute to make a call, 1.25 a minute to receive a call, 40p to send a text and 6 to use 1MB of data (1MB is a tiny amount  downloading a song typically uses at least 3MB).

Moreover, from next month roaming charges outside the EU will be subject to 20 per cent VAT, so unless operators absorb the tax rise, rates may shoot up.

But there are ways to avoid, or at least minimise, roaming costs outside the EU

Use Three

Its Feel At Home arrangement, which lets customers roam using their UK call, text and data allowances, covers a number of major long-haul holiday destinations. These include the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, and Brazil and Singapore have just been added to the list.

Just bear in mind that in these countries you still have to pay extra for calls to local numbers made within the destination youre visiting  such as making a reservation with a New York restaurant while you are in the Big Apple.

Sign up for an add-on roaming package with other operators

It is likely to work out far cheaper than roaming on their standard rates. For example, the O2 Travel add-on, which pay-monthly customers can use in dozens of countries outside its Europe Zone, gives unlimited data, 120 minutes for calls and 120 texts for 4.99 a day.

Use free wi-fi

I cannot think of a hotel or self-catering rental Ive stayed at abroad in the past year which hasnt offered some free internet access. And a growing number of cities are offering free wi-fi hotspots, such as New York (see link.nyc).

Even in EU countries where data roaming now costs nothing extra, its better to use wi-fi so that you dont eat up any data allowances.

You can track down free-access hotspots around the world on a wi-fi app (wifimap.io), and Facebook has also just started rolling out a feature for locating free wi-fi.

With free wi-fi, you can make voice or video calls with family and friends on internet-enabled services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Apples FaceTime without costing a penny. They really are the best way to stay in touch during your travels.
Looking to join a group trip as a singleton, but worried you won't fit in?

Or hunting for a cosy cottage in the Lake District that won't break the bank?

Mail on Sunday's Travel Editor Frank Barrett answers your travel questions this week.

Flash Pack is a travel company for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s which runs off-the-beaten-track trips to places including Finland (stock image)

QUESTION: I am a 35-year-old singleton thinking about joining a group trip, but I fear I might end up with a bunch of people I have nothing in common with. Solo Sam, by email

ANSWER: Try Flash Pack (flashpack.com), a travel company for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s.

It organises off-the-beaten-track trips, including hiking in Perus Rainbow Mountain or a Northern Lights and husky-sledding adventure in Finland.

The company even arranges social events before trips so that people can break the ice with fellow travellers.

Sykes Cottages has a range of properties in the Lake District, including Frost Cottage on the shore of Windermere (pictured)

QUESTION: Ive just spotted that the Lake District has been awarded World Heritage status. Can you recommend a cosy cottage for two there? Sally, by email

ANSWER: Sykes Cottages (sykescottages.co.uk) has a range of properties in the area, including Frost Cottage on the shore of Windermere  it costs from 319 for seven nights.

The property was a scientific research station before being transformed into a holiday let.
There have been numerous reports that their marriage is on the rocks.

But it seems all is fine and well between Australian model Bambi Northwood-Blyth and her husband Dan Single.

A source close to the Ksubi founder told the Sydney Morning Herald this week that split speculation is false and that the pair are in fact still together.

Still going strong! Australian model Bambi Northwood-Blyth and her husband Dan Single are 'still together' despite split speculation, a source revealed this week

'[Bambi] was with him every day, except a couple when working, while they were in Paris and she actually flew with him back to Sydney. She then returned to work in Europe shortly after,' the insider told the publication.

'All her 'gallivanting' trips have been for work and, while Dan would love to be with her, his current circumstances means that he obviously can't travel,' the source added referring to Dan's balcony fall accident in April this year.

The fashion designer previously took to crowdfunding website GoFundMe to ask the public to for $250,000 to help fund his hospital bill, rehab bill and early flights home.

Still together: '[Bambi] was with him every day, except a couple when working, while they were in Paris and she actually flew with him back to Sydney. She then returned to work in Europe shortly after,' they told the publication

Dan wrote on his GoFundMe page, which has since been taken down, 'Yes! Everything you have heard is true.'

'I fell three floors (35 metres) out of my hotel room in Paris, did a (somersault) and landed on my feet (a miracle) saved my spine and feet,' adding that he shattered every bone in his body from his feet, hips and pelvis.

He was in a coma for two weeks and underwent eight operations, which saw bolts and pins put in his bones.

'I am also lucky to have my family here by my side, wife, mother, brother and at least a visitor a day,' Dan said.

Working hard: 'All [Bambi's] 'gallivanting' trips have been for work and, while Dan would love to be with her, his current circumstances means that he obviously can't travel,' the source added referring to Dan's balcony fall accident in April this year

Lucky man: 'I am also lucky to have my family here by my side, wife, mother, brother and at least a visitor a day'

This comes after Bambi recently shared snaps of her bikini clad self on Italian holiday with the blatant caption: 'DONT WANT TO LEAVE.'

She was seen sitting on the sand cross-legged in a burgundy bandeau two-piece.

The brunette flashed a hint of cleavage as she leaned forward, resting her arms on her slender legs.

'FLIGHT # DONT WANT TO LEAVE THANK YOU ITALY,' she wrote in all-caps, clearly not looking forward to returning to her Sydney home.

'DONT WANT TO LEAVE': Bambi Northwood Blyth took to Instagram to post one last bikini snap from her sun-soaked Italian vacation, flaunting cleavage as she sat on the sand

Twinning: Bambi Northwood Blyth (L) and Tahnee Atkinson (R) wore matching bikinis at the beach in Italy

The beauty had spent the week sharing busty bikini snaps from her Italian holiday destination, alongside fellow model Tahnee Atkinson, 25.

A source told The Daily Telegraph that the pair are currently living apart as the future of their marriage remains unknown after Dan had started a GoFund Me page to pay for his medical treatment.

'Bambi was mortified Dan would ask his friends and the wider community for money, particularly given their somewhat ostentatious lifestyle over the past decade,' said the insider.
She's sunning herself in the South of France with a small group of family and friends on their getaway which has become a tradition.

And Kimberley Garner was having the time of her life as she enjoyed a spot of shopping in St. Tropez, France on Friday.

Former Made In Chelsea's Kimberley, 27, flashed a glimpse of her cleavage in the key-hole floral playsuit as she basked in the glorious sunshine.

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Shopping in style: Kimberley Garner was having the time of her life as she enjoyed a spot of shopping in St. Tropez, France on Friday

The swimwear designer also showcased her long slender legs in the thigh-skimming garment when she made her way through the picturesque streets.

Tossing her golden hair off her face, Kimberley completed her look with smoky-eyed makeup.

For a hint of sparkle, the reality star hit the streets in gold studded sandals as she switched into holiday mode on her sun-soaked getaway.

Such a tease! Former Made In Chelsea's Kimberley, 27, flashed a glimpse of her cleavage in the key-hole floral playsuit as she basked in the glorious sunshine

Stunning: The swimwear designer also showcased her long slender legs in the thigh-skimming garment when she made her way through the picturesque streets

The starlet admitted her stay in the South of France has become something of a ritual every year.

Kimberley told MailOnline: 'I've been coming here since I was little each summer - so it's sort of a family tradition now.

'It's really nice to spend some time with them. I have some girlfriends staying too.'

Getting into holiday mode! The reality star hit the streets in gold studded sandals, not needing to add to her height and adding to her comfort

Leggy exit: She basked in the glorious French sunshine as she stretched her legs

The family holiday comes after the beauty was spotted getting cosy with F1 driver Lance Stroll, 18, on a 200million superyacht in Italy.

As for romance, she is recently single after calling it quits on her long-term relationship ahead of the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival A-list affair.

At the time, she told MailOnline: 'I ended the relationship recently. It was a really wonderful three years and we are still good friends today.'

Beautiful: Kimberley completed her look with smoky-eyed makeup and a slick of cherry blossom lipstick

She's a regular! The starlet admitted her stay in the South of France has become something of a ritual every year

The socialite was notoriously tight-lipped about the identity of her previous long-term boyfriend, who was often seen with her in west London.

Speaking to The Sun during her appearance at Cannes Film Festival, she said: 'It was a great relationship. Id love to meet someone with a great personality  its all about the personality for me.'

Kimberley joined Made In Chelsea in March 2012 before departing the following November, as she featured in some extremely tumultuous storylines.

She dated Richard Dinan on the show, with the businessman whisking Kimberley off on romantic dates and later a holiday to Italy.

Flying solo! The golden-haired beauty recently split from her long-term boyfriend

Secret romance: The socialite was notoriously tight-lipped about the identity of her previous long-term boyfriend, who was often seen with her in west London

Happier times: She was seen getting cosy with F1 driver Lance Stroll, 18, in Italy

Rise to fame: Kimberley joined Made In Chelsea in March 2012 before departing the following November

Exposed: She featured in some extremely tumultuous storylines on the E4 reality show
Rapper DMX has posted bail after he turned himself in to authorities on federal charges of tax fraud.

The 46-year-old rapper - whose given name is Earl Simmons - is accused of owing $1.7 million in taxes.

He posted $500k bond after he was charged with multiple counts of tax evasion, according to TMZ on Friday.

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Legal trouble: Rapper DMX has been bailed, after being arrested in New York on Thursday, on federal tax fraud charges

He appeared in Manhattan Federal court on Friday, wearing a New York City hoodie.

Prosecutors say the Yonkers native engaged in a multi-year scheme to conceal millions of dollars of income from the Internal Revenue Service.

The rapper pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of tax evasion, according to the website.

TMZ says that Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. District Attorney's Office, told them that DMX has been given travel restrictions that will require him to remain close to his New York home.

Tax avoidance? The 46-year-old rapper - whose given name is Earl Simmons - is accused of owing $1.7 million in taxes

Charged: He appeared in Manhattan Federal court on Friday, after being arrested Thursday

Out on bail: He posted $500k bond after he was charged with multiple counts of tax evasion, according to TMZ on Friday

He will also be subject to strict drug testing and is not allowed to have any firearms on him while on bail.

Prosecutors say Simmons raked in millions from his songs, including the 2003 hit X Gon' Give it to Ya, and avoided paying taxes by setting up accounts in other's names and paying personal expenses largely in cash.

They also allege that when Simmons participated in the reality show Celebrity Couples Therapy in 2011 and 2012, he was paid $125,000.

Case against him: Prosecutors say the Yonkers native engaged in a multi-year scheme to conceal millions of dollars of income from the Internal Revenue Service

The rapper pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of tax evasion, according to the website

Prosecutors say Simmons raked in millions from his songs, including the 2003 hit X Gon' Give it to Ya, and avoided paying taxes

He was accompanied by his lawyer Murray Richman, who spoke to waiting press

The rapper was relaxed at court, wearing a New York City hoodie

DMX was alongside his lawyer after his arraignment on Friday

He was able to walk out after posting half a million dollars in bail

The rapper looked serious after pleading not guilty to the charges against him

However, they claim that when taxes were withheld from the check for the first installment of that fee by the producer, the rapper refused to tape the remainder of the television show until the check was reissued without withholding taxes.

In 2015, Simmons spent more than two months in a New York jail for failing to pay child support.

Beginning in 1997, SIMMONS released a series of hip-hop albums that sold millions of records. Many of his albums went platinum and occupied the top positions on musical charts.

DMX was seen outside court
Last week rumours were rife that Declan Donnelly could be returning to host I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here.

But following denials from Holly Willoughby's camp, sources claiming to be close to Declan Donnelly have also hit back at the reports.

Arguing that he is like a brother to Anthony McPartlin, who is currently seeking drug and drink therapy in rehab, they report he will only return to the show with his long-time co-host.

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Hitting back: Following denials from Holly Willoughby's camp, sources close to Declan Donnelly have slammed reports that he will return to the jungle without Anthony McPartlin

Speaking to The Mirror, the source argued that Ant still has 'months' to recover from his addiction, and the duo hope to to return to the jungle and put this chapter of their career behind them.

'Dec wouldn't work on screen without Ant on any major show and he has said the last thing he would do is go to Australia without him,' they explained.

'To say he would consider working with Holly was ridiculous. He is a good friend of hers but he would not do that to Ant.

Clarifying that the duo come as a package, they concluded: 'Ant and Dec are a team with a huge emotional bond, they are like brothers and and Dec will only be hosting I'm A Celebrity with Ant by his side.

It's a no: Arguing that he is like a brother to Anthony McPartlin, who is currently seeking drug and drink therapy in rehab, they report he will only return to the show with his co-host

This comes just days after Holly's representatives also hit back at the reports.

After it was claimed that Holly could be in line to host I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here with Declan Donnelly if Ant McPartlin needs to spend more time in recovery.

But unfortunately for fans of the This Morning presenter, the reports are 'total nonsense', with a representative for the categorically denying the allegations.

According to the Daily Star, ITV bosses are already trying to plan ahead in case the presenter, who is currently in rehab, doesn't feel up to the stint in Australia.

Jane of the jungle? Holly Willoughby's representatives have denied claims she could be in line to host I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here with Declan Donnelly

A source close to Ant told the paper: 'I'm a Celeb is ITV's biggest show of the year so they're keen to get a plan in place should Ant want to continue his down time.

'Holly is the number one choice, she's the nation's favourite and already a huge fan of the show - the perfect Jane of the jungle to Dec's Tarzan!

'She's wholesome, fun and has the experience needed to pull off the comedy links expected of the presenters.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ant for comment.

Backup: ITV bosses are reportedly trying to plan ahead in case the presenter, who is currently in rehab, doesn't feel up to the stint in Australia

Ant checked into rehab after confirming he planned to battle his demons in June.

The star admitted he had spiralled into depression and substance abuse following a painful knee injury and fertility issues.

His statement to the publication read: 'The first step is to admit to yourself you need help. I've let people down. I'm truly sorry.

'I feel like I have let a lot of people down and for that I'm truly sorry. I want to thank my wife, family and closest friends through this really difficult time.

Troubles: Ant checked into rehab after admitting he had spiralled into depression and substance abuse following a painful knee injury and fertility issues

'I have spoken out because I think it is important that people ask for help if they are going through a rough time and get the proper treatment to help their recovery.'

He has been battling his condition for two years after an operation on his knee went wrong, leaving him in constant pain. Following his knee operation he began taking the opioid painkiller Tramadol and became addicted.

I'm a Celebrity is one of ITV's most popular shows, regularly pulling in more than 10 million viewers a night in November and early December.

Ant and Dec are ITV's star duo and have racked up 16 National Television Awards for Best Presenter.

Top talent: A source close to Ant told the Star: 'She's wholesome, fun and has the experience needed to pull off the comedy links expected of the presenters'

The pair, who have hosted I'm a Celebrity since the show's beginnings in 2002, also present two of the channel's highest rated shows; Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Britain's Got Talent.

Their packed schedule means the duo are usually completely busy from November to June every year.

After the Geordie pair, Holly is arguably ITV's most prized talent.

Flagship programme: I'm a Celebrity is one of ITV's most popular shows, regularly pulling in more than 10 million viewers a night in November and early December

The television veteran is a hit with viewers and has presented Celebrity Juice and Dancing on Ice as well as This Morning.

Holly and her co-star Phillip Schofield are close friends with Ant and Dec.

The group of friends uphold an annual tradition of going to Ant's house after the National Television Awards.

Good mates: Holly and her co-star Phillip Schofield are close friends with Ant and Dec, and the pair always go back to Ant's house after the National Television Awards

Holly and Phil addressed Ant's admission on This Morning on June 19.

Phil said: 'We wanted to take this moment to send our love and best wishes to our mate Ant.

'As you may have seen he's checked into a rehab clinic for help with substance abuse, prescription drugs and alcohol.'

Holly called the television presenter 'brave' for coming clean about his struggles.
It's the obstacle course reality show that has proved a hit with viewers since its premiere on Sunday.

And it seems that Australian Ninja Warrior is just as big a hit with the men as the ladies.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the show, which enticed 1.68 million metropolitan viewers on Sunday, 1.6 on Monday and 1.47 on Tuesday had a 50-50 split of male and female viewers.

Testosterone friendly: Australian Ninja Warrior is just as big a hit with males as it is with females

Speaking to the publication, Mediaweek editor James Manning said the down-the-middle gender split could be because the show represents a change from the usual cooking and dating reality fare.

'They think 'I could do that' or 'I could beat him' or 'I could get that far,' they naturally compare how they might have gone on the course,' he said.

The publication reported that figures released by Fusion Strategy reveal that the top 20 shows in 2017 have an 'overall audience bias' of 62 per cent female to 38 per cent male.

Even split: The Daily Telegraph reported that the show, which enticed 1.68 million metropolitan viewers on Sunday, 1.6 on Monday and 1.47 on Tuesday had a 50-50 split of male and female viewers

Fan favourite: Contestant Scott Evennett is known for his no-excuses approach to diet and exercise

Fusion Strategy chief executive Steve Allen told the publication that Australian Ninja Warrior could represent a 'wake-up call' to networks to cultivate more male content in their programming.

'The commercial network programmers and program creators are conscious that too many shows don't have enough male content or viewers,' he said.

'There is no way to can get a show to rate more than one million viewers if you are only attracting one half of the population.'

Mixing it up: Mediaweek editor James Manning said the down-the-middle gender split could be because the show represents a change from the usual cooking and dating reality fare

It seems that the show's figures are making rival networks nervous with news.com.au reporting that Channel Seven are rethinking launch dates for its anticipated shows Hell's Kitchen and Little Big Shots the latter of which was originally slated to premiere against the show on Sunday at 7pm.

'We want to screen Little Big Shots to the biggest audience possible and attempting to split the family audience with Ninja does not feel like a smart play,' Channel Seven program chief Angus Ross told the publication.

A Network Ten spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia planned air dates for The Bachelor and Australian Survivor would not be changed, while Channel Seven said they had not announced an air date for Hell's Kitchen yet.
She's an icon of film known for her portrayal of strong female characters.

But one of Sigourney Weaver's most famous roles almost didn't make it to the screen, the actress confessing she was unimpressed when first approached to play Ellen Ripley in 1979 film Alien.

The 67-year-old movie veteran told the Sydney Morning Herald she was hesitant about taking the role because she didn't like science fiction.

I survived drama school for this? Sigourney Weaver almost refused iconic role in Alien because she didn't like science fiction

Sigourney had graduated from the prestigious Yale School of Drama and was making a name for herself as a New York theatre actress when she was approached for the role of a lifetime.

But the stage performer was unimpressed with the idea of doing science fiction, thinking: 'I survived drama school to do this?'

'It was a very, very bleak script,' the Ghostbusters actress said, also adding that she imagined the aliens in the film would be blob-like.

Not impressed: 'It was a very, very bleak script,' the Ghostbusters actress said, also adding that she had initially imagined the aliens in the film would be blob-like

Scary creatures: The actress changed her mind after meeting with the director and seeing what the aliens would look like

But the actress changed her mind after meeting with the director and seeing what the aliens would look like.

Instead of a typical science fiction movie Alien would be a Shakespearean drama that just happens to be set in space, Sigourney reasoned with herself.

'It wasn't till I met Ridley Scott and saw these amazing drawings by [Alien concept artists] H.R. Giger and Carlo Rambaldi of the alien itself that I thought, "Oh. Well. I've never seen anything like this",' she said.

'I think each of us as actors loaded the alien with other meaning for ourselves': Sigourney attributes the film's cult following down to the alien itself and how it resonates with audience

'It has this malevolence that's beyond reality': The actress said the terrifying creation had staying power

Almost forty years since its release and five more movies later, Sigourney attributes the film's cult following down to the alien itself and how it resonates with audiences.

'I think each of us as actors loaded the alien with other meaning for ourselves. That's one of the reasons the film has traction  because it's not just this thing. It has this malevolence that's beyond reality,' she said.

Since her breakout role in Alien, Sigourney has appeared in more than 30 films, most recently in dark fantasy drama A Monster Calls.
Billie Lourd penned a touching letter in honour of her late mother Carrie Fisher winning a Disney Legends Award.

Fisher - who passed away in December at the age of 60 - was awarded the highest honor The Walt Disney Company can bestow on an individual at the D23 Legends Awards in Anaheim, California on Friday.

Also receiving the honor was legendary Marvel comics editor Stan Lee and Fisher's Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill.

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Loving daughter: Billie Lourd, 24, penned a touching letter in honour of her late mother Carrie Fisher winning a Disney Legends Award in Anaheim, CA on Friday; (pictured 2016)

And although Billie, 24, couldnt be there to accept the award on her mothers behalf, she wrote a touching letter which was read by Disney chairman Bob Iger.

The letter read: 'As far back as I can remember, my mom and I have been Disney fanatics. We went to Disneyland so much that I now realise she might have even loved it more than I did.

'Becoming part of the Disney family was truly an amazing moment for her. She secretly always wanted to be a Disney princess, so getting to be a Disney princess and a Disney legend would have been her ultimate dream.

'I wish I could be there to accept this award on her behalf, but unfortunately, I am currently working on American Horror Story.

Longtime fans: The letter read: 'As far back as I can remember, my mom and I have been Disney fanatics. We went to Disneyland so much that I now realise she might have even loved it more than I did.'

Aww: Billie also paid tribute to her late mother at the Star Wars celebration last year

'I am beyond grateful to Mr. Iger and everyone at Disney for this incredible honour. Thank you again, and may the force be with you always.'

It was recently revealed that the Scream Queens actress has been named the sole beneficiary of Fisher's estate.

Meanwhile, at the D23 Legends Awards, Marvel legend Stan Lee, 94, took to the stage to receive his award.

Arriving in luxury: Mark Hamill was also honored with a Disney Legends Award

A legend arrives: Stan Lee was more than thrilled to arrive at the Anaheim celebration

Immortalized: The Marvel icon got a buzz out of leaving his handprints

'I loved Walt Disney,' Stan said during his speech, 'He was more than a man, he was an inspiration. To think that today Im standing here in the home that Disney built  it is so thrilling.'

Mark Hamill - who played Fisher's brother in Star Wars - had some kind funny words for the original space princess.

'I would love to give my deepest respects for the super cool space sis I have in Carrie Frances Fisher,' Mark told the crowd.

Loving and funny tribute: 'I would love to give my deepest respects for the super cool space sis I have in Carrie Frances Fisher,' Mark told the crowd

Luke, no hands! Hamill also left his prints in cement

'I loved her. We were like siblings. The good and the bad! Wed have huge fights and not speak to one another. But we loved each other, and what a great thrill it was to come back in The Force Awakens at that time in our lives.

'I know if she was here this morning, she would have flipped me the bird at least twice already, so thank you all so much. Im so humbled and so grateful, and I love you all.'

Also in attendance for the ceremony was Oprah Winfrey.

Star-studded affair: Oprah Winfrey was also in attendance

Smack! She planted a peck on Mickeys nose as she left her mark
Girls' Generation will launch their sixth full-length album in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their debut in August.

Since their debut in 2007, Girls' Generation have enjoyed great success at home and across Asia with a number of megahit songs. Besides singing, the girls have expanded their activities to acting and hosting shows on radio and television.
He's one third of the anarchic Australian comedy troupe The Doug Anthony All Stars.

And Tim Ferguson, 53, who has been living with Multiple Sclerosis for more than 20 years, has issued an impassioned plea to help 'end the hell' of young MS sufferers forced into facilities designed for the elderly.

Taking to Twitter this week, the funnyman urged Australians to get behind a campaign to find suitable housing for people living with the disease.

Struggle: Funnyman Tim Ferguson, 53, who has been living with Multiple Sclerosis for more than 20 years, has issues an impassioned plea to help 'end the hell' of young MS sufferers forced into facilities designed for the elderly

'My name is Tim Ferguson, I have MS, so do a lot of people who are much younger than I am,' the comedian said in a video posted to the social media platform.

'What's happening to them is they're being put into aged care homes because their MS is far worse than mine and they're having trouble being able to care for themselves. So it would be great if you could sign on to our petition to help end the hell.

'That way, hopefully we can get some young people out of the old aged care homes and into somewhere cool.'

Impassioned: Taking to Twitter this week, the comedian urged Australians to get behind a campaign to find suitable housing for people living with the disease

Since posting the video to Twitter on Monday, the post has gone viral with 842 retweets and over 1000 likes.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system. It interferes with nerve impulses within the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.

According to MS Australia, one in 20 Australians will experience MS through a family member, colleague or friend living with the disease.

Unsuitable: 'What's happening to them is they're being put into aged care homes because their MS is far worse than mine and they're having trouble being able to care for themselves,' he said in the video. Tim (C) is pictured with Doug Anthony All Stars bandmates Paul Livingston (L) and Paul McDermott (R)

There are approximately 23,000 people living with MS in Australia.

Tim, who is one third of the Doug Anthony All Stars alongside Paul McDermott and Paul 'Flacco' Livingston told Impulse Gamer blog in 2016 that he finds catharsis in mocking the disease on stage.

'Its there for me to poke fun at because like anything thats not fun, MS hates being mocked,' he said. 'Its like right wing politicians and the one thing that they cant cope with is being laughed at, so I laugh at MS and it really gives it the s**ts.

He added that he also wasn't one to take too kindly to pity.

'If people want to feel forlorn over my condition, maybe they should look at their own haircuts more often.
January Jones always channels cool chic when she's seen out.

And the 39-year-old actress was no different on Friday when she and her eight-year-old son Xander jetted into Los Angeles on Friday.

The single mom held her little boy's hand as they walked to their car.

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Staying cool: January Jones and her eight-year-old son Xander were spotted leaving LAX on Friday after jetting into the city

She donned a comfy casual white T-shirt on the hot day with pale blue, boot-cut jeans and white sandals.

The former Mad Men star, who played Betty Draper for eight years until the show wrapped in 2015, wrapped a beige sweater around her waist.

January's straight blonde hair just touched her shoulders and she hid her eyes from the bright sun with a pair of Steven Alan Optical shades.

Comfy chic: The 39-year-old actress donned a white T-shirt on the hot day with pale blue, boot-cut jeans, white sandals, and Steven Alan Optical shades

Her little lad looked cute in a red, blue and white striped T-shirt, camouflage pants and blue sneakers with red laces.

A blonde like his mom, he smiled happily as he walked beside her.

Jones has been keeping busy since Mad Men, which starred Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks, ended two years ago.

The man in her life: She held hands with her little lad, who looked cute in in a red, blue and white striped T-shirt, camouflage pants and blue sneakers with red laces

She has appeared on the show Animals as well as Return Of The Mac.

While doing Mad Men, she squeezed in several big films like X-Men: First Class, Pirate Radio, Sweetwater and Good Kill.

The actress is presently starring in sitcom-drama The Last Man On Earth as one of the survivors of a virus that have knocked out almost all of mankind.

It kicks off season four on October 1.
She plays the self-confident Mother of Dragons on Game of Thrones.

But Emilia Clarke has revealed she suffered some very low moments during her rise to stardom.

'I was plagued by self-doubt and anxiety,' the 30-year-old told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

Tough times: Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, 30 has revealed she suffered some very low moments during her rise to stardom

The personality added that the early seasons of the HBO global phenomenon had her constantly questioning herself and her decisions.

But the British beauty insisted it was in her lowest moments that she was forced to evolve, eventually becoming the woman she is proud of today.

'I want to keep learning and never stop working on myself so that I can be more open and engaged in whatever I do,' Emilia said.

Along with the millions of viewers, the actress admits that she's seen the same growth in Daenerys Targryen, the character she plays on the show.

'I was plagued by self-doubt and anxiety': The personality added that the early seasons of the HBO global phenomenon had her constantly questioning herself and her decisions

When discussing the character that kick started her career, Emilia spoke with a proud affinity.

'Daenerys is a strong and powerful woman. One of the most compelling aspects to her is that she combines the strength of a man with the sensitivity of a woman.'

A large part of Emilia's early-season anxiety came out of the fear of being judged for the nude sex scenes she appeared in.

'I want to never stop working on myself': But the British beauty insisted it was in her lowest moments that she was forced to evolve, eventually becoming the woman she is proud of today

'She combines the strength of a man with the sensitivity of a woman. The actress admits that she's seen the same growth in Daenerys Targryen, the character she plays on the show

'I get a lot of cr*p for having done nudes scenes and sex scenes,' told Elle US earlier this week.

The classically trained actress went on to voice her disappointment at being judged by other women in particular.

'That, in itself, is so anti-feminist. Women hating on other women is just the problem. Thats upsetting.'

'I get a lot of cr*p for having done nudes scenes and sex scenes': A large part of Emilia's early-season anxiety came out of the fear of being judged for the nude sex scenes she appeared in

'That, in itself, is so anti-feminist': The classically trained actress went on to voice her disappointment at being judged by other women in particular

Despite her disappointment, Emilia no longer sees the need to explain her decision to do nude scenes, she told the Huffington Post last month.

'There are plenty of ways in which people want me to respond to questions about this fact. And plenty of reasons why I do not feel the need to justify myself,' she said.

Game Of Thrones Season Seven debuts Monday Morning on Foxtel.
Even the middle child of an A-lister is still the middle child.

Jennifer Garner treated two of her three kids to lunch at Au Fudge on Friday.

The 45-year-old was spotted with 11-year-old Violet and five-year-old Samuel  but eight-year-old Seraphina was nowhere to be found.

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One short: Jennifer Garner treated two of her three kids to lunch at Au Fudge on Friday

Jen was dressed casual for the outing in black sandals and jeans, with a loose fitting black top.

She rocked a pair of shades, and tied her hair back in a bun.

Her daughter, meanwhile, looked summery in a pair of peach-colored shorts, a white vest, and white Ipanema flip flops; her son Samuel wore a grey tee and shorts, and a pair of brown Birkenstocks.

Just like every other photo of her this summer, the actress was all smiles as she emerged with her family after lunch.

Middle child syndrome: The 45-year-old was spotted with Violet, 11, who wore Ipanema flip flops, and five-year-old Samuel  but eight-year-old Seraphina was nowhere to be found

Chilled: Jen was dressed casual for the outing in black sandals and jeans, with a loose fitting black top

Casual: She rocked a pair of shades, and tied her hair back in a bun

The celeb hotspot West Hollywood eatery - tailored specifically towards children - is the brainchild of Jen's Valentine's Day co-star Jessica Biel.

The Miracles From Heaven star has just returned from a working vacation in The Bahamas where she had a speaking event.

She took the kids and her ex Ben on the getaway to the Atlantis Paradise Island resort so her ex could look after the youngsters when she was busy.

Beaming: Just like every other photo of her this summer, the actress was all smiles as she emerged with her family after lunch

Co-stars: The celeb hotspot West Hollywood eatery - tailored specifically towards children - is the brainchild of Jen's Valentine's Day co-star Jessica Biel

Back in town: The Miracles From Heaven star has just returned from a working vacation in The Bahamas where she had a speaking event

The two actors are committed to keeping things as normal as possible for their children despite the end of their marriage.

It's been more that two years since Jennifer and the 44-year-old Batman actor split, although they only recently filed for divorce.

Ben meanwhile has been dating SNL producer Lindsay Shookus.
He's the Logie award winner best known for his roles in Underbelly and House Husbands.

And on Saturday, Gyton Grantley revealed his new role hosting Ten's upcoming lifestyle program Pooches At Play.

The show centres around dog ownership and will draw attention to all the important issues, products and services that canine enthusiasts need to know about.

Actor turned host: On Saturday, Gyton Grantley revealed he'd be putting his acting on hold to host Ten's new show, Pooches At Play

Although calling his dog George his best friend, the 37-year-old said that sometimes he finds it harder to look after him than raise a child.

'There are some cases where I think having a puppy is more work than having a baby,' he told Confidential.

After adopting his Kelpie-Labrador three years ago, the actor said it was a great parenting training course for his ten-month-old son Rocco.

In the loop: After adopting his Kelpie-Labrador three years ago, the actor said it was a great parenting training course for his ten-month-old son Rocco

Hard work: 'There are some cases where I think having a puppy is more work than having a baby'

Stealing the show: Appearing on Studio Ten with the adorable George on Friday, Gyton said he's definitely hard work

Appearing on Studio Ten with the adorable George on Friday, Gyton said he's definitely hard work.

'Being a Kelpie, he has a lot of energy,' he told the hosts.

But although the new dad now has a bigger workload, he insures he still spends ample time with George.

Between daily walks, swimming and watching TV on the couch, Gyton has even set up an Instagram account for his pooch.

Equal time: But although the new dad now has a bigger workload, he insures he still spends ample time with George

Bonding: Between daily walks, swimming and watching TV on the couch, Gyton has even set up an Instagram account for his pooch

Romantic: After five years of dating, Gyton proposed to his now wife Alex during a romantic vacation in Italy

After five years of dating, Gyton proposed to his now wife Alex during a romantic vacation in Italy.

The pair got married in April 2016 before giving birth to Rocco in August the same year.

Gyton and George will both appear on Pooches At Play at 2:30pm on Ten.
They've spent the week sharing enviable loved up shots from their 'babymoon' in Hawaii.

And on Friday, Bachelor winner Snezana Markoski took to Instagram to gush over her hunky fiance Sam Wood, 36.

Taken by the 36-year-old mother-to-be, Sam was topless posing by a beach in Maui.

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Golden god! On Friday, Bachelor winner Snezana Markoski took to Instagram with this photo of her hunky fiance Sam Wood, 36

'How's the view' joked Snezana adding the hashtags, #hottie #paradise and #tomford.

The fitness entrepreneur's bronze physique glistened in the tropical sun as he stared defiantly into the distance.

Fans couldn't help but fawn over the image, with many posting comments that referred to Sam as 'perfect', 'heaven' and 'shredded up like a cut salad'.

Loved up: 'How's the view' joked Snezana adding the hashtags, #hottie #paradise and #tomford

Parents-to-be: The couple who met on The Bachelor 2015 are expecting a baby girl

Sam accessoried his pinup look with a pair of designer Tom Ford sunglasses.

And the love is frequently reciprocated for the couple expecting a baby girl.

Taking to his Instagram, Sam showed off his beautiful fiance and her growing bump.

Bumping along: Taking to his Instagram, Sam showed off his beautiful fiance and her growing bump

Sharing a clip of Snezana dancing side to side in her underwear, he captioned the sweet video, 'cuteness overload.'

And they seem to be making the most of their time away before their bundle of joy due in October arrives.

Snezana already has a daughter, Eve, 12 from a previous relationship who lives with them in their Melbourne abode.
One doesn't look that fantastic without a little help.

Penelope Cruz was spotted stopping off for a touch-up at the Epione Skin Care Center in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The actress was all smiles in flared jeans and white trainers, showing off a hint of cleavage and midriff in a cream silk top, knotted and closed by a single button.

Smooth Cruz! Penelope Cruz was spotted stopping off for a touch-up at the Epione Skin Care Center in Beverly Hills on Friday

She accessorized in circular shades, and an over-sized baby blue purse.

The mother-of-two is far from the only celeb client famous Doctor Simon Ourian; many famous faces are frequently spotted stepping out of the hotspot clinic.

After her visit, the star headed straight for the set of American Crime Story, in which she is set to play Donatella Versace.

The second season of the anthology series tells the story of the murder of Donatella's older brother and fellow fashion designer, Gianni Versace.

On the list: The mother-of-two is far from the only celeb client famous Doctor Simon Ourian; many famous faces are frequently spotted stepping out of the hotspot clinic

Flaunt it: She showed off a hint of cleavage and midriff in a cream silk top, knotted and closed by a single button

Cheery: The actress was all smiles in flared jeans and white trainers

The Spanish stunner revealed this month she had 'a long conversation' with Donatella before signing on to play her, insisting it was 'very important' she have her blessing.

'I did have one conversation that was between she and I. I don't want to say the details,' she told EW.

'I think she knows that the way I'm playing her, that I truly love her and respect her.'

Huge: She accessorized in circular shades, and an over-sized baby blue purse

Back to work: After her visit, the star headed straight for the set of American Crime Story, in which she is set to play Donatella Versace

Assassination: The second season of the anthology series tells the story of the murder of Donatella's older brother and fellow fashion designer, Gianni Versace

Versace's murder by serial killer Andrew Cunanan in Miami in 1997 is the subject of the FX anthology series created by Ryan Murphy that won critical acclaim and awards for its debut season The People v. O.J. Simpson.

And Murphy is already talking up Penelope's performance, likening it to the way Sarah Paulson portrayed O.J. prosecutor Marcia Clark on screen last year.

'Penelope's portrayal is very real and human. I think Penelope is to Donatella what Sarah is to Marcia Clark,' the showrunner told the mag.
Oprah Winfrey is a proud card-carrying member of The Mickey Mouse Club.

The 63-year-old talk show queen attended The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim on Friday.

The event was part of the D23 Expo, the official Disney fan club.

Sealed with a kiss... Oprah Winfrey attended The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim on Friday, where she puckered up to Mickey Mouse

Dressed in a white shirt dress, Oprah was seen putting her hand prints in cement during a celebrated ceremony.

She was joined onstage by Mickey Mouse, dressed in a tux, who offered the A-list star a helping hand.

At one stage, Oprah turned to the Disney icon to plant a sweet kiss on his shiny black nose.

The Selma actress wore her hair in loose waves for the induction and donned a pair of clear-framed glasses.

Making a mark: Dressed in a white shirt dress, Oprah was seen putting her hand prints in cement during a celebrated ceremony

Inductee: She also took to the stage at the Disney Legends Award ceremony alongside The Walt Disney Company's CEO Bob Iger, who hosted the event

She also took to the stage at the Disney Legends Award ceremony alongside The Walt Disney Company's CEO Bob Iger, who hosted the event.

Oprah was just one of the stars being inducted at the event, alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Mark Hamill.

While accepting her award, the Hollywood power player recounted meeting a Disneyland waiter the day before who had been employed by the eponymous company for 42 years.

Speech: While accepting her award, the Hollywood power player recounted meeting a Disneyland waiter the day before who had been employed by the company for 42 years

When she asked him why he'd stayed for so long, the waiter told her Disney is 'the best place to let me be me'.

'I feel the same way about my work with Disney since 1984, launching The Oprah Winfrey Show,' she said, as reported by Variety.

'Every day, Disney, ABC 7 let me be me.'
He spent over $20,000 on his de facto partner Maria DiGeronimo in just one episode of Channel Seven's Yummy Mummies.

But after Maria claimed he worked as a 'part-time' barber, Carlos Vannini, 34, made sure to set the record straight Saturday.

Taking to Instagram, the motorcycle enthusiast said of his role at Signature Cut Barbershop in Adelaide: 'I'm here minimum 45 hours a week!!'

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Full time? Reality show Yummy Mummies star Carlos Vannini has denied he's a part-time barber, taking to Instagram Saturday to insist he owns the Adelaide salon where he works full time

The sole trader, who according to the Australian Business Register is not registered for GST, also shared an image of the Newton salon's business hours.

The sign in the snap clearly shows that Signature cut is open for five days a week, for a total of 42-hours.

'This is my reality #fulltimebarber #signaturecutbarbershop #businessowner #hardworkpaysoff.' he added.

In episode one of Yummy Mummies, pregnant partner Maria claimed: 'He's a part-time barber.'

'He's a part-time barber': In episode one of Yummy Mummies, then-pregnant partner Maria claimed: 'He's a part-time barber'

The spread: On Tuesday's episode of Yummy Mummies, he spent over $20,000 on gifts for Maria's baby shower and subsequent baby-moon holiday

Unemployed Maria, who is the owner of a $139,000 Porsche, added that he was part-time, because the other half of his time, he's looking after her.

On Channel Seven's website, they say she 'feels privileged to be a kept woman and lives a glamorous lifestyle financed by her partner Carlos, a barber.'

Carlos Bruno Vannini is registered as a sole trader, who operates under the business name Signature Cut Barber Shop and is 'not currently registered for GST.'

'Privileged' On Channel Seven's website, they say Maria 'Feels privileged to be a kept woman and lives a glamorous lifestyle financed by her partner Carlos, a barber'

Sole trader! Carlos Bruno Vannini is registered as a sole trader, who operates under the business name Signature Cut Barber Shop and is 'not currently registered for GST'

Numbers game! As per the terms of the Goods and Services Tax, as set-out on business.gov.au, a Sole Trader must register for GST: 'If your annual turnover is more than $75,000' (pictured is Signature Cut in Adelaide)

The vehicles: Carlos owns a Harley Davidson Street Bob, which currently start at $22,495, while Maria drives a Porsche SUV worth $139,000

As per the terms of the Goods and Services Tax, as set-out on business.gov.au, a Sole Trader must register for GST: 'If your annual turnover is more than $75,000.'

GST turnover is gross business income, not profits, meaning that wages, cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes are not factored into the threshold.

He's regularly seen on his Instagram account, gunning it up the streets of Adelaide on his Harley Davidson Street Bob, which currently start at $22,495.

Versace! After Maria's $4,000 baby shower on Tuesday's episode, Carlos gifted his partner a $7000 money 'bouquet' and jewelry worth $15,000

On Tuesday's episode of Yummy Mummies, Maria celebrated the impending arrival of daughter Valentina with a $4000 'Versace-themed' baby shower.

After the ceremony, the tattooed barber presented the mother of one of his two children with a $7000 money 'bouquet' and jewelry worth $15,000.

'I know you dont like flowers, so I got you a bouquet of money,' the non GST registered sole trader told his partner.

Holidays! They then took a baby-moon to the Gold Coast, staying at Palazzo Versace where rooms can cost up to $3329 a night

Travel light? When Maria takes daughter Valentina for a stroll (born after filming wrapped) she has the choice between either a Versace or Fendi pram, worth a combined $7500

Carlos and Maria also went on a babymoon to the Gold Coast, staying at the Palazzo Versace where rooms can cost up to $3329 a night.

The barber gifted his partner a Louis Vuitton luggage bag to travel with, valued at $4,250.

Speaking to OK! Magazine this week, Maria, 31, lifted the lid on her expensive baby buys, explaining: 'If it's rare, I need to get my hands on it!'

Clothes! The mother also spent more than $5000 on a designer wardrobe for Valentina, buying Nike runners, Burberry baby clothes and miniature Chanel handbags

She also needed to 'upgrade' her luxury car to something more child friendly when bub was born (after filming wrapped), opting for a Porsche SUV worth $139,000.

When Maria has to get somewhere on foot with daughter Valentina, she has the choice between either a Versace or Fendi pram - worth a combined $7500.

The mother also spent more than $5000 on a designer wardrobe for Valentina, buying Nike runners, Burberry baby clothes and miniature Chanel handbags.

Recapping Tuesday's episode, Cosmopolitan online stated: 'Maria is the feistiest and most extravagant cast member... and her lifestyle, frankly, has us very confused.'

'Doesn't add up': Recapping Tuesday's episode, Cosmopolitan online said: 'A part-time barbers wage doesnt seem to match up to the couple's obsession with labels.'

They added: 'But a part-time barbers wage doesnt seem to match up to the couple's obsession with labels.'

The father-of-two (including a 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship), also had viewers confused during the episode.

One fan took to Twitter to ask: 'I am all for a person who is successful etc but how is Carlos so loaded being a part time barber? haha.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Carlos for comment.
She's the Australian pop chanteuse who won the 2012 season of singing reality show X Factor at age 25.

But five years later, Samantha Jade looks remarkably different to the fresh-faced reality star that appeared on the popular show.

One of the most obvious changes is Samantha's hair overhaul, with the petite songstress bleaching her brunette mane to an icy blonde hue.

Growing up: Samantha Jade looks remarkably different to the fresh-faced 25-year old that won the 2012 season of X-Factor

Her face-shape appears also to have changed, with her cheekbones becoming far more prominent in recent years, while her lips appear to be far plumper.

It appears that Samantha has had some dental work done as well with her teeth looking even more vibrant and uniform while her lips also appear to have filled out in the ensuing years.

The bridge of her nose also looks a lot thinner now than it did when she wowed Australia on the reality show.

Funny side: 'I'm 30, I'm the big 3-0 ... I'm not gonna age from now, this is it,' she said. When asked about Botox, Samantha joked: 'I'm gonna start'

Is that you? A look back at photos during her time on the reality show shows a much fuller-faced Samantha, with her 2017 visage flaunting much more prominent cheekbones, while her lips appear to be much more 'plump'

After celebrating her 30th birthday in April, Samantha revealed she is already feeling the pressures of ageing.

Appearing on Hit105's Stav, Abby & Matt with Osher last month, Samantha joked that she was considering getting Botox.

'I'm 30, I'm the big 3-0 ... I'm not gonna age from now, this is it,' she said.

Still looking good: It appears that Samantha has had some dental work done as well with her teeth looking even more vibrant and uniform while her lips also appear to have filled out in the ensuing years

When asked about whether she would ever go under the needle to preserve her youthful complexion, Samantha joked: 'I'm gonna start.'

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia recently about her new line of cosmetics for Priceline, Samantha admitted that her mother Jacqueline, who passed away in 2014, was one of her biggest style inspirations.

'She introduced me to all of those things when I was little,' she said. 'I remember going to buy lip gloss and she said: 'When you were little other girls wanted to buy toys and yo wanted to buy make-up,' so I had Lip Smacker back then.'

She continued: 'My mum is always my beauty icon because she loved make-up and she was the ultimate girly-girl with make-up, candles, throw rugs, everything.'
She made a tree change from the city to the bush eight years ago.

And author and TV presenter Tara Moss appears to be shedding the last of her urban items, successfully selling her swanky Sydney apartment.

Realestate.com.au reports the city pad was sold 'presumably for near its $1.65 million asking price' after Tara purchased it for just $850,000 in 2008.

Sold! Model and author Tara Moss sells her swanky Sydney loft after putting the property on the market for $1.65m

The Sir Norman Foster-designed building is located near Sydney's Town Hall and features 456 loft-style apartments.

Located on the 15th floor, the light-drenched apartment features an open plan living space with modern kitchen.

Tara purchased the apartment in 2008 for $850,000, previously failing to sell the property for $1.06 million in 2012.

City retreat: Located on the 15th floor, the light-drenched apartment features an open plan living space with modern kitchen

Expensive: The author had been renting out the central property for an eye-watering $1150 a week

Tidy profit Tara purchased the apartment in 2008 for $850,000, previously failing to sell the property for $1.06 million in 2012

The author had been renting out the central property for an eye-watering $1150 a week.

The property also includes access to a two level health club and 50 metre heated swimming pool.

Eight years ago Tara and husband Brendt Sellheim made the tree change from Sydney to the Blue Mountains.

The couple with their six-year-old daughter Sapphira on a Blackheath acreage purchased for $585,000 in 2009.

Lush lobby: The entrance to the swanky address features an eye-catching water feature

Work out space: The property also includes access to a two level health club and 50 metre heated swimming pool

Pool with a view: The building offers sweeping views of Sydney's CBD

Born in Canada, Tara is the author of 11 books and hosted several crime TV series, such as Tough Nuts  Australia's Hardest Criminals.

She also acted as executive producer and host of ABC series Cyberhate with Tara Moss.

The former model has also undergone an image transformation, adopting a rockabilly-style look at recent red carpet appearances

Moved: Tara and husband Brendt Sellheim made the tree change from Sydney to the Blue Mountains eight years ago
Together they form one of the most beloved teams in cinematic history thanks to their work in Frozen.

And on Friday, Kristen Bell and Josh Gad reunited again at Disney's D23 Expo to introduce a sneak preview of a new Frozen short titled Olafs Frozen Adventure that will premiere in November.

For the appearance, Kristen, 36, looked lovely in a red, orange and white floral print top and skirt combo that fell just past her knees.

Big news! On Friday, Kristen Bell and Josh Gad reunited at Disney's D23 Expo to introduce a sneak preview of a new Frozen short titled Olafs Frozen Adventure that will premiere in November

Her matching top provided just a glimpse of her tight tummy.

The mother of two rounded out her ensemble with a pair of white pointed-toe pumps and a matching white leather belt.

Her dirty blonde tresses were parted in the middle and pulled back into a messy bun.

Subtle blush, dark eye make-up and pale rose lipstick ensured the Hollywood vet was ready for her turn on the red carpet.

Bright! For the appearance, Kristen, 36, looked lovely in a red, orange and white floral print top and skirt combo that fell just past her knees

Peek-a-boo! Her matching top provided just a glimpse of her tight tummy

Coordinating: The mother of two rounded out her ensemble with a pair of white pointed-toe pumps and a matching white leather belt

Classic: Co-star Josh, 36, looked handsome in a blue polo shirt, navy blazer and some olive-colored trousers

Co-star Josh, 36, looked handsome in a blue polo shirt, navy blazer and some olive-colored trousers.

The duo were on hand to preview the new short, which will play with another upcoming Disney animated feature titled Coco. Both will hit theaters on November 22.

Another high-profile movie making the rounds was Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2.

Royalty: Ten Disney princesses united to announce Wreck It Ralph 2, in which they will all appear

Refreshing: Actress Sarah Silverman, 46, also chose a floral-patterned dress for her appearance

Like a princess! Mandy Moore, 33, also went floral, although her print was on the outermost layer of her flowing pink frock

Simple chic: Moana's Auli'i Cravalho, 16, looked a dream in a tangerine number with rib-level cutouts and a low swooping neckline

The sequel, which is set for a November 2018 release, features it's own slate of stars.

Actress Sarah Silverman, 46, also chose a floral-patterned dress for her appearance.

A pair of nude platform heels and completed her demure look.

Mandy Moore, 33, also went floral, although her print was on the outermost layer of her flowing pink frock.

More flowers! Kelly Macdonald, 41, of Brave fame, chose a demure lower-key look composed of a violet shirt and a flower-print skirt which fell to her shins

Worth melting for: Josh Gadd crammed in with the princesses

Ole: Benjamin Bratt of upcoming COCO was flanked by dancer Kareli Montoya and musician Cindy Shea

The elaborate garment also featured layers of sheer material as well as a frilly bodice.

Moana's Auli'i Cravalho, 16, looked a dream in a tangerine number with rib-level cutouts and a low swooping neckline.

Brilliant metallic stilettos and a wonderful pink floral rounded out her cheerful outfit.

Kelly Macdonald, 41, of Brave fame, chose a demure lower-key look composed of a violet shirt and a flower-print skirt which fell to her shins.

Wearing swag: Samuel L Jackson, 68, who played Frozone looked to be having a ball as he took the stage

Wonderful in white: His co-star Holly Hunter, 59, looked elegant in a white dress with a split up the right

Super: The family got back together for The Incredibles 2

A gaggle of the original Disney princesses were on hand as well, including Linda Larkin (Jasmine), Irene Bedard (Pocahontas), Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog), and Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid).

The Incredibles 2 cast also made an appearance for a preview of that film, which comes out June 15, 2018.

Samuel L Jackson, 68, who played Frozone looked to be having a ball as he took the stage.

Legend: Oprah Winfrey, 63, was clad all in white for her turn pressing her hands into cement

Cracking up: Mickey found the whole ceremony hilarious

Smack! Mickey even got a peck on the nose from the TV legend

Who wore it better? Whoopi Goldberg also got the all white memo

His co-star Holly Hunter, 59, looked elegant in a white dress with a split up the right.

A plethora of other stars made the trek to Anaheim as well to get recognized for their contributions to Disney over the years.

Oprah Winfrey, 63, was clad all in white for her turn pressing her hands into cement.

Star Wars Icon Mark Hamill, 65, and Marvel mastermind Stan Lee, 94, were also honored at the ceremony.

Getting dirty! Star Wars icon Mark Hamill (left), 65, and Marvel mastermind Stan Lee, 94, were also honored at the ceremony
She's the multi-talented personality who is set to join season two of Channel Ten drama The Wrong Girl.

And Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 41, took time out of her shooting schedule on Saturday to pamper herself with a facial treatment in Melbourne.

The I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here 2017 runner up took to Instagram to share a photo of her flawless face.

Radiant: Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 41, took time out of her Wrong Girl shooting schedule on Saturday to pamper herself with a facial treatment in Melbourne.

The photo showed Natalie, beaming broadly as she looked up at the sign of the Melbourne beauty salon that she visited.

Her face seemed without blemish while her porcelain-like skin glowed in the photo.

Wearing a puffy black jacket, Natalie let her trademarked blonde locks flow freely down her back.

Glowing: The photo showed Natalie, beaming broadly as she looked up at the sign of the Melbourne beauty salon that she visited

Natalie was obviously pleased with the results of her pampering session as she was quick to gush about her fresh look.

'My skin says I LOVE YOU @missiecoco @ultraceuticals mmmmm,' the former Neighbours star captioned the post.

Playing coy about the finer details of her Wrong Girl character, Natalie did reveal, to the Daily Telegraph, that her character may be involved in a love triangle with key characters Lily (Jessica Marais) and Jack (Rob Collins)

Feeling good: Natalie was obviously pleased with the results of her pampering session as she was quick to gush about her fresh look

'I dont think I want to give too much away and just let the viewers see what unfolds. It will be a fascinating relationship between the three of us,' Natalie told the publication.

Last seen on the small screen in I'm A Celebrity, Natalie's acting credentials are well founded with roles on such shows as Neighbours, the Peter Brock bio-pic Brock, Underbelly and Stupid Stupid Man

The popular show, which is based on a book written by Zoe Foster Blake, is currently filming season two in Melbourne.
She's the lovable TV journalist who wakes up with Today every weekday morning.

But while most early risers use the weekend's to sleep in and relax, Sylvia Jeffreys loves to spend her time off in the outdoors.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the 31-year-old shared a photo riding a horse in Wolgan Valley, New South Wales.

Ride on! On Saturday, Sylvia Jeffreys shared a photo riding a horse in Wolgan Valley, New South Wales

'Gone bush with my mate, Cruiser,' she captioned the post.

Slyvia kept warm with multiple layers for the horse riding experience.

Matching with Cruiser, the TV personality wore a brown jacket as she sat gazing at her new friend.

Up and ready: Taking to Instagram Stories this morning, there was no sleep in for the star who showcased the picturesque bushland backdrop at 7:30am

Travel bug: Just last month the newlywed and her husband Peter Stefanovic traveled across the water to spend a mere 2 days in New Zealand

Joining her on the trip was her husband Peter Stefanovic, who also shared an Instagram story video picturing himself riding a horse and enjoying the great outdoors.

And it's not the first time Sylvia has used her time off for a thrill seeking adventure.

Just last month the newlywed and her husband Peter Stefanovic traveled across the water to spend a mere 2 days in New Zealand.

Loving it: Sharing that it was on her bucket list, the thrill seeker smiled happily for a selfie

'48 in remarkable Queenstown. Sweet as,' she captioned the photo.

In another shot, Sylvia was seen in the front seat of a helicopter.

Sharing that it was on her bucket list, the thrill seeker smiled happily for a selfie.

With a shared interest of the great outdoors, Sylvia and Peter tied the knot in the beautiful Kangaroo Valley in April this year.
They are the loved-up Bachelor couple who have been enjoying a romantic 'babymoon' vacation in Hawaii.

But it was a case of back to reality for Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, with the pair touching down in Sydney on Friday.

Snezana looked relaxed and refreshed as she wheeled her large silver suitcase through the airport terminal.

Home again: It was a case of back to reality for Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, with the pair touching down in Sydney on Friday after their Hawaiian 'babymoon'

Appearing happy to be back Down Under, Snezana wore a simple and stylish black ankle-length dress.

She matched her outfit with a pair of black slip-on shoes and a white handbag that she carried on her right forearm.

Sam, meanwhile, was just as casual in a plain white T-shirt with a low-cut scoop neck that flaunted his chiselled chest, and a pair of navy blue chinos.

Looking good: Appearing happy to be back Down Under, Snezana wore a simple and stylish black ankle-length dress with a pair of black slip-on shoes and a white handbag that she carried on her right forearm

Carrying a white sun hat, Sam also had a leather bad slung over his shoulder while he hooked a pair of sunglasses into the neck of his T-shirt.

The pair looked to be sharing a joke at one point with Sam offering his fiancee a wry, cheeky grin as he toted a black suitcase.

Despite being heavily pregnant, Snezana joked that Sam was forcing her to work out during their romantic tropical getaway.

Buff: Sam, meanwhile, was just as casual in a plain white T-shirt with a low-cut scoop neck that flaunted his chiselled chest, and a pair of navy blue chinos.

Taking to her Instagram story on Sunday, the brunette beauty shared a photo of herself doing some resistance training.

New "28 By Sam Wood" program starts today,' she wrote in the caption. 'So he makes me workout even on holiday.'

There were no hard feelings though, as she followed the photo with another snap that showed the couple embracing post-workout.

No rest: Despite being heavily pregnant, Snezana joked in an instagram photo that Sam was forcing her to work out during their romantic tropical getaway

Loved-up: There were no hard feelings though, as she followed the photo with another snap that showed the couple embracing post-workout

'When you have a crush on your trainer,' Snezana wrote in the cheeky caption.

Sam and Snezana are due to welcome their first child in October.

Snezana already has a daughter, Eve, 12 from a previous relationship who lives with them in Melbourne.

Growing family: Sam and Snezana are due to welcome their first child in October. Snezana already has a daughter, Eve, 12 from a previous relationship who lives with them in Melbourne




The ongoing legal drama between The Walking Dead and network AMC has also brought some other revelations to light.

A judge ordered the television network to hand over contracts related to two of its other hits series, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

But it was the deal AMC brokered with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner which has raised the most eyebrows.

Cleaning up: Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner pocketed $30 million from the final three seasons of his hit series

The 52-year-old writer, director and producer was paid a whopping $30 million for seasons five, six and seven of the critically acclaimed series, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal was struck after long and tense negotiations between the network and Weiner over cost-cutting measures, product placement and shortened episodes for more advertising.

Weiner was paid an initial $2.5 million just for signing the contract, with the remaining $27.5 million made up by episode fees, royalty fees, and writing, directing and producing fees.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he was paid $187,000 for each episode of season five, plus a $5000 royalty for each episode.

Ongoing negotiations: The deal was struck after long and tense negotiations between the TV creator and the AMC network

Coming out on top... According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weiner was paid $187,000 for each episode of season five, plus a $5000 royalty for each episode

For season six, he earned $195,000 per episode, with a $5000 royalty fee for each.

His fee was increased once again for season seven, earning him $275,000 for each season seven episode, with a $5000 royalty for each episode.

The contract stipulated he provide the network with 13 episodes for each season.

He was also paid an additional $280,000 for a 14th episode in the final season.

And the winner is... Weiner was also paid an award bonus based on any Emmy and Golden Globes the series received

Weiner was also paid an award bonus based on any Emmy and Golden Globes the series received.

He was paid $25,000 for each award nomination and $125,000 for each award win.

It is estimated he pocketed around $1.1 million in award bonuses alone.

There were some stipulations though.

Conditions apply: There were some stipulations though. Each episode of the final three seasons had to be exactly 47:05 minutes long to make time for advertisers

Each episode of the final three seasons had to be exactly 47:05 minutes long to make time for advertisers.

This was two minutes less per episode than in previous seasons.

Episodes were also able to include product placements as decided by AMC.

Finally, the final episode of the series had to be written into two parts.
She's the matriarch of the Kardashian/Jenner clan.

And Kris Jenner, 61, showed she's just one of the girls as she partied on a boat with a line-up of friends and took a cooling dip in the ocean in a figure-hugging swimsuit.

Holidaying on a boat in Nice, France on Friday, the infamous momager was seen enjoying the water before climbing back on deck and changing out of her bathing suit.

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Just one of the girls! Kris Jenner, 61, flaunts her curvy physique in a slinky black swimsuit as she enjoys ladies day out on a boat with a string of pals in the South of France

With the assistance of a pal, Kris changed out of the costume behind a towel, held up by a friend to protect her modesty.

She then sat on the edge of the luxury yacht with several other gal pals, all in white, where they posed for the cameras, looking to be having a riot.

The reality star has been holidaying in the south of France with her girlfriends and boyfriend Corey Gamble.

When she had dried off in the sun, Kris donned a pair of large shades and wrapped a colourful sarong around her body, taking in the scenery from the boat.

Graceful: When she had dried off in the sun, Kris donned a pair of large shades and wrapped a colourful sarong around her body, taking in the scenery from the boat

Helping hand: With the assistance of a pal, Kris changed out of the costume behind a towel, held up by a friend to protect her modesty

Looking after her man: Kris rubbed suncream onto Corey's back as he adjusted his goggles for a spot of snorkelling

Sitting pretty: The matriarch looked relaxed as she surveyed the blissful view in a zebra-print kaftan

Missed a spot! Kris made sure to cover every inch of Corey's back before he enjoyed a swim in the crystal-clear waters

Simply stylish: Kris shielded herself from the blistering St Tropez sun with a chic straw trilby

The ensemble showed off the ageless mother of six's pert bust as well as her toned legs.

The polished look was complemented by oversize diamond studs and a slick of baby pink lipgloss.

Kris enjoyed a day out at sea on a luxury superyacht, titled the Excellence V. And the vessel boasts a slew of amenities including a cinema - equipped with a 102inch screen, a water-front gym, a beach club and several outdoor lounges and spa pools.

Inside, it is said to boast marble floors, a glass lift and a custom four-storey high staircase and boasts an expensive charge to charter, starting at 595,000 per week.

Making a splash: Corey, who was decked out in black flippers, seemed excited at the prospect of getting in the water

Pucker up: Corey couldn't resist leaning in to give Kris a smooch as she soaked up the sun on a lounger

Cute couple: The pair seemed to be relishing the sun-soaked boat trip as they stayed close together on the deck

A chorus line: She then sat on the edge of the luxury yacht with several other gal pals, all in white, where they posed for the cameras, looking to be having a riot

Ladies day: The European holiday was a welcome break from son Rob's legal woes after he became embroiled in a 'revenge porn' case with his ex Blac Chyna

Helping hand: Kris' beau Corey Gamble was seen helping her dry off after her dip in the ocean

Nothing to see here: He made sure to cover his girlfriend's modesty as she hoisted herself back up the ladder

The European holiday was a welcome break from son Rob's legal woes after he became embroiled in a 'revenge porn' case with his ex Blac Chyna.

Reports suggest Kris has been doing her best to remain calm and relaxed following her son's debacle.

The 30-year-old sock designer was faced with a restraining order earlier this week after he took to social media to post explicit photos of his former fiance - with whom he has eight-month-old daughter Dream - who later accused him of being physically violent toward her.

Didn't fancy it? While Kris emerged from the water, Corey appeared to be fully clothed on deck choosing against cooling off in the ocean

Protective: He appeared to be keeping a watchful eye over his long-term love as she swam

And relax: Following their dip, Kris and her girl pals kicked back in the sunshine

Expensive taste: Kris enjoyed a day out at sea on a luxury superyacht, titled the Excellence V

Well-equipped: The vessel boasts a slew of luxury amenities including a cinema - equipped with a 102inch screen

Lovely: It also boasts a water-front gym, a beach club, several outdoor lounges and spa pools

Pricey: Inside, it is said to boast marble floors, a glass lift and a custom four-storey high staircase and boasts an expensive charge to charter, starting at 595,000 per week

And although Kris is used to putting an end to the drama surrounding the famous family, she's reportedly focusing her energy on her granddaughter's 'well-being'.

A source told Us Weekly magazine: 'If this happened a year ago she'd freak out.

She's trying to remain calm. She just wants to make sure Dream is OK. Now that Dream is in the picture, her primary concern is Dream and Dream's well-being.'

Taking a dip: Kris appeared to be making the most of the sun area on the lower deck that gave her easy access to the sea

Adoring beau: Corey watched on as Kris took a swim, before snapping a photo of her in the water

R&R: Kris appeared to be nothing but relaxed as she reclined on her sun lounger by the water's edge

Alone time: Corey appeared to take some time out from the female group on a separate boat of a much smaller size

Rob - who starred alongside 29-year-old Chyna in their reality series 'Rob & Chyna' - was ordered by a judge on Monday to stay 100 yards away from his ex-fiancee, but has been allowed to continue co-parenting their daughter.

And Chyna - who also has four-year-old son King Cairo with her former partner Tyga - recently claimed she had no intention of stopping the 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' star from seeing his daughter, and hopes they can find 'common ground' to successfully co-parent their tot.

She said: 'I would never try to take Dream from her dad. Hopefully, me and Rob can learn to have common ground and be the best co-parents as we can be.'

Stylish: Although the speedboat he was perched on the back of still looked just as plush

Smitten: He and his girlfriend Kris were seen putting on an amorous display as they cosied up together during their jaunt out at sea

Happy couple: Kris and Corey have been dating since 2014

Still going strong: Despite rumours suggesting the pair had split in March, the couple still appear to be very much loved-up

Denial: A source close to the couple had said about the speculated split: '100 percent not true'

Content: They added that there wasn't even so much as an argument between the pair

Besotted: They certainly looked like romance was very much still in the air as they cuddled up

The news comes after Lisa Bloom, the lawyer for the 'Rob & Chyna' star, said despite the allegations of violence, the beauty doesn't believe her former flame poses a threat to their daughter, and is not worried about co-parenting with him.

Lisa said: 'Chyna is not concerned about Dream being around Rob. She has said he's a good father, there are nannies around when the baby is with him and she hasn't had any reason to be concerned.

'We did not ask for the baby to be part of the restraining order ... We just want him to stay away from her and to stop cyberbullying her.'

Matriarch: Reports suggest Kris has been doing her best to remain calm and relaxed following her son Rob Kardashian's debacle with ex Blac Chyna
They've had a difficult year, filled with legal woes, health struggles and split speculation.

But Roxy Jacenko, 37, has confirmed that her five year marriage to Oliver Curtis, 32, is stronger than ever, with the couple apparently set to renew their vows.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, after a very challenging week, the PR queen looked elated during what looked like a proposal from Oliver at the Four Seasons in Sydney.

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Surprise! Roxy Jacenko, 37, revealed on Instagram that her husband Oliver Curtis, 32, proposed for a second time on Friday

Romantic: Oliver surprised the Sweaty Betty CEO and she shared romantic details of their evening online

The proposal took place on Friday and in the Instagram snap, gold balloons spelled out a message that read: 'Marry me? Again.'

Roxy captioned the image: 'When you smell like a rotten egg from cleaning your building facade all day and open a door to.'

Also on Saturday, the blonde beauty stepped out in Sydney with what looked like a brand new engagement ring.

New ring: Also on Saturday, the blonde beauty stepped out in Sydney with what looked like a brand new engagement ring

The proposal was much-needed good news for the star, taking place just hours after the mother-of-two was forced to clean her Paddington offices after a vandal pelted the building with ink-injected eggs on Friday.

Dressed in black leggings and a midriff-baring white singlet, the Sydney socialite beamed with joy as she posed alongside the large set of balloons.

Finally something to smile about! The proposal was much-needed good news for Roxy, taking place just hours after the mother-of-two was forced to clean her Paddington offices after a vandal pelted the building with ink-injected eggs on Friday

Cleaning away: Roxy was pictured scrubbing her white walls after the egging incident

Make or break holiday? Roxy and Oliver's recent trip to Bali may have inspiredFriday's proposal. The couple are pictured on July 11 at Sydney airport

Family affair: The pair jetted to Indonesia just two weeks after Oliver's jail release. Pictured with daughter Pixie, five, and three-year-old Hunter

Oliver went all out for his wife, with expensive champagne and candles laid out in the luxury hotel room.

Earlier in the evening, the disgraced investment banker outlined simple instructions in a note presented to an unsuspecting Roxy.

'Turn left and head to the elevators. Take the key and swipe the lift to level 34. Go to room 3403 and open the door,' the note read.

United front: Since Oliver's release from Cooma Correctional Centre in Cooma, NSW last month, Roxy and her family have been spending quality time together and catching up on lost time

She said her employees were in on the surprise and even drove her to the location as requested by Oliver.

'Friday nights when @hollyasser @gracegarrick and @hollyvbrooke tell you your going to the @thewoollahrahotel to pick up a friend only to seemingly make a wrong turn ending up in the city,' she wrote.

'... Instruct the driver to slow down - shove you out the car door and hand you an envelope and drive away.'

Reunited! Oliver was released from jail on June 23 and was pictured reuniting with his two children shortly thereafter. The 32-year-old was jailed a year prior in June 2016, after he was found guilty of conspiring to commit 45 illicit trades

'I have to provide for my kids because there is no one else to. I want them to have stability, it's my duty,' Roxy said of three-year-old Hunter (pictured) and Pixie, five

What Roxy thought would be a routine girls' night out, instead turned out to be a loved-up night-in with her hubby.

She was pictured enjoying a night of cocktails with her Sweaty Betty 'clones,' before suddenly being whisked away to an unknown location.

'Hahah I felt a little bad at one point because you were so excited for Ryan's Bar!' Sweaty Betty publicist Holly Asser told Roxy.

Difficult: The proposal celebration comes after a tough year for both Roxy and Oliver

The proposal celebration comes after a tough year for both Roxy and Oliver.

The father-of-two was jailed over year ago in June 2016, after he was found guilty of conspiring to commit 45 illicit trades.

Around the same time, Roxy was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent surgery.

Health woes: Roxy was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent surgery in 2016, around the same time that husband Oliver was sentenced

Earlier this year, she revealed that the challenging times ultimately affected her multi-million dollar PR business.

'My business took a hit last year and that was off the back of all the drama surrounding me with my husband's sentencing and my cancer,' she said at a seminar in April.

The immense stress forced the busy entrepreneur to take time off for a holiday last year and she said she was able to bounce back thanks to her two children.

Bouncing back: The immense stress forced the busy entrepreneur to take time off for a holiday last year and she said she was able to bounce back thanks to her two children

'At the end of last year I went away to Hawaii. I had to regroup and come back stronger, more focused than ever,' she said.

'I have to provide for my kids because there is no one else to. I want them to have stability, it's my duty.'

Roxy and Oliver tied the knot in a lavish ceremony back in 2012.

At the time, it was reported that 120 guests attended the lavish affair at around $1000 per head.
Their blossoming romance has been hot topic of conversation, ever since pictures emerged of the pair kissing on a yacht in Turkey last month.

And it seems Topshop heiress Chloe Green's relationship with 'world's hottest felon' Jeremy Meeks is heating up, as the duo stepped out hand-in-hand for a dinner date in Los Angeles.

She was certainly dressed to impress for the occasion and slipped into a slinky black dress to join Jeremy at Catch restaurant on Friday night, following their PDA-heavy session by the pool just hours earlier.

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Smitten: Chloe Green and Jeremy Meeks continued to flaunt their romance as they headed out for dinner at Catch in Los Angeles on Friday night

Seeming smitten with each other, Chloe was seen clutching onto the now model's hand, while wearing a smile, as they headed home from the popular eatery across the pond.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 26, looked simply stunning in a floor-length satin dress that sheathed her svelte frame.

Held together by barely-there spaghetti straps, Chloe's frock boasted a low-cut neckline that drew attention to her cleavage and featured a sultry cut-out just underneath her chest.

She teamed her frock with quirky pom pom heels and wore her long tresses down in a tousled style that was swept over to one side.

PDA: Their meal together came after the couple had put on a passionate display poolside just hours earlier

Dressed to impress: The Topshop heiress, 26, slipped into a slinky black dress for their dinner date that sheathed her svelte frame

Flirty: Chloe's frock boasted a low-cut neckline, drawing attention to her assets, along with a cut-out that sat just below her chest

Chloe appeared more than happy to let her new man lead the way, with Jeremy, 32, cutting a stylish figure in a monochrome ensemble that paired together dark jeans and a white collarless shirt.

He topped off his attire with a black fedora style hat on his head.

Their appearance in West Hollywood comes after Chloe and Jeremy were seen confirming their new found romance by putting on a passionate display while relaxing by a pool together.

Stylish: Felon turned model Jeremy, meanwhile, cut a dapper figure in a monochrome attire that paired together dark jeans and a collarless white shirt

Besotted: They moved onto Villa Lounge Club after their meal and were seen smoking outside the venu

Fun-filled evening: Chloe and Jeremy had been joined by a group of friends as they carried on their night together

Moving on: He has found himself newly single after filing for legal separation from his former partner and mother-of-three Melissa Meeks - who he shares her youngest son with

They were seen locked in an intimate embrace while taking a dip and had been caught staring adoringly into each other's eyes, before attempting to the Dirty Dancing lift in the water.

Jeremy has found himself newly single after filing for legal separation from his former partner and mother-of-three Melissa Meeks - who he shares her youngest son with.

The aspiring catwalk star was married to the 38-year-old nurse, who stayed with him throughout his stint in prison, for eight years.

Over: The aspiring catwalk star was married to the 38-year-old nurse, who stayed with him throughout his stint in prison, for eight years

Split: Melissa had filed for divorce, after confronting Jeremy when he arrived back from his break in Turkey, where the controversial pictures of him and Chloe had surfaced

Heartbroken: Speaking of her devastation, she hit out at Chloe and said: 'I know it takes two to tango but she knew he was married. To me, thats unforgivable'

The move came after she had filed for divorce, after confronting Jeremy outside of their Stockton home when he arrived back from his break in Turkey, where the controversial pictures of him cavorting with Chloe on the $145,000-a-week yacht emerged.

The couple's legal separation documents say they will share custody of their children.

A legal separation is different from a divorce in a number of ways: The former couple can still claim some tax benefits and share healthcare. The former couple will still have to separate their assets.

In documents filed on Tuesday, Meeks said that he has not yet 'determined the full nature and extent of his separate property assets and/or liabilities'.

Melissa added: 'My marriage wasnt perfect but I thought it could be saved, until this happened. Of course Im angry at her. What she did is unforgivable. And Im angry at him too'

Shock: Describing the moment she learned about her husband's affair, Melissa revealed a 'random person' had sent her a message with a photo of Chloe and Jeremy

He added, however, that earnings and acquisitions made after the separation began would be considered separate property.

She later told the Mail of her devastation, admitting that her husband had been seduced by the glamour of his newfound modelling career.

I know it takes two to tango but she knew he was married. To me, thats unforgivable. My whole world has been torn apart by this. What do I tell our children? My heart is broken.

'What sort of woman would do something like this to another woman? My marriage wasnt perfect but I thought it could be saved, until this happened.

Done: Melissa says the first contact she had with her husband following his break in Turkey with Chloe was when he landed in Los Angeles a week ago - she had retreated to her sister's house

Of course Im angry at her. What she did is unforgivable. And Im angry at him too. What they did destroyed my entire world.

Did either of them think about the children and how this will affect them? Theyre the innocent victims in this. And so am I.

Describing the moment she learned about her husband's affair, she added: Some random person I dont know sent a direct message with the photograph of my husband kissing that woman.

I went into shock. I felt nauseated. It was like a bomb had gone off and my whole world had been blown apart.

Id never heard of Chloe Green. I thought Jeremy was working.

While Jeremy and Chloe reunited in Los Angeles, Melissa had been celebrating her birthday. She also shared a telling Instagram that read: 'Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.'

'Better to be slapped with the truth then kissed with a lie': As the duo appeared to celebrate their new union, Jeremy's wife Melissa took to Instagram to share defiant pictures as she celebrated her birthday

Life of luxury: Meeks had set tongues wagging after pictures emerged of him kissing Chloe on on a yacht in Turkey at the beginning of July

'Just the beginning': Chloe took to Instagram to share a a photo with Meeks and his manager, before deleting her account due to the backlash it received

Chloe, meanwhile, was last seen cutting a low profile as she enjoyed another sunny break with her billionaire father Sir Phillip Green, 65, in St Tropez.

She has been staying out of the spotlight ever since she was forced to delete her social media account after enraged social media fans slammed her over pictures showing her kissing married Jeremy.

Chloe's father Sir Philip, however, has said he is 'not getting involved' in his daughter's holiday romance.

The tycoon refused to be discuss his daughter's new romance, telling the Telegraph: 'With respect, I am not getting involved in it.'

Chloe is thought to have met Jeremy when he attended at an array of star-studded events during the Cannes Film Festival last month.

Fans fell in love with the former criminal and his good looks after his California mugshot went viral in 2014.
He endured a heartbreaking public rejection last year when he was turned down by Bachelorette Georgia Love in favour of Lee Elliot.

But it seems Matthew Johnson's heart has finally been healed, with him confirming he has found the love of his life as this year's Bachelor.

Speaking with the Daily Telegraph this week, the 30-year-old revealed he had found what he was looking for in one of the 25 participants.

Found love! Bachelor Matthew Johnson, 30, has confirmed he has fallen in love (again!) on the reality dating series

While the hunk has remained tight lipped on the identity of his chosen lady, he has revealed his happiness at the conclusion of filming.

'I can confirm I am very, very happy right now,' he confessed.

The charming Sydney-based marketing agent said he had no regrets about giving the reality show a second chance.

Romantic: Matty J has been spotted sharing intimate moments with a number of the participants during adventure-themed dates

'I can honestly say it was the best thing I have ever done.'

And while he has admitted to it being a 'weird environment' for finding 'the one', he said it had been worth it.

'To an outsider it must look like an unorthodox way to go about finding the love of your life, and I guess I had similar thoughts before I did it the first time.'

Up close: He slid into a hot tub with one of the 25 women vying for his heart

Eagle eyed fans have already begun speculating on Matty J's winning lady, with one theory suggesting Sydney jewellery designer Laura Byrne was his top pick.

The beauty added 'Queen of reverse parking' to her Instagram description following filming, which coincidentally happened to be a quality Matty J admitted to admiring in a woman in an interview for the Bachelorette last year.

The highly anticipated season five of The Bachelor is set to hit screens from July 26.
The PR queen is known for parading her wealth by wearing eye-wateringly expensive outfits, driving lavish vehicles and taking luxury holidays.

And Roxy Jacenko, 37, was spotted handing over her hard-earned cash at a Sydney newsagent on Saturday to purchase a lottery ticket.

The mother-of-two put her designer purse on the counter as she asked the attendant to be entered into the desired draw.

Feeling lucky? PR queen Roxy Jacenko purchases lottery ticket in Sydney on Saturday... after husband Oliver Curtis proposed for a second time on Friday night

Morning purchase: The blonde publicist examined her potentially winning numbers at the counter, before folding the receipt for safe keeping

It appears Roxy had popped into the store to purchase a newspaper, but also decided to enter the upcoming lottery draw.

The blonde publicist examined her potentially winning numbers at the counter, before folding the receipt for safe keeping.

The Sydney socialite kept her dark-lensed Ray Ban sunglasses on as she ducked into the store, leaving soon after with a paper wedged under her arm.

Running errands: It appears Roxy had popped into the store to purchase a newspaper, but also decided to enter the upcoming lottery draw

Shady lady! The Sydney socialite kept her dark-lensed Ray Ban sunglasses on as she ducked into the store, leaving soon after with a paper wedged under her arm

The Saturday morning outing followed Roxy's surprise second proposal from husband Oliver Curtis the night before.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, she hinted to her 182k followers that she and Oliver, who was released from jail on June 23, would renew their vows.

The post from Friday night in Sydney's Four Seasons displayed gold balloons that read: 'Marry me? Again.'

It's believed Roxy said yes to the romantic gesture, as she was spotted wearing a new diamond engagement ring while out running errands.

How romantic! The Saturday morning outing followed Roxy's surprise second proposal from husband Oliver Curtis the night before

That's NEW! It's believed Roxy said yes to the romantic gesture, as she was spotted wearing a new diamond engagement ring while out running errands

Family life: Roxy has been married to Oliver, 32, for five years and shares children, five-year-old Pixie and three-year-old Hunter, with the businessman

She accessorized the impressive sparkler, from Nicholas Haywood Jewellers, with a Rolex watch and a diamond-encrusted necklace and bracelets.

Cutting a casual figure, she wore jeans, blue Nike sneakers and a grey jumper.

Her luscious blonde locks were styled in loose waves as she toted her purse and car keys heading back to her vehicle.

Roxy has been married to Oliver, 32, for five years and shares children, five-year-old Pixie and three-year-old Hunter, with the businessman.

Luxe look: She accessorized the impressive sparkler, from Nicholas Haywood Jewellers, with a Rolex watch and a diamond-encrusted necklace and bracelets
She's been making the rounds, promoting her new film Atomic Blonde, in Berlin.

And Charlize Theron looked delighted to be back in Germany as she arrived into Berlin Tegel airport on Saturday.

The 41-year-old actress dressed for comfort for her flight, but gave her look the usual chic touch as she deboarded her plane.

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Atomic Blonde, indeed! Stunning Charlize Theron is all smiles as she arrives in Berlin to promote latest movie in a quirky fedora and shades

She beamed as she walked along in a loose black top, with black and charcoal leggings and white converse shoes.

Over this she wore a sporty black and peach jacket which she teamed with a quirky tan fedora and rounded shades.

The Young Adult star slung her black leather carry-on over one shoulder and headed into the Arrivals terminal looking thrilled to be back on German soil.

Directed by David Leitch, Atomic Blonde is an action-packed Cold War thriller starring Charlize as a ruthless and talented British spy on a mission in Berlin.

Casual chic: She beamed as she walked along in a loose black top, with black and charcoal leggings and white converse shoes

With a cast also featuring Sofia Boutella, John Goodman and James McAvoy, the movie will be out in American cinemas on July 18.

She was without her children Jackson, now six, who she adopted from her native South Africa in 2012, and August, now almost two, from a family in the USA, adpoted in 2015.

Earlier in the week she was snapped running errands with the latter, August, in Hollywood.

On the go: Charlize Theron was spotted out in Hollywood on Tuesday running errands with daughter August, two

Charlize admits she found her role in upcoming Atomic Blonde challenging as she revealed she ended up cracking her teeth from clenching her jaw too hard whilst learning some of the tough moves shed have to do in the feature.

She told Variety magazine: 'It happened the first month of training. I had severe tooth pain, which I never had in my entire life. [The dentist had] to cut one of the teeth out and root canals. It was tough.

'You want to be in your best fighting shape, and its hard. I had the removal and I had to put a donor bone in there to heal until I came back, and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there.'
They're set to renew their wedding vows, following a whirlwind second proposal on Friday.

And Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis looked to be on cloud nine while celebrating the happy news in Sydney on Saturday night.

Showing rare PDA, Roxy, 37, tenderly rested her hand on Oliver's shoulder as they shared a moment over dinner.

Smitten: Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis looked to be on cloud nine while celebrating on Saturday night after he proposed for a second time

The couple, who were reunited last month following Oliver's jail release, dined at a local restaurant with their two children Pixie, five, and Hunter, three.

At one point, the smitten pair gazed adoringly into each other's eyes while possibly discussing upcoming plans for their vow renewal ceremony.

Sporting blue jeans and a grey sweater, Roxy was dressed down but still turned heads with her new diamond sparkler.

Family dinner: The couple, who were reunited last month following Oliver's jail release, dined at a Sydney restaurant with their two children Pixie, five, and Hunter, three

Cheers! Roxy looked elated as she exchanged laughs with Oliver, 32

High spirits: The couple appeared to be having a lively conversation at the dinner table

Wedded bliss! Showing rare PDA, Roxy tenderly rested her hand on Oliver's shoulder as they shared a moment over dinner

The PR maven debuted her lavish new ring earlier in the day on Saturday while running errands after revealing her husband of five years proposed for a second time on Friday.

The ring, from Sydney's Nicholas Haywood Jeweller, features a round brilliant diamond centre stone, which is framed by a diamond halo and cut claw diamond band.

Oliver was also casually dressed in blue jeans, a black hoodie, sports cap and white sneakers.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, after a very challenging week, mother-of-two Roxy looked elated in a snap shared after Oliver popped the question at the Four Seasons hotel.

What's that? The Sweaty Betty CEO was fixated on Oliver's plate

Flirting: The smitten pair were seen flirting up a storm as they leaned in closely for a private chat

Check this out: Roxy and Pixie were distracted by Oliver's smartphone

Big hug: The mother-of-two embraced her little girl as dad Oliver watched on

Mama's girl! Pixie clutched her mother tightly after dinner

The proposal took place on Friday and in the Instagram snap, gold balloons spelled out a message that read: 'Marry me? Again.'

Roxy captioned the image: 'When you smell like a rotten egg from cleaning your building facade all day and open a door to.'

The proposal was much-needed good news for the star, taking place just hours after the mother-of-two was forced to clean her Paddington offices after a vandal pelted the building with ink-injected eggs on Friday.

Happy time: The celebratory dinner was a much-needed boost for the family, who have had a difficult year stemming from legal woes and health struggles

Selfie queen! Roxy was eager to capture through snaps on her smartphone

Off they go! The family-of-four later made their way to a local eatery for dessert

Dressed in black leggings and a midriff-baring white singlet, the Sydney socialite beamed with joy as she posed alongside the large set of balloons.

Oliver went all out for his wife, with expensive champagne and candles laid out in the luxury hotel room.

Earlier in the evening, the disgraced investment banker outlined simple instructions in a note presented to an unsuspecting Roxy.

Mummy's mini-me: Pixie and Roxy wore near-matching outfits, consisting of jeans, a white top and sneakers

New bling! Roxy flashed her brand new engagement ring from Sydney's Nicholas Haywood Jeweller. It features a round brilliant diamond centre stone, which is framed by a diamond halo and cut claw diamond band. The price of the daimond sparker is believed to exceed that of her previous $200,000 engagement ring

Treats! Hunter and Pixie were excited to get their hands on some tasty treats after dinner

Having a ball: Proud mum Roxy smiled at her little boy Hunter as they walked behind Oliver and Pixie

Daddy's boy! Little Hunter could be seen playing with his father as they waited for their treats

'Turn left and head to the elevators. Take the key and swipe the lift to level 34. Go to room 3403 and open the door,' the note read.

She said her employees were in on the surprise and even drove her to the location as requested by Oliver.

'Friday nights when @hollyasser @gracegarrick and @hollyvbrooke tell you your going to the @thewoollahrahotel to pick up a friend only to seemingly make a wrong turn ending up in the city,' she wrote.

Surprise! Roxy revealed on Instagram that her husband Oliver proposed for a second time on Friday

Romantic: Oliver surprised the Sweaty Betty CEO and she shared romantic details of their evening online

Finally something to smile about! The proposal was much-needed good news for Roxy, taking place just hours after the mother-of-two was forced to clean her Paddington offices after a vandal pelted the building with ink-injected eggs on Friday

'... Instruct the driver to slow down - shove you out the car door and hand you an envelope and drive away.'

What Roxy thought would be a routine girls' night out, instead turned out to be a loved-up night-in with her hubby.

She was pictured enjoying a night of cocktails with her Sweaty Betty 'clones,' before suddenly being whisked away to an unknown location.

Putting the drama behind them: Roxy and Oliver remain committed to their five-year marriage, despite the pr queen being pictured kissing her ex-boyfriend Nabil Gazal at his luxury Sydney apartment in May

Make or break holiday? Roxy and Oliver's recent trip to Bali may have inspiredFriday's proposal. The couple are pictured on July 11 at Sydney airport

'Hahah I felt a little bad at one point because you were so excited for Ryan's Bar!' Sweaty Betty publicist Holly Asser told Roxy.

Family affair: The pair jetted to Indonesia just two weeks after Oliver's jail release. Pictured with daughter Pixie, five, and three-year-old Hunter

The proposal celebration comes after a tough year for both Roxy and Oliver.

The father-of-two was jailed over year ago in June 2016, after he was found guilty of conspiring to commit 45 illicit trades.

Around the same time, Roxy was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent surgery.

United front: Since Oliver's release from Cooma Correctional Centre in Cooma, NSW last month, Roxy and her family have been spending quality time together and catching up on lost time

Reunited! Oliver was released from jail on June 23 and was pictured reuniting with his two children shortly thereafter. The 32-year-old was jailed a year prior in June 2016, after he was found guilty of conspiring to commit 45 illicit trades

'I have to provide for my kids because there is no one else to. I want them to have stability, it's my duty,' Roxy said of three-year-old Hunter (pictured) and Pixie, five

Earlier this year, she revealed that the challenging times ultimately affected her multi-million dollar PR business.

'My business took a hit last year and that was off the back of all the drama surrounding me with my husband's sentencing and my cancer,' she said at a seminar in April.

The immense stress forced the busy entrepreneur to take time off for a holiday last year and she said she was able to bounce back thanks to her two children.

Health woes: Roxy was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent surgery in 2016, around the same time that husband Oliver was sentenced

Bouncing back: The immense stress forced the busy entrepreneur to take time off for a holiday last year and she said she was able to bounce back thanks to her two children

'At the end of last year I went away to Hawaii. I had to regroup and come back stronger, more focused than ever,' she said.

'I have to provide for my kids because there is no one else to. I want them to have stability, it's my duty.'

Roxy and Oliver tied the knot in a lavish ceremony back in 2012.

At the time, it was reported that 120 guests attended the lavish affair at around $1000 per head.
She was recently spotted frolicking with her ex Romain Zago on the beach in Miami - one day after they filed for divorce.

But Joanna Krupa shelved any potential uncertainty in her love life on Saturday, as she arrived at the 'Good Morning TVN' studios in her native Warsaw, Poland.

The former Real Housewives Of Miami star, 38, exuded elegance in a champagne-hued lace maxidress which featured a plunging neckline.

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Lovely in lace: Joanna Krupa shelved any potential uncertainty in her love life woes, as she arrived at the 'Good Morning TVN' studios in her native Warsaw, Poland

The blonde beauty flashed a peek of her cleavage in the gown, which featured a frilled neckline and flattering cap sleeves.

The garment also boasted a wide panel to nip in her tiny waist and irreverent stripes in romantic shades of blushing and pale pink.

Sticking to a muted palette, the model added height to her lithe frame with some patent nude stilettos.

She shared a snap of herself from the TV appearance on Instagram and gushed: 'Good morning vibes! Life is beautiful.'

Dazzling: The former Real Housewives Of Miami star, 38, exuded elegance in a champagne-hued lace maxidress which featured a plunging neckline

She's got a lot of front: The blonde beauty flashed a peek of her cleavage in the gown, which featured a frilled neckline and flattering cap sleeves

Joanna's outing comes after she enjoyed the sun and sea on Miami's South Beach cavorting with her ex Romain Zago just one day after she officially filed for divorce earlier this week.

The former couple appeared relaxed and playful together despite moving forward with officially ending their four year marriage.

The former Real Housewives of Miami star and the nightclub owner separated in May and in her petition, Krupa stated their marriage is 'irretrievably broken,' according to TMZ.

Pucker up: The Polish beauty blew a kiss as she strode into the studios

Killer footwear: Sticking to a muted palette, the model added height to her lithe frame with some patent nude stilettos

The split is amicable with Krupa telling DailyMail.com the pair remain 'best friends.'

'Were on great terms and Im very grateful Romain is supporting me right now. We are on great terms, we talk more than ever,' she said.

According to TMZ, both parties have agreed not to seek spousal support from one another and the couple filed the petition together.

Sitting pretty: She shared a snap of herself from the TV appearance on Instagram and gushed: 'Good morning vibes! Life is beautiful'
Blac Chyna's former 'side-piece' rapper Rarri True has been banned from her upcoming hosting appearance at the lounge Medusa in Atlanta, Georgia, after growing concerns over his obsessive behavior, it has been claimed.

TMZ reported Saturday that the reality star, 29, fears for her safety because of Ferrari's alleged obsessive and delusional behavior, and requests for him to stop calling and texting her have been ignored, according to the website.

Chyna is said to have hired four extra bodyguards for her Saturday appearance at the lounge on the chance Rarri, who is one of the men Rob Kardashian accused her of cheating on him with during his social media rant earlier this month, does show up.

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Taking matters into her hands: Blac Chyna's former 'side piece' rapper Rarri True has been banned from her upcoming hosting appearance at the nightclub Medusa in Atlanta, Georgia, after alarming her with his obsessive behavior, it has been claimed

Banned: TMZ reported Friday that Chyna, 29, has even hired four extra bodyguards for her appearance at the lounge on the chance True, also known as Ferrari, does show up

Chyna is said to believe that Rarri, also known as Ferrari, may have released revenge porn of her, even though her attorney Lisa Bloom sent him a letter, warning him not to sell or post any nude photos he may have of Chyna.

The rapper has already posted images online of himself and the reality star in bed.

Lil Henry, the owner of Medusa, told TMZ he will honor the reality star's request to ban Rarri, who the website says is from Atlanta, from her hosting appearance.

The website added that Rarri's interview with TMZ concerned her, in which the rapper claimed he believed her representatives were the ones to send off the warning letter, not her.

Off she goes: Chyna was spotted jetting out of Los Angeles on Saturday for her nightclub appearance in Atlanta later that evening

'I don't think that was in her action to do that, because I feel that Chyna really liked me, honestly,' he told the website. 'And I really liked Chyna, so I don't know, and I talked to her, I get her, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, how could you do that?'

Chyna was spotted jetting out of Los Angeles on Saturday for her nightclub appearance in Atlanta later that evening.

Earlier this month, Chyna's ex Rob went on a bitter social media rant, posting explicit images of her, and accusing her of drug use and infidelity.

Harsh: Earlier this month, Chyna's ex Rob went on a bitter social media rant, posting explicit images of her, accusing her of drug use and infidelity

One of the men he accused her of cheating on him with was Rarri.

One of his posts also accused Chyna of lying about her workouts as Rob claimed he spent $100k as an anniversary present on secret surgery for his fiancee to get back into shape after giving birth in November.

He wrote: 'Everyone wonders how Chyna lost all that weight after the baby and she lies to everyone but no I'm such a great Husband that on our anniversary I paid 100K to do this surgery to get all everything fixed as much as they could.'

This week Chyna was granted a temporary restraining order against her Rob.
Stephanie Davis has spoken for the first time since her arrest for assault, as she revealed details of her toxic romance with Jeremy McConnell and the terrifying moment their son Caben-Albi was rushed to hospital.

Speaking to the Mirror, the 24-year-old former Hollyoaks star, who is said to be pregnant, claimed the Irish model suffered from cocaine-induced paranoia, gave her chlamydia and threatened suicide during one of their many fall-outs.

In the wake of her shock revelations, a representative for Jeremy told MailOnline: 'Jeremy has been quite open and honest with the fact that he relapsed and Steph has no right to discuss his illness.'

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Happier times: Stephanie Davis has spoken for the first time since her arrest for assault, as she revealed details of her toxic romance with Jeremy McConnell and the terrifying moment their son Caben-Albi was rushed to hospital

Earlier this month, Stephanie was arrested on suspicion of GBH following a late night hotel brawl, which left her on/off flame with a broken nose and fractured eye socket.

Shortly after her release from custody, the actress posed in just a towel to display her five fractured ribs, broken nose, a black eye - as well as excruciating bruises all down her arms and legs - following his claims that she is pregnant.

After much back and forth between the embattled pair, Stephanie gave her candid interview to the Mirror in which she revealed their six-month-old was taken to hospital - yet Jeremy's 'cocaine-addled' mind merely accused her of cheating.

She said: 'Caben had breathing difficulties. Jeremy came over and we talked and he said he was fixed, but then told me he was going back to Ireland for a friend's leaving drinks. I said: "That's fine, just let me know when you get home safe" but I didn't hear from him until the next afternoon...

Troubled: Speaking to the Mirror , the 24-year-old former Hollyoaks star, who is said to be pregnant, claimed the Irish model suffered from cocaine-induced paranoia, gave her chlamydia and threatened suicide during one of their many fall-outs

'He said I must be having an affair in a hospital and he could prove it because the blankets were a different colour. It was completely absurd, but he has these psychotic episodes on coke where he's so paranoid about everything.'

The devastated star claims Jeremy gave her a sexually transmitted infection after one of their many reconciliations.

She said: 'Who gives someone they really love chlamydia? If he really loved me why would he give me an STD? And when I said I've just had a baby, I'd just carried his son for 9 months alone.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Stephanie for comment.

Having it out: The pair, who share six-month-old baby Caben, were reportedly at a hotel in East London when the blazing argument ensued

After giving her shocking interview, Jeremy took to Twitter to share a post - yet merely revealed he was headed to a Manchester club, although he vowed not to drink during the appearance as he penned: 'Finally made it to Manchester. Buzzing for @clublivmcrtonight. Mines a lemonade. See you all there'.

Stephanie also broke her social media silence as she shared an adorable image of Caben with the added caption: 'Heyyy @mazfreshPT My outfit you bought me fits me perfect now!! I Can't wait to see you soon, love u lots Caben'.

The furore comes as they both suffered horrific injuries following an explosive row earlier this month, which left Stephanie with five fractured ribs, a broken nose, a black eye. But it was claimed that they had to be separated by police in another row just three days earlier.

The pair were reportedly at a hotel in East London when the blazing argument ensued.

An onlooker at the hotel told Sun Online: 'We were in the hotel reception and we saw this girl very distressed running out of the hotel crying. It was clear something had gone on and the night manager called the police'.

A spokesman told MailOnline: 'Police were called at 02:49hrs on 29 June to a disturbance between a man and a woman at the Hotel Alto in Ilford Hill, Ilford.

Tough times: The pair, who share six-month-old baby Caben, were reportedly at a hotel in East London when the blazing argument ensued

'Officers attended the location. No criminal allegations were made.'

Speaking about the explosive showdown, Jeremy had claimed to MailOnline that their 'toxic relationship' is over for good with no chance of any reconciliation.

He claimed their fight began immediately after Stephanie's pregnancy announcement, saying: 'Steph then looked at my phone and saw that I was following some other woman. She just went mental at me and kicked off.'She was going mental I had not even met this woman but was just following her. She would not listen and stormed off to go to the pub and refused to go to the scan.'

He said he followed Stephanie to a local pub near to the Royal Chase Hotel in Enfield where they were staying.

'We were in the pub and having a few drinks. I had two or three and so did Steph which I thought was off as she was pregnant. She was also smoking and I told her a pregnant woman should not drink and smoke.

'She told me it was her life and she could do as she wanted... She was screaming and shouting and being abusive. She would not listen and for five to ten minutes just kept screaming at me.' Recalling the build-up to their brawl, he said: 'She just told me that she was pregnant. I was pretty shocked as it wasn't planned, but to be honest I was excited.

'She told me that she was going to have a scan at the hospital later that afternoon. The pregnancy was not planned and given our history together took me by surprise. I was pleased, but still in a bit of a shock.'

Stephanie was arrested and taken to Enfield Police station. She was later rushed to hospital and released at 3am on Tuesday morning after being bailed until July.

Happy days: The family have been through many ups and downs over the years

Friends claimed the row began when McConnell smashed Davis's phone which contained treasured photos of their son.However, he insists he did not harm the former actress, explaining: 'There is no way I touched her. She was the one who attacked me. I did not punch her and touch her.'

Two months ago Stephanie had talked about having a second child with heavily tattooed Jeremy and even talked about marriage.

But since they began seeing each other having appeared on Big Brother they have been involved in a stormy relationship.

Jeremy has spent time in rehab and Stephanie has previously spoken about how drink and drugs has affected their relationship.
She has been showing her support for her younger sister Petra Ecclestone since details of her bitter divorce battle from estranged husband James first surfaced.

And Tamara Ecclestone, 33, continued to rally around her sibling, as she stepped out with her husband Jay Rutland and daughter Sophia, three, to join Petra, 28, for lunch in London on Saturday.

The British model's famous father and Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, 86, was also present, along with his wife Fabiana Flosi.

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Doting mother: Tamara Ecclestone, 33, was seen clutching onto her daughter Sophia, three, as she left a family lunch with her husband Jay Rutland and father Bernie Ecclestone

Cutting a glamorous figure for their lunch date in the capital, Tamara sported a plain black jersey dress that sheathed her frame and featured stylish slits on either side that reached up to above the knee.

The socialite wore her long brunette locks down past her shoulders in a perfectly blow-dried style and appeared to be sporting a subtle make-up look.

She accessorised her casually chic attire with a large pair of shades and decided against stepping out in a pair of heels, adorning her feet with a pair of Rolling Stones inspired Vans instead.

In a sweet display, her daughter Sophia was sporting similar footwear, as she rocked a pair of floral printed Adidas trainers.

Support: The Ecclestone family have continued to rally around Petra as she is currently in a bitter divorce battle with estranged husband James Stunt

Casually chic: Tamara put on a stylish display in a flattering jersey dress that sheathed her svelte frame and chic sunglasses

The tot was clad in a navy blue dress and matching cardigan and was cutely sporting her Frozen themed backpack on her back - no doubt containing a slew of goodies to keep her entertained throughout the luncheon.

Clutching onto Sophia's hand, Tamara made sure to keep an eye on her mini-me as she left the London eatery with her family in tow.

She was joined by her husband Jay who cut a dapper figure in a double denim ensemble. They had tied the knot back in 2013 and welcomed their daughter a year later.

Reunited: She was seen kissing her father's wife Fabiana Flosi goodbye as they left the London eatery

Show of love: Formula one chief executive Bernie planted a kiss on his youngest daughter Petra as they parted ways

Tamara's father Bernie was seen strolling beside his wife Fabiana, who opted to wear a tailored wrap-over shirt, complementing jeans and leather nude ankle boots for their outing.

Petra, meanwhile, kept a low-key figure as she hid underneath a black fedora hat.

She left her blonde tresses loose underneath and covered up in a statement leopard print coat, sporting a pair of Gucci fur-lined loafers on her feet.

Their family meal comes after it came to light that Petra is divorcing the father of her three children, six years after their lavish 12million wedding ceremony which took place in an Italian castle.

Over: Their family meal comes after it came to light Petra is divorcing the father of her three children, six years after their lavish 12million Italian marriage ceremony

'He has caused enough': Bernie recently spoke for the first time about his daughter's divorce, telling MailOnline: 'She has suffered an awful lot and I couldn't bear for her to suffer any more'

She is embroiled in a bitter battle with her estranged husband over their 5.5billion fortune.

The pair have hired some of the countrys most high profile divorce lawyers to represent them in High Court hearings, which are expected to start next month.

Their 158million mansion in Los Angeles and a Grade II-listed pile in the fashionable west London district  worth up to 100million  are expected to be just some of the assets fought over.

Bernie spoke last week for the first time about his daughter's divorce from her husband James, telling MailOnline: 'She has suffered an awful lot and I couldn't bear for her to suffer any more'.

He added: 'I don't like to see marriages broken up unnecessarily, she tolerated it for quite a long time. He has caused enough aggravation for Petra'.

Shedding light on the court hearing Petra had with husband James last month, Bernie said: 'It wasn't a divorce hearing, it was simply for Petra to be able to go back to her house. The case was for the judge to tell him to leave'

Extraordinary details of their bitter marriage were laid bare during a highly charged court hearing last month.

F1 boss Bernie said: 'It wasn't a divorce hearing, it was simply for Petra to be able to go back to her house.

'The case was for the judge to tell him to leave. It is a rather super house to live in which he would like people to believe he owns but he doesn't'.

A friend of Petras sister Tamara said: The marriage has been terrible for a year and tricky for two.

'When your best friend is your sister': Tamara has been a close support for Petra throughout her divorce and shared a defiant selfie with her sibling to Instagram

'Slavica [Petras mum] and Tamara have been worried sick for ages and the whole family has felt that he traded on the Ecclestone name.

Tamara, meanwhile, had showed her support for her sister on Instagram and shared a defiant selfie of the two together in light of Petra's relationship woes.

She could be seen posing with her arm around Petra, as the girls put their heads close together to showcase their special bond that was personified by Tamara, as she wrote: 'When your best friend is your sister.'

Petra and James had dated for four years before tying the knot at Odescalchi Castle, located near Rome, in August 2011.

The pair are parents to daughter Lavinia, four, and two-year-old twin sons James and Andrew.
Charlize Theron oozed Hollywood glam on Saturday as she arrived for press junkets in Berlin.

The 41-year-old actress is promoting Atomic Blonde and looked every inch the bombshell in an eye-catching red outfit which showed off her endless legs.

Charlize teamed a scarlet red blouse with a ruffle mini skirt by Givenchy as she prepared to meet with the media to talk about her upcoming action flick.

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Sizzling: Charlize Theron looked fantastic in red as she promoted Atomic Blonde in Berlin on Saturday

She flashed a glimpse of her black bra and accessorized with a dainty gold necklace.

The blonde beauty wore her locks up in a double bun and completed the look with strappy red heels.

Directed by David Leitch, Atomic Blonde is an action-packed Cold War thriller starring Charlize as a ruthless and talented British spy on a mission in Berlin.

With a cast also featuring Sofia Boutella, John Goodman and James McAvoy, the movie will be out in American cinemas on July 18.

A-list style: The 41-year-old actress showed off her amazing legs in a plunging blouse and ruffle skirt

Atomic Blonde: Charlize's look was complete with strappy red heels

The star is mother two young children; Jackson, now six, who she adopted from South Africa in 2012, and August, now almost two, from a family in the USA, adopted in 2015.

Meanwhile, Charlize said she found her role in Atomic Blonde challenging as she revealed she ended up cracking her teeth from clenching her jaw too hard whilst learning some of the tough moves shed have to do in the feature.

She added to Variety magazine: 'It happened the first month of training. I had severe tooth pain, which I never had in my entire life. [The dentist had] to cut one of the teeth out and root canals. It was tough. You want to be in your best fighting shape, and its hard. I had the removal and I had to put a donor bone in there to heal until I came back, and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there.'

The mother-of-two's blonde tresses were pinned in two buns
Her late mother Carrie Fisher was honored with the Disney Legends Award on Friday at the D23 Legends Awards in Anaheim, California.

And one day later, Billie Lourd shared a sweet picture of her mom and her late grandmother Debbie Reynolds from a childhood trip to Disneyland.

The 24-year-old actress thanked Disney for honoring her mother, making her 'the ultimate Disney combo: a princess and a now a legend.'

Happiest place on Earth: Billie Lourd shared a sweet picture of her mom and her late grandmother Debbie Reynolds from a childhood trip to Disneyland on Saturday

Carrie passed away on December 27, 2016 at the age of 60; Billie's grandmother and Carrie's mother Debbie Reynolds died one day later on December 28, 2016 at the age of 84.

In the throwback Instagram photo, Billie was pictured eating a snack while her mom held her in her lap.

Her grandmother Debbie posed above them with a big smile on her face.

Minnie and Mickey Mouse were also pictured in the photo.

Family: Her late mother Carrie Fisher was awarded the Disney Legends Award on Friday at the D23 Legends Awards in Anaheim, California; pictured with Carrie and Debbie in 2015

Billie wrote on the post: 'My mom and I went to Disneyland so much that I now realize she may have loved it even more than I did.'

The American Horror Story star added: 'Thank you so much to @Disney for making my mom the ultimate Disney combo: a princess and now a legend.'

The Disney Legends Award is the highest award The Walt Disney Company can give a person.

Carrie starred in the Star Wars films as Princess Leia.

Although Billie couldn't be at the Disney Legend D23 Expo, she penned a letter to express her gratitude.

Memories: Carrie passed away on December 27, 2016 at the age of 60; pictured is Billie and her mother Carrie

Disney chairman Bob Iger read the note, which said:

The letter read: 'As far back as I can remember, my mom and I have been Disney fanatics. We went to Disneyland so much that I now realize she might have even loved it more than I did.'

'Becoming part of the Disney family was truly an amazing moment for her. She secretly always wanted to be a Disney princess, so getting to be a Disney princess and a Disney legend would have been her ultimate dream.'

'I wish I could be there to accept this award on her behalf, but unfortunately, I am currently working on American Horror Story.'

'I am beyond grateful to Mr. Iger and everyone at Disney for this incredible honor. Thank you again, and may the force be with you always.'

Thankful: Although Billie couldn't be at the Disney Legend D23 Expo, she penned a letter to express her gratitude
She is in the midst of an increasingly bitter divorce battle which has seen allegations of physical and mental abuse.

And Mel B's mother Andrea Brown waded into her divorce drama as she expressed relief for the Spice Girl escaping her 'worrying' marriage to estranged husband Stephen Belafonte.

In a venom-laden Twitter rant, Andrea also lashed out at a court decision ordering her daughter to pay her former flame spousal support to the tune of an eye-watering 30,000 a month.

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'Thankful my daughter is alive!' Mel B's mother Andrea Brown waded into her divorce drama as she expressed relief for the Spice Girl escaping her 'worrying' marriage to estranged husband Stephen Belafonte

No holding back: The Spice Girl's mother didn't hold back as she unleashed a Twitter storm with her comments that expressed relief over her daughter's safety

'Have 2 b thankful my daughter alive after 10yrs of worry she's finely safe#more important than money,' (sic) Andrea tweeted on Saturday, followed by a rainbow icon.

She also expressed her opinion on the court's decision ordering her daughter to cough up cash to her ex on a monthly basis - labelling it 'disgusting''

She wrote: 'This would never happen in England disgusted with this news' in response to the decision.

The star was estranged from her mother throughout her ten-year marriage with Andrea and Mel's younger sister Danielle often speaking out in the press against Stephen.

End of the road: Andrea also hit back after Los Angeles judge is understood to have granted film producer Belafontes request for emergency spousal support to cover basic amenities at an eye-watering 30K her month (the couple pictured July 2016)

Vitriol: Andrea lashed out at the court decision, saying she was 'disgusted' at the news

Reunited: In May Mel shared a colourful Instagram photo of her mother and three daughters Phoenix Chi, 18, Angel, 10, and her child with Belafonte, Madison, five

In May Mel shared a colourful Instagram photo of her mother and three daughters Phoenix Chi, 18, Angel, 10, and her child with Belafonte, Madison, five.

It was the first time the pair had been pictured together in more than a decade.

And showing how far their relationship has come, Andrea was also seen in a sweet snap shared last month as the pair attended Phoenix' high school graduation in Los Angeles.

Mel wrote: 'I'm sooo sooo proud of you for all your hard work you have done,and so is grandma #3generations #godess #bestdayever #proudmummy #proudgranny' (sic)

Back together: And showing how far their relationship has come, Andrea was also seen in a sweet snap shared last month as the pair attended Phoenix' high school graduation in Los Angeles

Earlier this week it was revealed Mel had been ordered to pay Stephen a reported 30,529 ($40,000) a month, despite 'squandering' the bulk of her multi-million pound fortune during their 10-year marriage.

A Los Angeles judge is understood to have granted film producer Belafontes request for emergency spousal support to cover basic amenities including food, housing and phone bills.

According to the website the order also includes a separate 106,813 ($140,000) payment for his legal fees as their acrimonious divorce proceedings continue.

Costly: Mel B has been ordered to pay estranged husband Stephen Belafonte a reported $40,000 a month, despite squandering the bulk of her multi-million pound fortune during their 10-year marriage

In court documents obtained by DailyMail.com Judge Lawrence P Riff made the order at LA Superior Court Friday.

The judge did however decline to slap an order on Mel B requiring her to desist from interfering in the listing and sale of the couple's $8.9million Hollywood Hills home.

Belafonte, 42, who is banned from the home under terms of a temporary restraining order against him, had accused his wife of preventing real estate agents from being able to show the property.

The documents note that Mel, also 42, had opposed all of her husband's requests for relief and seeks her own relief, asking the court to give Belafonte a Gavron warning - a notice insisting he become self-supporting.

Green light: A Los Angeles judge is understood to have granted film producer Belafontes request for emergency spousal support to cover basic amenities including as food, housing and phone bills, TMZ claim

Judge Riff wrote: 'The Court has considered carefully Brown's allegations... that she suffered serious, debilitating abuse at the hands of Belafonte resulting in bodily injury and profound emotional distress.'

But he added that Belafonte had also entered a sworn declaration 'categorically and emphatically' denying all such allegations.

In conclusion he wrote that the 'competing user-oath allegations and denials' do not constitute documented evidence.

'Belafonte's request for temporary Spousal Support is granted,' he said.

Income: Mel is said to earn about 190,000 ($249,000) a month by being a judge on America's Got Talent

Mel is said to earn about 190,000 ($249,000) a month by being a judge on America's Got Talent.

Her financial situation was laid bare in June when it was revealed her multi-million pound fortune had been wiped out due to her 'extravagant' lifestyle.

And in another shocking twist to the divorce battle, it was claimed the Spice Girls star has just 961 ($1259) left in one of her company accounts.

Mel's British account Moneyspider Productions, which was set up in 1997, holds the small amount of funds, as revealed by The Sunday People.

Its nature of business is listed as 'Sound recording and music publishing activities'

A source told the Mirror: 'Mel is an international superstar, still working as a judge on Americas Got Talent, but she only has a small amount of money in the bank, according to Companies House. People may be very surprised.'

Squandered: Her financial situation was laid bare in June when it was revealed her multi-million pound fortune had been wiped out due to her 'extravagant' lifestyle

Mel also owns 20% of Spice Girls Limited which held 109,987 as of August 31, 2016. Her fellow bandmates own the remainder.

She owns 16% of Octopus Direct along with the other Spice Girls and music mogul Simon Fuller.

It held 10,549 as of August 31, 2016.

MailOnline has contacted Mel's representatives for further comment.
For the 14th year, the International Folk Art Market is bringing earthly goods from the world over to Museum Hill in Santa F e. This year promises to be the most expansive yet, with over 150 artists from 54 different countries gathering in the capital to share their jewelry, paintings, textiles, basketry, instruments and much more. Tickets start at $20 (and its free if you're under 16!), and the artists that travel to the market take home 90 percent of profits made over the course of the weekend, making this market well worth a visit on any of the two days it runsSaturday or Sunday. (Maggie Grimason)

Artists from 53 countries sell their jewelry, beadwork, basketry, carvings, ceramics, glasswork, metalwork, paintings, mixed media, sculpture, textiles, musical instruments, and more.

The Worlds Largest Folk Art Festival is a Must-See for Art and Culture Lovers

Featuring 160 Master Artists from 53 Countries

JULY 14, 15 AND 16, 2017MUSEUM HILL IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

Santa Fe, New MexicoThis July, the International Folk Art Market | Santa Fealready the largest of its kind in the worldwill celebrate its most diverse Market yet. One hundred sixty master artists from every corner of the globe will bring their work to this vast and colorful international bazaar. Some will arrive as celebrated cultural artists, while others will have never before left their villages, let alone crossed an ocean.

Artists from 53 countries will bring jewelry, beadwork, basketry, carvings, ceramics, glasswork, metalwork, paintings, mixed media, sculpture, textiles, musical instruments, and more. Some are honored tradition-bearers, while others are young creators reinterpreting ancient forms. Their art ranges from highly affordable to museum-quality masterworks.

Many of the artists come from developing countries where the average income is less than $3.10 a day, and where political, social, and environmental hardships can make everyday lifenot to mention the creation of artchallenging. In the past 13 years, artists at the Market have earned a combined $25 million, 90 percent of which goes home with the artists, providing them the financial ability not only to continue making art but also to radically improve their lives and their communities.

Tickets range from $225 for the opening night to as low as $10 for advance Sunday tickets. Youth 16 and under receive free admission on Saturday and Sunday. For more information and tickets, go to www.folkartalliance.org or call 505-992.7600. Tickets are limited!

FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2017 (6:309PM)

Market Opening Party: $225

A global gathering under the stars. Enjoy shopping, dancing to international music, and refreshments.

SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2017

Early Bird Market (7:3010AM): $75 (ticket includes all day Saturday)

Saturday Market (10AM5:30PM): $15 ($20 beginning June 15)

Youth 16 and under free

SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2017 (9AM5PM)

Family and Community Day: $10 ($15 beginning June 15)

Youth 16 and under free

International Folk Art Market | Santa Fe is held in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Museum of New Mexico Foundation, and the City of Santa Fe.
Now that his split from his pre-fame wife is official, Jeremy Meeks is finally free to strut around hand-in-hand with Chloe Green, like a proper celebrity couple.

Hot felon Meeks, 33, filed for legal separation from wife of eight years Melissa on Tuesday. Wasting no time, he took Topshop heiress Chloe, 26, to dinner at exclusive Hollywood restaurant Catch on Friday. But I wonder who footed the bill?

Jeremy Meeks is finally free to strut around hand-in-hand with Chloe Green now that he has split from his pre-fame wife

Meeks  who served two years in a California jail for illegal gun possession and gang crime  works part-time as a model, while jet-setting Chloe doesnt seem to have a job at all. Mind you, she does have oodles of cash and a luxury lifestyle thanks to her retail tycoon dad, Sir Philip Green.

Bizarrely, Meeks shot to fame after his police mugshot went viral. He and Chloe were first seen together last month, cavorting on a 118,000 superyacht in Turkey.

Nice thought, Andrew - shame you got the wrong day

OOPS! He clearly had the best intentions, bless him, but Prince Andrew dropped a family clanger yesterday when he tweeted his congratulations to the Duchess of Cornwall for her 70th birthday.

Alongside a photo of the two of them, the Duke of York wrote a message and included the hashtag #HappyBirthdayHRH.

Problem is, its not Camillas birthday until tomorrow! When I asked Buckingham Palace how the slip-up happened, the tweet disappeared. Just to set the record straight happy birthday for tomorrow, Camilla!

Alongside a photo of the two of them, the Duke of York wrote a message and included the hashtag #HappyBirthdayHRH

Theresa May could be beefing up her security after being cornered by a prankster at a party. The joker, known as Nimrod Kamer, confronted the PM at the Spectator magazine bash, breezing past aides by flashing someone elses invitation.

He asked some silly Brexit questions as he filmed the encounter on his phone, and later posted it on Twitter. Kamer joked later: In Iran Id have been arrested!
She's the Australian model who is now based in New York City.

And Bridget Malcolm will be returning Down Under next month when she walks the runway for the David Jones Spring-Summer collection launch.

The Sunday Telegraph reported the model will also bring her rock star husband Nathaniel Hoho from the band Walking Shapes along for the ride.

Homecoming: Bridget Malcolm will be returning Down Under next month when she walks the runway for the David Jones Spring-Summer collection launch

The pair were married in a mountain-top ceremony in Pennsylvania last year and in a second ceremony in Western Australia's Rottnest Island in January.

Bridget was last in Australia in May when she shot for the department store's Spring-Summer catalogue in Sydney's Cronulla Beach.

Speaking to the publication at the time, Bridget said it was always an enticing prospect coming back to Australia.

Special guest: The Sunday Telegraph reported the model will also bring her rock star husband Nathaniel Hoho (left) from the band Walking Shapes along for the ride

Down Under: Bridget was last in Australia in May when she shot for the department store's Spring-Summer catalogue in Cronulla Beach. Pictured at 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

'I'm so excited to be back home,' she said. 'I love coming back from the US.'

Earlier this week, Bridget shared some down-to-earth advice for parents of new and aspiring models on her blog.

The 25-year-old, who started her career when she was a teenager, also thanked her own parents for doing a 'great job of protecting (her)'.

'Newsflash, models are thin!' Earlier this week, Bridget Malcolm shared advice for parents of aspiring young models on her blog, emphasising that 'good body image starts at home'

'As a parent you have to be smart, use your instinct with people and keep involved as much as is acceptable,' she advised.

The Victoria's Secret model stressed how 'good body image starts at home'.

'Newsflash - models are thin! Eating disorders run rampant in this industry. Luckily the trend towards fitter girls is real,' she said.
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands during their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 13, 2017

President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son Donald Jr, who is under fire for accepting a meeting with a Moscow lawyer during the US election campaign last year -- talks that have reignited allegations about Russia's role in the vote.

The scandal over the younger Trump's willingness to meet the lawyer has put his father's top aides in legal jeopardy, cast a pall over his efforts to remake the political agenda and may yet imperil his presidency.

But the president stood by Donald Jr during a visit to Paris, in his first public remarks about the scandal.

"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer," he said.

"From a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting."

Trump earlier suggested he may have known about the meeting, saying "maybe it was mentioned at some point," but nevertheless insisted he did not know what it was about.

Despite the controversy and investigations in Washington over the Trump campaign's alleged ties to the Kremlin, Trump told reporters accompanying him on his flight to France that he would be willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House.

Such a visit would have to come "at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

The US president was in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, with both men talking of a newfound friendship.

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Macron rolled out the red carpet, hoping to improve relations and persuade the US president to change his mind about withdrawing from the global Paris agreement on climate change.

Macron said earlier that he had a "strong disagreement" with Trump about the agreement, which the US leader plans to renegotiate.

Trump said cryptically: "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord. We'll see what happens."

But the tone of their press conference and warm body language was at odds with broader concerns about the transatlantic relationship since Trump's victory in November last year.

Macron, only 39 years old and elected in May, said he looked forward to a "dinner between friends" later Thursday when he and his wife enjoyed a Michelin-starred meal with the Trumps in a restaurant up the Eiffel Tower.

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and US President Donald Trump

The US president praised Macron as a "great president", saying "he is going to run this country right."

"The friendship between our two nations and ourselves is unbreakable," Trump said after talks at the French presidential palace focused on joint US-French efforts to fight terrorism in the Middle East and Africa.

Macron had warned on the eve of Trump's arrival that "the Western world is fracturing since the American election" and that the world order established after World War II was under threat.

- Bridge-building -

As part of Macron's charm offensive, Trump will be guest of honour during celebrations for France's national day on Friday, which will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I.

French President Emmanuel Macron (2nd L), his wife Brigitte Macron (L), US President Donald Trump (2nd R) and First Lady Melania Trump (R) pose ahead of a dinner at Le Jules Verne Restaurant on the Eiffel Tower in Paris

Earlier, Macron gave Trump a personal tour of Napoleon's tomb at the Invalides military complex in central Paris, before the two men headed for talks.

Again the body language was warm, with Trump complimenting Macron's wife and even giving the French leader a lift back to the presidency in his eight-tonne car, known as The Beast.

"You know, you're in such great shape... beautiful," Trump told 64-year-old Brigitte Macron, who was sporting a white Louis Vuitton dress and stiletto heels, during their visit to the tomb.

- 'Strategy a mystery' -

Trump and Macron will watch Friday's Bastille Day military parade together and marking the US entry to World War I in 1917.

More than 50,000 Americans died in what then-president Woodrow Wilson described as the "war to end all wars," a conflict that forged the transatlantic alliance in steel.

However, foreign affairs expert Bertrand Badie of Sciences Po university in Paris told AFP he was very doubtful Macron would be able to influence Trump in the future.

"It's very difficult to play chess with a man whose strategy is a complete mystery and whose only consistency is his pursuit of American national interest," he said.

Nearly 11,000 police officers will be on duty, with France in its highest state of alert after a string of terror attacks since 2015 that have killed more than 300 people.

And in early July, police charged a 23-year-old suspected far-right activist with plotting to assassinate Macron at the Bastille Day parade.
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The Chicago Sun-Times, the city's oldest continuously published daily and winner of eight Pulitzer prizes, has been sold to an investor group, reportedly for $1.

The newspaper, which traces its history to 1844, reported Thursday it was purchased by an investment group led by former Chicago alderman Edwin Eisendrath and a coalition of labor unions.

The Sun-Times provided no details, but the rival Chicago Tribune and other media reported the sale was concluded for $1.

Earlier this year the Tribune's parent company Tronc offered to buy the Sun-Times. But the deal faced opposition from the Justice Department, which argued it would create a monopoly of the two major dailies in Chicago.

Although this week's agreement was concluded for $1, the investors needed to come up with $11.2 million to keep operating, the Sun-Times reported.

The deal underscores the deep woes of the once-profitable US newspaper sector, where values have plunged over the past two decades amid a shift of readers to online platforms.

The current owner of the Sun-Times, Wrapports, purchased the daily in 2011 for an estimated $20 million.

According to Poynter Institute media writer James Warren, the Sun-Times owners "concluded taking $1 was better than the $8 million it would cost to shut down the paper."

Reports said the Sun-Times may be obligated to continue a $25 million annual contract with the rival Tribune for printing operations.

The Sun-Times' history is traced back to the 1844 Chicago Daily Journal, and the current name resulted from the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun and Chicago Daily Times.

The paper was home to advice columnist Ann Landers, prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin and movie critic Roger Ebert, among others.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, shown here in January at Donald Trump's inauguration, appeared to have fainted before being taken to hospital in Canada

Former US president Jimmy Carter was released from a hospital in Canada Friday after being treated for dehydration while working on a charity construction project, the Carter Center said.

The ex-president, 92, suffered the brief health scare Thursday while helping to build a house at a Habitat for Humanity construction site.

Carter returned to the site Friday, the Carter Center said.

"He and Mrs. Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide," the center said.

Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981 as the 39th US president, has been in remission from cancer since undergoing surgery in 2015 to remove a small mass on his liver.

He and his wife Rosalynn were in Canada this week working with Habitat for Humanity to help build 150 homes in honor of the country's 150th anniversary, with a focus on Edmonton and Winnipeg provinces.
This photo illustration shows a collection of Taiwanese newspapers in Taipei on July 14, 2017 reporting on the death of China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo

The body of China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo was cremated on Saturday after a ceremony attended by his wife and friends, two days after the dissident lost a battle with cancer while in custody.

Liu's body was cremated "in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs" in the northeastern city of Shenyang, said Zhang Qingyang, an official from the municipal office.

Officials released photos showing his wife, the poet Liu Xia, with her brother, Liu Xiaobo's brother and friends in front of the body surrounded by white flowers at a funeral home.

"Since she had just lost her husband, she was in very low spirits," Zhang said.

China's government has come under international criticism over its treatment of the democracy advocate and his wife, who has been under house arrest since 2010.

Western governments have called on Beijing to release Liu Xia and let her travel abroad.

The foreign ministry lashed out at the criticisim on Friday, saying it lodged official protests with the United States, Germany, France and the United Nations human rights office.
People watch a television news broadcast showing a North Korean announcer reading a statement on the country's new ICBM test, at a railway station in Seoul on July 4, 2017

New images of North Korea's main nuclear facility show that the isolated regime has apparently produced more plutonium for its weapons programme than previously thought, a US monitor said, as tensions soar over Pyongyang's ambitions.

The respected 38 North website, a monitoring project linked to Johns Hopkins university, said Friday that thermal imagery of the Yongbyon nuclear complex appeared to show that Pyongyang had reprocessed spent fuel rods at least twice between last September and June this year.

"The Radiochemical Laboratory operated intermittently and there have apparently been at least two unreported reprocessing campaigns to produce an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile," it said.

North Korea deactivated the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after Pyongyang's third nuclear test in 2013.

Increased thermal activity was also noted at Yongbyon's uranium enrichment facility but it was unclear whether this indicated a push to increase supplies, possibly for weapons, or if it was part of maintenance operations, the website said.

The researchers also said that analysis of thermal patterns from a probable isotope/tritium production facility at the site suggested that the plant was likely not producing tritium.

Tritium is a key component used for making sophisticated thermonuclear weapons with far greater yields than those made only of plutonium and uranium.

North Korea has conducted five underground nuclear tests since 2006, and carried out its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week.

North Korea's foreign ministry spokesman said Friday "the resounding success" of the test demonstrated Pyongyang's ability to "annihilate the US by a single blow to the very heart of its mainland in case it fails to act with discretion".

The United States is inviting its "ultimate doom" by pushing for ramped up UN sanctions against the North, the spokesman was quoted as saying by Pyongyang's state media.

North Korea, which says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion, is subject to multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its weapons programmes.

The latest launch triggered a new round of condemnation and anger, with the US and its allies seeking toughened measures at the Security Council.
This handout photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office shows late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife Liu Xia praying as they bury Liu's ashes at sea off the coast of Dalian

The ashes of China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo were buried at sea on Saturday, depriving his supporters of a place to pay tribute to the pro-democracy dissident.

Officials showed a video in which his wife, Liu Xia, and relatives lowered a white round urn into the water off the northeastern coastal city of Dalian, two days after the democracy advocate died of liver cancer aged 61 while in custody.

His supporters said the authorities wanted to avoid giving him a pilgrimage site where they could remember a writer whose calls for political reform angered the Communist regime and led to his arrest in 2008.

Officials "fear that if someone who is as emblematic a symbol as Liu Xiaobo had a burial ground, it would become a place where his supporters would gather on his memorial day, the day he received the Nobel or any other such occasions to express their desire to chase after freedom," activist and family friend Ye Du told AFP.

Photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office shows late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife Liu Xia (C) and his brother, Liu Xiaoguang (L), holding a portrait of Liu Xiaobo at a funeral parlour in the city of Shenyang on July 15, 2017

Liu Xiaobo's older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, said at a news conference organised by the authorities that the government had followed the family's wishes.

He thanked the Communist Party for its "humanistic care" of his brother during his hospitalisation and death. He did not take any questions before being escorted out by two women.

Zhang Qingyang, an official from the Shenyang city municipal office, said the cremation was "in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs".

Liu's supporters said it was impossible to verify if it was really his wish to be buried at sea as the authorities have severely restricted access to his family. They also said Liu Xiaoguang did not agree with Liu Xiaobo's political leanings.

"It is deplorable how the Chinese government has forced the family to cremate Liu Xiaobo, bury him at sea, and then coerced Liu's brother to make robotic statements to the media about the great care of the government and superiority of its health care system," Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, told AFP.

- 'Disgusting' funeral' -

File photo released by the Liu's family and taken on October 22, 2002 shows Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo (L) and his wife Liu Xia in Beijing

Authorities also released photos of a private ceremony attended by his family, including his wife, whose fate worries supporters hoping the government will cede to international pressure to release her and let her leave China.

Liu Xia, a poet, stood with her brother, and two of Liu Xiaobo's brothers in front of the body, which was covered with white petals.

Zhang said "friends" also attended the ceremony.

But Amnesty International's China researcher Patrick Poon told AFP he did not recognise any in the row of non-family members in the official photo and people close to the Liu couple identified at least one "state security police officer" among them.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who lives in Berlin, tweeted a photo of the funeral and called the display "disgusting" and a "violation" of the deceased.

In Hong Kong thousands took part in a candlelit march Saturday night in memory of Liu. "He was a great scholar who woke up young people, especially of my generation," said Beijing-born Steven Wong, 45, who travelled from Singapore to attend the march.

- Wife is 'incommunicado' -

China's government faced a global backlash for denying Liu Xiaobo's wish to be treated abroad, and the United States and European Union have called on the government to free Liu Xia.

She has been under house arrest since 2010, but she was allowed to see her husband after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in Shenyang following his diagnosis of late-stage liver cancer in late May.

People attend a candlelight march for the late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong on July 15, 2017

Liu Xiaoguang said Liu Xia was in "weak condition" and experiencing such "great sorrow" and that she may need hospital treatment.

"As far as I know, Liu Xia is in a free condition," municipal official Zhang said.

But Genser said she was still being held "incommunicado" and he has "seen no sign that the government is going to let her go".

At Liu Xiaobo's funeral, Liu Xia "fixed her eyes on him a long time, mumbling to say farewell," Zhang said, adding that she was "in very low spirits".

"It's best for her not to receive too much outside interference during this period," he said.

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. The veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

"The most preposterous thing is that even during his cremation and funeral he still was not free," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist and family friend, told AFP.

"And now it's been passed on to his wife, who will continue to lead on that same freedom-less existence."
Ram Nath Kovind (L), 71, is hot favourite to be elected by national and state lawmakers to become titular head-of-state as the candidate of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

India's next president will emerge from the Dalit caste -- a community so marginalised they were once known as "untouchables" -- with the victory of the ruling party candidate set to strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grip on power.

Ram Nath Kovind, 71, is hot favourite to be elected Monday by national and state lawmakers to become titular head-of-state as the candidate of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It will be only the second time, after President K.R Narayanan, who served from 1997 to 2002, that a member of the downtrodden caste has assumed the post.

The result will be announced Thursday. And for Modi, with one eye on re-election in 2019, it will send an important message to a key, long disdained electoral group.

Dalits, who number around 200 million, are among the poorest communities in India and have traditionally been relegated to activities on the margins of society.

Despite legal protection, discrimination is rife and Dalits are routinely denied access to education and other opportunities for advancement.

Analysts say Modi can win political capital by helping BJP politician Kovind -- a former Supreme Court lawyer and ex-governor of the eastern state of Bihar -- to win the contest against opposition nominee Meira Kumar, also a Dalit.

Modi has used Twitter to hail the rise of Kovind, the son of a farmer, from "a humble background".

Kumar, the daughter of freedom fighter Babu Jagjivan Ram, was a diplomat before entering politics in 1985 and became India's first woman speaker in 2009, but the electoral college numbers are heavily tilted against her.

Her nomination, which followed Kovind's, was seen by many as the opposition's attempt to counter Modi's move to woo Dalits.

- Poor but powerful -

Votes from the Dalits and the BJP's traditional Hindu base propelled Modi to his 2014 landslide, especially in the battleground states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

"Every (Indian) politician would want support from this 16 percent voting bloc for any election," Vimal Thorat, an activist and convenor of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, told AFP.

Dalit support is even more important for the BJP as it has mostly been shunned by Muslims, who make up about 14 percent of the 1.3 billion population.

Dalit votes supplemented by support from the BJP's right wing Hindu nationalist followers "will, for once and all, defeat the 'Muslim veto' in this country", Nistula Hebbar, political editor of The Hindu newspaper, told AFP.

"Dalits as a community or a base are spread across the country, especially in all electorally important states. Their vote is extremely important, especially for the BJP," Hebbar said.

But reports of clashes and caste discrimination are routine across the country.

Authorities in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state sent riot police to Saharanpur district in May after clashes between Dalits and upper caste Hindus.

Violent protests erupted in Modi's home state Gujarat last year after video footage emerged of an attack on four Dalit villagers who were taking a dead cow to be skinned.

Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and attacks by vigilante groups on cow traders and smugglers have increased since Modi's election.

Dalits are commonly tasked with jobs such as skinning cattle carcasses for their hides and the incidents have flagged inherent tensions between the BJP's traditional base and its bid to reach out to lower caste voters.

"The increasing friction between upper and lower castes in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and UP has led to the rise of a young and oppositional Dalit leadership," a Times of India editorial said last month.

It added that Modi and his allies have "sought to regain advantage in this equation with a Dalit presidential candidate".

Ashok Malik of the New Delhi based Observer Research Foundation think-tank told AFP that Kovind's nomination was "a milestone" for the BJP, which "is at its strongest ever" and poised to elect its choice of president even without any support from opposition lawmakers.

But Dalits wonder whether the election of a president from their community -- for the second time in two decades -- will bring real change.

"Change will happen only when the everyday problems of the community are addressed in line with our constitution. When they are given justice and the rules are implemented fairly and firmly," Thorat said.

India's prime minister wields most of the executive power, but the president can send back some parliamentary bills for reconsideration and also plays a guiding role in the process of forming governments.

In his three years in power, Modi has shown himself to be an astute politician. The response to his latest political gambit, particularly by India's marginalised groups, will play a key role in deciding his future after 2019, experts say.
The Sunny Days El Palacio hotel in Hurghada, on the Egyptian Red Sea, where two German women were killed and four others wounded when a man went on a stabbing spree

Berlin on Saturday said two women who were killed after being stabbed in an Egyptian beach resort were German nationals, confirming earlier reports.

"We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada," a foreign ministry statement said.

Friday's attack in the Red Sea resort left four others wounded.

The attacker, who had swum ashore, was arrested and questioned.

"We don't know his motives yet, he could be crazy or perturbed -- it's too early to tell," a senior interior ministry official told AFP.

In January 2016, three tourists in Hurghada were wounded in a stabbing assault by two assailants with apparent Islamic State group (IS) sympathies.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's stabbing.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and European tourists.
The Kerala Government does not expect the Governor to sign the ordinance.
Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer (2R) celebrates with teammates after dismissing Sri Lanka's Niroshan Dickwella on the second day of the one-off Test at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo on July 15, 2017

Zimbabwe skipper Graeme Cremer claimed three wickets to dent Sri Lanka's first innings reply on the second day of the one-off Test in Colombo on Saturday.

Cremer's leg-spin and two crucial run outs left Sri Lanka reeling at 293-7 at stumps. Asela Gunaratne (24) and Rangana Herath (5) were at the crease with the hosts still trailing Zimbabwe by 63 runs.

Gunaratne, who came down the batting order at number eight after sustaining a hamstring injury while fielding, put up sturdy resistence in the final few overs of the day.

"The wicket has got drier and the leg-spinner (Cremer) is taking lot of turn. We have to bat well and we need to make sure that we get to 350," said Herath, who had taken five wickets to help dismiss Zimbabwe for 356.

"We had a good start, but they fought back well. We are still behind by 63 runs and we need to knock off that deficit," Herath told reporters.

Sri Lanka cricket captain Dinesh Chandimal plays a shot during the second day of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo on July 15, 2017

Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak believes the visitors are in a "nice position", adding that anything between 250 and 280 would be a tough fourth-innings chase on this pitch.

"Any sort of lead is going to be very valuable on this track. It's going to be an interesting day's play tomorrow. Hopefully we can pick up those wickets quickly," Streak said.

Top Sri Lankan batsmen faltered against Cremer's wily wrist spinners including captain Dinesh Chandimal falling to his opposite number after a well-made 55.

Chandimal's wicket ended a 96-run stand for the fourth wicket with Angelo Mathews (41), who quit the captaincy this week after Sri Lanka's loss in the one-day series against Zimbabwe.

Cremer, who had got Kusal Mendis caught behind for 11 before tea, struck twice in the final session of play to put the hosts in trouble at 238-6.

Sri Lankan batsman Upul Tharanga plays a shot during the one-off Test match against Zimbabwe at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo on July 15, 2017

Dilruwan Perera, who made a gritty 33 with 2 fours and as many sixes, was run out after hesitating on a single with his hamstrung partner Gunaratne.

Another unlucky run out early in the innings saw the back of opening batsman Upul Tharanga, who gave Sri Lanka a solid start with his brisk 71.

Tharanga fell short of his crease while backing up to a straight drive by Chandimal as the ball grazed past the fingers of paceman Donald Tiripano.

Tiripano's lucky fielding effort came after he got Zimbabwe's first breakthrough in Dimuth Karunaratne (25) in his first over after lunch, ending an 84-run opening partnership.

Earlier the Zimbabwe innings lasted just 4.4 overs of the morning session, adding only 12 runs to their overnight score. Batsman Craig Ervine top-scored with 160.

Left-arm spinner Herath returned with an impressive 5-116, his 30th five-wicket haul in 81 Tests.
A Saudi policeman checks the ID card of a driver at a checkpoint in the mostly Shiite Qatif region

Saudi police have killed a wanted "terrorist" in the Shiite-majority eastern district of Qatif, where there has been a string of attacks on security forces, newspapers said Saturday.

Jaafar al-Mobireek was killed late Friday in an operation in the city of Saihat, in Eastern Province, al-Jazirah newspaper reported, adding that he was a member of a "Qatif cell."

The suspect was one of nine people wanted by the interior ministry and had been involved in targeting people and security forces and "vandalising public, security and economic installations," the paper said.

The district has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shiite protests erupted to demand equality in the Gulf kingdom. Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and drug traffickers.

On Thursday, a border guard was shot dead and another wounded when their patrol came under fire on Al-Ramis coast in Qatif, Arab News daily reported citing an interior ministry statement.

Home to a significant number of the kingdom's minority Shiites -- who have traditionally complained of marginalisation -- Qatif has recently seen mounting attacks on police.

Saudi authorities on Tuesday executed four men convicted of "terrorist crimes", including attacks on police and rioting in Qatif.

Three police officers have been killed and several wounded in Qatif since last month, while two suspects died when their car exploded, according to the authorities.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) speaks at a press conference with his Qatari counterpart Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Doha on July 15, 2017

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday that Paris wants to assist Kuwait-led mediation on the crisis between Qatar and four other Arab states after holding talks in Doha and Jeddah.

Le Drian stopped in Qatar at the start of a Gulf tour aimed at helping defuse the crisis pitting Qatar against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt.

He later flew to Jeddah for talks with Saudi officials.

"France should be a facilitator in the mediation" led by Kuwait, Le Drian told reporters after talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

Le Drian reiterated the same statement in Jeddah.

"France is very concerned by the sudden deterioration in relations between Qatar and many of its neighbours," he said in Doha where he also met the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

"France is talking to all these countries to help in the search for a solution," he said, calling for "dialogue and calm" between the Arab states concerned.

Le Drian arrived in the region after a four-day mediation mission by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended on Thursday with no announcement of progress towards defusing mounting tensions in the Gulf.

Qatar's foreign minister welcomed France's support for mediation aimed at finding a solution "based on constructive dialogue... and respect of state sovereignty and international law".

"We look forward to France's support of the Kuwaiti mediation and American efforts," he said.

Riyadh and its allies imposed sanctions on Doha on June 5, including closing its only land border, denying Qatar access to their airspace and ordering their citizens back from the emirate.

- Plea for Gulf unity -

They accuse Doha of supporting extremism and being too close to their arch-rival Iran.

Le Drian said France counted on "reinforcing cooperation with Qatar in the fight against terrorism, particularly in combatting terrorism financing".

His Qatari host said the fight against terrorism needed collective efforts and "cannot be shouldered by one state".

"Combatting terrorism also cannot be through practising political and intellectual terrorism against a state," Sheikh Mohammed said, referring to the measures taken against Doha by its neighbours.

In Jeddah, Le Drian met his counterpart Adel Jubeir and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"We look for everyone's determined commitment against terrorism, its support and financing. In this perspective, it is important that GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries should be united, to remain a rampart against instability," he said.

Jubeir said Saudi Arabia would present Le Drian with "comprehensive dossiers of the negative acts committed by Qatar over years", adding that a similar file was given to Tillerson.

He said, however, that Riyadh hopes the crisis could still be solved "within the Gulf house".

Le Drian agreed that "solving this crisis should be done by the Gulf countries themselves", reiterating Paris's support for Kuwaiti mediation.

"France does not want to substitute the mediator... It wants to be a facilitator by joining efforts of other countries," he stressed, adding that Tillerson's initiative is "suitable".

On bilateral relations, Le Drian said he agreed with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to activate a joint French-Saudi commission that has been idle for years.

After Saudi Arabia, Le Drian travels to Kuwait and the UAE.
A general view of the Sunny Days Elpalacio beach in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Hurghada where an assailant stabbed to death two German tourists and injured four others

Police on Saturday questioned the suspected jihadist who stabbed to death two German women and wounded four others at a Red Sea beach resort, adding to the woes of Egypt's hobbled tourism industry.

Elsewhere the interior ministry said police killed six militants in two shootouts near Cairo and the eastern Ismailiya province.

Egypt has struggled to quash militant attacks led by the Islamic State group, whose local branch is based in the Sinai Peninsula, after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Judicial sources said the Hurghada assailant who had swum ashore from a public beach to carry out Friday's attack confessed to sharing the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group, although there was no IS claim of responsibility.

The sources said the suspect, a 28-year-old from Kafr al-Sheikh province in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo, has been transferred to the capital for questioning.

At the same time, the prosecution said in a statement that it had not yet confirmed the assailant's motives and urged the media "to stop resorting to speculation or getting ahead of the investigation".

Egypt attack

The streets of Hurghada were being heavily patrolled and security was stepped up outside hotels on Saturday.

"I was sitting down in my shop when we heard people shouting. We ran outside and heard that someone had swum to the next door hotel and was attacking foreigners," said Rafic Rushdi, the owner of a hotel shop.

"After killing two women, he ran towards our hotel. He was shouting that he was not after Egyptians, and some Egyptians intervened to stop him."

- 'Cowardly crime' -

After initial confusion over the nationality of the women killed, Berlin on Saturday said they were both German nationals, rather than Ukrainians as earlier reported.

"I am very upset by this cowardly crime, my condolences to the families of the victims," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.

Four women were wounded and two killed in a stabbing attack in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada

Among the four others wounded were two Armenian women and a woman from the Czech Republic, authorities in those countries said.

It was not the first attack in Hurghada.

In January 2016, three tourists were wounded in a stabbing assault in the resort by two assailants with apparent IS sympathies.

In Tunisia, IS claimed a beach attack in June 2015 when a student armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades went on a rampage near the Mediterranean resort of Sousse killing 38 holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, before being shot dead by police.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and other European tourists.

Egyptian authorities say they have boosted security at tourist sites.

Tourism provides the Arab world's most populous country with much-needed revenues.

An IS bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a resort in the south of the Sinai in 2015 killed all 224 people on board and decimated the tourism sector.

Russia suspended all flights to Egypt in response and has yet to resume them.

IS has been waging a deadly insurgency concentrated in the north of the Sinai that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

- Police, Copts also targeted -

It has also killed dozens of Coptic Christians in church bombings and shootings since December, and pledged further attacks.

On Saturday, a Muslim man stabbed a security guard at a church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after the guard asked to check his bag.

The attacker was quickly subdued and is being questioned, a police official told AFP.

The incident came days after leaders of the Christian minority suspended some services such as conferences and religious trips for three weeks over security concerns.

On Friday, unknown assailants shot dead five policemen just south of Cairo, in the latest of a series of attacks targeting Egypt's security forces.

The killings came as police and the army said they were closing in on militants and jihadists following a spate of deadly attacks in the Nile Valley and the Sinai.

The interior ministry said two of the militants killed on Saturday belonged to the Hasam movement which has targeted police and government officials in and near Cairo.

The group is believed to be linked to a faction of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which splintered after a deadly police crackdown following his overthrow.

burs-se/hkb
Despite his age, the ruling ZANU-PF party has nominated Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, 93, as its candidate for next year's elections

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returned home on Saturday after medical treatment in Singapore, the state broadcaster said, putting to rest speculation over the 93-year-old's whereabouts.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said Mugabe, who left for Singapore last Saturday, "had eye surgery in the Asian country a few years ago" and had returned for a "routine medical check-up".

Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from British colonial rule in 1980, is his party's presidential candidate for next year's elections despite concerns over his age and fitness to rule.

ZBC later reported that Mugabe's wife Grace was injured in an "freak car accident" involving her motorcade at Harare airport as she returned with the president.

"(She) suffered some soft tissue bruising on the right ankle as a result," ZBC said, adding that she did not suffer any major injury and was discharged from hospital shortly after the incident. It is unclear exactly how Grace's ankle was injured.

This week's trip there is Mugabe's third there this year.

Public hospitals in Zimbabwe often suffer from chronic shortages of drugs and staff as the economy has struggled to rebound following years of mismanagement.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was forced to postpone a rally on Friday at which he was due to address supporters, triggering speculation about his whereabouts.

Early in 2015, he tripped and fell as he left a podium after addressing supporters who had gathered at Harare airport to welcome him back from a foreign trip.

The same year he also read a speech to parliament apparently unaware that he had delivered the same speech before.

Mugabe's party is sharply divided over his succession. Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe's wife Grace are seen as likely contenders to take over in the event of his death or retirement.

Opposition parties have formed a coalition to fight Mugabe's party in next year's vote.
China objects to any contact between the Tibetan spiritual leader and government officials in any country

China piled pressure on Botswana on Saturday over a scheduled visit to the southern African country by the Dalai Lama, who it considers a dissident separatist threat.

Botswana's President Ian Khama announced on Wednesday he would meet the Tibetan spiritual leader during his visit to the country next month, prompting a stern response from Beijing.

"China's stance is clear...," said a statement from Beijing-based foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang issued by the embassy.

"The 14th Dalai is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion with the attempt to split Tibet from China."

Beijing opposed any visit by the Dalai Lama and any kind of contact with any official, the statement added.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19.

The Dalai Lama says he is seeking more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

But China is a key investor across Africa and the continent's largest trade partner and in Botswana it has helped build coal-fired power plants, road networks, bridges and schools.

Many on the continent see Beijing as a counterbalance to Western influence, but the relationship has also raised accusations of colonial behaviour.
US authorities had originally refused access to schoolchildren from a number of Muslim-majority nations to participate in the science contest, decisions that followed implementation of stricter visa policies under Trump.

A team of Afghan girls who were earlier denied visas to attend a Washington robotics competition landed in the United States early Saturday following an intervention by US President Donald Trump.

The six-member team were greeted at Dulles International Airport by a throng of supporters, including Afghan ambassador Hamdullah Mohib and acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Alice G Wells, and were presented with bouquets.

They are due to take part FIRST Global Challenge -- a three-day international robotics competition that aims to promote science and technology among youths worldwide that begins Monday.

"Our acting special rep to #Afghanistan/#Pakistan welcomes #AfghanRoboticsTeam to USA! Go girls!," tweeted State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

US authorities had originally refused access to schoolchildren from a number of Muslim-majority nations to participate in the science contest, decisions that followed implementation of stricter visa policies under Trump.

But the US president urged a reversal following public outcry over the Afghan girls' inability to attend the event. The reversal was announced on Wednesday.

The competition's organizers noted that 163 teams from around the world had gained visa approval, including other Muslim-majority nations like Yemen, Libya, Morocco, as well as Gambia, which was also previously barred.

The six girls from Herat, Afghanistan, were reportedly blocked from attending the robotics competition even after two rounds of interviews for a one-week visa.

The rejections appeared to contradict the administration's claim it wants to empower women globally.

"We were not a terrorist group to go to America and scare people," 14-year-old competitor Fatema Qaderyan told AFP before the reversal.

"We just wanted to show the power and skills of Afghan girls to Americans."
Thousands took to the streets of central Hong Kong Saturday night holding candles as they marched in memory of pro-democracy Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo

Thousands took to the streets of central Hong Kong Saturday night holding candles as they marched in memory of pro-democracy Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Veteran activists led the solemn gathering which wove its way from the commercial heart of Hong Kong Island to China's liaison office, with some marchers in tears.

Liu's ashes were buried at sea Saturday, depriving supporters of a place to pay tribute following his death Thursday from cancer while in custody on the mainland.

Hong Kongers have already held memorial events but Saturday's was by far the largest.

It came the day after four pro-democracy legislators were disqualified from Hong Kong's parliament, worsening fears that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are under serious threat from an ever more assertive Beijing.

"Loving a country is wanting it to make progress," said marcher Emily Chau, 24.

People attend a candlelight march for the late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong on July 15, 2017

"But this is how he was treated for being so loyal to the country."

Chau said she feared Hong Kong's freedoms were also now in jeopardy.

"With the disqualification of the lawmakers yesterday, it's like this place is decaying," she told AFP.

The city is ruled under a "one country, two systems" deal granting it freedoms unseen on the mainland, guaranteed in the handover agreement when colonial power Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.

But Beijing stands accused of increased interference in a range of areas, from politics to media and education

- 'Great scholar' -

Marchers of all ages carried floral wreaths and white chrysanthemums, bowing three times in front of a makeshift memorial to Liu outside the liaison office, a traditional sign of respect at funerals.

Some brought their children and grandchildren with them.

Among the crowds was Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing salacious titles about Beijing politicians who vanished and resurfaced in the mainland in 2015.

Lam was allowed back to Hong Kong last year on condition that he pick up a hard disc listing bookstore customers and return.

Instead he skipped bail and went public to tell an explosive story of how he was blindfolded by mainland police after crossing the border, and interrogated for months.

He has since attended a number of rallies in the city.

Lam said he had been saddened by the news of Liu's death but would not lose hope for the future of Hong Kong.

"If the time-frame you look at is too short, it will be pessimistic," he told AFP.

"It's not enough just to see what's in front of you."

Steven Wong, 45, had travelled from Singapore to attend the march, saying he had respected Liu for many years.

Wong was born and grew up in Beijing and was a high school student there in 1989, the year of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the city's Tiananmen Square.

He said he remembered burned-out tanks and blood smeared on lamp posts the day after. Shortly afterwards his family moved to Singapore.

A man signs a condolence book at a makeshift memorial for the late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, outside the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong on July 15, 2017

"He was a great scholar who woke up young people, especially of my generation,"Wong said of Liu.

"He made me think deeply about what we can do as a Chinese (person) and what we can teach our students," said Wong.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 65, has denied the allegations but said he would not sue his siblings

Hundreds of Singaporeans staged a rare protest Saturday calling for an independent inquiry into a bitter family feud between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings.

The rally at a designated free-speech corner in the strictly controlled city-state was the first public protest since the feud burst into the open on June 14.

The prime minister's younger siblings, Hsien Yang, 60, and Wei Ling, 62, have accused him of nepotism and abuse of power in a row that has prompted outrage on social media.

The spat is centred on a dispute about plans for their late father's home, a century-old bungalow.

Lee Kuan Yew, who is widely credited with transforming Singapore from a British colony to one of Asia's wealthiest countries, stated in his will that he wants the house torn down to avoid the building of a personality cult around him.

But the prime minister's siblings say their brother is attempting to block the house's demolition to capitalise on their father's legacy for his own political agenda, including grooming his own son as a future leader.

Lee, 65, has denied the allegations but said he would not sue his siblings.

Organisers estimated the number of protesters at 600, but an AFP reporter counted around 300.

Protest leader Gilbert Goh said he and his fellow supporters were calling for a more transparent government and for an independent inquiry to be set up to look into the allegations against the prime minister.

A banner hanging on a stage read: "Singapore belongs to Singaporeans and not to the Familee", referring to the Lee family, which has provided two out of three of Singapore's premiers in the five decades since independence.
This photo taken on August 10, 2016 shows USA's Ryan Lochte as he competes in a Men's 200m Individual Medley heat during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro

A Brazilian court dismissed charges of lying filed against Ryan Lochte after the US swimmer claimed that he was robbed at gunpoint during the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The six-time Olympic gold medalist made headlines around the world - and deeply embarrassed organizers - when he claimed that he and three other US swimmers were robbed after a night of revelry.

Brazilian police later determined, in part based on surveillance video, that Lochte had largely fabricated the story.

Lochte was then charged with false crime report.

A Rio de Janeiro appeals court on Friday threw out that case after determining that Lochte's robbery claim, made in a TV interview, did not rise to the level of filing a false crime report.

Police had already started their probe and they came to court to complain after the interview, a panel of judges said.

Local media however said that prosecutors can appeal the ruling, and added that Lochte still faces other charges in Brazilian courts.

Lochte was banned from swimming for 10 months, a suspension that ended on June 30.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans and Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday that would provide the biggest expansion of college aid for military veterans in a decade, removing a 15-year time limit to tap into benefits and increasing money for thousands in the National Guard and Reserve.

The bipartisan agreement is a sweeping effort to fill coverage gaps in the post-9/11 GI Bill amid a rapidly changing job market. Building on major legislation passed in 2008 that guaranteed a full-ride scholarship to any in-state public university - or a similar cash amount for private college students - the bill gives veterans added flexibility to enroll in college later in life. Veterans would get additional payments if they complete science, technology and engineering courses.

For a student attending a private university, the additional benefits to members of the Guard and Reserve could mean $2,300 a year more in tuition than they are receiving now, plus a bigger housing allowance.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., joined by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., meets with reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The American Legion, the nation's largest veterans' group, said the plan would mean a "new era" for those who served in uniform.

"Years from now, veterans who were unable to attend institutions of higher learning during their military service or immediately afterward will be able to earn degrees and begin rewarding careers that can lead our economy," said Charles E. Schmidt, national commander of the American Legion. The group drafted the original GI Bill of Rights in 1944 that created the comprehensive education benefit for World War II and future veterans.

The bill's lead sponsor is Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. He said he would schedule a committee vote next week. The No. 2 House leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the House would act quickly to help veterans.

"We'll move it out this month," McCarthy told The Associated Press.

A similar bill is expected from Sen. Johnny Isakson, R- Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, said he was encouraged by the bipartisan plan.

Veterans' issues have been one of the few areas where Republicans and Democrats have found some common ground, unlike health care, taxes and other issues.

The education benefits would take effect for enlistees who begin using their GI Bill money next year.

Kristofer Goldsmith, 31, said he believes it would help many former service members who, like him, aren't ready to immediately enroll in college after their service. Goldsmith was in the Army as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005, reaching the rank of sergeant. He returned home to constant nightmares and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. He was kicked out of the military with a general discharge after a suicide attempt, barring him from receiving GI benefits.

Now an assistant director for policy at Vietnam Veterans of America, Goldsmith advocates for veterans with PTSD and is appealing his discharge status. He's heading to Columbia University in the fall.

"I feel extremely lucky I have found my passion in veterans' advocacy," Goldsmith said. "But I've taken out tens of thousands of dollars to go to school. GI benefits are something service members earn while they serve. They shouldn't lose it just because they aren't transitioning back the way the government wants."

According to Student Veterans of America, only about half the 200,000 service members who leave the military each year go on to enroll in a college, while surveys indicate that veterans often outperform peers in the classroom.

Veterans of Foreign Wars estimates that hundreds of thousands of veterans stand to gain from the new benefits.

The legislation combines 18 separate House bills, also providing full GI Bill eligibility to Purple Heart recipients. Previously, they had to serve at least three years. In addition, the bill would restore benefits if a college closed in the middle of the semester, a protection added when thousands of veterans were hurt by the collapse of for-profit college giant ITT Tech.

The bill hasn't been free of controversy.

A draft circulated by Roe's committee in April drew fire after it initially proposed paying for the $3 billion cost of upgraded benefits over 10 years by reducing service members' monthly pay by $100 per month. Veterans' groups sharply criticized that plan as an unfair "tax on troops," noting that Army privates typically earn less than $1,500 per month.

The latest proposal would be paid for by bringing living stipend payments under the GI Bill down to a similar level as that received by an active-duty member, whose payments were reduced in 2014 by 1 percent a year for five years.

Total government spending on the GI Bill is expected to be more than $100 billion over 10 years.

Congress is trying to address a sudden $1 billion shortfall in the Department of Veterans Affairs' Choice program of private-sector care that would threaten medical treatment for thousands of veterans beginning next month. Acknowledging poor planning, VA Secretary David Shulkin has said the department may need emergency money. Lawmakers are working to provide additional funds for 2017 but are in disagreement over whether to address VA's other underfunded areas.

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $6 billion increase in 2018 for the VA and construction projects at military facilities, turning away a Democratic amendment to tack on another $1.6 billion to address the ongoing Choice shortfall. Republicans cited a need to reach agreement first on increasing the nation's borrowing authority and lifting budget "caps" before making commitments.

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Follow Hope Yen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hopeyen1

In this photo provided by the Travis Mills Foundation, Travis Mills, left, poses with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. Mills, an Army veteran who lost all four limbs in an explosion in Afghanistan, opened a retreat in Rome, Maine, in June for other injured veterans. Mills said he was meeting with with the vice president about his veterans retreat when he got a chance to meet the president, too. (Travis Mills Foundation via AP)

FILE - In this June 21, 2013, file photo, the seal affixed to the front of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington. Congressional Republicans and Democrats have reached initial agreement on the biggest expansion of college aid for military veterans in a decade. It would remove a 15-year time limit to tap into benefits and boost money for thousands in the National Guard and Reserve.(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Sometimes the early bird doesn't get the worm.

Police in Iowa are looking for a would-be bank robber who showed up to two West Des Moines branches before they opened on Wednesday.

A security recording shows a man wearing a bandanna over his face trying to enter a Marine Credit Union branch at around 8:15 a.m. - nearly three hours before it opened.

Police Sgt. Tony Giampolo told The Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/2tQ1RvP ) that employees in the parking lot watched the guy yank on the doors before fleeing upon realizing they were locked.

Giampolo says a similarly dressed man tried to enter a nearby First National Bank branch at around 8:45 a.m., but it wasn't scheduled to open until 9. He says the man fled when he spotted an officer inside who was alerting the staff about the earlier robbery attempt.
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on the search in Pennsylvania for four missing men (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

A person with firsthand knowledge of a man's confession to killing four missing Pennsylvania men says the man killed them separately after selling them marijuana and then burned their bodies at his family's farm.

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo, right, to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss details of the case. The person says a co-conspirator was involved in three of the killings.

The details were provided after one of Cosmo DiNardo's lawyers said Thursday that DiNardo had confessed to killing the missing men, including a Maryland college student.

Authorities have identified one body. They're working to identify other remains found in the same grave.

DiNardo and his parents met with authorities at a courthouse for several hours Thursday. As DiNardo was led away in handcuffs, he said, "I'm sorry."

- By Maryclaire Dale

___

5:40 p.m.

A defense attorney for a jailed man connected to the search for four missing men in Pennsylvania says his client has admitted killing the four and told authorities the location of the bodies.

Lawyer Paul Lang said Thursday his client Cosmo DiNardo confessed to "the four murders" and is ready to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. He says his client has deep remorse.

Authorities found the body of one of the men, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, buried at a farm in Solebury Township farm. The other men missing are 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, 21-year-old Tom Meo and 19-year-old Jimi Tar Patrick. Patrick went to college in Maryland.

Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. There has been no immediate comment from prosecutors.

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11:30 a.m.

Authorities are digging deeper into a hole where they found the body of one of four missing Pennsylvania men along with other human remains during their search of a sprawling farm property.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at a Thursday morning news conference that the 12 -foot-deep (3.66-meter-deep) common grave on the Solebury Township farm where they found the body of 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro is getting deeper by the minute.

He also asked the public to keep sending in tips that could lead them to the bodies.

The other men missing are 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, 21-year-old Tom Meo and 19-year-old Jimi Tar Patrick.

Authorities have said they're looking at pursuing homicide charges against a 20-year-old man who was taken into custody Wednesday.

___

2:10 a.m.

Investigators say they've found the body of one of four missing young men along with other human remains buried on a Pennsylvania farm.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at a news conference early Thursday morning that cadaver dogs led them to the spot on the farm in Solebury Township where they found human remains inside a 12 -foot-deep (3.66-meter-deep) common grave.

The body identified was that of 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. The other remains have not yet been ID'd.

Authorities say they're starting to look at pursuing homicide charges against a 20-year-old man who was taken into custody earlier Wednesday and whose parents own the farm.

Cosmo DiNardo is accused of trying to sell another victim's car after he disappeared. An attorney representing DiNardo's parents says the couple is cooperating with the investigation.

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

In this aerial photo, investigators work under tents as they search for clues in the disappearance of four men, Thursday, July 13, 2017 in Solebury, Pa. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, a jailed man who has been the focus of an investigation into the disappearances of the four men, admitted on Thursday that he killed them and agreed to plead guilty to four murder counts, his attorney said. (Michael Bryant/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

In this aerial photo, investigators work under tents as they search for clues in the disappearance of four men, Thursday, July 13, 2017 in Solebury, Pa. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, a jailed man who has been the focus of an investigation into the disappearances of the four men, admitted on Thursday that he killed them and agreed to plead guilty to four murder counts, his attorney said. (Michael Bryant/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Cosmo DiNardo is escorted to a vehicle while in police custody Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, left at microphone, ends a press conference Thursday, July 13, 2017, in New Hope, Pa. Weintraub said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (Clem Murray /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Matthew Weintraub, District Attorney for Bucks County, Pa., speaks with members of the media in New Hope, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Weintraub said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

This undated photo provided by Middletown Township Police Department shows Dean Finocchiaro. Investigators found the body of Finocchiaro, one of four missing young men Wednesday, July 12, 2017, along with other human remains, buried deep in a common grave on a Pennsylvania farm. (Courtesy of Middletown Township Police Department via AP)

Defense lawyers Paul Lang, left, and Michael Parlow walk from the Bucks County Courthouse in, Doylestown, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Lang, a defense attorney for Cosmo DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Fortunato Perri, a defense attorney for Cosmo DiNardo, walks to the Bucks County Courthouse in, Doylestown, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. DiNardo admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Antonio DiNardo the father of Cosmo DiNardo gets into a SUV to be driven away from a Bucks County government building Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for Cosmo DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Young women listen to Matthew Weintraub, District Attorney for Bucks County, Pa., speak during a news conference in New Hope, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Authorities said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Matthew Weintraub, District Attorney for Bucks County, Pa., speaks with members of the media in New Hope, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Weintraub said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A woman listens to Matthew Weintraub, District Attorney for Bucks County, Pa., speak during a news conference in New Hope, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Authorities said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Matthew Weintraub, District Attorney for Bucks County, Pa., speaks with members of the media in New Hope, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Authorities said they've found human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men and they can now identify one victim. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, center, holds a press conference Thursday, July 13, 2017, in New Hope, Pa., to announce that bodies have been found on a Solebury Township farm belonging to the DiNardo family, and have identified one victim as Dean Finocchiaro. Authorities arrested the son of the property's owners, Cosmo DiNardo, earlier on Wednesday on charges he tried to sell one of the missing men's cars a day after he was last seen. (Clem Murray /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, center, holds a press conference Thursday, July 13, 2017, in New Hope, Pa., to announce that bodies have been found on a Solebury Township farm belonging to the DiNardo family, and have identified one victim as Dean Finocchiaro. Authorities arrested the son of the property's owners, Cosmo DiNardo, earlier on Wednesday on charges he tried to sell one of the missing men's cars a day after he was last seen. (Clem Murray /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
MILAN (AP) - The Latest on wildfires in Italy (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Italian media says two property owners have died battling wildfires fueled by heat and winds that have consumed vast swaths of southern Italy.

Woodland fires burn near a tourist resort where, according to firefighter reports, some several hundred tourists have been evacuated by land and sea, in the Sicilian town of San Vito lo Capo, southern Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Wildfires have been raging for days and Italian firefighters said Wednesday they were responding to 887 fires throughout Italy, 628 of which regarded vegetation and woodlands. (Italian Firefighters Vigili del Fuoco via AP)

The news agency ANSA reported that two retirees in their 60s died in separate incidents in the southern region of Calabria trying to defend their property from encroaching flames, but were instead overcome by smoke.

The Legambiente environmental group says some 26,000 hectares (more than 64,000 acres) of woodlands have been destroyed by flames since mid-June.

Authorities say the number of blazes - 125 wildfires are now active in Sicily alone - suggests that some are tied to arson. Italy's environment minister did not rule out Mafia involvement in the blazes in an interview in the Corriere della Sera.

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12:15 p.m.

Tourists at a resort in Sicily faced wildfires that turned their day at the beach into an emergency evacuation by sea, with many fleeing the flames in just their bathing suits and flip flops.

Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, forcing the evacuation of some 800 tourists from the Calampiso resort in Vito Lo Capo near Trapani, Sicily.

About 20 people had to leave an island off Puglia and some 50 families were whisked away from Mount Vesuvius south of Naples.

Authorities say the number of blazes - 125 active in Sicily alone - suggest some are tied to arson and Italy's environment minister did not rule out Mafia involvement in the blazes in an interview in the Corriere della Sera.

Gian Luca Galletti was quoted by Corriere as saying that there were too many fires on Mount Vesuvius for them to be spontaneous.

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists sit at a resort cafe as smoke is seen in the background, before being evacuated by sea after a wild fire approached the resort, in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, boats stay at sea with evacuated tourists after after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, boats with evacuated tourists from a beach stay at sea after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists on a beach are evacuated with boats after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists on a boat turn around to look at a wild fire after being evacuated from their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)
TORONTO (AP) - A judge in Toronto on Thursday dismissed a request to freeze the assets of a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was recently awarded a settlement by the Canadian government.

Omar Khadr last week was reportedly issued an $8 million (CA$10.5 million) settlement by the Canadian government after a court ruled his rights were violated while he was locked up at the American prison for a decade.

Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

Tabitha Speer, the soldier's widow, and Layne Morris, who was blinded in the 2002 firefight, won a default $134.1-million wrongful-death judgment against Khadr two years ago in Utah.

Speer filed a motion in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice earlier this week requesting that the judgment be enforced in Canada and to freeze Khadr's assets until payment of the Utah judgment is sorted out.

The judge said the request to freeze Khadr's assets pending a trial was "extraordinary."
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and the investigation into his campaign's potential ties to Russia (all times local):

5:40 p.m.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says the panel has requested documents from Donald Trump Jr.

U.S President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said the committee requested the documents "as recently as this week," after President Donald Trump's son released emails in which he appeared eager to accept Russian government information that could damage Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Warner has said he wants Trump Jr. to testify. The president's son tweeted Monday that he would work with the panel.

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also expected to testify in closed session. Warner said they are still waiting to receive some documents from Kushner.

Warner said the panel "is just now starting to interview those individuals who are affiliated with the Trump campaign who may or may not have had contacts with Russians."

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5 p.m.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she had nothing to do with the travels of a Russian lawyer who met with the eldest son of President Donald Trump.

She was responding Thursday to a claim by Trump that Natalia Veselnitskaya "was here because of Lynch."

Trump appeared to be referencing an article in The Hill newspaper that said the Justice Department had enabled Veselnitskaya to be in the United States.

An assistant United States attorney said in a January court hearing that the federal government had bypassed ordinary visa procedures so that Veselnitskaya, and her client, could be in the U.S. to participate in a court case.

In a statement, Lynch said the State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the U.S. at airports.

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3:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump has argued that he did all he could to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin on election meddling and said he told Putin the U.S. "can't have a scintilla of doubt" about the integrity of future votes.

Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One en route to France on Wednesday that Putin twice denied any meddling and the president asked what more he could have done.

Trump asked: "What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, OK?"

Trump also disputed that Putin ever claimed Trump had accepted his denials, insisting Putin "didn't say that."

Putin had said it seemed to him that Trump had "agreed" but added "it's better to ask him about his attitude."

The White House originally said Trump's comments would be off the record, but reversed itself on Thursday.

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12:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump is addressing the controversy over his eldest son's meeting with a Russian attorney during last year's presidential campaign.

Trump says "most people would have taken that meeting," contradicting his incoming FBI director's testimony that Donald Trump Jr. should have instead alerted authorities.

The president is reiterating that his son is a "wonderful young man." His comments came during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN')

Trump is continuing to downplay the issue, saying "nothing happened" as a result of the meeting.

The president says the Russian national involved wasn't a government lawyer. However, the emails his son received pitched her as one.

Trump says the woman is a private attorney who has "roamed the hallways" of the U.S. Congress.

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12:10 p.m.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he's sending a letter to Donald Trump Jr. to ask him to testify.

Sen. Chuck Grassley says he'd subpoena the president's eldest son if necessary. The Iowa Republican says he wants Trump Jr. to appear "pretty soon," and it could be as early as next week.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The panel is investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Grassley wouldn't say what he wants to hear from the president's eldest son, but said members aren't restricted "from asking anything they want to ask."

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11:40 a.m.

The Justice Department has released a heavily blacked out page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions' security clearance application.

The document has become public in response to a government watchdog group's lawsuit.

The application page asks whether Sessions - a senator before joining the Trump administration - or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives.

There's a "no" listed, but the rest of the answer is blacked out.

The department has acknowledged that Sessions - on his form - omitted meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador.

A department spokesman says the FBI agent who helped with the form said those encounters didn't have to be included as routine contacts as part of Sessions' Senate duties.
BOSTON (AP) - Authorities searching for evidence in a decadeslong quest to find the man wanted in the slaying of a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980 have recovered what they believe to be human remains in Massachusetts.

The FBI said in a statement late Thursday that they are in the process of determining if the remains belong to fugitive Donald Eugene Webb.

The FBI and state police from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania gathered Thursday at the Dartmouth home of Webb's wife and began a dig in the yard.

Authorities stand outside the home of Lillian Webb, wife of fugitive Donald Eugene Webb, in Dartmouth, Mass., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Authorities began a dig at the home Thursday hoping to find evidence in their decadeslong quest to find the man wanted in the slaying of a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980. (Mike Valeri/Standard Times via AP)

Police said Webb shot Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, police Chief Greg Adams during a traffic stop. Webb was a career criminal living in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the time. He disappeared after the shooting. His rental car was found more than two weeks later at a motel in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Boston division, said "until positive identification has been made, no further comment will be made at this time."

The FBI has offered $100,000 for information leading to Webb's capture or his remains. Webb would be in his 80s now, if he is still alive.

Last month, the widow of the slain police chief sued Webb's wife, saying investigators had recently found a hidden room in her Massachusetts home where Webb may have hidden from authorities a decade or more after the shooting.

The filing named Webb's wife, Lillian, and her son, Stanley. The filing signaled an intention to file a detailed complaint on behalf of Mary Ann Jones, 64, Adams' widow, and their two sons on grounds of wrongful death-murder and two civil conspiracy claims - accessory after the fact and hindering apprehension of a murderer.

Jones said FBI agents told her that Webb may have hidden out in the home in short stints in the 1990s. A cane was found in the room.

Investigators believe Adams shot Webb in the leg before he sped away from the deadly traffic stop Dec. 4, 1980.

Authorities carry lighting equipment to the backyard of the home of Lillian Webb, wife of fugitive Donald Eugene Webb, in Dartmouth, Mass., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Authorities began a dig at the home Thursday hoping to find evidence in their decadeslong quest to find the man wanted in the slaying of a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980. (Mike Valeri/Standard Times via AP)
PARIS (AP) - The Latest on France's Bastille Day celebrations (all times local):

5 p.m.

After a Bastille Day celebration in Paris that put the United States at the center of festivities, French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in the Riviera city of Nice for commemorations one year after the terror attack that killed 86 revelers.

French President Emmanuel Macron greets supporters in Nice, southern France, Friday, July 14, 2017. Commemorations followed Bastille Day celebrations for Macron, heading to the Riviera city of Nice for a solemn remembrance of the 86 lives lost one year ago when a 19-ton truck throttled through revelers feting France's national day in a terror attack that jolted the nation and stunned the world. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)

U.S. President Donald Trump was returning to the U.S. after two days in Paris at the side of Macron, who moved on to a somber memorial for victims of the carnage. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the truck attack.

Some of the victims' families were present and Macron was to meet with them privately at day's end.

Security was tight as Macron shook hands with the crowd ahead of a speech at Place Massena, a central square, protected by cement blocks to stop intruders.

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12:20 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has thanked the United States for coming to the aid of France a century ago marking 100 years since the U.S. entry into World War I.

In a speech ending the Bastille Day parade on Friday, Macron stood before wounded French soldiers and thanked them as well.

President Donald Trump was the guest of honor at the parade, and French and American flags were prominent throughout.

The two men hugged at the end of the speech.

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11:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump has saluted as U.S. troops pass during the French Bastille Day parade commemorating the 100th anniversary of the American entry into World War I.

Trump is the guest of honor, invited by French President Emmanuel Macron for Friday's display of French military might.

The two men could be seen talking animatedly as U.S. and French fighter jets roared overhead.

Eight U.S. planes joined the parade, along with a detachment of 145 troops on the ground.

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10:45 a.m.

French and American fighter jets are flying over Paris' Champs-Elysees avenue to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I.

The centerpiece of Friday's Bastille Day parade, the military jets flew low over the reviewing stands where U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron were seated.

The parade will feature a total of 63 military planes flying at just 1,000 feet (305 meters).

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10:20 a.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has ridden in an open-top camouflaged military vehicle surrounded by cavalry as he reviewed the troops along the Champs-Elysees avenue.

Macron, who invited President Donald Trump to France's Bastille Day celebrations, headed toward the main viewing stands as the American leader arrived. The two are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I.

The traditional display of military might comes amid tight security, following two years of Islamic extremist attacks in France.

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9:30 a.m.

Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I.

Two hours before the parade Friday, the famed Champs-Elysees avenue was emptied as was the Place de la Concorde with its golden-tipped obelisk. The wide boulevard has been targeted repeatedly by Islamic extremists, most recently last month when a man crashed his car into a convoy of gendarmes.

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron were expected at the parade's main viewing stand. Macron then heads to the southern city of Nice, where last year an extremist plowed a truck into the holiday crowd, killing dozens.

French President Emmanuel Macron waves in Nice, southern France, Friday, July 14, 2017. Commemorations followed Bastille Day celebrations for Macron, heading to the Riviera city of Nice for a solemn remembrance of the 86 lives lost one year ago when a 19-ton truck throttled through revelers feting France's national day in a terror attack that jolted the nation and stunned the world. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

French and U.S. soldiers display their national flags at the end the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump watch the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French Alphajets of the Patrouille de France fly over the Champs Elysees avenue, with the Arc de Triomphe in background, during the Bastille Day parade in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. (AP/Photo/Markus Schreiber)

U.S President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump applaud the aerial show during Bastille Day parade in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. (AP/Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French Republican Guards ride their horse pas the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews an honor guard prior to the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, discusses with French President Emmanuel Macron prior to the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, in the command car and Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Pierre de Villiers, right, drive down the Champs Elysees avenue during Bastille Day parade in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

French Republican Guards ride their horse past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. Paris has tightened security before its annual Bastille Day parade, which this year is being opened by American troops with President Donald Trump as the guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

A French soldier waits on the Champs Elysees avenue before Bastille Day parade in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2017. U.S President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will attend Bastille Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu says he's encouraged by the attorney general office's decision to investigate allegations of sexual assault and misconduct at an elite prep school.

The investigation into St. Paul's School in Concord follows the school's release of a report in May detailing sexual assaults by teachers on their students, earlier information about student sexual conquest rituals and allegations of a similar ritual reported in June.

The Republican governor said Friday that sexual assault won't be tolerated in the state. He said he commends the attorney general's office "for taking aggressive action to fully investigate this matter."

FILE - This Feb. 26, 2016 file photo shows the entrance to St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office is launching a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct at the elite prep school. The investigation into the school follows the release of a report in May 2017 detailing sexual assaults by teachers on their students, earlier information about student sexual conquest rituals and allegations of a similar ritual reported in June. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald had said the investigation will focus on whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child.

School officials said they will continue to cooperate with the investigation.
SOUTHPORT, England (AP) - A hole-by-hole look at Royal Birkdale, site of the 146th British Open to be played July 20-23:

No. 1, 448 yards, par 4: One of the toughest opening holes in the Open rotation. This requires a tee shot to a fairway that bends to the left. The closer the drive is to the fairway bunker on the left, the better view of the green and angle of attack. Two pot bunkers on either side guard the front of the green.

No. 2, 422 yards, par 4: Two bunkers are to the right side of the fairway nearly 300 yards from the tee, and there is severe mounding up the left side between 250 and 290 yards. It plays into the prevailing wind, and the green is protected by six bunkers and rough-covered banks.

No. 3, 451 yards, par 4: A tee built in the dunes turns this hole into a slight dogleg to the right, and additional bunkers on the left side of the fairway at just over 300 yards makes a partially blind tee shot even tougher. The tee shot should stay on the left side of the fairway to open up the best approach to a green guarded by four pot bunkers.

No. 4, 199 yards, par 3: The par 3 is made even more difficult by a right-to-left prevailing wind and a green that can be hit only with an accurate shot. There is deep bunkering around the green, and mounds to the right will kick the errant shots away from the greens, making it tough to save par.

No. 5, 346 yards, par 4: Some players might try to drive the green if the conditions are favorable. Otherwise, an iron or hybrid is the likely choice off the tee for an approach into a two-tier green surrounded by seven bunkers.

No. 6, 499 yards, par 4: The signature hole on the front side. There is a pot bunker on the right at about 275 yards, and one on the left at just over 300 yards. The tee shot must stay between them, leaving a long approach to an elevated green that is contoured and surrounded by dunes.

No. 7, 177 yards, par 3: The shortest par 3 at Royal Birkdale, and one of two holes that have not been changed since 1998. It requires a middle iron to a crowned green that is protected by seven bunkers, one with a circular patch of grass in the middle.

No. 8, 458 yards, par 4: Bunkers on the left at about 270 yards and on the right at about 300 yards increase the demands on the tee shot, which must thread its way between a total of four bunkers. Two deep pot bunkers guard a large green that is difficult to read.

No. 9, 416 yards, par 4: This features a blind tee shot, rare for this links, and a dogleg right. There are no fairway bunkers, making it tempting to cut the corner, but extensive mounds down the right side of the fairway will punish anything less than perfection. The elevated green has two bunkers set into the hill.

No. 10, 402 yards, par 4: The tee has been moved to the right, and fairway bunkers on the left have been moved forward to about the 250-yard range to collect any tee shot hit with an iron. A new fairway bunker brings the total to five bunkers that must be avoided. The approach is to a green with one large bunker to the right.

No. 11, 436 yards, par 4: This hole typically plays into the wind, and the tee shot must avoid four bunkers placed between 280 yards and 350 yards. The variety of tough hole locations on the long, angled green require good decisions on club selection.

No. 12, 183 yards, par 3: This is the other hole that has not been changed. It is one of the most famous par 3s in the British Open rotation, set among deep dunes and protected by four bunkers.

No. 13, 499 yards, par 4: Unlike the USGA, the R&A has a maximum yardage for a par 4 and this is it, along with No. 6. Five fairway bunkers bring trouble into play no matter which way the wind is blowing, although it is slightly easier at the players' backs. The long iron is required for the second shot to a green framed by the dunes with three bunkers toward the front.

No. 14, 200 yards, par 3: The elevated tee is sheltered from the prevailing wind, which will make club selection tricky. A swale has been created over the green to allow for challenging hole locations at the back of the green. Deep pot bunkers guard the front of the green.

No. 15, 542 yards, par 5: The longest wait for a par 5 in the British Open rotation. There are a total of 15 bunkers over the course of the long, narrow hole that plays into the prevailing wind. The tee has been moved slightly left, with bunkers added in the driving zone. The trees to the left have been removed to open the links look of the hole.

No. 16, 438 yards, par 4: The strength of the hole is the prevailing wind over native grass to the fairway, made even more difficult by a new tee added ahead of 2008 that is 23 yards longer. Now there is an intermediate tee to be used depending on the wind. There are runoff areas on both sides and behind the green, making it important to stay straight. Trees behind the green have been removed to make it a less defined target.

No. 17, 567 yards, par 5: Even the longest hole on the course should be reachable in two with the prevailing wind. First, the tee shot must avoid bunkers at about 300 yards. The hole then turns to the left to a newly built green that is narrow and has two tiers with extreme undulations not usually found on a links course.

No. 18, 473 yards, par 4: Out-of-bounds is on the right on this closing hole, with three bunkers that come into play depending on the strength of the wind. The green sits below the famous white clubhouse, and its narrow entrance is guarded by three bunkers.
SOUTHPORT, England (AP) - How well do you know your history of the British Open? Try this quiz:

1. Who has a plaque to the right of the 16th fairway at Royal Birkdale for a 6-iron he slashed out of the bushes?

a.) Seve Ballesteros

b.) Arnold Palmer

c.) Dai Rees.

___

2. Who was the last player to win the British Open with Tiger Woods in the field?

a.) Rory McIlroy

b.) Zach Johnson

c.) Phil Mickelson

___

3. Who won the largest playoff in British Open history?

a.) Zach Johnson

b.) Jack Nicklaus

c.) Ernie Els

___

4. Who finished runner-up to Padraig Harrington when he won The Open at Royal Birkdale?

a.) Greg Norman

b.) Ian Poulter

c.) K.J. Choi

___

5. Who won the first British Open at Royal Birkdale?

a.) Peter Thomson

b.) Henry Cotton

c.) Richard Burton

___

6. Who whiffed a 2-inch putt in the third round at Royal Birkdale in 1983 and wound up losing to Tom Watson by one shot?

a.) Andy Bean

b.) Bernhard Langer

c.) Hale Irwin.

___

7. Name the only player to win the British Open on five links courses.

a.) Bobby Locke

b.) Tom Watson

c.) Harry Vardon

___

8. Who was the first British Open champion to shoot 66 or lower in the final round?

a.) Johnny Miller

b.) Tom Watson

c.) Ian Baker-Finch

___

9. Which was the last English links to join the British Open rotation?

a.) Royal Birkdale

b.) Royal Lytham & St. Annes

c.) Royal Liverpool

___

10. What did Seve Ballesteros achieve at the British Open that will never be repeated?

a.) He played a shot from the parking lot adjacent to the 18th fairway.

b.) He won the claret jug on a Saturday, a Sunday and a Monday.

c.) He played the final round with only six clubs in his bag.

___

11. Who was the last English-born player to win The Open in England?

a.) Nick Faldo

b.) Tony Jacklin

c.) Max Faulkner

___

12. Who has the lowest 72-hole score in British Open history?

a.) Henrik Stenson

b.) Tiger Woods

c.) Greg Norman

___

13. Byron Nelson and which other American lacked only a British Open title for the career Grand Slam?

a.) Raymond Floyd

b.) Sam Snead

c.) Craig Wood

___

14. Who won the first British Open?

a.) Old Tom Morris

b.) Young Tom Morris

c.) Willie Park Sr.

___

15. Which player broke his leg at Royal Birkdale because of a violent swing?

a.) Tiger Woods

b.) Richard Boxall

c.) Ian Baker-Finch

___

16. Who was the last amateur to win the British Open?

a.) Bobby Jones

b.) Michael Bonallack

c.) Harold Hilton

___

17. Who had the worst world ranking of any British Open champion?

a.) John Daly

b.) Ben Curtis

c.) Darren Clarke

___

18. Name the first player to win the U.S. Open and the British Open in the same year.

a.) Gene Sarazen

b.) Bobby Jones

c.) Ted Ray

___

ANSWERS:

1. b

2. b

3. c

4. b

5. a

6. c

7. b

8. a

9. a

10. b

11. b

12. a

13. a

14. c

15. b

16. a

17. b

18. b
LIGONIER, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on a collision between a state police patrol vehicle and a garbage truck that killed a state trooper (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

The Pennsylvania state trooper killed when his patrol vehicle collided with a garbage truck is being described as a charismatic man with a big heart and personality.

This undated photo provided by Pennsylvania State Police shows Trooper Michael P. Stewart. Stewart was killed and another trooper injured early Friday, July 14, 2017, when their patrol car collided with a garbage truck in Ligonier Township, Pa., southeast of Pittsburgh. (David J. Watson/Pennsylvania State Police via AP)

State police say 26-year-old Trooper Michael Stewart was driving with a partner on Route 711, just outside Ligonier, when the collision occurred early Friday.

A spokesman says Stewart's partner suffered a concussion, and the garbage truck driver wasn't hurt.

Spokesman Stephen Limani described Stewart as a great trooper and "a big man with an even bigger heart." He says Stewart was "extremely fun to be around."

Limani says investigators are examining the two vehicles, working to reconstruct the collision and seeking any video from a nearby gas station.

He says it's too early in the investigation to assign fault for the crash.

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9:40 a.m.

A Pennsylvania state trooper is dead and another trooper is injured after their patrol vehicle and a garbage truck crashed in western Pennsylvania.

Authorities say 26-year-old Trooper Michael Stewart and a partner were traveling early Friday on Route 711 outside Ligonier, about 51 miles (about 82 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh, when the crash occurred.

Authorities say Stewart was killed. The other trooper's injuries are not considered life-threatening. The condition of the truck driver wasn't immediately known.

Stewart enlisted in the state police in January 2014. He's the 98th member of the force to be killed in the line of duty.

The investigation is ongoing.

A Pennsylvania State Trooper vehicle is hooked up to a flat bed truck after a collision with a garbage truck in Ligonier Township, Pa., Friday, July 14, 2017. A state trooper died and another was injured in the crash. The conditions of the injured trooper and the garbage truck driver were not immediately known (Alex Driehaus//Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

An officer walks by the wreckage of a Pennsylvania State Trooper vehicle after a collision with a garbage truck in Ligonier Township, Pa., Friday, July 14, 2017. A state trooper died and another was injured in the crash. The conditions of the injured trooper and the garbage truck driver were not immediately known (Alex Driehaus//Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

A tow truck operator makes a phone call amid the wreckage after a Pennsylvania State Trooper vehicle and garbage truck collided in Ligonier Township, Pa., Friday, July 14, 2017. A state trooper died and another was injured in the crash. The conditions of the injured trooper and the garbage truck driver were not immediately known (Alex Driehaus//Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

Investigators examine the scene where a garbage truck and a Pennsylvania state trooper vehicle collided just before the fork of Route 711 and 271 in Ligonier Township, Pa., Friday, July 14, 2017. A state trooper died and another was injured in the crash. The conditions of the injured trooper and the garbage truck driver were not immediately known (Shane Dunlap/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP)
AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Authorities say an Ohio woman was texting on her phone when she struck and killed two 14-year-old girls with her car.

Twenty-four-year-old New Franklin resident Natasha Boggs was arrested and jailed Friday. She's charged with voluntary manslaughter, vehicular homicide, driving while texting and other offenses.

Court records don't indicate if she has an attorney.

Boggs is accused of hitting three teens in Coventry Township in May, killing Taylor Galloway, of Akron, and Amber Thoma, of Coventry Township. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured. Coventry Township is about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Akron.

Authorities say the teens were walking on the right side of the road around 4:45 p.m. when Boggs' car drifted over the white "fog line" and struck the teens.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Latest on U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly's dealings with family business using Mexican labor (all times local):

2:20 p.m.

National Republicans are calling on Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly to donate profits from selling his stock in his brother's arts and crafts company that manufactures some products in Mexico.

FILE - In this April 7, 2017, file photo, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., arrives for the confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Donnelly railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even while he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The Indiana senator is one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year and has been a longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee says Donnelly has been "hypocritically profiting" from the company's actions. It says Donnelly should donate his sale profits to organizations helping the families of displaced workers.

Donnelly said Friday that he would sell his stock in Stewart Superior, which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,000 in dividends last year on up to $50,000 of company stock.

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1:25 p.m.

An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries says he's selling his stock in his brother's arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said in a campaign news release Friday that he made the statement to reporters at the Indiana Black Expo luncheon. Donnelly said he hasn't had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become a "distraction from our work to end outsourcing."

The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,000 in dividends last year on $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior, which used Mexican workers to produce ink. He criticized Carrier Corp. for moving jobs to Mexico last year.
ITAUGUA, Paraguay (AP) - A correctional school for young offenders outside Paraguay's capital is giving 16 teenage inmates a shot at a second chance by letting them learn to make guitars and other instruments from wood.

The teens, all held for drug offenses or theft, earned a place in the class with good behavior.

"It is a joy to participate in the workshop because life is not pleasant without anything to do," said Julio, who showed off his fingers with traces of burns from the crack pipe he used to smoke.

A teen inmate leans on a woodworking bench during a workshop to learn how to make stringed instruments, at La Esperanza Integral Education Center, a correctional center for juveniles, in Itaugua, Paraguay, Friday, July 14, 2017. The words tattooed on his arm read in Spanish; "sentiment, elegance and evil". (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Alex, another student, was busy molding cedar. "I'm determined to make my first guitar," he said. "The steps to follow are not very complicated, but you have to be very precise."

The boys' full names couldn't legally be disclosed.

Warden Orlando Castillo said the class is run by woodworker Anibal Borja and his daughter Luz, who provide tools, wood and their time to help the teens.

The class is one of the educational programs offered at La Esperanza prison, a minimum-security jail without armed guards in Itaugua, a village 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Asuncion.

Castillo said the students all showed eagerness to learn a trade that can help them once they are out of jail.

In addition, he said, "The guitars will be sold and the money will be shared equally when they are released."

Teen inmates take part in a luthier workshop at La Esperanza Integral Education Center, a correctional center for juveniles, in Itaugua, Paraguay, Friday, July 14, 2017. Chosen for the workshop based on their behavior, the teens, most of them convicted for drug-trafficking, learn the trade of making and repairing stringed instruments. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

A teen inmate uses a hand tool during a workshop that teaches the craft of making stringed instruments, at La Esperanza Integral Education Center, a correctional center for juveniles, in Itaugua, Paraguay, Friday, July 14, 2017. The workshop is run by master luthier Anibal Borja and his daughter Luz, who donate the tools, wood and their time to teach a group of selected teen, most of them serving time on drug trafficking charges, in hopes of preserving the craft and to provide the boys with a trade they may put to use when released. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

A teen inmate waters seedlings in the orchard of La Esperanza Integral Education Center, a correctional center for juveniles, in Itaugua, Paraguay, Friday, July 14, 2017. La Esperanza is a semi-open system, located about 16 miles or 26 kilometers from Asuncion. Inmates who are on good behavior can participate in a workshop where they can learn to make stringed instruments from master luthiers. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Teen inmates work together to carry cases of bottled water at La Esperanza Integral Education Center, a correctional center for juveniles, in Itaugua, Paraguay, Friday, July 14, 2017. The teens are tasked with pasting a label to each water bottle. La Esperanza is a semi-open system, located about 16 miles or 26 kilometers from Asuncion. Inmates who are on good behavior can participate in a workshop where they can learn to make stringed instruments from master luthiers. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has sentenced a 26-year-old California man to 16 years in prison for killing 21 cats, some of which he lured from people's homes.

Robert Roy Farmer pleaded guilty last year to 21 felony counts of animal cruelty and one count each of misdemeanor battery and being under the influence.

The cats began mysteriously disappearing from San Jose's Cambrian Park neighborhood in September 2015. Then cats began turning up dead, the Mercury News of San Jose reported Friday (http://bayareane.ws/2v1HbBj ).

Farmer was found Oct. 8, 2015 in a Home Depot parking lot, sleeping in his car with a dead cat curled up in the center console. In his car, police found chunks of fur, blood, fur-covered gloves and a hunting knife.
SEATTLE (AP) - A federal jury in Seattle has awarded nearly $15 million to the family of an unarmed black man shot and killed by police in front of his young son near Tacoma, Washington, finding police had no reason to use deadly force.

The award includes $3 million in punitive damages against SWAT commander Mike Zaro during the 2013 standoff; another $1.5 million in punitive damages against Lakewood Officer Michael Wiley, who led an assault on the home and shot the family dog; and $2 million in punitive damages against Lakewood Sgt. Brian Markert, the sniper who shot Leonard Thomas from 90 feet away, The Seattle Times reported Friday (https://goo.gl/fHFgKc).

Thomas was shot outside his home in Fife, Washington, when he grabbed for his son after police used explosives to enter the home.

Jurors had been deliberating since Monday afternoon before returning the verdict Friday. One juror was dismissed during the week when she refused to deliberate.

The award is one of the largest in a police use-of-force and wrongful-death lawsuit in the state's history.

Attorney Tiffany Cartwright, one of the lawyers representing Thomas' parents and his now 9-year-old son, told the jury that nothing that the drunken, despondent, bipolar man did warranted a massive police response the night of May 23, 2013, for a misdemeanor, domestic-violence offense. Two armored vehicles and at least 27 officers responded, including the Pierce Metro SWAT team.

Based on photographs introduced in trial, the majority, if not all, of the officers were white. Attorneys for Thomas' family said in court documents that the case was "steeped in race."

Cartwright also told the jury the situation was "that close" to resolving peacefully when Zaro ordered an assault team to breach the back of the home using plastic explosives to blow down a door. They also shot the family dog five times.

Richard Jolley, lawyer for the officers and city defendants, contended that, despite Thomas' promise at the end of four hours of negotiations that he would let the boy go - even taking a backpack of clothes and a car seat onto the front porch - he had no real intention of doing so.

"He had used his son as a bargaining chip," said Jolley, who referred to the child as a hostage and questioned whether Thomas had planned to use the boy as a human shield. "Leonard left Officer Brian Markert no choice but to shoot," he said.

The jury's verdict indicated the seven-member panel rejected that argument completely. They found for the Thomas on every count.

Thomas' parents and his estate alleged police violated his civil rights by using excessive force when they shot him, among other claims.

Jolley argued Thomas was known to police and that night was drunk, belligerent and likely intent on "suicide-by-cop."

He said there was an "officer-safety alert" for Thomas in the police system after he had threatened suicide by police before, and he had a prior conviction for a drive-by shooting.

Cartwright said the explosion likely frightened Thomas, and he reached protectively for the boy and was killed for it. Witnesses said officers had to punch the dying man several times to pry the child out of his arms, and that his last words were, "Don't hurt my boy."

Police found no firearms in the house.

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Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - Twice rejected for U.S. visas, an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan arrived in Washington early Saturday after an extraordinary, last-minute intervention by President Donald Trump.

The six-girl team and their chaperone completed their journey just after midnight from their hometown of Herat, Afghanistan, to enter their ball-sorting robot in the three-day high school competition starting Sunday in the U.S. capital. Awaiting them at the gate at Washington Dulles International Airport were a U.S. special envoy and Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, who described it as a rare moment of celebration for his beleaguered nation.

"Seventeen years ago, this would not have been possible at all," Mohib said in an interview. "They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict. These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community."

Members of a female robotics team from Herat province, leave Kabul to the U.S. from Kabul Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Jun 14, 2017. The third time's the charm for Afghanistan's all girl robotics team, who will be allowed entry into the U.S. to compete in a competition after President Donald Trump personally intervened to reverse a decision twice denying them enter into the country. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In the short time since their visa dilemma drew global attention, the girls' case has become a flashpoint in the debate about Trump's efforts to tighten entrance to the U.S., including from many majority-Muslim countries. Afghanistan isn't included in Trump's temporary travel ban, but critics have said the ban is emblematic of a broader effort to put a chill on Muslims entering the U.S.

The girls' story has also renewed the focus on the longer-term U.S. plans for aiding Afghanistan's future, as Trump's administration prepares a new military strategy that will include sending more troops to the country where the U.S. has been fighting since 2001. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday the strategy was moving forward but "not finalized yet."

Trump's personal intervention earlier in the week using a rare "parole" mechanism to sidestep the visa system ended a dramatic saga in which the team twice traveled from their home in western Afghanistan through largely Taliban-controlled territory to Kabul, where their visa applications were denied twice.

The U.S. won't say why the girls were rejected for visas, citing confidentiality. But Mohib said that based on discussions with U.S. officials, it appears the girls were rebuffed due to concerns they would not return to Afghanistan. It's a fate that has beset many Afghans seeking entry to the U.S. in recent years as continuing violence and economic challenges lead many to seek asylum in America, or to travel through the U.S. to Canada to try to resettle there.

As their case gained attention, Trump intervened by asking National Security Council officials to find a way for them to travel, officials said. Ultimately the State Department, which adjudicates visa applications, asked the Homeland Security Department to let them in on "parole," a temporary status used only in exceptional circumstances to let in someone who is otherwise ineligible to enter the country. The U.S. granted parole after determining that it constituted a "significant public benefit."

Ambassador Alice Wells, the acting U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, downplayed concerns that the girls might use the parole to stay in the U.S. or go to Canada. As she drove to the airport to greet the girls, she said by phone that they were proud to represent Afghanistan and "proud to return to be role models to others around them."

Competing against entrants from more than 150 countries, the girls will present a robot they devised that can recognize blue and orange and sort balls into correct locations. They'll also be feted at a hastily arranged reception at the Embassy of Afghanistan attended by supporters who had petitioned the U.S. to let them in.

The Taliban, ousted by the U.S.-led coalition in 2001, denied schooling to girls when they ruled the war-torn country. Wells said that since 2002, the number of Afghan children attending school has increased from about 900,000 - virtually all boys - to 9 million today including 40 percent girls.

"We're looking to ensure that Afghanistan continues its trajectory to stabilizing politically and economically," Wells said. "It's young women like these that are going to be the future of Afghanistan."

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
ISLAMABAD (AP) - A Pakistan official said Saturday that laboratory testing shows that water from Lake Rawal is "fit for human consumption" after tons of dead fish were found in the water body on Islamabad's outskirts.

The samples of water from Lake Rawal that were tested were fine for drinking, said Mushtaq Ahmed, a top administrative official in the capital Islamabad.

The Lake Rawal reservoir is used as the main source of water for the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital. Ahmed said Islamabad gets its water supply from the nearby Simly and Khanpur dams.

Dead fish float on the surface of Rawal lake on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Authorities in Pakistan's capital Islamabad are investigating the water in the city's main reservoir after tons of dead fish were found in a lake on the city's outskirts. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Police officer Imran Haider earlier said that samples of water and dead fish from Rawal Lake had been collected and sent for forensic testing after a complaint was received from the capital's fisheries department.

Officials said there was an increasing number of dead fish in the lake since monsoon rains began three days earlier in the week.

Ahmed said the dead fish found in the lake were still subject to investigation to ascertain why they died.
SHENYANG, China (AP) - Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody.

Liu's supporters said the move was intended by the authoritarian government to permanently erase any traces of China's best-known political prisoner, who died Thursday at the age of 61.

The sea burial took place Saturday at noon, just hours after his cremation, a spokesman for the northeastern city of Shenyang, where Liu died, told reporters.

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, watches as Liu's ashes are buried at sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, July 15, 2017, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

Liu's elder brother, also addressing reporters at the briefing, thanked the ruling Communist Party and the government for its handling of his brother's funeral. The brother, Liu Xiaoguang, is regarded by Liu's friends as having long been unsupportive of Liu's political advocacy.

Liu died from multiple organ failure following a battle with liver cancer while serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power. In the run-up to his death, Beijing faced mounting international criticism for not letting him and his wife travel for treatment abroad as he had wished.

The government held two briefings Saturday and provided photos of the funeral and the sea burial, the latest moves in a propaganda campaign seemingly aimed at countering criticism that Beijing has failed to handle Liu's deterioration and dying wishes in a humanitarian way. A video about Liu's hospital treatment released on the website of Shenyang's judicial bureau Friday appeared aimed at the same objective.

Activists and friends of the family said the sea burial appeared to be Beijing's way of removing every last physical trace of Liu. It also removes the need for a land-based grave at which his supporters would have been able to pay their respects.

"The government's thinking is that in this way, they can destroy the body and remove all traces of him," dissident and family friend Hu Jia said by phone.

"After all, he's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and he died after being suppressed by the authorities," Hu said. "The authorities are very worried that a grave would be the focal point of the public's actions to memorialize him, which could easily turn into protests."

Activist filmmaker and friend Zeng Jinyan said the sea burial would not deter supporters from commemorating Liu's life.

"Now, Liu Xiaobo is everywhere," Zeng said. "Two-thirds of the earth's surface is covered by the sea and I can foresee that in the future, activists and ordinary people will go to the sea and memorialize Liu Xiaobo."

In Hong Kong, thousands of Liu's supporters and activists attended a candlelight vigil Saturday to mourn his death.

Supporters paid their respects by observing a minute of silence and marching through the streets of Hong Kong holding lit candles.

Liu's wife and other family members have been closely guarded by authorities and remain largely out of contact with the outside world even after his death. Governments around the world have urged China to free his wife, Liu Xia, from the strict house arrest she has lived under for years even though she has not been convicted of any crime.

The government handout photos showed Liu Xia, who wore dark sunglasses, being comforted by her brother in a funeral parlor as they stood in a row with Liu's older and younger siblings and their wives. Liu's body lay in an open casket in the center of the room, surrounded by an arrangement of potted white flowers.

A black banner strung on the wall read "Mr. Liu Xiaobo's funeral" in white Chinese characters. It was positioned above a framed picture of Liu. A press release issued by the government said that the ceremony was held at 6:30 a.m. to the music of Mozart's Requiem, and that the body was cremated shortly afterward.

The government also said some of Liu's friends attended the ceremony, a claim that was disputed by people who have long been close to Liu. In the handout images, none among a group of people standing by the casket were identifiable as any of Liu's friends, Zeng said.

Zeng said she was among the Liu family's friends who had traveled to Shenyang only to be prevented by the authorities from seeing Liu in his final moments.

"I just want to be closer to him and to see him, touch him even, if it's possible, and to give Liu Xia a hug, that's all," she said in English.

Zeng said it was "shameful" that the government said Liu's friends had attended the funeral. "How disgusting," she said.

Another of Liu's friends, dissident writer Mo Zhixu, said he thought the well-built young men with buzz cuts in the handout photos resembled security agents who kept track of Liu's wife. "This is just a big performance," he said.

"This regime has long been acting without humanity - that's why they denied him even a minute of freedom even until his death," Mo said.

At the briefing in Shenyang, a spokesman for the city's information office said the authorities were looking out for Liu Xia's interests and insisted that she is free.

"As far as I know, Liu Xia has freedom. But she just lost her relative and is in deep sorrow," spokesman Zhang Qingyang said. "After Liu Xiaobo's death, let Liu Xia tend to his affairs and try to keep her away from external interference."

Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in police custody, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics. The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Liu rose to prominence during the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document that called for an end to one-party rule in China.

He was in prison when he was awarded the Nobel in 2010, which Beijing condemned as an affront to its political and legal systems.

There is little mention of Liu in China's heavily censored state media and social networking platforms. One notable exception is a newspaper published by the Communist Party that said in an editorial that the West was "deifying" Liu, a man the paper described as a criminal who was "paranoid, naive and arrogant."

"Liu's memorial tablet cannot find a place in China's cultural temple," the Global Times said in the editorial Saturday. "Deification of Liu by the West will be eventually overshadowed by China's denial of him."

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Wong reported from Beijing. AP video journalist Johnson Lai contributed to this report from Hong Kong.

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, left, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and other relatives prepare Liu's ashes for burial at sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, July 15, 2017, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, left, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and her younger brother Liu Xiaoxuan, right, carry bouquets of flowers as they bury Liu's ashes at sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this image taken from video provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, an urn containing the ashes of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is lowered into the sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xiaoxuan, the younger brother of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, lowers his ashes into the sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, in black, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, throws flower petals as Liu's ashes are buried at sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, July 15, 2017, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this image taken from undated video provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, purportedly expresses her wishes for Liu's funeral. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, July 15, 2017, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

Liu Xiaobo's elder brother Liu Xiaoguang attends a government organized press conference held in a hotel in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In this image taken from video provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, relatives of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo prepare to bury his ashes at the sea off the coast of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo and her brother Liu Hui, left stand next to the casket of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, relatives stand next to the casket of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. From left Liu Xiaoxuan, younger brother of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xiaoguang, older brother of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Hui, younger brother of Liu Xia, and Liu Xia. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

Journalists are held back as Liu Xiaobo's elder brother Liu Xiaoguang, unseen is escorted away after speaking at a government organized press conference held in a hotel in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In this image taken from undated video footage from the Shenyang Judicial Bureau via AP Video, imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo lays in a bed in a hospital in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province. China cremated the body of Liu on Saturday, July 15, 2017, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo)

Zeng Jinyan, an activist filmmaker and friend of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, speaks during an interview in Beijing, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody. Zeng said she was among the Liu family's friends who had traveled to Shenyang only to be prevented by the authorities from seeing Liu in his final moments. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Zeng Jinyan, an activist filmmaker and friend of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, pauses during an interview in Beijing, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody. Zeng said she was among the Liu family's friends who had traveled to Shenyang only to be prevented by the authorities from seeing Liu in his final moments. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Zeng Jinyan, an activist filmmaker and friend of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, speaks during an interview in Beijing, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Family members of Liu Xiaobo scattered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's ashes into the sea on Saturday in funeral proceedings closely orchestrated by the Chinese government following his death from cancer while in custody. Zeng said she was among the Liu family's friends who had traveled to Shenyang only to be prevented by the authorities from seeing Liu in his final moments. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Protesters carry a picture of late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo to mourn Liu near the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Protesters hold candles to mourn late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Protesters carry a picture of late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo to mourn Liu at a downtown park in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Protesters carry a picture of late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo to mourn Liu at a down town park in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Some 5,000 troops from NATO and partner countries are staging exercises in Romania watched by a senior NATO official and Romania's president.

President Klaus Iohannis and NATO Military Committee head Gen. Petr Pavel, who is on a two-day visit to Romania, were welcomed with military honors ahead of Saturday's exercises at the Cincu shooting range in northwest Romania.

Troops from Romania, the U.S., Ukraine, Armenia and Croatia opened gunfire, backed by U.S. and Romanian military aircraft.

The exercises, led by U.S. Army Europe, began this week in Eastern Europe involving 25,000 military personnel from more than 20 allied and partner countries. The U.S. is seeking to reassure NATO's European allies concerned about Russia since it annexed Crimea in 2014.

The exercises run until July 20.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Mountain rescue workers have saved 11 tourists who were trapped overnight on a mountain in Romania's northwest Transylvania region. Nobody was injured.

Officials said the group of Hungarian tourists - six men, four women and a 13-year-old boy - called for help as night fell Friday after they were unable to descend from the Piatra Craiului mountain range near the city of Brasov.

Local police spokesman Ciprian Aldea said it took rescue teams 12 hours to locate, reach and save the group who got trapped on a rocky mountain ledge.

The group was transported by bus on Saturday to the mountain hut where they were staying.
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - A prominent Rwandan academic has been sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of genocide, officials said Saturday.

Leopold Munyakazi was convicted Friday by a court in the south of the East African country, Rwandan Prosecutor General John Bosco Mutangana said.

Munyakazi will be held under solitary confinement according to the verdict in the district of Muhanga, said Emmanuel Itamwa, a spokesman for the court.

Munyakazi was accused of playing a key role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. He denied the charges.

Munyakazi fled Rwanda in 2004 and sought refuge in the U.S., where he taught French at Goucher College in Baltimore until he was suspended in 2008 following his indictment by the Rwandan government.

The Rwandan government issued arrest warrants against Munyakazi in 2006 and 2008 and asked the U.S. to extradite him. He was deported to Rwanda last year.

Munyakazi, an ethnic Hutu who was a college professor at the time of the genocide, had opposed his transfer to Rwanda, arguing that he faced torture and would not get a fair trial since the country now has a Tutsi-led government.

He maintained his innocence but lost court appeals to avoid extradition to Rwanda.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri military academy and college that dated to 1880 before abruptly shuttering at the end of May can't afford to pay its faculty as previously promised, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.

The president and superintendent of what had been Wentworth Military Academy and College, Michael Lierman, told faculty members by email May 16 that they would continue to get paid "as normal" until their contracts expire. The school in Lexington - a town of about 4,700-resident Lexington about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Kansas City - closed 15 days later.

But on June 27, the academy's caretaker, Col. Rick Cottrell, emailed faculty members individually to say that Wentworth doesn't have funds to make additional salary payments for now. He says the academy's board hopes to liquidate the site's assets and collect unpaid tuition to get the cash to honor the contracts.

Wentworth still would pay premiums for the affected staffers for their health, vision and dental insurance coverage through Aug. 31, according to an email obtained by AP.

"Please be assured that we are doing all that can be done under these difficult circumstances," Cottrell wrote.

It was not immediately clear how many faculty members were affected.

Cottrell declined to discuss the matter Friday with the AP and deferred to the academy's attorney, Allan Hallquist, who didn't return telephone messages.

In announcing in April that Wentworth would close, top administrators of the academy and college that includes federal lawmakers, business titans and a famous zoologist among its alumni cited waning enrollment, rising costs and an aging campus. At that time, Hallquist said Wentworth had 220 cadets who boarded there. Fifty-five of them were high school students, and the rest enrolled in its two-year college program. Roughly 300 civilians were also taking classes there.

The accrediting Higher Learning Commission placed Wentworth on ongoing probation in November 2015, citing "concerns related to integrity regarding the college's finances and resources to support its academic programs and operations." The announced closure came three days before commission was to revisit that probation matter.

Wentworth's prominent alumni include the late U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. co-founder James "Bud" Walton, and zoologist Marlin Perkins, who hosted "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" for more than two decades before his death in 1986.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A giant aircraft that can fly high above oceans on intercontinental flights instead jets in low and slow over a flaming forest, trailing a long plume that settles on the ground and creates a wildfire-stopping barrier.

The operators of the Boeing 747 converted from a passenger jet into a firefighting air tanker say it has proven itself battling forest fires in countries outside the U.S. The modifications allow it to drop more than 19,000 gallons (72,000 liters) of a flame-squelching combination of ammonium phosphate and sulfate mixed with water that comes billowing out in a red-colored line.

"We just happen to be the biggest, fastest firetruck in the air," said Jim Wheeler, CEO of Global SuperTanker Services.

This May 5, 2016, photo provided by Global Supertanker Services shows a Boeing 747 making a demonstration water drop at Colorado Springs Airport in Colorado Springs, Colo. The company with the 747 retardant bomber that can drop nearly 20,000 gallons (75,000 liters) on wildfires says federal officials are keeping it grounded, putting homes and ground-based firefighters at risk. Officials with Global SuperTanker filed a protest with the U.S. Forest Service in June 2017 contesting a contract limiting firefighting aircraft to 5,000 gallons. (Hiroshi Ando/Global Supertanker Services via AP)

But the company says the U.S. Forest Service is seeking to keep the plane grounded by offering a contract limiting firefighting aircraft to 5,000 gallons (18,900 liters) of fire suppressant and won't say why. The company says the federal agency is putting homes and lives at risk just as the current wildfire season surges past the 10-year average for land area burned in a decade that includes some of the most destructive and deadly wildfire seasons on record.

Late last month, the company filed a protest with the Forest Service contesting the size limit that appears to conflict with the Forest Service's 2012 air tanker modernization strategy report. That document identifies large-capacity tankers as an important part of the firefighting effort as the agency tries to pay for fighting fires without using money intended for such things as improving recreation opportunities for forest visitors.

Forest Service spokesman Mike Ferris said in an email the agency couldn't comment specifically about the possible 747 contract because of the company's protest.

Watchdog and firefighter advocacy groups said the agency might be trying to cut firefighting costs that have been using up big chunks of its budget. The Forest Service spent $1.6 billion in 2016 fighting wildfires, an amount second only to the $1.7 billion spent in 2015, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Besides the 5,000-gallon limit, the interim approval the Forest Service gave for the use of the 747 in January expired last month before the fire season took off and it got a chance to fight fires in the U.S. The company said without the approval, states wouldn't be reimbursed from the federal government for using the 747.

Some 50 large wildfires are currently burning in the U.S., with about 6,200 square miles (16,000 sq. kilometers) scorched so far this year, well above the 10-year average for this point in the season.

"Where (the Forest Service) is sorely lacking is in the very large air tanker category," Wheeler said.

The Forest Service has three aircraft in that category defined as having a capacity of greater than 8,000 gallons (30,300 liters). The three DC-10s capable of dropping 11,600 gallons (43,900 liters) are currently under contract with a company called 10 Tanker. Company President John Gould said what's going on with the 747 concerns him because it could show up in new contracts for his company.

Casey Judd is president of the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, a group that advocates for wildland firefighters.

"You have the largest fire department in the world managed by the Forest Service," he said. "There is a little more scrutiny from Congress. There are some changes going on as a result of this increased scrutiny, and the 747 may be a byproduct of that."

Andy Stahl is executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, a watchdog group that describes its mission as holding the Forest Service accountable for responsible land stewardship. Stahl said air tankers were initially intended for early attack to prevent wildfires from getting large.

"That's no longer how they're used," he said. "Air tankers now are primarily used on large fires that have escaped initial attack. It's pork barrel spending in Western states."

Limiting air tankers to an initial attack role could save the Forest Service money by reducing costs on the largest and most expensive fires where air tankers, Stahl said, are ineffective.

A significant part of the Forest Service's firefighting cost is buying firefighting material at about $1 a gallon and paying for the aircraft to drop it. Last year the Forest Service reported dropping more than 19 million gallons (72 million liters) on national forest system lands, mainly in Western U.S. states.

The 747 can drop its entire load of 19,200 gallons (72,700 liters) in a line that's from three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and more than 200 feet wide. But it can also make eight separate drops from one load.

Company officials say the 747 is cheaper per gallon of liquid dropped than any other aircraft, a comparison based on what it would cost to drop the same amount using multiple smaller planes.

"If you need more than two airplanes, it's far more cost-efficient to call a 747," said Harry Toll, a managing partner with Alterna Capital Partners, which owns Global SuperTanker.

Another criticism the company rejects are questions about the 747's ability to operate at low altitudes. The company said firefighting efforts in Israel in and Chile proved its low-flying ability to hit the target.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection currently uses DC-10s to coat ridgetops, a possible job for the 747 as well.

"Would we use it if approved? Absolutely we would use it," said Janet Upton, deputy director of communications for the agency, most commonly known as CAL FIRE.

It's not clear when the Forest Service will make a decision involving the protest filed by Global SuperTanker.

"The aircraft today is ready to go fight fires," Wheeler said.
ROUND LAKE, Ill. (AP) - Officials in one Illinois school district are concerned that flooding from recent rainfall will impact the start of classes next month.

Bookshelves in W.J. Murphy Elementary School's library are completely covered by water, The Chicago Tribune reported (http://trib.in/2tWOAlo ).

"The library is really our epicenter of our whole building, and obviously, it's a total loss," district operations executive director Shelia Duhon told the newspaper.

A man picks up sandbags to reinforce the barrier he built to keep the flood water from reaching his house Friday, July 14, 2017, in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday that several thousand buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (AP Photo/G-Jun Yam)

The gym, a music room and computer room also are flooded at the school in Lake County's Round Lake, northwest of Chicago and south of Wisconsin's state line.

Duhon said computers were under water and the school's computer server room in the basement was flooded. Water also stood in four fourth-grade classrooms.

Heavy rainfall that hit the Midwest on Wednesday knocked out power to thousands and closed roadways. Power outages caused by flooding forced the evacuation of Lake Forest Hospital in suburban Chicago. Power was restored that night, but the hospital was closed Friday as crews restored damaged infrastructure.

State officials have said that some 6,800 structures - including homes, businesses and other buildings such as garages - have been affected by the "unprecedented" flooding. The damage was expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin.

The Des Plaines river at Gurnee was expected to crest at a record 12.2 feet on Saturday night, Lake County spokesman Alex Carr said.

Red Cross shelters were set up in two locations in the county, he said.

"There are still road closures throughout the county," Carr added.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday issued a state disaster proclamation for Lake, McHenry and Kane counties.

At W.J. Murphy Elementary, the water had receded a bit by Friday, but can't be pumped outside the building until the water around the school is gone.

About 500 students attend the school and classes are to start in late August.

"We've contacted other districts, and we may have enough space at our other elementary schools to absorb the students," Duhon said.

But once the water goes away, a structural engineering may have to look at Murphy, she added.

"The school has had some water issues in the past," Duhon said. "It's never been like this."

A man walks on a flooded street Friday, July 14, 2017, in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday that several thousand buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (AP Photo/G-Jun Yam)

A police officer blocks a flooded area, Friday, July 14, 2017, in Gurney Ill. Illinois officials said Friday that several thousand buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (AP Photo/G-Jun Yam)

Gurnee, Ill. Mayor Kristina Kovarik, bottom right, talks with Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner as he surveys flooding Friday, July 14, 2017 in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday some 6,800 buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald via AP)

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, left, pauses near hundreds of sandbags and the flooded McClure Avenue, back left, with Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor and IEMA Director James Joseph, right, Friday, July 14, 2017 in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday some 6,800 buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald via AP)

Rising water from the Des Plaines River rises covers McClure Avenue, Friday, July 14, 2017 in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday some 6,800 buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald via AP)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Authorities in Connecticut say several people have been exposed to an unidentified radioactive substance after a hospital's nuclear medicine lab was broken into.

New Haven Fire Chief John Alston says employees discovered the lab in the cancer center at St. Raphael's Hospital had been vandalized when they arrived at around 8 a.m. Saturday.

Officials say at least three lab technicians were exposed to radioactive material and underwent decontamination.

The hospital says the exposure was contained.

Alston says the victims are expected to be OK. It's unclear why the lab was broken into.
BEIRUT (AP) - Clashes have broken out in northwestern Syria between two of the most powerful insurgent groups there raising fears of widespread violence in the rebel-held province of Idlib, the groups and an opposition monitor said Saturday.

The fighting between the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham - Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee - that is also known as HTS, are the first serious acts of violence since both sides reached a truce in February. Wider clashes between the two former allies could affect their fight against President Bashar Assad's forces who have been gaining ground over the past year under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

Ahrar al-Sham said in a statement Saturday that the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee is sending reinforcements to the town of Saraqeb and the Jabal al-Zawiya region in preparation for an attack. It accused HTS of acts of "tyranny."

The Ibaa News Agency of HTS accused Ahrar al-Sham of setting up checkpoints and detaining one of its commanders and his bodyguard, adding that HTS removed the checkpoints later by force.

Ibaa quoted an HTS military commander, who was identified as Mouawiyah al-Hashimi, as saying that the two groups agreed to solve the crisis in accordance with Islamic law. He added that Ahrar al-Sham issued its statement about reinforcements after the attempt to solve the latest crisis.

"Our first choice is to resort to Islamic law and solve the problems away from arms and bloodletting," the Ahrar al-Sham statement said. "If the (HTS) command insists on its tyrannical acts .... the movement (Ahrar al-Sham) is ready to repel injustice."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes late Friday were concentrated near the village of Tel Touqan. It added that after the clashes, Ahrar al-Sham briefly cut water supplies to the provincial capital of Idlib that is mostly controlled by HTS.

The lashes come at a time when Ahrar al-Sham is trying to market itself as a moderate rebel group and has been recently raising the main opposition banner - black, white and green with three red stars in the middle.

HTS is a coalition led by Fatah al-Sham Front that was formerly known as the Nusra Front. The group announced last year it was changing its name to Hay'at Tahrir al Sham and had cut all contacts with al-Qaida to market itself as a Syrian group.

Fatah al-Sham Front and the Islamic State group are considered terrorist organizations by the international community. Still, the al-Qaida-linked HTS enjoys the support of the local population in northwestern Syria where many see it as a powerful faction confronting President Bashar Assad's army and his allies.

On Wednesday, HTS issued a statement saying that two of its members were found killed near the northwestern village of Sarjeh and blamed Suqour al-Sham, a strong ally of Ahrar al-Sham for the killing.

In the northern city of Raqqa, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces pressed ahead in their offensive aiming to retake the de facto capital of IS. The attack on the city began on June 6.

IS released a video showing its fighters being trained as snipers to target SDF fighters. The video claimed that 164 SDF fighters had been killed in Raqqa over the past month.

It was not possible to confirm the figure released by IS but SDF has been holding funerals for fighters who died in Raqqa over the past weeks.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Ivory Coast's army chief says disgruntled soldiers staged attacks at an army barracks in the country's northern town of Korhogo, killing at least three soldiers and wounding four others.

Gen. Sekou Toure said Saturday that arrests have been made after the morning fighting.

Korhogo resident Djakaridja Soro said shooting began early Saturday and the fighting was intense. Shots were also heard in the economic capital of Abidjan, where vehicles were taken from security forces on patrol.

The mutinying soldiers are former rebels who helped put the president in power after his predecessor refused to leave office after losing the 2010 election. The roughly 8,400 soldiers were integrated into the more than 20,000-strong Ivory Coast army, but divisions still remain.

The government reached a deal with them in May after street protests demanding pay.
ROME (AP) - The Latest on the migrant crisis in Europe (all times local):

10:40 p.m.

Italy's migrant crisis is spawning new protests, with a local mayor in Sicily leading a popular revolt to prevent a few dozen new arrivals from taking up residence in an abandoned hotel.

People, carrying wire representing border razor wire fences, shout slogans during a protest in support of migrants seeking to enter Europe, in Madrid, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Vincenzo Lionetto, mayor of Castel'Umberto in Messina, wrote an "urgent and important" Facebook post advising residents that the local prefect had just informed him that the 30 or so migrants would be transferred to the Canguro hotel.

He led a dozen or so residents in surrounding the hotel with their cars Saturday, though the migrants apparently were already inside.

Tensions over migration are running high in Italy, with daily arrivals of new asylum-seekers and local officials complaining they don't have space to take them in. The issue is particularly sensitive with elections expected this year or next.

2:20 p.m.

Spain's maritime rescue service says that it has saved 19 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a small boat.

The service tells The Associated Press that all 19 migrants were men claiming Algerian nationality.

The boat was spotted late on Friday night, and rescuers reached it early on Saturday morning in waters off the southeastern coast of Spain.

Thousands of migrants from Africa attempt the perilous crossing to Europe in small boats that are unfit for the open sea and often launched by human smugglers
A viscount has been jailed for 12 weeks after offering money on Facebook for someone to kill Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.

Rhodri Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids, had posted online: 5,000 for the first person to accidentally run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant.

The 50-year-old wrote the comment just four days after Ms Miller won a landmark High Court challenge against the Government last year.

Rhodri Philipps was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London (David Mirzoeff/PA)

Philipps, of Knightsbridge, central London, described her as a boat jumper, and added: If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles.

He was convicted at Londons Westminster Magistrates Court of two counts of sending menacing messages on a public electronic communications network.

The other post Philipps was convicted for was in response to a news article about an immigrant and his children.

A five-year restraining order was also placed against Philipps in order to protect Ms Miller, along with Arnold Sube, the immigrant he abused online, and Matthew Steeples, who informed Ms Miller about the racist material.

The viscount offered money for someone to kill Gina Miller (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot ordered the recently bankrupt Philipps to pay 500 compensation, noting that he is of limited means.

She gave him six months to pay up and warned she would send the bailiffs to his home if he did not comply. A 115 surcharge was imposed and Philipps was ordered to pay costs of 250.

The judge told Philipps that he had tried and failed to justify the racist abuse by saying that Ms Miller plus Mr Sube and his family deserved the language because they were immigrants.

The judge told him: You told me proudly in evidence that your family motto is Love of Country and that is your motivation, but it seems to me on the evidence I have seen that you are not motivated by love of country, but by your hatred of anybody who has different views to yours and to any who have recently arrived in this country.

You show this hatred by publicly directing abusive threats at others, which is a criminal offence in this multi-racial society we are lucky enough to live in.
Venus Williams insists her fairytale run is not finished yet as she attempts to become the oldest winner of the womens singles title at Wimbledon for more than a century.

Williams plays Garbine Muguruza on Saturday and, unlike Charlotte Sterry, who lifted the trophy in 1908 aged 37 years and 282 days, she will almost certainly not travel to the All England Club by bicycle.

Wimbledon ladies' final head to head: Garbine Muguruza v Venus Williams.

The clash, however, will be played under the closed Centre Court roof for the first time after early-afternoon rain at the All England Club.

At 37 years and 28 days, Williams is looking for her first grand slam title since Wimbledon nine years ago, when she claimed her fifth crown here and seventh in total.

A gradual decline followed, and when she was diagnosed with the auto-immune condition Sjogrens syndrome in 2011, it seemed Williams grand slam-winning days were over.

An emotional Williams said: I had a lot of issues. This year has been amazing in terms of my play, playing deep into the big events. Of course, Im excited about being again in another final, trying to take it a step further.

"All these moments have led to this."



The Ladies' Singles Final awaits...#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/g4VuwaRSrC  Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

I feel very focused. Theres still a lot to be done. I have one more match that Id like to be the winner of. I have to go out there and take it and play well.

But I like to take courage in the fact that Ive been playing well this tournament and this year, and all these moments have led to this.

Muguruza is through to the final for the second time in three years and is looking to go one better after losing to Serena in 2015.

The work is done for today, time to rest! 

Trabajo realizado, toca descansar!@Wimbledon @WTA pic.twitter.com/ke9P1hm9IW  Garbine Muguruza (@GarbiMuguruza) July 14, 2017

Last year the 23-year-old Spaniard turned the tables on Serena to win her maiden slam title at the French Open and was immediately hailed as the new leader of the womens game.

She said: I think my mind is more equipped this time because the more experience you get, the more you know how to deal with these situations, because theyre very special.

Muguruza hailed Williams longevity, saying: I think its very impressive. I think not everybody can do that. I dont think I could be 37 and playing (at) that level.

In the mens draw, Roger Federer and Marin Cilic will be putting the finishing touches to their preparations ahead of Sundays singles final.
A court decision on US president Donald Trumps travel ban has reopened a window for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, and the government is looking to quickly close it.

The administration appealed directly to the US Supreme Court after a federal judge in Hawaii ordered it to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.

US district judge Derrick Watson also vastly expanded the list of US family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.

Close family is ohana. Tonights federal court decision affirms this. https://t.co/jX5h2aHTz1 pic.twitter.com/gzoCJS080c  Hawaii AG Holly T. Shikada (@AtghIgov) July 14, 2017

The ruling on Thursday was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nations high court in October.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety, she said. This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin speaks at a news conference about Hawaii's push to expand the list of relatives exempt from the ban (Caleb Jones/AP)

Citing a need to review its vetting process to ensure national security, the administration capped refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 12-month period ending September 30, a ceiling it hit this week.

The federal budget can accommodate up to 75,000 refugees, but admissions have slowed under Mr Trump, and the government could hold them to a trickle, resettlement agencies say.

Absolutely this is good news for refugees, but theres a lot of uncertainty, said Melanie Nezer, spokeswoman for HIAS, a resettlement agency. Its really going to depend on how the administration reacts to this.

Attorney general Jeff Sessions said the administration will ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, bypassing the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

A victory in our fight against President Trump's discriminatory travel ban. Proud to stand with @AtghIgov in upholding the rule of law. https://t.co/Rj4tPkipaJ  Maura Healey (@MassAGO) July 14, 2017

The Supreme Court allowed a scaled-back version of the travel ban to take effect last month.

Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security, Mr Sessions said. By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats.

The administration has lost most legal challenges on the travel ban, which applies to citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.
Lewis Hamilton moved to the top of the timesheets in final practice to cement his status as pole-position favourite for the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton edged out title rival Sebastian Vettel, whom he is 20 points adrift of in the title battle, by just 0.032 seconds at Silverstone.

Valtteri Bottas was third, but the 27-year-old Finnish driver is out of the running for pole after he was last night sanctioned with a five-place grid penalty following a gearbox change.

Red Bulls Daniel Ricciardo will also be moved back five places for tomorrows race after he, too, was forced to take on a new gearbox.

Lewis Hamilton waves to fans at Silverstone (Martin Rickett/PA)

One factor, however, which could stop Hamilton from claiming the 67th pole position of his career could be the weather.

This mornings one-hour session started in dry, albeit cold conditions, but the rain arrived in the closing moments.

And a changeable forecast here in Northamptonshire is expected to play a role during qualifying later on Saturday.

Hamilton so often excels in the wet. He turned in an incredible display in front of his home crowd nine years ago when he won by nearly a minute and lapped the entire field up to third.

But a damp track can also lead to unpredictability as Hamilton found out to his cost in 2014 when he aborted his final lap in qualifying  thinking he could not improve on his time  only to see others improve and he fell to sixth.

Ricciardo was the first to fall foul of the slippery conditions this morning when he lost control of his Red Bull on the exit of the final corner and slid across the main straight. Marcus Ericsson also took a trip across the gravel after he spun in his Sauber.

Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India, while Ricciardo ended the session in sixth. Britains Jolyon Palmer was 14th.

McLarens Fernando Alonso will start last after he was hit with a mammoth 30-place grid penalty following a raft of changes to his hapless Honda engine.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told hospital workers their strike action for better pay is justified, branding their treatment exploitation.

He was speaking at a rally at the Royal London Hospital in east London in support of hundreds of striking low-paid cleaners, porters and security guards employed by Serco at Barts Health NHS Trust.

On Saturday the workers were on the fifth day of a seven-day strike, having already taken three days of industrial action between July 4 and July 7.

John McDonnell spoke at a rally at the Royal London Hospital (PA)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell addresses the crowd, telling them their cause is just and they have his full support. #strike pic.twitter.com/wUIbLap6os  Nina Massey (@ninamasseyPA) July 15, 2017

Mr McDonnell said: You have my 100% support in this dispute. Jeremy Corbyn has gone down to the Tolpuddle celebrations this weekend, so he cant be here. But I bring you a message of solidarity from Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party.

I want you to know that we are with you. The reason you have my 100% support is because your cause is just.

It is not much to ask, is it? In the fifth-richest country in the world, in the richest city in the fifth-richest country in the world, to earn a decent wage where you can feed your children and house your family.

Its not much to ask when you know the company that has privatised these services are making multimillion profits every year. And their directors and their managers are lining their pockets at your expense.

Protestors at Royal London Hospital in in support of hundreds of striking low-paid workers employed by Serco at Barts Health NHS Trust. pic.twitter.com/1RuVgQobTq  Nina Massey (@ninamasseyPA) July 15, 2017

Do you know, theres a word for this? And its exploitation. And thats what we are seeing.

To be frank, theyre not bothered about the workers they employ and theyre not bothered about the service they provide. This strike is justified.

Mr McDonnell spoke to hundreds of people who had gathered at the east London hospital waving banners bearing messages including: Serco Pay Up and Low Pay, No Way!

They have warned Barts they are prepared to stage a 14-day stoppage, starting on July 25.

They're on Day 5/7 of a strike and are asking for a wage increase and better working conditions chanting "Serco, pay rise" #strike pic.twitter.com/Q4CXrfNxEy  Nina Massey (@ninamasseyPA) July 15, 2017

Workers are protesting over low pay and poor treatment, and asking for a pay increase of 30p per hour.

The dispute involves workers at Whipps Cross University Hospital, Royal London Hospital, St Bartholomews Hospital and Mile End Hospital.

Earlier in the week, Phil Mitchell, Sercos contract director, said: We believe strongly in ensuring our dedicated team are rewarded fairly, which is why we agreed with the Trust to pay all our team members a minimum of the London Living Wage from day one.

This resulted in an increase in pay for over 230 team members and benefited over 110 permanent staff by an average of 3.5%. For those team members on higher salaries, we have offered a pay increase for this year which is in line with that for NHS staff.

Were determined to ensure that Unites action does not impact on patients. We have robust plans in place aimed at ensuring we can continue to support the Trusts hospitals to operate as normal during the planned action.
Firefighters have tackled a blaze along one of Londons busiest roads, close to tourist attraction Marble Arch.

A restaurant on Connaught Street, and a six-floor building made up of flats and a shop on Edgware Road, were affected by the fire which did not result in any injuries, but closed roads.

London Fire Brigade was called just after 10.20am to the blaze, which damaged the restaurants ducting  part of its extraction system.

Marble Arch

We've attended a fire at a Connaught Street restaurant in #Bayswater. The extraction system was damaged by blaze https://t.co/fjFW0NaBeR pic.twitter.com/qtyVFksBa0  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) July 15, 2017

Six fire engines and around 35 firefighters were sent to deal with the fire, which was causing huge plumes of smoke seen in videos posted on social media.

A cordon was temporarily set up, but roads are expected to be reopened soon  and until then, motorists are advised to avoid the area.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: Restaurant and take-away owners should always take care to make sure their extraction systems are kept clean as a build-up of fat and grease within the filters can lead to a fire.

The fire took place about a five-minute walk from Marble Arch and Oxford Street.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is at the centre of a sexism row after he reportedly suggested that driving a train was now so easy even a woman could do it.

His reported comment, at Tuesdays meeting of the Cabinet, earned the Chancellor a sharp rebuke from Theresa May, according to The Sun.

Mr Hammond, a former transport secretary, was said to have made his remark during a discussion on transport policy.

Mr Hammond is a former transport secretary (PA)

According to the paper, he was trying to make a point about how easy the job of driving a train had become, saying even they (women) can do it.

As he then tried to explain himself, he was said to have been cut off by Mrs May who told him Chancellor, Im going to take your shovel away from you.

Conservative sources declined to comment on the report, however The Sun said a source close to the Chancellor had strongly denied that he made any such remark.

Allies of Mr Hammond were said to have suggested the phrase was spoken by another minister, who was unfairly caricaturing his words.

If you think Philip Hammonds sexist attitudes haven't infiltrated his job and meant less for women you are kidding yourself.  Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) July 15, 2017

Labour MP Jess Phillips said: Philip Hammond has disgraced himself with this remark, as well as managing to insult half the countrys population.

She tweeted: People will say its nothing, just a joke. Women were entirely missing from his industrial strategy & his budgets make poor women poorer.

The two things are connected. Its not a joke when a womens worth and value changes our economics.

Train driver Pauline Cawood, 53, who has been driving locomotives for more than 20 years, said it was an old-fashioned, sexist comment, telling the Sun: He ought to be ashamed of himself. Women are just as capable as men at driving trains.
Theresa Mays former adviser has revealed how Trousergate almost never was, with the Prime Minister originally planning to wear her own clothes for the interview.

Mrs May came under fire last November when she posed for a photo shoot wearing 995 brown leather trousers.

But before the Sunday Times interview, she had allegedly told Katie Perrior, then director of communications at 10 Downing Street, that while she would appreciate hair and make-up, she would bring her own clothes.

Amanda Wakeley's trousers worn by Theresa May in a Times Magazine interview were criticised

However after intervention from her chief of staff Fiona Hill, Mrs May ended up in the Amanda Wakeley trousers which led to much criticism.

In a tell-all account in The Times Magazine, Ms Perrior blamed Ms Hill and joint chief of staff Nick Timothy for the PMs downfall.

Describing how Trousergate came about, Ms Perrior claimed that on the night before the interview Ms Hill had accused her of not preparing the PM for it.

She said: I then overheard Hill on the phone to the designer Amanda Wakeley, begging her to send over a van full of clothes the next morning for the PM to choose from.

Fiona Hill explains Theresa May's 'Trousergate' in a new interview

I was told by Hill that it was a big mistake to take the PM at her word with regards to her clothes  stupid me.

All went well until later, when one of my colleagues popped into my office to tell me that we may have a problem: did I know the outfit the PM finally chose cost two grand?

And there lies the story of the brown leather trousers she was wearing in the shoot. I hit the roof. This was a PR screw-up that was wholly avoidable.

I didnt even like the bloody trousers  they were the wrong kind of brown, if you know what I mean.
HAMBURG, July 8 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he had established a working relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and thought there were grounds to believe at least partial cooperation with Washington could be achieved.

Putin, speaking at a news conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg, said he felt Trump had accepted Putin's assertions that Moscow had not interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year, but that it was best to ask Trump what his views on that were.

He said the two leaders at their meeting had agreed to work together on cyber security and said he thought Trump in reality was a different person from the one seen on TV. (Reporting by Denis Dyomkin in Hamburg and Vladimir Soldatkin and Christian Lowe in Moscow; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, July 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Congress in the Dominican Republic rejected upholding the nation's total ban on abortion this week, approving a step that would allow the procedure for ending life-threatening pregnancies and those resulting from rape or incest.

The lawmakers in the lower house voted against a decision in May by the Dominican Senate, which turned down recommendations made by President Danilo Medina to amend the criminal code and ease the nation's abortion ban.

The Dominican Republic is one of seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that have absolute bans on abortion.

The decision by the Dominican Congress on Tuesday would allow abortion in cases of rape or incest, when a mother's life is in danger or when a foetus would not survive the pregnancy.

The contrasting decisions in each house pave the way for another vote to be introduced.

Hopes have been raised among abortion rights activists that the country's ban on abortion - dating back to 1884 - can be finally repealed.

"The vote has shown a clear majority of house representatives standing with Dominican women's fundamental rights to decide over their bodies and to be treated with dignity. This must be celebrated," Robin Guittard, Caribbean campaigner at rights group Amnesty International, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The earlier vote by the Senate "would have virtually maintained a full ban on accessing abortion services ... in a context of high rates of unsafe abortions, maternal mortality and adolescent pregnancies," she said.

It is not clear when a new vote on the ban will occur, and it could be months before lawmakers start debating the controversial issue again, campaigners say.

As in the past, moves to repeal the ban will face staunch opposition from conservative groups and the influential Catholic Church.

Janet Camilo, the country's minister for women, has said the abortion ban is a health care issue for women and decisions not to repeal it were based on sexism.

Blanket abortion bans put women's lives at risk by forcing women to undergo dangerous backstreet abortions, which were the cause of at least one in 10 maternal deaths in Latin America in 2014, according to Amnesty International.

In recent years, the United Nations has urged the Dominican Republic to lift its abortion ban.

Activists say the country should seize the opportunity to allow women to access a safe abortion in a country where more than 90,000 unsafe abortions occur each year.

"Now it's imperative that Dominican lawmakers ensure that the new penal code proposed guarantees human rights and access to justice for all girls and women," said Catalina Martinez, Latin America director at the U.S.-based Center of Reproductive Rights. (Reporting by Anastasia Moloney @anastasiabogota, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
GENEVA, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office called on Bahrain on Friday to "unconditionally and immediately" release rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced to two years in jail this week.

Rajab, a leading figure in a 2011 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the government, was sentenced on Monday, supporters said, for allegedly making "false or malicious" statements about authorities.

"Human rights defenders in Bahrain must be able to carry out their work without fear of reprisals and should not face detention or prosecution for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Criticising the government should not be a crime," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a Geneva news briefing.

"We note that Mr Rajab has been detention since June 2016. We call on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him," she said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Paola Totaro

LONDON, July 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Luxembourg's ambitions to become a leader in the nascent space mining industry moved a step forward as it adopted a new law to create property rights on planets and asteroids and govern exploration and use of space resources.

The economy minister, Etienne Schneider, said on Friday that Luxembourg had become the first European country to offer a legal framework ensuring that private operators can be confident about their rights over resources extracted in space.

The law will come into force on Aug. 1 and is based on the premise that space resources are capable of being owned. The country's law also establishes the procedures for authorising and supervising space exploration missions.

"Luxembourg is the first adopter in Europe of a legal and regulatory framework recognising that space resources are capable of being owned by private companies," Schneider said.

Luxembourg in June 2016 set aside 200 million euros ($229 million) to fund initiatives aimed at bringing back rare minerals from space.

In February last year it announced plans to become the first state in Europe to give legal clarity to the commercial exploitation of asteroids. A similar package of laws was introduced in the United States in 2015.

The draft legal framework forms a key part of the country's strategy to aggressively pursue and encourage economic opportunities and the development of new parts of the space industry, including mining, the statement said.

Luxembourg has already managed to attract significant interest from pioneers in the field such as U.S. operators Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries and aims to attract research and development projects to set up there.

The small European country is best known for its fund management and private banking sector. However it has high ambitions for its role in encouraging space exploration, detailing its mission in the SpaceResources.lu initiative.

Schneider said the country will build on its experience and strong track record in the satellite sector.

In 1985, a public-private partnership effort launched Societe Europeenne des Satellites, now the largest global satellite operator with headquarters in Luxembourg.

Under international mining law, mining in space is a contentious subject as international treaties call for exploration to be carried out for the benefit of all countries.

Schneider said Luxembourg continues to promote international cooperation on a future "governance scheme and a global regulatory framework for space resources" use.

"In line with this, the Grand Duchy recently signed a joint statement on future activities concerning missions to the asteroids, related technologies and space resources exploration and utilisation with the European Space Agency (ESA)," he said. (Reporting by Paola Totaro, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO, July 14 (Reuters) - Brazil's government has sent Congress a bill to shrink the size of a national forest in the Amazonian state of Para, according to a statement from the Environment Ministry on Friday, a move environmentalists said would speed deforestation of the area.

The government proposed the bill as a comprise measure after local residents, who see the Jamanxim national forest as a source of livelihood, blocked a key highway in response to President Michel Temer's veto of similar legislation to reduce its protected area.

The government's bill, if approved, would create a new protection area (APA) near the town of Novo Progresso which is on the edge of the forest around 790 miles (1,270 kms) northwest of the capital Brasilia. The measure would convert 349,086 hectares, or 27 percent of the national forest into an APA, the ministry said.

The government said the APA, which allows private land ownership and economic activities, would discipline land occupation, promoting the sustainable use of the rainforest and conservation of its water resources.

But environmentalists denounced the measure as an official stimulus to land-grabbing, which in turn leads to illegal logging, clear-cutting and mining in one of the hotspots of Amazon deforestation.

"The bill is seen as an amnesty for illegal occupation of the conservancy unit," said Observatorio do Clima on its website, adding the government "yielded to pressure" from the rural lobby. APAs are a downgraded category of protected area, with part of Brasilia inside one, it said.

The bill followed blockades this month of the BR-163 highway, which runs next to the 1.3 million-hectare national forest. The highway links grain producing regions in Mato Grosso state to waterways connected to key Northern ports.

Protesters suspended the blockades, which began on July 3, after Temer sent the bill to Congress, according to a statement from the Sociedade Civil Organizada group on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Brazil's federal highway police said the BR-163 highway was cleared in the Southwest of Para after almost two weeks of protests.

Carlos Xavier, president of a group in Para lobbying to reduce the size of the Jamanxim forest, said the APA would bring economic progress to the region.

The BR-163 protests were preventing trucks from unloading grains at the riverside hub of Miritituba, the departure point for barges carrying crops to the Northern ports before hitting export markets.

Brazilian private ports association ATP said this week it expected $47 million in losses this month as a result of the protests. (Reporting by Ana Mano and Jose Roberto Gomes; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Andrew Hay)
FRANKFURT, July 15 (Reuters) - Germany is considering "effective measures" to cut pollution from diesel engines, the transport ministry said on Saturday, reacting to a media report saying planned goals were unambitious.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported that, after pressure from the auto industry, Berlin was planning to allow car makers to shut off emission control technology once outside temperatures fall below 10 degrees. Germany's annual average temperature was 9.4 degrees in 2016.

The transport ministry said in an emailed statement that no decisions had been taken though discussions were continuing."The reporting by Spiegel is wrong," it added.

Germany is working on a national plan to cut pollution from diesel engines and set up a new organisation to test vehicles to try to restore consumer confidence after Volkswagen's emissions scandal.

The moves come as the German government faces growing pressure ahead of national elections on Sept. 24 to reduce emissions or see some cities ban diesel cars themselves.

Last month, the transport ministry and the environment ministry announced the creation of a "national diesel forum" to work with the auto industry and regional governments to cut emissions, with the first meeting set for Aug. 2.

The German auto industry hopes a plan under discussion with the government to reduce pollution from older diesel cars will avert planned bans in German cities that are deterring consumers from buying diesel cars.

Government sources have told Reuters that software updates to reduce emissions could cost 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion euros, but HSBC analysts said hardware might be needed that could mean costs of up to 10 billion euros.

Sales of diesel cars have been falling since the Volkswagen scandal, but have dropped even faster since cities, including Stuttgart and Munich, have considered banning some diesel vehicles, blaming emissions for increased respiratory disease.

European governments had in the past promoted diesel cars as part of efforts to fight climate change as they produce less carbon dioxide than petrol cars, although environmental groups have cast doubt over how much less they produce and have focused instead on the levels of toxic nitrogen oxides they emit. (Reporting by Thomas Seythal and Arno Schuetze; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Reuters) - Firefighters battled on Saturday to gain control of a destructive wildfire burning near Santa Barbara, California that mushroomed in size overnight, pushed by gusty offshore winds into dry brush that has not burned in decades.

The Whittier Fire, which broke out July 8 and has already destroyed eight homes, had been more than 50 percent contained on Friday before so-called "Sundowner" winds picked up in the evening, according to a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) website.

Nearly 3,000 people who were forced to flee their homes near Cachuma Lake and the community of Goleta remained under evacuation orders as fire officials said another evening of Sundowners could drive the flames toward populated areas.

"The fire continues burning in an area above the community of Goleta and crews continue to build containment and contingency lines to hold the fire in check," Cal Fire said on the Inciweb fire-tracking website. "The east and west flanks of the fire continue to burn towards established containment lines."

More than 1,600 firefighters were working the blaze, assisted by water-dropping planes and helicopters. Highway 154 was shut down in both directions and the Los Padres National Park was closed to the public. Evacuation shelters were opened at a high school in Goleta.

The conflagration, which had blackened 17,364 acres along California's scenic central coast as of Saturday afternoon, was being fed by brush and vegetation that had not burned since 1955, according to fire officials.

"The combination of old, dry fuels with a newly cured heavy grass crop contributed to the rapid growth of this fire," Cal Fire said. "Large, old oak trees are continuing to burn well after the fire has past, leaving hazardous snags along highways and firelines."

The Whittier Fire is among more than 50 large, active wildfires burning across the U.S. West as forecasters warned that hot, dry conditions could persist, creating tinderbox conditions.

Red flag warnings were issued for Northern California and parts of other states, where the National Weather Service said temperatures could reach above 90 degrees Fahrenheit 32 degrees Celsius) and winds to gust 50 miles (80 km) per hour.

Flames have charred more than twice as much land in California so far in 2017 compared with a year earlier, according to Cal Fire.

Still, firefighters have made significant gains against the so-called Wall Fire, which had damaged or destroyed 44 homes in Butte County and more than 60 other structures, calling it mostly contained as of Saturday.

The Alamo Fire, which charred some 29,000 acres and destroyed at least one home in San Luis Obispo County, was said to be 92 percent contained as of Saturday morning. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Frank McGurty)
Amid plans by some of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs to leave the government, Partys General Secretary and Agriculture Minister, Duminda Dissanayake said everyone should honour the agreement signed with the United National Party (UNP) to administer the country for two years.

He told Daily Mirror the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) stipulated two years for the two sides to be together in the government.

The SLFP, as a party, signed this agreement. It is not an individual decision. Therefore, it has to be honoured till the expiry of the stipulated period on December 31, the minister said and added that the party could decide on the next move after that date.

He said that was why President Maithripala Sirisena asked all members to remain in government till December 31. (Kelum Bandara)
Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday alleged that several UN Special Rapporteurs who visited Sri Lanka including Rapporteur Ben Emmerson lacked calibre and diplomacy and that he would inform the President and the Premier about these Rapporteurs.

When contacted by the Daily Mirror to get a comment about the Rapporteur Emmersons visit, the Minister complained that Mr. Emmerson didnt have any diplomatic qualities, basic courtesy and that he displayed an-army-commander-like approach.

Even during our meeting, he came up with false facts about those detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). When I questioned about the sources of his facts, he only said the sources were reliable. I rejected his facts with factual sources, he said.

He said the Special Rapporteur (SR) questioned him about admissibility of suspects and detainees confessions in Sri Lankan legal system.

I reminded him that confessions are admissible in UK as well and therefore, invited him to repeal their laws first. Then he queried about the lack of action against armed forces personnel accused of crimes, to which I responded saying we are simply following British Prime Minister Theresa May. She vowed to protect British troops who fought in Iraq from legal abuse, Minister Rajapakshe said.

When questioned about Mr. Emmersons doubts whether Sri Lanka would be able to fulfil pledges made through the UNHRC resolution within the two year extension, he said the government would fulfil the pledges in due time and respond to the UNHRC in terms of delivering them. We dont have to respond to the Rapporteur in this regard, he said.

The minister said former SR Monica Pinto who arrived in Sri Lanka commended the progress made by the government but submitted a report which highly criticized the judiciary of the country.

She also said Tamil are mistreated. These are the type of SRs who visit Sri Lanka today. They lack caliber and have hidden agendas. They think Asians are uneducated and uncivilized and have to follow the West. Very soon, at the available opportunity, I will inform the President, Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister about the SR Emmerson and Pinto, he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
In the late 1950s, I remember as a child the elation in New Delhi over the liberation of China, after Mao Zedong led the legendary Great March to outwit the Japanese imperialists. Mao, Zhou En Lai all became great names.

In the earlier 1950s, my grandparents, one a prominent educationist and the other a well-known doctor, were part of a mission to China. In later years, this wind of decolonisation, later non-alignment, brought diverse countries like China, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, India and others into the non-alignment bloc avoiding the allure of US regional forces.

In less than a decade, the winds of friendship between China and India changed. Though India recognised Tibet as an integral part of China, the latter was extremely annoyed with India providing shelter to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. This sparked off a border dispute as early as 1959.

The problem was that the Chinese rejected the British-drawn borders which they had never accepted, whereas the Indian government recognised the MacMohan border demarcation. In that period, PM Jawaharlal Nehru dug his heels in and refused further talks.

With the breakdown of talks, with Zhou En Lai not invited to find a mutually acceptable compromise, tension grew on the Sino-Indian border. It was a complete mismatch on the border. The Indian troops were on lower ground whereas the Chinese troops controlled the heights.

The Indian troops lacked warm clothing, mountain boots, modern assault rifles and artillery support. There was no Indian mountain brigade. To make matters worse, Nehru took the bad advice of Lt General BM Kaul and IB chief BM Mallick to adopt a forward policy in 1962, which meant that ill-prepared Indian troops would occupy positions claimed by China.

War was inevitable. So was the crushing defeat of the poorly-armed Indian Army which had to face an overwhelming force from high ground. The Indian forces were routed. All this was avoidable.

The defence minister VK Krishna Menon had to resign as the scapegoat due to extreme pressure, including from the President of India. Most tragic was the loss of the Panchsheel spirit.

The current Sino-Indian friendship ties are comparatively weak compared to the early years. With current events which are straining ties, a lot of patient, painstaking diplomacy is required. Unfortunately, the Chinese have their own ambitions and are creating new tensions on the Indian borders.

China wanted India to be part of its One Belt One Road project. Photo: PTI

As before China has questioned the demarcated borders and is now threatening Doklam in Bhutan, as well as areas in Arunachal Pradesh. There is an intriguing development to all this.

China wanted India to be part of its One Belt One Road project, its highly ambitious one belt, one road policy. For India the problem is that the one road would infringe on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir - PoK - which India cannot accept. The Chinese, who are now very close to Pakistan with the latter becoming a quasi-client state of China, feel affronted since a number of countries have accepted OBOR and other connected issues.

But the Sino-Indian problem is more complex. The Chinese claim large parts of islands, littoral states including maritime routes on the South China Sea. These countries, in the main, have not accepted the Chinese claims. However, India has entered into an agreement with Vietnam to prospect in the islands the latter has claimed. This has annoyed China which had attacked Vietnam more than a decade ago, and had to retreat to Cambodia.

Further, the Indian, Japanese and US Navies are carrying out exercises in the Malabar region of the Indian Ocean, relatively close to the South China Sea. But very few countries are even willing to negotiate Chinese claims to the littoral states or its domination of the South China Sea, where it also claims the sole right of passage.

This is against the maritime right to passage in the South China Sea. Since the Indian Navy has been part of this flotilla, the Chinese are furthered annoyed with their Indian neighbours.

Therefore, the issue is not solely about Indias northern borders. The pressures exerted there are linked to the extreme southern borders on the Malabar coast. A later political gambit of China is to claim that if Indian occupies Bhutan, the Chinese have every right to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir.

But even when the Plebiscite Resolution was being debated in the UN in 1947-48, the Chinese were not party. In fact, China was not even a member of the UN then. So the Chinese warnings and even threats have little legal basis.
Thirteen years ago, on July 15, the world woke up to some shocking images from Manipur. The images were of 12 naked middle-aged women carrying a white banner with Indian Army Rape Us painted red on it.

The immediate provocation was the brutal rape, torture, mutilation and murder of 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama by the 17th Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force of India.

Manorama was picked up from her home in Imphal, on July 10, on the pretext of an interrogation and under the assumption of being a militant, with no incriminating evidence whatsoever. Her body was found the next day in a field four kilometres from her house.

There were 16 bullets lodged into her genitals, gash marks (presumed to be from a knife) on her thighs, and several deep wounds and bullets throughout her body. The autopsy confirmed Manorama as being raped multiple times and then being shot in her genitals.

This was a boiling point for the Mothers of Manipur - the Meira Paibi.

Meira Paibi, which means women torchbearers in Manipuri, is a womens civil rights group that was started way back in 1977 as a coalition of normal middle-class women in a spirit of solidarity and protection. The name derives from a practice that the Meira Paibi do, which is to carry torches throughout the night in groups as a way of protection and as a symbol of protest against the repeated rapes committed by the Indian Army on unsuspected, innocent women.

Soon after word spread about the horrific fate of Manorama, on July 15, 12 women of Meira Paibi did something remarkable. They all assembled outside the Assam Rifles headquarters in Kangla Fort, Imphal, and stripped all their clothes and screamed slogans of Indian Army rape us we all are Manoramas mothers and Kill us. Rape us. Flesh us.

The anger and rage was palpable in the environment. Everybody was stunned, including the officers of the Assam Rifles.

By using their bodies from a site of sustained vulnerability to an entirely different kind of strengthened vulnerability, they challenged years of sexual violence by the Indian Army. They used their own body as a powerful tool of protest and resistance against years of sustained violation and humiliation.

They had their weapons, we only had our body... Together the mothers gave a war cry, recalls Soibom Momon Leima in an interview.

The mothers had not told anyone in their family before actually protesting outside the Kangla Fort. They were working class middle-aged women who we all can relate to (but for the sustained sexual violence they and their family face).

The perpetrators are the same people who are valourised and celebrated every day without critique or question. Photo: Reuters

Gyaneswari, recalls touching her husbands feet before leaving home that day as she had not confided in him what she was going to do. We could easily be molested or raped. Why then should we not walk in the streets naked? she asserts.

Soon after the protest, the 12 mothers were arrested and jailed for three months, but it was just the beginning of an unprecedented line of protests in Manipur. The Assam Rifles were forced to vacate the Kangla Fort soon after, and the AFSPA removed from seven Assembly segments in the Imphal Valley, though it remained in the rest of Manipur.

The perpetrators are the same people who are valourised and celebrated every day without critique or question. Of course, no doubt, the sacrifice of many members of the Indian Army is venerable, but does that necessarily mean the crimes committed by them, brutally so, must be excused or condoned? Is that what a democracy entails? Then what is the difference between a constitutional democracy and a land that is governed by martial law?

Manipur is one those territories which is under the rule of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Under the AFSPA, no member of the Armed Forced may be prosecuted without sanction from the Union home ministry or Union defence ministry.

In July 2016, in an interim judgment based on a petition filed by the Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association Manipur (EEFVAM), the Supreme Court hauled up the Indian Army heavily for a great amount of excesses and extra-judicial killings committed by the force.

The petition demanded that investigations be conducted into 1,528 cases of extra-judicial and unwarranted killings committed by the Army. The same court had, in 2014, awarded a Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family of Manorama.

The Supreme Court also condemned the use of extra-force by the Indian Army and stated that they will not be permitted henceforth to use extra-force unless and until they do so for their defence. Whilst such a position of the court is welcome, it is far from being cathartic.

Sanctions to prosecute is still abysmally low, as has always been since Independence. If that be the case, what would be the benefit of tokenistic guidelines? The central government, outraged with even this position of the Supreme Court, has filed a curative petition to allow the armed forces to use force as they deem fit.

Sexual violence is a tool used by the Indian Army and one must reckon that the Army, which is so valourised, eulogised and patronised, is also prone to killing innocent people, raping and mutilating the bodies of innocent women and torturing in the name of interrogation. It is but sheer hypocrisy and unbridled nationalist, megalomaniac ego to not critique where critique is necessary.
Local activists want all charges dropped against protesters arrested at last Saturdays KKK rally after they say police used unnecessary force against demonstrators, and the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is asking residents to urge Charlottesvilles City Council to increase civilian oversight and accountability in policing.

Lodging allegations of police brutality, activists associated with Solidarity Cville held a news conference in front of the Charlottesville Police Department on Friday, asking for police to apologize for their tactics at the rally and revoke the permit for the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, organized by pro-white blogger Jason Kessler.

Emily Gorcenski, who attended Saturdays rally, said it was unnecessary for police to declare unlawful assembly as protesters gathered around a garage where members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had parked. She said police did not give protesters and others enough time to leave the area before Virginia State Police deployed three canisters of tear gas.

To be frank, it is ridiculous to expect a grieving community, with a deep legacy of racial violence, to simply pack up and go home after the KKK rallied in our city, Gorcenski said.

After the Klansmen left, some protesters turned their attention to police and followed officers back up to High Street, where they continued to defy police commands to leave the area.

Gorcenski and other activists also criticized police for bringing riot gear and tear gas to the rally. Citing the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, the activists questioned why police still use tear gas, even though its use has been banned in warfare.

The convention  which went into effect in 1997  bans the use of riot control agents, like tear gas, in war, but specifically states domestic law enforcement can still use chemical agents to control riots, according to Politifact.

In a brief interview earlier this week, city police Chief Al Thomas said the decision was made to use the tear gas after people refused to leave and items were thrown at officers and pepper gel spray was used. The activists deny any use of pepper spray against police and, instead, argue police were not provoked.

When asked for information about the alleged assaults against their officers or the alleged use of pepper spray, a police spokesman said the department will release additional information about the rally in the future, while an internal review moves forward.

Every city officer at the rally wore a body camera during Saturdays events, and police said it will take time to go through all of the footage.

Two ACLU legal observers were among those hit by the tear gas. Now the organizations Virginia chapter is urging Charlottesville residents to email City Council about a lack of civilian oversight of policing at the local level.

The ACLUs form letter makes three requests:

 Residents must be given the power to review police policies on use of force, de-escalation, SWAT teams and surveillance methods, including body cameras.

 Councilors must look at how police acquire militarized weapons and must adopt an ordinance requiring council approval of the acquisition of military weapons and surveillance gear.

 The city police department must commit to constitutional policing and clear policies about escalation and de-escalation.

We plan on reviewing these requests carefully, as we do all constituent requests of council, in consultation with our staff, Mayor Mike Signer said.

The Charlottesville police did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Adeola Ogunkeyede, director of the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, also attended Fridays news conference and said police could have done a better job of de-escalating tensions between the community and Klan members.

Rather, the police show of force  dressed in riot gear, driving armored vehicles and carrying weapons that are often carried into war zones  implied that the police were there to do more than simply protect civil liberties and keep things orderly, said Ogunkeyede.

Asking for police to remain peaceful and use more de-escalation techniques in the future, Ogunkeyede said its important for police to understand how hate groups, like the KKK, deeply affect the community.

There is no better way for the city of Charlottesville to demonstrate that it respects the humanity of all its community members than by directing law enforcement to show understanding to those who gather in solidarity to drown out the racist and violent chants of a group of people who want nothing more than to see those who oppose them harmed, Ogunkeyede said.

Four protesters currently face felony charges, while 10 others face misdemeanor charges. Solidarity Cville is asking the city to drop the charges against them, as well as previous charges filed against activist Veronica Fitzhugh, which include misdemeanor assault charges.

The group also is asking the city to revoke the permit for assembly for the rally in Emancipation Park. In doing so, activists question if Kessler is abiding by the permitting process, and they cite the potential for violence.

According to the permit, the rally is estimated to attract 400 people upset with the citys decision to rename two parks once named for Confederate generals and to sell a statue in one of them.

While the KKK rally also protested the decision, Kessler has tried to distance himself from the Klan.

Kesslers rally, though, has been promoted by former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke and is expected to draw several leaders of the white nationalist alt-right movement, including Richard Spencer, who led a torchlit rally at the foot of the citys Robert E. Lee statue in May.

Daily Progress staff writer Allison Wrabel contributed to this story
New Delhi: Yoga guru Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurveda has been featured among the top 10 most influential brands in India along with electronic major Samsung and new entrant Reliance Jio, according to a study by the global research firm Ipsos.

Besides, Google has been ranked at the top slot while Microsoft and Facebook were ranked at number two and three, respectively.

Home grown Patanjali and Mukesh Ambanis controlled Reliance Jio have bagged the fourth and ninth position, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of most influential brands.

Interestingly, Patanjali and Reliance Jio made an impressive entry as they did not figure in the previous edition of the study.

The Ipsos study, which evaluates over 100 brands across 21 countries, covered more than 1,000 Indians online to assess over 100 brands. The study involved 36,600 interviews.

Commenting on the development, Ipsos Public Affairs and Loyalty executive director Parijat Chakraborty said: The Most Influential Brands are larger than life. They enhance our lives  make it better. We connect with them emotionally and cannot imagine our lives without them  they are influential.

State Bank of India (SBI) being the only financial institution that made to the list, moved up four ranks to take the fifth position. E-commerce player Flipkart dropped three spots to take the tenth place while Amazon climbed couple of steps to take the sixth place, the study said. Other companies that made to the list include Samsung (7th) and Airtel (8th).

The study measured the biggest, most well-known and highest spending brands.

Interestingly, all brands that have featured in the list are those that consumer engages with on a daily basis, the study said.

In the ranking list from 11 to 20, brands that bagged a place include Snapdeal, Apple, Dettol, Cadbury, SONY, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Good day and Amul.

The brands are rated by the consumers on quality, experience and value, as also factors such as big marketing spends and consciously work towards increasing their brand equity were counted, the study said.
New Delhi: India's trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected to USD 12.96 billion in June as gold imports nearly halved from a month earlier, government data showed on Friday.

Economists in a Reuters poll had predicted that trade deficit would decline to USD 12.5 billion in June compared with a provisional USD 13.84 billion in the previous month.

Gold imports declined to USD 2.45 billion from almost $5 billion a month ago.

Merchandise exports for June came in at USD 23.56 billion, up 4.39 percent from a year ago. Goods imports for the month were USD 36.52 billion, up 19.01 per cent from a year ago, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed.
Gulf crude accounted for about 58.5% of the imports compared with about 66% in May, while the share of oil from Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia, including Russia, rose, according to ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts.

New Delhi/Singapore: Indias reliance on West Asia oil imports shrunk in June to the smallest since October 2015 as the worlds third-biggest importer tapped other sources amid Opec supply cuts, ship tracking data from industry sources and data available on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.

West Asian imports fell 7.6 per cent in June from the previous month, partly driven by declines from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as the production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) made more of a dent in supply.

The cuts also drove up West Asian crude prices, prompting price-sensitive Indian buyers to seek substitutes from Russia and Latin America as the world remains awash with oil.

Gulf crude accounted for about 58.5 per cent of the imports compared with about 66 per cent in May, while the share of oil from Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia, including Russia, rose, according to ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts.

The choices have increased and crude is available at competitive prices, said M.K. Surana, chairman of oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum. There are high supplies of low-sulphur crude because Nigeria is exempted from the Opec cuts, he said.

Even as Opec and some non-Opec producers cut output to shore up prices, global oil output in June is 1.2 million barrels per day above a year ago, the International Energy Agency said in its report.

The weight of supplies has forced sellers to cut prices allowing Indian refiners to snap up cargoes in the spot market.

Pricing pressure is playing a role, whoever has crude they want to dispose it as quickly as possible, said A.K. Sharma, head of finance at Indian Oil.

The refiner last week bought the countrys first crude cargo from the US and increased imports of Russian Urals crude this year.

Bharat Petroleum could buy US light crude in a tender on Friday as they are priced competitively against African oil, the companys head of refineries Mr Ramachandran said. HPCL is evaluating US crude for its refineries, Mr Surana said.

West Texas Intermediate oil prices are depressed relative to West Asian benchmark Dubai because of rising US shale oil production and as the Opec cuts have reduced the amount of West Asia medium, sour crude. This has made it feasible for India to buy heavier US crude to replace West Asia supplies such as Iraqs Basra Light, IOCs Mr Sharma said.

Import market: West Asian imports fell 7.6% in June from the previous month, partly driven by declines from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as the cuts made more of a dent in supply
Aamir Khan is in Malta now for the shooting of his upcoming film 'Thugs of Hindostan', also featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Fatima Sana Sheikh and Katrina Kaif.

Mumbai: Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif starrer much-awaited film 'Jagga Jasoos' has finally released on Friday and the film is being loved by everyone. The Anurag Basu's directorial has been one of the most anticipated films of the year. The musical adventure film showcases the journey of a teenager, who has set out to find his missing father.

Even superstar Aamir Khan has been looking forward to watch the film. But since the 'PK' actor is out of nation for his film's shoot, he won't be able to watch it.

The 52-year-old actor took to his Facebook Page to express how much he wanted to see the film and wrote "Am most upset that I am not in the country and will miss watching Jagga Jasoos. Have been looking forward to the film for so long! Good luck guys!!!"

'Jagga Jasoos' has been on Aamir's watch list as he has collaborated with the same production company for his blockbuster 'Dangal' and has worked with Katrina and Ranbir in 'PK' and 'Dhoom 3' respectively.
Mumbai: Fresh from the monstrous success of Jolly LLB 2, Huma Qureshi, has a staggering variety in her films lined up to release soon. Much fitting to the versatile actress international debut with the historical drama, Viceroys House, (known as Partition: 1947 in India) Huma has received an invitation from the Google headquarters in New York to deliver a talk on an array of subjects such as Indian actors making a mark globally, how the same history is taught differently in different countries, Indian women becoming more popular faces in western cinema and challenges a Bollywood actor faces.

Being a powerhouse performer in Indian cinema, her opinion holds great value and the Googlers, aware of her impressive repertoire of films, are looking forward to the talk which will be followed by a discussion over lunch. This is not the first time the talented actress has received such an invitation. Given her growing worldwide popularity, she was also invited by Facebook to their headquarters in London this year.

A source reveals, Huma is honoured by this coveted invitation and is aware that the opportunity to visit the Google headquarters is a rare one. She was surprised that her work is so popular in the west. She is excited to interact with the Google employees. Having shot for Viceroys House, she is adeptly equipped to bring light to the different versions of history.

Huma says, Im so glad to have received an invitation from Google. I look forward to the visit to the New York headquarters and opening the discussion about such relevant issues. I never imagined my work would have such a vast reach. It is truly a privilege to interact with some of the most brilliant minds of the worlds leading company.
Salman and Katrina dated each other for reportedly six years. Despite their break-up, the duo is close friends with one another. They will soon be seen in 'Tiger Zinda Hai'.

Mumbai: Quen of hearts Katrina Kaif tasted her first Bollywood success opposite Salman Khan and she said meeting the superstar was the most memorable moment of her life.

The 33-year-old actress made her film debut with Kaizad Gustad's 2003 movie Boom, which was a failure. Her first hit was 2005 Salman-starrer Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?, directed by David Dhawan.

When asked what was the naughtiest or memorable thing she did at the age of 18, Katrina replied, "I was 18 when I met Salman and that is the most memorable thing."

To which Salman jokingly added, "There is nothing naughty that I did. And there is nothing memorable that I have done."

Salman and his former girlfriend, Katrina, will be performing at the 18th edition of The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards here.

When posed the same question, actress Alia Bhatt said, she was giving her exams and was also doing workshops for her debut film Student of the Year at the age of 18.

The 24-year-old actress said she was both nervous and excited about her debut performance at IIFA.

"I have not been part of the IIFA so far and I think everything happens for a reason. It had to be in New York and it had to be when I was nominated for two of my films - Dear Zindagi and Udta Punjab. It is special. I am excited, enthusiastic and nervous."

Katrina quickly added, "I hope Alia wins both the trophies and gives one in charity.
Kollywood has always welcomed north Indian actors, especially as villains, in films. From Vidyut Jammwal to Neil Nitin Mukesh, Btown baddies have found great recognition down south. Joining this list is Rajveer Singh, a sportsperson-turned-actor from Haryana, who is debuting in Kalaparabhus Indrajith.

Talking to DC, Rajveer tells, The film is the first of its kind for its Indiana Jones-like theme. It has some action, thrills and fantasy elements in it. When the story moves to a jungle in the second half, I play the character that takes on the hero and his team. Indrajith, produced by Kalaipuli S Thanu, also stars Ashrita Shetty, Sonarika Bhadoria, Sudhanshu Pandey and Prathap Pothen.

Speaking about shooting tough stunts in the dense jungles, Rajveer shares, It was a great experience and the team was great to work with. We completed the last schedule a couple of months ago in the forests of Kerala  and although it was a challenge to shoot there, the team just made it easy.

The young hunk is trying the best to hone his Tamil skills  right from watching films to reality shows on TV. Many talented actors from Bollywood have shined in Tamil. I think I have the rugged look to complement south Indian movies in general, and I would feel gifted to work with directors here who produce world-class work. Rajveer concludes.
Risk of microcephaly and other diseases in a developing foetus affected by Zika is high (Photo: Pixabay)

Houston: An experimental Zika vaccine administered during pregnancy may protect the unborn baby from infection and birth defects, scientists have found.

Although rapid and promising progress on developing vaccines has been made with animal models, the study from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in the US is the first to demonstrate that potential vaccines could protect a foetus from the Zika virus.

"In the study, we were the first to show that two different potential vaccines given to the mother prevent the Zika virus from infecting the foetus during pregnancy in a mouse model," said Pei-Yong Shi, professor at UTMB.

"Based on these data, we believe that evaluating the vaccines' ability to prevent birth defects in humans is warranted," said Shi.

While a Zika infection typically results in mild or symptom-free infections in healthy adults and children, the risk of microcephaly and other diseases in a developing foetus is an alarming consequence that has created a worldwide health threat.

Pregnant women who are infected with the Zika virus but never display any disease symptoms may still give birth to a baby with microcephaly.

Female mice were vaccinated against Zika with one of the two developing vaccines prior to becoming pregnant and then exposed to the virus during their pregnancies.

Researchers found the vaccinated pregnant mice showed little or no evidence of the virus in the mothers' body including the placenta or in the foetuses' bodies.

"Having a Zika vaccine that can protect pregnant women and their unborn babies would improve public health efforts to avoid birth defects and other effects of the disease in regions where Zika is circulating," Shi said.

The findings were published in the journal Cell.
Yoga can have greater health benefits than similar aerobic exercises, and yoga practitioners have shown improved awareness, attention and memory (Photo: Pixabay)

Washington: Practising yoga may protect against cognitive decline in old age by increasing the thickness in brain areas associated with attention and memory, a study claims.

Scientists in Brazil imaged elderly female yoga practitioners' brains and found they have greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex, in brain areas associated with cognitive functions like attention and memory.

The results suggest that yoga could be a way to protect against cognitive decline in old age. As we age, the structure and functionality of our brains change and this often leads to cognitive decline, including impaired attention or memory, researchers said.

One such change in the brain involves the cerebral cortex becoming thinner, which scientists have shown is correlated with cognitive decline.

Yoga practitioners consciously maintain postures, and perform breathing exercises and meditation.

"In the same way as muscles, the brain develops through training," said Elisa Kozasa of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"Like any contemplative practice, yoga has a cognitive component in which attention and concentration are important," said Kozasa.

Previous studies have suggested that yoga can have greater health benefits than similar aerobic exercises, and yoga practitioners have shown improved awareness, attention and memory.

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment have also shown improvements after a short yoga training programme.

The team wanted to see if elderly long-term yoga practitioners had any differences in terms of brain structure compared with healthy elderly people who had never practiced yoga.

They recruited 21 female yoga practitioners (also known as yoginis) who had practiced yoga at least twice a week for a minimum of 8 years, although the group had an average of nearly 15 years of yoga practice.

The researchers compared the yoginis with another group of 21 healthy women, who had never practiced yoga, meditation or any other contemplative practices, but who were well- matched to the yoginis in terms of their age (all the participants were 60 or over) and levels of physical activity.

They scanned the participants' brains using magnetic resonance imaging to see if there were any differences in brain structure.

"We found greater thickness in the left prefrontal cortex in the yoginis, in brain regions associated with cognitive functions such as attention and memory," said Rui Afonso, a researcher involved in the study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

The results suggest that practicing yoga in the long-term can change the structure of your brain and could protect against cognitive decline in old age.
The woman had painstakenly peeled the groundnuts, stuffed ganja inside before pasting the shells back together to make them look perfect. (Representational image)

Belagavi: This was no haul of peanut proportions, it was a full sack of groundnuts stuffed with ganja which officials at the Hindalga prison in Belagavi recovered from the wife of one of the jail inmates! There have been cases of drugs and alcohol finding their way into the prison. But there has been nothing of this kind, said prison DIG T.P. Shesha.

The women had handed over a bag full of groundnuts to the prison guards during her visit to the jail a few days ago, requesting them to give it to her husband. A suspicious guard took some groundnuts and removed the shell to find to his shock, the ganja stuffed inside after the nuts had been taken out.

The woman had painstakenly peeled the groundnuts, stuffed ganja inside before pasting the shells back together to make them look perfect.
Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam: Seven tourists from Hyderabad and Delhi were roughed up and three of their women companions were allegedly molested by a group of cattle smugglers in the Rayagada district of Odisha on July 14. They were attacked after they reportedly protested the beating and torture of the animals by the traffickers. Of the seven tourists that included friends and their families, three were women. Three were from Hyderabad and four from Delhi and were on a sightseeing tour of Odisha.

Speaking to this newspaper over the phone, software engineer K.V Kanna, a resident of Kanta Reddy Nagar in Hyderabad, who sustained severe injuries, said it was Gods grace that they were alive.

I had planned this tour along with my friend Sumant from Delhi. We were travelling with our wives and other family members when this incident occurred around 4 pm on July 14, he said.

The cattle traffickers were severely beating up the livestock after binding the legs of the animals with plastic ropes, Mr Kanna said.
The seizure of the drug Ketamine, valued at Rs 2.37 crore from a Hyderabadi passenger, at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, by customs officials early this week, was just the tip of the iceberg.

Hyderabad: The seizure of the drug Ketamine, valued at Rs 2.37 crore from a Hyderabadi passenger, at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, by customs officials early this week, was just the tip of the iceberg.

It turned out he was trying to smuggle the drug to Malaysia. A probe into the smugglers background has revealed that he is part of a racket, which pours synthetic drugs worth millions of dollars into the foreign market. Hyderabad is these criminals manufacturing hub. They take orders from their counterparts abroad and produce Methamphetamine, Ketamine, Ephedrine and even Methaqualone (meth) in Hyderabad and smuggle it to South East Asian countries through air flights.

The growing number of small-scale pharmaceutical units on the city outskirts are providing a fillip to the racketeers. The criminals use the facilities of these labs to produce the drugs and pay the owners a handsome amount. The gangs usually take the manufacturing units on rent for a few days and produce the material. It does not take much time for an experienced pharmacist to manufacture a huge quantity of synthetic drugs, said a senior official from Rachakonda police.

The pharmacists and other workers are usually hired temporarily, because of which they are disconnected from the racket leaders. This makes it difficult for enforcement agencies to track down the kingpins.

The lack of coordination between various agencies like Drug Control Administration, state police, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Customs department too sometimes help the major kingpins to escape before the top bosses of the racket are trapped. When customs officials capture a smuggler at the airport, they try to investigate the case. But the department has so many limitations, its hard for them to go out into the field, where the production of drugs really happens, and track down the leaders of the racket, said a former customs official.

City police often conduct raids based on their intelligence inputs and bust a few gangs, but most of the time they too cant track down the brains. After an interval, a few more new rackets are formed under the leadership of these suspects.

Police officials say that they arrest the owners of the labs whenever they bust rackets. But since there are dozens of labs active, its not difficult for drug rackets to find a new one and go ahead with their business.
Visuals from the hospital where injured AmarnathYatra pilgrims have been admitted in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag post terror attack. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday called a high-level meeting to review the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the killing of Amarnath pilgrims by terrorists.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, top officials of the home ministry, intelligence agencies and central paramilitary forces are attending the meeting.

The meeting will take stock of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, security of Amarnath pilgrims and how to prevent such possible attacks in the future, official sources said.

Meanwhile, several pilgrims are headed to Amarnath, a day after the attack.

A high-level central team led by Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir will also visit Jammu and Kashmir to assess the security of the pilgrimage to the high altitude cave shrine located in the Himalayas.

Director General of CRPF RR Bhatnagar has already reached Srinagar to review the deployment of the central forces in the pilgrimage route.

He will also attend a security review meeting convened by Governor NN Vohra in Srinagar.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made for airlifting of the bodies of the victims of Monday's attack to Gujarat.

Terrorists on Monday killed seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, and injured 19 others as they struck at a bus in Kashmir's Anantnag district.
Hyderabad: The administrative city of Amaravati, the futuristic capital of Andhra Pradesh, will soon be a reality. The AP government shifted its administrative base to Amaravati by constructing a Temporary Secretariat and Interim Government Complex at Velagapudi and the AP Assembly is also conducting its session in a temporary building at Velagapudi, but the stage is set for work on the core capital to begin.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu wishes to transform Amaravati into a city that combines history with modernity, and construction of this modern marvel  being designed by Foster & Partners  will begin on May 15 on the banks of Krishna River at Uddan-darayunipalem.

Mr Naidu will hand over the land papers to a team of 15-member Singapore consortium. A land puja will be held during the auspicious muhurut from 2.54 pm to 3.45 pm and a public meeting will also be held to mark the occasion.

The pact between the Singapore consortium and the AP government will be signed on May 15 to develop Amaravati as the government core capital in 950 acres in Uddandarayunipalem, Lingayapalem, Rayapudi and Tallayapalem of Amaravati Capital Region. The AP government plans to complete the Core Capital by December 2018.

The AP Assembly, Secretariat, High Court, Raj Bhavan, Chief Ministers Office and residence, commissionerates, central/state government public enterprise offices, ministers quarters, city gallery and a cultural centre will be part of the core capital. As many as 6 lakh people are expected to live in the Amaravati core capital.

The city will have four prominent gateways bearing resemblance to the entrance of historic temples, city squares designed on the lines of Trafalgar and Sloane Squares, public spaces such as Battersea Park and a 27-km-long waterfront. The city has been planned on the basis of wind flow patterns.

B. Nageswara Rao, a native of Uddandarayunipalem, said that the government has conducted land puja several times but work never started. Mr. Rao and others recalled that Mr. Naidu conducted land pujas twice, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted puja once and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely performed the puja once. But despite that, construction work did not begin.

They said that as the Temporary Secretariat and Temporary Assembly structures were completed swiftly, Mr. Naidu needs to give the Singapore Consortium a target to complete the core capital without delay.

Officials from various departments are camped at the venue and started arrangements for the land puja and public meeting.

Guntur Collector K. Sasidhar said the land puja for the core capital will be held from 2.54 pm to 3.45 pm and a public meeting - to be attended by 5,000 people - will be held. He added that separate galleries would be available to LPS farmers and that water and buttermilk will be supplied to the public.
Apart from 8 passengers, the drivers of both the vehicles died on spot. (Representational Image)

Chennai: Ten people were killed and at least 23 injured as a bus rammed into a truck transporting steel rods on an overbridge in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, on Friday.

The steel rods pierced some of the passengers, NDTV reported the police saying.

Travelling from Tiruppur to Kumbakonam, the state-run bus which was carrying some 60 passengers, collided with the truck on an overbridge at Vallam district of the town.

Apart from 8 passengers, the drivers of both the vehicles died on spot. The injured were taken to Thanjavur Medical College Hospital.

The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus was possibly trying to overtake the truck when it lost control, a police officer said, adding that the police are yet to ascertain the actual cause of accident.

District Collector A Annadurai and Superintendent of Police J Mahesh have visited the site of the accident.

The office of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapaddi Palanisamy said, the families of the 10 deceased have been promised Rs 1 lakh each. The state also announced Rs 50000 for each of those injured in the accident.
J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed her gratitude to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and to the people of the nation for extending their support at the time of crisis in the Valley. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday accused China of interfering in the security situation of the state.

"External forces are involved in this fight, there is infiltration, terrorists are coming. Their attempt is to spoil the atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir," Mehbooba told media after her meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh for the first time after Amarnath Yatra terror attack.

"Now, unfortunately China has also started interfering", she added.

Earlier, it was Pakistan but now there are reports of China meddling in the Kashmir affairs, she said.

Mufti on Saturday expressed her gratitude to Rajnath Singh and to the people of the nation for extending their support at the time of crisis in the Valley.

It is not a law and order fight in Kashmir, but external forces are included in this war, whose intention is to disturb peace in the state," she said.

During the meeting that lasted about half-an-hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley.

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, officials said.

Kashmir has been witnessing a state of tension and violence.

On Monday, terrorists opened fire on a bus, carrying over 30 pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine, in Anantnag district.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and nineteen were injured in the attack.

The incident occurred between Baltal and Mir Bazar.

Reportedly, the bus was neither a part of a convoy nor registered with the shrine board.
Amaravati: The final plan for the proposed administrative city of Andhra Pradesh's capital was finalised on Friday after Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu held a meeting in the secretariat, with representatives from Norman Fosters, a London-based architecture firm and Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) officials.

Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana said that statues of NT Rama Rao and Dr BR Ambedkar would be installed in the capital city, The News Minute reported. There will also be a 500 m tall tower constructed, which will give a view of the entire city.

The Assembly block design will be finalised by August 15 and the construction will begin from September 30, on the occasion of Vijayadasami. Meanwhile, the plans for the High Court and the Secretariat will be finalised on August 30, and the construction work will begin later in September.

The permanent Secretariat will have 10 stairs, the minister said and added that the Head of Department offices and Secretariat would be built in a single campus, which will be on an extent of 40 lakh sqft.

Tenders would be called for the construction of Assembly, Secretariat and high court in three phases, Dr Narayana said and added that separate tenders would be called for the laying of foundation, construction, final designs and interiors. The works will be completed within a span of one and half years, the minister said.

The estimate cost for constructing the new capital is yet to be decided.

CM Chandrababu Naidu had earlier said, The stupa signifies happiness, and justice is the greatest happiness I want my people to feel, reflected by the High Court. The Assembly building, at the centre of the city plan, should be inspired by the historic Kohinoor, which happens to be born in this very land."
I request both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to see to it that pub culture is eradicated and not to encourage such uncivilised things, he said. (Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday appealed to both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to take measures to end the "pub culture" in their respective states.

The minister also stressed the need for inculcating moral values among the younger generation while making the appeal.

"I request both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to see to it that pub culture is eradicated and not to encourage such uncivilised things. Moral education is very much needed for younger generations. That's why I appeal to the state governments to see that more moral values are preferred in the education system," he said.

"In dow Telugu rajyo mein, jitne bhi yaha par pubs hain naujavan ladke aur ladakiyon ko vash me la kar unke jivan ko ast vyast kar rahe hain. Isliye pub culture of khatam karma chahiye (Young boys and girls are addicted to the pub culture in these Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are ruining their lives and so we must put an end to the pub culture)," said Dattatreya.

"There is a need to increase moral standards and also to bring in changes in the education policy and system and I am appealing to both the state governments to formulate educational policy that will promote ethical values," Dattatreya said.

In the wake of Telangana excise department busting a high-end narcotics drug racket in Hyderabad and arresting 13 accused, whose clientele also included school and college students, the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment held a review meeting with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials here and enquired about the usage of narcotics and its influence on the youth.

"It is a disturbing trend that youth are addicted to the use of drugs, a trend which has to be arrested," Dattatreya said, adding, it is responsibility of both the state and central governments to create more awareness on drug abuse among college and school students.

Both the state governments should take up special survey on the affected people, he said and added "If stringent measures are not taken then the situation may get out of hand and become worse."

Dattatreya said he will speak to union ministers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley and apprise them regarding the issue of usage of drugs and for its controlling measures including infrastructure improvement and strengthening of NCB.

He also appealed to the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments to formulate anti-Drugs Taskforce.

Dattatreya said the central government will open 100 Model Career Centres in the country under the National Career Service (NCS).

The Government has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Posts for maintaining the NCS portal. 3.81 crore job-seekers have registered on this portal, he said.
New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party leader P Chidambaram should be charged with perjury for implicating that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat perpetrated so-called Hindu terror', said BJP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday.

"The government should set up something to register an FIR and make Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram as accused in a conspiracy to subvert the country and falsification of information, tantamounting to perjury (sic)," Swamy told ANI.

Swamy said he was already aware of the conspiracy hatched by the UPA government to implicate Bhagwat.

Swamy further alleged that Congress introduced the term Hindu terror to implicate Bhagwat.

"They (Congress) did a somersault here and started a new FIR citing so-called Hindu terror. The whole objective was to somehow implicate Mohan Bhagwat because he is the head of the largest voluntary organisation of the world, and it is the backbone of the BJP, as far as workers are concerned, he claimed.

Therefore, this cultural organisation was sought to be defamed that during elections, people out of fright, would decide not to vote for the BJP and give it to UPA. But the gamble failed, because by the time they could get to summon and subject Bhagwat to third-degree methods, the police (NIA level) said they wanted further proof and so it was delayed. So when the elections came, we won," Swamy said.

Swamy further said that the same approach was adopted by the Congress in Mahatma Gandhi's murder, but they failed there as well.

They used the media control they had to propagate against the RSS. Now, we won't allow them to do this. They should be brought to book," he said.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said members of such nationalist parties were there in the hit-list since the beginning. However, the forces who tried to malign them were exposed in the past and will be exposed now as well.

As per reports, after the extreme violence in Ajmer and Malegaon blast, the UPA government had laid stress on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to implicate Bhagwat as per their 'Hindu terror' theory.
Opposition leaders at the All Party Meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi. (Photo: HOM_India/Twitter)

New Delhi: The government on Friday told Opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border is hampering the country's strategic interests and NSA Ajit Doval will put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month, officials said.

The Opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday.

Officials said Doval and Jaishankar made a detailed presentation before the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, the Left, the NCP and the TMC, saying Indian Army is in a stand-off with the People's Liberation Army of China in the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.

The top ministers told the Opposition leaders that Doval will be visiting China on July 26-27 and will put forward before Chinese interlocutors India's position, they said.

The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined at a briefing by senior Union ministers to political parties on the situation in Dokalam, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma said after the meeting that their party has raised some doubts before the government's policy but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension (with China) and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.

Opposition leaders were also briefed about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the government action in the wake of killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims by terrorists last Monday.

The briefing on Kashmir was made by union home secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba.

Government chief spokesperson Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise MPs from different parties about situation along Sino-Indian border and on terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatris.

The MPs were briefed about 2.2 lakh pilgrims that visited Amarnath last year while so far 1.86 lakh have already visited the cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.

NDA ally Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul said the government need to be more aggressive in dealing with China. "I thought the government will speak on these lines, but it did not," he said.

CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government conveyed about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute with China.

Union minister Ramvilas Paswan, who is an alliance in the NDA government, said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam.

"Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to discuss the law and order situation in the J&K with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday expressed her gratitude to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and to the people of the nation for extending their support at the time of crisis in the Valley.

"I am thankful to all for standing by our side at the time of crisis. The Home Minister and the entire country supported us throughout. Until all political parties and nation come together, we cannot win this fight, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said.

It is not a law and order fight in Kashmir, but external forces are included in this war, whose intention is to disturb peace in the state," she said.

"The entire state stood united, for which I would like to thank the people of the state and everybody else," she added.

Commenting on the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) along with considering Article 370, Mehbooba said when the Bill was passed, President Pranab Mukherjee reaffirmed that special care be taken of Article 370.

"Article 370 is connected with the emotions and feelings of the people of Kashmir," she said.

Earlier on Saturday, Mehbooba met Rajnath to discuss the chaos going on in the Valley.

Kashmir has been witnessing a state of tension and violence.

On Monday, terrorists opened fire on a bus, carrying over 30 pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine, in Anantnag district.

The incident occurred between Baltal and Mir Bazar.

Reportedly, the bus was neither a part of a convoy nor registered with the shrine board.

On July 12, three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed by security forces near Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir.
Hyderabad: Apart from education and film industries, prohibition and Excise officials have identified victims and peddlers from IT and hospitality sectors also.

Among the eight arrested persons including Calvin Mascarenhas, STF identified three of them  Aman Naidu, V. Nikhil Shetty and Mohammad Abdul Quddus  having IT background, while one person Brendon Ben, a co-accused, was an event manger.

We have passed the information on the techies who are addicted to drugs to IT secretary for further action. Simil-arly, we passed the same information to the key persons in the hotel industry, said enforcement director Dr Akun Sabharwal.

He said his department had directed the hotel industry to keep an eye on the activities of drug peddlers on the premises of their establishments. Aler-ting security personnel and bouncers will assist in curbing drug usage in clubs, pubs and restaurants, he said.
The children who accompanied Faiz told us that the boy removed his shirt and entered the tank to retrieve the book and drowned in the process, said Balapur sub inspector S. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: In a tragic incident, an 11 year-old-boy doing Hifz (memorisation of Quran) course at a Madrasa in Shaheennagar drowned in a tank on Friday morning. Police, revenue and fire personnel were still trying to retrieve the body when reports last came in.

The victim, Mohd Faiz, a native of Lucknow, was in the second year of the five-year Hifz course at Madrasa Kanzul-ul-Uloom in Shaheennagar, under Balapur police station.

According to police, Faiz had gone to the Sandal ki Bowli tank, some 500 metres from the seminary, at around 9 am, along with four friends. The group spotted a religious book floating in the water.

The children who accompanied Faiz told us that the boy removed his shirt and entered the tank to retrieve the book and drowned in the process, said Balapur sub inspector S. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy.

On seeing Faiz drowning, his friends alerted a local who, in turn, informed Balapur police. The children then rushed to the Madrasa and informed the management.

Police and fire personnel reached the spot and began efforts to retrieve the body.

Fire personnel tried to fish out the body but failed. By evening, police had roped in expert swimmers and local municipal authorities arranged water pumps to empty the tank. TRS legislator Teegala Krishna Reddy also reached the spot, but heavy rains hampered the effort.

Police have registered a case under Section 174 (suspicious death) of CrPC and are investigating. They are probing how and why the children came out of the Madrasa in the morning. The management told the police that it was their weekly holiday on Friday.

Shaheennagar calls for barricading the pond

Following the drowning of the 11-year-old Madrasa student, Saheennagar residents have demanded that the tank be barricaded to prevent more such deaths.

Locals said Fridays was not the first such incident there. A few years ago, two youngsters drowned there, but the authorities have taken no measures to prevent such tragedies, said Mohammed Ali, a local businessman.

The pond is located in the middle of a locality. Children come to play there everyday. Locals shoo them away to prevent any untoward incident, but it is impossible to keep a watch all the time, said Amjad, another resident. A kilometre away from the place is the Jalpally pond, where drowning cases are reported regularly, especially during summer months. Each year, at least five people drown there, many of them children and teenagers from Shaheennagar, Bandla-guda and Chandrayan-gutta, says Ashrafullah Khan, a resident of Bandlaguda. It concerns childrens safety, it should be done on priority basis, said Junaid Khan.
The name of Bihar deputy chief minister was, however, mentioned in the invitation of the event. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Patna: Giving shape to rumors of a rift between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) ((JD(U)), Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav did not attend a 'Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas' event on Saturday as his nameplate was covered and later removed.

The name of the deputy chief minister was, however, mentioned in the invitation of the event.

The event was attended by JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Earlier on Saturday, the JD(U) said party leader Nitish Kumar has not demanded the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has been named in a First Information Report (FIR).

The JD(U), however, demanded that Tejashwi should come out 'clean'.

With regards to reports of an apparent rift in the RJD-JD(U) 'mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi re-iterated Lalu's stance on it, and said nothing will be done to harm their 'baby'.

"The JD(U) and Nitish Kumar are the last people who will do anything to tamper with the mahagathbandhan. It is our baby, which was initiated by Nitish Kumar. There is no question at all of ending it," he said.

Speaking exclusively to ANI, Lalu Yadav had earlier stated that the grand alliance in Bihar is an unbreakable bond, adding that the RJD will not let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) break the alliance between the JD(U), Congress and the RJD.

It is being said that after the JD(U) urged Tejashwi Yadav to come out clean on the corruption charges imposed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and asked Lalu Yadav to declare his assets and reveal the source of income, the rift between the alliance partners in the state seemed to have widened, indicating that the alliance is inching towards a split.

Earlier last week, the CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director PK Goyal; and the wife of Lalu Yadav's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejaswi.

However, Lalu on Friday said that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

"The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign," Lalu told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

"An FIR is not sufficient reason for the resignation," he added.

This assertion from the RJD chief thus brought an end to speculations that Tejaswi Yadav might step down from the post to save the ruling alliance.
Srinagar: An Indian Army jawan was killed on Saturday in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in their latest violation of November 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC). The incident occurred in Rajouri sector of the de facto border, the defence officials said.

They identified the slain soldier as Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, a resident of neighbouring Poonch district. He was hit and fatally injured when the Pakistani troops resorted to firing and shelling on the Indian forward posts, a defence spokesman in Jammu said.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1.30 pm today (Saturday). Firing and shelling was reported also in Balakote, Panigrian, Manjakote and Naika areas in Rasjouri and Poonch sectors. The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," the spokesman said. He added that 35-year-old Naseer was a resident of Ajout village of Poonch and has left behind wife Wasim Akhtar.

A statement issued by the Army in Jammu said that Naseer was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core and that the nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty.

On Wednesday, two Army men were killed in a similar incident on the LoC in Kupwara district. Lance Naik L.N. Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat were killed in the Pakistani firing in Furkiya area of Chowkibal. They belonged to the Armys Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and were residents of Jammu region of the State.

The 745-km LoC has witnessed multiple incidents of ceasefire violation in recent weeks. After each clash between the Indian and Pakistani troops, the two sides blamed each other for initiating the firing. Several civilians and soldiers on the two sides have lost their lives in the exchanges of fire.

Earlier this week, a jawan of the Territorial Army Muhammad Showkat and his wife Safia Bi were killed and their three daughters Zaida Kouser (6), Robina Kouser (12) and Nazia Bi and another person were injured when a mortar fired by the Pakistani troops exploded near their home in Karmara village of the Poonch sector.

The same day, the Pakistani authorities reported death of five civilians and injuries to a score others in the Indian firing and shelling in Chirikot, Satwal and other sectors on their side of the de facto border. Indias deputy high commissioner JP Singh was summoned by Pakistans Director-General (South Asia and SAARC) Muhammad Faisal to the Foreign Office in Islamabad for the second consecutive day on July 9 over the alleged ceasefire violations by the Indian troops along the LoC.

However, the Indian have countered the Pakistani claims and said that there have been as many as two dozen incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops, an attack by Pakistan special forces team and two infiltration bids in past one month, in which nine people including six Army jawans were killed and 12 were injured in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said action would be taken against the officer-in-charge of a police station if illegal mining takes place in that area. (Photo: PTI)

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Friday said, the officer-in-charge of a police station would be sacked if cows are smuggled in his or her police station area.

"The officer-in-charge would be dismissed if there is smuggling of cows in areas under the police station," an official release said quoting Das.

The officer-in-charge of a police station would also be dismissed if he/she shows laxity or does not behave well with the people, he said. Das directed police officers to take action against anyone taking law in his/her own hand. While reviewing the law and order situation in a meeting, the chief minister said it is the government's responsibility to provide security to people.

The killing of innocent people should be stopped at any cost, he said. Das asked DIGs to tour a district once in a week and carry out surprise inspections of a police station. Similarly, he said, SPs should inspect two police stations every day and take stock of diaries, investigations and other information.

This would expedite works at the bottom level, he said. Das said action would be taken against the officer-in-charge of a police station if illegal mining takes place in the police station area. Chief Secretary Rajabala Verma said the officers in charge of police stations who do good work should be honoured.
In India, robotic surgeries are currently prevalent in urological, gynaecological and oncological interventions, especially thoracic and colon-rectal cancers.

Hyderabad: Top doctors in the city who are adept at robotic surgeries say that one has to train in such operations over a minimum of 20 surgeries to be able to master the skills and that such training can currently only be obtained in the US, Europe and South Korea.

Deccan Chronicle spoke to a number of such surgeons. These doctors were already adept at both open and laparoscopic surgeries, but robotic surgeries also require skills to precisely control tiny instruments that reach into complex organs. It is this precision that they train for abroad.

In India, robotic surgeries are currently prevalent in urological, gynaecological and oncological interventions, especially thoracic and colonrectal cancers. Some of the citys best surgeons have more than 100 robotic surgeries under their belt.

What is robotic surgery

Robotic surgery is carried out by surgeons trained in this method of minimally-invasive surgery using robotic arms mounted with surgical instruments that pass through tiny incisions and a 3-D camera that provides a magnified view of the area being operated upon. The surgeon controls the instruments and the robotic arms through a console in the operating room.

Dr M. Gopichand, Senior urologist surgeon:

The stereoscopic camera used in robotic surgery magnifies view of the prostate organ, which is behind the gall bladder, and makes the operation easy. The minimally-invasive procedure ensures that healthy cells and tissues around it are not scarred or removed in the process. Experienced in both open and laparoscopic surgeries, he was able to train and acquire precision in robotic surgery quickly.

100 robotic surgeries

Mostly removed cancers of the prostate and kidneys.

Suggests-

It may be better in India to call the procedure advanced laparoscopic surgery since the term robotic surgery seems to conjure up images of the patient being left at the mercy of a robot. Patients must be given a detailed visual explanation of the procedure before surgery.

Dr Neena Desai, senior gynaecologist

Robotic surgery is effective in women suffering from fibroids, endometriosis cancer, or needing removal of uterus and ovaries. Patient recovers within 24 hours, with negligible risk of infection.The whole concept of months of rest to recover is done away with. No patient is confined to bed for more than 12 hours.

70 robotic surgeries Mostly on young women with fibroids. No scarring, little blood loss, keeps uterus in good condition for healthy pregnancy and childbirth.

Suggests-

Cost of surgery is high and not covered under insurance. Government must step in to ensure that insurance cover is available for this tech assisted method.

Dr D. Madhu, senior surgical oncologist

The robotic arms and their tiny parts are able to turn 360 degrees while the camera provides a magnified image that helps in picking out small tumours that the surgeons hands cannot reach. The head of the pancreas is where a lot of tumours occur. We have carried out Whipple surgeries where the head of the pancreas is removed via robotic surgery. Cancer in the lymph nodes is another challenge. Robotics makes it easy to work around them and ensure that healthy cells are unharmed.

100 robotic surgeries.

Mostly on pancreatic cancer and on small tumours deep in the body.

Suggests-

Training systems in India for robotic surgeries are not up to the mark. Training must be obtained abroad.

Dr Sanjai Addla,

uro-oncology surgeon

Recognised internationally as uro-oncology mentor.

Robotic surgery ensures patients ability to pass urine and motion is not affected post-operation, a major drawback with traditional surgery. Also minimises damage to surrounding tissue, thus reducing pain.

Surgeons ability to perform operation is better as it is done sitting. The robotic arm ensures that tremors in the doctors fingers or hands does not affect surgery.

20 robotic surgeries in India, 450 robotic surgeries abroad

Dr T.P.S. Bhandari, senior surgical oncologist

Robotic surgery helps as it brings the benefit of both open and laparoscopic surgery. There is place to target the tumour and remove it easily.

Some insurers cover prostate cancer, so robotic surgeries are being done.

50 robotic surgeries. In areas like the pelvic region there is less space to

manage.

Dr T. Lakshmikanth, bariatric and laparoscopic surgeon

The wristed robotic arm allows surgeon to operate in deeper and difficult to access parts, especially the stomach blood vessels, and with a greater range of motion than the human hand, thus allowing us to do things not possible with traditional and laparoscopic tools.Surgeons skill is critical, so proper training is important. Meticulous planning can ensure better outcomes than open and laparoscopic surgeries.

30 robotic surgeries for bariatrics

Dr Rooma Sinha, uro-gynecologist

In robotic surgery, the arm movement is intuitive and the wrist movement is complete. This gives surgeon room and helps to precisely remove small and large fibroids and tumours in the gynaecology area. In older women, it helps due to minimal blood loss and pain. No deep scarring and so no prolonged pain.

Stitches are easily done, do not cause extra pain or uneasiness.

170 robotic surgeries, 100 surgeries were for removal of fibroids in young women

Dr Umanath Nayak, consultant head & neck surgeon

Traditionally, surgery of the thyroid is done through an incision in the lower neck. Thyroid cancers are seen in five per cent of the cases. Robotic surgery allows precise operation without opening the neck, and does away with the visible scars left behind in traditional surgery. Head and neck surgeries difficult even with 3D imaging and robotic arms because these are small areas with nerves running all around. Decline in robotic surgeries in this category due to this.

15robotic surgeries.

Training a challenge in India



Robotic surgery, or robot-assisted surgery, is now common in US and European hospitals and is gaining acceptance among super specialty hospitals and doctors in India.

Last year, some 5,000 robotic surgeries were carried out in India, with Hyderabad alone accounting for a thousand of them. This number is set to rise to 8,000 surgeries next year. But even as the demand for surgeons trained in robotic surgeries rises, training and certifying surgeons in this is still a challenge in India.

A few companies are providing certification programmes but these are not up to the mark compared to programmes in the West. There is a lot of scope (for robotic surgery training) in India, but it has to be done properly and the government must be involved in it right from the start, says a senior doctor.

While training institutions have obtained a few clearances, it is stipulated that doctors have to first train and practice on pigs, which has proved to be a major roadblock with animal lovers objecting to it.

Major hospitals in the city therefore mostly opt to have their doctors trained abroad, or rarely call in foreign experts to train them in the country.

Only some super specialty hospitals currently offer robotic surgeries as the machinery costs upwards of Rs 30 lakh.
CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury made the remarks after the government briefed the Opposition on the standoff and also on the Kashmir issue. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI) (M) on Friday said the Opposition will "fully support" the Centre in its efforts to resolve the India-China standoff in Doklam area through diplomatic channels.

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury made the remarks after the government briefed the Opposition on the standoff and also on the Kashmir issue.

Yechury, however, asked the government to reflect and introspect why "suddenly" India's neighbourly ties in the region have "deteriorated".

The Marxist leader sought to know why the intelligence inputs available before the attack on Amarnath pilgrims "was not used" and how the bus carrying pilgrims was allowed to go off on its own, as he demanded accountability for the "lapse" be enforced immediately.

In his Facebook post after the meeting, Yechury also claimed that the government had no answers when the opposition expressed "puzzlement" as to why no terror group took responsibility for the attack.

"The government briefed us on the stand-off with China and said that efforts are on to resolve this through diplomatic channels and talks. We fully support the government in these efforts. We are for peace and tranquillity with all our neighbours. This is in India's supreme interest," he said in the post.

Yechury reiterated the opposition's position that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has "worsened" in the past three years and asked the government to correct its "faulty" approach.

He also accused the government of going back on its promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India that "it shall implement confidence-building measures and start the political process with all stakeholders".

"The government must answer," he stressed.

The Rajya Sabha member also said that the "growing" instances of lynchings and attacks on minorities and Dalits are also adding to the view that the deteriorating internal security environment in the country is a "matter of grave concern".
New Delhi: Indias time-tested friend Russia is growing increasingly anxious about the Sino-Indian military standoff in the Dokalam area of Bhutan as it has dashed Moscows hopes of any Russia-China-India alliance or triangle. Russia was banking on a trilateral understanding between the three countries as its ties with the United States have nosedived even under the Trump administration.

Sources told this newspaper that Moscow is extremely worried over the developments. Russia has had a time-tested relationship with India that has withstood occasional strains caused by Indias growing proximity to the United States and Moscows perceived retaliatory move at firming up ties with Chinas all-weather friend Pakistan.

But even Russia has realised that Pakistan can never supplant India in any such triangle. This leaves Moscow with the unenviable task of balancing its ties with New Delhi and Beijing amid deterioration in Sino-Indian ties.

Sources said that Moscow is closely watching the developments in Dokalam, even as Indian troops have dug in their heels with the Chinese are stepping the rhetoric with daily warnings to India. Indian troops had to enter Dokalam to protect Bhutans territorial integrity.
Thiruvananthapuram: With the high court directing the government to enforce Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) in the wake of strike called by nurses association and a section of hospital managements, the government has decided to take steps to avoid disruption of health care services in the state. It has urged the nurses association to drop the strike plan. However, the government is not keen on going for ESMA option which the ruling CPM considers a draconian law aimed at curbing the rights of workers. The LDF had strongly opposed the move to invoke ESMA against nurses during the UDF governments regime.

Health minister K. K. Shylaja said the HC had already observed that it was not appropriate for nurses to keep off work. "I have appealed them to return to work on the basis of the decision taken by the government. The remaining demands can be taken up subsequently," she added. The minister said it was wrong to strike work in hospitals especially in the wake of fever cases. "Hospital services are essential services but that does not mean they cannot demand their rights.

However, there is a way to deal with such issues. We will examine what needs to be done in the light of HC directive. Everyone should return to work. For the moment they should accept the wages fixed by the minimum wages committee. If they require more then it could be discussed in the next phase. But they should not go ahead with the strike which could create huge problems to the patients. Since it is a labour issue,decision on further talks will be taken by the labour minister," she said.

Meanwhile, United Nurses Association (UNA) will hold state council meeting in Thrissur on Sunday to take a decision on the mode of strike in the wake of high court directive. We will decide the next course of action keeping in view the High Court directive. It was the private hospital managements which announced on Thursday that they will shut hospitals from Monday. Till now we have not struck work in hospitals or given any call to do so. The government should not succumb to the threats of the private hospital managements, said UNA president Jasminsha He said the association wanted the managements to implement the wages recommended by Supreme Court. The demands include minimum wags of Rs 20,000 in all, scrapping of the exploitative trainee system. "The government has already decided to pay Rs 17,200.They need to push this further to meet our demand,"he added.
KOZHIKODE: Battle lines have been drawn on the hospital front with the private sector deciding to run hospitals without the services of trained nurses and the nurses organisations firm on not accepting the new salary package cleared by the government. The nurses feel that the government and trade unions have ditched them in connivance with the hospital managements. The salary has been increased to just Rs 17,200 along with all allowances which is almost the same as that of the cleaning staff. After cutting the Provident Fund (PF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI), the nurses will get almost the same as they received earlier (around Rs 13,000), it is pointed out. Indian Nurses Association state joint secretary Sanal Sebastian told DC that they will stick to their demands which are as ordered by the Supreme Court guidelines.

Now a cleaning staff will get around Rs 15,600 whereas we will get a bit more. We need a basic pay of Rs 20,000, he said. The nurses of only a few hospitals with over 500 beds will benefit slightly with the present salary formula, he added. But how could they consider us as equal to the cleaning staff? Why our profession has been ridiculed so much? Why our learning and dedicated service to the patients are not considered? he asked. The Supreme Court had given guidelines to the state governments in September last to revise the salary of nurses. A nurse of a hospital with 200 and more bed strength should get a salary equivalent to that of government sector (around Rs 34,000 with all allowances). Hospitals with a bed strength between 100 and 200 can fix a 10 per cent less scale with all allowances. The lowest salary should be Rs 20,000 with all allowances.

Most of the nurses union leaders said they prefer death to accepting such inhuman salary package after waging a prolonged struggle. Even with this salary, many of the nurses are on the verge of suicide because they have taken education loans from banks. This is our last agitation and we will win this at whatever cost, said Sanal Sebastian. If we accept this we will not be able to mobilise another agitation in the near future, he added. We are trained, experienced and dedicated. Comparing us with the cleaning staff and machine operators is a joke, he pointed out. However, sources in the hospital owners association said that the salary formula was not drafted by them. A key leader said the revised salary formula of nurses and other staff was drafted by various hospital employees' unions and not by the hospital management.

You cannot expect a solution other than this as the non-nursing staff constitute 70 per cent of the hospital staff. When the United Nurses Association wanted to fix the basic salary at `20,000, the non-nursing staff also claimed that they were more skilled than the nurses, he said. While a lab technician and X-ray technician act independently, the nursing staff only assist the doctors. They are not independent. There was a division among the staff in which the union leaders of nurses got isolated. The ministers and unions also supported the demand of non-nurses. That is why the so- called union leaders, three ministers, including health minister K.K. Shailaja, kept mum on the claims of nurses. We will be forced to hike the salary of young resident medical officers who are now receiving around Rs 30,000, he lamented.

Aswin Chandran of United Nurses Association said that the claims of the management were childish. A BSc nurse studies for four years to complete the course, including six months mandatory training. Moreover, they deal with flesh and blood and also face the emotions of patients as well as the kith and kin. We are at the receiving end if a patient succumbs to injuries or due to some wrong decisions of the doctor. We do all jobs, including shifting of patients, collecting medicine from pharmacy, cleaning the wounds, assisting complicated surgeries and even guiding the doctors. They say that we are almost like the errand boy at the out-patient wing who calls out names of patients, and who now receives almost the same salary as that of nurses. The hospital managements claim that they are ready to run the hospitals with the other staff. Let them show it and I am sure they will face the music, he said.
Bengaluru: Congress general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal, said his party was against divisive politics and promoted communal harmony and therefore was not imposing "Kerala culture" as alleged by state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa.

He told Deccan Chronicle he was surprised when Mr Yeddyurappa charged him with instigating violence against caste Hindus in Dakshina Kannada district. "In my life, I have not hurt even an ant. My party and I strongly believe in communal harmony and inclusive growth. Who am I impose to Kerala culture on Karnataka? I am not imposing any culture, be it Kerala or Karnataka, on anyone. As a true Indian, I love Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or any other state. My bosses have given me an assignment of strengthening the Congress for which I am devoting my entire time," he added.

He sought to clarify that he was following principles of 'Ahimsa' taught by the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. His party was a strong believer in 'Ahimsa' and not 'Himsa' (violence). In fact, his party workers in Dakshina Kannada were asked to strive for restoration of peace, communal harmony and tranquility. "Our party is not interested to gain political mileage of such 'unfortunate' incidents".

Without mincing words, Mr Venugopal said he had asked the state government to deal with the situation firmly without bothering whether the miscreants were caste Hindus or Muslims. "Both Hindu and the Muslim extremists look different, but both have a common goal of dividing people. The immediate task is to re-establish peace in strife-torn areas. It is heartening to note that Mr Siddaramaiah has given strict instructions to cops to restore peace".

Mr Venugopal said the Congress planned conventions in all districts for three months beginning next month in view of polls to the Assembly. One round of conventions were completed in divisional headquarters to strengthen the party.
New Delhi: Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi has written to both factions of the AIADMK seeking their support for him.

Gandhi, whose candidature has been backed by 18 opposition parties including the DMK, has written to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E K Palanisamy and O Panneerselvam, the leader of the rival faction of the ruling AIADMK.

"In a letter that I have written to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, I have requested the support of the Members of Parliament from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to my candidature for the office of the Vice President of India. In a similar letter that I have written to the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O Panneerselvam, I have made a similar request, recalling the privilege that I had, as an IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, of serving under the late Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR and his kindnesses to me," Gandhi said in a statement.

Gandhi said he has also met DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and thanked him for joining the parties in proposing his name. He also said Anbumani Ramadoss of PMK has assured him of his party's support.

Gandhi said he is seeking support, not as somebody "belonging to any political party", but as someone who believes in the vision that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Babasaheb Ambedkar collectively personified. "And which in our state of Tamil Nadu, Mudaringnar Rajaji, Thanthai Periyar, Perunthalaivar Kamaraj and Perarignar Anna, each in his unique own way, symbolised," he said.

The Mahatma's grandson said he will be contacting leaders of other political formations, across the country.

"India stands at crossroads today when the basic tenets of the Constitution of India guaranteeing freedom of faith, of thought and expression, and that of equality before the law, are under strain. The opportunity provided by the upcoming election is a chance, a fragile and fortuitous one, to take a stand on behalf of India's greatness in freedom, responsibility and justice," he stated.
The future Mars projects, which includes building Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft is costing too much to the space agency.

In a meet of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts held on July 12, NASA admitted that the US space agency cannot afford to land humans on Mars. NASA has been in news for years now regarding its Mars mission and the future possibility of sending humans on the red planet.

However, its not that easy, especially with too little funds. I cant put a date on humans on Mars, and the reason really isat the budget level we described, this roughly two per cent increase, we dont have the surface systems available for Mars, said NASAs chief of human spaceflights William Gerstenmaier, Ars Technica reported. (see video)

And that entry, descent, and landing is a huge challenge for us for Mars.

The future Mars projects, which includes building Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft is costing too much to the space agency. As a result, NASA has not been able to begin deigning vehicles to land on Mars or ascend the surface, according to the report.

Meanwhile, private companies such as SpaceX and blue Origins are preparing for Mars landing mission. In fact, SpaceX founder Elon Musk had earlier announced to build human colonies on Mars, and its aim to land humans on the planet in 2025.

Earlier, Vice President Mike Pence had hinted on commercial spacea kind of contracting NASA used to fund its commercial cargo and crew programs. "The truth is that American business is on the cutting edge of space technology," he had said.

However, Gerstenmaier, opened the door to the possibility of landing humans on Moon again as NASA has the support to extensive Moon surface program.

If we find out theres water on the Moon, and we want to do more extensive operations on the Moon to go explore that, we have the ability with Deep Space Gateway to support an extensive Moon surface program, he said. If we want to stay focused more toward Mars we can keep that.

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One thing has unfortunately become all too clear: cyberspace is the new battlefield and when you think about all of these recent incidents, this is a wakeup call, a Microsoft official said.

Observing that cyberspace is the new battlefield, a top Microsoft official has called for a global digital convention to combat cyberattacks that have morphed into sophisticated nation state attacks.

What started a decade-and-a-half ago as a sense that there were some teenagers in the basement hacking their way has moved so far beyond that. It has morphed into sophisticated international organised crime and, worse, sophisticated nation state attacks, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith, said in his keynote address at the Microsoft Inspire 2017 Conference here on Wednesday.

We see that in the headlines of the last few months. We see that in the attacks that have taken place. We see it in the nation state threats to which it has led. We see it even in the last two weeks, in an attack on a country that then spread around the world, Smith said, addressing thousands of partners of Microsoft at the conference. There were over 170 participants from India.

One thing has unfortunately become all too clear: cyberspace is the new battlefield and when you think about all of these recent incidents, this is a wakeup call. It is a wakeup call to all of us. It is a wakeup call to Microsoft and every partner and every customer and we hope to every government in the world, Smith said.

As a company, he said, Microsoft has launched a four-part approach to strengthen cybersecurity including identity and access management. We recognise as a company that we have the first responsibility to keep our customers safe, he said.

Underlining that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, he said It is a responsibility that all of us in this room share together, it is a responsibility that all of us share with our customers, because so much turns on the ability of customers to implement such important security fundamentals.

Fundamentals like two-factor authentication, fundamentals like the updating and patching of systems, fundamentals like whitelisting applications that should be downloaded, fundamentals like using our latest software, he told the Microsoft partners. Smith asserted that there is need to recognise together that cybersecurity is a cause.

Its a cause that is global in scope and paramount in importance and, unfortunately, it is a sobering time, he said.

It is a sobering time when you think about this, after World War II, seven decades ago, all the governments of the world got together and they agreed, they undertook an obligation legally that they would protect civilians in times of war, said the top Microsoft official.

Given the seriousness of the issue, Smith said, one can take inspiration and learn from what the governments of the world learned from World War II.

When they came together in Geneva in 1949 and adopted what was called the Fourth Geneva Convention, a convention that pledged that they would not attack civilians in times of war. What we need today is a new Geneva Convention. We need a Digital Geneva Convention that will call on the governments of the world to pledge that they will not attack civilians through cybersecurity measures in times of peace. That is what we are calling for, Smith said.

As we ask governments to act, as we encourage them to act, we have the opportunity as an industry to act as well, to come together with our own accord, a tech sector accord that enables us to work together more effectively as an industry, that asks all of us as a global community and as global leaders to stand together behind a straightforward pledge that the world can count on us to stand up for our principles of 100 per cent defence, 0 per cent offense, he said.

We will not help any government attack any customer anywhere. To the contrary, we will help defend every customer everywhere, Smith said amidst applause from the audience.

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The move comes amid heightened concerns over the growing presence and influence of Islamic State in Southeast Asia as the jihadist group loses territory in Syria and Iraq.

Indonesia on Friday blocked access to the encrypted messaging service Telegram, citing concerns that it was being used to spread "radical and terrorist propaganda" in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.

The move comes amid heightened concerns over the growing presence and influence of Islamic State in Southeast Asia as the jihadist group loses territory in Syria and Iraq.

Indonesia itself has seen a resurgence in home-grown militancy, inspired in large part by Islamic State; a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus station in May killed three police officers and injured several others. It has stepped up anti-terrorism cooperation with Malaysia and the Philippines.

"This has to be done because there are many channels on this service that are full of radical and terrorist propaganda, hatred, ways to make bombs, how to carry out attacks, disturbing images, which are all in conflict with Indonesian law," the communications ministry said in a statement on its website.

Telegram is a messaging platform known to be popular among Islamic State sympathizers, who use chatrooms with hundreds of members as well as private conversations.

The communications ministry added that both the mobile application and the desktop version of Telegram would be blocked throughout Indonesia. It did not say if it would take similar action against other messaging platforms.

Telegram was not immediately available for comment.

Many messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Telegram offer end-to-end encryption from sender to recipient, which means not even the companies providing the platform can see the messages.

Security officials in several countries have complained that the apps provide a safe space for militants to communicate with each other. Several governments, including those of Australia and Britain, have urged technology companies to do more to help security agencies thwart security threats.

In March, an attacker on London's Westminster Bridge was reported to have sent encrypted messages moments before plowing his car into pedestrians, killing four people, and fatally stabbing a police officer.

British interior minister Amber Rudd said at the time that such encryption was "unacceptable".

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While it may not seem to be something ground breaking, it is certainly of immense help if you drive in metropolitan cities with a slow-moving traffic trend.

All of us know that Googles services are getting smarter  thanks to the software giant implementing its know-how of machine learning into them. And, Google is trying its best to give as much as of those benefits to Android users. So, this time its Google Maps for Android that gets the benefits of smarter computing.

An update to Google Maps for Android has made it possible for all the drivers keen to look for empty roads so as to reach their destination faster or enjoy driving their vehicles. Maps will now show a travel time graph along with a common direction route. There are separate bars for denoting travelling 30 minutes before or after your desired time.

While it may not seem to be something ground breaking, it is certainly of immense help if you drive in metropolitan cities with a slow-moving traffic trend. Right now, the feature is available only for Android users belonging to the USA and the UK. But, we can expect Google to roll out the feature to users of other platforms (like iOS) and users across the countries.

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Providence: Vice President Mike Pence told a bipartisan gathering of governors on Friday that he and President Donald Trump believe the revised health care bill before the US Senate is the "right bill at the right time to begin the end of Obamacare."

"The president said he wanted a health care system that in his words is far less expensive and far better," the Republican vice president said during a conference of the National Governors Association. "We believe the Senate health care bill begins to make the president's vision a reality."

Pence urged governors to support the plan, which was written by Republicans and would make major changes to the signature domestic policy of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

"I want to challenge each one of you to work together with this administration, to give the American people access to the world-class health care they deserve," he said.

But several governors, Democratic and Republican, expressed concern about the bill and even outright opposition. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said Republicans in Congress are "still trying to put lipstick on a pig. But guess what: It's still a pig."

Major cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, the disabled and nursing home residents, is a key sticking point for many governors, especially those in states that expanded it under Obama's health care law.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed Pence in addressing the governors from about 30 states. Trudeau, when asked about the debate over health care in the US compared to Canada's national health care system, said he doesn't think it's appropriate for one country to lecture another on how it should govern itself.

He focused his speech on the fundamental importance of the relationship between the US and Canada and how he'd like to see "a thinner border for trade, not a thicker one." He told the governors that barriers to trade between the countries kill growth and don't help working families.

Trudeau said the North American Free Trade Agreement should be modernized," as it has been in the past, and he's confident its renegotiation will be done to the benefit of all countries.

Pence also spoke about modernizing NAFTA so it's a "win, win, win" for all the trading partners. Pence and Trudeau met to talk about trade on the sidelines of the meeting.

Pence, after his address, met with several governors, including Republicans Brian Sandoval, of Nevada, and Asa Hutchinson, of Arkansas.

Sandoval had characterized his reaction to the latest Republican health care bill as one of "great concern" immediately after it was released Thursday.

Hutchinson was more receptive, but both said they worried about Congress shifting costs to the states to maintain the same level of Medicaid coverage they have committed to.

Nevada and Arkansas are among the 31 states that expanded Medicaid under the Obama-era law, adding coverage for roughly 11 million Americans.

Sandoval said Pence had some very positive things to say about the effort to make the bill better. He praised funding that was added to help states confront the opioid epidemic but said he remains concerned about making sure the 210,000 Nevada residents who gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion don't lose that coverage.

Meanwhile, several Democratic governors met Friday to publicly criticize the revised health care bill and talk about how unwinding the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act would hurt their states.

Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said she planned to voice strong opposition to Pence. "There's a high degree of anxiety," she said. "Even Republican governors will say that they're worried, especially the ones that have taken the Medicaid expansion."

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell plans to keep in place Medicaid cuts that Republican governors and Senate moderates have objected to. No Democrats support the plan.

The latest changes are geared toward increasing access to bare-bones private insurance. There's also an additional $45 billion to help states confronting the opioid epidemic.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, called that funding a "fig leaf." Many of the "flimsy" policies that will be allowed under the legislation wouldn't cover substance abuse treatment, he said.

A governors-only session on Saturday will give them a chance to ask questions of US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.
Washington: The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting at Trump Tower last year is a former military officer who has attracted congressional scrutiny over his political activities and has been shadowed by allegations of connections to Russian intelligence that he denies.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation in the meeting to The Associated Press on Friday, providing new details of a June 2016 sit-down that included a Russian lawyer and President Donald Trump's oldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman.

His attendance at the meeting and his lobbying background created a new wrinkle to a story that has hounded the White House for days and added to questions about potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Akhmetshin is well-known in Washington for his advocacy efforts. He's been outspoken in recent years about a US law levying sanctions on Russians and has worked to undermine the public narrative used to justify the bill. And his name has also surfaced in multiple American lawsuits, including one involving the hacking of a company's computer systems.

Emails released this week by Donald Trump Jr. show the president's son agreed to the Trump Tower meeting with the idea that he would receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton from someone described to him as a "Russian government attorney." Akhmetshin began working with that attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in 2015, after a public relations person he declined to name introduced them.

The Russian government has denied any involvement or knowledge of the meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: "We don't know anything about this person."

In an interview, Akhmetshin denied suggestions made in media reports, congressional letters and litigation that he is a former officer in Russia's military intelligence service known as the GRU, dismissing the allegations as a "smear campaign."

He told the AP that he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft. He said his unit operated in the Baltics and was "loosely part of counterintelligence."

Akhmetshin, a naturalized American citizen who has lived in Washington since the early 1990s, and Veselnitskaya are known for lobbying efforts involving the Magnitsky Act, a brace of economic sanctions targeting Russian officials and individuals

The act passed by Congress was named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009 after accusing Russian government officials and takeover raiders of a $230 million tax fraud scheme in the seizure of an investment firm.

The original Magnitsky Act leveled US financial sanctions on 18 Russian officials and individuals suspected of complicity in Magnitsky's prosecution, imprisonment and death.

A Global Magnitsky Act that passed in December 2016 gives the president power to impose visa bans and freeze US assets of anyone who suppresses basic human rights or targets whistleblowers exposing corruption.

Early in 2016, Akhmetshin said, he helped set up a non-profit foundation based in Delaware to lobby US officials in an effort to strip Magnitsky's name from the law, though he maintains that he was not attempting to undercut it.

As an adjunct to the foundation's lobbying, Veselnitskaya also organized and attended a screening of an anti-Magnitsky documentary film that played at the Newseum in Washington four days after she met with Trump Jr. in New York. Akhmetshin acknowledged he was also involved in promoting the film.

Several wealthy Russian oligarchs agreed to provide financial backing for the foundation's lobbying, Akhmetshin said, providing at least $300,000.

Among them, he said, was Dennis Katsyv, the owner of a real estate investment firm who was battling against a Justice Department lawsuit at the time connected to the seized investment firm.

The federal government this year settled with Katsyv's firm, allowing the company to pay a $6 million fine without admitting guilt. Congressional lobbying documents show that the foundation Akhmentshin helped set up spent $290,000 last year on lobbying. At least $10,000, the records indicate, was paid directly to Akhmetshim as a lobbyist.

Akhmetshin's name has also surfaced in lawsuits, including a New York court case in which a mining company branded him a "former Soviet military counterintelligence officer" and accused him of involvement in the hacking of its computer systems.

Those claims were withdrawn last year, court records show. In a separate case, he described his business as "strategic communications" with clients including national governments and high-ranking officials of those governments. Disclosure of his communications, he said, could put lives at risk.

Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by the special counsel's office or the FBI about the meeting with Trump Jr. He said he's willing to talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman has pressed the Justice Department about why Akhmetshin has not registered as a foreign agent.

The chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said in a March letter that Akhmetshin has "reportedly admitted to being a 'Soviet counterintelligence officer' and has a long history of lobbying the US government for pro-Russia matters."

Akhmetshin said the Justice Department prodded him several months ago to register as a foreign agent because of his lobbying work, though he said he doesn't believe he needs to do so. He has previously registered with Congress for the lobbying, and he plans to raise this issue before Grassley's committee. "I think I have a legal right to tell my story," he said.
Washington: A court decision on President Donald Trump's travel ban has reopened a window for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, and the government is looking to quickly close it.

The administration late Friday appealed directly to the US Supreme Court after a federal judge in Hawaii ordered it to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.

US District Judge Derrick Watson on also vastly expanded the list of US family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.

The ruling Thursday was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nation's high court in October.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

"Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety," she said. "This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely."

Citing a need to review its vetting process to ensure national security, the administration capped refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, a ceiling it hit this week.

The federal budget can accommodate up to 75,000 refugees, but admissions have slowed under Trump, and the government could hold them to a trickle, resettlement agencies say.

"Absolutely this is good news for refugees, but there's a lot of uncertainty," said Melanie Nezer, spokeswoman for HIAS, a resettlement agency. "It's really going to depend on how the administration reacts to this."Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration will ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, bypassing the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

The Supreme Court allowed a scaled-back version of the travel ban to take effect last month. "Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security," Sessions said. "By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats."

The administration took a first step by filing a notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit, allowing it to use a rule to petition the high court directly. There's no timetable for the Supreme Court to act, but the administration will be seeking quick action that clarifies the court's June opinion.

The justices now are scattered during their summer recess, so any short-term action would come in written filings.

The administration has lost most legal challenges on the travel ban, which applies to citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

The Supreme Court's ruling exempted a large swath of refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or an entity in the US The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.

The Trump administration defined the relationships as people who had a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the US.

Watson enlarged that group to include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin, who sought the broader definition, said Thursday's ruling "makes clear that the US government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit."

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough," Chin said.
Washington India and the US have pledged to deepen defence partnership and decided to collaborate on a wide range of regional issues including maritime security and counter-terrorism.

This was decided during National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval's meetings here with US Defence Secretary General (rtd) James Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security General (rtd) John Kelly and National Security Advisor Lt Gen H R McMaster.

In all these meetings, the common thread was expansion and deepening of India-US co-operation in collectively addressing the challenge posed by terrorism in South Asia.

He also met Senator John McCain, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and Senator Richard Burr, Chairman of the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

"Mattis specifically applauded India's efforts to promote stability in the South Asia region. Both leaders reaffirmed building upon the significant defence cooperation progress made in recent years," Pentagon Spokesperson Capt Jeff Davis said in a read out of the meeting, adding that the two leaders discussed their role in cooperating to uphold international laws and principles.

"Secretary Mattis and NSA Doval further discussed collaboration on a wide range of regional security matters including maritime security and counter terrorism. The two pledged to continue the strong defence partnership between both nations," Davis said. Doval and McMaster during their meeting at the White House on Thursday "committed" to work together as partners to "combat the full spectrum" of terrorist threats, affirming that both great democracies stand together in the fight against terrorism, a senior Trump administration official said.

"All the meetings were very warm, very positive, very constructive. I think there is an open approach to India," Indian sources said as Doval concluded his meetings in Washington DC yesterday.

This was Doval's second trip to the US after Donald Trump won the presidential elections in November. In December, Doval had met NSA-designate Gen (rtd)

Michael Flynn, who resigned a few weeks after he took over the job due to the controversy surrounding Russian diplomats during the transition and election campaign.

Flynn was replaced by McMaster, who according to the officials, has a very positive view about India.

"The discussions (in all these meetings) covered India's economic plans, reforms, growth. They covered our core security concerns, regional concerns, defence and security aspect of the India-US engagement," the senior official said on condition of anonymity.

For instance, the meeting at the Pentagon covered India-US defence relationship, issues like maritime security.

"Naturally the challenge, nature and manifestation of terrorism and co-operation with regard," the official said, adding that the sense from these meetings came out that the

Trump administration seeks to take forward the upward trajectory of this bilateral relationship.

With Homeland security, issues of radicalisation, cooperation in border controls, issues of information sharing which can help fight terrorist sides popped up.

The Trump administration officials were interested in hearing from Doval on New Delhi's views in the region, in particular Afghanistan and vice versa, informed sources said.

In some of the conversations, issues like demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) also popped up, reflecting the close interest that the US has in the economic growth of India.

There was no specific discussion on Pakistan, but it figured in the context of terrorism in the region.

Inside the Trump administration, it is clear how Pakistan is closely associated with terrorism, the official said.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, shakes hands with Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, left, prior to their meeting in Ankara. (Photo: AP)

Ankara: Qatar's foreign minister said Friday it would be unfair to describe US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's shuttle diplomacy to find a solution for a major feud in the Persian Gulf as a failure, insisting that the crisis "cannot be solved in a day."

During a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also told reporters in Ankara that Qatar would continue to work with the United States and Kuwait to end the standoff with its four Arab neighbors.

Tillerson concluded his mediation efforts on Thursday, making no promise of an imminent breakthrough but voicing optimism that Qatar and its neighbors might soon be willing to talk face to face.

"There is no criterion or evidence that indicates that (Tillerson's visit) was a failure," al-Thani said. "We cannot expect such a tense crisis to be solved in a day."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose nation has supported Qatar in the dispute, said he believed a solution would be possible "in the mid-term."

The Qatari minister again denied accusations his nation provides support to terror groups, accusing the four Arab states lined up against Doha of failing to provide "single evidence" against the tiny oil-rich nation.

Cavusoglu said that under a recent pact, Qatar agreed with the US to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts, citing this as evidence of Doha's "sincerety" in countering extremist groups.

Qatar vehemently denies allegation of supporting extremist groups, though it has provided aid that helps Islamist groups that others have branded as terrorists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates say the counterterrorism agreement does not go far enough to end the dispute.

The Arab quartet insists that Qatar agree to a 13-point list of demands, including shutting down Qatar's flagship Al-Jazeera network and other news outlets, cutting ties with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limiting Qatar's ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the tiny Gulf country.

The White House said that President Donald Trump spoke on Friday from Air Force One with Saudi King Salman and that the two discussed the recent diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab quartet's dispute with Qatar.

In particular, the statement said, Trump emphasized the need to cut all funding for terrorism and discredit extremist ideology.
Beijing: Amid Chinese daily state-run daily on Friday said, any attempt by India to gain military supremacy with the support of the US and its allies will further worsen the situation in Asia.

An editorial in Global Times said, "India and its neighbours' best interests are better protected by its thoughts and acts of becoming an integral part of Asia rather than becoming an ally of Western countries.

It further said, The Belt and Road framework is an instrument for reshaping the world economic order by replacing or ending the colonial paradigm of development into a new one benefiting all nations as partners.

Pointing out the tendency of the Western World of prolonging the idea of hegemony in a divided world, the Chinese daily further warned that "reactionary nationalism is lifting its head to the surface, in Western countries in particular".

China's state run media pointed out that the current border dispute between New Delhi and Beijing is occurring at a time when China has undertaken the bold step to revive the ancient Silk Road and maritime trading routes and the powerful nations are trying to upset the progress of the Belt and Road initiative by creating divisions among countries.

"India should tread cautiously in their relations with China in order to prevent any issues along the border that may unleash a fresh gush of suspicion as the initiative of the Belt and Road put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping is not merely a strategic plan of development but it also represents a goal of peace and human progress and which will act as a boon for North India, where several provinces like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are trapped in a state of massive poverty and further extend it to open an immense opportunity for enhancing trade in Southwest China and Central Asia," it said.

"India has the great responsibility, under an 1890 treaty between China and Britain, to de-escalate tension by withdrawing its troops. Any argument that claims a "right" to protect the sovereignty of Bhutan will eventually fail under international law," it added.

It can be argued that Bhutan as an independent nation can settle any issue concerning disputes along its border by dialogue with China, if any such dispute arises. India as an important nation has an obligation to address bilateral issues by peaceful means through negotiation.

The project is now at a stage of being materialized and the region that covers China, Nepal and India in the Himalaya Mountains are going to benefit the most as it is providing a shared opportunity for cooperation among all.

While the strength of this unbecoming development is not yet unmanageable, it definitely does indicate that something bad is "brewing up." Thus it is important that countries in Asia should forge better relations by working under the Belt and Road initiative to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for the prosperity of people.

"The reactionary nationalism represented by "Donald Triumph" is a rejection of the people's need for development that can ensure an inclusive prosperity for all human beings, "it stated.

India's decision to remain outside the Belt and Road framework seems to go against the current of the times, and may deny the entire South Asia the benefit of connectivity with China and the fruits of its economic development. Further, it may severely harm the prospects of Asia emerging as an advocate of the new economic world order.
Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body. (Photo: PTI) (Representational Image)

Dhaka: A 25-year-old MBBS student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot following an altercation between them at a flat in Bangladesh's Chittagong city, police said on Saturday.

Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on the fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area last night, the police was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

Sheikh, a final year student of the University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead, the report said.

Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.

Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, according to the police.

Another report in bdnews24 online said the four students hailed from Manipur. It said that Sheikh and Singh were drinking liquor before the incident.

Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body.
A dangerous plastic explosive was found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly triggering a major security alert and prompting a complete overhaul of the security system in the Vidhan Bhavan.



About 150 grams of plastic explosive, which was identified as PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), was found under the seat of an Opposition party legislator on Wednesday.



The explosive, which was in powder form, was sent for forensic examination that confirmed it as PETN. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed serious concern over the slack security in the House and termed it a conspiracy which could be connected to terrorism.



He announced that the probe into the matter would be handed over to the NIA. He also held meetings with senior police officers and directed them to review the security in the Assembly.



It is a very serious issue. How was the explosive brought into the House despite tight security? It shows that security is lax. We need to take steps to put in stringent security checks, he said.



Threat to Assembly

Adityanath said 500 PETN, which was difficult to be detected because of being odourless, was enough to blow up the entire Assembly. The explosive was detected by a sweeper, while cleaning the House.



He urged Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to take immediate steps to ensure that no one gets into the building without a stringent security check.



The Speaker also took note of the incident and cancelled all passes except those of the MLAs and the employees.



Adityanath said anyone could enter the Assembly and referred to his first visit to the House after he became the chief minister. I found flashes of the cameras and people going here and there without any check, he said.



We should have security checks like at the airports. No vehicles should be allowed without entry pass. There must be a police verification of every employee, he added. He also appealed to the legislators not to bring mobile phones into the House.



Kindly keep them in silent mode if you bring them, requested Adityanath. Dixit said quick response teams would be deployed at the entry gates of the Assembly and full body scanners would also be installed.






The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the killings of over 80 civilians by police and armed forces in Manipur during the insurgency, in a serious question mark over the role of security personnel, deployed under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in the disturbed area.



A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit rejected a plea made by the Union government that all those incidents were of considerably old time and it would not be appropriate to re-open investigations.



If a crime has been committed, a crime which involves the death of a person who is possibly innocent, it cannot be overlooked only because of a lapse of time... Merely because the state has not taken any action and has allowed time to go by, it cannot take advantage of the delay to scuttle an inquiry, the bench said.



The Centre maintained that the victims were granted compensation. It also said the years of neglect or lack of investigation by the Manipur Police could have been due to local pressures and the ground situation over there.



This (compensation) cannot override the law of the land, otherwise all heinous crimes would get settled through payment of monetary compensation, Justice Lokur wrote on behalf of the bench in its 26-page judgement.



Our constitutional jurisprudence does not permit us to shut the door on such persons and our constitutional obligation requires us to give justice and succour to the next of kin of the deceased, the bench added.



The court also pointed out not a single FIR was registered against any personnel of the Manipur Police for all these years and in fact, FIRs were lodged against the family members of the victims.



The court directed the CBI chief to nominate a group of five officers to go through the records of the cases as pointed out in a PIL filed by Extra Judicial Execution Victims Families Association and another and complete the investigations by December 31.



Of the 1528 deaths between 2000 and 2012, the court directed for investigations in those cases already gone into by the Commissions of Inquiry, the National Human Rights Commission and others.
The Delhi Police on Friday filed a chargesheet against a suspected middleman in the Election Commission bribery case, but omitted the name of AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran.



The police said they would name Dhinakaran, who is accused of seeking middleman Sukesh Chandrasekhars help in securing the two-leaf symbol for his faction, in a supplementary chargesheet after completing the probe against him.



The chargesheet was filed against Chandrasekhar, who was arrested on April 16 and was denied bail repeatedly by the local court and Delhi High Court. Chandrasekhar is facing charges of forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using forged document as genuine and possessing a forged document and intending to use it as genuine.



Investigators had earlier said that Dhinakaran, who along with an aide Mallikarjun was arrested on April 25, arranged money from undisclosed sources and used illegal channels to transfer the funds from Chennai to Delhi for Chandrasekhar.



He reportedly struck a Rs 50-crore deal with Chandrasekhar to ensure that his faction got the AIADMKs original symbol.



Chandrasekhar had reportedly promised Dhinakaran that he would help him get the symbol. It is said the police had recovered Rs 1.3 crore in cash from him during a raid at a hotel.




The government has directed private hospitals empanelled under the Central Government Health Services to prominently display data of C-Section surgeries and normal deliveries. It has also asked the state governments to conduct a periodical prescription audit of the health facilities, specifically on this issue.



This comes days after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi urged Health Minister J P Nadda to take steps to check the alarming trend of the C-Section surgeries in the country.



In a letter to Nadda in February, Maneka expressed deep concern over the increasing trend of hospitals forcing expecting mothers to undergo C-Sections. She suggested making a public disclosure of the information on C-Sections mandatory for all hospitals.



In response to her letter, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has stated that the concerns expressed are well founded and the health ministry is taking a series of measures to control this increasing trend, the Centre stated in a press communique.



The Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India has also been sounded off about the harmful effects of unwarranted C-Sections, the ministry added.




The commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Defence Forces on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, taking forward the bilateral military relation between the two neighbours.



Expressing Indias firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship with Myanmar in all areas, Modi said the Southeast Asian nation was a key pillar of Indias Act East Policy. This is the second visit of Myanmars top general in two years.



As Senior General Min Aung Hlaing briefed Modi about the bilateral defence and security cooperation, the prime minister appreciated the close cooperation between the armed forces of the two nations. Hlaing also met Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat.



In 2015, Myanmar allowed an Indian Army commando team to hit the armed Naga militants in their camps inside Myanmar territory. The militants ambushed an army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur, killing 18 Indian soldiers and injuring 15.



A year later, Naga militants alleged another cross-border raid by Indian soldiers, but that was denied by the army.



The meeting with Modi and Jaitley came in the backdrop of Chinas increased belligerence along the border as India looks for allies in its eastern neighbourhood. Before landing in Delhi, Hlaing was in the Gaya Officer Training Academy where Rawat hosted a banquet in his honour. After visiting Bodh Gaya and Sarnath Buddhist circuits and the Ganga Ghat in Varanasi, Hlaing went to the armys 11 Infantry Division in Ahmedabad, besides visiting the Amul dairy and Nano car factories.
The CBI has cleary stated that it could reinvestigate the Bofors case only if the Supreme Court or the government specifically ordered it to do so. A day earlier, a subcommittee on defence attached to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, had apparently suggested that the case is reopened, citing several loopholes in the previous investigation.



CBI officials indicated that they would need an order from a court or the Union government to reinvestigate the case.



A subcommittee of a parliamentary panel could not recommend to the CBI to start a probe, they said. They were responding to reports that the panel has given the CBI two weeks to report back on the action it has taken.



On July 13, when CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma appeared before the parliamentary subcommittee, the issue was raised. The panel said it has been probing non-compliance of certain aspects of the CAG report of 1986 regarding the Bofors deal.



It reportedly asked Verma to put up the case considering systematic failure in the Bofors contract as well as charges of bribery against top political leaders and officials.



Several members, including panel chief Bhartruhari Mahtab and BJPs Nishikant Dubey, apparently wanted the CBI to challenge the 2004 Delhi High Court order.



They also asked Verma why the investigating agency did not go to the Supreme Court earlier. The MPs were reportedly told that the CBIs request for a go-ahead was denied by the Congress-led UPA, which was in power.



The Bofors case relates to the payment of kickbacks for the purchase of 155 mm artillery guns from Swedish manufacturer AB Bofors.



The scandal surfaced following a Swedish radio broadcast in the late 1980s. The kickbacks became a key poll issue in the November parliamentary elections in 1989. The Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress was voted out of power. However, on February 4, 2004, the Delhi High Court exonerated Rajiv in the case and in 2005, the same court cleared the Hindujas (who were investigated by the CBI) of any involvement.



Since then the case has remained closed as the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government did not challenge the high court order.



On September 29, 2009, the Manmohan Singh government informed the Supreme Court about its decision to withdraw the cases relating to the Bofors scam against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi as he could not be extradited.



Quattrocchi, who was considered close to the Gandhis, had figured prominently during the probe. In early 2011, an Income Tax tribunal ruled that a commission of over Rs 40 crore was indeed paid to Quattrocchi and another businessman Win Chadha in violation of Indian laws for the deal.



But on March 4, 2011, a Delhi court, realising the futility of the exercise, allowed the CBI to drop all charges against Quattrocchi and close the case.




Three militants of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Saturday.







Sources said that a joint party of Armys Rashtriya Rifles and special operations group (SOG) of J&K police launched a search operation after inputs about presence of a group of five to six militants in Satoora forest area of Tral, 38 km from here early in the morning.



While two of the militants were killed in the initial assault by the security forces this morning, the third one took shelter inside a cave and was neutralized after several hours of intense firing. However, two to three militants managed to escape from the spot and disappeared in a nearby forest area, they said and added helicopters and para commandos were pressed into service to locate and neutralize the hiding militants.



Reports said as the encounter was going on, a stone pelting mob tried to march towards the encounter site to help the militants escape but were chased away by the security forces. Six protesters who sustained minor injuries in the clashes were shifted to a nearby hospital, reports added.



Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Muneer Khan while confirming the killing of three militants said operation has ended. He said the identification of the slain militants is being ascertained. However, he said, preliminary investigations reveal that the slain militants belonged to Jaish outfit and are foreigners.



Tral is the hometown of slain Burhan Wani, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander, who was killed by security forces on July 8 last year triggering a wave of unrest in the Valley for nearly a year.



With militancy, especially home grown, on rise, security forces have launched a massive operation to flush out the terrorists. More than 100 militants have been killed so far this year, which is highest in the last eight years. The security forces are going after militants as part of operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a hit list of militants. On Wednesday three local Hizbul militants were killed in an overnight encounter in central Kashmirs Budgam district.



Meanwhile, a paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper was injured in a grenade blast in neighbouring Kulgam district. A police official said that militants lobbed a grenade at a joint party of police and CRPF near Grid Station in the town, 70 km from here.


Rising sectarian attacks in India might help drive support to al-Qaeda, a top US expert has told lawmakers, noting that the terror group is trying to reassert itself in the Indian subcontinent.



"Rising sectarian attacks in India might help drive support to al-Qaida," Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow, American Enterprise Institute, a top American think-tank, told members of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence during a Congressional hearing on al-Qaida threat.



"Al-Qaeda reconsolidated in the Maghreb and Sahel after the rise of ISIS. It remains embedded in the insurgencies, and it is looking to reassert itself in the Indian subcontinent through Punjab," she said.



"The senior leadership is no longer concentrated in Afghanistan-Pakistan, nor is it synonymous with what the Obama administration once dubbed al-Qaida core.



Al-Qaida's senior leadership is found today in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond," Zimmerman said.



"The old leadership continues to provide strategic guidance, Ayman al-Zawahiri issues overall direction to the network, and leadership attrition has compelled al-Qaida to reveal a deeper bench than we knew it was there before," she said.



Responding to questions, Zimmerman said it is important to closely monitor the situation in the Indian subcontinent, which is increasingly restive.



"Recognising that we have key interests in the broader stability of the region," she said.



"I think there's no question it's a concern if you look at the increasing levels of violence that have been perpetrated by groups associated with al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, as well as ISIS in Bangladesh," said Seth Jones from the Rand Foundation in response to another question.



"We have a range of the conditions. We've already talked about on this committee, on this panel, weak governance, economic challenges, opportunities for fighters, and its proximity to both Pakistan and Afghanistan active war zones that make Bangladesh of concern," he said.



Jones said the al-Qaeda core has clearly been weakened.



"I think there's been some movement of some of the key people from Pakistan into Afghanistan to take advantage of some territory that's been taken by the Taliban and other groups," he said.



"I would say there's a fair amount of autonomy that exists with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. There's still some strategic guidance, I would say, from senior leaders in South Asia, including Ayman Al-Zawahiri.



"Al-Shabaab, very concerning links between its intelligence and external operations unit the Amniyat and Al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," he told lawmakers.




The US forces have killed the head of Islamic State's Afghanistan branch in a strike on the terror group's headquarters in Kunar Province, the Pentagon has said.



The killing of Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), marked the third time within a year that the terror group's Afghanistan branch has lost its leader.



"US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on July 11," Pentagon Spokesman Dana White has said.



The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan, she said.



ISIS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and US forces killed the previous ISIS-K leaders -- Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016, and Abdul Hasib, in late April of this year.



"Afghan and US forces launched a counter-ISIS-K offensive in early March, 2017, to drive fighters from Nangarhar and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan," White said.



General John Nicholson, who leads US forces-Afghanistan, said, "We will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan."



The US has been hitting ISIS targets in the war-torn country regulaly and in April it dropped the largest non- nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat.



The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 jihadists, according to reports.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday blamed external forces, including China, for creating trouble in the state, which witnessed a terror strike on Amarnath pilgrims days ago.



Her remarks came after her meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here to discuss the security scenario in the state and the steps taken by her government to ensure foolproof security for the pilgrims.



"The fight in Kashmir is not that of law and order problems. We cannot win this war unless political parties and the entire country supports us," she told reporters after the nearly hour-long meeting.



She said foreign powers are also behind the attacks that are taking place. "Now, even China has started meddling in our affairs," she said.



Her comments came days after Beijing made an offer to mediate between India and Pakistan on resolving Kashmir. India has rejected the offer, saying there is no scope for a third party mediation. New Delhi has been maintaining that the issue is bilateral and can be resolved only through talks between the two countries.



Her meeting with Singh came five days after the attack in which seven pilgrims from Gujarat were killed. Officials said steps taken to ensure the security of pilgrims as well as the general situation in the state were discussed during the meeting.



Following the attack on pilgrims, security agencies have intensified anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Officials said they have been told to implement the security plans with full vigour.



Security officials had earlier expressed fear that the attack on pilgrims may trigger a divide between Hindus and Muslim communities in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere. This is the second major attack on Amarnath pilgrims. In August 2000, 30 pilgrims were killed during an encounter between security forces and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists.



At a meeting between government and political parties on Friday, Opposition parties had questioned how such an attack happened when there were prior intelligence inputs.



Sources had said that Congress leaders raised three specific questions on whether the vehicle that came under attack was registered, why was journey allowed after stipulated time and why the pilgrims were not registered.



CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said he found it amusing that no one has claimed responsibility for the attack when terrorists usually own it up.



Though tough questions were raised, the parties wanted the government should seize the opportunity where even the Hurriyat leaders have condemned the attack on pilgrims. When Home Minister Rajnath Singh mentioned that the response to the attack has shown that Kashmiriyat is alive, all parties agreed to it and asked the government to use the opportunity to take the process of normalisation forward.




With both the JD(U) and RJD hardening their stand, the rift within the Grand Alliance in the wake of the CBI lodging an FIR against Tejaswi, Lalu, Rabri Devi and five others, following raids in connection with the land-for-hotels case is festering on, posing a question mark on the survival of the coalition, in which the Congress is the third party.



The RJD and the Congress have called a joint meeting of their MLAs tomorrow to discuss the presidential poll strategy, while the JD(U) has convened a separate meeting of its MLAs at the chief minister's official residence.



Lalu, on his return from Ranchi late last night after appearing in courts in connection with fodder scam cases, had categorically said that Tejaswi would not resign and claimed that the case against him was "politically motivated".



On the JD(U) seeking a point-by-point explanation to the public on the charges against the deputy chief minister and the CBI lodging an FIR subsequently, Lalu had said they would let the people know everything in detail at an RJD rally on August 27.



He had also said that he would like to see the ruling coalition to grow from strength to strength.



JD(U) Deputy Leader in the Assembly Shyam Rajak, however said, "Everybody should maintain transparency in public life.... Otherwise, the people would show them the door."



On Lalu ruling out Tejaswi's resignation, Rajak, who was earlier in the RJD, said, "He (Lalu) is an elderly and experienced leader. I once again say that everybody in public life should maintain transparency."



JD(U) chief general secretary K C Tyagi told PTI that Kumar, at a party meeting on Tuesday, had dwelt on the importance of morality in politics and stressed on "politics of principles".



The chief minister had cited the examples of L K Advani and Sharad Yadav quitting following charge sheets against them in the Hawala case to emphasise that in case of an FIR or a charge sheet, the accused must come clean, he added.



Tyagi, however, said Kumar had not fixed any time-frame for Tejaswi to come clean.



On Tuesday, senior JD(U) leader Ramai Ram had said that a four-day time period, which expired today, was fixed for Tejaswi to give an explanation on the accusations.



Meanwhile, RJD spokesman Manoj Jha blamed the media for triggering the crisis in the Grand Alliance.



"After creating political turbulence, now a nameplate has been made a hero.... I give 100 out of 100 to the media," he said on Tejaswi skipping the function.



The acrimony between the JD(U) and the RJD seems to have reached a flashpoint with Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav today skipping a government function, which was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.The organisers initially covered the nameplate of Tejaswi, the special guest at the function whose seat was next to the chief minister's, but later removed it.The function was held to mark the World Youth Skill Day.The matter did not end here.Kumar, who was sitting next to Labour Resources Minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, subsequently swapped his seat with JD(U) minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, who was sitting on his right. This was seen as an attempt by the chief minister to maintain a distance with the RJD minister.The episode was captured in still as well as video cameras of the electronic media to show how the acrimony between the two Grand Alliance partners was growing with every passing day in the wake of the CBI registering an FIR against Tejaswi and others in connection with a land-for-hotels scam case.The developments on the dais at the newly-built Gyan Bhawan here came a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad rejected the possibility of his son Tejaswi putting in his papers, a move seen as being dismissive of the JD(U) putting pressure on the deputy chief minister to quit.When the reporters bombarded the chief minister with questions on Tejaswi skipping the function, he only smiled and extended skill day greetings to the scribes.Labour Minister Vijay Prakash, who is from the RJD, said, "I do not know why Tejaswiji did not come to the function."On Kumar "distancing" himself from Prakash, minister Jai Kumar Singh of the JD(U) claimed that the chief minister changed his seat to have a "better view" of the television screen.


Large-scale violence and arson took place in Kurseong town in the afternoon even as Army troops remained stationed in Darjeeling, Sonada and Kalimpong.



An Army column of around 50 personnel was deployed in Kalimpong on Monday night, while two columns were sent to Darjeeling and Sonada on Saturday last week.



Official sources said the district administration has extended the ban on Internet services till July 25. The ban was imposed on June 18.



Meanwhile, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the spearhead of the statehood agitation, rubbished the West Bengal government's allegation that it "has a tacit understanding with Maoists and is getting tactical support from them".



"The allegation levelled against us that we are getting support from Maoists is completely false. We challenge the state government to prove the allegation," GJM youth wing chief Prakash Gurung told reporters.



He also accused the state government and police administration of violating human rights in the hills.



Earlier in the day, GJM supporters took out a rally in the Chowkbazar area and shouted slogans in support of a separate Gorkhaland. Processions were also taken out by activists of several political parties dressed in traditional Nepali attire.



Police and security forces patrolled the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil on every entry and exit routes.



Except pharmacies, all the other shops, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges remained closed.



With food supply severely hit due to the shutdown, GJM activists and NGOs of the hills were seen distributing food items among the people.



A panchayat office was set on fire and a government vehicle was damaged at Kurseong in Darjeeling as the GJM-led indefinite strike demanding a separate state entered its 31th day today.


"Is there any evidence (for the actor) to prove that corruption prevails in various government departments. If so, let him prove it," the Municipal Administration minister told reporters here.



The minister also asked Haasan whether he was ready to furnish details of tax he had paid for his films.



The actor had reportedly said that there was corruption in various government departments in the state.



Velumani said the actor had never raised such allegations earlier. "It is of late that Haasan started talking about many things without any evidence.... he should collect details before talking about any topic."



Reacting to the allegation, AIADMK (Amma) leader and Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha M Thambidurai said there was nothing stopping Tamil superstar from approach the judiciary if he had any evidence.

Dismissing actor Kamal Haasan's allegations of corruption in the state government, Tamil Nadu minister S P Velumani today asked him to come out with evidence to prove his statement.


Praising the talent and hard working nature of Bihar's people, Kumar said that Biharis are not only contributing in Bihar's development rather they are also contributing and help running various parts of the country.



If they (Biharis) decide just for one day that they will not come (for a day), Delhi will come to a standstill, Kumar said and added that no one can do without Biharis.



During the programme, Nitish Kumar, who was sitting beside Labour Resources minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, swapped his seat with Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh who was sitting right to the CM, thus making a distance with the RJD minister.



Later, Industries minister and JD(U) leader Jai Kumar Singh said that the CM changed his seat in order to have better view of the screen (TV monitor) fitted in front of him.



Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's nameplate was there on the dais but later it was removed thus making it clear that the DyCM, who was special guest on the occasion, would not come.



Replying to a query posed by mediapersons, Jai Kumar Singh said that "I can not say as what was the circumstances in which he (Dy CM) did not come...Labour Resources Department organised the function and I can tell you about myself as I was invited to the function."



Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today emphasised on imparting skill development of youths who can immensely contribute to the development of both the state and the country."Bihar has the highest number of youths who are our capital. Bihar can not develop without the overall growth of youths," Kumar said while addressing at a function organised on the occasion of 'World Youth Skill Day' here."Youths' income will rise manifold if they are given training for the development of various skills and in turn, it will not only spur development of Bihar but also contribute in nation's growth," Kumar said.Stating that the state government has put 'skill development' programme of youths in the foreground of its agenda by including it in its 'seven resolve' programme, Kumar said that out of the seven resolves, two resolves are dedicated for youths development.There are one of the five components of 'Arthik Hal Yuvaon Ka Bal' programme enumerated in the seven resolves, he said and added that giving training for the development of various skills to youths one of them apart from student credit card, Rs 1000 monthly self help assistance for two years, wi- fi at universities and college campuses and venture capital fund.Bihar's youths are talented and hard working and if they are properly trained or imparted skills, they would get opportunities, he said.Stating that Bihar's youths have a complex due to their inability to speak English and operate basic computer skill, Kumar said the government has decided to impart its youths three types of skills - English and Hindi communication skill, computer skill and behavioural skill.Of the 1.13 lakh students who have registered themselves for availing various skill development training across the state since its launch on December 15, 2016, around 42,000 youths have availed training, the CM said.Merely 1978 students had enrolled themselves at 48 skill development centres across the state at the time of launch of the programme, he added.Kumar also talked about his government's commitment to build institutions in the state and how he had to put in efforts to build these institutions like IIT, Patna Centre of BIT Mesra, Chanakya National Law University, Chandragupt Institute of Management, NIFT, Arbhatta Knowledge University and various other medical and engineering colleges.As part of seven resolves, the state government is committed to set up an engineering college, ITI, women's ITI, GNM Institute in every district, he said and expressed hope that his efforts will reduce the number of students going outside the state to pursue higher education.
An Indian Army jawan was killed today in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Rajouri sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence spokesman said here.



Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said.



"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said.



There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas.

"In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries," he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.



"The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added.



On July 12, two Jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistani Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir.

Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shelling and firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district.



The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.
A CRPF officer was injured today when militants carried out a grenade attack in Kulgam district of south Kashmir, a police official said.



Unidentified militants hurled a grenade at a patrolling party of the CRPF in the main town of Kulgam, about 70 kms from here, the official said.



Quoting preliminary information, he said the grenade blast left Assistant Sub-Inspector Rajinder Singh injured.



The whole area was immediately cordoned off and a hunt was launched to nab the attackers, the official said.



The injured officer was shifted to a hospital.



No militant outfit has so far claimed responsbility for the incident.
A 25-year-old medical student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot who then tried to commit suicide at their flat in Bangladesh's northeastern port city of Chittagong, police said today.



Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on their fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area last night, the police said.



Sheikh, a final year student of the private University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.



Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.



"Four Indian medical students hired the apartment where one of them killed a fellow student and then attempted suicide," a police officer said.



Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, police said.



The four students hailed from Manipur, they said, adding that it appeared to be an incident of involuntary murder as a sequel of altercations between Singh and Sheikh.



Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body.



"The fellow residents of the apartment tried to save both of them by taking them first to the USTC Hospital and then the (state-run) Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where doctors declared Sheikh dead," said officer-in-charge of the city's Akbar Shah police station Alamgir Hossain.



Singh was being treated at the facility but his condition was critical, CMCH doctors said.
Uttar Pradesh government may have banned the consumption of betel and tobacco inside government offices and buildings in the state but the state lawmakers, it appears, themselves do not abide by the orders.



'Gutkha' (Pan Masala) and 'khaini' (raw tobacco) pouches were found under the seats of the legislators in the state assembly during a search on Saturday.



According to the sources, the vacant gutkha and raw tobacco pouches were stuck up between the cushion and the seat. It clearly showed that the legislators had been consuming these items inside the assembly building and even while taking part in the proceedings.



The sleuths from the NIA and UP ATS on Saturday conducted a thorough search operation in the assembly in their effort to look for clues with regard to the discovery of PETN ( (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), under the seat of an opposition party legislator on Wednesday.



Sources said that the explosive would be sent for -re-checking to the Forensic Science Laboratory at Hyderabad to ascertain not only its identity but also its intensity.



Police sources also said that the investigating agencies were likely to question some MLAs, including the one under whose seat the explosive was found.



The sleuths on Saturday questioned the sweepers and other staff members, who were deployed in the security of the house. The marshals were also quizzed, sources said.



Security was strengthened in the assembly building with additional security personnel deployed there. Bunkers were also set-up at different entry gates of the building.



A high-level meeting of the officials was also held here to discuss security threat to chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of the discovery of the explosive.



Adityanath had said on Friday that the incident might have been part of a conspiracy and that the terror angle could not be ruled completely.


Twice rejected for US visas, an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan arrived in Washington early today after an extraordinary, last-minute intervention by President Donald Trump.



The six-girl team and their chaperone completed their journey just after midnight from their hometown of Herat, Afghanistan, to enter their ball-sorting robot in the three- day high school competition starting tomorrow in the US capital.



Awaiting them at the gate at Washington Dulles International Airport were a US special envoy and Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, who described it as a rare moment of celebration for his beleaguered nation.



"Seventeen years ago, this would not have been possible at all," Mohib said in an interview. "They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict. These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community."



In the short time since their visa dilemma drew global attention, the girls' case has become a flashpoint in the debate about Trump's efforts to tighten entrance to the US, including from many majority-Muslim countries.



Afghanistan isn't included in Trump's temporary travel ban, but critics have said the ban is emblematic of a broader effort to put a chill on Muslims entering the US.



The girls' story has also renewed the focus on the longer-term US plans for aiding Afghanistan's future, as Trump's administration prepares a new military strategy that will include sending more troops to the country where the US has been fighting since 2001.



Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday the strategy was moving forward but "not finalised yet."



Trump's personal intervention earlier in the week using a rare "parole" mechanism to sidestep the visa system ended a dramatic saga in which the team twice traveled from their home in western Afghanistan through largely Taliban-controlled territory to Kabul, where their visa applications were denied twice.



The US won't say why the girls were rejected for visas, citing confidentiality. But Mohib said that based on discussions with US officials, it appears the girls were rebuffed due to concerns they would not return to Afghanistan.



It's a fate that has beset many Afghans seeking entry to the US in recent years as continuing violence and economic challenges lead many to seek asylum in America, or to travel through the US to Canada to try to resettle there.



As their case gained attention, Trump intervened by asking National Security Council officials to find a way for them to travel, officials said.



Ultimately the State Department, which adjudicates visa applications, asked the Homeland Security Department to let them in on "parole," a temporary status used only in exceptional circumstances to let in someone who is otherwise ineligible to enter the country.



The US granted parole after determining that it constituted a "significant public benefit."



Ambassador Alice Wells, the acting US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, downplayed concerns that the girls might use the parole to stay in the US or go to Canada.



As she drove to the airport to greet the girls, she said by phone that they were proud to represent Afghanistan and "proud to return to be role models to others around them."



Competing against entrants from more than 150 countries, the girls will present a robot they devised that can recognise blue and orange and sort balls into correct locations.
As the unofficial four-day deadline for Bihars Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav to clarify or quit ended on Saturday evening, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convened Janata Dal (United) legislators meeting here on Sunday.



The meeting, which has been scheduled at 4 pm tomorrow, is officially scheduled to hold parleys about the presidential poll, slated for July 17, but Nitish may use the occasion to firm up his strategy how to overcome the week-long deadlock over Tejashwi issue, which has shown no sign of abatement.



After Lalu Prasad, who on Friday night reiterated that he was bound by the resolution adopted by the RJD Legislature Party (RJDLP) meet which resolved that Tejashwi wont quit under any circumstances, the JD (U) issued a veiled threat to the RJD chief. Its time for Lalu ji to read the writing on the wall.... because its an undisputed fact that our leader Nitish Kumar wont compromise on the issue of corruption, said JD (U) chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh here on Saturday.



Though senior JD (U) leader KC Tyagi tried to downplay the issue and said Nitish never issued any deadline to Tejashwi, political observers here feel the showdown between Lalu and Nitish is heading towards an irreparable damage to the Grand Alliance.



The first sign of an uneasy relationship was evident on Saturday when Tejashwi did not turn up for a Government programme at Gyan Bhavan here where he was the guest of honour. His name plaque, which was earlier covered with a writing pad, was later removed when Nitish reached the dais at the Ashoka Convention Centre. In fact, Nitishs antipathy towards the RJD was quite palpable when he exchanged his chair which was next to RJD minister Vijay Prakash, Labour Minister in Bihar Government.



Assuming that it could make news, Nitish took a dig at media and said it was more interested in spicy news than reporting about Bihars positive stories.



Bihars Water Resources Minister Lallan Singh from JD (U) sat besides Vijay Prakash thereby prompting Nitish to clarify that he exchanged his chair because of strong breeze from AC.



The hostile relations and the frayed tempers, which have refused to cool down, may remain unchanged till the Presidential poll is over, said a source in the ruling party.
Top Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley on Saturday held discussions with a second set of political parties on China, assuring them that the government will use the diplomatic channels to defuse tension between both the countries.



The leaders, including former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, CPI National Secretary D Raja, Akali Dal's Naresh Gujral and RSP's N K Premachandran, also discussed the developments in Kashmir after presentations were made by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Home Secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba.



On Friday, government had spoken to leaders of 19 parties, including Congress, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena among others.



Leaders who attended the Saturday meeting said there was unanimous view in meeting that the government should negotiate with Chinese authorities to end the stand off in Doklam.



Sources said Gowda assured the government his support in dealing with China as well as Kashmir issue. "Everybody knows the impact of war. Whatever measures have to be taken (to defuse tension), we have discussed that," Gowda told reporters after the meeting.



"We asked govt to use all diplomatic and other channels to negotiate that stand off should not continue," Raja told DH. Sources said Raja also referred to the government's foreign police moves might have "irritated" China.



RSP's Premachandran told the meeting that the government should keep in mind that it is better to have good relations with neighbours rather than with far away countries. He also argued for concerted diplomatic efforts to mitigate tension with China.



On the Amarnath front, Gauba told the meeting that more than 200 additional companies of paramilitary and three additional battalions of army were provided for the yatra this year. The security arrangements have been reviewed regularly at the Centre and state level.



An official statement said all the parties condemned the Amarnath terror attack in which seven pilgrims were killed.
The National Investigation Agency today filed a charge sheet against ULFA anti-talk faction's UK-based 'chairman' Mukul Hazarika and Myanmar-based 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Baruah.



The charge sheet was filed before the special NIA court in Guwahati as per sanction by the Ministry of Home Affairs under Sections 45(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).



"The charge sheet has been filed against three persons -- Mukul Hazarika alias Abhijit Asom alias Abhijit Barman, Paresh Baruah alias Paresh Asom alias Kamruj Zaman Khan and Gagan Hazarika alias Joydeep Cheleng," a source said.



Gagan was arrested earlier, while Mukul and Baruah have been declared absconders by the NIA.



"The NIA has collected sufficient materials, technical as well as circumstantial evidences, against the accused persons during the course of investigation and established the allegations against each accused persons," the source said.



The charge sheet mentioned that accused Baruah has been absconding in Myanmar and Mukul, who is a doctor, is an absconder based in the United Kingdom.



"The NIA has declared them as absconders and further course of action as per law is being initiated. It has also submitted a prayer to continue with the investigation against Drishti Rajkhowa and other senior leaders of the ULFA," another source said.



The case against Baruah and others were registered on December 30, 2013 charging them with trying to revive terrorist activities by recruiting new cadres, organising terrorist camps within and beyond Indian boundaries, extortion and kidnapping to raise funds.



The anti-talk faction of ULFA was also charged with attacking Indian security forces, government establishments and infrastructure, thereby intending to wage war against the government of India, the sources said.



"The case was registered on a direction of the MHA, dated December 5, 2013. The case was registered at NIA Branch Office, Guwahati, under various sections the IPC and the UA(P) Act on suomotu basis," they added.
It is for the first time that Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has accused China of meddling in the state. Mehbooba's assertion of China's role comes after the state seeing a daring terrorist attack on the Amarnath yatra pilgrims, claiming seven lives.



The attack may not have had anything directly to do with China. But it was the worst attack on the annual pilgrimage since the year 2001, which appears to have brought about a big change in Mehbooba's approach and style.



Mehbooba rushed to the aid of the victims and their families, saying "this incident is a blot on all Kashmiris and Muslims. We will not keep quite till we bring the culprits to book." Central officials saw her style was a "hands-on approach" in handling the aftermath of the incident.



The last time the Amarnath yatra was targeted was in 2001 when terrorists had struck in the Sheshnag area close to the holy cave of Amarnath, killing 13 people. Prior to that, terrorists had attack Amarnath pilgrims on August 1, 2000 in Pahalgam area, killing 30 people, who also included porters.



By naming China, Mehbooba has conveyed that her party sees eye-to-eye now with the Centre on the evolving situation in the Kashmir Valley. Her assertion on China came after it said was ready to negotiate between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, an offer that was promptly rejected by New Delhi.



The rare Chinese comments on the Kashmir issue itself was seen as a follow-up to what a Chinese analyst wrote in the state-run Global Times. Long Xingchun, Director at the Centre for Indian Studies at China West Normal University, had said in an article that a "third country's" Army could enter Kashmir at Pakistan's request, using the "logic" the Indian Army used to stop the Chinese military from constructing the road in Doklam area.



What has irked India is that China has defended Pakistan at every single forum when it has been identified as the biggest source of terrorism in Kashmir. China has blocked India's attempt at the UN for sanctions against Jash-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, who has allegedly masterminded several terror attacks in India.



India has objected to China building China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC), which passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. India considers the project as China's interference in India's sovereignty and territorial integrity.



Mehbooba's reaction now is seen as a contrast to her remarks in March this year when she came out in support of the CPEC, saying its time to move beyond border skirmishes to be partners in economic growth.




China has been keen on establishing diplomatic relations with Bhutan and even offered to drop its territorial claim on the himalayan kingdoms northern areas, if allowed to open its embassy in Thimphu.



Though Bhutan does not have diplomatic relations with China or any of the four other members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Beijing has, of late, added fresh momentum in its efforts to open up an embassy in Thimphu  a move New Delhi has been closely monitoring.



Beijings renewed move to warm up to Thimphu started months before Chinas Peoples Liberation Army came to Doklam Plateau along the disputed India-Bhutan border and started building a road, brushing off protests by the Royal Bhutanese Army.



Luo Zhaohui, Chinese Ambassador to India, visited Thimphu in January and met King Jigme Singhye Wangchuk of Bhutan and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay.



He was quoted by Kuensel (the national newspaper of the kingdom) as saying that he had conveyed to them Beijings keenness to expand China-Bhutan relations.



He also told Kuensel that China was keen to resolve the boundary dispute with Bhutan as soon as possible.




The Uttar Pradesh government may have banned consumption of betel and tobacco inside government offices and buildings in the state, but the state lawmakers, it appears, themselves do not abide by the orders.



Gutkha (pan masala) and khaini (raw tobacco) pouches were found under the seats of the legislators in the Assembly during a search on Saturday.



According to the sources, the empty pouches were stuck up between the cushion and the seat. It clearly showed that the legislators had been consuming these items inside the Assembly building and even while taking part in the proceedings. The sleuths from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and UP Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Saturday conducted a thorough search operation in the Assembly in their effort to look for clues with regard to the discovery of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), under the seat of an Opposition party legislator on Wednesday.



Sources said the explosive would be sent for re-checking to the Forensic Science Laboratory at Hyderabad to ascertain not only its identity, but also its intensity.



Police sources also said the investigating agencies were likely to question some MLAs, including the one under whose seat the explosive was found.



The sleuths on Saturday questioned the sweepers and other staff members, who were deployed in the security of the house. The marshals were also quizzed, sources said.



Security was strengthened in the Assembly building with additional security personnel deployed there. Bunkers were also set-up at different entry gates of the building.



A high-level meeting of the officials was held here to discuss security threat to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the wake of the discovery of the explosive.



Adityanath had said on Friday that the incident might have been part of a conspiracy and that the terror angle could not be ruled out completely.
The political crisis in Bihar deepened on Saturday with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, facing CBI charges, skipping a government function attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.



The latest sign of an uneasy relationship became evident when Tejashwi did not turn up for the programme at Gyan Bhavan here.



His name plaque, which was covered with a writing pad, was removed when Nitish came to the dais at the Ashoka Convention Centre. In fact, Nitishs antipathy towards the RJD was quite palpable when he exchanged his chair, which was next to Labour Minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash.



Water Resources Minister Lallan Singh from JD (U) sat beside Vijay Prakash, prompting Nitish to clarify that he exchanged his chair because of the strong breeze from AC.



The function was held to mark the World Youth Skills Day. The episode gave an indication of how the acrimony between the two Grand Alliance partners was growing in the wake of the CBI registering an FIR against Tejashwi, Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and five others, following raids in connection with a land-for-hotels scam case.



With the unofficial four-day deadline for Tejashwi to clarify or quit ending on Saturday evening, Nitish has convened a meeting of JD (U) legislators here on Sunday.



The JD (U) Legislature Party (JDULP) meeting, which has been convened at 4 pm at the Chief Ministers official residence, is scheduled to hold parleys about the presidential poll, slated for July 17, but Nitish may use the occasion to firm up his strategy to overcome the deadlock over Tejashwi issue.


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Police are hunting a gang of youths that attacked a man in broad daylight after he refused to hand over his mobile phone.

The incident happened as the man was sitting on a bench on Harrow Street in the Wilmorton area of Derby on Friday, June 23, between 10.30am and 11am.

Four youths approached him and demanded that he hand over the phone. When he refused, he was assaulted.

A spokesman for Derbyshire police said: "They were all described as wearing dark-coloured clothing, gloves and hats and had their faces covered."

Anyone with information is asked to contact DC Jennifer Casey on 101 quoting reference number 17000265256. Alternatively, people can send her a message online by visiting the contact us section of the Derbyshire police website www.derbyshire.police.uk/contact-us .

People can also give information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555111.
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The following motorists have recently been convicted at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court of the following offences:

Airon Clarke, 24, of Chesapeake Road, Chaddesden, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 15.

Linu Costica, 28, of Dale Road, Normanton, was fined 440, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 44 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with three penalty points for driving with an illegal tyre in Princes Street, Normanton, on October 20.

Jenna Foy, 30, of Summer Fields Drive, Midway, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had her licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 1.

Hayley Gee, 37, of Lady Lea Road, Horsley, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had her licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 2.

Samuel Holders, 24, of Sweetbriar Close, Alvaston, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after January 11.

Danny Hrustic, 18, of Sutherland Road, Derby, was fined 220 and was ordered to pay 85 costs for driving while not wearing a seat belt in Normanton Road, Normanton, on October 18.

Hayley Humberstone, 29, of Luton Road, Church Gresley, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 6.

Ross McBlane, 40, of Pym Leys, Sawley, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after November 17.

Ceire Mullins, 19, of Donington Drive, Derby, was fined 40 and was ordered to pay 85 costs and a 30 victim surcharge for driving while not wearing a seat belt in Riverside Road, Derby, on October 20.

Fawod Obaidi, 38, of Clarence Road, Derby, was fined 220, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 30 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with three penalty points for driving while using a mobile phone in Osmaston Park Road, on October 19.

Barbara Pegg, 46, of Windmill Street, Church Gresley, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had her licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on January 11.

Patrick Satchwell, 46, of Willn Street, Pear Tree, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 6.

Parmjit Singh, 33, of Balfour Road, Derby, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 cost, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after December 13.

Adrian Swatton, 38, of Athol Close, Sinfin, was fined 220 and was ordered to pay 85 costs and a 30 victim surcharge for driving while not wearing a seat belt in Normanton Road, Normanton, on October 20.

Nameq Taraj, 45, of Midland Road, Swadlincote, was fined 220, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 30 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with three penalty points for speeding at 37mph in a 30mph limit in Burton Road, Woodville, on October 20.

Iwona Tobiasz, 26, of Matthew Street, Derby, was fined 220, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 30 victim surcharge and had her licence endorsed with three penalty points for driving while using a mobile phone in Normanton Road, Normanton, on October 20.

Simon Willmer, 32, of Erewash Square, Ilkeston, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after November 30.

Daniel Wodecki, 26, of Wilkins Drive, Allenton, was fined 660, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 66 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or after January 3.

Richard Magee, 32, of Shalfleet Drive, Alvaston, was fined 440, was ordered to pay 85 costs, a 44 victim surcharge and had was disqualified from driving for six months for failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver alleged to be guilty of an offence on or about October 17.
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The government and major opposition parties on Friday arrived at a consensus on India's position on the stand-off with China, ahead of Parliament's monsoon session, even as the government faced tough questions on the delay in resolving the dispute. The meeting was held in response to the opposition leaders' call for using ''active diplomatic channels'', and reach out to the opposition parties and some of its allies to build a consensus on the border standoff. During the meeting, the government said India had been forced to respond to unilateral actions by China and that the government was acting with restraint. However, it was necessary to halt the Chinese advance as it would have seriously threatened India's strategic interests at the tri-junction and the road link between West Bengal and Assam, it was pointed out. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, finance minister Arun Jaitley and minister of home affairs Rajnath Singh presented government's views on the issue. While both the government and the opposition agreed on the need to engage in negotiations to ease the tension in the Doklam region of the Sikkim sector, all major opposition parties have backed the action of Indian troops in stalling a Chinese attempt to build a road through Bhutanese territory. However, CPM leader Yechuri struck a dissenting note saying that India should cultivate China rather than the United States to avoid inviting Chinese ire. On the other hand, most opposition leaders were supportive of the Indian position that China has violated the commitments arrived at through the special representatives' dialogue. Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former defence minister, even cautioned government that China had betrayed Nehru and would behave similarly with the NDA government if it let its guard down. NCP leader Sharad Pawar, also a former defence minister, said India advised patience in resolving the face-off, rather avoiding any hasty actions. During the interaction, foreign secretary S Jaishankar explained that the Chinese claim to the territory near the Sikkim-Tibet-Bhutan tri-junction and its invocation of the 1890 Britain-China agreement as misleading. He quoted from a letter written by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959 to belie the Chinese claim that India's first PM had accepted the 1890 treaty over Sikkim approving Beijing's claim on the Doklam area. "All political parties expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity," the official spokesperson said after the meeting. The statement underlined the need for diplomacy while also iterating support for Bhutan. "The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined... The unique nature of the very close and longstanding India-Bhutan relationship was recognised," the spokesperson said. The meeting also discussed issues related to the recent terrorist attack on Amarnath yatris and the situation in the Kashmir Valley with some opposition leaders like Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad and Yechury suggesting the government open dialogue with stake-holders








A series of projects, interviews and exhibitions offer an insight into African cultural scene.
Sinn Fein Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty, TD, has welcomed the passing of his Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland (Amendment) Bill 2014, which ends the blanket six-year rule that prevented consumers from making a complaint against financial institutions if six years had elapsed.

Thousands of people will now be free to re-apply to the Financial Services Ombudsman to have their case heard if they suspect wrongdoing on the part of financial institutions.

This is the first opposition bill to pass this Dail that was initiated by a member of the opposition, Deputy Doherty said.

Thousands of people each year who are prevented from pursuing allegations of wrongdoing against financial institutions will now be allowed access to justice through the Financial Services Ombudsman," Deputy Doherty said. "Figures from the ombudsmans office show up to a thousand people every year are barred from the process because of the six-year rule. We know that thousands more have not applied because they had been advised that the six-year rule would apply.

This rule only operated to the benefit of the banks and other financial institutions who were shielded from investigation by it if the complaint related to something that happened more than six years ago," he said. My legislation will now redress that imbalance, with consumers empowered to make a complaint within three years of becoming aware of possible wrongdoing.

Critically, thousands of people previously refused access to the process will now be allowed resubmit their complaint because the legislation is retrospective in nature. As soon as the bill is signed into law those thousands of people can re-apply," the Gaoth Dobhair-based deputy said.

He commended the work of the Free Legal Advice Centre and their senior policy analyst, Paul Joyce, whose work in drafting the report, Redressing the Imbalance, formed the basis of this new law.

The deputy said he will monitor the resources available to the ombudsman and will push for further resourcing, if necessary, to deal with new cases.
The Donegal Democrat has been informed of the following deaths:

- Isobel Dickson (nee Fisher), 7 Rosemount Terrace, Letterkenny

- Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan

- Maurice Bonar, Douglas, Cork / Convoy

- Connell OGara, Carrick Lower

Isobel Dickson (nee Fisher), 7 Rosemount Terrace, Letterkenny

The peaceful death has taken place of Isobel Dickson (nee Fisher), 7 Rosemount Terrace, Letterkenny and formerly Ramelton.

Isobels remains will repose at her home 7, Rosemount Terrace, Letterkenny from 2pm tomorrow, Sunday 16th July.

Funeral from there on Tuesday, 18th July, going to Conwal Parish Church for Service of Thanksgiving at 2pm with burial afterwards in the family plot in New Leck Cemetery.

Flowers welcome or donations if desired to St Josephs Community Hospital Comfort Fund c/o Paschal Blake, funeral director, Stoney Arch, New Line Road, Letterkenny.

Family time please from 10pm until 11am and also on the morning of the funeral.

Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan

The death has taken place of Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan.

Reposing at her late residence from Friday, July 14th. Funeral Mass in St Joseph's Church, Rathmullan at 12.30pm, on Sunday, followed by burial afterwards in Rathmullan Cemetery.

Family time please, from 11pm until 11am and also on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only. Donations, if desired, to the Donegal Hospice.

Maurice Bonar, Douglas, Cork / Convoy

The death has taken place, peacefully, at Cork University Hospital, of Maurice Bonar, Douglas Cork/Convoy.

Lying in repose at the Temple Hill Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road of Jerh OConnor Ltd. Reposing from 3pm on Saturday, followed by Rosary and removal at 5pm to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Ballinlough.

Requiem Mass at 12 noon on Monday. Funeral afterwards to the Island Crematorium, Ringaskiddy. House private please.

Connell OGara, Carrick Lower

The death has occurred at St. James Hospital, Dublin of Connell OGara, late of Carrick Lower.

Remains leaving Corrigan's Funeral Home, 5 Lower Camden Street, Dublin at 2pm on Friday, 14th July, to arrive at his late residence for 7pm.

Removal on Sunday morning to St Columba's Church, Carrick, for funeral Mass at 11am with burial immediately afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.

Family flowers only please. Donations if desired to the cardiology unit, Letterkenny University Hospital, and these can be made through Curran's Funeral Services or any family member.

If you wish to have a death notice included here, email us at editorial@donegaldemocrat.com. Please include a telephone number for verification.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, R-FL, met with local officials and concerned citizens Friday morning, in the Jackson County Administration building in Marianna.

During the brief stop, Nelson, who will likely have a tough reelection fight ahead if Gov. Rick Scott decides to challenge him in 2018, discussed his and others concerns with the Springhill Landfill deep injection well Waste Management has proposed in Campbellton.
Jim Cook

Dothan mayor Mike Schmitz will hold a rally Saturday formally announcing his entry into the race for Dothan City School Board chairman.

Schmitz announced he was seeking the office about a month ago via social media. At the rally, Schmitz will discuss his motivations for running and his plans for the school system if elected. The rally will be held at the Dothan Civic Center from 10 a.m. to noon.

Schmitz said Friday that he is running for school board chairman because he believes his experience as a business owner and a two-term mayor make him a good candidate to lead the board. Schmitz said he hopes to provide leadership that will help students succeed in the modern workforce.

We want to help the kids who like to work with their hands come out of school with the skills needed to work at Commercial Jet and we want to help the kids who want to go to Harvard, he said.

Funding for the Dothan City Schools, like most school districts in Alabama, has been a perennial problem. Schmitz said that the city school system will have to live within its means and create positive results before asking the community for additional funding.

Dothan has about 9,000 students in the public school system and about 2,400 attending private school. When asked how he would convince a community with a sizable segment of its school-age population uninvolved in public school to support public schools, Schmitz said its a matter of showing them its in their best interests.

Schmitz is the owner of Mike Schmitz Automotive Group, which includes Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Tri-State Off-Road franchises in Dothan. He was elected mayor in 2009, capturing an unprecedented 86 percent of the vote. He was unopposed for re-election in 2013.
#football Injured star Son Heung-min named to S. Korean World Cup squad The injured South Korean football star Son Heung-min was named to the country's World Cup squad Saturday, as the football-crazed nation waits with bated breath to see if the belove...
(Photo:  Peter Kenny)Women pray at their section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Feb. 11, 2016.

An Israeli government decision to shelve a plan that would have allowed women to pray with men at the iconic Western Wall in Jerusalem has triggered acrimony from Jewish groups in Israel and the United States.

The Jewish Agency, a prominent group of Jewish leaders, cancelled a gala event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protest his government's decision to scrap its plans for a mixed-gender prayer area the Western Wall, The Associated Press reports.

The heads of the Reform Jewish movement in the United States and in Israel also called off a planned meeting with Netanyahu, underlining the degree of anger the move has evoked in Israel and abroad, The Financial Times reported.

The board of governors of The Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that works closely with the Israeli government to serve Jewish communities worldwide, said June 26 it was calling off its dinner with Netanyahu.

It also altered the agenda of some of its meetings to address what is seen as a crisis that has set off widespread criticism.

The Israeli government is also drawing bitter flak from some American Jewish groups for scrapping the compromise agreement that would have created an area for women and men to pray together along the Wall, USA Today reported.

The Wall is one of Judaism's most holy sites, but prayers have historically been segregated with a small area of the Wall is reserved for women.

CONSERVATIVE AND REFORM JEWS AT LOGGERHEADS

Conservative and Reform Jews have been at loggerheads over the issue for decades and a deal forged more than a year ago to ease the rules along the Wall, or Kotel as it is known, has been repetitively stalled by Orthodox leaders.

The New York-based American Jewish Committee said it is "deeply disappointed" in the government's decision and its CEO, David Harris, lashed out at Orthodox leaders who have held a grip on Wall operations.

The move reflects an unprecedented gulf that has erupted between Israel and the Jewish diaspora over how Judaism can be practiced in Israel said USA Today.

"Netanyahu has a constituency of one, and that's Netanyahu," said Susan Silverman, a rabbi and member of the board of Women of the Wall, a group that was pushing for mixed-gender prayer, according to the Financial Times.

"What he wants to do is stay in power, and he will do any disgusting thing to stay in power."

Yair Sheleg head of the religion-State program at the Israel Democracy Institute said, "The ultra-Orthodox parties are considered to be the most stable part of the coalition, and if you satisfy their religious demands, they are with you."
(Photo:  Peter Kenny / Ecumenical NEews)The Al-Aqsa Mosque in the al-Haram ash-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary"), or the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism on 9 February 2016.

The World Council of Churches has condemned an attack in Jerusalem, during which two Israeli police officers were killed, three attackers were shot and killed, and other people were injured.

WCC acting general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri condemned the July 14 attack and expressed condolences, reaching out with prayers for those who lost loved ones due to the most recent violence as well as recurring violence in the same area.

"I condemn this attack as a cruel act in a place that is holy to many people. We stand with you in prayer and in sadness," said Phiri, "and we continue to work very hard and pray very hard for a just peace in Palestine and Israel."

The Israeli policemen were shot by three Israeli Arabs close to the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), the BBC reported.

Police chased the attackers into the site and shot them dead.

There has been a wave of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings of Israelis predominantly by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs since late 2015.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attack by three assailants in the Old City of Jerusalem in which two Israeli Police officers were killed and another injured.

"This incident has the potential to ignite further violence. All must act responsibly to avoid escalation," he said.

Guterres said his thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, and he wishes a speedy recovery to the injured.

He also welcomed the swift condemnation of the attack by Palestinian President Abbas and the assurances by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem will be respected.

"The sanctity of religious sites should be respected as places for reflection, not violence," said Guterres.
Sukumar Muralidharan writes:

Israels Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made a habit of using the public lectern to berate everybody who may question his monopoly over morality and wisdom. The foreign minister of Ireland was at the receiving end of his didactic zeal most recently, for the sin of his governments assistance to the besieged people of Gaza. On an earlier occasion, he brusquely refused a meeting with the visiting German foreign minister, for his insistence on meeting with Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli military personnel who have been cataloguing the unending crimes of the occupation of Palestine.
draga said: A few more questions, Bev. When would we need to provide the documents you mention and to whom? Since I would be "joining him", will he need to move to France before me, or can we move together? What would he need to do when he arrives to let someone know he plans to retire there?



Thanks. Click to expand...

Actually, it's one of the simpler "immigration" processes in France. - unless you get a particularly unpleasant clerk at the prefecture and/or manage to inadvertently honk him or her off. https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F19315 is the Service Public information in French. (Good practice for your French!)But in a nutshell, you enter France just like you were a tourist (on a Schengen "stamp in the passport" visa). Within three months (safer if you do it within the first two months you are there), you go to the prefecture in your departement and ask about applying for a carte de sejour as the spouse of an EU national. (If you're lucky, the prefecture website will have the information you need. Otherwise, you usually have to go in person to get the info. Getting this sort of thing by phone can be a hassle.)Usually, you make an appointment (often online) and they should tell you the documents you need to bring with you. (These things always vary a bit from one prefecture to the next. Part of the "charm" of France.) Normally it is i.d.s for both of you, proof of nationality for both of you (may be your i.d.s or passports), proof of your marriage, proof of your place of residence, proof of the EU national's status (i.e. source of income), and proof that you both have health insurance. The "status" stuff in your case would be some proof of his pension - perhaps the award statement and/or a recent statement of payment of the pension (ideally into a French bank account - so that may be the first thing to do on your list on arrival).As long as your husband's EU nationality isn't French, you're good to go. The spouse of a French national has to do the visa route - and that includes getting your marriage registered in his French birth record. But I'm assuming from what you've said that he isn't French.Cheers,Bev
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Trump campaign digital adviser Brad Parscale has voluntarily agreed to an interview with the U.S. House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election, he announced Friday on Twitter.

Parscale, who co-owns a San Antonio firm that does web design and digital marketing and who served as President Donald Trumps digital director last year, said the presidential campaign used the same online marketing strategies as corporate America and that he wasnt aware of any Russian involvement in the digital and data operations.

I have accepted a request from the House Intelligence Committee to meet with them for a voluntary interview, and I look forward to sharing with them everything I know, Parscale said in a statement he posted to Twitter.

Parscale is still very much a part of the presidents orbit, currently serving as the digital, social and media adviser for the 2020 presidential campaign and the nonprofit supporting Trumps agenda, America First Policies. His firm, Giles-Parscale, has already received more than $1.5 million from the campaign in the first quarter of this year, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission data.

McClatchy reported this week that investigators with the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Justice Department are looking into whether Parscales digital operation, overseen by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, helped guide Russias sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Investigators are looking specifically at whether the campaign showed Russian cyber operatives key voting jurisdictions where they saw that support for Clinton was unexpectedly weak, according to McClatchy, which cited several people familiar with the parallel inquiries.

Donald Trump Jr., the presidents oldest son, released emails via Twitter on Tuesday that confirmed that he met last year with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin, a session that held the promise of providing damaging information about Democratic candidate Clinton. The subject of the email chain was Russia - Clinton - private and confidential.

President Trump confirmed that the meeting took place, and he downplayed the issue at a joint news conference Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace in Paris.

My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer  not a government lawyer, a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very very quickly, very fast, he said, adding that most people would have taken that meeting. Its called opposition research.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials had overheard conversations regarding meetings outside the U.S. with Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers beginning as early as spring 2015  before the campaign.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Parscale has repeatedly rejected the idea that the campaigns digital operation colluded with Russia. He denied in May that his work on the campaign was intertwined in any way, shape or form with alleged Russian operatives to use social media to influence the election.

Absolutely not, Parscale said on Fox News The Story with Martha MacCallum at the time. He emphasized that the Trump campaign got the data it used in the U.S.

In the United States, we actually have access to some of the best data, and the data we used on this campaign directly came from the Republican National Committee and what they did after the 2012 election to build a data set like never seen before, Parscale said. We didnt need data, we didnt need it from anyone else, it was right here in the United States of America, and the best data is right here.

sehlinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @samehlinger
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Gov. Greg Abbott, saying he has kept the promises he made when he launched his first campaign for governor here, returned to the Alamo City on Friday to ask voters to give him four more years so he can take on the liberals trying to make Texas inroads.

To keep Texas the very best state in the United States, Im running for re-election, Abbott told an enthusiastic crowd at The Depot in Sunset Station. Ive proven that Im willing to take on the liberals, Im willing to take on Washington, D.C., and Im counting on you to have my back.

Vocal protesters among the crowd were led out of the hall before the governor spoke; Shannon Perez of the protest group Indivisible said three people were detained and released. One heckler briefly interrupted Abbotts speech but was drowned out by supporters chanting Abbotts name.

He doesnt look out for the disenfranchised, for the minorities and the poor, said George de la Garza of San Antonio, a retired architect who was among a small group of demonstrators across the street from the venue before the event.

Abbott said he wants to build on a first term that has included tax reductions, Child Protective Services reform, support for veterans, protection of religious liberties, education initiatives, an expansion of gun rights, restrictions on abortion, road construction and an emphasis on border security.

He touted the controversy-stirring sanctuary cities bill he signed into law this year, which critics fear will lead to racial profiling, and he invoked the memory of slain San Antonio Police Officer Miguel Moreno in citing new police protections.

Looking ahead, Abbott said hell push to cut property taxes, reform school finance and provide school choice  a term that refers to providing state financial support for students to attend private school.

He said he wants to do more to protect our vulnerable unborn children, such as ensuring that local governments arent providing financial backing for abortions, and to keep Texans safe, including through fighting human trafficking.

Abbott  accompanied by his wife, Cecilia, and introduced by their daughter, Audrey  talked about his ties to San Antonio, where his wife grew up and where his brother, who served in the Navy, has retired.

Its great to be back in a town where I once waited on tables. Its great to be back in a town where I married my wonderful wife. And it is great to be back in a town where I launched my first campaign for governor, where we went on to win by 20 percentage points, Abbott said.

His re-election announcement came just days before the start of a special legislative session that includes a red-meat proposal that would keep transgender people from using the restrooms aligned with their gender identity in public buildings, or at least in schools.

Business interests, Democrats and some Republicans  including House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio  oppose the bathroom bill. They say it will target a vulnerable population and potentially damage Texas economy because its viewed as discriminatory and could prompt boycotts.

Some also raised an eyebrow when Texas fell from No. 1 to No. 4 in CNBCs annual ranking of America's Top States for Business. Abbott cited the downturn in oil, saying the state also was praised in several key areas.

More broadly, Abbott is faulted by those who say he hasnt pushed enough to ensure opportunity for all Texans, citing long-standing problems including inadequate access to health care, schools that are struggling to keep up with a growing population of students with special needs, and cutbacks to some programs such as one that provides therapy to children with disabilities.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts lousy first term has proved to us one thing: He is the weakest governor in Texas history. His destructive agenda has put our families in peril, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said.

Abbott, who has a campaign kitty topping $34 million and counting, isnt expected to have a serious opponent in the GOP primary. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a conservative firebrand, announced for re-election early this year to fight rumors that he might challenge Abbott.

Democrats havent yet announced a gubernatorial candidate. Wendy Davis, then a Democratic senator, lost to Abbott by more than 20 percentage points in 2014. Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said the organization is talking to a number of great leaders.

Thats the million-dollar question, said Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, when asked who Democrats will put up against Abbott. Probably the several-million-dollar question, because its going to take some significant resources.

I hate to say he has a failing grade, but I would certainly say its incomplete when you look at the priorities of Texans, including school finance reform, Rodriguez said.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said she believes that Abbott has earned another term.

I certainly think he has earned another term because he has worked very well with the Republican Party base and with the Republican Party as a whole, and he has also been very effective on nonpartisan issues and working in a bipartisan way, she said.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
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NEW BRAUNFELS  Residents of the Copper Ridge subdivision off Texas 46 have a dilemma.

Neighborhood rules set in 2008 require every house to have some lawn grass and a sprinkler system, both of which typically drive up water use.

But as more homes were built, outdoor water use soared, enough to cause such a severe shortage that by last weekend the residents had to stop all watering and, for their health and safety, boil water for every in-house use.

The neighborhood faces the same predicament as large swaths of rapidly growing Texas and the semi-arid Western U.S. As demand for water outstrips local supplies, residents and developers have to grapple with whether their choice of landscapes is sustainable.

At a meeting Thursday night with New Braunfels Utilities about the water crisis, some Copper Ridge residents said they would love to have a xeriscaped yard that would need far less water, or none at all, if only it was permitted.

The building covenants at Copper Ridge call for a well-balanced mix of mature trees, shrubs and lawn grass and an automatic sprinkler system to be built within 90 days of a houses completion. Rock features can make up no more than 10 percent of the front yard, though it also states: Drought resistant grass and plants are preferred.

In an email, Copper Ridge resident Benton Zwart said he tried unsuccessfully to submit a landscaping plan without lawn grass.

But threatened with legal action for failure to comply, we were forced to add water-hogging turf grass and inefficient sprinkler irrigation to our landscape, he said, adding that he was able to use xeriscaping and drip irrigation in other parts of his yard.

NBU officials admitted Thursday that they had seen the water problem coming since 2015.

Developed by Southerland Communities starting in 2007, the neighborhood includes 576 platted lots, NBU chief engineer of water systems Michael Short said. To date, 314 homes are connected to the water supply. Lots are one or two acres, and the houses must be at least 2,400 square feet.

The subdivision is isolated from the rest of the NBU system. It is supplied by two Trinity Aquifer wells, with the water stored in an elevated 500,000-gallon tank and another 20,000-gallon tank below ground. NBU took over the system in a cost-sharing agreement with the developer in 2013.

At the time of design in 2007, the developer planned for each lot to use a maximum of 576 gallons per day, higher than the typical lot use of 400 gallons per day, Short said.

Actual use turned out to be much higher  1,200 gallons per day.

I dont think that at the time this development was being processed through the system, anyone would have recognized the water usage out there in the summer time, Short said.

In 2015, NBU came up with a long-term plan to build a water main along Texas 46 to hook Copper Ridge to the main system, but that project wont be completed until 2019.

By 2016, NBU officials realized that water wouldnt come soon enough to meet the rising demand in the expanding neighborhood. At the same time, Southerland Communities was planning to add 150 more lots, Short said.

The two parties reached a deal in May to add another well. But in the meantime, outdoor watering climbed so high and so fast this summer that the shortage hit the critical stage last week.

Over three days, water use had spiked to 1,800 gallons a day per house. NBU ordered a halt to outdoor watering for 72 hours and sent out the boil-water notice.

In response, the Copper Ridge Homeowners Association put a moratorium on new landscaping until Sept. 30.

Now that the boil-water order is lifted and the supply has recovered somewhat, conversation at the neighborhood meeting turned to what can be done in the future.

A few residents told NBU officials that the utility should have planned to supply the neighborhood with enough water for them to use 1,200 gallons per day, arguing that their large lots and homes need that much.

That kind of use might be possible when NBU connects the neighborhood to the main system in 2019, though homeowners will have to pay a premium for it. Water bills for 1,200 gallons per day outside the city limits are more than $145 per month, not including service charges or any other fees.

Charlie Patterson, chairman and CEO of Southerland Communities, said he did not think the building rules are what led to the high water use.

There has been a lot more use there because theres a lot of new homes being built at one time, he said. Theres a lot more people trying to get their landscapes going.

Asked if he thought a shortage could happen again, Patterson said, I really dont think so, not with the new well coming in.

Short said the best short-term fix is reducing water use in the neighborhood overall.

At some point, the system has to be reasonable  and this subdivision exceeds the amount that at the wildest guess we would have estimated, he said.

By the end of the meeting, some residents were calling for changes to the neighborhood covenant. That included John Hoehne Sr., chair of the homeowners associations five-member Architectural Control Committee.

Its not a country-club atmosphere out here; this is the Hill Country, Hoehne said. The covenant, the way its written is for someplace like the Midwest or the East Coast, somewhere you can have those lush lawns year-round.

He called for changes to the covenant so homeowners could create landscapes more compatible with the Hill Country though he stressed that the committee would not tell residents to tear up their existing yards.

The problem, Hoehne said, is that changing the covenant requires a 66 percent vote of all members. Getting that many people in a room, he said, is difficult.

bgibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
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WASHINGTON  Once a fringe player in the U.S. Senate, Ted Cruz has taken center stage as one of the pivotal figures in the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Its been a long journey.

The latest version of the contentious Republican health care bill still faces many lingering doubts from the right and left. But Cruzs Freedom Option to allow insurers to sell cheap, bare-bones policies alongside heavily-regulated Obamacare plans has emerged as a potential game-changer.

Hailed on the right as a much sought-after marketplace reform, the Cruz amendment has run into stiff resistance from Democrats and some Republicans who see it as an end-run around popular consumer safeguards, including protections for pre-existing medical conditions.

Cruz calls it a compromise. But among the skeptics is Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican in the Senate, who called it a potential subterfuge.

The Medicaid rollbacks in the Republican bill also remain a major sticking point, particularly for GOP moderates from states that expanded the poverty program under Obamacare.

But Cruz has chosen to focus  like a laser, he says  on the regulatory front that most excites conservatives: Obamacares insurance requirements for comprehensive essential benefits such as doctor visits, prescription drug coverage, pregnancy and childbirth, and mental health services.

Cruzs prescription: Allow insurers that sell plans that comply with Obamacare dictates to also sell lower-cost plans that cover less. He calls it the key to bringing Republicans together and getting repeal passed.

Critics, including the main lobbying group for the insurance industry, say that while Cruzs plan sounds like a compromise, it would actually mean the end of the Obamacare insurance marketplace  and some suspect thats his real motive.

We know how this will play out, Houston Democrat Gene Green said in a House floor speech Thursday. Healthy people would pick the skimpier plan and sicker people would enroll in the more robust plan  Separating the sick and healthy will drive up costs and essentially lead to a death spiral.

Cruz has acknowledged this market segmentation, calling it an understandable policy concern. But he argues that in exchange for healthy people getting lower premium costs on his freedom plans, hes willing to accept direct taxpayer health-care subsidies for the poor, the old and the sick  including money to help insurers cover the costs.

Some analysts see this as a sea-change in conservative ideology, considering that House Republicans have gone to court to challenge the legality of Obamacares subsidies to insurance companies. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who opposes the GOP health care bill, called them an entitlement for insurance companies.

But despite the rights aversion to government aid, some conservatives have bought into the idea of direct taxpayer subsidies as a lesser evil than Obamacares system of cross-subsidization between young and old within the insurance markets.

Appearing on ABCs This Week, Cruz called the current system wildly unfair.

Cruz, working alongside Utah Republican Mike Lee, has helped sell his plan by offering conservatives another bone: The expansion of tax-exempt health savings accounts to cover insurance premiums as well as out-of-pocket costs.

Health savings accounts, known as HSAs, have long been the preferred GOP route to tax reform and lower health care costs. Cruz has won plaudits from conservative backers for adding them to the equation in the current health care bill.

Democrats have been less sanguine, noting that tax-preferred savings do little for families that struggle to get by and pay little or no federal taxes. But between middle- and upper-class tax incentives for premiums, and direct subsidies to cover those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, Cruz calls it a win/win for everybody.

For Cruz, this positioning represents some uncharacteristic compromises.

Jason Pyle, vice president for legislative affairs at FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group, called Cruzs move a step in the right direction.

But to influential conservative Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, Senate Republicans embrace of taxpayer-funded subsidies for insurance companies represents a sellout of their promise to repeal Obamacare.

They effectively have embraced Obamacare, he said.

Nevertheless, by bringing along many of his fellow conservatives, Cruzs proposal could give Senate leaders some breathing room on the right.

Along with the sharp reductions in planned Medicaid spending, some analysts say Cruzs measure could save the health care bill, even if GOP leaders have been forced to retain many of Obamacares higher taxes on the wealthy.

Yes, the compromise is spending lots more than before to purchase compromises, but that is how Obamacare was passed in the first place, said Peter Ferrara, a senior policy analyst at The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank.

Shoring up the conservative base, however, could expose moderate Republicans, particularly swing votes like Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dean Heller of Nevada, Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Capitos office released a statement Friday saying she still has serious concerns about the Medicaid provisions. The Congressional Budget Office is analyzing the changes in the latest GOP bill, including the Cruz amendment.

The CBOs estimate of the GOPs last Senate health care bill projected that it could result in 22 million more Americans dropping off the insurance rolls, most of them people who are currently on Medicaid.

The Republican bill also took a hit last week when two powerful interest groups, AARP and Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), which tore into Cruzs provision to offer alternative plans that dont have to cover pre-existing conditions.

Allowing health insurance products governed by different rules and standards would further de-stabilize the individual market and increase costs for those with pre-existing conditions, the insurance lobby said in a policy paper.

Cruz argues that his plan would preserve guarantees for pre-existing conditions in the Obamacare exchanges. But industry experts, echoing Green and Grassley, said such coverage would be cost-prohibitive in parallel markets dividing young and old.

Such protections  only work if there is broad participation to assure stable markets and affordable premiums, AHIPs analysts wrote.

Cruzs backers counter that allowing companies to sell plans off the federally regulated Obamacare exchanges could make private insurance affordable to people who now rely on the Medicaid expansion.

Liberals are skeptical.

Holding a narrow 52-seat majority, Senate Republicans have little room to spare to pass their bill. In a reflection of the conservative-moderate divide, Paul and Collins already have signaled their opposition, though for different reasons.

Counting on Vice President Mike Pence as the tie-breaker in a potential 50-50 vote, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is on the precipice. He now has to count on the cooperation of both wary moderates and Cruz, the tea party upstart who once accused him of lying on the Senate floor.

Playing an unaccustomed insider role, Cruz has spent the past five months quietly working with other Republican senators of varying stripes to forge an agreement that can get at least 50 votes.

Some analysts say that to the extent that he can help deliver conservatives, he can inoculate himself and the partys right flank should the health care bill fall to the opposition of moderates. And if it passes, it likely will be regarded as a victory for Republicans and President Donald Trump, even if it falls far short of the goal of repealing every last vestige of Obamacare.

Still struggling for votes to move the bill forward this week, GOP leaders have promised that theyre still open to change.

Were going to have an open amendment process, said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, McConnells chief vote counter. So long as senators have the energy to stay on their feet and offer amendments.

At the center of it all will be Cruz, whose amendment has become a rallying point for conservatives who want to dismantle former President Barack Obamas legacy health care law.

If ever there was a litmus test about whether a politician supports Obamacare, the Cruz amendment is it, said Michael Cannon of the libertarian Cato Institute, writing in The Hill. Any politician who voted against Obamacare  or campaigned on repealing it  but opposes the Cruz amendment is flip-flopping.
Back in 1965 or 1966, I was stationed at Fort Hood when a somewhat bizarre case appeared in the press, concerning a U.S. Army major stationed at Fort Sam Houston who was serving as the senior aide to the 4th Army commander. He had an FAA pilots license, and one day when he had possession of his son, he rented a light plane, I think it was a Cessna 172, took off with the boy, flew to Florida, where he refueled, and then flew on to Cuba, where he landed and requested political asylum. I have never seen anything in the news about what happened to the major and his son. If there is an ending to this story you could dig up, it might make an interesting column.

 Bob Blake

Maj. Richard Harwood Pearce had the dubious distinction of becoming the highest-ranking American officer to defect during the Cold War era when he arrived with his son in Havana on May 21, 1967. He requested and was granted asylum. He made international news in multiple wire service stories during a desperate search for his plane and days of silence from the Cuban government.

Nothing in Pearces background foreshadowed this action. The son of a retired federal government executive, he had graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1953 and served honorably in the Army, training as a Ranger and paratrooper at Fort Benning, Georgia, and serving in West Germany before he went to Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star for valor. Returning stateside in March 1965, he became the senior aide to Lt. Gen. Thomas Weldon Dunn, commanding general of the 4th Army at Fort Sam Houston. As such, Pearce held a top-secret security clearance.

A former professor remembered him as a great kid, and a fellow officer called him a conscientious officer  100 percent Army. In March 1967, he had been recommended for promotion to lieutenant colonel.

A few days before the fateful trip, Pearce, 36, bought a small plane, a Cessna 150, in Houston, where his ex-wife, Sandra Mitchell, 25, lived with their son, Richard Harwood Pearce Jr. On May 12, 1967, he picked up the boy and told Mitchell he had a 13-day leave and wanted to take the boy with him. He didnt share his travel plans, but the couples divorce agreement stated that he wasnt allowed to take the boy out of Texas until he was 6 years old.

Two days later, father and son were observed at Key West International Airport by aviation officials who later said Pearce seemed under a strain and was acting strangely, while his son was meek and silent. When he started to taxi along the runway, he was called back to file a flight plan. It outlined a one-hour sightseeing flight, in which he would stay within 10 miles of Key West. Not until later would authorities discover that the Pearces already had checked out of Key Wester Motel, taking their only belongings: a duffel bag and a pair of military boots.

When they hadnt returned or been in radio contact for four hours, the Key West tower called in the Coast Guard. Eventually, there would be 18 aircraft, military and Civil Air Patrol, looking for the small, red-and-white plane over 8,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico. At first, a crash was suspected. But when no debris was sighted from above nor any mishap reported by the many pleasure boats in the area, the searchers began to consider whether the plane had made a flight to Cuba.

The plane indeed had made the 90-mile trip to Cuba and landed about noon, May 21, 1967, at Liberty Airport outside Havana. At the time, the Communist government in Cuba had no diplomatic relations with the U.S.; its Foreign Ministry was approached through the Swiss Embassy in Cuba but released no information about the Pearces for three days.

On May 24, 1967, Radio Havana and a state-run newspaper announced that Pearce had defected. They published the text of a letter Pearce presented on arrival that said, in part, that he decided to leave my country for conscience reasons, along with a statement that said the Cuban government had decided to concede asylum  or the facilities appropriate to go to another country, according to his request.

The Pearces were installed in the plush, 32-story Havana Libre Hotel, a former Hilton, where visiting Russian dignitaries stayed and Cuban leader Fidel Castro sometimes had his headquarters. Cuban sources went silent again, and the State Department had nothing to release as negotiations began to get the boy back. Through the summer, Mitchell, Pearces ex-wife, traveled to Washington and Miami to plead with authorities, and Pearces stepmother went through Mexico to visit him and his son in Havana, although she wouldnt talk to the media when she returned. When his father talked to reporters, he insisted that Pearces motives were personal  related to custody of his son  rather than political.

Through it all, the public information officer at Fort Sam declined to comment on Pearces disappearance, though the Pentagon issued a terse statement indicating that the runaway major hadnt taken any high-security papers with him and that he was more of a personal aide to Dunn than an operations officer, as the Cubans had claimed.

The next year, the Associated Press reported that Pearce lived in a well-kept suburb with a maid and a car and a job teaching in a government language school. He returned voluntarily to the United States on Nov. 21, 1979, and surrendered to Army authorities, says the New York Times, Feb. 29, 1980. He was dismissed from the service and given a one-year prison sentence for desertion by a court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The sentence was voided, but he forfeited more than $200,000 in pay and allowances.

An individual with the same name as his son declined to be interviewed for this column.

historycolumn@yahoo.com

Twitter: @sahistorycolumn
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NEW BRAUNFELS  A new era in infrastructure inspection took flight Friday for the local electricity retailer.

New Braunfels Utilities has hired Surveying and Mapping to inspect about 250 power poles along roughly 5 miles of distribution lines using a drone thats equipped with both regular and infrared cameras. Its a job normally done by workers in elevated buckets. The $35,000 trial run is expected to wrap up in about a week.

Their general plan is to fly along, around, and above NBUs distribution poles and lines which are roughly 40-50 feet tall, NBU spokeswoman Gretchen Reuwer said in a release alerting local residents to the drone flights. She added that the flights would comply with FAA rules.

Video taken by the Austin firms $60,000 unmanned aerial system will be analyzed to yield a report that identifies issues such as loose connections, leaking oil, rust and deterioration, as well as pinpointing any hot spots through thermal imaging.

This offers exciting opportunities to aid in NBUs continuing effort to reduce costs, conduct proactive maintenance, increase efficiencies, and improve the reliability of our systems, Reuwer said.

The whirring propellers on the spiderlike vehicle sounded vaguely like an electric weed whacker Friday as it glided above Elizabeth Avenue near Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort.

Six onboard batteries can keep the 26-pound vehicle aloft for about 30 minutes before they need to be swapped out.

SAM Vice President Patrick A. Smith said the firm added unmanned aerial systems in 2015. It also uses planes and helicopters.

I will never say drone, he said advised Friday. I will only say unmanned aerial system, or UAS, because we, as a company, dont say drones.

Over his 45-year career, Smith has seen surveying equipment evolve from manually operated transit levels  telescopelike instruments mounted on a tripod  to robotic surveying systems and topographical mapping using lasers in airplanes.

For me, the old guy, its amazing, Smith, decked out in a hard hat and reflective vest, said of the five unmanned aerial systems now in the companys inventory.

As usual, the spectacle of a drone hovering over city streets drew curious onlookers, including Schlitterbahn staffer Steve Dolezal since the SAM employees were using a resort parking lot during demonstration flights.

Dolezal told them it was likely no problem, adding, Ill let security know so they dont shoot you down.

Work early Friday halted temporarily due to a faulty electrical connection, but Claude Marty, SAMs photographer, quickly fixed it using tweezers and soldering iron in the bed of a pickup.

Brandon Rench, who led the SAM team that also included pilot Stefan White, said drones wont replace linemen, merely help them pinpoint problems to tackle.

This way they dont have to be on a bucket truck beside an energized wire on every single pole, said Rench. We can send them to the poles that have issues.

Drone operators in a wide range of commercial applications are waiting for federal regulators to relax current constraints, such as barring commercial flights at night and requiring pilots to remain in sight of their airborne vehicles.

Smith said ending the sight rule  and thus the need for operators to pack up and relocate as inspections progress  would make drones a better option for inspecting power lines .

San Antonios CPS Energy conducted a similar trial with drones in May and is evaluating the results.

We looked at 50 towers in about 2.5 days where, typically, that would have taken us two to thee weeks using bucket trucks, spokesman John Moreno said. Theres a safety aspect as well since we dont have to put our employees in harms way up in a bucket truck.

Haverfield Aviation, a Pennsylvania firm that bills itself as the pioneer of aerial transmission services to the utility industry, recently added a drone to its fleet of 25 helicopters.

It used to be that you had to be a commercial pilot to operate a UAV, said Brian Parker, CEO and president of Haverfield, which has done work for CPS and the Lower Colorado River Authority. Now anybody can do it, but they have to fly within the line of sight.

He called drones a great thing when you have to go spot-check something. But, he added, from a practical matter, its easier to cover large distances with a helicopter.

A LCRA subsidiary is among the states wholesale electricity providers using drone to check their huge metal towers, which can exceed 150 feet in height.

Safety is always our top priority, and the drones allow us to safely monitor infrastructure that otherwise is not easily accessible, said LCRA spokeswoman Clara Tuma, noting that the company owns both multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft.

NBU Chief Engineer Gregory Thomas said the utility paid SAM $1.30 per foot of distribution line, or about $35,000, and will evaluate its report before deciding whether to pursue inspections.

NBU has more than 620 miles of distribution lines to maintain, he said, adding, We would like to inspect the entire system on a rotating basis every five years.

zeke@express-news.net
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Most locals know the Hays Street Bridge as a popular pedestrian and bike trail that also attracts newlyweds, photographers and yoga practitioners.

But the antique iron truss bridge was built as a narrow-gauge railroad bridge in the 1880s and later relocated to San Antonio to serve as viaduct between the East Side and downtown.

There are conflicting accounts about just where the bridge came from. A program from a 2001 ceremony dedicating the bridge as a Texas historic civil engineering landmark indicates that it was built by the Morgan Steamship Lines to span the Atchafalaya Bayou near Morgan City, Louisiana. The bridge was sold in the 1890s to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Co. and the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway Co.  subsidiaries of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co.

Records from the Union Pacific Railroad Co., which merged with Southern Pacific in 1996 and whose tracks run under the bridge, detail a similar history.

But San Antonio engineer S. Patrick Sparks, whose firm oversaw the bridges restoration last decade, said he found the original work order for the bridge in the archives of the Pennsylvania-based Phoenix Bridge Co. in Wilmington, Delaware. The company built the bridge in 1881, he said.

The larger of the Hays Street Bridges two spans formerly crossed the Nueces River somewhere west of San Antonio, Sparks said. The origin of the smaller span isnt known, he added, though it also was built by Phoenix Bridge.

The 225-foot main span features a Whipple Old Phoenix truss and is one of the last of its kind, Sparks said.

Theres no dispute that the two spans were dismantled and relocated to San Antonio in 1910. The city required the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway to erect a viaduct in exchange for permission to lay tracks across East Side streets. The overpass would relieve the congestion of wagon and foot traffic on other side streets, a Southern Pacific official told the San Antonio Light and Gazette at the time.

The emergence of newer locomotives may have played a part in why these two spans were chosen to serve as the overpass.

As locomotives got heavier and the tracks to support them got heavier, these original lightweight bridges simply couldnt carry the weight anymore, and they were replaced, said Hugh Hemphill, manager of the Texas Transportation Museum in San Antonio.

Once in San Antonio, the spans were widened from about 16 feet to 25 feet to accommodate vehicular traffic. The work to erect the bridge cost $110,000 (equal to about $2.7 million today), the Light and Gazette noted.

Throughout most of the 20th century, (the bridge) was the main vehicular artery connecting east and central San Antonio, said Jeff DeGraff, a Union Pacific spokesman.

The bridge eventually was deemed too dangerous for vehicles and was closed to traffic in 1982. It sat dormant for years, DeGraff said.

The city declared the bridge a historic landmark in 1987, which is why the railroad never tore it down after it was taken out of use, he added. The state and the Texas Historical Commission also designated it a historic structure.

In 2001, Union Pacific began discussions with the city about donating the bridge to the city as part of the plan to restore the bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Douglas Steadman, a retired structural engineer, led the restoration movement.

Its a historic structure, said Steadman, 90. It was built originally in 1881. Thats (about) five years before the Eiffel Tower in France.

After fits and starts, Union Pacific donated the bridge to the city in May 2008 on the condition, DeGraff said, that no use of the bridge would impede our railroad access.

The bridge restoration project cost $3.6 million, of which $2.9 million  or 80 percent  was grant money through the Texas Department of Transportation through the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, the San Antonio Express-News reported in 2007. A group of community activists formed the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group to raise the remaining 20 percent.

Sparks, the engineer, remembered that the concrete deck and trusses had severely deteriorated.

You could almost fall through the concrete deck in places, he said.

As part of the restoration work, Sparks hired an expert from Michigan to teach a crew hot riveting. The rivets are more durable than steel bolts, he said.

In 2010, 28 years after the Hays Street Bridge closed to vehicular traffic, it opened again. The bridge stretches from Austin Street to near Cherry Street.

Its a beautiful part of San Antonio heritage that we were able to keep, Sparks said. Its returned to being an icon, I think, for the city. The restoration has given the bridge a renewed life span of more 100 years, he added.

While the fight to save the bridge is complete, another battle over land next to the bridge carries on. The Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group contends that the 1.7-acre tract at 803 N. Cherry St. was donated for redevelopment as a park. The city disagrees.

The group sued the city in 2012. A district court jury in Bexar County sided with the group in 2014, but the 4th Court of Appeals dismissed the case in March. Last month, the group appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court.
A stand of Tedera on June 15 this year with a food on offer value of 2.7 tonnes per hectare at Dandaragan. The impact of the dry seasonal conditions can be seen in the paddocks in the background.
Returning a little later this year, the third season of critically-acclaimed Netflix original series Narcos will bring an all-new story to fans, taking place in a post-Pablo Escobar world. Having been foreshadowed in the final moments of season 2, this years upcoming episodes will delve deeply into the corrupt and powerful world of Colombias Cali Cartel; the biggest collection of drug lords that many have never heard of. Get a first look at the third season with the date announcement video and a selection of new photos below:

Credit: Netflix

Credit: Netflix

Credit: Netflix

Credit: Netflix

Credit: Netflix

With the hunt for Escobar over, the DEA now turn their attention to the richest drug trafficking organisation in the world. Led by four powerful godfathers, this is a cartel that operates in a hugely different way to Escobars, preferring to work with the government via bribes and keep their actions away from media headlines.

Damian Alcazar, Francisco Denis, Alberto Ammann and Pepe Rapazote will play the four cartel Kings; Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, Pacho Herrera and Chepe Santacruz Londono respectively.

With Gilberto set to leave the business, DEA agent Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal) asks for help from both American and Colombian law enforcement to take the cartel down forever. In doing so, a new, dangerous world is opened up, with a series of violent characters that are willing to do whatever it takes to protect their families, and their fortunes.

Matias Varela joins the series as Jorge Salcedo, whilst Michael Stahl-David and Matt Whelan play DEA agents Chris Feistl and Daniel Van Ness. Cartel money launderer Franklin Jurado will be played by Sense8 actor Miguel Angel Silvestre, with his wife Christina played by Kerry Bishe. Artuto Castro also joins the show as the son of drug King Miguel, David Rodriguez.

With all of the rules changed, theres no telling just how successful Pena will be in his mission to destroy the Cali Cartel.

Narcos season 3 hits Netflix in all territories where its available on September 1, 2017.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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A workshop on the development of apparel brand will be held in Bangladesh on July 29. The workshop titled 'How to build your own apparel brand and directly address European and US Consumers' will be organised by Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE). It is an effort to promote the country's apparel sector. Bangladesh is world's second largest apparel exporter.

The garments produced in Bangladesh are yet to establish their brands in the international market, founder and chief executive officer of BAE Mostafiz Uddin said. The workshop will help the local manufacturers, entrepreneurs and all those associated with the apparel sector to expand their business globally, according to Bangladesh leading daily.

Apparel manufacturers, top level managers and leaders of the textile industry will be participating in the workshop which will throw light on the importance of creating own brands for Bangladesh.

The day long programme will focus on sharing information on the development of Bangladesh's apparel sector by incorporating new designs to meet the demands of international brands. It will give insight on designing brands and selling directly to western wholesale and end consumers. Further, it will highlight the importance of e-commerce, the modern direct-to-consumer selling method and execution whilst accessing the best resources at the lowest cost enabling the margins to grow significantly. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Small and medium-sized enterprises in China are capitalising on the e-commerce boom to restructure the way business is done. Online sales of consumer goods in China soared 26.2 per cent from the previous year to 5.16 trillion yuan in 2016. Ministry of Commerce has forecast strong growth in consumption in 2017 with deepening supply-side structural reform."The Internet should empower SMEs in the industrial chain," said Jack Ma, chairman of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba at a meeting in Hangzhou, according to a Chinese news agency report.

Small and medium-sized enterprises in China are capitalising on the e-commerce boom to restructure the way business is done. Online sales of consumer goods in China soared 26.2 per cent from the previous year to 5.16 trillion yuan in 2016. Ministry of Commerce has forecast strong growth in consumption in 2017 with deepening supply-side structural reform.#

Besides being a platform for millions of buyers and sellers, Alibaba has initiated a Tao factory programme to pair up business partners, the report said.Tao Factory has amassed 10,000 factories and promoted custom designs. Most of factories are based in manufacturing strongholds such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, said Yuan Wei, head of Tao Factory, the report said.Factories put up details of products online, including size, technological standard, quality and samples. They also register details that attest to their credit."Tao Factory focuses on improving efficiency on the production side, through partnering up Internet sellers and SMEs," Yuan was quoted as saying.Chuansheng Knitting, based in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, used to churn out sweaters and other garments. Now about 80 per cent of their business comes from online sellers, according to the report."Under the traditional mode, it took us a long time to get payment, which frequently affected our capital chain. Now we cater our production according to different clients and different orders," said manager Li Bing.Most of the orders are not large volumes, but clients require goods to be ready in short notice, and profits are usually very high, Li said. "We recently had an order of 100 pieces, and they had to be ready in a week. The profit per piece was 2,000 yuan ($ 295)," said Li.Tao Factory works well for traditional manufacturers like the garment industry, Yuan said. "Factories may have large inventory, but on the other side, certain demands are really high. Based on big data, demand in a certain period of time can be calculated, and we can give advice to buyers and sellers. We also offer information on designers and raw materials for the factories," said Yuan."Integrating online and offline business is the future," he said.Guangzhou Blue Leaves Garment Factory used to supply for wholesalers in nearby cities. "A few years back, our salesmen had to go door to door to get orders, now everything relies on the Internet. We even have orders from foreign buyers now," said manager Jiang Zaijian. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Priyanka Chopra On Her Relationship Status & Marriage

When quizzed whether she is in a relationship and is marriage soon on the cards, PeeCee quipped jokingly said that we don't know everything about her life and that she wouldn't want to reveal it either. Hmmm, did she just hint at being in a relationship? What do you guys think?

Priyanka's Ideal Man

In a recent Filmfare interview, while talking about her ideal man, PeeCee had revealed that she wants someone who can handle her.

The Option Is Always Open

In the same interview when asked she would want to settle down at a point where is in on a professional high, she had said, "Nothing is a spoiler in life and they both are not mutually exclusive. Let's just say that the option is always open. I love what I'm doing but I'll admit that the pace and time commitments of my job is not easy for anyone to handle."

Two People Make A Relationship Work

She had further added, "If I do decide to take the plunge, it would be with someone who understands and supports that. At the end of the day, two people make a relationship work. It will take an understanding and prioritisation from both."

PeeCee's Mom Wants Her Daughter To Marry Only When She Has Proper Time For It

Priyanka Chopra's mother Madhu too had shared earlier, "Today, I see many marriages are falling apart. People don't have the tolerance to give each other and their relationship so much time and to see it nurture.

So when Priyanka reaches that stage when she has the time to nurture her relationship and give it the attention it needs and demands, she will get married. It's not like you have reached a certain age and now it is time to get married. That's a wrong basis for marriage."

Priyanka On Her Upcoming Bollywood Projects

The actress refrained to divulge any details but added that she is in talks with a lot of people.

Will We Get To See A Biopic On Priyanka Chopra?

To this, PC said that a lot of chapters of her life are left and if anyone wishes to write a biopic right now, it would be titled- UNFINISHED.

Priyanka To Team With Madhuri Dixit?

Recently there was a buzz about PC co-producing an American TV series on ABC channel with Madhuri Dixit. Reacting to these reports, the actress said, "As I said that we have been working on many projects which includes English too, but nothing has been finalized yet. I will tell you all as soon as I work on something."
It's Unexpected...

According to Mid Day, ''Considering PeeCee has made the Big Apple her home over the last two years, it's surprising that she flew back to Mumbai at a time when the awards are happening in her backyard.''

Priyanka Considers Herself A Hollywood Star

"With (American series) Quantico and some international films, like Isn't It Romantic? and A Kid Like Jake in her kitty, Priyanka now considers herself a Hollywood star.''

She Will Leave For USA When IIFA Will Get Over

"Priyanka is scheduled to leave Mumbai on Sunday, just as IIFA ceremony gets over in New York.''

Priyanka Thought It's Best To Avoid IIFA

''She perhaps thought it best to stay away from IIFA this year."

Recommended Video Priyanka Chopra will be MISSING IIFA 2017; Here's Why | FilmiBeat

Here's What Her Spokesperson Has To Say...

"Priyanka Chopra had not made any commitment to the awards show organisers.''

She Is In Mumbai Because...

''So there's no question of her skipping it. She's in Mumbai for her Marathi production, Kaay Re Rascala.''

Talking To The Media

''PeeCee and her mother Madhu will address the media at a Juhu five-star soon."

Those Who Don't Know

The 18th edition of the awards ceremony is a three-day extravaganza that started from July 13th.
Disha Panati

Disha Patani is all set to make her debut at the IIFA Awards 2017 in NYC. She looks smoking hot in her yellow outfit and we wonder how much hotter she can get during the main event. All eyes are on Disha at the IIFA Awards 2017.

Sara Ali Khan

Sara Ali Khan will make her debut at the IIFA Awards 2017 and she'll also make a grand entrance at the green carpet. She's the one to watch out for this time! Also, her father Saif Ali Khan will be hosting the event this time as well.

Mira Rajput & Baby Misha

Mira Rajput & baby Misha will be seen for the first time at an awards event and what a way to debut at IIFA Awards 2017 itself. Mira and Misha are a double bonanza and they'll look super cute in the midst of all the other celebs.

Ibrahim Ali Khan

Varun Dhawan has been in the industry for 5 years but this is the first time he's attending the IIFA Awards. He was always busy with shoots and could not make time for it previously, but this time he's all set to debut at the IIFA Awards 2017.

Varun Dhawan

Ibrahim would join his sister Sara Ali Khan at the IIFA Awards 2017 and the brother-sister duo are gonna have one helluva fun during the event. We guess from now on, it'll be a yearly routine attending IIFA Awards for both of them.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 21, 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
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2017 / Stockholm IT Ventures AB (SITV) have completed the purchase, the Wyrtify blockchain payment technology for 3 million Euros in an all-share deal from a consortium of stakeholders led by NXChain Inc.(OTCQB: NXCN) The purchase has been made prior to the launch of the Wyrify ICO which is scheduled for the 6th of Oct. 2017.

Stockholm IT Ventures AB, listed on Borse Frankfurt (SVAB), have concluded the asset purchase transaction of the Wyrify Blockchain Payment Technology from a consortium of stakeholders led by NXChain, Inc, a company listed on the QB list on the OTC Markets Exchange in New York (NXCN.QB). The purchase was concluded ahead of the release of the Wyrify ICO, scheduled for the 6th to the 14th of Oct. 2017 with a range of partners. Wyrify utilizes a super-fast blockchain transaction layer to interface all integrated digital/crypto and fiat currencies at merchant transaction Point-of-Sales level, already having gone through development and pilot testing, ready for release with contracted customers in several markets.

The technology uses beacons to replace other POS equipment and a combination of apps and aligned technologies (NFC/Bluetooth) for instant payment facilitation. The Wyrify system has speeds similar to other systems used today, but at a fraction of the cost. The system has been in R&D since 2013, and has been tested with pilot customers since 2015. There are several customers moving from pilot testing to full operational status, including Macau Junket operations, through the Wyrify partnership with WI Holding in Asia. This partnership is expected to be major revenue driver in the Asia Pacific region for the combined company.

Wyrify is launching its own ICO on the 6th of Oct.2017 in collaboration with its Asian partners, on the Ethereum blockchain. It is anticipated to be the first ICO in history concluded by a listed company, giving token holders a 30 percent part of the revenue of the platform for five years. Wyrify and Stockholm IT Ventures AB targets raising $200 million in the Wyrify ICO.

Statements:

"Customers can pay instantly with a wide range of digital currencies, if they have a sufficient number of coins in their wallet on our platform. We settle instantly and lock a matching number of the selected coin(s) in the customer wallet, following standard longer settlement procedures for bitcoin or other digital currencies to settle against the carrier currency with zero volatility. We keep exchange fees at a minimum, and merchant fees at a minimum. The hardware we aim to give for free to merchants worldwide, since the beacons used at POS are low cost and installs in seconds. We allow for microtransactions, thereby reaching the world population with smart/feature phones and not only those with credit cards. Merchants get fixed prices, zero volatility, zero chargebacks and instant full settlements. We expect this to become a game-changer for the POS terminal industry and possibly also the payment card industry." -Henrik Onarheim, Wyrify founder.

"We're integrating Wyrify with regular banking, so users will be able to pay their bills and arrange lending in fiat (normal) currencies. Through this, customers will have all their banking needs covered through the Wyrify platform. We can even furnish Wyrify users with Debit- and Credit cards to use where there are not yet Wyrify payment beacons in stores." -Chakrit Ahmad, CEO of Expay Group (an integrated component of the Wyrify platform)

"We have been a key part of the Wyrify development with our core technology platforms based on digital currencies and mobile phone apps, and will continue a close working relationship with Wyrify as an important part of our services platform. We have strived not to focus on hardware development ourselves, despite the exceptionally important place hardware has in our service suite, and are very pleased to see this taken care of on a highly professional level by Wyrify." -Sean Tabatabai, CEO of NXChain, Inc. (NXCN.QB, New York).

"I was shocked when I understood the potential of Wyrify, experiencing the technology live and speaking to pilot customers. This is so much more than just a payment platform; this is the beginning of a paradigm shift. This targets the whole world, solving a long list of payment transaction problems, giving merchant access to free digital payment tools. I expect Stockholm IT Ventures AB to benefit greatly from acquiring the Wyrify platform, continuing the long-running relationship with NXChain in the U.S. markets and our Asian partners." -Wayne Lochner, Chairman of Stockholm IT Ventures AB.

Stockholm IT Ventures AB has moved out of a recent restructuring arrangement, as the new board have concluded a review of the business and established the focus of the business moving forward. As a result of this review, the board has invited Anthony Norman to rejoin the company as Group CEO.

"We are delighted to have Anthony rejoin us. He has been very much at the heart and soul of the business and guided it through some difficult times in the past. We are sure that Anthony will assist the board in guiding the company through what we feel are very exciting times ahead," -Wayne Lochner, Chairman of Stockholm IT Ventures AB.

As a consequence of the transaction, Stockholm IT Ventures will propose to its members at the next General Meeting to change its name to Wyrify, and may change its ticker code to fully align with its new branding and purpose. Current lines of business may either be continued or sold as a result of the transaction.

Stockholm / New York / California, 28 Sept. 2017

Stockholm IT Ventures AB /NXChain, Inc. /Wyrify team

SOURCE: NXChain Inc.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Arconic, Inc. ("Arconic" or the "Company") (NYSE: ARNC) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-05312, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Arconic securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Arconic securities between February 28, 2017, and June 26, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until September 11, 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 the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Arconic Inc. is a global provider of lightweight multi-material solutions, focused on the aerospace market in addition to serving the automotive, industrial gas turbine, commercial transportation, and building and construction markets. The Company also provides titanium, aluminum, nickel-based super alloy, and specialty alloy solutions.

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) Arconic knowingly supplied its highly flammable Reynobond PE (polyethylene) cladding panels for use in construction; (ii) the foregoing conduct significantly increased the risk of property damage, injury and/or death in buildings constructed with Arconic's Reynobond PE panels; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, Arconic's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On June 14, 2017, a fire broke out at the 24-story Grenfell Tower apartment block in London. The fire burned for roughly 60 hours, destroying the building and causing at least 80 deaths and over 70 injuries.

On June 24, 2017, The New York Times published an article entitled "Why Grenfell Tower Burned: Regulators Put Cost Before Safety", describing the causes of the Grenfell Tower fire and attributing the rapid spread of the fire to highly flammable Reynobond PE cladding panels manufactured by Arconic and used in the building's construction.

On that same day, Reuters published an article entitled "Arconic knowingly supplied flammable panels for use in tower: emails," revealing that Arconic sales managers were aware that flammable panels would be distributed for use at Grenfell Tower.

On June 26, 2017, Arconic issued a press release announcing it would discontinue global sales of Reynobond PE for use in high-rise buildings after the material was suspected to have contributed to the spread of the deadly fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment complex in London.

On these disclosures, Arconic's common share price fell $3.70, or 14.49%, to close at $21.84 on June 27, 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
NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of TechnipFMC plc ("TechnipFMC" or the "Company") (NYSE: FTI). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether TechnipFMC and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On July 24, 2017, post-market, TechnipFMC announced that the Company would restate its "unaudited interim condensed consolidated U.S. GAAP financial statements as of March 31, 2017 and for the three months ended March 21, 2017 included in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and prior year period prepared and included in the Company's Quarterly Report for comparison purposes for the quarter ended March 31, 2017" and that these statements could no longer be relied upon. TechnipFMC concluded that errors existed "within certain rates used in the calculations of the foreign currency effects on certain of its engineering and construction projects". As a result, the net income attributable to the Company in the quarter ending March 31, 2017, was overstated by $209.5 million.

On this news, TechnipFMC's share price has fallen as much as $1.63, or 5.81%, during intraday trading on July 25, 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

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
New Delhi: The government on Saturday exhorted traders liable for registration under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to do so at the earliest as 30 July is the last date, failing which would attract a penalty.

"As per the GST laws, one is required to take registration on or before 30 July. All traders are requested to register now without waiting for the last date," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Traders carrying-out any business with an annual aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year exceeding Rs 20 lakh (Rs 10 lakh in special category states), need to register in all the states/union territories from where they are making taxable supplies. However, one need not register if exclusively engaged in the supply of exempted goods or services or both.

If one is liable to take registration but does not get registered, he will not be able to take the input tax credit. Also, any registered person, purchasing from such a trader may not be able to get the input tax credit. "Not obtaining registration, though liable to do so, would also attract penalty," the statement said.

To take the registration, a trader needs to file an online application on the portal https://www.gst.gov.in/ for which a valid PAN, email id and a mobile number is a must. Once these three details are verified, the trader will be required to furnish other details relating to the business. No physical documents need to be submitted unless a query is raised and documents are asked for. All necessary documents can be scanned and uploaded.

The trader will receive his/her registration online within thee working days from submission of online application, it said. The government said that by getting registered a trader can help grow his business and also contribute to nation building.

"Prospective buyers, who are registered under GST, will prefer to buy from suppliers who are also registered under GST, as this would entitle them to the input tax credit. This also means that one is contributing his bit towards nation building, by ensuring that appropriate taxes are collected and paid to the government," it said.
New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday considered the Centre's submission that proceedings to extradite embattled businessman Vijay Mallya are going on in London and said the contempt case against him would move further only when he is produced before it.

A bench comprising Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit took note of the fresh status report, referred by Attorney General K K Venugopal that efforts to bring Mallya back were on.

The apex court, which was to pronounce quantum of the sentence today against Mallya, who has alreday been convicted for its contempt, said proceedings can't move further unless the businessman is produced before him.

Earlier, Mallya had failed to make a personal appearance before the top court despite being directed to do so.

The apex court had on May 9 held Mallya, who is presently in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks, led by the State Bank of India, for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian as well as offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it today to argue on the quantum of punishment.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The apex court's order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

The bench had reserved its order on two pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.

The banks have alleged that Mallya had concealed facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

The bench had also pulled up Mallya for not giving details of the USD 40 million which he had allegedly received from Diageo in February last year, saying it was of the "prima facie view" that proper disclosure as per its earlier order was not made.

The banks had on August 29 last year told the Supreme Court that Mallya had deliberately not made full disclosure of his assets
Amid a bevvy of actors who are in New York to attend IIFA Awards, Nawazuddin Siddiqui claioms he is in the city to promote his upcoming film Babumoshai Bandookbaaz.

"New York have a lovely energy, there's so much warmth here when it comes to IIFA and Bollywood film. I'm here to promote Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, and what a great platform this is!" he said.

We also quizzed him about getting mobbed in NYC when he landed at Times Square and the mild-mannered actor seemed super awkward discussing his fame.

"I'm glad this fame came late in my life. Like they say in Hindi, 'der aaye durust aaye' (better late than never)," he says.

Watch the whole interview above.
Los Angeles: It isn't easy being green. But no longer being green is apparently even harder.

Steve Whitmire, the puppeteer who was fired after 27 years as Kermit the Frog said he is 'devastated to have failed' Muppets founder and his mentor Jim Henson.

Whitmire has been with the Muppets since 1978, and took over as Kermit after Henson died in 1990. He wrote an emotional blog post in response to his firing a day after it was made public.

He said he was let go against his will, and would never have left voluntarily.

"For me the Muppets are not just a job, or a career, or even a passion. They are a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossible to resist way of life," Whitmire wrote. "This is my life's work since I was 19 years old. I feel that I am at the top of my game, and I want all of you who love the Muppets to know that I would never consider abandoning Kermit."

Whitmire said he was informed that Kermit would be recast in October, and has kept silent in the ensuing months in the hopes that he could get his bosses to change their minds. He said he offered 'multiple remedies' to the reasons he was given for his firing.

He would not say what those reasons were, nor would Muppet Studio or its parent company Disney, who have not responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Muppets Studio said in a statement to Time magazine that it 'thanks Steve for his tremendous contributions to Kermit the Frog and the Muppets franchise. We wish him well in his future endeavors.'

The Hollywood Reporter and ABC News reported Wednesday that longtime Muppets performer Matt Vogel will take over as Kermit.

Kermit was Henson's signature character, and the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, from 1955 until 1990, and when he died it was unthinkable for many to imagine someone else doing it.

But Whitmire took up the role, and became the only Kermit many of today's young adults and kids have ever known.

The two made TV appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live and in films like Muppets Most Wanted and The Muppets.

Addressing friends and fans, Whitmire wrote on his blog that "I just want you all to know that I am sorry if I have disappointed any of you at any point throughout our journey, and to let everyone know that I am devastated to have failed in my duty to my hero."
Aluva: A court here on Saturday, 15 July, rejected Malayalam superstar Dileep's bail application. As per a TV report on News 18, Dileep is to remain in police custody.

The court on Friday, 14 July, had extended by one more day Dileep's custody. The actor was arrested in connection with the abduction and molestation of a popular actress.

The court had accepted a request by the police and extended the actor's custody till Saturday 5 pm.

His counsel was critical of the manner in which the police probe has been going ahead. Ramkumar also asked why the police were searching for an approver if they had enough evidence.

The police, who had questioned Dileep's manager Appunny and also actor-turned-director Nadirshah, along with Dileep for 13 hours earlier in July, are waiting for Appunny to turn up. The police was reported to have asked Appunny to turn up but all his phones have been switched off .

On Friday, a huge crowd had gathered in front of the court premises and booed the actor just like they did on the previous days. However, Dileep was seen sporting a smile and he waved to the crowd twice.

From the court, he was driven back to the Aluva Police Club where he has been housed for the past two days. Dileep was arrested on Monday night, and on Tuesday he was remanded to 14 days judicial custody.

On Wednesday he was produced before the same court here and was remanded to two days police custody. On Wednesday and Thursday, the police took the superstar to all the places where the probe team believed the "conspiracy" behind the actress' abduction was hatched.

The police had earlier arrested the prime accused Pulsar Suni and his accomplices a week after the incident in February.

The police decided to arrest Dileep based on 19 pieces of evidence that they were able to gather in connection with the abduction of the young actress on 17 February when she was travelling from Thrissur to Kochi by road.

After almost two hours, she was dumped near the house of director-turned-actor Lal, who upon hearing her harrowing experience, informed the police. She was reported to have been molested enroute.

With inputs from IANS.
Chennai: Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan has kicked up a furore by naming the Malayalam actress who was allegedly abducted and sexual assaulted in Kerala.

While speaking to the media about the incident, Haasan identified her, and when it was pointed out that he shouldn't have named the actress, he said he had not done anything wrong.

The actor held a press conference here on Wednesday to talk about the threat against him by a Hindu fringe group for hosting Bigg Boss where he discussed a number of issues, including the safety of women. He was asked about women's safety in the film industry in the light of the incident in Kerala where actor Dileep has been arrested for conspiring with the prime accused in the assault and abduction of the actress.

Haasan said not just the safety of actresses but that of all women was important to him. "Its not about actresses alone. Were not supporting her (he named the actress) because shes an actress," he said.

When pointed out that he should not have named the actress, as the law prohibits identifying victims of sexual assault. Haasan said that certain sections in the media had already done so. "It doesn't matter if I have used the name. You have put out her name everywhere. Do not hide the name as there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to call her Draupadi, call her Draupadi. Don't call her a female," he said.

To name minor victims and victims of sexual assault or printing or using their name which makes their identity known is prohibited by the law.
It was earlier reported that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has asked Bengali filmmaker Suman Ghosh to beep out words like 'cow', 'Gujarat', 'Hindu India' and 'Hindutva view of India' in his documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, titled The Argumentative Indian.

Now, Ghosh has unveiled the trailer of the documentary on his Facebook page and also shared it on Twitter. He said that while the film was not cleared for release by the CBFC on its scheduled date of 14 July, he is going to make up by launching the trailer instead.

While the trailer, which explores Sen's life from Shanti Niketan to the contemporary times, received a positive response from viewers, CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani had a different take on the same.

The Times of India reports that Nihalani referred to Ghosh's Facebook post as 'illegal' since the trailer was released online without certification. The same report quotes him as saying, "The Cinematograph Act clearly states that certification is required for public exhibition. When a trailer is uploaded online, isn't it being watched by people in buses, stations and trains? If anybody is uploading uncertified content without certification that can be viewed in public, it is a mistake."

However, The Telegraph quotes Ghosh as retorting, "I didn't know about this. I would like to know which law he is citing. When I post something on YouTube, the whole world can see it. How can the censor board here dictate what the world will see? I have spoken to many industry people and they have told me there is no problem in posting a trailer on the Internet. I just wanted people to get a feel of the documentary in the trailer. The words that the censor board had asked me to beep out are not in the trailer."
New Delhi: Several Kashmiri Pandits on Friday gathered at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to pay tribute to the victims of the recent terror attack on Amarnath yatris.

Various NGOs of the community led by Kashmiri Samiti Delhi along with All Party Migrant Coordination Committee, Panun Kashmir, Roots in Kashmir and Youth For Panun Kashmir express their solidarity with the injured and the family of those killed.

They lighted lamps and prayed for the deceased.

They also vowed to fight against "separatism" and for the unity and integrity of India.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed when their bus was attacked by terrorists in Anantnag on 10 July.
New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah pitched for linking the country's education system with its cultural ethos to remove "distortions" as he termed dynasty politics, casteism and minority appeasement as "cankers" affecting the country.

"All distortions in our education system will be removed and the entire system of learning will further improve if we connect it with our core values, with our cultural ethos," he said while speaking at the launch of the book on the speeches of the party's ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

While elucidating Mookerjee's initiatives on education, Shah described him as a "visionary leader" who laid emphasis on the education system which is connected with the basic fundamentals of our society and promotes natural talent. "Mookerjee emphasised on these two points specifically so that education can become a mass movement in the early years of independence as the literacy rate was very low then," the BJP president said.

Mookerjee founded the right wing nationalist party Bharatiya Jana Sangh which later evolved as the BJP.

Shah said the seed sown then by Mookerjee has become a "huge tree" today. "Mookerjee started the party with 10 members which now has a huge base of about 11 crore members," he said.

He said the BJP is following Mookerjee's principles to work on the path of nation building unlike other political outfits which have promoted casteism, minority appeasement and dynasty politics in the country. "These three are cankers which are affecting our

country," he said.

Lauding the BJP ideologue's role in nation building, Shah rued that "historians have not done justice with him". Mookerjee saved Bengal by pushing for partition of the united Bengal before Independence, otherwise the entire state would had become east Pakistan and later Bangladesh, he said.

Not only this, in the case of Kashmir, he also led a mass movement to end the permit system for entering the northern state, Shah added.
On 3 July, the Delhi High Court in a case ruled that posting of casteist insults on Facebook against members of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) community is punishable under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. In the case, a Rajput woman had allegedly posted derogatory remarks against the Dhobi community on her Facebook wall. The high court quashed the complaint on grounds that for the 1989 act to apply, the insults must be directed against particular individual(s) of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) community and not the community as a whole. The court, however, made an important observation that social media is a space within public view and therefore, insults posted on a Facebook wall against specific individuals of the SC/ST community would attract criminal sanctions. The case highlights how social media is steadily becoming a platform for posting hate speech content.

Recent incidents of online hate speech in India

Verbal abuse or attacks targeting a community on the basis of personal attributes such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation etc are increasingly being witnessed online, and are commonly classified as hate speech. Hate speech also covers content which may not be abusive in nature, but is sufficient to incite violence against a particular section of the society. A few days ago, an allegedly offensive post by a Class 11 student on Facebook sparked communal violence in West Bengal. Similarly, in May 2017, violence erupted in Saharanpur between the Thakur and Dalit communities fuelled by rumours and provocative posts on Facebook. Recently in Karnataka, hate messages on Facebook were also circulated via popular messaging services like Whatsapp which contributed to violence against the targeted communities.

A 2015 report by the UNESCO titled, Countering Online Hate Speech, highlights that some of the challenges which distinguish offline hate speech from online hate speech are related to the latters permanence, itinerancy (hate speech exists on various sites for a long time when the content is shared by multiple users online), anonymity and cross-jurisdictional nature (hate speech affecting people in a particular region may be posted by an internet user in another country/region).

Social media policies on hate speech

Social media platforms have taken various initiatives to curb hate speech content on their websites. According to Facebooks community standards, content that attacks people based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or disease is considered hate speech and disallowed by Facebook. However, Facebook policy states that it would allow clear attempts at humour or satire that would otherwise be considered a potential threat/attack.

Twitter has an advertisement policy in place which applies to promoted tweets and prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally. In February 2017, Twitter rolled out its safe search feature which allows users to hide content which is deemed to be sensitive. In July 2017, Twitter banned the editor of a right-wing site for participating in or instigating targeted abuse of individuals and also suspended the accounts of prominent leaders of a movement aimed at spreading racism, xenophobia and sexism.

Following reports that one of the London Bridge attackers had been influenced by YouTube videos of an American Islamic preacher, YouTube made changes to its policy and placed various restrictions on offensive videos which do not necessarily meet the standard for removal. For instance, under YouTubes new policy, offensive videos (which do not have the effect of inciting violence), cannot be commented on or recommended by users. YouTube also precludes such videos from being monetised through advertising (a restriction which also existed under YouTubes earlier policy).

Laws against online hate speech in India

Most of the laws against hate speech in India were enacted at a time when the internet was not conceived of. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions which address hate speech are sections 153A, 295A and 505. Section 295A is specifically aimed at punishing deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. Section 295A covers words (written or spoken) aimed at insulting the religion/religious beliefs of any class of citizens. Section 153A of the IPC applies to words (written or spoken) aimed at promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. Section 505 makes its punishable to publish or circulate any statement/rumour/report with intent to incite (or which is likely to incite) any class/community of persons to commit any offence against any other class/community.

The only provision in the Information Technology Act (IT Act) dealing with the transmission of offensive messages through communication service was Section 66A, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v UOI over concerns surrounding its misuse.

The IPC provisions against hate speech are limited in their application because of our understanding that in order to attract criminal liability, the statements must be grave inasmuch as they provoke violence against members of the targeted community. Earlier this year, the Law Commission of India in its 267th Report recommended reforms to hate speech laws in India. One of the recommendations was to broaden the meaning of hate speech to also cover content which may not necessarily provoke violence.

One of the biggest criticisms of anti-hate speech laws is that they curb the freedom of speech of internet users and lead to online censorship; this has also been one of the main reasons why internet companies have been hesitant to regulate offensive content on their platforms. However, we must recognise that while freedom of speech is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Indian Constitution, the right is not absolute and is subject to reasonable restrictions such as maintenance of public order. Further, freedom of speech should not allow one to hurt the sentiments of the members of a particular community. Germany recently enacted a hate speech law to hold Facebook liable for failure to remove offensive posts. The motivation behind enacting the law was to prevent stirring racist abuse and anti-immigrant sentiments in the country. India will do well to follow Germanys lead and ensure that social media does not become a vehicle to promote enmity/hatred in the country.

The author is a research fellow at Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. She is also a volunteer at Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights. Views expressed are personal.
Agartala: The opposition Congress in Tripura on Saturday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if the Left Front government does not intervene to stop the road and rail blockade by a tribal party that has led to shortage of essential items in the state as it entered the sixth day.

A 12-member Congress delegation led by former minister Laxmi Nag on Saturday met the state police chief Akhil Kumar Shukla and told him that if the blockade continues, they would organise state-wide agitations to restore normalcy in the interest of the people.

"For the past six days the IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) leaders and members are blockading the vital national highway and the lone railway line causing serious distress to the people. The Left government has remained a silent spectator," Nag told the media after meeting the director general of police.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has told the IPFT leaders that if the party is voted to power in the 2018 assembly elections in Tripura, it would create a 'Tribal Autonomous State Council' to give more autonomy to tribal areas.

"The BJP, if voted to power, will replace the TTAADC by a state council through which tribal people can get more benefit in real terms," the saffron party's tribal wing leader Jishnu Debbarma told the media.

Opposing the BJP's proposal, the ruling CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar said there is no provision of 'Autonomous State Council' in the Constitution.

"The BJP is behind the road and rail blockade agitation to get political mileage before the assembly elections. The party is trying to fool the tribals by proposing a vague offer," Dhar told reporters.

However, the BJP leaders denied the CPM's accusation.

The six-day long blockade of National Highway 8, the life line of Tripura, and rail blockade, called by the IPFT to push their separate state demand, has worsened the severe crisis of essentials even as the agitators vowed to continue the stir.

The tribal party's general secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and its youth wing president Dhananjoy Tripura are in New Delhi since Thursday to meet with central ministers and officials.

"We have met senior home ministry officials and expect to meet Union minister of state Kiren Rijiju on Monday or Tuesday," Jamatia told IANS over phone from Delhi.

"The road and rail blockade would continue until we get a clear-cut promise from the central government," the tribal leader said.

According to IPFT president Narendra Chandra Debbarma, in Agartala at least 17 persons, including women, have fallen sick at the blockade site.

The indefinite blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, food grains, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets of Tripura. The bordering northeastern state mostly depends on the northern and south Indian states for food grains, fish, essentials and other basic items.

The IPFT has sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between them, the Centre and state government to resolve the matter.

The IPFT since 2009 has been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas.

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 square kilometres area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH 8 and the lone railway line passes.

INPT president and former extremist leader Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl said that Tripura is the "Twipraland" and tribals are living here for decades and there is no need to split the state.

"To protect the interest of the tribals, TTAADC can be more powerful with the increase of financial support, promulgation of inner line permit for the outsiders, more land rights to the tribals and all-round development of the council areas," Hrangkhawl said.
Badaun: Bovine smugglers allegedly killed at least half-a-dozen stray cattle and fired at people in a village in Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh, prompting the immediate suspension of the entire Dial 100 team, a senior police official said on Saturday.

The incident took place in Bhoor Khitaura village in Sahaswan tehsil late Friday night.

"Bovine smugglers killed at least half-a-dozen stray cattle and threw the skeletons after packing the flesh in a truck," Senior Superintendent of Police Chandra Prakash said.

They smugglers also fired at villagers when they were trying to flee from the spot, he said.

"Based on the complaints of the villagers, the entire team of Dial 100 (responsible for patrolling in the village) has been suspended," he said.

The circle officer of Sahawan has been asked to conduct a probe into the alleged laxity of the police station in-charge of Sahaswan Police Station and other staff, Prakash said.

Agitating villagers blocked the highway following which senior officials of the district administration reached the spot. They were pacifying the villagers to call off their protest.
New Delhi: With the academic year about to begin, the Delhi University has taken a slew of measures to ensure a ragging-free and disciplined campus.

In its proctorial meeting with officials of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Delhi Metro and the Delhi police held on Friday, decisions to make the campuses women-friendly were also taken.

The university will set up two control rooms in North and South campus from 20 July to 2 August for easing the induction process of the freshers.

Delhi Police will deploy women police personnel in plain clothes in the varsity premises to curb ragging or eve-teasing incidents, according to a statement issued by the university.

All colleges will get police picket points with a special assistance to women colleges. Besides, all eating joints on the campus will be under extra vigil.

"The Delhi Metro has been requested to make announcements in trains and stations about the varsity being intolerant towards ragging," the release said.

Defacing of walls with graffiti and sensitive posters, unauthorised entry of outsiders to hostels have been prohibited, according to the release.

Sensitive areas in the campus have been put under electronic surveillance as a measure to curb ragging and maintain discipline.

Ragging can be reported to on national anti-ragging helpline 1800 180 5522 or the North Campus control room  27667221  or on South Campus number, 24119832.
The police unearthed an educational certificate scam in the city and arrested five persons from the metropolis and its adjacent areas, police said on Saturday "Acting on a tip-off, we arrested the five yesterday," a senior officer of the Kolkata police said.

"The accused used to run an educational institute named 'Jayashree Academy' at Behala, in south west Kolkata. They lured students that the institute would arrange for 'cheap and affordable' degrees, certificates and diplomas from various boards and universities across the country," he said.

They also claimed to be authorised agents of Bharat University, Bundelkhand University, Kanpur University, Karnataka State Open University, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Binanayak Mission University, Bihar Board and the Jharkhand Intermediate Council in West Bengal, he said.

Besides this, the accused had declared the institution to be an authorised 'Learning Center' by using forged signatures and fake rubber stamps of recognised educational institutions, the officer said.

The accused had promised to arrange a degree for a complainant through distance education in exchange of Rs 25,000, the officer said.

"Initially a payment of Rs 5000 was made for the purpose. But not even a single class was arranged for the complainant. Instead, the accused started claiming an additional Rs 10,000 as examination fee and charge for the certificates," he said.

The director of the institute was the kingpin of the entire racket, the officer said. The educational institution was raided yesterday during which blank marksheets, certificates, admit cards, pass certificates of various universities, boards, rubber stamps in the name of the offices of Controller of Examinations of various universities, boards and hard-discs were seized, he said.
Panaji: The Goa Police arrested a 50-year-old man on Friday night in connection with a series of cases of alleged desecration of Christian religious symbols in South Goa district.

Francis Pereira was arrested by a team of special investigation officers from Curtorim village in South Goa, a senior police officer said. "The accused was planning to desecrate an idol in the village. But he tried to flee from the spot on seeing a police team," he said. The police team nabbed him after a brief chase, he said.

The police officer said, "During initial questioning, he admitted to having carried out the desecration of the religious symbols."

The Cross in at least 12 places and a temple have been vandalised in south Goa district since 1 July. The latest of such incidents was reported from Margao town on Friday.

The opposition Congress had demanded a CBI inquiry into these incidents.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar ruled out handing over the investigation to CBI, claiming that he had full faith in the state police.
Darjeeling: Pro-Gorkhaland activists took out rallies in Darjeeling as security forces maintained tight vigil across the hills on Saturday, the 31st day of the indefinite shutdown for a separate state.

No incident of violence or arson was reported by the police in the morning, but the hills remained on the edge, a day after agitators went on a rampage, setting afire an RPF office, a state-run library and a police outpost here.

With the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), that is spearheading the statehood agitation, planning rallies in various places, police and security forces patrolled the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil at all entry and exit routes. Except medical shops, business establishments, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges remained closed.

Meanwhile, the district administration has extended the ban on internet services till 25 July. The ban was imposed on 18 June. With food supply severely hit due to the indefinite strike, which entered its 31st day on Saturday, GJM and various NGOs of the hills distributed food items among people.

The hills witnessed violence despite continued deployment of three columns of the army, in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sonada. The picturesque hill station had earlier witnessed a 40-day bandh in 1988 and a 44-day shutdown in 2013.
Kolkata: Researchers from six Indian institutes, including IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Calcutta, have developed a low-cost and fast deployable wireless communication infrastructure that is driven by human mobility to aid disaster management services.

They are working together since the last three years to enable the delivery of decentralised mobile communication services under project DiSARM: Post-Disaster Situation Analysis and Resource Management in situations where terrestrial telecommunication networks are damaged or severely impaired.

"In these emergency situations, alternative and flexible networking arrangements become critically important to ensure ongoing and effective coordination of emergency response and relief efforts. Our model works on peer-to-peer networking where humans are the data carriers," IIM-Calcutta professor Somprakash Bandyopadhyay, who is involved in the project, told IANS.

The project is funded by Information Technology Research Academy (ITRA) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Explaining the mechanism of deploying DiSARM, Bandyopadhyay likened it to a ferryboat system in which from one side of the river the ferryman is connecting the information to the other bank as he rows the boat.

"When you don't have any internet connectivity if you have a smartphone, you can connect with wifi (through an app) which is there on your phone. So when a volunteer is connecting the data from a victim through the phone, then he is physically moving and relaying that data to others (connected with wifi within that range) who are also moving," said Bandyopadhyay, a professor in Management Information Systems Group and Research Director of Social Informatics Research Group (SIRG) in IIM-Calcutta.

"They in turn are relaying the data about victims and the situation as they move and connect with wifi with others within their range," he added.

He said: "This movement pattern helps to communicate. Wifi part of it helps you to make a peer-to-peer network."

In scenarios where smartphones are not available, special routers placed at vantage locations become the connector of data.

"Whoever is going to the routers, gives the data to the device electronically. So it depends on human mobility," he said.

The other aspect of the project is tapping in data from social media to integrate with disaster management.

Partner institutes include NIT Durgapur, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University), Heritage Institute of Technology (HIT) Kolkata and Kalyani Government Engineering College (KGEC).

"We have entrepreneurs who are our students who are taking this up and have formed a company and moving ahead so they can actually deploy this real-time. The entrepreneurial part is about selling this as a complete product/service. Either you pay for the service or you pre-deploy it in disaster prone areas and then go for the service," he added.

Bandyopadhyay was speaking on the sidelines of the just-concluded 'Exploring Mobile Computing, Networking & Applications for Development in India' workshop organised by SIRG and ITRA.
Dhaka: An Indian student has been found dead while another was found injured in a flat in Bangladesh's Chittagong's city.

The deceased was identified as Ateef Sheikh, 25, a final year MBBS student of the University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC), the Daily Star quoted Alamgir Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of the Akbar Shah Police Station, as saying.

Another Indian student, identified as Winson Singh, 23, was also found hanging from a ceiling fan at the same flat in Akbar Shah locality, the police said. Both men hailed from India's northeastern Manipur state.

The incident took place around 11 pm on Friday night and according to local media reports Singh allegedly stabbed Sheikh to death during an altercation before trying to hang himself. Singh was, however, rescued by other flatmates and both of them were taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital in wee hours of Saturday, Bdnews24.com reported.

Sheikh was declared brought dead and had 15 injury marks on his body. "It appears that Ateef and one of his roommates, Winson, were drunk when they brawled... During the fisticuffs, Ateef's throat was hit with something sharp that caused severe bleeding," said Md Jashimuddin, Sub-Inspector at Akbar Shah police station.

Another student Neeraj Guru, who shared the same flat with Sheikh and Singh, said that both men were drinking alcohol in their rooms and soon he heard noises from their room and tried to open the door which was locked from inside. After he managed to open the door, Guru found Sheikh in a pool of blood and Singh hanging from a fan.

Then their neighbours helped Guru bring the two men to the hospital, said a police official.

No one has been arrested in the case yet and an investigation was on, the police said.
New Delhi needs to be extremely cautious to ensure it doesn't unwittingly follow the roadmap the China-Pakistan axis has charted out with regards to Kashmir. While moving towards talks with Pakistan on one hand and with separatists within Kashmir on the other, the government must first figure out the desired endgame of the Sino-Pak axis, and what steps the duo has charted together as a lead-up to it.

It has been obvious for years that street rage in the Valley and Pakistan's renewed desire to wrest Kashmir from India have both been harnessed to China's determination to weaken India.

There is a historical continuity to this. Even Sheikh Abdullah acknowledged to his biographer that Britain's great game to take control of Gilgit lurked in the background of Kashmir's uprising in 1931. But since 2008, Kashmir has again become a vital battleground, as the world's two most populous countries deal with the 21st century.

Having ignored the connections between this triad of threats to national security and integrity (China, Pakitan and Kashmiri street rage) for far too long, the government must work overtime to absorb the big picture now. Their starting point should be that the endgame for both Pakistan and for Kashmiri separatists involves China.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti astutely acknowledged this after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday. "Outside forces are involved in this fight, and now China is also intervening," she said.

On the other hand, Lashkar-e-Taiba's chief spokesman in Pakistan had already stated explicitly that China is the dominant power in the subcontinent and should be involved in negotiations.

While criticising China for blocking the United Nations from listing Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed as a "terrorist", policymakers failed to understand that LeT is now a knight not just a pawn in China's complex gambit against India.

Vajpayee's policy

Offering to talk with Pakistan and separatist leaders is a fine principle. It was a fine idea when Atal Bihari Vajpayee made it the basis of his approach to the Kashmir problem while he was prime minister. He stuck steadfastly to this approach despite a series of rejections, betrayals and false starts  until two narrow escapes at the hands of terrorist assassins convinced Parvez Musharraf to come on board. Both leaders were really committed to resolve the issue then. Even a range of separatists, except Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were happy.

But sadly, Vajpayee did not remain in office for long thereafter, and the process petered out by 2007.

It would have been an even idea if Modi had come into office with this agenda. With a strong majority, the RSS' backing, and the BJP firmly under his thumb, Modi was in a much stronger position to accomplish this than Vajpayee had been.

At this stage, the government has done well to bring the Opposition on board. The BJP's alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP, has already done remarkable groundwork to bring the most recalcitrant "separatists" around. There is also talk of the interlocutors of the party being rewarded with public positions, and some tainted aides being dropped.

Most Kashmiris were surprised when a statement from Geelani paved the way for the extension of GST to Jammu and Kashmir. Over the past couple of days, Geelani and two other leading separatist leaders have issued statements calling for an end to all bloodshed.

If that trio now backs talks (the well-informed in Srinagar say they have agreed), it can only mean that Pakistan has given them the green signal. Those in the know claim that the leading militant groups too are on board  another indicator of Pakistani approval.

But the extraordinary murkiness of the situation should make all those who are charting a way forward very cautious about rocks, reefs, or fog  not to mention icebergs.
Islamabad: Granting a visa to the mother of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav would provide India and Pakistan with an opportunity to show that humanity "can still shine through" and help lower the temperature in bilateral ties, a Pakistani daily said on Saturday.

In an editorial titled 'Visa for Jadhav's mother', Dawn said the visa application Jadhav's mother to meet her son, sentenced to death for alleged spying, "is the latest opportunity for India and Pakistan to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other".

It said the reasons for Jadhav's conviction and incarceration suggest that Pakistan may not be legally required to allow his mother to visit him or indeed grant her a visa at all, "but it ought to be considered on humanitarian grounds".

The editorial said there is some time before Jadhav exhausts his legal options, and a meeting between mother and son "would be humane and in no way undermine Pakistan's case against him".

"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which in any case is being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice."

"Indeed, were Jadhav's mother allowed to meet her incarcerated son, it may even have the benefit of indirectly demonstrating that the convicted spy is being treated according to the law and his safety is being taken care of inside a Pakistani prison," the editorial said.

But it added that such a visit would not automatically reverse the growing chasm between India and Pakistan.

"But small gestures can have a way of lowering the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures."

Pakistan on Thursday said it was considering India's request to grant a visa to Jadhav's mother, but New Delhi said it had no knowledge about this.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday complained that Pakistan was yet to give a visa to Jadhav's mother even though she had personally written to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz regarding a visa to Avantika Jadhav, who is reportedly languishing in an unknown military prison in Pakistan.
New Delhi: Through the winds and waves in the North Bay of Bengal on Saturday and Friday night, a formidable battle group surrounded the USS Nimitz supercarrier of the US Navy, seeking to protect it from a possible submarine attack.

Protecting an aircraft carrier from possible surface, undersea or aerial attack is the primary responsibility of a navy battle group.

In simulating the protection of the carrier, the Indian Navy and a flotilla from the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) were practising drills that they have carried out earlier.

The first time it happened in waters close to India in the Bay of Bengal was exactly a decade ago this month. From Port Blair, the capital of the Indian archipelago of the Andamans, a C2 Greyhound COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) took off and landed on the USS Nimitz. In 2007, the Nimitz and the then outgoing US aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, and the Indian carrier the INS Viraat, made up three aircraft carriers in that years Exercise Malabar.

It wasnt the first of the series of such exercises held every year. But 2007 marked a difference of magnitude. Flotillas from five navies hosted by India converged in the Bay of Bengal for the wargames. They included, apart from the Indian and the US, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.

Even as the exercises were underway, China issued a demarche to the Indian government. Beijing wanted to know from New Delhi why it was hosting such drills. The question that was unstated: is this the beginning of an Asian NATO?

Following that, the then UPA government with AK Antony as defence minister decided, all international maritime exercises involving the Indian Navy would be kept bilateral, meaning if the Indian Navy was in drills with the US, no other country would be allowed to participate.

Cut to 2017.

This is the second time on Indian shores  the third time in a series  that the Indian, US and Japanese navies are in the Malabar wargames. A request from Australia to participate in the drills has been kept pending by New Delhi for nearly three years now. As the warships left Chennai and maritime surveillance aircraft of the Indian and US navies  all US-origin Poseidon 8s  took off from INS Rajali in Arakonnam  China also began deploying personnel of its PLA-Navy to Djibouti, a naval base on the Horn of Africa. Even as the Indian-US-and Japanese warships turn around to return to port from the latest edition of the Malabar series of wargames or set sail for onward destinations, a Chinese fleet is due to transit through the Straits of Malacca and waters close to the Bay of Bengal.

In the Indian Navy, there is strong suspicion that the Chinese flotilla is accompanied by  or it has already deployed  submarines and surveillance warships to "listen into" the Malabar wargames.

But that is not deterring either of the participants in going through what they are claiming is among the largest and most complex of naval wargames to ensure interoperability  an euphemism to prepare for acting together as a coalition in the event of hostilities.

New Delhi and Washington DC, in particular, are well on the way to reinforcing an already going military relationship. Earlier this morning, in Washington DC, the US House of Representatives passed an enabling act that could allocate upto $621.5 billion to promote defence cooperation with India. The US Department of Defense and the US State Department have been given six months within which to propose a roadmap to intensify the cooperation.

But that roadmap is most likely to depend on India agreeing to sign a new military pact, called the COMCASA  Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. The COMCASA is the most recent nomenclature for a pact the US proposed more than a decade-and-a-half back. It was then known as the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA). India has been hesitant because of fears that such a pact could compromise its military-grade communications equipment.

Year after year, however, and especially in the current edition of the Malabar exercises, the US has sought to demonstrate that a CISMOA or a COMCASA would allow Indian and US military platforms to "talk" to one another seamlessly.

This correspondent has been aboard US and Indian warships during exercises at least thrice  and once last year in the Persian Gulf on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier  where the US was operating with its 5th fleet partners  and has personally seen the communication that was made possible simply among coalition partners.

India, on the other hand, insisted in 2015 that it would like to use its own communication nodes. But they were incompatible with the US and the Indian Navy finally accepted within its warships and submarines "talk boxes" of the US navy for the purpose of the Malabar exercise.

The current and latest edition of the exercise in the Bay of Bengal coincides with an unusually long stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies. Also, in the South China Sea, where China is locked in maritime disputes with five countries, Indonesia renamed part of its maritime boundaries on Thursday irritating Beijing further.

Like a decade back, this edition of the Malabar series also has three carriers. The Japanese flat-deck carries only helicopters. The USS Nimitz can carry about 90 aircraft of different types. Indias Russian-origin INS Vikramaditya  the only carrier in service in the Indian Navy today  operates the MiG29Ks, also of Russian-origin.

On the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the Persian Gulf last March  the carrier from which Osama Bin Laden was given a sea-burial after being killed in Pakistans Abbotabad in 2011  the thump of aircraft landing and the boom of aircraft taking off never ends.

It is the same on the Nimitz. This correspondent landed on the Nimitz in 2007 on a C2 COD  short for carrier onboard delivery  going from a speed of 300kmph to zero in 15 seconds flat. The aircraft was arrested by cables strung across the deck. From the Nimitz, he was shot off  like a human arrow from a bow  in the same plane that was catapulted to fly in the sky.

Ten years back this month, the USS Nimitz, the US largest ship, steamed into Indian waters captained by a man who was called Nasty. That was Captain Michael C Manazirs call sign. All pilots from carriers have call signs.

In the Bay of Bengal today, there are signs for calls too: from a trijunction in the Himalayas between India, China and Bhutan. And from the Pentagon in Washington DC.
Imphal: The Manipur government will provide "necessary assistance" to a special investigating team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court to probe extra-judicial killings and fake encounters by security forces in the insurgency-hit state, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Saturday.

Welcoming the apex court order setting up the SIT comprising five CBI officers, he told PTI that "protection of human rights is the first priority" of his government.

The state government will provide "necessary assistance to book the culprits" involved in the alleged extra-judicial killings by security forces, he said.

The government was committed to the welfare of the people of the state, he said.

The Supreme Court had on Friday set up the SIT of five CBI officers and ordered the registration of an FIR and probe into the extra-judicial killings and fake encounters by the Army, Assam Rifles and police in the insurgency-hit state.

The apex court directed the CBI director to nominate a team of five officers for the SIT within two weeks, who will lodge the necessary FIRs and complete the investigation into the fake encounters by 31 December this year.

The apex court gave the direction while hearing a PIL seeking an investigation and compensation for the alleged killings.

The writ petition was filed by human rights groups the Human Rights Alert and the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association.

Executive Director of the Human Rights Alert Babloo Loitongbam told PTI that they hoped that the CBI director "will choose officials with impeccable integrity, competence and those who want to know the truth and will not give in to political pressure, as it is an extremely sensitive case".

Describing it as a "historic judgement", he said this time the "focus should be on those who gave the orders to kill, in addition to those security personnel who were just following those instructions".

"The Army will have to open up during the CBI investigation even though its personnel are protected by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958," Loitongbam said.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the law and order situation in the state and security to Amarnath pilgrims, officials said.

During the meeting that lasted about half an hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley.

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, officials said.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the state  Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag  have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the 9 April bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday to discuss the law and order situation in the state, especially security to Amarnath pilgrims, even as she blamed "external forces" for creating trouble in the state.

During the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley, officials said.

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, they said.

"Kashmir issue is not a law and order problem. It is happening because of external forces. The ongoing fight is a handiwork of external forces and now, unfortunately, China is also trying to meddle into it," Mehbooba told reporters emerging from the meeting.

The chief minister said he had discussed with the home minister the attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

"The attack was designed to create communal tension in the country. But I am grateful that the entire country, political parties and the central government especially the home minister helped us in overcoming the tragedy," she said.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the state  Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag  have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the 9 April bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Mehbooba said the Jammu and Kashmir government had requested the central government for ensuring that Article 370 should not get diluted as it has an emotional connect with the people of the state.

"I am happy that the president in his order has reiterated that special status granted to the state would not be diluted.
Militants threw a grenade on a police and CRPF patrolling party in Laroo, Kulgam area, which is about 70 kilometres from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, as per an ANI tweet:

#FLASH: Terrorists lob grenade on police and CRPF patrolling party in Kulgam's Laroo in J&K. One CRPF personnel injured.More details awaited pic.twitter.com/K02vlPhXCY  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

As per CNN-News 18, one CRPF personnel was injured in the attack:

Grenade thrown on police and CRPF patrolling party in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam. One CRPF personnel injured pic.twitter.com/Xxp01aIzXE  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 15, 2017

ANI said in an update that one suspect was apprehended and that questioning was underway. However, in a recent update, ANI said that the suspect has confessed to his crime:

Laroo (J&K): Apprehended suspect confessed during interrogation about grenade lobbing, handed over to Kulgam police.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

According to PTI, quoting preliminary information, a police official said the grenade blast left assistant sub-inspector Rajinder Singh injured.

The entire area was immediately cordoned off and a hunt was launched to nab the attackers, the official added. The injured officer was shifted to a hospital. The Times of India reported that the officer's condition was stable. The report further mentioned that the blast created a panic among people in the busy market place there, making them run for safety.

No militant outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the incident.

In previous instances, as mentioned by Firstpost, CRPF soldiers thwarted an attack by killing four militants in Bandipora on 5 June. The heavily armed militants attempted to enter the 45 Battalion CRPF camp in Bandipora by opening fire at the sentry post, according to a police official.

On 24 June, a CRPF sub-inspector was killed and two were injured after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants opened fire at a CRPF patrol vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk area.
The internet is an overwhelming place. There are pages ranging from videos of cats falling down to a whole network of online social justice warriors who have taken it upon themselves to be vigilantes of the virtual. With the advent of the world wide web, people find it very easy to spread hatred. A small trigger online can set off a chain reaction leading to a lot of hatred that all of us have fallen prey to, at some point.

A small section of the bespectacled battalion of engineers our nation produces every year, much like in the famous Another Brick In The Wall video, have taken it upon themselves to let a student from Oxford University know that solving an IIT-JEE test with ease and bragging about it is the worst crime anyone can commit in modern India.

Jack Fraser, a third-year Physics student at University of Oxford, has a thriving profile on popular social platform, Quora, that lets users ask and answer questions related to topics they are interested in. He has answered over 2,000 questions about physics and has developed a following. His profile is full of questions like "How much time does Jack Fraser spend researching a question before answering?" and "will Jack Fraser ever write a book?" So, when someone asked Fraser about JEE, he decided to give it a shot.

"I thought it would be a laugh to sit down and do the paper, and see how I did. There were two papers, about 80 multiple choice questions each," he wrote on Quora. "Now. This is where I made my mistake. I told them how I breezed through it. I did it in about a third of the allowed time, and with 100 percent correct answers."

Fraser immediately started receiving hate mail from Indians on Quora, even after the post qualified the fact that it was expected that as a third year student of physics at one of the best universities in the world, he would be able to complete the paper easily, and in fact, it would be rather shameful if he couldnt, said an article by Factordaily.

This is a high school-level paper, taken by 17 year olds who havent spent 3 years at university studying physics, he wrote on his Quora wall. Fraser faced a ton of abuse. Not just on Quora, but on Facebook as well, where they found Frasers profile, repeatedly reported his profile picture for indecency, and sent vile abusive messages to his Facebook inbox, the article added.

"My mother got some graphic pictures of male genitalia. My brother got sent threats. My Facebook profile picture was reported for graphic indecency a few times, and I had a flood of abusive message appearing in my message request box. One guy sent me a picture of my old university accommodation, saying they knew where I lived, and that he was going to shiv me. It was really rather traumatic," he was quoted as saying in a report by India Today.

He said that the problem escalated faster than he could fathom. "Its not so much that the response was on Quora  indeed, the problem was that it escalated beyond the bounds of Quora. Im not going to answer any more questions about the JEE. It seems like its a bit too touchy a subject! This would have been more threatening if it wasnt the top result when you google trinity college oxford. And if I still lived there, which I dont, he posted on his Quora wall, according to a report by The Indian Express.

In the post, he says that the problems slowly went away after the post was deleted and Facebook took necessary precautions to block unwanted messages. He also said that he received a lot of apologies on behalf of the people abusing him online. PS. To the hundreds of people flooding to the comments section and my inbox to apologise for these people and assert that its not all Indians  no need. I am in fact madly in love with one of your countrywomen, and am perfectly aware that this is a small, idiotic minority. There is no need to fret that I am tarring all Indians with the same brush.
Ranchi: Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Saturday said that the officer-in-charge of a police station would be sacked if cows are smuggled in his or her police station area.

"The officer-in-charge would be dismissed if there are smuggling of cows in areas under the police station," an official release said, quoting Das.

The officer in charge of a police station would also be dismissed if he/she shows laxity or does not behave well with the people, he said.

Das directed police officers to take action against anyone taking law in their own hands.

While reviewing law and order situation in a meeting, the chief minister said it is the government's responsibility to provide security to people.

Killing of innocent people should be stopped at any cost, he said.

Das asked DIGs to tour a district once in a week and make surprise inspection of a police station.

Similarly, he said, SPs should inspect two police stations every day and take stock of diaries, investigation and other information.

This would expedite works at the bottom level, he said.

Das said action would be taken against the officer in charge of a police station if illegal mining takes place in the police station area.

Chief Secretary Rajabala Verma said the officers in charge of police stations who do good work should be honoured.
Mumbai: NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Mumbai on Saturday to address a meeting of legislators and Members of Parliament.

Kovind was welcomed at the airport by BJP leaders, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Ramdas Athawale, and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

From the airport, Kovind left for the Garware Club in south Mumbai, where he is scheduled to address a meeting of NDA MPs and legislators in the state.

"After the meeting and lunch, Kovind will leave the city," a BJP leader said.

Kovind is not scheduled to meet Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence, BJP sources said.

Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at his residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra as the party had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

Uddhav had announced his party's support for Kovind after a meeting of Shiv Sena leaders last month. "Kovind is a good candidate, a straight-forward person from a simple family and has the potential to work for the country's benefit," he had said, after dithering for a day following the announcement of Kovind's candidature by the BJP, followed by its endorsement by most other NDA partners.

The Shiv Sena's announcement to support Kovind had come amid severe strains in relations of the party with the BJP over a host of issues. The party had pitched for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat as its first preference for the top office. "If India has to be made a 'Hindu rashtra', Bhagwat will be a good choice for president," Shiv Sena member Sanjay Raut had said.

After Bhagwat ruled himself out of the race, Shiv Sena had suggested agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan's name for the post, saying he will be able to provide solutions to the deepening agrarian crisis in several parts of the country.

BJP president Amit Shah had met Thackeray last month at 'Matoshree' to enlist the party's support for the NDA's presidential candidate.

Sena has 18 MPs and 63 MLAs. The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on 17 July and the counting will take place on 20 July, four days before President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends.
Jaipur: Rescue operations were underway for the second day today to locate the body of Sub Divisional Officer Rameshwar Meena whose official jeep was swept away while crossing a bridge over a swollen river.

"More than 50 people of rescue teams with boats and divers are engaged in rescue operations but the body cannot be found," SHO Kalinjara Police Station Ravindra Singh said.

"The river is swift and it is most likely that the body has been swept far away," Singh said.

He said locals were also assisting in rescue operations.

Meena was going to Kushalgarh from Banswara in the jeep along with his driver when the there was an increase in flow of the water and the vehicle was swept away.

The driver was rescued after a distance of nearly a kilometer.

Meena was 59 years old and was due to retire in a few months.
Bikaner: Farmers protesting against restricting water supply of Kanwarsen canal on Friday clashed with the police in Bikaner, resulting in injuries to several people.

Superintendent of Police Swai Singh Godara said farmers left around 5,000 cattle loose on the Bikaner-Suratgarh National Highway, which disrupted traffic movement for around two hours.

The farmers and livestock rearers are protesting for the last 11 days in the Lunkaransar area, demanding supply of water from the canal, the police said.

The police alleged that when they asked protesters to clear the highway, they started throwing stones, while the protesters alleged that the police fired teargas shells to disperse them.

Several people, including some policemen sustained injuries, in the clashes, the police said.

The farmers are protesting against the government's decision to restrict water supply of the canal.

Bikaner district Collector Anil Gupta said the highway has been cleared of the protesters and the situation is under control.
To mark Dr BR Ambedkars 126th birth anniversary, the Congress government in Karnataka is organising a three-day international conference titled Quest for Equity  Reclaiming Social Justice, Revisiting Ambedkar. The conference, which will commence on 21 July, will feature speakers like American civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, who is the oldest child of Martin Luther King Jr, the man who defined Americas civil rights movement; Lord Bhikhu Parekh, a political theorist and Labour member of the House of Lords; Cornel West, a leading member of Democratic Socialists of America; and Samuel Myers, a professor of economics who fought to sustain the establishment of Historically Black Colleges by providing them access to a billion dollars of federal aid.

Public intellectuals like Dr Ramchandra Guha and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi will also deliberate on the proverbial idea of India. The objective of the conference, which will be held at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru, is to lay constructive focus on promoting society as becoming more equitable, fair and just.

Firstpost caught up with Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram Dr Shashi Tharoor in the run-up to the conference, where he stated that ours is a constitution clearly written for a plural society, one that has been inspired by the spirit of people like Mahatma Gandhi. It recognises that individual freedoms have to be balanced with group interests, that you cannot have compulsion on any matters of social behaviour, and that conformity beyond a point is not realistic if you want to preserve a diverse democracy, Tharoor said.

He elaborated that these are the very principles that are being violated day in and day out by those who are part of the ruling dispensation, suggesting that the current polity isnt governing in the spirit of the constitution laid down by Dr BR Ambedkar. He explained that a lot of what happens also happens in the name of non-governmental actors who seem if not blessed, at least condoned by the government, adding that Dr Ambedkar didnt have particularly complimentary things to say about the kind of political tendency that is today represented by the successors of the Hindu Mahasabha, namely, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

When asked about whether the BJP can appropriate Ambedkars legacy, Dr Tharoor stated that the entire process of historical appropriation has been a fairly deliberate tactic on the part of the BJP in its most recent incarnation. We didnt see a similar attempt the last time the NDA was in power. But Narendra Modi, during the election campaign in 2014, tried to don the garb of Sardar Patel. We pushed back very strongly because we felt that there was such a contradiction between the way in which Sardar Patel handled the communal disturbances that accompanied the partition in 1947 and the way in which Mr Modi, confronted with similar challenges, did not rise to the same sort of approach, adding that there was simply no legitimate argument to be made for appropriating Sardar Patels mantle with the record of the BJP candidate.

Going forward, Dr Tharoor articulated the sociological challenge that the Muslim community is not the only community that has been profoundly out of sympathy with that party and that the Dalits have also been effectively marginalised to a great extent. This in his view, is partly because the BJP has had a sort of assimilationist narrative in theory that overlooks any claims of special consideration for Dalits and partly because theres been a certain agenda in the upper caste Hindutva movement that disparages the livelihoods and activities of the Dalit community. He cites the example of the many Dalits who make their living through animal hide, the skinning of animals, the curing of the skin, leather work and so on.

He also raised the issue of the Dalit communitys marginal representation in the ruling party. Once they (the BJP) came to power and only after coming to power, they probably decided they needed to expand their base of governance. What we are seeing with the attempted appropriation of Ambedkar is both factors: First, you seize upon leaders from the historical past when you were actually not involved in their struggle and therefore had no claim to their activities, such as Sardar Patel few years ago and now Dr Ambedkar. Second, you simultaneously use the appropriation of this individual to reach out to a community you have been excluding from your political purview. He called this an electoral calculation to win over the Dalits, who comprise more than 15 percent of the population.

Dr Tharoor emphasised that to this day, the BJP would not be comfortable with other things that Dr Ambedkar said, did and believed. For instance, he made a reference to Dr Ambedkars western suit, which was a conscious rejection of Indian traditional social behaviour that had oppressed the Dalits. Even in the hot Indian climate, pre-air conditioning, he was often in a three-piece suit. This is not something that our friends in the BJP are going to have much understanding for.

Dr Tharoor next asked how Dr Ambedkars uncompromising language on Hinduism fits in with the party of Hindutva. I happen to believe that Dr Ambedkar was a broadminded, understanding person. Sometimes when you state certain things, you do so with a vehemence to make a point. So, I would not call Dr Ambedkar anti-Hindu, but he had a strong critique of Hinduism as it was practised. That critique would embrace many of the beliefs of todays BJP leadership.

Dr Tharoor highlighted that the man who gave India its constitution was a profoundly convinced democrat. Dr Ambedkars speeches in the constituent assembly and speeches about whether we might lose the democracy that the founding fathers were in the process of giving us, those are things which, in many ways, call for a certain resonance in the present governance that is lacking.

Dr Ambedkars commitment to equity and social justice has inspired the theme of the conference. It is said that he may have named his party the Justice party, but that name had been taken in Tamil Nadu. Justice Dr Tharoor emphasised, means redressing injustices and that if a party is in many ways guilty of perpetrating certain injustices, how is it exactly claiming to imbibe the spirit of the man who wants to overthrow those injustices. Its all very well saying we love Dalits and naming an app Bhim, but what lies beyond that, he asks.

In the last couple of years, communitarian groups like the gaurakshaks and khap panchayats seem to be playing a greater role in shaping public life. Would Ambedkar have been in favour of this trend? A khap panchayat may have social, but no legal, political and jurisdictional sanction. For them to give an order that is binding on an individual and often involves punishment and duress of various sorts is something that can be taken to a court of law, and be objected to. Because of traditional social sanction, many khap panchayats have been allowed to essentially continue to exercise such unconstitutional influences and functions, Dr Tharoor said, adding that if the decisions of such groups infringe upon individual civil liberty, then the victims of their decisions should have recourse to the judicial system of the country.

In Annihilation of Caste, Dr Ambedkars undelivered speech written in 1936, he wrote: I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mohammedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty. With the conference in Bengaluru, the Congress party hopes to refresh in public memory, many such theories laid down by the social reformer of the last century. Dr Tharoor told Firstpost that although the conference will acknowledge negative elements like discrimination and deprivation, it will ultimately aim at building a positive spirit and a concrete agenda to steer the country forward.
Shimla: Demonstrations continued in Shimla over the rape and murder of a school girl, with students on Saturday taking out a protest march over alleged "lapses" in the investigation, a day after the state government announced a CBI probe into the incident.

The protesters, led by Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists, assembled at the Central Telegraph Office in Shimla and marched to the Ridge via the Mall Road, carrying placards demanding justice for the victim.

The SFI welcomed the decision of the state government of referring the case to CBI but expressed suspicion over the role of the police.

Residents of Chamyana, on the outskirts of Shimla, also held protests over the incident.

The Congress also joined the clamour for justice for the victim. Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said there certainly was some "negligence" in the police probe.

Yesterday, an irate mob went on a rampage at Theog, around 30 kilometres from the state capital here.

The mob damaged government vehicles, laid siege to a police station and blocked the Hindustan-Tibet National Highway for hours demanding a CBI probe into the case.

The minor girl, a class 10 student, was allegedly raped and murdered at the Kotkhai area of Shimla district on 4 July. The body of the victim was recovered from the nearby Halila forest two days later.

Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Somesh Goyal had earlier claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of all the six accused, but there were still doubts in the minds of some that the case was being hushed up by the police.

The mob alleged that the real culprits were not arrested as they belonged to influential families.

The mob allegedly roughed up the Shimla Superintendent of Police (SP), damaged his vehicle and those of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Theog and Station House Officer (SHO), Theog, who took shelter inside the police station to escape its fury.

Taking note of the sensitive nature of the case, the chief minister, who returned to the state capital on Friday after a two-day visit to Kullu, took stock of the situation and ordered a probe by the central agency into the case.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Friday said the Maharashtra government has not provided funds to District Cooperative Central banks for them to disburse Rs 10,000 loan assistance to farmers and demanded it to do so within 24-hours.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, senior Shiv Sena ministers Diwakar Raote and Ramdas Kadam demanded that the state government immediately release funds to DCC banks and direct them to provide loan assistance to farmers within 24 hours.

The Fadnavis government had on 13 June announced Rs 10,000 as interim assistance to farmers for purchase of seeds and fertilizers.

The decision was aimed at pacifying farmers, who were demanding a loan waiver over non-payment of their outstanding loans.

The government on Friday extended its scheme till 31 August, as against 15 July as announced earlier.

"There has been no implementation of the government's decision to provide an immediate loan assistance of Rs 10,000. Being the guardian minister of Osmanabad, I have received information that DCC banks there have not received any funds from the government," transport minister Diwakar Raote said. He added that while on a tour to Dhule and Jalgaon with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, it was found that DCC banks there too have not received any funds.

"The farmers there too complained that they did not receive the promised help to buy seeds and fertilisers," Raote said.
Srinagar: Anantnag town in south Kashmir on Saturday observed a shutdown in response to a call given by a religious organisation against the alleged vandalism of the local Jamia Masjid and the arrest of over a dozen youths during clashes, officials said.

Movement of traffic was also thin because of the strike call given by the Auqaf Committee Jamia Masjid in the town, the officials said.

The Anantnag town had witnessed intense clashes between stone-pelters and security forces on Friday shortly after prayers.

Auqaf Committee headed by Mirwaiz south Kashmir Qazi Yasir Ahmad had accused security forces of ransacking the Jamia Masjid during the clashes and arresting 14 persons from there.

However, a police official denied the charge and said most of the youth who were detained during the clashes were released in the evening.

Meanwhile, the Jamia Masjid area in downtown Srinagar also observed a shutdown to mourn the death of terrorist Sajid Ahmad Gilkar who was killed along with two of his associates in a gunbattle with security forces at in Budgam district's Radbugh village on 12 July.

Shops and business establishments in Nowhatta and adjoining areas remained closed while public and private transport remained off roads in Jamia Masjid and adjoining areas.
New Delhi: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the Indian military's outfit which builds roads in border areas, has a project called 'Dantak', which builds roads and develops tele-communication networks in Bhutan, according to the BRO website. Today, as the Indian and Chinese armies complete a month of being locked in a standoff on a grassy knoll off the Dantak-maintained pass at 13,800 feet called Chele La, used mostly by graziers, New Delhi is expecting that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's proposed visit to China on 26 July would result in a neutralisation of the tension at the "turning point". It is almost the exact place where Indian and Chinese soldiers are confronting each other with their guns stood-down, facing ground-wards, and fortunately not aimed barrel-to-barrel.

Doval has a certain kind of political consensus, cutting across party lines, to resolve the dispute. The Indian foreign office said that "there are diplomatic options available" to resolve the standoff. On Friday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh hosted an all-party meeting and even the Opposition leaders told him that the government had their backing. This was a moment of rare consensus at a time when the Centre and the Opposition do not even see eye-to-eye on most domestic issues.

Part of the reason for the consensus is a history of the Doka La dispute between China and Bhutan that the Congress, by virtue of having been in power for the longest time, has institutional memory of. In 2006-2007, the then UPA government had ordered the relocation of a full division from Reasi in Jammu to North Bengal.

(The division was originally in North Bengal but had been deployed to the western front earlier in 2002 during the India-Pakistan face-off called 'Operation Parakram' following the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001.)

The Chele La pass is on a ridgeline that runs between North East Bhutan's Haa and Paro Valleys. Haa has a nearly brigade-sized presence of the Indian Armys Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT) in Bhutan. Apart from that, the Haa Dzong (district) also has a base area for the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) at Gunitsawa that services, mostly through mule tracks, three forward positions at Gyatsa, Soi Thangthangkha and Lingshi. Together, they are famous among trekkers on the "snow trail" who are going to the peak named Chomolohari. Chomolahari is often referred in local lore as "the bride of the Kanchenjungha".

The Bhutanese forward positions not only skirt three sides around the Doka La plateau but they also adjoin the Yatung (also known as Yadong) region of China's (Tibetan) Chumbi Valley. India and Bhutan say the 'trijunction' between the three countries passes through Batang La, north of Doka La at Mount Gipmochi. The rough aerial distance between these two points north of Doka La and south of Doka La is roughly eight kilometres.

Doka La itself  not to be confused with the Doka La plateau in Bhutan  has often been identified by the Indian Army's East Sikkim (or Nathu La) brigade as the last Indian post before the Chumbi Valley.

A resolution of the dispute by Doval, if and when he meets Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs' meeting in Beijing later this month, would involve a settlement of this eight-kilometre distance across a ridgeline through which China has been building tracks into the Doka La plateau and around from the old trading town of Yatung. Doval and Yang are also the special representatives of their countries for talks on border disputes.

Indeed, even till the 1950s, there used to be a flourishing trade between Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim (the state was at that time an independent Chogyaldom) and Yatung. In 2006, during an afternoon of blinding drizzle at 14,400 feet at Nathu La, that trade was somewhat revived in the midst of a tall-and-short game between the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Chinese Border Guard. Two soldiers of either side tried to be 'one taller than the other'  the Indian wearing a fanned long turban with another holding an umbrella over the starched fan and the Chinese standing on a stool to match the Indian Jat's height  even as a once-conflicted South Asian border was thrown marginally open.

Eleven years later, that slight opening is at risk after the Chinese refused to allow Indian pilgrims to Mansarovar to cross over to Tibet for their parikrama of the holy mountain following the Doka La standoff since last month.

In New Delhi on Friday, even as the government and the Opposition practically empowered Doval to find a diplomatic way out of the standoff, the Chinese issued yet another warning. As about 300-400 soldiers from both the countries stand within handshaking or punching distance from each other on the disputed Bhutanese knoll of pastureland, the official state news agency of China Xinhua issued the latest warning. It said that a diplomatic resolution was not possible unless India withdraws its troops from Doka La. It emphasised that New Delhi was "turning a deaf ear" that would worsen the situation.

"China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiations on this incident and India must withdraw its border-crossing troops from Doka La. For China, the borderline is the bottom-line," Xinhua said in its commentary. Xinhua called the Indian troops "tresspassers", a highly unusual term as compared to the ones used in recent standoffs in 2013 and 2014 in Ladakh. This may be because the troops are placed not in the territory claimed by India and China but in a territory claimed by a third country, Bhutan. Bhutan is also locked in a dispute with China over its borders for more than 20 years.

All along the frontier north of Bengal, the Indian Army's holding formation, the 33 Corps headquartered in Sukma, is in a state of high "operational alert". The Eastern Command and the 33 corps have always emphasised that this part of the country is one of the most strategically vulnerable spots because the Chumbi Valley is only a few kilometres from the Siliguri Corridor that joins the North East with the rest of India. Should Chinese troops move further south of Batang La, that is north of Doka La, to Mount Gipmochi, in Doka La's south, they could bring the corridor within long range artillery shelling distance. As things stand now, the Chinese are within range of Indian and Bhutanese troops from their West (in Sikkim) and from their East (in Bhutan).

There are suspicions in the security establishment that Chinese troops could provoke a situation elsewhere along the frontier where they may perceive their positions to be firmer.

The longest standoff since the 1962 war was at Sumdorong Chhu, in Arunachal's Kameng Division, in 1986-1987. Then army chief, the late General K Sundarji initiated 'Operation Checkerboard', airlifting a brigade of troops to the region to reinforce Indian positions. The standoff petered off after months but there is still confusion on whether India ceded a pocket of the territory across Chhu (rivulet).

This time, militarily, India will be loathed if it stands back  unless Doval and his Chinese counterpart can agree to a mutual pullback of troops to pre-16 June positions  because the Indian troops are on a higher ground. Indian troops took the position after the Chinese, earlier last month, destroyed two old bunkers in a valley near Chele La, the pass on the ridgeline that is maintained by Dantak. The bunkers were said to be more than a decade old and unmanned except in delicate situations.

In the interim, the Indian Army is continuing with routine changes of command. The Fort William (Calcutta)-headquartered Eastern Army Commander, Lt General Praveen Bakshi, who was in December superseded by General Bipin Rawat to become the army chief, is scheduled to retire from service by the end of the current month. The entire frontier region from North Bengal through Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh to the southern tip of India's North East bordering Myanmar is the area of responsibility of the eastern army commander.

The General Officer Commanding the 33 Corps, under whose immediate charge is the Doka La (Sikkim and Bhutan) region, Lt General SK Jha, is likely to be replaced in August. His replacement would be Lt General PM Bali, currently the Director General (Perspective Planning) at Army Headquarters, New Delhi. Jha is tipped to take over as commandant of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun.

In Fort William, Calcutta, Lt General Praveen Bakshi could be replaced by Lt General Abhay Krishna. The appointments are yet to be officially announced.
New Delhi: The issue with China and the growing unrest in Kashmir will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were on Friday briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.

Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first - be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury asked the government to reflect and introspect why "suddenly" India's neighbourly ties in the region have "deteriorated".

The Marxist leader sought to know why the intelligence inputs available before the attack on Amarnath pilgrims "was not used" and how the bus carrying pilgrims was allowed to go off on its own, as he demanded accountability for the "lapse" be enforced immediately.

Yechury reiterated the Opposition's position that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has "worsened" in the past three years and asked the government to correct its "faulty" approach.

He also accused the government of going back on its promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest

if India that "it shall implement confidence-building measures and start the political process with all stakeholders".

"The government must answer", he stressed.

The Rajya Sabha member also said that the "growing" instances of lynchings and attacks on minorities and Dalits are also adding to the view that the deteriorating internal security environment in the country is a "matter of grave concern".
New York: A stronger partnership in dealing with counter-terrorism will give an impetus to India-US relations, US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has said.

"The number of military-to-military engagement and exercises between US and India exceeds any other partner in the region and it is only continuing to grow," the Hawaiian Democrat said at a Ficci-IIFA Global Business Forum in New York on Friday.

Gabbard, the first Hindu elected to the Congress, was in conversation with the Indian envoy to the US, Navtej Sarna, at the event.

They discussed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US last month to meet President Donald Trump and how opportunities must be explored to further strengthen ties between the two countries.

Stressing the need to boost counter-terrorism, Gabbard said: "There is a recognition of the benefit to continuing to strengthen the partnership and engagement, to ensure the countries are stable and that we deal with unconventional counter-terror threats together... Because then we will be stronger."

Sarna pointed out at the ongoing Malabar joint naval exercise, which is aimed at enhancing interoperability between the navies of India, US and Japan. "Aircraft carriers from India and US are exercising together with submarines. This year, India has been designated as a major defence partner by the US... We need to fight this together, and we appreciate the personal reactions we got on the recent attack on pilgrims in India," he added.

Gabbard also said there's still a lot of excitement in Washington around Modi's visit.

"For those of us on the India-US Caucus and those who have been working on India-US partnership for years, everyone is saying it that these are the most exciting times for friendship between both the countries.

She mentioned that economic partnerships were flourishing and so too were relationships in technology, education, culture and the Arts. "Having the IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) celebrations here is appropriate given how much interest not just the Indian-American audience has, but the Americans as a whole have in films coming from India. This is increasing the understanding and affinity between the people of the two countries," she said.

Sarna appreciated how the support for India-US engagement is "bipartisan and across the political spectrum". He even said that during Modi's visit to meet Trump, they "hit it off in terms of understanding, engaging each other and listening to each other's concerns".
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday emphasised on imparting skill development of youths who can immensely contribute to the development of both the state and the country.

"Bihar has the highest number of youths who are our capital. Bihar can not develop without the overall growth of youths," Kumar said while addressing at a function organised on the occasion of 'World Youth Skill Day' in Patna.

"Youths' income will rise manifold if they are given training for the development of various skills and in turn, it will not only spur development of Bihar but also contribute to nation's growth," Kumar said.

Stating that the state government has put 'skill development' programme of youths in the foreground of its agenda by including it in its 'seven resolves' programme, Kumar said that out of the seven resolves, two resolves are dedicated to youths development.

There are one of the five components of 'Arthik Hal Yuvaon Ka Bal' programme enumerated in the seven resolves, he said and added that giving training for the development of various skills to youths one of them apart from student credit card, Rs 1,000 monthly self-help assistance for two years, WiFi at universities and college campuses and venture capital fund.

"Bihar's youths are talented and hard working and if they are properly trained or imparted skills, they would get opportunities," he said.

Stating that Bihar's youths have a complex due to their inability to speak English and operate basic computer skill, Kumar said the government has decided to impart its youths three types of skills  English and Hindi communication skill, computer skill and behavioural skill.

Of the 1.13 lakh students who have registered themselves for availing various skill development training across the state since its launch on 15 December 2016, around 42,000 youths have availed training, the CM said.

Merely 1,978 students had enrolled themselves at 48 skill development centres across the state at the time of launch of the programme, he added.

Kumar also talked about his government's commitment to building institutions in the state and how he had to put in efforts to build these institutions like IIT, Patna Centre of BIT Mesra, Chanakya National Law University, Chandragupt Institute of Management, NIFT, Arbhatta Knowledge University and various other medical and engineering colleges.

As part of seven resolves, the state government is committed to set up an engineering college, ITI, women's ITI, GNM Institute in every district, he said and expressed hope that his efforts will reduce the number of students going outside the state to pursue higher education.

Praising the talent and hard working nature of Bihar's people, Kumar said that Biharis are not only contributing to Bihar's development rather they are also contributing and help running various parts of the country.

If they (Biharis) decide just for one day that they will not come (for a day), Delhi will come to a standstill, Kumar said and added that no one can do without Biharis.

During the programme, Nitish Kumar, who was sitting beside Labour Resources minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, swapped his seat with Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh who was sitting right to the CM, thus making a distance with the RJD minister.

Later, Industries minister and JD(U) leader Jai Kumar Singh said that the CM changed his seat in order to have a better view of the screen (TV monitor) fitted in front of him.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's nameplate was there on the dais but later it was removed thus making it clear that the Deputy chief minister, who w a s special guest on the occasion, would not come.

Replying to a query posed by mediapersons, Jai Kumar Singh said that "I can not say as what was the circumstances in which he (Deputy chief minister) did not come...Labour Resources Department organised the function and I can tell you about myself as I was invited to the function."
Srinagar: Three terrorists of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were Saturday killed in an encounter with security forces in a forest area of Tral in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, a police official said.

While two of the militants were killed this morning, another took shelter inside a cave and was finally killed after several hours of gunbattle in Tral, about 36 kilometres from Srinagar, the official said.

The police official added that bodies of all the three militants and their weapons were recovered from the scene of the gunbattle which started early this morning when security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation after receiving an information about presence of militants there.

He said though the identity of the deceased militants was being ascertained, they belonged to JeM outfit. "The killing of the militants is a major setback for the outfit which is trying to revive its activities in the valley," the official said.

An encounter broke out between militants and security forces in Tral area of Pulwama district in Kashmir on Saturday, police said. Security forces launched a search operation in Satoora forest area of Tral on information about the presence of some militants there, a police official said.

He said security forces faced stone-pelting during the operation but exercised maximum restrain while dealing with it.

Some people indulged in stone-pelting and tried to march towards the encounter scene to help the militants escape but were chased away by the security forces, the official said, adding there was no report of any casualty among the civilians.

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have killed as many as 102 terrorists this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said on Friday. The security forces are going after terrorists as part of operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified.
Lucknow: Security was tightened at the UP legislature complex and "all anti-sabotage" measures put in place, police said on Saturday, a day after the UP government recommended an NIA probe into the recovery of an explosive material in the state assembly.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told PTI that an integrated security plan for the "entire complex is also being worked upon".

He said questioning of the people concerned (marshals and sanitation workers) "is going on and it is a routine exercise, as part of the investigation. All anti-sabotage measures have been put in place, apart from sounding a high alert".

As immediate measures, quick response teams, ATS and additional Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel have been deployed on the UP legislature premises, he said.

"Besides, a security audit of the entire assembly complex is being done and a mock-drill is likely to take place," the officer said.

"An integrated security plan to ensure effective liaison with the Sachivalaya Suraksha Dal (secretariat protection force) is being worked upon. Entry through old passes has been disallowed and people with bona fide passes are only allowed to enter the UP legislature complex," he said.

Allaying fears over reports of detection of another white powdery substance yesterday, the ADG (Law & Order) said it was a packet containing magnesium sulphate, which is used as a drying agent in packing material. The ATS has taken the packet in its custody.

The ADG said, "As many as 109 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been made functional to increase the vigil. After this, necessary equipment such as boom barriers may also be installed to enhance the security."

Meanwhile, ATS sources informed that three teams of the force will remain posted in the UP legislature complex.
By Manu Moudgil

Kanpur/Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Mohammad Shafiq took solace from the large grain container placed in a corner of the room.

This will last six to nine months. At least we wont starve now, he said.

The 52-year-old, who lives with his family in a small hutment in a graveyard in Kanpurs Idgah Colony, used to procure meat from the nearby government slaughterhouse and sell it by the roadside.

In March 2017, the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) ordered action against slaughterhouses and meat-sellers operating without valid licences and violating environmental and health rules.

Across the state, numerous shops and slaughterhouses, including government-run abattoirs, were sealed, leading to severe shortage of meat and affecting the livelihoods of thousands like Shafiq who made a living by using common government abattoirs for a small fee. Essentially, failure of municipal administrations to upgrade these facilities had destroyed the vast unorganised meat industry, and hundreds of thousands of ancillary jobs.

For a while, Shafiq went back to his ancestral village with his wife and kids. There, he worked as a farm-hand even though his left hand does not function properly. It was wheat harvesting season. I had never done that work before but with my kids support, I managed somehow and got 500kg grain in return, he told IndiaSpend on a muggy June evening.

Now back in Kanpur, Shafiq hawks churan (tangy powder), tamarind and jamun around town. Earlier my elder son used to do this work, but he suffers from night blindness. I thought I can put in more hours than him. He has now taken to buying and selling scrap. I make Rs 200-250 a day while he manages between Rs 75-125, Shafiq said.

From meat-selling, Shafiq used to earn Rs 400-500 within three hours. The meat, fresh from the slaughterhouse, would sell quickly. We dont have refrigeration, so I would only buy as much as I could sell easily. Any leftovers, the family would use, he said.

Illegal slaughterhouses: Past governments ignored issue

The Prevention and Control of Pollution (Uniform Consent Procedure) Rules of 1999 list slaughterhouses under the red heavily-polluting category with potential to adversely impact public health.

In UP, as in the rest of the country, a range of agencies regulate slaughterhouses. Foremost among these is the state-level pollution regulator, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), which gives permission (no-objection certificate) for setting up a slaughterhouse after getting a go-ahead from the top district administrator, the District Magistrate (DM). The DM conducts a site inspection to assess compliance with various parameters, including law and order, before granting permission. Once a slaughterhouse is set up, the UPPCB monitors its functioning to ensure pollution control measures are in place.

If the facility is for export, approval is also required from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). Slaughterhouses must also follow the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, as well as obtain a license from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to ensure all animal-derived food is healthy.

Many slaughterhouses have been accused of violating norms, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is hearing a string of petitions seeking their upgradation or closure. In May 2015, hearing one such petition, the NGT ordered all slaughterhouses running without requisite permits in UP to be shut.

When the new BJP government assumed office in UP in March this year, it began to take action on the NGT order.

Both private and government-run slaughterhouses were shut, having failed to upgrade despite the 2015 NGT order, a previous Supreme Court order and reminders by the UPPCB.

In this partial list of 129 industrial units failing to install anti-pollution devices in 2015, 44 were slaughterhouses, 39 of which were run by municipal bodies and nagar panchayats while another was run by the Lucknow Cantonment Board. All four of capital city Lucknows slaughterhouses were found not to have proper treatment facilities.

According to the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959, the construction and maintenance of public markets and slaughterhouses is an obligatory duty of the local corporation. The Allahabad High Court upheld this in an ongoing case regarding operation of slaughterhouses.

An amount of Rs 12.5 crore was sanctioned on 3 January, 2017, for the modernisation of the slaughterhouse at Lucknows Moti Jheel, but the project got stuck when the model code of conduct for assembly elections came into force the very next day.

A similar situation prevails in other cities and towns except Agra, where the municipal corporation runs a modern abattoir.

The responsibility of previous governments is greater than the current government. They failed to modernise the slaughterhouses for a very long time preparing the ground for the present crisis, said Irfan Ahmad, the vice-president of the Jamiat-ul-Quresh, an organisation of slaughterhouse owners and meat and beef suppliers in Kanpur.

A comparison of the earnings and expenditures of the Lucknow and Agra municipal corporations shows how the state capital lost precious revenue by failing to modernise its slaughterhouse.

The Agra Municipal Corporation earned Rs 4.26 crore in 2014-15 from leasing out its modern slaughterhouse to a private contractor. The contractor uses the facility for export purposes and also allows individual butchers to use it for a fee of Rs 385 per buffalo. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation, in contrast, was able to charge Rs 10 as fee for slaughtering of goat/sheep and Rs 25 for buffalo, making Rs 25.33 lakh in all. Spending Rs 44.87 lakh on staff salaries, it reported a loss of over Rs 19 lakh.

Source: Budget documents of Lucknow and Agra municipal corporations

Lucknow: Lucknow Nagar Nigam Budget 2016-17 , Lucknow Nagar Nigam Budget 2015-16

Agra: Nagar Nigam Agra Budget 2016-17, Nagar Nigam Agra Budget 2015-16

A crackdown with wide reverberations

UP, Indias top meat producer in 2012-13, has felt the reverberations far and wide.

Of the 77 APEDA-approved slaughterhouses in India, 44 are in UP. In addition to these, municipal corporations and nagar panchayats (city councils) run numerous abattoirs to meet the domestic meat requirement.

UP has a famous, long-standing non-vegetarian culinary tradition, and as per the 2011-12 consumer expenditure survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), an average UP household reported consuming 0.17 kg of buffalo meat every month, as against the all-India average of 0.10 kg.

Some 30.6 percent of UP households reported they consumed non-vegetarian food, while 7.95 percent households reported they consumed beef or buffalo meat. The all-India average was 4.5 percent.

Beef And Buffalo Meat Consumption Quantity (Per 30 days) Incidence (Per 1,000 households) Uttar Pradesh 0.17 kg 7.95 All India 0.1 kg 4.5

Source: Household Consumption of Various Goods and Services in India 2011-12 NSS) 68th Round

While India registered a 3.33 percent decline in livestock population during 2007-12, UP saw a 14 percent growth, indicating the economys dependence on livestock and allied businesses, IndiaSpend reported on 29 March, 2017.

Source: Animal Husbandry Department, Uttar Pradesh

NOTE: *Including meat processing plants

Livelihoods lost

Kanpurs Bakar Mandi slaughterhouse, from where Shafiq used to buy meat, was one of many government facilities which had not been modernised despite repeated reminders from the UPPCB.

Butchers would pay a small fee (Rs 25 for buffalo, Rs 10 for goat) to use the facility at night and the meat would be put on sale around the city by early morning.

I support modernisation, but the government should have made an alternative arrangement before closing it down. A gradual phase-out would have helped everyone, Shafiq said.

Danish Qureshi, 25, of Rampur town was similarly rendered jobless. He now drives a rented e-rickshaw for hire, although he considers meat-selling his family business. My father had a licence issued by the Municipal Corporation 45 years back. I used to get it renewed every year, he said, Why didnt anybody tell us we were doing business illegally?

His bigger complaint is that the government is not helping butchers secure bank loans to upgrade their shops, a prerequisite to get FSSAI licenses. Most of us have little by way of savings, he said, adding, Those with money have renovated their shops, but they form just one per cent of the butcher community in Rampur.

Farmers, associated trades take a hit

At the Sunday cattle market in Tirwa village, about 15 km from Kannauj city in central UP, very few transactions were taking place as farmers were not getting the price they were quoting.

This was largely due to enforcement of the NGT order. The more recent central government ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle marketscurrently on hold following a Supreme Court orderis yet to be implemented on the ground.

Last year it was notebandi, and this year it is meat bandi that has reduced demand, said Arjun Singh, a farmer from Achanakapur village. He was seeking Rs 50,000 for a young female buffalo, but was getting offers of Rs 32,000.

Since the slaughterhouse crackdown, farmers are unable to fetch good prices even for milch cattle because buyers are worried they will be unable to resell.

What if a buffalo is unable to breed? No other farmer would touch it. Should we keep spending on its fodder or sell it to a slaughterhouse? Why cant the government understand this simple logic? asked a farmer at a cattle market in Chaubepur village near Kanpur.

Brajal Kumar Dwivedi, a young farmer from Jaisinghpura village, wanted to sell a mother-calf buffalo pair for Rs 90,000. He was getting offers of up to Rs 70,000. I bought it last year for Rs 80,000 from Sakipur mandi, had it fed and impregnated, and am still unable to get the price I paid, he said. Engaged to be married, Dwivedi needed money for his wedding but said he would wait a few weeks for prices to stabilise, and would sell milk to the local dairy until then.

Jaddunath Singh of Kithwa village was not so luckyhe had to sell a buffalo at a Rs 11,000 loss because he needed money for the treatment of his hospitalised father-in-law.

Those providing ancillary services are also affected. Rajendra Singh, who lets out vehicles to transport animals, was staring at another dull day. Most farmers are taking their animals back on the vehicles they came on. Only a buyer would hire a vehicle here, but not many deals have come through. This has been the case for the last three months, he said.

The Pechbagh hide market in Kanpur, the largest in India for buffalo skin, has also seen trade decline over the last couple of yearsparticularly since the 2015 mob lynching of a Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, and his son, who were suspected of stealing and slaughtering a stolen cow calf, in Dadri in eastern UP.

Fear of cow vigilantes who beat up transporters even if they are transporting only buffalo skins has scared away suppliers, said Akhtar Hussein Akhtar, a godown owner at Pechbagh and an office-bearer of the local Hide Merchants Association.

Akhtar explained that large, mechanised slaughterhouses sell hides directly to big tanneries, and only those engaged in skinning dead animals sell to merchants in Pechbagh. [Earlier] most of the supply came from government abattoirs while weekly supply from villages filled the gap.

Now whatever raw material we are getting is from villages and that too of animals who die of natural causes, not slaughtered ones, he said, adding that supply has gone down from 10,000 hides per month to 500. We have also reduced our employee strength from eight workers to just one now, he said.

According to the Hide Merchants Association, around 40,000 people are directly engaged in this trade. Membership of the association has reduced by half in the last few years as many have turned their godowns into garment shops.

Big businesses benefit

According to the All India Meat and Livestock Exporters Association, UPs meat industry employs nearly 2.5 million people. But theres a stark difference between the formal market consisting mostly of wealthy exporters and the informal community of butchers, meat suppliers and those trading in animal byproducts. While the former own mechanised, well-equipped slaughterhouses that usually have the requisite permits, the informal market is dependent on government-run abattoirs, most of which have now been shut down for failing to comply with rules.

The crackdown has therefore skewed the market in favor of big companies, which have thus far been engaged in export of buffalo meat. Big companies are making tidy profits as the cattle market has tanked due to no demand from butchers. On the other hand, shortage of meat in the market has caused its price to increase. So, the companies can buy animals at a low price and sell meat at a premium, Dharmendra Malik, general secretary of the UP branch of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), told IndiaSpend.

To combat the meat shortage, the Kanpur DM arranged a meeting of meat-sellers and private companies operating from Unnao, a leather and chemicals hub 15 km from Kanpur. We are granting no-objection certificates for meat shops to operate on the condition that they source meat from these companies, Dr AK Singh, the veterinary officer at Kanpur Municipal Corporation, told IndiaSpend.

Similar arrangements have been made in other cities, including Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Muzaffarnagar. The price of buffalo meat has gone up from Rs 150 per kg before the clampdown to Rs 200 now.

Businesses are happy to tap the market not open to them earlier. People are not very keen on the frozen meat we supply as they are used to getting raw and fresh meat from the city abattoirs. But that option is not available now. We are currently supplying 3-4 tonnes of buffalo meat per day to Kanpur and hope to scale it up to 30-35 tonnes, Abhishek Arora, owner of AOV Exports Limited, told IndiaSpend.

Butchers, however, are unhappy at being compelled to buy from large companies. Around a fourth of our earnings come from selling of waste material from slaughter. Entering into an agreement with the company means to let go of this profit. We would rather close down than hand over our business to the companies, said Shahabuddin Qureshi, the general secretary of Qureshi Foundation, an association of butchers and meat-sellers in Lucknow.

A way forward?

Many said an ideal solution would be to set up an alternative slaughtering site away from habitation until the government abattoirs are modernised. When an animal is slaughtered, around 20 people get work. There are the meat sellers, those who trade in animal skin, those selling bones and hooves, and then there are people who process the fat for sale to soap factories, said Ahmad of Jamiat-ul-Quresh. Now the meat sellers with licenced shops are the only ones able to do some business. All others have been rendered jobless.

Meanwhile, illegal slaughter continues in Lucknow, clandestinely and at a smaller scale. The animal waste which was earlier generated at one place and picked up by the municipal corporation, is now polluting densely populated areas without any proper disposal, Qureshi asked. What purpose has been solved with the closure of the government-run abattoirs?

As workers struggle to reorganise their lives after the mass closure of slaughterhouses, the failure of past and present governments to organise a trade that employed hundreds of thousands is largely overlooked.

The clampdown was much needed in view of the health and environment concerns associated with ill-equipped slaughterhouses, said Kamna Pandey, former member of the Animal Welfare Board of India, based in Lucknow, In fact, I dont agree with the argument that the action needed to be in phases. But the government should have also been proactive in constructing modern slaughterhouses to avoid public loss.

(Moudgil is a freelance consultant with India Water Portal, an online platform on water and sanitation.)
Mehsana: Dalit agitation spearhead Jignesh Mevani, student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and 15 others were detained on Wednesday for taking out 'Freedom March' allegedly without permission on the first anniversary of Una flogging incident, the police said.

Mevani, who is the convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, had invited Kumar to take part in the 'Azadi Kooch' (Freedom March) in Mehsana.

A number of Dalit activists gathered at Somnath Chowk in Mehsana before embarking on the march towards Banaskantha district this afternoon, the police said.

The Mehsana district authorities had cancelled the permission granted earlier to Mevani for taking out the march.

"We have detained 17 persons from Fatehpura circle. Later, an FIR was registered under IPC section 143 against them for being a part of an illegal assembly.

"We did not arrest them. They were let go afterwards," an official of the Mehsana 'A' division police station, where the FIR has been lodged, said.

As per the schedule, 'Freedom March' will end at Dhanera town of Banaskantha district of north Gujarat after one week.

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, Mevani had announced last month.

After being released, co-convener of the manch, Kaushik Parmar, who is also named in the FIR, announced that the march will continue as they have the permission to enter Unjha, their next destination.

"We have been released by police after the FIR was registered against us. We have decided to continue our march. We are planning to reach Unjha by tonight," Parmar told PTI.

While addressing people at Somnath chowk before the march, Kumar, who is facing sedition charges, attacked the BJP governments at the Centre and in Gujarat, claiming that atrocities on Dalits and Muslims have increased under them.

He also alleged that people who dare to speak truth are booked under sedition charges to silence them.

In Una, Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly skinning a dead cow, an incident that caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral
When Boston resident Ariana Abadian-Heifetz had her first period, her parents were excited, and her brother was not awkward in the least. Ariana herself doesn't recollect giving this bodily process much thought, nor does she remember ever 'formally' learning about it  it was just a natural phenomenon, a 'given'.

Many years later, Ariana came to India, to work with an NGO in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. Her eyes opened to the stark contrast between her personal experience with menstruation and the experience many girls face around the world. She heard first-hand stories of young women using unhygienic  even dangerous  solutions such as packets of ash, mattress stuffing, and dirty rags in the same way and with the same normalcy that other women would use a sanitary pad, menstrual cup or tampon during their period. These girls had no education about menstruation until they first started bleeding. One of them told Ariana that her friend died after using a rag used to clean a bicycle as a pad, and contracting an infection. Through these conversations, Ariana realised that they needed and wanted more information on how to adequately take care of themselves.

Ariana would conduct four-hour long sessions on menstrual hygiene with her co-workers, but she found that without her training notes, she simply would not remember all the points she had to cover. This led her to understand that perhaps the attendees wouldn't either, and she decided to hunt for books and other resources she could give to them, which they could later take home. When she realised that there wasn't any particular publication that fit the bill, she decided to collaborate with artists and experts to create one of her own.

Spreading Your Wings was written to provide the information necessary for women to make healthy choices for their bodies. It also aims to solve social problems, create an atmosphere of body positivity, and inspire conversations which are considered 'difficult'. She sought the services of illustrator Pia Alize Hazarika, as well as gynaecologists and experts on women's health, so that all the information could be scientifically accurate and relevant. It also touches upon family planning, emphasising that the onset of menstruation does not mean that the female body is ready to have children. However, Ariana believes that the scope of family planning, sex education, and consent is vast, and needs a separate book dedicated to it.

The comic is a 100-page book, available in Hindi and English, that uses metaphors, games and explanations to make its point. The decision to talk about these subjects through a comic was conscious. Having worked with children in countries around the world belonging to different cultures and strata of society, Ariana noticed what they all had in common  they all learn from playing and remember information better when the subject matter is presented in a fun and interactive manner. This means that menstruation, which is mostly spoken about in a serious, scary and secretive manner, is instead presented as a natural process. As a result, the tone of the comic is playful and exciting, whilst also trying to normalise these bodily changes and alter the perception that menstruating women are impure.

The characters of Spreading Your Wings have varied personalities and belong to different cultures and religions. Ariana says that they have been written such that they come across as loving and supportive rather than being stern or shaming others, because this is the attitude she hopes the readers will imbibe. "I hope that the readers both relate to and emulate the characters they read about, so that there is the creation of a support system and an environment where asking questions about their bodies is acceptable."

Ariana believes in busting myths not by labeling certain practices as wrong, but rather by explaining that they may have come from an intelligent place, but are now outdated and not relevant. "You don't tell people that they're wrong. You say that it was logical years ago to follow those myths, but that now there is a new understanding. You explain the wisdom behind the myth, and then explain why their behaviour need not be the same as the one followed years ago," she says. But apart from busting myths for young girls, Ariana also has to face the challenge of helping them convince their parents to stop believing in them. "So many times I have heard these girls say, 'I know this myth is not true, but how should I have this conversation with my mom?'" she says. When you explain the logic behind the myth, though, girls find this conversation is easier to have," she adds.

She believes that Spreading Your Wings is a comic that girls should read with their mothers and sisters, adding that 'community reading' is the objective. It is tough to change behaviour, unless you can get the community to endorse this change, she opines. When asked if the book features male characters, she says that they chose not to, because it could result in the content becoming unrelatable. It does, however, encourage mothers to teach their sons about periods. "I hope that some day soon, girls will be able to talk to their fathers and brothers and other male relatives about menstruation, but this change in attitude will occur slowly. If we address that in this comic, it would be too unrealistic. Because its so far from happening that way in the lives of these girls," says Ariana, explaining the importance of keeping in mind the social context of the readers.

One of the main challenges Ariana faced while creating the comic was ensuring that it was informative whilst also being fun and interesting. She ran the risk of it becoming too long or boring, which is why the balance in content was of utmost importance. She also had to ensure that it would engage teenagers, as well as readers who are as young as seven, because she believes that the conversation about menstruation should begin early on in life. Another challenge was translating the comic into Hindi, so that it would be accessible to a wider section of people.

Spreading Your Wings also includes tips on how to conduct training sessions. This information has been included so that girls who attend sessions are capable of conducting them by themselves, so that helpful information reaches as many girls as possible. It is also meant to serve as a textbook that NGOs and schools can put to use. She believes that reframing the narrative around menstruation and ending this culture of shame is bound to have larger positive ramifications for the cause of gender equality and women empowerment. "And Im of the opinion, though its clearly a biased one, that this is the larger value of menstruation education  it is a perfect entry point for beginning to change mindsets around the female bodys value and capacities," she says.

Check out Spreading Your Wings' website and crowdfunding initiative.
Do you use the men's bathroom or women's bathroom?

How do you have sex?

Do you live with your family?

Are you on hormones?

Is this a mental disorder that you have checked up on?

These are some of the less humiliating questions transgender individuals are asked consistently.

This is not the only sort of rejection they face. Being transgender was a condition that was classified as a mental illness, recently. Although many medical institutions have moved away from the view that being transgender is a result of a psychiatric disorder, still, the sigma persists, and some of the most influential medical bibles, including the WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), continue to categorise transgender-ism as a diagnosis of mental disorder.

The stigma attached to transgender individuals is a result of ignorance and misinformation. That is why it was a step in the right direction when Hyderabad-based trans rights activists Rachana Mudraboyina and Moses Tulasi decided to make a YouTube series providing scientific information about transgender people.

The two met in 2015 during Hyderabad's LGBTQ pride parade, known as the Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Yatra. Tulasi has always been an active LGBTQ rights activist, and first approached Mudraboyina to be a part of his documentary Walking the Walk, which chronicles the Swabhimana Yatra.

Mudraboyina, who heads the Telangana Hijra Transgender Samiti and passionately supports many NGOs, got Anjali on board for the web series.

TransVision, their YouTube channel, aims at making content for the trans community, by trans individuals. This channel shows how a community effort by members themselves can go a long way in taking their cause forward.

Their first web series aAA eEE Anjali is an informational under-5 minute short that wants to provide accurate information on trans identities.

Here's a look at the series:

The web series is going to have eight episodes, 5 to 10 minutes each, that speak about the lives of transgender individuals and help with busting myths associated with them. aAA eEE Anjali is being broadcast in Telugu right now, and the channel has Urdu and Kannada versions in the pipeline.

When we asked Moses Tulasi, the producer, on why they had chosen to go with the local language instead of choosing Hindi or English, he tells us that there are plenty of people who have watched the Telugu version. "There are many people who may not be able to afford a computer or a laptop, but they do have internet on their phones. Because we are based in Telangana, we thought it would be better to use the local language. This is because we know that this way there will be more regional penetration. And when you see something in English versus when you see something in your regional language  doesn't what you see in your regional language stay with you more? It makes a greater impact, you can absorb it better."

The three episodes of the Telugu version so far have been used to discuss the basic definition of transgender people and their ways of life. The first episode has the very charismatic Anjali Kalyanapu explain the simple ABCDs of the transgender community. That's where the series name comes from: 'Aaa Ee' refers to the Hindi vermala, so yes, it's a 101 on transgenders.

Mudraboyina feels the series is much needed because of the discrimination faced by transgenders. She says, "There's lot of discrimination against transgender people even in the LGBTQ community. If you go to gay parties, they will not even allow transgender people inside. We are exorcised from our community because there is so much misinformation."

She continues, "That is why it was necessary to make this web series. We have made this series and put in our own money. But it's a very expensive affair. Each episode costs more than Rs 10,000 to produce and edit. We need more resources. That is why now we are looking at a crowdfunding campaign for the Urdu and Kannada versions. We are also going to have eight episodes for the Kannada version, while the Urdu version will have nine episodes, and in one, Sonia, the narrator will tell her own story."

Here's Sonia Shaik's story, the narrator of the Urdu version: She was attacked with acid for being different, and the proceeds of the 2015 documentary, Walking the Walk, went towards a partial facial reconstruction procedure.

Here's Jhanavi Rai, the narrator of the Kannada series:

Mudraboyina says, "We hope people can just look past the stereotypical version of us and accept us as human beings."

Mudraboyina is a double post graduate who had a job with a prestigious NGO, but was forced to quit because she of the stigma associated with transgender-ism. She hopes the web series will help normalise their community. "I really want to spread more awareness about our community."

TransVision is still looking for funds for their web series through the crowdfunding website Wishberry.
A while ago, I was watching a documentary from 2014 about Christian Louboutin  the adopted son of a French carpenter, designer of very tall and very expensive shoes, and creator of his massive and very (literally) well-heeled empire. For those interested, Christian Louboutin: The Worlds Most Luxurious Shoes is an hour-long documentary thats kinda nuts and all kinds of intriguing, which is obvious, because were peeping into the life of one of the worlds most famous designers, his desire and insistence on making super luxurious shoes, knowing what he does is essentially useless (to use his own words), and his unabashed pride in all of it.

More intriguing for me, however, was watching him (and his trusty Bangladeshi manservant butler Safquat) travel to places like Bhutan and Mumbai for pursuits that were as much an expansion of the Louboutin brand as they were extensions of the Bhutansese and Indian cultures  in Bhutan, he had local artisans chiseling blocks of wood into shoes (you know, like wedges and 16 cm block heels) who then painted them with typically Bhutanese designs (tigers or a druk). All of these blocks traveled back with Louboutin to Paris, from where he selected a few designs to be sent to his manufacturing factory in Italy.

In Mumbai, Louboutin was on hand for the expansion of his eponymous store to a second floor, which would have a selection of his iconic shoes catering to the Indian bridal market (more bejewelled and more embroidered). In hindsight, that (as well as his collaboration with Sabyasachi for the traditional Indian bridal designs) was inevitable; India is a huge market, of course Indian women would want their Louboutins in the traditional style, perfect for their sangeet and baaraat  high heeled, red lacquered, bejewelled and embroidered!

To see Louboutins quintessentially Parisien brand incorporating the aesthetic of two very different cultures, was quite something. And despite all the ridiculousness of Louboutins fashion empire (6,000 for a pair of tall, spiky shoes!) and despite the charming self-awareness with which he described his work as useless, I couldnt help but be amazed at how intricately fashion, once again, had managed to intertwine culture, art, history, and design! All those phrases exalting fashion as one of the highest forms of art suddenly came to mind, amidst a flurry of quotes by Coco Chanel (Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening), Michael Kors (Clothes are like a good meal, a good movie, great pieces of music), Bill Cunningham (Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life), and even Sir Francis Bacon (Fashion is the attempt to realise art in living forms and social intercourse). Blair Waldorf wouldve been really proud of me at that moment!

Of course, all of these great people are right. And, well, so is Macklemore (we are what we wear, we wear what we are). Which is why Googles month-old initiative as part of the Google Arts and Culture platform, the We Wear Culture project (which is essentially a searchable guide to an archive of approximately 30,000 fashion pieces that puts three millennia of fashion at your fingertips), is not just an exhaustive database of fashion. Or a pretty platform for well-curated exhibits. Or even a lovely way to spend your afternoon looking through the site and reading about various designers and icons/muses, or the evolution of Tokyo street fashion (Shibuya Casual and Joshikosei for the win!), among other things. Although it is all of these, but its also so much more!

By collaborating with more than 180 museums and fashion institutions/schools/organisations from around the world, Google has ensured that the sheer scale of this project is massive  both in terms of geographical/cultural range and (as I mentioned earlier) with the time period covered. You can use Googles Street View to explore inside Parsons School of Design (spoiler: youll feel like youre on an episode of Project Runway, minus Tim Gunn of course). Want to decode style trends such as ripped jeans or the Sukajan jacket? YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen (more popularly known as Missglamorazzi) is on hand with a series of YouTube videos on the Google Arts and Culture channel. Or how about an interactive video detailing the history of Chanels little black dress on its way to becoming the iconic fashion garment it is today?

Take something as everyday as womens underwear  did you know that the bra was only created after WWI? If youre remotely interested in fashion, you might know that Jean-Paul Gaultier was the pioneering mastermind for transforming womens underwear into outerwear in the 80s; in a beautiful exhibit on We Wear Culture, we see how this became a mainstream fashion when Gucci, Prada, and others started making slip dresses in the 90s (sidenote: if F.R.I.E.N.D.S. were a present-day show, and if Rachel had still somehow managed to find herself in that sorta-embarrassing situation at Joshuas parents home, she couldve just said she was doing research for We Wear Culture, and this exhibit in particular!).

Of course, this is a global initiative, and despite criticisms that the project seems to be more focused only on 3000 years of Euro-American fashion, theres plenty of content about fashion from other regions  from exploring the history of the Cheongsam to Deccani fashion during the Nizam period and how it influenced mens fashion (or at least, traditional Indian mens fashion). We learn, unsurprisingly and yet in the most pleasant manner, that the making of a kimono is as intricate as the making of a sari. There are so-interesting-you-can-lose-yourself-in-them exhibits about materials  Indian cotton and Chinese silk and Irish linen and South African mohair, with a special spotlight on Indian textiles (nine Indian museums/institutions are part of We Wear Culture).

And because its not only about the past and history, but also about the present and the future, there are incredible editorial features about fashion and tech or sustainable fashion (although itll be nice to see other big name designers, besides Stella McCartney, working towards making sustainable fashion sexy). There are exhibits about artists, materials, and activists. And a well-deserving spotlight on Alexis Lavigne  the man who invented the couture mannequin and the supple measuring tape.

When We Wear Culture was unveiled in June, Amit Sood, the director of the Google Cultural Institute, rightfully called the project a rabbit hole at a press conference. Over the past month, Ive been obsessively exploring the entire site a little bit every day, and Im still nowhere close to having seen it all  my personal preferences meant that I spent an inordinately long time looking at 360 views of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exploring the exhibits on fashion illustration and the design process, and reading all the articles about Japanese fashion.

During this period, fashion (or rather, what we wear) has continued to influence our cultural discussions  take this years biggest hit Wonder Woman for example. Weve recently learned that the movies legendary costume designer Linda Hemming used actual Roman armour (and, well, some folklore Amazonian armour) as her starting point for the (thankfully totally non-fetishised) armour worn on screen by the Amazonian women on Themiscyra. Fetish lingerie and sexy underwear werent her inspiration; instead, it was crocodile hide and metal breastplates. Feminism 1, fetishism 0? And weve all been following Justin Trudeaus sock diplomacy as he takes on a plethora of political issues, one pair of socks at a time; who wouldve thought that this afterthought of an accessory could make such a political statement? Er, besides Trudeau of course. Or his personal stylist.

What we wear, what our cultural and literary heroes wear (even the fictional ones), what our leaders wear  its all, literally, woven into the fabric of our society and our culture. And as We Wear Culture shows us in a beautiful, richly nuanced way, its all tied to who we were, who we are, and who we become. Its not just about expensive clothes or luxurious shoes or the editorial pages of Vogue; we simply wear what we are, and in a globalised and multicultural world, what we are is an amalgamation of various cultures. A cultural concoction, if you will. Kinda like me sitting in our apartment in Sydney watching a British documentary about a French footwear designer traveling the world (always accompanied by his Bangladeshi butler) looking to incorporate Bhutanese designs in his work, and expanding his Parisien brand aesthetic to include traditional Indian bridal shoes in his collection.

Visit Google's We Wear Culture here.
Patna: The JD(U) on Friday ramped up pressure on alliance partner RJD over the corruption case involving Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, asking it to come clean on the allegations against him.

Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.

Amid a growing rift in the coalition on the issue, state Janata Dal (United) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) should provide facts and not "display arrogance" of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

"The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition," he told PTI.

The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress has 27 while the BJP, which is the main Opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.

The Assembly has representation from the CPI(ML), the HAM (Secular), the LJP and the RLSP among others.

Singh was reacting to the "80-MLA" remark of Ram Chandra Purve, the Bihar unit chief of the RJD.

In Delhi, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would never compromise on the issue of corruption.

"Nitish Kumar's stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it," he said.

Asked what his party expected from the RJD over the charges against Tejashwi, Tyagi said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over the allegations, an issue his party had made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.

Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's intervention to defuse the crisis in the Grand Alliance and only welcomed such a suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.

Meanwhile, Lalu rubbished reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had called him up to mediate with Nitish over the Tejashwi issue.

"There has been no conversation between Sonia Gandhi and me on this issue. I totally reject this," he said tonight. He, however, said he could say whether Gandhi had talked to Nitish on this.

Earlier in Patna, state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary met Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, after the RJD chief reached here from Ranchi in the evening. He spoke to Prasad for nearly half an hour.

After the meeting, Choudhary said that the grand alliance was intact.

"Grand alliance is intact. There is respect for both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in the grand alliance. There is no reason for BJP to be happy (that coalition is breaking)," he told reporters.

Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said the Bihar chief minister should take a decision on his association with the RJD "at the earliest" as Lalu Prasad could break the JD(U) to form a government of his own.

The Congress said the grand alliance in Bihar was intact. "It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the 'Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb' (syncretic culture) of Bihar," party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

To a question on the remarks of some alliance leaders that Sonia should intervene to resolve the present crisis, he said functionaries of all the three parties should consult their leaders, including Nitish Kumar, before speaking on the issue.

JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, in an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi, said those against whom accusations have been levelled should explain the source of their assets "to silence the Opposition".

His colleague Sunil Singh echoed similar views and made it clear that the party would in no case compromise with the "clean image" of Nitish Kumar, saying the JD)U) president was known for his "politics of principles and zero-tolerance to corruption".

A section of the media reported that Tejashwi had made up his mind to tender resignation and the decision to this effect could be announced after the return of Lalu Prasad on Saturday from Ranchi, where he had gone for appearances in courts in fodder scam-related cases.

However, Tejashwi, in a tweet, ridiculed these reports. "Some media in the name of 'utpati (destructive) sources' is running one-point programme of the BJP...I feel like laughing at it loudly (sic)," he said.
Dharamsala: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and member of Lok Sabha Anurag Thakur on Friday accused Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh of having a "callous attitude" towards the rape and murder case of a minor girl in Kotkhai.

"The chief minister has all the time to visit Delhi over and again for his different cases but has no time to visit the victim's family at a time when the the entire state is concerned due to this heinous incident," he said in a statement issued in Dharamsala.

Thakur said there was anger among the people regarding the statement issued by the Singh after the incident.

"The chief minister came out with a statement that the people of Kotkhai area are extra smart, which was an insult to the residents of the area and it was their right to protest against the failure of the government in maintaining law and order, he said.

Thakur said, "This is not the first occasion when the chief minister has shown insensitivity towards a serious matter. In the past as well when there was jaundice outbreak in Shimla, he took up the position that such instances occur and termed this as a minor instance. Similarly in the major bus accident cases, he has never tried to visit the families of the deceased, rather he has been selective."

He said such a government has "no right" to remain in office for a single day and needs to be dismissed by the Governor as it has "failed on all fronts".
Srinagar: Hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday appealed to India and Pakistan to demonstrate restraint and wisdom and play a constructive role for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue which, he said, poses a threat to world peace.

The separatist said people in Jammu and Kashmir "do not like any confrontation and are against war-like situations".

"I, with a sincere heart, want to convey that we are yearning for peace and seek peaceful resolution to the long-pending (Kashmir) issue," Geelani said in a statement in Srinagar.

"I appeal to both countries (India and Pakistan) to demonstrate restraint and wisdom and solve the Kashmir issue as per aspirations, wishes and expectations of people of the state. Kashmir issue poses a threat for world peace and it is proving to be a big obstacle for peace, prosperity and development in the region," he said.

He said India had a great role to play in creating a conducive atmosphere and they needed to shun their "stubborn attitude and accept ground reality" regarding the Kashmir issue.

He also welcomed the statement of UN chief Antonio Guterres calling for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue and said that dialogue was the only option for the peaceful resolution of all issues.

"War is neither an option nor a solution to issues," he said.

He hailed the UN secretary general for his interest in the issue and termed it as encouraging.

"I on behalf of people of suppressed Jammu and Kashmir express my gratitude to Guterres for his moral support to our cause," Geelani said and expressed hope that he would play a "positive and effective role" for its peaceful settlement.

He appealed to the UN secretary general to take measures for the resolution of the dispute.

Addressing authorities in India and Pakistan, Geelani asked them to shun their "haughty and stubborn attitude" and play a constructive role for its peaceful resolution.

"War and inconsistencies are no options, instead they cause devastation and destruction. Both India and Pakistan are nuclear countries and any flare up can prove extremely detrimental," he said.

He said Kashmir issue has multiplied human tragedies and it was because of this lingering issue that millions of people were facing immense hardship and a state of uncertainty and instability was looming over the entire south Asian region.

"Although both countries are bound to seek peaceful settlement of the issue, however, neither agreement is being implemented nor any development is being observed on ground for its resolution," he said.
Bengaluru: Karnataka's ruling Congress is conducting a survey to collect data to help it select candidates and decide strategy for the 2018 Assembly polls, state party chief G Parameshwara said on Saturday. The party is conducting divisional surveys and after these are complete, it will organise conferences in all the districts to inform people about the government's acheivements, he told reporters.

On whether the survey was for selecting candidates for the polls, Parameshwara said, "We will use that. We must know the ground reality, naturally that will also help in the selection process. The survey is going on, we will survey every Assembly segment and we will get the basic data, based on which we will also make the opinion," he said.

Parameshwara, however, clarified that the survey would not be the only criteria for the candidate selection.

Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced that the Congress would carry out a survey on the performance of its government and legislators to formalise a strategy in the run up to the Assembly elections.

Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa had told PTI last month that a survey would be conducted by an external agency for distribution of tickets for the 2018 Assembly polls and added that the party was preparing for early elections. Pointing out that the state Congress committee has been reorganised, Parameshwara said 171 people have been appointed as office bearers, 33 of them women.

Conceding that the size of the committee is big, he said it was required keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly polls.

Parameshwara hit out at the BJP for accusing the Congress and its general secretary in-charge of Karanataka KC Venugopal for bringing in the "Kerala model" in the state. He was referring to the communal disturbance in the coastal region of the state and alleged that it is the BJP that was "instigating" trouble.

"BJP and its leaders are very well aware of who is behind it (communal disturbances). Keep yourselves (BJP leaders) away from it. If you keep yourselves away from communal activities, naturally there will be peace," he said.

He also appealed to Muslim organisations like PFI, SDPI to keep away from such activities. Several state BJP leaders, including Yeddyurappa, had alleged that the Congress government and Venugopal (who hails from Kerala) were "prompting" Kerala-like "communal murders" in Karnataka.
Kohima: The Kohima bench of the Guwahati High Court on Friday stayed, till 17 July, the floor test for the Naga People's Front-led coalition government headed by Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu.

Governor PB Acharya had directed Liezietsu to prove his majority by 15 July after former Chief Minister TR Zeliang staked claim to form the new government with the support of 41 legislators in the 60-member assembly.

Hearing Liezietsu's writ petition, Justice LS Lima said: "Considering the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Nabam Rebia and Bamang Felix (supra), this court is of the tentative opinion at this stage that an interim (order) is called for".

The court stayed the governor's order, after Speaker Imtiwapang Aier's counsel N Longkumer prayed for some time to enable him to receive instruction, and listed the matter for the next hearing on Monday next.

In his petition, Liezietsu argued that the Governor's decision asking him to conduct a floor test on or before 15 July was "ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution".

Contending the by-election to the Northern Angami-I constituency (in which Liezietsu is contesting) is already under process, he said: "It was "imperative and incumbent upon the Governor to call upon the petitioner to prove its majority on the floor of the House only pursuant to the by-elections wherein the petitioner is a candidate".

Liezietsu held that Acharya's decision has "virtually sought to strangulate the will of the Council of Ministers and have used the office of the Governor to suit his political needs".

"The decision of the Governor is completely tainted with arbitrariness, malafide, partisanship and has been taken in an extremely hasty manner on 13 July to pre-empt any staking of claim by the Petitioner. As such, it is violation of Article 14 of the Constitution", he said in his petition.

Earlier, Liezietsu accompanied by his ministers drove down to meet Acharya and briefed him on the state's political situation.

According to a communique from the Chief Minister's Office, the Governor told him "to bring about a reconciliation amongst the legislators".

Kuzholuzo Nienu, the newly-elected Chairman of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland's Coordination Committee, emphatically told Acharya that the coalition is intact and that the present crisis is only within the Naga People's Front party.

Meanwhile, the rebel NPF legislators led by Zeliang reached Kohima on Friday afternoon after they were evacuated by boat from a flooded resort in Assam's Kaziranga where they been camping since last week.

Zeliang said that he is prepared for the floor test. He is also confident of getting the support of four BJP legislators.

"I am prepared to get to the government through the democratic means of a floor test, so that the unity within the rank and file of the party is firmly secured", he said.
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should take a decision on his association with RJD "at the earliest" as Lalu Prasad Yadav can break the JD(U) to form a government of his own, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Friday.

The ruling alliance in Bihar has taken a hit after Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, deputy chief minister and Lalu Prasad's son, was booked in a graft case. The ruling JD(U) has asked the embattled deputy chief minister to "come out with facts in public against the accusations".

"..I am warning Nitishji that he should take the decision on the JD(U)-RJD alliance at the earliest, otherwise Lalu Prasad Yadav is capable of splitting JD(U) and can easily form a government on his own," Paswan said.

The Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution minister alleged that Nitish was delaying his decision by adopting various tactics.

"Kumar can not run away from this situation," he said.

"It will be in his (Nitish) interest...in the interest of his party and of course Bihar that he take a decision on his association at the earliest," Paswan told reporters.

Things are getting out of control as there is no governance in Bihar, the Union minister said, adding that the government was running like a lame cat.

Mahagathbandhan (mega alliance between JD(U) and RJD) is not feasible. On one hand, Nitish Kumar presents himself as 'Sushasan babu' (man of good governance), while on the other hand, his ally Lalu Prasad Yadav and family are involved in various scams, Paswan said.

Paswan, the LJP supremo who himself hails from Bihar, was speaking on the sidelines of a party event.

His son and president of LJP youth wing, Chirag Paswan, said the government should establish a youth commission on the lines of women commission.

He added that he has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same.
Gandhinagar: NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will visit Gujarat on Saturday as part of his nation-wide tour to seek support from elected representatives.

Though BJP president Amit Shah and the party's state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav were also scheduled to arrive here along with Kovind, both have cancelled their visit as they have to attend a programme in Delhi, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said in a release on Friday.

Instead, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya will accompany Kovind, the release said.

On 8 July, the state unit of the BJP had announced that Kovind and Shah would visit Gujarat on 11 July.

However, the party postponed the visit following the terrorist attack on a bus in Jammu and Kashmir on 10 July in which seven pilgrims from Gujarat and Maharashtra were killed.

As per the release, Kovind will be welcomed at the airport by Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel, several ministers and senior BJP leaders.

Kovind will then head to Gandhinagar, where he will hold a meeting with BJP MP from Gujarat, state legislators and the party's BJP's core committee members regarding the upcoming presidential election.

The opposition's presidential candidate and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar had launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram on 22 Juny.

The presidential election is scheduled for 17 July and the counting of votes will take place on 20 July.
Bhubaneswar: BJD president and Chief Minister of Odhisha Naveen Patnaik on Friday said that NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind's journey reposed faith in the Indian Constitution's guarantee to every citizen to dream big.

"Sri Kovindji symbolises a new and aspiring India. His journey reposes faith in our Constitution's guarantee to every Indian to dream big irrespective of caste, creed or religion," Patnaik said after meeting Kovind at the state Assembly.

Born in a poor family in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, Patnaik said, Kovind rose to great heights as advocate on record in the Supreme Court, a reputed leader in the Upper House of Parliament and the governor of Bihar.

"His journey from humble beginnings at a village in north India to being a candidate for the highest office in the country is a true reflection of the transition of modern India", Patnaik stated while introducing him to the BJD MLAs and MPs.

"We are privileged to support the candidature of Shri Kovindji for the president of India", Patnaik said.
Mumbai: The National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, arrived in Mumbai on Saturday for a brief campaign in Maharashtra for the 17 July elections.

However, he will not meet Uddhav Thackeray, president of NDA ally Shiv Sena.

Kovind was warmly received at the Mumbai airport by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Ramdas Athawale, and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries and officials.

Shortly thereafter, the former Bihar governor drove down to the Garware Club in south Mumbai to address a meeting of all NDA constituents' legislators and parliamentarians to solicit their support for Monday's elections.

After lunch, Kovind would depart from Mumbai and there were no plans to meet Thackeray, whose party will vote with the National Democratic Alliance for the first time in 10 years.

Earlier, in 2012, President Pranab Mukherjee had personally met the Shiv Sena founder-supremo, the late Bal Thackeray at his Bandra residence, after which the party extended its support.

Previously in 2008, Thackeray failed to toe the NDA line and unilaterally announced support to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Pratibha Patil on the ground that she was the first Maharashtrian and a woman to be contesting for the country's top Constitutional post.

This time, after initial hiccups and keeping the NDA on tenterhooks for several days, Shiv Sena finally declared support to Kovind.

Earlier, the party had drummed up support for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and renowned agro-scientist MS Swaminathan, which were not considered by the NDA.

BJP chief Amit Shah had held a long meeting with Thackeray on these and other issues and finally the Sena acquiesced, much to the relief of the NDA.
Coimbatore: BJP on Saturday expressed shock over allegations that AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala had paid Rs two crore to jail officials for getting preferential treatment in Bengaluru central prison.

The party wanted a high-level probe into the incident, BJP national secretary H Raja told reporters in Coimbatore.

Though the Karnataka government has ordered an inquiry into the episode, BJP wanted an high level probe into the incident, since another senior AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran was facing serious charges of conspiring with an alleged middleman to bribe election commission officals to get the 'Two Leaves' symbol for his party, Raja said.
Politicians in West Bengal have touched a new low, using rhetoric of rape for mud-slinging. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Roopa Ganguly on Friday courted controversy by challenging Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders to send women from their families to West Bengal and see if they can survive for fifteen days without getting raped, reported ANI.

#WATCH TMC supporters from outside WB should send their women thr,challenge they will be raped within 15 days: BJP MP Rupa Ganguly (13.7.17) pic.twitter.com/SOWs1xBO46  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

"I dare all the parties, the ones who keep flattering the West Bengal government and the Congress, to send their daughters, sisters-in-law, wives to Bengal, without taking any hospitality from Mamata Banerjee. If they are able to survive there for 15 days without getting raped, then tell me," Ganguly was quoted as saying by ANI. Ganguly, who was referring to present law and order situation in Bengal, asserted that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and TMC destroyed the state and the BJP was there to fight against them. Responding to Ganguly's criticism, TMC leader and West Bengal power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay came up with a shocking statement, asking the BJP leader to reveal the number of times she had been raped in Bengal before portraying a negative picture about the state.

#WATCH TMC Leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay reacts on Roopa Ganguly's statement says,"She should say hw many times she hs been raped in Bengal" pic.twitter.com/srk8hIpxrL  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

"First of all, she should say how many times she has been raped in Bengal. Before accusing anything or anyone, she should reveal this. Then only the truth behind her statement will be realized," Chattopadhyay was quoted as saying by ANI.

According to an ANI report, the BJP, coming in support of Ganguly, said that rather than focusing on the literal meaning of her statement, importance should be given to the subject matter itself.
Bucharest: Some 5,000 troops from NATO and partner countries are staging exercises in Romania watched by a senior NATO official and Romania's president.

President Klaus Iohannis and NATO Military Committee head General Petr Pavel, who is on a two-day visit to Romania, were welcomed with military honors ahead of Saturday's exercises at the Cincu shooting range in northwest Romania.

Troops from Romania, the US, Ukraine, Armenia and Croatia opened gunfire, backed by US and Romanian military aircraft.

The exercises, led by US Army Europe, began this week in Eastern Europe involving 25,000 military personnel from more than 20 allied and partner countries. The US is seeking to reassure NATO's European allies concerned about Russia since it annexed Crimea in 2014.

The exercises run until 20 July.
Kabul: At least three persons were injured when a school was destroyed in an airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunduz province on Saturday, an official said.

A fighter pounded the Khawja Mashad area in Kunduz city, 250 km north of Kabul, also destroying a house in the morning, Xinhua quoted Education Department Director Janat Gul Nasiri as saying.

Three children in the nearby house were injured in the attack, he said.

The official said 13 shops close to the school were also damaged.

"Since it was early in the morning and there was no student in the school, hence there was no loss of life," Nasiri said.

He blamed the United States-led coalition forces for the attack.

Kunduz has been the scene of heavy fighting over the past several months as the Taliban militants have been attempting to overrun the city.
Beijing : One of China's most prominent rights activists was released by the authorities on Saturday after serving a four-year sentence that prompted international criticism, with his lawyer saying he hoped he would be allowed to live as a free man.

Xu Zhiyong, whose "New Citizens' Movement" advocated working within the system to press for change, was detained in 2013 and subsequently convicted of "gathering a crowd to disturb public order".

One of the group's main demands had been for officials to publicly disclose their assets, a demand taken against the backdrop of the ruling Communist Party's own efforts to crackdown on deep-seat corruption under President Xi Jinping.

Xu's lawyer, Zhang Qingfang, told Reuters he had brought Xu up to speed with "events on the outside", including the death of fellow activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo. He said Xu was "upset" upon hearing the news.

Zhang said Xu, who was released from his jail on Beijing's outskirts on Saturday morning, was in good physical condition and had few immediate plans beyond spending time with family.

At the height of Xu's activism, he attracted hundreds of supporters who participated in activities related to the movement, having first gained prominence in 2003 for helping victims of tainted baby formula and migrant workers without access to healthcare and education.

It prompted a crackdown from the Communist Party, which swiftly crushes any perceived challenge to its rule.

"The idea of the New Citizens Movement is not to overthrow, but to establish," he wrote in a 2010 essay. "It's not one social class displacing another social class, but allowing righteousness to take its place in China."

Xu refused to defend himself in his 2014 trial, and remained silent as a way to protest what Zhang said was a controlled legal process where a guilty outcome was a foregone conclusion.

As international rights groups and foreign governments call for Chinese authorities to guarantee freedom for Liu Xiaobo's widow, Liu Xia, Xu's supporters have also expressed concern whether he will remain under close watch or effective house arrest. Some said on social media they were barred by security guards and plain-clothed officers from entering Xu's apartment compound on Saturday.

Other high-profile and politically sensitive prisoners released from jail, including rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and journalist Gao Yu, remain closely watched by Chinese authorities.

"I hope he will be completely free," Zhang said.

Xu taught law at a Beijing university and ran in a local election. He became prominent over a drive to abolish "custody and repatriation" powers, a form of arbitrary detention used by local governments to sweep homeless people off the streets.
Lahore: A Christian man has been arrested on the charges of blasphemy in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Soon after arresting the suspect the police shifted him to an undisclosed location on the fear that the area people led by religious groups might attack the police station.

The incident took place at Kharian Gujrat, some 200 kilometres from Lahore, the capital of Punjab.

Nadeem Ahmed, owner of an electric shop in Dinga town, filed a complaint with the police that a friend of his informed him on Thursday that a Christian sweeper allegedly had uttered remarks against the Prophet, according to Superintendent of Police Maaz Zafar.

The sweeper worked at a private hospital.

A case against the suspect has been registered.

Zafar said the police raided the whereabouts of the sweeper and arrested him.

He said the situation in the area is under control and police personnel are patrolling the town.

Blasphemy is very sensitive issue in Pakistan and those accused of it have become an easy target for extremists.
Havana: Cuban President Raul Castro has ratified his administration's willingness to continue engagement with the US despite a setback in relations between the two countries.

At the closing of the parliament's plenary session in its 8th Legislature on Friday, Castro expressed the island's desire to push forward negotiations on pending bilateral issues "on the basis of equality and the respect for sovereignty and independence", reports Xinhua news agency.

"Cuba and the US can cooperate and coexist by respecting their differences and promoting everything that benefits their peoples," Castro said, referring to the change of American policy towards Cuba  announced by President Donald Trump on 16 June  as a "setback in bilateral relations".

Castro said that Trump's decisions ignored large sectors of the US and most Cuban emigrants in support of lifting the embargo and normalising bilateral ties, and merely satisfied a small group in Florida. He recalled the previous US administration of Barack Obama, who restored the diplomatic ties with Havana and made progress on issues of mutual interest "on the basis of bilateral respect".

"We demonstrated that it is possible to live in a civilised way despite our profound differences," the Cuban leader told members of parliament gathered for an ordinary session at the Havana Convention Centre. "Cuba will not make concessions concerning to its sovereignty and independence, nor negotiate its principles," Castro added.

Formal ties between Cuba and the US broke off in March 1961 due to ideological differences during the Cold War, and were resumed in July 2015 after more than a year of secret negotiations by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.

Since then the two nations agreed to cooperate in such areas as combating drug and human trafficking, transportation and protecting the environment.

Trump proclaimed during his presidential campaign that if he were elected he would roll back ties with Cuba due to human rights concerns and seek "a better deal with its government".

He fulfilled his promise in June by signing a set of measures in Miami that limit American business opportunities and travels on the island.
Nice (France): France marked it's Bastille Day in Paris with a musical military parade on the Champs Elysees avenue, bringing US president Donald Trump's visit to an end while more sombre commemorations took place in Nice.

However the day was tinged with mourning, coming a year on from a militant massacre that claimed 86 lives in the southern city of Nice, where Macron led remembrances after the Paris ceremonies and vowed to "fight without mercy" inside and outside France to end extremist attacks.

In a speech on the anniversary of the atrocity, Macron said "this is what we owe you." Some of the victims and their families present as well as dignitaries and the corps of first responders, from police to rescue crews and hospital workers, were among those he addressed.

Commemorations followed celebrations on Bastille Day for Macron, who traveled to Nice for a solemn remembrance of the lives lost on 14 July, 2016, when a huge truck barreled down a famed beachside promenade, running over revelers awaiting the fireworks display on France's national day.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, though it remains unclear whether the Tunisian at the wheel of the truck, a longtime Nice resident, had any formal links to the organization.

Fireworks were lighting up the Paris sky on Friday night near the Eiffel Tower, but they were banned in Nice.

The solemnity in a city still coping with the aftermath of the attack was in sharp contrast to the pomp and display of French military might at the Bastille Day parade hours earlier in the French capital before Macron's guest of honor, President Donald Trump.

The Nice attack wasn't the first to hit France, nor the last. More than 230 people have been killed in extremist violence since 2015.

As in Paris, security was tight, the city heavily guarded on land and in the Mediterranean Sea. Place Massena, the central square where Macron spoke, was protected by cement barriers.
Honolulu: Flames ripped through three floors of a Honolulu tower block, killing three people including a mother and her son on Friday, media said.

The blaze at the 36-story Marco Polo condominium complex sent thick black smoke pouring over the city, a month to the day after a deadly high-rise fire in London.

Firefighters sprayed water onto the flames from nearby balconies and brought them under control at about 6.30 pm local time (0430 GMT Saturday), four hours after the fire began, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters.

You could feel the heat, and Im several floors away and you could feel the heat," resident Ron Chiarottino told Khon2, a local Fox affiliate. "The smoke just, when you hear of people say the smoke just overwhelmed me, I know just what theyre talking about now."

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser said a mother and her son were among the three people who perished on the 26th floor, where the fire started. At least 12 other people were injured, it added. The blaze quickly spread to the two floors above, the newspaper said. There were no immediate reports on what caused it. Images posted online showed orange flames raging on several floors and debris falling from windows.

"We were all trying to help as much as we could ... but there was a fire and you could see it spreading," said 72-year-old resident Karen Hastings, who was in the building when the fire broke out.

Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters that the building did not have a sprinkler system. More than 100 firefighters tackled the fire and officers were conducting a room-by-room search, a task that could take several hours, he said. "We don't have any information for us to believe that there are problems with the structure," Neves added.

The building was constructed in 1971, before the city began requiring sprinkler systems, the Star-Advertiser said. City officials told the paper that if the building had had a sprinkler system, the fire would have been contained to the original unit.

One firefighter and four residents were taken to hospital while eight other residents were treated at the scene, the Star-Advertiser said. Volunteers were looking after residents at a nearby park, the Hawaii Red Cross said on Twitter. The fire forced the closure of a major road in front of the condominium complex, the Honolulu police department said on Twitter.

In London, at least 80 people were killed when a fire gutted the 24-story Grenfell Tower block on 14 June. That building also did not have a sprinkler system.
Dubai: Iran on Saturday blamed what it called Donald Trump's "arbitrary and conflicting policies" for global security threats, rejecting the US president's description of Tehran as a rogue state.

Tensions between Iran and the US have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.

"(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Iran's state news agency IRNA.

Trump had said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them".

Senior Iranian officials have blamed US allies like Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state.

While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior US official said on Thursday that the president was "very likely" to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.
Tehran: Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday that the US must respect Iran nuclear deal as an international treaty, Tehran Times daily reported on Friday.

"We expect all the sides to abide by their commitments, but the US has remained committed to the agreement at the least level," Zarif said upon arrival in New York to participate in the meeting of the High-Level Political Forum 2017 in the UN headquarters, Xinhua reported.

"The US administration has not respected and supported the spirit of the deal by adopting wrong approaches and policies," he said, adding that the US government "has not let Iran gain benefits from the deal completely."

Iran has said Washington should be committed to its obligations under the nuclear agreement which endorses the removal of sanctions and barriers of banking transactions.

During his campaign, US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticised the Iran nuclear deal, calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

In July 2015, Iran and six world powers, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, which put it on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.

The deal set limits on Iran's nuclear activities as it would take Tehran at least one year to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, and allowed regular inspections of the facilities inside Iran.

In return, the United States and the European Union will suspend nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, including recalling all past UN Security Council sanction resolutions.
Jerusalem: Security forces locked down parts of Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday and an ultra-sensitive holy site remained closed after an attack that killed two police officers and heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Three Arab Israeli assailants opened fire on Israeli police on Friday in the Old City before fleeing to the nearby Haram al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, where they were shot dead by police.

Israeli authorities said they had come from the flashpoint holy site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, to commit the attack.

Israeli authorities took the highly unusual decision to close the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for Friday prayers, leading to anger from Muslims and Jordan, the holy site's custodian.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signalled it is to remain closed until at least Sunday while security was assessed.

He also spoke of increasing security at entrances to the holy site when it reopens - likely to be a controversial move.

On Saturday, there was restricted access through Damascus Gate, the main entrance used by Palestinians into Jerusalem's Old City, with only residents with identification being allowed to pass.

Around 20 Palestinians waited at police barriers near Damascus Gate to see if they would be let through.

"This is not security. This is punishment," said Bader Jweihan, a 53-year-old accountant for a bus company who was trying to get to work but was refused entrance there.

"They want to punish the Arab Jerusalem citizens."

Musa Abdelmenam Qussam, 73 and with poor eyesight, was being helped by one of his grandsons as he walked with a cane and sought to enter through the police barrier.

The owner of a book wholesale shop in the Old City, he said he usually prays at Al-Aqsa every day.

"This mosque is not only for Muslims. Tourists come," he said after being denied entrance.

"This city is for all the world. It must be open."

Jaffa Gate, heavily used by tourists and near the Old City's Jewish Quarter, was open but with a heavy police presence.

A group of tourists from Poland said they were concerned when they heard about the shooting yesterday but wanted to continue their visit.
Geneva: The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced the conclusion of the latest round of the Syria peace talks, saying that the next round will convene in September.

"We have just concluded the seventh round of talks. We have made incremental progress, no breakthrough, no breakdowns, no one walked out," the UN envoy told reporters during a press conference Friday night.

He added that he felt those he had engaged with this week had "complete support for what we are trying to achieve here", reports Xinhua news agency.

Before speaking to the media, the UN envoy had engaged in a telephone interview with members of the UN Security Council in New York about progress in the seventh round of talks that started on 10 July in trying to untangle and bring to an end the protracted conflict in Syria.

The latest round of ceasefire came after a ceasefire in southern Syria brokered last week by the US and Russia, which provides a relatively better atmosphere for negotiations.
Shenyang: Deceased Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo's ashes were scattered at sea on Saturday, Liu's brother said, in a move described by a family friend as an effort to erase any memory of him.

Liu, 61, died of multiple organ failure on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where he was being treated for late-stage liver cancer, having been given medical parole but not freed. He had been jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after helping to write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms.

His widow, Liu Xia, has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, but had been allowed to visit him in prison about once a month. She has never been formally charged with any crime.

Speaking at a government-arranged news conference, Liu Xiaobo's eldest brother Liu Xiaoguang offered thanks several times to the Communist Party for its thoughtful care considering the dissident's "special situation". "Why has Liu Xia not come here? Her health is very weak at the moment," Liu Xiaoguang said, sitting in-between an English-language interpreter and a Shenyang government official. "So she can't come here. It's very regretful."

After speaking for about 20 minutes, Liu was escorted out by two unidentified women, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, and did not answer questions from journalists who surrounded him.

The government then showed reporters images of the ashes being scattered from a boat. City government information official Zhang Qingyang said Liu Xia and Liu Xiaoguang had decided upon the scattering of ashes at sea. But close friend and fellow dissident Hu Jia said the motivation behind the sea burial was so that there was "nothing to remember him by on Chinese soil" and so that supporters could not create a shrine to pay tribute to him.

"We know that Liu Xiaobo's home is Beijing, his spiritual home is here, his love was also found here," he said.

Hu said it was well-known among Liu's friends that his elder brother did not agree with his political views and that it was a cynical move for him to be presented to the media as representing Liu Xia and the family. "The extent to what the authorities are capable of always exceeds our imagination, they always have something worse than imagined planned," Hu said of the news conference.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's East Asia Regional Director, tweeted that the news conference was "one of the most crude, cruel and callous political show(s) I have ever witnessed".

Government official Zhang, speaking earlier, said Liu's widow was "currently free", adding that as a Chinese citizen, her rights would be protected under the law. "But she just lost her spouse. She is extremely sad. In the period after dealing with the death of Liu Xiaobo, she won't take anymore outside disturbances. This is the wish of the family members. It's natural."

Zhang did not say where Liu Xia currently was.

A government statement said Mozart's Requiem was played during the funeral, a work of music Mozart left unfinished on his death bed. Liu family lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters he did not know whether the cremation was in accordance with family wishes, however, as they had been unreachable. "They are likely still to be under the watch and control of authorities," Mo said. "They can't be contacted."

In funeral photographs handed out by the government, Liu Xia and other family members stand around the coffin containing Liu's body, surrounded by white flowers that signify mourning in China.

During the past couple of weeks, Liu Xia had been at the hospital as her husband's health deteriorated. Rights groups and Western governments have mourned Liu Xiaobo's death and urged authorities to grant freedom of movement to his wife and the rest of his family.

China has repeatedly attacked foreign governments for their concern about Liu and calls to allow Liu Xia to leave the country if she wishes, and foreign reporters in Shenyang have been closely monitored by plainclothes security. Efforts are being made to secure permission from Chinese authorities for Liu Xia and her brother Liu Hui to leave, a Western diplomat said on Friday.

The last Nobel Peace Prize winner to live out his dying days under state surveillance was Carl von Ossietzky, a pacifist who died in Berlin in Nazi Germany in 1938.
Moscow: Russia said on Friday that too many American spies operated in Moscow under diplomatic cover and said it might expel some of them to retaliate against the United States over Washington's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year.

The warning, delivered by Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, reflects rising frustration in Moscow over the Trump administration's refusal to hand back two Russian diplomatic compounds which were seized at the same time as some of Russia's diplomats were sent home last year.

Barack Obama, US president at the time, ordered the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies in December, along with the seizure of the two diplomatic compounds, over what he said was the hacking of US political groups during the 2016 presidential election, something Russia has flatly denied.

President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate immediately at the time, saying he would wait to see what the new administration of Donald Trump would do.

Zakharova complained on Friday that US officials were not issuing visas to Russian diplomats to allow Moscow to replace the expelled employees and get its embassy back up to full strength.

"We have a way of responding," she told a news briefing. "The number of staff at the US embassy in Moscow exceeds the number of our embassy employees in Washington by a big margin. One of our options, apart from a tit-for-tat expulsion of Americans, would be to even out the numbers."

If there was no movement in the US-Russia dispute soon, she said Moscow would have to reluctantly retaliate and suggested US spies working in Russia would be among those to be expelled.

"There are too many employees of the CIA and the Pentagon's espionage unit working under the roof of the American diplomatic mission whose activity does not correspond at all with their status," said Zakharova.

Time Running Out

Russia would also move to deny US diplomats use of a dacha compound and a warehouse in Moscow, she made clear.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not yet taken any decision on retaliation. He said Russia rejected the idea of linking the dispute to other issues.

Peskov was responding to comments made to CNN by Sebastian Gorka, a Trump adviser, that appeared to link the compounds' return to Russia's behavior in Syria.

Zakharova said time for Washington to act "was running out."

"We don't want to resort to extreme measures. (But) if it's the only way to make our American partners understand we will have to act."

Asked when Moscow might retaliate, she suggested a lot would depend on the outcome of a meeting in Washington on Monday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

Russia expected US officials to use the meeting to set out "detailed proposals" on the matter, she said.

"There is no precise deadline. Everything depends on the reaction of the US side, its concrete actions, and on the results of the consultations which will now take place in Washington."
Pyongyang: North Korea's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published an article branding the South Korean president's offer of cross-border rapprochement as misleading.

President Moon Jae-in's proposal, made during a speech in Berlin last week, adds obstacles to achieving peace rather than helping to improve inter-Korean relations, Efe news quoted the article as saying.

"(The initiative) is riddled with sophistries like sleep talking, which only pose hurdles rather than helping improve North-South relations" the piece said.

The newspaper dismissed Moon's proposal, and called for a "fundamental shift in policy and stance" from Seoul in order to initiate bilateral dialogue and cooperation.

In his speech in Berlin, Moon said he was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "under the right conditions", and proposed resuming meetings of family members who were separated by the Korean War.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's repeated nuclear weapons tests, Moon also proposed that the two sides suspend hostile acts along their border.

Since he assumed office in May, South Korea's Liberal president has attempted to resume dialogue with Pyongayng.
Havana: Cuban President Raul Castro has denounced President Donald Trump's tougher line on relations with Havana today, calling it a setback but promising to continue working to normalise ties between the former Cold War rivals.

They contained echoes of the harsh rhetoric of the past. "Any strategy that seeks to destroy the revolution either through coercion or pressure or through more subtle methods will fail," Cuba's president told legislators.

He also rejected any "lessons" on human rights from the US, saying his country "has a lot to be proud about" on the issue.

Surrounded by Cuban-American exiles and Cuban dissidents in Miami, Trump announced last month that the US would impose new limits on US travellers to the island and ban any payments to the military linked conglomerate that controls much of the island's tourism industry.

He said the US would consider lifting those and other restrictions only after Cuba returned fugitives and made a series of other internal changes including freeing political prisoners, allowing freedom of assembly and holding free elections.

Trump's policy retained elements of Obama's reforms but tightened restrictions on travel and employed harsh rhetoric on human rights.

On Friday in Washington, the Trump administration said it was suspending for another six months a provision of the US embargo on Cuba. The State Department said it told Congress that it will keep suspending a provision of the Helms-Burton Act that deals with property seized from Americans. The provision lets Americans use US courts to sue non-American companies that operate and deal with property confiscated after Fidel Castro's revolution.

Speaking to the National Assembly, Castro called the Trump administration's policies a "setback," though he reiterated his government's position that it would work to normalise relations with Washington.

Earlier in the legislative session, Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas announced that Cuba's economy is growing again after a dip last year. Cabrisas said the economy grew around 1 percent in the first half of 2017. That puts GDP growth on track to hit 2 percent for the year.

The government said the economy shrank last year by 1 per cent amid falling support from troubled Venezuela. That was the first decrease reported in two decades. Cabrisas said that instability in the supply of Venezuelan oil weighs on the country but tourism, construction, transportation and communications were growing. Foreign media did not have access to the National Assembly session.
Washington: A June 2016 meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who allegedly had compromising information about former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, was attended by at least eight people, the media reported.

The revelation came after Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who once served in the Soviet army, confirmed on Friday to The Washington Post that he was present at the meeting on 9 June, 2016.

So far acknowledged in attendance: Donald Trump Jr.; the President's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner; former campaign chairman Paul.J. Manafort; Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya; Akhmetshin; and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting.

A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names.

On Friday, Akhmetshin told The Washington Post that he was on his own in New York when he got a phone call from Veselnitskaya.

The two then met for lunch at restaurant near Trump Tower.

Akhmetshin, who holds dual US-Russian citizenship, said that the lawyer initially sought his advice on what to say at the meeting before finally asking him to join her for the discussion with the oldest son of then-candidate Donald Trump.

"I was literally the only person wearing jeans and T-shirt" at the meeting, Akhmetshin told the daily.

Regarding the substance, Akhmetshin said that in the course of her work for clients, Veselnitskaya had discovered that a US hedge fund which "seemed linked to the (Democratic National Committee)" was operating in violation of Russian tax and securities law.

He adds that Veselnitskaya "left a document behind" after the meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

Akhmetshin assured that his only connection with government service was the two years he spent in the Soviet army as a young conscript in a unit whose responsibilities included counterintelligence

"I never worked for the Russian government. I served as a soldier, for two years, like tens of millions of Russian young men who were drafted. I am proud of my military service. At no time have I ever worked for Russian government or any of its agencies. I was not an intelligence officer. Never," he told The Washington Post.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. released an email chain relating to the conversation he had with Veselnitskaya.

The emails show that Trump Jr. agreed to meet with someone who was a "Russian government attorney" about "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Clinton, reports CNN.

Veselnitskaya has denied she had provided any such information.
Riyadh: Saudi police have killed a wanted "terrorist" in the Shiite-majority eastern district of Qatif, where there has been a string of attacks on security forces, newspapers said Saturday.

Jaafar al-Mobireek was killed late Friday in an operation in the city of Saihat, in Eastern Province, al-Jazirah newspaper reported, adding that he was a member of a "Qatif cell."

The suspect was one of nine people wanted by the interior ministry and had been involved in targeting people and security forces and "vandalising public, security and economic installations," the paper said.

The district has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shiite protests erupted to demand equality in the Gulf kingdom. Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and drug traffickers.

On Thursday, a border guard was shot dead and another wounded when their patrol came under fire on Al-Ramis coast in Qatif, Arab News daily reported citing an interior ministry statement.

Home to a significant number of the kingdom's minority Shiites  who have traditionally complained of marginalisation  Qatif has recently seen mounting attacks on police.

Saudi authorities on Tuesday executed four men convicted of "terrorist crimes", including attacks on police and rioting in Qatif.

Three police officers have been killed and several wounded in Qatif since in June, while two suspects died when their car exploded, according to the authorities.
Madrid: Spain's maritime rescue service says that it has saved 19 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a small boat.

The service tells the Associated Press that all 19 migrants were men claiming Algerian nationality.

The boat was spotted late last night, and rescuers reached it early Saturday morning in waters off the southeastern coast of Spain.

Thousands of migrants from Africa attempt the perilous crossing to Europe in small boats that are unfit for the open sea and often launched by human smugglers.
United Nations: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for a national dialogue in Venezuela to end the crisis in the country just days before a symbolic, opposition-led vote on the government's plan to rewrite the constitution.

"Our concern regarding Venezuela is more present than ever," Guterres said in a statement.

"A national dialogue is urgently needed in Venezuela between the government and the opposition."

The dialogue would focus on ending violence and ensuring agreement on the way forward regarding the constitution, he added.

The appeal came ahead of a symbolic vote on Sunday, organised by the opposition-led National Assembly, on President Nicolas Maduro's bid to hold an election 30 July for a new assembly tasked with drafting a constitution.

At least 90 people have died in more than three months of protests against Maduro. His opponents accuse him of authoritarianism as the country faces crippling shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.

"The way out is through an agreement, elections and respect for fundamental rights and constitutional powers," said Guterres.

"The way out must be found by Venezuelans alone, and the international community must support peaceful outcomes based on political dialogue.

"Only a political solution can restore hope to Venezuela," he added.

The United Nations has kept its distance from the Venezuela crisis to allow regional players the space to try to mediate an end to the crisis.

The United States raised concerns about Venezuela at the Security Council in May, but there have been no subsequent requests for the top United Nations body to become involved.

United States Ambassador Nikki Haley said last month, however, that the "international community must act" after a US-backed proposal for mediation failed to win support at the Organisation of American States.
Washington: The US should maintain a military capability to deter acts of aggression in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, the House of Representatives has said, amid aggressive Chinese behaviour in the strategic region.

Approving the annual defence budget, it noted that the US has a national interest in maintaining the stability and security of the Indo-Asia Pacific region.

The National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2018 said that the US "should maintain a military capability to deter acts of aggression and respond to regional threats."

It also called for continuing efforts to realign forces, committing additional assets, and increasing investments in the region as necessary to maintain a robust US commitment to the region.

It directed the Defence Secretary to develop a strategic plan and submit it to the Congress by 1 February next year and assess US Pacific posture, deployment plans, and realignment and basing needs to accomplish defence priorities and respond to complex crises and contingencies.

To be submitted to the Congress before 1 March next year, the report should align with the Department of Defence strategy to prioritise US defence interests in the Indo-Asia Pacific region that would be required elsewhere in this subtitle, the budget said.

Calls for reassessing and realigning forces by the US come at a time when China has been increasingly aggressive in the disputed South China Sea region and flexing its military muscles overseas. It has this week sent military personnel to man its first overseas military base at Djibouti in the strategic Indian Ocean region.

Though Beijing downplayed reports that its naval facility at Djibouti was its first military base, the dispatch of PLA personnel sparked concerns in the US.

The Djibouti military base is a few kilometres from Camp Lemonnier, one of Pentagon's largest foreign installations.

China's second base is coming up in Gwadar, Pakistan, linking its restive Xinjiang region to the Indian Ocean through the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The US defence budget assured that America was committed to providing extended deterrence to allies in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan and South Korea. Also, it said that the US must maintain robust nuclear capabilities, including nuclear-capable aircraft, to assure that the full spectrum of military options associated with the extended deterrence commitments of the US remains credible and executable.

Supporting recent Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea that challenge arbitrary limitations that are in contravention of the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea, the budget asked the US Defence Secretary to provide a report to the congressional committees that outlines US policy and strategy regarding freedom of navigation in the global commons and a plan for conducting FONOPs in the South China Sea with regularity.

The US should regularly and routinely conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, it said.

Meanwhile, a White paper issued by the House Armed Services Committee said China continues to build new military bases in the South China Sea, while the regime in North Korea continues to pursue nuclear weapons and deploy new, longer- range ballistic missiles that directly threaten the US.
Washington: The US Department of Homeland Security has issued a revised directive to airlines around the world in response to requests that it clarify aviation security measures scheduled to begin taking effect next week, the agency said on Friday.

"This clarifying update will strengthen global aviation security and is a testament to our shared commitment to raising the baseline," said James Gregory, a spokesman for the US Transportation Security Administration, which is part of the DHS.

An airline official briefed on the matter said the directive gives airlines more flexibility and additional time to obtain explosive trace detection equipment. The official was not authorised to discuss sensitive security issues with the media and requested anonymity.

The directive includes technical adjustments, agency officials said, declining to release the text. European airlines have been pushing for changes to meet the new requirements, which begin taking effect on 19 July. The new requirements include enhanced passenger screening at foreign airports, increased security protocols around aircraft and in passenger areas and expanded canine screening. They affect 3,25,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the United States, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries.

On 28 June, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly unveiled enhanced security measures for all foreign flights arriving in the United States, which officials said were designed to end a limited in-cabin ban on laptops and prevent the ban's expansion to additional airports.

In March, DHS imposed restrictions on passengers carrying large electronics like laptops in cabins on nine airlines, most of which were Middle Eastern carriers, to address the potential threat of hidden explosives.

On Thursday, DHS removed those restrictions on Royal Air Maroc flights out of Casablanca's Mohammed V airport, leaving just Saudi Arabian Airlines under the restrictions. Gregory said DHS expects the ban to be lifted on those remaining flights by 19 July.

European and US officials told Reuters that airlines had 21 days from 28 June, or until 19 July, to put in place increased explosive trace detection screening and 120 days to comply with other security measures, including enhanced screening of airline passengers.

One issue, European airline officials said, was whether some explosive screening could be done at a central point, rather than at gates.

DHS spokesman David Lapan said this week that US officials are working with airlines. "Some airports, airlines will be able to get there more quickly," Lapan said.

Gregory separately denied a report that the new measures could require in-person check in for US flights. "None of the measures impact the ability of an airline to offer kiosk or on-line check in," he said.
Ever since the news broke that Boeing (NYSE: BA) had won the contract to build DARPA's new spaceplane, this was probably inevitable. But now it's also official:

XCOR Aerospace is dead.

So long XCOR, we hardly knew ye

Yes, the tiny aerospace company that we first learned of six years ago, when Boeing and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) hired XCOR to build them some space engines, has finally run its course. From zero to hero and back again, XCOR announced last week that has laid off all of its employees.

Citing "adverse financial conditions," acting CEO Michael Blum confirmed last week that XCOR was forced to "terminate all employees as of 30 June2017," keeping only a handful as "contractors" as the company explores its "other options." This move followed a May 2016 layoff of nearly half of XCOR's employees, and after that, the June departure of the company's CEO Jay Gibson.

Three in a row

XCOR's acting CEO, meanwhile, was himself once the co-founder of rival new-space firm Firefly -- which itself furloughed all staff in December, and finally went defunct earlier this year, selling off all its assets at auction. Add in Swiss Space, which filed for bankruptcy last year. By my count, the field of privately owned space start-ups has dwindled by three over just the past seven months.

For investors in giant space stocks like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Orbital ATK, this may sound like good news. The threat from "new-space" is fading.

But not so fast. While many new-space companies are going under, some are thriving.

What does not kill them makes them stronger

Take Rocket Lab for example. Earlier this year, Rocket Lab became the first privately held space tech firm (since SpaceX) to reach unicorn status -- valued in excess of $1 billion after attracting investments from such firms as Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Lockheed Martin itself. With these funds in hand, Rocket Lab proceeded to launch its first rocket to the very edge of space in May, and expects to put a rocket in orbit before the year is out.

And then there's Vector. In June, the micro-satellite launch company -- and Rocket Lab rival -- closed a new $21 million round of funding, led by private equity fund Sequoia Capital. Vector spent much of last year lining up paying customers to fly satellites on its rockets, building up a backlog worth tens of millions of dollars. It conducted a successful rocket test of its own earlier this year.

As the less financially sound space start-ups fold, competition for funding decreases among survivors such as Rocket Lab and Vector, increasing their ability to compete with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed. What's more, once the business of launching microsatellites begins in earnest, it's the survivors of this early stage of funding who will inherit the market share that would, otherwise, have been split among many more players.

So what's the upshot of all this for investors? The weak are dying off, and the stronger are surviving. If and when these companies reach the point where they begin contemplating IPOs, that should make it a whole lot easier for us to figure out which ones to invest in.

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The Latest on developments in Qatar (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

France's Foreign Minister has urged Qatar and its Arab neighbors to find an end to their diplomatic standoff and to immediately lift measures that have impacted thousands of people in the Gulf.

Jean-Yves Le Drian is the latest diplomat to visit the Gulf to try and help find a solution to the crisis between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, which cut ties with the small Gulf nation in early June.

Le Drian spoke to reporters Saturday in Qatar alongside Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said he welcomed mediation efforts and possible negotiations built on respect of "sovereignty."

The Arab quartet have expelled Qatari nationals and imposed a blockade, impacting mixed-nationality families in the Gulf, students and people seeking medical treatment abroad, among others.

___

1:45 p.m.

A top Emirati diplomat has cautioned that a diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors could be prolonged.

The United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for Foreign Relations Anwar al-Gargash said the countries "are heading toward a long estrangement" and that crisis is "far from a political solution." He published his comments on Twitter Friday.

The dispute between Qatar, on one side, and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt on the other erupted more than a month ago. Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in the Gulf, meeting separately with officials in the region to try and find a resolution to the impasse.

The Arab quartet accuse Qatar of disrupting regional security by supporting Islamist opposition groups and extremists. Qatar denies the allegations.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says the U.S. economy wont get to 3% growth for five years, but Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told the FOX Business Networks Stuart Varney, She can be wrong.

Mulvaney said the Trump Administrations economic plan can get the country back to 3% economic growth.

MAGA-nomics, Make America Great economics," Mulvaney said. "If we get a chance to put those policies in place, that comprehensive package of proposals the White House is coming up with, we do have a chance to get back to 3% growth.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the Trump budget plan will not balance the budget in ten years, another prediction Mulvaney questioned. We expected that, because again, what are they assuming? They are assuming the new normal when it comes to economic growth, you drill down into their numbers as we did last night and this morning and they assume 1.9% GDP growth foreverwe reject that.

Mulvaney says there are valid concerns about entitlement spending, noting that at the beginning of the recession there was a rise in the number of people on programs like Medicaid and food stamps, but he says those numbers have not dropped despite an improved economy. Mulvaney suggested some of the people utilizing those programs should be working. One of the things weve been pushing in health care, in our tax proposals, in our budget proposals is having a work requirement for those benefits.
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the State of Hawaii to respond by Tuesday at noon to President Donald Trump's motion to block a judge's ruling that prevented his travel ban from being applied to grandparents of U.S. citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies, the court's public information office said on Saturday.

In a court filing on Friday, the administration asked the justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a U.S. district judge in Hawaii, which limited the scope of the administration's temporary ban on refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The latest round in the fight over Trump's March 6 executive order, which he says is needed to prevent terrorism attacks, began when the Supreme Court intervened last month to partially revive the two bans, which had been blocked by lower courts.

The Supreme Court said then that the ban could take effect, but that people with a "bona fide relationship" to a U.S. person or entity could not be barred. The administration had narrowly interpreted that language, saying the ban would apply to grandparents and other family members, prompting the state of Hawaii to ask Hawaii-based U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson to expand the definition of who could be admitted.

Trump banned travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and refugees for 120 days.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in the fall over whether the ban violates the U.S. Constitution.

(Reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley and Lawrence Hurley; editing by Grant McCool)
A Florida mom is trying to give her sick son a birthday present of epic proportions.

Katie Smith wants her son, Austin to get as many birthday cards as possible. He turns six in a few weeks.

She says every time Austin goes to the mailbox and finds something with his name on it, he overflows with excitement.

"'Is this for me? Is this for me?'" she exclaimed, describing Austin's reaction to mail. "He knows the A for his name, [and squeals] 'Look! It's for Austin!'"

Austin has had it rough since he was born. Early on, he came down with the flu, and then pneumonia. Just as quickly as he would get over one illness, he would come down with something else.

Reality hit Katie when Austin was at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg for an extended stay. They had him on a ventilator for months. When he was finally able to be released, she saw something that shook her to the core.

"The day we left it was written in his paperwork from the ICU, that he wasn't going home," she said.

He did go home but still has severe ongoing problems. He is fed through a breathing tube, can't fight off germs, and is progressing slower than other kids his age. Every day is a gift.

"We try to do as much with him as we can and just take it day by day and try not to think of the reality," Katie said.

Birthday card or note to Austin can be sent via his Facebook page, which was started before he was diagnosed with the mitochondrial disease.

Letts may also be sent to:

Austin Wieschowski

P.O. Box 6394

Lakeland Florida 33807

This article first appeared in Fox 13.
Ukraine is the central battleground between the rapidly fraying West and the brutally ascendant East. As NATO bickers over defense contributions by member states, Article 5 commitments and its renegade member Turkey, Russia is taking concerted action to secure its borders, expand its influence and weaken the bedrock alliance that has kept the peace in Europe for the past 60 years.

Ukraine lies at ground zero in this clash of civilizations between the rule of law and the power of the sword. Its moves to join the EU prompted Russian troops to seize the eastern third of the country. Despite U.S. and European sanctions, Ukraine remains a divided and war-torn state on NATOs eastern flank.

Curing the cancer of corruption will require radical surgery and The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act might be one of the options to punish corrupted foreign officials.

Secretary of State Rex Tillersons July 7th appointment of Ambassador Kurt Volker as Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations is a necessary but insufficient step in the right direction. Implementing the Minsk Agreements, which provide a blueprint for a political settlement, may reduce the violence but it will not cure the cancer that is steadily destroying Ukraine and doing more harm to the integrity of the state than Russian-backed aggression.

Ukraine is 130th out of 168 countries ranked by Transparency Internationals Corruption Perception Index 2015. It is worse than Russia (119) in terms of corruption. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), Ukrainians cite corruption as a more urgent problem than the war against pro-Russian rebels  by a margine of two-to-one. Another survey by the European Business Association and Dragon Capital, Ukraines leading private equity firm, found that Foreign investors believe that the biggest obstacles for investment in Ukraine are widespread corruption (average score  8.5 points out of 10 possible) and lack of trust in the judiciary (7.5 points).

Most of the pre-war investment in Ukraine was actually re-invested Ukrainian and Russian capital, which means that key factors that keep genuine FDI away from Ukraine existed before the onset of the conflict. These obstacles still need to be addressed. As the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development underlines, While the political and security situation has deteriorated in recent years, the problems are long-term and have to do with poor business environment, weak institutions, and widespread corruption.



Institutional rot is at the core of Ukraines problem. The officials charged with enforcing Ukraines anti-corruption efforts are themselves compromised. Ukraines Prime Minister recognized this issue when he admitted last year that, The weakest link in our fight against corruption are the Ukrainian courts. Despite an initiative that requires judges and other public sector workers to detail their wealth in an online database, judges continue to drive Porsches and receive large sums of cash to influence judicial decisions. One-third (24 of 68) of the criminal cases sent by the National Anti-corruption Agency of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutors Office (SAPO) to courts remain stalled for over one year.



The senior leadership of Ukraines Anti-Corruption Action Center, which has received significant funding support from the U.S. government, has profited from sweetheart deals and kickbacks. Its Director, Vitaly Shabunin, earns $34,000 according to his tax filing. In 2010, he bought an apartment for $60,000. In 2014, he acquired land near Kiev for $20,000. In 2016, he sold his apartment for $34,000 and built a house for $83,000. All properties are registered in his wifes name and there are no mortgages on the properties.



Politically motivated state-sponsored gangsterism has also had a chilling effect on Ukraines investment climate. In April 2017, Ukraines state security service raided the Kiev offices of Dragon Capital, one of the country's largest investment banks, over the alleged use of illegal software. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman interrupted a cabinet meeting to express his surprise at the news of the raid on Dragon Capital, which he warned could affect investor sentiment. Dragon Capital CEO Tomas Fiala said the searches were part of a government-backed effort to pressure the bank, whose assets had been seized by allies of President Petro Poroshenko such as Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Granovsky.



In another long-running legal battle, American citizens Ilya and Vadim Segal allege that Ukrainian oligarch billionaire Dmitry Firtash (being extradited to the US to face bribery charges ) and his DF Group allegedly supported by MP Ivan Fursin and by Sergei Levochkin (former head of the Administration of President Yanukovich and Firtash partner at Inter News Channel) seized a $50 million soybean plant they owned through a campaign of fraud, physical threats, coercion and corruption. After a series of legal victories, the Segal brothers still struggle to get access to their factory.



In his meeting with Ukrainian President Poroshenko last June, Vice President Pence stressed the importance of continued reforms to fight corruption, improve the business climate, and keep Ukraine's International Monetary Fund program on track. This anodyne-sounding advice goes to the heart of Ukraines national epidemic. Curing the cancer of corruption will require radical surgery and The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act might be one of the options to punish corrupted foreign officials.
There are no longer any limits in the radical secular mission to indoctrinate youngsters in the West.

It was recently reported that an English private school for Orthodox Jewish girls aged three to eight is facing closure because it does not teach students about gender reassignment or homosexuality.

In other words, bureaucrats assume they must force prepubescent girls to learn about sexual orientation. Should such teaching violate Jewish faith, the faith will have to change.

The governments Office of Standards in Education argues the school must conform to the secular standards of the state. If enforced, as it seems to be, religious families would not be allowed to educate their children in accordance with their faith.

The act states: the responsible body of such a school must not discriminate against a pupil in the way it provides education. In other words, bureaucrats assume they must force prepubescent girls to learn about sexual orientation. Should such teaching violate Jewish faith, the faith will have to change. The school is ipso facto inadequate.

Even though the school excels at teaching secular subjects, it does not teach explicitly about issues such as sexual orientation thereby restricting pupils moral, social and cultural development and does not promote equality of opportunities that take into accountdiffering lifestyles. All this in a curriculum for eight year olds.

Here is a transparent example of soft totalitarianism. Secular dogma will be imposed, although it is not clear how spiritual and moral development will take place with these children. Can one ascertain that a typical British bureaucrat is more wise than a rabbi or priest? Is the expression of ones religion any less of a British value than secularism?

The head of the Standards office maintains that there is a need for young people to have the knowledge and resilienceto resist extremism. Presumably this means eight year olds must imbibe the fundamentals of fellatio. The law expects schools to demonstrate that they are encouraging pupils to take a respectful and tolerant stance towards those who hold values different from their own. If there were any justice in this matter, this statement would be a standard employed by educational bureaucrats. After all, it is the government that is expressing intolerance of a different lifestyle.

What this episode suggests is that children cannot be permitted to learn in accordance with their faith. They are now in the iron grip of secular dogmatism.

In the present atmosphere, religious conservatives and social radicals are in a prison of their own making, a prison in which compromise cannot exist. Had British bureaucrats looked at the Vishnitz Girls School differently, it could have presented an accommodation or exemption that might have led to a satisfactory resolution. But that, of course, would have violated the zero tolerance paradigm of the British bureaucrats. In this all or nothing conflict, nondiscrimination is a threat that ignites moral conflict. The question that remains is what is left of real diversity after the political landscape has been dredged of religious ideas. In England, we have an answer.

This answer is not yet clear in the United States. But as long as the educational curriculum is controlled by state authorities, it is only a question of time in this politically correct hothouse for a state to suggest that religious schools must adhere to a secular curriculum designed to promote the cultural attitudes of the Zeitgeist. In New York City, for example, the pamphlet Heather Has Two Mommies was distributed to public schools. It doesnt require a major leap of faith to see this injunction applied to denominational schools as well as some time in the future.
Whats wrong with America?



Just ask our European friends who live here.



Theyll be happy to tell you how uncivilized we are, how much better the food and wine are at home, that Americans work too hard, that we dont know how to enjoy a vacationand as for our government?



Dont even ask.



The one question I always want to askand sometimes I dois the obvious one:

If things are so bad here, why dont you just go home?



To criticize and tear down for no particular reason is a distinctly European pastime.



Get a few Americans together and we will also criticize our own society, but for a different reason.



We want to make it better.



My America is imperfect in terms of its government, social structure, economy, infrastructure, race relations, policing, mass transportation, and a hundred other things.



But in this country, we self-criticize because we want to improve.



We are never satisfied.



We are not extremists or overly idealistic.



We simply want the best for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and those with little or nothing.



In other countries, and at most other times of human history, you could never criticize the State.

In Soviet Russia, your children might turn you in.



In other places, you would be ostracized, or fired, or expelled, or shot.

Not here.

We dont seek to hide our shortcomings.

American history, for all its fits and starts, has been about taking an imperfect system and an imperfect Union and making them better and stronger.



Birthing freedom and dignity remains a painful, fitful, confused, and even bloody process.



Yet we keep on groping toward the light, simply because we are not afraid to tell the dark truths about ourselves.



Justice Louis Brandeis said it best a century ago: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.



Im proud to be an American because we are not too proud as a society to acknowledge our numerous, perhaps endless, flaws.



But somehow we keep lurching forward toward something better.



We tell the ugly truth about ourselves, our communities, and our past -- not to tear down, but to find a way to build.



The scar tissue that forms over the wounds we salve is the strongest tissue that exists.



We should really call our flag the Scars and Stripes.



We Americans tend to sit patiently when our foreign guests remind us of our various national embarrassments, past and present.



Our real response, however, is the same as what the young Muhammad Ali told Soviet journalists probing him for his views on racism in America:



Weve got our best people working on it.

In the United States, Id like to believe, our best people means pretty much all of us.



Theres hardly a soul in this nation not engaged with the struggle to make something betterwhether that something is a family, a community, a law, a belief about others, a job, a group deprived of its rights, or the country as a whole.

Let the Europeans, and the rest of the world, criticize us all they want.

Their words mean nothing.

Our national thirst for self-criticism, unslaked from our earliest days, keeps making us better and better and better.



Im proud to be an American not just because of what we have accomplished, but because of our never-ending desire to make right our wrongs instead of hiding them, denying them, or wishing them away.

We may have settled a continent, but as a nation, we never settle for less.


A retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who survived a 2011 Mexico ambush, that killed his partner, is urging two congressional committees with oversight to investigate after new evidence has come to light, according to an exclusive interview with Fox News.

"Id like the Homeland Security Committee and the senate Homeland Security Committee to hopefully hold congressional hearings on this matter, to have the individuals surrounding this whole assignment be brought in and questioned as to what happened and why they made these decisions," said Victor Avila.

Speaking in his first American TV interview, Avila, a retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, shared new details about the February 2011 ambush on Mexico's highway 57 by the Zetas cartel that killed his partner that day, ICE agent Jaime Zapata, and nearly cost Avila his own life.

"No one has been suspended, demoted, no one has been, as far as I know, admonished," he said.

Avila says he is deeply grateful to the U.S. Attorney, FBI and ATF whose work led to the extradition and prosecution of cartel members. This week, Avila testified in a D.C. federal court against two cartel members charged with the murder of Zapata, and Avila's attempted murder.

With his testimony complete, Avila said he is now able to speak publicly about the attack. He claims his supervisors ignored a State Department security warning that prohibited travel by U.S. personnel on highway 57. But he and Zapata, who had only arrived days earlier in Mexico, were sent anyway.

"The security notice was issued by the U.S. embassy, by the ambassador to all U.S. personnel at the U..S embassy in Mexico City prohibiting anyone to travel on highway 57 whether for personal reasons or business reasons," he said.

Avila said it is like a smoking gun.

"To me it is, very clear. And, it states clearly that you are just not allowed on that because of the high level of violence occurring at that time between cartel members and the government of Mexico."

Avila also points to ballistics, as well as an Inspector General report, that show at least one weapon recovered at the scene was purchased in Dallas. Avila told Fox he believes two weapons came from Texas.

A SKY News investigation by correspondent Nick Martin reported one weapon was bought and sold by Otilio Osorio, who was given a seven-year jail sentence for illegal weapons dealing. The SKY News team uncovered surveillance video, and reported the "ATF had been monitoring Osorio and his brother Ranferi for many months before the gun was sold but took no action to arrest the men."

John Dodson, the ATF whistleblower who helped expose the gun-walking operation known as Fast and Furious, reviewed Avila's case, as well as government records, telling Fox the evidence does point to a link.

"The connection is the strategy. The model of watch and observe versus the old (model) of enforce and disrupt," Dodson said, adding that the strategy was deployed across the southern border. "The USG (U.S. government) is supposed to serve the citizenry. They owe the people an honest, open, and forthcoming account."

Six years after Fast and Furious was exposed, Dodson testified to the House Government Oversight Committee in June, that several firearms "...were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico."

Avila believes his case is connected to the 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

"It goes to show weapons so widely disbursed, to the cartel members. The U.S. government had no idea where weapons were. The only reason they found out was because they showed up at these murder scenes."

Avila has a pending civil suit against the government. The ATF declined to comment while the trial is ongoing.

A U.S. federal law enforcement source said there is no link between the Osorio and Barba investigation and Fast and Furious, adding the (OIG) report found that with respect to the two firearms used in the assault, the ATF did not have sufficient prior knowledge of either of those transactions to seize or interdict the weapons. The report specifically stated that 'It did not identify instances where [ATF] agents witnessed the unlawful transfer of firearms and failed to seize them.
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Republicans are not in the position to lose votes if they hope to repeal ObamaCare, so pressure is being placed on senators like Sen. Dean Heller, R- Nev., to declare allegiance on the newly crafted bill.

If Heller supports the bill, he would likely be parting ways with Nevada's popular GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval in a state that did not support President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

But if he opposes the bill, conservative groups will likely come after them like they did earlier this year after he opposed the GOP's initial health care bill.

And Democrats plan to target his seat either way in next year's mid-term elections.

Trump on Friday tweeted encouragement to Republicans on the Hill to "do what is right for the people" and get their "failed ObamaCare replacement approved."

Trump declared a day earlier that failure would make him "very angry" and that he would blame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

I will be at my desk, pen in hand! Trump tweeted.

The reworked bill Sen. Mitch McConnell presented to fellow Republicans aims to win conservatives' support by letting insurers sell low-cost, skimpy policies. At the same time, he seeks to placate hesitant moderates by adding billions to combat opioid abuse and help consumers with skyrocketing insurance costs.

Fox News' Sean Hannity took aim Thursday night at Republican senators who expressed skepticism of or opposition to the revised health care measure that would repeal and replace ObamaCare.

"You made us a promise, the American people, for seven years. You guaranteed youd end ObamaCare," the "Hannity" host said. "You assured all of us you would develop a health care bill that actually worked for the American people. Stop your whining, roll up your sleeves, get to work, put your egos aside, get it done."

Last month, a pro-Trump group reportedly planned to launch the seven-figure ad campaign against Heller.

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 at the time. "Senator Heller ... appears to be heading down a path with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the radical left."

The Associated Press contributed to this report
A new government analysis of President Donald Trump's budget plan says it wouldn't come close to balancing the federal ledger like the White House has promised.

Thursday's Congressional Budget Office report says that Trump's budget, if followed to the letter, would result in a $720 billion deficit at the end of 10 years instead of the slight surplus promised.

CBO said Trump's budget would reduce the deficit by a total of $3.3 trillion over 10 years instead of the $5.6 trillion deficit cut promised by the White House. The nonpartisan scorekeeper estimated that deficits in each of the coming 10 years will exceed the $585 billion in red ink posted last year.

CBO says that Trump relied on far too optimistic predictions of economic growth and that Trump's rosy projections are the chief reason his budget doesn't balance as promised.

"Nearly all of that (deficit) difference arises because the administration projects higher revenue projections  stemming mainly from a projection of faster economic growth," CBO said.

Trump's budget predicts that the U.S. economy will soon ramp up to annual growth in gross domestic product of 3 percent; CBO's long-term projections predict annual GDP growth averaging 1.9 percent.

"The CBO report shows that the president built his budget on fantasy projections," said Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Trump's May budget submission proposed jarring, politically unrealistic cuts to the social safety net for the poor and a swath of other domestic programs. Many of its recommendations were deemed dead on arrival and are being ignored by Republicans controlling Congress.

CBO also said that the Trump budget contained too little detail to accurately predict its effects on the economy. The White House promised that its juiced-up economic projections will produce $2.1 trillion in deficit reduction, mostly from overhauling the tax code and reducing the burden regulations have on the economy. But Trump's tax overhaul plan is so far so sketchy that it can fit on a single page.

The analysis came as the administration and Republicans controlling the House are struggling to unite Republicans behind an alternative congressional budget plan that's a prerequisite for a hoped-for tax reform effort this fall.

The stakes on completing a budget are high for the Trump administration. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that the administration's plans to cut taxes hinges on completing a 2018 budget, a procedural requirement so that the tax cuts can be passed without having to rely on Democratic support in the Senate.

"The tax reform concepts rely almost entirely on the budget resolution passing," Mulvaney said at a breakfast with reporters.

Mulvaney said that discussion continues among House lawmakers about fashioning a package of cuts from so-called mandatory programs that can win support from both conservative and centrist Republicans.

But Mulvaney was quick to downplay calls for an aggressive timeline on the administration's agenda. He said it was unreasonable to expect Congress to raise the government's borrowing authority, replace the 2010 health insurance law and pass a 2018 budget in the "next couple of weeks." Mulvaney said that the priority is completing the GOP's rewrite of health care first.

CBO is the nonpartisan scorekeeper charged with giving lawmakers independent analysis of legislation, the budget and the economy. While the White House and many Republicans have criticized CBO's coverage estimates for the Obamacare health law and the House and Senate GOP replacement plans, the White House hasn't been critical of CBO's budget predictions.

"While it does very well at times predicting things on budget  whether it's revenue or spending, we don't always agree that it does a great job predicting (health care) coverage," White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters last month.

On Thursday, the White House budget office took heart that CBO credited it with $4.2 trillion worth of spending cuts over the upcoming decade, including $1.9 trillion from health care programs; it also says the administration would cut taxes by almost $1 trillion over that time, mostly because of its plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The deficit cuts may come up short of balance, but the White House noted they are still very ambitious.

"We are thrilled that CBO confirms that the president's proposed budget resulted in the largest deficit reduction they have ever scored. CBO agrees that this is the largest deficit reduction package in American history," said White House budget office spokeswoman Meghan Burris, promising that Trump's economic agenda "will jumpstart the economy."
The Trump administration has told the Supreme Court that a lower court ruling earlier this week altering an executive order on immigration would bring thousands more refugees into the county and requires the justices immediate intervention, according to filing documents obtained early Saturday by Fox News.

The high court on Saturday gave the opposing parties in the case -- state of Hawaii et al -- until noon Tuesday to file responses to the Justice Department request.

In a victory for the administration, the Supreme Court late last month lifted key components of an injunction against President Trump's temporary travel ban on refugees and visitors from six mostly-Muslim countries.

The court reinstated much of the administrations policy and promised to hear full arguments as early as this fall.

The high courts ruling also exempted many refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or an entity in the U.S.

The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.

The Trump administration defined the relationships as people who had a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the U.S.

However, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, in Hawaii, issued an order Thursday to expand the list of U.S. family relationships that refugees and visitors from the six countries can use to get into the United States to include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

The government therefore is left to seek this courts immediate intervention, Justice Department attorneys said in the 68-page filing submitted Friday.

The high courts nine justices are on a three-month summer recess. But they are prepared to handle the emergency application and could issue an order on enforcement in coming days.

Beyond Watsons order that would expand the scope of bona fide family relationship in the United States to allow refugees entrance, the Justice Department also raised a second argument about the relationship between the federal government, potential refugees and a resettlement agency involved in the process.

However, who is allowed into the United States is the focal point of the case, as Trump tries to limit in the influx of visitors as a means of national security, particularly keeping out terrorists.

Any immediate expansion of the refugee program will be on hold until the high court weighs in.

In the Justice Department appeal, agency lawyers argued that Watson's interpretation of the high court ruling on what family relationships qualify the refugees and visitors from the six countries to enter the U.S. "empties the court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members. Treating all of these relationships as 'close familial relationship(s)' reads the term 'close' out of the Court's decision."

Watson's ruling was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nation's high court.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

"Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety," she said. "This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely."

Citing a need to review its vetting process to ensure national security, the Trump administration capped refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, a ceiling it hit this week.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration will ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, bypassing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

The administration took a first step by filing a notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit, allowing it to use a rule to petition the high court directly.

The administration has lost most legal challenges on the travel ban, which applies to citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin, who sought the broader definition, said Thursday's ruling "makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Some residents of a Pennsylvania town are upset by Romanian immigrants who they have accused of defecating in public and beheading chickens.

Residents in California, Pennsylvania  about 35 miles south of Pittsburgh  are angered by the alleged actions of the Romanian immigrants, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Residents have accused the immigrants of throwing around trash, disobeying traffic laws, defecating in public, being disruptive in markets and killing chickens, according to the Post-Gazette.

What Ive seen is men and children  never usually the women  the men and the children dropping their pants in the middle of the street, defecating, pulling their pants up and going on their way, Dawne Roberts told WTAE-TV.

PENNSYLVANIA MURDERS: SUSPECTS IN KILLINGS OF 4 MEN CHARGED WITH HOMICIDES

The Romanian refugees moved to the area through a federal program that finds temporary houses for immigrants, according to the Post-Gazette. The Romanians fled their homes in the Bucharest area where they faced persecution as a minority group.

More than 150 people attended the California borough councils municipal meeting Thursday night as several residents complained about the immigrants.

"We're a very diverse town, we're very open, but they aren't assimilating to our laws," Pam Duricic, a lifelong resident of California, said, according to the Post-Gazette. We are understanding that these are immigrants. But this is not the same scenario as our grandparents. They didn't come here to raise havoc.

US HITS 50,000 REFUGEE LIMIT, BUT SOME WILL STILL TRICKLE IN

Vito Dentino, a real estate agent who rents apartments to the majority of the immigrants, said that he has spoken to his tenants about not throwing trash in the yard.

I think people around here are just overreacting, he said.

Dentino said the immigrants were pleasant, according to the Post-Gazette, but unaware of American customs.

"I have not had one problem with them, lifelong resident Lisa Buday told the Post-Gazette. I say hi to them. This is a community. Let's be human. This is not a fast process."

Another California resident, Charlene Redmond, said she was invited by some of the immigrants to a dinner. She was asked to wear a scarf out of respect at the dinner, she said.

We sat on the porch and ate and I learned some words, Redmond said. And it was awesome.
Columbia University has reached a settlement with a former male student who was accused of raping a fellow classmate who became known as mattress girl, according to a report.

Paul Nungesser had sued Columbia for gender discrimination in a 2015 lawsuit. The Columbia student newspaper reported the settlement Thursday. Terms were not disclosed.

"Together with Paul and his parents, we have fought for three long years, Nungessers lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg told The Washington Post.

It gives Paul a chance to go on with his life and recover from the false accusation against him, he said. We hope that the resolution of the case also ensures that no student will ever have to endure what Paul went through after he was exonerated.

Emma Sulkowicz lugged a mattress around campus to protest the schools handling of her rape allegations against Nungesser, the New York Post reported.

Her protest even earned her academic credit while fanning a national debate over how colleges respond to sexual assault allegations.

Sulkowicz claimed Nungesser raped her when she was a sophomore in 2012. Columbia investigated and cleared Nungesser, Police also investigated and declined to bring any charges.

The Post reported that Columbia released a statement affirming that Nungesser had been found not responsible for sexual misconduct after a "diligent and thorough" investigation.

"Columbia University stands by that finding, the school said. Columbia recognizes that after the conclusion of the investigation, Pauls remaining time at Columbia became very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience.

The statement added, Columbia will continue to review and update its policies toward ensuring that every student  accuser and accused, including those like Paul who are found not responsible  is treated respectfully and as a full member of the Columbia community.

Nungesser accused Columbia in the lawsuit of abetting the womans gender-based harrasement.

He said her protest defamed and humiliated him, according to the Post.

The lawsuit was dismissed in federal court twice.

The settlement was reached as Nungesser prepared to take the case to an appeals court.

Nungesser wants to be a filmmaker, the Post reported.

I think this case fits into the larger debate in that the mark of being called a rapist is a significant one, and it follows you regardless of whether or not the university finds you responsible, Miltenberg said.

It highlights in a way how polarizing the topic is and how much damage can be done just by having to go through the process, let alone worrying about whether its going to be handled fairly or not, he added.

The Post reported that Sulkowicz, who was not part of the lawsuit, did not return calls for comment.
Firefighters in Honolulu were going door-to-door Saturday in a search for any additional victims in a high-rise fire that broke out Friday afternoon, killing at least three.

Kirk Caldwell, the Honolulu mayor, said the building--which was built in 1971-- did not have a sprinkler system.

More than 100 firefighters responded to the multiple-alarm fire at the Marco Polo apartments that started on the 26th floor where all the bodies were found.

The fire spread to at least the 27th floor and several units, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Jenkins.

Jenkins says the number of fatalities could change. He says at least 12 people have needed medical help.

Four of the injured, including a firefighter, were hospitalized in serious condition, officials said.

Troy Yasuda, who lives in a building across the street, was giving water to people who evacuated. "They were choking from the smoke," he said, adding that people told him they evacuated through dark stairwells.

Police were yelling through megaphones for people still inside to come down, Yasuda said. He watched as people were carried out.

"It's been an orderly evacuation," said security guard Leonard Rosa, who was answering phones from the front lobby of the 31-story building near Waikiki. Police and firefighters were going door-to-door, he said.

Firefighters were checking on reports that there were people trapped in their units, Jenkins said.

Paramedics are expediting emergency treatment with a triage location inside the building, Shayne Enright told The Honolulu Star Advertiser. The paper described the scene: Flames were lapping out from the building and glass from the windows and window frames rained down on the ground. Heavy black smoke was visible from miles away.

Fourth-floor resident Aaron Dengler and his wife were helping their elderly neighbor get to an aid station the American Red Cross set up at a nearby park. "It doesn't help to just stand and watch," he said.

About two hours after the fire started it looked like flames were getting bigger and it looked like the blaze was reaching the 28th floor, Dengler said. "People are getting kind of nervous now," he said. "It's worrisome."

One resident who declined to give his name said he made it to safety after climbing the stairs from the 29th floor. The man said there was so much smoke, he could hardly see.

The 36-story building just outside the tourist mecca of Waikiki has 568 apartment units.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Two cousins accused in the grisly murders of four young men in Pennsylvania have a history of small-time criminal behavior.

The young men, Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz, started with more minor infractions  break-ins, jewelry heists and traffic violations  but on Friday they were charged in murderous spree that ended with police unearthing the bodies of four young men from two pits buried deep on a sprawling family-owned farm.

Police found the missing men after a difficult, five-day search in sweltering heat and pelting rain, but it's still not clear why the 20-year-old suspects' crimes escalated from petty offenses.

For DiNardo, whose lawyer said he confessed to all four killings in exchange for being spared the death penalty, brushes with the law began in his early teenage years.

He was about 14 when the Bensalem Police Department first had contact with him. Over the next six years, he had more than 30 run-ins with its officers, department director Frederick Harran said, although court filings reflect only the minor infractions and traffic stops that came after age 18.

DiNardo enrolled at Arcadia University in Glenside in the fall of 2015 with hopes of studying biology and had an eye on international travel, according to a blog post announcing the incoming class.

"I'm going to go overseas, hopefully to Italy and the rest of Europe," he is quoted as saying.

However, his time at the school was short. After making comments that unnerved several people on campus, public safety officials contacted the local police department. The university sent a letter to DiNardo's parents saying said their son could face trespassing charges if he returned to the school, a person aware of the contents of the letter said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss it.

A year and a day before he admitted to killing the missing men, lighting three of them on fire and using a backhoe to load the charred bodies into an oil tank that he buried more than 12-feet (3.7-meters)-deep on his parent's farm, a family member had DiNardo involuntarily committed to a mental institution, Harran said.

Details of his institutionalization remain unclear, but he was barred by law from owning a firearm afterward. Nonetheless, when Bensalem police responded to a report of gunfire in February, an officer found DiNardo in his truck with a 20-gauge shotgun and extra ammunition. He acknowledged his history of mental illness, Harran said.

"A year later, here we are," Harran said Friday. "The system is broken."

Despite the mental health commitment and frequent interactions with police, DiNardo still managed to sell guns and marijuana in the area, according to a source familiar with DiNardo's confession who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

A police affidavit confirmed the source's story  DiNardo lured each of the victims to his family's 90-acre (36-hectare) Solebury Township farm under the guise of marijuana deals.

His first victim was set to buy $8,000 worth of marijuana but arrived with only $800, DiNardo told police, so he brought the 19-year-old Loyola University student to a remote part of the farm and shot him with a .22 caliber rifle. He buried Jimi Taro Patrick in a hole he dug with a backhoe. Yellow ribbons now line the Newtown street where Patrick lived with his grandparents.

DiNardo then enlisted his cousin to help him rob 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis and 21-year-old Tom Meo, according to the police affidavit.

The three victims were shot, placed with a backhoe into an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker that DiNardo called a "pig roaster," and then lit on fire, according to the affidavit. He buried the drum deep under the ground on his family's farm.

Court records show Kratz was previously arrested on two separate burglary charges in Philadelphia for thefts in June and December of last year where he reportedly stole $1,000 in tools and $450 worth of jewelry.

A week before the second theft arrest, Kratz was picked up for shoplifting $200 worth of clothing at a Macy's near Philadelphia. Police say Kratz had been using pliers to cut off security tags. He pleaded guilty in June to retail theft after more serious charges were withdrawn.

With the Philadelphia cases still pending in January, court records show Kratz skipped bail and went to Illinois. That prompted a judge to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. Out on bail again, a prosecutor said Friday, Kratz became a killer.

Kratz, who said he works at a tiling company, did not have a lawyer with him at his arraignment. Clad in a blue jumpsuit and flanked by detectives, he told a judge that he has trouble walking because he'd been shot three months ago. Kratz's mother, Vanessa, declined to comment.

At a press conference Friday announcing that police had recovered all four previously missing bodies, a reporter asked Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub why DiNardo felt the need to kill the young men.

"I'm not really sure we could ever answer that question," he said.

Read more from FOX 29.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For more than 70 years a tree protected the remains of a World War II fighter pilot from Washington state whose plane crashed in Germany in 1945.

The remains of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William Gray of Kirkland were returned to his family Friday for a burial at Tahoma National Cemetery with full military honors.

The 21-year-old Gray was on a dive-bombing mission on April 16, 1945, when his single-seat P-47D aircraft clipped a tree and crashed in Lindau.

The Defense POW/MIA said investigators recovered Grays remains last year. Two people who saw Grays plane go down told the investigators where to look, Q13 Fox reported Friday. The investigators were in Lindau on another recovery mission.

The bones they found were embedded in the tree, Grays niece Jan Bradshaw told the station.

Her brother Doug Louvier added, It grew over his remains and really protected and marked the spot.

Gray was buried side-by-side with his best friendBradshaw and Louviers father.

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Jim Louvier returned home from the war and was 89 when he died in 2010.

As they went off to the war together after enlisting, Louvier made a pact with his buddy. They each promised to take care of the others family if anything happened to either one of them.

Bradshaw told the station that her father kept his word. He married Gray's younger sister, her mother.

I know he loved her dearly and committed to her for 64 years before he died, she said of her father.

Louvier was cremated after he died but his children didnt know what do with the ashesuntil Friday.

We couldnt decide what to do and now we know why, Bradshaw said.
A Utah man detained for more than a year on weapons charges in Venezuela might get released from jail.

The countrys chief prosecutor requested on Friday the conditional release of Joshua Holt and his wife Thamara Candelo, citing repeated delays by the court overseeing the case. Additionally, the petition would bar them from leaving Venezuela while awaiting trial.

They are currently being held in a Caracas facility run by Venezuelas intelligence police alongside some of President Nicolas Maduros fiercest opponents.

This case has rankled already tense relations with the U.S.

Holt, 25, traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 and married Candelo, a Venezuelan woman he met online while practicing Spanish. Both are Mormons and Holt had planned to spend several months in Caracas with her and her two daughters to secure their visas so they could move with him to the U.S.

Instead, the couple was arrested at the government housing complex on the outskirts of Caracas, accused of hiding an assault rifle and grenades at the apartment where they were living with Candelo's family. On the day of the arrest, Venezuelan security forces in fatigues carrying assault weapons flooded the complex, with some standing on rooftops like snipers, Candelo's mother said in an interview last month.

Authorities at the time of Holt's arrest suggested he was linked to a U.S.-backed conspiracy to oust Maduro. But more than a year has gone by and a judge has yet to convene a preliminary hearing to evaluate the evidence, leading the U.S. government to question the motives for his arrest and continued detention.

On Friday, prosecutors also requested that they be allowed to verify the couples health.

Holt's family expressed concern last month about his health. His lawyer said earlier in the year that Holt had lost considerable weight in prison and suffered from a host of ailments, including kidney stones.

Prosecutors had remained silent about the case until now. But the decision to call for the couple's release comes as Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega is in a pitched battle with Maduro over the embattled socialist's plans to rewrite Venezuela's constitution.

Holt said in a letter from jail that the weapons were planted after he refused to pay police a bribe during a raid.

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been strained for years. Maduro recently told President Donald Trump to get his "dirty hands off Venezuela" and accused the U.S. of stoking anti-government demonstrations that have now extended through three months and resulted in at least 90 people being killed.

His mother, Laurie Holt, declined to comment Friday, citing the delicacy of the situation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
One of the men accused of killing an American college graduate outside a nightclub in Greece is claiming his innocence as the family prepares to say goodbye on Saturday.

Nenad Javanovic, a 22-year-old Serb, claims he did not take part in the fight that killed Bakari Henderson, also 22, in Zakinthos' rowdy tourist district of Lagana on July 7.

He told Serbian media that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I saw big chaos, pushing around, nothing else, Javanovic, who has been released on bail told B92 television.

"I feel bad that we were there in the first place," Javanovic said. "I expect to continue with my life, I am a free man. I am sorry about the young man," he said, referring to Henderson. "Nobody deserves that."

Henderson was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch a clothing line after graduating from the University of Arizona in May, his family says.

Funeral services are set for Saturday at the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church in East Austin.

The details of what triggered the fight between Henderson and at least nine other men is unclear.

However, a fight broke out and Henderson was chased down the street. Video footage from a security camera that aired on Greek television shows Henderson running down the sidewalk and being pursued. One man tackled him, throwing him onto a parked car before others joined in the beating.

Nine suspects, all aged between 18 and 34, have been charged in the incident. Two  Javanovic and another Serb  have been released on bail while six people  one Greek, one British citizen of Serb origin and four Serbs  have been jailed pending trial.

The ninth man, a 33-year-old Serb, will appear Saturday before a judge to determine whether he will be held in custody or released on bail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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France's foreign minister on Saturday called on Qatar's neighbors to immediately lift measures impacting thousands of people in the Gulf, becoming the latest foreign diplomat to visit the region and attempt to help find a resolution to a crisis that has dragged on for more than a month.

In early June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and moved to isolate the small, but wealthy Gulf nation, canceling air routes between their capitals and Qatar's and closing their airspace to Qatari flights. Saudi Arabia also sealed Qatar's only land border, impacting a key source of food imports in the mostly desert nation.

The four countries also expelled all Qatari nationals, impacting mixed-nationality families in the Gulf, students and people seeking medical treatment abroad, among others. Prior to the dispute, Qataris could travel visa-free between the Gulf countries.

France Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said such punitive measures should end.

"France is calling for these measures to be lifted, especially ones that affect the (Qatari) population, specifically measures that impact bi-national families that have been separated," Le Drian said.

He was speaking to reporters in Qatar alongside Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said he welcomed mediation efforts and possible negotiations so long as they are founded on respect for "sovereignty."

After his visit to Qatar, Le Drian headed to Saudi Arabia where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In remarks to reporters Saturday evening, Le Drian said France seeks to play a supportive role to Kuwaiti-led mediation efforts to reduce tensions. He is scheduled to visit the UAE and Kuwait next.

The Arab quartet has demanded Qatar end its support of extremist groups, but also its support of Islamist political dissidents they brand as terrorists, but which many Western allies do not. Other demands include shutting down Qatar's flagship Al-Jazeera network, cubring ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in Qatar.

Qatar has rejected the demands, saying that the list in its entirety infringes on national sovereignty. Qatar also rejects allegations it has supported terror groups.

Despite the blockade by the four Arab countries, life has not been impacted significantly in Qatar. The government has stepped in to help pay additional costs of shipping and has looked to its allies, like Turkey, for food imports.

With Qatar holding firm to its position, a top Emirati diplomat cautioned that the diplomatic standoff could be prolonged.

"We are heading toward a long estrangement," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Relations Anwar al-Gargash wrote on Twitter.

"The reality is we are far from a political solution that changes Qatar's course. In light of that, nothing will change and we must look to a different mode in relations," he added.

Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in the Gulf. While in Qatar, he secured an agreement to enhance cooperation on combatting terrorism and terror financing.

Saudi commentators criticized the result of Tillerson's visit to Qatar, saying the signed agreement fell far short of the demands made for Qatar to change its policy of supporting Islamists. Tillerson, however, said the discussions had been "helpful" and that the U.S. planned to keep at it.

Qatar's Foreign Minister told reporters in Turkey on Friday that it would be unfair to describe Tillerson's visit to the Gulf as a failure, insisting that the crisis "cannot be solved in a day."

Qatar hosts al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East and hub for U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are among the world's biggest military spenders, purchasing billions of dollars in equipment from the U.S. and Europe to beef up their militaries. All three are considered allies of many Western nations.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Qatar attended an international meeting on countering Islamic State group financing on Friday. After the meeting, Qatar said a united front is required.

"We must not be distracted from our campaign to root out ISIS and cut off their flow of funds," said a statement distributed by Qatar's government communication office, referring to the IS group using a different acronym.

The Arab quartet, however, view Qatar's policies in the region as a bigger and more immediate threat.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
An American journalist was found alive Saturday and five Congo park rangers were found dead after they went missing in a large forest reserve during a militia attack on Friday, a local official said.

"The American journalist is safe and healthy. She hid in the forest during an attack," Mambasa territory administrator Alfred Bongwalanga told The Associated Press on Sunday. "On the other hand, five park guards have been killed."

Bongwalanga said details on the American journalist would be released later and it's unclear who the assailants are at this time.

At least 10 people went missing on Friday after the Mai Mai militia launched an attack near a security station in northeast Congo's Okapi Wildlife Reserve outside the town of Mambasa. Army reinforcements have been searching for the missing in the reserve since Friday night. Bongwalanga initially said he was "optomistic" that all the missing people will be found.

"The forest is very big. Maybe they fled in another direction. According to testimony of their colleagues, the attack came as the team wanted to go have a meal," Bongwalanga said.

Two British journalists and five other park rangers, part of the same team, escaped during the attack, making their way to another Okapi reserve base, Bongwalanga said early Saturday.

The park rangers are part of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation.

The Center for Studies of Peace and Defense of Human Rights identified Friday's attackers as the Mai-Mai SIMBA, saying they attacked in Bapela, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Mambasa. The group's executive director, Omar Kavota, expressed concern for those missing.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in eastern Congo. A Congolese civilian was also kidnapped Friday near Mambasa by armed men, he said in a statement. A separate attack Saturday by the Mai-Mai in the country's North Kivu province killed two soldiers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Animal rights activists say they are planning a bonfire night to protest against the renewal of the badger cull this summer.

Protesters against the badger cull in England have earmarked 29 August as a possible start date for this years cull.

In a post on its Facebook page, protest group Stop the Cull said the co-ordinated event Badger Beacons: Light up the skies would take place on Monday 28 August.

See also: Badger culling is vital tool against TB, says chief vet

August bank holiday is usually when the badger cull begins, wouldnt it be great if we sent out a signal across all the cull zones? said the group.

No details of times or locations have been revealed. But the group told its supporters bonfires are entirely lawful, but the smoke shouldnt endanger traffic.

In the UK, any householder is able to have a bonfire, providing it doesnt cause an unreasonable nuisance to others.

However, there is strict legislation in place which means bonfires must comply with and not contravene the Environmental Protection Act.

And under the Highways Act 1980, a person can be fined if they light a fire and smoke from that fire drifts across a highway and someone is injured, interrupted or endangered by such smoke.

Councils can take enforcement action and offenders can be prosecuted in magistrates court and fined up to 5,000 if they do not comply with an abatement notice.

It is illegal to light a fire on private land without the landowners permission.

Culling applications

Natural England, which licenses the cull on behalf of Defra, is considering applications from farmers groups to extend the cull to new areas this summer.

A Defra spokesman confirmed: Natural England is currently considering applications for further badger control licences as part of the usual licensing process.

There is no set date for when the outcome of these applications will be announced.

Nearly 15,000 badgers have been culled in four years since the government introduced the strategy in England in 2012, as part of efforts to reduce the thousands of cattle slaughtered every year as a result of TB.

Defra and the NFU said culling badgers has a vital role in disease control. But opponents say it is ineffective and inhumane and should be abandoned in favour of a widespread vaccination programme.
A new Oregon State University fermentation research facility approved by the Legislature will support the states beer, wine and dairy industries while boosting the universitys capabilities in the field of food science.

Just before the Legislature adjourned last week, it agreed to issue $9 million in state bonds to cover half the cost of the Oregon Quality Foods & Beverage Center, with the remainder to be paid by private donations. The Tillamook County Creamery Association, which stands to reap some of the benefits from research conducted at the facility, kicked off the fundraising campaign with a $1.5 million lead gift.

The session was a mixed bag for OSU capital projects. Lawmakers dealt a major setback to ambitious expansion plans for the fledgling satellite campus in Bend, approving only $9.5 million of the $69.5 million in bonding authority sought by the university. On the other hand, legislators did sign off on a $29 million request to renovate three historic buildings on the Corvallis campus, and OSU will get a share of $50 million set aside for miscellaneous maintenance and modernization work by the states seven public universities.

Against that backdrop, the Oregon Quality Foods & Beverage Center is the signature project to emerge from the session for OSU.

This puts us in pretty rarefied company, said Dan Arp, dean of OSUs College of Agricultural Sciences. We already have whats largely considered one of the top two brewing programs in the country, and our dairy program is on its way to being one of the best on the West Coast.

OSU is also home to a growing winemaking program, and all three areas will be showcased in the new building.

The $18 million center will join a growing cluster of agricultural research and teaching facilities on the west side of the Corvallis campus at the intersection of Southwest 35th Street and Campus Way, near the universitys dairy farm. Construction is expected to begin in late 2018 or early 2019, with the center opening about a year later.

The 26,000-square-foot building will have classroom, office, meeting and laboratory space, but the heart of the facility will be three 3,600-square-foot pilot production plants  one for wine, a second for dairy products and a third for beer, cider and distilled spirits.

Working in the pilot plants, Arp said, will provide valuable hands-on experience for students interested in a career in food processing, winemaking, brewing, distilling or cider-making. He called the center a good fit for a state where people are intensely interested in where their food comes from.

Were passionate about the quality of our foods, he said. We want them to be sustainably produced, locally sourced and nutritious, and Oregonians are generally willing to pay a premium to get that.

The pilot plants will also serve as proving grounds for student and faculty research projects, as well as a place where OSU scientists can team up with industry experts to develop new products. According to Arp, the Oregon Quality Foods & Beverage Center will work in tandem with OSUs Food Innovation Center in Portland to support the states food and beverage sector, a $16.4 billion industry that supports nearly 32,000 jobs.

Theres a good, strong economic base for the work were trying to do here, he said.

The center will even include a small storefront where some of the more entrepreneurial students in the universitys food science programs can market their wares.

It will be a place where we can sell Beaver-branded products such as our Beaver Classic cheeses, meats from the Clark meat lab and so on, he said. I think that will be fun. Theyre currently available for sale, but theyre all in different locations. This will start to get them all in one place.

While the College of Agricultural Sciences is busy raising matching donations for the Oregon Quality Foods & Beverage Center, the university will also be preparing to start work on three major renovation projects funded by the 2017 Legislature.

OSU will get $11 million in state bond money for improvements to Fairbanks Hall, the second-oldest building on campus and home to the College of Liberal Arts. Built in 1892, the 40,000-square-foot building will get a makeover that includes spruced-up classrooms, accessibility improvements and the creation of usable space on the fourth floor, which is currently out of service.

The 236,000-square-foot Cordley Hall, which houses research and classroom space for the biology, horticulture, botany, plant pathology and zoology programs, will get a $15 million package of improvements including new mechanical and electrical systems, upgraded fire and life safety systems and greater accessibility.

Gilkey Hall, built in 1912 to house the dairy science program, will be converted into an academic success center in a $5 million project funded by $3 million in state bonds and $2 million in matching funds raised by the university. The 22,000-square-foot building will get accessibility improvements as well as upgrades to fire and life safety, plumbing, mechanical and electrical systems.

OSU Cascades did not get the biggest item on its legislative wish list, a $60 million appropriation to fund construction of an academic building and student success center. Instead, the Bend campus will have to settle for $490,000 to renovate its 35,000-square-foot Graduate and Research Center and $9 million to reclaim a 46-acre pumice mine site for future expansion.
World climate summit in Bonn : How participants get to the WCCB

Bonn The participants of the world climate summit will be accommodated in Bonn, Cologne and Koblenz. Shuttlebuses will get them to the WCCB. Trains will be diverted on the right side of the Rhine.

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The transport of the participants of the world climate summit is going to be quite a challenge. All involved are aware of this. According to Michael Henseler, spokesperson of the Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB), the daughter company Bus und Bahn already formed an internal task force last November. Since then, this group is involved in all external task forces and steering committees for the world climate conference as well as being part of the intensive exchange between the UN climate secretariat, the federal ministry for the environment and other public authorities.

In every conversation, eall the parties were asked to announce capacities and target figures. We were promised those, yet we werent given a complete overview yet, which leads to the plans for the regular traffic and possible congestions still being at planning level, says Henseler. Also, there will be a close collaboration with local police, federal police, fire brigade and other security relevant groups. Many participants of the climate summit have to be accommodated in the greater region, in Cologne and Koblenz.

How the Deutsche Bahn wants to handle the additional passengers is not yet decided, according Holger Klein, spokesperson of the Nahverkehr Rheinland GmbH. Precise plans will be announced after the summer holidays. All COP participants will receive a ticket free-of-charge, paid for by the state. State secretary Jochen Flasbarth said during the press conference for COP 23 that he is in close contact with Bahn CEO Roland Pofalla - mainly because of unavoidable works on the train tracks between Cologne and Bonn.

The trains are supposed to be diverted on the right side of the Rhine in addition to setting up commuting traffic to the venue in the Rheinaue. The plans to put shuttle buses - connecting the by then brand new stop at the UN campus, the WCCB and the rest of the meeting places - in place are more advanced already.
Domestic drama in Plittersdorf : Policemen fired their weapons in self-defence

Bonn After the domestic drama during which a man killed his wife and his child, the investigations against the two policemen who shot the culprit are suspended.

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The Bonn prosecutors office has closed the files in the case of the domestic drama in Plittersdorf during which a 40-year-old man killed his wife and child on May 22 before being shot by policemen. As spokesperson Sebastian Bu announced on Friday, the investigations against the two policemen who shot five times at the man armed with a knife were suspended.

The officers were acting in self-defense and were protecting themselves and their colleagues who were standing in close proximity to them, said Bu. It was a terrible scene the policemen and the fire brigade came upon when they arrived at the apartment of the family at 6am on May 22 at the Martin-Luther-King-Strae. Neighbours had called the emergency services when they heard threatening screams during a fight. The police had to enter the apartment via the balcony because the door bell remained unanswered.

The emergency services found a three-year-old girl strangled to death and the 39-year-old mother killed its several stab wounds. The husband and father had locked himself in the bathroom and did not react when asked to open the door. Two fire fighters opened the door with force. Public prosecutor Bu explained that the 40-year-old was lying in the bath tub holding a knife with a 20 to 30 centimeter long blade, he had cut himself severely. Bu did not say, where he had cut himself.

Nevertheless, the man got out of the tub and moved towards the police men with the knife in his hand and did not react to loud orders to stop and drop the knife. Despite the two policemen pointing their guns at the 40-year old while repeatingly asking him to stop moving, he kept walking towards them. They moved back but found themselves with their backs against the wall. When the man moved even closer they shot at him. Three bullets hit the 40-year-old in thigh and lower abdomen. He died at the scene.

The investigations were conducted by the Cologne police, for reasons of impartiality. According to public prosecutor Bu, both the 44-year-old and the 39-year-old police officers fired their weapons in self-defense and also to protect the two firefighters who were in close proximity. The situation meant that they were presented with no alternative to protect themselves and their colleagues.
Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 15, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 30 strikes consisting of 45 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 22 strikes consisting of 35 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, 10 strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed 12 oil refinement stills, eight oil storage tanks, four oil separation tanks and four wellheads.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two command-and-control nodes and an ISIS-held building.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed an ISIS oil refinery and a vehicle bomb-making factory.

-- Near Raqqa, eight strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed four fighting positions, a vehicle bomb-making factory, a tunnel, a mortar system and a heavy machine gun.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes consisting of 10 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed six vehicles, two ISIS-held buildings and a tractor.

-- Near Hit, two strikes destroyed two ISIS trailers and a fuel point.

-- Near Kirkuk, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions and an ISIS-held building.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes destroyed two ISIS vehicles and a vehicle bomb-making facility.

July 13 Strikes

Additionally, 11 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 13 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed 10 ISIS oil storage tanks, two oil trucks and two oil refinement stills.

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, eight strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed five ISIS communication towers.

-- Near Kisik, Iraq, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit: destroyed a fighting position; and suppressed a fighting position and a supply route.

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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Iraqi Military Ponders Multipronged Offensive to Wipe Out Islamic State

By Jeff Seldin July 14, 2017

Iraq's military may try to eradicate the Islamic State's remaining forces by simultaneously attacking the terror group on multiple fronts in the hopes of taking advantage of infighting and a weakened leadership.

The strategy would be a bold one given the casualties Iraqi forces suffered while trying to retake Mosul.

The U.S. Defense Department estimated IS forces inflicted a 40 percent casualty rate on Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) in the nine months it took for them to reclaim the city. And the U.S. commander of the global coalition against IS described the fighting in Mosul as the "most extended and brutal combat I have ever witnessed."

Iraqis visit Pentagon

But Iraqi military officials visiting the Pentagon this week, following the declarations of victory over IS in Mosul, appeared undaunted.

"Very soon, we'll start military operations to liberate the remaining Iraqi areas under occupation," Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said through a translator.

"We could start military operations toward different areas at the same time," Rasool added. "We're confident that we are capable of having a number of operations simultaneously."

Rasool and the other government officials indicated Iraqi leaders have yet to make a firm decision on exactly how the campaign should play out, though potential targets include Tal Afar, about 60 kilometers to the west of Mosul, and the town of Hawija in Iraq's Kirkuk province.

U.S. officials have said efforts to clear Mosul of pockets of Islamic State fighters could last for weeks.

Iraqi soldiers told VOA that the remaining IS fighters, as well as women and children  all wearing suicide vests  are now launching attacks from basements and tunnels under the city.

Striking at IS

Still, Iraqi and U.S. officials see an opportunity to strike at IS while it is weak and still reeling from the loss.

"They're fighting among themselves in Hawija and Tal Afar, currently," Rasool said Thursday, when asked about what is left of IS leadership following the battle for Mosul.

"We killed a large number of the leadership, and they collapsed within their structure," he said.

U.S. officials estimate there are still a couple of thousand IS fighters spread throughout Iraq. Some analysts suggest the numbers could be even higher, and both officials and experts worry about the presence of so-called sleeper cells in all the territories that have been reclaimed from IS forces.

Aside from strongholds in Tal Afar and Hawija, IS still controls swaths of lands in Iraq's Anbar province, where they continue to enjoy some freedom of movement despite pressure from the coalition's ongoing air campaign.

Iraqi officials say continued coalition air support will be crucial for their continued success, and admit additional help will be needed.

"What we would like from the international or global coalition is the continuous support to Iraqi forces," said Brig. Gen Saad Maan, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. "This also requires additional training, and providing the basic services, and cameras, and surveillance equipment so that we'll be able to stabilize the area."

Tough fight ahead

As far as how long it will take to subdue what remains of IS, neither Iraqi nor coalition officials have been willing to say.

"It's been a tough fight. There's a lot of tough fighting ahead," U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.

"We're there to help them fight and defeat and destroy that physical caliphate and I'm sure we'll continue to bring in air support," Mattis said.

The U.S. and other coalition partners, including Australia, Finland and Britain, have also continued to train Iraqi forces for the battles ahead.

"The Iraqi Security Forces and the coalition have a plan to get after them. And we will move with all due speed to do that," Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, Operation Inherent Resolve Commander, told Pentagon reporters on July 11. "We'll be at it until it's done."

For their part, despite a looming referendum on Kurdish independence, peshmerga officials say their forces are ready and willing to support Iraqi military efforts to wipe out IS.

"We can launch a number of operations," said Brig. Gen. Halgwrd Hikman Ali, who was visiting the Pentagon with his Iraqi counterparts.

"We can launch a military operation toward Tal Afar and another one toward Al-Qa'im, and another one toward  maybe another one toward Hawija," he said. "We have enough forces to liberate what is remaining."

VOA Middle East Correspondent Heather Murdock contributed to this story from Mosul.

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Pakistan Takes Unilateral Steps Toward Afghan Border Security

By Ayaz Gul July 15, 2017

Pakistan says it finds it necessary to build a fence along its long porous border with Afghanistan, in part because of a lack of cooperation from authorities in Kabul. The border region has long been a source of instability, with militant groups, terrorists and smugglers using the remote, mountainous terrain as cover.

Pakistan says it is now moving forward unilaterally to improve security in the region, and increase the monitoring of millions of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

Afghanistan opposes the border fencing plans because it disputes the demarcation of the border, which was set by the former British rulers of the Indian subcontinent. Afghan leaders also accuse Pakistan's military and its ISI spy agency of helping Taliban insurgents and their dreaded Haqqani network ally sustain the insurgency in Afghanistan. The allegations have long strained bilateral relations and Islamabad's border fencing project has fueled tensions.

'No option'

Speaking at an international conference in Islamabad this week, army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor said that the military has deployed over 200,000 troops along the border and established nearly 1,000 posts while Afghans have maintained just over 200 outposts.

This has left a large portion of the nearly 2,600-kilometer border unguarded, making it impossible to control illegal cross-border movement, he complained.

"So, under compulsion we had no option but to go for unilateral border management. So, what we have done is that we have started to construct new border posts and new forts along the border. On the average, every 1.5 kilometer will have either a border post or the fort where our troops will be there," the general explained.

Islamabad dismisses traditional Afghan objections to the international frontier between the two countries. Officials also deny Pakistan is supporting Afghan insurgents, saying the charges are an attempt by the Kabul government to divert attention from their internal political and security challenges.

Ghafoor said "As long as Afghanistan looks towards Pakistan through the lens of anti-Pakistan forces, the region will never be stable. The day Afghanistan looks towards Pakistan from the lens of their own national interest, it will be stable."

Pakistan also accuses rival India of using growing influence within Afghan security institutions to destabilize Kabul's ties with Islamabad, accusations Afghan and Indian officials deny.

Refugee population

Ghafoor said that presence of 2.7-million Afghan refugees in the country, an estimated 44 percent of them undocumented, is another prime driver of blame game between the two countries and a security challenge for Pakistan.

For long the displaced population, particularly unregistered Afghans, have lived in Pakistan with no checks on their movement, encouraging militants to exploit the situation, he said. But a recently concluded national census has now enabled authorities to identify every Afghan citizen living in the country, disclosed the general.

"We desire an early, smooth, honorable and socio-economically gainful and possibly irreversible repatriation of all Afghan refugees," Ghafoor reiterated.

Increased monitoring of the refugee population coupled with border restrictions and raise in financial assistance by UNHCR for voluntary repatriation in 2016 prompted more than 750,000 Afghans to return to their homeland amid allegations of forced evictions and harassment by Pakistani authorities, according to officials in Kabul.

But the Afghan government faced challenges in handling the returnees and reintegrating them in the society, along with increased insecurity in most parts of Afghanistan. A reduction in financial assistance for the voluntary repatriation has led to a significant decline in the number of returning families this year. As of early July fewer than 40,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan, according to UNHCR.

"The development investments in the high-return communities and areas in Afghanistan have not been commensurate to the demands and the needs," said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR chief in Pakistan, while addressing the conference.

'Slow process'

Afghanistan's ambassador to Islamabad, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, says that despite its limitations, Kabul is doing all it can to absorb returnees and dismisses assertions the refugees are a source of terrorism in the host country.

"In this year [repatriation] is a slow process, particularly because the pool of refugees has certainly shrunk but at the same time of course the security situation is worse than it was a year ago," Zakhilwal told the conference organized by National University of Science and Technology (NUST).

"But about those who have returned I am very glad to say that you will find very few refugees who regret their decision to have returned to their country," Zakhilwal asserted. The Afghan envoy also disagreed with official Pakistani assertions that the refugee population is a cause of insecurity for the host country.

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Turkey Marks Anniversary of Failed Coup

By VOA News July 15, 2017

The Turkish government marked the one-year anniversary Saturday of a failed military coup by firing nearly 7,400 additional civil servants, convening a special parliamentary session and hosting a series of "national unity marches."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he characterized as supporters of the aborted coup and arrested another 50,000 people. The scale of the purge has widened political divisions in Turkey, with government opponents denouncing it as an attempt to silence Erdogan's detractors.

Erdogan unveiled the "Martyrs Memorial" on the iconic Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul to commemorate opponents of the coup attempt. The bridge, renamed Saturday as Martyrs' Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and military tanks.

Erdogan returned to Ankara to attend the parliamentary session, at which Prime Minister Binali Yildirim descried the aborted coup as "Turkey's darkest and longest night," which was "transformed into a bright day."

Thousands of people are participating in weekend marches in Istanbul and Ankara. Giant posters designed by the Erdogan administration have been placed on billboards in Istanbul displaying images portraying significant events such as the surrender of opposition troops.

'US lauds preservation of democracy'

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Friday applauding Turkish people "of all backgrounds and political views" who "took to the streets to preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society."

"Their actions continue to remind us that the preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent, and safeguards for fundamental freedoms," the statement added.

The celebrations are occurring less than one week after Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu organized the largest opposition rally in Turkey in years.

Kilicdaroglu called for a full explanation of what happened on the night of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, including when government authorities first learned the uprising was afoot.

The Turkish opposition says that Erdogan's government is moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown on rights is necessary to thwart security threats to the ruling government.

Erdogan claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades. Gulen denies any involvement.

In a statement released Saturday, Gulen said the Turkish government's "treatment of innocent citizens during the past year is dragging Turkey into the category of the countries with the worst record of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the world." Gulen's statement also said the Turkish people "are being rallied en masse around hate messages."

Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured last year when a disgruntled army faction commandeered tanks and warplanes in a bid to overthrow Erdogan after one-and-a-half decades in power. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.

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NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Tahoe Resources Inc. (Tahoe or the Company) (NYSE:TAHO) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-05155, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Tahoe securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.



If you are a shareholder who purchased Tahoe securities between April 3, 2013 and July 5, 2017 both dates inclusive, you have until September 5, 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]

Tahoe, together with its subsidiaries, explores, develops, and operates mines in the Americas. The Company primarily produces copper, gold, silver, lead/zinc, and natural gas and petroleum, as well as precious metals assets.

On April 3, 2013, Tahoe announced that Guatemalas Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) had granted the Company an exploitation license for the Escobal mine, a large silver mine located in the department of Santa Rosa in Southern Guatemala.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Guatemalas MEM had granted the Escobal mining license to Tahoes Minera San Rafael subsidiary without prior consultation with Guatemalas Xinca indigenous people; (ii) the foregoing constituted a violation of Guatemalan law and provided a basis for suspension of the Escobal license; (iii) consequently, the Companys revenues associated with the Escobal mining license were unlikely to be sustainable; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Tahoes public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On July 6, 2017, Tahoe disclosed that the Supreme Court of Guatemala had issued a provisional decision suspending the Escobal mining license of Minera San Rafael, a Tahoe subsidiary, in connection with a legal action brought by the human rights organization Centro de Accion Legal Ambiental y Social de Guatemala (CALAS) against Guatemalas MEM. CALAS alleges that MEM violated the Xinca indigenous peoples right of consultation prior to granting the Escobal mining license.

On this news, Tahoes common share price fell $2.74, or 33.01%, to close at $5.56 on July 6, 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
Danville got a taste Friday of a new, less car-centered street design focusing on increased access for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The event, Reimagining the Street, was held in the 900 block of Main Street and showcased the inclusiveness of a complete street design. It was a collaborative effort involving local entities including Danvilles Community Development Department and the Danville Regional Foundation.

Its purpose was to bring attention to complete streets, making travel more accessible to people of all abilities  not only those in cars  and health-related issues such as encouraging physical activity, said Anna Levi, associate planner for Danville.

We want to make the city more accessible to all people, Levi said during an interview at the event Friday morning.

The event included a healthy food demonstration, free food to make a recipe for salsa at home, a miniature park, popup play spaces, health and community education activities, free health screenings and crafts.

Danville Regional Foundation intern Bryce Johnson worked with the citys planning department to plan the event, which was part of his internship project. Johnson, studying to earn his masters degree in urban and regional planning at Virginia Tech, mapped out and evaluated sidewalk accessibility for disabled residents, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Traffic is just a crowd of people, Johnson said. When it involves a mass of cars, it takes away that human element, he said.

Expanding street access makes an area more enjoyable, Levi said.

It makes life more equitable in Danville, Levi said.

The city has no immediate plan for redesigning its streets for more access, she said. However, Danville has implemented a policy in which any significant new street work project must consider increased access for people of all abilities, Levi said.

Its something we would like to do moving forward, where its feasible, Levi said.

The Danville Regional Foundation has an annual internship program. It partnered its interns with organizations involved in the Health Collaborative, which was also involved in the event, said Annie Martinie, the foundations senior program officer for community health and wellness.

The Health Collaborative, Danville Regional Foundation, Danville Department of Community Development, Danville Parks and Recreation, Danville Public School System Child Nutrition Program, Friends of the Old West End, Community Health Workers, The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, First Presbyterian Church, Gods Storehouse and History United collaborated for the event.
Set deadlines for governments to respond to records requests

Call for a "sunshine committee" to review the more than 500 exemptions the state's public records law

Create a new public records advocate to help resolve disagreements between governments and public records requesters over costs and what should be released.

(TNS) -- Transparency advocates are cheering what some of them say is the biggest collective improvement in Oregon's public records law since it was created more than 40 years ago.It took more than two years after the resignation of former Gov. John Kitzhaber amid an influence-peddling scandal and questions left unanswered by a backlog of unfulfilled records requests from his final months in office.Lawmakers' approval of a cluster of records-related proposals should fix some of the most significant weaknesses in Oregon's system of making government records available for public review, proponents say.The three main bills:As it turns out, however, the public records advocate won't make it any easier for the public to obtain the type of records that were at issue in the final months of the Kitzhaber administration. That's because the advocate will work to resolve disputes that involve state agencies and cities  not elected officials, including the governor. Handling disputes that involve other local governments, including counties and school districts, is also outside the advocate's authority.A fourth bill calls for a chief data officer, who will work to make the state's databases more accessible to the public.Advocates for the bills included some of the journalists who covered the influence peddling scandal around Kitzhaber and his partner Cylvia Hayes in the fall of 2014. They were joined by environmentalists and other transparency activists.Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air in Portland, said the sunshine committee will give members of the public a key role making sure they can get important government information."We found this to be really important in the past year, requests that we've been making for public documents," Peveto said.Several people who pushed for the changes described them as the most significant public records improvements since the state adopted its original public records law in 1973. The bills setting deadlines for governments to respond to requests and creating the panel to review exemptions are based on ideas from a task force organized by state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in fall 2015."This is the first time there has been significant public records reform since the inception of the law," Rosenblum said. "So this is a big deal."Journalists were among the strongest advocates for changes that would make it faster, quicker and cheaper to obtain public records. Shasta Kearns Moore, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists' Oregon Sunshine Committee, also described the changes as a milestone."We are thrilled that the legislature passed significant public records reforms this session. It has been a long time coming," Moore wrote in an email. "I think this sends a clear message that Oregonians expect the information they have paid to create and store to -- as much as possible -- be available for everyone's use."City and county government officials had worried public records request deadlines could prove overwhelming if governments were forced to fulfill complex and voluminous requests in short order. In interviews this week, local government lobbyists said the key to achieving changes this time was the consensus-driven approach started by Rosenblum."We all collectively worked really hard on those bills to get 'em done right, and I think we're pretty darn pleased," said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties.Lawmakers passed the plan to set public records deadlines last month, and Gov.Kate Brown signed it into law June 22. Senate Bill 481 sets a 15-day time limit for agencies to release records in most cases, starting in 2018. Rosenblum said although most agencies handle records requests quickly, "we've also heard the horror stories now. This will address those and hopefully really bring down the length of time it should take to respond."The Legislature passed the three other bills before going home last week.Rep. John Huffman, a Republican from the Dalles, was on Rosenblum's task force. He was also the chief sponsor of the proposal to create the committee to review exemptions, House Bill 2101 Huffman said the final bill was dialed back from an initial proposal to automatically sunset certain public records exemptions. Still, he said, "we really moved the ball down the field."The panel will review by 2026 most of the more than 500 exemptions to the state's public records law, which lays out which information governments are either forbidden from releasing or can choose to keep secret. Several categories of exemptions are specifically off-limits from reconsideration, including ones for trade secrets and home care workers' email addresses and other personal information.Starting in 2018, the committee will issue recommendations every two years on which public records exemptions should be amended or repealed. A legislative subcommittee will decide whether to move ahead with those recommendations.The bill also requires the Legislature to attach an "open government" statement to every bill that passes out of committee that would affect the disclosure of public records. Those statements will assess the potential impact on the public's interest in being able to access information.Brown's plan to create a public records advocate, who will mediate disputes between the public and government agencies over which records must be released or kept confidential, generated some controversy over the advocate's independence. The governor's initial proposal was to house the advocate at the Department of Administrative Services , which is controlled by the governor and plays a key role in implementing the governor's agenda.Then in May, Secretary of State Dennis Richardson announced he'd arrange for State Archivist Mary Beth Herkert to take on the public records advocate duties . Richardson noted Herkert already plays a role in helping governments to understand the public records law and said his idea would save money.The final plan passed by the Legislature calls for the records advocate selected by the governor and an advisory panel to work at the State Archivist's office, under the Secretary of State. Herkert said she is still working out details of how the function will be handled.In summing up the legislative session last week, Brown described the public records bills as among the most important accomplishments."I think it's fair to say that these three bills are a significant reform to Oregon's public records laws, and probably the most significant reforms we've seen in multiple decades," Brown said.
We associate our by now familiar enemies - al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and similar groups - with radical Islam often known as Wahabbism. That's fair enough. Yet the monied branch of Wahabbism that funds the operational, murderous branch, is our ally.On Thursday,, ran an op-ed, "If you can't believe that the Saudis and their Gulf state cousins are playing both sides of this struggle and losing badly at both, you should read this eye-opener published by (link is external) in mid-July, 2014.Thanks to Wikileaks blowing the cover on Hillary Clinton's messages (link is external) it's obvious that Washington has known since 2009 that the Saudis have been funding the worst terrorism (link is external) the Middle East has seen.Petro-states tend to breed incompetent, indulged leaders who sometimes sit upon vast wealth and wonder what to do with it.Combine that sort of wealth and idleness with fundamentalist religious extremism and it breeds a succession of Islamist extremist terror movements such as al Qaeda and, more recently, ISIS.The Gulf princes are like Dr. Frankenstein. They unleash monsters to attack their perceived rivals but when those creations instead also turn on them well then it's time to call in the cavalry, the West. In the result we'll battle al Qaeda for 15, 20, maybe 50 years, ISIS for who knows how long, and, if we do manage to knock them down, we'll be drawn in to tackle the next terrorist organization our allies, the Gulf oil princes, decide to fund.So long as we dutifully collaborate with Sunni extremists like the House of Saud, we may never get out of this. We keep boasting how we have no time for "state sponsored terrorism" and yet we keep showing that is simply untrue. We know the very worst terrorism sponsoring states and we actually consider them our allies even as they spawn murderous gangs that would be only too happy to attack us.
Costa Rica, in Central America, is on my radar because my son lives there. Smaller and significantly poorer than West Virginia, Costa Rica is known for its bananas, pineapples and coffee.

It is also known for its literacy rate, life expectancy, environmental initiatives, health care system and happy citizens.

Seventy years ago, its government disbanded its army and redirected those tax funds to education, health care and conservation.

Today, health care there is free for citizens and reasonably priced for foreigners; 40,000 Americans travel there for medical treatment annually.

The literacy rate is 96 percent. Primary and secondary education is free and compulsory, and they have 23 universities.

The nation used hydro, solar, wind, biomass and thermal power to generate 98.1 percent of its electricity last year. And its goal is to be 100 percent carbon neutral within four years.

Deforestation is banned, and 25 percent of the countrys land is designated as an untouchable natural reserve.

Citizens who own guns must be fingerprinted, photographed and psychologically examined. Assault weapons are banned.

All in all, I reckon my son was pretty smart to move to Costa Rica.

And, given the current direction of the U.S., I just might join him.

Larry Johnson

Liberty
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WASHINGTON  Its the most anticipated political show of the year  and a Connecticut senator might find himself front and center.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee  which Sen. Richard Blumenthal is on  said Thursday he is writing a letter to Donald Trump Jr. asking him to testify in front of the committee.

The announcement follows revelations earlier this week that the president's oldest son met with a Russian lawyer last year to obtain allegedly damaging information about 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In a series of emails, Trump Jr. was told the lawyer had ``high-level and sensitive information that was ``part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

``We need to uncover all of the possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in our elections, which is a crime, Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview.

He said that the testimony is going to be ``very dramatic but very enlightening for the American people and could happen as early as next week but likely the week after.

``I want to know all about the meeting that took place with the Russian foreign-agent lawyer on June 9, all of their recollections of who said what, Blumenthal said, adding that the Judiciary Committee's investigation is bipartisan.

Grassley told CNN on Thursday he believes requiring Trump Jr.'s presence falls under his committee's jurisdiction ``because of our oversight of the Justice Department, adding that Trump Jr.'s emails have ``raised a lot of questions.

Grassley also said Wednesday that he will try to bring Connecticut's Paul Manafort, the president's former campaign manager, before the committee to question him regarding the enforcement of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The law generally requires lobbyists representing foreign powers to register as such.

But, he said, once Manafort comes before the committee he is subject to any line of questioning, including that of his involvement in the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, which he attended. Grassley said he would subpoena Manafort if need be.

Blumenthal said he is both ``gratified and pleased that Trump Jr. and Manafort will appear in front of the committee.

``These two witnesses will be a significant and serious opening to our fact-finding mission, he said.

In a Wednesday press release, Blumenthal also called Manaforts testimony a "long overdue act of oversight.

``Mr. Manafort must answer questions about his deeply disturbing _ and possibly criminal  conduct throughout the campaign, he said in the release.

Cayla.harris@hearstdc.com
Jennifer Turiano: Were you born in Greenwich?

Janet Vojt: No, Danbury.

JT: Your parents, were they born in Danbury too?

JV: Yes. And I went to school there.

JT: What did you do for fun when you were growing up? Did you have siblings?

JV: Two brothers. We played ball, roller skated, that was about it. We walked around.

JT: What did your parents do?

JV: My father owned his own garage  Oh, and I could sharpen a lawn mower, because we had to learn how to do that, and sharpen ice skates. ... Then I went to nursing school in New York.

JT: That must have been very different from Danbury. What was it like? Were you living there or commuting?

JV: No. I was in nurses training. We lived there. I loved it, we were right next to the hospital, right next to the park.

JT: Did you know for a long time you wanted to be a nurse? Was it something you wanted from a young age?

JV: Well, my aunt was a nurse and she talked about it all the time.

JT: And you decided you wanted to do it too. How many years were you doing your training?

JV: Three years. I didnt want to go to Danbury Hospital after, so I went to Greenwich Hospital. And then I met a policeman and got married.

JT: How beautiful.

JV: Yes, and then we built a house on North Water Street.

JT: North Water Street! I love North Water Street. I have lived in two different apartments there. And whats your husbands name?

JV: George Vojt.

JT: Did he live in Greenwich his whole life?

JV: I guess so. He never said anything different. All the families there were from Czechoslovakia.

JT: When did you get married?

JV: 1953.

JT: So you were on North Water Street, you built the house, and you were working at the hospital.

JV: Yes, I worked there for at least four years. It was the old hospital.

JT: What was it like working there?

JV: I was in the emergency room.

JT: Oh wow. Were there any crazy things happening there? Im sure thats one of the most stressful parts of the hospital.

JV: Oh sure. Well, the thruway was being built so a lot of people came in. It was busy.

JT: Ah, there were a lot of accidents.

JV: Yeah, people were speeding around.

JT: Makes sense. Taking joy rides instead of going down the Post Road. And how did you meet your husband?

JV: The emergency room 

JT: Oh gosh.

JV: Well, he was on the emergency car, ha ha.

JT: Oh he was! OK, I thought something had happened.

JV: Oh no, he would come by all the time.

JT: And so, did he just ask you to dinner one day or something?

JV: Yes  well, dinner was a hamburger or something then.

JT: So he asked you out for a burger. Were you the same age?

JV: He was a little older than me.

JT: And how long were you working at the hospital before you married him?

JV: I had been living there for two years. Then we got married and I moved to North Water Street, and I still live there. ... now its crazy because the firehouse, and the fire engines are going all the time.

JT: I know! Mill Street is crazy! What was the street like when you first got married? It must be totally different now.

JV: It was all Czechoslovakian. Now its all Spanish.

JT: Did you leave the hospital when you had your daughter?

JV: Yes.

JT: What did you do while you were at home with the baby, to keep yourself occupied? Did you have hobbies or friends on the street?

JV: I would walk down the street with the baby carriage.

JT: Were people friendly for the most part?

JV: Yeah.

JT: Would you say they are now too?

JV: Well everyone speaks Spanish, so all I can do is wave and say hi, because I cant talk to them, but they dont touch my flowers so its fine. I always thought kids on the street would touch them but no one does.

JT: Yeah, I feel like kids walking down the street would pick one.

JV: Yeah, I know. But my lilies, they dont.

JT: How old were you when you got married?

JV: Twenty-five. I was born in 1931.

JT: Ah, OK so you were young when World War II was on.

JV: I remember coming out of the movies with my father  this was Dec. 7  and this kid was running around saying, War! War! War!

JT: Oh wow, so after Pearl Harbor. And you were in Danbury. Did it affect your family at all or did it affect the area you were living in?

JV: People were all too young to go into the service, so I cant remember anyone that went into the service.

JT: So you were kind of just hearing about it in the news.

JV: And we didnt have T.V. then.

JT: So it was on the radio and in the newspaper, but would you say you just kind of went through your daily life then, normally?

JV: Mmhm.

JT: Theres always wars going on now that we are involved with. Would you say it was kind of like how it is now? The sentiment, with war going on?

JV: Yeah, I guess so. If you have people involved you think more about it.

JT: And another question I wanted to ask. Based on what youve seen, what advice do you have for kids growing up now?

JV: Dont drink too much  from what I see  and dont do drugs. I cant believe the trouble with the drugs. But the thing is the doctors are ordering these drugs and the kids are getting addicted to it and buying them off the street.

JT: Yes, I agree. Thank you so much Janet for your time and for sharing your stories with me.

E: jturiano@greenwichtime.com; T: @jturiano; IG: @greenwichgreen
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On the surface, it looks as if Connecticut children fare pretty well. According to the annual Kids Count report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the state ranks fourth in education, third in health, and sixth in overall well-being for children. The foundation pointed to nearly universal health insurance  97 percent  for Connecticuts children as a major contributor to the states high ranking.

Of all the states, Connecticut also had the lowest rate of deaths among children ages 1 to 19: 15 deaths per 100,000 children.

But thats not the entire story, not by half.

As with any time Connecticuts wealth, well-being, or the price of its real estate is measured, the wealth along Connecticuts Gold Coast  where commuters bring home big paychecks from the New York City metropolitan area  skews the results.

In fact, the Nutmeg State has one of the countrys largest gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Connecticut is one of the countrys two most unequal states (New York is the other one). Nationwide, the top 1 percent of income earners makes 25.3 times more than the bottom 99 percent, according to a 2016 Economic Policy Institute report. In Connecticut, incomes of the top 1 percent wage-earners are 42.6 times greater than the bottom 99 percent.

From the same data, the top-to-bottom ratio for Fairfield residents is 73.7 percent. In fact, there are five Connecticuts: wealthy, urban core, rural, suburban, and urban periphery  and which one is home very much determines a childs well-being, according to a report from the Connecticut Association of Human Services, a non-profit that since 1910 has worked to end poverty in the state.

Thats no small challenge, given the disparities here.

Wealthy Connecticut  Fairfield, Easton, Weston, Wilton, and New Canaan  has a median household income of $140,262. Home ownership is at 85 percent, and almost 90 percent white. There, schools offer more opportunities such as field trips and college preparation for its older students.

Compare that with Hartford, with a median household income of $37,426, where neighborhood schools remain remarkably segregated, and thousands of students attend schools that The Atlantic Monthly magazine said are among the worst in the country.

But even Greenwich has poverty, said Heather Petit, policy analyst at the states Commission on Women, Children and Seniors. We have pockets of poverty, and then a really wealthy neighborhood right over there. So separating data rather than looking at the state as a whole is just one way to understand Connecticuts poverty.

Predictably, the state also has a stark achievement gap among its students. (If you want to explore your own school districts gap, go here. The data is from 2015.) The state has an achievement gap task force with a goal of closing the gap in three years, by 2020.

Thats no small challenge, either. Last September, Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher called the states school funding system unconstitutional, and ordered a review. Moukawsher reiterated a legal point thats been lost over the years, that the state  not municipalities  is responsible for the education of its children. Town-centric funding leads to the kind of disparity where Greenwich spends $6,000 more per pupil per year than does Bridgeport. (The case is before the state Supreme Court.)

News accounts of the ruling called it divisive, as well it should be. One national report says that poor students in states such as Mississippi and Arkansas do better in school than poor students in Connecticut. But as Petit says, despite a challenging budget, Connecticut legislators support the states families. Theyre willing to be innovative.

We arent going to solve our achievement gap with Band-Aids. It will take  as always  significant systemic change. Only then can the strong showing on national reports from organizations like the Casey Foundation reflect the lives of Connecticuts children  all of them.

Susan Campbell is a distinguished lecturer at the University of New Haven. She can be reached at slcampbell417@gmail.com. This column was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (www.c-hit.org).
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The Family Trump is outraged that the fake media has refused to take them at their word.

Especially when President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he really isnt sure that Russia  or anyone else for that matter  tried to subvert the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

But what is most outrageous to the rest of us now is a mind-boggling lack of outrage from so many famous names of the Republican Party. Even after we all have just heard and read the chain of deliberately deceitful words of Trump, his eldest son, Donald Jr., and his inner circle acolytes, who still are trying to hide what they knew about Russias effort to attack Americas democracy with cyber-weapons.

The CIA, FBI, NSA and Director of National Intelligence disclosed last fall that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails to help the Republican candidate win. Next time, Russia or some other foreign adversary may well seek to defeat the Republicans and elect Democrats, or maybe even another new party. And the Republican leaders ever since the end of World War II would have known that and demanded firm action to defend Americas political system. Just as they moved vigorously to halt all foreign adversaries who sought to invade, infiltrate or otherwise attack Americas homeland during the Cold War.

Yet most of todays Republican leaders are content to mumble a few platitudes and not demand more from their own partys maximum leader.

Even after they have read the latest disclosure (forced by the aggressive reporting of New York Times reporters) of Donald Jr.s 2016 eruption of enthusiasm after being offered help, allegedly in the form of Russian government info incriminating Hillary Clinton.

A Kremlin-connected publicist, Rob Goldstone, who the Trumps knew, emailed him on June 3, 2016, with what he called an ultra sensitive offer. Goldstone wanted to set up a meeting between Donald Jr. and a Russian lawyer who would provide some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

Just 17 minutes later, Donald Jr. gushed his reply: (I)f its what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

(Days later, the meeting was set up for the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in Donald Jr.s Trump Tower office and was also attended by Jared Kushner and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Donald Jr. says she never talked about any such ultra-sensitive info but instead just talked about her longtime effort to get rid of sanctions concerning a controversy over adoptions of Russian children by U.S. couples. Whether or not that is true is still uncertain.)

A month later, Donald Jr. appeared on CNN, and Jake Tapper asked about a Clinton officials claim that Russia was behind the hacks of Democratic party emails as part of an effort to help Trump and defeat Clinton. Donald Jr. insisted at length this was all fake news.

(T)his is time and time again, lie after lie.  Its disgusting. Its so phony.  I mean, I cant think of bigger lies.  Its disgusting and the people  should be fed up because when I heard it I certainly was.

Fast forward to 2017: On May 11, President Trump told NBCs Lester Holt the real reason he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey. You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story. Even as recently as just before his meeting this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G7 gathering in Germany, Trump was still insisting he didnt know if it was Russia or somebody else who had hacked and leaked the Democrats emails.

Putin, reportedly gleeful among his Kremlin pals post-meeting, seemed to have basically gotten all he wanted out it. Indeed, Trump went along with Putins idea that the two nations team up in a joint cybersecurity effort. But the idea was immediately ridiculed back in the U.S.A., as analysts scoffed analogies about foxes guarding hen houses.

But two old school Republican patriots, Sens. John McCain, Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, S.C., led the critics. Its not the dumbest idea Ive ever heard, but its pretty close, said Graham. This time, they won, as Trump eventually backed away from the plan, albeit on tip-toes.

But McCains fellow Arizonan Barry Goldwater and, of course, Ronald Reagan would be shocked and saddened by the shattering sound of silence coming from many leaders of the party that had once thought it had cornered the market on patriotism.




Haiti - Diaspora : Inauguration of the first Haitian market in Suriname





The Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Suriname is proud to announce the Grand Opening of the first Haitian Marketplace in Paramaribo, Suriname "Mache Unite" on the Occasion of the 40th year anniversary of the arrival of the first Haitian migrants in this country back in 1977.



This Friday, July 14 2017, the Consul Alex Jospitre accompanied among others of Edgar A. Dikan, Minister of Regional Development, together unveiled the nameboard displaying the name "Mache Unite" and cut the inaugural ribbon officially launching the activities at the Marketplace.



In turn, Consul Jospitre, presented, on behalf of the President, the Government and people of Haiti, his heartfelt thanks to the Government of Suriname as well to all other entities and people which were instrumental to the completion of this initiative; and he also promised that this achievement is only the first of many more to come in the efforts to deepen the ties between the two nations and increase his compatriotscontribution in the country's economy.



Addressing his fellow citizens in creole, Consul Jospitre asked them to cherish this Haitian Marketplace as their own baby child, the best way for them to express full gratitude to the government officials and entities which helped them obtain their very own Marketplace in Suriname.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Clerks and bailiffs, the strike continues

On Thursday, a meeting between Heidi Fortune, the Minister of Justice and the officials of the National Association of Haitian Clerks and Bailiffs did not allow the lifting of the strike of the latter at the courthouse of Port-au -Prince where activities are still paralyzed for nearly two weeks. The strikers are demanding better working conditions. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21490-haiti-news-zapping.html



800 philo students to the "Prefac Solidarity"

800 students of philosophy will have the opportunity to participate in the "Prefac Solidarite" organized this summer, by the Social Assistance Fund (CAS).



Return of mission of the CFI Aftercare unit

The Aftercare unit of the Investment Facilitation Center (CFI) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21410-haiti-economy-aftercare-unit-of-cfi-serving-the-business-sector.html carried out a recent prospecting mission in the South Department. The objective was to find out about the difficulties faced by companies in this region, about 20 companies were visited. The Aftercare team also took the opportunity to contact the Departmental Directorates of Public Institutions such as the General Administration of Customs, the General Directorate of Taxes and the City Council of Les Cayes.



The DG of the PNH in Hinche

As part of a tour https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21520-haiti-news-zapping.html Michel-Ange Gedeon, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) went to Hinche where he was received by Divisional Commissioner Marc Andre Cadostin. With a view to reducing the staff of the Minustah Police, Michel-Ange Gedeon, addressing all local elected representatives, promoted a new approach to work and the obligation of elected officials to accompany the National police in its mission to serve and protect lives and property.



XIII CARIFESTA : Haiti prepares

On Thursday, a major meeting was held between Limond Toussaint, the Minister of Culture and the Haiti Participation Management Committee at the XIII Editions of the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) which will take place this year in Barbados From 17 to 27 August 2017 (for the second time since 1981). The objective of this great cultural event is to bring together artists, musicians and authors, and to showcase the artistic and folkloric events of the Caribbean region and of Latin America.



Grand'Anse : launch of the Caravan

Friday in the department of Grand'Anse, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Senators of the Grand'Anse, Jean Rigaud Belizaire and Sorel Jacinthe, of several Deputies in particular of Cholzer Chancy, President of the Lower House, proceeded to Carrefour Zaboca (commune of Pestel), to the launch of the Caravan of Change.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















US Soldier, ISIS Supporter Believed Hitler Was Right And Moon Landings Were Fake

by Jonah Bennett, Daily Caller, July 14, 2017

A U.S. soldier accused of supporting the Islamic State believed that Hitler was right, the moon landings were fake and 9/11 was an inside job.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Erik Kang, arrested by an FBI SWAT team over the weekend after being accused of attempting to aid ISIS, was a noted conspiracy theorist, according to a soldier who knew him .

His former Army bunkmate from 2013, Dustin Lyles, told The Associated Press that he and Kang practiced martial arts together and discussed conspiracy theories, particularly the idea that the U.S. staged the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Kang, who belongs to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and worked as an air traffic control operator, pledged allegiance to ISIS and attempted to send classified and unclassified military documents to members of the terror group. He had no idea that these supposed members were actually undercover FBI agents.

Kang apparently told a confidential human source as recently as March that Hitler was right, saying he believed in the mass killing of Jews, according to court filings. He also said that America was the only terrorist organization in the world .

In addition to embracing conspiracy theories, Kang sought to provide support to ISIS in numerous ways, including wanting to provide combat training to help ISIS members.

Kangs long history of strange statements and support for ISIS resulted in him losing his security clearance in 2012. For an unknown reason, his security clearance was reinstated in 2013 after he complied with military requirements stemming from the investigation. The Army finally referred Kangs case to the FBI in 2016 for more serious investigation, which culminated in an arrest.
Respondents of the survey ranked eighty countries according to subjective perceptions of economic stability, quality of the job market, income equality, and whether the country is one in which the respondent could imagine living in. Moreover, the percentage of immigrants in a countrys population, the amount of remittances sent home, and an assessment by the United Nations of integration measures provided for immigrants were included in the methodology.

Sweden is the best country to be an immigrant in, according to a recent survey by U.S. News. Finland takes ninth place, with Norway and Denmark also present in the top ten.

The data on global perceptions of various countries were gathered through survey responses from more than 21,000 business leaders, intellectuals and general citizens.

Nordic countries are ranked so high primarily because of favourable ratings on economic stability and income equality. However, some Nordic countries, notably Finland, fall in rankings because of the low percentage of immigrants in the overall population. According to the latest data by OECD, immigrants make up 16 per cent of Swedens overall population, while the equivalent number lies at no more than 5.6 per cent in Finland. This explains why Finland ranks nine places behind Sweden in best countries to be an immigrant in.

Surprisingly, the United Kingdom, despite hosting the sixth largest number of immigrants in the world, ranks at seventeenth place. According to U.S. News, this is because the UK currently employs immigration policies that are purely concerned with the interests of nationals, as opposed to those of immigrants.

The United States, on the other hand, hosts the largest number of immigrants in the world  that is 46.6 million  and takes seventh place in the survey. The primary reason the U.S. failed to climb to the very first places in the ranking was a low score in perceived income equality.

In terms of the share of immigrants in a countrys population, the United Arab Emirates hosts, by far, most immigrants, with almost 90 per cent of the population having migrated from abroad. Nevertheless, the country falls at 15th place due to a lack of integration policies.

Read more about the best countries to be an immigrant here.

Nicole Berglund

Helsinki Times
The cause of the accident was not disclosed.

An Irish woman has been killed on a mountain climbing fund-raising trip in Africa.

The woman, aged in her 30s, travelled with a group from Ireland to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She had been active in raising money for charity as part of the expedition to Africa.

It is believed she was involved in an accident and died from her injuries around 8.15am yesterday, local time.

A statement on travel agent Earth's Edge's Facebook page said: "A client of ours has passed away on the 14th July 2017 at 8.15am local time while on Kilimanjaro. Our thoughts and condolences are with her family."

Tragedy

She is understood to have worked for a company based in Cork. Her name was not released yesterday and her family members were informed of the tragedy yesterday afternoon.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed officials were liaising with the victim's family.

The cause of the accident was not disclosed.

Another Irish fund-raising expedition to Kilimanjaro was marred by tragedy in 2013, when mountain climber r Ian McKeever died after being struck by lightning.

The 42-year-old was struck a day after reports of bad weather hampered the climb by a large group, including his fiancee Anna O'Loughlin and more than 20 others from Ireland.
Wayne Dundon was found with contraband in his cell

Two notorious Limerick brothers serving life for separate murders have threatened the governor of Mountjoy Prison after they were moved to the Challenging Behaviour Unit (CBU) as punishment.

Killers Wayne and Dessie Dundon have recently been moved from the maximum security Portlaoise Prison to Mountjoy because of their reputation for non-cooperation and accumulating contraband.

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Insiders say they are "not happy" about having their privileges revoked for a 40-day period as part of their punishment.

It was reported at the beginning of the month that Wayne was found with phones, steroids, weapons, syringes and mobile phone SIM cards in his cell.

The decision to move the brothers was taken in view of the fact that security had failed to prevent access to contraband phones and drugs.

They were issued with P19 reports for their actions and behaviour in Portlaoise.

These are handed to prisoners who have broken prison regulations and can lead to various punishments, depending on the severity of the misdemeanour.

For the Dundons, this meant incarceration in the CBU and revoking of their privileges.

The CBU is used to house troublesome inmates and separate them from the wider prison population when they become aggressive or disruptive.

"The pair were moved into the unit on Thursday after their P19s were processed and dealt with," said a source.

"They were not at all happy with the decision and threatened Governor Brian Murphy.

"It seems a car belonging to a governor from Portlaoise Prison was damaged in the past and they told Mr Murphy the same would happen to him, or worse, and they threatened that things are going to escalate," the source added.

"There were also rumours that they had threatened him the day before as well, which won't help their case at all."

It is understood that on a previous occasion, when he was moved to Mountjoy, Wayne Dundon thrashed his cell to express his displeasure.

Exposed

"There is tension in the air in the jail now but the officers are the ones exposed to most risk because they are the ones who have to keep a lid on it all," said the source.

The Irish Prison Service said it could not comment on named individuals.

Dessie (34) was sentenced along with four others to life in prison in December 2003 for the murder of Limerick crime boss Kieran Keane, and the attempted murder of his nephew, Owen Treacy, in Limerick a year earlier.

Wayne (39), from Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, and another man, Nathan Killeen, of Hyde Road, Prospect, were sentenced to life behind bars for the murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins in Limerick in 2009.

They pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Collins at Coin Castle Amusements, Roxboro, on April 9, 2009.

Mr Collins, a 35-year-old father of two who was engaged to be married, died in hospital a short time after he was shot.

His father, Steve Collins, was believed to have been the intended target due to his involvement in a previous successful prosecution against Dundon for a threat to kill.

In July 2014, the three-judge Special Criminal Court found Wayne had ordered the murder from prison and that Killeen was the getaway driver.

In March this year, Wayne failed in his attempt to get a different panel of judges to hear an appeal against his conviction for the murder of Mr Collins.

Another brother, John Dundon (33), is also serving a life sentence in Portlaoise Prison for the murder of innocent rugby player Shane Geoghegan, who was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2008.
CLINTWOOD, Va.  A Clintwood man arrested earlier this year after police found his girlfriend's body buried in a shallow grave was indicted on murder charges Friday.

Charles Walter Reed, 53, was indicted by a Dickenson County grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, strangulation and concealment of a dead body.

A tip on March 2 led the Dickenson County Sheriffs Office and the Virginia State Police to the body of Crystal Stanley, 40, which was buried in a grave in front of a mobile home on state Route 72. Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Scott Stanley said the woman lived with Reed.

On Feb. 26, prosecutors say Reed did unlawfully and feloniously, willfully and deliberately, with premeditation kill and murder Crystal Gail Stanley, according to count one of the indictment.

The indictment also states that Reed did impede the blood circulation or respiration of Stanley by applying pressure to the neck and resulting in the wounding or bodily injury of such person, count two of the indictment states.

A belt was placed around Stanleys neck and he pulled it until she died, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dickenson County court. Reed said he put plastic around her body and buried her that same night under a picnic table in the front yard, the complaint adds.

Reed did transport, secrete, conceal or alter a dead body with malicious intent to prevent detection of an unlawful act or to prevent the detection of the death or the manner or cause of death, count three of the indictment states.

Attorney Brent Fleming was also reappointed to represent Reed in court on Friday.

Reed remains incarcerated without bail at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Haysi. His next court date is scheduled for July 20 at 9 a.m. in Dickenson County Circuit Court.
BRISTOL, Va.  Former City Manager Tabitha Crowder will receive a severance package valued at just less than $100,000, under the terms of her contract.

Crowder was released by City Council during its July 3 reorganizational meeting, after working for the city since 2009.

She is getting what was part of her contract, interim City Manager Randy Eads said Friday. Shes to receive six months salary, the city will pay for her health insurance for six months, and shell be paid for any vacation and sick time that she didnt use.

After the July 3 meeting, new Mayor Kevin Mumpower said the council wants to go in a different direction and needs different leadership.

Under the city charter, the manager serves at the will of the five-member council, which must vote each July to retain the current manager or make a change. Crowder was appointed city manager in June 2014 after serving for almost a year as interim manager. Her contract included an annual salary of $115,000.

Mumpower said Friday the severance agreement was completed between Crowder, Eads  who also doubles as the city attorney  and the citys human resources department. City Council wasnt involved in that part of the transition, the mayor said.

Ive looked over the agreement, and it was done right. She was under contract to the city, so this allows for a transition for her, Mumpower said.

A Buchanan County, Virginia, native, Crowder became the citys director of public works in February 2009. She was named one of two assistant city managers in February 2013 before becoming interim manager about four months later.

Previous city councils have come under sharp criticism when parting with city managers. Most recently, a divided council agreed to pay then-outgoing City Manager Dewey Cashwell $120,000  a year's salary instead of the six months prescribed in his contract  plus health benefits and accrued vacation and sick time.
The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 40s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.
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Nearly 80 PA people have been charged for Jan. 6 riot. Three are dead.

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Toronto, ON, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Toronto, ON (July 12, 2017) - Planning to host an outdoor get-together with friends and family this summer? Here are some clever tips for making the most of your next celebration using the latest innovations in plastic cooking, baking and entertaining tools.

Green Your Party: Recycling is an essential part of entertaining. Place a labeled recycling bin next to the trash bin to remind guests to recycle. Depending on local recycling programs, plastic bottles, bags, wraps and containers can be recycled to live second lives as backyard decks, t-shirts, handy wine carriers, cutting boards, carpeting and more.

Recycling is an essential part of entertaining. Place a labeled recycling bin next to the trash bin to remind guests to recycle. Depending on local recycling programs, plastic bottles, bags, wraps and containers can be recycled to live second lives as backyard decks, t-shirts, handy wine carriers, cutting boards, carpeting and more. Sophisticated Serving Pieces: New trends in plastic serving pieces allow you to have a chic, sophisticated outdoor party with solutions that are shatter-resistant and more lightweight  and sometimes even more affordable  than glass alternatives.

New trends in plastic serving pieces allow you to have a chic, sophisticated outdoor party with solutions that are shatter-resistant and more lightweight  and sometimes even more affordable  than glass alternatives. Party On-the-Go: Innovations in plastic packaging have revolutionized the way wines are stored, transported and enjoyed. Handy, shatter-resistant plastic bottles are lighter and easier to tote to outdoor events. Because theyre lighter, they need less energy to ship than glass bottles, making them a convenient and sustainable solution for outdoor entertaining. And when the partys over, most bin programs will accept the bottle for recycling.

Innovations in plastic packaging have revolutionized the way wines are stored, transported and enjoyed. Handy, shatter-resistant plastic bottles are lighter and easier to tote to outdoor events. Because theyre lighter, they need less energy to ship than glass bottles, making them a convenient and sustainable solution for outdoor entertaining. And when the partys over, most bin programs will accept the bottle for recycling. Party Planning Made Easy: Check your local grocery store for foods packaged in resealable plastic bags and containers. These are convenient for shredded cheeses, dried fruit, pastas, salads, cold cuts, dips, dressings and more  use what you need and store the rest.

Check your local grocery store for foods packaged in resealable plastic bags and containers. These are convenient for shredded cheeses, dried fruit, pastas, salads, cold cuts, dips, dressings and more  use what you need and store the rest. Dont Dispose, Take it Home: Let your guests go home with the delicious food you served at your party by packaging leftovers in reusable, airtight plastic containers or sealable plastic bags. To prolong freshness, store leftovers within 2 hours and use shallow plastic containers, less than two inches deep, for rapid, even cooling in the refrigerator or freezer.

Let your guests go home with the delicious food you served at your party by packaging leftovers in reusable, airtight plastic containers or sealable plastic bags. To prolong freshness, store leftovers within 2 hours and use shallow plastic containers, less than two inches deep, for rapid, even cooling in the refrigerator or freezer. Savvy Party Planner: Outdoor party necessities include easy-to-clean silicone basting brushes for brushing on marinades, heat-resistant silicone outdoor grilling mitts to help protect hands and arms from heat, and reusable plastic containers for endless chips and dip. Plastic utensils and trays are generally much lighter than glass or ceramic, making them easy to move with the party and refill with new treats when needed.

Today's intelligent plastics are vital to the modern world. These materials enhance our lifestyles, our economy and the environment. For more information visit www.intelligentplastics.ca.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5ab882ae-b145-43c7-a4f6-2d3755b68d51

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e5f2db79-f6e0-4add-b39b-46802d570777
MIAMI, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Every city has a coffee culture, and the cup runneth over in Miami, where its vibrant rhythm is fueled each morning with Cuban bean espresso served at small cult-followed cafes. Leave it to The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach to bring those coveted cups directly to guests with the Lobby Bars new coffee cart experience, Aroma Y Arena, serving classic drinks and pastry starting July 15.



We are capturing that authentic local coffee shop experience within our lobby, said Kanat Gurel, Director of Food and Beverage at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. The essence of South Beach is reflected in all of our offerings, including the new Cortaditos and Croquetas to be enjoyed in our tranquil setting away from the crowds.

Purists will delight in the carefully sourced beans from Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Cuba, the worlds top five Latin countries celebrated for their refined bounty. Meanwhile, a dedicated barista uses homemade recipes as well as an ancient brewing method to ensure characteristic flavor, rich body and the robust, familiar aroma scenting South Beach streets each dawn.

The star of the show is brew crafted from the old-school glass Siphon, the original vacuum coffee maker invented in the 1800s as an alternative to boiling coffee, which kills the taste. For a truly custom cup, guests can select the beans while the barista methodically filters a steamy concoction. Its rise and shine, The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach-style.

Open daily from 8-11a.m., the menu also features Espresso, Cortadito, Colada, Latte, Cappuccino, Americano, Cafecito and Machinetta; local pastry, both sweet and savory, includes Cheese Tequenos, Guava Pastelito and Ham Croquetas. Savor the aroma over social with #aromaYarena.

About The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach

Located steps from Ocean Drive, The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach is a luxury property that lies in the heart of South Beach. Featuring 375 guest rooms, the property is a restored Art Moderne building in Miamis Art Deco district, close to renowned shopping, dining and nightlife. The property offers a recently redesigned Ritz-Carlton spa with a first-of-its-kind Timeless Capsule concept and traditional ESPA treatments. The newly opened TATEL Miami restaurant serves up a mix of traditional Spanish cuisine along with modern variations of the classics in an upbeat, stylish setting. Additionally, the luxury hotel houses a multi-million dollar art collection, a newly enhanced signature Club Lounge, The DiLido Beach Club - the only oceanfront restaurant on South Beach, oceanfront cabanas, a 24-hour fitness center, over 20,000 square feet of meeting space and an elevated outdoor pool overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. For additional information about The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach, please call (800) 241-3333, the hotel directly at (786) 276-4000, a travel professional or visit The Ritz-Carlton website at www.ritzcarlton.com.
HICKORY  Enrollment is now open for the 2017-2018 class of Leadership Catawba that will kick off on Aug. 10.

The purpose of Leadership Catawba is to create a pipeline of individuals from business, government and nonprofits who are aware of all aspects of Catawba County our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats  and who accept the challenge to go forth after graduation and make a positive impact within an area in which they are passionate.

Each of the six program months, Reinventing Community, Telling Our Story, Building for Jobs, Workforce Connectivities, Serving Our Community, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship, align with our chamber strategic priorities and initiatives.

Each participant is challenged to organize and execute a group project that directly addresses a critical issue our county is facing to leave a sustainable impact. Other features of the program include 16 hours of situational leadership training with professional consultants and various subject experts, an extensive personal leadership assessment and analysis, and a team-building retreat. The program will conclude with a special graduation luncheon where each participant will receive a diploma.

This program is not meant for individuals who prefer to passively sit back in their seats and observe. Catawba County needs community leaders who understand the critical issues facing Catawba County and whom are invested and engaged in creating and executing solutions.

Others should choose to participate in Leadership Catawba in the future because it is an enlightening experience as to all our community has to offer. In addition to discovering what is great about our community, the needs of our community, and what is driving our community forward, it is also a wonderful networking and relationship-building opportunity. I consider myself blessed to have been a part of this program. Leadership Catawba has enriched my life, given me a revived hope in the area, and has opened my eyes to what I either naively missed or has not been over publicized.  Jessica Watson, Young, Morphis, Bach & Taylor, LLP, class of 2016-2017

It was a wonderful experience to see what all Catawba County has to offer, where the strengths lie, what weaknesses there are and how we, as citizens, can help to improve our community. We have to be proponents of our community and a person cannot do that if they do not know all the components that make up the community and how they all tie in and work together.  Jennifer Eversole, Catawba Valley Community College, class of 2016-2017

If you would like to download an enrollment application, visit our website at www.catawbachamber.org. Seats in the upcoming class are very limited and are reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, please contact the Catawba County Chamber at 828-328-6111 or email me at lkeisler@catawbachamber.org.
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The induction of non-career civil servants is soon to become a reality in the central government. Although the suggestion was categorically denied only last year, clearly the shortage of officers at the middle level in central ministries and departments has necessitated a U-turn.

The idea of lateral induction is not new. It was recommended by the 2nd Administrative Reform Commission, high level committees appointed by different governments and a plethora of think tanks. Newsworthy is the fact that now the department of personnel has been directed to set the stage for making selections. Although newspapers suggest that a committee headed by the Cabinet secretary would be responsible for implementing the process of selection, one trusts this aspect will be thought through prudently.

At present, the numbers to be inducted are relatively small  around 40. That may help tide over the current deficit of middle level officers in the central government but does not address a much bigger problem  the overall 20% shortfall of IAS cadre officers alone in 24 state cadres. The Baswan Committee (2016) has shown how large states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have a deficit of 75 to over 100 officers and their unwillingness to sponsor officers to go to the Centre on deputation is understandable. Lateral induction is, therefore, a small step towards essential housekeeping in central government staffing and ought to be supported.

But joint secretaries in the government are not merely performing jobs which can be filled by seeking applications. Officers at this level are not recruited to market products or made responsible for generating higher profits. They are expected to present well-researched and sourced information in a manner that the political executive can understand, weigh and consider options before making equitable and effective policy choices. The capacity to do this requires a different order of acumen and enormous caution has to be exercised while making recruitment. The processes themselves must pass the highest standards of probity and must be legally unassailable.

Once an in-house bureaucratic process is set in motion, it will become a precedent for all time and may be well be cited and manipulated by future governments at the Centre and the states to plant people regardless of their worth. In the past few years different state governments have inducted and promoted committed (malleable) officers as a reward for favours done. Others have entrusted policy-making to people with no knowledge of fiscal prudence or administrative propriety- leave aside the finer nuances of the Constitution or the law, to steer the ship of State. Once the Centre opens the doors to lateral induction through its own machinery, it can lead to a deluge of inductions in the states and at the Centre too in times to come. Entrusting the job of selection to a body supervised by the Union Public Service Commission would be the only alternative to ensure that merit is the sole criteria and no scope exists for preferential induction on grounds of region, community or ideological allegiance.

Comparisons with other countries may be relevant in theory but is not so in practice. One has to bear in mind the difference between a career-based system -- India, France, Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain are examples thereof -and position- based systems which function in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Britain and in the US. In the career-based system the advantage is a commonality of a working culture and effective networks which facilitate speed of communication and understanding. The well-known shortcomings are the spread of complacency, an adherence to the status quo which kill new ideas. A position-based system is firstly political in nature and often transitory. It cannot be merged into a career based system without taking care to imbue the induction system itself with the highest degree of transparency and independence.

First inductions through the competitive examinations must expand incrementally in keeping with the countrys needs. Second, only UPSC has the mandate to make recruitment to civil service jobs under the Constitution and the civil service statutes. Looking outside the UPSC will destroy the tenets of parliamentary democracy, which is inescapably linked to placing reliance on a merit based, politically neutral civil service.

Shailaja Chandra is former chief secretary, Delhi

The views expressed are personal
Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor, who is reuniting with his Ishaqzaade co-star Parineeti Chopra for a Dibakar Banerjees film, has said working with the director was always on his wish list.

Arjun Kapoor dances with fans during a promotional event. (IANS)

During the promotion of Mubarakan, Arjun was asked about teaming up with Banerjee for Yash Raj Films Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar. "It is very exciting. This is the first time Parineeti and I felt like pairing with each other again because of the story of the film. Dibakar Banerjee is one such filmmaker who has been on my wish list since a long period of time, he said.

It will be different from Ishaqzaade. YRF is a home film, Parineeti is a special co-star and the material of the film is something different so, this combination will make this film more special. I feel when you work with co-actor with whom you have already worked, then it needs some kind of freshness so, it is an interesting space for us and we will start shooting for the film in October, he added.

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is about a man and woman, who represent two completely different India, and also deals with their love-hate relationship.

Talking about Mubrakan, Arjun said I wanted to work with Anees Bazmee and the icing on the cake was having Anil chachu (Kapoor) on board and doing a double role because thats the challenge you look for as an actor. The film was not generic and I really believe in the script of this film. I really feel it is genuinely funny film and its a wholesome family entertainer. I havent done something like this earlier. The closest family film that I did was 2 States, but this is slightly more light-hearted and time pass film. But in the end, this also has some emotions and gives a message to the audience.

Expressing his views on young actors and directors not attempting much comedy, Arjun said: There hasnt been much written when it comes to comedy films these days. Actors cannot go and sign scripts beyond a point. Actors make decisions on what is being offered to them and also directors have to see the potential in you to fulfill it. Anees Bazmee must be having some faith in my performance abilities to offer this film. Comedy is not something that everybody can do, he added.

I also feel that younger directors are not pan India in their thinking. Their upbringing is more digital and they are more into younger thought process and problems of todays world. Comedy in India always worked when it was relatable to everybody. If you see Kapils (Sharma) show, he does things that everybody can understand and that is why he does so well, he added.

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Pyaar Ka Punchnama fame actor Kartik Aaryan has said the film has made him so popular that no one in the industry turns him away or refuses to meet him.

Film Producer Abhishek Pathak with actors Kartik Aaryan and Paresh Rawal during a programme. (IANS)

Is he happy with the progress he has made in his career or does he feel pressurized because he is an outsider with no Bollywood connections? When I came to Mumbai from Indore I knew nobody. Luckily, Pyaar Ka Punchnama worked for me. And I can say this much today for myself... no one turns me away or refuses to meet me. Yes, the doors are open. But what I find when I go through the door is another matter.

The young actor also said he is getting offers from big banners, but not roles that are good enough. I cant grab anything that comes my way just because its from a big banner. So far Ive done well enough for myself. In fact, Ive just bought myself a BMW. For a small-town boy with no Bollywood connections... thats quite a way to go, he said.

At the moment, Kartiks family from Indore is in Mumbai with him for the release of Guest Iin London. Life is tough in Mumbai when you are alone. But then I am getting a chance to pursue my dreams, I have no reason to complain, Kartik said.

His next release is the romantic-comedy Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, directed by Luv Ranjan, who did Pyaar Ka Punchnama with him. Weve already shot most of the film and it will be released on November 3. Luv is a director who understands the language of Young India. And by language, I dont mean just spoken dialogues, says Kartik.

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The Celluloid Ceiling report of 2016 by the San Diego State Universitys Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film found that 2016 had not been a good year for women filmmakers in Hollywood. According to the report, women made up just seven per cent of all directors on the top 250 films, a two per cent decline from 2015. Back home in Bollywood though, at least in terms of critical mass, 2016-17 has seen some good films being made by women  Anu Menons Waiting, Gauri Shindes Dear Zindagi, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwaris Nil Battey Sannata and Konkona Sen Sharmas A Death In The Gunj, to name a few. Alankrita Shrivastavas Lipstick Under My Burkha releases this month. How do these women view Bollywood  an industry often perceived to be a boys club?

For Me, The Bigger Battle Is Content



Alankrita Shrivastava

Director, Turning 30!!! and Lipstick Under My Burkha

Alankrita Shrivastava is busy. Her second film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, will finally release on July 21. Finally, because the film had run into censor trouble earlier this year for being lady oriented and showing their fantasy above life. Shrivastava moved the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal and was allowed to release the film with an adult certification and a few cuts. There is enough sexual content in Indian cinema, but the fact that women are telling stories, having agency over their own lives they viewed it as a threat to patriarchy, says Shrivastava.

I feel not enough has been done with women characters. If you see a film like Dangal, which is a lovely and entertaining film, at the end of the day it is a mans, it is the fathers wish being fulfilled. If you see a Pink, it is a very good film, but ultimately Amitabh Bachchan has to come and save them (the female characters). There is something off about that, says Shrivastava. And the reason for that, the director agrees, might be because there are still very few women making films in the industry, so perspectives differ.

Shrivastava remembers her first experience of working on a set in Prakash Jhas Gangajal in 2001. There were 200 odd crew and there were only three girls, including me. There was one costume assistant and one hair dresser and a couple of female actors in the film, she says she says. But she is quick to add that she never felt discriminated against. I think at that time it was a given. I didnt even think of the fact that there are only three women on the sets. It just seemed that there are not enough women who work in films and its a very male atmosphere. I dont think I gave it that much thought, she says.

Alankrita Shrivastava, director of Lipstick Under My Burkha (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

I think the biases really are if you are making an independent film versus a mainstream film.

The reasons for the shortfall are many. Its tough to break in. Its a very dynastic industry. So if you see, most of the women directors too, they come from film families or their husbands are film-makers and thats actually how they started - not to take any credit away from them, but all that I am saying is that its a very tough industry to get a break in, Shrivastava explains. There are also internal battles between ones own aspirations and social and family expectations. It takes a lot out of you, especially for an independent film-maker. You really have to give it your whole life. Women often have other responsibilities, for instance family, she says. So while there are many women who are assistant film-makers, somewhere down the line they digress  pick up channel jobs or something else. And its there the world over. There are many girls in film school, but they dont all end up making films. Whereas for the men, many more of those who start off as assistant directors go on to make their own films.

Where both partners are interested in film-making, the mans aspirations take precedence, says Alankrita. His dream is way ahead of her so she will take up a stable job to support him. But now there are more women who are directing ads and with the whole digital space coming up there are many more women and thats great even if you dont immediately make features, she says.

For herself, she says the first discrimination she experienced was once she turned director. And that, she says, had more to do with the kind of film she was making than her gender. I think the biases really are if you are making an independent film versus a mainstream film, she says. Shrivastava recalls the first day of shooting for Turning 30!!!. For two months I had been asking for a particular camera because I had to do hand-held shots with it. And the production guys didnt send that camera the first day of the shoot, she says. Alankrita delayed the shoot for hours, till that camera was brought in, simply because she felt she couldnt set a precedence of being bullied this way. Even at the post-production stage, the studios would give me 3am and 1am kind of slots, when you are really not at your creative best. 

Her experience with Turning 30!!!, made her more careful while shooting Lipstick and she says she was careful not to work with a single person who would be disrespectful of the film simply because it was not a big-budget, mainstream cinema.

So for me the bigger battle is content, she says. The kind of films I make always put you at a disadvantage. Distributors are not interested in this kind of film. Its a deep level of discrimination  its both small budget and not star-driven and about the lives of ordinary women, so it is seen as having no commercial potential. The experience of making a Kahaani is quite different from that of making a Lipstick in that respect.

What Matters Is A Good Story



Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Director, Nil Battey Sannata

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, director of the film Nil Battey Sannata.

Not just on the floor, the number of women producers has gone up. Out of the major studios nearly three to four are headed by women. There are very good women editors and cinematographers.

I dont like being tagged as a woman director, says director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari. No one tags a male film director as such. And unlike four-five years back, there are enough women in the industry now.

The director feels gender tagging is an outside phenomenon and does not exist within the industry and among the film fraternity. It is true that a female perspective will be different from a male perspective. Even in the past there was Sai Paranjpye who was making all these lovely films. You cant imagine anyone else making those films, points out Tiwari. But back then there was little focus on the filmmaker. Now because of the social media, there is more interest in who is the person behind the film  yes, it does lead to the filmmaker and writers being celebrated which is nice, but it also leads to the tagging.

Tiwari feels it is especially unfair to restrict a filmmaker by her gender identity because its not as if women filmmakers are only making films that are women-centric. My next film is a quirky, entertaining comedy set in small town India.

Tiwari, who is married to Dangal director Nitesh Tiwari, agrees that it is true that for a long time there were few women in filmmaking. And the reason, she feels, is that till recently films were not really a profession. It was very family-oriented. Only those who were born into film families would take it up. But now that it has become a proper profession  film-making is something that is taught in schools now  the number of women entering the profession has also gone up. Not just on the floor, the number of women producers has gone up. Out of the major studios nearly three to four are headed by women. There are very good women editors and cinematographers, Tiwari says.

Swara Bhaskar in a scene from the film Nil Battey Sannata.

And if the percentage of women film-makers as compared to male filmmakers is still low, the reason, feels the mother of two, is that its a tough job. You are out of the house for 12-14 hours while shooting. There are outstation shoots. If you have a family, it becomes difficult. But there is no gender discrimination or insensitivity, she says.

The experience might be different with people who are not part of the main industry. When you are out for a recce for example, the line producer who is a local guy from some small town might initially have a problem accepting you  because they are not used to seeing women in these roles. Sometimes they address even women directors or seniors as sir. But once they get used to seeing you in that role, they are quick to adapt, she explains.

What matters finally, feels Tiwari, is the story .If you have a good story, you get a studio on board and everything sorts itself out. Cinema goers have also evolved. There is appreciation for good stories and they are not only being critically acclaimed but also doing well commercially. Every movie doesnt have to earn 100 crores to be successful  recovery, success and appreciation are related to the investment of key people involved, she says.

The Audience Should Watch More Non-Star-Driven Cinema

Anu Menon

Director, London Paris New York and Waiting

Anu Menon, director of London Paris New York and Waiting.

Even though we are seeing more women-centric films, they are still mostly a mans idea of an emancipated woman  and we are still viewing them as victims.

I only get called when its a story like this  on women filmmakers, says the London-based Anu Menon, making you aware that gender typecasting goes beyond the film fraternity. The director who is basking in the success of her second directorial venture, Waiting, says the London film industry is much more of a boys club than Bollywood. It is much more difficult to get an entry if you dont look like them, or talk like them. In that way Bollywood is more like Hollywood  if you have a good script you can make a film. People are always looking for a good script, says Menon, adding, The real problem in Bollywood is that there are not enough actors.

Having said that, the director does agree that while the number of women directors has gone up in the industry, its less than the number of women producers and script-writers. The reason, she feels, might be because films are finally a directors medium, and traditionally, people might not have wanted to give that kind of control to women. Even Sophia Coppola (daughter of acclaimed film-maker Francis Ford Coppola) complains of inequality, she says with a laugh.

Menon insists that there is a need for diverse people telling stories. Perspectives are shaped not just by gender but also by where you grew up, your upbringing, your travels, your experiences. So we need different voices, even among men  people with different experiences, because thats what will give variety, says Menon. And a woman director will have a different perspective not just on women characters, but also the male characters.

Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin in a scene from the film Waiting

Right now, says Menon, even though we are seeing more women-centric films, they are still mostly a mans idea of an emancipated woman  and we are still viewing them as victims. The stories revolve around how she is victimised and how she reacts to that. There are not enough films being made on strong, positive women. We are not doing enough to present them just as people. I think we need more films in which the lead is a woman  but it could easily be a man too  the roles are not gender specific, she says.

And to play those characters, she says, Bollywood needs more actors. This is where many women filmmakers lose out. Because if you are not buddies or really well connected, it is difficult to get the kind of actor you want. Even that is changing because success gets you that access  like its heartening to see Zoya Akhtar or Meghna Gulzar or Gauri Shinde making big movies. she explains. The industry needs to give a chance to more actors  and the industry should invest in more actors.

Some of the responsibility lies with the audience. They are not watching enough non-star-driven cinema. The good news is that now they dont only want star-driven films, they want content plus stars. But they should watch films by more actors so that the industry also gives a chance to more actors.

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Priyanka Chopra termed rude the social media criticism of Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman for singing Tamil, and not Hindi, songs at a concert in London.

Well, first of all, that is rude. I do not know the details so I do not want to talk much about it, said the actor who is here with the cast and crew of an upcoming Marathi film which she is producing.

Priyanka Chopra with her mother Madhu Chopra and brother Siddharth Chopra during a promotional event of her Marathi production Kay Re Rascalaa in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI)

The actress said she is in India instead of New York attending the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards as she wants to have a birthday party with her mother and brother.

Unfortunately IIFA and my birthday coincided. I do not get much time to spend with my brother and mum. So yes, I deserve this holiday.

Rahmans Netru, Indru, Naalai (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) gig at the Wembley Stadium concert on July 8 didnt hit the right chord with all his fans, especially his Bollywood-song admirers.

Priyanka Chopra at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. (IANS)

According to reports, some left the concert after he started singing Tamil songs and then trolled him on social media.

Rahman is currently in New York for the 18th edition of the IIFA Weekend and Awards and is yet to directly comment on the incident.

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In this era of lynchings, how much can we learn from research into earlier cases of communal violence? A lot. On the surface, they may appear quite different from each other but they are deeply connected, and past experiences of violence against religious minorities have emboldened mobs to carry out their agenda with greater ease.

In the Indian case, research on communal violence has largely been limited to the Hindu-Muslim conflict. This is the first major book on the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, Odisha in 2008. One of the poorest districts of the state, Kandhamal was founded by prominent Christian barrister, Madhusudan Das, on 1 April, 1936. Written by two eminent lawyers, the book focusses on the challenges victims and their defenders often confront, and how the criminal justice system repeatedly fails in India. Considerable research has been done on the subject of communal violence by historians, sociologists, political scientists, and legal scholars, among others. But the bulk of their research seeks to explain the role of ideology, state and political parties and barely addresses the issue of the legal apparatus and its shortcomings. This book, however, primarily looks at the legal organs of the state, courts, and Commissions of inquiry, and provides insights on how institutional failures determine the contours of injustice. It also points out how the political space in which these processes are allowed to operate remains vulnerable to threat, co-option, and manipulation.

The incidents in 2008 werent the first in Kandhamal. Another - smaller in scale - took place in 2007. The violence, on both occasions, led to the setting up of Commissions of inquiry headed by former justices. On 14 July, 2008, the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Inquiry was set up to look into the violence in 2007; and in September 2008, Justice SC Mohapatra took over to head the Commission of Inquiry into the 2008 violence. Since Justice Mohapatra passed away in 2012, Justice Naidu took over and the Commission resumed its work in March 2013. At the time o f the publication of this book, neither of the Commissions had submitted their reports. Subsequently, the final reports were submitted. One major dispute about the violence in 2008 was whether it was indeed an anti- Christian outburst. The Odisha government was hesitant to recognize its communal nature and instead, argued that it was the result of lingering land issues between two dominant ethnic groups, the Panas and Kandhas. The report of the National Commission for Minorities(NCM) and several independent reports by globally recognized civil society groups, however, challenged the state governments explanation. The authors of this book endorse the communal dimension of the conflict, and recognize the role of various political and quasi-political Hindutva groups in perpetuating the violence and also preventing justice being done to the victims.

Hari Chand Digal and his family in front of their burnt home in Minia village in Kandhamal District on October 9, 2008. (Vipin Kumar/HT)

According to the authors, the 2008 violence was pre-planned as various preparatory meetings were organized by the perpetrators and their patrons. The availability of weapons, and the systematic manner in which properties were looted and transferred also indicates planning. Efforts were made to destroy evidence and obstruct justice, and also to prevent civil society workers from assisting victim-survivors. The states conduct appears to have been deeply compromised, and in fact, more favourable to the perpetrators than to the victims. At the time of violence, the Biju Janata Dal( BJD), led by Naveen Patnaik, was in coalition with the Bhartiya Janata Party( BJP). The coalition broke after a few months and by 2009, Patnaik led his party to victory alone. However, the state still appeared compromised when it came to assisting victims, showing how casual so-called secular parties have been in addressing minority rights.

Vandalised idol of Jesus Christ at a church in Phulbani in Kandhamal District in October 2008. (Vipin Kumar/HT)

The research presents details about the functioning of the fast track courts set up after the violence continued till March 2013. There were 3,300 complaints but only 820 complaints were registered, and 518 cases charge sheeted. When the fast track courts were terminated, there were still 200 pending cases. These were transferred to regular courts, another example of the states non-serious approach to justice delivery.

A relief camp for riot victims at Tikabali in Kandhamal. (HT PHOTO)

The chapter on witness protection presents a vivid account of the intimidation of witnesses, and calls for serious reform in the judicial system. The authors analyse court verdicts, interview victims and other stake holders, and examine court proceedings to build their narrative. Scholars interested in how justice eludes victims of communal and ethnic violence would profit enormously by reading this important piece of research.

Read more: CELEBRATING A QUIET CHRISTMAS IN KANDHAMAL

Sheikh Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University. He is the editor of Rise of Saffron Power (Routledge, forthcoming)
About the only foodie-related fact that annoys Indians more than the origin of the samosa (we did not invent it, the Middle East did) is the suggestion that chillies are a colonial contribution to our cuisine. When you tell people that there were no chillies in India till the Europeans got here, they look disbelieving. And when you point out that as chillies were only discovered in the Americas, they could not possibly have been an indigenous food group; they ask the obvious question: if Europeans gave us the chilli, then why are there no chillies in European cuisine?

The chilli family is vast and extends far beyond the red chilli. (iStock)

Well, it is not as though all European cuisine is chilli-free. When Indians say chilli, we think of the hot red chilli that is a distinctive feature of our cuisine. But the chilli family is vast (there may be thousands of varieties) so it extends far beyond the red chilli.

You will find so-called peppers (near to what we prefer to call capsicum) in Italian cuisine. The Hungarians are proud of the paprika, the chilli that is the mark of their cuisine.

The Spanish love chillies. The Pimiento de Padron  a bright-green chilli from the town of Padron in Northeast Spain  has travelled around the world in recent decades as part of the global tapas craze.

But yes, it is true that Europeans tend not to like very hot chillies. Food writer Colleen Taylor Sen suggests that a taste for spices evolved over the centuries in hot climates because they contain powerful antibiotic chemicals that can kill or suppress bacteria or fungi that spoil foods... The antibiotic effects are even stronger when ingredients such as chillies, onion, garlic and cumin are combined.

The famous paprika of Hungary is really an Indian chilli and is closely related to the Kashmiri mirch.

So, people in hot countries like hot food, while those in cold countries like blander food.

If we took to the chilli because, like residents of other hot countries, we like spice, then what did we do before the Europeans discovered the

New World?

Well, thats easy to answer. In Indian food (if it is done right!) the chilli is just one of the many flavouring ingredients. All of our other spices are native to India. Centuries ago, we were especially proud of our pepper. Not only did it provide the heat in Indian cuisine, it was so popular in Europe that we would export it to Rome, Venice and other European trading centres where it fetched an enormous premium.

When Christopher Columbus set sail, he was not looking for America, but for India and its spices. When he landed in what we now know was South America, he was so confused that he called the people he encountered Indians. He also thought that the chilli they used in cooking was a kind of pepper, creating a second confusion in nomenclature that persists to this day.

Even food historian K. T. Achaya, who usually managed to find South Indian origins for all of the worlds foods, was forced to concede that till Columbus got to America and thought that he had discovered a new kind of pepper, nobody in India had the slightest idea what a chilli was. There is no mention whatsoever of the chilli in Indian literature before the 16th century, he noted, perhaps a little sadly.

As Achaya also pointed out, no Indian language had a word for chilli and when it did finally reach our shores, we fell back on Columbus-like confusions with pepper: mirch in Hindi and milagu and milagai in Tamil, for instance.

It is believed that the Portuguese fleet commanded by Vasco da Gama brought seeds for the plant to Goa. (HT file)

Nobody has any exact record of the arrival of the chilli in India, but it is believed that the Portuguese fleet commanded by Vasco da Gama brought seeds for the plant to Goa. This is where they were first planted, and they then spread to Bombay where they were called Gova Mirch.

Lizzie Collingham, the noted food historian, says that one mark of how quickly Indians accepted the chilli was the alacrity with which Ayurvedic physicians, usually unwilling to accept any ingredient that had not been around in the Vedic age, incorporated chillies into their system of medicine.

Within a hundred years of Vasco da Gamas arrival in India, we had cultivated the chilli so successfully that India actually became a net exporter of chilli powder and dried chillies. Traders began to take Indian chillies to the West along with our pepper, nutmeg and other spices. (This ingenuity may explain why India was one of the worlds richest countries in the pre-colonial era.)

According to Collingham, the chilli export was controlled by the Turks who bought chillies from the west coast of India and took them to Black Sea ports and their own country and from there, to Northern Europe  England, Germany, Holland, etc.

This is what led many Europeans to regard the chilli (which is actually a vegetable) as just another Indian spice, a belief that still persists. Moreover, says Collingham, the Turks introduced the chilli to Hungary when they conquered it. So the famous paprika of Hungary is really an Indian chilli. (In botanical terms, it is closely related to the Kashmiri mirch or the Bedgi chilli of South India.)

So while colonialists may well have introduced a South American flavour to our cuisine, the genius of India lies in the way we made it our own and gave it to other cuisines, to countries where nobody had heard of Columbus or Vasco da Gama.

Where else did we take it?

Nandos was created after the hot peri-peri sauce was created from the peri-peri chillies planted in colonies of Africa by the Portuguese.

Thats the big one. The official version, found in every textbook, is that the Portuguese took it around the world. There is the example of the peri-peri chilli, which they planted in their colonies in Africa and which led to the creation of the famous hot sauce and later, to Nandos and Barcelos. In Goa too, the peri-peri masala is the building block of the Catholic cuisine.

The Thais also use a variation of the peri-peri chilli, though it tends to be called a birds eye chilli. (Birds play a large role in its dispersal.) Did they get it from India? After all, we were cultivating it all over the country.

The conventional wisdom is that they did not. Apparently, the Portuguese sent an envoy to the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya soon after Portugal captured the port of Malacca (now in Malaysia). We are expected to believe that this short-lived, and minimal Portuguese presence in Thailand was enough to convert the Thais to the joys of the chilli.

There is a similar problem with the chilli and China. It is hard to think of Sichuan cuisine without the chilli. But who brought the chilli to Sichuan? One theory is the standard European traders brought it with them version, but Sichuan is not on the coast. So, which European traders got there and how and when? A second theory is that it reached overland, perhaps via Burma which, to me at least, seems a little more convincing.

The Spanish have their own theories about the arrival of the chilli in East Asia. They dispute the version that involves the Portuguese getting the plants from Bolivia and taking them around the world. They point out that they had strong links with Mexico (ruled by Spain) and the Philippines (also ruled by Spain). They say that they brought Mexican chillies to the Philippines and that it was from there that the chilli spread to the rest of Asia.

I dont see how we can rule this out. But we are still left with the Bhut Jolokia problem. Of late, this chilli has been much in the news for its potency: it can repel elephants, fell terrorists etc.

But I have never read a good explanation of how it got to Nagaland and the hills of the North East. There are no stories of colonialists taking it to those regions which were cut-off from the rest of India in that era.

The Bhut Jolokia, also known as Naga chilli, can repel elephants, fell terrorists etc.

Nor is it likely that the few missionaries who braved the journey carried a Bible in one hand and a chilli in the other. Moreover, the Naga chilli is part of the botanical species capsicum chinense, not capsicum annuum, like most other Indian chillies.

So how did this breed develop? And how did it grow wild and to such potency in those hills, a long, long way from South America or even Goa?

We dont know. Like many things about the spread of the chilli, this one too is a mystery. But what is clear is that the history of the spread of the chilli in Asia has, so far, been written by self-glorifying Europeans.

Perhaps it is time for us to do some research of our own.

From HT Brunch, July 16, 2017

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Google has been ranked as the most influential brand in the country while Patanjali Ayurveda and Reliance Jio figure in the top ten, according to a study by global research firm Ipsos.

Google is followed by Microsoft and Facebook at the second and third places, respectively.

Patanjali and Reliance Jio have been ranked fourth and ninth, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of the most influential brands.

Others in the top ten are SBI (5th), Amazon (6), Samsung (7), Airtel (8) and Flipkart (10).
After Tata Consultancy Services Ltds (TCS) weak performance in the June quarter, Infosys Ltds results came as a relief for investors. Its revenues grew 2.7% in constant currency terms, in line with analysts estimates, while profit margins were far ahead of the Streets expectations. TCS disappointed on both revenues and margins.

Infosys shares rose 3% in early trading, even while TCS fell by nearly as much. While the latters shares, understandably, continue to be under pressure, Infosyss shares have given up most of their gains. After all, while the companys reported profit may be more than what analysts had estimated, nothing material has changed on the ground.

At the end of the day, growth in the core business remains sluggish. As the chart alongside shows, year-on-year volume growth has fallen below the levels it stood at when Vishal Sikka had taken over as chief executive officer. According to an analyst at a multinational brokerage, its likely the half decent June quarter numbers were boosted by the GST (goods and services tax) project being handled by the company. Growth in core markets, he says, was far more subdued. For instance, growth in North America stood at just 1.3% sequentially, far lower than the company average.

Story published in arrangement with Livemint. For the full story click here
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court threw out a petition demanding that jokes featuring Sikhs be banned. That such a petition had been entertained at all would have appalled the best known Sikh writer of modern India, Khushwant Singh. Khushwant was an astonishingly versatile man of letters; his oeuvre included scholarly works of history, romantic novels, translations of poetry, and collections of jokes. Apart from publishing numerous books he wrote a popular newspaper column for many years.

I have just finished reading a superbly curated selection of Khushwant Singhs writings. Entitled Me, The Jokerman: Enthusiasms, Rants and Obsessions, this posthumous collection has been put together by his daughter, Mala Dayal, a highly regarded editor herself. The book contains several essays on humour, with Khushwant writing that his best jokes were unprintable because they had to do with sex. Then he adds: My second best jokes are about my own community, the Sardarjis. At one time they had the confidence to laugh at themselves. No longer so. They have become as touchy as Tamil Brahmins who happily laugh at jokes about Marwaris, Chettiars, Bengalis, Parsis and Mian-bhais; but you tell one joke about them and they are up in arms.

In another essay, Khushwant comments: We Indians may have lost our sense of humour but we still have a rich laboratory of materials to work on. Every third Indian is a clown in his own right: self-esteem, immodesty, sanctimoniousness, name-dropping and verbosity make a golden treasury of the ridiculous. We could study all these aspects, channel them into stories and then grant degrees to the more laugh-producing dissertations. We could make a very spectacular start by awarding doctorates even before the courses in humour are launched by conferring on our politicians degrees of Ha Ha Honoris Causa!

Khushwant Singh lived for several years in Bombay, that city of extremes, while editing the then widely circulated Illustrated Weekly of India. Here he met a businessman who, upset with the citys congestion, slept in his yacht offshore. If every Bombayman owned a yacht, reflected Khushwant, we could walk over the sea to Karachi. Had he been around now, he might have added: If every Mumbaikar could build a twenty-seven storey house for himself, we could put them on top of each other and reach Mars without the help of ISRO.

This always readable anthology ranges widely over the terrains of history, politics, religion, literature, and nature. Khushwant had in his head a vast storehouse of poetry in English, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi. The book also displays his knowledge of Christian, Hindu, Muslim and of course Sikh scriptures; there is a lovely piece on the Sikh mystic Bhai Vir Singh, of whom Khushwant writes: The sense of humility never left him and appears like a refrain in many of his verses.

Although written decades ago, some essays in this book speak directly to India today. In 1969, after a wave of Hindu-Muslim riots, Khushwant commented: Distort your facts, inject a dollop of pride in your own race and religion, prejudice and contempt for that of others and you have witches brew of hate which can easily be brought to boil. He himself believed that it is both historically and morally unfair to cater to chauvinistic pride and prejudice. If you brainwash the younger generation with this venomous mixture of distorted fact, fancy and specious argument, you will forever be the real authors of communal discord. You will be the real perpetrator of what has happened in recent weeks in many cities and towns of Gujarat  the murder of the spirit of Gandhi. If we fail to make ourselves into one nation, you will be the authors of that failure.

An essay from the late 1970s observed that many states were ruled by zealous Hindu bigots sporting caste marks on their foreheads. Muslim friends advise me that if I mean to retain my image as a friend of the Muslims, I must not write anything critical pertaining to their Personal Lawincluding polygamy and the lesser status that their women (in comparison to others) have been relegated to.

Also strikingly contemporary is an unpublished diary of the year 1980, which contains this paragraph on the Central Governments shenanigans in August of that year: After ridding itself of a recalcitrant Chief Minister in Sikkim, subverting Farooq Abdullahs government in Kashmir, it suborned the loyalties of NT Rama Raos followers in Andhra Pradesh. The prime minister at the time was Indira Gandhi. As an increasing number of commentators have noted, in his authoritarian tendencies and his desire to manipulate public institutions, Narendra Modi resembles Nehrus daughter. Certainly, his central government, like hers, has used partisan governors to dismiss or undermine state governments ruled by Opposition parties.

Khushwants own commitment to democracy and pluralism, while on the whole sound, was vitiated by his naivette. Like some other writers, he was susceptible to flattery; if powerful men spoke sweetly to him he would trust their words more than their actions. Thus an essay on MS Golwalkar ends with the RSS ideologue inviting him to Nagpur to continue their conversation. Reflecting on this invitation, Khushwant remarks: Maybe I can bring him around to making Hindu-Muslim unity the main aim of the RSS. Or am I being a simple-minded Sardarji?

He was, indeed. Khushwant was warm, wise, witty, and (in terms of his cultural sensibilities) well-rounded, but, when it came to assessing power-hungry ideologues, utterly simple-minded. In 1971 he thought he could convert that bigot and chauvinist, MS Golwalkar, to the cause of Hindu-Muslim harmony. A few years later, he was to see in another malign individual, Sanjay Gandhi, the saviour of the nation itself.

Ramachandra Guhas books include Gandhi Before India

The views expressed are personal

Follow the author on Twitter @Ram_Guha

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Women dont need menstrual leave, they need equal opportunities and wage parity.

A Mumbai media company made news last week for offering women a day off on the first day of their period in the misplaced belief that it would make workplaces more women-friendly.

Ridiculous demands such as these reinforce biases about women being biologically weak, less competent, more high-strung and emotional during their menstrual period.

They add to gender polarisation, which for generations has been used to hold women back and exclude them from education, voting, owning property and working in certain professions, such as the armed forces.

Dont get me wrong. I dont want people to work while theyre suffering. Im for granting employees paid leave when they are in pain, irrespective of whether they have a uterus or a prostate.

In a country where women launch Mars Orbiters wearing Kanjivaram silks and flowers in their hair and work long hours at construction sites in late stages of pregnancy, petitioning the government to give all women the right to apply for leave on the day when the discomfort is unmanageable, no questions asked is presumptuous.

Some women, not all, have period cramps (dysmenorrhea), and while those who do have my sympathy, as does anyone in pain  Ive dealt with period pain, migraines, and have a kid, so I know pain  theres always sick leave.

When you seek parity, you dont ask for subsidy.

In a competitive work environment, laws with inherent gender biases create deeper unexpressed resentment and carry a high risk of penalising women, both in terms of salary and career advancement. Since the new Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act doubled maternity leave for women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for the first two children and 12 weeks for subsequent children from April 1, some companies that didnt do so before have already started treating women as a liability.

Single women who adopt are also entitled to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave under the new law, which is prompting HR personnel to ask women employees intrusive questions about when they want to start a family, something they would never consider asking men.

Japan began granting leave to women who suffered heavily with period pains in 1947, and more recently, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and some provinces in China have introduced similar laws. Brazil and Italy, too, are considering three days of paid leave to menstruating women with painful cramps.

The law has few takers in Japan, where its the employers prerogative to decide whether the leave is paid or unpaid. Even in workplaces where leave is paid, women in pain choose to take sick leave rather than avail of special treatment.

Shrinking jobs

As it is, womens participation in the workforce in India has shrunk, despite women being more educated now, and having fewer children, shows a World Bank report.

About 19.6 million women dropped out of the workforce between 2005 and 2012, with the fall being higher in rural areas. Only 27% of women in India were part of the labour force in 2013, compared to 79.9% in Nepal, 63.9% in China, 24.6% in Pakistan and 23.3% in the Arab world, the report stated.

The World Bank report recommends creating policies that promote the acceptability of women employment and investing in economic sectors more attractive to women.

If anything, menstruation leave will make women less employable. As women move from low-wage unskilled jobs to productive employment and better wages in the services and manufacturing sectors, they need employers to regard them as productive workers who wont wilt and swoon every month.

Menstruation is a natural, biological process, like eating and sleeping, and marking the period as something that makes women the other is absurd. In a society where women are excluded from religious, social and community participation during their period because many people still consider menstruation impure, women must speak openly about bodies, biological needs and sexuality. Young girls must be told that menstruation is part of their lives and who they are. Its not something that makes them weak or inept.

Yes, its sometimes painful, but pain is what tells us were alive.

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A Delhi court on Saturday sentenced 30-year-old Utsav Bhasin, to two years in prison for the 2008 BMW hit-and-run case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the deceased and Rs 2 lakh for the injured.

The victim, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence. Mrigank Shrivastava, who was at the court proceedings said, I am very unhappy. Initially, the harsher charges dropped and now two years for killing a person and destroying my life. I have spent around Rs 17 lakh in treatment and I have got just Rs 2 lakh as compensation. Shrivastav had suffered a leg injury in the accident while his friend Anuj Chauhan had died.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar passed the order around 4.50pm in a packed courtroom. Utsav Bhasin, son of a Haryana-based businessman, was held guilty of rash driving, voluntarily causing hurt on provocation and causing death by negligence. The court had passed the verdict in May this year. Bhasin was, however, acquitted of charges of culpable homicide, in which the maximum punishment is up to 10 years.

Read: Five other infamous luxury car mishaps on Delhi roads

On September 11, 2008, Bhasin, who was driving his BMW car, hit two men  Anuj Chauhan and Mrigank Shrivastava  near Moolchand flyover in south Delhi. The two men, who were on a motorcycle, were returning home after watching the movie Rock On. Chauhan died two days after the accident and Shrivastava suffered leg injuries. At that time, Bhasin was 21 years old and was doing BBA at IILM in Lodhi Colony.

He was, later, arrested from the Interstate Bus Terminus at Kashmere Gate while attempting to flee to Chandigarh. He was later released on bail after giving two sureties of Rs 20,000 each.

Chauhans brother Kahitij Chauhan said that the family will go to High Court and questioned why harsher charges were dropped it should be reinstated demand harsher charges to be

In May, the court had convicted Bhasin under Sections 304A (causing death by rash and negligent act), 279 (driving rashly which could endanger human life) and 338 (causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

He was acquitted of charges under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) citing lack of evidence to prosecute him on harsher terms.

The court observed that the witnesses did not support the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Anuj Chauhan, who suffered injuries on cervical spine and later died, was working as a freelance journalist and pursuing a course in graphic designing and animation at a private institution in south Delhi.
September 11, 2008 was a busy day for Mrigank Srivastava, who had just passed from a journalism college and was working as an audio visual director in a private news channel. His friend Anuj Chauhan had booked tickets for the movie Rock On. The euphoria did not last long, Chauhan died that night in what came to be known as the 2008 BMW hit-and-run case.

Remembering the last few hours he spent with Chauhan, Srivastava said that while returning from the movie, his friend revealed a wish. He said he too wanted to make a movie like Rock On! Srivastava said.

Srivastava was at the helm of a Bajaj Pulsar 150 bike and Chauhan was riding pillion. They duo had reached BRT corridor near Moolchand flyover, when it was hit by a car being driven by Utsav Bhasin, son of a Haryana-based businessman, killing Chauhan and injuring Srivastava.

I now keep thinking  What if my boss had asked me to work extra hours? What if the BRT wasnt built and we could have chosen an alternate route? What if we hadnt got tickets? said Mrigank, adding, We were hit for no fault of ours.

Though he survived the accident, Srivastava had led a tragic life since then. The doctor removed 80% of the food sack from his stomach. His current health condition does not permit him to eat more than two rotis and some fruits a day.

The movie is an excruciating memory for Srivastava: If it gets telecast on TV, he quickly flips the channel. The pulsar motorcycle is housed on the terrace of his house in Vaishali.

When Rock On 2 was released, my family wanted to watch it, but I just couldnt. I avoid going to the terrace, since the bike is there. I have kept it only since it is an important proof, he said.

The Delhi court, besides awarding two-year imprisonment for Bhasin on Saturday, also ordered Rs 2 lakh to Srivastava.

I have spent more than Rs 17 lakh in my treatment. Due to the current status of my health, I am forced to use a car even if my financial condition is stretched. But the bigger question is, why were harsher charges dropped on him? We will go to court, Srivastava said.

The court had, in May this year, acquitted Bhasin of harsher charges, but convicted him under the lighter offence of causing death by rash and negligent driving in the case. The charges of culpable homicide, in which the maximum punishment is up to life imprisonment, was dropped.

Kshitij Chauhan, Anuj Chauhans elder brother, said the family would go to High Court. We will demand that the convicted be implicated under harsher charges of culpable homicide, he said.

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The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) plans to directly provide household connection for sewerage and water to Delhiites through their engineers.

At present, residents take permission from the DJB and get connection through a local plumber.

DJB provides pipelines in the colonies but individuals take the connections themselves. This policy decision will directly connect people with the water and sewage network but for this the DJB Act needs to be changed. The board has already cleared the proposal and now it will go to the government for the Assemblys approval, a Delhi government official said.

This will decrease cases of water contamination and add more people to the sewerage network, DJB chairman and Delhi water minister Rajendra Gautam told Hindustan Times.

There are 22 lakh water connections in the city. On paper there are 50-60% sewage network connections but in reality there are around 20%. There are 35 STPs operating at 21 locations at the moment. But there are very few people who have taken sewer connections. This defeats the purpose, Gautam said.

He pointed out that even though east Delhi is 100% sewered, most people havent taken connections.

So for this reason, the waste, which is supposed to go in the sewerage network is now going through storm water drains and ending up in the Yamuna. Hundreds of crores have been spent on cleaning the river but things wont improve unless all of city is part of the sewage network, the minister said.

DJB officials taking over water connections will also reduce leakages and contamination, which have been perennial problems for the Capital. The current percentage of water loss is 45-50% and the utility plans to bring it down to acceptable limits of 10-15%, an official said.

To find out where exactly the leakage loss is happening and where the leakages are, there are plans to start metering at multiple points. From the moment it comes out of water treatment plants to when it reaches the underground reservoirs and then when it is sent to individual homes, everything will be monitored.

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Dozens of villagers from Bhamrola and surrounding areas marched to Junaid Khans home in Khandawali village on Saturday to put aside their differences and make a fresh start after the lynching of 16-year-old on a Mathura-bound local train.

Bhamrola is the village from where Naresh Kumar, the main accused in the case, hailed. Kumar was arrested from Dhule district of Maharashtra last Saturday. The GRP said that they had even recovered the knife that was used to stab Junaid on the Mathura-Delhi-Ghaziabad EMU train.

On Saturday, around 20 to 25 elders from the committee assembled in a farmhouse of a local political leader on Mathura road near Sikri village around 10am and proceeded towards Khandawali village, which is almost one and half kilometers away from NH2. Khandawali village is the home of Junaid Khan.

After reaching Khandawali,the committee members expressed condolences to Junaids bereaved family.

The elders told Junaids father Jalal-u-din and other members that they shared their sorrow for the June 22 incident. Jalal-u-din, in turn, welcomed the committee members saying he was happy to witness this gesture from the committee that was constituted after arrest of the main accused.

I knew some of the committee members. This gesture is definitely going to strengthen harmony between the two communities, Jalal-u-din said.

We are very close to the people of Khandawali and this longstanding relation made things easy for all the committee members to visit the grief-stricken family, said Sanjay Daggar, a social activist-cum-political leader.

We expressed grief and paid emphasis on strengthening communal brotherhood, said Mahinder Singh Sehrawat of Hathin, who was part of the delegation.

 Bhaicharai ko mazboot rakhna hai (The brotherhood needs to be strong among us), he told Junaids family.

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Suspecting her of having an affair, a 37-year-old man allegedly strangled his wife to death after the two had an argument over the issue. The incident was reported from south east Delhis Kotla Mubarakpur area on Friday morning.

Shabnam reportedly had a fight with her husband Taiyab a night before as well.

The murder was discovered after their landlord Anil Kumar came to meet Taiyab and found the door ajar. When he went inside to check if Taiyab was around, he saw Shabnam lying dead on her bed. He then made a PCR call and informed the police.

We received a call from a neighbour who told us that a man had murdered his wife. The police team reached the spot and rushed her to the hospital where she was declared brought dead. The woman had strangulation marks on her neck and some bruises on the face that suggests that she was thrashed before she was killed. We have sent her body for a post-mortem examination, a senior police officer said.

The neighbours told the police that the couple often fought over the issue. While Taiyab suspected her of having an extra marital affair, Shabnam denied being involved in a relationship outside marriage. Shabnam had reportedly even confided in a neighbour about Taiyab thrashing her.

Taiyab had gone to Saudi Arabia and returned a few months ago. He suspected that while he was out of India, his wife had an affair. He allegedly even checked her phone and always kept a watch on her which often led to arguments between the two, a police officer said.

On Friday morning the couple again had a fight after their kids went to school, following which Taiyab allegedly strangled his wife, left her body on the bed and fled the spot. He even picked up his children from their school and took them along, police said.

We have registered a case of murder in the matter and have sent out teams to arrest Taiyab. Teams have also been sent to his village in UP for raids, a senior police officer said.
The violent reaction to a third-year UK university student s online post that he  breezed through a Joint Entrance Exam or JEE question paper (entrance test for engineering colleges in India), in a third of the allowed time, and with 100% correct answers, leaves no doubt that the cyber world is overpopulated by creatures with a singular lack of intelligence.

Jack Fraser, a third-year physics student at a top university in the UK, was at the receiving end of vicious online harassment after he reportedly solved the JEE paper on being requested on the online question and answer platform Quora to solve it.

Fraser had taken pains to explain that he was a third-year student attempting the paper for a laugh as it was meant for 17-year-old students much younger than him, straight out of schools. So those who hit back at him obviously did not comprehend English or simply did not have the IQ to understand what he meant.

The JEE is just an exam for entrance to engineering colleges in India. Period. Does it spoil some vast eternal plan if its solved in 30 minutes instead of three hours?

Anyone personally affronted by someone else simply solving a question paper of an exam (no matter how important) should be seriously worried about his or her health and take an appointment with a psychologist to pinpoint the reason for this misplaced outrage.

They can also join nursery classes to relearn English, develop a sense of humour to take things lightly and try not to get offended by harmless Quora posts - especially ones not intended to offend.

Also, those who issue death threats or send out obscene pictures to others expose themselves in more ways than one. They make it evident that theirs is a sad, dark little world which has robbed them completely of the ability to think, behave or understand the consequence of their actions.
Lucknow: The new postgraduate programme batch at Lucknows Indian Institute of Management (2017-19) has more women than previous years. Some 30.4% students (156) out of the batch of 451 this year, are women as compared to 27% last year.

The batch of 2013-2015 had 38% female candidates, an official said.

IIM believes this will ensure diversity without compromising on merit. This is a good sign. More participation of women students brings diversity and adds different perspective as well, said IIM Lucknow director Ajit Prasad while talking to HT.

IIM-L said that the institute was looking at having a class with a broad base in terms of diversity  gender wise, background wise and also in terms of prior work experience. An official said they were happy that to some extent the institute had been successful in this objective, but there were still many steps to be taken to create an ideal diverse environment.

The average work experience of the newly induced batch has also risen from 11.3 months to 16.6 months, with 74% of the new batch having some work experience.

IIM-Lucknow recently concluded the induction programme for its incoming batch of postgraduate students in management and agri- business management.

Over the last two days, the eager crowd of over 450 students was addressed by the guest of honour, Niraj Seth, executive vice- president, naukri.com (formerly chief marketing officer Intuit and Cleartrip); and noted IIM Lucknow alumnus Lakshmi Narayan, chief endowment officer, Azim Premji Foundation.

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The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has decided to make structural changes in its set-up, by appointing bureaucrats instead of academicians in top positions.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the board held on Friday.

Until now, academicians were appointed in the administrative posts such as secretary. Now, the government will appoint IAS and PCS officers. At present, Janak Raj Mehrok is holding the position of secretary in the PSEB.

Among other decisions, the board has finally chosen to hand over the eleven Adarsh Schools under it to the government, would bear their complete liability.

Sources said the board ends up spending around Rs 35 crore on Adarsh Schools, which earned a revenue of Rs 1.5 crore only. The eleven adarsh schools under the board are located in five districts of Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot, Amritsar and Nawanshahr.

Meanwhile, the board has decided not to publish books for optional or additional subjects. The syllabus material of these books will be uploaded online for the students.

The board will make the art and craft classrooms in all schools, which were earlier supposed to be made under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).
Admissions to merit-based undergraduate courses under the fourth cutoff list at Delhi University closed on Saturday, with admissions approved to almost 90% of the seats.

This may have been the last chance for many to get admitted to popular course choices in sought after colleges at DU, as many of them will be closing admissions to these courses.

DU has around 56,000 seats in its 60-odd constituent colleges, of which 50,000 seats are for merit-based undergraduate courses. Admissions to these seats are based on cutoffs .

By Saturday evening, admissions had been approved to almost 45,000 of these seats, and almost 42,000 students had paid their admission fees by 6 pm.

According to DU officials who are part of the admission process, almost 3,500 seats had been filled in the latest round of admissions, leaving only about 10% of the seats still vacant.

Colleges such as Sri Venkateswara College have already admitted students beyond capacity. We have approximately 1,150 seats, and we have approved 1,198 admissions. Almost all the courses will be closed for admissions, especially under the general category, in the next list, said P Hemalatha Reddy, the principal.

Ramjas College too expects to close admissions to most of its courses, as they have less than 100 seats remaining at their institution. Kirori Mal College too has claimed that the fourth list would have been the last chance for many applicants, as most popular course choices will be closed.

However, Daulat Ram College claimed they still had around 150 seats remaining. Even in sought after courses such as BCom, BCom (hons) and English (hons), we have a few seats remaining, said Savita Roy, the principal.

For sciences, students may want to look to Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College. We have filled approximately 570 out of our 800 seats. Though most courses are going to be closed, we still have seats in the science courses, said an associate professor.

The next cutoff list is expected to be released on Tuesday.
Young and old, men and women, college goers and office goers  they gathered in hundreds at the DLF CyberHub on Friday evening for the second week of Hindustan Times DLF CyberHub Friday Jam Season 4, presented by KR Mangalam University, powered by Career Launcher.

The crowd filled the amphitheatre to capacity and many were left standing to enjoy the musical performances. They swayed and danced to the tunes of Bollywood hits played with a Rock and Sufi twist by the three bands.

The event kick-started with the Gurgaon-based band Mannat, which mesmerised the audience with songs based on the theme Save the Girl Child. The most well-received of their numbers were Teri Diwani and Aadat that had a Sufi touch to them.

Shaurya Singh, a 24-year-old resident of Delhi working at Cyber City, and his friends were part of the enthusiastic crowd enjoying the performances. Mannat made my day. Listening to their awesome music after a tiring day refreshed my soul, he said.

The next band to perform was Mehfooz, which was formed in 2015. They presented a bouquet of Rock and Sufi songs all with a Bollywood touch. From Mazaa Aa Gaya, Channa Mereya to Buleya and Mast Kalandar, the band enthralled the crowd which couldnt stop screaming and cheering the band.

The crowd actively participated in the melodies and were often seen singing along with the band.

The special performance by Sakramanth, multi-genre Bollywood Band formed in 2008, was the cherry on the top of a day of musical extravaganza and left the audience wanting more.

From retro to love to Sufi songs, the band left no stone unturned to dazzle the crowd. The band, which performs as the official touring band with popular Punjabi rapper Badshah and the inimitable Gurdaas Mann Sahab, had a play list for people of every age. If Hum Kis Gali Jaa Rahe Hain, Na Aaye Ho Na Aoge and Dil Chahta Hai title track were played for the younger audience, Mast Kalandar, Gulabi Aankhei and Meri Sapno Ki Rani were lined up for the older generation.

While young boys and girls were dancing to the tunes of love songs, older couple too gave them a stiff competition on the dance floor.

Thirty-five year-old Manav Sharma, who hails from Dehradun, and was visiting Gurgaon on a vacation, said, The atmosphere is so lovely and groovy, the bands are just awesome.
What does it take to be a superwoman? Ask Canadian YouTube sensation, actor and author Lilly Singh alias Superwoman who feels that becoming one isnt easy! Everything about Superwoman was me driving myself to work really hard and not having a boss. My success was truly in my own hands. This is why, I am an advocate for youth not making excuses on working hard, she says.

Lilly was in the Capital, on Saturday, for an event where she was officially appointed as UNICEFs Global Goodwill Ambassador. Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, a UNICEF representative, announced Lillys collaboration with UNICEF by presenting her a t-shirt, which she accepted with her signature gimmicks.

During the panel discussion, moderated by professor Ghazala Amin, there was Khyati Chauhan, a student of Delhis Ahlcon Public School, who got a chance to ask Lilly a question. Even Lilly asked a question to Chauhan.

Lilly who has recently returned from Madhya Pradesh  where she worked with adolescents and youngsters on the issue of growing up in challenging circumstances  is full of admiration for todays youth. The children are so proactive. This is something a lot of people, even in my part of the world could really learn from, she said adding, A lot of times when we talk about children, we get caught up on male or female, and forget people of different genders or those with disabilities. One thing I have always promoted in my videos is One Love.

Having become a goodwill ambassador, what will she endeavour to highlight in her videos? I dont want it to be just a title... I will continue promoting things in my videos through comedy. Also, particular to my trip to India, I have decided to make a few videos in Hindi or at least have subtitles, she says.

The thought, probably, came to her from her interactions with the children, which transgressed the boundaries of language. I am not 100 per cent fluent in Hindi, and the children I met were not 100 per cent fluent in English... there are some languages that are universal. Its the passion these kids have that touched my heart, she says.

You should love what you do and you should fight for your happiness, says Lilly. (Raajessh Kashyap/HT)

When asked what happiness truly means and a message that she would love to give to the parents, Lilly said, You should love what you do, and you should fight for your happiness. A lot of happiness will come from your kids truly being happy and it has to start with the old generation. Your daughters and sons can only learn the value of happiness through you. Its time to stand up for what your kids want and not what the society wants.

Her thoughts on the gender bias and preference to male child, in our society? Lilly feels that the youth needs to question the age-old cultural practices. Inequality exists in a lot of countries around the world. I think its culturally embedded and if you look at some of our traditions, they teach girls from a young age that you are not equal. As youth, we should question those things, she said.

Her advice to youngsters on dealing with negative comments was to focus on the positives: Youll never be able to control other people but you can always control your reaction to them.

Her biggest inspirations in life are her mother, Malwinder Singh, and former WWE wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson. My mother came from Punjab to Canada and set up a life. [She] had to learn a brand new culture and life, and has done exceptionally well. She was brave enough to let me follow my dreams. And professionally, its Dwayne Johnson. I idolised him. I am lucky enough to grow up and become friends with him. He has proven to me that you can be so successful and so famous and still have the best heart possible.

She has shot a video with Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra  also a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF  on How To Be A Wing Woman. This video broke the stereotype of there being wing men, who help their male friends in clubs to approach women. She [Priyanka] said that I dont want to do anything that people would expect Indian women to do. Lets make a video of us going to a club and having a good time and hitting on [a] guy. Because all of these things would upset someone, somewhere. We wanted to make a video on what women actually do and what they actually talk about.

And a reference to Bollywood compels one to ask if we will get to see her in a Hindi movie anytime soon. As soon as I learn proper Hindi, and have a run in the saree, I would love to be in a Bollywood movie! So if anyone knows any directors, let them know, she quips.

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Director Christopher Nolan has praised the ensemble cast of Dunkirk at the films world premiere in London. Prince Harry was a special guest at the event, which took place at Leicester Square, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nolans WWII epic is a true story of trapped Allied troops being rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. Actors Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles were in attendance at the premiere. I passionately believe that this is one of the greatest casts put together for any movie, Nolan said, also offering his admiration to the 13 British army veterans who were in attendance at the premiere.

One of the things I love about the film is that it doesnt set itself up to be important, said Branagh, who plays a Navy commander, adding that it is focused mainly on ordinary lives. And its all the more moving for it.

Styles, meanwhile, joked that Dunkirk may be his first and only film. Maybe Ive peaked too soon, he said, adding that movie had made him better at swimming.
Lynda Carter is in early discussions to feature in the sequel of Patty Jenkins- directed Wonder Woman.

The 65-year-old played the dual character of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s.

Carter said she was approached to star in the recently released DC franchise film, starring Gal Gadot in the titular role, but things did not work out, reported People magazine.

Gal Gadot (L) and Lynda Carter attend the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' Wonder Woman. (AFP)

We were trying to get me in the first one, and we couldnt make it work with our timing. It really is up to Patty, and if it works in an organic way itll be great fun and itll be wonderful to do, Carter said.

The veteran actor said she is onboard with the project but wants to take things step by step.

Am I open to it? Absolutely. I adore Patty Jenkins, and itll be wonderful to do. But well just see how that goes, she said.

Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter attend the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures' Wonder Woman at the Pantages Theatre on May 25, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (AFP)

Carter added she was impressed both by Jenkins and Gadot, before she even saw the movie.

I was so taken with the both of them, and taken with Patty from the beginning when she very first got this film, and we talked on the phone. I just said that she knows who this character is.

Because Wonder Woman - its the idea of her. Its not about superpowers, its about her intellect and compassion. Its so much more than some comic book character, because we identify with it, she said.

Carter currently plays President Olivia Marsdin on CWs Supergirl.

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Wary of senior leader Shankersinh Vagehlas moves, the Congress will wait for the Rajya Sabha elections before announcing changes in its state unit in poll-bound Gujarat.

Three Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, fall vacant in August and the Congress expects to win one, provided it can keep its flock together. The ruling BJP is comfortably placed on the other two seats.

The 76-year-old Vaghela has risen in revolt against state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki. He also wants to be named the chief ministerial candidate for the assembly election due in November-December and has threatened to quit the party if the demands are not accepted.

But the Congress leadership appears reluctant to oblige the former BJP strongman, who has been flirting with the BJP in the last few months.

In March his meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah triggered speculation that he might return to his old party.

Two months later, Vagehla, popularly known as Bapu, un-followed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders on the micro-blogging site Twitter. The former Gujarat chief minister also deleted some of his anti-BJP posts.

A friend-turned-foe of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vagehla enjoys the support of 36 of the 57 Congress legislators. The BJP has 121 seats in the 182-member House.

Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats was to be held on June 8 but the election commission put off the election in view of the July 17 presidential poll.

Congress president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel, whose term ends August 18, is expected to be re-nominated. If elected, it will be his fifth term in the Upper House.

Keen to retain that seat, the Congress leadership is keeping its cards close to its chest.

In a meeting with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on July 8, Vaghela suggested a compromise formula to pull the faction-ridden party unit out of the mess its finds itself in, sources said.

Vagehla suggested he be removed as the Congress legislature party leader and Solanki be replaced with his confidante. He is believed to have agreed to drop his demand to be the chief ministerial candidate.

The Congress, sources said, assured him all his reasonable demands would be met but with the rejig would happen only after the Rajya Sabha elections.

But Vaghelas supporters say it will be difficult to extract anything from the leadership after the polls and are insisting changes be made immediately.

The Gujarat election will be a matter of prestige for the BJP, which has been ruling the state for 19 years, as both Modi and party chief Amit Shah come from the western state.

The BJP has had two chief ministers ever since Modi moved to Delhi after he was elected the prime minister in May 2014.

Last year, the Congress, which once dominated the state, managed to make inroads in rural areas in the local body polls. After many years, the BJP is looking a bit vulnerable in the state that has been pivotal to its rise at the Centre.

Land-owning Patidars, the support base of the party, have being rallying against the BJP over their demand for quota in government jobs and colleges. There is also anger against the party among the Dalit community which has been targeted repeatedly by cow vigilantes.

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A resident of Kerala, MP Ramachandran was used to the attention he attracted for being a lookalike of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Often stopped at railway stations and bus stops by strangers with requests for selfies, he readily obliged. But not anymore.

Ever since the Mumbai-based comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) used his photograph alongside a morphed picture of Modi with dogs ears and a snout superimposed, triggering a controversy, Ramachandran, 61, has grown tired of his resemblance with the prime minister.

I will shave off my beard next week, he said on Saturday. His grey beard gone, he hopes he will not make heads turn anymore. People are misusing my picture. This has been happening for a while, he told HT from Bengaluru, where his son works.

The photograph of him peering into a mobile while waiting for a train to Bengaluru was taken at the railway station of his hometown Payyanur earlier this week. With his grey hair and beard, he looked uncannily similar to the prime minister and the photograph went viral on social media.

The photograph was picked up thereafter by the AIB for taking a crack at the prime minister. They used Ramachandrans photograph alongside a picture of Modis face with the Snapchat dog filter, using the hashtag #Wanderlust.

Not many found it funny and the Mumbai cyber police on Friday filed an FIR against AIB co-founder Tanmay Bhat for insulting Modi.

However, Ramachandran, now retired after having worked in the Gulf for several years, insists he is an ardent fan of Modi. He (Modi) is an able administrator. For the first time we feel someone is in charge, he said.

Ramachandran has firsthand knowledge of Modis strong connect with ordinary people. The first time he was stopped was two years ago when he was waiting for a train to Jammu. A boy approached me to click a picture. There were army personnel around and they jostled with each other to pose for pictures with me. The picture frenzy ended up delaying the trains departure by nearly 20 minutes. I also heard chants of Modiji zindabad, he recalled.

Incidentally, Ramachandran is not the only Modi doppelganger. Vikas Mahante from Mumbais Malad locality too hit the headlines for his uncanny resemblance to the PM. Another who sees himself as a Modi lookalike, Abhinandan Pathak, even jumped into the poll fray from Varanasi  incidentally, against the BJP. Yet another Modi lookalike in Nagpur cut a cake on the PMs 66th birthday this year and participated in a road cleaning drive to spread the message of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

PM Narendra Modis social media following 31.6 million: Twitter 42.5 million: Facebook 3.2 million: Google+ 2.2 million: LinkedIn 8.6 million: Instagram 6.85 lakh subscribers: YouTube

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BJP president Amit Shah pitched for linking the countrys education system with its cultural ethos to remove distortions as he termed dynasty politics, casteism and minority appeasement as cankers affecting the country.

...All distortions in our education system will be removed and the entire system of learning will further improve if we connect it with our core values, with our cultural ethos, he said on Saturday while speaking at the launch of the book on the speeches of the partys ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.

While elucidating Mookerjees initiatives on education, Shah described him as a visionary leader who laid emphasis on the education system which is connected with the basic fundamentals of our society and promotes natural talent.

Mookerjee emphasised on these two points specifically so that education can become a mass movement in the early years of independence as the literacy rate was very low then, the BJP president said.

Mookerjee founded the right wing nationalist party Bharatiya Jana Sangh which later evolved as the BJP.

Shah said the seed sown then by Mookerjee has become a huge tree today.

Mookerjee started the party with 10 members which now has a huge base of about 11 crore members, he said.

He said the BJP is following Mookerjees principles to work on the path of nation building unlike other political outfits which have promoted casteism, minority appeasement and dynasty politics in the country.

These three are cankers which are affecting our country, he said.

Lauding the BJP ideologues role in nation building, Shah rued that historians have not done justice with him.

Mookerjee saved Bengal by pushing for partition of the united Bengal before independence, otherwise the entire state would had become east Pakistan and later Bangladesh, he said.

Not only this, he, in the case of Kashmir, also led a mass movement to end the permit system for entering the northern state, Shah added.
Security agencies have found a packet of suspicious powder inside the Uttar Pradesh assembly two days after discovering plastic explosives inside the premises, an incident that sent shockwaves through the political establishment.

Sources said, on Friday evening, security personnel found a sealed packet containing some powder weighing about 50 grams during a check. This came after 150 grams of the high-potential explosive Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) powder was found near the seat of the leader of opposition on July 12.

The sealed packet was handed over to the city police for further examination. The state Anti Terror Squad (ATS) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Aseem Arun confirmed the recovery and added that primary inquiry suggested the packet contained magnesium sulphate and would be sent for the forensic examination.

He said the magnesium sulphate is used as drying agent for packing material.

Arun said pan masala and other eatables packets are usually thrown inside the premises and that anti-mine, anti-sabotage and bomb disposal squads were sanitising every corner of the Vidhan Bhawan premises.

On July 12, the recovery of PETN powder weighing around 150 grams below the chairs cushion in the arena where legislators sit during the assembly session triggered panic. Sleuths initially believed the PETN was simple powder and sent it for forensic examination at State Forensic Science Laboratory in Mahanagar, Lucknow.

The alert was sounded after the forensic experts confirmed it as high-potential explosive on Friday. A PETN sample however is also been sent to explosive unit of Agra forensic science laboratory for check its purity level. An FIR against unidentified persons was also lodged with Hazratganj police station on Friday after the recovery of explosive powder.

The PETN recovery has prompted chief minister Yogi Adityanath to tighten security and call for a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe.

Police think the explosives were transported into UP from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh or some other state where it is often used for mining. They are also questioning a Muslim youth from Deoria who threatened to blow up the assembly on Independence Day.
An Indian Army jawan was killed in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Rajouri sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence spokesman said.

Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from the border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said.

Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, he said.

There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas.

In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries, he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.

The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty, the spokesman added.

On July 12, two jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistan Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir.

Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shelling and firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district.

The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.
PATNA The ongoing standoff between ruling Grand Alliance partners, the RJD and JD(U), found expression when RJD chief Lalu Prasads son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav avoided sharing a dais with chief minister Nitish Kumar, at a government function here on Saturday.

The standoff between the two allies has arisen from the JD(U) leaderships demand that Tejashwi should resign from the council of ministers in the wake of the CBI filing an FIR against him in what is known as land for railway hotels scam and the RJD leaderships rejection of that demand.

At the labour departments World Youth Skills Day function on Saturday, the name plate of the deputy chief minister, who was to participate in it as chief guest, was first covered with a piece of cloth and then removed as soon as it was confirmed that Yadav had made his mind to skip the official function.

A plaque bearing Tejashwis name, which was arranged, along with that of the chief minister, on the dais at the newly constructed Gyan Bhawan venue, was hurriedly taken away before the function commenced formally in the presence of labour minister Vijay Prakash, a minister from the RJD quota.

Organised to mark the completion of an eventful year that saw the enrolment of 1.13 lakh and passing out of 43,000 youths under the aegis of Bihar Skill Development Mission, the function was slated to be inaugurated by the chief minister.

The absence of Tejashwi fuelled speculation that the tiff between the two allies was no closer to an early resolution. The RJD Legislature Party has spurned the JD(U)s demand that the deputy CM should come clean on the CBI charges against him or step down to uphold GAs zero tolerance policy on corruption.

A remark by JD(U) general secretary Shyam Rajak, early Saturday, appeared to add fuel to fire. In response to RJD chief Lalu Prasads assertion, on Friday evening, that the GA was intact and Tejashwi would not resign, Rajak said Prasad was making unwarranted statements as he has grown old.

There was speculation in political circles if Rajaks unflattering remark about his father became the tipping point for Tejashwi to skip the function. Tejashwi, who was picked over his elder brother Tej Pratap by the RJD patriarch to don the mantle of deputy CM, and Tej had attended the cabinet meeting, chaired by the chief minister, on July 12.

Kumar, who was sitting with JD(U) ministers on his one side and the lone RJD minister on the other, decided to exchange his seating position with water resources minister Lalan Singh during the course of the programme. This brought Singh between him and the RJD minister.

Though the CM pointed to the overhead airconditioner duct for the seat change, moving one chair further from the RJD minister was read by many of those present as another expression of the growing distance between the JD(U) and RJD.

For his part, labour minister Vijay Prakash (RJD) thanked both, the CM and deputy CM, for their support and guidance.

The anchor of the function provided more fodder for speculation by taking the name of Ashok Choudhary, PCC chief and education minister, as one of the invitees. Choudhary was absent from the function.

While AICC chief Sonia Gandhi is learnt to be making last ditch efforts to broker peace between the two warring allies, her party is widely seen to have veered closer to the RJD after it announced its support for Congress Presidential nominee Meira Kumar. The JD(U), on the other hand, is supporting NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

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GROWING DISTANCE Name plate of the deputy chief minister, who was to participate in the event as chief guest, was first covered with a piece of cloth and then removed

as soon as it was confirmed that Yadav had made his mind to skip the official function

BLURB

Kumar, who was sitting with JD(U) ministers on his one side and the lone RJD minister on the other, decided to exchange his seating position with water resources minister Lalan Singh during the course of the programme. This brought Singh between him and the RJD minister

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Bajrang Dal activists in Bhopal allegedly forced police late Friday night to let off their leader who was taken in for questioning for allegedly abusing police personnel in an inebriated state.

Activists of the right-wing organisation laid siege to Habibganj police in the heart of the Madhya Pradesh capital from around 11pm till 1am and walked out triumphantly with their leader, Kamlesh Thakur.

Siddharth Bahuguna, superintendent of police (Bhopal South) said, Thakur misbehaved with police officials in a drunken state. He was taken to the police station to register his statement. Keeping basic human rights in mind, we allowed him to go. When our personnel later told us he had abused them and also created ruckus, we registered a case against him.

Police booked Thakur on charges of assaulting public servants and preventing them from discharging their duty, and verbally abusing them.

Bajrang Dal leader Kamlesh Thakur. (HT Photo)

Police said Thakur at a liquor shop in 10 Number Market late in the evening when a sub-inspector and a few constables were on patrol in the area. Thakur was creating a ruckus in an inebriated state and when the official on patrol tried to stop him, he abused them and had a scuffle with them.

The Bajrang Dal, however, accused the police of lying. Bajrang Dal state convener Devi Singh Sondhiya told HT on Saturday, Kamlesh Thakur is our active worker. Police targeted him maliciously because he raised voice against corruption.

Sondhiya added, On Friday night, a sub-inspector and few constables were allegedly asking for money from some people at the liquor shop when Thakur opposed them. Police detained him. Thakur asked them to explain what his fault was, but police didnt say anything. If he was in an intoxicated state, police should have conducted his medical examination.

Sondhiya said police registered the FIR to save their officials. We will not be silent on this issue. We will take this issue to the higher-ups in the government, he added.

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The meat seized from a Muslim worker of the ruling BJP who was assaulted by self-styled cow protectors on Wednesday is beef, according to a Maharashtra state-run forensic science laboratory report.

Nagpur rural police had sent the meat seized from Salim Ismail Shah, 36, to the regional forensic science laboratory at Ajni in Nagpur and received the report on Saturday.

Sanjay Purandare, deputy superintendent of police, Nagpur (Rural), said, The report has established that the meat is beef. He added that Shah, who had insisted he was carrying mutton and not beef, was booked under relevant sections of law against cow slaughter.

The slaughter of cows, considered holy by many Hindus, is banned in many states of the country. The Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government even plans to provide special kits to police for on-the-spot beef-detection tests.

Rajiv Potdar, president of Nagpur (district) unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said, Salims action was treated as an anti-party activity. We have expelled him from the party.

Shah, a resident of Katol in Nagpur district, was the general secretary of Katol taluka minority cell of the BJP.

Potdar said police should take stern action against Salim, but also condemned the men who assaulted him at Jalalkheda town. No one has the right to take the law into ones hands.

Shah suffered extensive injuries on his neck and face in the attack by four persons. He was admitted to a hospital in Nagpur and discharged on Thursday morning. However, he was admitted to hospital again after he complained of uneasiness.

Police arrested four men for the assault and later identified them as workers of Prahar Sanghatana organisation of Bachchu Kadu, an independent MLA from Achalpur in Amravati district.
Cattle smuggled from India is harming the economy of Bangladesh, a senior officer of Border Guards of Bangladesh said on Saturday and formally requested the Border Security Force (BSF) to stop it.

Actually it (cattle smuggling is harming our economy. If it doesnt come from India then our dairy farmers can go up and we can take care of ourselves, BGB Region commander additional director general Md Zahid Hasan told reporters here.

He said, We have requested BSF to stop smuggling and a lot of other related issues can be resolved by that.

The BGB officer who attended the four-day BSF-BGB Border Coordination Conference here also admitted that cattle smuggling was one of the agendas of the conference.

Stating that cattle all by itself cannot walk across the border, Hasan said, We have requested that such kind of smuggling be stopped because these cattle are coming from deep inside from within India and from West of India.

The BGB region commander and the Meghalaya frontier BSF IG PK Dubey also met Meghalayas director general of Police SB Singh and discussed on the issue of cattle smuggling and cross border crimes.

Action plan has been drawn on intelligence sharing on real time basis on criminal activities on either side of the border, both the forces will promptly act, Hasan said.

The BGB commander has also raised the issue of firing by BSF personnel on Bangladesh nationals.

There are few in our areas of concern which we have discussed. Some of the incidents categorically were brought before the discussion. We have discussed the issue and we have agreed on certain issues on that and hopefully that will come down to zero, he said.

The Meghalaya Frontier BSF IG P K Dubey said border related issues were discussed in details and efforts have been taken to curb trans-border crimes.

Our main concerns were killing of innocent Bangladeshi nationals and smuggling of drugs, and also to find out the modalities to build our relationships, he said.

He also said, We have expressed zero tolerance for smuggling of fire arms and explosives, human trafficking and drugs. We have agreed to enhance the confidence building measures between both the forces on the ground.

The BSF-BGB conference takes place twice a year and the last one was held in Sylhet in November.
Bihars ruling alliance was pushed to the brink over deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadavs alleged scam taint. His party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, refused on Saturday to balk under pressure from partner Janata Dal (United) that has asked him come clean or resign.

The RJD rejected the JD(U)s demand for an explanation on Lalu Prasad and his familys sources of income, which allegedly went into buying benami properties.

Amid the spat, Tejashwi skipped a function on Saturday that chief minister Kumar attended.

His nameplate on the dais at a World Youth Skills Day event was covered and then removed when it was confirmed he wont be coming.

RJD chief Prasad and his 26-year-old younger son, Tejashwi, were named in a land-for-hotels scandal and the CBI raided their homes and other properties last week. The alleged scam is from Prasads stint as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The two parties rule Bihar with the Congress after the alliance defeated the BJP in the 2015 state elections. Chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) maintains a clean, incorruptible image and his party is under pressure to stick to its avowed no-compromise policy on corruption after the alleged RJD scam surfaced.

The Congress tried to broker peace, but its partners remained defiant.

Assets of Lalus family are all in public domain. And, we need not explain it or give any clarification to people. Isnt it the job of the investigating agencies to inquire who has what assets and how they acquired these? said a party leader who didnt wish to be named.

If CBI or ED seeks an explanation, Lalus family would give it to them. Even RJD chief has underlined this, he said.

For its part, the JD(U) insisted it will not dilute its stand on corruption and take a decision at the right time.

Lalu Prasad deserves respect but I would say he is old, reason why he is speaking variously, said party general secretary Shyam Razak.

Prasad rejected on Friday the demand for his sons resignation, though he said his party wont break the alliance.

What clarifications are they asking for? I have already issued rebuttals on the CBI FIR. And, as to explanation of source or property, its all there in public domain, he said.

The Congress, however, remained hopeful that the alliance will ride out the storm.

Some solution will be found. Let me clarify that Nitish Kumar has not asked for Tejashwi Yadavs resignation. He has just asked for a point-wise rebuttal of the allegations, said a senior Bihar Congress functionary.
The smallest constituent in Bihars grand alliance (GA) government, the Congress is hopeful of a solution very soon even as two of its largest constituents, the RJD and the JD(U) are ranged against each other over the demand for the resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav over corruption charges.

The Congress also seemed to take on the role of a peacemaker between the RJD and the JD(U).

Some solution will be found. Let me clarify that Nitish Kumar has not asked for Tejashwi Yadavs resignation. He has just asked for pointwise rebuttal of allegations, said a senior Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee functionary.

Senior JD (U) leader K C Tyagi also backed the Congress leaders assertions. Nitish Kumar is a person of high moral values. Whatever he has had to say has been said during the Vidhan Mandal meeting earlier. Nitishji did not demand resignation. However, to continue to uphold the principles of the party, it is necessary that the concerned minister come out clean, Tyagi told a news agency in New Delhi.

Ties between chief minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) and Lalu Prasads RJD seemed headed for breakpoint this week as graft charges against the RJD chiefs family continued to snowball .

On Friday night, Prasad put his foot down on Tejashwis resignation while insisting that there was no problem with the grand alliance.

Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation. The Grand Alliance is intact, Prasad said after deliberating with his senior party leaders after his return from Ranchi, where he had gone to appear in a special CBI court in a fodder scam case.

Read more: Tejashwi wont resign, alliance unbreakable: Lalu on spat with Nitish Kumar

The RJD president said that he was going by the decision of its legislature party, which met earlier this week and decided that Tejashwi would not resign. Prasad, however, made it clear that there is no difference with Nitish Kumar and there is no distance from him either.

RJDs alliance partner, JD (U), which had been seeking a clarification from Tejashwi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, in an alleged land-for-hotels scam, has been taken aback by Lalus assertions.

The JD (U) is not going back on its stand for clarification on corruption charges. Nitish Kumar will take right decisions at right time, said senior JD (U) leader and former minister Shyam Rajak. Everybody knows that Nitishs USP is his zero tolerance against corruption, he added.

A senior party leader admitted that Lalu Prasad ruling out Tejashwis resignation has not gone well with the JD(U).

The JD(U) on Friday had demanded a direct explanation from RJD chief Lalu Prasad asking him to disclose all his assets and along with the source of their acquisition. JD (U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar had said Opposition has accused you of amassing huge assets allegedly through dubious means. You must explain the source to give a befitting reply to the BJP.

The direct attack on the beleaguered RJD chief came after Bhai Birendra, a legislator close to him, dismissed the JD(U)s diktat declaring being the biggest ally partner, with 80 MLAs, the party was in a position to do whatever it wished.

(With agency input)

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The government reached out to the opposition parties and some of its allies on Friday to build a consensus on the border standoff with China ahead of Parliaments monsoon session, but faced tough questions on the delay in resolving the dispute.

In response to the opposition leaders call for using active diplomatic channels, the Centre said it is engaged in negotiations to ease the tension in the Doklam region of the Sikkim sector.

Here are five highlights from the meeting:

1) The briefing was jointly held by home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Arun Jaitley and was attended by leaders of various political parties.

All participants expressed strong support for Indias approach and also for the need for national unity. Importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The briefing was also attended by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.

2) Jaishankar was quoted by opposition members as saying that China is trying to change the status quo along its southern border.

He talked about the diplomatic process to resolve one of the longest border standoff in recent times.

Opposition leaders, including Congress Anand Sharma and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, wanted to know why the impasse happened in 2017 and why the government is unable to find a solution through negotiations and discussions. Most leaders, including the NCPs Sharad Pawar, seconded the questions.

What triggered the standoff? Sharma asked.

3) The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM and Shiv Sena, which is an NDA ally, fielded a flurry of questions. Some of the opposition leaders later said they didnt get satisfactory answers.

We said that on issues of national security and integrity of the country, we are with the government, Trinamool leader Derek OBrien said.

Jaishankar informed the leaders about the strategic significance of Doklam and said the faceoff needs to be seen in the context of the Siliguri corridor, the narrow stretch of land connecting the Northeast with the country.

There was widespread appreciation of the understanding between India and China that differences between them shouldnt become disputes, Baglay said.

4) The Shiv Sena took an aggressive stand and sought action and not mere talks from the Centre.

But AIADMK parliamentarian A Navaneethakrishnan said they are satisfied with the governments response.

Former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who represented the Samajwadi Party at the meeting, said the government needs to be careful about dealing with China.

Defence minister Arun Jaitley, home minister Singh and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj along with national security adviser Ajit Doval were present at the meeting.

It was decided that Mulayam Singh and Pawar, two former defence ministers, would meet Jaitley on the China issue. Swaraj called another meeting on Saturday to brief other party leaders.

5) The government also briefed the leaders on the attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag in which seven Amarnath pilgrims were shot dead by militants when they returning from the shrine.

Several leaders said the government couldnt come up with a credible reason to explain security lapses that led to the attack.

Why was there a lapse and security failure? asked OBrien.

The leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, wanted to know why the bus took four hours for a two-hour journey and why it was allowed to travel at night.
The Goa police has arrested a 50- year-old man in connection with the alleged desecration of holy crosses in South Goa district, it said on Saturday.

The accused, Francis Pereira, had told the police that he casually vandalised 12 crosses over the last fortnight with no intention to create an enmity, said a senior police officer.

The Christian religious symbol in at least 12 places and a temple had been vandalised in the South Goa district since July 1.

The police hoped that with Pereiras arrest, they would be able to crack over 150 cases of desecration of religious places reported from the state in the last 15 years.

Pereira, a resident of Curchorem village in South Goa, was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Goa police last night while he was attempting to desecrate a cross at Curtorim village, around 20 kms from his residence.

A police team spotted Pereira attempting to damage the cross. On seeing the policemen, he tried to run away but the police managed to nab him, the senior officer told PTI.

During the preliminary questioning, he admitted to have desecrated the crosses over the last fortnight, he added.

Talking to reporters at Curchorem town, Superintendent of Police (South) Arvind Gawas said, We have cracked the biggest and longest-running case of desecrations in the state with the arrest of Pereira. With this, we will be able to solve over 150 cases of desecration of religious places, which were reported over the last 15 years.

Pereira, who was convicted in an attempt to murder case earlier, had been living at Curchorem village after serving the jail term, he added.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, state Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral, Director General of Police (DGP) Muktesh Chander and senior police officers held a meeting today at the Curchorem police station, following Pereiras arrest.

Talking to reporters, Pereira said he had no intention to trigger an enmity with anyone by his act.

I did it casually. Nothing was planned. I used to see a cross and hit it, he said.

Chander said during the interrogation, the accused told the police that he had a plan to continue desecrating religious places in the state.

He had plans of desecrating statues and religious structures, the DGP added.

Sardesai told reporters that the confidence of the people in the state police force as regards the investigation of the desecration cases was vindicated with the arrest of Pereira.

A number of incidents of attacks on religious symbols, especially of the Christian community, were reported in Goa over the last fortnight. Besides crosses, around 50 gravestones were also damaged in Curchorem village last Sunday.

The Goa Church had earlier expressed deep pain over the incidents of desecration of crosses and felt that the incidents could have been designed by vested interests to trigger a communal discord in the state, which is known for its religious tolerance.

In view of the incidents of defiling of religious symbols, Parrikar had last week held a high-level meeting with police officials.
A 25-year-old MBBS student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot following an altercation between them at a flat in Bangladeshs Chittagong city, police said today.

Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on the fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area on Friday night, the police was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

Sheikh, a final year student of the University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead, the report said.

Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.

Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, according to the police.

Another report in bdnews24 online said the four students hailed from Manipur. It said that Sheikh and Singh were drinking liquor before the incident.

Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikhs body.
A centre established by Somerville college in the University of Oxford in 2013 with a 3 million grant from India and named after Indira Gandhi has seen the name of the former prime minister dropped after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.

The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) was named the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development at its launch during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh government. Gandhi, an alumnus of the college, studied Modern History there in 1937.

The memorandum of understanding to set up the centre was signed in May 2013 after then minister for human resources development MM Pallam Raju visited the college. The Indian grant of 3 million was matched by the University of Oxford.

An Education Brief of the Indian government dated December 1, 2016 suggests the name was changed during the year. College officials, however, told Hindustan Times there had been no pressure or suggestion from New Delhi to change the name.

The brief states: The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development (IGCSD), established at the College with Government of India providing seed money of Rs 25 crore (GBP 3 million)  has begun work.

The Centre is now called Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD). The Centre would be housed in a new building on Oxford Universitys Redcliff Observatory Quarter adjacent to Somerville College. The Centre would be fully established in time for the centenary celebrations of Smt Gandhis birth on November 19, 1917.

Asked about the change of name, Alice Prochaska, principal of the college, said: We have committed to use our best endeavours to set up an inspirational research facility, ie an Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development, in a building on our site, and we are using our best endeavours to achieve the funding for a building that will indeed house the Indira Gandhi Centre.

The prestigious building is a long-term plan and if we achieve it, will be larger than only the IG Centre but will include the IG Centre. The overall building could be named for the donor. While these plans are evolving, we are using the overarching name of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development for the current activity, which includes the Indira Gandhi Scholars and programme.

Gandhi visited the college in 1971 to receive an honorary doctorate. In 2002, Congress president Sonia Gandhi presented a portrait of the former prime minister, which hangs alongside a painting of Margaret Thatcher, another alumnus of the college.

The centre with the new name is seen as part of An historic Oxford-India Partnership. The college describes it thus: The OICSD advances Indias sustainable development by bringing different academic disciplines and sectors together.

It adds, We develop future leaders by supporting exceptional Indian scholars to study at Oxford; we carry out multidisciplinary research on sustainable nutrition, the environment and health; and we translate academic ideas to the ground.

In November 2016, the college celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of Nashik-born Cornelia Sorabji (1866-1954), the first Indian woman student at Oxford who went on to become the first Indian woman lawyer in colonial India.

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Investigators have detained a policeman assigned to ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir as part of their investigation into a militancy-related case.

While many media agencies reported that the special investigation team (SIT) set up to probe the recent attack on Amarnath pilgrims had arrested Touseef Ahmad on Saturday morning, Shopian superintendent of police Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar clarified that he was only summoned for questioning. He didnt confirm if the interrogation was part of the ongoing probe into the terror attack.

It is related to a militancy case, said another top official. But nothing is confirmed. We cant say anything till the investigation reaches a certain stage. It would be unfair to label him as an accused yet.

Touseef, a Chokura Pulwama resident attached to the Jammu and Kashmir polices security wing, has been Mirs driver for over a year now. He is a very shy person. I have never seen him indulging in any untoward activity, the legislator told HT.

Mir represents Wachi area in South Kashmirs Shopian, which is one of the hotbeds of militancy. At least 25 known militants hail from the area.

A source said two other people have also been arrested in connection with the case. While nothing conclusive has emerged about Touseef until now, this is not the first instance of a security personnels name cropping up in a militancy-related case.

On May 22, constable Syed Naveed Mushtaq disappeared with four police rifles from central Kashmirs Budgam district. Even as the authorities ordered a departmental probe into the incident, the Hizbul Mujahideen declared that Mushtaq has joined their ranks.

Similarly, an Army jawan  identified as Pulwama resident Zahoor Ahmad  went missing with his AK-47 service rifle and three magazines of ammunition from a camp in Baramulla district on Thursday.

The SIT formed by the police to investigate the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, which resulted in seven casualties, is headed by deputy inspector general (south Kashmir) SP Pani. It has reportedly launched a massive hut to hunt down Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Ismail, who is believed to have masterminded the attack.

Police are tracking Ismails associates and their hideouts on the basis of communication intercepts. Though a few arrests have been made, police are yet to come out with any conclusive revelation in this regard.

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A day after the Virbhadra government handed the Kotkhai rape and murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), there was no letup in the public outrage against the  botched-up  investigation by the police.

Villagers staged a massive protest in Shimla even as government mulled strategies to tackle the public anger.

Left-backed Nagrik Sabha staged a demonstration outside the main square on the historic Mall road. Protesters marched three kms from Sanjauli town to the Mall road before gathering at the historic ridge near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

They were joined by students and others from the upper areas of the Shimla district before the protest culminated at the office of the deputy commissioner.

Demonstrators raised slogans against the police investigations and charged the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police with shielding the actual culprits. The Nagrik Sabha demanded a probe by a sitting High Court judge. We believe that attempts are being made to shield the actual culprits. The government has referred the matter to CBI, but the agency can only investigate. Since there are strong rumors that those involved are from influential families, they could further impact the investigations, said Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, a member of CPIMs state secretariat. The government is in the grip of mafia. It is unable to control the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, he alleged.

Protests politically motivated: CM Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Saturday described the protests as political motivated. The parties backing the protests should be ashamed of themselves as they are politicising the issue. We have done whatever is possible to investigate the case. The matter has been referred to CBI, said Virbhadra Singh, adding that those taking the law in their hands will be dealt with sternly.

The Nagrik Sabha also raised questions about governance, and said the recent rape and murder of a minor in Kotkhai has fuelled insecurity amongst the common man. Nagrik Sabha also referred to the murder of Hoshiyar Singh, a forest guard who was found hanging from a tree in Sundernagar sub-division in Mandi district.

The Citizens Forum also raised questions about Medh Ram, a resident of Baldiyan panchayat, who has been missing since last year.

The police on Saturday convened a high-level meeting to discuss strategies to control public anger. The angry mob had on Friday vandalised the police post and vehicles in Theog. Succumbing to public pressure, the government had referred the investigations to CBI.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met Union home minister Rajnath Singh here on Saturday to discuss the security situation in the state.

The meeting comes following the attack on Amarnath pilgrims on July 10 in which seven people died.

The meeting began at 11.30am and lasted for almost an hour.

Ensuring security of Amarnath Yatra obviously topped the agenda of the meeting, said an aide to the home minister.

Their meeting also came a day after the home minister briefed top opposition leaders on the situation in the Valley and steps taken the ensure better security for the Amarnath pilgrims.

The opposition has slammed the government for failing to ensure security of Amarnath Yatris.

The home ministry in consultation with the state government has decided to erect 21 more security pickets on the Amarnath route to check whether any vehicle carrying Amarnath Yatris is moving beyond the deadline of 7pm in the Valley.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday accused China of meddling in the troubled state that has recently witnessed a spike in violence.

The chief minister was speaking to reporters emerging from a meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh with whom she discussed the security situation in the state.

She said the present crisis in Kashmir is not a mere law-and-order problem, adding the fight is against foreign powers.

Earlier it was Pakistan but now there are reports of China meddling in the Kashmir affairs, she said.

We cannot fight this war alone. We need backing of the whole country and all political parties to emerge victorious, Mehbooba said.

Mufti has earlier blamed Pakistan for the unrest in the state, but this is for the first time she pointed the finger at China.

The allegation comes amid a standoff between Indian and Chinese forces in Doklam at the Sikkim border.

Militants have stepped up attacks in recent months on government forces in the state as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

Muftis meeting with the home minister in the national capital in the wake of the attack on Amarnath pilgrims on July 10, in which seven persons died, lasted for almost an hour after it commenced at 11.30am.

She termed the attack a conspiracy to whip up communal tension in the state

Ensuring security of Amarnath Yatra obviously topped the agenda of the meeting, said an aide to the home minister.

Their meeting also came a day after the home minister briefed top opposition leaders on the situation in the valley and steps taken to ensure better security for the Amarnath pilgrims.

The opposition has slammed the government for failing to ensure security of Amarnath Yatris.

The home ministry in consultation with the state government has decided to erect 21 more security pickets on the Amarnath route to check whether any vehicle carrying pilgrims is moving beyond the deadline of 7pm in the Valley. The ill-fated bus that came under attack in the states Anantnag district had violated the deadline.

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Suspected cattle traffickers in Odisha allegedly assaulted seven tourists from Andhra Pradesh for opposing the way they were ill treating the animals in Rayagada district, police said on Saturday. Three women were among the tourists allegedly beaten up, police added.

The incident was reported from Patupadar under Bissamkataka police station area of Rayagada district on Friday evening. More than 20 cattle traffickers were taking around 500 cattle on road and were thrashing the animals. When the tourists tried to protest, the traffickers allegedly assaulted them and smashed their mobile phones. One of the victims, KV Kannan, a software engineer, sustained injuries on his head and body.

Rayagada district collector Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar said a case was registered with Bissamkataka police station. She said all the accused would be arrested soon. The state government will bear the treatment cost of the injured tourists, she added.

In April last year, Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had to intervene in the case of assault of a cow protection activist in Rayagada who was allegedly tortured by then district collector and other officials. Tirtha Kumar Sahu was arrested by the police in Rayagada as he was protesting illegal smuggling of cows to West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from Rayagada.

In a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Gandhi had alleged that Odisha was the state from where the largest number of cattle were being illegally smuggled out to neighbouring states every month. She had also alleged that Rayagada officials were involved with the cattle mafia.
Several realty projects are on the edge as states such as West Bengal and Kerala have not appointed real estate regulators, a mandatory step under a landmark law designed to protect homebuyers.

Developers will not be able to market their projects  ongoing or new  till they register with either the permanent or interim regulator in states. For ongoing projects, where completion or occupancy certificate has not been given, the deadline for registration is July 31.

Not registering a project with the regulator is a violation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act. But we cant penalise the developers as states have not appointed regulators, said a housing and urban affairs ministry official.

A regulator has to register a project within a month of receiving an application, failing which the registration will be automatically considered done.

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have permanent regulators, while 17 more states have appointed temporary ones. Union territories Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu are under the Maharashtra regulator.

Developers of ongoing projects are worried as the central government is unlikely to extend the July 31 deadline.

If states have not set up a regulator, there is not much a developer can do. We are telling the states to expedite the process. We dont want any disruption in ongoing projects, said Geetambar Anand, the president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India.

The housing and urban affairs ministry also cant do much except request the states to speed up the process of appointing regulators.

Housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu has written to chief ministers several times in the past month.

In the absence of rules and regulatory authority/ appellate tribunal, real estate activities would be adversely affected post 31 July 2017, he wrote on June 21.

His ministry is also saddled with complaints that interim regulators in several states were refusing to register projects, saying their online portal is not ready.

Not having a web portal is no excuse for not registering properties. Internal regulators can start the process offline, a ministry official said.

States have been given a year to set up the website that will host details of every project such as layout plan and completion time. Developers will have to disclose all information, such as layout plan and project time schedule, to the regulator.

Also, of the 36 states and Union territories only 20 states have notified the rules. The law becomes ineffectual if rules are not notified.

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Over two dozen farmers and 30 policemen were injured when police baton-charged an angry mob blocking the Bikaner-Ganganagar highway in Lunkaransar on Saturday morning. Five of them are said to be in a critical state.

The protesters, led by the former CPI(M) legislator Lalchand Bhadu, were demanding canal water for irrigation purposes at fields spread across Lunkaransar sub-division of Bikaner. The district administration later imposed curfew-like restrictions under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code in the area.

The farmers unrest in Rajasthan, coupled with a spurt in debt-related suicides, has put the BJP-led state government on the back foot. Opposition parties, including the Congress and the CPI(M), have planned many similar rallies in the coming days.

Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot has accused the BJP of neglecting farmers. Nine committed suicide across Rajasthan in the last 40 days, while 70 farmers ended their lives over the last three years. The state government issues directives to suppress any protest or demonstration, even if conducted in a democratic manner, because it does not want people to question its working style, he said.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address a protest rally in Banswara district on July 19.

In Bikaner, around 36 farmers were booked for damaging government property by herding bulls into the sub-divisional magistrates office. However, the farmers claimed that the bovines had entered the premises on their own, after officials failed to evacuate them from a nearby place.

Farmers in the area have complained of canal water shortage for irrigation purposes, besides stray cattle laying their crops to waste. They have submitted several memorandums in this regard to government officials over the last 10 days.

The irrigation department had readjusted about 60 APM (adjustable proportional module) of canal water to regulate the distribution of 3.90 cusecs across the sub-division last month. Farmers, however, remained dissatisfied. When all their petitions allegedly fell on deaf ears, they decided to assemble on the highway with around 500 heads of stray cattle.

The farmers want another readjustment, which is not possible considering the availability and decided share of water. It will also disturb the water supply to the tail area of the canal, district collector Anil Gupta told HT.

Although the BJP has placated the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, a clutch of farmer groups led by the Kisan Mahapanchayat has been agitating since May to demand loan waivers and condemn the plummeting price of agriculture produce. At least five farmers committed suicide in Kota region over the last one month.

Kota recorded bumper garlic production this financial year, accumulating 7.87 lakh metric tonnes against 3.94 lakh metric tonnes in 2015-16. However, the resultant glut led to a price crash, with garlic costing Rs 10-20 per kg this year as against Rs 50-100 in the previous one.
Like many Kashmiri Pandits, Sanjay Tickoo, a Srinagar businessman, is imprisoned by the history of his state, the ambivalent positions of its leaders, and his own paranoia of being a member of a minority community with a dominant past. Yet, in the mass exodus of the 90s in which 34 Pandit families of his locality left Kashmir, his didnt. In fact, he still believes that by instinct, the Kashmiri Muslim is a secular person. That Tickoo can say this is not simply magnanimity. Behind this outlook of his lies an almost forgotten history of a robust secular tradition. And over this tradition looms large the shadow of a man who symbolised it; almost perfectly one could say. That man was Prem Nath Bazaz, a committed progressive Kashmiri Pandit.

The story of Bazazs life is intimately entwined with the modern history of that secular tradition  at times referred to, a tad offhandedly, as Kashmiriyat  and its vicissitudes. So, to tell his story is to also recall the history of that tradition, and its forgetting.

Sanjay Tickoo, president of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti at his home in Srinagar. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

Kashmiri Pandits have a past that is as invisible as it is visible. An influential minority in the Dogra Hindu kingdom (they occupied all major jobs in the kings administration and revenue departments), some of them were social reformers attacking orthodoxies in religion. They took active part in the politics of the day. And one of them even took the unconventional step of forging a common platform with Kashmiri Muslims to try to build a fair society.

Bazaz, a small-time government official and a writer, was the man who took that initiative to bring the Yuvak Sabha, a predominantly Kashmiri Pandit outfit in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir of the 30s, to a working relationship with the Muslim Conference, Kashmirs first political party, after the 1931 anti-Dogra uprising in which Muslims protesting age-old social inequalities were massacred. (22 men died in the uprising.) Bazaz was the confidant and comrade of Sheikh Abdullah, Kashmirs first mass leader, and was a champion of Kashmiris right to self-determination, a stand unthinkable for Kashmiri Pandits today, and for most of mainland India.

Clearly, this Kashmiryat was as much about politics as it was about culture. Its ground was laid through the 30s and 40s when the first cracks in the Dogra kingdom were emerging as a result of the mobilisation of Kashmiri Muslims led by Sheikh Abdullah.

Pragmatic Kashmiri Pandits like Prem Nath Bazaz (along with other Pandits such as Kashyap Bandhu, Shamlal Saraf, Jia Lal Kilam) realised the end of Dogra rule was near and set about building a common platform with Abdullah and his movement, the Muslim Conference (the predecessor of the National Conference or the NC). By working with them, people like Bazaz also came to terms with their own history of past privileges and understood the urgency of Muslims need to ease out the monarchy.

Bhushan Bazaz, Prem Nath Bazazs son at his home in Delhi. After Sheikh Abdullah came to power in Kashmir in 1947, Bazaz was externed to Delhi . (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims share no collective socio-political project now. Its potential was finished off by the Pandit exodus of the 90s when, according to Kashmiri Muslims themselves, the best of them left. Pandits like Tickoo, not surprisingly, remember Bazaz only as the man who turned his back on his own community. Before a fact-finding commission set up after the anti-Dogra uprising in 1931, Bazaz had upheld the reality of Muslim grievances even when that would diminish the case and privileges of his own community. After Partition in 1947 he went on to back plebiscite and independence.

Controversial from the start

For Kashmiri Muslims too, Bazazs positions then and now, are filtered by his eventual parting of ways with the NC and personal differences with Abdullah. They say he also influenced the changing of the name of Kashmirs first mass party  from the Muslim Conference to the National Conference, a momentous event in Kashmirs history. This change of denomination, Kashmiris say, had a fallout for which Bazaz cannot escape blame.

Mohammad Yousuf Taing, biographer of Sheikh Abdullah, says Bazaz was a great intellectual. He persuaded Sheikh Abdullah to honour Bazaz as a fellow of the Kashmir Academy of Art and Culture in the 70s. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

Mehmood ur Rashid, columnist, Greater Kashmir, says the emergence of the Muslim Conference was part of a larger political awakening of Muslims in the subcontinent. By dropping the word Muslim, the DNA of the movement was changed 40s onwards. Its as if the documents of the property were changed and these secular/Islamic binaries have remained at the core of Kashmirs politics as a whole. It gives people the chance to raise the fiction of the rise in Kashmir now of Salafi Islam over Sufi Islam as if the former is bad Islam and the latter good. But the reality is that Sufis too had always questioned power. They were great diplomats, they just did it skillfully. There is more in common with both Islams than is generally known. Bazaz, Rashid seems to suggest, should have known better than to influence Abdullah to impose a secular grid on a national liberation struggle at a time when it could have mobilised itself on the strength of the majority religion.

Without Bazaz, would Abdullah have adopted a different path? Mohammad Yousuf Taing, biographer of Abdullah, an NC man, who also knew Bazaz well, says one shouldnt second-guess men of history. You dont know what is in peoples hearts. In history, you go by records, says he, while steering the conversation to that part of the story where Bazaz was beaten up by fellow Pandits after he deposed in the fact-finding commission set up after the 1931 uprising to address public grievances.

Bazaz said the Muslim grievances were correct. Some Pandits urinated in his mouth! He had to leave his home and move into another neighbourhood in Srinagar, at Amirakadal, he adds. This displacement gave Bazaz a unique identity, bringing him into the vortex of the states politics. It gave him a new audience. And he came to be seen as a man of interest in the eyes of both Kashmirs and Indias nationalists around the time of the buildup to Indias independence.

Jawaharlal Nehru addressing a meeting in Srinagar in 1947 with Sheikh Abdullah (L) by his side. (HT Photo)

NC old-timers, however, slip in that Bazaz was writing letters to Nehru and Gandhi. The suggestion is that he was a Congress informant, a perception that contradicted his public statements of conducting Kashmir and Indias respective freedom struggles independent of the other. The diaries maintained by his son Bhushan in Delhi, Bazaz, however, show how Bazaz saw this. Sometimes, he also refers to himself in the third person! He was clearly self-conscious of his role in history-making and saw himself criss-crossing both worlds -- he saw himself as the man who cleared many misunderstandings about Abdullah, that the anti-Dogra uprising was not a communal one, and that he had vouched for the secular credentials of Abdullah to Nehru.

Nehru also offered father one of the two general secretaryships of the States Peoples Conference that the former headed. He declined saying he had work in Kashmir, says Bhushan.

Sheikh Abdullah and Bazaz completely differed on the subject of Accession, says Dr Farooq Abdullah, Sheikhs son and a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

The idea of Bazaz

Like all years, this year too, Kashmir commemorated the 86th anniversary of Martyrs Day, on July 13, the date of the massacre of Kashmiris in the anti-Dogra uprising. Coincidentally, Bazazs 112th birthday also falls on the same date. Bazazs invisibility in official or popular memory is tied to an existential question that is relevant in Kashmir even today. It can be asked by one Muslim to another should they differ on the mode of the struggle, or simply while making sense of the conflict. It can be posed by a Pandit to a fellow Pandit not living in the Valley or by a Muslim to a Pandit, or vice-versa.

And that question is simply this: If you are one of us, why are you with them? Or, since you are one of them, can you really be one of us? Ideas of a catholic politics  one that is open to all, and open for negotiation  like Bazazs, are suspect at all times. People like him are always out of place.

Tickoo fleshes out what he understands by us and them.: It is not the Jamaat or Hurriyat that branded us Hindus/Indians in the Kashmiri Muslims eyes. It was the RSS. And its activities in the Valley. Television too. Dr Sameer Kaul, a Pandit who is with the NC, says even in the time of Bazaz and Abdullah, Pandits didnt have the numbers but we had say.That has been lost over the years as Pandits responding to changes in the Valley clung to religion and allowed the tragedy of the exodus to shape their lives.

Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (centre). Farooq maintains close relations with Bazazs family in Delhi. (Waseem Andrabi / HT Photo )

On the move

Bazaz wasnt a man to be put off by roadblocks, personal or political. He joined organisations, left them, and put up others. A follower of the Communist-turned-Radical Humanist MN Roy after he left the NC in the 40s, he built his politics and a milieu of like-minded people around his journals. Most got him into trouble. (Bazazs daily, Vitasta, started in 1932, was, in fact, Kashmirs first newspaper.) Abdullah was unhappy with him for giving space to his opponents like Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah (the great-grand uncle of the present Mirwaiz, Umer Farooq) in Hamdard, the paper they jointly edited in the 30s. When Abdullah was jailed by the Congress government in the 50s, Bazaz, despite his fallout with the NC leader, published a booklet in his defence, Sheikh Abdullah-What is his crime?

Nehru replies to Bazazs letter: You wrote to me about the accession of the state not being complete...It is complete. (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

Flowing against the current  Bazaz simply didnt know what that meant. In the 60s, he was shooting off letters to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru saying the Accession of Kashmir to India was not complete. His differences with Abdullah and his exile in Delhi  he was forbidden from entering Kashmir by the NC government for raising the issue of self-determination at periods inconvenient for the NC leader who himself vacillated on the issue  however changed Bazaz. He was now willing he wrote to Nehru, to work with Kashmiri Muslims to wean them to a position for Autonomy. But he kept raising the issue on Kashmirs right to self-determination from time to time. On this point he would not budge.

The flip-flops of most Kashmiri leaders - Bazaz, Sheikh and the Mirwaiz included - is the story of a common Kashmiri under pressure to define his politics within and outside Kashmir, says academic Abir Bazaz of Haryanas Ashoka University. The pressure of politics forces a leaders hand. One wrong move and the movement suffers for yearsor you can be made completely irrelevant. It can turn giants into dwarfs.

Dual Identities

Prem Nath Bazaz till the last remained a student of history. Like Rughonath Vaishnavi, another pro-freedom Kashmiri Pandit, Bazaz read the political awakening of Kashmiri Muslims as part of the communitys assertion in the subcontinent. He saw this assertion as a matter of right and their affiliation with Pakistan, and even their consideration of Pakistan as a post-colonial possibility, as natural.

A Kashmiri who considered his regional identity to be on a par with his religious identity, Bazazs conception of a single society was one in which neither of the two communities would dominate the other, says Rashid. The Kashmiri Pandit should not feel like an alien and the Kashmiri Muslim should not be a hegemon.

It was from such a standpoint that Pakistan - or a Muslim-dominated discourse - did not seem an incompatible option to Bazaz, says Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who retains strong family ties with the Bazaz family even now. Post-Plebiscite, should Kashmir choose Pakistan, Bazaz never made clear if he would join it, but he stood for the right of Kashmiris to exercise that choice. His views were that if Kashmir was to remain with India it should be out of choice not compulsion and that the democratic institutions should be allowed to run, says the Mirwaiz. India needs to ask itself whether it has increased that capability or shrunk it.

Bazaz and Sheikhs story shows that it was not inevitable that a Kashmiri Pandit would take an unambiguous pro-India position while a Kashmiri Muslim would take a pro-Pakistani one.

His achievement is that he represented the possibility of thinking a new politics across positions, points out Abir Bazaz. The question is: does Kashmir, in its most fraught period, need him now?

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The discovery of plastic explosives inside the Uttar Pradesh assembly has sent shockwaves through security agencies and the government. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has called for a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe and has tightened security for legislators, even banning mobile phones from the premises.

Heres five things to know from the incident and investigation:

1. Initial probe suggests PETN or pentaerythritol tetranitrate was brought in from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka, where it is used usually for mining. The explosive isnt available in Uttar Pradesh.

2. Police say the explosive was transported by an organised gang in secret to Lucknow and was taken inside the assembly by a single person with access to the premises  this narrows the suspect list down to legislators, their security personnel, assembly marshals and cleaning staff.

3. Sources say the CCTVs in the assembly might not have been working, allowing unknown people to sneak in the explosives in the premises.

4. Police are also grilling a Muslim youth from Deoria, who was arrested a day after the explosives were found for threatening to blow up the assembly on August 15. It is not clear if his threat is connected with the recovery of explosives.

5. Initial probe points at lack of coordination between the three tiers of UP assembly security  Police, secretariat security staff and marshals. Adityanath has asked MLAs to come inside the assembly with a notebook and pen.
What is going on in Bihar? Are the warring Janata Dal (U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) any closer to resolving their differences after the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, their third partner in the ruling coalition?

The tussle between the two allies is being watched closely. Not only will it have a bearing on the politics of Indias third-most populous state but could also decide the fate of the opposition parties efforts to come together to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

1) Tejashwi in the middle

Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, is named in an alleged case of land-for-hotels scandal. The CBI last week raided the residence of Lalu, also named in the case, and other properties in five cities, including Ranchi and Delhi.

Chief minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) has put the RJD and Tejashwi on notice. They want him to come clean on the source of funds used for acquiring the alleged illegal properties or quit his post.

2) Lalu wont play ball

The RJD chief doesnt seem to be in a mood to oblige. He snapped at mediapersons when asked if his son would quit. Tejashwi was elected by the people, not by those asking for his resignation, he said in Ranchi, where he appeared in a fodder scam case.

The two sides seemed to have hardened their stand despite Congress chief Sonia Gandhis efforts to broker truce between the Grand Alliance partners.

Tejashwi, too, has ruled out resignation, saying charges against him were political vendetta as he was barely 13 when the alleged case happened. The 26-year-old accused Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of conspiring to implicate him to break the ruling alliance in the state.

3) Pressure on Nitish

The land-for-hotels case is the latest in a string of corruption allegations against Lalu and his clan. Kumar is under intense pressure to sack his deputy to protect the image of a clean government.

Nitish Kumars assets are known to the world but on the other hand, what have you? JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar asked of Lalu.

The RJD chief, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, their elder son Tej Pratap, also a senior minister in Bihar, and their daughters, including Misa Bharati, are accused of acquiring illegal assets.

4) Frenemies?

Before the JD(U)-RJD rift took the centre stage, Kumar was not too happy with the Congress either. He broke ranks with the opposition to back the BJP-led NDAs candidate in the July 17 presidential election.

The Bihar chief minister also sent a representative for the July 1 launch of GST, an event the Congress boycotted.

But since then, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has spoken to Kumar, who has decided to back the oppositions vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.

5) Playing footsie

While Kumars recent moves and utterances have the RJD and Congress worried, the BJP is imagining a reunion.

Kumar walked out of the NDA when the BJP in 2013 named Narendra Modi as the PM candidate, ending a long partnership. It is the BJP that is mounting pressure on Kumar to act against Tejashwi and has questioned his anti-corruption stand. The BJP has even offered outside support to him, if he cuts ties with the RJD.

Kumar has said the Congress is not serious enough to provide an alternative narrative to the BJP while the Congress continues to be ambiguous on a greater role for him in the 2019 parliamentary election.
The Angamaly (Kochi) judicial magistrate court on Saturday turned down Malayalam superstar Dileeps bail plea and remanded him in judicial custody till July 25.

Dileep was arrested last week in connection with the abduction and rape of a popular actress four months ago. He is the eleventh accused in the case.

The public prosecutor opposed the superstars bail application, stating that he could use his clout to influence witnesses and weaken the ongoing investigation. The prosecution also referred to an ongoing pro-Dileep social media campaign to secure his release.

However, the embattled actors counsel  Ram Kumar  claimed the actor has been falsely implicated in the case and the investigation team was busy fabricating evidence against him. He also submitted two mobile phones used by the actor for further tests.

Dileep was later taken to the Aluva sub-jail. He is expected to move the high court on Monday.

The 31-year-old actress was returning from a film shoot when she was abducted by a gang of criminals and sexually assaulted in a moving car over a period of three hours on February 17. The assailants recorded the assault on their mobile phones and threatened to release the clip if she dared approach the police. During the attack, the main accused  Pulsar Suni  reportedly hinted that they were committing the crime at somebody elses behest.

After the actress lodged a complaint, police arrested all the accused directly involved in the crime. An investigation aimed at identifying the conspirators behind the attack finally led to Dileeps arrest last week.

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Mohammad Shafiq took solace from the large grain container placed in a corner of the room. This will last six to nine months. At least we wont starve now, he said.

The 52-year-old, who lives with his family in a small hutment in a graveyard in Kanpurs Idgah Colony, used to procure meat from the nearby government slaughterhouse and sell it by the roadside.

In March 2017, the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) ordered action against slaughterhouses and meat-sellers operating without valid licences and violating environmental and health rules.

Across the state, numerous shops and slaughterhouses, including government-run abattoirs, were sealed, leading to severe shortage of meat and affecting the livelihoods of thousands like Shafiq who made a living by using common government abattoirs for a small fee. Essentially, failure of municipal administrations to upgrade these facilities had destroyed the vast unorganized meat industry, and hundreds of thousands of ancillary jobs.

For a while, Shafiq went back to his ancestral village with his wife and kids. There, he worked as a farm-hand even though his left hand does not function properly. It was wheat harvesting season. I had never done that work before but with my kids support, I managed somehow and got 500kg grain in return, he told IndiaSpend on a muggy June evening.

Now back in Kanpur, Shafiq hawks churan (tangy powder), tamarind and jamun around town. Earlier my elder son used to do this work, but he suffers from night blindness. I thought I can put in more hours than him. He has now taken to buying and selling scrap. I make Rs 200-250 a day while he manages between Rs 75-125, Shafiq said.

Mohammad Shafiq sells churan (tangy powder) in Kanpur. (Photo: Indiaspend)

From meat-selling, Shafiq used to earn Rs 400-500 within three hours. The meat, fresh from the slaughterhouse, would sell quickly. We dont have refrigeration, so I would only buy as much as I could sell easily. Any leftovers, the family would use, he said.

Illegal slaughterhouses: Past governments ignored issue

The Prevention and Control of Pollution (Uniform Consent Procedure) Rules of 1999 list slaughterhouses under the red heavily-polluting category with potential to adversely impact public health.

In UP, as in the rest of the country, a range of agencies regulate slaughterhouses. Foremost among these is the state-level pollution regulator, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), which gives permission (no-objection certificate) for setting up a slaughterhouse after getting a go-ahead from the top district administrator, the District Magistrate (DM). The DM conducts a site inspection to assess compliance with various parameters, including law and order, before granting permission. Once a slaughterhouse is set up, the UPPCB monitors its functioning to ensure pollution control measures are in place.

If the facility is for export, approval is also required from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). Slaughterhouses must also follow thePrevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, as well as obtain a license from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to ensure all animal-derived food is healthy.

Many slaughterhouses have been accused of violating norms, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is hearing a string of petitions seeking their upgradation or closure. In May 2015, hearing one such petition, the NGT ordered all slaughterhouses running without requisite permits in UP to be shut.

When the new BJP government assumed office in UP in March this year, it began to take action on the NGT order.

Both private and government-run slaughterhouses were shut, having failed to upgrade despite the 2015 NGT order, a previous Supreme Court order and reminders by the UPPCB.

In this partial list of 129 industrial units failing to install anti-pollution devices in 2015, 44 were slaughterhouses, 39 of which were run by municipal bodies and nagar panchayats while another was run by the Lucknow Cantonment Board. All four of capital city Lucknows slaughterhouses were found not to have proper treatment facilities.

According to the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959, the construction and maintenance of public markets and slaughterhouses is an obligatory duty of the local corporation. The Allahabad High Court upheld this in an ongoing case regarding operation of slaughterhouses.

An amount of Rs 12.5 crore was sanctioned on January 3, 2017, for the modernisation of the slaughterhouse at Lucknows Moti Jheel, but the project got stuck when the model code of conduct for assembly elections came into force the very next day.

A similar situation prevails in other cities and towns except Agra, where the municipal corporation runs a modern abattoir.

The responsibility of previous governments is greater than the current government. They failed to modernise the slaughterhouses for a very long time preparing the ground for the present crisis, said Irfan Ahmad, the vice-president of the Jamiat-ul-Quresh, an organisation of slaughterhouse owners and meat and beef suppliers in Kanpur.

A comparison of the earnings and expenditures of the Lucknow and Agra municipal corporations shows how the state capital lost precious revenue by failing to modernise its slaughterhouse.

The Agra Municipal Corporation earned Rs 4.26 crore in 2014-15 from leasing out its modern slaughterhouse to a private contractor. The contractor uses the facility for export purposes and also allows individual butchers to use it for a fee of Rs 385 per buffalo. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation, in contrast, was able to charge Rs 10 as fee for slaughtering of goat/sheep and Rs 25 for buffalo, making Rs 25.33 lakh in all. Spending Rs 44.87 lakh on staff salaries, it reported a loss of over Rs 19 lakh.

A crackdown with wide reverberations

UP, Indias top meat producer in 2012-13, has felt the reverberations far and wide.

Of the 77 APEDA-approved slaughterhouses in India, 44 are in UP. In addition to these, municipal corporations and nagar panchayats (city councils) run numerous abattoirs to meet the domestic meat requirement.

UP has a famous, long-standing non-vegetarian culinary tradition, and as per the 2011-12 consumer expenditure survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), an average UP household reported consuming 0.17 kg of buffalo meat every month, as against the all-India average of 0.10 kg.

Some 30.6% of UP households reported they consumed non-vegetarian food, while 7.95% households reported they consumed beef or buffalo meat. The all-India average was 4.5%.

While India registered a 3.33% decline in livestock population during 2007-12, UP saw a 14% growth, indicating the economys dependence on livestock and allied businesses, IndiaSpend reported on March 29, 2017.

Source: Animal Husbandry Department, Uttar Pradesh

Livelihoods lost

Kanpurs Bakar Mandi slaughterhouse, from where Shafiq used to buy meat, was one of many government facilities which had not been modernised despite repeated reminders from the UPPCB.

Butchers would pay a small fee (Rs 25 for buffalo, Rs 10 for goat) to use the facility at night and the meat would be put on sale around the city by early morning.

I support modernisation, but the government should have made an alternative arrangement before closing it down. A gradual phase-out would have helped everyone, Shafiq said.

Danish Qureshi, 25, of Rampur town was similarly rendered jobless. He now drives a rented e-rickshaw for hire, although he considers meat-selling his family business. My father had a licence issued by the Municipal Corporation 45 years back. I used to get it renewed every year, he said, Why didnt anybody tell us we were doing business illegally?

His bigger complaint is that the government is not helping butchers secure bank loans to upgrade their shops, a prerequisite to get FSSAI licenses. Most of us have little by way of savings, he said, adding, Those with money have renovated their shops, but they form just 1% of the butcher community in Rampur.

Farmers, associated trades take a hit

At the Sunday cattle market in Tirwa village, about 15 km from Kannauj city in central UP, very few transactions were taking place as farmers were not getting the price they were quoting.

This was largely due to enforcement of the NGT order. The more recent central government ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle marketscurrently on hold following a Supreme Court orderis yet to be implemented on the ground.

Last year it was notebandi, and this year it is meat bandi that has reduced demand, said Arjun Singh, a farmer from Achanakapur village. He was seeking Rs 50,000 for a young female buffalo, but was getting offers of Rs 32,000.

Since the slaughterhouse crackdown, farmers are unable to fetch good prices even for milch cattle because buyers are worried they will be unable to resell.

What if a buffalo is unable to breed? No other farmer would touch it. Should we keep spending on its fodder or sell it to a slaughterhouse? Why cant the government understand this simple logic? asked a farmer at a cattle market in Chaubepur village near Kanpur.

Brajal Kumar Dwivedi, a young farmer from Jaisinghpura village, wanted to sell a mother-calf buffalo pair for Rs 90,000. He was getting offers of up to Rs 70,000. I bought it last year for Rs 80,000 from Sakipur mandi, had it fed and impregnated, and am still unable to get the price I paid, he said. Engaged to be married, Dwivedi needed money for his wedding but said he would wait a few weeks for prices to stabilise, and would sell milk to the local dairy until then.

Brajal Kumar Dwivedi wanted to sell a mother-calf buffalo pair for Rs 90,000, but did not get offers beyond Rs 70,000. (Photo: Indiaspend)

Jaddunath Singh of Kithwa village was not so luckyhe had to sell a buffalo at a Rs 11,000 loss because he needed money for the treatment of his hospitalised father-in-law.

Those providing ancillary services are also affected. Rajendra Singh, who lets out vehicles to transport animals, was staring at another dull day. Most farmers are taking their animals back on the vehicles they came on. Only a buyer would hire a vehicle here, but not many deals have come through. This has been the case for the last three months, he said.

The Pechbagh hide market in Kanpur, the largest in India for buffalo skin, has also seen trade decline over the last couple of yearsparticularly since the 2015 mob lynching of a Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, and his son, who were suspected of stealing and slaughtering a stolen cow calf, in Dadri in eastern UP.

Fear of cow vigilantes who beat up transporters even if they are transporting only buffalo skins has scared away suppliers, said Akhtar Hussein Akhtar, a godown owner at Pechbagh and an office-bearer of the local Hide Merchants Association.

Akhtar explained that large, mechanised slaughterhouses sell hides directly to big tanneries, and only those engaged in skinning dead animals sell to merchants in Pechbagh. [Earlier] most of the supply came from government abattoirs while weekly supply from villages filled the gap.

Now whatever raw material we are getting is from villages and that too of animals who die of natural causes, not slaughtered ones, he said, adding that supply has gone down from 10,000 hides per month to 500. We have also reduced our employee strength from eight workers to just one now, he said.

According to the Hide Merchants Association, around 40,000 people are directly engaged in this trade. Membership of the association has reduced by half in the last few years as many have turned their godowns into garment shops.

Big businesses benefit

According to the All India Meat and Livestock Exporters Association, UPs meat industry employs nearly 2.5 million people. But theres a stark difference between the formal market consisting mostly of wealthy exporters and the informal community of butchers, meat suppliers and those trading in animal byproducts. While the former own mechanised, well-equipped slaughterhouses that usually have the requisite permits, the informal market is dependent on government-run abattoirs, most of which have now been shut down for failing to comply with rules.

The crackdown has therefore skewed the market in favor of big companies, which have thus far been engaged in export of buffalo meat. Big companies are making tidy profits as the cattle market has tanked due to no demand from butchers. On the other hand, shortage of meat in the market has caused its price to increase. So, the companies can buy animals at a low price and sell meat at a premium, Dharmendra Malik, general secretary of the UP branch of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), told IndiaSpend.

To combat the meat shortage, the Kanpur DM arranged a meeting of meat-sellers and private companies operating from Unnao, a leather and chemicals hub 15 km from Kanpur. We are granting no-objection certificates for meat shops to operate on the condition that they source meat from these companies, Dr A.K. Singh, the veterinary officer at Kanpur Municipal Corporation, told IndiaSpend.

Similar arrangements have been made in other cities, including Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Muzaffarnagar. The price of buffalo meat has gone up from Rs 150 per kg before the clampdown to Rs 200 now.

Businesses are happy to tap the market not open to them earlier. People are not very keen on the frozen meat we supply as they are used to getting raw and fresh meat from the city abattoirs. But that option is not available now. We are currently supplying 3-4 tonnes of buffalo meat per day to Kanpur and hope to scale it up to 30-35 tonnes, Abhishek Arora, owner of AOV Exports Limited, told IndiaSpend.

Butchers, however, are unhappy at being compelled to buy from large companies. Around a fourth of our earnings come from selling of waste material from slaughter. Entering into an agreement with the company means to let go of this profit. We would rather close down than hand over our business to the companies, said Shahabuddin Qureshi, the general secretary of Qureshi Foundation, an association of butchers and meat-sellers in Lucknow.

A way forward?

Many said an ideal solution would be to set up an alternative slaughtering site away from habitation until the government abattoirs are modernised. When an animal is slaughtered, around 20 people get work. There are the meat sellers, those who trade in animal skin, those selling bones and hooves, and then there are people who process the fat for sale to soap factories, said Ahmad of Jamiat-ul-Quresh. Now the meat sellers with licenced shops are the only ones able to do some business. All others have been rendered jobless.

Meanwhile, illegal slaughter continues in Lucknow, clandestinely and at a smaller scale. The animal waste which was earlier generated at one place and picked up by the municipal corporation, is now polluting densely populated areas without any proper disposal, Qureshi asked. What purpose has been solved with the closure of the government-run abattoirs?

As workers struggle to reorganise their lives after the mass closure of slaughterhouses, the failure of past and present governments to organise a trade that employed hundreds of thousands is largely overlooked.

The clampdown was much needed in view of the health and environment concerns associated with ill-equipped slaughterhouses, said Kamna Pandey, former member of the Animal Welfare Board of India, based in Lucknow, In fact, I dont agree with the argument that the action needed to be in phases. But the government should have also been proactive in constructing modern slaughterhouses to avoid public loss.

(Moudgil is a freelance consultant with India Water Portal, an online platform on water and sanitation.)

(Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.)
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Raghopur has been a stronghold of Prasads family for a long time. But for 2010, when Prasads wife and ex-chief minister Rabri Devi lost, the constituencys support for the family has been rock solid since 1995

RJD chief Lalu Prasads son Tejashwi Yadav rides pillion with a party worker in Raghopur village during campaigning for the 2015 Bihar elections.
Jaipur police on Saturday carried out a search on the premises of Rajput Sabha Bhavan on the tip-off that Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, an accused in Sanvrad violence, was hiding inside the building. The search, however, remained inconclusive as some of the doors in the building were not opened by the building owners.

The Rajput community has been at loggerheads with the government ever since the encounter of notorious gangster Anandpal Singh by special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan police took place on June 24 in Churu.

The tension between the two increased after violence broke out during a protest meeting of the community at Nagaurs Sanvrad, Anandpals native village, on Wednesday. The SPs car was burnt down, a lady IPS officer manhandled, a protester killed in police firing and over 30 people injured including some 20 policemen in the violence.

While the police carried out the search, over 200 people from the Rajput community raised slogans against the police and chief minister Vasundhara Raje and expressed their angst at the police search. Policemen guarded the exits of the building and several policemen stood outside the main gate and barricaded the road.

Additional commissioner of police Nitin Deep Blaggan, who was on the spot, said that the search could not be completed as some rooms were not opened. Their representatives were accompanying us and we wanted to do it with their cooperation but they did not unlock some of the rooms, said Blaggan.

Giriraj Singh Lotwara, president of the Shree Rajput Sabha, said that the rooms were staff quarters and he did not have the keys to them. Both Lotwara and Lokendra Singh Kalvi, patron of Rajput Karni Sena, maintained that Gogamedi was not hiding inside the building.

Earlier in a press conference in the afternoon, Lotwara maintained the demand for a CBI probe into Anandpals death and the violence in Sanvrad. The violence was carried out by planted elements just when the talks were on the verge of success. The violence was part of a plan and we want an investigation into it, said Lotwara.

Kalvi on the other hand accused the government of suppressing and provoking the Rajput community. The government should stop this drama of frequent arrests otherwise we will retaliate. When the date for Jaipur march comes, theyll see our power, said Kalvi.

Lotwara did not declare the final date for Jaipur march but said that it will most likely be July 22.
In West Bengals Murshidabad district, a river that is fast eroding its banks may soon wipe out a priceless part of history. It is the famous Char Bangla temple dedicated to Shiva by a Hindu queen more than 250 years ago. The administration is aware of the situation and local people are praying for a miracle. The temple is a famous tourist destination and finds mention in tripadvisor.in and goibibo.com.

Rani Bhabani, the queen of Nator, a province that became part of Bangladesh post 1947, had built some exquisite terracotta temples in Murshidabad. The district incidentally was the capital of undivided Bengal, Bihar and Orissa till the British East India Company defeated Siraj ud-Daula, the last independent ruler of the state, in the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The Char Bangla Mandir was the most unique among the temples the queen had built.

After changing its course, the Bhagirathi river now flows barely ten feet away from the temple (in background) (HT Photo)

Situated at Baranagar in the districts Azimgunj area, the temple may soon be sucked away by the choppy waters of the Bhagirathi river, local people fear. When the temple was built around 1760 the river used to flow at least a kilometre away. But the Bhagirathi changed its course several times and eroded its banks, destroying life, property and farmland. Today, the temple is barely 10 feet away and its boundary wall has already been damaged by the river.

Historians say that Rani Bhabani ruled over such a vast area that she used to be addressed as Ardha Bangeshwar (lord of half of Bengal). Historians also believe that after the death of her husband she became a devotee of Shiva and constructed several temples dedicated to the god of destruction. After she died, her daughter used to offer prayer at the temples in Baranagar.

Read: THE OLD MAN RIVER Escaping Brahmaputras fury

Secretary of Murshidabad Zilla Itihas O Sanskriti Charcha Kendra, Arindam Roy said, One can find several 'Ek Bangla' or 'Jor Bangla' temples in Bengal but there is no other 'Char Bangla' temple. The temples are famous for their exquisite terracotta sculptures that depict either daily village life or tales from Hindu mythology. The terms Ek Bangla, Jor Bangla and Char Bangla indicate the number of structures that were built in the form of a typical Bengal village. Char (four in Bengali) means there are four houses.

The Bhagirathi river has already destroyed a part of the temples boundary wall. (HT Photo)

Terracotta originated in the Bankura district of Bengal and became famous across the country. Most people are not even aware that the temples at Baranagar are the finest examples of terracotta art, said Roy. The Char Bangla temple is part of Indias history. Thousands of people come here every year, he added.

The Bhagirathi started eroding its banks at Baranagar a few years ago. The river has already washed away many homes and several hectors of land. Yet, nothing has been done to save the Char Bangla temple. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is the custodian of the temple. We informed the ASI about the erosion a year ago, said Roy.

Read: Bengal floods: 58,000 people affected, red alert issued in Jalpaiguri

Babulal Sardar, pradhan of the local Trinamool-run Mukundabagh gram panchayat, said: I am aware of the danger the temple faces. If no action is taken immediately the river will destroy it. But the panchayat cannot set up embankments on its own. When asked whether he informed the district administration, Sardar said: We havent yet formally informed district administrative officers. We will write a letter to the block administration in a day or two."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior district administration official said, We were completely in the dark. We will take every possible step to save the historic structures.
Kolkata police on Saturday registered a case against state BJP womens wing chief Roopa Ganguly for making a controversial remark regarding the safety of female opposition members in West Bengal.

During a visit to New Delhi a few days ago, Ganguly  also a Rajya Sabha legislator  had said that women not belonging to the ruling party in Bengal were liable to be raped anytime. She repeated the allegation on Friday, further sprucing it up with a statement that political admirers of the Trinamool government should send their wives and daughters to Bengal sans state protection to check if they can survive 15 days without being sexually assaulted.

The Sinthi police station in Kolkata registered the FIR on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, police had registered another case against Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh for threatening chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Addressing a public meeting at West Midnapore district on Friday, the firebrand leader had said that Banerjees house would be set on fire if she ever tried to arrest him.

The same day, a man in Alipurduar district was also held for sharing a derogatory social media post on the chief minister.
The recovery of the high- potential plastic explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly has put a question mark on the three-tier security of the Vidhan Bhavan in which the assembly and the legislative council are located.

When the legislative assembly and the council are in session, the security of the Vidhan Bhavan and the adjoining buildings housing the state governments secretariat are tightened.

Even at other times, there is round-the-clock vigil on the Vidhan Bhavan in the high-security zone of the city.

Talking to HT, a secretariat administration officer, who refused to be named, said, The Vidhan Bhavan has a three-tier security system. The jawans of the state police are deployed around the boundary wall and the gate of the building. The second layer is manned by security personnel deputed by the secretariat administration department. They are posted in the gallery of the Vidhan Bhavan. The third tier is managed by marshals inside the assembly hall.

The lawmakers, staff and visitors entering the Vidhan Bhavan premises have to pass through the three-tier security to reach the assembly.

Read more| Plastic explosives found in Uttar Pradesh assembly: 5 things about investigation

Police personnel, secretariat security staff and marshals have been directed to maintain a watch on the people entering assembly.

Nevertheless, Samajwadi Party MLA IK Qureshi said: The security staff generally do not frisk people. They just tell them not to enter with weapons, mobile phones and tobacco.

Another official said there was a lack of coordination between the state police, secretariat administration personnel and marshals. Each works independent of the other. Before the start of the session, a meeting of the officers of each wing is held to discuss the security arrangements. Its a mere formality as there is no synchronisation between the three security wings, said the police officer.

In 2010, the security of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Annexe housing the chief ministers office at the time was breached when the police arrested a suspected ISI agent who had entered the building posing as maintenance staff during the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) regime.

The state government decided to strengthen the security of the CMs office as well as Vidhan Bhavan but the security work plan was put in cold storage.

The security of the Vidhan Bhavan also came under scanner during the Samajwadi Party government after the police found that some secretariat staff were running a fake recruitment racket from offices in the Vidhan Bhavan. The police registered an FIR. A high- level probe was ordered and the entry of unauthorised people was restricted. The state government ordered the cancellation of entry passes. But, after a few days, the old system was back in place and people were permitted to enter at will.

In January this year, the police arrested a fake section officer Abhisek Nigam who was running a recruitment racket in the chief secretarys guestroom located in a high- security area of the secretariat. The state government ordered a probe but no action has been taken yet.

Former BSP MLA RN Pandey said, During the BSP rule, not only was the entry of unauthorised people restricted, but the parking of private vehicles was not allowed around the Vidhan Bhavan. These days, due to illegal parking, traffic jams have become a routine affair on Vidhan Sabha Marg.

After the BJP won power earlier this year, the state government cancelled over 300 entry passes. A large number of vehicle passes issued to the secretariat staff were also cancelled. Nevertheless, the gallery and parking area of the Vidhan Bhavan have remained full of people and vehicles.

A secretariat administration officer said a letter was sent to the Lucknow Municipal Corporation to check illegal parking, but nothing had been done yet.

Read more: Handiwork of organised group, suggest the team probing the recovery of explosive inside UP assembly

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, the BSP MLA from Mau, alleged that the plastic explosive was planted in the opposition benches to kill him. He claimed this was not the first time a conspiracy was hatched to target him in the House.

A decade ago, my rivals plotted to kill me in the Vidhan Bhavan. The then CM Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered a probe. Later, the STF killed the main conspirator Raju Tiwari. The security of the Vidhan Bhavan should be beefed up, he said.

On the first day of the budget session, law and justice minister Brijesh Pathak objected to the entry of Congress MLAs with soap and shampoo in the assembly.

Its a security breach and the life of lawmakers has been put at risk. I will urge the speaker to order the frisking of the members before they enter the assembly, he had said.

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Fire broke out in the trauma centre of King Georges Medical University (KGMU) on Saturday.

Doctors, paramedics, attendants and security personnel had a tough time evacuating the about 200 critical patients amidst the bellowing smoke. The evacuation process continued till late in the night. Several door and window panes had to be broken in a bid to let the smoke escape and facilitate evacuation that continued till late in the night.

A critically ill woman, who left Trauma Centre for Lohia Hospital after the incident, reportedly died on the way.

It happened all of a sudden. No alarm was heard. Only a few attendants came rushing to the ward and screamed fire and soon the building was engulfed in fire and smoke, said an attendant at the Trauma Centre that has capacity to admit over 250 patients at a time in its four floors.

As it was night time, patients had great difficulty in moving out and they had no idea where to go or whom to contact. Many patients were seen crying for help, while the inadequate security personnel could manage to rescue only a few of them.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Early probe indicated there was short circuit in the store on the second floor.

I felt like choking as I moved out of the ward with my mother Shashikala, said another attendant.

Patients who were at the causality ward or at the diagnostic centre for X-ray, CT scan etc at the ground floor were seen coming out on stretchers with the help of their attendants. Some of them were being administered normal saline and they came out with great difficulty.

Within minutes dozens of stretchers were seen outside the centre as patients and attendants moved out in panic. Evacuation was not easy as only the main exit was opened. Later more doors were opened by breaking the locks.

Some patients were shifted to the adjacent Shatabdi Hospital and Lari Cardiology and some were referred to Balrampur hospital and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Those admitted in the ICU too had to be brought out as electricity supply was hit after the fire.

We immediately got the glass panes broken to get rid of the smoke and called fire tenders, said Prof SN Sankhwar, chief medical superintendent of KGMU.

As per the KGMU spokesperson, the fire broke out at around 7 pm and immediately security staff swung into action to douse the fire along with firemen.
A team of forest officials and guards came under a major attack from the mining mafia after it tried to stop illegal mining near Chambal close to Pachavgaon and Bahadurpura villages of Etawah, on Friday.

Injured forest ranger Vivek Varma and four forest guards have been admitted to a hospital in Etawah. The attackers looted their three guns, one rifle and two double barrel guns.

Combing operations were underway in and around Chambal ravines to track down the culprits who were helped by local villagers. SSP Etawah Vaibhav Krshna a FIR was registered against 10 persons of whom six were arrested. Raids are on to nab the remaining four culprits, he said and added further, Police will invoke Gangster Act and seize properties of mining mafias under provisions of the act.

Police recovered vehicle of the perpetrators some distance away from the crime scene, however, the looted arms were not found till the filing of this report.

As per reports, Verma had received a tip off about sand being illegally mined near Pachavgaon and Bahadurpura villages. He reached the site with forest guards and tried to seize the heavy vehicles on which sand was being loaded. People who were monitoring the loading from a Scorpio came out and attacked the team. One of the henchmen brought some villagers who also beat up the forest department team.

Other than Verma, forest guards Braj Mohan, Rakesh Kumar, Satya Prakash and Amit Kumar were also injured in the assault, said the police.

The police, however, asked the team why it did not seek assistance of local police when it planned to undertake this operation. Under the locally placed standard operating procedure, the forest department and police operate jointly against illegal miners, particularly in the sanctuary zone of the forest.

Mining goes on the district unabated in formerly dacoit infested pockets such as Sahson, Badhpura, Pachavgaon, Bahadurpura, Jaswant Nagar, Balrai and Chakar Nagar.
The additional district judge has completed hearing in the Pocso Act case and reserved the judgment on a petition in which former SP minister Gayatri Prajapati challenged the state governments decision to impose the act on him in an alleged rape of a minor girl.

Uma Shankar Sharma, the additional district judge, sessions court, having additional charge of the protection of children from sexual offences (Pocso) court completed the hearing on July 13. The verdict will be pronounced on July 18.

Read more| Rape case against Gayatri Prajapati: SC refuses to stay UP ministers arrest

During the hearing, Prajapati and his associates Vikas Varma and Amrendra Singh alias Pintu, who are also facing charges of gang rape, were present in the court.

Sunil Singh, Prajapatis lawyer, argued before the court that Pocso charges against the former law maker should be dropped as the victim had refused to recognise his client in her last statement given before the investigating officer.

The state government has imposed charges under gang rape and Pocso Act on Prajapati in a gang rape case of a woman and her minor daughter. Gayatri Prajapati is an accused in the 2014 gang rape case. A non-bailable warrant was issued against the former minister and six others in the case.

The woman accused Prajapati of offering her tea laced with sedatives and raping her. Prajapati had contested the 2017 assembly election from Amethi seat but lost. He went missing after the election and an FIR was lodged against him on February 27 this year. The Supreme Court also turned down Prajapatis plea for stay on his arrest on March 6.

Read more| Lucknow: Charge sheet filed against Gayatri Prajapati in gang-rape case

A lookout notice was also issued for Prajapati by the UP police after he went missing. He was arrested from Ashiyana area in Lucknow by the UP Special Task Force (STF) on March 15. The minister, considered close to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, is also facing charges of misappropriation of funds in the mining department.
Shreshtha Thakur, the woman circle officer who was transferred after she took action against BJP activists in Bulandshahr, has joined for duty in Bahraich.

Soon after reaching here on Friday, the 2012-batch provincial police services (PPS) officer met Bahraich SP, Suneel Kumar Saxena at his office.

When approached by mediapersons, Thakur promised to interact with them at her office on Saturday.

She said she was yet to be assigned a responsibility or circle by the SP.

Bahraich DSP told HT over that Thakur was supposed to join on Saturday, but as her leave for joining was to end, she reported for duty on Friday.

The officer had slapped a fine of Rs 200 on a local BJP leader for not wearing a helmet while riding a bike and also booked five others for obstructing discharge of official duty at Sayana circle of Bulandshahr last month.

A video of her conversation with the BJP activists went viral on social media, following which the state government transferred her to Bahraich.

Meanwhile, SP Suneel Kumar Saxena held a meeting with traders and reporters at 2 pm on Friday to discuss the rising traffic problem in the city.

A large number of mediapersons and social activists reached the Police Lines expecting to see Thakur. However, she was not invited for the meeting, police sources said.
Demanding freedom for Tibet, a Tibetan student attempted self immolation on the premises of the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, here on Friday, police said. He has been admitted to a private hospital in a serious condition, police said.

Ten Jin Chewngh (19), a student of Sanskrit at the university, poured kerosene and set himself on fire, police said.

Shouting slogans against China and demanding freedom for Tibet, he came out of his hostel room in flames and started running towards the Atisha Hall where Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) president Dr Lobsang Sangay was addressing a gathering, police said.

The other students present in the hall ran to him and extinguished the flames, covering him with blanket. They rushed him to hospital.

Circle officer Prashant Kumar said friends claimed he used to say that families were facing atrocities because of China which did not consider Dr Lobsangs administration valid.

He felt there was no way left to achieve the goal of freedom for Tibet.

Kumar said that his friends said he wanted the world to teach China a lesson and help Tibet gain freedom. Kumar said the youth was admitted to hospital where he was under observation.
A group of workers from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have recently started a campaign to get anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania back in the party.

Damania has been responsible for exposing irrigation scam as well as Maharashtra Sadan scam that saw Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal being put in jail. A well-known face in Maharashtra, Damania quit the AAP in 2015 following allegations levelled against the party leadership.

On Saturday, 150 AAP volunteers reached her home in Santacruz requesting her to return to the party. We want all good people to come back to the party and continue their fight against the corrupt, said Abhishek Bhat, an AAP volunteer. The volunteers have asked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to convince Damania to return. They have also started a twitter campaign to get her back.

Damania, who was a part of veteran activist Anna Hazares agitation India Against Corruption (IAC), was also the founding member of AAP in 2012. She led the Maharashtra unit exposing various scams during the tenure of Congress-NCP government in the state. She also fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully against Union minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.

AAP lost all the 48 seats it contested in Maharashtra. AAP then did not contest the Assembly polls and in September 2014 Damania resigned from the post of partys convenor in Maharashtra. In February 2015, following allegations of alleged horse trading against Kejriwal, Damania quit the outfit.

She tweeted I quit. I have not come to AAP for this nonsense. I believed him. I backed Arvind for principles not Horse-trading.

She became active again in the political circles when she started a campaign against the then revenue minister Eknath Khadse, who was forced to resign.

Damania said she has not taken any decision on rejoining AAP. They gheroed me and asked me to return to the party. It is too early to react now, said Damania.

The AAP has lost much of its steam. Top leaders like Medha Patkar have quit th eparty. Apart from the occasional exposes against political leaders, the Maharashtra unit seems to be going nowhere.

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After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections earlier this year, ruling partners Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena are likely to have another face-off during the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) elections next month. The Maharashtra state election commission on Saturday declared that the elections will be held on August 20. Currently, the BJP rules the MBMC with the help of Sena.

After contesting the last civic polls together in 2012, the BJP and Sena won the polls. However, this time the two parties are likely to contest on their own.

Senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who is also editor of partys mouthpiece Saamana, said the parties may fight the elections on their own. I believe both the Sena and BJP will not contest the polls together, Raut told HT.

Despite being in alliance with the BJP, the Sena has been constantly targeting its partner over issues such as the attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims or the Mumbai-Nagpur Supercommunication Expressway, an ambitious project of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Another senior party leader from the party, who wished not to be named, also said the party leadership is unlikely to agree for an alliance with the BJP .

Meanwhile, the BJP said the local unit of the party has been authorised to take a decision in this matter. Everything depends upon the decision of our local unit. If they decide to go on their own ,then the party will not stop them do so, said Madhav Bhandari, spokesperson, state BJP unit.

In the last polls, the BJP-Sena combine had won 43 seats and BJP emerged as single largest party with 29 seats while Sena had managed to get 14 seats. The NCP and Congress were on second and third position with 27 and 19 seats respectively. The Opposition parties had contested the polls on their own.

The 95-seat municipal bodys term is ending on August 27, thus it was mandatory to conduct elections before this.

With the announcement, model election code of conduct has also come in to force in the corporation jurisdiction, said JS Saharia, election commissioner.

Saharia said the process for filing nominations will start from July 26 and will continue till August 2. Last date for withdrawal of nominations would be August 5. Polling will be held on August 20 and results will be declared the next day  August 21.

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The state Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has extended the deadline to register for three-year LLB admissions to August 7, as the university is yet to declare the degree results.

This is the second extension after the deadline was shifted from July 5 to July 15. However, the cell will simultaneously start the next step in admission  marking college preferences  from July 25, so that the students from other varsities continue with their admission.

MUs decision to adopt an on-screen assessment process for examinations held in the first half of the year caused a huge delay in declaring the results. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who also serves as chancellor of the university, asked the varsity administration to declare all the results by July 31.

According to a source in MU, the varsity is yet to assess even half of the approximately 18 lakh answer sheets. With the pace at which the work is going on, its difficult to meet the deadline. In addition to assessment, moderation of answer booklets and uploading of results online will also take a few days, said the source.

An official from the state CET cell said that the varsity would be asked to display the scores online as well, so that they can complete the registration process. Currently, the varsity displays only the category of marks  distinction, first class, second class, pass or fail.

The delay in declaring MU results has affected the admission schedule of various courses. The LLB admissions will now continue till mid-October, a month later than its original schedule. The delay will disturb the entire academic calendar and it will be difficult to bring it back on the track, director of a law institute in the city.

Student Law Council, a city-based student group, has requested the governor to conduct admissions on the basis of aspirants scores in LLB CET. The students from universities across Maharashtra have received their CET results, but are yet to continue with their admissions owing to MUs delay in declaring the results, said the letter.

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More than 470 students secured their first year junior college (FYJC) seats in the extra time given by the states school education on Friday.

The department will open the online link for admissions once again on Saturday if colleges want to admit more students. Of the 1.56 lakh seats allotted in the first round, 79, 474 have filled so far. More than 76,000 seats remain unclaimed.

Although admissions were open till 12 noon on Friday, many colleges were unable to upload details of students who finalised their seats and paid the fee before the deadline. Some students complained that they missed the deadline because of long queues outside colleges.

Education authorities met state officials on Friday morning to discuss further extension of the deadline to complete pending admissions. In the meeting, it was decided that the admission link will be opened for an hour on Saturday morning, but the technical partner, Nysa, gave Mumbai colleges, 30 minutes from 5pm to 5.30pm on Friday evening to finish uploading data.

We were flooded with requests to extend the admission deadline once again, said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region. Many colleges had not finished uploading all their students information on the system in time, so we requested the government for more time.

Chavan added that most colleges had completed their work when the link was reopened on Friday evening. If we get any more requests, we will keep the link open for an hour on Saturday morning too, he said.

Many students across the city couldnt meet the deadline till the evening.

A parent from Bandra complained that a college had told her that admissions could be secured till 3pm, while the actual deadline was 12.05pm. When we went to the college around 2pm, the staff rudely told us that the admissions were closed, she said.

Another said that although they went to the college in time for the admission, the paperwork took a long time. We reached college around 11am, but had to go back to the bank for some work. By the time we returned, the admissions had closed, said the parent, whose son scored 85%. He got through the college of his choice but will be disqualified from the process if he doesnt get admitted in time.

More than 75,937 students remained unreported even though they were allotted seats. Among them, only those who did not receive their first preference will be able to wait for the upcoming admission rounds. Nearly 800 students cancelled their admissions and moved to Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), while 242 were rejected for not having the required documents.

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After the death of two trekkers last week at the Devkund waterfall, the local administration has asked the police to impose section 144  which prohibits the assembly of more than four people in an area  from July 13 to September 9.

The police said the directions were implemented from Friday, and close to 600 people were stopped from entering the trekking destination in Raigad on Saturday.

HT had reported on July 9 that two trekkers from Pune went missing at the waterfall and a day later, their bodies were recovered. After the deaths, the Raigad police requested the district administration to bar tourists from going to the waterfall until the monsoon is over.

READ: Avoid these trekking destinations in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra

The police also appealed to the district collector to impose prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure code (CrPC) last Monday.

Officials from the Raigad district collectors office said after repeated deaths owing to harsh weather conditions, it was necessary to take this step. We have instructed the police to seal the area and not allow tourists till September 9. If rain continues after that, we will extend the ban until we are sure the area is safe again, said an official from the district collectors office.

According to the Raigad and Navi Mumbai police, 16 people have died, and more than 50 have been hurt at various waterfalls and hilly areas around Mumbai since the beginning of this years monsoon season. In June, 55 students were stranded between two streams of the Kundalika river and were rescued after a six-hour operation

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Annoyed with inaccurate weather predictions, a farmer from Beed district has filed a complaint against Colaba and Pune weather stations of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for their misleading rain forecast.

This is the first time such a complaint has been filed against IMD.

In his complaint with Dindrud police of Beed district in Marathwada, Gangabheeshan Thavre, a farmer, said he undertook sowing operations based on the IMD forecast, but after a brief spell, there has been no rain, which has caused him huge financial losses.

He accused the IMD of cheating farmers and alleged connivance between IMD officials and seed and fertiliser companies for a faulty forecast. The Dindrud police said they will verify the claims before registering a criminal case. IMD officials, however, said they have taken the matter to the highest level.

According to the complaint letter filed with the Dindrud police, Thavre owns rain-fed farm land at Anandgaon, Beed district, and completed sowing in June on the basis of IMD forecast in which the weather forecasting agency had predicted heavy rains during June and July.

Based on the wrong forecast, I along with all the other farmers in my village completed sowing by spending lakhs on seeds, fertiliser, spray pumps etc. But there was no rain and our sowing has been spoiled causing us huge financial losses, Thavre said in his letter.

RS Sanap, senior police inspector of Dindrud police said he cant register an FIR based on such a complaint the IMD issues a forecast. We have to verify the charges and consider its legal point of view as well before filing a case. IMD is a forecast agency and going by Thavres argument, lots of cases need to be registered against it, Sanap told HT.

Officials from the Pune weather bureau in-charge of issuing predictions to farmers in the state said they had been made aware about the complaint. Currently, all our predictions over the past three months are being analysed by our office. The issue has been escalated to our head office in New Delhi. We will issue a release once there is clarity on what happened with the prediction, said a senior official from the meteorological services for agriculture in India under IMD.

The weather bureau in New Delhi said they will respond to the allegations once they are informed about it. As of now, we are not aware about these allegations. However, when the issue comes to us, we will respond appropriately as per the professional functioning of the institution. We need to first understand what this grievance is and whether we are responsible for it or not. We are not a commercial agency and we work for the public good. Every year, we make efforts to improve our forecasting abilities and deliver better services, said Dr KJ Ramesh, director, IMD. On the basis of our predictions from last year to this year, the heat wave deaths across the country have reduced significantly, he said.
Four days before submitting the citys Development Plan (DP) 2034 to the Maharashtra government, the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday demanded another 15-day extension from the state government.

This is the third extension the BMC has sought since the February elections.

On Friday, Sena corporators said that all 227 corporators should be given a chance to present their views. Keeping this in mind, a discussion lasting two to three days would not suffice, corporators said. After the previous extension sought in May, the BMC was to send the report with corporators suggestions to the state by July 18.

However, Sena corporator and leader of the house Yashwant Jadhav said that the state had granted it time till August 24 to pass the plan. Jadhav said that corporators were not told about the letter which was sent by the states town planning and valuation department.

The BMC got the letter on May 26, but the civic chief did not tell us about it. Though we have time till August, we need 15 more days so that every corporator can share their views, Jadhav said.

The leader has also demanded that the BMC conduct presentations on the plan in all 24 wards of the city. He said, Corporators need to be trained so that they can give suggestions on the plan. The letter also mentioned that the BMC would not get another extension. Once submitted to the state, the draft is expected to be published in another six months.

Senas demand was supported by its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Congress. BJP corporators, however, said that the corporation needed to chalk out a plan to discuss the DP. Manoj Kotak, BJP group leader in the BMC said, If there is no method to this discussion then we will keep asking for more extensions.

Meanwhile, Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar said that the Sena would not allow any changes in the open spaces reservations in the DP. A source said that Mahadeshwar was perhaps pointing to the reservation changes proposed in Aarey Colony.

While the BJP is pushing for a metro car shed in Aarey, the Sena wants its status as a green zone to be maintained. Mahadeshwar said, According to the directives from our party chief Uddhav Thackeray, we will not allow any changes (in the DP over open spaces).

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Nine years since a high retaining wall was built between Pancham Society at Gilbert Hill and neighbouring slums, garbage and sewage from them continues to accumulate on the societys premises.

The society comprises six residential buildings. Shree Dham building and Mahesh Tower, which abut the Janata Colony slum, are the worst affected; residents said they have for years endured the constant stink of garbage and sewage, and the mosquitoes they attract.

Aditya Suryawanshi, 20, who recently moved in at Shree Dham, said the only view from his flat was of garbage and sewage pipes behind the building. I noticed the problem only after I moved in. Since it is right outside my window, the stench of sewage is constant. There are many places for mosquitoes to breed, he said.

READ: Old drains make base of Mumbais Pali Hill prone to floods

Vincent Aloor, resident and secretary of Mahesh Towers, said, Weve had this problem since the society was formed more than 10 years ago. Residents pooled in almost Rs 3 lakh for a screen of creeper plants on the wall to beautify it. But the BMC has not done anything about the health hazards.

Another resident, who has lived there for 12 years, said that while the amount of garbage had decreased over the years, there needed to be a complete and permanent solution. Local MLA Amit Satam said, I have asked for a drain to be built between the wall and the society. This should help the sewage flow out.

An official at the Andheri (W) ward office said a BMC vehicle collected waste from the area regularly, depending on the amount of garbage piled up. But he admitted there was no comprehensive plan in place to solve the problem.
The police recently arrested a banker for allegedly clicking pictures of two women on a local train.

According to the police, the complainant, a 26-year-old lawyer, caught the accused sharing photos of her and another passenger on a Whatsapp group.

After a case was registered, she then posted an image of the FIR on the same group as a warning to its members, some of who passed lewd comments about her, the police said.

The lawyer said, A male colleague and I usually catch a 9.36pm train from Churchgate and board a first-class compartment. On Monday, a man boarded the train and sat in front of us despite the train being empty.

According to the lawyer, at Bandra, her colleague saw the man taking a photo of a woman who boarded from Dadar,upon which they confronted him. We then called the police and got off at Malad station along with the woman whose picture he took. She said she did not want to register a complaint and just wanted her pictures to be deleted from the phone, said an officer.

According to the police, while the lawyer was about to delete her pictures, she scrolled down and found her pictures as well. She then found that the man had shared the photos on a Whatsapp group.

I saw that after our photos were posted in the group, other members had passed very lewd comments. So I decided to register a complaint and even convinced the other passenger to be a complainant, said the lawyer. The police arrested the accused, identified as Nimesh Ved, a banker. He was booked under section 354 (D) (2) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 under the IT Act. The accused was produced in court and has been remanded in judicial custody.

Police sub-inspector Waghchore, Borivli GRP, said, We have registered a case and arrested the accused. We will be interrogating other members of the Whatsapp group

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Faced with a demand of Rs1,702 crore from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) towards property taxes and octroi, Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) has approached the Bombay high court seeking exemption from payment of municipal taxes for Metro line-1 connecting Ghatkopar with Versova in Andheri.

The metro operator has sought that the state government orders BMC to exempt the metro line from payment of municipal taxes or decide its representation of December 2016 submitted to the state government to declare a legal status of the metro line. The MMOPL has made the representation to the state government in view of a September 2011 decision of the BMC that the metro line was a tramway  being a rail-guided mass rapid transit system having a dedicated right of way  and therefore not entitled to exemption from payment of municipal taxes. The civic body has also demanded from the metro operator a total of Rs1,702 crore towards property taxes and octroi payable on material brought in the city for construction of the metro line and penalty for non-payment of the octroi.

The metro operators counsel, Venkatesh Dhond, argued that MMOPL was facing acute financial problems having accumulated losses right from its inception. He said the estimated project cost itself escalated from Rs2,356 crore to Rs4,026 crores and then the metro operator suffered a net loss of Rs277 crore in the first year of operation. The net loss was widened to Rs287 crores in the subsequent financial year and Rs278 crore in the last financial year, thus resulting in an erosion of the entire net worth of the company.

Dhond said at a time when the company is facing such a financial turmoil and when the government itself is 26% stake-holder in the project, the government is just not deciding its representation  urging the government to declare that the metro line is a Railway entitled to exemptions from payment of all types of municipal taxes, and not a tramway, as concluded by the BMC.

It cant be that they just dont take any decision on our representation eight months after its submission to the government, Dhond complained and urged the court to either direct the government to decide the representation or issue an order to BMC to exempt it from payment of taxes.

Additional government pleader Abhay Patki sought time to respond to the petition. Acting on this plea, the bench of justice Anoop Mohta and justice Anuja Prabhudessai adjourned further hearing on the petition till Wednesday.
In a move to stem farmers protests against land acquisition for the ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur super communication highway, the state government seems to have opened its purse strings.

This week, the Thane district collectorate finalised land rates for farm land in Shahapur taluka, which is the highest compensation paid to farmers in Maharashtra for a public project,so far. Farmers from Khardi village in Shahapur taluka stand to get Rs 2.43 crore for an acre of land under this project. The ready reckoner rate for this village for every hectare of land is around Rs29.59 lakh ( Around 2.4 acres make one hectare of land).

The compensation for the 23 villages in this taluka, which will lose land to the 706-km highway, ranges from Rs52.16 lakh to Rs5.84 crore for an hectare for land. This works out to Rs21.66 lakh to Rs2.43 crore for an acre of land. A copy of the land rates announced for every village per hectare is with HT.

After Khardi, farmers from villages like Dalkhan, Birwadi and Kasara will get a generous compensation of around Rs74.84 lakh and Rs68.93 lakh for an acre of land. This is a one-time compensation that will be paid to farmers if they opt for direct settlement with the state government.

Read: Congress and Shiv Sena up the ante against Maharashtra government for blanket loan waiver

Given the wide range, however, not all farmers will be happy with the rates announced.

So far, the compensation given to farmers for the Shendre-Bidkin industrial park near Aurangabad under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor for nearly Rs23 lakh an acre was being considered as one of highest payouts for farm land. (In the case of DMIC, however, separate compensation was also given for orchards).

Thane district collector Dr Mahendra Kalyankar confirmed the final land rates for farm land in Shahapur taluka.

We are trying to offer the highest land rate possible for every district affected by the project. Its history in making, said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The compensation for non-agriculture land in Shahapur taluka is even higher, in some cases as high as Rs12.60 crore to Rs18.11 crore for an acre of such land in Khardi and Kasara villages. However, only 10 to 15% of non-agricultural land comes under the highway, with officials claiming these rates could get revised as they seemed exorbitant.

The proposed eight-lane highway, which will run across 10 districts to link Nagpur to Thane, is facing stiff opposition from farmers over land acquisition. In a bid to tone down these protests, the government is offering competitive land rates to woo the farmers. The land rates are being worked out by committees appointed for every district led by the collector that considers a variety of parameters including ready reckoner rate of every village, average of last three years of sale deeds, the number of land transactions, compensation as per Land Acquisition law etc, 25 per cent more incentive offered by the state for direct sale.

Read: Maharashtra farmer complains against IMD for wrong rain forecast

Last week, Nasik district collector had announced land rates for the district in the range of Rs40 lakh to Rs80 lakh for one hectare of land. But this had only intensified protests against the project with farmers from Nasik, not wooed by the compensation offered for their irrigated lands.

We have considered a variety of factors and the rates get jacked up also by the number of land transactions that have taken place in that village. In Khardi, for instance, in the recent past, we noted nearly 500 land sale deeds. This was comparatively far less in Chande village that has among the lowest compensations in Shahapur, said a Thane district collectorate official.

The Thane collectorate has also worked out rates for Kalyan taluka, which are far lower than Shahapur, with the highest compensation being Rs1.50 crore for an hectare of land or Rs62 lakh for an acre of land. The lowest compensation here is around Rs61.14 lakh for an hectare of land or Rs25.47 lakh for an acre of land.

The district administration may revise the land rates for Kalyan taluka given that farmers are likely to react negatively given the high rates offered in neighbouring Shahapur taluka.

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The Modak Sagar, which supplies 440 million litres of water to Mumbai daily, started to overflow around 6:32am on Saturday, taking the water stock to 8,99,388 million litres. The current water stock in catchment areas of seven lakes that provide water to the city is sufficient for over 200 days.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) requires 14.47 lakh million litres on October 1, so that the water lasts for the next eight non monsoon months. The water stock has reached 62.14% of what is required at the end of monsoon. In 2016, the water stock had reached only 47.25% as of July 15th.

Modak Sagar received 123 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours on Saturday morning. It is the first lake which provides portable water to the city to overflow this monsoon . Vihar lake in Powai, which provides non-portable water also started overflowing earlier this month.

The current water stock is 2,15,551 million litres more than the stock available last year on 15th July. Bhatsa lake, which is a major contributor in supplying water to the city, is 14.17 meters away from overflowing.
Two persons were injured as a group of residents opened fire at a neighbourhood in Loni town of Ghaziabad on the wee hours of Friday, when a local panchayat was trying to settle an alleged rape case.

According to Loni police, a 23-year-old married man, identified as Arif, entered the house of a 20-year-old woman during the wee hours on Friday and allegedly raped her.

The family members were asleep on the roof of the rented house, when the incident happened. Arif was caught when tenants of neighbouring houses woke up hearing the noise.

After the man was caught, the locals gathered to discuss the issue, as there were speculations that Arif and the woman were in a relationship and he had entered the house with the womans consent. While a local panchayat discussed whether to get the two married or to lodge a police complaint against Arif, one of the neighbours rang up the police.

Attracting police attention to the incident led to resentment among the locals. The neighbour who rang up the police was rebuked by the group holding the panchayat. In retaliation, his family members pelted stones over the group, said Loni circle officer Durgesh Kumar Singh.

Meanwhile, the police arrived at the spot and took the woman and Arif to the station. Following this, some people holding the panchayat insisted that the womans family should be allowed to vacate their rented accommodation. The womans landlord, Mohammad Inam, took offence to this suggestion and allegedly opened fire over the members.

During the firing, two persons Dilshad, 60, and Rehan, 20  were injured and had to be rushed to hospital. The police said they arrested the landlord Inam, his associates Naeem, Naseeb and Yameen in connection with the firing incident.

We are still investigating what happened at the womans house. Arif has been booked for rape after her family forwarded a complaint. We have lodged a second FIR, based on a complaint forwarded by the family of the two injured persons. Seven persons were booked for attempt to murder, Singh said.

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A person was caught in camera allegedly strangling a street dog to death with his feet in Noidas Sector 45 on Friday night.

The man, who was allegedly drunk, stood with his feet pressing the dogs neck and mouth onto the road for about an hour and only moved after the dog breathed its last.

The 18-sec video clip shot by a passerby shows the man standing on the dog, pressing the dogs mouth and neck onto the ground with one foot and holding its hind legs with another foot.

One of the eyewitnesses, who shot the video in his cell phone camera, told Hindustan Times, that man was heavily drunk and pressed the dog to the ground with his feet for about an hour, before it died. The incident took place at Som Bazaar in Noida Sector 45 between 9pm and 10 pm on Friday night.

The eyewitness, said, The man in question is an ex-army person and voluntarily worked as a traffic marshal along with Gautam Budh Nagar police in Noida.

He said people who passed made several appeals to the man, but he did not get off the dog.

He stood on the dog with his feet making the animal immovable. When people asked to leave the dog he quarrelled with them and did not move. He was adamant to kill the animal, as it barked at him, he said.

Meanwhile, the People for Animals representative in Noida on Saturday have taken cognizance on the matter and approached the police to register a complaint in the matter under prevention of cruelty against animals.

Ashima Sunil, the president of the group in Ghaziabad, said, It is really a brutal act. I had spoken to station in-charge of Sector 39 police station and a case will be soon lodged against the errant person.

Ajay Kumar Singh, the station house officer of Sector 39 police station, said, We have been informed about such an incident by representatives of People for Animals. We shall establish the authenticity of the video and investigate into the matter further.
The BJP is staring at a potential crisis in Rajasthan, a state that sent 25 party MPs to the Lok Sabha in 2014. Vasundhara Raje government, which once set the agenda of political discourse with her bold labour reforms, financial inclusion schemes, cashless healthcare services and subsidized kitchens for the poor, seems to be under siege.

Just when she was deploying her troops, the MLAs and the ministers, to counter the opposition Congress onslaught on the issue of agrarian crisis leading to suicide by farmersand her failure to announce a farm loan waiver, as done by her counterparts in some other BJP-ruled states-- yet another police encounter has come to haunt her. Rajputs, loyal supporters of the ruling BJP, are on a warpath over the killing of a dreaded criminal of their community, Anandpal Singh, in a police encounter last month.

Its not a first in Rajasthan that has often seen criminals becoming the symbols of their community pride. Rajputs had gone on a rampage after the killing of Chatur Singh, an alleged criminal, in police firing in Jaisalmer last year. In 2006, during Rajes first term as CM, Jats were similarly agitated over the killing of Dara Singh, a Jat criminal, in a police encounter.

The latest upsurge of Rajputs against the BJP government threatens to unsettle Rajes carefully crafted caste balance. In a state known for caste conflictsRajputs-versus-Jats-versus-Gujjars-versus-Meenas-- she represents a unique blend: born in a Rajput family (erstwhile royal family of Gwalior) and married to a Jat (from the erstwhile royal family of Dholpur), with a Gujjar daughter-in-law. Jats and Rajputs, who together constitute about one-fourth of Rajasthans electorate, played a big role in the BJPs success in 2003 and 2013 assembly elections. Anandpals encounter threatens to bring the latent tension and rivalry between the two communities to the fore. Rajputs suspect that some Jat police officials deliberately shot down Anandpal who crossed swords with Jat criminals as also politicians.

Rajput politicians, including one related to former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, have swung into action to muddy the waters for Raje. And so have her detractors in the Sangh Parivar. State home minister Gulab Chand Katari, a hardline RSS leader whose first stint in this capacity was marked by the withdrawal of police cases against Sangh activists, said he was sleeping when the chief minister called him to inform about the police encounter, virtually putting the onus on her.

While it said a lot about the home minister, it also underscored the uneasy equations between the CM and the RSS-backed ministers. Facing flak for incidents of atrocities against Muslims, including the lynching of Pahlu Khan by cow vigilantes in Alwar, her government has been at pains to enlist the actions against perpetrators. But such explanations find few takers as ministers such as primary and secondary education, Vasudev Devnani, continue showing off their contributions to Hindutva by correcting what he calls distorted history in school textbooks.

As state Congress president Sachin Pilot embarks on a 93 km pada yatra from the CMs pocketborough, Jhalawar, in the third week of July, Raje government will come under intense pressure on the issue of farm loan waiver. The Centres decision to scrap PDS sugar subsidy has given more ammunition to the opposition. The dice are loaded against the BJP, about 16 months before Rajasthan goes to polls.

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The Election Commission (EC) has appointed Haryana-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Pankaj Aggarwal as assistant returning officer (ARO) for the July 17 Presidential election, in place of Haryana Vidhan Sabha secretary Rajender Kumar Nandal.

Usually, its is the Vidhan Sabha secretary who functions as ARO in the Presidential polls. Nandals functioning had come under the lens when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed independent candidate and media baron Subhash Chandra was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana in 2016 after votes of 14 Congress MLAs were declared invalid.

Aggarwal, a 2000-batch IAS officer, is presently posted as Haryana labour commissioner.

The EC, under the Right to Information Act, informed on July 11 that it has recommended disciplinary action against Nandal for lack of supervisory control during the June 2016 biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from the state.

In the Rajya Sabha polls, Chandra had defeated Congress and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)-backed independent candidate and Delhi-based lawyer RK Anand.

The votes were rejected because the Congress MLAs used wrong ink to mark the vote which needed to be marked with a violet pen that is provided by the returning officer.

A Supreme Court lawyer, Anand had challenged the election alleging forgery and fabrication. He had alleged that the decision of the Nandal to declare some votes null and void was wrong. He had also accused Nandal of conniving with the winning candidate.

The Punjab and Haryana high court, however, had upheld the Chandras election.

It is in this backdrop that the EC has not accepted the name of Nandal for appointment as ARO for the Presidential election. The EC stated that it had requested the Haryana chief secretary to suggest a name for the appointment of the ARO in consultation with the chief electoral officer Haryana. The chief secretary then proposed Aggarwals name.

Haryana has 90 members in the Vidhan Sabha who will cast their votes through the ballot paper on Monday from 10am to 5pm.

In neighbouring Punjab, the Vidhan Sabha secretary Sashi Mishra will be ARO.

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The gangrape and murder of a 16-year-old school girl at Kotkhai couldnt have come at a more inopportune time for beleaguered Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

The state is going to the polls later this year and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party was prompt to steer the public anger against the government and police for going slow on the probe into the case.

The outrage against the crime gathered momentum when photos of the rape victims naked body were circulated on social media. People took to the streets with student bodies affiliated to political parties resorting to candlelight processions, road blockades and silent marches in Shimla and Kotkhai, the apple heartland that has been a traditional Congress bastion.

Virbhadra, who is already facing cases of corruption, has come under criticism from his own party men. State transport minister GS Bali has opened a front against the chief minister putting his government in the dock over certain issues. He has condemned the rape and murder of the school girl and demanded action against officers responsible for delaying the investigation. It took the police nine days make a breakthrough in the case.

BJP leaders stepped up pressure on the government by demanding a CBI probe into the case, saying they doubted the police special investigation teams probe. The public protests at Kotkhai, Shimla and Theog bolstered their stand against the government. Protesters went on the rampage at Theog on Friday, damaging police vehicles. BJP Chopal legislator Balbir Verma addressed the protesters, who raised slogans against the government and the police. BJP zila parishad member Neelam Seraikh staged a sit-in at Kotkhai police station in a bid to manage public perception.

Left with no choice, Virbhadra, who is also the state home minister, handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The mayhem and incidents of destroying of public property at Theog is politically motivated, as instead of having sympathies with the victims family, the matter is being given a political colour. We decided to refer the matter to CBI so that no doubts are left, Virbhadra said, ordering the probe.

Upping the ante, BJP MP Anurag Thakur said, The chief minister has all the time to visit Delhi over and again for his cases but has no time to visit the victims family at a time when the state is concerned about this heinous crime. People have been forced to protest for their security. The CM should step down.

Former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal blamed the CM for the deteriorating law and order situation.

The Left also mounted pressure on the government. Todays situation has put the entire police force under serious doubt. The director general of police should step down, said Rakesh Singh, a member of the CPM secretariat.

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As suspense continues over the fate of 39 Indians, including 29 Punjabis, who went missing at Mosul in Iraq in June 2014 after being abducted by the Islamic State (IS), the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has contacted family members of some of them and asked them to reach Delhi on Sunday for a meeting with minister Sushma Swaraj.

Talking to HT, Gurpinder Kaur, whose brother Manjinder Singh is among the missing youths in Iraq, said, I got a call yesterday from an official in ministry of external affairs. He said the minister wants to meet us on Sunday. I and some other families will be leaving for New Delhi today itself.

Asked if the MEA official told her anything about her brother, Gurpinder said, I asked him, but the officer did not reveal anything. He just said the minister wants to share some details they have got. I dont know what those details are and will only come to know once we meet the minister.

Gurpinder, who has met Swaraj several times in the past, said even though Mosul has been freed from IS now, they are yet to make any contact with the youths missing there.

Notably, after Iraqi forces freed the city of Mosul from the Islamic terror group, New Delhi opened various channels to trace the 39 Indian nationals.

But the families, who lost contact with the youths since June 2014, are yet to get any vital input from Iraq. The Iraqi government had also assured all help, but there is no word on the missing Indians so far.

As these families are going to meet the external affairs minister on Sunday, they are hopeful of some good news.

VK Singh to brief Sushma

Union minister of state for external affairs General VK Singh (retd), who was in Iraq to locate the missing Indians after that country declared victory against the IS last Sunday, will be back in Delhi on Saturday night.

He will brief external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj before she meets the families of the Indian captives on Sunday.

Visited Peshmarga frontline in Mosul area to seek information on Indians held by ISIS. Peshmerga still clearing ISIS held areas, General Singh tweeted from Iraq earlier this week.
Indo-Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, who was denied an Indian visa three years ago, has alleged that the Indian government may be attempting to undermine his campaign to become the next leader of Canadas New Democratic Party (NDP).

While Singh has emerged as a viable candidate for the leadership of the national party, he has had a difficult relationship with the Indian government.

This has come to the fore in recent days, as he told the Canadian national daily, The Globe and Mail, that his supporters had informed him that figures with links to the Indian high commission in Ottawa were trying to use their influence to prevent members of the community from contributing to his campaign or backing him.

He made a similar statement to the Vancouver weekly, The Georgia Straight, that members of the community were often discouraged from participating in his fundraising events. That article said Singh noted that some people who had earlier shown interest in donating money to his campaign later changed their minds after receiving some kind of pressure.

It quoted him as saying: I am still trying to get as many witnesses as I can to prove this so that an appropriate action can be taken.

Queries in this regard sent to his campaign did not receive a response. There was no response to the allegations from the Indian government.

Singh, a member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, was denied a visa to travel to India in late 2013. He also introduced a motion in the Ontario Assembly in 2016 for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India to be termed genocide.

While that motion failed, a year later, a similar motion was successfully moved by a member of the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario and Singh was critical of India and its government during the debate that ensued.

He has made his views on India apparent during the campaign as well. In an official statement issued on the anniversary of Operation Bluestar this year, he stated this was the day when the government of India initiated a genocidal campaign against the Sikh minority.

That statement went on to add, The Indian military killed thousands of innocent people in just one day. This genocide continued for the next twenty years. Across Punjab, Sikh youth disappeared, torture was rampant, and Sikhs endured relentless state-sanctioned terrorism.

He described that episode as an attempt to extinguish the Sikh community.
Its been three days but the city residents have failed to get respite from the overflowing garbage.

With the Jaypee plant refusing to let in garbage and Dadumajra residents not allowing dumping in the ground next to the plant, the municipal staff didnt lift garbage from Sehaj Safai Kendras even on Friday.

Heaps of garbage have piled up in various localities over the past three days and even garbage bins installed in the sectors are overflowing.

Earlier in the day, municipal commissioner B Purushartha and mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal held a meeting with the Jaypee plant officials to resolve the issue.

Citing that they still had 6,000 tonnes of unprocessed refuse on the premises, the plant officials said they need at least three weeks to upgrade the plant, and will install a compost plant within three months.

Denied entry, all municipal vehicles used for transporting garbage are parked in front of the garbage plant.

We have sought three weeks to upgrade the plant. The MC will have to understand our problem. We already have around 6,000 tonnes of garbage on the premises. It will take time to process it, said Jaypee plant in-charge Col KJS Sandhu (retd).

Meanwhile, Dadumajra residents are also up in arms. They say they wont allow garbage to be thrown at the dumping ground. The protest is being led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Rajesh Kalia.

Even as the mayor went to pacify them, they refused to budge. I am trying my best to resolve the issue. As the Jaypee authorites have sought three weeks to upgrade the plant, I will again hold talks with the protesters on Saturday so that they allow us to at least throw garbage in the dumping ground, said Jaswal.

FROM BAD TO WORSE

Meanwhile, residents are having a tough time.

Sanitation has gone from bad to worse. The authorities have been talking about making Chandigarh a smart city, but have failed to even find a solution to the problem of garbage collection and disposal, said SS Bhardwaj, citizens welfare society, Sector 51, chief.

Hitesh Puri, vice-chairman of the Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh, said it was unfortunate that the MC had failed to resolve the issue for the past five years.

MC officers are busy holding meetings in their air-conditioned rooms and have no idea about the ground reality, he said.

We are debating the issue in the House since 2012, but nothing has happened on the ground, major DS Sandhu (retd), a former nominated councillor .

THEYSAY

We have sought three weeks to upgrade the plant. The MC will have to understand our problem.-- Col KJS Sandhu (retd), Jaypee plant in-charge

As the plant has sought time, I will again urge protesters to let us dump garbage in the Dadumajra ground. --Asha Kumari Jaswal, city mayor

The city is stinking. I fail to understand as to how the MC can be so insensitive towards the residents. -- Pawan Kumar Bansal, former city MP
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Ranchis principal commissioner of income tax, Tapas Kumar Dutta, after recovering Rs 3.7 crore cash and 6.6 kg gold from his Salt Lake residence in Kolkata.

The agency on Wednesday had raided premises of four income tax department officials, a chartered accountant and five private persons at 23 locations in Kolkata and Ranchi for their alleged involvement in criminal conspiracy to favour shell companies by slashing their tax liabilities.

After arresting Dutta here, the investigating agency produced him before a special CBI court at 2pm on Thursday. It took him under judicial custody and forwarded him to the Birsa Munda Central Jail here.

Special CBI judge Bal Krishna Tiwari, however, allowed the agency to take Dutta under its custody for four days for further interrogation.

We will take him to Kolkata to unearth the scam further, a CBI official informed the court, seeking its permission to take Dutta under police custody.

The CBI carried out search and seizure operations on the premises of Dutta and his junior colleagues Arvind Kumar, additional commissioner of income tax, Ranjit Kumar Lal, income tax officer and Subir Ganguly, another officer of the department.

Besides, premises of a chartered accountant Pawan Maurya and five Kolkata-based businessmen Biswanath Agarwal, director of Anchal Vyapar Private Limited, Santosh Choudhary, Vinod Agarwal, Aakash Agarwal and Arvind Agarwal were also raided.

On Wednesday, a team of CBI officials reached Ranchis income-tax building to quiz Dutta, who resided at the departments guest house on the eight floor. They grilled Dutta and his colleagues for more than eight hours in the guest house. The officials said the investigation was still on.

A separate team raided Duttas residence at Salt Lake in Kolkata and recovered Rs 3.5 crore cash and 5 kg gold from the house.

The raids were conducted after the CBI registered named FIR on July 10 against Dutta and nine others. HT has inspected the copy of the FIR.

It was alleged that Dutta during 2016-17 had entered into a criminal conspiracy with his colleagues to take a huge bribe from the named private persons for transferring their companies income tax assessment files from Kolkata and Hazaribag to Ranchi and reassessing the files to substantially reduce the tax liability of these companies.

Under the criminal conspiracy, Dutta asked his junior Arvind Kumar to issue favourable orders by reassessing the files of GRD Finance and Finlink, the companies in which Biswanath Agarwal has financial interest. Besides, Agarwal paid huge bribe to Dutta and other officers soon after the folder of assessment file of his company Anchal Vyapar migrated to Ranchi. Dutta also assured to pass favourable orders with regard to Agarwals other companies namely Sanchay Tradecom and Marici Dealmark.

The CBI alleged that Biswanath Agarwal, his relatives PK Dhanuka, Subodh Dhanuka and Santosh Choudhary were custodian of Duttas illegal money. The FIR further alleged that Dutta obtained 6% interest from these people against his illegal money stashed with them. Recently, in May and on June 11 hefty interest amount was delivered to Duttas wife at his Salt Lake residence.

The FIR revealed that acting on Duttas instruction, Biswanath Agarwal had paid Rs 3.5 crore to Mani group for booking a flat at EM bypass in Kolkata. In order to show these shady transactions as genuine, fake loan papers had been prepared. In one such loan papers, it had been shown that Subodh Dhanuka had taken a loan of Rs 1.75 crore from Ruchira Dutta, a family member of Tapas Dutta.

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RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday appeared before a CBI court here and produced two witnesses, including Bihars former HRD minister and currently Banka MP Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, in his defence in a fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 90 lakh from Deoghar treasury.

In yet another scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 38 crore from Chaibasa treasury, Prasad submitted a list of 35 witnesses in his defence. The trial of the said case moved a stage forward in which the court asked all the accused to produce witnesses in their defence. It also recorded the statement of Prasads defence witness Mohammad Jainul, retired undersecretary of the Bihar assembly secretariat, on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Prasad appeared before the special CBI judge Shiv Pal Singh to produce defence witnesses  RJDs Banka MP Yadav and Jainul  in Deoghar treasury case.

Prasads lawyer Prabhat Kumar said, Yadavs testimony was necessitated to prove that the then Bihar governor had acted against the constitutional spirit to grant prosecution sanction against Prasad in 1997.

The former governor had granted prosecution sanction in absence of any cabinet decision in this regard, which is a violation of the Article 163 of the Constitution, Kumar said.

He added that Yadav, who was the HRD minister between 1995 and 2000, in his statement given to the court said that no cabinet decision was taken during 1997 to grant prosecution sanction against Prasad. Citing the constitutional provision, Yadav informed the court that the governor should exercise his/her functions on the aid and advice of the council of ministers, Kumar said.

Another witness Jainul was produced to negate the CBIs allegation that Prasad was fully aware of the fodder scam and he, being the chief minister and finance minister, never initiated any action to find out the cause of excess fund withdrawals from the animal husbandry department (AHD).

The CBI alleged that several MLAs had raised questions about the AHD scam in the Bihar assembly during 1994-95 and the government had furnished their replies too. Prasad, having full knowledge of the scam, therefore, connived to facilitate the fraud, the CBI alleged.

Testifying before the court, Jainul explained the procedures involved in raising questions in the assembly and furnishing replies by the minister concerned.

Recording the statements of Yadav and Jainul, the court fixed July 14 for producing other defence witnesses. Prasad will appear in person in the court on Friday too.

Prasad also appeared before special CBI judge S S Prasad in the Chaibasa treasury case. The judge recorded the testimony of Jainul in this case.

Prasad had suffered a major jolt in the fodder scam case on September 30, 2013 when a trial court in Ranchi held him guilty in the first of six cases against him. The conviction got him five years in prison, disqualification from Parliament and a ban on contesting elections. He was given bail by the apex court in December later that year.

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Chennai will host an International Science Festival from October 13-16, the union minister for science and technology, Harsh Vardhan announced on Saturday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a new building of the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management at Anna University. The centre is mulling a National Coastal Mission, amid criticism of the review of the Coastal Zone Regulations, which lay down rules for activities along and close to Indias coasts.

The centre is under the Society of Integrated Coastal Management of the environment ministry that is centre for research including policy research on management of coastal and marine areas.

I would also like to use this occasion to announce that this year the Science and Technology Ministry is organising the India International Science Festival in Chennai (scheduled to be held) from October 13 to 16, he said.

The festival would bring in several scientists from various parts of the country, union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan said Saturday.

The ministry would soon come out with a detailed programme about the event to be hosted later this year, he, said.

Very soon, we will come out with a detailed programme (about the event). Already, the preparations have started. The Science Festival will see the participation of over 10,000 scientists from all parts of the country and from other countries, he added.

The Minister who also holds the Environment Ministry portfolio sought people to take up one environment friendly initiative every day in the state. We seek your (media) support in motivating the Tamil Nadu people for doing at least one environment friendly positive act every day so that we are able to have a huge positive national movement in the country, he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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Want to know which are the top monsoon destinations for urban Indian travellers this year? According to the recent findings by Flight Shop - a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, these include Lahaul-Spiti (Himachal Pradesh), Tinsukia (Assam), Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), Kausani (Uttarakhand) and Athirapally falls (Kerala). Following the trend are also Mawlynnong (Meghalaya), Panshet (Maharashtra) and Digha (West Bengal).

Monsoon 2017 findings also testify the spike of 30% in domestic travel during the green season with travellers enjoying the fading peak of the summer holiday period while dodging large groups of tourists at popular destinations. The discerning new-age traveller is taking advantage of low tariff rates and discounts, further fuelling to the demand this season.

Enthralling activities and unparalleled experiences clubbed with clutter-breaking deals have steered the urban last-minute travellers - backpackers, adventure enthusiasts, solo travellers and millennials to travel and explore.

Shravan Gupta, executive director, Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions says, There is nothing called off-season travel in India anymore. In fact, the spirit of India truly comes alive during monsoons, showcasing its dense and diverse natural riches; an exceptional weather is always an add-on and hence, an excellent time to travel.

Lahaul and Spiti is also a favourite among urban Indian travellers (Shutterstock)

Adding, Especially for the workaholics, refreshing mid-year breaks not just help unwind, also recharge from busy city life. At Flight Shop, we have also observed steep interest from the new-age segment - the last minute travellers indulging in outdoor activities like white water rafting, hiking trails & trekking in rainforests and photography off the beaten path. We have seen a rise of 52% in these last minute bookings, this monsoon.

He further said, With travel becoming affordable by each passing day, many Indians seek to international destinations at the very onset of an opportunity. However, during monsoons, there can be no destination worthier than incredible India - from lush greens in the South and lofty mountains in the North. And since it is traditionally still an off-season, travellers can enjoy all of this at reduced prices.

Jahaz Mahal in Mandu (Shutterstock)

In addition to the unconventional destinations observed this monsoon, Coorg, Kerela, Goa and Ladakh continue to be the perennial favourites for its extensive offerings and serene exquisiteness.

Additional trends during Monsoon 2017 include a 15-20% rise in self-drives, especially from Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad through the scenic Konkan coastal route.

Furthermore, solo travel has also seen a 10-15% upsurge, with travellers from key metros (Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore) heading to the hills for quick monsoon getaways to the aforementioned off-beat destinations.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
Tony Blair has warned that the combination of Brexit followed by a Jeremy Corbyn government would soon leave Britain flat on our back, arguing that a deeply divided country needs a fundamental rethink of its political ideas.

In another demonstration of his partial return to domestic politics, the former prime minister praised Corbyns performance in the general election, but argued that greater scrutiny of the Labour leaders policies could derail the next campaign. In a lengthy article released by his own political institute , the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Blair said an unchanged Corbyn programme introduced at the same time as Brexit would prove disastrous for the country.

If a rightwing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a leftwing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard-left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count, he wrote.

Blair warned the party he led for 13 years that, however unexpectedly good the partys showing in the 8 June election, it could not automatically expect victory soon. The Labour party should be cautious in thinking one more heave will deliver victory next time, Blair said. The Corbyn campaign was a positive factor in the election result; but the determining factor was the Tory campaign.

The Corbyn enthusiasm, especially amongst the young, is real, but I would hesitate before saying that all those who voted Labour voted to make him prime minister, or that they supported the body of the programme rather than its tone. I think they thought that the likelihood was that the Tories would be the government, but were determined to neuter the mandate.

In the next election, Labours economic policies will come under vastly greater scrutiny, Blair warned. However, he conceded he did not foresee the Labour gains made in the election, and hailed Corbyns role in this.

I pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyns temperament in the campaign, to the campaigns mobilisation of younger voters, and to the enthusiasm it generated, he said. His supporters shouldnt exaggerate it; but his critics, including me, shouldnt understate it. He tapped into something real and powerful, as Bernie Sanders has in the USA and left groups have done all over Europe.

Much of the article concerned Blairs continued opposition to Brexit, which he has previously called on remain-minded voters to seek to overturn.

He said the British people should be made aware of the possibility of Europe meeting the UK half way on a range of issues, predicting that Europe will comprise an inner and outer circle in the coming years.

The former prime minister claimed that if the UK didnt abandon the single market, European leaders would be willing to relax their stance on freedom of movement  one of the central principles of single market membership  and let Britain have control.

Blair said political changes on the continent, including the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, have made an alternative to a hard Brexit more likely. Macrons victory changes the political dynamics of Europe.

Reform is now on Europes agenda, he said. The European leaders, certainly from my discussions, are willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain, including around freedom of movement.

Along with the comments, Blairs institute has released polling conducted on its behalf which shows, among other findings, that the majority of Britons are split on whether they would like a so-called soft or hard Brexit. The British peoples attitude to Europe is ambivalent, Blair said. They do think Brexit means Brexit and, for now, there is no groundswell for a second referendum.

But they want a strong relationship with Europe. A majority oppose hard Brexit. The opposition to free movement of people, once you break it down, is much more nuanced.

Overall, he concludes, the UK is deeply divided  between young and old, metropolitan and outside the cities, better off and worse off.
With no end in sight to the standoff in the Sikkim sector, China on Saturday said there is no room for negotiations to resolve the military face-off and the only solution is the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Donglang or Doklam region.

India will face embarrassment if it does not withdraw its border troops to its own side and the situation could get worse, the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Saturday night.

China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiations on this incident, and India must withdraw its border-crossing troops from Doklam. For China, border line is the bottom line, the commentary said.

The commentary sought to add yet another dimension to the face-off by bringing in the Ladakh region and linking it to Pakistan, Chinas iron brother ally.

India should not regard the existing situation as the same as or even similar to the previous two standoffs in 2013 and 2014 near Ladakh, a disputed area between China, Pakistan and India in southeastern Kashmir. Diplomatic efforts led the troops frictions there to a well-arranged end. But this time it is a totally different case, it added.

It is rare for China to call Ladakh a disputed region and make a reference to Kashmir.

This is the first time that China has clearly articulated  through one of its primary official channels - that there is no room for parleys to resolve the weeks-long impasse in Donglang, which is under Chinas control but claimed by Bhutan.

Until now, the foreign ministry had listed the withdrawal of Indian troops hinted as a precondition for resolving the face-off but had hinted there is an ongoing effort to end it through diplomatic negotiations.

Xinhua is an organ of the Chinese government and is affiliated to the State Council, the Communist countrys cabinet.

Commentaries published by Xinhua and the Peoples Daily, the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, are taken to be a reflection of the thoughts of the government and the all-powerful CPC.

India has repeatedly ignored China's call for pulling its border-crossing troops from Doklam area back to its own territory. However, turning a deaf ear to China will but worsen the month-long standoff and put itself further into embarrassment, the commentary said.

It added that India had lied to the world by saying it dispatched troops to Donglang to help its ally Bhutan, whereas apparently Thimphu had extended no invitation to New Delhi to intervene.

New Delhi claimed encroachment of its own territory by China before saying it sent troops to protect its ally Bhutan, a sovereign state which has apparently so far made no such an invitation for the sake of that boundary area, it said.

Bhutan and China dont have diplomatic ties but have held 24 rounds of talks to resolve a boundary dispute.

The commentary, however, described foreign secretary S Jaishankars remarks during a recent speech in Singapore as a positive sign.

As an old Chinese saying goes, peace is most precious. It has been noticed that Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently has made positive remarks in Singapore, saying that India and China should not let differences become disputes, it said.

What China would like to see more are corresponding actions taken by India.

China has a will to solve the problem peacefully by diplomatic means, and China also cherishes the peace and serenity in the border areas, but the precondition is that the trespassers of India must withdraw unconditionally.
A Christian man has been arrested on charges of blasphemy in Pakistans Punjab province.

Soon after arresting the suspect, police shifted him to an undisclosed location over fears that people led by religious groups might attack the police station.

The incident took place at Kharian Gujrat, some 200 km from Lahore, the capital of Punjab.

Nadeem Ahmed, owner of an electric shop in Dinga town, filed a police complaint that a friend informed him on Thursday that a Christian sweeper allegedly uttered remarks against the Prophet, according to superintendent of police Maaz Zafar.

The sweeper worked at a private hospital, and a case has been registered against him.

Zafar said police raided the whereabouts of the sweeper and arrested him.

He said the situation in the area was under control and police are patrolling the town.

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan and those accused of it have become an easy target for extremists.
The colonisation of Mars has long been a dream, and Nasa has openly spoken of its desire to send humans to the red planet by the 2030s.

However, these celestial plans have had a very earthly spanner thrown in its works  money.

The chief of Nasas programme on human exploration of space, William Gerstenmaier, was quoted by Newsweek as saying that with its current budget, the agency cannot afford the cost of propelling a manned spacecraft to Mars.

Through this horizon, through the 2030s, I cant put a date on humans on Mars, Gerstenmaier said on Wednesday.

Nasa has made the project a high priority of its exploration programme and is already studying potential exploration zones which would provide resources that potential inhabitants could use.

The Curiosity rover on the red planet. (Twitter)

The agency has landed several unmanned exploratory vehicles on Mars, with the most recent one  the Curiosity rover, which landed in August 2012 costing an estimated $2.5 billion. According to Gerstenmaier, a manned mission to Mars would weigh 20 times what the rover weighed, meaning a 20-fold increase in costs.

The US has allocated Nasa a $19.5 billion budget for the 2017 fiscal, but Gerstenmaier said, At the budget levels weve describedits roughly a 2% increasewe dont have the surface systems available for Mars. That entry, descent and landing is a huge challenge for us for Mars.

However, Nasa has not produced a specific figure of the cost of a manned mission to Mars, with figures varying from $100 billion over a period of 30 years to as high as $1 trillion over 25 years.

Private organisations working on their own missions to Mars have been more conservative with estimates  Mars One, a Dutch-Swiss organisation, aims to send four people to Mars at a cost of $6 billion, while SpaceX founder Elon Musk put the cost at $10 billion per person in 2016.

Photo released by Nasa on December 9, 2013 by the Curiosity rover shows a series of sedimentary deposits in the Glenelg area of Gale Crater on the red planet. (AFP)

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Gunmen attacked military bases in Ivory Coasts main city of Abidjan and the northern city of Korhogo in the early hours of Saturday, but were repulsed, a senior military official said.

Three military sources blamed demobilised former rebel fighters - forces caught up in years of instability in Francophone West Africas most important economy - though no group claimed responsibility.

There was an attack overnight at Abobo (north Abidjan), but there were no deaths. In Korhogo, three of the assailants were killed, Colonel Zakaria Kone, commander of the Abobo camp, told Reuters by telephone. The situation is now calm.

He added that a police station in Abobo was also attacked, saying he did not know who had done it or for what motive.

The three military sources in the northern city of Bouake, which sent reinforcements to Korhogo, said the attackers were demobilised fighters from former rebels who controlled the north of the country during Ivory Coasts crisis from 2002 to 2011.

During that period, northern rebels hostile to then president Laurent Gbagbo seized half the country. An election meant to end the crisis instead triggered a short civil war when Gbagbo refused to concede to President Alassane Ouattara.

Sporadic unrest since then has revealed just how precarious security still is in Ivory Coast, the worlds leading cocoa producer, six years since the war killed thousands of people.

Security has been particularly tense since soldiers made up mostly of former rebels that had backed Ouattara during the crisis mutinied in January. The 8,400 troops involved demanded bonuses they claimed they were owed and were partly paid in order to put it to rest.

But they mutinied again in May, and were paid the remainder of what they had demanded in a deal that risks both angering other factions in the military and encouraging other former rebel fighters to take up arms.

About a week after the mutiny ended, three demobilised ex-rebel fighters were killed in Ivory Coasts second-biggest city of Bouake, as they clashed with police attempting to end a separate protest over bonus payments.

President Ouattaras grip on the military and other former rebel fighters is tenuous and many fear that power struggles around a 2020 election to replace him could easily erupt into more violence and instability.

The soldiers are patrolling everywhere in the town to ensure there is nothing else suspect, said Korhogo resident Adama Coulibaly.
A year ago Saturday, a group of Turkish soldiers using tanks, warplanes and helicopters launched a plot to overthrow Turkeys president and government. The coup attempt failed, but the fallout continues a year later.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan swiftly blamed his one-time ally, US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is in exile in the US and denies the allegations that he was behind the coup. The two had a public falling out in 2013, when Gulens organization was declared a terror organization and a clampdown began.

On the night the coup unfolded, the events made little sense to those watching. Many turned to the news to make sense of what was happening, while others lined up at stores and ATMs, unsure if the country would function the next day. Istanbul and Ankara residents took cover in their homes as they heard the unusual sound of sonic booms from fighter jets.

Heeding a call from the president, thousands of people took to the streets to oppose the coup plotters. Some 250 people were killed and 2,193 injured. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed in clashes.

Based on reporting from that night, along with information from the state-run Anadolu news agency and the Turkish presidents office, here is an account of how the July 15-16 coup unfolded (all times local):

July 15

10 pm

A group of soldiers closes off two Istanbul bridges that connect the part of Turkey thats in Asia to the part thats in Europe, leading to a Friday night traffic jam and prompting social media speculation about a potential terror attack. Military jets are heard flying over the capital Ankara and shots are fired at army headquarters.

11:05 pm

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says in a live televised statement that a group within Turkeys military is attempting a coup.

July 16

12:13 am

Soldiers aligned with the coup attempt take over the state broadcaster TRT, where anchorwoman Tijen Karas is forced to read a statement announcing the military has seized power from a government that lost its legitimacy. The statement cites autocratic rule and increased terrorism. It imposes martial law and curfews.

12:26 am

Hande Firat, an anchorwoman for private broadcaster CNN Turk, uses FaceTime to interview Erdogan live on air from her smartphone. He says a minority within the military has attempted a coup outside the chain of command. He says they were incited by Gulens parallel state, a reference to an alleged infiltration of state institutions by the clerics followers. Erdogan calls people to assemble in the countrys squares and airports. He then connects to other channels using FaceTime to repeat his call to resist the coup.

12:30 am

People begin flowing into the streets across the country to oppose the coup attempt. The Directorate of Religious Affairs instructs mosques to recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets. Municipal buses and waste haulers barricade army barracks.

1:01 am

Fighter jets and helicopters hit Ankara police headquarters six times, followed by strikes on a police special operations unit and a branch of Turkeys satellite operator TURKSAT.

2:32 am

F-16 fighter jets piloted by coup plotters bomb Turkeys parliament 11 times, forcing members of parliament who convened for an emergency session to seek shelter in the basement.

3:20 am

President Erdogan lands in Istanbul hours after departing a summer resort in Marmaris where he narrowly escaped capture and possibly an assassination attempt. He is welcomed by thousands of supporters. Earlier, all airports had been closed to aviation traffic and Istanbuls main airport seized by soldiers and tanks.

4 am

An official investigation is launched and detention warrants issued against alleged coup plotters linked to Gulens network, including members of the judiciary and the military. Suspensions from public service and detentions are already under way.

4:42 am

A helicopter bombs the Marmaris hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing and nearly 30 soldiers and commando squads raid the hotel, killing two police officers. Erdogan had already left.

6:30 am

More than 130 soldiers who occupied the Bosporus Bridge, now called July 15 Martyrs Bridge, surrender to police and civilians resisting the coup attempt. Thirty civilians were killed there.

6:43 am

Coup plotters drop bombs around the Presidential Complex in Ankara.

8:32 am

Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar, who was taken hostage at the outset of the coup attempt, arrives at the Prime Ministry after being rescued.

5 pm

Prime Minister Yildirim speaks in an extraordinary parliamentary session, saying Turkish citizens defeated the coup attempt and protected democracy. All four political parties represented in parliament issue a joint statement against the coup.

8:02 pm

The government declares the coup attempt decisively put down. Millions gather across the country for a democracy vigil that goes on every night for nearly a month.

Postcript

Days after the coup attempt, an emboldened Erdogan declares a state of emergency that remains in place to this day. It has allowed the government to rule by decrees, bypassing parliamentary checks and balances, to bring down Gulens network and other terror groups. Critics have called it a civilian coup, institutionalizing a clampdown that was already underway.

More than 50,000 people, including a dozen opposition parliamentarians and around 160 journalists, have been arrested. Some 100,000 public employees have been fired for suspected links to terror, among them academics, teachers, police and military officers. Judicial and administrative paths for the jailed and purged to defend themselves have been severely curtailed.

To Erdogans chagrin, the US has not extradited Gulen and some NATO allies have granted asylum to alleged coup plotters. International criticism of the post-coup crackdown is rampant and Erdogan, more isolated than ever, has further polarized the country, having missed an opportunity to maintain the unity garnered against the coup.
Pakistans top military officer on Saturday accused India of targeting the US $50 billion China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through subversive activities.

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to Chinas restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

As it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India has raised objection to the project.

Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, alleged that Indias Research and Analysis Wing was targeting the CPEC thorough subversive activities.

The highest-ranking military officer in the Pakistan Defense Forces made the remarks while addressing a passing out parade of the Navy Cadets here.

Zubair, the only four-star general besides army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Pakistan was aware of enemy designs and was taking effective counter measures for national security.

He also said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional security.

Pakistan regularly accuses India of carrying out sabotage activities. India has repeatedly dismissed all such allegations and asserted that cross border terrorism being perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups must stop.
Xu Zhiyong, one of Chinas most prominent rights activists, was released by the authorities on Saturday after serving a four-year sentence that prompted international criticism, with his lawyer saying he hoped he would be allowed to live as a free man.

Xu, whose New Citizens Movement advocated working within the system to press for change, was detained in 2013 and subsequently convicted of gathering a crowd to disturb public order.

One of the groups main demands had been for officials to publicly disclose their assets, a demand taken against the backdrop of the ruling Communist Partys own efforts to crackdown on deep-seat corruption under President Xi Jinping.

Xus lawyer Zhang Qingfang told Reuters he had brought Xu up to speed with events on the outside, including the death of fellow activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. He said Xu was upset upon hearing the news.

Zhang said Xu, who was released from his jail on Beijings outskirts on Saturday morning, was in good physical condition and had few immediate plans beyond spending time with family.

At the height of Xus activism, he attracted hundreds of supporters who participated in activities related to the movement, having first gained prominence in 2003 for helping victims of tainted baby formula and migrant workers without access to healthcare and education.

It prompted a crackdown from the Communist Party, which swiftly crushes any perceived challenge to its rule.

The idea of the New Citizens Movement is not to overthrow, but to establish, he wrote in a 2010 essay. Its not one social class displacing another social class, but allowing righteousness to take its place in China.

Xu refused to defend himself in his 2014 trial, and remained silent as a way to protest what Zhang said was a controlled legal process where a guilty outcome was a foregone conclusion.

As international rights groups and foreign governments call for Chinese authorities to guarantee freedom for Liu Xiaobos widow, Liu Xia, Xus supporters have also expressed concern whether he will remain under close watch or effective house arrest. Some said on social media they were barred by security guards and plain-clothed officers from entering Xus apartment compound on Saturday.

Other high-profile and politically sensitive prisoners released from jail, including rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and journalist Gao Yu, remain closely watched by Chinese authorities.

I hope he will be completely free, Zhang said.

Xu taught law at a Beijing university and ran in a local election. He became prominent over a drive to abolish custody and repatriation powers, a form of arbitrary detention used by local governments to sweep homeless people off the streets.
The Donald Trump administration has gone to the US Supreme Court against the ruling of a federal court in Hawaii that substantially expanded the list of those exempted from a temporary ban on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The Hawaii court added grandparents, brothers- and sisters-in-law, cousins, nephews and nieces, and uncles and aunts to the exempted list, and cleared for entry refugees already working with a resettlement agency in the US.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the justice department on Friday said the Hawaii court order empties the courts decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just close family members, but virtually all family members.

Treating all of these relationships as close familial relationship(s) reads the term close out of the Courts decision, the department said, referring to a June 26 order of the Supreme Court which had allowed a partial implementation of the travel ban after exempting visitors claiming bona fide and close familial relationship with US residents.

The court had left it to the administration to define these relationships and it came up with a list considered very narrow  it included parents, children, siblings, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, fiances and stepchildren.

Hawaii challenged that definition, leading to the recent order, which was expected to be opposed by the administration and it did with some urgency, skipping the courts of appeal and challenging it directly in the Supreme Court.

Earlier on Friday, attorney general Jeff Sessions slammed the Hawaii court, saying, A single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal Executive Branch related to our national security.

The district court has issued decisions that are entrusted to the Executive Branch, undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion, and violated a proper respect for separation of powers.

A temporary travel ban was first ordered by President Donald Trump in January and it was to apply to visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries  Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan  and all refugees.

The rollout caused international outrage and confusion and was mired almost immediately in protests and legal challenges, which eventually led its stay. The administration returned with a narrower ban, that excluded Iraq, with more changes.

The second order was met with similar legal challenges, but the Supreme Court allowed its partial rollout, exempting anyone who had a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.
From the Intermarium to the Three Seas

The Intermarium is a concept  really, an eventuality  that I have spoken about for nearly a decade. I predicted it would rise after Russia inevitably re-emerged as a major regional power. Which makes sense, considering it would comprise the former Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe: the Baltic states, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and possibly Bulgaria. Its purpose would be to contain any potential Russian move to the west. The United States would support it. The rest of Europe would agonize over it. What was once inevitable may soon be here.



Challenges, Intentional or Otherwise

The two foundations of the Intermarium (now frequently referred to as such in the region) are Poland and Romania, which have developed close military ties. The Baltics are already involved. The major holdout, unsurprisingly, has been Hungary, which has had to court Russia and the United States at the same time.



But there are strong signals that Hungary is prepared to join. The government recently announced that it would join a Black Sea military exercise with Romania and Bulgaria  an annual exercise in which Hungary has never before participated. If this happens, then an eastern flank of the European Peninsula will have a cohesive group, backed by the global power, forming a line of demarcation between Russia and the rest of Europe.

Some are understandably worried about its formation. Few in Europe want to revert to Cold War politics; most Europeans believe they can accommodate Russian interests without creating a new containment line. U.S. sponsorship, moreover, directly challenges one of Europes most defining institutions, NATO. The Intermarium is not formally outside of NATO, but functionally it is, since NATO cant really provide military assistance without U.S. help. In a military alliance, those with militaries tend to carry more weight than those without.



It also challenges the European Union, albeit unintentionally. Most the Intermariums members are outside the eurozone but constitute the most economically dynamic part of Europe. Eastern Europes economies are growing, and they boast extremely well educated, highly skilled and relatively cheap laborers. The region challenges the economic status quo, represented by the hegemony of the 1950s-style corporations that dominate European economics.



As NATO showed, military alliances employ the logic of economic cooperation. The Intermarium sets the stage, in my view, of a more integrated economic drive. It will be in the EU, but it will behave differently from the EU  more entrepreneurial, more closely resembling the United States. This will create stress in the EU, which does not need any more stress.



It will also necessitate political evolutions outside the EUs ideology. The governments in Poland and Hungary are anathema to the multilateral, collectivistic framework of the EU, and Brussels has criticized them accordingly. But neither Warsaw nor Budapest has given in to EU demands. The Intermarium therefore is more than a military Alliance.



Map vs. Geopolitics



That the Intermarium has only recently begun to coalesce hasnt stopped it from conceptually expanding. The bloc runs from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, but its logical extension goes southwest to the Adriatic Sea. The so-called Three Seas model would add Austria, Slovenia and Croatia to the Intermariums ranks. (And the Three Seas summit is taking place in Poland at the same time as a visit by Donald Trump. He has not rejected the idea of the Intermarium.)

The extension is explained in part by the growth of Turkey. There is no question that Turkey will become a major regional power. When it has been powerful in the past, its influence has reached the Balkans and, in more extreme cases, to Budapest and Vienna. The countries of Eastern Europe are particularly concerned with immigration, an issue that Turkey naturally abuts. But Turkish power is a deeper concern, and if Ankara realizes its potential, the Intermarium will have to block not just Russia but Turkey too.

The extension is also explained by nostalgia for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a significant multinational success that united small countries and largely gave them a degree of autonomy. Many believe the EU, which proved incapable of managing Europe after the 2008 crisis, encroaches on national self-determination just as much as the empire did. By expanding to Austria, Croatia and Slovenia, the old empire is recreated, if only in a geographic sense.

The Intermarium is just an idea, a vehicle for regional cooperation. It is not an alliance, at least not right now. But as conceived it is meant to evolve, and its evolution creates some problems. Multinational institutions are difficult to create. They require time, money and political will, and rarely do members have the same of any of these as the others.

Another problem is timing. Russia is a threat now, albeit a mild one, considering the state of the Russian economy. Turkey, meanwhile, is not a threat at all. Once it becomes a regional power it will project its power into the Balkans, but thats a long way off. Sequence is important, and the Three Seas expansion is a little premature.

Last, the inclusion of Balkan countries changes the Intermariums complexion. Adding Slovenia and Croatia will alarm the Balkan Peninsulas largest power, Serbia, historically a dangerous thing to do. (Croatia and Serbia have fought many wars over the years, most recently in the 1990s.) Drawing the members of the Intermarium into Balkan conflicts creates a drain on resources and a potential loss of popular support. The bloc may separate Turkey from the rest of Europe, but it also encourages Serbia, already close to Russia, to pull closer to Turkey. The geopolitics and the map work against each other. If this expansion is to take place, and in due course it likely will, then Serbia must be brought into the fold. Otherwise, the danger of Turkey is enhanced, not mitigated. Even then, we should remember that Serbia did not get along with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and if the Intermarium bears its likeness, it could create problems down the road. (Its also worth noting that Austrias comparative affluence changes the dynamics too.)
The US House of Representatives passed a legislation on Friday that authorises a budget of $696 billion for American defence forces for the year 2018 and, separately directs the administration to evolve ways to advance defence ties with India.

The legislation, called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2018, was passed with bipartisan support and will be reconciled with a bill that the US senate will pass before a combined legislation is sent for President Donald Trumps signature.

After its enactment, the secretaries of state and defence will have 180 days to evolve a strategy to advance defence cooperation between the United States and India, according to a provision added to the bill by Indian origin lawmaker Ami Bera.

It is vitally important to develop a strategy that advances defence cooperation between our two nations, Bera, a Democrat who is the vice-ranking member of House foreign relations committee, said in a statement.

I am grateful this amendment (was) passed and look forward to the defence departments strategy that addresses critical issues like common security challenges, the role of partners and allies, and areas for collaboration in science and technology.

The NDAA is the United States annual defence budget but the omnibus legislation can typically address many related issues included through amendments moved by lawmakers individually or in groups, each of which are voted upon for final passage.

The NDAA 2017, for instance, had included a provision that included a direction to the administration to declare India a major defence partner, to enhance military-to-military ties and defence trade between the two countries.

The Barack Obama administration had already designated India a major defence partner by then, giving it access to defence equipment and technology  including for joint production and development  that the US shares only with its closest allies.

But legislative backing for the designation was seen as an expression of bipartisan support in congress for enhanced defence ties with India and also to lock all future administrations to it, unless it was expressly repealed by another bill.

The Trump administration has already said it was committed to treating India as a major defence partner, as stated in a joint statement after the June meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump.

The United States and India look forward to working together on advanced defence equipment and technology at a level commensurate with that of the closest allies and partners of the United States, the joint statement had said.

Reflecting this continued commitment, the administration cleared the sale of 22 Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Systems, making India the first foreign buyer of the sophisticated naval drones.
Alexander III, king of the ancient state of Macedon, is often heralded as one of historys greatest military commanders. Undefeated in battle, he un leashed his army on countries great and small to forge an empire that stretched over three continents, from Greece to India and as far south as Egypt. He did all this in a little more than a decade after taking power at the age of 20.

But the man known as Alexander the Great was also one of historys worst monsters. He was a murderous, rage-filled, paranoid, alcoholic, religious fanatic who, on at least one occasion, showed a fondness for what today might be considered necrophilia. He murdered often, at times indiscriminately. He assassinated rivals a dozen at a time, slaughtered innocents by the thousands, and exterminated entire tribes of people. Its no exaggeration to say that Alexander killed off a generation of Macedonian officersveterans he needed to run the army he inherited from his father, Philip. Nor were friends and family spared; within days of taking the throne, he killed Philips most recent wife and her new infant.

Recent scholarship has added detail to many of Alexanders atrocities. But theres still little to explain them. Some historians write the horrors off as the excesses of a megalomaniac and alcoholic. Indeed, he was drunk when he ordered the burning of the Persian capital, Persepolis, in 330.

Other scholars argue that Alexanders barbarity stemmed from a strategic decision to systematically destroy his enemy, root and stem.

These theories dont always add up. Alexanders atrocities, for example, often did more to stir opposition than to quell it; he was too smart to pursue such a failing strategy for long. But theres at least one other explanation worth exploring: His penchant for atrocity and violence may have been rooted in deepseated fears that he did not have what it took to be a soldier and commander. Though the most formidable figure of his time, he grew up estranged from the culture of the Macedonian warrior and came to power ill equipped to command an army. Marginalized and perhaps insecure about his abilities, he seemed angry and intent on proving himself through violence. Many accounts of his most heinous crimes describe him as flying into a rage, his anger begetting violence.

It is, of course, risky business to plumb the psychological depths of such a complex historical figure as Alexander, particularly because antiquity provides scant data. Yet the exercise proves valuable, if only to suggest a different way to understand the enigmas that Alexanders life presents.

The Macedonian society of Alexanders day was based on values and practices that were Homeric in origin, form, and function. Unlike most Greek city-states, where the male-dominated warrior society had died out, Macedonia was still a land of clans and tribes bonded by warriorhood, dynastic bloodlines, and powerful kings. Alexanders world was one in which the Iliad was not an epic tale but an illustration of how men still livedriding, drinking, and fornicating with rude energy and enthusiasm.

As in the Iliad, society valued power, glory, and bravery most of all. On the field of battle, warriors were expected to demonstrate their bravery to win honor and the esteem of their fellow soldiers.

Men were required to prove their courage at a young age. The Macedonian rulers considered themselves descendants of the Greek hero Heracles, and the singlehanded killing of a wild boarlinked in Macedonian mythology to one of Heracless 12 laborswas an important rite of passage for warriors. Until a man killed a wild boar, he was not permitted to recline at table and eat meat with other soldiers; instead, he had to sit upright for all to notice.

In another Homeric custom, a Macedonian youth who had not yet slain a man in battle was required to wear a cord around his waist to mark him as unblooded. Only when he achieved his first kill could he abandon the cord and join the ranks of warriors.

The sons of Macedonian nobles attended the Royal Page School, the Macedonian West Point. Cadets entered at age 14 and graduated at 18; about 200 were enrolled at any one time. Besides receiving a typical Greek liberal arts education, the students were put through rigorous military training. Rough living, horsemanship, fasting, endurance training, hunting, and weapons proficiency were required.

Senior cadets sat at the kings table, cared for his horses, served as his bodyguards, and accompanied him on campaign. Some fell in battle protecting their sovereign. The Royal Page School was the proving ground for Macedonias combat officers and administrators; Aristotle called it a school for generals.

Alexander seems not to have met any of the requirements of a young Macedonian warrior. There is no suggestion in the historical accounts that he hunted and killed a wild boar. Nor did he attend the Royal Page School for any significant length of time, if at all. Instead, he was sent at 14 from the court at Pella, the capital, to a private academy set up by Aristotle at Mieza, several miles away. There, Alexander studied poetry, philosophy, literature, and learned to play the lyrea skill his father belittled because the lyre was an instrument of the Athenian aristocracy. Military studies at the academy were limited to a reading of the Iliad; the historian Plutarch tells us that Alexander carried a copy of the work with him throughout his campaigns.

By attending Aristotles academy, Alexander missed the opportunity to mix with the young warriors and royal princes who would become Macedonias military elite. Students at the Royal Page School typically formed bonds of comradeship, trust, and loyalty with their classmatesbonds that later served them well in war. When Alexander assumed command of the Macedonian army in 336, he was in essence an outsider, a soldier as unknown to his officer corps as they were to him.

Alexander had only limited exposure to combat before becoming king. At 17, he served as temporary regent while his father campaigned in Perinthus and Scythia (340339 BC). When the Maedi, a tribe living on the upper Strymon River (in present-day Bulgaria), revolted, he mounted a small expedition, put down the uprising, and established a city or small fortified outpost named after himselfAlexandropolis. At Philips decisive victory over Athens, Thebes, and the other Greek city-states at Chaeronea in 338, Philip placed Alexander, then 18, in command of the cavalry on the left flank, according to the Greek historian Diodorus. But it appears that the king did not have full faith in his son; he stationed Alexander alongside his key commanders, including Parmenion and Antipater. Diodorus notes that Alexander and his men were the first to force their way through the enemy line, but this may mean only that Alexander commanded one of the wedge-shaped cavalry squadrons that struck all along the line, creating gaps for the remaining cavalry to burst through.

Interestingly, Alexander apparently did not chalk up his first kill in either of these two early ventures. Records make no mention of such an achievement.

Alexander also stood apart from the warrior culture in his physical appearance. The Macedonians were a big people, thanks largely to their lands plentiful meat and grain. The men were tall, robust, dark skinned; they had thick, cropped hair and wore beards. Not so Alexander. He was at best average height, perhaps only 5 foot 2. His hair was blond and tousled, and it is said that he wore it long to resemble a lions mane. He was fair skinned and clean shaven, a sign to some of femininity. His teeth were sharply pointed like little pegs, according to Alexander biographer Peter Green. Alexanders voice was high pitched and tended to harshness when he was excited, says Green. He was given to scurrying about in a fast and nervous manner, and he carried his head to the left, either out of some physical defect (perhaps torticollis) or mere affectation.

Adds Green: There is something almost girlish about his earliest portraits [on busts and coins], a hint of leashed hysteria.

Then there is the touchy subject of Alexanders homosexual proclivities. Philip and his wife, Olympias, worried early on about their sons apparent lack of heterosexual interests. The Greek scholar Theophrastus says they feared that Alexander might be turning into a gynnis, or womanish man. Olympias went so far as to procure a Thessalian courtesan named Callixeina to help develop his manly nature, as Green put it. The effort was apparently unsuccessful. Plutarch wrote that Alexander did not know any woman before he married, other than Barsine, a Persian noblewoman with whom Alexander is supposed to have had an affair in 333 BC, when he was 23.

Alexander had many male lovers over the years, notably his friend Hephaestion, who also attended Aristotles academy and went on to become a general in Alexanders army. When Heph  aestion fell sick and died in 324 BC, Arrian says that Alexanders grief was so great that he flung himself upon the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears.

Many Alexander scholarsnotably, the British scholar William W. Tarn in his influential 1933 biography of Alexandersee homosexuality as well within the mainstream of Macedonian culture. But Tarn and others wrongly assume that Macedonian mores reflected those of Athens, where sexual contact between men and boys was accepted as a part of mentoring. Macedonia a society that valued manliness, bravery in war, the sexual conquest of women, and the fathering of childrenwas far less tolerant of homosexuality than Athens. Here, man-boy sexual relationships were seen as more of an occasional fashion; long-term sexual relationships between two grown men were frowned upon.

This was particularly true in the military. Theopompus, a Greek who wrote in the fourth century BC, said that soldiers who were homosexuals were considered whores and harlots. Although they were men-slayers, they were by nature mensodomizers.

Whatever Alexanders status within the military elite, his ascension to the throne was complicated. When Philip was murdered in 336 BC, Alexander was one of at least three surviving sons. In Macedonian practice, any son, legitimate or illegitimate, had an equal claim to the throne. Alexander killed at least one rival, the son of one of Philips concubines. The sons of other branches of the royal family also presented a challenge, but Antipaterthe only one of Philips senior officers who was close to Alexanderquickly persuaded the Macedonian assembly to proclaim Alexander king. Such speedy action was essential; Attalus and Parmenion, two of Philips generals and leaders of powerful branches of the royal family, were away from Pella on a campaignan absence that made it possible to crown the untested Alexander as king.

Its hard to imagine that Alexander was confident about his ability to lead combat veterans and gain their respect. With so little military experience, he had no alternative but to rely upon his generals for advice and guidance. The relationship between the Macedonian officer corps and the king was open and democratic; a soldiers standing was based upon demonstrated courage on the battlefield and not upon birth or wealth. Every warrior had equal rights of speech, as the Roman Curtius wrote in the first century AD, and Alexanders men apparently didnt hesitate to exercise that right. They disapproved when he appeared before them wearing the white robes, jeweled slippers, and upright tiara of the Persian king. The royal secretary Eumenes had the temerity to suggest that Alexander neglected affairs of state because Alexander was too fascinated by Hephaestions thighs!

Alexander was well aware of his mens doubt. His men criticized his decisions publicly, often during drinking bouts that the king frequently attended. (To compete with his officers, big men who had been drinking for years, Alexander often drank far more than his small frame could tolerate.)

Alexander likely didnt take their critiques lightly. As an outsider to warrior culture, he may have felt that their questions, however innocuous, directly challenged his leadership. He may also have suspected that they disapproved of his homosexual activities or questioned his manhood.

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Did their criticism fuel his feelings of inadequacy? Thats hard to substantiate, but Alexander was certainly eager to prove himself to his men and earn their acceptance. To that end, he fought bravely, often to the point of recklessness. He was wounded many times, and though descriptions of these injuries are often embellishments that defy medical possibility, he clearly threw himself into battle with abandon. At the siege of the citadel at Multan in 325, during the India campaign, Alexander grew annoyed at the lack of progress and grabbed a scaling ladder from a soldier. He then climbed the citadel wall and jumped insidea near suicidal move, according to Arrian, but an act that Alexander, if he died, would wear as the crown of an exploit which would live upon the lips of men. Horrified, his comrades jumped in after him. In the struggle that followed, Alexander was struck in the chest with an arrow, a grievous wound that nearly killed him.

Such seemingly foolish acts of bravery may have been a bid to win the respect of his officers. But did resentment and feelings of inadequacy fuel the violence that would become Alexanders trademark? Beginning in 335 with the conquest and burning of Thebes, one of Greeces oldest and most renowned cities, Alexanders record on the battlefield is punctuated by massacre, murder, torture, and disfigurement. Some historians describe these atrocities as part of Alexanders empire-building strategy; through dramatic displays of death and destruction, they say, he hoped to snuff out each enemy and deter others from mounting a challenge. But in many cases, the accounts of these incidents do not describe Alexander making calm, rational decisions in pursuit of a strategy. Instead, they portray a man boiling over with a blind rage thats disproportionate to the situation and seemingly without cause.

Consider Alexander during the capture of Gaza in 332. After a two-month siege in which some 10,000 in the city were killed, Betis, Gazas Persian governor, was brought before him. Though threatened with death, Betis remained silent and unbowed. With this defiance, Curtius tells us, Alexanders anger turned to fury.Thongs were passed through Betis ankles while he still breathed, and he was tied to a chariot. Then Alexanders horses dragged him around the city while the king gloated at having followed the example of his ancestor, Achilles, in punishing his enemy.

Alexander displayed a similar lightning-quick outburst of fury in 328, when the Scythian cities of Persia revolted. He destroyed at least one of the cities to keep the others in line, according to Curtius. But at Cyropolis, the largest of the towns, resistance of its people so inflamed his rage, that after its capture he ordered it to be sacked. Of the 15,000 men defending the town, 8,000 were killed outright. Citizens of another town took refuge in a fortress but were massacred when they surrendered for lack of water.

The next year, during his India campaign, Alexander showed how quickly his anger could flare and spark violence. In the Swat Valley of Pakistan, after beating down opposition from a people called the Assacenians, he agreed to release a group of mercenaries who had fought with them at the siege of Massaga. The mercenaries left and encamped with their women and children many miles away. But Alexander apparently had a change of heart; he followed with his army and falling upon them suddenly wrought a great slaughter, according to Diodorus. Alexander nursed an implacable hostility toward the soldiers, the historian says, and to satisfy that anger, all of the 7,000 mercenaries were killed.

None of these accounts, of course, proves that his monstrous acts were born of deep-seated insecurities. We can never probe his psyche deeply enough to know the truth. But these episodes suggest that the many portraits of Alexander as a military genius have clouded our view of him. Weve been told again and again of his battlefield greatness, but that doesnt mean his every move had a strategic purpose. Indeed, some of his most heinous crimes appear to be rooted in his personality, not his generalship. He was Alex the Great, but he was also Alex the Monster.

Richard Gabriel is a distinguished professor in the department of history and war studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of 50 books, including Hannibal: The Military Biography of Romes Greatest Enemy and Philip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander.

Originally published in the Summer 2013 issue of Military History Quarterly.
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Two years have passed since Iran agreed to stop its nuclear program and after those years, Israel and all the nearby regions became safer than ever from the threat of nuclear weapons. Before the program was curtailed, Israel and some nearby places faced the fear of the possibility that Tehran was developing a nuclear bomb.

Recent reports claimed that the world marks the two-year anniversary of the adoption of the nuclear deal with Iran. It can be recalled that Iran agreed to the conditions set by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or the JCPOA last 2015. Because of the said agreement, the nuclear program of Iran has been stopped and everything including its pathways to creating a bomb has been blocked.

With this Iran nuclear program deal, it was said that the country which would likely benefit from this is Israel. For almost a decade, Foreign Policy reported that leaders in Israel thought and considered making necessary steps in order to destroy the nuclear program of Iran.

One of the steps which Israel and some of its allies thought that time was to incorporate military operations which could have lost many lives. If Israel pushed through with this in order to stop Iran's nuclear program, there could have no guarantee if their goal will be attained.

In the said agreement set before JCPOA, all the world powers or countries came together and convened to guarantee that Iran dismantled key nuclear infrastructure. Apart from this, they also made sure that Iran submitted itself to extensive inspection and monitoring regarding their nuclear program.

Then after two years, the outcome of the signing of the nuclear deal was a clear success and Israel was pleased with this. It was just confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency or the IAEA that Iran really complied with the conditions set before the deal.

Iran, in order to avoid with the conditions set in the nuclear deal agreement, dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges. Moreover, the country also lessened its stockpile of enriched uranium by almost 98 percent. But most importantly, Iran gave the inspectors access to its nuclear facilities in order for them to monitor and check. In the face of this nuclear deal success, Israel and the nearby regions accepted its positive impact.

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Business partnerships, like marriages, are built on trust, friendship and shared financial goals, Houston lawyer Ashish Mahendru says.

He has built a legal specialty navigating disputes between business partnerships, which can turn sour if one partner feels cheated when company funds go missing or work duties aren't divided equally.

The Chronicle sat down with Mahendru to talk about what happens when the bonds are shattered, and his edited remarks follow.

Q: You call yourself a business divorce lawyer. How are partnership troubles similar to marital disputes?

A: In a family partnership - a marriage - you can walk in and say I don't want to be with that person anymore and terminate the relationship. There is no corresponding right to go to a judge in a partnership dispute to ask the court to throw your partner out. You can't just say there are irreconcilable differences. We have to create legal risk to eject them - remove them, buy them out - and regain control of the business.

Q: Do you typically step in before problems erupt?

A: Sometimes. But most of the time the dispute has erupted, and we get called to figure out how to contain the damage. It could be raiding the till, starting a competing business, poaching employees or stealing company trade secrets.

Q: What often causes problems in the first place?

A: They did not properly and thoughtfully express the expectations of each other when they founded the business. It is imperative not to just talk about the rosy picture but what can go wrong and how the company will address the problems. A company agreement is like a prenuptial agreement.

Q: What often goes wrong?

A: One partner feels that he/she is doing most of the work, while the other is reaping most of the rewards. That imbalance creates distrust and friction. In that scenario, the partner that feels cut out starts taking self-help measures. Like taking money out of the company without authorization. Withdrawing funds from the bank account. Writing themselves a check. Paying personal expenses. The other partner finds out, a confrontation takes place, and the dispute is well underway.

Q: Why do you call it self-help measures?

A: Because the partner who felt they were doing the work but not reaping the rewards is taking matters into their own hands. They convince themselves that their conduct is totally justified. It's not uncommon to see a company officer sued for using his company credit card for personal expenses and exotic trips to vacation hot spots.

Before they make the decision to charge a personal expense to the company account, they go through mental gymnastics on why it should be a company expense. Once that happens, it becomes a slippery slope.

Q: Were you a theater major in college? Maybe English literature?

A: Liberal arts at the University of Texas at Austin. A heavy emphasis on literature and Shakespearean dramas.

Q: Does it come as a surprise to your clients who discover their partner has been using company funds for personal expenses?

A: Invariably, yes. The entire relationship is built on trust. I have clients in that position for 20 plus years not questioning their partner. When the dispute erupts, the microscope looks back to the relationship with laser focus. We look at expenses and what bucket of money should have come back to the partnership but didn't.

Q: Is there a chance for reconciliation?

A: In my experience, by the time they come to me they may not know the relationship is shot, but when we step in and investigate the extent and scope of damage, the realization the relationship is shot becomes clear. You have two entrepreneurs, founders and fanatics who are passionate about their business ideas, driven to succeed, and they don't want their blood, sweat and tears wasted by the person they trust most to bring that vision and passion to life. If your partner turns out to be the person who stabs you in the back, the collateral damage for that wound is intense.

Q: Are there any industries that lend themselves more to conflict than others?

A: The classic dispute can revolve around doctors. The income pot is so high and their business relationships are so poor, they invariably trip up. They don't have the time and don't have the proper checks and balances in place. They are willing to look the other way until they discover how much money was taken from the company. But the human greed factor is across the board.
WASHINGTON  Billions of dollars in gas pipeline projects face the prospect of substantial delays, as attempts to fill critical positions on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fall prey to a political inertia that has overtaken Washington in recent months.

With health care and the investigation into the Trump campaign's contact with Russia sucking up the capital's oxygen - and Republicans and Democrats increasingly at odds - nominations to federal posts have slowed to a virtual crawl.

The situation is particularly dire at FERC, which must give approval before construction can begin on any natural gas pipeline that crosses state lines. For the past five months, the five-member commission has not had the minimum three commissioners required for a vote  a first in its more than 40-year history.

That has resulted in a dozen pipeline projects, including those of Houston's Spectra Energy and Tulsa's Williams Co., getting put on hold while executives await final approval from FERC before beginning construction.

"We've never had a situation like this before, with such an acute backlog," said David Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, a trade group representing energy consumers and producers. "There's a level of dysfunction in the Senate and other parts of the government that are now impacting our ability to do our daily work."

The Nexus pipeline, a $2 billion joint venture between Spectra and Detroit-based DTE Energy, is scheduled to begin delivering natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to markets across the Midwest and eastern Canada by the end of the year.

So far, the company has not announced a delay, but with construction expected to take as long as 10 months, executives have become increasingly vocal.

"FERC's lack of a quorum since early February represents an unnecessary drag on the economy, sidelining billions of dollars in private capital otherwise poised to put thousands of Americans to work," said Bill Yardley, president of gas transmission and midstream at Spectra's parent, the Canadian pipeline company Enbridge.

The worsening backlog of projects, which lobbyists say could take months to work through, has left Washington filled with finger pointing.

FERC lost its minimum quorum in February when chairman Norman Bay  an Obama appointee who had been demoted to commissioner by Trump  opted to leave.

It was three months before the White House made its first two nominations, Robert Powelson, a member of the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission, and Neil Chatterjee, a longtime aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Despite going through confirmation hearings, neither has been brought to the Senate floor for a vote. The White House, pointing to the slow pace with which all its nominees are advancing, blamed Democrats for attempting "to obstruct the will of the American people and the president's agenda."

But Democrats cite a long-standing practice in the Senate that on bipartisan commissions like FERC - in which no one party is allowed to have more than three seats - nominees from both parties are voted on at the same time. And with Powelson and Chatterjee both Republicans, they are waiting for Trump to submit the paperwork nominating Richard Glick, a Democratic senate aide who the White House announced as a nominee last month.

Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said the FERC nominations have been overshadowed by a full agenda of contentious issues and the natural focus of a new administration on cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries."

"At the same time Democrats are slow rolling some of these nominees," he added. "There's been some good progress lately, and hopefully this log jam will get broken."

More than $50 billion in energy projects are waiting in the queue at FERC, according to analysis by Bloomberg in May. Many of those were only submitted in the last 12 months, and are still undergoing staff reviews. But a series of projects from 2015 and 2016 have completed their reviews  save a final vote by FERC commissioners.

One of them is the controversial Atlantic Coast pipeline, a $5.5 billion joint venture between Dominion Resources and Duke Energy that would run through the Appalachian mountains. Another is Williams' $1 billion expansion of its Transco line, which runs from the Texas Gulf Coast to the northeast.

Altogether, a dozen interstate pipeline projects ,worth $14 billion in construction and other costs, await final approval from FERC, said Don Santa, president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America. And he said the point has come where companies could face serious financial hits if they can't begin construction soon.

"These pipelines have contracts with their shippers, and there could be consequences if they don't meet their projected in service date, which could then impact their earnings projections," he said. "We're not getting anything definitive [on a Senate vote], but we're doing everything we can to communicate the consequence of this."

Pipeline companies received some good news this past week, when McConnell said he would delay the Senate's August recess by two weeks. That could potentially allow time for the Senate to move ahead on Glick's nomination and put him and the other two nominees to a vote before the senators and their staffs leave Washington for the remainder of the summer.

On Thursday evening, the White House said it would nominate Kevin J. McIntyre, a Virginia attorney with the law firm Jones Day, to be FERC's chairman. Down to a single commissioner - Acting Chairman Cheryl A. LaFleur  the confirmation of McIntyre and Trump's other nominees would restore FERC to a full five-member board.
The U.S. will seek to use a United Nations fund designed to aid nations hard hit by climate change to promote the construction of coal-fired power plants around the world.

The U.S. already donated $1 billion to the so-called Green Climate Fund, and it can now use its seat on that board to advance American-energy interests globally, a White House official said.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe climate negotiations at the just-concluded summit of Group of 20 leaders in Germany. A U.S. commitment to "work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently" was highlighted in a statement issued by the group last week.

President Donald Trump previously announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord in which nearly 200 nations agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, Trump insisted he would be open to a new deal that better protects American interests. He also is keeping the U.S. in a longstanding United Nations convention on climate change that underpins the 2015 Paris pact.

Financial support for the Green Climate Fund was seen as a critical tool to win broad support for the global carbon-cutting pact. Former President Barack Obama pledged $3 billion for the initiative, though he only provided a third of that before leaving the White House.

Trump has made clear the U.S. won't be sending any more checks to the fund as long as he is president, but the U.S. gets to keep a seat on the managing board for a year or more based on that previous $1 billion contribution. The board, which includes a U.S. official and 23 other members with veto power, has so far approved more than three dozen projects - including modernizing a hydropower project in Tajikistan and barriers around an island in the South Pacific.

Board members previously refused to impose an explicit ban on funding projects that use fossil fuels, which scientists say are responsible for climate change. Coal is the fuel that releases the most carbon dioxide when burned to produce electricity.

The U.S. wants to encourage developing countries to build high-efficiency plants that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than earlier facilities and construct "clean coal" plants that employ carbon-capture technology to strip out even more, the White House official said.

Activists criticize

The U.S. will also use its position as a board member administering the fund to lobby for spending money on natural gas infrastructure abroad, the official said. The fund is supposed to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and aid those on the front lines of climate change that are dealing with intense droughts, raging storms and other consequences of the phenomenon.

Activists said the Trump administration's objective runs counter to the fund's entire mission.

"This is not supposed to be a coal slush fund or a natural gas slush fund," said Karen Orenstein, the deputy director of the economic policy program at Friends of the Earth. "This is a fund about sustainable development in the age of climate crisis."

John Coequyt, global climate policy director at the Sierra Club, said the idea of using funds meant to aid countries facing the worst consequences of the climate crisis to build new coal plants was tantamount to "taking the fire department's budget and using it to pour gasoline on the blaze."

To be sure, it would be hard for the Trump administration to win Green Climate Fund support for coal plants and natural gas pipelines. The board operates on consensus and potential recipient projects are nominated for review from fund-accredited institutions. Board members include representatives from France, Sweden and other countries that are eager to combat climate change.

"The U.S. under Trump might want the Green Climate Fund to fund climate change, but there are other countries that actually take the climate crisis seriously," Orenstein said.

The U.S. advocacy is in line with Trump's stated goal of American "energy dominance," with U.S. coal, oil and gas helping to supply the world's power needs.

Climate negotiations

Discussions over a bottle of red wine during the Hamburg meeting helped produce consensus language in the summit's final communique, after France raised objections, the White House official said. French officials wanted to remove the entire fossil fuel sentence. The U.S. in turn argued it couldn't weaken that sentence unless another was strengthened.

After that meeting, reports cast the communique as evidence of a 19-1 split among world leaders, with the U.S. and Trump isolated on the world stage. But that division was only valid for specific language on the Paris agreement and doesn't represent consensus on the overall climate language in the document, the White House official said.

The statement shows the sincerity of U.S. engagement and the administration's intent to work with partners and allies in trying to find a way forward on an approach to climate change, the official said.

Despite Trump's stated willingness to rewrite the Paris climate deal or another agreement addressing the problem, the U.S. isn't actively asking other countries to negotiate or offering up alternative language. The administration also needs to figure out potential pathways to make the Paris agreement acceptable, the official said.

Trump discussed the accord with French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to the country. "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord," Trump said Thursday at a joint news conference with Macron.
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At the new offices of BHP Billiton Petroleum, employee dining options include a cafeteria serving a variety of cuisines for $5 a plate; a coffee bar with French pastries and muffins; and a takeaway operation where workers can order a hot meal or freshly prepared salad from their computers to pick up moments later.

Employees with computer trouble can visit a tech support kiosk inspired by the "genius bars" in Apple stores.

And for those who need to step away from the daily stresses of work, there are contemplation/prayer rooms, resting rooms, and a library stocked with novels, art books and even a couple of Monopoly games.

The Houston-based oil and gas arm of BHP, a midsize oil and gas company owned by Australian mining conglomerate BHP Billiton Corp., recently moved into a 600,000-square-foot office tower with interior features seemingly inspired by Apple stores, art museums and the campuses of Silicon Valley tech giants.

The new building at 1500 Post Oak Blvd. is the latest example of Houston's growing number of technology-laden, millennial-friendly corporate workplaces.

Most of them house energy companies, with perhaps the best example being the Exxon Mobil campus in Spring - a sleek, energy-efficient workplace spanning multiple buildings, state-of-the-art laboratories and conference facilities, all designed to house 10,000 employees.

Its employee amenities range from health and wellness services to an array of food options, including international cuisine and high-end dining.

Unlike Exxon Mobil's campus, which is self-contained on several hundred acres, BHP's new building is surrounded by shops, restaurants, apartments and hotels in the center of the Galleria area.

Yet the building was designed in a way that would encourage employees to stay within the confines of its gleaming glass walls.

The company wanted a place that would foster collaboration and camaraderie among their employees, said Stephanie Burritt of the Gensler architecture firm, which designed the building's interiors. New Haven, Conn.-based Pickard Chilton, designed the structure, which was developed by Transwestern.

Real estate has become a strategic tool for companies that are using their offices in part to recruit and retain employees.

At BHP, employees work in open floor plans. Work desks are adjustable to be used for standing or sitting and the building has an under-floor air system with vents at each desk so workers can adjust the temperature in their space.

The conference and meeting spaces are vast, with one area large enough to house as many as 800 people.

Facilities manager Matt Zolan said there's one conference room seat for every desk in the building.

The building offers employees a variety of places to work, including an outdoor terrace and the "library." The top floor houses the executive boardroom and leather seating areas surrounded by windows offering views of the city.

"There's always a place to plug in," Zolan said.

The abundance of common spaces are meant to foster collaboration and drive employee interactions.

Technology has made it so employees don't have to sit in one place all day, which has become a key theme in corporate work spaces, said Burritt, who was in charge of BHP's interior design.

She said research has found that people who liked working from home did so not so much for the isolation but for the variety of places they could sit and work. Maybe it was the outside patio or with their legs up on the sofa.

"Once we provided those things at work," Burritt said, "it started pulling people back to the office."

The BHP brand is evident throughout the building.

The company's color, orange, is on accent walls and elsewhere in the 30-story tower, and graphics resembling carbon molecules run throughout the interiors.

Words with meanings in the energy industry are ascribed to different parts of the building. The glass skybridge is referred to as the "Pipeline." One of the common seating/work areas is called the "Platform." The coffee bar is known as the "Wellhead."

Other building features include a "smart" elevator system that directs passengers to the elevator that will get them to their destination in the shortest amount of time. An 11,000-square-foot fitness center is still under construction.

BHP's move into the new building wasn't entirely how it was originally planned.

When the company announced its intention to lease a new building in 2013, business was good. Oil prices were still in the $100-per-barrel range, and the company had recently entered the booming shale industry.

Officials had said the company could expand its Houston employee count to as many as 3,000 by 2016, from roughly 1,750. The plan was to occupy two buildings in the Four Oaks Place complex.

That didn't happen.

BHP, which now has 1,700 employees in Houston, excluding contractors, occupies the first nine floors in the adjacent 1360 Post Oak, but the top 16 floors it used to occupy are on the sublease market.

BHP leases the two buildings, which are owned by TIAA-CREF and Allianz Real Estate of America. The lease on the new tower expires in 2031.

"We saw this building as a 15-year investment in our people," Zolan said.
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Developers are on track to add 2.7 million square feet of retail space in new and expanded projects in the Houston area this year, down from last year's 3.4 million square feet in 2016 and well below pre-recession peaks, according to a midyear report by commercial real estate firm Weitzman.

Much of the new space is already spoken for as grocers and discount retailers continue to expand in high-growth suburban areas.

"You're still seeing a fairly limited amount of spec space, which keeps occupancy high," Weitzman vice president of communications Ian Pierce said. "It's demand-based construction."

Retail occupancy dipped to 95.1 percent at midyear from 95.6 percent at the end of 2016. The drop came as closures by Macy's and Gander Mountain put nearly 1 million square feet back on the market. Still, Weitzman reports the occupancy rate is strong by historical standards.

Much of the construction is concentrated in grocery-anchored shopping centers along the Grand Parkway, but retailers are also going into urban redevelopments. H-E-B, for example, is replacing its Bellaire store with a two-story location. The grocer also will anchor Buffalo Heights District, a mixed-use development going up at Washington Avenue and Heights Boulevard.

More Information Retail construction Projected retail space to be added in 2017 in Texas' 4 largest cities: Dallas/Fort Worth: 3 million square feet Houston: 2.7 million Austin: 890,000 San Antonio: 360,000 Source: Weitzman See More Collapse

In Texas, Houston trails only the Dallas-Fort Worth region, which is projected to get 3 million square feet of additional retail space in 2017. Some Dallas concepts are coming this way.

Rodeo Goat, which opened an icehouse serving burgers and craft beer in an industrial area near downtown Dallas a couple of years ago, plans a Houston location in East Village, a redevelopment project east of downtown.

East Village recently welcomed Chapman & Kirby, a 10,000-square-foot restaurant and events space, as its first tenant. The project is planned for as much as 100,000 square feet of retail and mixed-use space, according to Weitzman. Houston-based Agricole Hospitality plans a multi-restaurant space in the development.

New suburban centers have scaled back the amount of space designated for small shops in recent years, Pierce said.

Woodshore Marketplace, a Kroger Marketplace-anchored center at Oyster Creek Drive and Dixie Drive in Clute, south of Houston, includes nearly 28,000 square feet for other tenants. Pierce said that is about half of what would have been allocated for smaller stores in past projects.

Pet Supermarket, a new-to-the-market retailer based in Florida that opened 10 stores here, joined the center along with Bahama Bucks shaved ice and others.

The Houston region's biggest project, Signorelli Co.'s Valley Ranch Town Center at U.S. 59 and the Grand Parkway in New Caney, is getting bigger as new phases open.

Sam's, Hobby Lobby and Kroger opened earlier this year. Cinemark, Burlington, Ross, TJ Maxx, PetSmart and Rack Room Shoes are slated to open by year-end. The new stores total more than 600,000 square feet.
The decor's more downtown destinationhand-painted graffiti by Victor Marka, depictions of agave plants floating through the cosmosbut with the sweeping, bi-level spaces only Midtown restaurants can afford. Vida Verde, a new Mexican cocktail bar and restaurant run by the company behind Tanner Smith's just down the block, opened Wednesday with seating for 104 spread out over two floors with two bars.

The restaurant portion will be run by Chef Hugo Orozco, a native of Mazatlan, Mexico, which he's said to have mined as inspiration for his menu. The city's a coastal one on the country's western side, and there are shrimp flautas, fish skewers and seafood ceviches to match that. There's even a Loaded Guacamole ($18) that comes fortified with shrimp and pork rinds. The squid and corn tacos sound cool, too.

The Pacifico brewery is located in Mazatlan, so it's pleasing to find it on the menu here for...$8 a pint. That's the cheapest you'll get for 16-ounce drafts, which also include USA craft brews like Southern Tier and Sixpoint. The eponymous cocktail ($14) is a snap pea-infused mezcal base with yellow chartreuse, lemon, sour orange and tarragon. The drinks are completed with two frozen offerings ($13), including the Rose of Mexico made with rose wine, tequila blanco, pomegranate, cassis, clove, lemon, lime and morita pepper.

248 West 55th Street, 646-590-2034; vidaverdeny.com

Vida Verde Food Menu by Nell Casey on Scribd

Vida Verde Drinks Menu by Nell Casey on Scribd
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Lee Ellis is a familiar face in the Houston restaurant scene with a portfolio of restaurants that include Lee's Fried Chicken & Donuts, State Fare Kitchen & Bar, Pi Pizza, and the new StarFish seafood restaurant under his Cherry Pie Hospitality. And now he's planting another stake in Bayou City's culinary landscape with a new barbecue project.

Called Ellis Brothers BBQ, the barbecue project began recently as a weekend pop-up to get local smoked meats aficionados salivating. Those pop-up efforts will eventually find a way onto a separate barbecue menu at State Fare where he hopes the 'cue will be a hit that warrants its own bricks and mortar store (he's confident enough in his efforts, he's already looking for real estate).
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Houston-area jewelry designers: Are you up to saving a life?

That's the task put before you by the founders of Gabriel's Horn Foundation, who are searching nationwide for the right person or business to create a line of bracelets, necklaces and other accessories that children with autism would be proud and comfortable wearing - and that would readily identify them to law enforcement. The goal, the Houston-based nonprofit's leaders say, is to minimize misunderstandings and prevent wrongful arrests.

The project has captured the interest of comic actor and commentator D.L. Hughley, whose son Kyle has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. Hughley will join Grammy Award-winning R&B producer Terry Lewis and nonprofit Artists for Autism for a public benefit concert Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles, at which prototypes of the jewelry will be unveiled.

With a host of communication and sensory issues, autism has the potential to create tense situations. Law enforcement officers may be uncomfortable with or misinterpret a person not responding to questions or instructions as they'd expect, Gabriel's Horn co-founder Ahmad Islam says. A piece of jewelry identifying autism spectrum disorder could quickly show "they're not being disrespectful. They may be slower to react, or they may walk up on you to listen to you better," he says.

"The fear of my son having a misunderstanding with police rocks me to my core every single day," says Debra Islam, who founded Gabriel's Horn with her husband out of frustration over a delayed autism diagnosis for their son, Gabriel, now 14, when they lived in Chicago. With her background in early childhood development and his in marketing, the Islams promote earlier diagnosis and intervention for minority children, who often lag their white peers in those areas by years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Islams say they will seek input on the jewelry pieces from families and health care providers. Once they find the right look, they hope to involve health insurance companies to "get the jewelry out there," Ahmad says.

The project's success also will hinge on phase 2: introducing the line via training videos to be made with input from autism experts for use at police academies and in agencies' continuing education sessions. The goal is to be in as many markets as possible by 2018, according to Islam, the CEO of Ten35, which specializes in multicultural audiences.

"We see this as flexible and dynamic. It will evolve," he says, noting that the jewelry pieces will need to change as children grow into adults.

The issue is increasingly on the radar. Last month, a former police officer in Florida who has a child with autism released the AutismTalk app. It gives first responders picture-based tools to communicate with people who are nonverbal or have trouble speaking. The app is based on her Autism Law Enforcement Response Training (ALERT) program.

More Information Got an idea? The right jewelry line will take into account sensory and fine-motor issues common to those with autism, so keep materials and type of clasp in mind. Send your ideas and contact information to info@gabrielshornfoundation.org. See More Collapse

Frank Straub applauds the Islams' effort. The director of strategic studies at the Police Foundation, an independent, national organization providing resources to improve policing, calls learning to interact with the mentally and developmentally disabled a top priority.

"It could be incredibly important to have a piece of jewelry to identify someone who's challenged by autism," Straub says, comparing such an item to a medical alert bracelet. "It very realistically could be a lifesaver."

Straub, a former Spokane, Wash., police chief who specializes in critical incidents and crisis intervention, welcomes tools that prepare officers to use different skill sets. For example, if an autistic child isn't talking, an officer might wonder, "Is he deaf? This would at least be a place to start. Instead of talking loud ... maybe don't crowd this child, don't shine a flashlight. ... The more knowledge first responders have, the more effective they can be."

Locally, Maj. Mike Lee of the Harris County Sheriff's Office of Mental Health Policy & Jail Diversion says the project could be "extremely beneficial for assisting officers." He could see a jewelry component being implemented in "academy classes, department bulletins and informational brochures at station roll calls."

The timing of its rollout could prove quite good; a new initiative by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez expands mental health training, including a unit on autism, for all patrol and detention cadets and deputies to 40 hours a year. (The state mandate for patrol deputies is 16, Lee says).

"Traditionally, officers and deputies are taught to be very authoritative, physical and commanding," Lee says. "In (crisis intervention training), they are taught the opposite." Spotting such a piece of jewelry would help Harris County deputies apply the strategies they learn, Lee says. Among them: modeling calmness, asking about special interests, being patient, giving plenty of space and not taking a lack of eye contact or nervousness as a sign of guilt.

The concert promoting the jewelry line is partly the brainchild of Charles Alexander, who formed Artists for Autism with Lewis to address "the social justice issues impacting all children with autism." The businessman says he at first went through the denial many African-American men feel about mental health and disability issues when doctors diagnosed autism in his son, Xavier.

"It can be extremely harmful when autism is left undiagnosed. Those children who grow up without treatment can often be the target of police abuse," he says.

Alexander has high hopes for the Artists for Autism concert. "Music is a unifying force," he says. "It draws people together no matter their race, creed, nationality or religion."

And the Islams hope the jewelry project will protect children including Gabriel, who draws stick-figure Marvel characters. Debra Islam says Gabriel is in no hurry to grow up. He insists on being called a "teenage kid, not a teenager."

Then her eyes well with tears. Race magnifies this mother's fears "about 10,000 times."

"He's just a little black boy who's minding his business, and that doesn't guarantee him safety," she says.

Islam has instructed her son to say to those in authority, "My name is Gabriel, and I have autism.

"That's great - if you get a chance to speak," she says. "I know it's 2017; we can't make them wear a big blue 'A.' "

For children with autism, this project may say it for them.
A former teacher was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a student at a Heights elementary school in Houston.

The teacher, Miguel Angel Yepez, 41, was convicted of indecency with a child after a trial that ended Thursday, prosecutors said.

"The jury spoke loud and clear," Assistant District Attorney Ashley Guice said. "This is a horribly sad example of betrayal by someone entrusted with protecting our children."

Yepez was charged in December 2013 with the crime, 2 years after the abuse began.

The trial disclosed that during the 2011-2012 school year, when the girl was 8 years old, Yepez groped her at her desk in her second-grade class at Harvard Elementary School.

At trial, the student's mother said she had asked Yepez to watch over her daughter while her family struggled through a divorce.

She felt she served her daughter to Yepez on a "silver platter," the mother said through tears, according to a news release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Another former Harvard Elementary student also spoke during the trial, as part of a provision in child abuse cases that allows the jury to hear testimony that demonstrates, among other things, the accused's state of mind and consistency in his or her character or relationship with children, said JoAnne Musick, chief of sex crimes for the district attorney's office.

That former student, now an adult, said Yepez groped her in 2002 while she was attending Harvard Elementary.

In the 2002 case, Yepez was not her teacher. He was a family friend. The suspected abuse happened away from campus, at the apartment where the girl's family lived, according to court records.

The woman said in court that she initially was afraid to tell anyone.

Yepez was charged in 2015 with indecency with a child in connection with the 2002 incident, but the case was dismissed after Thursday's conviction.

Yepez did not appear to have been convicted of any other crimes in Harris County.

"Though this took time, justice has been served," Musick said. "Those who violate the most sacred trust of our community - caring for our children - will be prosecuted and punished accordingly.
A U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week killed Abu Sayed, the leader of the Islamic State's offshoot there, U.S. officials said Friday.

A Pentagon statement said that other Islamic State members were also killed in the operation on Tuesday in Kunar province and said that it "will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan." The statement provided little other detail about the strike.

A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details about the attack, said the strike targeted a meeting and that U.S. forces had not been tracking Sayed for long.

If confirmed, Sayed's death marks another setback for the terrorist group in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan forces have been pummeling Islamic State positions in eastern Afghanistan for months in an effort to dislodge the militants from the craggy peaks and remote valleys of Nangahar and Kunar provinces. In April, a team of 50 U.S. Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos assaulted a hamlet in Achin, a district of Nangahar province, killing Abdul Hasib, Sayed's predecessor as commander of ISIS in Afghanistan, and roughly 30 other militants. Eight months before Hasib was killed, Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State's leader in Afghanistan prior to Hasib, was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

RELATED: Mosul air strikes used to remove jihadists (story continues below)

Two U.S. Rangers were killed in the operation to kill Hasib, the Pentagon said, possibly from "friendly fire." Seven U.S. service members have died in combat in Afghanistan in 2017, six of them in the eastern part of the country while supporting the fight against the Islamic State.

Despite being under constant bombardment and hemorrhaging leadership, the Islamic State's offshoot in Afghanistan has managed to keep a foothold in the country. In June, the group seized Tora Bora from the Taliban. Once a key battleground between the United States and al-Qaida, the area - pockmarked with caves and redoubts - is easily defensible from the ground and hard to target from the air.

The Pentagon assesses that the Islamic State presence in Afghanistan is down to fewer than 1,000 fighters, from a 2015 mark of 2,500.
A Washington judge on Friday ordered a retrial in the case of an activist who was arrested after laughing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions's Senate confirmation hearing in January.

Desiree Fairooz's arrest and conviction had sparked outrage from those who felt that it set "a dangerous precedent" for cracking down on political protests.

In a statement, Fairooz called the retrial a waste of time and taxpayer money.

Judge Robert Morin, the chief judge of the D.C. Superior Court, threw out a previous conviction for Fairooz, 61, who in May was found guilty of two misdemeanor charges of unlawful conduct on Capitol grounds and faced up to six months in jail.

She had attended Sessions's Jan. 10 confirmation hearing along with about two dozen other members from Code Pink, a progressive activist group that regularly protests at Congress.

In the middle of the hearing - just after Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., stated that Sessions's record of "treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented" - Fairooz laughed audibly.

"Sen. Shelby had said such an absurd thing about Jeff Sessions's record that Fairooz involuntarily laughed," Medea Benjamin, a Code Pink spokeswoman who was sitting next to Fairooz at the January hearing, told The Washington Post Friday.

Fairooz was swiftly arrested by Capitol police at the hearing. In video of her arrest taken by HuffPost, she can be seen protesting and asking why she is being led out of the Senate's Kennedy Caucus Room.

On Friday, the judge said Fairooz should not have been tried for laughing but only for speaking out as she was removed from the hearing room, according to a Code Pink statement.

Benjamin told The Post that the group was "stunned" by the judge's decision - particularly because Fairooz had only spoken out in the hearing room because she had been arrested for laughing, she said.

"I would have never spoken out at the hearing if I hadn't been arrested for laughing, and now I am going to be tried again! It's absurd," Fairooz said in a statement.

Fairooz did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment Friday afternoon. Her new trial is scheduled for September, court records show.

Arrests of protesters on Capitol Hill are not rare, but the idea that Fairooz had been considered disruptive for laughing caused controversy. In May, unnamed jurors told HuffPost that they had convicted Fairooz based on her behavior after Capitol police officer began to remove her for laughing.

Over the last several months, Fairooz has maintained that it was wrong for the police officer to have tried to escort her out for laughing in the first place, and that she would not have otherwise said anything during the hearing.

Jan. 10 had been a busy day at the U.S. Capitol for police, who ejected multiple protesters who repeatedly interrupted the Sessions confirmation hearing.

Two other Code Pink activists, Lenny Bianchi and Tighe Barry, were also arrested that day. The pair had shown up at the Senate confirmation hearing dressed in white hoods and robes to appear like Ku Klux Klan members, a reference to controversial comments Sessions once said he had jokingly made about the Klan. Before the confirmation hearing began, Bianchi and Barry were arrested and escorted out of the room.

Benjamin told The Post that the group had been surprised by Bianchi's and Barry's arrests as well, since they only protested "before the gavel went down."

She said members of Code Pink, which began in 2002 in an effort to stop the Iraq War, are fixtures at Congress and know to "sit down and put our signs away" once a hearing begins.

"That is what Lenny and Tighe had planned to do but they were arrested before the hearing began," Benjamin said. "We're so used to doing these protests and just being asked to leave that the whole thing to us was a surprise."

In May, a jury found Bianchi and Barry guilty on one count each of unlawful conduct on Capitol grounds and parading on Capitol grounds. On Friday, the same judge fined the men $100 and ordered them to 10 days of suspended incarceration and six months of probation from Capitol grounds for each charge.

Code Pink protested those punishments as well.

"These sentences are designed to discourage dissent and prevent activists from engaging in the daily protests that are taking place during this tumultuous time," the group said in a statement. "Code Pink feels that the judge should have overturned these absurd convictions and dropped all three cases."
A Russian-American lobbyist and veteran of the Soviet military said Friday that he attended a June 2016 meeting between President Donald Trump's oldest son and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

The presence of Rinat Akhmetshin adds to the potential seriousness of the Trump Tower gathering that is emerging this week as the clearest evidence so far of interactions between Trump campaign officials and Russian interests.

And it underscores how, despite Donald Trump Jr.'s pledge this week to be "transparent," new details about the encounter continue to become public amid investigations by Congress and a special counsel into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Emails released this week show that Trump Jr. believed he was meeting with a Russian government lawyer who would provide damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian effort to assist his father's presidential campaign. He was joined at the meeting by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, then a top campaign aide - but Trump Jr. said this week that nothing came of the discussion.

The attendance of Akhmetshin, who says he holds U.S. and Russian citizenship and who has been accused by some U.S. critics of having links to Russian spy services, also appears to tie the Trump Tower meeting to a broader effort underway at the time to influence U.S. policy toward Russia.

Akhmetshin says he has never had ties to Russian intelligence, and he and lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya have both said their efforts were not coordinated with the Russian government. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the government was not familiar with Akhmetshin.

But in the same period that he was meeting with Trump campaign officials, Akhmetshin was also orchestrating a Capitol Hill lobbying effort that coincided with one of the Kremlin's top priorities - to scale back U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by Congress for human rights violations.

Akhmetshin told The Washington Post on Friday that he did not know how the Trump Tower meeting was set up. He said that he had lunch with Veselnitskaya that day a few blocks from Trump Tower and that she asked his advice on what to say at the session.

"She said, 'Why don't you come with me?' " he recalled.

He said that Veselnitskaya, who was representing a Russian businessman who had been sued by U.S. authorities in New York, had found what she believed to be violations of Russian law by a Democratic donor. Akhmetshin added that the Russian lawyer described her findings at the meeting and left a document about them with Trump Jr. and the others.

In an interview Friday evening, an attorney for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, again dismissed the notion that the meeting was significant. He said recalling attendees at the session was difficult because of the amount of time that had passed - and the lack of significance attached to the conversation. "The frustrating part of all this for me is that this meeting occurred 13 months ago," he said. "There is no record, no list of who was there. It was not a memorable meeting for anyone. Now 13 months later, everyone expects we should have a perfect recollection."

But while the Russians were granted a high-level audience with the Trump campaign, their efforts were setting off alarms in some corners of Washington.

Veselnitskaya was rebuffed after pushing to testify at a House hearing that took place days after the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward Royce, R-Calif., rejected an attempt by the Russian team to screen a Russian-made documentary designed to undermine the arguments for a 2012 sanctions law, according to GOP congressional staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Russians argued that the Magnitsky Act, named for a lawyer who died at age 37 in a Moscow prison after accusing Russian officials of a massive tax fraud, was based on a false story.

In retaliation for the passage of the law, Russia had halted the adoption of Russian children by American families. Veselnitskaya and her lobbying team would present their efforts in Congress and at Trump Tower as an emotionally powerful effort to end the prohibition on adoptions and help children.

They found an ally in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has in recent years become an advocate for warmer U.S.-Russia relations. Rohrabacher attempted to organize a hearing featuring critics of the sanctions - an effort that was also thwarted by Royce, according to the congressional staffers.

In a statement, Royce did not specifically address his efforts to block the anti-sanctions advocates but acknowledged that he and Rohrabacher have "sharp disagreements on policy."

Rohrabacher was not available for comment Friday, but a spokesman, Ken Grubbs, acknowledged deep differences on Kremlin-related policies between the two Republicans. "They are very good friends, and they have very strong disagreements on Russia," Grubbs said.

The events unfolding on Capitol Hill and at Trump Tower in June 2016 followed a series of interactions a few months earlier in Moscow that may have played a role in shaping the lobbying efforts. In April 2016, Rohrabacher led a small congressional delegation to Moscow. During the trip, Rohrabacher's spokesman confirmed, Rohrabacher met with a top Russian prosecutor who provided him documents making a case that the Magnitsky story was a fraud.

Akhmetshin said he became involved in the lobbying effort in late 2015 after he was introduced to Veselnitskaya by a Russian public relations manager he declined to identify.

Veselnitskaya told the Wall Street Journal in Moscow on Friday that although she had exchanged information with the Russian prosecutor's office, her efforts were not undertaken on the government's behalf.

Akhmetshin said that he thought her arguments had merit and arranged for a nonprofit organization that hired U.S. lobbyists and consultants to press her case before Congress. The group was funded, he said, by Veselnitskaya's client, Denis Katsyv, and friends of his in Russia.

Akhmetshin was a controversial figure. In a letter this spring to U.S. government officials, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, described Akhmetshin as a person who "apparently has ties to Russian intelligence."

Akhmetshin said he never worked as an intelligence agent, but he did say he was drafted as a teenager and served for two years in a unit of the Soviet military that had responsibility for law enforcement issues as well as some counterintelligence matters. He immigrated to the United States in 1993 and gained citizenship in 2009.

"I was not an intelligence officer. Never," he said.

In the spring of 2016, as the presidential race was heating up, Akhmetshin and lobbyists he hired sought meetings on Capitol Hill to make their case against the sanctions law. Akhmetshin hired former Democratic congressman Ron Dellums, along with a team of lobbyists from the law firm of Cozen O'Connor.

Steve Pruitt, a business colleague speaking on Dellums's behalf, said his involvement was brief and ended when he determined that Congress was unlikely to change the law.

In June, after visiting Trump Tower in New York, Veselnitskaya came to Washington to lend a hand in the lobbying effort.

She attended a meeting of the team at the downtown offices of Cozen O'Connor, where she spoke at length in Russian about the issues but confused many in the room, who had not been told previously about her involvement, according to several participants.

A spokesman for Cozen said the firm had been hired by the nonprofit. But in a statement, the firm said that the role and involvement of the Russian lawyer was "not at all clear."

While Veselnitskaya was not allowed to testify in Congress, she did secure a prime, front-row seat for a June 14 hearing in the House on Russia-related issues.

Her high-profile spot in the room gained notice this week with the circulation of a photo in which she looms over the shoulder of former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, an adviser to President Barack Obama and a witness before the panel. Some conservative blogs this week have said the photo suggests she had accompanied McFaul and was a Democratic plant.

In fact, her seat had been reserved for her by a Republican consultant with close ties to the Trump campaign.

Lanny Wiles, whose wife, Susie, was then chairing the Trump campaign in Florida, said in an interview that he came early to scout out the seat at the request of Akhmetshin, with whom he was working on the lobbying effort.

Lanny and Susie Wiles both said she was unaware of his role in the lobbying effort. Lanny Wiles said he was unaware that the Russian lawyer whose seat he was saving had just days earlier met with Trump Jr.

"I wasn't part of it," Susie Wiles said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Alice Crites contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump has chosen a new lawyer to join the White House and take the lead on issues related to ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Ty Cobb, a former prosecutor and defense lawyer at Hogan Lovells, will seek to play the role of crisis manager and disciplinarian in a White House that has struggled to deal with continuing questions about the federal and congressional probes that have dominated the early months of Trump's presidency.

Ever since the Justice Department appointed a special counsel for the Russia investigation in May, the administration has endured week after week of revelations about meetings that top officials did not disclose and previous statements that proved partial or misleading. Trump has complained that special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation is a "witch hunt" that is unfairly stalling his agenda.

The president has been searching in recent weeks for a lawyer who could work inside the White House on the matter in an attempt to instill some sense of order to what can be a chaotic environment. He had considered Emmet Flood, William Burck and several others for the position. The need for someone to fill this role became more urgent when the New York Times broke the news Saturday that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort together held a meeting in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer on the belief that she had some damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

On Friday, a White House spokesperson said it was not ready to issue a statement on the president's choice of a new lawyer and Cobb's office said he was traveling and was not immediately available for comment.

The president was reported to have met with Cobb on July 3.

Trump will continue to be personally represented by his longtime New York-based lawyer Marc Kasowitz.

Meanwhile, Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, has decided that veteran Washington defense lawyer Abbe Lowell will take the lead in representing him in the Russia-related inquiries being conducted by Mueller and congressional committees, according to a statement and three people briefed on the decision. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, had originally hired well-known Washington criminal-defense lawyer Jamie Gorelick to represent them on matters related to their government service, but Kushner recently added Lowell to the team to avoid the potential conflict created because Gorelick and Mueller both worked at the law firm WilmerHale. Gorelick will continue to represent Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

"Of course I am still part of Jared Kushner's legal team," Gorelick said in a statement. "As we have stated, once Bob Mueller and three of our partners left the firm to form the Special Counsel's Office, we advised Jared to get independent legal advice on whether to continue with us as counsel. As a result of this process, Jared decided that Abbe would represent him in the Russia-related inquiries. We are currently helping Abbe's team."

The investigations into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and whether any members of the Trump campaign worked with Russian officials to hurt Clinton have hung over the White House for months and have proved to be a constant irritant to the president.

Mueller's probe has grown to look at whether the president obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey in May, and he is also closely scrutinizing two key aides to Trump - Manafort, his onetime campaign manager, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

- - -

The Washington Post's Rosalind Helderman, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
Ronny Cortez wheeled up to the microphone wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with his old station's logo and black sunglasses to protect against the glare of the scorching afternoon sun.

Cortez survived a hail of bullets in late February while confronting a burglar but continues to recuperate in the hospital.

"This guy right here and his family, they're our heroes," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Cortez and his family received a special van Friday from a police support group to help him and his family as he struggles to recuperate from the shooting, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The 100 Club handed over the keys Friday. The van - a gold-colored Dodge Pro Master - will help the family during his recovery and beyond, officials said.

Cortez' family  wife Sheri, daughter Tatiana, 20, and son Evan, 18  stood beside him Friday to accept the gift.

"It's really going to help my family a lot," Cortez, speaking briefly to a slew of reporters. "We've got a lot of fighting ahead of us."

Cortez and his fellow officers were searching for a suspected burglar Feb. 28 on Sterlingame in southwest Houston when the man shot him three times.

One bullet hit his spine  and is still lodged there.

The gunman, Earl Donnell Riley, a member of the 52-Hoover Crips gang, was shot to death in the confrontation.

Cortez, a 49-year old officer who has spent more than 20 years with the department, has been in the hospital ever since. A fellow officer, Jose Munoz, was also injured, but not as gravely: he was shot in the foot.

The 100 Club  a local group that supports law enforcement in Harris and 31 other Texas counties  donated the van and formally presented it to the family at a brief news conference at the Houston Police Officers Union hall.

"We appreciate the 100 Club for everything they do for our officers," said Joe Gamaldi, HPOU vice president. "It is incredible the way they step up whenever there's a hero in need."

100 Club Executive Director Rick Hartley said the foundation got involved after hearing about the shooting and learning about the extent of Cortez' injuries.

"We knew there would be a need for transportation," he said. "It's important for us ... to make sure to help those who put their lives on the line for us. Officers Cortez and Munoz did that on the afternoon they were shot. This is a small way we can say thank you to them ... Thanks for making our lives a little safer."

Sheri Cortez said her husband is undergoing several hours of physical therapy every day, working to be more independent and able to use his wheelchair on his own.

"We didn't know what to expect," she said.

It quickly became clear they'd need help moving her husband around.

"We quickly discovered because he's such a small fellow he wouldn't fit in a regular van," she joked, patting her husband's broad shoulders, as the crowd laughed. "He has a long, long road ahead ... It's really going to help."

Like Cortez and his wife, Acevedo acknowledged the struggle his officer faces going forward.

He turned to Cortez, surrounded by his family.

"Every time I see you you're looking better... We're in this for the long haul," he said. "The Cortez family knows we are a family and we're going to fight together."
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The Houston Police Department and more than a half a dozen other local police agencies are ending the use of controversial roadside drug testing blamed for hundreds of wrongful drug convictions in Harris County over the last decade  but not for the reason one might think.

Instead, police revealed Friday afternoon, the decision comes in response to the influx of two extraordinarily potent opioids into the Houston region capable of causing grave illness or death from exposure to miniscule amounts of the drug.

"It's critical for the first responders and the public we serve," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Friday. "Substances like Fentanyl and Carfentanil have changed the entire dynamic. We can't take the chance of losing a first responder or a member of the community because we failed to place safety above process."

HOUSTON PILL MILL: Doctor, clinic manager among hundreds indicted

Flanked by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, top officials from the Harris County Sheriff's Office, and leaders of several other local agencies, Acevedo said peace officers would stop the decades-old practice of using roadside tests Friday at midnight.

"They've been under fire scientifically for their reliability," Ogg said. "So the fact we're no longer going to use them is really just a sign of the changing times. Officer safety just demands us to look at new ways of presenting evidence and presenting it to the courts."

Local crime lab officials announced in August they'd begun detecting the opioids in testing samples, and Harris County Assistant District Attorney Paul Fortenberry said Friday police have seized more than 11 kilograms of the two drugs over the last two months.

"Words do not give it justice. It's an extremely dangerous substance," he said.

In addition to the Houston police, other agencies announcing the change Friday included the Harris County constables for Precincts 3, 4, 7 and 8; Metro police; Pasadena police; the Harris County Sheriff's Office; and the district attorney's office.

Related: 298 wrongful drug convictions identified in audit

The worries about opioids are just the latest in a series of concerns about roadside drug tests, which allowed officers to use a $2 test to take quick measures on the spot about whether a substance was likely to be illegal.

The tests  developed in the 1970s  have significant error rates and are not allowed to be used as evidence in criminal cases in Texas.

A far-reaching audit from the Harris County District Attorney's Office last year found nearly 300 people had been convicted of drug possession even though crime lab tests later found no controlled substances in the samples.

More than 130 had their convictions overturned in cases that go back to 2004, with dozens more under review for potential dismissal.

The officers had used the tests to help establish probable cause for an arrest, but in many cases prosecutors accepted both felony and misdemeanor plea deals before lab tests were performed.

An investigation from The New York Times Sunday Magazine and ProPublica estimated that as many as 100,000 people across the country make guilty pleas every year in similar circumstances, even when they're innocent.

Then-District Attorney Devon Anderson changed her policies amid the reports of problems and directed prosecutors generally to stop accepting guilty pleas in felony drug cases before receiving lab reports confirming the evidence.

Fortenberry, the assistant district attorney, said similar policies would remain in place to ensure defendants do not make false confessions.

"Before someone can ever be convicted, before someone can ever plead guilty to a narcotics crime, we have to have a laboratory test back," he said. "We do not believe the quality of the cases filed in Harris County will be affected at all."

County Commissioner Rodney Ellis  a vocal supporter of criminal justice reform  said the change will reduce the number of innocent people behind bars.

"It will result in fewer people being wrongfully accused and arrested on drug charges," he said. "This is a positive step toward creating a more fair and equitable criminal justice system."

At the same time, opioids have ravaged communities across the eastern United States, leading to thousands of overdoses and hundreds of deaths in New England and Pennsylvania in the last few years.

Reports have spread widely of police officers endangered by the drug, including an Ohio officer who became gravely ill in May when he accidentally touched Fentanyl after arresting two men in the middle of a drug transaction.

The officer revived only after receiving several doses of Narcan, an anti-overdose nasal spray that Houston narcotics officers have recently begun carrying. The Houston Police Department hopes to equip all patrol officers with Narcan, officials said.

Pasadena police recently seized 8 kilograms of Fentanyl, leading that department to recently decide to suspend roadside drug testing. A few weeks ago, Houston police seized an additional three kilograms of the drugs.

Each dose requires just 2 milligrams of the substance, meaning the recent drug seizures would translate into more than 5.5 million doses of the drug, said Peter Stout, president of the Houston Forensic Science Center, which performs drug testing for the police department and some other local agencies.

Stout said he has added protections for his employees in the controlled environment of the forensic lab. Officers on the street are substantially more vulnerable, he said.

"Protection for them is not opening the packaging in the first place," Stout said.

Reaction to the change was mixed among the criminal justice community.

Joe Gamaldi, vice president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, supported the change, saying it will give officers more time to do their jobs.

"We support anything that streamlines the process of getting our officers back [in the call-for-service loop] and on the street quicker," he said.

Former Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland said testing should take place in a sterile, properly equipped crime lab, not on the side of a road.

"I don't think any law enforcement agency in America should be doing this anymore," he said. "Police officers aren't chemists."

Other worried the change could lead to an increase in false arrests.

"This is a step back," said Nicolas Hughes, a local public defender. "A properly administered field test is much more reliable than an officer's training and experience. This is going to cause a lot of suffering to people who shouldn't be arrested in the first place."

Acevedo, however, said he doesn't believe the shift in policy will seriously change local policing.

"We've over-relied on the field tests," he said. "We need to rely on our training and experience and expertise ... This is a new paradigm. I don't see us ever going back."

Lise Olsen contributed to this report.
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Just a few days after police arrested the son of the maid who formally worked for a slain Hedwig Village woman, they charged the son's caretaker with capital murder in the killing of 79-year-old Janeil Bernard.

Timesha Wilson, 22, told police she was present during the brutal killing but did not say she participated in it. Police discovered additional surveillance video showing Wilson and Michael Susberry walking toward Bernard's home on the day she died.

"She was located today, voluntarily came to our station and gave a statement admitting that she was present, but she denied taking any part in the crime," said Hedwig Police Chief David A. Gott.

The 79-year-old was found dead on July 3 by her maid. Wilson told police that she thought they were going to Bernard's to get extra money and that she didn't know a murder was planned. She also has no prior criminal history, so police have not yet been able to link her fingerprints or DNA to the crime scene.

Susberry - the son of Bernard's former maid - also is facing a capital murder charge after confessing to the brutal slaying, police said at a news conference earlier this week.

"She knew him," Gott said. "She recognized him. She gave him something to drink. She allowed him to sit on the couch to rest."

The two families knew each other well, Gott said, and it was not uncommon for Susberry to stop by the Capri Lane home to pick up his mother's checks.

In the course of the robbery, Susberry grabbed Bernard, headbutted her and knocked her to the ground, then pulled out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly, police said.

Police determined Bernard's car and wallet were stolen. The vehicle - a red Cadillac sedan with a Texas license plate - turned up in southwest Houston near Texas 288. The keys were found about 200 feet away.

During the news conference, police displayed surveillance video of Wilson and Susberry riding the Metro bus together to the neighborhood. It also shows them walking toward Bernard's house.

Wilson and Susberry also are seen around 4:20 a.m. on video leaving the area where Bernard's car was found.

"As you can see, they were together all night," Gott said. "Together prior to the murder, together during the murder and obviously together until at least 4:20 in the morning."

Bernard had been a resident of Hedwig Village for 50 years, Gott said. She worked as a teacher in Spring Branch ISD before staying at home to take care of her two sons. Later in life, she became an accountant and eventually settled down to a quiet life brightened by family. She also had two grandchildren who adored her, Gott said.

A Metro pass and surveillance footage helped police figure out Susberry was involved in the killing. After figuring out Susberry's identity, the police called him in for questioning.

He eventually came into the police station voluntarily and confessed to the crime.

Susberry also told police that Wilson did not participate in the killing. The 22-year-old was apparently Susberry's caretaker, and they lived in the same Sunnyside neighborhood, Gott said.

Keri Blakinger contributed to this report.
Ronny Cortez wheeled up to the microphone wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with his old station's logo and black sunglasses to protect against the glare of the scorching afternoon sun.

Cortez survived a hail of bullets in late February while confronting a burglar but continues to recuperate in the hospital.

"This guy right here and his family, they're our heroes," Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Cortez and his family received a special van Friday from a police support group to help him and his family as he struggles to recuperate from the shooting, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The 100 Club handed over the keys Friday. The van - a gold-colored Dodge Pro Master - will help the family during his recovery and beyond, officials said.

Cortez's family - wife Sheri, daughter Tatiana, 20, and son Evan, 18 - stood beside him Friday to accept the gift.

"It's really going to help my family a lot," said Cortez. "We've got a lot of fighting ahead of us."

Cortez and his fellow officers were searching for a suspected burglar Feb. 28 on Sterlingame in southwest Houston when the man shot him three times.

One bullet hit his spine, and it's still lodged there.

The gunman, Earl Donnell Riley, a member of the 52-Hoover Crips gang, was shot to death in the confrontation.

Cortez, a 49-year-old officer with more than 20 years with the department, has been in the hospital since the shooting. A fellow officer, Jose Munoz, was also injured, but not as gravely; he was shot in the foot.

The 100 Club - a local group that supports law enforcement in Harris and 31 other Texas counties - donated the van and formally presented it to the family at a brief news conference at the Houston Police Officers Union hall.

"We appreciate the 100 Club for everything they do for our officers," said Joe Gamaldi, HPOU vice president. "It is incredible the way they step up whenever there's a hero in need."

100 Club Executive Director Rick Hartley said the foundation got involved after hearing about the shooting and learning about the extent of Cortez' injuries.

"We knew there would be a need for transportation," he said. "It's important for us ... to make sure to help those who put their lives on the line for us. Officers Cortez and Munoz did that on the afternoon they were shot. This is a small way we can say thank you to them. ... Thanks for making our lives a little safer."

Sheri Cortez said her husband is undergoing several hours of physical therapy every day, working to be more independent and able to use his wheelchair on his own.

"We didn't know what to expect," she said.

It quickly became clear they'd need help moving her husband around.

"We quickly discovered because he's such a small fellow he wouldn't fit in a regular van," she joked, patting her husband's broad shoulders, as the crowd laughed. "He has a long, long road ahead. ... It's really going to help."

Like Cortez and his wife, Acevedo acknowledged the struggle his officer faces going forward.

He turned to Cortez, surrounded by his family.

"Every time I see you you're looking better. ... We're in this for the long haul," he said. "The Cortez family knows we are a family and we're going to fight together."
WASHINGTON - The Republican-led House decisively approved a defense policy bill on Friday that declares climate change a national security threat, demands rigorous oversight of the Pentagon's cyber operations and rejects the Trump administration's bid to close military bases.

Lawmakers voted 344-81 on Friday to pass the sweeping legislation. The bill authorizes $696 billion in defense spending for the 2018 fiscal year, including nearly $30 billion more for core Pentagon operations than President Donald Trump requested.

Yet defense hawks pushing the hardest for the big boost in spending still face an uphill battle. For the spending increases to materialize, Congress first will have to agree to roll back a 2011 law that set strict limits on military spending. But that won't be easy. Lifting the so-called budget caps will face resistance from Democrats who are seeking to increase the budgets for other government agencies.

Caps in the way

If a budget deal can't be reached, Congress may be forced to fund the military through the use of stopgap spending bills. Under these short-term agreements, the Pentagon's budget is set at current levels and the military services are barred from starting new programs.

"If you don't raise the budget caps, this leaves us once again in the land of absurdity," said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. The bill includes a section that says global warming is "a direct threat to the national security." It's a potentially surprising addition given Trump's stated doubts about climate change and his recent decision to pull the U.S. out of the landmark accord.

Cyber measure

The section requires the Pentagon to deliver a report to Congress detailing the impact of climate change on the armed forces. The climate change report also is to list the 10 military bases most vulnerable to rising oceans, increased flooding, wildfires and other effects of climate change.

Over White House objections, the bill added a bipartisan measure crafted by Smith and Rep. Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, requiring the Defense Department to inform Congress within 48 hours of "any sensitive military cyber operation." Offensive and defensive cyber operations are covered by the notification requirement, although covert actions are exempt.

The bill also mandates that the department tell Congress, also within two days, about the results of any legal review by one of the military services of a cyber capability that is intended to be used as a weapon. Thornberry, a Texas Republican, has described the measure as a way to promote greater transparency for one of the most classified elements of the American arsenal.
A U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week killed Abu Sayed, the leader of the Islamic State's offshoot there, U.S. officials said Friday.

A Pentagon statement said that other Islamic State members were also killed in the July 11 operation in Kunar Province and said that it "will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan." The statement provided little other detail about the strike.

If confirmed, Sayed's death marks another setback for the terror group in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan forces have been pummeling Islamic State positions in eastern Afghanistan for months in an effort to dislodge the militants from the craggy peaks and remote valleys of Nangahar and Kunar provinces.

In April, a team of 50 U.S. Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos assaulted a hamlet in Achin, a district of Nangahar province, killing Abdul Hasib, Sayed's predecessor as commander of ISIS in Afghanistan, and roughly 30 other militants. Eight months before Hasib was killed, Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State's leader in Afghanistan prior to Hasib, was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Two U.S. Rangers were killed in the operation to kill Hasib, the Pentagon said, possibly from "friendly fire." Seven U.S. service members have died in combat in Afghanistan in 2017, six of them in the eastern part of the country while supporting the fight against the Islamic State.

Just two weeks before the attack on Hasib, the U.S. military dropped a 22,000-pound bomb, called the MOAB, on a cave complex in Achin, destroying what was described by the military as a key cave complex used by the militants. It is unclear how many fighters, if any, were killed in that operation.

Despite being under constant bombardment and hemorrhaging leadership, the Islamic State's offshoot in Afghanistan has managed to keep a foothold in the country. In June, the group seized Tora Bora from the Taliban. Once a key battle ground between U.S. and al-Qaida, the area - pockmarked with caves and redoubts - is easily defensible.

The Pentagon assesses that the Islamic State presence in Afghanistan is down to less than 1,000 fighters, from a 2015 mark of 2,500.
Billy Calzada/Staff

Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke raised $2.1 million in his first three months as an official candidate for the U.S. Senate, his campaign said.

The El Paso Democrat has quickly emerged as the Democrats top hope to take on U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. His $2.1 million is nearly three times as much as Democrat Paul Sadler raised in all of 2012 in his campaign against Cruz.
Florida beachgoers formed a human chain to save swimmers swept away by a riptide this week. The men and women in the chain rescued two children and eight adults after other means failed. In the face of a highly technical future, a similar effort by policymakers is needed to reach people with lower educational attainments who are stranded without a job - or who are about to become so.

It's an economic necessity for our nation, but also a very real human one. The dire plight that middle-aged white Americans in particular feel is reflected in their spiraling death rates since 1999, reversing decades of longer life expectancy, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. Their "deaths of despair" by suicide, drugs and alcohol are linked to lack of steady, well-paying jobs for whites without college degrees.

Improving access to educational opportunities after high school offers a way out, and it's an area that needs more attention from policymakers across the country. But a growing distrust of higher education is making it harder for the lifeline of education to reach those in need. Fifty-four percent of white Americans called a college education a "risky gamble" that might not pay off, according to an analysis of surveys published by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic, as reported by Houston Chronicle reporter Lindsay Ellis.

Black and Hispanic local residents were more likely than whites to say that an education beyond high school is necessary, according to a Kinder Institute study.

Bad actors in the for-profit college industry have played a role in the erosion of trust. Some for-profits have overcharged and under-delivered for years. State attorneys general must continue to act to stop for-profit colleges from misleading students about the likelihood that their expensive degrees would lead to jobs.

Debt is another culprit. In an era when politically conservative impulses target education funding, tuition is spiraling out of control at state colleges and universities, putting more of the burden on students and their families and making higher education seem an elite pursuit. Policymakers must embrace the notion that education spending is an investment in our communities.

While further aid for those enrolling in four-year college programs is clearly critical, community colleges must also continue efforts to provide other pathways to labor market success for those who cannot enroll in or complete such degrees.

The working class has a vastly different outlook than it did just a generation ago. In 2020, 65 percent of all American jobs will require education beyond high school, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The pervasive distrust of higher education has the potential to decimate the workforce of the future, an outcome we must turn back now.
(Thumbs up) Not since George W. Bush have we seen this kind of a migration of Texas politicians to D.C. Add Susan Combs to the list. This week, the tall former comptroller with a drawl was named assistant secretary of policy management and budget at the U.S. Department of Interior. Combs was a welcome force of nature in editorial board meetings, where she always came armed with charts, graphs and an earful for any authority issuing too much debt. She also had one other "pet" peeve - critters she didn't believe should be on the endangered species list. Our advice: Go see the golden-cheeked warbler while it's still around.

(Thumbs up) Just in time for Shark Week 2017 comes what we wish was fake news - it's not - from a fishing tournament hosted last week by the Texas City Jaycees. One angler snagged an all-time Texas record hammerhead shark that weighed in at 1,033 pounds. That came not long after another contestant reeled in an 817-pound tiger shark. Those of you going to Galveston for the weekend might want to stick close to the shore.

(Thumbs twiddled) It's been an interesting week for the sons of prominent Republicans. Donald Trump Jr. set the bar low. Now comes Ryan Patrick, the 38-year-old offspring of former talk show host and current Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Ryan this week has been put forward for the vacant U.S. attorney job in the Southern District. It's an odd choice considering he wasn't admitted to practice in the district until January. Ryan had a sterling reputation as a state prosecutor and earned our endorsement for criminal district court judge, where he was regarded as competent and fair. But when the area's top law enforcement officer in the nation's busiest jurisdiction has no experience taking down drug cartels, white-collar criminals or in areas like immigration or public corruption, the appointment smacks of political payback. Here's hoping he's a quick study.

(Thumbs twiddled) We celebrate a victory for the little guy - and free speech. A blogger who roasted Houston homes had been forced to take her site down because it borrowed photos from giant real estate site Zillow. But thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, McMansionHell.com is back up showing underdesigned and oversized houses, many right here in Bayou City.

(Thumbs down) Crime seems to have simmered in River Oaks since the Enron days. The biggest problems now are a run on Roederer Cristal at the local liquor store or maybe nematodes attacking the greens at ROCC. That was until a couple of weeks ago. Congregants were assembled for a funeral at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church on River Oaks Boulevard when car burglars hit. They made off with three vehicles in the parking lot, including one with U.S. Judge license plates. That was a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to Lynn Hughes, who has tossed his share of bad guys into the iron bar hotel. The car is still at large. No word on the status of the River Oaks Patrol officers who were on duty that day.

(Thumbs down) We're not going to solve in this space the question of whether a newly minted, Delaware-sized iceberg is floating near Antarctica because of global warming. We'll write more about that soon. But all stories are local, and elected officials with any responsibility for the Texas coast need to be thinking about rising sea levels and adaptation to changing ecosystems. Gotta have a plan.
Texas Legislature

Regarding "Legislative leaders' bad blood still strong" (Page A4, Friday), I think it is commendable that the Texas Senate is finally recognizing that teachers in public schools are woefully underpaid. It's about time.

However, I have serious concerns about how the state of Texas proposes to go about fixing this legitimate issue. From what I have been reading, the Texas Senate leadership wants each school district to give the teachers a well-deserved pay raise but are not going to be sending any money to those districts to fulfill this mandate. At the same time, they are proposing setting caps on how much funds school districts can collect from taxpayers.

Talk about your typical "Catch-22" situation. Mandate an unfunded policy and, at the same time, tie the hands of the officials in their ability to carry out the mandate. Does this seem crazy to anyone else but me?

Cathy Newman, Meadows Place

Trump Jr. and emails

Regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in an attempt to get dirt on Hillary Clinton ("Trump Jr. emails contradict denials," Page A1, Wednesday), I have heard Trump supporters on TV offer two responses: "Everybody does it" and "What harm was done?" The fact is not everybody does it. When Al Gore's campaign received anonymous information about George W. Bush during the Gore/Bush election, it was turned over to the FBI.

"What harm was done?" The question should be: What would have been Russia's price for the information?

Barbara Navarro, Houston

Now they're outraged?

Apparently the Democrats and their media allies are going to continue this "Russian collusion" farce throughout President Trump's entire term. Their riots and protests didn't work; their demand for a recount didn't work; their attempts to influence the Electoral College didn't work, the alleged smoking gun of James Comey's testimony didn't work; so now they dream up this "Russian collusion" thing. All of these efforts are a waste of time and money and show an incredible amount of bias from both them and the media.

Where was their outrage when President Obama sealed Eric Holder's Fast & Furious records, when Obama lied to get the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress, and when the Democratic presidential primary was rigged against Bernie Sanders?

Bob Fowler, Point Blank
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Our previous article on connected cars was quite popular so we decided to take a look at the smart cities these connected cars will inhabit in the future. As the Internet-of-Things (IoT) revolution continues to connect everything around us, cities and urban areas present an excellent space for tech startups to play in. The bright minds at CB Insights put together this market map with about 80 startups helping to build smarter cities:

Lets take a look at some of the types of startups looking to create the smart cities of tomorrow.

Tracking Water Usage with Big Data

Water is the next big thing and we recently wrote about 7 Water Tech Startups Helping Keep You Alive. One startup using big data to help us use water more efficiently is WaterSmart Software, a company that is working to provide advanced intelligence to water utility managers. This San Francisco company has taken in $13.35 million through six rounds of equity funding to help increase customer engagement through the use of big data. If water is such a vital resource, we should be tracking how its used. WaterSmarts system provides access to visual analytics, reporting, and customer relationship tools.

The customer-facing portions of their platform give customers access to information that helps them to save money on their water bill, protect their property, and conserve water.

Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Management

After surviving a flood in India, Stanford engineering student Ahmad Wani wanted to build a technology solution that would save every possible life in a disaster. Founded in 2015, Silicon Valley startup 1Concern has raised an undisclosed amount of funding so far to invest in a team of data scientists and engineers who plan to make cities safer by using machine intelligence to provide insights into disaster preparedness and mitigation. Their system allows cities to prepare for hazards like earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes with real-time disaster coordination, training simulations to prepare, and analysis that helps allow for a quick recovery.

Solutions are being built for monitoring transportation, hospitals, schools, humanitarian assistance, supply chains, and search and rescue, so that all these entities can work together more effectively in times of disaster. While we were initially skeptical about their references to state of the art AI and the shotgun approach used to describe what they do, it looks like they are making things happen.

Big Data for Traffic Analysis

Founded in 2004, Kirkland, Washington startup INRIX specializes in real-time traffic analytics that uses traffic data to offer actionable insights for freeways, highways, and arterials. The Company has raised $143.1 million through seven rounds of equity funding to date from investors that include Intel and Porsche and was recently chosen by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration as their travel-time data source for highways. INRIXs system uses big data (like weather forecasts, school schedules, anonymous mobile phones, road construction, etc.) to help cities in a variety of ways including optimizing parking management, preparing for large events, improving driver safety, and improving emergency response inefficiencies.

Roads that Talk to You

Missouri startup Integrated Roadways has a big vision for the future of roads. Their goal is to create modular pavement that acts as a digital network to connect drivers, support driverless technology, and generate recurring revenue from private party app development. The startup has taken in an undisclosed amount of funding to develop their patented Smart Pavement platform which provides a better, faster (95% less costly to install), less expensive (80% less total cost), and more durable (lasts 4X longer) way to create roads and highways. Heres what it looks like:

The system could also communicate with emergency services during an accident, providing added safety and facilitating quicker emergency response times. Currently, theyre working with the State of Missouri on a pilot to determine its suitability to reconstruct I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis, a $4 billion project. They see themselves as a technology integrator and said theyve had interest from companies like Cisco, Sprint, Amazon, Google, and others who all want to participate. Its probably about time to partner up then.

Windows Enabled by Nanotechnology

We first covered View in 2014, and to date the company has taken in a whopping $645 million through 9 rounds of funding including a $200 million round just this month. Views technology uses a nanoscale metal oxide transparent film and layers this on top of a normal window. By applying a small electric charge, the ions move between the layers tinting the glass. The dynamic glass can tint building windows based on weather conditions outside or to fit personal preferences of the inhabitants inside who no longer have to deal with blinds, but can now control the windows digitally. HR will tell you that its because we care about employees, our greatest asset but dont listen to that drivel. Its about cost savings:

Theyve completed 350 commercial installations with 150 in the works. Their website has gone through a major overhaul and now contains a wealth of info. Is View Glass prepping for an IPO perhaps? If youre interested in learning more about the smart glass market, check out our recent article titled Is Smart Glass a Smart Investment Yet?.

Optimized Bus Routes

Remix is a San Francisco-based company that provides a public transportation planning platform. They have raised $12 million through 2 rounds of funding to date with Sequoia Capital leading their last round of $10 million which closed in May 2017. Remix is already used by transit agencies in more than 200 cities across the globe. Once installed, the platform will pull data about the areas existing transit networks, evaluate alternatives, and make suggestions for changes and improvements. Staff can use the system to create and test new routes and transportation scenarios, allowing them to see the effects of a change before implementing it as seen below:

We can see some interesting demographics in the above example which show just how granular information is getting these days.

Civic Management in the Cloud

San Ramon, California startup Accela provides a cloud-based platform for managing civic engagement and governmental duties, helping cities to take quicker, more effective action. The company has raised $235.62 million through six rounds of equity funding to date and have used that money to acquire 10 different companies since opening their doors in 1999. Accelas platform is comprehensive, covering a range of areas including asset management, environment, finance, land management, licensing, utilities, and citizen relationship management. 35 of the biggest cities in the US use them and an IPO may be imminent. If you feel a yawn coming on when the topic of civic management comes up, we know how you feel. Lets move on to our next startup.

The Internet of Garbage (IoG)

Founded in 2010, Finnish startup Enevo has raised $26.75 million to provide analytics for waste management companies by collecting and analyzing data from wireless sensors they put inside of refuse containers. The startup claims to improve cost efficiency for cities, saving as much as 50% on their waste costs by only emptying bins when they are predicted to be full, and generating smart collection routes for garbage truck drivers.

This allows waste management companies to deploy resources to more pressing collection routes. Their platform also provides cities with a detailed reporting system that allows them to track changes and observe improvements.

Smart City Connectivity

SIGFOX provides a cellular network that is dedicated to low-throughput communication between internet-connected objects. In short, they provide a platform for communication between Internet-of-Things devices. The company has raised $309.7 million through six rounds of funding to date from investors that include Intel and Air Liquide. In order for smart cities to be more connected, a platform is necessary to bridge the gap. SIGFOX uses a low-power wide-area network that is compatible with Bluetooth, GPS, and Wifi. Their lightweight protocol is designed to handle small incoming and outgoing messages, leading to less energy consumption and longer battery life. SIGFOX already has a presence in more than 30 countries, amounting to more than 2 million square kilometers of coverage. Their stated goal is covering 100% of the globe within the next few years. The company is already regarded as a leader in the IoT industry with a lot of potential for growth moving forward.

Real-time Air Quality Maps

Israeli startup Breezometers mission is to help cities and businesses by providing accurate air quality data in order to help make environmental decisions. The company has raised $4.8 million through 2 rounds of equity funding to date. Breezometer provides customers with hyper-local air quality data, updated in real-time. The system collects data from sensors, including current conditions and dispersion patterns, comparing current data against historical data.

The system then provides health recommendations, real-time notifications, and additional information about pollution sources from their cloud-based platform. Seems like the more important problem to solve here is how to clean up that air but at least now we have a way of accurately measuring if the changes were proposing are having an effect on air quality. We dont need a fancy tool to tell us that Beijings perma-haze means the city is polluted.

Energy & Grid Management

Spun out of Stanford in 2011, AutoGrid aims to help energy companies by improving grids through the usage of big energy data and analytics. So far the Company has raised $41.75 million through 4 rounds of equity funding with many large energy companies participating. AutoGrid works directly with utility companies, energy service providers, and new energy developers to offer a platform that optimizes the generation and storage of energy. You can only imagine how fragmented the energy industry is with all kinds of legacy hardware and software systems that dont talk to each other. With AutoGrids platform, you can actually create virtual power plants that stand to transform the $2.4 trillion utility sector.

Conclusion

Soon, all cities and urban areas in developed markets will be smarter and more connected. The main driver of IoT is the falling cost of sensors which now are half the cost they were ten years ago and now cost about 60 cents a unit. While retail investors cant just go and invest in any of these interesting startups weve just covered, they may be able to invest in the companies that are building all these sensors. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you dont miss our coming article on investing in IoT sensors.

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Source: http://www.nanalyze.com/2017/07/11-smart-city-solutions-smarter-cities/
MountainOne Bank Appoints Senior Human Resources Officer

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Beth Petropulos has joined MountainOne as vice president, senior human resources officer.



"We are pleased to have attracted a human resources professional with Beth's experience and diverse background. She will be instrumental in leading our organizational growth and development initiatives," said Steve Owens, executive vice president, CFO, COO and CIO.



As senior human resources officer, Petropulos will be responsible for recruitment efforts across all MountainOne divisions, as well as for supporting employee training and development, promoting a healthy and engaged workplace, and fostering a corporate culture focused on talent, integrity and teamwork.



Prior to joining MountainOne, Petropulos, who has more than 20 years of human resources experience, served in roles of increasing responsibility at organizations in Berkshire County, Boston, New Hampshire and New York, including companies with workforces as large as 1,200 employees.



Petropulos holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of Connecticut. She resides in Hancock with her husband, Nick, and their two sons.




iciHaiti - Politics : Haiti has still not ratified the Convention against Torture





The past week was held in Port-au-Prince, a conference to discuss the ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CAT).



"The CAT was tabbled in the Haitian Parliament several years ago, unfortunately, the document has not yet been ratified [...] We followed the regulatory filing protocol, ie deliver the document to the Commission, which has followed up jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is tabling in Parliament," said Urbens Wilbert Dieuveuil, Executive Director of the Citizen's Initiative for Human Rights (ICDH), adding ""In all the last National Assemblies, the ratification of the Convention has always been included in the legislative agenda, but for one reason or another, ratification is still slow to materialize..."



Panelists and participants are of the opinion that the general conditions of of detention in the Haitian prison centers constitute in themselves a violation of the rights of the prisoners and are unanimous in recognizing the interest of the ratification of the CAT. "It's about the life and well-being of everyone. Everyone can one day or another find themselves in prison, or have a relative in prison. Thus, no one is immune to the ill-treatment of prisoners," recalled Romage Morlon, the Director-General of the National Penitentiary.



IH/ iciHaiti


















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Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are to work with each other again on a film adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon, the true-crime thriller by David Grann.

The news was revealed to Variety by the filmmaker's longtime production designer Dante Ferretti who confirmed that Scorsese planned to shoot the film next year after wrapping his next project The Irishman.

This will mark Scorsese and DiCaprio's sixth collaboration in 16 years following Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and the forthcoming Devil in the White City.



Rights to Grann's book, subtitled The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, fetched for a reported $5 million last year. Reports suggests a script has already been written by Eric Roth, the Oscar-winner behind Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The non-fiction work, which hit shelves in April, documents the string of murders which plagued the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma during the 1920s, after oil was found on their land and the nation soon became the richest per capita in the world. It's deemed the FBI's first homicide investigation.

Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Show all 39 1 /39 Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Lorraine Bracco as Dr Jennifer Melfi in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Michael Imperioli as Spider in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tobin Bell as Major Zwingli in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tobin Bell as a parole officer in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Sirico as Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Sirico as Tony Stacks in Goodfellas Copyright  1990 Warner Bros. Inc. Credit:  1990 Warner Bros. / Courtesy: Pyxurz. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Vincent as Billy Batts in Goodfellas Copyright  1990 Warner Bros. Inc. Credit:  1990 Warner Bros. / Courtesy: Pyxurz. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Vincent Pastore as Salvatore 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Vincent Pastore as Man with Coatrack in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Suzanne Shepherd as Mary DeAngelis (Carm's mother) in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Suzanne Shepherd as Karen's Mother in Goodfellas Copyright  1990 Warner Bros. Inc. Credit:  1990 Warner Bros. / Courtesy: Pyxurz. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Albanese as Uncle Pat Blundetto in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Albanese as Mob Lawyer in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Darrow as Larry Boy Barese in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Darrow as Sonny Bunz in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Lip as Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Tony Lip as Frankie The Wop in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Pellegrino as Bureau Chief Frank Cubitoso in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Pellegrino as Johnny Dio in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Chuck Low as Shlomo Teittleman in The Sopranos Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Chuck Low as Morris Kessler in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Paul Herman as Beansie Gaeta in The Sopranos. Was also Dealer in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Nicole Burdette as Barbara Soprano Giglione in The Sopranos. Was also Carbone's Girlfriend in Goodfellas. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Marianne Leone as Joanne Moltisanti in The Sopranos. Was also Tuddy's Wife in Goodfellas. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Daniel P. Conte as Faustino 'Doc' Santoro in The Sopranos. Was also Dr. Dan in Goodfellas. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts John 'Cha Cha' Ciarcia as Albie Cianflone in The Sopranos. Was also Batts' Crew #1 in Goodfellas. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Angela Pietropinto as Helen Barone in The Sopranos. Was also Cicero's Wife in Goodfellas. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Susan Varon as Susan in Goodfellas. Was also Joan Gillespie in The Sopranos. Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Frank Adonis was Guest #1 in The Sopranos and Anthony Stabile in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Nancy Cassaro was Joanne Moltisanti in The Sopranos and Joe Buddha's Wife in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Victor Collichio was Joe in The Sopranos and in Henry's 60's crew in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Anthoy Alessandro was a waiter in The Sopranos and in Henry's 60's crew in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Gaetano LoGiudice was Bada Bing Patron in The Sopranos and in Herny's 60s Crew in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Vito Antuofermo was Bobby Zanone in The Sopranos and Prizefighter in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Gene Canfield was Police Officer in The Sopranos and Prison Guard in Booth in Goodfellas Actors in both The Sopranos and Goodfellas and their parts Anthony Caso was Martin Scorsese in The Sopranos and Truck Hijacker in Goodfellas

Scorsese's next project, The Irishman, has evolved into a Goodfellas reunion having officially tapped Joe Pesci to star alongside Robert De Niro. It'll also be the director's first time working with Al Pacino. The film, which was acquired by Netflix, shoots in New York next month with a December release date expected.
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Disney has revealed fresh information about its upcoming Pixar sequel The Incredibles 2 with a release date finally set for 15 June 2018.

Speaking at the D23 Expo in California on Friday (14 July), Chief creative officer John Lasseter confirmed that the majority of the film's original voice cast will be returning for the follow-up that will place the spotlight on Holly Hunter's Elastigirl.

Craig T. Nelson (Mr. Incredible), Sarah Vowell (Violet) and Samuel L. Jackson (Frozone) will all return however the character of ten-year-old Dash has been recast considering the sequel will pick up exactly where the 2004 original left off. Huck Milner replaces Spencer Fox.Milner replaces Spencer Fox.

Recommended What happened when we went to Pixar HQ

The film, directed by Brad Bird, will see Elastigirl off on her own journey as she leaves Mr. Incredible at their new family home to take care of baby Jack-Jack who has manifested secret powers.

Referencing the original's moment which sees Jack-Jack destroy the Incredibles family home, Bird quipped: Baby-proofing this place is a nightmare.

Films to get excited about in 2017 Show all 13 1 /13 Films to get excited about in 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director: Rian Johnson Rian Johnson Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Release Date: 15 December 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Director: Taika Waititi Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline. Release Date: 27 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 You Were Never Really Here Director: Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Annihilation Director: Alex Garland Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Wonderstruck (image from Far From Heaven) Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Mother (image of Darren Aronofsky) Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (image from The Lobster) Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Blade Runner 2049 Director: Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. Release Date: 6 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Lady Bird (image of director Greta Gerwig) Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance) Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Director: John Cameron Mitchell John Cameron Mitchell Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Dark Tower Director: Nikolaj Arcel Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. Release Date: 28 July 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Suburbicon Director: George Clooney George Clooney Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. Release Date: 24 November

Fresh footage was shown at the event reportedly showing Jack-Jack show off superpowers including a flaming power, the ability to split himself into multiple parts and laser beams from his eyes.

The Incredibles 2 will be released 15 June 2018. The studio's latest film, Cars 3, is in cinemas now.
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Companies hoping to take part in the Government's promised fracking "revolution" have been finding it a challenge to get finance from British banks.

According to minutes of a meeting between the industry and a Government minister, some firms were struggling or suffering.

They added that some conventional oil and gas projects had been affected by protests as well, according to the civil servants notes.

Environmental campaigners said the account of the meeting, obtained under freedom of information laws by an activist, showed that fracking was a failed industry in the UK and called for the Government to help the booming renewable energy sector instead.

While the meeting took place in May last year, one financial expert said banks reluctance to invest in fracking was likely because of publics generally negative view of the controversial process, suggesting this may still be a problem.

Environmentalists are mainly opposed to fracking because it opens up a new source of fossil fuels, but there have also been concerns about earthquakes and pollution of groundwater and the air. Fracking involves sending a mixture of water and chemicals down a well at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release gas or oil contained inside. A study this week showed that treated wastewater from fracking plants in the US still contained significant levels of radioactive material.

The minutes showed that medium-sized companies with perhaps 200 employees  mostly involved in the oil and gas supply chain who want to get into the shale gas sector  were finding things difficult.

Operators are struggling  taking so long for them to get off the ground that SMEs are suffering," the document said.

Traditionally 10 to 15 wells are drilled a year and this year only four were drilled. Noted conventional oil and gas work has been affected by protests as well.

Industry are finding it a challenge to get support from British banks  all funding therefore comes from overseas and self-growth.

Recommended The Tories are isolated in their shocking support of fracking

They have looked at equity but dont want to dilute the companies. British banks are saying the companies are too small. For example, Barclays London said no so approached Barclays Kenya and paid a premium for this. Other financing issues concerned potential work in Russia and Iran.

The Conservative manifesto spoke of hoping to create a fracking revolution in the UK, with hopes of similar economic effects produced by the boom in the US. However it added that this would only happen if we maintain public confidence in the process, if we uphold our rigorous environmental protections, and if we ensure the proceeds of the wealth generated by shale energy are shared with the communities affected.

Anna Soubry, the then business minister who attended the meeting with industry body Onshore Energy Service Group (OESG) and several firms, opened the discussion by saying she was a big fan of shale, according to the document.

Professor Paul Stevens, an energy expert at the Chatham House think tank, told Greenpeace Energydesk, that fracking's poor image was a problem.

Without access to finance, fracking is simply not going to happen in the UK, he said.

How fracking works and where it could happen Show all 2 1 /2 How fracking works and where it could happen How fracking works and where it could happen 02-FrackingHowItWorks.jpg How fracking works and where it could happen 02-FrackingMapWeb.jpg

Irrespective of the pros and cons of fracking  and Ive never been convinced its as bad as the NGOs say  they have convinced the world [that fracking is dangerous], and nothing is going to change that.

The shale industry is never going to take off because of public opposition.

One banker, who helps companies raise money, told The Independent that in the current environment practically any business can get a loan from a bank  providing it isnt about to collapse.

He said that he did not think that the size of a company would restrict its ability to be able to get a loan from a bank.

It would be more likely, he said, that banks were not willing to provide funding because they dont want to be associated with some of the controversial activities that these companies are engaged in  in this case fracking.

The banker likened it to some fund managers who are restricted from buying bonds or stocks in companies in the tobacco, gambling or arms industries, due to a firm-wide commitment.

There has been a steady trend towards more sustainable and socially responsible investing in major global financial centres in recent years. Dozens of companies have issued so-called green bonds to finance socially-responsible projects.

And Elisabeth Whitebread, an energy campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: UK fracking firms have run up huge financial losses over six years of attempting to inflict a dirty fossil fuel industry on communities that dont want it.

Now we can see that its also proving difficult for the industry to access the finance it would need to scale up beyond a few niche projects.

Fracking is a failed industry in the UK. The sooner our Government acknowledges that and throws its weight behind the booming renewable energy sector, the better for us all.

Lee Petts, a founder member of the OESG, agreed the perception problem was affecting financing of the sector.

If you are in charge of handing out money in terms of bank loans to contractors and you cannot see what the future of the industry is  its clouded by the fact theres a degree of opposition to it  you dont know how its going to take off. You are going to be risk averse, arent you? he said.

But Mr Petts said he expected the industrys image would soon improve.

Once residents see for themselves its not as bad as theyve been led to believe, he said, I think well see a significant change in public perception, well see opposition tail right off.
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The humble bum bag is the ultimate retro accessory, one that is most commonly associated with the 1980s, when practicality was so synonymous with fashion trends that leg warmers were all the rage. And the bum bag is not that different.

As an adjustable bag that is large enough to fit your essentials but small enough not to be bulbous, its an incredibly useful wardrobe staple for day trips, holidays, and of course, festivals.

It also renders you entirely hands-free, which can be great for all the photography, museum visiting and partying that you intend to do this summer.

But not all bum bags are equal. Some are so ginormous they make it almost impossible to style them, while others are miniscule and therefore useless because they cant even hold your smartphone.

Size isnt the only thing that matters; pockets are essential. We know that its rare for a womans pockets to be deep enough to fit anything useful inside them, so why should we deprive ourselves when it comes to our accessories?

The more varied the storage space in your bum bag, the better. This gives you different sections for your phone, keys, credit card and lip balm.

There are some incredibly luxurious options  think ones by Balenciaga and Gucci  but you neednt drop hundreds of pounds to find a decent bum bag this season. Heres our pick of the best bum bags to get you through an activity-packed summer.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Hunter original bum bag: 35, Hunter

Theres a reason why Hunter is the brand you immediately think of when you think about festivals. Sure, you might know them more for their wellies (worn by Kate Moss, Alexa Chung et al), but their bum bags might be just as iconic. This one is the perfect size and boasts three separate compartments ready and waiting to hold all of your necessary items, with one large central pocket (put your phone and disposable camera in here) and two smaller ones (ideal for loose change, debit cards and lip balm). It also has a rigid structure and comes in a cool colourway of black, red and white with Hunters recognisable logo stamped on the front. It will go with almost any outfit and actually elevate it rather than dilute it, which is a rare thing in the world of bum bags.

Buy now

Ellesse lenx cross body bag: 15, JD Williams

This style is a bit slimmer than some of its counterparts, making it more of a fashion item than a practical one. But it is nonetheless a worthy investment thanks to its comfortable padded waist strap. You should be able to easily fit three or four essentials in here. Its also rather long in terms of the bag itself, meaning you can wear it strapped over your shoulder as opposed to your waist for an extra retro feel.

Buy now

ASOS Design scuba bum bag with rose gold: 15, ASOS

This is an easy and affordable bum bag, albeit with minimal storage space. There is just one central zip pocket, but its very roomy and will give you enough space for everything from sunglasses to sun cream. The rose gold detail on the zip and the buckle give it added glamour, while the scuba material means its very easy to clean  so no need to worry about any accidental cider spills when wearing this one to a festival.

Buy now

Dickies x Eastpak bum bag: 35, Dickies

This is essentially a backpack masquerading as a bum bag. Thats no bad thing, of course, because it means you have ample storage and its thick waist belt is comfortable enough for you to wear all day without any discomfort. Theres a main front compartment and an additional Velcro pocket with a soft tartan lining. But the best thing about this bum bag is its zipped back pocket. This will obviously be pressed up against your waist, providing you with the ultimate place to securely store your most treasured belongings, without fear of them falling out or being snatched by pickpockets. Its made from durable polyester and cotton, meaning it will withstand any unpredictable weather conditions. A solid choice, overall.

Buy now

Burberry small logo print bum bag: 350, Burberry

A classic design from a classic British brand, this bum bag takes its inspiration from the 1990s and can be easily clipped around your waist with an adjustable clip belt. Theres an exterior zip pocket (great for safely stowing away your debit card) and a very bold logo emblazoned on the front  just in case you forgot where the bum bag was from. Its a bit smaller than some of the other bum bags listed here, so think of it as more of a fashion accessory and dont rely on it to store all of your belongings.

Buy now

Topshop Barney red mesh spot bum bag: 18, Topshop

Theres only two sections for storage in this bum bag, one in the centre and a small zipped pocket at the front that is probably too small to fit anything other than your house keys. That being said, its design makes it unique. Mesh lining makes it incredibly light to carry and the bright red polka dot exterior makes it the ultimate playful fashion staple. It also has two zips on the waist strap, but these are purely decorative and add to the accessorys 1990s grunge look.

Buy now

Quicksilver corduroy bum bag: 22, Quicksilver

Its not every day that you come across a corduroy bum bag, which makes this product stand out almost instantly. Its creamy biscuit shade is neutral enough to go with almost any outfit, but it also wins points in the practicality department thanks to a front zip pocket and a back zip-up pocket, which, again, is incredibly useful for super safe storage. The black waist strap is adjustable, of course, and theres a Quicksilver logo on the front for extra detail.

Buy now

The verdict: Bum bags

It has to be Hunter for the win on this occasion, the festival aficionados really do know what theyre doing. It ticks all the boxes in terms of size, comfort and style. Its also durable and well-made, putting it on par with the extortionate designer options, despite its very reasonable price.
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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the laws of mathematics come second to the law of the land in a row over privacy and encryption.

Under new legislation proposed by the Australian Government, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Apples iMessage would be forced to hand over the contents of encrypted messages.

When challenged by a technology journalist over whether it was possible to tackle the problem of criminals using encryption  given that platform providers claim they are currently unable to break into the messages even if required to do so by law  the Prime Minister raised eyebrows as he made his reply.

Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia," he said.

Im not a cryptographer, but what we are seeking to do is to secure their assistance. They have to face up to their responsibility. They cant just wash their hands of it and say its got nothing to do with them.

Some took to Twitter to express their disquiet with Mr Turnbulls apparent dismissal of the laws of mathematics, with some accusing him of being Orwellian.

But Mr Turnbull stressed during the press conference that he was asking for the companies to work with the Government to change their current systems.

I am not going to get into hypotheticals. The important thing is to recognise the challenge and call on the companies for assistance.

I am sure they know morally they should. Morally they should.

They have to face up to their responsibility. They cant just wash their hands of it and say its got nothing to do with us.

Critics of WhatsApp  owned by Facebook  and other encrypted platforms says they provide the perfect hiding place for criminals because only the sender and the recipient can see the contents of the messages.

But George Brandis, the Australian Attorney General, said the UK security agency GCHQ has assured him it was possible to unlock encrypted systems.

Facebook has argued that weakening encryption for the purposes of law enforcement effectively means weakening the system for everyone, and would risk making the messages available to hackers and others with malevolent intent.

In a statement, Facebook said: We appreciate the important work law enforcement does, and we understand the need to carry out investigations. Thats why we already have a protocol in place to respond to any requests we can.

At the same time, weakening encrypted systems for them would mean weakening it for everyone.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Turnbull said the proposed law was modelled on the UKs controversial Investigatory Powers Act, which compels service providers to decrypt their supposedly private communications under certain circumstances.

The UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd is due to travel to the US in the next few weeks to hold talks with technology companies over the problem of how to tackle encryption and criminality.

Ms Rudd has previously called encryption completely unacceptable, while Prime Minister Theresa May has accused the internet giants of giving terrorists safe spaces to communicate.
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Water tainted with tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, says the head of the company responsible for the Fukushima clean-up operation.

There are around 580 of barrels containing the radioactive water which was used to cool the nuclear plant's damaged reactors.

Local residents are furious at plans to release the radioactive tritium from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant, which suffered a triple meltdown, into the sea.

The decision has already been made, said Takashi Kawamura, chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Debate has raged over the disposal of almost 777,000 tons of waste containing tritium.

However, Tepco need to wait for the governments final decision to release the water into the sea. We cannot keep going if we do not have the support of the state, Mr Kawamura said in a Japan Times report.

A supporter of releasing the water into the sea is Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. In the past, Tanaka has slated Tepco for their hesitant stance.

An operator lacking the will to take the initiative does not have the right to resume operation of nuclear reactors, he said.

Local fishermen are against the proposal of ocean release, fearing that the negative publicity will affect their livelihoods. Releasing (tritium) into the sea will create a new wave of unfounded rumors, making our efforts all for naught, said Kanji Tachiya, head of a local fishermen's cooperative.

Tritium is said to be of little danger to humans unless exposed to high quantities. According to NRA chairman Tanaka, the chemical is so weak in its radioactivity it wont penetrate plastic wrapping.

Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant Show all 2 1 /2 Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant 6-Fukushima-1-EPA.jpg EPA Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant 6-Fukushima-2-EPA.jpg EPA

Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton told the Guardian: In the broad scale of things, if they do end up putting the material in the Pacific, it will have minimal effect on an ocean basin scale.

Environmental activists fear that dumping the tritium-laced water into the ocean could become commonplace.

"They say that it will be safe because the ocean is large so it will be diluted, but that sets a precedent that can be copied, essentially permitting anyone to dump nuclear waste into our seas," Aileen Mioko-Smith of Green Action Japan said.

The clean-up operation from the Fukushima disaster is estimated to cost around $20bn (14bn).
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An unemployed Briton who joined pro-Russian militia fighting against Ukrainian government forces has been jailed for five years and four months for a terrorism offence.

Benjamin Stimson, 41, who went to the conflict zone in the Donbass region, is the only UK citizen to have been prosecuted for assisting the anti-Government militia in Ukraine.

While in the country, he gave a BBC interview in which he claimed he was "a working class man with no work" whose last job was on a zero-hours contract.

He said he could not live in Britain any more and was prepared to kill someone if his life was threatened on the front line in what he said he would class as "an act of war".

Stimson also posted on Facebook a photograph of himself holding an AK-47, said it was "simple n' easy" and summed up Donbass as "vodka, women and guns".

But Manchester Crown Court heard that Stimson, formerly of Oldham, Greater Manchester, did not actually engage in any fighting during his four months in eastern Ukraine in 2015 and had intended to perform humanitarian work by driving ambulances.

Sentencing him, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester David Stockdale QC said: "You ultimately did no physical harm to anyone but you assisted the militia by your presence and your involvement, and you will have given a lead to others.

"I accept you do not hold extremist views and you have expressed your regret for your actions.

"It is clear to me that your intention of going there was not to fight but to escape your life in the United Kingdom, perhaps to find adventure and to possibly carry out humanitarian work.

"There is no evidence at all that you at any stage used any violence upon anyone. There is no evidence that you actually engaged in combat.

"On the contrary there is evidence that your presentation as a fighting man was in large part an exaggeration on your own part or even the product of fantasy."

Stimson pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of assisting others in committing terrorism acts.

The Crown did not proceed with an additional count of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorism.

Stimson will be considered for parole at the halfway point of his sentence and on his eventual release will have to serve an extra 12 months on licence.

Barnaby Jamieson, prosecuting, said Russia had taken steps to annex the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 and Donbass became a focal point of the resulting conflict and endured major unrest at the hands of Russian separatists.

He said: "From the perspective of the Putin government, the conflict was about creating 'Novorussia', or New Russia - and expanding Russian territory to include the entire Ukraine."

Stimson carried out "extensive" research on the conflict in the summer of 2015 and among internet search entries later found on his computer were: "Volunteer to fight in Donbass," "Britons fighting in Donbass," and "UK law on fighting overseas".

The defendant showed a particular interest in "the Army of Novorussia" and later successfully applied for a Russian visa, said Mr Jamieson.

Stimson flew from Manchester via Brussels to Moscow on August 8, 2015 and was transported to Donbass on his arrival after he established a contact prior to his journey.

Less than a week later the defendant was complaining of stomach pains and had to spend a week in a military hospital, the court was told.

In mid-October 2015, he gave an interview to BBC correspondent Tom Burridge in which his face was shielded from the camera.

Mr Jamieson said: "The defendant suggested that after watching reports in the media about far-right groups in Ukraine, he was inspired to join the rebels. He also complained of his lack of employment prospects back home.

"He went on to say 'well I just see this as a more Western imperialist aggression towards Russia, to people who are not necessarily playing the Western game. I have come here as a working class man with no work. Last job I had was in December last year, zero hour contracts. You can't live in Britain anymore now. No housing, so I voted with me feet'."

Stimson denied he was "meddling" in the conflict and said he was not a terrorist - "not like these jihadists that go out to Syria".

The defendant returned to the UK on November 23, 2015 and was arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences.

In his luggage was found various items of military clothing including some which bore the would-be flag of Novorussia, the court was told.

Mr Jamieson said: "The defendant accepts by his plea that by serving as an armed militiaman in an irregular force opposing the Ukrainian army he was assisting others with the intention of committing acts of terrorism.

"Taking up arms for a cause that was either political or ideological brings the defendant within the broadly drawn terrorism legislation. The law does not distinguish between one political/religious/ideological cause or another."

Richard Thomas, defending, pointed out there was a cease fire at the time his client was in the war zone but the defendant accepted he would have fought alongside his comrades if they had come under attack from the Ukraine government forces.

He said: "He accepts that he put himself in a position where he could have provided assistance to the militia."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle 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migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA

Mr Thomas said Stimson's involvement with the militia only began in early September 2015 after his recuperation at a barracks following his discharge from the military hospital.

Within a few days of serving on the frontline he indicated a desire to leave but did not make the arrangements until early November, said the barrister.

Mr Thomas added: "He remains sympathetic to the plight of the local people but he saw the reality of the militia and what it was with the involvement of oligarchs and power and profit, and he left.

"The defendant does not hold extremist views. In his Facebook contact with a Frenchman who had also been in the Donbass region, on his return he described himself as pro-democracy and a socialist."

Stimson had a number of previous convictions for "low level" offences such as criminal damage, theft and drugs possession.

A report from a forensic psychiatrist highlighted his "troubled background", a dependency on drugs and alcohol and his suffering from depressive disorders.

Mr Thomas said Stimson was seeking help in custody for his addiction problems.

Following sentence, the defendant's father, Martin Stimson, condemned the sentence as "very severe".

He said: "It's plain, and the court accepted, that Ben went out there for humanitarian reasons to drive an ambulance.

"And the court also accepted that Ben is no danger to society, so I'm reeling from that. It's very stiff.

"Initially we thought he was going to work on a farm to get a new life so it was a surprise that he was there in that part of the world."

Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson, head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: "Stimson went over to the Ukraine with the intention of joining militia groups fighting against the Ukrainian government and the images of him holding a rifle and wearing military clothing are deeply concerning.

"This case demonstrates the complex work the counter terrorism unit does to stop those who commit acts of terrorism, whether that is at home or abroad.

"He has been jailed for the role he played in a violent conflict and I hope his conviction will send a message to all those who are even considering joining conflicts."

Press Association
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An acid attack victim is offering a 10,000 reward in a desperate effort to track down the men who remain on the run more than a year after burning half his face off.

Mr Khan, who did not wish to use his real name, was opening up one of his businesses in Luton when he was approached by a stranger who had been waiting in a car outside.

He said, are you going to open that shop? and I said, yeah, why? Mr Khan told The Independent.

 CCTV shows man police want to speak to in relation to acid attack in Luton on 19 May 2016

I was a bit hesitant because the way he approached me wasnt normal.

I didnt want to let him inside because he just looked out of place.

He then got a bottle  he pressed on it and it released this very cold liquid that hit my face.

The 30-year-old did not realise what he had been hit with until he felt a burning sensation on the hand he used to shield himself.

Mr Khan after the acid attack in Luton last May (Supplied)

There was a chemist next door so I ran next door and asked for a glass of water, I threw it on myself, Mr Khan said.

It felt like there was a type of glue stuck to my face.

I put my head under the tap and when I lifted it up and looked in the mirror and I realised my skin was burning off.

Mr Khan said his attacker, a bald white man wearing a light hoodie and dark jeans, escaped in a pale blue Ford Fiesta driven by an accomplice.

He was taken to hospital for treatment and has suffered scarring, as well as lasting trauma from the unprovoked attack.

Half my face was burned off, Mr Khan said. Luckily I didnt need a skin graft because I got water on it straight away.

The scars might go away but mentally its been a strain  Im really paranoid when I meet new people, I feel anxious every time I go out of the house.

 Five acid attacks carried out across London

No one has been arrested for the attack in Leagrave Road, Luton, on 19 May 2016 and police are continuing to appeal for information.

Mr Khan still has no idea who attacked him or why, having received an Osman notice from the police months before the incident warning that an unidentified suspect was trying to kill him.

Recommended How worryingly easy it is to buy corrosive acid online

But officers did not give further information on the nature of the threat or who was behind it, and Mr Khan does not know whether the warning was linked to the acid attack.

Im just a young businessman who lives in Luton, Im not involved in crime or anything. Ive never wronged anyone, he said, adding that the ordeal has forced him to sell his businesses.

I think this was a targeted attack, but I really dont know why.

Im offering a 10,000 reward for anyone who can tell me who these people were or give information that leads to a conviction.

Cousins Jameel Mukhtar and Resham Khan before they were attacked with acid in June in a suspected hate crime (Gofundme)

The victim said he initially suspected that the two attackers were sent to do a job but is now wondering whether he was targeted as a Muslim.

Mr Khan said: Theres a lot of hate crime going on, people are trying to promote violence against other types of people, its not on.

I think if I was either a woman or a white man this would be blown right out of proportion, he said, adding that there would have been campaigns for justice.

Mr Khan is speaking about his ordeal for the first time in an appeal to track down the culprits and raise awareness following a spate of acid attacks in the UK.

Five victims were targeted by two attackers on mopeds within just 90 minutes in London on Thursday, while a similar attack injured a man the following day.

Two teenage boys are in custody, while a suspect has appeared in court over an unrelated attack in June that left cousins Resham Khan and Jameel Mukhtar with life-changing injuries.

In April, clubbers in east London were caught up in a mass attack that injured 20 people, and there are fears that acid is becoming a new weapon of choice for criminals and gangs.

A police cordon at the scene of one of five acid attacks on Thursday night (AP)

Figures from the National Police Chiefs Council suggest that more than 400 acid or corrosive substance attacks were carried out in the six months up to April 2017, based on returns from 39 forces in England and Wales.

Acid attacks were previously dominantly associated with honour crimes by men aiming to disfigure female victims, but have been used in the UK for crimes including robbery, rapes and assaults motivated by personal disputes  mainly targeting men.

Mr Khan is among the survivors and politicians demanding tougher prison sentences for culprits and restrictions on the sale of corrosive substances to combat the growing crime.

He was rendered speechless by the frequency of attacks in recent weeks and called for acid to be treated like guns or knives.

Its disgusting that someone can so easily obtain that kind of liquid and change someones life, he said.

Attackers should get 15 years  minimum.

Bedfordshire Police said they had received a complaint from Mr Khan, which is under investigation, and had launched a renewed appeal on the Crimewatch Roadshow last month.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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Police have arrested three men after a woman was gang-raped as she left a party at the Henley Royal Regatta.

The victim, aged in her 20s, was attacked after leaving an event at the Chinawhite enclosure following the rowing race on the banks of the River Thames.

She was raped as she walked to a car with a group of people she had met at the party.

A passer-by found her near the Three Horseshoes pub in the centre of Henley and called the police.

The trio were detained hours after police released CCTV images of three men wanted for questioning over the rape.

Two men, aged 23 and 24, from Bedford and a 26-year-old man from Loughborough were arrested on Friday. They have been released under investigation.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "Between 12am and 2.30am on Sunday, 2 July, the victim, a woman aged in her 20s, left the Chinawhite enclosure at the Henley Regatta with a party of people whom she had met there.

"She walked to a residential street in the Harpsden Road and Reading Road area of the town to a car where she was subsequently raped outside the vehicle.

"The three men then left in the vehicle."

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Police appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Lis Knight added: "The victim is being supported by specially-trained officers at this time.

"If you have any information, regardless of how insignificant you think it may be, please come forward and speak to officers as this could assist with our investigation."
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So-called "chemsex" drugs and former legal highs will be targeted as part of a new government blitz.

Ministers have launched a strategy which aims to reduce illicit drug use and improve dependence recovery rates.

Figures show drug misuse has been falling. In 2015/16, 2.7 million - over 8 per cent - of 16 to 59-year-olds in England and Wales took illegal drugs, down from 10.5 per cent a decade ago.

Recommended Chemsex addicts and the man fighting to help them

But the Home Office said new threats were emerging, citing new psychoactive substances (NPS), which were previously known as legal highs, image and performance-enhancing drugs, chemsex drugs and misuse of prescribed medicines.

Chemsex is officially defined as the use of drugs before or during planned sexual activity to sustain, enhance, disinhibit or facilitate the experience. It commonly involves the use of crystal methamphetamine, GHB/GBL and mephedrone.

Chemsex carries serious physical and mental health risks, including the spread of blood- borne infections and viruses, according to the new strategy.

It says local areas will be given guidance on effective steps including "targeted interventions" and close collaboration between sexual health services and other relevant groups.

NPS, which often mimic the effects of drugs such as cannabis, were widely known as legal highs before laws criminalising their production, distribution, sale and supply were introduced last year.

The fresh approach will see a new intelligence system for the substances developed to reduce the length of time between drug-related harms emerging and effective responses being prepared.

The Government said the strategy represented "world-leading" action to tackle the estimated 10.7 billion annual cost of drugs to society.

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their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A 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Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays 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site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Other steps outlined in the plan include:

:: The appointment of a National Recovery champion to ensure adequate housing, employment and mental health services are available to help recovering addicts turn their lives around;

:: Additional measures to test the success of treatment, with health services carrying out checks on progress of those in recovery at 12 months as well as six, to ensure they remain drug-free;

:: Support for prison officers to play a bigger role in the recovery process of drug offenders;

:: Action to strengthen controls at Britain's borders, understand global trends and share intelligence as part of a new international strand.

Martin Powell, head of campaigns at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, criticised the strategy.

He said: "It won't protect young people and communities because it is the same failed old recipe of criminalisation and under-funding that has led to record numbers of vulnerable people dying."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "The drugs strategy won't work.

"It totally fails to address a key problem: treating drug dependence as a criminal justice issue rather than a health one."

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who will chair a new cross-government Drug Strategy Board, said: "I am determined to confront the scale of this issue and prevent drug misuse devastating our families and communities."

Home Office Minister Sarah Newton told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme she had looked at arguments for decriminalisation but "when you look at all the other available evidence, we just don't agree".

Press Association
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John McDonnell has hit back at Tony Blairs criticism of Labours failure to fight a hard Brexit, describing him as out of touch with the public.

The former prime minister did not spend time talking to voters in the pubs, the clubs and school gates, the Shadow Chancellor noted.

In an article insisting EU withdrawal can be stopped, Mr Blair said Jeremy Corbyns ambiguity about leaving the single market was a policy that could not be sustained.

He warned it puts us in the same damaging position for the economy as the Tories  making it impossible for Mr Corbyn to end austerity, as he has pledged.

In his article, Mr Blair also described the partys vision of a jobs first Brexit outside the single market as a contradiction in terms.

However, speaking at a strike rally for low-paid hospital workers in east London, Mr McDonnell insisted the result of the referendum had to be respected.

What most people want now is a Brexit that will protect the economy, protect their jobs and not affect their living standards, he said.

We think we can negotiate access and that will protect jobs and will protect the economy.

If we can change the tone of the negotiations into one which is based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, we can get more flexibility.

Mr McDonnell added: To be frank, Mr Blair hasnt really listened to the nature of the debate that is going on in the pubs, the clubs and school gates etc.

Mr Corbyn himself also dismissed Mr Blairs intervention, telling Sky News that the party recognises the result of the referendum a year ago.

The criticism that Mr Blair was out of step with the public was echoed by Robin Walker, a Brexit minister, who said: The majority of British people voted to leave the EU.

By calling for the will of the people and Parliament to be overturned, Tony Blair is demonstrating once again that he is out of touch.

In the eight-page article, the former prime minister reignited his criticisms of Mr Corbyn  even while acknowledging his remarkable result which I did not foresee.

He wrote: If a right-wing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a left-wing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard-left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count.

The Labour party should be cautious in thinking one more heave will deliver victory next time.

The Corbyn campaign was a positive factor in the election result; but the determining factor was the Tory campaign.

On Brexit, Mr Blair said: If Labour continues to be for leaving the single market, and the signs are that it will, then we are essentially for the same policy as the Government. This will become apparent to those who voted Remain.

But Mr McDonnell said: If you listen to ordinary people in this country now, what they want is basically a Brexit that will protect their jobs and protect the economy.

We believe we can achieve that traditional British compromise of bringing people back together again. That is what we need now.
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A Conservative MP and doctor has attacked huge NHS cuts in England, while similar sums are handed out in Northern Ireland to prop up Theresa May in power.

Sarah Wollaston warned the health service in England was being forced into draconian measures that would damage both public health and patient safety.

Embarrassingly for No 10, Dr Wollaston linked the cuts directly to the 1bn deal signed with the Democratic Unionist Party to deliver the Conservatives a majority in the Commons.

 John Major: The NHS is about as safe with Tory Brexiteers as a hamster is with a phython

The criticism  from the chairwoman of the Commons health select committee  is the strongest yet by a senior Conservative MP since the controversial agreement was struck.

It comes after it was revealed that patients at risk of a heart attack could be denied vital tests and potentially lifesaving operations as part of 55m of budget cuts in Surrey and Sussex.

Under a little-known capped expenditure process (CEP), 14 areas of England have been ordered to make total savings of 500m, as the NHS struggles with underfunding.

I don't think these extra cuts are reasonable. You can't justify 500m to the Democratic Unionist party while taking another 500m out of the English NHS, Dr Wollaston told The Guardian.

The head of the health committee called for the CEP, ordered by NHS England and the overview body, NHS Improvement, to be scrapped.

The kind of issues that are being discussed would involve draconian measures that would have an impact on public health and services. I do have concerns about ultimately patient safety, she added.

NHS bosses in Surrey and Sussex are considering restricting the number of patients given a potentially life-saving angiogram or an angioplasty - inserting stents to help blocked arteries.

It is one of a range of options being considered to save the 55m, on top of 106m of efficiency savings already agreed.

Some patients at risk of a heart attack would in future be monitored by watchful waiting instead, under the plan.

Rationing of knee operations, cataract removals and tonsil removals is also being considered, as well as restricting IVF treatment and the provision of hearing aids.

Beds, or even whole wards, in community hospitals could be shut as the local NHS is told to think the unthinkable, as one senior figure described it.

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust health think-tank, said: Many of these cutbacks in procedures will only save money in the short term.

If they go ahead, this will mean putting off treating patients whose hip and eye conditions will worsen and must be treated eventually. Getting savings out will also require cutting staff.

The Guardian said Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, had declined to comment on the 55m cuts, while backing the CEP as a fair way to curb spending in the NHS.

The Department of Health said: NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring that local areas spend their increasing share equally based on best clinical practice.

At the election, the Conservatives said NHS spending would rise by 8bn by 2022  but has yet to say how that increase will be funded.
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Britain must end arms sales to Saudi Arabia while the country is accused of the large-scale slaughter of civilians in Yemens civil war, Theresa May is urged today.

An overwhelming majority of the public believes it is wrong for Britain to supply billions of pounds of weapons to the kingdom, an exclusive poll for The Independent has found.

Most people also want the Government to release a suppressed report into Saudi Arabias funding of Islamist extremism in Britain, even if it damages relations with the key ally.

Recommended Outcry as Saudi Arabia executes six people in single day

The results lay bare the publics deep unease about Britains close relationship with an autocracy embroiled in a devastating war in neighbouring Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition has been accused by the UN and other observers of bombing hospitals, schools and wedding parties, as it seeks to defeat Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The United Nations has declared the country a humanitarian catastrophe, with sanitation systems destroyed and at least 300,000 people infected with cholera.

The opposition to arms sales appears to extend into the Government, with key Tories thought to be arguing privately for weapons sales to be curbed.

Since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015, the UK has licensed 3.3bn worth of arms, including 1.1bn worth of ML4 licences, which relate to bombs, missiles, and other explosives.

Now the poll, by BMG Research, has found only 18 per cent of people support those sales while the Middle Eastern state is engaged in Yemens civil war  with 58 per cent against.

 Independent candidate claims Amber Rudd shut down his speech about arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Tom Brake, a Liberal Democrat frontbench MP, said: This just shows how fast the Conservatives are moving away from public opinion.

Instead of giving the Saudis a stern talking to, ministers are flogging them arms.

They are desperate for shady Middle Eastern trade deals because they are hell-bent on taking us out of the worlds most lucrative single market, in Europe, with nations who share our values.

Last week, the High Court ruled the Government is not breaking the law by continuing to sign off the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

However, the ruling appeared to be based on a narrow legal point about whether ministers had followed proper procedures and acted rationally in assessing the risks

The judges concluded that there was a substantial body of evidence suggesting that the [Saudi-led] coalition committed serious breaches of international humanitarian law in the course of its engagement in the Yemen conflict.

Activists from Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) had brought a legal challenge against the department in charge of arms control and will now appeal.

A day later the Home Secretary announced the Government will not release its report into Saudi Arabian and other foreign funding for Islamist extremism in Britain.

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

Amber Rudd said the report, commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron, must be held back on national security grounds.

But The Independent poll finds that 64 per cent of the public wants the report to be made publicly available in full, with only 11 per cent backing its suppression.

Mr Brake added: Liberal Democrats forced the Conservatives to commission a report into Saudi funding of extremism, so where is the full report?

It is totally hypocritical of ministers to condemn terrorism if they wont also tackle the causes of terrorism. The public sees that, but scandalously the Conservatives dont want to offend the worlds largest funder of Islamic fundamentalism.
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Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is dating an SNP politician, she has revealed.

The 35-year-old is in a relationship with Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Jenny Gilruth, the couple confirmed on Saturday.

Ms Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, split from her fiancee Louise Riddell in December after a nine-year relationship. They had been engaged for five months.

The Scottish Labour leader has been dating Ms Gilruth, 32, for about four months after the two became friends on a cross-party politics trip to the USA last summer.

In a joint statement, the pair said: We dont consider this to be news  but we appreciate others might and we want to go about our daily lives normally.

We would like to thank our friends, family and colleagues for their kindness over the past few months and for their love and support.

Wed politely ask that our privacy is respected because while we are both politicians, we are also human beings  in a new relationship, which we cherish.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon reacted to the news on social media, tweeting: So love really does conquer all! Wishing every happiness to @JennyGilruth & @kezdugdale.

Ms Gilruth, a former teacher, was elected to Holyrood in May last year. She is a Parliamentary liaison officer to Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

Ms Dugdale rarely discusses her private life but revealed in April last year that she was in a relationship with a woman.
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Philip Hammond is at the centre of a fresh controversy after reportedly saying public sector workers were "overpaid".

The comments were made by the Chancellor in a Cabinet meeting this week, according to The Sunday Times.

It is the second row in less than a week Mr Hammond has become embroiled in, after he was said to have quipped that driving trains has become so easy that "even a woman" can do it.

His latest remarks caused "astonishment" in Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, a source told the newspaper.

They said: "Philip used a fairly inflammatory phrase. He said they were 'overpaid'.

"That caused some general astonishment. His overall tone was that we shouldn't give them more cash because they are overpaid.

"Later in the meeting both Boris Johnson and the PM said we should not say public sector workers are overpaid."

The report added five sources had attested to the Chancellor using the word.

But the Treasury denied the claims. A spokesman said: "The Chancellor was describing the public sector pension premium. He did not say that public sector workers were overpaid."

The reported remarks were described as "insulting" by one public sector organisation.

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said: "Nurses across the UK are being forced to take second jobs, rely on family handouts or even turn to food banks.

"It would be insulting of the government to claim these people earn too much.

"The government holds pay awards below inflation and forces year-on-year pay cuts on public sector workers.

"Nursing staff earn 3,000 less per year in real terms compared to 2010. Our protests will continue until the Government scraps the 1% cap."

The Chancellor has previously said the government must "hold its nerve" over public sector pay, despite other cabinet colleagues indicating their support for lifting the one per cent cap on it.

Following terror attacks in London and Manchester, and the Grenfell Tower fire, there was widespread public support for ending the limit on public sector workers, particularly in the emergency services.

But the government voted to retain it.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

Following the fury over those earlier comments  which have received significant coverage in recent days  political observers suggested the uproar was caused by leaks from pro-Brexit politicians who are moving against him.

The Chancellor, who campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union, has previously argued for softer approaches to Brexit, such as advocating staying within the customs union.

He later confirmed the UK will leave both the customs union and single market but warned earlier this month that free trade deals would have limited benefits for the UK.

Philip Hammond can't remember saying public sector workers were 'overpaid'. Unfortunately a large number of his colleagues can, wrote Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman on Twitter.
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The US has been testing hypersonic aircraft missiles that could fly at a mile per second.

It has collaborated with Australia to research and pilot weapons able to fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound - anywhere from 3,836mph up to 7,700 mph.

The latest phase of the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HiFIRE) programme included at least one successful hypersonic flight at Woomera testing range in South Australia.

The round of experiments concluded on 12 July, confirmed Australian defence minister Marise Payne.

BAE Systems Australia said in a statement that "the successful flight trial [was] the most complex of all HIFiRE flights conducted to date".

The $54m joint initiative involves the US Air Force, Boeing, the Australian Department of Defences Defence Science and Technology Group, BAE Systems Australia, and the University of Queensland.

Both Russia and China are building hypersonic glide vehicles, US Air Force General John Hyten recently told a Senate hearing, according to The Washington Examiner.

US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, head of US Pacific Command, told a Congress hearing in May: "I'm concerned about Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons development, and I expressed those concerns in the right places. What we can do is to develop our own hypersonic weapons and improve our defenses against theirs."

A hypersonic missile could fly 1000 miles in less than 17 minutes. Though many ballistic missiles can fly faster, the typical arc trajectory of such missiles makes them more easily detectable by early warning satellites, according to The Drive. The Pentagon has developed ballistic missile interceptors able to knock such weapons off-course mid-flight, and so mitigate their threat.

But hypersonic weapons are much less easy to track. Prototype designs rely on a booster such as a rocket motor to get the craft up to speed, before a high-speed jet engine takes over. Its smooth and flat flight path is much harder to track than that of a ballistic missile. These prototype crafts may also have the capability to change direction mid-flight, which makes interception much harder.

Developing a hypersonic missile system would enable the US to conduct short-notice or no-notice enemy strikes, the capability for which is a powerful deterrent alone.

The HiFIRE project, which initially included NASA, launched more than eight years ago.
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The Honolulu City Council has passed a law banning texting while walking.

If Mayor Kirk Caldwell signs it within the next 10 days, pedestrians in the Hawaiian city will be fined $15 to $99 for crossing the street while looking at their mobiles.

People making calls to emergency services or first responders answering an emergency call are exempt.

Recommended Tower block blaze kills three people in Hawaii

The city council member who introduced the legislation, Brandon Elefante, said his main concern was safety of high school students. The pedestrian bill is an extension of a ban on texting while driving.

"These high school groups were concerned for their peers being distracted while crossing the streets and looking at their phones instead of looking both ways," he told CNN.

"The advancement of technology can sometimes be a distraction and cause people to not pay attention."

Pedestrian accidents involving mobiles resulted in more than 11,000 injuries in the US between 2000 and 2011, according to the National Safety Council.

Cities like Fort Lee, New Jersey have passed similar legislation. London has begun to pad lampposts to soften the blow when distracted pedestrians walk into them. In Augsberg, Germany the red and green lights normally seen at crossing have been duplicated on the ground so that walkers will see them as they stare at their phones, according to Gizmodo.

Honolulu's legislation passed the council with a 7-2 vote, but one of those opposed said it may be "overl-egislation".

Councilman Ernie Martin told CNN: "Given the issues that Honolulu faces, such as homelessness and our rail project having a $3 billion deficit, there are more pressing matters that I'd prefer for us to focus on,"

Mr Martin said a public awareness campaign launched over social media would probably be more effective.
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The Brazilian environment ministry is proposing the release of 860,000 acres in the National Forest of Jamanxim for agricultural use, mining and logging.

The governments order was a compromise measure after protests from local residents and ecologists who claim that the bill could lead to further deforestation in the Para area.

If approved, the legislation will create a new protection area (APA) close to Novo Progresso. Around 27 percent of the national forest would be converted into an APA, the ministry said.

Carlos Xavier, president of a lobbying group in Para to decrease the size of the Jamanxim forest, said the APA would bring economic progress to the region.

According to the ministry, the bill includes stipulations to reduce conflicts over land, prevent deforestation and create jobs.

The measures were criticised by environmental groups. "The bill is seen as an amnesty for illegal occupation of the conservancy unit," said Observatorio do Clima on its website, claiming that the government "yielded to pressure" from the rural lobby.

Carlos Xavier, president of a lobbying group in Para to decrease the size of the Jamanxim forest, said the APA would bring economic progress to the region.

In 2016, deforestation of the Amazon rose by 29 per cent over the previous year, according to the government's satellite monitoring, the biggest jump since 2008.

Mongabay, an environmental science and conservation website, reports that experts using satellite images have identified illegal logging activities to the east of the BR-163 highway, in Para state.

The BR-163 protests involved stopping trucks from unloading grains at the riverside location of Miritituba, where barges carrying crops are transported en route to the export markets.

ATP, the Brazilian private ports association, calculated that the highway protests would result in losses of $47m (36m), according to Reuters.

Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer Show all 5 1 /5 Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer 196043.bin Daniel Beltra Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer 196044.bin Daniel Beltra Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer 196045.bin Daniel Beltra Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer 196046.bin Daniel Beltra Stunning images of the Amazon rainforest from award-winning photographer 196063.bin Daniel Beltra

According to Juan Doblas, from the geoprocessing laboratory of the Brazilian NGO Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), while deforestation [for cattle ranching] ended, the plundering of the forest by loggers gained momentum.

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has added her voice against the proposed legislation, tweeting President Temer to protect mother earth.

Global Witness reported that the number of environmental activists killed is rising, with two people on average dying every week. Jair Shmitt, the general coordinator of environmental monitoring at Ibama, described national forest of Jamanxim as one of the most violent conservation units in Amazonia. He told eco website that the region had professional assassins involved in illegal felling and in the theft of public land.
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Cuban President Raul Castro denounced President Donald Trump's tougher line on relations with Havana on Friday, calling it a setback but promising to continue working to normalise ties between the former Cold War rivals.

Castro's comments to Cuba's National Assembly were his first on Trump's June announcement of a partial rollback of the Cuba-US detente achieved by then-President Barack Obama. They contained echoes of the harsh rhetoric of the past.

"Any strategy that seeks to destroy the revolution either through coercion or pressure or through more subtle methods will fail," Cuba's president told legislators.

He also rejected any "lessons" on human rights from the US, saying his country "has a lot to be proud about" on the issue.

Surrounded by Cuban-American exiles and Cuban dissidents in Miami, Trump announced last month that the US would impose new limits on US travellers to the island and ban any payments to the military-linked conglomerate that controls much of the island's tourism industry. He said the US would consider lifting those and other restrictions only after Cuba returned fugitives and made a series of other internal changes including freeing political prisoners, allowing freedom of assembly and holding free elections.

Trump's policy retained elements of Obama's reforms but tightened restrictions on travel and employed harsh rhetoric on human rights.

On Friday in Washington, the Trump administration said it was suspending for another six months a provision of the US embargo on Cuba.

The State Department said it told Congress that it will keep suspending a provision of the Helms-Burton Act that deals with property seized from Americans. The provision lets Americans use US courts to sue non-American companies that operate and deal with property confiscated after Fidel Castro's revolution.

Speaking to the National Assembly, Castro called the Trump administration's policies a "setback," though he reiterated his government's position that it would work to normalise relations with Washington.

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

Earlier in the legislative session, Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas announced that Cuba's economy is growing again after a dip last year.

Cabrisas said the economy grew around 1 percent in the first half of 2017. That puts GDP growth on track to hit 2 percent for the year.

The government said the economy shrank last year by 1 percent amid falling support from troubled Venezuela. That was the first decrease reported in two decades. Cabrisas said that instability in the supply of Venezuelan oil weighs on the country but tourism, construction, transportation and communications were growing.

Associated Press
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Three people died in a fire that consumed three floors of a 36-floor condominium tower in Honolulu on Friday, city officials have said.

At least five others were injured in the blaze at the Marco Polo high-rise that sent thick black smoke pouring out over the city, a month to the day after a deadly tower fire in London.

Firefighters sprayed water onto the flames from nearby balconies and brought them under control at about 6:30pm local time (04:30 GMT Saturday), fours hours after the fire began, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters.

"We were all trying to help as much as we could ... but there was a fire and you could see it spreading," said 72-year-old resident, Karen Hastings, who was in the building when the fire broke out.

The blaze began on the 26th floor and quickly spread to the two floors above, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper reported. There were no immediate reports on what caused it.

Images posted online showed orange flames raging on several floors and debris falling from windows.

Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters that the building did not have a sprinkler system. Officers were conducting a room-by-room search, a task that could take several hours, he said.

"We don't have any information for us to believe that there are problems with the structure," Neves added.

The building was constructed in 1971, before the city began requiring sprinkler systems, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper said.

City officials told the newspaper that if the building had had a sprinkler system, the fire would have been contained to the original unit.

Emergency responders said they took at least five people to hospital with injuries and a number of others were treated at the scene.

Evacuees were being accommodated at a nearby park, with volunteers tending them, the Hawaii Red Cross said on Twitter.

The fire forced the closure of a major road in front of the complex, the Honolulu police department said on Twitter.

In London, at least 80 people were killed when a fire gutted the Grenfell Tower apartments on 14 June. That building also did not have a sprinkler system.

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

Reuters
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Donald Trump will probably resign over a constitutional crisis caused by his son-in-law and son, a leading professor of law at Columbia University predicts.

Philip Bobbitt describes the Presidents resignation as a consequence of his family members being prosecuted as the likeliest possibility.

Emails released by Donald Trump Jr show that he met with a Kremlin-based lawyer last summer, along with Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, the Republican campaigns then chairman.

Trump Jr's response to being offered compromising information about Hillary Clinton ahead of the November election was to write if its what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

Whatever [Trumps] policy goals, it has long been clear that creating a dynasty  having destroyed the two reigning political dynasties in the last campaign  is his greatest objective, Professor Bobbitt writes in the Evening Standard.

Resignation, as remote as it seems right now, might well be a choice the President would make to save his children from prison, and himself from future prosecution.

He says resignation would be the best way out of the mess created by allegations of collusion with Russia over interference in the US Presidential election.

Professor Bobbitt is a nephew of former President Lyndon B Johnson and a well-respected constitutional theorist.

He has acted as special adviser to every US President since his uncle, except Nixon, George W Bush, and now Trump.

He holds degrees from Princeton, Yale and Oxford.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA 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 year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A 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In the article, Professor Bobbitt also suggests that if Trump were to be impeached rather than resigning of his own accord, this would happen not on the basis of the President receiving a bribe but of him having offered one.

By determining that the head of the FBI, James Comey, wished to continue in his post, the President came perilously close to violating the constitution when he then stated that he would think about it, and raised the subject of Comey terminating the Russia investigation.

Indeed, the offering of such a bribe formed one of the counts in Richard Nixons impeachment when it was alleged he offered a judicial promotion to a judge for favourable treatment in court."
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Aisha Sultan's UK-born husband became a US citizen and received the customary welcome letter from the President, however it was not written by Donald Trump.

The US government is still using a letter signed by President Barack Obama.

It has not been updated in the six months since Mr Trump has taken office.

Ms Sultan posted a picture of the letter from her husband's welcome packet:

Naturally the rest of Twitter, the favoured method of public outreach for Mr Trump, responded:

Many wondered why Mr Obama's letter was still being used after all this time since it seems like such a simple fix. No official response has come from the White House on the matter as yet. However, Mr Trump has been known for his anti-immigrant rhetoric. He is still championing a nearly 2,000-mile border wall with Mexico to limit illegal immigration and has not explained why he repeatedly says Mexico will pay for it. His latest iteration is the travel ban, restricting those from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

In light of all that, many felt that Ms Sultan's husband was probably better off with a welcome from Mr Obama instead.
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The proposed wall along the US-Mexico border must be see-through to prevent people being hit on the head with sacks of drugs, Donald Trump has said.

The US President estimated "anywhere from 700 to 900 miles" of barricades were needed between the two countries, with mountains and rivers providing "natural barriers" along the rest of the 2,000-mile frontier.

A border wall to fight illegal immigration was one of Mr Trump's key election campaign promises.

The frontier, which stretches across four US states, already has 600 miles of fences and walls, although the President admits some some areas need replacement or repair.

Speaking on a flight from Washington to Paris, Mr Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that it was vital border agents could see through the wall to be aware of oncoming dangers.

"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it," he said.

"So it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall.

"As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over."

The President added "violent and vicious" rivers provided a natural barrier along parts of the border.

The winding Rio Grande defines the frontier in most of Texas, though in parts it is little more than a trickle of water, while the Colorado River marks the boundary along 24 miles in Arizona.

Mr Trump said: "You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don't really have people crossing.

"But you'll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles."

The White House originally said Mr Trump's comments on Thursday were off the record, but later changed course and released his remarks.

 Donald Trump says he still wants Mexico to pay for the wall at G20 summit

Andres Rozental, Mexico's former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the UK, told Sky News the proposed see-through wall was "the most ridiculous thing I have heard in many, many years".

He added: "It just doesn't make any sense."

Mr Trump's vow that Mexico will pay for the border wall, which the Mexican government has insisted will not happen, has strained relations between the neighbouring nations.

He has since said he will find a way for Mexico to repay the US for construction of the wall but that Congress would need to fund it first.

But almost six months into his presidency, he has so far asked Congress for only $1.6bn (1.2bn) for a project estimated to cost more than $20bn (15.3bn).
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A Republican congressman from Texas has suggested that Donald Trump should fire his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner from their White House roles, potentially demonstrating growing discontent with the influence that members of the Presidents family continue to wield despite recent scandals.

Before he was president, Mr Trump was known to give his children prominent positions in his real estate company and other undertakings in an almost Godfather-esque fashion. But this practice has seemed to have created problems during his presidential campaign and subsequent move to the White House.

The Presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, recently came under fire for a meeting he had during the presidential campaign with a lawyer connected to the Russian government. Emails released this week by Mr Trump Jr revealed that he had met with the lawyer after being told that she would provide official documents and information that would incriminate his fathers campaign opponent Hillary Clinton.

The President has praised his son for demonstrating transparency by releasing the emails, but members of Mr Trumps own political party have been less forgiving.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House, said Republican US Representative Bill Flores to a local affiliate of broadcaster CBS. Not only Donald Trump, but Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

Mr Flores was also critical of Mr Trump Jrs meeting, which has only furthered allegations that Trump campaign advisers colluded with the Russian government. Federal investigators and congressional committees are currently probing the matter.

I do find issues with the meeting. It's a meeting that should not have taken place, said Mr Flores. I think he thought he was looking out for his father's best interest.

Mr Trump Jr, along with his younger brother, Eric, are not part of the administration and are instead co-running the Trump Organization.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

Meanwhile, Ms Trump and Mr Kushner have both taken on adviser roles in the White House, leading to accusations that the President is engaging in nepotism since neither has daughter nor son-in-law have any prior political experience.

But a President appointing family members to fill prominent government posts is not new to Washington, even if the practice has appeared less common in recent decades. After being elected in 1960, President John F Kennedy nominated his 35-year-old brother Bobby to be attorney general.

Ms Trump has recently been criticised for briefly taking her fathers seat at the G20 summit in Germany after the President had to step out of the room. While Mr Trump was away from the table, his daughter sat between President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain.

Mr Kushner also appears to be getting his fair share of prominent tasks. Last month, the former real estate developer with little experience in international diplomacy met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders with the aim of reviving a US effort for a peace agreement. He also helped to negotiate a $100bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia before Mr Trumps first trip abroad as President in May.

Mr Kushner is also caught up in the Russia scandal: He attended Mr Trump Jrs meeting with the Russian lawyer and is currently being scrutinised for his own contacts with the Russian government.

Eric Trump, who took the reigns of the family business with Mr Trump Jr after the presidential election, said in April that nepotism is a beautiful thing.

You trust the people who are closest to you. Who is [my father] going to trust most to run a company? He is going to trust somebody who he trusts implicitly, he said in an interview with The Telegraph.

Mr Trump said his father knows I deeply care about the properties, our amazing teams. And he knows Im going to do everything I can humanly possible to take care of that.

Is that nepotism? Absolutely. Is that also a beautiful thing? Absolutely, he continued. "Family business is a beautiful thing. The same applies for Ivanka. Ivanka is by his side in Washington.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hassaid life as a CEO was easier than working for the Trump administration.

Mr Tillerson spoke candidly to reporters on the plane returning from his latest diplomatic tour, which included visits to Ukraine, Turkey, Germany, Qatar, and France, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Well it is a lot different than being CEO of Exxon because I was the ultimate decision-maker...that makes life easier, said Mr Tillerson.

He had spent four decades with the oil company and had grown accustomed to his staff and the organisation he helped shape.

Mr Tillerson said that as an executive he was used to making unilateral decisions.

"You own it, you make the decision, and I had a very different organisation around me. One that I spent my whole life with, people knew me very well and they knew what to expect, he explained, adding that he was exhausted from the recent tightly-scheduled tour.

He described the Exxon Mobil decision-making process as highly structured which he felt allowed the company to accomplish a lot in a very efficient way."

That is simply not the case in the bureaucracy of the State Department or with his somewhat contentious relationship with White House, who have reportedly complained about the several vacant deputy positions in the agency.

However, it has been reported that the White House has cut Mr Tillerson out of being overruled by Donald Trump on certain appointments, the LA Times reported.

It may not be of help that the White House wants to cut the agencys funding by nearly 30 percent in the next fiscal budget.

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. 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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. 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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. 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Stewart Patrick, who served on the policy planning staff at the State Department in the George W. Bush administration, said his suspicion is that within the White House, particularly amongst the nationalist faction  that this seems to actually be a concerted effort to diminish the role of the State Department in U.S. foreign policy and hamper its abilities to pursue policies that would be considered overly globalist, The Hill newspaper reported.

Six months into Trump administration, the US also only has six Senate-confirmed Ambassadors around the world: the United Nations, Israel, Senegal/Guinea-Bissau, Congo-Brazzaville, China, and New Zealand/Samoa.

It is unclear whether the unprecedented lag in nominations and confirmations is due to Mr Trump, Mr Tillerson, or some combination of problems in finding suitable candidates to represent the US - and State Department - abroad.

Mr Tillerson made it clear in the on-board conversation that he was not criticising the government or the administration, but that the State Department was "largely not a highly disciplined organisation."

Sometimes people don't want to take decisions. Coordination is difficult through the interagency [process], he noted.

However, in past administrations, many decisions were made by political appointees - chosen and placed in order to keep an administrations message and policies cohesive throughout the federal government.

Mr Tillersons staff is largely missing political appointees and career civil servants who are still working there from previous administrations are not normally asked to - and should not according to their job descriptions - make what may be politically-driven decisions on foreign policy.

Mr Trump, having only been in politics for two years, is also not familiar with the workings of the diplomatic world.

However, Mr Tillerson pointed out that in his old life, I spent a lot of time around the political world because I had to deal with governments all over the world.... I'm quite comfortable in these settings."

Despite the adjustment period to working in government rather than with governments, Mr Tillerson said he felt "engagement with the rest of the world is actually very easy for me.
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A video showing a man being beaten by Venezuelan authorities has emerged amid UN denunciation of police brutality in the country.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado tweeted the video out to her 3.7 million followers with the caption All the brutality of the tyranny collapses when faced with the dignity of just one man.

The video is reported to have been filmed on Thursday in the northern city of Lecheria, and shows members of the Venezuelan national guard beating what appears to be a passer-by.

Twitter users commented that the young man being attacked is called Gianni Scovino and suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.

The UN Refugee Agency called on the Venezuelan government on Friday to respect the oppositions right to protest and to not use excessive force against protesters.

"We urge authorities to respect the wishes of those who want to participate in this consultation and to guarantee people's rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said.

Anti-government protests have been raging in the country since April, and are expected to escalate on Sunday ahead of a symbolic referendum vote on President Nicolas Maduros plan for a new constitution.

The UN Human Rights Office said six to eight million people are expected to take part in the vote.

The government wants to hold its own popular vote on July 30 to create a Constituent Assembly with the power to rewrite the constitution and dismiss elected representatives.

The UN noted that asylum requests have soared, with 52,000 already lodged this year compared to 27,000 in 2016.

Most of the asylum requests have been submitted to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay and Mexico according to UNHCR spokesman William Spindler.

About 100 have died and 1,500 injured since the protests started.

Speaking at a recent Americas Society forum on the crisis in Venezuela, Marianela Balbim, executive director of Venezuelas Press and Society Institute, said that none of the 30 state media channels have reported on the frequent death of protesters at the hands of government forces.
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Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear facility reveal that Kim Jong-un may have produced more plutonium than previously thought in a bid to expand his stockpile of atomic weapons, according to US researchers.

The rogue state has carried out at least two secret campaigns to reprocess radioactive material at the Yongbyon nuclear plant in Nyongbyon County, it is claimed.

Satellite images of one of the plant's installations revealed an increase in thermal activity that could be the result of centrifuge operations aimed at enriching uranium so it can be used in bombs, it is said.

A satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear plant in Nyongbyon County, 56 miles north of Pyongyang (Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North. Includes material Pleiades  CNES 2017 Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image, all rights reserved) (Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North. Includes material Pleiades  CNES 2017 Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image, all rights reserved)

The analysis will raise fears that Kim intends to manufacture more nuclear weapons, days after North Korean officials described a US training exercise near their border as a "dangerous military gambit of warmongers who are trying to ignite the fuse of a nuclear war on the peninsula".

Researchers at North Korea monitoring project at 38 North said there was "cause for concern" because some of the thermal images showed that a reactor may have been operational at the Yongbyon nuclear plant between December 2016 and January this year.

The Washington-based think-tank scrutinised images captured by United States Geological Survey satellite Landsat 7 and produced a report titled Probable Production of Additional Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons.

It states that there have been two or more unreported reprocessing campaigns at the Yongbyon plant's radiochemical installation "to produce an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Koreas nuclear weapons stockpile".

A thermal satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear plant in Nyongbyon County, 56 miles north of Pyongyang. (Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North. Includes material Pleiades  CNES 2017 Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image, all rights reserved) (Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North. Includes material Pleiades  CNES 2017 Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image, all rights reserved)

It said thermal activity at the uranium enrichment facility could be a result of centrifuge operations that "would increase the Norths enriched uranium inventory", and give the regime more fuel for bombs.

But researchers concluded that the elevated patterns of thermal activity could also be a result of maintenance operations such as the heating of pipes to prevent them freezing.

Thermal readings at what is thought to be the site's isotope and tritium production facility remained consistent over several months, suggesting that it was "likely not producing tritium, which is an essential isotope used in the production of boosted yield nuclear weapons and hydrogen bombs".

"Based on imagery alone, it is not possible to conclude whether the plant is producing low or highly enriched uranium," the report added.

"Regardless, any activity at the Experimental Light Water Reactor is cause for concern and bears continued monitoring."

North Korea has justified weapons tests as "legitimate and justified measures" amid increasing "threats of nuclear war" against Pyongyang by Washington.

In pictures: North Korea military drill Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: North Korea military drill In pictures: North Korea military drill North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video

The dictatorship is banned from testing or developing missiles under UN resolutions, but has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US, ignoring repeated warnings from the international community.

Tensions escalated in the peninsula in July when North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, believed to be capable of hitting targets as far away as Alaska.
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Hackers have targeted Irish energy networks amid warnings over the potential impact of intensifying cyber attacks on crucial infrastructure.

Senior engineers at the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), which supplies both Northern Ireland and the Republic, were sent personalised emails containing malicious software by a group linked to Russias GRU intelligence agency, The Times reported.

Analysts told the newspaper the cyber attack intended to infiltrate control systems, giving hackers the power to take out part of the electricity grid with similar tactics that have caused mass outrages in Ukraine.

Irelands National Cyber Security Centre is investigating the attempt, which did not cause disruption to the network but may have allowed hackers to steal passwords and other information.

Oz Alashe, a former special forces Lieutenant Colonel and chief executive officer of cyber security platform CybSafe, characterised the attempt as a spear phishing attack.

Like regular phishing attacks, it involves the use of emails to illicit information or make the user click on a link to trigger malicious software, but utilises personal information on targets to heighten the chances of success.

 Major organisations among those affected by worldwide cyber attack

Mr Alashe told The Independent there has been an increase in reported attacks on crucial national infrastructure around the world.

Attribution is exceptionally hard to do but a large proportion of these attacks are believed to be state sponsored, he added.

Youre either trying to cause chaos, or just probe, or destabilise rather than make a financial gain.

The analyst said that some countries are known to outsource the task to criminal groups, who may also sell on information for profit.

The attack in Ireland was revealed after American officials said Russian government-backed hackers were behind recent cyber attacks on US nuclear power stations.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent a joint alert to the energy sector in June warning that that advanced, persistent threat actors were stealing network log-in and password information to access company networks.

In similar tactics to those seen in Ireland, officials said hackers had been sending tainted phishing emails containing malicious attachments to compromise their targets.

If the recent WannaCry cyberattack hasnt got business leaders to sit up and take notice, GDPR will force them to (EPA)

Concern over the potential impact of cyber attacks on crucial infrastructure has been mounting since the WannaCry ransomware attack caused chaos by spreading through the NHS IT network and around 150 countries in May.

It was followed by a sustained and determined attack on the Houses of Parliaments email system in June and a second global ransomware attack using software known as Petya.

A report on vulnerabilities in British defence released by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) earlier this month warned of the growing threat of cyber attacks and threats to the Wests use of satellites in space.

Enemies could take out military and civilian communications and navigation systems, the report said, or target the UKs economy and crucial IT infrastructure causing chaos and panic.

In any major future conflict, an important part of the battle will be threats to the UKs critical national infrastructure from hostile cyber operations, RUSIs report concluded.

The cyber threat spectrum is not only relevant to defence but to government as a whole, especially to critical national infrastructure and the broader economy.

Vladimir Putin has denied supporting hackers to launch cyber attacks on enemy states including Ukraine, or interfere in elections in the US, France and elsewhere.

Last month he conceded that patriotically-minded hackers may have meddled in the American presidential election but added: We're not doing this on the state level.
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Italian plans to impose a code of conduct on charities rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean Sea threatens thousands of lives, humanitarian groups have warned.

A draft of the code leaked to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) would force them to allow police officers on board and return immediately to port, rather than transferring migrants to other ships.

It would also ban rescuers from entering Libyan territorial waters, using lights to signal their location to boats at imminent risk of sinking or communicating with smugglers by phone.

The document, which has not been finalised, threatened to bar any NGOs who do not sign the code from Italian ports, forcing them to journey further carrying passengers frequently including pregnant women, torture victims and infants.

It comes as Italys pleas for support from fellow EU nations in redistributing around 200,000 migrants in overflowing government reception centres fall on deaf ears, amid waning political will to support refugees.

More than 2,300 migrants have lost their lives attempting to reach Europe so far this year, mainly on the treacherous route between Libya and Italy, while 105,200 asylum seekers mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and Syria have made it to shore.

Humanitarian ships have become increasingly instrumental in rescue operations, picking up more than a third of all migrants rescued in 2017 compared to 1 per cent in 2014, and are struggling to cope with the summer peak.

In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby being taken on to MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos all images by Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby among refugees on a boat carrying 185 people off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Migrants and refugees sleeping after being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos ship Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A crew from MSF's Bourbon Argos ship rescuing a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya, at sunrise Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A woman in a stretcher being lifted onto MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden

Jugend Rettet, which is among the groups operating rescue ships off the coast of Libya, told The Independent that forcing vessels to return to land to disembark migrants would take them out of the search and rescue zone where they are urgently needed.

NGOs are deployed to boats in distress by commanders in Rome, with smaller ships frequently transferring rescued refugees to larger vessels so they can continue rescues.

This draft for a code of conduct is a real threat for thousands of people, said Jugent Rettets Isa Grahn, adding that it was not an option for the group to have a police officer on board its ship. Humanitarian work has to be separated from political aims and be protected from political or military intervention.

The 11-point plan was drafted by the Italian government and first proposed at an informal meeting of the European Justice and Home Affairs Council on 6 July. It has not yet been officially presented to aid agencies, with the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (Moas) saying it had not yet been approached.

Migrants on a dinghy are rescued by Save the Children NGO crew from the ship Vos Hestia off the coast of Libya, 17 June 2017 (Reuters)

Save the Children, which also operates a rescue mission, said it had not been shown the proposals by officials. We will engage constructively with Italian authorities on any code of conduct that is fully aligned with our mandate to save lives and with International Maritime law, a spokesperson told The Independent.Save the Children operates in line with its humanitarian imperative to save lives, in compliance with international maritime law and in full transparency and cooperation with relevant authorities.

Vincent Cochetel, the UN Refugee Agencys special envoy for the Central Mediterranean route, said that any code of conduct must be imposed for all actors  not just NGOs.

Speaking at a report launch in Brussels earlier this month, he said that Romes maritime rescue coordination centre (MRCC) reviews all ships available to respond to distress calls but often we see shipping companies switching off their GPS systems in order not to rescue people. Can we have a code of conduct also for these shipping companies?"

NGOs are out there in the Mediterranean rescuing people because the EU is not, said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. Given the scale of tragedies at sea and the horrific abuses migrants and asylum seekers face in Libya, the EU should work with Italy to enhance robust search and rescue in the waters off Libya, not limit it.

Iverna McGowan, director of Amnesty Internationals European institutions office, said the draft code of conduct would risk endangering thousands of lives by impeding rescue boats from accessing the perilous waters near Libya.

 Libyan Coast Guard puts refugees and rescuers in danger during rescue operation at sea

She characterised the proposals as part of a concerted smear campaign against NGO rescue ships, which has culminated in a far-right group calling itself Defend Europe sending its own vessel to disrupt operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

Right-wing politicians have made persistent claims that aid agencies are aiding or even directly colluding with Libyan smugglers without citing evidence, despite two parliamentary committee inquiries in Italy finding no evidence of misconduct.

Academic studies have found no link between rescues and rising Mediterranean crossings and deaths, while a parliamentary report in the UK branded the EUs anti-smuggling mission a failure.

Recommended Charities call on UK and EU to pull support from Libyan coastguard

The House of Lords EU External Affairs Sub-Committee found that Operation Sophia, launched to replace the Italian governments rescue efforts in 2015, has not in any meaningful way deterred the flow of migrants, disrupted the smugglers networks, or impeded the business of people smuggling.

As reported by The Independent last year, the committee also concluded that the mission was driving refugee deaths by destroying smugglers boats and forcing them to switch to unseaworthy dinghies that are launched en masse.

The Lords report said a naval mission was the wrong tool to gather intelligence on land-based smuggling networks leading to the Libyan coast, which is now the main departure point for boats heading towards Europe.

It also raised concern over reports of serious abuses of the human rights of migrants by the Libyan coastguard, which is being trained by the UK and equipped by the EU as it seeks to gradually unburden itself of responsibility for rescues.

Recent incidents include a near miss between a Libyan coastguard patrol ship and vessel operated by German charity Sea-Watch, gunfire during a rescue and widespread allegations of the beating, torture and robbery of refugees forced back to shore in violation of international law.

The UN has warned of widespread torture, arbitrary detention, rape, forced labour and "slave auctions" in Libya, where people smugglers have set up a lucrative business in the chaos of its continuing civil war.
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Commemoration of the failed coup of last summer has started in Turkey with unveiling of memorials, rallies and marches, sermons in mosques and a special session of parliament scheduled for the early hours of the morning, the time when it was hit by an air strike in what became the symbol of a shocking assault on democracy.

There are celebrations of the victory over the plotters, accused of being followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, and mourning for the 249 who died and 2,200 wounded in an extraordinary night of violence and passion in which unarmed protesters took to the streets against the aircraft, tanks and helicopter gunships of the mutinous troops.

But what happened on 15 July last year, and its aftermath, has left a nation divided and traumatised. More than 50,000 are in prison, 150,000 have lost their jobs, others have fled to exile abroad. It has also left, among President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his followers, a sense of anger and resentment against enemies, real and perceived, home and abroad.

Mr Erdogan, who has amassed huge power after a referendum earlier this year, bestrides the political topography of this nation. The President has been constantly in the media as the anniversary approached; his ministers and civil servants have lauded him in countless speeches; his face stares down from hundreds of posters on walls. The focal point of the commemoration would be a speech to parliament by the President at 2.32am tomorrow morning  the precise hour and minute when bombs began to fall on the building.

The President will also unveil a large monument dedicated to martyrs opposite his palace in Ankara and another near Istanbuls former Bosphorus Bridge, which has been renamed the July 15 Martyrs Bridge to honour those who died resisting the coup.

The enemies of Mr Erdogan and his supporters range from the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation; the PKK, with a full-blown military conflict now under way against Kurdish separatists; and Isis, which has carried out a series of murderous attacks in Ankara and Istanbul among other places.

But opposition politicians, lawyers and journalists, members of the armed forces and the police are also on the enemies list. On Friday, the government announced it had sacked another 7,000 police, civil servants and academics for suspected links to Mr Gulen. Earlier in the week 14 more army officers were arrested and warrants were issued for 51 people, including 34 former members of the state broadcaster, TRT. Among others detained were Ali Avci, a film producer whose works have included a documentary about President Erdogan and one on the failed coup.

Dissent had been muted following waves of arrests. But hundreds of thousands gathered at a protest rally in Istanbul last Sunday. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican Peoples Party, who had headed a march for justice to the city from Ankara declared it was a rebirth for us, for our country and our children.

President Erdogan was scathing in his response. He accused the CHP and its followers of being terrorist lovers. The protesters, he charged, launched a march for terrorists and their supporters. This is something they never thought about doing against terrorist groups. They can convince no one that their aim is justice.They walked 450 kilometres in this march of theirs: did they spend four and half minutes of that time thinking about those killed by terrorists?

President Erdogan, at Parliament on the anniversary, accused his opponents of being terrorist lovers (EPA)

The CHP protest that the ruling AKP party is spreading smears trying to exclude the opposition from the anniversary. Deputy leader Bulent Tezcan stated:  They have organised a special programme in parliament. The AKP leader, his deputy, the MHP, a nationalist party, and the speaker will give speeches, but the leaders of other parties will not. No one has the right to divide parliament, to make arbitrary choices in parliament by deciding on who gets to speak.

Western governments and human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the purge which has taken place following the coup as well as the conduct of the referendum voting. Mr Erdogan and his supporters charge that the attacks are motivated by hypocrisy and racism. Despite extradition requests to the US, Mr Gulen continues to live in Pennsylvania: Gulenists are given refuge in Europe, they complain.

These allegations of torture and mistreatment you see in the West are lies. Prisoners who are supposed to be dying from terminal illnesses turn up in court looking healthy and even fat, said Mr Erdogan. We allow out prisoners dignity. You see prisoners in US and Europe and they are taken to court in prison uniform. Here they wear their own clothes, they turn up in suits. When we ask for evidence of mistreatment, they cannot provide it, what does that show? Turkey has always been willing to take into account constructive criticism. But we will not refrain from speaking up in the face of slander and injustice.

Mr Erdogan and his supporters have spoken of foreign hands behind the coup plot. Western governments, they charge, had been slow in condemning the coup against a democratically elected government, waiting to see which side won.

We saw that the self-proclaimed advocates of democracy and those who like to talk about human rights and the rule of law at every opportunity kept their silence in the face of the coup plotters. It was no coincidence that statements condemning the coup attempt came long after the struggle between our nation and the coup plotters had failed, maintained Mr Erdogan.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

What they did not realise was that we as a country are totally united, people believe in what we are doing and support all actions necessary to ensure safety of our citizens and safeguard the future of our democracy.

Mr Erdogan does, undoubtedly, have the support among large swathes of the population. Pembe Abdelhamid was preparing with her family to go on a march to parliament for the Presidents speech. He saved our country, there can be no doubt about that. The Gulen people may have won if something happened to him that night. But Allah protected the President and the President protected us. We are going to have a rally for the martyrs and veterans [protesters] of 15 July and then it is fitting that the President speaks. The government needs to guide the country, she wanted to stress.

That guidance, for 52-year-old Mrs Abdelhamid would include social measures and more respect for Turkeys Muslim roots. She was not allowed to wear her headscarf as a civil servant under laws which were changed by the AKP government. Rights like those have been taken away from us and should be restored, she said. Governments in the past had tried to make us something we are not. But we are Turkish and should keep our traditions. But it is not just about that, We need strong laws to be safe against danger, against terrorism. People in Europe are suffering from terrorism, why dont they understand this?

But others are gravely concerned. For Doruk Kundakci, a 33-year-old graphic designer, the coup has been used to bring in oppressive measures. I was protesting that night like so many others. We thought it was the military taking over again and we have had enough of military regimes from the past. But this coup has now been hijacked by Erdogan and the AKP to put people in prison, drive them out of their jobs. They are using the law against not just Gulenists but everyone. And, dont forget, Gulen and the AKP were allies before they fell out, he said.

I have got friends who have been arrested who have nothing to do with Gulen or PKK or anything: no one knows who may fall under suspicion, people are very careful what they say. This anniversary should have been used as a symbol of defeating fear, the fear brought by the coup. But, instead, fear has been brought back in another form into our lives, and some want to celebrate that, which is a shame for our country.
MISSOULA -- Montana has committed several million dollars to fund criminal justice reform measures passed by the 2017 Legislature, but federal government funding to aid future efforts is not yet a sure thing.

Friday, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that included about $25 million in funding for the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. That effort helps state and local governments conduct data-driven analyses of their criminal justice systems and adopt policies meant to reduce corrections spending and increase public safety.

A bipartisan group of members of Congress has signed a letter committing to funding the justice reinvestment, although President Donald Trumps budget shows a possible cut of about $3 million for the initiatives.

Montana is expecting to receive up to $500,000 in federal funds to help pay to implement the new policies with the help of Council of State Governments' Justice Center staff as they work with Montana officials, said Bree Derrick, program director for the justice center.

Over the next six years, these initiatives are meant to reduce the jail population by about 380 prisoners and save about $69 million in criminal justice spending.

Justice staff will have two years to help Montana implement the policies.

The first 12 to 18 months are pretty intensive, Derrick said.

After that though, justice center staff take a back seat as the Department of Corrections takes on a bigger role, she said.

Montana is one of 10 states getting assistance from the justice center as the state tries to reduce criminal justice spending and recidivism. Montana has budgeted $3 million to:

pay for additional probation and parole officers in 2018 and 2019,

establish grant programs that would fund local pretrial services, diversionary programs and supportive transitional housing for offenders,

create standards for both mental health and addiction treatment programs, and

fund a full-time parole board.

The Montana Department of Corrections worked closely with the justice center and the Legislature to create the justice reform bill package. The DOC has been pushing for some type of reform since 2013, when increasing prison populations began to strain the departments resources, said Reginald Michael, who replaced Mike Batista this year as corrections director.

No question, this is a big lift, especially with more offenders coming into Montanas corrections system on the front end, Michael said.

While some of the changes -- such as the creation of a full-time parole board -- wont take place until next year, projections done by the center show Montana's prison population should rise more slowly by 2018, and drop by 2023. One of the group's projections shows Montana saving up to $5 million in averted costs as early as 2018.

The justice center has previously worked with 17 other states. The timing varies as to when those states start seeing results, Derrick said. However, data are collected throughout the process and if the reductions in offender population and costs arent where they were projected to be, Derrick said the plan can be adjusted.

After the two years of implementation, the data collection will continue under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

The justice center worked with Idaho in 2014 to begin reinvesting the states criminal justice dollars. By the end of 2015, Idaho saw its prison population drop by about 3 percent and the justice center estimated the state saved about $14 million in averted costs. It was able to return $1.8 million to the states general fund, close a unit at the Idaho Correctional Center and start bringing back Idaho prisoners housed in out-of-state prisons.

At the same time, Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Keisha Oxendine has criticized the organization for not reviewing the entire criminal history of an offender before releasing each offender back into the population. In April, Oxendine told the Shoshone News-Press she was concerned the parole board was too focused on releasing prisoners as part of the reinvestment initiative and not on properly screening the offenders coming before them.

Out of all the states the justice center has worked with, only one saw its crime rate increase after the policies went into effect, Derrick said. If someone with an extensive criminal history is released and then commits a crime, people will criticize the policies.

If that happens, she said, the justice center will do a critical case review to see if there are any policies that need to be changed.

The center doesnt come to states with a set formula, Derrick said. The policies really need to be state-based and reflect what's already in place, she said.

For instance, North Dakotas Legislature approved reinvestment policies as well, but focused more heavily on funding behavioral health services, Derrick said.

While Montana could use a greater amount of resources when it comes to mental health and addiction treatment, it has considerably more re-entry services for inmates upon release, and more treatment programs than many other states, she said. That is why Montana's reinvestment policies focused more on how to properly screen and treat offenders, rather than creation of new programs, Derrick said.

However, the Department of Corrections is expected to expand at least some of its therapeutic services in the next few years as it transitions the Treasure State Boot Camp facility in Deer Lodge into a therapeutic treatment center. The boot camp was required until the law was changed this past legislative session.

The facility is on the Montana State Prison campus; and while the prison already provides chemical dependency treatment, by moving the program to a separate facility, the department will be able to provide a more effective and better model of treatment, said Judy Beck, communications director for the Montana Department of Corrections.

We feel it is important to focus our actions on evidence-based practices and on outcomes, Michael said. With the Legislatures support for these criminal justice reinvestment principles, we have an opportunity in Montana to make progress across the entire criminal justice system, and thats exciting.
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Almost 7,400 police, soldiers, civil servants and academics have been dismissed from their posts in Turkey as the country marks one year since an attempted coup against Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The ensuing crackdown has seen 150,000 public sector workers suspended and 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, education and press arrested on terror charges.

Most are accused of links with an organisation run by US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who denies government accusations of backing the coup attempt.

Purges have been implemented through decrees issued under the countrys ongoing state of emergency, with the latest announcing the dismissal of 2,303 police officers, 1,486 interior ministry staff, 546 navy and air force personnel, 418 justice ministry officials, 789 from the health ministry, 551 from religious affairs, 302 academics and 102 education ministry employees.

The former governor of Istanbul, Huseyin Avni Mutlu was among those dismissed by the order, which also stripped 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks and grades.

It came on the eve of a series of events marking the one-year anniversary of the attempted coup and commemorating the lives of 250 people killed in the violence.

Mr Erdogan is set to unveil a large monument dedicated to martyrs opposite his palace in Ankara and another near Istanbul's former Bosporus Bridge, which has been renamed as the July 15 Martyrs Bridge to honour those who died resisting the coup.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

The President is to deliver a speech in parliament at 2.32am local time on Sunday - the exact moment the assembly was attacked a year ago.

The rebellion unfolded on a Friday evening, when a group of military officers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks to attack key government buildings in Ankara, including parliament and the presidential palace complex.

They held Istanbul's main bridge and square and tried to overtake television stations, while attempting capture or kill Mr Erdogan, who was on holiday at a Mediterranean resort at the time.

Recommended Erdogan tightens grip on power by extending Turkish state of emergency

After CNN-Turk broadcast his call for citizens to take to the streets to stop the coup, rebelling soldiers were crushed by loyalist police and troops, as well as thousands of members of the public within hours.

More than 2,000 people were injured, in addition to the 250 killed, among them 53 special operations police killed in an attack on their headquarters.

Around 30 coup plotters are also believed to have died during their failed attempt to oust Mr Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003 as Prime Minister then President.

He went on to win a disputed referendum in April to turn Turkey from a parliamentary democracy to executive presidency, dramatically expanding his powers amid warnings over increasing authoritarianism.

His government has blamed the coup on the Gulenist network, which runs a network of schools, media outlets and universities around the world, with the crackdown extending to countries including Malaysia.

Mr Gulen's followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions over decades to carry out the insurgency but opponents of Mr Erdogan say the crackdown has widened to stifle any dissent.

Safak Pavey, a Turkish MP from the opposition Republican Peoples Party, said so many political prisoners have been jailed since the coup that 38,000 inmates convicted of offences including rape, theft and fraud were released before finishing their sentences to make room.

Turkish Gendarmerie escort defendant, Akin Ozturk and others involved in last July's attempted coup in Turkey as they leave the prison where they are being held, ahead of their trial in Ankara (Getty Images)

Describing the conditions inside Turkeys jails in a column for the New York Times, she said LGBT prisoners were kept in isolation under claims that they could infect others with Aids and syphilis, while at least 66 inmates killed themselves last year.

Even the prison guards are afraid, Ms Pavey wrote. If you ask for a glass of water, they will not give it to you, to avoid accusations of being nice to the opposition.

Inmates have no privacy, not even access to a private toiletinmates are watched [by cameras] even as they sleep.

Writing letters is forbidden, as is meeting in the prison yard and consultations with lawyers are limited to one hour a week, Ms Pavey said, adding: Inmates have the right to 10 books a week, but they get a book a month. I heard an inmate being told: The book is not available, but the author is here if you are interested.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported torture and ill treatment of prisoners, who are allegedly beaten, made to kneel and deprived of sleep until they sign confessions.

UN experts have called on the Turkish government to immediately release lawyers and activists including Taner Kilic, the chair of Amnesty International Turkey.

The arrest of these human rights defenders, including prominent figures, is a further illustration of the witch-hunt taking place in Turkey, they said in a joint statement published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Turkish authorities are constantly citing security considerations, in particular the fight against terrorism and the need to avoid another attempted coup, to justify targeting dissent and criticism.

This is having the effect of curtailing peoples rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, and is particularly alarming.

We have raised the alarm over the critical situation of fundamental freedoms in Turkey on various occasions and all the signs show that it is only going to escalate.

 CCTV shows Turkish school principal being 'abducted'

Mr Erdogan once described the coup as a gift from God that had allowed the government to purge the military and public institutions of the Gulenists who once were allied with his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party.

No state can work with those who don't show it loyalty, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week.

Our struggle [against Gulen's movement] will continue with determination.

Mr Gulen, 79, has denied any involvement with the coup but admitted some of his followers may have been involved, while the British and German governments are among those finding no evidence to support Ankaras claims or its designation of the Gulenist movement as a terror group.

Recommended Gulen is preparing for his extradition to Turkey by Donald Trump

Barack Obama refused requests to extradite Mr Gulen  once an ally of Mr Erdogan  from his home in Pennsylvania but there are fears Donald Trumps administration could approve the move.

The prospect appeared to dim with the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who discussed the move with high ranking Turkish officials including the countrys ambassador to Washington.

A spokesperson for the US State Department made no direct mention of the cleric in a statement marking one year since the coup attempt, but supported tolerance and dissent.

Heather Nauert praised Turkeys brave and dedicated citizens of all backgrounds and political views [who] defended their democracy against an attempted coup.

We reaffirm the United States steadfast support for Turkeys democracy and democratic institutions, she continued.

The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent, and safeguards for fundamental freedoms.

Persistent curbs on those fundamental freedoms erode the foundations of democratic society. More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times.

Sir Alan Duncan, a foreign minister, said the UK reaffirms solidarity with Turkey, support for its democracy and pays tribute to those who died in the failed coup.
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The first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal prize for mathematics, Maryam Mirzakhani, has died at the age of 40.

A professor at Stanford University in California, she had been fighting a four-year battle against breast cancer which had spread to her bone marrow, according to reports.

Born in Iran, she died in a US hospital, and was awarded the Fields Medal  considered the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize  in 2014.

The award recognised her highly original work in the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, citing her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces.

Wisconsin professor Jordan Ellenberg described her research in a blog post at the time: [Her] work expertly blends dynamics with geometry. Among other things, she studies billiards.

But now, in a move very characteristic of modern mathematics, it gets kind of meta: She considers not just one billiard table, but the universe of all possible billiard tables.

This isn't the kind of thing you do to win at pool, but it's the kind of thing you do to win a Fields Medal.

Professor Mirzakhani graduated from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 1999.

She went on to complete a PhD on hyperbolic surfaces  theoretical doughnut-like shapes  at Harvard in 2004.

Curtis McMullen, her doctoral adviser, had won the Field Medal himself in 1998.

She later collaborated with American mathematician Alex Eskin on research about the dynamics of abstract surfaces connected to billiard tables.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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She doodled three-dimensional shapes constantly while she worked, and was known for her slow, measured approach to mathematical problems.

No other woman has won the prize, which is awarded every four years by the International Congress of Mathematicians to up to four mathematicians under 40, an age at which many women are re-entering the workplace after having children.

She was also the first Iranian to win a Fields Medal.

The grievous passing of Maryam Mirzakhani, the eminent Iranian and world-renowned mathematician, is very much heartrending, President Hassan Rouhani.

Growing up in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, Professor Mirzakhani dreamed of becoming a writer and watched biographies of famous women like Marie Curie and Helen Keller.

She entered the Iranian International Mathematical Olympiad team at 17 in 1994, becoming the first girl to win a gold medal in 1994 and a perfect score the following year.

She had first taken an interest in maths when her older brother told her about how German mathematician Gauss discovered the formula for adding numbers from 1 to 100.

It was the first time I enjoyed a beautiful solution, she said in an interview given to the Clay Institute where she was a Research Fellow from 2004 to 2008.

Of course, the most rewarding part is the Aha moment, the excitement of discovery and enjoyment of understanding something new  the feeling of being on top of a hill and having a clear view. Most of the time, doing mathematics for me is like being on a long hike with no trail and no end in sight.

Professor Mirzakhani is survived by her husband, an associate professor at Stanford University, and daughter Anahita.
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The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has claimed a win in next months election. He stated that the outcome of the vote was already known in 2015, when a petition to Parliament by 4 million people, changed the constitution, permitting him to run for office once more.

"You can choose not to hear the truth but you cannot deny what your eyes show you here today," he said, according to an ABC News report. "Pretending not to know the will expressed by the people during the referendum would be a lie, not democracy."

The 59-year-old head of RPF-Inkotanyi, the governing party, came to power 23 years ago. He is also backed by nine other political parties.

On Saturday, President Kagame is planning to greet his supporters at Nyaruguru District in the morning and will later address a rally in Gisagara District. Tens of thousands were at the campaign location in Ruhango, lining the streets, waving flags and shouting their support.

Because of the constitution change, Mr Kagame can stay in power until 2034.

Challenging him in the presidential elections are Frank Habineza of the opposition Democratic Green Party and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana.

The Rwandan president is praised for his views on womens rights.

If the oppressed women should wage a war, I would readily smuggle ammunition to them, for it would be a justified war, he was reported as saying in The Economist. The country also boasts the highest share of female MPs in the world at 56 percent.

Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' Show all 2 1 /2 Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' 405451.bin AP Editor's murder 'approved by Rwandan President' 405450.bin WILL ROSS

Kagame is much loved in the country for his part in ending the Rwandan genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed.

Kagame is our saviour, and we love him so much. He is a man who has sacrificed himself for his nation and his people, said Charles Bakanibona, an ethnic Tutsi, told Newsweek. I need him to rule this country forever, because he is a man of peace.

Critics of Kagame accuse him of crushing potential opponents before the elections. His government disqualified every candidate apart from three, ruling that they had not collected enough signatures supporting their right to stand for office.
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Donald Trump reminds me of a lumbering beast in danger of extinction. His limited vocabulary, mangled syntax and idiosyncratic behaviour all mark him out as a man who does not know how to engage except on his own terms.

More used to business meetings than the delicate manoeuvring required for heavy-duty diplomacy, the US President has struggled on international visits, at times looking confused and unsure of how to behave.

Confronted with a glamorous woman in a short dress, though, hes in his comfort zone and knows exactly how to respond. Meeting the wife of the French President for the first time at Les Invalides in Paris, Trump kissed Brigitte Macron on both cheeks, then grabbed her hand and blurted out youre in such good shape, turning to her husband to reiterate shes in such good physical shape, as if discussing a Miss World contestant or a prize heifer.

 Donald Trump tells Brigitte Macron she's "in such good shape"

Brigitte Macron looked confused and Melania placed a comforting hand on her back. The age difference between the Trumps is just one year less that that between the Macrons, but in the Donalds world, wives are set dressing, nothing more.

Yes, Trump thought he was giving out a (patronising) compliment  but women are more than their packaging. Can you imagine Brigitte Macron making a similar remark in reply?
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I dont know if youve had reason lately to worry about the land of the free and where it might be headed. You may have. Theres that person they just elected president, the one who thinks freedom works better with walls and border bans, that free trade is better less free and so on.

It is not so much Donald Trump himself that befuddles  even now some of us struggle to put the word President before the name  but that They The People voted for him. Our assumptions about the things that bind us suddenly seem uncertain. Unless your name is Nigel Farage.

Well, how about this for concerning? Last week, the Pew Research Centre in Washington DC released a survey suggesting that a majority of Americans who vote or lean Republican now think that universities and colleges are a bad thing, to be avoided. Yes, really. A full 58 per cent of them believe that institutions of higher education have a negative impact on the country. Only 36 per cent of Republicans say colleges benefit it. Harvard? Pish. Princeton? Posh.

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

This is a rubbish situation for any country, not least one founded on the notion that with a little graft and, above all, learning, the road to prosperity and happiness is open to all. Is this is the birth of Idiot America? I say Idiot not just because disparaging learning seems so dumb, but because this could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Scorn the halls of academe and they will crumble. And this is new, by the way. Just two years ago, a majority of Republicans saw colleges as a good thing; Democrats by a wide margin thought that then too and still do today.

The same survey found Republicans deeply suspicious of the media also  a full 85 per cent of them think a free press is bad for the country. That is distressing too, but less surprising. The man they voted into the Oval Office spends a good chunk of each day urinating on even the most august members of the fourth estate. The more august (Im thinking The New York Times  we can argue another time about CNN) the stronger his flow.

Trump doesnt spout every day about colleges. The most obvious exception, however, was back in February when he unleashed an unfriendly tweet against the University of California, Berkeley, when it decided to bar Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right agitator, from speaking on campus, after the invitation sparked days of violent protest. Clashes escalated when counter-protestors from the far-right showed up in force to denounce the university for restricting free speech.

The ruckus at Berkeley, however, gives us one grasp-hold in this otherwise perplexing shift of attitudes. Conservative America didnt care for what the university had done. It saw it capitulating to the anti-fascist demonstrators and censoring free speech. Also at play here are the experiments on campuses not just in the US but in Britain too to create so-called safe spaces for students to seek shelter from opinions they might find too offensive to handle.

The yawning gap between universities role as citadels of free inquiry and the ugly reality of campus censorship is often the fault of administrators who share the progressive belief that universities must restrict speech to protect the sensitivities of minorities and women, Peter Berkowitz, a professor at Stanford University, wrote in the Wall Street Journal. They often capitulate to the loudest and angriest demonstrators just to get controversies off the front page. Berkowitz in the same piece urged states to pass laws to block public universities from banning controversial (ie right-wing) speakers from campus. Several states have picked up on the idea.

A police officer gestures as supporters of Donald Trump and counter-protesters scuffle at Berkeley earlier this year (Reuters)

I said Posh and a turn against so-called elitism has something to do with whats happening also. Or against the expert class. Britain saw something of this also in the Leave campaign last year. If Trump has helped drive a populist backlash against institutions that were once revered and admired, he was not the first Republican to do so. In 2012 Rick Santorum, whose ultra-conservative bid for the GOP nomination that year eventually fizzled, ridiculed Barack Obama for wanting to help disadvantaged Americans access further education. President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college, he said. What a snob. There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that arent taught by some liberal college professor that [tries] to indoctrinate them.

Then we have Peter Thiel, the libertarian billionaire, Trump booster and co-founder of PayPal, touring the country openly dismissing its top-tier universities as overpriced cons which all would-be future innovators and thinkers should spurn. Earlier this year he actually taunted young people to drop out of their universities and accept scholarship money from him to learn how to start a company just like he did. Its called the Thiel Fellowship. Harvard President Larry Summers scorned the idea as, the single most misdirected bit of philanthropy in this decade.

If this new fashion for berating academe endures or deepens the risk of long-term damage is real. Two years after the University of Missouri effectively gave in to protestors accusing it of ignoring a pattern of racist bigotry on campus  its president and campus chancellor were both forced to resign  an ensuing backlash has contributed to a 35 per cent drop in enrolment.

Public universities, like Berkeley, depend moreover on state legislatures to give them much of the funding they need to keep operating and, most importantly, to offer the grants that make it possible for poorer students even to consider enrolling. Republicans now control either the office of governor or the legislature in no fewer than 44 states. It already yields political dividends for conservatives to bash the media. So why not wield the same cudgel against universities?

The reason, youd hope, would be clear. Idiot America is not a brand to aspire to.
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In a valedictory interview with BBC Radio 5 Live today, Tim Farron pointed out that he was the first Liberal Democrat leader in 12 years to increase the partys number of MPs at last months election. Unfortunately, it only went up from eight to 12.

The Lib Dems expected to win 30, or more, when Theresa May called the election. But Farrons signature policy, a referendum on the EU exit deal, attracted not the 48 per cent but only seven per cent of the electorate. At times he looked out of his depth. He revealed today that he decided to resign only two weeks into the seven-week campaign. He was slow to calm media frenzy over whether he regarded homosexuality as a sin because of his evangelical Christian views. No one suggested he was homophobic, but his instincts looked out of time to potential Lib Dem voters  including in seats (like Cambridge) the party should have won. The Corbyn surge swallowed up other liberal voters. The anti-Brexit message bombed in the South-west, a former Lib Dem heartland.

Farron can rightly claim to have saved a party that dropped from 57 to eight seats in 2015, when it faced an existential crisis. Under him, membership has risen from 40,000 to 103,000. It has left intensive care, as he put it.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA 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 year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Next Thursday, Sir Vince Cable will be anointed Farrons successor. Although the Lib Dems criticised Mays coronation a year ago, they will have one of their own because no one is standing against Cable. After the baby-faced Farron, the party will unmistakably have a grown-up in charge. Cable is 74, though he looks younger and is likely to escape the nasty ageism that destroyed Sir Menzies Campbells leadership. Cable does not lack energy: in the election, he was sometimes up at 5.30am to do breakfast TV, and spent hours knocking on doors to regain the Twickenham constituency he lost in 2015, before doing a public debate in the evening. Some Lib Dems expect Cable to step down after a few years in favour of Jo Swinson, the partys new deputy leader. But he may have other ideas, and want to lead the party into an election.

Cable will reject calls from Lib Dems who want the party to ditch its second referendum pledge. But he will likely put it on the back burner rather than centre stage, which only attracts accusations of being a Remoaner and trying to overturn last years referendum. Instead, he will focus initially on the risks of Mays hard Brexit, which becomes more apparent by the day. Cable has credibility on the economy; he was the sage of the credit crunch after predicting the housing market collapse and banking crisis, and served as Business Secretary in the five-year Coalition. (Fascinating fact: the Lib Dems have more former Cabinet ministers on their frontbench  Cable, Sir Ed Davey and Alistair Carmichael  than Labour, which has only Nick Brown, its Chief Whip.)

 Vince Cable: 'I'm beginning to think Brexit may never happen'

However, Cable has assured Lib Dem members he will not abandon the partys unique selling point on Brexit. The referendum promise was two years too early, said one Lib Dem insider. The tide might just be turning in the partys favour after Mays election disaster. Philip Hammond and David Davis are trying to soften Brexit. Opinion polls suggest people might now prioritise economic links with the EU over controlling immigration. If there are signs that many are having second thoughts, the Lib Dems referendum promise could be shouted from the rooftops again. If the Brexit deal looks a bad one, there might be a Commons vote on a referendum. That could offer the best chance to stop Brexit.

The Lib Dems might then get some delayed credit for Farrons policy. Cable told the Parliamentary Press Gallery this week that the Lib Dems are in a strong position to break through the middle. He argued that Mays deal with the DUP has trashed David Camerons 10-year effort to detoxify the Tory brand. He said Jeremy Corbyn offers implausible Venezuelan socialism and will disappoint his younger voters when they realise he is supporting Brexit.

The task for the Lib Dems is to prevent the next election being a re-run of last months, when 82 per cent voted for either the Tories or Labour and many seemed to think they had to choose one of two extremes. Yet voters did not give either main party a mandate, so there is a gap in the market. Under Cable, the Lib Dems will have a better chance of filling it.
English-speaking Ireland remains highly attractive for migrating professionals thanks to our membership of the European Union, said Sharon McCooey, site leader of LinkedIn Ireland

The UK remains the top destination for professionals leaving Ireland, despite the country's intention to leave the European Union, according to new data.

The level of movement between both countries has however fallen marginally, with around 26pc of all those leaving Ireland opting for the UK between October 2016 and April 2017, compared to approximately 27pc in the previous six months.

"While there is a slight fall in the total share of professionals emigrating to the UK compared to the previous period, it is still too early to tell whether this is a trend which will continue in the short term," Sharon McCooey, senior director of international operations and site leader of LinkedIn Ireland, said. LinkedIn conducted the latest research.

Despite strict visa requirements, the United States came in second after the UK, attracting 12.3pc of professionals.

The other main destinations were Spain, Australia and France, according to LinkedIn.

The top five sectors where people sought opportunities abroad are human resources, marketing, social services, project management, and media and communications.

Ireland also continues to benefit from professionals moving to the country.

In particular the software sector's demand for talent continues to grow, with Ireland home to over 900 indigenous and multinational software firms.

"Ireland remains highly attractive for migrating professionals thanks to our membership of the EU, particularly given that we will soon be the only English-speaking member of the Eurozone," Ms McCooey said. Brazil is the top net source for professionals moving to Ireland as a whole, with roughly one in five professionals moving to Ireland from the South American country.

Other countries featuring prominently include India, which accounts for approximately 17pc of professionals moving to Ireland, followed by Italy at 9.6pc and Croatia at 7.5pc. A further 6.4pc came from France.

Along with software, the sectors attracting more talent to Ireland include healthcare and pharmaceutical, oil and energy, and human resources/recruitment.

As a way of promoting greater overseas technology recruiting, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland launched Tech/Life Ireland in 2016.

The initiative, which is government-funded, involves an international marketing initiative and a dedicated website, www.techlifeireland.com.

The aim of the campaign was to attract 3,000 tech professionals to Ireland each year.

According to the Tech/Life website, the top five most in demand skills in Ireland right now are in the areas of java, python, .net, C++, and PHP.

Features of the website include information on tech careers in Ireland, help for professionals in choosing a place to live in Ireland, as well as information on moving to Ireland.

The LinkedIn results are based on anonymous profiles of LinkedIn users who relocated between October 2016 and April 2017.

LinkedIn itself has benefited from the movement of professionals to Ireland, with 28 different languages spoken at its international headquarters in Dublin.
John Joe O'Sullivan was surprised to hear he was an alcoholic.

He knew he was drinking way too much, couldn't control his urge to and had even sought help to stop.

But he was functioning fully, doing his day's work off farm, tending to his drystock and providing for his family.

Now, well over a year after completing a residential programme at an addiction treatment centre and sticking firmly to his after-care programme, his one regret is that he didn't confront his alcoholism sooner.

Expand Close John Joe O'Sullivan and his family pet Ore on his drystock holding near Waterville, Kerry. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan. / Facebook

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Whatsapp John Joe O'Sullivan and his family pet Ore on his drystock holding near Waterville, Kerry. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan.

"But I suppose I wouldn't have been ready for it then," said the 52-year-old married father-of-four from near Cahersiveen on the Ring of Kerry.

John Joe started drinking at 14, pints of Guinness, in the local pub.

"It was normal. There was no such thing as drink in the house then," he says.

"I got married to Eileen when I was 25, reared my family and worked away on the buildings and helped my father on the farm.

"I put my kids through college but still had pints of Guinness all the time, but it never effected me.

"I could take a day off work as well with the smallest excuse but that didn't matter.

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"I never left the house short, moneywise, I was always good to work and make money."

He describes the three years before going into Talbot Grove treatment centre in Castleisland as "like a nightmare".

"When the kids were going to college, I couldn't afford to drink as much as I needed to so I started drinking cheaper. I'd drink anything, and it definitely got progressively worse and I could drink it like water and wouldn't get drunk," he recalls.

"I could go into a pub at 8am and still do my day's work. I could have another few drinks at dinnertime and go back to work.

Expand Close John Joe OSullivan of Fearana h-Ahainn, Waterville, Co Kerry, a dry stock farmer, with his golden retrievor Ore.Photo:Valerie OSullivan / Facebook

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Whatsapp John Joe OSullivan of Fearana h-Ahainn, Waterville, Co Kerry, a dry stock farmer, with his golden retrievor Ore.Photo:Valerie OSullivan

"I was drinking enough in pubs to sink a ship and doing the same at home in the end.

"I could get up in the middle of the night and drink a few cans of cider.

"I couldn't stop it and I had to have it."

It wasn't until his health began to suffer and he developed liver problems, he started to take stock and even gave up drinking for a while.

"When I'd start again, it was getting worse every time but still working and driving away.

"I could drink paint I'd say in the end," he added.

Eventually he made an appointment to meet a counsellor, who was the first to tell John Joe he was an alcoholic.

"I thought he was mad. I said if I'm an alcoholic, what are all the other people around here because I was able to function and go to work.

"He kept mentioning Talbot Grove to me and kept telling me I was a bad alcoholic and that used to drive me madder," he said.

He attended his first AA meeting, but says he didn't understand at the time what AA was about and inevitably broke out again.

"I was drinking and telling myself I shouldn't be, and there were a pile of things going on inside in my head.

"I heard about people drinking and committing suicide and I said that will be the next thing that will happen me."

He turned up at A&E in University Hospital Kerry, vowing he wasn't going home until he was referred for treatment.

"I didn't care if I had to break a door or a window and be put into the mad house but I wasn't going home," he said.

A counsellor at the hospital contacted Talbot Grove and it was agreed he'd be admitted two days later.

On March 14, 2016 his wife, Eileen and teenage son, Cathal, came with him. John Joe insisted on driving himself. He thought if it didn't work out and his wife had driven him, he'd only blame her.

"So here I was in Talbot Grove for at least 30 days, and I didn't like it one bit. I'm an outdoor person and this was like jail for me.

Meditation

"Your phone is taken off you, you have no contact with home," he said.

"They had meditation in the mornings and I couldn't stick that sort of stuff.

"I had the wrong idea of the place. I didn't know what I was facing."

Eventually, he was assigned a counsellor, who he says was the right woman for him. "She was the first woman who took no s**t from me and stood up to me, and she definitely suited me. If I was stubborn, she was twice as stubborn."

He admits it wasn't until the first 21 days had passed that a light finally switched on and it began to make sense.

He's always been open about his treatment.

"From day one, Eileen said to me, if anybody asks where you are, what will I say?

"I told her to tell them I was in Talbot Grove because I need to be there and I've nothing to hide because I'm trying to fix myself."

Family members are part of the treatment process at Talbot Grove. John Joe's youngest son was a huge part of his recovery.

"It (my drinking) never affected the older ones too badly. They just thought it was normal because it is around here.

"The youngest lad saw a good bit and was the best help because he knew I wasn't drinking normally, and he was able to tell them everything as it was.

"He's a very smart young fella. He held nothing back in fairness, but he was right. Some of it wasn't pretty but you need to hear it. When we were leaving Talbot Grove, he said, 'I suppose I'm in for it, Dad'.

"There's a poster at the door as you go out that says: 'What you saw here, what happened here, when you leave here, let it stay here.'

"I said, 'Cathal, read that'."

Over a year down the line, John Joe attends three AA meetings every week and an aftercare meeting in Talbot Grove on Tuesday nights.

Comparing his life now to when he was drinking, he says there's no comparison and he doesn't feel he's missing out.

But he's always on his guard.

"I'd fear nothing in this world but I would fear drinking again.

"But stubbornness is good in ways and it seems to have helped me," he says.

Three people a day die from alcohol abuse

Alcohol abuse is attributed to three deaths in Ireland each day and approximately 500 people die from alcohol-related cancers every year.

It is also a contributory factor in two out of every five fatal road traffic accidents, according to statistics compiled by Alcohol Action Ireland, a charity that campaigns for policy changes to reduce levels of alcohol harm in society.

The charity also highlights that alcohol is a factor in more than a half of suicides in this country.

Alcohol is still the most commonly abused drug that brings people to Talbot Grove to seek treatment.

But far from being the scourge of just the lonely bachelor farmer, alcoholism affects over two-thirds of the clients who seek help at the rural treatment centre including married men and an increasing number of women.

Last year, of the 137 people who attended the residential programme at the Castleisland facility in Co Kerry, 70pc sought treatment for alcohol addiction. More than 60pc of clients described themselves as being in full-time employment.

Director of Talbot Grove, Con Cremin, said this was a feature of the centre that deals with clients mainly from a rural hinterland in Kerry, Cork and Limerick.

"The issue very often for the bachelor farmer who lives alone is that the consequences of their drinking are very much personal to themselves. They can drink themselves to death, frequently, without it having a big impact on others. And very often society is willing to let that happen," he says.

"Another factor within the farming community is that farmers are self-employed, so there is no one to interfere with their drinking on that score. Living alone means they have no one else to consider, so it puts them in a very vulnerable position and it's harder to intervene in their drinking.

"But we have met plenty and very often, part of their recovery is re-engaging with family and community," he added.

Unfortunately in Ireland, because of our tolerance to drinking, he believes up to 90pc of alcohol abuse goes unnoticed and it's only the very chronic 10pc that is seen.
Gone are the days when almost every Irish family used to grow their own spuds for the table.

But that doesn't mean potatoes are gone out of fashion with SuperValu announcing that it expects to sell 32m in home grown Irish potatoes this season.

Potato growing nowadays is big business. The potato production area in Ireland is currently a bout 12,000ha with 600 growers involved in commercial potato production.

Among Ireland's biggest producers are the Fortune family from Co Wexford, who have been growing potatoes commercially since the 1960s.

Long-standing suppliers to SuperValu for the last 15 years, the Fortune brothers Chris and John took over the farm from their father and are now themselves seasoned crop farmers.

John and Chris also produce baby salad potatoes and are one of the few Irish farmers who specialise in growing and harvesting baby potato crops.

"Im at it all my life", Chris said when asked how he got into the business.

With the noise of a busy farmyard in the background Chris comments that he is flat out harvesting early potatoes at the moment.

Chris explains the biggest challenge in the potato farming business is trying to keep the spuds looking right.

The look of the potato for the consumer is all important. There can be any defects or blistering. achieving this is not easy.

This is particularly the case with salad potatoes which are becoming more and more popular with consumers.

The salads are a huge risk. If something goes wrong. If they look wrong. They all go to cattle feed. There is just one other market, Chris explains that after the cost of tilling the ground, planting and managing the crop such an outcome can be a huge blow.

There no room for error, he says.

Chris said their relationship with SuperValu is very important and has been something we have carefully cultivated over the last 15 years.

"As second-generation growers, our farm has been building slowly over the last three decades, but developing strong partnerships like this and seeing your product sold in SuperValu stores across Ireland makes all the hard work worth it.

John and Chris will provide SuperValu stores across Ireland with new season Irish potatoes, including Roosters and Queens, with Kerrs Pinks and Golden Wonders available in stores from August.

So whats it like working with your brother day in day out?

Chris says he gets on great with his brother. Both have a 50:50 stake in the business. If there are rows you have to get over them fairly quickly. Theres no time to be thinking about it too much, he said.

We have put huge investment into the business over the years. The machinery and equipment needed nowadays to be a commercial grower are enormous.

Its get big or get out. Simple as, he said.

At a rough guess we would be producing over 5,500t of potatoes every year. Farmers cannot justify the spend without having big acreage of land sown.

Lads have left the business in recent years. Its been tough like all sectors in farming really, he said.

Over half of the production area is based in North Leinster with the counties of Meath, Dublin and Louth being the key production areas.

In terms of varieties grown main crop potatoes account for over 70pc of total production with the balance being made up of early variety production processing variety production.

Since its release in 1991, the area under Rooster production has grown to over 40pc of the total potato ware area in Ireland today.
Italian durum wheat and dairy farmer Attilio Tocchi saw warning signs during the winter of the dramatic drought to come at his holding a mile away from the Tuscan coast.

"When it still hadn't rained at the beginning of spring we realised it was already irreparable," he said, adding that he had installed fans to try and cool his cows that were suffering in the heat.

Drought in southern Europe threatens to reduce cereal production in Italy and parts of Spain to its lowest level in at least 20 years, and hit other regional crops including olives and almonds.

Castile and Leon, the largest cereal growing region in Spain, has been particularly badly affected, with crop losses estimated at around 60 to 70 percent.

"This year was not bad, it was catastrophic. I can't remember a year like this since 1992 when I was a little child," said Joaquin Antonio Pino, a cereal farmer in Sinlabajos, Avila.

Pino said many of his fields had not even been harvested, because crop revenues would not cover the wages of labourers who gathered them.

Expand Close Mounds of barley grains are seen in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Spain, July 10, 2017. Picture taken July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Juan Medina / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mounds of barley grains are seen in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Spain, July 10, 2017. Picture taken July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Juan Medina

While the EU is collectively a major wheat exporter, Spain and Italy both rely on imports from countries including France, Britain and Ukraine.

Spanish soft wheat imports are expected to rise by more than 40 percent to 5.6 million tonnes in the 2017-2018 marketing year, according to Agroinfomarket.

The drought has helped support EU wheat futures, which have risen around 6 percent since the beginning of June, although the prospect of a larger harvest in France this year should ensure adequate overall supplies in the trading bloc.

SCORCHED OLIVES

Spain and Italy are also among the world's top producers of olive oil.

Production in both countries is expected to fall, but the decline is likely to be particularly steep in Italy, where drought is the latest headache for olive growers already plagued by insects and a bacterial disease in recent years.

Expand Close Agustin Rodriguez Sanchez, a cereal and cattle farmer, feeds a stud in San Garcia de Ingelmos, Spain, July 10, 2017. Picture taken July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Juan Medina / Facebook

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A 60 percent drop in Italian output is forecast by the International Olive Council.

"We expected good production this year, but it hasn't turned out like that," said Francesco Suatoni, who tends about 4,000 olive trees on the fringe of the ancient town of Amelia, in Umbria, central Italy.

Holding up a branch with small, shrivelled pods on it he added: "Each little ball could have been an olive, but it's scorched.

"This year we expect to produce 50 percent less than last year. Let's hope not, but it will be very difficult to have a good crop."

Other crops have been damaged, and Italy's agricultural association Coldiretti has estimated the drought could cost the nation's farmers more than 1 billion euros.

"The drought is affecting, to a greater or lesser extent, all crops in Spain, even those that rely on greenhouses, because there's a limit on the amount of water available," said Jose Ugarrio, analyst at the Spanish young farmers' association.

The production of nuts such as almonds and pistachios has also fallen sharply.

"We expect a 23 pct drop in almond production this year from last year," Ugarrio said.

Some see rising temperatures as a long-term trend, which threatens the viability of farming in the region.

"In this situation ... you realise it's almost impossible to keep going. You think OK, this year I will try to manage, but if the harvest is like this next year you won't be able to cope any more," said farmer Tocchi, who is also the local head of farmers' group Confagricoltura.

Some scientists have said heat waves like this year's are becoming more frequent, and are linked to man-made climate change.

"This is the first year we have watered the plants. There was never any need before," said olive grower Suatoni.
CSO data yesterday showed the economy shrank 2.6pc in the first three months of the year. Photo: iStock

Hopes that the era of Leprechaun Economics was over took a knock yesterday, as official data showed the Irish economy contracted in the first three months of the year, despite evidence of strong jobs growth and a higher tax take.

It came as a newly created economic measuring tool implied that the economy is a third smaller than calculation based on more standard measurements - with implications for debt and spending levels.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) data yesterday showed the economy shrank 2.6pc in the first three months of the year - based on the standard gross domestic product (GDP) measure.

It makes Ireland the worst performing economy in Europe.

However, year-on-year growth remains robust, and the surprise fall was driven by distortions linked to multinationals shifting assets into Ireland in late 2016 that didn't reoccur this year, officials and analysts said.

"Once again, the multinational sector is adding enormous volatility to Ireland's notoriously erratic GDP data," Davy chief economist Conall Mac Coille said. The annual 6pc GDP growth rate, also published by the CSO, better reflects the economy and tallies with employment and industrial growth, he said in a note to investors.

It all highlights the ongoing challenge of accurately tracking economic activity here.

Ireland made headlines around the world last year, when GDP figures showed the economy had grown 26pc in 2015, prompting US economist Paul Krugman to coin the term Leprechaun Economics.

Analysts said the 2015 data was caused by assets being shifted into the country by large corporations rather than reflecting real growth.

Yesterday the CSO unveiled the new tool it will use to track a modified version of gross national income - nicknamed GNI* - that strips out the effects of multinationals shifting assets, relocating or depreciating sometimes vastly valuable intellectual property rights.

The idea is to give a better read of the true size of the economy here.

The GNI* of 189.2bn is 32pc less than headline GDP, suggesting the economy may be a third smaller than the official data used by lenders and European agencies implies.

It suggests the national debt was 106pc of the size of the economy at the end of last year, among the highest in Europe, compared to 73pc of GDP.

The standard GDP measure is also used to calculate Ireland's bill for EU membership, and as a rule-of-thumb guide for international comparisons on areas like spending on health, pensions and education.

Ironically, while GNI* was developed as a response to data seen as overstating the size of the economy, the measure suggests that annual growth last year was 9.4pc - much faster than the offical GDP level suggests.

For 2015 - when the 26pc growth sparked the Leprechaun Economics debate - GNI* suggests a growth rate of almost 12pc, still much faster than elsewhere in the developed world.
Proposals to raise the State pension age to 70 have been roundly rejected by a range of groups.

Delaying the payment of the State contributory pension until people reach 70 would counteract the surge in the numbers of older people and the projected fall in the numbers of workers over the next few years.

A study by the State-supported Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) suggests that pushing out the age for paying the State pension would be the easier way to deal with the budgetary challenge.

But the proposal from the think tank has been dismissed as unfair by Age Action, Siptu and Fianna Fail.

Head of advocacy at Age Action Justin Moran dismissed the proposal.

"Workers are already facing a rapidly increasing pension age, they're already making sacrifices. It's wrong to make them wait - especially those working in physically demanding roles - an additional two years for their pension."

He added that the pension age is already due to rise to 68 and that's one of the fastest increases in Europe, despite a relatively young population compared to our neighbours.

In the last few years, the age when the State pension is paid has increased to 66. It is due to go to 67 for those retiring in 2021, and 68 by 2028.

Mr Moran called for tax breaks for those investing in a pension to be diverted to bolster the State pension.

Siptu divisional organiser Paul Bell said the proposal on the State pension was generating huge resentment among members of his union.

He said he represents health workers, many of whom are engaged in physical labour. People would not be able to stay in the workforce so long, he said.

Mr Bell described the proposal as "absolutely ridiculous" and unworkable.

He called for a mandatory pension for those in the private sector, to supplement the State pension.

Mr Bell claimed that employers were shirking their responsibility to almost one million workers who have no occupational pension.

Fianna Fail's Willie O'Dea, the party's spokesman on social protection, said the suggestion was questionable. "I find the proposal bizarre, quite frankly."

He said that if academics in the ESRI had studied what was involved in carrying out many jobs, they would have hesitated to recommend raising the State pension age.

Jerry Moriarty of the Irish Association of Pension Funds said people were living longer but it was not always physically possible for them to work longer.
Some of the new student accommodation available in Dublin

Some of the new student accommodation available in Dublin

THIS is the plush accommodation available to students in Dublin next semester - but it's not cheap.

In the past year UK companies Aparto and Uninest have introduced purpose-built student accommodation to the market in Dublin.

But the average cost is north of 900 per month. And that will require quite the part-time job to cover or, more likely, a visit to the bank of Mam and Dad.

The state-of-the-art Aparto Dorset Point, on Dublins Dorset Street was launched this week and has 447 beds - a drop in the ocean when it comes to housing Dublins 73,000-strong student population, but an ostensibly impressive drop.

Rent starts at 235 a week and allows students unlimited use of facilities including a cinema room, a gym, a study room, a roof-top terrace, a games room and a bike shelter. Two retail units on the ground floor of the building are expected to be converted into retail and cafe.

All the bedrooms have double beds and contain a stylish ensuite, sleek storage and a desk area. Kitchens are fully furnished while the sitting room includes a comfy couch and a fabulous flat-screen TV.

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It's a far cry from the humble bedsit in Rathmines that many older generations will remember with a shudder.

Director of Hines Group Operations, the company who own Aparto, Tom Rix said he knows their apartments arent the sole solution to Dublins housing shortage but believes they will help relieve the market.

The Dublin market is stretched, so we can release private rented accommodation out for local use by providing this for students. It will also add to the regeneration of the area, said Mr Rix.

Students who live in Apartos other Dublin site, Binary Hub on Bonham street said although the price of Aparto is higher than other campus accommodation and private accommodation in the city, the fact that all bills and facility use are included means the cost balances out.

When you break it down per month its very similar to what youd be expected to pay for rent in Dublin anyway. Bins, the gym and study area are all included, so the cost is negligible, said Trinity College Neuroscience student Seun Ishola .

Aparto is proving attractive to international students studying in language schools across Dublin during the summer. Canadian student, Victoria Leblonde arrived to Ireland in January and appreciates the diverse range of students that Aparto attracts.

I study in Belgium and came to Dublin on Erasmus and stayed. I love how theres so many international students and how everybody knows everybody and the staff ask you how youre doing, its not just a formality, she the Business Studies student.

Situated a mere ten minutes walk away from its rival in Phibsborough, Uninests 101-bed Broadstone is already fully booked for the upcoming academic year. It contains an impressive games room and study area and plans to build a gym for September.

The rooms also provide spacious storage and a quirky noticeboard and are fitted with double beds. Prices start at 225 week and it too contains a mix of home and international students. Postgraduate students are also choosing Broadstone for its practical studio apartment options which are handy for the more intense studier.

While Broadstone is fully booked for the upcoming academic year, Uninests latest complex, New Mill which located in Liberties is almost completed and will be ready for students to move in to in September.

Room prices at New Mill range from 249-345 a week depending on your apartment choice and length of stay. New Mill Manager, Donna Wrightson, told Independent.ie how New Mill is a spectacular choice for students.

We enjoy getting to know the students who live here and always ask them how their day went. Theres always a member of the team on site to help students at any time day or night if the need anything and students really make use of the common area. A surprise 21st was held for one of the students in Broadstone common room last year. said Wrightson.
The launch to find Irelands Best Young Entrepreneurs of 2018

Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald T.D. and Minister of State for Business, Pat Breen T.D. have launched the search to find Irelands Best Young Entrepreneurs of 2018 (IBYE).

The competition, which is run by local Enterprise Ireland offices, is open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business.

Competitions are run across three categories; best business idea, best start-up business, and best established business.

As part of the competition up to 450 young entrepreneurs will be invited by the LEOs to attend free regional 'Entrepreneur Bootcamps' later in the year to help them develop their business and new venture ideas.

Previous winners of the competition include Samuel Dennigan of frozen food company Strong Roots, Rhona Togher of Restored Hearing, and Ciara Clancy of Beats Medical.

Read more: Rooting for Success: This fruit and veg man is changing the way Ireland thinks about frozen foods

With an IBYE investment fund of 50,000 each, every LEO will award up to six investments to three category winners and three runners-up at county level.

The local winners in the best start-up and best established business categories at county level will receive investments of up to 15,000 each and the two runners-up will each receive up to 5,000.

Meanwhile the best business idea winner at county level will receive an investment of up to 7,000 and the runner-up will receive up to 3,000 of investment.

Read more: SMEs called to action to tackle safety risk of wildlife activity on Dublin Airport airfield

Speaking at the launch, the Tanaiste, Frances Fitzgerald said that the Government wants to support more young entrepreneurs right across the country through the LEOs.

"I would encourage all young entrepreneurs, between the ages of 18 and 35, to talk to their LEO about the IBYE programme and the valuable supports available throughout the various stages of the competition," the Tanaiste said.

Winners of the competitions at county level will progress to regional finals early next year, and the national IBYE finals will be held in March 2018.

Now in its fourth year, IBYE has an investment fund of up to 2m. Closing date to enter this years competition is Friday, 29th September, 2017.
Gardai have renewed their appeal for the public's assistance in tracing a young woman who has been missing from west Dublin since June.

Linda Christian (29) is missing from Blanchardstown.

She was last seen on June 24 in the Blanchardstown area and she is described as being 5' 3" in height, slim build with long brown hair and green eyes. When last seen she was wearing a green bomber jacket, blue jeans and carrying a pink gym bag.

Lindas family and An Garda Siochana are very concerned for her welfare.

Anyone who may have seen Linda or who can assist in locating her is asked to contact Blanchardstown Garda Station on 01 - 6667000, The Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Niamh Fitzpatrick (38), of O'Rahilly House, Ringsend, Dublin 4, at court where she was sent for trial on charges of possession of two firearms charges for unlawful possession of one round of Remington .38 special calibre ammunition and a Smith & Wesson revolver at her home address on Feb 2016.

A DUBLIN woman has been sent forward for trial for possessing a revolver and ammunition.

Niamh Fitzpatrick (38), of O'Rahilly House, Ringsend, Dublin 4, originally faced two firearms charges for unlawful possession of one round of Remington .38 special calibre ammunition and a Smith & Wesson revolver at her home address on February 13.

Two further charges were later put to her - for unlawful possession of heroin and possessing the drug for the purpose of sale or supply.

The fresh charges are under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Judge Anthony Halpin was told that the new charges arose from "the same incident".

He was told the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed that Ms Fitzpatrick is to face trial on indictment on all the charges, meaning her case will go before a judge and jury in the circuit court, which has wider sentencing powers.

She has not yet indicated how she will plead.

She was served with a book of evidence and Judge Halpin told her she must notify the prosecution if she intends to use an alibi in her defence.

Judge Halpin granted the DPP's request to send her forward for trial to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where she will face her next hearing on October 6.

The judge remanded her on continuing bail.

Bail conditions had been set earlier, requiring her own bond of 1,000 and a 5,000 independent surety.

She has had to surrender her passport to the authorities and must sign on twice a week at a garda station.
An American Twitter user who made an anonymous bomb threat against Ryanair must pay the airline US$284,148 (248,365), a US court has ruled.

Ryanair yesterday welcomed the United States District Court ruling against the Twitter user, who had posted anonymously using the account name @GunnexGod.

The original tweet read, "Hello @Ryanair, you have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready".

The airline obtained a number of subpoenas from Twitter, which helped identify Brian Lake from Pennsylvania as the person responsible for posting the threat in February 2016, Ryanair said.

Ryanair took extortion and defamation proceedings in the US earlier this year, and the District Court for Pennsylvania ruled in Ryanair's favour.

The court ordered Brian Lake to pay $284,148 in damages. Ryanair welcomed the ruling.
'Barrister Martin FitzGerald told Judge Rory MacCabe that the defendant, Hertz Rent-A-Car, had claimed fraud in defence documents challenging the personal injury claims of Audrius Stelmokas, Julius Zivelis and Deividas Kaciukas, who all live in Dublin' (stock photo)

Three men have withdrawn damages claims totalling 180,000 which were alleged by counsel in the Circuit Civil Court to have been fraudulent.

Barrister Martin FitzGerald told Judge Rory MacCabe that the defendant, Hertz Rent-A-Car, had claimed fraud in defence documents challenging the personal injury claims of Audrius Stelmokas, Julius Zivelis and Deividas Kaciukas, who all live in Dublin.

Mr FitzGerald, who appeared with Michael Brennan, solicitor for Ryans Investments, which trades as Hertz Rent-a-Car, applied for and was awarded costs against each of the plaintiffs.

Counsel for the three Lithuanians had told Judge MacCabe, immediately following the calling on of the cases, that she had just received instructions to withdraw all of the claims before the court.

Julius Zivelis (29), with an address at Beechwood Downs, Hartstown, Dublin 15, and the two other claimants, had also sued a Vladimiras Zubko, also a Lithuanian, who allegedly drove a car rented from Hertz into the rear of Kaciukas's car in which they were passengers.

He claimed he was a front-seat passenger in the car driven by Kaciukas, and that the accident occurred at Hollywell Road, Swords, Co Dublin, on February 2, 2015, after which he had developed increasing pain in his neck and lower back.

Zivelis claimed he was the father of a newborn baby and as a result of his injuries had been "impeded in lifting, bathing and bending to wash" his son. He had also been unable for three weeks to do his job as a warehouse operative.

Audrius Stelmokas, a 37-year-old driver, with an address at Bawnlea Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin, also a passenger in Kaciukas's car, claimed he developed pain in his lower back and neck. On top of his 60,000 claim, he sought 1,000 for loss of earnings.

Kaciukas (38), also a driver of Hollywell Road, Swords, Co Dublin, claimed he was driving the 18-year-old car and had stopped to give way to other traffic at a roundabout at Hollywell when the car driven by Zubko, of Grange Park Road, Dublin 5, rear-ended his vehicle.

He, too, had developed pain in his lower back and neck. Keans Solicitors for Kaciukas, in replies to particulars in June 2016, stated his back had been injured in a work accident in 2014 for which a claim had been issued. Keans stated Kaciukas had also been involved in a road traffic accident in November 2014 and had also issued a claim for an injury to his back. He was stated to be receiving disability benefit from August 2014.

Judge MacCabe told Mr FitzGerald that the three withdrawn cases "carried the burden of costs" in favour of his clients.
'More purpose-built student accommodation is opening, particularly in Dublin, but with rents of about 1,000 a month not unusual, the cost is out of reach for the typical Irish undergraduate' Stock photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

The chase for a college home is getting tougher in the face of rising rents and landlord demands for 12-month leases.

The national housing crisis is particularly acute in the larger cities and towns - the very areas where universities and other colleges are based - and students are feeling the squeeze.

The cost of accommodation, both in the private rented market and on-campus, has gone up this year in almost every student base, with the highest prices in Dublin, Galway and Maynooth.

In the difficult market, the advice to students who have not booked accommodation for September is to not gamble on finding a place to live at the end of the summer, and to start the search now.

More purpose-built student accommodation is opening, particularly in Dublin, but with rents of about 1,000 a month not unusual, the cost is out of reach for the typical Irish undergraduate.

Living in one of Dublin's newest city student residences, Dorset Point, run by the UK-based Aparto, will cost 9,635-12,259 for the academic year, although it does include extras such as a gym and cinema room.

Dublin has become a magnet for international student accommodation providers, who have snapped up city sites to develop dedicated student apartment blocks.

Many beds in new residences are being filled by the growing number of international students arriving in Ireland, either for higher education or English language schools.

Another provider, GSA, said it expects about 69pc of the bookings at its Uninest, New Mill, complex opening in Dublin 8 in September to be from overseas students, mainly from the UK, Canada, US and Spain.

There is also a burst in activity in the development of on-campus accommodation in universities, which will ease the pressure in the longer term, but while some more beds are opening for September, it will be another year or two before the full impact of it is felt.

The accommodation shortage has made it a landlord's market, and it is now commonplace for students to be told they must sign up to a 12-month lease, rather than the nine-month academic year. This has forced students, or their parents, to cough up for an extra three months to be sure of a roof over their heads for the following September.

The pressure on accommodation, and its link to rising rents, has seen a growing return in popularity in traditional homestay, or 'digs', arrangements, where students live in someone else's home.

This option has been boosted by the 14,000-a-year tax-free allowed to homeowners who rent a room, and college accommodation services are flooding local residents with flyers looking for hosts.

The scale of the financial challenge is underlined in data from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) Rent Index, showing year-on-year increases for three-bedroomed apartments or houses in 55 of 59 areas nationwide with high concentrations of students.

The sharpest rise was in Galway city - up by 33pc. Rents fell in only four locations, with the biggest drop, 4.6pc, in Sligo town. The data compares the first quarter of 2017 with the same period in 2016, and Dublin 4 was the most expensive, up 9pc, to 2,514 a month, equating to an annual rent bill per student of almost 8,200.

The cheapest was Letterkenny, at 595 per month, or just over 1,900 per year for someone in a three-bedroom share.

Dr Brian Gormley, head of Campus Life in Dublin Institute of Technology, who undertakes an annual survey of student living costs, said rents now exceed boom prices during the boom. "Contributing to this is a shortage of rental accommodation, with Daft.ie reporting in 2016 that only 3,100 properties were available to rent nationwide - the joint-lowest level ever."

Dr Gormley put the average monthly rent for students in Dublin at around 508, but said it can vary widely, from below 300 for a shared room, up to 1,600 or more for a one-bedroom unit in Dublin 2.

"On the positive side, there are signs more supply is coming on stream, particularly in Dublin, but this is not yet sufficient to slow the increase in rents," he said.

Cork

Although Cork city has seen some big increases in rents this year (up 24pc, to 1,187 a month in Bishopstown), there is no change in

the cost of on-campus accommodation at University College Cork (UCC).

UCC said it has experienced a noticeable increase in demand from first-year applicants, as well as a mix of returning, postgraduate and international students.

The college is finalising refurbishment of one of its four units, which has 180 beds, and is considering options for expanding its campus accommodation offering.

Limerick

Limerick prides itself on being the most affordable university town for student accommodation.

According to the 2017 RTB index, typical monthly rents for a

three-bedroomed house around the city range from 682-878.

Rates for on-campus accommodation in the University of Limerick have risen for most rooms. A room in one four-bed apartment for the 2017/18 academic year will be 5,082, up from 4,910 last year.

A UL spokesperson said rents for on-campus accommodation had increased slightly to facilitate the ongoing refurbishment of over 1,000 rooms as well as automatic gym membership for all residents.

Galway

The sharpest rise in rents nationwide in the past year was in Galway City, up by a whopping 33pc.

In residential areas around the city, rent for a three-bedroom property will typically range between 894-1,295 a month.

There have also been increases in the rates of on-campus accommodation in NUI Galway. A single en-suite room will cost 5,425 in the upcoming academic year.

NUI Galway advises on other accommodation sources on its site, with over 800 rooms advertised since May. A new residence with 429 bed spaces is on schedule for opening in September 2018.

Maynooth

As one of Irelands youngest towns, the huge demand for accommodation in Maynooth is reflected in the typical monthly rent of 1,286 for a three-bedroom house in the town.

Demand for places in Maynooth University rose significantly this year and is at an all-time high. A spokesperson said the very strong demand for on-campus accommodation last year has been replicated for 2017/18, and the number of on-campus beds has increased by 292.

A single, en-suite room in a shared apartment will cost 5,434 for the academic year, up from 5,320, attributed to ongoing refurbishment and maintenance.
Emergency services were called to the scene this evening after a person fell onto train tracks in north Dublin.

Dublin Fire Brigade attended the scene at Bayside Railway Station.

Crews from Kilbarrick are trating a casualty who fell onto the train tracks in Bayside  Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) July 14, 2017

It's believed the person fell onto the DART tracks and was treated at the scene by emergency services.

The injuries of the person are unknown.
THE cause of death of a young Irish woman who had travelled to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity is being investigated.

It is understood that Majella Duffy (35) had travelled to Tanzania to scale the mountain in memory of her father, who died from a heart attack when she was a teenager.

Ms Duffy, who was from Fermoy in Cork, had travelled with a group from Ireland on July 8 to tackle the highest peak in Africa.

It is understood they were at an altitude of approximately 4,000 metres when she became unwell.

Earth's Edge, which organises adventure holidays, issued a brief statement: "A client of ours has passed away on the 14th July 2017 at 8.15am local time while on Kilimanjaro. Our thoughts and condolences are with her family."

It later added that the team member had "died of unknown causes while being attended to by a doctor at the scene".

Ms Duffy, who was well-known in the bodybuilding community in Ireland, had recently taken to Instagram to thank people who had supported her appeal for the Irish Heart Foundation, in which she raised more than 8,000 to do the climb.

"I'm inspired by the work of the Irish Heart Foundation," she wrote previously. "I lost my dad who was only 47 years old to a massive heart attack 15 years ago. My entire life turned upside down in just a few minutes and was never going to be the same again.

Fermoy councillor Deirdre O'Brien said that Ms Duffy's former workmates in Laya Healthcare in Cork were heartbroken by her sudden death.

"Everyone in Laya is just devastated to hear the news," she told the Irish Daily Mail. "My thoughts are with her family, her mother and her grandmother."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed officials were liaising with the victims family in relation to the repatriation of the body.
An initiative to fund sightseeing days out for refugees in Dublin more than doubled its target this week.

More than 120 Syrian refugees, who are mainly fleeing violence, moved into the Abbeyfield Hotel building in Ballaghadreen, Co Roscommon earlier this year.

In less than 24 hours volunteers more than doubled their 500 target to bring 27 women and children to Dublin to enjoy a day of sightseeing.

The initiative is being co-ordinated by a group of individual volunteers with help from The City of Sanctuary, The Irish Red Cross, The Silk Road Cafe and Friends of the Centre.

One of the organisers, Yosef Phelan said on the GoFundMePage: Since moving to Roscommon, this group of individuals haven't been given the opportunity to explore their new home in Ireland.

We think that they deserve a chance to see all the amazing sights in Dublin City, and a day out in town is the least we could do.

For this trip to Dublin we are focusing on women and children who have found the move particularly challenging and we hope to have future day trips to give the rest of the group the chance to experience what Ireland has to offer.

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They explained that the money would be spent on a return bus for the group and sightseeing activities, while lunch will be provided for free by the Silk Road Cafe.

The initial target of 500 was more than doubled within 24 hours and to date the page has raised over 1300 in just three days.

Yosef said the organisers were blown away by the response and hopes they can repeat these trips.

He said: Thank you all so much, the response has been amazing! In less than 24 hours we raised double the amount that our goal was set at - and is continuing to grow.

This money will no doubt allow for future trips.

We're excited for the day out and will post updates to let you know how it goes.

For more information visit here.
The search for the missing crew members goes on Photo: Steve Humphreys

A specially designed 60-metre-wide net will be used in fresh searches as part of the investigation into the Rescue 116 helicopter crash.

Over this weekend, search teams, which include the Garda Water Unit, will carry out further surveys and searches of the area near Black Rock Island, off the Mayo coast.

The investigation and search operation, led by Supt Tony Healy, has been relentless since the Sikorsky S-92 aircraft crashed around 12km off the west coast last March.

Capt Dara Fitzpatrick, Capt Mark Duffy, winch operator Paul Ormsby and winchman Ciaran Smith all lost their lives in the crash. The bodies of crewmen Ormsby and Smith have still not been recovered.

Senior investigators have said a large trawler will be used as part of this weekend's searches, with a specially designed net brought in to help the operation.

Favourable sea conditions have allowed the trawler to be deployed in fresh searches around Black Rock, and investigators will search for anything of further evidential value.

Searches were also carried out last week after a local fisherman recovered debris on the Mullet Peninsula.

A spokesman for the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) at the Department of Transport told the Irish Independent last night: "The planned operation is a matter for An Garda Siochana as it relates to a continuation of the search for the two missing crew members and the gathering of evidence.

"The AAIU remains on standby to assist An Garda Siochana if so required.

"Later in the week there may be opportunities to conduct ROV (remotely operated vehicle submarine) operations which the AAIU will attend."

The spokesman added that if opportunities arise during the search, action will be taken "to lift specific items of wreckage".

Meanwhile, it was reported on RTE 'News at One' that amateur associations and groups representing part-time and recreational pilots discovered several errors and omissions on their official aeronautical maps covering Irish airspace, and alerted the Irish Aviation Authority.

A new map has since been published. Black Rock Island was not listed in the obstacle warning system of the Rescue 116 helicopter, so the pilots received no automatic warning before crashing into the rock in darkness.
The Government is considering the introduction of a tax break for publicans who agree to ferry their customers home after a night out, the Irish Independent can reveal.

Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin confirmed that he is exploring a number of measures ahead of the budget for publicans, including in the area of Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) and fuel.

The insurance industry has also been called on to provide formal cover for groups which enter into car-pooling systems at weekends.

The range of measures is being considered ahead of the expected passing of Shane Ross's controversial drink-driving bill.

The legislation will see the introduction of a three-month mandatory ban for drivers found to have reached an alcohol limit of between 50-80mg per 100ml.

The Cabinet this week backed the bill - despite a number of Fine Gael ministers voicing concerns that the proposals will negatively impact rural communities.

Although Fine Gael has yet to adopt a formal position on the plan, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is keen to avoid permitting his TDs a free vote.

At Wednesday's parliamentary party meeting, Mr Varadkar whipped his junior ministers into backing the bill and said the matter would be discussed again in the autumn.

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And senior Government sources have confirmed that Mr Varadkar spoke to Mr Ross about examining measures surrounding local transport so that rural dwellers are not discommoded. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Griffin - the junior minister in Mr Ross's department - said he was to spend the summer recess examining the prospect of tax breaks and other measures for publicans who agree to provide their own transport.

"I want to spend the summer exploring what can we do from a budgetary point of view to assist the publican," Mr Griffin said.

"Can we give them a VRT break on their vehicles so it makes up for the cost of dropping their customers home?

"Can we give them additional tax incentives to pay for fuel or pay for certain things?"

Mr Griffin confirmed that as a result of the direction given by Mr Varadkar, he would be voting in favour of the bill when it came before the Dail in the autumn.

"What is the concern by people opposed to this bill? The big concern is that it may have an adverse effect on rural publicans and rural pubs and rural dwellers who may not be able to get to and from the pub," the Kerry TD said.

"So, the big gain is that it makes the roads safer and saves lives."

And he said that aside from budgetary measures, the Government was encouraging pubs and their customers to set up roster systems of designated drivers.

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But he said the insurance industry must also take part and agree to provide cover for such schemes.

"I want the insurance federation to come together with the vintners and the Department of Transport to ensure such schemes would be workable," the Kerry TD said.

"From a road safety point of view, it's a no-brainer. From a rural isolation point of view, it's a no-brainer.

"From a business point of view and from a tourism point of view, anything that helps save our small pubs is saving a part of our tourism product that is hugely important to Ireland."

The legislation itself is expected to be passed in the autumn despite opposition from Fianna Fail.

Mr Varadkar has begun consulting his rural backbenchers who have concerns over the proposal to introduce the three-month mandatory ban.
Caring for a loved one is surely the most unselfish thing anyone can do. It means putting the other person first, and accepting that your own life is on hold, usually for an indefinite period of time. Someone who knows this only too well is Dorothy Meaney, from Limerick, who has effectively been caring for Zondra, her daughter, ever since she was born, 32 years ago.

There were problems from the beginning. "Zondra got stressed during the birth, and afterwards they diagnosed a heart murmur, but they said she'd grow out of it," Dorothy says.

That was just the start of a whole range of puzzling ailments that would beset Zondra over the years. "Her hips used to click in and out," says Dorothy, who worried that hospital staff would point fingers at them. The little girl also had recurrent stomach problems which could be so severe, she would scream in agony, but doctors were unable to identify the cause.

With the onset of puberty, Zondra began having blackouts. It was suggested that panic attacks were responsible, so she was advised to blow into a paper bag until normal breathing resumed. "That's how I started school," Zondra says, "with a brown paper bag in my pocket."

"In desperation, I took her to all sorts of doctors," says Dorothy. "One of them told me to let her push herself to the point where she would have to be admitted to hospital. Then the doctors there would have to find the cause."

Dorothy passed on that particular piece of medical wisdom. So Zondra plodded on as best she could. She was a bright child, so even though she missed so much schooling, she got a good Leaving Certificate. Afterwards, she went on to study beauty and body therapy. But it emerged she didn't have the physical strength to perform therapies properly.

Then, one day while working in a salon in Limerick, she collapsed. Dorothy dashed to the salon, bundled her daughter into the car and got her to A&E. There, a condition which caused muscle weakness was identified. But yet again, doctors were unable to explain why she had that condition.

When she was 22, Zondra gave birth to her son, Carrick. Afterwards, she was so unwell, she had to give up work. She then began a science degree and rose valiantly to the challenge of academia. But after three years, ill-health forced her to put the degree on hold. When she was 25, she was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS). This can cause an abnormal increase in heart rate, when sitting or standing up, which can result in dizziness and fainting. So, finally, there was an explanation for the blackouts. But Zondra was still left wondering why she had so many other aches and pains, and why she continued to suffer from awful stomach problems.

When she was in her late 20s, she was advised to see a rheumatologist. As there was a three-year waiting list, she went to a private consultant who suspected she was suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS).

In 2014, Dorothy and her daughter travelled to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in London where Zondra was officially diagnosed with EDS. According to the NHS, this group of syndromes comprises rare, usually inherited, genetic conditions that affect connective tissue. Zondra says the symptoms can vary enormously from one person to the next, making diagnosis difficult. "In my case, EDS affects my skin, joints, tendons, ligaments, bowel and blood vessels." So finally, she had an explanation for the many, very difficult ailments that have stalked her over the years.

As if all that weren't enough, Zondra's skull is misshapen, causing part of the brain to press on the spinal cord (Chiari malformation). "This happens in less than 20pc of EDS patients," says Zondra. "It causes problems with my eyesight, it affects the strength and feeling in my legs, and causes intense headaches. I can only stay upright for two hours at a time."

Zondra goes to London every three months, where she is seen by specialists who prescribe various medications, and give her a number of injections in her head to dull the severe pain. Fortunately, friends and family help her to raise money for her various treatments and travel expenses.

Their help is even more essential now that the UK specialist has said surgery is absolutely necessary to deal with the problems caused by the Chiari malformation. However, the procedure is risky and needs to be done by a team that also understands the intricacies of EDS. It would appear that expertise exists in Spain. Zondra fervently hopes it will be covered by the Treatment Abroad Scheme.

In the meantime, family and friends continue selflessly to support Zondra, who, in turn, does her utmost to remain positive and cheerful in spite of her huge physical challenges. She does so for the sake of 10-year old Carrick, who is the apple of her eye. And she does so for the sake of her mother, who strives so valiantly to help her out. "She thinks of us the minute she wakes up," says Zondra, "and texts me to see if we need anything. I do try to be as positive as I can be, but who doesn't take out their frustrations on their loved ones? Yet, she never, ever complains. So, that's why I nominated her for the Family Carers Ireland award."

Dorothy says it's not easy being a carer. "Even when I go to bed at night, my phone is switched on. So, it's all-consuming. But I also know Zondra would much rather she didn't need to be cared for by me, or anyone else." Three years ago, the HSE agreed to give Zondra three hours of home help a day. "It really is comforting to know there are people with her we can trust," says Dorothy, who says she values the opportunity to rest when the HSE carers are with her daughter.

Last November, Dorothy was standing by her recently deceased mother's grave when they heard that she had won the Carer of the Year award. Zondra had an appointment a couple of days later to see her consultant in London. But even though she was still in deep mourning for her own mother, Dorothy picked up her travel bag and accompanied her beloved daughter to England. "Zondra's journey is so much harder than mine. I'm only doing what any mother would do," says this most deserving winner.

For information about Family Carers Ireland Freefone (1800) 24-07-24 or see familycarers.ie. For details abut Zondra Meaney's fundraising drive, see gofundme.com/60ban8
Mark Cropp's image went viral after he shared his story on Auckland Job page on Facebook. Photo via Facebook

A New Zealand man said he did not anticipate the impact a facial tattoo would have on his life, before making the decision to get inked.

Earlier this week, Auckland man Mark Cropp took to Facebook to speak about his lack of job opportunities and said employers often judge him on his facial tattoo, which reads 'devast8'.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Cropp said employers were reluctant to hire him, based on stereotypes associated with tattoos, and felt as though his facial tattoo was holding him back.

"One employment place said to me, 'I wouldn't employ you with that on you face, I wouldn't even take a second look at you.'

"I've had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me."

Cropp (19) said his social media post on the Auckland job Facebook page was an effort to show that he was a "normal human being", despite preconceptions about people with tattoos.

"I was over people judging for my facial tattoo... that's why I made the decision to put that photo on Facebook, to turn around and say 'I am just a normal human being, you do not have to judge me because of the way I look'."

Since the original post, Cropp's photographs have received attention internationally, and several employers in New Zealand have offered the 19-year-old the opportunity to work with them.

Cropp has also been inundated with offers of laser tattoo removal from several clinics, which he said he is considering.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Cropp said: "It's become a part of me but if it means that I have to part with it to be able to get a job and become who I want to be then I'm going to have to part with it.

"I've had a lot of job offers, I've had people wanting to help me start up my own blog to help me through my journey. I've got one potential job there I just need to get my Site Safe for and from there I'm pretty much looking to going to start there as soon as possible. There's a whole lot I've been offered."
The newspaper interview with a plastic surgeon thousands of miles away in Asia struck an emotional chord with Fermanagh burns victim Melanie Grimsley as she researched the scourge of the ever-increasing number of acid attacks in India.

"He said that no matter how many procedures they perform on people they never get their smiles back," says Melanie, who is travelling to New Delhi soon to meet people who are victims of the shocking attacks. "His words hit me like a ton of bricks because, while it took a long time, my smile did come back."

Expand Close Melanie Grimsley and sons. Photo Credit: Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Melanie Grimsley and sons. Photo Credit: Belfast Telegraph

Melanie, who will also be visiting a charity who look after and campaign on behalf of survivors, was just two years old in 1988 when she was severely burned in a car fire which ravaged the vehicle minutes after her mother had popped into an Enniskillen shop to buy milk.

An older sister, Amanda, couldn't be saved by a rescuer and Melanie required years of surgery on her injuries. But with the help of doctors, family, friends and her faith she managed to re-build her life and, along with this writer, co-authored a book about her experiences.

Her trip to India was inspired by hearing about the work of a charity in New Delhi who call themselves Make Love Not Scars (MLNS)

They're a non-government organisation who offer medical, legal, practical and employment support to survivors of the acid attacks.

In one recent 12-month period, 309 acid attacks were reported in India and, though the statistics didn't break down that number by gender, it's accepted that women suffer most.

Many of the victims are targeted by ex-husbands or spurned lovers.

The psychological damage has in some instances been even worse than the physical wounds, with reports that a number of victims of the attacks have taken their own lives.

"It's a problem that seems to be getting worse all the time," says Melanie. "It's horrible. Acid dissolves the skin and the photographs of the survivors in India show exactly how terrible the consequences can be."

Melanie's injuries were caused by a freak accident. "But it's awful to think that what is happening in India is deliberate. And many of the attacks are clearly premeditated with the acid being thrown at people's faces to take away their identity and their beauty.

"It also appears that some of the men who target the women in their lives are attacking them after the breakdown in relationships. And it's clear the intention is to ensure that no-one else will want their former partners.

"I also read how one man whose proposal of marriage was turned down responded by throwing acid in the woman's face," says Melanie, who was uplifted last year by seeing model Reshma Qureshi, who has been scarred for life by an acid attack, on the catwalk during New York Fashion Week and raising the profile of MLNS in the process.

Reshma is also the face of the charity's #EndAcidSale campaign which is aimed at tackling the easy availability of acid in India, where it can be bought over the counter for as little as the equivalent of 30p for a small bottle.

Reading about the work of MLNS online had a major impact on Melanie and she resolved to go to India to meet the charity's officials and victims of the acid attacks.

She says: "It would be arrogant of me to say that I have more to offer them than they have to offer me. But initially I just want to go there to show my support and share encouragement with them. I hope that by seeing first-hand what they do I can come home able to continue gathering support for their cause."

She believes she and the Indian victims have a lot in common and says: "I have found that all of the burns survivors I have encountered feel an affinity with each other on the journey of restoration.

"There's a group of us who are connected through Facebook. We went to what were known as burned children's club camps and we still keep in touch and encourage each other. Indeed it was through my connections with other burns survivors that I came across Make Love Not Scars."

Melanie says that burns survivors in her network of friends are also linked by a passion "to help other people in our situations, to reach out and tell them that they're not alone".

Melanie recalls how her recovery, especially in her teens, was buoyed by the simple act of meeting other burns victims.

"It was really useful for me to come into contact with other people who looked the same way that I did. That's why the burns camps were so important because I met people who were walking the same road as me and for the first time ever I felt normal.

"Like me, the other people in the camps were used to being stared at and being made to feel that we didn't fit in. But instead of being negative we were able to build each other up.

"And I thought it might be good if I went to India to meet survivors of the acid attacks so they could see how things can progress and realise that all is not lost and that they can recover.

"There is a certain sense of hopelessness that people feel whenever something of that magnitude happens to them. They feel that their lives are over but it's important that they know it isn't the end."

On a practical level, the resources for reconstructive surgery in India are limited. And Melanie says that looking at photographs of people who've been helped by the charity made her even more grateful for what her surgeon Roy Miller had able to do for her appearance down the years.

"It also made me thankful for our health service," adds Melanie, who has established ties with the Katie Piper Foundation in England.

Katie, a former model, had sulphuric acid thrown in her face in March 2008 and her ex-boyfriend and an accomplice were jailed.

In India, mother-of-two Melanie, who is now divorced, hopes to offer more than just moral support to MLNS.

She has learnt the hard way just what is - and isn't - available to burns survivors here and plans to share her knowledge with the Indian charity.

Melanie, who was left with little hair after the car fire, says it's vitally important for burns survivors to pass on information about new advances.

She only found out about the possibility of getting a new form of hair replacement after hearing about it from a friend in London.

Melanie says: "I then discovered I could have my own hair replacement in Belfast and I am delighted with it. So when you share information like that everybody benefits."

The law graduate says she also hopes to utilise her legal training to help the charity with issues like redress and compensation for survivors, money which would be crucial in paying for treatment for them.

"I have a deep interest in human rights," says Melanie. "I'm keen to see how the system in India works. There is room for research and development to improve the criminal law to hold perpetrators to account.

"And there's also scope for the compensation system to be more forthcoming in providing tangible assistance.

"The issues are so complex and so vast that there is patently a need for them to be addressed at the highest level of government to curb the number of attacks and to look after the survivors."

Melanie says that her conversations with officials from the Indian charity have made her even more determined to help them.

"These people are strong, brave and shining examples and they embody everything I have wanted to support my whole life."

And even though she hasn't even left Northern Ireland yet, Melanie is already thinking about return trips to India in the future.

"I know I will come home again with a little bit of India in my heart. I have a feeling that this will be the first of many visits in support of the work they do to make India a safer place and to seek restoration, support and justice for people affected by burns," says Melanie, who has set up a Just Giving page in a bid to raise money for the charity.

On it she urges people to help her 'bring hope to the victims in India'. She says: "I want to spread the message that having scars is a symbol that you are stronger than whatever tried to beat you. Together we can ensure no-one will rob these burns survivors of their spirit, their strength or their dignity."

Melanie will be spending most of her week in India in a rehabilitation centre that MLNS have established and she plans to give talks to church and community groups here before and after her visit in a bid to raise awareness.

More details of Melanie Grimsley's trip and fund raising campaign can be found on www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/melanie-grimsley
DECATUR  As the Decatur City Council prepares to vote on the Decatur Celebration's plans to install a fence around this year's festival, event organizers said they are feeling "confident" about the proposal's chances.

Decatur Celebration Producer Lori Sturgill said she has received a lot of positive feedback from the public since announcing the intention to build the fence and charge admission for the first time in the event's 32-year history.

"There is an army of people that are completely supportive of the festival," she said. "We're being very conscious that we're not overpricing this event for families, so that way, a lot of people can still attend."

But fans of the festival have expressed concerns about the new barrier.

Decatur resident Crystal Madrigal said that adding admission prices will only make it harder for some families to access the many activities the event provides.

"I think it stinks," Madrigal said. "We already stopped going after they added the food bracelets, but now the odds of ever going back are looking slim."

If the council votes "yes" on the plans during its meeting Monday, the fence will be built around the Celebration's perimeter, and will have several points of entry where attendees must purchase "Band Together" wristbands to gain entry.

The annual festival, which is set for Aug. 4-6, features music, games, food and other events on several blocks in the downtown area. Throngs of residents and out-of-towners come to what had been a free event, which has faced financial pressures in recent years. Officials in April announced they would require wristbands for admission this year. In recent years, the wristbands only were required to purchase items from Celebration vendors.

The wristbands cover admission for all three days of the Celebration, will cost $5 in advance and $8 at the gate. Children 12 and under will get in for free.

Sturgill said that while paying admission may not be something that people who have regularly attended the Celebration are used to, the changes are necessary to ensure the long-running event will continue in the coming years.

"The reason we have to do this is because we are a nonprofit and we have to pay the bills," she said. "Things change a lot in 30 years. A lot of items that we used get for free, we have to pay for now. It costs three times more to get headliners than we could 30 years ago."

Millikin University graduate student Danielle Dixson-Jack said that while she understands that it may be harder for some families to cover the cost of admission to the Celebration, she supports the changes if they improve the quality of future festivals.

"If the money goes toward creating better opportunities for the Celebration and the city, that's cool," she said.

Same goes for Ashlina Cook of Decatur. She said she's attended the event for several years and thinks that the fence is a good idea for security reasons. She also thinks the cost could make it easier to bring performers similar to this year's slate of Nelly, Bret Michaels and Travis Tritt to Decatur.

"As long as they keep bringing good acts, I'm OK with the admission," Cook said.

Barrier finds opposition with council member

The city council is not expected to vote on the proposal until Monday, but City Councilman Pat McDaniel has already said that he will vote against the Celebration's plans.

McDaniel on Friday said that he understands that the Celebration board needs to raise additional funds to support the event. However, he feels that adding the fence would greatly limit parking availability, which would hurt local businesses in the downtown area.

Other council members expressed support, saying they have had concerns alleviated by Celebration organizers about the fence's impact on businesses.

Contacted Friday, council members Lisa Gregory, Dana Ray, Chuck Kuhle and David Horn said they were inclined to vote to allow the fence. Councilman Bill Faber, who said he supports the Celebration, added he would await the council meeting before deciding about the fence. Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe did not respond to a request for comment.

"This is something our citizens look forward to annually. People travel back to Decatur for the Celebration, so yes, I do support it and want to make sure our citizens are able to enjoy it as well," Gregory said of Celebration's request for the fence.

Kuhle echoed his support for Celebration, while acknowledging all parties must have their concerns addressed.

"I love the Celebration. I go every night. It think it's great for Decatur, and I won't want to throw water on the event, but I represent the entire town. You represent the businesses and the people around Celebration; you've got to make sure everyone is being taking care of."

Sturgill said her board addressed concerns during a meeting with local business owners in April. During that meeting, she said, the fence plans were received well by most of the owners in attendance.

Despite short notice, council generally supports Celebration fence Decatur City Councilman Pat McDaniel on Friday said he plans to vote against a plan to install a fence around Decatur Celebration, which for the first time is charging admission this year. He called the proposal a "quest to raise additional funds."

Some even asked that the fence stretch out and include their businesses after the original plan excluded them from the perimeter, Sturgill said.

"The fence line I proposed didn't include Prairie and Merchant streets at all," she said. "A couple of the restaurants asked us to move the fence line so they could benefit from all of the traffic, so, we added them back in."

'We'll have to wait and see'

Coney McKane's owner Lea Stukins said she's willing to see what happens regarding the fence, if the council approves it.

She said that while her regular customers may not be willing to eat at the American-style grill at 104 E. Prairie Ave., she looks forward to all of the new customers that the event will bring in.

"Im not sure what kind of adjustments we would have to make, and I'm not real sure what they would ask us to do," Stukins said. "But we are open for business during the Celebration, and we intend to do business."

Nate Allen, who owns Goodfellas Cigar Shop at 160 N. Merchant St., said he also doesn't think he'll lose that much business because of the fence. However, he is concerned about the ability to evacuate the Celebration in the case of an emergency.

"If there was a problem, and people are trying to get out, how do they get out?" Allen said. "Crazy things have happened at this over the years. My whole thing is that once (the fence) is set up, then I'll have a stronger opinion."

Here's where the new Decatur Celebration fences are planned DECATUR  A map of the upcoming Decatur Celebration, complete with a diagram of a new fence 

Sturgill said the fence will be equipped with multiple exit locations if a mass evacuation is necessary.

"I have been meeting with police, ambulance services, city officials and municipal services," she said. "If there is some kind of reason for an evacuation, our team will know how to get those fences out of the way so people can get out quickly."

Stukins said she is mindful of the pros and the cons having a fence may bring. Ultimately, she said she appreciates the Celebration board's efforts to make the event better.

"(The fence) may or may not work, but I see why they want to try this," Stukins said. "From a safety standpoint, it would be excellent. From a business standpoint, we'll have to wait and see."
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What will it take to unite Ireland? Opinions are divided

There are those for whom Northern Ireland is a geographical fragment of the UK holding true to empire on its western flanks, and those for whom partition is a century-old wrong that must be overturned. Somewhere in the middle are the persuadables  people willing to accept either unity or union, so long as the justification is logical. One way or another, the unity conversation is in the air.
An interesting proposal was recently made at the Citizens' Assembly by UCD economist Micheal Collins. In a discussion on the elderly, Dr Collins suggested that people of a senior vintage with assets of over 200,000 should be levied a special tax so as to contribute more towards the public purse, and including presumably their own care.

This is not necessarily something I'd favour myself - we have enough levies and taxes - but it does address a major issue in our society which is the large and growing disparity between an often comfortable older community and an insecure, hard-working (or often not working) younger generation.

This is not a scenario that older people are responsible for - far from it - but it exists. We see it in relation to nursing home fees and debate around home care. Should the elderly, especially with farms and land, not be encouraged to sell more of it to pay for their care, rather than rely on the State or indeed their children, or grandchildren?

Of course, the nursing home one is a tricky one in the intergenerational equation since if these assets are liquidated, then there is less for the descendants to inherit. Once again, the younger generation might feel they are getting screwed.

In broader terms, there is no doubt that the hammer blow of post-crash austerity was visited on the squeezed middle, especially young working families, and the very poor and the young.

By contrast, much of the older generation had cleared their mortgages, have secure pensions and avoid childcare and education costs. This is not for a moment to discount the hardship felt by many elderly, doubly so as they cannot go out and get work. But the reality is that the ramping up of benefits in the boom years (often to secure votes) meant that the elderly were cushioned from the dramatic pressure of the recession, even if their benefits were cut.

Now that these cuts are being restored, as a priority (again often to court votes) the elderly are comparatively well insulated again. Fianna Fail, in particular, seems to patronise the elderly as a marginalised victim group and, of course, means testing is unheard of and everybody gets the benefit. Welfare king Willie O'Dea wants to be loved.

However, the more resources that go to the elderly the less there is to support young workers, as Leo Varadkar will discover when he tries to introduce tax cuts for the squeezed middle and discovers that he has himself given away all the money in benefit hikes. The result is what UCC sociologist Niamh Hourigan described as a major 'intergenerational unfairness' in Irish society. She has argued for not using State resources to yet again increase pensions and benefits for the elderly but to do more for working families.

It is not the elderly's fault, obviously. They have done their work and raised their families. It is also the modern world, and robots and globalisation and millennials suffering from employment fracturing, casualisation and college debt. And it will only get worse with a pensions timebomb coming where more and more older people are living longer and are being carried by fewer younger workers.

And this is where the intergeneration divide - and dependency - really hits home. The current ratio of those working to those retired is 5:1, but it is destined to go down to a jaw-dropping 2:1. People are living much longer, well beyond the usual retirement age and only yesterday the ESRI suggested that the retirement age may have to be extended. Some elderly may feel besieged by proposals like this, but others would welcome the working longevity and chance to contribute.

They will see the soaring bill for the older and very generous public sector pensions at a time when private sector pensions have collapsed or been wound up.

But public sector pensions are not as good for younger workers, just as pay is not as good for new entrants: once again an intergenerational inequality. For nurses, teachers and gardai, a two-tier pay system has developed, and the unions colluded in this - to protect their existing members, already 'inside'.

This seems selfish but it is also human nature. And when something is given, it is hard to take it away. Who can forget the protests when the Government tried to remove medical cards for the over-70s in 2008.

And yet many elderly would be happy to contribute more. Many of them, especially the affluent, say they do not need the extra fiver in the pension that Willie and Leo keep giving them. A pensioner described to me recently watching a young woman on a train struggling to pay the fare of herself and three children. The pensioner felt bad and wished she could have shared her free travel pass.

There is also a very important point which is often forgotten: tens of thousands of people have emigrated from this country since the crash and almost all of them are the young. They are gone and they have no voice. Leo and Willie will not be looking for their votes.

It was the elderly who stayed behind and though they suffered, they were also protected, and rightly so. But it is sometimes hard not to think again of James Joyce's immortal line - that 'Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow'.
Some months ago, RTE director general Dee Forbes suggested doubling the licence fee, now she wants just a 7pc increase. Presumably, we are all supposed to feel relieved, like the annual debacle of budget scares by Government "leaks".

Ms Forbes says the increase would generate an extra 15m. We are also told that there is a 15pc non-payment on the current fee, a shortfall of 40m. This is a very high rate of payment default, despite the constant TV and radio ads threatening doom for non-payers.

Ms Forbes herself said that failure to reform the system means those who pay the licence fee are now subsidising those who don't. She said the TV licence fee system is "fundamentally broken", yet RTE's suggested solution is to further penalise those who pay, to make up for those who don't. Here's another solution that could work: if it's broke, fix it!

Ronan Quinlan

Dublin

Which witch hunt was greatest?

About a month ago, 'The Donald' hysterically tweeted that the attacks on him by the media, the Democrats, many Republicans and the majority of people in the world were "the greatest witch hunt in political history".

But now we learn (Irish Independent, July 13) that Donald Trump is of the opinion the media's reporting of Donald Jr's meeting with Russians who could give him dirt on Hilary Clinton, which came to naught, was "the greatest witch hunt in political history".

One of his staff, the one who can read, should tell Mr Trump that in using Twitter, although one can only use 140 characters, they don't have to be the ones that you've used before.

George Dalzell

Stillorgan, Co Dublin

Reliability before targets on energy

It is with annoyance and exasperation that I read Jim Gannon's piece (Irish Independent, July 13) in which he says the time for talking is over.

I agree with him there, but those actions need to promote reliable low-carbon electricity and not the arbitrary and unscientific target of more renewables. He talks about more gas (a fossil fuel), biofuels (worse than coal) and solar (less than useless in Ireland).

In any other walk of life, we would look to other countries and try to copy their success. France recently announced the end of petrol and diesel cars by 2040. It can do this because it has a low carbon grid due to a large nuclear contribution. It already has a world-renowned public rail service that is essentially nuclear powered through the grid. The carbon intensity of its electricity is 81 gCO2eq/kWh whereas Germany, whose emissions actually went up in 2015 and 2016, has a figure of 478 gCO2eq/kWh. Germany's misguided pursuit of nuclear phase out and massive renewables investment has backfired and apart from missing its targets, it has caused massive energy poverty due to high prices for electricity, with 600,000 people disconnected annually there.

I now hear that we plan to build an interconnector to join us to France. Some genius thought that one up. One wonders are renewable schemes not just a way for rich people to invest money in risk-free State-backed schemes while falsely taking comfort that they are actually doing something worthwhile.

Dr Pat Morrissey

Adare, Co Limerick

Abysmal provincial roads in need

It would appear the Summer Economic Statement on infrastructure suggests once again priority will be given to the Dublin area.

In provincial Ireland, the road system is abysmal and, thus, unsafe. Has your motoring correspondent ever driven the N52 from Mullingar to Dundalk? Hair-raising, poorly signposted and dangerous. Eh, Eddie, ever driven the R161 from Kinnegad to Trim? Don't. This makes the Paris-Dakar rally seem like, um, a doddle.

I cite but two examples here of where infrastructure funds need to be spent. At Newbridge on the N63, a horrendous bridge, and another nearer to Abbeyknockmoy, and we know that there are similar hazards all across the country that need addressing immediately.

So hopefully the IMF's Public Investment Management Assessment mission here will focus its attention on nationwide roads, water treatment and public transport before even considering worthy of discussion Metro North, a trophy white elephant if ever there was one.

Michael Dryhurst

Roscommon

Retire at 70? More like our 50s

It is extremely worrying that the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Citizens' Assembly should both suggest extending the retirement age to 70 (Irish Independent, July 14).

These bodies are made up of people we expect to understand reality; sadly it appears they don't. It is no surprise the Social Protection Minister agrees with the latest findings; politicians and their advisers appear especially ignorant of the enormous economic change wrought by advanced technology in the 21st century.

Extending retirement age is about a wrong as it is possible to get; 180 degrees wide of the mark. In 20 years' time, possibly a lot less, people will retire in their 50s for the simple reason that there will not be enough work to sustain employment essential for dignified distribution of wealth and social cohesion. This includes the proviso that those employed will work a lot less; spend longer in education; have substantially shorter hours; extended holidays; and earlier retirement.

We are in the fortunate position that it is no longer necessary to "earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow". The genius of automation and robotics can produce much greater wealth in terms of goods and services.

Employment is necessary mainly to distribute part of that wealth to mass populations. Until people realise this they will continue to have idiotic ideas of working harder and longer as if technological transformation had never happened.

Padraic Neary

Tubbercurry, Co Sligo

Preparing teenagers for future

When I chat to the older generation, those in their 80s, I often hear them refer to the days of their youth when they walked everywhere, or they only had a bath once a week and much more.

Some people listening might snigger and say that's old people for you. Wrong. This is our previous generation telling it as it was. They learned from it and it stood them well. How well are we preparing our new teens for their future. Are they aware of the dangers of dictators, of right-wing governments? Are they aware of how easily social media can manipulate them? Are our children ready to take control of our world or are they to be the pawns of tomorrow's manipulators.

Damien Carroll

Kingswood, Dublin 24
Your local health store is far more than bottles on a shelf ... It can be a place where your needs are listened to with empathy and understanding

There are many reasons to shop at your local health food store. Here are some of my favourites.

You'll find that staff are generally passionate about what they do. They want to help you, and you can feel this genuine interest when you talk with them.

It's not unusual to see a staff member and a customer deep in conversation-this is not normally a chit-chat conversation - it's often a sincere discussion about what is happening in this person's life.

People feel immense relief after talking because they feel heard for the first time. I have noticed a change in people myself when this happens. They often look relieved and happier.

Health Stores are exciting places to visit. It's the place to go to look after your health and wellbeing, both physically and emotionally. It's full of interesting food, snacks, high quality supplements, natural body care, and household products. Many stores stock a wide range of allergy care foods and have staff with knowledge on how to prepare them. There are always new and exciting products in the health industry, health stores lead the way in keeping up to date with these trends.

Most people who work in health stores are happy to share their knowledge and experience with you. They are trained and are very familiar with the products they sell. They can help you find solutions to your problems, taking the time to go through the options with you.

They can explain the difference between products, and point out hidden allergens that you may need to avoid. Most stores are independently owned and employ local people who will offer you a friendly smile when you enter their store.

Your local Health Store is far more than bottles on a shelf. It's a place where your needs are listened to with empathy and understanding. Many stores have specialised people who can support what you are grappling with. They have advanced knowledge that can help you achieve optimal health.

Keep an eye out for talks and workshops that many stores run to help keep you informed. Members of The Irish Association of Health Stores follow their code of ethics for safe selling of products so you know you can trust them.
Firefighter Dave Gallagher was joined by past and present members of the fire service for a party to celebrate his retirement last weekend.

The celebration took place at the Hiberna in Bray on Friday night.

Dave was a member of Bray Fire Service for almost 22 years. As well as members from Bray, members from the other fire brigades in County Wicklow as well as Dublin Fire Brigade and the ambulance service joined him. Some of the serving members dropped in.

The nature of their job had them on duty. They held a separate event for him at the station after training the previous Tuesday evening. Dave thoroughly enjoyed the night.

He hadn't seen some of the well-wishers in quite some time and was delighted to catch up with them. While he is looking forward to not being on call, and being free to leave the immediate area whenever he wishes, Dave will certainly miss the work.

The Cois Sleibhe man said that while the job is considered part-time, it took full-time commitment because of being on call most of the time.

'You had to dedicate yourself to the fire service, and be 100 per cent dedicated,' he said. Dave said that there was great job satisfaction for him, and fantastic camaraderie with his colleagues. 'You built up very close relationships with people. You have to rely on each other and there's a strong bond.'

The hardest time for him was the blow the sad deaths of his colleagues Brian Murray and Mark O'Shaughnessy in September 2007, when the two firemen died in the line of duty at Adelaide Villas. Dave was off with an injury at the time of the tragedy.
Pupils at St Mary's and St Gerard's National School in Enniskerry donated some of their Confirmation money to two worthy causes.

The 6th class boys and girls raised a total of 625 between them. The tradition has been under way at the school for some years.

The pupils were asked to put whatever amount they wished into a donation box in the classroom. Nobody will have known how much any person gave.

They came up with a number of different charities and did research on them, then the 22 pupils voted on which charity to select.

Two got the same number of votes, so the funds raised were divided evenly between Spina Bifida Ireland and the Irish Cancer Society.

Their teacher Allison McConnell said that the young people gave very generously. She said that the amount donated and which cause to support were entirely their choice.

This kind act was one of the last things the young people did together as a group before moving on to secondary school.
The community of Tinahely is leading the way in a protest against cuts to banking services in rural branches of Bank of Ireland.

The newly formed Tinahely Action Group Against Bank Service Cuts has vowed to rail against the removal of counter services in Tinahely. Similar service cuts are planned for Rathdrum and Carnew from August 2 and afternoon counter services will no longer be available in Arklow, Baltinglass and Greystones.

Foreign currency exchange and coin transaction services will no longer be available in Tinahely, Rathdrum and Carnew.

Local representatives have voiced support for the campaign and recently Wicklow TDs Pat Casey, John Brady and Andrew Doyle along with Cllr Vincent Blake, delivered a letter of protest to Bank of Ireland headquarters.

'Whilst the bank will remain open for general business and as an advice centre directing its customers to use online banking and ATM services, its arbitrary decision to withdraw cashier services without consultation or commissioning an impact assessment, has angered the community,' said a spokesperson for the lobby group.

'Meetings with junior bank management has proved futile, with the bank unwilling to compromise in any way. Not challenging the decisions of banks that affect the lives of ordinary people has become the norm. But for Tinahely, the choice was simple, say nothing, go away, don't make a fuss and be grateful for what was on offer and watch business drift away, was not an option. Rather the community have decided to stand up, speak out and challenge the impersonal banking strategies, that are being rolled out all around the country,' the spokesperson added.

A petition has been launched as well as social media pages and the group says that 'Tinahely is not going quietly'.

Bank of Ireland however, has said that just three per cent of transactions are now completed over the counter and that the decision to reduce cashier services has been made in response to the change in how the majority of customers conduct their business.

A spokesperson said that customers who wish to avail of counter services can be directed to another nearby branch if required.
The quiet South Wicklow village of Tinahely was transformed into a Hollywood set this week as a US television crew filmed scenes from a hit American sitcom.

The crew were filming the series four finale of Younger - a comedy starring well known US actor and former Disney star Hilary Duff.

Created by Darren Star, the show tells the story of a forty-something divorcee who pretends to be in her twenties in order to secure her dream job.

Tony Award winner Sutton Foster plays the lead role and the cast also features Debi Mazer and Molly Bernard.

While most details about the project are being kept under wraps, it was confirmed that a pub scene would be filmed in O'Connors bar in Tinahely.

The pub is run by Orla and Darren Kavanagh and the couple are delighted that the O'Connor's name will be used in filming.

'We don't know what exact plans they have for the premises but we do know that they will be keeping O'Connor's which are delighted about. We just know that in the programme some of the characters are at an Irish wedding. Some of the scenes will be filmed in Dublin and then the rural ones will be done down here in Tinahely,' said Orla.

'It was Tinahely as a village that attracted the film crew to start with. They will be using some other premises and have already put up a few different signs,' she added.

It is understood that the producers were keen to change the name from Tinahely to something more typically Irish, to appeal to the American audience but it was eventually agreed that the village will retain its name for the programme.

'It will be called Tinahely in the show which is brilliant so when it is on TV people will recognise the name and it might even attract visitors in the future,' Orla said.

The original filming date was pencilled in for Tuesday, but a late change to the schedule saw the Tinahely shoot pushed back a day.

'It's no trouble for us. We will now just be closed on Wednesday instead of Tuesday and when we reopen we will be selling drinks for 3.50 as a thank you to all our locals for their understanding while we were closed.'
A County Cork man was sentenced to six years in prison, with the final two years suspended, having pleaded guilty to the possession of drugs with a street value of more than 19,000 in Gorey.

Scott Morrissey of 23 Cranford Pines, Ballincollig, Cork, pleaded guilty at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court to having cocaine for sale or supply in his possession at Gorey Garda Station on February 24, 2016.

Prosecuting Garda Patrick Malone told the court that he stopped the defendant in a car on February 24, 2016. Having spoken with the defendant, a search of the vehicle was carried out. The defendant said he had taken the wrong road on the way back to Cork.

The defendant, he said, was arrested and conveyed to Gorey Garda Station where a quantity of cocaine was found in his possession.

Garda Malone said that 286 grams of cocaine with a street value of 19,748 was found in his possession. The defendant, he said, had a number of previous convictions.

Scott Morrissey (28) said in evidence that, if given the chance, he would undertake to live at home. He also said that he could not tell the gardai who the drugs were for. as his family would be under threat.

Defence Counsel John Peart said there is a Probation and Welfare report before the court that he wished the court to take into account. He also said the accused helped gardai as much as he could. On the day he was driving home but took the wrong road and was stopped by gardai.

Judge Cormac Quinn said when the defendant was searched two plastic bags were found in his possession, adding, that it is a very serious offence. He said the aggravating factors included the type of drug, along with the amount of a drug, which he said has played havoc with society. Another aggravating factor in the case was the number of previous offences, the Judge added.

Judge Quinn sentenced the defendant to six years in prison, with the final two years suspended for a period of two years, on the defendant to enter a bond of 200 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour in prison, also be of good behaviour and keep the peace for two years on his release from prison.

He was also ordered to come under the supervision of the Probation and Welfare services for a period of two years and abide by all conditions as indicated by them.
Following their recent meeting with local traders, Mallow Chamber has asked members to participate in an online survey aimed at greater participation with Cork County Council on local issues of concern.

Chamber president Sean Lynch said the purpose of the meeting was to create a "working document" containing specific items that can be addressed through a partnership with the local authority across a broad range of categories.

"However, the list of items we produced was far too long. Therefore, we need help in reducing the number of items in each category to six and would request that people take the survey, ranking each item in priority," he said. Chamber members have been sent a link to the survey.

Meanwhile, the next traders' forum meeting will take next Wednesday (July 19) at 6.10pm in Mallow Chamber's new office on Bridewell Lane. Those intending to go to the meeting are asked to reserve a space by contacting info@mallowchamber.ie or leaving a voice message on 022 57444.
I love a good story, especially one that goes viral for some unknown reason, setting off a media firestorm.

On a recent episode of the Australian "60 Minutes," real estate mogul and self-avowed millionaire Tim Gurner casually suggested that the reason some millennials cannot afford to buy a house is they're addicted to $19 avocado toast and $4 coffee.

Say, what?

I love avocados and I'm a big fan of toast, but I must admit that I'd never heard of this avocado toast -- an apparent delicacy that has the younger generation so strapped a good number are back living with their parents.

Oh, man, did that not sit well with a lot of millennials. The internet was ablaze with snarky comments and every effort imaginable to set this Gurner fellow straight.

I read with a bit of glee as one money expert after another did the math to prove that giving up $19 avocado toast would not make a dent in a millennial's ability to save for a 20 percent down payment on a house. They did this by dividing $19 into a typical 20 percent down payment on an average American house. It got quite funny. My curiosity kicked in, prompting me to figure out this avocado toast thing. And figure it I did. Here's what my research turned up:

Avocado toast consists of a piece of toast spread with smashed up avocado and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Seriously? That's it? For that price, I was expecting this controversial delicacy to be topped with creme fraiche and caviar.

There are variations where the avocado toast is topped with a perfectly poached egg or feta cheese. Or shrimp, perhaps. Or you could just go crazy by adding tomatoes and basil atop a smear of mayo.

Now that I have experienced the goodness of avocado toast, I'm going to side with those who believe this guy is out of his mind if he thinks we'll give up avocado toast anytime soon. And, yes, I'm talking to you, millennials. Is there a house in the world worth owning at the expense of never enjoying avocado toast again as long as we live? I think not!

But, just wait a minute. Nineteen dollars?! No way. I can't abide $17, or even $6 or $3.

Here's the deal: If you want to get your finances on track to where you are consistently saving and spending less than you earn, you'd best stop eating out. That's what killing your future, not a couple of $19 avocado toasts a month.

Here's an idea: Learn to make avocado toast yourself. Make it a project to try every possible variation you can think of. By my best estimations, a slice of high-quality hearty bread plus a perfectly ripe avocado comes in at about $1.65 tops. And that's when avocados are most expensive. If you can find them for 49 cents each, well, you do the math. Amazing, no? And I promise you can learn to make avocado toast that tastes even better than that chi-chi restaurant you used to patronize.

Now, take that attitude and apply it to every area of your life and you won't be giving up the things you enjoy. You'll be finding frugal ways to enjoy the life you love, and buy a home, too.
With hopes high that provision for the M20 Cork-Limerick motorway will be included in the governments review of its Capital Spending Plan, a new report has said the route could generate up to 128 million for the local economy.

Entitled Gearing up for the M20 the report, commissioned jointly by the Cork and Limerick Chambers, said the 80km stretch of motorway had the capacity tocreate 5,400 jobs and would enable a balanced economic development on a scale not seen before on the island of Ireland.

The report, which was undertaken by Indecon and Red C, makes a compelling case for the construction of the much-hyped route providing what its authors described as an independent assessment of the socio-economic benefits that would accrue through its construction.

It said the current N20 route was under significant constraints due to an increase in traffic volumes, with several locations experiencing traffic levels at over 120% capacity this year. The reports other key findings included:

* The motorway would prevent in the region of 120 accidents each year.

* Reduce journey times between Blarney and Patrickswell by approximately 16-minutes.

* Open up the wider region to overseas and domestic tourists.

* Underpin the regions competitiveness in terms of attracting both foreign direct and indigenous investment.

* Boost the labour force living within a 45-minute commute of major employment centres by 23% to 243,000 people.

The Chambers also believe that the motorway would help realise the Atlantic Economic Corridor concept of a powerful, three-city region comprising Cork, Limerick and Galway that would provide a strong complement to Dublin.

The CEO of Cork Chamber, Conor Healy, said the report showed the need for a motorway connection between Cork and Limerick can no longer be ignored or postponed.

It is in the national interest that our regional economies expand for Ireland to remain competitive and to complement growth in Dublin, said Mr Healy.

He said that with the right road network, Cork, Limerick and Galway could effectively become one large labour and customer marketplace, improving opportunities and choice for employees and businesses.

It will also enhance road safety and improved Irelands connectivity and competitiveness. As government ramp up capital spending from next year, the M20 must be first on the list of projects to be progressed, said Mr Healy.

In echoing these sentiments the Limerick Chamber CEO, Dr James Ring, said the M20 was probably the most significant piece of infrastructure yet to be developed in the State.

No other infrastructure in the country has the capacity to impact positively on such a large swathe of the country like the M20 has, he added.

To see the report in full visit www.corkchamber.ie
The Sliabh Luachra Windfarm Awareness Group have been very busy researching, sourcing and preparing expert evidence to furnish to An Bord Pleanala before their deadline of Monday, July 24.

Kerry County Council turned down an application by Silver Birch Renewables Ltd to erect 14 wind turbines across 15 individual holdings in Gneeveguilla and Ballydesmond.

However, the company lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala. Shaun ORourke of the Sliabh Luachra Windfarm Awareness Group told The Corkman that a recent seminar presented in Offaly by Portuguese scientist Dr Mariana Alves-Pereira was a huge eye opener for them. She discussed the effects of turbines on animal and human health and is an expert on infra-sound - the energy created by sound which humans cannot hear, and low frequency noise, the sound generated by wind turbines.

She told the seminar of about 150 people from all over the country of the evidence of health damage to horses, sheep, pigs, mink and geese, which she said had been adversely affected by proximity to windfarms in her native Portugal.

She also said humans suffered a variety of effects including a thickening of the sac around the heart which can lead to heart attacks.

Mr ORourke said: Noise damage cannot ever be underestimated. This was recently shown in a High Court case concerning Banteer residents who moved out of their homes because of the noise from turbines.

He also said that her health findings were alarming. At the moment, we are busy gathering up our own information for our observation which will be given to An Bord Pleanala. They will then review this along with Silver Birch Renewables submission and a decision is to be reached on October 31, he said.

What we want as a group is not to have any wind farm development and certainly not of this size. Kerry at present has 14% of wind energy but that will shoot up to 25%. For one county, we feel that is more than enough, he said.

The mood from everyone is that they are not wanted. We sincerely want An Bord Pleanala to look at the strong findings of Kerry County Council who were against this planning application, he said.

Mr ORourke also said: There are 28 turbines in Cordal and 13 in Scartaglin, and and these can be seen just above Barna Bog and are only two miles from my own house. Really, enough is enough. We are already saturated with them.

He said: When driving from Kiskeam to Ballydesmond, the turbines can be seen as plain as day and everyone has had enough of them. We dont want anymore and we certainly dont want turbines measuring 150 metres in height outside our homes.

Research needed on set-back distance of turbines

More research will be required to determine safe set-back distances from wind turbines, a leading scientist said in Tullamore last week.

Dr Mariana Alves-Pereira gave an interview to Gearoid Keegan, Deputy Editor of The Tullamore Tribune.

The Portuguese scientist is an expert on infrasound, the energy created by sound which humans cannot hear, and low frequency noise, the sound generated by wind turbines.

Dr Alves-Pereira presented research findings which indicated significant risks from turbines and other mechanisms.

She cited studies in her home country dating back to 1980 which claims that long-term exposure to infrasound had damaged the health of aeronautics workers.

The seminar in the Bridge House Hotel, which attracted an attendance of about 150 people from all over the country, was also told the health of horses, sheep, pigs, mink and geese had been adversely affected by proximity to wind farms.

She said humans suffered a variety of effects, including a thickening of the sac around the heart which can lead to heart attacks.

She mentioned many studies, including research at a military aircraft facility and a wind farm in Portugal.

The researchers were surprised to find the same effects on the aeronautics workers and people living near a wind farm.

"People who live in infrasound and low frequency noise see an accelerated onset of the symptoms," she said.

"In our wind turbine case in Portugal and other cases of infrasound and low frequency noise in the home, we have given them the same medical diagnostic tests that we've given the aircraft technicians.

"We didn't believe in the beginning that we'd get anything, and there it was."

Experiments have also been carried out on the impact of infrasound and low frequency noise on rats.

Dr Alves-Pereira also pointed to a study which showed how the lower limbs of foals living close to a wind farm were deformed.

She said she could not say "with certainty" that low frequency noise caused the limb deformities but added: "What we did find with the horses, in terms of cellular structures, [they] were damaged and it was of the same nature as the damage we found in the rats and in the humans."

"We didn't find the limb deformities in the rats and the humans but in terms of the cells, what we found in the horses was what we found in the rats and what we found in the humans," she explained.

Asked if there could be a safe set back distances from residences, Dr Alves-Pereira remarked: "I imagine that physically there is. We don't know what it is yet. We haven't had the studies to show either way what is safe."

"We know from people's complaints that two and three kilometres may not be sufficient. But that's just from people's complaints, they have not been verified with medical diagnostic tests."

Whether or not a person suffers from what Dr Alves-Pereira calls "vibroacoustic disease" depends on prior exposure.

"A retired pilot and a person who has always lived on a rural farm will react differently to noise," she said. "The guy who is a retired pilot is going to feel it quicker and more immediately than the other person who is not."

She added: "Prior noise exposure is absolutely fundamental to determine the prognostic of what you're going to feel when you're in your home."

The cumulative effect of infrasound and low frequency noise can begin in the womb, she explained, so a person born after their mother was working in a factory when she was pregnant will feel the effects first.There is no evidence that people build up resistance from prolonged exposure, she said. Earlier, Dr Alves-Pereira told the seminar that the use of dBA for measuring wind turbine sound was inappropriate.

She has developed a machine for quantifying infrasound and low frequency noise and urged people with concerns to get measurements taken. "If you are having wind turbines planned nearby you, you should get measurements before they go up," she said. Unless measurements are taken beforehand, it is likely wind farm operators will claim the sound could have been present before the turbines were installed, she said.

The Portuguese scientist will spend a month travelling around Ireland visiting sites of installed and proposed wind farms.
When old sailors meet up and begin to chat about former days, one can paint a picture in a vivid mind.

Last week, the former Harbour Masters in Drogheda Port - and the present one - met - altogether - for the very first time. Suddenly, in one moment, a lifetime of experience was as one.

We had Captain Bill Hanrahan, now in his 90th year, a proud Limerick man who came to Drogheda in 1967 and spent 26 years at the port.

Bill has battled cancer in the past but came through it - remarking, 'I lived through five wars, they couldn't kill me and I'll be damned if cancer will.'

His adventures were action hero adventure stuff.

He worked as a cadet for Irish Shipping in the convoys during WWII when ships were likely to be sunk, so the Irish vessels were painted up with Irish flags, but a lot were still lost.

He then had a 'tangle' with Fidel Castro's Cuba and ran right into trouble when the Peron revolution swept Argentina.

'We arrived in Buenos Aires and there were road blocks everywhere. Each area had their own supporter, so you shouted their name and they let you through!.'

He saw more trouble in Indonesia, at a time when bombs were dropped on Singapore Harbour. His fifth experience was in the Vietnam War.

'I sailed on two ships that were built in the 1800s. I recall another one that was buried in mud in Lisbon harbour and brought back and renovated and on another occasion the plate of a ship sprung and you could see light through it!. Great old days.'

The seafaring blood has run richly through the veins of the Hanrahan family, Bill remarking that he has 3,690 names on his family tree, starting in 1780 and many river Shannon pilots. His Great grandfather and his brother crewed a famine ship in 1847.

On the day, he again shook hands with Capt Kevin Donnelly, for the first time in many years. They first encountered each other in 1947, Kevin doing a pre-sea course in St John Rogerson's Quay and Bill arriving in to do his 2nd Mate tests.

Kevin (87) was Drogheda Harbour Master for six years, 1960-66. A Bray man, he had been 'deep sea' before taking on the role in Drogheda - where three of his children were born. He would later move to a similar role in Limerick and the Shannon Estuary.

Both men saw incredible sights, the days in the big oil town of Caripito in Venezuela when the bow of the ship had to be stuck into the trees as it swung around in the mud. Kevin recalled a fire in the engine of a tanker he was on and later they had a murder on the same ship!

'Back then shipmates would die for each other,' Bill states. He recalled they were anchored off the main oil jetty in Trinidad and a lot of the lads were drunk. One fell in and the rest jumped in to save him!

At times, they didn't understand danger and had to put up with a lot.

'We had a steam pipe above the bed, wrapped in asbestos rope and I'd swing myself up with it,' Bill revealed, Kevin adding that there was asbestos everywhere in the engine room.

But they all shared the memories of 'The Channels' - something only sailors would know.

''It's known only to seamen,' Kevin revealed. 'You could be away for a year or two and all the lads would be gone mad, but when they'd see the Channel, the mood changed and everyone was happy, as if they were on the booze. It was a beautiful disease, you knew you were nearly home.'

Bill said his longest spell away was two years and four months and the only place in the world he hadn't been was the West Coast of the USA. He even made it around 'The Horn' - supposedly the worst seas in the world. 'They reckoned I had salt water in my veins,' he proudly adds.

Both men fondly recalled their days in Drogheda, working with the dockers and recalling that the Lowth and Dyas families were synonymous with the port.

Bill even found love on board a ship. He was a dashing young Merchant Navy Officer and was on board a ship in Canvey Island when his eyes met Norah Coughlan from Westport who was working there at the time.

He was later sent to Newcastle, but on arrival there, was told that his ship wouldn't be going anywhere for five or six days. He dashed back to London and five days after meeting her, asked 'Nono' to be his wife.

'Do you not have to ask my parents permission first,' she asked of him. 'why, I don't want to marry them, just you,' was his response. They went on to celebrate 60 great years together until her death in 2013.

The present day harbour master, Capt Martin Donnelly, said he was delighted to host the meeting and glad to see both men - with 177 years of life between them - looking so well.

'Looking at them, I hope I have a long life ahead of me,' he quipped.
Saint Laurence Gate will be closed to traffic by September, it has been revealed.

At the July meeting of Drogheda Municipal District officials said they are working on the finer details of the plan, including road markings and signage, at present and hope to carry out these works over the summer with everything completed and the Gate officially closed by the time the schools resume in September.

The issue was raised at the meeting by Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Pio Smith who asked if there was a specific date yet for when the gate would be closed.

Borough Engineer Pat Finn said the council were working with the implementation team to finalise the details of the closure. He said they hoped to do this work over the summer so that it would be closed by the time school resumes.

Senior Executive Engineer Martina Sheeran said: 'We're progressing the finer details of the road markings and signage.'

She said they are also looking at the directional changes for the roads around the area.

'We'd like to use the opportunity of the summer holidays to implement the changes subject to everything being straightforward,' she added.

A traffic plan to facilitate the closure of St Laurence Gate first went on public display at the end of 2016 - similar plans had been muted in the past but failure to agree on a suitable plan and concerns about the impact on local businesses meant previous proposals had only led to the gate becoming one way to traffic.

The new plan, which was finally agreed by councillors in May, will see the historic barbican finally protected from the huge array of traffic which has passed under it for hundreds of years.

It was the large volumes of Heavy Goods Vehicles in particular passing through the Gate which led to the public campaign to close the gate to traffic once and for all. A number of strikes and vehicles becoming lodged until the ancient monument led to an outcry from the local community and the wheels being set in motion to create a viable plan to close the gate to traffic.
200 years ago this year, a dashing and footloose young British naval officer decided he'd had enough of such a life and departed for waters new - to South America.

The rest became history, folklore, fact and fiction - but either way, Thomas Charles Wright became one of the most famous sailors and statesmen in the world.

And what's more he was from Aston Lodge, situated at Queensboro on the Baltray Road!

Now, two centuries after he set sail for South America, a campaign is being launched to erect a permanent memorial to Wright after members of his family - all called Wright - found their way to Beaulieu House in recent years.

The last three members visited just two weeks ago and have been tasked with finding out if backing can come from Ecuador, as well as Drogheda, to fund the project.

Local historian Noel Bailey admits he's been fascinated by the ongoing links established with the South American country, due to the Drogheda man.

Wright was born at Queensborough on January 22 1799 and entered the naval service at the age of 11, attending college in Portsmouth.

His first commission was when he was 13, boarding the 64-gun Newcastle, whose first action was chasing the American USS Constitution, commanded by Charles Stewart Parnell's grandfather, right across the Atlantic.

Home on leave in 1817, his biographer, Alberto Edwardo Wright, said that Wright took to fishing in the Boyne and pondered on his life, craving a new challenge.

He met exiled South American patriots, then preparing an expedition which sailed from England to join the revolutionary forces of Simon Bolivar and Jose deSan Martin. They left London with 10,000 muskets on the Dowson, seeing land off Venezula on April 21, 1818. There were 200 men on board, within nine years, only officers Wright and a fellow Irishman, Harris, were alive.

He is remembered most of all for his outstanding bravery in the fierce battle for Quito which was fought on the foothills of Mount Pinchincha on 24 May, 1822, in which the South Americans won a great victory that liberated Ecuador.

A year later, he was appointed by the Liberator Bolivar, to organise a naval force in the Pacific. He commanded the 18 gun brigantine 'Chimborazo' and she faced down the Spanish squadron flagship, the 74 gun battleship 'Asia'. Wright won a fierce fight for the port of Callao and sent the Spanish back, beaten and crippled. In 1826, Spanish rule was over.

Incredibly, the Spanish fleet had also been beaten in a battle in the Caribbean, one ship commanded by Dick Wright, a cousin of Thomas.

Wright went on to play a leading role in establishing the new Republic of Ecuador and was its first admiral, and governor of the great port city of Guayaquil from 1835-1845 . He was the right hand man of President Rocafuerte and he married his niece, Maria de Los Angeles and after her death, her sister, Pepita.

A military coup ended Rocafuerte's rule in 1845 and Wright went into voluntary exile. He returned in 1860 and helped bring parliamentary government to the country after uncovering a plot by then dictator Moreno to sell Ecuador to Napoleon III.

How he died has different versions.

One is that due to his exposing the dictator, his house was placed under siege by the government and the Bishop of Guayaquil had to push past them to administer the last Rights on December 10, 1868, 150 years ago next year.

Others say he died of exhaustion after a session of wild boar hunting and drinking too much ice-cold beer.

In 1972 the republic of Ecuador issued a postage stamp in his honour to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the State, and "La Batalla Pinchincha".

It is said there is an expanse of land close to his home place called Wright's Fields while his ancestor as a burgess of Drogheda dating back to 1447.

Noel feels the interest in Wright is huge and seeing that the 150th anniversary of his death is next year, he should be remembered.

'Other Irish people, like Admiral William Browne and John Barry have been recognised. I think it's time Thomas Charles Wright was honoured too.'
A new business park could be on the way to Enniscorthy after Wexford County Council gave the green light to a chance in the town development plan.

At a special meeting of Wexford County Council last Monday afternoon the members of the council were told that the variation of the town plan relates to 16 hectares of land directly south of St Senan's Hospital.

In his report to the members CEO of Wexford County Council, Tom Enright, said that 'the purpose of the proposed variation is to chance the land use zoning to allow for a business park which will facilitate office, light industry, manufacturing and incubator type units. This project is a key element of the council's economic strategy.'

He said that change was considered by the council in May 2014 and following on from this a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) screening report was prepared.

The plan was then sent to various government departments also put on public display.

A total of eight submissions were received by the council, all from government departments.

The submissions were from: Dublin Airport Authority who had no comment on the matter; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who raised concerns about the SEA, wastewater and surface water quality; Irish Water who had no objections; the HSE who raised issues over noise, vibration and light impacts on 'sensitive adjoining properties, traffic and sustainable transport, open space and healthy workspace as well as the use of Killagoley treatment plant site; Transport Infrastructure Ireland raised concerns about assess to the national road while the Department of the Housing commended the proactive role of the council with regards to development and asked about flood risk.

The final two submissions were from the Southern Regional Assembly who raised concerns about the reduction in land zoned for residential development while the Department of Education had no comment to make on the matter.

The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in its submission 'notes that this is an important strategic development for the town and recognised that the provision of a business park in Enniscorthy is an objective of the Wexford LECP. The Department commends Wexford County Council for taking a strong leadership in seeking to improve local employment opportunities within Enniscorthy.

'The sloped topography of the site is noted and the planning authority is requested to ensure that the proposed variation is not in conflict with the requirements of 'The Planning System and Flood Risk Management Guidelines Authorities.'

In his response to the Department Mr Enright said 'the proposed variation incorporates two new policies which introduce Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems into the Enniscorthy Town and Environs Development Plan. Surface water and pluvial flooding will be assessed as part of any planning application on the site.'

In its submission the Southern Regional Assembly said 'the proposed variation is considered to be a positive development which could support the creation of new employment and would be consistent with the Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-2022.

'The proposed variation will result in a reduction of 4.5 hectares of land zoned for residential development. However no changes have been proposed with regard to population projects and in relation to zoned land. The reduction in land zoned for residential development would not be inconsistent with the Wexford County Development Plan 2013-2019 Core Strategy.'

In his response Mr Enright said that 'section 11c of the Planning and Development Act states that the development plan for the administrative area of such a town council shall continue to have effect to the extent provided for by that plan and be read together with the development plan for the administrative area within which the dissolved administrative area is situated. In this regard it is noted that the population allocated contained in the Wexford Plan indicated that there is an oversupply of land zoned for residential development in the Enniscorthy town and environs plan. The population projections and zoning of land for residential development in Enniscorthy will be reviewed as part of the preparation of a new local area plan for Enniscorthy to ensure consistency.'

In response to the concerns raised by the TII Mr Enright made the following variations to the plan that went on public display stating the council will only permit a single new entrance or intensify use of the existing access point onto the national roadway.

Any applicant will also be responsible for the road safety audit.

Following on from the recommendation of Mr Enright to accept the plan with the variations raised by the TII the members gave the plan the green light paving the way for a new business park close to St Senan's.
Wexford Credit Union is hosting an information session on college loans at Wexford Library on July 18 at 7 p.m.

The event which is free will focus on the student loan programme offered by the Credit Union for 3rd level education.

Once the leaving cert results come out and the student receives their letter of acceptance from their college choice, parents often find themselves asking: How much will I need to borrow?; When should I apply?; What do I need to provide?; What does being a guarantor mean?; How quickly is the loan granted once applied for?; How does the loan repayment work?

Assistant Loans Manager Brigitte McLaughlin from Wexford Credit Union will be there to provide excellent advice. Last year Wexford Credit Union provided assistance to almost 1,000 students.

Also included on the night will be a talk on mental health by Niall O'Muiri of Wexford Mental Health Association. Niall is a retired mental health nurse who has put three of his own daughters through college. He has visited schools in County Wexford giving workshops on mental health. To book your place please call 053 9196760.
An 18-year-long celebration of traditional music returned to Rush recently as the annual Scoil Samhradh Chris Langan was held over three days of jigs and reels.

The event was officially opened by the new Mayor of Fingal, Mary Mc Camley and it started with the annual Rinceoil Fingal gala concert.

The concert allows members of Rinceoil Fingal to showcase all they they have learned over the previous year.

The large crowd was treated to a great night of music.

At the end of the concert presentations were made to Caoimhe Luccan ,who was presented with the Collette Dowling memorial Trophy for musician of the year, and Lenny Martin who was presented with the Noelle Murtagh Memorial Trophy for service to Rinceoil Fingal since its founding in 1994.

The night concluded with a mighty session in the Michael Collins pub, hosted by Sean Treacy CCE.

On the Saturday afternoon featured a host of workshops in various instruments, held in Rush National school and again, there was a great turnout.

On the Saturday evening, it was on to Rush Sailing Club, where there was a session mhor featuring local group Tumbleweed, and again the venue was packed. This great night of music and song went on until the wee hours and featured visiting musicians from all over the country including visitors from as far afield as New Zealand.

The weekend concluded on the Sunday morning with a mass in St. Maur's Church for deceased members of Rinceoil Fingal.

It was a great week for trad fans across the county who are already looking forward to next year. A special word of thanks goes to Fingal County Council's arts department for there sponsorship of the weekend.
The case of UK baby Charlie Gard has caught the attention and the hearts of the world.

The 10-month-old, who UK doctors believe is terminally ill with no chance of recovery, has been the subject of a long running legal process as his parents try to extend his life and prevent medics from turning off life support.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates believe that their son would benefit from pioneering treatment in the USA and have the support of a medical expert there but last month the court ruled in favour of the UK hospital which advised that there is no more they can do for the infant.

This is one of the most heartbreaking cases I have ever seen and my heart goes out to the family.

Who can blame them for exploring every possible avenue and clinging onto every shred of hope that help can be found for their beloved son?

They have never given up that their son's condition can improve and that with the right treatment he might one day be able to enjoy a better quality of life.

Last week the case made international headlines once again as President Donald Trump and Pope Francis pledged support for the family.

The Vatican's children's hospital has promised to facilitate the treatment if the UK courts would overturn their ruling and allow Charlie Gard to travel for such.

His parents were previously denied permission to take him to the US for experimental treatment, but it appears that the international attention on the case could have helped their cause.

If any respected medical professional throughout the world holds the view that they can help the child, then how on earth could his parents give up their fight? How could they not take any possible chance out there to help their son?

Some might say that they should take on board what the UK medical team have said but then that would mean saying goodbye to their precious baby while wondering if they could have done more or fought harder for this treatment.

They have shown immense courage and fortitude in their battle - taking on such a legal challenge in tandem with keeping a vigil at their son's bedside.

They vowed to do whatever they could to try and help him and that is what they are doing.
A Fingal school that linked with an international company based in the county is seeing the benefit of those ties after St Francis Xavier National School (SFXNS) graduated from a new Irish STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths) initiative 'Maths in a Box', aimed at providing a stimulus to primary school pupils to actively engage with STEAM subjects outside of their curriculum.

Pupils from both 5th and 6th class today celebrated the completion of a six week programme which involved specific STEAM related classes being voluntarily given by employees from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company with its Global Operations and Supply Chain headquarters in Fingal.

The pupils were engaged in creative, analytical and lateral thinking skills to bring maths to life in a fun format.

Eight local staff members from Alexion Pharmaceutical's College Park facility in Blanchardstown volunteered their time to teach classes and assist the SFXNS children in visualising similar careers and having confidence in their capacity to reach them. The volunteers gave lessons once a week, over six weeks, and demonstrated a hands-on activity based lesson.

Through the 'Maths in a Box' programme, the volunteers are given an opportunity to 'give back' to society, while gaining creditable experience in education and interaction with children.

Alexion Ireland is a subsidiary of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and delivering life-transforming therapies for patients with devastating and rare disorders.

Fingal is home to Alexion's global supply chain and quality operations, as well as being a future biologics manufacturing site for the Company.

STEAM Education operates with the interests of young minds at heart.

It aims to provide a stimulus to 5th and 6th class primary school pupils to actively engage with STEAM subjects outside of their curriculum. T

he programme involves representatives of local businesses who volunteer their time to act as a mentor alongside teachers in national schools and visit the classroom one a week. The volunteers are provided with lesson plans and a training seminar based on these plans in advance.

For more information, visit: http://www.steam-ed.ie
Nessa Childers, Independent Dublin MEP has hosted a delegation from Swords Senior Citizens to the European Parliament in Brussels, accompanied by Cllr Paul Mulville, Independent Councillor for the Swords Ward.

'I was delighted to host the group from Swords Senior Citizens, along with local Cllr Paul Mulville and Dublin trade union and political activist, Paul Dillon. I was very glad to discuss Brexit with the delegation, and to hear their views on how it will impact the island of Ireland and our country's strong relationship with Britain, where many of our family and friends are living", said Childers.

'We really enjoyed the visit to the European Parliament and Brussels, and found it very informative,' said Eileen Power, Chairperson of Swords Senior Citizens.

She added: 'It was great to have a chance to learn at first-hand how the parliament works and to discuss issues of concern directly with Nessa.'
Balbriggan has the youngest population of any large town in Ireland, prompting calls for more investment in areas like childcare and education for the town.

Balbriggan has the youngest population in the country at an average of 30.8 years, while Malahide has one of the oldest at an average age of 38.6. Fingal is also the youngest administrative county in Ireland with the average age of 34.3.

Reacting to the figures, Senator Lorraine Clifford Lee (FF) called for more investment in education, childcare and transport for Balbriggan and across Fingal.

Senator Clifford Lee said: 'This data is nothing new to those of us living in North Dublin, but it does re-emphasise the critical need for the Government to invest in important projects in education, childcare and transport to keep up with the a growing, younger population.'
There will be no change to the constituency boundaries of Dublin Fingal in the next election with the constituency also remaining a five-seater.

Local Fianna Fail TD, Deputy Darragh O'Brien has welcomed the publication of the Constituency Commission report, which has recommended that no change be made the Dublin Fingal constituency which elects five representatives to Dail Eireann.

He said: 'I welcome the publication of the Dail Boundary Commission report and in particular, the fact that Dublin Fingal remains intact with no changes proposed. A number of months ago I made a strong written submission to the Boundary Commission outlining the importance of retaining the Dublin Fingal as one electoral area, and that no areas should be excluded as was done in 2011.'

Deputy O'Brien added: 'We have previously experienced changes to how our constituency was drawn. The decision to divide Swords and to exclude Portmarnock, Balgriffin and parts of Baskin from our constituency both proved hugely damaging.

'As this constituency review got under way, there was understandably growing concern among locals that our area may have been subject to change once again. I am very pleased that the people of Dublin Fingal will continue to have their national interests represented by locally based TDs.'

Swords-based Cllr Darragh Butler (FF), said: 'I welcome that there will be no change to the constituency of Dublin Fingal. Over recent weeks there had been all sorts of mad rumours that Swords would be moved into the constituency of Dublin West but thankfully this proved not to be the case. I would like to think that the campaign I orchestrated last December helped in this regard, which resulted in Dublin Fingal having the third highest number of submissions overall (45 submissions, or 10.8% of the total number of submissions), which called for all of Swords to remain united in the constituency of Dublin Fingal. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to make a submission and this is a good result for Dublin Fingal and democracy.'

The Constituency Commission recommends that the number of members of Dail Eireann should be 160 and that there should be 39 constituencies.

The constituencies of Dublin Bay South (four seat), Dublin Fingal (five seat), Dublin South-Central (four seat), Dublin Mid-West (four seat), Dublin South-West (five seat) and Dublin West (four seat) are unchanged.

Adjustments should be made between Dublin Rathdown (three seat) and Dun Laoghaire (four seat), and between Dublin North-West (three seat), Dublin Bay North (five seat) and Dublin Central which should change from a three seat to a four seat constituency.
Investment in education, childcare and transport must follow the news that Balbriggan is Ireland's youngest large town and that Fingal is the youngest county in the country, according to a local senator.

Senator Lorraine Clifford Lee has said that the Government must start to invest in education, childcare and transport in North Dublin as it was announced that Balbriggan is the 'youngest' large town in the country.

Based on data compiled as part of Census 2016, Balbriggan was determined as being the youngest town, with a population in excess of 10,000, in the country with an average age of 30.8 years. Fingal County is also the youngest local authority area with an average age of 34.3 years.

Senator Clifford Lee said: 'This data is nothing new to those of us living in North Dublin, but it does re-emphasise the critical need for the Government to invest in important projects in education, childcare and transport to keep up with the a growing, younger population.'

The Fianna Fail senator added: 'We need to see more schools and classrooms being built, better transport links for families to get to work, school and around the county, and we need to ensure that there are enough childcare places for the increased number of children who will undoubtedly be born over the next 10 years from such a young population.'

She concluded: ' Census 2016 has given us the evidence we need to plan for the future, and sketch out the type of county we want to live in.'
A judge has warned anyone who appears before him guilty of abusing taxi drivers are not going to 'walk from the court' without a conviction.

Judge Conal Gibbons made the remarks at Balbriggan District Court when a case came before him of a young man who verbally abused a taxi driver and then broke the wing mirror off the car.

Stanislavs Krescenko (22) was on a night out with friends in Balbriggan two nights before Christmas last year when he got a taxi at around 3.10am.

A verbal dispute broke out and the defendant damaged the car's wing mirror. There was no injury sustained by the taxi driver.

The defendant, of Cardy Rock Road in Balbriggan pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the taxi's wing mirror on Drogheda Street in the town on December 23rd, 2016. He has no previous convictions.

'I haven't met many people who bust up a taxi driver's wing mirrors,' said Judge Gibbons.

'Taxi drivers have a difficult enough job driving at times when no-one else is around and things can happen to them,' said Judge Gibbons.

'Taxi drivers perform a public service and people out socialising need taxis so they aren't tempted to drink and drive home.

'This taxi driver was out doing his job and was accosted by this young lad full of drink.'

Defence solicitor Fiona D'Arcy told the court 'It was completely out of character' the way the defendant had behaved.

'He drank heavily that night and has never been in trouble before and no trouble since,' she said, asking the judge to leave the defendant without a conviction as 'his future as a chef could be jeopardised if he has a conviction.'

However, Judge Gibbons said he has to register the seriousness of the offence.

'I wouldn't be happy just to give him a slap on the wrist,' said Judge Gibbons. 'Taxi drivers are known for their gentle disposition and to have one of them meet with this young man at 3am. If you cross certain boundaries you have to pay for it.

'I'm not going to allow people walk from court for abusing taxi drivers,' he warned.

He said taxi drivers are 'put in the way of possible dangers.'

'If people are going to be difficult and misbehave it is a matter for the court to take seriously,' said the judge and convicted and fined the defendant 100. He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal.
The Tesco store in Ridgewood was hit by an armed raider last week

Residents are calling for a full-time security guard to be posted at their local Tesco Express after the store in Ridgewood was hit by an armed robbery, last week.

On the evening of Monday, July 3 at 10pm, the Tesco Express in Ridgewood saw two raiders enter the store. One remained at the door while the other brandished a suspected firearm at staff and demanded cash. Staff opened the till and the raider grabbed the cash and fled the scene on foot along with his accomplice.

The raid was captured on CCTV and those images are now being analysed by investigating officers at Swords Garda Station.

Both raiders were male with the man who stood watch at the door of the store described as being 6ft tall, wearing a navy and black Northface jacket with a hood, navy tracksuit bottoms with a white stripe, dark coloured runners, thinsulate gloves and a dark-coloured scarf across his face. The second man who brandished a weapon in the raid, is described as 5ft 6" tall, wearing a dark coloured rain jacket with a hood, dark tracksuit bottoms, gloves and a scarf hiding his face.

This is the second time this year that this store has been hit by a robbery, with the other incident taking place in February although on that occasion, no weapon was used.

There has been 65 reported incidents at the store in the last 13 years, although the majority of these have been cases of shoplifting, according to garda sources. A total of nine robberies, armed and unarmed have taken place at the store in the same period, the Fingal Independent understands.

The latest raid prompted a response from the Ridgewood Residents Assocation who told their members on social media: 'As a result of the incident at Tesco last Monday evening, many residents have been in touch with Tesco Ireland, online and by phone, to voice their concern, for staff, customers and local residents alike.

'A petition has also been filed and you may add your voice.'

Ridgewood Residents Assocation are to enter a dialogue with Tesco and the petition which had 89 signatures at the time of writing, states: 'We the residents of the Ridgewood Estate ask Tesco to provide a full time security guard at the Tesco Express in Ridgewood Swords.

'In light of last night's robbery and their frequency, it is becoming increasingly worrying for the staff and also the customers and our children using this store.

'With no full time security we feel Tesco is providing an easy target for robbers to enter our estate. Please help us make Tesco and indeed Ridgewood safe for us all.'

The petition is available on petitions.ie
Private Terence McMahon of the 35th Infantry Battalion of the UN Peace Keeping forces in the Congo of 1961 loved his home town so much, his fellow soldiers called him 'Balbriggan'.

He was known to his family as Terry but it was years after the courageous soldier's death that his family and the town of Balbriggan found out just what a hero he was.

Terry was just 16-years-old when he dug trenches in the earth of the Congo with 154 of his fellow Irish UN troops in a bid to survive a siege that saw the force vastly outnumbered.

Against all odds, the poorly armed Irish troops held out for a week before dwindling supplies forced them to surrender but incredibly, not a single Irish soldier was lost in the action while heavy casualties were inflicted on the side with the greater numbers and a much greater arsenal.

Terry was to celebrate his 17th birthday as a prisoner of war and while that status lasted only a short time before his release, in a sense he remained a prisoner of that war for the rest of his life and was never quite the same man again.

News of the battle was buried at the time and when Terry returned home to Balbriggan on a month's furlough after his first stint in the Congo he told nobody what he had been through, not even his family.

This weekend, Terry's extraordinary courage will be marked with a plaque on George's Square in Balbriggan, a stone's throw from where he was born and his three surviving siblings will be there to see it all happen.

Among them will be Terry's younger brother, Anthony who has travelled all the way from Santa Cruz, California to be here, a trip he makes every summer but this year, the journey has added meaning.

Terry and Anthony grew up tough because they had to be. It was a disruptive childhood that began in Balbriggan but would see the family blown apart after the boys' mother died.

Anthony explained: 'Our mother died when Terry was four and I was two and we were shipped out to relatives and friends on and off, and then we would come back to the town and go away again.'

They lived with relatives, in convents and industrial schools and by the time they were teenagers, they couldn't wait to get away and both chose the army as a means of escape.

Terry lied about his age to join the Irish army at 15 and Anthony would follow him a few years later, at the age of 16.

Anthony remembers the day his brother joined up: 'I remember him joining up because I was with him. We drove up to Collins Barracks and I remember we had a Ford Consul - I'll never forget it.

'My dad told them Terry was 17 because you had to be 17 and have your parent's consent to join. When they took him so easy, Dad looked at me and said: 'Will you take this fella too? They said to bring me back in a few years - I was only 13.

'Terry just wanted to get away and do his own thing. He did his basic training in Dublin and then he wanted to go to the West so he got transferred to Galway to the Irish speaking battalion. There weren't many Dubs in that battalion that went to the Congo that year, they were mostly from Athlone and Galway.

'He was in the army about a year when he went to the Congo so he would have been 16 when he went and he actually celebrated his 17th birthday as a prisoner of war in Jadotville.'

Once Terry was overseas, very little information was relayed back to his family about what he was doing over there and certainly, there was never any mention of the Siege of Jadotville.

Anthony told the Fingal Independent: 'We had very little information about what he was doing over there. My dad got one letter from the army saying he was fine and that was it - there was no more information. There was a picture in the paper of Terry when he came home but there was no coverage of the battle.

'He came back to Balbriggan for a month's furlough and then he went back to the army because he had another year to do.

It was during that furlough that I caught up with him again but he never talked about Jadotville - we didn't know anything about it. 'He never discussed it. He kept quiet - I think they were told not to say anything about it and he took it literally.

'It is only in the last three or four years, I found out what really happened. This guy, John Gorman from Westmeath was doing a lot of research. He was in the group with Terry and he was doing a lot of work to try to bring this thing to the attention of people. There was a huge campaign to try and get these guys recognised and it was only through that we really found out what happened.'

When Anthony realised what his brother had been through and how it must have prompted Terry's later descent into reclusion and paranoia, he was angry at the army for leaving his family in the dark about what happened in Jadotville.

Anthony said: 'I was really upset that we were kept in the dark about it. I was in the army at the time and we never heard anything about these guys - they were never mentioned. I felt let down and cheated by the army.

'I started doing my own research and I found some of the soldiers that were there and talked to them. But this guy, John Gorman did great work. Most of the pictures you see around from Jadotville were taken by him and he was a private too at the time and was a year or two older than Terry. He said the siege was awful - he had a real bad time himself afterwards. He deserted and went to England for a while and was court-marshalled and came back. A lot of the guys had some kind of post-traumatic stress but nobody talked about post-traumatic stress at that time - it wasn't even a term that was used.'

Suddenly, his brother's life made sense to Anthony, who said: 'Terry seemed ok when he came back from the Congo. He went to New York and became a cop. Everything seemed normal enough to begin with but you could see over time a deterioration in him.

'I was living in California and I would visit him in New York from time to time because I had access to travel in my job. You could see he was getting stressed more and more and a little paranoia was setting in and they eventually had to take his gun and badge off him. He would have been in his early 40s by then.

'He never married. He was engaged to be married once to a lovely gal in the Bronx and everything was set to go and he called it off. He just couldn't do it. If we knew then what we know now, we would have known he needed counselling. He became a recluse and paranoid - he thought people were out to get him.'

That was the Terry McMahon that returned that returned to Balbriggan where he died at the age of 53 in 1997 but Anthony does not want the town to remember him that way and the ceremony that takes place this Saturday will cement his brother's place in history as a local hero.

Talking about the upcoming ceremony which will also be attended by Terry's other two surviving siblings, John and Julia, Anthony said: 'This is unbelievable to tell you the truth. To think after all these years we have a hero in our midst and didn't even know it and it was kept from us. Now that the town is prepared to do something like this for him, we are all greatly honoured and very moved by it.'

Anthony's voice cracks and he's visibly moved as he talks about the ceremony feeling like 'redemption' for his brother.

He said: 'What the town is doing is a great honour and it will also make people in the town aware that my brother wasn't just a bum hanging around and went through a lot.

'For me it's like a kind of redemption for him as a hero - not the man he was in the last few years of his life. And for us in the family, it's a kind of closure and it means he will be remembered in the town forever with this plaque.'

A national honour for Terry and the men of his battalion is at last on the horizon too. One of the outgoing Taoiseach Enda Kenny's last acts was to approve the awarding of medals for bravery to the men of Jadotville in a long overdue tribute to their courage.
The case of a Swords family at their wits' end coping with a child with severe autism who cannot access respite care for the eight-year-old and feel 'abandoned' by the State, has been raised in the Dail by a local TD.

After pleading their case to several Government ministers and taking their plight onto the national airwaves on Sean O'Rourke's Show on RTE Radio, the impossible position Anton and Edel Dooley have been left in with their eight-year-old son, Jacob has now become the subject of a Dail debate.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly TD (SF) raised the issue with Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, saying: 'I want to talk to the Minister about Jacob Dooley. Jacob is the middle child of Edel and Anton Dooley and he has been diagnosed with severe autism. The Dooleys are, in their own words, 'a family in crisis'.

'For months they have been appealing to Ministers for help but they have been ignored.'

Deputy O'Reilly said: 'Jacob is eight years of age and engaged in aggressive behaviours toward his parents and siblings causing injury.'

She added: 'Jacob is displaying significant behaviours that challenge, such as biting and scratching. Edel herself has been bitten and scratched on a regular basis and Jacob recently tried to strangle his mother.'

Despite all of this, the family has been unable to access respite care for Jacob and Deputy O'Reilly said the case is not an isolated one in North Dublin which has seen falling respite hours available to families who need them.

The Sinn Fein TD explained: 'In the first quarter of last year, 44,141 overnight hours were provided. This year the figure had fallen to 40,597. For example, Dublin North, where Jacob lives, is down 503 hours.'

Deputy O'Reilly added: 'Last week the Dooleys told their story on the Sean O'Rourke show. They are a quiet, private family and it pains them to have to do this. However, it appeared to work because immediately following the programme they received all sorts of calls from interested politicians. Indeed, they have now secured a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, a mere seven months after asking for it.'

Deputy Bruton expressed his 'full sympathy' with the family and said he had dealt with similar stories. He said: 'The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, has been working hard to try to improve the access to both information and service and he has applied additional funds to these purposes.'

But added: 'Clearly, this is an area of respite which, from my own experience, is a particularly acute pressure point in that provisions have been made in good faith for respite provision but because of a particular individual who has very challenging behaviour, sometimes it is not possible to continue to provide the planned respite because all attention has to be devoted to one very complex case.

'We need to have a better planning framework for this.'
The credit for honouring Terry McMahon in a ceremony this Saturday goes to Balbriggan and District Historical Society who decided the town should pay homage to this local hero and put right a 50-year-old wrong that had been done to him and his colleagues when the powers that be in Ireland decided to sweep the Siege of Jadotville under the national carpet.

The idea to unveil a plaque in the centre of town for Terry, started with a conversation between Terry's brother, Anthony and historical society member and former local councillor, May McKeon.

Anthony explained: 'I had been talking to May the previous summer about Terry and what had happened and after that she saw the film and really got interested in the story.

'So she wrote me this lovely letter and asked me if it would be ok if the town did something for Terry. I said the family would be very, very pleased with anything that could be done to honour Terry.'

The McMahon family are spread across foreign shores but never lost their connection with Balbriggan. Anthony loves the town and returns to Balbriggan every summer and even bought a house on Church Street 20 years ago that he hopes will stay in the family for generations to come.

Terry felt the same way about the place and even had the nickname of 'Balbriggan' in the army so it's particularly fitting that his name will now adorn George's Square, a stone's throw from where the family was formed.

Anthony said: 'I've been gone to America for 49 years and I have been back every single year to Balbriggan. The town means everything to me. I was born a block from where we are sitting. I love the town.'

The five McMahon siblings were only all together a handful of times after their mother died and although two have passed on, the remaining three siblings are delighted, honoured and moved to be reunited for this very special occasion.

A celebration of the life of Pte. Terence Joseph McMahon will take place in Balbriggan on Saturday, July 15, hosted by the local historical society and all are welcome.

It begins with a mass at 11.30 at St Peter and Paul's Church and moves on to a parade to George's Sqaure from the church at 12.15pm which will feature the St Patrick's Brass and Reed Band and several Jadotville Veterans.

The unveiling of a plaque to Terry by Mayor of Fingal, Mary McCamley will take place at George's Square at 12.30pm and at 1.30pm The Bracken Court Hotel will host a talk about the Siege of Jadotville by Commandant Leo Quinlan, the son of the man in charge of the battalion in that fateful week in the Congo, Patrick Quinlan.
A plaque dedicated to Captain Patrick O'Connor was unveiled at Rathmore train station on Monday evening when a large crowd gathered to pay their respects to the fallen 1916 hero. The event was a symbolic one given it was from here that Patrick left 100 years ago to join the Rising leaving behind his native Rathmore for the last time.

Monday's unveiling was a special event on many levels, especially as Patrick's nephew, Dan Joe O'Connor - now 98 years old - and grandniece Ann Moynihan were in attendance.

"We wanted to have this occasion while Dan Joe was still with us. It was a lovely event with a nice family feel to it. This is now the final piece in the jigsaw honouring Patrick's memory," said Anne Moynihan.

Patrick joined the Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Brotherhood on the eve of 1916 when he was eventually killed in Moore Street during the height of the rebellion. The bronze plaque features the O'Connor coat of arms designed by Conor Murphy and kindly commissioned by Iarnrod Eireann.

Anne said her late mother, Kitty, a niece of Patrick's, had a huge interest in his life and always spoke openly of Patrick's sacrifice.

Sadly, Kitty didn't live to see the 1916 centenary commemorations for Patrick, and for this reason Ann felt she had to carry out her mom's wishes.

"Mom always said something should be done at Rathmore rail station given it's where Patrick left for Dublin and I have been working on this for over a year. I would also just like to thank Iarnrod Eireann.

"I think after Monday's event we have now well and truly honoured Patrick in his home town," Anne added.
A Kerry developer is reported to be behind plans to build up to 1,800 new apartments in Dublin.

In a deal which would be the first of its kind in Ireland - and one of the largest since the property crash - developer Pat Crean's Marlet Property Group is expected to offer up to 1,800 apartments to the global investment market.

Mr Crean is well known in Kerry thanks to his involvement with Sherry Fitzgerald Stephenson Crean's auctioneers in Tralee.

The 'forward funding' deal is expected to be worth over 500 million and involves plans for extensive apartment developments on six prime sites in Dublin.

Forward funding is essentially an agreement whereby an institutional investor agrees to buy a completed development before or during the construction phase.

While forward funding of commercial schemes is long established practice, this will be the first time that large residential developments have been offered in this manner.

The sites involved in the plan are understood to form part of an extensive portfolio of sites that were assembled by Mr Crean and his former business partner Greg Kavanagh during their time together at the helm of New Generation Homes.

Mr Crean and Mr Kavanagh's partnership came to an end in October 2016 and the majority of the property assets owned by New Generation transferred to Marlet Property Group which is headed by Mr Crean.

Marlet also retained the backing of New Generation's funders the international asset management firm M&G Investments.

In recent years M&G - which is a subsidiary of US insurance giant Prudential - had been New Generation's sole backer providing finance for its building and acquisitions.

Pat Crean worked with Greg Kavanagh since 2011 when New Generation Homes began speculatively acquiring sites around the capital at prices far below their boom-era peak values.

Media coverage of New Generation Homes indicates that the company has spent up to 300 million buying up development lands since 2011.

The six sites reportedly included in Marlet's 'forward funding' plan would offer between 1,200 and 1,800 apartments which would be built between 2018 and 2020 for eventual offering on the long term rental market.

Following the end his partnership with Mr Kavanagh - which was on good terms - Mr Crean wished his colleague well in his future endeavours and outlined his own plans.

"I am looking forward to developing this high quality portfolio of property investment though the new company (Marlet), and in the process helping alleviate the shortage of both quality housing and commercial property," Mr Crean said at the time.
Bank of Ireland has been accused of ignoring customers' needs after it announced plans to axe counter services in many of its branches.

Bank of Ireland is planning to stop staff handling cash at counters at more than 100 branches, including seven in Kerry and west Limerick.

The plan means that by the end of the year a third of its branches will no longer accept cash or coins at the counter and customers will have to rely on self service machines to lodge or withdraw cash.

They won't have counters open, and foreign currency exchange and coin transaction services won't be available.

Other branches will have morning-only counter services.

BOI branches in Castleisland, Killorglin and Abbeyfeale will provide no counter services. Branches in Listowel, Dingle, Cahersiveen, Kenmare and Newcastlewest will offer morning-only counter services.

The Tralee and Killarney BOI branches will continue to offer counter services all day.

Reacting to the news that Dingle's branch will offer only morning counter services, Dingle Business Chamber Chair Gary Curran said he's worried about the effect the changes will have on local business.

"Businesses here deal with a lot of cash transactions, and from the point of view of making cash lodgements, there's already trouble making time from your work to rush down before close at 4pm," he said.

"They only open at 10am as it is, so it's not like you can head down early either. This certainly wouldn't be business-friendly."

The move was also criticised by Age Action Ireland who accused the bank of ignoring the needs of older customers who aren't comfortable with technology.

The Consumers' Association, accused the bank of ignoring its responsibilities to customers.

The consumer lobby group, said online banking was not an option for many people outside major cities as many do not have adequate broadband while others were uncomfortable using electric services in branches, he said.

Bank of Ireland said it already has a number of cash-free branches, and wants to convert more branches to an "advice and self-service" model.

The bank denied the move was merely to cut costs and it claimed just three per cent of transactions in its branches are done at counters. It is also rolling out an eduction programme to assist customers with the transition to self service and online banking.
Two Mile National School hosted a successful enrolment evening this week that gave parents an opportunity to explore all the options available to them and their children ahead of August 30 when the primary reopens its doors for the first-time in over a year to junior infants and sixth class pupils.

The evening was organised by the Kerry Education and Training Board (KETB) who will oversee the running of what is Kerry's first 'Community National School' under the government's schools' reconfiguration programme announced in June.

Thursday's event gave parents the space to chat with management, peruse samples of the new school uniform and tour the facilities.

The new trustees said the mood was one of positivity at a school that can accommodate upwards of 80 pupils and ahead of the appointment of a new principal that's expected to be announced at the end of July.

Two Mile Community Group member, Sheila O'Donoghue, is one of four members who worked to see the school reopen again and they are extremely delighted with the rate of progress the school is making.

"We had a great turnout on the night and great interest was expressed by parents. I'm not sure of how many actually enrolled on the night, but there was great interest shown," Sheila said.

"Everyone is delighted with the response the school is getting and KETB outlined its teaching concept on the night, which will be largely computer and 'whiteboard' based; a method which will also help keep costs down for parents," she added.

Ann O'Dwyer is the Director of Schools with Kerry ETB and she outlined the multidenominational ethos of the new school which will cater for children of all faiths and beliefs.

Ms O'Dwyer added that the 'Community National School' model makes space for the spiritual journey of a child's identity and is one that celebrates diversity in a meaningful way, in the first major break with the traditional model of Church-operated schools the county has seen.
Two West Kerry fishermen have been hailed as heroes after a man they rescued from the water in Smerwick Harbour last week was discharged from hospital yesterday evening having been on life support just days previously..

The fishermen, Eddie Moore and his 19-year-old son Cathal, were returning from their day's fishing on Tuesday evening of last week when Cathal noticed a kayak with nobody on board and they went to investigate. At the scene they found a man floating unconscious in the water beside the kayak.

They hauled him on board and immediately began to perform emergency CPR.

As they headed for the pier at Baile na nGall (Ballydavid), they called emergency services and continued to perform CPR. An ambulance was waiting at the pier by the time the boat made it to land.

The ambulance crew continued resuscitation on the man and he was transferred to Gallarus GAA field two kilometres away, where a Coast Guard helicopter was waiting on site to airlift him to University Hospital Kerry (UHK).

After being brought to UHK, the man was on life-support for some 36 hours before he began to show signs of recovery.

He continued to make steady progress over the following days, and he was discharged from hospital on this Tuesday (July 11).

News of the accident spread rapidly throughout West Kerry, where there was huge concern for the man's welfare, and equally huge relief as news of his recovery subsequently emerged.
Vandals smashed a special needs boy's brand new bicycle during a family holiday he was on in Killarney last week in an appalling act that was widely condemned in Ireland's premier family destination.

Sharon Myers, mother of wheelchair-bound Noah (6) said the family was left in utter disbelief by the shocking act of mindless vandalism that occurred at the Hahah in the very centre of the town sometime between 8pm and 11.15pm on Friday.

Noah's paternal grandparents, who were holidaying with the young family, had taken the bikes into the town centre. The bikes were bought just last month and one was used to carry Noah around using an attachable seat.

Noah's grandparents couldn't believe the mindlessness that greeted them when they returned to the Hahah. "To wreck the wheels for no reason is just ridiculous," Sharon said. "We used to attach a special seat to carry Noah with us; he has a rare genetic condition and he will need to use a wheelchair for life.

"I'm gutted for my in-laws, for us, and for Noah because of the fact that he will be the major one impacted by this if we can't repair the bike properly."
Catherine Power, sister of the late Thomas Power, at a protest at Leinster House last week

Wexford and the entire South East region isn't getting the same level of cardiac care as the rest of the county.

Last Tuesday hundreds of protesters marched on the Dail demanding 24 hour cardiac care for the South East. The march came following the death of Tom Power, who died while being taken to a Cork hospital last month because his local heart unit in Waterford closes at weekends.

Tom's wife Bernadette, who is a native of Murrintown, is expecting the couple's first child.

His death has intensified the campaign for round the clock cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford to serve the south east region.

In May, a month before Tom's death Deputy Brendan Howlin called on the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to ensure a mobile cath lab, which has previously been promised, is in place at the hospital.

However the Taoiseach was unable to give Deputy Howlin a date as to when the mobile cath lab will be put in place in Waterford.

At the time Deputy Howlin said: 'There is enormous concern in the South East about the issue of cardiac care in University Hospital Waterford. An interim solution was announced by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health in January, namely that a second mobile catheterisation laboratory would be provided. That was a solemn commitment made to the people of the south east but to date it has not happened.

'The South East is the only region in the country that does not have 24 hour cardiac catheterisation laboratory facilities.'

Speaking following the protest march last Tuesday when Tom's sister, Catherine Power, addressed a number of politicians Deputy Howlin said 'there is no doubt that the South East region is entitled to the same level of cardiac care as the rest of the country.

'It demonstrably doesn't have that at the moment. A 24-7 cardiac unit is needed at University Hospital Waterford. I understood from previous government commitments that at the very least the hours at the current cath lab would be substantially increased and a mobile cath lab be provided on a temporary basis. To date that hasn't happened.

'The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said that the mobile cath lab has been tendered for now and when that's done the mobile service will be provided and then the situation will be reviewed to determine the need for a second permanent cath lab.

'Everything is being long fingered and reviewed over and over again.

'My clear view which is also the view of cardiac physicians across the South East including those in Wexford is that the need for the service in the South East is unanswerable.'

Deputy Howlin said that he had met people from across all five counties of the South East at the march last Tuesday.

'People were very committed to the need for the service at University Hospital Waterford. It's a big issue for people and it's an important issue that needs to be resolved.

'It's surely not a matter of money because the money involved isn't very large.

'As it is a new mortuary costing 4million is being built at Waterford Hospital. Anyone in their normal mine would believe that prioritising the living over the dead should be the top priority.'

Last Tuesday Tom's sister Catherine met a number of politicians at Leinster House although the Taoiseach and Minister for Health Simon Harris weren't present.

Catherine Power said her brother was in a' cold grave' because 'the doors were locked' on the catheterisation lab at Waterford Hospital when he needed help.

Last year, a Government-commissioned report by Belfast-based cardiologist Niall Herity recommended against expanding the service, and said emergency cardiac patients should be treated in Dublin or Cork.

Waterford Institute of Technology lecturer Ray Griffin told the politicians present that an average of 6.3 people a year will die in the southeast because of the lack of a 24/7 cardiac service in the region.

Mr Griffin said the anger in the South East about the Herity report was well-founded. He questioned whether the report should have been written by 'a UCD graduate working one hour from Dublin' whose employer had service ties with the HSE.

He said important stakeholders had not been consulted and the report had relied on British data that was applicable only in the UK.

Deputy Howlin said Tom's death had given fresh impetus to the long running campaign for the provision of 24 hour cardiac care in the South East.

'I met with Catherine Power, Tom Power's sister. She was very emotional and very distressed as you can expect and her pain was very real. The thought that he (Tom) could be alive today if the facilities were there is heartbreaking.

'Nobody can say definitively that he would have survived but there is a very real belief that he would have. The devastation that the Power family must be experiencing doesn't bare thinking about and fact that he left behind a pregnant wife is heartbreaking.

'There is no doubt that Tom's tragic death has pushed the need for a 24 hour cardiac unit at Waterford back up the agenda and today (Tuesday) all the TD's of the South East from across all the parties will table a motion calling for this.'
Respiratory distress can be an emergency. If any animal suddenly develops difficulty breathing, it can be life threatening, and the immediate help of a vet is needed. There are many possible causes, from allergic reactions to heart failure to inhalation of an object of some kind.

But what if a dog suffers from temporary respiratory distress, so that one moment they seem to be choking, then half a minute later they have returned completely to normal. Should an owner worry when this happens?

Somebody recently described a typical case to me. Their middle aged German Shepherd was sleeping peacefully, then suddenly woke up, in distress. The dog could scarcely breathe, and was making loud noises as she gasped and spluttered. Their owner rushed over to the dog, reassuring the animal and trying to keep them calm. Then a few moments later, the breathing settled down, and the dog relaxed, going back to sleep.

This sequence of events happened several times over a few weeks. What could be going on?

As a vet listening to this type of story, it is really difficult to properly understand what's happening. There's a long list of possible causes, and although, in general, if the animal returns rapidly to normal, there's probably not too much to worry about, you can't be sure.

I explained to the worried owner that it's safest to do two things.

First, have the animal examined by the vet. By listening to the chest with a stethoscope, it's possible to rule out many serious diseases, including heart problems and many lung diseases. But with many intermittent problems, it's impossible for the vet to make a diagnosis by examining the animal when it's not having a bout of distress. Everything is often working perfectly normally: it's only during the abnormal episode that things go temporarily wrong.

So I examined the German Shepherd, who was a lovely gentle giant of an animal. He was completely normal in every way, with nothing amiss with his heart, lungs or chest.

Which takes us to the second action that owners should do: take a video of their pet if they have any further odd episodes of breathing. Most people now have mobile phones that can record videos, and it's easy to do. The most difficult thing is remembering to do it when you are worried about your pet being in distress. But the information that can be gathered by a vet from watching a short video is very helpful.

I explained this to the German Shepherd owner, and a few weeks passed before they were back in touch. Then an email arrived from them: it was a link to a short video of their dog having an episode. I could now see for myself what was happening.

The dog woke up from sleeping deeply, and started to splutter. When I watched closely, the abnormal breathing could be broken down into different components. The dog was breathing out deeply through the nose, then inhaling sharply through the nose, and this was happening repeatedly, with the dog making loud snorting sounds. After this had gone on for about two minutes, the dog shook his head, then settled down and went back to sleep.

After watching the video, I knew exactly what this was: a phenomenon known as "reverse sneezing". This is just what it sounds like: the opposite of normal sneezing.

Normal sneezing involves slowly breathing in through the nose, then explosively breathing out (through the nose and sometimes the mouth). Reverse sneezing (which humans never do) means breathing slowly out through the nose, then explosively breathing in.

Normal sneezing is caused by minor irritation to the front half of the nasal cavity: it's the body's reflex effort to get rid of irritants and foreign objects from this part of the body.

Reverse sneezing is caused by irritation of the back half of the nasal cavity, including the nasopharynx, which is the area where the back of the nasal cavity merges with the throat. It's a reflex action to remove irritants or foreign objects from this area, to keep the airways clear.

Any nasal, pharyngeal, or sinus irritation can result in a reverse sneeze. Common causes include foreign bodies (e.g. an inhaled blade of grass), drainage of secretions from infections, allergies, parasites and anatomical oddities such as an elongated soft palate. It can also be caused by specific diseases such as nasal mites (tiny creepy crawlies) or even tumours. Most of these causes will result in sudden onset reverse sneezing that happens in a repeated, continuous manner. Many of these diagnoses can only be made by doing further investigations such as x-rays and endoscope inspections under anaesthesia.

When a dog (like the German Shepherd) just has an occasional reverse sneeze, a mild allergy is most likely, and a complex work up is hard to justify. No treatment is usually needed. An owner just needs to learn to sit with their pet, keeping them calm until the episode passes. Sometimes it can help to gently pinch the animal's nostrils closed, so that they have to breathe through their mouths, and to stroke their throat.

Does your dog ever reverse sneeze? It's more common than most people realise, and once you know what it is, it's usually nothing to worry about.
Sligo mum Terri Golden has scooped the title of Connaught Mum of the Year 2017.

Last week we reported that Cystic Fibrosis Campaigner Terri was short listed in the Woman's Way competition. A delighted Terri has since won her category and was crowned the best in the west at a special ceremony in Dublin attended by her daughter Aisling.

Readers of The Sligo Champion will know that it's been a difficult year for Terri as she lost her youngest daughter Grainne to Cystic Fibrosis.

Grainne's wish was for her mum and sister, Aisling, to continue campaigning for access for lifesaving drug Orkambi for CF patients and to have an opt-out system for organ donation.

Mum of two Terri has subsequently appeared on television shows to raise awareness and in April this year, Simon Harris committed to funding for Orkambi.

"That will be Grainne's legacy, not just Grainne, other CF campaigners. Loads of other people that have died campaigning," Terri said.

"It's not just about our family, it is about Grainne's legacy but it is about what she wanted for her own CF friends. That they would have a chance in life."

Terri from Cartron won a luxury goody bag worth at least 500 and a Beko voucher worth 250.

Hundreds of nominations were submitted by spouses, children, siblings and relatives from all over Ireland. The judging panel of well-known Irish personalities had the daunting task of sifting through all the entries to whittle them down to just one mum to be crowned Ireland's overall no.1 mum. Esther Kelly-Keating was crowned Woman's Way Mum of the Year.

One regional winner was also chosen from each province. The judges taking on this difficult task included Norah Casey, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh, Alison Canavan, Mary Byrne and Pamela Flood. The 15 finalists and Celebrity Mum of the Year Lucy Kennedy attended the finals.
The Cairde Arts Festival got off to a gleeful start on Sunday with local families determined to enjoy themselves despite the inclement weather.

"I'm really pleased - we had a big crowd between 1-3pm," Festival Director Tara McGowan told The Sligo Champion at 'Park Fest' in the Peace Park, beside the Cathedral.

"Lots of families came early. It was a good turnout considering the rain but that's the way it goes with outdoor summer festivals in Ireland," she said.

The Peace Park proved to be an ideal venue and was decorated in a colourful carnival-esque style with bunting, balloons and circus-style signs over each attraction. 'Park Fest' included aerial acrobatic performances by The Barren Carousel and Acro Aer Sligo; music by Tenekee Station, Amy O'Hara, Emmzi & Lonj-E, Mirenda Rosenberg, Tiernan Courell & friends.

A range of workshops for children were on offer including graffiti, aerial skills and kite making.

There was a chilled out atmosphere despite the pouring rain, with kiddies happy to dance and splash in 'muddy puddles' (as Peppa Pig fans will appreciate) in front of the band stand while parents nursed babies and hot chocolates under colourful canopies.

The festival runs the entire week with a firm focus on the family and inclusion of everyone from high-brow culture vultures to casual passersby. www.cairdefestival.com
Forty years ago this week, Maria Moylett had a baby boy who was taken away from her at birth.

Maria, who attends Danu - the Sligo-based birth parents' support group, says she had to fight to get to hold him for just one minute.

"Back in 1977 I gave birth to my first born. In the next breath he was taken away. I was simply told it was a boy. I used to walk down to the nursery and look in at the cots trying to find him. I was not allowed go in," she says.

Maria was eventually able to hold him for 'one minute' the day before she left the hospital.

"I remember his tiny beautiful face and whispering in his ear that I would come and find him one day," she recalls.

Maria fell pregnant aged just 17. The eldest of seven siblings, the teenager who was living near Castlebar was sent away to Galway to stay with a family where she 'continued her pregnancy.'

None of this was her decision as she explains: "It was decided for me. There was no questions asked. My pregnancy was to be brushed under the carpet and never spoken of again. My own brothers and sisters never knew my secret until I told them 20 years later."

Maria assumed her baby was adopted out immediately but she has since discovered that he was in fact kept in a children's home for six months.

"He was in there on his own and I was only 20 minutes away living in Galway. It breaks my heart that I never knew. I was told nothing," she says.

Afterwards Maria found a job in Galway choosing to settle there. She married four years later and had four more children. Every year the 13th of July came and went and only Maria knew the significance of that date.

Maria says: "I always remember that first birthday and thinking he would have been a year old. But I had to protect myself as best I could. I had suffered a trauma. I had to try to move forward. Who could I tell back then? My parents never spoke about it again. His father was never in the picture. There was a big stigma. To this day, birth mothers are afraid of this stigma and some are still harbouring this secret. Lies become our new language, pain becomes our new feelings."

Danu was established to support women like Maria. She joined the group that is facilitated by the Sligo Family Resource Centre on the Mall seven years ago and has never looked back.

"We meet five times a year, we tell our horrific and sad stories when we feel safe. We cry, we laugh, we feel each others pain and we support each other. Groups like Danu need to happen all over the country," says Maria.

"It has given me the freedom to unlock the shackles holding me back and step out of the stigma around the shame instilled in me by becoming a birth mother. I can now reach out to others living with their own secret and help them. We don't wear a label to identify ourselves but we were labelled by others," she adds.

Maria, who is now divorced, says that she was having problems in her marriage and sought counselling. There, she discovered she was grieving the loss of her first born.

"The counsellor asked me did I want help to look for my son. They were the magic words I needed to hear for years," she says.

When her son was just 13, Maria made initial contact but then decided to wait until he was older. "We met when he was 19. It was like a bolt of lightening. My whole body went into shock. My legs were shaking. He was so like my brothers and my side of the family."

Maria now enjoys a good relationship with her son, his wife and two children but the journey was far from easy:

"You have to go back to the baby and work your way up to get to know your own son. I was very lucky. His parents shared so much with me.

"At his wedding there was a collage of pictures from his childhood. My own family then saw first hand what I had missed all those years. Someone else had all that joy."

Maria concludes: "I never gave up on finding him. He is my flesh and blood. I gave birth to him. I had to go through a lot of pain to bring such joy into someone else's world. They gave him a good life but I gave them a gift. They got great treasures from that gift. All I had was pain."

This week Maria will host a special dinner for her first born son and her family to mark his 40th birthday celebration.

Contact Danu on 071-9146315.
The now vacant former Government building in Tubbercurry

The Council has agreed to write to the new Minister for Community and Rural Affairs, Michael Ring, to set up his Department of Rural Affairs in Tubbercurry.

Councillor Jerry Lundy tabled the motion.

"I'd like to congratulate Michael Ring. Eamon O'Cuiv brought 100 jobs to Tubbercurry, the benefit was enormous," said Cllr Lundy.

"People were shopping local, going to school, playing with clubs, it was a great boost to the local economy," he said.

"But they moved them back to Dublin. The Department of Rural Affairs should be in rural Ireland. I know there are people in Dublin who can't afford to by a house and spending hours commuting - it's not sustainable," he said.

He was supported by Cllr Michael Clarke and Margaret Gormley but Cllr Hubert Keaney said those jobs went back to Ballina.
Terry Willers who was Grand Marshall of the 2007 Rathdrum, St Patrick's day parade. Picture: Garry O'Neill

The Famous International Cartoon Festival returns to Rathdrum at the end of the month 25 years and one month after it was first staged.

Renowned cartoonists, the late Terry Willers along with fellow cartoonist Martyn Turner and a group of local volunteers started the first International Cartoon Festival in Rathdrum.

The festival ran for six years, starting in 1992 and growing in popularity year on year, and was considered the best Cartoon Festival in Europe by many of the cartoonists attending it from all the corners of the world.

The festival will get a new lease of life as it runs once again on July 29 and July 30.

A lot of the old faces like Tom Halliday, Tim Leatherbarrow, Guy Carter, Greame Keyes will be in attendance plus many more. For all you 2000AD fans, Michael Carroll will be holding a number of workshops on script writing. The exhibition of their work will be open all weekend.

A definite must-see will the 'Remembering Terry Willers' exhibition which will run throughout the weekend situated above Centra on the Main Street. It promises to be very entertaining and might even rekindle old memories of political dramas and cultural events covered by Terry in his unique way over his 60 year plus career.

There will be numerous workshops including a phone-documentary workshop with Eleanor Manion of RTE running over two days.

Brown Bag films will be holding a number of animation workshops.

A gala concert will take place in St. Saviours church on Thursday, July 27, at 7.30 p.m. with music from Liam and James Kinsella plus guests.

Those seeking more music should head to the square where acts such as Big Digger, Paddy Byrne, Ricky Young and many more will perform for the duration of the weekend.

There will be a busking competition on Sunday for all you aspiring musicians so dust of those musical instruments start practising those vocal exercises.

The official opening takes place at noon on Saturday, July 29, followed by a cooking demonstration by TV3's Burlesque Baker in the square.

Sunday, July 30, will also be jam-packed with activities the highlights include the Caricature face off in the square.

There will also be the very first Tri-Rath-lon which will challenge the competitors both mentally and physically.

The finale of the festival will be the fireworks display kindly moved forward from its normal date by the RDA with music by The Bandits.

Guests should keep a lookout for the limited edition 25th anniversary T-shirts which will be available to buy prior to the festival from the Wise Owl and Centra on the Main Street.
After two days in Greystones, Fossett's Circus, the oldest continuously touring circus in the world, is coming to Wicklow town and and Tinahely this week.

The new show features international circus performers along with the incredible skills and daring of the Fossett family members all in their unique style of circus show.

Fossetts are thrilled to include exciting, new circus presentations never before seen in this country, including the amazing Wang Dang from China on the aerial straps, award-winning Duo Vinkali from France with a skilful knife throwing act, 'Pat & Pip's Hot Dogs' and the death-defying 'Motorcycle on the Highwire'.

The show will also feature illusion, juggling, aerial skills, acrobatics, diabolo, wild west presentation, horses and lots more.

Throughout the two-hour performance firm favourite Clown Otto will bring his special brand of magic and mayhem to the show and has promised that he has a few new tricks up his sleeve.

Ringmaster, Marion Fossett, will keep the whole show flowing as usual.

Fossetts will appear in Ballinglen, Tinahely, on Saturday and Sunday, July 15 to 16, before moving on to Gorey for another three performances.
This year's Macra na Feirme photo competition is over half way through and entrants have another five monthly opportunities to win the 1,000 top prize.

Each of 12 monthly winners receives a 200 gift voucher and will see their monthly winning shot included in the 2018 Macra calendar.

The Origin Green/It Starts Here sustainable Irish farming photo competition is supported by An Bord Bia and so far we have received some truly breathtaking shots, from lambing season snaps to silage cutting. The aim of this competition is to raise awareness about the achievements and beauty of sustainable practices on Irish farms. Get snapping for the summer

Macra na Feirme National President James Healy is encouraging everyone to get snapping over the summer.

He said: 'Whether it's a mobile phone or a camera, everyone has the ability to take a good quality photo and we have had many beautiful photographs in our Bord Bia competition so far, that showcase the very best in sustainable Irish farming practices.

'Sustainable farming and efficient farming go hand in hand and can help to preserve your farm and land for future generations. Today with social media, most people are budding photographers and by sending in your photos of the Irish countryside, you give yourself a good opportunity to win some great prizes as well as publicity for your photography skills.'

You can enter instantly on Twitter with tag and hashtags: @MacraNaFeirme #OriginGreen #ItStartsHere Photographs can also be emailed to jcoffey@macra.ie, with subject line 'Photo competition, Origin Green It Starts Here'.
The 2017 Wicklow Bay Sea Angling Club's Open Boat Competition once again proved that the waters around Wicklow hold some of the best sea fishing action in Ireland.

Fifteen anglers from Wicklow, Bray, Arklow, and Munster fished the six-hour competition and hauled in over 1,000 fish, all of which were safely returned to the sea.

Although the sea conditions were fair to moderate, high tides meant the flow of water up the Irish Sea required weights of up 2lb just to hold on to bottom where the fish feed.

The aim of the competition is to collect as many 'fish points' as possible, with different species of fish carrying different points according to the rules laid down by the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers.

A common species like Dogfish carries two points, whereas a Ray will earn the angler 12 points. Trying to detect fish bites in between the rocking of a small boat in swelled tide takes skill and concentration. Bait quality is also paramount, most of the anglers selecting strips of mackerel, squid, and crab to catch as many fish as possible.

Many anglers aim for the Tope (which earns 25 points), a member of the shark family that can grow up to 70 Lb's in Irish waters. In all, this years WBSAC Open Boat competition saw 819 Dogfish being recorded.

There was also a huge haul of 84 Smooth Hounds including several specimen size fish from this member of the shark family.

Another specimen of the day was a Tub Gurnard of 45cm landed by Gary Creighan from Arklow. In total, 17 Tope were also caught and released, as well as 16 Bull Huss, and 6 Thornback Rays.

Anglers with tired, aching limbs, and the odd patch sun burn assembled in Whistler's Bar, Wicklow town to hear the news as the results were calculated.

This years winner of the Whistler's Cup was presented by Wicklow Bay Sea Angling Club executives, Paddy Swan and Jerry Dixon to Liam O'Callaghan of the Bray Sea Anglers with 381 points. Second place was awarded to Wicklow Bay's Paddy Swan.

Third place went to Mark Shortt of Bray Sea Anglers, forth to Ciaran Kenny of Wicklow Bay, and fifth place to special guest, John Dennehy of the Carrigaline Sea Angling Club in Cork.
Darren Kavanagh (fifth from left) with some local customers and visitors from the US. Photo by Joe Byrne

The quiet South Wicklow village of Tinahely was transformed into a Hollywood set this week as a US television crew filmed scenes from a hit American sitcom.

The crew were filming the series four finale of Younger - a comedy starring well known US actor and former Disney star Hilary Duff.

Created by Darren Star, the show tells the story of a forty-something divorcee who pretends to be in her twenties in order to secure her dream job.

Tony Award winner Sutton Foster plays the lead role and the cast also features Debi Mazer and Molly Bernard.

While most details about the project were being kept under wraps, it has been confirmed that a pub scene was to be filmed in O'Connors bar in Tinahely.

The pub is run by Orla and Darren Kavanagh and the couple are delighted that the O'Connor's name will be used in filming.

'We don't know what exact plans they have for the premises but we do know that they will be keeping O'Connor's which are delighted about. We just know that in the programme some of the characters are at an Irish wedding. Some of the scenes will be filmed in Dublin and then the rural ones will be done down here in Tinahely,' said Orla.

'It was Tinahely as a village that attracted the film crew to start with. They will be using some other premises and have already put up a few different signs,' she added.

It is understood that the producers were keen to change the name from Tinahely to something more typically Irish, to appeal to the American audience but it was eventually agreed that the village will retain its name for the programme.

'It will be called Tinahely in the show which is brilliant so when it is on TV people will recognise the name and it might even attract visitors in the future,' Orla said.

The original filming date was pencilled in for yesterday, Tuesday, but a late change to the schedule saw the Tinahely shoot pushed back a day.

'It's no trouble for us. We will now just be closed on Wednesday instead of Tuesday and when we reopen we will be selling drinks for 3.50 as a thank you to all our locals for their understanding while we were closed.'
Cooney Architects are working on preparing a master plan to redevelop Avondale House and Forest Park.

The 500-acre amenity is owned by Coillte, while Failte Ireland have big plans to make Avondale House and Forest Park a key feature of the Ireland's Ancient East marketing initiative.

Speaking at last week's meeting of Wicklow County Council, Patrick Murphy of Cooney Architects, said the process was still at its early stages having only started in June, but it is hoped to have a planning application forwarded toward the end of the year.

Historians will also be involved in drawing up the master plan to ensure everything is historically accurate.

Avondale House is the birthplace of Charles Stewart Parnell. The estate was sold to the Government in 1904 and was used as a forestry school.

Cllr Pat Kennedy, who lives nearby to Avondale in Rathdrum, said the whole development had generated a lot of interest.

'This won't just put Avondale on the map, it will put the whole east coast on the map. We recently constructed a 1.5 km path from the town to Avondale, which should help to enhance the experience,' said Cllr Kennedy.

Cllr Miriam Murphy felt it was great to see such a development taking place in Co Wicklow, while also proposing that people with disabilities are also consulted about any future plans.

Cllr John Ryan recalled meeting the CEO of Coillte in 2014 to discuss plans for the project.

'You have nearly every tree species in the world planted down there. You could create something very special.

'I know at one stage there was talk of tree top walkways and actually being able to sleep in the tree tops.'

While Cllr Mary Kavanagh described herself as a regular visitor to the forest park, she had reservations about a planned interpretative centre.

'I think Avondale is a little jewel or a little oasis. I am delighted it is going to be developed. It's great not only for Rathdrum, but also for Wicklow in general.

'However, sometimes interpretative centres can be overdone to such an extent they actually lose their charm. I see that with the Cliffs of Moher, which used to be a great experience but now it is a bit clinical and has lost much of its charm.'
Over a seven day period four vehicles belonging to tourists visiting County Wicklow were damaged while parked in scenic locations.

Three vehicles parked in Brittas Bay had windows smashed by thieves hoping to gain access to any contents inside the vehicles. Two of the cars belonged to separate groups of German tourists.

A vehicle belonging to a Waterford family was targeted while parked in the Shay Elliott car park and a handbag was stolen.

On Sunday, visitors from Northern Ireland returned to their car parked at St Kevin's Church, Laragh, having attending mass to find the back window smashed. Cash, a mobile phone, passport and other important documents were all missing.
Barry Keoghan (right) attending the Dunkirk world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square, London

Barry Keoghan attends the Dior Homme Menswear Spring/Summer 2018 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 24, 2017 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Actor Barry Keoghan will make a triumphant return to his home city tomorrow, when he attends the red-carpet premiere of his new movie, Dunkirk.

But the Dublin-born star (24) won't be attending the glitzy event at Smithfield's Lighthouse cinema alone - he is expected to be accompanied by his stunning new leading lady, Shona Guerin.

The pair have been dating for the past few months and she has been accompanying the former Love/Hate star on Dunkirk's international promotional tour.

The make-up artist, from Killarney, Co Kerry, turned heads in a gorgeous red gown - from Malahide store Cari's Closet - at the premiere in London's Leicester Square on Thursday.

Expand Close Barry Keoghan (right) attending the Dunkirk world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square, London / Facebook

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Prince Harry was the guest of honour on a star-studded night, and the royal met with members of the cast.

Shona wrote on Instagram after the celebrity-filled event how she was "one proud little lady" when it came to her other half, who she also accompanied to Paris last month, where he was named as one of Dior's new ambassadors.

She is clearly smitten with the talented actor, writing a gushing post to him.

"Thank you for being a little pup and making me laugh constantly. You deserve the world," it said.

Tipped as a major star in the making, Keoghan has been receiving rave reviews for his role in Dunkirk, which tells the story of the evacuation of Allied forces from the beaches of France in 1940.

The film, directed by Christopher Nolan, co-stars Cillian Murphy, One Direction star Harry Styles, Tom Hardy and Kenneth Branagh.

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Keoghan plays the part of a young boy who helps ferry injured soldiers on his boat.

It comes shortly after the release of The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, another critically-acclaimed movie that saw Barry co-starring with Hollywood heavyweight Nicole Kidman.

Originally from Dublin's north inner city, Keoghan has spoken previously about his tough upbringing and how it made him stronger.

He was raised by his grandmother after his mum passed away in tragic circumstances.

After getting his big break as the "cat killer" in Love/Hate, he went on to work on a string of well-received movies including The Lobster and Mammal, before landing the part on Dunkirk.
Reebok has stepped in to help Donald Trump out.

The sportswear company Twitter-trolled the US president with a guide to help him discern the appropriate time to tell a woman: Youre in such good shape beautiful.

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The answer was at no time, except if you have just found a forgotten action figure from your youth, unscathed after decades, in your parents basement.

The post was widely praised.

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This comes as the US presidents first state visit to France saw him greet the first lady, Brigitte Macron, with those very words.

As he went to shake her hand after a dinner on Thursday, ahead of the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, he condescendingly said: You know, youre in such good shape, before he turned to the French president and said beautiful.

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An autistic teenager has died after carers left him in a minibus outside a disability centre in Japan for six hours as temperatures soared above 33C.

The 19-year-old was found slumped in his seat by carers at Cosmos Earth, a centre for disabled children and young people in the city of Ageo.

It is thought he had been forgotten by staff at the facility, who only noticed he was missing hours later.

The teen, who is believed to have died of heatstroke, was rushed to hospital but later died.

Staff noticed he was missing shortly before the centre closed for the day and found him unconscious.

His body temperature was 41.4C by the time he was found, paramedics told Kyodo, a Japanese news agency.

Police have launched an investigation into his death and it is thought they could file criminal negligence charges against Cosmos Earth.

Kenji Otsuka, the manager of the centre, said: I apologise to him and to his family from the bottom of my heart.

The teenagers death came in the week it emerged a New Zealand man died at a Japanese hospital after psychiatric ward staff allegedly strapped his legs and waist to a bed for 10 days.

Kelly Savage, 27, suffered a heart attack on 10 May, two weeks after he was admitted over a manic episode. The English teacher, who had been living in Japan for two years, died on 17 May.

His family believe the heart attack was caused by deep vein thrombosis, which developed as he was forcibly restrained.

Japans mental health services have previously been criticised for institutionalising too many patients and breaching their human rights.

A 2013 study found Japanese people with mental health conditions faced greater stigmatisation than in many other areas of the world.

The majority of the public keep a greater social distance from people with mental illness, it said, while two-thirds of people with mental health disorders never seek treatment because of the stigma.
A Chinese legal activist who founded a loose network of socially-conscious citizens has been released from prison at the end of a four-year sentence.

Xu Zhiyong helped found the New Citizens Movement, which at the time organised monthly dinners to discuss China's constitution and other legal issues.

Zhang Qingfang, Mr Xu's attorney, said he was freed on Saturday morning from a prison in Beijing.

He said his client was in good health, but had no further details to share.

It is not immediately clear if Mr Xu's movements will continue to be restricted following his release.

Authorities commonly place activists seen as politically sensitive under some form of house arrest to prevent them from speaking publicly.

Mr Xu was convicted in January 2014 of disrupting order in public places, a vaguely defined charge which activists say has been used to muzzle government critics.

His arrest in 2013 and imprisonment was seen as dealing a major blow to the group's efforts to develop a socially conscious public aware of their rights as citizens to call for greater official accountability in anything from corruption to equal rights to education.

Mr Xu and his supporters purposely kept the movement unstructured so as not to challenge the party's zero intolerance on organised movements.

They downplayed any political appeals and championed causes that were in line with the party's own stated goals.

Still, Mr Xu's fledgling campaign became a target after it inspired people across the country to gather for dinner parties to discuss social issues and occasionally to unfurl banners in public places in small rallies.

Several of his supporters had also been sentenced to prison in 2014 in prosecutions that raised concerns among Western governments and human rights groups.

US and European diplomats made unsuccessful attempts to attend the trials.

The sentences, decried by other dissidents as excessively heavy, reflect the increasingly hard line that China's Communist Party has taken against political dissent, no matter how peacefully expressed or loosely organised.

Party leaders have been wary of any independent social force with the potential to threaten the party's rule by mobilising groups of people.

AP
Two British journalist were able to escape the raid

Six Congolese rangers have been found safe in a large forest reserve a day after a security station was attacked by militia, but an American journalist and at least three other security guards remain missing, a local official said.

Mambasa territory administrator Alfred Bongwalanga Efoloko confirmed that the six had been found.

At least 10 people had gone missing after an attack on Friday by the Mai Mai militia outside the town of Mambasa in Congo's Okapi Wildlife Reserve, he said.

No details about the missing journalist were immediately available and authorities had no proof the attack was an abduction, he said.

Army reinforcements have been deployed since Friday night to search for those missing, he said.

"I am optimistic they will all be found," Mr Efoloko said.

"The forest is very big. Maybe they fled in another direction. According to testimony of their colleagues, the attack came as the team wanted to go have a meal and there was a lot of crossfire."

Two British journalists and five other park rangers, part of the same team, escaped after the attack - making their way to another Okapi reserve base, he said.

The park rangers are part of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation.

The Centre for Studies of Peace and Defence of Human Rights said earlier that a journalist had disappeared with 11 park security guards.

It also identified Friday's attackers as the Mai-Mai SIMBA, saying they attacked in Bapela, 25 miles south of Mambasa.

The group's executive director, Omar Kavota, expressed concern for those missing.

A Congolese civilian was also kidnapped on Friday near Mambasa by armed men, he said in a statement.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in eastern Congo.

AP
Emergency response following the acid attack on the junction of Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road, London. Photo: Reuters

Following five acid attacks in London, two teenage boys have been arrested after two male suspects riding a moped targeted victims during a 90-minute spree.

The Metropolitan Police said one victim had been left with "life-changing" injuries after being doused on Thursday night in the east of the capital.

The assaults appeared to be linked and two involved victims having their mopeds stolen, it added.

A 16-year-old youth is being held at an east London police station after being arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. A 15-year-old boy was later arrested at an address in Stoke Newington on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery.

Cressida Dick, head of Scotland Yard, branded such attacks as "completely barbaric", telling LBC: "The acid can cause horrendous injuries; the ones last night involved a series of robberies we believe are linked - I am glad to see we have arrested somebody."

The attacks have sparked calls for tougher and more consistent sentences for those found guilty of acid attacks.

Former UK minister Stephen Timms said carrying acid should be made an offence and suggested licensing the purchase of sulphuric acid as he urged a change in sentencing guidelines.

At the start of the rampage, a 32-year-old moped driver had been approached by the pair as he drove towards the Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road.

The two male suspects had tossed the noxious substance into his face before one of them jumped on to his vehicle and drove away.

One witness saw police dousing the victim with large bottles of water.

Little more than 20 minutes later, at around 10.50pm, another victim had been sprayed with searing liquid by the pair on the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner, Islington.

Then, at around 11.05pm, the fast-moving attackers swooped on a man in Shoreditch High Street, tossing the substance in his face. Within 15 minutes, they appeared to have struck again, launching their corrosive load at a man on Cazenove Road and causing "life-changing" facial injuries.

The final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic on Chatsworth Road. After again spraying the liquid in a victim's face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.
First came dozens of French soldiers in historical uniforms who rode into the Place de la Concorde square on horseback. Then French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Bastille Day parade viewing stage, riding in a military jeep as if it were a chariot.

A military band struck up and vintage tanks and other military equipment began rolling into the square as a video shot in action-movie style explained the technological advances France has made since World War I.

Suddenly, nine fighter jets roared past overhead, leaving a trail of red, white and blue smoke and 200 marchers wearing American World War I uniforms marched along with hundreds of French military personnel.

Watching it all with Mr Macron yesterday was US President Donald Trump, who made a last-minute trip to Paris this week to witness the grand military parade of France's Bastille Day, which this year included a tribute to the centennial anniversary of the United States entering World War I.

Even from a distance, the president could be seen eagerly leaning forward in his seat of honour and gesturing to his wife or Mr Macron as each new spectacle came forth. During short lulls, Mr Trump would pull Mr Macron in for a conversation.

Mr Trump has long been fascinated by the military and had hoped to have a similar parade to celebrate his inauguration in January, but he was prevented from doing so.

Mr Macron has been sharply criticised across the political spectrum in France for honouring Mr Trump with this visit, as the US president is deeply unpopular in France.

Yet the president was largely shielded from any dissent and from a "Don't Let Your Guard Down Against Trump" protest march that started more than a mile away from where he sat.

"Donald Trump? I don't like it. I don't understand why he's here," said one of the spectators to the military march, Riad Jhops (33), an Algerian living in Drancy, a Paris suburb, and who works for an Algerian aluminium company. "He says he has a problem with our climate treaty, and then he comes for the 14th of July."

The parade marked the end of Mr Trump's whirlwind 27-hour visit to the City of Light, which included meeting with US troops based in Europe, a visit to Napoleon's tomb, talks with Mr Macron and his staff, a news conference and dinner at an opulent restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

Mr Trump and Mr Macron are political outsiders in the early months of their presidencies, and their relationship up until now has been defined by public confrontations.

Both leaders said they are committed to finding areas of agreement and developing a productive relationship. Both highlighted the generations-long friendship between the two nations, especially when it comes to national security.

Although Mr Trump repeatedly slammed Paris on the campaign trail - describing it as dangerous and crime-ridden because of an influx of immigrants - he said on Thursday that his view has changed now that Mr Macron is in office and that he looks forward to returning to Paris.

Paris law enforcement officials had planned for heightened security on Bastille Day after a terrorist last year drove a truck through a crowd that had just watched a fireworks display in the southern seaside city of Nice, killing 86 people. ( Washington Post)
A US specialist who has offered to treat Charlie Gard is due to examine the terminally ill baby next week, a judge has heard.

Michio Hirano is scheduled to visit Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on Monday and Tuesday and discuss the case with specialists treating Charlie, Mr Justice Francis was told.

It came after the UK High Court judge lifted an order which barred journalists from revealing the name of the American specialist.

Mr Justice Francis ruled that Dr Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, could be named in media reports.

Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, want the judge to rule that the 11-month-old, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in New York.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being cared for, say the therapy is experimental and will not help.

They say life support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis had made an order barring journalists from naming Dr Hirano or saying where he was based early this year, shortly after litigation began.

Charlie's parents had said they were worried publicity might put pressure on Dr Hirano.

But journalists have argued naming Dr Hirano will be in the public interest - and he has now said he has no objection to being identified as the doctor involved in the case.
Liu Xia, wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, holds a portrait of him during his funeral (Shenyang Municipal Information Office/AP)

An urn containing the ashes of Liu Xiaobo is lowered into the sea off the coast of Dalian. (AP)

Family members of Liu Xiaobo have scattered the ashes of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate into the sea following his death from cancer this week while in custody, Chinese officials say.

Mr Liu's supporters say the move was intended by the authoritarian government to permanently erase any traces of China's best-known political prisoner.

A spokesman for the north-eastern city of Shenyang, where Mr Liu died, told reporters that the sea burial took place on Saturday at noon, just hours after his cremation.

Speaking to reporters at the news briefing, Mr Liu's elder brother thanked the ruling Communist Party and the government for its handling of his brother's funeral.

The brother is regarded by Mr Liu's friends as having long been unsupportive of his political advocacy.

Mr Liu died on Thursday from multiple organ failure.

The government held two briefings on Saturday and provided images of the funeral and the sea burial, the latest moves in a Chinese government propaganda campaign seemingly aimed at countering criticism that Beijing has failed to handle Mr Liu's deterioration and dying wishes in a humanitarian way.

A video about Mr Liu's hospital treatment released on the website of Shenyang's judicial bureau on Friday appeared aimed at the same objective.

Activists and friends of the family said the sea burial appeared to be Beijing's way of removing every last physical trace of Mr Liu.

It also removes the need for a land-based grave at which his supporters would have been able to pay their respects.

"The government's thinking is that in this way, they can destroy the body and remove all traces of him," dissident and family friend Hu Jia said.

"After all, he's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and he died after being suppressed by the authorities," Mr Hu said.

"The authorities are very worried a grave would be the focal point of the public's actions to memorialise him, which could easily turn into protests."

Mr Liu's wife and other family members have been closely guarded by authorities and remain largely out of contact with the outside world even after his death.

Governments around the world have urged China to free his wife, Liu Xia, from the strict house arrest she has lived under for years even though she has not been convicted of any crime.

Handout images showed Liu Xia, who wore dark sunglasses, being comforted by her brother in a funeral parlour as they stood in a row with Mr Liu's older and younger siblings and their wives.

Mr Liu's body lay in an open casket in the centre of the room, surrounded by an arrangement of potted white flowers.

A black banner strung on the wall read "Mr Liu Xiaobo's funeral" in white Chinese characters. It was positioned above a framed picture of Mr Liu.

A press release issued by the government said that the ceremony was held at 6:30am to the music of Mozart's Requiem, and that the body was cremated shortly afterwards.

The government also said the couple's friends attended the ceremony, a claim that was disputed by people who have long been close to Mr Liu.

In the handout images, none among a group of people standing by the casket were identifiable as any of Mr Liu's friends, said Mo Zhixu, a dissident writer who is friends with Mr Liu.

In Shenyang, a spokesman for the city's information office said at the briefing that authorities were looking out for Liu Xia's interests and insisted that she is free.

"As far as I know, Liu Xia has freedom. But she just lost her relative and is in deep sorrow," spokesman Zhang Qingyang said.

"After Liu Xiaobo's death, let Liu Xia tend to his affairs and try to keep her away from external interference."

Mr Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics.

The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Mr Liu rose to prominence during the 1989 pro-democracy protests centred in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document that called for an end to one-party rule in China.

He was in prison when he was awarded the Nobel in 2010, which Beijing condemned as an affront to its political and legal systems.

AP
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson took part in a series of talks this week (AP)

France's foreign minister has called on Qatar's neighbours to immediately lift measures impacting thousands of people in the Gulf, becoming the latest foreign diplomat to visit the region and attempt to find a resolution to a crisis that has dragged on for more than a month.

Last month, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and moved to isolate the small, but wealthy Gulf nation, cancelling air routes between their capitals and Qatar's and closing their airspace to Qatari flights.

Saudi Arabia also sealed Qatar's only land border, impacting a key source of food imports in the mostly desert nation.

The four countries also expelled all Qatari nationals, impacting mixed-nationality families in the Gulf, students and people seeking medical treatment abroad, among others.

Prior to the dispute, Qataris could travel visa-free between the Gulf countries.

France Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said such punitive measures should end.

"France is calling for these measures to be lifted, especially ones that affect the (Qatari) population, specifically measures that impact bi-national families that have been separated," Mr Le Drian said.

He was speaking to reporters in Qatar alongside Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said he welcomed mediation efforts and possible negotiations so long as they are founded on respect for "sovereignty".

The Arab quartet has demanded Qatar end its support of extremist groups, but also its support of Islamist political dissidents they brand as terrorists, but which many Western allies do not.

Other demands include shutting down Qatar's flagship Al-Jazeera network, curbing ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in Qatar.

Qatar has rejected the demands, saying that the list in its entirety infringes on national sovereignty.

Qatar also rejects allegations it has supported terror groups.

Despite the blockade by the four Arab countries, life has not been impacted significantly in Qatar.

The government has stepped in to help pay additional costs of shipping and has looked to its allies, like Turkey, for food imports.

With Qatar holding firm to its position, a top Emirati diplomat cautioned that the diplomatic stand-off could be prolonged.

"We are heading toward a long estrangement," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Relations Anwar al-Gargash wrote on Twitter.

"The reality is we are far from a political solution that changes Qatar's course. In light of that, nothing will change and we must look to a different mode in relations," he added.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in the Gulf, meeting separately with officials in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which is trying to mediate the dispute.

In Qatar, he secured an agreement to enhance cooperation on combating terrorism and terror financing.

Saudi commentators criticised the result of Mr Tillerson's visit to Qatar, saying the signed counter-terrorism agreement fell far short of the demands made for Qatar to change its policy of supporting Islamists.

Mr Tillerson, however, said the discussions had been "helpful" and that the US planned to keep at it.

Qatar's Foreign Minister told reporters in Turkey that it would be unfair to describe Mr Tillerson's visit to the Gulf as a failure, insisting that the crisis "cannot be solved in a day".

Qatar hosts al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East and hub for US-led operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are among the world's biggest military spenders, purchasing billions of dollars in equipment from the US and Europe.

All three are considered allies of many Western nations.

AP
State lawmakers are asking the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider their decision to halt funding for two homeless veteran programs in Wisconsin.
The Russia scandal has entered a new phase, and there's no going back. For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election.

Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced. Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didn't. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups, like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal. I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire.

Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just don't see it. But I'm open to empirical evidence. Show me. The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr himself.

A British go-between writes that there's a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a "Russian government attorney" possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor (which was an error - Britain has a Crown Prosecutor, Russia has a Prosecutor General.)

Donald Jr emails back: "I love it." Fatal words. Once you've said "I'm in," it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods.

What matters is what Donald Jr thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were forwarded the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

"It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame," Donald Jr told Sean Hannity on Fox News. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble.

It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We don't know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning. It's rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that it's no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other people's elections, and they in ours. You don't have to go back to the '40s and '50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administration's blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the US during Russian parliamentary elections - the very origin of Vladimir Putin's deep animus toward Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defence is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it. What's left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. It's one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbours (Georgia, Crimea, eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional UN sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr - and Kushner and Manafort - did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honour. I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you don't need a lawyer to see that the Trump defence - collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election - is now officially dead. ( Washington Post)
People gather near the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge in Istanbul to mark one year since a failed coup in Turkey (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, centre, waves to supporters as he marches with relatives of victims of the July 15, 2016 failed coup (Presidency Press Service/AP)

Tens of thousands of people have joined a national unity march in Istanbul, converging at the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge to mark the anniversary of the failed military coup attempt that 250 people died resisting.

As part of the commemoration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul on Saturday and was photographed waving at a fighter jet escorting his aircraft.

Accompanied by his grandchildren and relatives of the deceased, Mr Erdogan then joined the crowd on the bridge to unveil a Martyrs' Memorial to honour those who died opposing the coup.

The massive crowd waved large red Turkish flags on the bridge and the road connecting to it, while photographs of the "martyrs" were displayed on monitors and their names were read out.

Marches were also taking place in the capital Ankara.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke at a special parliamentary session in Ankara attended by Mr Erdogan.

"It has been exactly one year since Turkey's darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the people's legend," Mr Yildirim said.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016.

The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Mr Erdogan had been on holiday.

But the president had already left and the coup attempt was quashed by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks.

Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

Mr Yildirim thanked the thousands who heeded a call by Mr Erdogan to flood the streets to resist the coup.

"We are able to come together again here today because of our 250 heroic martyrs, 2,193 heroic veterans and the great Turkish people. Your country is grateful to you," Mr Yildirim said.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since, which has allowed the government to rule by decree and to dismiss tens of thousands of people from their jobs.

More than 50,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for orchestrating the failed coup, and other terror groups. Mr Gulen has denied the allegations.

In the latest government decree published on Friday evening, 7,395 more state employees were fired, including teachers, academics, military and police officers, bringing the number of dismissed to more than 110,000.

The government calls the crackdown necessary to purge state institutions of those linked to Mr Gulen, but critics say the dismissals are arbitrary.

The US State Department issued a statement on Saturday praising the bravery of the Turkish people who took to the streets to "preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society" one year ago.

"The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms," the agency said, warning that curbs on those key freedoms erode "the foundations of democratic society".

The statement added: "More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times."

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg paid homage to those who lost lives resisting the coup and said attempts to undermine democracy in any one of the allied nations is "unacceptable".

AP
Many of us remember North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms war against CBS news, complaining the liberal press consisted of, men and women who, if they do not hate American virtuescertainly have a smug contempt for American ideals and principles. The war has only escalated and the media is in the crosshairs. Maine Governor Paul LePage recently said, The sooner the print press goes away, the better society will be. Really?

Count me among those with a healthy skepticism for the current state of the media. Too frequently, media outlets have strayed from straight reporting and appear to be taking sides in the partisan debate, especially on cable channels that often disguise breaking news with opinions. Many polls reflect media distrust and dissatisfaction, leading us to question how we got to this place.

How can a sitting president proclaim the media is the enemy of the people? Is fake or biased news reporting so much worse than in times past? Are these attacks intended to intimidate and silence the media or could they be diversionary tactics to create distractions from real issues? Further, is it permissible for some outlets, like FOX News, to be so obviously biased, but unacceptable for others?

What is the end-game strategy of media bashers? What outcomes do they hope for? Are they expecting a sudden revelation and abrupt change in direction from voices they criticize? Would they prefer a totalitarian media voice, like Big Brother, or be willing to give someone the prerogative to eliminate certain voices? Who might that someone be?

Ive been on the receiving end of media bias, as well as attempts to silence my voice. It isnt pretty and is neither right nor correct. People feel at liberty to express any hateful, hurtful, even untruthful thing they feel like saying and the bullying, threatening and violence against my brethren in the media has increased exponentially in recent years. Is that really acceptable?

In far too many instances media stalkers only call more attention to those they dislike and strengthen their resolve to continue. The best way to silence or muffle media voices with whom you dont agree is to ignore them. Stop watching and stop reading their work. When enough stop paying attention, those in the media world will either be forced to change or go away.

We would also say that media responses to those who criticize them are counterproductive, especially when they give too much airtime to the criticisms. The proper response should be to listen, examine whether the criticism is legitimate and redouble their efforts to ensure reporting is accurate, fair and balanced. When they err, as they most certainly will, they have a responsibility to acknowledge mistakes publicly and take necessary corrective actions.

Media bias and partisanship have always been present, going back to colonial times and the first printed broadsides. There has always been accompanying criticism, but no purpose is served in the current climate. Our nation has constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and any attempts to stamp out or silence media voices is unworthy of those who fought to ensure them. We caution our television viewers each week to stay informed and watch out for the spin, but would add it is time to de-escalate the war on the media.

Tom Campbell is former assistant North Carolina State Treasurer and is creator/host of NC SPIN, a weekly statewide television discussion of NC issues. Show airs in Charlotte on WCCB Sundays at 6:30 a.m.
There has always been a debate over the contribution of Indian scientific institutes over the years. Many people have questioned their original contribution to the field. The latest person to have questioned this trend is Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy. IT czar has said that there has not been a single invention from India in the last 60 years that became a household name globally, nor any idea that led to "earth shaking" invention to "delight global citizens".

"Our youngsters have not done much impactful research work despite being equal to their counterparts in intellect and energy in Western universities," he said delivering the convocation address at the Indian Institute of Science here.

BCCL

Listing out 10 major inventions that Massachusets Institute of Technology has created in the last 50 years that includes Global Positioning System, Bionic Prostheses and Microchip, Murthy said these happened because students and faculty at MIT "walked the untrodden path, asked the unasked questions and used their intellectual prowess to take huge leaps".

"They demonstrated unusual courage to achieve the plausibly-impossible. The story is similar at many other western institutions of higher education," he said.

He said almost all inventions such as cars, the electric bulb, radio, television, computers, Internet, wifi, MRI, laser, robots and many other gadgets and technology happened, "thanks to the research by Western Universities".

He added: "On the other hand, let us pause and ask what the contributions of Indian institutions of higher learning, particularly IISc ans IITs, have been over the last sixty-plus years to make our society and the world a better place?

"Is there one invention from India that has become a household name in the globe? Is there one technology that has transformed the productivity of global corporations? Is there one idea that has lead to an earth shaking invention to delight global citizens?"

PTI

Co-founder of the country's major IT firm Infosys said: "Folks, the reality is that there is no such contribution from India in the last 60. The only two ideas that have transformed the productivity of global corporations -- The Global Delivery Model and the 24-hours workday -- came from the company called Infosys."

Pointing to the problems plaguing the country such as illiteracy, child malnutrition, poor public health service, Murthy said, "I can go on and on. The important thing is to recognise that this country has no shortage of problems to be solved urgently."

BCCL

He said there must be free flow of ideas between our intellectuals and foreign scholars. "Our younger faculty must have full freedom to pursue their line of research without hindrance."
In the intense battle that happened in order to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State has resulted in displacement of over a million Iraqis. The citizens of Iraq have had to flee out of fear of their lives. An intergovernmental organisation reported on Friday that out of the million, about 220,000 have been able to return home.

The International Organisation for Migration has reported that the battles between armed forces and extremists forced as many as 1,048,044 people to leave their homes during the nearly nine-month offensive.

The organisation's spokesman Joel Millman at a press conference said that the number of fled Iraqis until Friday was was 825,000, given that in the last stage of the battle, IOM recorded an additional displacement of 380,000 Iraqis from the west of Mosul to its east.

Image Credit : Reuters

The UN agency gathered information by sending its teams regularly to visit 70 neighborhoods in eastern Mosul. More than 90% of those who are still displaced are taking refuge in Nineveh province, whose capital is Mosul, with the hope of returning to their homes when circumstances permit.

According to the IOM, only five per cent of the displaced went to other Iraqi provinces, and more than 220,000 have already been able to return to their homes in the liberated areas of Mosul. The city of Mosul had been the main stronghold of the IS, since the group occupied it in June 2014, until its expulsion in July by joint Iraqi forces.
With militancy showing no signs of slowing down, the Indian security forces have also stepped up their operations in the valley. And it is paying off, in just seven months of 2017, the forces have killed 104 terrorists in Kashmir.

AFP/ Representational Image

This is the biggest loses the terrorists have faced in Kashmir in the past seven years. Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year.

Last year, 77 militants were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data.

AP/ Representational Image

The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The slain militants included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted.

The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, the official who refused to be identified told PTI.

In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after".

AP

The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them.

The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police.

Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list.

AP

While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28.
It's almost a month away, but the government is already gearing for the big day. To mark the 70th Independence Day, the government has asked everyone to post a selfie with a Tricolour.

Picture for representation/PTI

According to ET, letters have already gone out to all ministers from the Press Information Bureau on the directions of information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu, asking them to write special features on the importance of the 70th Independence Day.

This Independence Days theme will be the overall progress of the country since the independence of the nation. However, the government will be more focused on the achievements of the last three years in keeping with the leadership of PM Modi

Reports state, the government will hold Twitter Polls and quizzes on social media sites over facts on India and the struggle for independence .

"The idea is to let people take pride in the nation and to recall how the country has evolved after Independence despite all the negative points"

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has further placed India in the top league of nations in the last three years. People's opinions will be sought on social media what freedom means for them," a senior official told ET.

The week-long celebration is scheduled to be held in the Rajpath lawns between Mansingh Road and Janpath will begin on August 12 and end on August 18
The US House of Representatives has passed a $621.5 billion defence policy bill that proposes to advance defence cooperation with India.

An amendment in this regard, moved by Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, was adopted by a voice vote by the House as part of the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018, beginning October 1 this year. NDAA-2018 was passed by the House 344-81.

AFP

The India-related amendment passed by the House requires the Secretary of Defence, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the United States and India.

"The United States is the world's oldest democracy and India is the world's largest democracy. It is vitally important to develop a strategy that advances defence cooperation between our two nations," Bera said.

"I am grateful for this amendment passed and look forward to the Defence Department's strategy that addresses critical issues like common security challenges, the role of partners and allies, and areas for collaboration in science and technology," he said.

"Cooperation between the US and India enhances our own defence and our ability to meet the evolving security challenges of the 21st century," Bera added.

AFP

Following the passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act, the Secretary of Defence and Secretary of State have 180 days to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the two countries.

NDAA needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for the US President Donald Trump to sign into law.

As passed by the House, NDAA-2018 asks the State Department and the Pentagon to develop a strategy that addresses common security challenges, the role of American partners and allies in India-US defence relationship, and role of the defence technology and trade initiative.

It also asks them to address how to advance the communications interoperability and security memorandum of agreement and the basic exchange and cooperation agreement for geospatial cooperation.

The previous NDAA-2017 had designated India as a major defence partner which brings India at par with closest American partners in terms of defence trade and technology transfer. Meanwhile, a senior defence official on Friday said that India and US defence relationship is on a positive track.

AFP

"... [As] we look at the global order, and when we look at the evolving security environment within Asia, India's rise and role [is] evolving, [and] we see the United States and India increasingly viewing the region in the same way, and our interests are very much aligned," said Cara Abercrombie, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia.

Addressing a New York audience, she said the relationship creates a high level of dialogue in the Pentagon on a range of issues. "This is all rooted in when we look at the region and [what] we share. We have the same [aerial] security interests, the same counter-proliferation, counter-piracy, and counter- terrorism [interests]," she added.

"We have the same interests in upholding this international system that upholds the rule of law that favours freedom of navigation, open sea lanes of communication, and freedom of over flight. Those are values that are critically important to our economic prosperity and to our access in the region," Abercrombie said during a panel discussion at the 2017 Global Business Forum in New York City.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has voted for three legislative amendments to impose tougher conditions for reimbursement of defence funding to Pakistan, making it conditional to Islamabad showing satisfactory progress in the fight against terrorism. The conditions are related to Pakistans support to terrorists and terror outfits, about which several top US officials and lawmakers have repeatedly expressed concern about in the past.
UW-Madison professor Bassam Shakhashiri tells a crowd on the State Street Mall that scientists have a duty to inspire others to appreciate and understand science during a March for Science rally in Madison April 22, 2017. Madison police estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people took part in the march, one of dozens around the world aimed at defending scientific freedom against political interference. SHELLEY K. MESCH, STATE JOURNAL
The New Silk Road Will Go Through Syria

China and Syria have already begun discussing post-war infrastructure investment; with a 'Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction' held in Beijing

By Pepe Escobar

July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Amid the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune.

Take what happened this past Sunday in Beijing. The China-Arab Exchange Association and the Syrian Embassy organized a Syria Day Expo crammed with hundreds of Chinese specialists in infrastructure investment. It was a sort of mini-gathering of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), billed as The First Project Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction.

And there will be serious follow-ups: a Syria Reconstruction Expo; the 59th Damascus International Fair next month, where around 30 Arab and foreign nations will be represented; and the China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui province, in September.

Qin Yong, deputy chairman of the China-Arab Exchange Association, announced that Beijing plans to invest $2 billion in an industrial park in Syria for 150 Chinese companies.

Nothing would make more sense. Before the tragic Syrian proxy war, Syrian merchants were already incredibly active in the small-goods Silk Road between Yiwu and the Levant. The Chinese dont forget that Syria controlled overland access to both Europe and Africa in ancient Silk Road times when, after the desert crossing via Palmyra, goods reached the Mediterranean on their way to Rome. After the demise of Palmyra, a secondary road followed the Euphrates upstream and then through Aleppo and Antioch.

Beijing always plans years ahead. And the government in Damascus is implicated at the highest levels. So, its not an accident that Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Moustapha had to come up with the clincher: China, Russia and Iran will have priority over anyone else for all infrastructure investment and reconstruction projects when the war is over.

The New Silk Roads, or One Belt, One Road Initiative (Obor), will inevitably feature a Syrian hub  complete with the requisite legal support for Chinese companies involved in investment, construction and banking via a special commission created by the Syrian embassy, the China-Arab Exchange Association and the Beijing-based Shijing law firm.

Get me on that Shanghai-Latakia cargo

Few remember that before the war China had already invested tens of billions of US dollars in Syrias oil and gas industry. Naturally the priority for Damascus, once the war is over, will be massive reconstruction of widely destroyed infrastructure. China could be part of that via the AIIB. Then comes investment in agriculture, industry and connectivity  transportation corridors in the Levant and connecting Syria to Iraq and Iran (other two Obor hubs).

What matters most of all is that Beijing has already taken the crucial step of being directly involved in the final settlement of the Syrian war  geopolitically and geo-economically. Beijing has had a special representative for Syria since last year  and has already been providing humanitarian aid.

Needless to add, all those elaborate plans depend on no more war. And theres the rub.

With the demise of Daesh (ISIS), or at least its imminent loss of any significant urban center, no one knows in what manner a fragmented, phony Caliphate Sunnistan might be manipulated into cutting Syria from its New Silk Road future.

Qatar has already provided a game-changer; Doha has gotten closer to Tehran (common interests in South Pars/North Dome gas-field oblige), as well as Damascus  much to the despair of the House of Saud. So, unlike the recent past, Qatar is not engaged in regime change anymore. But still there are the diverging interests of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and, of course, Washington, to accommodate.

A possible scenario out of what Putin and Trump negotiated in Hamburg  that was not relayed by either Lavrov or Tillerson  is that the ceasefire in southwestern Syria, assuming it holds, could mean US peacekeeping forces in effect sanctioning the creation of a demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the Syrian Golan and the rest of the country.

Translation: the Golan de facto annexed by Israel. And the carrot for Moscow would be Washington accepting Crimea de facto re-incorporated into the Russian Federation.

That may sound less far-fetched than it seems. The next few months will tell if this is indeed a plausible scenario.

The other big sticking point is Ankara against the YPG Kurds. Contrary to the ominous and quite possible Balkanization scenario , Washington and Moscow might well decide, in tandem, to let them sort things out by themselves. Then we will inevitably have the Turkish army occupying al-Bab for the foreseeable future.

The bottom line: that Saudi Arabia gets nothing. And Israel and Turkey get political/military wins. Its hard to imagine how Moscow could possibly sell this arrangement to Iran as a victory. Still, Tehran may not have a free flow Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah route totally back in action, but it will maintain close relations with Damascus and be engaged in the expansion of the New Silk Roads.

The key question from now on seems to be whether Washington will follow the deep state Syraq policy  as in Assad must go mixed with support or weaponizing of non-existent moderate rebels; or whether Trumps priority  to eliminate Daesh/ISIS for good  will prevail.

Beijing, anyway, has made up its mind. It will work non-stop for the Iran-Iraq-Syria triumvirate to become a key hub in Obor. Any bets against a future, booming Shanghai-Latakia container route?

Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large at Asia Times.
Home You Cant Understand ISIS If You Dont Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia By Alastair Crooke July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - BEIRUT  The dramatic arrival of Daish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed  and horrified  by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabias ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, Dont the Saudis understand that ISIS threatens them, too? It appears  even now  that Saudi Arabias ruling elite is divided. Some applaud that ISIS is fighting Iranian Shiite fire with Sunni fire; that a new Sunni state is taking shape at the very heart of what they regard as a historical Sunni patrimony; and they are drawn by Daishs strict Salafist ideology. Other Saudis are more fearful, and recall the history of the revolt against Abd-al Aziz by the Wahhabist Ikhwan (Disclaimer: this Ikhwan has nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan  please note, all further references hereafter are to the Wahhabist Ikhwan, and not to the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan), but which nearly imploded Wahhabism and the al-Saud in the late 1920s. Many Saudis are deeply disturbed by the radical doctrines of Daish (ISIS)  and are beginning to question some aspects of Saudi Arabias direction and discourse. THE SAUDI DUALITY Saudi Arabias internal discord and tensions over ISIS can only be understood by grasping the inherent (and persisting) duality that lies at the core of the Kingdoms doctrinal makeup and its historical origins. One dominant strand to the Saudi identity pertains directly to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism), and the use to which his radical, exclusionist puritanism was put by Ibn Saud. (The latter was then no more than a minor leader  amongst many  of continually sparring and raiding Bedouin tribes in the baking and desperately poor deserts of the Nejd.) The second strand to this perplexing duality, relates precisely to King Abd-al Azizs subsequent shift towards statehood in the 1920s: his curbing of Ikhwani violence (in order to have diplomatic standing as a nation-state with Britain and America); his institutionalization of the original Wahhabist impulse  and the subsequent seizing of the opportunely surging petrodollar spigot in the 1970s, to channel the volatile Ikhwani current away from home towards export  by diffusing a cultural revolution, rather than violent revolution throughout the Muslim world. But this cultural revolution was no docile reformism. It was a revolution based on Abd al-Wahhabs Jacobin-like hatred for the putrescence and deviationism that he perceived all about him  hence his call to purge Islam of all its heresies and idolatries. MUSLIM IMPOSTORS The American author and journalist, Steven Coll, has written how this austere and censorious disciple of the 14th century scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, Abd al-Wahhab, despised the decorous, arty, tobacco smoking, hashish imbibing, drum pounding Egyptian and Ottoman nobility who travelled across Arabia to pray at Mecca. In Abd al-Wahhabs view, these were not Muslims; they were imposters masquerading as Muslims. Nor, indeed, did he find the behavior of local Bedouin Arabs much better. They aggravated Abd al-Wahhab by their honoring of saints, by their erecting of tombstones, and their superstition (e.g. revering graves or places that were deemed particularly imbued with the divine). All this behavior, Abd al-Wahhab denounced as bida  forbidden by God. Like Taymiyyah before him, Abd al-Wahhab believed that the period of the Prophet Muhammads stay in Medina was the ideal of Muslim society (the best of times), to which all Muslims should aspire to emulate (this, essentially, is Salafism). Taymiyyah had declared war on Shiism, Sufism and Greek philosophy. He spoke out, too against visiting the grave of the prophet and the celebration of his birthday, declaring that all such behavior represented mere imitation of the Christian worship of Jesus as God (i.e. idolatry). Abd al-Wahhab assimilated all this earlier teaching, stating that any doubt or hesitation on the part of a believer in respect to his or her acknowledging this particular interpretation of Islam should deprive a man of immunity of his property and his life. One of the main tenets of Abd al-Wahhabs doctrine has become the key idea of takfir. Under the takfiri doctrine, Abd al-Wahhab and his followers could deem fellow Muslims infidels should they engage in activities that in any way could be said to encroach on the sovereignty of the absolute Authority (that is, the King). Abd al-Wahhab denounced all Muslims who honored the dead, saints, or angels. He held that such sentiments detracted from the complete subservience one must feel towards God, and only God. Wahhabi Islam thus bans any prayer to saints and dead loved ones, pilgrimages to tombs and special mosques, religious festivals celebrating saints, the honoring of the Muslim Prophet Muhammads birthday, and even prohibits the use of gravestones when burying the dead. Those who would not conform to this view should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote. Abd al-Wahhab demanded conformity  a conformity that was to be demonstrated in physical and tangible ways. He argued that all Muslims must individually pledge their allegiance to a single Muslim leader (a Caliph, if there were one). Those who would not conform to this view should be killed , their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote. The list of apostates meriting death included the Shiite, Sufis and other Muslim denominations, whom Abd al-Wahhab did not consider to be Muslim at all. There is nothing here that separates Wahhabism from ISIS. The rift would emerge only later: from the subsequent institutionalization of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhabs doctrine of One Ruler, One Authority, One Mosque  these three pillars being taken respectively to refer to the Saudi king, the absolute authority of official Wahhabism, and its control of the word (i.e. the mosque). It is this rift  the ISIS denial of these three pillars on which the whole of Sunni authority presently rests  makes ISIS, which in all other respects conforms to Wahhabism, a deep threat to Saudi Arabia. BRIEF HISTORY 1741- 1818 Abd al-Wahhabs advocacy of these ultra radical views inevitably led to his expulsion from his own town  and in 1741, after some wanderings, he found refuge under the protection of Ibn Saud and his tribe. What Ibn Saud perceived in Abd al-Wahhabs novel teaching was the means to overturn Arab tradition and convention. It was a path to seizing power. Their strategy  like that of ISIS today  was to bring the peoples whom they conquered into submission. They aimed to instill fear. Ibn Sauds clan, seizing on Abd al-Wahhabs doctrine, now could do what they always did, which was raiding neighboring villages and robbing them of their possessions. Only now they were doing it not within the ambit of Arab tradition, but rather under the banner of jihad. Ibn Saud and Abd al-Wahhab also reintroduced the idea of martyrdom in the name of jihad, as it granted those martyred immediate entry into paradise. In the beginning, they conquered a few local communities and imposed their rule over them. (The conquered inhabitants were given a limited choice: conversion to Wahhabism or death.) By 1790, the Alliance controlled most of the Arabian Peninsula and repeatedly raided Medina, Syria and Iraq. Their strategy  like that of ISIS today  was to bring the peoples whom they conquered into submission. They aimed to instill fear. In 1801, the Allies attacked the Holy City of Karbala in Iraq. They massacred thousands of Shiites, including women and children. Many Shiite shrines were destroyed, including the shrine of Imam Hussein, the murdered grandson of Prophet Muhammad. A British official, Lieutenant Francis Warden, observing the situation at the time, wrote: They pillaged the whole of it [Karbala], and plundered the Tomb of Hussein... slaying in the course of the day, with circumstances of peculiar cruelty, above five thousand of the inhabitants ... Osman Ibn Bishr Najdi, the historian of the first Saudi state, wrote that Ibn Saud committed a massacre in Karbala in 1801. He proudly documented that massacre saying, we took Karbala and slaughtered and took its people (as slaves), then praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and we do not apologize for that and say: And to the unbelievers: the same treatment. In 1803, Abdul Aziz then entered the Holy City of Mecca, which surrendered under the impact of terror and panic (the same fate was to befall Medina, too). Abd al-Wahhabs followers demolished historical monuments and all the tombs and shrines in their midst. By the end, they had destroyed centuries of Islamic architecture near the Grand Mosque. But in November of 1803, a Shiite assassin killed King Abdul Aziz (taking revenge for the massacre at Karbala). His son, Saud bin Abd al Aziz, succeeded him and continued the conquest of Arabia. Ottoman rulers, however, could no longer just sit back and watch as their empire was devoured piece by piece. In 1812, the Ottoman army, composed of Egyptians, pushed the Alliance out from Medina, Jeddah and Mecca. In 1814, Saud bin Abd al Aziz died of fever. His unfortunate son Abdullah bin Saud, however, was taken by the Ottomans to Istanbul, where he was gruesomely executed (a visitor to Istanbul reported seeing him having been humiliated in the streets of Istanbul for three days, then hanged and beheaded, his severed head fired from a canon, and his heart cut out and impaled on his body). In 1815, Wahhabi forces were crushed by the Egyptians (acting on the Ottomans behalf) in a decisive battle. In 1818, the Ottomans captured and destroyed the Wahhabi capital of Dariyah. The first Saudi state was no more. The few remaining Wahhabis withdrew into the desert to regroup, and there they remained, quiescent for most of the 19th century. HISTORY RETURNS WITH ISIS It is not hard to understand how the founding of the Islamic State by ISIS in contemporary Iraq might resonate amongst those who recall this history. Indeed, the ethos of 18th century Wahhabism did not just wither in Nejd, but it roared back into life when the Ottoman Empire collapsed amongst the chaos of World War I. The Al Saud  in this 20th century renaissance  were led by the laconic and politically astute Abd-al Aziz, who, on uniting the fractious Bedouin tribes, launched the Saudi Ikhwan in the spirit of Abd-al Wahhabs and Ibn Sauds earlier fighting proselytisers. The Ikhwan was a reincarnation of the early, fierce, semi-independent vanguard movement of committed armed Wahhabist moralists who almost had succeeded in seizing Arabia by the early 1800s. In the same manner as earlier, the Ikhwan again succeeded in capturing Mecca, Medina and Jeddah between 1914 and 1926. Abd-al Aziz, however, began to feel his wider interests to be threatened by the revolutionary Jacobinism exhibited by the Ikhwan. The Ikhwan revolted  leading to a civil war that lasted until the 1930s, when the King had them put down: he machine-gunned them. For this king, (Abd-al Aziz), the simple verities of previous decades were eroding. Oil was being discovered in the peninsular. Britain and America were courting Abd-al Aziz, but still were inclined to support Sharif Husain as the only legitimate ruler of Arabia. The Saudis needed to develop a more sophisticated diplomatic posture. So Wahhabism was forcefully changed from a movement of revolutionary jihad and theological takfiri purification, to a movement of conservative social, political, theological, and religious dawa (Islamic call) and to justifying the institution that upholds loyalty to the royal Saudi family and the Kings absolute power. OIL WEALTH SPREAD WAHHABISM With the advent of the oil bonanza  as the French scholar, Giles Kepel writes , Saudi goals were to reach out and spread Wahhabism across the Muslim world ... to Wahhabise Islam, thereby reducing the multitude of voices within the religion to a single creed  a movement which would transcend national divisions. Billions of dollars were  and continue to be  invested in this manifestation of soft power. It was this heady mix of billion dollar soft power projection  and the Saudi willingness to manage Sunni Islam both to further Americas interests, as it concomitantly embedded Wahhabism educationally, socially and culturally throughout the lands of Islam  that brought into being a western policy dependency on Saudi Arabia, a dependency that has endured since Abd-al Azizs meeting with Roosevelt on a U.S. warship (returning the president from the Yalta Conference) until today. Westerners looked at the Kingdom and their gaze was taken by the wealth; by the apparent modernization; by the professed leadership of the Islamic world. They chose to presume that the Kingdom was bending to the imperatives of modern life  and that the management of Sunni Islam would bend the Kingdom, too, to modern life. On the one hand, ISIS is deeply Wahhabist. On the other hand, it is ultra radical in a different way. It could be seen essentially as a corrective movement to contemporary Wahhabism. But the Saudi Ikhwan approach to Islam did not die in the 1930s. It retreated, but it maintained its hold over parts of the system  hence the duality that we observe today in the Saudi attitude towards ISIS. On the one hand, ISIS is deeply Wahhabist. On the other hand, it is ultra radical in a different way. It could be seen essentially as a corrective movement to contemporary Wahhabism. ISIS is a post-Medina movement: it looks to the actions of the first two Caliphs, rather than the Prophet Muhammad himself, as a source of emulation, and it forcefully denies the Saudis claim of authority to rule. As the Saudi monarchy blossomed in the oil age into an ever more inflated institution, the appeal of the Ikhwan message gained ground (despite King Faisals modernization campaign). The Ikhwan approach enjoyed  and still enjoys  the support of many prominent men and women and sheikhs. In a sense, Osama bin Laden was precisely the representative of a late flowering of this Ikhwani approach. Today, ISIS undermining of the legitimacy of the Kings legitimacy is not seen to be problematic, but rather a return to the true origins of the Saudi-Wahhab project. In the collaborative management of the region by the Saudis and the West in pursuit of the many western projects (countering socialism, Baathism, Nasserism, Soviet and Iranian influence), western politicians have highlighted their chosen reading of Saudi Arabia (wealth, modernization and influence), but they chose to ignore the Wahhabist impulse. After all, the more radical Islamist movements were perceived by Western intelligence services as being more effective in toppling the USSR in Afghanistan  and in combatting out-of-favor Middle Eastern leaders and states. Why should we be surprised then, that from Prince Bandars Saudi-Western mandate to manage the insurgency in Syria against President Assad should have emerged a neo-Ikhwan type of violent, fear-inducing vanguard movement: ISIS? And why should we be surprised  knowing a little about Wahhabism  that moderate insurgents in Syria would become rarer than a mythical unicorn? Why should we have imagined that radical Wahhabism would create moderates? Or why could we imagine that a doctrine of One leader, One authority, One mosque: submit to it, or be killed could ever ultimately lead to moderation or tolerance? Or, perhaps, we never imagined. No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter Part II Middle East Time Bomb: The Real Aim of ISIS Is to Replace the Saud Family as the New Emirs of Arabia ISIS is indeed a veritable time bomb inserted into the heart of the Middle East. But its destructive power is not as commonly understood. It is not with the March of the Beheaders; it is not with the killings; the seizure of towns and villages; the harshest of justice  terrible though they are  that its true explosive power lies. It is yet more potent than its exponential pull on young Muslims, its huge arsenal of weapons and its hundreds of millions of dollars. We should understand that there is really almost nothing that the West can now do about it but sit and watch. Its real potential for destruction lies elsewhere  in the implosion of Saudi Arabia as a foundation stone of the modern Middle East. We should understand that there is really almost nothing that the West can now do about it but sit and watch. The clue to its truly explosive potential, as Saudi scholar Fouad Ibrahim has pointed out (but which has passed, almost wholly overlooked, or its significance has gone unnoticed), is ISIS deliberate and intentional use in its doctrine  of the language of Abd-al Wahhab, the 18th century founder, together with Ibn Saud, of Wahhabism and the Saudi project: Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the first prince of the faithful in the Islamic State of Iraq, in 2006 formulated, for instance, the principles of his prospective state ... Among its goals is disseminating monotheism which is the purpose [for which humans were created] and [for which purpose they must be called] to Islam... This language replicates exactly Abd-al Wahhabs formulation. And, not surprisingly, the latters writings and Wahhabi commentaries on his works are widely distributed in the areas under ISIS control and are made the subject of study sessions. Baghdadi subsequently was to note approvingly, a generation of young men [have been] trained based on the forgotten doctrine of loyalty and disavowal. And what is this forgotten tradition of loyalty and disavowal? It is Abd al-Wahhabs doctrine that belief in a sole (for him an anthropomorphic) God  who was alone worthy of worship  was in itself insufficient to render man or woman a Muslim? He or she could be no true believer, unless additionally, he or she actively denied (and destroyed) any other subject of worship. The list of such potential subjects of idolatrous worship, which al-Wahhab condemned as idolatry, was so extensive that almost all Muslims were at risk of falling under his definition of unbelievers. They therefore faced a choice: Either they convert to al-Wahhabs vision of Islam  or be killed, and their wives, their children and physical property taken as the spoils of jihad. Even to express doubts about this doctrine, al-Wahhab said , should occasion execution. Through its intentional adoption of this Wahhabist language, ISIS is knowingly lighting the fuse to a bigger regional explosion  one that has a very real possibility of being ignited, and if it should succeed, will change the Middle East decisively. The point Fuad Ibrahim is making, I believe, is not merely to reemphasize the extreme reductionism of al-Wahhabs vision, but to hint at something entirely different: That through its intentional adoption of this Wahhabist language, ISIS is knowingly lighting the fuse to a bigger regional explosion  one that has a very real possibility of being ignited, and if it should succeed, will change the Middle East decisively. For it was precisely this idealistic, puritan, proselytizing formulation by al-Wahhab that was father to the entire Saudi project (one that was violently suppressed by the Ottomans in 1818, but spectacularly resurrected in the 1920s, to become the Saudi Kingdom that we know today). But since its renaissance in the 1920s, the Saudi project has always carried within it, the gene of its own self-destruction. THE SAUDI TAIL HAS WAGGED BRITAIN AND U.S. IN THE MIDDLE EAST



Paradoxically, it was a maverick British official, who helped embed the gene into the new state. The British official attached to Aziz, was one Harry St. John Philby (the father of the MI6 officer who spied for the Soviet KGB, Kim Philby). He was to become King Abd al-Azizs close adviser, having resigned as a British official, and was until his death, a key member of the Rulers Court. He, like Lawrence of Arabia, was an Arabist. He was also a convert to Wahhabi Islam and known as Sheikh Abdullah. St. John Philby was a man on the make: he had determined to make his friend, Abd al-Aziz, the ruler of Arabia. Indeed, it is clear that in furthering this ambition he was not acting on official instructions. When, for example, he encouraged King Aziz to expand in northern Nejd, he was ordered to desist. But (as American author, Stephen Schwartz notes ), Aziz was well aware that Britain had pledged repeatedly that the defeat of the Ottomans would produce an Arab state, and this no doubt, encouraged Philby and Aziz to aspire to the latter becoming its new ruler. It is not clear exactly what passed between Philby and the Ruler (the details seem somehow to have been suppressed), but it would appear that Philbys vision was not confined to state-building in the conventional way, but rather was one of transforming the wider Islamic ummah (or community of believers) into a Wahhabist instrument that would entrench the al-Saud as Arabias leaders. And for this to happen, Aziz needed to win British acquiescence (and much later, American endorsement). This was the gambit that Abd al-Aziz made his own, with advice from Philby, notes Schwartz. BRITISH GODFATHER OF SAUDI ARABIA



In a sense, Philby may be said to be godfather to this momentous pact by which the Saudi leadership would use its clout to manage Sunni Islam on behalf of western objectives (containing socialism, Baathism, Nasserism, Soviet influence, Iran, etc.)  and in return, the West would acquiesce to Saudi Arabias soft-power Wahhabisation of the Islamic ummah (with its concomitant destruction of Islams intellectual traditions and diversity and its sowing of deep divisions within the Muslim world). In political and financial terms, the Saud-Philby strategy has been an astonishing success. But it was always rooted in British and American intellectual obtuseness: the refusal to see the dangerous gene within the Wahhabist project, its latent potential to mutate, at any time, back into its original a bloody, puritan strain. In any event, this has just happened: ISIS is it. As a result  from then until now  British and American policy has been bound to Saudi aims (as tightly as to their own ones), and has been heavily dependent on Saudi Arabia for direction in pursuing its course in the Middle East. In political and financial terms, the Saud-Philby strategy has been an astonishing success (if taken on its own, cynical, self-serving terms). But it was always rooted in British and American intellectual obtuseness: the refusal to see the dangerous gene within the Wahhabist project, its latent potential to mutate, at any time, back into its original a bloody, puritan strain. In any event, this has just happened: ISIS is it. Winning western endorsement (and continued western endorsement), however, required a change of mode: the project had to change from being an armed, proselytizing Islamic vanguard movement into something resembling statecraft. This was never going to be easy because of the inherent contradictions involved (puritan morality versus realpolitik and money)  and as time has progressed, the problems of accommodating the modernity that statehood requires, has caused the gene to become more active, rather than become more inert. Even Abd al-Aziz himself faced an allergic reaction: in the form of a serious rebellion from his own Wahhabi militia, the Saudi Ikhwan. When the expansion of control by the Ikhwan reached the border of territories controlled by Britain, Abd al-Aziz tried to restrain his militia (Philby was urging him to seek British patronage), but the Ikwhan, already critical of his use of modern technology (the telephone, telegraph and the machine gun), were outraged by the abandonment of jihad for reasons of worldly realpolitik ... They refused to lay down their weapons; and instead rebelled against their king ... After a series of bloody clashes, they were crushed in 1929. Ikhwan members who had remained loyal, were later absorbed into the [Saudi] National Guard. King Azizs son and heir, Saud, faced a different form of reaction (less bloody, but more effective). Azizs son was deposed from the throne by the religious establishment  in favor of his brother Faisal  because of his ostentatious and extravagant conduct. His lavish, ostentatious style, offended the religious establishment who expected the Imam of Muslims, to pursue a pious, proselytizing lifestyle. King Faisal, Sauds successor, in his turn, was shot by his nephew in 1975, who had appeared at Court ostensibly to make his oath of allegiance, but who instead, pulled out a pistol and shot the king in his head. The nephew had been perturbed by the encroachment of western beliefs and innovation into Wahhabi society, to the detriment of the original ideals of the Wahhabist project. SEIZING THE GRAND MOSQUE IN 1979 Far more serious, however, was the revived Ikhwan of Juhayman al-Otaybi, which culminated in the seizure of the Grand Mosque by some 400-500 armed men and women in 1979. Juhayman was from the influential Otaybi tribe from the Nejd, which had led and been a principal element in the original Ikhwan of the 1920s. Juhayman and his followers, many of whom came from the Medina seminary, had the tacit support, amongst other clerics, of Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Bin Baz, the former Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Juhayman stated that Sheikh Bin Baz never objected to his Ikhwan teachings (which were also critical of ulema laxity towards disbelief), but that bin Baz had blamed him mostly for harking on that the ruling al-Saud dynasty had lost its legitimacy because it was corrupt, ostentatious and had destroyed Saudi culture by an aggressive policy of westernisation. Significantly, Juhaymans followers preached their Ikhwani message in a number of mosques in Saudi Arabia initially without being arrested, but when Juhayman and a number of the Ikhwan finally were held for questioning in 1978. Members of the ulema (including bin Baz) cross-examined them for heresy, but then ordered their release because they saw them as being no more than traditionalists harkening back to the Ikhwan like Juhayman grandfather  and therefore not a threat. Even when the mosque seizure was defeated and over, a certain level of forbearance by the ulema for the rebels remained. When the government asked for a fatwa allowing for armed force to be used in the mosque, the language of bin Baz and other senior ulema was curiously restrained . The scholars did not declare Juhayman and his followers non-Muslims, despite their violation of the sanctity of the Grand Mosque, but only termed them al-jamaah al-musallahah (the armed group). The group that Juhayman led was far from marginalized from important sources of power and wealth. In a sense, it swam in friendly, receptive waters. Juhaymans grandfather had been one of the leaders of the the original Ikhwan, and after the rebellion against Abdel Aziz, many of his grandfathers comrades in arms were absorbed into the National Guard  indeed Juhayman himself had served within the Guard  thus Juhayman was able to obtain weapons and military expertise from sympathizers in the National Guard, and the necessary arms and food to sustain the siege were pre-positioned, and hidden , within the Grand Mosque. Juhayman was also able to call on wealthy individuals to fund the enterprise. ISIS VS. WESTERNIZED SAUDIS The point of rehearsing this history is to underline how uneasy the Saudi leadership must be at the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Previous Ikhwani manifestations were suppressed  but these all occurred inside the kingdom. ISIS however, is a neo-Ikhwani rejectionist protest that is taking place outside the kingdom  and which, moreover, follows the Juhayman dissidence in its trenchant criticism of the al-Saud ruling family. This is the deep schism we see today in Saudi Arabia, between the modernizing current of which King Abdullah is a part, and the Juhayman orientation of which bin Laden, and the Saudi supporters of ISIS and the Saudi religious establishment are a part. It is also a schism that exists within the Saudi royal family itself. According to the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper, in July 2014 an opinion poll of Saudis [was] released on social networking sites, claiming that 92 percent of the target group believes that IS conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law. The leading Saudi commentator, Jamal Khashoggi, recently warned of ISIS Saudi supporters who watch from the shadows. There are angry youths with a skewed mentality and understanding of life and sharia, and they are canceling a heritage of centuries and the supposed gains of a modernization that hasnt been completed. They turned into rebels, emirs and a caliph invading a vast area of our land. They are hijacking our childrens minds and canceling borders. They reject all rules and legislations, throwing it [a]way ... for their vision of politics, governance, life, society and economy. [For] the citizens of the self-declared commander of the faithful, or Caliph, you have no other choice ... They dont care if you stand out among your people and if you are an educated man, or a lecturer, or a tribe leader, or a religious leader, or an active politician or even a judge ... You must obey the commander of the faithful and pledge the oath of allegiance to him. When their policies are questioned, Abu Obedia al-Jazrawi yells, saying: Shut up. Our reference is the book and the Sunnah and thats it. What did we do wrong? Khashoggi asks . With 3,000-4,000 Saudi fighters in the Islamic State today, he advises of the need to look inward to explain ISIS rise. Maybe it is time, he says, to admit our political mistakes, to correct the mistakes of our predecessors. MODERNIZING KING THE MOST VULNERABLE



The present Saudi king, Abdullah, paradoxically is all the more vulnerable precisely because he has been a modernizer. The King has curbed the influence of the religious institutions and the religious police  and importantly has permitted the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence to be used, by those who adhere to them (al-Wahhab, by contrast, objected to all other schools of jurisprudence other than his own). The key political question is whether the simple fact of ISIS successes, and the full manifestation (flowering) of all the original pieties and vanguardism of the archetypal impulse, will stimulate and activate the dissenter gene  within the Saudi kingdom. If it does, and Saudi Arabia is engulfed by the ISIS fervor, the Gulf will never be the same again. Saudi Arabia will deconstruct and the Middle East will be unrecognizable. It is even possible too for Shiite residents of eastern Saudi Arabia to invoke Jaafri jurisprudence and to turn to Jaafari Shiite clerics for rulings. (In clear contrast, al-Wahhab held a particular animosity towards the Shiite and held them to be apostates. As recently as the 1990s, clerics such as bin Baz  the former Mufti  and Abdullah Jibrin reiterated the customary view that the Shiite were infidels). Some contemporary Saudi ulema would regard such reforms as constituting almost a provocation against Wahhabist doctrines, or at the very least, another example of westernization. ISIS, for example, regards any who seek jurisdiction other than that offered by the Islamic State itself to be guilty of disbelief  since all such other jurisdictions embody innovation or borrowings from other cultures in its view. The key political question is whether the simple fact of ISIS successes, and the full manifestation (flowering) of all the original pieties and vanguardism of the archetypal impulse, will stimulate and activate the dissenter gene  within the Saudi kingdom. If it does, and Saudi Arabia is engulfed by the ISIS fervor, the Gulf will never be the same again. Saudi Arabia will deconstruct and the Middle East will be unrecognizable. They hold up a mirror to Saudi society that seems to reflect back to them an image of purity lost In short, this is the nature of the time bomb tossed into the Middle East. The ISIS allusions to Abd al-Wahhab and Juhayman (whose dissident writings are circulated within ISIS) present a powerful provocation: they hold up a mirror to Saudi society that seems to reflect back to them an image of purity lost and early beliefs and certainties displaced by shows of wealth and indulgence. This is the ISIS bomb hurled into Saudi society. King Abdullah  and his reforms  are popular, and perhaps he can contain a new outbreak of Ikwhani dissidence. But will that option remain a possibility after his death? And here is the difficulty with evolving U.S. policy, which seems to be one of leading from behind again  and looking to Sunni states and communities to coalesce in the fight against ISIS (as in Iraq with the Awakening Councils). It is a strategy that seems highly implausible. Who would want to insert themselves into this sensitive intra-Saudi rift? And would concerted Sunni attacks on ISIS make King Abdullahs situation better, or might it inflame and anger domestic Saudi dissidence even further? So whom precisely does ISIS threaten? It could not be clearer. It does not directly threaten the West (though westerners should remain wary, and not tread on this particular scorpion). The Saudi Ikhwani history is plain: As Ibn Saud and Abd al-Wahhab made it such in the 18th century; and as the Saudi Ikhwan made it such in the 20th century. ISIS real target must be the Hijaz  the seizure of Mecca and Medina  and the legitimacy that this will confer on ISIS as the new Emirs of Arabia. Alastair Crooke, a former top British MI-6 agent in the Middle East, is author of Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution. This article was first published by Huffington Post - See also U.S. Doubled Support for Saudi Bombing Campaign in Yemen Saudi Arabia boosting extremism in Europe, says former ambassador Theresa May buries report feared to show Saudi links to extremism The West Must Face Reality: Saudi Regime Is the Root Cause of Islamist Terrorism Thanks to State Department Cables, a Torture Victim Won a Rare $10 Million Settlement The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. Click here to comment on our Facebook page
If North Korea Didnt Exist The US Would Create It

By Nizar Visram

July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - There is only one reason why the US is obsessed with North Korea. It allows the US to maintain a massive military presence in East Asia. If not for tensions on the Korean peninsula, the US would lose its rationale for its network of military bases in the region, which are primarily meant to threaten and contain China.

In its latest move early June 2017, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the United States to expand the scope of sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its latest missile tests.

Prior to this the UNSC had slapped North Korea with six rounds of sanctions, but Washington and its allies have been pushing for more powerful and crippling sanctions in an attempt to halt the increasing wave of missile tests by Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, President Trump said all options are on the table (implying a military solution), while his Vice President Pence declared the end of strategic patience. Pence added :

The patience of the United States in this region has run out The world has witnessed the strength and resolve of the US in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan. 

Pence was alluding to the 59 cruise missiles the US launched at a Syrian military airfield, and the 22,000-pound mother of all bombs, the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat by the United States, dropped in Afghanistan.

US war games

Right after striking Syria, President Trump dispatched a giant armada led by an aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, to the Korean peninsula as a show of force. The US also dispatched a nuclear-powered guided missile submarine, the USS Michigan, to the region, capable of launching up to 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about 1,000 miles. The 6,900-tonne USS Cheyenne arrived in the South Korean port of Busan.

The US also has nearly 80,000 military personnel in South Korea and Japan, as well as military aircraft and other hardware on a high state of alert in South Korea. The USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group are based at the Japanese port of Yokosuka, while the US 7th Fleet, armed with tactical nuclear weapons, patrols the region.

US nukes are also based in South Korea and Guam, while heavy B-1 and B-52 bombers can fly from North America to Korea. In the event of a war with North Korea, the US military takes over the South Korean military with some 625,000 personnel as well as naval, air and anti-missile systems.

To top it all, U.S. performs, twice annually, the largest war games in the world with South Korea, in which it practises an assassination of North Koreas top leadership, the invasion and occupation of North Korea, and a nuclear first strike against North Korea with imitation armaments.

The Foal Eagle war games include 300,000 South Korean soldiers and 15,000 US troops. This year, the exercises also feature Navy SEAL Team Six, which is best known for assassinating Osama bin Laden on Obamas orders.

Moreover, an American plan was made public last September proclaiming that the Norths capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map if it shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon.

THAAD provokes anger

The US also installed an advanced missile system in South Korea, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). This provoked strong opposition from China and Russia who consider it a provocative move and a threat to their national security. Chinese Foreign Ministry said :

The THAAD deployment by the US severely disrupts regional strategic balance, undermines the strategic security interests of regional countries, including China, and does no good to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,

THAAD system has also enraged the people of South Korea. The government there deployed 8,000 riot police to forcibly remove the residents and Buddhist monks protesting near the THAAD site. Over 900 shaved their heads in protest . They expressed concerns about the electromagnetic waves emitted by the radar and the long-term impact on their health and agriculture

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Police evicted the protestors to clear a path for 38 US military vehicles carrying THAAD parts and equipment. A total of 12 protesters sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital.

Under such conditions, any military action, however limited, would trigger a conflict that could draw in neighbouring countries. American administrations have been contemplating the idea of pre-emptive strike against North Korea, but were quickly restrained, knowing that it would prompt a counter-reaction. They couldnt justify military action that would endanger lives of millions of Koreans, with 28,500 U.S. soldiers and 230,000 Americans living there.

US shreds peace pact

In 1994 President Clinton entered a framework agreement under which North Korea that would end its efforts to develop nuclear weapons, while the U.S. would cut down its hostile acts.

It worked, as up to 2000 North Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons programs. Enter George W. Bush and he immediately launches an assault on North Korea, with his "axis of evil" mantra and explicit aim of regime change. North Korea in turn reverts to its erstwhile nuclear programme.

Once again, the two countries entered an agreement in 2005 and once again Bush shredded it and reverted to sanctions. North Korea backed off, and resumed its nuclear program. As Noam Chomsky said :

If you like it, one can say its the worst regime in history, whatever you like, but they have been following a pretty rational tit-for-tat policy.

DPRK not suicidal

Ex-US president Jimmy Carter once spoke about American militarism, saying since World War II, the country has been at war. He added that he could not think of any place on earth today where the United States is working to promote peace.

In the early 1990s, Carter met North Korean leader Kim II Sung who expressed the desire for a peace treaty with the United States. The result was a successful treaty that ended the Korean nuclear weapons program and economic embargo, allowing Americans to search for the remains of Korean War veterans.

While Bush dismantled that agreement, Obama intensified war games with South Korea, including a simulated nuclear attack on North Korea, and tightened the economic stranglehold.

In his address Carter said: "I've been there two or three times since the 1994 agreement, and I can tell you what the North Koreans want is a peace treaty with the United States and they want the 60-year economic embargo lifted against their people, so they can have an equal chance to trade They make a lot of mistakes, but if the United States would just talk to the North KoreansI believewe could have peace, and the United States would be a lot better off in the long run."

In fact North Korea has threatened to retaliate only in response to a U.S. pre-emptive military strike. In the 7th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea, its leader Kim Jong Un affirmed that his country would not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was violated.

Former US Secretary of Defense William Perry, who helped negotiate a freeze of North Koreas nuclear program during the Clinton administration, agrees : I believe that the danger of a North Korean ICBM program is not that they would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States. They are not suicidal.

Lesson from Gaddafi

Perhaps it would be suicidal for them to give up their nuclear arsenal, after what happened to Gaddafi of Libya.

Undoubtedly, Kim Jong Un knows only too well how Gaddafi ended his days, the way he was overthrown and then lynched under US/NATO command. By surrendering his military weaponry, he signed his death warrant. He submitted his weapons and deposited some $200 billion of Libyan national wealth in Western banks. Yet in the end the West took its skin.

In the West it is rarely brought to light that the US has repeatedly turned down North Koreas offers to end nuclear weapon development. Offers have been put forward by North Korea back to the Clinton administration in the 1990s but were then rejected by the US.

The most recent proposal was made in 2015 when North Korea offered to halt nuclear testing if the United States would cancel an annual spring military exercise with South Korea, but Washington rejected the proposal.

War crime

It is hardly surprising that North Koreans want peace, for they remember the war in the fifties when the US Air Force carpet-bombed their country with incendiaries and explosives, dropping 635,000 tons of explosive bombs and up to 40,000 tons of napalm.

They remember the worst atrocities carried out by South Korean police, who took part in prostitution rings, racketeering, blackmail and the execution of thousands of political prisoners, and routine execution of prisoners of war, including old men, women and children. Western reporters who revealed these atrocities had US censorship imposed on them.

North Korea was carpet-bombed for three years by US, destroying every town and village. In the words of Air Force General Curtis LeMay : We burned down every town in North Korea . Over a period of three years or so we killed  what  20 percent of the population.

To quote Senator John Glenn , a Korea war veteran who ended up as an astronaut, We did a lot of napalm work . You could strafe them, bomb them, napalm them, flying in low. Quite a variety of weapons.

And in the final stages of the war, mass bombing (1,514 sorties) of hydro-electric and irrigation dams was done, flooding and destroying huge areas of farmland and crops. Five reservoirs were hit, flooding thousands of acres of farmland, inundating whole towns and laying waste to the essential food source for millions of North Koreans.

Quoting Professor Charles Armstrong, Director of the Centre for Korean Research (Columbia University):

The physical destruction and loss of life on both sides was almost beyond comprehension, but the North suffered the greater damage, due to American saturation bombing and the scorched-earth policy of the retreating UN (read US) forces.

Chief Justice William O. Douglas visited Korea in the summer of 1952 and declared , "I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe; but I had not seen devastation until I had seen Korea."

One can thus barely blame North Korea if today it is highly militarised, displaying deep antipathy towards the state that rained death and destruction on its people, towns and villages. That mass killing and destruction of civilians was war crimes never brought to any court of justice.

US strategy

Instead, the US carries on with its threats of regime change and gun-boat diplomacy. Dennis Etler of Cabrillo College in California says the US refuses to deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula in order to maintain its network of military bases in East Asia and contain China.

There is only one reason why US seeks to quarantine the DPRK. It allows the US to maintain a military presence in East Asia. If not for tensions on the Korean peninsula, the US would lose its rationale for its network of military bases in the region, which are primarily meant to threaten and contain China he adds .

James R. Lilley puts it succinctly when he says : At the end of the Cold War, if North Korea didnt exist we would have to create it as an excuse to keep the Seventh Fleet in the region.

He is talking of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with 70 to 80 ships and submarines, 300 aircraft and approximately 40,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel

Lilley speaks as an insider, having been member, together with his close friend, George H.W. Bush, of the infamous Yale University Skull & Bones secret society. He served some three decades at the CIA along with Bush. Both Lilley and Bush were US Ambassadors to China.
Trumps Worst Collusion Isnt With Russia  Its With Corporations





The billionaires who backed Trump are making out a lot better than Putin.



By Peter Certo

July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Ive always been a little skeptical that thered be a smoking gun about the Trump campaigns alleged collusion with Russia. The latest news about Donald Trump, Jr., however, is tantalizingly close.

The short version of the story, revealed by emails the New York Times obtained, is that the presidents eldest son was offered some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and would be very useful to your father.

More to the point, the younger Trump was explicitly told this was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. Donald, Jr.s reply? I love it.

Trump Jr. didnt just host that meeting at Trump Tower. He also brought along campaign manager Paul Manafort and top Trump confidante (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner.

We still dont have evidence they coordinated with Russian efforts to release Clinton campaign emails, spread fake news, or hack state voting systems. But at the very least, the top members of Trumps inner circle turned up to get intelligence they knew was part of a foreign effort to meddle in the election.

Some in Washington are convinced theyve heard enough already, with Virginia senator (and failed VP candidate) Tim Kaine calling the meeting  treason .

Perhaps. But its worth asking: Whos done the real harm here? Some argue its not the Russians after all.

The effects of the crime are undetectable, the legendary social critic Noam Chomsky says of the alleged Russian meddling, unlike the massive effects of interference by corporate power and private wealth.

Thats worth dwelling on.

Many leading liberals suspect, now with a little more evidence, that Trump worked with Russia to win his election. But weve long known that huge corporations and wealthy individuals threw their weight behind the billionaire.

That gambits paying off far more handsomely for them  and more destructively for the rest of us  than any scheme by Putin.

The evidence is hiding in plain sight.

The top priority in Congress right now is to move a health bill that would gut Medicaid and throw at least 22 million Americans off their insurance  while loosening regulations on insurance companies and cutting taxes on the wealthiest by over $346 billion .

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As few as 12 percent of Americans support that bill, but the allegiance of its supporters isnt to voters  its plainly to the wealthy donors whod get those tax cuts.

Meanwhile, majorities of Americans in every single congressional district support efforts to curb local pollution, limit carbon emissions, and transition to wind and solar. And majorities in every single state back the Paris climate agreement.

Yet even as scientists warn large parts of the planet could soon become uninhabitable, the fossil fuel-backed Trump administration has put a climate denier in charge of the EPA, pulled the U.S. out of Paris, and signed legislation to let coal companies dump toxic ash in local waterways .

Meanwhile, as the administration escalates the unpopular Afghan war once again, Kushner invited billionaire military contractors  including Blackwater founder Erik Prince  to advise on policy there.

Elsewhere, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other architects of the housing crash are advising Trump on financial deregulation , while student debt profiteers set policy at the Department of Education.

Chomsky complains that this sort of collusion is often not considered a crime but the normal workings of democracy. While Trump has taken it to new heights, its certainly a bipartisan problem.

If Trumps people did work with Russia to undermine our vote, they should absolutely be held accountable. But the politicians leading the charge dont have a snowballs chance of redeeming our democracy unless theyre willing to take on the corporate conspirators much closer to home.

Peter Certo is the editorial manager of the Institute for Policy Studies and the editor of OtherWords.org.

This article was first published by OtherWords -

See also - How the Clintons Longstanding Ukrainian Donor Allegedly Sponsored Hillary's Run
US Ranked Worst Healthcare System: UKs National Health Service Leads

By Andy Coghlan

July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - A comparison of health systems in 11 wealthy nations has found the US falling short by multiple measures, while the UKs National Health Service leads in several categories.

We measured performance quality across five domains, and the USA fell short in all five, says Eric Schneider of the Commonwealth Fund think tank in Washington DC. The domains were ease of access to healthcare, how equal access is to people of different incomes, administrative efficiency, how well the care process works for people who use it, and how good the health outcomes are.

The analysis included data from sources including the World Health Organization, the OECD, and questionnaires completed by people and their doctors in the 11 countries examined, which also included Australia, Canada, Germany and Sweden.

Overall, the US ranked last, although it ranked fifth in the care process category. The UK came top overall, but ranked tenth for healthcare outcomes  how well patients fare after treatment.

Unequal access

The US fell particularly short when it came to access to healthcare. The study found that in the US, 44 per cent of people on low incomes have difficulty accessing healthcare, and even 26 per cent of those on high incomes report access problems. The equivalent figures in the UK are only 7 and 4 per cent. A higher-earning person in the US is more likely to meet cost barriers than a low-income person in the UK, says Schneider.

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The report says that, since President Obamas Affordable Care Act (ACA) had been introduced, there has been some improvement, with access to healthcare coverage being extended to more than 20 million extra people in the US.

The ACA has helped make major strides in coverage and access to care in the US, particularly for lower-income Americans, says Benjamin Sommers of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

Current proposals being debated in Congress could undo most of that progress by increasing the number of people without health insurance by more than 20 million over the next decade, says Sommers. Rather than narrowing the gap with its rivals, the US might fall further behind.

This article was first published by New Scientist -
July 14, 2017 "

Information Clearing House

" -

Naomi Klein: Im Naomi Klein, reporting for The Intercept, and Im here in London at the Houses of Parliament with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, three weeks after the Labour Party in an historic election won many, many more seats than anybody predicted  except for some of the people in this room, who saw it coming. And its just an enormous pleasure to be here with Jeremy and to talk about the importance of a forward-looking, bold agenda to do battle with the right. Hi, Jeremy.

Jeremy Corbyn: Lovely to see you.

NK: So, Jeremy Corbyn, its been extraordinary being in the U.K. this week, and seeing the political space that you have opened up, and the fact that now were seeing the Tories try to poach some of your policies and scramble to try to appeal to young people by talking about maybe getting rid of tuition fees.

JC: Well, social justice isnt copyrighted, but its a bigger picture than just the individual issues.

NK: I want to talk about this extraordinary moment in which the project that really began under Thatcher in this country, and Reagan in the U.S.  the whole so-called consensus that never really was a consensus, the war on the collective, on the idea that we can do good things when we get together  is crumbling. But its also kind of a dangerous moment, when you have a vacuum of ideology, because dangerous ideas are also surging. So what is the plan to make sure that it is progressive, hopeful ideas that enter into this vacuum that has opened up?

JC: Its been a very interesting two years. Weve had two leadership elections in the Labour Party, which mobilized very large numbers of people. Its not about me. Its about a cause, its about people. And then weve just come out of a general election campaign in which we started in a very difficult political position and ended up gaining three million more votes than 2015, and the highest Labour vote in England for many, many decades.

There was a big swing to Labour, but not quite enough, unfortunately, to give us a Parliamentary majority. And so, were now in a situation where there is a huge confidence amongst those that are campaigning for ending the wage cap in the public sector for investment in public services. And a huge degree of uncertainty by the right and by the Conservatives.

NK: I feel like what your campaign has done, and the boldness of the Labour Manifesto  and this election campaign has proved that when you put the ideas forward, when you put the bold vision of the world we actually want  not just the opposition to austerity, you know, not just the no, but also a picture of the world that could be so much better than we have, thats when people get excited.

JC: The strongest message  indeed. I said this at many, many rallies and events we held: Look around the crowd. Look at each other. Youre all different. Youre all unique. Youre all individuals. You have different backgrounds, languages. Different ethnic communities. But youre all united. Youre united in what you actually want in the sense of a collective in society.

And I think the election campaign was a turning point away from the supreme individualism of the right towards the idea that youre a better society when you have a collective good about it.

NK: And what about that picture of the world after we win? How important is that?

JC: The picture of the world is a crucial one. It is about what we do to deal with issues of injustice and inequality and poverty, and above all, hope and opportunity for young people. Hope that they can get to college or university, opportunity they can get a decent job. And its also about the contribution we make to the rest of the world and the relationship we have with the rest of the world.

I want a foreign policy based on human rights, based on respect for international law, based for recognizing the causes of the refugee flows, the causes of the injustice around the world. And that is something were developing. And indeed, there were some awful events during the election campaign. Before the election started there was an attack on Westminster itself and on Parliament. There was then the dreadful bomb in Manchester. And then there was an attack in London on London Bridge.

NK: And you committed kind of political heresy because you talked about some of the root causes. Yet that resonated with people.

JC: Im not in any way minimizing the horror of what happened or the awful things the individuals did, but I said youve got to look at the international context in which theres been this growth. And I can hear myself like yesterday, on February 15, 2003, saying, What could be the worst-case scenario if we went to war in Iraq? I wasnt defending Saddam Hussein. I was just saying, if you go to war in Iraq and you destabilize the whole country, there are consequences.

NK: I think its important for Americans in this moment to understand that you were able to say that, and that it resonated with people because they know it to be true. Because we dont know whats going to happen during the Trump administration. But we do know that Donald Trump fully intends to take advantage of any crisis to push forward this incredibly regressive, xenophobic agenda, because he tried to exploit the Manchester attacks to say this is about immigrants flowing across our borders. He tried to take advantage of the London Bridge attack to say this is why we need to Muslim ban.

JC: He also attacked the mayor of London, whos the first Muslim elected to mayoral office anywhere in Western Europe. People were extremely angry at the language he used toward Sadiq Khan, who is, after all, elected mayor of the city.

NK: Well, what do you say to some of the world leaders who think that they can only go so far in standing up to Trump? You know, like maybe theyll put out a sassy meme of some kind. But ultimately theyre going to welcome him with open arms. What do you think the stance of other world leaders who claim to stand for progressive values should be in this moment?

JC: Well, I think theyve got to meet Trump and discuss with him, as one would with any leader. I was shocked by the language he used during his election campaign  about women, about Muslims, and about Mexicans, about other people in society. I was also appalled at the language he used surrounding the Paris Climate Change discussions. I mean, these are serious, serious global issues. What kind of world are we going to leave in the future? What are we doing to this planet? And he seemed to think this was an opportunity for promoting polluting industries.

NK: Well, he actually said he was going to negotiate a better deal.

JC: Well, Im not sure what he means by a better deal and that would be an interesting discussion. But having worked, like you have, for a very long time on these issues, the fact that finally India and China, in a formal setting, came onboard with the idea there are limits to emissions, there are limits to pollution, there are limits to what you can do. For the USA having come onboard under Obama, then walking away under Trump, is beyond sad.

NK: But certainly because theyre going so rogue on climate, I think there is a responsibility for everybody else to do more in this moment, not to just sort of  okay, hes lowered the bar so much that everybody looks good in comparison. And we are seeing examples of that. Were seeing  including in the U.S., were seeing cities stepping up and saying, well, were going to speed up our transition to renewables. And internationally I think we can see the same thing as well.

JC: I think that the image of the USA is too often presented as the image of what Donald Trump has said day-to-day, whereas the reality, look at the number of jobs in renewables in California alone runs into the hundreds of thousands. Look at the growth of renewable energy systems across the USA, the number of states and cities that are serious about protecting their environment and controlling what they can of climate change.

NK: I want to talk a little bit about the way some of my friends in the United States are feeling right now, who were very inspired by this election campaign and by your leadership bid within the Labour Party.

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I have to tell you that people are feeling a little discouraged right now in the United States. They are up against Trump, but theyre also up against a Democratic party that is fighting them on single-payer healthcare, on universal public healthcare, that seems to want to keep charting what they see as a safe, centrist path, but what were seeing again and again is its not safe because its a losing path. Its not speaking to peoples urgent needs for good jobs, for a free public education and affordable healthcare. What do you say to the people who organized for Bernie and are just feeling really frustrated right now?

JC: Bernie called me the day after our election here. I was half asleep watching something on television. And Bernie comes on to say, well done on the campaign, and I was interested in your campaigning ideas. Where did you get them from? And I said, well, you, actually.

And what I would say to people is: Dont be discouraged. At the end of the day, human beings want to do things together. They want to do things collectively. And thats the kind of society all of us are trying to create. We went into an election campaign in a difficult political position, and we put forward a manifesto that was collective in its approach, was specific in what it would do, in the sense of ending university tuition fees, in the sense of raising minimum income, and we gained the biggest increase in vote for our party since the Second World War. And we gained the support and participation of a very large number of people. We didnt win the election. I wish we had. But in that campaign, we changed the debate in exactly the same way Senator Bernie Sanderss intervention into Democratic nomination did mobilize a very large number of people.

NK: But you did win the leadership of the Labour Party. That campaign wasnt ultimately successful within the Democratic Party. Do you think people should keep fighting for the soul of that party?

JC: Well, its the soul of the people, isnt it?

Its not for me to tell people what specific organizations they should or shouldnt have in the USA, because the party system in the USA is very different.

What weve done is change the terms of debate, but the other key point, and this is what works on both sides of the Atlantic, is a method of campaigning. You knock on doors and you identify voters. Thats key, crucial. But if youre seen solely through the prism of media that is quite rightwing and quite conservative in its views, then all youre doing when you knock on the door is hearing an echo of what people have heard on a rightwing television station or through the printed media.

Social media and the technology and techniques that are there through social media give an opportunity thats never been there before to get that message across. Just think, those people that were campaigning for social justice in Chicago in the 1920s, the best they could do was print their own newspaper if they could afford it, or make a leaflet and take it round and hand it out on bread queues. I grew up in the era when you used to print your own leaflets and go and give them out. You can now send out something on social media, and you can reach potentially millions of people in five minutes. The opportunities are there. And its not regulated, its not censored, its not controlled.

William Randolph Hearst would have hated the Internet.

NK: It seems to me that you have received just about as bad media treatment, smears from elite media, as is possible to receive. And yet it didnt work. In fact, it seems to have backlashed and contributed to this feeling of loss of faith in many of these elite institutions.

JC: I think theres something in that. After a while, a high degree of media abuse makes you a figure of interest.

NK: You talk about changing the debate, and thats clearly happened. One of the places weve seen this is in the Grenfell Tower catastrophe crime scene. And the way in which this horrific event has been interpreted, it seems, throughout British society, is as extreme evidence of a failed system that does not value human life, that puts kind of a hierarchy on life.

JC: What it exposed was something about modern urban living. This is the borough in London that is the richest in the whole country. Very, very rich borough. And its council gave a rebate to the top taxpayers last year. Gave them a little gift.

NK: Money back.

JC: That tower had several hundred people living in it, some of whom were tenants of the local council, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Some flats had been bought independently, and they were sub-tenanted or sub-sub-tenanted. Nobody really knew who was in the block. The whole system collapsed. The reality was, its a product of insufficient regulation, of deregulation, and it was a towering inferno of the poor being burnt in the richest borough in the country.

And thats a wakeup call about safety of buildings. Its a wakeup call about the idea you go forward to this wonderful free market Valhalla of the future by tearing up every regulation like its a denial of the opportunities for the private sector. And so the debate has turned full circle on this. I went there the following day and spent quite a lot of time talking to those that escaped from the tower, and talking to traumatized firefighters and paramedics and ambulance workers and police officers who were getting ready to go into the building  to was then cooling from the fire  in order to bring out the bodies. Theyre the real heroes in this. Its a lesson for the whole country. But people are frightened.

NK: Theres a wall now  and I think youve probably seen it  where residents have put up questions that they have for the authorities. And you know, these questions are just completely heartbreaking. Theres kids asking, Is my school safe? Theres on question from a ten-year-old child who said, Why does it take this to bring us together?

JC: Thats a good question.

NK: I think we learn this lesson again and again during times of crisis, when were tested. We can either turn inward and against each other, and we saw a lot of that after 9/11 in the United States, where Muslims were scapegoated, and we lost a lot of liberties in this country and around the world with these draconian laws pushed through. Wars were started in the name of that attack.

And here we are in a time of overlapping crisis. Climate change is one of those crises, and inequality is another, and racial injustice is another. Do you think we can connect the dots and develop an agenda that solves multiple problems at once, multiple crises?

JC: Well, climate change and refugees are linked. Climate change and war is linked. Environmental disaster, not necessarily always associated with climate change, is also linked when you have deforestation and you end up destroying your local environment because of it.

And so, if you look at the war in Darfur, look at the refugee flows into Libya, partly from the war in Syria, also from human rights abuses across the whole region. Also from people who have been driven off their land in sub-Saharan Africa to make way for often very large corporations buying up land to grow various crops, often rice or fruit, to export somewhere else, leaving the local population unemployed and hungry. There is a connection about the need for supporting the living and development rights of everybody, not just yourself at their expense.

NK: I want to ask you if theres been a moment that really sticks with you during the campaign or since that is the most hopeful moment youve seen, where you could see the country that you want to live in, a glimpse of it.

JC: There was a gentleman who came to our rally in Hastings, which is south coast seaside resort fishing town. He was aged 91. I joked with him, because Id been told he was 92, and he said how dare I call him 92, he was only 91. He joined the Labour Party in 1945, been a party member ever since then. Very active all his life. And he said this was the most hopeful time of his life. And he told me his mother had been a suffragette who campaigned for the womens right to vote at the time of the First World War. And his grandfather had been in the Chartists in the 1850s, which helped bring about some degree of democracy in Britain. And I just thought, this man has come out to a rally on a Saturday morning at that age because hes full of hope for young people.

We were characterized as an election campaign that was full of young, idealistic people. Yeah, there were a lot of young people there, and many of them with brilliant ideals and brilliant imagination. There were also a lot of older people there who came there saying, I want something better for my grandchildren. I want something better for society in the future. It was a coming together of large numbers of people.

NK: Well, I really want to thank you for your leadership and for your boldness, because it isnt only inspiring people in this country; I think its inspiring people around the world who really do need some inspiration right now, particularly in United States.
Begala: We Should Debate Whether We Should Blow Up Russia

By Daily Beast

July 14, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Long-time Clinton family ally Paul Begala on Wednesday evening seemingly suggested President Trump should consider bombing Russia in response to the Kremlins meddling in the 2016 election. Speaking with CNNs Anderson Cooper, the former adviser to Bill Clinton lamented how Trump supporters dont seem particularly outraged about Russias meddling in American affairs. We were and are under attack by a hostile foreign power, he said, and... we should be debating how many sanctions we should place on Russia or whether we should blow up the KGB, GSU, or GRU [Russias foreign intelligence agency]. He continued: If I was Trump, I would be mad because it has tainted his victory.

Hmmm... uhh... so here's Paul Begala, top Clinton ally, saying Trump should consider bombing Russia. https://t.co/2tW1gI0Uxh pic.twitter.com/wo9BmJPNDb  Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) July 13, 2017

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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has received five Super Mushsak fighter planes from Pakistan to enhance its air power capability.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal, Sadiq Abubakar and members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on NAF inspected the war planes on Friday in Kaduna.

Sadiq said the planes which would be unveiled later, were acquired for the training of air force personnel and to improve the service air power.

The air chief, who witnessed the graduation of 269 NAF special squad for the protection of critical national assets, said the service remains committed to safeguarding the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

The personnel went through the Basic Regiment Airmen Course and Force Protection in Complex Air Ground Environment Course at the NAF Regiment Training Centre, Kaduna.

Abubakar challenged the personnel to remain committed to the Nigeria project, assuring them that the leadership of the force would transform the service for effective and efficient response to any security challenge.

Our engagement in different theatres of operation and the need to protect the limited resources available to undertake our statutory responsibilities of projecting air power underscores the need to continually develop force protection capability of the service.

The training you have received on force protection in complex air ground environment will require you to speedily gain the capacity to enable the service to locally develop and sustain additional workforce in the field of specialisation, he said.

Abubakar commended the British Government for it continued support towards capacity building of air personnel through the BMATT program.

It is my desire that with time, we will extend these ties of cooperation to other NAF missions.

The chief of air staff challenged the graduates to rededicate themselves and ensure excellence in the discharge of their duties.

He admonished them to always allow their actions to be guided by respect for the rule of law and rights and dignity of citizens.

Abubakar pledged that NAF would meet its social contract with the Nigerian people, even as it takes on more responsibilities.

Source:( PM News )
A woman has been dumped by her husband after they spent 20 years trying to have a baby, when she finally became pregnant as a pensioner aged 60.

The husband changed his mind when he heard the baby screaming in the maternity ward  and told his wife that he was too old to put up with the crying. Serif Nokic, 68, decided to leave her on the day the baby arrived in Novi Pazar, Serbia.

He told his partner, Atifa Ljajic, that newborn daughter, Alina, would keep him up at night with her crying. When asked about abandoning new mum Atifa, Serif said: She got what she wanted, now she is happy.

Serif claims that living with a baby at his age would be too damaging to his health. Atifa also has health problems, including high blood pressure, but says she is ready to raise her daughter alone.

Serif said: Above all, I am a sick man, I am 68, I am a diabetic and I have a weak heart. It is not easy not to sleep all night and to hear a babys cry.

Serif claimed that he had gone along with the idea even though he had opposed the pregnancy at first. But as Atifa held Alina in her arms for the first time, Serif decided he did not want to be with his new family.

Little Alina will not even have his last name as he refused to have her registered as his daughter. The couple are thought to have used an anonymous sperm donor. Atifa, who worked in a textile factory, says she will raise her baby by herself even though she has little money.

Atifa had almost given up hope of having children, when doctors told her she was finally expecting a baby, following fertility treatment. Atifa fulfilled her lifelong dream when she successfully gave birth to the healthy baby girl.

She added: I knew it would be a big risk at my age, but my only wish in my life was that I have a child, and it happened to me. I was not afraid of my life at all, God gave me courage. I have never felt better.
We had earlier reported this week that Nollywood Yoruba actress, Lola Margaret Oladipupo is cooling off in an Atlanta, Georgia, jail after she was arrested for credit card fraud in the United States of America.

Lola was arrested weeks after attempting to withdraw suspicious sums from her account. She had been making the suspicious withdrawals for a while now, until the police whisked her after a last attempt.

Sources close to the actress alleged that the Lola was initially released on condition that reveals the identities of the characters she was working with on the illegal withdrawals, and she did. However, the police later returned to take her in for further interrogations, and she has been in their custody ever since.

There were no official reports on the alleged card fraud by the Atlanta police, and also Lolas colleagues in Nigeria in a bid to address the trending rumour, but the actress mugshot has finally been released online as seen above.
Unknown Gunmen have kidnapped the wife of a banker identified as Kingsley, the duo were abducted on June 11, 2017, while on their way back to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, from Ekpoma, Edo State.

The duo wedded on April 29, 2017. Narrating how they were accosted by heavily armed kidnappers around Rumuoji, Kingsley explained that he tried to escape from the kidnappers with the reverse gear immediately they came out of the bush.

When they saw that I was making an attempt to escape, they began to shoot at the bonnet sporadically and the engine of my car stopped immediately. They came and dragged us out of the car and moved us into the bush.

The kidnappers were in two groups; one of the groups took my wife to one direction while the other took me to another direction. We were attacked and taken away at about 3.40pm.

I was asking them about my wifes whereabouts and they assured me that she was with the other group. By the time I saw my wife, she had collapsed and her face was swollen.

I became afraid and begged them that they should release us so that I could take her to the hospital. They gave me the beating of my life. That was about 8pm. When I continued to beg them, they allowed me to call a friend of mine (James) to drive down to the main road that night to pick my wife and rush her to the hospital.

The kidnappers ordered me to carry her to the road while they followed me. The entire place was dark and I carried my wife and tried to wait and have a rest, the kidnappers would again begin to beat me.

This continued until we got to the road. I was told to lay my unconscious wife by the side of the highway with some leaves used to surround her for easy identification. They immediately marched me back to the bush.

My friend eventually took her to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead, Kingsley, who was eventually released around midnight, said he was still shocked that Adaoma, who he married five weeks earlier, was killed by kidnappers.

Source: ( Instablog9ja )
A banker, who only gave his name as Kingsley, has lamented the loss of his newly wedded wife, Adaoma, to gunmen suspected to be kidnappers.

According to Punch, Adaoma and her husband were abducted on June 11, 2017 while on their way back to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, from Ekpoma, Esan-West in Edo State.

The deceased and her husband wedded on April 29, 2017 in Port Harcourt.

Narrating how they were accosted by heavily armed kidnappers around Rumuoji in Emohua LGA of Rivers State, husband to the deceased, who insisted that his name should not be mentioned, explained that he tried to escape from the kidnappers with the reverse gear immediately they came out of the bush.

When they saw that I was making an attempt to escape, they began to shoot at the bonnet sporadically and the engine of my car stopped immediately. They came and dragged us out of the car and moved us into the bush. The kidnappers were in two groups; one of the groups took my wife to one direction while the other took me to another direction. We were attacked and taken away at about 3.40pm. I was asking them (kidnappers) about my wifes whereabouts and they assured me that she was with the other group. By the time I saw my wife, she had collapsed and her face was swollen. I became afraid and begged them that they should release us so that I could take her to the hospital. They gave me the beating of my life. That was about 8pm. When I continued to beg them, they allowed me to call a friend of mine (James) to drive down to the main road that night to pick my wife and rush her to the hospital. The kidnappers ordered me to carry her to the road while they followed me. The entire place was dark and I carried my wife and tried to wait and have a rest, the kidnappers would again begin to beat me. This continued until we got to the road. I was told to lay my unconscious wife by the side of the highway with some leaves used to surround her for easy identification. They immediately marched me back to the bush. My friend, who knew that we were kidnapped, travelled from Port Harcourt that night to the point where my unconscious wife was dropped. He eventually took her to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead, the devastated Kingsley added.

The husband, who was eventually released by the hoodlums around midnight, said that he was still shocked that Adaoma, who he married five weeks earlier, was killed by kidnappers.

Describing her as an easy-going, God-fearing person and a devout Christian, the husband explained that he was beaten to a pulp after the kidnappers spoke with his pastor, adding that his pastor had cursed them for abducting me and my wife.

They gave me another round of beating when my pastor spoke with them through my phone and cursed them. My wife must have been punched in the face or hit several times with the butt of a gun. They were dragging her along the bush. That might have caused her to collapse and died, he said amid tears.

He explained that he had been traumatised by his experience in the bush and felt that the kidnappers could still waylay him again.

However, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, said he was not aware of the incident and promised to reach the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Emohua, where the incident happened.
The chairman multi-millionaire oil company, MRS Oil Nigeria, has tendered his resignation as chairman of the company.

In a notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the management of MRS Oil said that its chairman, Sayyu Dantata, has tendered his resignation as chairman of the company, and will be replaced by Patrice Alberti.

According to TheCable , the letter signed by O.M. Jafojo, the company secretary, read:

By the resolution of the board of directors of MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, the following board changes were approved. The resignation of Alhaji Sayyu I. Dantata as the chairman of the board of directors of the company.

The appointment of Mr. Patrice Alberti as the chairman of the board,

Mr Alberti hold as bachelors degree in Economics from the Paris Academy and has been with the MRS Group since 2004. He is currently the group managing director of MRS Group of companies and a director on the board of Corlay Global S.A.

Prior to joing MRS Group, he held a number of positions over a period of 20 years in various banks in Europe including BNP Paribas, Banque Arabe Internationale DInvestitssment, Banco Central, South Africa.

MRS Oil was formerly known as Texaco Oil Nigeria. In September 2006, the board agreed to a name change and the company became Chevron Oil Nigeria.

In 2009, Corlay Global SA acquired Chevron Africas holdings, and the name was once changed to MRS Oil Nigeria PLC.
A clash between Jigawa Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), has left a bystander dead and others injured.

An operative of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, on Friday, went berserk, killing a bystander and injuring a Police sergeant in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State.

The incident occurred when Jigawa Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, sought reinforcement from the NSCDC personnel after clash with members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW.

Sources said NURTW touts descended on the FRSC officials, set ablaze their operational van, following impounding of some of their vehicles for failure to install speed limiters.

As soon as the Civil Defence officers arrived at the scene, they began beating everybody around. One of them started shooting despite the fact that the police asked him not to. He shot dead of the bystanders and a police sergeant, said a witness.
Sindika Dokolo, the son-in-law of Angolan President Jose dos Santos has been sentenced to jail for fraud in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The businessman and art collector whos married to dos Santos? billionaire daughter Isabel, reported to be the Africas richest woman was jailed in absentia for real estate fraud on Wednesday .

Reacting on Twitter, Sindika whos widely known as a big critic of Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and supporter to his rival party, accused him of orchestrating the conviction

?I have just inaugurated a $400 million factory. Kabila has condemned me to one year in prison over a plot of land.?

Speaking to Reuters on Thursday , he also denounced the verdict delivered by a court in the capital Kinshasa, as politically motivated.

This conviction is so crude. It seems that Kabila and the intelligence service are no longer even concerned about appearances, He said.

The business man also said that he had previously been acquitted in the same case.

Although, a Congo government spokesman said he was not aware of Dokolo?s conviction.

The Congolese Authorities have repeatedly rejected allegations that the Congo?s justice system is targeting the supporters of President Kabilas opponent.

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
Self acclaimed investigative journalist, Kemi Olunluyo has once again, attacked popular comedian, Seyilaw because he rejoiced when she went to prison and also maintain that his daughter was obese.

It seems that Nigerias controversial media personality, Kemi Olunloyo, was not humbled by her time spent in Port Harcourt prison this year (81 days), because the relentless troublemaker and alleged cyber bully has descended heavily on popular Comedian, Seyi Law.

The daughter of former Oyo state governor lambasted the comedian who has reportedly earlier said that he was happy at her arrest and detention.

Here is a lengthy reply written open letter which Kemi Olunloyo targeted at Seyi Law.

MY REPLY TO @SEYILAW1the complete IMBECILE OF A COMEDIAN. I GUESS I CAN SAY I DID NOT REJOICE WHEN I HEARD HE WASNT THE ONE BADOO CULTISTS KILLED RIGHT?

I heard you were happy I went to prison @seyilaw1. Your baby is still FAT AND OBESE. Take lessons from a health professional. There are lots of children in prison and all are healthier than Tiwa. I dont sugarcoat things. Your baby could hardly move in one crawling video. Stop overfeeding her.

I heard someone called her Kungfu panda. All these fake fans hyping her baby fat are laughing behind you. I went back to prison for another 24hrs due to a technicality and was glad to go back to check up on our 4 newborns and 5 toddlers. The food is better than your moms cooking. There is no prison food.



You cook your own food. Now I go weekly to prison to drop off supplies and money for inmates with babies and IPOB protesters forgotten by Nnamdi Kanu.

Excellence, Precious and some of those babies in there need our help, instead u are busy rejoicing about people going to prison, a pharmacist who advised u of your childs potential health danger. Shame on you and YOUR dumbass comedy.

I highly regret interviewing you giving u the exposure to my 27 million global blog readers. Go and read more about #childobesity. @majeayida pls forgive my anger here. As a foremost fitness trainer in Nigeria, you promised to do a write up to address fitness in children and childhood obesity but I was locked up for posting a news tip.

People like Seyi should focus on people giving them correct info rather than promoting fake cybercrime laws against media professionals. As soon as you are back, pls DM. Sorry about the #Lekkifloods. Thanks everyone for reading.

It was gathered that three days ago, Kemi returned to Port Harcourt prison to pay a visit to her adopted grandchild whose mother, Ruth is an inmate of the penitentiary.

Kemi took bags of provisions, diapers and cash to Ruth and other inmates just like some celebrities showed her love while she was incarcerated at the Port Harcourt prison for close to three months.
A man is currently battling for life after some faceless robbers in the northern part of Nigeria attacked him on Friday, 14th of July, 2017.

A young man landed in a hospital yesterday after he was attacked by some thieves in Bauchi state.

The incident which reportedly happened after the Jumat prayers  left the victim seriously injured as he was stabbed in the stomach with a knife with his intestines spilling out of his body.

He was rushed to a hospital where he was attended to by medical personnel.
Adaoma and her husband were abducted on June 11, 2017 while on their way back to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, from Ekpoma, Esan-West in Edo State.

A banker, who only gave his name as Kingsley, has lamented the loss of his newly wedded wife, Adaoma, to gunmen suspected to be kidnappers.

Adaoma and her husband were abducted on June 11, 2017 while on their way back to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, from Ekpoma, Esan-West in Edo State.

The deceased and her husband wedded on April 29, 2017 in Port Harcourt. Narrating how they were accosted by heavily armed kidnappers around Rumuoji in Emohua LGA of Rivers State, husband to the deceased, who insisted that his name should not be mentioned, explained that he tried to escape from the kidnappers with the reverse gear immediately they came out of the bush.

When they saw that I was making an attempt to escape, they began to shoot at the bonnet sporadically and the engine of my car stopped immediately. They came and dragged us out of the car and moved us into the bush.

The kidnappers were in two groups; one of the groups took my wife to one direction while the other took me to another direction. We were attacked and taken away at about 3.40pm. I was asking them (kidnappers) about my wifes whereabouts and they assured me that she was with the other group.

By the time I saw my wife, she had collapsed and her face was swollen. I became afraid and begged them that they should release us so that I could take her to the hospital. They gave me the beating of my life. That was about 8pm.

When I continued to beg them, they allowed me to call a friend of mine (James) to drive down to the main road that night to pick my wife and rush her to the hospital. The kidnappers ordered me to carry her to the road while they followed me.

The entire place was dark and I carried my wife and tried to wait and have a rest, the kidnappers would again begin to beat me. This continued until we got to the road. I was told to lay my unconscious wife by the side of the highway with some leaves used to surround her for easy identification.

They immediately marched me back to the bush. My friend, who knew that we were kidnapped, travelled from Port Harcourt that night to the point where my unconscious wife was dropped. He eventually took her to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead, the devastated Kingsley added.

The husband, who was eventually released by the hoodlums around midnight, told a correspondent that he was still shocked that Adaoma, who he married five weeks earlier, was killed by kidnappers.

Describing her as an easy-going, God-fearing person and a devout Christian, the husband explained that he was beaten to a pulp after the kidnappers spoke with his pastor, adding that his pastor had cursed them for abducting me and my wife.

They gave me another round of beating when my pastor spoke with them through my phone and cursed them. My wife must have been punched in the face or hit several times with the butt of a gun. They were dragging her along the bush. That might have caused her to collapse and died, he said amid tears.

He explained that he had been traumatised by his experience in the bush and felt that the kidnappers could still waylay him again.

However, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, said he was not aware of the incident and promised to reach the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Emohua, where the incident happened.
A Nigerian man living in the United States of America has landed in hot soup after pleading guilty to a gargantuan fraud case.

One Nigerian identified as Kunle Sodipo Williams, who resided in St. Louis, Missouri in United States has pleaded guilty to mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud and illegally re-entering the country after having been removed.

Williams will be sentenced in October as he faces a maximum 20 year jail term for the offences and deportation.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Departments Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Carrie Costantin for the Eastern District of Missouri, said Sodipo entered the guilty plea in a Federal court in Alabama.

According to documents filed with the court, Kevin Kunlay (Kunle) Williams aka Kunlay Sodipo, 56, and others stole public school employees IDs from a payroll company and used them to electronically file more than 2,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $12 million in refunds.

He also stole several return preparers Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) and used them to secure tax-related bank products and services that facilitated the issuance of tax refunds, to include blank check stock and debit cards. Williams used the blank stock to print checks funded by the fraudulent refunds and directed some of the refunds onto debit cards.

Williams previously entered the United States from Nigeria under the name Kunlay Sodipo, but was deported in 1995. In 1999, Williams illegally returned to the United States from Nigeria using the last name Williams.

In 2012, Williams registered to vote in federal, state and local elections by falsely claiming that he was a U.S. citizen and voted in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

Williams remains in federal custody and his sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 13 before Chief U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel. Williams faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for mail fraud, 10 years in prison for illegal reentry, five years in prison for each voter fraud count and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and deportation. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg and Acting U.S. Attorney Costantin commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as well as the Dothan, Alabama Police Department and Alexander City, Alabama Police Department, who investigated the case.

Goldberg and Constantin also commended Trial Attorneys Michael C. Boteler and Charles M. Edgar, Jr. of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case with assistance from the U.S. Attorneys Offices in the Eastern District of Missouri and Middle District of Alabama.
A 37-year old woman, Bukola Ogun, was arrested by the Oyo State Police Command for staging her kidnap to compel her husband into relocating she and their children to the U.S.

According to reports, revealed that she collaborated with her cousin and two others to organise the fake kidnap.

The states Police Commissioner Abiodsaidun Odude said;

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the command arrested a business woman who conspired with a three-man gang to orchestrate her own kidnap in order to fraudulently obtain money from her husband, Kayode Ogun, who lives with her in Ibadan.

The incident happened on July 4, 2017 at around 7.45pm when three armed hoodlums stormed the residence of the supposed victim and kidnapped her. Barely four hours later, the suspects contacted the husband and demanded a N10m for her release.

The husband, who did not know that it was all arranged by his wife, contacted the police and a manhunt was launched for the hoodlums. Two male suspects were later arrested.

Bukolas cousin Kayode Adepoju on speaking about the kidnap said;

She called me and said she wanted to stage her kidnap. She said she wanted to scare her husband with it so that he would see reason why it was necessary for him to take her abroad. We did not collect any money from the husband and we did not use any weapon in the operation. I was arrested a day after we kidnapped her.

Bukola also disclosed that the plan started like a joke, added that her husband, who is both a Nigerian and American citizen, have already started the process of relocating them to the US, but she felt it was taking too long.

she said;

I just woke up one day and thought of a way to make my husband see reason why he should use his American citizen status to take me out of the country. It all started like a childs play. I told my supposed abductors to tell my husband that the ransom was N10m although I knew he would not be able to pay such money. He is just a salary earner. I lodged myself in a hotel and I was there for two days. I went back home on the third day and no ransom was paid.

The couple were married for six years and have two children together.
A popular Nollywood actress who was arrested over an alleged credit card fraud and money laundering by the Atlanta Police in America, has seen sent to jail as her mugshot surfaces online.

TORI News had earlier reported this week that Nollywood Yoruba actress, Lola Margaret Oladipupo is cooling off in an Atlanta, Georgia, jail after she was arrested for credit card fraud in the United States of America.

Lola was arrested weeks after attempting to withdraw suspicious sums from her account. She had been making the suspicious withdrawals for a while now, until the police whisked her after a last attempt.

Sources close to the actress alleged that the Lola was initially released on condition that reveals the identities of the characters she was working with on the illegal withdrawals, and she did. However, the police later returned to take her in for further interrogations, and she has been in their custody ever since.

There were no official reports on the alleged card fraud by the Atlanta police, and also Lolas colleagues in Nigeria in a bid to address the trending rumour, but the actress mugshot has finally been released online as seen above.
The Permanent Secretary, Bureau of General Services, Office of the Governor, Osun State, Mrs. Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole who was kidnapped by gunmen in Kogi State has been murdered by her abductors.

The Permanent Secretary was said to be travelling to Abuja from Osogbo on an official assignment when she was kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination.

She was said to be driven in her official car and was going to attend the inauguration of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mrs Abiola Adewemimo as one of the judges of Industrial Court when the hoodlums struck.

A statement from the Osun State Head of Service, Mr. Sunday Owoeye, confirmed the death of Kolawole.

He described her death as shocking and painful.

On behalf of the Forum of Head of Service and Permanent Secretaries, Tutors-General, Accountant-General, Auditors-General and Surveyor-General, and with rude shock and a deep sense of loss, I hereby painfully announce the untimely death of Mrs. Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole who was brutally attacked by kidnappers while travelling along Okene  Abuja highway on her way to Abuja on Thursday, 12th July, 2017 for an official assignment.

Until her death, Mrs. Kolawole was the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of General Services, Office of the Governor, State of Osun. The Forum commiserates with the families of the deceased, the entire public service and the State Government of Osun on this irreparable loss, the statement obtained by PUNCH said.

Source: ( PM News )
The operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Lagos State Police Command have arrested the G.O of the Sufficient Grace Church, Pastor Okechukwu Joseph, for defrauding members of his church huge sums of money.

According to a police source, the Pastor allegedly approached some members of his church with the pretence that he needed money to repair his car among other projects with a promise to pay back as soon as possible as he was expecting money from undisclosed sources.

The source further disclosed that once he collects any money from a victim he starts giving flimsy excuses until the victim gets tired, adding that most of his victims are women who do daily contribution (ajo) business.

However, his obtaining money by false pretence came to the fore after defrauding two women who do daily contribution business, huge sums of money. It was gathered that he had been making empty promises of paying back for about eight year

Explaining his involvement in the offence the suspect Joseph said: I am married with two children. I am from Okwe Oboro, Umuahia, Abia State. I know the complainant Miss Bridget Nwankwo as a member of my church. I had no misunderstanding with her.

What really happened is that I collected N308,000 from her to do some reconstruction work in my church where we were before I relocated, due to circumstances beyond my control

I paid her N100,000. I was not able to pay the remaining N208,000, because money was not coming to me as before. She later reported me to SIB. The church I am pastoring is a growing church.

If you look at my body physique you will think that I have money. I had problems and that was why I had no money to pay her. I had a very serious financial problem.

Soure : ( The Nation )
Lawyer to notorious kidnapper, Evans, Olukoya Ogungbeje, says the police has no evidence to press charges against his client, Evans. According to Ogungbeje, since Evans was arrested on June 10th, the police by law is expected to charge him to court but because they have no evidence against him, they have held him in detention.

The lawyer who spoke to The Sun, said that the police is currently brainwashing his client. He stressed that as Evans counsel, he has not been able to see him since his arrest on June 10th.

We are not saying that we want to ensure that our client escapes justice at all costs. What we are saying is that we were given letter of representation and properly briefed and we have the claim to represent him within the confines of the law. As we speak, there is no single evidence of the matter, do you know that there is no single witness in that matter, do you know that no single case file has been opened on that matter? He has been moved to Abuja. Someone that we did not have access to while in Lagos Police Command, how do you think that we will be able to access him in Abuja? The police keep on brainwashing him, they keep on threatening him, they keep on deceiving him. Take him to court, that is what the law says. The police are only playing the ostrich. Do you know as his lawyer, I have been denied access to him, do you know that the father, his mother, his wife and children have been denied access to him? The police are not telling the truth. Why have they not published the court order they claimed to have got? Let them name the judge. They are only misinforming the public. They are not bold enough to publish the order. In short, they don?t have it. The police have been mischievous. There is more to it than meet the eye. The matter is in court and we should allow the court to handle the case and wait for the outcome of the matterhe said

Ogungbeje added that Evans wife, children and parents have been refused access to see him since he was arrested and are currently demanding that they be granted access.

He says he has written to the police to allow his immediate family members see him. According to him, they fear that he might have been killed. A member of Evans family who is based in the South East and spoke on condition of anonymity, said
Lawyer to notorious kidnapper, Evans, Olukoya Ogungbeje, says the police has no evidence to press charges against his client, Evans.

According to Ogungbeje, since Evans was arrested on June 10th, the police by law is expected to charge him to court but because they have no evidence against him, they have held him in detention.

The lawyer who spoke to The Sun, said that the police is currently brainwashing his client. He stressed that as Evans counsel, he has not been able to see him since his arrest on June 10th.

We are not saying that we want to ensure that our client escapes justice at all costs. What we are saying is that we were given letter of representation and properly briefed and we have the claim to represent him within the confines of the law. As we speak, there is no single evidence of the matter, do you know that there is no single witness in that matter, do you know that no single case file has been opened on that matter? He has been moved to Abuja. Someone that we did not have access to while in Lagos Police Command, how do you think that we will be able to access him in Abuja? The police keep on brainwashing him, they keep on threatening him, they keep on deceiving him. Take him to court, that is what the law says. The police are only playing the ostrich. Do you know as his lawyer, I have been denied access to him, do you know that the father, his mother, his wife and children have been denied access to him? The police are not telling the truth. Why have they not published the court order they claimed to have got? Let them name the judge. They are only misinforming the public. They are not bold enough to publish the order. In short, they don?t have it. The police have been mischievous. There is more to it than meet the eye. The matter is in court and we should allow the court to handle the case and wait for the outcome of the matterhe said

Ogungbeje added that Evans wife, children and parents have been refused access to see him since he was arrested and are currently demanding that they be granted access.

He says he has written to the police to allow his immediate family members see him. According to him, they fear that he might have been killed. A member of Evans family who is based in the South East and spoke on condition of anonymity, said

We are scared something terrible may have happened to him because of the way police has handled this matter so far especially the way his movement from Lagos was shrouded in secrecy. How would we have known if not your paper (Saturday Sun) which exposed the move in your report last weekend? From our own investigation, we learnt he was first dumped in an underground cell at the force headquarters in Abuja. Though we have also heard that he has been moved to a secret location believed to be the FCID cell in Garki area of Abuja, we are yet to confirm that or his exact location and wellbeing as we speak.?he said
Kinsmen of President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina have pleaded with Nigerians to stay out his private life and pray more instead for his quick recovery. The kinsmen made the plea in various messages to Nigerians during a visit by The Punch to Daura, the presidents hometown in Katsina state.

Leading the kinsmen Lawan Saidu, Ahmed Haroun and Seidu Awalu, who are elders in Daura, who said the President should be left alone to recuperate.

They also urged Nigerians to pray more for God to grant Buhari good health.

Awalu asked;

Anyone can be sick, so why is everybody attacking the President as if he is not a human being? The last time he was in the country, he told Nigerians that he was ill and had never been that ill, so what else do you want him to do?

Also speaking, an unnamed senior official in the Emir of Daura Umar Farouq Umar who said the presidents privacy should be respected.

He said:

We offer prayers for him here on a daily basis and every Jumaat; we pray for him in the mosques and eagerly look forward to his safe return to Nigeria very soon.

Katsina State chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress Mallam Tanimu Saulawa said:

I believe the President had done what was expected of him constitutionally before his medical trip. This is our President and Nigerians, irrespective of tribe or religion, should show the spirit of nationalism. We should rather intensify prayers for him for his recovery because the national responsibilities on him are enormous.

President Muhammadu Buhari left the country for another london medical trip since May 7th 2017, and Nigerians are yet to hear any media communication from him  the closest was an emergency visit by Acting President to him (Buhari) .
My dad started sleeping with me in 2014. The day he started, my mother was not around that dayDaniella recounted her sad story.

Fourteen-year-old Daniella wrung her hands nervously, looking down at the foot mat in the car in which she shared her story with a Punch correspondent.

The strange place became necessary because she was only willing to share her story away from the earshot of her step-father, 37-year-old Francis Okezie.

Few days before, a neighbour had alerted child rights activists to the plight of Daniella over a suspicious bleeding she once noticed on the girl. The neighbour was said to have asked Okezie about it but he simply explained it away as nothing.

When Daniella started speaking, the series of allegations she made were like bombs wrapped in words. Okezie lives in a one-bedroomed apartment with Daniella and his own six-year-old biological daughter, a girl he had with Daniellas mother.

When she started speaking, her words came out with trepidation. Daniella refers to Okezie as my dad even though she told our correspondent that she knew that he was not her biological father.

She said, My dad started sleeping with me in 2014. The day he started, my mother was not around that day. She was in church during a fasting and prayer programme. I was at home, so I was not in church with her.

My mother was the one cooking for church members when they break their fast daily. I always told him I did not want to do that and he would leave me sometimes. Other times, he would still force me when I beg him to leave me alone. He said if I told anybody, I would die. I sleep on the bed while my dad and sister sleep on the floor.

Asked if she thought her father was having the same s*xual contact with her younger sister, she said no. According to her, her mother, an Imo State indigene, has been away from home for about nine months even though she is not separated from her husband and neither are they divorced.

She was said to have left home for her village to take care of her mother. Daniella said, I dont want to stay there anymore; I would like to go and live with my aunt in Ondo State. It is because of my mother that I am still living with him. I was afraid to tell my mother what he was doing.

He forces me to do it when my mother is not around. If my mother goes out or is playing with her friends outside, he would do it.

But that was not the worst of Daniellas story. In September 2016, Daniella allegedly got pregnant.

She explained that she did not know she was pregnant until her father took her to one Nurse Esther, whom a correspondent later found out is 32-year-old Esther Udoh, an auxiliary nurse who also works in a hairdressing salon.

Daniella said, My dad just told me that day that he was taking me to Nurse Esther, who is a member of our church.

When I got to Nurse Esthers house, he went inside while I waited outside. When they were done talking, we left. When we got home, my dad gave me three white tablets at once.

Some days after I took the tablet, we went for a Thursday service and I started having stomach pain. I told my mother about the pain. I told her I wanted to go to the toilet. I did but the pain was still there. Blood started coming out of me. My mother asked what happened and I told her I did not know why I was bleeding. My dad was with us in the church at the time.

My mother then cleaned up the blood. My dad saw the blood but he did not say anything. Three days after the bleeding started in the church, I was still not feeling fine. He did not tell my mum that he had given me some tablets before. I could not stand up. He then took me back to the nurses house. When we got to the nurses house, she gave me drip.

The anonymous neighbour, who reported what was happening in Okezies house, noticed Daniellas bleeding nine months ago but she could not report the case to the authorities.

The neighbour said she blamed herself for keeping quiet every day until she summoned the courage to find child rights activists. She said she was afraid of being labelled a bad person in case she reported the case and Daniella denied it ever happened.

But when a correspondent confronted Okezie with the allegations of his step-daughter, he maintained a cool mien, simply shaking his head and denying every word.

People are carrying these rumours because they dont understand how my wife could travel for so long and the girls would be living with me. They are wondering if I am having affair with the girl, he said.

Then our correspondent told him that he should be aware that Nurse Esther had already confirmed that he indeed brought Daniella for abortion.

At this point, Okezie started talking. According to him, he only took Daniella to our family nurse over suspicion that she might be pregnant.

First of all, Okezie insisted he did not rape Daniella, whom he claimed was his biological daughter. He said, Esther used to come to this house to treat us. It is true the nurse gave her the drip and tablets, which she took at home

When he was asked what the tablets given to Daniella worked for, he went into a series of unrelated answers.

The rest of the conversation went like this:

Q: What do the tablets work for?

Okezie: The tablets? The tablet iswhen she gaveI collected the tablets

Q: Just say what they work for.

Okezie: It is like she missed her periodyou understand?

Q: How did you know she missed her period?

Okezie: How I knew? As a grown-up girlthe mother was still around at the time sef. She said we should keep watch over the girl to know whether someone is already touching her as she is growing up.

Q: Who brought up that idea?

Okezie: My wife did. It was just a general advice.

Q: So, you wanted to know if people were touching her and that was why you took her to the nurse?

Okezie: Yes.

Q: So, what were the three tablets for?

Okezie: For her to use it because of her missed period

Q: How did you know she missed her period?

Okezie: It was the mother that suggested it.

Q: What did Esther tell you after she gave you the tablets?

Okezie: She did not say anything specific.

Q: She did not tell you anything about the drug?

Okezie: She did not tell me anything about the drug.

Q: The second time you took her there for the drip, what did Esther say?

Okezie: She gave her drip only once.

Q: But what did she say? You should remember.

Okezie: I cannot remember anything specific.

Q: Did your wife even know at all that you took her to Nurse Esther?

Okezie: See, my wife said that it was as if our daughter had not seen her period. I asked my daughter and she confirmed it. I then decided to take her to Esther.

Q: When you got to Esther, did any test show that she was pregnant?

Okezie: Esther did not run any test.

Q: So, there was no confirmation that she was pregnant?

Okezie: She said since the girl had not seen her period, that means she should be pregnant.

Q: When you heard that, what did you say?

Okezie: I asked if she could give her some tablets so the thing would run well.

Q: What did she say specifically that the drug would do?

Okezie: She said it would allow her period to run (flow).

Q: And you took the drug and gave your daughter without asking much question?

Okezie: All she said was that it would make the period run.

Q: When you heard your daughter might be pregnant, did you ask her who might be responsible since you are denying that you ever touched her?

Okezie: I did not.

Q: You did not ask your daughter who might have impregnated her?

Okezie: That was the mistake I made. I went to Esther because she comes here to treat us.

The rest of the conversation with Okezie was a series of incomprehensive question dodging. However, Daniella said she could still remember Nurse Esthers house easily and she proceeded to take our correspondent there.

The room in which Nurse Esther was consulted for treatment was a dark and dank room with cracking walls. The dilapidated building itself is tucked in the corner of an unmotorable street in Egbeda, Lagos.

But the woman laughed when asked if that was where she was treating people.

Once a nurse, always a nurse. A nurse can treat people anywhere once there are necessary tools and medical supplies, she said.

When she was asked about Daniella and the kind of treatment she gave the girl, she simply feigned ignorance.

She said she could not recall who the girl and her father were.

But when she was told to dial Okezies number on her phone, it came up registered. She then admitted that she knew him.

Asked what kind of treatment she gave the girl last, she said she treated her only for malaria and typhoid.

A correspondent asked her to identify the three tablets she gave the girl to allow her period to run but she said she never did that.

It is true I treated the girl. I gave her only injection and drip. The father said what I charged was too much. I charged N15,000. I later reduced it to N10,000 and gave the girl just one drip. I gave her chloroquine injection for three days. The third day of the injection, I gave her drip, Nurse Esther said.

But Daniella said she was never given an injection at any point in time by the woman.

Few days after our correspondent spoke with Nurse Esther and Okezie, the Esther Child Rights Foundation, which was handling Daniellas case, said the man had fled.

The organisation then started tracking him until he was nabbed in his place of work.

The Executive Director of the foundation, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, told a correspondent that when the company in which Okezie worked was approached to hand him over to the police, they were protective until they heard about the allegations against him.

Ogwu said, He was not at work the first day we went there. But the company called us few days later to come for him. The company even helped us with a vehicle to convey him to the station.

Without the neighbour who alerted us about the plight of the girl, nothing would have happened while the girl would have suffered silently. We asked the girl when his step-father stopped sleeping with her and she said it was shortly after we paid him a visit.

Apparently, after the abortion, he still continued. It is possible the mother might have known what her husband was doing to their daughter but said nothing.

We had to take both the girl and her younger sister, who is six years old for test at Mirabel Sexual Assault Referral Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja. We are still awaiting the result of the test. We dont want to rule out the possibility of the man sexually abusing the younger one too.

The foundation said it had notified the Office of the Public Defender, the arm of Lagos State Ministry of Justice which has now become a party to the case.

Shortly after Okezies arrest, Nurse Esther was also apprehended. They were then both transferred to the sexual abuse unit of the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters.

The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Olarinde Famous-Cole, who confirmed the case, said that Okezie and Esther had been charged to court.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that on Monday, July 10, they were charged with child defilement and unlawful administering of dangerous drug punishable under sections 137 and 275 (1)(f) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

A charge reads in part, That you, Francis Okezie in June 2014 till June 2017 at Baruwa, Ipaja, did unlawfully defile (victim), 14, your step-daughter

That you, Esther Udoh, sometime in September 2016 at No. 47, Abeokuta Street, Egbeda, Lagos unlawfully administered and supplied dangerous drug to (victim), which caused her harm

The case was adjourned till September 18 after the duo pleaded not guilty and were admitted to bail by Magistrate D. Abegunde of an Ogba Magistrates Court, Lagos.

They were remanded at the Kirikiri Prison pending when they would meet their bail condition.

The case took on a new twist in court when the magistrate ordered that Daniellas mother be remanded in prison for abandoning her children for so long.

Daniella and her younger sister have been handed over to the Lagos State childrens home.
Yesterday, Kemi Olunloyo called out Comedian Seyilaw after the latter declared he was the happiest man alive, after news of Kemi Olunloyos arrest touched down the Internet.

Kemi called Seyi names, and even went as far as calling his daughter Fat and Obese. Below is what Kemi wrote;

MY REPLY TO @SEYILAW1 the complete IMBECILE OF A COMEDIAN. I GUESS I CAN SAY I DID NOT REJOICE WHEN I HEARD HE WASNT THE ONE BADOO CULTISTS KILLED RIGHT? I heard you were happy I went to prison @seyilaw1. Your baby is still FAT AND OBESE. Take lessons from a health professional. There are lots of children in prison and all are healthier than Tiwa. I dont sugarcoat things. Your baby could hardly move in one crawling video. Stop overfeeding her. I heard someone called her Kungfu panda. All these fake fans hyping her baby fat are laughing behind you. I went back to prison for another 24hrs due to a technicality and was glad to go back to check up on our 4 newborns and 5 toddlers. The food is better than your moms cooking. There is no prison food. You cook your own food. Now I go weekly to prison to drop off supplies and money for inmates with babies and IPOB protesters forgotten by Nnamdi Kanu. Excellence, Precious and some of those babies in there need our help, instead u are busy rejoicing about people going to prison, a pharmacist who advised u of your childs potential health danger. Shame on you and YOUR dumbass comedy. I highly regret interviewing you giving u the exposure to my 27 million global blog readers. Go and read more about #childobesity. @majeayida pls forgive my anger here. As a foremost fitness trainer in Nigeria, you promised to do a write up to address fitness in children and childhood obesity but I was locked up for posting a news tip. People like Seyi should focus on people giving them correct info rather than promoting fake cybercrime laws against media professionals. As soon as you are back, pls DM. Sorry about the #Lekki floods. Thanks everyone for reading.

Comedian Seyilaw has finally replied.. He wrote;
A La Crosse man out on two bonds for pending drug cases faces new charges after police arrested him Wednesday with nearly $6,000 worth of drugs at his La Crosse apartment.

La Crosse police investigators and the departments Emergency Response Team searched Larry D. Baldwins apartment at 1315 S. Fourth St., No. 3, after he sold 0.8 grams of cocaine to an informant, according to the agency.

Police found 36 grams of powder cocaine, 22 grams of crack cocaine, a scale and $1,073.

Baldwin, 47, is charged in La Crosse County Circuit Court with delivery of cocaine, maintaining a drug trafficking place, possession with intent to deliver cocaine and two counts of felony bail jumping.

Prosecutors charged Baldwin and his son, 21-year-old Larry A. Baldwin of Chicago, after the pair fled a traffic stop on Lang Drive south of Monitor Street on May 22. Earlier, police received a tip the men were trafficking drugs from Chicago to La Crosse.

Police pursued at speeds up to 70 mph until Larry D. Baldwin drove into the Schuh Homes on Winneshiek Road, where the vehicle hit road spikes. Officers had to remove the men from the car, where they found 64 grams of crack cocaine worth $6,000, according to the department.

Larry D. Baldwin was released from the La Crosse County Jail on May 30 after posting a $10,000 cash bond. He is jailed in on $50,000 cash bond.

He also faces charges of conspiracy to deliver cocaine and heroin for his role in a drug case last year. He was granted a signature bond in that case.
A crazy woman caused a scene at the court of law in Uganda after an unbecoming act that left onlookers in deep shock.

A Ugandan woman shocked everyone in court after she reportedly stripped n*ked to avoid being thrown into prison.

According to reports, the lady identified as Akot Dorcus accused her brother of using police to cause arrest of family members.

The incident happened on Tuesday morning at the Lira High Court in Uganda. Justice had remanded six members of the same family in prison. The Court presided over by Justice Dr. Winifred Nabisinde, a resident judge for Lira circuit sent on remand the suspects over attempted murder.

Those sent on remand until 24th July of this year when Court will pass a ruling are; Olwa Nelson, Okaka Peter, Ochom Martin, Oroma John Peter, Owani Geoffrey and the complainants biological mother, Alobo Nancy, 46. They are residents of Nambieso Sub County in Apac district.

Omeny Tom, had dragged his family members to court,accusing them of trying to kill him. He told the court that on the 17th November, 2014, his huts were set ablaze over land related issues.

Akot stripped in protest claiming they were innocent. The fracas brought commotion and drama among police officers,lawyers and court staff who exchanged bitter words with a Field Force Police commandant and his troops.

The situation normalized after Justice Dr. Nabisinde Winifred sent a message ordering for the release of protesting and chaotic Akot Dorcus.
Operatives of the Police force have arrested a sales girl with Shoprite stores, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mariam Mufutau and has been arraigned before a Lagos Magistrate Court for allegedly stealing the sum of N553, 956, 000 she realized from sales just one month after she secured employment.

The management of Shoprite Stores had reported a case of theft to the Divisional Police Officer, DPO in charge of Ilasan Division, Lekki, Eti-Osa, SP Oyinye Onwuamaegbu and that they suspected their sales girl to have stolen their N535, 956, 000 she realized from sales just one month after she was employed.

Following the report, Onwuamaegbu ordered Inspector Orukotan Lonikola to arrest the accused. During investigation, the accused could not give account of the missing money.

Mufutau was arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate Court, Lagos on a two count charge of felony to wit. stealing.

Police prosecutor, Esther Adesulu informed the court in charge No: J/38/2017 that the accused committed the alleged offence between 1 April and 31 May, 2017 at Shoprite Stores, Eti-Osa during working hours.

Adesulu told the court that the accused betrayed the trust reposed in her as a sales girl by her employer and stole the sum of N535, 956,000 she realized from sales instead of remitting the money into her employers account.

She said the management at Shoprite Stores uncovered the fraud when they audited the account.

Adesulu said the offence the accused committed were punishable under section 411 and 287 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the alleged crime and Magistrate O.O Owunmi granted her to bail in the sum of N300, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

Owunmi adjourned the case till 28 July, 2017 for mention while the defendant was taken to Kirikiri Prison pending when she would be able to fulfill her bail condition.

Source: ( PM News )
Three suspected ritualists identified as Saibu Popoola, Aliu Ajiroba and Jimoh Ijiola have been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for for allegedly being in possession of two human skulls.

The suspects were arrested on Thursday when policemen attached to Ayetoro Division were on routine patrol and accosted the duo of Popoola and Ajiroba on a motorcycle along Idagba Olodo Road, with a bag which looked suspicious.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said a search was conducted on them and the two human skulls were discovered in the said bag. He said the duo told investigators that the skulls were given to them by Jimoh Ijiola who live in Erinpa area of the town.

Oyeyemi said based on the information, the Divisional Police Officer, Ayetoro Division, Makinde Kayode, led detectives to the resident of the suspect where he was also arrested.

He said, In his own statement, Ijiola denied being the person that gave them the skulls, but said that they all got them from neighbouring Republic of Benin and that their intention was to use it for money rituals.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, on Friday, dissolved a 21-year-old marriage between one Idowu Iyanda and his wife Florence over the wifes infidelity and alcoholism.

The President of the court, Mr Ademola Odunade, ruled that the marriage was dissolved due to irreconcilable differences between the couple.

When wives refuse to keep to dos and donts binding a union, the result is usually tragic and bring about break up such as what is currently taking place.

In the interest of peaceful coexistence, the union between Idowu and Florence has ceased to be henceforth. Custody of the four children produced by the union is granted to Idowu.

Idowu shall pay N3,000 to Florence to enable her move out her property from the house, the Arbitrator said.

Earlier, Idowu, a carpenter had told the court that his wife Florence, was an unrepentant prostitute and alcoholic.

My lord, when I entered into the union with Florence in 1996, I never knew that I was making a very terrible mistake for choosing her as a life partner.

She is never to be trusted for a single moment in terms of fidelity as Florence has made herself a public tap where all sorts of men of easy virtue fetch water.

My lord, times without number, I have caught her with men and I have warned her against the adulterous act.

For the sake of emphasis my lord, our fourth and last child is a sickle cell patient, my own Genotype is AA, Florence is AS, how did our last child become an SS.

Worst still, Florence is an addicted alcohol consumer. In fact, she still consumed one last night, this is the bottle, my Lord. When she was complaining that she wanted to be riding a car, despite the fact that I dont drive, I bought a car.

We agreed that she will be driving the car, carrying me to and from my workshop. One day, Florence carried me to a particular point and abandoned me in the car and went her way.

In addition, she no longer perform any of her conjugal rites and she quarrels with me all the time. Florence is a highly disobedient wife and she has even vowed to eliminate me from the surface of the earth.

She poisoned the drinking water at home with the intention that I will drink it, but I got to know and refused to take the water, Idowu said.

Florence, a hair dresser, who could not deny most of the allegations, however, pleaded with the court to save her marriage. She said that she was not ready to part ways with Idowu because they both achieved greatness together.

My lord, it is true that I consume alcohol, but it is only during cold weather. I wonder why Idowu is rejecting the paternity of our last child. I dont know why he is an SS, Florence said.

The couple resides at Alegun-Oleyo area of Ibadan.

-NAN
A Nigerian man Samuel Nnamdi has warned anyone who tries to put asunder in his relationship to back off or he/she will never know peace.

He further disclosed that though most people might think its about the money, but everyone judging him know nothing about unconditional love.

Here are his posts:
Self-storage design has come a long way. Though industry developers have perfected methods for maximizing rentable space, theres an art to planning a highly efficient structure that will attract customers and sustain higher occupancy. These two abilities will ultimately determine the success and return on investment of a modern storage property.

Once viewed as an eyesore and generally unwelcomed by communities, self-storage facilities are now being embraced and considered an asset. This trend has been brought about by creative developers and architects who work hard to integrate the buildings exterior with the surrounding architectural context. Upscale design can lead to success, particularly in urban and residential areas.

Look around any densely populated environment, and you may be surprised by how many storage facilities can be found in prominent locations. A quick Google Maps search for self-storage in downtown Chicago yields dozens of results, with sites every few blocks. Though storage buildings werent always welcomed by residents, the need for storage space has changed this outlook.

But customer convenience isnt the only reason to place a self-storage site in a high-density area. Foot traffic is advantageous for these properties. Also, developing in these areas greatly increases visibility, turning the building itself into a powerful marketing tool for attracting new customers. Some sites might even include the opportunity to offer specialized storage types, such as boat storage.

While a central location may seem like an obvious strategy for success, its never as easy as it sounds. Given the high barriers to entry for storage businesses, especially in competitive areas, a creative approach and sophisticated design is generally necessary to gain municipal and community approval.

For a building type thats so fundamentally utilitarian, it may be surprising to learn that one of the most important features of a successful storage business is its design. In fact, it could be argued that prosperous facilities have their aesthetics to thank as much as their location. The exterior is often key to a projects ability to gain consent in the first place.

Before self-storage can be built in a high-density urban area, or a bustling residential neighborhood, the design must look the part. Increasingly, developers are finding that blending structures with the backdrop and adopting the aesthetics of the area is a strong strategy for gaining community support. Adopting a clean, open and bright aesthetic with retail-like characteristics has paved the way for these valuable additions to communities around the world.

Mark J. Sullivan is co-founder, president and managing principal of Sullivan, Goulette & Wilson Ltd., which provides architectural and planning services for commercial, hospitality, institutional and residential projects. Hes a registered architect in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and a member of several architect and builder associations. For more information, call 312.988.7412; visit www.sgwarch.com.
Investors in actively managed funds have long complained that not only are fees too high, but some fund managers operate in a heads you win, tails I lose environment.

In other words, managers get to charge high fees during good years but are not penalized if they subsequently underperform and lose investor capital. With no form of clawback, some fund managers, and in particular hedge fund firms, have an incentive to swing for the fences, rack up a few good years, and then sit back and become underperforming asset gathers.

Not so Orbis Investment Management. The $28 billion, Bermuda-based global equity manger has a different approach: it actually gives money back to institutional investors in years when it does not beat its benchmark. All fees are performance based, but we return the fees in periods where we underperform, explains Adam Karr, Orbis U.S. managing director, who is based in San Francisco.

Investors in Orbiss funds who opt to invest in the refundable fee structure have two options to choose from: either a flat performance fee of 33 percent above a benchmark, or another option in which investors pay a base fee of 45 basis points or less, depending on the amount of assets, and a performance fee of 25 percent above a benchmark. Investors are eligible for a refund when the funds underperform their benchmarks.

The fees that the manager earns are placed into a trust account created for the client. Orbis only takes a fee once the trust account has reached 3 percent of client assets. If the manager underperforms, the fees go back to the investor.

The result, Karr says, is a far greater alignment of interest, especially for those clients that choose the option of no management fee and 33 percent above a benchmark. (Most investors choose to pay a management fee.) For us it is not an asset-gathering game, says Karr. We do not make money off the base fee. In order for Orbis to cover its costs, it needs to outperform. The reason we can exist is that we have to generate alpha, says Karr.

A value focused, bottom-up stock picker, Orbis offers a number of global equity strategies to investors. Since its 1990 inception through June 30, the firms flagship global equity strategy has generated an annualized return of 12.1 percent net of fees, verses 6.4 percent for the benchmark.

Orbis began offering its refundable fee structure in 2004. This feast or famine fee structure, however, can lead to lean years. But due to its unique structure, the firm has been able to survive.

Orbis was founded in 1989 by Allan Gray. South African-born Gray earned an MBA from Harvard University after which, in 1965, he worked for Fidelity Management. In 1974 he returned to South Africa and started his own investment firm, Allan Gray Property Ltd., which now manages $30 billion in assets and is the largest privately-owned money manager in the country. Orbis was founded as a way for Allan Gray clients to invest outside of South Africa.

Gray, 79, who lives in Bermuda, has put his ownership of Orbis into a trust structure, insuring that the firm can exist in perpetuity. The trust also helps insure the firm has financial resources to draw on in hard times, when it cannot rely on performance fee income.
LANCASTERMaurice L. Landon, age 91, passed away on Thursday, July 13, 2017, at Orchard Manor Nursing Home in Lancaster, Wis., surrounded by the most caring and nurturing staff a person could ask for. He was born at home on the family farm on Jan. 23, 1926, in Little Grant Township.

The eldest child of Ellsworth and Elva Landon, Maurice spent his entire life in Lancaster. He attended Pine Knob School until the 8th grade, and then started his lifelong career as a dairy farmer. He helped his father on the family farm up until the time he joined the U.S. Army and was drafted into the Korean War Conflict. Upon discharge, Maurice became a farm hand up to the time his grandfather suggested he start farming on his own. He married Charlotte Hollenberger on Sept. 12, 1953, and the two were married for 53 years at the time of Charlottes death in 2007. They farmed together until they retired in 1990 and moved off the farm.

Through the years, besides farming, Maurice also worked as a property accessor, did custom corn chopping, and both he and Charlotte drove school bus for the Lancaster School District. Maurice was a charter member of the West Grant Saddle Club which is still in existence today. He also was a past Grant County 4-H Leader and Superintendent at the Grant County Fair. After retiring, both Maurice and Charlotte drove bus for the elderly at Grant County Commission on Aging, which was a big change from transporting children. Maurice was always a favorite driver of most of the female passengers. He was always giving them compliments and always offered to carry their belongings into their homes, things he wasnt supposed to do, but something he always insisted on doing. They often times would bring him little treats, but he was always sure to consume whatever he was given before he got home, as Charlotte always told him he wasnt supposed to be taking those things.

Another big accomplishment Maurice was always proud of, was the award-winning maple syrup he learned to make, and made for several years with his sister and brother-in-law, Irene and John Seippel. They would gather the sap from the trees and Maurice would spend hours cooking in a cooker made from an old stainless steel bulk tank. Like anything he ever did or got involved in, he had it down to a science.

Maurice always enjoyed being around others and always had a story to tell. He was always willing to lend a hand to whoever needed it, even if he was in the middle of doing things himself. Maurice was all about family. Raising a family on a dairy farm was never easy, but he always made sure to make time for his family, even as his family grew through the years. Maurice loved to dance, and would often come in from outside to dance with Charlotte around the kitchen in the middle of the day. When grandchildren started coming along, he always made sure they all learned his phone number. Whenever they wanted to come over to see Grandpa and Grandma, all they would have to do is call him and he would come right over to get them. This was a regular occurrence and that number was called and used a lot since they all lived within 10 miles.

Maurice is survived by his children, Paul (Maggie), Julie (Joe) Budworth, David (Colleen), all of Lancaster, Wis., and Dennis of Madison, Wis., 12 grandchildren, and 31 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his siblings, Irene (John) Seippel, Phyllis (Gene) Klaas, Leo (Clara), Cecil (Janice) along with in-laws, Ruby Landon, Jerry Krohn, Irma Atkinson, Adeline Atkinson, Vivian (Joe) Moore, John (Jeanette) Hollenberger, Doug (Colleen) Hollenberger, Elaine Hollenberger, Alan (Wendy) Hollenberger, and his aunt, LaVon Edge.

He was preceded in death by his wife and soulmate, Charlotte; his parents, Ellsworth and Elva; brother, Virgil; sister, Ruth Krohn; his in-laws, Paul and Carol Hollenberger; sisters/brothers-in-law, Willard Hollenberger, Pauline Hollenberger, Eunice (Richard) Dressler, Grant Atkinson, and Leo Atkinson. He was also preceded in death by his great-grandson, Calvin Haas.

Funeral services will be held on Sunday, July 16, 2017, at 2 p.m. at MARTIN SCHWARTZ FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY, 1234 S. Madison St., Lancaster, with Ronnie Wilson officiating. Burial with military honors will be in Hillside Cemetery, Lancaster. Family and friends may call on Sunday, July 16, 2017, from 10 a.m. until time of services at the funeral home.

Online condolences at www.martisnchwartzfuneralhomes.com.
The insurance industry should look to share more knowledge and experiences on emerging risks to help both the industry and clients better prepare for the future, an expert has said.Following the release of Swiss Re s latest SONAR report, which grouped together the biggest emerging risks facing the insurance industry, Nick Sordon, senior casualty treaty underwriter, Swiss Re, said sharing knowledge on the evolving risk landscape will be vital.Being able to share this knowledge and these experiences we are able to prepare for these risks of tomorrow and even though not all of these will materialise, the earlier we adapt the better prepared we are to face these in the future, Sordon told Insurance Business. The reality is, no-one is going to be right; what you are trying to do is become less wrong and be prepared for the future as best you can. Be aware of all the different facets to these emerging risks and be across them as much as you can.The SONAR report found a diverse range of emerging risks that could impact the industry and wider society in the near and distant future. While high-profile emerging risks, such as driverless cars, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are all discussed in the research, SONAR sheds light on other concerns, including the rising risks of e-sports, carcinogens in artificial turf and advances in precision medicine.Sordon said that by sharing knowledge and experiences, the industry can become smarter, as a reliance on data, which is often the backbone of the industry, is less effective when it comes to rapidly emerging risks and trends.We believe firms are smarter together, Sordon continued. If we use the knowledge of each other, you do a knowledge risk transfer with each other and you gain a whole range of different perspectives.An understanding of risks that could impact businesses further down the line is important for the industry as it battles outside disruption.For brokers and the rest of the industry, Sordon said that while emerging risks could be hazardous they also present opportunities for new products and new ways of working with clients.Not only is it being aware of the risk but being prepared for the opportunity, Sordon said.Insurers, reinsurers and brokers are in a really good positon to advise their clients on best practices around emerging risks and it is important that you maintain that common understanding of developments in these areas.
Brent Lombardi has joined National Real Estate Insurance Group (NREIG) in Kansas City, Mo., as president, effective July 1.

Lombardi oversees all NREIG departments: sales, service, loss prevention, claims and quality control. He reports to Tim Norris, co-CEO, NREIG; and Mike Wrenn, co-CEO, NREIG, and CEO, Affinity Worldwide.

Lombardis experience includes over 25 years in the property and casualty insurance industry. His career began at Nationwide, where he started as a field claims representative and progressed into a variety of insurance operations and internal audit leadership roles in Ohio and North Carolina.

He also was vice president of Internal Audit at Grange Insurance in Columbus, Ohio, where he built and led its internal audit function. In his most recent role as corporate risk officer of Grange Insurance, Lombardi directed its enterprise risk management function.

Lombardis non-profit work includes serving two terms on the board of Childrens Hunger Alliance. He continues to serve on the Financial Advisory Committee of his local school district.

National Real Estate Insurance Group is designed to meet the unique needs of residential real estate investors. Clients range from individual property investors to large-scale investors, turnkey operators, lenders, property managers, landlords and rehabbers. The group serves over 65,000 locations across all 50 states.

NREIG is part of Affinity Worldwide.

Source: National Real Estate Insurance Group

Topics Missouri
By INU Staff

INU  At a ceremony entitled Healthy Life Festival on 11 July 2017, the Iranian regimes president Hassan Rouhani said: The strategic weapons built by the 11th (i.e. Rouhanis) government, make up 80% of the total weapons built in the previous governments.

In his preliminary speech, in an attempted to take missile claims and the claims about military presence in the countries of the region out of the hands of the Khamenei Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and in order to advance his own demands, he made significant confession saying that despite the sanctions, his government has given the Iraqi government and the Syrian regime all the money and weapons they needed.

He also noted the IRGCs missile attack on Syria and said: We hear that a missile fired from our land and targeted a center, a terrorist center. It is true that those who fired the missile tried hard and sacrificed but who built the missile? The defense Ministry builds these missiles.

Rouhanis statements defending JCPOA once again exposed more than ever the depth of divisions among the regimes various bands.

While attacking Khameneis band in this regard, Rouhani said: If the foreign minister were supposed to go out of the field with a few cursing and (insulting) slogans, the JCPOA would not be realized. Well, some people insulted the foreign minister, on their site, in their newspaper, on the anniversary of the revolution on February 11, on the streets of Tehran; well, one should not be excluded from the service field for the slogans of a few individuals.

Rouhani also referred to the rival band as a minority that monopolized everything and added: We should not be afraid of those who unfortunately have the big loudspeakers unjustly at their disposal
Whats it worth to Wisconsin to become the U.S. hub for a global company with 1 million employees and $136 billion in annual revenue?

Answer: It depends on what the state will gain vs. the size of the public investment over time.

As Foxconn Technology Group investigates where it may build a next-generation production plant in the United States, Wisconsin is competing with a small number of states on factors such as physical location, transportation logistics, workforce skills, research and development expertise and supply chain potential.

Wisconsin must yet compete on a package of financial incentives, such as tax credits and worker training grants, that may fall between $2 billion to more than $3 billion over two decades or more. Lest you keel over with a case of sticker stock, heres how I arrived at the number:

Almost every state has an arsenal of incentives, some of which are found at the local government level, to attract company expansion projects or to retain companies already there. Wisconsins biggest tools are performance-based tax credits tied to jobs and salary levels, grants to train or retrain workers, and tax incremental financing (TIF) used by local governments to finance roads, utility lines and similar public services.

Some of the largest state packages in recent times have involved states scrambling to keep what they already have.

The more telling category are state incentives designed to attract new businesses and the jobs they create.

Some major examples over the past decade are Nevada and Tesla ($1.3 billion and 6,500 jobs); New York and Advanced Micro Devices ($1.2 billion and 1,200 jobs); Alabama and ThyssenKrupp ($1 billion and 2,000 jobs); South Carolina and Boeing ($900 million and 3,800 jobs); and New York and SolarCity ($750 million and 3,000 jobs).

Thats an average of about $312,000 per job over the course of the incentive agreements, which are typically 20 years or more. The Tesla and SolarCity deals stood at roughly $200,000 per job.

Lets assume the estimates are correct that Foxconn would create 10,000 direct jobs over time if it picked Wisconsin. Using the Tesla and SolarCity incentive packages as examples, that works out to an incentive package of $2 billion over time. The average of the five largest deals suggests a package of $3 billion or more.

That cost is tied to direct jobs only. Indirect jobs in the Foxconn supply chain could total another 20,000 because there would likely be 150 or more suppliers. Building a massive plant may require 15,000 construction workers for the duration.

Have I mentioned that Foxconns presence in Wisconsin could position the state as a leader in 5G technology, display screens, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, materials science and regenerative medicine? While the company is best known for assembling Apples iPhone, it is the worlds largest contract manufacturer of electronics and increasingly a player in medical devices, diagnostics and imaging.

In short, the deal could redefine the Wisconsin economy in ways that would touch all corners of the state while building on existing strengths.

Some economists dont believe state incentives pay back sufficiently over time. Other people may object to what they perceive as corporate welfare. Still others may wonder if there are better ways to put several billion dollars to work over time.

It all comes down to the math of costs and benefits. In the context of a proposed state government operating budget of $75 billion for two years, $3 billion or so invested over two decades may seem more palatable.

Entice a company to come to you instead of someplace else, and an entire industry will likely crop up to work near or with the first business. In time, you have many more jobs than what you first paid for, and service sectors grow with the larger population. Because everyone in the food chain would pay taxes, the benefits could outweigh the cost of the deal.
A Brazilian court has dismissed the criminal case against US swimmer Ryan Lochte, who had been charged with filing a false robbery report during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The court in Rio confirmed in a statement this week that it tossed out the case after determining Lochte's robbery claim made to NBC did not constitute the filing of a fake report.

Jeff Ostrow, a US lawyer for Lochte, said in a statement to USA Today they are "pleased" by the decision and the court understood Lochte "committed no crime".

Under Brazilian law, the penalty for filing a false crime report is a maximum of 18 months in prison.

Lochte told NBC last year that he and fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi by men with police badges as they returned to the Olympic Village from a party on August 15.

Video captured by surveillance cameras showed the athletes getting into a confrontation with security guards at a petrol station when their cab pulled over to let them use the toilet.

The six-time Olympic gold medallist later acknowledged he was intoxicated and his behaviour had led to the confrontation.

Lochte served a 10-month suspension from competition over his behaviour in Rio.

"It's been a long suspension but it's over," he tweeted on July 1. "I've learned and became a better man from it."
US forces killed the head of the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan during an air strike earlier this week, the Pentagon says.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said killing Abu Sayed in the Kunar province attack is significant because the loss of leadership sets insurgent groups back for days or weeks.
The insurance payout to the Regency Hotel is confirmed in new accounts for the hotel which show that an additional 350,000 was paid out in legal fees as part of a settlement last October.

The payout was made on October 6 last year. In a sworn statement before the High Court last year, James McGettigan, director of Regency hotel firm, Regan Development Ltd, said that the hotel had suffered immense reputational damage and loss of business in the weeks following the shooting. Earlier this year, the Regency firm emerged from examineship. The examinership was initiated due to other debts which the Regency Hotel was used as collateral. However, in an interview yesterday, Mr McGettigan said the Regency business has bounced back and trade is back to similar levels to 2015.
And they have also called for more autonomy to make decisions at local level to speed up the delivery of social housing, and for other local authorities to use a fast-track procurement process which has worked in Cork.

Cork City Council deputy chief executive, Pat Ledwidge, and its head of housing, Valerie OSullivan, made the comments after their appearance before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing on Thursday.

Historically, a third of all the citys housing units have been delivered by Cork City Council, Mr Ledwidge said yesterday.

In doing so, the city has also excelled in maintaining a sustainable social balance  something which should not be taken for granted.

However, it is an ongoing concern for me that the capacity of Cork City to continue to meet housing demand in a sustainable manner is now fundamentally compromised by the scarcity of development land within the existing city boundary.

Their presentation to the Oireachtas committee came ahead of a meeting of councillors and officials next Wednesday with former chief planner for Scotland, Jim Mackinnon, who has rejected the 2015 Smiddy council merger report in favour of retaining the two local authorities, and extending the city boundary to include areas such as Ballincollig, Blarney, Glanmire and Carrigtwohill.

The officials told the Oireachtas committee Cork citys population increased by 5%, or 4,390 people, from 2011 to 2016, as employment levels increased 9%.

They said the figures are encouraging but underline the urgent need to address the housing supply shortage. Unless that is tackled, it is a potential obstacle to future employment and economic growth in Cork City, they said.

Ms OSullivan said the councils use of the EU Competitive Dialogue Procurement procedure has proven very successful in unlocking development sites much faster than traditional procurement models.

Work on 195 units is under way on six sites, with work on 164 units on eight more sites due to start in September. The council has a target to provide another 1,293 social housing units by 2021.

The council has secured 15.5m from the Government to fund infrastructure for a council-owned site at Old Whitechurch Road which could deliver up to 600 units, and two sites in the south docklands which could deliver 800 units.

But, while activity in the student apartment sector has picked up with some 500 units in the pipeline, private sector interest in developing apartments is stagnant.

The council is also surveying residential land and housing supply in the city and plans to host a workshop with the Cork construction and property sector, to promote the provision of housing and to identify any likely barriers.

When the demands present and resources are made available, Cork City Council has always delivered. We will continue to address the citys housing needs once the necessary resources are available to us, Ms OSullivan said.
The planning appeals authority upheld the decision of Cork City Council to give the green light to Gillabbey Taverns to convert an empty retail unit in a local shopping centre on Pearse Square in the southside suburb into a restaurant with a takeaway service.

However, uncertainty remains over the project as the company has been dissolved since it first applied for planning permission.

The original grant of permission was appealed by a number of local residents who complained that the area was already well served by takeaway restaurants.

They pointed out the centre already had an Asian food takeaway and traditional chipper with such restaurants accounting for 30% of all units in the centre.

In addition, they claimed there was six other fast food outlets in the surrounding area.

The objectors raised concerns about odours and fumes, litter and noise, as well as general disturbance and anti-social behaviour.

They said Pearse Square was becoming unattractive at night for the local community as youths were loitering outside fast food restaurants.

In contrast, Gillabbey Taverns claimed the proposed development would add to the vitality and viability of the centre.

Bart Kavanagh, who runs Barts takeaway and pizzeria in the centre questioned the legal situation of the applicants as he claimed Gillabbey Taverns was in the process of being struck off.

An inspector with An Bord Pleanala said the location of the proposed takeaway conformed with the objectives of the Cork City Development Plan 2015-2021, which restricts new takeaways to certain areas including local shopping centres.

While the inspectors accepted there was a concentration of fast food outlets in the area, she said the restaurant element of the development distinguished it from just being a takeaway.

A condition that the restaurant must close by 11pm was also deemed reasonable to reduce the threat of anti-social behaviour.

An Bord Pleanala also ruled that planning permission for the restaurant was limited to three years in order to review the effect of the restaurant on residential amenities in the area.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner minutes after the two men met in number 11 Downing St, Mr Donohoe said he made it clear that the Irish Government will not allow the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

I was emphasising the political principles of avoiding a hard border, we are very clear we cannot allow the return of a hard border. He worked in Ireland, he knows the consequences of that, Mr Donohoe said.

Meeting formally for the first time since Mr Donohoe took over the reins at the Department of Finance from Michael Noonan, the discussions with Mr Hammond lasted for just over an hour.

It was a very positive meeting. The three areas I talked with him about were the importance in making sure we do not have a hard border on the island of Ireland and the consequences of all that for communities for both governments, Mr Donohoe said.

The Irish Government is keen that strong transition arrangements are secured to ensure certainty for Irish consumers and Mr Donohoe said he made that clear to the chancellor.

We emphasised the importance of transitional agreements in terms of how the negotiations could evolve between the EU and the UK, because Irish businesses and consumers are going to need stability regarding how they operate their trading relationship with the UK, he said.

And we each agreed that the two economies are highly integrated and because of that it is in the best interests that we can come up with a trading relationship that is as similar as possible to what we have at the moment, he added.

Mr Donohoe confirmed his intention to host a return visit for Mr Hammond in Dublin after the summer.

The meeting was about directly re-communicating to him points which continue to be important to us. I have invited him over to Dublin after the summer, he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Hammond said the meeting with Mr Donohoe was productive in which they discussed Brexit and the ever improving UK-Irish relationship.

The chancellor posted a picture of the two men on his Twitter account standing outside No 11 Downing St.

Mr Donohoe is to continue a series of meetings with leading European politicians in the coming weeks to highlight Irish concerns over Brexit.
The delegates from the US, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland will attend the talk to mark the 151st anniversary of the laying of the transatlantic cable from Valentia to Hearts Content Newfoundland in Canada.

The event, the first of what is to be an annual lecture series, will outline a trans-national proposal for world heritage status for both sites.

The heavy multi-strand copper cable, covered in brass, was laid from the worlds biggest ship The Great Eastern from Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia, across 1,686 nautical miles and was brought ashore in Newfoundland 13 days later.

Tonnes of the heavy and valuable cable still line the seabed in south Kerry, testimony to several failed attempts as well as to the successful connection.

In August 1858, from her summer home on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria sent a message of congratulations to the president of the United States, James Buchanan.

The neighbouring sixth century monastic island Skellig Michael is one of only two sites in the Republic to hold Unesco world heritage status, alongside the Boyne Valley/ Newgrange.

Both of these sites are inscribed for their natural and cultural value. However, Valentias bid is on the grounds of industrial heritage.

The transatlantic cable was the foundation of the digital age and it reduced the time it took to communicate from two weeks to just two minutes, chairman of the Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation, Leonard Hobbs, of Trinity College Dublin, said.

Unesco heritage expert Professor Alexander Gillespie from the University of Waikatu in New Zealand has carried out an assessment of Valentia.

The significance of what happened on Valentia Island, as evidenced by its associated and remaining features, gives it a strong chance of becoming a World Heritage site due to its Outstanding Universal Value, Prof Gillespie will tell delegates.

If this is achieved, Valentia Island, as the exemplar of the Industrial Revolution in Ireland and the world, has the capacity to attract thousands of national and global visitors each year, he said.

The theme of the event sponsored by BT and the IDA is Globalisation: Our Interconnected World.
The figure, provided yesterday by the HSE for security costs at the building which was seriously damaged by fire almost two weeks ago, appears to show a scaling back in the amount spent over the past decade compared with the previous five years.

Previously published figures, revealed to the Dails Public Accounts Committee in 2008, showed that between 2002 and 2007, some 1,590,975 was spent on security for the former mental health facility, which ceased operating in 2002. In a statement the HSE confirmed the reduced security spend in the past decade.

The cost to provide security at St Kevins Hospital and associated lands since 2007 is 626,135.59, a spokesperson said.

This includes, a) security personnel visits, b) window/door shuttering and maintenance of same, and c) the grounds work to cut back vegetation and undergrowth on the site and around the buildings.

The security measures at the site between 2002 and 2007 worked out at almost 6,000 a week, whereas the average weekly spend on security since 2007 is closer to 1,400.

Despite the large sums of money spent at the site, there had been fears expressed in recent years about the danger of damage being caused to the listed property.

Following the devastating fire on July 4, the HSE said: We are satisfied that the security in place was appropriate, and that the amount spent was reasonable.

An exclusion zone was placed around the site and an initial assessment indicated that the building could be salvaged.

Meanwhile, the garda investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing, though no further information was available. A number of different lines of inquiry are being pursued in the investigation, including examining online content and CCTV footage of the site perimeter.

It is understood the fire was started deliberately, but so far no forensic data has been made public.
The weapons were found by gardai investigating the death of Andrew ODonoghue, 51, who died after being shot in Murroe, Co Limerick on June 20, 2015.

Alan McNamara, aged 51, of Mountfune, Murroe, Co Limerick has pleaded not guilty to his murder. Mr McNamaras stepson Robert Cusack, aged 28, of Abington, Murroe, has pleaded not guilty to impeding Mr McNamaras apprehension knowing or believing him to have committed a serious offence.

They are being tried together at the Central Criminal Court.

The court has previously heard Mr McNamara was a member of the Caballeros motorcycle club and Mr ODonoghue was a member of the rival Road Tramps.

Road Tramps member Seamus Duggan yesterday told Hugh Hartnett, defending, a number of items were kept at the club for protection. Looking at photographs taken by gardai, Mr Duggan identified a hurley, sticks, axe handles, iron bars, a knife and pepper spray cans found in the clubhouse.

He also identified knuckle dusters, pepper spray cans and shotguns that Mr Hartnett said were found in cars and a caravan at the scene. Mr Duggan agreed with Mr Hartnett that these items could be used as weapons.

James McCormack is also a member of the Road Tramps. He told Michael Delaney, prosecuting, he and fellow club member Raymond Neilon went to Kellys pub in Doon, Co Limerick, on June 19, after being told that someone wearing motorcycle club colours had been seen there. As Mr Neilon and Mr McCormack arrived, in separate cars, Mr McNamara emerged from the pub wearing the colours of the Caballero club on his jacket. Mr McCormack said there was concern among the club members that the Caballeros planned to get rid of the Road Tramps.

Once out of his jeep Mr McCormack said he confronted Mr McNamara and asked him where he was going wearing Caballero colours. He told him to take the jacket off but Mr McNamara refused. He said there was a scuffle and himself and Mr Neilon took the jacket off Mr McNamara. A third member of the Road Tramps, Seamus Duggan, held Mr McNamaras wife back after she tried to intervene.

Giving his evidence, Mr Neilon said once they had the jacket all three of them got into Mr McCormacks jeep. As they drove off Mr McNamara threw his helmet at them and shouted: Neilon, youre dead. Were going to get you.

Under cross examination, Mr McCormack told Mr Hartnett he had heard that somebody went to Mr McNamaras house later that Friday night and threatened Mr McNamara and his family. He said that he heard that the person who went there was a member of the club.

The trial will continue on Monday.

One juror was discharged after telling Mr Justice Paul McDermott he knew a former member of the Road Tramps club.
Kathryn Thomas takes a sip of her Americano. Make up free, styling brushes dangling from her hair, she breaks into laughter. I hadnt a rashers what I was getting myself into.

Three years ago, in the midst of another double prime time TV stint  The Voice and Operation Transformation  she got to thinking about her summer, how shed spend her months off when the schedules wrapped.

Before shed pull out the rucksack from under the bed. Now though, settled into a relationship (with now fiance Padraig McLoughlin) long stints away didnt have quite the same appeal.

So she set up Pure Results. She pulled together a team  chef, trainer, nutritionist - and headed for Inish Beg in West Cork.

Shed experienced bootcamps and wellness treats abroad  largely during her 10 year stint on No Frontiers and wanted to bring something like it to Ireland.

I knew I was making a statement with it and Id be watched  people would expect you to fail. Or theyd think you were only adding your name to something, Kathryn recalls.

If I do something then I do it. To be honest I didnt know I was such a perfectionist.

Early that first summer she juggled filming on The Voice and Operation Transformation  and then she was back in the car to spend weekends with Pure Results in West Cork.

It was a steep learning curve. Pure Results wasnt just fitness. This incorporated food, hotels, the hospitality sector.

I quickly realised there was something powerful about bringing people together in this forum, she says.

There were burnt out company vice presidents, women recovering from cancer, the end of a marriage. To make a decision like that, to come out of comfort zone, there must have been a trigger. The power in the room is always profound.

Return bookings are high.

I often describe it as a summer camp for adults. We give you food, youre away from the kids, you dont have to think. You just have to turn up.

Thomas is doing something very different. A holistic approach, theres around three hours of intense work out in the morning. Then its gentler walks, yoga, workshops on nutrition, meditation.

The word boot camp can give people the heeby jeebies, says Kathryn, but Im loathe to call it fitness retreat either.

It walks a fine line between both, and as a result, Pure Results has gone from strength to strength. The team is now made up of 12 people. Her sister Linda joined last year (we made a decision not to talk business 24/7). Lindas past role was in branding at Google in LA  and the dynamic woman has brought a new direction to the business.

Three day bootcamps now join the weeklong offerings, with day camps popping up all over the country (the recent Cork event was a sell out).

The new focus was a logical one  the corporates.

Linda had after all worked with the company that had pioneered wellbeing programmes in the workplace, proving it was a major factor in employee productivity.

We are riding the wave of wellness, says Linda.

Weekend meets the team to get a taste of the corporate offering. With varying price levels  bronze, silver and gold packages  companies can choose a fitness day, or motivational talk. One requested an event like school sports days of old  egg and spoon to three legged races.

Theyve already been working with the likes of Irish Life Health, Bank of Ireland, General Electric and Bank of America.

First up I meet Mark Molumby, personal trainer. He advocates HIIT - high intensity interval training.

He sets up a mini workout space in the adjoining room, with mats, barbells and a suspension belt and sits down to outline a workout programme with me (overleaf). On a corporate day, he might take this approach - or put the team through their paces with a session.

Miriam Kerins Hussey is next to join us. Married to Olympics Performance Consultant Gerry Hussey, she brings yoga and mindfulness to the Pure Results team. She worked as a pharmacist for more than a decade.

I could see first hand the frantic, stress ridden, pill popping nation that we have become, she says. I witnessed the rising scale in prescribed antidepressants, sleeping tablets, anti-anxiety medication and stress related diseases. It became apparent to me that I was working in a sick care system, where we treat symptoms, as opposed to a health care system where we look for the root cause.

I could see the amount of disease out there, the very word (dis-ease) meaning a lack of ease  a lack of ease in the mind or a lack of ease in the body.

This lead to me to the whole are of Integrated Wellness, Yoga and mindfulness.

I firmly believe that

health and wellness goes deeper than calories, fats and carbs, and it extends far beyond what lies on your plate.

While nutrition is extremely important, food is only one form of nourishment.

I think its so important, both in our personal and professional lives that we take a holistic view on wellness, where we look at the whole person; mind, body and spirit and implement lifestyle changes to connect all of the above.

Pure Results chef Shane Rigney is the next to join us. Working in tandem with Jen OCallaghan, Cork based nutritionist, he has designed the menus and food served at the bootcamps (weight loss over the week can be five to seven pounds). On the corporate days, his focus is on education  advising people on healthy eating.

Kathryn has surrounded herself with a strong team, finding them mainly, she says, through word of mouth.

I didnt want sergeant majors, she says. I wanted to give people support.

As for her own fitness routine, like Linda, the balance in her life is 70/30 - everything in moderation.

I was always active in school, but I fell into the bar in college. When I was on No Frontiers I never really had a sense of routine but I might plan a triathlon, so when I was home Id work towards that.

Now, three times a week I do a high intensity workout, I run, I walk. Im healthy mid week  poached eggs, avocados, salads, salmon, hake, brown rice...

But at weekends it all goes out the window - we love food. And I love my cheese.

But then Ill be up to early to walk the dogs.

On top of Pure Results, she is juggling a summer radio schedule at RTE, filling in for Ray Darcy.

Yet she describes these summer months, when the TV demands disappear, as quiet (she can do TV in her sleep now, she says, but radio is a welcome challenge, admitting she spends hours reading briefs the night before shes on air).

With live radio and running her own fitness company classed as down time, its no surprise to hear that in the three years since she formed Pure Results Kathryn has only missed one bootcamp.

That level of hard work and determination has ensured woman who didnt have a rashers has become the one of the faces of fitness in Ireland.

The next Pure Results all inclusive fitness retreat takes place on August 25 in Mount Falcon. The 7 day detox and well-being program offers a range of fitness classes, well-being seminars, nutrition talks and a 2 week aftercare program.

The Thomas sisters have recently launched the Pure Results Corporate Well-Being program offering an alternative option to companies such as team off-sites and away days and a range of on-site activities such as well-being workshops, fitness classes and motivational talks.

pureresultsbootcamp.com

MEET THE TEAM

Shane Rigney, Resident Chef, and Miriam Kerins Hussey, Welness.

Miriam Kerins Hussey,

Wellbeing

Sometimes we are not fed by the food on our plate but by the energy in our lives.

I like to call these forms of nourishment our Primary Foods. And they are categorised into 4 main pillars:

Relationships (do you surround yourself with people that inspire you and grow your humanity?)

Career (are you in a job that energises you and that you are truly passionate about?)

Physical activity (do you have regular movement and flow in your life?)

Spirituality (do you allow time in your life to stop, breathe, and unplug form the busyness of life? Are you mindful of your thoughts, emotions, feelings?)

When we are out of balance in any of our Primary Foods, we tend to be out of balance in our lives. These are like the four tyres on your car.

Take for example you are driving down the road and you puncture one of your tyres. But you ignore the wheel and continue driving because its okay - there is the a great petrol station up ahead and it has the best petrol in the world there, theres no toxins or pollutants in it, its completely clean fuel. Ill fill up my tank there, and I wont bother fixing the tyre - that will get me to my destination on time.

Its the same in life. We can be eating the best food in the world but if we are out of balance in one of our primary foods - we wont be fully healthy or fully happy.

And, if there is a hole, or a void in our primary foods, we tend to fill on our secondary foods to try an compensate. However no amount food will ever meet the need of an emotional whole or void deep within ourselves.

Food can fill us up but it can not fulfil us.

These primary foods satiate our hunger for life as opposed to hunger for food.

Shane Rigney

Resident Chef

1. Ignore fads. They dont work. They are not just for holidays. You need to get to a point where you are stagnant in a good place.

2. Moderate your sugar intake - but eat as much fruit as you like. I dont like sweet alternatives, like cake from avocado.

Enjoy everything in moderation - have the protein balls but have a bit of the brownie too on a Friday.

3. Keep blood sugars level.

4. Carbs: Work them around lifestyle if you can and eat when you are most active when your body is most receptive to them. Dont eliminate a food group

5. Finally, dont compare yourself to other people - everyones metabolism is different.

Mark Molumby

Personal trainer

Five exercises x1 minute with a 15 second rest. Take 2 minute rest at the end of each set of each round.

Aim for three to five rounds total.

LEGS AND BUM: Squats; lunges; hip raises

SHOULDERS CHEST AND TRICEPS: Push ups; dips; lateral shoulder raises

BACK AND BICEPS: Back extensions; with a suspension trainer: rows; bicep curls

ABS: plank; side plank; leg raises

PLUS: 5 full body burpees; jumping jacks; high knees

For starters, try two to three times a week plus walking and stretch on days off For a fit person, do six days a week
A water and sanitation district that serves mostly Blooming Grove residents would be acquired by Madison, likely leading to decreased utility prices for its customers, under a plan awaiting approval from the state.

At no cost to the city, Madison would acquire all remaining assets of Waunona Sanitary District No. 2, which has about 440 mostly residential customers in the town of Blooming Grove and Madisons East Side. While sewer costs are projected to increase, according to the submission to the state Public Service Commission, decreased water prices would likely lead to similar or slightly lower overall utility bills for Waunonas customers.

Although Madison would have absorbed the district in 2027, when the city annexes Blooming Grove, the district wants to dissolve early because it has struggled to attract residents to run for district commissioner seats and Blooming Grove lacks the resources and expertise to run the system.

The sanitary district and town approached the city at the end of last year when they had problems getting people to run for the board, said Robin Piper, Madison Water Utility chief administrative officer. Nobody wanted to step up and be on the board, and the town itself didnt want to take over operation.

If approved by the Public Service Commission, the change would take effect in August, when the commission is slated to consider the proposal, Piper said.

The districts water services would be handled by the Madison Water Utility; sewer services would be managed by the citys Engineering Division.

Rather than waiting 10 years, absorbing the district and its more than 65-year-old pipes now is best for everyone, so that Madison can begin handling the immediate, intermediate and long-term maintenance, repairs and improvements needed to adequately serve (Waunonas) customers, according to a Madison City Council acquisition resolution approved in May.

Madison took over responsibility for maintenance earlier this year.

Based on what weve seen doing maintenance on the system for the last six months, we havent seen a lot of issues, Piper said.

Established in 1950, the sanitation districts system was designed to last for about 75 to 100 years, said Hal Bohne, chairman and president of Waunona Sanitary District No. 2.

While the system overall is not in too bad of shape, a new lift station is needed to continue to pump sewage out of the district, Bohne said.

The project is estimated to cost about $400,000. Madison would pay for about $155,000 of the project, with the sanitary district paying for about $180,000 of the replacement. Blooming Grove would add about $65,000 to the project.

Water bills are projected to decrease up to 41 percent for the average residential customer, with lesser decreases for public authority and commercial customers, according to a public notice sent out to the districts customers last week. Sewer rates for the district are projected to increase if the deal is approved.

Customers in the district would also be billed monthly, not quarterly as they were as Waunona Sanitary District customers.

About 20 percent of Waunona customers are Madison residents, with the rest coming from Blooming Grove.

While the dissolution of Waunona would mean an end to more than 20 years of involvement in a system that his grandfather helped found, the end of the district is not that big of a deal to Bohne.

It is what it is, he said. A lot of people dont want to do public service. Its a thankless job.
Waterfall, Cork - 285,000

Size: ?93 sqm (1,000 sq ft)

Bathrooms: 1

Bedrooms: 3

BER Rating: G

Waterford and Mayo have made massive virtues of their old rail routes, opening them up as green cycle paths: any chance of similar in Cork?

A memory and, thankfully, a living one, is Railway House.

Its a detached former gate keepers cottage on a third of an acre site at Castlewhite, Waterfall, about 15 minute trip by car from Cork city.

Estate agent John Barry of Frank V Murphy & Co is now selling the pretty-looking, old world cottage, with three bedrooms and about 1,000 sq ft of abundant character, on equally pretty, cottage-style gardens in full summer bloom.

It scores a lowly G BER due to age and the fact its central heating is fired by a back boiler, but it does already have double glazing, and theres a spread of outbuilding as a back-up bonus.

The location is hot too, notes Mr Barry, as Bishopstown isnt far away, and this house has extension scope for family buyers, and will particularly suit those looking for a more novel home than a standard suburban semi-d, especially at its 285,000 price guide.

VERDICT: Choo-se country living and make your own tracks to Waterfall
CenturyLink is facing serious legal issues related to alleged overbilling of customers, according to FierceTelecom.

A customer service and sales agent brought cases of such behavior to the attention of CEO Glen Post at a company Q&A session. She was fired shortly afterwards and filed a lawsuit.

A subsequent class-action suit over the practice has been joined by seven states. Arizona was the latest. The attorney handling the case, Bob Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos, told the site that the plan is to file in every state. Minnesota has filed its own suit, which cites 37 examples of supposed overbilling.

Day of Action to Protect Net Neutrality

People and parties concerned about the fate of net neutrality held a Day of Action on Wednesday. The goal, according to CNET, was to stir up grass roots support for regulations that are considered to be under threat.

The story outlines the dangers of eliminating the rules and provides samples of what some companies did to celebrate the day. For instance, Mozilla shared messages from users whenever anyone opened Firefox, The Internet Association prepared GIFs illustrating the importance of net neutrality, and Twitter created the spinning wheel of death emoji to illustrate a Web without net neutrality.

In a commentary at Capitol Weekly, Michael Kleeman, a senior fellow at the University of California San Diego, noted that the issue has swung back and forth depending on which party controls the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It doesnt have to be this way, he wrote:

While more advocacy is sure to continue on both sides, what will really protect net neutrality is a settlement that will survive changes of control at the FCC. That can happen if the companies, nonprofits and experts who know something about the Internet show some leadership and start putting their political and intellectual capital behind a workable agreement.

Pai: We Will Attack the Digital Divide in Four Ways

Things are lining up nicely for rural advocates of rural broadband: Two technologies, 5G fixed wireless and white space, will go a long way toward bringing broadband to previously neglected areas. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote that the FCC will use public/private partnerships to spur development, remove barriers to investment, create tax incentives, and work to promote competition.

The comments were made in an op-ed piece posted at Herald Mail Media, a site in Hagerstown, Maryland.

IBM Doubles Down on Watson

IBM has placed a big bet on distributed artificial intelligence (AI) or, more specifically, the Watson platform.

Big Blue is making Watson even more central. It says that its Global Technology division will use it to anticipate customer equipment problems, according to Bloomberg. The story was based on an interview with Bart van den Daele, the general manager of IBM Global Technology Services, which is headquartered in Europe.

The technology, at least in IBMs telling, is a win for organizations:

Van den Daele said one large food services distributor, which he said he could not name due to customer confidentiality, had been able to reduce critical issues across a network of 4,000 servers by 89 percent and it had reduced the time needed to resolve the remaining issues to just 28 minutes from an average resolution time of 19 hours before the AI-based system was used.

The idea is that the offering will help the company retain its position as it continues the transition from a hardware to a software and services orientation. The story points out that IBM recently reorganized its global salesforce; part of the goal of that move was to focus on AI.

Quantum Weirdness Secures Chinese Network

It is thought that quantum mechanics, and specifically, something called quantum entanglement, can create a network that cant be hacked. The short version is that any attempt to manipulate the subatomic particles, even slightly, will crash their ability to interact and, according to Network World, cause an error that would raise a yellow flag to administrators. Nobody really understands the long version.

A Chinese network is using the approach in the city of Jinan in Shandong Province. Authorities claim that the network has been running since May and can encrypt 4,000 pieces of data per second. The story notes that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers says that China has built a quantum network backbone from Beijing to Shanghai.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
WASHINGTON  Even when President Donald Trump has a good idea, he doesnt stick with it long enough. Like pushing China on North Korea.

Of North Korea, said candidate Trump: We should put pressure on China to solve the problem. As president, he initially placed the issue front and center in the U.S.-China relationship.

But a couple of months later, Trump appears to have lost hope in Beijing. While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried, he tweeted recently.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman responded that his nation had played an important and constructive role in promoting peace on the Korean peninsula. Exactly how the Peoples Republic of China helped is unclear, however. It cut back on coal purchases, but other commerce with North Korea continues. The Trump administration asked the Xi government to act against 10 firms and individuals who trade with the North, but is still waiting for action.

Proponents of the China card imagine Beijing cutting off trade. Having just returned from Pyongyang  the North Korean government invited me but the Cato Institute paid my expenses  I found both energy and food to be in seeming good supply. Despite reports that gasoline prices have increased, there was no visual evidence of a shortage.

An undefined diplomatic duty wont prompt China to act. The Trump administration must therefore convince Xis government that punishing North Korea benefits China. Which means Washington must take into account Beijings interests.

First, Chinese officials have long blamed the U.S. for adopting a threatening policy, which spurred the North to build nuclear weapons. So Washington should work with South Korea and Japan to develop a package of benefits  economic assistance, security assurances, diplomatic recognition and more  to offer in return for denuclearization, and present it to Beijing, then to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Second, China fears a messy collapse if the DPRK refuses to disarm. Nightmares of millions of refugees crossing the Yalu River, factional conflict in Pyongyang, combat among competing military units spilling across the border, and loose nukes have created a strong Chinese preference for the status quo. The U.S. needs to emphasize that the current situation is also dangerous and discuss how the allies are prepared to assist with any ill consequences. A commitment to help care for refugees and accept Chinese intervention in the North, for instance, might help assuage Beijings concerns.

Third, Beijing does not want to facilitate Korean reunification, creating a larger and stronger state allied with the U.S. and leaving American troops on the Yalu, or even farther down the peninsula. Among the issues worth discussing: respect for Chinese economic interests in North Korea, withdrawal of U.S. forces after reunification, and military nonalignment of a unified Korea.

Fourth, the U.S. could offer additional positive incentives. Trade, Taiwan and territorial issues all provide areas where Washington could offer specific concessions in return for Beijings assistance. That obviously would increase the price of any agreement, but the U.S. has to decide how far it will go to promote denuclearization.

Of course, such an approach leaves much to be desired. Even if Kim Jong Uns government accepted benefits in exchange for disarmament, human rights abuses could still continue. Or Pyongyang might refuse and survive, leaving an even more dangerous and impoverished nuclear nation. In the event of government collapse, China might resurrect the DPRK, only with more pliable rulers.

However, there are no better options. Military strikes might not destroy the Norths main nuclear assets and probably would trigger a second Korean War, which would result in horrific death and destruction even for the victors. Targeting Chinese firms would damage relations with Beijing without necessarily significantly weakening Pyongyang. People look longingly to Beijing only because enlisting Chinas help appears to be the best of several bad options.

If there ever were a time to secure Chinese cooperation, it is now. Trump and Xi appear to have established a positive relationship. The tragic death of Otto Warmbier after his release by Pyongyang adds urgency to efforts to address North Korea. Moreover, in Pyongyang I saw no visible signs of the warm friendship that officially exists between North Korea and China. In fact, North Korean officials said they wanted to reduce their dependence on any one nation.

Winning Chinese assistance remains a long shot, but Trump should put his self-proclaimed negotiating skills to work. There is no alternative, other than accepting North Korea as a nuclear state, which Trump presumably does not want as his foreign policy legacy.
CONOVER  U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson evidently isnt a fan of Buy American, Hire American policies.

In May, the Oshkosh Republican introduced Senate Bill 1040 to enable corporations to fire U.S. workers and replace them with hundreds of thousands of imported foreign laborers. The proposed law would reduce American employment opportunities and restrict wage growth from Milwaukee to Miami, from Green Bay to Grand Rapids.

The bill would give all 50 states the authority to issue work visas. Each state would be allotted 5,000 visas, and an additional 250,000 visas would be divided among the states based on population.

In total, Sen. Johnsons plan would bring in 500,000 new guest workers to the United States each year. These workers would be allowed to bring their spouses, also eligible for work permits, and their children, who would strain the budgets of local public school districts.

In theory, these three-year visas are temporary. But they may be renewed indefinitely, without requiring the visa holder to return home. They effectively grant workers permanent residency.

But what if the foreign worker doesnt work out? Is the company obligated to inform U.S. Immigration services that particular foreign workers must return to their home country?

Supporters of Johnsons bill argue this massive expansion of the guest worker program is necessary to alleviate a supposed labor shortage in certain industries, pointing to Wisconsins unemployment rate of 3.2 percent as proof that our state can absorb more foreign workers without endangering Americans jobs.

But that number only tells half the story. It doesnt count discouraged workers who have given up looking for jobs, nor those who are underemployed and unable to work full-time. The true unemployment rate doubles to 7.7 percent when discouraged and underemployed people are included.

Wisconsinites are still hurting from the recession with wages and salaries below the national average. Nearly three in 10 Wisconsin workers earn poverty wages. Poverty rates are even higher among minorities and those without a college degree.

Bringing in additional foreign laborers would hit disadvantaged groups particularly hard. Harvard economist George Borjas found that a sudden influx of immigrants can cause low-skilled Americans wages to drop 30 percent.

This bill unnecessarily creates costly layers of Washington, D.C., bureaucracies out of touch with the 50 states. Will Washington bureaucrats vet these foreigners? Can their paperwork be trusted?

Shouldnt national policy seek to increase wages for these vulnerable Wisconsinites before opening up job opportunities to foreign workers?

Already, the immigration system enables companies to replace Americans with cheaper foreign workers. Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual laid off dozens of workers in March, even as it filed for visas to bring in hundreds of new guest workers.

Another Milwaukee firm, HR consultancy ManpowerGroup  which I worked for as a temp employee many times as my kids grew up  axed 150 of its employees, but not before requiring them to train their foreign replacements.

Business groups claim guest workers primarily take jobs Americans wont do. Untrue. The Census Bureau broke down the labor market into 472 distinct occupations. U.S.-born workers accounted for a majority of the employees in all but six job types. Half of maids and housekeepers, two-thirds of construction workers, and nearly three-quarters of janitors are American citizens.

Corporations like large guest worker programs not because there arent enough Americans to fill jobs, but because they can pay foreign laborers lower wages. Guest workers often make 20 percent to 30 percent less than comparable American workers.

Sen. Johnsons bill does nothing to prevent foreign workers from undercutting Americans wages. Nothing requires employers to pay these laborers the local prevailing wage. Nor do guest workers have to pass a job test demonstrating any in-demand skills.

Even people working in the country illegally can apply for a visa under Sen. Johnsons plan. Thats backdoor amnesty.

If companies are truly struggling to find skilled American workers, they should collaborate with American schools to ensure students graduate with in-demand skills.

Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites are underemployed or stuck in low-wage jobs. Sen. Johnsons proposal to import foreign workers would drive wages down even further and lead to preventable layoffs.
CHICAGO  Imagine this situation: The United States faces a hostile and possibly deranged dictator ruling an Asian communist state tightly closed off from the outside world. He has developed nuclear weapons and is on the way to building missiles capable of carrying those devices across the Pacific Ocean and vaporizing American cities. What can we do?

Im reminded of the story about the pastor who was asked whether he believed in full-immersion baptism. Believe in it? he exclaimed. Ive seen it done! We know how to deal with the threat posed by North Korea because weve encountered it before.

In the 1960s, when Chinese tyrant Mao Zedong was striving to build nuclear weapons, he inspired great anxiety in the United States. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson considered launching an attack to prevent it, before deciding not to. When China advanced to building ICBMs, Johnson deployed an anti-ballistic missile system to intercept them in flight. But a few years later it was dismantled.

And guess what. The Chinese never carried out an attack. Launching their nukes against us would have guaranteed their destruction. They soon figured out, if they didnt know before, that the sole value of these weapons was to deter adversaries. Nobody in the U.S. worries much about Chinese missiles anymore.

Some people, possibly including members of Donald Trumps administration, think we cant count on being able to deter North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, because he is callow, unpredictable and bellicose. But Mao seemed even more reckless. Im not afraid of nuclear war, he said in 1957. China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million people left.

Trump said flatly that Kim would not be allowed to develop a nuclear missile to hit the U.S. It wont happen! he tweeted. But the president has found out that its easier to make that vow than to keep it. The other day, North Korea carried out a successful test of a rocket that apparently could reach Alaska. Its just a matter of time before it equips such missiles with nuclear warheads.

This prospect creates a frightening dilemma. If we were to stand aside, one of the worlds most vicious regimes would have the most destructive weapons, which it might use to coerce or intimidate the United States and our allies Japan and South Korea. Or Kim might wake up one day and decide to incinerate Anchorage.

But our options for heading off the looming threat fall into two categories: the futile and the disastrous. Weve had no luck negotiating with Pyongyang to get it to give up its nuclear arsenal. Likewise with persuading or pressuring Beijing to make its ally capitulate.

That leaves some sort of military attack, which probably wouldnt wipe out North Koreas entire nuclear stockpile but would ensure it would attack South Korea and our bases there, killing thousands of people at a minimum. If the Pyongyang regime resorted to chemical, biological or nuclear retaliation, the casualty count would be far higher.

We would win the ensuing war, but wed have to occupy an alien land harboring aggrieved natives with military experience determined to drive us out. It would be like Iraq, but with loose nukes.

Speaking of Iraq, the same argument for preemptive war was made about Saddam Hussein, whom we deposed in 2003. President George W. Bush insisted, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

In fact, we had already proved we could deter Saddam from using weapons of mass destruction. We attacked his forces to evict them from Kuwait in 1991, and he chose to go down in defeat with his chemical weapons on the shelf rather than invite complete ruin by using them. Kim likewise shows no interest in suicide but fully appreciates the deterrent value of having a long-range nuclear arsenal.

Looking back, its clear we suffered far greater harm from acting to preempt Saddam than we would have by standing back and trusting in our overwhelming capacity to punish him if he ever used his worst weapons. North Korea affords us an opportunity to learn from that colossal mistake. Or we could repeat it.
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Five people have died at the Forsyth County jail since Correct Care Solutions started providing medical care there in 2012.

As the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners considers today a new three-year, $13.2 million contract for Correct Care, four of those deaths are raising questions about the quality of medical care at the jail.

During recent board briefing sessions, some commissioners expressed concerns about renewing Correct Cares contract.

We have to find another vendor,  Commissioner Everette Witherspoon said at the boards June 29 briefing. Theyre not the only game in town. Theyre not even a local vendor.

Black Lives Matter Winston-Salem and other groups have held protests over the deaths of two inmates  Deshawn Lamont Coley and Stephen Antwan Patterson  that occurred in May. And Correct Care Solutions and the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office face pending lawsuits in Forsyth Superior Court over two other deaths  Dino Vann Nixon and Jennifer Eileen McCormack Schuler. Scott Shane Aaron died on Dec. 29, 2015, and his death was determined to be suicide.

Sheriffs Maj. Robert Slater, the director of the jail, and Jim Cheney, a spokesman with Correct Care Solutions, declined to comment on the most recent deaths  the sheriffs office and the State Bureau of Investigation are looking into the deaths of Coley and Patterson  but said they work hard to provide the best medical care to inmates who often have serious health conditions and drug problems and who sometimes dont share necessary medical information.

This is our job, and we value the work we do each day, just as we value the trust placed in us by Forsyth County and hundreds of facilities across the country to provide an excellent standard of care for all our patients, Cheney said in a statement.

Correct Care Solutions is based in Nashville, Tenn. and has 62 medical professionals working at the jail. The company provides medical services to 250 jails across the country. The jail has 45 detention officers overseeing an average of 773 inmates, Slater said.

Under North Carolina law, a countys health director needs to have a medical plan that deals with a number of issues, including health screenings, emergency medical situations and the proper maintenance and distribution of medication, said Irena Como, a staff attorney for the ACLU of North Carolina.

State and federal law also require that inmates receive medical care.

They have to secure the life of everyone who is incarcerated, Como said. That is the bare minimum. They have a duty to provide medical care. That has been the law for the past 100 years.

Meeting needs

Slater said every inmate who comes through the Forsyth County jail speaks with a medical professional,who asks a number of questions, including what medications the inmate is on.

Theres no verifying, he said. Its up to the inmate to be truthful and honest about their conditions.

The information is given to the medical staff to determine if the medication is in stock. The policy is that inmates cannot bring their own medications into the jail because those medications may have been tampered with or they could be illicit drugs, Slater said.

He said the medical staff can contact the pharmacy about inmates medications.

The jail has a chronic care unit. The jail has a large diabetic population and an area is set aside in the jail so that inmates can get insulin and have their food intake monitored.

Slater said the jail has 45 detention officers. Those officers are assigned to four teams in inmate housing. Detention officers check on inmates at least twice an hour.

Inmates who are classified as needing special observation because they are intoxicated or going through drug withdrawals will be checked on four times an hour, Slater said. That also includes those who are on suicide watch.

Correct Care Control has 32 professionals at the Forsyth County jail, Cheney said. That includes dental, psychiatry and mental health professionals, a physician, a nurse practitioners, nurses, certified medical technicians, and a health administrator.

Cheney said patients with serious medical conditions are observed on a daily basis by charge nurses and medical technicians.

In cases of heightened illnesses or addiction withdrawal, patients are seen three times per day or more depending on their condition and treatment needs, he said.

Como of the ACLU said there are constitutional concerns under the Eighth Amendment regarding the care of inmates at any jail or prison. She said it concerns her that Correct Care Solutions was the only company that bid for the contract. Brad Stanley, the chief deputy of the sheriffs office, said direct requests for a bid went to 12 vendors and an additional 19 vendors expressed interest in providing proposals. At a pre-bid conference, only five vendors showed up, and Correct Care Solutions was the only vendor to submit a proposal.

There is no competition and it seems like they did not comply with all these guidelines under state law, Como said, referring to allegations that have been made.

Elizabeth Forbes, the director of N.C. CURE (Citizens United for Restorative Effectiveness), said her organization is focused on prisons but it has received 300 complaints about medical care at jails throughout North Carolina. She said she is skeptical about the use of private contractors, like Correct Care Solutions, to provide medical care.

Theres a great indifference in care and concern for people who are incarcerated, and thats unfortunate, Forbes said.
The 400 National Public Radio employees negotiating for a new contract voted to ask their unions national board for permission to hold a strike vote while talks with the network continue.

If the board of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists agrees to the request Saturday, a strike vote by members of the bargaining unit can happen as soon as that day, said Becky Sullivan, a producer for NPRs All Things Considered who is a union member. A strike authorization vote doesnt mean that the union will strike, but it does give union leaders leverage in contract negotiations.

The contract with the SAG-AFTRA-represented employees of the nonprofit national radio service based in Washington expired June 30. A two-week extension that was given to continue negotiations with the help of a federal mediator was scheduled to end at midnight Friday.

SAG-AFTRA has said NPR management is seeking lower minimum salaries for new hires and more flexibility in allowing union work to be contracted out to its 600 member stations, most of which use employees who are not covered by the bargaining unit.

Sullivan said progress is being made on the negotiations, which continued Friday, but there were still significant differences on the major issues.

In a statement, an NPR representative said it is looking for a deal that will make this organization economically sustainable for the long-term  and, importantly, enable NPR to invest more resources in expanding audiences, adding newsroom staff to meet that growth and support current staff, and innovating its multi-platform journalism.

If there is a strike, managers at NPR will be faced with how to keep their programs on the air. The unions membership includes the hosts of Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In previous labor standoffs involving radio and TV talent, managers have taken over hosting duties themselves.



2017 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____

Topics: t000002899,t000002910
After media scrutiny forced Donald Trump Jr. to reveal the email chain that showed President Donald Trump's top advisers met with a Russian lawyer to gain information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government, the Trump camp adopted the retroactive spin that Trump Jr. had actually shown admirable transparency about this meeting. Trump Jr. went on Sean Hannity's show to do damage control, leading the president to exult: "He was open, transparent and innocent."

But this new scoop from NBC News will make that posture a lot harder to sustain:

"The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist - a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned."

The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

The Associated Press has identified the lobbyist as Rinat Akhmetshin. It is not yet clear what the significance of this is, in terms of what it says about what exactly transpired at the meeting. Trump Jr. has dismissed the meeting as insignificant, because no "meaningful information" came of it, but this news invites more scrutiny of that claim. As NBC News notes, such matters will be of great interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators.

But right now, here's what we can say: This news once again underscores that we are seeing a pattern of what we might call obfuscation by omission. This new detail should lead us to look anew at two key facts: First, that the president reportedly signed off on the initial statement from Trump Jr. that covered up the real reason for the meeting. And second, that top White House advisers are now reportedly reluctant to defend this meeting, because they could be opening themselves up to legal vulnerability. Here's the pattern so far:

After the news broke that Trump Jr. had met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr. put out a statement that only said the meeting was primarily about "a program about the adoption of Russian children." Sources told the Times that the president signed off on that statement. Given that he did so on Air Force One, as the Trump team debated how to handle the developing story, it's likely that he had been briefed on the contents of the full email chain at that point. Yet he reportedly assented to that false statement anyway.

Additionally, CNN reports that sources are now leaking that Trump's lawyer claims he was not part of the process of signing off on that statement. The Trump camp claims the president didn't actually sign off on it. But there is no reason to doubt the Times reporting - it's hard to imagine the president wouldn't have been involved in those discussions. And as CNN notes, if that happened and Trump's lawyer was not part of it, the president "may have opened himself up to new legal issues not covered by attorney-client privilege." Remember, Trump may have participated in crafting a statement covering up the real reason for the meeting.

That initial effort at obfuscation was then demolished when it was disclosed that according to sources who had seen the email chain, the meeting was really about sharing material about Clinton that came from the Russian government. That compelled Trump Jr. to issue another statement conceding that such information had been offered to him. But that statement carefully noted that Trump Jr. did not know the "name" of the lawyer, in effect suggesting he had no idea what the source of the information was.

That effort at obfuscation, too, was blown up when the emails themselves came to light. Trump Jr. issued them only under duress, as the Times was preparing to publish them. It is after all of this happened that the president hailed Trump Jr.'s transparency.

Yet that claim of transparency, too, has now been blown apart, now that NBC News has reported on the previously undisclosed presence of a former Soviet counter-intelligence officer who is suspected by U.S. officials of current ties to Russian intelligence.

Now note this Politico report, which claims that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (who was also at the meeting, along with then-campaign chair Paul Manafort) wants a more aggressive press response to this story, but other top White House advisers are demurring:

"But some of the communications aides, including press secretary Sean Spicer, and other senior staffers have expressed reservations. They say it's best to leave it to outside counsel to handle the furor around Trump Jr., and fear inviting further legal jeopardy if Trump aides and allies more forcefully defend a meeting that they don't fully know the details of, according to the sources."

Gee, ya think? Today's NBC News report should only intensify these fears of defending the unknown. Here's the bottom line: While we don't yet know how significant this meeting will prove, legally or otherwise, every additional revelation about it - and about the Russia scandal more generally - has only come to the light through the pressure of aggressive press scrutiny. Trump seems to have participated in an active effort to mislead the country about this meeting, which is the first concrete evidence that his top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russia's efforts to sabotage our democratic process. And Trump's deception efforts should themselves now receive more intense scrutiny.
It never fails. When I run to the market for just one thing, I never know what Ill bring back.

Last night, for example, I wanted to make pesto.

I love pesto. Its good. Its green. Its easy. And my half-Italian husband loves it even more than I do. Ive seen bloodhounds get less excited chasing a rabbit than he does over a plate of pasta with pesto.

I had everything I needed to make it ... except walnuts.

Most people use pinenuts for pesto. To me, pinenuts taste like kerosene. Not that Ive tasted kerosene. I just prefer walnuts. But all I had were Brazil nuts.

They might work. Or not.

I cant tell you how often Ive substituted ingredients that might work, but didnt. If the cooking channel did a show called Recipes for Disaster, I could be their celebrity chef.

So I made a quick trip to the market for walnuts. At least, I hoped it would be quick. I was hungry. And the temperature in my car  I am not making this up  registered 121 degrees.

I parked as close as possible and sprinted to the store. The pavement felt mushy. The shopping cart burned my hands. (Carts are good to lean on, even if youre only buying one thing.) And when the air conditioning hit my face, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

At first, I couldnt recall why I was there. So I stuck my head in a freezer between two tubs of ice cream until it hit me: Walnuts. Where were they? Id have to search every aisle to find them.

Do you think grocery stores move stuff around just to get us to buy things we dont need? My cart was half full by the time I got to the sunflowers. They were huge. And they were on sale.

I grabbed the biggest bunch and headed for the check-out line. Then something made me go back for another bunch.

Loading the groceries in my car, I heard a voice call, Miss?

I looked up and saw an elderly woman, frail as a fallen leaf, leaning on a cart filled with packs of bottled water.

Im sorry, can you help me? she said. I cant lift these.

Its not easy to ask for help.

One Christmas, long ago, my stepfather was out of work and some good people from church brought us a food basket. After they left, my mother said, Its hard to take help. But remember how it feels. Because one day, you will do the giving.

Those words took on a deeper meaning for me last summer when I broke my ankle and spent months in a wheelchair. Being able to help someone is a gift  especially for the giver.

The water bottles seemed weightless. I felt like Wonder Woman. Then, getting in my car to leave, I saw the sunflowers.

Wait! I called to the woman. She stopped and I ran over to hand her one of the bunches.

Oh! she said, I cant take your beautiful flowers!

Sure you can, I said. I have two bunches. This ones yours.

She laughed and thanked me again. I drove home grinning like a mule eating briars. Then I made pesto pasta. We ate it all. It was good. Heres the recipe:

Boil and drain some pasta. In a food processor or blender, puree two cups of fresh basil; a few cloves of garlic; 3/4 cup of olive oil; 1/2 cup of parmesan; and 1/4 cup of ... Brazil nuts.

Yes, I forgot to buy walnuts. But Brazil nuts worked just fine.

Sometimes it seems were always in need of something, always searching for that one missing ingredient that will make everything taste all right.

But one day, if were lucky, we will hear with our hearts, more than with our ears, a quiet plea for help. And it will remind us of what we so often forget: That we are whole. Our needs are met. We have all that we need.

Theres more than one way to make pesto. And theres always a way to repay, day by day, a little of the boundless grace that weve been given.
EDDIE JOHNSTON, Millers Creek

The authority of Scripture

Columnist Earl Crow says it is important to understand that biblical writers were not privy to scientific information we have today (Why did the founding fathers own slaves? July 8). What is important to understand is that according to Paul, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and even Christ Jesus referred to Scripture on several occasions.

To deny the authority of Scripture is to also deny the omniscience and omnipresence of God. Would an all-knowing and ever-present God who knows the beginning from the end be unaware of the weight that would be given to Scripture in the future? Wouldnt an all-powerful, fair and loving God be sure that his word would include everything needed to live in accord with his desire? Its through him that all knowledge, past, present and future, exists. Believing anything less would exhibit a lack of faith.

In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus himself clearly lays out Gods acceptable paradigm for intimate human relationship and that relationship is between a man and a woman. What God has joined together let no man put asunder.

Gods greatest attribute is love, but that is not his only attribute. He is also holy and righteous. Scripture is clear that a time is coming when his wrath will be poured out on an unbelieving world.

When looking for spiritual guidance, be sure the teaching is in accord with Scripture regardless of the education or accolades of the teacher. Its the only way to determine the validity of the lesson.

***

RODNEY PAGE, Winston-Salem

On foreign soil

President Trump went to the G20 meeting in Hamburg and said that when it came to Russian interference in our 2016 election, he believed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, rather than the U.S.s own intelligence agencies. He stood before an international crowd, on foreign soil, and bad-mouthed his predecessor and our own government.

If President Obama had done that, Sean Hannity would have gone on a 24-hour rant about his traitorous behavior. Obama would have been met with pitchforks when he returned to the U.S.

Whoever the next president is, elected in 2020, he or she will be required to conduct an apology tour to ask the world to forgive us for Trump.

***

PAT BULLARD, China Grove

More compassion

The writer of the July 12 letter Freedom said it very well. There are so many people who cannot afford health care, and far too many children who go to bed at night hungry. The GOP plan for lack of health care, and to cut programs that help to feed the poor, veterans, and children, is more than cruel.

My wish, too, is for a world where we care for each other and where everyone has access to health care and food. I am tired of hearing that they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when there are no bootstraps for them to pull themselves up by.

There is a great imbalance in the wealth of the world, and a minimum-wage increase would help those at the bottom who cannot exist with their families while often working more than one minimum-wage job. Yes, I pray for a more compassionate world.

***

BEVERLY T. JONES, Winston-Salem

How long?

In regard to the July 10 letter Pulling back, I fully agree that America is the greatest country on earth. But how long will that be true with Putin-loving President Trump in charge?

We were told to stop and smell the roses. Its hard to smell the roses when all you can smell is a rat.

Please submit letters online to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
The Philippines Office of the Ombudsman [official website] announced plans to charge [press release] former Philippines president Benigno Aquino III [Britannica profile] on Friday for the botched anti-terror raid that led to what is known as the Mamasapano massacre in 2015. The raid left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos dead as a result of a firefight with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and another privately armed group. Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales [official profile] ordered that Aquino be charged with usurpation of authority under the Revised Penal Code [text, PDF] and the Philippines Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act [text, PDF]. According to the order, the charges are based on: 1) participation and assistance in planning the operation with gross and inexcusable negligence; 2) approval of the operation with full knowledge that it was flawed; 3) allowing suspended [Philippine National Police] Chief Alan Purisima to participate in the planning and running of said operation and proving information and intelligence, and (4) breach of established norms inherent in a chain of command. Of Purisimas involvement specifically, Morales stated:

there is no gainsaying that President Aquino was fully aware that the Office of the Ombudsman had placed Purisima under preventive suspension at that time [for the anomalous Werfest deal]. Despite this, SMS exchanges between President Aquino and Purisima showed that the suspended police chief played a major role in the botched operation . certainly a public officer who is under preventive suspension in barred from performing any public functions and from meddling into the affairs of the government.

Others charged in this order include Purisima himself and SAF Director Getulio Napenas. According to Aquino, he did not directly participate in the planning and execution of the operation. Aquinos spokeswoman Abigail Valte said that Aquino is currently in the process of seeking advice from his attorneys.

Philippines has been on the international spotlight ever since Rodrigo Duterte took office as the president of the nation. In June, Philippine opposition lawmakers petitioned the Supreme Court [official website] to reject President Rodrigo Dutertes [BBC profile] imposition of martial law. Duterte declared martial law [JURIST report] on the island of Mindanao in May when heavily armed militants linked to the Islamic State [BBC profile] took over large parts of Marawi City, a provincial capital in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. In April, a lawyer filed a complaint [JURIST report] against Duterte accusing him of extrajudicial killings during his nationwide anti-drugs crackdown. In March, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released a report accusing the police of falsifying evidence [JURIST report] in relation to the alleged police killings of citizens. This policy of sanctioned killings has been part of Dutertes rhetoric since his time as mayor of Davao City. In December the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official profile] called for a murder investigation [JURIST report] for a murder investigation of Duterte after he admitted to killing people while he served as mayor of Davao.
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal [official website] voided [Reuters report] the oaths of office of four opposition lawmakers on Friday and removed them from the legislature. Among the four disqualified lawmakers were 24-year-old Nathan Law, leader of the 2014 Umbrella movement protests, veteran activist Long Hair Kwok-hung Leung, Siu-lai Lau, and Edward Yiu. The reasons behind Judge Thomas Aus decision to remove the lawmakers were varied, but all had a rather broad common theme  changing the wording of the oath of office or failing to take the oath in a sincere and solemn manner. Specifically, of the four removed lawmakers, Au said Law expressed a doubt on or disrespect of the status of the [Peoples Republic of China] as a legitimate sovereign of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Law had quoted [BBC News report] Mahatma Gandhi during his swearing in saying: you can never imprison my mind. Au also referred to Leungs colorful display of a yellow umbrella bearing pro-democracy and protest messages as disqualifying his oath. Lau was disqualified for reading her oath at a slow pace, while Yiu was disqualified for adding words to his oath. Au concluded that The National Peoples Congress of the Peoples Republic of China (NPC) [official website] interpreted [BBC News report] the Basic Law [text, PDF] last year to require city lawmakers to swear allegiance to a China-Hong Kong, and that changing the wording of their oath or lacking sincerity is grounds for dismissal. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called the ruling an alarming blow to Hong Kongs fast deteriorating autonomy  used to excise some elected pro-democracy activists from legislature, to rig the system further in favor of pro-Beijing politicians. The four lawmakers have indicated their intention to appeal the decision.

Hong Kong was a British colony until 20 years ago when it moved under the authority of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) under a one country, two systems setup. This setup was designed to protect Hong Kongs autonomy and allow freedoms not permitted in mainland China. However, this autonomy has often been curtailed in situations where such autonomy appeared to question PRCs dominion over Hong Kong. In November 2016 the Hong Kong Court of Appeal ruled [JURIST report] against two elected, pro-independence politicians from taking local office. That caused more than 1,000 Hong Kong lawyers, dressed in black, to march [JURIST report] through the city in opposition of the decision. In January an estimated 5,000 people marched in Hong Kong [JURIST report] in support of pro-democracy politicians who were similarly barred from taking office the previous year for altering their oaths office. In August a Hong Kong court convicted [JURIST report] three leaders, who participated in the 2014 pro-democracy protests, of unlawful assembly and inciting others to join the assembly. Among these protestors was Nathan Law, one of the lawmakers disqualified in this decision on Friday.
AXTELL  It was a phone call Bob Massey never expected. Especially on July 4.

Do you know Brenda Massey? the caller, Adam Onnen, asked him.

She was our daughter, Massey said, tensing up. He didnt know Onnen.

I have her billfold, Onnen said.

Massey paused. She passed away in 1987, he said.

I found her billfold along the Platte River yesterday, Onnen said.

They talked.

At 5 p.m. Sunday, Onnen met the Masseys at Perkins restaurant in Kearney to give them Brendas nearly 40-year-old billfold and drivers license.

It was overwhelming, Bobs wife, Wanda, said. Were amazed at how hard he worked to find us.

Onnen of Grand Island was driving along the Platte River in his Jeep with friends on July 2. East of Grand Island, a friend spotted something on a sandbar. I cruised over and picked it up, Onnen said.

It was a weatherbeaten wallet with the initials B.M. on the outside. Inside, he found a drivers license for a Brenda Massey issued on Feb. 16, 1979. It would expire in 1982. She was born on June 23, 1962, it said. The picture showed a young woman with glasses and thick dark hair. Onnen quickly calculated that Massey would be 55 now.

It was in pristine shape except for the snaps being rusted off. It probably meant something to someone at sometime. I decided it would be awesome to find that person, Onnen said.

He took the wallet home. He found 13 frail, faded, fragile pieces of paper. He dried them out and held a few up to the light. He saw faint handwriting on them. Were they senior pictures? Graduation pictures? I thought itd be fantastic to talk to her. I couldnt wait to hear her expression when I told her Id found the wallet, he said.

On July 4, over coffee, he and his father, Dennis, opened the phone book and began calling everyone listed under the name Massey.

We made seven, eight, nine calls, I bet, Onnen said. One call was to a Bob and Wanda Massey in Axtell, but they had no voice mail, so Onnen couldnt leave a message.

Unable to find the wallets owner, he posted a few pictures on Facebook with a note: I have found this and am looking to return it.

Within an hour, nearly 30 people saw that message. One clue led to another. Onnen called the Masseys of Axtell again. This time, from his mobile phone at a campground near Alma, Bob answered.

Onnen told him about the wallet, about the drivers license, about Brenda.

He said, That was my daughter, but I didnt hear the word was, Onnen said. I asked him, Can you contact her? I have her wallet.

No, Massey told him. She passed away in 1987.

Onnen was deeply shaken.

They talked for 20 minutes. Massey said Brenda graduated from Axtell High School in 1981 and was married in 1983. She had died in 1987.

Onnen offered to drive to Axtell to return the wallet, and in exchange, Ill buy you a beer.

Bob said, No, Ill buy you a beer. They agreed to meet at 5 p.m. Sunday at Perkins in Kearney.

Bob Massey hung up, in shock. He and Wanda headed into Alma to meet their daughters, Julie Fox and Tonya Robinson, for the Fourth of July parade. He was teary. He told them about Onnens discovery.

I was shocked, Fox of Axtell said. Its all I could think about for the rest of the day. I wanted more information.

By that afternoon, Onnens Facebook page was abuzz with comments.

On Sunday, as they arrived at the restaurant, memories shimmered of Brenda, who had died of an illness in 1987 and left three small sons behind.

Everyone was a little nervous and skeptical. Onnen was sweating, Fox said.

When Onnen gave them the billfold, the Masseys teared up. Onnen had to turn away.

At last, they sat down. They stayed and talked for three hours. Around the table were Onnen and his daughter, Alexis, 15; the Masseys; Fox and her husband, Clayton, and Robinson and her husband, Doug, who live in Funk. Also there were Brendas oldest son Jesse Koch, 35, his wife, Shelly, and their children, Brynlee, 6, and Brayden, 3. Brendas other sons, twins Justin and Bill Koch, were not able to be there. They live in Omaha.

It was overwhelming, Wanda said. Brenda has been gone 30 years. Imagine that wallet being in that river with changing currents and floods since the early 80s. To know that Adam found it and took the time to find us, well, to even think that someone would do that ... her voice faded.

Her husband said, It was overwhelming to meet Adam. How do we show our appreciation for all his work?

Onnen, who works as a mechanic at the Caterpillar dealership in Doniphan, wants no reward. I come from a tight family. I learned to always look out for someone else, and if you find something doesnt belong to you, return it. The license is back in their hands where it belongs, he said.

We think, Fox said, that God wanted us to meet. We have a new friend.
KEARNEY  I am a Vietnam veteran with inoperable Agent Orange cancer, said Michael Knispel from his home in Minden.

I had just returned from Arizona for my first treatment. I had been denied treatment here in Kearney or Nebraska. I went to Arizona to do my first series of radiation and seed implants. When I returned, I was a little mixed up whether I was going to live or not.

As a way to boost his spirits, Knispel began thinking about cars. It was 2011 when he found an ad in the Omaha-World Herald about a couple of classic cars in Elkhorn. He paid a visit to the man while visiting his daughter in Omaha and looked at several of the cars.

They needed a lot of work, Knispel said.

Dealing with his cancer treatment and not even sure if he would live much longer, Knispel decided not to bother with the other cars.

The owner also told Knispel about a 1966 Plymouth Belvedere with a Hemi racing motor in it somewhere in the back of the barn in Elkhorn  with only 800 miles on it. Knispel felt skeptical about the vehicle and skipped the opportunity to check it out.

Over the next seven years, I never forgot the story, he said. I hadnt seen the car but I kept thinking about the story. I thought to myself, could this be real?

On a return visit to Omaha in November 2016 to spend time with his daughter, Knispel decided to look up the man again. Knispel had to call his son in Minden to search for the original classified ad under a stack of newspapers on a desk for the phone number.

I called the guy, and he still had the car, Knispel said. I went out to look at the car, and it looked in very good shape.

Here, the story takes a weird turn.

After looking at the Belvedere, Knispel returned to his daughters house. His wife ask him if he wanted to talk to his daughters father-in-law, Steve Opelson. He lived in Arizona and also had an interest in classic cars.

He had just inherited a 1953 Corvette from a friend who had passed away, Knispel said. I talked to him a little bit. I said that I just got back from looking at a red Hemi car. He instantly said that he knew that guy, The guy that bought it new lived two houses from us when I lived in Omaha.

Auto enthusiasts wont find this car at the Cruise Nite Show & Shine from noon-4 p.m. today (Saturday). The vehicle has a permanent home at the Classic Car Collection at 3600 E. Highway 30 Suite B. Knispel feels that visitors can best appreciate the Belvedere in that setting.

The car shows no wear, no age and this car doesnt even look like its been in the sun, he said. Ive never driven it. I wouldnt drive it. Its only original once, and I wouldnt take the chance of blowing a tire on it.

The car came without a heater or a radio  and no power steering.

It was bought for one purpose  and that was not for street driving, Knispel said. It was bought with a 426 Hemi for drag racing.

Nothing about the car has been altered.

This is an unmolested true survivor, he said of the 1966 Plymouth Belvedere. Im not the story, the car is the story. People come into the Classic Car Collection and just go crazy over that car. So when you add the Hemi to it, thats the story.

After 18 trips to Arizona for treatment, Knispels cancer remains.

Its basically still there and its still inoperable, he said. When I go to visit, the doctor always says, I cant believe youre still sitting here in my office.

Every six months Knispel travels to Arizona for treatment.

It will come back, he said of his disease.

For now, his Belvedere gives him pleasure just knowing that people can appreciate it the way he does.
KEARNEY  Korean and Vietnam veterans will get the welcome home they deserved, even if it is a few years late.

Thats the gift one veteran wants to grant her military friends today (Saturday) at the Gibbon American Legion Club.

It gives these guys a chance to wear their medals, short of their funeral. A lot of these guys have never had that opportunity to display that and be honored and feel good about it, said Danelle Nelson, 38, of Kearney.

Nelson is a 17-year veteran who organized the first-ever Military Ball at 5 p.m. today at the Legion for about 40 vets. Nelson works for the Nebraska Air National Guards Joint Force Headquarters in Lincoln and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

The ball will involve traditional military activities, including a Prisoner of War tribute, a meal and a dance featuring music from the Korean and Vietnam wars and present-day music. Guest speaker will be Nebraska native and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Cpl. Jason Whited of Missouri. He served from 2008-2012 in Afghanistan and around the Mediterranean Sea.

Veterans are being encouraged to wear their uniforms.

In April, Nelson tried to take retired Korean War-era U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Carl Lewis, 86, of Kearney to a military ball out of town. But, because of his health he wasnt up to it.

So, Nelson vowed to give Lewis his own ball.

I told him, If I cant take you to a ball, Ill bring the ball to you, she said.

Nelson met Lewis and other Korean and Vietnam vets through a group at the Gibbon American Legion. V.E.T.S. group members and Vietnam War-era veterans Jim Cursman of Kearney and Russ Horst of Ravenna are helping Nelson set up the ball.

The four of us are kind of four big peas in a pod, Nelson said of herself, Lewis, Horst and Cursman.

The three younger peas in the pod check on Lewis regularly, Nelson said, and make sure he can attend events such as the ball, veterans breakfasts and meetings.

The theme of tonights ball is The Dance, based on a 1989 country song written by Garth Brooks. The song is appropriate, Nelson said, for Lewis and the veteran friends shes made the last few years.

If it hadnt been for all of us serving our country from anywhere from 38 to 86 years old, we wouldve never come together to have this dance. The only real common denominator is our war stories, she said.

@HubChic
KEARNEY  Flying in a World War II bomber smells like grease, oil and aviation gas  with a hint of exhaust.

Its downright intoxicating, Hunter Chaney, director of marketing for the Collings Foundation, said about the smell of flying in a B-17 Flying Fortress or a B-24 Liberator. I just love it. You get in the planes and its just home, you know? We just love these planes.

A slice of WWII aviation history will land at Kearney Regional Airport when the Wings of Freedom Tour, presented by the Collings Foundation, arrives on Monday with tours and flights aboard four restored military aircraft. The tour will begin at noon Monday and continue through Wednesday.

Hours are noon-5 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday.

The presentation features:

- Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

- Consolidated B-24 Liberator

- B-25 Mitchell

- North American P-51 Mustang

Tours of the aircraft cost $15 for adults and $5 for children. Thirty-minute flights aboard the B-17 or the B-24 are $450 per person. A ride on the B-25 is $400 per person.

So many people remember their loved ones through these aircraft, Chaney said of the WWII veterans who flew in them. These planes mean so much more than just flying old planes around.

The tour also features stick time in a P-51 fighter. Flight training is $2,200 for half an hour or $3,200 for 60 minutes.

The saying we have with these tours is that if you read about WWII history, its something you might remember, Chaney said. But to experience something like flying in a fully restored historic aircraft, thats something youll never forget. And thats exactly what this tour is, an interaction in WWII history.

The Collings Foundation of Stow, Mass., seeks to preserve and display transportation-related history. The foundation maintains collections of historic aircraft. The Wings of Freedom Tour acts like a museum, bringing artifacts to the visitor instead of asking the visitor to travel to a museum.

Chaney describes the effect on first-time riders.

You get everyone on board, he said. The plane starts up. The engines are rumbling, and you hear the plane squeaking and moving around and vibrating. It goes right through the marrow. Youre heading out to the runway  and you really cant see out the windows while youre buckled in and waiting for takeoff  but as soon as the engines reach take off power, there is not a closed mouth in the entire aircraft.

After the war, most of the aircraft were scrapped for the raw aluminum. The foundations B-17 is one of only eight still in flying condition. The B-24 is the sole remaining example of its type flying in the world.

Chaney sees the experience as a way to better understand the forces that helped to shape our world in a political and historic way.

What we really hope, particularly with the younger generations, is that they use this excitement to be more engaged in this history, he said. The ultimate goal, of course, is that when we know our history, were better fortified to make wiser decisions that affect our future.
Governments job is to set the stage for economic development by providing the appropriate infrastructure, tax climate and incentives, and support, such as a pro-business regulatory structure, and marketing and training assistance.

In those areas, Nebraska gets high marks, although improvement is needed in the tax climate. Also, our states professional licensing system is burdensome. The good news is that our Legislature is intent about resolving tax issues and already has taken a stab at licensing problems by launching an initiative to rein in Nebraskas professional certification standards. Licensing rules may be an impediment today, but lawmakers installed some reforms this year and will follow through with more improvements in 2018. Soon it will be easier for many professionals  barbers, plumbers, massage therapists, etc.  to be licensed without excessive training or years of experience.

One of Nebraskas biggest economic development assets occupies the statehouse. Gov. Pete Ricketts and his team are doing a great job leading Nebraska by organizing overseas trade missions, inviting U.S. and foreign investors to visit the state, and stepping in when appropriate to ease barriers to growth.

One of the better things Ricketts is doing is trumpeting the states successes, including our selection as this years Governors Cup Award for the most economic development projects per capita in the United States. To build on the Governors Cup momentum, the governor took a victory lap around Nebraska to highlight innovation and progress at some major employers, including Blueprint Engines and its huge new factory in southeast Kearney.

Ricketts capped his eight-city victory lap by leading the second annual Governors Summit on Economic Development. Last year, he launched the summit as a forum for our states industries and business leaders to talk about opportunities and challenges for growing Nebraska.

Participants celebrated successes of the past year, such as Becton Dickinsons $100 million investment at its Holdrege plant  a sign the company will remain a major Phelps County employer well into the future. Summit participants also learned more about the newly formed Governors International Trade Council.

Clearly, government is setting the stage, and our governor is focusing much energy and knowledge on growing our states economy. The Governors Cup shows our progress is being noticed.
Another federal appeals court has ruled that people have a First Amendment right to videotape police in public and that it is illegal for officers to interfere with those doing so. The ruling, by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, is a welcome development and police departments should make sure their officers understand it.

This is the sixth time a federal appeals court has upheld the publics right to photograph and film officers in public. Even without the ruling, it would be virtually impossible, given the proliferation of smartphones, for officers to halt the videotaping of major incidents unfolding in crowded public settings. In those situations, there are too many people recording from too many angles for police to shut down all recordings.

The ruling is more likely to afford protection to the lone bystander who pulls out a phone and starts filming. At the center of the 3rd Circuit ruling, for example, were the cases of a college student cited for filming police as they broke up a party outside of a Philadelphia house and an activist who recorded officers arresting a fracking demonstrator.

Police want their version of what transpires to be law, and they sometimes discourage filming so they can control the narrative. As the 3rd Circuit ruled, however, smartphone video cuts both ways. It has sometimes discredited officers conduct and other times helped to clear them of wrongdoing.

The ruling isnt foolproof; people cannot interfere with officers as they do their jobs, for example, or trespass on a crime scene.

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A Canadian passport is displayed in Ottawa on Thursday, July 23, 2015. Waiving fees to replace passports and other documents lost in last year's Fort McMurray wildfire cost Ottawa almost $130,000 in forgone revenue. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
In this photo provided by KITV, fire damage from a blaze that killed three people and left 12 injured in the Marco Polo building in Honolulu is shown on Saturday, July 15, 2017. The fire broke out Friday afternoon in a unit on the 26th floor, where all three of the dead were found, Fire Chief Manuel Neves said. The building is not required to have fire sprinklers, which would have confined the blaze to the unit where it started, Neves said. The 36-floor building near the tourist mecca of Waikiki was built in 1971, before sprinklers were mandatory in high-rises. (Brenton Awa/KITV via AP)
North Korea on Saturday issued a guarded response to President Moon Jae-in's latest proposal for cross-border rapprochement, calling it "sophistry" while voicing relief over Seoul's pledge to respect past joint declarations.



In its first reaction to the initiative that Moon announced in Berlin last Thursday, the Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, made a lengthy point-by-point rebuttal -- rather than a terse rejection -- which a Seoul official said may signal Pyongyang's interest in the proposal.



The newspaper issued its statement in a commentary attributed to the pen name of a private writer, which observers say hints at the reclusive state's efforts to be cautious not to blunt the potential momentum of better inter-Korean ties.



"The overall content, enumerated under the name of peace, carries confrontational intentions to quash its neighbor while relying on foreign forces," the paper said.



"(The initiative) is riddled with sophistries like sleep talking, which only pose hurdles rather than helping improve North-South relations," it added.



During his visit to the German capital to attend the Group of 20 summit, Moon announced the initiative under which Seoul pursues Pyongyang's denuclearization with a security guarantee, and economic and diplomatic incentives, while seeking a peace treaty and dismissing the prospect of forced unification.



In the commentary, the paper noted that it is a "relief" that Moon included his government's vow to respect the landmark joint declarations that were signed at the inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007. The declarations aim to foster cross-border cooperation, exchanges and reconciliation.



"It is a relief that the vow to honor and enforce the June 15 joint declaration in 2000 and the Oct. 4 declaration in 2007 were included (in the initiative) -- a different stance from his (conservative) predecessors," the commentary read.



Touching on Moon's mention of the lessons from the German unification process, the newspaper denounced it as a typical process of unification by absorption.



"That (unification process) also will be a total denial of such declarations," the paper said.



The North's paper also dismissed Moon's call for bilateral dialogue and cooperation, demanding a "fundamental shift in policy and stance."



While referring to Moon's proposals for the reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and civil-sector cooperation, the newspaper said that there would not be any nonpolitical exchanges when the fundamental issue of cross-border confrontation remains unmentioned or unresolved.



It also took issue with the fact that the initiative was unveiled on foreign soil.



"It is nonsensical that (the president) enumerated these crucial issues -- which we, Koreans, should lead in resolving -- before foreigners with different skin colors, with whom we don't share the same language," it said.



A Seoul official said that the issues the North rebutted could be part of the agenda for future inter-Korean dialogue.



"If the North is not interested in the Berlin initiative, it would have just rejected it tersely. ... The North's stance indicates its interest in the Moon Jae-in government's policy towards it and the initiative," the official said on the condition of anonymity. (Yonhap)




PRESS RELEASE

McGurk: One Week On and U.S.-Russian Brokered Cease-fire in Syria Is Holding

July 14, 2017 (EIRNS)Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition To Counter ISIS, in answers to reporters questions at the State Department yesterday, stressed that the U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire in southwest Syria is holding, and that Russian cooperation with the U.S. is a major factor in cooling the conflict in Syria down.

McGurk was conciliatory towards Russia throughout his remarks, particularly with respect to cooperation on the de-escalation zones.

"What we are trying to do [in Syria] is make sure that in areas in which we are operating, in which forces we are working with, we have de-confliction arrangements in place so that the territory theres a clear delineation of territory so we dont have incidents like happened a few weeks ago where we shot down a Syrian plane,"

he said.

"So we are working very hard with the Russians on those types of arrangements, and were actually fairly encouraged by whats happening there."

For the first of several times, he stressed that the U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire is holding in southwest Syria and that people are actually returning to their homes.

"And what we want to do is get things in place in Syriaif you think in phases, if were in phase one, we want to defeat ISIS and make sure that they are not holding territory anymore, no longer a threat to usdefeat ISIS and de-escalate the overall civil war. And thats throughin arrangements of ceasefires, of de-confliction areas, so you can then begin a real, credible process to actually have a political settlement."

On the matter of a second cease-fire arrangement, which President Trump had referenced in remarks in Paris, McGurk said that the U.S. objective is to preserve Syrias territorial integrity. He noted that the Russians have said that they are willing to put monitors on the ground in the southwestern zone.

"And since we shot down that Syrian plane, by necessity given what that plane was doing, we have had very constructive discussions military-to-military discussions... with the Russians about de-confliction arrangements. So I was in Tabqa a couple weeks ago, and just south of Tabqaabout 15 kilometers or sois a de-confliction line that is holding quite well. And those are the types of arrangements we want to get in place to just bring some more stability to Syria,"

he said.

"So I think the Presidents referring to a very constructive discussion that he had with the Russians and building from this southwest agreement."

Later, McGurk emphasized again that Syrian army operations in a part of Suwayda province where ISIS still has a presence, have not affected the cease-fire zone in the populated areas of that province.

"I would say right now the spirit of the ceasefire agreement is holding," he said.
PRESS RELEASE

Congressional Sabotage of U.S.-Russia Relations Continues

July 14, 2017 (EIRNS)The Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate is trying to impose their sabotage of U.S.-Russian relations directly into the conduct of diplomacy between Moscow and Washington.

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon is scheduled to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on July 17 in Washington, a meeting that has already been postponed oncethey were supposed to meet on June 23 in St. Petersburg. However, the Russian side is threatening to cancel it again if the matter of diplomatic properties that were seized in December of 2016 under outgoing President Obamas orders, is not going to be dealt with in some substantive way. A high-ranking diplomatic source told Izvestia that the cancellation will happen

"if the United States does not return to discussion of the issue concerning the return of Russian diplomatic compounds and will not set a mutually beneficial agenda for consultations."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed today that the meeting is on, but that Russia may still be forced to take retaliatory action over the diplomatic compounds and numerous other outstanding "irritants" left over from the Obama Administration.

"Let me repeat (we have said this and explained this many times) that we would not like to go to extremes," she said. "We never rush on such matters. As you know, there was a very long pause that has obviously lasted for too long. If our American partners do not understand it in a different way, at some point we will have to take steps in this direction."

Senate Democrats Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, have sent a letter to Shannon telling him they "strongly oppose" any move to hand the two diplomatic compounds back over to Russia. "Simply put, the Russian government has done nothing to deserve renewed access to these compounds," they claimed in their letter, reported The Hill. "Since the seizure of these compounds, we are unaware of any evidence or assessment that the treatment of U.S. personnel in the Russian Federation has markedly improved."

On the House side, the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill passed today, by a vote of 344 to 8. The bill has a slew of anti-Russia provisions in it, a number of which the Trump Administration has already expressed objection to. One amendment that was voted up on Wednesday (July 12) would require the Pentagon to report attempts by Russian actors to hack its systems. According to The Hill, the amendment would require Defense Secretary James Mattis, in coordination with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates, to report to Congress any attempts by the Russian government or actors it supports to attack the Defense Departments systems within the last two years.

"World War III is raging right now. Every day attacks are being carried out, and we need to be prepared," Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), the author of the amendment, claimed wildly.
PRESS RELEASE

Council on Foreign Relations Pushes Military Confrontation with China

July 14, 2017 (EIRNS)The New York Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) journal, Foreign Affairs, released an article in its July/August issue titled "Course CorrectionHow to Stop Chinas Maritime Advance," by Ely Ratner, CFRs China hand, and a former Vice-President Joe Biden security advisor for Asia, as well as an Asia hand at both the neocon Center for a New American Security and the RAND Corporation.

Ratner rants that China is "poised to seize control" of the South China Sea, which

"would deal a devastating blow to the United States influence in the region, tilting the balance of power across Asia in Chinas favor. Time is running out to stop Chinas advance."

Pretending that the other claimants to the rocks and islands in the South China Sea are pleading for U.S. military help to stop Chinas aggression (the opposite is the case), Ratner calls for more military presence, for vastly increasing military hardware and support to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, in preparation for war with China. The U.S. must "abandon its neutrality" on issues of sovereignty [which Obama essentially ignored in any case] and

"help countries in the region defend their claims. Washington should make clear that it can live with an uneasy stalemate in Asiabut not with Chinese hegemony."

Ratner also asserts that China is preparing to

"reclaim more land... and develop the ability to deny foreign militaries access to the sea and the airspace above it, by deploying a range of advanced military equipment to its basesfighter aircraft, antiship cruise missiles, long-range air defenses, and more."

This is, of course, clinically insane, since China depends on trade through the South China Seawhich requires freedom of navigationfar more than the United States does. Ratner lets it all out by warning that these moves by China would "limit the United States ability to project military power and political influence in Asia." The Obama/neocon credo of American imperial rule.

He adds:
PRESS RELEASE

Trump Says He Would Invite Putin to the White House at Some Point; Reiterates Russia-U.S. Cooperation in Syria

July 14, 2017 (EIRNS)At a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday, President Donald Trump strongly defended his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin; said that he would invite Putin to the White House at some point; and confirmed that the U.S. and Russia are working on a second cease-fire agreement in Syria, as a follow-up to the one he and Putin set in motion when they met.

When asked by reporters if he would extend an invitation to the Russian President to meet at the White House, Trump said: "I dont think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

Trump went on to explain the significance of his first meeting with Putin:

"One of the great things that came out of this meeting, by the way, was the fact that we got the ceasefire that now has lasted for almost five days. Five days doesnt sound like a long period of time. In terms of a ceasefire in Syria its a very long period of time. That was a result of having communication with a country. During that five-day period a lot of lives have been saved, a lot of people were not killed, no shots have been fired in a very, very dangerous part of the world, and this is one of the most dangerous parts of Syria itself."

Trump added:

"By having some communication and dialogue we were able to have a ceasefire, and its going to go on for a while. And frankly were working on the second ceasefire in a very rough part of Syria."

Asked about sanctions on Russia, Trump confirmed that he had discussed this with Putin:

"I would never take the sanctions off until something is worked out to our satisfaction and everybodys satisfaction in Syria and in Ukraine," Trump said. "Ive made great deals. Thats what I do. Why would I take sanctions off without getting anything?" he added.

In a July 12 interview with Pat Robertson of Christian Broadcast News (CBN), Trump also addressed his meeting with Putin:

"Sometimes youre not going to get along on things and sometimes you will. But we had a good meeting, it was a face-to-face meeting, it was a long meeting. It was two hours and 15 minutes. Everyone was surprised by the amount of time, but that was a good thing and not a bad thing. Yeah, I think we get along very well, and I think thats a good thing, thats not a bad thing. People said, Oh, they shouldnt get along. Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesnt make sense not to have some kind of a relationship."

Trump added:
Tasha French is getting married in December, but on Friday she was horrified to find her bridal store locked and the company headed for bankruptcy.

This is very upsetting and inconvenient, said French, who drove from Lancaster to the Alfred Angelo Bridal shop in Los Angeles Beverly Grove neighborhood only to find a sign that said, STORE CLOSED.

For Yadira Castro, the time crunch is even worse. The 27-year-old bride-to-be is scheduled to walk down the aisle in a week, but her dress is still inside the Alfred Angelo store in Boynton Beach, Fla.

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I dont have the money to buy a new dress. I have no time to buy a new dress, said a misty-eyed Castro, showing a picture of the dress, inspired by the Disney character Jasmine, that she had purchased from Alfred Angelo for more than $800. With veil and accessories, she has nearly $1,250 invested in wedding attire at the store, she said.

French and Castro are among uncounted brides and bridesmaids across the country who are scrambling because of the apparent closing of the Florida-based wedding dress company. There were reports from multiple cities of brides appearing at stores to pick up their wedding gowns, only to find the locations shut down.

Sorry for the inconvenience.  Sign at Alfred Angelo Bridal

Alfred Angelo is filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection to liquidate the companys holdings, said Patricia Redmond, the Stearns Weaver Miller lawyer in Miami representing the company.

Redmond said she would ask the court-appointed trustee in the case to release dresses already in stores awaiting pickup, as well as a $1.2-million shipment for Alfred Angelo coming from China so brides can get the dresses theyve ordered.

The companys top creditors are Check Asset Management, a portfolio company, which is owed $54 million, and Card Connect, a credit card processor, due $5 million. After that, there will probably be manufacturers in China filing claims, Redmond said. Unlucky bridal parties presumably would end up much farther down the line of those owed money.

The retailer operates at least 60 locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. Its dresses are placed with 1,400 retailers worldwide.

In Boynton Beach, as Castro waited, a store manager showed up late Friday morning but declined to talk with the media, locking the door behind her.

Mark Anthony Cua stares in disbelief at the closed Alfred Angelo Bridal store in Los Angeles. He paid $2,000 for his sisters bridal gown. (Ronald D. White / Los Angeles Times)

In Los Angeles, a small crowd of men and women gathered Friday in front of the Alfred Angelo store on La Cienega Boulevard. They stared at the closed doors as if they might be able to force them open by sheer force of will.

One sign apologized: Sorry for the inconvenience.

Mark Anthony Cua, who paid $2,000 for his sisters bridal gown, had waited for hours, he said, hoping someone would come.

Cua laughed bitterly over the small chance he thought he had in recovering the money he paid for the dress his sister was supposed to wear in January.

This is not supposed to be happening, Cua said. Theres going to be no good luck getting a refund. They are going bankrupt.

Across the country, bride-to-be Jessica Ringler stood outside the Alfred Angelo score in Coral Gables, Fla., on Friday seeking any information about her Disney Belle dress, veil and belt inside. I dont even understand what happened, said Ringler, 33, who ordered the $2,500 dress in March for her wedding in February. It was supposed to be my dream dress, she said.

The Alfred Angelo Bridal store in Los Angeles Beverly Grove neighborhood was closed on Friday. (Ronald D. White / Los Angeles Times)

The Coral Gables store has been a prime destination for brides-to-be, even endorsed by competitors.

Nora Ares, an employee at nearby Bijou Bridal & Special Occasion store, said she would often refer customers to Alfred Angelo. You would never think that something so drastic would happen to a chain like that, she said. Its going to be devastating for those brides.

In San Antonio, Texas, police told television station WOAI that dispatchers had received 911 calls about the closure.

Competing national chain Davids Bridal tweeted Friday that it was offering discounts to brides-to-be who have been affected by Alfredo Angelo closings. Davids Bridal says it will offer a 30% discount on replacement wedding gowns to those with an Alfred Angelo receipt and a 20% discount for bridesmaid dresses. It also said it was waiving rush fees on alterations for those with wedding dates around the corner.

Clerks for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida said on Friday that no bankruptcy petition had been filed on the companys behalf. But the company is directing brides and other customers to email bankruptcy lawyer Redmond at predmond@stearnsweaver.com for more information.

At Alfred Angelos corporate headquarters in Delray Beach, Fla., the elevator for the fourth floor, where the companys office is located, had been deactivated.

Richard Anders, who was appointed chief executive of Alfred Angelo Bridal in 2016, could not be reached for comment.

In Los Angeles, Gelina Bentley, a mother of a bride who is scheduled to be married in less than a month, slumped to the sidewalk when she saw that the Beverly Grove store was closed.

This is bad. This is really bad, Bentley said. They have our money and we have no dress.

Bentley had heard earlier in the month from a friend that the store was refusing to take new orders. She said she called the store and asked to speak to the chains regional manager, who would not come on the phone to talk to her.

Worse than the presumably lost money, Bentley said, was missing out on the shared dress-fitting ritual with her daughter, Angelina.

I was looking forward to the experience for her, standing up in the store in front of all the mirrors with her friends here to support her, Bentley said. We paid to have that experience.

Times staff writer White reported from Los Angeles and Sun Sentinel staff writer Phillips from South Florida.

Sun Sentinel staff writers Marcia Heroux Pounds and Johnny Diaz and researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

ronald.white@latimes.com

Twitter: @RonWLATimes

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A ballerina and the LA Phil. Broadway stars on the stage. And a look at the meaning of authenticity when it comes to casting. Im Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, with your weekly dose of all things culture:

Copeland and Dudamel team up

Marcelo Gomes and Misty Copeland perform a scene from Prokofievs Romeo and Juliet with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Two of American Ballet Theatres biggest stars  Misty Copeland and Marcelo Gomes  appeared at the Hollywood Bowl this week dancing selections to popular ballets accompanied by none other than the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel. Times classical music critic Mark Swed says there were moments that were explosive, touching and puzzling. The best part of all was how the large crowd (much of it likely new to dance) ate the show up, he writes. Los Angeles Times

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Plus, Swed writes on how Beethovens Symphony No. 9 made an appearance at the G-20 summit in Hamburg. And the leaders had no choice but to listen with their mouths (mostly) shut for more than an hour. Los Angeles Times

Love and trickery

Denis Arndt and Mary-Louise Parker in Heisenberg at the Mark Taper Forum. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Heisenberg, Simon Stephens drama about an encounter between a reserved, older Irish man and an all-too-forward middle-aged American woman, has landed at the Mark Taper Forum  with its two Broadway stars in tow: Denis Arndt and Mary-Louise Parker. It has the feeling of a contrived acting exercise, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty, but the experience deepens as the actors probe their characters contradictory hearts. Los Angeles Times

In other theater news:

Times contributor Margaret Gray reports on this years Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, organized by the Independent Shakespeare Co., which this has opened with a performance of Measure for Measure. Los Angeles Times

And our film critic Kenneth Turan is very impressed by British theater director William Oldroyds first feature film, Lady Macbeth. Los Angeles Times

Authenticity in casting

Filmmakers and theater directors are reevaluating how they cast for greater diversity and authenticity. (Edel Rodriguez / For The Times)

At a time when critics, the public, filmmakers and theater directors are debating issues of representation  from whitewashing of Asian roles to the casting of non-white actors in a musical about Alexander Hamilton  The Times debuts a series of stories that look at the question of authenticity in casting. Times culture writer Jessica Gelt provides an excellent overview. The ascendant norm is color-conscious casting, she writes, which implies an understanding of the profound implications of skin color. Los Angeles Times

Also in the package:

Deaf West artistic director David Kurs on why deaf actors should be cast to play deaf characters.

A profile of Rachel Crowl looks at how transgender actors are often sidelined.

Plus, The Times Trevell Anderson writes on why its time to let transgender actors tell their own stories.

How social media has shaped the conversation.

And a timeline explores the history of authenticity  or complete lack thereof  in casting.

An intimate view of Boyle Heights

Photographer Star Montana stands amid her portraits of L.A. denizens, now on view at the Main Museum in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / For The Times)

Im interested in the interview. Im interested in the individual person. Im interested in, who is this place? Thats Boyle Heights-born and raised photographer Star Montana, who chatted with me this week about her solo exhibition of portraits at the Main Museum (on view through September). I Dream of Los Angeles, as the show is titled, captures the denizens of our city in some ruminative moments. Los Angeles Times

And since Im on a photography kick, I also paid a visit to a show of images shot by the late Dennis Hopper. At Kohn Gallery in Hollywood, Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album is an interesting diary of one mans life during the 1960s. Los Angeles Times

In other visual arts news:

Times contributing reviewer Leah Ollman looks at the inventive ways in which Buenos Aires-born, L.A.-based artist Analia Saban uses material in her new show at Spruth Magers. Los Angeles Times

Ollman is also drawn to the ways in which artist An Te Liu uses materials  T-shirts, air purifiers, kitchen sponges, in his pensive show at Anat Egbi gallery. Los Angeles Times

Plus, get all of the latest show listings in my weekly arts Datebook. Los Angeles Times

Fade to Black

Artist Gary Simmons in front of his mural installation Fade to Black at the California African American Museum. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Gary Simmons has taken over the massive lobby at the California African American Museum with an installation that pays tribute to early African American actors and films. A lot of these film titles  and actors and actresses  have sort of disappeared through history, he tells The Times Deborah Vankin. And I want to recall some of them because I think theyre foundation of early film. Los Angeles Times

Protecting parking at all costs

Traffic at LAX. A lawsuit challenges the environmental impact report for plans to build a Metro stop and a people mover connection. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

In his latest Building Type column, Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at how current zoning and environmental laws put a damper on the development of new housing and mass transit. Case in point: a lawsuit by the Parking Spot against LAX. The parking lot company is using the California Environmental Quality Act to protect the interests of a parking franchise at the moment Los Angeles is trying to bring light rail to (or at least very near) LAX. Los Angeles Times

In other news

 Happy birf!!! David Hockney turns 80  and the Getty Center celebrates. Los Angeles Times

 The Museum of Ventura County faces closure. Ventura County Star

 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will text you artworks based on keywords or emojis you send them. Time

 More than 65 art galleries will offer Latino and Latin American-themed programming during Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles / Latin America. Los Angeles Times

 Oooops. Posing for a photo, a visitor topples a row of pedestals at the 14th Factory pop-up exhibition in Lincoln Heights. Hyperallergic

 Albert Contreras, who made a name for himself as a painter of Minimalist compositions, has passed away. Los Angeles Times

 A federal appeals court in Pasadena ruled that the descendants of Lilly Cassirer can sue the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Spain for the return of a Nazi-looted painting by Camille Pissarro. Reuters

 Did a Russian culture minister quash the premiere of a Bolshoi Theater production because it was too gay? Thats the question at the heart of an escalating brouhaha over the last-minute cancellation of a program about dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Radio Free Europe

 The Sacramento Ballet names one of its former dancers, Amy Seiwert, as new artistic director. Sacramento Bee

 How disabled actors navigate the stage. New York Times

 The car in photography. New York Times

 Plus, the photo that is likely to be much dissected this weekend: Beyonces flowery, virginal portrait with her twins. Los Angeles Times

 Heres one you can get lost in for a while: the 100 greatest props in movie history. Thrillist

And last but not least

Indiana Jones and the Lobby of Hobby. McSweeneys

Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter 

carolina.miranda@latimes.com

@cmonstah

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CBS S.W.A.T. reboot will take on the Trump years, #BlackLivesMatter, says Shemar Moore By Meredith Blake Stephanie Sigman and Shemar Moore (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Dont let the funky theme song or the 70s origins fool you. While technically a remake  of both the original series and the subsequent 2003 film based on it  CBS upcoming cop drama S.W.A.T. is very plugged into the current moment, according to its cast and creators. In the series, former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore plays a native Angeleno who runs a tactical unit for the LAPD and finds his loyalty torn between his fellow officers and the community in which he was raised. As co-creator Aaron Rahsaan Thomas told reporters Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, the series was inspired by his experiences growing up in Kansas City, which have helped him understand both sides of the raging debate over police violence. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a very complicated view towards police officers, said Thomas, who created the series with veteran showrunner Shawn Ryan. On one hand, a 12-year-old kid who was a neighbor of mine was shot and killed by a police officer. On the other hand, another neighbor of mine was an actual police officer. Moore, best known for his long run on the CBS procedural Criminal Minds, noted the diversity of the cast and creative team and added that, while the show is primarily designed to entertain, it will also resonate politically. Were taking on the Trump years, he said. I dont care who you voted for. Its just whats happening today. Its Black Lives Matter. As much as some people dont want to hear it, its All Lives Matter. Its not just black versus blue or black versus white. Its every ethnicity. Its fear. Its racism. Its terrorism. Its subject matter of today. Ryan, who created the groundbreaking drama The Shield, about corrupt Los Angeles police officers, said he was excited about the chance to examine the often charged relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Los Angeles is such a diverse, amazing community, and seeing an officer who kind of lives in the city and sort of sees the people that are being policed as humans and as neighbors and as friends was really important to me. Facebook

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Netflix getting A Little Help from Carol Burnett By Libby Hill What do you get when you pair up a living legend with a bunch of little kids? Comedy gold, if Netflix has its way. The online streaming service announced Monday that comedy icon Carol Burnett will be returning to television with A Little Help With Carol Burnett, an original unscripted series that pairs Burnett with children to tackle lifes dilemmas. Someone once asked me how old I am inside, Burnett said in a statement Monday. I thought about it and came up with, Im about 8. So its going to be a lot of fun playing with kids my age. Kids ages 4 to 8 will join Burnett as celebrities and everyday folks bring their real-life problems to the show to get advice in front of a live studio audience. Were thrilled Carol is bringing her unique sensibilities to Netflix, Bela Bajaria, the services vice president of content acquisition, said in Mondays announcement. Carol is truly a legend in the entertainment industry with unprecedented success and fandom across TV, film and the stage, and we are both honored and excited to work with her. A Little Help With Carol Burnett will be produced by Dick Clark Productions and is the companys first Netflix project. This is the second television project announced this year for Burnett, 84. In February, ABC ordered a pilot for the multi-camera comedy Household Name, starring Burnett, though the series has not been picked up in its current iteration. Debuting in 2018, A Little Help With Carol Burnett will feature 12 half-hour episodes. Facebook

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Ken Burns explains why his Vietnam War documentary is more relevant than ever By Libby Hill Ken Burns in Beverly Hilton on Sunday. (Richard Shotwell / Invision) History doesnt repeat itself, Ken Burns told a room of journalists gathered Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills Were not condemned to repeat what we dont remember, Burns explained. Its that human nature never changes. Its a curious statement from the storied documentarian, particularly given his latest project, the 18-hour, 10-part documentary series The Vietnam War, directed with Lynn Novick. But just because humanity isnt trapped in a constantly repeating cycle doesnt mean that the echoes of modern strife arent plentiful throughout the upcoming PBS series. This is a story about mass demonstrations all across the country against the current administration, Burns said in response to a question about what the youth of America will find relevant in The Vietnam War. About a White House obsessed with leaks and in disarray because of those leaks, about a president railing against you, the news media, for making up news. Its about asymmetrical warfare, which even the mighty might of the United States Army cant figure out the correct strategy to take, and its about big document drops of classified material thats been hacked, that suddenly is dumped into the public sphere, destabilizing the conventional wisdom about really important topics and accusations that a political campaign reached out to a foreign power at the time of a national election to influence that election. This is the film we started in 2006, and every single one of those points are points about the Vietnam War having nothing to do with today, Burns concluded. By creating a fully-formed picture of Vietnam, Burns hopes to shed light on the rancor and alienation defining this present moment, he explained. For Novick, the thematic relevance only serves to help teachers who have long struggled in tackling the Vietnam War. Weve had great response from teachers already that the Vietnam War is difficult to teach because its controversial and unsettled history and theyre looking forward to using the film in the classroom, Novick said. Those resonances that Ken is talking about, those will be assignments for students. Were not going to have to work very hard with teachers to come up with those themes, and students are curious about whats happening now. The Vietnam War premieres Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. PDT Facebook

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Goodbye, MTV Moonman trophy. Hello, Moon Person By Emily Mae Czachor MTVs token space cadet just scored an identity revamp  and gender didnt make the cut. In a recent interview with the New York Times, MTV President Chris McCarthy said the networks iconic Moonman trophy has been discontinued. From now on, the metallic figurine  whose impenetrably opaque helmet has become the unofficial face of MTVs Video Music Awards  will go by Moon Person instead. Because who knows whats really going on beneath that lacquered astronaut getup, anyway. Why should it be a man? McCarthy told the Times. It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist. This new development is just the latest installment in MTVs string of efforts to do away with gender norms during its awards proceedings. The network eliminated gender-specific categories at its MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this year, where all nominees were placed in neutral categories (i.e. best actor in a show, best actor in a movie). And the network isnt going to stop there. McCarthy also announced a new MTV reality series  still in development called We Are They about a group of gender-nonconforming young adults coming of age. With Katy Perry hosting, the VMAs will broadcast from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Heres the full list of nominees. Facebook

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Sam Shepard: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor and ... avant-garde drummer? By Randall Roberts Sam Shepard in 2014. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Sam Shepard, whose death at 73 was announced on Monday, will be remembered for his cross-discipline versatility. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, he penned classic off-Broadway plays including True West, Buried Child and Fool for Love. An Oscar-nominated actor, he starred in films including Days of Heaven, The Right Stuff, Crimes of the Heart and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. To fans of underground music, however, Shepard served a lesser-known role as the drummer for seminal New York avant-garde folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, with whom he performed on the crucial late 1960s albums Indian War Whoop and The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders. The band is best known for its song If You Want to Be a Bird, which plays during the classic scene in Easy Rider in which Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson roar down the highway on their motorcycles. Thats Shepard playing drums as Rounders founders Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber whoop and yowl. It was in his capacity as a percussionist, in fact, that he drew the attention of a young Patti Smith, who, in her 2010 memoir Just Kids, recounted their first early 70s meeting at seminal music club the Village Gate. Escorted to the club by Todd Rundgren, who had just issued his album Runt, Smith described the Holy Modal Rounders set as like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedelic hillbillies. I was fixed on the drummer, who seemed as if he was on the lam and had slid behind the drums while cops looked elsewhere. Smith, who at the time was freelancing for Crawdaddy magazine, introduced herself to this drummer, who said his name was Slim Shadow. The two started hanging out, wrote Smith, describing his tales as being even taller than mine. He had an infectious laugh and was rugged, smart, and intuitive. In my mind, he was the fellow with the cowboy mouth. Only later did she learn Slims real identity when a friend pulled her aside after seeing them at a restaurant together. As recounted in Just Kids, Smith wrote that her friend asked, What are you doing with Sam Shepard? Sam Shepard? I said. Oh, no, this guys name is Slim. Honey, dont you know who he is? Hes the drummer for the Holy Modal Rounders. No, corrected her friend, Hes the biggest playwright off-Broadway. He had a play at Lincoln Center. He won five Obies! Once she learned of his reputation and acclaim, Smith and Shepard continued to see each other -- despite his being married at the time -- and eventually collaborated on a play called Cowboy Mouth. Smith described telling him of nervousness at writing for the stage, which she had never done. But Shepard urged her on, Smith wrote, telling her that you cant make a mistake when you improvise. Replied Smith: What if I screw up the rhythm? You cant, Shepard explained. Its like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another. 7:15 a.m. Updated to correct the title of Smiths memoir, Just Kids, and to identify the Holy Modal Rounders co-founders, Stampfel and Weber. Facebook

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Lady Gaga subpoenaed in producer Dr. Lukes lawsuit against pop singer Kesha By Randall Roberts The ongoing offstage drama between the pop singer Kesha and her former producer Dr. Luke has entangled another platinum superstar: Lady Gaga. On Saturday, attorneys for Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, issued a statement regarding their attempt to depose Lady Gaga about relevant conversations she may have had with Kesha. The artist, who was born Kesha Sebert, is the subject of a defamation suit filed in New York by Dr. Luke stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct, which the producer vigorously denies. The statement reads: Dr. Lukes counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr. Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr. Lukes counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request [sic], a deposition date from Lady Gaga. The protracted legal battle between Dr. Luke, left, and Kesha has brought Lady Gaga into the fray. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images) Representatives for Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, said in a statement issued to The Times on Monday morning: As Lady Gagas legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process. Dr. Lukes team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gagas role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests. Among the information Lady Gaga has provided are copies of text messages that were, according to a report on TMZ, heavily redacted. Lady Gaga has been a vocal Kesha supporter. Last year, Gaga wrote about her peers plight in an Instagram post: The very reason women dont speak up for years is the fear that no one will believe them or their abuser has threatened their life or life of their loved ones/livelihood in order to keep their victim quiet and under control. What happened to Kesha has happened to many female artists, including myself, and it will affect her for the rest of her life. The news comes at a particularly crucial moment for Keshas career. On Aug. 11, she will release her highly anticipated new album, Rainbow. The record, featuring songs such as Learn to Let Go, will arrive via Dr. Lukes imprint, Kemosabe, a situation Kesha sought to avoid in a 2014 lawsuit of her own, which she later dropped. Facebook

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Ride on, genius: Celebrities mourn the loss of Sam Shepard By Emily Mae Czachor Acclaimed actor and playwright Sam Shepard died July 27 at age 73. (Charles Sykes / Associated Press) Sam Shepard  Oscar-nominated actor and critically acclaimed playwright, author, screenwriter and director  died on July 27 after suffering complications from ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease). When news of his death broke Monday morning, Twitter erupted with posts to mourn, honor and remember one of show business beloved renaissance men. View Instagram post This story was updated with additional reactions. Facebook

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Macaulay Culkin got his first tattoo with goddaughter Paris Jackson, and its a match By Emily Mae Czachor For Paris Jackson, getting inked is nothing out of the ordinary. With more than 50 tattoos already under her belt, the 19-year-old daughter of late pop king Michael Jackson collects body art like postage stamps. According to E! News, the budding actress got her latest over the weekend: an understated sketch of a red spoon, just below the crook of her left arm. A new tattoo might be old-hat for Jackson, but it wasnt for Macaulay Culkin, Jacksons 36-year-old godfather -- and first-time tattoo patron -- who emerged from West Hollywoods Tattoo Mania with a matching spoon on his own forearm. Though neither Jackson nor Culkin spoke to the meaning of the double-inking, the design is supposedly meant to represent a kind of chronic struggle. And thats not the only news that Culkin made recently. The Internet nearly lost its collective mind last week when a new photo emerged of the Home Alone actor looking healthy and happy. E! News even declared that Culkin definitely just won 2017s greatest makeover. Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Macaulay Culkin definitely just won 2017's greatest makeover (thus far, at least). https://t.co/IdKjxii5KZ pic.twitter.com/SOAuSx57oU  E! News (@enews) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Alex Jones products are almost as bad as his conspiracy theories, says John Oliver By Meredith Blake Over the last year, conspiracy theorist and influential radio host Alex Jones has come under intense scrutiny for his fringe beliefs, most notably his claim that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax perpetrated by the government. On Sundays Last Week Tonight, John Oliver noted that Jones status as a Sandy Hook truther qualified him for an Easy Pass to hells version of the champagne room. But he spent most of his time on a relatively overlooked aspect of Jones conspiracy empire -- the wide range of products that he sells in order to fund it. According to Oliver, Jones spends nearly a quarter of his airtime plugging InfoWars-branded merchandise, including Wake Up America Patriot coffee to Combat One Tactical Bath Wipes and a powder called Caveman True Paleo (made from chocolate and domesticated bird corpses, Oliver joked). As the comedian pointed out, it just so happens that many of the products Jones sells, often at a significant markup, purport to address the conspiracy theories with equally wild-eyed zeal. Think: water filters to remove chemicals that supposedly turn frogs gay or vitamins to boost your immunity and ward off germs from allegedly disease-ridden refugees. Jones even has his own in-house expert, Dr. Edward Group, with dubious qualifications (and equally questionable hair) to back up his various outlandish claims. InfoWars is essentially a QVC for conspiracy, Oliver argued. So in the spirit of InfoWars, Oliver decided to introduce his own personal care product, John Oliver Moisture-Armored Tactical Assault Wipes, available via Infowipes.com. The price? A mere $1 million. Worth every penny, were sure. You can watch the complete segment here. Facebook

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Vintage Casablanca poster sells for $478,000 By Trevell Anderson How much would someone pay for a vintage movie poster? Well, if that film is Casablanca, one persons answer is $478,000. Thats how much a bidder coughed up Saturday for the only known surviving Italian-issue poster for the 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The poster sold through Heritage Auctions of Dallas. The buyer has just set a world record and acquired what we in the poster collecting world would equate to a masterpiece, said Grey Smith, Heritages director of vintage posters. The stunning artistry put into this poster makes it stand head and shoulders above any paper produced for the film. The poster, measuring 55.5 inches by 78.25 inches, was produced in 1946. The film opened in Italy on Nov. 21 that year, almost four years after its U.S. premiere. Featuring artwork by Luigi Martinati, the poster is considered the best of the pictures numerous advertisements, Smith said. Previous Italian-issue posters for the film have sold for as much as $203,000. A U.S.-issue of the poster has fetched $191,200. The auction featured other rare posters for the film, with a half-sheet going for $65,725, and a postwar Spanish-release poster selling for $35,850. ---------- For the Record An earlier version of this article misstated the purchase price of the Casablanca poster sold Saturday as $487,000. Facebook

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There is no Plan B for public broadcasting without federal funding, PBS president says By Libby Hill Paula Kerger, chief executive of PBS (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) PBS President and Chief Executive Paula Kerger wasnt pulling any punches Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. When people say, What is the Plan B for [loss of federal funding]? There is no Plan B for that, Kerger said of the potential budget crisis public broadcasting faces under the Trump administration. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been under fire for months, with President Trumps proposed budget axing the institutions $450-million budget. Though its easy to suggest that budget cuts would threaten Big Birds livelihood, the true victims of defunding would be far more human. Kerger explained that of PBS $450-million budget, one-third goes to radio. Of the television budget, most goes to community service grants that local stations use for up to 50% of their operating budgets. PBS itself will not go away. But a number of our stations will. If you are a station for whom 30 or 40 or 50% of your funding is suddenly pulled away, theres no way you can make up that money, Kerger said. You will find big parts of the country that will suddenly be without public broadcasting. The fate of public broadcasting is currently in flux, waiting for the end of Congress August recess for resolution. Currently, the House Appropriations Committee has approved the bulk of the PBS budget, while the House Budget Committee recommended doing away with funding altogether. Budget concerns aside, Kerger also addressed other unresolved PBS matters. The second seat of PBS NewsHour has been vacant since the untimely death of co-host Gwen Ifill in November 2016, leaving Judy Woodruff as the shows sole anchor. We have encouraged [executive producer] Sara Just and Judy Woodruff and the team at NewsHour to take their time and think very carefully about who that right person [to replace Ifill] is, Kerger said. Im hopeful that they will be making an announcement sometime over the next few months of a new anchor. Kerger also announced an upcoming project aimed at inspiring the country to come together in celebration of literature. The Great American Read is an eight-part series launching in spring 2018 that explores the nations 100 best-loved books, chosen by the American people and culminating in the first-ever national vote to choose Americas Best-Loved Book. Facebook

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AMC Visionaries adds Eli Roth, Roots, Gibney for new docu-series By Meredith Woerner Robert Kirkman, left, and Eli Roth at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. ( Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for AMC) AMC announced several additions to its upcoming Visionaries docu-series Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. Writer-director-actor Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) will be offering a deeper look into his signature style of genre filmmaking with Eli Roths History of Horror (working title) and Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Tariq Black Thought Trotter (founding members of The Roots) and Alex Gibney (Going Clear, History of the Eagles) will executive produce a series called Rap Yearbook (another working title). The cable network also has three other installments in development: History of Video Games, Outlaws of the Internet, and History of Martial Arts. The new Visionaries members join the previously announced programs Robert Kirkmans Secret History of Comics and James Camerons Story of Science Fiction. Kirkman and Roth were present at the AMC panel with Cameron appearing via satellite to show sneak peeks from the comics and sci-fi iterations of the series. A sizzle reel for the Secret History of Comics utilized plenty of classic panel pages and a sort of motion comic-like animation to illustrate the early days of Marvel Comics, going all the way back to the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby days. But the real treat was a collection of cameos, famous faces opining about their love of the form including Lee himself, J.K. Simmons, Kevin Smith, and Method Man, who earnestly revealed, You have to be born a comic book fan, I think. And there are plenty more talking heads to come, the AMC press release promised Patty Jenkins, Lynda Carter, Famke Janssen, Michelle Rodriguez, and Todd McFarlane. The second clip shared a look at Camerons love letter to science fiction. Today, science fiction is mainstream but it didnt used to be that way, the director explained. When I was a kid science fiction wasnt cool, but I thought it was cool. Cameron wants to focus on closing the gap between current fans knowledge of modern day sci-fi to the pioneering works of literature that inspired the blockbuster offerings of today. The Terminator and Avatar director noted that without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells there would be no Avengers, Star Wars or his own works. The series will be divided by theme -- space travel, time travel etc.-- and include appearances from Paul W. Anderson, Roland Emmerich, Paul Verhoeven, Bryan Singer, Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Nolan, David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana. When asked how their respective series would showcase diversity -- the footage screened was very male-centric -- Kirkman responded that History of Comics would have two episodes devoted to diversity. One will focus on the women who helped Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston steer the course of the hugely famous female superhero, and another highlighting people of color titled The Color of Comics. The episode explores the history of black characters, and the lack of black characters in the comic book industry, said Kirkman. which touches on the creation of Black Panther  the Marvel character  and does a really cool focus on this company called Milestone Comics that was founded by a group of African American comic book creators to create characters that appealed to them and represented them, because there was a huge lack of representation in comics even in the 90s. You wouldnt have horror without Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, Roth added. He cited the late George Romero as an example of how he wants to break down the themes within the horror genre. At the height of the civil rights movement [Romero] puts an African American as the lead of Night of the Living Dead and at the end of the movie hes shot by a bunch of rednecks. Not because of the color of his skin, but because they think hes a zombie. But you can read into the implications of that. What [Romero] was doing with using genre to explore racism was so ahead of its time. its just as potent today as it was 50 years ago. Its absolutely something were going to be discussing. Roths urgency to document the horror masters was apparent. It was the death of Scream moviemaker Wes Craven that inspired Roth to get involved in Visionaries. The panel then took a turn for the analytical when the creators were asked how their series would reflect the world today. The fact that dystopian science fiction has come back, especially in television and in movies, is very important, said Cameron. It means that in the age that we live in right now the challenges that face us are technological. Theyre science challenges: climate change, genetics, artificial intelligence, things like that. These are really on our horizon as major, existential threats. The best horror reflects whats going on in our times, said Roth. He used Jordan Peeles Get Out  which addressed modern day racial tensions as a reference. Its no accident that movie coming out right now is making over $200 million at the box office. You can tell its really resonating with people. Bouncing off Camerons dystopia revelation, Roth then turned his lens onto the current political climate, I dont think weve ever seen a cast of characters like this in our White House thats straight out of WWF wrestling in the 80s. When [Anthony Scaramucci] is coming out with things that would make Rowdy Roddy Piper in his heyday blush. This is a farce, is this actually happening? When will we start seeing this dystopian outlook on the current political climate in the movies? Possibly before Roths series, which will air sometime in 2018, after History of Comics and the Story of Science Fiction in 2017. Facebook

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President Trump got a fan letter from a young boy this week. Stephen Colbert introduced another young fan Friday By Greg Braxton Stephen Colbert, host of CBS The Late Show. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images) White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took time during a White House briefing this week to read a fan letter to President Trump from a 9-year-old boy named Dylan who has the nickname of Pickle. Sanders read part of the letter to reporters: Youre my favorite President ... I dont know why people dont like you. Sanders interjected, Neither do I, Dylan. The letter continued, You seem really nice. Can we be friends? Sanders assured Pickle that she had spoken directly to Trump about him, and the president would be more than happy to be your friend. Stephen Colbert on Friday brought another young fan of Trumps onstage Friday night to read her own letter during his CBS Late Show. Dear President, my name is Norah, but everybody calls me Mustard, the little girl recited. She continued, Youre my favorite current president. Norah then presented some probing questions to Trump: I was wondering, does the attorney general enjoy your full support? And how do you plan to implement the ban on transgender people currently serving in the military? Will those on active duty be called home? Sounds like a logistical nightmare. She continued, One more thing: Are you a puppet of Vladimir Putin? I love puppets! I made one at camp! Love, Mustard. The Late Show audience cheered. Facebook

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Broadways Great Comet producer apologizes for controversial Mandy Patinkin casting By Nardine Saad (Jeff Schear / Getty Images) The producer behind Broadways struggling musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" has joined the apologetic refrain for the diversity uproar that followed the decision to bring in Mandy Patinkin to replace departing star Okieriete Oak Onaodowan, who is black. The production came under fire this week following its move to replace Onaodowan, who was in the original cast of Hamilton, with Tony Award winner Patinkin in a titular role. As part of our sincere efforts to keep Comet running for the benefit of its cast, creative team, crew, investors and everyone else involved, we arranged for Mandy Patinkin to play Pierre, co-producer Howard Kagan said in an official statement posted Friday on Twitter. Kagan said they had the wrong impression of how Onaodowan felt about Patinkins casting and how it would be received by members of the theater community, which we appreciate is deeply invested in the success of actors of color  as are we  and to whom we are grateful for bringing this to our attention. We regret our mistake deeply, and wish to express our apologies to everyone who felt hurt and betrayed by these actions, he said. The legendary Broadway star dropped out of the musical on Friday after the announcement that he would be replacing the African American star was met with disdain. Patinkin was to join the cast for a limited run from Aug. 15 through Sept. 3, but declined the part because he would never accept a role knowing it would harm another actor. I hear what members of the community have said and I agree with them. I am a huge fan of Oak and I will, therefore, not be appearing in the show, the Homeland alum tweeted. Another tweet on the shows account included an apology to Patinkin for any misunderstanding and said they understood his decision to withdraw from the show. Our deepest apologies. pic.twitter.com/Mks7XLGxbq  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 pic.twitter.com/vSZk6K2KOV  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 Onaodowan, who had replaced recording artist Josh Groban in the role of Pierre earlier this month, is scheduled to continue to perform through Aug. 13, after which, he stated Friday on Twitter, he will not return to the show. It is unclear if his decision to leave the production was his own or prompted by other factors. Show creator Dave Malloy, whose musical was inspired by a portion of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace, also apologized Friday on Twitter for how everything went down and missing the racial optics of their casting decision. They had previously asked actress Brittain Ashford to step aside for the casting of better-known singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson during the summer months and they didnt anticipate that Patinkins casting would be viewed differently, Malloy said. Despite 12 Tony Award nominations, Comet only received two wins -- for set and lighting -- at the June ceremony and ticket sales ebbed when Groban departed. Malloy said that sales for shows after Aug. 13, when Michaelsons run would also end, were catastrophically low. So they decided to cast Patinkin, hoping that his star power would help boost sales, because the weird show was in desperate shape and on the brink of closing. Facebook

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Eagles, Doobie Brothers will play Classic Northwest show Sept. 30 in Seattle By Randy Lewis The reconfigured Eagles, shown during a July 15 performance at Dodger Stadium, will continue with a Sept. 30 Classic Northwest concert with the Doobie Brothers in Seattle. (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images) The EaglesClassic music festival series will continue with at least one more stop, this time in Seattle. But unlike the inaugural Classic West bill July 15-16 at Dodger Stadium, which is having a Classic East encore this weekend in New York, the added Classic Northwest show on Sept. 30 will be just a single day and feature the Eagles and Doobie Brothers only. The Classic West and East shows teamed the Eagles, Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers on one day, with Fleetwood Mac, Journey and Earth, Wind & Fire on the second day of each. Tickets for the Classic Northwest bill go on sale Aug. 5 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster. At the outset of the Eagles portion of Classic West on July 15, co-founder Don Henley indicated it was still uncertain how much of a future his long-running band might have absent co-founder Glenn Frey, who died last year at 67. To make the Classic West and East shows possible, the group tapped Freys son, singer-guitarist Deacon Frey, and country music star Vince Gill to handle the lead vocals on the many Eagles songs that were originally sung by Glenn Frey. In case this is our last dance, Henley told the crowd at Dodger Stadium, where he was joined by longtime bandmates Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, we want to thank all of you in Southern California for all your support. Facebook

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In her new Hulu series, Sarah Silverman wants to love America -- seriously By Greg Braxton Executive producers Amy Zvi, left, and Adam McKay, star/executive producer Sarah Silverman and executive producer Gavin Purcell at Hulus I Love You, America panel at the TCA summer press tour. (Willy Sanjuan / Invision/Associated Press) From her stand-up act to her Comedy Central series to her Twitter account, comic-actress Sarah Silverman has a long history of courting laughs and controversy. Her outspokenness and sometimes absurd, sometimes acerbic views on everything from celebrity to culture to politics, particularly President Trump and his administration, have raised eyebrows. On her upcoming Hulu series, I Love You, America, Silverman is focused more on forming bonds than being provocative. In surveying the current political landscape and the comedy shows that skewer it, Silverman says she wants to reach out to all on the political spectrum. For me, [those shows are] great, but they really connect with more like-minded people. Theyre brilliant. Theyre funny. But Im hoping to, with this show, connect with un-like-minded people, Silverman said Thursday during a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. The mission of the show is that were all the same. But whats important is that its funny. Although the exact format of the show is still being refined, Silverman did reveal some elements, including a monologue, a focus group in the studio and field pieces in which she travels around the country talking to people. For example, Silverman says she plans to go to Slidell, La., to meet a family that says they have never met a Jewish person. I cant help but have preconceived notions. They cant help but have preconceived notions, said Silverman. All I can do is just try to be open and brave and go into the situation. And same for them. Although Silverman and executive producer Adam McKay didnt make any sharp criticisms about Trump at Thursdays session, they did take exception to his attacks against so-called entertainment liberals or the Hollywood elite. What is he talking about? said Silverman. Im from ... New Hampshire. Everybody out here is from somewhere else. The goal of the show will be to seek common ground and understanding, she said: Ultimately were all the same. The thesis of the show is that everybody just wants to be loved. Facebook

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Jerry Seinfeld is Forbes highest-paid comedian; Amy Schumer still only woman to crack the top 10 By Nardine Saad If Jerry Seinfeld is this years king of comedy, then Amy Schumer is the queen. The Comedy Central star once again landed on Forbes list of highest-paid comedians, the financial magazine announced Thursday. She was the first woman comic to crack the top 10 last year and remains the only woman on the list this year. The Trainwreck and Snatched star made an estimated $37.5 million between June 2016 and June 2017 thanks to her Netflix show The Leather Special, her memoir The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo and endorsement deals with Bud Light and Old Navy. That ranked the raunchy comic No. 5 on the list filled with veteran comedy heavyweights. Meanwhile, the Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee star shot back to the top of the list this year, earning an estimated $69 million. Seinfeld was eclipsed last year by Kevin Hart, who this year dropped to the No. 6 spot with $32.5 million. Chris Rock trailed Seinfeld for the second spot on Forbes list, earning $57 million. His record-breaking $20 million-per-special contract with Netflix paved the way for several comics, including Seinfeld, to cut lucrative deals with the streaming service, which is poised to become the go-to-destination for comedy specials. In addition to touring, those deals significantly padded the incomes of several stars on Forbes list. In the third and fourth spots, funnymen Louis C.K. and Dave Chappelle, who earned $52 million and $47 million, respectively, also made expensive deals with the streaming service to make their millions. To see Forbes complete list, click here. For the record, 10:40 a.m.: A previous headline and version of this story said that Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 list this year. Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 last year. Facebook

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American Horror Story: Cult gets sickeningly sweet in official poster By Libby Hill We're just beneath the surface... #AHSCult pic.twitter.com/GvnMD1KieQ  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) July 27, 2017 What exactly is beneath the surface in American Horror Story: Cult? Bees, apparently. The seventh season of FXs hit horror anthology series is slowly revealing itself via its official Twitter account. On Thursday, the series shared the official poster for the series, and it is super messed up. The poster features a deathly pale woman who happens to be missing the top of her head and, for that matter, her brain. Instead, the inside of her head is a honeycomb, replete with bees and, of course, honey. This is creepy for so many reasons. Here are a few: This poor woman has had the top of her skull removed, bringing to mind that particularly gruesome dinner scene featuring Anthony Hopkins and Ray Liotta in the 2001 film Hannibal. Even more horrifying is that this poor, sweet woman is definitely dressed like a clown. The white makeup, lines through the eyes and exaggerated ruby red lips suggest that AHS: Cult is drawing inspiration from traditional grotesque whiteface clown makeup. Think more Pennywise, less juggalo. (And if none of that is enough to scare you, please enjoy this clown dating site I stumbled across while researching all of this.) FXs American Horror Story: Cult premieres on Sept. 5. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert had some [bleeped] thoughts on Anthony Scaramuccis NSFW rant By Yvonne Villarreal (Richard Boeth / Associated Press) Stephen Colbert took a cue from incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci -- or the Mooch, as hes called -- by giving Thursdays episode of The Late Show a decidedly NSFW vibe. We got an incredible taste of unfiltered Mooch today, Colbert said during his monologue. He was, of course, referring to Scaramuccis disapproving -- and often vulgar -- comments about White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in a New Yorker article that sent social media tongues wagging Thursday. But to even discuss the matter, Colbert had to issue a warning to CBS censors: Youre going to want to break out the extra bleeps for this one, he said before diving in. (If only we could get our ellipses to put in some overtime!) In his colorful conversation with New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, which took place Wednesday night,Scaramucci was trying to get to the bottom of who leaked that he had dinner at the White House with President Trump, the first lady, Sean Hannity and the former Fox News executive Bill Shine. Scaramucci described Priebus as a  ... paranoid schizophrenic who had blocked him from the White House for six months -- prompting Colbert to break out an impression of Scaramucci. Yes, the guys paranoid, OK? He thinks his own communications director is gonna stab him in the back again, Colbert said with an exaggerated Italian accent. Front stab! he added with a knifing gesture. The New Yorker article also detailed how Scaramucci accused Bannon of seeking to build [his] own brand off the  strength of the president and made some other inflammatory remarks that we cant fully detail. So well let Colbert take it from here. Facebook

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Longtime Disney imagineer Martin Sklar dies at 83 By Richard Verrier (Jae C Hong / Associated Press) Martin Marty Sklar, the pioneering Walt Disney Co. imagineer who played an instrumental role in the design of Disney theme parks, has died, the company announced Thursday night. He was 83. During his 54 years at Disney, Sklar worked closely with Walt Disney and led the creative development of the Burbank companys theme parks, attractions and resorts around the world, including the companys ventures in the cruise business, housing development and the redesign of Times Square in New York. Everything about Marty was legendary  his achievements, his spirit, his career, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement. He embodied the very best of Disney, from his bold originality to his joyful optimism and relentless drive for excellence. He was also a powerful connection to Walt himself. No one was more passionate about Disney than Marty and well miss his enthusiasm, his grace, and his indomitable spirit. Sklar was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and attended UCLA, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin newspaper when he was recruited to create the Disneyland News for Walt Disneys new Anaheim theme park in 1955. After graduating in 1956, he joined Disney full-time and would become Disneys lieutenant. He wrote speeches, marketing materials and a film showcasing Walts vision for Walt Disney World and the Epcot theme park in Florida. READ MORE> Facebook

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Is a happily ever after coming to The Mindy Project? By Yvonne Villarreal The Mindy Project creator/executive producer/star Mindy Kaling with executive producers Matt Warburton, left, and Ike Barinholtz at the shows Television Critics Assn. press tour panel. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP) Is there a happily ever after written in the stars for the final season of The Mindy Project? Series creator Mindy Kaling, who also plays the titular heroine at the center of the Hulu comedy, took the stage Thursday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the shows swan song season. And when asked if Kalings rom-com-obsessed character, Mindy Lahiri, would get her storybook ending, the 38-year-old actress suggested it wouldnt necessarily be in the way viewers expect. I think that all of us would agree that we do have happily ever after, the connotations of it, said Kaling, who was joined onstage by executive producer and showrunner, Matt Warburton, and producer and star Ike Barinholtz (sporting a neck brace from a recent stunt gone wrong). But happily ever after isnt the same as no loose ends, she said. That everything is tied up neatly in a bow is something we arent super interested in. That side of it I think were trying to avoid, Kaling added, while also leaving the audience with the sense of feeling that it was about something and that it really was a project and that she had some growth in the end. And for fans wondering whether or how Danny Castellano (played by Chris Messina) would factor into all that, the season promises to shed some light on that. For the unitiated, Messinas Danny is Mindys former fiance and the father of her child. Messina, who hasnt been a series regular since Season 4, is set to return for multiple episodes. And while the Season 5 finale ended with Mindy marrying boyfriend Ben (Bryan Greenberg), hints were thrown that the new episodes would bring some clarity to the Mindy-Danny relationship. The one thing we can promise the audience is a little bit of clarity about where they stand, Warburton said. Its so great to see him back because weve always known theyre always going to be in each others lives  but its great to actually see what that means this season. Its complicated, added Kaling. Theyre both married to other people, so we went into that season with all of that, which makes things sort of fun and delicious. Other familiar faces set to return for the final season are Mark and Jay Duplass, Adam Pally and Glenn Howerton. Kaling, in discussing the decision to end the series, promised a good finale. The decision to end the show was our decision, and I think thats always very hard, Kaling said. It was like, God, should this be the end? ... I think right now the idea of doing a prequel or something like that just felt  we just have such a good finale. We have such a good finale that weve known about for awhile. The final season of The Mindy Project will start its rollout on Hulu in September. Facebook

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Tiffany Haddish clarifies controversial Bill Cosby remarks: Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf By James Reed Actress Tiffany Haddish has clarified her remarks about wanting to work with Bill Cosby. (Christina House / For The Times) A joke that Tiffany Haddish recently told The Los Angeles Times has backfired on the breakout star of the new film Girls Night. Talking to The Times Trevell Anderson, Haddish credited Bill Cosby as a comedy inspiration, seemingly unfazed by the multiple sexual-abuse allegations levied against the beleaguered, 80-year-old TV legend. I still want to work with Bill Cosby, I dont care, she told The Times earlier this month. Ill drink the juice. Ill take a nap. I dont give a damn. But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something. Her remarks raised eyebrows and ire on social media, with some fans questioning her intentions and a New York magazine story noting that the actress seems to have wandered into problematic fave territory. I've been rooting hard for Tiffany Haddish but I find nothing funny about her making light of Bill Cosby drugging women  Stephanie. (@qsteph) July 26, 2017 Twitter: "We loved Tiffany Haddish in #GirlsTrip. Sweetie is doing amazing!"



Tiffany Haddish: "I'd love to work with Bill Cosby."



Twitter: pic.twitter.com/X23DQWb2wi  hellresidentNY (@hellresidentNY) July 27, 2017 On Thursday, Haddish attempted to clarify those comments while speaking on a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. What I said was a joke, she said, noting that when youre expected to be funny in promotional interviews, there are risks. Youre going to say some bad jokes. Haddish said her point had been that Im not afraid to do anything. Im not afraid of any kind of job. Im not afraid to play any kind of girl as long as it doesnt compromise my morals.... Ive been through things. Ive been victimized, she added. I dont agree with what he did or anything, but, at the end of the day, Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. Thats what I was trying to say, and I was trying to do it in a humorous way. Times staff writer Sarah Rodman contributed to this report. Facebook

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Tracy Morgan thanks God, and Tiffany Haddish reflects on her success at Last O.G. panel at TCA By Sarah Rodman Tracy Morgan, left, Tiffany Haddish and Ryan Gaul of the new TBS comedy The Last O.G. at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) Thank God. Thats what Tracy Morgan had to say about what it means for the 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live alum to be returning to TV three years after the devastating accident that put him in a coma and resulted in the death of his friend James Jimmy Mack McNair. The stand-up comic and actor, whose new TBS comedy, The Last O.G. premieres Oct. 24, was full of gratitude and thoughts on starting over during the presentation for the show at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour Thursday in Beverly Hills. Executive produced by Morgan, Jordan Peele and John Carcieri, The Last O.G. chronicles the adventures of Tray (Morgan). Newly sprung from prison after serving 15 years, he has to acclimate to the changed times, his gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood and his former girlfriend (Tiffany Haddish of Girls Trip) raising the children he didnt know existed with another man. This is a show about humanity, this is a show about second chances, this is a show about redemption, said Morgan, answering a question about whether it would explicitly explore African American issues. I wanted to transcend that... I wanted to deal with humanity. Haddish, naturally, fielded several questions about Girls Trip, the new comedy film that has minted her as a star. I feel like a foster kid whos been in the system for a long time and then turned 16 and somebody adopted them and said, You can go to college and you aint got to pay no school loans or nothing,  she said of how shes been feeling in the wake of the films superb box office. Im happy! Ive been accepted finally after all these years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Haddish said she was looking forward to her role in The Last O.G. since its a character who has gone through a transition in her life, just as she herself has. Her fellow cast mates, including Cedric the Entertainer, good-naturedly ribbed her about becoming a diva since shes now a movie star. But Morgan noted seriously that Haddish has been nothing but a pro: She comes to work. Haddish joked: My bank account, it dont show movie star yet. Im waiting on it. They say nine months; its like a baby. Im waiting for the delivery. Morgan said it was important to surround himself with scene stealers such as Haddish and Cedric and was clearly earnest in his appreciation of his collaborators and their sensitivity to his physical needs. They make sure I sit down... they dont ask me, they [say] sit down for a little while. So Im good. Im taken care of by my people, and I love them with my heart. Facebook

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It can be TGIF every day on Hulu: The service lands popular ABC programming block in SVOD deal By Yvonne Villarreal Every day can be Friday in the 90s with help from Hulu. The streaming service announced Thursday it has signed a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for the exclusive streaming rights to programs that were part of the popular ABC programming block known as TGIF. The announcement was made during the streaming services day of panels at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The shows under the deal include Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Step by Step and Hangin With Mr. Cooper. Nabbing the rights to Full House is particularly noteworthy considering Hulus rival Netflixs success with reviving the comedy, which is returning for a third season in September. With the Hulu deal, more than 800 episodes of the five sitcoms from the bygone family friendly lineup will be available beginning Friday, Sept. 29. These shows are more than just beloved hits, they were part of a cultural tradition to tune in every Friday night, said Craig Erwich, Hulus senior vice president of content in a statement. Facebook

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TV Academy announces which awards will be handed out during Primetime, Creative Arts Emmys By Nardine Saad Get your Emmys ballot ready  the Television Academy has announced which categories will be awarded during this years 69th Primetime Emmy Awards and the separate Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The main event will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 17 and will be hosted by The Late Show star Stephen Colbert. Prizes will be awarded to comedy and drama series, limited series, reality competition, variety talk and sketch, television movie, acting, directing, and writing during the live telecast on CBS. HBOs Westworld and NBCs Saturday Night Live lead the nominees with 22 nods apiece, a total that includes several below-the-line categories to be doled out at the two Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies the week before. Honoring artistic and technical achievements that could make or break your play-at-home ballot, the Creative Arts Emmys will be held in the same venue on two consecutive nights on Sept. 9 and 10. Theyll be put together for one show, produced by Bob Bain, that will air on FXX on Sept. 16. The first night will cover categories that include animation, choreography, cinematography, costuming, make-up, hairstyling, documentary and nonfiction awards, editing, lighting, sound-mixing, technical direction, variety special and some writing awards. The second night will lean more heavily on front-of-the camera talent, awarding the likes of guest actors and actresses and stunt work, in addition to childrens programs, commercials, main title designs and theme music, music composition and supervision, prosthetic makeup and additional sound and editing categories. For a complete list of this years nominees, click here. Heres the complete list of the awards being handed out during the Primetime Emmys telecast: COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SERIES

DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LIMITED SERIES

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

TELEVISION MOVIE

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

VARIETY TALK SERIES

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES Facebook

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Kesha finds redemption in new song: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it By Emily Mae Czachor For Kesha, Learn to Let Go is not just an aptly titled track off her upcoming Rainbow LP. Its become one of my mantras over the last few years, she said in a remarkably uplifting letter that the singer published Thursday to accompany a new video for the song. (This is her new M.O., it would seem.) Learn to Let Go, which Kesha co-wrote alongside her mother, Pebe Sebert, is a heartrending chronicle of redemption. Had a boogeyman under my bed/ Putting crazy thoughts inside my head, she sings, while real home-video footage of a whimsical young Kesha cuts between clips of a grown Kesha frolicking through the forest. The chorus rings like a self-empowered anthem: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it. My mom is always telling me how you have to learn to accept that you cant try to control everything, she wrote in the letter. When you realize that you are not the one in control and you stop holding onto regrets  its liberating. Your past only has as much effect on your future as you want it to, Kesha continued. Its about embracing your past, but not letting it define you. Her new album, Rainbow, will be released Aug. 11. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert to bring animated Trump series to Showtime By Meredith Blake Stephen Colbert has ridden anti-Trump sentiment to the top of the late-night ratings. Now hes riding it all the way to premium cable. On Thursday, Showtime announced it had ordered 10 episodes of an as-yet-untitled animated series featuring cartoon renderings of the president, his family and inner circle. The satirical half-hour series, executive produced by Colbert and The Late Shows show runner Chris Licht, will debut on Showtime this fall. According to the network, turnaround on the series will be quick in order to incorporate current events. Stephen and Chris have an uncanny genius for deconstructing the world of President Trump, and this series opens a new realm for them, Showtime President David Nevins said in a press statement. Tim Luecke, who co-created the animated version of Trump who frequently appears in Late Show bits  including a recent segment from the notorious presidential suite of the Moscow Ritz-Carlton  will serve as lead animator. The announcement caps off a period of good news for Colbert, who racked up six Emmy nominations this month and will be hosting the awards in September. The recently concluded Russia Week, in which the comedian traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, brought The Late Show its biggest margin over The Tonight Show since its premiere in 2015. While The Late Show airs on CBS, Colbert has also developed ties with his corporate cousins at Showtime. Many point to his riveting election night special Stephen Colberts Live Election Night Democracys Series Finale, which aired on the premium network, as a turning point after an uneven transition from The Colbert Report. For its part, Showtime has invested heavily in political content over the last 18 months, most notably the documentary series The Circus, from journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Facebook

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Matt Damon gets punched right in the face in George Clooneys Suburbicon trailer By Nardine Saad  Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac and Julianne Moore star in the trailer for George Clooneys Suburbicon. In George Clooneys latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, the pleasantries of a 1950s town are undone when a home invasion exposes the communitys criminal subculture and racial tensions. And Matt Damons Gardner Lodge gets stuck in the thick of it -- defending his young son, making death threats, killing mobsters and getting popped square in his bespectacled face at the office -- as seen in the first trailer that Paramount unveiled Thursday. Did we mention this is a comedy? The dark, screwball kind from the minds of screenwriters Clooney and frequent collaborators Ethan and Joel Coen and Grant Heslov? Well, it is, in case that wasnt clear from the previous description. These animals took everything from us, a blood-splattered Gardner tells his son Nicky (Noah Jupe) at the dinner table. I have to make decisions like whats best for the family. After Gardners wife is murdered, he invites Auntie Margaret (Julianne Moore) to come live in the manicured suburban community to help with his son. Meanwhile, he gets mixed up with a loan shark that sets him on the warpath of a formidable, coffee-swilling collector named Roger (Oscar Isaac). The film is based on a script that the Coen brothers wrote years ago that Clooney found, and they agreed to have him direct it, according to Moore. Paramount acquired the U.S. rights to the film, billed as a comedy, crime and mystery, at the Berlin Film Festival last year. It will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and hits theaters on Oct. 27. Facebook

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Woody Allens Wonder Wheel to complete Amazons turn to full-service distribution By Mark Olsen Woody Allen at the American Film Institutes Life Achievement Award tribute to Diane Keaton on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Turner) Thursday it was announced that Woody Allens latest film, Wonder Wheel, will have its world premiere as the closing-night film at this years New York Film Festival. The film stars Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and James Belushi in a story set around Coney Island in the 1950s. But that wasnt the only Allen item of the day. Variety reported that Wonder Wheel will also be the first film fully distributed by Amazon when it opens in theaters on Dec. 1. The company has already made fast inroads to the movie business, winning Academy Awards this year for Manchester by the Sea and The Salesman, but has up to now worked with established distribution partners such as Roadside Attractions or Bleecker Street to help get those movies into theaters. Amazon released Allens 2016 film, Cafe Society, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, in partnership with Lionsgate. The online giant also released Allens six-part Crisis in Six Scenes, in which he starred alongside Elaine May and Miley Cyrus, late last year via the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. The move by Amazon is yet another way the company is distinguishing itself in relation to streaming rival Netflix. Where Netflix has been seen as pulling back from theatrical distribution, opting for either extremely limited or no theatrical release at all of its titles to drive viewers to its own platform, this latest push by Amazon renews its commitment to traditional theatrical releases. The New York Film Festival slot for Wonder Wheel gives Amazon the three marquee spots at the showcase. Previously announced, Richard Linklaters Last Flag Flying will open the festival, and Todd Haynes Wonderstruck, which premiered at this years Cannes Film Festival, will show in the centerpiece slot. Other upcoming Amazon titles include Mike Whites Brads Status, starring Ben Stiller, and Luca Guadagninos remake of Suspiria, starring Dakota Johnson. Facebook

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Mick Jagger releases two new, politically charged singles By August Brown (Dave Gatley / Los Angeles Times) Mick Jagger has been looking to the past on recent albums and festival dates. But a pair of urgent new singles are firmly set in the present. On Thursday, the Rolling Stones frontman released two tracks, Gotta Get A Grip and England Lost, that describe, as he put it in a statement, the anxiety, unknowability of the changing political situation in a post-Brexit U.K. The production is resolutely modern, built on programmed drums and clanging guitar noise. The London grime artist Skepta even joins him for a verse on England Lost. Ostensibly, its about seeing an England football team lose, but when I wrote the title I knew it would be about more than just that. Its about a feeling that we are in a difficult moment in our history. Its about the unknowability about where you are and the feeling of insecurity, Jagger said in a statement. Its obviously got a fair amount of humour because I dont like anything too on the nose but its also got a sense of vulnerability of where we are as a country. The Girls actress Jemima Kirke also stars in a new clip for Gotta Get A Grip. The songs are Jaggers first new solo material since 2001s Goddess In the Doorway. Facebook

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Katy Perry to host 2017 MTV Video Music Awards By Libby Hill The MTV Video Music Awards are returning to California and getting a certified California Gurl to host. Katy Perry took to her Twitter feed Thursday to announce her upcoming gig hosting -- and performing -- at the VMAs in August. Ive been training with MTV in zero gravity, eating astronaut ice cream, and Im on a group text with Buzz Aldrin and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Perry said in a statement. Come August 27th, Ill be ready to be your MOONWOMAN! Brace for impact, kids. Perry will kick off the evening as the first announced performer for the ceremony. On Tuesday, Perry earned five VMA nominations for her video contributions over the last year, tying with the Weeknd, with only Kendrick Lamar earning more. Were thrilled to have global phenomenon Katy Perry as the host and a performer at the 2017 VMAs, said Bruce Gillmer, head of music and music talent for Global Entertainment Group, Viacom, in a statement from MTV. She is at the forefront of music culture and the perfect person to anchor this years show, which promises to be one of the most diverse and music-filled in VMA history. The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards will air from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Find a full list of nominees here. Introducing your MOONWOMAN. Brace for impact! August 27th on @MTV @VMAs pic.twitter.com/WJsIYq7WiM  KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Turns out Larry David and Bernie Sanders are related! By Yvonne Villarreal Turns out Saturday Night Live was on to something when it cast Larry David to play Sen. Bernie Sanders. During his freewheeling appearance Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to promote the upcoming ninth season of HBOs Curb Your Enthusiasm, David revealed that the resemblance is rooted in reality: Sanders is a distant relative. Hes in the line ... like a third cousin, or something, he said. The genealogical discovery comes courtesy of Davids appearance in an upcoming episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots. I was very happy about that, David said. I figured there was some connection. David played Sanders on Saturday Night Live through the 2015-16 election cycle and also appeared alongside the senator on the late-night sketch show. Its the kind of family secret that David isnt ashamed to admit. I love Bernie, yes, David said. I love Bernie. Facebook

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Trumps proposed transgender military ban turns late-night into hostile territory By Libby Hill If theres one upside to the Trump administrations early-morning Twitter proclamations, its that it gives late-night shows all day to craft their reactions. Wednesday began with President Trump announcing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the United States military and ended with late-night hosts uniformly blasting the policy decision in hilarious fashion. On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had plenty to say about Trumps tweets, which ended with an uncharacteristic thank you. Thank you? Colbert responded, shocked, before offering his own profane two-word response to the president. Colbert went on to discuss what he saw as the greatest fallacy of the presidents reasons for banning transgender soldiers: increased medical costs. Though a 2016 study funded by the Pentagon found that military medical spending on transgender soldiers would increase anywhere from $2.4 million to $8.4 million, Colbert wanted to reframe those figures. To put that number in perspective, the military spends five times as much on Viagra, Colbert explained, And if your erection lasts for more than four hours, thats too bad, because youre stuck on a submarine for the next six months. On The Daily Show Trevor Noah had similar concerns about the presidents cost-related excuse, pointing out that taxpayers are paying $60 million for Trump to travel to his various properties throughout his presidency. Noah also pondered which of Trumps generals hed consulted with, given that the Pentagon was unaware of his proclamation, suggesting that perhaps hed spoken with The General Online. Late Night With Seth Meyers also invoked the cartoon general from the car insurance commercials, when Meyers opted to turn discussion of Trumps tweets over to four of his female writers. Today it might be trans people, but tomorrow its gay people, and then the next day its black people, and after that its women, and then its immigrants, the writers pointed out, all of those groups represented between them. On The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon had the good sense to turn over a portion of his monologue to transgender comedian Patti Harrison, who had plenty to say about Trumps Wednesday announcement. When I saw the headline this morning, at first I just read, Donald Trump bans transgender people, and I was like, Yeah, that sounds like him, Harrison deadpanned. But then I realized it was just in the military and I was shocked, because I assumed he already did that. But it was James Corden who took a completely different take on the transgender military ban, opting for a stylish and heartfelt song and dance, expressing his love and appreciation for the LGBT community. Facebook

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Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on the road again in new song collaboration By August Brown Ringo Starrs new LP includes a collaboration with fellow former Beatle Paul McCartney. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Any time the surviving Beatles reunite on record is a historic occasion. But a new single from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr packs in even more classic-rock star power. Starrs new song Were on the Road Again is one of several collaborations with his former bandmate on his new LP, Give More Love. The song also has guest appearances from Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather. Its a slightly goofy ode to life on the road, as Starr boasts that, We play really tight; we play really loud and cheekily references his own song Photograph. The two Beatles last recorded together on Starrs 2010 album, Y Not, and performed McCartneys Queenie Eye at the 2014 Grammys. Starr announced the McCartney studio collaboration back in February, thanking the fellow Beatle in a Twitter post. Thanks for coming over man and playing Great bass. I love you man peace and love.  pic.twitter.com/Z5kpyLLlkO  #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) February 20, 2017 Set for release on Sept. 15, Give More Love will also feature cameos from Peter Frampton, Don Was, Richard Marx and Dave Stewart, among others. You can hear Starrs new track with Paul McCartney via Rolling Stone. Facebook

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Curb Your Enthusiasm returns this fall -- and you can expect a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe? By Yvonne Villarreal Actor-creator-executive producer Larry David speaks at the Curb Your Enthusiasm panel during the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/AP) Larry David revealed the real reason Curb Your Enthusiasm is at last returning after a six-year hiatus: People wouldnt stop bugging him about it. The Seinfeld co-creator took the stage Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills -- joined by his Curb cohorts Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin and J.B. Smoove and executive producer Jeff Schaffer -- to discuss the shows coming ninth season. So, why bring back the show now after all these years? Im not a misser, David told reporters. I dont really miss things, people that much, but I was missing it. I thought, yeah, what the hell. And I got tired of people asking me if the show was coming back. I couldnt get asked that question anymore and I wasnt ready to say, No, never. The often madcap and sometimes hilariously perplexing 30-minute panel -- led by Davids gruff wit and deadpans -- kicked off with a teaser for the season. There was David in a shower, David talking about constipation, David enduring the displeasure of middle-seat status on a flight. The amount of uncomfortable situations [real Larry David] has been in these last six years, Schaffer said, youre going to see it all. Its like were sitting in the Ft. Knox of awkward. As for TV Larry David, Schaffer said viewers will learn very quickly what hes been up to during the years that have passed. Once the show starts to air, it will be self-evident, he said. It goes to this really strange, fun, crazy place.... And you will never expect where it ends. The trip to that ending begins Oct. 1 when the comedy returns to HBO. The 10-episode season brings back Curb favorites like Cheryl Hines, as well as frequent faces Richard Lewis, Bob Einstein, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. And what would a long-awaited return be without some guest stars? Elizabeth Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Carrie Brownstein, Bryan Cranston, Lauren Graham, Jimmy Kimmel, Nick Offerman, Nasim Pedrad and Elizabeth Perkins will get in on the fun. For those who still need something to pin their hopes on about what this season will entail, Garlin offered this absurdly brilliant comparison. It really thematically follows Pirates of the Caribbean. ... Its more like the last one than the first few. Facebook

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At TCA 2017, HBO defends Confederate, announces Jon Stewart special and says Deadwood movie is inching closer By Greg Braxton Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, addresses reporters at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press) HBO, which has the hottest show on television with Game of Thrones, recently came under fire with the announcement of a new series called Confederate from a team that includes Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The series revolves around events that lead to the Third American Civil War and examines an alternate reality in which the South seceded from the Union and thus, slavery is still legal. Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, defended the project Wednesday during the premium networks session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. gathering at the Beverly Hilton. Bloys said that, in hindsight, the announcement was mishandled because it lacked the context and the vision that he received from Benioff and Weiss in discussing the series. He admitted it was misguided to believe they could simply announce a series with such a sensitive and volatile subject matter. We could have done a better job with the press release, he said. There was no benefit of context. My hope is people will judge the actual material instead of what it could be or should be or might be, he said. Well rise or fall based on that material. He added that he felt the series, rather than being divisive, would be able to advance the racial discussion. Although the topic is controversial, he said he and the producers of the show all feel this is a risk worth taking. Bloys also stressed that the depiction of slavery would not echo Gone With the Wind and would not include whips and plantations. In other major HBO news, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will perform a stand-up special at a date and time to be announced, and host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, an all-star benefit for autism. Also, a movie reboot of HBOs western Deadwood is closer to reality. Bloys said the shows creator, David Milch, has completed a script that will please fans of the series while also being accessible to those less familiar with the show. But, he said, reuniting the large cast, which included Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, may prove challenging. Facebook

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Two Jon Stewart comedy specials are coming to HBO By Yvonne Villarreal Jon Stewart, seen here presenting at the ESPYS, will return to HBO for his first stand-up special in two decades. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Jon Stewart will headline two stand-up specials for HBO. The news was announced Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The former Daily Show host will get a stand-up special  his first since since 1996s Jon Stewart: Unleavened aired on the network. A date and location have not been confirmed. Were excited to bring Jon to the network with this pair of specials, said HBO programming president Casey Bloys in a statement. Weve all missed his uniquely thoughtful brand of humor. Im really thrilled to be able to return to stand-up on HBO, added Stewart in a statement. Theyve always set the standard for great stand-up specials. Plus, I can finally use up the last of the Saddam Hussein jokes left over from my first special. Stewart will also host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, the all-star benefit for Next for Autism, a nonprofit organization focused on people living with autism spectrum disorder. The special will air live this fall and will take place from the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The specials are part of Stewarts four-year deal with the premium cable network. Facebook

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Angelina Jolie talks about difficult split from Brad Pitt By Nardine Saad A-lister Angelina Jolie is adjusting to the domestic growing pains of life as a single mom  making a proper breakfast, keeping house and picking up dog poop. I never woke up and thought, I really want to live a bold life. I just cant do the other. Its the same as I cant make a casserole. I cannot sit still, she said in a sprawling new interview with Vanity Fair, in which she discussed her high-profile split from actor Brad Pitt. Ive been trying for nine months to be really good at just being a homemaker and picking up dog poop and cleaning dishes and reading bedtime stories. And Im getting better at all three. But now I need to get my boots on and go hang, take a trip, the humanitarian said of her plans to head to Africa for a mission with the preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. Angelina Jolie opens up about putting her family first, life after Brad, health issues & her most personal film yet https://t.co/nKyf4dO8ls pic.twitter.com/WkXCgWR1PV  VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2017 The Oscar-winning actress explained how and when her marriage devolved, though she didnt go into great detail about the breakup for the sake of their six kids. The marriage began suffering in the summer of 2016 while she was in post-production on her fifth directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, a film about Cambodias Khmer Rouge genocide, which hits Netflix in September. Things got bad, Jolie said. I didnt want to use that word. ... Things became difficult. The director became slightly defensive at the mention of the familys globe-trotting lifestyle, which reportedly had been grating on Pitt. "[Our lifestyle] was not in any way a negative, she asserted. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children. ... Theyre six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. Im very proud of them. After 12 years together and a few years of marriage, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. While her ex was couch-surfing, she and the kids spent nine months in a rental property before settling into a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom Los Feliz manse once owned by film legend Cecil B. DeMille. Its just been the hardest time, and were just kind of coming up for air. [This house] is a big jump forward for us, and were all trying to do our best to heal our family. The divorce filing came suddenly for the health of the family on the heels of a spat Pitt had with their 15-year-old son, Maddox. They reached a divorce settlement privately in January after battling publicly for months over custody of the kids. The Oscar-winning producer had been vilified with accusations of child abuse and having an affair with his Allied costar Marion Cotillard. But he arguably won over public opinion with his introspective GQ Style interview in May in which he admitted to sobering up after boozing too much. Last year, Jolie was diagnosed with hypertension and developed Bells palsy when nerve damage caused one side of her face to droop. She took up acupuncture to treat it. Sometimes women in families put themselves last, she said, until it manifests itself in their own health. Thats just the latest in her medical history. Following a preventative double mastectomy in 2013, she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2015, which sent her into menopause. I cant tell if its menopause or if its just been the year Ive had, she said, quipping about her dry skin and the idea that she could still be considered a sex symbol. I actually feel more of a woman because I feel like Im being smart about my choices, and Im putting my family first, and Im in charge of my life and my health. I think thats what makes a woman complete. For the record, Aug. 4, 12:55 p.m.: A previous version of this story said that First They Killed My Father would hit Netflix this month. It debuts in September. Facebook

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Caitlyn Jenner questions why Trump isnt fighting for transgender service members By James Reed (Taylor Jewell / Invision/Associated Press) There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?  Caitlyn Jenner, tweeting in response to President Trumps transgender military ban announced Wednesday Read More Facebook

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Robert Pattinson confirms hes kind of engaged to singer FKA Twigs By Nardine Saad (Mike Coppola / Getty Images for People) Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson says hes kind of " engaged to singer FKA Twigs. The actor addressed the engagement rumors Tuesday in a direct response to shock jock Howard Sterns questioning on Sirius XMs The Howard Stern Show. Youre engaged, right? Stern said after calling the edgy English songstress his fiancee. Yeah, kind of, Pattinson, 31, responded uneasily. The Good Time star, whose relationships have been intensely scrutinized since he dated Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart at the height of the teen vampire frenzy, agreed that hes been a bit protective of his romances. Hes been dating the Water Me singer, real name Tahlia Barnett, since 2014 and theyve been rumored to be engaged since April 2015. Save for public appearances together, Pattinson has kept pretty mum about the relationship. Its one of the most frustrating things in the world because you want to be able to show off a relationship, he told Stern. You kind of get stuck in this position where you have to make decisions whether you want to let the kind of crazy people in. Pattinson was referring to the Twi-hards or, as he called them, a crack troupe of crazies who believe every decision he makes is part of some big conspiracy. To protect [the relationship] you kind of think, I want to create a big boundary between it. But then it makes it difficult for your actual relationship, he said. Additionally, Pattinson also discussed the racial disparagement his fiancee faces on social media for dating him. He tries to tune out the hate when he can, but he isnt always successful. I think its like professional trolls, he said of rude commenters. They get so addicted to kind of just wanting to cause hurt and pain on someone and its just one of the most difficult things to know how to confront. Its a faceless enemy. ... It might seem fake to them, but its definitely real in your life. Pattinson said responding to hate can just be feeding into it. It makes me feel less powerful if youre trying to attack and make it go away. Its like trying to attack a reflection in the water or something. You just look crazy, he said. Facebook

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David Letterman cringes when late-night TV hosts refer to viewers as fans By Emily Mae Czachor A profoundly bearded David Letterman made a rare talk-show appearance Monday -- one of just a handful of public ventures since the end of his run on The Late Show in 2015. Only this time, Letterman arrived as a guest. In an unusual turn of events, the former late-night host played interviewee on the season premiere of stand-up comedian Norm Macdonalds podcast, Norm Macdonald Live. The longtime pals discussed a number of matters, from Lettermans first-ever hosting gig (a game show called Wordbusters) to the time he found himself face to face with Richard Nixon. The two also discussed late-night TVs changing landscape and how Letterman never felt comfortable thinking of himself as the star of his own show. I could not possibly, and still dont, consider myself a star, because I couldnt refer to myself as a star, Letterman said. Johnny Carson was a star, theres no question of that. So for me to adopt that -- Starring Dave Letterman -- that was just ridiculous. In the same way, I always cringe a little when people refer to the folks who watch their show as their fans, Letterman added. I just think thats a little too  you know, you kind of just stepped over the line of basic humility there. Macdonald commented on late-nights packed roster of big-name hosts -- none of whom he finds particularly unique, except Conan OBrien, who he thinks has changed it up a little. On any plans for a late-night return to the host seat, Letterman told fans not to expect too much. Ive done it for 30 years, he said. I dont want to do it anymore. Watch the full episode above (warning: some profanity). Facebook

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Olivia de Havilland, 101, files motion to expedite her Feud lawsuit By Nardine Saad Olivia de Havilland at her Paris home in 2003. (Jean-Marc Giboux / Getty Images) Citing her advanced age, legendary actress Olivia de Havilland has filed a motion in her Feud lawsuit for a preferential trial date this fall. De Havillands attorneys filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, requesting that the jury trial be set in November or no later than 120 days of her motion being granted. The 101-year-old is hoping that a judge will fast track the trial during her Sept. 13 hearing date, which is just days before Feud is expected to be a big winner at the Primetime Emmy Awards. (The miniseries is nominated for 18 awards.) The Gone With the Wind star sued FX and Feud showrunner Ryan Murphy last month over her depiction in the miniseries about rival actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The two-time Oscar winner, who was played by actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on the show, makes legal claims about violations of her common law and statutory rights of publicity, her right to privacy and unjust enrichment. Based on her unusually advanced age, resulting particular susceptibility to disease, and recurring health issues, there is a substantial likelihood that she, as with anyone at this advanced age, may not survive for any extended period of time, the motion said. It is likely that if a trial preference motion is not granted, Olivia de Havilland will be prejudiced, because on the normal schedule, trial would not be set within the next 120 days. Her team also argued that because she is the sole plaintiff, De Havilland is crucial to the trial. Olivia de Havilland has a substantial interest in the litigation as a whole here as her personal statutory right of publicity cause of action does not survive her death. ... Further, should Olivia de Havilland die before her trial date, she will not be able to enjoy the benefits which she would receive in damages, the motion said. De Havillands June 30 lawsuit said the show damaged her professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice and dignity. She claimed that FX, Murphy and Fox producers never sought or obtained her permission to be depicted in the series and that Zeta-Jones portrayal of her in an episode about the 1963 Oscars cast her in a false, hurtful and damaging light. The defendants have not yet responded to de Havillands initial filing. According to Deadline, the Paris-based actress will not be attending the September hearing but may return to Hollywood if the trial is expedited to November. Olivia de Havilland 101: Everything you need to know as the movie legend celebrates her 101st birthday Facebook

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Despacitos Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee call out Venezuelan president for using song to push agenda By Nardine Saad Luis Fonsi, left, and Daddy Yankee. (Sergi Alexander / Getty Images) Despacito singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and co-writer Erika Ender have condemned Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro for appropriating their international hit song for political gain. The chart-topping Puerto Rican recording artists and Panamanian songwriter on Monday called out Maduro, currently the subject of violent and sometimes fatal nationwide protests over his policies, for reworking their lyrics to appeal to voters during his weekly television show on Sunday. The revision promoted the leaders plans for a controversial citizens assembly to be elected on July 30 and tasked with rewriting Venezuelas 1999 constitution and bypassing the opposition-led legislature. Our call to the Constituent Assembly only seeks to unite the country ... despacito, Maduros version said. The term despacito means slowly in Spanish and in the original version of the song refers to the singers wooing techniques. Maduros supporters swayed to the remix dressed in matching T-shirts and baseball caps that brandished campaign slogans. the Associated Press said. The president was seen clapping along to the remix while the audience danced, according to the BBC. I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS, Ender wrote in Spanish on Instagram, citing a news story about Maduros use of the song. I cannot see so much pain in people I love so much. Warrior people, people with iron will. Good people, who are fighting for freedom of rights and expression. ... I love Venezuela, a land that has given me true brothers and sisters. Brothers who suffer because of the situation that exists. Ender also lamented seeing the song she co-wrote be used without permission to advertise campaigns linked to a regime that has sowed so much discontent and suffering. View Instagram post On repeated occasions, I have said how much I enjoy the versions of Despacito that have been released on a global level. However there has to be a limit, Fonsi also wrote in Spanish on Instagram. I have never been consulted, nor have I authorized the use of or the change of lyrics of Despacito for political means, much less in the middle of the deplorable situation in a country I love so much, Venezuela. He added that his music is for everyone who wants to listen to it and enjoy it, not to use as propaganda that tries to manipulate the will of the people who are crying out loud for their liberty and a better future. View Instagram post Daddy Yankee took a much more blunt approach in his post, sharing an image of a news article about Maduro with a large red X superimposed on it. What can you expect of a person who has stolen lives from young dreamers and people who are looking for a better future for their children? the reggaeton rapper wrote in Spanish. That you illegally appropriated Despacito does not compare to the crimes you commit and have committed in Venezuela. Your dictatorial regime is a mockery not only for my Venezuelan brothers, but for the whole world. With that nefarious marketing plan, you will only continue to highlight your fascist ideology, which has killed hundreds of heroes and injured more than 2,000. View Instagram post Millions of Venezuelans joined a general strike last week amid economic turmoil and a shortage of food and medicine in the country. Government opponents dealt a symbolic blow on Sunday to Maduro, casting votes in an unofficial referendum that rejected his plan for the constitutional overhaul. The government denounced the opposition balloting as illegal and seditious, according to The Times, but turnout appeared high at thousands of makeshift voting places set up throughout the country and abroad. Facebook

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Netflix invests in Matt Groenings Disenchantment By Libby Hill Matt Groening is ready to take another crack at this television thing. The creator of The Simpsons, which debuts its 29th season on Fox this fall, has a new show courtesy of Netflix. The streaming service provider announced Tuesday that it had ordered 20 episodes of Disenchantment, an adult animated comedy series set in a deteriorating fantasy kingdom. The show centers around a hard-living young princess named Bean, voiced by Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), her elf companion, Elfo (Nat Faxon), and personal demon Luci (Eric Andre). Ultimately, Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you, Groening said in a statement Tuesday. Matt Groenings brilliant work has resonated with generations around the world and we couldnt be happier to work with him on Disenchantment,  Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, said in a statement. The series will bear his trademark animation style and biting wit, and we think its a perfect fit for our many Netflix animation fans. The series joins Netflixs Bojack Horseman in aiming for an audience unafraid of exploring the less-savory aspects of adulthood. Disenchantment will premiere on Netflix 10 episodes at a time, beginning in 2018. Facebook

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Broad City stars talk about the decision to bleep President Trumps name on the show By Yvonne Villarreal Abbi Jacobson, left, and Ilana Glazer of the series Broad City speak at the Television Critics Assn. press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press) Broad City creators and stars Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson consider the bleeping out of President Trumps name from the comedys upcoming fourth season a different kind of joke. The two appeared onstage Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the new season and how they reworked the show in the wake of Trumps election. We just got to a point where in real life were talking about the current administration, were talking about Trump  and it sounds so gross every day saying it so many 
Acropolis Cinema Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpongs 2016 film By the Time it Gets Dark is a risk-taking film that grapples with the horror of the 1976 paramilitary massacre of dozens of Thassanat University students and the artistic dilemma of how to honorably re-create such a moment in history. Suwichakornpong, born the same year as the massacre, uses multiple techniques such as parallel storylines about a young woman trying to make a film about the events, time-lapse shots of fungi growing, and even a clip from Georges Melies A Trip to the Moon. This is a rare chance to see a film that screened at the Locarno, Hong Kong and Toronto film festivals. Downtown Independent, 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles. July 18, 8 p.m. $12. www.acropoliscinema.com

Die Hard Year after year, this 1988 Bruce Willis-starring macho, action movie edges up the list of Christmas favorites alongside beloved holiday staples such as Its a Wonderful Life and White Christmas. The December-set Die Hard, screening as part of EatSeeHears annual Christmas in July event, is also notable for being the late Alan Rickmans American big-screen debut in a deliciously menacing turn as bad guy Hans Gruber. Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. July 22. Doors, 5:30 p.m.; movie, 8:30 p.m. General admission, $14; reserved, $21; children 12 and under, $8. www.eatseehear.com

Family Flicks Vittorio De Sicas 1951 neo-realist fantasy, Miracle in Milan pits the wide-eyed teenage orphan Toto, his rag-tag group of down-and-out friends, and an enchanted dove against the greedy oilmen who attempt to evict them from their Milanese shantytown. All ages are welcome, but because of the subtitles, the film is recommended for children ages 10+. UCLA Film and TV Archive, Hammer Museum, Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. July 16, 11 a.m. Free. www.hammer.ucla.edu

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Paul Newman (as Director) Double Feature Newman cast his wife, Joanne Woodward, and daughter, Nell Potts, in his 1972 film version of Paul Zindels Pulitzer-winning play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, about a shy but brainy teen (Potts) and her more rambunctious sister (Roberta Wallach) who are doing their best to raise themselves in spite of their dysfunctional mother (Woodward). In Sometimes a Great Notion (1970), Newman directs and stars in a drama about an Oregon logging family that refuses to honor the local unions strike. The film also stars Lee Remick, with Henry Fonda as the stubborn family patriarch. New Beverly Cinema, Beverly Blvd., 7165 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. July 16, 6:30 p.m. July 17, 7:30 p.m. $8. www.thenewbev.com

Retroformat 2017: Silents with Live Music Pioneering director D.W. Griffith made hundreds of silent short films between 1908 and 1914 and this program features several from 1912 including: The Girl and Her Trust with Dorothy Bernard, The Female of the Species with Claire McDowell and Mary Pickford, and The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch and The Lesser Evil starring Griffith favorite, Blanche Sweet. Worth noting is that the shorts are, while perhaps not feminist by modern day standards, all female driven stories. With live accompaniment by Cliff Retallick. American Cinematheque, Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. July 22, 7:30 p.m. $12; $8 for Cinematheque members. www.americancinematheque.com

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Oh Jake, Brett said, we could have had such a damned good time together. Yes, Jake famously replies at the end of Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises, Isnt it pretty to think so?

Im books editor Carolyn Kellogg, and weve got a great Hemingway story in our pages this week.

Ernest Hemingway, left, and Joris Ivens, right, working on their documentary about the Spanish Civil War. (Universal History Archive / UIG via Getty Images)

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THE BIG STORY

David Kipen tells the long-forgotten tale of Ernest Hemingways visit to Los Angeles 80 years ago this week. Hemingway was raising money for the Spanish Civil War, screening a documentary that hed made there. While in Hollywood  a place he typically avoided  he crossed paths with movie stars, directors, and the glitterati literati (Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald). Kipen, one of our critics at large and the former literature director of the NEA, has a bigger story to tell than just boldface names  dont miss it.

OH DEATH

Books about writing are a tricky business, but Graywolf Press is doing a great job with its The Art Of series, which takes a huge, wide-open approach to the form. The latest is The Art of Death by Edwidge Danticat, which is primarily a memoir of her own experience of loss. She also pays careful attention to writings about death and dying, undertaking a process of close reading that reinforces how stories are integral to making sense of our experience, writes Leah Mirakhor in our review.

Edwidge Danticat (Ernesto Ruscio / Getty Images)

BESTSELLERS

Currently the No. 2 book on our nonfiction bestseller list is Neil deGrasse Tysons Astrophysics for People In a Hurry. Now in its ninth week on the list, the books title points at the kind of humor and accessibility Tyson brings to his discussions of hard science  and by hard I mean both difficult and real. If youve got time on your commute, I can also recommend Tysons podcast, Star Talk Radio, which is funny and easy to follow, even when the actual physics behind the conversation is beyond my grasp.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

MORE BOOKS

Steph Cha reviews Maile Meloys Do Not Become Alarmed, a page-turner about affluent families thrown into crisis when their kids go missing during their vacation.

This week was the 200th anniversary of Henry David Thoreaus birth. In tribute, if you can, try to spend a little time with nature this weekend.

Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo died at 61 from liver cancer, Chinese officials announced Thursday. Liu was imprisoned eight years ago for his work drafting and promoting Charter 08, a document calling for greater democratic freedoms in China.

Roger Steffens, a photographer, traveled with Bob Marley and his cohort. Now hes put together an oral history of the reggae legend by speaking to his closest friends, So Much Things To Say. We take a look inside.

Thanks for reading!

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhaus
At least two people were arrested Saturday afternoon during dueling rallies staged in Hollywood by supporters and detractors of President Trump.

The arrests stemmed from a scuffle among competing demonstrators outside the busy Hollywood and Highland shopping complex, police said. An anti-Trump protester who received a minor laceration during the skirmish was given medical aid from a rival demonstrator.

A counter protester is injured. A LA proud boy member swoops in for the medical rescue. pic.twitter.com/PSqd4H013Y  Marcus Yam  (@yamphoto) July 15, 2017

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A shouting match on Hollywood and highland has begun. pic.twitter.com/IniNB5Gd6X  Marcus Yam  (@yamphoto) July 15, 2017

Despite a lot of shouting and name calling, the demonstrations remained mostly peaceful and without incident.

Trump supporter Anna King, 38, a medical assistant from Cerritos, and her friends brought along a large American flag. I think we should all come together as a country and support our president, she said.

This was the second time that Trump supporters and detractors have faced off along Hollywood Boulevard. In March, dozens of activists on both sides rallied. Tensions were high, but the demonstrations were relatively peaceful, ending with at least two arrests.

On Saturday, Trump supporters began gathering about 1 p.m. near Trumps Hollywood Walk of Fame star in front of the shopping center. Nearly two hours later, an anti-Trump rally and march started at the same location. Police officers on bicycles and horses were forced to shut down a portion of Hollywood Boulevard.

The groups were separated after the skirmish, with the officers standing between the two sides. Tourists watched as Trump supporters waved American flags and chanted America first! while counter demonstrators carried signs that said No! The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

Los Angeles police Sgt. Neil Wank said that one man was arrested on suspicion of battery. The victim, who identified himself only as Graywolf, 72, said he was punched in the face by a disgruntled Trump supporter.

He shoved a bullhorn in my face, he said. I pushed him back and he decided that was enough provocation to hit me in the face. He was promptly arrested, and I will be filing charges on this guy.

At one point, about 100 anti-Trump protesters marched down Hollywood Boulevard to Vine Street, then onto Sunset Boulevard, up Cahuenga Boulevard and finally back onto Hollywood Boulevard. They were trailed by about two dozen Trump supporters.

Last October a man took a sledgehammer and vandalized Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In October, a man damaged Trumps star with a sledgehammer. In June, the star was covered with stickers during the LA Pride Resist March.

The anti-Trump protest, one of several taking place around the country Saturday, is being organized by RefuseFascism. Dozens of people were expected to participate in the rally, according to organizers.

The Trump/Pence Regime daily escalates its fascist attacks on immigrants and Muslims, on healthcare and the poor, on Black and Brown people, on women and LGBTQ folks, on the media, on the environment, on the right to protest, on the truth, the organizers stated on their Facebook account.

Similar protests were scheduled in at least 15 other U.S. cities, according to organizers.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more Southern California news, follow @latvives on Twitter.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

Twitter: @cmaiduc

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UPDATES:

5:50 p.m.: This article has been updated with comments from demonstrators.

3:20 p.m.: This article was updated with new information about crowd size.

3 p.m.: This post was updated with the arrests of two protesters and information from the rallies.

2:05 p.m.: This post was updated with a revised estimate of the number of people who will participate in the anti-Trump protest.

This article was originally published 10:45 a.m.
An investigator with the Orange County district attorneys office was put on paid administrative leave Thursday for allegedly leaking an investigative report, according to his attorney Joel Baruch.

The report by investigator Tom Conklin said that despite months of investigation, several allegations against County Supervisor Todd Spitzer  a bitter rival of Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and a candidate to unseat him in the 2018 race  could not be corroborated.

Baruch denied that either he or Conklin shared the report with the Orange County Register. Baruch said he believed the district attorneys office leaked the report, and then blamed Conklin as an excuse to oust him.

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I think theres a good chance [the district attorneys office] gave the report to the Register, Baruch said. They set him up.

Before he wrote his report on Spitzer, Conklin and another investigator had filed whistleblower claims against Rackauckas office alleging that Rackauckas and his circle of top prosecutors engaged in cover-ups and misconduct. Their claims followed another claim against the office filed by former chief of investigations Craig Hunter, who alleged that Rackauckas regularly interfered in political corruption investigations involving allies.

On Friday, the district attorneys office released a statement  referring to the leaking of reports  saying that the office has not yet taken any disciplinary action against Conklin.

The OCDA is reluctant to place anyone on a paid administrative leave; careful consideration was given to a full review of the facts and in consultation with County Counsel, the statement said. Obviously, police reports should not be leaked to any unauthorized persons or organizations.

The announcement from Conklins attorney is yet another twist in a week heavy with political intrigue surrounding the district attorneys office.

It began Wednesday when the existence of the Spitzer investigation was reported by the Los Angeles Times. Later in the day, the Register published a story saying it had obtained a copy of Conklins report and detailed its findings. Spitzer then wrote a letter to the state attorney generals office asking the state agency to take over the district attorneys investigation.

Conklin was placed on leave the day after those stories broke, Baruch said.

Meanwhile, the status of the investigation remains unclear. The district attorneys office said in a statement that it had submitted the information gathered to the appropriate enforcement agencies for review. Spitzer said he was informed by a top prosecutor that it wrapped up 30 days ago. A source close to the district attorneys office told the Los Angeles Times that, as of Wednesday, the probe remained open.

Baruch said it was his understanding that the investigation was reopened after Conklin filed his report in early June.

They had reopened the investigation because Tony wants to embarrass Spitzer. Hes a political opponent, Baruch said.

Baruch provided other details about how the investigation was handled that he said raise questions. He said three of the witnesses fed to Conklin by the office had conflicts of interest  including financial ties to Rackauckas.

Rackauckas and Spitzer have for years been locked in an ugly political feud. It kicked off in 2010 when Rackauckas fired Spitzer, who had been his hand-picked successor and a senior prosecutor in the office.

An ethics expert quoted by The Times questioned whether Rackauckas had an impermissible conflict of interest in prosecuting Spitzer. He also said an investigation could benefit Rackauckas bid for reelection by scaring off potential campaign donors to Spitzer.

The investigation focuses on whether Spitzer improperly raised and spent campaign money. There wasnt enough evidence to confirm several allegations, while others  such as whether Spitzer spent campaign funds for personal benefit  needed more investigation, according to the Registers account of Conklins report.

Spitzers chief strategist, John Thomas, accused the district attorney of retaliating against Conklin.

Its clear that Tony Rackauckas is livid that his witch hunt into Todd Spitzer backfired and came up empty-handed, Thomas said.

Adam.Elmahrek@latimes.com

@adamelmahrek
Moon Yun Pellerin was still in shock as she sat on a bench Saturday morning in the crowded lobby of her Honolulu high-rise. Her home on the 27th floor  owned by her 78-year-old mother who has dementia  had been destroyed when the raging fire broke out.

Were homeless now, said the dazed 49-year-old, who lived in a condo with sweeping views of the city and Koolau mountains with her mother, husband and cat, Sugar.

We werent aware there were no sprinklers, she said with a sigh.

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At least three people died Friday after the fire swept across the upper floors of the Marco Polo condominium building, shooting flames and plumes of thick, black smoke out windows and causing hundreds of residents to evacuate.

The 36-story tower was not equipped with sprinklers.

Residents and officials in Honolulu, like many other cities across the nation, have for years debated the costs and benefits of installing fire sprinkler systems throughout aging residential condominiums. In Honolulu, persuading owners to retrofit the buildings has been a challenge.

The Marco Polo was built four years before Honolulu required fire sprinkler systems in new residential high-rises. Many of its residents are retirees on fixed incomes.

In 2005, the Honolulu City Council created a task force to estimate the cost of retrofitting and installing fire sprinkler systems in about 300 residential condominium buildings. A report estimated that retrofitting the Marco Polo would cost $4,305.55 for each unit.

A separate report for the Marco Polo Condominium Assn. in 2013 estimated it would cost $4.5 million to retrofit the entire building  about $7,867 for each unit.

Owners, who were represented by the Hawaii Council of Assns. of Apartment Owners, lobbied strongly against any retrofitting, said Samuel Dannaway, chief fire protection engineer for Coffman Engineers in Honolulu, who authored the 2005 report.

Cost was the reason, he said in a telephone interview Saturday. This was inevitable. We already knew on this one  you need to install sprinklers in a high-rise building for the safety of the occupants and the safety of the firefighters.

The challenges of installing such systems are particularly complex in massive residential complexes, Dannaway said.

With condos, you have 600 owners, not one owner, he said. Youre likely going to have multiple people who refuse to have the work done, period. Its a problem.

The fire broke out on the 26th floor of the complex about 2 p.m. Friday and spread to the 28th floor, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Jenkins said in a statement.

A dozen people were treated by paramedics and evacuated. Four people, including one firefighter, were transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

More than 100 firefighters descended on the scene as the fire broke windows and trapped some residents in their apartments. Many occupants were told to shelter in place until emergency personnel could escort them down stairwells to safety, Jenkins said.

1 / 5 A Honolulu Fire Dept. helicopter flies near the burning Marco Polo apartment complex. (Marco Garcia / AP) 2 / 5 A woman who exited the Marco Polo apartment complex is placed in an ambulance. (Marco Garcia / AP) 3 / 5 Onlookers view the burning Marco Polo apartment complex. (Marco Garcia / AP) 4 / 5 A paramedic checks on a woman lying on a median after she and others exited the Marco Polo apartment complex. (Marco Garcia / AP) 5 / 5 Smoke billows from the Marco Polo apartment building Friday in Honolulu. (Audrey McAvoy / Associated Press)

The 572-unit complex, just outside the beachfront neighborhood of Waikiki on the southern shore of the island of Oahu, was built in 1971. Its condominiums sell from around $339,000 to $650,000.

Pellerin, an aspiring screenwriter who was out at lunch when the fire broke out, said her mother was inside the condo. By the time Pellerin rushed to check on her, she was standing outside the building barefoot. Somehow, the 78-year-old woman had walked down the stairwell from the 27th floor.

There was no sign of Sugar.

A stream of residents returned to their homes Saturday morning, many climbing stairs as two of the buildings elevators were out of use. Three floors remain closed because of heavy smoke, water and fire damage.

Jeff Kim, the 31-year-old chairman of an energy subcommittee for the Sierra Club of Hawaii, who has rented a two-bedroom apartment for six months, said he never considered if the building had a sprinkler system.

I did not actually realize we didnt have them, said Kim, whose apartment is a few floors above the units where the fire burned for hours. I certainly think we should have installed them.

As he trudged slowly up the stairs to his condo, past the blackened, charred apartments at the center of the blaze, Kim said: Its got to be done.

Dean Hirabayashi, senior vice president of finance at American Savings Bank, who owned a 33rd-floor condo since 2002, was relieved to find it relatively unscathed. He said he was aware that the condo, where his parents live, did not have sprinklers but had never attended condo association meetings.

It worries us, he said. I think I would pay it. But for a lot of owners its not an easy decision. A lot of retirees are living on fixed incomes.

Fridays fire was not the first fire to break out in the 46-year-old building. In 2013, a fire started in a microwave oven in an eighth-floor apartment, spreading quickly to the unit above, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Residents of both units escaped that fire with no injuries. Seven floors of the building were evacuated, and officials estimated the damage at about $1.1 million.

National building codes have required automatic fire sprinklers in large public and commercial buildings since the early 1980s. Those codes, however, do not apply to older residential high-rises unless a state or local municipality enacts regulations.

Only a handful of states, including Florida and New York, require building owners to retrofit existing high-rise buildings with sprinklers. Multiple cities, including Los Angeles, Denver and Philadelphia, have also introduced requirements, said Brian Jay Meacham, associate professor of fire protection engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

The majority of the country is not doing the retrofits, said Glenn Corbett, associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. You see this patchwork of places that have it and others that do not.

Although installing sprinklers in high-rises is highly effective  the chances of dying in a fully sprinkled high-rise are just about zero, Corbett said  the problem is cost.

It typically costs more than $10 per square foot to install sprinkler piping throughout older residential high-rises, Corbett said. Retrofitting sprinklers is more challenging in residential towers than office buildings because they are typically split into multiple compartments.

Wall after wall, you have to penetrate with piping, and that means moving people around in apartments, Corbett said. They cant live there while workers are drilling holes in their walls.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Friday that his city needs to look at passing a new law requiring sprinklers in older high-rises.

The biggest argument is the affordability, Caldwell told the Associated Press. Residents have to pay. Its pretty expensive. But if it saves a life and its your life, its worth the cost.

Asked if he was concerned enough over the lack of sprinklers to move out of his apartment, Kim wasnt sure.

Im guessing this isnt likely to happen any time in the next couple of years, he said. But its definitely a question thats making me think right now. It does make me consider moving out.

Special correspondent Chang reported from Honolulu, and special correspondent Jarvie reported from Atlanta.

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UPDATES:

7 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Moon Yun Pellerin.

4:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from tenants and fire prevention experts regarding sprinklers.

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from a tenant, the mayor of Honolulu and fire prevention experts.

This article was originally published at 11 a.m.
After a week of sometimes absurdly high temperatures, you might think youd want a bowl of cold Korean noodles. You likely do, of course, but you might also be craving a truly good Neapolitan pizza. Because some of us want that all the time too. This week Jonathan Gold heads to Cosa Buona, where he finds a pizzeria that is not just a chefly take on the idea of a neighborhood pizzeria, it is a neighborhood pizzeria.

In more pizza news, our latest food truck report considers a Neapolitan specialist whose truck houses its own wood-burning oven. (Speaking of heat waves.) In other news, the markets are as loaded with tomatoes as many of the local pizzas. We have a profile of a young cook whose challenges have included not only being slammed on the line but losing his home. And we consider the latest project from Adam Fleischman, the guy who brought us Umami Burger. One more thought: If your solution to summer heat is some good, cold beer, maybe check out these four new brewery tasting rooms.

 Amy Scattergood

IN PRAISE OF NEIGHBORHOOD PIES

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Pepperoni pizza fresh out of the oven at Cosa Buona. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

At Cosa Buona, chef Zach Pollacks newish Echo Park pizzeria, Jonathan finds not only pizza  perhaps unsurprising, given that the location was previously the home of Pizza Buona and that Pollacks history includes not only Alimento but Pizzeria Ortica and Sotto  but mozzarella sticks, chicken parm and an homage to Franco. That would be Franco Pepe, not that other guy.

AND OF PERIPATETIC PIES

Erik Vose inside his Vivace Pizzeria food truck. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

In her latest Food Truck column, Deputy Food Editor Jenn Harris looks inside the new Vivace Pizzeria truck, where chef Eric Vose makes Neapolitan pizza inside a tiny space he shares with a 5,500-pound Acunto Mario pizza oven. Fortunately the thing is heavily insulated, especially during the hot summer months of Los Angeles.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LINE COOK

Lance Thomas has struggled with homelessness while working his way up through restaurant kitchens. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Food writer Javier Cabral tells the story of Lance Thomas, a 25-year-old L.A. native who has spent the last decade working his way through restaurant kitchens, from starting as a fry cook at an Alhambra Wendys to his current job as a sous chef at the gastropub the Black Cat. His journey is not unlike that of a lot of food-driven folks, though his most recent challenge was a lot harder than a busy night on the line: homelessness.

A REBOOT OF PB&J

A PB&J sandwich, as configured by Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman for his upcoming project. (Christian K. Lee / Los Angeles Times)

If not pizza, then PB&J, or at least thats what Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman is hoping. Fleishman (who also co-founded 800 Degrees, speaking of pizza), is about to debut his latest project: a counter at Grand Central Market devoted to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. PBJ.LA, which will open in early August, will have many variations on the classic, crimped and enclosed, packaged and branded  something Fleischman is very good at.

TOMATOMANIA

Sun Gold cherry tomatoes from Munak Ranch, at the Santa Monica farmers market. (Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times)

The farmers markets in this town are always fantastic, of course, but summer is maybe the most fun. Theres all that stone fruit and squash, but these days some of us pilgrimage to our local market just for the tomatoes. Table after table of heirlooms, as Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter considers in her latest Market Report column. Plus recipes!

The Taste, our annual Labor Day food festival (this one is three days, not a whole month!) is returning to Paramount Studios. Check out the lineup, the demos and panels, the chefs and bartenders, and of course all the food. Tickets are on sale.

Goldbot: You can now 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 its 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.
Aung San Suu Kyi may have won international acclaim as an advocate for human rights and democracy in her native Myanmar, but since becoming the countrys de facto leader 15 months ago, she has done little to protect the human rights of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority there. Long a target of persecution, the countrys estimated 1 million Rohingya live mostly in the Rakhine state in impoverished villages. About 120,000 of them have ended up in wretched displaced persons camps.

Now, in another alarming move, Suu Kyis government has refused to allow a U.N. fact-finding team to come into the country to investigate reports of human rights abuses by security forces in Rakhine against the Rohingya. The decision to deny visas to members of the mission, established by the U.N.s Human Rights Council earlier this year, seems more in step with the repressive military regime that Myanmar used to be than the fledgling democracy it now prides itself on being. Suu Kyi and her government should immediately reverse course and let the U.N. human rights mission into the country to investigate.

The latest wave of violence started last fall after armed men, believed to be connected to a militant Rohyinga group, attacked border guard outposts on Oct. 9, killing nine police officers. In response, the Myanmar government instituted a massive crackdown in the area that included hundreds of arrests. Police officers and soldiers allegedly conducted a months-long campaign of terror, according to reports gathered by human rights groups and the United Nations, indiscriminately killing hundreds, raping and abusing women and children and burning down homes. As many as 90,000 Rohingya have fled their villages since last fall. Investigating all this is the goal of the fact-finding mission.

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Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group, has decried Myanmars refusal to grant visas. Even the Trump administration, so reticent to wade into human rights controversies that might cause political fallout, has called on the government of Myanmar  also known as Burma  to cooperate with the United Nations. The international community cannot overlook what is happening in Burma, said Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Suu Kyi and other government officials have dismissed the U.N. request, saying the government is doing its own investigation. Suu Kyi has steadfastly tried not to alienate those in the Buddhist-majority country who maintain that the Rohingya are in the country illegally. She has said that allowing in the U.N. team will only heighten tensions in Rakhine.

Actually, one sure way to raise tensions is for Myanmar to continue treating the Rohingya so badly (denying them access to healthcare and education as well as citizenship) that more of them become radicalized. In the last week, the government has opened Rakhine to a group of foreign journalists (with government escorts) and a human rights investigator for the United Nations (who is reportedly not touring all of Rakhine.) Thats good, but thats not enough. The government of Myanmar needs to allow the full U.N. fact-finding mission unfettered access to Rakhine to show that it has changed not only its leaders, but the way they govern as well.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting a long and brutal war in Yemen against Houthi rebels, who ousted the Saudi-backed central government in 2014. More than 10,000 civilians have died in the conflict, and over 3 million have been displaced. Millions face starvation. The Saudis have been accused of violating the rules of war and taking insufficient steps to protect civilians, who have been killed in mosques and at funerals and on the streets. Now, thanks to the destruction of local water and sewage infrastructure, the worlds largest cholera epidemic has infected 300,000 people and is continuing to spread at a rate of 5,000 new cases a day.

Despite all this, the Trump administration has promised that the U.S. will provide Saudi Arabia with $110 billion in weapons, leading human rights groups and others to call the U.S. morally complicit  and possibly legally complicit  in the loss of civilian life.

In response to the backlash from human rights organizations around the world and to help make the arms deal more politically palatable, the Saudis have put forward two face-saving measures in recent weeks: The countrys crown prince promised to provide $67 million to the United Nations for cholera treatment. And the Saudis have agreed to engage in a $750-million multiyear program to train its air force on how to avoid civilian casualties. Both steps are better than nothing, but much more will be necessary.

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In the long run, the conflict in Yemen requires a negotiated political solution, not a continuation of the failed Saudi military strategy which has not achieved its objectives. In the shorter run, there are steps that could help reduce the violence and alleviate the suffering.

For starters, both the Saudis and the Houthis need to stop treating food aid and medical assistance like bargaining chips, and must open ports and airports so that they can pass safely into the neediest and most conflict-ridden areas. The UN cannot deliver cholera vaccines without these access points, no matter how much money the Saudis throw at the problem. If the Saudis refuse to allow aid in, then Congress, which has grown increasingly impatient that countrys flagrant disregard for human rights, must consider what steps it can take to punish the House of Saud for such a heartless stance.

On Friday morning, the House of Representatives passed several amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that call for greater congressional oversight on how U.S. weapons are being used in Yemen. One amendment, introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), requires the departments of State and Defense to report to Congress every six months on whether the Saudis are indeed bombing fewer civilians, as they have committed to This is an important step toward ensuring that our partner in the Middle East understands exactly where we stand: $110 billion in weapons is not a blank check.
To the editor: Donald Trump, Jr.s June 2016 meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya raises three questions that deserve additional investigation. First, how much did President Trumps campaign know about the Russian governments activities to harm Hillary Clinton prior to the meeting? The wording of the email soliciting a meeting with Veselnitskaya reads as if this was not an initial contact. (Donald Trump Jr.: The unapologetic son who courts controversy, July 12)

Second, before the meeting, was Trump Jr. aware that the Russians expected his father to support U.S. policy changes favorable to their interests in exchange for helping the campaign? His report that Veselnitskaya insisted on discussing international adoption sanctions indicates what type of quid pro quo they expected. The Russian law preventing Americans from adopting Russian children was passed to retaliate against U.S. sanctions targeted at associates of President Vladimir Putin.

Third, if Trump Jr. expected that the Russians would give him valuable information without expecting anything in return, what does this say about his skills as a negotiator? A good businessperson must understand what both sides want in order to make the best possible deal. If Trump Jr. didnt understand what Veselnitskaya wanted, it calls into question his negotiation skills and those of his father who taught him.

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Cathy Boggs, Santa Barbara

Trump asserted that he could go out on Fifth Avenue in New York City and shoot someone, and people would still support him. Apparently he is right.  John M. Liu, Irvine

..

To the editor: There are 196 countries in the world. Of those, in addition to the U.S., Canada and Russia, several more (including China, Japan, Britain, Germany, France the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Israel, Iran and perhaps Brazil)have the capability to engage in cyber hacking.

All of these countries may have more than a passing interest in the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. Yet, to date, no information has surfaced that any foreign country other than Russia made an effort to affect the outcome of the 2016 election in Trumps favor.

Coincidence? I think not.

Marshall Barth, Encino

..

To the editor: During the last presidential campaign, Trump asserted that he could go out on Fifth Avenue in New York City and shoot someone, and people would still support him. Apparently he is right.

While there is as yet no direct link between Trump himself and the attempts to coordinate with the Russian government to influence our presidential campaign, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort clearly were representing his interests in taking the meeting with Veselnitskaya.

So in effect, his campaign did indeed shoot the U.S. body politic. Judging from the immediate reaction, particularly from some of our congressional leaders, since no one actually died the the offense is not all that serious. It may not even be illegal.

When did our lawmakers become this indifferent to attempts by a foreign government clearly in opposition to our national interests to influence our election?

John M. Liu, Irvine

..

To the editor: So, Trump Jr. seems not to worry about releasing his emails on meeting Veselnitskaya that could lead to his criminal prosecution. Of course, he may believe that if he really gets into trouble, a presidential pardon would be forthcoming

Barry Dank, Palm Desert

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Trump called him my African-American. But he has few kind words for the president. By Mark Z. Barabak (Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times) On the day that changed his life, Gregory Cheadle almost stayed in bed. He was tired  he traveled a lot in his long-shot bid for Congress  but asked himself: How often does a candidate for president come to the far reaches of Northern California? And why pass up a crowd and the chance to hand out more fliers? So Cheadle roused himself that June 2016 morning and secured a spot up close when Donald Trump swooped in for a rally at Reddings municipal airport. It was hot, the atmosphere was loose and Trumps patter seeming more stand-up comedy than campaign spiel. He went into one of those sidelong digressions, about protesters and an African American  great fan, great guy  and, by the way, whatever happened to him? It was then, Cheadle said, he raised his hand and jokingly shouted, Im here. Trump looked and pointed, his voice a throaty rumble. Look at my African-American over here! he exclaimed. Are you the greatest? In the days and weeks that followed Cheadle was attacked on social media and harassed by people who dug up his phone number and email address. For a time he stayed home, too nervous to venture outside. All, he said, because the media portrayed him as something he was not and never has been: a Trump sycophant. Read More Facebook

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Trump quietly signs Russia sanctions bill By Noah Bierman President Trump quietly signed legislation Wednesday that imposes new sanctions on Russia and limits his ability to remove them, according to two White House aides. Trump signed the bill without cameras or an immediate press release. He had opposed imposing new sanctions on Moscow but had little choice after a nearly unanimous Congress approved the bill, guaranteeing they would override a veto. The bill, which also imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, prevents American companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. It also prevents Trump from unilaterally lifting the sanctions. It thus marked an unusual move by Congress to tie the presidents hands on foreign policy. Trump did not want to give up that leverage. But the vote in Congress was a strong sign that lawmakers do not trust Trump to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised, and the widening federal investigation into possible coordination last year between his presidential campaign and Moscow. Passage of the sanctions bill already has sparked a harsh reaction in Moscow. Putin announced last week that the United States would need to shed 755 personnel, including U.S. diplomats, from its embassy and consulates in Russia. President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats, said to be spies, from the United States last December. A White House aide said a statement would be issued later Wednesday. Facebook

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Senior GOP senators serve notice: No action on healthcare at this point By David Lauter Trump administration officials continue to push the Senate to take another run at healthcare legislation, but on Monday senior Republican senators pushed back, making clear that theyre done with the topic for now. Theres just too much animosity and were too divided on healthcare, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters. I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterward, but we need to move ahead on tax reform, Hatch said. His remarks were quickly followed by others in GOP leadership positions. I think its time to move on to something else, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CNN. If the question is do I think we should stay on healthcare until we get it done, I think its time to move on to something else. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota also chimed in. Until someone shows us how to get that elusive 50th vote, I think its over, he told reporters. The remarks seemed a coordinated effort to respond to administration officials, including budget director Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who said over the weekend that they wanted the Senate to keep working on healthcare. Last week, the Senate defeated several different Republican plans to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act. The votes made it clear that with unified Democratic opposition to repeal, and divisions among Republicans, the campaign to overturn the law has stalled out, at least for now. Congress faces several other pressing issues that will be demanding lawmakers attention, including deadlines at the end of September to raise the federal debt ceiling and fund government agencies for the coming fiscal year. And the administration is eager to move on tax proposals, with officials rather optimistically saying they hope to see votes by November on a tax package that is not yet written. Facebook

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Good news for Atty. Gen. Sessions: Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet By Noah Bierman To Q re Sessions, spox Sanders says Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet. Last wk she wouldn't say if he had it in Sessions. Kelly effect?  Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) July 31, 2017 President Trump has called Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions beleaguered and even VERY weak, but Sessions seemed to get good news from the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Monday. Trump has 100% confidence in all of his Cabinet secretaries, Sanders said in response to a question about Sessions job status during the daily White House briefing. Last week, when speculation about Sessions was rife, Sanders repeatedly declined opportunities to provide assurances that the attorney general enjoyed the presidents full confidence. Trump himself said time will tell when he was asked last week about Sessions. The willingness to tamp down speculation about Sessions may reflect the arrival Monday of retired Gen. John F. Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. He is tasked with restoring order to the administration. Sanders also batted down reports that the White House was discussing moving Sessions to another post, as secretary of Homeland Security. That job became vacant Monday after Kelly was sworn in as Trumps new chief of staff. Sanders said the White House has had no conversations about any Cabinet members switching jobs. Republican senators have publicly opposed firing Sessions, and a couple have objected to shifting him to another post as well, given that it could appear that Trump is trying to affect the investigations of himself and his campaign in the context of Russias election interference. Trump has said publicly that his frustration with Sessions, once among his closest allies, stems from Sessions decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, an act that led to the appointment of a special counsel. Facebook

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Can Trump really cut health insurance payments for members of Congress and their staff? It would be easy By Lisa Mascaro Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance. Trumps threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments -- which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees monthly insurance premiums -- by dashing off new federal regulation. But the easy attack on lawmakers skims over what many say was a complicated, but fair-minded, compromise made during the Obamacare debates several years ago. Under Obamacare, if lawmakers want insurance through their employer - the federal government - they are required to buy policies through the ACA exchanges. There had been great criticism at the time, largely from opponents of the healthcare bill, that lawmakers and congressional staff should not be exempt from the law. The argument was they should have to live under it. So they did. Usually those buying individual insurance on the exchanges can apply to see if their income and geographic area allow them to qualify for a federal subsidy. For lawmakers, though, that was prohibited. Instead, they get the regular employer contribution they did before, much in the same way other workers do when their companies buy insurance. For federal workers, the government covers about 70% of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The administration affirmed that federal support for lawmakers and their staffs in an Office of Personnel Management regulation issued in 2013. To cut those funds off, Trump administration could simply reverse course, and issue another regulation changing the rules. Trump appeared ready to do so in a series of weekend tweets. Why should Congress not be paying what public pays, Trump tweeted over the weekend. If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon. But such a move would likely cause an uproar in Congress. Its not just members of Congress, but also their staffs, who would have to pay full price for their insurance. Stopping Trumps action, though, seems tough. It would require Congress to pass legislation ensuring the federal payments would continue to be made. Few lawmakers would likely take up that cause. And even if Congress were able to pass a bill protecting the payments, it seems doubtful Trump at this point would sign it into law. Facebook

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U.S. hits Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with sanctions By Associated Press Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the results of Sundays election in Caracas. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) The Trump administration has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduros ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan vote to elect a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution. A longer explanation from the White House was also expected. The administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Maduro went ahead with Sundays election for the assembly. Facebook

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Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director By Brian Bennett Anthony Scaramucci, the brash New Yorker who was announced little more than a week ago as President Trumps White House communications director, was ousted Monday before he had even officially taken the job. John F. Kelly, the newly sworn-in White House chief of staff, told Scaramucci around 9:30 a.m. EDT that he was going to be replaced, according to a person close to White House. In a statement officially announcing the move, the White House said Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. While Scaramuccis time at the center of the presidents circle was short, it was consequential, prompting the resignations of first Sean Spicer as White House press secretary and then Reince Priebus as chief of staff. The most notable firings and resignations in the Trump administration >> A former hedge fund executive on Wall Street, Scaramucci, who enjoyed media attention, also had come on strong stylistically, highlighted by a profane tirade against colleagues Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon in an exchange last week with a New Yorker reporter. The abrupt shift in Scaramuccis status seemed to reflect Kellys mission to bring order to the chain of command within the chaotic administration. In getting Scaramucci to leave, Kelly was undoing Trumps own hiring decision. Scaramucci had told reporters when he was hired that he would be reporting directly to the president at Trumps request, bypassing the normal chain that would have the communications director -- like all staff -- report to the chief of staff. Scaramuccis unusually short tenure reflects a moment of extreme turbulence in the White House, which has been embroiled in infighting as it confronts low poll numbers for the president, a floundering legislative agenda and the investigations involving Russian meddling in last years presidential election. After word spread of Scaramuccis ouster, Spicer, who resigned when Scaramucci took over but was still working in the White House, walked out of his office to a throng of reporters. Is this a surprise party? he asked. UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout with additional details and background. This article was originally published at 11:49 a.m. Facebook

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Trump swears in John Kelly, says ex-secretary of Homeland Security will do an even better job as chief of staff By Noah Bierman President Trump swore in his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, on Monday morning, formalizing a shake-up in his top ranks that was announced Friday evening with word of the resignation of Reince Priebus. We look forward to - if its possible - an even better job as chief of staff, Trump said to Kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security. Ill try, sir, Kelly replied. JOHN KELLY is now chief of staff. Sworn in during ceremony in Oval Office minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/dMEQ4rhpFA  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 31, 2017 Trump is hoping that Kelly, a retired general, will retool and bring order to a White House that has struggled with low poll numbers, staff infighting, a faltering legislative agenda and an investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion and obstruction of justice. Yet Trump said the administration has done very well after a reporter asked what would be different under Kelly. He cited the unemployment rate, the thriving stock market and unnamed polls that, he said, show high business confidence. Were doing very well. We have a tremendous base, he said.The country is optimistic. And I think the general will just add to it. Trump praised Kellys performance at the Department of Homeland Security, where Kelly focused on immigration issues at the southern border, as record-shattering, with very little controversy. There was no word on whom the president might name to replace Kelly at the department. Trump reportedly has considered moving Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions there from the Justice Department, reflecting his unhappiness with the attorney general, but Republican senators preemptively have signaled their opposition to such a move. Facebook

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Risky investigation, stalled agenda  Trumps in trouble, so heres his strategy By Noah Bierman (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) Hosts of Southern Californias Morning Answer radio show were wrapping up a two-hour live broadcast from a white tent just outside the West Wing last week and marveling at their access to Cabinet secretaries and prominent administration figures. If youre a Trumpkin, host Brian Whitman told his listeners on AM 870, this is like fantasy camp. The White Houses daylong hospitality for Salem Radio Network, a nationwide chain of Christian and conservative stations, underscored President Trumps continued courtship of  and increased dependence on  core supporters as he confronts a stalled agenda and increasingly perilous investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia and he subsequently sought to obstruct the inquiries. Read More Facebook

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Obamacare vote isnt the only sign of GOP resistance to Trump By Noah Bierman In the year since Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, party leaders have been reluctant to challenge a man who has formed a tight bond with conservative voters, even when he upset party orthodoxies and norms of presidential behavior. But that reticence is breaking down. A convergence of contentious issues, as well as embarrassing infighting and shake-ups at the White House, have a number of Republicans suddenly in open resistance to Trump on a number of fronts. Read More Facebook

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Trump ousts Reince Priebus as chief of staff in latest White House shake-up By Noah Bierman John Kelly (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump ousted his beleaguered chief of staff, Reince Priebus, naming Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly to replace him Friday in the latest White House shake-up as the administration struggles to emerge from bitter staff infighting and a stalled legislative agenda. Trump announced the abrupt reshuffle in three posts on Twitter hours after the Senate killed his latest plans to rewrite President Obamas signature healthcare law, dealing another harsh blow to the White House. The tweets, sent as Trump was returning on Air Force One with Priebus after a speech on gang violence in New York, caught Capitol Hill and others off guard even though Priebus stature in Trumps inner circle has been in sharp decline for some time. Read More Facebook

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Putins spokesman accuses U.S. of political schizophrenia By Associated Press Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting in Moscow on June 21. (Sergei Karpukhin / EPA) Russia urged the United States on Monday to show political will to mend ties even as it ordered sweeping cuts of U.S. embassy personnel unseen since Cold War times. President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but added that Russia remains interested in constructive cooperation with the U.S. We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said. Peskovs statement followed Sundays televised comments by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that the U.S. should cut its embassy and consular employees to 455, the number that Russia has in the United States. Along with the caps on embassy personnel announced Friday, it also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities. Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former President Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. over reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook

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White House urged to refrain from Obamacare sabotage as Trump mulls subsidy cutoff By Laura King A pair of prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the wake of failed Republican efforts to scrap his predecessors signature legislative achievement. But Trump urged GOP senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week it was time to move on to other matters. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said the president would decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the existing healthcare law. Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday. Two of the lawmakers who blocked the Senate GOP repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who steadfastly rejected a series of GOP healthcare measures last week, blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  cost-sharing payments that reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs for poorer Americans  would continue. Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout. Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on healthcare should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed. You cannot do major entitlement reform singlehandedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives singlehandedly, she told reporters in Alaska. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments. You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage healthcare in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union. Prior to heading out for a day at his Virginia golf property, Trump tweeted that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap Obamacare -- a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him. Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017 The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on CNNs State of the Union, said it was official Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, eschewing an August recess if necessary. Senators, he said, need to stay, they need to work -- they need to pass something. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law -- Obamacare -- also signaled that Trump was not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the measure. Our goalas well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press, adding, You cant do that under the current structure. Facebook

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Frustrated in defeat, Trump threatens healthcare of voters  and lawmakers By Joseph Tanfani Frustrated by the failure of the Obamacare repeal in the Senate, President Trump on Saturday threatened to end federal subsidies for healthcare insurance  for Congress as well as the rest of the country. After seven years of "talking" Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! Trump tweeted, fuming about Congress failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which he said was imploding. Such a move could cause havoc and much higher premiums in insurance markets, since many low- and moderate-income people depend on those subsidies to help cover the cost of their policies. Through a series of administrative maneuvers by Congress and the Obama administration, members and their staffs also benefit from those subsidies. Targeting congressional healthcare might score Trump some populist points with his base, but it would likely come at a cost of poisoning his relationship with Congress. Just making the threat on Saturday highlights how far things have eroded between Trump and top GOP lawmakers. And it comes a day after Trump pushed out former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, an establishment Republican who was the GOP congressional leaderships trusted liaison in the White House. Trump actually has a jarring amount of leverage over thousands of congressional staff who depend on employer health care contribution. https://t.co/lRPmrmDIJs  Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2017 Trumps longstanding threat to let the health insurance plans fail would come with its own political price. The federal government sends about $600 million a month to insurance companies to help cover the cost, and Trump is threatening to cut that off to allow Obamacare markets to collapse. His goal is to pressure Congress to send him a repeal bill, but so far the strategy has failed. The confidence Trump has expressed that if he followed through with the threat the fallout would land not on him but on Democrats, because they created Obamacare, is not widely shared in Washington. If health care collapses, voters will blame Trump and the GOP.



That's what happens when you control the White House and Congress. pic.twitter.com/iEjEGyapAL  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 29, 2017 Facebook

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Iran condemns new U.S. sanctions, vows to pursue missile program By Ramin Mostaghim Iran defied Washington and condemned new U.S. sanctions over its development of missiles capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. We will continue with full power our missile program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state television IRIB on Saturday, dismissing new sanctions passed by Congress last week as, hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable. Its ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal, Ghasemi said, adding, The military and missile fields  are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them. Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear activities under the 2015 agreement with the U.S. and other world powers in exchange for sanctions relief. Ghasemi argued Saturday that the U.S. had violated that agreement by linking the missile program to the nuclear deal and restricting Iranian banking activities in the U.S. He argued that Irans latest missile tests dont break the agreement because the weapons are defensive. The new wave of pressure on missile projects in Iran will push the Islamic theocracy into a corner, predicted Iran analyst Hojjat Kalashi in Tehran, noting that the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in May, is coping with an economic downturn and may step back from the compromise nuclear deal. The new Iran sanctions bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the House and Senate this week. It would penalize those involved in Irans ballistic missile program as well as those who do business with them, impose an arms embargo on Iran and label its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said President Trump will sign the bill. On Friday, the U.S. was joined by Britain, France and Germany in condemning Irans recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket and warned that it violated a United Nations resolution implementing the 2015 nuclear deal. In a joint statement, they urged Iran to stop developing missiles and rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads that have a destabilizing impact on the region. In response to a rocket launch Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on subsidiaries of an Iranian company involved in Tehrans ballistic missile program. But Nader Karimi Juni, an analyst close to Rouhanis government, said Iranian leaders dont believe the U.N. and European powers will ultimately back the U.S., and so Iran will not compromise on missile projects and will remain defiant. Facebook

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Trump jabs U.S. mayors, who push back, calling president out of touch with cities By Kurtis Lee (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) President Trump wants police to know that he  not mayors  has their back. Ive met police that are great police that arent allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor that doesnt know whats going on, Trump said Friday in a speech before police officers in Brentwood, N.Y. The comments from Trump, who in his address highlighted crime in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, drew applause from some in attendance. In a statement following Trumps remarks, the United States Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan group, released a statement pushing back against the president. The presidents comments today prove how out of touch he is with the realities of life in American cities. Mayors number one priority is  and always will be  the safety and protection of their residents, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the groups president. There is no daylight between the mayors of our cities and the uniformed officers who work tirelessly to keep us safe every single day. During the speech Trump called on police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in cities nationwide. In a recent interview with The Times, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who recently launched a $200-million initiative to empower city governments and mayors, stressed the key to good governing is experience as a manager  something, he said, Trump was not. Bloomberg added that the mayors are much more in tune with the needs of residents than the federal government. You got to remember a mayor and the local city council are much closer to the public than the governor and the state legislature, or the president and the federal legislature. So if the public is in favor of something, the local officials know it and they get held responsible, he said. Facebook

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The growing parade of exits under Trump administration By Len de Groot A lot of people have left President Trumps early administration  Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was replaced Friday. The White House communications department has been the scene of many of the recent turnovers as it wrestles to craft a message sometimes at odds with Trumps frequent tweeting. At the National Security Council, there has been a leadership struggle since Michael Flynn resigned in the face of pressure over undisclosed contacts with Russia. One appointee was fired over comments he made at a private function. Others have been removed as Flynns successor, H.R. McMaster, has moved to add loyalists to the council. Here are the most noteworthy departures: Read More Facebook

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Trump urges officers and immigration officials to be rough on animals terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods By Barbara Demick ( (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)) President Trump on Friday called for police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in order to rid the country of animals he said are terrorizing communities. Please dont be too nice, Trump told police recruits at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, a heavily Latino suburb of New York City. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know the way you put the hand  like, dont hit their head, and theyve just killed somebody?  You can take the hand away. He implied that he was satisfied with rough handling of suspects by the police. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough, he said. Scoffing at calls for what he describes as political correctness, Trump also renewed his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border. He accused the Obama administration of admitting criminals into the United States. Read More Facebook

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Analysis: In a Washington run by men, two overshadowed Republican women make their point on healthcare By Cathleen Decker In a Washington that has grown demonstrably more testosterone-fueled since President Trumps inauguration, it took two Republican women to secure the end of a long effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. They were the same two women  Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski  who had been excluded from the 13-member working group drafting the Republican bills. Nobodys being excluded based upon gender. Everybodys at the table, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said of his all-white-males group. In the early hours of Friday, the duo was overshadowed by the more dramatic and unexpected no vote from Sen. John McCain of Arizona. There was reason for the attention lavished on McCain  a war hero and veteran senator returns to the Capitol days after a dire cancer diagnosis. But without both Collins and Murkowskis steadfast opposition, his vote would have been meaningless. Also largely overlooked: Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who like McCain made an arduous trip to Washington despite her recent diagnosis of late-stage kidney cancer. Social media buzzed Friday with praise for the women senators from many fronts, including from men. But from many women, there was also a sense of familiarity at being ignored or taken for granted. Read More Facebook

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Clinton Foundation donor who was denied a visa settles leak case against the U.S. By Joseph Tanfani A billionaire Nigerian businessman and major Clinton Foundation donor banned from entering the U.S. two years ago on terrorism grounds has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Gilbert Chagoury last year sued the FBI and other government agencies in U.S. District Court in Washington, saying he had been damaged by what he described as improper government leaks to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported last year that Chagoury had been denied a visa to travel to the U.S. in 2015 on suspicion that he had provided aid to terrorist groups. One document, citing unverified information from an unnamed source, said that Chagoury  who is of Lebanese heritage  had funneled funds to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia and political group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Chagoury, an ardent Lakers fan who for decades lived part of the year in Los Angeles, angrily denied that he ever provided funds for terrorism. He said the publicity forced him to sell his Beverly Hills mansion at a loss and caused a bank to close his account. A philanthropist, Vatican ambassador and longtime friend of Bill Clinton, Chagoury once was invited to the White House after contributing to a Democratic get-out-the-vote campaign. He donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Emails released last year showed that a Bill Clinton aide pushed Hillary Clintons aides at the State Department to get Chagoury access to top U.S. diplomats. In the settlement filed in court on Friday, the Justice Department said Chagoury has never appeared on the list of Specially Designated Nationals, figures such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers who are generally barred from doing business in the U.S. The government did not grant Chagourys request for a court hearing to dispute the reports that led to his exclusion from the U.S. As I have often said, I have loved America my whole life because it was the land of freedom and justice, he said in a statement, adding that he hopes the agreement will help repair his reputation. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chagoury, who lives most of the time in Paris, has not applied for another visa, said his spokesman, Mark Corallo. Facebook

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Trump ousts Priebus, announces John Kelly as new chief of staff President Trump announced via Twitter on Friday that he had named retired Gen. John Kelly, head of the Department of Homeland Security, as White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 ...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Read More Facebook

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Rep. John Delaney of Maryland to run for president By Associated Press Rep. John Delaney of Maryland says hes running for president, instead of governor or reelection, in 2018. Delaney, a Democrat, announced his plans in a statement Friday. The politically moderate banking entrepreneur is in his third term in Marylands 6th Congressional District, which includes western Maryland and a large section of Montgomery County, the states largest county. The 54-year-old is worth roughly $90 million and is one of the Houses wealthiest members. He spent about $2 million to help finance his first House race in 2012. His consideration of a possible Maryland gubernatorial bid months ago quickly drew interest in his House seat. Several candidates already have expressed interest in running for the seat. Facebook

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McCain set to head back to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments By Kurtis Lee (Shawn Thew / EPA) Sen. John McCain is headed home. Hours after McCain spurned his party and voted in opposition to a GOP measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the senators office announced Friday he will return to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his recent diagnosis of brain cancer. McCain, 80, was found this month to have a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma. He is scheduled to return to Washington in September after his initial treatments. The glioblastoma  an aggressive type of cancer  was discovered when McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye. According to the Mayo Clinic, which is overseeing McCains treatment, glioblastoma is difficult to treat. After returning to Washington this week and voting in favor of opening Senate debate on repeal, McCain was among three Republicans early Friday morning to vote in opposition to a so-called skinny bill that would repeal the ACA, known as Obamacare. The move by McCain, who has served in the Senate since 1987, has drawn the ire of members in his own party and some in the right-wing media. Facebook

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McCains surprise vote doomed GOP healthcare bill, but did it open the door for Senate bipartisanship? By Lisa Mascaro Sen. John McCain is usually happy to spar with reporters, but he ducked into an elevator ahead of the Senate healthcare vote late Thursday without saying a word about how he would vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, already knew the answer. The Democratic leader had been talking with the Arizona Republican all week  four, five times a day  ever since McCain returned to work after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Earlier in the week, McCain had dramatically salvaged the stalled GOP bill by voting to begin debate, only to go on to deliver a blistering speech against his own party leaders partisan, closed-door process in crafting it. Weve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle, he told them. Were getting nothing done. Schumer and McCain have been longtime colleagues, a kind of frenemies who seem like throwbacks to an earlier era of Congress. They worked together on big legislation, including the 2013 immigration overhaul  grand ideas that seem all but impossible in todays Congress. They had plenty to discuss. About the Senate, about it working again, about working together, and about how this bill was so poor for the American people, Schumer said. And he knew that, so did half his colleagues, but he had the courage to vote no. The moment stunned the Senate when McCain stepped up to cast his vote  a single down-turned finger  dooming the healthcare bill. Audible gasps filled the galleries, which were packed with onlookers. But his vote  along with no votes from Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska  did more than shelve the long campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It cracked open a new divide in the Senate, which seems to be split not so much between Republicans and Democrats, but by those senators who want to work together versus those stuck in hardened partisan tribes. Read More Facebook

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U.S. hits Iran with more sanctions in response to satellite launch By Associated Press The United States is slapping Iran with new sanctions in response to its launch of a satellite-carrying rocket into space this week. The sanctions target six Iranian subsidiaries of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The Treasury Department says that group is central to Irans ballistic missile program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the sanctions illustrate deep U.S. concerns about Irans missile testing and other actions. He says the U.S. will continue countering Irans ballistic missile program, including Thursdays provocative space launch. The U.S. has said that launch flouted a U.N. Security Council resolution because the technology is inherently designed to be able to carry a nuclear payload. The sanctions come as the Trump administration continues debating its Iran policy and whether to scrap the 2015 multilateral deal that limits the development of Irans nuclear capabilities. Facebook

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Political betrayal. McCain vote against Obamacare repeal draws ire from conservative writers By Kurtis Lee (Cliff Owen / AP) Though John McCain was one of three Republicans who helped Democrats squash the legislation to repeal Obamacare, conservative media is homing in on the Arizona senator for spurning his party in the healthcare vote. Here are some of todays headlines: John McCain: Traitor to the conservative cause (Washington Times) McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, has been a staunch opponent of Obamacare, but in the end he could not support the so-called skinny repeal measure put forward by his colleagues in the Senate. In this piece, Cheryl K. Chumley, jabs McCain for his vote. For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House, Senate and White House to honor their years of repeal promises and actually, well, repeal Obamacare, McCains thumbs-down was a face-slap moment that will be remembered in history as a textbook classic case of political betrayal, she writes. McCains odd definition of leading the fight to stop Obamacare (National Review) This article is simple  its a quick compare-and-contrast of McCains recent comments versus his vote on Friday. Last year, during a tough reelection, McCains campaign ran a television ad that boasted the senator is leading the fight to stop Obamacare. But last night his office put out a statement noting the GOP Senate bill did not offer a replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The author of this piece, Jim Geraghty, concludes: Its very difficult to characterize McCains decision as leading the fight to stop Obamacare. Thats more like leading the fight to keep Obamacare in place while you continue to look for a replacement that you like better. John McCain burns Mitch McConnell sides with Democrats (American Spectator) When McConnell, the majority leader, stood on the Senate floor Friday after the bills failure, he was clearly annoyed. McCains no vote had led to applause moments earlier from Democrats. In a move thats no surprise to anyone, John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named Skinny Repeal, voted against his party (or is it his party?) and voted to keep Obamacare going as is, writes Melissa Mackenzie. Facebook

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Meet the two female GOP senators who opposed the healthcare bill from the start By Kelcey Caulder Sen. John McCain shocked Republicans and Democrats alike with his vote early Friday morning to kill the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare. But McCain was not the only Republican to play a role in blocking the final version of the overhaul bill. Two female Republican lawmakers, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also voted against the bill. Collins has opposed repeal and replace efforts from the beginning, and Murkowski has also been critical of much of what the Senate Republican leadership has proposed. Collins said it would be a big mistake for Republicans to pass legislation without trying seriously to work with Democrats to reach bipartisan solutions. Instead, she called for both parties to work together to improve the healthcare system. Murkowski and Collins were the first from their party to come out against repealing the ACA without having new, replacement legislation on the table. In statements posted on Twitter, Collins, who voted against the same proposal in 2015, said she did not think it was constructive to repeal the law without a replacement, while Murkowski encouraged senators from both sides of the aisle to work together to address healthcare issues. I will vote no on the motion to proceed to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. I voted against this same proposal in 2015. pic.twitter.com/Szuke5zYNL  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 18, 2017 My recent statement on the Senate Healthcare Process: pic.twitter.com/j19Ok1KwWw  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 18, 2017 The two senators were also the only Republicans to vote against opening debate on repeal of Obamacare earlier this week. Their opposition to Republican healthcare efforts has drawn a lot of criticism within the party, some of it expressed in vulgar, even violent terms. Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC: Somebody needs to go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass. A Texas congressman said the female senators narrowly avoided an Aaron Burr-style showdown with him. President Trump publicly rebuked Murkowski on Twitter for her vote. Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 Trump has not criticized Collins by name for her vote, but warned Tuesday at a rally in Ohio that any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict theyll have a lot of problems. Facebook

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The current Senate GOP effort to repeal Obamacare is dead. Now what? By Noam N. Levey (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The sudden collapse of the GOPs Senate campaign to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act does not mean the issue disappears. Significant problems and challenges remain, particularly for Obamacare insurance marketplaces. The defeat increases the odds that Congress will begin to look at a more limited approach to shore up the current law and stabilize markets. The GOPs repeal effort may return, but in the meantime heres a look at what a temporary fix might look like: Read More Facebook

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Paul Ryan responds to the failure of the GOP healthcare bill By Associated Press House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that hes disappointed and frustrated by the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate. But Ryan said in a statement that we should not give up after promising for years to repeal and replace Obamacare. We were sent to Washington to fulfill the pledges we made to our constituents, the statement said. While the House delivered a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, unfortunately the Senate was unable to reach a consensus. At the same time, the speaker said that overhauling the tax code is at the top of the Houses list of priorities. He pledged to pursue historic tax reform in the fall. He issued his statement as the House prepared to leave Washington for its annual August recess. The House passed legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in May. But after a failed vote early Friday in the Senate, its not clear if GOP leaders will be able to resuscitate the efforts. Facebook

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Economic growth rebounded to 2.6% annual rate in second quarter By Jim Puzzanghera The Port of Los Angeles (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. economy rebounded this spring after a weak winter, expanding at a solid 2.6% annual rate as consumers picked up their spending pace, the Commerce Department said Friday. Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, for the April-through-June period was in line with analyst expectations for a bounce-back based in part on pent-up demand. The economic growth rate was more than double the 1.2% pace in the first quarter. That figure was revised down Friday from an earlier estimate of 1.4%. After the winter blues, the economy has rebounded, said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Cal State Channel Islands. Read More Facebook

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Never mind healthcare. President Trump has made slogans great again By Mark Z. Barabak ( (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)) His promise to repeal and replace Obamacare has crashed and burned. Tax reform hasnt gotten far. The White House is in disarray, and big plans to rebuild the nations infrastructure have hit a brick wall. But there is one unimpeachable triumph President Trump can point to: Hes made great again great again. The Make America Great Again 2016 campaign slogan  limned in block letters and emblazoned on countless cherry-red ball caps  has been reimagined, repurposed and cheekily appropriated for countless pitches and commercial products. Apart from the now-familiar caps, mercantile options include aprons, beanies, beer cozys, coffee mugs, hoodies, leggings, swimsuits, T-shirts, water bottles and, for the special someone, Donald Trump Make America Great Again Womens Booty Shorts. But MAGA, as the president short-hands the phrase in Twitter posts, is also popping up in places having little or nothing to do with politics: on a catwalk at New Yorks Fashion Week, high in the sky promoting classical music in Phoenix, on the menu at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta. Read More Facebook

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If Adam Schiff is Californias next U.S. senator, he might want to thank President Trump By Mark Z. Barabak (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The road to elected office can be long and winding and is not always paved with the best of intentions. Some politicians  think of the Kennedys or the Bush family  are born to the trade. Others are borne by tragedy. Former Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps succeeded her husband when he died of a heart attack. Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was spurred to run when her husband was killed and her son gravely wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road. Typically, though, the ascension is more methodical, one rung after the next, often with a pinch of right-place, right-time fortune thrown in for good measure. Lately that bit of luck has visited itself on Adam B. Schiff, in the form of Russian meddling and a president who hurls tweets like poison thunderbolts. Read More Facebook

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Kris Kobach says Trumps voter fraud panel will keep voter data secure. Some states arent buying it By Kurtis Lee (Jessica McGowan / Getty Images) After weeks of legal battles and bipartisan pushback from top election officials nationwide, President Trumps voter fraud commission has renewed a message for the states: Its safe to pass along your data about voters. Individuals voter registration records will be kept confidential and secure throughout the duration of the commissions existence, Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the commission, wrote in a letter sent late Wednesday to all 50 secretaries of state. Even so, by Thursday, much of the criticism that greeted an earlier request from the commission was repeated by election officials and activists, who have expressed concerns about privacy and have called the panel both a sham created by an insecure president and a tool to suppress votes. Trump  without evidence  has repeatedly alleged that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes were cast in last years presidential election. (Trump prevailed in the electoral college, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes.) Read More Facebook

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President Trump said our guys are rougher than the violent gang MS-13. What did he mean? By Brian Bennett (SAUL LOEB / AFP ) When President Trump said this week his administration is going after bloodthirsty criminal gangs like the notoriously violent MS-13, he added a menacing flourish: Our guys are rougher than their guys. The comment raised concerns that Trump was instructing immigration agents to use excessive force when going after suspected gang members. Not so, Trumps top spokeswoman said on Thursday. I think the president means that our guys are going to do whatever it takes to protect Americans, protect American lives, protect our borders, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a question about what Trump meant by rougher. Trump wants people to do their jobs, not go beyond the scope of what they should do, Sanders said. Trumps comment came during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday night. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast, he said, boasting that his administration is liberating towns and cities from gangs. And, well, I will just tell you this, were not doing it in a politically correct fashion, Trump added. Were doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. Trumps comment was meant to boost morale among immigration officers looking to arrest and deport gang members, said one senior administration official, who would speak only without being identified to discuss the presidents thinking. As part of Trumps crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally, he has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to target a suspected gang member for deportation before that person has been convicted of a crime, said ICE director Thomas Homan. Homan joined Sanders at her daily briefing at the White House. The two spoke to preview the presidents Friday trip to Long Island, N.Y., where he will tout his administrations efforts against MS-13 and other gangs. For Trump, who grew up in Queens, recent headlines about MS-13 violence in central Long Island have hit close to home. In April, four young men were found hacked to death in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., a senior administration official told reporters Thursday night. He is a New Yorker and he knows New York, the administration official said. It is absolutely a personal issue. And he knows whats happening in New York -- and its not just Long Island -- is a tragedy and there are communities like that all across America. Facebook

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Boy Scouts chief apologizes for presidents political rhetoric at national Jamboree. Trump wont By Brian Bennett President Trump wont apologize for a surprisingly political speech this week to Boy Scouts that provoked a backlash for his attacks on his predecessor, his election rival, dissident Republicans and the news media. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered that word on Thursday, just after a top executive of the Boy Scouts of America issued an apology on behalf of the organization for allowing the political rhetoric to occur during Trumps address Monday evening at the National Scout Jamboree held in West Virginia. Michael Surbaugh, the organizations chief executive, in a statement extended his sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. He noted that the groups invitation to the president to speak was in keeping with a long-standing tradition since 1937; eight of 11 incumbent presidents have attended. But, Surbaugh wrote, we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program. At the White House, however, Sanders indicated that neither she nor Trump saw any reason to apologize, or considered his remarks in any way out of line. I was at that event and I saw nothing but roughly 40,000 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, Sanders said. I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them, she added. Sanders said she had not seen the statement from the Boy Scouts chief. During his rambling 38-minute speech to the Scouts in Glen Jean, W.Va., Trump criticized Hillary Clinton and President Obama and singled out congressional Republicans who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare. He got much applause and supportive chants from his audience, and even credited the Scouts -- who are too young to vote -- for being among the millions who elected him. But almost immediately, the Boy Scouts organization was inundated with protests from former Scouts, parents and others angered by the presidents partisan words. Facebook

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Trumps words kind of hurtful, Sessions says, but he has no plans to resign By Joseph Tanfani President Trumps scathing criticisms have been kind of hurtful, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday, even as he again signaled that he wants to stay on the job. He wants all of us to do our job, and thats what I intend to do, Sessions said in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Separately, Sessions told the Associated Press that it hasnt been my best week  for my relationship with the president. He made the comment in El Salvador, during a visit to highlight joint efforts to take on the MS-13 gang. The attorney general said he hadnt met with Trump but looked forward to talking to him about it. If he wants to make a change, he has every right, Sessions said. I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job. But, he said, I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda. The comments were the first this week on the subject from Sessions, who has been subjected to harshly critical tweets from Trump for three days. The president has called him weak and said he wasnt aggressive enough in going after leakers. Last week, after Trump criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview, Sessions told reporters he planned to stay on as long as it was appropriate. Sessions has seemed to redouble his attempts this week to win back the presidents favor. He announced another crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement and on Friday traveled to El Salvador to highlight arrests of MS-13 gang members, both favorite topics of the president. The Justice Department also plans to address leaks next week. Sessions said his department was stepping up leak investigations. Some people need to go to jail, he said. The president has every right to ask the DOJ to be more aggressive on that, and we intend to. On Wednesday evening, after Anthony Scaramucci , Trumps incoming communications director, falsely claimed in a tweet that hed been the victim of a leak, Sessions chief spokeswoman released a statement agreeing that leaks are undermining the government and promising to aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead. Trump has made it clear that he is most angry with Sessions for recusing himself from supervising the ongoing investigation into his administrations ties with Russia. But Sessions defended that decision. I understand his feeling about it because this has been a big distraction for him, he said on Fox. Im confident I made the right decision, the decision thats consistent with the rule of law, and an attorney general who doesnt follow the law is not very effective at leading the Department of Justice, he said. In the interview, Sessions reached back to Trumps campaign slogan to praise the president as a strong leader. He is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again, he said. Sessions has received considerable support in recent days from conservative Republicans, including many of his former Senate colleagues. On Thursday, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) went to the Senate floor to discourage Trump from moving against Sessions, saying that the Senate would not allow the president to make a recess appointment that would bypass the normal confirmation process. A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint a person who could serve without confirmation until the start of 2019. Such appointments can only be made if the Senate formally takes a break, which senators of both parties have said they will avoid in order to prevent Trump from avoiding confirmations. If youre thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it, Sasse said. The presidency isnt a bull, and this country isnt a china shop. 1:55 p.m.: This post was updated with additional remarks by Sessions and remarks by Sen. Ben Sasse. 5:50: This post was updated with additional quotes from Sessions interview. Facebook

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For Trump White House, cable television becomes the venue for intramural sniping By Noah Bierman President Trump and his aides love to complain about leaks from within the White House. But on Thursday, the infighting was out in the open. The incoming communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, in a morning phone call broadcast on CNN, compared the West Wing to a fish that stinks from the head down, implying that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is responsible for at least some of the leaks. Later, Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to come to Priebuss defense and say whether Trump has full confidence in his chief of staff. Another Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway, used a prison analogy for the broader backstabbing among aides, telling Fox News that her West Wing colleagues were using the press to shiv each other. While the knifings might suggest a new level of chaos in a White House known for it, the style is all Trump. As a businessman, he has a history of fostering rivalries among his employees. He always did sort of like competition, backstabbing, infighting kind of stuff, said Barbara Res, who spent nearly two decades as a top executive in Trumps real estate business. He set people up to do that. Trump led the charge this week, using his Twitter account and an interview with the Wall Street Journal to ridicule his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps first and most prominent campaign supporters. By Thursday, both Priebus and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were seeing their fates publicly debated, less than a week after Sean Spicer was forced out as press secretary after months of speculation and presidential slights. The Priebus intrigue was amplified by Scaramucci on Twitter and in the CNN interview. He blamed Priebus for leaking Scaramuccis personal financial disclosure forms -- which are publicly available -- and suggested that Trump encouraged Scaramuccis offensive in a phone conversation the two men had just before the aide dialed into CNN. When Sanders was asked about the Scaramucci-Priebus dustup, she said that the president likes healthy competition on his staff. The president likes that kind of competition and encourages it, Sanders said. The result is a White House that increasingly suggests the presidents former way of life. As the star of a reality TV show, he fomented internal competition and firings among apprentices; their cable television appearances, meanwhile, recall the confessionals familiar to reality show fans, in which characters confide directly to the camera their anger or enmity toward others on the show. The primary attribute for a successful tenure in the Trump White House is masochism, tweeted Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican operative and Trump critic. The repeated evidence of dysfunction and the high level of insecurity among Trumps core aides help explain the White Houses inability to focus on its agenda. Trumps critics voiced suspicions on Twitter that the public staff blow-up was a deliberate distraction from the struggle in Congress to pass a healthcare bill, as well as from the ongoing investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia and the backlash to Trumps surprise Twitter announcement on Wednesday that transgender people will be barred from military service. But those issues also were being heavily covered on cable news. The stories that were overshadowed were those Trump was trying to promote: a deal his administration helped strike with Foxconn to build a production facility in Wisconsin, possibly creating thousands of new jobs, and nascent efforts to craft a tax overhaul plan. Facebook

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Democrats criticize financial industry backgrounds of two Trump bank regulator nominees By Jim Puzzanghera Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Senate Democrats on Thursday criticized the financial industry backgrounds of President Trumps nominees for two key banking regulatory positions, arguing they would not protect the interests of average Americans. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others sharply questioned Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of Pasadenas OneWest Bank, and investment fund manager Randal Quarles during a confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. Trump nominated Otting to be the comptroller of the currency, a powerful regulator of national banks. Quarles has been tapped to be the Federal Reserves vice chairman for supervision, who is in charge of the Feds oversight of the nations largest bank holding companies and other regulatory efforts. The two are expected to be friendlier to the banking industry than recent Democratic appointees. Read More Facebook

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Senator warns Trump there will be holy hell to pay if he fires Sessions By Joseph Tanfani A prominent Republican Senator issued a blunt warning to President Trump not to interfere with the Russia investigation, saying any effort to get rid of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that there will be holy hell to pay if Trump fires Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a favorite of conservatives who represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years. Grahams warning was the sternest yet from Senate Republicans to Trump about the potential consequences of firing either Sessions or Mueller. The chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa), issued his own warning in a tweet Wednesday night, saying his committee would not take up a nomination of a replacement attorney general this year, which is required before the Senate can vote to confirm. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Starting with an interview in the New York Times last week and continuing with a three-day barrage of critical tweets, Trump has raged at Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from supervising the investigation into the Russian attempts to influence the election, and into whether anybody involved in Trumps campaign participated in the scheme. Trump also has bitterly complained about Mueller, whom he has accused of leading a witch hunt, and Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and who is now supervising the probe. Justice Department regulations say that only the attorney general, or in this case Rosenstein acting in his place, can fire the special counsel. If Sessions were gone, Trump could try to appoint a replacement willing to carry out the firing. Graham said he will introduce a bill next week that would require court review if anyone tried to fire a special counsel who was investigating the president. I think Ill get all the Democrats and I hope to get a good number of Republicans, he said, adding that the enacting such a law is not just for Trump but for any future president. We need a check and balance here. Graham said Trumps campaign to marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate or among conservatives. He also said Trump, who has called on Sessions to investigate his former rival Hillary Clinton, has gone way beyond what is acceptable in a rule of law nation. This is not draining the swamp, he said. What hes interjecting is turning democracy upside down..taking 200-year-old concepts that were a nation of laws and not men and trying to turn it upside down. Sen. Graham: "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency." https://t.co/6Pd60LrGRU pic.twitter.com/EXBOwBC35C  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Watch live: White House news briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Facebook

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Trump administration threatens to retaliate against Alaska for GOP senators Obamacare repeal vote, news site reports By Noam N. Levey The Trump administration threatened to block federal aid to Alaska in an effort to bully one of the Republican senators opposed to the current Senate GOP push to roll back the Affordable Care Act, according to a report by the Alaska Dispatch News. The news site reports that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday called Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan with a warning that Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. According to the report: Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a troubling message. Im not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop, Sullivan said. I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans.  Were facing some difficult times and theres a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear, Sullivan said. The threat followed disparaging comments made by the president about Murkowski, including a Twitter attack Wednesday morning Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote. Murkowski dismissed the presidents attacks in an interview with MSNBC. Were here to govern. Were here to legislate, she said. Were here to represent the people who sent us here. And so every day shouldnt be about campaigning. Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here? Thats what Im here for. Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins were the only Republicans who voted against a procedural motion Tuesday to begin debating legislation rolling back the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare. Sullivan, also a Republican, voted in favor of advancing the bill. Murkowski has urged a more open process to develop the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has put together behind closed doors without committee hearings or input from Democrats. A spokeswoman for Zinke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook

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Iran angered by report that Trump wants additional nuclear inspections By Shashank Bengali Iran responded angrily Thursday to reports that the Trump administration would push for inspections of military facilities to ensure Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran will not succumb to further pressure, Hamid Reza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst who is close to Irans leadership, told The Times. Taraghi did not say whether Iran would refuse inspectors access to military facilities but insisted the Islamic Republic was complying with the agreement, which required Iran to shelve its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump has said he wants to tear up the deal and doesnt believe Iran is complying, although his administration certified it was in a report to Congress this month. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Trump was pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites, either to prove that Iran was violating the deal or force it to refuse, which could cause the agreement to collapse. Iranian officials have argued in the past that inspections of military sites would be off-limits. But under the agreement it signed with the United States and five other world powers, Iran agreed to the so-called Additional Protocol, which allows U.N. inspectors limited access to any site where illicit nuclear activity is suspected. Taraghi, a former lawmaker, said the Additional Protocol allowed for snap inspections and that international inspectors had installed closed-circuit cameras in all nuclear-related facilities. They have access to everything going on here on the ground, Taraghi said. What else do they want to know? It was not immediately clear what military sites the Trump administration was seeking to have inspected, or whether it had evidence that Iran was breaching the terms of the deal. U.N. inspectors monitoring Irans compliance had not requested access to military facilities as of July 25, according to a paper published Thursday by Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. If US has good evidence of #Iran violations, then an inspection request is warranted, Fitzpatrick tweeted. A request designed to trap Iran into saying no isnt. Facebook

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Top U.S. general says Pentagon will not change policy on transgender troops until White House acts By W.J. Hennigan The nations senior military officer said Thursday that there will be no modifications to Pentagon policies for now despite President Trump social media posts declaring a ban on transgender troops in uniform. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a memo to commanders and senior enlisted leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that the military will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. Dunford said Pentagon policy on transgender troops would not change until the White House has issued Trumps directive to Secretary of Defense James Mattis through formal channels  not on Twitter  and the secretarys office issues guidance on implementation to the service chiefs. Its unclear when that might happen. The unusual memo appeared intended to calm widespread confusion and concern at the Pentagon, which was blindsided when Trump wrote Wednesday that Pentagon would not accept or allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity. The presidents posts appeared to reverse a year-old Pentagon policy that allowed transgender soldiers to openly serve for the first time, and to seek sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other treatments at military hospitals. Trumps surprise announcement not only marked a retreat for the Pentagon push to bar gender-based discrimination. It also was an about-face for Trump, who had repeatedly vowed his support for the LGBT community during the campaign last year. The posts raised questions about the fate of thousands of transgender service members, including some deployed overseas, and whether they would be kicked out of the military under Trumps directive. Dunfords memo appeared to address those fears, at least for the short term. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance, he wrote. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, he added. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions. In his tweets, Trump said he had decided to bar transgender troops because the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Experts said neither justification was accurate or fair since the expected medical costs were negligible and transgender troops have been openly serving for the past year without disruption. The sweeping declaration drew rebuke from war veterans and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, who vowed to challenge Trump in federal court if self-identified transgender service members are forced out of the military. VoteVets, a liberal military veterans advocacy group, said Thursday it had collected more than 20,000 signatures from veterans, military families and other supporters to oppose the ban. Facebook

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Analysis: Trumps war against elites and expertise By Cathleen Decker (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) When President Trump campaigned this spring at the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, one part of his predecessors approach got a special endorsement. It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar? Trump asked to laughs from his audience. When Trump ally and National Rifle Assn. President Wayne LaPierre teed off six weeks later on Americas greatest domestic threats, he cited not homegrown terrorists but what he termed the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites. The rhetoric against elites came from two men who would seem to be card-carrying members of the club: LaPierre made more than $5 million in 2015, the most recent year for which his compensation was publicly released. Trump lived before his inauguration in a gold-plated home in the sky above New Yorks Fifth Avenue, a billionaires luxurious domain. Yet for Trump and his allies, a war on elites has been central to the campaign which put him in the presidency and has maintained the loyalty of his core voters. Trump has taken particular aim at entities that could counter his power, which has helped stoke the ardor of his political backers. Read More Facebook

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Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway says colleagues using the press to shiv each other By Noah Bierman White House staffers continued their angry campaign against leaks -- and each other -- as top advisor Kellyanne Conway used vivid language in a Fox interview Thursday to denounce colleagues who are using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. The comments came shortly after Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, delivered his own attack on leakers -- all but blaming Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff -- in an interview on CNN. If the Trump White House at times resembles a reality show, cable television has become the confessional booth where the players vent their anger at each other. That dynamic was on vivid display Thursday morning. Kellyanne Conway: "Now, there are leaks, and then there are people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. Thats different." (Fox)  David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) July 27, 2017 Conway largely backed Scaramucci without explicitly taking sides in his public war against Priebus, whom he publicly suggested leaked Scaramuccis financial disclosure forms to the press. The forms are public and available through a request. We just have to cut down on people thinking its cute and its popular and it somehow enhances their resume and their portfolio for later on to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here, Conway said of those who leak to he press. Asked specifically whether she agrees with Scaramucci that Priebus leaked the financial forms, Conway passed on the opportunity to defend Priebus. Leakers are easier to figure out than many think, she said, perhaps ominously given Scaramuccis threats to fire suspects. This West Wing is a very small place. Facebook

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Warfare in the West Wing breaks into the open as Scaramucci takes aim at Priebus By Brian Bennett A knife fight for control of the West Wing broke into the open Thursday morning as President Trumps new communications director Anthony Scaramucci lashed out at White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in a televised interview, accusing Priebus of leaking and standing in the way of Trumps agenda. The fish stinks from the head down, I can tell you two fish that dont stink, OK, and thats me and the president, Scaramucci said, calling in to CNNs morning show New Day. I dont like the activity thats going in the White House, he said. Scaramucci, who had said the day he was named to the White House job that he and Priebus were like brothers, drastically amended that in the interview, comparing the two of them to the brothers who, in the Bible, were the characters in the first murder. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not  that will be up to the president, he said. Scaramucci on his relationship with Reince: "Some brothers are like Cain and Abel." Uh, Cain killed Abel. https://t.co/UQ8F9HiXLx  Dan Merica (@merica) July 27, 2017 President Trump has a track record of encouraging rivalries among people who work for him. Scaramucci said he had spoken with Trump for 15 minutes to go over what he was going to say before he called CNN, implying his warning to Priebus carried Trumps backing. Trump, Scaramucci said, has given me his full support and his full blessing. When Scaramucci was hired, Trump told him he would report directly to the president, bypassing the chief of staff, and setting up the clash that played out Thursday on national television. If you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. When I said we were brothers from the podium, thats because were rough on each other, Scaramucci said. The tension between Scaramucci and Priebus flared after Politico published a story Wednesday about Scaramuccis publicly available financial disclosure form showing he still stands to profit from his stake in an investment firm he founded. The disclosure form was available to the public because Scaramucci had been nominated earlier this year for a job at the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., and the forms become public 30 days after they are filed. But Scaramucci, in a tweet Wednesday night, seemed to imply Priebus had leaked the form to make him look bad, or knew who did, and called for an FBI investigation. He later deleted the tweet, apparently after being informed that the form was not leaked. Over the last five days, Scaramucci said to CNN, he has done a major amount of work interviewing assistants to the president and communications staff. He also had dinner with Trump on Wednesday night in addition to his phone conversation with the president Thursday morning. The two of them want everyone to know we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are, in the White House, he said. Scaramucci took aim specifically at Priebus for leaking details about internal White House discussions and maneuvers. If Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, let him do that, Scaramucci said. Scaramucci appears to be giving voice to Trumps frustration with people in the White House the president believes are slowing down policy efforts, even though Trump has shown a pattern of repeatedly stepping on his own efforts on healthcare, job creation and other initiatives with unplanned tweets on topics such as Russia, transgender troops and unfounded allegations of voter fraud. There are people inside this administration who think its their job to save America from this president, Scaramucci said. Its not their jobs ... to rein him in or do things to him that slow down his agenda. People in the Washington are back-stabbers, Scaramucci said. Im more of a front-stabbing person. Facebook

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Scaramucci tweets, then deletes, confusing statement that referred to information in Politico report as a leak By Colleen Shalby In a now deleted tweet, incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci sent out a confusing statement Wednesday night, addressing information reported earlier by Politico as a leak. The article reported on Scaramuccis financial disclosures. According to Politico, those details had been filed with the Office of Government Ethics, so its unclear what  if anything  was leaked information. Scaramuccis tweet further confused as it ended with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Twitter handle. Just before those characters, he noted that he intended to contact the FBI and the Justice Department. Some speculated that Scaramucci was implying that Priebus was behind the leak. But in a new tweet roughly two hours after the original, he tweeted what appeared to be a clarification, correcting a headline of news site Axios. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks, he tweeted, ending it  once again  with Priebus handle. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017 Five days ago, Scaramucci, responding to a question about reported tensions between him and the chief of staff, said he and Priebus are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up a little, which is totally normal for brothers. 10:15 p.m. PT: This post was originally published at 8:52 p.m. It was updated with information from Scaramuccis new tweet. Facebook

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Senate Judiciary chair fires off warning to Trump about Sessions By David Lauter Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fired off an unmistakable warning to President Trump on Wednesday evening: Dont even think about trying to get a new attorney general confirmed this year. Trump has been publicly tormenting Jeff Sessions, appearing to want to push the attorney general into stepping down from his job. But in a tweet, Grassley made it clear that if Trump pushed Sessions out, he would have to live with an acting attorney general for a long time. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Any nominee for attorney general would have to pass through the Judiciary Committee before getting a confirmation vote, so Grassleys no way would be a formidable barrier. Grassley has been an administration loyalist on nearly all issues so far, but as a veteran senator, he has a strong independent streak and, as previous administrations have found, he can be implacable if angered. His message comes as conservative allies rally support for Sessions. Several other Republican senators have spoken out in favor of the attorney general, a former colleague who was well liked during his years as senator from Alabama. Senate Democrats already have said they would use procedural motions to prevent the Senate from formally going on a recess this summer, blocking Trump from making a recess appointment that would bypass the Senate. Republicans used similar maneuvers to block recess appointments by President Obama. If Sessions were to step down and not be replaced, Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein as well as Sessions, so that option presumably would not appeal to him. Facebook

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Under fire from Trump, Sessions should stay focused on his job, White House says By Joseph Tanfani (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) In spite of a daily barrage of Twitter attacks from President Trump, the White House press secretary said Wednesday that Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions should stay focused on performing his duties as the nations top law enforcement officer. You can be disappointed in someone and still want someone to continue to do their job, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, hours after Trump criticized Sessions for the third straight day  this time for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Sessions was one of Trumps earliest and most loyal supporters, but the relationship has turned icy as Trump continues to seethe about Sessions decision to step aside from supervising the investigation into alleged Russian interference with last years election. Sessions was at the White House for meetings Wednesday, the second time this week hes visited the West Wing, but once again did not see Trump, Sanders said. Sanders did not clear up the main question surrounding Trumps strategy of publicly battering the attorney general: If the president is so unhappy, why doesnt he simply fire Sessions? Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that Trumps apparent attempt to humiliate Sessions into quitting was a sign of weakness. To me, weakness is when you play around the edges, and you dont use the power you have, Graham said in an interview on CNN. Sanders said that Trump wants Sessions to continue to lead the Department of Justice. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues, she said. One of Trumps public complaints has been that Sessions hasnt been aggressive enough in pursuing leakers of classified information. In fact, the Justice Department is expected to announce next week some leak prosecutions. On Tuesday, Sessions also announced new measures to cut off some federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement, another favorite issue for the president. But Sanders added that, at this point, a leak investigation would not salvage Sessions standing with Trump. I dont think thats the nature of the relationship, she said. In two tweets Wednesday morning, Trump criticized Sessions for not replacing McCabe, whose wife ran for office as a Democrat in Virginia in 2015. He suggested that McCabe had a conflict of interest in his duties as deputy director of the FBI during the investigation of Hillary Clintons handling of classified emails as secretary of State, although McCabe did not move into that job until months after his wifes campaign was over. McCabe took over the bureau as acting director when Trump fired James B. Comey in May. Sanders also declined to answer a question on why Trump did not fire McCabe himself, saying only that Trump looked forward to seeing his nominee as FBI director, Christopher Wray, be confirmed by the Senate soon. Facebook

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Trump, on Twitter, announced a ban on transgender service members. Now the military has to figure out what he means By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump surprised even the Pentagon on Wednesday morning by his unexpected announcement, via Twitter, of a ban on transgender service members. The military has not had a chance to decide how to put such a ban into effect, acknowledged Trumps top spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as she fielded numerous questions on the topic later from White House reporters. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was on vacation, wasnt informed until Tuesday that Trump had decided to bar transgender service members from serving in any way. Sometimes you have to make a decision and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, Sanders said. The president concluded, based on consultations with his national security team, that allowing transgender individuals to serve erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, she said. White House and Pentagon officials had been discussing details of medical coverage for transgender service members on active duty. But Trump went far beyond that with his series of tweets that the military will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the military. It will be up to the Defense Department to determine the specifics of the policy, including whether active-duty transgender service members will be kicked out of the military, Sanders said. Estimates of the number of current service members who are transgender range from 1,300 to about 16,000. The implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and Department of Defense will have to work together to lawfully determine, Sanders said. I would imagine the Department of Defense will be the lead on that, she added. Trumps tweets overshadowed other announcements he had planned to make Wednesday about adding manufacturing jobs to the economy and donating $100,000 of his second-quarter paycheck to the Department of Education to support science and math education. The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, Sanders said. She added that the president considered allowing transgender people in the ranks is a very expensive and disruptive policy. At one point, an exasp
The Burbank Community YMCA hosted tours Wednesday and Thursday at two local schools to showcase its day camp offered for children during the summer.

The YMCAs Learn Grow Thrive Day Camp is held in collaboration with the Burbank Unified School District and provides lessons about vocabulary, spelling, reading, writing and math by credentialed teachers in the district as well as activities such as singing, outdoor camps, swimming and field trips provided by the YMCA.

The camp, which has been offered the past four years, continues to see an increase in enrollment and interest, said Romie Ruiz, the local YMCAs director of mission advancement.

The program also aims to close the achievement gap during the summer when most students dont attend school, she added.

For more information, visit burbankymca.org/camp.php or call (818) 562-5461.

priscella.vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella
Police are trying to find out who vandalized more than a half-dozen homes in Newport Beach with graffiti that included a profane assessment of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Neighbors woke up Thursday morning to find two garage doors bearing the words "[Expletive] Trump and "[Expletive] the system sprayed in large letters with white paint.

In all, eight houses or apartments in an affluent neighborhood near China Cove in Corona del Mar were spray-painted, police said.

Some city signs also were vandalized, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said.

Most of the graffiti didnt carry a political message, according to police.

Residents discovered the vandalism around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, and police began taking stock of the damage and contacting homeowners, Manzella said.

The message lashing out at Trump led some residents to believe that the neighborhood of multimillion-dollar homes was targeted because of its wealth.

I was just thinking it was the association of somebody with money, said one woman who lives nearby and asked not to be identified for fear of being targeted.

Authorities said Thursday that they had no suspects or an estimate of the damage.

At least two residents told police the graffiti must have appeared sometime after 8 p.m. Wednesday, after they arrived home for the night.

Manzella said investigators havent found any witnesses to the crime and are looking for surveillance footage or other leads.
A 28-year-old man known as the masked thrill-seeker 8booth, notorious for videos of his death-defying leaps off buildings and cliffs in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, was sentenced Friday to probation, community service and a day in Orange County Jail after pleading guilty to four misdemeanors.

Anthony Booth Armer of Laguna Niguel pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of unauthorized entry of a dwelling and two counts of trespassing with intent to interfere with business, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

Judge Brett London immediately sentenced Armer to three years informal probation, 100 hours of community service and one day in jail.

Armer, known as 8Booth on YouTube, has jumped from private rooftops, hotels and cliffs into the ocean and swimming pools. 8Booths videos show him leaping from cliffs above Crystal Cove State Park and the Montage Laguna Beach resort, from hotels in Laguna Beach and off the roofs or railings of beachfront homes.

He often wore a bandana over his mouth, along with sunglasses.

The charges against Armer are related to a Newport Harbor leap and three jumps in Laguna Beach.

Authorities said Armer climbed over a retaining wall onto the property of a residence near Table Rock Beach in Laguna Beach on July 21, 2016, climbed onto the roof and leaped into the ocean, authorities said.

The Laguna Beach Police Department investigated the incident after a video of it gained media attention, and the homeowner confirmed that Armer did not have permission to access the property, authorities said.

On Sept. 29, authorities said, Armer climbed over a wall to get into the employee-only areas of Laguna Beachs Surf & Sand Resort before jumping from the fifth floor of the hotel into the pool. Employees reported that incident to Laguna Beach police.

On Oct. 14, Armer posted a video of himself leaping from the top of the eight-story Newport Towers apartment building into Newport Harbor, narrowly missing a dock, authorities said. Newport Towers security reported the incident to police.

Police said detectives identified Armer as the man in the videos through interviews with homeowners and other witnesses. Laguna Beach police arrested him in October and he was released on $500 bond several days later.

But he wasnt through with the thrill of the jump, authorities said.

On Dec. 28, Armer suffered severe injuries to his feet after jumping off a ledge into the pool at the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach. A YouTube post shows him landing on the edge of the pool, falling into the water and then climbing out. He crawled toward a nearby gate, which another person opened for him.

Armer wrote on his YouTube account in May that he hadnt been able to walk since the incident.

Its a challenge to get down stairs, let alone get to the toilet with an injury like mine, which consist of two (basically shattered) feet from a pool drop I did in Laguna and missed the pool, he wrote.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
A World War II-era aircraft took off from John Wayne Airport on Friday as part of its quest to become the oldest airplane to circle the globe.

The Douglas DC-3 HB-IRJ, built in 1940, is going for the feat under the sponsorship of Swiss watchmaker Breitling, which also puts on the Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow.

The twin-engine airplane was in Van Nuys on Thursday and the Bay Area earlier this week. It was scheduled to depart Orange County for Page, Ariz., and continue flying over the United States, Greenland, Iceland and eventually finish its trek in Switzerland in September.

Breitlings DC-3 is carrying 500 limited-edition watches on the worldwide journey. The Navitimer models wont be available until the fall. Theyre priced at $8,950.

The world tour began in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 9  77 years to the day that the plane, then called the Flagship Cleveland, took its maiden flight.

From Switzerland it flew east, with stops throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Its longest nonstop leg was a 10-hour flight from Japan to Shemya Island, part of Alaskas Aleutian Islands. After stops throughout Alaska, the plane flew south to Seattle and Oregon. Its scheduled to have a total of 55 destinations in 28 countries, taking about 220 hours of flight time.

The DC-3 has been modified to have fewer passenger seats than its original design so it can hold extra fuel for the long trips, said its Swiss captain, Francisco Agullo. It also has upgraded communication and navigation systems, though its engine, propellers and wings are original. It has no autopilot.

As part of its tour stop Friday outside the Lyon Air Museum, Breitling invited media and other guests for a short flight that left JWA at around 10:30 a.m. and circled around south Orange County before returning to the airport.

Agullo noted how he and his co-pilot, Paul Bazeley, flew about 1,000 feet off the ground during the flight, which enabled passengers to see details like people walking on the sidewalk. The takeoff and landing from JWA were unique, Agullo said, because JWA closely incorporates both commercial airliners and general aviation in its everyday operation.

Agullo said he didnt have a favorite stop yet on the tour.

All the places have been special, he said. He added, however, that Thursdays passing over Santa Monica was noteworthy because its where the DC-3 was built in 1940.

Breitlings DC-3 was first used by American Airlines. It went into service for the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1944, carrying troops from the East Coast to Europe. It was used commercially after the war for trips including flights from Florida to the Bahamas.

It was restored in 1995 and 2008. At 77 years, it has some 74,500 flight hours under its wings.

Agullo said DC-3s were very influential in the history of aviation, particularly as profitable, comfortable and reliable aircraft in the early years of commercial flights. About 16,000 were built.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
Proponents of building a new Chick-fil-A on the Costa Mesa property that long housed the Grant Boys outdoor-gear store will take their case to the City Council on Tuesday.

Council members are scheduled to decide whether to uphold a Planning Commission decision to deny the project  which would entail building a 1,999-square-foot fast-food restaurant at 1750 Newport Blvd. in the citys downtown area.

The proposed restaurant would have drive-through and walk-up service but no interior seating. Existing structures on the site would be demolished.

Planning commissioners unanimously rejected the proposal April 10, citing concerns with how a drive-through restaurant could hinder traffic flow in the area.

As proposed, vehicles would enter the site from Rochester Street  a two-lane road  and exit onto Newport Boulevard.

Commissioners raised issues with that plan, saying cars could stack up on the property while drivers wait for a chance to turn onto busy Newport.

Commissioners and city staff members also were concerned that traffic could back up onto Rochester during peak periods.

In an April 14 appeal to the city, project consultant Ed Hale wrote that there is no supportable evidence or justification for the Planning Commissions rejection of the proposed development.

During the commissions hearing on the project, Hale said the restaurant was designed so customers could quickly and efficiently enter and leave the property.

We believe that the numbers, the hard data, support our proposal and alleviate the nebulous concerns that have been presented by the staff, he said.

In the appeal, he added that the development will provide substantial benefits to the city and community both in terms of the quality and character of the service provided, as well as jobs created.

The property has been empty since Grant Boys closed in 2015.

Denying the project would leave the current building vacant, deteriorating and subject to vandalism, the appeal states.

Tuesdays council meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

Lions Park

Council members also will consider awarding a $28.7-million construction contract to Lake Elsinore-based Tovey/Shultz Construction Inc. for projects at Lions Park.

The bid was the lowest the city received, though it came in about 4.6% higher than the city engineers estimate for the projects.

This increase can be attributed to the competitive construction market, a city staff report states.

Planned Lions Park projects include a new 22,860-square-foot library and demolishing the Neighborhood Community Center and converting the existing Donald Dungan Library branch to a community center to replace it.

Small lots

Also on Tuesday, council members will discuss the possibility of establishing a moratorium on projects processed under the citys small-lot ordinance, which eases development standards for proposed developments of 15 or fewer detached homes in areas zoned for multifamily units.

Should the council decide to move forward with that, staff would compile the background information, conduct appropriate research, including legal research, present options and prepare a draft moratorium ordinance to halt further small-lot projects, according to a staff report.

The council is already scheduled to hold a study session with the Planning Commission on Sept. 12 to examine small-lot regulations.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoney
A new study co-written by a UC Irvine business professor has found no correlation between the closure of marijuana dispensaries and reduced crime rates near them.

Rather, it discovered the opposite.

The paper, written by UCIs Mireille Jacobson and USC professor Tom Y. Chang, studied the sudden closures of dispensaries in Los Angeles in 2010. The writers found immediate crime increases  particularly property crime  near the dispensaries forced to close relative to the ones allowed to remain open.

As a comparative measure, Jacobson and Chang also studied the forced temporary closure of restaurants due to health code violations. They found similar crime increases when those types of business stopped operations.

The study examined 597 dispensaries within L.A. city limits. Crime data from the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Pilots parent, was used in the study. The paper included data from 888 restaurants closures in 2010.

Jacobson and Chang attribute the crime upticks to fewer eyes upon the street, noting that when the dispensaries and restaurants closed, it caused fewer people to go to those areas, which in turn likely became more attractive to criminals who could commit crimes there without being seen by bystanders.

In an interview, Jacobson said the study could help disprove the popular belief that marijuana dispensaries contribute to crime in neighborhoods.

She noted that her works suggestions are particularly timely considering recreational marijuana will be legal in California in 2018.

I think jurisdictions are just going to have to get over the fear of having dispensaries, Jacobson said. Theyre here and were going to have to deal with them.

Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley have various levels of marijuana bans.

A voter-approved measure last year in Costa Mesa, however, is changing the pot scene in the City of the Arts.

Costa Mesa doesnt permit cultivation or retail sales, but under a measure approved last year, a business area north of the 405 Freeway and west of Harbor Boulevard became zoned for wholesale medical marijuana distribution, manufacturing, processing and transporting, according to the citys website. Its also allowed to contain research and testing laboratories.

Lagunas City Council reinforced its stance against marijuana of any kind with an ordinance adopted earlier this year. Laguna voters also rejected a proposal last fall that would have reversed the citys ban on medical marijuana dispensaries and allowed two of them.

Huntington Beachs Planning Commission is scheduled to review a ban on nonmedical marijuana commercial businesses July 25.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
For more than a week, 13-year-old Majed Ali and his family had played a deadly game in what had become the killing grounds of Mosuls Old City quarter.

We moved to four different houses, and every time the planes hit us, said Ali, his outsized brown eyes wide with excitement as he described how he, his mother, two brothers and sister had barely escaped the bare-knuckled melee between Iraqi government forces and the jihadis of Islamic State.

The last strike Ali survived, on Wednesday morning, had collapsed the roof with the family bunkered in the basement. We were coughing and choking from the smoke and the debris, he said.

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Ali recounted the last push to recapture Mosul while huddled with dozens of other civilians who had been evacuated by bus to a makeshift registration center set up in an abandoned amusement park. As the women and children shuffled inside a tent in the shadow of a rusty Ferris wheel, volunteer doctors and nurses from the provincial governments health department scrambled to treat them.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi declared all-out victory in Mosul early last week, but clashes have continued, with the militants squeezed into a thin line of territory along the Tigris River.

Still, the militarys advance was the opening hundreds of families needed to escape. At the registration center, the evacuees described the deaths of loved ones, desperate attempts to escape and daring rescues.

Ali said his family was trapped in the basement until the military arrived.

We heard soldiers removing the wreckage, and then a bulldozer helped clear the way. We just ran to them, he said.

At the former amusement park, evacuees received medical aid, often for dehydration, while also being investigated for Islamic State links. An area to the side of a rink where children used to ride in green-and-purple bumper cars was now used as a screening area for the men, who sat glumly on straw.

The faces of evacuees often bore the slashes left by shrapnel, or sported dirty bandages tinged crimson with dried blood.

Its fear, always fear. Theres no such thing as not being afraid in there, said Abeer Wissam, a young woman who was finally evacuated when she and other members of her family reached the riverfront and got the attention of security forces nearby.

Iraqi children wait to be relocated after fleeing the fighting between government forces and Islamic State jihadists in the Old City of Mosul. (Fadel Senna / AFP/Getty Images)

Another woman, Mohjah Mahmoud, recounted how she and two sisters along with seven children had repeatedly tried to reach the riverfront all week, but were stopped every time by a heavy barrage.

When they finally made it Wednesday, army snipers on the other side of the river almost shot them, she said, before it became clear they were refugees and security forces reached them.

We were running over bodies. We saw kids dead in the streets, she said, her face spotted with dirt.

Some refugees appeared desiccated from lack of water and food. All were exhausted, their ragged clothes streaked with dirt and white rings of dried sweat.

Amer Ibrahim was among the doctors examining them.

My job is to give the refugees a checkup when they come here. The biggest issues are dehydration and malnutrition, but theyre also suffering from scabies, said Ibrahim, who brandished a color-coded tape. He expertly wrapped the tape above the elbow of a crying baby girl cradled by her mother.

The measurements should be green, but most of what we get here is yellow and red  medium and acute malnutrition.

Soon he and his team were in the tent handing out packets of high-energy snacks and coaxing ampules of vitamins into babies mouths.

Those inside the tent seemed dazed, anxiously inquiring if anyone had seen a family member, or asking for some way to contact a relative to come collect them. Children wailed themselves to sleep, even as some mothers, their energy all but depleted, lay down on the rough mats for a moments rest.

Back in the Old City, the skirmishes had left only 50 square yards of devastated buildings in the hands of the militants. Over the last week, the militants had released numerous videos on official Islamic State channels vowing that, though they were overburdened with wounds, they would fight until the last breath.

Samaher Saddam cleans the entrance of her damaged house in the west side of Mosul, Iraq. (Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

Their corpses, left inside houses or at the sides of the narrow passageways, showed they had done just that.

The body of one militant, his head and left hand swathed in bandages, lay on a ravaged stairway with a suicide belt still wrapped around the torso. He had been killed, soldiers nearby said, when he was charging at the incoming troops.

The other day we killed one Daesh guy with an amputated hand, said 1st Lt. Mohammad Saheb in an interview at the frontline, using an Arab term for Islamic State.

He was wounded too, shot in his side. But he still kept coming.

On Thursday, the militants had been cornered into a small number of destroyed buildings at the very edge of the river, as the 16th Army Divisions units sprayed their positions with 50-caliber machine guns from a nearby hill.

But the bullets had little effect; with all structures leveled, the fighting had shifted to the warren of tunnels the militants had dug beneath the surface.

Theyre like worms. They die and others show up. If the planes cant strike the tunnel, theyll keep on coming out, said Ahmad Idris, a dust-covered soldier who had just come back from the front.

And you see the women inside with suicide belts.  These people arent human.

A United Nations damage assessment released Thursday said that, up to last week, almost 5,400 buildings were heavily damaged or completely destroyed.

An aerial view of the heavily damaged Nuri mosque in the Old City of Mosul. (Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

A walk through the ruins shows entire blocks pulverized into a dusty sea of rocks. The detritus hints at the ferocity of the battle. Hundreds of bullet casings clink underfoot, while spindly bits of flesh, torn off by a shell, lie in a corner.

The rare structures still standing have entire walls sheared off, exposing the innards of homes like life-size dollhouses. The air is heavy with the smell of putrescence from thousands of bodies waiting to be exhumed from under the wreckage.

Of the 54 residential neighborhoods in Mosuls western half, where the Old City is located, 15 have been flattened, said Grande, the U.N.s humanitarian coordinator, in a phone interview. Another 23 neighborhoods suffered moderate damage.

She noted that some people are trapped in devastated portions of the city and living in the worst condition of all civilians.

They havent been able to reach Iraqi troops. Most of those remaining are children, disabled, the elderly  and many of them are too weak to cross the line. Its unimaginable, Grande said.

The battle continues amid criticism from human rights group Amnesty International, which accused Iraqi forces and the coalition in a report earlier this week of using indiscriminate weapons and unnecessary force near civilians. Coalition military commanders dismissed the report as irresponsible and an insult to those fighting Islamic State.

On the front line, Iraqi commanders were unapologetic.

If it were in my hands, I would have dubbed this World War III, said Brig. Gen. Dergham Ahmad, moments before he ordered his men of the 75th Brigade to advance no matter what.

For the civilians taken to the evacuation center, they now wrestle with memories of Islamic States occupation.

Weve been trying to escape since two weeks ago, but the Dawaesh told us, If you leave we will be bombed, said Khaleda Hussein, a 46-year-old woman who employed the pejorative term for Islamic State fighters. She looked almost wild, her black hair chaotically pushing out of a grimy gauze wrapping on her head.

She and her family of six, she said, were put in a basement with the muhajiraat, the foreign wives of the militants, and threatened with death if they tried to escape.

Then yesterday we were bombed. I lost consciousness and next thing I woke up to the army coming for us. Its a miracle we got out alive.

But not everyone in her family had survived.

Aya, Amina, Muumen said Huda Hassan, Husseins 25-year old daughter, matter-of-factly reciting the names of her two sisters and brother killed in the attack.

I just managed to see a block fall on my mother. I could barely get up, but when the dust settled, I saw that my sister had a piece of shrapnel in her back. I watched her die.

Hussein turned to a visiting reporter, her voice husky with emotion as she said, I lost two girls and a son, and I have two girls and a son left.

Twitter: @nabihbulos

Bulos is a special correspondent.

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Jul 14, 2017, 6:10pm ET

Daimler plans defense as Germany expands emissions tests

The company promises to \"employ all legal means\" to fight any allegations that it sold diesel vehicles equipped with an emissions defeat device.

Daimler has promised to fight any official allegations that it used a defeat device to cheat diesel emissions tests.

The automaker would "employ all legal means" if Germany's emissions enforcement authorities officially accuse the company of equipping cars with illegal software, according to a statement to Bloomberg. The defensive tone was balanced with a promise to "continue to work constructively with authorities."

Suspicions of emissions violations surfaced in May when German prosecutors raided several Daimler offices to look for evidence in an ongoing investigation. The Stuttgart prosecutor's office also confirmed that it had contact with US authorities, though the nature of the collaboration has not been fully disclosed.

More recent reports in German media claim the inquiry has been elevated and the company stands accused of selling more than a million Mercedes-Benz cars with illegal emissions technology between 2008 and 2016.

The motor transport authority has now confirmed plans to expand its test program "just as it has done with other manufacturers in the past."

In the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, authorities in the US and abroad appear to be scrutinizing other auxiliary emissions control devices (AECDs) employed by automakers. Such systems can be used legally to disable emissions controls in certain circumstances, such as during engine warmup or at extreme temperatures, to protect sensitive equipment against premature failure. Potential abuse or misrepresentation of such systems could run afoul of the law, but without necessarily rising to the level of a 'defeat device' that detects when the vehicle is undergoing a lab test.

Daimler's troubles represent just one of several ongoing emissions investigations that span multiple countries and several automakers.
cadaver dogs

Cadaver dogs have been making news and helping solve Pennsylvania murders of late.

(Search and Rescue Dogs of Pennsylvania)

Vicki Wooters is impressed, but rarely surprised, when a cadaver dog makes some grisly find and breaks a stalled murder investigation wide open.

That happened this week when those finely-trained canines helped investigators locate the bodies of four missing men that were burned and buried on a Doylestown-area farm.

Wooters, president of Chester County-based nonprofit Search and Rescue Dogs of Pennsylvania, has seen similar scenarios unfold scores of times. She's usually holding one end of the leash.

She said she is often amazed at what her dogs, specially trained to detect the scent of human death, are able to do.

Like the time, she said, when one of her canines, floating in a boat, picked up the scent of a corpse 60 feet below the surface of a lake. Or when another dog found a corpse wrapped in a tarp and buried 4 1/2 feet underground.

Wooters, who has 25 years of experience with search dogs, said Friday that it isn't an exact science - but perhaps more of an art - to find the right dog with the right nose for that highly-specialized job.

On average, two to three years of training is needed to hone a talented would-be cadaver dog's natural skills and focus its unparalleled sense of smell, she said.

The fact that "dogs like dead things" and are intelligent helps, Wooters said, but you also have to pick just the right dog, one not only with natural talent, but also an animal with a penchant for persistence.

"Pretty much the kind of dog you need is one that might not be the best house pet," she said. "Our best dog is sort of a pain to live with."

A forceful personality is essential. "We do not want a dog that is going to say, 'OK, whatever you want.' We want what we called 'trained disobedience," Wooters said.

Her dogs are trained - through a reward system - to stay focused on finding the source of the scent, regardless of what the human handler is doing. "The dog has to be, 'I'm not listening to you. I'm doing my job,'" Wooters said.

Sometimes, she said, a dog will pick up the residual scent of a corpse that was laid on the ground, then trace it to where the body was later buried or hidden. Handlers often use probes to stir up the ground, freeing scent particles for the dog to detect, she said.

Wooters said that, while her animals are all German Shepherds, any breed of dog, including a rescue dog, is a potential cadaver hunter, depending on personality, olfactory ability and trainability.

Dogs are even bred for the job and training can commence at the puppy stage, she said. "Some of the puppies as they're being weaned are getting their target odor," Wooters said. Expert cadaver dogs often must pass a test that involves finding "very minute" pieces of a corpse that might have been buried for a long time, she said

The human handler is there to provide the guidance to let the dog do a job that not even a person with the most sensitive nose could perform.

"We see with our eyes what they see with their noses," Wooters said. "You have to put the dog's nose where it can make the find."
A Bushkill Township police officer caught two Texas men in the act trying to install a machine to steal credit numbers at a gas pump, according to court records.

Video surveillance at the Bushkill Corners Exxon, 291 W. Moorestown Road in the township, showed the two pull up in a Toyota to pump No. 2 when the station was closed about 1:14 a.m. Thursday, police said.

The driver out and placed the fuel nozzle into the fuel fill on the car while the passenger could be seen manipulating the fuel pump cover, police said.

"While this was happening, the driver watched for any passing cars," Bushkill police officer Nathan Correll wrote in court records. "When a car would approach from any direction, the driver would act like he was just pumping gas. It was verified no gas was pumped."

After 12 minutes, the car was moved opposite pump No. 2 to pump No. 1, which the two began to manipulate, police said.

The two quickly got into the car just as the officer pulled up behind them after observing the car at the closed station, court records say.

Neither the driver, 31-year-old Luis Maikel Aguero Duran, nor passenger, 39-year-old Osmel Perez Fornaris, could speak any English, according to police. A bilingual police officer from Easton responded to translate, and police learned the pair claimed to be in the area working for a water company, whose name they could not recall, records say.

They claimed to be staying at a hotel in the Easton area and had $1,960 cash on them, police said.

Police had the gas station owner inspect the pumps, and an electronic device was found inside the locked section of pump No. 1, records say. Further review of surveillance showed the pair at that pump the night before.

"The station owner stated that there was a problem with the credit card reader on that pump the next day and did not get a technician out to see it yet," Correll wrote in court records.

Police did not indicate in court records that any credit cards were believed to have been compromised in the alleged effort.

Aguero Duran and Perez Fornaris are accused of placing the credit card skimmers on both pumps No. 1 and 2.

They were arraigned on related felony and misdemeanor charges Thursday morning before District Judge Douglas Schlegel and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail each. They face preliminary hearings tentatively scheduled July 31 before Schlegel.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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Leicester City have rejected a 20million offer from Roma for winger Riyad Mahrez, according to Sky Sport Italia.

Interest in City's wantaway star from the Serie A runners-up emerged earlier this week and there are now reports of a bid from the Italian side .

However, City will not have needed long to turn down such a risible offer.

Leicester value Mahrez at more than double Roma's proposed figure, at 50m.

The Algerian won the PFA Player of the Year just over 12 months ago, finished seventh in Ballon d'Or voting in 2016 and now has Champions League experience to his name  all factors that make City believe they can demand a high price for the 26-year-old.

Roma, who will compete in the Champions League this term, are searching for a new winger after selling Mohamed Salah to Liverpool for 37m, potentially rising to 44m.

Mahrez has expressed his desire to leave City this summer, describing himself as "fiercely ambitious" and in search of a "new experience".

However, he remains a City player for the time being and has been selected to travel with the rest of the squad to Hong Kong for the Premier League Asia Trophy next week.
A brave Suncroft girl had her long blonde hair cut last weekend for a Relay for Life cancer fundraiser.

Twelve-year-old Katherine Howe-Hall was the star attraction at the Charity Cuts event, which ran from 10am to 4pm in the Suncroft Community Complex.

My wonderful daughter, Katherine, aged 12, is doing something amazing for a very worthy cause, said her proud mum Mary, before the cut took place.

For the last two years, she has been letting her hair grow in order to get it cut for the Irish Cancer Society, so that it can be made into a wig for a cancer patient.

She is doing it in memory of our dear friend Dec and my mam, both who sadly passed away to cancer, and also in honour of a dear friend of Katherines who is currently fighting her own battle.

Speaking after chop last Sunday, Mary remarked Katherine took it all in her stride.

Katherine before the big chop for charity

I was the one that was up in a heap. She had a big smile on her face. She was a bit nervous about the photographer coming, but she was fine.

She has raised over 700 and she is still waiting on some sponsorship cards to come back in.

Katherine, who has just finished sixth class at Scoil Bride in Athgarvan, got her hair cut in conjunction with Team Hope and Inspiration, Relay for Life.

Throughout the day people could pop in to get a hair cut with professional hairdressers. All funds raised will go towards the Relay for Life event in Punchestown Racecourse this August.

Its a fantastic event to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. No family has escaped from cancer in some shape or form. There are so many people affected, said Mary.

There was great support for the event and it is such a worthy cause.

Katherine and Mary have been in touch with Rapunzel, the charity, which makes wigs for children with cancer, to send on her beautiful golden locks.

Mary even remarked Katherine would love to do it again.
Its 8.15 pm on a Friday in July. The Dining Room food bank has been open for less than an hour and already all the hot food is gone.

Weve been catering and budgeting for 45 people, says Dolores Naughton. But this running out of food early has been happening a lot lately. Well have to start planning for about 55 or 60.

The volunteers operate the food bank two nights a week, offering hot meals and other essentials to people who are either homeless or struggling.

Dolores chairs the committee along with Catherine ODonoghue, John Ryan and Tom OConnor. There are up to a dozen additional volunteers who either cook or serve meals, or help in other ways.

Recently, The Dining Room has been assisted by the Rotary Club of Newbridge, which has raised much needed funding and equipment.

At a recent presentation of a cheque pictured above were (from left) Pat Brady and Peter Robinson (Rotary), Dolores Naughton and John Ryan (The Dining Room) and Maciej Krzetowski (Rotary).
The annual Social Liberal Forum conference is always nourishing for the Liberal soul. Theres always some proper intellectual heft behind its discussions and deliberations.

It takes place today in London. By the time you read this, Ill have been up since before the crack of dawn. That 6:25 flight from Edinburgh is not my favourite way to travel but I couldnt justify the cost of the sleeper. The last time I was on this particular flight, it didnt even leave until after 11.

The theme of the Conference is The Retreat from Globalisation. That takes the morning and the afternoon will include a leadership hustings (free to all Lib Dem members to attend) and a look back at the General Election.

Heres how the day will unfold:

Morning theme: The Retreat from Globalisation

10am: Refreshments

10.30am: Welcome

10.35am: William Beveridge Memorial Lecture Is a liberal and democratic society compatible with globalisation?, William Wallace

11.30am: Global conflict, Prof Sir Lawrence Freedman

12.10pm: Global warming, Ed Davey MP and Mark Campanale

Fringe meetings

11.30am: Universal basic income, Helen Flynn

12.10pm: What would a 21st century preamble to the Lib Dem constitution look like?, Seth Thevoz

12.50pm: Lunch

Afternoon theme: Where do we go from here?

1.30pm: Leadership Q+A

2.30pm: Refreshments

2.45pm: Perspectives on the General Election, Sarah Olney, Caron Lindsay, Joyce Onstad, Daisy Cooper

3.45pm: Reflections on the General Election, David Howarth

4.30pm: Close

No doubt people will be tweeting from the event, using the hashtag #slfconf.

Well obviously have a full report in the next few days.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Issue 385 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers.

This includes in Radical Bulletin our piecing together of the story of Tim Farrons resignation and who did and did not conspire to do what. We also look at what went on in some controversies over candidates and campaigns.

Its traditional for Liberator to send a questionnaire to leadership contenders, so we did so even though there is only one and Vince Cables answers can be seen here.

This issues other free sample article is Liz Barkers recounting of how she tried to get Tim Farron to see the political implications of his views on gay sex.

Elsewhere, Liberator includes Vauxhall candidate George Turners criticism of party headquarters role in his campaign, reflections on the results from Tony Greaves, Michael Meadowcroft, Paul Hindley, Nigel Lindsay and others, and to remind us that its not just the UK that has had a general election, Marianne Magnin reports on Macrons win in France.

Theres lots else too, including news and gossip in Radical Bulletin, letters, reviews and Lord Bonkers Diary.

Back issues and subscription details (25 a year) are on our website.

See: www.liberatormagazine.org.uk
A LIMERICK father with an acquired brain injury and his family are facing homelessness for a second time in two years, his concerned wife has said.

Mother Stephanie Kelly, 32, told the Limerick Leader that she is desperate to secure a home for her family, as they face being without a home in six weeks time.

She said that, after securing a home in Ballynanty through Focus Ireland, the organisation has decided to not renew a contract due to ongoing serious safety issues.

In 2016, the Kelly family were forced to live in B&Bs and hotels for five months, after their landlord of five years decided to sell their house on Fr Russell Road.

Her husband Michael, 42, has been suffering from a brain injury since August 2010. While she works, he is the stay-at-home father for his two children, Hayleigh, 5, and three-year-old Jake.

Ms Kelly said she was previously able to secure a property after working with the Homeless Action Team and Focus Ireland. She said that being homeless was a distressing time for her children.

Last year, when we were homeless, my daughter was bawling crying every night going back to the hotel. When we would go out to get out of the hotel, she was bawling crying: Why do we have to go back? Why cant we go home? And I cant face telling them that we have to go back to that situation. I am just at my wits end, she said.

She said that she was forced to go on sick leave while she was homeless.

I dont want to be out of work again. It is so stressful. I have been suffering from anxiety a lot, and my husband has a lot of health problems from his brain injury. He gets a lot of seizures, and the stress is on him as well, she added.

She said that she has been told by an electrician that the home is not safe for me and my children.

Ms Kelly told the Leader that she has approached Limerick City and County Council, but has been told that there is nothing for us.

She said that she has been refused a mortgage application three times.

I was hoping at this stage of my life to be married, have children, and that I would have my own house with my own mortgage by now. I am desperately looking for a family home for my children. I dont want my children to be homeless for a second time in their short lives.
UP to a dozen homes in Limerick city were flooded overnight after a water mains burst.

Several units of Limerick Fire Brigade spent hours assisting shocked residents in the early hours of this Saturday morning, after houses were flooded in approximately two to three feet of water.

The fire service assisted council staff until 6.45am this Saturday morning.

Sinn Fein deputy Maurice Quinlivan said the lack of a response from Irish Water to "wrecked" homes was shocking.

Fianna Fail deputy Willie ODea also visited the area this afternoon, to offer any assistance possible.

He said the damage caused to peoples home was devastating and that several were destroyed.

In a statement, Irish Water said it was carrying out repairs to a burst water main in the Kilmallock Road area of Limerick city which occurred at approximately 2.30am.

Supply has now been restored to all customers and the area has been made safe.

It said as a result of the incident, water entered approximately 10 houses in the area.

Irish Water and Limerick City and County Council would like to apologise to all customers that this has impacted, particularly those whose homes were directly affected.

Residents praised the response of firefighters, who were assisted by crews from Cappamore.

Residents said they are awaiting details for their accommodation plans over the coming week.

- See Monday's Limerick Leader for more. If you are affected, contact anne.sheridan@limerickleader.ie
DANCE Limerick is gearing up to host a dance fusion event billed as an intensive two-weeks of exciting dance styles.

Led by Dublin Youth Dance Companys Justine Doswell, a freelance contemporary dancer, dance teacher, actress and model, and Limerick-based choreographer and streetdancer Tobi Omoteso, the youth dance project runs over two weeks in August, culminating in a performance for Culture Night in September.

Daily sessions will run from August 8-18, with a rehearsal day on September 17 ahead of the September 22 performance.

The opportunity is open to all, with no requirement of previous dance experience, Dance Limerick outlined, noting that it was a unique and inspirational opportunity for young people aged 13+ to experience an intensive two-weeks of exciting dance styles.

The participants will work in a fun, creative and supportive environment and learn basic technique and movement vocabulary, as well as developing physical strength, co-ordination and confidence, said a spokesperson.

The energetic and lively daily sessions will focus on a dynamic fusion of contemporary dance, that combines many elements of different dance genres, in partnership with urban cultures latest street and hip-hop techniques.

Under the guidance of the facilitators, the project will take inspiration from the citys streets, emphasise playfulness and drifting around urban environments and how they make us feel and behave, connect or disconnect with our physical, social and emotional environments, added the spokesperson.

In celebration, the work created during the project will be performed publicly on Culture Night.

See www.dancelimerick.ie for more.
Hundreds of mostly older Chinese residents turned out Thursday night at City Hall to oppose a medical cannabis dispensary proposed for the Sunset District, but their testimony was not enough to sway planning commissioners, who voted 5-1 to approve the pot shop.

The vote, which followed five hours of public comment, paves the way for the Apothecarium to open a dispensary at 2505 Noriega St. It will be the first in the Sunset.

Last nights decision was a huge victory for Sunset cannabis patients, said Dr. Floyd Huen, medical adviser to and a co-owner of the Apothecarium Sunset, along with his wife, former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Health care happens in person. Patients deserve a well-run dispensary in their own neighborhood where they can receive consultations about their medication and dosage.

Even by the standards of regularly acrimonious Planning Commission meetings, Thursdays medical cannabis showdown was exceptional. The hallways outside the chambers were jam-packed, and extra deputy sheriffs had to be called in to deal with screaming matches between supporters and opponents.

Commissioner Dennis Richards, the single no vote, said the opposition may have overplayed its hand  noting that critics of the medical cannabis dispensary said it would cause everything from fatal vehicle wrecks to homelessness to murder.

The idea that children are going to be sucked in, that people are going to die because an MCD opens, is not really grounded in reality, Richards said. It became a circus  way over the top. I think that alienated some of the commissioners.

Richards said he doesnt think any medical cannabis dispensaries should be approved until the city figures out how to implement Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized recreational marijuana. The Planning Department is scheduled to release policy guidelines in September. The key question will be whether medical cannabis dispensaries will be first in line to convert to recreational cannabis stores and how that conversion process would work.

Several speakers on Thursday noted that the Sunset has voted in favor of both medical and recreational marijuana. About 66 percent of the neighborhood supported Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana referendum, and 58 percent backed Prop. 64.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
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Maryam Mirzakhani, a renowned Stanford University mathematics professor and the only woman to win the award thats described as the Nobel Prize in Math, died early Saturday after a long battle with breast cancer.

Maryam is gone far too soon, but her impact will live on for the thousands of women she inspired to pursue math and science, said Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the unprecedented brilliance of this creative scientist and modest human being, who made Irans name resonate in the worlds scientific forums, was a turning point in showing the great will of Iranian women and young people on the path toward reaching the peaks of glory and in various international arenas, according to Iranian state media.

Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, expressed his condolenceson Instagram.

Ms. Mirzakhani, 40, joined the Stanford University faculty in 2008 and was awarded the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics, in 2014 for her work in theoretical math.

Her daughter, Anahita, would often describe her mothers work as painting when Ms. Mirzakhani would doodle and scribble formulas on large sheets of paper, according to the university.

Maryam was a brilliant mathematical theorist, and also a humble person who accepted honors only with the hope that it might encourage others to follow her path, Tessier-Lavigne said.

Though she once dreamed of becoming a writer, math eventually became her lifes work. Ms. Mirzakhani specialized in such high-level mathematics as moduli spaces, Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, Ergodic theory and symplectic geometry. Her work has implications in physics, quantum mechanics and other disciplines outside of math, the university said.

Youre torturing yourself along the way, but life isnt supposed to be easy, she would say.

Ms. Mirzakhani was born and raised in Tehran, where she attended an all-girls high school and competed on Irans International Mathematical Olympiad team.

Before her, no girl had ever competed for Iran, according to Stanford University.

In 1994, she received a gold medal and in 1995, she earned two gold medals for her performance in the international competition.

After high school, Ms. Mirzakhani attended Sharif University of Technology, a top-ranked school in Tehran for engineering and physical science.

She received her doctorate at Harvard University in 2004 where she was distinguished by her determination and relentless questioning, despite the language barrier, according to Stanford University.

Her colleagues described her as a mathematician with fearless ambition.

Her contributions as both a scholar and a role model are significant and enduring, and she will be dearly missed here at Stanford and around the world, Tessier-Lavigne said.

Iranians took to social media Saturday morning to share condolences on her death.

Firouz Naderi, the former director of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote on Facebook, A light was turned off today ... far too soon. Breaks my heart.

Nazanin Boniadi, an Iranian British actress, said, The world has lost a brilliant human being and a role model for us all.

Ms. Mirzakhani is survived by her husband, Jan Vondrak, and her daughter, Anahita.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Attorneys for the Mexican immigrant accused of murdering Kate Steinle on San Franciscos Pier 14  a shooting that sparked an uproar over immigration policies  are seeking to compel the federal ranger whose stolen firearm was used in the killing to testify in the coming trial.

Bureau of Land Management Ranger John Woychowski, 37, is the only person who knows the history of the Sig Sauer .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol that was stolen from his car in downtown San Francisco three days before the shooting, attorneys for Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez argued in court Friday.

Woychowskis testimony, they said, would provide vital information about the condition of the weapon and could support their contention that the July 1, 2015, shooting was an accident. The defense says the shot that struck Steinle traveled 100 feet and ricocheted off the ground, denting the bullet.

Mr. Woychowski is a percipient witness in the matter, said Deputy Public Defender Francisco Ugarte. Hes the last known person to have held the weapon before it was used on the pier. He knows about the condition, how the weapon was stored, the history of the weapon itself.

Steinle, 32, was strolling with her father along the Embarcadero on Pier 14 when a bullet pierced her back and went through her heart. Prosecutors charged Lopez-Sanchez, 54, with murder, saying he deliberately fired the gun along the crowded pier.

Defense attorneys subpoenaed Woychowski to testify, but the U.S. Department of Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Land Management, said in a letter to Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez of the public defenders office that department policy was not to allow its employees to testify or to produce department records either upon request or subpoena.

The Interior Department wrote that Gonzalez must submit a written request justifying why Woychowskis testimony is relevant. The department said it will consider the appropriateness of the testimony and whether that information could be obtained from another source before allowing Woychowski to testify.

Bureau of Land Management officials did not respond to requests for comment.

He is pretty fundamental to the case and in the narrative of the case, Gonzalez said outside court. We have no interest in harassing him. Before issuing the subpoena to him, we made numerous efforts to call him. We have emailed him. He did not respond to any of these respectful, professional overtures.

Lopez-Sanchez had been on track for a sixth deportation after serving 46 months in prison for felony re-entry into the country, but he was released from San Francisco jail three months before the Pier 14 killing rather than being turned over to immigration agents under the citys sanctuary policies. Steinles death sparked a push against the policies behind his release.

Lopez-Sanchez had been transferred from federal custody to the city jail in March 2015 on an old warrant alleging he fled marijuana charges in 1995. When prosecutors discharged the case, the San Francisco Sheriffs Department released him despite a federal request to hold him for deportation.

Legislation known as Kates Law that would boost punishment for people who repeatedly enter the country illegally and a separate measure that seeks to pressure cities to abandon sanctuary policies recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lopez-Sanchezs trial could begin as early as next month. Gonzalez said he hopes jurors will be able to separate the controversial immigration issue from the facts of the case.

In the same way Americans may be charged with a crime in other countries that they are either visiting legally or have overstayed their visas, they do not want their immigration status to be the deciding factor in whether or not theyre going to win on the merits of the case, Gonzalez said. As the attorneys for Mr. Lopez-Sanchez, we dont want that to be the primary issue here.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
As a person of faith, I have lived in many different worlds. I grew up in Berkeley, Calif., where my mom was a Christian educator at the First Congregational Church and my father headed up the city's redevelopment agency. We saw government as an agent for social good and how the Gospel mandated that intervention. In my 20s, I attended seminary in Berkeley, where we were steeped in the ideals of the social Gospel. By contrast, I did an internship in a church in Condon, Ore., a farming community with a historical skepticism of government intervention. After ordination, I served a small church in a Waukegan, Ill., and two larger ones in Framingham, Mass., and Burlington, Vt., each with a healthy blend of liberal and conservative members.

Given my pastoral experiences, I know red and blue, urban and rural, and liberal and conservative labels can sometimes hinder us from doing our best ministry. I have prepared sermons seeking to relate the Gospel to the needs of parishioners who struggle because they don't have enough money for housing, health care and child care. I have wrestled with how to speak to parishioners who said their businesses were encumbered by taxes they didn't believe should pay for some programs that serve the needy. If we speak to issues of social justice from the pulpit, we may be praised for addressing the pastoral needs of one parishioner and accused of being too political by another. People's competing needs and pictures of effective ministry set us up for a clash. There needs to be a better way.
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After two years of countless live shows on both sides of the border, Toloache is ready for the debut of its first EP, Amarre Tropical. To celebrate, theyll be hosting an EP release show Saturday, July 15, at Club Boogaloo, 408 Flores Avenue.

For the uninformed, the instrumental group sprouted out from Los Dos Laredos. They are known for their hypnotic sound that mixes cumbia and other Afro-Latin rhythms into a uniquely Latin potion.

We all listen to different types of music, jazz, cumbia, funk, salsa, Toloaches Reynaldo Mata said. I think thats where the inspiration to create this type of music comes from.

Since April of 2015, Mata (bass) along with Israel Cruz (guitar), Miguel Flores (drums), Arturo Ramirez (percussion) and Alejo Ortiz (piano) have played several music venues, cultural events and bars in both Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, making their name in the city all the while.

That said, all the members of Toloache have played key roles in the development of the borders independent music scene, both together as a quintet and in other groups.

Miguel, Arturo and me play in different bands, said Mata. The last proyect before Toloache was Umano Ache, we recorded an album called Pal Mundo. Israel and Alejo have other projects as well, amongst them Santo Vicio and La Mata.

As a local band, Toloache has experienced firsthand the lack of spaces that promote original music in the area.

Theres still a need for more venues that are open to that option and not just cover bands, Mata said.

However, they did have some instrumental support for local companies.

Im grateful for the support of sponsors Iguana Sound System, Iluminatink Tattoo, Don Chango, We Are Not Zombies, Windmill 702 LLC, Cavaletti Imports and Martial Arts America for making these shows a reality. Mata said.

RELATED: Grupo Fantasma, Santo Vico & Toloache join forces at Siete Banderas

The support of these groups helped the band reach a higher the stage, with the EP also owing its existence to a long-time friend.

The recording sessions for Amarre Tropical began on April this year at the Leche House studio in Buda, Texas.

The Buda studio is the brainchild of Laredoan Beto Martinez (of Grupo Fantasma, Brownout and way too many more to list) who is also the producer behind the newest release.

Martinez has an affinity for his hometown, with Amarre Tropical the second release recorded at the Buda studio by a Laredo group, with the first being Santo Vicios self-titled EP. Toloache worked with each other over the period, with Martinez refining the songs that the band honed over many a gig in Laredo.

We worked together on most of the songs, said Mata. Someone would come up with an idea and we would build upon it to create a song.

The culmination of those sessions is the seven-track EP, which is set for release chiefly at the gig, but which will also be available on Spotify and iTunes  amongst other services  within the month.

The band is also in talks for a U.S. tour along the band Money Chicha (another Beto Martinez group) to promote the album. But first, its Laredos turn.

Cover for the show will run $5 at the door, with BYOB allowed for those 21 and over. The music starts at 10 P.M.

----

Editor's Note: The print version of this article incorrectly stated the date of the EP release night as July 14. This version has been updated to include the correct date of July 15.
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A Laredo man has been sentenced to serve 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to run over two individuals in June 2015 before leading police on a high-speed chase.

Jaime Saldivar Jr., whose case was scheduled for jury selection Monday, opted to plead guilty to the charges and have a bench trial before 341st District Court Judge Beckie Palomo for his sentencing.

A bench trial is a trial by judge, rather than a jury hearing the case.

Palomo heard testimony regarding multiple alleged attempts by Saldivar to cause injury to Sylvia L. Duenas and her family with the use of a motor vehicle before reaching a verdict.

Palomo sentenced Saldivar, 38, to serve 10-year prison sentences on two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of evading arrest with a vehicle. A $10,000 fine was imposed for all three counts.

READ MORE: 5 arrested in Webb County's 'Operation Sober Up and Save Lives'

Saldivar also received a two-year sentence and a $10,000 fine for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and one-year sentences and $4,000 fines for charges of assault and theft.

The sentences will run concurrently, meaning Saldivar will serve a total of 10 years in prison.

The case's charges date back to June 25, 2015, when Saldivar got into an altercation with his then-girlfriend Duenas.

Duenas testified about her relationship with Saldivar, whom she met on Facebook, and the events that led to Saldivar's actions.

Saldivar got into an argument with Duenas while driving her yellow Camaro in south Laredo.

After arriving at Benavides Park during the argument, Duenas said she attempted to get out of the vehicle but Saldivar partially forced her back in.

Duenas told authorities Saldivar punched her several times in the bicep area and grabbed her by the neck area with both hands, pushing her against the car, which resulted in her being hit on the back of the head.

Saldivar was allegedly trying to choke Duenas when city workers heard her screaming.

Juan Ortiz, a heavy equipment operator, said he was loading equipment into his truck at the park when he became aware of a woman screaming.

Ortiz approached the vehicle with a shovel in his hand and told Saldivar to let the woman go, believing she was in imminent danger.

Duenas said Saldivar fled the area in the Camaro, with her belongings, before returning to try to persuade her to leave with him.

RELATED: Son: Former Webb County judge critically injured in fatal crash 'not out of danger yet'

Ortiz said Saldivar began to exit the park a second time before reversing again, swerving the vehicle in Duenas and his direction in an attempt to run them over.

Ortiz allegedly pushed Duenas from the vehicle's driving path to avoid being hit by the speeding Camaro.

Fausto Sosa, attorney for Saldivar, said his client never threatened Duenas or Ortiz with bodily harm.

Saldivar led police on a chase after exiting the park, driving almost triple the speed limit through residential areas.

He was driving at a "significantly more reckless rate" than what officers could keep up with, according to Laredo Police Investigator Nicholas Gonzalez.

Saldivar evaded police and absconded to Houston before his arrest.

Other incidents

Duenas, her husband and law enforcement, said this isn't the first time Saldivar attempted to assault members of the Duenas family with a vehicle or partake in a high speed chase.

Saldivar led police on a chase in another vehicle he stole from the Duenas' on April 11, 2016.

On that day, Duenas said she was giving Saldivar a ride in a GMC pickup when they began to argue because he wanted to go with her to her home, where her husband was.

Duenas said she exited the vehicle while afraid for her life. Saldivar allegedly drove her truck and attempted to follow her.

Later that evening, Duenas called police to report seeing her stolen truck.

In a vehicle with her brother, husband and two neighbors, Duenas followed Saldivar while providing police with the direction of travel over the phone.

Officers said they located the GMC at McPherson Road and Chaparral Street. The driver allegedly refused to stop and led authorities on a brief pursuit.

The chase ended at West Mayberry Street and Gallagher Avenue.

MORE CRIME: Laredo PD supervisor accused of workplace violence with a subordinate, placed on reassignment

After making a U-turn in a cul-de-sac, Saldivar allegedly crashed the truck into Duenas' vehicle.

Saldivar was indicted on four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of evading arrest with a vehicle, one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle and one count of resisting arrest, search or transport in relation to the incident.

Police reports state Duenas told police she was scared of Saldivar because he had threatened to kill her and her husband.

Duenas' husband, Juan Jose Duenas, testified about the April crash as well as several times when Saldivar allegedly visited his home and began altercations.

Saldivar was arrested in May 2015, a month before the park incident, and charged with burglary of a habitation with intent to commit an assault and two counts of assault causing bodily injury after allegedly breaking into the Duenas' residence and assaulting Juan Duenas, court records state.

Saldivar has two remaining cases pending in state court, one relating to the April collision and another for credit card or debit card abuse from 2013.
The Woodlands resident Melanie Bush, who owns her own bookkeeping business, said she has enjoyed her time as a Conroe Independent School board trustee, but the Montgomery County's financial state has given her reason to challenge County Treasurer Stephanne Davenport in the March 2018 Republican primary.

Davenport was appointed treasurer in 2013 by Commissioners Court and ran unopposed in 2014.

Bush says plainly "the Treasurer's Office needs help." Bush said her desire to run is not personal but rather about the duty of the office and what's right for the taxpayers. Treasurer's offices in Texas counties have the responsibilities of receiving and disbursing funds and accounting for money in the county's possession.

"We need to evaluate the entire financial state of the county and how things are being run," Bush said.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier, Bush addressed a Courier editorial suggesting voters should be allowed to decide whether to keep or eliminate the county Treasurer's Office, as has been done in a handful of other Texas counties and the state Treasurer's Office. In all of those constitutional amendment elections, voters eliminated the position, including at the state level.

"I don't know that we need to do that at this point, but I can't say it is off the table," said Bush, adding she would need to get in office and evaluate how it is operating before supporting the elimination of the department.

The Treasurer's Office, she said, is not fee-producing, making low overhead critical.

"It should be as efficient as possible to be as cost-effective as possible," she said. "I believe we should make as many cuts as we can to be as efficient as possible."

While the political climate in Montgomery County has continued to become more divided, Bush said she hopes by running a positive campaign, she can avoid that in the treasurer's race.

"It doesn't change how I run for the seat," said Bush, who was elected to the Conroe ISD board in November 2014. "I will run a positive campaign based solely on why I am the best person for the position. We are looking for a political climate that isn't so contentious, so caustic.

"One of my biggest challenges is seeing that happen. I really don't like candidates constantly attacking others. I refused to do that in my previous race and I will not do that in this race."

Bush said because Montgomery County has grown so large, residents need to elect those who are qualified for the position and have experience.

"Voters need to look at this as a job interview and who they want to hire and not based on who has done it before, not based on any alliances they have in the political world," she said. "The county needs to be run like a business."

For Bush, she said now is the time for the county to come together for the good of residents and the future generations.

As for qualifications, Bush said her more than 15 years as a bookkeeper makes her the right choice for treasurer. Bush opened The Woodlands-based Better Bookkeepers in 2010.

Bush and her husband Alan, who is an attorney, have two daughters.

Davenport could not be reached for comment. But according to her Facebook page Stephanne Davenport Moontgomery County Treasurer, she was appointed as treasurer in 2013. She was twice named Montgomery County's Employee of the Month and in 2011 was also named as Montgomery County's Employee of the Year.

Davenport is active in the community and is a founding board member and executive secretary for the Montgomery County Association of Business Women. Davenport was named a recipient of Montgomery County Women's Council of Organizations "Women of Distinction" award for 2013, an honor based on volunteerism and service to the community.

She is active with Montgomery County Young Republicans and the Montgomery County Republican Party.
When Star Cinema Grill moved from its original location at Point Nasa in Webster to Baybrook Mall, some residents were worried that the old location would meet the same fate as so many other closed theaters: a space so large other businesses can't quite figure out how to efficiently utilize it, remaining unleased and slowly falling into decline.

Luckily for Webster residents, the management team at Star Cinema Grill had foresight and a vision for their former location: an intimate, rustic-but-modern theater that serves menus using locally-sourced ingredients.

The original Star Cinema Grill at Point Nasa reopened last week as District Theatres.

"What we have here is truly exciting," said Jason Ostrow, vice president of development for Star Cinema Grill. "We're offering an intimate movie experience for people who might want to avoid the bustle of our busier location. We've got phenomenal menus, a lengthy beer menu and cocktails. And then we've got the loungers."

The loungers Ostrow is referring to are the new seating option available at District Theatre - electric loungers that allow patrons to put their feet up while they enjoy their movie.

Neil Kustanbauter, general manager for District Theatre, said that another facet of the theater is the possibility to house smaller and indie movies.

"We have six screens," Kustanbauter said. "The largest theater has more than 100 seats, but the smallest screen only has 45. That means we are able to take a chance on movies that large theaters won't necessarily take a chance on. You don't want to put a risky movie in a theater with 175 seats, but it makes sense to put it in a theater with 45 seats because you don't have to worry as much about taking a loss."

Kustanbauter said that the menus at District Theatres shouldn't be overlooked either.

"What (the president and CEO) tasked us with was finding a way to provide an excellent theater experience in a way that isn't currently being done," Kustanbauter said. "And part of that, for us, was menu selection. Anyone can go get a beautiful gourmet meal from almost anywhere, so we wanted to come up with a way that would honor beautiful gourmet meals as well as honoring Texas.

"Everything we have here is made fresh. The honey we serve is from Austin. The beer list is more than 60 percent local because you don't need to go out of the city to find good beer. The chicken is sourced from a San Antonio farm. Our salads are made from produce from Waco - we kept everything as close to home as we could."

Star Cinema Grill now has locations either open or soon-to-be opening all over Houston with another location in Chicago, but the franchise started in Webster.

"We saw a niche that wasn't being filled, so we filled it," said Omar Khan, owner of Star Cinema Grill. "There wasn't any place near us where you could see a movie and get great food and cocktails, so that was our vision with Star Cinema.

"After we moved to the (Baybrook) location, we recognized that there was still a niche to fill, so we kept the lease on the original location and started meeting about District Theatres."

At a soft opening July 6, a group of residents were able to experience the theater and choose from a small selection of new releases.

"This is fantastic," said George Ostrowski, a resident who was testing out the theater's menu at the soft opening. "(Khan) and his team thought of everything. The food is delicious; the seats are comfortable - I mean I could come by here during the day just to take a nap in those seats. We used to come here when it was Star Cinema. I'm impressed with what they've done with the theater and glad that they didn't just let it go to waste. We'll definitely be back."

Khan said another reason the group repurposed their original location was out of loyalty to the community.

"Webster has been a phenomenal location for us," he said. "We (members of the management team) all live very close to here and recognize and appreciate the support the community has given us over the years. Without them, we would not succeed - that's why we wanted to give them more theater options close to home."

Betsy Giusto, economic development director for the city of Webster, said the theater is one more business in a long list of establishments that residents should be proud of.

"Working with Jason and Mr. Khan and his team has been phenomenal," she said. "They really care about the community and they wanted to make sure there was something in Webster for everyone. This theater is absolutely beautiful."

District Theatres is located at 1020 West NASA Parkway in Webster.
In the early morning of June 30, Hangul writing at a jetty construction site jumped out at members of a Japanese public-private survey mission who had arrived at Shikotan Island by ship to research joint economic activities between Japan and Russia in the northern territories.

A South Korean company was joining the jetty construction. "Russia was sending a message that if Japan didn't invest in the northern territories, it could rely on other countries," a person related to the Japanese government said.

Japan and Russia agreed to begin discussing joint economic activities at a summit meeting in December. The idea is a pillar of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "new approach." Announced in May last year, the approach seeks to create an opening in the negotiations over the territorial issue, which have made no progress in the more than 70 years since World War II ended.

Possible candidate industries include tourism and fishing. However, since Russia appears determined to proceed with the talks under the assumption that any activities would be carried out under Russian law, creating a "special system" that harms neither Japan's nor Russia's legal position will likely not be easy.

On July 6, one day before a Japan-Russia summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, who is in charge of development in the Far East, jolted Japan by announcing that Russia would designate the northern territories as a special economic zone of the Russian government. Companies that expanded their activities there would receive tax benefits and other preferential treatment, which would likely attract foreign businesses.

The move was seen as a "threat" that Russia would move forward on development without Japan if the talks over joint economic activities dragged on.

The next day, Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for the 18th time. The special economic zone was also discussed. Abe decisively told Putin the designation was "unacceptable" because it could harm their plan for joint economic activities. Putin was evasive in his response, and the exchange brought to light a difference between them.

One motivation for resolving the northern territories issue appears to have cooled. At a summit meeting with Putin in May last year, Abe proposed an "eight-point economic cooperation plan" that included energy and development of the Far East. The proposal was intended to lead to a negotiation aimed at resolving the territorial issue.

Abe was enthusiastic as it could lead to a final settlement of the thorny issue of postwar diplomacy. But when Putin visited Abe's home prefecture of Yamaguchi in December for a summit meeting, Abe obtained nothing that would lead to a return of the northern territories.

The international situation is thought to have been a major factor in this. When Russia was isolated internationally after its annexation of the Crimea in 2014, the Russian government is believed to have thought, "By engaging Japan, we can poke a hole in the encirclement led by the United States."

Things changed when Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in November. Trump had shown a desire to improve relations with Russia, so "Putin's enthusiasm toward Japan cooled," a source close to the Japan-Russia relationship.

Although U.S.-Russia ties have not improved since Trump took office, Putin has not shown a resurgent willingness to resolve the territorial issues. He has repeatedly expressed concern that if the northern territories were returned, the U.S. military could be deployed there under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

"The vigorous actions by the U.S. military around the Korean Peninsula due to the tensions regarding North Korea appear to have made him nervous," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Nevertheless, the Japanese side is holding out hope for a "bold decision" if Putin is re-elected president in March. On July 9, Putin met with former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who was visiting Russia. Putin told his old acquaintance that he is increasingly willing to work with Abe in negotiations to conclude a peace treaty that would include the northern territories issue.

For his part, Abe is facing his biggest crisis since the launch of his second Cabinet. His Liberal Democratic Party suffered a historic defeat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election and his Cabinet's support rate has plummeted due to criticism over issues like that of the Kake Educational Institution.

Abe appears to think he can use diplomacy to help right the ship, but it could be a difficult task.

On July 8, he posted the following on his Facebook page as if to cheer himself up: "I intend to make progress in negotiating a [Japan-Russia] peace treaty, which has been a pending issue for more than 70 years since the end of World War II. Based on a relationship of deep trust between the leaders, I am resolved to get results one by one."
Telangana Chief Minister has allegedly not been invited to the inaugural event of Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL), slated to be held on Saturday. Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) has alleged that the chief minister has not been invited in the past too. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) did not send out an invite to the CM to be present as a guest at an official event and CM KCR's associates deemed it as an 'insult' to the people of the state. Also, it was contended that the Ministry of Fertilisers and Chemicals invited the chief minister but normally it is carried out by the PMO.
Miami

Christopher Wong Won, a founding member of the Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew whose sexually explicit lyrics triggered a national debate over the legal limits of artistic freedom, has died at the age of 53.

The group's manager, DJ Debo, said Wong Won, known as Fresh Kid Ice, died Thursday at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami as a result of medical conditions he had suffered for several years.

2 Live Crew gained fame in the 1980s and 1990s for its Miami bass sound, sexually explicit lyrics and legal challenges.

A judge in Florida ruled that the group's 1989 album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" was obscene, leading to the arrest of a record store owner who refused to stop selling it. Won and 2 Live Crew frontman Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell also were arrested after performing songs from the album at a show in Hollywood, Fla.

A federal appeals court later overturned the obscenity ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear further arguments in the case from the group's critics.

The Supreme Court sided with 2 Live Crew in 1994 in a separate case, ruling they had the right to parody other artists after they were sued for sampling the Roy Orbison song "Oh, Pretty Woman" on a clean version of "As Nasty As They Wanna Be."

The group's 1990 album "Banned in the USA" was the first to be sold with a "parental advisory" label warning about its content.

"They paved the way for a lot of artists to be able to do what they do on records now," Debo said. "They fought in court for people to say what they want to say."

Wong Won was born in 1964 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and his family moved to Brooklyn in 1977. He was hip-hop's first notable rapper of Asian descent, with a Cantonese grandfather, and he titled his first solo album "The Chinaman."

Wong Won told Vice last year that many 2 Live Crew fans didn't know he was Asian until their music videos were released.

"The Asians were there in the beginning of hip-hopbut as DJs," he said in the Vice interview. "We've been in the background and stayed behind the scenes, but we learn from our mistakes. A lot of people see us as being passive, but sometimes being passive means that you're learning. Right now, I see us right there with everyone else."

Wong Won co-founded 2 Live Crew in California in 1984. A couple years later, the group moved to Miami and was joined by Campbell.

After the group broke up, Wong Won released several solo albums. In recent years, he reunited with 2 Live Crew members for several performances. His memoir, "My Rise 2 Fame," was published in 2015.

"We lost a legend," Campbell said in a tweet expressing his condolences to Wong Won's family.

A private funeral was scheduled Monday in Miami.
If anyone reading this weeks headlines feels a little itchy, thats quite understandable.

Upper Thumb officials  as well as many from other Mid-Michigan counties  have been discussing the upswell of mosquitos in our local communities.

In Tuscola County, mosquito abatement efforts are in overdrive, as the countys mosquito population has doubled.

In Midland County, mosquito control efforts have doubled following the heavy flooding experienced there a few weeks ago.

In Huron, the anti-mosquito activity is two-prong. First, there are residents actively circulating petitions to get a ballot proposal created to have voters decide whether our county should have mosquito abatement like our neighbors in Tuscola.

Second, theres discussion  and dissent  among Huron County commissioners as to whether the county should get an opinion from the Michigan Attorney General about whether the board can initiate a referendum calling for a mosquito abatement millage.

The boards corporate counsel previously opined that its illegal for a county to call for such a referendum, and that it must be done via a citizens' petition.

But the boards chairman, Sami Khoury, is pushing for an AG opinion. We dont fault Khoury for being passionate about this issue, as there is a group in his district  which includes Sebewaing  that has a petition drive that seems to be gathering steam. There also is talk of a petition drive in near-by Caseville.

Its very heartening to see civic-minded residents organizing toward a common goal. And we applaud their efforts and wish them much success.

But we believe any referendum should be initiated by the people, not the Huron County Board of Commissioners.
Experts are becoming increasingly interested in long-period ground motions which severely shake high-rise buildings during earthquakes.

Starting in fiscal 2018, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) plans to issue urgent warnings to areas they fear will be hit by strong long-period ground motions. They would be issued in addition to standard earthquake early warnings.

In preparation for strong earthquakes, technologies are being developed to minimize the swaying of high-rise buildings.

Earthquakes cause various kinds of seismic waves, including short-period tremors, which shake low-rise buildings, and long-period tremors, which cause buildings to shake more slowly. Among these long-period tremors, those caused by seismic waves with long cycles are called long-period ground motions.

Long-period ground motions tend to occur if the focus of an earthquake is shallow or if the quake is on a huge scale. These kinds of ground motions shake high-rising buildings, oil tanks and other large structures intensely and for a long time.

Another characteristic of long-period ground motions is that the tremors can reach faraway places. When the Tokachi Offshore Earthquake occurred in 2003, petroleum inside oil tanks in Tomakomai, Hokkaido - about 250 kilometers away from the epicenter - was shaken so strongly that fires started. The incident attracted attention. Buildings in Tokyo and Osaka were also severely shaken in the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.

Damage from such effects is regarded as nothing new. However, Akira Wada, a professor emeritus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and an expert in anti-seismic engineering, pointed out that "the importance of measures to cope with [long-period ground motions] has been increasing because the number of high-rise buildings that could be affected has grown."

The JMA has been announcing long-period ground motion levels since 2013 and classifying the intensity of motion into four grades indicating how strongly high-rise buildings and other structures are shaken.

Starting in fiscal 2018, the JMA will also issue earthquake early warnings to areas that may be affected by long-period ground motions classified as Grade 3 on its four-grade intensity scale.

Progress has been made to develop technologies for protecting high-rise buildings from tremors. Kajima Corp., a general contractor based in Tokyo, developed a tuned mass damper (TMD) system that controls and minimizes the shaking of buildings due to earthquakes by using pendulum-type weights. The weights are placed on rooftops and swing in the opposite directions of quake tremors, thus minimizing the effects on buildings. The company introduced a set of six TMD weights, each weighing about 300 tons, at a high-rise building in Tokyo.

Oil dampers have also been installed in many buildings. These have piston-like structures that absorb shaking. They are placed in the walls and floors of the low and middle stories of buildings. If a building is shaken, force is applied to the oil dampers and a piston moves inside the oil-filled cylinder; the resultant resistance minimizes the shaking.

Kajima has developed a new type of piston that has more resistance force. It includes auxiliary tanks from which oil pours into the cylinder to strengthen resistance. A Kajima official in charge said, "The scale of intensity of a building shaking, as was observed in Tokyo at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, can be halved" by the technology.

Seismic isolation rubbers are being installed in the foundations of more and more buildings. Bridgestone Corp., headquartered in Tokyo, developed a type of rubber that is placed between stacked steel plates that have the strength to support high-rise buildings. The elasticity of the rubber parts allows them to absorb earthquake tremors. This system has been implemented at Tokyo Station and in other buildings and department stores.

Anti-seismic measures for elevators have also been progressing. It is feared that elevator cables could be damaged in an earthquake and that people may become trapped.

Tokyo-based Hitachi has developed a system with sensors that detect long-period ground motions. The system automatically brings elevators to a halt if a strong quake is predicted, allowing people to get out on the nearest floor. The system has been introduced at Tokyo Skytree.

It is also important to fix furniture to floors and walls. Prof. Saburo Midorikawa of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, who is an expert in earthquake engineering, conducted an experiment on the pretext of a massive Nankai Trough earthquake. The experiment found that unsecured furniture was severely scattered around the top floor of a 30-story building in Nagoya.

"You could be seriously injured if hit by moving furniture," Midorikawa said. "I hope people take preventive measures in advance."

- - -

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry announced last year that measures against long-period ground motions should be reinforced in 11 prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture, in preparation for a possible Nankai Trough earthquake.

The ministry demanded that measures be taken mainly at new buildings that are 60 meters tall or higher so they can endure stronger or longer tremors.

If realized, such buildings will have improved safety levels compared to conventional buildings. However, to prepare for unpredictably strong quakes, new technologies and other means are necessary.
Russia said Friday that it is "ready to take reciprocal measures" if the United States does not return property in this country seized in December as part of the Obama administration's response to Russian meddling in the U.S. election and harassment of American diplomats in Moscow.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the allegations of interference and other accusations were "an obvious lie."

She said Russia was also planning possible retaliation for the December expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. "One of the easy options," she said, would be to demand a reduction in the number of Americans assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which she said far exceeds the number of Russians in Washington.

Thomas Shannon, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov plan to meet in Washington on Monday to discuss issues including the expulsions and the seizure of two properties owned by the Russian government in this country. Then-President Barack Obama said that the resort compounds on Maryland's Eastern Shore and on New York's Long Island were being used for intelligence purposes.

An earlier meeting between Shannon and Ryabkov, scheduled for late June in Russia, was postponed "because the United States was not ready for meaningful discussion," Zakharova said.

Russia has repeatedly denounced the compound seizures as violations of international law.

Recent indications that the Trump administration was preparing to return the properties brought criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who argue that Moscow has done nothing to warrant a reprieve from punishment for its meddling in the U.S. presidential election last year.

The interference, confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and allegations of Trump campaign collusion with interests in Russia, remain under investigation by a special counsel and in Congress.

Administration officials have said that they consider the issue of the compounds a diplomatic squabble and that taking it off the table would enable greater cooperation with Russia in more important areas, including the war against the Islamic State in Syria.

Leading up to the meeting Monday, the administration has been reviewing conditions under which Russia, which still owns the compounds, could be permitted to reoccupy them. One option under consideration is stripping the premises of the diplomatic immunity they previously enjoyed.

Sebastian Gorka, a senior White House adviser to President Donald Trump, told CNN on Friday that it was time for the U.S.-Russia relationship to "move on." Trump, he said, pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin "on multiple occasions" about election tampering when they met last week at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.

"The president was not in a court of law," Gorka said. "He pressed, he pressed the president of the Russian Federation, [and] the president of the Russian Federation denied" the allegations.

"We have to move on in the interest of U.S. national security and saving innocent lives," he said.

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said that "sanctions were not discussed" during his meeting with Putin. "Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian and Syrian problems are solved," he tweeted.

The United States and European partners maintain a set of economic sanctions against Russian people and entities in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea.

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that sanctions were discussed but indicated that the discussion was "specific to election meddling," an apparent reference to the diplomatic expulsions and compound seizures.

Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that "the seized property has not been returned. Far from reversing the decision to expel our diplomats, Washington is refusing to issue visas to those who are supposed to replace them."

A State Department spokesman, noting that visa adjudications are confidential, declined to respond.
When Malayalam superstar Dileep was brought to the Aluva sub-jail near Kochi after his arrest, the waiting mob chanted, "Welcome to Central Jail," the title of a 2016 movie he starred in that would come to haunt him a year later. The arrest capped five months of investigations into a sordid case, where a contract goon kidnapped and sexually abused a popular actress. The case shocked Kerala and became another challenge for an already embattled state police and the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

While the arrest comes as a major victory for the victim and her family, it is also a much-needed boost for the Kerala police, whose image had taken a beating after a series of goof-ups in high-profile cases. The arrest came as a big blow to the Malayalam actors' guild, AMMA, which had stood by Dileep, its major fund-raiser. It also sent tremors through the Malayalam film industry, where 119 movies were made in 2016, and exposed the slimy underbelly of the star-driven industry.

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The repercussions could go well beyond the actor's personal commitments (three of his upcoming movies, including the Rs 13 crore Ramleela, will surely suffer). It has also shaken up his Rs 600 crore business empire spanning film distribution, production, theatres, real estate, hotels and tourism. Following Dileep's arrest, AMMA stripped him off its primary membership even as the newly formed Women's Collective in Cinema, a pressure group of Malayalam cinema's female stars who came together after the incident, welcomed the arrest. The Enforcement Directorate and I-T department are also looking into his businesses now. The charges against Dileep include rape, conspiracy and kidnapping, among others, and he could get the maximum punishment of 20 years if found guilty.

"In the last decade, Dileep had become an integral part of the Malayalam film industry, virtually controlling the directors, producers and actors. He was a 'don' of the Malayalam film industry till yesterday," says a film director who did not want to be named. Don, incidentally, was one of Dileep's superhit movies in 2006.

The events that led to the superstar's arrest had all the makings of a crime thriller. When Dileep, whose real name is Gopalakrishnan, left to meet police officials on the night of July 9, he was still hoping to make it back home. The 48-year-old had contacted a 'friend', a senior Kerala police officer, who had reassured him that there was "nothing to worry". But minutes into the interrogation with prime suspect 'Pulsar' Suni, Dileep realised he was trapped. He first pleaded innocence, but later confessed to his role in the crime.

The incident happened on February 17 this year. Suni and his cohorts abused the actress in a moving car in Kochi for over two hours. After videographing the assault, she was dropped off near film director Lal's home in Kochi. Following a complaint, the police detained Martin Antony, her chauffeur that day, for questioning. He led them to Suni, who was arrested when he came to surrender in Ernakulam. Though there were rumours from the beginning, Dileep's involvement only came to light after he complained of being blackmailed by Suni's jail mates. Vishnu, Suni's partner, wanted Rs 1.5 crore to keep the actor's role a secret. A senior police official says they have all sorts of evidence against the conspirators. "The victim's statement did not mention Dileep. But we knew Suni had the backing of someone powerful. When Dileep lodged the complaint, we started focusing on him," he says.

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According to the police, the victim was close to Dileep and his ex-wife and actress Manju Warrier, before the couple separated. In fact, earlier on she was promoted by Dileep in many of his films. But later, the actor suspected that she had ratted on him, telling Warrier about his extra-marital relationship with actress Kavya Madhavan (whom he later married). This sparked off the animosity that later led to the hiring of Suni, according to the police. Suni has also told the police that he had tried to attack the actress twice before, once in Goa, and another time near her home in Thrissur, Kerala, but the plan didn't work out.

Following Dilip's interrogation, DGP Loknath Behera, who had gone through the witness statements (by 40 people and running into 900 pages), briefed CM Pinarayi on July 10 about the developments in the case. The CM had been roundly criticised for his comments supporting Dileep in the early days of the case. He had given a free hand to the investigation team afterwards to score a political point. Also, the actress was said to be planning to approach the high court to demand a CBI probe. With Dileep's arrest, Pinarayi hopes to send out a strong message that such crimes will not go unpunished while also blunting some of the Opposition's criticism.

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Meanwhile, the senior police official told india today that they had "all the evidence needed against Dileep in the case". Next up for the 'don' of Malayalam movies: some real life drama behind bars.

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Gov. Greg Abbott, saying he has kept the promises he made when he launched his first campaign for governor here, returned to the Alamo City on Friday to ask voters to give him four more years so he can take on the liberals trying to make Texas inroads.

To keep Texas the very best state in the United States, Im running for reelection, Abbott told an enthusiastic crowd at The Depot in Sunset Station. Im willing to take on liberals, Im willing to take on Washington, D.C., and Im counting on you to have my back.

Vocal protesters among the crowd were led out of the hall before the governor spoke, introduced by his daughter, Audrey. One heckler briefly interrupted his speech, but was drowned out by supporters chanting Abbotts name.

Abbott said he wants to build on a first term that included tax reductions, education initiatives, an expansion of gun rights, restrictions on abortion and an emphasis on border security.

He touted the controversy-stirring sanctuary cities bill he signed into law this year, and he invoked the memory of slain San Antonio Police Officer Miguel Moreno in citing new police protections.

Abbott talked about his ties to San Antonio, where his wife grew up and where his brother, who served in the Navy, has retired.

Its great to be back in a town where I once waited on tables. Its great to be back in a town where I married my wonderful wife. And it is great to be back in a town where I launched my first campaign for governor, where we went on to win by 20 percentage points, Abbott said.

Among a small group of protesters across the street before the event started was George de la Garza, a retired architect holding a sign that said, No Sanctuary 4 Abbott.

He doesnt look out for the disenfranchised, for the minorities and the poor, said de la Garza, of San Antonio. We have to say, San Antonio is not a sanctuary for you.

Protester Rebecca Flores, 74, also referred to the sanctuary cities law, which includes a provision to ensure law officers can ask people who are detained about their immigration status.

I'm worried that the color of my skin will prompt police officers to ask me about my papers, she said, adding that the law will divide our community and it won't keep us safe. Even today, (immigrants) are staying away from clinics ... They're hiring people to go to the grocery stores just to buy groceries for them. We are creating a divided community where people are afraid to know who's living near.

Abbott supporters also were passionate.

Hes been a good leader, pointing the state in the right direction, said Ford Bible, 73, of San Antonio.

Gerardo Jerry Garcia, 45, of San Antonio, said Abbott has great ideas  about making the state strong economically while serving a diverse population and said he shares the governors Catholic faith.

I will say that I invite all my fellow Hispanics and Catholics to support someone who's done great things for this state, he said.

Earlier in the day, Abbott toured the Boeing global services and support site, one of the largest military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities in the world.

Forrest Milburn contributed to this report

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
DALLAS (AP) While taking time to share memories of their time at the White House during a stop in Texas Thursday, Bill Clinton took time to pose for a now viral photo outside the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University.

Clinton was dwarfed while standing between large statues of George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush and Clinton's press secretary snapped a photo and tweeted it saying "Everything is bigger in Texas."
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Texas Congressman Beto ORourke raised $2.1 million in his first three months as an official candidate for the U.S. Senate, his campaign said.

The El Paso Democrat has quickly emerged as the Democrats top hope to take on U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. His $2.1 million is nearly three times as much as Democrat Paul Sadler raised in all of 2012 in his campaign against Cruz.
Politicos, particularly those of the tea party persuasion, like to note that House Speaker Joe Straus is not elected statewide.

The implication being that Republican primary voters across the Lone Star State would never elect a moderate such as Straus, making the good speaker a RINO obstructionist to the true conservative agenda. To Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state Rep. Jonathan Stickland and other tea party darlings, Straus hasnt earned his place at the Republican table even though he is a lifelong R who was sitting at the table when Stickland was potty training.

Thats why I say, Joe Straus for president!

Lets face it, 2020 is fast approaching and the country sure could use his steady and thoughtful leadership that unifies people and serves the public with dignity, grace, pragmatism and compassion.

Could Straus win a statewide Republican primary? I dont know. Texas is a special place. The Bexar County Republican Party recently condemned him. But what about New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada? Its time to make like another Texas great, ZZ Top, and go nationwide.

Crazy? For some reason, people keep underestimating him. Straus just likened Gov. Greg Abbotts not-so special session to a room full of manure. During the not-so-special regular session, he slammed the door on Patricks unnecessary bathroom bill, first citing the economic hit to the state. Eventually putting it into human terms.

Im disgusted by all this, he said of the bathroom bill in a recent New Yorker article. Tell the lieutenant governor I dont want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.

Finally, someone said it. Concern that the bathroom bill will spark an economic boycott is real, but the human indignity of targeting a vulnerable group of people for political points is disgusting.

Sure, Abbott and Patrick get all the ink when it comes to the political horizon as befitting those who have won statewide office; but Straus, arguably, has the strongest case for president of any Texas pol.

Hes experienced  and he doesnt even need to be.

We elected Donald J. Trump as president, and he had no political experience. Closer to home, Democrats dont even blink when former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castros name is floated as a presidential contender. Sure his talents are immense, but his resume is relatively short.

But Straus was first elected to state office in 2005, and has been Speaker of the Texas House for five sessions. He was U.S. Rep. Lamar Smiths campaign manager way back in 1986 when scientists were sounding alarms about global warming, and he served under presidents George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Hes also effective. Granted, this isnt really a requirement for higher office as another Texan, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, has shown. But its nice to know that Straus keeps government running and even tries to improve it.

He wants public schools to be properly funded because its a path to economic opportunity and lower property taxes.

He cares about this states long-term water security. He doesnt want to gut funding for state universities. He wants to improve Child Protective Services so that children are safe and workers dont burn out. He has supported increased border security funding  but not with a blank check.

He says stuff like, Too often, we knowingly walk right into controversies that repel jobs and opportunity. We seem determined to repeat the mistakes that other states have made.

He works with Republicans and Democrats, which is why the tea party hates him. But the hunch here is its what most Americans want. Congressional approval ratings are consistently between nothing and next-to nothing. Again and again, voters express frustration that Washington D.C. is broken.

If by broken, voters mean they want lawmakers to address real problems, then Straus is their man.

So, lets recap. Straus wants Texas to have great public schools so people can have jobs and opportunities. He cares about fixing real problems. He wants to steer clear of harmful and unnecessary controversies. He successfully works with Republicans and Democrats. He values local control. Hes pro-business.

Yep, the politicos are right. In a statewide Texas GOP primary, Straus is doomed. But nationally, he just might be what we need. Joe Straus, 2020.

jbrodesky@express-news.net
With a stroke of his veto pen, Gov. Greg Abbott wiped out a bunch of air quality monitors here and in other cities across Texas. Places where the air is hard to breathe and good monitoring is crucial to good policy.

It was a regrettable and shortsighted decision, as unsurprising as it was unfortunate. After all, Texas politicians have a long track record of making poor decisions when it comes to the health and well-being of their constituents.

Just by way of example, consider how it took years for lawmakers in Austin to pass a law to ban texting while driving even though the combination kills hundreds of Texans each year. Abbott signed that bill into law, and then promptly announced a desire to get rid of tougher local bans.

So, its no surprise Abbott would nix $6 million in funding for air quality monitors in regions near nonattainment for federal ozone standards.

In doing so, he said he wants the state to focus on areas already in nonattainment so Texas is better positioned to combat the business-stifling regulations imposed on these areas by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But if air quality in those regions worsens and slips into nonattainment, wouldnt that lead to more of those stifling regulations?

It doesnt matter. The ship has sailed with the veto. The upshot for the San Antonio region is a loss of $1.5 million to operate six air monitors by the Alamo Area Council of Governments.

San Antonio has not been designated non-attainment for ozone levels, but the monitors say otherwise. Readings now place the region at 72 parts per billion, which is above the 70 parts per billion federal standard set in 2015.

At the federal level, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has delayed enforcing the standard for another year.

The state may not want to monitor our air quality, and the federal government may not want to enforce the ozone standard, but neither changes the reality of our air quality.

Since ozone can cause asthma, coughing, wheezing or prematurely kill people, its good to know whats up with our air quality.

That was the point of these six monitors.

Yes, our air will still be monitored. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will operate three monitors, and CPS Energy has two monitors, according to Express-News reporter Brendan Gibbons. But the additional six monitors ensured full coverage of the region and therefore better data.

Think of it like a cellphone coverage map, but instead of asking Can you hear me now? people are asking, What are you breathing now?

Like so many other instances of state inaction, it now falls to local leaders to pick up the slack. San Antonio and Bexar County, and to a lesser degree the more rural members of AACOG, should fund these six monitors.

Diane Rath, AACOGs executive director, told Gibbons it should cost $120,000 to operate the monitors through June and then $370,000 annually thereafter.

A chunk of change, but in the scheme of government, a small but important expense.

These monitors would provide better data about our air quality. They would also ensure there is accurate data to supplement or counter data or indifference at the state and federal levels of government.

Ignoring our air quality doesnt make it better.
By PTI: Kochi, Jul 14 (PTI) A court in nearby Angamaly today refused bail to popular Malayalam actor Dileep, arrested in connection with the alleged abduction and assault of a South Indian actress, and sent him to judicial custody till July 25.

Opposing the bail plea moved by the actors counsel, the prosecution informed the judicial magistrate court that there is strong evidence against Dileep and expressed apprehension that granting bail would lead to tampering of evidence and influencing witnesses as he is very influential.

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It would also adversely affect the ongoing probe into the conspiracy behind the sensational case, the prosecution said. Special prosecutor A Sureshan alleged that supporters of Dileep have launched a strong campaign through social media hailing the actor, who is a prime suspect in the case.

If the actor is let out on bail, such campaigns, which have also targeted police, would be further strengthened, affecting the investigation, he said.

The prosecution alleged that the accused, charged under various sections of IPC, including Section 120(B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy) has spoken to the media against the actress who was subjected to brutal assault in a moving car on February 17 and that if he was out on bail, that would be a threat to the victim.

The government lawyer also pointed out that no accused arrested in connection with the case had been granted bail.

Moreover, police are looking for two other persons-- Dileeps manager and a lawyer-- who are also suspected to have links with the key accused in the case, Pulsar Suni. The prosecution also submitted a case diary in the court in a sealed cover to strengthen its argument. Considering the arguments of the prosecution, the court denied bail to Dileep and sent the actor to judicial custody till July 25. Dileeps counsel said they would move a higher court seeking bail. The actor, brought to the court amid tight security on completion of three-day police custody, was later sent to a sub-jail in Aluva, which is also his home town.

The actors counsel argued that his client was made an accused in the case merely on statements given by the first accused Pulsar Suni, who is a habitual offender. He alleged that there was no evidence against Dileep and he was being framed in the case.

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Counsel also submitted a sealed cover with two mobile phones of Dileep to the court, with a plea to conduct a scientific examination of them without handing them over to police, as they would then be tampered with.

This move came even as police claimed that the phone used by the prime accused to take a video of assault of the actress reached Dileep through alawyer allegedly connected with Pulsar Suni.

Police reportedly conducted a search in the house of Dileep in search of the mobile phones.

Police had taken the 48-year-old actor, arrested on July 10, to various places in Kochi, Thrissur and Thodupuzha to carry out their investigation. Initially the court had remanded the actor to 14 days judicial custody.

Police have claimed that the conspiracy to abduct and assault the actress and film the dastardly act was hatched by Dileep and Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the case. Police in its remand report had claimed that Dileep had developed a grudge against the actress for letting his former wife know about his alleged affairs and hatched a conspiracy to take revenge way back in 2013. The popular 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 February 17 and later escaped in a busy area here. Six persons, including Pulsar Suni, have been arrested in connection with the incident. After his arrest on the charge of conspiracy, Dileep has been expelled from various film forums, including the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), as the industry rallied behind the actress. Breaking her silence on July 13, the actress had expressed the hope that truth would come out in the case. PTI TGB APR ZMN

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US Forces-Afghanistan announced today that the emir of the Islamic States Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province, also known as ISIS-Khorasan) was killed in a strike on the groups headquarters in Kunar Province on July 11.

Abu Sayed is the third emir of Wilayah Khorasan, which operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to be killed in less one year. But he is the first hunted down in Kunar, as the US eliminated both of his predecessors in the nearby Nangarhar province.

This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017, General John Nicholson, the commander of US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), said in a statement. Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated, Nicholson continued. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

The groups first emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan, died in a US airstrike in the Achin district of Nangarhar on July 26, 2016. Khan, a former commander in the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban, or TTP), announced his allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in late 2014.

Wilayah Khorasan was established after Khan went through the application process set up by the so-called caliphate for forming new branches, Nicholson previously explained. Nicholson added that the Islamic State mother organization in Iraq and Syria has provided its Khorasan arm with advice, publicity, and some financial support.

Khans successor, Abdul Hasib, was killed during a raid in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Apr. 27.

Abdul Hasib directed the Mar. 8 assault on the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital in Kabul, according to USFOR-A. In order to sow confusion, the jihadists dressed as hospital employees during that attack, which resulted in more than 100 Afghans being killed or wounded. Hasib also directed fighters to behead local elders in front of their families and ordered the kidnapping of women and girls to force them to marry Wilayah Khorasan fighters.

The operation that led to Abdul Hasibs death involved approximately 50 US Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos, according to the Department of Defense. The joint American-Afghan team was inserted by helicopter into the Mohmand Valley about 10:30 p.m. local time on Apr. 26 and immediately engaged in an intense, three-hour firefight. Two Americans died during the operation and the Pentagon is investigating the possibility that they were struck by friendly fire. In addition to Abdul Hasib, several other senior Wilayah Khorasan leaders and about 35 ISIS operatives are thought to have died during the fighting.

The battle took place near the location where the US dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB, or Mother of All Bombs) on a Wilayah Khorasan tunnel complex earlier in April. Afghan officials initially said that the explosion caused 36 Islamic State casualties, but subsequently increased their estimate to 94 killed, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Another American also perished in a separate operation carried out against Wilayah Khorasan in Nangarhar in April.

Little is publicly known about Abu Sayed. But the US quickly identified him as a key figure in Wilayah Khorasan and tracked him down less than three months after his predecessor, Abdul Hasib, was killed.

The US has targeted not only Wilayah Khorasans emirs, but also other key personnel in the group. In June, the US military announced that Jawed Khan, a senior director of media production was killed in a June 3 airstrike in Nangarhar. The strike also destroyed a major ISIS-K media production hub and disrupts their connections to ISIS main in Syria, the US military said.

While Wilayah Khorasan has suffered significant leadership losses, the same cannot be said for its much larger jihadist rival: the Taliban. Senior Taliban figures are thought to be based in Pakistan, where they are free to operate with relative impunity. The US did kill Taliban emir Mullah Mansour in a May 2016 airstrike. But that bombing was an exception. Mansours successor, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has survived more than a year since then. Siraj Haqqani, who serves as one of the Talibans top two deputies, has also managed to escape death for years. It is well known that the Haqqani Network, a key part of the Taliban coalition, has an extensive network inside Pakistan.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
By PTI: Assembly Lucknow, Jul 15 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh police today put in place the anti-sabotage measures apart from sounding a high alert as the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) started recording statements of employees of the Assembly in connection with the recovery of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive.

The officials of the ATS questioned and recorded the statements of 15 people who were present or on duty in the premises of the Assembly at the time of recovery of PETN on July 12, ATS Inspector General (IG) Aseem Arun said.

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About 150 grams of PETN was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhary in the Assembly on Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said yesterday, describing it as a "dangerous terror conspiracy".

As per the directives of the Chief Minister, all necessary security measures were looked into and a mock drill of the security will be undertaken tomorrow along with all the security agencies, the IG said.

All necessary measures will be put into place so as to ensure that there is no security breech in future, he said.

Those who were questioned included the assistant marshals, technical staff and security personnel, he said. Besides, the ATS also looked into the details of the CCTV footage of 23 cameras of which 12 are in the Assembly and is also studying the Doordarshan recording, he said. Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told PTI that all the anti-sabotage measures have been put in place, apart from sounding a high alert.

"As immediate measures, Quick Response Teams, ATS and additional PAC personnel have been deployed in the UP Legislature Building. Apart from this, security audit of the entire Assembly complex is being done," Kumar said.

"An integrated security plan is being deliberated upon, which will ensure effective liasion with Sachivalaya Suraksha Dal," he said.

Entry on old passes has been disallowed, and people with bonafide passes are only allowed to enter the precincts of UP Legislature Complex. Allaying fears over reports of detection of another white powdery substance yesterday while conducting intensive checking, the ADG (Law & Order) said, "It was a packet containing magnesium sulphate, which is used as drying agent in packing material. The ATS has taken the packet in its custody."

Later, IG ATS Aseem Arun said, "About 75 grams of Magnesium sulphate was found. It is non-explosive ..if required we will send it for examination." The ADG said, "As many as 109 close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been made functional, so as to increase the vigil. After this the necessary equipments such as boom barriers may also be installed to enhance the security." Meanwhile, ATS sources informed that three teams of ATS will remain posted in the UP Legislature Complex. PTI NAV SAB AKK

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Former IMA president of Agra chapter who is known for promoting Beti Bachao - Beti Padhao arrested for sex determination of foetus.

By Siraj Qureshi: With the Rajasthan police arresting former Indian Medical Association (IMA) chapter president of Agra and the owner of Chopra Super Speciality Hospital Dr Nirmal Chopra for illegally determining the sex of a foetus.

Speculations are rife in Agra that several other ultrasound clinics in the city could also be under scanner.

Dr Chopra was arrested on Friday evening along with her receptionist Tanisha, two brokers Netrapal and Mahipal and is being kept in police custody in Bharatpur, where the police is interrogating her to know the extent of this racket.

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According to the police sources, the brokers Mahipal and Netrapal charged Rs 30,000 for sex determination from the family of the expecting mother and out of this, Rs 15,000 was given to Dr Chopra, while the remaining amount was distributed equally between Tanisha, Mahipal and Netrapal.

SONOGRAPHY MACHINE SEALED

The police have also sealed the sonography machine installed at the hospital. PCPNDT team leader Naveen Jain told India Today that the team had received information that Dr Chopra was indulging in this illegal activity of sex determination and many women from Bharatpur, Dholpur and other districts of Rajasthan were consulting her for the same.

The team had also learned that Dr Chopra was also suggesting and conducting abortions of female foetuses.

To arrest Dr Chopra and her accomplices, a sting operation was laid out with a pregnant woman from Bharatpur used as a decoy. The woman was brought to the Sadar Bazar based nursing home of Dr Chopra where the receptionist Tanisha demanded Rs 30,000 for determining the sex of the foetus. The payment was made and the woman was taken in for ultrasound.

As soon as Dr Chopra pronounced the sex of the foetus, she was taken into custody along with her accomplices. The amount of Rs 30,000 was also recovered and they were taken to Bharatpur for further inquiry.

Dr Chopra has been the president of the Agra Chapter of IMA from 2007-2009. She is also a member of several social organizations and is renowned as a social worker in the city.

Her stress during her public appearances always remained on 'Beti Bachao - Beti Padhao' campaign of PM Modi, but in the guise of social work, she was involved in one of the most heinous of acts.

HOTSPOT FOR SEX DETERMINATION

Social activist Vishal Sharma said that Agra has become the hotspot for sex-determination these days. Several such cases have been reported in the recent few years, but Dr. Chopra's case is the most high-profile of them all as her image in the city was that of a socially active and responsible professional.

But it is clear that she is not alone in this racket and names of other doctors have been revealed from time to time by the police.

Several doctors have even been arrested, but this activity is still continuing, as was proved by Dr Chopra's arrest. It is very shameful that despite the wildly skewed sex ratio in most of the country, medical professionals are themselves getting involved in such barbaric acts.

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He said that it is the responsibility of the health department as well as social organizations to prevent such illegal activities and strict action should be taken against such people who are involved in this.

SEVERAL STATES INVOLVED IN SEX DETERMINATION

Senior Physician Dr S K Kalra said that it is not just Agra that has become the center of such activities, but there are such black sheep in almost every large city of Uttar Pradesh, although Agra is more easily accessible as it shares the border with several states including Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

IMA President Dr R S Kapoor said that this case has severely dented the image of the IMA and the association would like to go to the depth of this incident.

He said that the association is completely against sex determination of fetuses and if Dr Chopra is indeed involved in this racket, then the association will take action against her in the coming meeting.

Also Read:

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Supreme Court denies pregnant woman permission to abort foetus with brain defect

Unbelievable! 3.5 kg foetus removed from one-year-old girl in Tamil Nadu

Supreme Court turns down request to abort 26-week-old foetus with Down syndrome

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MARTINSVILLEThe case against a Martinsville woman who allegedly threatened a group of Social Services workers will go to trial. On Friday, a Martinsville General District Court judge certified (or sent) three charges against 24-year-old Nikki Gionelli Walker to Circuit Court.

According to arrest warrants and a criminal complaint by Sgt. D.A. Graham of the Martinsville Police Department, Walker left the Social Services building a few minutes past closing on May 3 after completing a supervised visitation. As Walker was leaving the building, she turned to a group of employees who were leaving and allegedly said, I dont know which one of you are a supervisor, but the next time you take my child I am going to blow every one of your (expletive) up.

The criminal complaint alleged that four Department of Social Services employees heard the statement and that Walker was identified as the person who made the statement.

Walker was charged with four counts of issuing a felony bomb or burn threat. On Friday in Martinsville General District Court, Judge Marcus Brinks sent to Martinsville Circuit Court three of those charges and dismissed one charge.

General District Court

Also in Martinsville General District Court on Friday, Ashley Nicole Horton, 31, of Stuart, waived her preliminary hearing on five charges of felonious embezzlement. Those charges now will go to Circuit Court.

A criminal complaint by Sgt. D.A. Graham of the Martinsville Police Department alleged that a regional manager of Texas Steakhouse contacted the police department to report the discovery of some missing deposits from the Martinsville restaurant, located at 283 West Commonwealth Boulevard. Officials found that a $361.34 deposit for March 8, a $1,426.29 deposit for May 3, a $441.07 deposit for May 15 and a $270.57 deposit for May 16 had all been taken from the safe.

Those deposits totaled $3,091.94.

Four of the five missing deposit bags were recovered from Hortons residence and had her signature on them, the criminal complaint alleged. During this time, she was working as one of the restaurants floor managers. The criminal complaint also alleged that Horton confessed to investigators that she took the money.

Upon interviewing Ms. Horton, she admitted to taking the deposit bags and had planned on using the money to pay her bills, the criminal complaint alleged.

Also in General District Court, A Sept. 29 court date was set for Kenneth Austin Tatum of Martinsville on a charge of malicious shooting or throwing at a train or car. The offense allegedly happened on May 31.

A Sept. 8 court hearing was set for Donald Lee Hairston of Martinsville on a charge of attempted breaking and entering of an occupied house. The offense allegedly happened on July 1.

Lindsey Leigh Epling of Martinsville, who was charged with a one felony count of stealing a credit card number, was convicted of an amended charge of misdemeanor petty larceny. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail, all suspended, and was fined $100. The offense allegedly happened on Feb. 25. The prosecution nolle prossed (dropped but could reinstate) a second charge of stealing a credit card number against Epling.

A judge certified (or sent) to Circuit Court a charge of grand larceny against Robert Lewis Lavinder of Martinsville. The offense allegedly happened on Dec. 15, 2016.

A charge of obtain drug by fraud against Penny Lou Coen of Ivydale, West Virginia, was sent to Circuit Court. The offense allegedly happened on March 29.

A July 26 court hearing was set for Tyjohnnah Everlina Hairston of Martinsville on a charge of robbery of residence. The offense allegedly happened on July 8.

A July 26 court hearing was set for Joshua Lamont Pritchett of Martinsville on a charge of robbery of residence. The offense allegedly happened on July 8.

A Sept. 8 court hearing was set for Marcus Antonio Bradley of Martinsville on charges of entering a structure to commit a designated crime, destruction of property and grand larceny. The offense allegedly happened on July 11.

An Oct. 13 court hearing was set for Willisha Sharee Grant of Martinsville on a charge of robbery of residence. The offense allegedly happened on July 8.
Liberal wonder-boy Emmanuel Macron, the new President of France, last week gave a hair-raising press conference. Speaking at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Macron framed an argument against giving foreign aid to African countries by painting a picture of a feckless African civilisation populated by women who  presumably through their own stupidity or lack of self-control  have seven or eight children.

In the same week, a Tory MP casually used the phrase N***** in a woodpile while giving a talk on Brexit  an extraordinarily racist comment that did not attract so much as a flicker of surprise or disgust from fellow Tory MPs at the meeting.

In todays world, where sensitivity to racism has never been so acute, how is it that leading politicians still manage to unthinkingly spout such racist remarks?

Racism and liberalism

Macron: photo credit Mutualite Francaise

Some of the media have blamed Macrons comments on the legacy of French colonialism, which has imprinted itself onto the consciousness of establishment politicians. There is certainty much truth to this.

The quest for ever-increasing profits drove the early capitalists to every corner of the globe, to enslave, subjugate and work to death anyone who happened to be sitting on valuable natural resources. Racism, in turn, was fostered to provide an ideological cover for colonialism. It encouraged the workers of one country to see those of another country as sub-human, and therefore fair game for brutal exploitation. This racism is what divided the workers of France against the workers of Algeria for example. Thanks to capitalism, racism has been embedded in society for centuries.

But this is just half of the explanation. Macrons racism is not just a bad habit that hes picked up by hanging around with a bad crowd and that he now needs to grow out of by thinking differently. Macron racist thinking reflects the interests he defends: a capitalist system that still relies on racism on a day-to-day basis in order to divide and exploit the workers of the world.

Just as, in the past, colonialist racism divided the workers of one country against another, today racism is used to divide workers of different races against one-another within a country like France. Black and North African people are crowded into poverty-stricken neighbourhoods in the suburbs of cities like Paris and Marseille where they are left behind by the rest of society. Unemployment is higher amongst young people of black and North African origin than any other group in French society, whether immigrant or not. And this antagonism is cemented by the institutionalised police racism which, most recently, led to the rape of a young black man who had not committed any crime whatsoever, by police using a police baton.

The Independent asks Are we finally realising that Macron isnt that liberal after all? in the wake of his racist remarks at the G20 press conference. In fact, theres no contradiction between liberalism and racism. Liberals like Macron cheerfully cut state spending in the full knowledge that the cuts will hit black people and other minorities far harder than any other group. Ultimately, as Malcolm X said, you cant have capitalism without racism. If Macron defends the capitalist system then he defends the racism of that system. That, ultimately, is the reason behind his racist comments.

What else do you expect from the Tories?

Anne Marie Morris MP: photo credit Conservative partyCasual racism from the Tory Party, meanwhile, should come as no surprise to anyone, since this is a party which, unlike Macron, rarely even attempts to cover its love for divisive and poisonous ideology with liberal phraseology.

The MP who made the racist comment, Anne Marie Morris, claimed that she didnt even mean to cause offence. The only conclusion to be draw from this response is that Morris must either be extremely naive or offensively disingenuous. Theresa May has tried to distance herself from the remark, and the Tory Party has suspended, but not withdrawn, the whip from the MP (leaving the Tories in the precarious position of being just six racist comments away from losing their majority).

The fact is that the Tories, among others, have spent decades consciously whipping up racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and nationalism to suit their own political and class interests. Their whole domestic and foreign policy agenda is racist from start to finish. Most recently, the Tory right wing and rank-and-file  supported by a rabidly racist press  did this to secure a vote for Britain to leave the EU, with the resulting increase in racist attacks in the aftermath of that referendum.

It is inevitable, therefore, that a party which spends all its time consciously pursuing racist policies like the Prevent scheme, and using rhetoric about our British values being under attack from immigrants, finds amongst its leading representatives people who use racist slurs without a second thought.

These are not just throw-away comments that shouldnt be read into too much. They give us a glimpse of the systemic, institutional racism coursing through the veins of modern capitalist society.

Irrelevant of whether its a cold-hearted Tory or a liberal leader, any defender of capitalism will find themselves apologising for, playing down, ignoring, or endorsing the racist ideas that are an integral part of that system.

For socialists theres only one way forward:

Fight racism and discrimination in all its forms!

Fight for the unity of workers of all races!

Fight for the overthrow of the capitalist system!



The original article for Socialist Appeal
The Venezuelan opposition is stepping up its campaign with a sovereign consultation on Sunday July 16. The three questions asked in this consultation are about the legitimacy of the Constituent Assembly the government has called for, the need for the armed forces to intervene and remove the government and the formation of a so-called government of national unity. The opposition has announced that the consultation on July 16 will be the zero hour for a national, permanent and open ended trancazo (road blockades), until the fall of the dictatorship.

The aim is clear: to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. The opposition had already refused to participate in the Constituent Assembly elections of July 30, but now, the first question of their consultation asks whether people reject and do not recognise that Assembly. Furthermore, question two demands from the armed forces and all civil servants  to back the decisions of the National Assembly. This is a clear call for the armed forces to mutiny against the president.

Finally the third question calls for the renewal of all public powers (even though their terms of office have not been exhausted), free and transparent elections (though it does not specify for which offices: councils, regional, presidential, national assembly?) and finally the formation of a government of national unity in order to re-establish the constitutional order (though it is not stated who would compose such a government, or for what period of time would it be in office).

It is ironic, or more precisely cynical, that the opposition now uses the banner of the Bolivarian constitution which they rejected at the time, have opposed ever since and which they abolished during their coup in April 2002.

In effect, the opposition is calling for the removal of all state powers, except those they control, and for them to come to power by force. This is their attempt to resolve the conflict between the different state institutions in their favour and is strongly reminiscent of the April 2002 coup they carried out. Then, as is being called for now, the Armed Forces intervened to remove the president, and the opposition created a so-called government of national unity presided by bosses federation chief Pedro Carmona. One of the main aims of the opposition with this consultation is to give some sort of legitimacy to a new government of theirs which then they will try to get international recognition for.

To add more weight to their insurrectionary move, a series of right wing former presidents of different Latin American countries are travelling to Venezuela to participate in the coup and lend it some semblance of legitimacy. Amongst them are Andres Pastrana, from Colombia; Laura Chinchilla, from Costa Rica; and Tuto Quiroga, from Bolivia. Of course, all their talk about democracy and human rights is a scandalous farce. Pastrana presided over the implementation of Plan Colombia during which widespread killings and violations of human rights were carried out by Colombian and US troops under the guise of the war on drugs. Chinchilla is an opponent of basic human rights like same sex marriage, abortion and the morning after pill, as well as being mired in corruption scandals during her presidency of Costa Rica. Quiroga is a Bolivian right wing politician who was vice president during the brutal repression of the struggle for water rights in Cochabamba as well as the implementation of a US backed policy of eradication of coca plantations which was carried out by suppressing the local peasant population. Finally, Vicente Fox is also a right wing politician whose career is mired in corruption scandals and repression (in particular of the citizens of Atenco who were opposing their forced relocation to make way for the building of an airport). Any talk of human rights and democracy on the part of these corrupt and repressive politicians is an offensive joke.

Of course, the worlds media is providing a cover for this attempted coup which also has the support of Washington, Madrid and Bogota.

The Venezuelan opposition has always been quick to cry fraud, but only in those cases where they have been declared losers of course, but the way they are organising their consultation lacks even the most basic of guarantees. Opposition leader Negal Morales has claimed that more than 14 million people will participate, something which is clearly physically impossible. First of all, in the last presidential election in 2013, total turnout was 15 million, with 7.2 million voting for the opposition candidate. If over 14 million people were to turn out this time in a consultation convened by the opposition alone, that would mean that ALL Bolivarian supporters have now switched sides, something which is clearly absurd. If you were to take the December 2015 national assembly elections as a basis, 14.3 million voted then, with 7.7 million voting for the opposition. In any case, the opposition claims there will be 1900 voting stations throughout the country, which they say will be opened from 7am until 4pm, that is 9 hours. It would require over 800 people voting every hour, 13 every minute or 1 every 4 seconds in each polling station for 14 million people to vote!! Accuracy, consistency and facts have never been the Venezuelan oppositions strong points.

Negal Morales himself admitted that there was no way of checking that people were not voting twice or more. He said people would not have allocated voting stations and that could generate double voting and appealed to peoples civic consciousness not to do it! To add to the farcical nature of the process, he added that voting records would be burnt immediately after the count. Well, there you have it. The type of democracy the Venezuelan opposition is interested in is one where what counts are the declared results, not what people vote for nor how many do actually vote.

You can be sure that on the same night the Venezuelan opposition will declare a massive victory in which millions will be declared as having voted to reject Maduros dictatorship. Their whole campaign is based in their age-old anti-Communist hysteria. According to their thinking, if the Constituent Assembly goes ahead it will impose a Cuban constitution and since Castro-Communists eat children for breakfast, that must surely be a very bad thing. The Constituent Assembly will serve, allegedly, to abolish private property (and by this they mean not only the means of production, but above all YOUR personal property). Finally, the Constituent Assembly will consolidate Maduros dictatorship. One loses count of how many times this Castro-Communist dictatorship has been consolidated!!

On the basis of this massive success, the opposition has promised to step up the struggle in what they described as a national zero hour, the uprising of the whole country. Vice-president of the National Assembly and opposition leader Freddy Guevara has promised that from July 17 there will be mass civil disobedience, with even stronger measures, including road blockades, a. national strike, the takeover of Caracas and indefinite occupation of roads, and he added that if all that doesnt make those mad men realise, then the Army will have to withdraw their support.

Opposition actions to try to overthrow the government have already gone on for over 100 days and have involved violent rioting, gun fire against police officers, innocent bystanders and chavista supporters, the lynching and burning alive of chavista supporters, suspected or real, the use of homemade explosives and rocket launchers, remote controlled roadside explosive devices, the commandeering of a helicopter to attack public buildings, arson attacks against schools, buses, hospitals and social housing projects, etc. One can only wonder what Guevara and the opposition leaders mean when they talk of stepping up the pressure and of using even harsher actions!

The situation in Venezuela is therefore both extremely serious and urgent. The next few hours could be crucial.

The reactionary opposition represents the interests of the oligarchy (bankers, capitalists and landowners) and imperialism which stands behind them. If they were to take power they would launch a massive austerity package on the Venezuelan workers and the poor, with brutal cuts in public spending, the abolition of the Bolivarian social programs, the privatisation of social housing, the privatisation of expropriated companies, the privatisation of re-nationalised utilities, the abolition of the main rights and protections in the Labour Law, etc. At the same time, they would launch a political purge of all state institutions, ministries and state-owned companies and an all out assault on democratic rights, unleashing a lynch mob against chavistas and their organisations.

For this reason we must oppose their reactionary campaign and stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan working people.

As we have explained elsewhere, this does not mean giving support to the present policies of the Maduro government, which are ineffective in combatting reaction and by making constant concessions to the capitalist class undermine the social base of support of the Bolivarian movement. Even now, during the campaign for the Constituent Assembly elections, the so-called patriotic businessmen are advocating the privatisation of expropriated companies as well as the use of the Assembly to strengthen private property rights. This is the main plank of the campaign of Oscar Schemel, for instance, with the full backing of businessman and minister Perez Abad, which has been given ample time in all the state media. That road leads directly to disaster.

The only way to defend the conquests of the revolution is by unleashing the revolutionary self-activity and organisation of the masses of workers, peasants and the poor. An example of what is possible can be seen in the campaigns organised by groups like the Bolivar Zamora Revolutionary Current (which has organised Popular Defence Brigades) or the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force (which is calling for a new revolutionary leadership).

The offensive of the oligarchy must be defeated, but it can only be defeated by revolutionary means.

The duty of revolutionaries and consistent democrats internationally is to oppose the insurrectionary attempts of the reactionary opposition and defend the gains of the Bolivarian revolution. Taking a neutral position puts you objectively on the side of counter-revolution. We must wage a relentless campaign against the lies of the international media, to denounce our own imperialist governments which support reaction in Venezuela in the name of democracy and human rights. At the same time we must support and encourage those in Venezuela who are beginning to draw the correct revolutionary conclusions from this crisis: we cannot make half a revolution.
By Mausami Singh: Before the start of the Parliament session, the government in attempt to reach out to the Opposition held a second briefing on Indo-China standoff at Doklam and the Amarnath terror attack in Anantang of Kashmir.

The meeting was held at 5:30pm at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan. A total of 13 parties participated in a one-and-half-hour briefing on the second day.

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The meeting was called by Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and was also attended by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley while Foreign Secretary Jaishankar gave a presentation on the border tensions between India and China at Doklam and the home secretary briefed the leaders on the Amarnath terror attack .

Importantly, the government clarified that the terror attack was not due to any intelligence failure, but more because of terrorist using a sensitive and trouble prone area to target the pilgrims.

The list of political leaders attending the briefing included former PM HD Deve Gowda of Jantaa Dal (Secular), Naresh Gujaral from SAD, Ram Das Athavle of Republican party of India, D Raja from the Left and other smaller players.

The Opposition leaders stressed on the fact that negotiation was the only route to ease the tension at the border with China and pressed on the government to pursue the matter through diplomatic channels.

This was the second briefing. Yesterday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called for a meeting of Opposition leaders at his residence. It is an attempt by the government to get the Opposition parties on board ahead of the Parliament session. The meeting yesterday was attended by top leaders of Congress the Left, Samajwadi Party, BSP, AIADMK, DMK Trinamool Congress and others.

"In the fight against terrorism, the Opposition party said that we are one, but asked the government to ensure that such incidents do not happen ahead," D Raja, from the left, said.

ALSO READ:

Amarnath terror attack: Police detain PDP MLA's driver for questioning

7 Amarnath pilgrims dead, several injured in terror attack in Anantnag

ALSO WATCH THE VIDEO:

--- ENDS ---
LONGMEADOW -- More than 100 Massachusetts taxpayers who recently tried to make estimated payments on their 2017 taxes through the MassTaxConnect website instead saw those payments refunded.

Certified public accountant Jeffrey Hirsch of Longmeadow said it happened to his clients. He urged folks who pay ahead on their tax debts to check and make sure the payments went through.

He brought the problem to the state's attention, even getting state Sen. Eric Lesser and his staff involved.

According to the state, a computer system kept trying to apply the payments to the 2016 tax year, for which no money was owed.

Nicole S. Mac Dermott, Department of Revenue spokeswoman, said in an emailed news release:

"The Department of Revenue has corrected a technical error that occurred with a small number of recent payments (0.04%). The Department appreciates the patience of those affected while we work to ensure the payments are properly applied and that no penalties are charged."

The glitch follows a spring problem where some Massachusetts taxpayers received refunds as direct deposits only to see the funds pulled back.

Taxpayers make prepayments, Hirsch said, when their withholding will not be enough to cover their anticipated tax debt. This happens for independent contractors and in situations where one spouse makes significantly more money than the other, he said.

Taxpayers also make estimated payments in order to avoid interest and penalty charges.

Hirsch was told that taxpayers who got refunds in error can send the check back if they have not cashed it. He urged folks to watch their accounts on the MassTaxConnect website.
Maintaining a top-flight restaurant wine list is no easy task. Instead it's typically a labor of love, requiring investments of money, time, and space that could often be put to more productive use.

That's one reason why Wine Spectator magazine's annual Restaurant Awards are so newsworthy. The award designation is not a trivial achievement; it rather reflects ongoing dedication to the development and maintenance of a first-rate wine program.

This year, four restaurants in Western Massachusetts have been singled out for their efforts to provide guests with a memorable wine experience.

Wine Spectator honors restaurants at three levels -- the Award of Excellence, the Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award.

The "Award of Excellence" recognizes restaurants whose wine lists feature a well-chosen assortment of quality producers. "Best of Award of Excellence" recipients offer more extensive selections with significant vintage depth and excellent breadth across multiple regions.

The Blue Heron Restaurant in Sunderland, which has held a Wine Spectator Award designation since 2006, credits its wine list to co-owner Deborah Snow. Its wine card is cited for strength in California and French bottlings.

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge has once again been honored with a "Best of" Award. Sommelier Daniel Thomas is cited for a fine list of wine options from California, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Italy.

Another Berkshire County property that garnered "Best of" designation is Wheatleigh in Lenox, a boutique hotel located near Tanglewood.

One of only 89 Grand Award winners worldwide, Blantyre in Lenox maintained the exalted designation it was first afforded in 2009. Blantyre Sommelier William Seibert manages a wine inventory of nearly 10,000 bottles, a cellar that's filled with some of the best that California, Bordeaux, and Burgundy have to offer.

The entire list of Wine Spectator awards can be seen at winespectator.com

That list is also available in the July 2017 issue of Wine Spectator, which is currently available on newsstands.

Side dishes

Chez Josef will be hosting a Dueling Pianos Dinner Show on July 29. Beginning with a buffet dinner at 7:15 p.m., the evening will include two grand pianos dueling it out using the hits of the past five decades. The music and dancing is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

General admission for Dueling Pianos is $60 plus a $4 ticket broker fee; a link to purchase tickets online can be found at

Chez Josef itself answers at (413) 786-0257.

* * *

The Gill Tavern in Gill has announced that it will be closed for a brief summer vacation from July 26 through July 30, reopening on Aug. 2.

For more details, dial the Tavern at (413) 863-9006.

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The Dairy Queen system will be encouraging its fans to "Eat Dessert First" as part of the chain's Miracle Treat Day on July 27. For that day only Dairy Queen locations will donate $1 for every Blizzard treat sold to a local Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, a network of health care facilities that provide charitable care to young patients.

The featured Blizzard treat for the promotion is the Oreo version; during July Dairy Queen is also offering Frosted Fudge Brownie and Salted Caramel Blondie Blizzard variations.

Dairy Queen operates locally on Memorial Drive in Chicopee and on Enfield Street in Enfield, Conn.

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The Club House Restaurant at the Cold Spring Country Club in Belchertown is presenting BBQ and Live Music on July 22, July 23, and July 30. Shows begin at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

A special barbecue menu will be featured. The Club House, which is open to the public, can be reached at (413) 323-4888.

* * *

PaintNite will be presenting two programs at area restaurants in the next few weeks.

Maggie North will be leading a session on July 31 that features a colorful "Penelope" image; the host venue is the 350 Grill Steakhouse on Worthington Street in downtown Springfield. Parking is available in the restaurant's private lot.

On August 3 PaintNite's Christina Udas will be instructing at Bertucci's in West Springfield. The subject matter is to be a composition entitled "Serene Beach Blossoms."

Both sessions begin at 7 p.m. and are priced at $45. The host restaurants will be making beverages and appetizers available for purchase. PaintNite participants are also encouraged to come early or stay late for dinner.

Tickets for these art night evenings can be obtained on line at PaintNite.com

* * *

The Hofbrauhaus in West Springfield will be holding a Pig Roast Beer Dinner on Wednesday, Aug. 2 starting at 6 p.m. The featured beer is to be Franziskaner Weissbier, a classic summer favorite.

Chips, dips, and fresh salsa will be offered at the start of the event, and the buffet menu is to include a fire-roasted pig, buttermilk fried chicken, brats & knacks over weinkraut, and mac & cheese.

Sides such as coleslaw, potato salad, corn bread, and locally grown corn on the cob will also be served, as will assorted desserts.

Cost to attend is $19.95 not including tax or gratuity; a half-liter stein of beer is, however, part of the package.

For reservations or more details contact the Hofbrauhaus at (413) 737-4905.

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The Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield has announced the dates for its 2017 Farmers' Dinner, dining events that celebrate the local harvest.

The August 10 dinner will feature locally raised chicken, while a second dinner on September 14 will be designed around the Inn's own pastured-grazed beef.

Menu details are subject to the whims of Mother Nature, but the overall pattern for each event includes drinks and nibbles in the Inn yard, then a four-course feast served in the Barn banquet venue.

Tickets for the Farmers' Dinners are $62 including tax and gratuity.

The Inn also continues to host monthly murder mystery dinner theater evenings.

This summer's performances, produced by Stageloft Repertory Theater of Sturbridge, feature the whodunit spoof "A Healthier Life -- The Making of an Info-mercial..."

The interactive theatrical performance and a rustic boneless breast of chicken dinner are covered by the all-inclusive $56 price, and the next performance is scheduled for July 28 at 7 p.m.

Tickets for these or other Salem Cross events can be ordered online at salemcrossinn.com or by calling 508-867-2345.

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Like ballparks and state fairs, amusement parks are the creative wellspring for many new whacky snack ideas.

A few of this year's innovative crop of concession stand snacks were recently profiled in Foodservice Director magazine.

Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, has introduced Crabfries, a variation of the popular crinkle-cut French fry that's seasoned with a crab boil spice blend. A creamy cheese sauce is provided for dipping purposes.

Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif. has also re-conceptualized the humble French fry; the park serves Granny Smith apple fries. Deep-fried in a light crust and dusted with cinnamon sugar, the apple fries come with a whipped cream dip.

* * *

Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, the South Deerfield-based organization that's best known for its "Local Hero" program, has announced the date of their annual "Taste the View" fundraising dinner.

The event is planned for Thursday, September 28, 6 p.m. at Quonquont Farm in Whately. Catering services will be coordinated by Chef Andy Cox, head of Dining Services at Smith College.

For more details go to buylocalfood.org or call CISA at (413) 665-7100.

* * *

Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College's hospitality and culinary arts program and has over 40 years of restaurant and educational experience. Please send items of interest to Off the Menu at the Republican, P.O. Box 1329, Springfield, MA 01101; Robert can also be reached at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com






WESTFIELD -- The 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield has been invited to take part in ceremonies at Fenway Park on Saturday prior to the Boston Red Sox game vs the New York Yankees.

An F-15 Eagle will perform a flyover above Fenway before the 4:05 p.m. game.

Also, Tech. Sgt. John Roach from the 104th Security Forces Squadron will participate in an honor guard on the field.

It is all part of the annual Run to Home Base ceremony that pays tribute to military veterans. More than 1,000 veterans will be welcomed onto the field.

"It is a special privilege to be a part of a ceremony which honors veterans who fought for this country," said Lt. Col. Travis Hazeltine.

"Veterans of the Vietnam War are an incredible group of men and women who deserve our utmost respect and honor. The 104th Fighter Wing is especially honored to show our appreciation during this formal welcome home ceremony at Fenway Park," he said.

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MANSFIELD -- The driver of a pickup truck was killed early Saturday after colliding with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Mansfield, Massachusetts State Police have reported.

Troopers from the Foxboro barracks responded to reports of a two-vehicle crash near the 10 mile marker on I-95 northbound around 5:25 a.m.

The driver of a 2015 Ford F250 pickup truck, which appeared to have struck the rear of a 2015 Kenworth tractor-trailer, was pronounced dead at the scene, state police reported.

The victim's identity was not released.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 56-year-old Providence, Rhode Island man, sustained minor injuries in the crash, but refused immediate medical treatment, according to state police.

A preliminary investigation into the crash suggests that the driver of the pickup truck was traveling at a high rate of speed in the breakdown lane before striking the tractor-trailer, which was disabled in the breakdown lane with a flat tire, state police have reported.

The F250 immediately caught fire upon crashing into the rear of the trailer, police said.

The right two lanes of the road remained closed as of 10 a.m., as emergency crews continued work to extricate the victim.

Troopers assigned to the State Police Foxboro Barracks and the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office are investigating the scene.

The Troop H Headquarters, State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section, State Police Crime Scene Services Section , Mansfield Fire, Mansfield EMS, North Attleboro Fire Department and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation assisted on scene.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Asif Sheth, was a student of USTC (University of Science and Technology, Chittagong), said the police.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: An Indian student named Asif Sheth was killed in an apartment house in Khulshi area of Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong, and the police suspect that he could have been killed by another Indian student named Winson. The incident happened on Friday night.

Asif Sheth, was a student of USTC (University of Science and Technology, Chittagong), said the police. However, it is not yet known what department he was studying in.

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Nayek Hamidur Rahman of the outpost of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) police told the media that an Indian student named Niraz, brought his two classmates to hospital in critical condition around 1:00 am. Asif was declared dead by on duty doctor, and Winson is being treated at the hospital.

Khulshi police station's sub-inspector Jasim Uddin was told that the deceased student is a resident of Manipur state in India.

Jasim said it was initially learned that Asif and Winson were living in the same room, and that the two could have been fighting.

The matter came to light after Niraz, who heard the two shouting, went to check on them and found their door locked from the inside.

Niraz broke the door down and upon entering the room found Asif's body hanging from the ceiling fan and Winson lying in a pool of blood. He took them both to the CMC Hospital with the help of his wife.

The police believe the two friends quarreled with each other and Asif wounded Winson, who killed the former and then hanged the body from the ceiling fan. The police are waiting for the autopsy report to confirm the cause of the murder.

--- ENDS ---
WINCHESTER, NH -- Authorities identified the pilot of a small stunt plane that crashed into deep woods in Winchester, New Hampshire, Thursday as John Everson of Danielson, Connecticut.

The Greenfield Recorder reported that the 65-year-old Everson died when his Extra 300 aircraft crashed just after crossing the state line from Northfield, Massachusetts, into Winchester. The FAA said Everson was alone in the two-seater plane.

Witnesses told investigators they heard a loud noise, then saw the airplane go down around 11:30 a.m. Search crews scoured the heavily wooded area off Route 78 in Winchester for hours, and the wreckage was finally located at about 5 p.m.

New Hampshire search crews from Winchester, Hinsdale, Keene, Richmond, Swanzey, Troy and Walpole were joined by Massachusetts crews from Northfield and Warwick.

The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
In an interview with Mail Today, director Madhur Bhandarkar insists that his forthcoming Indu Sarkar, which is based on the Emergency, is not driven by a political narrative.

By Mail Today Bureau: Madhur Bhandarkar is no stranger to controversies. Yet, the storm building up over his upcoming feature, the director's admits, has left him feeling "threatened".

Madhur's new film Indu Sarkar uses Emergency as a backdrop to create a fictional character that closely bears resemblance with Indira Gandhi.

No sooner did the news become public, Congress leader Haseeb Ahmad announced a one lakh-prize for any person who throws black ink on Madhur's face. Earlier this week, a woman named Priya Singh Paul who claims to be Sanjay Gandhi's daughter, alleged that the film would show her "father" and "grandmother" Indira Gandhi in bad light.

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Indeed, the premise of his new film has not gone down well with several Congress leaders, though Madhur has claimed about 70 per cent of his film is fiction. Former MP Jagdish Tytler has demanded the film portray a clean image of him while Maharashtra Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam wants to watch Indu Sarkar before it goes to the censors.

"My sleepless nights will continue till the film releases. There is so much of pressure from political parties and people. Somebody is offering a one-lakh booty to blacken my face. I feel threatened because I am a family person. People close to me tell me I should not go anywhere alone right now," says Madhur, sitting on a sofa in his Mumbai suburb office, remote in hand.

Emergency is one of the darkest chapters of our democracy and Madhur perhaps knew all along making a film around the subject would be a tough call. The television set in the room, on mute mode, plays out his bytes on the controversy his film is generating, as the hour's breaking news. Madhur watches the screen intently, even as he answers our queries.

'I AM STRONG PERSON'

Has he called to beef up his security post the threats? "Not yet. I am a strong person, a fighter. I want to see how things shape up," he says.

On the various issues that have cropped up, Madhur's stance is clear-cut. He will not bow before any pressure.

"The question of showing the film to any politician does not rise. The censors are authorised by the government of India to watch a film first. Why would I show it to a political party? If somebody claims she is Sanjay Gandhi's daughter and asks me to show her the film, why would I agree? Jagdish Tytler wants his image to be a clean one in the film. What do I do? This is all completely absurd. I will not give in to unreasonable demands," says Madhur.

He gets irritated at the mention of the Congress claim that his film has been sponsored by the BJP government. "My film is not sponsored by the BJP. If it was, then I would have preferred making a docu-drama on Emergency or specifically a biopic. Why would I invest my time on a film that is 30 per cent reality and 70 per cent fiction? Such remarks are weird and reckless. If the film was sponsored why didn't I release it before the elections three months back? Or perhaps I could have waited to release it before the 2019 elections?" he retorts.

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'INDU SARKAR ABOUT WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT'

Without naming any political party or politician, Madhur claims those objecting to his film are actually opposing women's empowerment.

"The film is about women's empowerment, about a girl who stammers, about a poetess who rebels against the system. If political parties talk about women's empowerment, then they should support the film. You are suppressing a film that has a female point of view," he declares.

The 48-year-old filmmaker has been known for crossover hits riding strong female protagonists in the past. Films such as Chandni Bar, Page 3, Fashion, Satta, Corporate and Heroine have been highlight projects of several top heroines as Tabu, Konkona Sen Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Raveena Tandon, Bipasha Basu and Kareena Kapoor respectively.

For Indu Sarkar, Madhur has chosen the relatively low profile Kirti Kulhari, mainly because he wants the focus to remain on the subject of Emergency.

Why did he choose such a hardhitting slice of real life this time?

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"I have made a trail of films on different issues. It's not like I used to make candyfloss cinema and have suddenly decided to make a film on Emergency. My films have always rubbed people the wrong way over the past 17 years. Almost all my films - from Chandni Bar, Traffic Signal and Jail to Page 3, Corporate and Fashion - has courted protests. I felt Emergency as a subject has not been depicted on screen. It's something people don't want to discuss. I am here to make a film on something I wanted to, and only I have the right to decide on what subject I will make my film," he declares.

Talking about the research work behind the film, the director says: "I am a big fan of the '70s and loved recreating that era. For six to seven months, I collected things that I have used in the film - like the typewriter, gramophone records, the lights, old phones from Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. I really enjoyed the entire process of making this period film," he says.

How much of it does he remember of Emergency? Madhur recalls he was a child when Emergency happened and did not quite understand what was going on. However, he has managed to revisit that past through his film.

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Many of today's youth don't even know about Emergency. Will they connect with the film? Madhur seems optimistic.

"I'm happy when I see the youth, who are under 35, expressing curiosity about the film. I have been getting so many messages every day since the trailer was released. Youngsters are reacting to the trailer and expressing their desire to watch the film. It tells a human story and will connect with everybody," Madhur assures about his film, which features Kirti Kulhari with Neil Nitin Mukesh, Anupam Kher and Tota Roy Chowdhury.

ALSO READ | Indira Gandhi's 'secret granddaughter' slams Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar

ALSO READ | CBFC orders 12 cuts and 2 disclaimers in Indu Sarkar, leaves Madhur Bhandarkar fuming

ALSO WATCH | Documentary: The story of Emergency in India

--- ENDS ---
A Marion man charged with possessing meth and stealing weapons and medicine from his grandfathers safe last December was given at least a year and a half in prison in McDowell County Superior Court.

Danny Joseph Jimison, 28, of 104 Tiptop Drive, Marion, was found guilty of possession with intent to sell or deliver a schedule II controlled substance, felony larceny and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was sentenced 17 to 30 months in prison. He was given credit for 188 days time served.

On Dec. 6, 2016, Danny Franklin Jimison, the suspects grandfather who lived at the same residence on Tiptop Drive, reported that while he was out of town, someone broke into his safe and stole $3,100 in items, including four firearms, medication and $1,400 in cash and silver dollars.

The following day, Jimison was charged by Detective Eric Rodriguez of the Marion Police Department on drug offenses after he was found with methamphetamine and two glass pipes. He was indicted on these charges in March of this year.

As Jimisons drug charges remained pending, an investigation by the McDowell Sheriffs Office into his grandfathers theft led to Jimison and two other suspects who were previously charged with the same crimes: 44-year-old Steven Edward Hamm, of 1566 Jesse James Drive in Marion, and 36-year-old Joshua Keith Rumfelt, of 190 Happy Family Lane in Nebo.

Some of the stolen property was recovered.

Jimison did not have a prior criminal history within the state of North Carolina. However, according to bills of indictment on these current charges, he was previously convicted in 2008 for receiving images of child pornography by U.S. Naval Investigation Services. He was sentenced to six months and 19 days in prison for that crime, and registered as a sex offender in May 2009.
By PTI: (Eds: Repeating after correcting the name in para 9)

New York, Jul 15 (PTI) Intermittent showers greeted Bollywood stars as they took to the green carpet at the IIFA Rocks event but that did not dampen their spirits.

Stars including Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Shahid Kapoor made sure that the show went on even as some fans chose to leave the MetLife stadium due to the downpour.

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But there were thousands of fans who braved the bone- chilling cold just to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars at the event.

Salman took to Twitter and shared, "Its raining in #NewYork, loving the weather. If it does rain tomorrow it will be awesome dancing in the rain at #IIFA."

While, an excited Shahid wrote, "#IIFA rocks. Rain cant stop the party."

Filmmaker Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan, Varun Dhawan, Anupam Kher, Diljit Dosanjh, Kamal Khan and Riteish Deshmukh were also in attendance at the event which saw a special performance by music maestro A R Rahman.

The Oscar-winning musician collaborated with Diljit Dosanjh, Javed Ali, Jonita Gandhi, Benny Dayal, Neeti Mohan and Haricharan Seshadri for a music medley.

Due to the rains, some concert attendees were not able to make the most of the event.

"I am disappointed as we couldnt enjoy the concert. We walked almost for an hour as we were not getting any cab. We had just bought tickets for 50 dollars each for todays show. We are not sure if we should come tomorrow," Afreen, a fan told PTI.

Panila, who is resident of New York, was also disappointed as she had booked front row tickets but due to rains she had to move few rows behind.

"We had paid 50 dollars for the tickets. We wanted to see the show, so we had booked front row tickets but the rains forced us to move behind. For tomorrow we have booked two tickets for 1000 dollars," she said.

The event was hosted by Riteish Deshmukh and Maniesh Paul. PTI KKP SSN JCH SHD

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By PTI: Shillong, Jul 15 (PTI) Cattle smuggled from India is harming the economy of Bangladesh, a senior officer of Border Guards of Bangladesh said today and formally requested the Border Security Force (BSF) to stop it.

"Actually it (cattle smuggling is harming our economy. If it doesn?t come from India then our dairy farmers can go up and we can take care of ourselves," BGB Region Commander Addl Director General Md Zahid Hasan told reporters here.

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He said, "We have requested BSF to stop smuggling and a lot of other related issues can be resolved by that."

The BGB officer who attended the four-day BSF-BGB Border Coordination Conference here also admitted that cattle smuggling was one of the agendas of the conference.

Stating that cattle all by itself cannot walk across the border, Hasan said, "We have requested that such kind of smuggling be stopped because these cattle are coming from deep inside from within India and from West of India."

The BGB region commander and the Meghalaya frontier BSF IG P K Dubey also met Meghalayas Director General of Police S B Singh and discussed on the issue of cattle smuggling and cross border crimes.

"Action plan has been drawn on intelligence sharing on real time basis on criminal activities on either side of the border, both the forces will promptly act," Hasan said.

The BGB commander has also raised the issue of firing by BSF personnel on Bangladesh nationals.

"There are few in our areas of concern which we have discussed. Some of the incidents categorically were brought before the discussion. We have discussed the issue and we have agreed on certain issues on that and hopefully that will come down to zero," he said. The Meghalaya Frontier BSF IG P K Dubey said border related issues were discussed in details and efforts have been taken to curb trans-border crimes.

"Our main concerns were killing of innocent Bangladeshi nationals and smuggling of drugs, and also to find out the modalities to build our relationships," he said. He also said, "We have expressed zero tolerance for smuggling of fire arms and explosives, human trafficking and drugs. We have agreed to enhance the confidence building measures between both the forces on the ground."

The BSF-BGB conference takes place twice a year and the last one was held in Sylhet in November. PTI JOP RG SNP

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From drinking warm milk before bed to taking sleeping pills, the Internet abounds with sleep aids and advice for those struggling to get a good nights sleep. But new research suggests a completely different approach: find a purpose in life.

Share on Pinterest New research examines the link between having a sense of meaning in life and common sleep disorders.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deem insufficient sleep a significant public health concern, estimating that 50 to 70 million people in the United States have a sleep or wakefulness disorder.

Researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, set out to examine the link between having a sense of purpose in ones life and the quality of ones sleep.

Specifically, they looked at the association between having a sense of meaning and the likelihood of developing sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome (RLS).

Sleep apnea is a disorder in which a person experiences one or more breathing pauses while they sleep. This may lead to a reduced quality of sleep; the breathing pauses may pull the person out of their deep sleep phase and into a shallow, less restful sleep.

RLS is also a sleep disorder, characterized by the irresistible need to move ones legs during sleep. Often, the symptoms are brought on by lying down or sitting down for long periods of time.
Microscopic bugs that live in our homes can mean huge problems for people with allergies and asthma. Dust mites that feed on dead skin cells are one of the most common environmental allergens. They are a trigger for yearlong allergies in populations throughout the world. While prevention is the best However, with a few lifestyle adjustments, certain medication, and a well-cleaned home, dust mite allergies can be controlled. Fast facts on dust mite allergy Dust mites are microscopic, eight-legged creatures that resemble tiny white spiders.

Dust mite allergies present similarly to other allergies, including seasonal ones.

A doctor may find it hard to pinpoint a dust mite allergy during an initial exam.

In many cases, a person can treat allergies to dust mites easily.

What are dust mites? Share on Pinterest Dust mites are microscopic, and cant be seen with the naked eye. Dust mites can be found in all kinds of environments, but in particular they thrive in the home. All continents of the world have dust mites except Antarctica. They thrive in warm, humid environments, such as someones home. Dust mites feed primarily on skin cells. One person sheds enough skin to feed millions of dust mites a day, which means someones home can have millions of dust mites in it. The skin cells shed by people and pets can be found deep within fabric surfaces of a home, such as in the carpets and couches. Dust mites are nearly impossible to get rid of entirely. However, there are steps a person can take to help rid their homes of most of these allergy-causing arthropods.

How do dust mites cause an allergy? Dust mites cause allergies in two ways. The first is through their waste. They produce waste, as they eat, as all organisms do. The waste is an allergen for some people. The second cause of dust mite allergies is the bodies or body parts of these creatures. As dust mites die, their remains stay in place. These remains are the second allergen produced during their life cycle.

Symptoms and diagnosis Share on Pinterest Dust mite allergy is a common type of allergy, and in most cases is easily managed. Often, a person will experience symptoms of dust mite allergy that include: red itchy eyes

runny nose

stuffiness

watery eyes

sneezing

cough

post-nasal drip

itchy throat or nose People who have asthma may find that their asthmatic symptoms are triggered. Because of the similarities with other allergies, it can be hard to distinguish an allergy caused by dust mites. If allergy symptoms persist year-round, it may be a sign that dust mites are the cause. A doctor will refer someone with allergy symptoms to an allergist for further tests, including: Skin prick test (SPT) : A practitioner pokes a small hole in the skin and introduces a drop of an allergen. If the person has an allergy to it, the area will become irritated, red and inflamed.

: A practitioner pokes a small hole in the skin and introduces a drop of an allergen. If the person has an allergy to it, the area will become irritated, red and inflamed. Specific IgE Blood Test: An allergen is added to a blood sample and the amount of antibodies created is measured. The higher the number, the more likely it is that a person is allergic to the substance. A doctor will often use both the test results, along with an interview and examination of the person, to diagnose an allergy to dust mites.

Treatments for a dust mite allergy Share on Pinterest Decongestants, such as nasal sprays, can help to ease some of the symptoms of dust mite allergy including itchy or running nose. There are several treatment options for allergies caused by dust mites. These include: Decongestants to help dry up and keep nasal passages clear.

Antihistamines to help reduce allergic reactions, such as watery eyes.

Nasal steroids to cut inflammation and open up the nasal passages.

Leukotriene inhibitors, such as Singulair (montelukast). These block a pathway in the allergy response. However, Singulair may trigger serious behavioral or mood changes, including suicidal thoughts or actions, in some people. Before taking this medication, a person should discuss the pros and cons with a doctor. The other medications may be useful for people with asthma that is triggered by allergies. If these medications do not relieve symptoms, a doctor may recommend immunotherapy, which works in a way that is similar to vaccines. With immunology, the body is introduced to a small amount of an allergen over a period of time, making it less allergic to certain substances. These methods require a long-term commitment to a treatment plan. Options include: allergy shots, usually multiple times a month for several years

Odactra, which replaces shots with a dissolvable tablet placed under the tongue In addition to over-the-counter and prescription medications, a person may consider other home remedies for allergies. Some at-home treatments include: herbal teas with honey to soothe an itchy throat

herbal combinations that contain butterbur or spirulina

nasal washes These treatments focus on relieving and preventing symptoms. There is no cure for the allergic reaction.
Surprisingly, not all mosquitoes bite; only female ones do. When a female mosquito bites, she is feeding on the blood of the host, which contains necessary proteins and nutrients for her reproductive purposes.

Choosing an effective mosquito repellent can help prevent bites, save individuals from the irritation of a bite, and protect them against mosquito-transmitted illness. With so many mosquito repellents available, it can be tricky to make a good decision.

Mosquito bites can cause itching and discomfort during warmer weather, and they can also transmit serious diseases, such as Zika, West Nile virus, and many others.

Share on Pinterest Using mosquito repellent is especially important in warmer climates as mosquitoes can carry dangerous diseases, including Zika or malaria.

It is important to know what active ingredients a repellent contains before purchasing it. Although a label or a products branding may claim it is capable of great things, it is the active ingredient that determines how effective it will be.

There are a variety of active ingredients commonly used in mosquito repellents. These may be natural or synthetic compounds. Some act as both a repellent and insecticide against mosquitoes.

Considerations to make when weighing up the effectiveness of the active ingredients include:

how effective the product is at repelling one or more species of mosquito

how long the repellent will work

The following are some of the most common active ingredients used in mosquito repellents.

DEET

DEET has been around for more than 60 years. First patented by the United States Army to help protect service men from biting insects, DEET has long proven its effectiveness in repelling all species of mosquito. It also protects against ticks, chiggers, fleas, gnats, and some flies.

DEET can be applied directly to the skin and is available in concentrations ranging from 5-100 percent in more than 100 different products. Its biggest downfall is its greasy feel and disintegrating effects on plastic and polyester.

Permethrin

Permethrin is both a repellent and a contact insecticide. It is not considered safe to apply to human skin. Instead, it is put on clothing, tents, and other gear. In some areas, it has been used to help manage or kill the mosquito populations.

Picaridin

Share on Pinterest Understanding the active ingredients in mosquito repellent is key to understanding how effective different brands are.

Picaridin is a newcomer to the U.S., and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends it for its effectiveness in repelling malaria-carrying mosquitoes. However, it is not as effective with all species of the insects.

Unlike DEET, picaridin is odorless, does not have a greasy feel, and will not destroy clothing or plastics.

It can be obtained in concentrations from 5-20 percent. At 20 percent, it is equivalent to the DEET concentration used by the U.S. military and lasts for 8-10 hours.

IR3535

There are not as many research studies on IR3535 as on other repellents. However, preliminary studies seem to indicate it is not as effective as DEET or some of the other compounds used for repelling insects. It is considered safe for both clothing and skin applications.

Citronella

Citronella has been studied several times over the years. While not considered as effective as some other repellents, citronella has shown better repellent capabilities than DEET for some species of insects.

Citronella is considered safe to put on the skin, and most research suggests it should be applied every 30-60 minutes for maximum effectiveness.

PMD

This is the synthesized version of the oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), which is the only natural substance recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for repelling mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus.

A respected study found that PMD repelled mosquitoes as well as DEET in trials lasting 6 hours. However,

Derived from a natural source, PMD is generally considered safe for all to use.
The CBSE UGC-NET 2017 registration procedure will begin from August 1 and it will be concluded on August 30.

By India Today Web Desk: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released an official notice regarding change in the qualifying criteria of the National Eligibility Test (NET).

The NET exam is conducted for determining the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Eligibility for Assistant Professor only or Junior Research Fellowship and Eligibility for Assistant Professor both in Indian Universities and Colleges.

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Check: CBSE UGC NET November 2017: Official notification to release on this date

Here's what the official notification read:

University Grants Commission wishes to clarify that earlier qualifying criteria for UGC-NET exam involved qualifying top 15 per cent of those candidates in each subject and category, who obtained the minimum required marks in paper I, paper II and paper III according to the category of the candidates.

Subsequent to the orders of the High Court of Kerala, University Grants Commission had revised the procedure and criteria of qualifying candidates and as such it has been decided that 6 per cent of the total candidates who appear in the UGC-NET examination will be declared qualified.

The qualifying percentage out of appeared candidates in the previous four UGC-NET examinations is given below:

June 2015 UGC-NET: 4.83 per cent

December 2015 UGC-NET: 4.96 per cent

July 2016 UGC-NET: 4.08 per cent

January 2017 UGC-NET: 3.99 per cent

Future UGC-NET: 6.00 per cent (With revised qualifying criteria)

About CBSE UGC NET:

UGC (University Grants Commission) is a statutory organisation established by the union government in 1956. Its main objective is to provide recognition to the Indian universities and provide funds to such recognised universities and colleges.

CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) now conducts this exam on behalf of UGC for the post of Lecturer and for providing the JRF for Indian nationals in order to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and in research.

The exam is conducted in streams such as Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce etc.

For more details, candidates can visit the official website.

Read: IIT Guwahati to conduct GATE 2018: Check out the important dates here

For information on more exam results and notifications, click here.

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By Press Trust of India: China said on Friday that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo amounted to "blasphemy" and lodged protests with several countries, including the US, for making "irresponsible statements" on the death of the prominent dissident.

Liu, China's best-known human rights prisoner, died on Thursday at age 61 following a battle with liver cancer. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience died at a hospital in Shenyang, China.

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He was granted medical parole in June after receiving his diagnosis in prison, but China did not let him seek treatment abroad despite Lius wishes and international pressure.

CHINA DRAWS CRITICISM

Liu's death led to international criticism of China's handling of the issue. The leader of the Norwegian Nobel committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said the Chinese government bore a "heavy responsibility" for Liu's death.

Answering a barrage of questions today over the death of Liu, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had lodged protests with "certain countries" for interfering in its "judicial sovereignty".

"Liu is a prisoner who was sentenced to imprisonment in accordance with Chinese law...Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. Its a blasphemy of the peace prize," Geng said, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu in 2010.

"China is a rule of law country and everyone is equal before law. Anyone who violates law will be punished and remarks by certain countries constitutes interference in China?s internal affairs. That goes against the spirit of international law," Geng said at a regular news conference.

China has lodged a protest with the US to show its dissatisfaction following remarks from Washington about Lius death, he added.

"LIU DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS"

Geng specially targeted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein for his statement that Liu "devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs."

The UNHCR chief "should respect the judicial sovereignty of China and not interfering in China's internal affairs. He should fulfil his duties in objective and fair manner. I can tell you that we also made representation with him for his above-mentioned remarks," Geng said.

Liu had been transferred from prison last month, where he was serving an 11-year term for "subversion".

LIU SURVIVED BY WIFE

Geng also said China would not make a prejudgement about whether Liu's widow, Liu Xia, who has been kept under house arrest since 2010, would be allowed to go overseas as demanded by several countries and human rights groups.

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"As for situation of Lu Xia I am not aware of that. I can tell you that China is a rule of law country. We will handle relevant case in accordance with law," he said.

Liu Xia, whose current whereabouts are unknown, is said to be suffering from depression after spending years under house arrest and heavy surveillance. She was allowed to visit her husband in hospital.

Germany, UK, France, the US and Taiwan have called for China to allow Liu Xia to travel and leave the country if she wishes.

Responding to the issue, Geng said, "We have lodged representations with the countries that made irresponsible remarks."

PROTESTS IN BEIJING

He said that Beijing had lodged protests with Germany, France and the UN's human rights high commissioner following criticism over its handling of Liu's death.

Asked whether Liu's death has badly dented China's image as he was second Nobel laurate to die in prison after first such incident took place in 1938 under Nazi Germany, Geng said "China's status and image is all there to see".

"Some irresponsible comments and remarks cannot represent whole international community," he said and referred to the situation in the Middle East.

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"If you look at todays Middle East, does this need so called preachers of human rights to reflect on what they have done," he said.

He once again defended Chinese Foreign Ministry's move to delete all questions and references to Liu from the official transcripts of the press conferences posted on its website, saying that like media, it is prerogative of the ministry to post the material it chooses appropriate.

Meanwhile, responding to Liu's death, Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, commented that he was a man of fierce intellect, principle, wit and above all humanity.

"Today we grieve the loss of a giant of human rights," Shetty said.

WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SAYS

"For decades, he fought tirelessly to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms in China. He did so in the face of the most relentless and often brutal opposition from the Chinese government," he said in a statement.

The death of Liu lays bare the Chinese government's ruthlessness toward peaceful proponents of human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said.

"Even as Liu Xiaobos illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment," said Sophie Richardson, China director of HRW.

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"The Chinese governments arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking but Liu's struggle for a rights- respecting, democratic China will live on," she said in a statement.

Also Read:

Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo is no more: All about the Chinese democracy icon

China's jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo granted medical parole

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Indore, Jul 14 (PTI) BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha today accused the opposition Congress of instigating farmers to resort to violence during their agitation in Madhya Pradesh last month.

"The farmers of the state live peacefully. However, the Congress instigated them for violence during their last months agitation," he told reporters here.

He said the Congress attempt to project its chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia as the leader of the farmers in the BJP-ruled state is not going to succeed as that title goes to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

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"Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the only leader of the farmers in the state. He truly works for their welfare," said Jha, a former chief of the BJPs MP unit.

Condemning this weeks attack on the Amarnath pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir, he said it was an assault on the faith of the people and asserted the Modi government will not spare the terrorists involved in the strike that killed seven devotees. PTI HWP ADU MAS RSY

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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.

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In a case of suspected double suicide, two teenagers - a girl and a boy - were found hanging from the ceiling fan of an Oyo Rooms hotel in Dwarka Sector 17, Delhi.

The boy and girl were found hanging from a ceiling fan at an Oyo Rooms hotel in Dwarka

By India Today Web Desk: Two teenagers - a girl and a boy - were found hanging inside a hotel room in Delhi's Dwarka Sector 17 on Friday evening.

The bodies were recovered at around 4 pm from an Oyo Rooms hotel after the girl and the boy failed to check out.

The two had checked in to the hotel on Thursday evening and were supposed to check out on Friday at noon. However, after they failed to emerge from the room, hotel staff knocked on the room's door at noon but did not receive an answer.

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At around 3 pm, the staff once again knocked on the door but failed to elicit an answer for the second time. Following this, hotel authorities informed Delhi Police, which sent a team to the location.

Police officials then broke open the door at around 4 pm and discovered the boy and girl hanging from a ceiling fan inside.

Initial investigation into the incident points to suicide, but notably, no suicide note was recovered from the room. The boy and the girl are believed to be around 18 to 19 years old, but Delhi Police has said they suspect the boy could be a few months younger than 18.

Cops have identified the two as residents of Delhi and have informed their respective parents. The case is currently being investigated from multiple angles and cops have been able to determine that the boy, while leaving his house on Thursday, had said that he was heading to his tuition class.

(With inputs from Puneet Kumar Sharma in Delhi)

ALSO READ | Mumbai: 18-year-old commits suicide after failing in Maharashtra HSC exams

ALSO READ | Man, blinded by heartbreak, commits suicide by jumping off Bandra-Worli Sea Link

ALSO WATCH | Kaushambi girl commits suicide, after being eve-teased

--- ENDS ---
Delhi has seen a nearly three-fold rise in the amount of cocaine seized this year compared to the last. The high demand has also seen the narcotic's price shoot up to Rs 5,000.

NCB officials said most of the drug is brought to India from Latin American countries, especially Brazil (Picture for representation)

By Chayyanika Nigam: The Capital is on cocaine high, keeping the police and anti-drug sleuths busy. Apart from targeting peddlers, cops are now tailing party-goers, the rich-young blood of the city.

According to Narcotics Control Bureau data, around 30 kg cocaine worth Rs 210 crore in the international market has been seized in Delhi this year. Last year till August, only 11 kg of the drug was recovered.

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Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. People snort the powder through the nose, or rub it into their gums. Others dissolve it in water and inject it into the bloodstream. Effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation

"The three-fold rise has forced the drug enforcement agency to collaborate with Delhi Police in nabbing the consumers as well. They are likely to conduct frequent raids in pubs, rave parties, concerts, universities and other areas where the addicts snort the drug," said an officer, requesting anonymity.

According to sources, the sudden surge in demand of cocaine in the city has come as a boon for peddlers, who are mostly foreigners. "With high demand, the rate of cocaine has also shot up. Last year, the cost of cocaine was around Rs 3,000 per gram, but it has now gone up to Rs 5,000," said a source.

ADDICTION, PEER PRESSURE

Describing the latest trend, an officer who wished to remain nameless said upper class youngsters living in the city are usually the consumers of cocaine. Addiction is a problem, but another one is peer pressure. The discovery was made when cellphone records of peddlers, who were recently nabbed, were scrutinised.

Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and mental tasks more quickly, though others experience the opposite effect. Large amounts of the drug can lead to bizarre, unpredictable, and violent behaviour.

Be it a pub or a rave party, people in the 20-35 age range can be seen snorting cocaine publicly, in washrooms or inside their cars. At times, they also mix the drug with their drinks.

Foreigners residing in Delhi are also potential customers for peddlers as they prefer cocaine over heroin and other stimulants.

AIRPORT STAFF ON ALERT

With the rise in smuggling rate, agencies have alerted their ground staff to be more vigilant about any suspicious person or material, a senior police official posted at IGI airport told Mail Today.

During investigation, it was learnt that most of the cocaine is brought to India from Latin American countries, especially Brazil, mainly by air through carriers who conceal it in their personal baggage by creating false cavities or hiding it in food products such as milk powder.

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"Professional swallowers also traffic cocaine stuffed in small capsules ensheathed in cellophane, rubber or gelatin coverings. The swallowed capsules are retrieved after passing out the stool in the destination country. Besides this, cocaine also reaches India from Brazil concealed in courier parcels," said another officer who has interrogated several traffickers.

Sources say that lax security at African airports, particularly Addis Ababa and Lome, have made them attractive places for cocaine transit. In most of the cases, female foreign nationals are being used to smuggle drugs into India.

Once it reaches Delhi, the consignment is distributed among party-goers. The remains are supplied to neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

"However, a majority of the consignment is reserved for Delhi itself as the demand of cocaine is comparatively higher here," said an officer.

Since the demand has gone up, peddlers confessed to adulterating the powdered drug with medicines, especially by crushing paracetamol tablets, a source said, quoting confessional statements of suppliers.

ALSO READ | How narcotics bureau sniffed out Rs 30 crore cocaine from a Zambian woman

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ALSO READ | 2 foreigners arrested at Delhi airport for carrying cocaine pellets in stomach

ALSO WATCH | Drug Dealers Busted Transporting Cocaine Inside Fake Bananas

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The site of ongoing standoff in Doklam area lies on the Bhutan-China border and India is in the picture only due to its security arrangement with Thimphu.

By Prabhash K Dutta: With both India and China refusing to back off from Doklam area in Bhutan, the stand-off between the two armies is nowhere near its end. India and China have mobilised their troops in thousands in the region to put pressure on the other side.

The site of ongoing standoff in Doklam area lies on the Bhutan-China border and India is in the picture only due to its security arrangement with Thimphu. Bhutan, after issuing demarche to China, requested the Indian Army to help in checking Chinese incursion in the area in the name of road construction.

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Bhutan is the only neighbour of China which does not have a diplomatic relation with Beijing. China has been a bully to Bhutan forcing it to make concessions in its territorial jurisdiction. The root cause of the present military tension between India and China lies in the border disputes between Bhutan and China.

BHUTAN-CHINA BORDER

Bhutan shares about 470 km-long boundary with China in the west and north while India surrounds Bhutan for 605 km in the east, south and west. China has overlapping claims on or along Bhutan border in seven pockets including the one along Arunachal Pradesh-Bhutan border near Tawang.

The total area of conflicting claims between Bhutan and China is about 4,500 sq km in patches located in west and north. Before China took over Tibet in 1959, the question of well defined boundary was not as important for Bhutan for it had open cultural and religious exchanges with its both neighbours - India and Tibet.

While China has experienced border disputes with 13 of 14 neighbours, Bhutan did not find itself in similar situation ever. The Himalayan kingdom continued to take pride in its happiness index instead of harbouring any geostrategic ambition.

BORDER DISPUTES WITH CHINA

Friction began when Chinese started making claims on territory traditionally recognised as part of Bhutan. It began border talks with China in 1972 under guidance from India as the 1959 friendship treaty made it obligatory for Bhutan to take advice from New Delhi in the matters of foreign relation.

The Bhutan-China border talks continued till 1984, by when Beijing had started insisting that Thimphu came to negotiation table free from Indian influence. The India-Bhutan friendship treaty did not allow such possibility frustrating China's ambition to take Bhutan in its sway.

Chinese response was hostile as in 1986 it began asserting in Chumbi Valley which protrudes as a dagger between Bhutan and Sikkim. Towards its end lies the tri-junction where India, Bhutan and China meet. The meeting point is the bone of contention right now between the three countries leading to force build in Doklam region.

POCKETS OF DISPUTES

Depending on Chinese version of the boundary with Bhutan at different points of time, there are seven pockets where their territorial claims overlap. The seven pockets are spread over three regions including the Arunachal-Bhutan border area.

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The Doklam plateau in western Bhutan remains the most disputed. It is located adjacent to Yadung province of China in Tibet. This is the present theatre of eyeball encounter between Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army of China.

In 1996, China offered to give up its claim on the northern pockets if Bhutan agreed to forgo its territorial jurisdiction in the west, that is, Doklam.

DOKLAM DEAL OFFER

The northern pockets of Pasamlung and Jakarlung valleys have an area of about 495 sq km against 265 sq km of Sinchulumpa, Dramana and Shaktoe in Doklam plateau in western Bhutan. China also promised financial aid in Bhutan.

The offer still exists officially. However, there is catch here. Many reports suggest that China had, by then, encroached vast tract of land in the snowy mountains of the northern region.

Still, Bhutan is said to have been ready for the swap of territorial claim to avoid conflict. But, under its friendship treaty with India, it could not have taken a final call unilaterally. India did not agree to the deal as it affected India's security interests.

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Chinese presence at Doklam brings China dangerously close to what is called the Chicken's Neck, which connects the northeastern states of India with rest of the country. However, getting green signal from Bhutan, China had begun road construction in Doklam and Chumbi Valley in 1997.

In 1998, China and Bhutan signed the "Agreement on The Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility in the Bhutan- China Border areas-1998". But, Chinese have been encroaching Bhutanese land.

BHUTAN CEDES ITS TERRITORY TO CHINA

In 2007, India and Bhutan revised their friendship treaty. Now, Bhutan was free to maintain its foreign relations as per its own will.

Under mounting pressure from China and its encroachment policy, Bhutan revised its map. Its new map, shown to the members of Parliament, excluded the tallest mountain of Bhutan - Kula Kangri or KK. Bhutan lost its glacial reserve as a gift to China.

The new map was approved by Bhutan's Parliament and signed by its king. But, this did not end its border disputes with China, which had some other ideas. China has not officially accepted territorial control over Kula Kangri.

The map, which shows the Chinese version of Bhutan's territorial expanse and which was presented to the parliamentarians of Bhutan, highlights seven pockets of disputes. China claims all these seven pockets as its own.

Map was presented to parliamentarians in Bhutan.

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If Bhutan accepts China's claim, it will lose about 4,500 sq km land or 10 per cent of its territory. Until 1990, before Chinese incursions began, total area of Bhutan was about 47,000 sq km. At present, it is about 38,394 sq km - thanks to Chinese grabbing and Bhutan's generosity.

Bhutan now understands that China may be executing its Salami Slicing policy of Himalayan states in its territory. It is also reminded of the fate that Tibet met after Chinese invasion. Further, the Chinese expansion in the region poses a challenge to India's security forcing New Delhi to take a tough stand in Doklam. The India-Bhutan collaboration in Doklam is hurting Chinese game-plan. It is good enough reason for China to oppose Indian presence in Bhutan.

ALSO READ:

India-China face-off: After all-party meet, Congress calls for lowering tension through diplomacy

How India and China can defuse Doklam tension by blaming colonial Britain

Doklam faceoff: Why China wants to grab Bhutan's land and blame India

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BAD AXE -- The defendant held her head low in court Monday as the county's circuit judge sentenced her to prison for breaking into local businesses earlier this year.

Erika A. Sprague, 45, of Elkton, was charged with two counts of breaking and entering a building with intent, and one count of possession of cocaine, in connection to three separate incidents.

Elkton police investigated two break-ins at Elkton Family Medicine and The Hitching Post Inn in March. Both Elkton-based businesses were broken into through broken windows and doors.

An undisclosed amount of money was taken from Elkton Family Medicine. Visa money cards, cash and some food was stolen from The Hitching Post Inn.

Police then executed a search warrant at an Elkton apartment on March 24. There, several pieces of evidence were recovered. Following the search, Sprague was arrested.

While being booked in the Huron County Jail, officers found several Visa cards in Sprague's purses allegedly from one of the businesses. Additionally, on March 27, police executed another search warrant for Sprague's cell phone and purse. During the search, more evidence was collected, including crack cocaine.

Sprague took a plea deal from the prosecutor's office in May, and as a result, pleaded no contest to all three charges.

At sentencing, defense attorney Elizabeth Weisenbach told Huron County Circuit Judge Gerald M. Prill that her client has a lengthy criminal history stemming from substance abuse.

"Her coping mechanism has been  pills, pills, pills, pills and more pills," Weisenbach said. "She's on the edge, and she's balancing between jail and prison time."

Weisenbach requested her client be able to start a 90-day rehabilitation program to "seal the deal" to her recovery path.

Sprague then read from a prepared letter apologizing to the court and telling Prill she tried to hide her emotions through drugs.

"I'm asking with all of my heart to go to rehab," she said.

Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski referenced an out-of-county breaking and entering case from 2010, in which Sprague still owes more than $14,000 in restitution.

Rutkowski asked for prison time in each file to protect society from Sprague.

Prill told Sprague he has been one to consider rehab for defendants, but it comes with them taking initiative.

" You were either so high or intoxicated, you don't remember the incident," Prill said. "You were shooting poison into your veins and it blocked out what was going on in your mind."

For the breaking and entering charges, Sprague was sentenced to a minimum two years -- maximum 15 years-- in the state's prison system. She was also given a one-year, six months -- maximum six years -- sentence for the cocaine charge.

In each file, she was given 108 days credit for time served. Sprague was ordered to pay $4,595 in restitution. All sentences will run concurrently.
TUSCOLA COUNTY  After 17 years as the Tuscola County Medical Care Center CEO, Margot Roedel, R.N., is retiring July 31, and Brenda Kretzschmer of Owendale will become the facility's new CEO.

"I'm 75 years old, and I'm ready to retire and enjoy myself," said Roedel. "I know when Brenda takes over the facility it will be in good hands. She is my 'heir apparent.' We have been working closely together for her to take over."

Since she started in 2000, Roedel has spearheaded several major construction and renovation projects to make TCMCC a state-of-the-art medical care facility.

One of the first projects she did was bringing the original building up to code in both inside and out. That project was completed in 2005 along with a three-story addition complete with a landscape makeover that created a nature center for residents.

Roedel had other plans for expansion, but because the facility was landlocked, there was no way to do so until 2011 when Davenport University, which was next door, closed.

The TCMCC Board approved the purchase of the 16 acres of the college complex and to use the college building to relocated business and administrative operations.

With the additional acreage, Roedel's vision of an assisted-living complex was able to be developed. The Baldwin and the Cortland houses opened in 2015, and there is still enough area available for further housing development.

When the assisted-living complex was being built, two parcels of land adjacent to the medical care complex became available and were bought by TCMCC. Roedel's long-range vision for that area was to create a proposed respite care facility for the disabled. That additional land is available for development when needed.

During Thursday's meeting, the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners presented Roedel with a county resolution honoring her.

"Ms. Roedel has demonstrated time and time again an unrelenting drive to improve the care and quality of life for facility residents with noteworthy accomplishments including: renovation to the main building, increasing private rooms, adding a third story addition with Alzheimer's units, purchase of a business annex building and construction of two 10 bed small houses for client assisted living arrangements," the resolution states.

"Margot has a proven leadership style that has 'raised the bar' and created a model program for success and remarkable quality service that will continue long after her retirement. It was her leadership and vision for improvement that culminated in the Tuscola County Medical Care community becoming one of 'America's Top Rated Nursing Homes' as recognized by U.S. News and World Report; in addition to a 95 percent favorable rating by residents, families and employees."

Furthermore, Roedel was recognized in 2012 by the American College of Care Administrators as the leader of one of the top 26 skilled nursing facilities in the United States, and in 2016 Governor Snyder appointed her to the State of Michigan Commission on Services for the Aging.

Roedel and Kretzschmer have worked side by side for several years. Kretzschmer started out as a staff member and advanced to shift supervisor in 2006.

"It didn't take long to see her strong capabilities," Roedel said. "Brenda was promoted to director of nursing in 2008."

After several years of working together, Roedel decided in 2014 that Kretzschmer would be the one to take over the administrator position when she retired.

"There was a lot of formal education that Brenda had to do one was the NHA (National Healthcare Association) Boards to pass in preparing for the position," Roedel said.
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
A man in Faridabad was forced to carry his dead granddaughter's body on his shoulders after authorities at the Badashah Khan hospital refused to arrange an ambulance.

By Mail Today Bureau: Insensitivity of hospital staff forced a man to carry the body of his nine-year-old granddaughter on his shoulder for her last rites. The incident occurred at Badshah Khan hospital in Faridabad on Friday afternoon after the hospital administration refused to facilitate an ambulance or private vehicle.

The shocking incident is a repeat of August last year in Odisha's Kalahandi, where a tribal man carried the body of his wife on his shoulder for 10 km for last rites after the district hospital's refusal for an ambulance.

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In Faridabad, Laxmi, the nine-year-old girl, was suffering from high fever since Thursday night. Around 1 am, her mother gave her a syrup, following which her body temperature reduced. Around 4 am, she was gripped by high fever once again, and her parents admitted her to a private hospital.

The hospital staff informed them the treatment would cost Rs 5,000-6,000. They then decided to shift her to the Faridabad civil hospital (Badshah Khan hospital). Breaking down, Laxmi's parents alleged doctors did not give her adequate attention, due to which she had to lose her life.

"We repeatedly urged doctors for proper medication as her body temperature rose abruptly. No doctor or nurse visited her despite the critical condition. Around 11.30 am, she lost her life," the deceased's maternal grandfather Hardev said. As soon as Laxmi died, hospital staff started putting pressure on her family to take away the body.

"We had little money that we had already deposited in the private hospital. We walked from that hospital to the civil hospital carrying Laxmi as we did not have money. We urged the civil hospital staff to provide ambulance so that we could at least carry the body, but they did not listen to us. Eventually, we decided to carry the body and walk till home," Hardev added.

While he was carrying the body on his shoulder with other weeping family members tagging along, they were spotted by some media persons outside the hospital premises. The journalists then made arrangements for a private ambulance.

When the media personnel called up the civil surgeon, he did not receive calls. Neither did the principal medical officer. The journalists then called up a Red Cross Society ambulance only to be told by the driver that his vehicle was not working. They finally booked a private ambulance for the family to carry the body home.

ALSO READ | Punjab: Denied ambulance, son carries father's body on cart

ALSO WATCH | Puri: Man carries daughter's dead body on trolley as mortuary van fails to arrive on time

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The Pentagon's top leader says officials are still mulling the proper strategy in Afghanistan to avoid rash decisions that could hurt the United States and its allies in the long run.

"Welcome to strategy," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday. He had stopped in to speak with Pentagon reporters before a meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to further discuss options in Syria.

Mattis said he's listening to all options and wrapping everything "under a regional context."

"This is hard, and there's a reason we got into some wars in our nation's history and didn't know how to end them. This is hard work and, if anyone else says otherwise, [he] is either somebody who didn't have to deal with it or deal with the consequences of the decisions of it," he said.

A formal strategy was expected to be announced in mid-July. Mattis didn't specify a new date.

In recent weeks, top aides have told various news outlets that roughly 3,500 to 5,000 additional U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has had a significant footprint for more than a decade.

The defense secretary cautioned that the final decision has not been made.

"You want to get this thing right, so no, it's not finalized yet," he said.

Mattis also addressed a recent New York Times report that advisers from the White House have approached former leading military contractors such as Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, to weigh in on the Afghanistan decision.

When asked of his thoughts on Prince's proposal, the defense secretary said, "I listen to everybody who's got an idea that I think I might find value from, and there [are] themes consistent from a number of people, a number of advisers, and there's things that we will incorporate and there's things we won't.

"Right now, I don't want to go any deeper than that," he said.

The Pentagon and White House have drawn scrutiny from a number of critics in Washington who say a new Afghanistan strategy must happen sooner rather than later because lives are on the line.

In June, President Donald Trump delegated full authority to Mattis to make the final call on the U.S. troop presence in America's longest war.

That same month, three U.S. soldiers were killed and one wounded in an Afghan insider attack in the Achin District of Nangarhar Province. A week later, seven American soldiers were wounded in a separate insider attack at Camp Shaheen, in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain has said if officials do not drum up an Afghanistan review soon, Congress may need to step in.

Six "months into the new administration, it still has not delivered a strategy," McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement last month. "We cannot keep going like this. If the administration fails to develop a strategy for success, Congress will need to play a greater role."

When asked if Mattis feels similar frustrations, the former Marine general said, "I'm just not paid for frustration, I'm paid to get the job done."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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Zoe Kazan and Kumail Nanjiani in "The Big Sick." (Courtesy photo | Sarah Shatz/Lionsgate)

By John Serba | jserba@mlive.com

For all its offbeat characters, situations and comedy, "The Big Sick" relies on a standard romantic comedy trope: the break-up-and-make-up plot.

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This one takes a markedly different avenue, however. The couple in question is Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) and Emily (Zoe Kazan). Days after a bitter split, Kumail gets a call. Emily is in the hospital. He shows up just as her condition escalates, and before he knows it, hes signing a doctors consent form authorizing that she be put in a medical coma to stabilize her.

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Emily is inert and attached to an intubator when Kumail realizes its his responsibility to call her parents, who hes never met. Notably, that was the point of contention in their relationship. He avoided meeting her folks in order to dodge her introduction to his parents, Muslim Pakistani immigrants committed to arranging his marriage. They wouldnt approve of his dating a white woman. For too long, hes hidden his desire to split from tradition, and his secrets have come back to roost.

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Kumail Nanjiani in "The Big Sick." (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

Anyway. Shes comatose, and he doesnt have her parents number, and her smartphone is locked. Im sorry, he whispers meekly as he grabs her limp hand and uses her fingerprint to access the device.

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The Big Sick is admirable for daring to find comedy in such unlikely places, underscoring the value of laughter as a coping mechanism. As thoughtful as that idea is, and as likable as the characters are, and as much as we want life to be kind to them, I found the movie mildly frustrating. It has moments that are deeply serious, and some that are deeply funny, but it never truly commits to those dramatic peaks and valleys. It curiously mutes the big moments, as if avoiding the vital intensity needed to make the movie a more significant and memorable experience.

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

Its a gentle comedy, more gentle than most modern R-rated comedies. (It also makes me question the rationale of the Motion Picture Association of America, who count profanities instead of considering the tone and intent of the film.) It also has its heart in the right place: written by Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon, the movie is a semi-autobiographical account of their bumpy romance - bumpier than most, for sure.

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The movie spends an inordinate amount of time in Chicago comedy clubs, where the Kumail character seems to be working through his omnipresent social awkwardness on stage. He hones his stand-up material (its quickly evident hes not a very good comedian yet), hangs out with his comic pals and hits on girls after his sets. One of them is Emily, a grad student, and before you know it, theyre back at his shabby bachelor pad, making out on his inflatable mattress as Night of the Living Dead plays on his TV.

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

As they continue to indulge their mutual attraction, Emily and Kumail go on about how theyre not dating, even though what theyre doing sure looks like dating. They continue for a few months, and Kumail inelegantly softshoes between his two compartmentalized lives. At family dinners, his mother (Zenobia Shroff) repeatedly stages coincidental meetings with prospective Pakistani women, situations that border on insufferable. When Emily inevitably figures out whats going on, she walks out the door, angry and heartbroken.

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The movie doesnt set its hook until the second act, when Emilys parents arrive from North Carolina. Played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, Beth and Terry know the story, and are hostile to Kumail. Telling them that Emily is in the good kind of coma doesnt help. He loiters in the hospital, and we sense tension as he tries to figure out where he fits in this situation. Should he commit himself or let go? Is he feeling love or obligation? His actions at least stem from kindness, confused as he may be.

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

Its a messy set of circumstances, and The Big Sick wisely doesnt offer tidy resolutions - a calling card of filmmaker comedian Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), whos a credited producer. The veteran presence of Hunter and Romano is the films greatest weapon. They arrive in the narrative just in time to generate laughs and color. Individually, they warm up to Kumail. Together, they tap into the loving dysfunction present in longtime couples.

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Beth and Terry provide contrast for Kumails parents, who frustrate our Western minds, because they greatly differ in their ideas about the way people find love. The film gamely explores the larger concepts of culture and relationships, but can be fuzzy on character detail. Scenes dwindle when they should crackle and pop, as if director Michael Showalter is actively defying the crisp timing of conventional romantic comedies, instead of working to best present the material. But the film is full of characters who are trying to do the right thing for themselves and others, and finds in them a warm and compelling universal truth.

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

FILM REVIEW

The Big Sick

3 stars (out of 4)

MPAA rating: R for language including some sexual references

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter

Director: Michael Showalter

Run time: 120 minutes

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"Spider-Man: Homecoming" (Courtesy photo | Columbia Pictures)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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"The Big Sick" (Courtesy photo | Lionsgate/Nicole Rivelli)

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After Richard Wershe Jr. is paroled in Michigan, he'll immediately be transferred to prison in Florida, where he's expected to spend the next 3 years and 8 months.

His attorney, Ralph Musilli, plans to file motions in Florida courts with the hope of having the sentence reduced or eliminated for time served.

The Michigan Parole Board on Friday voted unanimously to release Wershe on parole. He's served more than 29 years of a life sentence for possession with intent to distribute more than 650 grams of cocaine.

While he serving his sentence, Wershe worked as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was placed in the Witness Protection Program. During that time, he was moved to a prison in Florida, where he got involved with a stolen car ring out of Miami.

Wershe pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges in 2006 and was sentenced to five years in prison.

He received credit for 488 days spent in a Florida prison, according to Ashley Cook, a spokeswoman with the Florida Department of Corrections.

Wershe claims he initially noticed a good deal on a car in Auto Trader Magazine, so he passed the number for the Miami-area dealer along to his sister.

The plan was for her to broker a sale in the Detroit area, where prices were higher, to make a profit.

Wershe claims his sister brokered sales on up to four stolen cars and was paid about $6,000. Wershe then told a prison acquaintance about the arrangement and helped connect the inmate's son, who lived in Virginia, with the same stolen car dealer.

After the arrangement progressed, Wershe says he learned some of the vehicles were "tagged," meaning they were stolen, the VIN numbers were altered, they were issued fraudulent Florida titles and sold in other states.

Wershe called his involvement "stupid," but said he was motivated by a need to financially help his sister, who was caring for Wershe's daughter at the time.
DAVISON TWP, MI -- A pair of drivers suffered minor injuries in an accident the morning of Saturday, July 15, at the intersection of Irish Road and Court Street.

A woman driving a black GMC Yukon heading north on Irish Road made a left turn on a yellow blinking light and failed to yield for southbound traffic, said Lt. Jerry Harris of the Davison Township Police Department.

The GMC Yukon collided with a blue Honda Fit, Harris said.

The man driving the Honda Fit and the woman in the GMC Yukon were treated for minor injuries and did not require hospital transportation, Harris said. Mobile Medical Response was on the scene.

Both vehicles suffered frontal damage. Debris was shoveled at the intersection, while M57 Towing and Repair removed the vehicles from the accident scene.

Police directed traffic while the cleanup took place.
UPDATE:

FLINT, MI - Five teens, a grandma and girlfriend of a suspect have been tied to a home invasion on Flint's east side that left a 63-year-old man dead on Tuesday, July 11.

In Genesee County District Court on Friday, July 14, Michigan State Police swore out warrants before Judge William Crawford for the seven suspects in the case.

The five teens, alleged to have been directly involved with the home invasion, are Jordan William Alexander, Zicary Lamar Carpenter, Joshua Jeremiah Eubanks, Tyler Jameil Pagel, and Dre Shavon Jones.

Each is charged with:

One count of felony murder

One count of first degree home invasion

One count of conspiracy to commit first-degree home invasion

One count of assault with intent to rob while armed

Three counts of felony firearm.

Alexander, Carpenter, Eubanks and Pagel are in police custody, while Jones remains at large, police said.

Officers responded around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11, to the 100 block of South Cumberland Street - off of Longway Boulevard - after a call to 911 in reference to a shooting in the area.

According to police, the 63-year-old victim, Albert Ballard, was asleep on a couch on the first floor of his home when the teens entered the house through an unlocked door.

Once inside the house, one suspect held Ballard at gun point, telling him to "give him all the money," police said in court.

In the same moment, another suspect began to leave the home with Ballard's television, while the other three teens went to the second floor of the home where Ballard's wife, Jan, was sleeping, police said.

Striking her in the face with another gun, the trio instructed the woman to hand over her money, police said.

On the first floor of the house, Albert Ballard moved to his kitchen to get his .45-caliber handgun from a cupboard, police said.

At that point, police said the teen leaving the house with the television dropped the set and ran out of the home, while Ballard began to run up the stairs of the house to the second floor.

After Ballard shot one of the teens in the chest, the teen - accompanied by his friend who was previously leaving the home with the television - fled the scene in a vehicle, crashing less than a mile away from the home in the intersection of East Court Street and South Vernon Avenue.

One of the teen suspects was taken to Hurley Medical Center following the crash, where he has not yet been released, police said.

Ballard then ran upstairs to protect his wife where he struggled with one of the defendants and several rounds of gunfire were shot, police said.

One of the bullets traveled through Ballard's arm to his chest, and he was later pronounced dead, police said.

"The facts in this case are everybody's worst nightmare and something nobody ever wants to face," said Leyton. "We should be able feel safe and secure in our own homes without fear of having to confront thugs breaking in to rob us and do us harm."

During investigation, police said one of the suspect's grandmother and his girlfriend maintained the alibi that the suspect was home at the time of the incident. However, a conflicting story from the girlfriend during a second round of questioning proved otherwise, police said in court.

Police swore out warrants for the two, but did not specify the charges in court.

According to an obituary, Ballard was a lifelong Flint resident and General Motors retiree currently working for MTA. He loved music, God and chess, and played violin with the Lapeer Symphony Orchestra and was a drummer for the Flint Concert Band, the obituary said.

"We will do all we can to see justice through for Mr. Ballard and his grieving family and for the safety of our community," he said. "These five individuals and anyone who may be trying to harbor and aid Dre Shavon Jones while he remains at large will be held accountable for their actions."

Leyton requested that anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Jones make an anonymous call to Crimestoppers at 1-800-422-JAIL, Michigan State Police Detective Jon Miller at 810-237-6922, Flint Police Department Detective Bureau at 810-237-6900, or online at P3tips.com.
MOUNT MORRIS, MI -- A roadside fire closed several lanes on northbound I-75 after Mount Morris Road, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

MDOT reports one vehicle was involved. The roadside fire was reported to MDOT at 2:03 p.m.

Northbound I-75 after the Mount Morris Road exit had the left two lanes open, according to the Genesee County 911 page.

It cleared at 3:16 p.m., according to MDOT.
Uddhav assured farmers that Eknath Shinde will be personally visiting villages and speak with them regarding compensation for their fertile land.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: The Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway project, which is CM Devendra Fadnavis's dream project, is in news everyday due to farmers agitation against it. But, this time MSRDC Minister Eknath Shinde is at the center of controversy regarding the project.

Since day one of this project, Shiv Sena was opposing it sighting farmers not happy with compensation given to them, but today MSRDC invited media for function of first successful land acquisition in this project at Shahapur, which raised many eyebrows because chief guest of this event was MSRDC minister Eknath Shinde, who is also senior Shiv Sena leader.

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He was seen visiting all the angry farmers and offering them a good return of their land for this project.

Party chief Uddhav Thackeray had to come to his defence and called urgent press conference at Sena headquarters.

"I met farmers in areas like Nasik, Sambhajinagar, Jalana. A good crop land will be going under this project. My worry was that they should get proper compensation for their fertile land." said Uddhav Thackeray.

He further added,"I am still promising farmers, we are not against progress, but we don't want progress at the cost of anyone's livelihood."

Uddhav assured farmers that Eknath Shinde will be personally visiting villages and speak with them regarding compensation for their fertile land. Uddhav Thackeray has asked Shinde to visit the protesting villages to bridge the gap between govt and farmers.

Commenting on reports of regional media which said "Sena changed its stance on Samruddhi Express Way, minister said, "Whatever I am doing Uddhav Thackeray is aware of this. This post of minister is not that important for me than my party and party chief. We are not against any farmer, and we won't force any farmer to give their land for this project."

The Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway is a grand eight-lane 710-km project, expected to change the face of Maharashtra's economy. Passing through Nagpur, Buldhana, Amravati, Wardha, Washim, Thane, Aurangabad, Akola, Bhiwandi and Nashik districts, the Expressway will also cut the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur by half. At present it takes around 16 hours to reach from Mumbai to Nagpur by road.

"We are trying to establish proper communication channel with farmers who are protesting against this project. As a minister, I am on same page with Uddhav Thackeray regarding this project," said Eknath Shinde.

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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, MI -- Speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in a crash involving a car that struck a house, police say.

The driver was headed south on 14th Avenue about 12:10 p.m. Friday, July 14 when the car left the road at a curve.

Witnesses told deputies the car was going fast when it left the road and struck several objects before striking a house in 1400 block of Van Buren Street.

Police said the house was occupied but no one was injured.

The area is where 14th Avenue turns into Van Buren Street at a curve, just north of I-196 and east of Hudsonville.

Deputies did not release the driver's name pending arraignment on unspecified charges. It wasn't immediately clear whether the driver was arrested at the crash scene.
ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI -- A 23-year-old Holland man has been sentenced to prison for driving drunk and crashing into an ambulance, critically injuring a paramedic.

Jeremy King was sentenced Friday, July 14 to two to five years in prison for drunken driving causing serious injury.

King was driving a pickup about 4:30 a.m. Aug. 7 on Blue Star Highway near 141st Avenue, just south of Holland. The truck crossed the center line and struck an American Medical Response ambulance.

Tim Hoffman, a paramedic who was not belted in the back of the ambulance, was critically injured. Hoffman had a severe head injury.

The ambulance driver, Kevin Jongekryg, also was injured. The collision pinned both Jongekryg and King in their vehicles.
By Srivatsan: Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum is directed by debutant Odam Ilavarasu. The film opens with an ode to legendary actor Gemini Ganesan and comedian Suruli Rajan. From what we get after two hours of a tedious watch, is that the film is about Gemini Ganesan (Atharvaa) -- a playboy, or should we use 'Kadhal Mannan'? Gemini has had several relationships with women in the past. Right before his marriage, Gemini tries to mend things with his exes. Will he succeed?

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Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum Cast: Atharvaa, Soori, Regina Cassandra, Aishwarya Rajesh, Pranitha and Sonia

Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum Director: Odam Ilavarasu

Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum Rating: (1.5/5)

Gemini Ganesan is in Madurai to invite his first girlfriend Lavanya (Regina Cassandra) for his wedding. He meets Suruli Rajan (Soori), who helps him. In due course, we learn about Gemini's love stories. In one of the several cringe-worthy moments, Gemini, who addresses Lavanya as 'Akka' (elder sister), falls for her. When the latter, who's younger to him, asks why he's calling her that, Gemini says, "If I call you akka in front of your parents, they might think of me as a 'decent' fellow." Gemini proposes and Lavanya accepts. Then why did he break up with her? Suruli asks. Because he's Gemini Ganesan. And he was two-timing her with another woman, Devi, who lives in the same block as Lavanya.

Odam Ilavarasu has to be appreciated for the bits. Gemini woos Devi by calling her 'Thangachi' (younger sister). If you're a non-Tamilian relying on the subtitles, please don't misinterpret the sister-brother relationship for incest. Lavanya and Devi get ditched by Gemini. Because, he's Kadhal Mannan. That's the biggest excuse that the director gives.

While the core of Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum may remind you of Cheran's Autograph, it has moments from the Hindi film Bachna Ae Haseeno. Especially the scene where Priya (Pranita) gets dumped on the wedding day and the part where Pooja asks Gemini to apologise to his exes for breaking their hearts.

The film is severely regressive in terms of the portrayal of women. Soori's lines are pathetic, while it gets better in the second half. For example, Soori replaces letters in every word with 'b'. And so, public becomes 'bublic', information becomes 'inbormation' and so on. Ganesanum Suruli Raajanum wants to be a rom-com. But it's neither romantic nor a comedy.

Perhaps the only logical connectivity in the film is its song placement. Heroines who have the maximum screen time, get a romantic yet sensuous song with Atharvaa.

While the title Gemini Ganesanum Suruli Raajanum may have some relevance to the script, we wished the film was at least half as interesting as its title.

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WATCH HERE: Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum Trailer

--- ENDS ---
The resolution of bad loans or non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector reached a decisive stage when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), last month, told banks to take 12 defaulting borrowers such as Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Lanco Infratech, etc. to the bankruptcy court.

All the remaining NPAs of over Rs 5,000 crore as of March 2016 are getting six more months to seek a resolution failing which they also will have to be taken to the bankruptcy court.

So while courts may debate if these 12 were unfairly singled out, there is no doubt that anyways in a couple of quarters, a bunch of troubled borrowers are going to land in the bankruptcy court.

Now the process under the bankruptcy court requires the court to suspend the board of the borrowing company and appoint an insolvency professional who will take charge of the company for about six months during which time, the creditors have to come up with a new plan for the company.

While about 700 odd individuals and about 7 corporate entities including big names like Deloitte and KPMG have registered themselves as insolvency professionals, the question that India Inc and experts are worrying about is can these companies run any of these very complex defaulting companies?

Companies as large and complex as Bhushan Steel and Power, Essar Steel which has links to power, Lanco, etc. Can these run at all by outside consultants and what is the equation between the promoter, the management, the board and the insolvency professional (IP)?

An eminent panel of experts -- Bahram Vakil, Founder & Partner at AZB & Partners, and one of the authors of the bankruptcy code itself, Nikhil Shah, MD at Alvarez and Marsal, Sanjay Doshi, Partner at KPMG and Rashesh Shah, Chairman & CEO of Edelweiss Group  answer all these questions.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Q: Exactly what is the responsibility of the insolvency professional or corporate entity? Literally, every activity is theirs or do they just behave like the board and the management and the company run itself?

Vakil: The way I like to put it is that they are the de facto CEO because it is an individual and the board becomes the committee of creditors (COC). So just like a COO would be running the day to day operations for that 180-270 days, they would be in-charge of the operations. Now, you are not expected to be a superwoman or superman. You have your team, you have management, you hire whichever consultants and experts you need, but yes, you are in charge and management reports to you.

Q: Since yours is one company which has run such defaulting or troubled companies elsewhere in the world, what exactly is the responsibility? A CEO is liable for everything that happens in the company. So, do you normally remove the entire top management? How does it work?

Nikhil Shah: I would like to step back for a second and add to what Bahram Vakil was saying that the insolvency professional has two primary professionals. The first objective is to try and drive a resolution plan where 75 percent of the financial creditors by value have to agree. So it is putting together a viable business plan for the entity, looking at the capital structure, looking at the industry, the business and its competitive advantages and putting all of that together in a package that would be acceptable and voted on by the financial creditors. That is the first one.

Q: But that is the second stage, is it not?

Nikhil Shah: The timeframe is short, right? There is 6-9 months to get to this. So actually there is some superhuman capabilities that are required in order to perform. That role as well is actually managing the affairs and operations of the company and yes, you are right, Alvarez and Marsal is actually the global leader in restructuring and turnaround cases and we have been doing this for 35 years around the world. Handling cases like Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, pretty much every large bankruptcy in the last 20 years.

So, in India as well we have been providing this service of interim management services to distressed companies for the last 9-10 years. So interim CEO, CFO, chief restructuring officer in distressed cases. And there is a lot of responsibility that comes with doing this. You have to have an understanding on the sector, you have to understand the business in what it is trying to do and you have to be able to manage cash flow and be compliant with all the laws and regulations that exist in India during that timeframe.

The main objective in that is to make sure that there is no deterioration in value in the underlying asset during the period of the resolution process.

Q: Then there could be a deterioration of value because nobody bought your power. The distribution companies (discom) were not buying or there was a disruption in supply because of probably a strike. Probably employees do not like the new CEO or the interim CEO. What happens then?

Nikhil Shah: That is why you require people who have experience of actually going into this situation to be able to clearly communicate with all of the stakeholders including the employees, suppliers and customers to actually let them know that there is a clear plan that the company is operating under in which the insolvency professional is actually running on behalf of the creditors committee and that they need to be patient for a period of 180-270 days.

Q: That is communication, but legally what is your liability? Say for instance, an employee is retiring and the provident fund money is not there or some tax liability has not yet been paid. What is the personal liability of the corporate entity or the person who is the CEO?

Nikhil Shah: Theoretically at this moment in time, he would liable for those issues and they need to be compliant as per what the court states.

Q: The even more crucial issue is in the interregnum, are you sure that the insolvency professional will be able to take on the might of the promoters? It is not small, Essar and Ravi Ruia or for that matter, the Singal brothers or any of them, these are large companies, these are big promoters, how will this one CEO, one chartered accountant be able to even take on their might?

Doshi: You are right. In terms of the way the process is that the board gets temporarily suspended, but at the same time, the management is there. What the code has done is that they have taken away the powers of the board and the promoters, but we are not saying that anyone who is going to get into any of the situations is going to go in  so even today, the process is on.

Q: No, but the promoters are out, right? Promoters and board cannot enter the premises?

Doshi: Let us take a step back. What is going to happen and what is the objective and just to add to what Nikhil said, it is very critical in terms of communication because what is the general sense? One is, we professionals who know what is happening, but in terms of the normal public, what do they understand? Insolvency, the first thing which goes is liquidation. It is not. You are getting in as an administrator to work out a resolution for six months and in those six months the powers have been taken away from the promoter and the board, so you are effectively trying to be independent in terms of whatever resolution comes in. The management is still there. Company operations will still run and that messaging going to the employees, to the general public helps. That is the first part.

Q: Oh yes, to suppliers, otherwise, they may stop supplying or stop payments for supplies that you have made.

Doshi: So, if they believe that the company is going to go down and close down, what is going to happen? Immediate supplies stop.

Q: It will be an implosion. Even a company that is about to work will not work. How do you ring-fence? Do you say physically, promoters and board cannot enter? What are the physical limits to the current management and what are the responsibilities of the new management?

Vakil: Two misnomers which I would like to clarify. One is that the main goal is restructuring, and making the company healthier and survive. So the idea is not liquidation. Liquidation is the worst case scenario. So, often, courts or promoters or companies do not understand this because maybe the title of the code, as you were saying is also insolvency. So maybe we should have thought of a more positive title. That is the first misnomer.

And the second one is, in the vast majority of cases, the promoters and management will remain. So the IP will work with them. That is why I said it is team work. In any company, it is not just the CEO. He is working with his management and his team that make the company a success. So, it is not the case where they will not be allowed into the door or that they will not work with them, but they are the experts, so they will give you a better flavour of the day to day.

Liability, they have a lot of authority so is there liability? There is liability, but one point for past mistakes do not come you, but in those 6-9 months, even though we try to get some exemptions company law, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), etc. we have not been able to convince them so far. The only one is that takeover code exemption. But the others we do not have, so you will have to comply with all those conditions and you better get chartered accountants, lawyers, etc. to help you to comply.

Q: You heard in detail, the problems and the responsibilities of the insolvency professional, what is your sense, do you think the IPs in the current Indian context will be able to function and run companies as complex as Bhushan Steel or Essar Steel?

Rashesh Shah: There are two-three issues but there is one key issue which a lot of people have not yet spoke about and that is when a company is admitted in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a lot of your suppliers will stop giving you credit because you move on to what is called cash and carry basis and there could be some kind of a liquidity crunch.

In a lot of cases that we are handling, we have gone to NCLT, we also made a contingency plan of having some liquidity on hands so that the suppliers will continue to supply.

I think the insolvency professional will have to take a lot of this into account and a large part of the job will end up managing the cash flow and just ensuring that all critical payments are made and at the same time, the business goes on. But also remember that the insolvency professional is not going to be alone. He or she will report into the creditors committee effectively as earlier Bahram Vakil said, the creditors committee becomes the board of directors of the company and the insolvency professional becomes the CEO of the company. So he can take guidance from the creditors committee on whether the promoter should be involved, what role the promoter should pay and the creditors will take a view on what is the most likely end game for these assets and accordingly they will direct the insolvency professional on the involvement of the promoters and the current management and also remember that if there are claims by taxmen and others, there is also the court out there. Because now this is under the auspices of the court. So the court can always intervene and say, dont disrupt the operation to the taxmen or any other statutory authority. So I think in these 180 days, there is enough protection that is there, there is enough fall-back that is there but in the cases where the companies are operational, there are growing concerns, the job of the insolvency professional is going to be fairly -- the stakes are going to be fairly high.

One other important thing that the creditors committee should do which we are insisting in all the cases where we are involved is to define the deliverables by the insolvency professional very clearly because currently it is very open-ended but it is like you are asking a CEO, what you are going to do in the next 180 days and make sure that capacity utilisation, cash flow, all of those critical items also have clear deliverables by the insolvency professional.

Q: You said before we went to the break that you are expected to work with the promoters and the managements etc. I am just picturing, I am not taking Essar because you will say it is subjudice, let me take the example of Bhushan. They are intricately bound the steel and the power units, there is a lot of give and take between them and they will be powerful promoters, you expect this one guy who goes as the CEO even if he is backed by Alvarez and Marsal behind him or KPMG accounting infrastructure behind him to be even heard, conversations will go on between promoter and management, do you see Sanjay being able to get his voice heard?

Vakil: No, I do see. I think the practical reality especially as you say we are so many strong promoters, that it will not be antagonistic, in most cases, the IP and the IP firm will work with the management and the promoter. So I dont see this as a so confrontational, the confrontational maybe rare, vast majority will be working together and again to reiterate the point of no superwoman, superman, they will reinforce that in these big cases, they have teams of 30-40 people dedicated to doing this job. So it is not at all an individual that is doing this.

Q: Who pays them? The company pays them?

Vakil: That has to be cleared by COC. So just like the board, all major costs have to be cleared by the COC.

One quick line that NCLT has met most of the timelines, as I have previously told you, they have got the point that time and recovery are directly correlated and the courts also I am hoping, you will have to rush -- your electricity shuts off because past dues are not paid. This is a live case, we are doing it today. You rush to the court and the court very quickly is ordering, you have to turn the lights on. Same with the tax guys, usually they are not used to this but the law is very clear so they will have to get the picture. Past dues, different story, current dues, they will have to start writing checks and going to Rashesh Shah to get interim financing that gets priority.

Q: How confident are you that this is likely to work in most of the cases? But largely will it work? And then your big caveat that you posed that you expect the COC to come up with an alternative resolution plan in six months? You are doubting that, they have 270 days, so nine months.

Nikhil Shah: Just to add to what Bahram Vakil is saying, our strategy at Alvarez and Marsal is very much to work cooperatively with the management and the promoters given the short timeframe that is involved, I think it is foolish to assume that you can throw people out and not manage to deteriorate value in the underlying asset.

So it is very important to work cooperatively. There obviously may be disagreements that may be there, but we are all human beings, we can have a discussion about what those are and if there is a disagreement, it can go to the creditors committee for a decision. So I do not think there is any reason, unless somebody is not cooperating with the process that they cannot be worked with in order to achieve the objectives.

Q: How many will succeed?

Nikhil Shah: Success is different. The measurement if you ask me is what is the recovery that the creditors will achieve through this exercise? If they are able to achieve a 50-70 percent recovery on their exposure that could be viewed as a success for them. It would be difficult to assume that 100 percent will be recovered in these cases.

Q: I am not even looking at that. I am only saying that how many cases do you think this process will go smoothly? Do you see a couple of cases getting resolved before the year is out?

Nikhil Shah: I can give you the experience we have had in India over the last 9-10 years of doing exactly this type of work where we step in as an interim CEO or Chief Restructuring Officer of the business and in 95 percent of the cases, it works out successfully in that sense that there is some uncertainty. Obviously, there is a new team that is coming in and it is up to us and the management that exists over there to work together to get the objective.

Q: Your estimate of whether this process will be successful or whether we are going to be back to square one?

Rashesh Shah: It is also important to remember why the insolvency professional is being appointed, why did we draft the law in such a way that we have what is called creditors in possession because the fear was that when it is in NCLT, the promoters, the existing promoters should not start hollowing out the asset, should not start stripping the asset and crippling the company.

So a large part of the job of the insolvency professional is to make sure that status quo is maintained and things do not get worse and in most of the cases, the creditors committee will decide how much the promoters will be involved because I do expect that in two out of three cases, this process will be used for restructuring, for the existing management to continue by restructuring the debt, by giving equity to the bankers and all and there were a lot of these cases which were waiting for restructuring but they did not fit into Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) or corporate debt restructuring (CDR) or there was no oversight committee. For that the NCLT process is the best process because this will have all the sanctions of a court driven transparent process and the main job of the insolvency professional is to make sure things do not get worse, the critical payments are maintained and the business goes on while the promoters and the banks, the creditors committee arrive at a restructuring.

I am hopeful that in two out of three cases, there will be a restructuring which could involve a strategic partner, which could involve some equity raising which can involve converting debt into equity, priority funding, like for example, priority funding is going to be an important one, but until now, the rules were not clear. Under NCLT priority funding becomes very easy to do because the rules are clear in terms of who gets first dibs on the cash flow.

So it is a great process. It will have to get tested out, but in most cases, I think there will not be as much acrimony as you are apprehending. In a lot of these cases, it will work out fairly smoothly because restructuring under NCLT is an ideal process.

Q: We know that many of the cases are in several stages, some of them very advanced stages of restructuring, so you think that in a matter of three months or so, after the IP takes over, at least in many of the advanced cases of restructuring, things will go on smoothly?

Doshi: It is going to be a mixed bag especially even in those advanced cases where if there is an alternative plan which is put in by various stakeholders, it is not only the promoter or the lenders. There can be any other stakeholders who might want to pitch in and put another resolution plan. So if that happens, then of course, three months probably can get extended. But you are right, in majority of the cases where the lenders are in agreement with the resolution plan, at the end, it again scores back to the COC of what they are looking. At the end, a resolution needs to be worked out.

Q: Nikhil says that in 95 percent of the cases, even in India, they have been able to successfully tide over the case. Rashesh kept saying two out of three cases, it will succeed. What is your sense? I know you are an interested party since you were involved in the code, but success rate?

As I have said earlier, it is certainly not my expertise area, but Rashesh put it very well and going by global experience as well, I would like to go in between, so between two-thirds and Nikhil's very strong 95 percent, but in most cases, I truly believe because a lot of work has been done. In many of these companies, months of restructuring exercise has taken place under all the RBI schemes. So I am definitely optimistic.
Tata Steel

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Tata Steel has been looking for students, who can innovate, from engineering institutes across the country to bring out solutions for major research cases within the company. As part of 'Mind Over Matter', which is the annual innovation challenge for engineering students by Tata Steel, about 350 proposals were received this year.

Based on some of the case studies presented by students every year, the research and development (R&D) team in the company looks at the applicability of the solutions and takes it to its logical conclusion.

Sanjay Chandra, Chief of R&D and Scientific Services Division, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur said that four years ago, they had received only 15 proposals.

"The idea was to get young minds to look at some of the research cases in the company and put their problem-solving minds to work since they have the theoritical knowledge in the space. We have seen that smaller institutes have also brought out very good ideas and our R&D team has been mentoring the teams with the best ideas," he added.

The programme, according to the company, is a step towards fostering a collaborative approach amongst students, academia and corporates.

This year, out of the 350 proposals received, the top 12 teams have been selected for a two-month intermship. Chandra said these teams will work under the mentorship of Tata Steel's R&D experts who will help them hone their ideas.

Under the programme, students from top engineering institutes across the country, are invited to register and submit innovative proposals on research cases put forth in the first phase. Students with the most innovative solutions are shortlisted for a 2-month internship at Tata Steel, and their solutions are further worked on under the mentorship of R&D experts from Tata Steel in the second phase.

In third and the final phase, the teams present their solutions to an esteemed jury and the winners of the contest are chosen based on various parameters such as potential, impact, and implementation aspects. The contest winners stand to win cash prizes of up to Rs 1 lakh, trophies and certificates.

"Both the winners and runners-up teams, consisting of two people each, will be given a pre-placement offer at Tata Steel that will enable them to get an opportunity to be employed with the company," added Chandra.

Some of the cases include 'Electrolytic Waste Water Treatment An Alternative Possibility In Mineral & Mining Industry' and 'Utilization Of Phase Change Materials For Waste Heat Recovery From Steel Plants', among others.

Unlike other case study competitions, where ideas proposed can be readily implemented, Chandra said that in their initiative, the ideas brought out by the students are taken forward by their R&D team to be implemented in the near future.

Case study competitions are an important source of not just talent recruitment, but also a means of industry-student connect. Human resource experts are of the view that these initiatives help students get closer to practical industry experience using the theory they may have learnt at their respective institutes.
Morningstar India

International Funds from an Indian investors perspective have been a little bit of a hit and miss.

Global Fund investment options albeit limited have been around for a decade, with options to invest into US, Europe, ASEAN, country specific funds like Brazil & China and even funds investing into natural resources companies like Gold mining companies or Energy companies.

The greatest amount of investor interest has typically been in Gold mining funds and US funds. In fact in 2013, when the Indian equity markets where going through a prolonged lull phase, domestic equity funds too were witnessing stagnating growth.

At the time investors increased allocation into US Funds on the back of strong 1-year historical returns of these funds. Post that, though the story has been very different, with the start of the domestic equity market rally in 2014, domestic fund flows are reaching new highs, but Global funds are witnessing a slow trickle of redemptions.

As an effect of this global funds currently forms a minuscule proportion of investors portfolio at 0.28 percent from a high of 1.56 percent in Jan 2014.

Why Invest in International funds

Investors should consider adding international funds in their portfolios from the perspective of diversifying risk in their portfolios.

Investments should be made for the long term on an overall portfolio allocation basis rather than a decision based on short term historical performance.

By adding international funds in your equity portfolio, you can potentially reduce the overall volatility in your portfolio by as much as 5-10 percent.

It is important to acknowledge that markets go through cycles and no market will be a top performing market year after year as is visible in the table below.

In addition, Indian markets display a lower correlation with developed markets like the US, thus the addition of such exposures helps reduce overall portfolio volatility.

The calendar Year Index Returns (INR)

Another factor to consider is the ability to take exposure to sectors or companies that you would ordinarily not have exposure to.

Global Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Coca Cola, etc. are widely known and used brands in India, they derive a fair share of the revenues/users from countries such as ours. By investing in these funds, you can potentially gain exposure to such stocks.

Investors should certainly think about adding an international flavor to their portfolio and stay invested for the long term. You can consider investing 15-20% of your overall equity exposure into global funds.

The author is Director of Fund Research at Morningstar Investment Adviser. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Meta layoffs | Why Zuckerberg's Metaverse bet has proven to be a bit too costly
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje today slammed the Opposition Congress for "doing no good for the poor" while fighting elections on their name.

"Even after years, we are fighting with the problems pertaining to infrastructure, including water and electricity. The poor remained only a vote bank for the opposition," she said while addressing a meeting of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers here.

She said her government is committed to take Rajasthan on the path of development while maintaining its culture.

Raje called upon the BJYM workers to participate in forming the new Rajasthan.

"We should take our work and the government schemes to the panchayat level and gain trust of the people," she said..
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The CPI(M) today said the Opposition will "fully support" the Centre in its efforts to resolve the India-China standoff in Doklam area through diplomatic channels.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury made the remarks after the government briefed the Opposition on the standoff and also on the Kashmir issue.

Yechury, however, asked the government to reflect and introspect why "suddenly" India's neighbourly ties in the region have "deteriorated".

The Marxist leader sought to know why the intelligence inputs available before the attack on Amarnath pilgrims "was not used" and how the bus carrying pilgrims was allowed to go off on its own, as he demanded accountability for the "lapse" be enforced immediately.

In his Facebook post after the meeting, Yechury also claimed that the government had no answers when the opposition expressed "puzzlement" as to why no terror group took responsibility for the attack.

"The government briefed us on the stand-off with China and said that efforts are on to resolve this through diplomatic channels and talks.

"We fully support the government in these efforts. We are for peace and tranquillity with all our neighbours. This is in India's supreme interest," he said in the post.

Yechury reiterated the opposition's position that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has "worsened" in the past three years and asked the government to correct its "faulty" approach.

He also accused the government of going back on its promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India that "it shall implement confidence-building measures and start the political process with all stakeholders".

"The government must answer," he stressed.

The Rajya Sabha member also said that the "growing" instances of lynchings and attacks on minorities and Dalits are also adding to the view that the deteriorating internal security environment in the country is a "matter of grave concern".
Ram_nath_Kovind

NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday met MLAs and MPs of the BJP and its allies in Maharashtra and called up Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to thank him for supporting his candidature in the July 17 election.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP's state unit chief Raosaheb Danve, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Anant Geete (Shiv Sena), BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and Maharashtra minister Mahadev Jankar (RSP) were among those present at the meeting.

"We all have the duty to preserve the highest importance of the Constitution of India. I would assure of equal justice to all, avoiding discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender, and region," said Kovind who was in Mumbai for merely three hours as he had to visit Goa and then fly to Gujarat.

He said there should be a comprehensive growth of all states of the country and get equal justice for all.

"My preference would be to ensure addressing the aspirations of the youth of the country, promotion, and modernisation of education. We will do our utmost to preserve the prestige of the post of the President," Kovind said.

Describing Kovind as an outstanding person with great dedication, Gadkari said, "The NDA has chosen the right candidate for the presidential election. He will get historical success in the election from Maharashtra."

Fadnavis said the NDA's presidential pick has organisational and administrative skills and is a constitution expert.

Danve spoke about Kovind's clean image, simplicity, and modesty and asserted, "His victory is certain as there are 239 voters from Maharashtra that are with the NDA while the UPA has only 98 voters."

Maharashtra minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai said Thackeray has asked the party MLA to ensure the victory of the NDA candidate.

On NDA's presidential nominee not visiting 'Matoshree', senior party leader and state minister Eknath Shinde said, "Kovind thanked Uddhav Thackeray today in his speech for extending support to his candidature. As Kovind has to visit a couple of more states, we did not insist him on visiting 'Matoshree'."

A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary.

Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the party had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

"We have already extended our support to Kovind. As per Thackeray's orders, all the MLAs and MPs of Shiv Sena have decided to vote for Kovind," he said.

Union Minister and RPI(A) chief Ramdas Athawale said everyone is happy that Kovind, who is associated with the Ambedkarite movement, will be the president.

Swabhimani Shetakari Sanghatana MP Raju Shetti, who was present when Kovind had filed his nomination for the presidential election, was absent today as he was busy with farmers' rally in north India.

Earlier, Kovind was welcomed at the airport by BJP leaders, Union ministers Gadkari and Athawale, and Fadnavis.
trends Future Connected Conclave: IoT innovations for industry 4.0 The Future Connected Conclave held in New Delhi gave visitors the perfect opportunity to explore some of the leading IoT solutions across diverse sectors for a connected world along with a host of insightful sessions on how technology is transforming every aspect of our lives.
By India Today Web Desk: The famous Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was born on December 2, 1946 in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. From clothing, accessories, perfume to home furniture and production design, he was well-known for his range as a fashion savant.

Versace expressed his inclination towards clothing and design from a young age, and his mother who was a seamstress helped him take his first step towards dressmaking and fashion sensibilities.

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He used innovative materials such as aluminum mesh and latest technology like "neo-couture" technology that helped him fuse leather and rubber. In the year 1989, he debuted his first couture collection.

At the age of 50, on the morning of July 15, 1997, he was murdered outside his South beach home in Miami. After nine-days of manhunt the police found Versace's killer Andrew Cunanan, lying dead in a Miami beach boathouse, just about two miles away from the designer's villa.

On the 20th death anniversary of the Italian designer listed below are some facts you should not miss about Gianni Versace:

Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section.

To get more updates on Current Affairs, send in your query by mail to education.intoday@gmail.com

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By PTI: Panaji, Jul 15 (PTI) A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Goa Police has arrested a 50-year-oldman in connection a series of cases of alleged desecration of holy crosses in South Goa district, a senior officer said today.

The accused confessed to vandalising 12 crosses in South Goa in the past fortnight, the police officer claimed.

Francis Pereira, a native of Curchorem village in South Goa, was arrested last night while he was trying to desecrate a cross at Curtorim village, nearly 20 kms from his resident.

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The Christan religious symbol in at least 12 places and a temple had been vandalised in South Goa district since July 1.

"A police team spotted Pereira trying to damage the Cross. However, on seeing the policemen, he tried to escape from the spot. After a brief chase, police nabbed him," the senior police officer told PTI.

"During the preliminary questioning, he admitted to having carried out the desecration of crosses," he said.

The police officer expressed confidence that with the arrest of Pereira, other cases of desecration of crosses in the recent past, would also be cracked.

The police officer said the motive behind the desecrations was yet to be known as the interrogation of the accused was still on.

Police are conducting a search at Pereiras residence in Curchorem, where he lives with his family.

The official said that the accused was a convict in an attempt to murder case in 2000, and is now out of jail after serving a sentence.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said he would address the media over the issue this afternoon.

Goa witnessed a number of attacks on religious symbols, especially of the Christian community, in the last fortnight. Besides the crosses, around 50 gravestones were also damaged in Curchorem village last Sunday.

The Goa Church had earlier expressed "deep pain" over the incidents of desecration of crosses and felt that these incidents seemed to be designed by vested interests to provoke communal discord in the state, which is known for religious tolerance.

In view of the incidents of defiling of religious symbols, Parrikar had last week held a high a high-level meeting with police officials.

He asked all the police stations in the state to form special investigation teams to nab the accused at the earliest. PTI RPS SMN ARS NP SMN

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By PTI: Panaji, Jul 15 (PTI) The Goa police has arrested a 50- year-old man in connection with the alleged desecration of holy crosses in South Goa district, it said today.

The accused, Francis Pereira, had told the police that he "casually" vandalised 12 crosses over the last fortnight with no intention to create an enmity, said a senior police officer.

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The Christian religious symbol in at least 12 places and a temple had been vandalised in the South Goa district since July 1.

The police hoped that with Pereiras arrest, they would be able to crack over 150 cases of desecration of religious places reported from the state in the last 15 years.

Pereira, a resident of Curchorem village in South Goa, was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Goa police last night while he was attempting to desecrate a cross at Curtorim village, around 20 kms from his residence.

"A police team spotted Pereira attempting to damage the cross. On seeing the policemen, he tried to run away but the police managed to nab him," the senior officer told PTI.

"During the preliminary questioning, he admitted to have desecrated the crosses over the last fortnight," he added.

Talking to reporters at Curchorem town, Superintendent of Police (South) Arvind Gawas said, "We have cracked the biggest and longest-running case of desecrations in the state with the arrest of Pereira. With this, we will be able to solve over 150 cases of desecration of religious places, which were reported over the last 15 years."

Pereira, who was convicted in an attempt to murder case earlier, had been living at Curchorem village after serving the jail term, he added.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, state Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral, Director General of Police (DGP) Muktesh Chander and senior police officers held a meeting today at the Curchorem police station, following Pereiras arrest.

Talking to reporters, Pereira said he had no intention to trigger an enmity with anyone by his act.

"I did it casually. Nothing was planned. I used to see a cross and hit it," he said.

Chander said during the interrogation, the accused told the police that he had a plan to continue desecrating religious places in the state.

"He had plans of desecrating statues and religious structures," the DGP added.

Sardesai told reporters that the confidence of the people in the state police force as regards the investigation of the desecration cases was vindicated with the arrest of Pereira.

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A number of incidents of attacks on religious symbols, especially of the Christian community, were reported in Goa over the last fortnight. Besides crosses, around 50 gravestones were also damaged in Curchorem village last Sunday.

The Goa Church had earlier expressed "deep pain" over the incidents of desecration of crosses and felt that the incidents could have been designed by vested interests to trigger a communal discord in the state, which is known for its religious tolerance.

In view of the incidents of defiling of religious symbols, Parrikar had last week held a high-level meeting with police officials. PTI RPS NP RC

--- ENDS ---
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

A few clouds early, otherwise mostly sunny. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies in the evening, then becoming cloudy overnight. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
'The big truck is still on ...
In Rajkot, heavy rain has caused water-logging in parts of the city

By Gopi Maniar Ghanghar : Torrential rains pounded parts of Gujarat today, leading to a deluge-like situation at several places, resulting in the death of one person, officials said today.

Flood-like situation developed in Tankara town in Morbi district due to cloudburst and heavy rainfall. Tankara has received 340 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, according to officials. More than 1400 people have been rescued to safe places.

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In Rajkot, heavy rain has caused water-logging in parts of the city. Authorities have asked citizens not to venture out of their houses.

WATER-LOGGING IN RAJKOT

"A middle-aged couple was swept by water near Jeta Kuba village in Lodhika taluka this morning. While Navalbhai Khunt (45) could not be saved, his wife was rescued," Rajkot District Collector Vikrant Pandey said.

"Rajkot city received 400 mm of rainfall till 11 am," Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani said, adding that they have alerted citizens not to venture out of their houses.

Water-logging in low-lying areas has closed many roads and thrown life out of gear in Rajkot city, he said.

"Around 2,000 people have been shifted to safer places in Rajkot district, while in Morbi district around 1,400 have been moved to other places," officials of the disaster control room said.

"The district administration of Surendranagar rescued 12 people who were stranded in water in Bharda village in Dhrangadhra taluka, and three more from Krishnagar Society in Surendrnagar town," they said.

Following heavy rains, Aji and Macchu rivers in Rajkot and Surendranagar districts respectively, have swelled, after which people living in low-lying areas near the river have been alerted. Rajkot administration said the district disaster team was conducting rescue operation in low-lying areas.

"More than 10 dams in the district are on the verge of overflowing, water level in Nyari 1 and 2, and Aji 3 dams has risen to alert level," Rajkot collector Pandey said, adding that the NDRF teams have been put on a standby mode and more number of people living in the low-lying areas are being taken to safer places.

CM VIJAY RUPANI HOLDS REVIEW MEETING

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held an emergency meeting this morning to review the situation and ordered the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams to remain stationed in Tankara in Morbi district and Chotila in Surendranagar district. During the review meeting, the chief minister instructed the state administration to remain extra alert as the weather department has given a warning of heavy rains in the state in the next 48 hours.

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According to the figures arriving from State Emergency Operation Centre, as on 8am today, 7 reservoirs have been put on high alert while 5 are put on alert.

Level of water in Narmada dam is 117 meter which is 85.26 per cent of its capacity. The reservoirs that are over 90 per cent full include Fatehgadh (Kutch), Kankavati (Jamnagar), Demi-3 and Machhu-3 (Morbi), Khodapipar (Rajkot), Morshal and Trivenisang( Surendranagar).

Dholi(Bharuch), Und-2 (Jamnagar), Aaji-2 (Rajkot) and Dholidhaja (Surendranagar) dams are put on alert. Warning has been issued in case of other four reservoirs.

In total, the capacity of all 203 reservoirs across Gujarat is 15,770.39 million cubic meter of which 5,215.85 mcm water has been stored as on 8 am today.

With inputs from PTI

ALSO READ

Gujarat flood toll touches 70

2 suspicious ships caught off Gujarat coast, terror link suspected

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Kochi, Jul 14 (PTI) The Kerala High Court today barred nurses organisations from resorting to their proposed indefinite strike from July 17 to press for their demand of higher wages.

Justice P B Suresh Kumar stayed the proposed nurses strike on a petition which argued that their services fall under the ambit of essential services and sought invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act provisions against striking nurses.

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Justice Kumar also issued notices to four nurses organisation and the state government, seeking their stands on the plea.

Functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be hit with an estimated 80,000 nurses ready to go on indefinite strike from July 17, demanding higher wages.

Private hospital managements have said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the strike call.

The nurses have been on strike for the past few days demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

The United Nurses Association (UNA) and Indian Nurses Association (INA), spearheading the ongoing stir, have said they would intensify their protest from July 17. PTI COR TGB BN RAX MVV

--- ENDS ---
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Disney brought surprise and spectacle to the D23 Expo in Anaheim Friday.

The biennial fan event features new merchandise, fan experiences and plenty of announcements.

On Friday afternoon, Hall D23 became the place to be to learn about whats next for Disney animation. Pixar CCO John Lasseter hosted a nearly two-hour panel of sneak peeks, teases and guest appearances to showcase upcoming movies from Disney Animation, Pixar and Disneytoon Studios.

A sizzle reels started the presentation, with footage from Thor: Ragnarok, Beauty and the Beast, Cars 3, The Jungle Book,  and new titles such as Mary Poppins Returns, Black Panther, and Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2.

Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn then took the stage to highlight the mornings Disney Legends Award Ceremony, and, of course, to talk animation. None of this would exist without story animation, he said, speaking of the companys foundation. Lasseter then took the stage to discuss the Disneys newest animated movies.

DISNEY'S "SPACE"

The first preview shared was an animation test from Disneytoon Studios featuring high-flying jets with animated faces. The style is similar to 2013s Planes, a spin-off of Pixars Cars. In the clip, the planes zoom across the sky before a title card appeared that read Space. Other words joined it to say, This Space to be filled with a title when we think of one. The untitled movie is slated for April 12, 2019.

OLAF'S FROZEN ADVENTURE

The team behind the mega-hit Frozen shared footage of the holiday short Olafs Frozen Adventure. Kristen Bell introduced Josh Gad (voice of Olaf), who sang one of the shorts four new songs. In the 21-minute short, Olaf goes in search of holiday traditions to share with Anna and Elsa, who realize they dont have any traditions of their own. Olafs Frozen Adventure" will premiere in front of Pixars Coco in November.

WRECK-IT RALPH 2

One the biggest highlights of the animation panel was the segment dedicated to Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. The never-before-scene footage started with Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) navigating the internet with a new character named Yesss, voiced by Taraji P. Henson. Once Vanellope finds a group of Disney princesses, hilarity ensues. "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2" will hit theaters March 2018.

THE INCREDIBLES 2

The much-anticipated sequel to 2004s The Incredible received some love during Fridays panel. To kick things off, director Brad Bird shared a special clip dedicated to character Edna Mode. It featured real-life fashion staples -- Heidi Klum, Rachel Zoe and Zac Posen. Each paid tribute to the popular character. Bird also shared new renderings of the characters to highlight the advances in animation technology.

In The Incredibles 2 Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) will take the lead while Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) takes a break from the action. To close the segment, Bird shared a clip of baby Jack Jack fighting a raccoon, revealing the infant's numerous powers.

TOY STORY 4

Lasseter announced that he would be stepping down as director of Toy Story 4 and that his co-director Josh Cooley would take over. Lasseter said he would remain an executive producer on the movie.

UNTITLED SUBURBAN FANTASY WORLD

Pixar has another new movie in the works, an untitled project set in a suburban fantasy world. Lasseter introduced the movie by telling the audience it would take them into worlds theyve never seen before. Dan Scanlon is attached to direct. He took the stage to say it is a deeply personal project for him. The story follows two brothers who go on a quest to find their father. Scanlons father died when he was very young.

COCO

The presentation ended with a extended preview of Pixars upcoming movie Coco. Benjamin Bratt and Anthony Gonzalez star. The two actors appeared on stage to sing one of the songs from the movie as marigold petals fell from the ceiling of the arena and traditional Mexican dancers filled the aisles. "Coco" hits theaters November 2017.

On Saturday, Disney is slated to hold a similar presentation for its live-action movies.
Hundreds of people in the affected districts were shifted to safer places from low-lying areas near rivers and dams.

By Press Trust of India: Heavy rains lashed parts of Gujarat, including Morbi, Surendranagar and Rajkot districts, leading to reservoirs and rivers overflowing their banks, resulting in the death of one person, officials said today.

Hundreds of people in these three districts were shifted to safer places from low-lying areas near rivers and dams. In Rajkot, authorities have asked citizens not to venture out of their houses.

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Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held an emergency meeting in the morning to review the situation and ordered the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams to remain stationed in Tankara in Morbi district and Chotila in Surendranagar district.

"A middle-aged couple was swept by water near Jeta Kuba village in Lodhika taluka this morning. While Navalbhai Khunt (45) could not be saved, his wife was rescued," Rajkot District Collector Vikrant Pandey said.

Chotila in Surendranagar received around 450 mm of rainfall. Other parts of Surendranagar district also got substantial amount of rain, officials of the state disaster response control room said.

Tankara in Morbi district received 340 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, the officials said.

"Rajkot city received 400 mm of rainfall till 11 am," Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani said, adding that they have alerted citizens not to venture out of their houses.

Water-logging in low-lying areas has closed many roads and thrown life out of gear in Rajkot city, he said.

"Around 2,000 people have been shifted to safer places in Rajkot district, while in Morbi district around 1,400 have been moved to other places," officials of the disaster control room said.

"The district administration of Surendranagar rescued 12 people who were stranded in water in Bharda village in Dhrangadhra taluka, and three more from Krishnagar Society in Surendrnagar town," they said.

Following heavy rains, Aji and Macchu rivers in Rajkot and Surendranagar districts respectively, have swelled, after which people living in low-lying areas near the river have been alerted.

Rajkot administration said the district disaster team was conducting rescue operation in low-lying areas.

"More than 10 dams in the district are on the verge of overflowing, water level in Nyari 1 and 2, and Aji 3 dams has risen to alert level," Rajkot collector Pandey said, adding that the NDRF teams have been put on a standby mode and more number of people living in the low-lying areas are being taken to safer places.

During the review meeting, the chief minister instructed the state administration to remain extra alert as the weather department has given a warning of heavy rains in the state in the next 48 hours.

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"The NDRF teams have been stationed in Tankar, Chotila and Valsad, Surat of South Gujarat and Palanpur in north Gujarat," a government release said.

South Gujarat region also received heavy rainfall.

Other places which received heavy rainfall include Muli (160 mm) in Surendranagar district, Padadhari (159 mm) in Rajkot district, Kapadvanj (144 mm) in Kheda district, Kalol (133 mm) in Gandhinagar district, Vankaner (132 mm) in Morbi district, Jamnagar (124 mm), Deesa (117 mm) and Mahisagar (107 mm).

The State Emergency Operation Centre said high-alert has been issued for seven out of 203 dams, and alert for four.

The high-alert has been issued for Fatehgadh in Kutch district, Kankavati in Jamnagar, Demi 3 and Machhu 3 in Morbi district, Khodapiper in Rajkot, and Marshal and Trivenisang in Surendranagar district.

Alert has been issued for Dholi in Bharuch district, Und-2 in Jamnagar, Aji 2 in Rajkot, Dholidhaja in Surendranagar.

Of the 15,770.39 million cubic metre water capacity of the dams across the state, 5,217.85 million cubic metre water has been received this season.

Water level in Sardar Sarovar dam has gone up to 117 metres, and the dam is 85.26 per cent full.

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ALSO READ | Incessant rains lash Gujarat: Rail traffic hit, 5 trains cancelled, 13 diverted

Gujarat: Heavy rain causes flood-like situation, 1 dead

Northeast floods cause unprecedented damage, 80 dead, 17 lakh marooned

ALSO WATCH | Northeast battles flash floods: Assam worst-hit with 44 deaths, innumerable displaced

--- ENDS ---
Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, who led the guard of honour during then US President Barack Obama's visit to India in 2015, has been reinstated into the service by a military court, which also pulled up the Air Force.

Thakur made news when she led a guard of honour for visiting US President Barack Obama in 2015

By Ajit Kumar Dubey: In a major victory for the poster girl for rising woman power in the Indian armed forces, a military court pulled up the air force and reinstated Wing Commander Pooja Thakur in service, while asking it to consider her "without ill will" for granting her a permanent commission.

Thakur came up as the symbol of PM Modi's showcasing of women power or 'stree shakti' in defence forces when she became the first woman officer in India to lead a guard of honour for American President Barack Obama in 2015.

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After being denied extension in service, Thakur had moved court against the Air Force against her discharge and denial of permanent commission in service.

"We direct the reinstatement of Wg Cdr Thakur into service with direction that she will be considered by the Air Force expeditiously as permissible by constituting a board for grant of permanent commission, subject to there being a vacancy and her meeting with the other parameters prescribed," the Armed Forces Tribunal bench headed by Justice VK Shali said.

The military court said Thakur's lawyer Maj SS Pandey have expressed apprehension during the course of arguments that she may not be given fair treatment.

"We only hope and trust that the case of the applicant shall be considered without any rancor and ill will for having approached the tribunal for grant of Permanent Commission," the court observed.

However, the court made it clear that while Thakur shall be reinstated with continuity of service for consideration of grant of permanent commission, she will not be entitled to remuneration or back wages for the period when she is assumed to have remained out of service and has not worked.

"Even if we assume she had made a request to remain in Delhi or in and around Delhi, it is the Air Force who have been obliging her.... Therefore, these submissions are in our view, totally irrelevant for deciding the question of grant of Permanent Commission," the Tribunal said.

The court noted that the Air Force was opposing the applicant rather than being gracious to consider her case sympathetically.

"This was reflected from the fact that as many as five officers of fairly senior rank from the department of Judge Advocate General (legal Branch) were opposing the petition which gave a sense of vindictiveness as if at some point of time, being a female officer she had ruffled the feathers of her male counterparts," the court stated.

The court also said the grant of permanent commission, especially to the Women Officers, must be given a liberal construction and it should be interpreted in a manner which would be beneficial to the women officers rather than the employer.

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Commenting on the verdict, Thakur's lawyer Maj Pandey said the court has given the direction to the air force to act fairly in considering Wg Cdr Thakur for permanent commission.

Permanent commission allows a woman officer get an opportunity to rise to the rank of lieutenant general and retire at 60 with full benefits that the men officers get.

Over a month after filing the case, Thakur's tenure came to an end and she retired with her case still pending for final decision.

ALSO READ | Indian Army to open up combat positions for women, says General Bipin Rawat

ALSO WATCH | Meet India's first women fighter pilots

--- ENDS ---
Fireworks, bicycles and even a vehicle appeared on Pearland Police Department's lost-and-found list last week.

A bag of fireworks was turned into police July 4 in the 3500 block of Orange Street.

Two abandoned bicycles were found July 6 in the 2100 block of O'Day Road, police said.

A stolen vehicle was recovered July 8 in the 3000 block of Silverlake Village Drive, police said.

A wallet was found July 8 in the 2700 block of Royal Creek Court and turned into the police department, authorities said.

FRAUD

Credit card abuse was reported July 3 in the 2100 block of Yupon Circle, police said.

A credit card account was opened fraudulently Dec. 30, 2016, according to a police report filed July 5 in the 4900 block of Sterling Crossing.

A credit card owner's information was used without her permission July 3, according to a police report taken in the 2300 block of Cape Landing Drive.

A complainant's credit card information was used July 5 without permission, according to a police report filed July 6 in the 3200 block of Tamara Creek Lane.

Fraudulent use of identifying information occurred between June 12 and July 2 in the 1200 block of Gulfton Drive, according to a July 7 police report.

A suspect bought a car with a bad check between May 17 and July 7 in the 1100 block of Main Street, police said.

ASSAULT

Police cited a Pearland woman, 64, for assault July 3 in the 5400 block of Balmorhea Drive.

Assault occurred June 20 in the 1900 block of Orchard Frost Drive, according to a July 3 police report.

Police took a League City woman, 27, and an Humble man, 23, into custody for assault, family violence July 3 in the 1700 block of Broadway Street.

Police cited a juvenile female for assault, family violence July 4 in the 4600 block of Orange Street.

Police arrested a Pearland woman, 32, for assault, family violence July 4 in the 2100 block of Tower Bridge Road.

Assault was reported July 4 in the 2000 block of Business Center Drive, police said.

Police arrested a 25-year-old Pearland woman for assault, family violence July 6 in the 12300 block of Shadow Creek Parkway.

Assault was reported July 6 and July 9 in the 2200 block of Nemes Lane, police said.

Police arrested a Pearland man, 38, for assault, family violence July 9 in the 12400 block of Shadow Creek Parkway.

A Pearland man, 27, was arrested for assault, family violence July 9 in the 4800 block of Clover Lane, police said.

BURGLARY

Burglary of a motor vehicle was attempted July 2 or July 3 in the 1100 block of Andover Drive, police said.

Money and a credit card was stolen from an unlocked pickup truck July 3 in the 11600 block of Waterwood Court, police said.

Policed filed a burglary of habitation report July 3 in the 2800 block of Oak Road.

Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle was reported July 3 in the 2300 block of Dolan Falls Lane, police said.

Burglary of a motor vehicle was reported July 4 in the 2900 block of Glencullen Lane, police said.

Burglary of a building occurred July 3 or July 4 in the 3400 block of Business Center Drive, according to a July 4 police report.

A handgun was stolen during a motor vehicle burglary July 3 in the 2900 block of Concord Knoll Drive, according to a July 5 police report.

Vehicle burglary occurred July 6 in the 1800 block of Kingsley Drive, police said.

An unknown offender shattered the glass doorways of two businesses in the same shopping center July 6 or July 7 in the 5400 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Police filed two motor vehicle burglary reports July 7 in the 2700 block of YMCA Drive.

A wallet and cell phone were stolen from a vehicle June 7 in the 2800 block of Pearland Parkway, police said.

A vehicle was burglarized July 8 in the 13000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said.

A residence was burglarized July 9 in the 3100 block of Ashton Park Drive, police said.

A motor vehicle burglary took place July 9 in the 13000 block of Windward Bay Drive, police said.

THEFT

Police investigated a theft report July 3 in the 3200 block of Broadway Street.

Motor vehicle parts were taken July 3 in the 10200 block of Broadway Street, according to a July 4 police report.

Items were stolen from a vehicle June 30 or July 1 in the 6200 block of Terrell Drive, police said.

Shoplifting was reported July 4 at Walmart, 1919 Main St., police said.

A motor vehicle was stolen July 5 in the 2200 block of Manchester Lane, police said.

A water meter was stolen from a construction site between May 1 and July 5 in the 3600 block of Bartlett Way Drive, police said.

A package was stolen from a front porch July 5 in the 2000 block of Business Center Drive, police said.

A firearm was stolen from an unlocked gun cabinet between June 1 and July 6 in the 9600 block of King Author's Court, police said.

Theft was reported July 6 in the 4100 block of Bailey Road, police said.

A cellular phone was stolen July 6 in the 12600 block of Broadway Street, police said.

An employee stole customer credit card information between April 26 and July 7 in the 1500 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Two rims and tires were stolen off a green Jeep July 6 or July 7 in the 1100 block of North Main Street, police said.

Theft was reported July 7 in the 1200 block of Lake Shore Drive, police said.Police investigated a theft July 7 in the 2700 block of Old Chocolate Bayou Road.

A wallet was stolen July 7 in the 10000 block of Broadway Street, according to a July 8 police report.

A suspect stole a bag of ice from a convenience store July 8 in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said.

A wallet was reported stolen July 8 in the 8300 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Extortion was attempted July 9 in the 2400 block of Business Center Drive, police said.

NARCOTICS

An officer conducting a traffic stop July 3 in the 1500 block of Cullen Parkway found the driver in possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Police arrested a Pearland woman, 29, for marijuana possession July 4 in the 4800 block of Main Street.

Police filed a report for possession of a controlled substance after recovering promethazine with codeine during interaction with a male suspect July 4 in the 15400 block of Texas 288.

Police issued a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia July 6 in the 11100 block of Broadway Street.

Police arrested a Sugar Land man, 22, for drug and alcohol offenses July 7 in the 2300 block of North Grand Boulevard.

A 17-year-old Rosharon man was arrested for marijuana possession July 7 in the 4400 block of CR 48, police said.

A Tyler man, 53, was arrested for driving while license invalid with previous convictions and given a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia July 7 in the 15800 block of Texas 288, police said.

Police arrested a Houston man, 20, for marijuana possession July 7 in the 1700 block of Hillhouse Road.

A Fort Worth man, 35, was arrested for marijuana possession and an outstanding warrant July 8 in the 8400 block of Broadway Street, police said.

A Manvel man, 49, was cited for possession of drug paraphernalia July 8 in the 3700 block of East Plum Street, police said.

Police took a Houston man, 26, into custody for marijuana possession, evading arrest and a Harris County warrant July 8 in the 9500 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Police arrested a 17-year-old Pearland man for marijuana possession following a traffic stop July 8 in the 1500 block of McGinnis Drive.

DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED

Police arrested a Katy man, 48, unlawful carrying of a weapon and DWI July 4 in the 3300 block of Dixie Farm Road.

Police filed a DWI report after a suspect caused a collision July 5 in the 3200 block of Broadway Street.

Police arrested an Angleton man, 53, for DWI July 6 in the 3200 block of Cullen Parkway. A Rosharon woman, 27, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and public intoxication, and a Brazoria County woman, 30, was taken into custody for public intoxication.

Police arrested a Pearland man, 23, for DWI July 8 in the 6600 block of Broadway Street.

A South Houston man, 33, was arrested for DWI July 9 in the 2500 block of Main Street, police said.

TRAFFIC

Police investigated a fictitious vehicle registration July 3 in the 16600 block of Texas 288.

An Irving man, 23, was arrested for no driver's license July 4 in the 11000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said.

An accident involving damage to a vehicle was reported July 5 in the 3900 block of Walnut Street, police said.

Police arrested an Alvin man, 61, for driving while license invalid July 7 in the 5200 block of Broadway Street.

Police took a Santa Fe man, 29, into custody for driving while license invalid July 8 in the 2000 block of Main Street.

A vehicle was damaged in a hit-and-run collision July 9 in the 1800 block of Kirby, police said.

A hit-and-run collision occurred July 9 in the 2200 block of North Grand Boulevard, police said.

INTERFERENCE WITH EMERGENCY CALL

Police arrested a Houston man, 28, for interference with an emergency call during a verbal disturbance July 4 in the 2500 block of Business Center Drive.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

Police filed a criminal mischief report July 4 in the 3500 block of Broadway Street.

A shopping cart damaged a vehicle July 5 in the 1500 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Vehicle damage was reported July 5 in the 3500 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Police investigated a broken car window July 7 in the 10000 block of Broadway Street.

Criminal mischief was reported July 8 in the 3100 block of Pilgrims Point Lane, police said.

A vehicle's rear glass was shattered July 8 in the 4200 block of West Walnut Street, police said.

CRIMINAL TRESPASS

A female suspect trespassed July 4 at a residence in the 3400 block of Windsor Drive, police said.

Four juveniles entered a school building without permission June 30 in the 2300 block of North Galveston Avenue, according to a July 5 police report.

Police arrested a Houston woman, 39, for criminal trespass and warrants July 5 in the 3400 block of Windsor Drive.

Criminal trespass occurred July 6 in the 3900 block of Spring River Drive, police said.

CHILDREN, ELDERLY

Police investigated a report of injury to an elderly person July 4 in the 12000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway.

Police cited a Brazoria man, 30, for leaving a child in a vehicle July 4 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive.

TERRORISTIC THREAT

Police filed a terroristic threat report July 6 in the 1900 block of Country Place Parkway.

DEADLY, DISORDERLY

Police arrested a Friendswood man, 34, for deadly conduct July 9 in the 1500 block of Broadway Street.

Police cited two offenders for disorderly conduct, boisterous or tumultuous behavior July 7 in the 1800 block of Main Street.

A Pearland woman, 17, and a Houston woman, 18, received citations for disorderly conduct July 8 in the 2100 block of Venezia Drive, police said.

TOBACCO

Police filed a report for a minor in possession of tobacco July 7 in the 4100 block of Bailey Road.

WEAPONS

Police arrested a Fresno man, 53, for unlawfully carrying a handgun July 8 in the 11000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway.

RESISTING ARREST

Police took a Manvel man, 60, into custody for resisting arrest and public intoxication July 9 in the 3000 block of Kirby Drive.
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NORWALK  After 24 years in Connecticut, Nury Chavarria has six days left to say goodbye to her family.

An undocumented resident who fled Guatemala at age 19, she has had a longtime steady job here and is raising four U.S. children, including her oldest who is handicapped.

Until last month, her life had the normal rhythm of a working mother  shopping, cooking, transporting the four siblings.

That changed on June 21, when she reported to the Hartford office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as she was required to do annually after an earlier order of deportation was deferred under prosecutorial discretion.

With her 9-year-old in tow, expecting just a routine check-in, Nuri was ordered to report back July 5 to show she had a one-way ticket to Guatemala with a July 20 departure date.

I was in shock, Chavarria said of that meeting. She said she and her youngest child, Hayley Chavarria, who will be in the fourth grade in September, started crying. I couldnt believe it was happening.

Chavarria, who lives in Norwalk, said her children knew she reported to ICE on a regular basis, but also that she had documentation that allowed her to work. They didnt realize the potential jeopardy she faced with the renewed immigration enforcement in place under President Donald Trump.

While she was low priority for deportation under the Obama administration, most immigrants out of status now are a priority.

Attorney Glenn Formica of New Haven has applied for a stay of Chavarrias final order of deportation on humanitarian grounds, with the hope that her asylum case can be reopened.

Navigating the legal path ahead is complicated, he said, as her previous attorney was recently disbarred and Formica needs to get access to Chavarrias file to determine what avenues already have been pursued.

He said Chavarria, 43, does not have anyone with whom she can leave the children.

Her oldest, Elvin Martinez, 21, has a learning problem, as well as impaired motor skills due to cerebral palsy. He needs a lot of assistance, she said, including help dressing and feeding himself. He was born prematurely at 6 months gestation.

Chavarria is encouraging him to attend Norwalk Community College, but said he is embarrassed by his disabilities.

Daughter Lindsay Chavarria, 18, graduated from Norwalk High School with high honors and is starting her college education this summer at Norwalk Community College.

At her high school graduation, her cap read: My mom crossed the border, so I could cross this stage, said Charla Nich of Guilford, who attended the interview with Chavarria.

It made me cry when she did that, Chavarria said of her daughters statement.

Nich, a statistician at the Yale Medical School, is one of dozens of members of the CT Shoreline Indivisible group who support immigrants like Chavarria as they go through the immigration court and deportation process.

Chavarria said her third-oldest child, Kevin Uquillas, 15, a rising junior, who also has high honors, is intent on finishing high school here, while Hayley, like her brothers and sister, is an English language speaker with limited ability in Spanish and worries about attending school in Guatemala.

Formica said if Chavarria were deported, both Kevin and Hayley would become dependent on the state of Connecticut for care.

Also, Elvin couldnt take care of himself and while the 18-year-old technically could strike out on her own, Chavarria said all her children are completely dependent on me. They dont work. I work. I pay the bills.

Formica said Chavarrias deportation would certainly impact the ability of her two older children to go to college. It would affect them all.

Her attorney said practically speaking it would be difficult for her to afford five airline tickets out of the country with her income as a housekeeper. She has worked with the same employer for the past 15 years.

It would be even harder to support Elvin or raise the kids in Guatemala, Formica said.

She really doesnt have any options in Guatemala. So it really is just a matter of breaking the family, he said.

He said she supports her family, takes care of her children and has never been arrested. Deporting her not only leaves American children without a parent, it costs the state money.

The burden of keeping her here is far less than sending her back, Formica said.

The attorney said he has being doing immigration cases for two decades and has gotten to know the ICE officers.

He said he feels sorry for them now that the policy, in his opinion, is to deport people regardless of their circumstances and regardless if it makes any sense.

Its not necessarily a good guy, bad guy situation in terms of the officers, but the policy. Right now it takes away a lot of their ability to apply common sense, he said.

Nich said the human side is just so tragic. This whole family just has to sit and wait. ... How do you leave your family for ten years? How do you leave your little girl for ten years?

If she leaves, Chavarria could not be eligible to return for a decade.

Chavarria, when she reported to ICE on July 5, left with an ankle GPS bracelet that tracks her every movement.

Where is a mother of four at any given time on a summer afternoon? She is driving the kids around, Nich said. It is such an incredibly dehumanizing, demoralizing thing for the entire family.

She said Hayley told her she doesnt know who she can talk to about this. She doesnt know if she can tell her friends. She is 9 years old. She is a baby. It shouldnt be her concern, Nich said.

Chavarria said the first week after she got the notice from ICE, it was hard for me to sleep. I feel better now that I see a lot of people supporting me, she said, referring to the CT Shoreline Indivisible group and others such as Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ).

Nich said they have gathered 10,098 signatures on a MoveOn.org petition supporting Chavarria and 21,000 signatures on parents-together.org, organized by Justin Rubin.

Gini King of Guilford, a retired pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation in Maine, is back in Connecticut and very involved in the CT Shoreline Indivisible group.

In these communities it has become a way of life of not talking about your own situation, not asking other people about their situation, King said, which further isolates them.

By following the immigration process, King said their job is to talk about what they see and tell others why it is not just.

The emotional toll is crazy, Nich said.

I stopped thinking right now. Im getting crazy thinking about it every day, Chavarria said.

Formica said there has been 20 years of stress in these immigrant communities. There is this constant fatigue of fear, he said.

We have historically treated immigrants badly, whether they are Irish, German or Italian, but we have always fixed it. We go through these dark periods, but then we have openness and we fix it. It just has been an awfully long time since that happened, Formica said.

Ironically, Formica said U.S. foreign policy in Latin America has contributed to the situation there that has resulted in people fleeing their countries.

He said CT Shoreline Indivisible is expressing a community value in its concern for immigrants and keeping families intact. Formica would like to see ICE reflect those values and focus on deporting bad actors.
WASHINGTON - Grandparents and other extended relatives are exempt from President Donald Trump's travel ban, a federal judge in Hawaii declared late Thursday, again stopping the administration from implementing the president's controversial executive order in the way that it wants.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson wrote that the government's "narrowly defined list" of who might be exempt was not supported by either the Supreme Court decision partially unfreezing the ban or by the law.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson wrote. "Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Watson wrote that refugees with an assurance from a resettlement agency could also be exempt from the ban.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Friday that the Justice Department would "reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the executive branch's duty to protect the nation."

"Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the coequal executive branch related to our national security," Sessions said. "By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court."

Later, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the government to enforce the executive order as it had been, arguing that Watson's decision "empties the Court's decision" of meaning.

"Only this Court can definitively settle whether the government's reasonable interpretation is consistent with this Court's stay," Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Many justices left Washington to travel after their most recent term ended, but they often rule in emergencies when they are in different places. In the meantime, Department of Homeland Security and State Department spokesmen said their agencies were reviewing the decision with the Justice Department, and working on implementation of Watson's decision.

At issue is how far the administration can go in keeping out relatives of U.S. residents under the president's travel ban, which temporarily bars entry for all refugees and the issuance of new visas to residents of six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Supreme Court ruled late last month that the government could begin enforcing the measure, but not against those with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States.

The court offered only limited guidance on what type of relationship would qualify. "Close familial" relationships would count, the court said, as would ties such as a job offer or school acceptance letter that were "formal, documented and formed in the ordinary course."

The administration said it would let into the United States from the six affected countries parents, parents-in-law, siblings, spouses, children, sons and daughters, fiances, and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of those already here.

Still banned, however, were grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. And the administration also said it would keep out refugees who had a formal assurance from a resettlement agency.

The state of Hawaii, which has been suing over the travel ban, soon asked Watson to intervene.

The district judge had initially ruled against Hawaii in the case, telling it to go straight to the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit also rebuffed the state's request, although it offered a way forward: Watson, the appeals court said, would have jurisdiction over a reframed request. Hawaii then filed such a request, setting up Watson's ruling Thursday - which allows the entry of those the government had wanted to keep out.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said in a statement: "The federal court today makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit. Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination. We will continue preparing for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in October."

While the Supreme Court partially unfroze Trump's travel ban, it did so only temporarily, indicating it would truly take up the case in the fall. By that time, the bans might have expired. The barring of new visas to those from the six Muslim-majority countries is supposed to last 90 days, and the barring of refugees is supposed to last 120 days.

- - -

The Washington Post's Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
After the all-party meet on the India-China border standoff, Congress has said that there is too much tension that should be lowered through diplomacy and that it will raise the issue in Parliament.

By Geeta Mohan: After the government reached out to Opposition parties in the all-party meet on Friday to apprise them of what was happening at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction and the steps that the government had been taking in that regard, an unconvinced Congress has said that it will raise the issue in Parliament and called for lowering tension through diplomacy.

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As many as 19 MPs from different political parties attended the meeting chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. While the Home Secretary gave a presentation on the Amarnath Yatra attack, the Foreign Secretary gave the entire background on 'Doklam' crisis and the border 'face-off' between India and China.

It is said that the purpose of this exercise was to engage the Opposition on two sensitive matters ahead of the Monsoon session but many leaders India Today spoke to remained unconvinced. The Congress has made it very clear that while 'nation is first', it continues to have doubts and will raise the issue in Parliament. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma said, "There is too much tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament."

While Foreign Secretary Jaishankar was quoted by some opposition members as explaining the fact that China was in violation and was changing the status quo, many such as Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), Sharad Pawar of the NCP and Anand Sharma of the Congress wanted to know what started the stand-off.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MEETING

Sources tell India Today that the strategic importance and the need to engage diplomatically was explained to the members. The word 'Siliguri' came up five times during the govt presentation and the term 'chicken's neck' was mentioned four times. The two terms that signify the fact that any movement from the Chinese to wrest control of the Doklam plateau could result in endangering the northeast of India being cut-off from the mainland.

Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said, "All participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity. Importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined".

Speaking to India Today, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said that he remained 'unconvinced' on the government's explanation to the Amarnath Yatra attack and that his party stood by the government on matters of 'national security' on the India-China border military stand-off. "We said that on issues of national security and integrity of the country, we are with the government", he said.

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Some leaders said the overall mood was to engage diplomatically. Sources also said that while specifics did not come up, it was decided that former Defence Ministers of India Mulayam Singh and Sharad Pawar would be meeting Defence Minister Arun Jaitley separately in the coming days to discuss and share their experience in dealing with China.

Amid consensus on the prevailing border situation, there are some parties that would still be raising the matter in Parliament but insist that they would keep the sensitivity of the issue in mind while doing so.

Also read | India taking diplomatic route to solve border crisis with China in Doklam

Also read | How India and China can defuse Doklam tension by blaming colonial Britain

WATCH VIDEO

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Protesters are slated to take to the streets Saturday, speaking out against President Donald Trump and the Lone Star State's so-called sanctuary city law in a pair of downtown demonstrations.

The first, hosted by Refuse Fascism, is at Sam Houston Park and aims to push back against the "actions of the Trump/Pence Regime," according to the event Facebook page. The rally is slated to run until 1 p.m.

Then at 3 p.m., a similarly themed event at City Hall that's expected to be a little bigger will protest SB 4, the sanctuary city law approved in the most recent legislative session.

The law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, allows police to inquire about immigration status during routine stops and also threatens sheriffs and police chiefs with jail time and fines if they refuse to honor immigration detainers.

The law has already sparked legal push back, with multiple municipalities - including the City of Houston - banding together for a lawsuit against the new measure.

"We demand that the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff's Office not enforce this law under any circumstances," event host Houston Socialist Movement wrote in a press release. "We demand that ICE detainer requests without warrants not be honored!"

The City Hall rally is co-sponsored a broad coalition of left-leaning and radical groups, including the Brown Berets, the Black Panthers and socialists. But a group of more right-leaning activists is slated to show up as well.

This is Texas Freedom Force announced on Facebook plans to come out and oppose the anti-SB 4 gathering - as well as the earlier anti-Trump demonstration.

"Things have gotten heated in the past over SB4 so it is imperative that we show up in mass numbers," the group wrote on its event page. "Come with a cool head but be prepared to defend yourself if need be."
Texans take it for granted that their queso dip contains cheese, so perhaps it's understandable that a Texas-based company didn't declare the potential allergen on its packaging.

Understandable, perhaps, but still pretty dangerous for consumers with life-threatening illnesses.
AUSTIN  Ahead of a special legislative session defined by hot-button measures, House Speaker Joe Straus on Friday sharpened his message against divisive social issues and said top leaders instead should focus on challenges such as reversing Texas slide in a new business ranking.

The San Antonio Republican, who has stood firm against a far-reaching bathroom bill, said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News that his chamber will look at all the issues put forth by Gov. Greg Abbott for lawmakers consideration, which are championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

But he said his focus, and that of other House members, remains on core issues such as school finance.

My position is very well known. And let me say this very clearly: I know how to govern without being an extremist, Straus said. I know how to govern, trying to bring people together to focus on issues that really matter to all Texans, and I think thats where our focus ought to be in the special session. Its where our focus should be in any regular session as well.

The bathroom proposal would keep transgender people from using multi-occupancy restrooms of the gender with which they identify in government buildings, or at least in public schools.

Straus, along with advocates for transgender people and business groups, has voiced concern about the possible economic effect of boycotts because the bill is viewed as discriminatory. He also has expressed a worry that it could hurt transgender people.

I see no good reason to promote a divisive bathroom bill when it does nothing but harm to the economy, and some very vulnerable people could be harmed, Straus said.

His comments came just ahead of the special session, which begins Tuesday, and a day after Patrick lambasted Straus. Patrick blamed the speaker for squelching Senate-backed issues such as the bathroom bill in the regular session, and he slammed the speakers school finance plan, calling it a Ponzi scheme.

Straus, who has been a thorn in the side of Abbott and Patrick on red-meat issues, said he considered it actually encouraging that Patrick was talking about school finance. Straus has said that issue is more worthy of attention than most of those on the special-session agenda.

On Friday, when Abbott was showcasing his record as he announced for re-election in San Antonio, Straus made his point about the need to focus on core issues by citing CNBCs annual ranking of Americas Top States for Business. In it, Texas fell from No. 1 to No. 4. The No. 1 state was Washington. Its governor and both senators are Democrats.

While No. 4 is not a terrible place to be, I dont like the direction. And I think that our Texas political leadership ought to be focused on making Texas No. 1 and reverse that slide, Straus said.

The CNBC study also ranked Texas as No. 34 in education and No. 37 in quality of life, partly because Texas doesnt have statewide protections against discrimination.

Abbott, asked about the ranking on a stop at Boeing Co.s global services site, blamed the troubled oil industry.

In that story, what CNBC noted is that Texas was the best state of all states for the past decade. They made clear that Texas had the No. 1 workforce in America, the No. 1 infrastructure system in America. And CNBC pointed out that the reason why Texas suffered this time was because of the downturn in oil, Abbott said.

Listen, oil got cut in half, and Texas is still an energy state, he said. The reason why Im here is because this is an example of my efforts to ensure that we are expanding jobs in areas that have nothing whatsoever to do with energy so that when oil prices do take a tumble in the future, we wont suffer this type of setback.

pfikac@express-news.net

Staff Writer Rye Druzin contributed to this report.
Over 10 fire tenders rushed to the spot in Siliguri as five Indian Oil Corporation tankers catch fire.

By India Today Web Desk: A massive fire broke out in five oil tankers at IOCL depot in Siliguri of West Bengal on Saturday evening.

Following the incident, over 10 fire tenders rushed to the spot. Firemen are currently putting in efforts to douse the fire.

No injuries have been reported from the spot.

(More details awaited)

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A drive by shooting on the East Side sent two people and a young girl to the hospital Friday evening.

According to San Antonio Police Lt. Dave Berrigan, a 4-year-old girl and two adults were shot about 9:30 p.m. while looking at a race car outside a home in the 5900 block of Lake Superior Street.
A 21-year-old driver was arrested Friday after he flipped his Ford SUV on U.S. 281 and then tried to flee.

Authorities responded to the scene around noon, where they found the wrecked SUV and witnesses, who told police the suspect had run away.

"He got out and ran like hell," said Fred Williams, who said the suspect crashed into him before losing control of his vehicle and flipping three times.

Related: 3 hospitalized after crash on North Side

Troy Sarnoski, an employee of a nearby business, said he heard a loud boom and saw a large dust cloud at the scene of the crash.

"The kid jumped our fence, then hopped over the back fence and took off into the brush," he said. "The cops started looking for him, and after a little bit, maybe 20 minutes, they brought him back.

"I'll give him credit though," Sarnoski added. "He was fast. I don't think he was even wearing shoes."

Police aren't sure what caused the driver to run.

A San Antonio police officer who responded to the crash said the driver, who has not yet been identified, was arrested on a charge of failing to stop and give information. Police found no drug paraphernalia in his vehicle, and his only warrant was for a minor traffic infraction.

"I'm just aggravated I got hit," Williams, a San Antonio resident, said. "You know, why me? I could've been killed."

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
On the Fourth of July, it was 30 years since a French court convicted Nazi Klaus Barbie of crimes against humanity committed in France during World War II.

On July 4, 1987, after an eight-week trial, Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, was found guilty of more than 300 counts of crimes against humanity. Like the Nuremberg trials, which were held before military tribunals shortly after World War II, the Barbie trial was a lesson of history, and an exceptional act by the French of remembrance  and justice.

As Americans, we share with the French a rich history of valuing liberty, justice and democracy. The Statue of Liberty  Americas beacon to the world  was a gift from the French people commemorating the alliance of France and the United States during the American Revolution. But the Statue of Liberty was more than that. Named Liberty Enlightening the World and similar to the Great Seal of the French Republic, the statue was intended to be an international symbol of liberty, justice and democracy  and an inspiration to France and the rest of the world. Dedicated in 1886, its French creator sought to honor the work of President Abraham Lincoln and to honor the success of liberty in the United States.

Following World War II, France joined the United States and the other Allies in convening the international military tribunal at the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals. A French judge and prosecutor participated in the proceedings. Forty years later, the French conducted their first war crimes prosecution before a domestic tribunal on French soil.

The Barbie trial was the first in a French court on a charge of crimes against humanity.

Sitting among the witnesses and victims of Barbies brutality in the Lyon courtroom, I witnessed the trial. As a federal prosecutor in New York City who had prosecuted criminal cases and assisted with an extradition of war criminals, I was keenly interested in observing one of the first major war crimes trials since the Nuremberg trials and, perhaps, I thought, one of the last of the World War II war crimes trials.

The crimes for which Barbie was tried and convicted included the deportation, persecution and torture of 730 Jews and members of the French Resistance during the German occupation of Lyon. He was charged specifically with the deportation of Jews in a Gestapo raid in February 1943; the train transportation of 650 Jews and members of the Resistance to concentration camps in Germany and Poland; the arrest, torture and execution of the French Resistance leader, Jean Moulin; and the notorious seizure and deportation of the children of an orphanage in Izieu, a village 40 miles east of Lyon.

The crimes occurred between 1942 and 1944 when Barbie was head of the Gestapo in the Lyon Region. After the war, he became a fugitive, living under an assumed name in Bolivia for more than 30 years. As the Cold War heated up, Barbie was able to escape detection and extradition by serving as an informant, reporting on Soviet activities in Germany and France for American intelligence agents.

In 1983, in a report of its investigation of the Barbie affair, the Department of Justice acknowledged its role in shielding and concealing Barbie, and in delaying justice. The U.S. government formally apologized to France for contributing to the delay in extradition. The French courts had tried Barbie twice in absentia. Barbie was expelled from Bolivia to France for the long-awaited trial to face justice in person.

For me, the story of the children of Izieu was the heart of the trial. It came to symbolize the brutality of the Nazis and contributed to Barbies reputation as a torturer and murderer, earning him the sobriquet of the Butcher of Lyon. The remote hilltop village of Izieu overlooked the Rhone River between Lyon and Chambery in central France. The orphanage  which I visited  was modest and seemed so very peaceful and surely distant from anything that could be of interest or concern to the Nazis.

The Izieu home had been founded as a refuge for Jewish children whose parents were killed or in concentration camps. Izieu was thought to be sufficiently remote to be a safe place for Jewish children. The home was founded by Sabine Zlatin, a Polish woman who emigrated to France and was trained by the Red Cross when the war broke out. Wanting to help Jewish women and children, Zlatin began work at the Oeuvre de secours aux enfants, or OSE, a French Jewish humanitarian organization that saved and aided hundreds of mainly Jewish refugee children from France and other Western European countries.

The home, part of the OSEs network of hiding places, housed 44 children aged 4 to 17 from France, Belgium, Austria, Algeria, Germany and Poland. Several had arrived there from other safe houses. On the early morning of April 6, 1944, as the children were eating their breakfast, Barbie and his men arrived at the home.

Under Barbies direction, the Nazi soldiers rounded up the children and the seven adults who were in the house, including Madame Zlatins husband, Miron Zlatin, who ran the home with his wife, and transported them to concentration camps. During the raid, a medical student who took care of the children managed to escape from an upstairs window. But his sister, who was the homes doctor, and his parents and nephew, who all resided at the home, were deported. One child, the only one who was not Jewish, was freed.

Lea Feldblum, a caretaker, survived her deportation to Auschwitz. All the children and the remainder of the adults who were present that day perished at Auschwitz, except for two of the oldest children and Miron Zlatin, who were killed by a firing squad in Estonia.

Later that day, Barbie sent a telex to the German Office for Jewish Affairs reporting that the childrens home at Izieu was shut down and the occupants transported to camps.

Sitting among the witnesses, I observed Barbie walk out of the trial on the third day, returning to the courtroom only for the reading of the verdict.

But the Izieu raid formed the basis of the most riveting part of the trial, revealing Barbies personal involvement in the barbaric act. I observed and became witness to the remarkable courage of the witnesses who testified.

Madame Zlatin, who had been away from the home scouting for a safer location for the children when the raid occurred, testified against Barbie at the trial. She testified to the efforts to disguise the home and to secure identity and ration cards for the children.

Lea Feldblum had survived to testify to the childrens arrival at Auschwitz and their fate: that as the children were pushed to the left  to the gas chambers  she was pushed to the rightand survived. It was Izieu, more than any of the other crimes against humanity that put Barbie in the category of major war criminals.

Barbie returned to the courtroom only for the verdict of guilty rendered by nine citizens of Lyon and his sentencing by three judges from the Lyon criminal court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison four years later in 1991.

We need not agree on all things to believe in the ideals of our shared historical paths and memories. Trials serve the ideals of liberty, justice and democracy. Imperfect as they may be, after World War II, they served to articulate our beliefs in justice at historic moments.

Just as the Nuremberg trials immediately following World War II served to establish a body of international legal rules and precedents for future development of concepts of international law, so, too, did the Barbie trial serve to educate and elevate the French response in service of human conscience.

As Americans, we share with the French the ideals of liberty, justice and democracy that produced the Nuremberg trials. Those trials, in turn, led the French to the path-marking Barbie trial, which occurred just two years before the celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

May the iconic gift of the Statue of Liberty and these history making trials enlighten the world.

We shall never forget the many victims of the atrocities of World War II  or the children of Izieu. Or the trials that underscored our commitment to these historic principles and delivered justice to the victims. Memory is related to justice.

Justice Jan P. Patterson is a senior justice on the Texas Court of Appeals and a Justice in Residence at Baylor Law School.
Re: Cruz: ACAs repeal a pre-election must, front page, July 7:

Sen. Ted Cruzs concern about the sudden urgency to repeal ACA even without a replacement says all voters need to know about him and his Republican acolytes: Failure to repeal will doom the party.

Never a word about the poor, sick, women, elderly and those with long-term chronic illness. I guess well let them eat cake, huh, Ted?

Ruben Zamora

In others shoes

To Republicans and Democrats: When considering a health care bill for the country, would you enroll your family and yourself in that health plan?

Joe Lazor

End voter apathy

Stop 10 people on the streets of San Antonio, ask them what form of government we have in the U.S., and at least eight will not know. Our form of government could be accurately called a constitutional federal representative democracy in which we elect representatives to pass the laws that govern the country.

In the current debate on which health care program is best, the legislators do listen to the American people they should listen to, the ones who elected them. The candidate who is elected represents the majority opinion. In Bexar County and San Antonio, it is time for residents who do not vote to stop whining about the need for the House and Senate to listen to the American people.

If most of the voters prefer universal health care, they will elect candidates who support universal health care. If the residents in a particular area want to be listened to, they should participate in the political process and vote in every election.

James Passmore

Meeting of minds

In May, Donald Trump, our president and de facto leader of the free world, said that under the right circumstances he would be honored to meet with Kim Jong Un, the ruthless dictator of North Korea who is starving his people while building a nuclear weapon.

I cannot think of a better time than right now. Imagine how the meeting would go if President Trump were to meet with the dear leader:

Trump: Kim Jong Un, you are the dumbest leader in the world!

Kim: Well, youre dumber than me!

Trump: Well, youre dumber to infinity!

Kim: Well youre dumber to infinity plus one!

Trump: Well youre  

You get the picture. Thats what happens when two individuals who behave like 5-year-olds meet.

Greg Castillo

Presidential comedy

Isnt there some way that Twitter could close President Donald Trumps account before he makes us the laughingstock of the world? Or is it already too late for that?

Robert Schneider, Universal City

A time to reflect

Instead of celebrating Independence Day this year, I mourned. I felt fear for my country and worry about who we are becoming and where we may be headed. It is good advice to stop, look, listen.

President Donald Trump is a reflection of who we are. And yet I believe there are many who still value character, decency and honesty, who still teach their children manners, and rules of appropriate behavior. Surely, he must have supporters who instruct their children, Do as we teach you, not as the president does. And yet we see evangelicals who, without embarrassment, cheer him on.

Thank goodness for conservatives like Michael Gerson, Brett Stephens and David Brooks who tell it like it is. Thank goodness for newspapers that strive to publish facts, and opinion that is well-informed and written with reasoned analysis, like your own editorial on Independence Day (July 4  a time to heal our divisions).

I also appreciate publication of letters such as Yay for body-slammer (July 4), for it shows that we need to monitor ourselves, and why we should feel shame for our nation  enough shame that it motivates us to change before we have lost all self-respect and credibility in the world.

Theresa S. Doyle

Border bottleneck

To those who think the word illegal is the last word in any immigration debate, have you ever exceeded the speed limit? Then you are an illegal driver. By your own logic, that is who you are  your entire identity. It doesnt matter if you work hard at your job, if you have a family, if you pay your bills and are a generally productive member of society. No, you are an illegal, because you broke a law once.

Our immigration system unnecessarily limits the number of brown people who can emigrate across the border. Demand for green cards exceeds supply, and the demand for immigrant labor exceeds the supply of documented workers. An arbitrary restriction of supply is called a bottleneck. The natural and predictable reaction to bottlenecks is for people to go around them.

If you really want to fix the problem, eliminate the bottleneck.

John Maxstadt, Laredo

Showing papers

Re: In immigration debate, even truth is controversial, Ruben Navarrette, Other Views, June 30:

Kudos to Ruben Navarrette, whose column begins with the question, How absurd has the immigration debate become? This absurd: It is now considered controversial when people simply tell the truth.

In the SB 4 debate, elected officials and local law enforcement leaders like Police Chief William McManus have warned that if this law is enacted, all Hispanics may be required to show their papers.

Perhaps Mr. Navarrette or some informed reader can tell me the simple truth about which papers I may need to carry. Just in case.

Sam Telles
Sagarika Ghose has become one of those journalists who attracts near continuous abuse on social media. For the Modi bhakts, she represents 'sickular' Lutyens Delhi hypocrisy, a well-heeled liberal unable to accept her irrelevance. So she must have anticipated the frosty reception from some quarters for her new book, Indira: India's Most Powerful Leader.

Indeed, almost 90 per cent of the reviews on Amazon give the book one star out of five. Many of them appear to have been written even before the book was available to buy. The notoriety of both subject and biographer has certainly created a buzz, whether or not it boosts sales. In the preface, Ghose notes that publisher Juggernaut approached her with the idea for a biography of Indira Gandhi, in the centenary year of her birth, 'to bring Indira alive for a new generation', and confesses that she has drawn on the work of other biographers and scholars rather than bringing to light new information. The book is thus a journalistic effort to place Indira in the contemporary context, examining her fraught legacy and identifying the lessons she taught Indian politicians. Not least, our current prime minister. Discussing Indira's appeal to the masses, rather than power brokers, she notes, 'Is it any wonder then that from Amit Shah and Narendra Modi to Sonia Gandhi and regional bosses, politicians across the spectrum still refer to the Indira Gandhi playbook?'

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Ghose's impetus for writing this biography is also personal. She was a college student when Indira was assassinated and begins each chapter with a letter addressed to 'Dear Mrs Gandhi'. It's a ghoulish gimmick and should have been dropped. What purpose does it serve to ask questions to presumably the ghost of Indira, questions such as 'Were you embarrassed and ashamed about your failure to gain a degree at Oxford?' No authoritative answer is available. And speculation is not any less speculative because it comes in a letter.

Ghose's Amazon critics accused her of bias. But Ghose is careful to acknowledge Indira's very mixed legacy, her undermining of Indian democracy, her paranoia and her increasing superstition. With its mix of tragedy and privilege, and her eventual failure, due in no small part to fatal flaws in her character, her life was Shakespearean. Ghose tells Indira's story fluently, so that even though it is familiar in its contours, it makes for riveting reading. Nor does she shirk from addressing the horrors of the Sikh pogrom of 1984-murder licensed by Rajiv Gandhi and his Congress henchmen. If Ghose cannot be accused of hagiography, her empurpled prose does strain to imbue Indira with an unwarranted grandeur. Nevertheless, Indira serves as an effective primer to a troubled and troubling prime minister.

--- ENDS ---
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar tweeted a few images of some of the Congress party members creating ruckus at a hotel lobby.

By India Today Web Desk: Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar had to cancel the promotional activity of his forthcoming film 'Indu Sarkar' here today after receiving threats from local Congress party workers.

"We are like hostage in the hotel room. We had to cancel the event. The hotel management asked us not to step out as the cadre is here since 1 pm. Since the last three hours, we have been locked in one room. My whole team is in the room," Bhandarkar told IANS over phone.

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Bhandarkar even tweeted a few images of some of the Congress party members. He captioned them: "Congress workers have barged in the hotel lobby and created ruckus, me and the team are stranded like hostages in hotel room. Pune activity cancelled."

The film's team had planned to visit Suryadatta Institute of Management and Mass Communication today for the promotional event.

Its baffling to see self proclaimed custodians of #freedomOfExpression creating huge ruckus to prevent a legitimate release of #InduSarkar pic.twitter.com/orJVVJULdp- Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) July 15, 2017

The film's spokesperson said, "We received a call from Sanjay Chordiya from Surya who had arranged the press conference. He urged us to cancel it as they received a threat from local Congress party workers. As soon as we got to know, we cancelled the event."

Asked if Bhandarkar will release the film in Pune, he said, "I will release the film all over India and I think people who talk about freedom of expression should stand for this now. This is the time."

The film, set against the backdrop of the 1975-77 Emergency, has characters inspired by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi.

Earlier also, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam had penned a letter to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani, asking for the movie to be screened for them before it is censored.

CBFC later suggested 12 cuts and two disclaimers in the film. Bhandarkar had been asked to remove words like RSS and Akali from "Indu Sarkar".

Featuring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kirti and Kulhari Tota Roy Chaudhary, it is scheduled to release on July 28.

-With inputs from IANS

ALSO READ | CBFC orders 12 cuts and 2 disclaimers in Indu Sarkar, leaves Madhur Bhandarkar fuming

Kirti Kulhari on Indu Sarkar controversy: Censor board needs to grow up

--- ENDS ---
In this Real News Network interview, AlterNet reporter Ben Norton calls out US complicity in the Saudi-led war agains Yemen. This conflict has spawned a humanitarian crisis, including a cholera epidemic and a famine that threatens millions.

Aaron Mate : Its The Real News. Im Aaron Mate. The UN says Yemens cholera epidemic is worse than ever. At the same time its canceling a new effort to help. The World Health Organization has scrapped a new vaccination program inside Yemen because it says the country is too dangerous. Yemen has been decimated by a Saudi led bombing campaign. The WHO decision means nearly one million cholera vaccines wont be delivered. On Wednesday, UN humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien blamed outside parties for Yemens humanitarian crisis.

Stephen OBrien: This cholera scandal is entirely man made by the conflicting parties, and those beyond Yemens borders who are leading, supplying, fighting, and perpetuating the fear and the fighting. This is a manmade crisis, and the sheer scale of humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people is a direct result of the conflict and serious violations of its national law. Humanity simply can not continue to lose out to politics.

Aaron Mate : The UN says seven million people, including more than two million children are on the cusp of famine. The US has been key backer of the Saudi led war on Yemen, and appears to have intensified that support since President Trump took office. Ben Norton is our reporter with AlterNet Gray Zone Project. Welcome Ben.

Ben Norton : Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Aaron Mate : Thanks for joining us. Lets start with the humanitarian situation. The UN warning of millions of being on the cusp of famine, and canceling a cholera vaccination program just as the epidemic is spiraling out of control.

Ben Norton : This is absolutely catastrophic, and in general there hasnt been enough attention for the past 27 months to the war in Yemen in which the US and the British governments are entirely complicit. But this has really pushed things beyond the brink. For more than two years now, humanitarian organizations have warned that millions of Yemenis are on the brink of famine. But compounding that even further is starting on around April 27th there has been a massive outbreak of cholera. And for those who dont know, cholera is, as the World Health Organization puts it, a quote, Easily treatable disease. This is a disease thats been eradicated in the West. That in much of the world is not a problem. But in war torn Yemen there has been a horrible epidemic. Just since April 27th, according to the UN, there have been more than 320,000 cases. Every several seconds, there is another case suspected. At least 1,700 people have died. And those are just the recorded the numbers. The actual figures are probably even higher.

This is really tearing a country that has already been torn apart by war even further. And the fact that the UN is now abandoning their vaccination program against cholera should be an enormous scandal. It should fill all the front pages of newspapers, and the headlines of large media outlets, but of course, there is very little attention. And even when there is media attention, it frequently downplays the complicity, the leadership role of the US in this conflict. Many leading experts, even the New York times editorial board and others, have acknowledged that were it not for US support, the Saudi led war against Yemen could not be waged.

So I mean, looking at the role of our government as Americans, and seeing that the blood that not only Donald Trump has, but also the Obama administration had, these are things that we cant ignore. And the cholera epidemic is unfortunately only one development of the extreme crisis in Yemen which the UN has repeatedly warned is the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world. The worst in the world. Even worse than Syria.

Aaron Mate : But Ben, in that clip I played before from the UN humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien, he didnt name names. He blamed the warring parties and the outside powers who are fueling the war. But someone could interpret that to say that he means all sides. So equally the Houthis and their backers on one side, fighting the forces on the ground loyal to the former president who they deposed, as well as the Saudi led campaign from above. So to what extent can we pin the blame for this crisis on just one side?

Ben Norton : Well of course the blame for the crisis is the war, and there are two sides to the war. So of course everyone is complicit in creating that, however not everyone created the war. Saudi Arabia with the backing of the US and the UK, and also the United Arab Emirates, is what began the war. Again, this doesnt mean that the Houthi rebels, and that their allies who are loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh that doesnt mean that they havent committed atrocities of their own. But the vast majority of the atrocities, the vast majority of the civilian casualties have been perpetuated by the US backed, Saudi-led coalition which has relentlessly bombed civilian areas, which has targeted civilian areas intentionally, and which has led to the destruction of more, or at least the damage of more than half of the medical facilities in Yemen.

At this point approximately 55% of medical facilities and health centers in Yemen are either completely not functional or only partially functional. That is not  I mean the majority of that damage is because of airstrikes and fighting. The Houthis dont have an air force. Theyre not bombing South Yemen, and also at this point the Houthis in alliance with elements of the former Yemeni government that were allied with the former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who have kind of a coalition where theyre sharing power together, they controlled the majority of the populated areas of Yemen. And again this is an endorsement necessarily for what theyre political program is, but the fact is that they control the majority of the populated areas and in order to restore power to a leader named Hadi, the former leader, who actually fled to Saudi Arabia after stepping down himself after staying too long through his term and canceling elections.

In order to put him back in power, in order to restore a pro American, pro Saudi government, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen and began a brutal bombing campaign carrying out more than 90,000 air sorties to restore this unpopular, unelected leader. Yes, it is true everyone involved in the war has dirty hands. Thats why we need to oppose war. Wars are absolutely catastrophic for civilian populations. However, both sides are not equal. You have the coalition which is led by Saudi Arabia and backed by a dozen countries and you have the Houthi rebels who is only real major political ally are elements loyal to the former ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. So this is not  Theyre not equal sides and theres not equal complicity. Its very clear that the majority of the civilian suffering has been caused by the US-backed coalition.

Aaron Mate : Yeah, I think that point you make about the only party in the conflict which has an air force is the Saudis, is a very important one, in the same way that in Syria for so long only one side, the Saudi regime in Russia were the ones bombing from the air. On the front of US support for the Saudi campaign, theres a new report today in The Intercept that says that the US has doubled its fuel support for the Saudi bombing campaign since the deadly strike on a funeral not too long ago.

Ben Norton : Absolutely. Yeah. In October of 2016, the US-backed Saudi coalition bombed a funeral gathering three times. It was a triple strike attack, killing well over 100 civilians and injuring more than 500. So more than 600 casualties including both injuries and deaths in this single attack. And this is one attack out of thousands. The Yemen data project which is a project organized by Western academics, Yemeni academics, and former Yemeni government officials and even some current Yemeni government officials, has been meticulously gathering information about the bombing campaign, and also about the atrocities committed by the Houthis and Salla alliance. And they found that of the thousands  Of tens of thousands of airstrikes carried out by the US Saudi coalition, at least one third have hit civilian areas.

And Ive actually interviewed myself, Martha Mundy whos a professor of emeritus of the London School of Economics, who is a specialist, a leading expert on the agricultural economy of Yemen. And she, who is a part of this project, has meticulously gathered this data and shows that there is basically no doubt, considering the targets that have been hit, considering the extremely small probability of them being hit, there is almost no doubt that the US-Saudi coalition has been intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure. Especially production of food. So related to all of this is not only is there a complete imbalance for the two sides but there are mountains of evidence suggesting that the US-Saudi coalition has in fact intentionally been targeting civilian infrastructure including food production and health services, exacerbating the crisis. And the goal has been to create such an incredible crisis within Houthi Saleh held territory which is the majority of the civilian population, that they rebel and ask for intervention from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

And another point to mention thats really important. When were talking about the retake in areas in Yemen, the major city that the Saudi, UAE, US coalition controls in Yemen is in the South. And its the heart of the South in at city called Aden. Aden is probably the second most important city in Yemen after the capital in the North, Sanaa which is controlled by the Houthis and the popular committees back by Saleh. In the South what is almost never acknowledged is that the horrible government that the Saudis and the UAE have created in this area is actually right now going after many Yemeni activists. The government is in fact infiltrated by a lot of Wahhabi extremists who are from Saudi Arabia who share Saudi Arabias extremist ideology. And theyre imprisoning and torturing political opponents. Theyre going after LGBT Yemenis. Theyre going after progressive Yemeni activists and secular activists. Theyre even going after people who are secessionists and at this point it looks very clearly like Yemen is not going to be able to be put back together.

So I mean, the reality is that these areas that have been retaken from the US-backed coalition have not been able to create any kind of functional government that is any better than the other territories. And unfortunately at the end of the day, again it is civilians who have been suffering because of all of this.

Aaron Mate : You know Ben, there are some headlines mad recently about the fact that Saudi Arabia donated $66 million to fight the Yemen cholera epidemic. I wont even comment on that, and also I want to ask you the figure we have in time so child deaths inside Yemen, is that one child dies there now every ten minutes of preventable illness like cholera. Yet the official death toll that weve heard from the UN remains as 10,000. And what Im wondering is if that death toll takes into account the amount of people who are being killed because of the humanitarian situation thats been directly caused by the war. Dying from illnesses they cant be treated for because the bombing has made life so impossible and the infrastructure so devastated.

Ben Norton : Oh, absolutely. And this is a a very important point to underscore. There are very few international observers on the ground inside Yemen. In fact the Saudi-led coalition backed by the US has imposed a blockade on the country. Not only has it been attacking Yemen with more than 90,000 air sorties, it controls its air and water space. So what that means is that the only flights that can go in and out are international aid organizations. Mostly the UN. And even those have been severely restricted. So there are very few journalists, very few observers, and when we look at these figures, theyre all incredible conservative. In January, this is in January of this year, nearly six months ago, the UN estimated that more than 10,000 civilians had been killed in violent deaths. But that is only a small percentage of the overall deaths.

In fact according to the UN, in 2016 more than 63 thousand Yemeni children died from preventable diseases. Mostly from hunger and preventable diseases. And thats just one year. Thats probably a conservative estimate. This is a war thats been going for 27 months. The catastrophe, the civilian catastrophe and the toll is unfathomable, and we really only have an idea of a small glimpse of whats actually happening. I would estimate that in a conservative estimate, very conservative. I would say probably more than 100,000 civilians have died from all these humanitarian causes. Yemen actually has the worst food crisis in the world. I mean Nigeria, and Somalia are on this, and South Sudan, and Yemen are all lumped in the same category but the UN, and Yemen has the worst food crisis, even compared to South Sudan where genocide is ongoing. Its hard to wrap our minds around whats been happening, and theres been very little media attention which has allowed it to happen.

And in response to that, Saudi Arabia of course is carrying out some cynical PR moves. And the donation of $66.7 million dollars by Saudi crown price amount, [inaudible 00:15:29] is complete cynicism and complete public relations. Unfortunately thats the reality. The reality is also that more than 30,00 Yemeni health workers have been working inside the country without pay for more than ten months. So you have tens of thousands of people who are going without pay, you have international aid organizations like the World Health Organization who are cutting their program for vaccinating against cholera in Yemen, and that one of the main reasons theyre doing that, and this is important to underscore too, is because one they dont have that much funding. And two, the US is, under President Trump, is significantly decreasing funding for the United Nations and its aid programs. And the US supports about one fifth of those programs, and Trump is cutting that significantly and the US ambassadors Nikki Hayley bragged about it in this kind of macabre, sadistic quote about how the US is saving all this money by cutting support for international aid organizations.

So yes, I mean the Saudi crown prince may throw some pennies at this program, but the reality is that $66.7 million pales in comparison to the more than $100 billion that the Obama administration did in arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the additional $110 billion arms deal that Trump just signed with Saudi Arabia. I mean, so Saudi Arabia cant buy $220 billion in weapons and then donate $66 million and claim that it actually cares about Yemeni lives when its using those weapons to continue killing Yemenis.

Aaron Mate : Ben Norton, a reporter with AlterNet Gray Zone Project. Ben, thanks as always.

Ben Norton : Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Aaron Mate : And thank you for joining us on The Real News.
July 14, 2017

Washington, DC - In an effort to encourage innovative approaches to building productive public engagement with science, the National Academy of Sciences, with support from the Rita Allen Foundation, is pleased to announce recipients of two Building Capacity for Science Communication Partnership Awards. These competitive awards of $37,500 each will support partnerships of science communication researchers and practitioners and facilitate a collaborative project. The award recipients will present their projects at a special session of the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium on the Science of Science Communication III, to be held Nov. 16 and 17 in Washington, D.C.



The two teams and projects are (with principal investigators [PI] first, and co-PIs in alphabetical order):

Brendan Nyhan, Dartmouth College (PI)

Bridget Ahrens, Vermont Department of Health

Christine Finley, Vermont Department of Health

D.J. Flynn, Dartmouth College

Shari Levine, Vermont Department of Health

Evaluating New Approaches to Promoting Vaccination

Little is known about how to effectively promote vaccines to hesitant parents. In this project, researchers from Dartmouth College and practitioners from the Vermont Department of Health will carry out a field experiment to study the effect of messages about immunization on parents beliefs and vaccination decisions.



Elizabeth Suhay, American University (PI)

Emily Cloyd, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erin Heath, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erin Nash, Durham University

Evidence-based Science Communication to Policymakers

This project will examine the communication and use of science within the policymaking arena. Researchers will integrate existing scholarly literature with new empirical findings from a survey of science communicators, case studies of science-relevant legislating, and qualitative interviews with policymakers to propose a set of best practices for presenting science to policy makers.



The Colloquium will focus on the 2017 National Academies consensus study report, Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda, as a framework for advancing both research and practice in science communication. Participants will explore ways to build capacity for and foster the use of evidence-based strategies for engaging the public with science and ensuring its appropriate use. The Science of Science Communication colloquium series began in 2012 with a survey the state of the art of empirical social science research in science communication. The second colloquium in 2013 examined the challenges surrounding communicating about science that involves controversy and was an important impetus for the 2017 report.

The Rita Allen Foundation invests in transformative ideas in their earliest stages to leverage their growth and promote breakthrough solutions to significant problems. It enables early-career biomedical scholars to do pioneering research, seeds innovative approaches to fostering informed civic engagement, and develops knowledge and networks to build the effectiveness of the philanthropic sector. Throughout its work, the Foundation embraces collaboration, creativity, learning and leadership.



The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia address scientific topics of broad and current interest that cut across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. These colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Jill Sackler in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.

Additional support for the upcoming colloquium is provided by The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania; Science Sandbox  a Simons Foundation initiative; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; The Kavli Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; and Burroughs Wellcome Fund.



The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and  with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine  provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.





Contact:

Molly Galvin, Senior Media Relations Officer

Office of News and Public Information

202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu

http://www.nasonline.org

Twitter: @theNASciences

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theNASciences

Colloquium hashtag: #SacklerSciComm
Cashel post office is suffering from damp and action needs to be taken to ensure the continuation of a local service that began in the 17th century, according to one local councillor.

Cashel's post office is an attractive period building from the 1930s and a protected structure.

Following correspondence from Cllr Tom Wood relating to resolving the extensive dampness in the post office, Mr Enda Kelly, Regional Manager with responsibility for the office writes: With regards to your query, we can definitely rule out the OPW as potentially having responsibility in this situation. The premises is owned by An Post and leased to the Postmaster. The issue is whether whatever needs to be done is the responsibility of An Post, the owner, or the Postmaster to whom the building is leased. I will get back to you again very soon.

Cllr Wood believes that the interior damp relates to the flat roof and contends that as structural works are needed the responsibility rests with An Post.

While researching the history of the Cashel office he found reference to the existance of a post office in the ancient city from 1655 and is aware that prior to the construction of the present office on the edge of Commandant P.J. Hogan Square, a post office existed for many decades at 68 Main Street, the stepped residence adjacent to the Bank of Ireland.

Hogan Square commemorates Paddy Hogan a drapers assistant at E.D. Ryans drapers premises on Friar Street, now Mr Mister. As a local IRA/ War of Independence leader, he was commandant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Volunteers. While on active service and sheltering in a house at Derryclooney, New Inn, Paddy was killed by a British military patrol during a gun battle in 1921.

Today the Courthouse, Garda Station and Technical School, all constructed on Hogan Square in the 1920s /1930s, are protected structures.

Attractive and historic items of street furniture often overlooked, according to Cllr Wood, are the pillar and post boxes located around the town. Such boxes were generally in use, since 1852 and enabled local residents to post letters in close proximity to home for collection on an almost daily basis by the familiar postman.

Of the five boxes surviving in Cashel the contents of three are still collected Monday to Friday. The free standing Edwardian pillar box at the Friar Street/ Agars Lane junction, formerly positioned on the Main Street/ Bank Place junction, dates to around 1905 and was manufactured by Mc Dowell, Stevan & Company Ltd. London & Glasgow. A large Edwardian wall box, c1905 and manufactured by W.T Allen & Company, London, is located at the top of John Street while a third Edwardian letter box from that same period is in Ladyswell. A large wall mounted Saorstat Eireann (Irish Free State) wall box, c1930, on the Cashel Palace Hotel wall comes from the foundary operated by Jessop Davis, Enniscorthy, between 1890 and 1964. A second Saorstat Eireann post box set into the wall at the junction of Boherclough/ The Green also dates from around 1930.
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The Mahabodhi Temple, also known as the Great Awakening Temple, is located in Bodh Gaya. The site is one of the four most important pilgrimage sites associated with the life of Gautama Buddha.

The place attracts millions of visitors every year irrespective of their religion. The towering structure is one of the earliest Buddhist shrines which is opened to visitors.

PC: Matt Stabile

The Mahabodhi Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one place that offers both peace and captivating experience to all its visitors amidst the spiritual chanting that echoes in the walls of the structure.

The sight of monks in deep meditation at the foot of the enormous Buddha statue further adds to a Zen-like charm, which is also found at the various monasteries surrounding the shrine.

The Origin Of The Shrine

PC: Santosh Kumar

Long ago around 589 BCE, Siddaratha Gautama, a prince from Kapilavastu, who saw the suffering of world, had an urge to give up all his worldly pleasures and find a new meaning to life. After extensive trials and tribulations, he finally found what he was looking for under a banyan tree on the banks of river Phalgu.

After his enlightenment, the prince was known as Gautama Buddha, and the tree came to be known as the Bodhi tree, which is regarded as the birthplace of Buddhism. When Emperor Ashoka visited Bodh Gaya during 260 BC, he constructed a small shrine under the tree to mark the important site.

PC: Anandajoti Bhikkhu

Later in the 2nd century AD, the shrine was replaced by the present structure. Although, the temple has undergone numerous renovations under the reign of the Burmese Kings, and also in the 1880s, by the British under the guidance of Sir Alexander Cunningham.

The Fascinating Design

Having a history of almost 2,500 years, it is no surprise that the temple showcases a large variety of architectural styles and cultural influences. But, the structure predominantly throws light on the Gupta era of construction.

PC: jack wickes

The structure has inscriptions from the 7th to the 10th century which narrate the visits of various pilgrims who came from Sri Lanka, Burma and China. It is said that the temple which is described in the writings of the well-known Chinese traveller and Buddhist monk Hieuen Tsang, is the Mahabodhi Temple.

Looking at the design, the shrine occupies an area of 48 sq ft and rises from the ground taking the shape of a pyramid which measures 180 ft in height and looms above its visitors. The pyramid structure is straight-edged and has seven storeys which are denoted by stone disks that appear at the corners of the shikara.

PC: Matt Stabile

Above the shikara is the cylindrical neck of the shrine which consists of a triple-tiered umbrella form which is set atop the stupa. The triple-tiered umbrella like structure is considered as a symbolic representation of the Bodhi tree, which denotes the supremacy of Buddhism. The carvings on the outside of the shrine depict various scenes from the life of Buddha.

With the passage of time, four smaller towers were added at the four corners of the shrine. The courtyard was later added with smaller stupas and statues of Buddha which are said to be several hundred years old. The courtyard also is home to the sacred Bodhi tree, which is a direct descendant of the original Bodhi tree.

PC:Evan Loveley

One of the best features of Mahabodhi temple is the idol of a seated Buddha, who is dressed in bright orange robes, touching the earth with his right hand. It is believed that the Buddha acquired enlightenment in this position.

The huge image which is located in the inner sanctum of the shrine is made out of black stone and covered in gold. The ambience is a mix of monastic tranquillity, backpacker comforts and small-town hustle, underpinned by an intensity of devotion that makes it endlessly interesting.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.

By Reuters: Iran on Saturday blamed what it called Donald Trump's "arbitrary and conflicting policies" for global security threats, rejecting the US president's description of Tehran as a rogue state.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.

"(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Iran's state news agency IRNA.

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President Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them".

Senior Iranian officials have blamed U.S-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state.

While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday that the president was "very likely" to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.

Also Read:

Time cover catches Donald Trump Jr 'Red Handed'

After Amarnath Yatra attack Donald Trump promises to continue fight against terror

WATCH: Trump tells Macron's wife 'You are in such good shape, beautiful'

WATCH | Ivanka takes father, US President Donald Trump's seat at G20 event

--- ENDS ---
(Natural News) Early last month, Rob Eno of ConservativeReview.com published a piece alleging that Google was politically biased towards Hillary Clinton throughout the presidential election. Eno wrote about a report conducted by Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT), Ronald Robertson of Northeastern University, and Samantha Shepherd and Shu Zhang, also of AIBRT, which proved that Google displayed a blatant pro-Clinton bias in search results concerning the 2016 election.

Based on a sample of 4,045 election-related searches conducted during a 23-day period from October 15 to November 8 (Election Day) using the Google and Yahoo search engines through the Firefox browser, we found that search results were, on average, biased to favor Hillary Clinton on all of those days, they wrote in their study.

Sadly, the political bias that was on display in favor of Hillary Clinton wasnt just an isolated incident; rather, Google seems to have made a habit out of not only giving aid to the progressive movement, but also the silencing and suppression of those who do not fall in line with the big government, totalitarian mindset.

As you may recall, earlier this year, Google temporarily blacklisted Natural News and removed an astonishing 140,000 pages from its index. Without any warning whatsoever, Google censored information regarding Natural News testing of the U.S. water supply, Natural News announcement of free laboratory testing services for Native American water supplies that have been impacted by oil pipeline leaks, Natural News coverage of the GlaxoSmithKline criminal indictment by the United States Department of Justice, and much more.

Mike Adams pointed out at the time that Googles decision to blacklist Natural News was made by a politically motivated human being as opposed to an algorithm. The Health Ranger accurately described this ongoing pattern of censorship as modern-day book burning by the Internet Gestapo that now decides what knowledge youre never allowed to access. (RELATED: Read a full statement from the Health Ranger on Googles blacklisting of Natural News)

But Natural News isnt the only website that has been targeted and censored by Google in recent months. ProtonMail.com, which is a secure email service committed to developing and widely distributing the tools necessary to protect your data online, came out last October and explained that they too were almost taken down by Google.

After a year and a half of consistent growth, Proton Mail suddenly began to experience online exposure issues that they had never experienced before. They found that while the search rankings for Proton Mail for secure email and encrypted email were ranked either first or second on virtually every search engine, including Yahoo and Bing, Proton Mail was strangely not ranked at all on Google.

The Proton Mail team spent all of Spring 2016 trying to get in touch with Google, at one point even reaching out to Googles President EMEA Strategic Relationships, but they never got a response. It wasnt until Proton Mail took to social media and rallied the support of their followers that they finally got Googles attention. A few days later, Google told Proton Mail that they had fixed something, and the problem was immediately resolved. But even though Proton Mails rankings recovered, it is still a mystery as to why they ever became unranked in the first place.

With each passing day, the United States is looking more and more like George Orwells famous book 1984. Whether it is on college campuses, Hollywood, the mainstream media or on the Internet, conservative voices and voices of those who do not fall in line with the progressive ideology are being silenced. As such, it is becoming increasingly difficult for millions of Americans to practice their First Amendment free speech rights, which is all the more reason for those who love liberty to stand up, speak out, and resist this growing tyranny.

Sources include:

ProtonMail.com

ConservativeReview.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Nearly 19 percent of Americans who are 65 or older are still working  even if only part-time  in the second quarter of 2017, the latest United States jobs report by the Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics that was issued on Friday, July 7, showed.

The age brackets employment/population ratio has come to its highest in 55 years, back when American retirees had access to better health care and Social Security benefits during the 1960s.

Baby boomers nowadays no longer feel the need to retire at 65, and find themselves still wanting to, or still needing to, work past the age of 70. Even those who have officially retired are still looking to gain income during their retirement years, as evidenced by a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which showed that 79 percent of American workers are still finding ways to supplement their retirement income by working odd jobs that could get them extra pay.

Senior citizens who still want to work past their retirement years may find themselves not being able to, however. (Related: Saving for retirement? Federal government to determine how much money you actually need.)

According to the 2017 Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey, which analyzed the job situation of 16,000 people in 15 countries, 61 percent of the retirees in the U.S. said they had been forced to retire sooner than they had planned, which is a huge rate as compared with the 39 percent of retirees all over the world who said they had retired too soon.

Even part-time work may not come easily to retirees. Only 29 percent of American retirees said they were able to find work at one point during their retirement years, EBRI said.

Factors that contribute to this lack of job availability include health problems, and the lack of interested employers. Although age discrimination has been illegal for 50 years, employers continue to see older workers as a liability, City of New York University sociology professor Ruth Milkman said.

Senior citizens remedy this situation by making the switch from having a traditional job to becoming self-employed, costing them an average annual earnings drop of $18,160, showed a study that was released in June by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Millennials should brace themselves and prepare for the future

The fate of millennials seems to be also heading this way. Thus, they need to be saving more for their retirement, starting right now. However, millennials employers seem to be doing just the opposite for them. Since employers pay for employees 401(k) contributions, it would mean extra costs for employers if their employees save more. Also, they believe that employees wouldnt go for higher default savings rates anyway.

Chicago, Illinois-based investment management company Morningstar, Inc. retirement research head David Blanchett said employers should raise the default savings rate of three to six percent. The absolute minimum is 12 percent. It [should] probably be closer to 15 percent, he noted.

Basically, it should all come down to how much you earn. If youre making less than $30,000 a year, you can save less than 10 percent to 12 percent; however, if youre making $75,000 or more per year, you should probably save more, analysts said.

Also, you should start saving more if you have a career in a field that is characterized by volatile stability. University of Arizona finance professor Scott Cederburg said an ambitious savings mechanism should be employed by people who have careers in unstable job markets such as real estate, technology, finance, and oil.

Read up on more stories such as this one at Pensions.news.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com 1

Bloomberg.com 2
A family of six said they were forced to sleep in their car after an eviction notice was posted on the door of an Irvine, California apartment they had rented from Airbnb.

The Berlans, from Texas, had been staying since Saturday in the three-bedroom apartment while vacationing in California. At midnight Thursday, they returned to the room at the Metropolis Apartments and found an eviction notice on the front door. Because their keys no longer worked, all their possessions and souveniers were locked inside.

The family paid $1,500 on Airbnb for the rental and were staying in California to celebrate the daughter's high school graduation.

"My 8-year-old son says, 'Mom, did you not pay? What happened, mom?'" said Stephanie Berlan, fighting back tears. "I don't need my son to think I'm not taking care of him."

With no staff members available at the building, the family had to sleep inside their SUV, which was parked on the street. By the morning, the situation became even worse.

Stephanie Berlan spoke to the apartment's landlord via FaceTime to explain which items in the apartment belonged to her family. The family's possessions - clothes, suitcases and some expensive souvenirs - were then brought downstairs in plastic bags.

"People (were) watching me dig through trash bags not knowing what we were doing. It's humiliating," Stephanie Berlan said.

The Berlans said they rented the apartment from a man named "Parker," a confirmed host on the Airbnb website. After the family moved in, he even asked how they were doing; "Just checking in to see how your stay is coming along," read one text message.

"We can't get a hold of him. I've been trying since midnight last night," said Chad Berlan after the eviction. "They tried, Airbnb tried, nobody can find him."

While the family has used Airbnb in the past, this incident has soured their view of the service. Before heading off on the next leg of their trip, Chad Berlan cautioned people to stay away.

Airbnb told NBC4 it is refunding the Berlans' entire $1,500, offering the family a $500 credit on another booking and banning "Parker" from its website.

"There have been over 200 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and negative incidents like this are extremely rare," said Jeff Henry, an Airbnb spokesman. "Our guests absolutely deserved better assistance from us and we are incredibly sorry for this experience. We have fully refunded this guest for their entire reservation and are reviewing how this happened."

The company also said hosts must abide by local laws. In Irvine, a home cannot be rented for less than 30 days.

The Metropolis Apartments property manager did not return a request for comment.
The California Highway Patrol arrested a Lakeport man Thursday night on suspicion of assaulting a driver with his vehicle after a collision and stealing a cell phone, all while under the influence.

The incident occurred after a rollover collision around 8:40 p.m. on northbound U.S. Highway 101 near North San Pedro Road in San Rafael, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay said.

A driver who was stopped in traffic behind that collision told the CHP his vehicle was intentionally hit from behind, and the driver who rammed him stole his cell phone and drove away.

A witness to the rear-end collision called 911 and said he was following the driver who fled and that there appeared to be a physical fight happening inside the suspect's vehicle.

CHP Officer Kenneth Giordano located and tried to stop the suspect's vehicle in Novato at the San Antonio Road exit. The suspect, identified as Neil Anthony Hart, 58, of Lakeport, fled toward Petaluma at speeds near 100 mph with Giordano in pursuit.

Hart exited the highway at state Highway 116 in Cotati and drove to an apartment complex parking lot off Enterprise Drive. CHP officers from Santa Rosa and a CHP airplane responded and took Hart and the passenger in his car into custody, Barclay said.

The passenger was a 56-year-old transient Hart met in San Francisco earlier Thursday evening, and he fought with Hart because he wanted to get out of the vehicle, Barclay said. The CHP determined the transient was an unwilling accomplice and he was released from the scene, Barclay said.

CHP officers determined Hart was driving under the influence of drugs, and he was taken to the Marin County Jail where he was booked for reckless evading, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery by force, DUI, battery, false imprisonment and driving on a suspended license, Barclay said.
Several modified vehicles were put on display by Iraqi forces in the liberated city of Mosul. The vehicles look like as if they came straight out of the Hollywood blockbuster Mad Max.

By India Today Web Desk: Islamic State (IS) terrorists must have overdosed on famous Hollywood action movie Mad Max. To put things into perspective, here is a still from the action movie.

IMDb: Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

Iraqi security forces in the liberated city of Mosul have captured several cars and put them on display. These cars are modified in 'Mad Max-style' by IS terrorists.

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The IS terrorists have transformed the average cars into either combat vehicles or suicide bombing vehicles.

The exhibition show was launched at the Federal Police Headquarters in Hamam al-Qalil neighbourhood in Mosul, recently recaptured by government forces backed by the US-led coalition from Islamic State, according to an RT report.

The majority of the cars appear to be SUVs covered in crude metal sheets to improve the armor. One of the modifications includes ripped of passenger compartments, packed with explosives.

Reuters

There are spaces for improvised rocket-assisted munitions (IRAMs) as some cars have been installed with rails on their roofs.

Reuters Reuters

Several vehicles appear to be armored bulldozers. They are plated with sheet metal and have windows made of reinforced glass, presumably retained from some factory-made combat vehicles.

Reuters

One vehicle of destruction is a truck trailer with a turret inside, salvaged from a T-55 tank.

Reuters

However, the vehicle surely lacks protection or flexibility of a real tank.

Reuters

FYI || In pictures: Inside ISIS' training camp for recruits ||

FYI || Watch: Fearless female Kurdish fighter laughs off ISIS bullet which almost killed her in Raqqa ||

--- ENDS ---
A unique partnership is forming behind the walls of San Quentin State Prison between two groups that typically clash.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon has been quietly leading a team of prosecutors into the prison and meeting face to face with the men locked up inside. Its an effort to humanize the criminal justice system, improve rehabilitation efforts, and push the evolution of criminal prosecutors. No program like it exists in the country.

I believe that people need to be held accountable, and we certainly do that, Gascon said. But I also believe we have to give people an opportunity to come back and be part of our community.

Gascon said prosecutors have never struggled filling jail cells, but he said the justice system often misses the mark when it comes to rehabilitation. Now, Gascon and his office are challenging the notion a prosecutors job is done when a defendant goes to jail.

The traditional way of doing our work is you lock them up and dont worry about it until they come back again, Gascon said. What were trying to do is move away from that and say, maybe we participated in locking you up, but when you come out, we want to facilitate you coming out and not going back again.

San Quentin News

Vaughn Miles, an inmate serving 29-years-to-life for his role in an Oakland murder, shared his story while sitting in an unlikely circle of inmates and prosecutors. Hes called the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation home for the past 22 years.

Thats a whole lot of guilt, thats a whole lot of shame, thats a whole lot of remorse, thats a whole lot of regret, Miles said. If you genuinely sit with that like I have in here for the past 22 years, its bound to change me.

Miles said hes dedicated those years to self-transformation. After putting in years of work on himself, hes now a state-certified crisis counselor and leads many of the prisons therapy groups.

I would hope that [the public] keeps in mind that although we need to be punished because we committed a crime, were not past rehabilitation, Miles said.

San Quentin News

The reality, Gascon said, is that most of the offenders his office puts away will return to the community at some point. Recent criminal justice reform efforts in California mean inmates are getting out even sooner, including many who have long expected to die behind bars.

Gascon said he wants his office to help make those transitions successful.

We question why people reoffend, why people are unable to be successful, Gascon said. Thats because we as a society are not providing an opportunity.

District Attorney George Gascon, Assistant District Attorney Marisa Rodriguez and San Quentin inmate Vaughn Miles discuss the criminal justice system and the budding collaboration between inmates and prosecutors behind the walls of the prison.

The seeds of collaboration were planted about five years ago inside the newsroom of San Quentin News, where Steve McNamara, the former owner of Marin Countys Pacific Sun newspaper, volunteers as an adviser. His daughter, Marisa Rodriguez, happens to be an Assistant District Attorney.

San Quentin News, the prison's inmate-run newspaper, also covered this story. You can read that story by clicking here.

My daughter Marisa, who is the Assistant DA, asked me one day why in the world I spend so much time with a bunch of criminals in San Quentin Prison, McNamara said. And I said, well, theyre not quite the way you might imagine them, why dont you come in and have a look?

Rodriguez said she agreed to visit, albeit with some apprehension. After all, she was a prosecutor whose office was responsible for incarcerating many of the men inside. But she says that apprehension turned into a sense of awe once she realized how much rehabilitative work the men had gone through.

It was almost like a light bulb went off and I was like we really need to get our leadership in our office here to San Quentin to see this, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez began working with inmate Arnulfo Garcia, the Editor-in-Chief of San Quentin News, to shape the program. Garcia had come up with the idea of holding forums inside San Quentin, and thought the District Attorneys Office would be a perfect fit. Rodriguez brought the idea to Gascon, who soon visited himself. He called the experience life-changing.

San Quentin News

When we leave here, we dont walk out of here and go on with our daily lives, Rodriguez said. This impacts us a great deal.

Rodriguez said the program is already paying dividends. The District Attorneys Office recently created an advisory board geared toward rehabilitation and reentry made up of prosecutors and formerly incarcerated individuals.

Prosecutors are also working with inmates on ways to divert young offenders from the prison pipeline.

Gascon said he hopes the collaboration will also lead to increased discretion by prosecutors. In some cases, he said, it might not be appropriate to go for the maximum sentence.

Theres a limit to the effectiveness of incarceration and we passed that limit a long time ago, Gascon said. So for me, how do we start creating public policy that moves away from over-incarcerating?

San Quentin News

Now, Gascon wants to get other district attorneys on board. In January, he brought in 40 district attorneys from other major U.S. cities to San Quentin to witness the program for themselves. While he sensed some initial skepticism, Gascon said they all came away impressed.

As for Vaughn Miles, his first parole board hearing comes up next year. Hes hoping for a new chance at freedom.

Theres a lot of us in here who have done some deep, deep work, Miles said. That could be very effective in the community.
A 5-year-old Berkeley girl and her mother, who police believe took the child a day prior, were found safe in Pittsburg on Saturday.

Berkeley police said Mayalyia Booker was last seen with her mother, 34-year-old Laquita Davis, in the 1500 block of Prince Street at 3:14 p.m. Friday.

The police department announced Saturday that Pittsburg officers had located the pair and taken Davis into custody around 11:30 a.m. No additional details were immediately available.

The Bay Area-wide hunt began Friday when Davis unexpectedly picked up her daughter who was visiting her grandmother at that time.

Mayalyia's father has custody of the child. Davis, who is homeless, does not have any visitation rights, police said.

Berkeley police worked with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, who brought in a K-9 unit to help with the search. The K-9 unit tracked the mother and child to the Ashby BART station in Berkeley. Police believed the pair could be in Oakland.

The child's grandmother said Davis had taken away the toddler once before, but brought her back. Officers are unsure when that happened and how long the woman kept her daughter with her.
A South Bay man who plead guilty to stealing, torturing and killing more than a dozen cats in San Jose's Cambrian Park area was sentenced Friday to 16 years in county jail.

Each cat killed by San Jose-resident Robert Farmer had its name read aloud by a judge during the sentencing to remind him of each crime he committed.

Mirim Petrova's tabby "Go-Go" was one of Farmer's victims and the body has yet to be found.

Friday's sentencing helps Petrova heal.

"We finally can say goodbye to every cat that was involved in this tragedy," Petrova said. "That's finally saying goodbye to them."

Farmer pleaded guilty to killing 18 cats and wounding three more. The crimes all occurred in the fall of 2015, with one of the abductions caught on camera.

Numberous blood stains were also discovered in Farmer's car, along with a dead cat.

A necropsy showed at least one of the cats died of blunt force trauma and may have been sexually abused.

"The judge agreed with my analysis," Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Ellis said. "She sentenced him to 16 years, we can only hope it is long enough."

Farmer will not be allowed back within 100 yards of the Cambrian Park neighborhood. He will also not be able to own or care for a pet for 10 years after his release.
Two men are accused of harassing a shop owner in Fremont for displaying the gay pride flag.

Rae Steckler-Homorody said she took a photograph of the pair when they became belligerent upon being told to leave her store.

After the altercation, Steckler-Homorody, who usually leaves the pride flag out, decided to bring it inside the Niles-area shop. She said the older of the two men began the fight by asking why she had rainbow flag displayed.

Why am I flying the rainbow flag? Because Im an ally, she told NBC Bay Area. And he goes, Huh, why arent you flying the American flag?

Steckler-Homorody replied that she flies both and rotates them regularly. But the conversation unraveled quickly so she told the man to leave, which upset him.

Began with the f*** yous, f*** yous, f*** yous,  and go f*** yourself, and that was all in front of my customers, she said.

The man left, but returned with another man who also cursed about the flag. They got more incensed when she tried taking pictures of them.

I was holding my phone up to take a picture, and he goes to smack it out of my hand, and Im like backing up, Steckler-Homorody said.

Shop owners in the Niles community pride themselves on celebrating diversity and inclusion so Thursdays confrontation came as a shock.



Merchants at a quilting store down the street say the same two men confronted them about a month ago for displaying a womans march sign.

Well he was very upset about it, and took offense by it, Belle Spring said.

After that confrontation, Springs flag mysteriously disappeared but its not clear if the two men are responsible.

The neighborhood is rattled, but Steckler-Homorody says she will continue flying the gay pride flag. She plans to install two flag holders so she can display the stars and stripes alongside the rainbow flag.

Niles is a good place to visit. Its a good place to be. Its a safe place to be, she said.
A University of California, Berkeley student is accused of a vandalism spree that left a neighborhood in spray paint.

Berkeley police arrested 21-year-old Ismael Chamu on Thursday night. Chamu, a junior at Cal, is allegedly responsible for 35 incidents of vandalism during a six- to eight-hour period, including graffiti and tire slashings.

But it is not just a simple case of vandalism. Police said the anti-white message behind some of the graffiti makes it a hate crime.

Chamu's friends and classmates said they do not believe he is responsible for the vandalism spree. They say Chamu is an immigrant rights advocate.
The University of San Francisco community is grieving the loss of William Sachs Goldman, a professor who was killed in Thursday's plane crash near Sonoma Skyport Airport that injured three other passengers, including his children.

The 38-year-old, an assistant professor of international studies, died around 12:45 p.m. in Schell Vista in the area of San Luis Road and Broadway south of Sonoma, according to Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services.

The Sonoma County Fire Department said two children under 16  Goldman's son and daughter  were airlifted to Children's Hospital in Oakland. Their condition is unknown.

A female passenger also was hurt and taken to a hospital. Her relationship to the family remains unclear.

On Friday, grief was palpable on the USF campus as people who knew Goldman described being devastated by his untimely death.

Chalwe Mwansa, a University of San Francisco alumni who visited the campus to drop off flowers in Goldman's honor, simply said, "He was family."

Officials investigate a small plane crash that killed one person and injured three others in Sonoma County.

University President Paul Fitzgerald wrote in a statement Thursday that Goldman impacted the lives of his colleagues and students, both former and current, and will be "greatly missed."

"The University of San Francisco community is devastated to learn of the death of faculty member Bill Goldman in a Sonoma County plane crash," Fitzgerald wrote. "Bill, an assistant professor in international studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, was an accomplished scholar, a beloved and generous teacher, and a valued member of our community."

He continued: "Bill's wife Serra is an alumna of the USF School of Law and a member of the university's Board of Trustees. We are standing in prayerful solidarity with her and with Bill and Serra's young children, George and Marie, now and in the days ahead."

The New Israel Fund, a social justice nonprofit that counted Goldman among its board members, said they mourn the death of their beloved friend, a man with vision, idealism and a sharp sense of humor.

Our thoughts are with his family, and especially his children, the statement said. As we begin to process this loss, we know that his memory will be a blessing, as was his life.

Single-Engine Plane Crashes in a Field West of Sonoma Skypark

Preliminary information shows the plane crashed under unknown circumstances, Gregor said. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, but it could take up to a year before a cause is revealed.



Robert Castillo was one of several people who ran straight for the crash site when they heard a plane in distress. He helped pry the children out of the plane.

"Maybe it was about 75 feet in the air and descending, and thats when I heard a bang and saw the parachute come out of the back of the air plane," Castillo said. "It sputtered louder, cut out, started sputtering, cut out and was off.

"When I got there, there was a little hand in the back window," Castillo continued. "I said, 'Oh my gosh, someones alive, lets see what we can do.'"

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane was a single-engine Cirrus SR-22 and was equipped with a parachute system that can deploy in case of emergencies.



One person was killed and three others were injured after a small plane crashed Thursday afternoon in Sonoma County, fire officials said. Bob Redell reports.
Frantic brides-to-be descended on Alfred Angelo Bridal stores across the country Thursday amid reports that the company was closing all of its locations by the end of the day.

Police responded to at least one location in Washington state where a group of angry customers gathered outside, banging and rattling the locked doors. And in Texas, San Antonio police tells NBC they received at least three 911 calls from desperate brides seeking help to retrieve their time-sensitive dresses.

The bridal retailer boasts on its website that it helps brides "realize your wedding dreams," but by the end of day Thursday the promised wedding fantasy of so many had quickly turned to nightmares.

The abrupt closure of Alfred Angelo's more than 60 stores threw brides-to-be into limbo, leaving thousands of customers distraught over the prospect of finding another dress on short notice.

"Panic, complete and utter disarray," Julie Jones, a bride-to-be who ordered several gowns from one of the retailers Southern California stores, told NBC San Diego. "I am crying hysterically. My poor fiance is tired of hearing about it because I can't stop crying about it."

The Wall Street Journal reports, citing company sources, that Alfred Angelo Bridal hired Miami-based law firm Stearns, Weaver, and Miller to guide the company through legal proceedings for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. NBC has not independently confirmed the WSJ report and Alfred Angelo and the firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Friday, the company filed to liquidate its operations in bankruptcy court. According to documents filed in the Southern District of Florida, the company lists its assets at $50,000 or less.

At Alfred Angelos headquarters in Florida, employees were reportedly seen leaving the companys corporate Delray Beach office Thursday en masse, according to the Palm Beach Post. And as social media buzzed of a rumored bankruptcy, the bridal retailer remained silent.

Angry customers turned to Facebook and Twitter to vent their frustrations over the sudden closures and the Delcompany's lack of a response

"@AlfredAngelo seriously your closing and half my bridal party doesn't have their dresses. #banruptcy," Jamie, of Pennsylvania, wrote on Twitter.



Ohio bride-to-be Amber McGraw said she didn't know how to describe the "sick feeling" she had paying "for a wedding dress I won't get." She added: "I'm getting married in 64 days and now have to look for a new dress and hope I find the money to pay for it #robbed."

"Alfred Angelo sounds like they won't honor the three bridesmaid dresses already ordered and paid for for mine & @JLynnWorden's wedding," wrote Twitter user Danny Surman.



Some customers say they were notified earlier Thursday to pick up their orders before stores shuttered their doors for good at the end of the day. Others learned of the closures through social media and arrived only to find the locations closed.

Brides who ordered Alfred Angelo dresses say they arent sure if they will ever get their dream gown while several customers reported stores were unable to process refunds because the credit card machines were no longer working.

"They said, 'We can't do any refunds, we can't do anything to help you,'" said Kathy Hunt, who told NBC Los Angeles she was out $1,100 for her daughter's dress.

But it's not just customers who were caught off-guard. Mollie Frish, a seamstress at the Alfred Angelo store in Manchester, Connecticut, said employees were advised at the beginning of their shift on Thursday morning that it would be their last day of work.

"Many of these girls, this is their livelihood and they are without a job suddenly. Are they going to get paid? We don't know," Frish told NBC Connecticut.

Founded in 1933 by Alfred Angelo Piccione and Edythe Vincent Piccione, the company eventually grew to operating more than 60 stores nationwide and selling merchandise in more than 1,400 retail stores across the U.S. and around the globe.



Valen Studios Bridal Boutique, which carries Alfred Angelo dresses in its Chicago store, says it has about 50 orders pending and the company has been vague about what the closure means for her customers. The shop's manager, Erica Janel, told NBC Chicago that if Alfred Angelo Bridal doesn't fulfill her brides' orders, Valen plans to refund those customers out of their own pocket.

David's Bridal, a rival bridal chain, offered brides a light at the end of the altar: a special discount to bride's affected by the closures.

Customers with outstanding orders or who want to file a claim are directed to contact:

Patricia A. Redmond, Esquire

Stearns Weaver Miller

150 West Flagler Street

Miami, Florida 33130

Phone: (305) 789-3553

Fax: (305) 789-3395

predmond@stearnsweaver.com

www.stearnsweaver.com
A 2018 ballot campaign to lower the state's 6.25 percent sales tax is being considered by brick-and-mortar retailers stung by the migration of consumers to online shopping and frustrated by Beacon Hill's retreat from an annual sales tax holiday.

"It's having a severe impact on dark storefronts, everywhere from our main streets to our major retail malls," said Jon Hurst, longtime president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

Anger among Bay State merchants, Hurst said in an interview, has reached a level he's never seen, fueled partly by the perceived inequity of a sales tax they must collect but that out-of-state online retailers - not to mention stores in tax-free New Hampshire - do not.

Popular with retailers and shoppers alike, the two-day sales tax holiday was becoming a summer tradition before lawmakers scrapped it last year amid concerns over slumping revenues. Those worries have not abated.

A recently approved $40.2 billion state budget slashed revenue projections for the new fiscal year by $733 million, raising fresh doubts about whether Massachusetts can afford to surrender even two days of sales tax receipts.

Democratic legislative leaders haven't altogether ruled out reviving the sales tax holiday in August, but time is running short.

Robert Saquet, owner of Eggers Furniture in Middleborough, a business that traces its roots to 1832, said the summer tax holiday is a shot in the arm for retailers.

"It takes an otherwise slow month and makes it busy," he said. "It motivates people to spend money."

The store's August sales were off some 80 percent last year compared to the previous year, Saquet added, when there was a sales tax holiday.

"People feel when they have a chance to beat the tax man, they do it," he said.

Hurst's group, meanwhile, has been gauging support from retailers for trying to lower the sales tax, possibly to 4.5 or 5 percent, through a ballot question. The first step in a lengthy process to place a question before voters would be filing an initiative petition with the state attorney general by Aug. 2.

Among potential obstacles would be the daunting costs involved in a ballot campaign, including the required collection of some 65,000 voter signatures.

"I don't know that it really makes sense to solve this problem through a ballot initiative," Hurst conceded, but added it could serve as a "wake-up call" to spur action by policymakers who may not fully grasp the plight of retailers.

While not linking the possible ballot drive directly to the sales tax holiday, Hurst suggested approval of a holiday would be a show of good faith by legislators and likely prompt further discussion among his members.

Rep. Brad Jones, the House Republican leader, has filed a bill to designate Aug. 12-13 as this year's sales tax holiday. The Senate's GOP leader, Bruce Tarr, has filed legislation to end the annual summer guessing game by making the holiday a permanent fixture.

Neither bill has been released from committee.

Estimates by the Department of Revenue that Massachusetts foregoes $26 million in taxes it would otherwise collect are often cited as an argument against a sales tax holiday. Retailers dispute the methodology behind those estimates. Moreover, they point to other economic benefits that arise when shoppers pack malls on a lazy summer weekend rather than lounge on the beach.

Should a sales tax question reach the November 2018 ballot, it would likely appear alongside a proposed constitutional amendment imposing a 4 percent surtax on annual incomes above $1 million. That would create a scenario in which voters could raise tax revenue through one measure while lowering it through another.

Steve Crawford, a spokesman for Raise Up Massachusetts, which is spearheading the campaign for the so-called "millionaire tax," said the group isn't worrying at this point about competition from a sales tax cut.

"I do have a lot of faith in the voters and their ability to really focus on these questions and understand the impact on them individually and collectively," Crawford added.

Brick and mortar retailers are weighing a possible 2018 ballot campaign aimed at lowering the state's 6.25 percent sales tax.

The Retailers Association of Massachusetts is gauging support from members for such an approach as it waits for a decision from the Legislature on whether to authorize a sales tax holiday next month.

Popular with merchants and shoppers alike, the two-day sales tax holiday was becoming a summer tradition before lawmakers scrapped it last year amid concerns over tightening revenues.

The association's president, Jon Hurst, says retailers are frustrated by the perceived inequity of a sales tax they must collect while many online retailers and those in tax-free New Hampshire do not.

If the group decides to pursue a ballot question to lower the sales tax, the first step would be the filing of a petition with the attorney general by Aug. 2.
A man was fatally shot in a parked car Thursday night after a gun tucked in his waistband discharged into his abdomen, police said.

The accidental shooting occurred about 11:55 p.m. in the 6100 block of South Winchester in the citys West Englewood neighborhood. Chicago police called the mortal injury a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The man was identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner as Steven Winston, who lived nearby in the South Side neighborhood.

The accidental discharge was caused by Winston moving in the vehicle, police said.

He was taken to Christ Medical Center in critical condition where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said it did not appear that he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, but noted an ongoing investigation into his death.

A weapon was recovered, police said.
H.H. Holmes is infamously known as one of America's first serial killers, but could he have also killed abroad under another name?

That's exactly what one relative claims in an upcoming series for the History Channel called "American Ripper." In it, Jeff Mudgett claims to have evidence that his great-great-grandfather, Herman Webster Mudgett, was also Jack the Ripper.

"I am a descendent of the devil," Jeff Mudgett says in a preview for the segment airing Tuesday night. "I have uncovered credible evidence which suggests that Holmes was Jack the Ripper."

It's a claim that could unlock clues to two mysteries that have lived on for decades, though the evidence Mudgett is said to have remains to be seen.

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Holmes was Chicagos infamous White City devil, a serial killer who stalked the city during the glories of the 1893 Worlds Fair.

But NBC 5 Investigates recently discovered new information that questioned whether Holmes pulled off one last ghoulish swindle and secretly escaped his death years ago.

H.H. Holmes was a man who was described as the arch criminal of the century, before they even suspected him of a single murder, author Adam Selzer said. A lot of times people got in the way, knew too much, and they mysteriously disappeared.

History disagrees on the body count for the man born Herman Webster Mudgett, who later took on the Holmes identity. While some ascribe as many as 200 murders to Holmes, and he confessed to over two dozen, the exact number may never be known.

What is known is that his base of operations was a building at 63rd and Wallace, the so-called murder castle, which popular lore says was festooned with trap doors, sealed rooms, and a veritable chamber of horrors in the basement where bodies were boiled in acid or even cremated.

It wasnt a pleasant place in any case, Selzer said. There were a number of people who disappeared out of the building.

But earlier this year, digging began at the Philadelphia cemetery where Holmes was buried following his hanging in 1896. It was in Pennsylvania where the law finally caught up with the notorious killer and he was convicted of murder. But some newspaper accounts at the time suggested he had perpetrated one last scam, cheating the hangman and escaping to South America.

This was quite a popular story at the time, said Philadelphia author Matt Lake. A cynical person might say this was just designed to sell more newspapers, and it did sell newspapers!

But it also sold the courts in Pennsylvania on the idea of proving once and for all who is in Holmes grave. Two of the killers great-grandchildren successfully petitioned to have his remains exhumed, in hopes that DNA testing will prove once and for all if hes really the one buried in Philadelphias Holy Cross Cemetery.

John and Richard Mudgett, along with Cynthia Mudgett Soriano confirmed in affidavits that they are direct descendants of the infamous killer.

Hed requested a double deep coffin, and before he was placed in it he wanted a layer of wet cement put in there, Lake noted, quoting popular accounts including a story printed at the time of Holmes hanging in The New York Times. And then the coffin was going to be topped off with even more wet cement.

If somebody went to check later, they couldnt verify that it was his body.

That of course, did not envision the possibility of modern forensic science. A court order dated March 9 in Delaware County Pennsylvania gives Holmes descendants permission to exhume his body, with DNA analysis to be performed by the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The department did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Petitioners shall cause the remains to be re-interred in the same grave site in which they had originally been buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, regardless of whether or not those remains are determined to be those of Herman Webster Mudgett, the order stated. No commercial spectacle or carnival atmosphere shall be created either by this event or any other incident pertaining to the remains.

On its face, the reports of Holmes escape seem the stuff of a 19th Century dime novel. One 1898 account, from the Chicago Inter-Ocean asked point blank, Is H.H. Holmes Alive?

H.H. Holmes was never hanged in Philadelphia, the story quoted a purported witness. On the contrary, as he always declared he would do, he cheated the gallows and is today alive and well growing coffee at San Parinarimbo, Paraguay, South America.

The account proceeded to explain that Holmes managed to bribe officials at his prison into substituting a cadaver for his hanging, the reason he grew a full beard in the weeks leading to his execution, to further muddy the waters of future identification.

Within two hours of the hanging an undertakers wagon containing a casket drove out of the prison yard, the article noted. That casket was supposed to contain the body of Holmes. Instead, it contained Holmes living.

Such an account differs radically from other descriptions of the execution, including a detailed article in the May 8, 1896 Chicago Tribune.

Justice followed him with tardy steps for many long years, the Tribune noted. Yet when the end came, it was frightfully scientific, methodical, and expeditious.

Whoever is in the grave, the Delaware County court specifically ordered that the body be returned within 120 days.

The petitioner shall have the site restored with perpetual grave site care, the order stated. In the event it is determined that the remains are not those of Herman Webster Mudgett or are unidentifiable, the Petitioners shall be responsible for purchasing a cemetery marker in addition to requirements for interment.

Still, days after digging began, observers noted that they had not seen an actual coffin removed, and that digging was still continuing the following the week.

Selzer, author of the new H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil, has never believed all of the more fanciful stories about the murder castle, and says he believes the Holmes body count might have only been between 9 and a dozen individuals.

He was a swindler first and foremost, he said. Right after he was first arrested he suddenly became really, really famous. People were calling him the arch criminal, the master criminal of the century.

Erik Larson, author of "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America," said he has previously looked into the possibility of Holmes being Jack the Ripper but reportedly claims the "chronologies don't check out."

Jack the Ripper was the name given to the serial killer who terrorized London in the 1880s and 1890s. The killer has never been unidentified and the number of his victims is unknown, although some suspect he killed at least a dozen.


Earlier this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had "confirmed information" that Baghdadi had been killed.

By Reuters: US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday the United States could not prove that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead.

Earlier this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had "confirmed information" that Baghdadi had been killed, but Western and Iraqi officials have been skeptical.

"If we knew, we would tell you. Right now, I can't confirm or deny it," Mattis said. "Our approach is we assume that he's alive until it is proven otherwise, and right now, I can't prove it otherwise."

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Mattis added that a ceasefire in southwestern Syria was holding so far.

The United States, Russia and Jordan announced the ceasefire and a "de-escalation agreement" for the southwest after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

"What is happening further down in southwest is something that we will support obviously, but right now, we don't have any equity in it, that is a State Department, diplomatic lead, President to President effort," Mattis said.

Also Read:

Islamic State chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi killed: Syria monitor

Russia's military says may have killed ISIS leader Baghdadi: Agencies

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A man held his phone above his head as he tread water in Lake Michigan until he and another man were rescued Friday after their boat sank in Lake Michigan, the U.S. Coast Guard says.

The two men, 29 and 31, were about a mile east of Waukegan Harbor in Lake County when their 15-foot bass boat started taking on water. The vessel sank within 10 minutes, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard Station Kenosh launched a rescue boat after the man with the partially waterproof phone called them shortly after noon. The water was 58 degrees, the Coast Guard said.

The first person rescued did not have a life jacket on and was treading water while holding onto a small, boat fender, the Coast Guard said in a news release. The second person had his life jacket on backwards and was holding his cell phone above his head to keep it dry while treading water. Both men were exhausted and cold from being in the water nearly 45 minutes.

The men told their rescuers they believed a new plug they bought for the boat, possibly falling out, was to blame for the leak.

The men did not have a float plan and did not tell anyone they would be out the water, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard urges boaters to have a plan when they go out on the water, to carry multiple signaling devices, to have enough working life jackets, and to bring an electronic position indicating radio beacon, the release said.
Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show more plutonium than previously thought, which can be used to grow its nuclear weapons stockpile, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring group, was based on satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June, NBC News reported, citing Reuters.

Images of the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate operation of centrifuges used to increase North Koreas stock of enriched uranium, its other source of bomb fuel, 38 North said.

North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the U.S. Last week North Korea tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said had the range to hit all of Alaska and parts of the Pacific Northwest.
The Pentagon says that U.S. forces killed the head of ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan in an airstrike in Kunar province earlier this week.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that killing Abu Sayed is significant because the loss of leadership sets insurgent groups back for days or weeks.

ISIS in Afghanistan is known as the Islamic State-Khorasan group. The U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive against the ISIS group in early March, as the militants were gaining a foothold in eastern Afghanistan.

ISIS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and U.S. forces killed the previous ISIS leaders in Afghanistan last year.



Mattis tells Pentagon reporters that taking out a leader creates disarray in the ranks. He declines to provide any additional details on the strike.

A chief Pentagon spokesperson, Dana White, says that Abu Sayed was killed on Tuesday along with other members of the group.

Afghan and U.S. forces launched a counter-ISIS offensive in early March 2017 to drive fighters from Nangarhar and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan.
Democratic members of the Connecticut House of Representatives are coming back to the state Capitol, but not to vote on a new budget.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter said Friday they've informed their members there will be a closed-door budget caucus meeting on Tuesday, but not a legislative session day.

Both Aresimowicz and Ritter suggested late last month that a budget agreement could be ready for a vote on Tuesday. But earlier this week, Aresimowicz said it was possible that a vote wouldn't happen. Instead, he said he was confident there will be an agreement by August.

Aresimowicz says he still hopes a new budget will be in place by month's end, saying "significant progress" toward reaching a bipartisan agreement was reached this week.
A Putnam woman who state police found passed out in a home was arrested after troopers found a child covered in flies and bug bites, with drug paraphernalia nearby, according to state police.

Police said they went to an East Putnam home just before 10 a.m. Thursday while investigating an earlier disturbance and found a door damaged.

No one answered responded to troopers, but they went inside after seeing a young child who was wearing an overflowing diaper and was covered in bug bites and flies, according to the state police Troop D Quality of Life Task Force.

When troopers went inside to check on the child, they saw drug paraphernalia within the child's reach, according to the state police.

Kristen Corey, 37, of Putnam was found passed out in a nearby bedroom and state police tried to wake her. She was later arrested and charged with risk of injury to a child and possession of drug paraphernalia and held on a $50,000.

The state Department of Children and Families opened their own investigation and took custody of the child. It's not clear what Corey's relationship is to the child.

NBC Connecticut has reached out to state police for additional information.
A new law on knives in Texas means long knives like swords, daggers and even machetes soon will be legal to carry in public.

Double-edged knives and blades longer than five-and-a-half inches also will be allowed starting Sept. 1.

State Rep. John Frullo, R-Lubbock, introduced the bill during the last legislative session, arguing the current rules are outdated and confusing.

Exceptions include places like schools, bars and churches.

At the House of Blades, Fort Worth's largest knife store, manager Matt Salazar said he expected a jump in business.

"Lately there's been a lot of fuss about the new law," Salazar said.

Customers welcomed the change.

"I don't see any problem with it," said Jason Hoch, a visitor from Pennsylvania. "I mean, a lot of hunting and stuff down here, outdoor sports."

Another customer, Dee Dean, of Lake Worth, agreed.

"If someone wanted to do something wrong they can do it with a little (knife) or a long one, so I don't think it matters," he said.

Switchblades  also known as automatic knives  were made legal in Texas in 2013.
A pilot was killed Friday morning when a small plane crashed during takeoff at San Gabriel Valley Airport.

The male victim died at the scene, according to fire officials who responded to the crash on airport property in the 4200 block of Santa Anita Avenue in El Monte. The pilot was the only person aboard at the time of the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Authorities did not release the victim's name because his family had not been notified of his death.

Aviation records show the plane is a two-seat, single-engine 1979 Jansen Pazmany PL-2 experimental aircraft. The plane appeared to be about 200 feet above the ground when the engine noise stopped, according to a witness.

"It suddenly jerked to the left and nosedived right into the concrete," said witness Kevin Ward.

The plane appeared to be turning left before it slammed into the tarmac next to the runway. He made no call for help, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The latest heat wave enveloping central and southern California will bring triple-digit temperatures and increased wildfire danger.

Heat advisories were issued for swaths of greater Los Angeles north into the Antelope Valley and the San Joaquin Valley starting Friday through the weekend.

Temperatures could be up to 8 degrees above normal on Saturday and Sunday. Residents are urged to drink plenty of water, avoid the sun and check on elderly relatives and neighbors.

[LA GALLERY] Take a Look at What SoCal is Doing to Beat the Heat

A heat advisory will be in effect until 11 p.m. Sunday in the San Gabriels, where forecasters expect highs ranging from 95 to 103 at lower elevations and overnight lows in the 70s and lower 80s. A heat advisory will be in force from 1 p.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Sunday in the Antelope Valley, where highs will range from 98 to 108, with overnight lows in the 70s.

A heat advisory means high temperatures and humidity levels will combine to increase the chances of heat-related illnesses, forecasters say. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Additionally, forecasters said children, seniors and pets should never be left in a parked car in hot weather, even with the windows cracked open, because interior heat levels can quckly become deadly.

This weekend's heat levels in the mountains and the Antelope Valley will create "an increased threat of heat-related illness, especially to those without access to air conditioning. Power outages are possible," according to a National Weather Service statement.

A small brush fire broke out in Glendale during high heat. Rick Montanez reports for the NBC4 News at 6 on Saturday, July 15, 2017.

Fire authorities are girding for possible new fires as crews battle more than a dozen blazes up and down the state. Firefighters expect to have a wildfire near the Butte County town of Oroville fully contained on Saturday. Crews have increased containment of two major fires in Santa Barbara County.

City News Service contributed to this report.
As Air Force One flew home from Europe, news was set to break about a meeting that Donald Trump's eldest son had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, promising yet another round of unwelcome headlines about the president and Russia. And that happened twice within a week.

The day-after-day drip-drip-drip of revelations over the past week about Donald Trump Jr.'s contact with the Russian lawyer in 2016 underscores the White House's inability to shake off the Russia story and close the book on a narrative that casts a shadow over Trump's presidency. No matter how presidential Trump may have looked on his back-to-back trips to Europe in recent days, the persistent questions about connections between Trump's team and Russia prevent him from savoring a public relations victory and building momentum for his stalled legislative agenda.

"No successful crisis management model works the way they are doing things," said Lanny Davis, who worked as special counsel to President Bill Clinton during his impeachment hearings. "If your mission is to control a story or try to end a story, you need to tell it early, tell it all and tell it yourself."

Trump Jr.'s account of his Trump Tower meeting has seemingly changed on an almost daily basis. At first, the meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was forced to release emails  mere moments before The New York Times planned to do so  that revealed he had told an associate that he would "love" Russia's help in obtaining negative details about the Democratic nominee.

Even the number of people who attended the meeting has changed. On Friday, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist told The Associated Press that he, too, had been part of the discussion.

Each revelation, no matter how small, has been seized upon by Democrats and dissected in detail on cable news.

Davis is credited with helping to steer the Clinton White House through a series of investigations, allowing the president to focus on his agenda while the lawyer shouldered the burden of dumping bad news and keeping West Wing staffers in lockstep in their response. He doesn't see a central figure doing that for Trump, and believes the president would be well-served to appoint a lawyer within the White House, instead of using a web of external attorneys.

Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner  the president's son-in-law and senior adviser also attended the June 2016 meeting  also have retained attorneys separate from those hired by the president.

"They need to have one lawyer get every person in one room and figure out who knows what. No more surprises," said Davis, who favors proactively releasing any new findings. "The facts are coming out anyway  only question is whether they come out all at once or a little bit in a time."

The firestorm over Don Jr.'s emails has been a frustrating distraction during a stretch in which some White House advisers believed they were finding their footing. Trump's allies also were heartened by his trips to Europe, believing that his speech saluting national pride in Poland was a high point of his presidency and that he appeared statesman-like during a whirlwind visit to Paris.

But behind the scenes, a group of Trump aides gathered in a cabin on the presidential aircraft flying home from Germany last weekend to begin preparing for the initial fallout from Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting. And then just six days later, as Air Force One was returning from France, more news was breaking about Trump Jr.'s shifting account of the meeting, again launching a bad news cycle and straining the credibility of the president's defense team.

For some, the steady drumbeat of Russia revelations echoes how the Watergate story emerged in one Washington Post story after another.

"I think the 'drip-drip-drip' is a perfect analogy, for that's exactly what people said about Watergate and President Nixon's Oval Office tapes," said Luke Nichter, a historian who has written several books on the former president. "They were released piecemeal and every release was damaging."

Even if the ongoing Russia questions don't end in legal consequences for Trump, they can still inflict serious political damage if allowed to needlessly drag out.

"I don't know that there's anyone powerful enough on the team to marshal this and get all the facts out now," says Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush. "Omissions are as harmful as contradictions because it seems like you're hiding something. From a communications standpoint, it's unforgiveable."
It's been two decades since the shocking killing of renowned fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his Miami Beach home, an event that remains one of the most infamous crimes in South Florida history.

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the 50-year-old icon's murder, which set off a massive manhunt in South Florida for the serial killer who gunned him down.

Robert Sullivan/AFP/Getty Images

Versace was on the steps of his Ocean Drive mansion the morning of July 15, 1997, when Andrew Cunanan, a 27-year-old man who was a suspect in at least four other murders across the country, shot and killed him.

Authorities searched for Cunanan for eight days before he fatally shot himself on a houseboat in Miami. At the time of Versace's death, Cunanan was already the target of of a nationwide manhunt by the FBI.

FBI

Miami Beach's police chief at the time of the murder, Richard Barreto, said Cunanan had visited a local pawn shop to sell a gold coin he had stolen from one of his victims.

"This is an issue we were criticized for. Cunanan when he arrived in Miami Beach had pawned some coins on the north end of the beach, at a pawn shop, and the pawn shops are required to report their transactions every 24 hours to the police department," Barreto said.

Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Cunanan used his real name and the address of the hotel he was staying at at the pawn shop, just days before the Versace murder.

"That information was brought to us in paper forms and we had no automated way to analyze that information," Barreto said, adding that if the system was electronic, it may have prevented the tragedy.

Several questions remain as far as what Cunanan's motive was for targeting the fashion designer.

"What his thought process was before he killed Versace, after he killed Versace was there other people that helped them? We'll never know the answers to questions like those," Barreto said.

Versace's mansion is now named Casa Casuarina and serves as a luxury resort and event venue.

Every turn has a beautiful sight to see at the Giannis Casa Casuarina, formerly known as the Versace Mansion. Roxanne Vargas takes us inside and shows us where you can get a delicious bite to eat.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 15 (PTI) The US forces have killed the head of Islamic States Afghanistan branch in a strike on the terror groups headquarters in Kunar Province, the Pentagon has said.

The killing of Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), marked the third time within a year that the terror groups Afghanistan branch has lost its leader.

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"US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), in a strike on the groups headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on July 11," Pentagon Spokesman Dana White has said.

The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror groups plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan, she said.

ISIS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and US forces killed the previous ISIS-K leaders -- Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016, and Abdul Hasib, in late April of this year.

"Afghan and US forces launched a counter-ISIS-K offensive in early March, 2017, to drive fighters from Nangarhar and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan," White said.

General John Nicholson, who leads US forces-Afghanistan, said, "We will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan."

The US has been hitting ISIS targets in the war-torn country regulaly and in April it dropped the largest non- nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat.

The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 jihadists, according to reports. PTI LKJ ASK ASK

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One week after the body of a pilot who trained at a South Florida aviation school was discovered near a downed plane, another plane from that same school made a crash landing in Key Biscayne.

The two people on board were no seriously injured in Fridays incident. The crash was the most recent in an unusually high pattern of incidents originating from Dean International Flight School. Last week, Mark Ukaere was killed when his unauthorized flight crashed in the Everglades. Ukaeres body was discovered near the plane with an alligator creeping close by.

One week later, most of the schools planes were temporarily out of service, NBC 6 exclusively confirmed. Thirty-nine out of 50 planes were place into maintenance, at least nine by the order of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Some of the maintenance work is routine, but others include rudder issues, faulty brakes and loose or missing screws.

In an exclusive interview, the owner of the Dean International told NBC 6 the bigger the school, the more issues.

"If you're operating an operation like this, 50 aircraft, 60,000 miles per year, if you take our average and another schools' average, we're in a heck of a good shape," owner Robert Dean said.

NBC 6 uncovered and sifted a stack of documents obtained by the FAA and the National Transportation and Safety Board, which showed lengthy reports of planes that went down. Since 2007, the school logged a total of 29 accidents or incident  including 5 fatalities.

Dean defended the school, saying that despite the issues many students attend the school because it is one of the best aviation centers.
South Miami is set to become the first city in Florida to mandate solar panels on new homes.

On Wednesday, the City Commission approved the ordinance on a second reading, in a 4-1 vote. The new law would require owners of new homes -- including single-family homes, townhouses and multi-story residential buildings -- to install solar panels. It also applies to owners who expand their homes by 75% or greater.

Once the measure is passed, South Miami would become the fourth U.S. city that requires new homes to be installed with solar panels. San Francisco and two small cities in California have similar renewable energy building laws.

South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard has been a major proponent of such legislation, and hes been vocal about combating climate change. The citys goal is to eliminate net emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by the end of 2030.

If you don't have solar on your house, you're leaving a lot of money on the table, said Mayor Stoddard. The homeowner benefits, the home's sell faster so realtors benefit; the home builders benefit because the value of the house is higher. Everybody benefits, so what's the problem?"

The ordinance states the solar panel mandate will be cost effective for new construction, cut electricity costs for homeowners and reduce greenhouse gases.

However, a major opponent of the measure, Family Businesses for Affordable Energy, argues it will increase costs for residents. The group says poor residents will be greatly affected by the ordinance. The group wants added safety and consumer protections to the ordinance to protect residents, according to FBAEs Facebook page.

Despite some push back, South Miami will likely pass the measure at the next city commission reading scheduled for Tuesday.
An Oregon woman is accused of endangering three young children by towing them behind her car in a little red wagon.

Alana Nicolle Donohue of Springfield, Oregon was charged with three counts of Reckless Endangerment after several witnesses called police to report the she was hauling three children, a 2 year-old girl, her four year-old brother and their 8-year-old cousin behind her 1999 Ford Taurus Station Wagon.

According to Springfield Police Department, Donohue attached a the plastic wagon to the rear of her car with a tie-down rope and drove to a roundabout circle, where she made laps around the roundabout until citizens stepped in.

The vehicle traveled up to 30 miles per hour at one point during the incident, according to witnesses. One witness told police the toddler began crying after the wagon went up on two wheels. The witness says Donohue pulled over and moved the toddler from the wagon to the car and continued driving with the 4 year-old and the 8 year-old still in the wagon.

Witnesses told police Donohue was irritated when confronted by motorists pleading with her to stop, telling them to mind their own business. When confronted by police, Donohue told an officer she didn't know why everyone was making such a big deal, saying she was just trying to show them a good time.

Police have ruled out drugs or alcohol as factors related to this incident.
Police released surveillance of a man in connection with a triple shooting in the Bronx last week, authorities said.

On July 9 shortly after midnight, a man approached three men from behind at Clay Avenue and fired several shots at them, police said.

A 23-year-old victim suffered a graze wound to this face and was taken to Bronx Lebanon Hospital in serious but stable condition.

A 30-year-old victim was shot in the left shoulder and suffered a graze would to his head, police said. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital in critical but stable condition.

The 26-year-old victim was shot in the torso and was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

The shooter fled on foot northbound on Clay Avenue, police said.

It is unclear if the shooter knew the men.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
A young boy fell into the Schuylkill River south of the Strawberry Mansion Bridge Saturday afternoon and was found about half an hour later, according to emergency officials.



The three-year-old disappeared around 12 p.m. at one of the famed college boathouses on Kelly Drive, officials said. Police identified the Saint Joseph's University boathouse as the location. That boathouse is in the 2200 block of Kelly Drive, about two miles upriver from the famous Boathouse Row.

At 12:38 p.m., emergency responders pulled the child from the river and began performing CPR, according to officials and emergency dispatch. The child "fell off the edge of the dock and into the river," police said in an email. "Father jumped in, but was unable to find him."

Paramedics rushed the child to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit.



Kelly Drive was shut down in both directions between the statue and the reservoir, police said. It was later reopened.

Correction: This story mistakenly described the location where the child fell into the river as Boathouse Row. The child fell in near the Saint Josephs University boathouse south of Strawberry Mansion Bridge.


Slain Philadelphia Police Sergeant Robert Wilson III was honored and remembered Saturday by Mural Arts Philadelphia with a Mural Dedication.

The two hour ceremony for Wilson took place at 12 p.m. at 6033 Baltimore Avenue in Philadelphia. The mural was designed by David McShane and the event funded by the City of Philadelphia as well as the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police.

Wilson, an eight-year veteran of the 22nd District, was shot down by robbers during a shooting in North Philadelphia in March of 2015.

The sergeant was at a GameStop on Lehigh Avenue and 22nd Street buying his son a birthday gift when two men entered and announced a robbery. When Wilson tried to stop them, the two men pulled out guns and opened fire, according to investigators. Wilson was shot several times as he protected customers and employees. He later died from his injuries.

Both suspects, identified by police as Carlton Hipps and his brother Ramone Williams, were arrested and charged with murder. Last month, more than two years after Wilson's death, Judge Kathryn Streeter Lewis ruled that prosecutors could seek capital punishment against the two.

In 2016, Wilson was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Valor by President Barack Obama.

"The men and women behind these badges are people just like everybody else," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said during Saturday's ceremony. "Just like you and me. Just like your mother, your father, your grandmother. They want the same things out of life. But they actually do something additional. They put their lives on the line each and every day for people they've never met."


Demonstrators calling for the National Rifle Association to respond to the Philando Castile trial verdict held a rally at the Department of Justice on Saturday after an 18-mile march on Friday.

Hundreds of participants in the demonstration, which was organized by the group behind the Women's March on Washington, gathered for a rally outside NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, at 10 a.m. Friday. They were met by a small group of sign-holding gun rights supporters.

Then, they set out for D.C. as temperatures topped 90 degrees.

The hundreds of participants marched on the sidewalk along Lee Highway (Route 29) in Virginia, then over the Key Bridge into D.C., through Georgetown, into downtown D.C. and along Pennsylvania Avenue. The protesters had to take a break from marching when thunderstorms rolled through the area in the late afternoon.

"We're here today to tell the NRA that they have a powerful platform and they should be using the platform to ensure that its members understand the challenges that people of color, particularly black men and women, are facing in this country," said Tamika Mallory, co-president of Women's March Inc.

The NRA has responded to march and rally in a series of tweets:

"The truth is that gun control laws harm those willing to follow the law more than they harm those willing to break it," the NRA said in an article on Medium.

The article goes on to state, "Not every woman in America will choose to protect themselves by owning or carrying a gun  and thats ok. But when that choice comes under attack by the very people claiming to march for womens rights? Or when those same people say that women must subscribe to gun control to be a true feminist? Thats when we have a problem."

A women's march that is set to begin in Fairfax, Virginia, and continue into D.C. could impact your Friday morning and evening commutes. News4s Chris Gordon reports the march is in protest of a controversial NRA ad.

Demonstrator Polly Peters marched carrying a sign with no words, only the face of a young woman. The woman was her niece, Sarah Wayson, who was shot and killed by her boyfriend when she was 29. Almost eight years have passed since Peters' niece was murdered, but tears still pour down her face when she speaks about her death.

"This is my niece. She was born and raised in Annapolis," Peters said.

She begged for more gun restrictions.

"I'm old, but there's going to be no peace in my life if there isn't a change in the gun laws," she said.

The demonstration Friday was timed to coincide with protests held on the 14th of every month outside NRA headquarters. That date marks the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting massacre.

Anti-NRA rally just getting underway. Shows of hands from those impacted by gun violence #NRA2DOJ @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/FujxlpvqVx  Julie Carey (@JulieCareyNBC) July 14, 2017

Protester Jim Sollo said that as he marched, he thought of a young employee of his who was shot in 1993 by the "shotgun stalker" who terrorized the D.C. neighborhoods Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant, killing four people and wounding 10 others.

"He heard these voices that told him to kill people, and we went about doing it," Sollo said as he paused in Arlington, Virginia, along the march route. "Those situations happen in this country because it's so easy to get guns."

At NRA headquarters, some counterprotesters shared common ground with protesters. Some of their signs mourned the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting

Counterprotester Fred Diven, who is part of a gun rights group in Annapolis called Patriot Picket, said the country does not have a gun problem.

"If the person has violence in their body, they're going to have a gun, they're going to have a bat, they're going to use a car and try to run over a police officer or run it into a group of people," he said. "We have a societal problem, not a gun problem."
A judge in Northern Virginia has declared a mistrial in the case of a young man accused of killing a caterer after a wedding.

After six hours of deliberations, the jury told the judge they could not come to a decision on murder charges against Kempton Bonds. The 20-year-old said he stabbed a wedding caterer last summer after she threatened him and then gripped him by the throat. Wedding guests said he was the aggressor.

The judge said some jurors were not speaking to one another. The 12 people left the courthouse Friday evening looking exhausted.

Tyonne Johns, 35, died after Bonds, a seasonal employee for the Fairfax County Park Authority, stabbed her after a wedding Aug. 6, 2016 in Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly, police said. The two argued as Bonds told Johns that the chairs she was packing into her company's truck belonged to the park authority, not her company, according to police.

Loved ones of Bonds and Johns were escorted out of the courtroom separately on Friday. Deputies stayed late to keep the peace.

Bonds will be retried. The next trial date will be determined at a court appearance in August.

In closing arguments Friday, prosecutors argued Bonds was the aggressor.

"It's a 3-inch blade. He stuck it into her ... and that knife pierced her heart. He was going for death," a lawyer said.

Bonds' defense attorney argued that his client, then 19, was only defending himself.

Im glad for Kempton Bonds that he had that knife, because Im afraid of what wouldve happened to him had he not," the lawyer said.

The jury had three questions for the judge and attorneys late Friday afternoon. They asked for clarification on the definitions of "heat of passion," "involuntary manslaughter" and then "voluntary manslaughter." The judge referred them to his previous jury instructions.

The jurors have reviewed two 911 calls Bonds placed before and after the killing. They also have video Bonds shot on his own cellphone.

He said during about four hours of testimony Thursday that Johns backed him into a railing and grabbed his neck. He said he opened inside his pocket a pocketknife he carries.

"I opened the knife when I realized I wasn't breathing," he said. "I was trying to yell, but I couldn't get much out."

Bonds recorded the tense moments using his cellphone.

"Little boy! Little boy!" a woman can be heard yelling.

Then, a struggle can be heard and a woman cries out.

"Oh. You stabbed me?" she says.

Bonds then can be heard shouting "Police!" again and again.

Johns was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Bonds remained at the crime scene and was taken into police custody.

Johns was a talented chef with many friends, her loved ones said. She "loved to love, loved to cook. People, in general, just flocked to her," one friend previously told News4.

Bonds called police earlier in the night and said he was threatened at the wedding.

He angered wedding guests by picking rose petals off the floor because they were not allowed, and cutting power to the music before the 9 p.m. deadline, The Washington Post reported.

Then, the fatal encounter occurred.

Bonds said he called 911 as soon as he could.

"I also have another call in saying that there's been a stabbing there. Is that correct?" the dispatcher says on the recording of the call.

"Yes. They attacked me. I defended myself," Bonds responds.

"Did somebody stab you?" she asks.

"No," he replies.

"You stabbed somebody?" the dispatcher asks.

"She had her hands around my throat," the 19-year-old replied.

Several people who heard Bonds' testimony Thursday were emotional. Some had to leave the room. They described Johns as the victim, not the aggressor.
By India Today Web Desk: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday arrested a man in connection with the Amarnath Yatra terror attack. Touseef Ahmad Wani, the man arrested by Kulgam police, works as a driver with PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir. Mir is an MLA from Wachi constituency in Shopian district in South Kashmir.

Wani is a resident of Pulwama district. Wani was deputed as the MLA's driver from the security wing of J&K police seven months ago. Inspector General of Police of the Kashmir Valley Muneer Kahn said Touseef, who has been found to have links with militants, is being questioned. "He is cooperating with us and spilling the beans," he said.

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Sources say Wani is being interrogated in connection with several militancy-related cases. Sources have further revealed that two others have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attack.

Seven pilgrims, including five women, were killed and 19 others injured when terrorists opened fire at a bus carrying Amarnath yatris in Anantnag recently.

The Jammu and Kashmir police constituted a six-member special investigation team (SIT) on Friday to probe the Amarnath attack. Security officials believe that the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, a first in 17 years, shows that terrorists were desperate to seek revenge after killings of several Lashkar militants.

The attack came the same day when police said it had busted a module of LeT and arrested one Sandeep Sharma alias Aadil belonging to Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pardesh. Sandeep has been working for Lashkar since past many years and was involved in several ATM loot cases.

(With inputs from Shuja-ul-Haq)

ALSO READ

Amarnath Yatra terror attack: Army chief tells jawans to keep up pressure on terrorists

Amarnath attack: How the hero bus driver drove through bullets to save many lives

ALSO WATCH

Amarnath bus attack survivor narrates tale of terrorist strike

--- ENDS ---
The death of a woman whose body was found down an embankment in Vermont has been ruled a homicide.

State police said preliminary autopsy results indicate that the manner of death was homicide. The cause of death is still pending.

Police had said previously that they considered the death suspicious.

The victim has been identified as 59-year-old Cindy Cook of Barre. Her family has been notified.

Detectives said her body was found in a secluded area off Brook Road in Middlesex around 6 p.m. Wednesday after a resident called about the discovery.

The last known contact anyone had with Cook was on July 3 when a family member spoke with her by phone.



Police said their investigation is in its early stages.

Cook's vehicle - a cream-colored 2009 MINI Cooper Clubman station wagon with the Vermont license plate GBH823 - has not been located. Anyone with information on the vehicle's whereabouts or who had contact with Cook on or after July 3 is asked to call Vermont State Police at 802-229-9191.
Thousands of people turned out at Boston's Fenway Park on Saturday morning to honor military veterans, current service members and their families.

The 8th Annual Run to Home Base started at 7 a.m. and included a 5K and 9K. The event benefits Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and the Massachusetts General Hospital program which help service members when they complete their military service.

About 2,300 people took part in Saturday's run in hopes of healing wounds like traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.

This year's race has special meaning as it is the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.

"Im running for my dad who is a Vietnam Veteran and my grandfather too who was a World War II Veteran but hes no longer with us, and I thought it was a great cause," said runner Amy Chacharone.

Tom Collins, a Vietnam War Veteran, said the race is special to him for many reasons.

"It's very special because I lost a buddy over there," he said. "In the Vietnam days, I dont think it was recognized like it is today, so today, I see whats happening to these guys and now I realize what was wrong back then with a lot of my friends."

Over the years, the event has raised more than $13 million.

Among those in attendance were Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Red Sox President Sam Kennedy, and Rep. Joe Kennedy.
A Vermont jury has cleared a former state senator of a serious sexual assault charge.

After hearing two days of evidence and deliberating for roughly four hours, the jury in St. Albans found Norm McAllister not guilty of forcing a tenant into sex in exchange for rent.

Prosecutors had argued the woman didn't want the sexual relationship that lasted a few years, but that she was trapped because she feared losing her housing.

The defense argued the sex was consensual, and that the woman's story changed only when other people learned of the relationship, including an ex with a history of anger and violence.

McAllister even took to the witness stand in his own defense Friday in an attempt to clear his name.

Despite the acquittal on the sexual assault charge, the ex-lawmaker was found guilty on a separate charge of prohibited acts.

That charge asked the jury whether McAllister arranged a sexual encounter between the tenant and a friend in exchange for cash, so the woman could pay a utility bill.

McAllister's defense attorney, Bob Katims, said he plans to appeal that verdict.

Norm McAllister represented Franklin County in the Vermont State Senate as a Republican until he was suspended when the allegations came to light. He later lost a reelection bid.

McAllister was arrested outside the Vermont Statehouse in May 2015.

McAllister told reporters late Friday night that he was grateful for the acquittal on the sexual assault charge, but disappointed he was not cleared of all charges.

He remains free on bail.

Two other women made accusations of sex crimes against the former senator.

However, charges were dismissed when one of the women died, and the other, who was a Statehouse intern for McAllister, told a lie at trial about a topic not related to the accusations against the defendant.
A 59-year-old woman was found dead in Middlesex, Vermont on Wednesday and, now, an arrest warrant has been issued for her boyfriend.

Cindy Cook's body was discovered in a wooded area, down an embankment off of a road in Middlesex after last having been heard from on July 3. After an autopsy, the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that Cook's manner of death is homicide.

Vermont State Police said that, initially, they could not locate Cook's car - a 2009 cream-colored Mini Cooper Clubman, license plate GBHJ823 - but the vehicle is now determined to be in the possession of Cook's 61-year-old boyfriend, Randal Gebo.

Police said that Gebo left Vt. and was recently believed to be in Prescott, Arkansas, where he used Cook's debit card to withdraw cash.

Gebo's arrest warrant is for aggravated vehicle operation without owner consent and fraudulent use of a credit card and possession of a credit card issued to another.

Anyone with information as to Gebo's - or the Mini Cooper's - whereabouts is asked to contact Vermont State Police at 802-229-9191.
Foreign hands are involved and unfortunately now China is also interfering in Kashmir, said Chief Minister Mufti on the restive situation in the state.

By Poulomi Saha: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has accused China of meddling in Kashmir's internal affairs.

Mufti, who was in Delhi today to apprise Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the situation in the state in the aftermath of the terror attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims on July 10 in Kashmir's Anantnag district, lauded the Centre for its support.

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Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine .

In the meeting that lasted a little over 30 minutes, the leaders discussed the security measures being adopted to ensure tourists and pilgrims in the state were kept out of harm's way, and the direction the ongoing investigation into the attack was taking.

AMARNATH ATTACK AIMED AT FANNING RIOTS

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mehbooba said that the Amaranth pilgrims were targeted to instigate communal riots across the country.

She blamed the deteriorating law and order situation on foreign powers. "Foreign hands are involved and unfortunately now, China is also interfering", the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said. As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

It remains to be seen what new dimension this latest accusation against China will add to the already-frosty relations between the two neighbours, especially in the wake of the stand-off on India's northeastern front.

(WITH INPUTS FROM PTI)

Also read | India snubs China's offer to mediate on Kashmir, says will talk to Pakistan

Also read | After attack on Amarnath Yatra, drones add to security apparatus in Kashmir

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The government has extended the deadline for listed public sector undertakings (PSU) to achieve the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding norm by a year to August 2018, a finance ministry order said. The deadline has been extended to avoid bunching of share sale offers from state-owned firms and the government gets to decide on the opportune time to divest stake in any PSU, including the blue chip ones.

An official in the ministry said that the government is very clear that the stake sales should not happen at unfavourable prices and at a time when there is a possibility of rival public offers from PSUs crowding each other out.

The finance ministry, in a notification last week, further amended the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, to give Central Public Sector Enterprises four years from September 2014 to meet the minimum public float requirement.

Market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India had mandated a minimum 25 per cent public float for all listed firms. This was extended to state-owned firms who were initially given three years to meet the norm.

Six PSUs  Hudco, Coal India, Hindustan Copper, SJVNL, MMTC, Neyveli Lignite  are yet to reach the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding requirement stipulated by market regulator Sebi in mid 2014.

NEW DELHI: The government has extended the deadline for listed public sector undertakings (PSU) to achieve the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding norm by a year to August 2018, a finance ministry order said. The deadline has been extended to avoid bunching of share sale offers from state-owned firms and the government gets to decide on the opportune time to divest stake in any PSU, including the blue chip ones. An official in the ministry said that the government is very clear that the stake sales should not happen at unfavourable prices and at a time when there is a possibility of rival public offers from PSUs crowding each other out. The finance ministry, in a notification last week, further amended the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, to give Central Public Sector Enterprises four years from September 2014 to meet the minimum public float requirement. Market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India had mandated a minimum 25 per cent public float for all listed firms. This was extended to state-owned firms who were initially given three years to meet the norm. Six PSUs  Hudco, Coal India, Hindustan Copper, SJVNL, MMTC, Neyveli Lignite  are yet to reach the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding requirement stipulated by market regulator Sebi in mid 2014.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), Indias first sovereign fund to promote infra development, on Friday assured Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of strong investment pipeline for the roads, ports, aviation and power sectors.

The governing council expressed its desire for NIIF to function as a major platform in India to leverage and attract overseas long-term investments in various infrastructure sectors in the country, it said, adding that it is considering investments in third party managed funds focused on clean energy, affordable housing and medium sized infrastructure firms.

Reviewing the performance of the NIIF on Friday, Jaitley said there is a steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors. It also informed that the council was following-up on MoUs signed by the government. The first fund-raising by NIIF is expected to close soon, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The Council wants NIIF to function as a major platform in India to leverage and attract overseas long-term investments in various infrastructure sectors in the country.

NIIF was set up as the investment vehicle in 2015 and has a mandate to fund commercially viable projects  new projects, expansion and stalled projects. With 49 per cent equity participation from the government, the remaining comes from the private sector.

The Department of Economic Affairs had signed an agreement with the NIIF for a Rs 20,000-crore contribution to the Fund.

As far as the operational status of NIIF is concerned, it was informed that a team of twelve staff, including the CEO, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Ltd is now in place.

Further recruitments of high quality staff through a global search process is underway. Strong international response to hiring and advertisements for recruitment of expert staff has been received, it said.

NEW DELHI: National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), Indias first sovereign fund to promote infra development, on Friday assured Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of strong investment pipeline for the roads, ports, aviation and power sectors. The governing council expressed its desire for NIIF to function as a major platform in India to leverage and attract overseas long-term investments in various infrastructure sectors in the country, it said, adding that it is considering investments in third party managed funds focused on clean energy, affordable housing and medium sized infrastructure firms. Reviewing the performance of the NIIF on Friday, Jaitley said there is a steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors. It also informed that the council was following-up on MoUs signed by the government. The first fund-raising by NIIF is expected to close soon, the finance ministry said in a statement. The Council wants NIIF to function as a major platform in India to leverage and attract overseas long-term investments in various infrastructure sectors in the country. NIIF was set up as the investment vehicle in 2015 and has a mandate to fund commercially viable projects  new projects, expansion and stalled projects. With 49 per cent equity participation from the government, the remaining comes from the private sector. The Department of Economic Affairs had signed an agreement with the NIIF for a Rs 20,000-crore contribution to the Fund. As far as the operational status of NIIF is concerned, it was informed that a team of twelve staff, including the CEO, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Ltd is now in place. Further recruitments of high quality staff through a global search process is underway. Strong international response to hiring and advertisements for recruitment of expert staff has been received, it said.
Roshne Balasubramanian By

Express News Service

Vivek Pal (21), a musician, has been offered admission at the Middlesex University, London, but he cant join due to lack of funds. One of his students, Samita and her daughter have started a crowdfunding campaign to help him raise money.

CHENNAI: When Samita Rao, director (business operations), Updater Services, wanted to learn piano, she was introduced to a 21-year-old pianist, Vivek Pal  someone who was younger than her, but with unmatchable talent. While interacting with him, Samita learnt about his sticky situation.

He is an excellent teacher and is ever-smiling. When you look at him, you will never be able to tell that hes fighting to make ends meet. He is struggling to pursue his dreams because of lack of funds and his determination to succeed stirred me emotionally, says Samita who has been taking lessons from him since 2016.

He plays several instruments, including the tabla

You dont have to take Samitas word for it; testimonials from his college faculty prove that. To help him pursue his dreams, Samita and her daughter Shruti have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for his education at Middlesex University. Heres his story

A 21-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, Vivek Pal discovered his passion for music when he began thumping beats on table as a kid. He was 10. My parents were very supportive of my interest in music. That encouraged me to learn the electric keyboard and then the piano, shares the pianist who was awarded a scholarship for Excellence in Music in high school.

His talent made him famous and he was invited to participate in a two-week western classical music festival at Crescendo Summer Institute, Hungary, in 2016.

When I talk about this trip, people think I must be extremely wealthybut I was able to fund this trip only because of a tuition grant, shares Vivek who completed his diploma in music from KM Music Conservatory (KMMC), Chennai, in May 2017, with a specialisation in piano performance.

Reminiscing about the support from his late parents, he says, My father said I should pursue music, if thats what I wanted to do. I began looking for the best music schools in the country, found KMMC and shifted to Chennai to follow my passion.

In 2012 he lost his mother and shortly after shifting to Chennai, he lost his father in 2015. The loss of my parents in a short span of time was a big blow to me and my elder sister. Everything turned upside down and I felt a void. There was a dire need to earn moneythats when I started mentoring, shares Vivek who has been juggling between mentoring and studies ever since.

When he hit rock bottom, Vivek even considered giving up studies at KMMC.

My sister had just started earning and it was hard to support both of us. I thought that was the end, he tears up. But Fathima Rafiq, director, KMMC, offered Vivek a chance to continue his studies. She stepped in and said I could continue to study in the institute for free. I was elated and had even forgotten that I didnt even have a penny to feed myself the next day! Soon, Vivek took a grant from a small company in Bengaluru, to manage his rent and daily expenses.

After completing levels 1 and 2 of his course, Vivek, like any other student from KMMC, had the option to do his final year at Middlesex University. Since the institute is affiliated to the Middlesex University, London, students have the option of completing final year there, if selected. I was lucky to be offered admission in the university but I cannot afford it. Thats when Samita stepped in and decided to help me through crowdfunding, he explains.

The campaign aims to raise $28,500 and we have raised only $3,464 so far. The bachelors degree will open new avenues for me to do a masters and strengthen my career opportunities, he avers. If the 21-year-old is able to raise funds by the end of July, he will be a step closer to fulfil his dream.

Vivek wants to become an accomplished concert pianist and spread western classical music to all but his dreams dont stop there. He wants to set up a space where underprivileged children can learn to love music. I often see people frowning when someone takes up music as a career. I want to change that by building an institution that enables understanding of music. I want to introduce instruments to kids who have never seen themquality, affordability and accessibility will be my focus, he adds.

To donate, visit: https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/help-send-orphan-vivek-to-middlesex-university--2

Vivek Pal (21), a musician, has been offered admission at the Middlesex University, London, but he cant join due to lack of funds. One of his students, Samita and her daughter have started a crowdfunding campaign to help him raise money. CHENNAI: When Samita Rao, director (business operations), Updater Services, wanted to learn piano, she was introduced to a 21-year-old pianist, Vivek Pal  someone who was younger than her, but with unmatchable talent. While interacting with him, Samita learnt about his sticky situation. He is an excellent teacher and is ever-smiling. When you look at him, you will never be able to tell that hes fighting to make ends meet. He is struggling to pursue his dreams because of lack of funds and his determination to succeed stirred me emotionally, says Samita who has been taking lessons from him since 2016. He plays several instruments, including the tablaYou dont have to take Samitas word for it; testimonials from his college faculty prove that. To help him pursue his dreams, Samita and her daughter Shruti have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for his education at Middlesex University. Heres his story A 21-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, Vivek Pal discovered his passion for music when he began thumping beats on table as a kid. He was 10. My parents were very supportive of my interest in music. That encouraged me to learn the electric keyboard and then the piano, shares the pianist who was awarded a scholarship for Excellence in Music in high school. His talent made him famous and he was invited to participate in a two-week western classical music festival at Crescendo Summer Institute, Hungary, in 2016. When I talk about this trip, people think I must be extremely wealthybut I was able to fund this trip only because of a tuition grant, shares Vivek who completed his diploma in music from KM Music Conservatory (KMMC), Chennai, in May 2017, with a specialisation in piano performance. Reminiscing about the support from his late parents, he says, My father said I should pursue music, if thats what I wanted to do. I began looking for the best music schools in the country, found KMMC and shifted to Chennai to follow my passion. In 2012 he lost his mother and shortly after shifting to Chennai, he lost his father in 2015. The loss of my parents in a short span of time was a big blow to me and my elder sister. Everything turned upside down and I felt a void. There was a dire need to earn moneythats when I started mentoring, shares Vivek who has been juggling between mentoring and studies ever since. When he hit rock bottom, Vivek even considered giving up studies at KMMC. My sister had just started earning and it was hard to support both of us. I thought that was the end, he tears up. But Fathima Rafiq, director, KMMC, offered Vivek a chance to continue his studies. She stepped in and said I could continue to study in the institute for free. I was elated and had even forgotten that I didnt even have a penny to feed myself the next day! Soon, Vivek took a grant from a small company in Bengaluru, to manage his rent and daily expenses. After completing levels 1 and 2 of his course, Vivek, like any other student from KMMC, had the option to do his final year at Middlesex University. Since the institute is affiliated to the Middlesex University, London, students have the option of completing final year there, if selected. I was lucky to be offered admission in the university but I cannot afford it. Thats when Samita stepped in and decided to help me through crowdfunding, he explains. The campaign aims to raise $28,500 and we have raised only $3,464 so far. The bachelors degree will open new avenues for me to do a masters and strengthen my career opportunities, he avers. If the 21-year-old is able to raise funds by the end of July, he will be a step closer to fulfil his dream. Vivek wants to become an accomplished concert pianist and spread western classical music to all but his dreams dont stop there. He wants to set up a space where underprivileged children can learn to love music. I often see people frowning when someone takes up music as a career. I want to change that by building an institution that enables understanding of music. I want to introduce instruments to kids who have never seen themquality, affordability and accessibility will be my focus, he adds. To donate, visit: https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/help-send-orphan-vivek-to-middlesex-university--2
G Parthasarathy By

Express News Service

The 630-page book The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight dwells on the life of the worlds most wanted terrorist, from the days he fled Afghanistan in 2001 and was kept hidden for nearly a decade in a huge mansion in Abbottabad, by the Pakistan army.

The authors of the book Cathy Scott Clark and Adrian Levy had earlier published a monumental study entitled: Nuclear Deception: The Dangerous Relationship between the United States and Pakistan.

The book thoroughly exposed the United States for turning a blind eye to Pakistan and thereby encouraging the countrys nuclear weapons programme.

It also alludes to Chinas assistance to that clandestine programme.

India chose to proceed with business as usual with China, never really exposing the dangerous implications of the Pakistan-China nuclear nexus.

There are three main facets to the book. The first is the incredible manner in which the network of radical Islamic groups, which the Taliban and the Al Qaeda established, aided by the ISI, worked together to promote Jihad worldwide.

It was this network that enabled bin Laden to cross from the mountains of Tora Bora in Southern Afghanistan into the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan. They were then moved, with ISI support, to Abbottabad.

The second fascinating part of the book dwells on details of bin Ladens family, focusing on the travails of the eldest of his four wives Khairiah, who joined him shortly before the Americans killed him in 2011. The huge mansion in Abbottabad was then home to bin Laden, his four wives, four of his seven sons, two of his daughters and several grandchildren.

There are also revelations about the lives of other members of the bin Laden family living in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and under virtual detention, in Iran.

The authors also deal with the role of the Head of Irans Revolutionary Guard General Qaseem Suleimani of not only detaining, but also courting members of the Al Qaeda.

Suleimani also reportedly persuaded and lured Russia into the war in Syria on (President) Assads side during a one on one meeting with President Putin.

One wonders what led the Americans to place so much hope and expectation in their War on Terror on the ISI, when Pakistans role of running with the Taliban hare, while pretending to hunt with the American hound, was obvious. What also emerges is the astonishing naivete evident in New Delhi when Musharraf, who had tried to abide by his assurance to Mr Vajpayee that territory under Pakistans control would not be used for terrorism against India, was replaced by his protege Kayani, as Army chief.

Kayani promptly sacked Musharrafs relative and handpicked ISI chief and appointed the viciously anti-Indian Lt General Shuja Pasha as the new ISI chief. Pasha frankly admitted to Pakistans envoy in Washington that Pakistanis had been involved in the 26/11 terrorist attack.

The authors spell out the role of successive ISI chiefs ranging from Hamid Gul, who promoted himself as The Father of the Taliban, to Shuja Pasha who was named in US Court Documents as being culpable in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and accused of protecting Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Pakistani terrorist leaders linked to Osama bin Ladens Al Qaeda are named in the book.

These include Hafiz Mohammed Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Fazlur Rahman Khalil of the Harkat-ul -Mujahideen.

This book is a must read for Indias entire security establishment. It should also be absorbed by Indian diplomats. It is useful reading for peace activists and some of our eminent commentators, who are prone to buying ISI propaganda that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism.

The 630-page book The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight dwells on the life of the worlds most wanted terrorist, from the days he fled Afghanistan in 2001 and was kept hidden for nearly a decade in a huge mansion in Abbottabad, by the Pakistan army. The authors of the book Cathy Scott Clark and Adrian Levy had earlier published a monumental study entitled: Nuclear Deception: The Dangerous Relationship between the United States and Pakistan. The book thoroughly exposed the United States for turning a blind eye to Pakistan and thereby encouraging the countrys nuclear weapons programme. It also alludes to Chinas assistance to that clandestine programme. India chose to proceed with business as usual with China, never really exposing the dangerous implications of the Pakistan-China nuclear nexus. There are three main facets to the book. The first is the incredible manner in which the network of radical Islamic groups, which the Taliban and the Al Qaeda established, aided by the ISI, worked together to promote Jihad worldwide. It was this network that enabled bin Laden to cross from the mountains of Tora Bora in Southern Afghanistan into the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan. They were then moved, with ISI support, to Abbottabad. The second fascinating part of the book dwells on details of bin Ladens family, focusing on the travails of the eldest of his four wives Khairiah, who joined him shortly before the Americans killed him in 2011. The huge mansion in Abbottabad was then home to bin Laden, his four wives, four of his seven sons, two of his daughters and several grandchildren. There are also revelations about the lives of other members of the bin Laden family living in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and under virtual detention, in Iran. The authors also deal with the role of the Head of Irans Revolutionary Guard General Qaseem Suleimani of not only detaining, but also courting members of the Al Qaeda. Suleimani also reportedly persuaded and lured Russia into the war in Syria on (President) Assads side during a one on one meeting with President Putin. One wonders what led the Americans to place so much hope and expectation in their War on Terror on the ISI, when Pakistans role of running with the Taliban hare, while pretending to hunt with the American hound, was obvious. What also emerges is the astonishing naivete evident in New Delhi when Musharraf, who had tried to abide by his assurance to Mr Vajpayee that territory under Pakistans control would not be used for terrorism against India, was replaced by his protege Kayani, as Army chief. Kayani promptly sacked Musharrafs relative and handpicked ISI chief and appointed the viciously anti-Indian Lt General Shuja Pasha as the new ISI chief. Pasha frankly admitted to Pakistans envoy in Washington that Pakistanis had been involved in the 26/11 terrorist attack. The authors spell out the role of successive ISI chiefs ranging from Hamid Gul, who promoted himself as The Father of the Taliban, to Shuja Pasha who was named in US Court Documents as being culpable in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and accused of protecting Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Pakistani terrorist leaders linked to Osama bin Ladens Al Qaeda are named in the book. These include Hafiz Mohammed Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Fazlur Rahman Khalil of the Harkat-ul -Mujahideen. This book is a must read for Indias entire security establishment. It should also be absorbed by Indian diplomats. It is useful reading for peace activists and some of our eminent commentators, who are prone to buying ISI propaganda that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism.
Dhinesh Kallungal By

It is nothing unusual to undertake a spiritual journey to the peaks of the Himalayas in search of truth and enlightenment, especially in India. But what makes 40-year-old Amal Badusha, the son of noted environmental activist N Badusha, different from others is that he belongs to a well-known Muslim family in North Kerala.

Moreover, he is speech and hearing impaired, although a trained sculptor, whose forte is capturing the rich cultural heritage of ancient India.

As a man who stands for peace and tranquillity, both in life and on the canvas, one needs to travel from the material realm to the world of spirituality. It will enable us to meet and converse with our own soul and understand the meaning of life and our presence in this world, he says, through a set of his intrinsic gestures and motions. A committed vegetarian, Amal leads the life of a sadhu clad in saffron dhoti and khadi shirt.

A talented sculptor, Amal became famous for carving statues of gods and goddesses out of stone and wood. He has conducted art exhibitions in Kerala, and also in Bengaluru and Delhi. He is also imparting training on making terracotta ornaments to rural women in North Kerala.

Amal says that he has been influenced by noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna. He would visit our home at Wayanad as part of the green campaigns in my childhood, says Amal.

On his first visit to the Himalayas, sometime ago, Amal spent time at the hermitage of Bahuguna at Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. It took around six months for him to get back home as his leg was fractured after a fall from a rock during a particularly steep climb.

During the journey, he visited places like Haridwar, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kashi, apart from a few other places in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, and Karnataka.

Visiting the Himalayas provided me with a peaceful ambience to delve into the depths of meditation and helped me in my art, he says.

This ascetic never uses a cell phone once he sets off on a journey to the hills. But we are sure he will come home safely, says Badusha, his father.

The ascetic sculptor

40-year-old Amal Badushas forte is capturing the rich cultural heritage of ancient India.

A committed vegetarian, Amal leads the life of a sadhu.

He has been influenced by noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna.

Works with stone, cement, metal, wood, roots of the tree, clay, murals, pulp, clay, and ceramic.

He has won the Hyderabad National Arts and Sculptor Master Award, and the Bharath Bhavan Biennale of Contemporary Indian Art Award.

It is nothing unusual to undertake a spiritual journey to the peaks of the Himalayas in search of truth and enlightenment, especially in India. But what makes 40-year-old Amal Badusha, the son of noted environmental activist N Badusha, different from others is that he belongs to a well-known Muslim family in North Kerala. Moreover, he is speech and hearing impaired, although a trained sculptor, whose forte is capturing the rich cultural heritage of ancient India. As a man who stands for peace and tranquillity, both in life and on the canvas, one needs to travel from the material realm to the world of spirituality. It will enable us to meet and converse with our own soul and understand the meaning of life and our presence in this world, he says, through a set of his intrinsic gestures and motions. A committed vegetarian, Amal leads the life of a sadhu clad in saffron dhoti and khadi shirt. A talented sculptor, Amal became famous for carving statues of gods and goddesses out of stone and wood. He has conducted art exhibitions in Kerala, and also in Bengaluru and Delhi. He is also imparting training on making terracotta ornaments to rural women in North Kerala. Amal says that he has been influenced by noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna. He would visit our home at Wayanad as part of the green campaigns in my childhood, says Amal. On his first visit to the Himalayas, sometime ago, Amal spent time at the hermitage of Bahuguna at Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. It took around six months for him to get back home as his leg was fractured after a fall from a rock during a particularly steep climb. During the journey, he visited places like Haridwar, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kashi, apart from a few other places in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, and Karnataka. Visiting the Himalayas provided me with a peaceful ambience to delve into the depths of meditation and helped me in my art, he says. This ascetic never uses a cell phone once he sets off on a journey to the hills. But we are sure he will come home safely, says Badusha, his father. The ascetic sculptor 40-year-old Amal Badushas forte is capturing the rich cultural heritage of ancient India. A committed vegetarian, Amal leads the life of a sadhu. He has been influenced by noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna. Works with stone, cement, metal, wood, roots of the tree, clay, murals, pulp, clay, and ceramic. He has won the Hyderabad National Arts and Sculptor Master Award, and the Bharath Bhavan Biennale of Contemporary Indian Art Award.
With his police custody coming to an end, Dileep will be produced in court today.

By Rohini Swamy: The curious and convoluted Kerala actress abduction case involving actor Dileep will see a new development today.

The Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court had extended his police custody by one more day and today, Dileep will be produced in court again.

All eyes are on the bail petition that is pending before the court. On Friday, the prosecution maintained that Dileep was not cooperating and that they needed more time. Even during interrogation, Dileep maintained that he did not know Pulsar Suni.

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Dileep's counsel said in the open court that the police are trying to fill in their remand report, which has many lapses, by using statements made by the main accused in the case, Pulsar Suni.

The police have launched a manhunt for Dileep's manager Appunni who has gone absconding since the actor's arrest.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) sources have revealed that they have not yet decided to interrogate any MLA.

ALSO READ: Is Dileep in possession of the phone used to record the actress's assault?

ALSO READ: Kerala actress says she had personal problems with Dileep

ALSO READ: Does the Kerala actress abduction case date back to the Dileep-Kavya affair?

ALSO WATCH: Dileep's bail rejected, more trouble for the Malayalam actor

--- ENDS ---
K G Suresh By

A planned, deliberate exercise is being undertaken by sections of frustrated, desperate and ideologically isolated faculty and students to denigrate and destabilise prestigious educational institutions, including universities, across the country. That these anarchist elements, who have enjoyed the fruits of power over the last several decades at the cost of academic discipline, accountability and standards, are becoming unnerved by the loss of their empire, is evident from the artificial protests and propaganda being unleashed from time to time ever since a new dispensation has taken over the reins at the Raisina Hill.

From Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the north and Film and Television Institute of India in the west, to Hyderabad University in the south and Jadavpur University in the east, these elements have been trying to foment trouble and orchestrate campaigns over flimsy issues to project the government and its appointees as anti-Dalit, anti-women and anti-minorities, in connivance with fellow travellers in the media.

The pattern is the same. The foot soldiers of an ideology, which carried out the inhuman purge in Russia, the ruthless cultural revolution in China, the ethnic cleansing in Tibet, the gross human rights violations in Siberia and Xinjiang, the suppression of democracy by crushing students under military tanks in Tiananmen Square, have become ironically the self-proclaimed champions of democracy and human rights in India.

From Gajendra Chauhan to Pahlaj Nihalani and B B Kumar, among others, all appointees of the present regime are portrayed as mediocre, agents of the RSS and accused of saffronisation. The spit-and-run tactics of these foreign-funded activists in the garb of academics and students include making wild, sweeping, unsubstantiated allegations the moment any effort is made to make them accountable or disciplined.

They are trying to build a new narrativethat students should be consulted before the appointment of any head of the institution, and administration should not take any decision without taking faculty into confidence, even on non-academic matters. Any effort to make them accountable, including insistence on biometric attendance, is outrightly rejected. Any attempt to get vacated their long-held positions or ineligible occupation of hostels are construed as undemocratic acts, and licence to abuse is touted as freedom of speech and expression.

These pseudo intellectuals, who have made a fortune through the liberal largesse of successive governments in the past, are finding themselves cornered today with the new regime strictly implementing academic discipline and norms.

Over the years, they had penetrated every institution thanks to undeserving patronage extended to them by their godfathers. In the process, they also ensured that those who disagreed with their world view were denied their due. Being a nationalist became the albatross around the neck of many deserving academics. Nobody talked about their freedom of thought and expressiontheir academic freedom. They were at the receiving end in academic appointments and promotions. The nations academia was dominated by a mafia, which determined their fate and pushed them into the netherworld with contempt and ruthlessness.

The current protests and propaganda are only acts of desperation by these so-called scholars who have realised that their time is over, their game is up and the golden days of their dominance over national institutions are no more. The crusade undertaken by institutions such as JNU to remove the scourge of political untouchability, discrimination and apartheid that have been pursued over the last several decades, must be appreciated by all right-thinking people and supported by the government. Only then can Prime Minister Narendra Modis dream of a New India be fully realised.

K G Suresh

Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication

kgsure@gmail.com

A planned, deliberate exercise is being undertaken by sections of frustrated, desperate and ideologically isolated faculty and students to denigrate and destabilise prestigious educational institutions, including universities, across the country. That these anarchist elements, who have enjoyed the fruits of power over the last several decades at the cost of academic discipline, accountability and standards, are becoming unnerved by the loss of their empire, is evident from the artificial protests and propaganda being unleashed from time to time ever since a new dispensation has taken over the reins at the Raisina Hill. From Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the north and Film and Television Institute of India in the west, to Hyderabad University in the south and Jadavpur University in the east, these elements have been trying to foment trouble and orchestrate campaigns over flimsy issues to project the government and its appointees as anti-Dalit, anti-women and anti-minorities, in connivance with fellow travellers in the media. The pattern is the same. The foot soldiers of an ideology, which carried out the inhuman purge in Russia, the ruthless cultural revolution in China, the ethnic cleansing in Tibet, the gross human rights violations in Siberia and Xinjiang, the suppression of democracy by crushing students under military tanks in Tiananmen Square, have become ironically the self-proclaimed champions of democracy and human rights in India. From Gajendra Chauhan to Pahlaj Nihalani and B B Kumar, among others, all appointees of the present regime are portrayed as mediocre, agents of the RSS and accused of saffronisation. The spit-and-run tactics of these foreign-funded activists in the garb of academics and students include making wild, sweeping, unsubstantiated allegations the moment any effort is made to make them accountable or disciplined. They are trying to build a new narrativethat students should be consulted before the appointment of any head of the institution, and administration should not take any decision without taking faculty into confidence, even on non-academic matters. Any effort to make them accountable, including insistence on biometric attendance, is outrightly rejected. Any attempt to get vacated their long-held positions or ineligible occupation of hostels are construed as undemocratic acts, and licence to abuse is touted as freedom of speech and expression. These pseudo intellectuals, who have made a fortune through the liberal largesse of successive governments in the past, are finding themselves cornered today with the new regime strictly implementing academic discipline and norms. Over the years, they had penetrated every institution thanks to undeserving patronage extended to them by their godfathers. In the process, they also ensured that those who disagreed with their world view were denied their due. Being a nationalist became the albatross around the neck of many deserving academics. Nobody talked about their freedom of thought and expressiontheir academic freedom. They were at the receiving end in academic appointments and promotions. The nations academia was dominated by a mafia, which determined their fate and pushed them into the netherworld with contempt and ruthlessness. The current protests and propaganda are only acts of desperation by these so-called scholars who have realised that their time is over, their game is up and the golden days of their dominance over national institutions are no more. The crusade undertaken by institutions such as JNU to remove the scourge of political untouchability, discrimination and apartheid that have been pursued over the last several decades, must be appreciated by all right-thinking people and supported by the government. Only then can Prime Minister Narendra Modis dream of a New India be fully realised. K G Suresh Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication kgsure@gmail.com
By PTI

JAMMU: Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police have killed 102 militants till now this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said today.

The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The slain militants included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted.

The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified.

The killing of 102 militants till July 12 makes it the highest number in the past seven years, the official said. Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year.

Last year, 77 militants were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data.

The hunt for militants of various outfits has been intensified under an operational strategy, the official said.

The counter-terrorist grid continues to maintain dominance and deny any space to terrorists, the official said, adding synergised hard intelligence-based joint operations involving the J&K police and central paramilitary forces have been the hallmark of these operations.

While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims. Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28.

On July one this year, Lashkari and another LeT militant Azad Malik were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag's Brenti village in South Kashmir.

Bashir Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, according to the police. On July 12, top Hizb militant Sajad Gilkar was among three militants killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir.

According to the police, Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar on June 22. Most of the encounters have taken place in south Kashmir's Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts while others have taken place in Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir and Budgam in central Kashmir, the official pointed out. In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after".

The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them.

The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police.

Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list.

From the Hizbul Mujahideen, the list includes its 'divisional commander' Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Musa, Shopian 'district commander' Saddam Paddar alias Zaid, Pulwama 'district commander' Reyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Zubair, Badgam 'district commander' Mohd Yasin Ittoo alias Mansoon and Kulgam 'district commander' Altaf Ahmed Dar alias Kachroo.

JAMMU: Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police have killed 102 militants till now this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said today. The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen. The slain militants included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted. The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified. The killing of 102 militants till July 12 makes it the highest number in the past seven years, the official said. Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year. Last year, 77 militants were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data. The hunt for militants of various outfits has been intensified under an operational strategy, the official said. The counter-terrorist grid continues to maintain dominance and deny any space to terrorists, the official said, adding synergised hard intelligence-based joint operations involving the J&K police and central paramilitary forces have been the hallmark of these operations. While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims. Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28. On July one this year, Lashkari and another LeT militant Azad Malik were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag's Brenti village in South Kashmir. Bashir Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, according to the police. On July 12, top Hizb militant Sajad Gilkar was among three militants killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir. According to the police, Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar on June 22. Most of the encounters have taken place in south Kashmir's Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts while others have taken place in Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir and Budgam in central Kashmir, the official pointed out. In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after". The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them. The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police. Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list. From the Hizbul Mujahideen, the list includes its 'divisional commander' Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Musa, Shopian 'district commander' Saddam Paddar alias Zaid, Pulwama 'district commander' Reyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Zubair, Badgam 'district commander' Mohd Yasin Ittoo alias Mansoon and Kulgam 'district commander' Altaf Ahmed Dar alias Kachroo.
By PTI

SRINAGAR: A policeman serving as a PDP MLA's driver has been arrested in connection with investigations into the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims this week, police sources said today.

Touseef Ahmad, a policeman from the security wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Wachhi legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir's driver, was detained for questioning two days ago.

Wachhi is in Shopian district of south Kashmir.

Ahmad was formally placed under arrest yesterday as part of investigations into militancy-related violence in south Kashmir, police sources said.

The sources said two other people, suspected to be overground workers for militants, have also been detained for questioning.

It was not immediately clear whether Ahmad, who was posted as Mir's driver seven months ago, has any direct link to the attack on Amarnath pilgrims at Anantnag on Monday that left seven yatris dead and 21 others injured.

A police official, on the condition of anonymity, said things are expected to be clearer about the involvement of the driver in the July 10 attack and other militancy-related activities later today.

SRINAGAR: A policeman serving as a PDP MLA's driver has been arrested in connection with investigations into the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims this week, police sources said today. Touseef Ahmad, a policeman from the security wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Wachhi legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir's driver, was detained for questioning two days ago. Wachhi is in Shopian district of south Kashmir. Ahmad was formally placed under arrest yesterday as part of investigations into militancy-related violence in south Kashmir, police sources said. The sources said two other people, suspected to be overground workers for militants, have also been detained for questioning. It was not immediately clear whether Ahmad, who was posted as Mir's driver seven months ago, has any direct link to the attack on Amarnath pilgrims at Anantnag on Monday that left seven yatris dead and 21 others injured. A police official, on the condition of anonymity, said things are expected to be clearer about the involvement of the driver in the July 10 attack and other militancy-related activities later today.
By PTI

JAMMU: An Indian Army jawan was killed today in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Rajouri sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence spokesman said here.

Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said.

"Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said.

There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas.

"In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries," he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.

"The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added.

On July 12, two Jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistani Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir.

Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shelling and firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district.

The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.

JAMMU: An Indian Army jawan was killed today in firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Rajouri sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence spokesman said here. Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said. "Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said. There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas. "In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries," he said. Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said. Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core. "The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added. On July 12, two Jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistani Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir. Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shelling and firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district. The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.
By PTI

LUCKNOW: The sharp differences within the Samajwadi Party (SP) may again come to the fore during voting for the presidential poll.

While SP president Akhilesh Yadav has instructed party MLAs to vote for opposition candidate Meira Kumar, SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav might go in favour of NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that Akhilesh Yadav has given instruction to his MLAs to vote for Kumar.

The opposition presidential nominee, during a day's visit to the city earlier today, met Akhilesh at the party office before meeting BSP supremo Mayawati to seek votes.

"Today Meira Kumar visited the SP headquarters and met Akhilesh and SP MLAs to seek their support," Chaudhary said.

"Akhilesh has asked SP MLAs to vote for Kumar," he said.

Chaudhary, who is also the leader of the opposition, said, "Everyone should support Kumar."

Meanwhile, Shivpal's loyalist Deepak Mishra, though not a voter, said, "we pledge open support to Kovind".

He thanked the prime minister for his selection.

Mulayam's vote for Kovind became a foregone conclusion the very day he openly described him as a "strong candidate".

"Ram Nath Kovind is a good candidate. I have a very old relation with him. BJP has selected a strong candidate. The most important thing is that the BJP has a majority," Mulayam had said last month.

Shivpal, too, had said he would do as advised by his brother.

"Netaji (Mulayam) jo kahenge wahi hoga" (Whatever netaji says will happen)," he said.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's last visit to Lucknow on June 20, Mulayam had met him at a dinner hosted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, sending clear signals that he would back the NDA nominee.

Significantly, the dinner was skipped by Akhilesh and Mayawati, who are supporting the opposition's candidate.

Mulayam was removed from the party's national president post and made a patron by Akhilesh in January at the peak of the dissidence in the party.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and leader of the opposition in the UP Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary said everyone should support Kumar.

LUCKNOW: The sharp differences within the Samajwadi Party (SP) may again come to the fore during voting for the presidential poll. While SP president Akhilesh Yadav has instructed party MLAs to vote for opposition candidate Meira Kumar, SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav might go in favour of NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind. SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that Akhilesh Yadav has given instruction to his MLAs to vote for Kumar. The opposition presidential nominee, during a day's visit to the city earlier today, met Akhilesh at the party office before meeting BSP supremo Mayawati to seek votes. "Today Meira Kumar visited the SP headquarters and met Akhilesh and SP MLAs to seek their support," Chaudhary said. "Akhilesh has asked SP MLAs to vote for Kumar," he said. Chaudhary, who is also the leader of the opposition, said, "Everyone should support Kumar." Meanwhile, Shivpal's loyalist Deepak Mishra, though not a voter, said, "we pledge open support to Kovind". He thanked the prime minister for his selection. Mulayam's vote for Kovind became a foregone conclusion the very day he openly described him as a "strong candidate". "Ram Nath Kovind is a good candidate. I have a very old relation with him. BJP has selected a strong candidate. The most important thing is that the BJP has a majority," Mulayam had said last month. Shivpal, too, had said he would do as advised by his brother. "Netaji (Mulayam) jo kahenge wahi hoga" (Whatever netaji says will happen)," he said. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's last visit to Lucknow on June 20, Mulayam had met him at a dinner hosted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, sending clear signals that he would back the NDA nominee. Significantly, the dinner was skipped by Akhilesh and Mayawati, who are supporting the opposition's candidate. Mulayam was removed from the party's national president post and made a patron by Akhilesh in January at the peak of the dissidence in the party. Senior Samajwadi Party leader and leader of the opposition in the UP Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary said everyone should support Kumar.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the law and order situation in the state, especially in the backdrop of the recent terror attack against Amarnath pilgrims, even as she hinted that apart from Pakistan, now China too was creating trouble in the state.

Kashmir issue is not a law and order problem. It is happening because of external forces. The ongoing fight is a handiwork of external forces and now unfortunately China is also trying to meddle into it, Mehbooba told reporters emerging from the meeting.

During the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley, officials said.

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims, as well as the recent attack on the pilgrims were discussed in the meeting, they said.

The attack was designed to create communal tension in the country. But I am grateful that the entire country, political parties and the central government, especially the home minister, helped us in overcoming the tragedy, she said.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the statePulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnaghave been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Mehbooba said the Jammu and Kashmir government had requested the central government for ensuring that Article 370 would not get diluted as it has an emotional connect with the people of the state.

I am happy that the president in his order has reiterated that special status granted to the state would not be diluted, she said.

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the law and order situation in the state, especially in the backdrop of the recent terror attack against Amarnath pilgrims, even as she hinted that apart from Pakistan, now China too was creating trouble in the state. Kashmir issue is not a law and order problem. It is happening because of external forces. The ongoing fight is a handiwork of external forces and now unfortunately China is also trying to meddle into it, Mehbooba told reporters emerging from the meeting. During the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley, officials said. Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims, as well as the recent attack on the pilgrims were discussed in the meeting, they said. The attack was designed to create communal tension in the country. But I am grateful that the entire country, political parties and the central government, especially the home minister, helped us in overcoming the tragedy, she said. Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday. Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said. So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine. As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes. The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year. Four districts of the statePulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnaghave been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016. The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Mehbooba said the Jammu and Kashmir government had requested the central government for ensuring that Article 370 would not get diluted as it has an emotional connect with the people of the state. I am happy that the president in his order has reiterated that special status granted to the state would not be diluted, she said.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is in the national capital, will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday.

Both the leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing chaos going on in the Valley.

Kashmir has been witnessing a state of tension and violence.

On Monday, terrorists opened fire on a bus, carrying over 30 pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine, in Anantnag district.

The incident occurred between Baltal and Mir Bazar.

Reportedly, the bus was neither a part of a convoy nor registered with the shrine board.

On July 12, three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed by security forces near Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir.

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is in the national capital, will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday. Both the leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing chaos going on in the Valley. Kashmir has been witnessing a state of tension and violence. On Monday, terrorists opened fire on a bus, carrying over 30 pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath cave shrine, in Anantnag district. The incident occurred between Baltal and Mir Bazar. Reportedly, the bus was neither a part of a convoy nor registered with the shrine board. On July 12, three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed by security forces near Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: At the all party meet on China and Kashmir chaired by Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, the Opposition was on board over the standoff with China in Sikkim but the leaders from the different political parties were critical of the governments handling of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Opposition leaders expressed concern over the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir that has witnessed violence over the last one year and attack on Amarnath pilgrims, sources said, adding the Opposition leaders were united with the government in eliminating terrorism.

The all-party meeting was called two days ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday amid the standoff with China and terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir where seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured earlier this week.

All India Trinamool Congress leader Derek oBrien said at the meeting, Government was aware about the security problem (in Jammu and Kashmir), Why did it not take it seriously? Why the lapse? Why did not the government act? AITC later tweeted this from the official handle of the party and Brien retweeted the same.

Congress leaders also questioned the governments handling in Kashmir saying national interest was paramount and everyone must rise above petty politics, sources said. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar told the leaders that China was seeking to alter the status quo in Doka La at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan and the same have strategic consequence for India.

Those who attended the meet included external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Arun Jaitley, union minister Ramvilas Paswan, minister of state for home Hamsraj Ahir, national security advisor Ajit Doval, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Brien and home secretary designate Rajiv Gauba and others.

The government explained to the leaders the measures taken in Jammu and Kashmir to contain terrorism and that the NSA would convey Indias position to Chinese officials during his official to that country later this month, sources added.

NEW DELHI: At the all party meet on China and Kashmir chaired by Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, the Opposition was on board over the standoff with China in Sikkim but the leaders from the different political parties were critical of the governments handling of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Opposition leaders expressed concern over the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir that has witnessed violence over the last one year and attack on Amarnath pilgrims, sources said, adding the Opposition leaders were united with the government in eliminating terrorism. The all-party meeting was called two days ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday amid the standoff with China and terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir where seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured earlier this week. All India Trinamool Congress leader Derek oBrien said at the meeting, Government was aware about the security problem (in Jammu and Kashmir), Why did it not take it seriously? Why the lapse? Why did not the government act? AITC later tweeted this from the official handle of the party and Brien retweeted the same. Congress leaders also questioned the governments handling in Kashmir saying national interest was paramount and everyone must rise above petty politics, sources said. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar told the leaders that China was seeking to alter the status quo in Doka La at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan and the same have strategic consequence for India. Those who attended the meet included external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Arun Jaitley, union minister Ramvilas Paswan, minister of state for home Hamsraj Ahir, national security advisor Ajit Doval, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Brien and home secretary designate Rajiv Gauba and others. The government explained to the leaders the measures taken in Jammu and Kashmir to contain terrorism and that the NSA would convey Indias position to Chinese officials during his official to that country later this month, sources added.
By PTI

MUMBAI: NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind today wrapped up his nationwide tour to seek support for the July 17 Presidential polls with his victory against the Congress-led combined opposition nominee Meira Kumar a virtual certainty.

The last stop of the campaign of the 71-year-old lawyer- turned-politician, who is locked in a straight fight with the former Lok Sabha Speaker in what is billed as a 'Dalit verus Dalit' contest, was Gandhinagar for a meeting with BJP MLAs and parliamentarians from Gujarat. Kovind started his campaign today from Mumbai and followed it up with a visit to Panaji and Gandhinagar. Union minister Nitin Gadkari said today was the last day of the nationwide tour undertaken by Kovind during which he visited 26 states.

Counting of votes to elect the 14th President of India who will succeed Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be taken up on July 20. Gadkari claimed that Kovind will win with more than 70 per cent of the voting share.

Several non-NDA parties like the JD(U), the BJD, the TRS and both the factions of the AIADMK have pledged their support to Kovind. Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar before he was chosen as the NDA candidate, kickstarted his campaign from his home state of Uttar Pradesh on June 25.

Kovind spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over phone and thanked him for supporting his candidature.

A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary which had raised eyebrows. However, he made a phone call to Thackeray and thanked him for supporting his candidature, Shiv Sena sources said. Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the Sena had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office. "We all have the duty to preserve the highest importance of the Constitution of India.

I would assure of equal justice to all, avoiding discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender and region," Kovind said. He said there should be comprehensive growth of all the states of the country where there is equal justice for all. "My preference would be to ensure addressing the aspirations of the youth of the country, promotion and modernisation of education. We will do our utmost to preserve the prestige of the post of the President," he added.

Kovind held a meeting with elected representatives of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies at the Garware Club in south Mumbai.

The members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state assemblies form the electoral college and currently the total strength is fixed at 10,98,882 votes. The candidate, who crosses the halfway-mark of 5,49,442 votes, is declared as the winner. While the value of the vote of an MP is fixed at 708, that of an MLA varies depending upon the state he or she represents.

For example, an Uttar Pradesh MLA contributes 208 votes in the presidential election, his counterpart from Sikkim adds up only 7 votes. "I am sure when results will be announced, he will win with more than 70 per cent votes," Gadkari told reporters in Panaji after Kovind held a meeting with the legislators supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government.

During his brief visit to Goa this evening, Kovind accompanied by Gadkari met the legislators at a resort in Vasco, 35 km from Panaji. "Today he met MLAs from Maharashtra and Goa who are part of the NDA.

Everyone has assured support to Kovind during the presidential election," Gandkari said before Kovind headed to Gujarat. Gadkari said during the interaction, the presidential candidate told the legislators that he will uphold the principles laid down in the Indian Constitution

MUMBAI: NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind today wrapped up his nationwide tour to seek support for the July 17 Presidential polls with his victory against the Congress-led combined opposition nominee Meira Kumar a virtual certainty. The last stop of the campaign of the 71-year-old lawyer- turned-politician, who is locked in a straight fight with the former Lok Sabha Speaker in what is billed as a 'Dalit verus Dalit' contest, was Gandhinagar for a meeting with BJP MLAs and parliamentarians from Gujarat. Kovind started his campaign today from Mumbai and followed it up with a visit to Panaji and Gandhinagar. Union minister Nitin Gadkari said today was the last day of the nationwide tour undertaken by Kovind during which he visited 26 states. Counting of votes to elect the 14th President of India who will succeed Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be taken up on July 20. Gadkari claimed that Kovind will win with more than 70 per cent of the voting share. Several non-NDA parties like the JD(U), the BJD, the TRS and both the factions of the AIADMK have pledged their support to Kovind. Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar before he was chosen as the NDA candidate, kickstarted his campaign from his home state of Uttar Pradesh on June 25. Kovind spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over phone and thanked him for supporting his candidature. A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary which had raised eyebrows. However, he made a phone call to Thackeray and thanked him for supporting his candidature, Shiv Sena sources said. Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the Sena had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office. "We all have the duty to preserve the highest importance of the Constitution of India. I would assure of equal justice to all, avoiding discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender and region," Kovind said. He said there should be comprehensive growth of all the states of the country where there is equal justice for all. "My preference would be to ensure addressing the aspirations of the youth of the country, promotion and modernisation of education. We will do our utmost to preserve the prestige of the post of the President," he added. Kovind held a meeting with elected representatives of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies at the Garware Club in south Mumbai. The members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state assemblies form the electoral college and currently the total strength is fixed at 10,98,882 votes. The candidate, who crosses the halfway-mark of 5,49,442 votes, is declared as the winner. While the value of the vote of an MP is fixed at 708, that of an MLA varies depending upon the state he or she represents. For example, an Uttar Pradesh MLA contributes 208 votes in the presidential election, his counterpart from Sikkim adds up only 7 votes. "I am sure when results will be announced, he will win with more than 70 per cent votes," Gadkari told reporters in Panaji after Kovind held a meeting with the legislators supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government. During his brief visit to Goa this evening, Kovind accompanied by Gadkari met the legislators at a resort in Vasco, 35 km from Panaji. "Today he met MLAs from Maharashtra and Goa who are part of the NDA. Everyone has assured support to Kovind during the presidential election," Gandkari said before Kovind headed to Gujarat. Gadkari said during the interaction, the presidential candidate told the legislators that he will uphold the principles laid down in the Indian Constitution
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: With Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav categorically rejecting demands for his younger son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs resignation, an embattled chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday convened a crucial meeting of Janata Dal (U) legislators on Sunday to decide his next step.

The crisis within the alliance government in Bihar deepened further as Tejashwi, 28, skipped an official function in Patna where he was scheduled to share the dais with Nitish Kumar Saturday. Tejashwis name had been printed as a distinguished guest on promotional pamphlets for the program on Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas.

When he did not turn up, his name plate was covered with paper and quietly removed before the program commenced. Rashtriya Janata Dal sources said Tejashwi, against whom the CBI registered a case of corruption last week, stayed home all day and met party leaders and supporters.

Lalu Prasads rigid stance that Tejashwi would not quit under any circumstances because an FIR is not a sufficient reason for resignation led to a fresh bout of finger-pointing among leaders of the JD(U) and RJD. Nitish Kumar, though he continued to maintain studied silence on the issue, was reportedly anguished over the RJDs attitude even as JD(U)s unofficial four-day ultimatum to Tejaswi to resign expired Saturday.

It is time Lalu read the writing on the wall. Nitish Kumar is not going to compromise on the issue of corruption, said JD(U)s chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh.

RJD leaders rubbished such protestations and continued citing RJDs numerical edge in the Assembly. Our leader (Lalu) has spoken the final word on this issue. There is no chance of any change, said senior RJD legislator Bhai Birendra, considered close to Lalu.

JD(U) national general secretary K C Tyagi, however, said neither Nitish Kumar nor the party had issued any deadline to Tejashwi to resign. There is no danger to the grand alliance government, said Tyagi, hinting that ongoing efforts by Congress to find a middle path on the Tejashwi issue may succeed in a day or two.

Although the meeting of JD(U) legislators has been convened ostensibly to discuss the presidential election, sources said Kumar would seek the legislators views on how best to deal with the Tejashwi issue. The CM has reached a point where he has to choose between his image and power. Before making a decision, he wants to know the views of the legislators, said a JD(U) leader close to Kumar.

RJD sources said the party on Saturday decided to ask all its ministers to resign if Nitish Kumar insists on Tejashwi resigning. If our leader does not remain deputy chief minister, our party will have no ministers in the government. In that case, RJD will lend outside support to the government, said a minister from RJD. No matter what comes, RJD would not allow the grand alliance government to fall, he added.

In New Delhi, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi amid the crisis in Patna. Sources were tight-lipped about the nature of deliberations between the two leaders over the grand alliance but added that they want the alliance government o continue.

They are believed to discussed various options to defuse the crisis.

PATNA: With Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav categorically rejecting demands for his younger son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs resignation, an embattled chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday convened a crucial meeting of Janata Dal (U) legislators on Sunday to decide his next step. The crisis within the alliance government in Bihar deepened further as Tejashwi, 28, skipped an official function in Patna where he was scheduled to share the dais with Nitish Kumar Saturday. Tejashwis name had been printed as a distinguished guest on promotional pamphlets for the program on Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas. When he did not turn up, his name plate was covered with paper and quietly removed before the program commenced. Rashtriya Janata Dal sources said Tejashwi, against whom the CBI registered a case of corruption last week, stayed home all day and met party leaders and supporters. Lalu Prasads rigid stance that Tejashwi would not quit under any circumstances because an FIR is not a sufficient reason for resignation led to a fresh bout of finger-pointing among leaders of the JD(U) and RJD. Nitish Kumar, though he continued to maintain studied silence on the issue, was reportedly anguished over the RJDs attitude even as JD(U)s unofficial four-day ultimatum to Tejaswi to resign expired Saturday. It is time Lalu read the writing on the wall. Nitish Kumar is not going to compromise on the issue of corruption, said JD(U)s chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh. RJD leaders rubbished such protestations and continued citing RJDs numerical edge in the Assembly. Our leader (Lalu) has spoken the final word on this issue. There is no chance of any change, said senior RJD legislator Bhai Birendra, considered close to Lalu. JD(U) national general secretary K C Tyagi, however, said neither Nitish Kumar nor the party had issued any deadline to Tejashwi to resign. There is no danger to the grand alliance government, said Tyagi, hinting that ongoing efforts by Congress to find a middle path on the Tejashwi issue may succeed in a day or two. Although the meeting of JD(U) legislators has been convened ostensibly to discuss the presidential election, sources said Kumar would seek the legislators views on how best to deal with the Tejashwi issue. The CM has reached a point where he has to choose between his image and power. Before making a decision, he wants to know the views of the legislators, said a JD(U) leader close to Kumar. RJD sources said the party on Saturday decided to ask all its ministers to resign if Nitish Kumar insists on Tejashwi resigning. If our leader does not remain deputy chief minister, our party will have no ministers in the government. In that case, RJD will lend outside support to the government, said a minister from RJD. No matter what comes, RJD would not allow the grand alliance government to fall, he added. In New Delhi, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi amid the crisis in Patna. Sources were tight-lipped about the nature of deliberations between the two leaders over the grand alliance but added that they want the alliance government o continue. They are believed to discussed various options to defuse the crisis.
Dileep's bail plea has been rejected because it is believed that he could influence witnesses and tamper with the evidence if he is out.

By Rohini Swamy: Dileep's bail plea has been rejected by the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court. He will continue to remain in judicial custody.

The prosecution had argued that if bail was granted to the actor, he could influence witnesses and also tamper with the evidence. It was argued that Dileep's non-cooperation with the ongoing investigation was not helping the case.

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The defence argued that the police are trying to fix Dileep based on accusations made by the prime accused, Pulsar Suni. They alleged that it is a huge conspiracy to malign the reputation of the Malayalam superstar.

It all began when a popular Malayalam actress was abducted on February 17 while she was on her way home after a shoot. Some men got into her car and allegedly sexually assaulted her. They also took photos and videos of the act to blackmail the actress.

The case took a shocking turn when Dileep's name was linked to the case. Reportedly, the prime accused Pulsar Suni carried out the assault on the instructions of Dileep, who is said to have held a personal grudge against the actress. Dileep insisted that he was being framed, but a letter written by Pulsar Suni and a selfie leaked to the media showing the accused on the sets of the actor's film Georgettan's Pooram seemed to contradict his claims.

ALSO READ: Is Dileep in possession of the phone used to record the actress's assault?

ALSO READ: Kerala actress says she had personal problems with Dileep

ALSO READ: Does the Kerala actress abduction case date back to the Dileep-Kavya affair?

ALSO WATCH: Dileep's bail rejected, more trouble for the Malayalam actor

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Avay Shukla By

It is said that no power can stop an idea whose time has come. The idea that is exciting economists globally these days is Universal Basic Income (UBI); a whole session was devoted to it at Davos. The concept of UBI is simple: a regular, periodic payment to all citizens by the government, without any conditions on income or employment. Its beauty is its simplicity requiring no complex bureaucracy for its implementation.

The idea is not new. It was first mooted by Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia and found favour with the likes of Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King Jr. and Milton Friedman. The beauty of the concept is that it is politically neutral: it appeals both to the Right and the Left. The latter consider it a tool of social justice postulated on the belief that public wealth is created by all peoples over generations, and so should be distributed equitably; it is also a means to tackle poverty and unemployment. The Right sees it as a more efficient way to utilise funds for welfare, compared to the current regime of huge, untargeted and leaking subsidies.

By no means is there unanimity, however: Both sides have their criticisms too. Some on the Left feel UBI is an excuse for the government to opt out of its responsibility for social intervention in key sectors such as health and education, by simply handing out a monthly dole. Some on the Right oppose it saying it will promote indolence and provide a disincentive for seeking employment. Whatever be the merits, the fact is governments are willing to give it a try, even though the Swiss rejected it in a referendum last year. Pilot programmes have been introduced in Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and the US.

In India too it has entered public discourse via the views of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian contained in this years Economic Survey: He appears to support it, though not immediately, perhaps.

What is resurrecting this 500-year-old idea is undoubtedly the widening income and wealth disparities after globalisation and the looming spectre of technology-driven unemployment. The West has already started shedding millions of jobs because of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, and even tech pioneers like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have warned things are going to get worse. Indias position is even more critical, given our historical levels of poverty, mind-boggling inequity and already-existing massive unemployment. The country is simply not able to create the minimum 10 million new jobs needed every year.

The unemployment rate in 2016 was 7.97 per cent, a hopeless underestimation since it assumes 50 per cent of the populace is engaged in agriculture; in fact, at least 75 per cent of agriculturists are significantly underemployed but remain there due to lack of options. The even more worrying thing is that the rate of job creation over the last three years has been falling: 4.97 lakh jobs created in 2014 to 1.35 lakh in 2015.

It would be worse now, after demonetisation, the beef ban, the liquor-on-highways ban and GST. Technology too is beginning to bite: the IT sector alone is expected to shed 6,00,000 jobs in the next three years. PRAHAR, a non-profit, has predicted we are likely to lose seven million jobs by 2050; the population by then would have grown by 600 million. The social effects of such large-scale unemployment and its fallout on poverty and the countrys stability is the biggest argument for introducing UBI.

The main argument against UBI is: Can we afford it? Vijay Joshi, an internationally renowned economist from Oxford has calculated that if a UBI payment of `17,500 were to be paid to each household annually it would cost 3.5 per cent of Indias GDP. As against this just the non-merit subsidies amount to 7.7 per cent of GDP. On paper, therefore, it is affordable and still leaves the merit subsidies in vital areas such as education, health, PDS and nutrition untouched. But perhaps a case can be made out to subsume PDS in UBI as it is perhaps the most wasteful of subsidies and also involves huge costs in procurement, storage and distribution.

But math apart, there are other concerns that militate against UBI: Should the state withdraw so completely and leave the poor to market forces? Will this not lead to the withering away of the welfare state? Is India logistically prepared for such a huge exercise to ensure there is no repeat of note bans travails?

That last question at least can be answered somewhat confidently. There are now about 350 million Jan Dhan accounts and Aadhaar has reached 1.12 billion people. Linking of bank accounts and Aadhaar has been made compulsory by December, so the basic system for remitting UBI payments to beneficiaries is more or less available, theoretically.

In practice, there may be grey areas that can cause untold misery, especially in villages and to the marginalised: lack of bank branches in villages, poor internet connectivity, inoperative Jan Dhan accounts, lack of awareness of banking, a huge migratory population. Further, as Joshi has pointed out, the removal of subsidies itself is a tricky exercise; without proper sequencing it can cause havoc and destitution. We cannot afford the disorganised trauma of demonetisation again.

The ideal, and sensible, way to go about it is to launch a few pilot projects in carefully selected areas (blocks rather than districts) that represent the different profilessocial, economic, demographic, infrastructural that constitute the smorgasbord identity of our country, and then analyse how well it caters to each. The government should give up its distrust of NGOs and learn from their experience. SEWA Bharat, an NGO, has in fact been implementing two UBI schemes in Madhya Pradesh, with assistance from UNICEF, for some years and its experience has been fascinating. The government can get a lot of valuable inputs from SEWA. What it should not do is another surgical strike at the midnight hour.

Avay Shukla

served in the IAS for 35 years and retired as Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh

Email: avayshukla@gmail.com

It is said that no power can stop an idea whose time has come. The idea that is exciting economists globally these days is Universal Basic Income (UBI); a whole session was devoted to it at Davos. The concept of UBI is simple: a regular, periodic payment to all citizens by the government, without any conditions on income or employment. Its beauty is its simplicity requiring no complex bureaucracy for its implementation. The idea is not new. It was first mooted by Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia and found favour with the likes of Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King Jr. and Milton Friedman. The beauty of the concept is that it is politically neutral: it appeals both to the Right and the Left. The latter consider it a tool of social justice postulated on the belief that public wealth is created by all peoples over generations, and so should be distributed equitably; it is also a means to tackle poverty and unemployment. The Right sees it as a more efficient way to utilise funds for welfare, compared to the current regime of huge, untargeted and leaking subsidies. By no means is there unanimity, however: Both sides have their criticisms too. Some on the Left feel UBI is an excuse for the government to opt out of its responsibility for social intervention in key sectors such as health and education, by simply handing out a monthly dole. Some on the Right oppose it saying it will promote indolence and provide a disincentive for seeking employment. Whatever be the merits, the fact is governments are willing to give it a try, even though the Swiss rejected it in a referendum last year. Pilot programmes have been introduced in Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and the US. In India too it has entered public discourse via the views of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian contained in this years Economic Survey: He appears to support it, though not immediately, perhaps. What is resurrecting this 500-year-old idea is undoubtedly the widening income and wealth disparities after globalisation and the looming spectre of technology-driven unemployment. The West has already started shedding millions of jobs because of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, and even tech pioneers like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have warned things are going to get worse. Indias position is even more critical, given our historical levels of poverty, mind-boggling inequity and already-existing massive unemployment. The country is simply not able to create the minimum 10 million new jobs needed every year. The unemployment rate in 2016 was 7.97 per cent, a hopeless underestimation since it assumes 50 per cent of the populace is engaged in agriculture; in fact, at least 75 per cent of agriculturists are significantly underemployed but remain there due to lack of options. The even more worrying thing is that the rate of job creation over the last three years has been falling: 4.97 lakh jobs created in 2014 to 1.35 lakh in 2015. It would be worse now, after demonetisation, the beef ban, the liquor-on-highways ban and GST. Technology too is beginning to bite: the IT sector alone is expected to shed 6,00,000 jobs in the next three years. PRAHAR, a non-profit, has predicted we are likely to lose seven million jobs by 2050; the population by then would have grown by 600 million. The social effects of such large-scale unemployment and its fallout on poverty and the countrys stability is the biggest argument for introducing UBI. The main argument against UBI is: Can we afford it? Vijay Joshi, an internationally renowned economist from Oxford has calculated that if a UBI payment of `17,500 were to be paid to each household annually it would cost 3.5 per cent of Indias GDP. As against this just the non-merit subsidies amount to 7.7 per cent of GDP. On paper, therefore, it is affordable and still leaves the merit subsidies in vital areas such as education, health, PDS and nutrition untouched. But perhaps a case can be made out to subsume PDS in UBI as it is perhaps the most wasteful of subsidies and also involves huge costs in procurement, storage and distribution. But math apart, there are other concerns that militate against UBI: Should the state withdraw so completely and leave the poor to market forces? Will this not lead to the withering away of the welfare state? Is India logistically prepared for such a huge exercise to ensure there is no repeat of note bans travails? That last question at least can be answered somewhat confidently. There are now about 350 million Jan Dhan accounts and Aadhaar has reached 1.12 billion people. Linking of bank accounts and Aadhaar has been made compulsory by December, so the basic system for remitting UBI payments to beneficiaries is more or less available, theoretically. In practice, there may be grey areas that can cause untold misery, especially in villages and to the marginalised: lack of bank branches in villages, poor internet connectivity, inoperative Jan Dhan accounts, lack of awareness of banking, a huge migratory population. Further, as Joshi has pointed out, the removal of subsidies itself is a tricky exercise; without proper sequencing it can cause havoc and destitution. We cannot afford the disorganised trauma of demonetisation again. The ideal, and sensible, way to go about it is to launch a few pilot projects in carefully selected areas (blocks rather than districts) that represent the different profilessocial, economic, demographic, infrastructural that constitute the smorgasbord identity of our country, and then analyse how well it caters to each. The government should give up its distrust of NGOs and learn from their experience. SEWA Bharat, an NGO, has in fact been implementing two UBI schemes in Madhya Pradesh, with assistance from UNICEF, for some years and its experience has been fascinating. The government can get a lot of valuable inputs from SEWA. What it should not do is another surgical strike at the midnight hour. Avay Shukla served in the IAS for 35 years and retired as Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh Email: avayshukla@gmail.com
By Express News Service

MYSURU: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday accused the Bharatiya Jantha Party (BJP) of dividing the society along religious and emotional lines to derive political mileage. Likening BJP to a scissor and Congress to a needle, he said that while BJP was carrying a 'scissor to divide society', Congress was a needle 'stitching society along the lines of peace and harmony.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, he said that the state would not allow BJP to stir up communal tensions. He criticized the state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for his remarks that the state would "boil" if RSS leader Kaladka Prabhakar Bhat is arrested.

Also, criticizing the remarks of BJP leaders following communal unrests in parts of Dakshina Kannada district, he said their statements have proved that their party lacks political maturity. "Why should they be apprehensive of Prabhakar's arrest when the government has not thought of it?" he asked.

Defending Forest and Ecology minister Ramanth Rai's directions to police officers to act against people taking the law into their hands, he said that if BJP and JD(S) were more concerned about establishing peace, they should have attended the peace meeting chaired by him.

He said that government has not withdrawn cases against Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI) activists and have directed the police to keep a vigil on activities of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Srirama Sene, PFI and SDPI activists.

Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah also clarified that he has not deputed corruption-tainted Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kempaiah to monitor the situation in Mangaluru. He slammed BJP for making baseless claims. "I have deputed a Director General of Police, two ADGP's, IG and officers who have worked in that region with directions to ensure that Dakshina Kannada district is normal again'," he added.

He also came down heavily on Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries, Nirmala Sitharaman for accusing that lawlessness has hit investments in Karnataka. He said, she must have referred to states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh and not to Karnataka where law and order are under control.

MYSURU: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday accused the Bharatiya Jantha Party (BJP) of dividing the society along religious and emotional lines to derive political mileage. Likening BJP to a scissor and Congress to a needle, he said that while BJP was carrying a 'scissor to divide society', Congress was a needle 'stitching society along the lines of peace and harmony. Speaking to reporters on Friday, he said that the state would not allow BJP to stir up communal tensions. He criticized the state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for his remarks that the state would "boil" if RSS leader Kaladka Prabhakar Bhat is arrested. Also, criticizing the remarks of BJP leaders following communal unrests in parts of Dakshina Kannada district, he said their statements have proved that their party lacks political maturity. "Why should they be apprehensive of Prabhakar's arrest when the government has not thought of it?" he asked. Defending Forest and Ecology minister Ramanth Rai's directions to police officers to act against people taking the law into their hands, he said that if BJP and JD(S) were more concerned about establishing peace, they should have attended the peace meeting chaired by him. He said that government has not withdrawn cases against Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI) activists and have directed the police to keep a vigil on activities of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Srirama Sene, PFI and SDPI activists. Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah also clarified that he has not deputed corruption-tainted Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kempaiah to monitor the situation in Mangaluru. He slammed BJP for making baseless claims. "I have deputed a Director General of Police, two ADGP's, IG and officers who have worked in that region with directions to ensure that Dakshina Kannada district is normal again'," he added. He also came down heavily on Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries, Nirmala Sitharaman for accusing that lawlessness has hit investments in Karnataka. He said, she must have referred to states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh and not to Karnataka where law and order are under control.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: H N Sathyanarayana Rao, director general of police (prisons) on Saturday visited Parappana Agrahara Central Prison and met junior officials following DIG D Roopa's report of allegations of irregularities in the jail.



The report submitted by D Roopa to the director-general on July 12 alleged that special facilities were given to inmates including AIADMK leader Sasikala and fake stamp scam case convict Karim Telgi.



Rao, after visiting Bengaluru Central Prison, said that during the visit he looked over several documents and investigated the barracks of the inmates.



Sources said he made some changes in the prison before IAS officer Vinay Kumar, who has been appointed to probe into the report, visits the jail. Rao was not available for comment in this regard.



The timing of Raos visit to the prison has raised many eyebrows, as the DIG in her report had accused Rao of providing special treatment to i nmates.



Sources also said that DIG Roopa on Friday sent another report to Rao claiming that no action has been taken against the jail officials for encouraging illegal activities in the prison.

BENGALURU: H N Sathyanarayana Rao, director general of police (prisons) on Saturday visited Parappana Agrahara Central Prison and met junior officials following DIG D Roopa's report of allegations of irregularities in the jail. The report submitted by D Roopa to the director-general on July 12 alleged that special facilities were given to inmates including AIADMK leader Sasikala and fake stamp scam case convict Karim Telgi. Rao, after visiting Bengaluru Central Prison, said that during the visit he looked over several documents and investigated the barracks of the inmates. Sources said he made some changes in the prison before IAS officer Vinay Kumar, who has been appointed to probe into the report, visits the jail. Rao was not available for comment in this regard. The timing of Raos visit to the prison has raised many eyebrows, as the DIG in her report had accused Rao of providing special treatment to i nmates. Sources also said that DIG Roopa on Friday sent another report to Rao claiming that no action has been taken against the jail officials for encouraging illegal activities in the prison.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Professor Subra Suresh, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and hailing from Chennai, has been chosen as the fourth president of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, according to a statement issued by IIT-Madras.

He will begin his presidency on January 1, 2018, after the retirement of the current president Professor Andersson.

A release issued by IIT-Madras said that Professor Suresh received his B Tech degree from IIT-Madras and was facilitated with the distinguished alumnus award by the institute in 1997.

Professor R Nagarajan, Dean of International and Alumni Relations, IIT Madras, said, Subra Suresh is one among our 150 distinguished alumni, and it is no surprise, given his record of accomplishments. IIT Madras has close ties with NTU and is in the process of formalising a joint PhD degree programme.

Subra Sureshs arrival at NTU augurs well for future interactions and collaborations among our institutions.

The professor served as the ninth president of Carnegie Mellon University from July 1, 2013, until June 30, 2017. An eight-member search committee chaired by Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman of the NTU Board of Trustees, unanimously selected Professor Suresh for the top NTU role.

He is an eminent scientist, engineer and entrepreneur and was chosen in 2010 by then US President Barack Obama to lead the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He got a masters degree from Iowa State University and has a Doctor of Science degree from MIT. After post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he joined the Brown University in 1983.

Subra Suresh joined MIT in 1993 as the RP Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He was also honoured with Padma Shri award in 2011 by the then President Pratibha Patil.



CHENNAI: Professor Subra Suresh, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and hailing from Chennai, has been chosen as the fourth president of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, according to a statement issued by IIT-Madras. He will begin his presidency on January 1, 2018, after the retirement of the current president Professor Andersson. A release issued by IIT-Madras said that Professor Suresh received his B Tech degree from IIT-Madras and was facilitated with the distinguished alumnus award by the institute in 1997. Professor R Nagarajan, Dean of International and Alumni Relations, IIT Madras, said, Subra Suresh is one among our 150 distinguished alumni, and it is no surprise, given his record of accomplishments. IIT Madras has close ties with NTU and is in the process of formalising a joint PhD degree programme. Subra Sureshs arrival at NTU augurs well for future interactions and collaborations among our institutions. The professor served as the ninth president of Carnegie Mellon University from July 1, 2013, until June 30, 2017. An eight-member search committee chaired by Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman of the NTU Board of Trustees, unanimously selected Professor Suresh for the top NTU role. He is an eminent scientist, engineer and entrepreneur and was chosen in 2010 by then US President Barack Obama to lead the US National Science Foundation (NSF). He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He got a masters degree from Iowa State University and has a Doctor of Science degree from MIT. After post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he joined the Brown University in 1983. Subra Suresh joined MIT in 1993 as the RP Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He was also honoured with Padma Shri award in 2011 by the then President Pratibha Patil.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday struck down the 85 per cent reservation of MBBS & BDS seats for the State Board students as patently illegal. Minutes after, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar announced his government would appeal against the verdict.

Health department officials said they would not start medical admission counselling as per schedule on Monday. Instead, the State government is planning to file an appeal in the High Court on Monday against the order of Justice K Ravichandra Baabu. Medical admissions, hence, would continue to be a muddle at least for the next few weeks.

But the strongly worded order of the Justice K Ravichandra Baabu leaves little space for Tamil Nadu to pick up holes and argue for reprieve. Merely because CBSE students obtained more marks in NEET than students of State Board, can they be treated with jealous and denied their legitimate right to get admission into the professional courses...

Certainly, it is impermissible, that too, for the State to adopt such step-motherly treatment to those students from CBSE Board. Are they aliens? Is it their sin in selecting the CBSE Board to qualify themselves in +2? the judge wondered in the order.

The reservation for the State Board students was created by a government order of the Health Department on June 22. It was an apparent effort to ensure that State Board students, who largely scored poor marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), get adequate representation in States medical colleges.

Pointing out to the haste in which the GO was issued on June 22, the court wondered how a policy decision was taken without even a Cabinet discussion. Certainly, the Additional Director is not competent to take a policy decision and on the other hand, it is the Government, which is competent to do so, said the order after highlighting how the proposal for the order was made by the Additional Director of Medical Education.

The judge made it very clear that certainly, the court is not against the promotion of interest of the students from rural background, more particularly, those who are studying in State Board. It has every concern for their upliftment. But it cant happen through illegal means.

SC refuses to nullify common test for not being uniform

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to nullify the NEET 2017 exam, saying it would affect over six lakh candidates who have passed the test to join medical and dental courses. The counsel contended that the exam has to be nullified and conducted afresh as different question papers in different languages was completely unlawful.

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday struck down the 85 per cent reservation of MBBS & BDS seats for the State Board students as patently illegal. Minutes after, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar announced his government would appeal against the verdict. Health department officials said they would not start medical admission counselling as per schedule on Monday. Instead, the State government is planning to file an appeal in the High Court on Monday against the order of Justice K Ravichandra Baabu. Medical admissions, hence, would continue to be a muddle at least for the next few weeks. But the strongly worded order of the Justice K Ravichandra Baabu leaves little space for Tamil Nadu to pick up holes and argue for reprieve. Merely because CBSE students obtained more marks in NEET than students of State Board, can they be treated with jealous and denied their legitimate right to get admission into the professional courses... Certainly, it is impermissible, that too, for the State to adopt such step-motherly treatment to those students from CBSE Board. Are they aliens? Is it their sin in selecting the CBSE Board to qualify themselves in +2? the judge wondered in the order. The reservation for the State Board students was created by a government order of the Health Department on June 22. It was an apparent effort to ensure that State Board students, who largely scored poor marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), get adequate representation in States medical colleges. Pointing out to the haste in which the GO was issued on June 22, the court wondered how a policy decision was taken without even a Cabinet discussion. Certainly, the Additional Director is not competent to take a policy decision and on the other hand, it is the Government, which is competent to do so, said the order after highlighting how the proposal for the order was made by the Additional Director of Medical Education. The judge made it very clear that certainly, the court is not against the promotion of interest of the students from rural background, more particularly, those who are studying in State Board. It has every concern for their upliftment. But it cant happen through illegal means. SC refuses to nullify common test for not being uniform The Supreme Court on Friday refused to nullify the NEET 2017 exam, saying it would affect over six lakh candidates who have passed the test to join medical and dental courses. The counsel contended that the exam has to be nullified and conducted afresh as different question papers in different languages was completely unlawful.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Fifteen more Tollywood personalities are likely to receive notices from the Telangana excise department in the coming days as part of its investigation into a Hyderabad-based drug racket busted recently. This would take the total number of notices issued to members of the film fraternity to 27.

Sources in the know say that those likely to receive notices include a star of a blockbuster Telugu franchise, a high-profile producer, popular music director straddling Tamil, Telugu industries and two leading actresses. The eldest son of a veteran producer is among those likely to be called for questioning as is a popular character actor gearing up for a big release. A few upcoming actors are also likely to be summoned.

However, all of this is likely to happen while the man at the centre of the probe, Akun Sabharwal, the director (enforcement) of the excise department, is away on leave -- news that raised eyebrows. The officer, who initiated the probe, insisted that his leave was for personal reasons related to his mothers recent demise Meanwhile, some of the 12 Tollywood personalities, reported in mainstream media outlets, to have received notices so far, clarified their position on Friday, while some denied they had received notice. The excise department, while refusing to confirm any of the names reported, said that 10 people had acknowledged the notice.

The names doing the rounds included actors Ravi Teja, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandoo and Subba Raju, as well as actresses Charmme Kaur and Mumaith Khan. Director Puri Jaganath, cameraman Shyam K Naidu, art director Chinna and Ravi Tejas driver Srinivas Rao were also reported to have been issued notices. The 12 personalities will be questioned between July 19 to 27.

Tollywood, which has distanced itself from the ongoing controversy surrounding drug abuse and peddling allegedly involving several from its own fraternity, is not shocked at the recent developments. Rather, the fraternity bigwigs have issued a strong warning against those involved in drug abuse. Interestingly, those who were caught by the cops were small-timers in the industry. With the new list doing rounds on the tinsel town, names of several A-listers is also under scanner.

This is not the first brush of Tollywood personalities with a drug cartel. In recent past, several actors have been interrogated for links with drug mafia

2010: Around 20 kg ephedrine seized from producer Kamineni Venkateswara Rao



2011: Central Crime Station questioned actor Varun Sandesh as his name appeared in drug peddling



2012: Small-time actor Abhishek Kumar, who acted in over 15 films, was arrested for possessing 10 gram of cocaine

2011: Actress-filmmaker Jeevithas brother Murali was arrested for allegedly buying cocaine from a Nigerian

Actor Nanduri Uday Kiran was caught red-handed by cops for dealings in drug

2015: Director Sushanth Reddy of and a producer Ravi reportedly caught carrying drugs.

In past, names of stars like Rana Daggubati, Trisha, Poonam Kaur were dragged into drug cases

HYDERABAD: Fifteen more Tollywood personalities are likely to receive notices from the Telangana excise department in the coming days as part of its investigation into a Hyderabad-based drug racket busted recently. This would take the total number of notices issued to members of the film fraternity to 27. Sources in the know say that those likely to receive notices include a star of a blockbuster Telugu franchise, a high-profile producer, popular music director straddling Tamil, Telugu industries and two leading actresses. The eldest son of a veteran producer is among those likely to be called for questioning as is a popular character actor gearing up for a big release. A few upcoming actors are also likely to be summoned. However, all of this is likely to happen while the man at the centre of the probe, Akun Sabharwal, the director (enforcement) of the excise department, is away on leave -- news that raised eyebrows. The officer, who initiated the probe, insisted that his leave was for personal reasons related to his mothers recent demise Meanwhile, some of the 12 Tollywood personalities, reported in mainstream media outlets, to have received notices so far, clarified their position on Friday, while some denied they had received notice. The excise department, while refusing to confirm any of the names reported, said that 10 people had acknowledged the notice. The names doing the rounds included actors Ravi Teja, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandoo and Subba Raju, as well as actresses Charmme Kaur and Mumaith Khan. Director Puri Jaganath, cameraman Shyam K Naidu, art director Chinna and Ravi Tejas driver Srinivas Rao were also reported to have been issued notices. The 12 personalities will be questioned between July 19 to 27. Tollywood, which has distanced itself from the ongoing controversy surrounding drug abuse and peddling allegedly involving several from its own fraternity, is not shocked at the recent developments. Rather, the fraternity bigwigs have issued a strong warning against those involved in drug abuse. Interestingly, those who were caught by the cops were small-timers in the industry. With the new list doing rounds on the tinsel town, names of several A-listers is also under scanner. This is not the first brush of Tollywood personalities with a drug cartel. In recent past, several actors have been interrogated for links with drug mafia 2010: Around 20 kg ephedrine seized from producer Kamineni Venkateswara Rao 2011: Central Crime Station questioned actor Varun Sandesh as his name appeared in drug peddling 2012: Small-time actor Abhishek Kumar, who acted in over 15 films, was arrested for possessing 10 gram of cocaine 2011: Actress-filmmaker Jeevithas brother Murali was arrested for allegedly buying cocaine from a Nigerian Actor Nanduri Uday Kiran was caught red-handed by cops for dealings in drug 2015: Director Sushanth Reddy of and a producer Ravi reportedly caught carrying drugs. In past, names of stars like Rana Daggubati, Trisha, Poonam Kaur were dragged into drug cases
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: In a fresh turn of events in the ongoing investigation into a Hyderabad-based drug racket, excise (enforcement) director Akun Sabharwal texted media persons on Saturday saying that he was deferring his 10-day leave that was to start on Friday.

The text message sent by Sabharwal read, "In view of the importance of the Drugs' Case, I'm postponing my leave till completion of the enquiry. by Akun Sabharwal. Director excise."

On Friday, Sabharwal had said he was going on leave for "personal reasons" after confirming reports that 12 persons in the Telugu film industry had been issued a notice to come in for questioning as part of the investigation.

The news had raised eyebrows and led to speculation of political pressure being the reason, even as the officer insisted his leave had been planned in advance and he had the backing of the Telangana government.

In fact, home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, on Friday, came out stating there was no pressure on Akun Sabharwal for going on leave amid the ongoing drug busts in the city. "Akun Sabharwal is going on leave on personal grounds. There is no pressure on him from the government,'' Narasimha Reddy had said at Suryapet on Friday while on his way to Khammam from Hyderabad.

According to sources, Sabharwal's latest decision has come in the wake of requests from certain quarters of state government which were not happy with the media reports pointing at political interference in the probe as a reason for his leave at the crucial juncture.

Sabharwal also said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), who were to question the 12 summoned-persons between July 19 and July 27, did not receive any calls from politicians for slowing down the investigation. Nobody in the SIT or any other officials in the department received calls of threat from any leader. We do not have any pressure on us and the state government is readily accepting the work done by the department," he said.

My leave got sanctioned now and am going to my native place. My mother has passed away two months ago and am going home in connection with that. Leave has got nothing to do with the case, the enforcement chief had said yesterday.

However, the officer was quoted in some mainstream media outlets as saying he was going mountaineering in the Himalayas.

During the initial days of the probe into the case, Sabharwal had stayed away from investigation for a couple of days after reportedly facing the wrath of political class when names of top schools which were issued notices by the department were leaked in the media.

HYDERABAD: In a fresh turn of events in the ongoing investigation into a Hyderabad-based drug racket, excise (enforcement) director Akun Sabharwal texted media persons on Saturday saying that he was deferring his 10-day leave that was to start on Friday. The text message sent by Sabharwal read, "In view of the importance of the Drugs' Case, I'm postponing my leave till completion of the enquiry. by Akun Sabharwal. Director excise." On Friday, Sabharwal had said he was going on leave for "personal reasons" after confirming reports that 12 persons in the Telugu film industry had been issued a notice to come in for questioning as part of the investigation. The news had raised eyebrows and led to speculation of political pressure being the reason, even as the officer insisted his leave had been planned in advance and he had the backing of the Telangana government. In fact, home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, on Friday, came out stating there was no pressure on Akun Sabharwal for going on leave amid the ongoing drug busts in the city. "Akun Sabharwal is going on leave on personal grounds. There is no pressure on him from the government,'' Narasimha Reddy had said at Suryapet on Friday while on his way to Khammam from Hyderabad. According to sources, Sabharwal's latest decision has come in the wake of requests from certain quarters of state government which were not happy with the media reports pointing at political interference in the probe as a reason for his leave at the crucial juncture. Sabharwal also said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), who were to question the 12 summoned-persons between July 19 and July 27, did not receive any calls from politicians for slowing down the investigation. Nobody in the SIT or any other officials in the department received calls of threat from any leader. We do not have any pressure on us and the state government is readily accepting the work done by the department," he said. My leave got sanctioned now and am going to my native place. My mother has passed away two months ago and am going home in connection with that. Leave has got nothing to do with the case, the enforcement chief had said yesterday. However, the officer was quoted in some mainstream media outlets as saying he was going mountaineering in the Himalayas. During the initial days of the probe into the case, Sabharwal had stayed away from investigation for a couple of days after reportedly facing the wrath of political class when names of top schools which were issued notices by the department were leaked in the media.
By AFP

BUNIA, DR CONGO: Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said Saturday.

"Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted on Friday by the Mai-Mai Simba," Alfred Bongwalanga, administrator of Mambasa district in the province of Ituri, told AFP.

Separately, a senior official with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "Eleven RFO park wardens and an American journalist are missing, while two Britons and five other wardens escaped when they were attacked by the Mai-Mai Simba."

The vice governor of Ituri, Pacifique Keta, said the armed forces and "every service" had been informed of the incident.

The names of the missing wardens and female journalist were not given.

A former Belgian colony, the DR Congo is a vast country rich in minerals and timber but wracked by decades of war and poverty.

The east of the country is especially troubled. It has been gripped by more than 20 years of armed conflict among domestic and foreign groups, fuelled by the struggle for control of lucrative resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

The Mai-Mai Simba is a self-described "self-defence" militia drawn from the Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities as well as rivals from the Nyaturu, who represent ethnic Hutus.

Many of these groups were armed during DR Congo's second war -- a conflict that ran from 1998-2003 -- to fight an incursion by Rwandan or Ugandan combatants, and have never been disarmed.

The RFO, a World Heritage site, covers nearly 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 square miles), protecting much of the Ituri forest near the borders with Sudan and Uganda.

The park is notably home to the okapi, an endangered zebra-like species that is a cousin of the giraffe. It is also home to the Mbutu and Efe pygmies, hunter-gatherers who are "among the last true 'forest people' on Earth," according to the Okapi Conservation Project website.

BUNIA, DR CONGO: Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said Saturday. "Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted on Friday by the Mai-Mai Simba," Alfred Bongwalanga, administrator of Mambasa district in the province of Ituri, told AFP. Separately, a senior official with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "Eleven RFO park wardens and an American journalist are missing, while two Britons and five other wardens escaped when they were attacked by the Mai-Mai Simba." The vice governor of Ituri, Pacifique Keta, said the armed forces and "every service" had been informed of the incident. The names of the missing wardens and female journalist were not given. A former Belgian colony, the DR Congo is a vast country rich in minerals and timber but wracked by decades of war and poverty. The east of the country is especially troubled. It has been gripped by more than 20 years of armed conflict among domestic and foreign groups, fuelled by the struggle for control of lucrative resources as well as ethnic and property disputes. The Mai-Mai Simba is a self-described "self-defence" militia drawn from the Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities as well as rivals from the Nyaturu, who represent ethnic Hutus. Many of these groups were armed during DR Congo's second war -- a conflict that ran from 1998-2003 -- to fight an incursion by Rwandan or Ugandan combatants, and have never been disarmed. The RFO, a World Heritage site, covers nearly 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 square miles), protecting much of the Ituri forest near the borders with Sudan and Uganda. The park is notably home to the okapi, an endangered zebra-like species that is a cousin of the giraffe. It is also home to the Mbutu and Efe pygmies, hunter-gatherers who are "among the last true 'forest people' on Earth," according to the Okapi Conservation Project website.
By PTI

KARACHI: Pakistan's top military officer today accused India of targeting the USD 50 billion China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through "subversive activities".

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

As it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India has raised objection to the project.

Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, alleged that India's Research and Analysis Wing was targeting the CPEC thorough "subversive activities".

The highest-ranking military officer in the Pakistan Defense Forces made the remarks while addressing a passing out parade of the Navy Cadets here.

Zubair, the only four-star general besides army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Pakistan was aware of "enemy designs" and was taking effective counter measures for national security.

He also said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional security.

Pakistan regularly accuses India of carrying out sabotage activities. India has repeatedly dismissed all such allegations and asserted that cross border terrorism being perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups must stop.

KARACHI: Pakistan's top military officer today accused India of targeting the USD 50 billion China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through "subversive activities". The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. As it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India has raised objection to the project. Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, alleged that India's Research and Analysis Wing was targeting the CPEC thorough "subversive activities". The highest-ranking military officer in the Pakistan Defense Forces made the remarks while addressing a passing out parade of the Navy Cadets here. Zubair, the only four-star general besides army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Pakistan was aware of "enemy designs" and was taking effective counter measures for national security. He also said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional security. Pakistan regularly accuses India of carrying out sabotage activities. India has repeatedly dismissed all such allegations and asserted that cross border terrorism being perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups must stop.
By AFP

PANAMA: The United States will destroy eight World War II-era chemical bombs it left in Panama decades ago, the government said Friday.

The project is supported by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The Americans will destroy the eight bombs in late 2017 under an agreement with Panama, the foreign ministry said.

This process will be monitored and verified by the OPCW, it added.

The bombs are located on an island called San Jose off the southern coast of Panama, in the Pacific Ocean.

There, the United States is alleged to have carried out tests with mustard gas, phosgene and other chemical weapons for possible use in WWII and the Vietnam War.

The United States maintained military bases in Panama from the time it completed the Panama Canal in 1914 until its withdrawal in 1999.

After World War II, San Jose island was used for military testing by the United States, Britain and Canada.

The plan calls for the destruction of eight bombs found in 2002 during an OPCW inspection of the island.

This process will take six to eight weeks and begin in September.

The agreement has allowed Panama to get off the OPCW black list.

The United States and Panama have been discussing for years what to do with the bombs.

The clean-up was initially scheduled for 2013 but never carried out because the Americans failed to set aside money for the procedure.

Panamanian advocacy groups say the United States abandoned a lot of ordnance in Panama.

Some estimates say that more than 10 hectares of land along the canal are littered with unexploded conventional bombs.

PANAMA: The United States will destroy eight World War II-era chemical bombs it left in Panama decades ago, the government said Friday. The project is supported by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Americans will destroy the eight bombs in late 2017 under an agreement with Panama, the foreign ministry said. This process will be monitored and verified by the OPCW, it added. The bombs are located on an island called San Jose off the southern coast of Panama, in the Pacific Ocean. There, the United States is alleged to have carried out tests with mustard gas, phosgene and other chemical weapons for possible use in WWII and the Vietnam War. The United States maintained military bases in Panama from the time it completed the Panama Canal in 1914 until its withdrawal in 1999. After World War II, San Jose island was used for military testing by the United States, Britain and Canada. The plan calls for the destruction of eight bombs found in 2002 during an OPCW inspection of the island. This process will take six to eight weeks and begin in September. The agreement has allowed Panama to get off the OPCW black list. The United States and Panama have been discussing for years what to do with the bombs. The clean-up was initially scheduled for 2013 but never carried out because the Americans failed to set aside money for the procedure. Panamanian advocacy groups say the United States abandoned a lot of ordnance in Panama. Some estimates say that more than 10 hectares of land along the canal are littered with unexploded conventional bombs.
By PTI: (Eds: Adding more details)

Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind today met MLAs and MPs of the BJP and its allies in Maharashtra and called up Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to thank him for supporting his candidature in the July 17 poll.

Lawmakers of the BJP and its allies, the Shiv Sena, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and the RPI(A), were present at the meeting where Kovind outlined his priorities once he is elected to the countrys top constitutional post.

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Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Raosaheb Danve, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ramdas Athawale (RPI-A), Anant Geete (Shiv Sena), BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and state minister Mahadev Jankar (RSP), and a few Independent MLAs were among those present.

Though Kovind did not visit Thackerays residence Matoshree at suburban Bandra, he spoke with the Sena chief over phone and thanked him for his partys support to him.

Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited Matoshree and met then Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The party had broken ranks with the BJP-led NDA in the past two presidential elections (2007, 2012) and voted for the Congress-backed nominees.

Addressing the MLAs and MPs, Kovind said he would uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and work towards ensuring justice for all after he became the president.

"We all have the duty to preserve the importance of the Constitution of India. I would ensure equal justice to all and avoid discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender and region," he said.

The former Bihar governor, who was in Mumbai for merely three hours after which he left for Goa, said there should be a comprehensive growth of all the states.

"My priority would be to address the aspirations of the youth and push for promotion and modernisation of education," he said.

According to a senior BJP leader, of the 239 elected NDA representatives from the state, where the BJP is in power in alliance with the Shiv Sena and some smaller parties, not even 150 attended the meeting.

"It was expected that all the representatives would attend the meet. We can understand Union ministers like Piyush Goyal (a Rajya Sabha member from the state) not attending the meet due to their busy schedule, but MLAs and MPs, who are comparatively free, could have attended the meeting," the BJP leader said.

The ruling BJP has 122 MLAs, while Shiv Sena has 63 legislators in the state. The NDAs total number of voters in the presidential polls from Maharashtra, with the MPs and Rajya Sabha members put together, is 239.

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Gadkari described Kovind as an "outstanding person" who had "great dedication" for public service.

"The NDA has chosen the right candidate for the post of president. He will get overwhelming support from Maharashtra," the Union minister said.

Fadnavis said Kovind had organisational and administrative skills and was also a constitutional expert.

Danve spoke about Kovinds clean image, simplicity and modesty and asserted, "His victory is certain as there are 239 voters from Maharashtra who are with the NDA while the UPA has only 98 voters (from the state)."

Maharashtra minister and senior Sena leader Subhash Desai said Thackeray had asked the party legislators to ensure the victory of the NDA candidate.

Athawale said everyone was happy that Kovind, who is associated with the Dalit movement started by B R Ambedkar, would be the countrys next president.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra minister Eknath Shinde sought to downplay the issue of Kovind not visiting Matoshree.

"We have already extended our support to Kovind. As per Uddhav Thackerays orders, all the MLAs and MPs of Shiv Sena have decided to vote for him," he said.

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"Kovind thanked Uddhav Thackeray today in his speech for extending support to his candidature. As Kovind had to visit a couple of more states after the Mumbai tour, we did not insist on him visiting Matoshree," Shinde said.

A visit to Thackerays residence Matoshree at suburban Bandra was not in Kovinds itinerary.

MP Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetakari Sanghatana, who was present when Kovind filed his nomination, was absent today as he was busy with a farmers rally.

Maharashtra is the second largest state in terms of Assembly and Parliamentary seats.

The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on Monday and the counting will take place on July 20. PTI ND NP NM NRB RSY NRB NSD AKK NSD

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What's next for Chase Marina? RIDEM has received plenty of proposals

Bob Ballou, assistant to the director of RIDEM, spoke about the goal of establishing a state port in Tiverton similar to Newports State Pier #9.
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
By PTI: Panaji, Jul 15 (PTI) Union minister Nitin Gadkari today said NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will get more than 70 per cent vote share in the July 17 election.

Gadkari was talking to reporters while accompanying Kovind who met NDA MPs and MLAs in Goa at a resort in Vasco, 35 km from here.

The interaction was also attended by legislators of the Goa Forward Party, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and three Independent MLAs who are supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government in the state.

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NCP legislator Churchill Alemao was also present at the meeting but said he is yet to promise his support to Kovind.

"I came here because I was invited. I had come here to listen to him. Whether to vote for him will be decided by my party," Alemao told reporters.

Gadkari said during the interaction, the NDAs presidential pick told the MLAs that he would uphold the principles laid down in the Indian Constitution.

"I am sure he will win with more than 70 per cent votes," he said.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said this was for the first time that a presidential candidate has come to Goa to canvass support for his presidential bid.

"This signifies that Goa holds an important position as far as the NDA is concerned," he said.

Parrikar said he would request the 38 legislators in the state to vote for Kovind as the post of the president is always above any party.

Gadkari said this was the last day of Kovinds nation- wide tour to drum up support in the presidential election, during which he visited 26 states.

"Today he toured Maharashtra and Goa, and will now head towards Gujarat," Gadkari said.

Kovind is slated to hold a meeting with BJP MPs from Gujarat, state legislators and the partys core committee members in Gandhinagar today.

"He met MLAs from Maharashtra and Goa who are part of the NDA. Everyone has assured support to Kovind in the presidential election," Gadkari said. PTI RPS RMT NSD

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One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Dhaka: A twenty-five-year-old MBBS student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot following an altercation between them at a flat in Bangladesh's Chittagong city.



Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on the fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area on Friday night, the police was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.



Sheikh, a final year student of the University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead, the report said.



Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.



Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, according to the police.



Another report in bdnews24 online said the four students hailed from Manipur. It said that Sheikh and Singh were drinking liquor before the incident.



Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body.
Rajouri/ New Delhi: An Army jawan was killed in the latest ceasefire violation by the Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri sector on Saturday. Pakistani troops initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts around 1.30 pm.



Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, an army spokesman said. Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts. He succumbed to his injuries later. The 35-year-old belonged to Ajout village in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and is survived by his wife Wasim Akhtar.



There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas. Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core. "The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added.



Earlier in the day, a CRPF trooper was also injured in a grenade attack by terrorists in the state's Kulgam district, police said. Police said terrorists lobbed a grenade at a security force check post in Laroo village of Kulgam, and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel sustained splinter injuries in the blast. He has been admitted to hospital for treatment.



On July 12, two jawans were killed in sniper fire by the Pakistani Army in Keran sector of north Kashmir. Earlier on July 8, two civilians were killed and some others injured when Pakistani Army violated ceasefire violation and resorted to mortar shellingand firing of small and automatic weapons targeting forward posts and hamlets along the LoC in the Poonch district. The deceased were Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of Territorial Army, who was visiting home on leave, and his wife Safia Bi.
Nagpur: The BJP minority cell member who was beaten up by cow vigilantes in Nagpur three days ago has been sacked from the party after lab tests confirmed he was carrying beef.



According to sources, police has filed a case against Salim Shah Bharsingi. He is likely to be arrested once he is discharged from the hospital, where he is currently recuperating from the numerous injuries he received on his face and neck after being attacked by four-five men.



BJPs Nagpur rural unit chief, Rajiv Potdar, said Salim was dismissed from the party as soon as police told them about the results of the forensic test on the meat seized from the victim. It is shocking. He should be given strict punishment, he told News18.



Salim was the president of BJPs minority cell in Katol division in Maharashtra for 12 years. He was thrashed with rods and sticks by a few men said to be members of Prahar Sanghatan, a fringe group that is allegedly linked to local MLA Bachchu Kadu. The incident was widely condemned and a video clip of it circulated on social media. Four people were arrested for the assault.



Shah was returning home from Amner village with 15 kg meat on his motorcycle when four persons accosted him, accused him of carrying beef and beat him up, Jalakheda police station Inspector Vijaykumar Tiwari had said.



They got hold of me and started beating me. And they beat me so badly that I thought I was going to die. I kept telling them that it was mutton and not beef, said Shah. It was learnt that he was a BJP member only a day after the attack. His case may be the first instance of a registered BJP member having been roughed up by cow vigilantes.



The BJP had played down the cow vigilante attack, calling it a stray incident. We condemn this incident, but one cannot term it a failure of law and order machinery because this is a stray incident, BJP spokesman Niranjan Shetty said.
New Delhi: Foreign currency worth about Rs 93 lakh has been seized from a man by the customs at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Saturday.



An official said the accused was intercepted on Friday when he was going to board a flight to Dubai.



"He was carrying foreign currency USD 1,44,800, equivalent to Rs 92.59 lakh, which was concealed in a metal container bearing marking 'Gopala Desi Ghee' kept inside his check-in baggage," a senior customs official said.



The currency was seized and the passenger was arrested, he said.



In another case, two persons were intercepted at the airport by the customs officials after their arrival from Abu Dhabi on Monday.



On detailed examination of their baggage, gold weighing about 2.8 kg was found, the official said.



The yellow metal, valuing about Rs 79 lakh, has been seized and the accused arrested, he said.








Srinagar: Hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday appealed to India and Pakistan to demonstrate restraint and wisdom and play a constructive role for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue which, he said, poses a threat to world peace.



The separatist hawk said people in Jammu and Kashmir "do not like any confrontation and are against war-like situations".



"I, with a sincere heart, want to convey that we are yearning for peace and seek a peaceful resolution to the long- pending (Kashmir) issue," Geelani said in a statement.



"I appeal to both countries (India and Pakistan) to demonstrate restraint and wisdom and solve the Kashmir issue as per aspirations, wishes and expectations of people of the state. Kashmir issue poses a threat to world peace and it is proving a big obstacle to peace, prosperity and development in the region," he said.



He said India had a great role to play in creating a conducive atmosphere and they needed to shun their "stubborn attitude and accept ground reality" regarding the Kashmir issue.



He also welcomed the statement of UN chief Antonio Guterres calling for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue and said that dialogue was the only option for the peaceful resolution of all issues.



"War is neither an option nor a solution to issues," he said.



He hailed the UN secretary general for his interest in the issue and termed it as encouraging.



"I on behalf of people of suppressed Jammu and Kashmir express my gratitude to Guterres for his moral support to our cause," Geelani said and expressed hope that he would play a "positive and effective role" for its peaceful settlement.



He appealed to the UN secretary general to take measures for the resolution of the dispute.



Addressing authorities in India and Pakistan, Geelani asked them to shun their "haughty and stubborn attitude" and play a constructive role for its peaceful resolution.



"War and inconsistencies are no options, instead they cause devastation and destruction. Both India and Pakistan are nuclear countries and any flare up can prove extremely detrimental," he said.



He said Kashmir issue has multiplied human tragedies and it was because of this lingering issue that millions of people were facing immense hardship and a state of uncertainty and instability was looming over the whole south Asian region.



"Although both countries are bound to seek a peaceful settlement of the issue, however, neither agreement is being implemented nor any development is being observed on ground for its resolution," he said.


The Shahi Imam of Delhis Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has written a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, urging him to use his influence on separatist leaders and militant youth to make them agree to a ceasefire to resolve the unrest in the Kashmir valley.The Imam said that he is appealing to all stakeholders  the governments of India and Pakistan, Kashmiri leaders and militant youth  to declare ceasefire and resolve the issue through dialogue. With all the intellect, wisdom and prudence at our disposal, we must make every effort to save Kashmir from the dangerous destruction and devastation it faces and pave the way for the establishment of peace there.In the letter dated June 22, Bukhari says that the peaceful valley once known as the paradise on earth has now become a valley of tears. The Kashmir situation is becoming volatile day by day, resulting in an increase in tensions between the two countries as days pass. I think that more delay in the creation of a favourable environment for peace shall make the settlement of the Kashmir issue more difficult," Bukhari said in his letter to Sharif.Bhukhari said that common people of Kashmir are in a state of terror and helplessness as they find their dreams for peace shattered. Thousands of people are living, under the shadow of AK-47, a life besieged by bloodshed. Today, it has become unbelievable that people all over the world once considered the Kashmir Valley as the paradise on earth as today it has become an abattoir. This game of death and destruction is making the situation graver. The only realistic recourse is peace and parleys, said the Imam.Maintaining that millions of Indian Muslims are facing a trying situation, Bukhari told Sharif that the only practical way is to ease tension on the borders, normalise the situation and initiate a dialogue between the two nations.The Kashmir situation can neither be solved through guns and stones nor through military expeditions. We should create an environment conducive for the talks at the earliest. Through the exchange of views and dialogue on the larger issues, we all should formulate a strategy that is in the interest of both nations, he said in the letter.What I perceive in the context of the current situation is that positive measures aimed to ensure the dialogue process are needed, keeping in view the interests of the two countries and their people. I request you to kindly persuade the militant youth and Hurriyat leaders to agree for a ceasefire through your good offices and influence," he concluded.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti blamed external forces for creating trouble in the state as she met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the law and order situation, especially security given to Amarnath pilgrims.



During the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, Mufti apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir valley, officials said. The steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, they said.



Kashmir issue is not a law and order problem. It is happening because of external forces. The ongoing fight is a handiwork of external forces and now unfortunately China is also trying to meddle into it, Mehbooba told reporters after the meeting.



The chief minister said he had discussed with the home minister the attack on Amarnath pilgrims. The attack was designed to create communal tension in the country. But I am grateful that the entire country, political parties and the central government especially the home minister helped us in overcoming the tragedy, she said.



Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday. Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.



So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine. As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes. The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.



Four districts of the state - Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag - have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.



The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Mufti said the state government had requested the central government for ensuring that Article 370 should not get diluted as it has an emotional connect with the people of the state. I am happy that the president in his order has reiterated that special status granted to the state would not be diluted, she said.
New Delhi: The Centre may escape sharp questions over skirmishes with China in the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament but could come under attack for the way it has handled the situation in Kashmir.



Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and Shiv Sena have pulled up the government for recent developments in the Valley, particularly after the attack on Amarnath pilgrims.



The three parties raised the issue at an all-party meeting called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to apprise parliamentarians of the situation in Kashmir, and the standoff with China over Sikkim.



Some of the Opposition parties also suggested the government start a political dialogue after the death of seven pilgrims whose bus came under attack on Monday.



Sources told CNN-News18 that even Rajnath expressed his willingness to start a dialogue afresh to end the ever-spiraling violence, triggered last year after the Indian Army eliminated Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter.
Child sex trafficking survivors get their own 'School of Justice' to become lawyers and fight their own battles.

By India Today Web Desk: Child sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that steadily ruins the lives of many children around the world. In India, it was observed that almost 20,000 women and children were victims of human trafficking in the year 2016 alone, says a TOI report.

Accountable for over one-third of the total cases, West Bengal, which shares a border with Bangladesh, is the most infamous for child sex trafficking cases and is considered the hub of human trafficking.

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Every year thousands of little girls are abducted and sold to such hubs.

Although most of the women and girls fail to get out of the dark abyss of prostitution, some do get a chance to escape but live in fear because the perpetrators are still out there.

A report by Free a Girl Movement said that on an average, less than 50 cases annually lead to convictions.

Just 50 out of thousands.

To fight for women affected by these atrocities, a movement known as 'Free a Girl' was launched by a Netherland-based NGO to help women across the world. The movement rescues women and girls from forced prostitution and help them stand on their own feet.

The movement also helps the survivors with legal aid in order to prosecute the offenders.

Recently, the anti-trafficking organisation also launched a program to support the survivors with the most important thing in the world, education. The program, 'School of Justice', focuses on providing education to the women and girls rescued from forced prostitution so that they can become lawyers and public prosecutors.

It encourages women to fight for themselves and also for the other affected survivors who are unable to afford legal aid. The aim of the program is focused on the survivors being the lawyers as they will be able to understand other survivors much better.

Here's a look at the 'School of Justice':

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NEET 2017: The Under Graduate Provisional Seat Allotment Round I result for All India Quota Counseling has been released on the official website of Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare - mcc.nic.in today. The ministry had appointed Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) to comply with its directions to hold Online Counseling for 15% All India Quota undergraduate MBBS/BDS seats. This Online Counseling is conducted on the basis of NEET 2017 results of the candidates.Visit mcc.nic.in Click on UG Medical CounselingClick on Round 1 ResultsEnter your Roll Number and Submit to view your Allotment ResultDownload your Result and Take a Print Out for Future Reference.Visit mcc.nic.in/MCCUG_aiq/HomePage.aspx Click on Allotment Result of Round-1The admission process for MBBS and BDS degree courses will commence from July 16th and the candidates who have been allotted a seat in Round 1 will need to complete their document verification and other proceedings before July 22nd next week to secure their seat.The NEET UG 2017 was conducted by CBSE, New Delhi on May 7th and around 11 lakh medical aspirants across India had appeared in the exam. Approximately 6 lakh candidates had cleared the NEET 2017 for admissions in Under Graduate degrees in MBBS, BDS and other paramedical courses.
Karachi: Pakistan's top military officer on Saturday accused India of targeting the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through "subversive activities".



The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southern Pakistan, and the Gwadar Port, to China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. As it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India has raised objection to the project.



Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, alleged that India's Research and Analysis Wing was targeting the CPEC through "subversive activities". The highest-ranking military officer in the Pakistan Defense Forces made the remarks while addressing a passing out parade of the Navy Cadets in Karachi.



Zubair, the only four-star general besides army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Pakistan was aware of "enemy designs" and was taking effective counter measures for national security.



He also said that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional security.



Pakistan regularly accuses India of carrying out sabotage activities. India has repeatedly dismissed all such allegations and asserted that cross border terrorism being perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups must stop.
Patna: Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday night made it clear that his son Tejashwi or any minister from his party will not resign over corruption charges despite coalition partner JD(U) issuing an ultimatum.



The RJD supremo said he would not be the one to end the grand alliance but rejected JD(U)'s demand of putting all facts related to the corruption allegations into public domain, saying that everything his family owns was already out in the open.



Politically motivated CBI raids and filing of an FIR cant be the ground for Tejashwis resignation. We are facing attacks from all sides. BJP is behind this. We will expose them in Bhajpa Hatao Desh Bachao rally on August 27, Lalu said.



Bihars deputy CM, Tejashwi, has been named by CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.



Lalu also denied reports of any telephonic conversation with Congress President Sonia Gandhi over saving the mahagathbandhan, adding he was not aware if Madam Sonia had called Nitish.



When asked if JD(U) had put a precondition of Tejashwi's resignation for continuing the alliance, he said, I understand everything. No one can scare me. BJP is trying to destabilise our alliance. But let me be clear, I will never be the first to break-up the alliance.



JD(U) was quick to reiterate that they would not tolerate corruption. General secretary KC Tyagi said that those who have been accused must come clean in public.



On Lalus contention that mere filing of an FIR can't be the grounds for seeking resignation, Tyagi said that CBI does a preliminary inquiry before filing of an FIR, so his logic does not hold ground. However, he also said, like Lalu, that Nitish would be the last person to break the grand alliance.



Earlier in the day, the JD(U) ramped up pressure on alliance partner RJD over the corruption case. The partys chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the RJD should provide facts and not display arrogance of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.



The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition, he said.



The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.



Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's intervention to defuse the crisis and only welcomed such a suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.

Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said the Bihar chief minister should take a decision on his association with the RJD "at the earliest" as Lalu Prasad could break away from the JD(U) to form a government of his own.



The Congress said the grand alliance in Bihar was intact. It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the 'Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb' (syncretic culture) of Bihar, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
Srinagar: Two terrorists were gunned down on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of South Kashmir's Pulwama district.



However, the bodies of the terrorists were yet to be recovered and the exchange of fire continued in the region, said PTI report quoting a police official.



The encounter began after militants opened fire on security forces who were carrying out a search operation in Satoora forest area of Tral, 36 kms from Srinagar.



The search operation was launched on information about the presence of some militants there, said police.







(With PTI inputs)


Twin suicide in couple's favourite @OyoRooms. Couple(aged 19) found hanging from ceiling of Delhi's Dwarka Oyo. Cops tell me checked in yday

 SaahilMurli Menghani (@saahilmenghani) July 14, 2017

We are deeply saddened by this incident and are cooperating with the authorities. We request you to honour the dignity of the deceased.  OYO (@oyorooms) July 14, 2017

In a case of suspected double suicide, a boy and a girl were found hanging from the ceiling fan of a room in an OYO Rooms branch in Delhis Dwarka Sector 17 on Friday.Police said the deceased, aged around 20, had checked into the hotel, a favourite among couples, on Thursday.They were found dead on Friday afternoon when the housekeeping staff of the establishment repeatedly knocked on the room door but got no reply. The staff called the hotel manager and they decided to wait a while since the hotel promises total privacy to its guests.However, when there was no response for an hour, they broke open the door to find the couple hanging.Delhi Police told CNN-News18 that prima facie it appears to be a case of double suicide but all angles were being investigated. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.OYO Rooms is a budget hotel which allows unmarried couples to book rooms without hassles using its website and app.
Congress workers hv barged in the Hotel lobby & created ruckus,me & team are stranded like hostages in hotel room. #pune activity cancelled. pic.twitter.com/6GHX1VHGD8  Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) July 15, 2017

Its baffling to see self proclaimed custodians of #freedomOfExpression creating huge ruckus to prevent a legitimate release of #InduSarkar pic.twitter.com/orJVVJULdp  Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) July 15, 2017

Pune: Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar had to cancel the press conference of his upcoming film Indu Sarkar in Pune after a group of Congress activists barged into the lobby of the hotel and staged a protest.Bhandarkar took to Twitter to share photographs from the venue and mentioned how his team members are stranded like hostages in the hotel room."Congress workers hv barged in the Hotel lobby & created ruckus,me & team are stranded like hostages in hotel room. #pune activity cancelled," he wrote.He also shared a video snippet in which a group of people could be seen protesting outside the hotel and chanting several slogans. "It's baffling to see self-proclaimed custodians of #freedomOfExpression creating huge ruckus to prevent a legitimate release of #InduSarkar," he wrote alongside the video.In an interaction with CNN-News18, Bhandarkar expressed that they felt scared and clarified that his film Indu Sarkar is 70 percent fiction and 30 percent real."We felt scared, we obviously will, if someone will try to hit us with a bottle," he said."The film is 70% fiction and 30% real. We have already got 16 cuts from the censor board," he added.He also added that people should look at a situation in its entirety. "People are reacting on a 3-minute trailer, they should look at it in totality."The film is based on the Emergency and stars Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kirti Kulhari, Supriya Vinod, Anupam Kher and Tota Roy Chowdhury. The Emergency was imposed in 1975, when Indira Gandhi cited grave threat to her government and sovereignty of the country from both internal and external forces.Indu Sarkar has drawn the ire of the Congress party even before its release and many The Congress also said that the reaction to Bhandarkar's inevitable because there is an apprehension that the film is a distortion of facts.
Kolkata: An FIR has been lodged against BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly for her controversial remark that wives and daughters will not survive 15 days in Bengal without getting raped.



"I dare all the parties, the ones who keep flattering the Bengal government and Congress to send their daughters, wives, and sister-in-laws to Bengal without taking any hospitality from Mamata Banerjee. If they are able to survive for 15 days without getting raped, then tell me," she had said on Friday.



Her statement drew severe criticism from various quarters but she refused to take back her words.



Following the remark, a woman lodged a complaint against the BJP leader at Nimta police station, North 24-Parganas. We have lodged a complaint against her under sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. We will soon examine the MP for her remark, a senior police officer said.



Taking a serious note on Roopas statement, State Power Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay made another controversial statement said, She should say how many times she has been raped in Bengal. Before making a baseless allegation, she should reveal this first. Then only the truth will come out.



Meanwhile, the Kolkata police initiated a case against the state BJP President Dilip Ghosh for threatening to torch Chief Minister Mamata



Banerjees residence if the police tried to arrest him under false cases.



Ghosh made this statement on Friday while addressing a public rally in West Midnapore.








New Delhi: Fearing cross-voting during the presidential elections on Monday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee has asked her party MPs to cast their votes in Kolkata, sources told News18.



All but three party MPs, including Sugata Bose and KD Singh, will vote in Kolkata.



On July 1, all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of the TMC received an SMS, which said, "MPs will have to vote in Kolkata, and that they should fill up the form sent by the Election Commission stating their place of voting as such and hand over the form to Manik Da (Mamata's Secretary and trusted aide) positively by 4th July (sic)."



"She distrusts us so much that she ensured we sent filled-out forms to her office. Thereafter, all these were sent to the Election Commission," a TMC MP told News18 on condition of anonymity.



TMC MP from Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Shekhar Roy personally carried all the signed forms to the Election Commission in the national capital.



NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind travelled across the country, seeking the support of MLAs, and the BJP is hoping that some fence-sitters would cross-vote in what is a secret ballot where parties cannot issue a whip.



Sources also said that there will be a meeting before the MPs go to the Assembly to cast their votes in Kolkata.



In another text that MPs received on July 10, they were informed of "the protocol to be followed at the meeting scheduled for 1.30pm in Chief Minister's chamber before the voting".



"We won't be surprised if she forces us to show the ballot, too," said a party MP, who is travelling to Kolkata to cast his vote.




Mumbai/Panaji/Gandhinagar: NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday wrapped up his nationwide tour to seek support for the July 17 Presidential polls with his victory against the Congress-led combined opposition nominee Meira Kumar a virtual certainty.



The last stop of the campaign of the 71-year-old lawyer- turned-politician, who is locked in a straight fight with the former Lok Sabha Speaker in what is billed as a 'Dalit versus Dalit' contest, was Gandhinagar for a meeting with BJP MLAs and parliamentarians from Gujarat.



Kovind started his campaign from Mumbai and followed it up with a visit to Panaji and Gandhinagar.



Union minister Nitin Gadkari said Saturday was the last day of nationwide tour undertaken by Kovind during which he visited 26 states.



Counting of votes to elect the 14th President of India who will succeed Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be taken up on July 20.



Gadkari claimed that Kovind will win with more than 70 percent of the voting share. Several non-NDA parties like the JD(U), the BJD, the TRS and both the factions of the AIADMK have pledged their support to Kovind.



Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar before he was chosen as the NDA candidate, kick started his campaign from his home state of Uttar Pradesh on June 25.



A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary which had raised eyebrows. However, he made a phone call to Thackeray and thanked him for supporting his candidature, Shiv Sena sources said.



Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the Sena had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.



"We all have the duty to preserve the highest importance of the Constitution of India. I would assure of equal justice to all, avoiding discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender, and region," Kovind said.



He said there should be a comprehensive growth of all the states of the country where there is equal justice for all.



"My preference would be to ensure addressing the aspirations of the youth of the country, promotion, and modernisation of education. We will do our utmost to preserve the prestige of the post of the President," he added.



Kovind held a meeting with elected representatives of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies at the Garware Club in south Mumbai.



The members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state assemblies form the electoral college and currently the total strength is fixed at 10,98,882 votes. The candidate, who crosses the halfway-mark of 5,49,442 votes, is declared as the winner.



While the value of the vote of an MP is fixed at 708, that of an MLA varies depending upon the state he or she represents. For example, an Uttar Pradesh MLA contributes 208 votes in the presidential election, his counterpart from Sikkim adds up only 7 votes.



"I am sure when results will be announced, he will win with more than 70 per cent votes," Gadkari told reporters in Panaji after Kovind held a meeting with the legislators supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government.



During his brief visit to Goa this evening, Kovind accompanied by Gadkari met the legislators at a resort in Vasco, 35 km from Panaji.



"Today he met MLAs from Maharashtra and Goa who are part of the NDA. Everyone has assured support to Kovind during the presidential election," Gadkari said before Kovind headed to Gujarat.



Gadkari said during the interaction, the presidential candidate told the legislators that he will uphold the principles laid down in the Indian Constitution.






For he who fights and runs away, May live to fight another day

- Oliver Goldsmith, The Art of Poetry on a New Plan



On March 11 this year, the early arrivals at 6, Flag Staff Road needed no more confirmation. Everyone was confident  the feedback from Punjab was more than encouraging. In anticipation, Arvind Kejriwals residence was deked up with balloons and festoons with speakers already blaring victory songs. The party was on. Counting would settle only the margins of victory, supporters said. A giant TV screen on the lawns would confirm that. A victory in Punjab would be one giant step for AAP outside Delhi.



As the results started pouring in and the Congress leapfrogged both the Akalis and APP to establish an unassailable lead, the crowd started to thin and music petered out.



Those close to Kejriwal say their leader was visibly disappointed that day. He couldnt fathom how a sure victory could turn into a defeat. So confident was the AAP chief that he had hoped a victory in Punjab would give AAP the momentum to cruise through the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.



This unexpected defeat had an impact on the partys MCD campaign and on its star campaigner. Kejriwal in Punjab addressed 7-8 rallies a day. During MCD polls he did only a few each day. Often even the media was not informed of CMs campaign schedule.



MCD polls over, there was a short period when AAP joined issues with the Election Commission over tampering of EMVs. Arvind Kejriwal, since then, has maintained a radio silence.



Where is Arvind Kejriwal?



Hes with the people of Delhi, say AAP leaders.



His aides claim, Kejriwal devotes all his mornings to meeting people. He listens to their concerns patiently and often calls up officials with instructions on how to solve their problems. Anyone can go and meet him, an MLA said.



Its a course correction of sorts for the leader who was accused by the Opposition of being the non-resident CM of Delhi. One whose heart was in Punjab.



Meetings done, he often drives to his own Assembly constituency  New Delhi. He makes it a point to travel there every day and check whether schools, hospitals and government services are running properly. He also meets local residents. He is rebuilding the trust of the people, says the aide.



Kejriwals Twitter handle, which would often launch scathing attacks at Modi and other opponents, has now limited itself to mostly tweeting Delhi government updates. And this reorientation towards Delhi is not just limited to social media.



Is The 'War on Modi' Too Costly For Kejriwal?



For someone who once described Prime Minister Modi as a coward and psychopath, Kejriwal is speaking in tempered tone. Is this a well thought out course correction?



A senior Aam Aadmi Party leader said Kejriwal has zeroed in on the reasons for partys defeat in Punjab and MCD. We have all been studying the responses that people have been giving to Arvind Jis statements. Arvind is not really unpopular. Only his attacks on Modi are. Attacking Modi has proved to be really costly.



Kejriwal, of late, has also been less confrontational with Centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.



However, there are some others in his inner circles who do not see it as a tactical retreat.



You see in March we were fighting elections in two states. Immediately after that, the MCD elections were upon us. The politics were concentrated in the span of a few months. Now, we are in  for lack of a better term  peace times. When there is no election around the corner, a CM will obviously devote his full attention to governance.



Kejriwal's 'Nayak' Moment



For a leader who would tweet at the drop of the hat, Kejriwal has not held a press conference in the last two months.



AAP-run social media handles have also tampered down to hashtag #DelhiKaNayak with images and videos of Kejrwial visiting JJ Clusters, hospitals and schools.



The Arvind Kejriwal in his latest avatar is seen interacting with residents of the New Delhi constituency, meeting wrestlers at an Akhara or walking through the water-logged and broken streets of Bawana.



Politician, like doctors, are the best judge of the public pulse. Posturing apart, they are gifted with an uncanny knack to comprehend the general mood like no one else. In that sense Arvind Kejriwal has been a quick learner. His transformation from activism to politics is almost complete.
Ganguly, who has been booked by the West Bengal Police for her rape remark, is unapologetic about it.

By Devina Gupta: First came the shameful 'rape' comment from the BJP MP Roopa Ganguly for political mudslinging, now is the absurd justification.

Roopa Ganguly, who had dared TMC and Congress leaders to send women from their families to West Bengal and see if they can survive 15 days without getting raped, is unapologetic about her statement.

"There are too many incidents happening in West Bengal. Atrocities against women are very high, beyond being managed. Police don't take cases. According to an NCRB report, there were around 34,000 cases of atrocities against women in the state. People have stopped registering the cases. Since we roam around at the ground level, we know there are so many cases that the police don't register," said BJP MLA Ganguly told India Today.

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Interestingly, NCRB data records from 2015 show that crime against women has indeed dipped in West Bengal from 38,299 cases in 2014 to 33,218 cases reported in 2015. Also, the crime rate figure is cumulative assessment of cases reported including domestic violence and abetment to suicide.

"It is the ground situation, it is the information that I have got. You can come to Bengal, why unnecessarily wasting my time here? Send your crew in West Bengal and check. I won't apologise because I know the ground reality and I stand by my comment. I know the number of women being raped, three consecutive days they were raped. It is my Bengal too, I am not a politician who was there fighting for 20-30 years, I really feel sorry," added Ganguly.

But even as Roopa Ganguly fails to corroborate her claims with any facts, she fired a fresh salvo at Mamata Banerjee of 'fooling' people of West Bengal.

"If Mamata Banerjee was in her time when she was in this situation what ruckus she would have done. I just hope that she was in Opposition, then things would have worked. When she was in Opposition, she would have done something. She also tried to solve something. People trusted her, now they are made fools. Now she is showing her true colours that whatever she was fighting was for the chair," said Roopa Ganguly.

While war of words peaks, it also reaches a fresh low in Bengal politics. TMC MLA Sovan Deb Chattopadhyay countered her with another embarrassing comment.

"First of all she should say how many times she has been raped in Bengal," said Chattopadhyay.

"I am sure he didn't hear what I said. He didn't hear the full comment. I don't mind, he must have not understand what I said. I am forced to behave like this because this is the Bengal that you have created," Roopa Ganguly told India Today.

ALSO READ | BJP leader Roopa Ganguly unperturbed despite police complaint over rape remark

Basirhat violence: How Mamata Banerjee lost the plot in her second term

ALSO WATCH | Stand by my comment, know West Bengal's ground reality: Roopa Ganguly on rape remark

--- ENDS ---

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Patna: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's name plate covered, later removed, in an event to be attended by CM Nitish Kumar. pic.twitter.com/cmvbJkWzXf  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attended a skill development event in the state capital on Saturday without his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, fuelling rumours of a rift in the Bihar Mahagathbandhan.Tejashwi Yadav, who has been booked by the CBI in a corruption case, had been invited to the Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas, but gave the event a miss. His nameplate on the dais was first covered and later removed.Apart from Tejashwi, his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi have also been booked. Lalu has been accused of influencing the awarding of an IRCTC tender when he was the railway minister in 2005 and accepting prime land in return. The land was allegedly transferred to Tejashwi and Rabri via a shell company.On Tejashwis non-appearance at the event, JD(U)s KC Tyagi told CNN-News18, It is not a big deal. You should ask Tejashwi why he did not attend the event.Nitish Kumars JD(U) has ramped up pressure on its alliance partner, asking it to come clean on the allegations."The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition," JD(U) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh told PTI.The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress has 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.The RJD, on the other hand, has ruled out Tejashwis resignation."Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation," Lalu Prasad told the media on Friday after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence."Mahagathbandhan (ruling Grand Alliance) is intact in Bihar and he and his party will not do anything which can give any space to the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to step into Bihar."The BJP has put the onus on Nitish now. Nitish Kumar should suspend him (Tejashwi) now. There is no other option left.... Even Lalu hadnt resigned when the fodder scam chargesheet was filed. The RJD doesnt care about CM (Nitish Kumar), BJP leader and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi told CNN-News18.Speaking to CNN-News18, BJP leader Nitin Naveen said, There is no question of supporting Tejashwi. We (the BJP) are waiting for Nitish Kumars decision.Nitish has to decide if he wants power or stance. He can have one, not both. Either he sticks with Tejashwi and stays in power or he can stick to his no-corruption stance and lose the government.
Shillong: Cattle smuggled from India is harming the economy of Bangladesh, a senior officer of Border Guards of Bangladesh said on Saturday and formally requested the Border Security Force (BSF) to stop it.



"Actually it (cattle smuggling) is harming our economy. If it doesn't come from India then our dairy farmers can go up and we can take care of ourselves," BGB Region Commander Addl Director General Md Zahid Hasan told reporters.



He said, "We have requested BSF to stop smuggling and a lot of other related issues can be resolved by that."



The BGB officer who attended the four-day BSF-BGB Border Coordination Conference also admitted that cattle smuggling was one of the agendas of the conference.



Stating that cattle all by itself cannot walk across the border, Hasan said, "We have requested that such kind of smuggling be stopped because these cattle are coming from deep inside from within India and from West of India."



The BGB region commander and the Meghalaya frontier BSF IG P K Dubey also met Meghalaya's Director General of Police S B Singh and discussed on the issue of cattle smuggling and cross border crimes.



"Action plan has been drawn on intelligence sharing on real time basis on criminal activities on either side of the border, both the forces will promptly act," Hasan said.



The BGB commander has also raised the issue of firing by BSF personnel on Bangladesh nationals.



"There are few in our areas of concern which we have discussed. Some of the incidents categorically were brought before the discussion. We have discussed the issue and we have agreed on certain issues on that and hopefully that will come down to zero," he said.



The Meghalaya Frontier BSF IG P K Dubey said border related issues were discussed in details and efforts have been taken to curb trans-border crimes.



"Our main concerns were killing of innocent Bangladeshi nationals and smuggling of drugs, and also to find out the modalities to build our relationships," he said.



He also said, "We have expressed zero tolerance for smuggling of fire arms and explosives, human trafficking and drugs. We have agreed to enhance the confidence building measures between both the forces on the ground."



The BSF-BGB conference takes place twice a year and the last one was held in Sylhet in November.
Dubai: Iran on Saturday blamed what it called Donald Trumps arbitrary and conflicting policies" for global security threats, rejecting the US president's description of Tehran as a rogue state.



Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.



(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region, said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Irans state news agency IRNA.



President Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them.



Senior Iranian officials have blamed US-allied Saudi Arabia, Irans Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.



Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state.



While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior US official said on Thursday that the president was very likely" to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.
Zingst, Germany: German Chancellor Angela Merkel told voters on Saturday that Britain's decision to leave the European Union and France's election of President Emmanuel Macron had changed her view on the bloc, adding it was worth fighting for a stronger Europe.



Merkel's comments, made in a speech in the Baltic Sea resort town of Zingst two months before a federal election, underline her personal determination to deepen European integration if she is re-elected for a fourth term.



Calling European Union membership one of Germany's biggest strengths, Merkel said last year's Brexit decision and elections in France and the Netherlands, in which pro-European parties defeated populist candidates, had changed her perspective.



"For many people, including myself, something changed when we saw the Britons want to leave, when we were worried about the outcome of the elections in France and the Netherlands," Merkel told voters, some of whom wore straw hats with black-red-and-gold hatbands, the colours of the German flag.



The centre-right chancellor admitted that the EU was far from perfect and that Brussels sometimes was too bureaucratic.



"But we have realized in the past few months that Europe is more than just bureaucracy and economic regulation, that Europe and living together in the European Union have something to do with war and peace, that the decades of peace after World War Two would have been completely unthinkable without the European Union," Merkel said to applause.



Many people in the past had taken the EU and its advantages for granted -- such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to travel, said Merkel who grew up in communist East Germany.



"You don't have all this in many parts of the world. And that's why it is worth fighting for this Europe," Merkel said.



"That's why one of our election placards is saying: If Europe is stronger, then Germany will be stronger. This is directly related."



Merkel has said she is open to proposals of strengthening the single currency through the creation of a euro zone finance minister who would oversee a pooled budget for investments and transfers intended to help member states cushion downturns.
Lahore: Pakistan should grant a visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother on humanitarian grounds as it is an opportunity to lower the temperature in the ties and show that humanity can still shine, Pakistan's leading daily said on Saturday.



Pakistan has repeatedly denied India consular access to Jadhav, and his mother's visa application to visit Pakistan to see her son is pending with the authorities for approval.



In an editorial, the Dawn newspaper said the Pakistan government should grant Jadhav's mother a visa on humanitarian grounds to demonstrate "humanity can still shine through".



It said the visa application was the "latest opportunity" for the two countries to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other.



"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which is any case being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice," the paper said, asserting that the meeting would not undermine Pakistan's case against Jadhav.



"Small gestures can have a way of lowering the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures. Pakistan and India are caught in a trough in relations; the request by Jadhav's mother is an opportunity for both sides to show that humanity can still shine," it said.



Jadhav on June 22 filed a mercy petition before Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.



He had been sentenced to death by a military court in April for espionage and terrorism. International Court of Justice in May halted his execution on India's appeal.



Pakistan claims to have arrested Jadhav from Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.
Colombo: A visiting United Nations envoy said that torture remains "endemic and routine" in Sri Lanka's counterterrorism methods and a number of persons being detained without trial under a harsh anti-terror law is a stain on the country's international reputation.



Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, said at the end of a five-day visit to Sri Lanka Friday that he is concerned that even those arrested as recently as late last year had been subjected to torture despite a new government promising to end such practices.



The abuses continued even after Sri Lanka's bloody civil war ended in 2009 when government troops crushed ethnic Tamil rebels' 26-year campaign for an independent state. Both sides were accused of serious human rights violations in the conflict.



"In Sri Lanka, however, such practices are very deeply ingrained in the security sector and all of the evidence points to the conclusion that the use of torture has been, and remains today, endemic and routine, for those arrested and detained on national security grounds," Emmerson, a British lawyer, said.



The number of deaths in the conflict is not clear, and a conservative UN estimate suggests 100,000 had died. A subsequent UN report said at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting.



Emmerson said that he heard "distressing stories" during his interviews with former and current detainees under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They included asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, the pulling out of fingernails, the insertion of needles beneath the fingernails, the use of various forms of water torture, the suspension of individuals for several hours by their thumbs and the mutilation of genitals.



He said he obtained official figures that said 70 persons detained under the terrorism act had been in detention for more than five years without trial, with 12 for more than 10 years.



"These staggering figures are a stain on Sri Lanka's international reputation. Steps should be taken to release these individuals on bail immediately, or bring them to trial within weeks or months, not years or decades," he said.



Sri Lanka was facing international sanctions for refusing to investigate allegations of human rights violations and war crimes. But the country's outlook changed after the election of a new president, Maithripala Sirisena, whose government co-sponsored a UN resolution in 2015 promising to address the past and ensure accountability and reconciliation.



According to a March report by the International Truth and Justice Project  an evidence-gathering organization administered by a South Africa-based nonprofit foundation  47 of the abuse victims who later fled abroad described being tortured at a Sri Lanka security forces' headquarters. They said the military's chief aim was to learn of any ongoing rebel activity as well as the location of hidden weapons caches, according to the report.



Emmerson said that the fulfillment of the Sri Lankan government's commitments to the UN human rights council has virtually ground to a halt.
Judi Harvey brushed off her straw hat before introducing herself Saturday to the eight people gathered inside the Lynchburg Visitors Center.

Im taking you back in time today, she said. Youre going to go back to Lynchburg during the Civil War. Youre gonna see beautiful sights, youre gonna see and hear stories of what I call unsung heroes. 

Harvey said she wanted the tour to focus those unsung heroes such as Diamond Hill-native Susan Blackford, who broke the Southern code of a womans place being in the house to become a nurse during the Civil War, Harvey said.

Because we know about the people, we know about the generals and we know about everything that happened here, she said. But I like to talk about people that we dont always hear about.

The center offers walking tours of downtown Lynchburgs Civil War history every Saturday in July.

Harvey was leading Saturdays tour because of her passion for the past, she said.

I like to talk, I like the history of Lynchburg, she said. Its a beautiful, historic town. Lets talk about it.

The tour normally lasts about an hour, Harvey said, but she warned the group that it may take a little longer.

We become friends, she said.

Marching the group around the city was routine for Harvey, who has been guiding tours around the Lynchburg area since 2000 and expertly planned stops in shade and avoided high-traffic areas while still allowing the crowd to see Lynchburgs historic sites.

Locals Elaine Jackson and her husband Myles Jackson stood underneath a tree at the corner of 10th and Commerce streets while Harvey explained how a nearby building had been a hospital during the 1860s.

Once the wars wounded flooded the city, Lynchburg responded by building enough hospitals for it to become the biggest hospital city in the South except for Richmond, Harvey said.

This was their first time on the walking tour, Elaine Jackson said, though the two have been on other local historical tours.

The citys got a tremendous amount of history, and if you dont learn a little bit about where you live Myles Jackson trailed off and shook his head.

Harvey gestured to buildings downtown, pointing out the history of a Main Street building built in 1804 that formerly was a tavern.

Harvey then navigated the crew down to the riverwalk, explaining the rivers historical purpose as a transportation hub, just before allowing the group to break for water at Riverviews Artspace.

Rick and Shannon Reynolds, of Lynchburg, brought their out-of-state grandsons, Hunter and Chase Desporte, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on the tour.

We were looking for something that might be interesting for them to learn about Lynchburg, Rick Reynolds said.

The couple said theyve never been on this tour before but have been to some of the citys ghost tours.

Tours serve to educate the city about its past, Shannon Reynolds said.

Because if we dont learn about our past, we dont have any connection to our ancestors, to our country, she said. Its important to know our history, especially because everything today is so transient, so instant.

They really need to see how people really sacrificed and what they did to get us to where we are now.
A case has been filed in Chandili Police Station, but no arrests have been made for the assault and no cattle have been seized till now.

By Shivan Chanana: A software engineer, Kanan, along with his wife and her two friends were brutally assaulted by a mob of armed meat mafia goons on Friday evening.

"It was about 4pm on Friday when all four of us were sightseeing in village Khedapoda, Chandili when we saw some gangster like men armed with sticks and knives, severely beating cattle," said Kanan, who took videos and clicked pictures of the distressed animals before dialling the #100 number for police and senior officials of the locality including SP Rahul. The police, however, did not come to the site.

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"With no response from the police and SP Rahul, we tried reasoning with the goons ourselves. Little did we know, that they would attack us with the same sticks and axes with which they were beating the animals. I was attacked while my wife was molested by these barbarians. They snatched and smashed my phone which had all recordings. It's a miracle we are still alive. Seeing the lawlessness here, would not like to come back to Odisha," Kanan, elaborated further.

Kanan is undergoing treatment. A case has been filed in Chandili Police Station, but no arrests have been made for the assault and no cattle have been seized till now.

SP Rahul evaded India Today's calls and was not available for a comment.

Sources revealed that 1000's of cattle are smuggled for slaughter on foot from Odisha to Andhra Pradesh through the vast rainforest cover in Odisha on a weekly basis. This is the same belt where Kanan and his wife and friends were attacked. This is not the first case of growing lawlessness in Odisha, where criminals are at large and police is missing in action.

RECENT CASES OF ATTACKS

- Earlier this week, in Odisha's Raigada district, animal activists informed police of several hundred cattle being smuggled on foot through the Chandili rainforest area in the middle of the night (with photographs and videos for proof). On arriving at the spot, the police official from Chandili Police was seen ushering cattle smugglers to hide the animals and no case was filed on the grounds that no cattle were found. India Today has access to photographs and videos to prove that cattle were indeed being taken on foot and audio recordings of police officials saying that no cattle were found on the spot.

- Recently, animal lovers Teertho and Niranjan, were pelted with stones and beaten with sticks by meat mafia goons for visiting and clicking photographs at an animal fair, in Kaalapatthar, Beguniya district of Odisha. Niranjan was wounded on the head while Teertho was severely attacked and his wallet, phone and passport were stolen.

- Shifting focus to Karanataka, Thimaraju, an AWBI officer, was thrashed by a mob of meat mafia goons last month, in the presence of police officials, for bringing to light the workings of an illegal slaughter house in Channarayapatna, Hassan district. "I went for a visit with police officials to the illegal slaughterhouse where we found hoards of calves locked inside a small room. On releasing the animals, we were returning towards the PCR van when I heard a mob of butchers chasing me and surprisingly no police officer was there in sight for my protection. I was hit on the head and thrashed in front of the Police PCR van. The police had conveniently vanished for those few minutes."

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This is a brief list of recent cases of attacks by meat mafia goons on tourists, animal lovers, AWBI officers and genuine gau rakshaks. In the above cases, even when police was informed of illegalities in their jurisdiction, no action was taken indicating a strong nexus between the police and the rampant meat-mafia in India which does not spare women or tourists.

ALSO READ:

Cow vigilantes or extortionists? India Today exposes Maharashtra's cow saviours

Mob lynching India's shocking war within, a challenge Narendra Modi must confront

ALSO WATCH THE VIDEO:

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Prakash ordered to pay damages to brother

In a preamble to delivering the ruling, CJ Archie noted while some may say that politics had a morality of its own, freedom of speech was not a complete licence.

He also noted that in society, often times people take the liberty to make toxic, injurious, and downright irresponsible statements.

Ramadhar, former COP chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and founding member Iqbal Hydal were in December 2015, ordered to pay specific sums to Kishore Ramadhar (Prakashs brother), Rudy Hanamji and Satu Ann Ramcharan. In his ruling, Justice Vasheist Kokaram held that the slanderous statements, went beyond the boundaries of responsible speech and based on facts, which were simply not true.

It was a collateral and unrelated attack on the claimants with the intention of bolstering his position as leader of the party and the direction of the party at the expense of the claimants reputation, Kokaram had ruled.

Only Ramadhar appealed the judges ruling and his attorneys, led by Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, argued that the words spoken were neither referable to or defamatory of the three; were covered by qualified privilege; were a proper reply to an attack and were fair comment on a matter of public interest.

In their majority ruling, CJ Archie and Justice of Appeal Gregory Smith dismissed all four grounds argued by Ramadhar and ordered that he pay twothirds costs of the appeal which had to be defended by the three.

Justice Prakash Moosai dissented and his reasons were not immediately available.

In the written ruling, Justice Smith held that the trial judge was patently aware of the law and as the arbiter of the facts, he properly applied the law to the facts and circumstances which were before him at trial. The exercise was fairly performed and in the present case I find no reason to second guess the impressions he formed and the findings he made on the contested facts before him, Smith said.

Ramadhar was ordered to pay his brother $90,000; the same amount to Hanamji and $75,000 to Ramcharan.

The defamation claim filed by the three arose out of statements allegedly made by the COP leader and the partys chairman at a COP National Council meeting on November 10, 2013, regarding a letter dated October 1, 2013, in which the three were accused of sending to the then Opposition PNM, information about the COPs membership.

Ramadhar has stated his intention to appeal this latest ruling at the Privy Council.
With the help of the Interpol and the Internet Watch Foundation, the Centre has managed to block more than 3,500 websites peddling child pornography in the last four months.

By Harish V Nair: The Narendra Modi government has joined forces with international bodies like the Interpol and Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to end the menace of child pornography and online abuse of kids in India. With their help, a total of 3,522 such sites have been blocked in the past four months, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday.

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The apex court had on February 24 noted that there is a surge in photographs and videos on the internet showing kids being sexually exploited and a sharp rise in the number of child pornographic sites while it asked the Centre to act immediately.

"The Interpol maintains a 'worst of list' prepared by the Internet Watch Foundation. They have shared it with the CBI and the government is now ordering the blocking through select internet service providers. Last blocking was done in June 2017 and around 3,522 websites have been blocked," said the Centre's affidavit filed by additional solicitor general Pinky Anand.

According to experts, the advent of digital cameras and camcorders has fuelled an explosion in such material available online.

Mail Today reported in December that the Centre had roped in international police agency Interpol to fight child pornography. The government said an inter-ministerial committee has been formed for curbing online child sex abuse material.

It recommended that till such time a centralised mechanism is built in India to dynamically monitor websites and URLs containing online child sex abuse material (CSAM), the relevant internet service providers should disable or remove such content dynamically based on IWF resources.

It said "the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued an order to Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) and Department of Telecommunications to disable or remove access to child porn sites by adopting IWF list to prevent distribution and transmission of online CSAM into India. The order is to be implemented by relevant ISPs in India".

NO CENTRALISED MECHANISM IN INDIA

Elaborating on why international help was sought, the affidavit said most of the child sex abuse material is being hosted outside India and the websites/URLs to such content are dynamic in nature and frequently changing, making it difficult to block such content.

"No centralised mechanism exists in India to monitor online CSAM", it said. Experts say the advent of digital cameras and camcorders has fuelled an explosion in such material available online.

In 2015, there were 96 reports in India of children being sexually exploited in internet imagery, a rise of 140 per cent from the previous year, according to National Crimes Records Bureau data.

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The SC was hearing PILs filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vaswani and Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association seeking a direction to the government to adopt various measures for the effectiveness of blocking child pornography on Internet.

Interpol is a major source of getting access to websites containing child sexual abuse. The agency maintains a regular update of the "worst" of such sites.

Interpol was tasked by the UN General Assembly in 2009 to maintain and disseminate to the national central bureaus a worldwide list of URLs, which contains these websites that publish the most severe child abuse material.

Ordering a crackdown against child porn, the SC had said that one needs to draw a distinct line between art and obscenity, and child pornography cannot be justified in the name of freedom of speech and expression.

Not just child porn. The SC had asked the Centre to find out "ways and means" to block all kinds of pornography on the internet, saying obscenity, which is a crime under Indian law "cannot be allowed to be perpetuated".

Significantly, the court is also exploring possibility of banning watching of pornographic materials in any form at public places.

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The SC's instructions came despite stiff objection from the Centre, which said it only favoured banning child pornography sites and not "going beyond" considering a citizen's right to privacy and did not want to be seen as "moral policing".

But the court directed the government to "develop a mechanism" for blocking all porn sites with the help of Information Technology experts and service providers.

ALSO READ | Hyderabad: US national held for sharing child porn

ALSO READ | Government ropes in Interpol to help crackdown on child pornography

ALSO WATCH | Activist seeks ban: Sexual contents, pornography used to promote PETA

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No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
They were four young men, three living on Long Island and one visiting, and they all met tragic deaths at the hands of the MS-13 gang, the island's latest scourge over the past year and a half. In the New York Times, Liz Robbins and Nadia T. Rodriguez dive into the problem on the island, where the gang that got its start in LA in the '80s before moving on to Central America and other US cities has "surfaced with a vengeance" in recent months. The Suffolk County police commissioner, Timothy Sini, describes the issue that has infiltrated some of LI's suburbs as a particularly indiscriminate one, noting that if members feel disrespected, feel others aren't playing by the rules, or simply dislike someone, "they will use violence to address it." The Times also notes the challenges faced by immigrant kidswho often flee to the US to escape the violence in their home countriesin trying to stay away from MS-13 here.

Detailed in the read are stories of the four young Latino men involved in the latest spate of gang-related terror: Justin Llivicura, a 16-year-old whose family originally hailed from Ecuador; 18-year-old Jorge Tigre, who came from Ecuador when he was 10; Michael Lopez Banegas, 20, who had left his gang-infested home in Honduras to settle on Long Island; and Jefferson Villalobos, 18, Banegas' cousin who was visiting from Florida, though he'd originally moved there from Honduras. The story documents some of the pieces of what happened on the April night they were killed, as well as their parents' frustration at how the investigation is going. "Sometimes I think if it had been an American boy, that they would be moving heaven and earth," Justin's mother says, which Sini says isn't the case. "We will solve the crime," he vows. More here. (Inside the "brutal" world of MS-13.)
In the late 1600s, three mass executions took place on a rocky ledge on the outskirts of Salem, Mass. Yes, the result of the witch trials. The city-owned site is undeveloped and largely out of view, but a new memorial aims to respectfully commemorate those who lost their lives because of superstition and intolerance, reports the Smithsonian. Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll plans to dedicate the site below what is called Proctor's Ledge on July 19, the same day in 1692 when five womenSarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildeswere hanged from a tree on the ledge. In all, 19 people would be hanged in Salem.

The site gets its name from the local Proctor family. Wealthy landowner John Proctor became a victim of the historic hysteria after he condemned the witch trials and was hanged himself. His grandson, well aware of the site's history, later bought the land. Today, especially around Halloween, tourists flock to Salem to indulge in "ghost tours" and visit sites like the Witch House, where some of the trials took place. Salem is also now home to many practitioners of the Wiccan faith. Volunteers were cleaning up the site this weekend ahead of the ceremony, notes a post at Patch.com. (The actual site of the hangings was only recently verified.)
A New Hampshire state lawmaker has been charged with sexually and physically assaulting a 16-year-old girl last year under the guise of discussing her interest in politics, the AP reports. Republican Rep. Eric Schleien has been charged with one misdemeanor count of sexual assault and two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, Rockingham County Attorney Patricia Conway said Friday. Schleien's attorney said he vehemently denies the allegations. According to police documents, Schleien approached the teen at a cafe on July 20, 2016, and struck up a conversation after he noticed a political sticker on her laptop. She told police they exchanged phone numbers after he suggested he could introduce her to other politicians and help her network and that she agreed to meet him two days later.

Instead of discussing politics, 29-year-old Schleien scared the girl with sexually explicit talk, sucked on her fingers, and groped her inner thigh, she said. The girl told police Schleien described a list of sexual things he wanted to do to her, including "rape" her mouth, and asked her to go to his apartment. She declined. Police say the girl "was afraid to say anything because she was afraid that he would become mad and would do something worse or not take her home." Schleien, through his attorney, claims the girl told him, "I feel very safe around you." Text messages reviewed by police show the girl told a friend during the meeting that she was uncomfortable and scared. The girl reported it to police the next day. Schleien was arrested and charged in April. (Read more sexual assault stories.)
A White House plan under consideration could lead to a vast expansion of the policy to deport undocumented immigrants without a court hearing. According to a memo obtained by the Washington Post, immigrants who are detained and cannot prove they have lived in the US for more than 90 days would face expedited deportations. The Department of Homeland Security would see its powers greatly extended under the plan, which would not require congressional approval. Trump administration officials floated the 13-page internal memo in May. A DHS spokeswoman told the Post the new guidelines are a draft and that no decisions have been made. She said the changes "would allow DHS to more efficiently use resources to remove persons who have been illegally present for relatively brief periods of time while still observing due-process requirements."

Immigration advocates disputed that, saying the changes would be a "radical departure from current policy" that move "one giant step towards implementing Trumps deportation force across the nation." Since a Bush administration change in 2004, the DHS has been permitted to move to expel immigrants nabbed within 100 miles of the border living in the US for less than two weeks. The new rule would apply to immigrants anywhere in the US. Since he took office, President Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration by hiring thousands more Border Patrol agents and building a wall, the Hill notes. The White House has also shelved an Obama administration policy that protected illegal immigrants with no criminal records and who were parents of US citizens. (For now, young "dreamers" are safe under Trump policy.)
Seventy years ago, the US dropped 23 nuclear bombs on Bikini Atollincluding one that was more than 1,000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, per the Guardian. Steve Palumbi calls it "the most destructive thing we have ever done to the ocean." Yet the Stanford marine sciences professor and fellow researchers have found a thriving marine ecosystem in the waters in and around the crater left by the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. Palumbi says their studythe first looking in-depth at the effects of radiation on marine lifeshows marine life is "remarkably resilient." While there are some signs of mutation in nurse sharks in the area, according to USA Today, hundreds of schools of fish are apparently healthy, as are the giant coconut crabs munching on radioactive coconuts.

Perhaps most impressive is the coralsome of it as big as carswhich appears to have started growing as soon as a decade after the bombings. The coral shows no signs of being cancerous, and researchers hope learning why that is could potentially help humans fight cancer in the future, the Stanford Daily reports. "The terrible history of Bikini Atoll is an ironic setting for research that might help people live longer," Phys.org quotes Palumbi as saying. The testing on Bikini Atoll rendered it a nuclear wasteland, one that is still unsafe for human habitation, but the bombs may have ultimately helped the coral, fish, and other marine life currently living there. "In a strange way they are protected by the history of this place ... because they have been left alone," Palumbi tells the Guardian. (Now blowing up on YouTube: secret nuclear test footage.)
A grisly and bizarre animal cruelty case has come to a close in San Jose, with a serial cat killer sentenced to 16 years in jail. Police say Robert Farmer killed at least 16 cats after stealing and torturing them in 2015. Prosecutors also alleged that he sexually abused at least one of the cats, but the 26-year-old avoided having to register as a sex offender, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. He had pleaded guilty to 21 counts of animal cruelty prior to sentencing. Pet owners celebrated the maximum sentence, though Farmer's attorney says he could be released in about 4 years.

Its so hard to grasp I did this, Farmer wrote in a letter read by his attorney in court, per the Mercury News. "It feels like another man committed these crimes, but I know it was me. Neighbors in the Cambrian Park community began sharing stories when their cats started disappearing without a trace. Most of the time, the bodies would turn up discarded in dumpsters or elsewhere. Farmer was arrested after being captured on a pet owner's surveillance camera snatching the family's 17-year-old pet from the property. (Read more animal cruelty stories.)
Wedding dress retailer Alfred Angelo shuttered stores nationwide on Friday, sending brides-to-be into a panic. The Sun Sentinel reports the Florida-based company filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to find a buyer. The chain has at least 60 shops in the US, and its dresses are sold in more than 1,400 spots worldwide. Little information was available for angry brides who vented on social media after finding they were shut out of shops holding their gowns. "I'm glad orange is my wedding color because I'm gonna be married in jail if I can't get my dresses," one woman tweeted. Alfred Angelo hasnt commented, but company lawyer Patricia Redmond tells the Sun Sentinel she has been bombed with more than 3,500 emails from worried brides.

Redmond says the chain will work with a court-appointed trustee to release all the gowns in the shops. With her wedding a week away, Yadira Castro, 27, was no doubt hoping that was the case. "I dont have the money to buy a new dress," she tells the newspaper, after paying $1,200 for an ensemble featuring a gown inspired by the Disney character Princess Jasmine. Some customers blamed Alfred Angelo workers for not being honest, but one mother tells the New York Times an employee in the Houston shop found her daughters dress and "gave us one hour" to pick it up Friday morning. "We have a happy ending," she says. Meanwhile, competitors liked David's Bridal rushed to offer discounts and alterations for betrayed brides and bridesmaids. (This wedding registry is not for everyone.)
North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested five nuclear bombs. Officials and experts say it could test a sixth at any time, despite US -led international efforts to curb its program.

By Reuters: Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile, a US think tank said on Friday.

The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project, was based on satellite images of the radio-chemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June, amid rising international concerns over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

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The think tank said images of the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate operation of centrifuges that could be used to increase North Korea's stock of enriched uranium, its other source of bomb fuel.

There were signs too of at least short-term activity at North Korea's Experimental Light Water Reactor that could be cause for concern, 38 North said.

The images of the radio-chemical laboratory showed there had been at least two reprocessing cycles not previously known aimed at producing "an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile," something that would worry US officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world's top security threats.

It was unclear if the thermal activity detected at the uranium plant was the result of centrifuge operations or maintenance.

It said the thermal patterns at the plant's isotope/tritium production facility suggested it was not operational and was therefore not producing tritium, an essential isotope used in boosted yield and hydrogen weapons.

North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested five nuclear bombs. Officials and experts say it could test a sixth at any time, despite US -led international efforts to curb its program.

Pyongyang said its penultimate test in January 2016 was of a hydrogen bomb, something experts have treated with skepticism.

North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and last week tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said could hit all of Alaska and parts of the US Pacific Northwest.

Frustrated that China, North Korea's main trading partner, has not done more to rein in Pyongyang, the Trump administration could impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other companies doing business with Pyongyang within weeks, two senior US officials told Reuters this week.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been seeking to overcome resistance from China and Russia to a UN Security Council resolution imposing stiffer international sanctions on Pyongyang.Experts at 38 North estimated in April that North Korea could have as many as 20 nuclear bombs and could produce one more each month.

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ALSO READ

North Korea displays 'new' missiles as US carrier group approaches

Chinese tabloid warns North Korea against nuclear and missile tests

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The first woman to win the Fields Medalessentially math's version of the Nobel Prizehas died at the age of 40 after a battle with breast cancer, NPR reports. According to AFP, Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born Stanford professor, won the award in 2014 for her work in geometry and dynamical systems, specifically in regards to curved surfaces. "A light was turned off today," a friend wrote on Instagram. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Mirzakhani's passing has caused "great sorrow."

Mirzakhani, who was the first Iranian woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, originally wanted to be a writer before surrendering to her passion for math. "It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out," she once said of mathematics. In a statement, Stanford called Mirzakhani "ambitious, resolute, and fearless." (Read more Maryam Mirzakhani stories.)
The US and Canada are suspending their official efforts to free North Atlantic right whales tangled in fishing lines after the death of a rescuer during an operation Monday. NPR reports former Canadian fisherman and whale rescue expert Joe Howlett had just cut a right whale free from fishing lines when it fatally struck him as it swam away. His death is being called a "devastating tragedy" by other whale rescuers. Following Howlett's death, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries division says NOAA "is suspending all large whale entanglement response activities nationally until further notice" while it reviews how it handles emergency situations.

The Canadian government is likewise temporarily freezing its efforts to free right whales while it reviews how its Fisheries Department responds to whale entanglements, the Canadian Press reports. It will continue to offer help untangling other whale species on a case-by-case basis. According to the Washington Post, it's unclear how long the moratoriums will last and how nonprofit groups that had been authorized by the US and Canada to free trapped whales will respond. It's also unclear how the halt of official rescue operations will affect right whales themselves. The whales are critically endangered, with only about 500 believed to be left in the wild. (Read more whales stories.)
Virat and Anushka at a grocery store in the US

New York : Couple Virushka (Virat-Anushka) were spotted together doing grocery shopping in New York, where Miss Sharma has arrived to attend the 18th India International Film Awards.

A fan shared their picture on the social media in which Anushka is looking beautiful in a short blue dress while Virat can be seen sporting a black T-Shirt paired with blue denim jeans.

In the picture, they are apparently trying to make a choice on what should they pick. Below are some of the moments fans shared on a social media platform.

A couple of days back, Virat Kohli has shared a picture of him and Anushka, declaring that the couple is on a vacation in the US these days.

Anushka Sharma will be seen next in upcoming movie Jab Harry Met Sejal, that is scheduled to release on August 21.
Granting a visa to the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav would provide India and Pakistan an opportunity

Islamabad : Granting a visa to the mother of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav would provide India and Pakistan an opportunity to show that humanity "can still shine through" and help lower the temperature in bilateral ties, a Pakistani daily said on Saturday.

In an editorial titled 'Visa for Jadhav's mother', Dawn said the visa application Jadhav's mother to meet her son, sentenced to death for alleged spying, "is the latest opportunity for India and Pakistan to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other".

It said the reasons for Jadhav's conviction and incarceration suggest that Pakistan may not be legally required to allow his mother to visit him or indeed grant her a visa at all, "but it ought to be considered on humanitarian grounds".

The editorial said there is some time before Jadhav exhausts his legal options, and a meeting between mother and son "would be humane and in no way undermine Pakistan's case against him".

"A meeting between mother and son is very different to granting consular access, which in any case is being litigated by India in the International Court of Justice."

"Indeed, were Jadhav's mother allowed to meet her incarcerated son, it may even have the benefit of indirectly demonstrating that the convicted spy is being treated according to the law and his safety is being taken care of inside a Pakistani prison," the editorial said.

But it added that such a visit would not automatically reverse the growing chasm between India and Pakistan.

"But small gestures can have a way of lowering the temperature in the overall relationship between India and Pakistan and opening the door to further sensible measures."

Pakistan on Thursday said it was considering India's request to grant a visa to Jadhav's mother, but New Delhi said it had no knowledge about this.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday complained that Pakistan was yet to give a visa to Jadhav's mother thought she had personally written to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz regarding a visa to Avantika Jadhav, who is reportedly languishing in an unknown military prison in Pakistan.
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Angry over the delay in allowing NRIs the right to vote, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to submit a plan within one week on how it intends to go about ensuring that NRIs can cast ballots from abroad.

The Supreme Court has given Narendra Modi government a week's time to decide how it wants to implement the amendment

By Harish V Nair: In a big leap towards permitting a 25 million-strong NRI population to vote in Indian elections from abroad, the Supreme Court on Friday said it had to be done at any cost, and asked the Modi government to decide within one week how it plans to go about it.

A bench of chief justice J S Khehar and justice D Y Chandrachud was angry the government had not made the necessary amendments (of the Act or Rules) in the Representation Of Peoples Act to allow the voting by NRIs, despite repeated assurances to the court.

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"This is a petition of 2014. Every year you keep saying 'we will amend'. You said this in 2014, 15, 16 and again ... this is not the way your government runs," an angry CJI Khehar told the Central government's counsel.

The court was hearing PILs filed by two NRIs - Shamsheer V P, an NRI from Kerala, and Nagender Chindam, Chairman of the UK-based Pravasi Bharat - seeking the voting rights. "The US lets you vote from space. Texas laws have allowed astronauts the right to vote when on a space mission. Here, NRIs are pleading for it," said Chindam.

Until now, due to the high cost of travel and time involved, only a minuscule population of NRIs came to India to cast vote. E-voting will allow them to vote without having to fly during elections.

In e-voting, a blank postal ballot paper is emailed to the voter, who has to then fill it and mail it by post to their constituency. At a previous hearing, the government had accepted the Election Commission's (EC) view that the option of voting through an epostal ballot system could be considered for the NRIs.

In December 2016, the Centre had said it accepted the EC's proposal in this regard, claimed it formulated a draft bill, and told the court that steps are being taken to get the Representation of People Act 1951 amended. But things have not moved since.

ALSO READ | Supreme Court directs Centre to move ahead with e-voting for NRIs

ALSO READ | This IIM graduate may shield Election Commission from Arvind Kejriwal's allegations

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Beijing:

US tech giant Apple on Saturday announced that it is setting up its first data centre in China, becoming the first company to comply with a new strict law that requires foreign firms to store Chinese users information within the country.

The centre in the southern province of Guizhou, part of a USD 1 billion investment there, will be operated with a local data management company, the company said.

Apple said in a statement that the new centre would keep strong data privacy and security protections in place, adding that no back doors would be created in its systems, the New York Times reported.

The addition of this data centre will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly-passed regulations,? the company said.

The data centre in Guian New Area plans to offer iCloud services on the Chinese mainland.

The new centre will run entirely on renewable energy and will become a pilot green data centre project in southern China.

Lisa Jackson, Apples vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, said Guizhous efforts in sustainable development had been impressive and the province was one of the most promising places in China to set up date centres.

Apple is the first foreign firm to announce amendments to its data storage for China after the digital security regulations approved last month require foreign firms to store Chinese users? information within the country.

The rules also call for security reviews and for users of messaging apps to register their real identities. The regulations are part of a wider Chinese industrial policy put into place to build local capabilities.

China generates 25 per cent of all Apples profits and is the companys second-largest market.

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New Delhi:

Goverment on Saturday launched a GST training programme under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna. Through this programme around two lakh people will be trained, and those trained people will then further help in businesses especially in areas such as registration and calculation of tax liability under the new tax regime. Skill development minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said at an event organise to mark the second anniversary of Skill India Mission,that this training program will implemented in 14 states.

Rudy along with Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Oi lMinister Dharmendra Pradhan, Health Minister J P Nadda, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar digitally inaugurated the trainingcourse at 100 centres in the country.

The ministry also launched a national portal for assessors and trainers besides 51 new PMKVY centres. With this, the total number of PMKVY centres has increased to 200.



Few days back goverment also launched an app called GST Rate Finder, through this one can easily check what is the GST rate on any particular thing. All these steps can be seen as goverments initiative to facilitate the business and day to day activity in new Gst regime.

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New Delhi:

The Special Investigation Team, constituted to investigate the terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims, on Friday detained PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir's driver for questioning.



A resident of Pulwama, driver Touseef Ahmad, was deputed as MLA's driver by state police seven months ago.



Apart from the PDP legislators driver, two other locals have also been arrested for their alleged involvement in the said terror attack, reports said.



IGP Muneer Kahn said Touseef, who has been found to have links with militants, is being questioned. "He is cooperating with us and spilling the beans," he said.

J&K police constituted a six-member special investigation team (SIT) on Friday to probe the Amarnath attack.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 12 injured when terrorists opened fire at a patrol vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on Monday night.

Also read:

Amarnath Yatra terror attack: J&K police constitutes SIT to probe case

Amarnath terror strike: 2 Pakistanis among 4 terrorists involved in attack, says govt



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New Delhi:

How about reaching your destination, 720 km away, in just 2.5 hours by train? Well a bullet train project is currently underway and it will connect Delhi and Varanasi, a report has said. The travel time will be reduced by 9.5 hours, thanks to the high speed train, it said.



The project, which will connect Varansi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis Lok Sabha constituency, with the national capital has reportedly been taken up on priority.

Travelling from Delhi to Lucknow, covering a distance of 440 km will take one hour and 38 minutes once the bullet train is operational, a railway official was quoted as saying by Times of India. The bullet train is capable of touching speeds up to 250 km/hour.



The project is part of the Delhi-Kolkata high-speed corridor (1474.5 km). Spanish firm M/s INECO-TYPSA-ICT had conducted a feasibility study of the project and submitted the final draft report to the high-speed rail corporation and railway board on Thursday, a Times Of India report said.



A fare of Rs 4.5 per km could be the base fare, which means, a trip from Delhi to Lucknow will cost at least Rs 1,980 and Delhi to Varanasi around Rs 3,240, the report said.



The Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor scheduled to begin in September this year, and the Mumbai-Nagpur stretch which is in the advanced stage of getting approvals are some of the other projects, it said.

Once approved, the Delhi-Lucknow stretch will be operational by 2029, while the Delhi-Varanasi one by 2031, the report said.

ALSO READ | Mission Raftaar: Indian Railways to train 500 employees abroad for upcoming bullet trains



The Delhi-Varanasi stretch will pass through Greater Noida, Aligarh, Lucknow, Sultanpur and Jaunpur, while the main terminal will be in Delhi near Akshardham Temple, it said.



For the 720 km Delhi-Varanasi stretch, the estimated preliminary cost is expected to be around Rs 52,680, while for the 1474.5km Delhi-Kolkata corridor, it could be around 1.21 lakh crore, the report said.

ALSO READ | China's fastest bullet train Fuxing with maximum speed of 400 kmph makes debut

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New Delhi:

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met Home Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi to discuss the issue of terrorism in Kashmir valley and terror attacks on pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra.

Speaking to media Mufti said that 'outside' forces are responsible for using Kashmir to spread communal riots in India.

Mufti also raises concern over Chinas role in Kashmir valley and said that China is responsible for the turmoil in the state. J&K CM also said that steps will be taken to stop Pakistans terror funding activities.

J&K CM also said that all political parties of the country are united to provide solution to Kashmir problem.

During the meeting that lasted about half-an-hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley.

On article 270 of the Indian Constitution, Mufi said that article 370 is associate with sentiments of people of Kashmir.

Mehbooba Mufti said that she will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the present situation in the Kashmir valley.

ALSO READ: Tral encounter: J&K Police foils major attack, 2-3 terrorists killed

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, officials said.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 by-poll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

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The conditions are related to Pakistan's support to terrorists and terror outfits.

By Press Trust of India: The US House of Representatives has voted for three legislative amendments to impose tougher conditions for reimbursement of defence funding to Pakistan, making it conditional to Islamabad showing satisfactory progress in the fight against terrorism.

The conditions are related to Pakistan's support to terrorists and terror outfits, about which several top US officials and lawmakers have repeatedly expressed concern about in the past.

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All the three legislative amendments to the USD 651 billion National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018 were adopted by a voice vote by the lower house of the Congress yesterday.

NDAA-2018, which authorises the annual defence expenses for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2017 was adopted by the House 344-81.

The bill, as passed by the House requires the Secretary of Defence to certify, prior to making any reimbursement to Pakistan, that Islamabad is maintaining security along the Ground Lines of Communication through Pakistan, taking demonstrable steps to support counterterrorism operations, disrupting cross border attacks, and countering the threat of improvised explosive devices.

It also specifies that of the total amount of reimbursement and support authorised for Pakistan during the period beginning on October 1, 2017, and ending on December 31, 2018-- USD 400 million-- would not be eligible for a national security waiver unless the Secretary of Defence certifies that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations against the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan.

The Defence Secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan is demonstrating commitment to preventing the Haqqani network from using North Waziristan as a safe haven, and is actively coordinating with the Government of Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, including the Haqqani Network, along the Pak-Afghan border.

Two of these amendments were moved by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and one by Ted Poe.

"Today, Congress took a step forward to end Pakistan's betrayal of the US with the addition of an additional certification requirement," said Poe, a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation & Trade.

One of Poe's amendment, as passed by the House proposes to withhold reimbursement funding for Pakistan unless the Secretary of Defence can certify that Pakistan is not providing military, financial, or logistical support to any individuals designated by the US as a terrorist operating in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

NDAA, as passed by the House, now requires that the Pentagon assess Pakistan's support for known terrorists before handing over US dollars to Islamabad, Poe said.

"Making excess military equipment available to federal, state, and law enforcement agencies along our southern border will provide much-needed support and reinforcements to the men and women who are our first line of defence," he said.

"It is well known that Pakistan is a Benedict Arnold ally who supports multiple terrorist organisations, including groups that target Americans working to stabilise Afghanistan.

"But current limitations on military reimbursement funding to Pakistan only apply to one terrorist group: the Haqqani Network," Poe said in a statement.

The legislative amendment moved by Rohrabacher adds a stipulation requiring that, prior to the disbursement of certain funds, the Secretary of Defence certify to Congress that Pakistan is not using its military or any funds or equipment provided by the US to persecute minority groups seeking political or religious freedom.

Another Rohrabacher amendment expresses a sense of Congress that Shakil Afridi is an international hero and that the Government of Pakistan should release him immediately from prison.

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"Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician, is a hero to whom the people of the United States, Pakistan and the world owe a debt of gratitude for his help in finally locating Osama bin Laden before 10 more innocent American, Pakistani and other lives were lost to this terrorist leader," the amendment said.

Pakistan's imprisonment of Afridi presents a serious and growing impediment to the United States' bilateral relations with Pakistan, said the amendment as passed by the House of Representatives.

Also Read:

US House passes bill worth over 600 billion dollars to boost defence co-operation with India

Pakistan a Benedict Arnold ally, supports terrorism: US Republican lawmaker

Also Watch:

Prime Minister Modi, President Donald Trump address joint conference, speak about terrorism

--- ENDS ---

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New Delhi:

In a bid to tackle the abnormal rise in caesarean section operations in India, Health Ministry has directed all private hospitals to present data of Caesarean and normal deliveries prominently.

Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi has expressed her concerns to Union Health Minister JP Nadda asking him to make it mandatory for private hospitals empanelled with the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) to display the data of C-section and normal deliveries.

According to the reports, Gandhi has pointed out that while the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that deliveries through C-Section should normally be in the range of 10-15 per cent of the total deliveries, the percentage is 54 and 34, respectively, in states like Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Read more: AIIMS seats vacant, may hire retired professors on contract as faculty

She has also asseretd that repeated C-section surgeries will also affect the reproductive health of a woman.

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New Delhi:

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that all countries have condemned Amarnath terror attack but it is surprising that we didnt hear anything from China.

The way they (China) should condemn the cross border terrorism, it hasn't been done by China, said Mufti.

Speaking on situation in J&K, Mufti said that situation in the state is not of law and order, external dimensions are there where the neighbouring country gets involved and it is internal too.

Earlier in the day, Mufti met Home Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi to discuss the issue of terrorism in Kashmir valley and terror attacks on pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra.

Speaking to media Mufti said that 'outside' forces are responsible for using Kashmir to spread communal riots in India.

Mufti also raises concern over Chinas role in Kashmir valley and said that China is responsible for the turmoil in the state. J&K CM also said that steps will be taken to stop Pakistans terror funding activities.

J&K CM also said that all political parties of the country are united to provide solution to Kashmir problem.

On article 270 of the Indian Constitution, Mufti said that article 370 is associate with sentiments of people of Kashmir.

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New Delhi:

Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Satora area of Tral on Saturday morning. The encounter broke at around 8:15 AM on Saturday. At least three terrorists were expected to be trapped. The operation is still underway.



A senior police officer said the bodies of the terrorists were yet to be recovered and that the exchange of fire continued.



The encounter began after militants opened fire on security forces who were carrying out a search operation in Satoora forest area of Tral, 36 kms from Srinagar.



The police officer said the search operation was launched on information about the presence of some militants there.

#Visuals Two terrorists killed in an encounter with security forces in Satora area of Tral (J&K), operation underway. pic.twitter.com/ccQZg5N8Ct  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

LIVE Updates:

#12:52 PM

-2 bodies visible, some of them have entered in cave, the exchange of fire is still on. I hope some more will be eliminated: J&K DGP SP Vaid



-Exact outfit is not known. They are looking like foreign terrorists, it must be Jaish: J&K DGP SP Vaid on Tral encounter

#12:00 PM

- The J&K Police has now confirmed that around 7 or 8, not three terrorists are trapped in the encounter location in Tral. At least 2-3 have been killed, sources said. Police are also using choppers in the encounter.

Last week, seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 12 injured when terrorists opened fire at a patrol vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on Monday night. The Government has since constituted a Special Investigation Team to track down the culprits, in addition to Indian Army's ongoing cordon and search operation throughout the state.

Suggested read: Amarnath Yatra attack: PDP MLA's driver spills beans on terrorists' plot in interrogation

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New Delhi:

Pakistan on Saturday resorted to shelling along the Line of Control in Rajourias Manjakote. As per reports, soldier, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was martyred in unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Rajouri sector.

Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, 35-year-old from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, the spokesman said.

aPakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around 1330 hours today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively,a he said.

There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote areas.

aIn the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries,a he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.

aThe nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty,a the spokesman added.

Earlier on Wednesday, two Army jawans were killed on Wednesday as Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire in the Keran sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.

On Tuesday, three militants were killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in central Kashmir's Budgam district.

On June 22, the Indian Army gunned down two terrorists and foiled an infiltration bid in Kupwara's Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir along the LoC.

With PTI inputs

#WATCH: Shelling by Pakistan along the Line of Control in Rajouri's Manjakote in Jammu and Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/YxPTrdxvoF a ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

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New Delhi:

There seems to be no end to rift between Bihars ruling coalition parties Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal. Latest in the Mahagathbandhan rift, Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadavs name was on Saturday removed from the invitation of a government function hosted by Nitish Kumar Government in Patna.



In another gaffe, despite being not invited a nameplate for Yadav was still put out, which the bureaucrats first tried and hide and then ended up removing altogether.



On Friday, JD(U) ramped up pressure on alliance partner RJD over the corruption case involving Tejashwi, asking it to come clean on the allegations against him. Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.

Suggested read: RJD-JD(U) showdown: Nitish may sack Tejashwi from cabinet, say sources



Amid a growing rift in the coalition on the issue, state Janata Dal (United) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) should provide facts and not display arrogance of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.



The RJD, which is showing the arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition, he told PTI.



The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.



The Assembly has representation from the CPI(ML), the HAM (Secular), the LJP and the RLSP among others.



Singh was reacting to the 80-MLA remark of Ram Chandra Purve, the Bihar unit chief of the RJD.

Suggested read: JDU asks RJD to come clean on allegations against Tejashwi Yadav in land-for-hotels case



In Delhi, JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would never compromise on the issue of corruption.



Nitish Kumars stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it, he said.



Asked what his party expected from the RJD over the charges against Tejashwi, Tyagi said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over the allegations, an issue his party had made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.



Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhis intervention to defuse the crisis in the Grand Alliance and only welcomed such a suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.



Meanwhile, Lalu rubbished reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had called him up to mediate with Nitish over the Tejashwi issue.



There has been no conversation between Sonia Gandhi and me on this issue. I totally reject this, he said tonight.



He, however, said he could say whether Gandhi had talked to Nitish on this.Earlier in Patna, state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary met Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, after the RJD chief reached here from Ranchi in the evening. He spoke to Prasad for nearly half an hour.



After the meeting, Choudhary said that the Grand Alliance was intact.



Grand Alliance is intact. There is respect for both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in the Grand Alliance. There is no reason for BJP to be happy (that coalition is breaking), he told reporters.



Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said the Bihar chief minister should take a decision on his association with the RJD at the earliest as Lalu Prasad could break the JD(U) to form a government of his own.



The Congress said the Grand Alliance in Bihar was intact.



It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb (syncretic culture) of Bihar, party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.



To a question on the remarks of some alliance leaders that Sonia should intervene to resolve the present crisis, he said functionaries of all the three parties should consult their leaders, including Nitish Kumar, before speaking on the issue.



JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, in an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi, said those against whom accusations have been levelled should explain the source of their assets to silence the opposition.



His colleague Sunil Singh echoed similar views and made it clear that the party would in no case compromise with the clean image of Nitish Kumar, saying the JD)U) president was known for his politics of principles and zero-tolerance to corruption.



A section of the media reported that Tejashwi had made up his mind to tender resignation and the decision to this effect could be announced after the return of Lalu Prasad tomorrow from Ranchi, where he had gone for appearances in courts in fodder scam-related cases.



However, Tejashwi, in a tweet, ridiculed these reports.



Some media in the name of utpati (destructive) sources is running one-point programme of the BJP...I feel like laughing at it loudly (sic), he said.

Suggested read: FIR not sufficient reason for resignation of Tejashwi, we will not let alliance fall down in Bihar, says Lalu

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New Delhi:

The issue with China and growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were on Friday briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.



Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that nation is firstbe it China or Kashmir.



There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament, both the leaders said.



Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Suggested read: Rahul Gandhi defends meeting Chinese envoy, says 'it's my job to be informed on critical issues'



Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien said that his party raised some serious questions and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.



The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday.



The opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation in the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the governments action.



Others who attended the meetingconsidered an effort to build consensus on dealings with Indias biggest neighbour and Kashmirincluded Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).



New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

Suggested read | Sikkim standoff: China ups the ante, state media warns India of third-country army invasion in Kashmir on behalf of Pak



China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Armys construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.



CPI-M General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute.



Union minister Paswan said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam.



Everybody promised support to the government, he said.



On Jammu and Kashmir, governments chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on July 10.



The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine last yea and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till Friday. The yatra will continue till August 7.



Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Suggested read: PM Modis policies created space for terrorists in Kashmir, says Rahul Gandhi



Four districts of the statePulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnagare on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.



The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.



Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.



He also alleged that the prime ministers pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.

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New Delhi:

Twitter is buzzing with news alerts from India and rest of the world. Here are the latest updates from the micro-blogging site in one scroll:

#11:20 PM

Four members of a family allegedly commit suicide in Gulbarga, Karnataka. Police begin investigation

#11:19 PM

Fire which broke out in IOCL depot in Siliguri is now under control

#10:43 PM

Cloudburst in Gundana area of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir- ANI

#9:35 PM

Fire broke out in five Indian Oil Corporation tankers at IOCL Depot in West BengalA Siliguri more than 10 fire tenders present

#8:55 PM

Gujarat: MI-17V5 helicopter of IAF airlifted four people stuck amidst raging flood waters in Gamtal near Dhrangadhara,landed at a safe place- ANI

#8:20 PM

Lucknow: Fire in King George Medical College Trauma Center; patients evacuated- ANI

#8:07 PM

MP: Clicking selfies near water bodies and while boating & driving prohibited on the orders of the DM under Sec 144 CrPC 1973 in Jabalpur- ANI

#8:00 PM

Wimbledon: GarbiAe Muguruza defeats Venus Williams 7-5,6-0 to clinch Women's Singles title- ANI



#7:39 PM

Four naxals arrested in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur

#7:24 PM

It may be mentioned that there is no change made in taxation of legal services in the #GST era: GoIA

#7:06 PM

Police arrested a person yesterday for allegedly using forged letter of EAM Swaraj to get heli-tickets to Mata Vaishno Devi cave shrine

#7:00 PM

Madhur Bhandarkar is a good filmmaker and my favourite. #InduSarkar is a controversy because of the period it is based in: Bappi Lahiri- ANI

#6:48 PM

Lewis Hamilton on pole for British Formula One Grand Prix Silverstone- AFP



#5:50 PM

We've taken on board some transgender women. There's news that they don't get regular accommodation: E George,MD,Kochi Metro Rail Ltd

4:40 PM

Terrorists lob grenade on police and CRPF patrolling party in Kulgam's Laroo in J&K. One CRPF personnel injured

#4:22 PM

Indu Sarkar's press conference at a Pune hotel cancelled says director Madhur Bhandarkar as Congress workers protested, created ruckus

#4:00 PM

Nagaland: NH29 completely cut off in Kohima district's Viswema village due to landslide

#3:47 PM

The absconding accused Mukul Hazarika is Chairman and Paresh Barua is Vice chairman of ULFA(I)

#3:44 PM

NIA Guwahati files charge sheet against arrested ULFA terrorist Gagan Hazarika&2 other absconding accused before Special NIA Court, Guwahati-ANI

#2:45 PM

When there is no confidence motion tabled against me there is no point of me going to the floor: ShArhozelie Liezietsu, Nagaland CM



#2:35 PM

ICC Women's World Cup 2017: New Zealand win the toss and elect to field first against India at Derby- ANI

#2:05 PM

Maharashtra: Rain lashes parts of Mumbai, leads to water-logging- ANI

#1:55 PM

Lucknow Fire department conducted a mock drill at the Uttar Pradesh Assembly- ANI

#1:55 PM

Central Board of Direct Taxes's Aaykar Setu App, launched by FM on July 10th, is getting more than 10,000 download a day: CBDT Chairman- ANI

#1:50 PM

Chhattisgarh: A naxal arrested from Potenar forests of Bijapur's Jangla area- ANI

#1:45 PM

Byculla Jail riots:State Commission for Protection of Child Rights visited Byculla Jail to investigate if children were used as human shield- ANI

#1:15 PM

ATS conducted an extensive security check-up of the assembly on July 14, pan masala packets etc. were found at many places: UP ATS- ANI

#1:04 PM

A

A

#12:22 PM

Lucknow (UP): ATS team reached UP assembly- ANI

#11:57 AM

Delhi: Four sanitation workers fell into a septic tank in Ghitorni, rescue operations underway.- ANI

#11:55 AM

Germany confirms two nationals killed in Egypt resort attack- AFP

#11:37 AM

Delhi: J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti arrives at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence.- ANI



#11:00 AM

A

President distributes LPG connections under PM Ujjwala Yojana,at an event marking completion of 50% of the target of 5Cr connections in 3yrs pic.twitter.com/0PTrEL5ToR a ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

A

#10:24 AM

Srinagar (J&K): 251 recruits inducted into Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment today, visuals from the 'Passing Out Parade' ceremony- ANI

#10:20 AM

Trump administration moves SC against judge's ruling on travel ban- PTI

#10:17 AM

US House imposes conditions for defence funding to Pakistan- PTI

#10:06 AM

Lucknow: Security increased at Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after explosive substance PETN was found inside the assembly yesterday- ANI

#9:53 AM

Uttarakhand: National Highway 125 closed at Champawat district's Chalthi due to heavy rainfall and landslide.- ANI

#9:40 AM

A

Gujarat: Flood-like situation in Morbi's Tankara due to cloudburst& heavy rainfall. More than 1400 people rescued to safe places (14.07.17) pic.twitter.com/uXAFEeAIxH a ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

A

#9:35 AM

Madhya Pradesh: Khandwa collector Abhishek Singh says "Kishore Kumar's house will not be demolished".- ANI

#9:29 AM

Himachal Pradesh: An earthquake measuring 3.3 on Richter scale hit Sirmaur- ANI

#8:43 AM

Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on Saturday- ANI

#8:30 AM

J&K: Two terrorists killed in an encounter with security forces in Satora area of Tral, operation underway- ANI

#8:12 AM

J&K: An encounter begins between security forces and terrorists in Satora area of Tral, more details awaited- ANI

#7:40 AM

A

#WATCH: Woman beaten up brother-in-law & friends in Punjab's Patiala allegedly for giving birth to girl&over dowry demands, 2 arrested(14/7) pic.twitter.com/d0mpjl0EO6 a ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

A

#7:23 AM

Assam: A tiger cub rescued by locals from a tree in flood affected area of Kamrup's Nagarbera (July 14).- ANIA

#7:01 AM

China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo cremated: state media- AFP

#6:24 AM

Raul Castro warns of "a setback" in US-Cuba relations- AFP



#11:46 PM (14/07/17)

Bodies of a boy and girl found hanging in a hotel room in Delhi's Dwarka. Investigation underway- ANI

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New Delhi:

US space agency NASA sending humans on Mars has been one of the most discussed topics among the scientists and space enthusiasts for years. However, in what could be termed as a disappointing development, NASA has admitted that it cannot afford to send humans on Mars.

NASA opened about on the topic in a meet of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts which was held on July 12. NASA has been grabbing headlines for years regarding its future possibility to send humans on Mars.



However, there are constraints especially with too little funds and NASA says landing humans on Mars will be a huge challenge.



I cant put a date on humans on Mars, and the reason really isat the budget level we described, this roughly two per cent increase, we dont have the surface systems available for Mars, said William Gerstenmaier, NASAs chief of human spaceflights, Ars Technica reported. And that entry, descent, and landing is a huge challenge for us for Mars.



The future Mars missions that include making Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft is costing too much to NASA. The US space agency, as a result, cannot afford to start designing vehicles to land on Mars or ascend the surface, according to the report.



Meanwhile, private companies like blue Origins and SpaceX are preparing for Mars mission. SpaceX founder Elon Mask has even announced plans to make human colonies on Mars aims to send humans to the red planet in 2025.



Vice President Mike Pence had earlier hinted on commercial space  a kind of contracting NASA used to fund its commercial cargo and crew programs. "The truth is that American business is on the cutting edge of space technology," he had said.



However, since NASA has the support to extensive Moon surface program, Gerstenmaier opened the door to the possibility of landing humans on Moon again.



If we find out theres water on the Moon, and we want to do more extensive operations on the Moon to go explore that, we have the ability with Deep Space Gateway to support an extensive Moon surface program, he said. If we want to stay focused more toward Mars we can keep that.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Havana:

Cuban President Raul Castro denounced President Donald Trumps tougher line on relations with Havana on Saturday, calling it a setback but promising to continue working to normalise ties between the former Cold War rivals.

Castros comments to Cubas National Assembly were his first on Trumps June announcement of a partial rollback of the Cuba-US detente achieved by then-President Barack Obama.

They contained echoes of the harsh rhetoric of the past.

Any strategy that seeks to destroy the revolution either through coercion or pressure or through more subtle methods will fail, Cubas president told legislators.

He also rejected any lessons on human rights from the US, saying his country has a lot to be proud about on the issue.

Surrounded by Cuban-American exiles and Cuban dissidents in Miami, Trump announced last month that the US would impose new limits on US travelers to the island and ban any payments to the military-linked conglomerate that controls much of the islands tourism industry.

He said the US would consider lifting those and other restrictions only after Cuba returned fugitives and made a series of other internal changes including freeing political prisoners, allowing freedom of assembly and holding free elections.

Trumps policy retained elements of Obamas reforms but tightened restrictions on travel and employed harsh rhetoric on human rights.

On Friday in Washington, the Trump administration said it was suspending for another six months a provision of the US embargo on Cuba.

The State Department said it told Congress that it will keep suspending a provision of the Helms-Burton Act that deals with property seized from Americans. The provision lets Americans use US courts to sue non-American companies that operate and deal with property confiscated after Fidel Castros revolution.

Speaking to the National Assembly, Castro called the Trump administrations policies a setback, though he reiterated his governments position that it would work to normalize relations with Washington.

Earlier in the legislative session, Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas announced that Cubas economy is growing again after a dip last year.

Cabrisas said the economy grew around 1 percent in the first half of 2017. That puts GDP growth on track to hit 2 percent for the year.

The government said the economy shrank last year by 1 per cent amid falling support from troubled Venezuela. That was the first decrease reported in two decades. Cabrisas said that instability in the supply of Venezuelan oil weighs on the country but tourism, construction, transportation and communications were growing.

Foreign media did not have access to the National Assembly session.

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Dhaka:

A 25-year-old Indian MBBS student was allegedly stabbed to death by his fellow countryman who then tried to commit suicide at their flat in Bangladesh's northeastern port city of Chittagong, police told on Saturday.



Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on their fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area on Friday night, the police said.



Sheikh, a final year student of the private University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.



Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.



"Four Indian medical students hired the apartment where one of them killed a fellow student and then attempted suicide," a police officer said.



Other than the duo, two others, including a woman student of the same university, stayed in the building, police said.



The four students hailed from Manipur, they said, adding that it appeared to be an incident of involuntary murder as a sequel of altercations between Singh and Sheikh.



Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikh's body.



"The fellow residents of the apartment tried to save both of them by taking them first to the USTC Hospital and then the (state-run) Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where doctors declared Sheikh dead," said officer-in-charge of the city's Akbar Shah police station Alamgir Hossain.



Singh was being treated at the facility but his condition was critical, CMCH doctors said.

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By PTI: New Delhi, July 15 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed happiness as the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala LPG scheme crossed 2.5 crore mark.

In May last year, the government had embarked on a drive to provide free cooking gas connections to 5 crore women from poor households in three years with a view to reduce the use of polluting fuels such as wood and dried cow dung.

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President Pranab Mukherjee today handed over cooking gas connection to a woman in Jangipur in West Bengal to mark the milestone.

"Ujjwala Yojana continues to expand its reach! Extremely delighted that today the number of beneficiaries crossed 2.5 crore," tweeted Modi, who had piloted the ambitious programme.

"I thank Rashtrapati Ji for the special gesture of handing over LPG connections to beneficiaries in Jangipur, West Bengal," he added.

The prime minister also congratulated Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and and his entire team for "working round-the-clock for the success of Ujjwala Yojana." PTI AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---
Recently, famous comedian and AIB co-founder, Tanmay Bhat found himself in a legal hassle after posting a PM Modi meme using a dog filter. Soon after that, TMC's Derek O'Brien willingly used the same filter to support humour in India.

By India Today Web Desk: The Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal representing the Trinamool Congress, Derek O'Brien thought to have "little bit of fun" on Instagram.

The fun came soon after the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell registered an FIR against comedy group AIB co-founder, Tanmay Bhat.

Comedian Tanmay Bhat came under fire after an AIB meme got viral which showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi using a dog filter on Snapchat. The meme was tweeted from AIB's official Twitter handle.

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On July 15, the old quiz show host tweeted sharing an Instagram photo. He tweeted, "It's the weekend. Time for a little bit of fun."

A post shared by Derek O'Brien (@quizderek) on Jul 14, 2017 at 9:44pm PDT

It seems it wasn't Derek's idea to use the dog filter. OML Founder CEO Vijay Nair tweeted on July 14 saying 'he'd vote for any politician who uploads their photo with a dog filter'.

Any politician who would voluntarily upload their pic with a dog filter right now gets my vote.- Vijay Nair (@vijay_nair) July 14, 2017

On July 15, Derek O'Brien along with Shashi Tharoor was tagged in a tweet. The tweet asked both of them to "be a sport".

The jocular challenge excited TMC's Derek compelling him to think about spreading some good fun around, especially when the situation got uptight after AIB's Tanmay Bhat was booked for a meme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

What a good idea . Giving it a thought. Should I ? Should I not ! Hmmm On it- Derek O'Brien (@quizderek) July 15, 2017

Derek gracefully applied the dog filter, the same filter which is landing people in jails in the present times. Derek replied thanking Vijay Nair for the idea and went ahead with it.

Thanks for the idea . I just did- Derek O'Brien (@quizderek) July 15, 2017

And after Derek O'Brien, Shashi Tharoor too was game to post his photo with dog filter.

Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor directed the tweet towards the trolls tagging AIB's Twitter handle.

People in India have been questioning the suppression of something as harmless as humour. Which reminds us all of a famous Franklin Roosevelt quote, "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."

FYI || FIR against AIB's Tanmay Bhat: Is India going the North Korea way? Where's the tolerance? ||

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Also Read || AIB's Tanmay Bhat reminds Modi of his post: We surely need more humour in public life ||

--- ENDS ---
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry on Thursday announced guidelines for the country's new unified examination system for university entrance that will begin in fiscal 2020.

According to the guidelines, open questions will be introduced for the Japanese-language and mathematics tests.

For English, tests administered by private-sector organizations to evaluate examinees' reading, writing, listening and speaking skills will be utilized.

The current multiple-choice English test by the government-affiliated National Center for University Entrance Examinations that assesses examinees' reading and listening skills will also be used until fiscal 2023.

Universities will be allowed to use either or both of the private and existing tests during the four-year transition period.

The government-affiliated center will certify private-sector English tests meeting certain criteria from among such candidates as the Test in Practical English Proficiency, known as Eiken, and the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC.

Examinees will be allowed to take such English tests up to twice, between April and December in their third year at high schools.

The center will provide universities with examinees' test results and English levels based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR, an international standard for grading language ability.
Clouds are forming over Japan's latest shinkansen route connecting an isolated area of high-speed track on the southern island of Kyushu due to come into service in fiscal 2022 with the greater bullet train network as performance issues with new technology create tough decisions on how to open the line.

JR Kyushu is putting plans to adopt free-gauge trains on ice over high costs and the recently discovered issues that were reported Friday by the transport ministry at an evaluation committee meeting.

SoftBank returns to profit as investments rebound

AP - Nov 12

Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. reported on Friday a 3 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit for the July-September quarter, a sharp reversal from its loss a year ago. Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. reported on Friday a 3 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit for the July-September quarter, a sharp reversal from its loss a year ago.

Toyota joins other Japan companies to make next-generation chips

Nikkei - Nov 11

Toyota Motor and around nine other Japanese companies will team up with the government to launch a new entity to develop and make next-generation semiconductors, Nikkei has learned, aiming to establish manufacturing processes by the late 2020s. Toyota Motor and around nine other Japanese companies will team up with the government to launch a new entity to develop and make next-generation semiconductors, Nikkei has learned, aiming to establish manufacturing processes by the late 2020s.

Inflation brings end to beloved 114-year-old Japanese candy Sakumaseika

theglobeandmail.com - Nov 10

A beloved Japanese candy eaten by generations, so iconic it even appeared in a hit anime film, has come to the end of the line, a victim of surging raw material and energy prices. A beloved Japanese candy eaten by generations, so iconic it even appeared in a hit anime film, has come to the end of the line, a victim of surging raw material and energy prices.

As Elon Musk transforms Twitter, risk hits home for Japanese banks

Nikkei - Nov 09

As Elon Musk makes dramatic changes to Twitter following his $44 billion acquisition, Japanese banks that cofinanced the deal find themselves with little choice but to go along for the ride. As Elon Musk makes dramatic changes to Twitter following his $44 billion acquisition, Japanese banks that cofinanced the deal find themselves with little choice but to go along for the ride.

Ferrari, Lamborghini and other supercar sales boom in Japan

theedgemarkets.com - Nov 09

Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other supercars are seeing an unprecedented sales boom in Japan, fueled by pent-up, post-Covid-lockdown demand from wealthy buyers, who also see the vehicles as good investments amid a weakening yen and soaring used-car prices. Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other supercars are seeing an unprecedented sales boom in Japan, fueled by pent-up, post-Covid-lockdown demand from wealthy buyers, who also see the vehicles as good investments amid a weakening yen and soaring used-car prices.

Japan foreign reserves fall for third month after intervention

Reuters - Nov 09

Japan's foreign reserves extended declines in October, following the previous month's record drop, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, reflecting the largest ever amount of yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention. Japan's foreign reserves extended declines in October, following the previous month's record drop, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, reflecting the largest ever amount of yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention.

As yen tumbles, gadget-loving Japan goes for secondhand iPhones

WION - Nov 09

For years Japanese shoppers eagerly shelled out for the latest gadgets, but now a tumbling yen has put new iPhones out of reach for some and sparked a growing secondhand trade in a major market for Apple Inc. For years Japanese shoppers eagerly shelled out for the latest gadgets, but now a tumbling yen has put new iPhones out of reach for some and sparked a growing secondhand trade in a major market for Apple Inc.

Toshiba buyout: Japanese fund submits $15bn proposal

Nikkei - Nov 08

Investment fund Japan Industrial Partners has submitted a formal proposal to take over Toshiba for about 2.2 trillion yen ($15 billion), Nikkei learned on Monday. Investment fund Japan Industrial Partners has submitted a formal proposal to take over Toshiba for about 2.2 trillion yen ($15 billion), Nikkei learned on Monday.

Japans govt sounds alarm over Americas EV tax credits

freemalaysiatoday.com - Nov 07

Japans government warned on Saturday that new electric vehicle tax credits in the United States could ultimately deter further investment by the Japanese there and hit employment in the worlds biggest economy. Japans government warned on Saturday that new electric vehicle tax credits in the United States could ultimately deter further investment by the Japanese there and hit employment in the worlds biggest economy.

Japan ends printing of Yukichi Fukuzawa banknote

arabnews.jp - Nov 06

Japan has finished the printing of the current 10,000-yen banknote, with a portrait of prominent educator Yukichi Fukuzawa, it has been learned. Japan has finished the printing of the current 10,000-yen banknote, with a portrait of prominent educator Yukichi Fukuzawa, it has been learned.

Tourists return to Japan, but where are the workers?

Nikkei - Nov 06

Japanese airports and hotels are scrambling to handle the influx of tourists streaming across reopened borders, as staffs that withered to skeletal levels during the pandemic have not rebounded to match the rise in customers. Japanese airports and hotels are scrambling to handle the influx of tourists streaming across reopened borders, as staffs that withered to skeletal levels during the pandemic have not rebounded to match the rise in customers.

Japan pension 'whale' GPIF suffers longest losing streak since 2009

Nikkei - Nov 05

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the world's largest institutional investors, posted its third consecutive quarterly loss Friday to mark its longest slump since the global financial crisis. Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the world's largest institutional investors, posted its third consecutive quarterly loss Friday to mark its longest slump since the global financial crisis.

Survey shows prices of more than 800 food items will increase in November

NHK - Nov 02

A survey conducted by a private research firm indicates that the prices of more than 800 food and beverage items will go up in Japan in November. A survey conducted by a private research firm indicates that the prices of more than 800 food and beverage items will go up in Japan in November.

TEPCO to raise household electricity charges

- Nov 02

Japan's largest power utility is considering hiking regulated electricity rates for households. Japan's largest power utility is considering hiking regulated electricity rates for households.

Faced with a possible energy shortage this winter, Japan advises people to wear warm clothes indoors

WION - Nov 02

Japan on Tuesday announced that it will ask businesses and households to conserve energy "as much as possible" during the winter. Japan on Tuesday announced that it will ask businesses and households to conserve energy "as much as possible" during the winter.
China told Japan on Friday to "get used to it" after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise.

Japan's defense ministry issued a statement late on Thursday describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers earlier that day as "unusual", while noting that there had been no violation of Japanese airspace.

The Chinese navy and air force have in recent months carried out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific, as they hone their ability to operate far from their home shores.

The Chinese defense ministry said it was "legal and proper" for its military aircraft to operate in the airspace and that it would continue to organize regular training exercises according to "mission requirements".

"The relevant side should not make a fuss about nothing or over-interpret, it will be fine once they get used to it," the ministry said in a statement.

The Miyako Strait is between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a notice to NGO Praja Foundation for "misinterpreting" facts in its latest health report, in which it claimed that dengue cases have seen a massive rise of 265 per cent in Mumbai in the last five years.

The notice was issued on July 13 by deputy municipal commissioner (public health) Sunil Dhamne and executive health officer, BMC, Dr Padmaja Keskar.

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The civic body in the notice stated that Praja Foundation in the report State of Health of Mumbai, "misinterpreted" the facts.

It said the report is "misleading" and is an "attempt to malign" the image of the civic body.

The NGO, a watchdog of civic affairs, said in the report released on July 12, that dengue cases have spiralled from 4,867 in 2012-13 to 17,771 in 2016-17.

Issuing a white paper on health, the NGO said, "As per the RTI data, dengue cases in government hospitals, dispensaries have increased from 4,867 in 2012-13 to 17,771 in 2016-17. Besides, tuberculosis (TB) cases have also seen a rise from 36,417 in 2012-13 to 50,001 in 2016-17."

Seeking an unconditional apology from Praja Foundation, the civic body warned of an action against the NGO if it fails to do so.

"While preparing the report, you have not consulted any of our programme officers and did it randomly. This is an act to malign to our image," the notice issued by BMC, read.

A senior BMC official said that the methodology of preparing the report is faulty and the data has been misinterpreted.

"It is an act to malign the image of the BMC and its efforts to provide health facilities to the people," the official said.

When contacted, project director of Praja Foundation Milind Mhaske said, "We would respond (to the notice) after going through it."

Earlier on July 10, BMC issued a notice to the NGO for its white paper on status of malnutrition in municipal schools in the month of May this year. PTI APM ARS

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On June 24, 1945, 1st Lt. Robert J. Peagler Jr. found himself far from his New Milford home, charging uphill toward two Japanese pillboxes an island near Okinawa.

His companys machine gun had jammed, so he charged ahead alone, firing his rifle and tossing hand grenades. He killed six Japanese soldiers before he was cut down by a snipers bullet, and died on the battlefield.

For his bravery that day, Peagler was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, an honor second only to that of Medal of Honor, the nations highest military award.

Peaglers commanding officer, Capt. Alder F. Watts, paid him tribute in a letter to his family, dated July 4, 1945.

The finest tribute an officer can receive is the unstinted admiration of his men, Watts wrote. As a battery commander, I have been proud to know that the soldiers of your sons platoon considered him to be of the finest type of leader.

More for you William Peagler, 91, was a World War II veteran

Peagler was among nine black soldiers awarded the DSC for heroism during World War II. But while 294 white soldiers received the Medal of Honor, not one of the nearly 1 million black soldiers who served was even considered.

In the 1990s, the Department of Defense commissioned Shaw University in North Carolina to study whether racial bias had played a role in the awarding of medals during the war. In a 200-page report, Shaw researchers concluded that it had, and recommended that 10 black soldiers  including Peagler  be considered for elevation to the Medal of Honor.

In 1997, former President Bill Clinton awarded the medals to seven of the 10, six of them posthumously.

No African American who deserved the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II received it, Clinton said at the time. Today, we fill the gap in that picture and give a group of heroes, who also love peace but adapted themselves to war, the tribute that has always been their due.

But Peagler, for reasons that have never been made clear, was not among the men remembered that day.

Since then, several of Peaglers nine siblings, with the help of a close family friend, have campaigned to see Peagler get the award. Over the years, they have enlisted the help of four of Connecticuts U.S. senators, three of whom have been unable to move the DOD.

When you give your life for your country, that has nothing to do with color, said Frances L. Smith, the Peagler friend.

They probably think the Distinguished Cross is enough, but its not, Smith said. If there is something better, give it to him. His devotion to the U.S. was beyond the call of duty.

He had 10 siblings; six of the eight boys fought in that war, she continued. Here you have a family, and here you have a soldier, who gave the U.S. everything. We as African Americans have given enough. Enough is enough.

Among Peaglers surviving relations is Orel Peagler Robinson, 88, whose first husband was his younger brother Charles. Robinson sat with Smith on a recent rainy day in the same three-bedroom home where all 10 Peaglers grew up.

I give Fran a lot of credit, Robinson said. She dont give up.

I just want to see him get the medal he deserves, she added.

Philip Peagler, who lives in Greenwich, remembers his disappointment when his late brother, whom the family called Dick and the Army called Peags, was passed over for the Medal of Honor in the 90s.

I have no idea why they eliminated him from the list, Philip Peagler said. It was all very strange. we were notified by the department that he would get it. I remember being interviewed by some magazine about it, then all of the sudden they said no.

I just hope my brother Dick can get some justice.

But for two decades, justice has been hard to come by, Smith said.

Owen Peagler, the only Peagler male who didnt serve in the armed forces, died in 2015 after decades spent trying to get his brother the the medal. In his memoir, on display at the New Milford Historical Society, he describes his confusion over the Armys rejection of the case.

When the family questioned why Roberts name had been removed from the nomination list, it was reported that he had not killed a certain number of the enemy but had only saved his troops from being killed! Owen Peagler wrote.

Smith, 83, is still writing letters. As she ages, the task has taken on a sense of urgency.

The exclusion of black soldiers in World War II from receiving the Medal of Honor was an inexcusable racial bias, reads a letter she sent U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal Thursday. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Smith earlier had written to Sens. Chris Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, both of whom tried to help. More recently, Sen. Chris Murphy asked that Peaglers case be reviewed once again, but his office said last week the Army declined to do so, saying it reviewed the matter fully in 1995 after the Shaw study.

Like Senators Dodd and Lieberman before him, Senator Murphy requested the Army look into upgrading First Lieutenant Peaglers military award, said a statement from Murphys office. After contacting the Army last December, we received notice in January that the Secretary of the Army declined to upgrade it.

But Smith wont take no for an answer.

Fran Smith has been a bulldog on this, Philip Peagler said.

Smith said she hopes Sen. Richard Blumenthal can succeed where others have failed. If not, she vows to write to President Donald Trump.

Im just going to keep trying and trying, she said. I think it will happen. The next letter is going to Trump. Thats for sure.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
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NEW MILFORD  A controversial plan to generate 20 megawatts of power with solar panels on Candlewood Mountain now rests in the hands of the state Siting Council.

The central debate over the proposal, which was filed June 28, is whether to swap one environmental asset for another. Opponents of the project dislike the idea of removing 70 acres of trees to make way for the panels, while supporters tout it as an emission-free way of generating energy without reliance on fossil fuels.

The Siting Council, an appointed body that evaluates applications for energy, telecommunications and hazardous waste projects, has 180 days from the filing date to make a decision, which would make the deadline in December.

Under the proposal, Candlewood Solar, a subsidiary of the Massachusetts-based energy company Ameresco, would install some 75,000 panels on the south slope of Candlewood Mountain, next to the airport and to Candlelight Farms Inn. The companys petition says the panels will be surrounded by a chain-link fence and will not be visible from Candlewood Mountain Road.

The power generated would feed into the New England power grid, via the nearby Rocky River substation, for 20 years.

The project was one of several proposals accepted in October 2015 as part of a tri-state effort to promote clean energy projects in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Not all of the states needed to sign off on a proposal for it to advance. The states involvement is mainly to guarantee that a market for the energy exists, which helps the companies create power purchase agreements with utilities. Participating states also get federal credits for the alternative energy generated.

Connecticut passed on the Ameresco project because officials believed the projected power prices were too high, but the other two approved it, said Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Its not unusual for a state to be involved in energy projects in other states, especially in New England, where its a regional market and a regional grid, Schain said.

The trade-off

New Milford residents and some council members have acknowledged the benefits of solar projects, but they argue that it shouldnt come at the expense of so many trees.

Its going to be devastating for the whole forest, said Carl Dunham, owner of Candlelight Farms. Dunham once owned the project site, which he proposed to develop as an active adult community.

During Town Council meetings in December and January, many residents voiced opposition to the project, arguing that the area is used for hiking and nature walks and that the panels could generate glare that would interfere with air traffic. Some also argued that it would disrupt views of the mountain, lower property values and promote erosion.

Amerescos petition refutes some of these concerns, saying there would be enough trees remaining on the 163-acre site to block the panels from view and that a study from the Federal Aviation Administration suggests glare wouldnt be a problem.

The benefits include helping the area decrease its dependency on fossil fuels and meet its energy needs from an alternative source, the petition says.

The Project was selected, sited, developed and designed to minimize any environmental impacts and to maximize environmental benefits, the petition states.

When the proposal came up for a vote, Mayor David Gronbach broke a tie vote on Town Council to approve a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement, under which the town would receive $2.7 million over 20 years.

Gronbach also wrote a letter to the siting council, included with the petition, endorsing the project as long as the company meets a list of conditions, including giving preference to local workers and contractors, posting a surety bond in the event erosion requires remediaton, and submitting a plan to clear and restore the site when the 20-year agreement ends.

Kevin Bielmeier, the towns economic development director, also endorsed the project.

The economic benefits of developing this large piece of open land are desirable, bringing jobs during construction, increased tax revenue and the potential to attract other businesses, he wrote.

New Milford isnt the only place where the conflict between preserving green space and installing solar arrays is playing out.

The conflict is becoming common enough in Connecticut that the Legislature took notice. A bill signed into law July 10 requires the Siting Council to balance the desire to preserve forest and farmland with the need to promote green energy projects.

There has been a growing concern that these resource protection efforts have been offset by Connecticuts renewable energy goals and policies, which provides incentives for the siting of solar projects, Agriculture Commissioner Steven Reviczky said during the public testimony on the bill.

DEEPs Schain agreed.

While you want to move forward with clean energy, there are other environmental concerns, Schain said.

The Candlewood Solar petition , however, was filed three days before the new law went into effect and is exempt from the new criteria.

Opportunities for public input

A letter has been sent to nearly 500 residents, government officials and other stakeholders, letting them know the petition was filed with the Siting Council. But some residents claim not enough has been done to gather public input.

Dunham said the one-page letter wasnt very informative and didnt even direct people to how to read the petition online. He started his own petition asking the council for a public hearing.

People need to know about it, he said. People need to understand and see.

The council will decide at its July 20 meeting whether to hold such a hearing.

Staff recommendations, as well as requests from the town and/or interested persons for a public hearing, are often reasons why the Siting Council would schedule a hearing, said Melanie A. Bachman, executive director and staff attorney for the Connecticut Siting Council.

Gronbach has set aside a room at Town Hall on Oct. 5 in case the council agrees..

The town Zoning Commission also plans a public hearing on the solar project July 25.
By PTI: By Abhishek Shukla

Jangipur (West Bengal), Jul 15 (PTI) President Pranab Mukherjee today handed over cooking gas connection to a woman here to mark meeting half the target of distributing five crore free LPG connections to women from poor households.

In May last year, the government embarked on a drive to provide free cooking gas connection to 5 crore women from poor households in three years with a view to reduce the use of polluting fuels such as wood and dried cow dung that, according to the World Health Organization, causes 1.3 million premature deaths in India every year.

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The indoor and near-home pollution generated by burning wood and cow dung is the leading cause of premature death in India after high blood pressure.

Mukherjee handed over a cooking gas connection to Gauri Sarkaar at his residence, Jangipur House, which took the number of free connections provided under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme so far to 2.5 crore.

In all, 10 women from the Presidents hometown Jangipur as well as Raghunath Ganj and Murshidabad were handed over free connections at a ceremony also attended by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

"Proud to join the Honble @RashtrapatiBhvn Pranab Da in handing over #2.5CrUjjwala to Gauri Sarkaar at Jangipur House in West Bengal," Pradhan later tweeted.

The government is targeting increasing LPG usage to cover 80 per cent of the households by March 2019, against 72.8 per cent as on April 1.

It has earmarked Rs 8,000 crore to provide free LPG connection to women from families living below the poverty line (BPL).

"Have been lucky to have a team of dedicated officers who made #2.5CrUjjwala possible. Happy to share a frame with some of them at Jangipur," Pradhan said in another tweet along with a picture of the president and the beneficiary.

"Double Delight Moments for these PMUY Beneficiaries at Jangipur. Getting freedom from Smoke & Sharing frame with Honble @RashtrapatiBhvn," he said in another tweet.

Earlier, Jangipur MP and Pranab Mukherjees son Abhijeet Mukherjee welcomed the guests for the distribution ceremony at Jangipur Bhavan. PTI ABS ANZ JM

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. --Drinking beer from Brewery Ommegang is like taking a trip to Belgium -- only you spend less time and money and travel a shorter distance.

The Cooperstown brewery makes traditional Belgian styles and other beers that show the Belgian influence (yeast, bottle-conditioning etc.). Between its core year-round beers, seasonals, specialties and limited releases -- and its tie-in beers with the HBO TV-series 'Game of Thrones' -- it demonstrates the endless variety available in Belgian brewing styles.

Ommegang opened in 1997, and is owned by a Belgian company, Duvel Moortgat, best known for its classic Duvel, a Belgian golden ale. Duvel also owns other Belgian breweries, such as Liefmans, Achouffe, Maredsous and Dekoninck, and its American arm includes U.S. brewers Boulevard of Kansas City and Firesone Walker of California.

Ommegang makes most of its beers on its own at Cooperstown, but brewmaster Phil Leinhart occasionally does collaboration with others, particularly Liefmans, a brewery in the Flanders region of Belgium know for its sour beers.

This review takes a look at a new fruity summer beer made at Cooperstown, Fruition, as well as two sour styles made at Liefmans by the Ommegang team, and marketed as Ommegang beers: Brunetta, a Flemish brown ale; and a Pale Sour Ale.

Tasting Notes

Brewery: Brewery Ommegang, 656 County Highway 33, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Fruition, a wit beer with fruit, from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Beer: Fruition

Style: Wheat or wit beer, with added fruit

Alcohol content: 5.3 percent

Price: $14.49 for a 6-pack of 12-ounce bottles

Find it: Across New York state. Use the Ommegang beer finder.

Look: Light yellowish-golden color, cloudy, with sharp white head and nice lace on the glass.

Aroma: Hints of tropical fruit (especially mango) competing with a spicy hop character. Pretty complex for a very light beer.

Taste: Fruit (mango, passion fruit) and some malt, with a sour/tart character and a slight bitterness from the hops (it's based on the regular Ommegang wheat beer, called Witte).

Feel (mouthfeel, body): Light and effervescent

Overall: This beer reminds me of one of the best styles of Finger Lakes white wine -- Gewurtztraminer (with carbonation). It's fruity and light, with tropical overtones. Drink it on a hot summer day.

Pale Sour Ale from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Beer: Pale Sour Ale

Style: Sour ale

Alcohol content: 6.9 percent

Price: $11.49 for a 4-pack of 11.2-ounce bottles

Find it: Across New York state. Use the Ommegang beer finder.

Look: Medium golden, relatively clear, with a lasting head and good, lingering lace on the glass.

Aroma: Tart lemon/citrus with some minerality

Taste: Tart, sour, mouthpuckering, with some welcome sweetness at the end.

Feel (mouthfeel, body): Light to medium, with some bubbliness.

Overall: It's like a slightly sweetened lemonade, or maybe a Tom Collins cocktail. The sourness stays with it to the end. The mineral qualities give it some substance. If you like sours, go for it. If not ...

Brunetta, an Oud Bruin (Flemish sour brown ale), from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Beer: Brunetta

Style: Oud Bruin (Flemish sour brown ale)

Alcohol content: 5 percent

Price: $11.49 for a 4-pack of 11.2-ounce bottles

Find it: Limited release across New York state. Use the Ommegang beer finder.

Look: Mahogany- or walnut-brown, with a tan head.

Aroma: Raisins and plums, some chocolate and toasted malt.

Taste: Tart and sweet, with a little bit of bubble gum, chocolate and prunes.

Feel (mouthfeel, body): Medium, with fairly light carbonation.

Overall: It's got a little of everything (but hops) -- malt, acidity, sweetness, tartness. But none of those is overpowering. Less overtly sour than the Sour Pale Ale reviewed above, but a more complex package.

Have beer questions? Want to suggest an Upstate New York beer to review? Drop us a note at features@syracuse.com. Follow news on Central New York beer and wine on Twitter.

NYup.com beer, wine and spirits writer Don Cazentre has been covering the craft beer scene in Upstate New York since 1995. He is the co-author of "New York Breweries, 2nd edition" (Stackpole; 2014)
The first picture of President Muhammadu Buhari has surfaced online for the first time since he traveled to London, United Kingdom for me...

The first picture of President Muhammadu Buhari has surfaced online for the first time since he traveled to London, United Kingdom for medical treatment.

Voice of Americas correspondent, Saleh Shehu Ashaka, who released the picture, Saturday evening, claimed it was the first picture of the president after 68 days abroad.





He wrote, President Buharis first picture in 68 days, since he departed Nigeria for medical treatment in London.

In the picture, Baba, as President Buhari is called was seen garb in flowing medical apparel and a white cap while sitting with a guest.

Recall that the Acting President, Yemi Osibanjo has jet out to London to meet with his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Osinbajo after the meeting returned to the country immediately but failed to disclose what he discussed with the ailing president.

See the picture below:
The spokesman to former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a mistake.

The spokesman to former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a mistake.

Omokri also told Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to stop making excuses and do his job.

Taking to Twitter, Omokri wrote that before the All Progressives Congress (APC) came into power, Fashola had promised stable electricity, if only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is voted out.

However, he is now blaming Jonathan, for reducing electricity tariff.

Omokri wrote: Fashola in 2014: The only way to get stable power is voting out PDP

Fashola today: We cant get power because GEJ reduced tariff to get vote

PMB will do well moving @tundefashola from being in charge of generating power for Nigeria to being in charge of generating excuses for govt

The main difference between GEJ/PDP and PMB/APC is that @GEJonathan made his mistakes as President while @MBuhari is a mistake as President.

The major difference between the PDP and the APC is that the whereas the PDP had some confirmed liars as members, the APC is itself a lie!
An analysis of the legislators of Electoral College who will elect the next President of India on Monday.

By Prabhash K Dutta: On the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on Monday, 4,896 legislators will be voting to elect the next President of India. The voting will take place in the Parliament House in New Delhi and respective Assemblies in 28 states and two Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.

Of the total electors, about 33 per cent have mentioned criminal cases against them in their affidavits, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).

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The electors are generally the rich people, according to the analysis by the ADR and the NEW. About 71 per cent of the legislators are crorepatis.

The ADR and the NEW have analyzed 4,852 out of 4,896 affidavits including 774 out of 776 of MPs. Affidavits of 4,078 of total 4,120 MLAs from all the states of India were also examined.

These MPs and MLAs collectively form the Electoral College, who exercise their right to vote in the Presidential Election. The analysis of the ADR and the NEW covers 10,91,472 of total 10,98,903 votes in the electoral pool for the Presidential Election 2017.

ELECTORS WITH CRIMINAL CASES Of the 4,852 MPs and MLAs, whose affidavits were analysed, 1,581 or about 33 per cent of the electors have declared criminal cases against themselves in a self-sworn affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India. The declarations were made in their respective last elections for the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state Assemblies.

Of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 184 or 34 per cent have declared criminal cases against them. MLAs of the state and UT Assemblies are not far behind. Of 41078 MLAs, 1,353 or 33 per cent have themselves reported criminal cases against them.

Members of Rajya Sabha - the House of Elders - look much sober in comparison. OF 231 Rajya Sabha MPs, 44 or only 19 per cent have criminal cases against them, according to the affidavits filed by Upper House members.

Of those having criminal cases against them, about 20 per cent face or have faced serious criminal charges. A total of 993 electors, who will be participating in the Presidential Election 2017, have reported serious criminal cases against them.

In the Lok Sabha, 117 or 22 per cent of the total MPs have reported serious criminal charges registered against themselves while 16 or seven per cent of the Rajya Sabha MPs mentioned being involved in cases of serious criminal offences.

Abour 21 per cent or 860 MLAs from various Assemblies have serious criminal charges slapped against them.

Based on the number of votes that MPs and MLAs, who have declared criminal cases, are entitled to cast, a total of 3,67,393 votes or simply 34 per cent of electoral college faces declared criminal cases, according to the ADR.

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SUPER RICH MPs, MLAs

According to the declarations made by the MPs and MLAs, a total of 3,460 or 71 per cent of the 4,852 members of the Electoral College for the Presidential Election 2017 are crorepatis.

About 82 per cent or 445 of 543 Lok Sabha MPs are crorepatis as per their self-sworn affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India. The number of crorepatis in the Rajya Sabha is 194 or 84 per cent of its present strength while 2721 or 68 per cent of 4078 MLAs from all states and UT assemblies have shown income in crores.

Based on the number of votes these crorepatis MPs and MLAs are entitled to cast, a total of 75 per cent or 8,18,703 votes of the Electoral College belong to these super rich legislators.

Amongst state assemblies, Karnataka has the maximum number of votes by crorepati electors with 30,400 or 93 per cent of 32,680 votes belonging to super rich MLAs.

DISMAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

According to the ADR analysis, of 4852 MPs and MLAs who are entitled to vote in the Presidential Election 2017, 451 electors or only 9 per cent are women.

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Based on the number of votes the women MPs and MLAs are entitled to cast, only 10 per cent belongs to them.

The Lok Sabha has 65 women MPs, who have about 12 per cent share in the vote pool represented by the lower house. The Rajya Sabha has 23 women MPs with 10 per cent vote share in the pool represented by the upper house.

In all the state and UT assemblies, there are only 363 women MLAs, who share only nine per cent of the total votes in the vote pool represented by states.

Uttar Pradesh has the maximum value of women votes at 8320. Of 402 MLAs in the UP Assembly, 40 are women.

UP is followed by West Bengal with 6,191 votes for 41 women MLAs in the Assembly of 293 legislators. Madhya Pradesh stands at third position with 4,192 votes for its 32 women electors in the house 230 MLAs.

ALSO READ |

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Meira Kumar vs Ram Nath Kovind for President? 10 things we know so far

ALSO WATCH | Former Bihar Governor versus Bihar Ki Beti in Presidential Election 2017

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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has taken delivery of five Super Mushsak fighter planes from Pakistan to enhance its air power capability.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has taken delivery of five Super Mushsak fighter planes from Pakistan to enhance its air power capability.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal, Sadiq Abubakar and members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on NAF inspected the war planes on Friday in Kaduna.Sadiq said the planes which would be unveiled later, were acquired for the training of air force personnel and to improve the air power of the Force.The air chief, who witnessed the graduation of 269 NAF special squad for the protection of critical national assets, said the service remained committed to safeguarding the territorial integrity of Nigeria.NAN reports that the personnel went through the Basic Regiment Airmen Course and Force Protection in Complex Air Ground Environment Course at the NAF Regiment Training Centre, Kaduna.Abubakar challenged the personnel to remain committed to the Nigeria project, assuring them that the leadership of the force would transform the service for effective and efficient response to any security challenge.Our engagement in different theatres of operation and the need to protect the limited resources available to undertake our statutory responsibilities of projecting air power, underscores the need to continually develop force protection capability of the service.The training you have received on force protection in complex air ground environment will require you to speedily gain capacity to enable the service to locally develop and sustain additional workforce in the field of specialization, he said.Abubakar commended the British Government for it continued support towards the capacity building of air personnel through the BMATT programme.It is my desire that with time, we will extend the cooperation to other NAF missions.The chief of air staff challenged the graduates to rededicate themselves and ensure excellence in the discharge of their duties.He admonished them to always allow their actions to be guided by respect for the rule of law and rights and dignity of citizens.Abubakar pledged that NAF would meet its social contract with the Nigerian people, even as it takes on more responsibilities.(NAN)
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has described his wife, Oludolapo, as his wings and gift from God.





Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has described his wife, Oludolapo, as his wings and gift from God.

Sharing the above picture, he in a tweet described her as his gift from and his treasure.

In a tweet to celebrate her birthday on Saturday, Osinbajo wrote: My gift from God, watching over me, my support, at my side, my wings, my wife.

Happy Birthday Oludolapo.

You are my treasure.




The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo will visit Zamfara State on July 18.The acting President was scheduled to inaugurate projects executed by Gov. Abdulaziz Yari across the state.Some of the projects include Federal Government road linking Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states which was executed by the state government under agreement for repayment by Federal Government.The Chairman of the state government committee for inauguration of government projects, Alhaji Lawal M-Liman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau on Saturday that Osinbajos visit was also part of the Sixth year anniversary of Yaris administration.M-Liman who is also the states Commissioner for Rural and Community Development, said other projects to be inaugurated included General Hospital and Semi Urban Water Projects in Rini and Gamji communities in Bakura Local Government.Others were Government Girl Science Secondary School Talata-Mafara, Government Girl Day Secondary School, Kwatarkwashi and Danturai Government Day Secondary School Gusau and Bungudu local government areas.Also to be inaugurated was School for Handicapped in Gummi Local Government, he said.According to him, the acting President is expected to pay courtesy visit to Gusau and Gummi emirates during the visit.Acting President was earlier scheduled to inaugurate the projects during 2017 democracy day celebration but postponed till July 18.
The Nigerian senate has given the Aso Rock Villa three conditions it must meet for peace to reign.

The Nigerian senate has given the Aso Rock Villa three conditions it must meet for peace to reign.Top of the conditions is the removal of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, and the withdrawal of a statement credited to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo through Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State that there is no going back on Magus nomination.The other conditions include Presidencys compliance with the resolutions/decisions/ summons of the National Assembly on budget and other issues, as well as prevailing on Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Raji Fashola to withdraw his statement attacking the integrity of the National Assembly.The conditions were tabled by the Senate leadership before a mediator who is trying to bring the warring sides together.Sources said yesterday that the mediator enjoys the confidence of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Senate President Bukola Saraki.The parley is understood to have succeeded for now in bridging the communication gap between the two arms of government.It was learnt that the latest initiative is part of the effort to resolve the feud between the two arms in a family manner without any of the sides feeling hurt.But it was gathered that Osinbajo made it clear that only President Buhari could determine Magus fate.It was also gathered that Saraki told the intermediary that he has no personal grudges against the Acting President.He, however, said senators were determined to protect the legislative institution.According to a top source, the three conditions formed the kernel of talks between Osinbajo and Saraki last week, with the two leaders agreeing on a mature way of addressing the grey areas.The source said the Presidency had been trying to address the three conditions with only Magus fate still hanging in the balance.The source said: We are getting closer to a win-win situation between the two arms. In fact, when the mediator met with Saraki, he said he had met with Osinbajo and he nurses no personal grudges at all.He also said what the senators wanted was that the Senate be respected in accordance with its constitutional mandate by complying with its resolutions, decisions and summons.The source also explained that the Presidency has been forthcoming on the conditions set by the Senate.The source said: As for compliance with the resolutions or decisions or summons of the National Assembly, the Presidency gave a commitment to the Senate leadership to give due regards to the legislature.You know the Acting President is a lawyer and he believes in the principle of separation of powers.On Magu, the Acting President insisted that only his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari can determine the fate of the Acting chairman of EFCC.He said the Senate would have to wait for the return of the President.Regarding a statement credited to el-Rufai, the mediation has revealed that the governor ran his own errand because nothing warranted the comments in the mandate given to him to represent the Acting President. Neither the Presidency nor Osinbajo can be held liable for el-Rufais comments.Rufai, representing Osinbajo at a public function in Kaduna, had quoted the Acting President as saying there was no going back on Magus nomination for the EFCC job.There were however indications that the Acting President had directed the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Fashola to clarify his statement in a way that it will not hurt the relationship between the two arms of government.The source added: This was why Fashola tactically apologised to the National Assembly in an interview with reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum held at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.He said if he was being misunderstood, his intention was not to quarrel with anybody but to see a better Nigeria.The Presidency believes such a mature retraction of Fasholas virulent comments will assuage the National Assembly.In complying with the directive of the Acting President, Fashola had said: There is no problem between me as an individual and the National Assembly.And let me make that very clear, many of the senators and honourable members are my personal friends, and so you dont fight your friends. But we have a disagreement.You will remember when President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, he had enormous support from the leadership of the National Assembly. So it means that we all agree there is a problem.There is also disagreement which I dont think should make us disagreeable about the best way to implement that plan, and I think that is all there is to it.It is perhaps possible that in the heat of the moment, while trying to canvass different positions, we are misconstrued as fighting. But I am not fighting anybody. We have a disagreement it shouldnt make us disagreeable.So my responsibility is to continue to engage. Also even if I wasnt a minister, I am a citizen also, so the parliamentarians are also representing me.So these are the issues and if I have been misunderstood, my intention was not to quarrel with anybody but to see a better Nigeria which I believe they also want to see.Investigation showed that the Senate might also soft-pedal on its decision to reject nominees from the Executive.A government source said: With last weeks talks between the Acting President and the President of the Senate, we are expecting that tension will ease.The government has met some of the conditions tabled for peace between the two arms. Although the discussion is still ongoing, the latest mediator has done well.Ordinarily, since all the key actors are members of the same party, there is no basis for the Executive-National Assembly face-off.The two sides have substantially mended fences. We are hopeful that all will be well soon.
Former Super Eagles captain, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, has urged Kelechi Iheanacho to quit Manchester City this summer.The 20-year-old striker struggled for regular game time under Pep Guardiola during the 2016/2017 season, making only five starts in the Premier League.I think he has come at that age that he needs regular first-team games, Okocha told ESPN.And I think it would be a better decision for him to go somewhere else where he can play week in week out.So I think thats a great decision for him to move out of Manchester City this season.Iheanacho has been linked with several clubs including English sides Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur and French club AS Monaco.
A Jersey City man who has already served two prison terms was sentenced to 10 years yesterday for a robbery in which he held a screwdriver to a man's throat in Union City last year.

"His criminal history is one of violence," Hudson County Superior Court Judge Martha Royster said before sentencing Julio Ferrer-Laureano.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Baginski said that in January 2016, Ferrer-Laureano approached a man in his 20s at Seventh Street and Central Avenue and asked for his cellphone. When the victim refused to turn it over, Ferrer-Laureano put the man in a bear hug.

Ferrer-Laureano, who is a very large man, then tried to pry the phone away while holding a screwdriver to the victim's neck. During the scuffle, the screw driver slipped from his hand and the victim escaped.

"Fortunately, he only received scratches," Baginski said during the sentencing hearing. "It could have been a lot worse."

Ferrer-Laureano showed no remorse when he spoke at the hearing through a Spanish translator.

"I don't know what I am going to say to change anything, but I want to say God is going to ultimately determine what is going to happen," Ferrer-Laureano said. "I know God is going to manage what has to be done."

Ferrer-Laureano pleaded guilty to the armed robbery in February. He must serve more than eight years of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He has jail credit from the time of his arrest on Jan. 26, 2016 until yesterday.

Court records indicate Ferrer-Laureano was sentenced to three years in prison in 2012 after pleading guilty to making terroristic threats. In 2005, he was sentenced to a seven-year term for robbery.

Royster said it's likely Ferrer-Laureano only has two convictions because he has been incarcerated so long. She said he must be deterred from committing further offenses. The judge said people must be able to feel physically safe and they must feel their property is safe.

Ferrer-Laureano was represented by defense attorney Christopher Gogan.
WOODBRIDGE -- Woodbridge police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday that a woman has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a fatal shooting at the Loop Inn Motel last month.

Chelsey Mendoza, 20, of the Bronx, has also been charged with hindering her own apprehension and hindering the apprehension of another. She was in custody in New York Friday.

Two people were shot, one fatally, June 21 at the motel in the Avenel section.

Another suspect, Martin Martinez, surrendered to police last week, and a third, Cynthia Rivera, turned herself in today, authorities said.

The investigation remains active. Anyone with information is being asked to call Detective Santiago Tapia of the Woodbridge Police Department at (732) 634-7700, or Detective David Abromaitis of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-4436.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CARTERET --A borough police officer climbed on top of a teenager and punched him for more than a minute after a traffic chase and accident, according to newly-obtained video of the incident.

"Get on the [expletive] ground!" Carteret police Officer Joseph Reiman yells in the video as he throws a series of at least 10 punches, hitting the teen, who is on his back.

Although the night-time dashcam video, obtained Friday by NJ Advance Media, captures much of the incident, it does not show everything as first described by the teen in an interview in June.

Reiman, 31, the brother of the borough's mayor, has been charged with assault and three counts of official misconduct, for failing to activate his body camera and for failing to use "reasonable discretion or restraint" in the amount of force used on the teenager, after the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office reviewed video footage.

The May 31 incident was first reported last month following interviews with the 16-year-old victim and a neighbor, who said he witnessed the incident.

In the video, the teen, who is not being named because he is a juvenile, appears to put his hands in front of his face, but it does not appear that he tries to get away from the officer or tries to fight back as he is being punched.

The teen was driving his parents' car without a license that night when he lost control of the car and crashed into suspension wire connected to a utility pole.

Civilian police commissioner and Councilwoman Susan Naples, who said she has not seen the videos, told NJ Advance Media, "Both the officer and juvenile deserve to have their day in court."

Mayor Daniel Reiman did not respond to calls for comment.

Officer Reiman's attorney, Charles Sciarra, said in a statement to NJ Advance Media Saturday after watching the video, "It is clear the original version of events offered by the criminal is total nonsense. Also, alleged eye witnesses (statements) that hands were up and he was hit for no reason is also total crap. My client is a decorated military veteran who did exactly what he is trained to do, nothing more or less. He will be exonerated."

One of the four dashcam videos, which were obtained by NJ Advance Media through an Open Public Records Act request, starts at just after 12:30 a.m. when Reiman starts to follow a black sedan and calls in to dispatch that a "car is taking off" on him.

After about 20 seconds, the officer activates his overhead lights and calls in to to dispatch yelling, "Left on Bergen! Crashed out! Crash out!"

Reiman pulls up to the accident at the corner of Bergen and Edwin streets, gets out of his car and yells at the teen to get on the ground.

The footage appears to show the teen starting to get down on the ground when Reiman approaches, but not all of the encounter is in frame.

During an interview last month, the teen told NJ Advance Media he got out of the car with his hands up when Reiman grabbed his left arm and punched him in the right eye, knocking him to the ground.

In the video, the teen can be seen falling on his back, as Reiman appears to hit the teen once. It is unclear where the punch landed since a portion of the video is blurred to protect the teen's identity.

The video shows the teen putting his hands in front of his face as he rolls over and his legs flail.

Reiman can then be seen grabbing one of the teen's arms with his left hand and punching him with his right hand seven times.

"Get on the ground! Get on the [expletive] ground! Stop resisting!" Reiman yells as he appears to land a series of punches.

The officer can then be seen throwing the teen over on his back, climbing on top of him and punching him least three more times.

In the dark video, the teen puts his arms out and Reiman appears to roll the teen onto his stomach.

The remainder of the footage from Reiman's patrol car is blurry and hard to distinguish.

About a minute and a half later, another officer, Charles Reiman, the eldest Reiman brother, arrives at the scene, another dashboard camera shows.

"Stop resisting! Stop resisting!" Reiman can be heard shouting on Charles Reiman's dashboard camera, which was aimed away from the incident.

As the teen is put into Charles Reiman's patrol car about two minutes later, he can be heard asking, "Why? Why? Why?"

"I went to light him up and he [expletive] took off," Reiman can be heard telling one of the other responding officers, whose name is not known.

The teen also alleges one of the four officers at the scene kicked him in the face as he was cuffed. The videos do not show a kick.

Reiman, who spent eight years in the Marines, was hired in 2015 as a disabled veteran, according to state and federal records.

The day after he was charged, Reiman appeared in court on June 10 with his attorney, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"This will be an extremely highly-contested case," said Sciarra, arguing that the teen's injuries were the result of the accident.

Sciarra has called the charges "politically motivated" and "shameful."

The state argued the teen's injuries were not consistent with an accident but were the result of an assault.

"I believe the issues involved in this matter raises concerns for the safety of the community, the safety of the victim in this case," the judge said, before ordering Reiman to pretrial monitoring, requiring him to check in with the office once a week.

The officer, who lives in Warren County, was ordered to not return to Carteret, surrender all of his official and personal weapons and have no contact with members of the borough police department. The judge's order was later amended allowing Reiman to contact his PBA representative on the force and his brother, Charles Reiman, according to Sciarra.

Reiman has been suspended without pay pending his trial.

He is scheduled to appear in Middlesex County Superior Court on July 27.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Although neither company has commented on the move, any Airtel-Tata deal will almost certainly be structured to make sure that all the Tatas' telecom businesses into Bharti.

Reliance Jio's big bang entry last September into the mobile telephony sector has set in motion yet another high-profile consolidation in the telecom industry. Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile telecom company, is reportedly in talks with the $100 billion Tata Group to merge the Tatas' embattled telecom business with itself. The talks come a little over three months after Idea Cellular, a company from the Aditya Birla Group stable, announced its merger with Vodafone India in a $23.2 billion deal, which, when it finally comes through next year, will place the combine a notch higher than Airtel in terms of total subscriber numbers.

Although neither company has commented on the move, any Airtel-Tata deal will almost certainly be structured to make sure that all the Tatas' telecom businesses, mobile telephony (Tata Teleservices), direct-to-home (Tata Sky) and enterprise service (Tata Communications), merge into Bharti. The benefits of this will be manifold. A deal with the Tatas will certainly put Airtel in a better position to take on Reliance Jio and Idea-Vodafone. Vodafone and Idea together had 404.4 million subscribers, according to data released in March 2017 by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, had 273.7 million and Tata Teleservices 45 million. Reliance Jio, the latest entrant, had already garnered a subscriber base of 108.9 million by March 2017.

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Jio's initial offer of near-free services till April this year really bled its competitors. Airtel's profits, for instance, plunged 72 per cent, settling at Rs 373.4 crore in the last quarter of 2016-17 as the company slashed tariffs to retain customers. Vodafone India's operating profit for the financial year fell by over 10 per cent. Chances are this trend will endure over the next few quarters. "If anything, competition will only heat up, given that market leadership is crucial in the business," said Crisil in an April 2017 report. COAI data shows India had 895 million mobile phone subscribers in March 2017.

The deal will not do much to grow Bharti Airtel's subscriber base, but a clubbing of its DTH business with that of the Tatas would make it the indisputable leader in that segment. As of December 2016, Tata Sky had a 23 per cent share of the DTH market and Airtel 20 per cent. A Tata-Airtel combine will easily dislodge Dish TV, which is the current market leader with a 25 per cent share.

For the Tatas, a merger, or even an outright sale of the telecom business, will mark the end of a beleaguered innings in the sector, in which, except for DTH, it has been struggling to find a firm footing. Their telecom business is saddled with debts amounting to Rs 32,000 crore and the firm is also locked in a $1.17 billion dispute with Japan's NTT Docomo over the latter's exit from the joint venture. Yet another deterrent for any potential bidder for the Tatas' telecom business may be the government's 26 per cent stake in Tata Communications, which is to be divested later this year.

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Ganguly has been booked by the West Bengal Police after she made headlines for her comment that women cannot survive in the state without being raped.

Roopa Ganguly stood by her comments saying that it was the reality of the state.

By India Today Web Desk: BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly who made headlines after she said that women cannot survive in West Bengal without being raped has been booked by the West Bengal Police. However, in an exclusive interview with India Today, the BJP leader stood by her comments saying that it was the reality of the state.

"There are two many incidents happening in West Bengal. Atrocities against women has gone really high it is now beyond manageable. In most of the incidents, the police do not register cases," said Ganguly.

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Ganguly went on to cite the 2016, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report that stated that there were around 34,000 cases of atrocities against women in the state. She said that although the numbers have shown a decline, the incidents continue to be on the rise.

"We do ground work almost every other day. I know there are so many incidents which the police do not register," said Ganguly.

Incidentally, NCRB report of 2015 in which Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajathan are among the top five states with most number of rape cases. Three of these top five states have BJP government, while West Bengal has no mention in it.

When asked if states ruled by BJP too had similar scenario, Ganguly defiantly said that such incidents were unfortunate and that she was solely concerned about West Bengal.

Upon being asked where did she find the data to substantiate her claim, Ganguly reiterated that what she said was fact.

Ganguly who has been dismissive of the facts, valiantly said that she stood by her comments despite critics claiming it to be a self goal.

The BJP leader slammed the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying that she is not fulfilling her duty towards the people of her state.

Meanwhile, reacting to Ganguly's scathing remarks Trinamool Congress leader Sovan Deb Chatterjee said that it was highly unbecoming of her to pass such statements about her motherland. He added that if Ganguly wanted to gain political milage she could have resorted to other means.

In response to Chatterjee's statement, Ganguly said that the TMC leader did not fully understand her statement. She said that the TMV leaders were far away from the ground reality.

"Instead of fighting with me and my words, come down to the ground. I am forced to behave like this because you have ruined West Bengal," said Roopa Ganguly slamming the TMC government.

When asked if she fears losing votes due to her comments that invoked public sentiments, she said that it did not bother her adding that the TMC leadership should take notice of the plight of women instead of fighting with her.

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Along with Ganguly, police cases were also lodged against BJP state unit chief Dilip Ghosh for making controversial statements. The police complaint was filed at Nimta police station in North 24 Parganas district against Ganguly for public mischief and criminal intimidation.

ALSO READ | Basirhat violence: How Mamata Banerjee lost the plot in her second term

Darjeeling abandoned: Bimal Gurung hiding, CM Mamata Banerjee playing waiting game, MP Ahluwalia missing

ALSO WATCH | Stand by my comment, know West Bengal's ground reality: Roopa Ganguly on rape remark

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More than 400 people, including five southwest Iowa residents, have been indicted in the largest crackdown on health care fraud on record, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The cases involve more than $1.3 billion in falsified billings, many for narcotics and opioids that have helped fuel the nations drug crisis, federal officials said Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Kevin VanderSchel in the Southern District of Iowa said five people were indicted in two schemes involving the distribution of opioids.

Shawne Marie Widener, 47, of Hamburg, is charged with multiple counts of possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone and oxycodone from May 19, 2016, to Jan. 12, 2017.

Charged with conspiracy and distribution of the drugs are Mark Edward May, 31; Chiann May Jones, 32; Clara Ann Milks, 37; and Jeremiah Jones, 40, all of Missouri Valley. Court documents state the four are suspected of conspiring with each other as early as March 2016 through June 2016 to possess and distribute oxycodone.

Court dates for all five southwest Iowa suspects are set for Sept. 11 in Council Bluffs.

In addition, Omaha dentist Gregory Garro Jr. has been indicted on 24 counts of health care fraud related to the Nebraska Medicaid program. Federal officials say he submitted claims and received reimbursements for dental services he didnt provide.

Garro, 58, declined to comment, according to a person answering the phone at his office.

The indictment alleges that Garro received $82,554 for 129 claims in dental services that he did not provide between February 2013 and January 2016. The maximum penalty on each count is 10 years imprisonment plus a $250,000 fine. His initial appearance in federal court is scheduled for July 24 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nationally, 412 people were indicted on charges of falsely prescribing opioids and other narcotics, health care fraud, money laundering and violations of anti-kickback statutes. Of those indicted, 115 were doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals.

As part of Thursdays announcement, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is suspending payment to 295 providers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

The investigation focused on schemes that took advantage of three federal programs: Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE  a health insurance program for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families.

Also indicted were people who recruited patients for unneeded services and family members who supplied beneficiary information to health care providers to use in fraudulent medical bills. The recruiters and family members were paid cash kickbacks, according to the Justice Department.

Health care fraud is a problem nationwide, and Nebraska is not immune from it, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement announcing the indictments.

The investigation was undertaken by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which includes more than 20 state Medicaid fraud control units.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
OMAHA  New proposals for biofuel requirements in 2019 have ethanol folks in Iowa and Nebraska asking what the regulators in Washington are thinking.

This month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released proposed requirements for biofuels in coming years, an annual figure known as the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The proposal would allow for 15 billion gallons of conventional corn-based ethanol  unchanged from the previous standard  to be blended into the nations fuel supply and dispersed at neighborhood gas pumps as a clear gas/ethanol blend. Thats fine and good with ethanol supporters, bad and misguided as far as detractors are concerned.

Todd Becker, chief executive of Omaha-based Green Plains, the countrys second-largest ethanol producer, said the 15 billion gallon standard is good news for the business, providing confidence for investors.

It validates the commitment of the administration, he said, referring to President Donald Trump.

But it is the biodiesel part that really has people asking what is going on. The EPA has proposed that 2.1 billion gallons of diesel produced from sources such as corn oil and soybean oil be used as a motor fuel in 2019, also unchanged from the previous standard.

The problem is thats already below last years consumption nationwide of 2.9 billion gallons, mostly courtesy of fleet vehicles such as buses that use biodiesel.

People in Iowa and Nebraska, the top two ethanol producers nationwide and major corn oil suppliers, are wondering why the biodiesel target is almost 30 percent below the level of demand that has already been booked and paid for.

It is hard to figure, said Brian Cahill, chief executive of Council Bluffs-based ethanol plant Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, which also produces about 90,000 pounds a day of corn oil, a byproduct of distilling the grain into the motor fuel.

The industry certainly has the ability to produce more than 2.1 billion gallons, Cahill said. We thought that number would have been an increase over and above, not a cutback.

Corn oil has become a key product for Midwest ethanol plants, for use in biodiesel and animal feed. Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, is also puzzled at the drawdown for biodiesel. (Corn oil of a motor-fuel specification can be added to regular diesel fuel in any mixture and put right in diesel-burning engines without any modifications to the machinery.)

A robust target for biodiesel is important to sustaining growth in the use of domestically produced, renewable bio-oils that can improve performance and significantly reduce emissions from diesel vehicles, Sneller said. Setting volume requirements that encourage investment in new technologies is consistent with the goals of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The federal laws that led to the RFS were passed in 2005 and 2007 with the overwhelming support of both parties and houses of Congress, with the stated aims of encouraging clean air and independence from imported oil.

And though some people call foul on any encouragement of ethanol, biodiesel or other non-petroleum motor-fuel sources, you wont find a lot of them in ag and government circles in Iowa and Nebraska. The ethanol industry has an economic impact of about $5 billion a year in Nebraska from the business activities of about two dozen plants, according to an analysis by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In Iowa, the annual economic impact is about $6 billion from 42 plants.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, agrees that the limper biodiesel proposal is a puzzler.

This would be the first time biodiesel has not had a year-over-year increase, Shaw said.

Of course, for some, any form of federally legislated renewable fuel requirements is verboten. Detractors say ethanol is a mirage for the motorist: cheaper, but of lower energy content and therefore lower mileage.

The American Petroleum Institute this month said renewable fuel requirements come with only hypothetical benefits and added costs to consumers. In particular, higher blends, such as 15 percent ethanol/clear gas called E15, are bad policy, according to API, a trade group representing oil companies.

Studies show that higher ethanol volumes under the RFS would raise fuel costs for consumers and damage car engines, the group said in a statement. It is essential that Americans have access to fuels they want and can safely use in their vehicles. Congress must fix this broken, outdated program.

Ethanol producers dispute this, and say that, among other advantages, there are tax incentives for biodiesel end users  such as fleets of trucks  that make the fuel profitable for them and producers.

The EPA  caught every year at RFS time between the petroleum and ethanol camps  isnt saying anything about the biodiesel requirement other than this: Anyone is free to register objections to any aspect of the proposal during a comment period ending next month.
An RSS-affiliated organisation has blamed immigrants for the recent violence at a Noida society and said that it believes there is a "well-oiled" pan-India network bringing in people illegally from Bangladesh and rehabilitating them in slums.

A mob stormed the gates and vandalised the premises of a housing society in Noida after a domestic help claimed she was tortured by one of its residents (Photo: Mail Today)

By Siddhartha Rai: After a riot-like situation at the Noida housing complex that was attacked on July 12 by hundreds, Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), an RSS-affiliated organisation, has sent a fact-finding mission to the society.

The attack took place after a domestic maid was allegedly detained by a family on charges of stealing money.

GIA has found that a huge number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are working in the city under false papers and the mob attack has prompted the UP administration to start "weeding out the disease" that is infesting the whole of India.

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"We have demanded that a CBI inquiry be conducted in the matter as it cannot be brushed aside as a small law and order incident. The fact that a huge crowd of around 500 Bangladeshi immigrants gathered outside Mahagun Moderne society and attacked the concerned family is a big issue. We suspect there is a well-oiled network working on a pan-India level to bring in people illegally from Bangladesh and rehabilitate them in jhuggies (slums) near residential areas. How come these people have valid voter identity cards and Aadhaar cards with them?" asked GIA convenor advocate Monika Arora.

GIA earlier sent a fact-finding mission to look into alleged violence against RSS workers in Kerala.

Arora told Mail Today that the report was in the process of being compiled and will be released in a couple of days. "We shall be submitting the report to chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union home minister Rajnath Singh."

The CCTV footage, claimed Arora, showed the maid had not been detained. Instead, she had taken shelter in a neighbouring house. "She is seen staying in a neighbouring house in the society, claiming that she was not well and that she wanted to sleep the night off. She was also given food and tea the next morning by the family. But later, she cooked up a story and the mob attack ensued."

"What is more shocking is that according to the testimony of the flat owners of the society, the mob attacked the house where she was stealing from and the family had to take refuge in the bathroom. Other maids who were part of the mob knew there was a backdoor which was entirely glass, and they broke that and entered the house with the intention of attacking them. The family was saved when other flat owners came to their rescue. The accused should be charged with outraging the modesty of the woman of the house as they shouted they would rape her and lynch her son," Arora said.

ALSO READ | 13 detained in Noida society violence over maid-employer dispute

ALSO WATCH | Mayhem in Noida society after maid is beaten up by her employer

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Nottinghamshire Police have made four arrests after receiving reports of a group of males armed with weapons attacking a property in Netherfield.

Three males, aged 47, 22 and 16, have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and a 49-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of affray.

They remain in police custody.

Officers are investigating after being called to a property in Arthur Street just after 5pm on Friday. July 14.

Enquiries are continuing in Arthur Street and Deabill Street.

No injuries have been reported.

Officers are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with information about what happened to call Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 747 of 14 July 2017, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Saif Ali Khan is going to host the IIFA Awards 2017 with Karan Johar in New York.

By Asian News International: Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, who will join the inimitable Karan Johar to host the 18th edition of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards in New York, said the event is going to be a lot of fun as the two have worked hard on the script.

At the IIFA Rocks green carpet, the Nawab of Bollywood told ANI, "I am hosting after a long time. KJo and I have worked a lot on the script and have tried to make it interesting and funny."

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He added: "We'll make fun of ourselves and a bit of others too! I am sure it's going to be a lot of fun. It's a huge stadium, lots of people will be here, and the whole world will see the program, I am sure they will like it."

Starting its journey in the year 2000 in London, IIFA has taken place at 15 locations across 12 countries and four continents.

Talking about one of Bollywood's biggest awards, the Rangoon star said, "IIFA is like a gala and not just a normal award function. It has become a three-day cultural event now."

The IIFA Rocks 2017 on day two celebrates 25 years of Oscar and Grammy winner AR Rahman in the music industry and features a special medley by the maestro along with musicians Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri.

Actors Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul will be hosting the event.

ALSO READ | IIFA 2017: All you need to know about the gala affair

ALSO READ | IIFA 2017: Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan rock the green carpet braving the rain

ALSO WATCH | Why did IIFA ignore Tabu?

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James Anderson might have hoisted Ben Stokes' trousers up to spare his blushes, but the England batsmen pulled the bowler's pants down with a wretched performance to leave them facing a first defeat at Trent Bridge in a decade.

Anderson came to the vice-captain's aid when Stokes threatened to lose his trousers after injuring himself fielding impressively.

Stokes proved to be fine, but England's batting was anything but as they were dismissed for 205 after Anderson had four for four in 16 balls at the start of day two.

South Africa were dismissed for 335 after they were only able to add 26 to their overnight score thanks to Anderson, who now has seven five wicket hauls at Trent Bridge.

Despite that, the tourists lead by 205 after closing on 75 for one on a day when 15 wickets fell.

Playing with unnecessary aggression, England find themselves with a long road ahead to avoid a first Test defeat at Trent Bridge since India won there in 2007.

It was hardly surprising the ball moved under skies so cloudy the floodlights were on from the morning, but the batsmen played with abandon, meaning the series is likely to be tied a 1-1 come the third Test.

Openers Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings (0) were undone by fine bowling from Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander to reduce England to three for two.

Joe Root led a counter attack in swashbuckling style with 78 from 76 balls to give the sold out crowd value for money, but the batting was brittle.

Gary Ballance looked uncomfortable at number three and drove loosely to former Nottinghamshire seamer Philander to be bowled for 27 by the first ball after lunch.

Root was unable to resist going after a tiring Morkel at the end of an eight over spell and was well caught by a sprawling Quinton de Kock.

It was a soft dismissal but that was almost inevitable given such an exhilarating innings, which featured 12 boundaries.

Stokes was unable to score, while Bairstow was frenetic and a little fortunate for 45, but blameless in his dismissal, Keshav Maharaj getting one to turn past his defensive push forwards.

However, Moeen Ali (18) and Liam Dawson (13) shot themselves in the foot with loose shots.

Hampshire all-rounder Dawson might have been the victim of one of the worst umpiring decisions in a generation from Paul Reiffel, overturned on review when he it was clear he missed the ball by a mile, but he flatters to deceive.

Stuart Broad came out to the hometown hero's reception, but was out lbw for a golden duck to a ball that looked to be drifting past leg stump, although Hawk-Eye said it would hit on review.

How England's batting must have angered the bowlers. Anderson struck in each of his first two overs, both wicket maidens, to remove first Philander for 54 and then Maharaj for a duck.

He then got Chris Morris for 36, taking a return catch and completed his work by getting Morkel for eight to leave him with figures of five for 72.

Anderson's fifth wicket of the day was that of Heino Kuhn for eight, 6.2 overs into South Africa's second innings. Dean Elgar is unbeaten on 35 and Hashim Amla has 23.
MICHIGAN CITY  The new Franciscan Health hospital is closer to opening, after construction workers installed the last structural beam on the facility Friday.

The $232 million hospital, expected to be finished in September 2018, will replace the downtown Homer Street campus that is roughly a century old.

"Today marks one of the most significant steps on our road to completion of the new Franciscan Health Michigan City hospital," said Dean Mazzoni, the hospital's president and CEO. "A little more than year ago, we stood here before an empty green field and celebrated the groundbreaking of this new facility."

Now, he noted, the metal skeleton of the hospital contains 3,000 tons of steel. To put that in perspective, he said, an Amtrak passenger train weighs about 65 tons while the Statue of Liberty weighs 225 tons.

The new hospital, located on an 86-acre site that leaves room for expansion, will have an estimated 108 inpatient rooms. Mazzoni said the downtown facility will remain open to house inpatient behavioral health and rehabilitation.

"Our new hospital will be a tremendous blessing, a great gift, to not only Michigan City and LaPorte County but to this entire region," said the Rev. William O'Toole, director of pastoral care at the hospital. "The mission: to make God's love alive here in the community, through compassionate care of the sick."

Dr. Matthew Troy, president of the Michigan City hospital's medical staff, said Franciscan Alliance involved doctors and nurses at every turn to make sure the new facility was best designed for patient care. "This is truly a momentous day for our medical community," he said.

Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairwoman of the Franciscan Alliance Foundation Board of Trustees, was the last person to sign the beam. She wrote, in a quote inspired by St. Francis of Assisi: "Peace and all good to all who enter."

Then, before a crowd of about 150 observers in hard hats and safety vests, a crane hoisted the beam into place as steelworkers took pictures with their cellphones. A drone with a camera attached followed it into the air.

After the crewmembers bolted the beam in, they raised their arms in celebration. The crowd cheered.

"We intend to make this new hospital a regional beacon for all those who come our way in need of hope and healing," Mazzoni said.
The South Shore Line will switch three popular afternoon rush-hour trains back to their pre-July 1 schedule after a new schedule implemented on that day proved impractical.

Starting Tuesday, trains 117, 17 and 217 will depart Millennium Station at 5:10, 5:28 and 5:32 p.m., respectively. Each will depart Van Buren Street three minutes later.

The July 1 schedule change had those three trains leaving Millennium at 5:24, 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. Pushing the trains to those later departure times had been intended to maximize ridership and to give city workers who end their day at 5 p.m. more time to get to the train.

But riders didn't shift in ways the railroad expected.

"The schedule change clearly caused overcrowding and inconvenienced many of our riders," the railroad said in its announcement of the switch back to the previous schedule. "That was not our intention and for that we apologize."

The three trains are preceded by a train departing Millennium at 4:57 p.m. The railroad said in its announcement that "what we did not anticipate was a significant ridership shift to (the 4:57 train)."

"We saw a 30 percent spike in the already popular 4:57 train," South Shore President Michael Noland said.

The railroad said it also has more "discretionary" riders  non-commuters  using rush hour trains, "exacerbating this overcrowding condition."

The South Shore ran an extra train last week, and will do so again Monday, departing Millennium at 5:10 p.m. The new permanent schedule will begin Friday.

Several other July 1 changes will remain in place, and Noland urged South Shore riders to check the schedules to make sure which trains make the stops they need. Updated schedules will be available on www.mysouthshore.com.
Auto parts supplier Lear Corp., one of Hammond's largest employers, is planning a massive investment in a new factory on the city's north side.

The company, which supplies seats for the Ford Explorer to the nearby Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch, plans to invest $30 million in a new 270,000-square-foot facility on the north side of Michigan Street near Hammond's South Shore Line station. It will employ 750 workers there.

Knowing Lears past success in our city, we hope that this much bigger 30-acre site will allow for future expansion and additional job creation, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. stated in a news release. Hammonds Economic Development team has been working on this project for hundreds of hours over the past year. We were in competition with many other communities around the Chicagoland area for this employer, so I am proud that Hammond was chosen as Lears new location."

For decades, the Dearborn, Michigan-based auto supplier has operated a 100,000-square-foot seat factory on 165th Street in Hammond. As Explorer sales have risen, it outgrew the factory, even moving subassembly work to Portage a few years ago.

The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

Lear had been looking for a new location where it could build a much larger factory to accommodate the demand, McDermott said. Hammond has been trying to land the new factory for the last 12 to 18 months.

"I want to congratulate Hammonds Director of Planning and Development, Phil Taillon, and Hammonds Director of Economic Development, Africa Tarver, for their persistence in landing this project for the residents of Hammond," McDermott said in the release. "Losing Lear would have been a blow to Hammonds economy. Instead, we will receive a new investment of $30 million, and hundreds of new jobs as well. This is a great day for our city.

Hammond lined up a long-vacant 20-acre site by the train station where Lear could build a factory nearly three times as large as its current one in the city.

"They couldn't get bigger at their current location," McDermott said in a phone interview Friday. "I was scared they would move and I'd have to explain why they left. We did everything we could because it's hundreds of jobs and a big deal for Hammond taxpayers."

Hammond is offering a $4 million incentive to Lear, which will add hundreds of new jobs in Hammond. McDermott said it will be the first major new factory built in Hammond since Munster Steel constructed a new plant in 2013.

"This is three times larger," he said in the phone interview. "It's a big deal. We had to fight hard for this."

The Hammond Redevelopment Commission will consider the incentive package at its Tuesday meeting.
By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 15 (PTI) A section of nurses attached to private hospitals, who were planning to go on a statewide indefinite strike from July 17 demanding higher wages, today decided to put the proposed agitation on hold till July 19, following government intervention.

Members of the United Nurses Association (UNA) said the decision was taken at their state committee meeting after the intervention of the Chief Ministers Office.

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"Our demand is that the Supreme Court directives with regard to the salary hike of nurses are implemented. We are not ready for any compromise on this," UNA president Jasmine Shah told reporters.

"We have put the strike on hold till July 19. If no decision is taken by then, we will go ahead with the agitation," he added.

Welcoming the decision, state Health Minister K K Shylaja said the government had requested the UNA to call off the strike as the nurses service was an essential one, especially in the wake of the viral fever and dengue outbreak in Kerala.

However, the nurses associated with the Indian Nurses Association (INA) said they would continue their agitation.

INA leader Muhammed Shihab said the CMO did not call on them, though they were prepared for talks with the government.

"We are on strike since June 28 and we will continue with it. The chief ministers office has not got in touch with us," he added.

The Kerala High Court had yesterday restrained the nurses associations from going on an indefinite strike, on a petition filed by an association of private hospitals.

The petitioner had submitted that the nurses work came under the purview of essential services and sought that the provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) be enforced against those on strike.

The functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be hit with an estimated 80,000 nurses deciding to go on an indefinite strike from July 17.

The strike call was given by the UNA and INA, demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 for nurses as fixed by the Supreme Court.

The managements of private hospitals have said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the strike call. PTI LGK UD APR RC

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True Crime series

Where do some of the most famous true crime stories from around the region stand now? Check out this slideshow to find out.
It's a warm, sunny afternoon and Chad Armalius, of Hebron, is standing in the Cedar Lake Town Grounds at a car show. He has long hair that's out of its typical ponytail, tattoos spread across his torso and a mug in his hand.

In front of him people occasionally stop by his black Chevrolet K20 pickup truck. They curiously examine it, then take to drawing on its body with chalk. But Armalius isn't making a fuss about it; in fact, he's encouraging it. He purposely invites the passers-by to add their personal touch of graffiti to what he calls "The Chalk Truck."

"It's guaranteed to make people smile every time," Armalius said. "I get people from ages 5 to 80 to draw on this thing."

He takes the vehicle to different car shows in Northwest Indiana, calling on those who attend to smother it with their creative drawings as long as there's no profanity or obscenity.

"I have a 5-year-old," he said. "I don't want her asking, 'Hey dad, what's that?' " he said.

Although he's had the pickup truck for five years, he's supervised the chalking for a little more than a year. Armalius has a job cleaning portable toilets that he's had since March. He worked for another company a year ago doing the same thing, but was laid off.

In the downtime between jobs, one day he and his wife, Mandi, and daughter, Tabitha, were relaxing with friends by the boat launch at Cedar Lake with the truck. Chad and Mandi had given Tabitha chalk to draw with in the parking lot. Before they knew it, she had sketched a stick figure on the body of the truck. Mandi said Tabitha called the stick figure "Daddy."

"Chad and I were about to tell her 'no more,' but I told him it wouldn't harm anything," Mandi said. "So we all colored on it. And the next day, the rain washed it all off."

Soon afterward, friend Jim "Remi" La Tulip was killed in a motorcycle accident. Chad and Mandi included his name on the truck's side when they attended the wake and funeral. They also allowed their friends to write farewells on the truck.

"(It) ended up being a really neat experience seeing the truck covering in drawings from all the people who knew him," Mandi said. "And from then on it sort of stuck."

Armalius joined up with the Head Hunters Car Club, a group that gets its name from gray, shrunken heads hung from rear view mirrors that were popular hotrod ornaments in the 20th century. While at the Cougar Classic Car Show in DeMotte, Armalius allowed the attendees to contribute their creativity.

He's since taken it to Cedar Lake, Hebron, Winfield and Wheatfield for other shows. Prior to each one, he'll wash the body and apply new black spray paint.

"My goal is just to get everyone to color on it," he said. "And they always leave with a smile, which makes me happy."

Armalius only makes three contributions to the truck: "Nom Nom" written on the grille, "Rust Hole" by a gaping section in a side mirror and "Danger Zone" on the bottom side. The rest is an open canvas.

Brian Nelson, of Hebron, one of the founding members of the Head Hunters, feels the truck is an excellent activity for kids who may not be thrilled by vehicles they themselves won't be able to use for several years.

"They get bored because its cars," Nelson said. "It's something they can do besides sit there being bored or on their phones and tablets. They can do something constructive."

When the day comes for Armalius to retire the current Chalk Truck, he vows the next one also will be spray painted black and chalked all over. Although, he does add he intends to one day acquire a tall, shiny monster truck.

But at a hard time in his life, the unexpected activity "helped bring a new excitement" to Armalius, his wife said.

"It kept me from losing my cool," he said. "It's a great stress relief. Draw whatever you want, say whatever you want, know it'll wash away. With the rain comes a new day."
* Purple reigns: Highland man builds his flock of fascinating purple martins, which fly about 5,000 miles every fall from Northwest Indiana to the Amazon Basin. Read about how he became something of a bird whisperer after inheriting the houses from a neighbor in 1975.

* From the community impact to the new wholesaler through which the stores will be supplied, business writer Joseph S. Pete takes a deeper look at what it means to the Region now that Strack & Van Til will remain under local ownership.

* Be sure to keep an eye out for $106 in coupon values in the Sunday Times.
Three people from LaPorte are in custody for alleged narcotics dealing after police executed a search warrant Friday morning in the 200 block of Ohio Street, police announced.

The LaPorte County Drug Task Force led the lengthy investigation, which stemmed from citizen complaints, according to Sgt Andy Hynek.

Carl K. Adkins, 34, and Brandon Zachary, 24, each have been charged with dealing cocaine, a level 5 felony, police said.

Stephanie Berg, 44, is charged with three counts of dealing cocaine, a level 5 felony, according to a news release from the LaPorte County Drug Task Force.

Detective Rudy Esparza's investigation led to evidence being presented to the prosecuting attorney's office and Judge Tom Alevizos, where probable cause was found, Hynek said in the release.

The LaPorte County Drug Task Force is committed to investigating alleged narcotic activity in our city, and continues to partner with the community, to hold those responsible accountable. I encourage citizens to continue to reach out to the unit, with their tips," LaPorte Police Chief Adam Klimczak said in the release.

Anyone with tips is encouraged to contact the LaPorte County Drug Task Force via social media or the crime tip hotline at 219-873-1488.
INDIANAPOLIS  Indianapolis police will make significant policy changes in the wake of the fatal June shooting of an unarmed black man by officers, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Friday.

Hogsett said the department's use-of-force policy will be "modernized" and it will bring in a "diverse set of legal experts" to review training for new officers, The Indianapolis Star reported (http://indy.st/2v02Wl4 ).

Additionally, the city plans to create a use-of-force review board to examine incidents that involve firearms, Tasers or a physical altercation. Implicit bias training will also be offered to officers.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was roundly criticized following the June 29 shooting death of 45-year-old Aaron Bailey after a chase that followed a traffic stop. Officers Michal P. Dinnsen and Carlton J. Howard were placed on administrative leave after the shooting.

The shooting was decried by pastors with the Indianapolis Congregation Action Network and other community leaders. The advocacy group DON'T SLEEP held a rally last month, and at least one more rally was planned Saturday at the Indiana Statehouse, while the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration is under way.

Chief Bryan Roach said Bailey's death represents a "national discussion that has come home."

"I've heard a lot of anger in the last couple weeks," Roach said. "I've heard a lot of fear. Our responsibility is to diminish that anger and fear."

The Marion County prosecutor's office and the FBI are investigating the shooting.

Hogsett also vowed that the investigation into Bailey's death will happen expeditiously and with "as much openness and as much transparency as due process will allow."

After the announcement, the Rev. Jeffrey A. Johnson Sr., who leads Eastern Star Church, said he liked that the police force is looking for outside help to supplement what the department is already doing to improve training and policies.

But he said the city still needs to address consequences for police officers when they violate laws or policies.

"There are things that are already in place, and police violate them, and nothing happens," Johnson said. "There has to be a painful consequence for that. If you have a badge and a gun, the law is not different for you."

___

Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
Area law enforcement officials said they are not seeing an influx of edibles and other manufactured marijuana products coming from the growing number of states where the drug is legal.

About the only place these products have shown up locally is in a few packages intercepted in the mail by the Indiana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Director Charles Porucznik said.

People sometimes try to mail the products to Indiana from a state like Colorado where marijuana is legal, he said. While not wanting to reveal what draws attention to these packages, Porucznik said suspicion is raised when they are postmarked from one of the legalized states and are sent to a post office box rather than a home address.

The edible forms of marijuana were in the spotlight earlier this month when 11 young people were treated at LaPorte County hospitals after each consumed half of a gummy bear candy that police believe to have contained tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is an active ingredient found in marijuana.

The young people reported hallucinations, blurred vision, rapid heartbeats and pain in their legs, according to LaPorte County police Capt. Mike Kellems.

Police are not sure of the source of the tainted gummy bears and are having the candies tested to determine their contents. While the incident occurred in LaPorte County, the nine 18-year-olds and two 19-year-olds  including six males and five females  were from Fishers, Indiana.

Mark Back, spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Department, said while the local drug task force has not recovered any manufactured marijuana products, such as gummy bears, they are likely circulating around the county.

"In many cases, they are difficult to identify as drug products," he said.

Porter County Sheriff Sgt. Jamie Erow said while marijuana-infused candies may be deceptive to the human eye, they can't get by the nose of a trained police dog.

County police have come across these types of products only a few times over the past several years, she said.

"It's illegal to have regardless if they are legal somewhere else," Erow said.

This is the case in Indiana even if the person has a medical prescription for marijuana, she said.

LaPorte County police said at least two of the young people who reported ill effects from the gummy bears were found to have high levels of THC in their system.

Porucznik said a problem with the edible marijuana products is that the effects are not noticed right away. Users continue consuming them as a result and don't realize they have eaten too many until it is too late.

There is also a problem with lawmakers not understanding the intensity of THC when it is separated from the plant and thus allowing for products that are too strong, he said.

"I don't think they understand the extraction," Porucznik said.

Marijuana has been legalized for recreational and/or medicinal use in 26 states and the District of Columbia, according to governing.com. Three additional states are slated to follow after recently approving the use of medical marijuana.
KINGSBURY  A 3-year-old boy who was nearly killed when he was run over by a tractor June 21 on his family's farm is out of the hospital.

Authorities viewed his recovery with awe considering his dozen or so skull fractures and other major injuries.

"That type of a trauma, that type of an injury, the outcome is usually not this good," said Andrew McGuire, administrator for LaPorte County Emergency Medical Service and a trained paramedic.

LaPorte County Emergency Medical Service first responded to the June 21 accident.

Edward Burek-Phillips is now at La Rabida Children's Hospital Rehabilitation in Chicago, according to his mother, Rebecca Burek, on her Facebook page. She and other family members have declined comment, but welcomed use of her posts on social media that give regular updates on her son's condition.

Edward, also known by the family as "Bubby," was released from the University of Chicago Medicine Comer's Children's Hospital in Chicago on Thursday, her page said, adding she didn't know how long her son would remain at the rehab facility. Edward is talking in the recent videos she posted.

According to police, a family member was backing up the tractor to head out into the field when he ran over the boy on his bicycle at Bureks' Farm.

At the beginning, McGuire said there were doubts if the boy would make it. He said the amount of swelling and bleeding and the extent of any complications that might result are difficult to know early on in cases involving head trauma.

"Brain injuries are very hard to predict so very thankful that the outcome ended up being a lot different from what we initially thought it would be," McGuire said.
VALPARAISO  High school students from 26 states have converged on the Valparaiso University campus to study music and build friendships that could last a lifetime.

Beginning Sunday, there will be a variety of concerts and other events open to the public as part of the Lutheran Summer Music program.

Thomas Bandar, executive director of the program, which hosts a summer camp, said the goal is to foster a lifelong love of music, regardless of whether the student goes on to be a professional musician.

"Look around, because these will be your peers the rest of your lives, no matter where you go in your lives or your career," Bandar told the students.

"Their day is busy," he said, with students involved in choirs, bands, ensembles and any number of electives, including musical theater, handbells and more.

The day is structured with worship time, rehearsals, private lessons and group recreation. The students, who live in dorms on the campus during their four-week stay, have homework of a sort  even if it is summer.

"We expect them to be practicing every day," Bandar said.

Sophia Rice, 17, of Seattle, participated in a two-week summer music program last year and is in the full four-week program this year.

"I love it. It's really fun," she said. "I get to be serious about music but silly as a person."

"I'm in voice lessons, the concert choir, I'm doing the Bach cantata and then musical theater," she said.

Paul Albright, 17, of Boston, is also in his second year. He's a counter tenor, singing alto as well as bass baritone.

"It's a good break in the summer," he said. "During the school year, there's so much going on with school and homework and stuff that music sometimes gets pushed into the weekend or aside."

As a high school senior, Albright is trying to figure out which direction he should take in the future and what role music will have in it.

His access to university music faculty members helps him and others learn more about their options, he said.

The four-week Lutheran Summer Music program is $3,495, Bandar said, but generous financial aid is available from the program, local churches and charities.

A sweetener for students who plan to study music in college is that scholarships are automatically available to students who participate in the summer music program, Bandar said.

Public performances are set for Wednesday through Saturday, with a closing worship service on Sunday.
VALPARAISO  A Crown Point man was killed Friday morning in a crash on Ind. 49.

Andrew Vloedman, 42, died of his injuries at Porter Regional Hospital following the crash that happened at 11:18 a.m. on Ind. 49 and County Road 500 North, according to a news release from the Porter County Sheriff's Department.

Police responded to the crash involving a motorcycle and two vehicles.

The accident took place in the northbound lanes of Ind. 49 causing the roadway to be shut down for approximately two hours as Porter Countys Accident Reconstruction team investigated the crash.

According to the release, the initial investigation at the scene, as well as witness statements, show a black 2011 Heritage Softail Harley Davidson, driven by Vloedman, was northbound on Ind. 49 in the right lane, slowing for a red light. Following behind the motorcycle was a blue 2015 Honda Accord, driven by Lawrence Drummond, 58, of Valparaiso. A white 2009 GMC Sierra, driven by Jackilyn Sturghill, 23, of Hebron, was eastbound on County Road 500 North, turning northbound onto Ind. 49.

As Vloedman was slowing for the red light he was struck from behind by Drummond. The motorcycle and Vloedman were pushed into the intersection striking the rear of Sturghills truck.

Vloedman, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his motorcycle. Sturghill and Drummond were not injured. Life-saving efforts were immediately provided to Vloedman, who was transported to Porter Regional Hospital and later died from his injuries.

Assisting at the scene were Valparaiso Police Department, Valparaiso Fire and EMS, Porter EMS, and Sandbergs Towing.
EAST CHICAGO  Congressional elected officials of Northwest Indiana are asking the federal government to work with the city to identify ways to better help residents potentially exposed to lead and arsenic contaminants over the years.

U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., along with U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana and U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, penned a letter Friday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requesting continued assistance for residents living in the USS Lead Superfund site.

"The City and the state of Indiana have been working to provide free blood testing to impacted residents, which has been helpful in identifying residents needing the most immediate treatment and care," the letter read. "Given the length time frame residents have potentially been subjected to cumulative exposures, however, residents are rightfully concerned about the long-term impacts to their health and well-being."

Young, Donnelly and Visclosky requested that HHS work with the city to identify ways to improve treatment, prevention and education programs for residents, according to a news release from Donnelly's office.

HHS should also detail its ability to provide long-term health monitoring and treatment for both past and present residents, the letter read.

The three also called on the CDC to ensure the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry conduct a thorough examination of cumulative, long-term exposure residents face while living, working and playing in the neighborhood.

They also urged ATSDR to allow time for the city, its health department and other stakeholders to comment on the updated health study and for the federal agency to take into account relevant current and historical testing data from all reliable sources.

ATSDR, which works with EPA to prepare public health evaluations, previously prepared two public health evaluations for the site.

A 1998 report found a limited number of children in the area had elevated blood lead levels and recommended further study. Another report in 2011 has been widely criticized for relying on incomplete data and wrongly concluding the toxins in the soil no longer presented public health threats.

The citys mayor, Anthony Copeland, last year criticized the 2011 ATSDR report for not consulting with local health department officials who had collected blood lead testing data between 1991 and 2011.
By PTI: Chandigarh, Jul 14 (PTI) A stroll along a canal turned into tragedy for two teenage girls as they were swept away in the water while trying to retrieve a phone they were clicking selfies with.

"The girl, whose mobile phone fell, entered the Sathiali canal at Kahnuwan in Gurdaspur district to retrieve it, but got carried away due to the swift current. The other one jumped to save her, but she too got swept away," Guraspur SSP, Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said over the phone.

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Kahnuwan SHO Harjit Singh said the two have been identified as Nisha (18) and Lovepreet (17).

"Both hailed from Sathiali village and are students. Divers have been pressed into service to trace the girls. We have also sought help from Army divers. The incident occurred at about 7 am today, but so far the two have not been traced," the SHO said.

He said a 14-year-old girl who was accompanying them informed the family members of the other two about the incident after which police was informed. PTI SUN BSA DV BSA

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INDIANAPOLIS  An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he's selling his stock in his brother's arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn't had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become "a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries." His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.

The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on as much as $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior Corp., which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads.

Donnelly, considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.

The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly criticized Donnelly in a statement Friday, alleging he is "hypocritically profiting" from the company's actions. It called on him to donate his sale profits to organizations helping the families of displaced workers.

Donnelly has sponsored a bill, titled the End Outsourcing Act, which aims to make it more difficult to transfer jobs to other countries.

"The real issue we need to focus on, days before 300 Carrier workers in Indianapolis face layoffs, is how we can keep manufacturing here in Indiana," he said in the news release, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to bring the bill to the floor next week.

Donnelly, the lone Democrat elected statewide in Republican-dominated Indiana, is facing a tough re-election bid in 2018. Two Republicans in the U.S. House, Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, have signaled an interest in running.

For more than a year, Stewart Superior and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva Inc., which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.

Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Indiana, says on its website that the company's Mexican factory "brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers."

Donnelly's brother runs the company, but the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. He won election to the Senate in 2012.
The death of a Queens boy earlier this year has been ruled a homicide.

According to the medical examiner, 5-year-old Michael Guzman died from acute phenobarbital intoxication. Phenobarbital is a drug commonly prescribed for seizure disorders.

Guzman was found unconscious in his Jamaica home on January 22.

He was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.

Sources say the Administration for Children's Services made 13 visits to the home. In eight of those visits, sources say social workers saw enough evidence to support a claim that a child was abused or neglected.

Guzman was one of six children in the family, and they tell us he suffered from epilepsy.

Police have questioned the boy's parents and are still investigating.
Police in Brooklyn are investigating a pair of attempted sexual assaults that happened just blocks away from each other.

Authorities are looking for the man seen above in connection with both incidents.

The first incident happened around 2:30 a.m. Thursday near Sterling Place and Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, according to the NYPD.

Police say he followed a 22-year-old woman into her apartment building, but they say she was able to kick him and spray him with mace when he tried to attack.

About an hour later, police say he followed a 32-year-old woman into her apartment near Pacific Street and Nostrand Avenue.

Authorities say he approached her from behind and put his hand over her mouth, but police say she was able to fight him off.

"It's really scary because I think that I have always felt very safe in this neighborhood, and as a New Yorker, especially in an area that's active and that's lit, I always feel very, perhaps too safe or invincible. So knowing that it happened right here is really scary," said one resident in the area.

"It actually worries me because I actually have a wife and she comes home late sometimes, so it's like, you weren't expecting to hear about that," said another.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.
U.S. Senator Luther Strange visited Auburn University on Thursday, touring the Charles C. Miller Jr. Poultry Research and Education Center.

On a childhood note, my grandparents had a farm, and they had chickens. So I want to see if theres been any progress made, the senator told university and media representatives gathered at the poultry facility. I ran around the chicken houses a long time ago.

During his visit, Strange met with poultry producers, toured the feed mill and was updated by university staff on their research.

This is a great example of the importance of agriculture research, teaching and extension, working collectively for the good of Alabama, extension director Gary D. Lemme said. The poultry industry is our largest agricultural industry in the state. We process over a billion birds a year. Thats four million birds a day.

The facility, which is in its tenth year, exists because of funding under Title VII of the Farm Bill, Lemme said.

I just want to tell you how honored I am to be on the Ag Committee, Strange said. We havent had a senator from the state of Alabama in over 20 years on the Ag Committee, and its the biggest sector in our economy.

Jim Donald, director of the national poultry technology center at the university, took Strange on a tour of the research center.

The purpose of our house is to test those technologies that might end up in a chicken house so they would be profitable; not just good ideas, but good ideas that put money in someones pocket, Donald said. There are no other facilities in the country that look at the equipment, and the environment and energy uses that growers have to deal with every day.

Before continuing his tour, which included a meeting with Auburn University president Steven Leath and a tour of the Southeastern Raptor Center, Strange addressed the Auburn family.

I love this university, he said. My grandfather attended Auburn. My father attended Auburn. My sister has her Ph.D. from this university. When I was a private lawyer, long before politics, I represented this university in economic development and biotech collaboration areas. So what you do here, I know firsthand what a good job it is.
Michael Overstreet, who has managed Toomers Drugs for 18 years, recently had an unusual conversation with store owner Betty Haisten.

Theres not too many people who, when I call them up and say, I want to give away all your money for two days, jump on board and say, What else can we do? Overstreet said.

But Toomers Drugs is doing just that later this month, all for a special employee.

Madalyn McCormick, 20, worked at Toomers for a year and a half, but recently was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkins lymphoma.

So her Toomers family jumped into action.

A gift for Madalyn

Basically, as soon as we found out that Madalyn was sick, we knew that we wanted to help in some way, Overstreet said. There are so many more expenses that go into cancer treatment than just going to the doctor. There are travel expenses. Youre having to stay overnight in hotels sometimes. You have to eat out all the time. All that gets expensive very quickly.

Toomers is donating 100 percent of profits from sales July 22 and 23 to McCormicks family. That includes profits from the sale of anything in the store  food and drinks, T-shirts and all other novelty items. McCormicks coworkers also plan to give 100 percent of the tips they earn that weekend to the family.

So were going to have tip buckets, not tip jars, set out for Maddi, Overstreet said. The money will go directly to Maddi.

McCormick is currently being treated at the University of South Alabamas Mitchell Cancer Institute and living with her parents nearby in Alberta. In a phone interview on Monday, she said that when she learned what Toomers has planned, she was blown away.

Before, (Overstreet) had just asked if they could do a bake sale or something like that to help raise money for me, which I was grateful for already, she said. But when I saw all that they were doingI just texted my manager and said, Holy cow. I didnt know what else to say.

McCormick was a student at Auburn University while working at Toomer's and was in the midst of changing majors when she had to move south for treatments.

Originally, I was Pre-Med, McCormick laughed. But I always tell people, Im not as smart as I thought I was. I was in the process of transferring my major to Human Development and Family Studies when I left.

McCormicks decision to change the focus of her studies was driven by an experience from four years ago.

This is the second time Ive had cancer. The first time, I was 16, she said. I had a child life counselor  sort of like a social worker, but without all the paperwork  and we just clicked. She and I still talk. So now, I want to be a child life counselor for someone else.

A special weekend at Toomer's

Until she reaches her goal of becoming a counselor, at least for one weekend this month, she gets to be a cookie. Cakeitecture, the local bakery that makes the Aubie cookies sold at Toomers, is making Maddi cookies for the fundraiser.

Were going to have one thats sort of a caricature of Maddis face, a limited supply, just for that weekend, Overstreet said. Im really excited about that.

The store already sells flavored lemonades, but in addition to selling Maddi cookies that weekend, Toomers is launching a new lemonade: peach, because thats McCormicks favorite flavor.

The Saturday of the event, held July 22-23, the Downtown Merchants Association plans to give away a limited supply of discount cards for use toward purchases at various downtown merchants. Mayfield Ice Cream is donating ice cream to Toomers to offset the cost of purchasing, and the money saved is going directly to McCormick. M&M Produce in Columbus is selling its supply of lemons to Toomers at a discounted rate, and Overstreet said he is talking with other businesses who want to participate in the fundraiser.

McCormick herself said she might try to make an appearance that weekend.

To the workers at Toomers, I love them so dearly, she said. They mean the world to me, and I can never thank them enough.

Can help out online

Anyone who wants to help McCormick and her family financially but cant make it to the store the weekend of the fundraiser can participate online.

Thursday through Sunday, the same weekend as her event at the store, were going to donate 100 percent profits from the website sales, Overstreet said. If (customers) dont want to purchase a product, they can buy gift cards, and maybe give those to their friends and neighbors who are Auburn fans, if theyre not Auburn fans themselves.

The drugstores website, Toomers.com, also has a tab where people can donate any dollar amount to McCormick and her family. And they dont have to wait until the event later this month to do it; the Madalyns Donations option on the website is available now.

We got the exact reaction we expected: just someone whos grateful for anything anybody wants to do to help out, Overstreet said. She deserves it, and were glad that were able to do it for her.

Doctors expect her treatment to take about a year and a half, McCormick said. She has already been receiving chemotherapy treatments for three or four months and eventually will need a stem cell transplant.

Maddis just one of those upbeat people, Overstreet said. She always has a smile on her face and never has anything negative to say. Even when things arent going their best at work, she is always in a good mood. Shes definitely one of those people that you need around you in stressful situations.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The families of two teenagers, who allegedly committed suicide in a hotel room in southwest Delhis Dwarka, were not aware about the duo being friends, the police said today.

During the probe, the police have found that they were known to each other for the last couple of years. They are also analysing phone records and their recent activities to find out what triggered them to take extreme step.

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No suicide note has been recovered from the room, which they have booked using a mobile app.

The mans family told police he had never mentioned about any woman to them.

Even on Thursday, he had left his home saying that he was going to attend the demo class of Computer Science for his admissions at the IIT.

He had told his parents that he would be staying at his friends place for studies but had checked into a hotel with the MBBS student.

The womans family members are too, in state of shock. She never discussed anything related to friendship with any man. She was a first year student at Lady Hardinge medical college.

Police said that they would be questioning their common friends to ascertain what led them to take the extreme step. PTI SLB SMJ

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Tejashwi had to share stage with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but gave it a miss after his nameplate was covered and later removed.

Tejashwi had to share stage with Nitis Kumar at an event but gave it a miss after his nameplate was covered and later removed.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: The confrontation between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minsiter Tejashwi Yadav escalated with the latter skipping a government event in Patna today.

Tejashwi had to share stage with the chief minister but gave it a miss after his nameplate was covered and later removed.

The Labour Department of the Bihar government had organised a function on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day and both Nitish and Tejaswi had received official invitation. Newspaper advertisements had also confirmed the attendance of both the leaders.

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However Tejashwi, who is being pressured by JD(U) to resign from his post after an FIR was lodged against him in a corruption case, skipped the Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Diwas event.

As per the seating arrangement at the venue of the event, Tejashwi was supposed to sit next to Nitish's (on the right). Tejashwi's name plate was initially covered, clearly indicating that there was confusion in the government over his participation in the event following the massive political turmoil.

NAMEPLATE REMOVED FROM STAGE

Later, just moments before Nitish arrived for the event, Tejashwi's nameplate was removed from the table signaling that he has chosen to give the event a miss.

"Many ministers who were invited for the event did not attend it. I don't know the reason but they should have come," said Jai Kumar Singh, Industries Minister.

Labour Resources Minister from RJD quota Vijay Prakash, who had organised the event, was however tight-lipped about Tejashwi's absence from the event.

In fact, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday re-iterated that his son won't resign from the post of Deputy CM but after Tejashwi snubbed Nitish today, the tussle has only sharpened.

ALSO READ | Tejashwi Yadav's nameplate covered, then removed as Nitish Kumar attends official event

RJD's Plan B if Nitish Kumar sacks Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

ALSO WATCH | After Nitish's deadline, RJD MLA threatens JD-U: We are 80, what we want will happen

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The Omaha woman at the center of an alleged love-triangle killing is nowhere to be found.

Former Douglas County jailer Doloma Curtis has been subpoenaed to testify in the murder trial of one boyfriend who is accused of killing her second boyfriend. However, she didnt show this week  and a judge issued a warrant for her arrest.

Her no-show didnt stop prosecutors from opening their case Friday against 27-year-old Rolander Brown in the slaying of a 40-year-old man who also was dating Curtis.

Prosecutor Chad Brown, a deputy Douglas County attorney, told a jury Friday in opening statements that several pieces of evidence will connect Rolander Brown to the May 28, 2016, slaying of Omahan Carlos Alonzo. Those include: surveillance and cruiser camera video, cellphone towers that place the defendants phone in the area of the killing and texts between Rolander Brown and Curtis, his former girlfriend.

Rolander Browns attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, emphasized what jurors wont see. Prosecutors dont have the murder weapon, nor do they have any witnesses to the slaying.

What they do have is a witness who disappeared  and the unreliable testimony of a jailhouse informant who said that Brown confessed to him, Riley said.

Rolander Brown did not shoot Carlos Alonzo, Riley told jurors. They have no witness to say that he did  and no weapon to corroborate it.

Riley pointed out that one of the critical witnesses in the case, Curtis, has not been located this week.

Curtis, a former Douglas County jailer, had been accused of using law enforcement databases to notify Brown that authorities were looking for him in connection with Alonzos death. And, prosecutors allege, she helped Brown flee to Georgia after the slaying.

Now, authorities allege, Curtis is on the lam after Douglas County District Judge James Gleason reduced her bail from $50,000 to $2,500 in December. Prosecutors did not object to the bail reduction because, at the time, Curtis was cooperating with prosecutors.

Her no-show this week is the latest twist in the tangled case.

According to opening statements:

Curtis, then 47, was the one-time girlfriend of both Brown, then 26, and Alonzo, 40.

On May 28, Alonzo was at Curtis house at 2019 Lake St.

At 2:23 a.m., a shot rang out.

Omaha polices ShotSpotter system  an audio system set up to detect gunfire  alerted officers to a shot at 20th and Lake Streets.

Police arrived quickly  so fast that, as an officer pulled up, his cruiser camera recorded a suspect car leaving the area.

That car, according to prosecutors, was a black Mazda regularly driven by Brown. The Mazda had a distinctive feature: It was missing a front hubcap.

And that isnt the only video evidence in the case, prosecutors say. A grainy surveillance video from a nearby convenience store will show the same Mazda pull up and the driver get out and start walking toward Curtis house, prosecutors say.

The arriving officers found Alonzo on his back in front of Curtis house. He had a bullet hole in his forehead and was pronounced dead at the scene, Chad Brown said.

Officers also found Curtis screaming.

Oh, Carlos, she wailed, over and over, according to a recording of officers arrival.

Curtis later told officers she had been in an upstairs bathroom when she heard Alonzo go downstairs and outside. She then heard a shot and rushed outside to find Alonzo dead.

Chad Brown said crime scene investigators found an unknown cellphone, with a cracked screen, in Curtis bedroom. On it was a user identification of BJ  and several texts to and from Curtis in the hours leading up to and after the slaying.

Investigators examined the phones contents, including a photo, and concluded that it belonged to Rolander Brown, Chad Brown said.

The phone contained something else: texts to another girlfriend of Rolander Brown.

Detectives sought out the young woman  and discovered that she owned a black 2009 Mazda with a missing front hubcap.

In an interview with police, she said that Brown often drove her car, sometimes with her permission, sometimes without.

That night, Brown and the young woman had gone out drinking. They then went to her apartment near 60th and Grover Streets, had sex, and the girlfriend passed out.

She said she woke up about 9 a.m. the next day to find Brown in her apartment.

Cellphone towers will trace Rolander Browns movements while the woman was sleeping, prosecutor Chad Brown told jurors.

An FBI analyst will show that, after midnight, signals from the cellphone allegedly used by Rolander Brown bounced off of towers near 60th and Grover Streets, 20th and Lake Streets and a third location where prosecutors believe Brown stopped before returning to 60th and Grover Streets.

At that third location, a witness, Parris Stamps, says Brown told him he had shot Alonzo.

Stamps alleges that Rolander Brown said I had to put him down  one shot, according to prosecutor Chad Brown.

Riley challenged jurors to scrutinize Stamps testimony  noting that hes a convicted felon who initially talked to police because he wanted out of jail. He also changed his story several times  even once recanting his account of Rolander Browns purported confession, Riley said.

The trial is expected to continue through much of next week.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP)  An Iowa museum has opened a new Korean War exhibit that honors the states veterans.

The Grout Museum District in Waterloo opened The Cold War Ablaze: Iowans in the Korean War exhibit on Friday, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported.

The exhibit includes some historic background on the war, but it focuses more on the individual experiences of Iowas soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel.

Paul Reuter served on the destroyer USS Robinson. Reuter was on the committee of Korean War veterans who helped with the exhibit.

Its information for the general public, to realize what people went through, he said. I went through it, was able to do my part for the country. And it brings back memories.

Eddie Cahill served on the USS Montrose, an attack transport troop carrier. He said the exhibit is wonderful.

When we came home it was a forgotten war, he said. It really brings it to life.

The display includes a large map of Korea thats surrounded by a timeline of the war, with the military dog tags of the states nearly 570 veterans killed placed in order of the time they fell.

Were hoping people can point out where they were serving, said Erin Dawson, Grout exhibits curator.

The museum is also looking for photographs of all the Iowa veterans killed in the war for a Faces of the Fallen exhibit, said Christopher Shackelford, historical content and program developer. The museum has photos of nearly 400 soldiers.

Dawson said many of the items featured in the exhibit, including military uniforms and weapons, have been donated or loaned by Iowas veterans.
WASHINGTON  The House voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve sweeping defense legislation that calls for a big military funding boost.

All members from Nebraska and Iowa supported the bill, which passed 344-81. It authorizes $696 billion in military spending for the 2018 fiscal year, including nearly $30 billion more for core Pentagon operations than President Donald Trump requested.

We dont want a close fight with our military, and thats where we put our military after the last decade, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said at a press conference after the vote. When we have dominance it helps lead to deterrence and peace through strength.

Bacon helped craft the legislation as a member of the Armed Services Committee.

A retired Air Force brigadier general, Bacon said he sought to bring his own expertise to bear on the process. That included advocating for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance priorities in both the legislation and an accompanying report that provides guidance to the military on congressional preferences.

For example, he secured language pushing the military to modernize aircraft at Offutt Air Force Base, a base where Bacon served repeatedly during his career.

The planes specialize in observing foreign ballistic missile technology. Another Bacon provision would push the military to prioritize ground-based simulators for those systems.

Bacon said that with only so many planes available, commanders often face the difficult decision of whether to use them for training or send them to areas where they are most needed.

His other priorities included improving the ability of F-35 fighters to share information with other forces and supporting programs at universities in Nebraska related to cyberwarfare and counterterrorism.

The legislation approved by the House declares climate change a national security threat, demands rigorous oversight of the Pentagons cyberoperations and rejects the Trump administrations bid to close military bases.

Yet defense hawks pushing the hardest for the big boost in spending still face an uphill battle. For the spending increases to materialize, Congress first will have to agree to roll back a 2011 law that set strict limits on military spending. That wont be easy. Lifting the budget caps will face resistance from Democrats, who are seeking to increase the budgets for other government agencies.

If a budget deal cant be reached, Congress may be forced to fund the military through the use of stopgap spending bills. Under these short-term agreements the Pentagons budget is set at current levels and the military services are barred from starting new programs.

If you dont raise the budget caps this leaves us once again in the land of absurdity, said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. Smith is the top-ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Bacon said Fridays bill is a good statement for the House when it comes to negotiating down the line with Senate Democrats.

The bill rejected the administrations request that the Pentagon be given the authority to start a new round of military base closings in 2021. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Armed Services Committee last month that closing excess installations would save $10 billion over a five-year period. He said the savings could be used to acquire four nuclear submarines or dozens of jet fighters.

But military installations are prized possessions in congressional districts, and lawmakers refused to go along with Trump, just as they denied former President Barack Obamas bid to shutter facilities.

This report contains material from the Associated Press.
WASHINGTON  It typically takes years for presidents to kill federal regulations they dislike, but President Donald Trump has found a shortcut: Hes just putting them on long-term hold.

The Trump administration has stalled more than two dozen Obama-era rules, a legally questionable tactic that sidesteps the cumbersome rule-making process.

Presidents from both parties routinely pause their predecessors rules, but Trumps delays are lasting longer and reaching further, with targets including protections for student borrowers, standards for e-cigarettes and an expansion of requirements that airlines report lost luggage.

In one instance a federal court found the approach illegal, providing fodder for future challenges.

Obama did it to Bush. Bush did it to Clinton, said Stuart Shapiro, a Rutgers University professor who served as a White House regulatory analyst under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

But the extent of the regulations that were talking about, and the political importance and the impact, is greater in the Trump administration, Shapiro said.

Federal agencies have wide latitude to rewrite and rescind rules, but they must follow the Administrative Procedure Act, a 71-year-old law that sets out a process designed to prevent regulatory whiplash.

Agencies must first formally propose revisions, justify them and give the public a chance to weigh in.

Relatively small tweaks, such as a delay, can advance more quickly, but generally still require a formal notice and comment period.

Trump has moved aggressively to fulfill his promise to repeal what he called job-killing rules.

Supporters of Trumps approach say the president is just doing what he promised by taking on overzealous regulations.

In February, Trumps Interior Department told companies they need not follow an Obama rule that changed how they report the value of oil and gas unearthed from public land  after it had gone into effect.

Companies that had already changed their accounting systems to comply were given until August to revert back.

The U.S. regulatory framework is designed to protect against just those kinds of shifts, said James Goodwin, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform.

In some cases the administration is buying time for possible rule rewrites, as with an Agriculture Department regulation governing the treatment of organically raised livestock.

The department delayed the measures effective date by eight months and announced it was launching a formal effort to rewrite the regulation.

The administration has gone further in some cases, indefinitely delaying all or parts of rules while contemplating revamping them.

Trumps Environmental Protection Agency is following the law in ensuring that its actions are consistent with our core mission and statutory authority granted by Congress, spokeswoman Amy Graham said. Where regulations may be unjustified or overly burdensome we will consider all legally available means to provide regulatory certainty.

Earlier this month a U.S. Court of Appeals panel rebuked the EPA for suspending a regulation requiring oil and gas companies to pare emissions of methane.

A two-justice majority said the EPA wrongly claimed discretion to halt the already finalized rule, and said that if the agency wanted to rescind the measure it must cite specific statutory authority to do so or go through a formal rule-making process.

The ruling is especially notable because that Washington-based appeals court hears the bulk of regulatory cases and is poised to be the arbiter in other delay-related challenges to come.

State attorneys general, environmentalists and good-government activists have filed lawsuits challenging at least five other regulatory delays.

Attorneys general in 18 states and the District of Columbia last week filed a lawsuit challenging a decision by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to put on hold portions of a regulation designed to protect student borrowers who attended for-profit colleges.

To be sure, Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, was an active rule-maker. He finalized 90 major, economically significant regulations in his final year  some rushed through in the weeks before Trump was inaugurated.
At a function attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the nameplate of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav was first covered and later removed from the event. Tejashwi Yadav's name was printed on the invitation card sent out for the Patna event.

By India Today Web Desk: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has made it almost clear. He does not want his deputy Tejashwi Yadav to continue in office without clearing his name in the corruption case or clarifying the matter publicly.

In a surprising development at the Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Diwas event in Patna, for which Tejashwi Yadav had got official invitation, the name of the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister was first covered and later removed.

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The invitation card sent out to dignitaries for the event has the name of Tejashwi Yadav printed on it. Tejashwi Yadav did not come for the event while Nitish Kumar attended it.

Invitation card sent out for the Patna event. (Photo: @ANI_news)

The event was attended by Congress state president and Bihar Education Minister Ashok Chowdhary, Industry Minister Jai Kumar Singh, Planning and Development Minister Maheshwar Hazari, Water Resources Minister Lallan Singh (all JD-U) and Labour Resources Minister Vijay Prakash.

The function was organized by the Labour Resources Department to promote skill development programme in Bihar.

RJD, JD-U DRIFTING APART

Earlier, the JD-U ramped up pressure on alliance partner RJD over the corruption case involving Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, asking it to come clean on the allegations against him.

Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.

While the rift is growing in the coalition on the issue, state Janata Dal -United chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) should provide facts and not "display arrogance" of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

"The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition," he told PTI.

The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs. The Assembly has representation from the CPI(ML), the HAM (Secular), the LJP and the RLSP among others.

(With inputs from Rohit Singh in Patna)

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ALSO WATCH: Lalu rail scam: Why JD-U silent, what's Nitish Kumar's next move?

--- ENDS ---
Its fashionable among President Donald Trumps defenders to dismiss the reports of his eldest son meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton as yet another nothing burger.

Youve heard the counterpoints. The Democrats are obsessed with the Kremlin. Nothing came of the Russian attempt to dish dirt. Donald Jr. made all his emails about it public. And, hey, whatever happened, its probably not even illegal.

And while all of that is likely true, it misses a broader point. The emails the younger Trump received from music promoter Rob Goldstone, who promised official Russian documents and information that would incriminate Hillary, may have just been an opportunist trying to curry favor with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

But Goldstones successful effort to set up a meeting between members of the campaigns inner circle and a lawyer with Kremlin connections puts the lie to Team Trumps longtime defense in the brewing scandal: no contact, no collusion.

As someone who has written columns pointing out that many claims against Trump and his advisers have been speculative and unsubstantiated, I see this supposed nothing burger as a tipping point. From now on, it strains credulity to give the president and his aides any benefit of the doubt when it comes to Russia.

After all, a little more than a month after his June 9, 2016, meeting with Kremlin insider Natalia Veselnitskaya, the presidents son was on CNN saying the entire Russia allegation was fake news. That line is no longer operative.

The best course now for the president would be full disclosure. He needs to tell us about any and all meetings his campaign and organization has had with Russians. If there was an offer of a heads-up on hacked emails  or, as McClatchy is reporting, a plan to coordinate with Russian fake news bots to target voters through data operations  he needs to acknowledge and apologize.

That said, Democrats should be careful. One element of the Russian influence operation that is often overlooked is that it was intended to sew discord inside the U.S. body politic and discredit our democratic elections.

Recall that the initial probing of Democratic National Committee computers by Russian hackers began in 2015, when no one believed Trump would even be the nominee.

As former FBI Director James Comey testified in March, the hackers were unusually sloppy, leaving many clues for investigators to trace the hacks back to Russia. They wanted us to see what they were doing, Comey said.

In this respect, the partisan temptation to overstate the case against the president should be resisted. Unfortunately, many Democrats have gone the opposite route. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clintons running mate, said this week that the Trump Jr. email exchange may be evidence of treason. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton went further, saying if the emails are not treasonous, Im not sure what is.

Kaine and Moulton should consult the Constitution on this question. Treason is defined narrowly and applies only to aiding and abetting an enemy at a time of war. At this point, considering that all people in the meeting have said the promised information on Hillary Clinton was never offered, its not even clear if this is collusion.

This kind of hyperventilation is the analog of Trumps campaign against the fake news media. It energizes loyalists at the expense of national unity, which is especially worrisome now, in an America so divided and at one anothers throats.

It reminds me of one of the most toxic episodes of Trumps presidential campaign. In the final debate, he would not say whether he would accept the results of the election: I will keep you in suspense.

It turned out that it was the Trump resistance that never really accepted him as a legitimate president. Armed with suspicion, leaks, open questions and an opposition research dossier, Democrats beat the drum for months that Trump was the Siberian candidate.

Now it turns out the presidents son was eager and willing to accept information that was promised as part of a Russian government effort to aid his fathers campaign. This doesnt prove the Democratic narrative about Trump. But it does discredit the evasions, denials, obfuscations and dissembling from the president and his supporters.

We have reached the point where Trump must come clean. If he doesnt, he will be abetting a Russian plot to discredit the election they tried to help him win.
We rode in a plane, a taxi, a train and a ferryboat, all in the first few hours. The plane landed with a bump and a screech at LaGuardia, the taxi was driven by a dark-skinned man in a turban, on the train we heard Spanish, Korean, Arabic and English, and the ferryboat cruised close by the Statue of Liberty, as we tourists took pictures of each other, with the Manhattan skyline for backdrop, and the Staten Islanders sat glumly, enduring the boredom.

Its a mans duty to take his grandson to New York. Minnesota is an excellent place to live but New York is New York, so we planned a big week, the Yankees, the Cloisters, the Whitney, a Broadway show and lunch with a couple New York pals so he could hear the authentic accent.

A 15-year-old boy can be very cool. A person might almost think he is unimpressed, but you know its not so. I was cool when I was 11 and my dad showed me the city. I stared, didnt say much. Sixty-some years later, its still vivid in my mind, the ferry, the trains, the towers, the peddlers. A boy was more of a blank slate back then, there being no Google, no YouTube, just Barney Google and inner tubes.

Now you take your grandson around and youre fighting against video games. In the taxi, the iPhone comes out, he is engrossed in the little screen.

Yankee Stadium was blissful, video couldnt touch it. Bright sun, high clouds, a cool breeze out of center field, a raucous crowd, dramatic moments and the outcome hung in the balance until the last out. The Yanks lost and there was no joy in Mudville, as we filed out to Frank singing New York, New York, that godawful solipsistic hymn to grandiosity, and let me say, a small-town Midwesterner feels smirky in a crowd of crestfallen New Yorkers who dont look like the king of the hill, A-No. 1 or the top of the heap.

The beautiful thing about New York is not that it confers success, but that it teaches civility. We boarded a packed downtown D train outside the stadium and rode along standing a few inches from about six other people while not touching or making eye contact, swaying along in dignified silence.

We rode to 59th Street and hiked down toward Times Square and at 52nd ran into a crowd pouring out of a theater dizzy with happiness at having seen the musical Groundhog Day, a tide of grinning bright-eyed faces. At 50th we caught the downtown No. 1 to the ferry and waited in a crowd, standing next to a Latina woman, her two young daughters, her American boyfriend. The mother spoke Spanish to the girls, they understood her but replied in English. Its a very old story. The mother wants her girls to have good English and soon theirs will be worlds better than hers. This moves you. You want to tell the mama that everything will be all right. Youre in a city of romantic liberals who still believe, in spite of everything, as Anne Frank said, that people are truly good at heart. Naive it may be, but you venture out every day expecting goodness and you find it, along with the other stuff.

We took a train back to Columbus Circle, bought two bags of groceries, some loaded with animal fats and glutens, and caught an uptown cab.

Another car pulled up alongside our taxi and a man yelled, How do you get to Columbia? The driver told him. The man said, Thanks, bud! And off he went. I told our driver that the correct answer is, Study! And he got it, though he is not from here. You dont get that joke unless you have a good heart.
Actor Dileep denied bail, Kerala court extends custody

India

oi-Anusha

Actor Dileep's bail plea was rejected by the First Class Judicial Magistrate court in Angamaly on Saturday. The Malayalam superstar will now remain in custody until July 25.

Dileep who has been lodged at the Aluva jail will continue to be questioned under custody in the actress abduction and molestation case. The court had on Friday extended his custody till Saturday 5 PM. Dileep was produced before the court on Saturday when his bail petition came up for hearing.

The court rejected Dileep's bail petition despite the police not seeking an extension of custody. The actor was sent to judicial custody till July 25. When asked by the judge, Dileep maintained that he had no complaints against the police. Dileep who was arrested on Monday was made accused number two in the sensational actress abduction and molestation case. Dileep is accused of hiring goons on 'quotation' basis to assault the actress over alleged personal rivalry. Dileep's advocates can file a bail petition in higher courts but the actor will have to spend the weekend in Aluva sub-jail.

Dileep's advocate claimed that the actor was being framed in the case. The court, however, rejected the bail petition. Meanwhile, the police carried out searches at Dileep's residence. The investigators are still looking for a phone that is alleged to contain the pictures of the survivor. Officials believe that the phone is in Dileep's possession.

OneIndia News
Ahead of Doval's visit to China, India raises importance of diplomacy

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will later this month convey to China that construction of roads near the International Border is hampering India's strategic interests. Doval is scheduled to visit China on July 26.

At China he would tell the interlocutors about India's position. India would also tell China about the importance of being engaged in diplomacy. Doval on Friday along with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley briefed opposition members on the China situation.

Doval's China doctrine: We need you, but not at the cost of a compromise

The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined at a briefing by senior Union ministers to political parties on the situation in Dokalam, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting that their party has raised some doubts before the government's policy but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension (with China) and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

OneIndia News
Amarnath yatra attack: Cop arrested, PDP legislator under scanner

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

In a major breakthrough the Jammu and Kashmir Special Investigation Team has arrested a policeman in connection with the Amarnath yatra terror attack. The SIT is also questioning a ruling PDP legislator in connection with the case.

Touseef Ahmed who is part of the security wing of the J&K police is being currently questioned for his alleged role in the case. He was picked up on Thursday.

The SIT picked up the cop following a phone intercept. He is alleged to have called a handler, sources say. The police are trying to ascertain as to who provided the details about the movement of the vehicle during the yatra. A bus in which yatris were traveling was attacked following which 7 persons were killed.

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The policeman, a resident of Chakoura, Pulwama, found to have links with terrorists, is being questioned. He is cooperating with us and is spilling the beans, the Inspector General of Police, J&K Muneer Khan said. He also said that they were probing who provided the terrorists with logistic support.

The police have so far questioned 20 persons in connection with the case. Some have been released while others continue to be questioned.

Sources say that while it is clear that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba carried out this attack, it is being examined whether there was an insider job as well. The role of a PDP legislator too is under the scanner of the police. Security forces meanwhile continue to hunt for Abu Ismail, the Lashkar commander who carried out the attack and also masterminded it.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 5:59 [IST]
BJP's 'fact check' to counter Congress on terror casualties in Kashmir impresses none

India

oi-Anusha

India lost 88 security force personnel and 14 civilians in Kashmir in 2016 alone. The statistics were disclosed by BJP in an attempt to counter the Congress' claims of Modi government's Kashmir policy leading to unrest. The BJP hoped to send across the point that terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is the result of failed policies of Congress but the numbers are only worrying.

The BJP posted statistics of civilian and security force casualties since 2004 in Kashmir due to terrorism. The party claimed that the Narendra Modi government was fighting to defeat terrorism but the numbers failed to give anyone the confidence of this becoming a reality.

The menace of terrorism in J&K is a result of skewed and failed policies of Congress. Modi govt is resolutely fighting to defeat this. pic.twitter.com/UAA076yj3P  BJP (@BJP4India) July 14, 2017

In 2017, only up to July 9, according to BJP's own numbers, 40 security forces personnel lost their lives to terrorist attacks while 30 civilians were killed. In 2014, when the BJP came to power the number of civilian casualties stood at 32 and 51 security force personnel had lost their lives.

In the last four years, 220 security forces personnel have lost their lives, ever since the BJP came to power (the numbers are only upto July 9, 2017). However, by BJP's own numbers, between 2009 and 2013, when the Congress was in power, the total number of casualties on security forces side in terror-related incidents were 255 for five years. With a year and a half left for completion of their term, the number of casualties in under the BJP regime is dangerously close to five years of Congress government.

The BJP chose to put out statistics on casualties in Kashmir in terror related incidents after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to blame Modi government's policies for increasing terrorism in the valley.

Modis policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir. Grave strategic blow for India#AmarnathTerrorAttack  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 12, 2017

The tweet came a day after the cowardly terror attack on unarmed, unsuspecting Amarnath Yatris in Kashmir. In an attempt to rubbish Rahul Gandhi's claims, the BJP said that more than 100 terrorists have been killed till July by security forces. While the BJP hoped that they will be able to convey that terrorism in Kashmir is a result of Congress' failed policies, the increasing number of casualties only came as an embarrassment to the party.

OneIndia News
Will give ceasefire with Pak the best shot: General Raju

Indian Army soldier killed in ceasefire violation by Pakistan

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

An Indian Army soldier was killed in the unprovoked firing by the Pakistani forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri sector on Saturday.

According to reports, the martyred soldier, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, was a native of Poonch, J&K.

Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was severely injured in the fire exchange earlier. He later died of his injuries. The 35-year-old soldier is survived by his wife Wasim Akhtar.

Pakistani troops have been shelling along the Line of Control in Rajouri's Manjakote.

Earlier in the day, three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Satora area of Tral

A senior police officer said the bodies of the terrorists were yet to be recovered and that the exchange of fire continued.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 18:28 [IST]
Cong to raise Indo-China border issue in Parliament, urges govt to engage with Beijing

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 15: With the government reaching out to Opposition parties in the all-party meet on Friday to apprise them of what was happening at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, the Congress has said that it will raise the issue in Parliament and called for lowering tension through diplomacy.

As many as 19 MPs from different political parties attended the meeting chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, reports India Today.

While the Home Secretary gave a presentation on the Amarnath Yatra attack, the Foreign Secretary gave the entire background on 'Doklam' crisis and the border 'face-off' between India and China.

The Congress has made it very clear that while 'nation is first', it continues to have doubts and will raise the issue in Parliament.

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All party meet: Center briefs Opposition on China

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma said, "There is too much tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament."

While Foreign Secretary Jaishankar was quoted by some opposition members as explaining the fact that China was in violation and was changing the status quo, many such as Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), Sharad Pawar of the NCP and Anand Sharma of the Congress wanted to know what started the stand-off.

Key take away

CPM, NCP and Congress wanted to know what started the stand-off.

Mulayam Singh, Sharad Pawar likely to meet Jaitley to share their experience of dealing with China.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien said government's explanation on Amarnath attack was unconvincing.

Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said, "All participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity. Importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined".

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 11:34 [IST]
International news brief: Floods trap many in Florida; Royal Mint unveils first coins and more

Flood victims of Assam stage protest against BJP govt, demand answers from CM

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Guwahati, July 15: It has been close to two months since Assam is fighting floods. According to latest reports, a total of 15 lakh people have been affected by floods in 25 districts of the state.

Unfortunately, the death toll too has risen to 52 on Friday. Three deaths were reported from Dhemaji, Dhubri and Nagaon districts on Friday. Out of the 52 deaths, eight were reported from Guwahati.

Under such dire circumstances, the flood-affected people are fast losing their patience.

The inmates of Selek village in Majuli district, one of the worst flood-affected places, protested against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state for failing to provide adequate relief and rescue measures to the victims on Friday.

The angry villagers blocked the entry of Assam water resources minister Keshav Mahanta to Selek to register their protest against the state government. The locals were upset that the government did not do anything to stop the breach of an embankment in their village which further worsened the situation.

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Assam floods: 50 dead, many in relief camps; misery continues | Oneindia News

The villagers also questioned the minister and accompanying officials during their field visit as why chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who is the local MLA, did not visit Selek at all though he had visited Garmur, the district headquarters of Majuli.

Later the locals allowed the visiting team, led by Mahanta, to reach the spot and take stock of the situation. Once again, Mahanta had to face the ire of the public when a group of women blocked the road he was travelling through.

An official, who is currently a part of the rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected areas, told OneIndia that this time people of Assam were very upset about the government mishandling the entire situation.

He added that in several places villagers have expressed their anguish against the government for failing them so badly.

Experts say the impact of floods, mostly visible in the villages, could have been restricted to a greater extent if the state government had taken timely measures.

According to a report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), at present more than 14.97 lakh people have been affected by the flood in various districts, including Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon and Nagaon.

Till yesterday, 17.43 lakh people were affected in the latest wave of flood in the state. At the Kaziranga National Park, 62 per cent of the area is under water, leaving some animals dead and some moving to nearby highlands.

Some animals were killed by speeding vehicles on the National Highway 37, which passes through the Park. The ASDMA said 2,240 villages were under water at present and more than 79,000 hectares of crop areas inundated.

The worst affected was South Salmara, where over 3.07 lakh people have been affected by the deluge, followed by Morigaon with more than 2.23 lakh people being affected.

In Guwahati also, water logging incidents have been reported, the ASDMA said. Authorities are running 363 relief camps and distribution centres in 19 districts, where 25,269 people have taken shelter.

The government has distributed 2,903.25 quintal of rice, 596.92 quintal of pulses, 366.25 quintal of salt and 472.52 litre of mustard oil among the flood victims till Thursday, the ASDMA said.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 8:24 [IST]
By PTI: Chandigarh, Jul 15 (PTI) Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines Maria Teresita C Daza today visited International Dolls Museum here and handed over three dolls of her own country to the museum.

The complimentary dolls of Philippines, which showcases the high artistic costumes of different areas of the country, will be put up for permanent display at the museum, said an official spokesperson.

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She took a tour of the International Dolls Museum and was fascinated with the collection of Indian and overseas dolls and state-of-the-art museographical display, said spokesperson.

Notably, to enhance and strengthen the collection of the museum, the ambitious project of procuring the dolls from foreign lands was mooted by the Chandigarh Administration to bridge the cultural and artistic linkages.

Accordingly, the administration had sent a request letter to as many as 33 embassies and High Commissions at New Delhi.

The proposal was appreciated by many Embassies and so far the museum has received complimentary dolls from Ambassadors of Vietnam and Turkey, the spokesperson said.

The International Dolls Museum is the first of its kind in India which showcases precious and invaluable collection of about 352 heritage dolls of 36 countries with historical, geographical, artistic and costume features.

The Museum attained its International status after the ambitious museum upgradation project which was launched by the then Administrator of UT Chandigarh in 2009, said P C Sharma, officer incharge, International Dolls Museum. PTI CHS RCJ

--- ENDS ---
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha refutes allegations of having Nepal Maoist links

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 15, 2017: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has refuted allegations leveled by the State Government that the Hill party has links with the Nepal Maoists and that the Maoists hand in glove with the Morcha are spreading violence in the Hills.

A report prepared by the intelligence agency of the West Bengal Government claims that the Nepal Maoists have extended support to the Morcha in the ongoing agitation. The report claims that some Maoist leaders from Nepal have infiltrated into India and are aiding the Morcha in spreading violence.

Incidentally Darjeeling district shares 100 km of porous border with Nepal. The border is guarded by the Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB).

The report has expressed concern that the situation could further aggravate with the Maoists targeting administrative and police authorities serving in Darjeeling. An affidavit to this effect has been submitted at the Calcutta High Court on Friday as per the directive of a division bench.

The division bench comprising of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatrey and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, hearing a PIL on the ongoing indefinite bandh had directed the ADG (Law and Order,) Government of West Bengal to file an affidavit on the present law and order situation in the Hills along with the damages incurred owing to incidents of violence, arson and vandalizing.

On Friday the State had submitted an affidavit at the Calcutta High Court to this effect. The State further claimed that losses incurred in the 31 days of unrest are to the tune of Rs. 355 Crores. The report stated that 54 vehicles have been damaged or torched in the Hills; 73 Government buildings and offices have been damager or torched and a total of 113 government personnel including police have suffered injuries.

The violence along with destruction in the Hills continues unabated stated the report. The division bench on Friday, taking a strong stand pulled up both the State and the Union Governments. The Court directed the Union Government to rush an additional 4 companies of Central Armed Police Force to the Hills within 48 hours. There are 11 companies of CAPF deployed in the Hills at present.

The division bench ordered the West Bengal Government to deploy additional State forces in the Hills also. The division bench observed that people are dying in the Hills; there is acute shortage of food and essential commodities and education institutes are close.

The division bench warned that the High Court would step in if the State and Union Government failed to restore normalcy and peace in the Hills immediately.

"These are all baseless and false allegations by the West Bengal Government. They are leveling allegations to defame the party and derail the Gorkhaland agitation. They have to prove their claims. We are an ally of the NDA and the BJP. We have public mandate and the public are with us. It is a people's movement and the Hill populace is on an agitation path. Why do we need Maoists? Our agitation is democratic and constitutional" stated Prakash Gurung, President, Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha (youth wing of the GJM.)

Gurung stated that the West Bengal Government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been continuously leveling such allegations. "Sometimes they claim that we have links with North East insurgent outfits. Sometimes they state that we have links with Nepal Maoists. Because of such faulty outlook towards the Gorkhas we need a separate Gorkhaland" claimed Gurung.

The GJM took out a rally in Darjeeling on Saturday. Addressing the gathering at the Chowk Bazar, Prakash Gurung questioned the Centre's long drawn silence. "If the situation turns worse, the Centre will be equally to blame along with the State. Very soon the youths will sit for a fast unto death and indulge in self immolation for Gorkhaland" warned Gurung.

Meanwhile the Panchayat office at Singritam under the Rungli Rungliot police station in the Darjeeling sub division was torched in the wee hours of Saturday.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 18:45 [IST]
Indira Gandhi's name dropped from Oxford centre

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

After the NDA government came to power in 2014, a center named after former PM Indira Gandhi established by Somerville college in the University of Oxford has dropped her name, reports said.

The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) was named the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development at its launch during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh government. The center has been established in 2013 with a 3 million grant from India, reports Hindustan Times.

Gandhi studied Modern History in Somerville college in 1937.

HT cites an "Education Brief" of the Indian government dated December 1, 2016, which suggested the name was changed during the year. College officials, however, told HT there had been no pressure or suggestion from New Delhi to change the name.

Alice Prochaska, principal of the college, said, "We have committed to use our 'best endeavours' to set up an 'inspirational research facility', i.e an Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development, in a building on our site, and we are using our best endeavours to achieve the funding for a building that will indeed house the Indira Gandhi Centre."

"The prestigious building is a long-term plan and if we achieve it, will be larger than only the IG Centre but will include the IG Centre. The overall building could be named for the donor. While these plans are evolving, we are using the overarching name of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development for the current activity, which includes the Indira Gandhi Scholars and programme," she further added.

The brief states, "The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development (IGCSD), established at the College with Government of India providing seed money of Rs 25 crore (GBP 3 million) - has begun work. The Centre is now called Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD). The Centre would be housed in a new building on Oxford University's Redcliff Observatory Quarter adjacent to Somerville College. The Centre would be fully established in time for the centenary celebrations of Smt Gandhi's birth on November 19, 1917," reported The Hindustan Times.

As per reports, Gandhi visited the college in 1971 to receive an honorary doctorate. In 2002, Congress president Sonia Gandhi presented a portrait of the former prime minister, which hangs alongside a painting of Margaret Thatcher, another alumnus of the college.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 15:09 [IST]
Away from Manipur in TN, Irom Sharmila to begin new innings after marriage

No more politics? Irom Sharmila plans to lead a peaceful life as an ordinary woman post marriage

At 46, Iron Lady of Manipur Irom Sharmila gives birth to twins on Mother's Day

Irom Sharmilas mother wishes her a happy, successful married life

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Imphal, July 15: Like all mother-daughter relationship, iconic Manipuri civil rights activist Irom Sharmila too shares a special bond with her mother, Irom Shakhi.

As the 45-year-old "Iron Lady" from the hill state of Northeast India is all set to tie the knot with her longtime beau, Desmond Coutinho, in Tamil Nadu's hill town of Kodaikanal, in mid-August, mother has a special message for her daughter.

While Irom is away from "home" in Imphal since March this year, the mother wished her daughter a "successful and happy married life".

Her elder brother Irom Singhajit Singh told The Telegraph on Friday, "My sister informed my mother about her wedding plans over the phone through a contact a few days ago. My mother talked to her for some time and wished her a successful and happy married life."

In all probability, the 87-year-old mother of Irom is unlikely to be present at the wedding venue in Kodaikanal, but the blessing of her mother is an assurance that the family approves of her latest decision.

Not many in Manipur wanted Irom to end her 16-year-old fast against the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) last year and lead the life of a "normal woman".

For them, Irom was a "goddess" as she sacrificed her youth for a cause that is so close to their hearts. The whole thing of "marriage" does not fit in their scheme of things.

The first time when a popular English daily from the Northeast region reported about Irom's love life several years ago, when she was still on her fast, massive protest broke out across the state, as the people who are against her decision of sharing her "heart" with a man, alleged that it was a conspiracy to derail Manipur's struggle against the AFSPA.

Over the years, the topic of Irom's love life was discussed in whispers in Manipur, as many of her fellow activists did not approve the "transgression" she dared to commit.

Observers say that Irom's "humiliating" defeat in the Manipur Assembly elections (her maiden attempt to join the political force of the country) earlier this year was a vote against her decision to end her fast (the longest in the world) and her relationship with Desmond.

She managed to get just 90 votes. Immediately after ending her fast last year, Irom formed her own political party-- the Peoples' Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA).

After her defeat in the elections, a heartbroken Irom announced her decision to quit politics. However, she added that she would continue her struggle against the AFSPA.

In fact, so sad was Irom after her electoral loss, she decided to leave her hometown Imphal and has been on a tour of south India since March.

Now, when the news of her impending wedding has been widely reported in the media, Manipuris are mostly maintaining a studied silence. "This is her decision. What can we say? We hope and wish she will lead a happy married life," her brother Singhajit said.

If people of her state are expressing almost no emotion about Irom's wedding, a Tamil Nadu social activist has filed an objection to the proposed marriage of the human rights campaigner with Desmond at the office of the sub-registrar in Kodaikanal.

The activist, V Mahendran, from Pethuparai near Kodaikanal filed a petition in the office against Irom's proposed marriage with Desmond. He contended that if the couple was granted permission, they would settle in Kodaikanal permanently and this was not good for the interests of local residents and safety of the place.

On Wednesday, Irom and Desmond, who is a British citizen, visited the sub-registrar's office in Kodaikanal to submit papers for their marriage. The marriage will be registered under the Special Marriage Act as both belong to different religions.

Desmond told Mumbai Mirror, "The wedding will happen on August 11 or 12 in a small service at the Church in Tirunavmmalai city in Tamil Nadu."

When asked about her post-marriage plans, Irom told The Hindu that she wished to lead a peaceful life as an ordinary woman in Kodaikanal.

Irom added that her crusade against the AFSPA will continue. "I will continue my struggle, not as a politician but as a civil activist. After my marriage, I'll lobby international bodies to urge India to scrap the draconian law AFSPA."

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 7:19 [IST]
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Tral encounter: Three terrorists killed in gun battle, JeM hand suspected

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 15: Three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Satora area of Tral on Saturday morning.

The encounter, which started around 8:15 AM, ended on Saturday evening.

"The third militant holed up inside a cave in the densely-forested Satoora area of Tral tehsil (of Pulwama) has been killed and the gunfight has now ended. We have recovered three weapons from the possession of the slain militants. The exact identity of the militants is being established. They probably belonged to the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit," a police official said here.

Two JeM militants were killed earlier on Saturday by security forces during an anti-terror operation in Pulwama district while the third had entered the cave.

Army sources had earlier said that three militants were killed in the ongoing operation in Satoora forests of Tral area.

The encounter began after militants opened fire on security forces who were carrying out a search operation in Satoora forest area of Tral, 36 kms from Srinagar.

The police officer said the search operation was launched on information about the presence of some militants there.

OneIndia News with IANS inputs
Marathwada farmers accuse IMD of conspiracy, file complaint

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Accusing the Indian Meteorological Department of getting forecasts always wrong, farmers from the Marathwada region have filed a police complaint. Farmers alleged that the IMD was colluding with seed and pesticide manufacturers inflating the monsoon forecast figures.

"Officials of the Pune and Colaba Met Department have colluded with seed and pesticide manufacturers and have caused loss of lakhs of rupees to farmers, who undertook sowing operations based on the forecast," the complaint said. Frustrated with the MET department getting its forecast always wrong, a group of farmers led by Gangabhishan Thaware filed the complaint at Dindrud police station in Majalgaon tehsil of Beed district.

"IMD officials have misled the farmers saying that there would be ample rain during Kharif in June. We undertook sowing operations, based on the IMD forecast but after a brief initial spell, there has been no rain. We are staring at a bleak future, with the sowing operations having gone waste," said Gangabhishan Thaware. The 54-year-old farmer is from Anandgaon in Beed district, one of the worst affected by drought.

Farmers in the region had completed the pre-sowing operations before June based on the IMD forecast. The IMD has predicted that there would be ample rains in June-July this year. "Despite the initial scanty rainfall, farmers in our village undertook sowing operations. We spent lakhs on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labourers wages," the farmer said.

The farmers from the region have also written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking his intervention. The farmers allege that IMD officials and those in seed and fertiliser companies have colluded with each other. "They have given an inflated forecast and are responsible for the plight of farmers," the farmer added.

OneIndia News
Massive fire at Lucknow hospital's trauma centre, patients evacuated

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Lucknow, July 15: A massive fire broke out at the trauma centre of the King George's Medical College in Lucknow, police said. While no casualties have been reported yet, more than 150 critically ill and injured patients have been shifted to alternative places.

Lucknow: Fire in the Medicine Department of King George Medical College Trauma Center; all patients evacuated pic.twitter.com/FgHCySrJr2  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 15, 2017

The fire broke out on the second floor housing the disaster management ward and soon leaped to the third floor as well. More than two dozen fire tenders have been rushed to the scene and senior officials led by District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma are camping there to oversee rescue and relief operations.

The possible reason of the fire is said to be a short circuit. Many inflammable items are present at the trauma centre, leading to the fire spreading very fast.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to ensure the fire is doused at the earliest and oversee relief and rescue work.

Orders have been also issued to ensure that there was no chaos and that patients admitted at the centre are shifted to alternative place for treatment.

Terming the incident as sad and unfortunate, Adityanath instructed the Divisional Commissioner to probe the matter and present a report within three days so that accountability of the guilty can be fixed and action initiated against them.

IANS
Right to Information: How many men and women filed RTI queries in last 8 years? Details inside

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Modi, Manmohan's foreign trips 'too vague' to be revealed: PMO

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 15: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has denied information on various expenses incurred in foreign trips by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh, terming the query "vague", an RTI activist said.

Nutan Thakur told on Saturday that she had requested the documents from the PMO on June 16.

Thakur had asked for details of the expenses incurred on various arrangements made for all the foreign trips made by Modi and Manmohan Singh from January 2010 onwards.

On Thursday, Central Public Information Officer and Under Secretary in PMO Parveen Kumar, denying the details, said that the information sought was "too vague and wide".

In her poser to the PMO under the Right To Information Act, Thakur had asked for copies of all files, including notes and various letters and documents exchanged between the PMO and different offices.

Having denied the RTI, Kumar, however, informed Thakur that for the purpose of section 19 of the RTI Act 2005, Syed Ekram Rizvi, Director PMO, South Block, was the appellate authority.

Thakur told IANS that she would definitely knock the doors of the appellate authority in New Delhi for answers to her query.

OneIndia News (with agency input)

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 10:51 [IST]
NEET 2017: No question of nullifying exam says Supreme Court

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The NEET 2017 exam will not be nullified the Supreme Court has said. The court said that if the exam is nullified, then it would cause hardship to over 6 lakh students.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said it would be "very difficult" to disturb the results of NEET as around 6.11 lakh candidates, out of a total of 11.35 lakh aspirants, have cleared it and the counselling process was on.

The bench has listed the matter for hearing on July 31.

"We cannot pass an interim order like this. The admission process must continue. There are over six lakh students," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, said.

"In any case, it is very difficult to disturb the result," it said while refusing to accept the submission of counsel appearing for the petitioners who said that three sets of question papers were given to the candidates in the exam in Andhra Pradesh.

The counsel contended that NEET 2017 examination has to be "nullified" and conducted afresh.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), opposed the contentions saying besides English and Hindi, the exam was conducted in eight vernacular languages for the first time.

"The level of difficulty of questions were the same in all the languages. We will put it in affidavit that there were two sets of question papers. Around 1.48 lakh candidates have given the exam in vernacular languages and it was to avoid leakage of question papers," Singh told the bench.

The petitioners argued that the all-India ranking was given in the NEET exam which postulates that every candidate should get the same question paper.

"What has been done is completely unlawful. How can there be all-India ranking when students are given different sets of question papers," the counsel asked.

However, the bench said it would first go through CBSE's affidavit and asked the board to file it within three days.

At the fag end of hearing, the counsel for petitioners referred to an order of the SC on June 12 saying the declaration of result and admission shall be subject to the decision in the matter pending before it.

However, the bench said, "The order is there. We are not vacating it. We will not pass any order today".

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 6:06 [IST]
Next Vice President of India: BJP nominee to be announced next week

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The BJP will finalise its candidate for the next Vice President of India in the next two days. The party has however shown no urgency in announcing the candidate and says that it will win the VP poll hands down.

The opposition has already nominated Gopal Krishna Gandhi as its VP candidate. The polls will be held in August.

Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected

Meanwhile the BJP has already held discussions with RSS functionaries Bhaiyyaji Joshi and Krishna Gopal on a range of issues which also included the VP candidate.

The party is confident about a victory given its combined numbers in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha that constitute the electoral college. Kovind, as per party estimates, is heading for a big win. He has received support of non-NDA regional parties including BJD, JD(U), TRS, YSR Congress, INLD and the two factions of AIADMK.

The BJP is looking a candidate who is capable of running the Rajya Sabha. This is a very crucial factor for the BJP as it has had its fair share of problems in the upper house of Parliament. Further the BJP is also looking for a candidate who subscribes to the core values of the party.

A BJP source said that the candidate would be a party insider. The BJP is not looking for someone outside the party. The election to the post of VP will be held on August 5.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 6:28 [IST]
Lack of development in J&K for decades was one of the reasons behind rise of terrorism: Rajnath Singh

Rajnath hailed for views on Kashmiriyat

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the government has not ruled out talks with any party in Jammu and Kashmir. During a meeting with the opposition leaders on Friday, Singh said that the question of talks has not been ruled out.

Singh had hosted a meeting with the opposition leaders on Friday. During the meeting the leaders were briefed about the situation with China. India and China are in a standoff at the border and the government is looking for ways to sort out the issue.

While the meeting was largely around the Chinese issue, the opposition also had some questions relating to Jammu and Kashmir. Singh said that the channel for talks still remained open. The opposition hailed Singh for his views on Kashmiriyat which he made following the Amarnath yatra attack. The opposition felt that his views and the all round condemnation of the attack had provided the stage for talks.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 6:20 [IST]
It is said that the video was shot earlier this week and the person was attacked as he failed to pay a bribe to the corporator for some work.

The video was shot earlier this week and the persona was attacked as he failed to pay a bribe to the corporator

By Ashish Pandey: In a video that has gone viral on social media, two men - believed to be associates of Saroornagar corporator P Anitha Reddy- have been caught thrashing a third person outside the local Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) office.

The victim was identified as Sudarshan, a resident of Saroornagar while the accused are identified as Devender Reddy and Janga Reddy, private financiers operating in the area and associated with local corporator.

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The viral video shows two people, one wearing a pink shirt and the other a white shirt hurling abuse and attacking the victim.

It is said that video was shot earlier this week and the persona was attacked as he failed to pay a bribe to the corporator for some work.

Meanwhile corporator has denied all allegation and said the accused persons are not related to her and she is unaware about any such incident.

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Govt offices, schools and colleges in Bhubaneswar to remain shut after 1pm tomorrow for Prez visit

Student accuses IIT prof of sexually harassing her; but, authorities deny allegations

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bhubaneswar, Jul 15: An IIT Bhubaneswar professor was accused by a woman PhD student of sexually and mentally harassing her and mentally torturing her husband studying in the same institute.

The allegation was rejected by the institute.

The incident came to light when the woman's lawyer served a notice to the secretary in the skill development and technical education department PK Sarangi.

The petitioner sought action against the professor and restoration of her Phd registration and that of her husband.

The deputy secretary in the skill development and technical education department PK Sarangi wrote a letter to the institute's authorities asking them to submit an immediate report on the matter.

The woman has also written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking their intervention.

The woman in her complaint had alleged that she was a victim of sexual harassment since 2012 and had approached the IIT's authorities but unsatisfied with the report of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), instituted to look into her complaint, she has demanded fresh probe into the allegations.

In a press statement, IIT Bhubaneswar has rejected the allegation based on the ICC findings. IIT-Bhubaneswar, register Debraj Rath told reporters that the allegation against the professor was false and fabricated.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 17:51 [IST]
Surprising that China did not condemn attack on Amarnath Yatris: Mehbooba Mufti

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

At a time when relations between India and China are strained, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said Beijing did not condemn the attack on Amarnath yatris the way it should have.

Mufti also called for political parties to united to find a solution for the Kashmir problem which has been going on for 70 years.

"There is a problem of infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir. It comes from a neighbouring country. There is a lot violence, but China being a big country did not condemn it the way they should have condemned. Even in Bhutan issue they dragged Kashmir into it," she told news agency ANI.

She said that Kashmir problem is a complex one as there are both internal and external dimensions to it.

"The entire country is united over the attack on Amarnath yatris. People of Jammu and Kashmir condemned it. The issue in Jammu and Kashmir is not a law and order problem. The way all the parties united over the China issue, they should also unite over the Kashmir issue," Mufti said.

"China is not condemning those responsible for problems in Jammu and Kashmir. Many nations condemned it but China did not. It is very surprising," she added.

India on Thursday rejected China's offer to mediate Kashmir issue and said it will address all the issues with Pakistan in 'bilateral framework'.

India will continue using its diplomatic channels to defuse border standoff with China in Doklam area, said MEA Spokesperson on Thursday.

In the latest tussle, India had expressed concerns over China trying to change the status quo at the India- Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Doklam area of Sikkim, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 23:13 [IST]
Bihar: Nitish Kumar swears in as CM for 8th time; Tejashwi Yadav to be Dy CM

Yet another setback for Nitish as 15 JDU Panchayat members join BJP in Daman & Diu

Tejashwi skips government event, CM Nitish Kumar attends

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The ongoing tussle between Bihar's ruling allies RJD and JD(U) sharpened on Saturday with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav not attending a government event in Patna.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar however attended the event as scheduled. The occasion, taking place at Gyan Bhawan in Patna, was the celebration of the first anniversary of the 'Kushal Yuva Karyakram' focusing on the government's digital initiatives.

While Tejashwi was a guest of honour at the event, his nameplate was found to be covered up at first and then the cover was removed but he was not to be seen anywhere.

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This was the first public function where both the leaders were supposed to appear after the widening political rift between the JD (U) and RJD.

Tejashwi 's absence in the function could be linked to growing pressure on RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members to come clean on the alleged corruption charges against them.

Yesterday, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar on Friday referred to the allegations by the opposition BJP that Lalu's family members had acquired benami properties at various places in the country.

"They (Lalu's family members) should explain the source of the massive property and money as questions have been posed to them by the opposition," Times of India quoted Neeraj Kumar as saying.

Reports suggest that RJD chief Lalu Prasad defended his younger son Tejashwi Yadav saying he will not resign because FIR is not a sufficient reason.

"Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation," Lalu Prasad told the media here after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence.

(With agency inputs)
West Bengal Government provides financial relief to the Hills of North Bengal

Women power takes centre stage in Gorkhaland movement

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 15: On Saturday, women power was on display in the bandh-hit Darjeeling as female protesters were seen marching on the streets of the hills demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland.

The protest was jointly conducted by the Gorkha National Liberation Front and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's women wings. The women protesters were seen holding the flag of Gorkhaland and shouting slogans for their separate state.

"West Bengal: Joint protest by Gorkha National Liberation Front and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's women wing over #Gorkhaland issue in Darjeeling," tweeted ANI.

West Bengal: Joint protest by Gorkha National Liberation Front and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's women wing over #Gorkhaland issue in Darjeeling pic.twitter.com/JRoMxyW9Hp  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

Since the beginning of the current round of Gorkhaland movement from early June onwards, women have participated in the protest marches wholeheartedly.

The indefinite bandh in Darjeeling and neighbouring areas called by the GJM, which was later joined by all pro-Gorkhaland parties, has entered the 31st day on Saturday. The ongoing movement for a separate state has seen several bloody days, killing at least eight supporters of Gorkhaland.

On Friday, the Centre decided to send four more companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to ensure the safety of citizens in Darjeeling. Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had asked the West Bengal government to deploy four additional companies of the CRPF.

A railway protection force office, a police outpost and a state-run library were set on fire in Darjeeling by the protesters on Friday. As unrest simmered, internet services remained suspended for the 28th day in the hills on Saturday.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 12:58 [IST]
Major credit card skimming racket busted in Bengaluru

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

In one of the biggest crackdown on skimming and duplicate credit card racket, the Bengaluru police arrested three people including a Sri Lankan national. The gang is accused of creating duplicate credit cards and cheating store owners and bank account holders.

Nawaz Sharif, Nadeem Sharif and Divyan were arrested following a CCB operation at their Jalahalli residence in Bengaluru. The police got on the gang's trail after a electronics store owner complained of credit card fraud by customers who had purchased electronics worth Rs 1.10 lakh in June. The cyber crime police registered a complaint and tracked down the culprits to an apartment that they had rented in a different person's name.

The mastermind from Sri Lanka

Divyan, a Srilankan national is said to have arrived in India illegally ten years ago. He had committed similar frauds in Chennai after which cases were filed against him by the Chennai CCB police. Divyan had been absconding but was finally arrested by the Bengaluru police. Initial investigation revealed that Divyan has committed similar frauds in other parts of the country as well.

The police found 144 duplicate cards displaying details of various banks, 16 fake driving licenses, 36 card swiping machines, one card reader, one lamination and card printing machine in possession of the accused. At least 270 empty magnetic cards were also found. The gang used the duplicate cards to shop at supermarkets, electronics stores and malls. Each time they swiped the card, the store never received any money but the amount went straight to accounts of other gang members in a different part of the country.

How the gang created duplicate cards

The gang purchased magnetic swipe cards and machines from online shopping websites. The gang accessed customer data from banks through fraudulent means and used the data to create duplicate cards. The ready-made cards were programmed with data that had been acquired. Using laptops and printers, the gang successfully printed bank logo, design etc to make the cards look authentic. The gang then used emboss machine to emboss numbers, customer name and other details like expiry date etc on the cards.

The gang also acquired card swiping machines registered under the names of vendors who were in collusion with them. Vendors and shopkeepers who were part of the skimming racket handed over swiping machine from their stores in Puducherry, Haryana, Mumbai and other cities. The duplicate cards were then used on trial basis on those swiping machines. The cards that the gang used were programmed to only credit money to the account of the vendor from whom they had received the swiping machines.

With the help of agents, the gang received 20 percent of whatever amount was swiped using the cards. The vendors, who are in collusion received the rest of the money while middleman took a share. Not just customers whose details had been compromised, but also owners of the store where the gang bought items from fell victim to the scam. Investigations are underway and more arrests are likely in the case.

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Changing mood in US: Bill to restrict US assistance to Pakistan tabled

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, July 15: The US House of Representatives has passed a sweeping $696 billion defence policy bill that includes provisions for tightening restrictions on Washington's assistance to Pakistan.

The National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018 exceeded US President Donald Trump's budget request and was decisively adopted by 344 to 81 votes on Friday.

Another congressional panel approved by voice vote the State and Foreign Operations Bill that also suggested increased restrictions on US civil and military assistance to Pakistan, Dawn newspaper reported.

The foreign affairs bill will now go to the Senate for voting. The defence bill authorises $696 billion in defence spending for the 2018 fiscal, including nearly $30 billion more for core Pentagon operations.

All but eight Republicans and 117 Democrats voted for the bill, which surpasses the $549 billion cap on defence spending.

The other legislation, however, would reduce funding for the State Department and foreign operations by $10 billion, down from about $57.4 billion in fiscal 2017.

In total, the bill provides $47.4 billion in both regular discretionary and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding.

OCO funding totals $12 billion, which supports operations and assistance in areas of conflict, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The text of the bill, released earlier this week, includes provisions to make the civil and military aid to Pakistan conditional to Islamabad stopping its alleged support to the Haqqani network and other militant groups in the South Asian regions.

Senior US officials and lawmakers sent clear messages to Pakistan, urging it to help Washington and Afghanistan defeat the Taliban militants.

They also said that the failure to do so would force the US to reconsider its relationship with Pakistan.

US officials and lawmakers, however, left open the option to hold peace talks with the Taliban.

Although in power since January 20, the Trump administration is still finalising a policy for the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and leaks to the media indicate that while the new strategy would suggest both "qualitative and numerical" increase in US military presence in Afghanistan, it will also continue to seek a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict.

At a news briefing, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert avoided categorising the Taliban as a terrorist outfit. "Our Afghan policy review is still under way. That has not been announced just yet," said Nauert when asked if the Trump administration is going to brand the Taliban as terrorists.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 16:05 [IST]
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International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Pyongyang, July 15: North Korea's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published an article branding the South Korean president's offer of cross-border rapprochement as misleading.

President Moon Jae-in's proposal, made during a speech in Berlin last week, adds obstacles to achieving peace rather than helping to improve inter-Korean relations, Efe news quoted the article as saying.

"(The initiative) is riddled with sophistries like sleep talking, which only pose hurdles rather than helping improve North-South relations" the piece said.

The newspaper dismissed Moon's proposal, and called for a "fundamental shift in policy and stance" from Seoul in order to initiate bilateral dialogue and cooperation.

In his speech in Berlin, Moon said he was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "under the right conditions", and proposed resuming meetings of family members who were separated by the Korean War.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's repeated nuclear weapons tests, Moon also proposed that the two sides suspend hostile acts along their border.

Since he assumed office in May, South Korea's Liberal president has attempted to resume dialogue with Pyongayng.

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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 15:44 [IST]
North Korea denies US claims of supplying arms to Russia

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'Russian Foreign Ministry suffered large-scale cyber-attacks'

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Moscow, July 15: Russia's Foreign Ministry experienced "large-scale" cyber-attacks originating in Iran and Hungary last month, according to spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

On Friday, Zakharova said the attacks on the ministry's mail server, which occurred on June 29, "resulted in grave consequences", reports The Moscow Times.

Hackers briefly accessed electronic correspondence between the ministry's staff, Zakharova told reporters during a regular briefing.

The ministry's system administrators temporarily blocked its mail service to stave off the attack, she said.

This is the first time Russia's Foreign ministry has said its servers were successfully hacked.

When a US hacker boasted last October he had successfully hacked the ministry website, Zakharova said he had targeted a defunct version of the sitem The Moscow Times reported.

Zakharova said that 88 per cent of all visits to the site were cyber-atatckers with US IP addresses.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in January revealed its website had been under "hundreds and thousands" of attacks every day from different countries, including China, India and the European Union.

IANS
In Iran, men and women are 'equal' only in torture

Tehran lashes out at Trump for describing Iran as rogue state

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Tehran, July 15: Iran on Saturday lashed out at the US President Trump's description of the country as a rogue state, media reports said.

"Trump ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying.

Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them".

Senior Iranian officials have blamed US-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.

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In a fresh purge that came on the eve of the first anniversary of the failed coup in Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan dismissed more than 7,000 police, civil servants and academics. With this, Turkey has now sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials in the year after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

By Agencies: Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police, civil servants and academics on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of last year's attempted coup.

The latest decree is part of a crackdown triggered by the failed coup, which Turkey says was organised by US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen has time and again denied those allegations.

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With the latest purge, Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials, and arrested some 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, academia and other sectors.

Under the latest decree, 2,303 police, including some from senior ranks, alongside 302 academics from universities across the country were dismissed from service. The decree also stripped 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks and grades.

Some 250 people, most of them civilians, were killed last July when rogue soldiers tried to overthrow Erdogan's government.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?

On the night of July 15 a year ago, a group of Turkish soldiers using tanks, warplanes and helicopters launched a plot to overthrow Turkey's president and government. Uncertainty dragged on for a few hours but the coup attempt ultimately failed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan swiftly blamed one-time ally Fethullah Gulen, who lives in exile in the US, for the coup attempt.

On the night the coup event unfolded, the events made little sense to those watching and the culprit was far from clear. People in Turkey turned to the news to make sense of what was happening. Many lined up at stores and ATMs, unsure if the country would function the next day.

Istanbul and Ankara residents took cover in their homes as they heard the unusual sound of sonic booms from fighter jets.

Heeding a call from the president, thousands of people took to the streets to stand up to the coup plotters. Some 250 people were killed and 2,193 injured. At least 34 coup plotters also died.

Based on reporting from that night, along with information from the state-run Anadolu news agency and the Turkish president's office, here is an account of how the July 15-16 coup unfolded (all times local):

July 15

10 p.m. A group of soldiers closes off two Istanbul bridges that connect the part of Turkey that's in Asia to the part that's in Europe, leading to a Friday night traffic jam and prompting social media speculation about a potential terror attack. Military jets are heard flying over the capital Ankara and shots are fired at army headquarters.

Turkish military stand guard near the the Taksim Square as peiple wave with Turkish flags in Istanbul, Turkey, July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer Click here to Enlarge Turkish military stand guard near the the Taksim Square as peiple wave with Turkish flags in Istanbul, Turkey, July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

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11:05 p.m. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says in a live televised statement that a group within Turkey's military is attempting a coup.

July 16

12:13 a.m. Soldiers aligned with the coup attempt take over the state broadcaster TRT, where anchorwoman Tijen Karas is forced to read a statement announcing the military has seized power from a government "that lost its legitimacy." The statement cites autocratic rule and increased terrorism. It imposes martial law and curfews.

12:26 a.m. Holding a microphone to her smartphone, Hande Firat, an anchorwoman for private broadcaster CNN Turk, uses FaceTime to interview Erdogan live on air . He says a minority within the military has attempted a coup outside the chain of command. He says they were incited by Gulen's "parallel state," a reference to an alleged infiltration of state institutions by the cleric's followers. Erdogan calls people to assemble in the country's squares and airports, then connects to other channels using FaceTime to repeat his call to resist the coup.

Click here to Enlarge People stand on a Turkish army tank at Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir

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12:30 a.m. People begin flowing into the streets across the country to oppose the coup attempt. The Directorate of Religious Affairs instructs mosques to recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets. Municipal buses and waste haulers barricade army barracks.

1:01 a.m. Fighter jets and helicopters hit Ankara police headquarters six times, followed by strikes on a police special operations unit and a branch of Turkey's satellite operator TURKSAT.

2:32 a.m. F-16 fighter jets piloted by coup plotters bomb Turkey's parliament 11 times, forcing members of parliament who convened for an emergency session to seek shelter in the basement.

3:20 a.m. President Erdogan lands in Istanbul hours after departing a summer resort in Marmaris where he narrowly escaped capture and possibly an assassination attempt. He is welcomed by thousands of supporters. Earlier, all airports had been closed to aviation traffic and Istanbul's main airport seized by soldiers and tanks.

4 a.m. An official investigation is launched and detention warrants issued against alleged coup plotters linked to Gulen's network, including members of the judiciary and the military. Suspensions from public service and detentions are already under way.

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4:42 a.m. A helicopter bombs the Marmaris hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing and nearly 30 soldiers and commando squads raid the hotel, killing two police officers. Erdogan had already left.

Click here to Enlarge Supporters of Tukish President Tayyip Erdogan celebrate after troops involved in the coup surrendered, in the resort town of Marmaris, Turkey July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kenan Gurbuz

6:30 a.m. More than 130 soldiers who occupied the Bosporus Bridge, now called July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, surrender to police and civilians resisting the coup attempt. Thirty civilians were killed there.

6:43 a.m. Bombs are dropped around the Presidential Complex in Ankara by the coup plotters.

8:32 a.m. Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar arrives at the Prime Ministry after being rescued. Akar was taken hostage at the outset of the coup attempt.

5 p.m. Prime Minister Yildirim speaks in an extraordinary parliamentary session, saying Turkish citizens defeated the coup attempt and protected democracy. All four political parties represented in parliament issue a joint statement against the coup.

Click here to Enlarge Supporters of Tayyip Erdogan celebrate after failed coup attempt (Reuters photo)

8:02 p.m. The government declares the coup attempt "decisively" put down. Millions gather across the country for a "democracy vigil" that goes on every night for nearly a month.

Postcript

Days after the coup attempt, an emboldened Erdogan declares a state of emergency that remains in place to this day. It has allowed the government to rule by decrees, bypassing parliamentary checks and balances, to bring down Gulen's network and other terror groups. Critics have called it a "civilian coup," institutionalizing a clampdown that was already underway.

More than 50,000 people, including a dozen opposition parliamentarians and around 160 journalists, have been arrested. Some 100,000 public employees have been fired for suspected links to terror, among them academics, teachers, police and military officers. Judicial and administrative paths for the jailed and purged to defend themselves have been severely curtailed.

To Erdogan's chagrin, the U.S. has not extradited Gulen and some NATO allies have granted asylum to alleged coup plotters. International criticism of the post-coup crackdown is rampant and Erdogan, more isolated than ever, has further polarized the country.

ALSO READ | Turkey mandate gives sweeping powers to President Tayyip Erdogan

ALSO READ | Turkey coup 'conspirator' has network in India: Turkish Ambassador

ALSO WATCH | Attempted coup by rebel section of Turkish army over, life returns to normalcy

--- ENDS ---
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Its not been long since it was announced that Qualcomm  developing technology for use in Android handsets and tablets  would be looking to implement under-screen fingerprint analysis in future models to be brought around by Sony, Samsung and more. In this time, its been wondered just what Apple  who are of course at the forefront of the smartphone industry  would be doing to counteract the technology and the announcement. After all, while many Apple users will be perfectly happy with the Touch ID technology currently prevalent in iPhones and iPads, it remains to be said that the future of quick-touch control may well lie in integration beneath the screen.

Not long after confirmation from Qualcomm came through regarding fingerprint technology did news regarding Apples future take on smart unlocking seep through the rumor mill  as Bloomberg suggests that Apple could in fact be looking to ditch Touch ID in future iterations of their product line. This could be a very big move indeed  particularly as Touch ID has remained a fairly big factor in Apple devices ease of use over the past few years. But what are the firm planning to integrate for future devices in its stead  according to rumor?

Its thought that, according to a number of pointers, that Apple may well be bringing in 3D face recognition for future iPhone and iPad releases  which will of course mean that unlocking a device could be as simple as looking at it. Rumors surrounding this move come as Apple were thought to be mass-purchasing 3D camera technology  and that 3D sensing has been on the rumor sheet for future iPhone capabilities for a while. The introduction of this technology could, ultimately, be completely separate to that of smart unlocking  but if the firm can implement the tech in a convincing and effective manner, it could stand to revolutionize handset manufacture entirely.

Will 3D face recognition become commonplace across Apple devices in the years to come? Its not so clear, just yet  but if the rumors that Apple are planning to go all-out to make the iPhone 8 a completely new affair are true, this would be a fantastic addition. Will Android competitors be able to pull off something similar in the meantime? Keep your ear to the ground  and lets wait and see  well know soon enough!
Referring to the July 15 coup attempt by the military last year and series of terror attacks since, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan swore to rip off heads of traitors.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016.

By AP: Turkey's president addressed tens of thousands of people Saturday at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the country's crushed military coup, vowing to "rip the heads off" of terror groups and of the coup-plotters who tried to end his more than a decade-long rule.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the large, flag-waving crowd who took part in a national unity march in Istanbul, converging at the iconic July 15 Martyrs' Bridge to remember 250 people who died on July 15, 2016 trying to resist the coup. Accompanied by his family and the families of the deceased, he inaugurated a hollow, globe-shaped monument featuring the names of the victims near the foot of the bridge.

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"Exactly a year ago today, around this hour, a treacherous attempt took place," Erdogan said.

"The July 15 coup attempt is not the first attack against our country, and it won't be the last," he said, referring to a series of terror attacks that also hit the country. "For that reason, we'll first cut the heads off of these traitors."

The bridge was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks. At least 30 people died there and more than 2,000 were injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

ABOUT THE MEMOIR

Photographs of the 250 "martyrs" were displayed on monitors and their names announced. Erdogan praised their bravery saying they were armed only with Turkish flags and "their faith" while resisting coup-plotters in their tanks.

Erdogan was later due to return to Ankara to address parliament at the exact moment it was bombed a year ago. He is also scheduled to inaugurate another monument honoring the dead.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016. The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the country's parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Erdogan had been on vacation.

But Erdogan had already left and the coup attempt was put down by civilians and security forces.

Turkey blames US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the coup and infiltrating state institutions. Gulen denies the allegations.

TURKEY STILL IN EMERGENCY STATE

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since, which has allowed the government to rule by decree and to dismiss tens of thousands of people from their jobs. More than 50,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to Gulen and other groups.

In the latest government decree published Friday evening, 7,395 more state employees were fired, including teachers, academics, military and police officers, bringing the number of dismissed to more than 110,000. The government calls the crackdown necessary to purge state institutions of those linked to Gulen, but critics say the dismissals are arbitrary and the victims' paths to recourse severely curtailed.

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"It has been exactly one year since Turkey's darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the people's legend," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier in the day at a special parliamentary session in Ankara, the capital, attended by Erdogan.

The US State Department on Saturday issued a statement praising the bravery of the Turkish people who took to the streets to "preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society."

"The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms," the agency said, warning that curbs on those key freedoms erode "the foundations of democratic society."

JULY 15 NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN TURKEY

"More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times," the statement said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg paid homage to those who lost lives resisting the coup and said attempts to undermine democracy in any one of the allied nations was "unacceptable."

July 15 has been declared a national holiday in Turkey.

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As they did on the night of the 2016 coup attempt, mosques across Turkey after midnight began to simultaneously recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets.

Also read: Who is Fethullah Gulen, the cleric being blamed for Turkey coup attempt

Also read: Turkey detains over 1,000 people for alleged link to failed coup

Also read: Turkey mandate gives sweeping powers to President Erdogan

Also read: Turkey coup bid foiled: Over 250 killed, 3,000 rebel soldiers detained

Also watch: Fethullah, linked to Turkey military coup, has networks in Mumbai: Turkish Consul General

--- ENDS ---
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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has asked the Court of Appeal to order the disclosure of President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo after the request was rejected by a Federal High Court.

It would be recalled that a Federal High Court in Lagos had on 11 May dismissed the application filed by the group seeking an order of mandamus to direct and compel the Code of Conduct Bureau to make available to the public specific details of asset declarations submitted to it by successive presidents, vice-presidents, senate presidents, speakers of House of Representatives, state governors and their deputies since 1999.

SERAP in the appeal filed contended that, The learned trial judge misinterpreted the provision and purport of paragraph 3[c], Third Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended).

The judge did not consider that the Freedom of information was enacted by the National Assembly in 2011 to grant public access to public documents.

SERAP also argued that the learned trial Judge erred in law by holding that the Freedom of information Act is a legislation of general nature in relation to public access to asset declaration forms of public officers.

The judge erred in law when he held that SERAPs application is unmeritorious and it is accordingly dismissed.

The failure or refusal by the CCB to provide the information requested by SERAP constitutes a violation of their right to freedom of information guaranteed by Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, SERAP argued.

The group is therefore seeking an order allowing the Appeal, and setting aside the judgement of the Honourable Justice Muslim Hassan delivered on Monday, 11th May, 2020.

SERAP had in suit number FHC/L/CS/1019/2019 argued that asset declarations of presidents and state governors submitted to the CCB are public documents.

Public interest in disclosure of the details of asset declarations clearly outweighs any claim of protection of the privacy of presidents and state governors, as they are public officers entrusted with the duty to manage public funds, among other public functions.

Disclosing details of asset declarations of public officers such as presidents and state governors would improve public trust in the ability of the CCB to effectively discharge its mandate.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.
The situation in the nearby area has become tense with clashes erupting, and the operation is still underway as a third militant is believed to still be holed up in the area.

By Ashraf Wani: Security forces killed three Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists during an encounter in Satora area of Tral in south Kashmir.

Upon receiving specific information, security forces from SOG police, army and CRPF cordoned off the area. The encounter began after militants opened fire on the security forces who were carrying out a search operation.

Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid said the encounter is still on and there are a couple more militants, who are using a cave in the area to hide in. He also revealed that two bodies can be seen at the spot.

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"The firing is still on and I hope some more will be eliminated. Their exact ethnicity is not known, but they do look like foreign terrorists," Vaid said.

Vaid further said that officers are on the spot and are making an effort to end the encounter as soon as possible.

He added that a Special Investigation Team has been constituted under the AIG, Anantnag, and details of the operation will be available soon.

Also Read:

Jammu and Kashmir: Three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists killed in encounter in Budgam

Watch video: Terrorists targets security forces in Kashmir: Can Modi, Trump corner Pakistan?

--- ENDS ---
A former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida has called on Nigerians to be patient with each other and to pray for Gods intervention in the countrys political activities.

Babangida Advise Nigerians

The former military leader said this on Tuesday while speaking with journalists in Minna, the Niger capital, as part of activities to commemorate his 81st birthday on August 17, 2022.

In his remarks, Babangida urged Nigerians to continue to have faith in the unity of the country and remain resolute that things will get better.

He said, I plead with us to be patient with one another and be prayerful for Gods intervention in our socio-economic and political activities,

We need to continue to sensitise people on how to live in peace and harmony for peace, progress and for the continuous existence as a nation.

Babangida also advised the media to support efforts to promote the countrys unity.

You should put in more deliberate efforts to change the Nigerian narrative. If the media and journalists ignore the spreaders of hate, they will not have a platform to pass their messages across, NAN quoted him as saying.

You are doing enough to promote the unity of the country. You can change the psyche of Nigerians.

I implore you to ignore those that preach hate and disunity. Ignore them and dont bother about them. You can only do this through objective reportage and I like the debate that is ongoing in the media.

It is giving the people the insight that they need to see. What the media is doing now is very good.

KanyiDaily recalls that former president, Goodluck Jonathan had also advised Nigerians against voting for politicians who practice bread and butter politics by using financial inducements to buy their way into public offices.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a new short code for subscribers of its digital currency, eNaira to make financial transactions on the platform. The aim is to enhance its acceptability with a focus on deepeningpayment system.

Im pleased and indeed delighted to inform you all today that by next week, Nigerians both banked and unbanked will be able to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialing *997# from their mobile phones,CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said yesterday at the grand finale of the eNaira Hackathon in Abuja.

The CBN governor also announced that between October 2021 when it was launched and now, the eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. The volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4 billion, respectively.

The eNaira is expected to enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem, improve availability and usability of central bank money, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and reduce cost and improve efficiency of cross-border payment among others.

The CBN sets a self-imposed target of 8,000,000 active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model.

Mr Emefiele said the Hackathon event was a forward leap in the implementation of eNaira to ensure all Nigerians receive the full benefits of a Central bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

CBNs Deputy Governor in charge of economic policy Dr Kingsley Obiora said the use of cash as a means of payment is fast declining, a reason he the minting of currency by the central bank has been reducing over the years. We have seen the value of e-business increase, he said, adding that central banks across the world have decided to step on the plate and respond to the yearning of digital payment system.

Dr Obiora who said a lot of central banks have been coming to understudy Nigerias model of the digital currency said, this is the way the world is going. If you dont jump into the train, it will leave you.

Group head of African Fintech Foundry Daniel Awe said Nigerias central bank has transformed from a traditional regulator to a smart and innovative regulator. It has moved a lot step further, he said.

Mr Awe charged the top 10 winners of the hackathon competition to take their new roles as an opportunity to make impact. By this time next year, we will want to see the impact you have made in terms of employment creation, impact in the eNaira and the digital financial system, Awe told them.

From an initial cohort of over 105 groups that made the quarter finals and 75 teams that progressed to the semi-finals, the Hackathon reached its climax yesterday with 20 teams in the finals from which the top 10 teams emerged as prize winners.

Emefiele said the second phase of the digital project has begun and it is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging offline channels.

The project adopted a phased- approach with the first phase focusing on banked users, while the policy objective of the second phase borders around financial inclusion.
Abdulrazaq Nuhu Zaki, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, has talked about how victims of kidnapping were released.

He disclosed that 69 captives have been released from kidnappers den in various forests across the State.

He explained, during an interview with reporters on Thursday that the feat was achieved by the combined efforts of security agencies and vigilantes who stormed dens of the bandits.

He said: The State Governor Senator Bala Mohammed led the battle himself. He visited the affected areas and commiserated with the people as well as encouraged them to resist the kidnappers.

So we mobilised ourselves, security personnel and vigilantes and stormed the forests, fearlessly and confronted the bandits, they fled but our men continued to advance towards them.



The council chairmen reported to us that the total number of people abducted by the kidnappers is 69 and all of them were rescued. Many of them were brought and kept in Bauchi by their abductors. We have released them and allowed them to go to their respective homes and families, he said.

The commissioner further said that the governor discussed with his Taraba and Plateau State counterparts in order to collaborate to intensify patrols along the routes followed by the bandits in their borders to frustrate their movements.

Nuhu Zaki who commended the vigilantes, security agencies and the affected communities said that sustained dislodgement of the bandits would bring a big relief to people that have been terrorized by the bandits.

Governor Mohammed had gone round to assess activities of kidnappers and other criminal elements ravaging the state which necessitated a directive to security agencies to go after them.
BJP national chief Amit Shah who is presiding over a two-day meeting on the party's fortunes in Delhi took state leaders to task for not working hard enough.

By Rakesh Ranjan: If the Delhi BJP leaders thought they enjoyed the pleasure of the central leadership after the emphatic victory in MCD elections, an utterly rude shock awaited them.

Upset with the lax attitude of Delhi BJP leaders and bickering within the state party unit, the party's national president Amit Shah on Friday took them to task and noted that the party leaders spent more time meeting the top leaders than reaching out to the common people.

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In a meeting with Delhi BJP office bearers on day one of his Delhi pravaas, Shah also set a target of securing 51 per cent votes in the next assembly polls.

He expressed displeasure over the state of affairs in Delhi unit after several leaders came out in open alleging the current leadership has failed to follow the policies of the party and that favourites of Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari got the key posts.

The BJP president was meeting Delhi BJP leaders at the NDMC convention centre in the national Capital. The meetings would continue on Saturday at Delhi BJP headquarters. This is the first ever brainstorming session of Amit Shah with Delhi BJP leaders.

"A majority of leaders in Delhi are not working hard enough. All they are doing is making efforts to meet and please Amit Shah, Ramlal and Arun Jaitley. No one is spending time to meet the common people," Shah was quoted as saying by a BJP leader who was present in the meeting.

Sources said he was also unhappy with the haphazardly executed vistarak program in Delhi. According to Delhi BJP, only 60 per cent of over 13,000 booths in Delhi were covered. Also the party was far behind the target of adding 1.5 lakh new members to the party.

Even after a BJP leader present in the meeting told Shah that the party would get 41 per cent votes in a triangular fight in Delhi if elections were held immediately, Shah - who had a target of 51 per cent in Delhi- was not convinced.

The leaders gave a detailed presentation on the voting pattern, caste equations and demographic division in the Capital and also the factors that led to BJP's successive defeats in elections. Shah also directed the state leadership to improve its presence at the booth level to strike good rapport with the voters.

During the meeting, some among the party leaders also cited lack of coordination between office bearers and the subordinates. Taking strong note of this, Shah directed Delhi BJP general secretary Kuljeet Chahal to put before him all communication sent from the central office ever since he became the BJP president in August 2014.

He also took note of the complaints that the communications from central leadership was not circulated to party workers at the district and block levels.

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An action report has been sought regarding all communications on Saturday.

ALSO READ | Amit Shah sets sight on Delhi, looks to end BJP's 20-year exile

ALSO READ | Delhi: Political uncertainties point towards likelihood of early election

ALSO WATCH | MCD election 2017 results: Is AAP's defeat due to anti-Kejriwal wave rather than pro-BJP?

--- ENDS ---
The Ogun state Police Command has alerted residents of a yet-to-be-identified serial killer who is on the prowl in Remo axis of the state.

A statement released by SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, spokesperson of the state police command, says the modus operandi of the serial killer is to pretend as a commercial motorcyclist popularly known as okada and pick his targeted victim as a passenger.

Such victim who are mainly women will be taken to an isolated area, r#ped and brutally murdered in cold blood.

While the Command is doing everything possible to apprehend the hoodlum, it is necessary to alert the public to be on their guard and be wary of any okada man with whom they want to embark on a journey, most especially in the night the statement read.

Abimbola said that for safety reasons, passengers are advised to demand the phone number of the okada rider who wants to carry them in the night.

They should also make a call to such number to ascertain its authenticity.



This will give security agencies a lead in their investigation in the event of any untowards development.the statement read.

Oyeyemi added that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, has assured the public that everything possible will be done to fish out the serial killer within the shortest possible period.

He urged the public to cooperate with the police by giving adequate and useful information that can assist in this onerous task.
By PTI: Asia Pacific region

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 15 (PTI) The US should maintain a military capability to deter acts of aggression in the Indo- Asia Pacific region, the House of Representatives has said, amid aggressive Chinese behaviour in the strategic region.

Approving the annual defence budget, it noted that the US has a national interest in maintaining the stability and security of the Indo-Asia Pacific region.

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The National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2018 said that the US "should maintain a military capability to deter acts of aggression and respond to regional threats."

It also called for continuing efforts to realign forces, committing additional assets, and increasing investments in the region as necessary to maintain a robust US commitment to the region.

It directed the Defence Secretary to develop a strategic plan and submit it to the Congress by February 1 next year and assess US Pacific posture, deployment plans, and realignment and basing needs to accomplish defence priorities and respond to complex crises and contingencies.

To be submitted to the Congress before March 1 next year, the report should align with the Department of Defence strategy to prioritise US defence interests in the Indo-Asia Pacific region that would be required elsewhere in this subtitle, the budget said.

Calls for reassessing and realigning forces by the US come at a time when China has been increasingly aggressive in the disputed South China Sea region and flexing its military muscles overseas. It has this week sent military personnel to man its first overseas military base at Djibouti in the strategic Indian Ocean region.

Though Beijing downplayed reports that its naval facility at Djibouti was its first military base, the dispatch of PLA personnel sparked concerns in the US.

The Djibouti military base is a few kilometres from Camp Lemonnier, one of Pentagons largest foreign installations.

Chinas second base is coming up in Gwadar, Pakistan, linking its restive Xinjiang region to the Indian Ocean through the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The US defence budget assured that America was committed to providing extended deterrence to allies in the Asia- Pacific, including Japan and South Korea. Also, it said that the US must maintain robust nuclear capabilities, including nuclear-capable aircraft, to assure that the full spectrum of military options associated with the extended deterrence commitments of the US remains credible and executable.

Supporting recent Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea that challenge arbitrary limitations that are in contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the budget asked the US Defence Secretary to provide a report to the congressional committees that outlines US policy and strategy regarding freedom of navigation in the global commons and a plan for conducting FONOPs in the South China Sea with regularity.

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The US should regularly and routinely conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, it said.

Meanwhile, a White paper issued by the House Armed Services Committee said China continues to build new military bases in the South China Sea, while the regime in North Korea continues to pursue nuclear weapons and deploy new, longer- range ballistic missiles that directly threaten the US. PTI LKJ ABH AKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
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Industrial Evaporators Market  Growth forecast 2021 at a CAGR of 7.06% evolving Key Vendors GE, KMU LOFT, Technoforce Solutions

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A new research document with title 'Global Industrial Evaporators Market 2017-2021' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Americas , APAC , EMEA and important players/vendors such as General Electric, KMU LOFT, Technoforce Solutions................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2021About Industrial EvaporatorsAn evaporator converts a fluid mixture from its liquid state into a gaseous state by vaporizing the liquid into a gas, leaving behind all the solid components. These evaporators are used wherever the final food item needs to be converted to a concentrated state with a negligible amount of fluid or no fluid at all (as and when required). These help in the partial removal of water from any liquid food item via the boiling process.The analysts forecast the global industrial evaporators market to grow at a CAGR of 7.06% during the period 2017-2021.Request a sample report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global industrial evaporators market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Industrial Evaporators Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors ENCON Evaporators General Electric (GE) KMU LOFT Technoforce Solutions Thermal Kinetics EngineeringOther prominent vendors ADF Systems Alaqua BUCHI Coastal Technologies Continental Blower ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS INTERNATIONAL EZ Environmental Solutions Mech-Chem AssociatesMarket driver Design enhancements to reduce fouling in falling film evaporators For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Use of new drying technologies For a full, detailed list, view our reportBuy this report @Market trend E-beam evaporator systems For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Get customization & check discount for report @PART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Market outlinePART 05: Market landscape Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by end-user Market overview Global industrial evaporators market in food and beverage processing industry Global industrial evaporators market in water treatment industryPART 07: Geographical segmentation Market overview Industrial e....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Breast Imaging Technologies Market Size Is Projected To Be Around $6 Billion By 2025:

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A research study titled, Breast Imaging Technologies Market by Product - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025 published by Crystal Market Research, states that the breast imaging technologies market is projected to be around $6 billion by 2025.Over the past few decades, breast imaging technologies have greatly revolutionized the healthcare industry. These modalities allow doctors to diagnose breast cancers at an early stage and drastically improve patient outcomes. Today, advanced imaging technologies deliver substantial benefits to the healthcare providers and the patients. These modalities assist physicians in better understanding the complications related to breast cancers. The procedures are completely non-invasive, painless and majority of these procedures dont require any special prior preparation.Browse full research report with TOC on Breast Imaging Technologies Market by Product - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025 at:Some of the key factors driving the growth of breast imaging technologies market are the growing prevalence of breast cancer, aging population, increased patient awareness about early diagnosis of breast cancers, and technological advancements in breast imaging techniques. According to WHO, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women across the world, both in developing as well as developed countries. The incidence has been steadily rising in low and middle-income countries owing to increased life expectancy and adoption of western lifestyle. According to the 2015-16 report on breast cancer by the American Cancer Society, over 3.1 million women with a history of breast cancer were alive in the U.S. as on January 1, 2014. With such high prevalence of breast cancer, the breast imaging technologies market will witness substantial growth during the forecast period. However, factors such as stringent regulatory approval procedures and superior cost of breast imaging systems are expected to restrain the market growth during the forecast period.Ionizing breast imaging technologies segment dominated the overall market in 2016 to their capability to detect breast cancer at an early stage thereby escalating the odds of survival of the patients. Full-field digital mammography segment dominated the ionizing breast imaging technologies market in 2016 as the technology uses less radiation as compared to film mammography. Non-ionizing breast imaging technologies segment is projected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period owing to the introduction of advanced imaging modalities such as automated whole breast ultrasound technology. Breast MRI segment held the largest share of the non-ionizing breast imaging technologies market in 2016 owing to its high sensitivity towards small abnormalities and its ability to visualize the breast in any orientation.U.S. held the major share of the North American breast imaging technologies market in 2016 owing to high prevalence of breast cancer along with the presence of highly advanced healthcare infrastructure in the country. Emerging markets such as China and India will experience significant growth during the forecast period due to increasing awareness related to early detection of breast cancer and rising healthcare expenditure in these countries.Request a sample copy of Breast Imaging Technologies Market Research Report @The major players operating in the global breast imaging technologies market emphasize on product development and innovation along with strategic collaborations such as partnerships, acquisitions, and agreements in order to retain and improve their competitive position in the market. For instance, in June 2017, Hologic, Inc., obtained FDA approval for its Genius 3D Mammography exam as the only FDA approved mammogram superior to standard 2D mammography in terms of routine screening of breast cancer in women with dense breasts. Some of the key players in the global breast imaging technologies market are, GE Healthcare (a division of General Electric Company), Dilon Technologies, Hologic, Inc., Gamma Medica Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens AG, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (acquired by Canon, Inc. in December 2016), SonoCine, Inc., Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, and Aurora Imaging Technology, Inc.Key Findings of the Research Study: Ionizing breast imaging technologies segment held nearly two-third share of the overall market in 2016 owing to their capability of detecting breast cancer at an early stage. Non-ionizing breast imaging technologies market is expected to grow with a high single-digit CAGR during the forecast period as these technologies use infrared radiation thus reducing the threat of acquiring radiation induced cancer. Full-field digital mammography segment held over three-fourth share of the ionizing breast imaging technologies market in 2016 due to their increased adoption as they use less proportion of radiation compared to film mammography. North America dominated the global breast imaging technologies market in 2016 and is expected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period due to high prevalence of breast cancer in the region along with availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure and favorable reimbursement policies. Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow with a high single-digit growth rate during the forecast period owing to increasing patient population, rising healthcare expenditure and increasing awareness related to early detection of treatment of breast cancer.Inquire more about this report at:Breast Imaging Technologies Market Segmentation:By Product: Non-Ionizing Breast Imaging Technologieso Automated Whole-Breast Ultrasoundo Breast Ultrasoundo Breast MRIo Breast Thermographyo Optical Imaging Ionizing Breast Imaging Technologieso 3D Breast Tomosynthesiso Full-Field Digital Mammographyo Analog Mammographyo Positron Emission Mammographyo Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomographyo Cone Beam Computed Tomographyo Electrical Impedance Tomography Molecular Breast Imaging/Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (MBI/BSGI)By Region North Americao U.So Canada Europeo Germanyo Franceo UKo Italyo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia-Pacifico Japano Chinao Australiao Indiao South Koreao Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Brazilo South Africao Saudi Arabiao United Arab Emirateso OthersGet Customization in the Report At:Related Reports:Mammography Systems Market by Type, Technology and End User - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast To 2025:About Crystal Market ResearchCrystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact:Akhil V.304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Industrial Robot Cell Market  Growth forecast 2021 at a CAGR of 10.35% evolving Key Vendors RobotWorx, Yaskawa Motoman, IPG Photonics, JH Robotics

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A new research document with title 'Global Industrial Robot Cell Market 2017-2021' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Americas , APAC , EMEA and important players/vendors such as RobotWorx, Yaskawa Motoman, IPG Photonics, JH Robotics................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2021About Industrial Robot CellA robot cell is a complete system that includes a robot, a controller, and peripherals such as part positioners and safety environment. They are also referred to as robot work cells. It is estimated that the continued development of the robot technology along with miniaturization of sensors will contribute to the reduction in prices of robots, and trigger a rapid surge in sales of industrial as well service robots during the forecast period.The analysts forecast the global industrial robot cell market to grow at a CAGR of 10.35% during the period 2017-2021.Request a sample report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global industrial robot cell market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Industrial Robot Cell Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors ABB FANUC Genesis Systems Group RobotWorx Yaskawa MotomanOther prominent vendors Amtec Solutions Group Applied Manufacturing Technologies Automated Technology Group Concept Systems Evomatic AB Fitz-Thors Engineering Flexible Automation IPG Photonics JH Robotics JR Automation Technologies KC Robotics Mesh Engineering Mexx Engineering Motion Controls Robotics NIS PAA Automation Phoenix Control Systems Phoenix Control Systems Remtec Automation United RoboticsMarket driver Increase in penetration of preconfigured robot cells For a full, detailed list, view our reportBuy this report @Market challenge High cost of adopting robot cells For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increasing adoption of IIoT For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Get customization & check discount for report @PART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Global robotics market: overview Global industrial robots market Global industrial robot cell market Five forces analysisPART 05: Market segmentation by application Global industrial robot cell market by material handling Global industrial robot cell market by welding and soldering Global industrial robot cell market by assembly line Global industrial robot cell market by othersPART 06: Geographical segmentation Global indust....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Global Inkjet Printer Head Market: TRIDENT, Kyocera, TOSHIBA TEC, Ricoh Forecast to 2022

Inkjet Printer Head

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"Inkjet heads also call inkjet print head is the core of inkjet printer. It is used on the industrial and commercial and office inkjet printer.Inkjet print head can be divided into two categories by printing method: continuous print head and drop-on-demand print head. As continuous print head is waste of ink and print dots are large, the major manufacturers use the drop-on-demand print head."Get a Sample of Inkjet Printer Head Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Inkjet Printer Head in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Major Players Included in Inkjet Printer Head Market :HPCanonSeiko Epson CorporationXaarKonica MinoltaSII PrintekTRIDENTKyoceraTOSHIBA TECRicohFUJIFILM DimatixAnd Many OthersScope of the Follicle Inkjet Printer Head Market on the basis of region:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Browse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Inkjet Printer Head Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversPiezoelectric TypeThermal TypeMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoConsumer & Office ApplicationCommercial ApplicationIndustrial ApplicationThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Inkjet Printer Head market.Chapter 1, to describe Inkjet Printer Head Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Inkjet Printer Head, with sales, revenue, and price of Inkjet Printer Head, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Inkjet Printer Head, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Inkjet Printer Head market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Inkjet Printer Head sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Inkjet Printer Head Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Piezoelectric Type1.2.2 Thermal Type1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Consumer & Office Application1.3.2 Commercial Application1.3.3 Industrial Application1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @No. of Report Pages: 121Price of Report (Single User Licence): $3480About Global Info Reports:GIR Market Research is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. GIR Market Research is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@globalinforeports.comWeb-Blogs-
Global Instant Adhesive Market: 3M Company, Toagosei, Pidilite Industries, Sika AG Forecast to 2022

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This report studies the Instant Adhesive market, they are typically used for fast, reliable, high-performance bonding of numerous materials in just seconds.Get a Sample of Instant Adhesive Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Instant Adhesive in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Major Players Included in Instant Adhesive Market :Henkel AG & Company3M CompanyToagoseiPidilite IndustriesSika AGIllinois Tool Works Incorporation (ITW)Bostik SAHuntsman CorporationPermabond LLC.Royal Adhesives & SealantsFranklin InternationalLord CorporationParson AdhesivesDelo Industrial AdhesivesLoxeal Engineering AdhesivesH.B. FullerOthersAnd Many OthersScope of the Follicle Instant Adhesive Market on the basis of region:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Browse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Instant Adhesive Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversCyanoacrylate Instant AdhesiveEpoxy-based Instant AdhesiveMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoElectronicsWoodworkingTransportationMedicalOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Instant Adhesive market.Chapter 1, to describe Instant Adhesive Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Instant Adhesive, with sales, revenue, and price of Instant Adhesive, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Instant Adhesive, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Instant Adhesive market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Instant Adhesive sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Instant Adhesive Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Cyanoacrylate Instant Adhesive1.2.2 Epoxy-based Instant Adhesive1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Electronics1.3.2 Woodworking1.3.3 Transportation1.3.4 Medical1.3.5 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @No. of Report Pages: 115Price of Report (Single User Licence): $3480About Global Info Reports:GIR Market Research is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. GIR Market Research is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@globalinforeports.comWeb-Blogs-
Global Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market: Toray Industries, Peratech, DuPont, Clothing+, Ohmatex ApSInteractive Wear AG Forecast to 2022

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"Smart Fabrics and Textiles are fabrics that have been designed and manufactured to include technologies that provide the wearer with increased functionality.Smart Fabrics and Textiles are defined as textiles that can sense and react via an active control mechanism to environmental conditions or stimuli from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical or magnetic sources."Get a Sample of Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Smart Fabrics and Textiles in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Major Players Included in Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market :Toray IndustriesPeratechDuPontClothing+Outlastd3o labSchoeller Textiles AGTexas InstrumentsExo2Vista Medical Ltd.Ohmatex ApSInteractive Wear AGAnd Many OthersScope of the Follicle Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market on the basis of region:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Browse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversPassive Smart Fabrics and TextilesActive Smart Fabrics and TextilesUltra-Smart Fabrics and TextilesMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoMilitary UsesCivil UsesHealthcare UsesOtherThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Smart Fabrics and Textiles market.Chapter 1, to describe Smart Fabrics and Textiles Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, with sales, revenue, and price of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Smart Fabrics and Textiles market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Smart Fabrics and Textiles sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Smart Fabrics and Textiles Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Passive Smart Fabrics and Textiles1.2.2 Active Smart Fabrics and Textiles1.2.3 Ultra-Smart Fabrics and Textiles1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Military Uses1.3.2 Civil Uses1.3.3 Healthcare Uses1.3.4 Other1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @No. of Report Pages: 120Price of Report (Single User Licence): $3480About Global Info Reports:GIR Market Research is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. GIR Market Research is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@globalinforeports.comWeb-Blogs-
Publishing Software Market Analysis- Size, Share, Sales, Growth, Forecast, Segment, Application Analysis 2017

Publishing Software

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Publishing Software Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the Publishing Software basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Infrared Photodiode Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Infrared Photodiode Market.Check For Discount @The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Publishing Software industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations. The fact that this market report renders details about the major market players along with their product development and current trends proves to be very beneficial for fresh entrants to comprehend and recognize the industry in an improved manner. The report also enlightens the productions, sales, supply, market condition, demand, growth, and forecast of the Publishing Software industry in the global markets.Every regions market has been studied thoroughly in this report which deals with the precise information pertaining to the Marketing Channels and novel project investments so that the new entrants as well as the established market players conduct intricate research of trends and analysis in these regional markets. Acknowledging the status of the environment and products up gradation, the market report foretells each and every detail.So as to fabricate this report, complete key details, strategies and variables are examined so that entire useful information is amalgamated together for the understanding and studying the key facts pertaining the global Publishing Software Industry. The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.Browse full report with Table of Content @Table of ContentsChapter One Publishing Software Industry Overview1.1 Publishing Software Definition1.2 Publishing Software Classification Analysis1.2.1 Publishing Software Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Publishing Software Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Publishing Software Application Analysis1.3.1 Publishing Software Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Publishing Software Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Publishing Software Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Publishing Software Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Publishing Software Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Publishing Software Product Market Development Overview1.6 Publishing Software Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Publishing Software Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Publishing Software Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Publishing Software Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Publishing Software Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Publishing Software Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Two Publishing Software Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisPart II Asia Publishing Software Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Publishing Software Market Analysis3.1 Asia Publishing Software Product Development History3.2 Asia Publishing Software Competitive Landscape Analysis3.3 Asia Publishing Software Market Development TrendEnquiry Before Buying @Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-
The India-related amendment passed by the US House requires the Secretary of Defence, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the United States and India.

By Press Trust of India: The US House of Representatives has passed a dollor 621.5 billion defence expenditure bill that proposes to advance defence cooperation with India.

An amendment in this regard, moved by Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, was adopted by a voice vote by the House as part of the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018, beginning October 1 this year. NDAA-2018 was passed by the House 344-81.

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The India-related amendment passed by the House requires the Secretary of Defence, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the United States and India.

"The United States is the worlds oldest democracy and India is the world's largest democracy. It is vitally important to develop a strategy that advances defence cooperation between our two nations," Bera said.

"I am grateful this amendment passed and look forward to the Defence Departments strategy that addresses critical issues like common security challenges, the role of partners and allies, and areas for collaboration in science and technology," he said.

COOPERATION ENHANCES ABILITY TO MEET SECURITY CHALLENGES

"Cooperation between the US and India enhances our own defence and our ability to meet the evolving security challenges of the 21st century," Bera said.

Following the passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act, the Secretary of Defence and Secretary of State have 180 days to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the United States and India. NDAA needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for the US President Donald Trump to sign into law.

As passed by the House, NDAA-2018 asks the State Department and the Pentagon to develop a strategy that addresses common security challenges, the role of American partners and allies in India-US defence relationship, and role of the defence technology and trade initiative.

It also asks them to address how to advance the communications interoperability and security memorandum of agreement and the basic exchange and cooperation agreement for geospatial cooperation. The previous NDAA-2017 had designated India as a major defence partner which brings India at par with closest American partners in terms of defence trade and technology transfer.

'INDIA-US DEFENCE TIES ON POSITIVE TRACK'

Meanwhile, a senior defence official yesterday said that India and US defence relationship is on positive track.

"We look at the global order, and when we look at the evolving security environment within Asia, India's rise and role [is] evolving, [and] we see the United States and India increasingly viewing the region in the same way, and our interests are very much aligned," said Cara Abercrombie, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia.

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Addressing a New York audience, she said the relationship creates a high level of dialogue in the Pentagon on a range of issues.

"This is all rooted in when we look at the region and [what] we share. We have the same [aerial] security interests, the same counter-proliferation, counter-piracy, and counter- terrorism [interests]," she added.

"We have the same interests in upholding this international system that upholds the rule of law that favours freedom of navigation, open sea lanes of communication, and freedom of over flight. Those are values that are critically important to the United States and India to our economic prosperity and to our access in the region," Abercrombie said during a panel discussion at the 2017 Global Business Forum in New York City.

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--- ENDS ---
Notes from The Oregonian/OregonLive's books desk.

"American Eclipse": The big story in Oregon this summer is the Aug. 21 solar eclipse that should be visible (here's to clear skies) across a long swath of the state. Journalist David Baron, who's among the throng of eclipse devotees known as "eclipse chasers," has a new book that looks back on another solar eclipse that riveted Americans, in July 1878. "American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World" (Liveright, 352 pages, $27.95) deftly places the 1878 event within the context of American scientists trying to win respect for their still-young nation on the world stage, and U.S. Navy and Vassar College astronomer Maria Mitchell trying to win respect for her gender in her profession. Baron will discuss his book as part of the Science Pub Portland series at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, in theEmpirical Theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 S.E. Water Ave. Admission is a $5 suggested donation.

Katherine Dunn: The late Portland author's debut novel, "Attic," was reissued July 11 as part of PenguinRandomHouse's Vintage Contemporaries series. Originally published in 1970, it's inspired in part (as was her best-known book, "Geek Love") by her arrest and felony conviction as a young woman for passing a bad check. Her prose here is headlong, hallucinatory and most of all an homage to the advice she once got from one of her Reed College instructors, Lloyd Reynolds: "Write as though nobody has ever written anything before."

Gina Ochsner: Keizer author Gina Ochsner will give a free talk on the stories she collected in Latvia that influenced her 2016 novel "The Hidden Letters of Velta B" (read an excerpt). In Latvia, "stories have been used to bind people together, to remember history, preserve identity, and even start a revolution," Ochsner said in publicity materials for the talk. It's part of the Creative Arts at Rose Villa's Visiting Artist Lecture Series. The talk is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, in the performing arts center at Rose Villa Senior Living, 13505 S.E. River Road, Milwaukie. Details: 503-652-3283.

Stephen Holgate: The Portland author, actor and former diplomat draws on his experience in the Foreign Service for his first novel, "Tangier" (Blank Slate Press, 384 pages, $16.95). Equal parts mystery and spy thriller, "Tangier" is set in the mid-1990s in Morocco, where a disgraced U.S. federal agency director, Christopher Chaffee, has fled to lick his wounds and to embark on a quixotic family quest. Fans of Graham Greene-esque intrigue will find much to enjoy here.

Cynthia Rylant: The Newbery Medal-winning Lake Oswego children's author has a new picture book, "Life" (Beach Lane, 48 pages, $17.99). Soothing, sympathetic illustrations by artist and conservationist Brendan Wenzel accompany Rylant's text, which gives life advice at a level kids can relate to: "Ask any animal on earth, what do you love about life?"
Considering that new carpet threw PDX travelers for a loop, the airport's next big plan will be a doozy.

Portland International Airport is planning a five-year, $1.3 billion effort to reinvent the core of its terminal. The rolling construction project will be the first major reworking of the terminal, which has been expanded in piecemeal six times since its construction in 1956.

The plan will need approval from the airlines that operate there, as they ultimately will foot the bill. Port of Portland officials have been working with the carriers to come up with an acceptable vision before they vote on the project in the fall.

If it moves forward, the renovation will be the airport's first chance to catch up with the realities of post-9/11 air travel, which require massive security operations not envisioned when the terminal was built.

And it's also intended to expand the airport's capacity, which is running out after six years of record-setting travel volumes.

"We have made do with what we could until now," said Curtis Robinhold, the newly minted executive director of the Port of Portland. "We're simply running out of capacity to manage the passenger flow we're getting today, and that we'll be getting in the days to come."

If airlines approve the plan this fall, construction would begin in 2020 and continue for five years.

The terminal is one of several major construction projects in the works and includes:

A $215 million expansion of Concourse E and the reshuffling of airlines to make room for more gates.

The construction of a $67 million car wash and fuel station for rental cars.

A $265 million addition to the airport's garage, which will add 2,400 parking spots for rental cars and free up 1,200 stalls for public parking.

The private development of a 7-Eleven gas station and Dutch Bros. Coffee, which is expected to open in August. The development also includes a new cellphone waiting area.

RETHINKING TICKET LOBBY, SECURITY

The terminal redesign aims to improve the flow of crowds through the terminal by minimizing the mixing of arriving and departing passengers.

It also would create more open space in the ticketing area and reduce the size of pre-security concessions, which today's passengers tend to ignore as they make a beeline for security checkpoints.

Last year, the airport saw 18 million travelers come through. The expansion is expected to make room for as many as 35 million a year.

Along the way, the airport will replace aging electrical and plumbing systems, replace the roof, and make structural upgrades to improve the airport's chances of withstanding an earthquake.

Port officials are trying to figure out how to minimize the effect of the overhaul on passengers, and they're looking to the example of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which is in the middle of a major expansion.

The plan is to do the work in phases, and to build temporary walls to separate passengers from much of the work.

"It's imperative that we continue to operate as an airport," said Kama Simonds, an airport spokeswoman. "We can't just stop everything today and reopen six months later."

AIRLINE SHUFFLE

Within three years, Southwest Airlines passengers will find their gates at the north end of the terminal.

Southwest is the airport's second-biggest carrier, and it currently shares the south end of the terminal with Alaska Airlines, the largest. Together, they account for more than two-thirds of PDX passengers, and the lopsided arrangement has resulted in bottlenecks for crowds of passengers, baggage and runway use.

An earlier plan to move Alaska was revised after the airline announced it would buy rival carrier Virgin America, and its sister regional carrier, Horizon Air, said it would add 30 Embraer 175 jets to its fleet.

By moving Southwest, port officials hope to ease the strain on operations. The project is already under construction, and Southwest is expected to take up new residence virtually overnight in spring 2020.

MORE PARKING, CONSOLIDATING RENTALS

The expanded parking garage will bring all of the rental-car companies under one roof, just outside the terminal. Some are currently off-site, requiring a shuttle bus.

The short- and long-term parking, meanwhile, is running short even in the off months for travel, Simonds said. Moving rental cars into the expansion area will open more spots for travelers.

"The struggle is real out here, Tuesday evening ... through Thursday, when it comes to parking," she said.

Simonds said demand for rental cars has remained steady, even though the MAX Red Line has served the airport since 2001 and despite the advent of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Given the pace at which transportation is changing, however, the port is seeking designs that could repurposed later  for car-sharing services, for example.

Construction on the garage is expected to begin in 2018 and finish in late 2020.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
For the past 15 years, Internet television company Roku Inc. has done one thing and done it well.

Its streaming sticks, boxes and software make it easy and enjoyable to watch Internet content on a television  a seemingly simple task, but one that its largest rivals have struggled to perfect.

"I like to call Roku the Little Engine That Could in that I always see it come out on top of other devices like AppleTV or Chromecast," said Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, a consumer research firm.

But Roku is now inching closer to a crucial junction. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the company could seek an initial public offering of stock at a valuation of roughly $1 billion before the end of the year. Roku declined to comment.

An IPO would bring great attention to Roku, which despite its success is not yet a household name, Vorhaus said. "You hear 'Roku,' and to the average person it sounds like a sushi restaurant or something," he said. "But it is definitely an insider's brand in terms of the buzz surrounding it."

Roku announced this year that it brought in $400 million in revenue in 2016  $100 million of it from the company's media and licensing unit, which includes ad sales on its streaming platform.

The Los Gatos, California, company has raised around $210 million in funding from investors including News Corp, Fidelity Investments, Menlo Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Viacom, Fox Networks and Netflix, according to Crunchbase. The company is in the midst of an additional fundraising, Fortune reported this year.

Roku reportedly considered an IPO in 2014, but chose to remain private. One reason it could be considering it again this year is to appease the people who helped fund it early on, said Mike Paxton, senior analyst at media research firm SNL Kagan.

"They have a number of large investors and most of those guys are probably looking for their payday," Paxton said.

Employees and venture capitalists "want to realize the benefit of all their hard work," said Brett Sappington, senior director of Park Associates. "I'm sure they'd love to build a house on the beach and live there and in order to do that the company would need to be bought out or head for an IPO."

Another way to reward early investors would be an acquisition, but Paxton said Roku's leadership, including founder and Chief Executive Anthony Wood, has never looked to sell the company outright. The business plan has always been to gain market share and go public.

"For them it was more matter of timing in terms of when they wanted to go public rather than if they wanted to do it," Paxton said. "It seems like a good time for them."

Paxton sees similarities between Roku and TiVo, as both companies started in hardware before expanding into software. But he said he doesn't see Roku seeking a buyer, as TiVo did when it was sold last year to Rovi in a $1.1-billion deal (Rovi now operates under the name TiVo Corp.).

Another analyst said investors may wind up comparing Roku to action camera firm GoPro and fitness wearable maker Fitbit  whose stocks haven't wowed after their Wall Street debuts.

"FitBit and GoPro are both high-growth consumer tech companies that had explosive growth and both underperformed in the long run," said Matt Kennedy, an analyst at Renaissance Capital. "The product has the potential to be seen as a fad that saturates the market for a time, then dies off."

Kennedy said that Roku's shift in focus in recent years toward software and advertising could reassure investors ahead of an IPO. A viable advertising business could help offset concerns that hardware sales could decline or that rivals  Apple and Google among them  could edge in on its business.

--Los Angeles Times
The union representing Clackamas County Sheriff's Office rank-and-file employees on Friday called on Sheriff Craig Roberts to conduct a "truly independent, thorough and unimpeded investigation" into what agency commanders did after learning that a veteran detective had mishandled sex crime cases.

The case of disgraced Detective Jeff Green has "cast a dark and unfortunate cloud" over the law enforcement community, said Stephen Steinberg, president of the Clackamas County Peace Officers' Association. The union represents deputies and sergeants, along with employees who handle records and evidence. It also represents all other non-management staff at the Sheriff's Office.

Steinberg sent

to Roberts and District Attorney John Foote, saying that while Green was a member of the union, the organization "expected nothing less than a thorough investigation into his conduct."

Sgt. Matt Swanson, who supervised Green in Wilsonville, first raised alarms about Green's pattern of ignoring cases, but Sheriff's Office leaders didn't order an internal affairs investigation.

Swanson said he was harassed, mocked and discouraged from pursuing the complaint. Since the case became public, Swanson has accused agency commanders of deceiving the public about how they handled the matter.

Steinberg, a patrol sergeant, was direct in asking for an investigation into agency brass.

"Your failure to investigate Jeff Green's misconduct should not be repeated; you must take the necessary step of starting a truly independent investigation into the actions and inaction of you and your command staff after one of our members notified his superiors of Jeff Green's misconduct," Steinberg wrote.

Roberts issued a statement Friday disputing Swanon's accusation that the agency failed to investigate Green's conduct. Roberts said the agency spent months reviewing the detective's cases dating back to 2009.

The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners this week decided to hire an outside consultant to review aspects of the Sheriff's Office. They said they would come up with a shortlist of candidates and give Roberts the opportunity to have a say in who's hired.

The union, however, said Roberts shouldn't influence the hiring decision and that the consultant should have unfettered access to Sheriff's Office files.

"During a time where the public's distrust of law enforcement grows, we must proactively take steps to ensure that our Sheriff's Office is not forever stained by Jeff Green's misdeeds," Steinberg wrote. "We cannot allow to go unaddressed the allegation that you and your command staff took proactive steps to cover up Mr. Green's misdeeds."

In an interview, Steinberg said commanders should be held accountable just as deputies are.

"We don't expect them not to do an investigation on us and we hope the sheriff will hold himself to the same standard," he said.

Roberts last year hired Gregory Olson, a retired Marion County sheriff's official, to review the agency's handling of the Green case. Olson concluded that no one hid or covered up Green's misconduct.

Olson's report notes that Green's previous supervisors assumed he was doing his work, thought they had addressed his "shortcomings" and expected him to be honest.

Roberts said Friday he looks forward to having another consultant "take a second look at this situation to make sure I've done everything possible to make sure something like this does not happen again in the future."

Green, who worked for the Sheriff's Office out of Wilsonville, pleaded guilty last month to two misdemeanors for failing to investigate reports of child abuse. He retired in 2015.

He was accused of ignoring allegations involving the sexual abuse of a toddler and preschool-age child, the physical abuse of an 8-year-old and the rape of a teen, among other crimes.

Jim Bernard, chairman of the county commission, said he hadn't seen the letter. It will be up to the consultant to determine the scope of the inquiry, he said.

He added that the sheriff is an elected official who doesn't have to submit the agency to an outside review, so that's why Roberts must have a say in the consultant's hiring. He said the sheriff will be given the chance to identify the candidate "he feels he can trust, somebody he thinks he can work with."

"Unless he cooperates, the sheriff can tell us to pound sand," Bernard said.

The union also called out the acrimonious relationship between Roberts and Foote.

The two are at odds over how the Sheriff's Office handles misconduct cases involving its employees.

In the Green case, Foote said his office should have been alerted earlier; Roberts said he assumed Milwaukie police would notify prosecutors because they carried out the criminal investigation.

"Your very public fight and inability to work together has caused our members -- and the public -- great concern," wrote Steinberg, whose union represents investigators who work for the district attorney's office. "Frankly, it has become embarrassing and, more importantly, has distracted our Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's Office from our primary public safety mission."

Foote responded to Steinberg in writing Friday, saying he called for an independent evaluation of the Sheriff's Office "weeks ago."

He said an important policy discussion has devolved into what is viewed as "a petty dispute between Sheriff Roberts and myself."

"I personally regret any of my actions that may have contributed to that perception," Foote wrote. "As you say, this issue is too important for that to be allowed to happen, and you have my personal commitment it will not reoccur."

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
The warning from Russia came as a retaliation against the order of then US President, Barack Obama, to expel 35 suspected Russian spies in December, along with the seizure of the two diplomatic compounds.

By Reuters: Russia said on Friday that too many American spies operated in Moscow under diplomatic cover and said it might expel some of them to retaliate against the United States over Washington's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year.

The warning, delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, reflects rising frustration in Moscow over the Trump administration's refusal to hand back two Russian diplomatic compounds which were seized at the same time as some of Russia's diplomats were sent home last year.

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Barack Obama, US president at the time, ordered the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies in December, along with the seizure of the two diplomatic compounds, over what he said was the hacking of US political groups during the 2016 presidential election, something Russia has flatly denied.

President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate immediately at the time, saying he would wait to see what the new administration of Donald Trump would do.

NO VISAS TO RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS

Zakharova complained on Friday that US officials were not issuing visas to Russian diplomats to allow Moscow to replace the expelled employees and get its embassy back up to full strength.

"We have a way of responding," she told a news briefing. "The number of staff at the US embassy in Moscow exceeds the number of our embassy employees in Washington by a big margin. One of our options, apart from a tit-for-tat expulsion of Americans, would be to even out the numbers."

If there was no movement in the US-Russia dispute soon, she said Moscow would have to reluctantly retaliate and suggested US spies working in Russia would be among those to be expelled.

"There are too many employees of the CIA and the Pentagon's espionage unit working under the roof of the American diplomatic mission whose activity does not correspond at all with their status," said Zakharova.

'TIME RUNNING OUT'

Russia would also move to deny US diplomats use of a dacha compound and a warehouse in Moscow, she made clear.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not yet taken any decision on retaliation. He said Russia rejected the idea of linking the dispute to other issues.

Peskov was responding to comments made to CNN by Sebastian Gorka, a Trump adviser, that appeared to link the compounds' return to Russia's behaviour in Syria.

Zakharova said time for Washington to act "was running out".

"We don't want to resort to extreme measures. (But) if it's the only way to make our American partners understand we will have to act."

Asked when Moscow might retaliate, she suggested a lot would depend on the outcome of a meeting in Washington on Monday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

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Russia expected US officials to use the meeting to set out "detailed proposals" on the matter, she said.

"There is no precise deadline. Everything depends on the reaction of the US side, its concrete actions, and on the results of the consultations which will now take place in Washington."

Also Read:

Russia did not meddle in US election: Putin to Trump at G20 summit

--- ENDS ---
Is War For The Planet Of The Apes a fitting end to the Planet Of The Apes trilogy? Here's our review.

A still from War For The Planet Of The Apes

By Sushant Mehta: Here's our review of this week's Hollywood release, War For The Planet Of The Apes.

War For The Planet Of The Apes Cast: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn

War For The Planet Of The Apes Director: Matt Reeves

War For The Planet Of The Apes Rating: (3.5/5)

War for the planet of the apes is a combination of thought provoking, intelligent writing, spectacular special effects, top class direction and flawless performances. The third film from the planet of the apes franchise is a must watch simply because you've never seen anything like it yet.

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Caeser and his clan are under attack again, this time a ruthless eccentric colonel with an army of soldiers is trying to wipe the apes off for good. As wise as Caeser is he can't help himself being drawn to revenge, remember Koba? The rogue ape from the clan who Caeser kills at the end of part 2, Koba's memories haunt Caeser and propel him towards hatred.

Unlike the gimmicky & flashy Marvel & DC superhero fantasy flicks, this franchise has gripped audiences courtesy a very real human theme. The franchise essentially deals with the insecurities that human's deal with, from basic survival to non-existent threats being an instinct. War for the planet of the apes is a remarkable film, Andy Serkis delivers a masterful performance and then there's Woody Harrelson as the colonel. Harreslon reminds us of crazed army commanders such Marlon Brando from Francis Ford Copolla's classic Apocalypse now' or Sterling Hayden from Kubrick's unforgettable masterpiece 'Dr Strangelove', the colonel is cold and unforgiving like the sub zero icy terrain where the film has been shot.

Harrleson's ability to hold a scene by delivering an ordinary dialogue and making the end product riveting is one of the most underappreciated and overlooked stories in film history, he simply hasn't got his due. This film is not a crash bang boom kind of action adventure drama, the film moves at its own pace and for the most part it makes you sink in your seat and watch in awe, the flow of the narrative exemplifies preparedness in every department.

The colonel murders Ceaser's family and the commander of the apes is filled with vengengance, however he must protect his clan and thus he goes after the Colonel and send the apes to desert beyond the woods.

Thrilling action, heart wrenching dialogues and a spectacular visual treat...this may just be the film of the year thus far. 3.5 / 5 for War of the planet of the apes.

ALSO WATCH: Jagga Jasoos a commendable effort, War For The Planet Of The Apes a spectacular visual treat

--- ENDS ---
To the editor:

In a July 7 Associated Press article printed in the Midland Daily News on lawsuits related to the Trump administrations decision to not protect the public from chlorpyrifo pesticides, Dow seems to profit from the EPAs decision. That decision follows what is reported to Dows $13.6 million lobbying effort and a $1 million inauguration contribution.

I challenge the Midland Daily News to ask for the information from Dow and the EPA that has been refused to the AP. Trumps EPA has refused to supply the scientific studies on which Administrator Pruitt used to determine the pesticides are safe. It would appear there are none, based upon the American Academy of Pediatrics and EPA scientists' evaluation.

But, when Dow CEO Andrew Liveris and President Donald Trump collude, I guess that doesnt matter. Midland legitimately recognizes Dow for its public contributions, but has to be wary of the look-the-other-way mentality of the holocaust when we become blinded to the dark side of a local benefactor making tragic social welfare decisions.

Our own children are threatened by chloropyrifos special threat to developing children. It would seem that Dow would consider the Human Element it espouses and voluntarily withdraw this chemical. Noteworthy, our Attorney General Bill Schuette did not join the other states in Michigan childrens interest.

Will our own newspaper in the city where Dow calls home ask the difficult questions or just report the articles of others and then look the other way?

GREGORY EAGLE

Midland
National leaders are frequently touring the state to keep the momentum going, but the party still lacks a local leadership that can be pitted against Mamata.

Amit Shah is not happy. At a meeting with Bengal BJP leaders in Delhi (June 27), the angry national president of the BJP wanted to know why the saffron party was not being able to match up to the aggression of the ruling Trinamool Congress. A senior BJP leader says Shah "was not at all satisfied with the way movements were being organised". What he wants from the state leaders is an effective mix of aggression and approachability. He also wants them out in the streets more, not just for protests but also for religious events.

'Lalbazar Abhijan', a saffron siege of the police headquarters in Kolkata on May 25, began with a roar but ended in a whimper. A police vehicle was torched at Bowbazar but the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, MP Roopa Ganguly and national leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya retired hurt, quoting health issues, courting arrest and refusing bail. They spent the night in prison. The abhijan was over almost as soon as it began. A senior party leader was candid, "It was a flop show with hardly any impact. In fact, after all the hype, it turned out to be a major embarrassment as it exposed our lack of organisational skills."

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In contrast, the march to Nabanna, organised by the Left parties on May 22, generated much excitement and violent police action, virtually shutting down the city for four hours just three days before.

Earlier, the 'vistarak' drive initiated on April 25 by the BJP also got a lukewarm response. In fact, the highlight of that was state leader George Baker getting beaten up by TMC men at Kalna in Bardhaman.

Attempting to defend his leadership, Dilip Ghosh has pointed to the "huge success of our Ramnavami celebrations". "It was evident the people are with us. In fact, the ruling party, obviously rattled, went and then organised a copycat Hanuman Jayanti," he says.

But notwithstanding the protestations, the party was conspicuously absent from the three major rath yatras organised on June 25, the ISKCON ones in Kolkata and Mayapur, and Hooghly's famous festival at Mahesh. There was some desultory participation at the individual level by some BJP leaders, but nothing else. "I don't think our leaders got an invite from ISKCON. Or maybe they chose to skip the programme since the TMC leaders are always in the forefront in pulling the ISKCON chariot and the Mahesh chariot," says a BJP leader.

The BJP, though, has grown in numbers in Bengal and expanded its base. National leaders are frequently touring the state to keep the momentum going, but the party still lacks a local leadership that can be pitted against Mamata. "The BJP initially tried to groom women leaders like Roopa and Locket Chatterjee, but it has realised that theatrics alone won't be able to hold the attention of the Bengal audience for long," says Biswanath Chakrabarty, political science professor at the Rabindra Bharati University.

--- ENDS ---
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A pretty compelling case can be made for why the Central Illinois Regional Airport should be allowed to expand its property tax base and enhance its taxing ability.

Want it boiled down to a Trump-like tweet? Further DOLLAR SQUEEZE on local government by feds and state very bad. Airport NEEDS fund flexibility to help local economy be VIBRANT, no doubt!

OK, unlike matters concerning constitutional rights and international diplomacy, local airport financing cant be boiled down to 140 characters. So Carl Olson, CIRAs executive director, uses words like preventive and contingency to describe the two steps the local airport authority board has in mind: Let the airport (1) levy its tax on all McLean County property owners, not just those in Bloomington-Normal; and (2) bump its maximum property tax rate from 4 cents per hundred dollars assessed valuation to 7.5 cents, even though step 1 may allow the tax rate to decline.

Its a hard sell  so much so that Jason Barickman, the Bloomington senator whose district includes the airport, is not willing to introduce legislation to make the desired changes. Rep. Dan Brady, whose constituency also includes the airport, is still studying the matter.

People with property outside Bloomington-Normal dont pay the airport tax. An extended tax base could be considered a matter of fairness. To at least some degree, every McLean County resident benefits from the airport. Beyond the obvious travel convenience, theres the economic lift quality air service gives a community. And another reality: 41 percent of the 400 people who work at the airport live outside Bloomington-Normal.

Even so, who wants to a higher property tax bill? Certainly not McLean County farm owners experiencing weak commodity prices and lower cash rents. And no one else I know.

The airport authority says with an expanded tax base, it could trim its tax rate by about a third to 2.7 cents. Why then bump the maximum allowable tax rate to 7.5 cents?

The uncertain future, says Olson. A U.S. House committee has approved privatizing air traffic control at the same time theres serious discussion about selling federal government assets. Basically, hes worried about the viability of airports in smaller cities and thinks good governance and management requires having a tool kit available to help the airport cope with future challenges.

Enough challenges already exist. Airline industry consolidation means fewer flights and less capacity. In the first half of this year, CIRA had 7 percent fewer seats available than in the first half of last year. It also had 12 percent fewer passengers.

Meanwhile, airport competition has warmed up in this part of the state. Last month, United began three-times-a-day service between Champaign-Urbana and Chicagos OHare.

Some of us remember when you could fly direct from Central Illinois to New York, Washington and San Diego. I think we all would be served better today if long ago one larger airport had been built near Lincoln to serve Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Peoria and Springfield.

But the here and now invites us to accept the recommendation of the airport authority board  seven people who are not elected officials, instead two appointed by both Twin City mayors and three by the McLean County Board.

I know three of the seven current appointees quite well. Theyre good people, sensible and farsighted, and I believe them when they say they have no intention of raising the tax rate if the lid is lifted.

But thats today. Circumstances and board members change. Maybe the proposal would have a better chance if it included only the expanded tax base and not the higher maximum rate.

And if accountability is the issue, how about this? Make the airport a unit of the McLean County government, putting its 20 elected county board members in charge. That would also address the issue of rural representation in airport governance.
School funding has been an issue in Illinois for decades and there is a bill right now that is awaiting a signature from Gov. Rauner that will make school funding more fair for all students. That bill is Senate Bill 1, and it passed both houses of the General Assembly in May.

S.B. 1 follows the evidence-based formula, where no school will lose funding and money will be distributed more equitably throughout school districts in Illinois. Unfortunately, none of the legislators that represent Bloomington-Normal voted for this bill. For some reason, S.B.1 has been described as a "Chicago bailout," but the facts are that 268 school districts will receive more money per student before Chicago Public Schools.

I am deeply disappointed in our local elected officials, particularly Sen. Jason Barickman, for their twisting of the facts and for their partisan deception on an issue that affects all students in Illinois, not just the ones in Chicago. Sen. Barickman was appointed to the governor's bipartisan commission to reform school funding, and S.B. 1 uses the findings from this commission. He is painting the bill as a highly partisan effort by the Democrats, which is disingenuous.

Yard signs will soon be popping up around Bloomington-Normal, and we urge Gov. Rauner to sign S.B.1. He has said that he agrees with 90 percent of this bill. So now is the time for our elected officials to stop the political posturing and to come together for a bill that will help all students in our state.

Sharon Chung, Bloomington
By India Today Web Desk: It is a well established fact that the youngsters of today are the most likely to be unemployed than adults in the labour market. Apart from a lower quality of jobs and market inequalities, there is a major insecurity of transitioning from the school mode to the work force.

Women, additionally are also highly underemployed and under-paid. This is primarily owing to the fact that the existing professional systems are not adept at addressing the needs of today generation. The United Nations are keenly observing July 15 as a World Youth Skills Day in order to understand what works to support these young professionals in the industry through training and skills development.

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In order to substantially bridge the gap in the number of youth who need particular skill sets and adults who have the relevant skills, ed-tech firms are aiming to transform the way students learn by using technology to bring an impelling new pulse to higher education. Graduates as spoken wide and enough are not employable, there is a big skill gap which is required to be filled. Re-skilling and online certification is your best bet.

Short term bridge course comes into the picture majorly for IT entrants, along with various one year management courses.

1. Upgrading them to be relevantly qualified and to be able to get a role representative of these qualifications (BE/ MBA etc.) This will not only boost their career but also aid in changing the future landscape of higher education.

2. Secondly, in this fast paced world, where the cultural framework of the country is evolving, if you don't evolve with it, you'll fall far behind. Therefore, for the leadership and senior management, upgrading their skills is the key here. They are always on the lookout to either update themselves or enrol in a management course in order to still be viable and relevant as well as attractive for their position. It is imperative for them to match up with the ever changing work dynamics and demands. This is a huge trend in the Western world, where there are Mini-MBAs from Kelloggs and Rutgers to give a 360 degree change in your career when needed.

3. Thirdly, and the most important and most competitive category, is the one where there are always new trends and the most lucrative job role trends are the ones that are most compelling and dynamic. In the present day they hold significant priority. For instance, a few years ago IT courses like Python and Java were in demand, then PMI certification came into being complemented by Digital Marketing and Big Data. These courses keep the employee on a fast track and creates a trained workforce, filling in the gap of the cutting edge requirements to service the outsourced tasks from the World leaders, this provision in turn is supporting the billions of dollars of IT and Consulting industries.

Here's what industry experts suggest:

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Industry reports suggest, India's online education industry is expected to grow almost eight times to hit USD 1.96 billion by 2021. More than a quarter of higher education students, which is 28per cent, are enrolled in least one online course.

India has done significantly better than other countries in availing education through online programmes.

The Educational Industry has been hit by a storm through various ed-tech firms who are providing multiple solutions in order to maintain the United Nations vision of improving the world with the power of skills; their mission of raising the profile and recognition of skilled people, and showcasing how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success.

Online education by edtech is here to stay.

Authored article by Aditya Malik, CEO and MD, Talentedge on World Youth Skills Day

--- ENDS ---
A new budget was passed in Illinois, but there were no reforms included. The $36.5 billion budget includes several earmarks for lawmaker's home districts and a 32 percent tax increase. Sen. Dale Righter was the Republican senator who provided the deciding vote.

The budget has several earmarks, including $4.8 million awarded to Eastern Illinois University for remodeling projects. The earmark spending was included in an amendment that was added late to Senate Bill 6, the budget bill that was passed with no votes to spare. The amendment was more than 600 pages and it includes several similar projects that total several hundred millions of dollars.

Other examples include: $12.7 million for new classrooms at College of Lake County; $10 million for Joliet Junior College and $15 million for a Chicago Metro station.

The budget is full of pork barrel spending. Rather than using the tax increase toward the state's past due bills, it is going to additional spending. Several Republicans who voted in favor of passing the budget are from districts who will benefit from these earmarks.

Yet the state owes over $1 billion to local doctors and hospitals; has a total of $15 billion in unpaid bills and there is $250 billion owed to state workers' pensions. A downgrade by Moody's and other similar credit rating services may still happen.

Reform is most important and needs to happen before the state of Illinois can prosper. Voters have to go to the polls and vote for reforms.

James Riker, Normal
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Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju to develop a network of all six regional airports of Bihar.

When completed, airports in Bihta, Gaya, Purnia, Raxaul, Darbhanga, and Muzaffarpur will also be able to offer flight services to other places outside Bihar, Raju said.

Currently such facility is available only at the Patna Airport.

Speaking on the occasion, Kumar expressed his happiness over the MoU saying it would benefit Bihar by improving tourism in the state.

"In the last few years, there has been an increase of 68% in domestic tourism and a 9% increase in foreign tourism. Once the regional airports are developed in Bihar, these numbers will go even higher," he said.

The Chief Minister also talked about immense tourism potential of the Gaya Airport.

"Development and expansion of the existing Gaya Airport would also help travelers from Buddhist countries. Moreover, it would also be very convenient for those going to or coming from Jharkhand state," Kumar said.

The two leaders also talked about building a new international airport at the existing Air Force Airport in Bihta saying the sooner the work began on this project, the better for Bihar. The Chief Minister said he was ready to make land available for a new airport in Bihta as soon as the plan is finalized.

Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Chief Minister's Secretary Chanchal Kumar and Atish Chandra and a number of members of the Indian Air Force were present at the meeting held at Patna Secretariat.
Japanese, Korean firms to fund "Octopus of the Persian Gulf"

07/14/17

Source: Press TV

A consortium of South Korean and Japanese companies has signed agreements to fund and implement a chain of condensate refining projects in southern Iran - a project known as the Octopus of the Persian Gulf.





The agreements were signed between South Korea's Daelim and Hyundai as well as Japan's Chioda - all partners in the project to construct Siraf refineries in Iran's southern province of Bushehr.



The combined value of the investments in Siraf could be around $3 billion, Iran's IRNA news agency reported.



A majority of the funding - $2 billion - would be provided by the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) as well as the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-Sure). The remaining $1 billion would be provided by Japanese financial institutions including Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI).



The project could increase Iran's refining capacity by 22 percent and would also increase its production of petrochemicals by 57 percent.



The period of the project would be four years and would fetch Iran $13 billion per year, IRNA added.



The Siraf refineries project - considered as one of the largest in the world - consists of eight independent gas condensate refineries with the total capacity of 480,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd).



Hydrocarbon condensate feed will be mainly supplied from existing gas refineries in the nearby Assaluyeh energy zone which hosts South Pars gas field.



The project is expected to produce a daily total of (8x1,912) barrels of LPG, (8x15,071) barrels of light naphtha, (8x20,998) barrels of heavy naphtha, (8x10,236) barrels of kerosene (jet A1), and (8x10,835) barrels of gas oil with Euro-V specifications.



Earlier in June, Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh in a decree identified Siraf as a top priority of the Ministry of Petroleum that he emphasized needed to get off the ground as soon as possible.



Preceding Siraf in terms of priorities was the Persian Gulf Condensate Refinery (PGCR) that has already started early production and is near full completion. Once developed, the PGCR is expected to have a refining capacity of 360,000 bpsd.
US not fully compliant with spirit of nuclear deal: Iranian FM Zarif

07/14/17

Source: Press TV

The Iranian foreign minister has lashed out at the US for its failure to completely observe its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal by occasionally preventing the Islamic Republic from enjoying the full benefits of the agreement. Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in New York, Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed that all parties to the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), must remain committed to the terms of the agreement.



Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif speaking to reporters in New York



Zarif is in New York to attend the UN high-level political forum on sustainable development on Friday.



"Unfortunately up until now, the United States, while remaining at the very least possible level compliant with the agreement, has failed to observe, in times, the letter and mostly the spirit of the agreement by not allowing Iran to enjoy the full benefits of the nuclear deal. We believe they need to reconsider that position, because it is not conducive to the sustainability of the agreement," Zarif said.



Zarif argued that the West's policy of pressure against Iran has proved to be ineffective, adding, "The JCPOA is a multilateral agreement that was the result of many years of negotiation."



"It was also the result of many years of pressure. After all those pressures failed to bring about the results that were expected from those who were imposing pressure on the Iranian people, there was no other choice but to reach a negotiated settlement," added the Iranian minister.



"I think at the end of the day, everybody will see that the agreement will represent an outcome that was the best possibility for all concerned [parties]," he pointed out.



Zarif's comments come on the second anniversary of the landmark deal, which was inked on July 14, 2017, between Tehran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany. The JCPOA was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.



Since January 2016, when the JCPOA took effect, the International Atomic Energy Organization, which monitors the technical implementation of the deal, has in numerous reports confirmed Iran's compliance.



During his presidential campaign, US President Donald Trump described the nuclear accord with Iran as a "disaster" and vowed to unilaterally scrap it.



While he has not carried out that threat, his administration is conducting a "review" to see whether the provision of sanctions relief to Iran - a US commitment under the deal - is in America's "national interest."



On Tuesday, the European Union's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini described the historic nuclear deal with Iran as an international agreement that "does not belong to one country," noting that all the parties to the deal "have the responsibility to make sure that this continues to be implemented."



In response to a question by the Press TV correspondent about the possibility of any meeting between Iranian and American officials during the New York visit, Zarif said, "For this visit, no meetings have been planned. I plan to meet not with US officials, but with members of the wider intellectual community that have impact on US policy-making."

Battling terror in Middle East

Zarif pointed to the ongoing campaign against terrorism and extremism across the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria, and noted that the current crisis is mainly caused by the US interventionist policies in the region.



"The nightmare that we are facing in the region is a consequence of many years of intervention and short-sighted policies by the US in the region which has resulted, as expected, in the exacerbation of extremism and terrorism in our region," he said.



The foreign minister said Iran has been "in the forefront of fighting terrorism and extremism in the region" and expressed satisfaction over the fact that the people and governments of Iraq and Syria have succeeded in retaking their territories.



"This menace ... has been the result of short-sighted policies from the outside and unfortunately, negative policies by countries in the region who continue to sponsor, to support and provide arms and money to terrorists and extremist organizations and unfortunately provide the ideology of hatred and exclusion which lies at the heart of these extremist movements," Zarif noted.



The remarks come after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory of the country's forces over the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group on Monday, one day after the country's military and Popular Mobilization Forces took full control of the strategic city of Mosul.



Zarif underlined Iran's determination to help end violence in Syria through a negotiated settlement at Astana peace talks, adding, "We support a comprehensive ceasefire throughout Syria, excluding obviously terrorist and extremist organizations, particularly Daesh and al-Nusra."



"We have been in consultation with Russia and Turkey in the Astana process and outside the Astana process in order to make sure that successful implementation of our agreements would continue and would further be enhanced in order to make sure that the suffering of the Syrian people is reduced and hopefully move forward to humanitarian assistance to all Syrians throughout Syria," the top diplomat pointed out.



Syria's warring parties have attended five rounds of peace talks brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital, Astana. The Astana discussions produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria that sharply reduced fighting in the Arab country.



The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which began in March 2011.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Foreign currency worth about Rs 93 lakh has been seized from a man by the customs at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here, officials said today.

The accused was intercepted yesterday when he was going to board a flight to Dubai.

"He was carrying foreign currency USD 1,44,800, equivalent to Rs 92.59 lakh, which was concealed in a metal container bearing marking Gopala Desi Ghee kept inside his check-in baggage," a senior customs official said.

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The currency was seized and the passenger was arrested, he said.

In another case, two persons were intercepted at the airport by the customs officials after their arrival from Abu Dhabi on Monday.

On detailed examination of their baggage, gold weighing about 2.8 kg was found, the official said.

The yellow metal, valuing about Rs 79 lakh, has been seized and the accused arrested, he said. PTI AKV AAR MIN AAR

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National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Sammy Awuku has condemned the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay for seemingly accusing diasporans of being whiners.



Sammy Awuku found the comments made by the Deputy Minister during a Diaspora Homecoming Summit in Accra disparaging, saying it suggested that the Deputy Minister is insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians.



According to him, Hon. Ahomka-Lindsay and any other government appointee owes the NPP supporters and citizens a duty and a responsibility to perform.



The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, addressing a gathering at the Diaspora Homecoming Summit at the Accra International Conference Centre last Thursday warned the disaporans to stop "whining" about things not working in the country.



Nobody likes whiners, people that spend all the time whining all the time really get on peoples nerves so stop whining, stop this doesnt work, this doesnt work, if its worked you probably wouldnt be sitting there, the Deputy Minister said.



But an investor who found the Minister's comment insulting replied, saying yes we have the money and we have the expertise, we came here to sit with policy makers and formulate policies and integrate us into society, where are the decision makers?, they are nowhere near herethis arrogance and attitudes must stop, who travels 3,000 miles to be a whiner?.



Addressing the Deputy Minister's remarks on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Sammy Awuku advised him and all appointees to watch their tongue when speaking to Ghanaians.



There will always be time you wont get it right because youre a person. But you shouldnt deliberately get it wrong. You wouldnt always get it right but you shouldnt deliberately get it wrong", he stressed.



According to him, communication is irreversible and so if a person makes an irresponsible statement; all he/she can do is to "apologize for it but you cant reverse it.



Sammy Awuku therefore advised the Deputy Minister to reflect the modesty of President Nana Akufo-Addo.



You cant say people are complaining too much. Who should they complain to? If you cant pick your calls, give your phone to the President so he will pick the calls for you and tell the President that you want to focus on your work because he knows you can multi-task, thats why he gave you the job...This is direct to the appointees. Youre the representatives of the President. Im saying you wont always get it right but dont deliberately get it wrong. And when you get it wrong, it takes the greatest person on earth to apologize.



"I havent made my mind to go to opposition now. Truth needs to be toldSo, the appointees should also reflect the modesty of the party", he said.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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In a crime that has rocked the US state of Pennsylvania, two cousins, both aged 20, have been charged with murder following the brutal killings of four young men who disappeared last week.

Cosmo DiNardo, an admitted drug dealer and troubled rich kid, is charged with all four murders, and has reportedly made a confession to police, leading them to the location of the mens bodies.

DiNardos cousin Sean Krantz was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning, and per Pennsylvania prosecutors, he faces charges in relation to three of the murders.

The first of the victims to be formally identified was 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. Three others, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, 21-year-old Tom Meo and 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick have since been confirmed dead.

The four vanished on different days between July 5 and 7 in Bucks County, sparking an extensive search effort. Per DiNardos confession, it appears that all four were killed during would-be drug deals.

Breaking; Bucks County PA says all four victims of been positively identified.  Chris OConnell (@CoconnellFox29) July 14, 2017

DiNardo reportedly told police that he and his cousin Krantz hatched a scheme to rob several of the men after luring them in with an offer to sell marijuana, but that the plan instead ended in murder.

It is claimed that the killings began on July 5 when DiNardo lured Patrick to a farm in rural Solebury Pennsylvania, owned by his parents, on the pretext of a drug deal.

Per the confession given to police, DiNardo offered to sell the victim a gun instead, then fatally shot him, using a backhoe to bury his body on a remote part of the property.

It is alleged that the three other men were killed on July 7 by both DiNardo and Krantz.

Finocchiaro was by himself when he was shot, while Meo and Sturgis were together, having been picked up by the cousins from a nearby church parking lot. All three of their bodies were later found in another grave.

Police connected DiNardo to the killings after he was caught attempting to sell a 1996 Nissan Maxima owned by Meo. The car and its keys were found on a separate property owned by the accused killers family.

In addition to the murders, DiNardo is charged with numerous other counts, including abuse of a corpse, conspiracy and robbery. It is understood that he will avoid the death penalty in exchange for his confession.

During a bail hearing, prosecutors noted that 20-year-old DiNardo is a diagnosed schizophrenic who suffered a serious head injury in an all-terrain vehicle accident last year and had previously been charged with gun possession.

His parents have pledged to cooperate in every possible way with law enforcement.

Krantz faces 20 charges, including three of criminal homicide.

Source: Newsweek / ABC 6.

Photo: Allentown Morning Caller / Getty / Supplied.
There is no dearth of things for which one could criticise Donald Trump. His abominable attitude towards immigration and refugees; his refusal to step up as a world leader; his predatory attitude towards women. Unfortunately, all of these are kind of subjective, i.e. some people reckon all of that shit is bloody brilliant.

One aspect of the Don that is very, very hard to defend, however, is his unusual method of shaking hands.

Weve covered this before. Several times, in fact. Because the alarming vice-grip-and-jerk just keeps on happening. Weve watched Shinzo Abe look mortally relieved to be free of the Orange Ones limpet-like grip; weve seen Justin Trudeau effectively neutralise him with a combo of upper body strength and steely determination. It cannot be glossed over: the man is not good at shaking hands.

But this latest one has got to be the cringiest of the lot. Watch what he does to poor French president Emmanuel Macron in this thirty-second hell-hold at yesterdays Bastille Day celebrations:

The man refuses to let go, even while saying goodbye to Macrons wife, Brigitte Macron. The shake goes on for half a minute. Its astonishing. Its excruciating. It makes your insides want to shrivel up and slither out of you at the same time.

Donald, my man: even the die-hardiest of MAGA die-hards cant defend you here. Please, please, find someone to teach you how to shake hands like a person born and raised on Planet Earth.

Source: ABC / SMH.

Image: YouTube.
A resident of Wilton, NSW called police and emergency services to a local property this afternoon after discovering two men dead after an apparent skydiving accident.

The men, one in his 60s and one in his 20s, are thought to have been doing a tandem jump under the supervision of Sydney Skydivers. According to some reports, they were a student and an instructor.

Two men who crashed into a property at Wilton in skydiving accident were instructor and student says Sydney Skydiving  Hannah Moore (@hannahrlmoore) July 15, 2017

News.com.au is reporting that the men landed on the driveway of a rural property, traumatising children who lived there. They spoke to Chase Stephenson, a co-owner of the property who said his seven-year-old daughter had seen the aftermath.

She hasnt seen them hit the ground but she is pretty traumatised. Its a shocking thing for a young girl to see.

He said his young niece and nephew were also on the property when the accident occurred.

Sydney Skydivers has a dropzone in Picton very close to where they landed, and about 90km from Sydney itself. A crime scene has been established at the property.

Our thoughts are with the mens families.

Source: News.com.au / ABC / 9NEWS.

Image: 9NEWS.
Stranger Things star Shannon Purser has officially been nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the show, bringing us one step closer to true Justice For Barb.

Look Human

Though her character  an awkward high school misfit who is unceremoniously killed off in a swimming pool  got comparatively little screen time in the show, she became a fan favourite, spawning countless memes in the process.

Thats all well and good, but in a recent interview with the New York Times, Purser said that the one thing that would make her truly happy is if Netflix would hand over the iconic glasses she wore as Barb.

The actress was apparently gutted when she wasnt allowed to keep the chunky 80s frames after filming wrapped, telling the publication:

I was obsessed with those glasses and I wanted to keep them so bad but they wouldnt let me. Im still sad about it.

Now that shes an Emmy-nominated actress, Purser is still trying to get her hands on Barbs legendary normcore eyewear. Send me those glasses, Netflix! she demanded. Cmon, guys, its kind of the least you can do 

It is unlikely that Barb will return for the second season of Stranger Things, what with her being dead and all, and Purser sees her Emmy nomination as an opportunity to put the character behind her.

Speaking from Vancouver filming the second season of Riverdale, she said:

Right now, I think this nomination is really incredible and in an ultimate way gives me some closure. Not only for the character, but for this whole phenomenon. Im always going to love Barb and Im always going to be grateful to Stranger Things and for the incredible opportunity Ive had. But Im very excited for my work to continue and to expand my horizons. Itll be interesting to see how long Barb is really the icon that she is right now.



Stranger Things was my first job, and I was learning everything as I was doing it and it was such a whirlwind. I feel this incredible amount of pride for all of it. The ideas and knowledge that people have taken from Barb has given me this confidence in myself and in my abilities as an actress. Thats one of the most important things that Ive gained from this experience  I can overcome my insecurities and realise within myself that this is what I love and this is what Im meant to do.

Whether or not Netflix comes through with Barbs frames, Shannon Pursers eyeglass game is still out of this world:

plot twist: Barb didnt die, she became CEO of her own accessories company. ??(makeup: Gregory Arlt hair: Jon Lieckfelt photo: Pedro Zalba) pic.twitter.com/YjSwnPHkHA  Shannon Purser (@shannonpurser) July 14, 2017

Source: NY Times.

Photo: Netflix.
Gregory Nield and his wife arrive at the Penticton courthouse for the first day of his trial in April 2017 on a charge of aggravated assault against a doctor.
PHOTOS: Petoskey celebrates Veterans Day 2022

Petoskey's American Legion taught local elementary students how to fold the flag during the Veterans Day ceremony on Friday, Nov. 11 in Pennsylvania Park.
A venture involving the Carlyle Group, the Washington, D.C.-based private-equity and asset-management giant, has paid $118 million for the two-year-old 3737 Chestnut apartment building in University City.

Carlyle joined Korman Residential Properties of Blue Bell in acquiring the 26-story, 276-unit apartment building, which was fully leased at the time of the sale, the project's developer, Wayne-based Radnor Property Group, said in a release this week.

The 3737 Chestnut apartments were developed at a cost of $92.5 million, RPG said. Its other projects include Vue32, a 164-unit apartment building nearing completion on land owned by Drexel University at 3201 Race St., and the Hamilton, a 279-unit tower on Community College of Philadelphia property that is projected to open in fall 2018.

Carlyle's other area assets include part-ownership of the Philadelphia Energy Holdings refinery complex in South Philadelphia.
Profoundly heavy rains doused parts of the region on Friday, but what happened in Millville evidently was one for the ages, or at least the centuries.

Gary Szatkowski, former boss at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, tweeted that 2.19 inches of rain was measured there in just 24 minutes.

Consulting his government table, that computed to a 1-in-200-year event.

Flooding wasn't limited to Millville. Here is a glimpse of what it looked like across South Jersey and southern Delaware on Friday afternoon:
Recommendations for improving Pennsylvania's state university system, released this week, have drawn criticism from some lawmakers, who say they don't go far enough and offer few practical solutions for solving financial and enrollment woes.

"We had hoped for more detailed information," said State Sen. David Argall, a Republican who represents Schuylkill and Berks Counties, and is chairman of the Senate majority policy committee.

"The report didn't tell us anything we didn't know," echoed Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Democrat who represents Chester County, "and it never got into how you could accomplish the objectives they spoke about."

The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a Boulder, Colo., consulting group hired by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) to conduct the review, did not recommend closures or mergers of campuses following a 12 percent enrollment decline among the 14 universities since 2010. But the group did suggest consolidation and staff reductions for schools with the greatest enrollment declines and budget gaps, an overhaul in the system's governance, and more stable and stronger leadership at the universities.

"I think they were pretty tough on everybody," said Joni Finney, director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania, who praised the report.

Recommending campus closures, she said, would have been more of a distraction than a solution. People would have focused on that one campus rather than fixing the system as a whole, she said.

And, she said, consultants effectively recommended mergers without calling them that, referring to the recommendation on consolidation. Under that recommendation, the universities would keep their own presidents and identities, but import many of their programs and services from other institutions and as a result be able to reduce staff and costs.

Consultants presented recommendations to the board of governors and public in Harrisburg on Wednesday, the same day the board signaled intentions to raise tuition 3.5 percent for 2017-18. The full report will be out next week.

Argall said he planned to review it. Earlier this year, he led an effort to get approval for the Senate's Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct its own study of the 105,000-student system. Argall said Friday that with the system's report finished, he planned to launch the effort next week, with the goal of finishing by the end of the year.

Questions also were raised about how closely consultants looked at Cheyney University, the system's historically black school, which has lost more than half of its enrollment.

"We were told, kind of, not to spend a lot of time on Cheyney because they had a separate task force dealing with that and we ought to focus on some other things," Dennis Jones, president emeritus of the consulting firm, said Wednesday.

That didn't sit well with Casey Long, director of policy and legislative affairs for Senate President Joe Scarnati (R. Jefferson), who said he heard a similar assertion from Jones during a legislative briefing on the report Thursday.

"It's really troubling, given that we were assured that this would be a fully independent study and the board would have no part in swaying the recommendations," Long said. "The concern was that the study that PASSHE commissioned would not make tough, politically unpopular decisions. That certainly appears to be the case."

On Friday, both the consultants and Kenn Marshall, a system spokesman, sought to clarify that position. Jones said consultants were told to focus on the system as a whole, not on any one institution.

And Marshall said the consultant "was advised that analyzing [Cheyney's] existing business operations would not be relevant to the overall study because the current institutional model would change following the task force's work." Cheyney, Marshall said, was included in the overall analysis.

He also said that the system never anticipated that consultants would single out institutions to close, but rather say whether there should be fewer.

Still, Sally M. Johnstone, president of the consulting firm, asserted unequivocally Friday about Cheyney: "There was no value in closing that institution," noting its historic mission and low-cost service to students. "There's great value in fixing it."

State Rep. James Roebuck, a Democrat from Philadelphia, also warned that closing campuses could be detrimental to the economic life of a region. But he acknowledged that the system is at "a point of reckoning" and that hard decisions need to be made.

System universities besides Cheyney are Bloomsburg, West Chester, Mansfield, Millersville, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, Lock Haven, Slippery Rock, Shippensburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Clarion and California.

Consultants also recommended that the system's board of governors be replaced by a board of regents with no ties to politics or governance at individual universities. The 20-member board of governors currently includes four legislators and others with ties.

"I'm all for it," said Sen. Judith L. Schwank, a Berks County Democrat on the board. "This model that we have really is out of step with the rest of the country."

She said the report gave her hope.

"The key in terms of outcome," she said, "will be whether we have the courage to move forward on the recommendations that they made."
Born on Valentine's Day, Sean Kratz was accused of stealing just about everything but hearts in the last couple of years.

Jewelry, leaf blowers, and tools were among Kratz's targets. His former girlfriend's mother thinks he stole her beloved Yorkie, Bella, from her home on Benner Street in the city's Crescentville section.

"I still believe he did it," Sheila Fontaine said. "I loved that dog."

On Friday, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office accused Kratz, 20, of helping his cousin Cosmo DiNardo, also 20, steal something even more unimaginable: the lives of four young men whose disappearance riveted the area in recent days.

Residents of Benner Street, where Kratz often spent time visiting his former girlfriend, recalled him as a lanky kid who often wore a black hoodie. They figured the worst  and were relieved when he stopped coming around.

"He literally tormented this block," said Amanda Stankiewicz, who lives two doors from Kratz's former girlfriend.

Stankiewicz said residents had reported multiple break-ins. Last fall, Stankiewicz said, she caught Kratz trying to sell a dirt bike in the cubbyhole behind her home. A neighbor had alerted her because she thought he was trying to steal Stankiewicz's air conditioner.

Police were in the neighborhood Thursday night looking for Kratz, she said. He was found about a mile away on Magee Avenue.

That was hours after DiNardo had confessed to killing the four men on his family's Solebury Township farm, after luring them with promises to sell them marijuana.

According to prosecutors, Kratz was complicit in the July 7 killings of Dean A. Finocchiaro, Thomas C. Meo and Mark R. Sturgis, and helped DiNardo bury their bodies in a 12-foot grave last week. A fourth, Jimi T. Patrick, had already been buried on the property.

Kratz allegedly used a Smith & Wesson .357 to shoot Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township, in the head inside a barn on the DiNardo property.

His prior run-ins with the law didn't hint at that level of violence. He has lived in the Magee Avenue house "all my life," he told a district judge Friday, with his mother, sister, younger brother, a nephew, and his stepfather. Where he went to school was unclear, but Kratz had been a dishwasher at the Philadelphia Protestant Home, a retirement community on Tabor Avenue in Fox Chase, between July 2014 and February 2016, a spokesman said.

In the months that followed, he started building a criminal record.

In June 2016, surveillance video caught him and an accomplice breaking into a shed on a property on the 6400 block of Dorcas Street and walking away with a leaf blower, weed whacker, and a box containing tools, all valued at $1,000, according to the probable-cause affidavit filed for his arrest. The homeowner later posted the video to his Facebook page, where a witness  whose neighbor was dating Kratz at the time  identified him in the footage, the document states.

Kratz was arrested on June 20 that year and released on bail. Within months he was back in police custody, charged in December 2016 with retail theft and related charges in Montgomery County. The case has since been marked closed.

Detectives arrested him in February this year on charges of breaking into the home of the witness in the previous case and stealing several items of jewelry. Investigators later determined that Kratz had sold the pieces for $345 at a resale shop on Cottman Avenue.

On Thursday, his lawyer was in Philadelphia court to request a continuance for further investigation in one of the open cases. Kratz was present and signed a subpoena. His next court date was scheduled for Aug. 4.

He is being held without bail. At his arraignment Friday, District Judge Maggie Snow told Kratz that he would be held in a county prison outside of Bucks County, separated from his cousin: "We need to know where you are and it's for your safety," she said.

Back in Northeast Philadelphia, Fontaine said she was shocked when she'd heard what Kratz was accused of. She described him as quiet and respectful when he was around her.

"However, as time went on, I was just kind of suspicious of him," Fontaine said. "Things started coming up missing  laptops, Kindles, iPads."

Fontaine said she often drove Kratz to his home but wasn't sure who he lived with. A woman who owned the home declined to comment Friday; other members of the family didn't return requests for comment. Facebook profiles for that family show Kratz smiling in Christmas photos. One shows him standing in a wedding party last year.

Once Kratz disappeared from Benner Street; the rumor was that he'd been shot numerous times. Philadelphia police declined to comment but on Friday, he told the judge he had been shot three months ago and "couldn't bear weight" on his left leg.

"I thought he was dead," Stankiewicz said. "I guess he wasn't. Everyone knew he was bad news. It just sucks this is what it had to come to."

Staff writers Jeremy Roebuck, Julie Shaw, and Joseph A. Slobodzian contributed to this article.
Defense lawyers Paul Lang, left, and Michael Parlow walk from the Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown. Lang, a defense attorney for Cosmo DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardos cooperation. Read more

The deal that spared Cosmo DiNardo the death penalty in exchange for a murder confession in a case that's captivated the region and drawn national attention was lauded Friday by legal experts, who said the agreement was a swift and shrewd way to bring the gruesome case nearer to a close.

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, confessed to participating in the killings of four men. DiNardo also agreed to tell investigators where to find the bodies and lead them to an accomplice. In exchange for the cooperation, his defense lawyer Paul Lang said, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

DiNardo's four victims, young men from Bucks and Montgomery Counties, disappeared last week. Their families' fears were confirmed when human remains were discovered in a 12-foot grave on a farm owned by DiNardo's parents.

On Friday, DiNardo was charged with murder and related offenses. Authorities also arrested his cousin and alleged accomplice, Sean Kratz, 20, on the same charges. And also Friday, they discovered the body of one of the missing men, Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, on the farm. The remains of Dean A. Finocchiaro, 19; Thomas C. Meo, 21; and Mark R. Sturgis, 22, had been discovered elsewhere on the sprawling property Wednesday.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub on Friday credited DiNardo's confession with implicating Kratz and leading investigators to Patrick's body, which had been buried separately from the others. "I'd like to think he wanted to help us get these boys home," he said, describing the cooperation agreement with DiNardo as critical to solving the case.

In interviews Friday, several legal experts agreed.

"It was absolutely the right thing to do," Jack McMahon, a former prosecutor who is now a prominent defense lawyer, said of the deal. "I think both sides did the right thing."

With evidence mounting in a case this serious, McMahon said, "the defense probably realized that the evidence against his client was pretty overwhelming. He had only one chip to play, and he used it to leverage for a life sentence."

Marc Bookman, a former public defender who is director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Center City, said the agreement had clear benefits for DiNardo and for prosecutors.

"In a case like this, there's a give and take," he said.

For the defense, Bookman said, "you've got four bodies. Any defense lawyer is thinking, 'There's no real defense to the killing of four people.' There are defenses to a murder case, but it's difficult to conceive of a legitimate defense to four bodies buried 12 feet in the ground."

The severity of the crime made it a clear candidate for a death penalty prosecution, legal experts agreed, giving the prosecution leverage and the defense reason to seek a deal.

"The defense is giving the prosecutor something compelling," Bookman said. "He said he would direct them to where the bodies are. You've got four grieving families who desperately want closure, however sad that closure might be. And he's asking for something in exchange."

For prosecutors, the threat of life on death row  if not actual execution in a state with a moratorium on the death penalty  upon conviction proved persuasive.

"It's good to have the death penalty for cases like this  whether you agree with it or not," said former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, whose tenure was marked by an aggressive willingness to pursue the death penalty in murder cases. "The prosecutor had a bargaining chip, and the defense attorney used it to bargain away [the possibility of] being on death row for 25 to 40 years."

Living conditions on death row are "horrendous," said Bookman, who has worked for years to overturn death penalty cases.

The deal DiNardo's lawyers reached with prosecutors spares the families of the four victims a painful trial and saves taxpayers the expense. In addition, Abraham said, it saves "hundreds of thousands, if not millions" of dollars spent on the appeals offered to all defendants convicted in capital cases. Those often go on for decades.

Dennis J. Cogan, a former prosecutor and veteran defense lawyer, called the agreement a "win-win." Without the confession, he said, the crime might have proved a "tough case" for prosecutors. With the deal Weintraub struck with DiNardo's lawyers, Cogan said, "they get the guy, they get the accomplice, and hopefully they bring closure for the families."

Other prosecutors have struck similar deals in previous high-profile cases.

In 2003, Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to murdering 48 young women in the Seattle area, also successfully traded information in a bid to save his life. Prosecutors in Washington state agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for Ridgway's cooperation. The transaction meant that investigators were able to link Ridgway to scores of additional murders.

Norm Maleng, the prosecutor who made the deal, said it brought relief to the families of victims. "This agreement was the avenue to the truth," he said. "And in the end, the search for the truth is still why we have a criminal justice system."

In another heavily publicized case, however, prosecutors made different decisions regarding the fate of serial killer Robert Lee Yates. In Washington state in 2000, one county prosecutor spared Yates' life in return for cooperation in finding the locations of the bodies of victims after he pleaded guilty to 13 murders. But in 2002, another county prosecutor sought and obtained a death penalty for Yates for two other murders. He remains on death row.

Ted Bundy, put to death in the electric chair in 1989, is believed to be responsible for a murder spree that investigators said took the lives of at least 30 young women across the nation. In his final months, his appeals exhausted, Bundy began to provide additional details about unsolved murders in what some saw as a bid to win a delay in his death. It was the called "Ted's bones-for-time scheme." No stay was granted.
In an op-ed on July 14, he adds:

The Iran nuclear agreement  officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action  has been in effect for a year and a half, during which time the world has been able to assess the impact of its formal implementation. But it has now had two full years to consider the effects of its negotiation, which concluded on July 14, 2015.

The negotiations themselves were promoted by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and his surrogates as a means of creating a new diplomatic status quo between Iran and the West. It was hoped that following the 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran would moderate its behavior by demonstrating cooperation with former adversaries.

But internal moderation of the Iranian regime has proven elusive, and Tehran has shown no aptitude to reform from within.

The result? Western powers have learned the same lesson from the Rouhani administration that they learned from Mohammad Khatami, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, and other Iranian officials similarly labeled as reformers worthy of outreach. Moderation is a mirage Tehran uses to seduce their prey.

Executions have skyrocketed under Rouhanis watch, with his administration overseeing an alarming 3,000 hangings during its first four-year term. Analysts expect the human rights violations to continue as the president commences a second term next month.

Rouhanis tenure is also distinguished by a dangerous continuation of ballistic missile research, development and testing (including evidence of cooperation with North Korea) and a repressive crackdown by the countrys security forces on activists, artists, academics, journalists and anyone accused of having ties to the West. These unfortunate trends have shown no signs of abatement on the second anniversary of the landmark agreement that granted far-reaching concessions in return for constructive engagement.

Neither has Tehrans regional behavior demonstrated signs of improvement with the regime serving as a driving force behind sectarian conflict and an active participant in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

As Western powers commemorate the two-year anniversary of the nuclear negotiations, a comprehensive Iran policy that addresses the joint plans shortcomings is needed. The U.S. must take the lead  as it did when nuclear negotiations began  but this time it must lead the world in confronting Iran over the nature of its repressive, fundamentalist regime by building a global coalition that supports regime change from within.

To its credit, the Trump administration has taken steps in this direction by increasing sanctions on the countrys ballistic missile program and pursuing the blacklisting of Irans hardline paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. But the Trump administrations willingness to confront Tehran would benefit from clear, overarching policy that more fully embraces the regimes collapse and replacement.

Secretary of State Rex Tillersons strong statement before the House Foreign Affairs Committee was a first step in this direction: Our policy towards Iran is to push back on (its regional) hegemony, contain their ability to develop, obviously, nuclear weapons and to work towards support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government.

Now Tillersons rhetoric needs to be backed with clear statements by U.S. officials  including the President himself  that the false narrative of internal moderation has expired and the aspirations of the Iranian people for regime change are within reach.

It is widely believed that the sanctions and diplomatic pressure employed by the White House and Congress are intended to serve the goal of regime change. If so, this needs to be made clear so that interested parties can coordinate their strategies and address questions about the availability of the elements inside of Iran that Tillerson referred to.

The regimes lobby in Washington would have U.S. officials believe no such elements exist, at least none with adequate organization and resources to oust the clerical regime and replace it with a democratic system of government. Such mischaracterizations are as inaccurate as they are well funded.

The accusations were addressed earlier this month when Tehrans parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, along with the main Iranian opposition movement, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, held its annual international gathering for democratic change in Paris. The gathering included tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates and hundreds of politicians and foreign policy experts from around the world who embraced regime change by the Iranian resistance.

In her speech at the event, NCRI President Maryam Rajavi praised the international community for rejecting the failed strategy of appeasement that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action represents and affirmed her movements commitment to the replacement of Irans religious dictatorship, characterizing it as an absolute imperative and the ultimate solution to the crises in the region.

Rajavi noted what Iran scholars have long known: 1) Tehrans vulnerability, domestic unpopularity and international isolation puts its overthrow within reach; 2) this can be achieved by the organized, democratic resistance that exists in the country and is led on the world stage by the NCRI.

The White House can mark the second anniversary of the negotiations that resulted in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by turning the page on the failed Obama policy of capitulation in the interest of concessions and supporting the aspirations of the Iranian people for democratic change. By working with the Iranian opposition to realize regime change in Tehran, U.S. officials send a signal that they are preparing for the regimes collapse and democratic transition and put Iran on notice that a new Iran policy has been embraced.
[July 14, 2017] Toyota and teamLab Join Forces to Create "Mobilmo", a New App to Empower Children to Experience the Craft of Making Things

- Endless possibilities! - Use over 100 different 3D parts to create your own "Mobilmo" with the touch of a finger and make friends as you explore the giant planet of "Cosmobi" *The app is not available in certain countries and regions TOYOTA CITY, Japan, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Motor Corporation today announced the global launch of Mobilmo, a mobile app that empowers children to exercise creativity through the craft of making things. Toyota and teamLab (https://www.teamlab.art/) partnered to create an app in which children are able to experience infinite joy from engaging in the following three key elements: "Move" (moving things), "Build" (freely creating things), and "More" (making more friends). These key elements are the basis for the name "Mobilmo." This app will allow children from all over the world to connect with their dreams and help them find joy in the craft of future manufacturing. 1. What is Mobilmo? Mobilmo is an app available for download on smartphones and tablets that allows children around the world to create their own Mobilmo (3D contraptions) to explore the virtual planet of Cosmobi. 2. What makes Mobilmo fun? Create Mobilmo of various shapes however you like.

Choose from a variety of 3D parts to create your very own Mobilmo.

Choose from a variety of 3D parts to create your very own Mobilmo. Add your favorite movements to your Mobilmo.

You can program your Mobilmo to remember unique movements that you create.

You can program your Mobilmo to remember unique movements that you create. Team up with others to co-create Mobilmo.

Exchange parts with other Mobilmo that you may encounter while exploring the virtual planet of Cosmobi to build up your own original Mobilmo. 3. How to play Mobilmo Build

With over 100 3D parts to choose from, Mobilmo is a new foray into the craft of the future of manufacturing. You can make your Mobilmo cool, cute, and even strange looking  your own original creation.

With over 100 3D parts to choose from, Mobilmo is a new foray into the craft of the future of manufacturing. You can make your Mobilmo cool, cute, and even strange looking  your own original creation. Move

Add your favorite movement to your Mobilmo, and your Mobilmo will remember it. Do you want your Mobilmo to run? To fly? To dance? It is easy to add any kind of movement with the touch of your finger to your Mobilmo.

Add your favorite movement to your Mobilmo, and your Mobilmo will remember it. Do you want your Mobilmo to run? To fly? To dance? It is easy to add any kind of movement with the touch of your finger to your Mobilmo. Adventure

After you create and add movement to your Mobilmo, you are free to explore the vast expanses of the giant planet of Cosmobi. Once your Mobilmo leaves a footprint (footprint = uploading your original Mobilmo) on Cosmobi, your Mobilmo becomes visible to other players on Cosmobi.

After you create and add movement to your Mobilmo, you are free to explore the vast expanses of the giant planet of Cosmobi. Once your Mobilmo leaves a footprint (footprint = uploading your original Mobilmo) on Cosmobi, your Mobilmo becomes visible to other players on Cosmobi. Meet and Clone Parts

Once you meet other Mobilmo created by other players on Cosmobi, you can exchange parts with other Mobilmo friends. Explore various places with your Mobilmo, and connect with other Mobilmo players from around the world.



Mobilmo has lots of other cool features.

Mini Games

Using your Mobilmo you can compete in mini games such as "Time Attack" and "Banana Jump" and boost your ranking. 9 Worlds of Wonder

The nine worlds of wonder feature areas including a penguin-shaped mountain and the sparkling cave area. You can adjust your Mobilmo to fit the characteristics of each area and enjoy the game even more. Emblems

Collect emblems as your Mobilmo gains popularity among other players or if you win mini games. DNA

See how parts from your Mobilmo are used by other players. Auto Pilot

Set your Mobilmo to auto pilot mode and traverse the virtual planet of Cosmobi with ease. Ranking

Interacting with other users gets you "experience points" and allows you to level up your rank. Mobilmo Radar

Use the in-app radar feature to find new arrivals and popular Mobilmo. Be sure to "like" your favorite Mobilmo. Two creation modes for beginners and advanced users Mobilmo Creation Mode (Beginner)

You can select and combine "action" and "normal" parts to create your Mobilmo.

You can select and combine "action" and "normal" parts to create your Mobilmo. Action Parts Creation Mode (Advanced)

You can select and program your original movements to "normal" parts to create "action" parts. Once you are able to master the Action Parts Creation Mode, your Mobilmo can move even more freely. 4. The Birth of Mobilmo Toyota's Role In 2004, Toyota launched the "Toyota Dream Car Art Contest" with the goal of enabling children to experience the joy of expressing themselves by drawing their dream cars. Since the debut of the contest, Toyota has received more than 4.6 million submissions from children from over 100 countries and regions. In addition, Toyota would like to reach out to children (or "digital natives") who have been exposed to the internet and digital environment from a young age and provide them with an opportunity to exercise creativity. This has led to the development of a revolutionary app that will put children on the path of discovery and opportunity to navigate in a digital world and enjoy a completely new way of communicating. About teamLab (development partner) teamLab is an art collective founded in 2001 that brings together professionals, referring to themselves as "ultratechnologists" from various fields of practice in digital society, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers, and editors. The collective plans and operates teamLab Island, a futuristic amusement park where children can learn and play. HP: https://www.teamlab.art/ Comment from the teamLab development team "In the tech industry, it's common practice for people from all around the world to build upon each other's work. Society can best make progress through the continuous process of improvement. Like in the software industry, we believe this approach will be used in the manufacturing of physical products, including cars, in the future. Toyota and teamLab have developed Mobilmo to pioneer this approach and to equip children with the knowhow to pursue the craft of future manufacturing." Documentary on the Mobilmo experience Feel free to watch interviews of those involved in the development of the app, including the voices of children, and cutaway scenes from a Mobilmo workshop conducted by Life is Tech! (an organization that teaches programming to middle and high school students and also runs an IT camp/school) (https://lifeistech.co.jp/en/). Introduction to Movies 1. Play Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfX4p1tNrM0

Click the link to watch Mobilmo gameplay. 2. Promotion Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Lradracdg

Click the link to watch a Mobilmo promo clip demonstrating key in-app features. 3. Documentary Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX0TzgRy3_U

Click the link to watch the Mobilmo documentary. Mobilmo Details Title: Mobilmo

Date of distribution: July 14, 2017

Cost: Free of charge iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id1246694257?mt=8

Android: Coming soon

Official site: http://www.toyota-global.com/events/mobilmo/ < For inquiries regarding this project >

Direct Communications Dept., Marketing Div., Toyota Motor Corporation

[email protected] SOURCE Toyota Motor Corporation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
A jury found two Madison, WI, police officers used "unreasonable force" when they shot and killed a 26-year-old woman who was pointing a gun at her head during a 2014 incident. The jury also awarded her family $7 million in damages following the Thursday ruling.

The six-woman, two-man jury deliberated for about 3 hours before ruling in the federal civil lawsuit brought by the family of Ashley DiPiazza against the officers, Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja. Bailey is no longer with the department.

After further deliberations, jurors awarded the family $4 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages.

The jury found that a third officer, Carey Leerek, who was a negotiator, bore no responsibility.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, called the verdict outrageous.

This sends a disconcerting message to officers because this will lead to second-guessing that puts officers at risk, Palmer told the State Journal. Thats very unfortunate.

Since it was a civil trial, the jury only needed to find that the claims made by the DiPiazza family against the officers were probably true rather than the higher burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial.

DiPiazzas family contended that DiPiazza, a forklift operator at Pitney Bowes in Madison who was described by friends and family as fun-loving and loyal, was shot without making any threats to hurt anybody or pointing the gun toward anybody but herself. The suit claimed DiPiazzas constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated when Bailey and Pihlaja shot her 11 times inside her apartment. It also alleged Leerek, who was negotiating with DiPiazza, did nothing to stop them.
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Even Fox News is starting to flee Trump, as Shep Smith and Chris Wallace told Fox News viewers that Trump is lying to them about the Russia scandal.

Video:

Shep Smith: "The deception, Chris, is mind-bogglingwhy are we getting told all these lies?" Chris Wallace: "I don't know what to say" pic.twitter.com/DQKOAC8a2o  Leanne Naramore (@LeanneNaramore) July 14, 2017

Shep Smith blew up while talking with Chris Wallace on Fox News, and took aim at Fox News viewers who still think that the scandal is made up. Smith said, Why is it lie after lie after lie?And there are still people out there who believe were making it up. And one day theyre going to realize were not and look around and go, where are we and why are we getting told all these lies?

Wallace responded, You know, I dont know what to say. Theres a lot of truth to everything that you said.

Trump still has his defenders on Fox, namely Sean Hannity, but the Trump Jr. emails and the administrations lies are even turning some people at Fox News against this administration. Smith is right. The talk that the Russia scandal is made is largely coming from viewers of the network that he works at, especially, the President Of The United States.

If Trump ever fully loses Fox News, with the exception of Hannity, it will truly be over for him. Even with a high approval rating among members of his own party, there is a breaking point where even Republicans will distance themselves from Trump.

Never has a president relied on partisan media as much as Donald Trump. If conservative media abandons ship, the Trump presidency will be toast.
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When Trump, or a member of his administration, or his family claim that there is nothing else to the Russia meeting story, keep in mind that according to Trumps own lawyers they still dont know the names of everyone who attended the meeting.

In the midst of a wave of Russia scandal news, this little nugget dropped:

Spokesman for Trump's legal team tells me he still does not know all the names of the people in the Trump Tower meeting.  Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) July 14, 2017

If the meeting was nothing, as Trump and his administration claim, why do they keep lying about it? A nothing meeting could be easily explained and dismissed by revealing everything and putting all of the details out there. Instead, Trump Jr. released his emails, left out people who were at the meeting, and has changed his story numerous times.

Trumps lawyers dont know who was at the meeting because the President, Trump Jr., and Kushner wont tell them. Trumps own lawyers dont have all of the information which suggests that the President and his family are holding secrets back from the legal team. It is all hitting the fan for Trump on Russia, and with his lawyers being kept in the dark, there could be even more shoes yet to drop.
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Making the tired case that she and President Trump are victims, President Trumps senior counselor Kellyanne Conway equated criticism of her  the woman standing by the man who is taking away womens medical rights even though he himself took full advantage of the sexual revolution- with undercutting modern feminism.

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If you want to disagree on policy, if you disagree on tax reform or health care reform or immigration or youre for abortion and Im not, then say that, Conway said in Iowa on Saturday, speaking at the conservative Family Leadership Summit. Disagree that way, thats what America is. But so much of the criticism of me is so gender based.

Conway claimed that the condemnation of her as a political operative or White House aide has been about how I look or what I wear or how I speak.'

Conway said this totally undercuts modern feminism.

Back in February, Conway distanced herself from feminism.

Speaking at CPAC, Conway said, Well, I believe this generation, particularly the younger people dont really like labels. And we dont  were not necessarily joiners or liking to label ourselves. And I  that  thats great in its own right. So I dont know about calling yourself a feminist.

Conway pandered to the patriarchy whose goals she works to advance by playing The Cool Girl, claiming that feminism is anti-male, and she is not anti-male.

I also, for me, its difficult for me to call myself a feminist in the classic sense because it seems to be very anti-male and it certainly is very pro-abortion in this context. And Im neither anti-male or pro-abortion, so. Theres an individual feminism, if you will, that you make your own choices. Mercedes, I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances.

No, feminism is not about making your own choices and feminism is also not anti-male. Feminism is about equality and freedom from gender restraints for both genders. It is pro-woman equality because women do not have political, economic, or social equality with men. To pretend otherwise is to lie.

No one is pro-abortion,  and anyone who makes that claim is moving the goal posts in an intellectually dishonest way. Feminists are inherently pro-medical rights for women, which is to say pro-liberty and pro-individual freedom.

Contrary to modern day conservative beliefs, feminists do not think the government should tell women when they should have babies or use their bodies as state property. This has nothing to do with classical feminism versus modern feminism, and everything to do with a conservative cultural appropriation of feminism for anti-feminist causes.

Kellyanne Conway is standing by a man, President Trump, who equated his struggle to avoid getting sexually transmitted diseases as his personal Vietnam. This is a man who has cheated on his many wives and was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. Donald Trump doesnt support workers rights or the LGBTQ community or egalitarianism in any form. Women to Trump are objects to be used and thrown away.

Trump is, as a brand, the opposite of feminism. Kellyanne Conway cant grab the mantle of feminism to use when its convenient, to use as Ivanka Trump was told to, to sell something that advances one persons pocketbook.

Trump as President is actively working to undermine womens medical rights and access. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in The New York Times of Donald Trumps attacks on womens sexual and reproductive rights, American women are being stripped of their sexual and reproductive autonomy not by a moralizing puritan but by an erotically incontinent libertine.

Feminism is not about a personal choice in the sense that anyone making a personal choice gets to call themselves a feminist. If your choice harms women or fails to actively support and enhance their goals to achieve political, social, and financial equality, then you are not a feminist.

Kellyanne Conway is criticized most often for her personal choice to be a propaganda machine for Donald Trump to such an extent that she isnt even in the same room with truth or reality. She has told so many lies on TV that some networks refuse to have her on.

The Republican pollster was once roundly mocked once for her clothing, but that wasnt the usual criticism of womens clothing as we saw with Hillary Clinton. It was because she wore what looked to be a costume to the inauguration. No one was asking why Conway wears pantsuits instead of skirts. They were asking why she wore a Halloween costume to an inauguration.

Conway told these lies in Iowa today to feed conservatives another false justification for why they cant trust the media and to explain (falsely) why she, and by proxy President Trump, are being attacked. She is feeding conservatives another resentment chewy toy; this time, its that the criticism is anti-feminist.

The fact that the movement buying this lie is an enemy to feminism wont matter to them one bit.

But it should matter to reality. You dont get to claim something is wrong because its anti-feminist when you attack feminism and undermine its goals and values.

Conway, who blamed the resistance for the shooting in Virginia, also told conservatives on Saturday that political rancor could be overcome by policy.
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Republicans in Congress appear to be finding the Trump administrations ties to Russia hard to defend as each passing day brings about another damning revelation connecting Donald Trumps team with Russian efforts to derail Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.

That was clear on Saturday as GOP Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, one Republican who has been tough on the White House, refused o rule out criminal activity on the part of the president and his team.

Video:

Wow: GOP rep repeats that he wont rule out criminal activity on the part of the Trump team #Russia pic.twitter.com/ypUreY0yQg  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) July 15, 2017

When asked by MSNBCs Alex Witt whether he has concerns that the Trump campaigns behavior could be criminal, Lance said he couldnt rule it out: I leave that up to criminal experts, to Mr. Mueller. I was the first Republican to call for the recusal of the Attorney General of the United States in matters regarding Russia, and that led to a chain of events that has led to the appointment of Mr. Mueller, and I have full confidence in Mr. Mueller.

Lances refusal to rule out a massive criminal conspiracy on the part of the presidents campaign team comes after he made similar comments late Friday.

Video:

Remarkable moment. GOP Rep. Leonard Lance tells @chrislhayes he cannot rule out that the Trump team engaged in a criminal conspiracy. pic.twitter.com/zBli1mOYXH  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 15, 2017

Hayes asked, Can you definitively say  I am 100 percent sure the president and his campaign did not engage in a criminal conspiracy with a foreign intelligence apparatus.'

When Lance responded that he could not rule that out, the MSNBC host said: Think about how remarkable that is.

Lances response, even though its coming from a Republican who has historically been tough on Trump, shows that even the presidents own party is finding it impossible to defend his campaigns behavior.

As Hayes pointed out on Friday, its remarkable that some sitting members of Congress are no longer able to rule out whether the President of the United States engaged in a massive criminal conspiracy with a foreign adversary.
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On AM Joy on Saturday morning, MSNBC host Joy Reid and frequent guest Malcolm Nance had a hard time containing their laughter as pro-Trump, ex-CIA analyst Fred Fleitz went to into full crazy mode to defend Donald Trump Jr.s secret meeting with the Russians.

Unable to defend the content of the actual meeting, Fleitz just repeatedly held up funny pictures of Rob Goldstone, the man who arranged the meeting between a Kremlin-linked lawyer and Donald Trump Jr.

Video:

Malcolm Nance shuts down pro-Trump analyst who uses funny pictures to defend Trump Jr. meeting #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/BR2EaQctBP  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) July 15, 2017

When Fleitz said, Here he is posing as a pirate.  The Russian government would never have used this guy or entrusted him with a sensitive intelligence operation. That simply didnt happen.

Luckily, Nance was quick to shut him down this nonsensical argument:

Im going to give Fred an assist here. Hes right: Rob Goldstone isnt the kind of person that they would use as an asset. He is not the player in this game. Hes merely a communications conduit. What they would be using him for is to send an email to Donald Trump Jr., doing exactly what they wanted done at his bidding.  [Fleitz] should know, coming from the agency side, if youre going to dangle intelligence out to somebody  youre going to do it this way.  The Trump people were the fish who were jumping at that bait, and they jumped at it hard. They wanted it. They went to that meeting. They went there with the intent to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton knowing it came from the government of Russia. They are now culpable for everything they have done. This actually meets the standard of conspiracy.  Anybody who thinks Rob Goldstone is the main character, youre wrong.

The facts surrounding this particular meeting between Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort and several Russians are clear, and its obvious that Fleitz and others trying to provide cover for Trump are running out of ways to defend the White House.

Showing funny pictures of the guy who arranged the meeting instead of focusing on the content of the meeting  which was for the Trump campaign to get dirt from the Russian government on Hillary Clinton  shows exactly how desperate the pro-Trump world is.

Still, Fleitz wasnt convinced by the fact-based argument put forward by Nance and continued to spew nonsense and downplay the Trump teams collusion with Russa.

Video:

With a straight face, Fleitz said: I think he was looking for opposition information but I dont think anybody in this meeting thought that the Russian government was trying to help Mr. Trump win the presidency.

Not only is that false  as the emails showed, Trump Jr. knew the so-called damaging Clinton info was coming from the Russian government in order to help his fathers campaign  but its simply laughable.

Which, of course, is why Joy Reid and Malcolm Nance ended the interview in the only way one could: by laughing.
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After his Muslim ban twice denied visas to an all girls robotics team from competing in the US, Trump reversed himself and let the girls in. Kellyanne Conway then tried to give Trump credit for the decision.

The AP reported:

The girls story has also renewed the focus on the longer-term U.S. plans for aiding Afghanistans future, as Trumps administration prepares a new military strategy that will include sending more troops to the country where the U.S. has been fighting since 2001. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday the strategy was moving forward but not finalized yet. Trumps personal intervention earlier in the week using a rare parole mechanism to sidestep the visa system ended a dramatic saga in which the team twice traveled from their home in western Afghanistan through largely Taliban-controlled territory to Kabul, where their visa applications were denied twice.

Kellyanne Conway tried to give Trump credit while ignoring the obvious elephant in the room:

Thank you, @POTUS, for helping these girls. Others talk (and talk and talk). You act. https://t.co/2ea6bdWjCk  Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) July 15, 2017

Trump only acted after the girls visas had been denied twice, and the story had brought bad publicity to his Muslim ban. The whole debacle would have been avoided if Donald Trump hadnt put a Muslim ban into place.

Donald Trump doesnt get credit for solving a problem that he caused.

This president is devoid of competence and accomplishment that people in his administration, like Kellyanne Conway, are going to desperate lengths to try to spin some sort of productive activity that they can use as a positive sign that Trump is not a total failure of a president.
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The lawyer at the heart of the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. got her front row seat at a recent congressional hearing through a Republican lobbyist who is close to President Donald Trump.

The Washington Post reported, Her high-profile spot in the room gained notice this week with the circulation of a photo in which she looms over the shoulder of former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, an adviser to President Barack Obama and a witness before the panel. Some conservative blogs this week have said the photo suggests she had accompanied McFaul and was a Democratic plant. In fact, her seat had been reserved for her by a Republican consultant with close ties to the Trump campaign. Lanny Wiles, whose wife, Susie, was then chairing the Trump campaign in Florida, said in an interview that he came early to scout out the seat and was there at the request of Akhmetshin, with whom he was working as a consultant on the sanctions-related adoption issue.

There are a lot of Russians flying within close orbit of Donald Trump, his allies, and associates. The Republican Party has either been willingly corrupted by Putin, or they are turning a blind eye and looking the other way. The reality rests most likely somewhere in the middle, as many Republicans have decided that they will look the other way because they are placing party over country.

The terrible news for Trump is that the Russians who met with his son are being placed closer to him. The wall of plausible deniability that the White House is trying to create is crumbling around them. Trump likes to avoid the structure of the White House and relies on his personal friends, so if the Russians are close to Trumps friends, they are in the Presidents ear whether he realizes it or not.

Trump is running out of political oxygen, and his presidency is slowly suffocating under the crushing weight of the Russia scandal.
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Donald Trump is now taking unrelated information like the stock market and jobs numbers and trying to use it as proof that the Russia scandal is not real.

On Saturday afternoon Trump tweeted:

Stock Market hit another all-time high yesterday  despite the Russian hoax story! Also, jobs numbers are starting to look very good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2017

Trumps jobs numbers are worse than Obamas, and even if they werent, the jobs numbers have nothing to do with the Russia scandal. The stock market has nothing to do with the Russia scandal.

The fact that this president is trying to take unrelated pieces of data and draw a conclusion about the Russia scandal is the behavior of a desperate man who is detached from reality.

The worse the Russia scandal becomes, the more Donald Trump starts screaming hoax. The scandal is real, but the United States has a president who appears to be psychologically not capable of living in the real world. Trumps tweets read like those of a man who is trying to tell himself that his crimes havent done any damage.

As he continues to slide mentally, Trump isnt trying to convince America that the Russia scandal isnt hurting him. He is trying to convince himself.
In Georgetown County's closest race, the board of elections and voter registration certified Scott DuBose's election to the county school board with a margin of victory of just three votes out of 4,343 cast. Read moreGeorgetown Co. elections: DuBose's election to District 2 school board seat certified
The main value of Veterans Day is, unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, not so much in our participating in a particular event or tradition but in our remembering at least once a year the debt we all owe to those who have served our country in uniform. Read moreEditorial: Remember our veterans today  and every day
Terry Graham, interim director for Richland County's elections office, previously said he planned to resign in January, but now plans to stay on as deputy director for a few more years after the Nov. 8 election had few issues. Read moreRichland County interim elections director decides not to resign after successful election
MINNEAPOLIS  In 2016, a group of University of Minnesota business students were looking to create a way for young students and their classmates to fidget in peace.

Not long after, an unexpected craze formed with fidget toys in all shapes and sizes everywhere. Along with that craze came backlash to the distraction these toys caused.

"Other products on the market tend to be really distracting ... so we started working on designing a new product that can be used in the classroom all day everyday by students," said Anna Wetmore, CEO of Able Mindworks, the company the university group formed.

The device, aptly named Toppi, sits on the top of a pencil. It consists of a ball bearing and a movable ring, designed to mimic moving a ring around one's finger.

Toppi is the latest in a wave of fidget devices and toys that have become a cultural phenomenon.

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Richard Gottlieb, a toy industry consultant and CEO of Global Toy Group, said the fidget toy craze is a "fad" comparable to Silly Bandz and Cabbage Patch Kids.

At a local toy store, Creative Kidstuff, the trend started with fidget cubes and putty in fall 2016, said Sam Olson, a floor lead at the store.

About six months later, the fidget spinner trend began to spike, he said.

"There's been a big surge in popularity with all sorts of fidgety things," Olson said.

The fad hit a Minneapolis fifth-grade classroom this past school year.

A barrage of fidget spinners and cubes, with their onslaught of clicking, whooshing and flashing lights, led Jessica Larson, a fifth-grade teacher at Lake Harriet Community School, to ban them.

Larson sent a letter to parents acknowledging their usefulness for students with ADD, ADHD and other similar issues, but they became too much of a distraction.

"The more gaudy or flashy the designs became, the more kids brought them in and the more they became a distraction," she said.

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Gottlieb speculated the toys have been successful because kids have a lot of excess energy and expects the trend to last about six to eight months in total.

While fidget toys are the popular name, Wetmore and her co-workers designed their product to be more of a tool.

The company knows the wide variety of fidgeting toys have productivity and focus benefits but are banking on the silent aspect and feasibility in the classroom to make their product stand out.

"We have to prove to (customers) why ours is different and better," said Able Mindworks CFO Jake Shoults.

Toppi has presold about 1,500 units to various teachers, principals, occupational therapists and independent customers and expect to ship out their first batch this summer, Wetmore said.

In the future, Able Mindworks hopes to corner the school market and potentially create a stylus in response to increasing tablet use in schools.
Having the name "Woody" was never easy during the years I lived in Latin America. At first in La Paz, Bolivia, I told people my name was Rolando. However, as Bolivians got to know me, several said, "That is not your name. We will call you Woody."

Unfortunately, as well-meaning as they were, they were wrong.

The "Woo" sound doesn't exist in Spanish. My name was invariably pronounced as "Goody" or "Boody" or some derivative.

I once was called to the death bed of a man I had known for several years. Don Miguel's family indicated I should put my ear by his mouth because he had something he wanted to say to me. As I strained to hear the breathy words, Don Miguel whispered, "Gracias, Judy," and died.

Obviously, at this point it was a little late to correct his pronunciation.

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It is probably evidence of my twisted personality, but "last words" always have fascinated me. You can tell a lot about how a person lived by their final comments in this world. Of course, the last words of faithful Christians are of special interest to me.

The converted slave trader, John Newton, who became a beloved minister of the gospel, whispered as he lay dying, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior."

He may have remembered only two things, but they were the right things.

When the brilliant scientist Michael Faraday was dying, someone asked him, "Sir, what are your speculations now?" Faraday replied, "Speculation? I have none, thank God. I am not resting my dying soul on guess-work but on the finished work of Christ. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day."

Of course, those words are taken from the Apostle Paul's last letter - 2 Timothy 1:12. He might have written them days before he was beheaded in Rome. The confidence expressed in them was all he had left in life.

I hope my own final words will have something of humor while displaying great confidence. When everything else in this earthly body has been used up, I hope all that remains is the finished work of Jesus.

Oh! I also hope I don't mispronounce anybody's name.
Gut laughter: one of life's most delicious morsels. Gut laughter is more than a giggle and different from a hearty chuckle. It bubbles up from a whole other place in the body. Gut laughter starts way inside the depths of the innards and fills up one's whole stomach, chest, and throat. It's an overwhelming joyful response that travels north through the body  up, up, up until one's eyes overflow with tears of bliss.

I love to laugh from my guts. Last weekend I did so for two days surrounded by the loveliest ladies in all the land.

It had been 12 years since we'd all been in the same place. And then, like magic one Friday summer evening, we were all together on my deck. Erin, Emily, Angie, Amber, Sarah, Katie, and Gina: my seven Wartburg College sophomore year roommates. Waverly, Iowa was our college home for four years. Now they live all over the world. From East Africa to Oregon to Nebraska to Iowa to Minnesota.

Last winter we decided that we'd gather together in the summer for college roomie reunion weekend. I volunteered to host, knowing that while my house would be short on beds and chairs, we'd have plenty of space to catch up.

After everyone arrived, we ate outside and shared life updates until well after the bats began eating the bugs around us. The next day we woke up and the conversation continued. The weather was perfection. At about 11 a.m., we went to the Farmers Market. Then we wandered the grounds at Assisi Heights and spent time barefoot in the labyrinth reminiscing. After an afternoon of crafting, we got dolled up and headed to La Vetta for a rooftop dinner. Those dear sweethearts surprised me with a bachelorette party! Dinner, ice cream from Flapdoodles, silly games, and cookie decorating. Doesn't get any better than that.

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Our time concluded with breakfast outside the next morning under blue skies. The birds sang us morning hymns. We took turns sharing a special memory from the weekend that we'll carry with us until we get to share another grown-up sleepover in a few years.

As my roomies pulled out of the driveway and headed back toward their homes, I waved them goodbye and noticed a subtle soreness in my middle. It was like I'd done dozens of sit-ups over the weekend, which I certainly had not. "Why am I so sore?" I wondered.

Then I remembered. Gut laughter. I had laughed until my insides hurt. What a perfect form of exercise. Laughter-induced muscle aches  a sweet reminder of the gift of friendships that stretch across time and miles.

We may not see each other often, but when we do, we laugh and cry and love, and that builds up our soul-sister reserves which tide us over until we meet again.
JoLynn Skogen wanted to provide a home away from home for patients seeking medical care in Rochester.

She and her husband, Dave, previously rented out an apartment space on the upper floor of their property. But after after hearing of Airbnb from a family member in 2014, JoLynn Skogen decided to convert that space into a short-term rental.

"I wanted to be able to reach out to people who are maybe coming to Mayo and needed a place to stay," Skogen said. "When you've been at the clinic or someplace else all day, you  want to feel like you're going home."

The Skogens have been Airbnb "hosts" ever since. They are part of a growing community of short-term rental owners in Rochester. Local hosts say the service provides an opportunity to meet new people and generates additional income.

But critics of short-term rental services such as Airbnb and VRBO say unregulated units dodge fees and health inspections that licensed rentals must follow.

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There are about 250 Airbnb listings in Rochester. The short-term rental service has redefined how some Rochester residents approach the rental market.

JoLynn Skogen typically hosts three guests per month at her property, which is within walking distance of Mayo Clinic. Guests pay $85 per night. About 75 percent of her guests are in Rochester for medical care, with most staying for one to two weeks at a time.

Hosting has allowed Skogen to meet guests from around the world, including China, Russia and Brazil.

"I love it," she said. "We have not had any bad experiences."

Owning an Airbnb rental is more profitable than leasing to long-term renters, Skogen said, but it's also more work.

"It has to be super  clean, so turning it over and making sure that everything is in mint condition  it takes time," she said.

The effort Skogen and her husband have put into their Airbnb rental has been notable enough to earn them the service's esteemed "superhost" status. Airbnb describes superhosts as "experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts and extraordinary experiences for their guests."

Skogen's daughter, Rochester resident Christy Dokken, joined Airbnb last year after seeing her mom's success.

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Dokken and her husband, Peter, listed two rentals in a duplex they own on Airbnb and VRBO  each priced at $99 per night.

As Rochester's short-term rental market continues to grow, Dokken said she keeps a close watch to make sure their prices stay competitive.

"We keep an eye on  what people are charging and what their places look like compared to ours, and we are regularly researching that and making sure that we're competitive so that we stay full," she said.

But some say the unregulated nature of leasing homes through Airbnb and other short-term rental services puts licensed rental properties at a disadvantage.

Most Airbnb units are unregulated, meaning hosts don't have to pay licensing fees or lodging taxes, said Corey Simonson, sales manager at Broadway Plaza  which offers apartments and short-term lodging.

Skirting taxes and charges allows Airbnb hosts to offer cheaper rates than those paying the fees, he said.

"It's not being passed onto those consumers," Simonson said. "It's certainly not a level playing field."

Brad Jones, executive director of Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau, said fewer health inspections among unregulated properties pose sanitary risks for incoming patients.

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"You've got to take some assurances that the people are providing a product that's safe, secure and sanitary for the visitor. In the unregulated space, they don't do that," Jones said.

The CVB generally sponsors and supports short-term rental properties that are properly licensed and inspected, he said.

"We're for this, but we're for the responsible part of it," he said.

But Skogen  whose property already is a licensed rental  says the concerns are overblown.

While Airbnb hosts don't have set regulations to follow, they have to stay accountable to the public, she said.

Ratings and reviews are public, Skogen said, and guests won't book a stay if the host's cleanliness and communication aren't up to par.

"You've got to hit the mark on all of them or you're not going to get a five-star rating," she said.

Dokken said she has yet to hear health concerns from guests.

Dokken's property also is a licensed rental that receives inspections, which she said guests haven't even asked about.

"I think they see it more as  a home," she said.

For Dokken and her husband, Airbnb hosting is a long-term investment they hope pays off in the form of college and retirement savings.

The couple will be opening up two more short-term rentals after they finish remodeling another duplex property they own.

"We're planning for retirement maybe a little differently than your average person who works at the Mayo Clinic," she said.
DULUTH  The remains of a Duluth Marine killed in battle during World War II returned to Duluth on Friday.

Sgt. James Joseph Hubert will be buried with full military honors in his hometown of Duluth on Saturday. His whereabouts were unknown for 73 years.

Hubert was killed in the 1943 World War II battle of Tarawa. He was buried in an unmarked grave on the small Pacific island. His body was found in 2015 in a trench with the remains of more than three dozen other Marines.

The Minnesota Historical Society says soldiers killed in the battle didn't get the usual burial. Normally, soldiers would have been stripped of their personal gear before burial, according to senior curator Adam Scher.

"But because the Allied forces were moving so quickly through the Pacific during this period, the graves registration didn't have time to catch up and to properly attend to the deceased," said Scher.

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Hubert was buried with a jackknife, his dog tag, his first aid kit and what experts think was a compass.

Those artifacts and others found with his body were returned to Hubert's family, who then donated most of the items to the Historical Society.

Hubert's sister, Mary K Hagen, was 2 years old when her brother died. She never met him, but she said it was still painful to receive his personal effects.

"When we were first given them I just couldn't look at them," she said.

Now Hagen has decided she will keep her brother's ID tag.

"You just hope that someday it'll happen that you'll finally get a call and that's exactly what happened," said Hagen "And there are a lot of people today that are still waiting, and I want them all to know not to give up. They might get their telephone call, too."

Twin Cities veterans groups will have a chance to view Hubert's casket at Fort Snelling National Cemetery ahead of his burial Saturday in Duluth.
Talk of Russia, which the Democrats considered our ally (or something) as recently as 2012, when President Obama scoffed at Mitt Romneys statement that Russia was a geopolitical rival, has dominated the political scene for months. Given that fact, it is remarkable that nothing particularly significant about Russia has been discovered.

President Trump, meanwhile, has taken a tough line against Putins regime, much tougher than Barack Obamas, as should have been foreseeable from his campaign speeches. The Democrats are pretty much reduced to using Russia as a magic incantation, that somehow may produce a dramatic effect, like President Trumps resignation. Absent that, they appear to be out of ammo.

In my view, the farcical claims that have been made about Donald Jrs wholly innocent willingness to be provided proof of Hillary Clintons corruption were the last straw. The Democrats may not know it, and the Washington Post certainly doesnt know it, but their Russia themein my opinionis very close to being dead. You can follow a trail for a long, long time, but at the end of the trail you need to find.something. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

Michael Ramirez uses bears to contrast speculation with evidence. So far, all weve got is speculation. Thats the big bear. Evidence, on the other hand
It has been years since my conservative cousin from New York contributed to Power Line. David Brooks latest column smoked him out, inspiring this contribution:

Donald Trump appears to have caused David Brooks to lose his senses. In todays New York Times, Brooks imputes the alleged ethical lapses of Donald Trump to the the original sins of his grandfather and father.

It seems the bad seed started with grandpa Frederich who dodged the German Army draft and apparently amassed a modest fortune by operating bordellos in Washington State and British Columbia. The sins of the Trump family moved on through the generations with father Fred who worked seven days a week building middle income housing in Brooklyn and Queens, and didnt like wimps. Brooks also alleges that Fred was arrested at a K.K.K. rally though he allows that its unclear if he was a member.

One wonders if Brooks would apply the same family tree explanation to other national leaders. Was FDR corrupted by a family fortune that grandfather Hugh Delano amassed selling opium to the Chinese? Or JFK by his slumlord paternal grandpa Patrick Kennedy or the philandering corrupt politician, maternal grandpa John Fitzgerald? (Tenants in Fred Trumps buildings enjoyed far better housing than those unfortunate to live in a Patrick Kennedy dwelling).

And Kennedys father Joes Wall Street manipulations produced nothing of value to anyone but himself. He makes Fred Trump look like a great public benefactor. Of course, theres also the glaring example of Barack Obamas father.

To answer my cousins query, there is no reason to believe that Brooks would apply his family tree theory to FDR, JFK, or Obama. He probably believes that, when it comes to liberal Democrats, immorality skips generations.
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Connerton named to Benedictine College dean's list

ATCHISON, Kan. -- Benedictine College has announced that William Connerton of Marshall has been named to the dean's list for the spring semester, which ended in May.

Of the 1,924 full time undergraduate students on the Atchison campus, 557 made the dean's list. To make the dean's list, a student must carry a minimum of 12 credit hours and a grade point average of 3.5 or above for the semester.

Lakeview College of Nursing announces dean's list

DANVILLE -- Students who are enrolled in at least six credit hours at Lakeview College of Nursing and who achieve a GPA of 3.6 or higher on a 4.0 scale are named to the dean's list for the semester. The following students achieved this honor: Kaylee Beals of Neoga, Mackenzie Corrie of Charleston, Katelyn Duckett of Shelbyville, Katarina Garcia of Charleston, Daniel Murphy of Marshall, and Emily Ontis of Charleston.

Lakeview College of Nursing offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree. It is a single-purpose, private institution that has specialized in nursing education in the Danville area since 1894. Lakeview began offering a cooperative program with Eastern Illinois University in Charleston in the fall of 2001.
"HEROIC WITNESSES"

We have come as pilgrims to this Basilica ... where the ancient history of martyrdom unites with the memory of the new martyrs, of the many Christians killed by the demented ideologies of the last century and today too and killed solely for being disciples of Jesus. The memory of these ... heroic witnesses confirms us in the knowledge that the Church is Church if she is the Church of Martyrs.

MARTYRS RESPONDED TO GRACE

Martyrs ... had the grace to confess Jesus until the end, unto death. They suffer; they give their life, and we receive God's blessing through their witness.

"WITHOUT RESERVATION"

... There are also many hidden martyrs, those men and women faithful to the gentle power of love, to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who in everyday life seek to help their brothers and sisters and to love God without reservation.

HATRED IS THE CAUSE

... The cause of all persecution is hatred: the hatred of the prince of this world toward those who have been saved and redeemed by Jesus through His death and His Resurrection.

THE ORIGIN OF HATRED

The origin of hatred is this: since we are saved by Jesus, and the prince of this world does not want this, he hates us and causes persecution, which since the time of Jesus ... continues to our day.

THE GRACE OF GOD

It is the grace of God, not courage, that makes us martyrs... The Church is led forward by saints... Without them, the Church can no longer go forth.

THE CHURCH NEEDS ...

The Church needs everyday saints, those of ordinary life carried out with coherence, but she also needs those who have the courage to accept the grace to be witnesses to the end, unto death. All those are the living blood of the Church. They are the witnesses who lead the Church forward; those who attest that Jesus is Risen, that Jesus lives, and affirm it with coherence of life and with the strength of the Holy Spirit which they have been given.

"PEACE AND UNITY"

The living legacy of martyrs gives us peace and unity today. They teach us that, with the power of love, with meekness , one can fight against arrogance, violence and war, and one can bring about peace with patience. And thus, we can pray in this way: O Lord, make us worthy witnesses to the Gospel and to Your love; pour out Your mercy upon humanity; renew Your Church; protect persecuted Christians; hasten to grant the whole world peace. To you, Lord, glory; and to us, Lord, shame (cf. Dn 9:7).

(Source: Homily, Mass in memory of the martyrs of the 20th and 21st century, Church of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island, 4/22/17)
"COURAGEOUS WITNESSES"

The coming of the Holy Spirit changes fearful men, enclosed behind shut doors, into courageous witnesses of Jesus.

"A FLOOD OF GRACE"

Fifty years of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. A flood of grace of the Spirit!

"MOST PRECIOUS GIFT"

The most precious gift that all of us have received is Baptism. And now the Spirit is leading us on this journey of conversion sweeping across the entire Christian world. It is one more reason why the Catholic Charismatic renewal is a privileged place for pursuing the path to unity!

GRACE FOR ALL

This flood of grace is for the whole Church, not just for some, and none of us is the "master" and the others servants. No. We are all servants of this flood of grace.

POWER OF PRAISE

... You constantly remind the Church of the power of prayer of praise. Praise that is the prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving for Gods gracious love.

THREE ESSENTIALS

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, praise, social action. The three things are inseparably linked. I can give deep thanks, but if I do not help those in need, it is not enough. "There was not a needy person among them", says the Book of Acts (4:35)

BASIS OF JUDGMENT

We will be judged, not on our praise but on what we have done for Jesus. "Lord, when did we do this to You? When you did it for one of these little ones, you did it to Me" (cf Mt 25:39-40)

"THE CHURCH COUNTS ON YOU"

Thank you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, for what you have given to the Church in these fifty years! The Church counts on you, on your fidelity to God's word, on your readiness to serve, and on your testimony of lives transformed by the Holy Spirit!

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

To share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church, to praise the Lord unceasingly, to walk together with Christians of different Churches and Ecclesial Communities in prayer and activity on behalf of those in greatest need, to serve the poor and the sick. This is what the Church and the Pope expect from you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but also from everyone here: all of you who have become part of this flood of grace.

(Source: Address at Pentecost Vigil of Prayer, June 3, 2017)
MARGATE  City officials are prepared to suspend without pay any city employees indicted as a result of an alleged federal investigation into Margate employees health benefits.

Mayor Mike Becker said Saturday he would like to wait until the situation plays out entirely before taking any permanent action against city employees.

This is America, so people may get charged, but theyre innocent until theyre found guilty by a jury or make a deal. In the meantime, I should think that we should suspend everybody (indicted) without pay until this is adjudicated, he said.

However, no charges have been filed at this point, and no investigation has been acknowledged by the federal government. The spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office, District of New Jersey, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Special Agent Jessica Weisman of the FBIs Northfield office said she could not comment on the matter.

Becker said he was surprised to learn Friday of a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorneys Office in June requesting information from the city about employee health benefits.

It astounded me, he said.

According to an NBC10 report, the subpoena asks for a list of all police, fire and city employees who have health insurance plans through benefit providers ExpressScripts, Medco and/or NJ Direct. No reason was given for why the subpoena request was made.

The report also notes the citys brand-name prescription drug costs increased from $713,935 in 2014 to $3.351 million in 2015, with only a small increase in the number of prescriptions filled. Becker said he could not speculate on the reason for the increase.

Ive heard all the same rumors that everybody has heard, but until we get to the bottom of it, we really dont know, he said.

Becker said the cost of health benefits paid by the city and funded by local property taxes could be affected by the large jump in prescription costs.

You get charged according to your experience, he said.

The small but affluent island city of Margate has 116 employees covered under the state health benefits plan, according to its 2017 user-friendly budget, which breaks down employee health costs. The budget includes an appropriation of $2.5 million for the citys contribution toward employee health benefits.

Defense attorney Rocco Cipparone of Haddon Heights, Camden County, who has represented clients in various federal fraud cases, said the details of the subpoena are too scarce to make an assumption of what investigators are looking for. He said there are many reasons investigators may be requesting such information.

A lot of times you see them in health care fraud cases and fraud cases that relate to sometimes a physician overbilling. You might see it in a political corruption investigation, Cipparone said.

As far as the prescription cost increase, Cipparone said it was not fair to speculate at this point.

Its a pretty significant leap, but its hard to know whether there are or there are not legitimate reasons for that. There can be legitimate reasons that those costs increase, he said.
Duplicate bridge results announced

CHARLESTON -- The results of the duplicate bridge game played on July 10 are:

1 Rich Brummer - Grant Sterling

2/3 Mark Daily - David Stevens

2/3 Jack Nanda - Randy Malone

3B Eric Bizzell - Donna Swick

The next game will be on Monday at 6:45 p.m. at the First Christian Church in Charleston.

Art Talk Tuesday set at Flourishes

SHELBYVILLE -- Local artists of all skill levels are welcome to join the free sessions at Art Talk Tuesday at Flourishes Gallery & Studios, located at 140 1/2 E. Main.

Sessions begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesdays. This week's topic will be critique time -- bring one or more creations for suggestive comments.

There is no cost or registration needed. For more information, call 217-827-5690.

Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society to meet

SULLIVAN -- The Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society will hold their monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Heritage Center in Sullivan.

The program for the evening will be presented by Alice Cisne, librarian at the Arthur Public Library. Her program will be on Irish lace, when it came to Ireland, why it is different than other lace and how the production and sale of the lace saved many Irish during the great potato famine.

If you have any Irish lace, antique lace or lace that is a family heirloom please bring it to share with the others attending.

PFLAG to hold July meeting

CHARLESTON -- PFLAG Charleston plans to meet from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library Rotary Room.

Representatives from the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (www.illinoissafeschools.org) will be present to discuss their work supporting gender/sexually diverse students across the state, current judicial rulings impacting area schools, and ideas on what can be done to make and keep our communities safe for all students.

The public is invited for an informal but informative discussion, especially all teachers, school counselors, or administrators.
Last week, Veterans Affairs posted a list of hundreds of VA employees fired or punished for misconduct since the Trump administration took over on Jan. 20. A good start, but not enough.

The VA, where vets died waiting for care, is a glaring example of whats wrong with the entire civil service. It has become a federal employee protection racket.

Workers in every part of the bureaucracy who commit serious wrongs like tax evasion, watching porn on the job or robbing a bank during nonwork hours, typically keep their jobs and even get bonuses. Back in 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act to replace patronage with civil service, so workers would be hired and paid based on merit. Not now. Federal workers get hefty salaries and benefits regardless of their work, with no risk of getting fired. One kind of corruption has been replaced with another.

Even worse, these bureaucrats churn out regulations that invade peoples lives and stifle economic growth, all the while thumbing their noses at the electorate. Theres nothing civil about these servants.

President Trump warns that ever-expanding government is as big a threat to the American way of life as terrorism. The creep of government bureaucracy, he said in Warsaw last week, drains the vitality and wealth of the people. Anyone tangled in government red tape while filing taxes or trying to get permits to build a house or open a business knows this firsthand. Bureaucracy smothers individual initiative and saps the human spirit.

Trumps moving ahead to meet this threat. On Jan. 30, the new president ordered all federal departments to eliminate two regulations for every one that gets added.

Since then, he has signed 15 laws rolling back Obama-era regulations that tried to meddle in peoples livelihoods. For example, dictating how investors buy stocks, where ranchers graze cattle and how teachers are trained.

He has also appointed task forces to comb through and eliminate costly and unnecessary regulations at each agency.

On Monday, Trump won Senate confirmation for a hard-charging anti-bureaucrat, Neomi Rao, to lead the administrations battle against federal red tape.

Economic revival hinges on winning this battle. Federal regulations drag down growth by an estimated 0.8 percent a year, according to the American Enterprise Institute. With growth averaging only a puny 1.5 percent a year during Obamas tenure, who can afford such a huge bite out of the economy?

And theres more than dollars and cents at stake. Deregulation will protect democracy. Right now, unelected bureaucrats try to call the shots, no matter who is president. Like Sally Yates, the Justice Department lifer whom Trump fired for refusing to enforce his travel ban. Federal office buildings are filled with Sally Yates wannabes, particularly in the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trumps biggest challenge is defanging the bureaucrats in every agency who are determined to thwart his America First, free-market agenda. A staggering 95 percent of campaign donations from employees at 14 federal agencies went to Hillary Clinton last fall. And since Trumps inauguration, its common for midlevel bureaucrats to talk of refusing to implement Trump administration policies. They glorify it as civil disobedience. But who elected them? Its really insubordination.

Good luck firing most of these insubordinates, or any federal employee for that matter. Last month, the president signed a bill making modest improvements in employee accountability in just one department, the VA. Thats the most that could be passed while the Democratic Party has the votes in the U.S. Senate to block real civil service reform. Public sector unions fill the partys coffers and man the phone banks for Democratic candidates.

Even when faced with dead vets, Democratic lawmakers blocked real reform of the warped system that keeps bad VA employees on the job. If Trump cant reform the civil service, the best alternative is to curb the power these servants hold over peoples lives. And thats just what President Trump is doing.

Betsy McCaughey is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and a former lieutenant governor of New York State. Contact her at betsy@betsymccaughey.com.
DURHAM, North Carolina and WILMINGTON, North Carolina, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcami, a leading provider of custom development and manufacturing services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, today announced plans to transition its global headquarters to Durham, North Carolina. The decision to expand Alcami's presence within Research Triangle Park (RTP) reinforces its commitment to the ongoing innovation and growth within the region.

"We are very excited about this relocation, which prominently positions Alcami in a region known for its culture of diverse expertise, cutting-edge innovation and invention," stated Dr. Stephan Kutzer, Ph.D., Alcami President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our stronger presence in the Triangle is necessary to meet the evolving needs of our clients, accommodate growth, recruit top talent, and attract investors and new customers."

Alcami employs approximately 50 people at its current Durham, NC laboratory services site and anticipates adding critical new jobs to support its technology expansion into biologics and establishment of its new headquarters location in 2018. The company will continue to house executive offices in both its current Wilmington, NC headquarters and Durham, NC facilities until the full transition is complete.

Alcami will maintain its strong community ties in Wilmington, NC, where it employs over 450 employees and recently established a collaboration with the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The company remains committed to its Wilmington manufacturing and laboratory operations, where it recently invested approximately $6 million as part of its 5,000 sq. ft. laboratory services expansion and serialization upgrade for drug product packaging. Alcami's Wilmington operations account for approximately 35 percent of the company's overall business.

"North Carolina is home to Alcami, and our expansion in the Research Triangle Park area is an investment in the future of the company," Kutzer said.

ABOUT ALCAMI

Alcami is a world-class contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) headquartered in North Carolina, with executive offices in Durham and Wilmington. With over 1,000 employees operating at seven sites globally, Alcami provides customizable and innovative services to small and mid-size pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies by offering individualized and integrated services across multiple areas. We connect our clients with innovative solutions for API development and manufacturing, solid-state chemistry, formulation development, analytical development and testing services, clinical and commercial finished dosage form manufacturing (oral solid dose and parenteral), packaging, and stability services. For more information, please visit www.alcaminow.com.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/344471/Alcami_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.alcaminow.com



SOURCE Alcami Corporation
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.
PHILADELPHIA, July 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterin Inc., a Philadelphia-based biotechnology company developing novel compounds to treat Parkinson's disease (PD), today announced the completion of a $12.7 million Series A financing round. The financing included new investors New Ventures III, as well as the participation of existing investors.

"We are absolutely thrilled to have the support of New Ventures III and our current investors, and view the caliber of our investors as validation of the potential of our platform technology to transform the course of PD and of other neurodegenerative diseases," said Michael Zasloff, M.D. Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Enterin. He added, "The proceeds from this financing will enable us to complete the ongoing Phase 2 study in PD, further expand our understanding of the role of alpha-synuclein (aS) in the pathology of PD and begin to explore other indications. We are very excited about working with this outstanding group of investors, and bringing their deep expertise and guidance to bear as we progress our development."

Enterin also announced that Mark Finn, Founding Partner at New Ventures III, has joined the company's Board of Directors, representing the Series A investor class.

The announcement coincides with an ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial, sponsored by Enterin Inc., targeting the accumulation of aS in the enteric nervous system. The trial is examining the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ENT-01 to relieve constipation associated with Parkinson's disease. "While the study is focused on functional improvement of the enteric nervous system, we are closely monitoring central nervous system symptoms such as sleep, REM-behavior disorder, depression, fatigue and even motor symptoms," said Denise Barbut, M.D. F.R.C.P., Co-Founder, President and Chief Medical Officer of Enterin. She added, "The drug has the potential to slow the progression of PD and of other neurodegenerative disorders in which dysfunction of the enteric nervous system plays a part." Details of the RASMET study can be found on clinicaltrials.gov. ENT-01 is an oral drug that contains a synthetic derivative of squalamine.

Research recently published by Dr. Zasloff and collaborators demonstrated that squalamine both reduced the formation of toxic S clumps and their toxicity in animal models of Parkinson's disease. Most recently, the founders and their colleagues demonstrated that aS is induced in response to viral gastrointestinal infections in children and that it brings in the immune system to help defend the nervous system and the gut. Links to the articles and to related press coverage can be found at the Enterin website.

About Enterin Inc.

Enterin Inc. is the first company in the world to develop a novel drug that repairs the dysfunctional gut-brain axis in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Enterin Inc. is pioneering the medical community's understanding of the link between infections, dysfunction of the enteric nervous system of the gut, and the early onset and chronic progression of neurodegenerative disease. The lead compound, ENT-01, displaces membrane-bound alpha-synuclein (S) aggregates from nerve cells in the enteric nervous system and improves neural signaling between the gut and the brain in preclinical models of Parkinson's disease. In the gut, this results in improved mobility. Enterin Inc. is now progressing ENT-01 through clinical trials aimed at reversing the constipation of Parkinson's disease. For more information, please visit www.enterininc.com.

About New Ventures III

New Ventures is a leading healthcare venture capital firm focusing on innovating and disruptive areas in life sciences and healthcare. New Ventures invests globally throughout the healthcare industry, from new businesses to royalties on developed drugs. The New Ventures team is a group of co-founders, entrepreneurial operators, and investors with over 100 years of experience. The team has a history of collaborating on various projects together building companies and investing in life sciences, healthcare and agriculture. Our team understands the science and technology breakthroughs needed to achieve radical change that improves the human condition and simultaneously creates value for our investors. To learn more about New Ventures, please visit www.newventuresfunds.com.

Contact

Enterin Inc.

[email protected]

SOURCE Enterin Inc.

Related Links

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HONOLULU, July 15, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday's tragic high-rise fire is a sombering reminder that high-rise buildings without fire sprinklers place occupants and firefighters at great risk. 3 people are confirmed dead and over 15 injured in a 5-alarm fire that started on the 26th floor of the Marco Polo building.

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), Common Voices, and the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors and all those we represent sends our heartfelt sorrow to the victims and survivors of this tragic fire as well as the firefighters who had to face the challenges and trauma of such an incident. It is our hope that all Hawaii policy makers learn from this fire and work toward fire sprinkler retrofit legislation to ensure that it won't happen again.

"We hope the reminder provided in this fire will encourage Honolulu to stand with America's fire service and citizens alike and pursue high-rise fire sprinkler retrofit requirements," adds Chief Ron Siarnicki, NFFF Executive Director. "Firefighter and citizen lives will be saved as a result of a proactive decision that supports the NFFF Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, specifically Initiative 15. We need more policy makers that understand how life safety does impact quality of life, as well as preserving life."

"As a survivor of the Station Nightclub Fire, I understand the fire problem in America better than most," explains Rob Feeney, a fire safety advocate for Common Voices and the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. "I lost friends and loved ones in that fire and it amazes me that we don't have laws that can prevent this from happening again by requiring fire sprinklers. My hope is that everyone will see what happened in Honolulu and unite to retrofit these high-rise buildings with fire sprinklers."

"We should not see pictures, videos, and read stories of fire in buildings like this or a single family home in America," adds Tim Sendelbach, Editor in Chief of Firehouse Magazine, who spent a very successful career in several fire departments. "We have known for over 30 years what the solution to the problem is and we have recently learned that the problem is getting worse, as shown by these tragedies."

Federal legislation (S.602 & H.R. 1481), filed in the 115th Congress, would provide incentives to owners to retrofit with fire sprinklers. This legislation is what America is all about, a public/private partnership that keeps citizens and firefighters safe while saving businesses money. Hopefully, America's congressional leaders will realize that this legislation can help prevent tragedies like those that happened last week in London.

For more details about the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Life Safety Initiatives, please visit www.firehero.org . NFFF was created by Congress to lead a nationwide effort to remember America's fallen firefighters. Since 1992, the tax-exempt, non-profit foundation has developed and expanded programs to honor our fallen fire heroes and assist their families and coworkers.

About Common Voices: Common Voices (www.fireadvocates.org) is an advocates' coalition of members who all have been directly affected by fire. By bringing their voices together, they hope to educate others regarding fire and its devastating impact. Their mission is to create a fire-safe America by sharing their stories, creating resources that educate and sharing fire statistics.

About Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors: Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors is the leading non-profit organization helping burn survivors meet their challenges with the community support and tools they need to thrive again, and to ensure that no survivor ever has to make that journey alone. Working with survivors, families, healthcare professionals, fire service professionals, we are uniting the voice of the burn community across the globe to profoundly advance lifelong healing, optimal recovery, and burn prevention. www.phoenix-society.org

For more information about fire sprinklers, how they work and access to additional resources and information, visit www.nfsa.org for the latest material, statistics, and a dedicated team of fire safety advocates ready to serve all stakeholders in order to fulfill the vision of a safer world.

Contact: Vickie Pritchett

615-533-0305

SOURCE National Fire Sprinkler Association

Related Links

http://www.nfsa.org


ATLANTA, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Learning Disabilities Association of America ("LDA"), which offers support for parents, educators, adults with LD and professionals at the national level as well as through a network of state affiliates, is making every shopping transaction count through a new partnership with Kula Causes, Inc. ("kula").

LDA supporters can earn donations for the Learning Disabilities Association of America when they shop their favorite retailers and brands in the kula SED (Shop, Earn, Donate) ecosystem. Members simply shop through kula's network of multi-channel retail partners and earn a percent back on each transaction which is then donated to LDA when LDA is selected as the Member's preferred charity. It's that easy.

"We are very excited about the partnership with kula because we know their platform provides a variety of meaningful opportunities that enable our constituents to donate to the Learning Disabilities Association of America while doing their everyday shopping. It's a win-win!" said Mary-Clare Reynolds, Executive Director for Learning Disabilities Association of America.

Now, LDA supporters can earn significant donations when they shop online, purchase retailer and dining gift cards, book hotel and rental car travel, secure tickets to sporting events and concerts, and much more.

"Working with the Learning Disabilities Association of America is a great opportunity. Not only do we help support a worthy cause that impacts thousands of people in every community but members get to support the cause without having to do anything extra. They're going to book the hotel trip anyway; might as well earn a donation," said Alan Goldstein, CEO of Kula Causes. "Best of all, our Fundraising Platform is free, effectively reducing LDA's cost per dollar raised."

About Learning Disabilities Association of America

Since 1963, LDA has provided support to people with learning disabilities, their parents, teachers and other professionals with cutting edge information on learning disabilities, practical solutions, and a comprehensive network of resources. These services make LDA the leading resource for information on learning disabilities.

About kula

kula's Fundraising Platform connects Businesses to Causes and their Supporters so that every purchase ends in a donation to the cause of the supporters' choice. This relationship effectively monetizes Cause marketing for Business while decreasing the cost and effort of raising money for Causes and the friction to give (time and money) for Supporters. To learn more visit www.kula.com.

Media Contact: Alan Goldstein, CEO kula Causes

(404) 946-1783

[email protected]

Related Links

website

SOURCE kula Causes

Related Links

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Vali and Sugriva are young veteran movie-going chimps "regulars" that attend all " Planet of the Apes " movie premieres, just like their human counterparts. While both are usually surrounded with an entourage of adoring friends, these two are excited to show their independence by paying for their tickets, popcorn, and juice just before heading into the cinema.

Throughout the movie, Vali and Sugriva remained both attentive and mesmerized, and celebrated various action scenes, alongside their human counterparts, with applause and cheers (or by throwing popcorn at the bad guys). At the end of the movie, both chimps gave the movie two thumbs up (as they have with all previous "Planet of the Apes" movies).

Vali and Sugriva's primary caretaker and founder/director of T.I.G.E.R.S. Myrtle Beach Safari, Doc Antle, is widely recognized as one of the foremost animal trainers in the world, having worked with thousands of animals and traveled the globe promoting the education and conservation of some of our planet's rarest and most endangered species. T.I.G.E.R.S. Myrtle Beach Safari and the Rare Species Fund are fully devoted and committed to educating the community and protecting endangered species such big cats, non-native bears, and great apes.

To see the video of Vali and Sugriva, please visit: https://youtu.be/HwzN-u1iN68. High res images are available at: https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/7SaHJO2tRX

To learn more about T.I.G.E.R.S. and Myrtle Beach Safari, please visit www.MyrtleBeachSafari.com.

About TIGERS:

The TIGERS Myrtle Beach Safari is home to more than 130 wild animals, including 60 big cats. The animals here are center stage in this fully interactive, hands-on experience, where you can cuddle up to tiger cubs, join the wolf pack, share a laugh with our apes, witness adult tigers running at full speed, and feed Bubbles, our African elephant. Plus, this is the only place in the world where you can meet the liger, the world's largest big cat weighing in at more than 900 pounds. Go ahead, reach out and touch the jungle and create a lifetime of memories.

Additional Photo & Video Assets for TIGERS:

http://myrtlebeachsafari.com/media/media-library/

Contact Susan Phillips

Cell 828-545-4093

Email [email protected]

Website www.MyrtleBeachSafari.com

SOURCE TIGERS Myrtle Beach Safari

Related Links

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NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "The PTFE membrane market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% in terms of value during the forecast period"

The PTFE membrane market was valued at USD 1.49 billion in 2015, and is projected to reach USD 2.32 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 7.7% from 2016 to 2021. The increasing demand for PTFE membrane in the medical & pharmaceutical industry and water & wastewater treatment applications is driving the market. Increasing regulations related to air and water pollution has further increased the consumption of PTFE membrane across industries. However, high cost of PTFE membrane is restraining the market.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04801481/PTFE-Membrane-Market-by-Type-Application-and-Region-Global-Forecast-to.html

"Hydrophilic PTFE membrane is expected to be the fastest-growing type segment of the PTFE membrane market from 2016 to 2021"

Hydrophilic PTFE membrane is expected to be the fastest-growing type segment during the forecast period, owing to its demand in growing applications in the filtration of liquid chemicals in chemical processing, medical & pharmaceutical, and electronic chemicals.

"Water & wastewater treatment is projected to be the fastest-growing application segment of the PTFE membrane market from 2016 to 2021"

Water & wastewater treatment is expected to be the fastest-growing application segment during the forecast period, due to the growing awareness regarding water conservation and need for optimum utilization of water. This has increased the use of PTFE membrane in the same. Moreover, increasing water treatment projects across the globe coupled with growing need for water purification and treatment of industrial wastewater has further fueled the growth of PTFE membrane.

"Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market for PTFE membrane"

Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market for PTFE membrane. The growth of the market is attributed to the increasing demand for PTFE membranes from various industries such as medical & pharmaceutical, chemical, automotive, petrochemical, and food & beverage in the emerging countries of the region. In Asia-Pacific region, countries such as, China, Japan, and Indonesia are leading producers of food and beverage and have contributed to a significant share to this industry.

This study has been validated through primaries conducted with various industry experts worldwide. The primary sources have been divided into three categories, namely, company type, designation, and region.

- By Company Type - Tier 1 - 25%, Tier 2  40%, and Tier 3 - 35%

- By Designation - C Level -10%, Director Level - 10%, and Others - 80%

- By Region - North America - 5%, Europe - 30%, Asia-Pacific - 55%, Middle East & Africa - 5%, and South America-5%

Companies profiled in the report:

General Electric Company (U.S.), Corning Inc. (U.S.), Donaldson Company, Inc. (U.S.), W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (U.S.), Merck Millipore Co. (U.S.), Pall Corporation (U.S.), Sartorius AG (Germany), Layne Christensen Company (U.S.), Zeus Incorporation (U.S.), Markel Corporation (U.S.) and Hyundai Micro Co., (South Korea) are the major manufacturers in the PTFE membrane market.

Research Coverage:

The report offers an insight on PTFE membrane used across different applications, end-use industries, and regions. It aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of this market across different segments such as, type, application, and region. Furthermore, the report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, SWOT analysis, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Key Benefits of Buying the Report:

The report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market by providing them the closest approximations of the revenues for the overall PTFE membrane market and its subsegments. This report will help stakeholders better understand the competitor landscape, and gain more insights to better position their businesses and devise suitable market strategies. The report will also help stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and acquire information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities impacting the growth of the market.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04801481/PTFE-Membrane-Market-by-Type-Application-and-Region-Global-Forecast-to.html

About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

http://www.reportlinker.com

Contact Clare:

[email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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UnionPay makes a new breakthrough in promoting international application of China's payment standard

SHANGHAI, July 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Promoted by UnionPay, EMVCo officially releases the EMVCo QR Code Specification for Payment Systems: Consumer-Presented Mode Version 1.0 on its website on July 15, 2017, providing one of the first globally interoperable technical solution for QR code payment. The issuing of this specification also marks a new breakthrough in UnionPay's promotion of the international application of China's payment standard.

UnionPay has taken the lead in promoting the issuing of the Specification. Back in June, 2016, UnionPay proposed to EMVCo to establish a safe, interoperable and open QR code payment system. EMVCo formed a working group for evolving the QR Code Specification and appointed UnionPay as the group leader in the next month. Drawing upon China's experience in developing QR code payment solutions, and based on the UnionPay QR Code Payment Specification, UnionPay led the group in drawing up the final technical solution. It merely took 12 months from the forming of the working group to the issuing of the Specification. It demonstrates UnionPay's strength and influence in developing international payment standards.

The QR Code Payment Specification that UnionPay issued to its members early this July is compatible with this EMVCo Specification. UnionPay has also promoted its internationally interoperable chip card standard in markets outside mainland China. The UnionPay chip card standard is not only the recommended standard for the payment industry of Thailand and Myanmar, but also the cross-border chip card standard for the Asian Payment Network. The adoption of the UnionPay standard helps the chip migration of the bankcard industry of these countries and regions as well as the integration with international standards.

Next, UnionPay will accelerate to promote its QR code products and services in markets outside mainland China. On the one hand, it will promote more partners to adopt the safer and internationally interoperable UnionPay standard in the acceptance and issuance of QR code payment. In fact, UnionPay, together with Visa and Mastercard, has made the EMVCo QR code specification the specification recommended by the Bank of Thailand to the local financial institutions and merchants. On the other, UnionPay will collaborate with financial institutions and merchant groups in expanding the acceptance of its QR code payment in fields of transport, hospital, social security and education, while offering digital wallet products to meet overseas customers' diverse demands for mobile payments. Now, some merchants in Hong Kong and Singapore have accepted the UnionPay QR code payment, which will be accepted in Southeast, Northeast and Central Asia soon.

Since joining in EMVCo in May 2013, UnionPay has actively taken part in evolving and implementing the EMV Specifications, ensuring the compatibility of the UnionPay standards with the EMV Specifications. From July 2015 to June 2016, UnionPay acted as Chair of EMVCo's Management Committee and it has been Chair of EMVCo's Executive Committee since July 5, 2017.

SOURCE UnionPay International
OTTAWA, Ontario, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Valerie A.R. Keyes is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a 2017 Pinnacle Professional of the Year for her work in the field of Military Services.

Valerie is the Director of Personnel Security and Identity Management with Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. With the mission to protect Canada and defending its sovereignty, the Canadian Armed Forces supports freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights throughout the globe.



In the industry for over thirty five years as both a military officer and a civilian employee, Valerie is a seasoned expert now responsible for the oversight of identity management systems and security clearance. She also participates in countless mentoring, public speaking and lecturing engagements.



A member of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and Association of Professional Public Executive Services of Canada, Valerie enjoys volunteering at her church in her free time and is working on a doctorate in the application of the studies of ignorance on public policy.



Heavily knowledgeable in the industry, Valerie holds two graduate degrees. She earned her Master of Science in Leadership from Washington University in St Louis. (St. Louis, MO) and Master of Arts in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada.



For more information, please visit www.forces.gc.ca



Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

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Picture use

Unless otherwise stated all photos on this site are copyrighted  Jim Budd. They should not be used without authorisation and due credit. Please contact me on budmac@btinternet.com for all use. There will usually be a charge for use in commercial publications  papers, magazines, websites etc. and for other commercial uses. Photos that are used for commercial use without permission will be charged double  the fee for the use of photo and for breach of copyright. Commercial organisations asking to use photos for no payment may not always receive a polite response.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Lucknow, July 11 : The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh presented its maiden Budget of Rs 3,84,659 crore in the assembly on Tuesday, earmarking Rs 36,000 crore for a loan waiver for farmers.

Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal presented the Budget for 2017-18, which envisages 10.90 per cent more allocations than the previous one.

He also reiterated the Bharatiya Janata Party government's commitment to the welfare of farmers and marginalised sections of society.

Many schemes, including a Rs 300-crore Urban Development Scheme and a Rs 380-crore Malin Basti Development Scheme, have been named after Bharatiya Jana Sangh ideologue late Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, whose centenary year is being celebrated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a big way.

Agarwal said the government proposed to recruit 1.50 lakh policemen and allocate Rs 791.83 crore for scholarships to boys and girls from the minority community.

A revenue target of Rs 17,458,34 crore has been set for the Stamp and Registration Department while another Rs 5,481,20 crore is proposed to be collected through taxation on vehicles.

A revenue target of Rs 20,593,23 crore has been set for the Excise Department, a major money-spinner for the state.

The government has also earmarked Rs 36,000 for a loan waiver for farmers, a promise it made during the February-March assembly polls.

The Minister said the Chief Minister had set a target of 10 per cent growth of state economy in five years.

As many as Rs 100 crore are proposed to be spent on distribution of school bags, uniforms, and books for schoolchildren, Rs 19,444 crore on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rs 2,054 crore on midday meals, Rs 551 crore on secondary education, Rs 191 crore on higher education, Rs 52 crore on hostels meant for Other Backward Classes students, and Rs 394 crore on modernisation of recognised madrasas.

Soon after the Budget presentation, the Chief Minister told media persons that the Budget, as per the BJP's commitment, focussed on farmers, youths, women, and the marginalised sections of society.

Claiming a turnaround in the fortunes of the state's people, Adityanath said: "Results of the budgetary provisions will start showing on the state's development very soon."
Chandigarh, July 11 : Senior lawyer and AAP legislator H.S. Phoolka on Tuesday resigned as the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly to be able to continue to fight cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims in courts.

Phoolka submitted his resignation to Speaker Rana K.P. Singh here on Tuesday.

His move follows directions from the Delhi Bar Council disallowing Phoolka from contesting cases of the riot victims in various courts, saying that he held an "office of profit" as Leader of Opposition, due to which he enjoyed the rank and perks of a state Cabinet Minister.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will now have to choose a new legislature party leader.

Phoolka had earlier said that he had asked party National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal to select somebody else as the legislature party leader and had suggested the names of Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Kanwar Sandhu and Aman Arora.

"I will continue to fight for the rights of the riot victims which I have been doing for so many years," he had said.

Having emerged as the second largest party with 20 legislators in the 117-member Assembly in the Feburary elections, the AAP has got the post of the Leader of Opposition.

This was the first outing for AAP in the Punjab Assembly polls. It named Phoolka as its leader in the house in March.
Panaji, July 12 : BJP legislator Nilesh Cabral on Wednesday threatened a protest sit-in if those responsible for vandalising graves and Crosses at a Catholic cemetery in his constituency were not arrested before the state assembly's monsoon session ends.

The three-week assembly session begins on July 18.

Cabral, one of the several Catholic legislators of the ruling Bharatiyta Janata Party, on Wednesday said: "These desecrations are a threat to my government."

"Police have to act quickly and arrest those responsible for it or else I will sit on a dharna outside the Curchorem police station before the assembly session ends."

"I will also be raising this issue in the assembly session. Police need to modernise in order to catch such culprits," the Curchorem legislator told IANS.

Cabral's statement comes in the wake of a series of vandal attacks on Catholic and Hindu religious symbols, including the incident on Monday when several Catholic Crosses were smashed and gravestones broken at a cemetery in south Goa's Curchorem town, 45 km from here.

The Goa Archbishop as well as Governor Mridula Sinha on Tuesday urged the state police to effectively probe the series of vandal attacks.
Islamabad, July 13 : Four policemen were shot dead in Pakistan's Quetta city on Thursday, the media reported.

The gunmen opened indiscriminate fire at a police vehicle while it was patrolling the city's Killi Deba area, Dawn news quoted officials as saying.

Superintendent of Police Quaidabad Mubarak Shah was among the victims. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Agartala, July 13 : A Tripura tribal party delegation is to hold discussions with the central government over its demand for a separate state even as the party has been blockading a vital national highway and the state's lone railway track for the past four days, causing hardship to people.

The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal dominated party, has been blocking National Highway-8, the life line of Tripura, and the state's lone railway line to press for its demand for a separate state.

IPFT General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and the party's youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura left here for Delhi on Thursday morning to meet Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh and Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister.

The four-day road and rail blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets in Tripura.

"We would meet Jitendra Singh and Home Ministry officials or the Home Minister to discuss about our demand. Depending on the outcome of the meetings in Delhi, we will either withdraw the blockade or continue the stir," Mevar Kumar Jamatia told IANS before heading to New Delhi.

"We have already sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between us, the Centre and state governments to resolve the matter," he said.

The tribal leader said that since 2009, the IPFT has been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas. "The Left Front government in the state and the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the Centre did not give importance to our demand."

He said the IPFT leaders earlier held four meetings with the central ministers and officials and the government had assured their demands would be considered.

"We had our last meeting with Jitendra Singh on May 17 in New Delhi where we discussed our demands and the Minister promised to consider our demand. He also assured that a tri-partite meeting would be convened involving the Centre, state government and the IPFT over our demand."

Singh is also Minister of State for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER).

The IPFT leader said: "In Delhi, the National Federation for New States took up the issue with the PMO and Home Ministry. We also submitted a memorandum to the Tripura Governor (Tathagata Roy) demanding his intervention."

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH-8 and the lone railway line passes.

Most of the political parties, including the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rejected IPFT's demands saying it is not practical to divide the small state.

State Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Bhanulal Saha said : "The state government once again urges the IPFT to call off the blockade considering the sufferings of the people and possible crisis of essentials, food grains and fuels."

All the political parties and civil society have vehemently condemned the IPFT workers' nude dance in front of the media to draw attention to their blockade.
New Delhi, July 13 : Aiming for a larger pie of the premium segment in India, Taiwanese electronics giant ASUS has unveiled its flagship 'ZenFone AR' smartphone -- the world's first Google Tango-enabled and Google Daydream View-ready smartphone with a huge 8GB RAM -- for the consumers.

First showcased at 'CES 2017' in January this year, the 5.7-inch ZenFone AR with a unique rear tri-camera system and 128GB internal storage (expendable up to 2 TB) will be available exclusively on Flipkart for Rs 49,999 from 4 p.m. on July 13.

The tri-camera system has 23MP main camera, a depth-sensing camera and motion-tracking camera with a "Super Resolution" mode that can create massive 92MP image and capture 4K-UHD video.

The device sports 8MP selfie camera.

"With ZenFone AR, we desire to turn your physical world into a magical world by enabling it to perceive space and motion that goes beyond the boundaries of a touch screen," Peter Chang, Regional Head, South Asia & Country Head, System Business Group-ASUS India, told reporters here on Thursday.

"We're excited to be a part of the augmented reality (AR) universe, which will soon be part of our lifestyle," he added.

In close cooperation with Google and Qualcomm, 'ZenFone AR' delivers high-quality AR and virtual reality (VR) experiences and is the thinnest and lightest Tango-enabled device, featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor.

Tango is an AR computing platform developed by Google.

The device has 5.7-inch 2K display and comes with ASUS SonicMaster 3.0 technology.

A five-magnet speaker driven by a powerful "NXP smart amplifier" delivers clear, expansive sound.

ZenFone AR that runs on Android 7.0 Nougat is paired with the Google Daydream View VR headset and controller.

"ASUS TriCam" system consists of three rear cameras -- a motion-tracking camera, depth-sensing camera and a Sony IMX318 image sensor 23MP PixelMaster 3.0 camera - that provide input to Tango, enabling smartphone AR experiences for users.

The camera has a four-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) photo and three-axis electronic image stabilisation (EIS) video.

It also boasts a 'Super Resolution' mode that creates ultra-high resolution, 92MP photos by capturing and combining four native 23MP photos to create a single image with exceptional clarity, greater detail and less noise.

ZenFone AR also offers photographers the freedom to shoot and store compositions in RAW format and has several professional manual creative controls, like white balance, exposure value (EV), ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, and focus.

ZenFone AR is backed by a 3,300mAh battery pack with Quick Charge 3.0 charging technology by Qualcomm. This technology enables 60 per cent battery charge in 45 minutes.

Users can avail a discount of Rs 2,500 on Google Daydream View VR Headset, along with the purchase of ZenFone AR on Flipkart.
Thimphu, July 13 : For the people of this Himalayan kingdom, it's more convenient to travel with India than to be at a crossroads with China.

They say India and Bhutan have long cherished ties -- even sharing common Buddhist traditions -- and they feel themselves more secure in the hands of India. They want China to respect their sovereignty and end the ongoing standoff.

"We are a small Himalayan nation and can be missed easily by anyone. It's only India, our long trusted friend, that is shielding us from external aggression," government employee Dorjee Wangchuk, 52, said in Bhutan's capital of Thimphu.

He told this IANS visiting correspondent that Chinese "ulterior motives" of developing infrastructure along the Bhutanese border is risky for this nation, though it's guarded naturally by the mighty mountains.

India is not only Bhutan's main development partner but also its largest trading partner.

The first Agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit between India and Bhutan was signed in 1972. Since then, the agreement has been renewed four times -- the last one in November.

A Bhutanese analyst based in the capital sees no threat to diplomatic relations between India and Bhutan that were formally established in 1968 with the appointment of a resident representative of India in Thimphu. Beijing so far has not opened an embassy in Thimphu.

"Since then both nations (India and Bhutan) share cordial relations that mutually suit both sides," said the analyst, who wished not to be named.

He said the Chinese maneuvers by trying to construct roads in Doklam region is not only a violation of the 1998 Bhutan-China bilateral agreement for maintaining peace on the border, but also a veiled threat to cut off the national capital from the gateway for import of food and other materials from India.

"The current standoff will not be able to force us to desert India as an ally and opt for China," added the analyst, who is a former government senior functionary.

History says the seeds of the India-Bhutan friendship were sown in 1958 when then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Bhutan that shares a 605-km long border with India and 470-km with China.

Another resident, Dorji Tshering said the ongoing standoff on the Bhutan border between Indian and Chinese troops is a matter of concern.

"The tension should be ended immediately and China should abandon construction of road along our borders. Since we don't have any diplomatic ties with Beijing, we expect it should respect our sovereignty and help restore peace and tranquility in the region," he added.

Beijing has termed the construction of a road also close to the Sino-India border as "legitimate", saying it is being built on Chinese territory.

Sittichai Sunglung, a businessman based in Paro town, the picturesque valley known for growing red rice, said most of Bhutan's imports, including rice and lentils, are coming from India.

"China might be eyeing its market in our country. So it can be seen as an opportunity, not a threat," he added.

According to the Indian Embassy, the government of India has committed to support Bhutan's 11th Five Year Plan (July 2013 to June 2018) to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore. There is also a commitment for an additional Rs 500 crore for the Economic Stimulus Plan.

In 2015, bilateral trade reached Rs. 8,554 crore, which grew by about 7.3 per cent. Imports from India were Rs. 5,374 core, accounting for 79 percent of Bhutan's total imports.

Bhutan's exports to India stood at Rs 3,180 crore, including electricity, and constituted 90.3 per cent of its total exports.

The Indian Army has been managing Bhutan's borders and is posted on crucial border posts along China. The army's Border Roads Organisation is building a road network in the Himalayan nation.

(Vishal Gulati is in Thimphu at the invitation of Gyalwang Drukpa. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Agartala, July 14 : Causing serious hardship to people and leading to a crisis in essentials and food grains, a Tripura tribal party continued its blockade of the state's main national highway and the lone railway track for the fifth day on Friday to push for a separate state.

The blockade continues as a delegation of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has been blocking the National Highway-8, the life line of Tripura, and the state's lone railway line, is in New Delhi to meet Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh and Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister.

"Since yesterday (Thursday) two of our leaders are waiting in Delhi to meet Jitendra Singh, Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister or Minister of State. Depending on the outcome of the meetings in Delhi, we will either withdraw the blockade or continue with it," IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma told IANS.

On the threat of some IPFT leaders to spread the stir to other parts of the state if talks with the Centre fail, the party chief remained non-committal.

IPFT General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and the party's youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura are in New Delhi to meet with central government leaders.

The indefinite blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, food grains, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets of Tripura.

A senior legal expert Purushottam Roy Barman, secretary of Tripura Human Rights Organisation, said that according to the National Highways Act blockading of National Highways is prohibited and the central government could take appropriate steps to clear any obstructions in the normal plying of vehicles.

The Left Front government in a press note once again urged the IPFT leaders to withdraw the blockade.

"The Left Front government has been opposing the demand for a separate state as the demand is extremely unrealistic. People of Tripura have no support for this demand," the note said.

Debbarma, a tribal leader and former station director of All India Radio, Agartala, said: "Since 2009, we have been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas. The Left Front government in the state and the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the Centre did not give importance to our demand."

The IPFT has sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between them, the Centre and state government to resolve the matter.

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

TTAADC's Chief Executive Member (CEM) and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) tribal leader Radha Charan Debbarma said on Friday: "We have been demanding that the Centre give more powers and financial aid to the constitutional body.

"The central government has been considering giving more administrative and constitutional powers to all the tribal autonomous bodies in the northeastern region.

"Separate state demand would not help in development of the tribals and it would also upset the tribal and non-tribal ethnic unity and harmony," Debbarma told the media.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH-8 and the lone railway line passes.

Most of the political parties, including the ruling CPI-M, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rejected IPFT's demands saying it is not practical to divide the small state.
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Moscow, July 15 : Russia's Foreign Ministry experienced "large-scale" cyber-attacks originating in Iran and Hungary last month, according to spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

On Friday, Zakharova said the attacks on the ministry's mail server, which occurred on June 29, "resulted in grave consequences", reports The Moscow Times.

Hackers briefly accessed electronic correspondence between the ministry's staff, Zakharova told reporters during a regular briefing.

The ministry's system administrators temporarily blocked its mail service to stave off the attack, she said.

This is the first time Russia's Foreign ministry has said its servers were successfully hacked.

When a US hacker boasted last October he had successfully hacked the ministry website, Zakharova said he had targeted a defunct version of the sitem The Moscow Times reported.

Zakharova said that 88 per cent of all visits to the site were cyber-atatckers with US IP addresses.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in January revealed its website had been under "hundreds and thousands" of attacks every day from different countries, including China, India and the European Union.
Washington, July 15 : To mark the two-year anniversary of New Horizons' historic Pluto flyby, NASA has released new maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, revealing their complex terrain.

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flight through the Pluto system - providing the first close-up images of Pluto and its moons and collecting other data that has transformed our understanding of these mysterious worlds on the solar system's outer frontier.

Scientists are still analysing and uncovering data that New Horizons recorded and sent home after the encounter.

On the two-year anniversary of the flyby, the team is unveiling a set of detailed, high-quality global maps of Pluto and Charon.

"The complexity of the Pluto system -- from its geology to its satellite system to its atmosphere -- has been beyond our wildest imagination," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"Everywhere we turn are new mysteries. These new maps from the landmark exploration of Pluto by NASA's New Horizons mission in 2015 will help unravel these mysteries and are for everyone to enjoy," Stern added.

The spacecraft is now 5.7 billion kilometres from Earth, venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt to reach its next target.

On New Year's Day 2019, New Horizons will zoom past a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69, NASA said.
Islamabad, July 15 : Pakistan is aware of the threats emanating from hostile intelligence agencies, especially India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), against the country and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a senior Pakistani Army officer has said.

According to Dawn News, Chairman Joint Chiefs of the Staff Committee, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, said on Saturday RAW was operating from Afghanistan and other locations to create unrest in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan.

"Their designs (and) oblique actions to sabotage CPEC are also well known," he said while attending a ceremony at the Pakistan Naval Academy near Karachi.

Pointing to the existential threat emanating from India, Hayat said that asymmetry had reached a critical threshold in the east.

In order to counter such threats, Pakistan's armed forces are committed to undertaking "synergetic national efforts", he said.
Pyongyang, July 15 : North Korea's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published an article branding the South Korean president's offer of cross-border rapprochement as misleading.

President Moon Jae-in's proposal, made during a speech in Berlin last week, adds obstacles to achieving peace rather than helping to improve inter-Korean relations, Efe news quoted the article as saying.

"(The initiative) is riddled with sophistries like sleep talking, which only pose hurdles rather than helping improve North-South relations" the piece said.

The newspaper dismissed Moon's proposal, and called for a "fundamental shift in policy and stance" from Seoul in order to initiate bilateral dialogue and cooperation.

In his speech in Berlin, Moon said he was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "under the right conditions", and proposed resuming meetings of family members who were separated by the Korean War.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's repeated nuclear weapons tests, Moon also proposed that the two sides suspend hostile acts along their border.

Since he assumed office in May, South Korea's Liberal president has attempted to resume dialogue with Pyongayng.
New Delhi, July 15 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday to discuss the security situation in the valley in the wake of the Amarnath terror attack.

She said Monday night's attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in which seven persons were killed was aimed at "disturbing communal harmony".

She also blamed the Kashmir unrest on "external forces", during an interaction with the media after meeting the Home Minister at his residence here.

The Chief Minister also thanked Singh for "supporting us in tough times".

"In Kashmir we are not fighting for law and order situation. External forces are involved in the Kashmir unrest and until the whole nation and all the political parties are united, we cannot win this fight," she said.
Manila, July 15 : One hundred and thirty million people living in low-lying coastal areas in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are at high risk of being displaced by the end of the century due to floods, a report has said.

It warned that by 2050 Mumbai, Chennai, Surat and Kolkata will be among 13 of the top 20 cities in the Asia-Pacific region to face huge losses due to annual flooding.

The flooding would significantly impact the region that has a population of around four billion people besides affecting the world economically, the report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said.

The unabated climate change would severely affect their future growth, reversing current development gains and degrading the quality of life.

The increase in temperature would lead to drastic changes in the region's weather system, agriculture and fisheries sectors, land and marine biodiversity, domestic and regional security, trade, urban development, migration and health, the report added.

The southern states of India were set to witness a decline of rice yields by five per cent by the 2030s, 14.5 per cent by 2050s and 17.0 per cent in the 2080s. The temperature here would increase by more than one degree Celsius, it said.

"The global climate crisis is arguably the biggest challenge human civilisation faces in the 21st century, with the Asia and Pacific region at the heart of it all," said Bambang Susantono, Vice-President (Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development) at ADB.

"Home to two-thirds of the world's poor and regarded as one of the most vulnerable region to climate change, countries in the region are at the highest risk of plummeting into deeper poverty -- and disaster -- if mitigation and adaptation efforts are not quickly and strongly implemented," Susantono added.

According to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Professor and Director at PIK, the Asian countries hold the Earth's future in their hands.

Noting that the challenge is two-fold, Schellnhuber said Asian greenhouse gas emissions have to be reduced in a way that the global community could limit planetary warming to well below two degrees Celsius, as agreed in the Paris Climate pact 2015.
Shillong, July 15 : The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) on Saturday asked its Indian counterpart, the Border Security Force (BSF) to stop cattle smuggling as it is "harming" their dairy industry.

"It is a fact that cattle are being smuggled from India to Bangladesh. We have agreed and identified that cattle by itself cannot walk. It is understandable that both countries' nationals are involved in this smuggling," BGB's Additional Director General M. Zahid Hasan told journalists.

"Actually it (cattle smuggling) is harming our economy. These cattle are coming from deep inside India and from west of India. If these cattle doesn't come from India, then our dairy farmers can grow up and take care of ourselves," said Hasan, who was here to take part in the bi-annual BSF-BGB Border Coordination Conference at the head of a 23-member delegation.

"We have requested the BSF not allow Indian nationals to indulge in this racket. Other related issues can be resolved by that."

"Cattle smuggling was also one of the main agenda points apart from Indian insurgents hiding in Bangladesh and other trans-border crime during our dialogue with the BGB," said BSF's Inspector General in-charge Meghalaya frontier P.K.Dubey.

"We have worked some concrete plans at the ground level and will carry out joint patrolling during night and day to tackle cattle smuggling besides other trans-border crime along the India-Bangladesh border," he said.

On the presence of Indian militant groups in Bangladesh, the BSF official denied any existing "well-established" or "regulated" camps in Bangladesh but said that most of the Indian militants are changing their identities by marrying Bangladeshi nationals residing along the border to evade arrest.

In fact, Indian intelligence have confirmed United Liberation Front of Asom leader Drishti Rajkhowa is married to a Bangladeshi woman from the Garo community from Badagazni area under Sherpur district.

Dubey said that the BGB officials also held discussion with Meghalaya Police chief Swaraj Bir Singh on members of Meghalaya-based groups hiding in Bangladesh.

"Action plan has been drawn to find out details about presence of insurgents along the international border. We are getting cooperation from the BGB in this regard. Our intelligence agencies are trying to get the information about the presence of militants and such information will be forwarded accordingly to the BGB," he said.

Describing India's concern on presence of Indian militants in Bangladesh as "perceptions", Hasan said: "Frankly speaking, there are no militants from India taking shelter in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the toughest stand on this and zero tolerance for any militant activities. We are very sure that there are no militants operating in Bangladesh."
Agartala, July 15 : The opposition Congress in Tripura on Saturday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if the Left Front government does not intervene to stop the road and rail blockade by a tribal party that has led to shortage of essential items in the state as it entered the sixth day.

A 12-member Congress delegation led by former Minister Laxmi Nag on Saturday met the state police chief Akhil Kumar Shukla and told him that if the blockade continues, they would organise state-wide agitations to restore normalcy in the interest of the people.

"For the past six days the IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) leaders and members are blockading the vital national highway and the lone railway line causing serious distress to the people. The Left government has remained a silent spectator," Nag told the media after meeting the Director General of police.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has told the IPFT leaders that if the party is voted to power in the 2018 assembly elections in Tripura, it would create a 'Tribal Autonomous State Council' to give more autonomy to tribal areas.

"The BJP, if voted to power, will replace the TTAADC by a state council through which tribal people can get more benefit in real terms," the saffron party's tribal wing leader Jishnu Debbarma told the media.

Opposing the BJP's proposal, the ruling CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) state secretary Bijan Dhar said there is no provision of 'Autonomous State Council' in the Constitution.

"The BJP is behind the road and rail blockade agitation to get political mileage before the assembly elections. The party is trying to fool the tribals by proposing a vague offer," Dhar told reporters.

However, the BJP leaders denied the CPI-M's accusation.

The six-day long blockade of National Highway-8, the life line of Tripura, and rail blockade, called by the IPFT to push their separate state demand, has worsened the severe crisis of essentials even as the agitators vowed to continue the stir.

The tribal party's General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and its youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura are in New Delhi since Thursday to meet with central ministers and officials.

"We have met senior Home Ministry officials and expect to meet Union Minister of State Kiren Rijiju on Monday or Tuesday," Jamatia told IANS over phone from Delhi.

"The road and rail blockade would continue until we get a clear-cut promise from the central government," the tribal leader said.

According to IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma, in Agartala at least 17 persons, including women, have fallen sick at the blockade site.

The indefinite blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, food grains, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets of Tripura. The bordering northeastern state mostly depends on the northern and south Indian states for food grains, fish, essentials and other basic items.

The IPFT has sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between them, the Centre and state government to resolve the matter.

The IPFT since 2009 has been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas.A

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH-8 and the lone railway line passes.

INPT President and former extremist leader Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl said that Tripura is the "Twipraland" and tribals are living here for decades and there is no need to split the state.

"To protect the interest of the tribals, TTAADC can be more powerful with the increase of financial support, promulgation of inner line permit for the outsiders, more land rights to the tribals and all-round development of the council areas," Hrangkhawl said.
Jammu, July 15 : An Indian Army soldier was killed on Saturday in heavy shelling and firing by Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

The soldier, identified as Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, was killed in Karkundi area on the LoC, an official said.

India on Saturday "strongly retaliated" to the Pakistani firing in Rajouri and Poonch districts.

"The Pakistan ceasefire violation started at 1.30 p.m. in both these places. They are using small arms, automatics and mortars. Indian positions have effectively and strongly retaliated at both these places," the sources said.

"Shelling and firing exchanges were continuing at both places when last reports came," the sources added.
Abu Dhabi, July 15 : The head of the UAE's Federal Customs Authority met the Secretary-General of the World Customs Organisation at the 129th-130th session of the WCO's Council in Brussels.

The two parties explored prospects for joint co-operation between the United Arab Emirates and the WCO through the exchange of expertise and best practices, the latest developments in the customs sector and how the WCO could benefit from the UAE experience in customs studies, a report said on Saturday.

The meeting between Federal Customs Authority head Ali Al Kaabi and WCO's Secretary-General Kunio Mikuriya also touched on the role and mission of the Abu Dhabi-based Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB).

"The UAE is an active contributing member in the WCO's programmes and initiatives, given its status as a regional trade hub and an important trade actor in the world trade," said Al Kaabi.
This issue of Aegyptiaca. Journal of the History of Reception of Ancient Egypt pays tribute to the scientific work of Jan Assmann, whose concept of mnemohistory has laid the methodological foundation for the researching into the history of reception of ancient Egypt. The articles featured in this issue make clear how much cultural science, musicology, literary studies, philosophy, history of religion or archaeology were inspired by Assmann's studies on cultural memory and, despite all their scholarship, can transcend disciplinary boundaries and be joyful science.

The issue is also available in almost every book store ore in the internet.
The shortage of mental health staff in Nebraska prisons has been a topic in every discussion that Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes has had with lawmakers in the past two years.

Now, a former prison doctor is sounding an alarm about the struggle the department is having finding psychiatrists.

Without proper medical oversight of treatment of confined patients with mental health disorders, the state of Nebraska is open to legal liability, not simply extending to the rights of patients but to the safety of its employees, said Lincoln psychiatrist Subramanyam Rajagopal.

The doctor worked for the department from 2008 to 2010 as the first psychiatrist in a new mental health unit at the Lincoln Correctional Center. He left because of the stress of having 60 patients under his care, he said, and did not leave on good terms.

Since then, there has been high turnover of department psychiatrists, he said. But many of the mental health administrators that were there when he left are gone, and the department recently contacted him to interview for a position as an independent contractor. He went in for two interviews, but decided not to return, he said.

The department's only psychiatrist, Dr. Natalie Baker, left June 16, but is consulting with department doctors on challenging cases as requested, said Dr. Harbans Deol, the prisons' medical director.

Rajagopal believes that without a psychiatrist on staff, the department is making compromises in care. For example, he said, prescriptions for the drug Clozaril, taken by several inmates for schizophrenia, should only be written by a psychiatrist, and weekly re-evaluations done by a psychiatrist, because of its severe side effects.

Deol said he knows of no guidelines that require a psychiatrist only to prescribe and monitor patients taking the drug.

Also, Rajagopal said, there are inmates on court-ordered medication injections that require testimony of two psychiatrists to continue the treatments when the medications are given against the will of the inmates. Without court permission, he said, an unwilling patient cannot be given the medication.

Without proper medical management of mentally ill inmates, Rajagopal believes the violence that has been an issue in the past two years  a riot, serious disturbances, killings of inmates, an assault in the community by an escapee and assaults on corrections staff  will get worse.

Deol said there's no correlation between mental health care and violence in the prisons.

But inmates have complained they go long periods of time without needed counseling or group therapy, and it creates stress.

"Dutiful action is urgent and imperative," Rajagopal said.

Proper mental health care is good for the prisons and the communities to which inmates return, according to a 2015 review of Nebraska inmate mental health services by consultant Dr. Bruce Gage of the Washington State Department of Corrections.

With it, the department has the opportunity to reduce disciplinary infractions and behavioral disruptions, allow for better program participation and reduce the number of crimes committed after an offender is released, Gage's report said.

Prisons in Nebraska and across the country have seen increasing numbers of offenders with mental illness since 1997, when mental health beds in communities began decreasing, said Deol. The prisons have essentially become de facto mental health institutions.

That's hard not only for inmates, but for the staff, he said.

Two years ago, Gage's report showed that about one-fourth of 4,800 male inmates and half of 430 women in the prisons were on one or more psychotropic medications.

A conservative estimate, he said, is that 3 to 6 percent have a psychotic or schizophrenia disorder and 10 percent have significant depression or bipolar disorder. The remainder have less-severe conditions.

Deol said the department is meeting psychiatric needs with a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who can prescribe medications, the use of a contract staffing agency and tele-psychology services.

The department's behavioral health team is strong, he said, with every facility having two to four licensed psychologists available or managing triage for mentally ill patients.

In addition, two fourth-year psychiatric residents have been moonlighting on weekends at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, where the biggest need is, he said. And a third resident is interested in working at the Lincoln Correctional Center.

Deol said the department is working hard to recruit people, and has interviewed at least four psychiatrists in recent months.

Pay is an issue, he said. Across the country, some psychiatrists have asked for as much as $500,000 annually, and at least a couple of positions offering $400,000 have had zero takers.

In 2016, the clinical psychiatrist for the Nebraska Department of Corrections was being paid $255,000 annually, according to state salary listings.

The Department of Health and Human Services has 11 psychiatrists at the state's regional centers and community health services, with two current vacancies. Those psychiatrists earn between $184,000 to $327,000, according to the listing.

Other states have a variety of ways to staff their Corrections mental health services.

In Wyoming, the Department of Corrections contracts with Corizon Health, a national correctional health services company, said Laura McKinnon, mental health director. The company is constantly networking to identify behavioral health professionals interested in working in that environment.

"We have not had any lapses in coverage in the past 15 years," McKinnon said. "From time to time we have had mental health therapy vacancies, but are able to work as a team across the state to maintain a high standard of care for our patients."

Psychiatrist Jerome Greenfield, who has worked for the Iowa Department of Corrections three years, said it's not only Nebraska that is struggling to find psychiatrists.

He was recently promoted to health services administrator there, but also continues to work as a psychiatrist for the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women until his replacement arrives in September, he said. And all the while, he gets daily calls from head hunters with opportunities for employment.

"There's just such a dire shortage everywhere," he said. "It's very concerning and difficult."
New Delhi, July 15 : Senior AAP leader H.S. Phoolka, a leading campaigner for the rights of the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, on Saturday decided to break ranks with the party and not vote for Congress-led opposition candidate Meira Kumar in the President's election on Monday.

Phoolka, who recently quit as Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly to continue his campaign for the anti-Sikh riot victims, also decided not to vote for the NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind and said he will abstain from voting.

"I have nothing against Meira Kumar, but she is a Congress candidate and I cannot vote for a Congress candidate. Jagdish Tytler, Kamal Nath and Sajjan Kumar are still prominent leaders (of Congress) and they were closely associated with the 1984 carnage issue.

"My voting for Congress would be taken as if the doings of the Congress are washed away or the people have pardoned them," Phoolka told IANS.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to support Meira Kumar in the presidential election.

Phoolka also said that he had informed the AAP's top leadership in Delhi about his decision.

He, however, added "I have not yet got any response from the party high command."
Cairo, July 15 : As many as four suspected extremists were killed in a shootout with police near the Suez Canal in northeastern Egypt, a security official said on Saturday.

The suspects opened fire on security agents in Jelbanah desert area of Qantara Sharq city in Ismailiya, where the security personnel were combing the area, Efe news reported.

The policemen responded, shot four extremists dead and seized their weapons.

The official added that the attackers, whose identities were not revealed, were "fugitives" wanted for their alleged involvement in extremist operations in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

The attack came a day after five policemen were shot dead by a group of unidentified gunmen in a town about 30 km from Cairo, while no group has yet claimed responsibility for that attack.

Terror attacks have recently increased in Egypt, where security forces are particular targets.
Tehran, July 15 : Iran's Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Saturday that his country was against any agreement that could lead to Syria's disintegration.

Shamkhani made his remarks during a meeting with Russian Special Envoy for Syrian Affairs Alexander Lavrentiev. "No agreement should undermine the irrevocable principle or lead to Syria's disintegration," Efe news quoted him as saying.

The Iranian official said that the "Zionist regime" establishes deep relations with extremist groups and their allies to use them as tools to keep Israel's borders secure and continue repression of the Palestinian people.

"Experience has shown that such elements are not committed to any treaty and agreement and will use any chance to kill innocent people and follow up their inhuman goals," he said.

Shamkhani praised the Syrian peace talks in Astana, noting that the "trilateral diplomatic initiative" and "these talks had proved a successful method to put an end to regional crises through using "local capacities".

During the meeting, Lavrentiev presented a report on the agreement reached between Russia, the US and Jordan regarding the ceasefire in southern Syria.

The Russian representative hailed the "decisive role" played by Iran, Russia and Syria in the fight against terrorism.
Kolkata, July 15 : Police cases were lodged on Saturday against BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly and party's West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh for making controversial remarks about women safety in the state and targeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee respectively.

On Friday, actor-turned-politician Ganguly had said if people from outside send their wives and daughters to the state, they won't "survive" even 15 days without getting raped.

"I will tell people of India and politicians, everyone who supports Trinamool Congress including some Congress leaders... send their wives and daughters to Bengal without taking hospitality of Mamata Banerjee, if they are able to survive there for 15 days without getting raped, then tell me," she had said at a programme.

Reacting angrily, state Power Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Sovandeb Chatterjee said: "She calls herself a cultural personality, and makes such comments. Whatever she has said has damaged Bengal's image."

On Saturday, a police complaint was filed at Nimta police station in North 24 Parganas district against Ganguly for public mischief and criminal intimidation.

But she remained unperturbed.

"There is no question of withdrawing my comments. In fact, I displayed lenience when I talked of '15 days'," she said.

Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting in his constituency Kharagpur, Ghosh virtually challenged the Chief Minister to take action against him.

"If you have the guts, then try and touch Dilip Ghosh. I will bring Bengal to standstill... What have you seen in Darjeeling? Your house will be torched," he said.

On Saturday, a local Trinamool leader handed out a letter to the Kolkata police complaining against Ghosh.
Lucknow, July 15 : A massive fire broke out at the trauma centre of the King George's Medical College here, police said. While no casualties have been reported yet, more than 150 critically ill and injured patients have been shifted to alternative places.

The fire broke out on the second floor housing the disaster management ward and soon leaped to the third floor as well. More than two dozen fire tenders have been rushed to the scene and senior officials led by District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma are camping there to oversee rescue and relief operations.

The possible reason of the fire is said to be a short circuit. Many inflammable items are present at the trauma centre, leading to the fire spreading very fast.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to ensure the fire is doused at the earliest and oversee relief and rescue work.

Orders have been also issued to ensure that there was no chaos and that patients admitted at the centre are shifted to alternative place for treatment.

Terming the incident as sad and unfortunate, Adityanath instructed the Divisional Commissioner to probe the matter and present a report within three days so that accountability of the guilty can be fixed and action initiated against them.
New Delhi, July 15 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday released the subsidy of Rs 30,000 each to 6,000 e-rickshaw owners registered with the government.

Addressing the event at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, he said that pollution was among the biggest problems faced by the residents of Delhi and e-rickshaws provide a solution to air pollution and last mile connectivity.

The Chief Minister handed over intimation letters regarding release of subsidy to 26 e-Rickshaw owners including two women.

On Saturday, about 6,000 e-rickshaw owners, whose particulars have been verified by Transport Department, were granted subsidy of around Rs 15 crores. It was announced in the programme that subsidy amount is being directly transferred in their bank accounts.

The Delhi government had earlier announced a subsidy of Rs 15,000 in 2015 to owners of newly-purchased battery-operated e-rickshaws authorised and registered by the Transport Department.

This subsidy amount was later enhanced to Rs 30,000 for the e-rickshaws purchased with effect from April 1, 2016.

As per the Scheme, an individual can claim subsidy only on one e-rickshaw. No subsidy is permitted on subsequent purchase by the same individual. The subsidy is given by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) from the Air Ambience Fund.

Kejriwal also announced that all those e-rickshaw owners who submit necessary documents i.e. permanent driving licence, bank account details and cancelled cheque by July 22 with the respective MLOs will see their subsidy being credited in their bank account by July 31.

"Those who cannot approach MLOs till July 22, may submit the requisite documents with their area MLAs as well," he said.
New Delhi, July 15 : Opposition's Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates Meira Kumar and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, will hold an interactive session with the parliamentarians of the 18 non-NDA parties on Sunday, said informed sources.

The session will take place in the Parliament annexe building.

According to sources, both Meira Kumar and Gandhi will talk to the MPS of 18 non-NDA parties and will also answer to their questions in a closed-door session.

The Presidential election will take place on July 17 and election to the post of Vice-President will be held on August 5.

With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United supporting NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, Meira Kumar has the support of other 17 non-NDA parties. Meawhile, JD-U is one among the 18 non-NDA parties supporting Gandhi.

Meira Kumar had said that this time the election is not a fight between two candidates, but a fight of ideologies and she appealed to the members of the Electoral College to "listen to their conscience" and vote for her.
Kolkata, July 15 : Sparking outrage in the social media, film maker Ashish Avikunthak on Saturday claimed that he was initially denied entry into a well-known shopping mall here for wearing a dhoti - a traditional dress in the Indian sub-continent, particularly in Bengal.

However, a spokesman of the Quest Mall rubbished the allegation, saying: "Are we mad that we won't allow somebody in for wearing a dhoti in a place like Kolkata?"

Avikunathak, however, posted in Facebook that he was told that entry of people wearing "dhotis and lungis" was prohibited in the Mall.

"Today I was denied entry into the Quest Mall because I was wearing dhoti... On resisting and questioning I was told that we have orders because of security reasons to prohibit entry of people in lungi and dhoti. I was eventually allowed in because I could argue in English and assert myself," he posted.

Calling the episode as "unambiguously a new low" for the city, he said: "Private clubs have always created hierarchies and distinctions because of clothing. Now public spaces are also threatened and a culture of segregation based on class is been practiced unhindered. I write this with a sense of deep disgust."

But the spokesman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which owns the Mall, told IANS that Avikunthak was "never denied entry" but only "delayed for 20 seconds".

"When he came to the mall, there were lot of people entering. The security personnel had some doubts and so he asked him to wait and called his boss. And within 20 seconds, he was allowed in.

"Is it even believable that in Kolkata a mall will not allow somebody in for wearing a dhoti? We have no such policy. In fact, our late chairman (of the RPG Group) Ramaprasad Goenka even used to go to places like England and US wearing a dhoti."
Itanagar, July 15 : A member of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM was apprehended on Saturday by the army in Arunachal Pradesh's Longding district, a defence official said.

Longhee Wangsa, the "sergeant" of NSCN-IM was apprehended this evening based on specific intelligence about presence of a cadre trying to terrorise and carry out extortion in Gibo Colony, said defence spokesperson Chiranjeet Konwer.

The army has been carrying out aggressive operations in the south Arunachal Pradesh area and this development has struck a blow to the extortion activities being carried out by the underground cadres of the group in the area.
New Delhi, July 15 : Four persons died in the national capital after inhaling poisonous gases as they entered a water harvesting tank to clean it on Saturday, police said.

While police said it was a water harvesting tank, family members of the deceased said the owner of the building had waste material pipes linked to the tank, but did not tell them about it, which led to their death.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh said police got a call around 10.45 a.m on Saturday that five persons had fallen into a water harvesting tank in a building in Ghitorni area of south Delhi.

The police officer said that they were taken to different city hospitals where four of them were pronounced dead, while the fifth person survived.

He identified the deceased as Swarn Singh, 45, Deepu, 28, Anil, 23, and Billu, 32 -- all residents of Ambedkar Colony in Mehrauli area of the city.

Family members of the deceased said that the underground tank was about 10-feet-deep and 12-feet-wide and had a three-feet-wide opening.

Swarn Singh's son Satpal Singh said the owner of the building told them that they had to clean the harvesting tank but did not tell them that it was connected with the waste carrying pipes.

"They had connected waste pipes from kitchen and toilet to the tank, and the people who went to clean it had no idea about it," he told IANS.

Satpal's twin brother Jaspal Singh, who had gone into the tank to save his father, was the only survivor.

"The tank had all sorts of waste and that killed my son. We've lodged a police complaint," Billu's father, Satnam Singh, 60, said.

Police said they had registered an FIR in the case but were yet to ascertain whether pipes carrying waste materials were connected with the water harvesting tank.

"It has come to our knowledge that waste material pipes were connected with the tank, but it has not been confirmed. Also, we are yet to make any arrests in the case," a senior police officer privy to the investigation said.
Hyderabad, July 15 : All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) may vote for the United Progressive Alliance's candidate Meira Kumar in July 17 presidential polls, party sources said on Saturday.

Party president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and nine legislators of the party in Telangana and Maharashtra may cast their votes for the Congress leader.

AIMIM, a former constituent of UPA, is believed to have taken a decision after weighing all pros and cons.

The party has seven members in Telangana Assembly and two in Maharashtra Assembly. Meira Kumar had written a letter to AIMIM, seeking its support.

AIMIM's move is significant, considering the bitter relations with the Congress ever since snapping of ties in 2012. The party had been under attack from Congress leaders for contesting elections in various states as they felt that this was leading to split of secular votes.

AIMIM's move is also seen as an affront to Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which has announced its support to National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind. The party is an ally of TRS.

Owaisi's support to NDA candidate was ruled out as the BJP which heads the alliance remains his number one political rival. He had been slamming the candidature of Kovind while citing his alleged statement that "Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation"'

However, the party was not likely to support the UPA candidate either. It was believed that it will stay away from polling.

In the previous presidential elections, AIMIM had voted for UPA candidate Pranab Mukerjee.
www.cdha.org Leadership worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition for all California members.

The California Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) celebrated its first year as an independent organization at its 2017 House of Delegates (HOD) annual business meeting in San Diego, CA. With the installation of Lory Laughter, RDH, MSDH as the new CDHA President, along with officers of the Executive Committee, Component Trustees, and Council Chairs, CDHA has officially completed our first independent year since separating from the ADHA. It has been a busy year for our leadership and management staff, states outgoing CDHA president Julie Coan, RDH MPH.

Leadership worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition for all California members. This next year we are hoping to build on the momentum of our first year, and we have worked hard to organize towards that goal, states Lory Laughter, RDH, MS, CDHA President. CDHA is focused on the California RDH. We continue to fight for legislation and employment issues that will ensure the success and scope of practice of our members locally and our partners nationally.

With this goal in mind, CDHA has announced guaranteed, group discounted Long Term & Short Term Disability Insurance policies and Life Insurance policies to all CDHA Members. Information and enrolment can be found on the CDHA website and our Facebook page. http://cdha.org/insurance-for-cdha-members. CDHA Government Relations Council highlighted this past year with CDHA Legislative Day and partnered with the California Society of Periodontists to pass SCR-19, which declared March as Periodontal/Gum Disease Awareness Month. CDHA has also partnered with Dental Post as the official job board for CDHA members looking for employment opportunities. (http://www.dentalpost.net/)

Come join your RDH colleagues at CDHA and together we can continue moving our profession forward in California.

The California Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) is the authoritative voice of the states dental hygiene profession. The organization was established over 30 years ago when two regional associations merged to form a unified professional group. CDHA represents thousands of dental hygienists in the state of California.
Kristin Engvig at the 2016 WINConference. Photo credit: Rosellina Garbo We need to address sexual harassment in the workplace with a fiercer feminine leadership

Correction: Following the publication of the press release 12 July 2017, further information was provided. Below is the updated press release. In the previous press release Matt Mazzeo was incorrectly listed and misquoted.

Learning, networking and growing as a leader. The WINConference has been helping women and men model a new leadership a global, authentic and feminine one for the last 20 years. This year, for the 20th Global WINConference, once again 700 leaders  90% women from 60 different countries  and over 50 speakers will meet on 27.28.29 September at the Radisson Blue Scandinavia hotel in Oslo, Norway.

WIN founder Kristin Engvig: "We need to address sexual harassment in the workplace with a fiercer feminine leadership."

There has been lots of news on gender violence in the workplace lately showing how bad leadership can harm people, especially women. Let's look at the culture of harassment that pervades the tech industry, starting from Uber and its former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick who has been held accountable for Uber's culture of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination towards female employees.

The list of companies who have lost their top management in technology this year after alleged sexual misconduct surfaced inside the company is long as media reports: 500 Startups, Binary Capital, Uber among others. The alleged harassments have emerged after the victims who kept silent for long for fear of retaliation have started to speak up," says Kristin Engvig, WIN founder and managing director. "Sexism harms women and business. Today people are asking for sustainable business and products, for authenticity and consistency, and we can no longer avoid addressing problems such as gender equality, discrimination and harassment. We work to change the culture in the workplace  people must be considered more important than more profit. It is time for a fierce global, authentic and feminine leadership."

The theme of the conference: Creating a Thriving Future

This year's theme of the Global WINConference is Creating a Thriving Future with grounded optimism, gracious innovation and tender humanity. Spread across 3 days, the programme will include sessions on: the future of work and careers, gender equality in the workplace, glass ceilings and sticky floors, work-life balance, mentorship, networking with purpose and pleasure, the role of creativity, how to integrate feminine qualities such as compassion, cooperation and empathy into a traditional style of leadership. Many success stories and role models will be presented (See below the Agenda).

The WINConference is aimed at connecting and developing leaders for the ultimate goal of changing the economy and creating a world of equal opportunities for all.

Registration is compulsory. Visit the following link to register: http://www.winconference.net/WINCONFERENCE_WEB/UK/PL-Landing-3.awp

Official hashtag #20WINConference

http://www.winconference.net/Winconference

For accreditation and media inquiries:

Laura Preite  WIN Media relations - pr(at)winconference(dot)net +41 21 612 03 54 (Office); +41 (0)76 795 80 66 (Mobile)

Ingrid H. Warner  Leidar  Ingrid.h.warner(at)leidar(dot)com +47 94 87 88 86

We thank the following companies for contributing to WIN and its work in the world:

Merck

Tara

Shell

DSM

HP

HAVAS

Sodexo

Honeywell

The New York Times

ECOHZ

EgonZehnder

Unisto

BlueSky

Leidar

About WIN and its founder Kristin Engvig Founded in 1997, WIN is a leadership organization based in Lausanne (Switzerland). The first WINConference was organized in Milan in 1998 and since then it has been conducted every year. It is considered the most established forum on leadership and female empowerment in Europe and it has welcomed more than 13,000 participants from 129 different countries. WIN hosts the global WINConference and runs annual conferences in Japan, Nigeria and India. It also runs quarterly corporate workshops and networking meetings.

Kristin Engvig, Norwegian founder of WIN and WINConference, has dedicated the past 20 years to women's leadership and organizational change. With a background as a decision maker in global companies such as JPMorgan, Citibank, Innovation Norway and as a consultant, Kristin was able to transform her vision of bringing a more feminine, global and sustainable vision into work, communities and life' into an annual conference inspiring women worldwide. Kristin has an MSc in Business and Marketing from BI, Oslo and an MBA from SDA Bocconi. She has trained as an actress and is mother to a 15-year-old son.

http://www.winconference.net/
Heritage Woods of South Elgin, a Gardant affordable assisted living community, hosts a weekly exercise class designed for people with Parkinsons disease. The classes are held from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Thursdays.

The community, which is located at 700 N. McLean Blvd. in South Elgin, Illinois, serves older adults of all incomes, including those on Medicaid.

The class is designed to improve strength and balance. Exercises will focus on large amplitude, high velocity movements and other techniques to combat symptoms of Parkinsons disease.

Liz Wiggins, the marketing director at Heritage Woods, will teach the class. She is also an occupational therapist.

There is no charge to attend the class; guests are asked to register in advance. Participants will be asked to sign a release on the first day of class.

For more information or to register, call 847-531-8360.

Heritage Woods of South Elgin is certified to operate through the Illinois Supportive Living program and is managed by Gardant Management Solutions, the largest provider of assisted living in Illinois.

The campus also includes White Oaks at Heritage Woods of South Elgin, an affordable memory care community, and White Oaks at Spring Street, a private-pay memory care community.

Heritage Woods features affordable assisted living apartments for adults 65 and older who need some help to maintain their independence. Personal assistance, help with medications, and a variety of convenience and support services, including meals, housekeeping and laundry, are available.

Our focus, says Rod Burkett, CEO of Gardant Management Solutions, is to provide the residents of Heritage Woods of South Elgin with the love, compassion and dignity they deserve and the help and assistance that they need.

Communities managed by Gardant include the Heritage Woods assisted living and memory care community in Huntley.

Gardant also operates Churchview Supportive Living in Chicago and the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living communities in Batavia, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Gurnee, Manteno, McHenry, Plainfield and Yorkville.

Gardant is the management company for White Oaks at McHenry, the memory care community that is opening in McHenry, Illinois this summer.

For more information about Gardant Management Solutions, the assisted living, senior living and memory care communities that the company operates; and the companys management, development and consulting services, visit http://www.gardant.com or call 1-877-992-1495 toll-free.
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A longtime Lincoln Regional Center employee has filed a lawsuit against the state alleging he and other workers at regional centers across the state are being denied overtime pay they've earned.

Lincoln resident Brian Lassalle named the State of Nebraska, the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as each of the state's regional centers in Lincoln, Hastings and Norfolk, and the Beatrice State Developmental Center.

In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, his attorney, Kathleen Neary, said Lassalle has worked as a security specialist and medication aide at the state psychiatric hospital since 1993.

Starting in July 2016, he and other hourly rate employees at state-run hospitals have been denied pay for earned and approved paid time off if the hours were combined with hours of paid time off that exceeded 40 hours in a week.

In other words, if Lassalle worked 32 hours Monday through Thursday, took eight hours of paid leave Friday, then was required to work eight hours Saturday, the state would only pay him for 40 hours, not 48, Neary said.

She believes the same practice is in place at the Hastings and Norfolk regional centers and at BSDC and goes against the current union contract.

Denying Lassalle and others who are in the same situation the right to use paid vacation leave or sick leave "has resulted and will continue to result in harm and actual loss of negotiated job-related benefits to the employee(s)," Neary wrote in the lawsuit.

She said the defendants are willingly violating Nebraska law. Specifically, she alleges it is a violation of the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act.

The state has a policy of not commenting on open lawsuits and hasn't yet responded to the case in court other than to ask for the case, originally filed in Lancaster County District Court, to be moved to federal court.

Neary is seeking to have the case certified as a class-action lawsuit and is asking a judge to declare the conduct a violation of workers' rights, to order the state to stop the practice and to compensate workers for the wages due, plus interest.
WASHINGTON, DC  Ricardo Sorto knew exactly what he wanted to do early in high school. His passion for cars made the decision to become a mechanic a no-brainer.

A volatile US job market had something entirely different in mind.

When he finished high school in 2011, Sorto was already doing unpaid work fixing school buses after class. But once he scored a job at a local branch of the auto-repair chain Just Tires, he found himself in a hypercompetitive environment with too many applicants and too few jobs.

It led to low wages and a stressful workplace. So, rather than scraping by at $8 an hour, Sorto took a paid internship at the tech-support center of the Arlington, Virginia, public-school system. He delivered computers to public schools and installed software.

"Being there I was told I was tech-savvy and knew my way around a computer," he recalled to Business Insider.

Now 25, he's studying information technology at Northern Virginia Community College and hunting for jobs in the DC area  where he has plenty of prospects.

Pivoting quickly and training for a new profession is exactly what workers have been told to do for decades as they've feared being replaced by machines or lower-wage overseas rivals or displaced in a lousy economy.

And it can work. Students with the right qualifications are able to work with technology instead of being displaced by it, says Oded Karev, the vice president of advanced process automation at Nice, a firm that specializes in helping companies as varied as retailers and energy producers use machines to do the mundane tasks that once took up much of employees' time.

"Most processes require judgment calls, require human empathy," Karev told Business Insider. "We call it the 'attended automation' model  man working with machine, instead of machine replacing man."

Enabling this on a large scale, though, requires a government willing to invest in education infrastructure and a safety net for workers as they make the change as well as businesses willing to shoulder some of the cost. In the US, despite a fair amount of lip service paid to the subject, that's not guaranteed. Where it is available, it's in the form of piecemeal arrangements.

That's actually bad for the economy.

"Ineffective worker-adjustment policies undermine economic recovery, lead to skills shortages for employers, and hurt US competitiveness," the Council on Foreign Relations said last year. "Other advanced economies invest more in worker adjustment and use innovative programs to minimize unemployment."

This time may be different

The word automation is credited to an engineer from Ford Motor Co. in the 1940s, but workers have been worried about machines since they first appeared on farms 200 years ago.

The famous early example is that of England's 19th-century Luddites, workers who resorted to destroying the textile and farming machines that were leaving many them either out of work or working in putrid, unhealthy conditions during the Industrial Revolution.

More recently, in the US, President John F. Kennedy described the rise of machines in the workplace as "the major domestic challenge of the '60s." He framed it in an exchange with a reporter in February 1962 that sounds like a conversation that might take place in 2017:

The English government's response to the Luddites was to hang them until the violence stopped. Kennedy's solution was obviously less draconian, but it also sounds out of place today.

"Much can be done through collective bargaining," Kennedy said in a 1960 speech when he was still a senator, "through the willingness of labor and management to cooperate to solve a problem whose solution is vital to the future of industry and workers alike."

Theres still time

Both examples are illustrative of the idea that disruption from technology isn't a 21st-century notion. And they're a reminder that job creation has continued even as technology has advanced. That's broadly true even in the decades since the advent of the internet, though there are some notable pockets of exception, Goldman Sachs economists say.

"The technological advances of recent decades do not appear to have resulted in faster productivity growth or more intense disruption across occupations and industries, much less mass unemployment," they wrote in a recent note to clients. "But changes related to technology and trade have produced important shifts in the structure of the economy, which have hit some groups of workers much harder than others."

Goldman's research found that digitization had hit two industries particularly hard: publishing and department stores. They have shed 500,000 jobs and 300,000 jobs, respectively, over 16 years. Similarly, Goldman's economists predict that self-driving cars will displace about 300,000 truck, bus, and taxi drivers  but not for about 25 years.

All of that suggests there is time for the government to respond. To know how, Washington can look overseas or at local programs in the US.

In the European Union, apprenticeship programs are more common and are seen as effective ways of integrating the education system into the job market. This can include guaranteeing workers employment as they enter the workforce or transition to new fields.

One model is Germany, which leans on a so-called dual training system that includes schooling alongside work apprenticeships in firms where students are encouraged if not expected to find jobs. These seamless connections make training more targeted and boost prospective employment chances.

The cost, meanwhile, is borne by both government and business. In 2012, for example, total government spending accounted for about 57% (split between federal, state and local entities). Businesses picked up the rest.

Pockets of success

There are also pockets of success within the US that can serve as guides to revamping America's pathways from school to work and back again.

One is sector-based partnerships, in which employers from a particular industry work with representatives from local and regional economic development offices, educational institutions, and nonprofits to meet the needs of job seekers, the industry, and the regional economy.

"The focus of such partnerships is to more effectively align education and job training with employers' skill needs," said Lisa Nelson, an adviser in the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's community-development department who has studied the matter closely.

"Employers play a key role in such partnerships, and their input is essential to developing and designing training programs that are effectively meeting the demands of their industry," she wrote in an email.

One case study focused on coal miners in eastern Kentucky whose jobs were vanishing at an alarming rate. From 2011 to 2014, one out of every two coal miners was laid off. A program funded by the Labor Department made strides in training coal miners to work as electrical linemen, the study said, while others learned computer coding.

That's not to say these programs are a silver bullet. They don't speak to broader social inequities  including early access to (and therefore familiarity with) technology among lower-income Americans.

"Addressing the 'soft skill' issues was mentioned by nearly all of the partnerships we spoke with. Technical skills are crucial but workplace etiquette issues were mentioned consistently by the employers we interviewed," Nelson said. "Sector partnerships often involve nonprofits who can assist with some of the soft skill issues, such as working with job seekers on interviewing skills and the importance of punctuality."

Indeed, developing students' abilities to harness new technologies is only a limited, supply-side solution to US labor-market problems. As long as the economy remains lukewarm and job growth gradual, employers will tend to have the upper hand, keeping wages at bay and even dampening investment in human capital  including in-house training for new employees.

"We want better-educated people, but that's not the thing holding back the labor market right now," says Dean Baker, the codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

The word "retraining" is itself misleading  education is and should be a lifelong process, and it tends to be so for people with higher incomes and better access to quality education. Indeed, lifelong learning is increasingly a necessity rather than a luxury, says Steven Partridge, the vice president for workforce development at Nova, the community college the tech-savvy Sorto is attending.

He says automation per se is not a major threat to employment in the Washington, DC, area, unlike his previous home of Charlotte, North Carolina, where a heavy manufacturing presence was much more deeply affected. Still, many of his students, who are focused on cybersecurity and information technology as a way to guarantee solid, good-paying employment, have to constantly update their skills and certifications to remain current.

"Two-thirds or all the cybersecurity jobs in the country are in the DC area, so it's a unique situation," Partridge said in an interview. But a growing industrial base does not mean any less instability, insecurity, and change.

Partridge says Nova itself has to keep up with new types of industry certifications that begin to pop up on IT job boards so they can offer the proper course work that can deliver those credentials.

"We have a full-time data analyst that mines job market information" for those shifts, he said.

Sorto will graduate with five such certifications, in addition to his applied associate degree.

His story points to a world that's just moving a lot faster: Here's a 25-year-old who has had about eight jobs and internships and has already made a career change.
SFAN, a high impact social enterprise that bridges the gap between education and work, has announced the speakers rostrum which includes digital marketing experts and entrepreneurs who are utilizing digital tools in growing their ventures.

Set to be the first forum of its kind in Accra, Ghana, this event offers a return on investment for attendees: it uniquely brings together a critical mass of upwardly mobile millennial entrepreneurs and digital marketers and provides outstanding content with an impressive line-up of speakers. More so, it is the only youth-lead event that attracts a dynamic mix of stakeholders over breakfast in Ghana.

Cassandra Mensah-Abrampah, Program Manager & Commercial Operations at Google Ghana says about the 4th Edition:

It was a very well-planned and informative session.

1. The panelists on branding had really great insights and I left there thinking about some of the points raised. I dont doubt other attendees took a lot from it as well.

2. The pitches were great  A good way to know about other cool initiatives. I personally liked Swiftlaw. I can always recommend people to them. The French Embassy opportunity was also great.

Meet the Highly Esteemed Speakers:

1. Anita Erskine, Founder, Anita Erskine Media

2. Nana K. Duah, Founder, Oxygen Ghana

3. Bertha Owusu, Founder & Creative Director, Lumiere Couture

4. Princewill Omorogiuwa, Founder, SimonPage College of Marketing

5. Simon W. Alangde, Managing Partner, Wineloya Digital

6. Lakeshia Marie, Founder, Ford Communications (Moderator)

Sponsors/partners for the event include Mercedes Cafe, FutureofGhana, Ford Communications, MEST Africa, Circumspecte and The WorkSpace.

Early discounted tickets are available until 20th July 2017.
He said at a summit on The Economic and Political Rise of Africa that Ghana would have been better off without parliament.

He said: These people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws.

They dont read the papers that they are given, they dont think through what the challenges areThe first thing I will do if I had the opportunity is to break down Parliament. We dont need it.

Maybe if we break it down we are wasting money but maybe we can use it as a tourist attraction, we can say, this is what we used to do in the past, so come for a tour and then we should just poster it all so people can see.

Speaking Saturday on Joy FMs news analysis show, Mr Baako said He is a good guy. He really loves the country. He has passion for Ghana.

He, however, condemned Casely-Hayford's comments as a rabid attempt to attack parliament.

He also urged parliament to drop the contempt of parliament charge against the him.
Mr Fuseini has said that he installed the spying device retrieved from the office of the current Minister, John Peter Amewu. when he was the then Lands and Natural Resources Minister.

He said that the device was given to him by one Haruna as a gift in his early days at the Ministry and that he ordered its installation subsequently to enable him to monitor what went on in his office at the time.

According to him, the hue and cry over the incident were not necessary as the device was not even fully installed.

The Tamale Central Member of Parliament has also apologised to his successors for the audiovisual monitoring device that was found in his former office.

Let me take the opportunity to apologise to my successor as it was never intended and nobody speed or prowled on the office when I left office," Mr Fuseini said.

He further indicated that his clear conscience made him confess to putting the device in the office after the issue became public.

If I had kept quiet it would take a lot of time before the security agencies can discover that I put it there.

The device was in furtherance of protecting my own personal security in view of the implementation of policies that had to deal with raiding small scale mining sector of illegalities.
READ MORE: MP mulls subpoenaing Interior Minister over Lapaz shooting

Following the shooting incident, the Inspector General Of Police revealed that his men are poorly equipped, appealing for support and resources from the government and well-meaning individuals.

Speaking on Citi FM Friday, Mr Anning said the IGP's comments should be seen "as a passionate and desperate appeal for help and support."

He continued: "we will witness desperate individuals, criminal networks and gangs well-armed, willing and prepared to fight the Police Service and to say life is not worth living anyway.

"So I will commit a crime and I am willing and prepared to take up arms against those who will represent authorities of the state and when we reach that point, then I can think we are getting into extremely dangerous waters and I think we are almost on the verge of collapse.

Asked the kind of support the police may require from citizens, the security expert said it does not have to be "necessarily be big money."

He said it "can also be just morale boosters."

READ MORE:

He added: "A simple word of encouragement, a simple signal, but even more important is the sharing of sensitive or proactive information.

"Criminals live within our community. People know them, they hire rooms, they behave in funny ways, people visit them at odd hours.
The deceased are all males who are yet to be identified.

They were on board a Mazda Demio taxi cab with registration AS 9352-12.

The bodies of the victims have been deposited at the Kotwia Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital morgue for identification and autopsy.

According to multiple media reports, the car was travelling from the Bekwai-Anwiankwanta direction of the Kumasi-Cape Coast main road skidded off the road, killing all passengers on board.

The Police have confirmed the accident, saying they were informed about the accident around 6 a.m. Saturday.

Bekwai District Commander, ASP Edward Obeng Boateng, told Kumasi-based Nhyira FM the police moved to the accident scene only to see the deceased trapped in the mangled vehicle.
READ MORE: IGP admits police officers are poorly equipped

The MP, who serves on the defence committee, also said the nation must increase the number of police recruits to make up for the shortfall of police numbers.

We may also summon the minister to see what he can possibly do to protect these police personnel, he told Joy FM Friday.

He continued:We must increase the intake of police personnel in our communities. When you go to London for instance, every 10 meters you will see a police officer. But in Ghana, a police officer is to over 600 or 700 citizens which is very alarming.

So, we have to increase the intake, we will summon the minister to see how best this particular problem.

Police officers are rather to be seen defending the citizens not citizens killing the officers rather.

It means we are out of touch."

READ MORE:

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police has also announced a GHS10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the two armed men who shot two police officers at Lapaz.

The police have since launched a manhunt for the suspects.
He has threatened to resign from his post if the president ignores his demand, after writing three letters to the president over the matter.

According to Accra-base Starr FM, the NPP regional chairman made the demand after his nephew failed a second-time bid to become the District Executive for Bunkprugu -Yunyoo district.

He has also accused the deputy regional minister of double-crossing him because he believes his nephew, J. K Alhassan was a threat to his political profession. He said Mr. Saeed was also supporting a different person to unseat him as regional party chairman.

He is quoted by Starr FM as saying: "The Regional Minister and his deputy are making my work difficult, very very difficult.

"I have reported it to the President; not one letter, more than about three letters. The regional minister and his deputy, they are destroying all NPP good job, all the wining we won, if we dont take time, coming next time we may lose most of the places we won.

"I have told the president if he doesnt take action, Im coming back to Accra after my work today. Im not going to be doing a good job while some people are destroying it, and I have told the president to let him go and I dont want to mince words.
Mattis, who retired in 2013 as a general after a 41-year career in the Marine Corps, cited several conflicts the US has plunged into since the end of World War II to illustrate the consequences of failing to plan for what political conditions war is meant to effect.

"

"If you look at the wars from probably Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, dare I say Afghanistan, every time we go into a war and we dont figure out what the political end state is, we get into wars and we dont know how to end them. Then youve got a real problem." Mattis replied, referencing a 2013 Atlantic article by James Wright, a retired Marine and professor at Dartmouth, titled "What we learned from the Korean War."

"We went in with more troops than we needed and we ended it quickly, because he had the political end state right," Mattis said. (Some have argued that, despite the limited nature of Desert Storm itself, the sanctions, no-fly zones, and airstrikes on Iraq after Desert Storm form part of a longer campaign of hostilities toward the country.)
In the popular imagination, chivalry seems to harken back to some mythical era when armored knights rode about the land going on quests, saving maidens, and fighting evildoers.

But chivalry is really a word "that came to denote the code and culture of a martial estate which regarded war as its hereditary profession," Maurice Keen writes in "Chivalry."

He argues that medieval chivalry had a major part in molding "noble values," and, as a result, has had an impact felt long after troubadours and jousting tournaments fell out of fashion. The romantic notion of the daring, pure-hearted knight errant lingers on, even today.

It's difficult to speak broadly about the medieval era in Europe, given that it encompasses several centuries and an entire continent. Generally speaking, however, in many cases, knights and medieval warriors served as a local lord's private military. That meant that sometimes, regional conflicts set a group of armed toughs tearing through the countryside and doing whatever the heck they wanted.

Codes of chivalry didn't take hold in vacuum. There was no uniform "code of chivalry," and those codes that existed were often far more religious in nature than our modern concept of "hold the door for ladies." They also cropped up in part to keep knights and warriors from acting on their worst impulses and attacking or extorting weaker individuals.

Starting in the late 900s and lasting till the thirteenth century, a movement known as the Peace and Truce of God rose in Europe. Basically, the Church imposed religious sanctions in order to halt the nobility from fighting among themselves at certain times and committing violence against local noncombatants. You can think of these as rules for knighthood.

One 1023 oath, suggested by Bishop Warin of Beauvais for King Robert the Pious and his knights, gives us a good sense of some of the unexpected rules warriors might be asked to adopt, in response to their often violent behavior. It includes some rather unusual injunctions and "illustrates the kind of oath that parties were expected to swear after having been caught breaking the peace," according to Daniel Lord Smail and Kelly Gibson, who edited the sourcebook "Vengeance in Medieval Europe." A main idea behind the movement was to use spiritual sanctions to give people a break from all the conflict and fighting that plagued certain areas at some points during the Middle Ages.

With that in mind, here are some of Bishop Warin of Beauvais' proposed rules for knights, which indicate some truly bad and largely unchivalrous behavior on the part of medieval warriors:

1. Don't beat up random members of the clergy

Bishop Warin of Beauvais barred knights from assaulting unarmed clerics, monks, and their companions, "unless they are committing a crime or unless it is in recompense for a crime for which they would not make amends, fifteen days after my warning."

Gunald of Bordeaux also condemned anyone who "attacks, seizes, or beats a priest, deacon, or any other clergyman who is not bearing arms  shield, sword, coat of mail, or helmet  but is going along peacefully or staying in the house," according to Fordham University's medieval sourcebook.

Instead of formally cursing the offenders, Gunald vowed to excommunicate any attackers "unless he makes satisfaction, or unless the bishop discovers that the clergyman brought it upon himself by his own fault."

2. Don't steal livestock or kill farm animals for no reason

The oath includes an injunction against making off with bulls, cows, pigs, sheep, lambs, goats, donkeys, mares, and untamed colts.

It also came out against seizing mules and horses at certain times of the year: "I will not exact by extortion mules and horses, male and female, and colts pasturing in the fields from the first of March to All Souls' Day, unless I should find them doing damage to me."

However, the bishop of Beauvais allowed that knights could kill villagers' animals if they needed to feed themselves or their men.

In Gunwald's proclamation, he also announced that any knight who robbed a poor person of a farm animal would be formally cursed.

3. Don't assault, rob, kidnap, and torture random people

This rule should have probably gone without saying, but Bishop Warin of Beauvais felt that he needed to include it in the oath.

The bishop wanted knights to swear against mistreating male and female villagers, sergeants, merchants, and pilgrims. This abuse he cited included robbery, whipping, physical attacks, extortion, and kidnapping for ransom.

4. Don't burn down or destroy houses unless you have a good reason

Arson was a big no in the bishop of Beauvais's oath  for the most part.

Exceptions were made in the event a knight discovered "an enemy horseman or thief within" a certain house.

That sounds harsh, but Kaeuper writes that, while wrath was a sin, "vengeance is a cornerstone of the chivalric ethos, the harsh repayment justly given for an dimunition of precious honor."

Knights were also warned against plundering and stealing from the poor, even "at the perfidious instigation" of a local lord.

Kaeuper cite's Alan of Lille's declaration that knights achieved the "highest degree of villainy" by supporting themselves by looting from impoverished people.

5. Don't assist criminals

Knights had a bad rap in certain parts.

Kauper writes that Alan of Lille once said that knights had the "cruel nature of marauders" and that "soldiers have been made the leaders of pillaging bands; they have become cattle-thieves."

Considering such a borderline criminal element, it's not surprising that the Bishop Warin of Beauvais wanted knights to swear not to harbor and assist any "notorious public robber."

He allows that, if a criminal comes to a knight for protection, that the knight should either make amends for the wrongdoer, force him to make amends within fifteen days, or deny him protection.

6. Don't attack women  unless they give you a reason

The oath included a stipulation telling knights not to assault noblewomen traveling without their husbands. It also expanded protection to those attending them, along with widows and nuns, in general.

However, this shield was revoked if a knight "should find them committing misdeeds against" him.

7. Don't ambush unarmed knights from Lent to Easter

A major part of the Peace and Truce of God movement was declaring that fighting should not take place during certain parts of the year.

Yale Law School's Avalon Project features a 1085 decree from Emperor Henry IV, which declares that peace should be observed every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, on apostles' feast days, and from the ninth Sunday before Easter until the eighth day after Pentecost, among other times.
The complaint, first reported by Tech Crunch and filed in San Francisco Superior Court earlier this week, is the latest charge of sexual misconduct to come out of Silicon Valley in recent weeks, following the landmine allegations against VC

Beatrice Kim was a customer programs lead at BetterWorks  a Silicon Valley HR software startup  for two years before she resigned in November. According to the lawsuit, she left the company one month after an incident in which Duggan allegedly got drunk during an offsite work retreat, entered Kim's cabin, and touched her legs as she asked him to stop.

The complaint, supplied to Business Insider by the plaintiff's lawyers, alleges assault and sexual harassment, but does not allege sexual assault.

In a phone call with Business Insider, Duggan said, "We take things like our culture and our values and the safety and happiness of our employees extremely seriously, so we're looking into this matter. We don't comment on pending litigation but we are taking the issue very seriously and are looking into it."

A hostile work environment

The problem with BetterWorks went way beyond Duggan's behavior at the retreat, according to the complaint. Several other managers

"Individuals in the highest levels of the organization encouraged, condoned, and even engaged in conduct that created a hostile work environment. Women who attempted to complain to HR and upper management were deterred from complaining and told to be a 'cool girl' or that 'its a female issue' and 'cattiness' or were simply ignored," according to the complaint.

The complaint describes an office environment of tacit acceptance of "vulgar and graphic jokes and comments about women, rape, and female body parts, and an organization that plainly favors men and where the workplace has more in common with a boys club or fraternity house than a professional work environment."

Silicon Valleys cultural problem
According to Egonnia Oko, a member of the community who witnessed the ugly scene and posted it on Facebook said the old woman who is probably in her 60s, was caught with the young man making love in a bush and were forcefully paraded around the community half naked.

The disgraced lovers were also forced to dance to the beating of drums by the villagers after which they were chased out of the community with their belongings as people felt their act was an abomination and could bring calamity to the land.

This is how Oko captured the shameful scene.

"I wonder why this woman did this. This old woman was caught making love with this young guy in Amauzu Mkpoghoro in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

She was made to dance around Afikpo with her baby daddy. What a shameful act."
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The Supreme Court also declared Makarfi the authentic chairman of the PDP on Wednesday.

According to Daily Post, the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwajaren described the news reports as fake news.

Uwajaren also called on members of the public to disregard the report making the rounds on social media.

He said The EFCC hereby warns the general public to be wary of the activities of those who have been misleading Nigerians with false information about the activities of the commission.

While many unsuspecting Nigerians shared the unfounded post, others simply copied and reposted as the original, which generated a myriad of reactions, suggesting that the commission was a tool in the hands of the executive to further destabilise the PDP.

ALSO READ: Makarfi grants amnesty to Ali Modu Sheriff

We have considered it necessary to set the records straight and to advise social media activists to be wary of those who are out to sow a seed of discord among Nigerians as there is no EFCC investigation on Senator Makarfi.
The former NERC boss said the agency announced an increase in tariff, but later suspended the decision.

He said I have read some piece of news suggesting that President Jonathan ordered the reversal of electricity tariff during his tenure as president. Since I have left office I have avoided issues about electricity regulation in Nigeria to give our successors the best opportunity to do better than we did.

My understanding of public office that the best a former public officer should do is to truly step aside and be willing to provide advice if and when it is needed. In the best tradition of public service, you dont obstruct the new administration.

But I am constrained to restate the truth of what happened for the purpose of ensuring proper information to enable the present administration do their best to fix the electricity crisis.

Throughout our five years as commissioners of NERC, there was no single day that President Jonathan ever dictated or instructed policy to the commission concerning any issue on electricity regulation.
He said the 12 policemen came with a Search Warrant from the High Court of the FCT sitting at Gudu District, Abuja.

According to Daily Post, the former GF also said I have just been informed that my country home in Okene, Kogi State built some 12 years ago was today 14th July 2017 thoroughly searched by men of the Nigerian Police Force.

Armed with a Search Warrant from the High Court of the FCT sitting at Gudu District, Abuja, the 12 Policemen searched the whole building including the overhead and underground water tank, septic tanks, the penthouse and Boys Quarters apparently looking for foreign currency (Dollars and Pound Sterling) and other unspecified documents.

However, unlike previous searches, which were conducted in the crudest manner with the aim of needlessly destroying property, these Policemen conducted themselves professionally and were civil in their approach thereby giving credence to the new image of the force as a reformed Institution.

At the end of the almost 2 hours search, no incriminating thing was found in the house and a report to that effect was duly prepared and witnessed by those who were present including my junior brother, Abdullahi Adoke.

This will be the 4th time my home will be subjected to search at the instance of Nigerias law enforcement personnel. It will be recalled that my student home in The Hague, Netherlands was searched at the instance of the EFCC. This was followed by the search of my country home in Kano and the search of my junior brothers house also in Okene and todays search of my own home in Okene.

While all these searches have been futile in the sense that nothing incriminating was found, the law enforcement personnel still persist in this fruitless exercise.

I am therefore convinced that the searches are in furtherance of an orchestrated plan to harass, intimidate and generally prevent me from pursuing my suit against the federal government. I served Nigeria diligently as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice for 5 years and two months and I am proud of the modest achievements I recorded in the Justice and other sectors that my inputs impacted.

I am therefore utterly surprised that at the end of my service, agencies of the State especially the EFCC have chosen to align with those with personal grudges and scores to settle with me for refusing to allow my office to be used in their fight to gain ownership and control of OPL 245 granted to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.

I am however certain that at the appropriate time, all those behind my travails will be exposed and shamed. By the grace of God, Nigerians will be made aware of the ignoble roles some of their so called leaders are playing in furtherance of their personal interests in the guise of fighting corruption.
Danjuma and some others, under the aegis of National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), blamed the Buhari administration for the ethnic crisis and agitations for secession in the country.

According to Daily Post, Sani condemned the comments, adding that the comments threaten the existence of Nigerias unity.

He said Its unfair to President Buhari for any individual or group to accuse him or his administration of having any theocratic agenda. Other issues raised about his administration may or may not be true but certainly he is not a religious bigot. If there exist credible evidence of a religious agenda Ill be one of the first to raise a voice.

Elder statesmen should champion the cause of peace and national unity and not aggravate the crisis. In this inflammable or combustible state of our country, we dont need more bellows of ethnic smokes or religious flames.

We must balance our natural passion to defend our ethnic and religious rights and our moral duty to preserve peace and our constitutional responsibility to preserve the unity of our country.

A dark cloud of uncertainty hangs over the sky of our country, its our duty as patriots and men and women of conscience to stand and to speak to dispel it.

Ethnic and religious sentiments are corrosives inimical to our existence as a country and as a people. We can collectively extinguish the infernos of agitations by standing up for our country.
Wamakko died on Friday in Abuja at the age of 50.

The lawmaker represented Kware/Wamakko Constituency, Sokoto State and was serving his first term.

In a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan, on Friday in Abuja, Dogara expressed his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Sokoto State.

Hon Wamakko was a dedicated lawmaker who had the progress of Kware/Wamakko federal constituency, Sokoto State and the entire Nigeria at heart, Dogara said in his tribute.

As we mourn his painful untimely departure, I pray that God will bring solace to his family who will miss him the most and grant him eternal rest.

The Speaker recalled that Wamakko was a patriotic, committed, peace-loving and hardworking lawmaker who gave his best for the service of his people and said the House will greatly miss him.

I also condole with the government and people of Sokoto State over this loss. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appeared unmoved by the senators attempts to throw plenty of legal spanners in the recall process, earlier on.

We are not unaware of notices being filed in court, said Prince Solomon Soyebi who is in charge of voter education at INEC. And just as we have maintained, a notice does not constitute a stoppage; it's not an injunction on its own. There has never been a specific court order giving injunction restraining us from performing our constitutional duties."

That was a defiant INEC.

That was July 7, 2017.

Soyebi was speaking against the backdrop of a court order issued by Justice John Tsoho which sought to impede the recall process.

Melayes lawyer, Mike Ozekhome had worked his socks off beforehand to secure that injunction.

On Thursday, June 29, 2017, Ozekhome penned a letter to INEC demanding that the recall process be halted. The letter was addressed to the chairman of the commission.

INEC laughed the letter off as did the rest of the nation. Everyone regarded Melaye and his lawyers as a bunch of jokers.

Suddenly, the joke is on the rest of us.

On Thursday, July 13, 2017, the entire country yawned as INEC went limp, helpless and without balls. For Nigerians, the feeling of deja vu couldn't be missed.

The electoral commission said it will be obeying the court order which asked that the status quo be maintained.

Some parts of the INEC statement read as follows:

"INEC held its regular weekly meeting today and considered the order given by the Federal High Court, Abuja dated 6th July 2017 directing the parties to maintain the status quo till the determination of the plaintiffs motion on notice, in respect of the suit filed by Senator Dino Melaye, seeking orders of injunction against the Commission to stop it from acting on the petition by the registered voters of Kogi West Senatorial district.

"As a responsible, law-abiding institution, INEC will comply with the order."

What changed? How did INEC go from a tough talking, focused organisation to a castrated bull dog in the space of two weeks?

Sahara Reporters says it can provide the answer:

The sudden U-turn by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to halt action on efforts by voters in Kogi West to recall Senator Dino Melaye came as a result of the Senates decision to probe the the online news platform wrote.

It continued: After a meeting earlier today, INEC decided to freeze the recall effort, citing legal complications.

From 2007 to 2012, INEC chairman, served as TETFUNDs Executive Secretary. His time at the Fund was marked by a series of allegations of corruption against him.

It is not an accident that, once the Senate threatened to investigate TETFund, Professor Mahmood Yakubus INEC quickly retreated from the ongoing effort to recall Senator Dino Melaye.

If Sahara Reporters is to be believed, INEC chickened out once the senate resolved to go after its chairman.

If Sahara Reporters is to be believed, the senate has Mahmoods nudes and will not hesitate to make them public if the INEC chairman refuses to play ball.

Its called blackmail.

These are grave allegations on the surface and beneath the surface. If the chairman of your nations electoral commission gives in this easily to cheap blackmail, then the entire institution he presides over is in peril and a joke. You could also say that a character who succumbs to threats of blackmail from a bunch of badly behaved lawmakers, shouldnt remain a day longer in office in a sane country.

Of course no one is saying INEC shouldnt obey court orders, but the transition from Lion one day to Lamb the next, was too swift. Too suspicious. Too eyebrow raising.

INEC says it will seek to vacate the order some day, but the entire Dino Melaye recall process may just be dead in the water.

Lawmakers and senators are too powerful around here. They are also vindictive, petty and selfish.

If the stories flying around concerning their successful blackmail of Mahmood are anything to go by, best believe we've finally hit rock bottom.

An INEC chairman should be above board; seeing as hes the custodian of millions of votes that decide the countrys leaders.

I expect Mahmood to strongly denounce the stories insinuating that hes become the tool of blackmail in the hands of a perverse national assembly.

Mahmood has got to speak up or sue the publishers of the story.
The Commanding Officer, Forward Operating Base, Capt. Olushina Ojebode, gave the assurance after a 7-kilometre route march by the Navy and other security agencies in the border town of Badagry, Lagos State.

The News Agency if Nigeria (NAN) reports that other security agencies that participated in the route march are Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

The essence of todays exercise is to enhance operational capabilities of our personnel and those of our sister agencies in the route march.

I believe we will be able to perform our constitutional mandates better.

One of the reasons for this exercise is to also assure the populace that they are safe and secured before, during and after the July 22 local government elections in Lagos State, Ojebode said.

According to him, the exercise is also to strengthen the existing cordial relationship among all the security agencies.

Ojebode said that the idea was to engender cooperation among the security agencies in the discharge of their responsibilities to enable everyone to work together effectively.

We want to let everyone know we are always ready and so, if need be to support other sister agencies in the elections, then we will, he said.

ALSO READ:PDP chairman calls for unity ahead of Lagos LG polls

Ojebode, however, warned anyone or group, who might be planning to disrupt the elections to have a rethink, saying that adequate security arrangements had been made to prevent the breakdown of law and order.

NAN reports that no fewer than 300 personnel from different security agencies participated in the route march started that started at about 8:00 a.m.
Its Director-General, Dr Gabriel Nwambu, made the commendation in his election report made available to newsmen on Saturday in Osogbo.

According to him, the election is a great improvement over past elections in the country.

Nwambu commended INEC for being proactive in distribution of sensitive and non sensitive materials to all polling units in the 10 local government areas that constituted the senatorial district.

He said electoral officials were present at different polling units across the local governments before 8 a.m.

This, according to him, strengthened the confidence of voters in the electoral process the more.

He added that the prompt distribution of materials and perfect performance of card readers and general logistics in the process indicated a significant improvement in the conduct of elections by the commission over the years.

Our organisation observed a significant improvement by INEC in terms of distribution of materials, performance of the card readers, and general logistics in the just concluded Osun by-election.

The conduct of the election was reasonably conformed to the constitution and the relevant provisions of the electoral act of 2010 as amended.

We, as one of INECs accredited observers, hereby affirm that the conduct of the Osun West Senatorial by-election won by PDP candidate Ademola Adeleke was credible.

The election also conforms to the provisions of the law and rule of engagement. We salute the courage and level of professionalism displayed by security agencies.

We specifically commend the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, for keeping to his words on proactive policing in line with UN tenets on mitigation of crime.

We also commend INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakub for achieving significant improvement in overall conduct of the election, especially as it affects the effective use of the Card Reader Machine.

The by-election was prompted by the death of Sen. Isiaka Adeleke on April 23.

His brother, Demola Adeleke, who contested the election on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election.

He scored 97,480 votes to defeat Sen. Mudashiru Husain, the APC flag-bearer, who scored 66,116 votes during the election.
Makarfi said this while reacting to the former Governors comment saying that PDP is now in the hands of looters.

Sheriff was sacked as the PDP chairman by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.

The partys spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye said that the PDP will constructively criticising the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking to Daily Post, Adeyeye also said that the executives are working hard to reposition and build the PDP.

He said I will no longer engage them, Sheriffs camp. Supreme Court is the final arbiter and it has pronounced that there is no faction in the PDP.

We have done the right thing by offering our hands of fellowship to them. We wont engage them any longer because we are now one.
Friday's attack in the Red Sea resort left four others wounded.

The attacker, who had swum ashore, was arrested and questioned.

"We don't know his motives yet, he could be crazy or perturbed -- it's too early to tell," a senior interior ministry official told AFP.

In January 2016, three tourists in Hurghada were wounded in a stabbing assault by two assailants with apparent Islamic State group (IS) sympathies.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's stabbing.
"I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators," he said, while decrying a government "witch hunt to weed out anyone it deems disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime."

Gulen's statement came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of a military-led bid to seize power from Erdogan -- a bid which Ankara says was ordered by Gulen.

Some 50,000 people have been arrested and over 100,000 fired or suspended from their jobs as Erdogan seeks to clean house.

In the latest wave of the purge, Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police, soldiers and ministry officials under a decree published on Friday, state media reported.

Although activists and Western governments have criticized the crackdown, the government insists it is necessary to tackle the threat they say is posed by the Gulen movement.

"The last year has taken a toll on me as hundreds of thousands of innocent Turkish citizens are being punished simply because the government decides they are somehow 'connected' to me or the Hizmet movement and treats that alleged connection as a crime," Gulen said.

He called for an independent international investigation of last year's coup attempt, which left 249 people dead.
Coca is the key ingredient in cocaine.

Cocaine production meanwhile rose from 646 metric tons in 2015 to 866 metric tons in 2016, a 34 percent rise, he said.

But while the increases were significant, Mathiasen said, he held out hope for improvement now that Colombia has signed a peace agreement with the biggest rebel group in the country, which controls much of the drug-producing land.

The production increases came in traditional coca-producing regions -- and did not reflect expansion into new areas -- said Leonardo Correa, coordinator of the UN's Integrated Illicit Crops Monitoring System, known as SIMCI.

The UN Security Council recently decided unanimously to create a new mission for Colombia to help the former rebels of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, rejoin society as a step to securing the peace process.

For decades FARC guerrillas controlled many of the country's key coca-growing zones.

Under the peace deal, farmers will receive subsidies to switch from coca to other crops.

Colombia is the leading coca producer in Latin America, followed by Peru and Bolivia, according to the UN report.
Authorities warned the death toll could rise as they scoured the scene of the charred building that had no sprinkler system.

A woman and her adult son were among the victims, who all died on the 26th floor, the Honolulu Star Advertiser said.

About 12 residents and one firefighter were injured, according to the newspaper. The firefighter and three others were taken to hospital in serious condition.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell tweeted just before 7:00 pm (0500 GMT) that the fire at the Marco Polo Building was now "under control."

"Mahalo to all first responders," Caldwell wrote, using a Hawaiian word for "thank you."

However firefighters later responded to a "flare-up" in the building.

At least 100 fire personnel and more than 30 fire department units responded to the blaze, which was initially reported as burning through the 26th floor but then spread to multiple units across the 25th and up to the 28th floor.

Hawaii Red Cross volunteers assisted evacuees in a local park and a shelter was opened at a local school.

Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright told the Star Advertiser that paramedics were carrying out "emergency treatment with a triage location inside the building."

Some residents complained about how long it took fire crews to reach the building and evacuate it.

"With all of these fire trucks, I can't understand why they can't put it out,"Barbara Hudman, who has lived at the Marco Polo since 1979, told the Star Advertiser. "Something is screwed up."
Another of 10 men accused of participating in a Quad-Cities dogfighting ring busted in 2016 has pleaded guilty.

In January, a federal grand jury indicted the men on various charges related to dogfighting, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. Authorities allege there was a conspiracy to conduct dogfighting from sometime in 2011 to April 2016, when federal and local authorities carried out raids in Rock Island.

On Friday, DeMarlo A. McCoy pleaded guilty to one of several counts of sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in dogfighting that were filed against him, according to court records. The plea was part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, but more details on the deal were not available Friday.

Mr. McCoy also was initially charged with conspiring to take part in a dogfighting ring and possessing dogs for participation in dogfighting, according to court records.

His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 21, according to court records.

All but one of the other men charged in the case also have elected to plead guilty.

The case against Algerron Lee Goldsmith, accused of conspiracy and possessing dogs for participation in dogfighting, was still pending Friday, according to court records. His next court date is Aug. 10.

The other men are:

-- Terrill Onterial McDuffy pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal conspiracy charge, according to court records.

-- Sherrick Cornelius Houston pleaded guilty June 28 to conspiracy and possessing dogs for participation in dogfighting.

 Ryan M. Hickman pleaded guilty June 13 to possessing dogs for participation in dogfighting.

 Andre Keywan Lidell pleaded guilty June 13 to sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in dogfighting.

 Stantrel Vontrez Knight pleaded guilty May 18 to sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in dogfighting.

 Simmeon Terrell Hall pleaded guilty May 22 to sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in dogfighting.

 Willie Earl Jackson pleaded guilty June 13 to sponsoring and exhibiting dogs in dogfighting.

 Jaquan L. Jones pleaded guilty May 18 to attending a dogfight.

All of these men also are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21, according to court records.

Prior to criminal charges being filed, the government in April 2016 began civil forfeiture proceedings to seize 64 dogs and other property from a number of the defendants and others.

At least 53 of the original dogs and 11 puppies born after the animals were confiscated have been forfeited, according to court records. Nine have been released.
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Many Nebraska counties have relocated their county seats, usually to more central locations, but only a few have moved them more than once.

The earliest division of what would ultimately become Richardson County occurred in 1830 when the Treaty of Prairie du Chien created the Half Breed Tract on the west bank of the Missouri River, but the vast area west of the river, simply called Indian Territory, made permanent settlement by non-American Indians illegal. About the only potential settlers were French fur traders and a handful of missionaries.

With the creation of Nebraska Territory in 1857 came Richardson County, named for congressman William Richardson who championed the Nebraska-Kansas Act and was Nebraskas third territorial governor, which originally contained parts of later Gage, Johnson, Nemaha and Pawnee Counties.

The virtually nonexistent village of Archer, named in honor of Robert Archer the villages founder and first county sheriff, was named the county seat. Archer was platted in 1855 with 100 blocks, and a townsite company formed. A post office opened the following year. Elmer S. Dundy, member of the territorial legislature, Nebraska Supreme Court judge and most famously the judge in Standing Bear Vs Crook, settled in Archer in 1857. Archer, though the county seat in name, was noted as a mere collection of log houses numbering scarcely more than 12, was incorporated in 1859.

Thomas Hare arrived in Richardson County in 1854. With the arrival of J.W. Roberts and John Singleton later that year the trio bought a tract in the south central part of the county, seven miles west of the ultimate site of Falls City for $50 and, in 1855, established the village of Salem, named for Salem, Illinois. The Salem post office opened the following year with J.C. Lincoln, second cousin of President Abraham Lincoln, as postmaster.

In 1857, Salem resident and member of the territorys upper legislative house Charles McDonald discovered that Archer was within the Half Breed Tract, which was like an Indian reservation, not technically a part of Richardson County. That April he managed a bill to move the county seat from Archer to Salem. There being no suitable building in Salem, the records and offices remained in Archer. Later that year the Salem Collegiate Institute opened and West Salem was platted with many lots dedicated for county seat use.

Around 1855, a small settlement formed on the Nemaha River calling itself Nemaha Falls. A year later the Falls City Townsite Company formed about 2 miles to the northeast on land purchased from Jim Lane for $50. The town, after first considering the name Lanesville honoring local abolitionist Jim Lane, settled on the name Falls City. With flooding on the Nemaha River many of the settlers in Archer and Nemaha Falls relocated to Falls City, even moving houses and buildings. With another year of floods the Nemaha Falls post office closed, leaving nothing on the site.

In 1860, after considerable discussion and voting, Richardson Countys county seat moved from Salem to Falls City, and in 1863 a $3,000, 30-by-40-foot courthouse was erected. Salem tried one last time to win the county seat back, and, after a petition with 1,650 signers, a vote was called for Oct. 10, 1871.

As an added inducement to attract the county government, a vote to sell bonds to build a masonry courthouse was called. The bond issue not only failed but the removal election showed 1,171 votes to retain Falls City and 1,030 for Salem. Even if all the Salem petitioners had actually voted for Salem it would not have garnered them the necessary two-thirds majority required by Nebraska law to move a county seat.

The newspaper reported excitement ran very high but no quarreling and very little drunkenness was visible.

A second 47-by 85-foot, stone and brick courthouse with five fire-proof vaults was built in 1873, while the old courthouse was moved across the street and converted to a dwelling. By 1882 the courthouse had been enlarged and both the Atchison & Nebraska and Missouri Pacific Railroads had arrived.

In May 1919, the courthouse burned with the extant $210,000 building replacing it in 1924.

Falls City reached its peak population of 6,203 in 1950 while the 2010 census shows about 4,500. Salems peak population of 694 was recorded in 1860 and today is estimated at 109. Archers townsite is now completely farmed over at a point described as three-quarters of a mile east of the Big Nemaha River, a half mile west of Halfbreed Creek. Although many graves have been relocated, the largely overgrown Archer Cemetery is north of the townsite, about three miles northeast of Falls City.
SEVERAL hundred delegates, including 200 potential suppliers, attended the first Rail Baltica Global Forum in Riga, Latvia, in April, demonstrating the level of interest in the Rail Baltica project not only from people within the three Baltic states but also from Finland and Poland which also stand to benefit from the project.

While Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are served by a 1520mm-gauge rail network, freight traffic flows are mainly east-west to Russia and Belarus reflecting their Soviet past and the fact that traffic to Poland and the rest of the European Union requires a change of gauge at the Lithuanian-Polish border. There are currently no cross-border passenger trains between the three Baltic states as passenger rail services are largely focused on commuter services around the three capitals and limited regional services.

The Rail Baltica project is designed to address these deficiencies by constructing a north-south standard-gauge railway from Talinn, via Riga and Riga Airport, to a junction near Lithuanias second-largest city Kaunas where the line would split to serve the capital Vilnius and to connect with the Polish network near Trakiszki. The 870km railway would be double-track throughout, electrified at 25kV ac and equipped with ETCS Level 2. It would be a mixed-traffic railway designed for operation by 120km/h freight trains and 240km/h passenger trains.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 5.79bn. The European Union (EU) is expected to fund the bulk of the project with contributions totalling 4.634bn leaving the three national governments to fund the remaining 1.154bn.

According to a cost:benefit analysis conducted by Ernst & Young Baltic, Rail Baltica is financially and economically viable. Rail Baltica has a 6.32% economic rate of return, which is above the 5% EU threshold required for funding, says Mr Nauris Klava, a director of Ernst & Young Baltic. This rate of return is for the base case scenario, but even the low case scenario has a rate of return of 5.05%, while the high case scenario return is forecast at 7.7%. Measurable socio-economic benefits of the project are estimated at 16.2bn, which far outweighs the investment. It is also estimated that Rail Baltica would create a GDP multiplier effect worth an additional 2bn.

The forecasts are based on continuous economic growth and that the EUs policy of shifting freight from road to rail happens, Klava says. We have not estimated the ticket prices because pricing will depend on the future policies of operators.

Ernst & Young Baltic says that while Rail Baltica is not financially viable without public co-financing, once the investment has been made, the infrastructure manager should reach breakeven in 2031 and be financially sustainable thereafter.

The three Baltic states have a combined population of 6.2 million. Their GDP has increased by around 5% between 2006 and 2016 to reach 20.9bn in Estonia, 25bn in Latvia and 38.6bn in Lithuania, the largest of the three countries. The Baltic states have recovered from the economic crisis of 2008-09, have exceeded the pre-crisis GDP level, and are expected to surpass the EU average GDP growth rate up to 2055, says the cost:benefit analysis.

Finland and Poland will gain from strengthened European connectivity, says Ms Baiba Rubesa, CEO and chairperson of RB Rail, which has been set up by the three states to implement the project. The five countries account for 19% of the land area and 10% of the population of the EU, and the route will serve around 600 higher-end institutions with 2.6 million students.

Rail Baltica is expected to carry 2 million tonnes of freight in its first year of operation, rising to 13.7 million tonnes by 2030 and 20 million tonnes by 2055 under the base case scenario. Rail Baltica would offer a transit time of less than two days between the Baltic states and destinations within central Europe, compared with four days for the equivalent lorry journey.

Transit freight would account for 57% of traffic with the main flows coming from Finland via ferry links across the Baltic Sea and between Asia, Russia, Poland, Germany and the rest of Europe. The rest of the traffic would be imports and exports from Estonia (10% of total freight), Latvia (10%) and Lithuania (23%). Klava says the bulk of the freight traffic will be containers and high-value goods, which is very different from the type of traffic currently transported by rail in the Baltic states. Intermodal logistics terminals will be established in Muuga near Tallinn connecting the railway with the port, Salaspils near Riga, and Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania.

Up to 15 freight trains per day are expected to use Rail Baltica between Tallinn and Vilnius, rising to 22-31 trains per day on the section between Kaunas and the Polish border.

The predicted passenger flows will be very different from freight, as most of the traffic will be concentrated between the three capitals. In the base case scenario, Rail Baltica is expected to operate eight trains daily in each direction between Tallinn, Riga and Panevezys, rising to 10 between Panevezys and Kaunas, and up to 12 from Kaunas to Vilnius, while there are only expected to be five cross-border trains per day to Poland. In addition, a shuttle service of 36 trains per day per direction will be provided between Riga and Riga Airport.

Rail Baltica will be a game changer for passengers, Klava says. Journey times compared with driving will be slashed. Tallinn - Riga will be 1h 55min by train compared with 4h 5min by car, while Riga - Vilnius will take 2h 1min by rail rather than 3h 30min by road. The railway is expected to carry between 3.6 and 5.5 million passengers in its first year of operation, increasing to 4.7-7.1 million annual passengers by 2055, using figures from the low and high scenarios.

According to the cost:benefit analysis, Rail Baltica will be profitable to operate, particularly for freight (Table 3).

Progress is already being made with Rail Baltica. Work was completed last October on a 364.5m scheme to extend standard-gauge track 123km from the Polish border to Kaunas together with track renewals on the existing 1520mm-gauge line. However, as Rubesa pointed out, the project will have to be revisited. The Polish border - Kaunas section is single and not double track, the speed is too low, and there is no decent signalling, so it needs to be upgraded to Rail Baltica standards.

Rubesa told IRJ that the alignment from Kaunas to the Latvian-Estonian border has been fixed, and according

to Lithuanias transport and communications minister Mr Rokas Masiulis, land appropriation as far as the Latvian border has started, and Lithuania has a compensation scheme in place for affected land owners. Rail Baltica is entering the irreversible phase and the project will happen, Masiulis asserts.

Rubesa says tendering to build the rail link from Riga Central to Riga Airport is already underway with a view to starting work next year. Riga Central station is one of the most complex projects because of the bridges crossing the river and because it will be a massive redevelopment scheme, Rubesa says. It is worth taking more time in the capital cities to see where the commercial development opportunities are. Opportunities abound for private companies to become involved in the logistics centres.

We have just completed the procurement guidelines and we expect to complete the design guidelines and finalise the alignment for Rail Baltica by the end of the year, Rubesa explains.

By the end of 2018, the joint venture partners will have to decide on an infrastructure manager, and we realise we need to get an operator on board as soon as possible.

So far, Rail Baltica has secured 765m in funding. We have submitted a CEF application which would bring it to just under 1bn for studies, technical design and preliminary works, Rubesa says.

However, funding beyond 2021 is less certain, as Rubesa explains: I dont think anyone in the EU knows what financing will be like in a post-Brexit 2021 situation. It is possible to ensure we have sustainable financing over a long period, but we have to be prepared to look for alternatives.

Earlier opposition to Rail Baltica is waning as people start to realise its benefits. The railway is a catalyst for economic development, says Latvias prime minister Mr Maris Kucinskis. It will transform the economic geography of the three countries, increase exports and result in better supply routes.

The first train will leave Tallinn in 2026, Rubesa says. Children today will wonder how we managed without Rail Baltica.

Upgrading Polands Baltic links

POLAND is making good progress to upgrade the line from Warsaw via Bialystok and Elk to the Lithuanian border at cost of between e1.76bn and e1.94bn.

On May 31, a 325m scheme to upgrade the 66km Warsaw - Sadowne section was completed. This included quadrupling the track in the Warsaw area to separate commuter and long-distance trains.

Work is due to start this year to upgrade the next two sections. The 36km 240m Sadowne - Czyzew section should be completed in 2020 with the 72km 393m Czyzew - Bialystok section following a year later. Line speed will be increased to 120km/h for freight and 160km/h passenger trains.

Poland has applied for funding from the EUs Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for up to 60% of the 395m required for the 105km Bialystok - Elk section where works are planned for 2020-2023. Bialystok - Elk is single track and will be upgraded to a double-track electrified railway with a maximum speed of 160km/h, says Mr Jakub Kapturzak, deputy director, rail transport with Polands Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction. It is also planned to install ETCS between Warsaw and Elk by 2023.

Plans to improve the final section from Elk via Olecko to the Lithuanian border are a little more uncertain. The line has a lot of curves which restrict the maximum speed. Two options are being considered to upgrade it for 140km/h operation to achieve a 50-minute journey time by 2024 at an estimated cost of 420m, or realign the railway for 160km/h running to reduce the journey time to 38 minutes by 2025 at an estimated cost of 600m.
This commentary originally appeared in the opinion section of FoxNews.com.

North Korea's July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit American soil has renewed talk of military intervention, with the notion of a surgical strike on Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal once again gaining resonance. But an effective limited military strike with minimal collateral damage and no escalation simply won't work.

Despite recent statements by top Trump administration officials, there are no neat or efficient military solutions to the mounting threat posed by the regime of Kim Jong Un. A major stumbling block is that North Korea appears to have dozens of military bases with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and we likely don't know the precise locations of all of them.

A further significant complication is that nearly all of the North Korean bases are at least partly underground and have multiple entrances. Fully neutralizing their weaponry could take weeks of missile and air attacks by the U.S. and South Korea. Some of the facilities may be so deeply submerged that only nuclear force would destroy them.

Even if only one base is struck, the consequences could be catastrophic. North Korea has threatened large-scale retaliation for a single attack and South Korea would bear the brunt of its fury. North Korea has pointed thousands of artillery tubes and rocket launchers at South Korea and has vowed to turn the urbanized areas within rangewith more than 20 million residents, including tens of thousands of U.S. citizensinto a sea of fire. With its chemical weapons, used with deadly efficiency on Kim's half-brother Kim Jong-Nam in February, the North could wreak unimaginable death and suffering on its enemies.

The scenario only worsens from there. If North Korea executes even a modest retaliation on South Korea, Seoul would be impelled to fire back, probably escalating the conflict into a major, protracted war that would involve much of the U.S. military. North Korea would likely lose, but not before it inflicts immense damage.

As U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis recently warned, North Korean retaliation would spur probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes. Such a war is unlikely to end decisively and cleanly. It would probably transition to an insurgency that could exceed the U.S. experience in Iraq.

If the U.S. opts for a military response to North Korea's mounting aggressions, war would appear inevitable.

If the U.S. opts for a military response to North Korea's mounting aggressions, war would appear inevitable. So far, no American president has been willing to risk that outcome. President Trump, however, has conveyed his dissatisfaction with avoiding military options, tweeting recently that the era of strategic patience with the North Korea regime has failed. What steps he may be willing to make are unclear, but two days after Kim's July 4 fireworks Trump said he was considering some pretty severe things.

Left alone, North Korea will probably expand its nuclear force of 10 to 50 weapons today to 100 to 200 in the next decade or so. Simultaneously, North Korea's ICBM development apparently seeks to decouple U.S. security interests from those of its regional allies, South Korea and Japan. If the North succeeds, at some point it could issue South Korea an ultimatum to surrender, or else. The North may see such an approach as its best option for unifying Korea under North Korean control. The U.S. and South Korea should view such a prospect as a disaster, one which can be avoided only by reining in the North Korean nuclear weapon program now. Time is not on our side.

Convincing North Korea not to pursue such developments requires a U.S./South Korean approach in which the costs imposed exceed the benefits that Kim seeks (the essence of deterrence). The only thing the Kim regime values so highly is its own survival. The U.S. and South Korea could seek to prod Kim toward nuclear disarmament through intensified information operations targeting the North Korean public, particularly dissatisfied elites.

From my RAND research, based in part on extensive interviews with senior North Korean defectors, I have reason to hope that the impetus for such change could come from within if prompted and supported by U.S. and South Korean information operations.

Among North Korea's elite classhigh-ranking diplomats, military officers, scientists and wealthy entrepreneursmany would reportedly like to see Kim gone. These influential Northerners view Kim as a weak and ineffective leader, and those who are already capitalists regard him as a hindrance in their drive for Western-style economic rewards. My discussions with the defectors strongly suggest that many elites believe Kim's regime will probably collapse in the coming years. Given the right assurances through a robust information campaign, the North Korean elites might be emboldened to pursue regime change.

Defeating decades of North Korean indoctrination is itself a formidable challenge. After seven decades of North-South strife, war could still come. But a growing hunger for change among North Korean elites presents an opening that should not be overlooked. Their changing attitudes could help hasten Kim's tumble from power and pave the way for a more agreeable government to form. The alternatives are staggeringly grim.

Bruce W. Bennett is a senior defense analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on Fox News Channel on July 14, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/14/2017



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

spoilers have revealed what's to come on the men's round of hometown dates and how Rachel Lindsay 's journey will play out from there.Rachel is so happy in her current relationship with 's Season 13 winner that she told E! News she wants a wedding "sooner than later" and hopes the nuptials will take place "next year."Rachel is "definitely in love" and can't wait to go on normal dates that normal couples enjoy once this wild ride on ends and the finale airs on TV. Rachel has been patiently waiting to go public with her engagement.Yes, that's right -- engagement! Rachel's edition ended with a proposal and a Neil Lane diamond ring. Rachel deserves a fairy-tale ending after getting rejected on Nick Viall 's season of The Bachelor, so who is the lucky guy who stole her heart?According to Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone, Rachel selected Bryan Abasolo , a 37-year-old chiropractor from Miami, FL, as her winner at the final Rose Ceremony filmed in Spain.Bryan received the final rose and therefore asked the 32-year-old attorney from Dallas, TX, for her hand in marriage."My sources... are sure she's with Bryan," Carbone wrote in a June 5 blog post. "And so am I. If they are wrong, I'm wrong."currently has four bachelors remaining -- Bryan; Peter Kraus , a 31-year-old business owner from Madison, WI; Dean Unglert , a 26-year-old startup recruiter from Venice, CA; and Eric Bigger , a 29-year-old personal trainer from Los Angeles, CA.Rachel's runner-up was Peter, according to Carbone. Peter allegedly finished in second place and left the show brokenhearted. However, Peter has been guarded in the reality dating process, so he probably left the show with some walls still up.The next episode of airs on Monday, July 17. Rachel will be shown traveling around the United States to visit each of her Final 4 suitor's hometowns in order to meet their beloved families.Bryan's hometown date was filmed on April 20 in Miami, FL. Peter's date took place in Madison, WI, on April 22. Dean, whose date was in Aspen, CO, was taped on April 24. And Eric's hometown date filmed on April 26 in Baltimore, MD, according to Carbone.Below are the details on what viewers can expect to see from hometown dates on!ABC revealed the upcoming episode will feature Rachel visiting Baltimore, MD, first. Eric will take the Bachelorette to the rough neighborhood where he grew up, where his family was constantly tempted by drugs and crime. In fact, Eric admitted in the July 10 episode that one of his relatives is currently serving a prison sentence.Knowing Eric avoided the wrong path in life, Rachel is in awe of his "strength and integrity," according to the network, as he'll explain "the obstacles he overcame to go to college and achieve his career goals."Eric, however, never brought a woman home to meet his parents before Rachel, so the Bachelorette will naturally feel very nervous and anxious. Expectations for her visit were probably set very high.Eric will express his emotions to his family and promise to stop running from love, but will he work up the nerve to tell Rachel he's in love with her?Rachel will then be shown visiting Bryan's hometown in Miami. Bryan will take Rachel to the famous Calle Ocho, where the couple will attempt to salsa dance, play dominoes and sample some tasty street food from Colombia, according to ABC."However, there are dark clouds looming as Rachel is fearful of not getting Bryan's mother's approval," the network teased, which was "a problem that broke up his last relationship."Rachel will apparently try to convince Bryan's mom that she would be the perfect match for her son and the perfect daughter-in-law, but Bryan's mom will remain suspicious of the whirlwind relationship.ABC revealed that Peter couldn't wait to introduce Rachel to his friends and his welcoming family, but Peter he'll still have walls up in fear of rejection or the romance not working out."And the Bachelorette's revealing talk with his mother makes her unsure of what to expect from her sensitive suitor," the network teased.The last date that will be shown on the July 17 episode belongs to Dean.The date will start out great, as Dean takes Rachel on an ATV ride. But the mood will change when Dean prepares Rachel for the fact his father is a Sikh Kundalini yogi, who allegedly provided very little love and support after Dean's mother passed away from breast cancer when the bachelor was only 15-years-old.Up until this point, Dean had been estranged from his dad for years, but Rachel will stand by Dean during the difficult visit.While Rachel will be more than ready to meet this "unorthodox family," according to ABC, Dean will "barely be able to contain his intense feelings toward his father."After Rachel and other family members leave Dean alone to chat with his father, what the network says transpires from this heart-to-heart talk is "something that rarely has been seen before on ."After the hometown dates, Rachel and her four suitors will travel to her own hometown of Dallas, TX, where the Bachelorette must make an extremely difficult decision at a Rose Ceremony allegedly filmed on April 27.Rachel will be falling in love with all four men at this point in her journey, so ABC calls her decision "impossible." She ends up saying goodbye to one "devastated" bachelor, who will be Dean, according to Carbone."Shaken by this gut-wrenching and heartbreaking ordeal, Rachel doesn't have much time to gather herself and take the remaining three men to Rioja, Spain," ABC revealed.Rachel and her Final 3 guys then allegedly take advantage of the overnight Fantasy Suite dates in Spain, after which Eric will be ousted from the reality dating competition in third place before the Final Rose Ceremony.To learn more information about Bryan, click here to visit our Bryan Abasolo page or click here to see our Bryan Abasolo photo gallery.For additional information about Peter, click here to visit our Peter Kraus page or click here to see our Peter Kraus photo gallery.For more information about Dean, click here to visit our Dean Unglert page or click here to see our Dean Unglert photo gallery.For additional information about Eric, click here to visit our Eric Bigger page or click here to see our Eric Bigger photo gallery.
When China opened its doors last month to beef produced in the United States after a 13-year import ban, Nebraska meat was the first to make the trip to the worlds largest country.

Though the new market made headlines last month, international trade is big business for the United States. Governor-led trade missions are en vogue nationwide, providing a good photo op in addition to curating potential new trading partners overseas.

By creating an international trade council, unveiled Thursday by Gov. Pete Ricketts, Nebraska united many of the states leading stakeholders in several industries toward pursuing a common goal to benefit all Nebraskans. Building trade sparks economic growth, creates jobs and attracts both new residents to and investment in the Cornhusker State.

Taylor Gage, a spokesman for Ricketts, told the Journal Star that preliminary research didnt indicate the existence of a similar group in another state. This council pools the resources and planning of organizations that all have made inroads overseas, a comprehensive effort designed to strengthen the wide range of international business conducted in Nebraska.

In 2016 alone, Nebraska businesses exported $6 billion in manufacturing goods and $5.4 billion of agricultural products, according to state trade groups. The exports from two industries alone account for $6,000 of business for every man, woman and child in the state  not to mention directly supporting hundreds of thousands of Nebraska jobs and indirectly supporting tens of thousands more.

Despite a looming renegotiation for the North American Free Trade Agreement, trade compacts have been among the best economic developments ever for the Midwest. Particularly in light of the recent decline in commodity prices domestically, overseas buyers demand for imports from Nebraska farms and ranches has staved off an even deeper decline in agricultural revenues.

Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson credited international trade for 30 percent of farm and ranch income statewide. On Thursday, Ricketts estimated China alone could one day purchase up to $200 million annually in Nebraska beef  welcome news to those in livestock operations  but the states agricultural output benefits countries across the globe.

While agriculture is obviously Nebraskas largest industry, the newly formed trade council also brings together leading business, tourism, education and political organizations to cultivate international relationships that will benefit the state.

International commerce is one of Nebraskas trump cards because of our states natural bounty and collective work ethic. Nebraskas productivity helps provide the world with needed goods while bringing money and jobs back home.

This trailblazing venture, leveraging the resources and talent of major players to promote international trade and relationships, offers promise to reap significant rewards for across Nebraska.
'One is trying to be an upright citizen with a fresh-faced liver, in full possession of her faculties, but if ever one has needed a stiff drink, it has been now,' says Mitali Saran.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Timing is everything, and mine is awful.

I can only ever think of a question to ask after the discussion panel has disbanded.

I wear a boot cut when everyone is wearing skinny jeans.

I decided to start drinking like a troubled teenager just when my peers had begun to buy houses and stay up late doing their kids' homework.

But worst of all, I decided to stop drinking like a troubled teenager for a couple of months, just before news came in of children getting blown up at a concert in Manchester.

The news then went on to behave like a faulty firecracker, shooting all over the room sparking crazily, as if it had short-circuited from all the weird bad stuff it had to report.

For example, the government said it cared deeply about cruelty to animals, and banned cattle slaughter across India, except in places that like to eat beef and are about to vote.

(It is probably upset with Kerala, which told it to take a running jump between mouthfuls of beef curry.)

A Rajasthan high court judge said, Dear god, Indian people, can you believe I'm a high court judge? The actual words he used were about how peahens get pregnant by drinking peacocks' tears, but same thing.

A woman in Haryana was gang-raped, and rode home on the metro clutching the corpse of her baby, which her attackers had thrown into the road because it was crying.

Also in Haryana, two men raped a woman and then bashed her skull in with a brick.

In Madhya Pradesh, police shot and killed farmers who were protesting, in a creative interpretation of the governments #JaiKisan hashtag.

In Delhi, the CBI raided the properties of the promoters of NDTV, which is arguably the only news channel still critical of the government.

In the aftermath, Dawn published a column urging Indian media not to be so craven, and urging Indians to take to the streets to protest creeping authoritarianism and defend our liberties.

You know things are bad when a Pakistani newspaper is irritated by our cowed media and our sheep-like acceptance of 'religious fascism'.

A BJP member of the legislative council in Jammu started a campaign against momos, because while they might look like wildly popular little lumps of snacky deliciousness, the legislator knows that they are wicked addictive drugs that will corrupt and sicken our youth.

To top it all off, there was a hideous story from the UK of a four-year-old autistic little boy whose mother died suddenly at home of an epileptic fit, and who himself starved to death in their flat, clinging to her decomposing body.

Now you tell me if the world cannot stand a little biochemical softening of the edges.

There's a reason grownups are allowed to drink. Here I am, having swapped psychic haleness for physical health, and I'm here to tell you that it's not that great a deal.

One is trying to be an upright citizen with a fresh-faced liver, in full possession of her faculties, but if ever one has needed a stiff drink, it has been now.

A troublesome neighbour, who is directly responsible for my temporary abstinence, keeps trying to lure me back into temptation by offering gateway drugs like soft drinks.

I'm staying strong, but I suspect this will be more possible if I make the odd exception.

So I won't really be drinking until August, or until tomorrow, whichever seems more reasonable in the moment.

This teetotaling thing is a breeze.
'Christopher Hitchens asked which State Israel had most in common with -- and then answered his own question, saying "Pakistan".'

'They were both, he explained "confessional States": Founded to succour the followers of a particular faith,' remembers Mihir S Sharma.

Many years ago, I had lunch with Christopher Hitchens. It was an entertaining lunch, and given that I wasn't paying for it, I viewed his consumption of one-and-a-half bottles of wine during it with some equanimity.

Hitchens, as he did when faced with an appreciative (and young) audience, had become expansive; and, since this was before his turn to the right after 9/11 had solidified, his conversation and reminisces ranged well beyond his later obsession with Islam and Muslims.

He talked of many things: P G Wodehouse, George Orwell, the American fascination with Winston Churchill, the fate of the Old Bolsheviks under Stalin.

But what I remember most clearly were his remarks on Israel.

I felt a certain sympathy for Israelis and their State -- particularly its leftist, communitarian roots -- came through. But, in the end, he said that it would have to grow indeed to outlive its 'original sin'.

I thought he was speaking of the expulsion (flight?) of the Palestinians during Israel's war of independence; but, in fact, he had something else, more basic in mind.

He asked which State Israel had most in common with -- and then answered his own question, saying 'Pakistan'.

They were both, he explained 'confessional States': Founded to succour the followers of a particular faith.

Such States, he insisted, would never be able to truly embrace liberalism, however liberal many of their individual citizens might be.

Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel.

This trip is overdue; Our two countries have had diplomatic relations for 25 years, and our cooperation across sectors, if especially in defence, has only grown.

It is a little absurd that fear of a domestic political backlash has kept Indian leaders from visiting a country that is one of our stronger supporters, and Modi and his government deserve praise for breaking that long drought. No realist would think otherwise.

What's also interesting, however, is the source of the excitement within the ranks of the Hindu nationalist right, which idolises Modi.

For these men (mostly men, of course) seem to have a closer, more personal identification with the more extreme and exclusionary versions of Zionism.

For them, Israel is not just a country that 'threw out' its Muslims; it is the purest form of the religio-national, but modern, State that they aspire to turn India into.

It is not Israel's stubborn history that is central to their admiration; nor is the historical context as the last and final refuge for a people who were everywhere a persecuted minority.

These two may matter for admirers of Israel in the West and elsewhere, even those who are otherwise very liberal.

What matters to these men, however, is Israel's apparent muscularity, and that they see it as the enemy of their enemy.

What matters for them is exactly what other sympathisers of Israel deplore -- that country's decades-long drift to the right, the rise of streams of xenophobic nationalism in its politics, its exaltation of a defiant distant military past, even the resurrection of a sacred language as the language of everyday life.

They are not alone in their instincts.

For votaries of the new, hyper-nationalist world order everywhere, bilateral links are no longer driven by realist requirements, but by notions of common 'civilisational' traditions or priorities.

Speaking in Poland at almost the same time as Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu strolled along the Mediterranean, Donald Trump highlighted this search for civilisational links.

He finally endorsed Article 5 of Nato, which calls for a common defence; but he pivoted to a startling defence of the white, European Christian West as the writers of symphonies, the makers of innovation and the defenders of art.

This is a language familiar to white nationalists in the US -- but also to their counterparts in Eastern Europe, including some within Poland's ruling party.

And, yes, it is not uncommon in today's Russia, either.

Perhaps, the new nationalists are right, and such ties are indeed a stronger basis for international politics than such things as the idealism that underlay the Non-Aligned Movement or even the realism that is preferred by much of the traditional foreign policy establishment.

And some on the left, who hate liberal interventionism more than they hate right-wing ideology, seem to think that this new world order will lead to greater peace and less bombing.

Bashar al-Assad, who called Vladimir Putin the 'defender of Christian civilisation' after Russia's warplanes came to his aid, may not agree.

But either way, it must be a source of satisfaction for the Hindutva supporters who have long admired Israel not just to see their greatest hero visit the foreign country they most admire, but also to see that their notions of what should underlie alliances become so strong a challenger to the established thinking on the subject.

For me, however, I just remember Hitchens' words. A world such as they want would not, I suspect, create a hundred Israels.

It is more likely to create a hundred Pakistans -- including here at home.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on an Israeli beach, July 6, 2017.
'Cooperation at sea involves not just ships going out together and carrying out exercises over a couple of days, but understanding the whys and the wherefores,' points out Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).

IMAGE: A MiG-29K takes off from the aircraft carrier, the INS Vikramaditya, ahead of Malabar Exercise 2017. Photograph: Indian Navy

It must be truly rare in bilateral discussions between heads of state or government, and especially those in which the global superpower is a party, for a relatively inconsequential item like maritime security to even figure in the agenda, much less attract any serious attention.

Yet, in the Modi-Trump interface, this theme was stressed thrice, not by our prime minister, but by the United States president.

First, he spoke of the Malabar exercises at sea which would, in his words, be the most elaborate and complex carried out until now. He then went on to stress the need to elevate the level of maritime security cooperation between the two countries.

Finally, the joint statement acknowledged the need for both countries to play meaningful and legitimate roles in the Indo-Pacific and the common imperative for both in ensuring freedom of movement at sea consistent with international norms.

There are other elements to this highest-level engagement too, but the purpose here is to focus on issues at sea highlighted at the meeting and how they impact our own interests and aspirations.

Starting in the reverse order, some analysts have commented that by not referring to our role in the South China Sea, which had figured in the Modi-Obama statement of 2016, our position has been diminished. This is erroneous.

The term 'Indo-Pacific' was first coined by then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2008. The Americans soon shied away from it and put out the more convoluted terminology of 'Indo-Asia-Pacific'.

The term chosen by Clinton is more embracing, covering as it does waters stretching from the Suez Canal to the waters of the western Pacific (which include the South China Sea).

We should be more than satisfied that the Trump administration has chosen to restore the original description and, even more important, that it recognises India's legitimate role in this vast region.

India is, in essence, an Indian Ocean Region player, but given its size and interests, which includes growing maritime trade, its concerns extend beyond it.

So, even though it is not a South China Sea littoral, it cannot remain excluded from developments that are taking place there. Its inclusion as party to the Indo-Pacific provides exactly that recognition.

So, this is fully consistent with our long-term interests, and if some of our own foreign office mandarins have contributed to it, full marks to them.

As for enhancement of maritime security cooperation, while this has increased substantially in the last 15 years, we are still constrained by bureaucratic hurdles, the main ones being our inability to conclude two important bilateral agreements which would facilitate sharing of classified information.

These have been discussed threadbare in earlier years, but there is a need, on both sides, to take a fresh look, given the strategic convergence that has been spoken of by both leaders.

Cooperation at sea involves not just ships going out together and carrying out exercises over a couple of days, but understanding the whys and the wherefores.

This can come about only if there is some degree of synergy of doctrines, and for this to happen information sharing is important.

So, while one can be selective and discriminate between what can be shared and what has to be beyond the radar, some compromise seems necessary.

In the Indian Ocean Region especially, India has to become a net security provider and that will often require joint operations with the US.

This realisation will facilitate actions needed to foster enhanced maritime security cooperation.

The third element is the reference to the Malabar series of exercises at sea.

The content of these annual exercises, conducted alternately in the Indian Ocean Region and the Western Pacific, has been enhanced over the last 15 years, but there is a qualitative difference this year.

For one, India will field its most capable platform, the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya with its MIG 29K aircraft and several frontline ships and submarines. The US participation will also be substantial.

Add to this the presence of the Japanese navy and the strategic convergence which guides this exercise becomes readily apparent.

The Malabar series is clearly an Indo-Pacific event and lends credibility to India's aspirations and potential.

To these three elements which figure prominently in the Trump-Modi dialogue must be added the American clearance for the supply of nearly two dozen Guardian drones for the Indian Navy.

While these will, no doubt, enhance the surveillance capabilities of our forces at sea, the fallout will come in what may lie ahead.

If these should materialise, as one hopes they will, it is almost certain that they will be followed, sooner rather than later, by weapon-fitted versions.

The logic of the strategic relationship, provided it is taken through, will dictate such a step for both parties.

The Indian Navy also has an enquiry ongoing for nearly five dozen fighter aircraft to operate from aircraft carriers at sea and while the choice may, to some extent, be influenced by what the Indian Air Force selects for itself, the options should be wide open.

Procurement of major military hardware must always be seen through the prism of geopolitical interests more than just financial cost.

The dialogue just concluded gives India an opportunity to make the required course correction.

In sum, we must treat the US focus on maritime security cooperation, which treats both parties on par, as more than just passing remarks.

This is the most positive part of the articulation that has been made, quite different to the rhetoric about friendship and democracy.

As the Bard wrote, 'There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune...'

That circumstance may be upon us.

Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd) is a former Commander in Chief of the Eastern Naval Command.

The admiral has also served as a member of the National Security Advisory Board.
China is where the action is, and from where new ideas ('String of Pearls', 'One Belt, One Road') emanate.

The Belt-and-Road initiative alone is unmatched in its sweeping dimensions, says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

It didn't require a Nostradamus to predict the happenings at Hamburg, Germany, during the meeting of the G-20, held on July 7-8.

It was expected that hordes of protesters from far and near would descend in their thousands, as they had been routinely doing wherever and whenever world leaders met from the Battle in Seattle in 1999, protesting the apathy of rich countries towards inequalities of globalisation, jobless growth, trade policies, ravages on environment and the like.

A measure of equality among countries has been achieved, at least in respect of the degree of violence that accompanies such protests in terms of attacks on the police, destruction of public property, looting, arson and so on, and Hamburg was no exception.

A novel feature this time was the blasting by the protesters of music from Jimi Hendrix, included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as 'arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music', in a bid to drown out the classical music playing at the concert hall where the world leaders were meeting.

As if the 15-page Declaration issued at the end of the summit was not pontificatory and platitudinous enough, 14 'agreed documents' were added to it, making it respectably voluminous and forbiddingly unreadable.

It made the hitherto unthought of revolutionary revelation that 'we can achieve more together than by acting alone', and went on to repeat the same nostrums as contained in many such previous declarations to 'address major global economic challenges and to contribute to prosperity and well-being' so as to bring about 'strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth'.

Once again, the leaders pledged themselves rather pretentiously to 'shaping an interconnected world' and to finding solutions for such things as 'terrorism, displacement, poverty, hunger and health threats, job creation, climate change, energy security and inequality, including gender inequality, as a basis for sustainable development and stability'.

The leaders made obvious their determination to 'decide today' to take 'concrete actions to advance the three aims of building resilience, improving sustainability and assuming responsibility'.

The world will watch in great suspense and with bated breath how they are going to realise these three woolly-headed aims.

That the presence of the brisk, brusque, no-nonsense, tit-for-tat tweeting US President Donald Trump would cast a dark shadow on the conclave must also have been a foregone conclusion.

For the first time, the G-20 was forced to depart from the tradition of unanimity by having to take note of the US decision to dump the Paris Agreement on measures to ward off climate change.

It, however, consoled itself by stating that the 'Paris Agreement is irreversible'.

In line with Trump's campaign call for 'America First' and the implied concomitants of protectionism, the group's past insistence on the duty of countries to work for free trade had also to be diluted by conceding their right to protect domestic industry.

In short, the maverick US president managed to bring the G-20 down by a notch to G-19.

A commentary published in The Guardian postulates that, on present showing, it will soon be a 'G-Zero' world, that is, one in which no country or bloc can shape or direct global events.

My prediction is different.

I reckon that geo-politics and what Arnold Toynbee called the cyclical pattern of history will set the world order unrecognisably apart from the existing one.

Drawing his analogy from biology, Toynbee argued that the life cycle of each civilisation inevitably runs a course in which it passes from youth to senility and final decay.

In his Study Of History, based on an analysis of the rise and fall of 23 civilisations, he concluded that no single country or civilisation held sway for ever, and it faded away when its kit of recipes to overcome existing and emerging moral, social and economic challenges got obsolete or exhausted.

Although Toynbee was celebrated for his theory, the theory itself was rooted in common sense.

Alfred Tennyson, Britain's poet laureate, had famously said in his epic poem Morte d' Arthur, in the mid-19th century itself, that 'the old order changeth, yielding place to new/Lest one good custom should corrupt the world'.

Literatures of many languages are replete with proverbs and adages to the same effect.

From the dawn of history, civilisations and empires that seemed permanent and all-powerful have disappeared one by one replaced by new ones.

This was as true on the world scale, as it was within a landmass such as India.

The European races -- especially the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese -- seemed invincible at one time, but were soon supplanted by the Americans, leading to the pithy pronouncement by George Canning in 1826 about the New World coming into existence 'to redress the balance of the Old'.

The 20th Century was wholly the American Century.

Now, the hundred years of the US domination of the course of events, economies, cultural norms and thought processes of the world is obviously on the downslide.

The Western industrial nations seem incapable of resurgence.

The effect of the influence the US and the West once enjoyed in terms of technology and power plays will no doubt linger for a lot more time, but their present enervated state is affecting their capacity to prevail.

All signs point to the advent of a new world order centring round China.

That's where the action is, and from where new ideas ('String of Pearls', 'One Belt, One Road') emanate.

The Belt-and-Road initiative alone is unmatched in its sweeping dimensions. It involves reconciling the divergent interests of so many countries, economies, political systems and cultures and bristles with intractable operational problems and mind-bogging financial outlays.

But China has staked all its prestige and reputation on it, and has all the manpower and technical resources, economic might and political clout to pull off this seemingly impossible feat.

Just reinventing the ideas of Marx and Engels and blending them with the precepts and prescriptions of Confucius and Sun Tzu and, at the same time, beating the West and the US in their own game, is no mean achievement on China's part.

The present century could have been an Asian century if India had made good.

It started its journey as an independent nation along with China, but lags behind it in many respects.

China is way ahead in R&D, creativity, innovation and ingenuity.

The world, therefore, to all appearances, is heading for G-1.

The only question is whether it would be able to avoid the Thucydides Trap, according to which the most dangerous period in international history is when a rising power challenges the pre-existing status of established powers.

For, it has been found that in 11 of 15 cases over the last 500 years, when an emerging great power challenged established great powers, the result was conflagration of unimagined proportions.

B S Raghavan is a former member of the Indian Administrative Service, and currently Patron of the Chennai Centre for China Studies.

He plays an active role in the Indo-Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is a frequent commentator on national and international affairs.

He was a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of China's invasion of India.>

The views expressed are personal.
National Democratic Alliance candidate Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday wrapped up his nationwide tour to seek support for the July 17 Presidential polls with his victory against the Congress-led combined opposition nominee Meira Kumar a virtual certainty.

The last stop of the campaign of the 71-year-old lawyer-turned-politician, who is locked in a straight fight with the former Lok Sabha Speaker in what is billed as a 'Dalit verus Dalit' contest, was Gandhinagar for a meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs and parliamentarians from Gujarat.

Kovind started his campaign on Saturday from Mumbai and followed it up with a visit to Panaji and Gandhinagar.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday was the last day of the nationwide tour undertaken by Kovind during which he visited 26 states.

Counting of votes to elect the 14th President of India who will succeed Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be taken up on July 20.

Gadkari claimed that Kovind will win with more than 70 per cent of the voting share. Several non-NDA parties like the Janata Dal-United, the Bjiu Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and both the factions of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have pledged their support to Kovind.

Kovind, who was Governor of Bihar before he was chosen as the NDA candidate, kickstarted his campaign from his home state of Uttar Pradesh on June 25.

Kovind spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over phone and thanked him for supporting his candidature.

A visit to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra was not in Kovind's itinerary which had raised eyebrows.

However, he made a phone call to Thackeray and thanked him for supporting his candidature, Shiv Sena sources said.

Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the United Progressive Alliance, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray at 'Matoshree' as the Sena had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

"We all have the duty to preserve the highest importance of the Constitution of India. I would assure of equal justice to all, avoiding discrimination based on caste, religion, sect, gender and region," Kovind said.

He said there should be comprehensive growth of all the states of the country where there is equal justice for all.

"My preference would be to ensure addressing the aspirations of the youth of the country, promotion and modernisation of education. We will do our utmost to preserve the prestige of the post of the President," he added.

Kovind held a meeting with elected representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies at the Garware Club in south Mumbai.

The members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state assemblies form the electoral college and currently the total strength is fixed at 10,98,882 votes. The candidate, who crosses the halfway-mark of 5,49,442 votes, is declared as the winner.

While the value of the vote of an MP is fixed at 708, that of an MLA varies depending upon the state he or she represents. For example, an Uttar Pradesh MLA contributes 208 votes in the presidential election, his counterpart from Sikkim adds up only seven votes.

"I am sure when results will be announced, he will win with more than 70 per cent votes," Gadkari told reporters in Panaji after Kovind held a meeting with the legislators supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government.

During his brief visit to Goa this evening, Kovind accompanied by Gadkari met the legislators at a resort in Vasco, 35 km from Panaji.

"Today he met MLAs from Maharashtra and Goa who are part of the NDA. Everyone has assured support to Kovind during the presidential election," Gandkari said before Kovind headed to Gujarat.

Gadkari said during the interaction, the presidential candidate told the legislators that he will uphold the principles laid down in the Indian Constitution.

Photograph: PTI Photo
The CM will either force Tejashwi to resign, or tender a resignation himself to put pressure on the RJD. M I Khan reports from Patna.

The political crisis in Bihar on Saturday deepened with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, facing Central Bureau of Investigation charges, skipping a government function attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who swapped his chair with a Janata Dal-United minister after being seated next to an Rashtriya Janata Dal leader.

The organisers initially covered the nameplate of Tejashwi, the special guest at the function whose seat was next to the chief ministers, but later removed it. The function was held to mark the World Youth Skills Day.

Kumar, who was seated next to Labour Resources Minister and RJD leader Vijay Prakash, subsequently swapped his chair with JD-U minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, who was on his right.

This was seen as an attempt by the chief minister to maintain a distance with the RJD minister.

JD-U sources say that Kumar is likely to take a final decision on resignation of Tejashwi anytime after the presidential polls.

Nitish Kumar has already decided and made up his mind what to do. He will announce his decision after two days whether he will want Tejashwi to resign or do something else to save the ruling alliance, a senior JD-U leader in Patna said.

Sources in the JD-U camp said that with Lalu Prasad and his party being firm that Tejashwi will not resign, Kumar has no option but to take a decision sooner than later.

Nitish Kumar will wait till presidential polls on July 17. After that he will announce a final decision over the ongoing crisis, a source said.

Another JD-U MLA, considered close to Kumar, said the Bihar CM, cautious of his image, is in a dilemma as the RJD is declaring repeatedly that Tejashwi wont resign.

JD-U leaders said Nitish Kumars USP is his clean image and zero tolerance against corruption.

If Nitish Kumar decides to ignore BJPs (Bharatiya Janata Party) demand of Tejashwis resignation, he will have to compromise with his clean image, a source said.

According to the JD-U camp, Kumar will take a risk to be in power and will manage to lead the government.

If not, Kumar will either force Tejashwi to resign or he himself will tender a resignation to put pressure on the RJD to change its stand.

Meanwhile, the Saturday episode, which was captured in still as well as video cameras of the electronic media, gave an indication of how the acrimony between the two Grand Alliance partners was growing with every passing day in the wake of the CBI registering an FIR against Tejaswi and others in connection with a land-for hotels scam case.

The developments on the dais at the newly-built Gyan Bhawan in Patna came a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad rejected the possibility of his son putting in his papers, a move seen as being dismissive of the JD-U putting pressure on the deputy chief minister to quit.

When the reporters bombarded the chief minister with questions on Tejashwi skipping the function, he only smiled and extended skill day greetings to the scribes.

Labour Minister Vijay Prakash, who is from the RJD, said, I do not know why Tejashwiji did not come to the function.

On Kumar distancing himself from Prakash, minister Jai Kumar Singh of the JD-U claimed that the chief minister changed his seat to have a better view of the television screen.

With both the JD-U and RJD hardening their stand, the rift within the alliance, in the wake of the CBI lodging an FIR against Tejashwi, Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and five others, following raids in connection with the land-for-hotels case, has widened.

This has posed a question mark on the survival of the coalition, in which the Congress is the third party.

The RJD and the Congress have called a joint meeting of their MLAs on Sunday to discuss the July 17 presidential poll strategy, while the JD-U has convened a separate meeting of its MLAs at the chief minister's official residence.

Lalu, on his return from Ranchi late on Friday night after appearing in courts in connection with fodder scam cases, had categorically said that Tejashwi would not resign and claimed that the case against him was politically motivated.

On the JD-U seeking a point-by-point explanation to the public on the charges against the deputy chief minister and the CBI lodging an FIR subsequently, Lalu had said they would let the people know everything in detail at an RJD rally on August 27.

He had also said he would like to see the ruling coalition to grow from strength to strength.

JD-U deputy leader in the assembly Shyam Rajak, however said, Everybody should maintain transparency in public life.... Otherwise, the people would show them the door.

On Lalu ruling out Tejashwis resignation, Rajak, who was earlier in the RJD, said, He (Lalu) is an elderly and experienced leader. I once again say that everybody in public life should maintain transparency.

JD-U chief general secretary K C Tyagi said that Kumar, at a party meeting on Tuesday, had dwelt on the importance of morality in politics and stressed on politics of principles.

The chief minister had cited the examples of L K Advani and Sharad Yadav quitting, following charge sheets against them in the hawala case, to emphasise that in case of an FIR or a charge sheet, the accused must come clean, he added.

Tyagi, however, said Kumar had not fixed any time-frame for Tejashwi to come clean.

On Tuesday, senior JD-U leader Ramai Ram had said that a four-day time period, which expired on Saturday, was fixed for Tejashwi to give an explanation on the accusations.

RJD spokesman Manoj Jha alleged that the crisis in the alliance had been triggered by the media.

After creating political turbulence, now a nameplate has been made a hero.... I give 100 out of 100 to the media, he said on Tejashwi skipping the function.

JD-U leader Pavan Varma said in Kolkata that Tejashwi and the other RJD leaders should come out with a substantive rejoinder for the sake of the coalition's image.

They (RJD) must come out with a rebuttal as part of the coalition dharma, so that the mahagathbandhans (Grand Alliance) image in terms of public probity is not damaged, he said.

Varma said, An FIR has been registered. If Tejashwi or other members of Lalu Prasad's family believe they have been targeted and the charges against them are false or politically motivated, they need to place a factual and point-by-point rebuttal in the public realm."

The JD-U had on Friday asked the RJD to come clean on the allegations against Tejashwi with facts and not display arrogance of having 80 MLAs in the Bihar assembly.

The JD-U has 71 MLAs and the Congress 27 while the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53.

A third option for Kumar is to dissolve the Bihar assembly and opt for mid-term polls.

There is little chance that Kumar will join hands with the BJP again, as he is keen to play a big role in 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

"If Nitish Kumar decides to go with the BJP, his chance to become prime ministerial candidate of opposition in 2019 will end automatically," JD-U leaders said.

It is a different matter that most of the state BJP leaders are hopeful that Kumar may join the National Democratic Alliance again.

Some BJP leaders have even announced that the BJP will support Kumar from outside if he dumps the RJD.

JD-U spokesperson Sanjay Singh said Lalu should read the writing on the wall.

However, all 71 JD-U legislators will attend a meeting on Sunday at Kumars official residence ahead of the presidential poll, but this meeting assumes more importance in the backdrop of the crisis.

With inputs from PTI

IMAGE: RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav with senior leader and wife Rabri Devi and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav at Legislative party meeting in Patna. Photograph: PTI photo
'When the first Islamic State flags appeared, it was called an aberration.'

'When videos appeared, they were termed exceptions!'

'It is high time we accepted that the global jihad is here.'

Ajai Shukla reports from Kashmir.

Last Saturday, July 8, the spotlight on the civil uprising roiling southern Kashmir shifted temporarily to the improbably beautiful Loragam village, nestling in the foothills of the snow-clad Pir Panjal mountain range.

This was the home of Burhan Wani, the young Hizbul Mujahideen commander whose videotaped exhortations to fight India made him a star amongst the social media savvy Kashmiri youth, and a prime target for Indian security forces.

Wani met his end a year ago, on July 8, 2016, cornered by the Jammu and Kashmir police in a cordon in nearby Kokernag.

His funeral the next day was attended by tens of thousands of inflamed locals, even by the most conservative police estimates.

It triggered an outpouring of public violence in which police outposts were razed to the ground, 90 to 100 civilians shot dead by security forces and thousands injured, many of them blinded by shotgun pellets.

It has also set the pattern for civilian confrontation of armed policemen and soldiers.

Today unarmed villagers routinely gather at gunfights between the security forces and militants, pelting rocks at soldiers to allow the militants to escape.

Driving to Loragam through the sylvan Pulwama district last week, it was evident the security apparatus would not allow Wani's death anniversary to become occasion for a public rally that inflames the situation further.

At regular intervals we were stopped at check-posts manned by the police, or the army's Rashtriya Rifles, and allowed to proceed only after proving we are journalists.

The roads were near empty anyway, after three local militants were killed on July 4 in an encounter near Pulwama. One of them, Jehangir, was reportedly buried by thousands of mourners at his village, Keller.

This is now routine for every militant killed, with his life celebrated in YouTube videos that are watched feverishly on Facebook and WhatsApp.

"Slain militants become living legends on social media. And the celebration of their sacrifice attracts more youngsters to take up the gun," explained a local youngster who is guiding us to Loragam.

Reaching the village, we made our way to the local secondary school, where the principal is Burhan's father, Muzaffar Ahmed Wani, a courteous, grey-haired man who has just returned from the police station.

"They asked me what I was planning for Burhan's death anniversary. I said, 'Nothing, I plan to stay at home. But what can I do if people come to condole? I can't tell them to go away.'

Going around Pulwama district, it became clear that, notwithstanding the 'azaadi'(freedom) slogan that echoes through rallies, local allegiance is overwhelmingly towards Pakistan, rather than to Kashmir independence, as is widely believed in New Delhi.

"Azaadi' is a concept confined to the seminar circuit in India," scoffed a local youngster who sought anonymity.

"Take a look at any political rally and you will see only Pakistani flags. When a militant is killed, his coffin is wrapped in the Pakistani flag. Kashmiris have a deep sense of gratitude towards Pakistan."

Today, Pakistan's hold over Kashmiri youth faces a new challenge.

A short drive from Loragam is Noorpura, the village of Zakir Rashid Bhat, popularly known as Zakir Musa.

Breaking from the secessionist movement's traditional leadership -- the Hurriyat Conference -- Musa has advocated Kashmiri allegiance to Islamic State.

Diverging from the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Zakir Musa's video messages advocate allegiance to a Khilafat (Caliphate), where the Nizam-e-Mustafa (the Prophet Mohammed's law, or Islamic law) prevails.

Last week, apparently piggy-backing on Burhan Wani's death anniversary, a new Musa video claimed that Wani too had advocated the same message.

However, while Wani had indeed issued pro-Khilafat and Nizam-e-Mustafa calls, he had remained, till the last, a Hizbul Mujahideen commander.

The threat of a new Islamic State has galvanised other constituencies.

New Delhi cites this as evidence that Kashmiri separatism is not a 'nationalist' movement, but rather linked with global terrorism movements like Daesh.

"How long will we remain in denial? When the first Islamic State flags appeared, it was called an aberration. When videos appeared, they were termed exceptions! It is high time we accepted that the global jihad is here," says a senior J&K policeman.

After an encounter in Pulwama on June 22, security forces released an audio recording in which a trapped terrorist, Majid Mir, was prompted by Zakir Musa to express his last wish as only Islamic State flags at his funeral, not Pakistani flags.

Musa is also a threat to the established secessionist leadership like the Hurriyat Conference and the Pakistan occupied Kashmir-based United Jihad Council, led by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, for whom a trans-national Islamic State is anathema.

"The Hurriyat has never made Kashmir a Hindu-Muslim issue; and we have taken an official stance against turning Kashmir into a Khilafat. But Kashmiris cannot ignore the shrill anti-Muslim sentiment from New Delhi, including from the electronic media -- beef ban lynching, love jihad, anti-Muslim statements by the ruling party," said Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, a top Hurriyat leader who is the valley's most respected cleric.

"All this garners support for Zakir Musa and others like him," the Mirwaiz added.

Presiding over this disarray is Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose Peoples Democratic Party lost popular goodwill by entering into a political alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the 2014 elections.

"In 2002, the PDP had effectively snatched political ground from the separatists through its quasi-separatist agenda. After allying with the RSS-powered BJP, it has lost that constituency to the 'resistance' leadership again," says Shabir Hussain, Editor. Kashmir Newsline.

"That is why South Kashmir, which was the PDP's bastion, has become the epicentre of the popular agitation."

IMAGE: Masked Kashmiri youth brandish Islamic State and Pakistan flags during a protest in Srinagar. Photograph: Umar Ganie
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
The Exception begins with a shot of a beautiful young girl lying dead in the woods. Later, we learn that the girl was one of a number of innocent villagers of SS troops in the opening days of World War II. The massacre enraged one Capt. Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney), a German officer with a conscience, who insisted that such barbarism dishonored Germany and Der Fuhrer.

From the vantage point of history, we see how deluded Brandt is. So many more atrocities were yet to come at the hands of the Germans, so many millions of innocents would still be killed like that girl. Its that terrible knowledge, that we possess but the characters dont, that adds a tension elevating The Exception beyond the conventional World War II thriller.

The film actually takes place far from the war, at a small estate in Nazi-occupied Holland. The year is 1940, and the estate is the home of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer), the monarch exiled by the Germans after its defeat in World War I. Plummer is wonderful in the role, evincing both a regal bearing and an avuncular charm, and a haughty rage that his country has abandoned him.

The Kaiser and his devoted wife (Janet McTeer) yearn to return to Germany and be returned to the throne. But the Germany they remember in their hearts is gone forever, and the Nazis are not likely to welcome a monarchy back into Berlin.

Brandt, injured in battle, is sent to the estate to serve as one of the Kaisers bodyguards. The assignment grows more serious when German agents learn that there is a British spy hiding in a nearby village, who may have a contact inside the estate.

As Brandt hunts for the spy, he starts a clandestine affair with one of the Kaisers maids, Mieke (Lily James of Baby Driver). For a film that seems in some ways like a throwback to 1940s parlor drams, The Exception has a surprising amount of sex and nudity.

The films suspense kicks into gear in its second half, as the Germans inch closer to uncovering the spy ring, and the Kaiser learns that Heinrich Himmler, Hitlers right-hand man, will be paying him a visit. The Kaiser hopes Himmler will be bringing an invitation back home, but Himmler, terrifyingly portrayed by Eddie Marsan, blows into the house like a cold wind. In one chilling scene, Himmler calmly discusses murdering disabled children over dinner, and muses that the Nazis will need a thorough and imaginative solution to deal with the Jews.

We know whats coming, horrors that the Kaiser, Brandt and the other characters in the estate are just starting to get an inkling of. Brandt thought that those barbaric soldiers in the forest were the exception in Hitlers army, but comes to learn that they are the rule. What they do with that realization  what sides they choose  ends up driving the action in the films final act.

The first-time film by longtime stage director David Leveaux, The Exception is handsomely mounted but has the feel of a play, favoring conversation over action, confined mainly to one location. But every once in a while we get a sense of the larger world beyond this little estate, and the terrible forces that loom.
Dear Mr. Dad: I'm a divorced mom and am thinking about dipping my toes back into the dating world. My biggest concern is how my dating life will affect my children (ages 5 and 8), so I want to do this the right way. How long after a divorce should I wait? How long should I wait before letting my kids meet someone I'm going out with? And on the other side, what do you suggest that I tell (or don't tell) someone I'm dating about my having kids?
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
RACINE  After an intense meeting regarding the safe zones resolution back in April, the Governance Committee of the Racine Unified School Board is scheduled to discuss the topic at its Aug. 7 meeting.

Immigrant-activist groups have been pressuring School Board members and the Racine Unified School District administration to pass the resolution.

The resolution asks, among other things, to establish each school property as a safe place for immigrant students and their families and incorporate bilingual Know Your Rights information in the district student/parent handbook.

School Board President Robert Wittke said the committee will consider the resolution and what, if any, recommendations the School Board could make.

There will be more discussion around evaluating what was placed in front of us and the procedures and policies we have in place, Wittke said. I truly believe that the district follows state and federal law  we have policies in place and procedures in place, and I believe we create a safe environment for all students.

Without going into all the possible outcomes, Wittke said, the resolution could make another appearance in front of the School Board.

Depending upon where the committees work goes, it will include some kind of recommendation or referral to the board, Wittke said. Once the committee performs its work there are a number of different outcomes that could come out of it.

Previous discussion

One of the more controversial aspects of the resolution states: The district shall refuse all voluntary information sharing with immigration agents across all aspects of the District to the fullest extent possible under the law.

It also states: The district will not enter into agreements with state or local law enforcement agencies, ICE, or any other federal agency for the enforcement of federal immigration law, except as required by law. The District and its staff, faculty, employees, and campus police will not honor any ICE detainers or requests. ICE is the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

In April, more than two dozen people expressed a need for such a resolution in the district. The School Board voted to send it to the Governance Committee.

The resolution hasnt been discussed in a public meeting since then, with a few exceptions from residents speaking during the public comment portion.

In March, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, which oversees the Milwaukee Public Schools, passed a safe zone resolution.
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Washington County Veterans Council and South Kingstown Veterans' Memorial Park Commission members Stephen Stewart and James Tourgee present the town council with a check totaling $2,560 to cover the cost of the first phase of restoring the war memorial at the Hazard School.
Title: Corporate chief operating officer and general counsel of AvePoint Inc., a New Jersey-based software developer with a primary operations center in downtown Richmond and offices in 15 countries.

Born: Davisburg, Mich., 1972

Education: Economics degree, University of Michigan, 1990; Michigan State University School of Law, 1994

Career: Jaffe Raitt, 1999-2001; McGuireWoods LLP, 2001-2006; AvePoint, Inc., 2001-Present

In which part of the metro area do you live: Midlothian

Best business decision: Being a part of starting AvePoint Inc. It has opened up a world of possibilities in unimaginable ways  connecting people from unique and extraordinary backgrounds all around the globe. I have felt very fortunate that I have set up and been actively involved in growing the organization and connecting people in a common purpose. For a person who thrives on connecting people, there is nothing more exciting.

Mistake you learned the most from: Dont be afraid to re-evaluate and consider even the most out-there of ideas.

First job after college: Contract manager for Viag Interkom AG in Germany

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently: Laugh more and let go more easily.

Book/movie that inspired you the most: The Bible; most works by Charles Dickens  notably a Christmas Carol, as he often wrote about the plight of the poor; books by Mark Twain. I love the 19th century satire.
Henrico County resident Stewart Futcher and his family lived in Florida for eight years and got to know the Publix Super Markets grocery chain well.

Futcher was first in line Saturday morning when Florida-based Publix opened its first Richmond area-store  and its first in Virginia  at 5400 Wyndham Forest Drive in the Nuckols Place shopping center in western Henrico County.

I can walk or ride a bike to my Publix. This is already my Publix, said Futcher, who lives just a few blocks away.

He arrived at the store at 3:30 a.m. Saturday to make sure he was first in line. I just love Publix. I wanted to be the first official Publix customer in the state of Virginia, he said.

He was the first customer in the door and cut the ceremonial ribbon, but his wife, Danalee Futcher, was the first to buy something  a bag of peanut M&Ms, she said, showing off the receipt.

Virginia marks the Lakeland, Fla.-based companys seventh state of operation.

Publix, the nations largest employee-owned grocery chain, is known for its top-notch customer service, sub sandwiches and birthday cakes. National consumer surveys have ranked Publix as one of the top grocery stores in the country.

The chain is planning at least a dozen stores in the Richmond area, where for the past two years Walmart and Kroger have dominated the grocery market based on sales volume as reported by Maryland-based trade publication Food World.

Publix enters the Richmond market as the competition among grocery retailers is intensifying. New players are entering the market, and current players are expanding.

Richmonds grocery market has been described as over-stored with too many grocery stores based on the population. Still, existing supermarket retailers have made significant investments in local operations while the region continues to attract new chains. Germany-based Lidl will open four locations on July 27  the first of more than half a dozen stores planned for the area.

***

At Publix on Saturday morning, customers streamed through the doors at 7 a.m. and were still arriving at a steady pace two hours later.

We are overwhelmed and overjoyed with the enthusiasm the community has shown for our company this morning, Publix store manager Chellie Peck said as she stood at the entrance greeting customers.

It was so exciting to see people lined up around the building, Peck said.

Shoppers crowded the deli, bakery and produce areas, where employees gave out free samples of fried chicken tenders, sushi, melons, Key lime pie and more.

I think Food Lion is in trouble, customer Holly Cash said as she shopped with her husband, Chris, and their daughter, Meghan. A Food Lion store is across Nuckols Road from Publix and will compete directly for customers.

There are a lot more choices, Chris Cash said as they looked over items in the cookie aisle.

We are doing a lot of price comparisons right now. Its hit-and-miss. Some things are less, and some things are more. I think that is the way it is with any store, Holly Cash said.

Beth Hardy Morgan and Nelson Morgan drove from eastern Henrico on Saturday morning to shop at the new Publix. A Publix store scheduled to open Aug. 5 at 4591 S. Laburnum Ave. in the White Oak Village shopping center will be closer to where the Morgans live.

My husband is originally from Key West, Florida, and he lived in Tampa, and I have a sister-in-law in Tampa, said Beth Hardy Morgan, explaining her familiarity with the grocery chain.

When we go down there, we go to Publix, said Morgan, impressed with the way the store operates and the merchandise.

They are always polite. Its a good feeling when you come in, she said.

Its a very easy store to shop, said Nelson Morgan, praising the stores bright lights. A lot of grocery stores you go into, it seems like you are walking in shade.

Beth Hardy Morgan said they normally grocery shop at multiple places, including Walmart, Kroger, BJs Wholesale Club and Sams Club.

I can tell you this much. We probably will be more loyal to Publix than anything because of my husband having more knowledge of Publix, she said.

Customers Brenda and Maynard Puryear attended a celebration at the store Friday night for friends and family. She said her brother Cliff Hall works at the store. When they dropped him off Saturday morning, they stayed to shop.

The chicken tenders are to die for, Brenda Puryear said. And right now theyve got some good deals, she said.

I like it because its a good, clean store, Maynard Puryear said.

***

The store has self-checkout stations for do-it-yourself customers. At the other checkout stations, video terminals close to the payment card scanner are used so customers can see what is rung up.

Publix does not have a customer loyalty card program, but does offer weekly specials and buy one, get one free specials.

For those who want it, Publix employees will take customers groceries to their vehicles and load them.

Employee Tamirre Colbert loaded Andrea Baker-Jones and Wayne Jones groceries for them Saturday morning.

Did you give her a tip? Baker-Jones asked her husband as Colbert walked off. She said, No tips, he responded.

Publix has a no-tipping policy, a store spokeswoman said. Instead, Wayne Jones was surprised to see that the thank-you card Colbert gave him included a coupon good for a half-gallon of Publix brand ice cream or frozen yogurt. The thank you cards are a limited-time promotion.

Baker-Jones also happily waved a $5 bill she received at customer service.

They had sent me a coupon through the mail for $5 off. Once we got in the checkout, because I had all of these other coupons, I totally forgot to use that. So I went to customer service and they said, How would you just like $5 cash back? It was great, Baker-Jones said.

In addition to the Aug. 5 Laburnum Avenue store opening, Publix is opening a store at 7 a.m. July 29 at 10250 Staples Mill Road in the Shoppes at CrossRidge.
She led a boycott against the citys segregated street cars that ended in the transit companys bankruptcy.

She opened a department store that offered residents an alternative to white-owned businesses that refused to let black patrons try on clothes.

And she helped found the Richmond chapter of the NAACP and started the first black Girl Scout Troop in the South.

Richmond-native Maggie L. Walker may be best known as the first black woman to charter a bank in the United States. But Walkers admirers hope a statue of her unveiled Saturday will help put that legacy in the context of her role as a prominent and early advocate for black Richmonders fighting against Jim Crow-era segregation and racism.

People are beginning to see her beyond that sound bite of her being a black female banker, said Ajena Rogers, the supervisory park ranger at the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site at her home in Jackson Ward. Her star is rising once again. Shes not only known in the black community in Richmond. Not only known in Richmond itself.

Rogers was on the committee that helped plan the statue, which she said was designed specifically to advance Walkers story beyond that one element of her life thats already widely known.

She was an entrepreneur, Rogers said. She was a teacher. She was a civil rights activist. She spoke up for womens rights, African-American rights. She was on the same level as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Those  not her status as the founder of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank  are the accomplishments highlighted on an inscription around the statue at a new plaza at Broad and Adams streets, which reads Teacher, businesswoman, newspaper publisher, civil rights leader, entrepreneur and mother.

***

Born in Richmond in 1864 to Elizabeth Draper, a former slave and cook, she worked as a schoolteacher until her marriage. At a young age, she joined the African-American fraternal organization the Independent Order of St. Luke, rising through the ranks to lead the organization. Its a position she would ultimately use to build the conglomerate of businesses aimed at economically empowering black Richmonders.

Walkers bank opened in 1903 and was a central element to that mission. By extending loans and mortgages to black residents who might otherwise have been shut out of white-owned financial institutions, Walker is credited with helping give an early boost to the citys burgeoning black middle class.

The bank would later become Consolidated Bank and Trust, which operated in Jackson Ward through 2005 and held the distinction of the longest continuously operating black-owned bank.

The reason she started a bank and these other enterprises is because with fewer opportunities to act on an equal footing with the white community, you needed those things in the black community, said Brendan Wolfe, the editor of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Encyclopedia Virginia. There was this move to operate within the black community and build these institutions for themselves. And she became a prime mover in that.

What she was doing was really remarkable but really necessary by the political and social conditions that black Richmonders and Virginians were living in.

In 1904, Walker took on the citys white-owned department stores when she opened the St. Lukes Emporium on Broad Street. In public addresses, she implored her fellow black Richmonders to patronize black-owned businesses to avoid the indignity they experienced at major stores like Thalhimers, which required black patrons to enter through different entrances, refused to allow them to try on clothes and would not let them dine at their lunch counters.

Walker promised customers fair prices, displayed clothing on brown-skinned mannequins and, yes, allowed all patrons to try on clothing before they bought it. Her shop exclusively hired black women  a group that she knew found itself doubly oppressed  to work as clerks.

Women of your race, your own flesh and blood, as polite and as capable as any other women on Broad Street, but they are Negro women, Walker said. Some of you pass them by, preferring to feed the lion of prejudice rather than your own brethren. If we have the same shirts, cuffs and collars, underwear as the white stores, and we are not one cent higher, and in many instances cheaper, why spend your money with men who would not give your child employment except as a porter?

***

The same year, Walker used her newspaper, which she launched in 1902, to join other black leaders in the city to protest the segregation of the citys streetcar system.

Richmonds transit system, operated at the time by the Virginia Power and Passenger Co., was instituting a new policy that had been recently allowed under state law that gave conductors police powers and the authority to rearrange passengers at will.

The conductors have the right to require passengers to change their seats as often as may be necessary for the comfort and convenience of the passengers and satisfactory separation of the races, a Richmond Times-Dispatch story at the time said.

Walker and John Mitchell Jr., the editor of the Richmond Planet, urged black Richmonders to abandon the system rather than submit to the new rules. In an address, she said black Richmonders could preserve their dignity by walking. And walk many did.

Two months later, the trolley company went bankrupt, unable to pay its debts, which Walker and Mitchell attributed to the sudden drop in customers and striking employees earlier in the year.

***

Walker traveled extensively to speak about her work and advocate for economic independence within the black community. She was referred to in press coverage as probably the most famous black woman in the state.

She died in 1934 of complications from diabetes. Her funeral is remembered as one of the largest and most attended in the city after the Civil War.

She has long been celebrated in Richmond, particularly in the black community. The city opened Maggie L. Walker High School four years after her death. Her family retained ownership of her home and preserved its contents, anticipating its value to future generations. Then-Mayor Henry Marsh testified before Congress in 1978 in support of designating the house a national park, a goal that was realized not long after with the opening of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.

Melvin Jones Jr., one of the most vocal recent advocates for her memorialization, said he first learned of Walker when he was 10 from his great-grandmother, who used the story about Walkers bank to teach him about the importance of saving money.

Jones, who attended Maggie L. Walker High School, said that like many others, he did not learn about the breadth of Walkers contributions to the city until he began researching her more as part of his advocacy for the statue.

He said he grew more and more impressed the more he learned.
RACINE  Kevin Mauer was a generous soul, someone who loved people and love to help them.

He was just a magnet for friends, said his mother, Carol Mauer of Racine.

It was with family and just a few of the friends he drew into his kind and compassionate orbit that the 45-year-old Racine native died earlier this month while spending time at the family cabin.

Kevin drowned in the Upper White River Mill pond near Wautoma on Friday, July 7, after falling off a paddle board.

The St. Catherines High School graduate was not wearing a life jacket at the time, authorities said. Family members believe Mauer, who was a good swimmer, suffered an epileptic seizure just before going into the water.

Although he had lived in Bloomington, Ind., since the mid-1990s he made sure to travel to the family cabin at least twice every summer, his mother said.

It is just one of those places he enjoyed, Carol said. He made so many friends up there. He was enjoying time with them.

An IT professional for the Indiana University Foundation, Kevin moved to Bloomington after attending the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Before working for the foundation, he earned two masters degrees from the school itself  one in theater lighting design and another in information technology.

Carol said her son was active and never let his epilepsy get him down or prevent him from living life to the fullest.

He told me right after he had his first seizure: These seizures are not going to control my life. And they didnt, she said.

But what stands out most about Kevins life, his mother said, was his generous nature and affability.

When a friend was homeless and couldnt afford his own apartment, Kevin let him live in the spare room at his house.

 Pay me what you can; if you cant, dont worry, he told the friend, Carol said. He was just a tremendous person.

Kevin also maintained a close relationship with his ex-wife, whom Carol described as his best friend. He leaves behind her and their 20-year-old daughter.

He was well-liked here. He was well-liked in Wautoma. He was well-liked in Bloomington, Carol said. Wherever he went he was well-liked. Thats one of the things that parents hope their children will achieve. We were lucky.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 this morning at St. Josephs Catholic Church, 1533 Erie St., with the Rev. Ken Mich officiating. A visitation will take place at the church from 9 a.m. until the time of Mass.

Entombment will follow at Holy Cross Mausoleum. Maresh-Meredith & Acklam Funeral Home is assisting the family.
Have a rough week? You can always console yourself with the thought that, no matter how grim things might seem, at least youre not Donald Trump Jr.

People who live near the Naval Observatory, the official residence of the vice president, swear they can hear the strains of Hail to the Chief wafting from its open windows.

Good news, sort of, for the commonwealth: Virginia has clawed its way back into the top 10 (at No. 7) in CNBCs rankings of the best states to do business. We have the second-best workforce in the nation after Texas, according to CNBC (woo-hoo!) and are in the middle of the pack on infrastructure and cost of living. Not so hot: the cost of doing business, where Virginia ranks No. 35.

Dominion has announced a $300 million wind-turbine project off Virginias coast. Which is nice, and  environmentalists will say  better late than never. But the price seems mighty steep for a grand total of 12 megawatts of power. Compared to the turbines, the $19 billion third reactor at North Anna, which would generate 1,600 megawatts and which environmentalists decry as far too expensive, looks like a real bargain.

This just in from Ripleys Believe It or Not!: Richmond Auditor Umesh Dalal says a $1.8 million program the city undertook to ameliorate a discriminatory culture in the Department of Public Works has not produced measurable results. Its hard to imagine that the city government could ever be less than scrupulously thrifty with the publics money, but there you go.
WASHINGTON

The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer had real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 40s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.
Mitch McConnell is stymied. He cant round up enough votes for a Senate Republican version of Trumpcare.

Some Senate Republicans want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act entirely. Others dont want to cause 22 million Americans to lose their coverage, as the Congressional Budget Office predicts will happen if the Senate version goes into effect.

What should be the Democrats response? Over the coming weeks or months, Democrats must continue to defend the Affordable Care Act. Its not perfect, but its a major step in the right direction. More than 20 million Americans have gained coverage because of it.

But Democrats also need to go further and offer Americans a positive vision of where the nation should be headed over the long term. Thats toward Medicare for all.

Some background: American spending on health care per person is more than twice the average in the worlds 35 advanced economies. Yet Americans are sicker, our lives are shorter, and we have more chronic illnesses than in any other advanced nation.

Thats because medical care is so expensive for the typical American that many put off seeing a doctor until their health has seriously deteriorated.

Why is health care so much cheaper in other nations? Partly because their governments negotiate lower rates with health care providers. In France, the average cost of a magnetic resonance imaging exam is $363. In the United States, its $1,121. There, an appendectomy costs $4,463. Here, $13,851.

The French can get lower rates because they cover everyone  which gives them lots of bargaining power.

Other nations also dont have to pay the costs of private insurers shelling out billions of dollars a year for advertising and marketing  much of it intended to attract healthier and younger people and avoid the sicker and older.

Nor do other nations have to pay boatloads of money to the shareholders and executives of big for-profit insurance companies.

Finally, they dont have to bear the high administrative costs of private insurers  requiring endless paperwork to keep track of every procedure by every provider.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicares administrative costs are only about 2 percent of its operating expenses. Thats less than one-sixth the administrative costs of Americas private insurers.

To make matters even worse for Americans, the nations private health insurers are merging like mad in order to suck in even more money from consumers and taxpayers by reducing competition.

At the same time, their focus on attracting healthy people and avoiding sick people is creating a vicious circle. Insurers that take in sicker and costlier patients lose money, which forces them to raise premiums, co-payments and deductibles. This, in turn, makes it harder for people most in need of health insurance to afford it.

This phenomenon has even plagued health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Medicare for all would avoid all these problems, and get lower prices and better care.

It would be financed the same way Medicare and Social Security are financed, through the payroll tax. Wealthy Americans should pay a higher payroll tax rate and contribute more than lower-income people. But everyone would win because total health care costs would be far lower, and outcomes far better.

If Republicans succeed in either gutting or subverting the Affordable Care Act, the American public will be presented with a particularly stark choice: expensive health care for the few, or affordable health care for the many.

This political reality is already playing out in Congress, as many Democrats move toward Medicare for all. Most House Democrats are co-sponsoring a Medicare-for-all bill there.

A Gallup poll conducted in May found that a majority of Americans would support such a system. A poll by the Pew Research Center shows that such support is growing, with 60 percent of Americans now saying government should be responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans  up from 51 percent last year.

Democrats would be wise to seize the moment. They shouldnt merely defend the Affordable Care Act. They should also go on the offensive  with Medicare for all.
When Joseph F. Yates and his wife, Jackie Jackson, bought the buff-colored, 2-story house at 1812 Monument Avenue back in 2000, they knew theyd acquired a property that stood out on a street filled with historic buildings.

Granted, at first glance, it might seem like a fairly conventional, well-mannered example of the Colonial Revival style. The style, which often features white-columned porches, symmetrical facades and classical detailing around front entrances, was growing in popularity in 1905, the year the house was built. And Monument Avenue has many outstanding examples of it.

On closer inspection, the 5,947-square-foot house at 1812 Monument Avenue, which is on the market for $1,750,000, is more complicated and unconventional than it might seem.

Consider its front facade. Normally, the front entrance on a Colonial Revival-style house would be in the center of the facade, with a centered entrance porch and windows on either side. Claude K. Howell, the architect who designed 1812 Monument Avenue, gives us what we would expect  a columned entrance porch in the center of the facade  but with no entrance. In an architectural sleight of hand, he has put a window behind the porch and placed the entrance on the western end. To maintain symmetry, Howell balanced the door with a bay window on the eastern end.

And the houses fully rounded porch is one of only two examples of the form on Monument Avenue, said Yates, president of Richmond-based Joseph F. Yates Architects.

Likewise, the houses entry leads to a transverse central hall, which runs sideways rather than front to back. Visitors have to take a right turn to reach a large living room and, beyond it, a generously scaled dining room.

The transverse hallway design is unique on the street, said Ceci Amrhein, an associate broker with Joyner Fine Properties and the co-listing agent for 1812 Monument Avenue. (The other listing agent is Bill Gallasch.)

The initial view upon entering a Monument Avenue house was an important part of the design, said Chris Novelli, an architectural historian with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. It was part of the staging, and Howell was toying with the viewers expectations. Upon entering 1812, we gaze upon an impressive, double-wide doorway framed by columns. However, instead of leading to a staircase or a grand room, the columns frame a view of a rather cozy reception room.

Another unexpected treat sits near the back of the property: a large carriage house in the style of a quaint Cotswold cottage, complete with paired gables and a jettied overhang.

Again, Howell toys with our expectations, Novelli said. Theres an architectural surprise around every corner.

Unfortunately, by the time Yates and Jackson bought the house, it had been significantly modified. So they undertook a large-scale renovation to bring back a property that had been designed by one of Monument Avenues most prolific architects.

Howell who?

Chances are, youve never heard of Claude Howell. Even among aficionados of Richmond architecture, he doesnt spring to mind nearly as readily as do William Lawrence Bottomley and Duncan Lee  both born about a generation later.

Howells obscurity isnt unique, of course. Few Edwardian architects are name brands, these days. But part of the reason for Howells obscurity lies in his relatively brief stay in Richmond, from 1904 to 1917, at the latest.

The brevity of his Richmond stay wasnt unique. Howell, a Louisiana native, moved around the United States in the course of a peripatetic career that took him to Lexington and Covington, Kentucky; Cincinnati; Chicago; Kansas City; South Bend, Indiana; Charlottesville; Savannah; and Charleston, S.C. With his work scattered across such a wide span of the United States, Howells name may have been fated to fade in the course of decades.

Nonetheless, he left a significant impression on Richmonds architecture. He designed at least 15 houses on Monument Avenue, placing his output ahead of everybody but Duncan Lee and Carl Lindner.

Most of Howells Monument Avenue houses are examples of the Colonial Revival style, which was on its way to becoming the most popular style of the first half of the 20th century.

However, Howell may have also introduced a new architectural idiom to Richmond.

In 1908, he designed what might possibly be Richmonds first example of the Tudor Revival, at 2023 Monument Avenue, Novelli said. And its interior is a notable early example of English Arts and Crafts.

Likewise, though Richmond had earlier examples of the Colonial Revival style, the 1905 construction date for 1812 Monument Avenue makes it one of the streets very first examples of the style, Novelli said.

Howell later became better known as a theater architect. He designed three in Richmond: the Lyric (now demolished) and the recently renovated Empire (now the November Theatre) and the National.

Im guessing his theater work was more lucrative than houses, Yates said.

Bringing back a subtle gem

Yates and Jackson faced a significant task bringing the property at 1812 Monument Avenue back to its original form. The house had been converted into a doctors office with apartments upstairs in 1962, a fate a number of Monument Avenue houses faced as city residents moved to the expanding suburbs. In the course of the conversion, the houses main staircase was removed, and partitions were erected to subdivide some of the houses grand rooms.

The living room had been partitioned into five rooms and the dining room into three, Yates said. All of the floors downstairs had been covered with underlayment and vinyl tile, which actually protected the floors.

The house also lost its front porch roof, at some point. And the backyard had been converted into a parking lot.

Yates and Jackson removed the partitions and restored the plaster cornices in the living room and dining room. And they replicated the main staircase based on fragments of the original, as well as ghosting images left on the wall.

The grandson of the houses second owner helped Yates and Jackson recreate the layout of the second floor, and he gave them a photo of the house taken in 1908 to help them reconstruct the front porch.

In all, the renovation took three years.

Joes renovation shows an architects attention to historic detail, Amrhein said. Much of what he undertook was an attempt to recreate the house as it appeared when it was built.

Yates and Jackson also added an elevator, installed a geothermal heating and cooling system and built a bluestone terrace and heated bluestone walkway in the backyard.

The result is a property that has wide-ranging appeal.

The scale of the rooms is perfect for entertaining, and the house has great outside spaces, Amrhein said. And the carriage house, which can hold four cars, and the off-street parking are huge amenities in the Fan District.

Plus, the third floor, which Yates and Jackson converted into an apartment, represents an added bonus.

The apartment, with its exposed ceiling beams, is one of the most charming spaces in the Fan, Amrhein said.

_______________
Adena Rissman studies the ways human interaction with ecological systems can be harmonious or ruinous.

As part of a $4.9 million National Science Foundation project, the UW-Madison professor delved into peoples attitudes about government policies that rely on voluntary anti-pollution measures and those policies failure to rid lakes of unnatural bacteria, algae and weed growth.

In Wisconsin, clean-water advocates complain that laws offer financial incentives for voluntary anti-pollution efforts  but few meaningful penalties  for farmers whose land is the main source of water quality problems. But many farmers say they cant afford to do more in a tough market where each year smaller farms disappear, while so-called mega-farms increase.

After detailing existing policies, Rissman and her colleagues surveyed 1,000 Dane County residents about local lakes. Urban and rural residents agreed water needed to be cleaned up, and they strongly supported both the financial incentives for voluntary efforts on farms and the notion of adding meaningful penalties.

People who trust government were more likely to support stricter regulations, while those with individualistic leanings more often favored incentives  leading Rissman to conclude that the best way to clean up lakes may be to strengthen both regulations and incentives, because the combination could win broad support from the public.

Rissman, 39, grew up in St. Louis, was an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin and trained at Berkeley in environmental science, policy and management.

She has worked on a community-based farm in Missouri and a dairy operation in Israel. In Madison, she has served as an Aldo Leopold Nature Center naturalist, a UW-Madison soil science technician and a state forest planner.

She lives near Lake Wingra with her wife, Toki Middle School science and math teacher Carey Callies, and their 5-year-old son, Zeke Rissman-Callies. Two years ago, they took a long vacation that included wetting their feet in each of the Great Lakes. Rissman is expecting their second child in September.

Why study peoples attitudes? Isnt it enough for scientists to figure out how to clean up the water, send the scientific paper over to the policymakers, and then they just make it happen?

No (laughter), not really. Theres this longstanding metaphor about science and education thats really been overturned  that the peoples minds are an empty bank account waiting for that big deposit to come from people with more knowledge. Thats really been replaced with a model that thinks about how even the questions we ask should be affected by what society needs and what is important to peoples values. ... Often that requires establishing, from the very beginning, relationships with the people who might be the recipients of the information.

And you did that in the study about water pollution in Dane County?

We asked about both carrot and stick policies  carrots being incentives and sticks being regulations  for reducing runoff from farms and from lawns. The majority supported all seven policies we proposed (with incentives and regulations) for improving water quality. We found the least support, at least in Dane County, was for (two options) relying only on voluntary actions.

After reviewing all the efforts by farmers and others to clean up lakes, what do you see as the strengths of current government policies?

One is the numeric criteria for water quality. Other states have less specific narrative standards. And (in Wisconsin) there is a requirement for farms not to have excessive phosphorus in their soil, although there is debate about whether the standard (is strict enough to be) effective.

And the weaknesses?

We spend money, and we dont see improvement. ... One of the things that is difficult is seeing the proposed (federal) budget cuts (for clean water programs).

What is the answer?

We do have the basic structure in place. Its just not operating at a level that has produced the reductions in runoff that are likely to be needed. ... We know overall we may need to run faster to stay in place because of factors like population growth, development, greater concentrations of livestock and larger storm events that are induced by climate change.

Youve said there are legal obstacles to even obtaining a full understanding the problem. Whats an example? Private land owners have a lot of concerns about privacy. Government wont let researchers access soil testing records (showing were the highest nutrient pollution concentrations are). It makes it very difficult to understand what sort of changes are happening.

 Interview by Steven Verburg
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
A plan meant to protect honeybees across the commonwealth has been finalized.

The Voluntary Plan to Mitigate the Risk of Pesticides to Managed Pollinators went into effect in June, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced recently.

Here in Virginia and across the nation, people are concerned about the loss of honey bees, Sandy Adams, VDACS commissioner, was quoted as saying in a news release. And we have developed a plan that focuses on communication between pesticide applicators and beekeepers and the use of best management practices by farmers, beekeepers and pesticide applicators to protect our pollinators.

The agency took more than a year to write the plan. Public input, including the work of a 21-member committee of stakeholder representatives, was a major part of the drafting process. The plan was written and will be overseen by VDACS because the agency is responsible for pesticide regulation in Virginia.

The document consists mostly of recommended best practices for the use of outdoor agricultural and commercial pesticides to minimize honeybee losses, but does not strengthen pesticide regulations.

It mainly encourages beekeepers and pesticide applicators to communicate more effectively about the location of hives and the dates and times of pesticide spraying.

The plan outlines an online registry and communication tool for beekeepers, landowners and pesticide applicators. Participation is voluntary.

Initial setup of an online communication tool could cost up to $24,000, VDACS spokeswoman Elaine Lidholm has said. Some pesticide-related funding might be available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help pay for it, she added.

Lidholm wrote in an email on Friday that VDACS has not yet established a registry and, at this point, dont have a target date for completion.

Honeybee pollination is a major contributor to agricultural production, which remains Virginias largest economic sector.

The state plan stems from a 2014 Obama administration directive calling for a national strategy to safeguard pollinators and, thereby, boost food security. Most states agreed to formulate plans to guide pollinator protection.

In Virginia, as in other states, honeybee colonies have over the past 20 years been dying at a high rate. Nationally, researchers are still working to understand the combination of factors that may be responsible.

Pesticides have in some cases been implicated in bee losses, particularly in acute kills stemming from spraying.

Historically, fewer than 10 percent of the commonwealths hives died annually, state apiarist Keith Tignor has said.

Statewide, 46 percent of colonies died in 2015, Tignor said.
BLACKSBURG  Michael Gunter and Paul Schaefer spent two and a half years building a rocket for a flight that was intended to last just a few glorious seconds.

Gunter, a 61-year-old from Roxboro, North Carolina, has been playing with rockets since the first grade.

Were two broken down veterans doing this thing in our back yard, he said, sitting in front of his creation, which was by far the largest at a New River Valley Rocketry launch event on Saturday. Hobbyist would probably be the right word for it. Lunatic is another word that comes to mind.

The friends raised money to build their rocket, a model of a U.S. Army 1950s-era surface-to-air Nike Ajax, by selling food at these types of launch events. A single rocket can cost thousands of dollars.

On Saturday, it was time for their maiden voyage.

Good flight or bad flight, regardless, its going to be a spectacular flight, Gunter said with a laugh.

He and Schaefer later loaded the Ajax onto a launch pad, counted down from 10 and connected the ignition switch to a battery.

First there was smoke, then flames. The rocket lifted off perfectly, Gunter said later.

But then it decided to do a spiral dance, he added.

The rocket twirled up several thousand feet through the air, spinning out of control and separating into two pieces. It tumbled back to the ground without the help of the parachute tucked inside.

It wasnt the soft landing that the friends had carefully designed, but rather the kind that destroys a model rocket years in the making.

Fellow enthusiasts gathered around the crash site, sifting through the debris for evidence of what went wrong. They eventually decided the culprit was a hole that had been drilled in the top of the rocket for an igniter wire.

That hole grew under pressure until fire was coming out of both ends.

That would be a mechanical failure, event organizer Thomas Weeks said. If you cant get past your own ego, you cant do science. Hes probably going to cry in some beer tonight, but well be looking forward to getting the root cause on this. Its what science is about.

Weeks has experienced his own failure, when the parachute on one of his rockets didnt deploy. It came tumbling back to the ground around 200 miles per hour, burying itself six feet deep in a creek bed.

Those are the stakes in this hobby, which attracts people to the area from as far as South Carolina. New River Valley Rocketry hosts monthly launches, which often draw hundreds.

When things go well, its about 10 seconds of glory for the creator in front of their rocketry friends  followed by months of gloating with cellphone photos to prove it.

When things go wrong, everyone is there to help you figure out why.

Schaefer continued picking through the debris on Saturday, but Gunter already had his latex gloves back on ready to serve food at the pairs fundraiser booth.

Theyll rebuild, Gunter said, noting it was always supposed to be a research project.

In total, about 70 rockets were successfully launched on Saturday. More will go up during the second day of the launch on Sunday.

Virginia Tech allows the club to launch on its property at Kentland Farm, which the university frequently uses for its own research flights.

Weeks said using such a well-known location makes it easier for the group to get clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration. For Saturdays event, they were allowed to fly up to 8,000 feet.

Most of the hobbyists in attendance said they spent months building their rockets. Theyre often too big to launch at home, so they wait for an event like this, drive to Blacksburg and see how their creation performs.

Carlos Zapato of Riner said some people build only with flight altitude in mind. Others are more interested in the size of the rocket. He said he looks for performance, from a smooth takeoff to a soft landing thats light enough for the rocket to be sent back up again later.

He also said its about inspiring the children watching from behind the safety line.

A troop of Cub Scouts were on hand for Saturdays botched launch. The event organizers used it as an opportunity to talk to the kids about trial and error  a cornerstone of science.

These are the kids that are going to go to Mars, New River Valley Rocketry organizer Bob Schoner said. Its a great way to start.
Roanokes famed neon star may not be neon forever, though it wasnt neon to begin with.

Faced with trying to maintain the 2,000 feet of neon tubing and wiring with a dwindling number of parts and qualified professionals to do it, city officials have begun exploring future options for keeping the star lit.

Theres no decision, its just information gathering at this point, City Councilman John Garland said.

Garland, who makes his living restoring historic buildings, inquired to city staff about the future of the Mill Mountain Star after a Roanoke man, Darryl Thompson, who describes himself as the last neon lighting professional working in Western Virginia, asked him to.

According to a Facebook post by Thompson, he heard through industry contacts that the city is soliciting bids to replace the neon lighting on the star with LED lights.

If this happens, it will look like crap and jeopardize its [sic] historical standing, Thompson wrote. If any further movement happens with this WE as a city need to stand against it.

Acting City Manager Sherman Stovall said Friday that no such solicitation is on the street to convert the star to LED lighting.

Neon is getting harder for them to have options to maintain all of that. Theres just so few people that do it, Garland said Friday afternoon.

He said city staff is really just kind of reviewing options of what might be the possibility just to see whether one would make sense over the other, for long-term maintenance, energy, that sort of thing.

The star, erected as a temporary Christmas display atop Mill Mountain in 1949 by the Roanoke Merchants Association and the Chamber of Commerce, was instantly so popular that it was retained as a permanent display and soon became the symbol of what has become known as the Star City.

At 88.5 feet high, its listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thompson, who said hed be willing to help offset the cost of repairs to keep the neon lighting in place, believes removing the neon would imperil its status on the National Register, but according to the form approving its historic status, it wasnt a neon star to begin with.

Originally, lighted with light bulbs, the Coming Glass Works later manufactured two thousand feet of neon tubing, the form reads, attributing that information to a 1997 Roanoke Times story.

The stars historic status is justified, according to the form, by its place as a symbol of the citys prosperity and for its engineering as the largest man-made illuminated star. The method of lighting is not mentioned in the justification.

[Bob Kinsey, 92, who helped build the star with his family's Roy C. Kinsey Sign Co., said later that the only lighting on the star from its construction was neon, an assertion backed up by a Nov. 20, 1949, Roanoke Times story.]

The star has been renovated four times, in 1971, 1979, 1987 and in 1997, when the city spent $60,000 to replace all 2,000 feet of the neon tubing and wiring and repaint the structure.

The Roanoke Star stands in excellent condition, the National Register form states.

Aware of the stars beloved status, Garland asked Stovall to keep council apprised of the situation. Because if they did anything that went further than [gathering information], he said, it would get pretty controversial.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  Local activists want all charges dropped against protesters arrested at the July 8 KKK rally after they say police used unnecessary force against demonstrators.

Also, the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is asking residents to urge the Charlottesville City Council to increase civilian oversight and accountability in policing.

Lodging allegations of police brutality, activists associated with Solidarity Cville held a news conference in front of the Charlottesville Police Department on Friday, asking for police to apologize for their tactics at the rally and revoke the permit for the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, organized by pro-white blogger Jason Kessler.

Emily Gorcenski, who attended Saturdays rally, said it was unnecessary for police to declare unlawful assembly as protesters gathered around a garage where members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had parked. She said Virginia State Police did not give protesters and others enough time to leave the area before they deployed three canisters of tear gas.

To be frank, it is ridiculous to expect a grieving community, with a deep legacy of racial violence, to simply pack up and go home after the KKK rallied in our city, Gorcenski said.

After the Klansmen left, some protesters turned their attention to police and followed officers back up to High Street, where they continued to defy police commands to leave the area.

Gorcenski and other activists also criticized police for bringing riot gear and tear gas to the rally. Citing the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, the activists questioned why police still use tear gas, even though its use has been banned in warfare.

The convention  which went into effect in 1997  bans the use of riot control agents, like tear gas, in war, but specifically states domestic law enforcement can still use chemical agents to control riots, according to Politifact.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said the decision was made to use the tear gas after people refused to leave and items were thrown at officers and pepper gel spray was used.

The activists deny any use of pepper spray against police and, instead, argue police were not provoked.

When asked for information about the alleged assaults against their officers or the alleged use of pepper spray, a police spokesman said the department will release additional information about the rally in the future, while an internal review moves forward.

Every city officer at the rally wore a body camera during Saturdays events, and police said it will take time to go through all of the footage.

Two ACLU legal observers were among those hit by the tear gas. Now the organizations Virginia chapter is urging Charlottesville residents to email City Council about a lack of civilian oversight of policing at the local level.

The ACLUs letter makes three requests:

Residents must be given the power to review police policies on use of force, de-escalation, SWAT teams and surveillance methods, including body cameras.

Councilors must look at how police acquire militarized weapons and must adopt an ordinance requiring council approval of military weapons and surveillance gear.

The city police department must commit to constitutional policing and clear policies about escalation and de-escalation.

We plan on reviewing these requests carefully, as we do all constituent requests of council, in consultation with our staff, Mayor Mike Signer said.

The Charlottesville police did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Adeola Ogunkeyede, director of the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, also attended Fridays news conference and said police could have done a better job of de-escalating tensions between the community and Klan members.

Rather, the police show of force  dressed in riot gear, driving armored vehicles and carrying weapons that are often carried into war zones  implied that the police were there to do more than simply protect civil liberties and keep things orderly, said Ogunkeyede.

Asking for police to remain peaceful and use more de-escalation techniques in the future, Ogunkeyede said its important for police to understand how hate groups, like the KKK, deeply affect the community.

There is no better way for the city of Charlottesville to demonstrate that it respects the humanity of all its community members than by directing law enforcement to show understanding to those who gather in solidarity to drown out the racist and violent chants of a group of people who want nothing more than to see those who oppose them harmed, Ogunkeyede said.

Four protesters currently face felony charges, while 10 others face misdemeanor charges. Solidarity Cville is asking the city to drop the charges against them, as well as previous charges filed against activist Veronica Fitzhugh, which include misdemeanor assault charges.

The group also is asking the city to revoke the permit for assembly for the rally in Emancipation Park. In doing so, activists question if Kessler is abiding by the permitting process, and they cite the potential for violence.

According to the permit, the rally is estimated to attract 400 people upset with the citys decision to rename two parks once named for Confederate generals and to sell a statue in one of them.

While the KKK rally also protested the decision, Kessler has tried to distance himself from the Klan.

Kesslers rally, though, has been promoted by former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke and is expected to draw several leaders of the white nationalist alt-right movement, including Richard Spencer, who led a torchlit rally at the foot of the citys Robert E. Lee statue in May.
GEA Group AG (GEAGF.PK) announced that, based on preliminary figures, it expects second quarter order intake of approx. EUR 1.241 billion and revenues of approx. EUR 1.141 billion. In the second quarter of 2016, the company reported order intake of EUR 1.222 billion and revenues of EUR 1.157 billion.

The company also forecast second quarter operating EBITDA of approx. EUR 122 million, compared to EUR 145 million. The company noted that the decline at group level was mainly caused in the Business Area Solutions, in particular by volume- and margin-mix effects, as well as a medium single digit million EUR charge for additional costs relating to bottling lines which had previously been addressed during the the third quarter 2016 communication and whose sale has been discontinued in this variant.

As a consequence, GEA adjusted its guidance for the financial year 2017 and currently forecast an operating EBITDA in the range of EUR 600 million to EUR 640 million, instead of previously expected EUR 620 million to EUR 670 million, however before

additional costs related to the afore-mentioned bottling lines. It is

expected that such additional costs will not exceed a lower double digit

million EUR amount.

Meanwhile, the company confirmed that moderate growth of revenues as previously guided.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
11 DIGs recommended for AIG post

Nepal Police has recommended 11 Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) of Nepal Police for the promotion to the post of Additional Inspectors General (AIGs).
A Tale of Two Paatis

The Sorakhutte Paati, according to historical records, was built by the children of Kazi Damodar Pande, recounts Rahendra Pradhan, 58, a local resident of Thamel.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Artist perspective of Tangawizi Motors at John Ross Eco Junction. The facility will accommodate four motor dealership brands namely Hyundai, Daihatsu, Renault and Honda.



John Ross Eco Junction, a commercial industrial development grows apace with first new facility for Tangawizi Motors to accommodate four motor dealership brands namely Hyundai, Daihatsu, Renault and Honda.

The 195,000m business estate by Liberty Properties lies at the intersection of the N2 highway and the John Ross Parkway in the City of uMhlatuze, northern Kwazulu Natal.

Liberty Properties concluded a ten year lease agreement with Tangawizi Motors for the four motor dealership brands. And has been awarded the mandate to develop the undertaking on behalf of the property owners, Liberty Group, the sum of which has not been disclosed.

Site preparation is underway and is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2014 where after development of the dealerships and other tenant premises will commence.

Once development is complete, the four dealerships will occupy a total floor space of approximately 7 060m.

Amelia Beattie, chief investment officer for Stanlib Direct Property Investments, which acts as asset managers for Liberty Group, says John Ross Eco Junction is a step towards increasing our footprint in the industrial property sector.

Speaking on behalf of Tangawizi Motors Eddie Reid says We are excited to be part of John Ross Eco Junction, the site is ideally situated with great visibility from the main arterial roads, which can only be good for our business.

The development will primarily serve areas around the greater uMhlathuze municipality which includes Richards Bay, Empangeni, KwaMbonambi and Mtunzini.

The greater uMhlathuze municipality is a high growth area; it has a GDP of R3.7 billion and a GDP growth rate of 4% per annum, and is home to some of the countrys biggest manufacturing stalwarts such as Mondi and BHP Billiton.

Graham Kusano, Divisional Director of Liberty Group Property Development described this tenant agreement as an exciting milestone for the John Ross Eco Junction development and a demonstration of Richards Bays positive economic situation.

Automotive sector in South Africas economic, contributes approximately 6% to the countrys GDP and employs about 200,000 people.
By SA Commercial Prop News

IPD South Africa Executive Director, Stan Garrun says Property fundamentals continue to demonstrate the sectors advantages, providing investors with consistently robust and diversified returns



The South African investment property sector maintained modest growth delivering a total return of 15.3% in 2013, the IPD South Africa Annual Property Index, released on Tuesday, showed.

Though South African commercial property is by no means heading for the super returns of 25%-plus seen during the boom years of 2004-2007, SA is nevertheless holding up well considering the fragile state of the global economy, SA Commercial Prop news has learned.

According to the yearly property performance analysis index report, the total ungeared return for 2012 was 15.2%.

This result comes despite modest economic growth, constrained employment and cresting consumer spend. Income return was steady at 8.2%, while the uplift was provided by capital growth of 6.7% supported by historically low cost of capital and high transactional activity.

The IPD South African Property Index is based on asset level data collected from a sample of 1,354 properties covering R213bn capital value at the end of December 2013. This represents approximately 60%1 of professionally managed investment property in South Africa.

Outperforming Bond, Equity returns



Property continued to demonstrate its hybrid nature, outperforming 2013 bond returns of -0.4% (All Bond Index) and admirably competing with equity returns of 12.5% (MSCI South Africa Index).

Property values were driven higher, in spite of a 95 basis point (10 year Government Bond) bond yield softening over the year, benefiting from solid rental growth of 6.0% and an impressive net income growth of 14.3% on a Rand per square metre basis.

Aggressive asset management and increasing focus on administered cost recoveries a boost to gross incomes.

Gains in Industrial and Retail

Gains are evident in particularly the industrial and retail sectors. At a sector level, the report confirms that Industrials came to the fore with a total return of 17.1%, marginally outperforming Retail at 16.8%.

Office Recovery Negligible

Though the general perception is that the office market has struggled the most in recent years, IPD figures show little differentiation between the returns achieved by the three sectors of the SA commercial property market in 2013.

Offices followed trend by underperforming the other two sectors during the property cycle recovery but still managed a respectable 13.6% total return. Office properties have also seen the highest growth in operating costs across all property sectors.

Commercial Property Vacancies

Commercial property vacancies across all three sectors declined over the year, underlining confidence in the recovery trends, although competitive leasing strategies have put pressure on base rental growth rates. At a property segment level, Light Manufacturing/Low Grade Industrial surprised with a stellar 20.9% return. Super Regional Centres once again showed their strength in the face of rising occupation costs with a robust return of 19.4%. Inner city offices continue to trail behind with a 12.7% total return for the year.



Stan Garrun, Executive Director, and Head of South Africa, IPD, said, All said, this is an impressive performance. Property fundamentals continue to demonstrate the sectors advantages, providing investors with consistently robust and diversified returns. Active asset management and a singular focus on sustainable net income growth have once again shone a light on South African Property.



Frank Berkeley, Managing Executive of Nedbank Corporate Property Finance said, As financiers to the property industry, we are encouraged with the performance delivered by the investment property sector as it is an indication of the professional nature with which the South African property industry is managed, therefore ensuring positive returns for investors.
(PR) - The Campus of Hope at Tuanaimato was the venue for the Humanitarian Workers program when the Samoa Red Cross hosted the Regional Red Cross Rapid Gender Analysis, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Workshop.

The visit enabled the participants to the Regional Workshop to gain real life experience on the humanitarian work by Samoa Victim Support Group when meeting the children of hope.

They were touched by their engagement with the children, and were amazed by the facilities, especially the hearts of the many people that has made the Campus a reality. And the Director of the Samoa Family Health Association, Mrs. Liai Siitia was vocal on organisations working collaboratively for our people, because despite the different services we provide, the final beneficiaries are our people.

For one of the participants, Tusi from Tuvalu, It is very different to just read about the statistics and issues, but having to actually see the children of hope is an eye opener to the extremity of the consequences of the sexual violation and Sexual and Gender Based Violence.

And in comparing the humanitarian work of the Red Cross to the support services of SVSG, the Secretary General of the Samoa Red Cross Namulauulu Tautala Mauala said that I feel guilty because I now realise that the Red Cross should do much more for the victims.

The same sentiment was shared by Mata of the Cook Islands Red Cross who noted that There are lots of funding opportunities available to the Red Cross and the countries should make full use of these for support work.

To mark the beginning of a collaborative working relationship between SVSG and the Red Cross, a donation of $500 was presented by the Federation towards the security for the children at the Campus. Because as Cameron of the Solomon Islands commented Where there are children, there is a village.

SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang congratulated the Secretary General Namulauulu Tautala and the Samoa Red Cross for hosting a successful regional forum, and welcomed the opportunity to partner with Samoa Red Cross in supporting our people in need.

Last but not the least, SVSG applauds with pride having one of the daughters of Samoa, Ms. Lemau Afamasaga leading the delegation from the Red Cross International. It is such an inspiration for the support work that we do for our own people in Samoa. Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President
Meet Anukar Prasad and David Clark of New Zealand who are in the country for work purposes.

Samoa is nothing new to Mr. Clark as he travels back and forth between the two countries for work, but as for Mr. Prasad, this is his first time.

This is my first time even though I knew about Samoa for so long because I am originally from Fiji so in other words, we are just neighbours, he said.

I never had the chance to come and see this beautiful island but when I moved to New Zealand and started my own company, I finally got the chance to come and visit even if its just for short periods.

We took a ride up to the Malololelei Reserve and it was beautiful. The view was great and the air was fresh and cool.

Im thinking of bringing my family over for a holiday and Im sure they will love it here.

Mr. Clark echoed Mr. Prasads thoughts. However he said from the past years he has been here he has never got tired of it because of the people.

The people are just lovely, and they are always willing to help, Mr. Clark said.

My favorite food would have to be the sashimi and the palusami. I never get tired of eating it and I will always take some back with me when I return home.

I want to visit the big island of Savaii when I bring my mother over next for a holiday.

I know she will love it and I want to visit the southern side too so those are the places that I want to explore when I come for a holiday.

As to what he thinks is unique about Samoa, Mr. Prasad said its the people and the culture.

Even though Im from one of the Pacific islands, we each have different cultures, he said.

The traditional wear, the culture and the tradition is so much different and in New Zealand we are used to the new western culture. But its good to see the traditional culture and the pride that the Samoan people have in their culture.

The people are just absolutely beautiful, they are friendly and they are willing to help anytime.

We dont get that a lot in New Zealand but here it feels like home.
We did not know him, I guess the vast majority of us, anyway. Not only did he live far, far away, but for most of the time during the last 28 years, he was in jail.

His name was Liu Xiaobo. A Chinese citizen who lived and studied in America, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and yet to those in China he was an intellectual renegade.

That rare distinction, as it turned out, was accorded him for his role in protecting protesters from encroaching soldiers during the student riots at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

And it was for his role in promoting a pro-democracy charter in China that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and a lengthy prison sentence that saw him being locked away in jail.

On Thursday last week while he was in hospital where he was being treated for liver cancer, he passed away. He was 61.

Reports say, the authorities revealed Liu Xiaobo had cancer in late June when the illness was virtually beyond treatment, which was when Mr. Liu was officially granted medical parole.

But even as he faced death, he was kept silenced in the First Hospital of China Medical University, still a captive of the authoritarian controls that he had fought for decades.

According to reports though, Liu Xiaobo is the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky, the German pacifist and foe of Nazism, who won the prize in 1935.

He died under guard in 1938 after years of maltreatment.

As for Mr. Liu Xiaobos wife, Liu Xia, the reports say she is being kept under house arrest and smothering surveillance, preventing her from speaking out about Mr. Lius belated treatment for cancer.

In a brief video message, Ms. Liu is reported to have said in a message to a friend when her husbands fatal condition was announced: Cant operate, cant do radiotherapy, cant do chemotherapy.

Mr. Lius illness elicited a deluge of sympathy from officials, friends, Chinese rights activists and international groups, who saw him as a fearless advocate of peaceful, democratic change.

The reaction to his illness shows how much he was respected, said Cui Weiping, a former professor of literature in Beijing who knew Mr. Liu and now lives in Los Angeles.

People from all walks of life  friends, strangers, young people  have been outraged to hear that someone with terminal cancer was kept locked up till he died.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said on Thursday: The human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs.

Terry E. Branstad, the United States ambassador to China, said in an emailed statement, China has lost a deeply principled role model who deserved our respect and adulation, not the prison sentences to which he was subjected.

He added, We call on China to release all prisoners of conscience and to respect the fundamental freedoms of all.

It appears that Mr. Liu was arrested most recently in 2008, after he helped initiate Charter 08, a bold petition calling for democracy, the rule of law and an end to censorship.

A year later, a court in Beijing tried and convicted Mr. Liu on a charge of inciting subversion. The petition and essays he wrote in which he upbraided and mocked the Chinese government were cited in the verdict. Mr. Liu responded to his trial with a warning about Chinas future.

Hatred can rot a persons wisdom and conscience, he said in a statement he prepared for the trial. An enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation and inflame brutal life and death struggles, destroy a societys tolerance and humanity, and hinder a countrys advance toward freedom and democracy.

After his death was announced, Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death.

She said: Liu Xiaobo will remain a powerful symbol for all who fight for freedom, democracy and a better world.

He was truly a prisoner of conscience, and he paid the highest possible price for his relentless struggle.

Geremie R. Barme, the Australian Sinologist who is a close friend of Mr. Lius, wrote in a tribute before Mr. Lius death: Xiaobo was wedded both psychically and physically to China and its fate.

In the end, his words and deeds may have garnered him a Nobel Prize, yet in an authoritarian system, one that since 1989 has oscillated merely between the poles of the cruel and the pitiless, they sealed his fate.

Because Mr. Liu remained in prison after he was selected for the Nobel Prize in 2010, he was represented at the award ceremony, by an empty chair.

His lecture - No Enemies, No Hatred - translated by Stacy Mosher, and read by the Norwegian actress-director, Liv Ullmann, was prepared especially for his 2009 trial.

It says: I have no enemies. I have no hatred. This is my final statement.

I look forward to [the day] when my country is a land with freedom of expression, where the speech of every citizen will be treated equally well.

Where different values, ideas, beliefs and political views, can both compete with each other, and peacefully co-exist.

Where both majority and minority views will be equally guaranteed, and where the political views that differ from those currently in power, in particular, will be fully respected and protected.

Where all political views will spread out under the sun for people to choose from, where every citizen can state political views without fear, and where no one can under any circumstances, suffer political persecution for voicing divergent political views.

I hope that I will be the last victim of Chinas endless literary inquisitions and that from now on, no one will be incriminated because of speech.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth.

To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.

In order to exercise the right to freedom of speech conferred by the Constitution, one should fulfill the social responsibility of a Chinese citizen.

There is nothing criminal in anything I have done. [But] if charges are brought against me because of this, I have no complaints.

And as he was lying there dying under police guard, he was struggled to finish what was most probably his last written work.

It was not a political statement, but a sometimes playful, sometimes darkly cryptic tribute to his wife, Liu Xia, an artist and poet, who endured house arrest herself, as he is now lying is hospital, dying.

It says: Love is as intense as ice, love is as remote as blackness, and my praise is perhaps an unforgivable poison, which is how intense and remote my love is for you.

It was his brief and fragmentary tribute of love to his wife for the very last time.

What about you?

Do you think the late Liu Xiaobo is right that Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth?

Please, tell the rest what you think.

Have a peaceful Sunday Samoa, God bless!
Constitution implementation in NC's leadership: Singh

Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh has urged the leaders to lead the party ahead by maintaining internal unity.
Twenty eight year old Patrick Junior Ah Kuoi of Vaitele Uta has graduated with a Masters in Electronics and Communication from the Hefei University of Technology in China.

In his interview with the Sunday Samoan Patrick dedicated his achievement to his father the late Faumuina Patrick Ah Kuoi who passed away in 2007.

It was a poem that I wrote for him at his funeral I promised him that I would succeed, said Patrick.

I must carry on and I am confident that I will succeed is what I had said to my father and that motivated me throughout the eight years of my studies.

Speaking about his journey Patrick said it wasnt easy.

I got a scholarship from the Government of Samoa to do my Bachelor of Engineering in Architectural Environment at the Beijing University of Science and Technology from 2009 to 2014."

I left to go to Beijing, however I had to learn the language for a year because the classes were all in Chinese and if I didnt pass, I couldnt move on."

So for a whole year, I learned the Chinese language in Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing from 2009 to 2010 and then I started my Bachelors."

The Bachelors is the government scholarship to China and once its completed then they provide the return ticket which I was lucky enough to get to come home and see my mother and family.

However, getting a Bachelors degree did not satisfy Patrick so he pushed on to get a job so he could continue his studies.

I wanted to finish what I had started and I was definitely not going to settle for a Bachelors degree, he said.

I looked for a job as well as some sponsors to fund me so I could complete my Masters and luckily enough, the Government of China sponsored me with my Masters even though they had different rules."

However that didnt bother me."

So in 2014, I went full on to get my Masters and after three years I am happy to say that I have made it.

But getting there was still no easy road for the young man.

I was feeling homesick, missing my family especially my mother. I was struggling with my budget because I wasnt getting enough money which is why I tried so hard to find a job, which I did, he said.

I became an English teacher for the Grimm International for children aged 2-12 years old. But even with a job, I was still struggling so one again, my mother was my biggest supporter."

It was hard but I knew I had to finish what I had started so I could say I have come out strongly.

The journey was good I have had a lot of new experiences as well as new ideas, he said.

However, at the same time I had to think of how to introduce these kinds of ideas to Samoa."

Primarily, I have learned to be independent."

I can do my washing, cooking, cleaning because during those times of studying, I had nobody to depend on so I am thankful to God for bringing me this far.

His mother Talai was in tears as she said the glory goes back to God.

It wasnt easy and I cant believe it has been eight years, she said.

It was hard as a mother. I would worry because I knew the situation he was in but I always prayed to God for his protection over my son, especially financially."

There were times when I also struggled financially but there were also times when I had enough so thats when I would send him money."

But Im thankful its over and all the praises goes back to God.

Patrick is the son of the late Faumuina Patrick and Talai Ah Kuoi, one of four children.

He is from the village of Vaitele Uta.

He shared academic success with his girlfriend, Ruby Folau who also graduated with a Masters in Business Administration in Financial Management.

We went to the same University and we both graduated with Masters so I am beyond blessed.
The National University of Samoa (N.U.S) and the University Of Canterbury (U.C.) in Christchurch,, New Zealand have signed an agreement to rekindle their relationship.

This agreement was signed at the Fale Samoa at the National University of Samoa on Thursday last week.

Tofilau Dr. Faguele Sualii, Dean of the Faculty of Education (F.O.E.) at the N.U.S elaborated on this agreement.

The main objective of this is to provide a framework of collaboration between the F.O.E. in our university and the U.C., he said.

That is the purpose of this gathering today; to bring back the relationship between the National University of Samoa and the University of Canterbury.

How it was back then, maybe 10 years back, we had an agreement where teachers from our university especially those who were in the Faculty of Education, got opportunities to study in the University of Canterbury as well as studying for the highest qualifications. But there was some changes made in that agreement and it brought our relationship to an end.

But now it has been reinvigorated by the President of the National University of Samoa so that other recognized universities are able to help not only our teachers but our students as well, in terms of broadening their knowledge and skills to improve the quality of our education.

That is what our country needs.

Tofilau Dr. Faguele Sualii believes this relationship will help improve the standards of our education.

At the moment, the Faculty of Education is the first faculty thats a part of this agreement because the help given is based on the same faculty in the University of Canterbury. But hopefully in the future, this help will be sharedwith all the other faculties so that they can get the same opportunities as well.

The National University of Samoa plans to work together with the University of Canterbury so that we can come up with ways to improve the quality of our education system; in terms of courses to study as well as opportunities to share ideas and experiences that can help us in teaching our students.

Not only that, but also getting opportunities where our local students can study abroad and learn about courses that we have no knowledge of.

That is the goal of N.U.S right now. It is to carry on and continue our relationship with the University of Canterbury to help out in our development.

As you can see, we have just signed this agreement between the two universities so hopefully there will be opportunities soon for not only the teachers but also the students as well to go out of this country and into the University of Canterbury to study and learn so that they can come back and use that new knowledge in the development of Samoa.

Thank you for making the National University as your brother and sister here in Samoa and we are looking forward to our collaborations in the near future.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Canterbury, Professor Gail Gillon said its a wonderful opportunity to rekindle the relationship between the two universities.
Question: Will the U.S. suffer economically from the recent trade deal between Japan and European Union ?

Phil Blair

Phil Blair, Manpower

YES: The U.S. suffers any time we are left on the outside looking in. Japan and Europe are moving forward with exciting trade agreements that are mutually beneficial. The U.S. trade discussion leaders are currently busy posturing themselves as anti everything and threatening to be very disruptive on every level. Successful negotiations happen when there are open discussions about fair agreements, not when there is only bullying on one side.

Kelly Cunningham

Kelly Cunningham, National University System

YES: Japan and Europe signal they will replace the U.S. as global leaders in free trade. The agreement rivals NAFTA in scope of trade, currently the largest in the world. The deal means European and Japanese exporters gain an edge over American exporters into each others markets, a real loss for American agriculture in particular, but also the U.S. loses position to shape trade by setting standards on everything from intellectual property laws to labor standards.

David Ely

David Ely, San Diego State University

YES: The deal will lower market barriers for Japanese and EU companies and lead to increased trade between their economies. U.S. companies exporting to Japan and the EU, trading under less favorable terms, will be disadvantaged. The agreement shows that foreign world leaders can be successful in promoting global trade on their own. The U.S. economy will suffer if other countries improve conditions for global trade for themselves while the U.S. sits on the sidelines.

Gina Champion-Cain

Gina Champion-Cain, American National Investments

YES: The intertwined nature of complex international trade requires multilateral negotiation. Absence from international trade discussion is a misguided strategy that will produce loss of leverage. Without the ability to negotiate across many issues simultaneously we would be left with single issue, bilateral discussions where zero sum results make compromise impossible. I cannot imagine a scenario in which our absence from international trade development discussion could produce positive outcome.

Alan Gin

Alan Gin, University of San Diego

YES: The agreement reduces barriers between Japan and the European Union, which will make products from those areas less expensive to each other and make U.S. products less competitive. Among the industries affected are chemicals, automobiles, medical devices, electrical machinery, and pharmaceuticals. One argument against free trade, that it would lead to a loss of jobs to lower wage countries, would not be relevant in this case given that wages are relatively high in Japan and the E.U.

James Hamilton

James Hamilton, UC San Diego

NO: Japan and Europe will benefit, but that doesnt mean the U.S. will lose. The weak economies in Japan and Europe have been holding the rest of us back. If this helps jump start their economies, everybody can benefit. One of the concerns many of us had was that the recent turn in politics, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, could lead the world into a trade war. But if the opposite is happening, thats very good news.

Gary London

Gary London, London Moeder Advisors

NO: While I wouldnt expect many short-term disruptions, we can expect a trend toward work-around deals and alliances to promote global trade without our participation. U.S. protectionism is economic nonsense. It will not increase our economic footprint, it will not create jobs, it will likely raise prices to consumers on both domestic and foreign goods and it poorly positions the U.S. on a whole host of political and military fronts. Over time, we are likely to suffer.

Norm Miller

Norm Miller, University of San Diego

YES: The more the U.S. retreats from prior contracts and forces one-on-one negotiations the harder it will be to maintain our role as the dominant currency for world trade and this will lessen our economic influence. Add to this, threats and tariffs and less immigrant labor for farms, while other countries forge deals and it will lower our economic exports. So far we are seeing the Art of the un-Deal.

Jamie Moraga

Jamie Moraga, IntelliSolutions

YES: We could. Should the trade deal go through, it could disadvantage U.S. sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, finance, and electronics. U.S.-made goods would be more expensive and not as competitive as the Japanese and EU markets. Trump is a fan of dealing with countries one-on-one versus multilateral trade deals. The Japan-EU deal shows that the world will move on with trade agendas with or without the U.S. The short and long-term impacts of that strategy remain to be seen.

Austin Neudecker

Austin Neudecker, Rev

YES: The EU-Japan trade deal appears to be a win-win for both parties. Meanwhile, Trump's continued protectionist threats represent both serious mistakes for the long-term viability of our economy and (as in this case) encouragement for our large trade partners to look elsewhere. The U.S. economic engine thrives on abundant external markets to sell what we produce and (at this point probably more importantly,) cheaply purchase consumer and business goods.

Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates

NO: The European Union wanted success before Brexit negotiations and national elections dominate its agenda. This deal is largely about political symbolism. Average tariffs between the two sides are already low. Yes, tariffs on Japanese cars will be reduced over the next seven years and tariffs on EU clothing, cheese and more will be reduced but this is not a blockbuster deal that will have material impact on the U.S.

Lynn Reaser

Lynn Reaser, Point Loma Nazarene University

YES: Assuming the deal is actually completed, European companies would face lower tariff and other barriers for their exports to Japan of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, autos, and other goods and services. Similarly, Japanese firms would encounter lower constraints in their European markets. U.S. firms could lose market share in both regions. The U.S. will also lose its ability to help write the rules in the key areas of data privacy and storage. It could hurt us being shut outside.

John Sarkisian

John Sarkisian, SKLZ

Is not participating this week.

Chris Van Gorder

Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health

YES: The Japan-EU agreement shows that other countries will pursue more liberal trade policies, even without the U.S. This agreement would put U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage to European manufacturers with whom they compete in the Japanese market. The likely outcome will be lost jobs and lower company earnings, which would harm the U.S. economy. The inconvenient truth of protectionist trade policies, such as President Trump's opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is that they both create and eliminate jobs.

Have an idea for an EconoMeter question? Email me at roger.showley@sduniontribune.com

Follow me on Twitter: @rogershowley
Associations are normally created with an initial architectural and landscaping theme that boards are responsible to protect and preserve. Condominium association boards also are expected to protect and preserve common area. Therefore, owners are usually prohibited from changing the exterior appearance of homes, or altering common area, without association permission.

Before making a change to ones home, a homeowner in a California common interest development may wish to consider the following tips to enhance chances of a successful proposal.

Begin by checking the CC&Rs and association rules. Is the change the kind that requires association permission? Planned development associations are usually mainly concerned with changes to home exteriors or landscaping. However, condominium associations present the additional important issue: Is it common area? Common area in condominiums is typically more than most homeowners understand  it is usually defined by the recorded Condominium Plan as everything behind the paint on the walls and ceilings, and the floor under the carpeting. So in condominiums, changing interior doorways or interior walls may be a change to common area, requiring association permission.

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Check the associations architectural and landscaping rules. Do not waste time proposing something outside the approved landscaping or color schemes.

Homeowners who decide to follow the bad advice that it is better to ask forgiveness than permission can create a disaster. One example is the 2010 ruling of Clear Lake Riviera v. Cramer. In that case a homeowner built a two-story home, despite CC&Rs limiting homes to single story. The HOA sued, and the homeowner was ultimately required by the court to dismantle the second story and return the house to a single level. Furthermore, associations successfully suing to enforce the governing documents will normally also receive awards of attorney fees against the homeowner (Civil Code 5975(c)).

Review the associations written architectural modification policies. Civil Code 4765 requires associations to have a fair and reasonable written policy which is distributed annually.

Applications should be complete. Include copies of product information, measurements, sketches, and a full description of the proposed modification so the association can understand the proposal. If the work requires a contractor, provide the contractors licensing, workers compensation and liability insurance information. Assure the association that any necessary city permits will be obtained and that work will occur only during business hours and not on weekends.

Discuss the proposal with nearby neighbors. Many associations require that neighbors be notified in case of any neighbor objection to the proposal.

Make sure the proposal is consistent with the communitys architecture, both as to style and color. Individuality and creativity dont work well in associations, for which visual harmony and consistency are key values.

If the association denies the application, that denial must include an explanation of the reasons, pursuant to Civil Code 4765(a)(4). Denials may be based upon reasonable but subjective factors in the association standards, under the appellate courts 2000 ruling in Dolan-King v Rancho Santa Fe. Sometimes association responses will impose conditions or suggestions by which the proposal might be modified and accepted.

Associations protect all neighbors, including you, by denying alterations deviating from the communitys esthetic scheme. It may be a creative, artistic and even beautiful idea, but if it doesnt fit, it isnt neighborly. The next creative idea might be your neighbors proposed purple garage!

Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Managing Partner of Richardson Harman Ober PC, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit questions to KRichardson@RHOpc.com. Past columns at www.HOAHomefront.com.
San Diegos StackIQ, which makes a platform to automate tasks in data centers and other giant computer clusters, said this week that its been acquired by database analytics software provider Teradata Corp. for an undisclosed price.

Founded in 2006 by computer experts from the San Diego Supercomputer Center, StackIQ raised more than $10 million from investors over the years. The company is based in Solana Beach.

A Teradata spokeswoman declined to reveal how many workers StackIQ employs but said Teradata plans to add StackIQs engineers to its team.

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As Teradata continues to expand its engineering R & D skills to drive ongoing technology innovation, we are seeking qualified, talented individuals to join our team, said Oliver Ratzesberger, chief product officer for Teradata. StackIQ has set the bar with stellar engineers who we are honored to now call Teradata employees.

Teradata is based in Dayton, Ohio. But the company has a large footprint in San Diego, where it runs several corporate functions, including data center research and development. The facility in Rancho Bernardo is considered to one of Teradatas three primary locations in the U.S. -- along with Dayton and a campus near Atlanta.

Under terms of the deal, Teradata acquired StackIQs technology that automates and accelerates software deployment across large clusters of computers -- both physical and in the cloud.

The technology reduces delivery times for complex software installation and updates at on-premises server farms, cloud-based data centers and virtual, software-based computing systems.

StackIQ was founded by Tim McIntire, Greg Bruno and Mason Katz. McIntire previously led the development team at the Digital Image Analysis Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Bruno and Katz came from the Supercomputer Center on UC San Diegos campus, where they helped develop the Rocks cluster toolkit  an easy-to-use configuration/management package for large computer systems.

Formerly called Clustercorp, StackIQ was initially bootstrapped by its founders. It closed its first venture capital round in 2011 and raised money again in 2014. Investors include Avalon Ventures of San Diego, Anthem Venture Partners, Greyhawk Ventures and OurCrowd.

Joining Teradata, the market leader in analytic data solutions, truly validates the importance of StackIQs engineering and the talent we have cultivated over the years, said McIntire in a statement. We are looking forward to bringing a bit of San Diegos start-up culture to Teradata, and working together to simplify Teradatas customer experience for system software deployment and upgrades.

ALSO:

New Alliance touts SoCal as alternative to Silicon Valley, teams with Google Ventures founder.

San Diego start-ups navigate mixed venture capital landscape in 2nd quarter.

San Diegos digital marketing start-up TE2 acquired by Accesso for $80 million.

Business

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973
A San Diego parolee pleaded not guilty to murder Friday in the death of a man whose body was found on the side of a rural road near Vista earlier this week, a prosecutor said.

Shyrehl Joseph Wesley, 20, faces 106 years to life in prison if convicted, Deputy District Attorney Keith Watanabe said.

The victim, identified Friday as DAngelo Charon, 21, was shot three times, Watanabe said.

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Vista Superior Court Judge Cynthia Freeland set Wesleys bail at $6 million, the prosecutor said.

Wesleys attorney could not be reached for comment Friday.

The defendants girlfriend, Sheffah Chevis, is expected to be arraigned Monday on charges of murder and being an accessory after the fact. The 18-year-old faces up to 28 years to life if convicted.

Watanabe said that a few hours before Charons body was found, surveillance video shows the victim with the couple at a San Diego liquor store. They bought two bottles of liquor and drove off in Chevis Toyota Yaris. Everything seemed fine, the prosecutor said.

About 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, a passing driver spotted Charons body on Twin Oaks Valley near Gopher Canyon Road.

Around 11 p.m. that day, deputies arrested Wesley at his North Park home. About the same time, other deputies arrived at Chevis home on Clairemont Drive, and found her cleaning up the trunk of her Yaris, according to Watanabe. The victims clothing and a bloody shoe were inside the trunk, he said.

Inside her home, investigators found a backpack with a .40-caliber handgun, with ammunition that matched bullet casings found at the scene, the prosecutor said.

He said authorities suspect the gunman was Wesley, who is on parole for a 2014 robbery at an El Cajon gun store. He was a juvenile at the time.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
A group of Los Angeles Community College District trustees will meet behind closed doors to investigate allegations that member Scott Svonkin violated the boards code of conduct and threatened another trustee last month.

He came right in front of my face  he towered over me, blocked me in and said he would ruin her politically, said Trustee Andra Hoffman. She said the confrontation occurred during a break in the boards June 7 meeting.

Hoffman, in turn, put forth a resolution to hold a public hearing and ultimately punish Svonkin for his behavior. She pointed out the June incident, a March closed-session meeting in which she alleges that Svonkin yelled at me in a threatening manner, claiming I was staring at him and claimed a pattern of harassment going back to 2015.

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In a board document in response to the resolution, Svonkin called Hoffmans complaints a negative and politically charged smear attack and compared her behavior to President Trumps.

He said in an interview that conversations between himself and Hoffman were nothing more than passionate discussions about policy, in part related to the districts $3.3-million bond program.

The trustees were supposed to vote on Hoffmans resolution on Wednesday  if a majority approved, the board would have held a public hearing at a later meeting, and decide if and how to punish Svonkin.

Instead, board member Ernest Moreno introduced a motion to create an ad hoc committee that would investigate the accusations privately and recommend to the board whether the trustees should have a hearing on Svonkins actions. Ad hoc committees are not subject to open meeting laws.

New board President Sydney Kamlager-Dove seconded the motion, and the board approved it 4 to 3.

Kamlager-Dove supported the move to a closed-door committee in the interest of protecting the publics time, the business of the district and the privacy of the parties involved, she said in an interview.

Kamlager-Dove is in charge of deciding who sits on the committee and how big it will be  either two or three people. She said she has not decided which board members will serve on it, or whether she will serve. The committee could use an outside investigator, but that has not been decided, she said.

The ad hoc committee is going to review, investigate and bring forth useful solutions, she said. Those can come from a number of ways and resources.

Neither Svonkin nor Hoffman is allowed to be on the committee, said Kevin Jeter, the districts general counsel. The committee will probably take 60 to 90 days to complete its investigation and decide whether there are grounds to punish Svonkin.

When the committee presents its findings and recommendations publicly, the board will vote on the original resolution. If at least four board members vote to move forward with the sanction process, there will be a public hearing at which both sides will be able to present evidence and call witnesses.

For Svonkin to be punished, though, five board members  a supermajority  need to vote in favor.

According to board rules, the possible sanctions include reprimand, censure, being removed from an officer position or losing pay. But the financial punishments are legal only when the misconduct is related to money, Jeter said, and Svonkin is no longer board president. So at most, Svonkin could be reprimanded or censured.

This sanction process has never happened before, Jeter said, so it will be up to the board to decide what reprimand or censure would entail, if it goes that far.

In a telephone interview Friday, Svonkin sounded more conciliatory than in his written response to the resolution.

I am sorry if I ever made any of my colleagues feel uncomfortable when I argue with them because I am passionately committed to protecting our students and the taxpayers, he said. I would never want anyone to feel not comfortable.

Moving forward, Im going to try to be less direct or combative  and not argue with [Hoffman] and just present my case and let the other board members and let the public decide, Svonkin said. We have the neediest students in the nation, and thats what we should be focused on.

Hoffman said the matter was not just a private dispute between two people, but an indication of inappropriate behavior from a public official.

He has violated our ethical code of conduct in terms of how we are supposed to behave in public and how we are supposed to treat each other, she said.

Hoffman voted against the ad hoc committee and still wants to hold a public hearing.

Times reporter Joy Resmovits contributed to this story.

Reach Sonali Kohli at Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com or on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli.
Kathryn Anthony didnt set out to become the princess of potty parity.

The Illinois professor and sometime San Diegan has made it her lifes work to study and write about how the design of products and places shapes our everyday lives. And whats more everyday than the toilet?

It affects everybody, she said.

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So shes lifted the lid on gender bias in public restrooms, pointing out the flaws that often leave women waiting in long lines at concerts and sporting events while the men zip in and out, to use her memorable phrase from testimony she gave to Congress on the subject.

Shes written about the lack of privacy at urinals in mens restrooms and how that contributes to shy bladder syndrome.

Shes enthusiastically embraced the TOTO high-tech Washlet toilet thats common in Japan, where she first encountered it on a trip about 13 years ago. Instead of toilet paper to clean themselves, people sitting on heated seats use temperature-controlled water and air.

So she put one in her home, where its such a popular curiosity shes left a guest book nearby for visitors to jot down their comments. And she had two of them installed in her parents house in La Jolla.

My mother says its the best gift shes ever received, Anthony said, and she thinks about me every day.

In academic circles, Anthony is known for research that has led to changes in the way schools of architecture are accredited and the ways their students are treated during design juries. Shes raised awareness about issues of diversity in architecture, a field with low numbers of women and people of color.

Now shes aiming for a more mainstream audience with her newest book, Defined by Design. Written in a fairly breezy, accessible style, it looks around at the world toys, skyscrapers, tools, maternity wards, shoes, airplanes, car seats, hair salons  to scold whats poorly done and praise whats thoughtful. It points out the often-unseen gender, age and body biases that affect the way things are envisioned and made, which in turn impacts our comfort, self-image and sometimes even our health.

And the book calls for a seismic shift in design. As citizens and consumers, people have far more ability than they realize to harness the power of everyday design, said Anthony, wholl be at Warwicks bookstore in La Jolla Tuesday. I want to help them wield that power to make a world that is safer, happier and more comfortable than before.

Subtle messages

Anthony is short  52  so shes experienced many of the issues she writes about.

But thats not why she got into the field.

Ive always been interested in it, she said. Ive always been aware of the design environment around me. Even as a 3-year-old she was fussy about which bathrooms she was willing to use. She decided early on that purple was her favorite color. It still is.

One of her childhood friends was left-handed, and Anthony noticed the disadvantages of that. How hard it was to use the scissors. How the writing surface of the desk was on the wrong side. That gave me a sensitivity to design that I otherwise wouldnt have had, she said.

Part of her interest was genetic, too. Her father, Harry Anthony, studied architecture at the Sorbonne in Paris and taught urban planning at Columbia University. He brought the family to San Diego for a sabbatical when his daughter was 13. She remembers the first time riding in a car on what is now La Jolla Parkway, seeing the ocean in the distance and then watching it get closer.

I remember saying, O.K. everyone, Im sold,  she said.

The family eventually settled in La Jolla for good. Anthony went to La Jolla High School and to U.C. Berkeley, where she majored in psychology. She thought she would go into clinical work. Then she signed up for a course in environmental psychology, which combined aspects of anthropology, sociology and design to look at the ways places and spaces affect behavior.

She read the three assigned textbooks in the first week.

After she got a doctorate in architecture at Berkeley in 1981, she taught at Cal Poly-Pomona before moving to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is the longest serving female faculty member  33 years  in the School of Architecture.

One of the courses she teaches there is called Gender and Race in Contemporary Architecture. She requires the students to interview someone who is different  different age, different race, different gender, or different size  and ask about day-to-day experiences with the design of places and products.

About 10 years ago, Anthony began doing her own interviews in that vein, compiling stories from short men who couldnt find neckties that fit, tall people who banged into overhead bins on airplanes, children who couldnt reach bathroom sinks, new mothers who couldnt find places to nurse their babies, older people who couldnt open pill bottles, large people who couldnt fit into car seats.

All of those things send us subtle messages about who is important and who is not, about who belongs and who doesnt, Anthony said. When it happens, people tend to blame themselves. But its not their fault. Its the design.

The good and the bad

She has a bone to pick with the airlines.

The seating is an absolute scandal, she said. Flying recently from Chicago to San Diego  she comes here often to visit her folks  she walked the aisle of the plane and was surprised at how crowded it was. More seats with shrinking space between them, she said, and this at the same time that passengers are getting larger. We should all be protesting this kind of inhumane treatment.

Shes not fond of plastic clamshell packaging, either. In the book, in a chapter called Wrap Rage, she reprints part of a story from USA Today about a Marine who survived two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan with hardly a scratch and then came home and sliced up his thumb trying to open a new printer cable.

Thousands of people go to U.S. emergency rooms every year with plastic-packaging injuries, she said. In the United Kingdom, researchers determined that almost 100 people every year are wounded using a knife to open packaging containing a new knife.

Thats a little ironic, she said.

But there are also examples of good design, she said, and San Diego has its share. When she and her late husband, Barry Riccio, lived in the Gaslamp Quarter for two years in the late 1990s while he underwent treatment for cancer, they were impressed by the revitalization effort that retained key elements of the architecture and history.

Shes also a fan of the unisex bathrooms that opened in 2005 at La Jolla Shores, replacing gender-segregated restrooms that often resulted in long lines for women. The new ones are cleaner, safer, better lit, Anthony said. She includes photos and a description of them in the new book.

Theres also a photo of a womens bathroom at the Carlsbad Premium Outlets, where the stall has a recessed shelf for keeping bags off the ground. A rare treat, according to Anthony.

In the books final chapter, A Call to Action, she urges readers to help the design world adapt to a society that is increasingly diverse. (The cover has a mock clothing tag that reads: One size does not fit all.) About the only people who arent put at a disadvantage by places or products in their lives are average-sized, college-age males, she said, so everyone else has something at stake.

She advocates contacting colleges with design departments and volunteering to be a sample consumer. Calling manufacturers to push for safer packaging. Getting involved in the design process for new offices, schools, parks.

Fashion, product and building designs shape our lives every day in surprising, powerful ways, she writes. And whether were aware of it or not, they affect everything we feel, think and do.

Defined by Design reading

Who: Kathryn Anthony

When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Warwicks, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla

Cost: Free; reserved seating available

More info: (858) 454-0347 or warwicks.com

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com
The career path Amy Andrews originally headed down was in occupational therapy  until she learned about music therapy. This type of therapy uses music to help patients with physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs by singing, listening to, moving to or creating music.

From the moment I learned about the field (of music therapy), it was my top pick in career paths. Since then, it has been a great pleasure to be a music therapist and I have incorporated another passion, expressive arts therapy, says Andrews, a board-certified music therapist with Sharp HealthCare as part of its Arts for Healing program. Witnessing the power of the arts on a daily basis further fuels my commitment.

Andrews, 31, lives in South Park and also holds a masters degree in expressive arts therapy, which uses all five art disciplines (dance and movement, drama, creative writing, music and visual art) to help patients with healing and recovery. Shes been a board-certified music therapist since 2009 and provides services for premature infants and their families, patients with advanced illnesses, patients in rehabilitation from brain injury or stroke, and with groups for in-patient psychiatric treatment. She took some time to talk about her work, the changes she notices in her patients and her love of podcasts.

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Q: What exactly is a music therapist?

A: A music therapist is a musician, therapist, facilitator and clinician shaping music experiences based on what is known in research about the ways our brains, bodies, memories and emotions respond to music. Music therapists aim to support the specific needs of their client within a wide variety of populations such as developmental disabilities, hospitalized patients, individuals with mental illness, older adults, premature infants and the terminally ill.

Q: Tell us about the Arts for Healing program at Sharp.

A: The AFH program was conceptualized by a few leaders who came together in their belief in the health benefits derived from alternative practices, including arts-based therapies. In 2007, Sharp HealthCare launched Arts for Healing on the Sharp Metropolitan Medical Campus, which includes Sharp Memorial Hospital, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, Sharp McDonald Center and Sharp Rehabilitation Services. The team is currently comprised of a supervisor, program coordinator, two per diem therapists (music and expressive arts) and many volunteers (non-therapists). The purpose of the program is to support the holistic wellness of patients and families. Arts for Healing is funded entirely by donations from the public and services are provided to patients free of charge.

Q: What are your responsibilities in the program?

A: I am responsible for providing music therapy services tailored to the needs of specific populations, patients and groups. At Sharp Memorial, I primarily support patients with advanced and complex illnesses at their bedsides, helping them to find strength and comfort through creativity. In the mental health setting, I provide group music therapy aimed to inspire clients to gain a deeper knowledge of themselves and develop coping skills helpful to their recovery. In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), I work in alignment with developmental care principles to promote maturation of premature infants and provide family support. In rehabilitation, I accompany individuals in their recovery of speech, cognitive and motor skills using what we know about the influence of music on the nonmusical brain and behavior functions.

What I love about South Park ...

I love living a few blocks from a park where I can walk or jog. I love living near friends and close to beautiful San Diego locations likes Balboa Park, Coronado, Sunset Cliffs and Mission Trails (park).

Q: How do you approach your therapy services for infants and families in the NICU versus patients with brain injury or stroke?

A: In both settings, a music therapist must be sensitive to the unique response of the patient, take into consideration their preferences, condition and needs, and hold space for their expression of difficult emotions. I think the main difference is the importance I place on family involvement in the NICU. Parental engagement helps the infants development, provides stress relief to parents and an opportunity to bond lovingly with their baby. In the case of brain injury or stroke, of course, it is always important to have the support of family and friends, though it is not a primary target of music therapy as in the case of the NICU. Lastly, the music is different between the two settings. In the NICU, we use lullabies, parent-preferred or parent-written songs in a soft, lulling style. In the rehab, patient-preferred music with an emphasis on a steady rhythm to organize speech and movement in time is primary.

Q: What kinds of changes do you notice during the course of a therapy session?

A: Across many settings, I regularly witness a change in mood. Hospitalized patients may start the visit with a flat expression. After playing an instrument, singing, listening or moving to the music patients may smile, laugh, cry or share their stories, awakened by an aesthetic experience of the arts. We might witness a release or easing of strong emotions or the surprise to have discovered personal insights. An infant in the NICU might move from crying to resting to sleeping in a 20 minute session. In rehabilitation, I witness over the course of a session, increased engagement socially and physically by a patients smile, their singing, and moving to the music, which supports their recovery process.

Q: Can you share a story about a therapy experience with a patient that has stayed with you?

A: I had the privilege of working with man in his late 60s who was hospitalized for months with a serious heart illness. He received few visitors due to his family living out of town. His charming character shined bright during our visits, though the staff reported him to be upset and lethargic throughout the week. Early on in our work together, he chose to start a songwriting project. He felt strongly that San Diego did not have the song it deserved and to fix that, we would write one. He worked hard on the lyrics and called down to the office to report his progress prior to our appointment each week, and staff noticed the project to be a positive and uplifting experience for him. We made several recordings of the song as we were writing and almost finished when his illness took a turn and he could not be saved. It was my great honor to attend his memorial and share the story of his songwriting and play the recording of him singing his song, Secret of San Diego for his friends and family. I learned more about him at his memorial and discovered that many of the elements in his lyrics captured his greatest interests and portions of his life story. Not only was the songwriting project a source of comfort during his hospitalization, it was an act of leaving a legacy to be remembered by.

Q: Whats been challenging about your work?

A: From the start, I have I received many more music therapy patient referrals than I am able to fulfill within the hours that we have funded through donations. It is difficult to prioritize patients when you know the needs of each patient and family are significant. I am hopeful that both the music and expressive arts therapy positions will grow in order increase patient and family access to these meaningful therapies.

Q: Whats been rewarding about it?

A: It is an honor to be welcomed into the lives of individuals during challenging and intimate times, may it be the very beginning of a life, a mid-life health obstacle, or at the end of life. Many of the experiences I see and stories I hear in therapy touch my heart and enrich my life. I am grateful to be a witness.

Q: What has it taught you about yourself?

A: Through this work, I have learned about the ever-changing self-narrative, the story we tell others and ourselves about who we are and who weve been. Ive learned that expressing both my personal history and my present through creative writing, storytelling, song, image, and movement, I develop a deeper understanding of who I am and how I want to be in the world.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

A: I learned from my grandmother that all people, despite their faults, are deserving of love and the best and sometimes only thing we can do is to love them.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: I like puppetry, clowning, subscribe to 21 podcasts and currently have nine books checked out of the library, and will likely read 29 to 32 percent of them.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: I love to take morning hikes with friends and then have a much deserved and relaxing lunch together. In the evenings, I enjoy seeing live music or, even better, dancing at an outdoor summer concert by the ocean. What an amazing city we live in!

Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @lisadeaderick
By of the

An innovative, violent gang of drug dealers is exploiting the Milwaukee Police Department's own policy on vehicle pursuits and other rules as they feed an incessant hunger for heroin across southeastern Wisconsin and contribute to a surging number of murders in the city, newly unsealed court documents show.

The dealers are part of Big Money Addicts, or BMA, one of a number of gangs in Milwaukee that operate on a new, highly mobile business model designed to better deliver drugs and build customer loyalty while thwarting police efforts to arrest them, records show.

The gangs are selling heroin and cocaine from cars, shifting dealing away from drug houses and sales on foot or bicycle and creating rolling drug operations.

They heavily tint their car windows, often to a degree that is prohibited under city ordinance. The tint is enough for police to pull over the cars, but if the driver flees, under department policy, officers cannot give chase unless they have evidence an occupant has committed a violent crime or is a threat to the safety of others. And the tint often prevents police from seeing what is going on in the car and gathering the evidence they would need to give chase.

In one case, a BMA dealer who taunted police and fled in March later shot a man in a gas station, according to a criminal complaint.

The dealers build their drug-buying clientele using business cards that advertise bogus businesses, such as a 24-hour towing operation or car repair outfit. They even supply needles for heroin addicts.

With sales reaching beyond the city to suburban buyers, the profits are stunning. The records describe drug dealers making $11,000 a day.

As a dealer's phone number circulates, it becomes more valuable, and dealers push to keep the number active. They transfer it to different phones, arrange for others to keep it going if they are behind bars or sell the number to other dealers. The approach makes it difficult for law enforcement to prove who is using the phone and to pursue charges of drug dealing or contributing to a death when there is an overdose, records show.

Prosecutors say a battle over access to a drug phone in December resulted in the fatal shooting of 13-month-old Bill Thao. He was killed as he played with toys at a relative's home, which was shot up by mistake. The intended target of the shooting, a rival drug dealer, lived in a nearly identical duplex next door, police say. The targeted dealer was linked to a gang known as the Wild 100s, which police say is connected to dozens of other crimes.

The records, including a recently unsealed search warrant and a dozen criminal complaints against suspects, reveal a picture of increasingly brazen, clever criminals changing their techniques in an effort to stay ahead of police, as the city grapples with a surge in deadly violence that has seen homicides already nearly eclipsing last year's total.

The Big Money Addicts and people associated with the gang are suspected in a series of crimes ranging from heroin dealing to homicide, felony possession of a gun to car theft, according to the search warrant affidavit, written by lead investigator and Milwaukee police officer Dean Newport, who works on a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force.

The warrant says there also is evidence of racketeering by the gang, a high-level charge used to combat mobs and other organized crime. Such cases are often charged federally, but this case is in state court.

The burgeoning heroin trade also has helped fuel an increase in violent crimes including homicides, shootings, robberies and gun violations.

"The Milwaukee-based crew of dealers, operate under the motivation of greed and recklessness, empowering themselves to advance illegal drug sales without fear of apprehension," the warrant says.

A Milwaukee police spokesman did not return calls and an email seeking comment on the department's pursuit policy and how criminals might be exploiting it.

John Hagedorn, a criminal justice professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said that as long-standing gang structures have fallen apart, smaller crews like the ones being targeted in Milwaukee have cropped up. They are less predictable and disciplined but also free to change methods without control from a gang hierarchy.

"There is a lot more experimentation and innovation today," Hagadorn said. "People are on their own, and there is a lot of rethinking. If Milwaukee police are not going to pursue, what (the drug dealers) are doing sounds pretty rational."

Getting around the system

The cars used by drug dealers are most often newer models stolen in other states and brought to Milwaukee. The dealers frequently switch out cars so one person is not associated with a single vehicle.

Before the cars hit the street, they are inspected by the drug dealers to make sure they are in good working order, so they can speed away from police, a search warrant says. The dealers top off the fluid levels, check and replace brakes, tires and wipers and put on temporary license plates, which prevents police from checking to see if they are stolen.

The inspections also help identify problems that could lead to a traffic stop by police, such as a malfunctioning brake light.

The dealers put heavy tint on the car windows, which allows them to carry drugs and their guns  outfitted with high-capacity ammunition magazines  in their laps but hidden from view. The menacing-looking guns are used to intimidate drug addicts, who are reluctant to cooperate with police.

"It looks like a tank coming at you," Milwaukee police Capt. Thomas Stigler said of the tinted cars after a bust of two street gangs last month. Police have dubbed the gangs "tint crews."

"You can't see who's driving."

Without knowing who is inside the car, officers are limited in their options if the car flees.

A policy change five years ago requires officers to have probable cause that someone in a car is committing a violent felony or is "a clear and immediate threat to the safety of others" before pursuing them.

The policy does not allow pursuits "solely for traffic infractions" or simply because a driver refuses to stop. The policy change came after four people were killed by drivers fleeing police between Dec. 31, 2009, and March 1, 2010. Three of the deaths occurred over two days.

"The suspects are educated on the rules and policies of the Milwaukee Police Department as it relates to vehicle pursuits," the affidavit says.

One defendant, Darrow Bonner, told police he was involved in three to four "high speeds" every day he was on the street dealing. Bonner, who came from Chicago to sell drugs in Milwaukee, said he knows that police will chase a short distance and then stop if the dealers drive fast enough, according to a criminal complaint charging him with possession of a firearm.

Bonner, who pleaded not guilty, said, "police pull behind them attempting to pull them over, and they speed off from the traffic stop," according to the criminal complaint.

Bonner and another suspect, Terrell D. Hall, tried to get away from police when they were spotted at a motel in Glendale, but they hit a snowbank and were caught. Hall, who was indicted federally, has agreed to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a gun and dealing heroin.

Some dealers taunt police.

In March, police tried to pull over a suspected dealer in a car stolen from Illinois. The dealer threw the Ford Focus into reverse, rammed the squad car and then drove up on the sidewalk and back to the street. He stopped, and the passenger, later identified as Rashawn "Ra-Ra" Smith, leaned out and yelled a series of expletives at the police and sped away. Due to the policy limiting pursuits, the suspects were able to escape, the search warrant said.

Smith, 24, and two other men  Kyawn Lewis, 22, and David Harris, 21  are identified as primary members of the Big Money Addicts in court documents. A dozen other people are listed as being associated with the gang.

Those in the gang have tattoos boasting membership  a syringe being injected into money, or a needle with a rolled up $50 bill inside.

Maneuvers reduce sentences

In another shift in tactics, the dealers don't carry prepackaged drugs, knowing that makes it obvious they are selling and exposes them to more time in prison. Instead, they carry a bag and dole out small drug amounts for users.

The difference is significant, as it could reduce any charge from drug dealing to simple possession, potentially cutting decades off the maximum sentence.

"The common trend of this crew is to pinch or eyeball a quantity of controlled substance from a bag and place it unpackaged and directly into the hand of the receiving drug addict," according to the search warrant.

If the dealer is busted, he will claim the drugs are for personal use.

Dealers stay at hotels, changing rooms every day to make it difficult for police to locate an active dealer.

The quickly shifting drug-dealing strategies were being used by a pair of north side gangs recently busted by a task force of Milwaukee police and FBI agents.

"They've changed their method of operation," Stigler said after the task force roundup. "As opposed to being stagnant or stationary in the house, these guys are always on the move."

When drugs were more exclusively sold from houses, police got search warrants for a targeted property. To the dealers, the cars  a rolling drug house of sorts  are less vulnerable to a bust by authorities. Not only does it make police search warrants more difficult to obtain, it also allows a dealer to have large swaths of the city or suburbs as drug territory  and that raises the possibility of battles among dealers who cross paths.

In the roundup last month, officers and agents searched four locations linked to one suspect. An informant had told them as recently as 72 hours earlier that one of the locations had $80,000. But no money or drugs were found when investigators arrived with a search warrant. That suspect and several others who were targeted in the roundup weren't arrested until a day or two later.

"They live out of hotels, and they're constantly changing hotels," Stigler said. "It's not surprising to me there's not many people at these houses."

Drugs and violence

At least three shootings since last fall have been linked to BMA gang members, who were either suspects or intended victims, records show.

Smith was involved in two, including one that left a popular rapper dead, court records show.

Tavion Milams, 24, who performed as Tay Gutta, was killed Sept. 8 on the north side. A jury last month convicted Robert D. Spencer, 36, of felony murder in his death. Smith testified in the trial.

Spencer, who was with Milams, came up to Smith on the street, taking money and cellphone from his pockets, before pointing a gun to Smith's side and saying "Come with me, you're going to die," according to the criminal complaint.

Smith broke free and ran. Gunshots rang out and a bullet hit Milams in the head. Investigators later learned Smith owed Spencer $5,000 from an earlier drug deal.

In May, two months after he taunted police and fled, Smith and fellow BMA member Lewis were charged with shooting a man at a gas station. Bobbie White, 23, who is also associated with BMA, was charged in a third shooting, a deadly drug house robbery, in January. The three suspects in the two shootings have all pleaded not guilty.

The case against Big Money Addicts is set to unfold publicly Monday when 21-year-old Breion Woodson goes on trial in a Milwaukee County courtroom on drug dealing and gun possession charges.
Docs associations press Universal to admit listed grads

In the wake of refusal by medical colleges to admit meritorious students, 10 associations of doctors on Friday demanded that the Bhairahawa-based Universal Medical Colleges affiliation be scrapped immediately.
Almost six months into the Trump administrations stepped-up enforcement against illegal immigration, the two local immigration jails are holding more people in detention and the number of judges assigned to hear their cases has more than doubled.

Both are the latest signs that the crackdown on unauthorized immigration promised by Trump and being carried out along the border and in the interior of the country are rippling through the nations immigration system.

The average daily population at the Otay Mesa Detention Center and the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Imperial County increased nearly 15 percent over the same time last year. Both jails are run by private companies under a government contract.

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While the detained population has swollen, the Executive Office of Immigration Review in the Justice Department that runs the immigration court system has staffed up the courts inside those two jails.

There are now five judges assigned to the Otay Mesa court. At the start of the year, there were two.

Imperial has two assigned judges. Before, no judges were assigned there. Cases were processed via a video hookup with courtrooms in San Diego and Otay Mesa.

Lawyers who represent unauthorized immigrants held in jails said with the increase in arrests and in judges, there is now an emphasis on resolving those cases quickly.

There is a lot of push by the judges to keep these cases moving, said Tammy Lin, a San Diego immigration lawyer who is the president of the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Lawyers are increasingly concerned that the growing dockets and quick pace threatens the due process rights of some held in detention. Many people in immigration detention dont have lawyers and, because immigration cases are civil violations and not criminal cases, are not entitled to one. They often represent themselves.

For those that can get lawyers while in detention, judges are hewing to tighter case times  not granting continuances for as long as they did previously, Lin said.

When we have quick turnaround times, we cant advocate to our fullest, she said.

Immigration courts have always prioritized cases of people who are held in detention, but that has now taken on a larger meaning in the wake of Trump administration policies outlined in Executive Orders in January.

The orders gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers much broader authority to arrest and detain people who are in the country illegally. Previously enforcement focused on those with criminal records who were here illegally, but now ICE is empowered to arrest a wider array of people, including those who otherwise have been law abiding.

That increased authority has led to more arrests, locally and nationwide.

From Oct. 1 through July 1 the two jails held on average 1,896 people each day, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. At the same time last year the average population was 1,640.

A spokeswoman for ICE attributed the increase to both an overall uptick in immigration arrests made by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers and an increase in the number of individuals transferred to ICE custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border.

While immigration lawyers chafe at the quickened pace in court, Peter Nunez, a former U.S. Attorney in San Diego and chairman of the board of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tougher restrictions on legal and unauthorized immigration, said it makes sense in an era of increased arrests of unauthorized immigrants.

The faster you can move the detained cases, the more detained cases you can handle, Nunez said.

Though the Trump administration wants to add more detention facilities, space is limited now. Processing cases quicker opens up space, Nunez said, because you can actually detain more people for a shorter period of time.

At the same time, the emphasis on processing cases of people detained in immigration jails along the border is having a knock-on effect on courts elsewhere, where dockets are growing longer because judges from those courts are being transferred to work the border courts.

And that may worsen a growing problem with the nations immigration courts. The courts already have a backlog of nearly 600,000 cases, according to a Government Accountability Office report in June. Thats more than twice as much as the backlog the courts faced a decade ago.

Judges are feeling the strain, said Dana Leigh Marks, a San Francisco immigration judge who is also the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

By putting more into the system, and not having a reasonable number of judges on staff to handle the number of cases that come in just creates problems, said Marks.

A judges job is to make sure people are given due process, and have their day in court, and fair day in court, she said. There is only so fast you can push.

There are about 325 immigration judges nationally and while the administration wants to increase that to more than 400, no funds have yet been allocated and the arduous hiring process could take time.

Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com
After decades of monopolizing the taxi business by the San Ysidro border, Tijuanas yellow cabs have been conspicuously absent in recent days, despite a judges order that they be allowed to return.

Officials with Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelums administration vowed this week that they will continue to ban Taxis Amarillos  and are prepared to face the consequences for doing so.

The citys action against the yellow taxis earlier this month followed a violent incident at the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere that put pressure on Tijuana authorities to show a swift and vigorous response.

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Whats at stake is security and public order, Raul Felipe Luevano, Tijuanas secretary-general, said in an interview at Tijuana City Hall. They went too far.

City officials received widespread public approval following their move to ban Taxis Amarillos from nine of the groups 40 stands  all of them by the border. The taxis for years have been accused of using violence against competitors, including Uber drivers and the cross-border shuttle bus company, Ticketon.

The action followed a well-documented assault on a group of pedestrians who turned down the yellow taxi services late on June 30th after crossing from San Ysidro  saying they preferred the Uber ride-share service. Three of the pedestrians were hospitalized, among them a Chula Vista resident whose injuries included a dislocated shoulder and a broken nose.

The Baja California Attorney Generals Office, which is investigating the attack, by Friday afternoon had yet to announce any arrests in the case.

Nearly two weeks after the attack, yellow taxis that once crowded near the pedestrian entrance were gone altogether this week. Instead, Tijuana police vehicles stood guard on Thursday afternoon, and officers with a municipal transit unit watched over an orderly and steadily moving line of cabs  most of them Taxis Libres painted orange and white. Leaders of different drivers groups stood by, ensuring their units were in good condition, and that drivers were properly dressed.

In a written statement following the incident, the Taxis Amarillos denied responsibility. The group went to court, saying it had permission from the city to operate the stands. The taxis won a temporary victory on Tuesday, when a state administrative judge, Flora Arguiles Robert, ordered a provisional suspension of the citys action, and said that the city must immediately allow the Taxis Amarillos to return to their stands. She gave city officials 15 days to respond to her ruling.

Luevano, who is the citys second-highest-ranking official, said the yellow taxis had a provisional permit that the city has a right to take away without any pretext. The judges ruling smells of corruption, he said at a City Hall news conference, and repeated the assertion in an interview Thursday.

I cant say that for sure, because I wasnt there, Luevano said. It was such a notorious act, you just cant explain why she made that decision.

Meanwhile, the president of the state administrative tribunal, Carlos Rodolfo Montero Vazquez, publicly challenged the city to present proof of corruption, and warned that officials who disobey the courts order face fines and even removal from their posts. The judge has yet to make a final ruling, he said; and even if she upholds the provisional decision, the city has a right to appeal.

Claiming more than 560 vehicles and 1,000 drivers, the yellow taxis have traditionally operated at the U.S. border and other areas of the city frequented by visitors, including the airport, the central bus station and hotels in Rio Zone. The group is connected to the CROC, a Mexican trade union federation that wielded much political power when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) controlled political positions across Mexico.

They are part of an old corporatist system, said Victor Alejandro Espinoza, who heads the public administration studies department at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Under those rules, only union members could get taxi permits, and when elections came, they backed the PRI.

Even as the PRI has lost power, groups such as the CROC have held onto a measure of control, delivering votes and expecting concessions from those in power. In the citys last mayoral election, they backed Gastelum, who is a member of Mexicos National Action Party, PAN.

These groups are powerful, with many resources, and the ability to hire attorneys Espinoza said. They have been difficult to dismantle.

With much public support, the citys removal of the yellow taxis helps with the perception of the government, Espinoza said. It is a good decision, but it is not a good legal decision, and could end up costing dearly.

Back at City Hall, Luevano said he stands by his warning to the Taxis Amarillos: Just because you supported us, doesnt give you the right to break the law.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
Along a winding stretch of the 5 Freeway near the Grapevine, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy James Peterson has built a reputation for sniffing out drugs.

In recent months, Peterson made at least six large busts, uncovering stashes of narcotics in cars he stopped for speeding and other minor violations. In one vehicle, he found a storage compartment stuffed with 28 pounds of methamphetamine and three pounds of heroin. Some of the men he arrested were armed.

They appeared to be the kind of needle-in-a-haystack discoveries that sheriffs officials wanted from Peterson and the handful of other deputies assigned to a small unit launched in 2012 with a tough mission: Interrupt the flow of drugs north from Mexico by picking off traffickers as they try to make it out of Los Angeles on the busy freeway.

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But in court, some of Petersons cases have crumbled.

Men he arrested have accused the 20-year veteran deputy of violating their constitutional rights by fabricating reasons for the traffic stops and the searches that turned up the drugs.

No judge has yet ruled on the claims, but in one recent case, evidence found by Peterson  guns and drugs  was thrown out when a judge decided that a video showed no legal grounds for his traffic stop. And in another, prosecutors from the U.S. attorneys office simply gave up, asking the judge to set free two men Peterson caught allegedly armed and carrying nearly two pounds of meth. Defense attorneys said they plan to challenge Petersons arrests in the other federal cases.

The government has made the decision ... that these guilty drug traffickers should no longer be prosecuted.  U.S. District Judge John F. Walter

Law enforcement records obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that concerns about Petersons credibility were first raised several years ago in the U.S. attorneys office. In 2014, the federal prosecutor dismissed a case after concluding that Petersons account of how he found the drugs was unreliable, according to an L.A. County district attorneys memo. Months later, the government dismissed another of Petersons drug cases.

The district attorneys office ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that Peterson had willfully lied, but legal experts questioned why federal prosecutors would continue using him on large-scale drug cases.

I would certainly have concerns about going back to an individual if there were questions about his credibility, said attorney Richard Drooyan, a former top official in the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles and a federal court monitor of the Sheriffs Department. It is a significant matter whenever the office decides it has to dismiss a case because of doubts over an officer.

The U.S. attorneys office declined to comment. In court, however, a top official in the office said federal prosecutors have never concluded that Peterson lacks credibility, despite the dismissals.

Sheriffs Capt. Holly Francisco, who oversees the departments Narcotics Bureau, said federal prosecutors had not informed her of the challenges to Petersons credibility in federal court or the dismissed cases.

In response to questions from The Times about Peterson, a Sheriffs Department spokeswoman said in a statement, We are not jumping to any conclusions and would caution any responsible party from doing the same.

Attorney Richard A. Shinee, general counsel for the union that represents rank-and-file deputies, declined to discuss the federal cases but defended Petersons work.

Deputy Peterson has been an extraordinarily effective investigator, Shinee said. I know nothing concerning these allegations that should taint his credibility.

Peterson, who did not respond to requests for comment, has been assigned to the Domestic Highway Enforcement Team since its inception in 2012. The team trolls for serious criminals along a stretch of the 5 Freeway between Santa Clarita and the county line in Gorman.

Officially, the deputies are on the lookout for a range of criminal activity, including human and weapons trafficking. But in reality, most of the teams cases involve drug crimes, court records show. To establish his credentials in court filings, Peterson wrote that during his time on the highway team he has actively arrested, assisted in the arrest, or investigated over 300 persons for drug trafficking related offenses.

Petersons problems began in July 2014, when he pulled over an old Honda Accord north of Santa Clarita allegedly for drifting between lanes and having illegally tinted windows.

I would certainly have concerns about going back to an individual if there were questions about his credibility.  Richard Drooyan, former chief assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles

In his arrest report, Peterson wrote that he became suspicious after observing that the drivers hands were shaking and that he was sweating despite the air conditioning in the car. In a hidden compartment inside a stereo speaker, Peterson found three pounds of methamphetamine.

The prosecutor in the case abruptly asked the judge to dismiss the charges against the driver, Rafael Arellano, after Peterson changed his account of how he obtained consent to search Arellanos car.

In his arrest report, Peterson made no mention of speaking Spanish with Arellano. But after Arellanos attorney questioned how his Spanish-speaking client could have consented to the search, Peterson submitted a sworn statement saying he had asked for permission in Spanish and had called a Spanish-speaking deputy to the scene.

Later, he acknowledged to the prosecutor in the case that he had used Googles online translation program to ask for consent, according to the district attorneys memo. The Spanish verb buscar that Peterson said he ended up using when he asked Arellano for permission has multiple meanings, the memo said.

The U.S. attorneys office expressed their concerns over Petersons credibility to sheriffs officials, who in turn conducted a perjury investigation, according to the memo.

The deputy district attorney who wrote the memo concluded that the investigation found no evidence that Peterson had willfully falsified his arrest report. He reasoned in the memo that the deputys failure to mention his use of Spanish in the report was not necessarily inconsistent with his later accounts.

Arellano, who was in the country illegally, was deported.

Several months after that case was dismissed, another assistant U.S. attorney moved to have a second case involving Peterson dismissed only days after it was filed. In that case, the deputy had found nine pounds of methamphetamine. No reason was given for the dismissal.

Peterson was back in federal court late last year when prosecutors filed charges against two men he caught allegedly carrying 10 pounds of methamphetamine and a handgun. Over the next five months, the government filed at least five more cases based on arrests by Peterson.

U.S. courts have long wrestled with how much leeway the Constitutions 4th Amendment, which prohibits police from making unreasonable searches and seizures, gives officers working in highway drug interdiction programs like the sheriffs team. An officer must have a legitimate reason, such as witnessing a traffic violation, to stop someone. And if he then wants to search the car, the officer must either be given clear consent to do so or have a reasonable basis for suspecting something illegal is hidden inside.

According to each of his arrest reports, Peterson was squarely within the bounds that courts have set for the 4th Amendment. He said he pulled over five of the drivers for drifting between lanes and other violations such as speeding. The sixth, he said, was driving too fast and close to other cars.

And in each of the cases, Peterson wrote that the drivers either consented to a search or were acting nervously, saying that their hands were shaking and that they were sweating despite being in a climate controlled car.

Defense attorneys have accused the deputy, among other things, of concocting the traffic violations and the drivers suspicious behavior in order to justify the searches.

Peterson manifests yet another dubious tactic to his already questionable law enforcement practices, one lawyer wrote in a court filing.

Deputy Peterson is a liar who has lied to his supervisors, lied at work, lied to [federal prosecutors], and caused cases to be dismissed due to such lies, other attorneys representing the two men allegedly caught with 10 pounds of meth wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors attempted to salvage that case against Cesar Castillo Flores and Manuel Moreno by sidelining Peterson. They opted against calling the deputy to testify at a hearing late last month and avoided mentioning claims he made in his arrest report that the men had been traveling 78 miles per hour and drifting between lanes.

Instead, prosecutors played video footage from Petersons patrol car in court, arguing that it showed the stop was legally justified because the men had been speeding when he pulled them over.

The judge disagreed.

The video, which captures the minute leading up to the stop, shows Peterson traveling behind the men at various speeds. At one point, he reaches 73 mph, but his patrol car was closing in on the mens car. Their vehicle never crossed into another lane.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.  4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Because the government had failed to show the stop was legal, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder threw out the drugs and gun as evidence. Days later, she ordered Flores and Moreno freed from custody. The government has yet to decide whether to dismiss the case or appeal the judges ruling on the evidence.

In another case, a defense attorney argued that video and photographs contradicted Petersons account that he stopped a Honda Accord because it had illegally tinted windows and swerved into another lane without signaling. After the car stopped and the driver got out, a passenger slipped into the drivers seat and sped off before crashing two miles up the highway. Deputies later found nearly 40 pounds of meth inside the vehicle.

Federal prosecutors defended the stop, saying video showed the Accord swerving. U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer declined to suppress the drugs as evidence, ruling this week that whether or not Petersons stop was illegal didnt matter. Deputies were entitled to search the car after it fled and crashed, the judge ruled.

Last month, the government asked to dismiss drug and gun charges against two brothers Peterson pulled over. Peterson, another deputy and a sheriffs canine handler gave conflicting accounts of how the brothers car was searched, according to court records.

Saying the brothers are clearly guilty of the charges, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said he disagreed with the governments decision but was obligated to dismiss the case.

The government has made the decision ... that these guilty drug traffickers should no longer be prosecuted, Walter said.

Walter has another pending case on his docket based on an arrest by Peterson. Assistant U.S. Atty. Lawrence Middleton, the head of the Los Angeles offices criminal division, assured the judge that the government expects to proceed with that prosecution.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

maya.lau@latimes.com

For more law enforcement news in Southern California, follow @joelrubin and @mayalau on Twitter.

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Warm enough for you?

In the summer of 1958, Some Like It Hot was filmed at the Hotel del Coronado. The ribald celebration of cross-dressing and campy gender-bending, starring Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis, left many strait-laced moralists hot and bothered.

Today, were pretty cool with LGBTQ (Im probably forgetting a new letter) coming-out parties.

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In line with the predicted Saturday weather, the wild and crazy Pride Parade in Hillcrest proves that 59 years later some of us  in fact, most of us  still like it hot.

A raspberry  the Slow Motion award  to the Sheriffs Department for taking its sweet time in buying and employing body-worn cameras.

For two years, the department has been studying the merchandise and mulling what all is involved.

The latest estimate is that the technology may be in use by the end of the year.

Not soon enough for Vista, however.

On July 5, Sheriffs Deputy Christopher Villanueva shot and killed Jonathon Coronel after a foot chase. Authorities have said Coronel was crouched and raising a covered hand toward the deputy. Fearing for his life, Villanueva fired 16 rounds. Coronel was unarmed. (Almost a year ago, Villaneuva shot and killed another gang member under similar circumstances.)

One eyewitness contradicted the official account, claiming Coronel was on the ground, face down, trying to give up.

Without pre-judging contradictory reports, this much is clear:

Yet another deputy shooting raises questions that could be readily answered with well-directed video. The tempers in neighborhoods could be cooled.

San Diego, Carlsbad and Escondido, as well as other regional cities, have gotten off the dime to purchase and deploy cameras.

What makes the Sheriffs Department so detached from the anxiety these sorts of shootings engender?

If Vista had its own police force, as many have advocated over the years, chances are its officers would be equipped for their own protection as well as victims and their families.

Sure, you dont go down to Costco to buy body cameras in bulk.

But at this point, its not like shopping for rocket parts, either.

The sheriffs slow-walk into the 21st century is getting old.

A rose  the Good Egg award  to Luke Riley, the flea-market art lover who bought a 13-inch-tall bronze statuette of Humpty Dumpty at Kobeys Swap Meet and later realized it had been filched from the Del Mar county fair.

Riley tracked down artist Paul Lotz and returned the quirky creation, receiving a huge smile and a reward from Lotz, a Seaport Village-based artist who appears poised to profit from the disappearance of his whimsical creation.

Hes planning to make more versions of Humpty Dumpty and selling them for $2,000 each, a hundred times what Riley paid for the purloined egg man.

Maybe this is one of those occasions when crime does pay.

For the victim.

A politically pureed raspberry  the Toll Road to Votes award -- to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, for his early and sweeping opposition to a southern extension of the state Route 241 toll road, a hot-button issue in the San Clemente area.

Remember, south Orange County was Issa country in his narrow 2016 re-election. (San Diego turned against him.) Issa cant afford to leave any populist button unpushed in south OC if he wants to ensure his re-election in 2018.

At a recent OC town hall meeting, Issa could see which way the wind was blowing as the crowd expressed its dislike for an extension despite the fact that multiple routes, generated in public, are being considered..

In a letter to the Transportation Corridor Agencies, Issa expressed my strong opposition to all the tentative TCA routes under review. Issas rationale is that all of the alignments divide communities, a problem that trumps traffic alleviation.

At the town hall, he recalled his support for a toll road that would have terminated near San Onofre State Park and encroached upon the San Mateo watershed. For some 15 years, Save Trestles was the environmental rallying cry, referring to the famous surf break. Finally, in 2016, a settlement was reached in which the TCA capitulated, settling a handful of lawsuits and promising to seek other routes far from sensitive park land.

Obviously stung by Issas letter, a transportation official representing the TCA wrote to the congressmen to say that its premature to take a position on one route or another.

It is unfortunate, wrote Ed Sachs, that some have chosen to spread misinformation about the publics ideas before they have been given a chance for consideration through  technical evaluation. Since these studies are only in the initiation phase, it would be premature at this time to render a conclusive judgment on any of the ideas proposed by the public.

Why would Issa jump the gun at this point?

In a word, politics. He knows the NIMBY vote is always potent.

Now that hes in a dogfight with Democratic challengers, Issa has to make sure that San Clemente remains in his column.

From a political point of view, I like his peremptory anti-toll-road move. Makes sense. Ices opponents whod take the populist anti-road line and bleed votes from him.

But its hard to square with his full-throated support for a toll-road extension that, in its own way, deeply divided the community.

To be sure, Issa, an agile speaker, can make a case that its a case of apples and oranges, but at this produce stand, its still worth a politically pureed raspberry.

logan.jenkins@sduniontribune.com
Since the new courthouse in downtown San Diego isnt opening to the public on Monday as previously scheduled, court authorities have devised a plan to divert people until further notice.

But hundreds of defendants in criminal cases have been ordered to appear at the new courthouse. And several hundred more have been cited by law enforcement and released upon a promise to show up to court at 1100 Union St.

This makes the situation more complicated than simply guiding foot traffic from one building to another.

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Presiding Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barton, in a memo to his fellow judges this week, explained that brief jurisdictional hearings for criminal defendants would be held in the new building for the sole purpose of ordering them back to the old courthouse the next block over.

We will then be preparing a brief minute order indicating the individual appeared, was ordered back to the relevant department in 220 West Broadway and all bonds and orders remain in effect, Barton wrote.

Signs will be posted at the new downtown courthouse at 1100 Union St. telling people who show up there Monday that the opening has been delayed. (Dana Littlefield/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Defendants who report directly to the old building will not have to go through such hearings, authorities said. People in custody arent affected.

Court authorities acknowledge the potential for confusion: People showing up at one place only to be told to go somewhere else. But they say they are dealing with the problem, and communicating with the San Diego City Attorneys Office, District Attorney, Public Defender and local bar associations.

Although weve done our best to get the word out, we have to assume there may be many of those people who didnt get the word, said Michael Roddy, executive officer for the San Diego Superior Court.

Were prepared for, I hope, the worst-case scenario on Monday morning, he said, noting that court staff will be at the new courthouse starting at 6:30 a.m.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony in early June, Superior Court officials said some departments within the $555.5 million building were on-track to open next week. Later, they announced the opening would be delayed because workers had to re-test components of the 22-story buildings smoke exhaust system, a process that requires 300 hours of additional work.

Roddy said courtroom judges had already scheduled proceedings for 150 felony cases and 450 misdemeanor cases in the new building before the opening was postponed. He said court staffers have been working with attorneys in those cases, so they can notify their clients of the location change.

Weve tried to educate the judges to be understanding that there may be some delays, Roddy said. Weve got staff communication between the buildings so that we can say, OK, weve got the following people whove checked in and theyll be over (soon).

The Public Defenders Office and other agencies have agreed to provide staff at the new building over the next few weeks to assist with the jurisdictional hearings and direct defendants to the correct courtrooms.

Im willing to do it because I want to minimize the confusion, at least with our potential or new clients, said Public Defender Randy Mize. I dont expect it to be too dramatic.

Gerry Braun, spokesman for the San Diego City Attorneys Office, said the delayed opening of the new court building has raised some complications, but court authorities have done good job of troubleshooting.

Its still unclear when the new building is expected to open its doors to the public.

Court authorities are reluctant to identify a new date when the courthouse will be open for business, but they say theyre hoping for sometime in the fall.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
The criminal case against a San Diego man accused of killing homeless men and one woman last summer will pause once again because of questions about his ability to stand trial.

The proceedings for Jon David Guerrero, 40, were suspended Friday morning in San Diego Superior Court after a county psychiatrist determined Guererro is mentally incompetent.

Legally speaking, that means he is unable to understand the court proceedings and assist his lawyers in his own defense.

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Guerrero, who goes by his middle name, is charged in a series of attacks last summer on a dozen victims, including several homeless men and one elderly woman.

Four of the victims were killed, which makes this a potential death penalty case. Some had railroad spikes driven into their heads or chests.

This is the second time since Guerreros arrest July 15, 2016 that the case has been halted so he could be sent to a state mental hospital to undergo treatment.

On Friday, Deputy Public Defenders Dan Tandon and Whitney Antrim gave a statement outside the courtroom, addressing the progress of the case.

David Guerrero undoubtedly suffers from severe mental illness, Tandon said, reading from prepared text. It is clear he has suffered for many, many years.

Understanding his illness is the key to understanding what happened and why. That kind of knowledge takes time and compassion on all sides, he said.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled to begin this week, but was delayed when Judge Michael Smyth ordered Guerrero to be evaluated by the psychiatrist.

Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey has said the preliminary hearing will take about a week, and that she plans to present more than 50 witnesses.

At the prosecutors request, the judge scheduled a status conference for July 24, when the attorneys will review the complete report of Guerreros psychological evaluation.

At that time, Harvey could request a trial that would focus on solely on the issue of Guerreros competency.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
A man who stabbed a county mental health worker last year, nearly killing the woman during an unprovoked attack in the Morena area, was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Gregg Allen Taylor, 57, was convicted in trial of attempted premeditated murder, with allegations that he used a knife in the attack and caused great bodily injury to Cynthia Doucette, who was 59 at the time of the incident.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Robert ONeill sentenced Taylor to the maximum term allowed by law: life in prison, plus four years.

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Doucette was a mental health clinician who worked at a county-run facility on Morena Boulevard near Savannah Street.

Police said Doucette was getting out of her car about 5 a.m. Nov. 14 to go to work when Taylor stabbed her multiple times without warning and for no apparent reason.

The defendant did not know the victim.

Police arrested him about three blocks from where the stabbing occurred.

Doucette, who came to court Friday with family members, friends and other supporters, asked the defendant why he stabbed her 11 times times that day  after telling her good morning  injuring many of her internal organs and fracturing one of her wrists.

She said she was unable to return to the job she had loved and held for 26 years, and that she still has trouble sleeping after the attack.

You have stolen my life from me, and I am prepared today to get it back, Doucette said.

Taylor appeared to open his mouth to respond to the question, but kept quiet on the advice of his attorney.

Doucettes coworkers said they, too, remain fearful after the stabbing outside North Central Region Outpatient Clinic on Morena Boulevard. They said the facility has improved security there as a result.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
Attorneys for the San Diego Unified School District are scheduled to ask a federal judge Friday afternoon to direct the College Board to reinstate Advance Placement tests taken by more than 500 Scripps Ranch High School students and later invalidated.

Students took the AP tests in May, but learned in late June that the College Board had invalidated them because of improper seating arrangements.

After hundreds of students and parents complained, district trustees last week voted to sue the College Board and seek a temporary restraining order asking it to release the test scores.

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The TRO request is scheduled to be heard 4 p.m. Friday before Judge Michael Anello.

If the restraining order is granted, the College Board will be directed to release the test scores that have been withheld from 543 students.

High scores on the tests can mean students do not have to take certain subjects in college, which can save them thousands of dollars in tuition and lead to earlier graduations.

The district also has filed a complaint against the College Board claiming breech of contract for invalidating the tests and not releasing the scores.

No hearing date has been scheduled for the complaint, but the request for a TRO is more pressing because hundreds of students are scheduled to begin retaking the tests on Monday.

In both the complaint and request for a temporary restraining order, the district is arguing that the College Boards action was too severe and unfair to the students.

None of the students whose tests were invalidated was accused of cheating, but the College Board took the action because they were seated at six-foot long tables that had partitions. Rules require the tables to be eight feet long without partitions.

The College Board discovered the inappropriate seating after it received a report from the district that a student was caught trying to cheat and was removed from the test room before completing the exam.

Its unclear how many of the 543 students have signed up retake the test. District officials said 269 signed up to take the first round of tests scheduled to begin Monday and 354 have signed up for the second round beginning Aug. 7. Some of those numbers may overlap, however, because many students took more than one test and may be re-taking them on different days. In all, 847 tests were invalidated.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
A federal judge has ruled that the College Board had the right to invalidate Advanced Placement tests taken by 543 Scripps Ranch High School students.

Judge Michael Anello said on Friday he was sympathetic to the inconvenience and frustrations of the students whose tests were invalidated because of seating irregularities, but he disagreed that re-taking the test would cause irreparable harm to them, as the school districts attorneys had argued.

Students generally study for months before taking AP tests, and high scores can mean college credit for certain courses, potentially saving thousands of dollars in tuition and even allowing students to graduate early.

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Scripps Ranch High students took the tests in May, and the College Board notified the district in late June that it was invalidating many of the tests because of how students were seated.

Specifically, students were too close together and separated by partitions, which are not allowed.

Attorney William Low, who represented the district, argued that the College Boards own guidelines say test may, not must, be invalidated because of seating irregularities.

The rules were couched in a way to give the College Board the discretion to not issue such a severe punishment for the violation, he said.

Attorney Chris Casamassima, representing the College Board, argued that 5 million students take the tests each year and consistency in testing conditions is crucial to maintain the integrity of the tests.

Anellos ruling was on the districts requests for a temporary restraining order, which would have compelled the College Board to release the invalidated test scores.

An injunction also sought by the district against the College Board still is pending, but its relevance may be moot with Fridays decisions. Students are scheduled to begin taking the first round of make-up AP tests on Monday.

Andra Donovan, general counsel for the school district, said a decision about whether to pursue the injunction has not yet been made.

Ryan Tannenberg, who graduated from Scripps Ranch High this year, was disappointed with the judges decision.

I think its ridiculous, he said. Anyone with a sense of moral judgment would have ruled in our favor.

Tannenberg said he took AP tests in psychology and calculus, but plans to only take the psychology tests again.

Shortly after the ruling, the College Board issued a statement that said an investigation into the schools seating chart was prompted by a report of cheating during the exam. No students whose tests were invalidated were accused of cheating, however.

This ruling affirms the difficult, yet necessary, decision that we made in order to ensure that no student has an unfair advantage, the statement read. To uphold our commitment to safeguarding the integrity of AP scores, as colleges rightly expect, the College Board had no alternative but to cancel the affected tests.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
KMC stumped by unrealistic budget proposed by its wards

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) could not unveil its fiscal budget as planned on Friday because the 32 wards had reportedly presented proposal budget that was well beyond reason.
Plans to revive San Diego as a popular filming destination for projects like the upcoming Top Gun sequel have moved forward slower than many expected, but city officials say theyve still made significant progress.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer hired a filming program manager in late 2015, the city then streamlined its permitting for productions, and officials have nearly finished online directories of San Diego County filming locations and production crews.

But the city hasnt achieved a key goal of establishing a local film office to coordinate with producers, San Diego doesnt offer local subsidies crucial to landing major projects, and Fox Baja Studios is the regions only production space.

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The mayor has definitely moved it in the right direction, said Tonya Mantooth, a local producer and executive director of the San Diego Film Festival. I hope were ready to go to the next level, which would be marketing to studios and to the producers in Los Angeles.

With great weather and a location two hours south of filmings worldwide hub, San Diego seems like an obvious candidate to become home to far more productions.

And the city had a prior heyday as a filming destination, including being the site for movies like Citizen Kane and Some Like it Hot and TV series such as Simon & Simon, Renegade, Silk Stalkings and Terriers.

But since the San Diego Film Commission fell victim to the budget ax in 2013, efforts to film here have become less easy to coordinate.

Producers all say the same thing: they love San Diego, they want to shoot here, but they would like to see more incentives and a more formal film office, said Mantooth. Its a big economic decision for producers to bring films here. Knowing we are friendly from an incentive standpoint would really make a difference.

The labor union that represents local film workers was harsher.

By not having a local film office, we are basically saying to the rest of the industry that were not open for business, said Richard Disbrow, business agent for the local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Disbrow said some local crews got work last week on filming of the TNT series The Last Ship, but that the way they got it shows how badly San Diego needs a film office.

The only reason I was able to get anyone on was because they couldnt find enough hotel rooms for their crews from L.A. because of Comic-Con, he said. They told me because we have no film office they assumed there were no talented folks down here.

Disbrow also said San Diego and other cities in the region are being shortsighted by not funding local subsidies, which have a remarkably high return on investment because filmmaking has such a large economic impact on a region.

In addition to potentially hiring local crews and actors, large productions require more support services from local businesses like catering, set building and hairstyling.

Faulconer said two years ago that a film office and local subsidies were part of his plans. But the program manager he hired said last week that tight budget times and reluctance from other cities has stymied those efforts.

Its about money and resources and that hasnt happened, said the program manager, Brandy Shimabukuro. In the absence of a film office, weve kind of stepped into that regional role. We work with all of the different cities in the region and let producers know what to expect, which reduces the time they spend going back and forth.

Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission, praised Shimabukuro for her efforts and Faulconer for his plan to boost local filming.

But she said a regional office would make a difference.

The lack of a regional film office is a bit of a detriment because the city is just one part of the larger county and all of the different types of locations that are available, Lemisch said. Its nice to have a broader reach.

Despite falling short there, Shimabukuro said the city is making strides in other areas.

Weve been primarily focused on the marketing side of things, she said, predicting the online directories of local talent will be ready by the end of summer.

City officials have also started attending film conferences where producers from around the world come to here regions pitch their positive attributes.

Were benchmarking how we can position San Diego on that global scale, Shimabukuro said.

Those positive attributes are often subsidies, which increased in California sharply two years ago from $100 million to $330 million annually through 2020.

That money covers 20 percent tax credits on all productions in the Los Angeles area and 25 percent for productions outside L.A., a bonus that helps San Diego but its in competition with cities like San Francisco.

Disbrow said San Diego should model its approach on San Francisco, which gives local subsidies and provides extra police and firefighters at no cost.

Producers see that as money in their pocket if they dont have to spend it, said Disbrow, contending that San Diegos economic benefits would far outweigh the cost of the subsidies. Its insane the kind of money they spend.

Partially because of the higher state subsidies and renewed efforts by the city, San Diego has been home to many different productions the last few years.

They include TV series Pitch, Ingobernable, The Last Ship, Total Bellas, and Total Divas.

In addition, individual episodes were filmed of the series My Super Sweet 16, Mysteries at the Museum, Pawn Stars, WAGS, CONAN and Shark Tank.

Recent feature films have included The Samuel Project, Marbles, Boomer Hogs and Dance. Documentaries have been Una Labor Sin Nombre, Homeless Choir  The Power of Music, Meb, Finding Vega, Three Identical Strangers and Russians in America.

There have also been commercial filmed for Volkswagen, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Honda, Acura, Chrysler, Lululemon, Audi, Ford, Kia and Alfa Romeo.

Shimabukuro said San Diego officials plan to do everything they can to land the sequel to Top Gun, a 1986 movie filmed mostly on location in San Diego.

Paramount Pictures hasnt considered any locations yet, she said.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
The largest labor union for county workers says that not enough has been done to protect employees after threats of gun violence were made in county buildings.

In a July 5 filing to the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Service Employees International Union, Local 221, said county government failed to follow protocols on four occasions after a member of the public threatened gun violence at a county office in Escondido.

The county said it has always taken steps to make sure its workers are safe, and undertook additional precautions after the 2015 shooting where San Bernardino County employees were killed.

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The incidents occurred in May and June at the San Diego County North Inland Center in Escondido. SEIU said in one case, a man who was seeking social safety net services became irate, yelled and made finger guns and said he would return to the center. Security was called, and the person was identified. The union said the incident was not properly investigated, and that all employees were not notified of the incident.

A week later the same man returned with his child but police were not called, SEIU said. The union did not say if the man was disruptive during his second visit.

In three other incidents  one in May and two in June  clients threatened to shoot people, the union said. The suspects did not have firearms at the countys center, but they did threaten gun violence.

County employees were not warned about the threats, Linda Correa, an SEIU member who works at the center, said.

They failed to let staff know about these incidents, just to let staff know to be vigilant in their surroundings at the workplace, she said.

The union said only one incident was reported to the police, a claim the county disputes.

Correa said employees had meetings with management to make sure that security was taken seriously, and that protocols were followed, but changes werent made to improve workers safety.

The response by the county  there was no response by them, she said. There was no action taken, there was no concern for the staff or the public that we serve.

State workplace safety regulations do not say if employers must tell all of their workers about threats, but California does require them to develop an injury prevention program.

The county responded appropriately to the incidents at the workplace, according to spokesman Michael Workman. Security called the Escondido Police Department, and managers met with employees to discuss the incident, offer support and bring a counselor to the center, he said.

Another security guard was temporarily stationed at the center, and human resources staff members completed a follow-up review, he added.

As this issue has played out, the union and the county have been locked in unfruitful contract negotiations.

There have been a series of additional steps outside the response to the incidents in Escondido, Workman said. Workers from the center attended one of six training sessions about active shooters, and about 100 workers from there participated in a session on workplace violence prevention. There are also guards stationed at the center, Workman said.

The San Bernardino shooting also prompted the county to re-evaluate security at workplaces, including ones that are visited by the public.

The purpose of this review was to enhance security at county facilities with the ultimate goal of protecting county workers, county property, and the public who utilize county facilities, the countys administrative manual says. The security initiative that emerged involves prevention, deterrence and mitigation.

The review included a confidential vulnerability assessment of every county owned or used facility and, from that assessment, a confidential plan to increase security. The plan might include courses of action, funding, and timelines, according to the administrative manual.

Cal OSHA usually investigates workplace accidents, but it can also look into complaints about safety and employers can be cited for violations, a spokesman for the organization said.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
Three people were hurt in a chain-reaction crash on Ted Williams Parkway in Carmel Mountain Friday night, San Diego police said.

It began when a woman in a Chevrolet sedan who had just exited north Interstate 15 turned right against a red light at Ted Williams Parkway, police said.

The driver struck a Ford Focus traveling east in the No. 2 lane about 7 p.m. The impact caused the Ford to spin into westbound lanes, where it was T-boned by a Dodge Durango, police said.

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The collisions left three people  two drivers and a passenger  with minor to major injuries. None of the injuries were life-threatening, police said. It was unclear which vehicles the wounded people were in.

Police said neither drugs nor alcohol was a factor.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
For a third time, Gov. Jerry Brown has denied parole to a former gang member who fatally shot a San Diego police officer more than three decades ago.

The decision comes five months after a state parole board once again recommended release from prison for Jesus Cecena, who was convicted of murdering Officer Archie Buggs during a 1978 traffic stop in San Diegos Skyline neighborhood. Cecena was 17 at the time.

Twice before, in 2014 and 2016, Brown has overturned the boards decision.

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As he did in previous years, Brown said Friday in his written decision that Cecena hasnt accepted the callousness of his actions or given a plausible explanation for the killing.

During the parole board hearing in April, Cecena said he killed the 30-year-old officer in a state of panic, fearing his father would find out about the traffic stop. But Cecena also told the board that in previous run-ins with law enforcement, he had simply been taken home, Brown said.

I do not believe that these experiences with law enforcement created so much fear in Mr. Cecena that he believed his only option was to murder Officer Buggs, the governor wrote. It is clear to me that Mr. Cecena has not adequately assessed his motivations for perpetrating this horrific crime.

Brown also said that Cecenas claim that he acted in a kind of panic goes against evidence that shows the shooting was calculated and carried out at point-blank.

Mr. Cecenas continued characterization of his actions as impulsive indicates to me that his is still minimizing the callousness of the crime and his intent to execute Officer Buggs, Brown wrote.

In deciding whether to grant Cecena parole, Brown said he considered his age at the time of the crime and his positive behavior in prison. Cecena, who has not had a disciplinary offense since 1987, has trained for jobs and completed self-help programs in prison.

I commend Mr. Cecena for taking these steps, Brown said.

The parole board pointed to similar factors in its decision to recommend his release in April.

Last week, interim District Attorney Summer Stephan met with Brown in Sacramento to urge him to reverse the boards decision.

Were grateful Gov. Brown recognized that Cecena is not ready to be released because he has not acknowledged the callousness of his crime, Stephan said in a statement released Monday. Not accepting responsibility for the cruel nature in which he executed a police officer shows that Cecena remains unpredictable and dangerous.

Cecena has been in prison since 1979.

Breaking News

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez

UPDATES:

5 p.m. July 17: This article was updated with a statement from interim District Attorney Summer Stephan. This article was originally published at 9:05 p.m. July 14.
From the freshwater shores of Lake Michigan to the crystal blue waters of St. Pete Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, inflatable water parks are all the rage.

With features like trampolines and towers, obstacle courses and half-pikes, sun decks and water slides, the newest trend in outdoor recreation is transforming otherwise tame natural bodies of water into heat-quenching, boredom-busting floating playgrounds for all ages.

Its no surprise, then, that our own sun-parched region now boasts three lakes with floating water parks, including Lake Hemet, Lake Gregory and the newest, Lake Perris.

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All three water parks are run by the California Parks Company, a privately-owned corporation that manages recreational enterprises in California and Oregon.

Chance Gordon, with California Parks Company since 2014, said in a recent interview that all the parks observe a maximum capacity of 100 people in the water at any given time. On busy summer weekends, guests are rotated every 20 minutes.

Were serious about safety, said Gordon. We have our lifeguards on duty at all times  one for every 25 swimmers.

The parks are continuing to grow in popularity, not just for kids but for all ages.

Said Gordon, At Lake Perris, I had the pleasure of watching a group of seniors truly enjoying the water park. They were all in.

Lake Perris

Hugging the shoreline of Perris Beach, Lake Perris Waterpark at Lake Perris State Recreation Area offers five major inflatable features including the King of the Mountain Ice Tower climbing wall and the Summit Express giant waterslide. The water park, which made its debut in late July 2016, this year is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Labor Day. The cost: $15 per person for ages 18 and up, $10 for kids. For more information, visit lakeperrisrecreation.com.

Lake Hemet

Occupying 470 acres of Lake Hemets swim cove, Splashing Eagle Waterpark at Lake Hemet is now well into its third season. Situated in the San Jacinto Mountains, Lake Hemet is a popular spot for camping and fishing but, until recently, swimming was not an option at the no-body-contact reservoir owned by the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District. The Splashing Eagle Waterpark is open five days a week (Thursdays through Mondays), from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through Labor Day. Access to the Swim Beach & Splashing Eagle Waterpark. The cost: $15 per person. For more information, visit lakehemetrecreation.com.

Lake Gregory

Nestled in the pine-forested San Bernardino Mountains, Lake Gregory offers 84 total surface acres for swimming and water sports. The water park at Lake Gregory boasts 30 inflatable play structures and a water slide winding downhill to the lakes edge. Lake Gregorys Rim of the World Waterpark is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, through Labor Day. The cost: $25 per person. For more information, visit lakegregoryrecreation.com.

Email: temecula@sduniontribune.com
Last July, the San Diego County Office of Education wanted then-Superintendent Randy Ward gone so urgently they paid him not to work.

After a closed-door meeting, the school board announced it had placed Ward on administrative leave and was launching a forensic audit to determine whether the schools chief had improperly compensated himself as alleged in a lawsuit days earlier.

Correction

The headline of this story has been amended from its original posting, which incorrectly described the terms of Randy Wards departure from his position at the San Diego County Office of Education. The Union-Tribune regrets the error.

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As elected officials statutorily charged with the oversight of public monies, we must act prudently and in the best interest of the County Office of Education, the board said in a news release last summer.

Now, 12 months after Ward was put on involuntary leave and eventually replaced, the county schools office says no formal audit was completed, even though records show it spent more than $70,000 on the review.

Officials insist they are unable to release the draft report that apparently was completed last year.

The San Diego County Office of Education is committed to balancing employees personal rights with our responsibility to the public to be effective stewards of taxpayer funds, the office said in a statement.

While no formal report was produced, we can confirm an audit was conducted by the firm Vicenti, Lloyd & Stutzman in relation to a personnel issue, the statement continued. Because it relates to a personnel matter, we are not at liberty to disclose the audits findings.

Open-government experts say public agencies too often invoke the personnel exemption of the California Public Records Act as a means of withholding information they would rather not make public.

Just because a particular record might contain information that is embarrassing or controversial as to a particular individual does not mean it is exempt, said Leila Knox, a lawyer for the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit based in Marin County.

If the record relates in any way to an individuals conduct as a public official or employee, then it seems it should be disclosed, she said.

U-T Watchdog reached out to all five board members and an attorney who represents the district on Friday but did not receive a response.

Former county school board member Jerry Rindone said he was surprised to learn the audit was being withheld by his successors on the board. He said the report should be released no matter the findings.

The public has a right to know the results and theyve never been given, so that is inappropriate, said Rindone, a prominent South County educator who also served four terms on the Chula Vista City Council. In this era of politics, transparency should always be the lead objective of any governing body.

Ward was placed on paid leave July 14, 2016, one week after a community group, the California Taxpayers Action Network, sued Ward and Lora Duzyk, the assistant superintendent of business services.

The two administrators are named in the complaint personally; the San Diego County Office of Education is not a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit, which is ongoing in San Diego Superior Court, accuses the two administrators of awarding themselves illegal pay raises, self-dealing, conflicts of interests and misuse of public funds, among other things.

Ward, whose annual salary was $331,000, reached a settlement with the office in September and formally resigned in November. His contract at the time was due to expire June 30, 2017.

The board issued a statement Sept. 13 thanking Ward for his 10 years of service and asserting that the separation agreement was no indication that the allegations in the July lawsuit had any merit.

Ward declined to discuss the suit or his separation from the county office. Duzyk, who remains on the job as a top deputy to the new superintendent, also declined to respond to questions about the litigation.

Our policy on advice of counsel is not to discuss active litigation, Duzyk said Friday. I will say we continue to assert that there is no merit to the accusations.

With Wards departure, career administrator Edward Velasquez, who previously served temporary roles running school districts in San Ysidro, Alpine and Poway, took over as interim superintendent.

Based on Velasquezs recommendation, the board hired former Lynwood Unified School District administrator Paul Gothold, who took over June 1.

U-T Watchdog requested the audit in May under the California Public Records Act, along with copies of the contract and any invoices associated with the work.

This week, the county schools office released two four-page letters from Vicenti, Lloyd & Stutzman to then-interim Superintendent Velasquez. Pam Gilles, the offices executive director of internal business services, said those were the only records the agency could release.

One of the letters is a proposed services agreement dated March 30. It indicates that the forensic audit related to Wards tenure was completed Sept. 13  the same day the settlement was announced publicly.

Three employees of the Glendora accounting firm invested a combined 338.9 hours examining the books, the letter said, at a total cost of $70,364.

Velasquez signed the agreement April 4. The county office did not explain why the work was halted Sept. 13 or why the proposal was submitted in March and signed in April, months after the work had been completed.

San Diego attorney Cory Briggs, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the California Taxpayers Action Network, said it was disingenuous for the county schools office to declare a commitment to transparency while refusing to release the audit findings.

Usually when I see something like this its because there is other wrongdoing they want to keep quiet, he said.

The San Diego County Office of Education, with an annual budget of almost $600 million, operates schools for foster youth, children ordered into the juvenile-justice system and programs for disabled young people.

The county office also provides support services such as teacher training, budget oversight and curriculum development to the regions 42 public school districts.

Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35

jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald

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The United States Supreme Court recently decided to review a gerrymandering case from Wisconsin. This case potentially could affect politics in many states, including California. Since Californians have been involved in a running battle over redistricting that dates back to 1926, and many argue our current districts are uncompetitive, the courts decision could help the Golden State. If the court addresses the gerrymandering and resulting polarization of U.S. politics, both California and America could benefit.

First, we must examine what gerrymandering is. Gerrymandering is the mapping of election districts so as to confer advantages and disadvantages on particular groups. Partisan gerrymandering can benefit one party over another, sweetheart gerrymandering can advantage incumbents at the expense of challengers, racial gerrymandering can assist some racial groups attempting to elect representatives while impeding others.

Why is biased redistricting called gerrymandering? In a particularly egregious case of district design for partisan advantage, Elbridge Gerry drew Massachusetts electoral districts to benefit his Democratic-Republican party, resulting in a very oddly shaped district. A newspaper cartoonist lampooned Gerrys districting handiwork as a salamander-shaped monster; hence a Gerrymander. The name has been applied to questionable redistricting schemes ever since.

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Gerrymandering can affect any government with district elections. City councils, boards of education, county boards of supervisors, state legislatures and even the U.S. House of Representatives can all be gerrymandered during redistricting. In California, a citizens commission establishes district lines for our House, state Assembly and state Senate seats.

Due to provisions of the U.S. Constitution, as well as state and federal law and court decisions, redistricting follows the decennial census, providing opportunities for gerrymandering. The courts have placed limits on redistricting. First, it must generally follow a one person-one vote standard to ensure equality between persons voting in a state. Second, districting plans cannot purposely dilute minority votes nor be based exclusively on race. Third, district lines should not break up communities of interest that exist among the public.

The Supreme Court originally considered election districts a political question beyond their purview, but starting in 1962, the justices decided elections were too important to leave up to chance. Before the high courts change of heart, the over one-third of Californians who lived in Los Angeles County elected only one of the 40 California senators. The Supreme Court decided such malapportionment was unacceptable, and mandated that California and 48 other states restructure their legislatures to assure all their states voters equal representation.

Under its 1849 and 1879 state Constitutions, California elected its Senate on the basis of equally populated districts, but changed to a federal plan representing counties in 1926. The federal plan gerrymandered the state to massively favor rural over urban voters. Voters stuck with this biased system when offered opportunities to dump it in 1928, 1948, 1960 and 1962. The Supreme Court effectively overthrew these choices by California voters, forcing reapportionment of the Senate to cohere with the one-person one vote standard.

In the 1970s, computer technology made it possible to use redistricting as never before, creating extremely safe seats for specific parties or incumbents. Democrats gerrymandered California to favor their party in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, with the governorship and the new Census on the horizon, the GOP pulled out all the stops to elect Pete Wilson. Gov. Wilson prevented the legislatures Democratic majority from enacting a partisan gerrymander. The courts eventually had to draw the districts instead. From the 1980s through the 2010s, Californian voters balloted on a number of different redistricting plans. Our current system arose in 2008 from Proposition 11, a measure backed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The intent of the new system was to make sure more California districts are competitive. The idea was that California had too many districts that were safe Republican or safe Democrat, meaning there was too little party competition. Yet the measure has not helped; districts seem no more competitive than they were before. Republicans have sued to protest the current systems maintenance of the status quo but have lost all legal challenges so far.

The case in the Supreme Court is one where the Wisconsin Republicans were extremely effective in gerrymandering that states representation. Apparently, the technique of cracking and packing  where you split up the strongholds of the opposing party or so pack their members into one district that you minimize their influence  were so effective that the GOP ensured their partys domination even when they receive less than a majority of the vote.

If Wisconsin Democrats succeed in their legal challenge, then it could establish grounds that California Republicans could use to challenge this states gerrymandering problem. Uncompetitive districts have reduced not only the GOPs influence in California but the need of the Democrats to provide good representation to their constituents.

Gerrymandering in California and other states has produced extremist legislators at state and national levels. Moderate candidates have little chance at election because districts are either heavily Democrat or Republican. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will decide this case in a way that stops gerrymandering and reduces the partisan polarization putting our state and nation at risk.

Ingram teaches American politics at San Diego State University.
When comparing California and Florida, its easy to find the similarities. One difference, however, is the fiscal condition of each state.

Recently, a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University ranked the fiscal conditions of every state. The criteria included budget solvency, trust-fund solvency and long-run solvency  among other things.

The results: Florida ranked No. 1, while the Golden State ranked a dreary 43rd. When looking at the cash-solvency, long-run solvency and trust-fund solvency, California falls to 45th, 45th and 41st, respectively. The only category where California doesnt fall to the bottom half is budget solvency.

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California is viewed as one of the most flourishing states in the country. As a native, Im proud to be from such a beautiful state. But if the long-term success of the state has any correlation to the statistics above, we have some work to do.

Jake Grant

Pacific Beach

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Stop stealing jobs from our sister cities, states

Creating jobs is one thing. Creating them where they are needed is another. Presently, we have placed ourselves in a situation in which cities and states compete against one another to attract companies that promise to bring jobs. All too often, that is done by give-aways, all of which are a boon to the companies and a burden to the taxpayer. Those with the most to offer tend to get the jobs, while those most in need go without.

There is a simple, two-part solution that should appeal to both our political parties: First, under the Commerce Clause, it should be illegal for cities and states to offer special inducements to specific companies or individuals. Second, the federal tax code should be amended to reward companies that locate in those areas where unemployment is highest. By increasing the deductions employers can take for each person hired, underserved and hard-hit areas of our country could become the recipients of many jobs currently going overseas.

Jean Paul Olmsted

Carlsbad

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Duncan Hunter asked his constituents to let President Trump try to work with Russia before passing judgment. Well, Trump had his chance, and he blew it.

Instead of a vigorous defense of our democracy, Trumps meeting with Vladimir Putin led to embarrassment and doubt that this president can truly protect our country. The Russians are cheering that Trump swallowed Putins denials hook, line and sinker.

Meanwhile, all Trump could do was tweet wishy-washy statements about Russian interference, even though intelligence has confirmed the meddling.

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He even went so far as to propose establishing a cyber security partnership with Putin himself. Trump is being played like a fiddle and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are fulfilling their duty by speaking out against this threat.

Its time for Duncan Hunter to stop being soft on Russia, put country before party and defend our democracy.

Jacob Silva

Escondido

We must check the power of the president

Being a fiscal conservative, my concern is not controlling our appetite for things we cant afford.

Trump originally sounded good, drain the swamp, etc. Trump dropped us out of the Paris climate accords. If we cant deliver what Obama promised, renegotiate.

That and his other actions at the G-20 summit show hes alienated us from Western Europe.

No single person should be able to make such unfettered decisions on their own beliefs or whims. Before Trump, I didnt realize the president had that much power. An insane person could ruin the whole world.

The presidents Cabinet could be involved. The whole Cabinet would need to be up on whats happening in the country and the world and if they agree, sign off on what the president wants to enact. This would require a constitutional convention.

People should talk to their congressmen and governors about this.

Bruce Skovmand

Vista

As witch hunts go, this one is pretty relevant

Regarding FBI nominee rejects Trump claim: Russia probe no witch hunt (July 13): Trump calls this the greatest witch hunt in history?

How about the millions of dollars spent to try to prove President Clinton had an extramarital affair? Maybe. Millions spent hoping to find that Hillary Clinton might possibly have sent something over private email that she shouldnt? Maybe. All the time and money spent to try to prove President Obama wasnt a citizen? Maybe.

Investigating the depth and breadth of possible collusion with a foreign government proven to have interfered in an American election? Maybe not.

Millie Busse

Rancho Bernardo

If you dont want to be the subject to a witch hunt, dont act like a witch. No other president has done so.

Kel Tyree

El Cajon

Glad Putin is so ready to help the U.S. out

Many President Trump supporters say he was elected to attack problems in new ways. He has used the Sgt. Schultz defense on health insurance and many of his various policies and a new O.J. Simspon policy on cyber security.

When Simpson was asked if he killed his wife and her friend he said no, he did not. But then Simpson said he would look for the real killer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked if he authorized the last election cycle to be hacked. Putin said no, but he will set up an impenetrable cyber security unit with President Trump to find the guilty people. Congratulations to President Trump.

Richard Schauer

San Diego

The right happily relies on a double standard

Regarding How beauty pageant led to meeting with Russian (July 11): According to the U-T, Donald Trump Jr. told an audience that he had been to Russia a half-dozen times over an 18-month period and he really prefers Moscow over all the cities in the world.

If Chelsea Clinton admitted this, many Republicans would probably accuse her of treason. Instead, they ignore Trump Jr.s lack of judgment. The apple doesnt fall far from the tree.

Bunny Landis

Oceanside

Intent, not outcome, is the measure of a crime

Since Robert Tate (Left clutching at straws to attack the Trumps, July 13) thinks that Donald Trump Jr.s meeting was not a problem because no information was actually received, he probably thinks that the predators featured on NBCs To Catch a Predator documentaries should not have been charged, because they didnt actually have sex with underage boys and girls.

Ben Thurston

La Mesa

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Human interest stories are some of the most well-read stories in the paper and online. A story on a person facing a hardship or overcoming one. An organization striving to help those in need. A family affected by an unfortunate occurrence through no fault of their own. These are stories readers and writers can relate to.

Many times readers will respond to the articles and want to reach out to those needing help. In the past, a reader might contact the reporter, who would forward the offer. Now, though, through a partnership that began Wednesday between the Union-Tribune and GoFundMe, readers have a much easier way to help others in the community.Stories online will have a GoFundMe Start a Campaign button that a reader can click on. Readers can also click on the button to donate once a campaign has begun.

There are two things I think readers should know about this partnership. First, the U-T is not endorsing a cause or campaign. Readers will entirely drive the efforts, U-T Editor and Publisher Jeff Light said. The potential for fundraising will not have any bearing on a reporters or editors decision to write a story in the first place. They will approach stories the same way they always have.

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Second, the U-T will not profit from the fundraising. GoFundMe takes a 5 percent cut of donations. Half of that will go to the U-T, which will donate all proceeds to the San Diego community.

For years, our mission at the U-T has been to improve lives and build better communities through information, insight and ideas, Light said in a news release announcing the program. Our partnership with GoFundMe elevates that mission in an important way. It will allow our readers to connect with one another and summon the resources to make an immediate difference in peoples lives.

GoFundMe is the worlds largest social fundraising platform. It has raised more than $4 billion since it began in 2010 in San Diego.I expect to include in this column updates on the partnership.Readers can go to sduniontribune.com/gofundme to see the campaigns that community members have started through the U-T/GoFundMe program.

Fake news turns up in story-play criticism

U-T reporter Greg Moran received an email last week from a reader criticizing the U-T for its inside play of stories on the court rejections of Hawaiis attempt to limit the Trump immigration travel ban. The reader ended his email with this sentence: I guess the early pages are reserved for fake news.

The term seems to be used quite liberally nowadays. I have heard from readers who have called political stories they disagree with fake news, political stories they believe are given too much length fake news, and this time stories placed higher in the A section fake news.

Heres the play on recent immigration ban developments:

June 27  lead A1 story on the Supreme Court passing a limited version of the ban prohibiting entry of some people into the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries.

June 30  lead A1 story on the travel ban taking effect.

July 7  A8 story on U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson denying Hawaiis attempt to curtail enforcement.

July 8  A8 report on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing Hawaiis attempt to challenge the ban

July 11  A11 article on another legal attempt by Hawaii, this time to have a judge issue an injunction.

July 14  A9 story on Judge Watson granting Hawaiis request to exempt grandparents and other relatives from the ban.

Why the inside play? The court action in Hawaii was more narrowly focused and more incremental in nature than the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which explains the difference in play, said A-section editor David Clary.

Managing Editor Lora Cicalo added that the stories placed inside were about decisions that did not set a new course.

I agree with the play.

But lets get back to the fake news description. To me, fake news is just that: Its fake, phony, didnt happen. Its not something I feel has little news value. For instance, a thief running out of a convenience store with a can of beer is what I would consider non-news  not fake news.

Im going to open it to readers. What is your definition of fake news? Email it adrian.vore@sduniontribune.com or readers.rep@sduniontribune.com. Include your name and community of residence.
Nepal to host Saarc police meet

Home Minister Janardan Sharma returned from the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo on Friday after attending a meeting of officials from the Saarc member nations.
Portland, OR -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/15/2017 -- As per a new report added by Progressive Markets on materials and chemicals, titled, Global Subsea System Market - Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis, and Forecast, 2014-2025, and it is expected that the industry would register a CAGR of 4.4% during the period, 2017-2025. The study provides proper insight into market landscape which helps key stakeholders, manufacturers, and new entrants to formulate strategies for ensuring market growth.



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The report studies market share by component, region, and type of the global subsea system market for the period, 2014-2025. It analyses the industry by each region, type, and component for the historic and forecast period, 2014-2016 and 2017-2025 respectively. It incorporates Porters Five Force Analysis (PFFA) to estimate bargaining power of suppliers & buyers, rivalry among industrialists, and threat of substitution. It explores the features that boost the market growth of the global subsea system market, such as increase in investments in the oil & gas industry and rise in oil discoveries; especially in emerging economies of Asia and Africa, such as China, Angola, Nigeria, & India. Additionally, improvement in the number of deep water drilling activities across the globe is expected to boost the market growth. It also describes factor that restrains growth of the market, such as complex underwater conditions giving rise to barriers in production.



The report discusses key manufacturers of the global subsea system market which include Aker Solutions ASA, Siemens AG, Kongsberg Gruppen, National Oilwell Varco, TechnipFMC plc, Oceaneering International, Inc., Parker Hannifin Corporation, GE Oil & Gas, OneSubsea, and Dril-Quip, Inc. The experts analyze them based on concise introduction of the company, recent developments, and business & financial segments.



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The report offers various takeaways of the global subsea system market, such as comprehensive valuation of factors that promote and hinder growth of the market. It provides insightful data of competitive spirit among key manufacturers. It offers a detailed description of all the geographical boundaries enables manufacturers to quickly scan the opportunities which are accessible in a particular region. Moreover, an in-depth assessment of developments in the market, aiding manufacturers and new entrepreneurs to understand the industry behavior. The study thoroughly follows the status of the product variants and also provides an extensive examination of top manufacturers in the market framework.



The above mentioned features of the global subsea systems market are illustrated through tables and figures. For instance, some tables give brief description of manufacturers under the title of company snapshot. The market share of types, components, and regions are shown through tables. The market value for each geography, product type, and component of the industry is explained with the help of tables during the period, 2014-2025. The same parameters are represented through figures for better representation. For instance, the revenue generated by every market landscape of the market is illustrated through figures for the historic as well as forecast period.



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FLORENCE, S.C.  Over the next 10 years, motorists in the Pee Dee will see a doubling in road-repaving projects, including major repairs to rural roads, replacement of nearly 100 bridges and addition of safety features to 15 corridors classified as deadly.

This is all a part of the South Carolina Department of Transportations plan to rebuild the states notoriously bad road infrastructure system with funds from the increased gas tax.

Legislators approved a plan that increased the states fuel tax from 16 cents to 28 cents over the nex six years. Other fees include raising the cap on the states sales tax on vehicles by $200 to $500 and a new, one-time $250 fee for new South Carolina residents to register their vehicles.

This will give the transportation department about $800 million annually for road repairs by 2027.

South Carolina Secretary of Transportation Christy Hall told the Morning News the first $50 million of that money will be dedicated to a rural road safety program, aimed at making 1,957 miles of state secondary roads less deadly.

Were targeting the top 5 percent most dangerous roads first, she said. From there well incrementally grow our paving program and ramp it up. Our goal at the end of six years out is to have paving doubled.

The department does have preliminary projects listed for the rural road safety program, though none are listed in the Morning News' six-county Pee Dee coverage area. The proposed project priority list provides details of 29 rural roads in 25 counties.

The department identifies the Pee Dee as both the Pee Dee and Grand Strand regions.

Deadly corridors

The department has also identified 15 deadly corridors that will see major safety improvements in the coming years.

These roads tend to be U.S. and S.C. routes that connect communities together, and ofter have higher travel speeds and longer stretches of roadway, Hall said.

In the Pee Dee those routes include S.C. 51 in Florence County and S.C. 261, S.C. 41, U.S. 52 and U.S. 521 in Williamsburg County.

Hall said changes to these roads will not be a cookie cutter solution.

Were going study each one and work with the community to develop something that makes sense for each route, she said. That could mean cutting trees, or adding shoulders, or removing ditches. It will be tailored for each road and what will make it safest.

Traffic backup

A common complaint during road construction projects is increased travel times and the inconvenience of alternate routes.

Hall said the DOT will do what they can to remedy those concerns but motorist patience is going to be necessary in the coming years of ramped up construction.

Were tasked with rebuilding the entire state road system over the next 10 years, she said. Were increasing our activity incrementally, so each year youll see more and more projects happening. We need to be prepared to exercise patience and take extra precaution during this period.

Goals

The comprehensive plan is to upgrade at least 1,000 miles of rural roads, improves 140 miles of interstate roadways and replace 465 bridges statewide.

Were working hard to get the phase one of the rural safety program moving. The scoping of those will star win the next 90 day and get in moving this year, Hall said. Between now and next July 1 were hoping to be well underway across the state.
Power struggle in RPP raises spectre of split

Internal feud in the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has raised the spectre of split, less than six months after the unification of Kamal Thapa-led RPP-Nepal and Pashupati Shumsher Rana-led RPP.
Squatters houses demolished in Tripureshwor

Security personnel on Saturday morning evicted squatters from the Bagmati River corridor in Tripureshwor area of Kathmandu where they were residing illegally by encroaching the land.
There is great potential to grow tourism in Manta and the surrounding area, according to Samuel Franco C., general manager, Terminal Portuario de Manta, who cited 'beautiful reserves, parks, beaches and small, eco-friendly resort facilities.'

With more visitors coming from around the world, including by ship, a cruise terminal will help Manta realize its tourism potential, Franco said. Construction is set to begin in August, with completion in August 2018.

Work to improve pier access and repair columns is also to start this August, with completion in July 2018. During the same timeframe, International Pier #2 will be extended by 100 meters. Dredging to deepen the access channel to 12.5 meters is scheduled to begin in November and finish in January.

The second phase of port improvements entails channel dredging to 14.5 meters, a new 300-meter pier and two post-Panama gantry cranes.

All this work on passenger and cargo initiatives amounts to $177m in investments by Terminal Portuario de Manta, a subsidiary of Chilean terminal operator Agunsa Group, which won a 40-year concession to develop and operate Manta port in 2016.

Holland America Line visits Manta several times a year and 'it is a major port for us on the west coast of South America,' according to Capt. Dirk van der Raadt, senior manager, deployment and itinerary planning. Though he's not familiar with the particulars of the plans, he said this sounds like great news since Manta is an important stepping stone to many marquee shore destinations, including excursions to the Galapagos and Quito.

'For us this development will probably not directly increase the amount of calls as the destination is obviously part of the South America deployment as a whole, but it will definitely help keep Manta on our map,"' van der Raadt noted. 'That said, development of ports on the west coast of South America will most likely drive increased numbers of calls and passengers in the long run.'

This year Manta projects nearly 20,294 passengers on 21 calls, up from 18,065 passengers in 2016 and about the same number in 2015. Besides Holland America, ships from lines including Carnival, Celebrity, Oceania, Phoenix Reisen, Princess and Silversea have visited.

Besides beaches, Manta is famous for fresh seafood, and the Manabi regional cuisine has been called 'the best excuse for visiting Ecuador.' The city offers archaeological and art museums, a boardwalk and lively nightlife.

Nearby Pacoche Rain Forest is home to howler monkeys and tagua trees, which yield an ivory-like nut that's carved into figurines and jewelry. At Machalilla National Park, visitors can bathe in hot mineral springs. Charming Montecristi, a center for arts and crafts, produces the world-famous Panama hats.

Shore excursions are available to all these attractions.
The mantra for self-reliance

After experiencing the acute scarcity of basic goods and serviceslike petroleum, medicine and foodin the wake of the unofficial border blockade in 2015, a self-reliant economy quickly became the buzz word among government actors, economists and public intellectuals.
The idea of a universal basic income  monthly cash payments from the government to every individual, working or not, with no strings attached  is gaining traction, thanks in part to endorsements from Silicon Valley celebs.

Some see it as a way to compensate for the traditional jobs with benefits that will be wiped out by robotics, artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, globalization and the gig economy. Others see it as a way to reduce income inequality or to create a more efficient, less stigmatizing safety net than our current mishmash of welfare benefits.

I think ultimately we will have to have some kind of universal basic income, I dont think we are going to have a choice, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai in February.

In a commencement speech at Harvard University in May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things. And in a July 4 blog post, Zuckerberg praised Alaskas Permanent Fund Dividend, the nearest thing to universal income in this or any country. Since 1982, Alaska has been distributing some of its oil revenue as an annual payment, ranging from about $1,000 to $3,000, to every resident including children.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Y Combinator president Sam Altman have all said its worth exploring. Y Combinators nonprofit research lab started a basic income pilot with fewer than 100 people in Oakland last fall with the goal of gathering information to structure a larger research proposal, its director, Elizabeth Rhodes, said.

The concept has been around, with different names and in different countries, for centuries, said Karl Widerquist, co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network.

It enjoyed a wave of U.S. popularity in the 1910s and 20s and again in the 60s and 70s when it was championed by free-market economist Milton Friedman, Martin Luther King and, for a while, Richard Nixon.

It resurfaced again after the 2008 financial crisis, when soaring unemployment and corporate bailouts focused attention on the 99 percent. The concept picked up steam in recent years as studies started predicting widespread unemployment because of automation.

Basic income has fans across the political spectrum, but for very different reasons. Libertarian backers would replace all or most welfare programs with a monthly cash payment as a way to prevent poverty, reduce government bureaucracy and let people decide for themselves how to use the money.

Paul Marotta/Getty Images

By contrast, those left of center like the idea of using (basic income) as a supplement to the existing safety net, said Natalie Foster, co-chairwoman of the Economic Security Project, a two-year fund devoted to researching and promoting the idea of unconditional cash.

In a utopian version, the money would sit alongside existing programs and go to every man, woman and child, Foster said. But if you made it enough to keep people above poverty  $1,000 a month is a popular number  it starts to add up to a very significant portion of the GDP, Foster said.

Thats why some proposals would reduce or eliminate payments to children or to adults over 65 if they are getting Social Security and Medicare. Some would limit the benefits going to high-income people, either directly or indirectly by raising their tax.

In the simple model, everyone in the lower half (of the income distribution) would be a net beneficiary, everyone in the upper half would be net payers, Widerquist said.

Charles Murray, a libertarian political scientist with the American Enterprise Institute, has proposed a basic income plan that would replace all transfer payments including welfare, food stamps, housing subsidies, the earned income tax credit, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It would also eliminate farm subsidies and corporate welfare.

In exchange, each American older than 21 would get a monthly payment totaling $13,000 a year, of which $3,000 would go to health insurance. After $30,000 in earned income, a graduated tax would reimburse some of the grant until it dropped to $6,500 at $60,000 in income. However, the grant would never drop below $6,500 to compensate for the loss of Social Security and Medicare.

Murray admitted that many seniors get more than $6,500 worth of benefits a year from those two programs, which is why it would have to be phased in.

What Im proposing would actually be cheaper than the current system, Murray said. It would give adults a living income and liberate people who are tied to a job or welfare program in a particular city because they cant risk leaving to pursue a new opportunity.

KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images

Andy Stern, a senior fellow at the Economic Security Project, has proposed a left-of-center plan that would give every adult 18 to 64 a monthly cash payment of $1,000. It would replace welfare programs such as food stamps, the earned income tax credit, unemployment and Supplemental Security Income. But it would keep Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security disability.

He figures the plan would cost about $1.75 trillion a year. Ending welfare programs would save about a third of that. Another third could come from ending the tax deduction for mortgage interest and other write-offs. The remaining third could come from new sources such as a tax on carbon emissions or financial transactions.

Stern would not reduce payments to the rich or raise their taxes because that would bring back the problem he is trying to eliminate  determining who is worthy and unworthy to receive benefits. But many of the tax increases he envisions would have a disproportionate effect on higher-income people, he said.

Some opponents of guaranteed income say it will encourage laziness. Proponents say the current system discourages work by taking away some benefits as income goes up.

Zipcar founder Robin Chase, now a speaker and author, said universal income would encourage and reward important work that does not get monetized, such as child care and volunteer work. It would also spur business creation. I had the luxury of taking risks because I had a husband who had a full-time job with health care. A majority of the population cannot take any risks in pursuing innovation or higher-value, non-remunerative things.

Some believe the answer to income inequality and automation is not guaranteed income but a guaranteed job. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, has said the federal government should provide a job with benefits to anyone who wants one and cant get one. A job guarantee could simultaneously lower un- and underemployment while providing critically needed labor in fields ranging from infrastructure to education to child and elder care, Bernstein, who was an economist in President Barack Obamas administration, wrote in the American Prospect.

Jason Furman, who chaired Obamas Council of Economic Advisers, doesnt like guaranteed jobs or guaranteed income. Furman, now a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, said universal income suffers from three problems.

One is that its very hard to make the numbers add up. To get to (incomes) like $12,000, you need huge increases in taxes. Two, there are a lot of benefits to targeting. You only get unemployment if you dont have a job and are looking for a new job. If anything, I might toughen the work search requirement to receive unemployment.

Finally, he said, I believe there is no reason that people cant be employed in the future. We have thousands of years of experience of technological progress not leading to mass unemployment. He pointed out that technologically advanced countries do not have higher unemployment rates than those that are less advanced.

We should put more effort into how to create jobs and prepare people for jobs in the future, he said. Universal basic income is giving up on work and giving up on people. Im not prepared to do that.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
With scouts from the Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Blue Jays among those on hand at the Coliseum, Sonny Gray put together another strong start and in doing so probably hastened his departure from Oakland.

Gray, the top starting pitcher currently believed to be available on the trade market, worked six innings and didnt allow a runner past second base as the As opened the second half with a 5-0 win over the defending American League champions on Friday night.

Sonnys been excellent, outfielder Rajai Davis said. It seems like every time out there, he gives us a chance to win. Hes been very solid.

Davis, who got a start because Jaycob Brugman was out with the stomach flu, had a big night against his former team, with two hits, including a homer, and two runs, and Yonder Alonso, fresh from the All-Star Game, contributed with his 21st homer, a solo shot in the fifth. Gray, Davis and Alonso all could be gone by the end of the month as the going-young As look to move some of their veterans.

For the second time in three starts, Gray was the subject of a false rumor earlier in the day. He said he had received 50 texts on his phone 45 minutes before game as a result. At times, it can be difficult, Gray said of the rumors. You just dont know. Its just one of those things you have to deal with sometimes.

The As public relations department went so far as to announce that he had not been scratched from his start, as was erroneously reported by a radio announcer in Chicago on Friday evening. The Cubs are among the teams that have significant interest in Gray. Although they did not have a representative in the scouts section Friday, they have followed him diligently during the past month.

Over his past four starts and 21 innings, Gray has allowed 11 hits, five walks and four earned runs and has 21 strikeouts.

Ive just been more in attack mode, he said.

Gray threw 22 pitches in the first before settling into a groove. Its always different coming back from the All-Star break, you have a lot of days off  eight or nine days  and sometimes you feel a little rusty, Gray said.

Ryan Madson pitched the seventh, allowed one hit and struck out the side. He, too, is a prime candidate to be dealt, especially after allowing just two runs over his past 15 games. Sean Doolittle, coveted by many teams because hes left-handed and signed through 2020, worked a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts.

Oaklands first hit off Carlos Carrasco came in the third, when Davis led off with an infield single. Matt Joyce doubled to right center and Davis beat the throw home, getting his hand in just ahead of the tag by Yan Gomes. When I took a peek, I was like, Uh oh, this is going to be close, Davis said.

Joyce took third on the throw and scored on a sacrifice fly by Marcus Semien.

Davis, who provided one of the biggest highlights in Indians history last fall with his game-tying homer in Game 7 of the World Series, led off the fifth with a drive to left off Carrasco. That ended a 31-game streak without an RBI, the longest of his career, matching the teams longest such streak in the past 34 years (Allen Battle, April 19-Aug. 14, 1996).

Rookie Matt Chapman put the run into Oaklands final run, smacking a leadoff triple in the seventh and racing in to score when a wild pitch by Nick Goody bounced just a few feet away from Gomes.

I was impressed, Davis said. The ball got maybe a foot or two off the dirt and he scored. Thats a move I would do. You dont see that often.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
OROVILLE, Butte County  Just days after Californias burgeoning wildfire season plundered the farm of Danny Lazzarini and Andrew Seidman, the couple were back to work, picking peaches amid the blackened hillsides.

The four homes they lived in with their ranch hands, as well as nearly all their farming equipment, were reduced to rubble in the Wall Fire, which tore through the Sierra foothills about 70 miles north of Sacramento last weekend. But facing debt to pay off the property they purchased a little over a year ago, the two were eager to cash in on whatever fruit remained.

Its the peach season, and the peaches are still ripening, Seidman said as he looked out over a green orchard that had been spared the fate of most of his 27 acres. Youd be a fool to turn your back on this.

Lazzarini, 39, and Seidman, 41, chose an unfortunate time to start an organic farming business in the Oroville area. Nowhere have the extremes of Californias weather been as relentless of late.

A record wet winter caused two spillways to fail at the Oroville Dam in February. About 180,000 people were forced to evacuate amid concerns that water would pour uncontrollably out of the reservoir, while road closures prevented Lazzarini and Seidman from getting supplies to their farm. Their fruits and vegetables languished amid constant rain, wind and even hail.

As the state rushed to rebuild the spillways, the fire ignited. Weeks of scorching heat helped push the July 7 blaze across 6,000 acres east of Oroville before firefighters wrested near full control days later. Forty-one homes were lost.

Its like the 10 plagues here, Seidman said. It really hasnt been the easiest time.

A few miles from the farm, closer to Lake Oroville, grocer Ben Hayer, 20, whose family owns Lakeside Market and Gas, said he couldnt believe what the community has been through.

After his store logged one of its busiest days in early February  residents concerned about the threat of flooding at the dam bought up almost everything he had, from diapers to gas  there was a similar panic last weekend. People driven from their homes by the fire gathered outside his market to commiserate over their unknown fate.

Oroville is a beautiful place, Hayer said, but its become a natural disaster center.

The extreme seasons this year are linked, weather watchers say. The rainy winter set the stage for a bumper crop of grasses in the spring and summer, which have begun to dry out and fuel a late but super-charged peak fire season.

As of Friday, about 104,000 acres had burned across California this year, according to state and federal figures. The recent burns include two destructive fires that have forced thousands to flee in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

While the total acreage is only slightly higher than it was last year at this time, fires have been concentrated in lower elevations where vegetation has dried out after the soggy winter, such as around Oroville.

Much of the high country remains wet, and in some spots, snowy. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, forecasts that the upper reaches of the Sierra wont see much of a fire season this year. Meanwhile, lower elevations, including the Bay Area and parts of Southern California, are expected to see above-average activity through October.

A lot of the fire danger will be below 3,500 feet, but these are the elevations where most people live, said Steve Leach, a meteorologist with the federal Bureau of Land Management who works in Redding and helps draft the widely used fire forecast. Its going to be a challenge this year and people need to be aware of that.

The Wall Fire outside Oroville, which started about 1,500 feet above sea level, moved so fast through tinder-dry grasses and shrubs that it sneaked up on Donna Campos, 66. She lives in a sparsely populated wooded neighborhood south of the lake.

Gabrielle Lurie / Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

One of my friends called me and asked if I needed a place to stay and I thought, What for? she said, explaining that only then did she look out her window and see a wall of flames racing through the oak trees behind her home. I just threw some clothes in my car, and the dogs, and left.

Campos, who recently borrowed horses from a friend to munch down tall grass around her house, still lost everything. A pile of blackened, nearly unrecognizable home furnishings, including a charred washer and dryer, metal cabinets and aluminum roofing, poked out of a pile of ashen debris where her home used to be.

Having been out of work, she said her future depended on what her Social Security check can provide.

I guess my next step will be finding a new place to live where I can have my dogs, said Campos, who is willing to move anywhere except below the dam, which she still fears will fail. I wont live down there.

Gabrielle Lurie / Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

The crisis at the dam began Feb. 7, with the collapse of part of the main spillway amid heavy outflows from the lake. Dam operators closed the chute and relied on an emergency spillway that was essentially a barren hillside to release water. But when the hill began eroding, officials feared it might give way, and ordered temporary evacuations.

Above the lake at Lazzarini and Seidmans farm, called the Peach Jamboree, the couple are trying to sort out their future  and how much of their harvest can be salvaged.

In addition to peaches, they grow organic cherries, nectarines, plums, pluots, pears and apples, as well as some beans and eggplant, all of which they haul to farmers markets at the San Francisco Ferry Building and other spots in the Bay Area.

Gabrielle Lurie / Photos by Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Its hard when you look around and think, Where do I even start? said Lazzarini, as she took account of the peach trees, which like many of her crops endured, probably because theyre irrigated.

But with their packing house destroyed, along with their tools, the couples ability to store produce is gone. Last week, a friend had been helping construct a makeshift, air-conditioned shed to preserve goods while another was building boxes by the hundreds to move out all the ripe fruits and vegetables as soon as possible.

With the farm housing destroyed, the couple and those assisting them were camping or staying in the few ranch buildings that survived.

People we know say, Oh, farming, its hard, Seidman said during a dinner break from work in the orchards. But no one really has time to hear a farmer complain.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
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Monsters, princesses, dragons and sundry superheroes descended on Japantown Saturday and, by and large, stood around and stared at each other, the weather being too hot for shooting ray guns or cutting each others heads off with swords.

It was the annual Anime and Cosplay Festival, and only those people who know what anime and cosplay are showed up. Those who dont drove past Japantown in cars, slowly, and stared at the small army of people in fluorescent wigs.

Im a divine goddess, said Jasmine Kathleen of San Francisco, who was decked out in a white and purple outfit, the kind that anime heroine Ishtar Rin wears, the kind that empowers her to shoot bolts of fire at bad guys from her gigantic moon, she explained, or tried to.

Next to her was Shelly Bakugou of San Francisco, who was all set to punch bad guys as her alter ego, Yang Xioa Long, a superhero in a brown bodice and yellow hair who, she said, is most adept at vanquishing villains with supercharged fists, which she possessed in her imagination.

Anime is the Japanese form of fantastical animation. cosplay is short for costume play, which is the formal name for pretending its Halloween in the middle of July.

A lot of these people are normal people, said organizer Greg Vilora, as one of them walked by carrying lightning bolts. This festival allows people to do something different from their 8-to-5 lives.

And that was surely true for Caitlin Morris of San Ramon, decked out in a red kimono, who said cosplay helped her figure out who she is inside.

I was a really shy person and wouldnt talk to anybody, she said. This brought me out of my shell.

It also brought her to the middle of the main Japantown plaza, beneath the giant pagoda, alongside scores of fellow costumed creations. The great thing about the Japantown festival, many superheroes said, was that it didnt cost anything. Usually, such proceedings are held at role-playing conventions inside giant halls where it can cost $100 or more to get in.

The festivalgoers said they were excited about guest appearances by cosplaying superstars Reika and Cheru, even if few other people on planet Earth had any idea who Reika and Cheru were. But most of the time at the festival was spent standing around, gawking at everyone else and taking selfies with them, after first laying down sword or ray gun to facilitate the operation of the cell phone.

On the plaza, vendors were selling hundreds of different anime key chains and stuffed animals, for up to $50 per key chain.

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.

I couldnt tell you, off the top of my head, said key chain vendor Sue Lee, when asked to identify the names of the key chain characters. There are so many.

The hardest working fellow seemed to be a man inside the giant yellow robot costume of the character Bumblebee, from the Transformer movies. His name was Lionel Lum and the line to have your picture taken standing alongside him was about 10 people long.

Bumblebee, said Lum, is pretty good at beating up the evil Decepticons, his sworn enemies. In addition, Bumblebee can transform himself from a robot into a Chevrolet Camaro whenever he chooses, which is what makes a transformer a transformer. Thats something that he himself cannot do, said Lum.

I wish I could, said Lum, from somewhere deep inside his costume. I like Camaros. Ive always liked Camaros.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
Hundreds of mostly older Chinese residents turned out Thursday night at City Hall to oppose a medical cannabis dispensary proposed for the Sunset District, but their testimony was not enough to sway planning commissioners, who voted 5-1 to approve the pot shop.

The vote, which followed five hours of public comment, paves the way for the Apothecarium to open a dispensary at 2505 Noriega St. It will be the first in the Sunset.

Last nights decision was a huge victory for Sunset cannabis patients, said Dr. Floyd Huen, medical adviser to and a co-owner of the Apothecarium Sunset, along with his wife, former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Health care happens in person. Patients deserve a well-run dispensary in their own neighborhood where they can receive consultations about their medication and dosage.

Even by the standards of regularly acrimonious Planning Commission meetings, Thursdays medical cannabis showdown was exceptional. The hallways outside the chambers were jam-packed, and extra deputy sheriffs had to be called in to deal with screaming matches between supporters and opponents.

Commissioner Dennis Richards, the single no vote, said the opposition may have overplayed its hand  noting that critics of the medical cannabis dispensary said it would cause everything from fatal vehicle wrecks to homelessness to murder.

The idea that children are going to be sucked in, that people are going to die because an MCD opens, is not really grounded in reality, Richards said. It became a circus  way over the top. I think that alienated some of the commissioners.

Richards said he doesnt think any medical cannabis dispensaries should be approved until the city figures out how to implement Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized recreational marijuana. The Planning Department is scheduled to release policy guidelines in September. The key question will be whether medical cannabis dispensaries will be first in line to convert to recreational cannabis stores and how that conversion process would work.

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.

Several speakers on Thursday noted that the Sunset has voted in favor of both medical and recreational marijuana. About 66 percent of the neighborhood supported Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana referendum, and 58 percent backed Prop. 64.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
The murders at Ranibari

5:45am; July 15, 2002Two teenage boys knock at the front-door of a two-storey house in Ranibari, Kathmandu.
With all the nostalgia for the Summer of Love 50 years ago, San Franciscos citizens have missed the marking this year of another piece of the citys history: the 100th anniversary of the end of the infamous Barbary Coast.

The Barbary Coast was a six- to eight-block area not far from what is now the Financial District, and its business was crime and vice. It ran wide-open for more than 50 years and was closed for good after a major police raid on Feb. 14, 1917  Valentines Day.

I realized the historic milestone while strolling through the Jackson Square retail district, a quiet enclave of brick buildings and tree-lined streets. This is the oldest part of town, now going through a chic renaissance. The buzz is so hot it made Page One of Mondays Chronicle.

It came to me in the middle of a leafy block of Pacific Avenue. At the entrance to the Artist and Craftsman Supply store at 555 Pacific were a couple of bas-reliefs of fiendish satyrs chasing scantily clad nymphs.

Holy smoke, I said to myself. Didnt this used to be the Barbary Coast? I looked it up. Indeed it was.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

In another era, what is now the art store housed the Hippodrome dance hall, the top-of-the-line of low dives along this stretch of Pacific, which once was lined with places like Spider Kellys, the Red Mill, the Frisco, the So Different, the Owl Dance Hall, and the Neptune Palace. This block of Pacific  they called it Terrific Street back then  existed in a nighttime blaze of electric lights so bright it was said you could see the Barbary Coast from Oakland.

Barkers stood out front of the dance halls to lure customers: The hottest show and the prettiest girls on the coast! Watch em wiggle, gents, watch em wiggle! Dont talk about what you see in here, folks! Itll shock you, but its worth seeing!

At least thats the spiel quoted by Herbert Asbury in his 1933 book, The Barbary Coast, which is the bible for San Franciscos bad old days.

Asbury, who also wrote The Gangs of New York  almost made the Barbary Coast sound like fun, with a cast of colorful crooks, shady ladies and dance hall girls. And, much like the Summer of Love, San Francisco has glorified it since.

The Barbary Coast myth was celebrated in the film San Francisco with Clark Gable as Blackie Norton, the rapscallion owner of a Barbary Coast dance hall, and Jeanette MacDonald as the small-town girl who is almost lured into a life of sin.

San Francisco, the rousing tune from the movie, became one of two city anthems. The other is Tony Bennetts version of I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

Its easy to romanticize something from the past, to paper over the ugly reality with fond memories.

Benjamin Estells Lloyd described the district in 1876.

The Barbary Coast is the haunt of the low and vile of every kind, he wrote. Licentiousness, debauchery, pollution, loathsome disease, insanity from dissipation, misery, poverty, wealth, profanity, blasphemy, and death are there. And Hell, yawning to receive the putrid mass, is also there.

That florid description covered Barbary Coast, where gambling, drugs, robbery and prostitution flourished, protected, in part by a corrupt city government. Destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire like the rest of the city, the Barbary Coast rose from the ashes, worse than ever. In 1912, a Chicago police captain who toured the coast called Spider Kellys dance hall and bar next door to the Hippodrome undoubtedly the worst dive in the world.

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One institution, three stories high, housed more than a hundred prostitutes. The operators were tied so closely to the crooked mayor and the city government that the place was known as the Municipal Brothel.

The place was on Jackson Street, only a block or two from what is now fashionable Jackson Square.

The days when San Francisco was a wide-open town couldnt last. Eventually, a new mayor, James Rolph, promised to close down the brothels and clean out the vice. A crusade by clergymen and the citys civic-minded women put on the heat. The campaign was led in part by William Randolph Hearsts San Francisco Examiner, which had front page stories exposing the evils of the Barbary Coast.

But the San Francisco Bulletin took a different approach. It ran a series called A Voice from the Underworld under the alias of Alice Smith. Smith, a prostitute, described the world inside a brothel and the economic forces that drove her to the citys margins.

The series was republished last fall in a book called Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute. You can read for yourself what the colorful Barbary Coast was really like.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column appears every Sunday. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf
California has long had a reputation for having one of the most difficult bar exams in the country. Now, with passage rates sagging, the state will make it easier to pass the test, which is required to be a practicing lawyer.

The California Supreme Court, the ultimate authority over the bar exam, has decided to change the way the certification score is set. The court has not yet decided where the threshold will be, but the changes will take effect in January.

The move follows a sometimes furious debate over whether the states passing score, or cut score  144  was unrealistic.

Each state offers its own bar exam, but many are moving toward more uniform exams, especially in the multiple-choice portion. What differentiates states is where they set the line for passage. For years, California had set the threshold for passing the exam higher than any other state but Delaware.

Last year, just 62 percent of first-time test takers passed in California, compared with 83 percent in New York.

And only 51 percent of the graduates of the UC Hastings College of the Law passed the exam last July. That result, Dean David Faigman wrote the California Committee of Bar Examiners in December, was outrageous and constitutes unconscionable conduct on the part of a trade association that masquerades as a state agency.

The cut score is almost everything, said Robert Anderson, a professor of corporate law at Pepperdine School of Law, who did a study of the 10 most difficult state exams in 2013. That study concluded that Californias is probably the most difficult in the country.

If California changed its minimum score to 133, which is the same as New Yorks, then I would say Californias is easy, he added. (Delawares passing score is 145.)

Proponents for keeping the score argue that state bars have an ethical obligation to protect citizens from ill-prepared lawyers.

But deans of law schools, which have been buffeted by declining enrollments, say setting the bar licensure standard so high serves only to shield the profession by keeping out large numbers of qualified lawyers.

In February, 20 deans at American Bar Association-accredited California law schools wrote the state Supreme Court asking it to set a lower passing score. A legislative hearing considered the issue, and a study was set in motion. The state Supreme Court soon stepped in to assert its authority. In amendments adopted June 21 but released this week, the court said that it must set the passing score of the examination.

Cathal Conneely, a spokesman for the court, said Thursday that the justices would decide on the cut score after they received and considered the bar examiner committee report.

Although no date was set, the justices could make that decision in September and apply the new score retroactively for those taking the exam this month, according to a Twitter post on Tuesday by Joanna Mendoza, a trustee of the State Bar of California.

Some, including Flemings Fundamentals of Law, a California bar exam preparation business that tracks the debate over the certification score, called the courts change unprecedented.

One flash point in the debate was an announcement in April that Whittier Law School, a half-century old and accredited by the American Bar Association, would close.

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Bar passage rates at Whittier, long an avenue for disadvantaged students to become lawyers, had plunged in recent years. Its passage rate hovered in the routine statewide range, about 68 percent a few years ago, but fell to 22 percent last July.

Some critics complained that a number of Whittier graduates had scores high enough that they would have passed nearly every other states bar.

The California Supreme Court also said that it would appoint a majority of the 19-member bar examiners committee, which has been criticized for including nonlawyers and political appointees.

The courts move to assert its authority was hailed by some legal professionals.

I see this development as bringing the role of the California court in bar admissions into the mainstream, said Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, a nonprofit in Madison, Wis., that constructs and scores the professional entrance exam.

Virtually all state supreme courts exercise their inherent authority to regulate the admission of lawyers more closely than has appeared to be the case in California, she said.

Elizabeth Olson is a New York Times writer.
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In an unexplained and violent outburst, a tall man in West Oakland wielding a long metal object attacked five bystanders Friday, police said.

The approximately 6-foot-7-inch man, who wore dark clothing, started swinging just before noon in the 1300 block of 12th Street near Poplar Street, according to the Oakland Police Department.
Ron Chapple/Getty Image

Police arrested two suspects after three people were shot during an altercation early Saturday near the UC Berkeley campus, authorities said.

Gunfire erupted between a group of about 10 men at 2:40 a.m. near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Bowditch Street, less than half a mile from the university, said Sgt. Cesar Melero of the Berkeley Police Department.
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On his kitchen counter, Perry Hoffman, executive chef at Shed Cafe in Healdsburg, sets down a tray of spices, including a bag of Japanese roasted black sesame seeds. Plumper and more flavorful than the pallid kernels that languish in supermarket spice bottles, Hoffman pinches a few of the heirloom seeds into his mouth, gnashing them with pleasure.

If youre putting together a new pantry, remember this, he says. Youre worth the good stuff.

Such idealism flows from the chefs dedication to beautiful, delicious farm-forward fare just last year The Chronicles restaurant critic, Michael Bauer, raved about Hoffmans ag-centric bewitchery at the cafe. (Ive never seen combinations that visually depict the bounty in such a vibrant, respectful way, Bauer wrote in his January 2016 review.)

Or such affection for premium pantry staples could be attributed to Hoffmans current state of  insert heart-eyes emoji  newlywed bliss.

In June 2015 at Barndiva restaurant in Healdsburg, Hoffman married Kristen Brott after a five-year courtship that began while they were working at Domaine Chandon  he was the chef at its now-shuttered white-tablecloth restaurant, Etoile; she was the winerys brand ambassador (shes currently the North American brand ambassador for Moet Hennessey Wines).

After a year of house hunting, the couple moved into a 1,300-square-foot 1930s cottage under towering redwoods on the banks of the Russian River. Its an idyllic home with skylights and hand-crank windows and, most importantly, an antique Wedgewood stove. It reminds me of the one I grew up with, says Hoffman, 33, who is heir to a culinary legacy: His grandparents, Don and Sally Schmitt, founded the French Laundry in 1978, selling it to Thomas Keller in 1994.

Composing their newlywed pantry is fresh in the couples memory. The goal: Curate one highly efficient larder with the good stuff. (Hoffman admits that Charleston, S.C., chef Sean Brocks famous gauntlet also guided the effort: He who dies with the biggest pantry wins.)

The essentials of the Hoffman pantry are quintessentially artisanal; from tools to spices, craftsmanship is foremost, and the initial sticker shock is often tempered by the objects longevity.

The 7-inch Shun Santoku knife, for instance, is a Japanese hand-forged carbon stainless-steel blade that Hoffman uses for everything from butchery to brunoise. Barring any unforeseen acts of god, it will outlive, by decades, any budget-cutting tool for sale at Target.

Stone mortars and pestles are ancient implements; the chef cleverly uses his granite M & P not just to grind spices, but also to make aioli, that creamy, garlicky condiment typically emulsified by kitchen gadgets with whirring blades. A mortar and pestle will make the blend richer, but somehow more delicate, he says.

Also on hand for newlywed cooking  incidentally, Kristen usually takes the lead on the dishes du jour, while her husband pretends to follow the recipes are select bottles from Sheds own pantry line, released earlier this year. The handcrafted powders, salts, pickles and shrubs are made with seasonal local harvests, including some bounty from Home Farm, the 16-acre plot owned by Shed proprietors Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Hoffmans global inspirations for the collection include the Far East (the Japanese shiso salt, for instance, can be an herbaceous flavor enhancer for plain rice or popcorn) and the Middle East. Using ras el hanout  Hoffmans version of the smoky spice is faintly floral due to dried rose petals  as a rub with salt, pepper and olive oil makes roast chicken, the first meal the couple prepared in their new home, absolutely crazy good, says Hoffman.

Dick Taylor chocolate bars from Eureka are stocked for snacking or sundae sauces (another good drizzle for ice cream, he notes, is the apple cider syrup from the Apple Farm in Mendocino County, owned by Hoffmans family). Sweet miso paste gives body and umami to salad dressing. From a cooking class, Kristen, 38, learned about the wonders of dried Marash or Nora peppers, which the couple picks up from the Spanish Table in Mill Valley: The peppers add a rich earthiness to Hoffmans paella recipe, balancing the briny-sweet seafood.

Despite the high-level trappings of the Hoffman kitchen, a surprising, low-brow device reveals the true newlywed dynamic. What is an Emeril Lagasse electric vegetable steamer doing in the home kitchen of a Michelin-starred chef? Hoffman wonders the same thing. If I want to steam vegetables, I boil some water, he teases. Despite his culinary credentials, he still could not prevent the gimmicky contraption  a holdover from Kristens bachelorette days  from taking up space in the pantry. I thought for sure Id win that battle, but I havent, says Hoffman.

Kristen chuckles, victorious.

Leilani Marie Labong is the editor of Habitat and contributing home editor. Email: food@sfchronicle.com

Russell Yip/The Chronicle

A pantry of good stuff

Beyond salts, high-quality oils and essential cookware, these are the items that Perry Hoffman and Kristen Brott keep on hand in their Healdsburg kitchen to create their own personalized pantry.

Ras el hanout, zaatar, vadouvan, smoked onion powder and other spices.

Shrubs

Apple cider syrup

White soy sauce

Chocolate bars. Lots of them. (Dick Taylor is their favorite brand.)

Sweet miso

Coffee maker (old-school Chemex plus good coffee)

Marash pepper

Espelette pepper

Microplane

A good cutting board

A good mortar and pestle

Santoku knife (Shun)

12-inch iron skillet (Le Creuset)

Recipe: Perry Hoffman's Seafood Paella
For more than 40 years, criminal defendants in California have had a right to find out if police testifying against them have a record of lying, excessive force or any other misdeeds that cast doubt on their credibility. But a new state appeals court ruling could remove a bridge to that information in a number of counties, including San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara.

The case comes from Los Angeles County, where the Sheriffs Department compiled a list of about 300 deputies with records of misconduct that might be used against them on the witness stand. The Sheriffs Department planned to turn the list over to the district attorney so it could notify a defense lawyer if one of the deputies was called as a witness, leading to a closed-door judicial hearing on possible disclosure of the records.

In a 2-1 ruling Monday, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said police personnel files are confidential under state law and cannot be revealed to the district attorney or anyone else unless a judge in a criminal case grants a defense request to review the records and then authorizes disclosure.

Otherwise, any disclosure of a law enforcement officers record, even to a prosecutor, would potentially cause stigma and irreparable harm to the individual and is forbidden by law, the court said.

Similar lists of law enforcement officers have been compiled and turned over to prosecutors offices in at least a dozen counties, including San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Officials in those counties said they were following strict procedures for personnel access established under a 1978 state law.

The state attorney generals office approved such a list for California Highway Patrol officers in 2015. The ruling, if it stands, would abolish the practice.

The San Francisco district attorneys office has kept a list of police officers and deputies with records of misconduct since 2010 and contacts defense lawyers if anyone on the list is a prospective witness. We want every person to have a fair criminal proceeding and a fair trial, said Alex Bastian, spokesman for District Attorney George Gascon.

The ruling will make it more difficult for individuals accused of a crime to obtain evidence that is relevant to their defense, said Melanie Ochoa, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who supported Los Angeles Countys defense of its decision to compile the deputies records.

But Elizabeth Gibbons, a lawyer for the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs who argued against the disclosures, said defendants will still be able to see police records in appropriate cases, only without assistance from the prosecutor.

It doesnt change anything, she said. It just protects the already existing rights of the officers.

The Sheriffs Department in Los Angeles said it is reviewing the ruling. The office could seek review by the state Supreme Court  which, in a 2015 decision, spoke favorably of San Franciscos procedures without deciding their legality.

The compilations are known as Brady lists, named for the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that required prosecutors to turn over any evidence they had that might help to clear a criminal defendant.

The impact of that ruling was initially limited in California by state laws, backed by powerful police organizations, that kept officers personnel files confidential. But a 1974 California Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Pitchess, entitled defense lawyers to information about misconduct in an officers recent past that might affect his or her credibility as a witness.

Under the decision, which the Legislature wrote into state law four years later, a defendant who claimed an officer was lying, for example, could obtain information that the officer had been prosecuted or disciplined for fabrications in the previous five years. Evidence about bigotry or brutality during the same period can also be disclosed when relevant to the officers testimony.

The defense lawyer must file a request, known as a Pitchess motion, that describes why a specific officers records could contain information that would affect the jurys assessment of his or her testimony. A judge who grants such a request then reviews the records in private and decides what to turn over  usually just the names and contact information of those who have filed successful complaints against the officer, but sometimes the records themselves.

Those procedures are still available. But last weeks ruling would eliminate an option in counties such as San Francisco that aids defendants by informing their lawyers when an officer has a record of misconduct, and by adding the prosecutors support to the request for police records.

The state Supreme Court looked at San Franciscos procedures in a 2015 case that involved a narrower question: whether the examination of an officers personnel record should be done first by the Police Department or the district attorney. The court said unanimously that only police could access the confidential files.

But the justices also said the Police Department had laudably established procedures to streamline the Pitchess/Brady process by sending relevant information to the district attorneys office for further review, and possible addition to the offices Brady list. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the list itself was legal, however, and the Los Angeles appeals court was unswayed by the commendation.

Such brief comment ... is not the same as formal legal approval, the appeals court majority said before prohibiting the Sheriffs Department from relaying the records to prosecutors.

Teresa Drenick, spokeswoman for Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley, said her office believes the appellate decision is inconsistent with the spirit of the (state Supreme Court) ruling.

Stanford Law Professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the schools Criminal Justice Center, predicted the issue would again reach the states high court, which would have to decide whether the states confidentiality laws interfered with a defendants constitutional right to a fair trial.

He said the same issue is brewing in other states and could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Its uncharted territory, Weisberg said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
Tibet Airlines set to fly to Kathmandu

Nepal is going to get yet another flying option to China. The Lhasa-based Tibet Airlines will be joining the Kathmandus Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from July 20, making it the largest air connectivity with five airlines from the northern neighbour, as Nepal continues to draw Chinese tourists.
Tyranny vs reason

Watching the Mandala Theatres translation of Sophocles classic tragedy Antigone, one is reminded of how, even though the earth keeps rolling for two millennia, even after such technological advancements, so much of the human condition still remains the same.
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Before Angels in America became associated with Broadway, HBO and the first discussions of AIDS in countless American homes, the groundbreaking production was playing to sold-out crowds in a small theater in the Mission District.

Within weeks of its 1991 premiere, Angels became almost too popular for one city  and certainly for a playhouse the size of the Eureka Theatre, which had just a couple of hundred seats when it was located on 16th Street in San Francisco. The Eureka commissioned Tony Kushner to write the play, and even at the beginning of the run, with the second part of Angels still in development, he recognized the scope of what he was creating.

I wanted to write about my own experiences being gay, and there was no way to write about being gay without writing about the AIDS crisis, Kushner told Chronicle contributor Michael Fox on May 19, 1991, a few days before the play opened. As a disease that is about the breakdown of the immune system, AIDS is a metaphor for planetary breakdown.

It might have been the best-known production in the 45-year history of the Eureka, where the curtain came down for the last time on July 5. But the Eurekas legacy includes much more than one play.

The Eureka was a nurturer of San Francisco live theater and comedy. Actors Danny Glover, Geoff Hoyle and Carl Lumbly got their start there; so did director Tony Taccone.

In the early 2000s, the SF Sketchfest comedy festival staged some of its first productions at the Eureka. In recent years, the Eureka supported many childrens theater programs.

But the theater will forever be linked to Angels in America, subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, which explored the tragedies, complex relationships and hypocrisies of gay life in Ronald Reagan-era America.

Kushner conceived of Angels in the 1980s, while his first play, A Bright Room Called Day, was being staged at the Eureka. After the theater commissioned Angels, the National Endowment for the Arts and Fund for American Plays got behind it as well.

The Chronicle was already abuzz about the project in 1990, as word spread that Kushners work was going to be something special. Chronicle theater critic Steven Winns review of the first half of the play, Millennium Approaches, appeared on the front of Datebook, and he made the most of every column inch  declaring the 3-hour performance a caustic, mysterious, funny, moving, provocative and enthralling new drama.

These first public performances of Angels in America fulfill a long-nurtured dream, Winn wrote on May 27, 1991. For us the chance to witness Kushners extraordinary creation ... is a blessing and a privilege.

Steve Ringman / The Chronicle 1991

Chronicle photographer Steve Ringman was there as well, taking photos of co-stars Michael Ornstein and Stephen Spinella in black and white and color. (The Chronicle had just started printing color photos in the early 1990s.)

Although Millennium Approaches was close to being completed, the second part, Perestroika, presented the following night, was less so. Later reports on the show had the still-in-progress second half being read in the Eureka by actors with scripts in their hands. Perestroika officially premiered in 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the entire play opened on Broadway in 1993.

More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.

The Eureka Theatre continued producing plays through the 1990s, before moving in 1998 from the Mission District to the old Gateway Cinema in the Financial District. The theater will operate at its current 215 Jackson St. location under new management as the Gateway Theatre.

Kushners career continued to thrive after Angels. He has written movies in recent years, receiving Oscar nominations for the screenplays of Steven Spielbergs Munich and Lincoln, both acclaimed films that feature politically charged past events that resonate with present-day audiences.

Life is completely political, Kushner told The Chronicle in 1991. Theres no retreat from politics anywhere. You live in the mouth of the dragon.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub
But why do Australians usually think the worst of our closest neighbours? Amazingly, few have even been there. OK, the fares arent cheap and the hotel prices are mostly exorbitant. But I would have imagined a sense of curiosity, at least, might have driven more just to take a look.

Three members of an independent electoral watchdog resigned, feeling they had been prevented from carrying out their task.

Large numbers of voters were left off the new rolls and counting is still at an early stage, although its a week today since polling stopped. At this rate, Australias national broadband network roll-out may be finished first.

MANY Australians, perhaps most, merely have been shrugging at news of the shoddy administration of Papua New Guineas five-yearly election.

I arrived to work there a few months after PNGs rushed push for independence in 1975. The mood was infectiously optimistic, the level of commitment to the new country of 812 languages, intense.

Before self-government in 1973, the Australian government had invested little in PNG  of which Papua, the southern half, had been a colony since 1906, with New Guinea, the northern part, being mandated to Australia first by the League of Nations after World War I, then by the UN after World War II.

There were very few permanent roads, and none connecting the two regions of Papua and New Guinea  a plight that, astonishingly, hasnt changed in the 42 years since then.

Most schooling and health work in rural PNG, where the great majority continue to live, was run by the mainstream churches, not by the government. Employment opportunities were scant. The limited housing in towns was supplied by workplaces, which remains common, with many of the rapidly increasing town dwellers living in scrounged or nailed-together shanties.

The adrenalin kicked in by independence and freedom pumped impressively for the first couple of years, during which the program to prepare locals for key jobs seemed to be working well.

The streets of the towns were safe, though public transport pretty well disappeared after dark. Schools were neat and tidy, public libraries were available in key centres, the ABC-equivalent broadcast a broad range of quality programs.

The bureaucracy largely responded in a timely way to the public  although following a victory by the public servants union, the government stopped work, and still does, at 4.06pm daily.

I recall the shocked conversations when the Ombudsman Commission announced its first case under the Leadership Code, leading to the dismissal as culture minister of Moses Sasakila over a wantok receiving a free airfare.

Surely not in PNG, many said. It is a devoutly Christian country  certainly more so than Australia, for instance. No public occasion is complete without lengthy prayers and preferably hymns, too.

But PNG is also, it would seem, a nation of many sinners.

Why is it languishing as 154th, alongside Zimbabwe, of 188 countries in the UNs latest Human Development Index? Its living standards have improved substantially, according to the HDI, during the past 25 years. But others have improved more.

Life expectancy, at 62.8 years, is almost 20 years below that of Australians, and PNG provides education, on average, for only half as long.

The country faces many physical as well as social challenges. But the chief hurdle at which it appears to fall is a moral one  that of corruption. The country is 136th of 176 countries on Transparency Internationals index.

This derives from a vicious circle. Living in a society that has failed to develop at the pace or to the level that they long have had a right to expect  or that even has fallen backwards  many will take a chance to pull their extended family, their wantoks, up the ladder to a better life.

Indeed, they will view it as their highest moral imperative  well, a level below the Ten Commandments or the gospel, but those are viewed by many as essentially aspirational  to seize an opportunity, whether it might be labelled corrupt or not, for a windfall to help the family.

Once this idea got a grip, and with diligent competence remaining only modestly or poorly rewarded, then it became more difficult to turn down payments for services.

The examples at the top were and remain crucial.

Culturally in PNG  and Australia isnt much better  leaders tend to love deals and ribbon-cutting, and shun involvement in the nitty-gritty of competently delivering services and maintaining infrastructure. The choices involved in deal-making lend themselves to personal opportunity.

Although PNG is a country of eight million, its elite circle is small, and word soon gets around about the beneficiaries of deals. A friend, for instance, told me how his uncle was a driver for a minister who used to send him weekly to pick up a briefcase containing cash from a casino run by logging interests.

Lesser fish find it easier to justify to themselves feeding off corrupt earnings when the big fish often seem to do so with scant constraint.

Peter ONeill, the Prime Minister for the past six years  whose mother was from the Southern Highlands, his father a PNG magistrate originally from Williamstown in Melbourne  has vowed to introduce an independent commission against corruption.

But systemic barriers, opposition from MPs and his own apparent reluctance to invest sufficient political capital have combined to prevent its establishment so far.

The need is encapsulated in a meticulously detailed 812-page report into one particular nest of alleged corruption by a parliamentary-appointed commission of inquiry headed by PNG and New Zealand judges and a famously upright veteran PNG business leader. This alleged that a cabal of top public servants and lawyers, including the then finance secretary and solicitor-general, had stolen more than $300 million from their own government via sham compensation claims.

In all but five of the 783 cases it investigated, the government  whose officials were in on the scam  paid out on default judgments or out-of-court settlements so the concocted claims were never tested in court.

Criminal prosecution of 57 named figures including 14 prominent lawyers was recommended.

Since the report was delivered in 2010 to Michael Somare, the prime minister at the time, it has languished. None of the alleged culprits has been charged and many even have been promoted.

I was sent a rare copy of the report, which for years was injuncted by some of those named in it, with my own injunction written on the cover: Do us justice, Rowan. Sadly, despite this newspapers best efforts on that front, Ive let down the sender.

No wonder that corruption cascades down from such levels, so that many coveted official documents become available on the market  from driving licences to passports. More general crime also takes its cue from this perception of anything goes among many of those in authority.

In most other respects, this is a country and a people who should be going places. It is achingly beautiful. Its highlands  reaching to 4500m  have a perfect climate to grow almost anything, it has hundreds of exquisite islands, it remains highly prospective for gas, oil and metals, it retains in lively form its traditional cultures.

But these are viewed by many as barriers and burdens rather than opportunities to establish, for instance, a great tourism centre.

Crucially, PNG needs the kind of jobs that booming tourism can create. The population is growing dangerously fast. Bored youngsters inevitably become troublemakers. No one is unemployable, although of course education is vital. People are quick on the uptake.

Irish firm Digicel drove the introduction of mobiles, which became swiftly and widely available thanks to commercial savvy, not that of the many state-owned enterprises constantly hovering on the verge of privatisation. Mainly due to government control of utilities, just 15 per cent of PNG has electricity.

My experience running a publishing firm there taught me that PNGs women perform especially capably as managers, given the chance. But cultural barriers continue to hold them back in public life. Many women celebrated, rather sadly in hindsight, getting even three elected to the outgoing parliament  alongside 108 men.

The country has enough strong institutions to see it through rough patches.

People believe in democracy, as affirmed by the high proportion turning up to vote at this election even though incompetence or worse prevented many from actually voting.

The courts remain largely independent. Media outlets are lively and capable of speaking truth to power. The churches retain the loyalty of the majority. There are capable and focused non-government organisations.

But PNG also needs its best in the political arena that continues to mesmerise many there.

At present, a bitterness overshadows this world, between the two most prominent leaders to have emerged, aside from Somare  ONeill, likely to retain office for a further five years relatively comfortably, looking at the results in so far, and economist and former prime minister Mekere Morauta.

The battles ahead  for starters, to manage better the economy and the public service, to host next years Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, to hold the 2019 referendum on Bougainville independence  require PNGs talents working together unselfishly.

The political game of thrones of the past hasnt worked too well, as we have seen.
Vizag port offers low cost, link to China: Officials

Officials at the Visakhapatnam Port have urged Nepali traders to make more use of the seaport in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh citing cost of ferrying goods from the port is lower.
SACRAMENTO  Five years after California ended a program that helped pay for affordable housing, lawmakers are eager to create a new permanent stream of public funding to spur development amid what they say is the states worst housing crisis.

Lawmakers  concerned that soaring rents and a scarcity of affordable homes have pushed families into poverty or onto streets  are negotiating a deal with Gov. Jerry Brown to create funding sources and relax restrictions on development to kick-start a building boom. A vote on legislation may come next week.

The housing crisis, they say, is partially due to the state ending its 60-year-old program that infused $1 billion a year into redevelopment agencies, which had to set aside a portion for affordable housing. At the same time, the state has exhausted nearly $5 billion in affordable-housing bonds that voters passed in 2002 and 2006. Those changes, coupled with local restrictions on development, such as zoning laws that prohibit high-density housing, have led to a decrease in the stock of new homes, lawmakers say.

Developers built an average of 80,000 homes in California each year over the past decade, far short of the 180,000 needed each year, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. In prior years, about 160,000 homes a year were built.

California is in the most intense housing crisis in our states history, said Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco. For the millions of Californians who are suffering, Sacramento needs to act. There is no silver bullet to the housing crisis.

This year, lawmakers introduced 130 housing-related bills, some allowing new fees and new borrowing to fund development and others forcing reluctant cities to approve high-density and low-income units.

Among the most talked about bills is SB2 by state Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, which would create a permanent $300 million-a-year fund for low-income and affordable housing. The fund would be supported by new $75 to $225 recording fees on real estate documents and property transactions, with an exception for home sales. The fee would apply to documents like deeds and notices of default.

Another bill, SB3 by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would ask voters in 2018 to approve $3 billion in general obligation bonds to build more rental housing for low-income families and to fund other existing housing programs, such as developments near mass-transit centers.

Lawmakers are also seeking to divert more money from the states cap-and-trade program  which requires businesses to buy permits for their greenhouse gas emissions  to affordable housing that reduces transportation pollution, such as projects that add high-density housing near public transit. Already, the state sets aside 20 percent of cap-and-trade revenue for such housing.

Brown wants new funding to be tied to the easing of restrictions on home building.

One example of that is SB35, a bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, to streamline the approval process for new housing units in cities that arent creating the amount set by state law.

Another is AB73 by Chiu to give cities financial incentives to rezone developments near mass transit for high-density housing.

Lawmakers are also seeking legislation to strengthen the states Housing Accountability Act, which bars cities from turning away development for arbitrary reasons, such as complaints by neighbors who oppose change.

All communities must participate in creating the housing we need, Wiener said. Decisions about housing in one community affect other communities.

Nicole Boliaux/The Chronicle

Homeownership in California has dropped to 1940s levels. Meanwhile, the cost of rental housing has skyrocketed. California counties lead the nation for having the most expensive rental housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Among the top 10 least affordable counties in the nation, California held seven spots, and six were in the Bay Area: Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, called the states ranking an embarrassing honor to hold and a devastating hardship for our communities.

Deals to spur development have fallen through in recent years. This year, however, the governor is demanding that the Legislature approve the extension of cap and trade  and legislative leaders have delayed that vote to gain leverage in their negotiations with the governor over the housing legislation.

Browns spokesman, Evan Westrup, called discussions over housing legislation productive and ongoing. Westrup said the governor agreed to work on a housing deal and the extension of the states system for fighting climate change at the same time at the request of the Assembly. And that could mean both plans are voted on next week before the Legislature adjourns for summer recess July 21.

The California Housing Consortium  an affordable-housing advocacy group  estimates that 1.5 million affordable units are needed for the lowest-income brackets to meet the states needs.

California has been in the midst of a housing crisis for years, and I think what gets us where we are today is a general feeling that the crisis has moved to a catastrophe, said Ray Pearl, executive director of the California Housing Consortium. The catastrophe is real. There are low-income Californians on the brink of homelessness. You cant pick up a newspaper that doesnt mention homelessness on the rise across the state. I think we are finally at a point where it equals action.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
A dramatic change planned for California elections next year is morphing into a partisan battle over how the states ballots should be cast.

When Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB450 in September, it was billed as a new way to boost Californias falling election turnout. Mailing a ballot to every voter in participating counties and replacing the traditional neighborhood polling places with a relative handful of community voting centers would cut costs and make it easier to cast a ballot.

This landmark law will provide voters more options for when, where and how they cast a ballot, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who sponsored what has been dubbed the California Voters Choice Act, said in a statement at the time. The bill, he said, will increase civic participation and make our democracy stronger.

But Padilla was far less jolly last month after Orange County supervisors, worried about what they said was the potential for abuse, unanimously refused to sign on to his plan, dismissing it without discussion.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

I have real concerns about voter fraud, Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who made the motion to reject Padillas plan, told the Orange County Register.

In an unusually blunt letter to the supervisors, Padilla urged them to reconsider, arguing that the boards refusal to allow a public discussion of these proven reforms is particularly concerning.

The secretary, a former Democratic legislator, slammed the all-Republican board, arguing that its decision was driven less by the interests of the people of Orange County and more by political considerations.

While Orange County had a right to reject the voluntary voting plan, Padilla was outraged by the way it was done.

This is absolutely a concern, which is why I spoke out right away, Padilla said in an interview. If theres a discussion, Im good to go with it. But it has to be done the right way and not with the false issue of voter fraud.

While Padilla talks about the good-government aspects of his voting plan, in California bringing new voters to the polls generally means bringing new Democratic voters to the polls. Young people, low-income residents and minorities make up a large chunk of the states nonvoters. Theyre also demographic groups likely to register as Democrats. Making it easier for them to vote isnt likely to help the GOPs already-shrinking numbers in California.

That concern hasnt been lost on Republicans, even before President Trump began complaining, without providing any evidence, that the only reason he lost the popular vote in November was because of millions of illegal votes cast in California and a couple of other states.

We have a philosophical divide with our Republican colleagues on vote-by-mail, said Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, a San Mateo Democrat who helped shepherd the bill through. They talk about the increased likelihood of voter fraud, even though theres little evidence that its a problem and no evidence that its linked to vote-by-mail.

But Republicans and their allies also may be reacting to what they see as a full-court press by Padilla and other Democrats to expand the voter rolls without considering the consequences.

In the past couple of years, bills have been passed that automatically register people as voters when they receive or renew their drivers licenses, allow people to register to vote on election day, count mail ballots that arrive after election day and grant permission for people other than relatives to collect and turn in vote-by-mail ballots.

Were not trying to keep people from voting, but were worried that there arent enough safeguards, said David Wolfe, legislative director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which opposed Padillas bill. Were concerned about vote fraud.

Its not only Republicans who are concerned about the bill.

Some of the concerns are legitimate, said Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, a group whose goal is to modernize California elections and make it easier for people to vote in the state.

Part of the problem is that the new rules will take effect in three stages, with 14 counties cleared to move to the new voting system in 2018, most of the rest of the state in 2020 and sprawling Los Angeles County, which contains more than a quarter of the states registered voters, expected to join after 2022.

Each of those counties has to set up its own rules for implementing the plan.

Since this is happening county by county, theres a real possibility for confusion, Alexander said, with one county getting all mail ballots and the one next door having different rules.

The state also allows counties to opt out of the program, at least in part because if the state required the new system, the state would have to pay for it.

Thats one of the reasons that the refusal of Orange County, one of those 14 counties in the first wave, is so significant.

If the partisan tag the Orange County supervisors gave the voting bill sticks, it could make it tougher for Padilla to spread his program statewide.

Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle 2016

A lot of the smaller, rural counties in the state are run by Republican boards of supervisors, Alexander said.

In the Bay Area, Napa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties were supposed to be among that first group of counties. While San Mateo and Napa counties are ready to go for 2018, Santa Clara County will delay until at least 2020, citing the costs and short timeline for the changeover.

San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area will be watching to see what happens next year.

For us, its going to be a matter of observing and learning from the problems the other counties have, said John Arntz, San Franciscos elections chief.

There always are going to be concerns, though, he said.

The new voting system is going to basically extinguish polling places from our city, and theres a real attachment in San Francisco to local polling places, Arntz said.

Even though about two-thirds of the citys vote come from mailed ballots, as many as 25 percent of them are still hand-carried to the polls.

San Franciscos unique position as both a city and county also could make a difference in its election rules, Arntz added.

Padilla, though, believes the new voting plan is flexible enough to deal with any local problems.

He has no intention of stepping back from his efforts to make it easier and more convenient for Californians to vote.

I stand by my policies, he said. The new voting rules bring more people who are eligible to the polls, and thats a good thing.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth
If you worry that Burning Man has become too corporate, you won't be reassured by the news that desert art festival's sacred temple this year will be brought to you by PG&E. Literally, they're bringing the wood to the party.

The utility donated more than 100 logs for construction of the temple, "a solemn and sacred space" in Black Rock City, Nev. The logs are from pine trees felled along Highway 108 in Tuolumne County for to protect power lines and motorists, PG&E says.

"Like a phoenix, once majestic Ponderosa pine trees, destroyed by drought and bark beetles, will obtain new life in The Temple at Burning Man," states a Currents post on PG&E's site.

It will be a very short life, of course, as the temple is burned to the ground at the end of the week-long fest Aug. 27-Sept. 4.

Now Playing: KTVU's Amber Lee has the report. Video: JW Player

"The temple has been a space where people can grapple with facing death, and it's incredibly appropriate this year that we're using the material that we are because it represents the death in the forest from drought and bark beetle," Steve Brummond, a leader of the crew that won the bid to build the temple, told the utility.

Before becoming the walls of the playa's sanctuary for death-grappling burners, the logs are milled into lumber, cut to size and assembled into a dry-run version of the temple by dozens of volunteers in Oakland. The test temple, which was being built Friday, will be disassembled before being trucked to Black Rock Desert.

You might think that a company that recently aired court-mandated ads apologizing for the deadly 2010 pipeline explosion that destroyed 38 homes in a San Bruno neighborhood might shy away from an event that promotes burning structures.

But as Corey Peters, PG&E vegetation management supervisor, explains:

"They're building this really cool temple out of trees that have died in the forests that would have had to come down and be removed, anyway. In essence, we're helping recycle the forest in a unique way."

So it's actually a recycling project.

As for Burning Man, free wood is good wood. You don't look a gift log in the knothole.
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Monsters, princesses, dragons and sundry superheroes descended on Japantown Saturday and, by and large, stood around and stared at each other, the weather being too hot for shooting ray guns or cutting each others heads off with swords.

It was the annual Anime and Cosplay Festival, and only those people who know what anime and cosplay are showed up. Those who dont drove past Japantown in cars, slowly, and stared at the small army of people in fluorescent wigs.

Im a divine goddess, said Jasmine Kathleen of San Francisco, who was decked out in a white and purple outfit, the kind that anime heroine Ishtar Rin wears, the kind that empowers her to shoot bolts of fire at bad guys from her gigantic moon, she explained, or tried to.

Next to her was Shelly Bakugou of San Francisco, who was all set to punch bad guys as her alter ego, Yang Xioa Long, a superhero in a brown bodice and yellow hair who, she said, is most adept at vanquishing villains with supercharged fists, which she possessed in her imagination.

Anime is the Japanese form of fantastical animation. cosplay is short for costume play, which is the formal name for pretending its Halloween in the middle of July.

A lot of these people are normal people, said organizer Greg Vilora, as one of them walked by carrying lightning bolts. This festival allows people to do something different from their 8-to-5 lives.

And that was surely true for Caitlin Morris of San Ramon, decked out in a red kimono, who said cosplay helped her figure out who she is inside.

I was a really shy person and wouldnt talk to anybody, she said. This brought me out of my shell.

It also brought her to the middle of the main Japantown plaza, beneath the giant pagoda, alongside scores of fellow costumed creations. The great thing about the Japantown festival, many superheroes said, was that it didnt cost anything. Usually, such proceedings are held at role-playing conventions inside giant halls where it can cost $100 or more to get in.

The festivalgoers said they were excited about guest appearances by cosplaying superstars Reika and Cheru, even if few other people on planet Earth had any idea who Reika and Cheru were. But most of the time at the festival was spent standing around, gawking at everyone else and taking selfies with them, after first laying down sword or ray gun to facilitate the operation of the cell phone.

On the plaza, vendors were selling hundreds of different anime key chains and stuffed animals, for up to $50 per key chain.

I couldnt tell you, off the top of my head, said key chain vendor Sue Lee, when asked to identify the names of the key chain characters. There are so many.

The hardest working fellow seemed to be a man inside the giant yellow robot costume of the character Bumblebee, from the Transformer movies. His name was Lionel Lum and the line to have your picture taken standing alongside him was about 10 people long.

Bumblebee, said Lum, is pretty good at beating up the evil Decepticons, his sworn enemies. In addition, Bumblebee can transform himself from a robot into a Chevrolet Camaro whenever he chooses, which is what makes a transformer a transformer. Thats something that he himself cannot do, said Lum.

I wish I could, said Lum, from somewhere deep inside his costume. I like Camaros. Ive always liked Camaros.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
United Airlines has quietly unveiled technology that it will use to manage the problem of oversold flights  and, in the same breath, turn them into a profit opportunity.

With the help of its Flex-Schedule Program, the airline is trying to buck the trend of involuntary bumping  kicking passengers off oversold flights  without necessarily offering four-figure payouts to passengers at the gate, or curbing their practice of overselling inventory. (The airline suffered a publicity black eye this year when police dragged a man off an overbooked plane, and has since promised to offer high-price rewards to fliers who agree to change flights at the last minute.)

Instead, itll simply offer buyouts earlier  up to five days in advance. The upside? United can resell your ticket at a wider profit margin.

In partnership with Volantio, an aviation technology startup in Atlanta, United will soon begin sending email newsletters with subject lines such as Are You Flexible with Your Travels to Los Angeles? Inside, travelers will have the option to sign up for potential rewards  so long as theyre willing to budge a little on their itineraries.

Only those who book on United.com and opt in to receive marketing messages will be eligible for the offer  and signing up doesnt guarantee that youll be asked to change your flight.

If its looking like your seat has turned into a hot commodity, though, youll be offered the chance to tweak your itinerary in exchange for a travel voucher up to $250. And tweak is the key word: Youll never be asked to change dates or airports, and your seat preferences will carry over, with clear indicators if youre taking a downgrade from Economy Plus to regular-old Economy. (Downgrades will be rare; upgrades even rarer.) Accept the bid if you wish, and youll be rebooked within 24 hours.

After months of negative press  the doctor who was dragged off the plane, the infant whose $1,000 seat was inadvertently resold  Uniteds image has taken a nosedive.

Azim Barodawala, the CEO of Volantio who created the technology and brought it to United, said the flex program could change circumstances with the help of innovation rather than regulations.

If you can offer a buyout to a customer in advance, everyone will be happier, he said. For airlines, it represents a release valve  a way to shuffle people around when youre capacity-constrained. This benefits the customer as well. Youre creating choice for them, and thats what gets me really excited.

But Dave Bartels, vice president for pricing and revenue management at United, doesnt see the program as having a lot to do with overbooking.

Although there will be times when it helps to move people off an overcrowded plane  whether it was oversold, lost capacity due to an aircraft change or had to reduce weight loads due to hot weather  he said the main goal is to free up a valuable seat and offer it to someone who needs it more. It wont mean were overbooking the aircraft more because we have this tool, he said. But I also dont know why it would lead to less overbooking.

When Barodawala brought his idea to United, he used a metaphor involving three egg cartons, each lined up along their short sides. He filled them with a mixture of red- and green-dyed eggs: bargain shoppers and deep-pocketed business travelers. What would you say, Barodawala asked, if you could move some of these red eggs (to empty slots in a different carton), and just replace them with green eggs?

The executives lit up at the idea. As the board spitballed over how much this could represent to their bottom line each year, exorbitant numbers were thrown around: eight figures? Nine?

Its too premature to put a number to it, Bartels said. But hell be looking to evaluate that by August, when the pilot program is set to end.

Whatever the number, the program is a rare win for both company and customer. Its a way for airlines to create revenue without relying on ancillary fees  an annoying tactic that has dominated the aviation business in recent years. And for business travelers who often book at the last minute, itll open up space on sought-after routes.

If theres a way to entice fliers to rebook prematurely on oversold or problematic flights, gate agents and customer service staff stand to see their stress levels go down, too. And leisure travelers  who can now accept vouchers from home, without rushing to the airport and clearing security first  come up winners as well.

Heres how United will think about making offers. Lets say the 5 oclock flight from Chicago to Boston normally sells 12 seats in the three days before it departs, Bartels said, hypothetically. If I see that that flight is full a week ahead, Ill be pretty confident that I can resell any seats that I open up based on my seasonalized historical patterns.

So hell reach out by email to a handful of opted-in passengers  the pilot program will target a limited group of MileagePlus members  offering them seats on the less-desirable 3 p.m. or 8 p.m. departures. (Again, hypothetical.)

Bartels indicates that leisure travelers will be the likely swappers on major business routes. Thats where were more likely to have an alternate option thats appealing to someone, he said. And theyre also the routes that executives are likely to need last-minute, no matter the price.

Barodawala sees potential for the technology to be even more useful. If someone is going to New York to Los Angeles via Chicago, he said, and its the New York-to-Chicago route thats oversold, why not offer the passenger a direct ticket from New York to Los Angeles? Youd nix their connection, he said, and open up a highly valuable seat.

The same goes for passengers at risk of missing a connection due to disruptions: The airline could offer your seat to someone whose priority is getting there faster, and you could take their seat on a later flight that youll actually make. He envisioned a clean swap: no fees, no empty seats, no frantic rebookings, and happy customers all around.

Nikki Ekstein is a Bloomberg writer. Email: nekstein@bloomberg.net
In an unexplained and violent outburst, a tall man in West Oakland wielding a long metal object attacked five bystanders Friday, police said.

The approximately 6-foot-7-inch man, who wore dark clothing, started swinging just before noon in the 1300 block of 12th Street near Poplar Street, according to the Oakland Police Department.
A serial cat killer in San Jose who pleaded guilty to torturing and dismembering a number of beloved neighborhood felines was sentenced Friday to a maximum term of 16 years in jail.

Robert Farmer, 26, pleaded guilty in October to 21 felony counts of animal cruelty. Though Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sharon Chatman imposed the strictest sentence she could on Farmer, she did not require him to register as a sex offender as county prosecutors had requested.

Prosecutors and owners of the cats alleged that Farmer had sexually abused one of the slain felines, but the judge rejected that argument.

The owners of the dead cats  police say he killed up to 16 of them, though only four bodies were recovered  say that Farmer terrorized their Cambrian Park neighborhood in south San Jose for months, causing pet owners to keep outdoor cats inside as animal after animal disappeared.

Gayle Goodson, a self-described cat-lover  who owns three felines  and supporter of those who lost their pets, said the courtroom was packed. There were tears when pet owners spoke about their beloved cats and what they meant to them, Goodson said, followed by a big sigh of relief when Farmer was sentenced.

We are disappointed that the judge did not require Farmer to register as a sex offender, Goodson said, but we understand her reasoning, though we may not necessarily agree with it.

Dozens of animal rights activists had joined the victims in demanding a stringent sentence for Farmer, spurred on by an online petition that gathered tens of thousands of signatures. The bereaved cat lovers started a campaign to hold Farmer accountable  writing letters to the judge, calling up the district attorneys office and creating memes demanding justice on a Facebook group called Justice for our CATZ.

Because he does not have to register as a sex offender, Farmer will serve his time  with almost two years in credit for time served  in county jail, not state prison. His attorney, Wesley Schroeder, said his client could be released in as little as 4 years.

He got max sentence 16 YEARS !!!, a woman wrote on the Facebook group, adding a thumbs-up emoji. The woman wrote that Farmer was murdering animals in the neighborhood where he grew up, among people who trusted him.

Others chimed in, commenting that it was too bad that the judge didnt include the sex offender requirement.

When Farmer is released, he will have to register for probation until the terms of his entire 16-year sentence are satisfied. Conditions of his probation include staying away from Cambrian Park, not owning or caring for any animal for 10 years and undergoing mandatory psychological treatment.

Police said they arrested Farmer in October 2015 inside a car, where they found a beaten and bloody corpse of a cat in a garbage bag, along with an assortment of collars.

Schroeder said the countys probation officer had recommended a sentence of nine years, which the judge nearly doubled.

The attorney had argued that Farmer had for years before the cat killings lived with an increasing number of mental health issues, for which he had received no treatment. That, coupled with a methamphetamine addiction, did not excuse Farmers horrific actions, he said.

But Schroeder said Farmers long-running addiction acted as an accelerant to a spiral of problems that resulted in the death of the felines.

The underlying problem was that the match had already been lit, but the meth just made it more extensive, Schroeder said.

Farmer was stuck in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation, Schroeder said, adding that he hoped he would be able to help Farmer obtain counseling and medication while in jail so this does not happen again.
Police arrested two suspects after three people were shot during an altercation early Saturday near the UC Berkeley campus, authorities said.

Gunfire erupted between a group of about 10 men at 2:40 a.m. near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Bowditch Street, less than half a mile from the university, said Sgt. Cesar Melero of the Berkeley Police Department.
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A UC Berkeley student who posted a criticism of the Berkeley Police Department that went viral this month was arrested following nearly three dozen instances of vandalism, much of it racist, just south of campus, police said Friday.

Ismael Chamu, 21, was arrested in San Francisco on Thursday night on suspicion of the graffiti vandalism, according to the Berkeley Police Department. He was held in Berkeley jail under $85,000 bail, records show.

Chamu had earlier been arrested around 3 a.m. on June 28 and then released without charges after police stopped him in the same area just south of the campus, said Sgt. Andrew Frankel, a spokesman for the Berkeley Police Department.

An ensuing investigation following the late-June incident pointed to Chamu as responsible for the vandalism on Hillside Avenue near Prospect Street in the heart of Berkeley, Frankel said.

Among the 35 documented incidents of vandalism, according to police: a car spray-painted with he term f white ppl, and buildings with the phrase kill cops and an A stylized apparently to stand for anarchy.

Frankel said the vandalism was reported at 6:49 a.m. on June 28, after a victim came out of his home on Prospect Street to find his car tagged.

The victim turns around to go back into the house and sees his front gate tagged and his partners car tagged, Frankel said. And he turns around and starts looking around the neighborhood and sees a number of his neighbors properties have been vandalized.

At least 13 victims were identified, Frankel said, adding that investigators had no reason to believe the vandalism was targeted.

Officers said that on June 28 they were investigating a report of a burglary at a nearby home and stopped Chamu because he matched the description of one of the burglars. Frankel said officers discovered an illegal switchblade on Chamu, leading them to arrest him.

In an ensuing Facebook post that has since either been deleted or made private, Chamu railed against Berkeley police and the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, which booked him into jail.

The undergraduate, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, has a history of espousing far-left and activist causes on his personal Facebook page. On it, the 21-year-old describes himself as A Tea Party Republican that Identifies as a Communist who likes to Revolution and Chill.

A second student, 21-year-old Peter Estrada, was arrested Friday, the Berkeleyside website reported.

Frankel said investigators were probing the incident as a hate crime because of the language targeting people based on their race.

No charges were filed Friday in the vandalism case, according to a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorneys Office. She did not respond when asked why the June 28 weapons case against Chamu was dropped.

Following his initial arrest, Chamu penned a Facebook post that quickly went viral, Berkeleyside reported. The Berkeley publication reported that in the post, which was shared thousands of times and garnered widespread support  including from Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin  Chamu accused police of racially profiling him for being Mexican.

In the post, according to Berkeleyside, Chamu said that sheriffs deputies when booking him into jail mocked him for not speaking English, adding that they also made assorted racial remarks.

He also reportedly wrote that he was kidnapped by armed agents, an experience that humiliated and traumatized him.

Frankel, the Berkeley police spokesman, declined to comment on the allegations. Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriffs Department, said he made the departments internal affairs unit aware of them.

Kelly said that no internal affairs investigation had been opened, however, because Chamu did not report the matter. The spokesman added that he had no reason to believe any of these allegations are true.

In his Facebook post, Chamu reportedly did not mention the switch-blade.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
Welcome home, Spidey

Its some time after the young Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) had been called on to be part of that all-star superhero brawl in Berlin we were shown in Captain America: Civil War.
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A country legend's former Tennessee home is up for sale.

Dolly Parton's old abode at 3146 Glencliff in Nashville is on the market for $1.2 million. According to the seller, Parton acquired the home during the 1980's and sold it in 1996.

HOUSTON MANSION: River Oaks manse built for a prince hits the market

"It's a very comfortable house, very private," said owner Oveta Pyburn, who ran a bed and breakfast in the home.

Story continues below...

The 4,795 square-foot house was built in 1941, according to Realtor Donna Brewer. It comes with four bedrooms and three full bathrooms. The house has a carport, covered porch and wood floors.

"Although the price may seem high to some, this is not just a house but an amazing home on 2.4 acres," Brewer told Chron.com. "The property is gated, with plenty of parking and the 'building out back' that my sellers dearly love is where many great times have been had singing and entertaining over the years."

Click through the gallery above to see inside Dolly Parton's former Nashville home.
NEW YORK  As Air Force One flew home from Europe, news was set to break about a meeting that Donald Trumps eldest son had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, promising yet another round of unwelcome headlines about the president and Russia. And that happened twice within a week.

The day-after-day drip-drip-drip of revelations over the past week about Donald Trump Jr.s contact with the Russian lawyer in 2016 underscores the White Houses inability to shake off the Russia story and close the book on a narrative that casts a shadow over Trumps presidency. No matter how presidential Trump may have looked on his back-to-back trips to Europe in recent days, the persistent questions about connections between Trumps team and Russia prevent him from savoring a public relations victory and building momentum for his stalled legislative agenda.

Omissions are as harmful as contradictions because it seems like youre hiding something, Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said of the Trump teams strategy. From a communications standpoint, its unforgivable.

Indeed, Trump Jr.s account of his Trump Tower meeting has changed on an almost daily basis. At first, the meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was forced to release emails  mere moments before the New York Times planned to do so  that revealed he had told an associate that he would love Russias help in obtaining negative details about the Democratic nominee.

Even the number of people who attended the meeting has changed. On Friday, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist told the Associated Press that he, too, had been part of the discussion.

Each revelation, no matter how small, has been seized upon by Democrats and dissected in detail on cable news. The investigations have thrown the White House off balance, leaving some officials on edge about whether there are more disclosures to come.

On Saturday, the White House announced that Trump had hired Washington attorney Ty Cobb to serve as his special counsel to handle the White Houses response to the Russia probes. The move reflects the presidents growing acceptance that the investigations will linger over his tenure for months or even years.

The firestorm over Trump Jr.s emails has been a frustrating distraction during a stretch in which some White House advisers believed they were finding their footing. Trumps allies also were heartened by his trips to Europe, believing that his speech saluting national pride in Poland was a high point of his presidency and that he appeared statesmanlike during a whirlwind visit to Paris.

But behind the scenes, a group of Trump aides gathered in a cabin on the presidential aircraft flying home from Germany last weekend to begin preparing for the initial fallout from Trump Jr.s 2016 meeting. And then just six days later, as Air Force One was returning from France, more news was breaking about Trump Jr.s shifting account of the meeting, again launching a bad news cycle and straining the credibility of the presidents defense team.

Even if the Russia questions dont end in legal consequences for Trump, they can still inflict serious political damage if allowed to needlessly drag out.

I dont know that theres anyone powerful enough on the team to marshal this and get all the facts out now, Fleischer said.

Jonathan Lemire is an Associated Press writer.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.  The Trump administration is struggling to get support from skeptical U.S. governors for a revised health care bill awaiting action in the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma made their pitches Saturday during a closed-door meeting of the bipartisan National Governors Association. Vice President Mike Pence also met several of the governors privately after his public address at the Rhode Island conference Friday.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, one of the bills most prominent Republican skeptics, said Saturday its unlikely they changed anyones mind.

I am struggling to validate the numbers that are being presented to me by the administration, versus what Im hearing from independent (experts), what Ill likely hear from the (Congressional Budget Office), what Im hearing from back home, Sandoval said after the governors-only meeting.

Sandoval has expressed concerns about the legislations cuts to the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled. His position is important because of the pressure he could place on Nevadas Republican Sen. Dean Heller, a possible swing vote.

With two GOP senators already opposed to the legislation, one more no vote would kill the bill outright in a Senate divided 52-48 between Republicans and Democrats. Sandoval said Sen. Hellers his own man, but Sandoval is trying to give him the best information about how the legislation would affect their state.

Hes the United States senator. At the end of the day, hes the one who pushes the button, Sandoval said. Im going to inform him about how I feel about the bill.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said the mood at the Saturday meeting was tense and that there are a lot of Republican governors who apparently have a neck problem, because they were all looking down.

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he had an extensive meeting Friday with Pence and Price and were hopeful theyre going to get to a point where theyre going to have a repeal-and-replace that works. Walker declined to say if he supports the current version.

I havent read through it all yet, so Ive still got to look at it, Walker said.

The conferences host, Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo, said she didnt think anyones mind was changed.

Matt OBrien is an Associated Press writer.
A landlord who insists that rent be paid by traditional mail cannot take action against a tenant if the money doesnt arrive. But thats only the case if proper postage was applied, and the rent money was sent with the correct address and in sufficient time to hit the due date, a California court ruled last week.

Thats how California law deals with debt collection, an appellate court said in a ruling made public Thursday that spared a 30-year apartment tenant and her family from eviction.

The tenant, Maximina Mateo, said she mailed a money order for the $523.98 monthly rent to her Los Angeles apartment managers post office box shortly before it was due on Sept. 1, 2015, as she had done for the past three decades. On Sept. 5, the manager, Victor Ricks, told the family he had not received the money, and directed them to pay within three days or move out.

They did neither, and Ricks and the property owner, Sleep EZ, sued for eviction and damages. The case went to trial in mid-October 2015, and on the first day, Mateo got her envelope back from the post office with a sticker saying it was undeliverable. Court documents did not indicate why the money order was undeliverable, but the judges ruling signaled that the tenant was not at fault.

Ricks testified that he had never agreed the rental obligation would be satisfied by simply mailing the money order. But the court said he had agreed to exactly that condition by issuing a lease that said the rent was to be paid to landlord by U.S. Mail.

Ordinarily, a mailed-in debt is not considered to be paid until the creditor receives it, the Appellate Division of the Los Angeles County Superior Court said. But the court quoted a state law specifying that if a creditor tells the debtor how to pay the debt, the obligation is extinguished by performance in that manner, even though the creditor does not receive the benefit of such performance.

Under that law, the court said, the Mateos satisfied their obligation by putting the money order in the mail on time, with the right address and postage.

In the landlord-tenant context, beneficiaries of this rule are exemplified by persons such as (the Mateos), who dutifully pay their monthly rent and whose payment is lost through no fault of their own, Judge Alex Ricciardulli said in the 3-0 ruling.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
KENT, Ohio (AP)  Two Ohio college students are set for an epic Tinder date in Hawaii that's been three years in the making.

Kent State University students Josh Avsec and Michelle Arendas have been sporadically messaging each other on the dating platform since September 2014.
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.

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HURGHADA, Egypt  The Egyptian university graduate who stabbed two German women to death at a popular Red Sea resort first sat and spoke to them in fluent German before producing a large kitchen knife and attacking them, security officials said Saturday.

Leaving them for dead, Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, 29, fled the scene, chased by hotel workers and security guards. He rushed into the hotel next door where he attacked and wounded four female tourists who, according to local media reports, included two Armenians, one from Ukraine and another from the Czech Republic.

Stay back, I am not after Egyptians, Shaaban shouted in Arabic at his pursuers, according to the officials. They eventually caught up with him, disarmed and pinned him down and later handed him over to the police. Shaaban stabbed the women in the face, neck and feet, said the officials.

No group claimed responsibility for the Friday attack, but it appeared to have been inspired by recent calls made by the local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group for its followers to attack Egypts minority Christians and foreign tourists.

The officials said Abdel-Rahman hails from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh where he attended the business school of the local branch of Al-Azhar University  the worlds foremost seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the target of mounting criticism in recent months over its alleged radical teachings and doctrinal rigidity.

Investigators were still trying to determine how Shaaban came to be in Hurghada, one of Egypts main Red Sea resorts, popular for its year-round sunny weather and diving. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

A statement by the national security prosecutions office, which is questioning Shaaban in Cairo, said Saturday that his motives and ideological convictions remained unclear. The characterization of the action committed by the culprit, whether it is an individual act, criminal or terrorist, is not clear to the prosecution at this time, said the statement.

Police are meanwhile interviewing 15 hotel workers to piece together what happened.

Germany on Saturday gave the first official confirmation that the two tourists killed by Shaaban were German nationals, but gave no other information. Local German media reports, however, said the two were residing in Hurghada, not tourists.

Ahmed Hatem and Hamza Hendawi are Associated Press writers.
DOHA, Qatar  Frances foreign minister on Saturday called on Qatars neighbors to immediately lift measures impacting thousands of people in the Gulf, becoming the latest foreign diplomat to visit the region and attempt to find a resolution to a crisis that has dragged on for more than a month.

In early June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and moved to isolate the small, but wealthy Gulf nation, canceling air routes between their capitals and Qatars and closing their airspace to Qatari flights. Saudi Arabia also sealed Qatars only land border, impacting a key source of food imports in the mostly desert nation.

The four countries also expelled all Qatari nationals, impacting mixed-nationality families in the Gulf, students and people seeking medical treatment abroad, among others. Prior to the dispute, Qataris could travel visa-free between the Gulf countries.

France Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said such punitive measures should end.

France is calling for these measures to be lifted, especially ones that affect the (Qatari) population, specifically measures that impact bi-national families that have been separated, Le Drian said.

He was speaking in Qatar alongside Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said he welcomed mediation efforts and possible negotiations so long as they are founded on respect for sovereignty.

The Arab quartet has demanded Qatar end its support of extremist groups. Other demands include shutting down Qatars flagship Al-Jazeera network, curbing ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in Qatar.

Qatar has rejected the demands, saying the list in its entirety infringes on national sovereignty. Qatar also rejects allegations it has supported terror groups.

Despite the blockade by the four Arab countries, life has not been impacted significantly in Qatar. The government has stepped in to help pay additional costs of shipping and has looked to its allies, like Turkey, for food imports.

Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in the Gulf, meeting separately with officials in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which is trying to mediate the dispute.

Fay Abuelgasim and Aya Batrawy are Associated Press writers.
TEPEACA, Mexico  The police officers gripped their assault rifles tightly as they stared at the men filling plastic tanks and loading them onto a dozen pickup trucks in a cornfield in central Mexico. Even though a crime was being committed in front of them, the officers said it was too dangerous to move in.

They had to wait until the army arrived to advance because the suspects were better-armed than they were and an earlier attempt to arrest them had been repelled by gunfire, officials said.

In the morning there were 40 trucks loading, said Francisco, a security employee with the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, who asked that his last name not be used for safety reasons. We saw them loading, we went in, and they started shooting at us. The criminals had an armored car.

The suspects werent cartel traffickers loading a drug shipment, but gasoline thieves tapping a state-owned pipeline  a form of organized crime that is growing in Mexico and has led to a series of deadly encounters.

Fuel theft in Mexico used to be a few villagers drilling holes in pipelines and carrying away the gasoline in jugs. But the heavy arms and violence seen in Tuesdays confrontation in Puebla state reflect its growth into a billion-dollar business that supplies not just the people selling gas on the sides of highways  called huachicoleros  but factories and gasoline station chains.

It has become an industrial-scale operation, involving a string of villages and hamlets along pipeline routes, not just in Puebla, but in Guanajuato, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and other Mexican states. The government says more than 6,000 illegal pipeline taps were found in 2016 and officials have been detecting an average of about 20 taps a day this year. It estimates fuel theft costs Mexico about $1 billion a year.

The fuel theft gangs often have the support of corrupt local officials and the residents of towns that rely on the income from pipeline tapping. Two mayors have been arrested for involvement in the trade.

As the stakes have risen, fuel theft has become a blood industry.

In early July, nine people were killed, including five men whose bodies were burned, in a dispute between fuel thieves in the town of Huehuetlan in Puebla state. Morales said the killings involved a gang of distributors trying to collect from local vendors who were unable to meet their sales quotas because of police raids.

The battle against the fuel thieves has left a strange huachicolero landscape east of Mexico City. Fields are littered with leaking illegal taps, abandoned fuel tanks and Mad Max-style vehicles whose interiors have been ripped out to hold thousand-liter tanks.

Mark Stevenson is an Associated Press writer.
HAVANA  Cuban President Raul Castro has denounced President Trumps tougher line on relations with Havana, calling it a setback but promising to continue working to normalize ties between the former Cold War rivals.

Castros comments to Cubas National Assembly on Friday were his first on Trumps June announcement of a partial rollback of the Cuba-U.S. detente achieved by then-President Barack Obama. They contained echoes of the harsh rhetoric of the past.
BEIRUT  Clashes have broken out in northwestern Syria between two of the most powerful insurgent groups, raising fears of widespread violence in the rebel-held province of Idlib, the groups and an opposition monitor said Saturday.

The fighting between the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al Sham  Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee  that is also known as HTS, are the first serious acts of violence since both sides reached a truce in February. Wider clashes between the two former allies could affect their fight against President Bashar Assads forces who have been gaining ground over the past year under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Idlib has taken on greater significance in Syrias civil war as opposition fighters and militants head, or are driven, there from the countrys central and northern regions. Bordering Turkey, Idlib has welcomed thousands of insurgents who left the countrys largest city of Aleppo when it fell to Assads forces in December in the governments biggest victory since the crisis began in March 2011.

Hundreds of others also headed to Idlib this year from suburbs of the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs as part of population transfer deals with the government.

Ahrar al-Sham said in a statement Saturday that the al Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee is sending reinforcements to the town of Saraqeb and the Jabal al-Zawiya region in preparation for an attack. It accused HTS of acts of tyranny.

The Ibaa News Agency of HTS accused Ahrar al-Sham of setting up checkpoints and detaining one of its commanders and his bodyguard, adding that HTS removed the checkpoints later by force.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes late Friday were concentrated near the village of Tel Touqan. It added that after the clashes, Ahrar al-Sham briefly cut water supplies to the provincial capital of Idlib that is mostly controlled by HTS.

HTS is a coalition led by Fatah al-Sham Front that was formerly known as the Nusra Front. The group announced last year it was changing its name to Hayat Tahrir al Sham and had cut all contacts with al Qaeda to market itself as a Syrian group.

In the northern city of Raqqa, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces pressed ahead in their offensive aiming to retake the de facto capital of the Islamic State. The attack on the city began on June 6.

Bassem Mroue is an Associated Press writer.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  A visiting United Nations envoy said torture remains endemic and routine in Sri Lankas counterterrorism methods and a number of persons being detained without trial under a harsh antiterror law is a stain on the countrys reputation.

Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, said at the end of a five-day visit to Sri Lanka that he is concerned that even those arrested as recently as late last year had been subjected to torture despite a new government promising to end such practices.

The abuses continued even after Sri Lankas bloody civil war ended in 2009 when government troops crushed ethnic Tamil rebels 26-year campaign for an independent state. Both sides were accused of serious human rights violations in the conflict.

In Sri Lanka, however, such practices are very deeply ingrained in the security sector and all of the evidence points to the conclusion that the use of torture has been, and remains today, endemic and routine, for those arrested and detained on national security grounds, Emmerson said.

The number of deaths in the conflict is not clear, and a conservative U.N estimate suggests 100,000 had died. A subsequent U.N. report said at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting.

Emmerson said he heard distressing stories during his interviews with former and current detainees under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They included asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, the pulling out of fingernails, the insertion of needles beneath the fingernails, the use of various forms of water torture, the suspension of individuals for several hours by their thumbs and the mutilation of genitals.

He said he obtained official figures that said 70 persons detained under the terrorism act had been in detention for more than five years without trial, with 12 for more than 10 years.

These staggering figures are a stain on Sri Lankas international reputation. Steps should be taken to release these individuals on bail immediately, or bring them to trial within weeks or months, not years or decades, he said.

President Maithripala Sirisenas government co-sponsored a U.N resolution in 2015 promising to address the past and ensure accountability and reconciliation.

Krishan Francis is an Associated Press writer.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act Friday with an amendment by Rep. Dan Donovan seeking equity for Staten Island veteran-students.

The House voted 344-81 to pass the bill with Donovan's amendment, which requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to redo its 2014 analysis of Staten Island housing costs.

"This isn't the end of the fight, but it's a step in the right direction. The Department of Defense needs to merge Staten Island's military housing area with the rest of New York City," said Donovan.

Veterans enrolled in Staten Island colleges are getting far less for their housing stipends than elsewhere in the five boroughs.

The Basic Allowance for Housing, or BAH, is part of the GI bill and gives a higher maximum allowance for students enrolled in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens than it does for Staten Island.

Rep. Daniel Donovan argues the disparity gives veteran-students an incentive to attend school elsewhere, even if Staten Island institutions better fit their education needs.

The DOD has a formula to determine BAH payments by calculating average rental prices in 300 different Military Housing Areas.

New York City is divided into two Military Housing Areas: one consisting of Staten Island and one made up of the four other boroughs.

The military provides BAH assistance to student-veterans according to the Military Housing Area in which their school is located, not according to where the veteran actually lives.

U.S. Census data shows Staten Island's median gross rent is within $50 of Brooklyn's and $100 more than the Bronx. But students attending a Brooklyn or Bronx college receive up to $1,413 per month more than students attending a Staten Island college.

Staten Island's lower housing stipends -- despite rent prices comparable to other boroughs -- discourages veteran-students from attending college on Staten Island.

"While I continue my push to make that (merging Staten Island's military housing) a reality, my amendment requires DOD to update its Staten Island rental analysis, hopefully resulting in a boost for student-vets," said Donovan.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island mom wants to remind parents to be diligent about checking their children's candy year-round after she says she found a razor blade inside a piece of chocolate purchased in a Great Kills deli.

Jenna Argento Dapolito said she purchased the ChocoTreasure chocolate toy surprise egg, which she said are very popular for children on YouTube, for the first time for her two-year-old daughter.

After opening the box, she gave her daughter the egg-shaped chocolate, which was covered in foil, for her daughter to open.

"Peeling the foil off is half of the fun," Argento Dapolito said.

Once the foil was peeled off and the chocolate is eaten, you're left with a plastic egg -- like the ones you would hide on Easter -- that contains the surprise.

She was not prepared for the surprise that was inside.

"I opened the plastic egg, because at two-years-old you don't really have the dexterity to open it, and handed her the toy that was inside," she said.

"And my daughter handed me back a dirty razor."

She immediately checked her daughter's hands to see if she had been cut by blade. Thankfully, there were no injuries.

Then, she called the deli to alert them of what happened.

"The deli is so great and this had absolutely nothing to do with them. [The owners] we so upset and extremely apologetic. They immediately removed them from the register where they were displayed and said they were going to contact their distributor," she said.

The Food and Drug Administration was also contacted and Argento Dapolito said a spokeswoman told her they would be looking into the incident as criminal tampering.

Pictures of the product and the razor were also posted to a popular Staten Island parenting Facebook page.

"The only reason I even put it up there is because when businesses buy things, they usually get them in bulk, so who knows how many other people may have bought them," she said.

"I'm just thankful nobody was injured. This could have turned out so, so, so badly."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A wrongful-death lawsuit alleges a construction worker was killed four months ago at a Chelsea job site when he was crushed by a large conveyor that swung into him while being hoisted by two cranes.

Maria Veloso, the wife and administrator of Antonio Manuel Veloso's estate, has sued the crane companies, rigger and several other parties stemming from the tragic episode on March 10 at 356 Meredith Ave., the site of Staten Island Asphalt Inc.

The suit, filed in state Supreme Court, St. George, alleges the victim was killed due to the defendants' "carelessness, negligence, wanton and willful disregard."

It seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Frank V. Floriani, Maria Veloso's lawyer, declined comment on the case.

According to Advance reports, police said Veloso, 54, a New Jersey resident, was severely injured when a load fell off a crane at about 4:20 p.m. A police spokesman could not immediately provide information then about the load.

Veloso was conscious and alert after the incident, but shortly afterward began experiencing pain and difficulty breathing, said police.

He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, suffering from severe trauma and cardiac arrest, said the Fire Department.

He was pronounced dead at 5:17 p.m. about an hour after the incident, police said.

Police this week said they are still investigating the incident but provided no details on the probe.

According to the civil complaint, Veloso, a member of the Laborers International Union of North America Local 1010, was an employee of C.A.C Industries Inc.

The Queens-based company specializes in heavy construction, such as water main and sewer installation, utility work, highway work and paving, its web site says.

The complaint does not specify the work C.A.C. and Veloso were performing, but says Veloso was "lawfully" on the premises as a C.A.C. worker.

Veloso was fatally injured "when a drag slat conveyor in the process of being hoisted by two cranes operated by Cranes, Inc. and John J. Gall Crane Service Inc. and rigged by JV Trucking & Rigging LLC, were caused to swing into, strike and crush decedent," alleges the complaint.

A horizontal support beam "caught" the conveyor, causing it to swing into Veloso, the complaint contends.

Constructed from I-beams, drag slat conveyors are very large and handle bulk materials.

Based in its investigation, the city Buildings Department suspended the master rigger and hoist-machine operator licenses of Joseph Volpe of JV Trucking & Rigging after the incident, said an agency spokesman.

Volpe was cited for five violations: Use of unqualified rigging crew personnel, failure to adequately plan for rigging operations at the site, inadequate safety measures during the operation of a crane or hoisting equipment, failure to immediately notify Buildings after an accident, and continuing to use hoisting equipment after an incident without agency approval, the spokesman said.

Volpe has since surrendered his master rigger's license; the hoist-machine operator's license remains suspended for a year, said the spokesman.

Buildings also issued 11 violations to the property owner, 364 Meredith Avenue, LLC, including unlicensed electrical work performed without a permit and occupying multiple adjacent properties without valid certificates of occupancy.

A Buildings spokesman previously told the Advance there were no active construction permits for the site, but the hoisting work didn't require a permit.

JV Trucking & Rigging, 364 Meredith Avenue LLC, Cranes, Inc., Gall, Staten Island Asphalt and Women Work Construction Corp. are among the named defendants.

Women Work Construction is based at the incident site and has the same principal as Staten Island Asphalt and 364 Meredith Avenue, LLC, according to online records of the New York state Department of State.

After the incident, a Staten Island Asphalt spokeswoman said the company mourned Veloso's loss in the "tragic accident," adding the firm was fully cooperating with an investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

An OSHA spokesman said this week the agency is still probing the incident and doesn't comment on ongoing investigations. Such investigations can take up to six months to complete, he said.

Citations are not issued until the inspections are concluded, and only if OSHA finds safety and health violations, said the spokesman.

A representative of John J. Gall Crane Service said the company was unaware of the lawsuit and declined comment, as did a representative of Cranes, Inc.

Messages left for Staten Island Asphalt, Women Work Construction, 364 Meredith Avenue LLC and JV Trucking & Rigging were not immediately returned.
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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe7cf00)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec38920)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe7cf00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec38920)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efea5330)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec38920)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec38920)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74dc998)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612efe7c870)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612efe7c870)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0226c78)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011eeb8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0226c78)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011eeb8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f022b868)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011eeb8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011eeb8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eef4a3d0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0121248)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0121248)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
A new style of "skill-based" slot machines is being investigated by Australian gambling authorities following their roll-out across some of the biggest casinos in the world.

Several jurisdictions in the United States have passed reforms in recent months permitting arcade-style gambling machines, which determine payouts on player ability as well as chance, to be installed on casino floors alongside traditional poker machines.

Gamblit's skill-based machines debuted in Las Vegas in March. Credit:BSK Photo

The so-called skill-based machines have more in common with video games and are aimed at drawing in a younger generation of gamblers who are not interested in the pokies.

New machines include shooting games, racing games, card games, and can be single or multi-player. So far, they have been rolled out in states including Nevada, home to Las Vegas, and New Jersey, home to Atlantic City.
The distribution of economic power in our biggest cities is shifting as the baby-boomer generation moves into retirement.

Regions of Sydney and Melbourne, which traditionally had the highest incomes, are surrendering that position as their communities get older.

In Sydney, the affluent north shore, which takes in a swag of exclusive suburbs including Mosman, Castlecrag and Turramurra, had the weakest income growth of any part of the city between the 2011 census and 2016 census.

A decade ago the median household income in the north shore statistical district  called "North Sydney and Hornsby" by the Bureau of Statistics  was 51 per cent higher than the city-wide median. But the 2016 census, released last month, showed that premium had been slashed to 33 per cent.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy skies early followed by a mixture of light rain and snow in the afternoon. High 38F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 50%..

Tonight

Occasional snow showers. Low 28F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Have you heard the joke about the premiers who refused to ban single-use plastic bags? No, you haven't. Because that shit isn't funny.

What's it going to take? What will it take for the premiers of NSW, Victoria and WA to catch up to the rest of the country and ban the bag? Why do Gladys Berejiklian, Daniel Andrews and Mark McGowan think giving us the silent treatment will work?

I've been told by someone within one of their offices that their leader is surprised that calls to ban the bag won't disappear. It's the political equivalent of a baby struggling with object permanence. They can close their eyes, but thousands of exasperated Australians will still be standing before them demanding action.

In the past three months we've seen two national TV programs campaign to ban the bag, and 160,000 Australians sign a petition calling for the same.
Fears Sydney would experience its coldest day in two years on Sunday morning have abated thanks to a change in air temperatures.

Instead, Sydneysiders can look forward to a sunny, albeit slightly below average, start of the week with a minimum of 7 degrees and a top of 17.

Rugged up Sydneysiders at Manly as the weather turns cold over the weekend. Credit:Nick Moir

Duty forecaster Andrew Haigh from the Bureau of Meteorology said it would be a cold start to the day in the morning, with some frost in the west.

"The west will experience a minimum of zero to 2 degrees, which is below the July average," Mr Haigh said.
Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer recently held a routine meeting with the head of a major bank in her Melbourne office.

The CEO was taken aback to find a cot in the room.

"He was surprised, but not in a bad way," Ms O'Dwyer told Fairfax Media, adding the two even had a photo taken in front of the cot, so he could demonstrate the set-up to his organisation.

For Ms O'Dwyer, the first cabinet minister to have a baby while in office, the cot it just a fact of life. She has recently returned to full-time work after having her second baby, Edward, in April.
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne says he wants Australia to become a major arms exporter on par with Britain, France and Germany and use exports to cement relationships with countries in volatile regions such as the Middle East.

The ambitious goal, outlined in an interview with Fairfax Media, would mean Australia not only builds but also designs major military hardware such as naval warships and possiblyeven submarines.

And he says such exports can be used to bolster military ties with key countries in the Middle East such as the United Arab Emirates, with whom Australia shares interests such as the fight against Islamic State and balancing Iran's growing power in the region.

Mr Pyne said that in an increasingly uncertain world, Australia should have greater self-sufficiency in building its defence capability. But this would also require creating an industry of a size and sophistication that can export.
Oliver Curtis and Roxy Jacenko are getting married ... again.

Curtis, 31, who was freed from Cooma Correctional Centre last month after a year behind bars on insider trading charges, surprised Jacenko, 37, his wife of four years, with the proposal in a private suite at Sydney's luxury Four Seasons Hotel on Friday night.

Jacenko believed she was "picking up a friend" in Woollahra, but Curtis had instructed her two Sweaty Betty employees to "make a wrong turn" and drive her to the CBD. Once they got to the hotel, Jacenko said she was "shoved" out the door of the car and handed an envelope with a key and instructions on how to get to the room.

Waiting for her in the candlelight was Curtis with champagne and gold balloons that spelled out, "Marry me? Again".
Channel Nine has high hopes for its new Karl Stefanovic vehicle, This Time Next Year, which has been in the pipeline for more than a year now.

Indeed, a lot has changed for Stefanovic since this time last year, which makes the premise of the new show somewhat ironic.

Cassandra Thorburn and Karl Stefanovic were married for 21 years before things fell apart in the past 12 months.

According to Nine's promotional blurb, every "inspirational episode" of This Time Next Year will feature people from across the country who pledge to change their lives in one year  whether it is to overcome a setback, find love, reunite with a relative or even achieve a world record.

Thanks to some judicious editing and through the magic of television, the result of each year-long pledge is then revealed in an instant.
Actors Ansel Elgort and Lily James and director Edgar Wright stepped out in Sydney for the Australian premiere of Baby Driver, aka "The Fast and the Furious  The Musical".

Most of those lining the black carpet at Event Cinemas George Street on Wednesday were teenage girls, some bearing Australian gifts such as soft-toy koalas and kangaroos, to entice the Manhattan-born heartthrob Elgort, 23, to stop for a selfie.

But there was no need. Elgort, who rose to fame as teen idol Augustus Waters in 2014's The Fault in Our Stars, gave Tom Cruise a run for his title as the celebrity most likely to fulfil his promotional meet-and-greet obligations by posing up to as many fans as he could get near.

Ever the showman, Elgort made sure not to disappoint media, either. While other celebrities usually laugh off journalists' requests for an outlandish soundbite, when asked for a tune, the eager-to-please star belted out Lionel Richie's Easy (like a Sunday morning) without giving it a second thought.
A fat-shaming media storm has done nothing to diminish Mia Freedman's brand or bottom line.

The 45-year-old digital publisher is now a bestselling Australian author after sales figures obtained by Fairfax Media reveal her latest book has sold close to 17,000 hard copies. An accomplishment literary experts deem "a fast and successful book".

Mia Freedman, publisher of the Mamamia website, made a hash of an interview with Roxane Gay.

Last week Work Strife Balance became a No.1 bestseller within the Biography/Autobiography: The Arts category, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which monitors book sales through almost all outlets except Kindle and Kobo, who refused to comment when approached by Fairfax Media.

The memoir, which retails for $34.99, is her fourth foray into long-form writing and after just 15 weeks on stands it is already her most successful book having sold 16,988 copies.
He then said point-blank: "I am going to kill you." He punched me in the face and the force of the blow was so powerful that it knocked me off my feet and onto my back. I lay in the dirt, immobilised by fear, as he moved on top of me. They call this the "freeze response" and I have since learnt that most sexual assault victims experience this sort of shock and paralysis. Then I felt the life being choked out of me. His hand was on my throat, my trachea was being crushed and I could taste blood in my mouth. I was also vaguely aware of a deep pain beginning to grow in my shoulders and back. Hours later, at Gladesville police station, I'd be photographed and swabbed. I'd be asked to go into a small room and remove my top. Once in there, I would examine my body in the mirror and find what would soon become dark bruising across my back  bruising that was apparently caused while the weight of my attacker's body ground my flesh into large, protruding tree roots. It was very painful. It was embodied. It physically hurt. I didn't 'witness' violence, I endured it.

During the assault, though, I didn't process that sort of detail. All I could think was: How can this be happening to me? Is this for real? Then my mind went somewhere else altogether. I shut my eyes tight and an old, forgotten memory played like a video before my eyes. I've since been told that my brain was valiantly trying to protect me from the trauma of what was occurring to me. In transporting me to a safer time and place, it was trying to shield me from what was happening. And yet, just as quickly as I'd slipped into that dissociative state, I slipped back out of it. And when I did, I found myself looking directly into my attacker's face, only inches from my own. His grasp was still on my throat. I couldn't breathe and couldn't move. I felt a sharp pain across my body and I remember thinking: I don't want to die. Not like this. When it comes to sexual assault, women are forever being asked: "Why didn't you say no?" or "Why didn't you fight back?"

As though a rapist would ever listen. As though victims are the ones who should be responsible for preventing the violence we experience. If you really want to know why most women don't fight back, it's because of one of two things: either we are immobilised by fear, or we assume that fighting back will make things worse. This is, after all, something that has been drummed in to us all from a very tender age. But that night I did fight back. Not at first, and not because I am courageous. The reason I fought was because adrenalin took over and I had nothing to lose. My mind had eventually caught up and computed that I was in a kill-or-be-killed situation. And if I was going to die anyway, why not fight the f---er? Get his DNA, if nothing else. I'll never forget the look of shock and surprise on his face when I said that. What I don't remember is exactly what happened in the next few moments. Again, this is not uncommon. The nature of trauma means that survivors often have memory gaps or recollections that don't add up.

One counsellor explained that if your memory is like a filing cabinet, a traumatic event will effectively toss all the files onto the floor, mess them around and then shove them back in. Some files are lost. Others get out of order. She also told me that she's never once met a sexual assault survivor who had perfect, chronological recall. Such is the nature of trauma. And yet I've also been told that if I ever go to court, defence lawyers will almost certainly try to use my memory gaps against me. I can look forward to some smug lawyer arrogantly trying to discredit me by painting me as an "unreliable witness". The fact that I'm even classified as a "witness" frustrates me to tears. I wasn't sitting outside my body, eating popcorn and watching this happen from the sidelines. It was very painful. It was embodied. It physically hurt. I didn't "witness" violence, I endured it. I've also been advised that, in addition to my memory gaps, the fact that I had been drinking that night will almost certainly be used against me. I'll be painted as licentious. As slutty. As stupid. As a liar.

But to be very clear, my memory gaps are not evidence that I am lying. To the contrary, they are evidence of the traumatic nature of the violence I have experienced. So here is what I do remember. I remember a sudden feeling of lightness on my chest and an awareness that there wasn't a heavy body on me any more. I have no recollection of climbing to my feet but I do remember being in a standing position and noticing a small amount of blood on my hand. I remember wondering if it was my blood or his (this would later turn out to be a defensive wound). Then I remember picking up my bag and reaching for my mobile and dialling triple zero. The week following my assault, I was sitting in my first-ever sexual assault counselling session. "Now, pet, you know this wasn't your fault, right?" I bristled. Not my fault? Not my fault? Of course it's not my bloody fault.

"Why would you assume I blame myself?" I asked the counsellor. "I don't think it's my fault. Do you think it's my fault?" "Absolutely not," she quickly replied. "It's just that most people who walk through my door do blame themselves." "My issue is not going to be that I blame myself," I said. "My problem is going to be anger management over what happened." I still wanted to kill the guy. My counsellor laughed sympathetically.

Over the coming months I'd return for weekly sessions at the sexual assault centre. From time to time I'd see other women sitting in the waiting room and I'd think to myself that they all looked so very normal. I would study these women and try to guess how they felt. Shocked, alone, numb, ashamed, furious, despairing, powerless, exhausted I wondered if they blamed themselves, like the counsellor had said, or if they felt angry, just like me. And as I'd look at them, I'd wonder about the assailants: the men  because yes, they are mostly men  who produce a need for such services. I'd wonder how they could possibly justify their actions and choices to themselves. I'd wonder if they had any idea of the pain and anguish they were causing or whether they simply didn't care. And as I'd watch these women, it was all I could do not to cry tears of anger for them, for me, and for the sheer injustice of it all. Not all women will be raped or sexually assaulted. But one in five will. And the other four will live in dread of it happening to them. The only way to fix this is to work to reduce sexual assault. Prevention  not silence  is what will eliminate the fear. Tackling sexual assault is a complex task. It requires that we address gender inequality, male entitlement, patriarchal attitudes, consent education, bystanders, and the judicial system.
A new campaign by an Australian Muslim community is encouraging people to "meet a Muslim" over coffee and cake.

Muslims Down Under, a group of volunteers from across Australia, are willing to answer any and all questions members of the public may have about their faith when they book in for a one-on-one coffee with a practising Muslim through their website.

'Meet A Muslim' campaign members, from Baitul Huda Mosque in Marsden Park, are encouraging one-on-one contact with the community. Credit:James Brickwood

Imam Mohammed Atae Rabbi Hadi, a leader at Baitul Huda mosque at Sydney's Marsden Park and the national spokesperson for the group, says the initiative is designed to counter misinformation about Islam and an increase in extremism "not only on the side of Muslims, but also on the other side, in the far right".

"Why not meet an Aussie Muslim, and get to know them and see you have so much in common?"
When one of Australia's biggest political donors sought to deny links to a secretive Chinese Communist Party lobbying organisation, he did so in the style befitting a billionaire.

Chau Chak Wing, who has given more than $4 million to the major parties, instructed his lawyer to write to the chief executive of Fairfax Media, Greg Hywood, and the ABC's managing director, Michelle Guthrie. He demanded apologies, saying: "Chau has no knowledge of an entity referred to ... as the United Front Work Department".

Chau Chak Wing, second from right, meeting United Front Work Department officials in 2016.

Late last month, Chau also conducted an "exclusive", front-page interview with the Murdoch newspaper, The Australian, in which he claimed he had "no idea" of the existence of the organisation.

"As to the entity referred to by the ABC as the 'united front work department', I have no idea what this is," Mr Chau said in the story, referring to a joint Fairfax Media and Four Corners investigation aired last month.
Having had a love of photography since she was young, Tace Stevens has turned a childhood hobby into a potential career thanks to the work of Flashpoint Labs, a photography agency and academy focused on developing the skills of young, Indigenous photographers.

Since attending a workshop with Flashpoint in 2015, Ms Stevens has been able to find ongoing employment with the agency and this year, will be part of the team photographing the iconic Sun-Herald City2Surf presented by Westpac.

Tace Stevens will be photographing the Sun-Herald City2Surf as an apprentice with Flashpoint Labs. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Being a Bibbulman and Spinifex woman from Perth and remote WA, Ms Stevens said she was looking forward to her first ever City2Surf.

"It's a massive event so I'm excited to see what the day holds," she said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has mounted a defence of coal-powered electricity, saying those who think the resource doesn't have a future are "delusional".

Addressing the Liberal National Party state convention in Brisbane, Mr Turnbull hit out at the state Labor government's "reckless" plans to ensure Queensland's energy supply is carbon neutral by 2050 and said Australia had an interest in ensuring the future of coal.

"Those people who say coal and other fossil fuels have no future are delusional and they fly in the face of all of the economic forecasts," he told the crowd of party faithful.

His sentiments were greeted with applause by the crowd, who a day earlier had passed a resolution urging a future state LNP government to promote and support the coal industry.
Camilla grew up in an old rectory in East Sussex and described her childhood as "perfect in every way". It was like an upper-class childhood by Enid Blyton, with Camilla playing George  an Arcadian playground of pony clubs, fox hunts and decorous parties.

Her life has been remarkable. It also reinforces, time and again, what a small island Her Majesty's United Kingdom is. Camilla's mother had the same obstetrician and nurse as the Queen when she was delivered of Prince Charles 16 months later. It could be said that the same pair of hands introduced both to the world.

Incredibly, July 17 also marks the 70th birthday of the woman who the House thought would destroy it. Of course, Miss Camilla Shand not only survived to become consort of the heir to the House, HRH, GCVO and Privy Counsellor but, at least in the eyes of her husband, his saviour.

Monday marks the centenary of the creation of the House of Windsor, when George V, rattled by the depth of anti-German feeling at the height of the Great War, deftly anglicised the Coburgian dynasty to the unswervingly British "Windsor". George's cousin, the Kaiser, quipped that he looked forward to seeing a performance of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Camilla was the eldest daughter of Major Bruce Shand and the Hon. Rosalind Cubitt. The Major had won the Military Cross twice, was a Master of Foxhounds and a successful wine merchant. Rosalind was the daughter of 3rd Baron Ashcombe, while her mother, Sonia, was the daughter of Alice Keppel, Edward VII's last and favourite mistress.

Tina Brown claims, in her irresistibly quotable The Diana Chronicles (2007) that "If you slapped an Edwardian-style picture hat on the head of Camilla Parker Bowles you would be struck by her resemblance to Prince Charles' adored nanny, Mabel Anderson." But others consider that in looks, manner and habits Camilla is remarkably like her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel. It was said of Alice and the King, "She was entertaining when he was bored, patient when he was cantankerous, sympathetic when he was ill, unobtrusive when he appeared in public."

The Shands, Cubitts and Keppels may have been a pretty rackety bunch but Camilla's parents broke that pattern, offering a comfortable, contended, conventional home life for their children. Camilla emerged from Queens' Gate School with a single "O" level and was sent of to be "finished" in Switzerland. Back in London she took a job as receptionist for the decorators Colefax & Fowler but was sacked after a week for being late. In 1966, she met Andrew Parker Bowles, son of the formidable Chief of the Girl Guides and a godson of the Queen Mother's. He is said to have inspired Jilly Cooper's legendary swordsman, Rupert Campbell-Black, and among the legions of women he romanced during the seven years that Camilla waited to marry him, was Princess Anne.

The Princess' brother was soon under the spell of her lover's girlfriend. 23-year-old Charles and 25-year-old Camilla were introduced in 1971 by her neighbour who also happened to be Charles's first girlfriend, Lucia Santa Cruz. The attraction was immediate and by the end of 1972 Charles had declared his love  but not his hand. He was to join the Navy and as he went to sea, Camilla went back to Andrew Parker Bowles and married him on American Independence Day 1973. Charles was distraught.

After the birth of her second child, a beautiful daughter, in 1979, and her priapic husband often away, Camilla resumed her affair with the bachelor Prince. She also found a house for him, Highgrove, a twenty-minute drive from Bolehyde Manor, her place in Wiltshire. Now all Charles needed was a wife and Camilla was to join the chorus of approval when the enchanting, chaste 19-year-old, Lady Diana Spencer was discovered. The suddenly bulimic Diana swiftly became aware of her Prince's past, and although the affair had ceased being physical, it came to obsess her. Charles wearing Camilla's gift  cufflinks with interlocking Cs  to dinner on their honeymoon was at best insensitive.
A man, a mother and her two children who were the centre of an Amber Alert have been located safe and well in regional Victoria.

Police held serious concerns for the welfare of the two missing children who were last seen at their home in Sydney's south on Thursday.

Luke and Hayleigh Smith, aged 11 and 12 respectively, were last seen leaving a home on Willarong Road, South Caringbah at 4.30pm.

On Friday afternoon, NSW Police issued an Amber Alert for the pair, a public notification used in child abduction situations where a child might be in danger.
Sydney Trains called for the state's independent safety investigations body to strip a reference to the Granville train disaster from a final report into flaws found in a section of rail track north of Sydney.

The successful request for the reference to what remains Australia's worst train disaster be removed from the report by the Office of Transport Safety Investigations into the failure of fasteners on a section of track north of Sydney is contained in documents obtained by Labor under freedom-of-information laws.

Labor's transport spokeswoman, Jodi McKay, said it was inappropriate that Sydney Trains had gone to "great lengths" to seek the removal of the reference to the Granville tragedy in Sydney from a report by an independent statutory body.

"The public has a right to receive an unfettered and independent report," she said.
It was meant to be an experience of a lifetime, but for one young man, his life tragically ended after he was killed, along with his instructor during a skydiving accident in Sydney's south west.

The man, aged in his 20s was on a tandem skydive with an experienced instructor aged in his 60s, when they crash landed onto the driveway of a rural property on Wilton Road, Wilton, one kilometre from the designated landing site at Sydney Skydivers.

It's understood the pair were part of a group of skydivers that took off from the local skydive centre on Picton Road. The rest of the group landed safely.

A local resident raised the alarm about the accident just after 2pm on Saturday.
Nearly $34 million over the past five years has been spent repairing Queensland public housing as a result of vandalism, damage and uncleanliness.

There has been $33.8 million in repair costs from 2012-13 until the end of March 2017, figures released following an LNP question on notice reveal.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni says the government takes a hands-on approach to anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Repairs to public housing cost $5.5 million for the nine months until the end of March 2017.

During the same period, there were 11,893 reports of anti-social behaviour, 1500 tenants issued with breach notices and 38 evicted.
Victorians spent almost $1 billion dollars on government advertising over nine years  including the cost of spruiking unfunded promises and infrastructure projects that were never built.

And despite Labor promising to ban taxpayer-funded party-political advertising, hefty sums are still being spent on other forms of promotional material, including information campaigns, recruitment drives, and ads talking up the Andrews government's pet policies.

The Andrews government is spending big to spruik its level crossing program. Credit:Paul Rovere

According to the latest department data, about $900 million has been spent on advertising since 2008, on everything from Coalition proposals that never got off the ground  such as the East West Link and the Melbourne Airport rail connection  to the unfunded transport plan that Labor took to the 2010 election.

But the good news is that annual expenditure has decreased substantially over that period, from a record of high of $130 million in the final year of the Brumby Labor government in 2009-10, to about $75 million in the 2015-16 financial year under Premier Daniel Andrews. Based on the latest available estimates, the government has spent under $300 million since coming to office.
The younger brother of accused Bourke Street killer Dimitrious Gargasoulas has made an unexpected appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday charged with eight new offences.

Angelo Gargasoulas, 26, has been charged with possessing a controlled weapon, possessing the drug ice, assault with a knife, unlawful assault, trespass and trespass with intent to assault.

Angelo Gargasoulas (seen here in March) is the brother of accused Bourke Street killer Dimitrious Gargasoulas. Credit:Penny Stephens

He was also charged with damaging a mobile phone and a glass door worth $600 combined.

The new charges were laid on Saturday after he was already jailed in March this year for a series of assaults on loved ones and robbing a taxi driver of cash and his lunch.
Residents of a Qatari-funded housing complex wave their national and Qatari flags during a demonstration in solidarity with Qatar in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, last month. Credit:AP Greenblatt, who has been taking meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas, called the water deal "an important step forward". Trump's envoy declined to answer questions at Thursday's news conference in Jerusalem about how his effort to renew peace negotiations are going. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, left, and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas are seen together during a meeting in Cairo in 2011. Credit:Handout/AP Abbas favours talks with Israel if they lead to an independent Palestinian state. Hamas has never recognised Israel and rejects talks. Because of the split, Israeli leaders have questioned whether Abbas represents all Palestinians.

Ghazi Hamad, who serves Hamas as a de facto foreign minister, said that Abbas will not succeed in forcing Hamas to back down. US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, centre, with Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi, left, and Palestinian Water Authority head Mazin Ghunaim in Jerusalem on Thursday. Credit:AP "After 10 years he uses the stick and not the carrot? He cuts electricity. He cuts salaries. For what? This is what the people are asking," Hamad said. He said Hamas has survived targeted killings by Israel, three wars and 10 years of blockade. "We have not surrendered yet and we will not surrender," Hamad said. "Abbas wants Hamas to cry and beg for help?" Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump in Bethlehem in May. Credit:Handout/Getty Images

He waved his hand, dismissing the idea. But in the streets of Gaza, people feel secure enough - or frustrated enough - to curse both Hamas and Abbas, saying neither side cares about their suffering. Rolling blackouts have reduced electricity to a trickle, deepening the misery for Gaza's 2 million residents and forcing factories to shut down in a failing economy. Mazin Ghunaim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said the increased supply of water under this week's US-brokered deal "will reduce the suffering of the Palestinian people, which has been worsened by the beginning of summer and the crises that they are living through". About one-third of the additional supply will go to Gaza, "where more than 97 per cent of the water is not drinkable", he said.

But the lack of power has idled Gaza's dysfunctional sewage treatment systems, denying residents of one of the few sources of relief from the heat - a day at the beach. The Health Ministry ordered black flags to be flown along the coast, warning bathers that the waters are dangerously polluted with untreated human waste. A few blocks inland, business is brisk at the dealerships selling batteries to run fans and charge mobile phones. "During the last war we had more electricity than today," said Abu Mohammed, an engineer, who was buying a battery-powered fan for his mother. Asked who he blamed, the sweaty shopper said: "All of them!" Taher al-Nounou, an adviser to the new political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said: "Abbas is tossing small grenades into Gaza. He wants to create a hostile environment in Gaza against Hamas. But you can say that he has failed. Abbas misread the situation. Maybe you can say that Hamas has not won, but Abbas has definitely lost."

In the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh has the support of 55 per cent of those surveyed recently, versus 39 per cent who support Abbas, the largest gap ever between the two, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. Israel is watching Gaza closely, worried that pressure on Hamas could push the group's militia to start lobbing rockets again, an escalation that would be answered by retaliatory strikes. Israel has fought three wars in nine years with Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and Israel, which alongside Egypt enforces a partial travel and trade blockade of the impoverished strip because of Hamas. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Abbas was goading Hamas toward war. "In my opinion, the strategy is to hurt Hamas and also to drag Hamas into a conflict with Israel," he said at a security conference in June. The crisis has stoked a growing sense of instability - and previously unthinkable alliances.

Instead of pushing an isolated Hamas toward collapse or capitulation, the pressure is sending the militants in Gaza into the arms of Abbas' greatest rival, a Fatah leader named Mohammed Dahlan. Egypt's intelligence officials have been coaxing Hamas to seek new "understandings" with Dahlan. When Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 following an attempted coup by Fatah against the Hamas government elected the year before, Dahlan was running the security apparatus in Gaza for Abbas' Fatah movement, and his forces fought in the streets against Hamas gunmen. For years, Dahlan has been persona non grata in Gaza, hated by Hamas leaders. Dahlan is also one of a handful of names on a shortlist of possible successors to Abbas. A protege of Yasser Arafat, Dahlan was forced into exile in 2011, kicked out of Fatah the same year and accused of corruption and defamation, charges he denies. From his villa in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, Dahlan plots his comeback. He is well positioned - with powerful friends in Saudi Arabia's new crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abu Dhabi's crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

To ease the electricity crisis, Egypt in the past two weeks began sending tanker trucks filled with diesel to run Gaza's sole electricity generating plant. In Gaza, Dahlan gets the credit. "Now we are in a potential new era. Dahlan could be back in the Gaza Strip, either physically present or operating by remote control from Egypt. He could be an influential figure, very suitable for Hamas and Israel at the same time," said Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs. "The biggest potential loser is not Hamas," Michael said. "It is Abbas." Nathan Thrall, a senior analyst with International Crisis Group, said it remains unclear where Gaza is going, but a lot is in play. Loading
Brazilian authorities have not addressed the longstanding issues that led to the Zika epidemic in the country, leaving it vulnerable to another outbreak of the virus, according to a Human Rights Watch report released this week.

"There is this idea that Zika is gone, the emergency has been lifted," said Amanda Klasing, senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. "But the risk for another outbreak is there."

Ana Livia, centre, who was born with microcephaly, is held by her mother Janaina during a Christmas party in support of children with deficiencies, in Recife, Brazil. Credit:Getty Images

Despite declaring an end to the national public health emergency over the mosquito-borne virus in May, systemic problems with public water and sanitation systems remain, the report said. More than one-third of Brazilians lack access to a continuous water supply, so many must fill tanks and other containers with water, which can become potential mosquito breeding grounds if they are not treated or covered.

Researchers also described seeing untreated sewage flowing near communities that were often obstructed by debris, creating dirty, standing water  also ideal conditions for breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary transmitter of the virus.
Los Angeles: Hawaii's fire department has confirmed at least three people have died in a fire at a Honolulu high-rise apartment building.

More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze on Friday afternoon, local time, in a 36-storey condominium, as media reported several people suffered smoke inhalation and several others could be trapped in their homes.

Fire Department Captain David Jenkins said the number of fatalities could change, adding that at least 12 people have needed medical help. Sixteen people were later confirmed injured.
Bangkok: Malaysia's most prominent political prisoner, Anwar Ibrahim, has been named de facto leader of his country's opposition coalition that will campaign to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak's scandal-ridden government.

The 69-year-old is serving a five year jail sentence on politically-motivated sodomy charges. Anwar's conviction was upheld by Malaysia's highest court in 2015 and disqualifies him from political office. He will not be able to contest the election that Mr Najib is expected to call later this year.

Then Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, left, with Australian senator Nick Xenophon in Jakarta. Credit:Michael Bachelard

Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad announced on Friday the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition would immediately release Mr Anwar from jail if it wins the election and then seek a royal pardon for him that would open the way for him to re-enter politics.

Analysts say the naming of Anwar to lead the opposition into the election will bolster its chance of ousting Mr Najib who is at the centre of a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal involving the sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Kiev: Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, recently filed financial reports with the Justice Department showing that he earned nearly $US17 million ($21.7 million) for two years of work for a Ukrainian political party with links to the Kremlin.

Curiously, that was more than the party itself reported spending in the same period for its entire operation  the national political organisation's expenses, salaries and other incidentals.

Donald Trump has been dogged by allegations linking his 2016 campaign team to Russia. Credit:AP

The discrepancies show a lot about how Manafort's clients  former president Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and his Party of Regions  operated.

And in a broader sense, they underscore the dangers that lurk for foreigners who, tempted by potentially rich payoffs, cast their lot with politicians in countries that at best have different laws about money in politics, and at worst are, like Ukraine in those years, irredeemably corrupt.
Carl Director Resigns for New Opportunities

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA  (Marketwired)  07/14/17  Carl Data Solutions Inc. (CSE: CRL)(CSE: CRL.CN)(CNSX: CRL)(FRANKFURT: 7C5)(OTC PINK: CDTAF) (Carl or the Company), a developer of Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS)-based solutions for data integration, business intelligence, and the Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) applications, recently accepted the resignation of Jason Scharfe from its Board of Directors.

Scharfe had been on Carl Datas board since the company first went public. His experience with advising large corporations with risk management and insurance-related issues combined with knowledge of the resource sector has helped Carl Data position itself to provide useful solutions for oil, gas and mining verticals. Scharfe commented, It has been a privilege watching Carl Data grow and reach its milestones bringing Big Data and cloud computing services to a variety of useful applications.

Greg Johnston, CEO of Carl, commented, Jason has been instrumental to our understanding of how we should build and market our products regarding risk management. His understanding the issues facing large infrastructure projects from an operational point of view have assisted us in tackling new verticals and provided insight into new potential distribution channels. On behalf of the Company and The Board, I want to thank Mr. Scharfe for his help in building our company.

About Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Carl Data Solutions Inc. is focused on providing next generation information collection, storage and analytics solutions for data-centric companies. Building on its recent acquisitions, ETS, Flow Works Inc. and AB Embedded Systems, Carl helps its clients analyze and understand all forms of environmental data through a powerful platform of data collection, monitoring, analysis and reporting tools.

Carl Data continues to develop applications to work with new cloud-based mass storage services and analytics tools (Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) to provide scalability for municipalities, utilities and other industrial verticals. These data collection and storage methods allow the company to build smart Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based applications that can collect data from many diverse sources and provide deep insight for decision-making purposes. More information can be found at .

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Greg Johnston, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director Carl Data Solutions Inc.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Contacts:

Kimberly Bruce

Corporate Communications

Carl Data Solutions Inc.

(778) 379-0275
Carl Announces Settlement With Respect to the Dissent to the Acquisition of FlowWorks

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA  (Marketwired)  07/14/17  Carl Data Solutions Inc. (CSE: CRL)(CSE: CRL.CN)(CNSX: CRL)(FRANKFURT: 7C5)(OTC PINK: CDTAF) (Carl or the Company), a developer of Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS)-based solutions for data integration and business intelligence, is pleased to announce that effective as of June 8, 2017, the Company and FlowWorks Inc. (FlowWorks), the Companys wholly-owned subsidiary, entered into a settlement and release agreement (the Settlement Agreement) with Timothy Hicks, 5346 Investments, Ltd. and Kerr Wood Leidal Associates, Ltd., whereby the parties agreed to settle a lawsuit relating to the dissent by Mr. Hicks to the acquisition of FlowWorks by the Company.

Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, FlowWorks agreed to pay Mr. Hicks US$1,000 within 30 days of the Settlement Agreement becoming effective (paid) and pay Mr. Hicks an additional US$10,000 within 30 days of the Settlement Agreement becoming effective (paid). In addition, FlowWorks agreed to pay Mr. Hicks US$100,000 within 90 days of the Settlement Agreement becoming effective.

In addition, pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, the Company is required to issue to Mr. Hicks:

The First Tranche Shares are subject to an escrow agreement between the Company, Mr. Hicks and Computershare Trust Company of Canada.

All of the Shares will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring on the date that is four months and one day after the date of issuance.

None of the Shares will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About FlowWorks

FlowWorks is a powerful Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based application for collecting, monitoring and analyzing all types of environmental data. FlowWorks is flexible, affordable and easy-to-use compared to competing software packages. The FlowWorks Application has the unique ability to collect data from all types of monitoring equipment, gauges and sensor hardware, SCADA systems and other sources of public and private data to merge the information into a single platform to perform comprehensive analytics and reporting, saving time and money for the end user. More information on the FlowWorks Application can be found at .

About Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Carl Data Solutions Inc. is focused on providing next generation information collection, storage and analytics solutions for data-centric companies. Building on its recent acquisitions, Carl helps its clients analyze and understand all forms of environmental data through a powerful platform of data collection, monitoring, analysis and reporting tools.

Carl Data continues to develop applications to work with new cloud-based mass storage services and analytics tools (Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) to provide scalability for municipalities, utilities and other industrial verticals. These data collection and storage methods allow the company to build smart Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based applications that can collect data from many diverse sources and provide deep insight for decision-making purposes. More information can be found at .

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Greg Johnston, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

Carl Data Solutions Inc.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Contacts:

Kimberly Bruce

Corporate Communications

Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Telephone: (778) 379-0275

Email:
Not this time. New Prairie extracts its revenge against Northridge
Shaheed El-Hafed, July 10, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, supervised Sunday the conclusion of the training days for the heads of municipalities in the liberated zones of Western Sahara, which were organized by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Development, July 4-9, under the theme "model municipalities are symbols of national sovereignty".

In his intervention, the President of the Republic referred to the security situation in the liberated zones, stressing the great role that liberated municipalities should play in order to provide more security and stability for the Sahrawi citizens.

The President of the Republic had issued a presidential decree on 16 May 2017, registered under No. 2017/10, in which he appointed the heads of the liberated municipalities.

The closing ceremony was attended, besides the President of the Republic, by Prime Minister, Abdelkader Talab-Omar and members of the National Secretariat and Government. (SPS)

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Lima, Peru, July 15, 2017 (SPS) - The Peruvian Council of Solidarity with the Sahrawi Republic has welcomed Khadijetu Mokhtar, Saharawi Ambassador with the Special Mission to Peru.

The event was attended by journalists, intellectuals, national and foreign diplomats and congressmen, who expressed solidarity with the Sahrawi people and condemned Morocco's violations of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

The participants pledged to initiate actions so that the government of Peru restores diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Republic.

The new Saharawi diplomat replaced Ali Salem Sidi Zein, who has appointed ambassador to the Republic of Ecuador. (SPS)

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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, July 15, 2017 (SPS) - President of Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, has estimated that the Moroccan decree, which delimits its maritime border off the Canaries and incorporates Western Sahara to its territorial waters "distorts international agreements".

"Everything that is decided at the moment in that space has impact on the situation in which the Sahrawi people live, the important thing is to ensure compliance with international agreements," said Morales upon receiving 232 Saharawi children who will spend their summer holidays this year in Gran Canaria.

In his view, "any legal modification", such as that the Moroccan Government has approved, "distorts the agreements adopted".

Morales warned that in the Cabildo of Gran Canaria "they will be all attentive" because that new decree "can also affect the Canary people". (SPS)

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B udget supermarket chain Lidl is known for its value alternatives of most major food brands and award-winning wines.

Now it has upped its game with a purse-friendly version of the popular Italian aperitif and main component of the Insta-worthy cocktail of the hour, Aperol Spritz.

Bottles of the 70cl "Bitterol" landed on shelves in UK stores on Thursday July 13 for only 7.99, which works out almost half the price of other retailers, such as Tesco and Waitrose, where it costs 15 a bottle.

The retro aperitif is made with a mixture of herbs and a touch of orange, which makes for a refreshing taste, perfect for the summer months.

It seems that certain stores previously sold the product, but it went out of stock. Fans have been complaining on Twitter that they couldn't find any more "Bitterol" in their local Lidls.

Hello @LidlUK will we be seeing Bitterol back on he shelves this summer? We love it!!  Charlotte Meyer (@Char_Meyer1) July 10, 2017

@LidlUK Any news on when there will be more Bitterol in Cardiff stores?  Nye Jayne (@nyejayne) June 18, 2017

@LidlUK missing bitterol like mad. When will we see more in your London stores?  AA (@Abs2916) June 16, 2017

No #Bitterol at @LidlUK #Crowborough! Very disappointed! Waste of a 12 mile 30 min round trip Staff I asked had never heard of it!  Eddie Wattenbach (@EddieWattenbach) June 10, 2017

@LidlUK when is #Bitterol coming back it's nearly summer and your brand beats apperol all the way to the bar and back! pic.twitter.com/DRovz1imhF  Russ Asquith (@RussAsquith) May 9, 2017

They'll be glad to hear its back on the shelves.

Lidls spirits expert Tristan Stephenson commented: "The lost art of the aperitivo is currently experiencing a renaissance and theres no better time to enjoy one than the summer."

"Whilst Bitterol is delicious served over ice with a slice of orange and fresh mint garnish, its equally tasty in a classic spritz: mix two parts Bitterol with two parts Prosseco and one part soda water. Bitterol is a true taste of Italy, even if the weather doesnt play ball."

So if you'll need a drink in hand while you watch the Wimbledon final al fresco or you're planning a party for the finale of Love Island, get down to Lidl while stocks last.

You can even use Lidls Prosecco Treviso DOC Frizzante 2016, a steal at just 5.25, to make the cocktail.
A moped rider has become the latest victim of an acid attack in east London, less than 24 hours after five people were targeted in a rampage across the capital.

Police were called to Ballards Road, in Dagenham, at around 5pm on Friday to reports of an attempted robbery of a moped.

The victim - a man aged in his 20s - was approached by two males on a moped who squirted a "noxious substance" at him, police said.

The man was taken to hospital and has been discharged with no lasting injuries.

Acid Attack Victim Covered In Water

It comes just a day after five separate male victims were targeted by two moped-riding attackers in a 90-minute rampage in London.

Two teenage boys have been arrested in connection with the attacks on Thursday.

Two of the assaults saw mopeds stolen, while another victim had "life-changing" injuries inflicted after being sprayed.

The horrific rampage comes after the Met revealed the number of reported attacks in London rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016, a 74 per cent rise.

Resham Khan was targeted in a horrific attack as she celebrated her 21st birthday / GoFundMe

MPs are set to meet in Parliament on Monday to discuss combating the shocking rise, with east London having been rocked by a series of attacks in recent weeks.

Resham Khan, 21, and her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with devastating injuries last month after an attacker sprayed acid in their faces at traffic lights.

Hospital worker Syed Nadeem, 44, was also targeted with acid last month in a moped robbery as he was leaving Whipps Cross hospital.

Twenty people were also hurt when they were doused in a corrosive substance at Mangle nightclub in Dalston in April. The attack left a 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man blind in one eye.

The attacks have led to calls to introduce licensing for the sales of corrosive substances in shops.

On Wednesday, scoresof demonstrators gathered to protest against recent acid attacks in east London.
A murder investigation has been launched after a man was stabbed to death by two attackers on a moped in south-east London.

The 31-year-old man was fatally wounded during a clash in which shots were also fired in Greenwich town centre in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The victim had first been approached by the pair of attackers in King William Walk at 12.15am, police said.

The attackers, both male, fled the scene on the moped and emergency services arrived to find the man with stab injuries.

Despite the efforts of the police and the London Ambulance Service, he was declared dead at the scene.

The victim's next of kin have been informed.

Detectives have launched a murder investigation and said they "retain an open mind as to the motive" of the horrific attack.

The killing is the latest harrowing crime to hit the capital in which the attackers were riding a moped.

On Thursday night, a string of acid attacks were carried out allegedly by two men driving a scooter.

Two moped riders attacked people in a 90-minute spree in Islington, Stoke Newington and Hackney on Thursday night.

Two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, have been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery.

They remain in police custody.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
P lumes of smoke billowed into the air after a fire broke out at a six-storey building near Marble Arch.

Firefighters were called to Connaught Street at the busy shopping district just after 10.20am on Saturday and a small number of people were evacuated.

Footage from the scene showed thick smoke billowing into the air as firefighters descended on the street.

It is believed the fire ignited in the ventilation system between the ground and first floors of the building.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: Six fire engines and around 35 firefighters and officers were called to a fire at a restaurant on Connaught Street in Bayswater this morning.

The restaurant's ducting - its extraction system - from the basement, ground floor to the first floor was damaged by fire.

A small part of the restaurant and external ducting which led to close to an adjacent block of flats of six floors was also damaged by the blaze.

"A cordon was temporarily set up in the area and roads are expected to be reopened soon but in the meantime motorists are advised to avoid the area. 

A Met Police spokesman told the Standard: Police were called at 10.22am to reports of a fire in Edgeware Road.

Officers and London Fire Brigade are in attendance. A small number of people were evacuated as a precaution.

There are no reported injuries. Partial road closures are in place.

Nobody was injured.
S hocking footage has been released of teenagers lying on train tracks as railway bosses launched new technology to warn people approaching level crossings.

Network Rail released CCTV footage showing young people trespassing on the tracks, with one person even stopping to take a photograph in the middle of a railway line.

It comes as Network Rail and British Transport Police rolled out geo-targeting technology that will alert pedestrian's phones when they are approaching a crossing.

The shocking footage was taken at Simpson's Foot Crossing in Sittingbourne, in Kent.

Young people can be seen lying on the tracks in the footage / Network Rail

The people featured were all identified by authorities and spoken to by officials from Network Rail.

Network Rail community safety manager Nicola Dooris said: Many young people simply dont think about the dangers of the railway and parents will know how difficult it is to drag their kids away from their phones or other tech.

Those two factors together mean that we have a constant battle to get through to children to help them stay out of danger. Anything parents can do to help us could make all the difference.

One person can be seen taking pictures while stood in the middle of the railway tracks / Network Rail

In April, Network Rail revealed trespassing on Britains railways has reached an all-time high.

According to Network Rail and British Transport Police, an average of one person trespasses on the tracks every hour in the country.

In the last five years, there have been more than 2,000 reported incidents.
T ens of thousands of people have called on the Government to offer free sanitary products to London schoolgirls as politicians in Scotland vowed to tackle period poverty.

Some 58,336 supporters have signed a petition set up by Londoner Hannah Morrison to have sanitary towels and tampons handed out to low income families.

Writing on change.org, Ms Morrison, who campaigns for female rights group Fourth Wave: London Feminist Activists, described how she was forced to borrow female hygiene products from friends or wear makeshift items during menstruation.

She said: When I was 12 and on my period, I was forced to borrow sanitary products from my school friends or use tissue, as I felt too guilty to ask my mum for money.

I knew we didn't have much money, and I also knew how expensive they were.

Desperate plea: Calls have been made for sanitary products to be handed to low-income families / Rich Pedroncelli/AP

She added that this carried on through college until she was forced to skip class while on her period.

She said: When I became really desperate I would save my lunch money to buy them instead of eating.

In March it emerged that teenagers were skipping lessons because they felt unable to get their hands on sanitary towels and tampons.

One affected teenager told BBC Radio Leeds that she had used socks, toilet roll and Sellotape to create makeshift sanitary products.

She said: I wrapped a sock around my underwear just to stop the bleeding, because I didnt want to get shouted at.

And I wrapped a whole tissue roll around my underwear, just to keep my underwear dry until I got home. I once Sellotaped tissue to my underwear. I didnt know what else to do.

On Tuesday the Scottish government said at least 1,000 women and girls would benefit from a 42,500 pilot scheme to fund free female hygiene products.

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance said: "It is unacceptable that any woman or girl in Scotland should be unable to access sanitary products.

"That is why, as part of our wider aims to eradicate poverty from our country, we are exploring how to make products freely available to low-income groups.

"The pilot in Aberdeen is a first step to help us understand the barriers women and girls face - and to help us develop a sensitive and dignified solution to making these products easily accessible to those who need them."

The petition calls on the UK government to implement a similar scheme to help those in England.
T hree people have been killed during a large tower block fire in Hawaii.

A mother and her adult son are among the dead after flames ripped through three floors of the 36-storey Marco Polo condominium complex in the islands capital of Honolulu.

Black smoke was seen billowing over the city on Friday during the blaze, which happened one month to the day of the Grenfell Tower inferno in London.

It took four hours for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

Charred: Fire ripped through three floors of the Marco Polo complex. / AFP/Getty Images

"I looked down I could see the billowing smoke coming up," resident Ron Chiarottino told Reuters news agency.

Fire: The blaze left part of the building destroyed and three people dead. / AFP/Getty Images

He said: "I heard three women's voices screaming, pleading, moaning, 'Please help me, please' continuous screaming for five or ten minutes, and then I didn't hear anymore."

It comes after Londons own high-rise horror on June 14 when a faulty fridge sparked a fire which tore through the towers 24 floors.

At least 80 people are so far confirmed dead.

It is not yet known what caused the blaze in Honolulu.
Baby Awesome Austin Thomas Fecht died Wednesday, July 12, 2017, at American Family Childrens Hospital in Madison, Wis. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 22, at First Free Church in Onalaska, with visitation from 9:30 a.m. until the service. A full obituary will follow. Coulee Region Cremation Group is assisting the family.
Gyros, cupcakes, turkey and even wood-fired pizza were on the menu Friday night as thousands gathered in Gering to attend the Oregon Trail Days Food Fair.

With 34 vendors, more than ever before, the food fair brought out great people and delicious food.

Returning vendors, as well as new vendors, catered to crowds ranging from four thousand to five thousand, organizer Jodi Ruzicka said. The selection at the food fair included cupcakes, kettle corn, barbecue and Greek gyros.

Pam Gutierrez with Pams Catering attended the food fair for the eighth year to bring fresh, homemade Indian tacos.

We just love it. We have a great time. Its like a big family gathering because it is all family that helps out, said Gutirrez.

Aaron and Terrie Lobner of Ma and Pas Frostbites and Cal and Deb Smith of Woodfire Pizza agree that the crowd is one of the reasons they keep returning to the food fair.

New vendors, like Panhandle Kettle Corn and Call Me Cupcakes, were excited to be a part of their first food fair.

I really just wanted to see what it was like to do a big event, said Karey Sinks of Call Me Cupcakes. Sinks cupcake truck recently opened in October and is based out of Brideport.

Isaac and June Ballord of Panhandle Kettle Corn in Crawford said, They just said we would sell lots of popcorn.

The food fair is celebrating its 30th year as part of the Oregon Trail Days event list and seems to be a favorite for many in the surrounding communities.

Ruzicka said, We have great vendors who have great food and its just a great time.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
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Being one of many at the river for the fireworks July 4, watching the procession of people and families flowing along our grand river walk, enjoying our once-a-year gathering of community, I want to exclaim about our privilege to be here on the banks of one of the great rivers of the world, all of us on our communal quilt of blankets, celebrating together our nation in this glorious setting.
What do you know about Molly Brown?

Lets start with her real name: Margaret Tobin Brown. Her family called her Maggie, not Molly. She earned her soubriquet, Unsinkable, when she survived the wreck of the Titanic. On the lifeboat, other survivors said, she kept up everyones spirits.

You might know that she was a poor girl from Hannibal, Mo., who went to Colorado, where she married a miner who went on to make a fortune. That part is true. You may think that she made that trip west singing, Im gonna learn to read and write/ Im gonna see what there is to see. Not true. Meredith Willson put those lyrics in her mouth when he wrote a musical about her, The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The 1960 Broadway hit became a staple at the Muny, where it was staged five times. But the last production was in 1989.

It had come to seem old-fashioned and contrived, says playwright and lyricist Dick Scanlan. Unlike Willsons The Music Man, which has an old-time setting but characters we can recognize, the characters in Molly Brown felt stagey  especially the heroine.

Perhaps, Scanlan says, thats because she mostly was.

But, he adds, she never needed to be. The real woman was way more interesting.

Thats the one he hopes theatergoers will embrace in his new treatment of the show, which opens Friday at the Muny.

But he never would have known if not for another writer, Richard Morris.

Morris wrote the book for Willsons show, as well as the screenplay for Thoroughly Modern Millie, the basis for the stage musical. Scanlan wrote the lyrics for Millie, which won the 2002 Tony for best musical. He and Morris are both credited for writing the book.

Richard really wanted me to fix (the Molly script), said Scanlan, 57. Then, after he died (in 1996), other people asked me, too. I thought I should look at it more seriously.

He began to do research, not only into the mythic Molly (a name dreamed up in the 1930s by writers fictionalizing her life) but into the real woman.

That woman, he learned, was a devout Catholic all her life  a woman whose faith fueled her philanthropy, her progressive politics and her sense of civic duty.

All in all, Scanlan began to think, she was a better heroine than the made-up concoction. As he kept digging  now with an eye to bringing the show to fresh life  he learned more than he could have hoped for.

Born to poor Irish immigrants  her father was a ditch-digger  she never forgot what poverty felt like. And there was plenty of it in Colorado mining towns, which drew men and sometimes whole families from around the world.

They came for the promise of work  dangerous, backbreaking work, but work nevertheless. But it was irregular, especially after the price of silver plummeted during the Grover Cleveland administration.

Molly (lets just use the name we all know) responded immediately. She ran soup kitchens and set up literacy leagues. She also worked with a judge to set up the first juvenile court in the United States.

Bearing all that in mind, Scanlan was struck by a song that Willson wrote not for a musical but for a Red Cross campaign: Share the Luck. He put it into the show.

In real life, Molly didnt exactly head west on her own. Her married sister and her husband had already settled in Leadville. Soon she also married, a real love match.

Miner J.J. Brown wasnt a rich man when they met. But he soon became one, especially after he devised a reasonably safe way to mine the gold that lay beneath the silver. The couple had a son and daughter and also took in three nieces after Mollys brother was widowed.

After many years of marriage, the Browns separated. But they never divorced and continued to write each other tender, domestic letters until he died in 1922, Scanlan said.

Molly was a generous philanthropist who helped build a cathedral and a hospital in Denver. She was also committed to labor reform, womens rights and human rights. A suffragist, she ran for the Senate even before women could vote. (She lost.)

After World War I, France awarded her the Legion of Honor for her efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged country, for her relief efforts for the wounded and for her part in establishing the Alliance Francaise.

Molly remained active all her life. When she died at age 65 in 1932, she was living in New York, studying theater, literature and languages.

This was an extremely intelligent, accomplished woman  a voracious reader and a wonderful writer, Scanlan said. Yes, she was plucky  she still is, in the new show!  but she was much more than that.

Scanlan spent years rewriting the show. (Pressed, he conceded that only about three lines of the original script remain.) The new Molly debuted in 2014 in Denver, with Beth Malone in the title role. Shell play Molly at the Muny, too.

Now, with Broadway possibilities gleaming in the distance, Scanlan says the heroine he uncovered reminds him of his own grandmother, Anna Long Scanlan. Also the daughter of Irish immigrants, she was very active in the Democratic Party in New Jersey.

My grandmother was another working-class redhead, like Molly, he said. She died before I was born, so I didnt know her.

But I heard about her, and I see a lot of her in Molly Brown. So this show feels personal to me  I think its the most personal show I have ever written.
FLORISSANT  Part of Lois Morelands routine included a whirlpool bath before bed at the nursing facility she called home for at least three years.

The 88-year-old woman with Alzheimers disease nicknamed the whirlpool her boat, where shed wash up before an assistant would take her to bed at St. Sophia Health & Rehabilitation Center in Florissant.

But after starting her bath about 8:30 p.m. on March 22, 2016, Morelands help never returned. It wasnt until 4:30 a.m. the next day that a nursing assistant remembered taking her to the shower room hours earlier. Moreland's dead body was found in a tub of cool water with the whirlpool jets still running.

Now her son, Steven Moreland, is claiming in a lawsuit that the nursing homes negligence caused his mothers suffering and death and that St. Sophia put profits above health care by deliberately understaffing its 240-bed nursing home at 936 Charbonier Road.

When there are not enough staff members to care for residents, it creates an environment where employees are trying to do too many things that they forget about putting a resident in a bathtub and end up leaving her there for over eight hours, said Steven Morelands attorney, David Terry. He said Lois Moreland was unable to comprehend her circumstances or fend for herself because there were not enough employees to meet the needs of each resident. And as a result, Lois Moreland paid the price.

The nursing home is run by Creve Coeur-based Midwest Geriatric Management, which owns 22 facilities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Missouri, including homes in Des Peres, St. Louis and Union, Mo.

St. Sophia was previously fined $80,427 in 2014 after a resident with Alzheimers disease walked away from the facility for more than two hours and was picked up by police a mile away. In 2016, one month after Morelands death, residents were temporarily evacuated from St. Sophia after a fire started in the laundry room. One worker suffered a minor injury.

Calls and emails to St. Sophia and its owner were not returned.

Lois Moreland had lived in the St. Louis area since the late 1960s and moved into St. Sophia in March 2013, according to her sons attorney. She was a stay-at-home mother for most of her life and had been married for 59 years. At St. Sophia, her conditions included Alzheimers, dementia, depression, heart disease, hypertension, muscle weakness and difficulty walking.

The St. Louis County Medical Examiners Office attributed her death to natural causes, citing heart disease.

Morelands son believes that despite his mothers poor health, she would not have died that day if she hadnt been abandoned in the whirlpool, his attorney said.

Investigative report

An investigative report by the U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services detailed the events based on staff interviews:

About 8:30 p.m. on March 22, a nursing assistant helped Moreland into the whirlpool tub and left the room when the woman requested privacy. The assistant said Moreland was typically left in the tub for five to seven minutes, with periodic checks.

On that night, the assistant went to help a resident across the hall who had fallen. Then other residents requested help, so the assistant was very busy and forgot to check on the resident in the whirlpool tub.

Between 4 and 4:30 a.m., the nursing assistant began collecting water pitchers from residents rooms and noticed Moreland wasnt in her room. The nurse on duty told the assistant to check the bathroom. The assistant then remembered leaving Moreland in the tub the night before.

Oh my God! the nursing assistant said, and ran to the shower room. The assistant stood next to the tub, screaming and crying.

Moreland was clearly dead. The pull cord she could have used to summon help was dangling against the wall and beyond her reach, the report says.

St. Sophia had a nurse, two certified nursing assistants and a medication technician to care for 35 residents in the Honeysuckle Hill unit on the night Moreland died. There were 165 residents living in the entire facility at the time. The nursing assistant was assigned to Morelands unit only a few days earlier and felt overwhelmed by the workload, according to the federal report.

The investigation found that the assistant had a history of negligent behavior towards residents, the report said. In May 2012, the assistant saw a resident fall from a chair and told the patient, Im not gonna talk to you. Ive been telling you to sit down all evening. Im not gonna feel sorry for you. The assistant was suspended one day by the nursing home. In August 2015, the same assistant was again suspended for one day after leaving a resident alone in the shower room. The resident fell in the shower while the assistant stepped out to retrieve more towels. A St. Sophia administrator told investigators that records of the incident were inaccessible because they were held by the nursing homes previous owner.

According to the same report, Morelands doctor said it was unsafe to leave her alone in a bathtub for more than 30 minutes because of her declining mental and physical health. Her psychiatrist said she should not have been left unattended for longer than five to 10 minutes.

After Morelands death, government inspectors determined that residents at the facility were in immediate jeopardy, the most severe status given to nursing homes. St. Sophia was fined $39,260 and required to file a plan of correction that included never leaving a patient alone in the shower room, holding team huddles to share observations among staff, providing regular training to nursing staff, conducting regular checks on patients and reporting violations to the state immediately.

The lawsuit, filed July 5 in St. Louis County Circuit Court, seeks unspecified damages.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Eric Greitens issued three veto messages on Friday, the final day for him to act on legislation sent to him by lawmakers this spring.

Under one measure, the Republican chief executive nixed a wide-ranging criminal justice measure that he said violated the Constitutions ban on laws containing multiple subjects.

In the second, the governor used his veto power to kill a bill that would have loosened boating regulations. He said it could lead to potentially deadly accidents on the states waterways.

And, finally, he rejected legislation that would have altered the process for Missouri National Guard soldiers to forward a complaint against a commanding officer.

The criminal justice measure included a provision designed to shed more light on legal settlements that have cost the state millions of dollars in recent years.

The proposal would have required the attorney general to provide monthly updates on settlement costs charged to the states legal expense fund.

The idea was borne following a series of harassment and discrimination cases filed against the Missouri Department of Corrections. As first reported by The Pitch, a Kansas City weekly newspaper, taxpayers were billed more than $7.5 million over the past five years to settle cases or pay judgments against the agency.

Attorney General Josh Hawley is already posting a monthly report of spending out of the fund.

The most recent report shows the state paid out a $2 million settlement to a motorist who was injured after being hit from behind by a Missouri State Highway Patrol vehicle.

The May report also shows former state prison employee Lori Lynn Walker receiving a $309,499 settlement related to her claims of discrimination at the agency.

Greitens said Senate Bill 128 was cluttered with unrelated measures, including changing the fee structure for court reporters and altering littering tickets issued by conservation police.

The second veto focused on a proposed law that would have altered rules for certain safety features on boats. Although the original measure was aimed at boats that travel on the states smaller rivers, Greitens said it might have allowed people to sit on the side of a boat as it traveled at 40 miles per hour across Lake of the Ozarks.

The legislation is Senate Bill 65.

House Bill 850 also was vetoed. It would have removed the ability of Missouri National Guard soldiers to forward a complaint against a commanding officer to the governor. Greitens said the Missouri National Guards commander-in-chief should remain engaged in assisting guardsmen.
BOSTON  Europeans often hid in plain sight while Latin Americans, Asians and others living illegally in America were sent packing. But now theyre starting to realize they are not immune to President Donald Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration, and theyre worried.

The number of Europeans deported this federal fiscal year from the United States could surpass last fiscal years total, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

From Oct. 2, 2016, through June 24, more than 1,300 Europeans have been removed, compared with 1,450 during all of federal fiscal year 2016  the last under President Barack Obama. The agency didnt provide estimates broken down by calendar year.

In San Jose, Calif., an HIV-positive Russian asylum seeker faces possible deportation after overstaying his visa. In Chicago, Polish and Irish community groups say theyre seeing inquiries about immigration and citizenship-related services surge as people seek legal protections.

And in Boston, John Cunningham, a well-known Irishman who had overstayed his visa by 14 years, was sent back to Ireland last week, sending shivers through the citys sizable Irish expat community.

People are very, very concerned and lying low, says Ronnie Millar, of the Boston-based Irish International Immigrant Center. The message is that if it can happen to John, it can happen to anyone.

Europeans comprise about 440,000 of the estimated 11 million people living illegally in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Since just before Trump was elected last November, the U.S. has deported 167,350 foreigners, compared with 240,255 in all of fiscal year 2016. Immigrants from Latin America make up the most by far, with Mexico leading the way at about 93,000.

Among Europeans, Romanians make up the largest share, with 193 deportations so far in fiscal year 2017. Behind are Spain at 117; the United Kingdom at 102; Russia at 81; and Poland at 74. Those countries were also tops last fiscal year; Romania had 176, United Kingdom 160, Poland 160, Spain 115 and Russia 94.

Immigrant advocates say theyve been urging individuals to know their rights if theyre stopped .

The worst aspect of these numbers from our perspective is that our community organizations do not know who is being deported and why, and are unable to send immigration attorneys to assist them, says Dmitri Daniel Glinski, president of the Russian-Speaking Community Council of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York.

In California, San Jose resident Denis Davydov was detained for more than a month after returning from a vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

He was eventually released after his lawyer argued Davydov was legally allowed to re-enter because hes currently seeking political asylum for being gay and HIV-positive. But he could be forced to return to Russia if his request is denied.

Davydov says the experience of being detained  and the uncertainty it has thrust into his asylum application  has left him feeling vulnerable.

Before this, I thought I was doing everything right, but Im afraid now that doing everything right is not enough. I dont know what else I can do, he said. I feel like it can happen again to me anywhere. In the airport or in the street.

At the Polish American Association in Chicago, executive director Magdalena Dolas said her organization has been asked to give talks about what residents should do if immigration officials show up at their doorstep.

People are worrying about their rights, she said. It shows there is awareness but that there is also anxiety.

The Chicago Irish Immigrant Support Center has been receiving triple the number of inquiries on immigration and legal service matters these days as it did a year ago, said Michael Collins, executive director.

There have been 18 deportations among Irish nationwide in the current fiscal year, compared with 26 in all of last fiscal year.

Cunninghams case has still become a cautionary tale among Irish expats in Boston.

The rumor has gone around, Dont go in any courthouses, and if you hear a knock on your door and youre not expecting anyone, dont answer it, said Benny Murphy, 32, a bartender in Boston who had been living in this country illegally until about three years ago, when he married a woman who is a U.S. citizen.

Many believe Cunningham simply forgot the golden rule of living in the shadows: Keep your head down.

Before his arrest, he appeared on a national news show in Ireland to share his experience of living illegally in America.

Cunningham had a warrant for his arrest for failing to show up in court over a $1,300 dispute with a customer of his electrical contracting business.
Islamic States mix of a local insurgency and digitally connected global jihadis gives the group staying power and the means to relaunch its future, from small cells of extremists escaping the war zone in Iraq and Syria to those who never went there in the first place.

The impending loss of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria cuts out the urban heart of its self-proclaimed caliphate, but the extremist organization has built-in plans to endure and has shown a degree of flexibility that will be difficult to counteract.

For more than a year, Islamic State has acknowledged the possibility of losing the territory that propelled it to the forefront of the global jihadi movement  and drew thousands of foreign fighters. Islamic States goal since then has been to maintain its local and global support base in the face of overwhelming defeat. Whether it succeeds depends on what happens well after todays battles are over.

ESCAPE CELLS

A first group of Islamic State fighters from Syria and Iraq numbering more than 100 arrived in Afghanistan at the beginning of February, followed by a smaller group, about 20, at the end of March, according to a U.N. report released last week. The group is unpopular among average Afghans, but shows traction among the young and, most importantly, receives ample funding from Islamic States central command to pay new fighters triple what the Taliban offers  $500 to $600 a month.

The U.N. report said Islamic State has warned its Afghan contingent that it will soon need to be self-financing, an ominous sign for the organization that once pulled in millions of dollars in oil money, ransoms and extortion.

Other groups of foreign fighters are feared to be trying to make their way back to Europe or North Africa, to either plot attacks there or simply await orders.

In Europe, this has fed fears of extremists hiding among the influx of migrants, while North Africa is really unstable. ... Its awash in weaponry, said Colin Clarke, an analyst with the RAND think tank.

Islamic State is a global group but its more regionally anchored. I dont see them taking up and traveling wholesale to another place. Theyre going to go where they have roots. Theyre going to seek out these weak states. Theyre going to insinuate themselves in local conflicts, he said.

HOSTILE TAKEOVER

Al-Qaida and Islamic State split in 2014, driven apart less by ideology than by a dispute over timing and tactics.

Now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in its latest rebranding effort, al-Qaida is on the rise in some parts of Syria and in recent days has begun targeting what it calls organization cells of the Islamic State group in Idlib and other Syrian provinces.

The two groups have considerable crossover  and both claim the mantle of Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida campaign could be a precursor to demands for a merger or hostile takeover, complete with a choice of death or repentance from rank-and-file defectors.

The differences between these groups are more in style and tone than in substance, said Bruce Hoffman, the head of Georgetown Universitys security studies program and author of Inside Terrorism.

Many of Islamic States foreign fighters, especially those from Europe, headed to Syria with the expectation of joining al-Qaidas branch there, then switched to what they believed was the winning side. Changing back will not be very difficult, Hoffman said.

Al-Qaida has been waiting in the wings and been letting ISIS take all the heat, Hoffman said, using an alternative acronym for Islamic State.

FIGHTING, HIDING

Iraq and Syria themselves offer plenty of havens for local extremist fighters biding their time. At its height, Islamic State held vast stretches of territory by promising not just brutality, but a religious government beyond corruption that would protect against arbitrary punishment, theft and graft in the service of a global movement for Sunni Muslims everywhere. The promises tapped especially into the grievances of Iraqi Sunnis, who felt abandoned by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and were suspicious of the Kurdish government in Irbil.

Many in the U.S. have called on the Iraqi government to ensure that Sunnis share in the countrys gains going forward  a step that will prove especially complex given that Sunni areas have seen widespread destruction in the fight against the extremists. Block after block of shattered homes line the roads of Mosul, Fallujah and Ramadi.

Its almost at a new level of divisiveness and an unrelenting decade of bloodletting has made any sense of rebuilding a civil society unbelievably challenging, Hoffman said. Islamic State retains a powerful presence in Iraqs Anbar province and in the city of Tal Afar.

Shiite politician Karim al-Nouri has warned that defeating Islamic State in Mosul doesnt mean that terrorism is finished and urged the government to review its policies toward Sunni areas to avoid previous mistakes that led to the emergence of the militants.

Islamic States leadership still has a core of leaders from Saddam Husseins Baathist organization, known for their survival skills and the support networks they built  something the groups spokesman, Abu Muhammad Adnani, noted in a message before he was killed last summer in a U.S. airstrike: to survive whether Allah blesses us with consolidation or we move into the bare, open desert, displaced and pursued.

REVENGE ATTACKS

A major aspect of Islamic States propaganda narrative has been to offer a haven to Sunnis worldwide and until recently its videos and photos made a point of tempering extreme brutality with images of abundant harvests, children at play and efficient, free medical care.

Recently, however, its videos have depicted airstrikes destroying the caliphate, providing a powerful new message  vengeance.
Existing parking enforcement practices are spelled out, rules for the pay station system downtown are in place and the superintendent of streets has another reason to keep an eye on the weather after action Thursday night by the La Crosse Common Council.

No discussion arose among council members on any of the legislation during the meeting.

Parking ordinance changes approved by the council on a 13-0 consent agenda vote included designating the superintendent of streets rather than the director of public works as the person who announces when parking rules are in effect for snow emergencies and 48-hour snow disposal periods.

Another change removes specific streets as boundaries of the downtown business district with restrictions on night parking. In its place is a general rule for one-hour night parking: No vehicles shall be parked on any street for more than 60 consecutive minutes between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. where official signs are posted.

Speaking before the Judiciary and Administration Committee on July 3, Assistant Police Chief Robert Abraham said this change will give the Board of Public Works more flexibility in meeting the parking needs of downtown residents who have been struggling to find places to park at night.

Council member Jacqueline Marcou advocated creating residential parking permits for downtown residents at the committee meeting.

Additional parking legislation  to repeal and replace a parking ordinance that has been the foundation of regulating free on-street and in-ramp parking  drew one opposition vote at the Common Council meeting. The replacement language establishes pay station rules, clearing the way for activating the system early in August as planned, and clarifying in detail the rules for free on-street and in-ramp parking with time limits.

The re-created ordinance codifies existing enforcement practices for the most part. A change in the definition of a block face allows drivers whose time expires on the side of one block to go around the corner or to the opposite side of the block to park, Abraham said at the committee meeting.

Everything else that is clarified reflects what the police have been enforcing, such as the prohibition against returning within the same day to a block face after free parking time expires, according to Abraham.

That same-day prohibition drew the opposition at the committee meeting. Council members Scott Neumeister and Andrea Richmond voted against repealing and recreating the ordinance. Richmond failed in an attempt to have the issue referred for 30 days.

I think we are forgetting the importance of who the people are that are coming to the restaurants, that are coming to shop, she said at the committee meeting. I really think we need to fine tune this even though its been on the books for a long, long time.

Abraham said the previously vague ordinance was recreated in consultation with downtown businesses, with which Parking Utility director James Flottmeyer remains in contact. It accomplishes what the business owners want, turnover of the free parking spaces, and had the unanimous support of the Board of Public Works Parking Utility.
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Stoke-on-Trent has taken a huge step towards being named UK City of Culture 2021  after making it to the shortlist.

The Potteries is one of five cities to be named as a finalist for the coveted title, along with Coventry, Paisley, Sunderland and Swansea.

Six other cities have now been eliminated from the contest, with the winner set to be announced at the end of the year.

Stoke-on-Trent is now within touching distance of the ultimate prize, which will mean millions of pounds of investment, thousands of new jobs and international exposure for its culture.

Hull, which is halfway through its reign as City of Culture 2017, has seen 3.3 billion investment since 2013 and 1.4 million visits to 450 different cultural events so far.

Stoke-on-Trent's initial bid focused on the city's unique cultural heritage, including its world-renowned ceramic industry as well as its modern creative enterprises.

The bid has been led by the city council and backed by The Sentinel, Newcastle Borough Council, Staffordshire and Keele Universities, businesses, MPs and dozens of arts groups and organisations.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council deputy leader Abi Brown, who is chair of the city's bid, said: We are absolutely delighted to be shortlisted to be UK City of Culture in 2021 and will now be working hard to make our final bid the very best it can be.

Winning would be the start of a legacy with far-reaching impact that benefits the whole city  it will bring more jobs, more visitors, more top quality cultural activity, boost skills and capacity and increase collaboration, pride and self-confidence across Stoke-on-Trent and beyond.

We now need to build on what we've done so far to achieve a strong, ambitious final bid that shows the UK exactly what Stoke-on-Trent can do. We know that this is a unique, fantastic city and want to make sure everyone else knows it too."

Paul Williams, who has been seconded from Staffordshire University to work on the bid, said: This is the best news. Winning is a wonderful opportunity for Stoke-on-Trent to change the way it is viewed within the UK and to accelerate the growth of the local economy.

The bid for UK City of Culture 2021 is for the whole city and neighbouring areas and it shows what we can do collectively. We now call on everyone to really back the bid and believe that we can win and deliver an amazing transformational year for the city."

(Image: PA)

Council leader Dave Conway said: This is fantastic news  everyone has worked so hard to get to this stage, it has really galvanised the city."

Stoke-on-Trent and the other four shortlisted cities will now be invited to submit their final bids by the end of September, with a judging panel visiting each city.

The UK City of Culture panel will assess each of the bids, with the ultimate winner being announced in Hull in late November or early December.

The fact that five cities have made the final, after only four were shortlisted in each of the two previous contests, suggests the bids have been particularly strong this time.

Phil Redmond, chairman of the UK City of Culture panel, said: The quality, commitment and enthusiasm that came across from the eleven bidders made deciding a shortlist to recommend to Ministers as difficult as it was for the two previous UK City of Culture competitions.

The appetite for using culture to bring about regeneration and to strengthen communities is clearly stronger than ever. Overall the panel thought that five cities' bids showed the potential to deliver a UK City of Culture 2021 programme. I want to thank all eleven bidders for all their work and look forward to final bids from Coventry, Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea later this year."

John Glen, minister for arts, heritage and tourism, said: We have received strong bids from across the UK and now have a fantastic shortlist of five that reflect the diversity and cultural ambition of our towns and cities.

I want to congratulate all 11 bids which offered brilliant examples of how to celebrate their own unique culture and heritage, and showed just how prestigious and coveted the UK City of Culture is."

Cultural and business leaders from across North Staffordshire have welcomed Stoke-on-Trent making it onto the City of Culture shortlist.

Emma Bridgewater, British ceramics manufacturer, said: Stoke-on-Trent is the place to make and create  so what better candidate for UK City of Culture 2021! I'm delighted to hear this most creative, resilient and cheerful of cities has been shortlisted as it absolutely deserves to be renowned for its tremendous cultural heritage and the wonderful opportunities available here."

Benedict Hugh McManus, 37, chief executive officer of Wavemaker, which supports makers, artists, entrepreneurs and businesses, said: We are so proud but always knew this would be the case. Now it's time to make our future!"

Theresa Heskins, New Vic Theatre artistic director, said: Visiting Hull earlier this year gave me an insight into what City Of Culture designation can do for a place. Just being part of the bidding process for 2021, I've already seen a transformation in our area. A new sense of self-belief in the way we talk about ourselves. A new excitement in the way the rest of the country talks about us.

"So what great news to hear that we've been shortlisted for the next stage in the UK City of Culture 2021 process. We know that creativity is central to who we are. This is a place with a vibrant cultural life  driven by local people, local artists and local organisations. The City of Culture bid is a brilliant opportunity for us to share this amazing place with friends old and new."

Sara Williams, chief executive at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, said: This is fantastic news for the city and the business community. This announcement shows that Stoke-on-Trent is prime for investment and demonstrates a real commitment to the unique culture and history of this prosperous and exciting city. We need to continue the momentum of building on the initial bid and to create an ambitious final bid to win the UK City of Culture 2021 accolade!"

Anna Francis, artist, associate professor at Staffordshire University and director at AirSpace Gallery, said: The secret's out! Now everyone's going to know what we knew already: that Stoke-on-Trent is a true city of culture. Being shortlisted is brilliant news for the city."

Bestselling author Mel Sherratt said: I'm so pleased that Stoke-on-Trent has been shortlisted! I've seen the positive impact that City of Culture has had on Hull this year and I want that for my hometown. We have so much to offer - it's a place steeped in culture and warmth and it's that passion and heart that pours into my writing."

Jack Brereton, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, said: It's excellent news that we've made it to the shortlist. It just shows how far we've come. Traditionally we haven't really been that positive about ourselves, but with this bid we've seen the whole city come together to show just how cultural Stoke-on-Trent is."
While Pakistan is yet to form a group of experts to decide setting up of the exact number and types of special economic zones (SEZs) along the CPEC route in the first phase, China has notified the government of forming the group.

During the last meeting of the Pak-China Joint Cooperation Committee (PCJCC) held in Beijing, setting up of nine SEZs had been prioritised. It had been decided that the two countries would set up expert groups to deliberate how to build the priority zones.

Participating in the concluding session of Pakistan-China industrial dialogue on Thursday, head of the Chinese Industrial Experts Group, Mr Li Yuan, asked Pakistan to expedite forming the experts group, and emphasised on devising long-term cooperation mechanism to select priority sector and synergise policies for SEZs.

Where is the experts group, asks Chinese delegation

Mr Yuan informed the Pakistani side that China has already built four special economic zones followed by developing 14 coastal cities, and subsequently, 14 industrial zones were developed. The proposed prioritised SEZs by Pakistan are to be reviewed by expert groups of the two countries for development in the initial phase, he said, addig that these SEZs may follow either Chinese or Pakistani standards to attract investment.

Speaking on the occasion, Board of Investment Chairman Dr Miftah Ismail informed the Chinese side that Pakistan plans to establish a total of 46 SEZs, and the experts group will soon be nominated to deliberate on how to build the zones.

China has rich experience in developing zones and Pakistan can learn much from Chinese experience, he said.

During the concluding session, presentations were made by the governments of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, highlighting the potential of agricultural and horticultural products for exports.

Representatives of Gilgit-Baltistan highlighted the mineral potential and location advantages sitting exactly on the ancient Silk Route being gateway for central, east and South Asia.

Additionally, the zone has huge comparative advantage for manufacturing and processing of minerals, fresh fruits and vegetables, wood, herbs and trout fish. The Maqpoon Dass SEZ can also act as logistic hub of the North, he said.

The representatives of Azad Jammu and Kashmir highlighted their territorys potential in water and mineral resources and incentives being provided to foreign investors. The potential of proposed Mirpur SEZ in terms of its connectivity with highway, railways and airport as well as the expected industries to be set up in this zone based on local endowment was also deliberated through the presentation.

BoI Secretary, Azher Ali Choudhry enumerated the main features of the incentive package for the identified priority SEZs and invited the Chinese to convey their viewpoint, if any, for further discussion. He emphasised that Chinese companies have huge opportunities to relocate their businesses to these priority SEZs. Pakistan is expecting feedback of Chinese experts on this visit.
Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique on Saturday said that Panama Leak was a foreign-sponsored conspiracy against Pakistan.

Talking to media outside Supreme Court, Saad Rafique called Panama Papers a sponsored conspiracy targeting Pakistan.

He said that one thing should be decided once and for all that one can only come in power through votes and ousted through ballots.

He criticized PTI chief Imran Khan for what he said that doing politics of abuse, adding that Imran Khan cant stand tall by using abusive language against political opponents.

The minister said that some powers wanted Pakistan to remain as a beggar.

He said that they had reservations over the JIT report and PML-N legal team was working on preparing petition to challenges the report.

He added that they would fight the legal battle in the courts. Rafique said that Pakistan was an atomic power and if political stability was maintain the country would progress speedily.

He added that Panama was a conspiracy sponsored from outside the country. He added that it seemed the all political forces would be losers in the infighting started by some parties.

The minister said that he has come to Supreme Court to consult Attorney General for Pakistan. To a question, he said that the apex court had not issued notice to him. Rather the transcript of my speech has been sought by the court, he added.

He added that he was not aware when the petition challenging JIT report will be filed. One thing is for sure that we will challenge the report in the apex court, he said.

Rafique vowed that the damning report by the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will be challenged and said he has advised the party leadership to avail constitutional protection.

He, however, expressed ignorance on whether the Sharif family planned to submit the draft petition challenging the JIT report today or on Monday.

Sources said Saturday that the Sharif family has finalised its draft petition to challenge the Panamagate JIT findings in the Supreme Court.
Police in Gujrat have arrested a Christian man over charges of committing blasphemy  an allegation made by a member of religio-political party Tehreek-e-Tuhafaz Islam Pakistan (TTIP). Dinga police station SHO Shahbaz Hinjra told source on Friday that the accused, Shahzad Masih, had been taken into custody and an investigation was under way.

Masih works as a sweeper at the Shamim Riaz Polyclinic Hospital in Dinga city.

According to the FIR registered against Masih, the complainant, Nadeem Ahmad, was at his shop, Saddar Electric Works, on the evening of July 13 when a man named Ishtiaq Jalali came to him and told him that Masih had uttered blasphemous words during a conversation with him.

The FIR further states that the two men called Masih from his home and took him to Popular Mobile Shop where he said the same words again, which were heard this time by Ahmad, Jalali, Abdul Rehman and other people present there.

The complainant further said Masihs offensive words were not only meant to hurt the sentiments of the locals but also to disrupt peace in the area.

When contacted, Ahmad told source that he was the president of the TTIP Dinga city chapter, while Jalali was a member of their organisation and a dispenser at the same hospital where Masih worked.

The TTIPs official website states that it was formed in 2007 for Namoos-e-Rasalat.

Cases of blasphemy allegations are increasing in Pakistan. In April, a mentally-ill man was beaten up by a charged crowd in Chitral for allegedly saying blasphemous things in a mosque. A few weeks before that incident, Mashal Khan, a 24-year-old student of the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was shot and mercilessly lynched by a mob of his fellow students after being accused of posting blasphemous posts online.

Incidents of violence incited by blasphemy accusations have also been common across Punjab. Former governor Salmaan Taseer was shot dead by his own guard in January 2011 for raising his voice in favour of blasphemy accused Asia Masih.

Rashid Rehman, an advocate and human rights activist, was shot dead in Multan in 2014 by unidentified men for appearing as a counsel for university professor Junaid Hafeez, who was accused of committing blasphemy by students and teachers.

Similarly, dozens of houses were burned to the ground when a mob attacked Joseph Colony in Lahore after a resident was accused of blasphemy, while a Christian couple was also tortured and burned inside a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan over similar allegations in 2014.
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat has said Pakistan is fully aware of the designs of hostile agencies especially RAW against the country.

Addressing the passing out parade of cadets at Pakistan Naval Academy in Karachi on Saturday, he said the Indian intelligence is operating from Afghanistan to stoke unrest and instability in the country and sabotage the multi billion dollars CPEC project.

The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee said we are committed to tackle with these threats through synergetic efforts. He categorically stated that the country is capable to beat back the enemies' designs.

General Zubair said Pakistan is vital to regional solutions. Attempts to coerce and isolate it have failed in the past and also meet the same fate in future, he added.

He said Pakistan seeks peaceful coexistence with all its neighbors. The CJCSC said peace and Stability in Afghanistan is fundamental to the peace in Pakistan.

About anti-terror operations, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee said Pakistan is determined to wipe out the curse of terrorism.

Referring to the role of Pakistan Navy, General Zubair said the nation is proud of its sea defenders which has played pivotal role in the defense of the country, anti-terror and anti-piracy operations.

He pointed out that modern navy is important to address the challenges of maritime security which has assumed added significance due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said the government is cognizant of the requirements of Pakistan Navy and providing it the resources to meet its current and future needs.
The U.S. military announced the death of Abu Sayed, head of the Daesh group in Afghanistan.

It happened Tuesday in a drone strike on Daesh headquarters in Kunar Province in Northeastern Afghanistan. A Pentagon statement says that several other militants were killed as well.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that killing Abu Sayed is significant because the loss of leadership sets insurgent groups back for days or weeks.

Daesh in Afghanistan is known as the Daesh-Khorasan group. The U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive against the Daesh group in early March, as the militants were gaining a foothold in eastern Afghanistan.

In Jerusalem, Arab attackers struck at Israeli police today in one of the holiest sites of both Islam and Judaism. Three gunmen killed two police officers before being shot dead themselves.

The spokesperson said other members of the militant group were also killed in the raid that will significantly disrupt the groups plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan.
The picture shown with this column is a log building erected at Emerson Park next to the former Owasco Stockade Indian Village in April of 1963. Today, the site is the boat launch area. The log lodge was moved to its present location across the street, next to the Ward W. OHara Agricultural & Country Living Museum and Dr. Joseph F. Karpinski Sr. Educational Center. The purpose and use of the cabin was to serve as the administration and exhibition center for the Indian village, and also a visitor center.

The building was erected on the actual archeological site of an ancient Indian fishing village discovered by local resident E.H. Gohl in 1915. The excavation of the site for additional artifacts was completed by Dr. Arthur Parker, the New York state archeologist at the time. Many of these artifacts are housed in museums across the country, including the New York State Museum in Albany. The reconstructed cabin housed displays depicting the culture of the Native Americans, who lived on the banks of Owasco Lake in the pre-Columbian era" in the year A.D. 1130.

Few people know the history of this cabin. I found a thick file (under "Owasco Lake Indian Village and Stockade") at the Cayuga County Historian's Office. I want to share part of it with The Citizen readers of today. I intend to also provide another article later about professor Walter Longs dream of a Indian village in the future, and reveal how Fred L. Emerson, who donated Lakeside Park (now Emerson) to the county, and George F. Train (the president of the Finger Lakes Association) shared this vision and idea.

The building was once a two-story family cabin on a private island called Burke's Island on Fourth Lake near Old Forge in the Adirondacks. It was purchased for $5,000 by the Owasco-Fleming Kiwanis Club in the spring of 1963. They dismantled it, saving nine logs high for the cabin, floated it across the river to shore and had it trucked to Owasco! In September of 1963, the first log was placed. It became only one story, nine logs high. The building was 30 by 60 feet.

The April 3, 1963, edition of The Citizen featured a full-page column by H. Ray Owen that was part of a series of three articles about the Indian village and the effect it would have on tourism in the county. He stated that tourism has been described by the New York State Department of Commerce as the No. 2 industry in New York state. Mr. Owen also stated that this same message was retold time and time again by George Train.

Does this sound familiar, folks? No. 2 Industry? Tourism. You ask, What became of the Owasco Stockade Indian Village?" It is no more. The log cabin is the only remaining structure, and that today is used for storage.

The reconstructed ancient Indian village, considered an Emerson Park landmark for 27 years, has not survived. The thick file at the historian's office records how it hosted thousands of school children, busloads of tourists, 32 teachers from around the world and many Indian and Scout encampments, which is not counting the programs and exhibitions, seminars, craft lessons and other educational events from 1963 to September 1988.

The records show it was vandalized three times. It often suffered severe winter storm damage, and each spring, help was needed to replace the bark covering of the lodges, the medicine man's hut and the many large, circling sapling enclosures that either fell over or were vandalized. A 1987 study recommended the village be moved to the woods next to the agricultural museum, across the street, for a more natural setting. All that remains there is the nine-log-high building moved on water from Burkes Island in the Adirondacks to Owasco. How sad.
ST. PAUL  Jesse Ventura spoke many memorable lines in his years as a pro-wrestling bad boy and as a Minnesota governor. He swears he never said, Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Thats the motto, though, that thousands of school children and other visitors will read when they pause at Venturas official state portrait inside the state Capitol.

New biographical plaques went up this month next to portraits of all 38 past governors, paintings that had been removed during the Capitols recently completed $310 million restoration.

None of the living former governors say they or close associates were consulted about what would be written, nor were they given an advance look at the finished product. This is the first time every portrait will include a biographical note. Previously, only deceased governors got write-ups.

Now, two of those living governors are pushing back  and the Minnesota Historical Society says its listening to their calls for change.

Objections surfaced after MPR News posted images Thursday on Twitter of the new plaques. Ventura wasnt the only ex-leader unhappy about his immortalized text. Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty argued the write-up for his portrait reeked of political bias.

Former aides to Pawlenty grumbled about what was said  and what wasnt  about their boss. Asked to comment, Pawlenty outlined his issues in an email.

Plaques next to portraits of past governors, including Tim Pawlenty.

The paintings had been removed during the Capitols recently completed $310 million restoration. Brian BakstMPR News

Its disappointing, reads like a political commentary in parts, and is not up to the Historical Societys usual quality standards, Pawlenty wrote.

Specifically, he said the display leaves out what he sees as key accomplishments: Moving MN out of the top 10 states in taxes, leading education and energy reforms, developing the first major state park in modern state history, innovative health care reforms, being elected Chair of the National Governors association, the leading role my administration played in supporting members of the military, their families and veterans during two wars and much more.

Hes also bothered by a section on the Interstate 35W bridge collapse that leaves out mention of the 1960s-era design flaw pinpointed by federal investigators as the cause of the disaster.

The rest of the placard describes Pawlentys rise through politics. It ends with his disappointments on the national political stage and his new role as leader of a financial industry association described as a Wall Street lobbying group.

It seems it was written by someone with a biased political agenda, Pawlenty wrote in his email.

The Minnesota Historical Society declared itself open Friday to revising biographies posted alongside portraits of former governors after two objected to the way aspects of their life or political service are represented.

Historical Society curator of art Brian Szott said he takes the concerns seriously, and said plans were in the works to contact Pawlenty.

These arent written in stone and we will work with the governor and his representatives to make the necessary changes going forward, Szott told MPR News.

Venturas portrait sits just down the hall from Pawlentys in a ground floor corridor. The adjacent biography starts with a recitation of his days as The Body of professional wrestling.

When read to Ventura over the phone, he interrupted after a section early on that said his motto was Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

That has to go, Ventura insisted.

Ventura, elected in 1998, argued those words never came from his mouth even though they were attached to him over the years.

Thats Kenny Pateras. I can tell you exactly who said it. Ken Patera used to say it, not me, he said of his one-time pro wrestling colleague. To put that quote in at a building like the Capitol, I think is utterly ridiculous.

The Independence Party governor is fine with the way historians portrayed his time in public office and what came after.

Szott said the decision to include biographies for living ex-governors stemmed from a desire to give Capitol visitors more information about the former heads of state well before they die.

They are continually leading long lives past their governorship and we want to include them, and we thought the public would be interested in their biographies, especially with such colorful governors as we have had in the recent past, he said.
Freemasons celebrate 300 years View(s):

The United Grand Lodge of England [UGLE] constituted on June 24, 1717 marks 300 years of existence this year under its current Grand Master, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.

Freemasonry, under the UGLE, is one of worlds oldest secular fraternal societies, a society of men concerned with moral and spiritual values, whose members are taught its precepts by a series of ritual dramas following ancient forms in a progression of allegorical two-part plays. Freemasonry is not a secret society; its secrets are confined to its traditional modes of recognition. Like many other societies it regards some of its internal affairs as private matters for its members, according to a media announcement by Sri Lankas Freemasons.

Freemasons have always followed three great principles: Brotherhood  Every true Freemason will show tolerance and respect for the opinion of others and behave with kindness and understanding to all humankind; Relief  Freemasons are taught to practise charity and to care not only for their own, but to the community at large by charitable giving and voluntary works as individuals; and Truth  Freemasons strive for truth, requiring high moral standards and aim to achieve them in their own lives.

In Sri Lanka, English Freemasonry has a rich heritage, its roots being established in 1799 and many Sri Lankans of eminence and distinction have been Freemasons over the years. The oldest Lodge currently functioning was established in 1838.

In 1907, the then existent six Lodges were consolidated under the banner of the District Grand Lodge of Sri Lanka (DGLSL). At present, the DGLSL has 10 Masonic Lodges and 5 Chapters under its jurisdiction; and is headed by its District Grand Master, Henry Malin Goonetileke. Most Lodges under the DGLSL meet at the Victoria Masonic Temple, a landmark building situated in Galle Face, Colombo; while meetings are also held at the Kandy and Kurunegala Masonic Temples.

From its earliest days Freemasonry has been concerned with the care of orphans, the sick and the aged. This work continues today without undue fanfare or publicity. To commemorate the Tercentenary of the UGLE, the DGLSL with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Navy will be providing a number of Reverse Osmosis Plants for needy communities. The first of these will be provided for the Rantheti Uyana Baranda Village in Kurunegala.

This village comprises more than 600 villagers and has no consumable water, Families have to purchase water for daily subsistence at a cost of Rs.160 per bottle.

The purification plant will provide these families with free drinking water.This plant will formally be declared open by visiting Peter Geoffrey Lowndes, Pro Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England on July 20.
Planters, estate staff and workers ignored in 150th year Ceylon Tea festivities By Devaka Wickramasuriya View(s): View(s):

Given that planters, estate staff and workers are synonymous with the tea industry, having played a significant role in ensuring the tea industry survived for 150 years in Ceylon/Sri Lanka, the above is an event eagerly looked forward to by planters, staff on estates and workers who were the architects in ensuring the tea plantations thrived or, more appropriately in the context of Sri Lankas industry, survived.

The organising committee of the festivities wrote to all retired tea planters asking for details of their record in the industry giving them the impression that they were to be part and parcel of the ensuing celebrations.

Alas, this was not to be so. The Registration Form received from the secretariat handling the festivities required those who were not members of the Ceylon Tea Trades Association (CTTA) to pay the astronomical sum of Rs. 40,000 per head to participate in such festivities; resulting in all retired planters who are not members of the CTTA, being required to make such a payment whilst members of the CTTA had to pay a reduced amount of Rs. 30,000 and if they were fortunate enough to be under 35 years of age, a subsidised sum of Rs. 25,000.

One need not labour the point that when one is retired, it would be virtually impossible to cough out the princely sum of Rs. 40,000 per head even for an event you spent your whole life in ensuring happened, a fact that appears to have been ignored by the organisers probably due to their target audience being others who, even paying a reduced amount, are all employed by corporates who will obviously make payment on their behalf.

When the flyer (see picture) forwarded along with the Registration Form is perused, one could see that those who should register are growers, brokers, those in packaging; exporters and importers, logistics and shipping, research institutes, financial institutions, competitors, innovators and buyers, all of whom, other than the research institute, are in fact those whose business exists, survives and in fact thrives due to the tea industry. Bafflingly, the term PLANTER, used for the last 150 years, is absent!

It is believed that the Sri Lanka Tea Board is the main organiser and sponsor of the planned festivities and for reasons best known to them, entrusted the CTTA to attend to matters regarding the festivities. The CTTA conveniently appears to have overlooked the fact that it was the working planter, estate staff and workers who faced all the adversities that were prevalent and toiled with great personal sacrifice, with the planters alone losing 18 of their number who were brutally murdered in carrying out their duties during the past JVP led insurrection, circa 1987-1989. A question would be, were any of the organisers of the celebration  the exporters, traders and brokers, all of whom were living and working safely in the city, subjected to what the planters were subjected to? The answer  NO!

Corporate event

Inquiries as to why this absurd situation has arisen brought forth the ludicrous response that this is a corporate event (which is evident from the indication in the flyer on who should register) and the high cost of having the festivities in Colombo (including a beach party) has resulted in the high costs to be levied.

This is ridiculous to say the least! If celebrations of the 150 years of the tea industry in Sri Lanka are to be held, they should be held at least in part in the heart of the tea growing part of the country which is the Dimbula and Dickoya districts. Both Darrawella and Radella Clubs, both of which are as old or older than the tea industry itself, are available. The Tea Research Institute (TRI) is situated in the Dimbula district. The Darrawella and Radella Clubs as well as the TRI have played very significant roles in the continuance of the industry and the industry reaching this historic milestone and should have therefore played significant roles in the planned celebrations.

It would also be relevant to state that when the 100 years of Ceylon Tea was celebrated in 1967, all the events to commemorate the occasion were at the Radella and Darrawella Clubs as well as the TRI. Foreign delegates were hosted by planters in the district and it was a celebration in the true traditions of Ceylon planting and planters.

The organisation of the festivities in 1967 was handled by the Planters Association (when the Chairman of the Association was a working planter) and the Ceylon Planters Society and not by organisations such as the CTTA whose creation, existence and survival depends on the planters and the plantation industry.

Alas in 2017, in the organising of the festivities connected with the milestone of 150 years of Ceylon Tea, the Planters Association and the Ceylon Planters Society have been ignored and organisations such as the CTTA, which has not even been in existence for as long as the tea industry has been in existence in Ceylon/Sri Lanka, tasked with organizing the celebrations.

The 150 years of the Nilgiri Planters Association (NPA) in India was commemorated in 1991. The festivities were all held in the Nilgiris. The NPA ensured that all participants were shown how the industry there had progressed by taking them to selected estates and it was a commemoration and celebration enjoyed by all and not conferences or gala dinners or beach parties in the metropolis as is being planned in Sri Lanka!

Beach party not tea party

In Sri Lanka, however, the celebrations of 150 years of Ceylon Tea are being held furthest from the heart of the tea plantation districts; in fact, in the metropolis and on the beaches where tea will not even grow!! Further, a planned event at the celebrations is a Charity Auction which clearly indicates that the organisers are moving the focus of the celebrations from the actual growing of tea to the marketing of Tea which is not surprising as the CTTA is the main organiser. With this the short sightedness of those organising the festivities is evident and one wonders whether these arrangements have been made to boost the image of the organisers instead of the fact that the industry is 150 years old!!

One cannot also help but wonder whether the celebrations to mark the milestone of 150 years of Ceylon tea was planned to take place in Colombo as the organisers are of the opinion that Sri Lankas industry has nothing positive or encouraging to show even after 150 years and especially in the last 25 years. This is absurd to say the least as though the state and productivity of plantations are not what they should be, there are some great achievements to be proud of on some estates. In all probability, the organisers would have been compelled to have all events connected with the celebrations in the metropolis as the tea planting areas are alien to them.

Yet another point so correctly stressed by Feizal Samath, Business Editor of the Sunday Times in his recent article Dignity of the Plantation Worker published in the column Kussi Amma Sera (the kitchen files), is the fact that the staff and workers on estates, who toiled to ensure the industry lasted for 150 years, have been ignored.

If it was actually a celebration to mark the historic occasion, would it not have been a magnanimous gesture for the Regional Plantation Companies and the Sri Lanka Tea Board to have selected around 20 members each from among the estate staff and workers and send them on an educational tour to visit plantations overseas? With so much being heard of the magnificent manner plantations of James Finlays are being managed in Kenya, with James Finlays involvement in the plantation industry in Ceylon/Sri Lanka in the past and even now, it is absolutely certain that Finlays would agree to take these staff/workers from Sri Lanka around their plantations in Kenya and possibly even host them during their stay in Kenya! (Kussi Amma Sera also raised this in his May 21 column saying A 3-4 day holiday tour abroad for a representative group of workers sponsored by the state or the plantation industry might give these workers some dignity and not leave them completely out of the tea party).

It is a fact that in any industry, those who actually physically work to keep it going are those who are the most important. Where the plantation industry is concerned, the planters, staff and workers on estate are those who by their dedicated and untiring efforts ensured the industry continued despite the numerous problems it faced. Brokers, buyers, exporters and others all came into being and exist and even prosper due to all that the planters, staff and workers on estates did and continue to do. Therefore, it is with much sadness that on the occasion of 150 years of Sri Lanka tea, those who actually toiled in ensuring the industry survived are being shut out while others whose creation, existence and prosperity depended on what the plantations produced are getting credence in the celebrations!

A salient point is that the tea industry is currently in dire straits.

However, these hard times have not affected the brokers, buyers, importers and exporters and others who have been invited to register. In fact, all of them ironically are thriving at the expense of the tea industry!

Shut 0ut

With the planters who actually ensured the industry survived for 150 years being shut out of the celebrations to mark this significant milestone and even the nomination of participants from Regional Plantation Companies being a bare minimum, the celebrations should probably be more appropriately be referred to as the: Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Ceylon Tea by those whose creation, survival and prosperity depended and even now depends on the Tea Industry in Sri Lanka.

An example of what is to take place is similar to that of one who decides to buy an Audi (the standard vehicle of the elite in the tea trade). Would he prefer speaking to a smooth talking, nattily attired salesman trying to sell a product produced by another or prefer to speak to a robust, overall clad Engineer, who planned, toiled, burnt the midnight oil, neglected his family, kept his workers happy and content and made many more sacrifices in producing a masterpiece of a vehicle? The answer is obvious.

It is hoped that, even at this late stage, sanity will prevail and the legitimate request by planters and ex-planters to attend the event at an affordable cost will be acceded to. Surely, the foreign delegates who are due to attend will be more interested in sharing their experiences with their local counterparts, who were actually involved ensuring the tea industry existed for 150 years and not be pestered by salesmen trying to promote their businesses and/or hearing about the problems that are claimed to have been caused to the industry by the ban on the weedicide Glyphosate!

It is also hoped that the staff and workers, who also toiled to ensure the industry continued, are not forgotten and the proposal made to send 20 of them (or even more) on an educational tour to Kenya will be accepted.

In conclusion, the efforts of the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, Rohan Pethiyagoda, to include the planters in the celebrations at an affordable cost are gratefully acknowledged but even the efforts of this distinguished personality have been to no avail. Based on what is happening in this, the 150 years of Ceylon Tea  GOD HELP CEYLON TEA! (The writer was a planter and is currently President of The Mascots  an association of ex planters of the Maskeliya and Upcot districts. He can be contacted by email  devakaw@sltnet.lk).
Speculation over national carrier chairman quitting View(s):

Speculation was rife this week that under-pressure SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias is considering stepping down at the end of July.

Sources close to the board of directors said Mr. Dias is believed to have told friends that he intended to step down from his position. However, airline officials, who declined to be named, said Mr. Dias was on leave and in London and gave no such indication of quitting.

Last week Colonel (Rtd.) Sunil D. Peiris, board director and Director of Human Resources at the airline resigned after he says a humiliating meeting with the President and several ministers.

The chairman, CEO and board of directors have come under severe attack over the management of the airline which is struggling to find a partner to manage the airline and/or come in as a shareholder. Other members of the board are Rakitha Jayawardena, Rajan Brito, Mahinda Haradasa, R. Chanaka De Silva, Niranjan De Silva Deva Aditya and Harendra K. Balapatabendi with widely-publicised divisions in the board emerging.
Sri Lankas robust growth potential challenged by high debt burden, Moodys says View(s):

While Sri Lankas economy shows robust medium-term growth prospects, credit challenges including large borrowing needs and a fragile external payments position are worrying factors, a report by Moodys Investors Service has revealed.

The report, credit analysis titled Government of Sri Lanka  B1 Negative elaborates on Sri Lankas credit profile in terms of Economic Strength, Moderate (+); Institutional Strength, Low (+); Fiscal Strength, Very Low (-); and Susceptibility to Event Risk, Moderate.

In a media release on Friday, Moodys said it expects real GDP growth of 4.6 per cent this year, which reflects the temporary negative impact of adverse weather-related events during the first half of the year. Moodys expects GDP growth to average 5.2 per cent per year in 2017-21, a robust growth rate, the release said.

Sri Lankas low tax efficiency and tax collection provide significant scope to broaden the tax base and increase the tax revenue/GDP ratio, which was only 12.4 per cent in 2016, said William Foster, a Vice President and Senior Credit Officer at Moodys. Total government revenues are also very low, with a general government revenue/GDP ratio of 14.3 per cent in 2016, one of the lowest among B-rated sovereigns.

Despite ongoing fiscal consolidation, Sri Lankas credit profile will remain constrained by its large debt burden and very low debt affordability, combined with contingent liability risks from state-owned enterprises. Moodys expects general government debt to decline only gradually to around 78 per cent of GDP in 2018, from 79.3 per cent in 2016.

Signs that planned fiscal consolidation measures are less effective than Moodys currently expects or that the authorities commitment towards such steps has diminished would weigh on Sri Lankas rating, particularly if foreign-exchange reserves remain low while refinancing of market debt is challenging, the release said.

Meanwhile, evidence of effective implementation of reforms that leads to significant and lasting improvements in tax collection, and more stable external financing conditions, would support a return of the rating outlook to stable, it added.
US$6 mln for tourism global promo push By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankas tourism industrys long overdue global promotion campaign will get a further boost with the planned investment doubling to US$6 million. The original budget for the global campaign was US$3 million but Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (sltpb) Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara told the Business Times that they would increase this figure as the current amount is not sufficient.

In this respect, he pointed out that they were adjusting the SLTPB budget by pruning down on certain areas and enhancing the allocation for promotion. The global promotion campaign is being worked out but is still at the early stage and it was noted that they were yet to obtain a consultant to work on this project as well.

Authorities were also involved in working on achieving three million arrivals by 2020 with spending $210 per day from a current $164 per day. With 2500 new rooms in the offing this year another 3000 was expected to come up within the next two years, it was stated.

While positioning the country as a destination we are now looking at positioning Colombo as a destination for short stays for regional markets, he said.

The government is readying to present the request for global proposals for the digital marketing campaign of the tourism industry.

The Tourism and Christian Affairs Ministrys procurement committee is currently finalising details on the terms of reference before calling for global offers, Mr. Nanayakkara said.

He noted that international consultant McKinsey, appointed as consultants in this regard, was assisting the authorities in the formulation of the Request for Proposals (RFPs) to be released any time soon. By the end of November the contract should be awarded to the selected agency to handle the digital marketing campaign for Sri Lanka Tourism, he explained.

The tourism industry continues to be concerned about the money spent on tourism promotional campaign which is blamed on the authorities for their lackadaisical attitude. In addition, industry experts note that during the previous government the monies accumulated for promotions were spent haphazardly and today the authorities were shivering in their boots to make any bold decisions.

The stringent bureaucratic measures that is the key bone of contention within the state service hampering speedy delivery has held back authorities from fast tracking proposals, fearing reprisals.

Govt. retains minimum rates in city hotels Minimum room rates that help Colombo city hoteliers to sustain their profits are here to stay. The minimum room rates will be retained, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara said. He noted that it was due to the minimum rates that investor confidence came into the city and in this respect authorities would look to retain this vital aspect of pricing rooms in city hotels as opposed to previous plans to remove it from April 2018. However, this time there would be a different system adopted in that Mr. Nanayakkara explained that they would have to adjust the pricing according to the peak or seasonal trends and demand. When we are trying to look for investors to come in the decision of the government on the minimum rate is a good decision, he said adding that a majority of city hoteliers was not in favour of its removal. Commenting on whether Sri Lanka was comparatively expensive against other destinations in the region, he noted that there was a big difference. He pointed out that Sri Lanka was not interested in cheap tourism and added that though we should let anyone come, allowing everyone in would ruin our culture and our way of life and our religion. Thailand is certainly looking down that road but not Sri Lanka.
A chronically chaotic government and its far worse foes View(s):

When disreputable elements engage in fear-mongering, one can only react with disdain. That said, this is a time where the line between the reputable and the disreputable runs very thin on the ground. Therefore it may be conceded that these are distinctions veritably without a difference.

Sensible rationale not reflected

Nonetheless, it is hard to remain quiet when former Minister of External Affairs and surely one of our most eagerly ambitious politicians, GL Peiris expounds with great gusto on the ill-wisdom of the Enforced Disappearances Bill. Listed for debate this week, the Bill was postponed by a wavering Government caught between the rock of its own swashbuckling commitments and the hard place of ultra-nationalistic sentiment before which it now wails, much like a petulant child.

This predicament is, of course, due in large part to its own failure in not engaging in a national effort to soberly explain to the people in this country why this legislation is needed in the first place. Enforced disappearances do not have sole application to the North or to citizens of Tamil ethnicity. On the contrary, the South was the primary target of this tactic of state terror in the eighties. The Sinhala South therefore does not need to be taught as to why such a law is needed or why the State must legislate to ensure accountability to prevent future occurrences.

But this sensible rationale is overridden by sound and fury signifying precisely nothing. On the one hand, the draft law is advocated as a palliative for the people of the North. On the other hand, we have politicians of the ilk of GL Peris explaining that it will prosecute the Southern patriots. The contesting dynamic is firmly entrenched.

Wringing of hands to be expected

This bifurcation between the North and the South is unwise in the extreme. It is akin to claiming that Sri Lankas Right to Information (RTI) law is meant for the South and has little application to the North, as idiotically put forward by some politicians representing the Northern constituency a while ago.This has, of course,been disproved by the practical use of the law since it came into force.

Regardless, the effort to enact a law on Enforced Disappearances for Sri Lanka should have been led by a local multi-ethnic and multi-religious constituency. Instead the perception was more that it was a Colombo led effort with external donor-funded support. At each and every turn, this is what destabilizes each effort to genuinely improve the lot of citizens.

It is the same bogey that has clung to the constitutional reform process. Inevitably nationalistic demons raise their heads and rail while the majority of ordinary Sri Lankans remained uninterested or uninvolved. So the procrastination midst the wringing of hands that we see on the postponement of the Enforced Disappearances Bill is entirely to be expected.

Engaging in reprehensible objections

But let us revert to the interview in the Daily Mirror a few days ago where the erstwhile law professor, from whom many once learnt the law with the intent to honour the ideals of justice, expounded on the ill-wisdom of the Bill.To someone unacquainted with the disagreeable hypocrisy of our politicians, it would seem that the Bill posed untold risks to Sri Lanka and exposed the country to the wrath of insidious influences hell-bent on tarnishing its name.

The truth, of course, is far less dramatic. Certainly there is neither the time nor the inclination to refute all the reprehensible objections in this interview.Suffice it to be said that the Bill comes as a response of sustained advocacy against a most heinous crime of this century. The tactic of enforced disappearances had been used as a deliberate mechanism to frighten and intimidate dissenters, political activists, journalists and ordinary citizens by all Governments for decades. The need for such legislation is without a doubt.

However, one aspect in particular in this interview merits a response, given its singularly disingenuousreasoning. This is in regard to the doctrine of command responsibility in the Bill. This is responded to with horror by the former Minister, calling the clause incredibly wide.

Concept no stranger to our law

This is, of course, a palpable misrepresentation. A core element of this offence is that a commander must unlawfully disregard and fail to discharge duties to control the acts of subordinates by permitting them to commit war crimes. This thinking is not unfamiliar to our law.

Indeed, constitutional jurisprudence by enlightened judges in the mid nineteen nineties held superior officers responsible on the basis of vicarious liability when they failed to act as subordinates committed torture of detainees. Sri Lankas Convention Against Torture (CAT) Act in force for more than a decade embodies this very rationale.

True, in situations of conflict, the judicial response has been more tempered in holding those in command responsible. Even so, judges have used the crime of omission, historically very much a part of our penal law, to hold superior officers accountable during the second southern insurrection, for instance. Judicial opinion may be divided on the issue but to react with such feigned horror to the very idea is absurd.

Not even the minimum is possible

From one perspective, the scenario unfolding before us is ironic. In bringing such laws before Parliament, probably the intention was to placate those calling for law reform with the consolation that nothing much would happen anyway. After all, the CAT Act has utterly failed to deter torture despite being one of our better drafted laws. The perennial failure of justice is not because of the inadequacy of law but because of politicised investigations and prosecutions. Which,as must be said, this Government has done nothing to address,

But due to its chronically chaotic character, it appears that the Government has been checkmated even in this minimum effort by the so-called joint opposition now smelling blood in the water and baying for its revenge.

For that, it has only itself and its equally ill-advised allies to blame.
Rajapaksas UN visit: Ex-Lankan diplomat faces FCID probe View(s):

A onetime top official of the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York is to be questioned by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) over alleged financial irregularities.This probe concerns an advance of more than US$ 50,000 drawn from the mission for expenses related to a visit by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and entourage to attend the UN General Assembly.

One such advance had been settled after five months with irrelevant and incomplete documentation, an audit inquiry revealed. This amount, it has come to light, has been deposited by the mission into his personal account after funds were received from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo. After the bank in question had said it needed three to four days to encash such an amount the mission had issued two separate cheques of US$ 10,000 each.

Just three days before this transaction, the top official concerned had also accepted US$ 20,000 from the mission funds. A Foreign Ministry audit team, which conducted an examination of the accounts, had later recommended that limits be placed on ad hoc advance payments.

The audit team also examined different items of expenditure. One such instance was the payment of US$ 39,600 for the use of vehicles (for hours ranging from 16 to 24) during a visit to Texas by the then President Rajapaksa.

Among other expenses the official is said to have paid for are US$ 950 for meals for drivers, expenses in Washington DC for US$ 2,000 and tips for waiters US$ 350.

Harrisons ba-ba GM sheep

Rural Economy Minister P. Harrison has an ambitious plan to breed sheep in Sri Lanka.

He has proposed that 25 breedable males and 100 breedable females be imported at a cost of ten million rupees. The money is to be drawn from the 2017 budgetary allocations to his ministry.

Mr. Harrison has said the objective of his proposal is to introduce new genes to the existing herds at the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and upgrade their genetic pool. He believes that would help produce a number of breedable animals annually.

He wants the sheep to be located in NLDB farms and offspring of new arrivals to be given to private farmers.Minister Harrison has noted that no animals were imported to the country after the early 1980s and no new genes were introduced. Thereby it is difficult to find good quality breedable animals in Sri Lanka.

Murder revisited: CID team off to Brasilia

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives have started an inquiry into alleged murder by a now retired senior Army officer when he was serving in the Sri Lanka Embassy in a Latin American country.

The move follows a complaint made by a close relative of the deceased who had been serving in the once senior officers residence.

CID sources said yesterday that a team of detectives will travel to Brasilia, the Brazilian capital for follow-up inquiry. These sources said formal official clearance was now being awaited.

Politicos dont- prosecute- me plea to bribery sleuths

A politico, known for waxing eloquent, was questioned by sleuths of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption some months ago.

After the two-hour session ended, insiders say, the politico made a request that he be not prosecuted.

There are at least two more complaints, for which the politico is to be invited to make statements. However, how soon that would happen is not clear.

Arms depot: From Salawa to Panagoda

The Government is to construct a well-fortified Central Arms Storage Facility within the Army Cantonment in Panagoda at a cost of more than Rs. 658 million.

This is to replace the central facility that existed at Salawa which was gutted by fire causing extensive damage to the Army and private property.

The three-storeyed new building will be built within three years, a Defence Ministry official said.

After uniform vouchers, now shoe vouchers

School children, particularly those from poorer families in villages, were the recipients of free uniforms  the result of an initiative from the late President J.R. Jayewardene. The ruling coalition changed the scheme by providing students with vouchers through schools so they could go to a designated textile shop and obtain the uniforms. Needless to say, this scheme did earn for the Ministry of Education the displeasure of parents and students alike.

Now, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has come up with a proposal to provide shoes for poorer students. The move entailed suitable suppliers visit schools and obtaining the measurements of children and delivering the shoes thereafter.Now, Mr Kariyawasam wants to, instead, give vouchers to students needy of shoes. They will have to walk, sometimes bare feet, to footwear dealers, to get their shoes. His proposal will cost the government Rs. 511 million.

New Foreign Exchange Bill in conflict with Money Laundering Act

What is commission of an offence under the proposed Foreign Exchange Bill which will come for approval before Parliament?

Special Assignments Minister Tilak Marapana, a former Attorney General has been instructed to study the views made by R. Paskaralingam (advisor to the Prime Minister) and define the words.

The minutes of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM), which has assigned this new task, note that a lengthy discussion took place on the draft Foreign Exchange Bill. It was reported that the words commission of an offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act No 5 of 2006 of Section 8(5) will prevent people bringing foreign exchange back to Sri Lanka which contradicts the real objective of the Bill.

The minute adds It was also reported that the remittance must not be specified as US$ 10 million but can amend as one per cent from the total amount.

Unsolicited funds coming from Dubai finance company

An unidentified Dubai based Financial Institution has offered concessional funding of US$ 500 million for the Treasury and another US$ 500 million for the National Savings Bank (NSB). The matter was discussed at a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) which is chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The CCEM has noted that this is an unsolicited proposal and adds that the local agent is requesting a letter of intent from the Treasury to proceed with the funding. It adds; Committee approval was granted for Treasury to issue a non-committing letter of intent to the local agent of the Dubai-based Financial Institution subject to recommendation of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Meethotamulla garbage dump victims to receive compensation

The Avurudu Day garbage dump disaster at Meethotamulla left 33 persons dead and their next of kin are to receive a million rupees each as compensation. The disaster also left 1,670 people (or 393 families) displaced, according to Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. He is seeking Treasury funding to the tune of Rs. 29.7 million whilst the National Disaster Insurance Programme will pay Rs. 100,000 to next of kin of the diseased.

The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) is building houses for those displaced. Those who cannot afford those houses are to be paid for the damage caused to their homes. To purchase household appliances, Rs 250,000 has also been paid. Evacuated families who do not have shelter received Rs 50,000 per month for three months.
Gilwell Re-union in Batticaloa by Sri Lanka Scout Association View(s):

A national level Gilwell Re-union organised by the Sri Lanka Scout Association (SLSA) was held in Batticaloa Municipal hall during the last weekend, under the theme of Promoting religious harmony, respect human dignity and build brotherhood.

As the first national Scout event organised in Batticaloa, by the National Scout Headquarters, it was attended by all Wood Badge holders in the country. The SLSA in collaboration with the Batticaloa district branch, coordinated the event. SLSA Chief Commissioner Prof Nimal De Silva was the Chief Guest.

About 114 student Scouts were presented Tharu badges by the Chief Guest, who noted that the Scout movement was initiated in the Batticaloa district over 100 years ago, and continues to provide remarkable training for student Scouts which will helps them develop as good, healthy human beings in the society. Text & Pix by Deva Athiran
WASHINGTON (TNS)  Deep within the Treasury Department sits a once-secret plan written by the Obama administration that could lead to the first-ever default on U.S. debt. Bond traders are worried that Donald Trumps Treasury secretary may have to use it.

The U.S. government will reach its statutory limit on borrowing some time in October, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. The Trump administration has asked Congress to raise the ceiling before then, but it is running into the same complications the Obama White House encountered: lawmakers, mostly Republicans, who want to use the debt limit as leverage for controversial policy changes.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said there are plans and backup plans to keep the government solvent through September. Bond traders suspect he is referring to preparations made in 2011 in case the Obama administration had to prioritize payments on government securities over other obligations. The Treasury chief got fresh hope that Congress may raise the debt limit before leaving for its August recess after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed the break by two weeks.

When the nation almost breached its debt ceiling six years ago, the Federal Reserve and Treasury drew up contingency plans that were kept secret until January, when transcripts of an Aug. 1, 2011 conference call at the central bank were released after a customary five-year lag.

One day before protracted negotiations concluded with Congress raising the debt ceiling, Fed officials were briefed about how its staff and Treasury officials had worked together to develop a plan to handle debt payments in the event they had to be prioritized or at least not fully paid, the transcripts say.

Under the contingency plan, holders of U.S. debt and recipients of Social Security, veterans benefits and other entitlements would be paid first. Everyone else, such as government contractors and federal employees, would be at risk of payment delays or partial payments.

Though the scenario nominally protects holders of U.S. debt by prioritizing the payments they are due, it raises fears that the value of their underlying assets could suddenly decline if the U.S. governments reputation for creditworthiness is damaged.

Im assuming that prioritization is the fallback, said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC. The acknowledgment in the Fed transcripts of the existence of a backup plan to pay interest first makes it more plausible, he said, calling it a truly terrible idea.

It was in 2011 that U.S. debt was downgraded for the first time by S&P Global Ratings. If the secret debt prioritization plan has to be used by the Trump administration, the nations credit rating may well be downgraded again, some analysts say.

Even the existence of the 2011 backup plan is contested. Some former Treasury officials who worked at the department at the time say that by design there was no plan. The agency may have used a legal distinction to avoid appearing to have created a backstop by never asking its general counsel if prioritization was legal, one former Treasury official said.

Mnuchin said in his January confirmation hearing that he would not prioritize debt payments, should the borrowing limit be breached. But more recently, he has demurred.

Congress should raise the ceiling so that we dont have to talk about prioritization, he said in a June 20 Bloomberg TV interview, declining to directly answer a question about the possibility. However, he has consistently said the U.S. should be paying our bills when theyre due and we shouldnt put the government at risk.

In response to questions about the Treasurys position on prioritization, a spokeswoman referred to Mnuchins previous comments urging Congress to raise the debt ceiling quickly and insisting that the U.S. should pay its debts on time. Fed board spokesman David Skidmore declined to comment.

When the nation almost breached its debt ceiling six years ago, the Federal Reserve and Treasury drew up contingency plans that were kept secret until January, when transcripts of an Aug. 1, 2011 conference call at the central bank were released after a customary five-year lag.
A fleet of ships destroyed View(s):

This article is part of a continuing series on Sri Lankan history



The Portuguese fleet that came to attack Galle met the Dutch fleet around the seas of Colombo. When the Portuguese started attacking, the Dutch tried to evade. They sailed towards Negombo. At this point of time the Portuguese attacks were not well planned. This enabled the Dutch ships to flee.



At this time, the Portuguese had a shortage of ships. As such, the fleet could not stay on in Sri Lanka for long. It had to get back to Goa. In the midst of all this there sprang up dissension among the Portuguese leaders. So the fleet did not sail together. They went separately. This was a foolish act on the part of the Portuguese.



As they were sailing like this, they met a Dutch fleet on their way. The captain of that fleet was Ryck Logh Van Huens. Under his orders, the Dutch attacked the Portuguese fleet and destroyed it. This loss of ships was an unbearable loss to the Portuguese.



It turned out to be a reason for celebration for the Dutch. They got the feeling that they were saved from a future danger from the sea. After this they tried their best to chase away the Portuguese from Colombo.

The Portuguese too did not surrender easily. They continued fighting.



Meanwhile a Portuguese army was stationed in Aluthgama, to prevent the Dutch from marching towards Colombo. Here the Dutch used a strategy. They encouraged the Portuguese army to go to the other side

of the river. They got caught to their trap.

Then the Dutch pounced on them and went on attacking.

By Halaliye Karunathilake,

Edited and translated by Kamala Silva

Illustrated by Saman Kalubowila
Kids Essays View(s):

Message for Mother

My mum Sumudu is my dear friend.

She is near me whenever I need help.

Her pleasing smile makes my life very pleasant

She is the sunshine that lights my life

All mums are great but my mum is the greatest

Because she is a mum to everyone around.

Mama I love you, Mama I care.

Mama you are my whole world.

Shevan Fernando (9 years)

S. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia

My class teacher

Mrs. Mifra is my class teacher. She is very kind and fair. She has long hair. She lives in Mount Lavinia. Her hobby is reading books. Her favourite food is cake and drink is

orange juice.

She teaches us only English. She appoints monitors in class weekly. She is strict and not interested in dramas. She has evening classes every day between 4  6 p.m. She advises us to learn well and obey our elders. She likes to wear sarees and shalwars.

I love my class teacher. She loves every student.

Brian Denish (9 years)

Najaa Int. School, Mt. Lavinia

The festival of Eid-Ul-Fitr

Muslims the world over celebrated the Festival of

Eid-Ul-Fitr to mark the end

of the 30 day Ramadan Fast.

On this holy day, the faithful dressed in their festival best make their way to the nearby mosques in the early morning to attend special Eid prayers being held. This is followed by a sermon delivered by the Pesh Imam of the mosque to explain the importance and the merits derived by observing the holy fast. The sermon comes to an end with all those present exchanging

Eid Mubarak greetings by embracing each other and paying their respects and obeisance to the elders, friends and relatives.

On returning home the smell of delicious dishes will fill the air. After a hearty meal most people will visit the graveyards of their loved ones who are no more and pray for them. In the evening, friends, relatives and well wishers drop in to convey their greetings and best wishes and exchange gifts too. Favourite sweets,

short-eats and faludas are served. People spend their leisure time with their families and loved ones and have an enjoyable time.

On this occasion let me extend sincere wishes and greetings to all the Funday Times readers and friends a bright and prosperous

Eid-Ul-Fitr Festival!

Thameena Asri (11 years)

Fathima Muslim Ladies College

The sunshine

These days, the sunshine is an unbearable thing for us. The sunshine is so hot that it is impossible for us to do some outdoor work. The plants too have withered and only a few plants stand tall enough to bear the heat. Not only humans and animals, even plants could not stand the heat.

If the sunshine wasnt so hot, then all of us could stay healthy as the hot sun brought fever, headaches, viruses and other illnesses to the living. Animals suffer from dehydration and they die too.

Not only Sri Lanka, even countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia too cant bear the heat of the sun. Sri Lanka is better than the other countries as the other countries temperature exceeds 40 degrees centigrade. We have to drink plenty of water to quench our thirst.

We all should hope that the sunshine will become less hot soon and that areas which do not have rains could get rains too.

Lihini Wijesekara (Grade 7)

Lyceum Int. School, Wattala

If I were a butterfly

How wonderful if I were a butterfly!

I would have gone everywhere to see the beauty of the world.

I havent teeth as you and no hands as you have but I have multi-coloured smooth wings to fly, and six legs to walk. I have tiny eyes to see. Sometimes I fly with my friends. Small children like to chase me. Im afraid of them. When I see them I fly high.

I lay eggs under the leaves. When Im tired I rest awhile sitting on flowers. When I am hungry I sit on the flowers and suck nectar.

I do not harm the flowers. I never fly without looking at them. I like to spend the end of my life at Adams Peak by flying to the top with the pilgrims. Not only children, but also adults like me as we are the creatures who beautify the environment.

Rachini Adikari (9 years)

Girls High School, Kandy

My favourite TV programme

My favourite TV programme is Adiraja Dharmashoka. It is telecast on Derana channel. It is an ancient legend. This ancient story happened in India. It is a royal story about a great king called Dharmashoka. He has two younger brothers and one elder brother. Ashokas father is King Bindusara. His mother is Queen Dharma. He has three names. They are Ashoka / Dharmashoka / Chandashoka.

The main character is Ashoka. Ashoka is a brave boy. Ashoka has many enemies. They are the siblings of Ashoka, Susheema and Siyamak.

I like to watch this programme.

Nethara Jayasooriya (10 years)

Sacred Heart Convent, Galle

My favourite subject

My favourite subject is English. It is an international language. I learn English subject from Madushika teacher at school. She teaches well. I love to read English storybooks too. I love my subject.

Mayuri Nimanthika (Class 5)

Mahasen K.V., Dambulla

Myself

My name is Hansi Liliane. I am ten years old. I live in Thiranagama. Im in Grade Six.

I am a student from P. De S. Kularathna College. My favourite colour is mint. My hobby is swimming. I have a pet dog. I have one brother. His name is Lorance. My mothers name is Dammi and my fathers name is Lalith. My mother is a cook and my father is a hotel manager. Our family is small. My ambition is to be a doctor one day.

Hansi Liliane (10 years)

P. De S. Kularathna College, Ambalangoda

My country

My country is Sri Lanka. It has a great history. Sri Lanka is a land of kings. Our ancient kings ruled at Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kandy. They built many palaces, temples and tanks. We can see the ruins of those places even today. We can be proud of our ancestors. We can be proud of our nation and country. Since I belong to this blessed land, I am proud of being a Sri Lankan.

Sri Lanka is the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It is a beautiful island with a tropical climate where tourists are highly fascinated. Beautiful blue waters in the sea with golden sand are a heaven to tourists to enjoy. The central hills with waterfalls, green tea estates and meadows, where the misty clouds float, are some of the gifts of nature. We are in an agricultural country where the crops and grains for our food are produced. We as children of Mother Lanka should be proud of our natural gifts.

Ours is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country, where people live in peace and unity. We enjoy freedom while respecting others. Sri Lankans are a hospitable nation with faces full of smiles. This is known among the foreigners and they respect us. We are a country with dignity that is unique in our Sri Lankan ideology. Therefore, I am proud to be a Sri Lankan.

Mathmini Yashodara (Grade 4)

Jennings Int. College, Nainamadama
Battle against dengue, garbage on military footing By Anthony David Two key ministers propose armed services be called in; Permission sought to break into locked private premises View(s): View(s):

Two ministers want to place the Governments battle against raging dengue and piling garbage on a military footing in the City of Colombo.

They want the Commanders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Police Chief to assign ten officers each to man an Operations Room for this purpose. They also want to invoke powers under the Public Security Act to deal with the situation.

The proposal has come from Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Musthapha. In a joint memorandum, the two ministers have proposed that surveillance cameras be fixed around garbage dumps. About 50smart phones to be issued to Police and Armed Forces personnel, they have said, would enable them to monitor those dumping unauthorised garbage. The ministers have said that an order should be issued under the Public Security Act to permit public officials to enter into private premises which are under lock and key (with occupants away or shifting home) to make searches for mosquito breeding sites.

They are seeking ten motorcycles, four double cabs, two Three Wheeler scooter taxis (on lease basis) to ensure mobility of personnel.

They have recommended that legal action should be taken against heads of all state institutions, including schools and private institutions where mosquito breeding areas are found.

While CCTV cameras are to be installed in waste disposal sites, there will be a new condition included in permits issued either by the Urban Development Authority or the local council. It will require the public disclosure of the owner/contractor and to temporarily suspend the building permit no sooner the legal action is initiated.

At present the Armed Forces and Police are assisting Health officials on house visits to inspect whether there are mosquito breeding spots in homes in the Colombo City. Those found to have such breeding sites are being prosecuted.
Bribery Com. complaint against fired NCPA official View(s):

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has lodged a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABC) against its former deputy chairman, alleging that he provided to a foreign court an adverse report on child protection in Sri Lanka.

Deputy Chairman Sajeeva Samaranayake was removed on an order from President Maithripala Sirisena after he submitted a sworn affidavit to an Australian court stating that Sri Lanka was an unsafe environment for children and that the justice system as a whole did not respond effectively to cases of child abuse.

The President also had ordered a probe on why such an affidavit was submitted. Mr. Samaranayake submitted the affidavit dated April 7, 2017, following a request from a Melbourne court that was hearing a child-related case. In the affidavit, among other things, the former NCPA official had noted that there were shortcomings in delivering effective protective services for children and their caregivers in Sri Lanka.

An NCPA lawyer who certified the affidavit was also interdicted, pending an investigation.
CCEM holds US$ 250m project for two 75-storey towers at Horton Place By Namini Wijedasa Controversy over background of directors and Rajapaksa connections View(s): View(s):

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) has hit the brakes on a proposed US$ 250m Horton Square mixed-development project in Horton Place, saying the buildings  two towers of 75 storeys each  were too high for the exclusive residential area. But the Urban Development Authority (UDA) maintains that it falls within limits allowed for special primary residential zones in the City of Colombo Development Plan (Amendment) 2008. Preliminary construction clearance has been granted.

Horton Place is a special primary residential zone. Among other things, the Development Plan stipulates the width between building lines, minimum width of private roads and maximum permissible floor area ratios. It also defines building categories, number of floors, minimum site frontage and open spaces around buildings. The Horton Square application was approved under guidelines set for project sites of more than 2,500 square metres in special primary residential zones.

These are specified in the City of Colombo Development Plan, UDA Chairman Jagath Nandana Munasinghe said.The project was launched in April with the participation of Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka. It remains unclear when, or if, the CCEM will give the go-ahead. The Board of Investment (BOI) turned down the application when it was submitted for approval. One reason, the Sunday Times learns, was concern over the ventures main players.

The Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd directors are Ramasamy Muthusamy Manivannan of SupremeSAT fame; Renuka Shanmuganathan; Alberto de Simone, an Italian with Belgian and Dehiwala addresses; and Jaya Sudhir Jayaram, a Malaysian businessman. Among its initial shareholders is an entity called Paradise Island Holdings Ltd. registered to P.O. Box 33582, Ras al Khaimah, the United Arab Emirates. Interestingly, that address is of RAK Company Administration FZ LLC or RAKCA which calls itself the largest Registered Agent for incorporation Offshore & Onshore Company [sic] regulated under Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority. Its services include management and administration of offshore companies and establishment of accounts with prime banks in the UAE.

This is not the only offshore connection Horton Square has. Mr Sudhirs address is entered in the company registration form as P.O. Box 957, Road Town, Offshore Incorporations Centre at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. That address common to hundreds of other entities from around the world. In the 2016 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Panama Papers leak, the British Virgin Islands emerged as the most commonly used tax haven by clients of Panamanian offshore financials provider Mossack Fonseca.

Mr Sudhir, meanwhile, has a significant internet footprint. He is best known for being the Malaysian businessman named in the United Nations investigation into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. The Sunday Times read the Independent Inquiry Committee report online. Mr Sudhir is alleged, along with two others, to have revived Mastek Sdn Bhd (a long-dormant Malaysian company) to pay the regime of Saddam Hussein up to US$ 10mn in illegal surcharges to clinch Iraqi oil contracts for another company Mastek was intermediary to. He is said to have been a key player, something he rejected by heaping blame on another partner.

The report cites bank records as showing that, at one time, Mr Sudhir formed a shelf company called Keppel Oil to avoid currency restrictions imposed in Malaysia. It was used to transfer 2.3 million Euros to an account of Iraqs State Organisation for Marketing Oil between April and July 2001. A shelf company (in contrast to a shell company) is a business entity that has been formed and properly maintained, but which has never conducted any business.

The 46-year-old Mr. Manivannan became widely known under the former administration for his forays into satellite technology. He claimed to have launched Sri Lankas first satellite with Chinese collaboration. It turned out to be a joint-branding of a Chinese satellite where SupremeSAT leased part of its communications payload.

Mr Manivannan provided office space to Rohitha Rajapaksa. The youngest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was also given a shareholding in SupremeSAT through a company named Dycer International . Rohitha Rajpaksa was 100 percent owner of Dycer International. Mr Sudhir owns a company called Al-Rafidian Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. This is confirmed by Singaporean court papers. Mr Manivannan has stated on record that Al-Rafidian provided satellite acquisition financing to SupremeSAT, in which Mr Sudhir also had a stake.

Mr. Sudhir and Mr. de Simone are longstanding business partners of Mr Manivannan. Mr de Simone held the position of foreign director in Mr Manivannans Supreme Global Holdings (Pvt) Ltd and SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd.

Mr de Simones whereabouts are a mystery. In initial filings with the Registrar of Companies, his local address is listed as No 4/3, Gamini Ms, Kawdana, Broadway, Dehiwala. But his most recent address is given as 99/314, Quarry Road, Dehiwala. There is a difference of just two characters from the address Mr Manivannan provided the Registrar of Companies in his early filings: 99/3H, Quarry Road, Dehiwala.

Mr de Simones foreign location has remained consistent at St Denjjsl 128-9000, Gent, Belgium. It is not traceable on the internet or on Google maps. Mr Manivannans current address is in Bauddhaloka Mw, Colombo 7.

The Horton Square companys third director, Renuka Shanmuganathan, is the wife of Sudharshan (Shan) Shanmuganathan, a reputed accountant. He is also a long-time business partner of Mr Manivannan. They are resident at Ward Place, Colombo 7. Renuka is the sister of Thirukumar Nadesan, who is married to former President Rajapaksas cousin Nirupama Rajapaksa.

Among the entities set up by Mr Manivannan are Supreme Global Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, formerly known as Lanka Consult Holdings (Pvt) Ltd; SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd; SupremeSAT Investments (Pvt) Ltd; Supreme Solutions (Pvt) Ltd; Singha Lanka Investment (Pvt) Ltd; and, now, Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd. Supreme Global Holdings is also registered to the Middle East. An examination of the groups activities points to the creation of multiple companies, opaque financial transactions, poor reporting, frequent share transfers and labyrinthine business practices.

Mr Manivannan started off as a freight clerk at Roton Vander, a shipping company. In mid-1980, Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake was a director of this company and, eventually, Chief Executive Officer. He was succeeded to this post by Mr Manivannan when, in 2006, he entered full-time politics. That same year, Roton Vander was bought by a foreign logistics provider named IJS Global. Mr Manivannan continued to be its CEO. He subsequently teamed up with Vijith Peiris, the original CEO of SupremeSAT to form a freight forwarding company of their own. It was called UF Lanka Ltd.

Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd is Mr Manivannans latest commercial foray. Its CEO is Paul Kelly, who said he was an investment banker for more than 20 years in London, ran hedge funds and now has an office in Singapore. Mr Kelly telephoned this writer. He confirmed that preliminary building permission was obtained for the project at Horton Place and that BOI approval is pending. We are managing one outstanding issue with UDA before the final construction permit is granted, he said.

The UDA said that, from around 12 different conditions the company has to meet, two still needed to be fulfilled. One related to having to gift part of the property towards road widening; another related to parking arrangements. The Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) has passed muster.

Mr Kelly did not name the directors of the company (when asked), stating that he needed to pull out the records. Some, he said, were nominee directors. He said funds for the development would be raised from overseas investors while the construction company, Zhongtian Group, would underwrite the project. We raised equity capital and the project will be funded through pre-sales and we are close to pre-selling 50 percent of available stock, he said.

It was also revealed that Horton Square paid in excess of US$ 20mn to acquire possession of the Horton Place property from Purni Edwards, its last owner. The 291-perch prime block once housed Asha Central Hospital. Purni is the wife of Rienzie Edwards who, in December 2016, was indicted along with five others by the US Attorneys Office for allegedly defrauding victims of more than US$50 million.

The 22-page court filing gave insight into an elaborate scheme involving shell companies as well as domestic and international bank accounts. An unspecified percentage of the money allegedly stolen by Rienzi [sic] Edwards, Michael Jacobs, Ruby Handler-Jacobs, F K Ho, Lawrence Lester and Rachel Gendreau is said to have been sent to bank accounts in Sri Lanka.

The Sunday Times obtained documentary evidence that neither of the Edwards now holds ownership of the Horton Place land. The transfer of title took place around three months ago. They do not have any involvement in the project, going forward, Mr Kelly said.
Govt. to go ahead with terrorism bill: Rajapakshe By Chandani Kirinde View(s): View(s):

The Government will not take instructions from the United Nations on how the new Counter-Terrorism Bill is drafted and will go ahead with the bill approved by the Cabinet, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said yesterday.

The laws have to be made here and they have to be approved by our Parliament. We cannot have others doing it for us, Minister Rajapakshe said.

He was responding to comments made by Ben Emmerson, the UNs Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. Mr. Emmerson said on Friday that the Government wanted to engage in a process of constructive dialogue to improve the draft legislation before it was presented in Parliament.

The UN official said the Foreign Affairs Ministry had undertaken to consult his team in Geneva within the next two weeks to start a dialogue to identify the flaws in the current draft, and put them right. The contradictory claims come after a stormy meeting between Minister Rajapakshe and the UN Rapporteur.

Mr. Emmerson and Minister Rajapakshe met on Tuesday during the UN envoys our day visit to Sri Lanka. They clashed over several issues including the proposed new legislation. While the UN Rapporteur had insisted that the new draft must meet contemporary international best practices in anti-terror laws, Minister Rajapakshe had retorted that in Britain, the home country of Mr. Emmerson, Prime Minister Theresa May was planning to change human rights laws to punish terror suspects and keep them longer in prison.

When asked about the acrimonious meeting with Sri Lankas Justice Minister, Mr. Emmerson said he did not wish to comment on private conversations but was strongly critical of the proposed Counter-Terrorism Act, a copy of which was given to him prior to his visit to Sri Lanka.He said that many of those who spoke to him expressed dismay at the lack of ministerial, parliamentary or public consultation over the proposals. Indeed, even the Human Rights Commission has not been informed or consulted on the draft framework.

Mr. Emmerson said the present draft made some significant improvements to the current anti-terror law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). These include allowing unfettered access to detainees and abolish the Attorney-Generals right of veto over the grant of bail and also create an improved framework for administrative and pre-trial detention, with greater scope for independent judicial review.

He said he, however, saw a number of central flaws in the current draft which, if enacted, would violate the human rights of terrorism suspects.

Foremost among these is a provision preserving the admissibility of confessions made to a police officer while in custody. In a country with such a grave and widespread problem of torture and ill-treatment in custody, the only means by which counter-terrorism legislation could conform to international human rights standards would be the prohibition altogether of the use of confessions made to the police, he said.

The UN envoy said there were also problems with the definition of terrorism. These problems posed the risk that the legislation could be used in circumstances far removed from acts of real terrorism, or used against minorities or human rights defenders. This could happen in a discriminatory and sectarian manner.

The progress of this legislation to date has been painfully slow, and this has, in turn, delayed the wider package of transitional justice measures that Sri Lanka committed to deliver two years ago. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that this inertia reflects the continuing influence of certain vested interests in the security sector, who are resistant to change, and to accountability, the UN official said.
Lanka doctor among 14 indicted in largest ever US medicare fraud View(s):

A United States-based Sri Lankan-origin doctor is among 14 people charged in the Central District of California for allegedly participating in health care fraud schemes. Dr. Kanagasabai Kanakeswaran was indicted late last month on one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks for health care referrals and four counts of receiving kickbacks for health care referrals, the US Department of Justice said. Dr. Kanakeswaran is an internist (general medicine) in Lancaster, California, and is affiliated with Antelope Valley Hospital.

He received his medical degree from the Colombo Universitys Faculty of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

The owners and operators of a home health company called Star Home Health Resources allegedly paid bribes to physicians, including Dr. Kanakeswaran, to refer Medicare beneficiaries for home health services to Star. As a result of his referrals alone, Star received US$ 4,157,311 from Medicare. This took place from May 2008 to May 2016.

This and other indictments served alongside are being called the largest-ever health care fraud enforcement action by federal prosecutors. The defendants include doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals. Hundreds of others have been charged across the US in cases that cumulatively allege about $1.3 billion in false billings.

The nationwide sweep includes charges against more than 120 defendants  some of whom are doctors  who allegedly prescribed and distributed opioids and other dangerous narcotics. The 14 defendants charged in the Central District of California are accused of health care fraud and kickback schemes involving compounded drugs, home health services, physical therapy, acupuncture, Medicare Part D prescription drugs, diagnostic sleep studies and hospice care.
Parliaments right to impose taxes subjected to Public Trust doctrine: Presidents Counsel View(s):

The right of Parliament to impose taxes under Article 148 of the Constitution is not unrestricted and must be exercised in conformity with the principle that, powers conferred must be used with the doctrine of Public Trust, the Supreme Court (SC) was told during submissions made, when a Petition challenging the new Inland Revenue Bill was taken up for hearing on Thursday.

Mr. Nigel Hatch P.C., who appeared for Nihal Hettiarachchi, a Chartered Accountant and Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL), who has challenged the Bill, said the SC has applied the doctrine of Public Trust in several cases involving financial Bills including the Appropriation Bill of 2012.

The three-member Bench comprises Chief Justice Priyasath Dep and Justices Anil Gooneratne and Nalin Perera. Counsel Hatch submitted that the principles of stability, transparency, certainty and the protection afforded to taxpayers against arbitrary and capricious exercise of powers by Revenue Authorities, inter alia are fundamental, and form the basis and/or framework of tax legislation in Sri Lanka, as set out in the Petition.

He said that Article 3 of the Constitution of 1978, not only lays down that sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable, it further lays down that sovereignty includes the powers of the government, fundamental rights and the franchise.

Article 4 of the Constitution provides for the exercise of the sovereignty of the people. It provides for the exercise of the legislative, executive and judicial power of the people [Articles 4(a), (b) and (c)] and provides further at Article 4(d) that the fundamental rights which are declared and recognized by the Constitution, shall be respected, secured and advanced by all organs of government. The SC, in reviewing the constitutionality of Bills, has always read Articles 3 and 4 together, the Counsel submitted.

The Court heard that, right to written reasons for the rejection of a Return was first introduced in the Inland Revenue Act (IRA) No.30 of 1978, which was an amendment to the IRA of 1972. This has been part of the tax law of Sri Lanka for the past 40 years without exception.

The contentious clauses in the Bill include 135(2) and/or 135(3), by which the time bar for assessment of Returns has been increased to four years. Thus the time bar imposed for assessments of a compliant taxpayer has been increased from 18 months to 4 years, which is arbitrary and capricious, leaving the taxpayer with uncertainty.

Furthermore, the time bar for assessment of Returns of 4 years, under the new Bill, applies to both compliant taxpayers who submit Returns and non-compliant persons who do not do so. The said Bill does not distinguish between compliant and non-compliant persons. This is per se arbitrary and discriminatory, and violates Articles 3 read with 4(d) and 12(1) of the Constitution, Mr. Hatch said.

He added that the time limit to finalise an Appeal to the CGIR under Section 165(14) of IRA No.10 of 2006, is limited to 2 years, and failure to do so results in the Appeal being deemed to have been allowed and the tax charged accordingly. This protection afforded to taxpayers is omitted in the said impugned Bill.

Clause 200 of the said impugned Bill purports to set out how the said Bill is to be interpreted. This purported Clause is unprecedented and ex facie violates Article 3 of the Constitution and Article 4(c) and the judicial power of Courts to interpret the law. This is an encroachment on the independence of the judiciary and thus is patently unconstitutional, he added.

Counsel also told Court that retrospective application of the Bill will affect the vested rights of taxpayers and hence, is unconstitutional.

It was submitted citing extensive case law from 1948 that Clause 200 per se, will require not only a 2/3 majority, but also the approval of the people at a referendum.

Mr. Nihal Hettiarachchis Petition argued by Nigel Hatch, PC, was supported by Attorneys-at-Law Ms. S. Jayamaha and Ms. Siroshni Illangage, instructed by Attorney-at-Law Indunil Bandara.

Ten Petitions have been filed in the SC challenging the Bill. The other petitioners include UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardena and the Inland Revenue Deputy Commissioners Association, which comprises the organisations most senior and highest ranking officers, the Inland Revenue Staff Officers Association, the Inland Revenue Executive Officers Union and the Inland Revenue Service Union as well as the Inland Revenue Employees General Union. They have cited Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the Attorney General as respondents.

Hearings will continue next week.
Petroleum Ministry, LIOC to discuss use of oil tanks By Damith Wickramasekara View(s): View(s):

The Ministry of Petroleum Resources Development is to commence discussions next week with Lanka Indian Oil Co. (LIOC) for an agreement on the use of oil tanks at the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) wants to use some of the oil tanks at the farm, which is currently under the IOC, to store fuel as its current fuel storage capacity is low, Petroleum Resources Development Minister Arjuna Ranatunga told the Sunday Times. As such, we are hoping to reach an agreement with IOC for the use of some tanks at the oil farm.

Minister Ranatunga acknowledged that the oil tank farm was a sensitive issue for both countries. India is interested in developing the oil tank farm, but the 2003 agreement, where the tanks were handed over to LIOC, is currently being contested in court. The Minister said that, while those cases are ongoing, the aim was to reach a diplomatic agreement, so that the CPC is allowed to use some of the tanks.

Fuel shortages are currently a major issue for us. We must do our utmost to find a speedy solution. He said the Attorney Generals Dept was also being consulted regarding the framework of any agreement to be reached with the LIOC on using oil tanks at the farm.

Meanwhile, Petroleum sector trade unions held a discussion lasting over two hours this week with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister Ranatunga. Convener- Ceylon Petroleum Common Workers Union, D.J. Rajakaruna, said they pointed out to the PM that the 2003 agreement which allowed the LIOC to take over the oil tank farm, is legally flawed.

The PM accepted our argument, but told us the Govt could not simply cancel the agreement, as the LIOC was paying us a substantial amount each year for use of the oil tanks. Mr Rajakaruna said the PM assured them that the Govt would not enter into any new agreement regarding the entire oil tank farm, until the conclusion of two court cases filed by the Petroleum sector trade unions, regarding the 2003 agreement.

The trade union leader however, stated the unions were still seeking a meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena to brief him on the issue. He warned that unions would resort to an island-wide strike, if authorities failed to grant them a meeting.
Prominent Educationist passes away View(s):

Dr. Tilokasundari Kariyawasam, who played a prominent role in Sri Lankas Education sector, passed away after a brief illness.

Dr Kariyawasam, a past pupil of Vishaka Vidyalaya, Colombo, Dharmapala College Pannipitiya and finally Ananda College, entered Peradeniya University in 1952, and started her educational career by joining the Tutorial Staff of Vishaka College, as a young graduate teacher

In 1966 she was awarded a British Council Scholarship till 1968, to obtain her PhD at the University of London.

From Regional Director of Education she went on to serve as Director of Education at the Teacher Training Colleges, Commissioner of the Educational Publications, Deputy Director General of Education, as the Ministrys State Secretary and Director General of the National Institute of Education.

She also served as a Director at the State Printing Corporation and Library Services Board, besides being a member of the Vocational Educational Committee.

She authored over 25 books in Sinhala and English. Her remains lie at 64/7, Nawala Road, Nugegoda. The funeral takes place on Tuesday (18) at the General Cemetery, Borella, at 3 pm.
WASHINGTON (TNS)  Hundreds of veterans and their families who have spent eight years in federal court trying to prove that burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan made U.S. troops sick are worried theyll hit a legal dead end if a Maryland judge decides the company that ran the smoke-belching disposal sites cant be sued because it was working on behalf of the government.

Its been a living hell, emotionally, financially and physically, said Rosie Torres, whose husband, LeRoy, a former Army Reserve captain, was diagnosed with a debilitating, progressive lung disease after he returned home to Texas following a deployment to Iraq. It is the war that followed us home.

For Dina McKenna, the case represents hope for long-delayed justice from a military contractor. The widow, who now lives in Tennessee, initially survived on charitable donations until Veterans Affairs benefits kicked in after her 41-year-old husband, former Army Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 from a rare form of T-cell lymphoma. He had served in Iraq.

What do I want out of this lawsuit? I want the rules changed so soldiers dont go through this again. I want to see money distributed to families who lost their homes because their spouse suffered or is suffering, McKenna said.

Torres and McKenna are among 735 plaintiffs waiting for U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus to decide whether to let a massive lawsuit continue against Houston-based KBR Inc., a defense contractor and former subsidiary of Halliburton that ran burn pits to dispose of waste on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

KBR has asked the judge to dismiss the burn pit case  a collection of more than 60 individual suits filed in multiple jurisdictions by military family members, veterans or former KBR employees  arguing that the federal courts lack jurisdiction to rule on a military decision to use the burn pits, and as a military contractor, it should be shielded from litigation. The company released a statement June 29 saying its employees operated burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan safely and effectively at the direction and under control of the U.S. military.

The governments best scientific and expert opinions have repeatedly concluded there is no link between any long-term health issues and burn pit emissions, the statement read.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendant wouldnt comment on the case.

But those suing the company say the smoke from burning millions of pounds of trash in open pits, sometimes around the clock, caused acute and chronic health conditions for those working and living nearby.

KBR burned all kinds of refuse at the sites  some as large as 10 acres including canvas, wood, paint, batteries, computers, fuel, plastic water bottles, animal carcasses and even human medical waste.

The plaintiffs say they suffer from a range of diseases caused by exposure to the burning: respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological problems and cancers. In one Washington, D.C., class action, a dozen of the plaintiffs have died since the cases were consolidated in October 2009.

Titus, who held a hearing in March, has not said when he will announce his decision on whether the court has jurisdiction. But he tossed the case once before, in 2013, when he agreed with KBR that military contractors should share the same immunity from litigation over war injuries that the U.S. government has.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Tituss decision in 2014, saying more evidence was needed to determine whether KBR had met its contract conditions. KBR unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case in 2015, sending it back to Titus.

Eight years in, the plaintiffs remain determined to see the case to its end.

Jill Wilkins husband, Air Force Maj. Kevin Wilkins, died in 2008 at age 51 of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. Wilkins receives lifelong benefits because her husband was on active duty when he died, but other plaintiffs are without compensation or health care, she said.

It would be extremely sad if the case is dismissed, Wilkins said. There are a lot of people looking for help from the (Department of Veterans Affairs) and not getting it.

The debate over the potential health effects of the burn pits goes back almost to the start of their use on U.S. bases.

KBR began managing waste operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. The company took over trash burning from the U.S. military, according to retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former coalition ground forces commander, who testified as a witness for KBR during the March hearing.

KBR ran the operations under a contract with the Defense Contract Management Agency. In court papers, the company said the Defense Department authorized continued use of the pits.

But James Leidle, an attorney for the plaintiffs, noted in court that by 2004, the department had purchased 41 incinerators for U.S. bases in Iraq, though a contract dispute delayed their construction.

As early as 2006, Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis warned senior Air Force officials that the burn pit at Joint Base Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, presented an acute health hazard and the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke.

But a 2008 U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine report contradicted that, saying that an air sampling from Balad showed exposure levels were not routinely above guidelines and werent likely to cause short-term health effects. Results also indicated an acceptable health risk for both cancer and non-cancerous diseases long-term.

By 2010, 39 incinerators had been installed in Iraq but burn pits remained in use at small outposts and in Afghanistan. In a review conducted for the VA in 2011, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found inadequate or insufficient evidence to link burn pit exposure to cancer, respiratory disease or neurological diseases.

At the insistence of Congress, the VA created the Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Registry in 2014 to keep track of veterans claims of exposure. Nearly 105,000 veterans have joined.

But Bill McKennas not on the list. Neither is his widow. Dina McKenna said shes not allowed to register as a family member of a deceased veteran.

When we got the diagnosis, the doctor immediately asked whether he had been exposed to chemicals, said McKenna, a plaintiff. The doctor called it a Third World disease. No non-smoking American will have this type of cancer this aggressive other than dioxin exposure.

And for Rosie Torres, watching the physical and emotional toll illness has taken on her husband has been devastating. She wont look at videos of him from early in their marriage or from when he was a highway patrolman. Once fit and robust, he now suffers from chronic pain, unexplained bloating and exhaustion in addition to respiratory disease.

Another wife said this, and its true: If I knew he wouldnt be coming back the same man, I would have held him a little longer when he left, Torres said. Its not the person you walked down the aisle with. There has to be accountability somewhere for that.
Travel advisories on dengue: Foreign Ministry help sought to advise tourists View(s):

The Tourism Ministry will seek the Foreign Ministrys help to be briefed on the current status of the dengue outbreak in view of the adverse publicity in the past few weeks, a senior official said. Tourism Ministry Secretary Janaka Sugathadasa told the Sunday Times they would request the Foreign Ministry to inform the missions that there was minimal impact on foreigners.

We want to highlight the respective embassies that up to now there have not been any reports of deaths of tourists and that the tourists hot spots have not been affected badly due to dengue, he said. The move came after five countries  the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States and Ireland  issued travel advisories, warning their citizens against visiting Sri Lanka due to the dengue outbreak.

Mr. Sugathadasa said they wanted the Foreign Ministry to inform the missions that they were expecting a reduction in the number of cases in a span of two weeks with the prevailing campaigns in the country.
Vidya rape and murder: Senior DIG arrested View(s):

A serving Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police was arrested yesterday for assisting a rape-and-murder suspect to evade arrest.

Lalith Jayasinghe, now in charge of the Central Province, was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters yesterday for a statement to be recorded and was then arrested. Police said he was the first highest ranking officer in service to be arrested and will be produced before Kayts magistrate tomorrow.

He was serving as the Senior Superintendent of Police in Jaffna, when 17-year-old schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya was abducted, raped and murdered by a gang in May 2015. A key suspect identified as Mahalingham Sasikumar alias Swiss Kumar escaped to Colombo after the crime.

The Kayts magistrate had earlier informed the CID to submit a report on the circumstances in which the suspect had escaped to Colombo after he surrendered to the Jaffna police.

The alleged involvement of the Senior DIG in the incident transpired during the recent Trial-at-Bar hearing of the Vidya case. The National Police Commission also took up the issue. Meanwhile, a Jaffna Police station Sub Inspector, a witness in the case, was this week stopped at the BIA while he was trying to leave the country.
A new heart begins to beat Kumudini Hettiarachchi writes on the human saga behind a trailblazing medical feat in Sri Lanka View(s): View(s):

Overjoyed is H.A. Wijaya Kumarasiri from a village in Anuradhapura. His Sudu, with her new heart beating strongly within, had opened her eyes and given him a smile that morning, as he murmured endearments to her.

We meet him the same day, Wednesday, at noon as he lingers outside the Kandy Teaching Hospitals Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU), awaiting another glimpse of his wife.

By Thursday, not only was Pushpa Kumari opening her eyes, responding when asked to move her hands and feet and also speaking, she had also been taken off the ventilator.

For Kumarasiri, a mason, Sudu and their 13-year-old daughter, Dinithi Imalsha, a humble family from Dolahela in Anuradhapura it is one small step in the recovery of their beloved wife and mother. For the country, it is one giant leap, rocketing Sri Lanka to a place among the few centres-of-excellence performing heart transplants in the world to international standards.

Thirty-seven-year-old Kumari or Sudu is the trailblazer in the first heart transplant on the night of July 7, under Sri Lankas Heart and Lung Transplantation Programme performed at the Kandy Hospital, under the guidance of Director Dr. Saman Rathnayake.

In an amazing coordination effort across the country, six hospitals had come together for this pioneering effort. They are the Kandy Hospital, the Welisara Chest Hospital, the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo, the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Specialized Childrens Hospital, Peradeniya and the Kurunegala and Anuradhapura Teaching Hospitals.

Kumarasiri tells us how his Sudus body started swelling up about a year ago but what they did not know at that time was that her heart was failing. Taken to the Anuradhapura Hospital, the state hospital system has proven to have worked perfectly, for the clinic had referred her to the Cardiology Unit there and she was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure by Consultant Cardiologists Dr. Wasantha Kapuwatte and Dr. Roshan Paranamana and sent to the Kandy Hospital.

Here too the system is working without a flaw, from the time of admission till discharge which is pending. Kumari was sent to the pre-operations ward, then onto the Operating Theatre, from where she was transferred to the CTICU and soon will be sent to the High Dependency Unit and then to the post-op ward from where she will go back home.

Up to July 12, she has been in the Kandy Hospital for two months and seven days, says Kumarasiri. Harima bayen hitiye, he says and how relieved he is now, ada thama hithata sahanayak ave, while the grandmother is looking after their daughter who is awaiting her Ammas return.

As we chat to Kumarasiri, who showers blessings on the family who rose above their sorrow to give the heart of their only son to save Sudus life, seated in Director Dr. Rathnayakes office are I.G. Nandasena, D.P.G. Indra Kalyani and M.H. Janu from Mavikumbura North off Pilimatalawa.

Nandasena and Kalyani are the father and the mother and Janu is the aunt of 21-year-old Pradeep Kumara. They will go down in Sri Lankas history as having done a wonderful deed, one of the greatest alms that can be given  the donation of the heart, along with other organs, of their brain-dead Sampath, as they fondly called him.

The tragedy of his accident-death comes from his teary-eyed parents  Sampath, the middle-son between two daughters, was working in a garage with his brother-in-law. It was June 24, an overcast rainy day and the two brothers-in-law decided to close the garage and head for home early. At the turn-off on a bend to their village from the main road, their motorcycle, with Sampath on the pillion collided with a van and toppled, throwing Sampath onto a rock. He hit his head and was unconscious when rushed to the Kandy Hospital.

With absolutely no signs of Sampath regaining consciousness, the parents had been counselled and approached for organ donation, which they had readily agreed to.

Sampath merunata, den innawa wage, sighs Kalyani, adding that though her son is dead, it is as if he is living, for he has given life to one person through his heart, his kidneys to two more and others will see through his eyes.

Even in death, ratata harima sampathak vuna, is the poignant feeling among his relatives, now that he has become the first heart donor.

The scene, meanwhile, of the first heart transplant is the 4th Floor of the Kandy Hospitals Cardiology Building, with the organ retrieval and transplant teams along with the vital anaesthetic team in Operating Theatres (OTs) A and B. All other relevant units had been fully supportive and the staff, from Consultants to junior doctors, senior to junior nurses, laboratory technicians to minor staff, had put their private lives on hold to go beyond the call of duty. We hear how certain boundaries were strictly imposed for the safety of the heart recipient. All those from OT A were barred from entering OT B, with a communication team in the middle dealing with both sides.

While awaiting the new heart, it was Theatre Master Ashoka Ranatungas job to make sure that there was no movement between OTs A and B to prevent infection contaminating OT B and he did so through a lock-down. Even Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Anil Abeywickrama, after retrieval of the donor heart had to scrub up afresh and don a new set of sterilized attire before being allowed to enter the other OT. All in all, the staff had used up 90 sets of OT suits that night.

The retrieval and transplant of the heart took place with military-precision, with the Cardiothoracic Surgeons practising on cadavers earlier to hone their skills and complete the operation within one hour and 55 minutes because every second was of value.

Soon after Consultant Neurosurgeon Dr. Leslie Siriwardana and Consultant Neuro-Anaesthetists Dr. Ravi Weerakoon and Dr. Udaya Karunaratne gave the go-ahead on brain-dead Sampath, this donor was wheeled into OT A. Scrubbed up and ready, side-by-side were Dr. Abeywickrama and his team and veteran Consultant Transplant Surgeon Dr. P.K. Harischandra and his team.

Simultaneously, the heart, the liver, the pancreas, the kidneys and the eyes were retrieved.

It is Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. K. Gnanakanthan, who gives the details of the procedure he performed along with Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. Muditha Lansakara. The donors blood group and other necessary matches with the recipient had already been done, with both pre-op and post-op management being handled by Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist Dr. Sunethra Irugalbandara of the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Hospital and Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Roshan Paranamana of the Anuradhapura Hospital.

The retrieval was set for 7 p.m. with Dr. Abeywickrama sawing open the chest and peering closely at the donor heart. He inspected the heart and found that it was contracting, says Dr. Gnanakanthan, adding that the donor heart was good. It was only then that recipient Kumari was wheeled into OT B around 8 p.m.

Thereafter, the donors heartbeat was stopped by the administration of cardioplegia (intentional and temporary cessation of heart activity) and Dr. Abeywickrama explanted the whole heart snipping it out with the superior and inferior vena cava, the ascending aorta, the main pulmonary artery and the left atrium with the pulmonary veins.

A similar procedure was being performed in OT B, with Dr. Gnanakanthan and Dr. Lansakara putting Kumari on the heart-lung (cardio-pulmonary) bypass machine; stopping her heart, taking it out by cutting very close to the heart, the superior and inferior vena cava, the ascending aorta, the main pulmonary artery and the left atrial wall but leaving behind the posterior left atrial wall and the pulmonary veins.

Having done the retrieval, Dr. Abeywickrama gently placed the heart covered in cold saline in a silver tray and handed it ever so carefully to the communicators who in turn passed it on to the transplant team in OT B. It was on a back-table in this OT that the donor heart was prepared with slight trimming here and there and cutting open the left atrium.

Easing the new heart into Kumaris chest, the stitching (medically known as anaestomosis) began, starting with the left atrium of the donor heart followed by the pulmonary artery and so on. While the inferior vena cava was being stitched that the first clamp was removed, the new heart perfused and the blood supply restored.

Tangible moments of tension in OT B, a sense of expectation and suddenly murmurs of joy and laughter and sighs of relief, as the medical and surgical teams peered down at the operating table.

The time is etched into the memories of all  11.14 on the night of July 7..when the new heart of Kumari began with a slow-beat.

Thereafter, we provided some electrical activation and the beat became stronger and stronger, smiles Dr. Gnanakanthan.

The rest, of course, is now epoch-making history, with the transplant patient being taken off the heart-lung machine, stitched up and the chest cavity closed.

For the anaesthetic team, comprising Consultant Cardiac Anaesthetists Dr. Jagathi Perera, Dr. Aruni Jayasekera, Dr. Priyantha Dissanayake and their juniors, however, their work is not over as Kumari is still under their care in the CTICU.

Their stress and worry can only be imagined. None of us had done it before but we read up extensively and felt confident because we have been part of very complex heart surgeries, says Dr. Perera, with Dr. Dissanayake nodding vigorously.

Haemodynamic monitoring (whether the circulation is performing its task of oxygen delivery to tissues) is vital, not only to keep the patient alive, but also to prevent any complications, she says, referring to the many challenges they faced because Kumaris heart was performing only at 10% when usually it should be 60% and the Ejection Fraction (the percentage of blood leaving the heart each time it contracts) was 10-15. They did not put her under general anaesthesia when inserting invasive lines to monitor pressure etc., but with her cooperation, even though she was scared, did so under local anaesthesia.

When under general anaesthesia and on the heart-lung machine, the tasks of the anaesthetic team would make a difference between life and death, as they had to maintain her pressure and ensure that all her other vital organs would not be endangered in any way.

Kumaris diseased heart was quite huge, says Dr. Perera, while Dr. Dissanayake adds that the donors heart when transplanted was tiny, like that of a child.

The anaesthetic team had their anxious moments too  when attempting to send in the pulmonary-artery catheter, with the newly-stitched blood vessel hindering a smooth entry. As such, they had to make do with echocardiograms.

Another stressful moment was when Kumari was taken off the heart-lung machine and her pressure could not be maintained for about 45 minutes, with the anaesthetic team sending in maximum doses of medication and keeping the ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine, willingly loaned by the LRH, handy. ECMO technology is similar to the heart-lung machine but is more suitable for prolonged use in an ICU.

When on July 8, after Kumari had been transferred to the CTICU, the blood gases being bad brought on strong suspicions of a major bleed into the heart, the teams were compelled to open up her heart. This time it was not in the OT but in the CTICU itself, with the area being transformed into a mini-OT, says Dr. Perera.

Paying tribute to the nursing and laboratory staff, she points out that small adjustments and major efforts at making-do, they did to perfection.

Dr. Perera adds that the final scare came in the form of a fungal infection, not spotted earlier but set off from the donor, which they blasted with powerful anti-fungal medication.

By July 9, however, a test feed was given to Kumari, with full-scale nasogastric (NG) feeding on Monday, with the anaesthetic team breathing easy only on Tuesday after all issues had been sorted out.

Others who were of immense support in this transplant were Consultant Haematologist Dr. Sunethra B. Athauda, Consultant Histopathologist Dr. A. Vithanage, Consultant Virologist Dr. Rohitha Muthugala, Consultant Microbiologist Dr. Mahen Kothalawela, Consultant in Transfusion Medicine Dr. Dharma Samarakoon and Consultant Judicial Medical Officer Dr. M. Sivasubramaniam.
Is Sri Lanka an Indian city? By Dr. Sarala Fernando View(s): View(s):

Pre-independence, an influential view was that Sri Lanka was too small to stand by itself as a political and economic unit, hence constitutional arrangements for a federation of nations had been part of the discourse between Sri Lankan and Indian leaders-in-waiting.

However its doubtful such a plan for integration could have been operationalised given the number of challenges in defining relations with India in the first forty years of independence, including concerns on the huge numbers of indentured workers from South India, fears of illegal immigration and the spread of communism. In fact, all of the key bilateral negotiations, citizenship for the indentured labour, defining the maritime boundary and the sovereignty of Kachchitivu island, once successfully concluded, served to mark a process of physical separation between Sri Lanka and India.

Today, with the rise of India and China and the US pivot to Asia, strategic analysis starts with Sri Lankas geographic location at the centre of the Indian Ocean. Yet geography is not everything. Let us take the comparison with two other port cities, Hong Kong and Singapore, which, disproving the negative view of small size, are thriving alongside huge continental powers.

At a recent foreign policy forum organised by the Lakshman Kadirgarmar Institute, Professor Chin Leng Lim gave a brilliant presentation on the constitutional structures of Hong Kong and Singapore which had shaped their different destinies and economic diplomacy strategies.

The commonalities included low taxes, services, cosmopolitan communities and common law jurisdiction. However, Singapore saw the advantage of becoming a global city drawing sustenance from the international economic system, concluding its early FTA with the far-away United States. Hong Kong with its restrictive economic and diplomatic space, has followed the path of greater integration with China hence its description by Prof Lim as a Chinese City.

Comparison of the different economic strategies followed by Singapore and Hong Kong raises the question of where Sri Lanka sees its comparative advantage  should the island follow a strategy of closer integration with the neighbouring big power or pursue an independent line, seeking the benefits of both regional and global partners depending on economic and defence needs?

The latter strategy evidently calls for forward thinking, robust research, consensual policy making and nimble diplomacy. Two points need to be taken into consideration in respect of Sri Lanka, one, the polarisation of politics since the armed conflict in the island which has impeded the evolution of an independent bipartisan foreign and economic policy having the broad support of its population and two, the long held view of the neighbouring big power that Sri Lanka falls within its natural defence perimeter.

Indian strategic thinking is well known since the writings of Panikkar albeit its rejection by a Sri Lankan leader of that time as tantamount to the proclamation of a Monroe Doctrine for South Asia. The consistency of Indian naval strategic theory is remarkable as seen in the secret annexures to the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Agreement which established a strategic block, inter-alia, on the use of the Trincomalee oil tank farm and all the ports in the island for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to Indias interests.

More recently, in 2016, the former Indian National Security Adviser offers a similar argument Sri Lanka is an aircraft carrier parked fourteen miles off the India coast. This is the perpetual dilemma of Indias Sri Lanka policy: We must engage in order to defend our interest in keeping Sri Lanka free of antagonistic outside influences

Given these constraints, can Sri Lanka achieve an independent economic policy best suited to its own needs? History records that Sri Lankan rulers were able to maintain commercial advantage over the competition from neighbouring South India because of the viability of the ports around the island offering security, logistics, religious facilities, leisure pursuits etc. Thus, Mantais fame as a trade emporium lasted until the Chola invasions destroyed its stability with the effect of shifting the international trade to Arikamedu in India. Sri Lanka was also an ancient hub for knowledge and the arts from which we probably derive the mainsprings of creativity witnessed even today.

The beauty of the island, the multicultural atmosphere, friendship with all, attracted visitors from around the world. Protecting and nurturing these advantages endowed by our heritage will give the island the strength to pursue an independent destiny.

However, it seems that our political leaders have decided otherwise. Subsequent to the economic reforms in India in the early 1990s it saw a partner in Sri Lanka signalled by the signing of its first FTA. Subsequently Indias Sri Lanka policy maintains a disengagement with local politics, which is to be welcomed. But in the pursuit of economic synergies, have our local policy makers taken cognizance of whether Sri Lankan jobs and export opportunities are at risk? With globalisation, high end garment factories from Sri Lanka, for example, are moving overseas from India to Bangladesh and even to the United States under the new Trump dispensation.

Should we not take cognizance of local expertise and business requirements for expansion in-country? The Dutch hospital once offered to a foreign hotel developer is a good example of re-development under local expertise preserving a historical space, with design assets, housing local entreprises and financially viable.

Today all the talk is of closer integration with India and penetrating that huge domestic market. Policy makers on both sides have targeted new transport connectivity by sea, rail and air. Yet there is public resistance on both sides to the land bridge  the ultimate connect. We need to keep in mind that Sri Lankas major exports now go to the UK and the US where there are transparent procedures and a fair playing field. How can the same be achieved in the Indian market with its competitive products and complicated rules emanating from both its federal structure and the Tamil Nadu factor blocking the closest gateway? Until the problems of the ISLFTA are resolved, public opposition will continue to further liberalisation under ETCA.

Since the end of the armed conflict in the island, the Indian footprint in Sri Lanka has been multiplying through trade, development cooperation and investment. Looking at Jaffna today, one may think it is already an Indian city. Newly constructed houses, shops and hotels in outward appearance and interior decor bear the Tamil Nadu influence, erasing the beauty of the old heritage assets. The news and cultural influences from India dominate tv and radio channels. Unlike in the south with its cacophony of diverse religious calls, in Jaffna one hears mainly Hindu devotional songs. But all is not well in Jaffna  it seems there is rising alcoholism and drug use as well as youngsters on motor bikes imitating gangsters from Tamil Nadu films recalling the prophetic film by Asoka Handagama made years ago, Ini Avan, which also touched on the streak of brutal behaviour towards women.

The Sri Lankan and Indian coast guard have their work cut out to patrol the Palk Strait for illegal fishing, as well as large scale smuggling of drugs and gold. Measuring unofficial transactions between the two countries has been undertaken only by one researcher, Sarvananthan Muttukrishna in 1994 when he suggested these were sizeable. Can these negative trends lead to another uprising in the North and will that have the support of interested parties in Tamil Nadu? Analysts based in Chennai opine that the secession issue in Sri Lanka is no longer of concern to the Tamil Nadu public and that fervent supporters of Eelam like Nedumaran and Vaiko were in fact rejected by the electorate. Yet others warn that there are strong financial links between Tamil Nadu lobbies and the Sri Lankan diaspora, the implication of which needs to be examined.

(The writer is a retired Foreign Service diplomat)
Ten patients admitted to Tauranga Hospital last night following a chemical incident have been discharged.

The nine teenagers and one adult were brought to the hospital by the fire service after 7pm on Saturday.

A fire service spokesperson says they responded to a chemical incident involving what is believed to have been quicklime powder.

The patients  nine boys aged between 14 and 16, and one 43-year-old man  had been exposed to the substance, causing irritation to their skin and eyes.

The fire service brought the patients to the hospital, where they assisted hospital staff in decontaminating the patients using the hospital showers.

A BOPDHB spokesperson says all ten patients were discharged at around 11pm.

Police also attended the incident, although they say at this stage no charges have been laid in relation to the matter.
A protest march across the Wairoa Bridge has caused traffic delays this morning.

Local Maori are protesting against the signing of a Treaty settlement between the government and a collective of Hauraki iwi that would give them special rights in Tauranga.

A press release from the protest group states for many weeks, the Crown has denied a signing date was set, even after internal emails were intercepted indicating the Crown was secretly organising the signing with Hauraki for July 22.

However, on Friday the Crown admitted the signing is planned to take place on July 22, proving the Crown has been lying to the people of Tauranga Moana about their plans regarding the Treaty deal.

Speaking to a reporter at the scene, Tauranga Police Sergeant Wayne Hunter says the highway will be completely closed until all of the protestors are across.

The NZTA estimates the road will be cleared by 11.30am at the latest.
Police continue to search for clues as to what a dangerous jihadist found on the Costa del Sol may have been planning.

Ahmed Samsam, 29, who was arrested in Benahavis last week, had been looking for ways to buy weapons and bullet proof vests in Spain before capture, government officials have said.

Samsam, of Syrian origin, was held in a hotel in the municipality, having been tracked down by Guardia Civil officers. He appeared in court in Madrid last Monday and was remanded in custody. The case is subject to a secrecy order.

Trained in Syria

Samsam travelled to Syria from his home in Denmark in recent years and joined the ranks of so-called Islamic State, fighting in the war there.

His arrest in Spain came as a result of a joint operation between the investigating court, the prosecutors office and the Guardia Civil. Their investigations led them to the hotel in Benahavis, but Samsams intentions in Spain are still unclear.

What is clear, say investigators, is that he was trained by ISIS in Syria, judging by his activity on social media, and that he engaged in recruitment and the spread of propaganda.

Investigators will continue to try to determine whether he was part of a wider network operating in Spain.

Born in Odense (Denmark), where his father arrived as a refugee in the 1980s, Samsam had a history of petty crime and, after turning 15, spent time behind bars on various occasions. However, on being released in 2012, he headed to Turkey before passing through to Syria where he was a member of a number of terror groups, including ISIS, alongside his brother Hamza.

On the Costa for two weeks

The pair returned to Denmark in 2015, where Hamza was killed, and since then, Samsam has quickly moved from place to place to avoid being held in Denmark. He had been on the Costa del Sol for a couple of weeks before he was arrested on 30 June.

Counter terrorism experts had been following Samsams movements in Spain closely before he was tracked to the Benahavis hotel, however he was expertly using techniques to evade capture, the Guardia Civil has said.

Since 26 June 2015, when the Ministry of the Interior raised its terror threat level to four, Spanish intelligence forces have arrested some 179 jihadi terrorists in Spain and a total of 224 abroad since the start of 2015.
Dr. Brian Pettit and his wife, Stacey, moved to Southwest Virginia in 2013 and launched a dental practice in Wytheville.

It was during this same time that the couple visited the local dog shelter and adopted a boxer named Ember.

Rescuing Ember opened our eyes to the way dogs should be treated, said Stacey Pettit, adding, Ember quickly became a very important member of our family.

It was because of the couples newfound love for their boxer that Stacey began volunteering at the Wythe County Animal Shelter.

Pettit, along with several others, arrive at the shelter at 8:30 a.m. and walk the dogs being housed, as well as give them love and treats.

We just want to make for sure that the dogs have an opportunity to get out. There is a core group of about six volunteers who are faithful.

Pettit said that while volunteering at the shelter she noticed a need.

The shelter has a heater, but as it got hotter, we realized there is no air conditioner.

In order to meet this need, this past Wednesday, Stacey presented the Wythe County Animal Shelter with a $1,280.84 check on behalf of the offices of Dr. Jeffrey B. Pettit, DDS, PC. The money is the amount necessary to purchase air conditioning units at the shelter. The Wythe County Buildings & Grounds Department will install the units thanks to Envision Environmental donating the necessary equipment and tools to perform the installation.

We are really appreciative not only of this donation, but also of the faithful volunteer work Stacey and so many others do for the dogs being housed in our shelter on a daily basis, said Wythe County Code Enforcement Officer A.B. Dunford.

This past month, the Wythe County Dog Shelter underwent a state inspection and passed without a single violation.

There has been a steady push in making our dog shelter the very best possible and this donation will go a long way helping this to become a reality, concluded Dunford.

Individuals wishing to volunteer at the dog shelter are encouraged to contact Dunford by calling the dog shelter at 276-228-6003.
Over the course of 10 days, Josh Adamczak, a 2017 Tomah High School graduate, got to experience what it would be like to attend medical school.

Adamczak was part of the National Youth Leadership Forum in Advanced Medicine & Health Care at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

It was a busy 10 days, Adamczak said, but worth it.

It was really a really cool experience, but also kind of like intense, he said. It was non-stop from eight in the morning until about 10 at night, every night for 10 days. I got the schedule beforehand, and I realized it was a packed schedule, but I didnt really realize how in-depth or how much we would really be doing.

The program, which ran from July 2-11, is for students seriously considering a career in the medical field. They got to visit a medical training facility, take part in a simulated patient encounter, created a public awareness campaign and a social media campaign centered around a current topic in public health.

Participants got to attend lectures and speaking events, apprentice doctor workshops, real-life simulations and virtual reality surgery. They also went behind the scenes at medical institutions to interact with university faculty and professionals in the medical field.

It was like being enrolled in a mini medical school, Adamczak said. Participants received a considerable amount of information and learned a lot from a variety of sources.

We had lectures often about a variety of topics. We learned suturing, we did a thing about orthopedic surgery, he said. We did a virtual reality surgery, and we visited the shock-trauma center in Baltimore, which is like one of the biggest and most widely used. We visited the medical school in Marylands School of Medicine  just tons of things.

The most memorable activity, Adamczak said, was a simulated patient encounter in which the patients are professional actors and actresses.

Its like a routine doctor visit, and you have so many questions and stuff that you have to ask, he said. Its one of the tests to become board certified  like if you dont wash your hands youll fail, but with us they made it where it was a case study. (It) was really cool, because ... theyre trained to help teach med students. Then we used it in our groups to try to figure out, to diagnose what they had.

The experience that left the biggest impression on Adamczak was a lecture about medical ethics.

We spent like an entire afternoon talking about ethics, and I thought it was really interesting because we basically got different scenarios, and we had to argue our point of why, he said.

I found it really interesting because with medical ethics, if a patient has the decision-making capabilities, they can refuse whatever treatment they want and you can do nothing about it.

The lecture made Adamczak, who first became interested in a medical career after taking anatomy in high school, think about changing his career path.

I went to this camp, kind of hesitant if I really wanted to do medicine or not. But before I really wanted to do it, then I started to kind of doubt it, like, do I really want to do medicine? Do I really understand what it is that I would be doing? he said. This actually made me think more toward medical law, because we did a thing on ethics, it was really interesting. So Im thinking about possibly pursuing that instead.

Overall, it was a fun trip, Adamczak said, especially meeting new people.

The best parts was, other than just getting to be able to do all of those things that a majority of kids my age dont get to do, is that I made amazing friends from across the nation, he said. I had a group of probably like five friends that were in my group, and we were inseparable doing all this stuff together. ... I now have friends all over the place.

Starting this fall, Adamczak will attend Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he will major in bio-chemistry.
WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives on Friday rejected Rep. Claudia Tenney's legislation that would have forced the military to buy American-made eating utensils, a move that could have boosted sales for Sherrill Manufacturing in Oneida County.

Tenney, R-New Hartford, proposed an amendment to a defense policy bill that would have required the Department of Defense to purchase domestically-sourced stainless steel flatware.

Sherill Manufacturing, which took over the former Oneida Ltd. plant in Sherrill, is the only American manufacturer to make and source 100 percent of its flatware in the United States.

But the House rejected the amendment by voice vote after the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, encouraged Republicans to reject the measure.

Tori Whiting of the Heritage Foundation wrote that Tenney's proposal is "a textbook example of the type of government cronyism that plagues Washington."

Whiting added, "This move would result in higher prices for flatware for the military, a wasteful use of scarce defense dollars."

Tenney defended the legislation in a speech before the vote. She said the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would allow the Defense Department to waive the domestic-sourcing requirement if American-made flatware could not be procured at market prices.

Sherrill Manufacturing is already one of the top suppliers of flatware to the Department of Defense and federal agencies.

The company has sold more than $6.8 million worth of its Liberty Tabletop brand of flatware to the federal government since 2008.

Matthew Roberts, Sherrill Manufacturing's co-founder and president, told syracuse.com this week that Tenney's amendment would likely lead to a tripling of the company's business and the creation of 15 new jobs.

A Democrat seeking to challenge Tenney in the 2018 election was critical of her handling of the amendment.

Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, said Tenney made a mistake by not asking for a recorded vote on the legislation, a move that he said would have prevented "no" votes from hiding in the shadows.

"It's important to know who supports U.S. manufacturing in the House, but the congresswoman gave up the perfect chance," Brindisi said. "It's an unfortunate day for this company, and for residents of the Sherrill area. She should have fought harder for this law."

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the House vote that he was willing to sponsor similar legislation for the Senate's version of the defense policy bill.

Schumer also said Friday that he helped Sherill Manufacturing obtain a federal grant of $88,500 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Development program. The money will help the company rebuild one of its 700-ton forge presses.

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
Olivia Duane Adams is chief customer officer and cofounder of Alteryx.

Alteryx Chief CustomerOfficerOlivia Duane Adams

In this exclusive interview, Adams speaks with TechNewsWorld about her passion for analytics, and the role of women in an analytics-driven future.

TechNewsWorld: Can you give me some background on Alteryx? What prompted you to start the company?

Olivia Duane Adams:

We founded the company because we thought that analytics needed to be easier for people to understand and consume. Today, our technology is a leading platform for self-service analytics. Anybody in a company is able to use Alteryx to find data and analyze it, and theyre able to do it in a repeatable workflow.

A lot of times, analysts get asked the same questions, and repeatability saves them a lot of time. Data needs to be delivered at the time a question is asked. Its got to be delivered in a matter of minutes, hours or days, and thats what our technology allows our user community to do. Its an exciting time to be in this analytic space.

TNW: Why do you have a passion for analytics?

Adams:

Its about having a sense of curiosity  the ability to look at data and say, what is it telling me? I define analytics as the ability to ingest any and all relevant sources of data that might help answer a question being asked.

Analytics is the ability to use all the data you have to answer a question, or at least to drive insight to get to a better answer. Analytics is everywhere, and thats because data is everywhere. When you think about data as an asset, that asset is going to drive answers, and hopefully action. That action could be to start doing, or to stop doing, or to modify what youre already doing.

Analytics impacts every department in every company, and if they want to become smarter, all they have to do is become data-aware. If you think about the data you have, youre able to move seamlessly forward in this world of analytics.

TNW: What challenges have you faced in your career as a woman in tech?

Adams:

There is a perception that women are more approachable. This can be a challenge, because people will use me as a sounding board. What do you think? How would you handle this? What do you think? And so I always turn those into opportunities to help people understand where theyre coming from, and what change they want to make.

TNW: How can womens participation in STEM fields  and specifically analytics  be supported and promoted?

Adams:

I see such huge opportunity, because I believe that women do think differently. Well always look at things differently, and thats of huge value to the departments and teams and companies we work for, since it gives another perspective on how to approach a problem, how to solve a problem.

I see huge opportunities for women in STEM fields, and I would like to see more colleges and universities and K-12 grades motivating everyone, including women, to understand the opportunities and to demystify them for women. Sometimes theres a disconnect, where undergraduate students think the real world is so far away. How do we help them see the reality of these careers, and how they can have an impact in them?

Id love to see colleges and universities putting students in the real world, so theyre ready to take these jobs when they graduate. One program that we have is the Alteryx for Good program. Were giving our technology to universities that want to teach analytics in their courses. Its free for the university when its being taught in the classroom.

It puts the students in a position to use technology thats very employable when they graduate, and it gives them a taste of what its like to use this technology in a real-world situation. It gives them a sense of what it feels like to be in the real world. Our passion is to make sure that those students are using state-of-the-art technology.

We hear great feedback about the technology, and they love using it in their courses. At one university, for instance, theyre using Alteryx in their journalism program, because when youre a journalist, you need to be able to quote facts. Where do you find those facts? In the data thats available.

TNW: Whats in the future for the field of analytics, and for Alteryx? How are things evolving?

Adams:

As we talk to senior leaders from organizations around the world, we continuously hear them say that their companies need to be more analytic. Data is everywhere, and companies are becoming data-aware. As data continues to grow, organizations are asking tougher questions that they need to be able to answer in a timely manner.
Im glad we havent finished the state budget yet because the state of Illinois delivered a $51 million bill to us on July 6.

Illinois has been without a budget for two years. It has a $6.2 billion deficit and backlogged bills of $14.7 billion. As its legislature further debated the budget, public universities risked losing their accreditation, social service providers were nearly forced to close their doors and layoffs of road construction workers were imminent.

In addition, the prospect of a downgrade could have spiked the cost of borrowing credit, which would have spooked investors. As it is, Illinois has a near junk bond credit rating with nearly $272 billion in outstanding bills and unfunded pensions.

In an effort to finish their budget, the Democrat-controlled Illinois House approved a 32 percent income-tax hike and a $36 billion spending plan by overriding Gov. Bruce Rauners veto. The tax legislation increases the personal income tax rate from 3.75 percent to just under five percent, while corporations would pay seven percent instead of 5.25 percent.

These changes have created an estimated $51 million bill for Wisconsin.

According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Wisconsin has had an income tax reciprocity agreement with Illinois since 1973. This agreement allows residents of each state to file one income tax return and pay taxes on that income only in their state of residence. The agreement then requires a state to pay the other state when the net foregone revenues of one state exceed those of the other state. This was done for simplification and streamlining.

To date, there have always been more Wisconsin residents earning income in Illinois than vice versa. Taxes foregone by Illinois always have exceeded the taxes foregone by Wisconsin; therefore, Wisconsin has always made a payment to Illinois each year based on the estimated difference.

In the budget we are currently working on, we had estimated Wisconsins tax reciprocity payment to Illinois to be $66 million in 2017-18 and $67.7 million in 2018-19 based on Illinois former rates. According to the LFB and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, the recently enacted Illinois tax provisions are expected to adversely affect Wisconsins general fund position by $51 million in the 2017-19 biennium.

Wisconsin is one of two states that doesnt limit the credit we provide for taxes paid in other states. For example, if a Wisconsin resident pays income taxes to California but also files in Wisconsin, we provide a credit for the amount of income tax they paid to California without a cap. If California increases its income taxes, our Wisconsin resident does not pay any additional income taxes, but other Wisconsin taxpayers pay for the additional California income tax. Therefore, we are providing tax credits in amounts that we cannot control.

I have proposed a reform in the current budget that would limit Wisconsins exposure to tax policies over which we have no input or control. I have proposed to limit the Wisconsin credit to a predictable amount so that we are not as exposed to the other states unpredictable tax policies.

Unfortunately, this change would not impact what we owe to Illinois since we have a reciprocity agreement with them. However, protecting our state from the whims of other states is an important, necessary reform.

As we continue to work on Wisconsins budget, I am glad that we have not finished so that we can plan for this significant reciprocity bill. We have been challenged by this budget cycle, but the grass is definitely not greener to the south. We will be able to absorb this bill and continue to make progress on our own priorities.

To view the memo from the LFB that outlines the tax reciprocity issue, please follow this link: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/misc/145_impact_of_illinois_income_tax_increases_7_11_17.pdf.

For more information and to connect with me, visit my website legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/17/marklein and subscribe to my weekly E-Update by sending an email to Sen.Marklein@legis.wisconsin.gov. Do not hesitate to call 800-978-8008 if you have input, ideas or need assistance with any state-related matters.
News about Apples plans for the automotive market have been dripping slowly from the company for months, and CEO Tim Cook this week released a few more drops from the faucet.

Apples auto efforts are zeroing in on autonomous systems, he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Self-driving is a core technology that Apple considers very important to its auto plans, but its very challenging from an artificial intelligence perspective, Cook noted, characterizing it as the mother of all AI projects.

A major disruption is ahead for the transportation industry, he predicted, because three change vectors  self-driving cars, electric vehicles and ride hailing  are converging in the same time frame.

Asked if Apple had plans to manufacture its own car, Cook responded: Well see where it takes us. Were not really saying from a product point of view what we will do.

Trumpian Ambiguity

Apple watchers looking for something concrete about the companys auto plans probably were disappointed by the CEOs remarks to Bloomberg.

All Cook said was Apple was focusing on autonomous systems, said Roger Lanctot, associate director for the global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics.

Thats Trumpian level ambiguity,  he told TechNewsWorld.

Solving the problem of automated driving will create a unique value proposition that Apple wants to participate in, Lanctot said, but what that participation will be is totally unclear.

One thing that is clear, however, is the importance of the market to Apple.

Transportation is the next frontier, Lanctot maintained. Its a massive software, hardware and service opportunity for Apple.

Expanding App Universe

At the very least, automobiles can expand the number of endpoints running Apple apps and requiring the companys products and services.

It has the potential of being a very big deal to Apple with serious profitability potential, said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies.

At the software level, nobody is blowing anyone away in the automotive market at the moment, he noted.

Apple is known for creating great software and could clearly provide a powerful and important solution in delivering a smart vehicle and OS layer that would allow developers to create apps that make sense for autonomous vehicles, Bajarin told TechNewsWorld.

Given Apples skills and clout, he continued, I have no doubt that if they enter this market, whatever software solution they create could be important for those creating autonomous vehicles  as well as Apple.

Autonomous vehicles likely will make autos more than just a means of transportation.

The car will turn quickly into an extended living room and office, and the Apple experience will need to be there, said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

In the end, Apple will be one of the big players in autonomous driving, he told TechNewsWorld, first because of their software capability, and second because of their deep pockets.

Potholes in Road Map

If Apple becomes a major player in the autonomous vehicle market, it will have to do so in the face of some stiff competition.

You could argue that Apple is more innovative and better funded than some, but several of its rivals in the space, including Google-Waymo and the major auto manufacturers, are formidable, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

While autonomous systems may be important, its likely theres a bit of wishful thinking in Cooks remarks about them, he suggested.

Apple clearly needs to branch out from its reliance on smartphones, but the actual markets for autonomous cars have yet to be established, and demand is likely to vary wildly according to situation and place, King told TechNewsWorld.

If Apple produces only the software for an autonomous vehicle, it could face another problem.

Unless some very big names are included in Apples announcement, an autonomous vehicle OS will look like a solution in search of a problem, King said.

To maintain its luxury product cachet, Apple would probably want to partner, at least initially, with makers of higher-end mass market vehicles, like BMW and Mercedes, he added. Problem is, both of those companies are already developing their own in-house systems.
Famous international auction house Sotheby's is ready to auction out a significant piece of Space Exploration history. After being lost for years and having been passed from one auction to another, Neil Armstrong's moon dust bag is valued at $2 million to $4 million.

Space Exploration History Auction

Perfectly timed to commemorate the Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969, the British auction house will hold a live sale featuring various materials from both the American and Soviet space exploration programs. The star of the auction, however, is Neil Armstrong's moon dust bag, which he used to bring home the very first lunar dust samples.

Though most of the other artifacts and equipment from the Apollo 11 mission are kept in the U.S. National Collections at the Smithsonian, a court ruling had recently allowed the bag to be the only piece of Apollo 11's artifacts to be kept by private persons.

'Contingency Lunar Sample Return Decontamination Bag'

The history of the bag, which by the way still contains some of the original particles collected by Armstrong, was unknown to the public for quite some time. It was reportedly misidentified and merely sat in a box at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Somehow the bag ended up in the garage of a Kansas museum manager until it was ceased by U.S. Marshals Service. The museum manager was then convicted of the bag's theft. In 2014, it was offered three times to a small auction house without getting a single bid.

In 2015, the bag was sold to a Chicago attorney for merely $995. Curious about the origin of the product, she sent it to NASA where it was confirmed to be a "Contingency Lunar Sample Return Decontamination Bag" that was in the Apollo 11's stowage list.

During the mission, Armstrong collected nearly 500 grams of material and 12 rock fragments from a part of the lunar surface known as the Sea of Tranquility.

From her $995 purchase of the bag, it is now valued at $2 million to $4 million. She evidently plans to support her school, Northern Michigan University, as well as various charities from the sale of the bag.

Other Auction Items

There are other items from the Apollo 11 mission open for bidding as well. A photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Armstrong is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000, while the astronauts' detailed flight plan for their return to Earth is valued at $25,000 to $35,000.

A Snoopy astronaut doll that was used as the mascot for Apollo 10 is also currently estimated pre-sale at $2,000 to $3,000.

Apart from American Space exploration, remnants of the Russian space exploration program will also be available to interested buyers. Yuri Gagarin is the Russian astronaut who is actually the very first human to orbit the Earth in 1961. The English-translated governmental report on his descriptions of Earth based on his experience has an estimated value of $50,000 to $80,000.

The Space Exploration auction will be held on Thursday, July 20 in Sotheby's New York where 180 space exploration items will be auctioned off.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sweeping changes in doctors pain medication prescription practices and health policy, in general, would be necessary to tackle the growing opioid epidemic in the country.

This is what a panel of scientific experts advised the federal government in the fight against opioid overdose and abuse.

Report Recommendations

An FDA-commissioned panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined in a new report the steps needed to not create more opiate addicts anymore and prevent current opioid users from getting led toward fentanyl, heroin, and other street drugs.

The broad reach of the epidemic has blurred the formerly distinct social boundary between prescribed opioids and illegally manufactured ones, such as heroin, said committee chair Richard J. Bonnie, medicine and law professor and director of University of Virginias Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy in a statement.

As of 2015, at least 2 million Americans are addicted to prescribed opioids, and nearly 600,000 have addiction problems involving heroin. Around 90 people a day die from opioid overdose.

In general, opioid prescriptions dropped 18 percent from 2010 to 2015, but there is hardly any reason to celebrate when the number of prescriptions in 2015 was three times higher than in 1999.

The panel recommended mandating pain-related education for all physicians who deal with "pain patients" and train all health care providers in counseling those at risk for opioid overdose or addiction.

To decrease harm to opioid users who have turned to street drugs, the panel also seeks to stop escalating criminal penalties for illicit-drug related activities, but instead have states adopt practices such as needle exchanges, safe places for injection-drug users, and greater access to opioid-reversing agent naloxone.

The FDA And Other Experts

The report, requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) itself, also proposed that the FDA assess opioid drug safety not just to patients but also to whole families and communities surrounding them. New opioid formulations should meet such higher standard, where manufacturers are required to conduct extensive studies of drug use post-FDA approval.

The FDA should also reevaluate safety one, four, as well as six years after the drugs entered the market.

But to make a meaningful impact, this epidemic must be addressed as a public health emergency, and requires an all-of-the-above approach, said FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb in a statement on the newly released report.

Updates on opioids, according to panel member Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, shouldnt come from the drug makers themselves, given their traditional role of detailing health care providers on proper use of the medications.

[W]e need to think about ways to ensure that educational practices are done independent of manufacturers, Kesselheim emphasized.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A Democratic congressional representative has raised concerns about the nature of Amazon's plans to purchase Whole Foods.

U.S. Representative David Cicilline, who serves on the House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee, has requested a formal hearing into the Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods.

Impact On The Grocery Industry

"Amazon's proposed purchase of Whole Foods could impact neighborhood grocery stores and hard-working consumers across America," Cicilline said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to fully scrutinize this merger before it goes ahead."

The deal's approval will most likely be overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. The House of Representatives has no direct control over the FTC's decision, but a hearing could be used to send a message about the impact this deal could have on consumers and the grocery industry. Amazon has not announced its plans for Whole Foods, but many industry analysts predicted that it could change the landscape of the grocery industry.

Amazon's Plans For Whole Foods

Amazon already provides home delivery service to customers in select areas by way of its Amazon Fresh program. Given the limited scope of Amazon Fresh, it hasn't made much of an impact on the market. However, the company's purchase of Whole Foods would give it access to a much larger consumer base than it currently has through Fresh.

Most industry experts expect that the deal will be approved, but some voices have spoken out against it due to fears that it could give Amazon too much power in the industry. We don't know what Amazon plans for Whole Foods, but it could use it as means to expand its grocery delivery service to more rural areas. Currently, Fresh is found in urban areas.

Douglas Kass, of Seabreeze Partners Management, has said that he is wary of the impact this could have on the Amazon deal.

"I am shorting Amazon today because I have learned that there are currently early discussions and due diligence being considered in the legislative chambers in Washington, D.C.," he wrote in an investor's note.

In his letter, Kass went on to warn that this deal's distribution could cause Amazon's stock to fall by as much as 10 percent.

News of the deal saw the value of Amazon's stock soar. In fact, the value of it stock following the deal actually made it so that Amazon paid virtually nothing for Whole Foods.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"Dialogue and negotiation in Venezuela, found at the Paris Forum for Peace, three friends: the governments of France, Argentina and the Republic of Colombia," said the president... | Read More
ALBANY  Critics of the New York Legislature's chronic corruption problem say a federal court's decision to overturn the conviction of ex-Speaker Sheldon Silver is proof that the state can't count solely on federal prosecutors to clean up its mess.

Federal prosecutors intend to retry the longtime Democratic powerbroker from Manhattan, but supporters of several long-languishing ethics proposals say that's no reason to wait for the final outcome of Silver's case to act. They've floated ideas including tighter limits on campaign contributions, restrictions on how much lawmakers can make from outside jobs and even term limits.

"It is time for our state to step up," said Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Island and a former federal prosecutor.

Republicans favor term limits, an idea opposed by Democrats. Proposals to bring down the limits on campaign contributions face problems in both parties. Despite widespread criticism by good-government groups and campaign finance experts, the state continues to allow limited liability companies to make almost unlimited contributions without disclosing their donors.

Good-government groups, meanwhile, have called for tight restrictions on how much lawmakers can make from outside work, suggesting that the state even pay them more to remove the need to seek a second job. Serving in the Legislature is technically a part-time job, though lawmakers say the $79,500 annual salary isn't keeping up with the cost of living, particularly in the New York City area. Lawmakers haven't had a raise in nearly 20 years.

Other suggested reforms include term limits on leadership positions, more robust ethics enforcement and greater government transparency to prevent top lawmakers from making big decisions behind closed doors.

"Again and again we see a culture in Albany that is deeply disturbing and largely unchanged," said state Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn. "Albany could be doing a lot more to crack down on bad behavior. It doesn't make sense to just rely on federal prosecutors and the courts."

Thirty lawmakers have left office since 2000 because of criminal charges or allegations of ethical misconduct. Silver's arrest, however, shook the foundations of power in Albany and gave reformers hope that lawmakers would finally address a problem that dates back to before Tammany Hall cemented its control over city and state politics.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed significant ethics reforms in the past and has blamed legislative gridlock for the lack of progress. Good government groups say he hasn't done enough, however, noting he has been successful at hammering out deals on politically difficult issues in the past.

So far, only modest reforms have passed, including more disclosure of outside income. But more comprehensive changes have languished, with the Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-led Assembly each blaming the other. Members of the minority conferences  the Republicans in the Assembly and Democrats in the Senate  regularly rail against a system that they say hasn't changed despite repeated scandal.

Silver was convicted last year on charges that he took $4 million in kickbacks from a cancer researcher and real estate developers in exchange for political favors. A three-judge appellate panel on Thursday tossed the conviction because the judge's instructions to the jury weren't consistent with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the case of Virginia ex-Gov. Bob McDonnell, which narrowed the definition of bribery.

Silver's one-time counterpart, former Senate Leader Dean Skelos, R-Long Island, was also arrested and convicted in 2015, at a separate trial, of using his position to arrange payments and a job for his son. His appeal is pending, and his attorneys are expected to cite the McDonnell case, as well as the Silver ruling, in their arguments.

Supporters of one proposal or another say they would rein in corruption while not running afoul of federal law and the new restrictions imposed by the McDonnell case.

"This should spark overwhelming demand for ethics reform and open government, empowering New Yorkers to hold politicians accountable where the law may fail," said Brandon Muir, executive director of the nonprofit government watchdog group Reclaim New York.

But some reform advocates see the overturning of Silver's sentence as a setback that could actually embolden corrupt politicians.

Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, a group that favors tort reform, said the decision "signaled that government is for sale and has likely opened the flood gates to more corruption."

Added House Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua: "The golden age of Albany corruption is still very much alive."
The Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network is planning a screening of the controversial film Vaxxed at a secret location in Canberra this month.

The documentary film is directed by Andrew Wakefield, a former doctor whose debunked study was central to the anti-vaccination movement.

Movie Vaxxed. From cover up to catastrophe. Showing at Castlemaine cinema

The controversial 1998 research paper focused on a link between measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism was published and then later retracted by the medical journal Lancet.

Vaxxed: From Cover Up to Catastrophe has generated intense public criticism since its initial release in the USA in April 2016.
Mike Crowther, Lyneham Hybrid density Gary J.Wilson (July 9) is a bit severe in his rejection of Tony Trobe's concept of densification for Canberra ("Design Matters", June 3). After all, the government's urban development proposals for concrete canyons of apartments and shops formed along tram lines do not exactly fill one with expectations for future planning awards. There is a hybrid suburban densification scheme that I find attractive. Aim to develop a population of 1000 within 300 metres of every suburban centre, while broadly retaining existing planning for other parts of suburbs. These focal areas would also host information-based industries and other harmonious activities such as health services thus forming distributed employment centres.

All suburban residents would benefit by having viable businesses that provide good food and social amenities a short distance from their home. While rezoning existing suburbs would meet with strong resistance, new and emerging technologies underline the case for this type of development in new suburbs and in redevelopments. John L Smith, Farrer Parton's gamble So Mark Parton, at age 21, borrows $1000, chances it all, and ends up $100 down for the day ("Liberal reveals battle with gambling", July 9).

Does this sanctimonious wanna-be "problem gambler" seriously believe this qualifies him to pontificate on gambling addiction? Sorry, Mark  come back and talk to us when your bank account is constantly in negative numbers and when you have lied to your partner for years, destroyed relationships, and been left surrounded only by self-deception and denial. Until then, don't tell us that you understand problem gambling. Karina Morris, Weetangera Mark Parton has no idea about problem gambling (poker machines) with regard to the difference between access to money from ATMs and eftpos machines in clubs. An ATM in a club has a daily limit of $250 whereas an eftpos machine has a transaction limit of $1000. You can therefore do more than one $1000 transaction. Clubs clearly circumvented the limit on ATM withdrawals by introducing eftpos machines that allow patrons to withdraw as much money as their financial institution will allow, including overdrafts. ATMs within walking distance in shopping centres is irrelevant, and eftpos machines in clubs is unnecessary.

Steven Hurren, Macquarie No silver bullet We commend Mark Parton for sharing his story of gambling addiction. This is never easy to do and each lived experience of a social issue provides an unique perspective regarding gambling harm. Every person's story is different and what helps one person may not help someone else. There is no silver bullet to reducing gambling harm but what we do know is that a range of measures will contribute to protecting consumers and, given the power of the gaming industry, provide a more level playing field for those people accessing products that are known to be harmful. Mechanisms such as restricting access to cash in gambling venues have been shown to be an effective measure in that it can reduce the level of unplanned losses by people affected by gambling harm. It's a simple approach aimed at breaking a run of play to give consumers the space to consider if they can sustain ongoing losses. The proposed restrictions to withdrawing cash via eftpos may marginally inconvenience some patrons and won't stop everyone from feeding a gambling addiction. However, just because it is not the perfect measure doesn't mean we shouldn't adopt this reasonable and modest reform. As individuals involved in services that pick up the pieces when people's lives have been devastated by gambling addiction, we think it's time for new approaches. It's time to introduce a range of modest reforms where we have evidence that they will contribute to reducing harm to the community.

While industry voices will loudly protest any proposed changes, we question the need for patrons to require large amounts of cash or multiple mechanisms to access this cash inside gambling venues given what we know about the risks of gambling harm. We think it's time to put people first instead. Rebecca Vassarotti and Jeremy Halcrow, co-chairs, Canberra Gambling Reform Alliance Shoebox recipe Over half of Jack Kershaw's latest solution to town planning and housing availability was a long preamble of dog-whistles (letters, Sunday CT, July 9). Eventually, he disclosed his plan. He recommended developments with pre-subdivided blocks and small houses on one of the subdivisions spec-built by, and with purchaser finance supplied by, the town council. That sounds like densification by stealth to me.
Over my years of travel I have been to cities that never close down such as (ahem) New York, sadly not Rio, Beijing and yes Old London Town and most recently some others such as Christchurch, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. And as the Peter Allen song so aptly describes, I do feel a sense of relief and anticipation when my plane is homeward bound. That is, until I exit the air bridge at Tullamarine and strike Border Force.

It beggars belief that a country that spends millions of dollars promoting itself around the world in order to entice tourists to visit does such a good job of ensuring that the first encounter those tourists have with Australia is a woefully inefficient and unfriendly one. The queue for "others" would have stretched for nearly a half a kilometre and was being barked at by a high-vis Border Force guard  wouldn't it be nice if we employed some multilingual staff for this particular job, I found myself thinking, similar to other comparable airports around the world. The arriving tourists must be in that line for well over an hour, not something you really feel like being subjected to after an overnight flight.

As a returning citizen, instead of striking a pleasantly small queue and sociable "welcome home mate", I had to stand in a queue for over 40 minutes before spending another 15 minutes with a stony-faced Border Force officer as she eyeballed each of my family of five, slowly flicked through passport pages and arrival cards marking them with pen and next texta. (When flying out of Tullamarine only weeks earlier our children used the e-passport face-scanning technology. However, when returning to Tullamarine, we were told that children had to be over 10 to use it).

I was also astounded to see them close one of the measly six counters they had open for an ever-increasing line of Australians and New Zealanders, whilst at least three head honchos (deduced from the fact that they had more than one stripe on their epaulets) stood importantly behind the cubicles of the stamping staff doing nothing other than looking tough. I guess they are taking their Border Force nomenclature seriously at least.
The NSW government has continued to resist calls to implement a statewide plastic bag ban, after the country's grocery giants announced they would cease stocking single-use plastic bags in 2018.

The Berejiklian government was left flat-footed on the issue on Friday afternoon, as Woolworths, Coles, and Harris Farm introduced their owns plans to stop supplying plastic bags to customers in a bid to tackle the huge environmental cost from the product.

Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton welcomed the move by the retailers, but declined to say whether the NSW government would now endorse the measures through a statewide ban.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley seized the opportunity to wedge the government on the issue, describing a statewide ban as a "simple no-brainer" and offering to work with the government to implement one.
It was the ABC that created one of the more heated debates at the LNP state convention in Brisbane on Saturday.

Day two of the convention was jam packed, with Liberal National Party members from across Queensland voting on almost 50 resolutions, ranging from the abolition of stamp duty and CEO salaries to the sanctity of human life and whether Australia should establish a national space agency.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull takes a selfie with a young party member at the LNP state conference in Brisbane on Saturday Credit:Dan Peled

While many resolutions were passed  or failed  without much dissent, the debate over two ABC resolutions lasted 40 minutes.

Young LNP President Mitchell Collier introduced the first resolution calling for the privatisation of the ABC, saying it was a waste of taxpayer money and there was "no need for a public broadcaster".
Wayne Morris had 20 years' dairy farming behind him and had taken a break from the land to work in a macadamia processing plant, when the camel idea kicked in.

Shrugging off the farming routine and early mornings outdoors hadn't come easily and so he and partner Melanie Fitzgibbon, a school teacher, had been thinking about how they could get back to dairying in some way.

Wayne Morris from Camelot Dairies taking some of his herd for a walk. Credit:Camelot Dairies/Facebook

As soon as he heard about milking camels, Wayne knew that was what he wanted to do.

"He came home the next day and said I've just bought 11 camels  I thought he might have just bought one but no, he got the whole herd," Melanie recalls.
A man has been stabbed after confronting a thief at a car wash in Cheltenham. Police and paramedics were called to Star Car Wash in Southland shopping centre's car park just after 3.30pm on Saturday. Car wash manager Prince Singh speaks with police after his cousin was stabbed by a thief. Credit:7News Staff had confronted a man who had stolen two sets of car keys, 7News reported. Manager Prince Singh said he grabbed the thief by the neck and managed to retrieve the keys.

However, when his cousin rushed to help, the thief pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the leg. "It's a little bit disappointing because we work hard and somebody came and [threatened] us," Mr Singh said. "It's no good. Day by day, we notice in Melbourne, the crime rate is going up." Police are searching for the attacker, who is described as Caucasian and in his early 20s. He was wearing dark clothing and carrying a backpack.
Two brothers who went missing for several days from Sunbury, in Melbourne's outer north, have been found.

Police had earlier appealed for public assistance to help find siblings Harrison and Bryce Street.

Harrison hadn't been seen for six days. Credit:Victoria Police

Harrison, 16, had been missing since July 10, while his younger brother Bryce, 15, had not been seen since July 13.

Their families and police had held concerns for their welfare as they require medication.
A Mandurah man has been charged with a string of offences after an alleged crime spree in which police said he threatened a man with a knife, rammed cars off the road, stole vehicles, damaged property, broke into a home, assaulted a resident and a police officer.

Police said the 31-year-old was the passenger in a vehicle being driven by another man from an address in Greenfields on Friday when, during the journey, he's alleged to have pulled out a knife and threatened the driver.

The man will appear in Perth's Magistrate's Court on Saturday. Credit:Cathryn Tremain

The driver was able to stop his Ford Territory in Serpentine around an hour later and get out, but the passenger allegedly then took the vehicle and followed a Nissan Navara being driven by 40-year-old woman.

He's alleged to have then rammed the Navara a number of times - causing it to roll.
Bangkok: An administrator and suspected co-founder of AlphaBay, one of the world's largest dark web marketplaces that mysteriously went offline days ago, has been found dead in a Thai jail.

Alexandre Cazes, a 26-year-old Canadian, was found in a cell at Bangkok's Narcotics Suppression Bureau only an hour before he was due to meet with public prosecutors over proceedings for his extradition to the United States.

Alexandre Cazes was believed to be the owner of AlphaBay. Credit:Image via https://hanke.io/darknet-business-alphabay-desnake/

Police seized several million dollars, four Lamborghini cars and three properties when Cazes was arrested on July 5, the same day that AlphaBay went offline, prompting rumours that its administrators had run off with customers' money.

But the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that a law enforcement operation spanning three countries had shut down the site, with Canadian police seizing its servers in Quebec.
"Oh, Donald, you have at least four years, maybe eight, to get in that book."

"Melania, Melania! Stop watching The Handmaid's Tale and help me. I need to make sure I have at least three entries in the next edition of this book," the US President says to his wife in their suite at the five-star hotel that lost the ballot to host the First Couple.

Paris, Friday. Donald Trump is leafing through his trusted tome, 50 Most Awkward Handshakes Through History (September 2016 edition).

The President flicks from page to page, wildly gesticulating as he tries to mimic some of the most #awkward greetings of all time.

DT: "Oh wow, Melania, I will have to really pull out my best work if I'm going to knock that three-way between Tony Abbott, Shinzo Abe and He Who Shall Not Be Named off top spot."

MT: "You mean the G20 greeting with President Ob..."

President Barack Obama. Credit:Andrew Meares

DT: "STOP! We have spoken about this. His name is President Before Me, or President five syllables. DO NOT speak his name."
Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
With a plot of one-and-a-half acres, a sand volleyball court and the possible remains of the family's pet bear buried in the backyard, the historic Cavitt House -- located in Bryan's Eastside Historic District -- is available for rent.

Posted on Craigslist on July 10, the listing advertises a $2,500 rent for the five-bedroom, 4,300-square-foot mansion.

"It is absolutely killing me to leave it," said Leo Gonzalez II, who owns the property with his wife, Kimberly. The Gonzalezes are moving back into their old home that has not sold in the North Oakwood area of Bryan. In the meantime, they're looking to rent out the historic Cavitt House, which Gonzalez called the "crown jewel, one of the houses we have always wanted to own."

Randy Haynes, a senior planner and historic preservation officer with the City of Bryan and member of the Brazos County Historical Commission, described the Cavitt House as "very arguably the most historic structure in Bryan."

According to the Brazos County Historical Commission website, William R. Cavitt purchased a city block in Bryan in 1875, the same year he married Mary Mitchell. Cavitt became the attorney for Brazos County in 1878, and around 1880, he built the mansion that is still standing on East 30th Street today. Cavitt later became a state legislator and served on the board of Texas A&M University.

Paul P. Van Riper, who purchased the home in 1986, wrote in 1995 a history overview expressing his written consent for the home to be considered a Texas Historic Landmark, calling it "the oldest home of any size in the county."

Van Riper's essay states that Cavitt purchased the city block on which the house stands for $1,000 in January 1875, then built the home in the late 1870s. The property remained under the ownership of the Cavitt family for almost exactly a century, Van Riper wrote, and then changed hands several times.

"It's relatively unchanged from the time it was built," said Haynes.

The house underwent a major renovation in the 1920s, Haynes said, "but the fact that it's still there is really something," adding that the home -- a mansion -- was "never a really fancy place," and that "life in that building would have been fairly primitive."

Cavitt himself was "quite a character," Haynes said of the man who "moved into the highest circles of state politics."

Newspaper reports reveal that the personality quirks extended beyond the Cavitt family patriarch: A story in The Eagle dated Nov. 6, 1912, detailed the bond between Esther Cavitt and her pet bear, in which she traveled to Dallas to coax her former pet back into captivity. Cavitt had sold the bear to a W. N. Atwell, after which it broke out of its crate after it had been shipped.

"...For several hours it roamed about the office, investigating packages, fixtures and everything in reach, denying efforts to put him back to bed," the article reads. "Finally, in desperation, the expressmen were forced to send word to Miss Cavitt, who came down and easily coaxed the bruin back in his box."

The article goes on to state that Esther Cavitt had owned the bear since it had been a cub and that, "as it grew larger it became dangerous to all but its mistress, to whom it was as gentle as a kitten."

Haynes said the Cavitts owned two pet bears, the remains of one of which is likely buried in the house's backyard.

Haynes said the owners after the Van Ripers hadn't realized the property was a "money pit," but the current owners were "happily surprised" with the house's state when they purchased it, which Haynes said was at a "firesale price."

The price's appraised value has shifted dramatically over recent years, according to the Brazos Central Appraisal District website. The property was appraised at $334,180 in 2011, its peak since 2009. In 2016, it was appraised at $113,120, its lowest during the same timeframe. Its 2017 appraisal value is $157,410.

Haynes said he doesn't think the appraisal value accurately represents "the value to our community," calling it an "all-around special place" and a "gift that keeps on giving."

"A lot of what we know about Bryan are from the photographs that Fred Cavitt took," Haynes said of William's son's photos, which make up the Cavitt Collection at the Carnegie History Center in Downtown Bryan.

Haynes said he has no qualms about the Cavitt House -- a Texas Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- being rented to tenants, since "the use is the same, the only difference is the people who live in it don't own it."

Haynes said Gonzalez is "stupid in love with this house," and has an interest in making sure the tenants will respect the home, its history and its surrounding neighborhood. The house is not located in a residential conservation district, Haynes said, meaning up to four unrelated people can live in it.

The listing notes that the owner would consider renting the house by the room "with enough qualified individuals," which Gonzalez said he added in case "more responsible" students would be interested, but he would still prefer a family to rent the home.

"We would love to find a family that would appreciate and take care of the house the way we would," he said.

To see the listing, go to http://bit.ly/2tpGoI9.
The Brazos Valley Council of Governments is hosting a Tips for Caring seminar Monday covering topics that include medical power of attorney, advance directives, beneficiary deeds and other legal issues.

Paul J. Zambie, an attorney with the Texas Legal Services Center, will be the speaker.

The seminar will be from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the BVCOG office, 3991 E. 29th St. in Bryan. Refreshments will be served.

RSVP by calling 595-2801, ext. 2024.
According to College Station police, two to three people were treated for minor bite wounds received at the apartment building in the 1500 block of Northpoint Lane. Around 6 p.m., officers responded to a call concerning an assault. Police say a man was reportedly running through the common area and biting people walking outside. Police believe the man was intoxicated.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced a plan to funnel more money toward teachers, but local schools are uncertain of how the plan would affect the Brazos Valley.

After denouncing a failed House bill that would have put $1.5 billion into public schools as a "ponzi scheme," Patrick said his plan was built on the premise that schools receive enough funding, but fail to allocate enough money to teachers. The Thursday announcement comes just days before legislators meet for a special session.

As part of his proposal, retired teachers and teachers with at least six years experience would earn annual bonuses funded, eventually, by $700 million of Texas Lottery funds dedicated to public schools. However, it's unclear to politicians and educators in Brazos Valley what the plan might mean for the area.

Rep. John Raney said in a statement to The Eagle that while the presented plan is not yet a piece of legislation that can be evaluated, he is looking forward to addressing education needs the special session.

"It is all a lot of talk until someone files a bill," Raney's statement read. "I will say that I support our teachers and think they perform one of the most difficult and important jobs in the state. The House has worked diligently on increasing public education funding, and I am glad to see the Senate catching up with us on the subject."

College Station school board president Valerie Jochen said her district is keeping a close eye on Austin going into special session.

"We want to know more clearly what the expectation is -- what kind of funding model are they really looking at?" Jochen said. "Because everyone has a different [plan]. We're watching it and very aware of it, but I don't feel we are at a point where it is very clear to us."

Adrain Johnson, Hearne school district superintendent, said his initial concern after learning of Patrick's plan is that it may require districts to dole out raises without providing the funding to do so.

"Certainly one of our first priorities after we take care of our students is to take care of our teachers. If you are going to give teachers a raise, we are 100 percent behind that," he said. "We were actually trying to find ways to give our staff a raise anyway, but it certainly would help if the state gave additional funding."

The same concern was levied by the Texas State Teachers Association shortly after Patrick's announcement.

"There is not a dime of extra funding behind this proposal or the governor's proposal," Clay Robison, TSTA spokesman, said in reference to Gov. Gregg Abbott's call for legislation that would give teachers a $1,000 raise. "Both plans are hollow promises to make the public think he wants to do something for teachers and retirees, when they are basically not doing anything."

The special session will start Tuesday and comes as school districts are developing budgets for their district. Whatever the outcome, Jochen said her district will make the most of its funding.

"We're going to be looking at the budget again in July, and we are going to be talking about compensation levels," Jochen said. "I think the thing that is important for the community to understand is that we want to be certain that we are the most efficient and effective with taxpayer's dollars."

Bryan ISD officials were not available for comment.
The Junior League of Bryan-College Station is rallying the community to come together and help the approximately 7,000 B-CS schoolchildren who will be in need of school supplies to complete their class work for the upcoming school year.

The organization's annual Stuff the Bus campaign has already started with supply boxes that will be out until Aug. 6. Last year, the school supply donation campaign gathered $4,600 in monetary donations and 27,400 items, which were given to children in the twin cities who qualified for free or reduced school lunches, as well as to other children in need.

"The list of supplies we have is based on lists provided to us by the school districts, which they put out telling what the kids need to plan for," said Junior League spokeswoman Elisabeth Thompson.

With back-to-school sales at big box stores such as Target and Walmart, the community is usually able to provide every item requested for the children. Any items the group has not received enough of once the drive is over is purchased through donations.

This year, the Junior League also hopes to raise money for Stuff the Bus by encouraging friendly competition amongst local families with children in elementary school. At donation events, participants will have the chance to enter the name of their child's elementary school into a drawing. On Aug. 11, Junior League members will draw two school names, one in Bryan and one in College Station. The winning elementary schools will be given $1,000 each to use in any way that benefits of the students.

There are several ways to give to this summer's Stuff the Bus. Money can be given at any Stuff the Bus event, by visiting www.jlbcs.org, or by purchasing a charity slip at the check-out line at local H-E-B grocery stores. Profit shares will also be hosted throughout the month of August at Blue Baker, C&J Barbeque, Shipwreck Grill, Taco Crave taco bar, Grub Burger Bar, Smoothie King and Little Caesars Pizza. School supplies can be dropped off at yellow school bus-shaped boxes placed all across B-CS. Stuff the Bus school supply collection events will also be hosted at the following times and locations:

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 7 at C & J Barbeque, 1010 S. Texas Ave. in Bryan.

From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 8 at Taco Crave, 308 N. Main St. in Downtown Bryan.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 9 at Grub Burger Bar, 980 University Drive E. in College Station.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 10 at Chick-Fil-A, 2210 Braircrest Drive in Bryan.

From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 11 at H-E-B, 949 William D. Fitch Parkway in College Station.

School supplies the Junior League is requesting include: No. 2 pencils, crayons, colored pencils, washable colored markers, manila paper [12" by 18" in size], construction paper [12" by 18" in size], dry erase markers, notebook paper, solid colored folders with pockets, Pink Pearl erasers and spiral notebooks.

"We know children succeed best when they have the tools that they need to learn," Thompson said. "It we can provide them with those, I feel we've done what we set out to do."

For more information about donation opportunities and profit share days, visit www.jlbcs.org/.
On Nov. 1, Linn Benton Food Shares warehouse in Tangent received two truckloads of food and household supplies arranged by the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A man who was recorded cooking crack cocaine in a house near Neal Elementary School in Bryan was sentenced this week to spend 10 years in prison, officials said.

According to the Brazos County District Attorney's Office, Keston Jacolby Harrison, 26, was found guilty by a Brazos County jury in January on a charge of manufacturing nearly six grams of crack and sentenced Thursday.

Harrison was arrested in June 2015 after an undercover police officer watched him manufacture crack cocaine in a home in the 1000 block of Hall Street. According to the Brazos County District Attorney, the undercover officer recorded Harrison on video bragging about the quality of the narcotic he had made.

"This sentence is appropriate for a defendant who profited at the expense of this community and on the backs of people struggling with addiction," said assistant district attorney Steve Zimmerman in a press release.
In our growing and fast-changing world, opportunities to preserve scenic open space, protect wildlife habitat and safeguard natural resources for future generations are fleeting.

As the leader of a nonprofit land trust that works to conserve environmentally valuable property, I see the need for such preservation daily.

But conservation groups such as mine are challenged by a lack of available funding from both government and private sources. And unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service recently made the situation worse with guidance that threatens to chill an attractive source of private conservation financing.

At issue is how the IRS treats certain conservation easement donations. A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that forever restricts a propertys future development, making it one of the most powerful and effective conservation tools available.

The land under easement remains privately owned, and activities such as farming, ranching, and hunting often are permitted to continue. My organization, like many other land trusts, primarily preserves land through the acquisition and donation of conservation easements.

The tax code provides landowners who donate an easement with a tax deduction equal to its fair market value.

Since the late 1970s, the availability of this deduction has helped conserve millions of acres of American land. In 2015, Congress passed a bipartisan bill permanently increasing the tax incentives for conservation easements with the goal of encouraging more landowners to donate.

The IRS, though, recently took steps that will limit access to this conservation tool when the landowner is a partnership or pass-through entity. In the closing months of the Obama administration, IRS officials designated certain conservation easement donations by partnerships as listed transactions.

While this guidance does not invalidate any compliant conservation easement donations, it unfairly labels these already highly disclosed charitable contributions as tax avoidance transactions.

The IRS rightly guards against taxpayers claiming overvalued tax deductions based on faulty appraisals. Other conservation leaders and I share that goal.

Fortunately, there is no evidence that abuses of valuation with easement donations are widespread or that theyre more likely to come from a particular type of donor, whether a wealthy landowner, a family partnership or a partnership of unrelated individuals.

Thats why it is unfair that the IRS is stigmatizing a certain class of easement donors, namely partnerships, by retroactively applying onerous and duplicative reporting requirements going all the way back to 2010.

The expansive reach of this guidance and its hostility toward landowners willing to give up property development rights in perpetuity will drive future donors away, effectively repealing congressional intent to extend the tax incentive.

Conservation is expensive. In an era when government cannot finance the cost of land preservation alone, significant new sources of private funding are required. Individuals, family partnerships and investment partnerships all should be allowed to play an important role in advancing needed conservation projects.

These easement donations allow ecologically valuable land to be conserved permanently and cost the government less than purchasing and managing the land with federal or state funds.

While conservation is never a landowners most profitable option for land use, we must make it at least an economically viable alternative to development if our country truly is committed to protecting precious natural resources.

The IRS guidance fails to address the real problem at hand  over-valuation of appraisals  and should be suspended.

My land trust stands ready to work with Congress, the IRS and other conservation stakeholders to develop meaningful solutions that address potential over-valuation and do so without excluding legitimate funding sources.

Without government action to solve this problem, innovative conservation solutions simply may disappear along with more greenspace.

Drew D. Troyer is chairman of the board at the Compatible Lands Foundation, a nonprofit land trust headquartered in Oklahoma that oversees conservation easements in six states. Write him at CLF, 1305 E. 15th St., suite 202, Tulsa, OK, 74120. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
On Jan. 31, Gov. Greg Abbott gave an impassioned speech from the dais of the Texas House floor. He laid out his priorities for the 85th Legislative Session, which included funding for pre-kindergarten programs, improving the child welfare system, cracking down on sanctuary cities, and ethics reform, ending with the admonishment: Do it right, or dont do it at all.

We agreed, so we filed House Bill 3305, legislation seeking to end a common practice that Texas governors of both political parties have engaged in for decades. Current gubernatorial appointees have donated more than $8.6 million combined to the governors campaigns since January 2000, and one in four appointees are campaign contributors. More than 70 of Gov. Abbotts appointees have donated $2,500 or more to his campaign since 2013. Many of those who contributed $100,000 or more were rewarded with plum appointments to coveted board positions on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission and boards of regents for our states largest university systems.

Appointing officials to state boards and commissions is one of the most important roles of the Texas governor.

Individuals appointed to positions in public agencies and on state boards should be chosen on the basis of their qualifications, not their ability to donate money. We owe it to the people of Texas to take money out of the equation, ensuring that all Texans can be considered equally for these appointments on the basis of merit alone.

Thus, to end the most egregious ethics problem facing our state government, we designed House Bill 3305 to increase accountability of the governor and put a stop to pay-to-play politics by prohibiting individuals who have donated more than $2,500 to the governors campaign from serving as an officer appointed by the governor for a calendar year.

This commonsense proposal was approved overwhelmingly by the House, but languished in the Senate. There, the bill never was referred to a committee and died when the Legislature adjourned on May 29.

Instead of embracing all-encompassing ethics reform, Gov. Abbott chose to endorse ethics reform proposals that excluded his office, addressing legislators only. Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick missed an opportunity to pass meaningful ethics reform in the form of HB 3305.

Eventually, when the opposing political party assumes control of the governors office, Republicans will regret passing on this opportunity to embrace true ethics reform while we had the power to do so.

Even more disappointing, Abbott colluded with Lt. Gov. Patrick to stall six important bills we introduced to solve challenges facing our state in the Senate.

Then, Gov. Abbott vetoed funding for a brackish desalination study we fought to have included in the biennial budget.

Finally, he vetoed five of the six bills passed by my office, with no real plausible explanation, leading observers to believe the vetoes were acts of retribution and demonstrate a lack of maturity in his office.

What truly is unfortunate, is that this isnt just about Gov. Abbott. Each of his predecessors engaged in the same process, and his successors are all but certain to do the same, unless the Legislature acts.

While we are disappointed by our governors actions, we still agree with the words he spoke on that chilly January day in the House Chamber, which is why we intend to file House Bill 3305 in the upcoming special session which starts Tuesday.

When it comes to ethics reform, lets do it right, or not at all.

State Rep. Lyle Larson of San Antonio, a Republican, represents Texas House District 122 in the Texas Legislature. He is a 1981 graduate of Texas A&M University.
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A U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week killed Abu Sayed, the leader of the Islamic State's offshoot there, U.S. officials said Friday.

A Pentagon statement said that other Islamic State members were also killed in the operation on Tuesday in Kunar province and said that it "will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan." The statement provided little other detail about the strike.

A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details about the attack, said the strike targeted a meeting and that U.S. forces had not been tracking Sayed for long.

If confirmed, Sayed's death marks another setback for the terrorist group in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan forces have been pummeling Islamic State positions in eastern Afghanistan for months in an effort to dislodge the militants from the craggy peaks and remote valleys of Nangahar and Kunar provinces. In April, a team of 50 U.S. Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos assaulted a hamlet in Achin, a district of Nangahar province, killing Abdul Hasib, Sayed's predecessor as commander of ISIS in Afghanistan, and roughly 30 other militants. Eight months before Hasib was killed, Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State's leader in Afghanistan prior to Hasib, was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

RELATED: Mosul air strikes used to remove jihadists (story continues below)

Two U.S. Rangers were killed in the operation to kill Hasib, the Pentagon said, possibly from "friendly fire." Seven U.S. service members have died in combat in Afghanistan in 2017, six of them in the eastern part of the country while supporting the fight against the Islamic State.

Despite being under constant bombardment and hemorrhaging leadership, the Islamic State's offshoot in Afghanistan has managed to keep a foothold in the country. In June, the group seized Tora Bora from the Taliban. Once a key battleground between the United States and al-Qaida, the area - pockmarked with caves and redoubts - is easily defensible from the ground and hard to target from the air.

The Pentagon assesses that the Islamic State presence in Afghanistan is down to fewer than 1,000 fighters, from a 2015 mark of 2,500.
Contributed photo / Westport Police Department

WESTPORT  A man from Alabama is facing drunken-driving charges after he was found passed out it in a gas station parking lot with his car still in drive and a Vodka bottle in his lap, police said.

Westport police were dispatched to Post Road East around 3:30 p.m. July 11 on reports of a black Toyota Corolla driving erratically in the area.
Join Boris Johnson, Britains Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, as they debate the significance of the worlds most timeless civilizations: Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Mr. Johnson defends the culture, art, and philosophy of Ancient Greece, while Dr. Beard argues for the supremacy of Roman law, literature, and influence. In the debate, originally hosted by Intelligence Squared, Mr. Johnson weighs the brutality of the Roman government and society against the democratic and flourishing city-state of Athens, while Dr. Beard reminds the audience of the imperialism of the Athenians in The Melian Dialogue and their tyranny and corruption in the trial of Socrates. With which do you side: the city that was the birthplace of democracy and the home of the legacies of Homer, Plato, and Sophocles; or the Eternal City with its rich tradition of Virgil, Cicero, Plutarch, and the Triumvirates?

Books on the topic of this video may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an on-line journal for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, Paul Elmer More and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism. Some conservatives may look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliots call to redeem the time, redeem the dream. The Imaginative Conservative offers to our families, our communities, and the Republic, a conservatism of hope, grace, charity, gratitude and prayer.
Its finally happened.

Fed up with answering phones, sorting mail and making coffee, interns are going Over the Edge.

IdeaBank Marketing in Hastings has arranged for its summer intern, Andrew Koubek, to participate in the Grand Island YWCAs Over the Edge fundraiser, and its challenging other businesses to do the same.

Over the Edge Grand Island will take place on Aug. 5 at Tower 217. Up to 92 people will rappel down the 105-foot-tall building, which was once the home of the Masonic Temple.

Each edger, as theyre called, will need to raise $1,000 for the Grand Island YWCA.

Five edgers, including YWCA Executive Director Mandy Burkett and honorary event chairwoman Ellen Hornady, have already raised their thousand.

Our goal is to have 60 edgers participate in Over the Edge, Burkett said.

Among the corporate sponsors for Over the Edge Grand Island is IdeaBank Marketing. When its owner and creative director, Sherma Jones, saw the need for more edgers, she didnt hesitate to help.

Well, maybe she hesitated a little.

I wanted to help the YWCA in their fundraising efforts, but Im too chicken to rappel from a seven-story building, so Im forcing the intern to do it, Jones said. OK, it didnt take much force  hes excited about the opportunity.

Koubek, 21, of Grand Island, will be a senior saxophone performance major with a visual media minor at Hastings College this coming school year. Although he has no rappelling experience, he volunteered to become an edger because I knew if it were to come down to a vote, I would lose anyway.

In all seriousness, Koubek said hes aware of the YWCAs good work.

I can say firsthand that both of my sisters benefited greatly from the YWCA as kids, he said.

Internships also have a lot to offer. According to the Nebraska Department of Economic Developments Intern Nebraska program, more than half of the young people who participate in an internship become full-time employees where they intern.

But interns also become vital resources to the businesses and communities that host them, often participating in community activities when away from the office. Thats where the challenge to other area businesses comes in.

There are probably other business owners out there who are just as chicken as I am, Jones said. So, I say, Lets join forces and give our summer interns an experience they wont likely forget.

Edgers can sign up at www.overtheedgecwe.com/grandisland. Theyll get their own fundraising page, which they can share with friends and family via email and social media.
Look out, oompa loompas on the loose! Director Pam Ahlman shouts as a flurry of elementary students and middle-schoolers weave past tables and folding chairs to take their places by the stage at St. Pauls Lutheran Church on Thursday night.

They heard their cue music, so nothing was stopping these youngster loompas as they raced to the stage to rehearse Willy Wonka, Jr. and prepare for their July 21, 22 and 23 showtimes.

Pam Ahlman and Deb Scheel direct the summer program for Central Nebraska kids entering the third grade through those leaving the eighth grade. Scheel provides the soundtrack with a church piano as Ahlman critiques the performers.

Ahlman sings and dances along with the music. If Im doing it, youre doing it! she tells her students.

Ahlman is as strict as she is sassy as she is kind. Shes quick to demand quiet when kids offstage get too loud and she scrunches her nose and snaps her fingers to out-sass the oompa loompas, but she encourages her performers to contribute their own ideas, and when someone messes up a line or needs guidance with a character, shes there with an affectionate smile.

The hard work, chaos and fun of the summer production are dedicated to three women: the late Betty Powell-Lofgreen, the late Shirley Anderson and the late Lori Boughton. Ahlman said all three women spent their lives on the stage and supported the theater arts, so she and Scheel created the Debut! Youth Theatre Company to commemorate the dedication of Powell-Lofgreen, Anderson and Boughton.

We wanted to carry on the legacy of these women, Ahlman said. Being a part of the theater stays with you; there were many people who came before them and now were training for the people who will come after them.

The nonprofit organization gives an opportunity for Central Nebraskas youths to be bit by the musical theatre bug, Ahlman said.

Both music teachers, Ahlman and Scheel wanted to help kids get comfortable on a stage before they enter competitive high school programs. Most kids return summer after summer until they age out, and some come back even then to help with lights, choreography and music.

Since the May auditions, the kids have committed their entire summer to the production. The schedule shows that the cast dedicates almost 40 hours to rehearsing the play, not including the time they spend memorizing lines and practicing at home.

Ahlman said the 40 hours is time well spent.

Everybody here is a part of the team, and they all work hard, she said. Theyre all here because they love it.

Looking from Ahlmans (folding) director chair to the stage, its clear the kids are having fun.

The entire cast is reduced to giggles when Violet Beauregarde, played by Kyra Ray, transforms into a blueberry with the help of an inflating blue fat suit.

The giggles escalate when Ahlman makes a suggestion: What if oompa loompas roll Kyra off stage, in all her bulky blue glory?

One can already hear the audience laughing and see the parents fawning over their pint-sized performers.

When Eva Yllescas went to her audition, she wasnt nervous after she realized the character she was reading for.

When I found out she was sassy, I was like, Oh, I got this, Yllescas said. And when I found out I got the part, I was jumping up and down and screaming, I was so excited.

Yllescas plays Veruca Salt, a girl who wants anything and everything. Yllescas favorite line in the play is when she demands, Mr. Wonka, sweetie, I want bubbles that taste like candy!

She said she is funny-sassy while Veruca is a mean kind of sassy, so she had to work hard to focus on her character.

But this is my dream, the 9-year-old said. I love Broadway, I love acting and I love the music, and performing has always been my dream.

Susie Wren has also dreamed of this production. Her first major show was Willy Wonka four years ago, and she has dreamed of playing a parent to one of the ticket winners.

She plays Mrs. Goop, mother of Augustus Goop. Its not her first role with Debut! Youth Theatre Company; she has been involved since she was in third grade.

Wren loves to perform and to see her friends perform.

Weve created a family, she said. They dont go to my school and I dont get to see them very often outside of the summer, but every play we are right back where we left off.

Theres a community in theater, Ahlman agreed. Signs of a childhood summer are everywhere: baggy T-shirts are tied with ponytails at the bottom, hair tips have been dyed with Kool-Aid and theres nary a smile without gaps. But something typically millennial is missing: phones.

Instead, the kids talk  quietly, Ahlman reminds them  to each other, read their scripts or watch the stage and wait for their cues. Wren knits with orange yarn.

After all, the kids arent at St. Pauls to text; theyre there to work. Ahlman advises the kids on musical counts, character interpretations and costume choices.

She prefers a red dress on Eva Yllescas over a blue sparkly number, and Yllescas agrees.

This is so much more Veruca, you know? Yllescas says to Ahlman.

The costumes come from a room adjacent to the stage that Ahlman calls the mom room. Inside the mom room, balloons are hard candy, pool noodles are lollipops and chocolate bars are Wonka bars.

The Mom Brigade is behind the transformations, Ahlman said. Mothers of performers devote their time, energy and creative thoughts to the productions stage and costumes.

Kari Schmidt, the mother of Katlyn Schmidt (or Mrs. Bucket), said they do it because we believe in arts for kids.

Sharyl Priester, mother of Anthony Priester (Grandpa Joe) and Alyssa Priester (Mrs. Beauregarde), said she has seen how theater contributes to her childrens confidence in front of groups at church, at school and in life.

The productions on July 21, 22 and 23 will hold something even for people who may not have children in the cast, Ahlman said.

The energy will make for an hour and a half of sitting back, relaxing and realizing that the future is in good hands, she said. Creative, talented, hard-working hands.

Plus, Ahlman added, you might get a Wonka bar while youre at it.

Cast includes:

Preston Ramaekers, Owen Luebbe, Katlyn Schmidt, Simon Javorsky, Elizabeth Morrow, Emelia Richling, Derrick Johnson, Anthony Priester, Noah Javorsky, Carley Pool, Zander Stromer, Michael Westerby, Susie Wren, Eva Yllescas, Ethan Ramaekers, Kyra Ray, Alyssa Priester, Khale Daniel, Nancy Mahan, Sophia Nigro, Maggie Westerby, Bradyn Roebuck, Cassie Lammers, Kellen Peterson, Kerrigen Jelinek, Jocelyn Richling, Tyler Claussen, Madelyn Ramaekers, Justice Lahm, Celia McCoy, Bella Croghan, Molly Cline, Lena Groetzinger, Alex Weaver, Delaney Hoover, Alex Lammers, Cadance Roebuck, Austyn Sanchez, Zachary Johnson, Alanna Lepler, Avery Rogers, Jillian Stromer, Mere Spellman, Zach Johnson and Alanna Lepler
In the January days leading up to three Grand Island City Council study sessions  which were aimed at looking at the citys largest departments in anticipation of the fiscal 2018 budget  Mayor Jeremy Jensen said tough decisions will have to be made when it comes to the budget.

These tough decisions were revealed Friday afternoon when the City of Grand Island released its budget document. The decisions may lead to about 20 positions being either eliminated or left vacant. Not included in that number would be seasonal greenhouse workers.

The specifics:

 For the Grand Island Fire Department, the recommendation is to eliminate two additional positions and two currently vacant firefighter positions, as well as leave two future retirements unfilled.

 The Grand Island Police Department may have two full-time equivalent (FTE) community service officer (CSO) positions eliminated, two currently vacated police officer positions remain unfilled, two currently vacant part-time CSO positions left vacant, and three future retirements left unfilled.

 City administration is recommending one FTE horticulturist position be eliminated, along with all seasonal worker positions at the greenhouse. The currently vacant maintenance worker position and future retirement will both be unfilled.

 At the Grand Island Public Library, the vacant library assistant II and part-time library page positions will remain vacant.

According to figures outlined in the document, city administration aims to have $2.9 million in cuts for the fiscal 2018 budget. The target budget for the city and its operations is $41,161,783.

City administration is calling for no more than 70 percent of the budget be devoted to personnel costs.

City Administrator Marlan Ferguson said in the budget document that these cuts are needed because  since Grand Island became a Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2013  labor costs have compounded significantly and additional staffing levels have increased the pressure for our revenues to sustain and support our personnel costs.

Ferguson added the city will aim to provide essential services while minimizing personnel and operating costs. He stressed the city needs to look at its operations and determine if the city is:

 Providing required services that citizens want and services that are the core mission of the city.

 Focusing on efforts that are not producing results or are not value-added.

 Getting, or not getting, the maximum efficiency out of its operations and/or workforce.

 Having service areas that experience too much down time.

 Not providing services at the right time.

The Grand Island City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Nebraska State Fair board room at Fonner Park to discuss the fiscal 2018 budget and to direct (city) staff on developing the budget.

No official council action will be taken by council at this meeting.

Those interested in viewing the entire budget document for the City of Grand Island may do so online at grandislandne.agenda.beehere.net/meetings/View?meetingId132872.
With what she considers dangerous cuts to senior care programs being proposed by Governor Bruce Rauner, State Representative Katie Stuart is calling for action.

An emergency town hall meeting hosted by Stuart is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Monday, July 17 at the Main Street Community Center in Edwardsville.

Stuart said this meeting will be one seniors and senior caregivers wont want to miss.

I think its really important for our seniors and our caregivers to understand how the possible changes in funding and programs can affect them, Stuart said.

Both Stuart and several local community senior services providers will be present at the meeting to discuss the proposed cuts and its impact on the local senior care programs in the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon area.

So far, Stuart said Senior Services Plus will be among the community senior service providers at the meeting.

I know that Im going to have representation from Senior Services Plus and they will be talking about accessing basic in-home care and transportation help and Meals on Wheels. And then, Im hoping to have some other providers, Stuart said.

With Governor Bruce Rauner proposing significant cuts to senior care programs, Stuart said its crucial to keep the local area informed of the impact these cuts may bring.

Cuts that Governor Rauner is proposing are going to cut $120 million from the community care program. Its going to affect 36,000 residents of Illinois and we are definitely going to feel some of that impact right here in our local area, Stuart said.

The meeting will be open to the public with no appointment required.

Stuart said she hopes those in attendance take away information and learn how to connect with the services they need.

I hope that if people were not aware of services that were available to them that they get that education and learn how they can connect with the services they need. I really think its important that we try to keep people staying in their homes, but in their own homes where they can have a better health outcome and a higher standard of living, she said.

The MSCC is located at 1003 North Main St. in downtown Edwardsville.

For more information, contact Katie Stuarts in-district office at 618-365-6650 or by email at repkatiestuart@gmail.com.
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 12:46 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f0b6e 1 Food BlackGarlic,startup,start-up,#startup,food,#food,food-business,#foodbusiness Free

Bad news for Jakartas Stepford wives who seek to serve delicious yet practical home-cooked meals as BlackGarlic, a meal ingredient catering startup, decided to cease operations as of Friday.

However, BlackGarlic Express, a line that sells rendang (beef simmered in coconut milk and spices) and spices, will continue to operate under the products founder, the William Wongso Kuliner brand. Customers with remaining BlackGarlic credits are recommended to purchase the products.

The BlackGarlic team will reportedly continue to serve customers until July 19.

Founded in 2015, BlackGarlic aimed to bring the joys of cooking to the public by providing individually packaged MSG-free ingredients complete with step-by-step recipes. The recipes were developed under the watchful eyes of local culinary expert William Wongso.

Read also: Black Garlic: Bringing back the joy of home cooking

A similar concept has been applied by US-based company Blue Apron. While Blue Apron went public last month, BlackGarlic had to stop operating as the local market was not familiar with the idea.

BlackGarlic CEO and co-founder Michael Saputra told The Jakarta Post via email that despite the company managing to attract over 10,000 customers in the past two years, it had a difficult time retaining them. He said the market was not ready to make BlackGarlic products part of their daily lives.

[BlackGarlic] was a new concept and we put considerable effort into introducing it to the public, he said, adding that the cost of acquiring new customers ended up being higher than the amount customers spent on the service. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 14:23 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f2df7 4 Lifestyle hairdresser,hairdressing,beauty,barbers,#beauty,exhibition,#exhibition,Hair-Expo-Indonesia Free

Jakarta is set to host its very first exhibition for the haircare and hairdressing industry on July 27-29.

Initiated by organizer Reed Panorama Exhibitions, Hair Expo Indonesia will take place at the Jakarta Convention Center in Senayan, Central Jakarta, and aims to provide a platform for the aforementioned industry players to gather.

The organizers senior project manager, Adista Tarigan, said the event was previously conducted in Australia and would feature creative educational facilities and exhibition programs, such as talk shows, barber competition, the Hair Awards, and the Hair and Fashion Show.

Read also: Five premium Korean skincare products to try

The hair industry in Indonesia is growing very fast, but its supply is limited. During this event, participants can attend various workshops, be it related to business or hairdressing techniques, said Adista as quoted by kompas.com.

Held in cooperation with Tiara Kusuma beauty expert, the Salon Entrepreneur Association and the Indonesia Barbershop Association, the event is also set to feature renowned figures in the hairdressing scene, such as Miguel Gutierrez from Nomad Barber, Gareth Vance and Edward Darley from Sassoon, as well as Indonesia's own Rudy Hadisuwarno and Lie Kuang.

Visitors can expect to explore 80 tenants from various parts of the world at the exhibition, including those hailing from Singapore and Taiwan.

Adista said the event expects to present 10,000 hair and beauty professionals. (mas/kes)
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Linkedin Asmara Wreksono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 14:03 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f2215 1 Books Kevin-Kwan,Crazy-Rich-Asians,novel,novelist,interview Free

Author Kevin Kwan has been a celebrated name in Southeast Asia since the launch of his first novel, Crazy Rich Asians, in 2013. Following the success of the cheeky comedy about the Singaporean ultra upper-class, Kwan released his second novel China Rich Girlfriend in 2015, expanding his readers radar into Hong Kong and mainland Chinas glamorous lives of the rich.

In May 2017, Kwan released the third and final book of the trilogy, Rich People Problems, which takes readers back to Singapore and focuses on the drama revolving around Tyersall Park, the mansion of the family matriarch, Shang Su Yi. Kwan talks exclusively to The Jakarta Post about the trilogy, celebrity appearances in the books and how similar the third books conflicts are to real-life happenings.

What got you into writing Crazy Rich Asians in the first place?

Writing the first book started simply as a hobby. I simply wanted to see what I could do with memories of my childhood and experiences from my frequent trips back to Asia. But as the pages began to accumulate and I began to get encouraging feedback from writers that I greatly respected, I realized that there was an opportunity here. No one in the United States had written a satirical novel of the privileged class set in contemporary Asia, and I felt that it was important to bring this world to Western readers.

Read also: 8 crazy facts about 'Crazy Rich Asians'

Was it always meant to be a trilogy? Why?

I always knew the story that I wanted to write, and I felt that writing a first novel that would be 1,500 pages long would be a bit much for readers to handle. I'm not Tolstoy! So I felt that a trilogy would be the ideal format in which to tell the tale. Each book could build on the last, but also it allowed me to take the reader on a journey into different cultures of Asia and introduce new characters and stories. Crazy Rich Asians begins in the Old Money elite circles of Singapore, China Rich Girlfriend takes you into the world of the mainland super rich in China and Hong Kong and Rich People Problems closes the circle by returning to Singapore, but also going into flashbacks to the past and making sojourns to the Philippines, Thailand and India.

Everyone is theorizing, personifying the characters in the book with someone in the real world. How do you deal with all the questions about whos actually who?

I smile politely and say nothing! Actually, the responses I've gotten have all been tremendously positive. People who think they are the inspiration for characters in my books are nothing but flattered, and after Crazy Rich Asians was released, some notable people in Asia even approached me, demanding that I include them in future books!

Has there been anybody that came up to you and say that they love your portrayal of them?

Yes indeed! And it's all been rather amusing because I find that the people who are truly the inspirations behind characters most often have no clue that they are in the books. But the people who have approached me and thanked me for putting them in the books have been complete strangers to me! I have no idea why they thought they were in any way connected to the character they claim to be. I guess I should take it as a compliment.

Theres a lot of famous names in the trilogy, did you have to ask for permission to use their names in the book?

If it's a real person and that plays an actual role in the book that's longer than a line or two, I am absolutely getting their permission. For instance, Nigel Barker, the celebrated photographer who is portrayed in Rich People Problems doing a pivotal photo shoot with an important character, very kindly took the time to answer many questions I had about how he sets up his photo shoots, what sort of equipment he used and how he gets the best out of his models. I try to strive for complete accuracy and authenticity in every detail of my books.

Do they know they're portrayed in the book at all?

In my first book, I gave Lynn Wyatt -- the legendary philanthropist and fashion icon -- a cameo by making her one of the guests at Araminta Lee's wedding. Lynn came to one of my book events and said in that fabulous Texan drawl of hers, "You know, I thought I was losing my mind! I don't remember going to a wedding in Singapore!" I did not let her know that she was going to be in the book, but she was so gracious about it and we had a good laugh. But ever since then, I've told most of the people beforehand, unless they are friends that I know will enjoy the surprise of seeing themselves on the page, like Cornelia Guest or Janice YK Lee, who both make cameo appearances in Rich People Problems.

Read also: Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh to star in 'Crazy Rich Asians'

You included some Indonesian characters in the trilogy. Any particular experience with prominent Indonesian families?

Indonesia holds such a special place in my heart. My family has a few good friends from Indonesia, so I grew up knowing them, and also I have a few distant relatives from Indonesia. Part of my grandmother's family settled in Indonesia in the 19th century, and I remember her telling me that she visited them once when she was a girl and their estate was so enormous, it took a week on horseback to travel across their lands.

Whats your favorite out-of-this-world scene from the trilogy? Ours is the arowana fish plastic surgery, because it exists no matter how bizarre it might sound.

I love so many of the scenes, it's impossible to choose an absolute favorite. It would be like naming one of your children as the favorite! I suppose I have a soft spot for the scene when Nick and Mehmet rescue Colin from the horrible Bachelor Party and they all end up sitting in the middle of the Australian outback, watching the sun set over Uluru while sipping on flat white coffees.

How involved are you in the Crazy Rich Asians movie?

I've been very involved all through the process. It's been an incredible privilege to work with the amazing producers, screenwriters and our brilliant director Jon M. Chu to bring this movie to life. As the filming began, I also made myself available to the costume designer, the production designer and all the actors whenever they had any questions that I could help answer.

Read also: Henry Golding to star in Hollywood film 'Crazy Rich Asians'

The third book, Rich People Problems, has a strikingly similar conflict to the recent family drama involving the Singapore PM. Is Tyersall Park really the fictional version of Oxley Road?

Absolutely not! First of all, I wrote my book long before the events involving Oxley Road took place, and my story is pure fiction. Family wars over real estate in Asia are such a common occurrence, and this is why I always knew I wanted to write about it. It's something I witnessed firsthand growing up in Singapore -- so many families torn apart fighting over issues of inheritance and property. Because it's never just about the house or the money --these families are playing out much deeper issues involving their childhoods, involving grief for the loved one they have just lost, and how they feel they were treated within the family dynamics. You see that at play with every character in Rich People Problems, and how they each reacted at the reading of the will. What's happening with Oxley Road is actually vastly different from the drama involving Tyersall Park, and I only hope there will be a happy resolution for all.

What advice would you give to those wanting a life of luxury?

Everyone has a different idea of what luxury is, and I feel that luxury is always most gratifying when it's most personal. If you make luxury all about impressing others -- like building a lavish house that's full of details and gadgets you don't actually enjoy, what's the point? As Dr. Gu said in my first novel, "Remember, every treasure comes with a price."
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Balikpapan, East Kalimantan  Sat, July 15, 2017 07:30 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8eb5c4 1 National capital-city-relocation,East-Kalimantan,proposal,Balikpapan,Penajam-Paser-Utara,#CapitalCityRelocation Free

East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak has proposed the provincial capital of Balikpapan and Penajam Paser Utara as prospective locations for Indonesia's new capital city, should the central government proceed with its capital city relocation plan.

"[We propose them because] the President said the area must be at least 300,000 hectares in size," Awang told reporters on the sidelines of a coordination meeting with Bank Indonesia (BI), the government and Kalimantan regional administrations in Balikpapan on Friday.

East Kalimantan occupies a strategic location and has adequate infrastructure, such as an international airport and international port as well as an adequate electricity supply, the governor said, adding that the province was also relatively free from earthquakes and is currently developing water and nuclear-fueled power generators.

"We are ready," Awang said. "We're just waiting for the central government's instructions."

Previously, President Joko Jokowi Widodo said the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) was conducting a feasibility study of three provinces one of which will be selected as the countrys capital city to replace the overburdened Jakarta.

Jokowi, however, refused to mention the names of the three provinces to prevent speculators from buying land to benefit from the capital city relocation.

Bappenas head Bambang Prodjonegoro said the new capital would be outside of Java, preferably in Kalimantan. Palangkaraya in Central Kalaimantan has been proposed as the new capital city ever since the country's founding president Sukarno declared his intention to locate the capital there. (bbn)
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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java  Sat, July 15, 2017 06:45 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8ea483 1 Business Jokowi,switzerland,VocationalEducation Free

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Friday met with the Federal Councillor of Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland, Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, to discuss cooperation between the two countries, particularly in developing vocational education in Indonesia.

The meeting mostly encompassed vocational training and how Switzerland, as one of the world's model countries for vocational education, could help Indonesia improve its existing system, said Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution.

"[The Federal Councillor] did offer stronger cooperation in that field and the President was very enthusiastic about it," he said following the meeting at the Bogor Presidential Palace in West Java.

Darmin said he would immediately follow up the results of the meeting so that both countries could pursue more detailed cooperation in the vocational sector, which could be signed during President Jokowi's visit to Switzerland in December.

Jokowis government has placed great emphasis on improving the country's vocational education system and has mainly focused on creating more a skillful workforce for the maritime, tourism, agriculture and creative industries.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency shows that the number of jobless vocational school graduates has increased over the last three years as they contributed to 9.84 percent of the countrys unemployment rate in February, compared to 9.05 percent and 7.21 percent recorded during the same period in 2015 and 2014, respectively. (bbn)

Topics : Jokowi switzerland VocationalEducation
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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura, Papua  Sat, July 15, 2017 15:30 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f6350 1 National vaccination,immunization,Papua,measles Free

The low rate of vaccination in Deyai, Papua, has been identified as the primary cause of a measles outbreak in the regency, which local health authorities have declared an Extraordinary Occurrence (KLB).

Local health agency data shows that 40 infants have died from measles in Deyai in the last three months as a result of low immunization coverage in villages across the regency.

The viral respiratory infection was found to have spread to the four villages of Digikotu, Epanai, Piyakemidi and Yiniboda in West Tigi district, Deyai.

The very low immunization rate has caused the KLB. Three months ago, the Deyai Health Agency notified all residents to vaccinate their infants. Many infants died of measles, which means that these children were not yet vaccinated, Papua Health Agency secretary Silwanus Sumule said in Jayapura on Friday.

He said a team from the Papua Health Agency, supported by teams from Deyai and Paniai regencies, confirmed that the 40 infants had died of measles during a field visit.

The teams have all carried out medical preventive measures so the illness will not spread to other villages, said Silwanus, adding that he had reported the KLB status of the measles outbreak to the Health Ministry.

West Tigi district head Frans Bobii said mass vaccinations had not been conducted in the district for two years. The government has built facilities, but few people are willing to vaccinate their babies. People here are still apathetic about vaccinations, he said. (ebf)

Topics : vaccination immunization Papua measles
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Linkedin Arif Gunawan Sulistiyono (The Jakarta Post) Gununghalu, West Bandung  Sat, July 15, 2017 16:00 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f6f86 1 Business renewable-energy,Darma-Persada-University,coffee,Tangsi-Jaya Free

Mitsui Co. Ltd. and Darma Persada University (Unsada) have kicked off an energy, economic, environmental and independent (E3i) village project in Tangsi Jaya hamlet, West Bandung, West Java, one of their renewable energy development projects in Indonesia.

The two-year project will change the remote village in Gununghalu into a self-sustainable one in terms of energy and finances by utilizing an 18-kilowatt (KW) micro hydropower plant previously built by the government to further support their economy.

In the past five years, the micro hydro power plant was only utilized during the night, and its potential was wasted during the day. Now the people can optimize the electricity to dry coffee beans during the day, said Kamaruddin Abdullah, Unsadas postgraduate program director on renewable energy, Thursday.

There are 85 households in Tangsi Jaya that make a living from agriculture, especially in growing coffee plants, with their brand Gununghalu Coffee receiving increased recognition. They produce around 500 kilograms of Arabica coffee per day from 20 hectares of plantation.

Unsada inaugurated the drying facility, equipped with drying machines, on Thursday with a Rp1.9 billion (US$142,863) grant provided by Mitsui, to increase the added value of their coffee output, Kamaruddin explained.

Next they will assist the people of Tangsi Jaya to further unlock the economic potential of the village, especially in developing the Gununghalu coffee supply-chain and ecotourism. This is part of our dedication to making use of our academic knowledge to support local people and the economy, said Unsada rector Dadang Solihin in a speech. (ags)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 17:42 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f8c5a 1 City Joko-Widodo,Kaesang-Pangarep,hate-speech,YouTube,anti-ahok-demo Free

Jakarta Police have detained over alleged hate speech Muhammad Hidayat, the man who reported President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep.

Hidayat, who is already a suspect in the case before he reported Kaesang to the police, was held for the second time on Friday after he refused to answer questions from investigators.

He is alleged to have spread hate speech by uploading a video of a rally against former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, in which Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Mochammad Iriawan is seen ordering members of the Islam Defender's Front (FPI) to attack members of the Islamic Students Association (HMI).

Police said the footage, titled "Jakarta Police Chief provokes the Islam Defender's Front (FPI) to attack Islamic Students Association (HMI) members," was intended to discredit Iriawan.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Saturday that Hidayat had been questioned since Friday.

"He didn't answer questions from the investigators," Argo said on Saturday. He will be detained until July 19.

Hidayat was previously detained right after the rally in November last year but later released due to his health condition.

On Friday night, Hidayat claimed he had been detained because he had reported Kaesang, who had called intolerant people "ndeso" (provincial or tacky) in a video.

Police have stopped the investigation against Kaesang due to a lack of evidence. (wit)
Roughly 3,800 children were married in New York state between 2000 and 2010.

That's 3,800 children too many.

According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office, research shows young women who marry before 19 are 50 percent more likely than their unmarried peers to drop out of high school, and four times less likely to graduate from college. Women who wed before 18 are also at increased risk of developing mental and physical health disorders, including facing a 23 percent higher risk of heart attack, diabetes, cancer and stroke. Girls who marry young are 31 percent more likely to live in poverty when they are older and are three times more likely to be beaten by their spouses than women who wed at 21 or older. The numbers shouldn't be surprising  they are what happens when children marry before they can legally drive, smoke or drink.

Cuomo signed legislation recently raising the age of consent to marry from 14 years old to 18 years old and amends the process to require parental and judicial consent for marriage of those between 17 years old and 18 years old. It is a good thing that common sense prevailed in the state Legislature and the governor's office so that raising the age for a child to be married didn't slip through the cracks during the most recent legislative session.

 The Post-Journal, Jamestown

Just in case you might be wondering what all the fuss was about after President Donald Trump nominated Betsy DeVos to be the nation's education secretary, the major Republican donor has recently provided a discouraging example.

DeVos, who needed a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence to withstand a withering confirmation process, has apparently never met a charter school or school voucher program she didn't like or defend.

One example is in Detroit, whose failing public and private school system is regarded as among the worst in the nation. Bipartisan legislation was offered to establish standards for opening and closing the city's schools.

DeVos, who has been an ardent supporter of Common Core standards, did not want higher accountability on charter schools and private-school vouchers, saying they would discourage the enterprises.

DeVos and her husband, Dick, who is an Amway heir, are well-known philanthropists and are used to throwing their money around to get their way. According to a New York Times report, Republicans in the state legislature said she threatened to withhold contributions to them unless they scuttled the bill.

Which, of course, they did.

According to The Times, in the next seven weeks, the DeVos family showered Republicans with a total of $1.45 million.

Now it would seem that Ms. DeVos has a thing about letting abusive for-profit colleges take advantage of students.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman joined Democratic attorneys general from 17 other states and the District of Columbia to try and stop DeVos from doing just that.

Rules created in the Obama administration last year were meant to make schools financially responsible for fraud and prevent them from forcing students to resolve complaints outside a courtroom.

The attorneys general lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court demands implementation of those "borrower defense" rules that were supposed to take effect July 1.

DeVos, who, it has been reported, has had ties to the student loan debt collection industry, on June 14 announced the rules would be delayed and rewritten in what she termed a "regulatory reset."

Schneiderman, however, says the rules are vital to protect college students and their families.

And we agree. Keeping for-profit colleges from acting badly doesn't qualify as any kind of restraint of trade.

If there is any harm in increased oversight of for-profit colleges, we fail to see it. We wish the attorneys general success in their lawsuit.

 The Daily Star, Oneonta

It is perhaps understandable that neighbors anywhere might express concern about the development or expansion of an inpatient drug and alcohol addictions treatment center in their neighborhood. That was the case Wednesday evening during a Portville Town Planning Board meeting in which a proposed 20-bed facility for women by the Council on Addiction and Recovery Services, Inc. in Westons Mills was discussed.

Property values, security, even the safety of area children, were among issues raised, with one exchange between a resident and board member stopping just short of becoming physical. It's to everyone's credit that the situation was defused and the public hearing continued  because it was during this time that board members and the audience heard stories of recovery and the ongoing battle against addiction.

A battle in which treatment facilities, like the one in Westons Mills, give individuals the tools and support needed to overcome their addictions.

Drug or alcohol addiction is a disease, the same as if residents of Weston's Manor were being treated for cancer or some other life-threatening ailment. And just as medical patients cannot treat or overcome certain afflictions on their own, sufferers of addictions need structured, whole treatment to be successful at rehabilitation.

The residents of Weston's Manor are not inmates to be feared, they are patients who need help.

The tone and mood of the public hearing changed Wednesday when a recovering heroin addict shared her story and emphasized the need for more detoxification beds to serve the area.

The need for increased capacity on the part of CAReS and Weston's Manor, which has been in place for 20 years, is greater than ever given the ongoing opioid epidemic. As the recovering addict so aptly declared during the hearing, people are dying.

 The Olean Times Herald
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 16:45 1945 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8f7a47 1 Business Sri-Mulyani,tax,retail Free

The government must carefully review its plan to increase this years target for non-oil-and-gas tax revenue amid signs of weakening purchasing power, a business association has said.

The government can set a [new] target. However, it has to consider the current business climate and whether the peoples purchasing power will allow meeting the target, Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) deputy chairman Tutum Rahanta said Friday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

(Read also: Idul Fitri sales disappoints retailers)

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati recently announced that the ministry had increased the target for non-oil and gas tax revenue by Rp 20 trillion (US$1.5 billion) in the draft for the revised 2017 state budget.

Tutum said people's purchasing power was currently weakening, as indicated in the sales performance during the recent Idul Fitri holiday season, which failed to meet business expectations.

He said the government had to take some action to boost purchasing power.

"We hope the government has certain action that can boost economic conditions, otherwise they should not set a high target," Tutum said.

Tax collection in the first six months of the year is up 10.4 percent compared to the same period of last year, according to the Directorate General of Taxation. However, the first-half realization only represents 39 percent of this years tax target, which is set at Rp 1.31 quadrillion. (dis/hwa)
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Linkedin Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 09:00 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8ec804 1 Business gijzeling,tax-office,tax-collections Free

In an effort to boost tax revenues, the Directorate General of Taxation has collected Rp 2.37 billion (US$177,608) in just one day from a taxpayer who had been taken hostage because of having been in tax arrears for three years.

The tax authoritys East and North Kalimantan regional office took a taxpayer identified only as EB, who was a shareholder in gold and silver mining company PT MMKU, hostage on Thursday.

EB was taken hostage after many efforts undertaken by the tax office, including sending warning letters and attempted confiscations, which have been unsuccessful, said regional office head Samon Jaya in a press conference on Friday.

EB was in tax arrears from his income tax and land and building taxes between 2013 and 2016.

The tax office held EB hostage in Salemba Penitentiary, Central Jakarta, for 16 hours before he fully paid his tax arrears and was freed. It expected that EBs case would act as a warning for other non-compliant taxpayers.

Since January, the tax authority had taken 46 taxpayers with tax arrears hostage and was still pursuing 66 others this year.

It is ramping up legal enforcement for delinquent taxpayers after a tax amnesty ended in March 31 this year as the government had set a goal for an 18 percent increase in tax revenues to Rp 1.31 quadrillion. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 11:05 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8ef57b 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,tourism-promotion,Wonderful-Indonesia,hajj-pilgrimage Free

The general consulate of Indonesia in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia via the Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), economic functions and Hajj Technical Staf (STF) has been doing innovations and cooperations to promote Indonesias non-oil and gas commodities with the Wonderful Indonesia tourism brand and Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI).

One of its recent innovations was branding buses that carry Indonesian hajj pilgrims with the Wonderful Indonesia brand. We put promotional pictures of tourism in Indonesia on the buses that service Indonesian hajj pilgrims from Madina and Mecca. These buses, in general, have become a promotional tool for the countrys trade, investment and tourism sectors, said Indonesian consul general in Jeddah Muh. Hery Saripudin.

The branding will be launched on the first batch of busses that will arrive on July 28. This promotion is hoped to educate Muslims across the world that Indonesia is just about luxury and high-quality products, its also a safe country that is always open for investment and has plenty of tourist destinations.

Read also: Pilgrimage at a price

Saripudin then went on to talk about other commodities that are also being promoted such as essential oils, rubber, jewelries, the fishing industry, furniture, palm oil, processed food, spices and coffee.

Indonesia also promotes products from state-owned train maker PT Industri Kereta Api (INKA), aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia, and vaccines from Bio Farma, the only pharmaceutical state-owned enterprise (BUMN) that produces vaccines and has passed the qualification test set by World Health Organization (WHO), Saripudin added.

According to the data from the trade ministry, the total trade between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia in January  April 2017 period reached up to US$1.515 billion, a 22.65 percent increase from the same period last year which only managed to garner $1.235 billion. The total of oil and gas trade in January  April 2017 was $731.6 million, an increase of 40.01 percent from the same period last year that only amounted to $522.8 million. For the non-oil and gas sector, the number was up 9.93 percent from $713.331 millions in January  April 2016 to $784,17 in 2017.

As for the total of non-oil and gas export from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, from January to April the number was $532.59 million, up 13.76 percent from the same period last year with $468.153 million. Indonesia however only contributes 4.46 percent to the overall import trade in Saudi Arabia in April 2017. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15, 2017 09:57 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8eec80 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tourism-Ministry,Australia,yacht Free

Tourism ministry plans to meet with the Australian yacht community in Darwin from July 22 until 29.

This is also an opportunity to introduce Indonesian tourism through promotional activities for maritime tourist destinations located throughout the nation, said tourism ministry's deputy for overseas promotion I Gde Pitana.

Read also: Indonesia pledges smooth sailing for global yachters

With this meeting, the ministry is aiming to introduce and attract international yachters to come to the Wonderful Indonesia Sail event in July and the Sail Sabang event to be held in December this year.

The event will consist of a technical meeting with a speaker from the ministry, Aji Sularso, who will do a presentation on Sail Indonesia, also Ray Perry from Raffles Marina Singapore and Director of Sail Malaysia, Sazli Kamal Basha who will do a presentation of the Sail Malaysia event.

According to tourism minister Arief Yahya, yachting is a form of marine tourism that has the potential to increase the number of overseas tourists to Indonesia.

The close proximity between Australia and the eastern part of Indonesia is one of the reasons why there are so many Australian yachts coming to Indonesia. Indonesias large and rich oceans have created a huge potential for the country to became the leading marine tourist destination in Asia Pacific, said Yahya. (asw)
Have a massive crush on a celebrity? A dating app is aiming to make your dreams come true. Er, sort of.

Badoo has now added facial recognition feature to its app that allows users to search for lookalikes of famous people and ask them out on dates.

According to the makers of the app, you can also upload a picture of your real-life crush and Badoo will show you lookalikes nearby.

From Jeremy Corbyn to Justin Bieber, Badoo allows you to search for lookalikes of famous people (Badoo)

In case your heart pines for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, there are 653 Boris doppelgangers at your fingertips and 1,433 Corbyn lookalikes to browse through.

Theres a match for everyone, Badoo adds.

According to the app, top UK searches for celebrity lookalikes are actor Robert Pattinson, model Cara Delevingne and television presenter Fearne Cotton.

Donald Trump is the 10th most searched-for famous person in the world on Badoo (Matt Cardy/PA)

Across the rest of the world, Donald Trump is the 10th most searched-for famous person (yes, thats right) while Kim Kardashian takes the top spot, followed by Emma Stone.

We pride ourselves on listening to our millions of users around the world, Badoo CEO Andrey Andreev said.

We regularly hear that they love new, simple and fun ways to make better connections with a potential match.

Badoo Lookalikes is already proving to be just that.
A chocolate powder designed to be snorted to give people a rush is attracting controversy.

Coco Loko, from the Florida firm Legal Lean, is an infused raw cacao snuff which looks a little bit like hot chocolate mixture.

Advertising explains that the raw cacao will give users a steady rush of euphoric energy and motivation that is great for party goers to dance the night away without a crash. In addition, it will give consumers a sense of calm focus and reduce the chatter and worry in your brain so you are able to accomplish many tasks at once and maximise your time and focus.

Users will also get a serotonin rush which will produce an elevated mood and a state or euphoria similar to the feeling of ecstasy. This is the feeling that will make the music sound better.

Just arrived, Hottest new product out of European Club scene Coco Loko100% all natural Cacao snuff  Mystik (@MystikOrlando) June 26, 2017

Coco Loko is cacao cut with B vitamins and ginkgo biloba plus guarana and taurine the stimulants used in many energy drinks.

Nick Anderson, 29, the founder of Legal Lean, invested $10,000 creating Coco Loko after trying a snortable chocolate from Europe, he told the Denver Post.

The effects, which last between 30 and 60 minutes, are almost like an energy-drink feeling, like youre euphoric but also motivated to get things done, he said.

As well as US outlets such as smoke houses and head shops, the product is listed on Amazon.com for $24.99 (about 20), but as of July 13 was listed as unavailable. Amazon does not ship Coco Loko to the UK.

(Amazon.com)

It is described as: Delicious cacao

flavor

! Raw Cacao Snuff, Organic Chocolate, Endorphin Rush, Serotonin Rush, Euphoric Energy, No Tobacco, No Nicotine.

But critics are unsure of Coco Loko. For starters, they worry that snorting chocolate could see Coco Loko used as a stepping stone product to illegal drugs.

US Senator Chuck Schumer is so concerned, he has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the use of caffeine in inhalable food products.

It is crystal clear that the FDA needs to wake up and launch a formal investigation into so-called Coco Loko before too many of our young people are damaged by it, Schumer said in a statement, Quartz reported. This product is like cocaine on training wheels.

Chuck Schumer wants the product Coco Loko investigated (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The top customer reviews on Amazon all seem to be poking fun at the product.

One verified purchaser appreciated the comedy value alongside the buzz, writing in a four-star review: Picking up this stuff with the tip of a plastic knife & snorting it & saying out loud to my empty house, Wow what a rush! is just good comedy to me And all that makes it worth the price.

Another, who gave Coco Loko five stars, offered up a serious review because they couldnt tell if other reviewers were genuine.

You get 3.5

grams

of the stuff for $25, and it doesnt take much to give you the euphoric effects. Everyones physiology is different, but that was my experience. Its not an illegal narcotic, if youre looking for that effect from cacao youre going to be disappointed (as some other reviewers were). But, its pretty damn good for what it is.

Ive seen some reviews online where people complain about the pain, and Ill just say

this,

if youve ever snorted ANYTHING before, and chances are you have or you wouldnt be looking at this product, You will have no problem with this. You barely feel it, it really does smell like cocoa powder, and there is virtually no taste to it.

Legal Lean was inspired to create Coco Loko after hearing about European chocolate snorting ( gpflman/Getty Images)

Another reviewer gave it five stars just because of Schumers call for it to be FDA regulated.

But others were wary, warning shoppers not to buy the product.

One, a nurse, wrote: I know this is a terrible idea! Your sinus and lungs are NOT part of the digestive system. You are asking for pneumonia and sinus infections.

Dr Ryan Stanton, spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, told CNN: Theres no reason to snort chocolate. You can eat chocolate. We know theres health benefits to dark chocolate, but thats eating it. Theres no reason to think you need to snort these different things to make it better.
Phone cameras these days come with settings that can make for incredible photos, and the technology industry has put a lot of money into making selfies, in particular, as good as possible.

Mitchell Flann has one such phone and chose to use the wide selfie feature outside the Hungarian parliament building  much like he and his girlfriend Erika

Gomos

had been doing during the rest of their trip

round

Europe.

But this selfie turned out a little different, all because of a sneeze that snuck up on Erika. Are you ready for this?

(Mitchell Flann)

Its

never

not funny.

Erika and I have been taking wide selfies like that with my phone in almost every city and there have been some funny malfunctions before, but never like this, Mitchell, whos on a

backpacking trip with Erika across Europe from Canada, said.

When I first took it we were in tears laughing.

Luckily for Mitchell, Erika consented for him to upload it to both Instagram and

 where theyve been shocked at how much attention it received.

We were gathered in the (hostel) common room, drinking with other backpackers and watching it rise, Mitchell said. Then once we broke 50k upvotes everyone cheered and

. It was an unforgettable night, in an amazing city, with outstanding people.

And for reference, heres proof that Erika is not actually possessed by a demon.

(Mitchell Flann)

two-monthReddithigh-fived
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During an entrepreneurial class one summer in Holdrege, Neb., Michaela Marcy began drawing caricatures. Little did she know the impact those caricatures could have.

Ive been tempted to leave this passion because of my insecurities, but God has continued to use this gift, she said. In Uganda, I was able to use my gift to communicate with Muslim men, shy children and timid women. Ive seen the power in focusing on beauty instead of exaggerating insecurities.

The 2016 LoomisHigh School graduate and current ColoradoChristianUniversity student decided she wanted to go to Africa when she was eight years old. I remember listening to a missionary at church speak about her experiences in Africa, and my heart broke. I knew that this was where I needed to go.

At age 16, she went to Kenya with her dad. It was there that an abused girl named Coco touched Michaelas life in an unforgettable way. I knew that I wanted to fight for vulnerable people like Coco, she said.

As soon as school dismissed this spring, she returned to Africa to face even more difficult challenges and to discover that her gift could touch lives in an unforeseen way  this time in Uganda.

This trip was different from my first trip to Africa because I noticed the harder sides of Africa and of missions, but I discovered some awesome/important things as well, she said.

The student-led CCU group worked in the prison ministry, which included mothers with children as well of many of different faiths. We were their first visitors, she said.

The group also worked at an elementary school. This school reaches the poorest children in the community, Michaela said.

While money and poor leadership had nearly caused the school to close, the group was able to witness change through the work of True Impact Ministries, a Colorado Springs organization that mobilizes and enables ordinary people to make an extraordinary impact on the lives of people in impoverished and developing areas of the world.

Michaelas group worked with the new leader of Calvary. We got to see his wisdom and passion for the school, she said. The teachers hadnt been paid for six months, but they were dedicated to the students.

According to Michaela, the new leader is instituting ways of financing the school and helping the students families start businesses so they can provide for their children.

The daughter of Todd and Jeanette Marcy will share her story and her gift this Sunday, July 16, at 7-8 p.m.

We are so excited to have the opportunity to learn about Michaelas incredible experiences, share in her wisdom, and have the opportunity to find everyones own beauty in a caricature, said Linda Crandall, Williamsburg outreach chair.

According to Crandall, One Sunday is one hour, one evening each month to gather together to share faith, fun, fellowship, and inspiration.

Were hoping to bring people together to get to know one another, to honor those who built our community, and to continue their values and traditions to make rural Nebraska a place our children and grandchildren will want to stay and raise their families.

Refreshments will be served after the program.

The church is located at 74656 J Road. From Overton, take G Road toward Loomis to 747 Road, turn east to J Road, turn south  mile to the church.
Watertown landowners will be involved in new Corps flood-control study
Jab Harry met Sejal has created quite the buzz among fans and the makers are making sure that they hit the right note with the audience.

Shah Rukh Khan aka Harry from the movie has been receiving immense admiration from fans and this time his admiration comes from the historic city of Jaipur. A well-known Rajasthani restaurant hosted SRK's arrival in Jaipur and made sure that the actor treats himself by indulging in authentic Rajasthani Thali which is the one of the best things about Jaipur.

The actor was seen delighting himself to the taste of the famous dish Dal Baati Churma. The restaurant made sure that the King Khan is treated with a royal ambience and created the same for him.

Shah Rukh was much obliged with the hospitality he received as he was presented with a unique and historic sword with a 'Tikka' ceremony and a Pagdi' presented to him.

"I had just heard of Dal Baati churma. It's fantastic and really delicious. I wonder how people finish this food. It's really filling and very tasty. For me it's a first, now I will come here once in every three months at least," Shah Rukh, who was overwhelmed with the experience, said.

After relishing the traditional thali, the actor then got into the skin of his character, Harry, who is a guide in the movie and explored one of India's largest forts, Mehrangarh Fort, in Jodhpur.

Hundreds of people made their way to the location just to catch a glimpse of SRK.

Directed by Imtiaz Ali, Jab Harry met Sejal is set to release on August 4, 2017.
It is often asserted that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 proved that HWA was right and he really did see the future.

This of course is nonsense. Herbert W. Armstrong said that Christ would return within twenty years in his book Mystery of the Ages. (PCG has since deleted those words so someone in there knows HWA spoke nonsense.) How convenient for them to forget this.

Also Herbert W. Armstrong never said the Soviet Union would collapse. He thought it would survive intact until a few years after Christ's return. It shows how biased some many in the COGs are that they never seem to notice this. This inconvenient truth is just tossed into the memory hole.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".
The literary space has seen a rising tide of Bollywood celebrities  from Karan Johar to Rishi Kapoor  turning towards memoirs and autobiographies in recent years, but books by their predecessors are striking in that they focussed on substance, rather than mere controversies.

A look at the list of all major books by celebrities that have fast climbed the bestseller charts throws up an even larger list of controversies that were spun around the time of their launches and which were, in fact, the driving factor for much of their sales. The "Ajay Devgun-Kajol-Karan Johar triangle", which was largely forgotten, came back to make headlines soon before the launch of Johar's "An Unsuitable Boy".

"I am ashamed to say it, but I actually 'bought' that award," Rishi Kapoor wrote in his recent memoir "Khullam Khulla", referring to his Best Actor trophy in 1974 for "Bobby". Shatrughan Sinha, too, created quite a buzz regarding a "baharwali" (an extramarital-affair), about whom he stays "quiet" in his biography "Anything But Khamosh".

However, these recent examples are not the only literary offerings that have come from the cine world, which has actually set high benchmarks for biographical writings in the past  but never made it to the bestseller lists.

In early 2010 or 11, Udayan Mitra, Publisher-Literary of HarperCollins India, who was then working with Penguin India, visited the residence of the iconic bollywood actor Dev Anand. The publisher had signed a book deal with the actor and Mitra was there to discuss the progress of the book. Assuming that he would have to convey all the necessary guidelines to his secretary, Mitra met with one of the greatest shocks of his life when Dev Anand presented a completely hand-written 600-page manuscript to him.

The result? "Romancing with Life", one of the first-ever full-fledged memoirs by a leading Bollywood star. In the book, Dev Anand tells his remarkable life story like only he can. Here are tales from Dev's youth in 1930s Gurdaspur and Lahore; his years of struggle in 1940s Bombay; his friendship with Guru Dutt and his doomed romance with Suraiya; his marriage to co-star Kalpana Kartik; his relationships with his brothers Chetan and Vijay Anand, with S.D. and R.D. Burman, with contemporaries Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor  both of whom he was very close to  and with heroines like Geeta Bali, Madhubala and Meena Kumari.

"Maybe the celebrity memoirs today lack a personal touch. Most of these are also written with a co-author, who actually does most of the writing while the celebrity only narrates the stories of his life. It doesn't mean that all memoirs today are bad, but there's something missing in some of them," Mitra told IANS in a freewheeling chat.

Another book that comes to mind is "Speaking of Films," which brings together some of Satyajit Ray's most memorable writings on films and filmmaking. With the masterly precision and clarity that characterise his films, Ray discusses a wide array of subjects  the structure and language of cinema, with special reference to his adaptations of Tagore and Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay, the appropriate use of background music and dialogue in films, the relationship between a filmmaker and a film critic, and important developments in cinema such as the advent of sound and colour.

He also writes about his own experiences, the challenges of working with rank amateurs, and the innovations called for when making a film in the face of technological, financial and logistical constraints.

One particular autobiography that aspiring writers from the film industry may consider reading before setting on the journey of penning their own book is "Dilip Kumar  The Substance and the Shadow", the autobiography of the legendary actor. In the book, the actor candidly recounts his interactions and relationships with a wide variety of people not only from his family and the film fraternity but also from other walks of life, including politicians. While seeking to set the record straight, as he feels that a lot of what has been written about him so far is "full of distortions and misinformation", he narrates, in graphic detail, how he got married to Saira Banu, all of which reads like a fairy tale.

For a more recent example, one may turn towards "And Then One Day" by Naseeruddin Shah. It is a rare memoir brimming with substance and honesty. He makes no effort whatsoever even to hide his trysts with women, dope or smoking! In his brilliantly argued personal perspective of the megastar, he also narrates his dislike for masala movies and explains why he does what he does. The chapters based on his love for cinema and theatre are so full of life that one is often lured to assume it is a kind of conversation, as if Shah has been narrating the story himself from the stage and the reader is passionately listening to him.
The National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Saturday began a probe into the discovery of high-grade PETN explosive inside the Uttar Pradesh assembly, an official said.

Officials said that the NIA team arrived here late on Friday and was immediately briefed about the case.

The NIA officials, other than visiting the spot where the Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate explosive was discovered on Thursday evening, were also likely to grill the security staff and agencies of the state police responsible for security of the Vidhan Sabha.

The state security personnel would be quizzed on as to why no action was taken to spruce up security despite a tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in May about a possible terror plot to attack the state assembly when in session.

The NIA team would also question the House marshals and other security staff along with janitors and others who has access to the exclusive area, near the seat of Leader of Opposition.

A senior security official informed IANS that many a times the lawmakers refuse to cooperate with the security and throw a tantrum on being frisked.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Monday's Amarnath Yatra terror attack has arrested a local policeman on suspicion of aiding terrorists strike the bus on July 10, killing seven pilgrims.

Claiming a major breakthrough in cracking the terror attack on a Yatra bus, the SIT has arrested a policeman and is also questioning a ruling PDP legislator in connection with the case.

"The SIT is questioning a ruling PDP legislator since the arrested policeman, identified as Touseef Ahmad of state security wing, was posted on the legislator's personal security," police sources said.

The policeman belonging to Pulwama district was picked up on Thursday by the SIT following a phone intercept.

The intercept, according to sources, is based on the policeman's conversation with a handler of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The state police has said the attack was carried out by the LeT outfit and a Pakistani national, Muhammad Abu Ismail, along with another foreigner and three local militants were involved in the attack.

"The police are trying to ascertain as to who provided the details about the movement of the vehicle during the Yatra," the sources said.

So far, around 20 persons have been detained for questioning by the police in connection with the investigations into the terror attack.
It was indeed a privilege and lofty experience altogether to get a glimpse into the workings of prodigal minds. An Argumentative Indian, a documentary on Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen, directed by Suman Ghosh was one such experience.

Its screening at Nandan, Kolkata, was organised by NGO Prabha Khaitan Foundation. Present at the gracious occasion was actor Soumitra Chatterjee, the guest of honour and a host of other celebrity faces in the audience, Sens wife Nabaneeta Dev Sen and daughter Nandana Sen being the most notable ones.

The documentary effortlessly weaves itself around an insightful interview between Sen and his student and Cornell economics professor, Kaushik Basu.

The Nobel Laureate reminisces his days in Santiniketan which moves him to wonder how the rather small university town had an air of freedom about it and how it is progressive in the truest sense of the term. In that one hour documentary, the viewers get to see this international icons personality from the multiple perspectives of distinguished persons like another Nobel winning economist Paul Samuelson or the former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.

One of his professors from Presidency University feels it was Cambridge which played a greater role in shaping his visionary ideas. Cambridge taught him to ask questions which we failed to do, he confessed. In a touching scene his mother Amita Sen shares the moment she first came to know over telephone that her son won the Nobel Prize. I dont believe you, was her immediate reaction.

But once she hung up, she found that her room was filled with people. The economists fighting spirit is revealed when the viewers learnt that at the young age of 18, he selfdiagnosed himself with cancer. It inspired me to know that I was ahead of my medical people and I got it right when they havent. It was a sense of victory, he said.

He repeatedly mentioned his friends Sukhamoy Chakravorty and Mahbub ul Haq as huge inspirations to him. The interview brought out the polymaths opinions that he will always remain a supporter of a modernist secular right wing party that is also pro-business.

He shared his experiences on how it was like meeting Mahatma Gandhi as a child. He is someone from whom you could learn without having to agree with him. This is what inspires me about him, said Sen.

About his book An Argumentative Indian, he tells that he believes India to be a highly dialectical country but nowadays we are being interpreted in very narrow terms.

Discordant viewpoints are always welcome but it is wrong to suppress anybodys outlooks. He most humbly stated his position saying, I dont call myself a nationalist but I do love my country.

Quite ironically, An Argumentative Indianhas fell victim to censor boards disapproval against words like cow, Hindu, Hindutva and Gujrat. However, the director has refused to beep the words.

My fascination on Sen increased after reading his works. To me he emerged as a mythical figure and a renaissance man, said Suman regarding his inspiration to make the documentary.

On a following question answer session, that brought up burning issues, Sen said, A response is needed to the contemporary antagonism taking place. Rights are being violated but nothing much is being done about it. It is as if we are walking in a trance.
Filmmaker Suman Ghosh has uploaded a 141-second trailer online of the documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen amid a censorship controversy over the use of words "cow", "Gujarat", "Hindu India" and "Hindutva". These four words are not in the trailer.

"Today the 14th of July we were supposed to release our film 'The Argumentative Indian'. Of course we were not allowed to. We had prepared a trailer for the release. Please share if you like it. The Tagore poem is recited by Victor Banerjee. And I am indebted to the countrywide support from the people and media," Ghosh said in a Facebook post on Friday.

The film was refused a green signal by the Indian censor board.

The Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) move was prompted by documentary maker Suman Ghosh's refusal to bow to its diktat that the four words uttered by the Bharat Ratna awardee during an interview in the film "The Argumentative Indian" be muted.
A soldier of the Army was martyred on Saturday when Pakistani troops resorted to indiscriminate shelling on the Indian Army posts in the Rajouri sector.

The martyred soldier has been identified as Lance Naik Mohammad Naseer, who belonged to the Ajout village of Haveli tehsil in the Poonch district. Naseer is the third soldier belonging to Jammu and Kashmir killed due to Pakistani shelling in the past three days. Two soldiers belonging to the Jammu district lost their life earlier this week in the Keran sector in Kashmir due to Pakistani firing.

A spokesman of the Nagrota based 16 Corps said that the Pakistani army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri sector at around1.30 pm today. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively. Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries.

Lance Naik Naseer aged 35 years is survived by his wife Wasim Akhtar.

In another incident, terrorists hurled a grenade on a CRPF patrol injuring one jawan in the Laroo area of Kulgam in South Kashmir.
Amid the ongoing war of nerves between the ruling Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) over charges of corruption against the latter and the political uncertainty in Bihar, a section of BJP leaders on Saturday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and holding of fresh assembly polls in the state.

BJP Bihar unit leader Rameshwar Chaurasia said that given the circumstances Nitish Kumar had not been able to work for the development of Bihar as per the wishes of the people of the state who had voted him and his party to power. He said it would be appropriate that Kumar steps down paving the way for fresh assembly elections in Bihar.

There have been reports of mounting pressure on Kumar to ask RJD leader Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad, to come clean or step down after the CBI registered charges of corruption against him and other members of his family. The RJD, however, on Saturday made it clear that Tejaswi would not resign.

The BJPs state unit and the central leadership here is keen that Kumar jettisons his ruling ally RJD, thus not only weakening the Mahagathbandhan of the Opposition but also increasing chances of JD(U)s comeback to the NDA fold. JD (U) spokesperson KC Tyagi, however, denied the possibility of any split in the grand alliance despite the ongoing rumblings over the corruption charges against Tejaswi.

NDA ally Lok Janshakti Party headed by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said it was high time JD(U) comes back to the ruling NDA-fold. The party leader Chirag Paswan said Nitish Kumar coming back to the NDA would help the development of Bihar. Its very important for Nitish Kumar to come back to NDA for the sake of development in Bihar and give the people a Lalu and family free Bihar Nitish Kumar has always followed a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. We are hopeful that he would be able to take a decision in this regard at an appropriate time, Paswan junior said.

In the BJP a large number of party leaders, however, believe that both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad have been making efforts to project a united face of the ruling alliance but it is only a matter of time before the two decide to go their own ways and bring the curtains down on their alliance.
Respect the dignity of the dead, the Supreme Court said today while directing state governments to follow the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission.

"It is not as if the dignity of only living persons needs to be respected but even the dignity of the dead must be given due respect. Unless the communications and guidelines laid down by the NHRC are adhered to, the respect and dignity due to the dead and the human rights of all us will remain only on paper," a bench of Justices M B Lokur and U U Lalit said.

The apex court's remarks came on the submission of NHRC which said that all its communications and guidelines have remained only on paper and are not enforced by any State Government.

It said that the intention of the NHRC was to more effectively assist the criminal justice delivery system and avoid any factual controversies while respecting human rights.

The apex court, however, expressed disappointment on the failure of the NHRC to bring out its annual reports saying the website of commission indicate is of 2012-13.

"Several years have gone by since then, but no annual report has been published. We have no idea what is the stage of preparation or consideration of the subsequent annual reports," it said, adding that the commission should be made available expeditiously.

Regarding State Human Rights Commissions (SHRC) not being constituted by several states, the apex court said the provisions of Constitution required every State to constitute a commission.

"We do not think it appropriate to issue any direction, particularly in the present writ petitions, to State Governments to constitute a State Human Rights Commission.

"But, we do feel it imperative to bring it to the notice of all State Governments that it would be but a small step in the protection of life and liberty of every person in our country if a SHRC is constituted at the earliest," it said.

The court said it expected all state governments to abide by the directions issued by the NHRC in regard to compensation and other issues.

"Considering that such a high-powered body (NHRC) has brought out its difficulties through affidavits and written submissions filed in this Court, we have no doubt that it has been most unfortunately reduced to a toothless tiger," it said while directing the Centre to take note of the concerns of the NHRC and remedy them at the earliest.

The Supreme Court made these observation in its verdict constituting a SIT comprising five CBI officers and ordering registeration of FIR, probe into the extra-judicial killings, fake encounters by Army, Assam Rifles and police in AFSPA imposed insurgency hit Manipur.
The NDA's presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, arrived here on Saturday for a brief campaign in Maharashtra for the July 17 elections.

However, he will not meet Uddhav Thackeray, President of NDA ally.

Kovind was warmly received at the Mumbai Airport by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Ramdas Athawale and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries and officials.

Shortly thereafter, the former Bihar Governor drove down to the Garware Club in south Mumbai to address a meeting of all NDA constituents' legislators and parliamentarians to solicit their support for Monday's elections.

After lunch, Kovind would depart from Mumbai and there were no plans to meet Thackeray, whose party will vote with the National Democratic Alliance for the first time in 10 years.

Earlier, in 2012, President Pranab Mukherjee had personally met the Shiv Sena founder-supremo, the late Bal Thackeray at his Bandra residence, after which the party extended its support.

Previously in 2008, Thackeray failed to toe the NDA line and unilaterally announced support to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Pratibha Patil on the ground that she was the first Maharashtrian and a woman to be contesting for the country's top Constitutional post.

This time, after initial hiccups and keeping the NDA on tenterhooks for several days, Shiv Sena finally declared support to Kovind.

Earlier the party had drummed up support for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and renowned agro-scientist M.S. Swaminathan, which were not considered by the NDA.

BJP chief Amit Shah had held a long meeting with Thackeray on these and other issues and finally the Sena acquiesced, much to the relief of the NDA.
Ever since the Iraqi authorities announced last week that they had retaken the strife-torn city of Mosul from ISIS, the government has further intensified its efforts to trace 39 Indians, mostly from Punjab, who are believed to have been taken hostage by the militant outfit in 2014.

Despite running from pillar to post by activating all possible channels to ascertain the whereabouts of these Indians, the government has, however, achieved very little so far.

With pressure continuing to mount on the government from the relatives of these Indians to locate them now that Mosul has been liberated, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh rushed to Iraq to personally assess the situation and seek the assistance of the Iraqi authorities in the matter.

There has been no word on the fate of these stranded Indians in the last three years though New Delhi has said from time to time that it has been informed by its sources and some local residents of Mosul that they are alive, a claim even their families are now finding difficult to digest.

The relatives of these Indians have met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on several occasions and returned with the governments promise to locate them at any cost. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had also telephoned Swaraj earlier this week to seek her intervention following the liberation of Mosul.

According to External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay, the government was "seriously and sincerely" engaged with the Iraqi authorities to trace the missing Indians.

During his visit to Iraq, Gen (retd) Singh met Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari on Friday and handed over a letter from the External Affairs Minister. Singh also met a number of senior Iraqi officials in Erbil and requested them to trace the missing Indians. The Iraqi authorities have conveyed to India that they have sensitised their forces about the missing Indians.

The Indians were employed by the Baghdad-based Tariq Noor al-Huda construction company. The workers were trying to leave battle-ravaged Mosul when they were intercepted by insurgents soon after they stormed the city in June 2014.

More than 10,000 Indians fled Iraq in 2014 after an upsurge in violence, including dozens of nurses who were held briefly by IS militants in Tikrit and Mosul before they were allowed to return home.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday applauded the discipline and organisational efficiency that the ex-servicemen carry with them even after leaving active service.

Mukherjee was speaking after inaugurating the first ex-servicemen's rally organised by the Brahmastra Corps of the Army's Eastern Command at the newly-built Nabagram Military Station in Murshidabad district of the state.

He also saluted the "veer naris" (widows of army men), saying while the slain army men's loss would leave a void for ever, the government would continue to take good care of their widows.

The President, who completes his five year term on July 24, expressed happiness at getting this one last chance to meet the jawans, "veer naris" and ex-servicemen of the region as the Head of State.

Mukherjee had inaugurated the Nabagram Military station on October 8, 2016. Built as a model military station, it covers an area of 252 acres.

The President had also laid the foundation stone of the project in 2014.

"I hope Nabagram will not only become a model military station but also bring about all-round development in the area in terms of creation of jobs and infrastructure in the township of Nabagram," he said.

Six "veer naris" and two ex-soldiers who had suffered injuries during military operations were felicitated by the President.

Over two thousand veterans and "veer naris" from Murshidabad and neighbouring areas were present at the event.
President Pranab Mukherjee has sent a message to Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra, condemning the recent terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims and asked the state government and security agencies to ensure that the guilty were brought to justice.

"I am deeply shocked and anguished to learn about the cowardly attack on Amarnath Yatris in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, in which a number of innocent pilgrims lost their lives and several others were injured," he said in his message to the governor.

Mukherjee described the "senseless acts of terrorism" targeting innocent lives, which "deserve to be universally condemned", as an "attack on the democratic values of the society".

"They must be met with determination and collective action," he said.

The president's message to the governor was released to the media here by a spokesman of the state government.

He, however, did not mention when did Mukherjee sent the message to Vohra.

Seven pilgrims, including six women, were killed and 21 injured when their bus came under terrorists' gunfire in south Kashmir's Anantnag district in the evening of July 10.

"I call upon the state government and all the agencies concerned to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and law-and-order is maintained in the state," read the president's message.

Mukherjee added that he was sure that necessary steps were being taken to provide all possible aid to the bereaved families who had lost their near and dear ones and medical assistance to the injured.

"Please convey my heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased. I also wish the injured persons a speedy recovery," he said.
Three British Sikhs have been jailed for a total of 19 years for helping about 70 illegal Afghan immigrants sneak into the UK by misusing passports in a 600,000 pounds scam.

Cousins Daljit Kapoor and Harmit Kapoor, and Davinder Chawla, all three in their 40s, had admitted conspiring to help foreigners get into the country illegally and were sentenced last week at Inner London Crown Court.

"The whole system of immigration is completely undermined. It was a large scale operation and was for financial gain," Judge Nigel Seed told them.

Daljit was jailed for seven years, Harmit for four and a half years and Chawla, a member of the same extended family, for seven and a half years.

The gang was paid more than 9,000 pounds for each family they got into the UK, smuggling nearly 70 people into the country in the estimated 620,000 pound-scam.

They travelled to France and handed over passports to waiting immigrants and then collected them once they safely got within the UK territory.

Once the immigrants got into the UK, the gang would recycle the passports passing them on to others trying to sneak into the country.

All the passports shown by the Afghans had photos of Sikhs wearing their turbans and border staff failed to spot the difference.

In total, 69 individuals who travelled to the UK on the passports were identified and 59 did not make an asylum application.

"The central aim was to gain financially. At least one of the conspirators with a passport would travel to France to enable to asylum seeker to travel to the UK using this passport," Prosecutor Alexandra Felix told the court.

"These were passports with identities belonging to their families or others which were reported lost or stolen in the days before their use. The result of the conspiracy was there was entry into the UK that must have been in breach of immigration law," Felix said.

The Kapoors and Chawla were caught when airline staff noticed the passports handed over at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport did not match the people carrying them.

The three men were trying to get 11 passengers to Luton airport using British and fake Norwegian passports on an Easyjet flight.
Australia will take a seat on the powerful UN Human Rights Council following France's withdrawal from the process, according to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

On Friday, Bishop confirmed France's withdrawal will clear the way for Australia and Spain to take up two vacancies on the council from 2018, reports the Herald Sun daily.

France's strategic withdrawal came after Australia secured 141 written pledges and more than 20 verbal pledges from 192 of the UN's member countries to back Australia's bid.

The result came after a mammoth lobbying effort led by Bishop and ambassadors and diplomats around the globe, focusing particularly on small island nations and the Indian and Pacific oceans countries.

Speaking in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Bishop said it was important democratic countries like Australia stood for election to the Human Rights Council, the Herald Sun reported.

We didn't use our aid budget, we didn't make promises we couldn't keep. We very much campaigned on our record and how we would act on the Human Rights Council," she said.

Australia campaigned on five key areas  indigenous rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, strengthening domestic national human rights institutions and governance, accountability and transparency.

However, the UN still has to vote on the council membership despite the overwhelming support.
The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced the conclusion of the latest round of the Syria peace talks, saying that the next round will convene in September.

"We have just concluded the seventh round of talks. We have made incremental progress, no breakthrough, no breakdowns, no one walked out," the UN envoy told reporters during a press conference Friday night.

He added that he felt those he had engaged with this week had "complete support for what we are trying to achieve here", reports Xinhua news agency.

Before speaking to the media, the UN envoy had engaged in a telephone interview with members of the UN Security Council in New York about progress in the seventh round of talks that started on July 10 in trying to untangle and bring to an end the protracted conflict in Syria.

The latest round of ceasefire came after a ceasefire in southern Syria brokered last week by the US and Russia, which provides a relatively better atmosphere for negotiations.
North Korea's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published an article branding the South Korean president's offer of cross-border rapprochement as misleading.

President Moon Jae-in's proposal, made during a speech in Berlin last week, adds obstacles to achieving peace rather than helping to improve inter-Korean relations, Efe news quoted the article as saying.

"(The initiative) is riddled with sophistries like sleep talking, which only pose hurdles rather than helping improve North-South relations" the piece said.

The newspaper dismissed Moon's proposal, and called for a "fundamental shift in policy and stance" from Seoul in order to initiate bilateral dialogue and cooperation.

In his speech in Berlin, Moon said he was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "under the right conditions", and proposed resuming meetings of family members who were separated by the Korean War.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula following Pyongyang's repeated nuclear weapons tests, Moon also proposed that the two sides suspend hostile acts along their border.

Since he assumed office in May, South Korea's Liberal president has attempted to resume dialogue with Pyongayng.


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India's trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected to $12.96 billion in June as gold imports nearly halved from a month earlier, government data showed on Friday.

Economists in a Reuters poll had predicted that trade deficit would decline to $12.5 billion in June compared with a provisional $13.84 billion in the previous month.

Gold imports declined to $2.45 billion from almost $5 billion a month ago.

Merchandise exports for June came in at $23.56 billion, up 4.39 per cent from a year ago. Goods imports for the month were $36.52 billion, up 19.01 per cent from a year ago, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed.
The Kerala police said that had enough evidence to nail Dileep in the actor molestation case and they were prepared to submit the case diary before the court. Special public prosecutor A. Sureshan argued on Friday that the case diary could convince the court the gravity of the crime and the strength of evidence.

The prosecution lawyer made the offer to counter the defense lawyers argument against extending Dileeps custody for one more day. The court granted the police the actors custody until 5 pm on Saturday. The police said the actor has been evading questions related to a video clip of the attack on the actress. The court will also hear Dileeps bail plea on Saturday.

The police could get the custody of the accused one more time before the remand ends on July 24. Dileep was arrested on Monday for plotting the attack on the actor. He is accused of hiring a gang of goons to torture the actress and videotape it.

The Kerala High Court will consider the bail plea of advocate Pratheesh Chacko, who represented main accused Pulsar Suni in the initial stages of the case. Suni had hinted that he had passed on to the advocate a mobile phone with which he had shot his gangs assault on the actress in her car in February.

The court had asked Chacko to cooperate with the police investigation.
Minister Narottam Mishra cannot vote in presidential poll

In a major embarrassment for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government, the Delhi High Court dismissed the petition of cabinet minister Narottam Mishra challenging the Election Commission's decision to disqualify him for three years owing to a paid news case. Earlier, the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court had refused to hear his petition. Mishra will not be able to vote in the presidential poll now.

The irrigation and public relations minister has refused to resign saying that the decision of EC is not correct. State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, too, defended Mishra saying, BJP respected the EC and the courts. However, it feels that Narottam was not guilty. The party is exploring alternatives.

The Congress has asked Gujarat Governor Omprakash Kohli, who is also in charge of Madhya Pradesh, to dismiss the minister who has lost his legislature membership. Leader of opposition Ajay Singh mounted further pressure on the BJP government saying they will not allow the assembly to function if Mishra is allowed to enter the House even after the EC's order.

Meanwhile, in a show of strength, Mishra today organised a huge rally of his supporters in his constituency Datia.

***

Elections announced in over three dozen local bodies

The State Election Commission has announced election to 14 Nagar Palika Parishads and 23 Nagar Parishads. The voting will be held on August 9 while the results will be declared on August 12.

Around 18,51,732 voters in urban areas will elect their representatives to the local bodies. State Election Commissioner R. Parasuram said that polls in 15 local bodies of Dhar and Barwani will take place after October. The two districts are facing displacement issues due to the Sardar Sarovar Dam, which is likely to be closed on July 31.

For the first time, the candidates can file their nomination online from a designated kiosk where poll officials will help to fill the forms, Parasuram said, adding that steps are being taken to make the elections more transparent and convenient. The voters can use a mobile app to download their voter slip and show it to the presiding officer during voting.

***

Government to close 3,000 schools having less than 15 students

The state education department is planning to close some 3,000 government primary schools having less than 15 students each. It is being done to meet the growing demands for teachers at bigger schools. The process will begin from the tribal district of Betul where students and teachers of these schools will be shifted to other nearby schools.

Deepak Joshi, minister of state for school education (independent charge), said that the schools have been identified and the process is being done as per the norms laid out under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The Act says that all schools must have a proper building, playground, toilets and adequate number of teachers. Presently, there are thousands of primary and middle schools who do not meet these norms.

If the schools are merged with others, the problem of shortage of teachers would be sorted out to some extent, the minister said.
Nitish Kumar is in a bind. He knows that the mahagathbandhan or grand alliance in Bihar is fraying at the edges, but he doesn't know which way to turn.

If he responds to the BJP's overtures to join the saffron brigade either formally or informally with the BJP propping up his government with outside support, he will be accused of crass opportunism.

He also knows that in the BJP's company, he will have to play second fiddle to the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo and forget about a major role in national affairs. For all practical purposes, he will have to remain confined to Bihar for the rest of his career.

However, if he remains with Lalu Prasad Yadav and Co, he will be staring at a probable defeat in the next election and loss of his reputation as a good governance man.

His predicament is due to a miscalculation of Modi's appeal for the average voter. When Nitish Kumar realised it after his party's poor performance in 2014, he quit the chief minister's post.

Since then, he has managed to claw his way back into power, but he has never been happy with his companions on that uphill trek, especially after Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD pipped him at the post by becoming the first party in the Bihar alliance.

Much of Nitish Kumar's problems stem from his relatively weak political position vis-a-vis the RJD, the party of the dominant yadavs, whereas Nitish Kumar's own base of support comprises the kurmis, who make up six per cent of Bihar's population. Yadavs, on the other hand, constitute 11 per cent, the largest group among the backward castes.

Because of Nitish Kumar's vulnerability on the caste front, he has tried to shore up his position by wooing the rural and lower middle class women via his prohibition policy. But that has not been enough to make him feel secure.

However, the blow to his position is not the result of his unstable base. It is the fallout of the revival of Lalu's familiar image of being less than honest in his transactions in public life.

To make matters worse, his son, Tejashwi, who is the deputy chief minister (and is seen by his mother, Rabri Devi, as a future chief minister), has been charged with sleaze by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Lalu has predictably accused the CBI of targeting him at the BJP's behest. But Nitish Kumar has refrained from standing by his cabinet colleague and alliance partner, wanting him to prove his innocence.

Nitish Kumar's stand might have been applauded on the grounds of rectitude if he had demonstrated that he remained firmly in the anti-BJP camp.

But by choosing to support Ram Nath Kovind, the BJP's choice for the president's post instead of the opposition candidate, Bihar ki beti (Bihar's daughter) Meira Kumar, on the rather unconvincing plea that she is bound to lose, Nitish Kumar has raised doubts about his loyalty to the "secular" cause and is suspected of trying to play both sides.

Perhaps realising his mistake, he has now extended support to the opposition's vice presidential nominee, Gopal Krishna Gandhi. But the damage has been done to his position in the anti-BJP camp.

All of this will be music to the BJP's ears because the Bihar chief minister is virtually the only one among the saffron brigade's opponents who does not carry a dynastic baggage and is known for his clean image and administrative ability.

These qualities make him stand out from the Congressthe party of one-and-a-half leadersor Samajwadi Party, where father and son are at loggerheads, or Bahujan Samaj Party, whose leader is losing ground to the emerging young turks among the dalits, or Trinamool Congress which is struggling to keep West Bengal in one piece, or Biju Janata Dal whose leader rarely utters a word in public.

True, Modi runs a one-man show and appears unable to control the fringe elements in his party. But his advantage is that he has succeeded in retaining a large measure of popular approval because, as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said (with a touch of surprise and seeming disapproval), that "many people with evidently liberal instincts... continue supporting the government for one reason or another such as expected benefits from Narendra Modi's economic reforms" even as the country goes down the "ladder of intolerance and unfreedom".

The problem with Nitish Kumar, the Congress and others in the anti-BJP camp is that their commitment to reforms is open to question as they seem to continue to adhere to the Soviet era concept of a controlled economy, which no longer inspires the voters, especially the younger generation.

Their only chance of making an impact on the electoral scene is by coming together so that their respective vote shares add up to a substantial percentage.

But a combination of such a nature, which is based almost solely on caste calculations, is inherently unstable since it will be unrealistic to expect, say, the yadavs and dalits to sup together. For the present, therefore, Nitish Kumar appears to be on a losing wicket.

(via IANS)
It was an open secret that former defence minister Manohar Parrikar's heart was in Goa. He even wore floral half-sleeve shirts and sandals to official functions, making no bones about preferring Goa over South Block any day.

So, when a fractured mandate in Goa created a peculiar situation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted Parrikar to relinquish charge as the defence minister in March, it was time for the ministry to say goodbye to its full-time minister.

Parrikar left South Block but there was no time to find his replacement. His exit meant more work for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was given the additional charge. Ever since the NDA government came to power in May 2014, Jaitley has been holding two or three portfolios. From information and broadcasting ministry to full time charge as finance minister, Jaitley can certainly handle crucial jobs given his vast experience and political and administrative acumen and craftsmanship.

But it seems the prime minister, who wants an experienced hand with a clean reputation, cannot find a replacement for Jaitley. It must be remembered that corruption in defence deals have led to a crisis more than once in the crucial ministry with reputations of defence ministers playing a major role in overcoming such crisis. Former defence minister A.K. Antony was one such clean minister whose personal reputation added heft and confidence to the defence ministry and its works.

Whether there is a dearth of talent in the ruling party to appoint a full-time defence minister, is something only the top BJP brass can answer.

Any more delay in appointing a defence minister is expected to only put the incumbent in a tough spot with multiple jobs at hand. It is unlikely Jaitley can find time to travel extensively to border areas and interact with the armed forces or spend full days in the defence ministry even though the office stands just across the road from the finance ministry. While it may be a matter of just crossing the road, the twin offices demand equal attention.

The appointment of a full-time defence minister is something only the prime minister can do. "The PM has to take a call," said a senior BJP minister.

"In the given situation, the finance minister has a lot of burden as far as the economic situation in the country is concerned, said senior CPI leader D. Raja. With the rollout of the GST, unexpected and unanticipated problems are coming up and he needs to give full time to the finance ministry. Then there is the agrarian crisis, small and medium enterprises that are posing a challenge to the government. No one is clear about many things in the GST." He said with such a heavy portfolio, it is a blunder on the part of the government to expect an equally deep focus on defence.

The political opponents of the BJP have already started asking why Modi is not going for a reshuffle and inducting new ministers.

"After all, India is such a big country and the government has to be able to handle all areas with equal focus and interest," said a government official who did not wish to be named.

With China playing aggressor on the Sikkim border and Pakistan giving a tough time to armed forces in the Kashmir valley, the one man who is trying to plug in the holes, is National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Though a larger-than-usual role is being played by the NSA in matters of national security, it certainly cannot be a long-term plan. Neither can the bureaucracy run the ministry nor can anyone from outside steer it, an official said.

In the absence of a political boss in the MoD, defence reforms remain a distant dream and, in turn, India's defence preparedness can suffer.
The US Department of Homeland Security has issued a revised directive to airlines around the world in response to requests that it clarify aviation security measures scheduled to begin taking effect next week, the agency said on Friday.

"This clarifying update will strengthen global aviation security and is a testament to our shared commitment to raising the baseline," said James Gregory, a spokesman for the US Transportation Security Administration, which is part of the DHS.

An airline official briefed on the matter said the directive gives airlines more flexibility and additional time to obtain explosive trace detection equipment. The official was not authorised to discuss sensitive security issues with the media and requested anonymity.

The directive includes technical adjustments, agency officials said, declining to release the text. European airlines have been pushing for changes to meet the new requirements, which begin taking effect on July 19.

The new requirements include enhanced passenger screening at foreign airports, increased security protocols around aircraft and in passenger areas and expanded canine screening. They affect 325,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the United States, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries.

On June 28, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly unveiled enhanced security measures for all foreign flights arriving in the United States, which officials said were designed to end a limited in-cabin ban on laptops and prevent the ban's expansion to additional airports.

In March, DHS imposed restrictions on passengers carrying large electronics like laptops in cabins on nine airlines, most of which were Middle Eastern carriers, to address the potential threat of hidden explosives.

On Thursday, DHS removed those restrictions on Royal Air Maroc flights out of Casablanca's Mohammed V airport, leaving just Saudi Arabian Airlines under the restrictions. Gregory said DHS expects the ban to be lifted on those remaining flights by July 19.

European and US officials said that airlines had 21 days from June 28, or until July 19, to put in place increased explosive trace detection screening and 120 days to comply with other security measures, including enhanced screening of airline passengers.

One issue, European airline officials said, was whether some explosive screening could be done at a central point, rather than at gates.

DHS spokesman David Lapan said this week that US officials are working with airlines. "Some airports, airlines will be able to get there more quickly," Lapan said.

Gregory separately denied a report that the new measures could require in-person check in for US flights. "None of the measures impact the ability of an airline to offer kiosk or on-line check in," he said.
The King and Queen of Spain have just finished the first Spanish royal state visit to Britain in more than 30 years.

Amid all the pomp, there are serious issues to discuss, not least the social and commercial ties that bind our two countries.

In its own small way, Berkeley Energia is one of those ties  an AIM-traded company developing a uranium mine in Salamanca, just a couple of hours from the King and Queen's royal residence in Madrid.

Pomp: Spain's royals have just finished a UK state visit

Midas tipped the stock in October 2016 at 47p. Since then, the group has raised $30 million (24 million) by placing 54 million new shares with investors at 45p.

Chief executive Paul Hatherley has beefed up the board, adding Nigel Jones, the highly experienced former director of mining giant Rio Tinto, and veteran fund manager Adam Parker, co-founder of investment firm Majedie Asset Management.

Berkeley revealed this month that construction costs at Salamanca would be lower than expected, and last week a 45ft-high crushing unit arrived  proof that the mine is on track.

Yet the shares have barely moved, ending the week at 45p as investors wait to hear how the firm will raise enough money to bring the mine into production. About $60 million is needed and it is likely that it will come from three sources.

First, Berkeley wants a strategic investor  a company or investment firm with deep pockets and a long-term time horizon. There are names in the hat but nothing has been confirmed.

Then the group is keen to sign 'offtake' agreements, receiving money upfront for future uranium delivery. One has been signed but talks are ongoing with other potential clients.

Berkeley is still likely to be short of cash, so a limited fundraising is anticipated via the issue of more shares.

The uncertainty places constraints on the stock price and the uranium price is stubbornly low, at about $20 a pound, down from nearly $50 four years ago. But this is not a stock for the short-term investor.

The uranium price is widely expected to rise over the next few years. Production costs at Salamanca will also be among the world's lowest, at around $15 a pound.

Midas verdict: Uranium is crucial in the creation of nuclear energy.

Three-quarters of the world's uranium is produced by poorer countries such as Niger and Kazakhstan but two-thirds of demand comes from developed nations, including most of Europe.

Berkeley Energia, based in Spain, should therefore see strong demand once it moves into production.

Investing in early-stage mining projects is always risky but Hatherley is determined to pull it off and is an investor.

Existing shareholders should hold. New ones should keep an eye on the financing arrangements  expected within weeks  and buy on any weakness.

Traded on: AIM Ticker: BKY Contact: berkeleyenergia.com or 020 3903 1930
Develop Wheeler Park for a courthouse?

Put more affordable housing downtown?

Move county supervisor meetings into new city courthouse?

Those were just three of the ideas that came in this week on how to better leverage a $12 million Flagstaff city bond to build a new joint city and Coconino County courthouse.

In all, the request for ideas garnered 10 responses from organizations locally and from around the country.

The responses focused on options for financing the project as well as plans for the various parcels that were included in the request and gave examples of various public-private partnerships throughout the country and how the projects were financed.

In addition to a joint court facility on the site of the old county jail plus a parking garage, the city and county are looking to build a shared office building and redevelop the current municipal court complex when it is no longer needed.

In all, the city and county have committed $34 million to the courthouse expansion and other facilities.

The objectives of the request include creating a state-of-the-art facility for the courthouse, with $12 million approved by city voters in Proposition 412. The facility will be located at 211 N. Agassiz St., the site of the old county jail. The request also asks for the parking garage that was included in Prop. 412, an additional parking garage at the current Flagstaff Municipal Court site, a new commercial corridor downtown and adaptive reuse or a new facility for city and county joint operations.

Ideas proposed in the responses were wide-ranging, including one Flagstaff architect who proposed developing the Wheeler Park block across the street from City Hall into a mixed-use facility that would hold the courthouse, a local nonprofit organization proposing using some of the parcels to create affordable housing and an out-of-state company proposing moving the county Board of Supervisors meeting location to the eventual new municipal court building.

Five of the respondents to the request are entities within the city, or have done work in the city already. The Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority, Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona, Loven Contracting and Kim Linner are all based in Flagstaff. Whiting Brothers Investment Co. also submitted a response, and is involved with the construction of the Marriot hotel downtown.

In NAIPTAs response, the organization offered to buy some of the parcels included in the proposal, and build some of the new facilities on NAIPTA-owned land that could be leased back to the county and city. In the response, the group said NAIPTA would apply for grants based on the value of the existing municipal court property.

Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona urged the county and city to consider putting affordable housing on some of the vacant city and county-owned land. Developers who put affordable housing in the final proposals could be given higher scores, Devonna McLaughlin, the director of the nonprofit, wrote.

In Loven Contractings response, Mike Loven, the owner of the company, suggested that it could be beneficial to partner with a private property owner and exchange nearby land.

At face value, the SunWest Bank Building located directly across the street from the existing courts facility may make a viable option for consolidation of space currently being leased by the county, he wrote.

However, he added, bringing another private property owner into the project could make it more complex and lead to disagreements, so he said it could also be beneficial to the county and city to work using only their own assets.

The 57-acre parcel on Fort Valley Road behind Sechrist Elementary School is probably the most valuable of the parcels, Loven wrote. But he said the recapture of the money it would take to develop the land would likely take years, and the best value for the partnership might mean sticking to the parcels located in downtown.

Another respondent, the Genterra Group, based in Phoenix, suggested the city either sell the exisiting municipal court property or develop it with commercial retail and mixed use space, as well as a second parking garage. The group suggested the countys administration building, located at 219 E. Cherry, to be either renovated or demolished and remade into the office space that the county and city requested, and suggested the new courthouse building be built at 211 N. Agassiz Street, which is currently vacant to the east of the Superior Court building.

Several of the responses included other funding mechanisms that could be used to increase the budget for the project, including other bonding opportunities or creating a third-party single purpose nonprofit organization to secure bonds. The majority of the responses focused on financing rather than specific development plans for the sites that will be included in the request for proposals.

County spokesman Matthew Rudig said the county and city are still considering the ideas submitted and crafting the request for proposals. Once the request for proposals is released, the group will rank responses and identify a winning bidder.
Investors feared oil services firm John Wood Group might get cold feet over its upcoming merger with Amec Foster Wheeler after the latter became the subject of a corruption and bribery probe.

In its response to the discovery that the Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into Amec, John Wood failed to mention its 2.2billion slated takeover of the embattled firm, which is due to complete later this year.

It is not possible to estimate reliably what effect the outcome of this matter may have on Amec Foster Wheeler, said John Wood in a statement.

Despite Amec previously claiming the investigation is not expected to have an effect on the merger, John Woods cold tone sent both firms towards the bottom of the FTSE 350.

Worries: Investors fear oil services firm John Wood Group was getting cold feet over its upcoming merger with Amec Foster Wheeler

John Wood fell 3.5 per cent, or 22p, to 601p  a three-month low  while Amec dropped 5.5 per cent, or 25p, to 430p, close to all-time lows.

The SFO has launched an investigation into Amec over past third-party ties to Unaoil, a Monaco-based engineering and construction group suspected of fraud, bribery, and money laundering.

An internal probe into Wood Group found a joint venture made payments to Unaoil, but it found no evidence of corruption.

A mattress maker which listed just two months ago revealed a mass roll-out at high-street staple Nexts home stores yesterday.

Eve Sleep, which is more than 20 per cent backed by star fund manager Neil Woodford, revealed its products would be in 55 stores by the end of the month after a successful trial at three sites.

Combined with its presence in selected Debenhams and Bentalls sites, the companys products will now be stocked in 63 stores across the UK.

In an update for the first half of the year, Eve said revenue for the period rose by 126 per cent to 11.5million.

STOCK WATCH - WINDAR PHOTONICS Shares at Windar Photonics rose by more than a tenth after the renewable energy firm reported rising turnover and falling costs. The firm makes wind sensors for the operation of electricity-generating wind turbines. It saw revenues in the first half of the year grow 62 per cent year-on-year to 1.2million. This is also higher than last years total revenues of 1.1million. Likewise, operational costs fell by nearly half to 890,000. Shares rose by 12.2 per cent, or 9p, to 82.5p.

Broker Peel Hunt, which currently has a buy rating and a 135p price target on the firm, said its results were even better than it had expected. Shares rose 0.5 per cent, or 0.5p, to 95p.

The FTSE 100 had a very strong day, hitting its highest level since April after oil and gas stocks were lifted by strong commodity prices. The index rose 1.19 per cent, or 87.17 points, to 7416.93.

Private healthcare firm Mediclinic International was one of the biggest gainers, rising 4.7 per cent, or 33.5p, to 742.5p, as rumours of a takeover swirled among traders.

The decline of Pearson continued as punters questioned whether the education giant was right to sell a 22 per cent stake in Penguin Random House for 778million.

Brokers certainly didnt think so, with Pearson being cut by analysts at Jefferies, Credit Suisse, Panmure Gordon and Investec. Shares fell 4.7 per cent, or 31p, to 624p  a two-month low.

In the mid-cap index, silver and gold producer Hochschild Mining had a strong day after a jump in production over the second quarter.

The three months saw the firm produce 4.8million ounces of silver, up from 4.1million in the first quarter, and 60.8million ounces of gold, up from 60.6million.

Analysts at RBC said the firm is now well positioned to increase its full-year production guidance for 2017.

It gave the firm an outperform rating and a target price of 290p.

The companys shares rose by 4 per cent, or 10.4p, to 267.7p.

Shares in Upper Crust and Ritazza owner SSP Group defied mixed reviews from analysts to advance 0.6 per cent, or 3p, to 486.8p.

The firm, which operates food and drink chains in locations such as airports and train stations, saw like-for-like sales growth of 3.6 per cent in the three months to June, driven by increased passenger numbers at airports.
Next Fed boss? Gary Cohn, pictured with President Trump

FED CHIEF Former Goldman Sachs banker Gary Cohn, who is leading the hunt for the next US Federal Reserve chairman, could be about to recommend himself for the role.

Sources in the White House and US Treasury said the director of the National Economic Council would get the job 'if he wants it'.

CHIEFS QUIT The chief executive and finance director of DX Group have quit the troubled parcels firm just a week after the police dropped a probe into the company following an unspecified allegation.

Chief executive Petar Cvetkovic and finance director Daljit Basi leave the firm as part of company-wide strategic review.

FLIGHT FEARS Airline Norwegian, which is promising to launch budget transatlantic flights, has hit turbulence after yesterday posting a 92million loss.

TOY RIGHTS Toymaker Character Group has had its licence renewed to sell toys related to pre-schoolers' TV favourite Teletubbies until 2020.

BOARD ROLE Spread-betting firm CMC Markets has appointed finance veteran Sarah Ing to its board as a non-executive director.

EARNINGS RISE Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase has announced a 13 per cent rise in second-quarter profits to $7billion (5.4billion).

PROFITS UP US bank Citigroup saw profits and earnings grow in the second quarter of the year. Revenues hit $17.9billion (14.7billion), up 2 per cent on the previous quarter.

LOAN WOE New car loans fell 45 per cent at US lender Wells Fargo because of tough new rules. However, profits rose for the first time in almost two years.

PARCEL PAIN Analysts at Liberum have predicted that Royal Mail is on course to lose more of the parcels market.
Britain's restaurateurs are facing a recruitment crisis with higher costs, tougher competition and the effect of Brexit  and things are only going to get worse, say key industry figures.

Fears over workers' rights following Britain's exit from the European Union mean that restaurants are finding it harder to recruit staff and retain existing employees.

According to a recent survey by accountancy group KPMG for the British Hospitality Association, a quarter of all chefs are from the Continent.

Under pressure: Restaurants face a predicted shortage of 11,000 chefs by 2020

Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the BHA, said: 'The success of the UK's food scene depends on an ability to hire leading chefs from Europe and beyond. But we're hearing that owners have been forced to delay or abandon plans to open new restaurants due to the uncertainty surrounding the future rights of EU citizens in the UK.

'This level of uncertainly is putting off skilled workers and is affecting investment decisions.'

The hospitality industry is already facing a staffing crisis. It needs to attract 200,000 new workers a year to replace natural churn.

Following the Brexit vote, it is estimated it will need an extra 60,000 each year, or risk facing a jobs shortfall of a million staff by 2029. When it comes to chefs working in Britain's hotels, restaurants and cafes, the problem becomes even more pronounced.

There was already an acute problem for restaurants before the Brexit vote and we now face a predicted shortage of over 11,000 chefs by 2020, Ibrahim says. 'This shortage isn't limited to European chefs but also applies to highly skilled chefs from India and China.

'Restaurants are being squeezed by immigration rules and while the industry is moving to encourage UK nationals to see the career opportunities available, we still need access to chefs who have the knowledge and understanding to teach the next generation.'

She added: 'We've seen a worrying fall-off in the number of EU workers since the referendum and businesses are really beginning to feel the pinch.

'EU workers have been leaving their jobs in hotels and restaurants and going back to their home countries, which is a huge concern. People are uncertain whether they'll be allowed to stay in the UK and aren't feeling very welcome here.'

Table service: Other factors are also affecting the industry adversely

The Bangladesh Caterers Association, which represents 12,000 restaurants, backed the Vote Leave campaign on assurances there would be more visas for South Asian chefs.

Now it says it feels betrayed by the hurdles owners face in bringing in chefs from outside the EU and says many curry houses are at risk of closure.

Meanwhile hospitality firms from healthy fast food chain Leon to The Eden Hotel Collection have warned that difficulties hiring skilled staff from the EU could have a huge impact on their business.

Last week food delivery company Just Eat added to the debate, saying that businesses in the takeaway sector, especially small firms, face a tough time due to skills shortages, particularly in kitchens producing curry, sushi and Chinese food.

Just Eat's UK managing director, Graham Corfield, said: 'As with many industries, the takeaway sector faces a pending skills shortage.

'In a post-Brexit environment, restaurant owners tell us there are real fears they will be unable to hire the workers they need.

'The great British curry crisis has been well reported, but the issue has the potential to affect small independent businesses offering all cuisines alike.'

Corfield called on the Government to review immigration rules for skilled workers, to improve skills and training within the industry and to fix the business rates issue to help smaller businesses.

Other factors are also affecting the industry adversely, said Andrew Green, director of operations at the Craft Guild of Chefs.

'When people realise the job involves long, anti-social hours, or that they have to spend years working their way up through the profession  unlike the overnight successes seen on MasterChef or The Great British Bake Off  and all for a low salary, then they often drop out of the industry,' he said.

The solution, he said, was to improve training, engagement, salaries and hours, adding: 'This is an issue of our own making and it's time we did something about it.'

Chris Todd is chef recruitment manager at The Ned, one of London's newest hotels and part of the Soho House group.

He agrees with Green, saying: 'The industry has a real problem with recruiting chefs, mainly because it doesn't treat chefs well and hasn't shown them a great deal of respect.'

A chef de partie  who oversees a section of the kitchen  would usually have four years' experience and be paid 23,000 a year, he said.

Often they would be expected to work a 60 to 70-hour week, he added, explaining: 'A lot of places don't even pay overtime so you're working many hours for free.'

Todd recently hired 161 chefs for The Ned's nine restaurants, thanks to a recruitment drive around the UK and in Italy and Spain.

The chefs are on a training programme and get perks such as two weeks' discounted stay at the hotel when they arrive, a hotel discount card and a trip to its rooftop pool.

'It's all about keeping them engaged and positive about their job,' says Todd. 'We want to keep the staff we have.'
Amazon paid Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond 35.8million to make The Grand Tour, it has been revealed.

The figures emerged after the publishing of the accounts for the trio's firm Chump Holdings Limited, formed when they left the BBC's Top Gear.

They made a profit of almost 7million and paid 1.7million in corporation tax.

It means the trio were paid more than 2million per instalment of the 13-episode online series, while the company's 28 staff were paid 3.3million in total, around 118,000 each on average.

(From left) James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond were paid 35.8million to make The Grand Tour, their accounts have revealed

Figures for the trio's firm Chump Holdings show they were paid more than 2million per installment of the 13-episode first series

The trio signed a three-year deal with the web giants after leaving Top Gear following Clarkson's sacking by the BBC due to a row with a producer.

He was followed out the door by May and Hammond, who signed up with Amazon after receiving a string of offers to make similar car-based shows from other broadcasters.

The accounts, which cover the period October 2015 to the end of December 2016 and are signed by James May, said: 'The Group's profit for the financial period was 6.7 million.

'The profit was driven by television programming produced during the period ended 31 December 2016.

'The directors are keen to continue focusing on quality programming whilst ensuring that the company's overheads are kept stable.'

The show was a major hook to get people to sign up for Amazon's streaming service Amazon Prime, which costs 79 a year.

But it has not been without its fair share of controversy, with presenter Richard Hammond twice involved in accidents during filming for the second series, including a horror crash in Switzerland after which he was airlifted to hospital.

The 47-year-old flipped a 2million electric supercar which then burst into flames - although Hammond miraculously made it out alive with just a fractured knee.

The filming of the second series has not been without controversy, with Richard Hammond escaping a horror crash in Switzerland, pictured, with just a fractured ankle

The trio also caused outrage in Yorkshire after their filming, pictured, closed off parts of a village that left residents facing a 10-mile detour

His Grand Tour colleagues May and Clarkson were 'staggered' he survived because there was 'nothing left' of the vehicle.

Pictures from the scene showed the Rimac Concept One car in flames alongside a road in St. Gallen before the blaze was extinguished by firefighters.

Grand Tour producer Amazon later released images showing the burnt-out wreckage of the car laying upside down on a hill.

The crash is reported to have happened on a road that was closed for the Bergrennen Hemberg race.

Previously Hammond - who sustained brain injuries after a 288mph rocket car accident in 2006 for Top Gear - had banged his head after falling from a motorbike while filming in a 'remote' part of Mozambique in March.

Hammond, pictured, and colleagues signed with Amazon after leaving the BBC following Jeremy Clarkson's sacking

Clarkson, pictured, was fire after a fracas with a producer which led to an investigation

He did not suffer any serious injuries although Clarkson described his co-star as being 'quite badly hurt' and it is believed he was knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile the trio angered drivers in Yorkshire in May after causing a 10-mile detour to be arranged when filming caused part of a village to be closed off.

Residents in Farnley Tyas, near Huddersfield, said the delays caused chaos when they forced to find alternative routes home while the presenters drove a black Toyota Hilax fitted with a jet engine and made to look like a boat.

The show was also slammed after a tongue-in-cheek skit showing 'a better way for immigrants of getting into Britain' by being 'smuggled in the boot of an Audi TT'.
Car finance firms are fitting kill switches that immobilise vehicles if drivers miss a payment, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The devices  installed by lenders offering loans to those with poor credit scores  mean customers can be left stranded.

But law and finance experts say the firms may be breaking the law.

Drivers on kill-switch deals typically set up standing orders to pay every month. When the lender is paid, it sends the customer a code to enter by remote control into a GPS device behind the dashboard.

Struggling: Office worker Julia Martin with her Ford C-Max. She said she often had to eat cereal for dinner so she can afford car payments

If drivers miss a payment, the code for that month is not sent and the car stops working. Concerns have been raised that vulnerable drivers could be stranded overnight or unable to get to an emergency.

Office worker Julia Martin said she often had to eat cereal for dinner so she can afford car payments.

The 32-year-old took out a three-year hire-purchase agreement with The Car Finance Company in January last year when her fiance left her six weeks before their wedding, taking the car they shared.

Miss Martin, of Farnham, Surrey, must pay 199 a month for a ten-year-old Ford C-Max worth 4,000. She will have paid 7,200 by the end of the term. She said: I have had to take a second job and still find myself struggling each month.

Earlier this month, the Mail revealed young drivers were being tempted into dangerous levels of debt by offers of new cars for no money up front

Earlier this month, the Mail revealed young drivers were being tempted into dangerous levels of debt by offers of new cars for no money up front.

The Car Finance Company offers rates of 49.6 per cent for customers who want a zero-deposit loan. Investors wrote off 50million in the firm as so many customers were falling into arrears.

The black box that cuts the ignition Kill switches are small, black GPS boxes installed behind a cars dashboard. The ignition is rewired through the box so, if a customer fails to pay, it can break the circuit and prevent the car starting. When a payment is made customers are sent a code to enter by remote control. The box will beep if payments are due, with a siren giving a 24-hour warning the car will be immobilised. The Car Finance Company says it provides emergency codes so cars can be moved to a secure location, and vehicles cannot be stopped while moving. Advertisement

To make sure they recoup loans, lenders targeting those with low credit ratings are installing the devices for up to five years. But the law says they must apply for a court order to repossess a car if a third of the total amount has been paid.

Andrew Leakey, of Stephensons Solicitors, said those affected could argue they were the victim of an unfair relationship under the Consumer Credit Act.

He said: They shouldnt have the power to stop the car there and then. That is before you get into data-protection issues with the box recording your movements and safety issues if a customer is stranded alone.

Graham Hill, of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, said kill switches may break the law. It is believed they will form part of a Financial Conduct Authority probe into car finance.

Trade body the Finance and Leasing Association said immobilisers were used only in very limited circumstances.

The Car Finance Company did not respond to requests for comment.
The objective of free higher education is to promote social mobility  an upward movement of households or their members from, say, poverty to a higher income bracket. And yet some people do not appreciate its role in addressing inequality.



I was recently involved in a discussion on Africas economic ills, from leaders who cling to power and never want to let go to the relevance of economic, social and political institutions.



We zoomed in on South Africa and spent time discussing the antidotes to inequality, which at the current trajectory seem to be the straw that will break the camels back, as it were. The panel had been in unison that inequality is a scourge that needed immediate attention. Divergence was on the solutions.



Among the proposals was the introduction of a wealth tax, an instrument advocated by French economist, Thomas Piketty, the author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Some strongly argued for a wealth tax. I did not agree. Why?

South Africa has virtually all the various forms of wealth taxes.



These include capital gains tax; property taxes; donations tax; estate duty; dividends tax; securities transfer tax; and transfer duty. My view is that an annual wealth tax, as proposed by Piketty, would be double taxation and, therefore, it would burden taxpayers. It would result in capital flight and reduced tax revenue  exactly what happened in France, Pikettys native country. In late 2012 France introduced a 75 per cent wealth tax targeting the countrys highest earners i.e. those earning more than 1 million a year.

In 2013 French authorities realised that the rate had resulted in reduced tax revenue of 16 billion, instead of the 30 billion they anticipated. In 2015 French authorities reduced the top marginal income tax rate back to 45 per cent. Needless to say, another reason for the volte-face was because a number of wealthy taxpayers had left the country.


This is how the pulpit of MEC Manzini Branch looks like.

MANZINI  Keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.



This was the message from His Majesty King Mswati III to the nation during the official opening of the E25 million Metropolitan Evangelical Church (MEC) Manzini Branch yesterday.



His majesty said after receiving the invite to officially open the state-of-the-art structure, he read the book of Matthew in Holy Bible when it talks about the final times of the world.



He said as he read the book of Matthew, the verse that stick into his mind and kept ringing was Matthew 24 verse 42 which says; Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

The King said these were the words Jesus told his disciples after they asked him what would be the sign of his coming and of the end of the world.



His majesty stated that the Lord told them to watch out that no one deceives them because many would come in his name, claiming, to be the Messiah and would deceive many.

The Lord also told them that they would hear of wars and rumours of wars, but they should see to it that they were not alarmed because such things should happen, but the end would be yet to come.



Again the Lord said nations would rise against each other, kingdoms against another and there would be famines and earthquakes in various places. I say as you see the things that the Lord counted happening, do as Matthew 24 verse 42 says; Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come, the King said.



On another note, the King commended the church for the state-of-the-art structure. He thanked the church members, the corporate world and donors for persevering in forking out money to construct it. This is the kind of structure the Lord lives in, he said.



Meanwhile, Princess Tsandzile, the Minister of Home Affairs remembered how she was given the name; Minister of Heavenly Affairs during an event at the same venue, the main pavilion at Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre.



She said as a ministry and government at large, they commend MEC Manzini Brach for the structure as it already houses a preschool and would soon have a clinic and a school. The pre-school is in line with the Swazi saying which goes; Lugotjwa lusemanti because when children will be shown the right as they grow, they will not abandon it.



Again, with the coming of the clinic to be constructed at the church, the minister said people would be healed emotionally and spiritually.
MBABANE  Could the prosecution restore confidence in the Judiciary by getting a successful conviction in the case of kidnapped businessman, Almor Oliveira?



Given that the State, on June 2, added a charge of murder to the two suspects in custody, most people are convinced that it has a solid case and this actually proves that businessman was dead despite that there is no body.



It will be 89 days today since Oliveira went missing since being abducted at his business premises while closing his shop. But some people are sceptical and still believe that Oliveira is still alive, which is why they are looking forward to the trial.



Those doubting that he might still be very much alive have reason to do so given how some years back two people were convicted and sentenced to death, while the sixth accused, Solinyes biological father, served seven years, with hard labour, for a murder that never was.



Then there was the murder without corpus delicti. This is in instances of murder where there is no trace of a body. In the early nineties, in the case of Rex vs. John Spokes Lawrence Madeleke this was tested and the prosecution was successful in raising its arguments.



Circumstantial



Besides the events which characterised its details, the case brought to the fore the need to re-examine the principles underlying circumstantial evidence.

Madeleke was charged with and subsequently convicted of the murder of his wife, Sheila, on January 17, 1991. The prosecutions case was that Sheila was dead, murdered by her husband. To establish this proposition, the Crown relied entirely upon circumstantial evidence. And this is a similar position in which the Crown finds itself in the Oliveira case.




MBABANE  School has become home for orphaned 12-year-old *Mpho as he learns during the day and sleeps in a classroom during the night.



The pre-teen has been doing this for three weeks now after he was allegedly ejected from the Remah orphanage where he lived and grew up for over a decade now.



Currently, he has nowhere to call home except for St Pauls Primary School where he is doing Grade Four.

His plight started when digital storage devices belonging to one child from outside the orphanage landed in his hands for a few days.

The other boys parent is said to have not taken kindly to this as he was convinced that Mpho had stolen the gadgets and decided to approach the orphanage to get them back.



He went to the orphanage and reported that Mpho stole the device. I am not sure how this was handled because it resulted in the boy being chucked out of the orphanage, said a source close to the matter.



Intervention



The source said after that, Mpho had nowhere to stay, despite having approached some Social Welfare officers from Manzini for intervention.

Swazi News gathered that the boy was spotted by one person at the school who, upon talking to him, made an arrangement that he sleep in one of the classrooms where he would wake up in the morning and take a bath in the school ablutions before going to class.

This went on and on until some pupils noticed and informed their parents about it. One parent then made attempts to raise the matter with relevant institutions, said the insider.



The adult insider, who has had an interview with Mpho, revealed that the boy denied to have stolen the gadgets but insisted that the other boy had lent them to him and they were supposed to be returned at a later stage.

When I asked what he was doing with them he said he would watch movies from them at home (orphanage) with the other children who live there, according to the insider.
MHLAMBANYATSI  After having gone almost three years without knowing where her son is, Jane Zwane was frightened when she saw rangers enter her homestead.



At the time of his disappearance, the son had recently been released from jail after having been arrested for rape.

When rangers showed Jane a picture of the man they had been after for almost three years, who was believed to have been hiding in Montigny Forest and behind a string of rape cases and a spate of housebreaking spirit and theft cases, she loosened up as he categorically stated that; this is not my son.



That the man in the picture was not her son, however, did not lift her spirits as the community of Ngwenyameni believes that it was her son, Max, who was the alleged serial rapist who slit his throat while inside a police cell.



The man currently admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Mbabane Government Hospital, Mamba, faces a total of 23 counts, which mainly include rape, attempted rape, attempted murder, assault GBH (grievously bodily harm), indecent assault and break-ins.

The reign of terror is said to have occurred in different communities, among which were Mhlambanyatsi, Bhunya, Mantabeni, Malkerns, Luhleko and LaMgabhi. The only comfort Jane has is that perhaps the community would stop harassing and accusing her of setting her son free by paying his bail, leading to his disappearance.



Fuelling the communitys suspicion was that the reign of terror is said to have occurred about the same time Max was released on bail.

With Jane confirming that the arrested man was not her son, the question among the community was; could there be two people terrorising women and breaking into houses?

Their fear arises from the fact that Max was arrested for the rape of a neighbours wife.

Some of the community members believe that Max is the man who tried to slit his own throat and that Jane was trying to disassociate herself from her son who is believed to be a criminal.



Interestingly, Jane said she understood very well why the community came to conclude that her son was the alleged serial rapist. However, Im told he was released on bail. And that was the last time I heard about him. I do not even know whether he is dead or still alive. Even drunkards from the area have not come across him at the drinking spots.



Even after being shown recent pictures of the alleged suspect by Montignys Crime Intelligence Manager Sihle Mavuso, the elderly Jane said: Lona logile letiga bese kubhocwa lowami  akusiye. Akusiye.
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By Mark Hallum

Queensborough Community College in Bayside announced its art program will soon carry accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, joining the ranks of only 19 other community colleges in the nation to be recognized for excellence.

QCC says it now offers credentials on the level of Cooper Union, School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Art and Design, Pratt and Fashion Institute of Technology.

Bob Rogers, chair of the Department of Art and Design, said QCCs new status as one of the leading institutions comes down the abilities of the students, teachers and the resources available to them.

It is a great honor to be acknowledged by the accrediting agency, Rogers said. It speaks to the commitment and hard work of the faculty and their dedication to students and learning, as well as the ongoing support from the administration that has allowed us to build first-class art programs.

NASAD was established in 1944 to set a standard for art and design classes nationwide. There are about 360 institutional members, now including QCC, and is recognized as by the U.S. Department of Education as a credible organizationfor granting this level of certification for schools. But the process is rigorous and evaluates not only the curriculum, but the school itself and the support programs which contribute to a well-rounded educational experience, according to the QCC.

Students can now come to Queensborough and enroll in an exceptional two-year associates degree art program that, upon completion, can offer them a wide range of transfer opportunities for a fraction of the cost of the private institutions, Rogers said.

The Queensborough Art Gallery and Kupferberg Holocaust Center each offer world-class exhibits for visitors and are viewed as an opportunity for students to develop the comprehensive understanding of the arts.

An exhibit called REWOVEN: Innovative Fiber Art, which closed in June, took the talents of 24 Taiwanese and New York artists to create cross-cultural expressions of life experiences. QCC Art Gallerys own Faustino Quintanilla showcased his artistic ability with the Innovative Fiber Art concept to build sculptures using materials woven into shape.

The Kupferberg Holocaust Center also recently closed another exhibit called The Jacket from Dachau, which compiled clues detailing the experience of one Holocaust survivor whose prison jacket, complete with the Star of David, was found at a Long Island estate sale after the mans death.
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An American doctor who specializes in conditions such as that affecting Charlie Gard will travel to Britain next week to assess the critically ill baby.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said Friday he is "open-minded about the evidence" to come after the visit of Dr. Michio Hirano of Columbia University.

The 11-month-old boy suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left him brain-damaged and unable to breathe unaided.

Hirano's research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies and he has treated others with conditions similar to Charlie's.

They boy's parents are fighting an emotional legal battle with Britain's most famous children's hospital over whether trying an experimental treatment is in Charlie's best interest. The case attracted international attention after Pope Francis and President Donald Trump weighed in.

They have been fighting to take him to the United States for treatment.

Hirano will assess Charlie, meet his current immediate-care team and other specialists, including a doctor from the Vatican children's hospital. Charlie's mother, Connie Yates, fought to attend and was given permission  even though it would not normally be allowed.

"It may be unconventional but this case is full of unconventional aspects," the judge said.

Francis has promised to rule by July 25.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital have fought the parents' bid for treatment because they don't think it will help and may cause him pain. The hospital says Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

A succession of courts has backed the hospital, but the case returned to the High Court Thursday after claims of new evidence and the high-profile interventions.

Hirano, who testified via video-link on Thursday, said it was worth trying treatment that has recently emerged.

Hirano's name appeared in public only on Friday, as a court order had previously blocked its mention.
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Half a century after Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was convicted and hanged in Israel for engineering the deaths of millions of Jews, the bulletproof-glass booth where he sat facing justice has come to New York for a multimedia, you-are-there recreation of the courtroom.

It's part of an exhibit at Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage that opens Sunday, created by a former agent of Israel's Mossad intelligence service that captured Eichmann a decade after he fled to Argentina.

Surrounding Eichmann's actual booth are screens with original video footage  seven minutes culled from 350 courtroom hours  that makes visitors feel like they're spectators at the 1961 proceedings.

They hear the voices of survivors who testified against the SS lieutenant colonel, as well as the prosecutor and the defense attorney.

The balding, 55-year-old German who once planned the routes of cattle-car trains that brought Jews to Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and other camps sits stone-faced in footage rolling on a screen right behind the original booth.

To the right is another screen beaming the traumatic, tear-drenched testimonies, with one man collapsing to the floor in exhaustion after he speaks.

"Here with me stand 6 million prosecutors," chief prosecutor Gideon Hauser intones in Hebrew, with a subtitled English translation. "Their blood cries to heaven, but their voices cannot be heard."

The details drew Avner Avraham, who left the Mossad two years ago to collect materials for the exhibit, which takes its title "Operation Finale" from the code name of the undercover Eichmann mission led by Israel's still-budding intelligence force in the 1950s.

Its agents fanned out across Europe and Argentina, assembling the pieces of a puzzle that ended with Eichmann's hanging.
There's something to be said for staying perfectly still and saying nothing and allowing the other person to discover their true feelings. In essence, that's what happens in "The Big Sick," a romantic comedy about a relationship that finally goes into overdrive when one of the lovers falls into a coma.

Written by Kumail Nanjiani ("Silicon Valley") and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, the movie is pretty much their real-life story, and that it's based on truth probably accounts for much of what's original and unexpected about it. No one here has a fancy job, and everyone dresses like a slob. The settings are tiny apartments, with roommates right outside the bedroom door, and a dive comedy club where Kumail (Nanjiani) works as a regular. Later, when Emily gets suddenly and alarmingly ill, a lot of time is spent in the hospital.

Of course, knowing that Kumail and Emily are married gives away two plot points: (1.) Emily doesn't die; and (2.) The lovers end up together. But it's a romantic comedy, so you'd know that anyway. The key thing is that "The Big Sick," with ease and seeming effortlessness, makes us care a lot of about these people, together and separately. And their journey is odd enough to be interesting.

Kumail meets Emily (Zoe Kazan) in the comedy club. She's in the audience and whoops it up during one of his jokes, which leads to a conversation at the bar and then to sex just a few hours later. Afterward, since they really don't know each other, they try to be cool and tell each other how much they're not really interested in a relationship. And from there they start spending several days a week with each other.

More Information *** Review "The Big Sick" Rated: R Length: 119 minutes See More Collapse

Soon, they're close enough that she tells her parents all about him, but he says nothing about her to his parents, because they're religious Muslims from Pakistan. His parents assume that they will arrange Kumail's marriage for him. To that end, they keep inviting single Muslim women to drop by the house every time Kumail comes for a visit. For the audience, this becomes a source for more than humor: It's a window into a culture.

There's one scene in "The Big Sick," and only one, that rings entirely false: Emily realizes that Kumail, because of his family background, will never marry her, and he agrees. He lets her walk out of his life. But nothing in the movie leads us to believe that Kumail's ties to his family are quite that strong. In fact, as it turns out Nanjiani says that this is the film's only major plot turn that's entirely fictional. In real life, Kumail and Emily did not break up before Emily's sickness.

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Still, though the breakup scene may be awkward and hard to believe, that one little plot turn serves up the rest of the movie. Kumail not only has to worry that Emily is sick, but that he got her sick. He ends up spending time with her parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano), who fly in to be at her bedside, but because of the breakup, there's tension in the air.

Hunter and Romano couldn't be better. They enter the film, not as caricatures or even characters, but as complete people, carrying the back story of a 30-year marriage with them. They're both up to the demands of comedy, but it's Romano's dramatic ability that comes as a surprise. He lets us feel the weight of having a daughter hovering between life and death. The veneer is dignified, but the inner life is panicked.

Nanjiani is engaging throughout, though the scenes of his standup routine are a little confusing. He's not funny, not even slightly. Is he supposed to be? That's not clear. As for Kazan, she spends most of the movie unconscious, but she makes a strong impression in her awake incarnation. To be specific, the audience is already in love with her long before Kumail gets there.
Concerns that a Grenfell Tower style tragedy could occur in Tipperary, were addressed at this months Co. Council meeting.

Cllr Tom Wood requested that with health and safety a priority, could Management confirm that all apartment blocks and other units of accommodation within this County have Management Companies in place, that all issues relating to safety are up to standard with Safety Certificates issues, and that our Councils rented accommodation meets the safety standards required.

The Grenfell fire disaster in London had really brought the issue home, said Cllr Wood. While Tipperary doesnt have any high rise buildings, it does have a lot of apartment blocks. Many of these dont have proper development companies in place, so if a fire breaks out, what contact do we have? The obligation is on the people renting their accommodation to be registered with the Board, but there are quite a lot of properties where this has not happened, added Cllr Wood.

Cllr Martin Browne had raised this issue at Cashel Tipperary Municipal District. Id ask for a review of all cladding so its not used, he said.

Tipperarys Chief Fire Safety Officer Mr Dave Carroll said they do not have a list of all the apartment buildings. However, a report on all multi-storey apartment blocks is due by July 19, and he will report back with this. A government Department is identifying all management companies and writing to them, advising them of their responsibilities. A high rise was defined as over six floors high, whereas a multi-storey could consist of two or more storeys. The report is aimed at identifying risks regarding high rise blocks in Ireland. We are not going to have a knee jerk reaction, said Mr Carroll.

Cllr Browne called for that type of cladding to be restricted, regardless of height. I would be very worried if that type of cladding was used on any building. Its absolutely crazy that the review only applies to buildings over six floors, he said. We dont see any issues regarding residential properties, responded Mr Carroll.

Managements response to Cllr Wood stated: the Multi Unit Developments Act 2011 regulates the ownership and management of the common areas of multi-unit developments and provides for the setting up of owners management companies to manage such areas. A multi-unit development is a development in which there are at least 5 residential units and the units share facilities, amenities and services. In practice, the majority of multi-unit developments are apartment blocks. The Act provides that an owners management company must be set up, and the common areas of the development transferred to it, before the developer sells any units. Local Authorities do not have any role in regulating this legislation.

All apartment blocks constructed since June 1992 are required to have a Fire Safety Certificate granted by the Building Control Authority before construction commences.

The Building Regulations came into operation on July 1st 2017 and Tipperary Co. Council has amended its inspection form for RAS, HAP, leasing, private rented inspections and mortgage to rent inspections.
Calls to reduce water charges, and development levies, were rebuffed at this month's Tipperary Co. Council meeting by Management.

Cllr John Hogan called on management to write to Irish Water (IW), pointing out that Tipperary customers are at a significant disadvantage to other users across the country. According to IWs own rules, no customer should be treated less than any other, but our customers are disadvantaged, insisted Cllr Hogan, who also called for a review of development levies, as the steep cost of development means people are staying away from Tipperary rather than investing here. According to Cllr Hogan, Offalys water charges are half that of Tipperarys.

Responding, Council Official Brian Beck said development levies provide us with the money to get things done. Our current (planning) refusal rate is between 2 and 3%. We need to get people across the line, but its not possible to have a 100% approval rate. We will work with people and we are solution oriented. Mr Beck stressed to Cllr Hogan that development levies are completely separate from water.

Even our levies are 12,000, said Cllr Hogan, while other counties pay 3 or 4,000. They simply wont build in Tipperary. If its a choice between Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford, theyll build in Waterford. Cllr Hogan said the Council must lodge an official complaint that people in Tipperary are being discriminated against.

By reducing levies, we will not increase money taken in development charges, responded Mr Beck. Water services are completely different. All development charges levied here, are kept here in Tipperary. That cannot be said of water.

County CEO Joe MacGrath warned Councillors: every penny taken (in development levies) goes back into infrastructure in this County. Last month you approved some 2m in funding: 100% of that was by development levies. If you take that we cannot develop.
IMPORTANT INVESTOR ALERT: Lundin Law PC Announces an Investigation of Amec Foster Wheeler plc

Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces that it is investigating claims against Amec Foster Wheeler plc ("Amec Foster" or the "Company") (NYSE: AMFW) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.

To get more information about this investigation, please contact Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundn Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or by email at [email protected].







On July 11, 2017, Amec Foster disclosed that the UK Serious Fraud Office commenced an investigation into the Company and its officers and employees for past use of third parties and "suspected offences of bribery, corruption and related offences." When this information was announced, shares of Amec fell in value.

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170714005622/en/
Mega Millions numbers for Friday, Nov. 11, 2022

Here are the winning Mega Millions numbers and results for the lottery jackpot drawing on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.
TWO FRIDAY EVENING CRIME STORIES REMIND US THAT DATING LIFE IS TOUGH IN HIGH CRIME KANSAS CITY!!!

Police say surveillance video shows the suspect jumping into the car and taking off while a sleeping youngster was still inside the car.

TRAGIC KANSAS CITY LOVE STORY: GAS STATION DATE ENDS IN STABBING!!!

KSHB: A local woman met a man at a BP gas station off Independence Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. The man, who police identified as 23-year-old Salam al Shimaily, asked her to go to a party with him later that night.





The weekend is here and, sadly, that translates to more heartbreaking Kansas City violence and crime.To wit . . .Take a peek:First off . . .This local cutie looks innocent but, actually, she is accused in a horrific KCK carjacking and kidnapping of a youngster:Thankfully, the child was recovered without any harm after a citywide alert notice and social media jumping into action.And then . . .Here's the sitch . . .Again, who would have thought that the search for love at an urban core gas station could go so wrong???And all this is nothing more than ourto stay safe this weekend and keep cool when it comes life, crime and affairs of the heart.You decide . . .
European security passes through the Balkans and we agreed that we should realize the vision of revitalizing the European prospects of the Western Balkans, noted Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the joint statement with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic after the 1st Greek-Serbian-Bulgarian Summit, held in Thessaloniki on Thursday, was concluded. The three leaders agreed that there is a need of stability in FYROM, which is much anticipated by all. They also agreed that a substantial dialogue is required to find a mutually accepted solution regarding the countrys name.

On his part, the Serbian President thanked the Greek and Bulgarian Premiers for their support to Serbia in its European trajectory. Finally, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov underlined, Three peoples together, we are not three times stronger but ten times stronger.

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

Source:int.ert.gr
Greece can become an energy hub linking Asia and Europe, Alternate Foreign Minister George Katrougalos noted on Friday, in his address to the 14th International Conference on Georgia's European Way "Ensuring Regional Stability" held in Batumi, Georgia. He also emphasised the importance of energy as a factor for regional stability and security.

The Greek Minister was speaking on the first day of the conference, on the subject of European Energy Security following Georgia's recent accession to the European Union's Energy Community. Also on the same panel were Georgia's Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, Polish Minister for European Affairs Konrad Szymaski and Georgian Energy Minister Ilia Eloshvili

On the margins of the conference, he had bilateral meetings focusing on bilateral economic relations between Greece and Georgia with Janelidze, Minister of State for European Affairs Victor Dolidze and the Deputy Minister for Economy and Sustainable Development Genadi Arveladze, who co-chaired the Greek-Georgian Joint Inter-ministerial Committee that convened in Athens in late May.

A foreign ministry announcement stressed that a specific time-frame for promoting economic cooperation was requested, given the great margins for improving economic ties in trade, energy, tourism, agriculture and transport. Katrougalos also noted the bonds of friendship beween the two countries and expressed Greece's support for Georgia's European prospects.

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: Genti77 License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said a dispute between a Saudi-led coalition comprising the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt and Qatar may last quite a while as the two sides still refuse to speak to each other directly and are no closer to resolving the key demands made after the crisis started, said a report.

Despite leaving the Middle East after four days of shuttle diplomacy without a breakthrough, Tillerson said progress was made, reported Bloomberg.

Potential ways forward in the dispute were weighed by both sides and there is a changed sense of willingness to at least be open to talking to one another and that was not the case before I came, Tillerson said on Thursday evening while en route to Washington from the Gulf region.

Nevertheless, the final and ultimate resolution may take quite a while, Tillerson said. But if we can begin to have some success beginning to take some of these issues off the table because we now have a way to move forward then Im hoping that will start the process of returning, normalizing relations.

Tillerson sought to tap his previous experience as Exxon Mobil Corporation's CEO, where he frequently met and negotiated with Gulf leaders, to resolve the dispute sparked last month when Saudi-led coalition cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar over "supporting terrorism, meddling in their internal affairs and cozying up to their rival Iran - all charges that Qatar has denied."

Some of the demands I do think can be addressed up front fairly quickly, some of them are going to be, I think, more complex, Tillerson said.

In one sign of just how long the road ahead is, UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said the sides are far away from a solution, reported Bloomberg.

I see Qatar crisis heading to calm fire as the neighbour doesnt see the need to reconsider its policies, he said on Twitter. All sides will exercise according to our national interests.

This weeks diplomacy may be followed by another round of negotiations involving the US, the UK and the Saudi-led bloc, which has agreed to study Tillersons ideas, as early as next week, according to three officials with knowledge of the deliberations, it added.

Qatar boasts one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, with stakes in global companies from Glencore to Barclays as well as landmark London properties. Its influence goes beyond money.

The small peninsular nation hosts the regional headquarters for US Central Command, which includes a state-of-the-art air base the Pentagon depends on to target Islamic State.

Saudi Arabia also has significant US investments as well as strong counterterrorism ties with the American military, and its a top customer for American weapons makers.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 15

An event was organised to observe National Plastic Surgery Day at Amandeep Hospital here today.

Addressing a gathering at the event, Dr Ravi Mahajan, chief plastic and cosmetic surgeon at the hospital, said there was a common myth among the people that plastic surgery was just used for beautification of the face and other body parts.

He said this was just one aspect of the field and it was also a major tool for the improvement of quality life of patients.

It plays a vital role in treating badly-crushed body parts in an accident by birth deformity treatment and in increasing self-confidence of patients, he added.

Dr Mahajan has performed more than 12,000 surgeries till date, out which half are cleft lip and palate surgeries.

He has also performed surgeries for reconstruction of amputated body parts in accidents, surgery for various types of wounds, surgery for beautification of face, breast and other body parts, diabetic patients surgery, by-birth deformities hair transplant surgeries.

Dr Avtar Singh, chief orthopedic surgeon, said if an amputated part was brought to the hospital in a proper manner within six hours, it could be rejoined.

He said the amputated part of the body should be packed in neat and dry polythene and then it should be kept in ice or cold water and brought to the hospital.

The patients should keep in the mind that the amputated part of the body was kept dry at any cost, the chief orthopaedic surgeon added.
Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 15

Panic was created at the Bebe Nanki Mother and Child Care Centre here late last night, as the medical staff was informed by an employee of the maintenance staff that oxygen supply would last only till 5 am.

With many children admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the childrens ward, panicked doctors immediately brought the matter to notice of the hospital authorities.

In a hurry, oxygen cylinders were arranged from the Emergency Ward.

An employee of the hospital said, It was very late in the night when an employee of the maintenance staff claimed that there was insufficient oxygen supply and the existing cylinders would be empty by 5 am.

The employee stated that it could have been disastrous had the supply been interrupted.

The hospital has a centralised oxygen supply system, whose connections are available in the ICU and operating theatres.

Officials stated that they had arranged cylinders which are usually used when patients were being shifted, as otherwise centralised supply was available at all theatres and the ICUs.

However, an inquiry in the morning revealed that the employee engaged by the private company to operate the oxygen-supply system had erroneously provided wrong information to the medical staff.

The hospitals Medical Superintendent, Dr Ram Sarup Sharma, said, At least 90 oxygen cylinders were in stock at the time. We are inquiring as to how this misinformation was spread.

He said a notice had been sent to the private contractor who has been asked to explain the situation.

Dr Sharma said Punjab Health Systems Corporation had also been asked to make a thorough inspection of the system.

The situation had created panic but we were fully equipped to deal with the situation, he said.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

As many as six students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, 3BRD Air Force area, have fallen ill allegedly after drinking contaminated water in the school. A video showing live insects in a water cooler of the school has also surfaced. However, the school authorities have denied any such development.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a parent whose son has fallen ill, said four students of a section of Class X reported suffering from diarrhoea and nausea. When a correspondent visited the school today, the cleaning of the water coolers was on. The children were still seen drinking from the same source and when the correspondent took pictures, the employees asked the students not to drink from it.

The security guard on duty, Hukam Chand, said he too had been sick since Monday. Hukam Chand said he had asked the authorities to get the water coolers cleaned but they did not pay heed to it. I have been suffering from diarrhoea and nausea since Monday but the authorities did not listen to me, the guard said.

Principal SK Mishra denies that any child had fallen ill. It happened due to the recent rain but we have rectified it, he first said but later added, It could be the mischief of some student who might have thrown the insects inside the water cooler and recorded the video. However, he agreed that the school had confiscated 17 mobile phones of students.

The principal has been on leave since May 25 as he had met with an accident but says his school teachers have confirmed that no such incident took place. The principal said they have nothing to hide and if something like this would have happened, that would have informed the media themselves.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

Maria Teresita C Daza, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines, visited Chandigarh, along with her delegation, to hand over three dolls of the Philippines for a permanent display at the International Dolls Museum.

The complimentary dolls of the Philippines showcase the high artistic costumes of different areas of the country. She took a tour of the International Dolls Museum and was fascinated by the collection of Indian and overseas dolls and the state-of-the-art museographical display. She appreciated the initiative of the Chandigarh Administration.

The International Dolls Museum, Sector 23, is the first-of-its-kind in India, which showcases precious and invaluable collection of about 352 heritage dolls of 36 countries with historical, geographical, artistic and costume features.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

Dadu Majra residents today allowed trucks to dump garbage at the dumping ground following a meeting chaired by the Mayor and the Municipal Corporation Commissioner.

The residents were assured that a compost plant would be set up in three months and spray done to avoid smell from the dumping ground at Dadu Majra.

Kuldeep Dhalor, president, Residents Welfare Association, Dadu Majra Colony, said: We have been assured of positive outcome, so we have called off our protest.

Jaypee Associates had earlier refused to accept the entire garbage of the city sent by the MC and residents had not allowed trucks to dump the waste in the dumping ground. The residents said foul smell emanates from the dumping ground and poses a threat to health of people.

Sources said yesterday the plant accepted only 150 tonnes of garbage and returned the rest citing reasons that trucks were carrying wet garbage. The MC generates approximately 450 tonnes of garbage daily.

The plant management did not hear the repeated pleas of officers of the MoH wing who reached the plant yesterday after the management refused to receive the trucks full of garbage.

As per the Mayor, they would set up a compost plant at that location and problems of residents would be addressed on a priority.

The Jaypee had agreed to install another compost plant with the capacity of 300 metric tonnes to process the garbage during the hearing of the case in the NGT in Delhi.

The assurance

The residents were assured that a compost plant would be set up in three months and spray done to avoid foul smell from the dumping ground at Dadu Majra.

Protest called off

Kuldeep Dhalor, president, Residents Welfare Association, Dadu Majra Colony, said: We have been assured of positive outcome, so we have called off our protest.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 15

The police arrested two drug peddlers, reportedly infected with HIV+. They used to inject same syringes in a group of eight to 10 persons, who are also believed to be infected with the virus, the police said.

A police official said they were identifying other eight persons who are also HIV+ due to using same syringes.

The main accused, Amarjit Singh and Harpal Singh, both residents of Sector 22, have already been arrested. Harpal was arrested from near a temple in Sector 22 with 70 injections of bupernophine and pheniramine. Amarjit Singh was nabbed from near Bal Bhawan, Sector 23, and 32 injections were recovered from his possession.

Two separate cases under Section 22 of the NDPS Act have been registered against them at the Sector 17 police station.

The recoveries

Harpal was arrested from near a temple in Sector 22 with 70 injections of bupernophine and pheniramine. Amarjit Singh was nabbed from near Bal Bhawan, Sector 23, and 32 injections were recovered from his possession.
Washington, July 15

Indian students have a "high level of concern" about potential study in the US and a large number of them worry about their physical safety and about the feeling of being welcomed, according to a new survey.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) suggested that the final outcome of the US Supreme Court order in June that temporarily upheld President Donald Trump's executive order to restrict entry of nationals from six Muslim majority countries to America weighs on their mind.

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With over a million international students pursuing higher education in the US and contributing more than US$ 36 billion to the American economy, the stakes are high, it said.

Founded in 1919, the IIE is a US-based not-for-profit working to build peaceful and equitable societies by advancing scholarship, building economies and promoting access to opportunity. It focuses on International Student Exchange and Aid, Foreign Affairs, and International Peace and Security.

The IIE said that the survey results indicate the highest level of institutional concern regarding enrollment of students from the Middle East, followed by India.

Thirty-one per cent of institutions are very concerned that Middle Eastern students who have accepted offers of admissions may not arrive on campus in the fall, and 20 per cent are very concerned that Indian students may not arrive on campus, it said.

"This uncertainty raises valid concerns as to whether students from the Middle East may be deterred from US study," it said.

"Securing and maintaining a visa is reported as the top concern among these students and was reported by 46 per cent of institutions, while feeling welcome in the United States was an almost equal concern, with 41 per cent of institutions noting so from their conversations with students," it added.

According to the IIE, survey findings suggest that Indian students "have a high level of concern about potential study in the United States, 80 per cent of institutions responded that physical safety was the most pronounced concern for Indian students, while 31 per cent of institutions indicated that feeling welcome was also a concern."

"Although application totals appearing to largely remain stable, yield rates and a concern about personal safety suggest the possibility that Indian students may not continue to grow as the second largest international group in US higher education," IIE said.

"Their concerns may lead some Indian students to accept admissions offers from other leading host countries, especially from those that issue student visas more quickly."

The IIE, however, said despite widespread concerns that international student interest in the US might be flagging, the evidence from this survey suggests that "this is not the case."

It said that interest among international students in the US remains steady overall despite the current environment.

According to the study, modest drops in yield - the percentage of students that attend a college or university after having been offered admission - at some institutions may be offset by steady or increased yield at other schools.

Among the 112 colleges that provided data there was a 2 per cent decline in the expected yield rate this year compared to last year.

Overall, international undergraduate yield has dipped slightly from 26 to 24 per cent from fall 2016 to fall 2017.

The two percentage point decline is comparable to shifts in the domestic (US) student yield reported by institutional respondents, which fell from 30 to 28 per cent over the same time period, it said.

According to the study, there is however little concern about students from Europe and Canada arriving on campus in the fall and only modest concern about students' arrival from China and Latin America. PTI
Washington, July 13

An influential American lawmaker has called for removal of country-specific quota for legal permanent residency (PR), also known as Green Card in the US.

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Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder from Kansas, who on Wednesday became the lead sponsor of the previously Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, argued that the existing country-specific quota for Green Card is unjust for people from countries like India and China.

A report released this week said that the average wait time for an Indian technology professional or those seeking Green Card under employment category is more than 12 years.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act was previously introduced by former-Representative Jason Chaffetz, with Yoder as an original cosponsor.

Currently, 230 Members of Congress are signed on as co-sponsors of the Bill, with more than 100 Members from each party in support.

Yoder became its lead sponsor on Wednesday.

The Act reforms the legal immigration system by eliminating the existing, arbitrary per-country percentage caps that have caused backlogs in the employment-based green card system, he said.

Under the existing per-country percentage caps, large nations like India and China, which account for more than 40 per cent of the worlds population, receive the same amount of visas as Greenland, a country that accounts for one-one thousandth of a per cent of the worlds population, he said.

With about 95 per cent of the employment-based Green Card applicants already living and working in America on temporary visas, the vast majority of applicants are simply waiting in line to get approved for permanent residence.

But high-skilled immigrants from large countries are forced wait two to three times longer under existing law, Yoder said.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act would correct this problem and leave in place a system where all equally-qualified, highly-skilled employees will receive Green Cards in the order they apply and based solely on the skills they are bringing to America, he asserted.

Asserting that the United States is a nation of immigrants, as well as a nation of laws, Yoder said this legislation strikes the perfect balance by achieving significant reforms of employment-based green card system, helping American companies hire high-skilled immigrants to help grow the American economy.

Importantly, our Bill helps them do it through the proper legal channels  the right way  which are all too often forgotten in debates over border security and illegal immigration.

And it helps the many immigrants who are already living and working here on temporary visas obtain permanent residence theyve earned through hard work and dedication to our country and its values, raising their families and children as Americans right here in our communities, Yoder said. PTI
Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 15

Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu today said residents of Mirchpur village have overcome hurdles to restore social harmony and brotherhood among all communities.

The minister addressed a public meeting in the village that had witnessed caste violence and tension in the past. He said Mirchpur villagers had set an example by rising above divisive tendencies, which had raised a question at traditional harmony and sense of coexistence in rural society.

Abhimanyu said he would make all efforts to provide all amenities and facilities in the village. He accepted all 13 demands put forth by the villagers and said he would try to nominate the village for the Mahagram scheme for better infrastructure development. He also announced an RO water plant in the village at a cost of Rs 25 lakh on the behalf of the Mitrasein Arya Trust formed in the memory of his father.

He claimed that the Narnaund Assembly segment had lagged behind in development during the rule of previous governments but the BJP government does not discriminate against any segment. The BJP government believes in equal growth with an inclusive approach. I assure you all that the Narnaund segment will no longer be deemed as backward as a large number of development projects are under implementation in various villages there, he said.

Chander Prakash, a prominent person who played a key peacemaker between violence affected Dalits and other villagers, said Dalits of the village also attended the meeting and their demands figured among the 13 demands approved by the Finance Minister.
Yamunanagar, July 15

The Haryana Police on Saturday booked Deputy Mayor of the Yamunanagar Municipal Corporation for sending obscene messages to a woman on her mobile phone.

Ram Pal had sent the woman, who is a councillor, obscene videos and messages on her mobile phone through WhatsApp.

Ram Pal was booked after a complaint made to the police.

More details are awaited.
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 15

The Chinese government has opposed the proposed visit of the Dalai Lama to Botswana. The Tibetan spiritual leader is scheduled to visit the African country from August 17 to 19 to deliver a public talk. The talk is organised by Mind and Life Institute and is to be held at the University of Botswana.

Sources here said the Chinese authorities had warned Botswana over the scheduled visit of the Dalai Lama and advised that its administration could correct its decision of hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said, We hope the relevant country can clearly recognise the essence of who the Dalai Lama is, earnestly respect Chinas core concerns, and make the correct decision on this issue.

The spokesperson also accused the Dalai Lama of using his position as a spiritual leader to engage in separatist activities.

Ian Khama, President of Botswana, is scheduled to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader and his administration confirmed that they would extend the normal courtesies for the visiting dignitaries.

It was not for the first time that China had opposed foreign visits of the Dalai Lama. Earlier, China had blocked the visit of the Dalai Lama to South Africa. The Dalai Lama was denied visa to attend the 14th world summit of Nobel peace laureates in 2014 in South Africa and consequently the summit was cancelled. The denial of visa also drew strong criticism from archbishop Desmond Tutu and others. It has also blocked the scheduled address of the Dalai Lama to the Australian parliament.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama today expressed his condolences over the death of fellow Nobel laureate and Chinese human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo at the age of 61.

I am deeply saddened to learn that fellow Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has died while undergoing a lengthy prison sentence. I offer my prayers and condolences to his wife, Liu Xia, and other members of his family, said the Dalai Lama in a statement.
Our Correspondent

Kangra, July 15

The state government is committed to help the families of the martyrs who lay down their lives for the safety and security of the nation.

Stating this here yesterday, Kangra Deputy Commissioner CP Verma said on compassionate grounds the state government had decided to pay Rs 20 lakh to the family of Suresh Kumar of the CRPF, who attained martyrdom at Sukma in Chhattisgarh on March 11 this year.

The Deputy Commissioner said he would visit the martyrs family at Sunni village in Nagrota Bagwan and will hand over a cheque for Rs 20 lakh to his family. He said the district administration was also at the beck and call of the families of martyrs.

The story, Sacrifice of martyr being ignored: Kin, was carried in these columns on June 8. It highlighted that the family of martyr Suresh Kumar had alleged disparity by the state government and politicians who ignored his great sacrifice.

Martyr Suresh Kumar, who was attached to 219 Battalion of the CRPF, popularly known as Cobra Battalion, was part of the patrolling party for road opening at Sukma in Chhattisgarh on March 11 when Maoists attacked them and he died while fighting the Maoists. He is survived by his 27-year-old wife Neena Devi, a year-old daughter Navya and his aged parents.

Suresh was the only bread-earner for his , which is not economically well-off.

The Deputy Commissioner presented a cheque for Rs 1.50 lakh to the family on the day of cremation. Mast Ram, father of the martyr, was anguished and pained to see disparity between martyrs of the same CRPF force, who attained martyrdom under same circumstances and at the same situation and location.

Mast Ram, 65, alleged his son was given Rs 1.5 lakh as ex gratia financial support whereas the state government gave Rs 20 lakh each to Surender Kumar of Nehar Chowk and Sanjay Kumar of Nagri Chachian of 74 Battalion of CRPF who too attained the martyrdom at Sukma on April 24 this year under the same circumstances.

Yesterday, his demand was accepted by the state government.

Killed in Sukma attack

Martyr Suresh Kumar, who was attached to 219 Battalion of the CRPF, popularly known as Cobra Battalion, was part of the patrolling party for road opening at Sukma in Chhattisgarh on March 11 when Maoists attacked them and he died while fighting the Maoists.
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 14

Bowing to public pressure over the alleged shoddy police probe and attempts to shield the real culprits, the Himachal Pradesh Government today handed over the rape and murder case of a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Kotkhai in Shimla to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

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The decision came hours after an irate mob gathered near the Theog police station, about 30 km from here, and damaged government vehicles.

Calling for a CBI probe amid anti-police sloganeering and hurling of stones, the protesters threatened to set the police station afire if their demand was not met. Shimla Superintendent of Police DW Negi, too, was manhandled.

Even as the public fury kept mounting and National Highway-22 remained blocked, the decision to hand over the case to the CBI was taken only after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh returned from Kullu in the afternoon. Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case and to remove all doubts, if any, the government has decided to refer the matter to the CBI, he said.

The protesters, however, refused to clear the blockade without proof of the official communication to the central probe agency. The was brought under control only after the Theog Sub-Divisional Magistrate produced a copy of the order.

Apart from Theog, people poured onto the streets in Shimla, Kotkhai and Jubbal. There was also a scramble among politicians to hog the limelight and pledge support to the family.

While the girls uncle stood with the protesters in Theog, the victims parents left for Haridwar to perform the minors last rites.

On July 4, the Class X student was reportedly offered a lift in a car by one of the accused on her way home from school. Her body later was recovered from a forest area.

A Special Investigation Team had yesterday claimed the case had been cracked with the arrest of six youths. The people, however, refused to buy the police theory.

Social media went abuzz with allegations of attempts to shield some well-connected persons and also that the crime took place in a house, and not in the forest area as claimed. Doubts were also raised on the alleged involvement of two Nepalese labourers, who did not flee after committing the crime.

Accused face mob fury

Five of the six accused in the case, who were taken to Shimlas Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for a check-up, had to face mob fury. People from all walks of life, including women, gathered outside the hospital. Despite the large police presence, the men in khaki had a tough time trying to save the accused from being beaten up.

Issue being politicised: virbhadra

The mayhem at Theog and the destruction of public property were politically motivated. Instead of sympathising with the victims family, some people are giving a political colour to the incident The police convoy in which the accused were being brought to Shimla was ambushed by an organised group.  Virbhadra Singh, HP CM
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 15

Describing the attack on Amarnath yatris as one reversal, the Armys topmost officer in Kashmir Lt Gen JS Sandhu today vowed to continue targeting militants in the region.

The General Officer Commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt Gen JS Sandhu, also hoped the situation would improve in Kashmir soon.

Amarnath yatra attack has been one reversal but we will continue our operations and will continue targeting terrorists, Lt General Sandhu told reporters on the sidelines of a passing out parade.

Seven pilgrims, including six women, were killed and 19 others were injured when suspected militants attacked a yatra bus in Anantnag district on Monday evening. The killing of pilgrims evoked widespread condemnation across Kashmir. The forces have launched a massive hunt to the track the prime suspect, Pakistani militant Abu Ismail.

When the action (against the militants involved in Amarnath attack) is complete, you will come to know, he said.

The Corps Commander said the situation would improve in the Valley.

I am not too worried about situation becoming too bad or alarming. The situation will remain under control. In fact the assessment is we will continue improving the situation, he said.

He said there was no confirmation of Kashmiri Army man, Zahoor Ahmad Thokar, who deserted his unit last week along with a weapon from Baramulla, joining militant ranks.

We are tracking him, he said.

The Army has also taken action against its men found guilty of not working in a professional manner after some videos surfaced on social media showing Kashmiri youth being beaten up by the Army.

Some of the videos are old, some of videos were doctored to some extent sometimes. We keep ensuring that people continue working in a professional manner in the Army. When I find a person not behaving in a professional manner, we continue to haul them upwe have investigated these videos and wherever we found evidence against soldiers, we have taken action, Lt General Sandhu said.
Rajouri/Srinagar, July 15

A jawan was killed in sniper fire by Pakistani soldiers at a forward post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Tarkundi sector of Rajouri district, while the security forces gunned down three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants in a forest area of Tral in Pulwama district today.

Around 1 pm, a Pakistan army sniper targeted Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, who was manning 639 forward post at the LoC. Naseer died on his way to a nearby Army medical centre.

The soldier was posted with 15 JAK LI and was a resident of Ajout village in Poonch district. He is survived by his wife, Wasim Akhter.

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The brave soldier attained martyrdom when Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing on an Indian forward post around 1.30 pm. The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty, said defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta. The unprovoked firing by the Pakistan army comes amid heavy losses suffered by it following strong retaliation by the Indian Army over the past few months.

After the killing, the Indian Army opened heavy mortar shelling on Pakistan armys forward posts opposite the Tarkundi sector around 3 pm. The exchange of fire lasted till 5.15 pm.

Meanwhile, in Trals Wantnar Satoora forest, 60 km from Srinagar, a gunfight erupted during an anti-militancy operation around 5.30 am. Militants fired from a cave hideout, triggering a gunfight. In the initial exchange of fire that began around 7.30 am, two militants were killed, a police source said. The third militant entered the cave hideout. He kept firing from inside and it took time to neutralise him, a senior security official said.

DGP Sheesh Paul Vaid said three militants were killed in the gunfight. Of the three, two are locals and one is a foreigner, a source said. Two of them have been identified as Pervaiz Ahmad Wani of Pahoo Pulwama and Mehraj-ud-Din. One of them had joined militancy last month.

Sources said the killing of three JeM militants has dealt a blow to the outfit, which is trying to strengthen its base in south Kashmir. There were reports of clashes in the neighbouring areas during the anti-militancy operation.  TNS
New Delhi, July 15

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the law and order situation in the state, especially security to Amarnath pilgrims, even as she blamed "external forces" for creating trouble in the state.

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During the meeting that lasted nearly an hour, the chief minister apprised the home minister about the steps taken to maintain peace in the Kashmir Valley, officials said.

Steps taken to ensure the security of Amarnath pilgrims were also discussed, they said.

"Kashmir issue is not a law and order problem. It is happening because of external forces. The ongoing fight is a handiwork of external forces and now unfortunately China is also trying to meddle into it," Mehbooba told reporters emerging from the meeting.

The chief minister said he had discussed with the home minister the attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

"The attack was designed to create communal tension in the country. But I am grateful that the entire country, political parties and the central government especially the home minister helped us in overcoming the tragedy," she said.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Security agencies engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir have been told to implement security plans with full vigour, officials said.

So far, more than 1.86 lakh pilgrims have visited the high altitude Himalayan shrine.

As many as 21,000 paramilitary personnel in addition to state police forces and two battalions of Army have been deployed for security of the pilgrimage routes.

The number of paramilitary personnel deployed this year is 9,500 more than last year.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Mehbooba said the Jammu and Kashmir government had requested the central government for ensuring that Article 370 should not get diluted as it has an emotional connect with the people of the state.

"I am happy that the president in his order has reiterated that special status granted to the state would not be diluted.  PTI
Jammu/Srinagar, July 15

An Indian soldier was killed in cross-LoC firing by Pakistan in Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, Army said. In south Kashmir, three militants of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces.

The slain soldier has been identified as Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer.

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Naseer (35), who hailed from border district of Poonch in J&K, was hit during the firing and shelling by the Pakistani troops on the Indian forward posts, a defence spokesman said.

#WATCH: Shelling by Pakistan along the Line of Control in Rajouri's Manjakote in Jammu and Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/YxPTrdxvoF  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

There was Pakistani firing and shelling along the LoC in Balakote, Panjgrian, Naika and Manjakote

"In the fire exchange, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries," he said.

Naseer, who belonged to Ajout village of Poonch district, leaves behind wife Wasim Akhtar, he said.

Paying tributes to Naseer, the spokesman said he was a brave and sincere soldier who loved his job to the core.

"The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," the spokesman added.

A ceasefire violation by Pakistan started at 1.30 pm. They used small arms, automatics and mortars. Indian positions have effectively and strongly retaliated," he said.

Tral encounter

Three militants of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in a forest area of Tral in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, official said.

While two of the militants were killed this morning, another took shelter inside a cave and was finally killed after several hours of gunbattle in Tral, 36 km from here, the official said.

He said bodies of all the three militants and their weapons were recovered from the scene of the gunbattle which started early this morning when security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation after receiving an information about presence of militants there.

He said though the identity of the deceased militants was being ascertained, they belonged to JeM outfit.

"The killing of the militants is a major setback for the outfit which is trying to revive its activities in the valley," the official said.

He said security forces faced stone-pelting during the operation but exercised maximum restrain while dealing with it.

Some people indulged in stone-pelting and tried to march towards the encounter scene to help the militants escape but were chased away by the security forces, the official said, adding there was no report of any casualty among the civilians.  Agencies
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, July 15

Amid the standoff between China and India over a disputed territory in Bhutan, political activists, educationists and civil society groups are calling for a boycott of Chinese goods in Mumbai.

BJP workers came out on the streets in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, earlier this week and made a bonfire of Chinese-made goods. They said they would persuade shopkeepers in the township not to sell made-in-China goods.

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We are creating awareness among the people about the problems caused by China at the border and the need to boycott Chinese-made goods, said Pushpa Ratnaparkhi, who heads the womens wing of the BJP in Kalyan. She said several traders and shopkeepers in Kalyan had pledged not to sell Chinese-made goods in the larger interest of the country.

The boycott call was then taken up by the Mumbai School Principals Association which claims to represent principals of more than 1,500 schools in the city. The association passed a resolution asking students not to use stationery, school bags and other equipment that are made in China.

We are sending out circulars, asking students to boycott China-made stationery items on account of what is happening at the border, said Prashant Redij, secretary of the association.

Amid talk of war and India fast-tracking purchase of ammunition from global vendors to prepare for a short conflict, NGOs too held protests at the air cargo complex of the Mumbai international airport. Activists from Watchdog Foundation, a city-based NGO, appealed to customs officials not to clear consignments from China.

However, reports on the ground suggest that availability of China-made goods have not stopped and stores selling cheap Chinese goods are doing brisk business as ever.
Patna, July 15

Crisis deepened in Bihar's ruling Grand Alliance on Saturday with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav skipping an official function with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna.

Patna: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's name plate covered, later removed, in an event to be attended by CM Nitish Kumar. pic.twitter.com/cmvbJkWzXf  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

A name plate bearing name of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was first covered with a piece of cloth and soon removed from the dais.

Patna: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav will not attend a 'Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas' event. His name was mentioned in the invitation. pic.twitter.com/dHLVgPffPH  ANI (@ANI_news) July 15, 2017

According to officials, Tejashwi Yadav's name plate was earlier arranged along with that of Nitish Kumar on the table at an official function of the 'Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas' at Gayan Bhawan in Patna. But it was first covered with cloth and then hurriedly removed before the programme officially began.

The development has strengthened speculation that the crisis between the Janata Dal-United of Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad has further deepened over allegations of corruption against the RJD chief and his family.

Tejashwi Yadav's name was mentioned in the invitation for the function.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis over the demand for the resignation of Tejashwi Yadav after the CBI registered a case against him in a benami property case and also raided his premises last week.

JD-U General Secretary Shayam Razak, considered close to the Chief Minister, on Saturday said his party's stand is very clear that it will not compromise on corruption.

"JD-U will not take back its own stand on corruption. Lalu Prasad has become old," he said, a day after the RJD chief declared that his younger son Tejashwi Yadav will not resign and the Mahagatbandhan is intact.  IANS
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 15

Diplomacy may prevail upon armies of India and China to withdraw from the standoff at the Doklam Plateau in Bhutan. However, a belligerent China, militarily emboldened after the free run in the South China Sea, could yet again threaten Bhutan or other countries.

For India, the demarcation of the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto boundary between India and China, is the solution. One option is to use the watershed principle. The natural flow of water downwards from a ridgeline is the international rule for demarcation. New Delhi would be ready to accept it for the entire boundary  Karokaram pass the northernmost tip of J&K to the tri-junction of India-China-Myanmar in the East.

In April 1960, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai offered to resolve on present actualities, meaning India keeps NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) while China keeps Aksai Chin, the northeast edge of J&K. This is also the largely accepted alignment of the LAC.

No snap in ties despite tension

New Delhi and Beijing have had all channels open at the diplomatic level. Other than PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping meeting in Hamburg, Germany, the specified diplomatic channel laid by protocol under a 2012 agreement has been activated. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is going to China on July 28 for a meeting of BRICS NSAs.

China tried to deflect attention

By naming India in its statements, China was deflecting attention from the fact that it was the aggressor in Bhutan, which has a population of 7.5 lakh, less than half of Chinas 20 lakh strong armed forces.

On June 5-6, Chinese troops broke the bunkers of Bhutan Army and started digging for a road across the Torsa nullah in the Doklam Plateau. The land east of this Nullah leads to the Jampheri ridge, which is the military target of China.

The ridgeline offers a view of sensitive Siliguri corridor of India. The present Chinese road ends at Asan, 20 km north of the disputed spot. Bhutan and China in 2012 signed a pact to not disturb the disputed sections of the boundary, including Doklam.

Beijing emboldened

It tasted a free run in the South China Sea. It created artificial islands to claim territory of others and subsequently build air bases on these islands. Other than seeking freedom of navigation at sea under the UN mandate, no country physically stopped Beijing. Chinas three air bases in the Spratlys and another on Woody Island in the Paracels will allow Chinese military aircraft to operate over nearly the entire South China Sea, said a report of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative launched by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Played games with British too

Between 1850 and 1920, London leaned on China to keep Russia out of Tibet. Between 1846 and 1914, the British made five failed attempts to demarcate the boundary. Sir Francis Younghusband, who led the British military expedition to capture Tibet in 1904, writes in his book India and Tibet about the attempts to demarcate Doklam in 1895. Come together at Yatung, decide upon the best place for beginning operations and agree upon a date for starting together on the work of demarcation, writes Sir Francis. The demarcation was never completed.
Lucknow, July 15

The National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Saturday began a probe into the discovery of high-grade PETN explosive inside the Uttar Pradesh assembly, an official said.

Officials informed IANS that the NIA team arrived here late on Friday and was immediately briefed about the case.

The NIA officials, other than visiting the spot where the Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate explosive was discovered on Thursday evening, were also likely to grill the security staff and agencies of the state police responsible for security of the Vidhan Sabha.

The state security personnel would be quizzed on as to why no action was taken to spruce up security despite a tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in May about a possible terror plot to attack the state assembly when in session.

The NIA team would also question the House marshals and other security staff along with janitors and others who has access to the exclusive area, near the seat of Leader of Opposition.

A senior security official informed IANS that many a time the lawmakers refuse to cooperate with the security and throw a tantrum on being frisked. IANS
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 15

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) would soon be able to vote during elections in India as the Centre and the Election Commission have agreed to the idea in principle and the only issue is the manner in which it has to be implemented, the Supreme Court has been informed.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar on Friday asked the Centre to inform it within a week if it was going to amend the election law or rules to enable NRIs to cast vote in India.

The direction came on petitions filed by Nagender Chindam and Shamseer VP, seeking directions to the government and the EC to allow NRIs to vote through postal ballot.

NRIs could be allowed to vote through postal ballot by either changing the election law, i.e., the Representation of the People Act, 1951, or by amending the rules framed under the Act, the Bench was told. After the proposal takes concrete shape, NRIs will not have to fly down to their hometown in India during polls to cast their ballots. At present, only a negligible number of them come to India to exercise their franchise because of the time and money involved in the process.

The Narendra Modi government had told the Supreme Court in October 2015 that the Union Cabinet would soon consider a draft Bill to allow e-voting by NRIs.

A Bench headed by the then CJI HL Dattu had asked the government to enable e-voting by NRIs within three months after making necessary amendments to the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. The government told the court that it had approved e-ballot voting for Indian passport holders abroad, as recommended by the EC. It had told the top court that a proper process would be put in place after amending the relevant laws.

The EC had said the e-postal ballot system was foolproof and as it had almost no risk of manipulation and violation of secrecy of voters.
Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 15

Goods and Services Tax (GST) aims at making the countrys economy strong as it has brought all states under one tax, said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after laying the foundation stone of the party office here today. He said GST would address financial as well as social issues.

Addressing the gathering, Jaitley said the BJP had the courage to take decisions that put the country on the path of development.

When there were different taxes, a person needed to visit several officials that led to corruption and caused stress among people. Now, there is one simple tax. The honest taxpayer will never have to suffer, he added.

Jaitley stated that when cell phones were introduced years ago, people were afraid of sending an SMS or making a call. The same goes with GST. There is nothing to worry and all one has to do is to enter the turnover in the software and rest will be calculated automatically, he said.

On demonetisation, the Finance Minister said it was welcomed by honest people and only those having black money were running from pillar to post to save their money.

BJP to open offices in every state

Jaitley said: After Independence, the Congress was the main party and other parties were either with it or against it. In 1993, the BJP changed this notion. After 2014, the party found its new strength under the leadership of Narendra Modi. We have now decided to open party offices in every state. In Punjab, 22 offices are being opened.

Meanwhile, seeking loan waiver for the state farmers, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) members handed over a memorandum to the Finance Minister.

Representatives of the Punjab Plywood Manufacturers Association also handed over a memorandum to the minister, seeking the reduction of GST on plywood from 28 per cent to 18 per cent.

Leaders pockets picked

In the chaos at the time of Jaitleys arrival at the venue, BJPs former minister Tikshan Sud and party leader Parveen Bansal lost their wallets. Later, a pickpocketer was nabbed and the wallets of both leaders were recovered.
Gurdaspur, July 15

In a dramatic turnaround of events, the two girls believed to have drowned in the Upper Bari Doab Canal while clicking selfies early Friday morning had concocted the story to run away from home, the younger sister of one of them told the police late last night.

The news of drowning had resulted in scores of divers, Army and police personnel being deployed for close to 18 hours. Around 10 pm yesterday, the administration substantially reduced the flow of water in the canal in the area where the girls were said to have drowned. An hour later, the Army divers informed the administration that they could not locate the bodies despite scouting every inch of the canal. Police officers then started expressing doubts about whether the girls had actually drowned or the story was cooked up.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The focus then shifted to Sophia, the younger sister of Lovepreet Kaur (21), who was believed to have slipped in the canal along with her friend Nisha (18).

After two hours of sustained questioning, Sophia finally wilted and told the cops that the entire incident had been cooked up.

She told the police that leave alone getting drowned, the girls had not even gone near the bridge and had just slipped into a waiting car.

At one point of time during her questioning, Sophia said her sister and her friend had gone to Mumbai, where they wanted to eke out a decent living. However, the police felt it could be another diversionary tactic.

SSP BS Virk has sent police teams to various cities, including Chandigarh. He said a case would be registered only after the girls were found. As of now, no case can be made out because neither have the bodies been traced, nor have the girls surfaced, he added.  TNS
Sanjeev Singh Bariana

A blatant fiddling with the natural environment of popular tourist destinations in Ladakh makes for a befitting case for the National Green Tribunal to intervene. The NGT had done so in case of Manali in 2016 by restricting the entry of vehicles in the Rohtang Pass area. A little more delay, and it could well be a step too late.

One does not need any research to see the irreparable scars of human carelessness on an unblemished land.

Seeking intervention by the NGT, a cross-section of inhabitants of the thinly populated region, which is spread over 86,904 square kilometres, talk to this correspondent, who had been revisiting the region after 20 years.

Ruing what he calls a Paradise Lost, James Shelton, a resident of Birmingham (UK), who revisited the region after 29 years, says, I brought my son along this time. Id told him that we would go on long walks in absolute silence. Here I am shocked to see SUVs growling their way through the waters of the once-placid Pangong Lake. I got stuck at Khardung La twice in traffic jams in the last week of June. One of these lasted for more than 14 hours. Piles of garbage in Nubra, too, have been a big disappointment.

A study commissioned by the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) has revealed that foreigners started coming here around 1974 while the domestic Indian tourist started arriving here after 1985. Their numbers did not cross 17,000 till 2007. Foreigners would always outnumber the domestic tourist. The growth of foreigners peaked in 2011 at 35,000 while the number of domestic tourists shot up to more than 1.4 lakh. Latest years official figures revealed that the number of domestic tourists had crossed two lakh.

Tourists are a welcome change for the economy as these help generate employment. Yet, concerns have been raised over the unregulated growth, particularly in context of insufficient infrastructure like roads, garbage disposal, etc.

Nurzin Saldon, principal of a government school, says, we are upset because our lives have been affected.The stream in middle of Leh provided us with drinking water when we were young. However, this flow now contains opening of house sewers.

Elsewhere in the region, the 125-km-long Pangong Lake, popularised by the Bollywood hit movie Three Idiots, has more than 35 camps in tents, lending human and food waste, during the peak tourist season. Similarly, the number of hotels, all over the region, has been multiplying big time. The infrastructure, however, has failed to match up.

Look around, and everywhere youll find cars and motorcycles. Sadly Ladakh seems to be fast approaching its breaking point, says Rajeshwar Pathania, a tourist from Nurpur in Himachal Pradesh, who has been coming here for the past two decades.

During the early 1980s, a majority of tourists here were Europeans who stayed for long periods. Many of them even engaged in various welfare activities. Jean Francois Marine, from France, who has been coming here annually since 2005 to work with the Youth Association for Conservation and Development of the Hemis National Park, says, I keep coming here for solar projects we are setting up in villages. We have five villages in the Zanskar area and three more in the remote countryside.

More than asking the government, it is the thinking citizens who need to get together and decide about the future of their region, feels Niyamdu Dro, a geology researcher on tour from Europe.

Wangchuk Dorjee, an executive manager of the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (J& KEDI), feels, the vehicles, particularly motorcycles, are not merely polluting the air but also disturbing the usually quiet surroundings. The administration needs to restrict the entry of too many vehicles in residential areas. The administration also needs to strictly monitor the emission standards.

The profile of tourism has changed from that of an explorer to a traveller to now a tourist here. Ladakh has transformed into just another market, says Tsering Goji, owner of the La Terrasse Restaurant.

According to Rinchen Namgyal, president of the All Ladakh Tour Operators Association, The entry of word luxury in the tranquil atmosphere has changed the face of tourism. Instead of hiking or moving among the locals, tourists want to rush to destinations like Pangong, flash a Facebook picture and rush to Khardung La, and so on. Leh town alone has more than 6,000 luxury cabs and people are willingly paying the high rental.

A councillor of the LAHDC, Phuntsog Wangdan , feels It is time we got together now and acted on an action plan to save Ladakh unlike the formality of an exercise under Ladakh 2020 by the earlier government a few years back.

Anmol Rattan Dhillon, a B. Tech student from Chandigarh, says, with increased spending power of the middle class, people have started venturing outdoors. Law enforcement needs to stricter.

Mozes Kungzang, Additional Deputy Commissioner, says, Ladakh should stay clean but it cannot stay in a glass box. Tourist rush has brought in more revenue for the locals in the form of hotels, guesthouses, and even creating employment opportunities. The administration is working on a few initiatives like regulating certain heavy traffic roads like Khardung La by making these one way. For the sewerage, we have got a JNUURM project of Rs 217 crore for setting up a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant (STP). Work will commence very shortly. Besides, it has been mandatory for all hotels with 19 or more rooms to have independent STPs.
Sopan Deb

Through the front door of the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum in Massachusetts, US, the mind of the beloved childrens book author Theodor Seuss Geisel springs to life. The new three-floor museum is lush with murals, including one with a proo, a nerkle, a nerd and a seersucker, too. Around one corner, visitors will find an immense sculpture of Horton the Elephant from Horton Hears a Who!

But the museum, which opened recently, displays a bit of amnesia about the formative experiences that led to Geisels best-known body of work. It completely overlooks Geisels anti-Japanese cartoons from World War II, which he later regretted.

Far from the whimsy of Fox in Socks (1965), Geisel drew hundreds of political cartoons for a liberal newspaper, PM, from 1941 to 1943, a little-known but pivotal chapter of his career before he became a giant of childrens literature. Many of the cartoons were critical of some of historys most reviled figures, such as Hitler and Mussolini.

But others are now considered blatantly racist. Shortly before the forced mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans, Geisel drew cartoons that were harshly anti-Japanese and anti-Japanese-American, using offensive stereotypes to caricature them.

While President Franklin D Roosevelts library has put his role in Japanese internment on full display, this museum glosses over Geisels early work as a prolific political cartoonist, opting instead for crowd-pleasing sculptures of the Cat in the Hat and other characters, and a replica of the Geisel family bakery.

But scholars and those who were close to Geisel note that this work was essential to understanding Dr Seuss, and the museum is now grappling with criticism that it does not paint a full picture of an author whose work permeates American culture, from the ubiquitous holiday Grinch to Supreme Court opinions (A Justice once cited One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish).

I think its irresponsible, says Philip Nel, a childrens literature scholar at Kansas State University and the author of Dr Seuss: American Icon. I think to understand Seuss fully, you need to understand the complexity of his career. You need to understand that hes involved in both anti-racism and racism, and I dont think you get that if you omit the political work.

One cartoon from October 1941, which resurfaced during the most recent presidential campaign, depicts a woman wearing an America First shirt reading Adolf the Wolf to horrified children with the caption, ...and the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones  but those were Foreign Children and it didnt really matter. The cartoon was a warning against isolationism, which was juxtaposed with Donald Trump, a candidate at the time, using the phrase as a rallying cry.

In another cartoon, from October 1942, Emperor Hirohito, the leader of Japan during the Second World War, is depicted as having squinted eyes and a goofy smile. Geisels caption reads, Wipe That Sneer Off His Face!

Perhaps the most controversial is from February 1942, when he drew a crowd of Japanese-Americans waiting in line to buy explosives with the caption, Waiting for the Signal From Home . Six days later, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the roundup of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans.

Mia Wenjen, a third-generation Japanese-American who runs a childrens literary blog called PragmaticMom, has written critically of Geisels cartoons and blasted the museum for leaving them out.

Dr. Seuss owes it to Japanese-Americans and to the American people to acknowledge the role that his racist political cartoons played, so that this atrocity doesnt happen to minority groups again, Wenjen says in an email.

One of Geisels own family members, who helped curate an exhibit for the museum, says that Geisel would agree.

I think he would find it a legitimate criticism because I remember talking to him about it at least once and him saying that things were done a certain way back then, says Ted Owens, a great-nephew of Geisel. Characterisations were done, and he was a cartoonist and he tended to adopt those. And I know later in his life he was not proud of those at all.

Geisel suggested this himself decades after the war. In a 1976 interview, he said of his PM cartoons: When I look at them now, theyre hurriedly and embarrassingly badly drawn. And theyre full of snap judgments that every political cartoonist has to make. He also tried to make amends  in his own way. Horton Hears a Who!, from 1954, is widely seen as an apology of sorts from Geisel, attempting to promote equal treatment with the famous line, A persons a person no matter how small.

At the museum, located amid a complex of other museums in Springfield, where Geisel grew up, the first floor is geared toward young children. Aside from the murals, there are mock-ups of Springfield landmarks that inspired Geisels illustrations, such as the castle-like Howard Street Armory. The top floor features artefacts like letters, sketches, the desk at which Geisel drew and the bifocals he wore.

Kay Simpson, president of Springfield Museums, who runs the complex, and her husband, John, the museums project director of exhibitions, defend the decision to leave out the cartoons. We really wanted to make it a childrens experience on the first floor, and were showcasing the family collections on the second floor, she says. Geisels questionable work would fit better in one of the adjacent history museums, where it has been displayed before, she adds.

 The Independent
Harish Khare

A man named Naresh Chandra passed away a few days ago, almost unsung and unnoticed. He was one of the finest public servants this country has produced since Independence.

This man had the unique distinction of holding three crucial positions in the Indian bureaucratic pantheon  defence secretary, home secretary and cabinet secretary. Discharge of responsibility came as easily to him as a fish takes to water. Unsurprisingly, he filled all these three slots with grit and determination because that was a very turbulent time of our republic  between 1989 and 1992  when a concerted effort was made to demolish our secular structure.

That was a time when the mettle of our national elites was tested; it needed men like Naresh Chandra to remain unsentimental and clearheaded as to what this nation was all about and what it would take to preserve its core values and interests.

In America or any other established system, he would have been called a natural establishment man, or a wise man. He belonged, effortlessly, to the court, but was never a courtier. And, he had the guts and the moral authority to tell a prime minister what would work and what would not work.

And, precisely because of these qualities, successive governments kept calling on him to help them find the nations way out of this or that mess.

He was one of those handful bureaucrats who did not allow themselves to be limited by the confines of bureaucracy. Naresh Chandra did not allow bureaucracy to define him. But then, neither was he overawed by the Indian politician. He believed that in a democracy, the politician was an unavoidable encumbrance. There were good politicians and there were bad politicians; the challenge in the service of the nation was to enlist the good ones and work around the bad ones.

Those who worked with him found that he invariably provided a balance  because he was a person who dealt with a problem rather than its politics or politicians behind the problem. He made a fine Ambassador to the United States, primarily because he was not from the Indian Foreign Service and, therefore, did not find himself burdened with that services factional distractions.

All his life, he had worked with the Congress governments and, therefore, could be labelled as Congressman  but he was at his best when he found himself as Indias Ambassador in Washington, defending the Vajpayee governments decision to go nuclear. He was in a very hostile territory, but he cheerfully plugged away and ensured that India got away with little retribution by way of sanctions.

His last major assignment was to head a blue ribbon: the national task force on the Review of the Defence Management.

He was a bachelor, needed very little for himself and retired to a modest house in Vasant Kunj  but he was not averse to giving advice  for a price  to corporate houses. And, he was very clearheaded about this. His presence on a corporate board would help the lalas elevate themselves, introduce best practices and occasionally flirt with noble ideas.

Above all, Naresh Chandra had tremendous clarity: pursue the substantial rather than the fashionable.

**************************************************

On Friday, The Tribune had published on the front page a telling photograph. It showed massive crowds that had gathered in Nagaur district of Rajasthan to pay respect to a gangster. He was believed to be a Rajput and it was reported that the community felt outraged that the gangster got killed in a fake encounter.

I found myself bantering with my senior colleagues in the editorial board as to how many mourners each one of us would be able to muster after we were summoned up there by the Big Man.

I could not help recalling the funeral of Brajesh Mishra, once a very, very powerful man; his cremation was attended by less than a hundred mourners.

So far, we have become accustomed to the phenomenon of hundreds of people making it a point of attending the militants janaza in Kashmir. Each such attendance constitutes a kind of political statement.

Now, the process is sought to be replicated in the heart of the Rajput land. A gangster becomes a respectable figure because someone grafts an identity and all his sins of omission and commission become irrelevant. Maybe, there is latent anger against the authority  and people are just looking for a spark.

We have been witnessing a creeping phenomenon of the collectivisation of violence. We are persuaded to believe that there is nothing wrong as long as violence is used and inflicted upon others in defence of a larger cause, say, a cow. During last years Jat agitation in Haryana, women folk were cheerfully pressed into the defiance of authority.

Now we have gone a step further. Communities are willing to own up a deadly man and his deadly deeds. We cannot serenade a gangster. He was no Robin Hood.

This celebration at Nagaur of a gangster should be a warning shot. Something terribly wrong is brewing in the kingdom of achhe din.

**************************************************

Increasingly, it is becoming clear that national security is an animal that cannot be easily tamed, even if the ringmaster claims to have certain physical measurements. There can be no joy as the nation stumbles upon this prosaic reality. National security is a complicated business, not much can be accomplished in this by braggadocios.

The importance of Vappala Balachandran's book, Keeping India Safe  The Dilemma of Internal Security, is that it drives home the point that infirmities in our national security apparatus have long been in the making and it would take a long time to fix this leaking ship, and that partisanship or ultra-nationalistic rhetoric would not do the trick. The fault-lines that we choose to incur today will come to haunt us years later.

In the introduction itself, Balachandran lets us know the lie of the land: It is commonly understood that the Babri Masjid demolition and the 2002 Gujarat riots after the Godhra train burning were directly responsible for increasing jihadi terrorism in India, the casualties of which form a major portion of the total terrorism-related deaths in our country, estimated to be 65, 712 since 1994. No one in the ruling establishment wants to be reminded of this unvarnished fact; and, if anyone dares raise this factor, he is shouted down as a Muslim-appeaser.

Balachandrans central argument is that we shall continue to fall short in our internal security preparedness as long as police and law and order remained a state subjec. When the framers of the Constitution were at work, they had to produce a kind of political consensus behind a very, very fragile unity that had been grafted upon reluctant principalities. The local-level leaders were unwilling to hand over the police  the key instrument of control and coercion  to the Centre. The regional politicians calculus remains unchanged. Almost in state after state, every chief minister prefers to keep the home portfolio with him.

And now, we have so much bad blood among the politicians that no state will willingly entrust control over police to the ruling party at the Centre. That means, as Balachandran argues, we shall invariably fail to achieve the requisite convergence and synergy while our enemies would have no inhibitions.

There is an engaging chapter on the 26/11 attack and why we failed to prevent the attack, despite reasonably actionable intelligence. Even more educative is how the system closed ranks to ensure that failures remained buried  and, unattended.

A useful book to have on the shelf.

This has been a grim week. Bad news on the China front, bad news from Kashmir. I shall happily offer a cup of coffee to anyone with cheerful news. Join me.

kaffeeklatsch@tribuneindia.com
Saba Naqvi

My admiration for Yogi Adityanath goes up day by day. He makes no bones about what he likes and does not like. So far, we know that he likes Hindus and does not like Muslims. Fair enough, free country. And lets face it even I dont like many Muslims (and dare I say even many Hindus). So, Im keeping an open mind on that front. No matter that he is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, where every fifth person is a Muslim. As long as they can go about their daily lives and not get lynched, its ok.

Some people, who refuse to shout Bharat Mata ki Jai when they are bullied, need to understand that they are lucky to be alive. When friends from Uttar Pradesh call up and say in paranoid voices that they are treated badly if they approach the district administration, I just say, keep your head down and take it easy. Theres a very slim chance that an application with a Muslim name asking for assistance will move in the administration, so just learn to live with it.

My message is blunt: Just remember you are down to the basic need of not getting lynched and as long as that is the status, do not promote the victimhood narrative because some commentators have been saying that is bad for Indias image. My dear Muslim brothers and sisters, you must at every step, while struggling to earn a livelihood and keeping mind and body together, and ducking the hate, be mindful of Indias image. Thats very important: the national image. So dont sully it with your sad story.

Some elitist aesthetes are getting distressed about Yogis position on the Taj Mahal that till now was considered one of the wonders of the world but now hes said it is not representative of Indian culture. I wonder which culture then is Taj Mahal representative of? The same culture gave us Qutab Minar, Red Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. The same culture gave us the Urdu language, poetry, literature, the most magnificent structures of northern India and all such useless stuff!

Im trying to digest the larger point: Muslim culture should be separated from Indian culture possibly because in the world, according to Yogi, the most unkind view could be that the entire community is a bunch of potential beef-eating traitors, while the kindest would be that they dont count anyway, since they dont vote for the BJP, Yogi or Modi. Thats it really in a nutshell, so nothing to freak out about.

Do contemplate another possibility. The next time a glamorous western world leader couple drops in on India and expresses a desire to visit the Taj Mahal, the Yogi could waylay them with the Bhagwad Gita. Much more profound anyway and imagine the photo opportunities. Princess Diana is dead and Prince Charles is remarried but perhaps if they had read the Bhagwad Gita instead of visiting the Taj they could have realised that its all an illusion anyway and saved their marriage! Barack Obama and Michelle are pretty sorted out but they could have got better insights into life with the Gita instead of taking in the sights such as that very wasteful marble mausoleum called the Taj. Now Donald Trump and Melania are yet to come and they dont like Muslims too; so the Gita should be fine except its not clear if Trump can read.

And those dismayed that the Taj finds no mention in the Budget speech of the Yogi regime when the cultural heritage of the state was mentioned, dont panic. You have new tourist destinations coming up in what are referred to as the Ramayana circuit, the Buddhist circuit and the Krishna circuit. Just think of good family vacations at the yet to be built Krishna Museum in Mathura. Remember Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and Chitrakoot are the tourism boomtowns of UP under Yogi and forget Agra, that filthy place with the Taj also full of Dalits and Muslims involved in the shoe trade that also involves leather that comes from dead cows. You get it: Taj not nationalistic enough, while leather of cow very filthy although living cow very holy. Altogether Agra is a very bad choice.

Theres one more thing to bear in mind. The CM has ordered the cutting of thousands of fig trees along the route of the Kanwar Yatra, terming them inauspicious. Perhaps he associates figs and dates with foods consumed by Muslims during the Ramzan fast. But so far only figs are described as inauspicious till now, most Indians ate figs as a healthy food but clearly we are all in for more enlightened times.
Tribune News Service

Tribune News Service

A developed economy is not just an idea; it is a concept in the dynamics of a welfare state. It all depends on how a country earns and spends  honestly. In democracies, that is a difficult task, given the preponderance of taking everybody along. Thats why we have taken over three decades to open up to the world in a manner that has largely suited us. In the process, governments have also looked within: the taxes we pay, and the process by which we pay. It is in that spirit that Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime came into effect from July 1.

The GST is said to improve a fractured tax system and help in creating an integrated market. In the previous system, states imposed separate levies as goods were carried across the country. Small and medium-sized companies feigned less growth, afraid as they were that they would have to deal with the burden of becoming national enterprises. We had a cobweb of taxes. The Tribune reporters assess the ground situation, where complicated calculations  and fears of the unknown  tend to put traders and customers down. The best part is the government is in place, and the will of the people is going to make a stronger impact, much more than the burden of the new tax law:

Textile hub deserted

Panipat: A month back it was tough to pass through SD College Road market and Pachranga market during day, but these areas today look less than lively. The districts textile industry is dejected: main markets in the city are deserted as wholesalers are confused over the provisions and rules. We are finding it hard to switch to GST. We dont know how to maintain ledgers, keep records of transactions and other formalities of GST rules, says a trader.

Known as the textile hub, Panipat has around 30,000 small and big industrial units of textile and handloom products with an annual turnover over Rs 35,000 crore, including the export turnover of around Rs 7,000 crore. The fear of disruption in business has started haunting the traders as customers have failed to turn up, says Ved Prakash, a trader.

Rakesh Chugh, president of Chamber of Textile Manufacturer Association (CTMA) says the city has around 5,000 shops or showrooms of textile and handloom products. The daily business is worth around Rs 500 crore in domestic market. This has been badly affected by the GST, Chugh said.

For Jagjeet Singh, owner of Home Decor located on SD College Road, this is very tough time. Only two transactions have been made in the past fortnight, he said. Our basic consumer is the street hawker, who does not know GST, says Narender Kumar, owner of the Hemant Textiles on SD College Road. Scores of wholesale traders have rented shops. They have huge bank loan installments to pay. If the business continues like this, how can we survive, wonders Bhupesh, an owner of Vaibhav Shawls in Pachranga Bazaar.  Mukesh Tandon

Confusion, slowdown

Rohtak: An atmosphere of confusion prevails in the district known for various trades. It has Shouri Cloth Market, considered biggest in Asia. Owing to lack of clarity about GST and frequent changes being made in its provisions, many traders are putting off the paperwork, adding to the uncertainty. Transporters are reluctant to supply goods and smalltime merchants who operate from their households in small townships are shying away from making any bulk purchases, thanks to the fear factor.

Jagmohan Mittal, president of the Haryana Automobile Dealers Association, says the government did not allow traders enough time. The taxation mechanism should have been simplified and the exemption limit should have been fixed at Rs 50 lakh instead of Rs 20 lakh. Different tax slabs for different automobile components also add to complications. The cess should have been abolished. The major tax burden has been put on the retailer, which is also not justified, he says.

The town has witnessed protest demonstrations and closure of cloth market by traders, demanding a rollback of GST from cloth, which has remained untaxed ever since Independence.

Government officials try to clear the air. GST will not put any additional financial burden on the traders as the tax is to be paid by the customers or end-users. Nor does it require any special record-keeping or cumbersome paperwork. Moreover, businessmen having an annual turnover below Rs 20 lakh are fully exempt from the GST, and they are not required even to get themselves registered, says Himanshu Gupta, GST Commissioner, Rohtak.  Sunit Dhawan

Dragging on

Amritsar: A wire drying dealer, Rajiv Kumar Sharma, has not done any trade since July 1. I am busy arranging infrastructure and contacting professionals to make my firm GST-ready, he says. As a first step, he has applied for a GST number from the Sales Tax office. A new number is given to him, which also includes digits and alphabets of his PAN number. Earlier there were two bill books, now there is only one. One was for retail, including out-of-state sales, and another book for VAT, which was used for sales within the state.

In the new system, item codes of products have to be mentioned on every bill. He arranged the code from google. Now, in case goods are to be sold within the state, then two kinds of divisions of taxes in equal share between the State GST and Central GST is to be done.

For products sold outside the state, an 18% tax will go to Central GST. The annual turnover of his firm is about Rs 1.25 crore. Although, norms for filing returns have been relaxed until September to ensure that the transition doesnt hurt small traders, he is worried over filing three returns per month. He used to submit returns quarterly.

He has bought a computer and installed a software costing Rs 20,000. He has to give Rs 2,000 extra per month salary to his accountant. His CA has doubled his fee.  Neeraj Bagga

System crashes!

Batala: Businessman Jaideep Aggarwal deals in centrifugal pumps and cast iron products. His job at hand is to supervise his workers and figure out how to file his GST returns. The reason is that the city has excruciatingly slow internet speed. But he is positive. GST is a significant step towards reforming indirect taxation. Combining several But the problem is when we start filing our returns, will the software hold on or will it crash? During the process of taking the GST registration number, the software, unable to take load, crashed. It took me nearly two days to get the mandatory GST number, says Aggarwal.

There are many like him. Most businesses use special accounting software for filing tax returns which have excise, VAT, and service tax already incorporated. The transition to GST will require businesses to upgrade the software or buy new GST-compliant software. This will lead to increased costs and training of employees, says Aggarwal.

Small businesses in India do not employ tax professionals, and have traditionally preferred to pay taxes and file returns on their own to save costs. They will have to take the help of professionals, which means they will have to shell out more for hiring experts, he said.  Ravi Dhaliwal

Temporary setback

Ludhiana: Ajit Lakra, MD of the Superfine Knitters Limited in Ludhiana, is not worried. With an annual turnover of Rs 86 crore and a workforce of around 600 employees, Lakra has been into the business close to four decades. If we look at the big picture, the system is not cumbersome. It is only that the knowledge and awareness of some in the industry is poor. They are apprehending losses. Most of them are unorganised and many are not computer-savvy. Years of habit will not change overnight.

Unlike many in the textile sector, Lakra has never been averse to latest technology. He does have a few apprehensions. He says when the monthly returns are filed, the GST website should be able to cope with the traffic. The information technology system should be as strong as the government claims. There are certain anomalies in the GST rates on man-made fabrics about which we are representing to the GST Council for amendments. Besides, the GST refund and duty drawback on exports is not yet clear, says Lakra.  Minna Zutshi

Rise & fall in Himachal

Shimla: Traders, tourists, hoteliers and the common man in Himachal Pradesh have taken the new tax regime with a pinch of salt. The common feeling is that GST will benefit them in the long run. Tax collectors, on the other hand, say the new tax system will make states treasury richer by 15% annually as it will facilitate tax compliance from 70,000 registered traders.

Big farmers, however, complain that GST on fungicides and pesticides, which are extensively used by apple and vegetable farmers, remains as high as 18%. The GST council has cut down the tax rate on fertilizers to 5% from 12 proposed earlier. The council should do the same for fungicides and pesticides, says a farmer.

States hoteliers think that consumers will have to shell out more for food as GST on food items has increased. The tariff on a room costing above Rs 7,500 a day attracts GST of 28%, says Harnam Kukreja, president, Shimla Hoteliers Association. Traders and businessmen in the state demand a uniform GST rate on annual threshold limit for traders up to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh fixed for 11 hill states. The people faced shortage of commodities in the first week of July as the traders stopped picking up supplies from the outside markets. But they have started doing so. There are enough stocks of essential commodities for retailers now, says Inderjeet Singh, president Shimla Byopar Mandal.  Kuldeep Chauhan

More clarity needed in J&K

Jammu: It has been over a week since GST came into effect in the state, but traders and industrialists seem ill-prepared to switch over to the new tax system. While the manufacturing sector is confused over the continuation of tax exemption enjoyed by it under the industrial policy, most shopkeepers have not modified their billing software in accordance with the new tax rates.

Earlier, the manufacturing sector would get exemption from the central excise duty and VAT, which has kept industries functional so far. The state government has not yet clarified or notified how the industry will get the old benefits under GST, says Rajiv Mahajan, president, Bari Brahmana Industries Association.

Traders are reluctant to invest in computers and modifying billing software, and are issuing manual cash memos to consumers.

Many of our members are not computer savvy. Very few traders are using the computer-generated billing system at the moment. The transition will take time. says Rakesh Gupta, president, Chamber of Commerce and Industry. There are 2,500 traders directly associated with the CCI and thousands of businessmen indirectly. Consumers, too, are quite perplexed by GST, which has been projected as a game changer and consumer friendly. We dont know how its going to benefit us. Whenever we get bills, its quite difficult to understand how the tax has been imposed, says Adarsh Bali, who works in the hospitality sector.  Sumit Hakhoo
Saurabh Chadha

Indias flourishing Electronic Dance Music, aka EDM, traces back to the 1980s, beginning with a trance movement in the city of Goa. Since then, it has evolved upon a wider spectrum of club driven sounds and now rivals many of its European and American counterparts.

The music scene in India has never been this healthier with more and more international artists performing here. Several leading names have toured the country in the last few years, and the EDM scene has recently been dominated by independent releases from Indian talent, looking to carve their identities. With thousands of artistes building a name for themselves in the countrys local scene, a growing number of DJs and producers can now boast of fans all over the world.

The local acts represent an evolved music scene that promises to become an influential market for the global movement, including Anish Sood, KSHMR, Argenil, Arjun Vagale, DJ NYK, Shaan, Zaeden and Sound Avatar & Kerano. Delhi-based artiste Sartek has opened for international stalwarts like Martin Garrix and Paul Van Dyk at popular electronic music festivals. His internationally acclaimed Back to the Future was, in fact, premiered by stalwart French DJ David Guetta on his radio show. Another independent music artiste, Nucleya, put India on the world EDM map by enthralling music buffs at IIFA Stomp in Madrid.

A multi-dimensional music experience, EDM combines the most thrilling production and sound design that are known to overwhelm fans with its scale. In India, the genre has taken over and is now the main routine of millions of music lovers in a Bollywood-centric country.

Interestingly, EDM explosion has also corresponded well with the growth of the Indian middle class and one of the worlds youngest populations. According to 2011 census, 140 million Indians are in the 15-35 years age group and an almost identical number between the ages of 25-49. To top it, the middle class in India has a 22.6 per cent share of the countrys wealth, with the higher middle-class share about 64 per cent of it. If you belong to this group, you are the perfect EDM audience and can afford one of the Sunburn, VH1 Supersonic or Enchanted Valley Carnival tickets ranging from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 20,000. Swedish House Mafia selling 18,000 tickets in Mumbai at a whooping premium of Rs 4,000 clearly explains the change.

For travellers and music lovers alike, this eclectic mix of music festivals whether on the beach, in the hills, under a banyan tree or inside a palace are worth travelling for. Weve collected a small portion of these significant festivals, but to truly get a grasp of what they have to offer, experience it firsthand.

Sunburn

Sunburn, brainchild of Shailendra Singh, is Indias leading electronic music brand hosting Asias largest three-day electronic music festival in Goa, various city festivals, arena gigs and club tours across the country since 2007. Sunburn introduced Sunburn Arena in 2011 bringing some of the worlds best DJs like Afrojack, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Dash Berlin, Armin Van Buuren, Krewella, etc. to India in an exhilarating arena format across all major cities. From a humble 2,000 attendees in its inaugural year, Sunburn grew 11-fold in 2009 with over 22,000 festival goers. Since then, Sunburn has transformed into an extravaganza of epic magnitude. Even the move from Goa to Pune hasnt dented their efforts towards bringing in the tenth year with a monstrous line-up spanning over four days. Flea markets, camping, helicopter rides, yoga, ferris wheel rides and pretty much every activity you can think of is a part of the package. No wonder, CNN had ranked Sunburn as the 9th Best Festival in the World.

Magnetic Fields

A festival initiated by Abhimanyu Alsisar, the scion of the royalty of Alsisar in Rajasthan, Magnetic Fields has now become the countrys definitive EDM festival. Held in a 16th-century haveli in Rajasthan, this three-day celebration of music, food, art and bohemian spirit brings together some of the best Indian artists as well as sought-after international underground talent. It has featured artistes like Dream Koala, Monica Dogra, Dualist Inquiry, Nischay Parekh, Jiver, Curtain Blue, Bass Foundation Roots and others, but what really puts this festival on our list of must-attend music fests is the magnetic pull of the striking Alsisar Palace. Attendees can stay at the royal palace suites, which promise spectacular views and an old world charm or go in for a more earthy experience by staying in a tent. A vital part of the experience is the interactive art installations scattered throughout the festival grounds.

Supersonic

Music, surf and sand are the moto for this electronic music haven. Held in Goa, the festival is curated by Nikhil Chinapa, one of the headlining DJs in the country. The festival hosts some of the biggest DJs from across the world as well as the most influential names from Indias electronic music scene. A half decade in, its already had much success, thanks to a consistently incredible lineup, including Axwell, Zedd, Disclosure, Paul Van Dyk, Arjun Vagale, Ash Roy and Nervo among others. With nearly 2,00,000 revelers descending upon the beaches, this is a massive party thats only certain to grow in acclaim. Grammy award winner Zedd is set to headline Vh1 Supersonic Pune 2017.

Electric Daisy Carnival

Americas biggest electronic music tour promoter, Insomniac Events, brought its flagship property, EDC to India, partnering with independent music agency Only Much Louder. Each area contained within the festival grounds represents a distinct union of technology and nature. In some places, fire rules absolute, and in others, the elements of air and water provide the inspiration. One of the biggest productions Indian fans have ever witnessed, at a scale that needed to be seen to be believed. Take the kineticFIELDS main stage for instance. Two incredibly large owls with personified faces are prepared to take flights next to a pensive looking cathedral. Its line-up is equally top-notch with EDM heavyweights like as Dutchmen Afrojack and R3hab, Alesso from Sweden and Steve Aoki from the US.

Sulafest

Sula Vineyards day-long annual wine and music festival in Nashik has become quite the draw for concert-starved folks. This two-day annual event is a mix of electronic music, Dubstep, Reggae and the likes with a dose of wine, fashion, leisure and enchantment. Sulafests first edition was held in 2008 to celebrate the wine companys 10th harvest. Since then, the festival, with its colourful awnings, has consistently grown with performances by Midival Punditz, Pentagram, Jalebee Cartel and Something Relevant.

Bass Camp

Founded in February 2010, Bass Camp is Indias first and only bass heavy electronic music festival, promoting cutting edge electronic music like dubstep, drum n bass, drumstep, glitch hop and much more. The festival has garnered a huge following in a short span of time and has covered all the major Indian cities.
New York, July 15

NEW YORK: Indian ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna on Saturday said the Indo-US commitment towards eliminating terrorism has strengthened post-Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington DC.

With Prime Minister Modi's visit, the Indo-US commitment on counter terrorism has strengthened, Sarna told ANI, on the sidelines of the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum meeting here.

Citing the joint statement addressed by Prime Minister Modi and US President Donald Trump, Ambassador Sarna re-iterated that a strong message has been sent to Pakistan to take necessary action for curbing terrorism.

The two leaders in their joint statement called upon Pakistan to not allow terrorism to come out of its territory. It also sets into motion a consultative mechanism for designation of terrorist organisations and individuals, he said.

In their joint press statement, Trump stressed on eliminating and destroying radical Islamic terrorism and emphasised on how both nations - the U.S. and India - are deeply affected by the malaise of terrorism.

Both nations have been struck by the evils of terrorism and are determined to destroy it, especially the radical Islamic terrorism. We will be enhancing the military cooperation and next month, will join the Japan Navy to take part in the largest Maritime exercise in the vast Indian Ocean. I appreciate India's efforts in Afghanistan," Trump said.

"The leaders called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries," said the joint statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The statement added that they further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, Pathankot, and other cross-border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups. ANI
London, July 15

Three British Sikhs have been jailed for a total of 19 years for helping about 70 illegal Afghan immigrants sneak into the UK by misusing passports in a 6,00,000-pound scam.

Cousins Daljit Kapoor and Harmit Kapoor, and Davinder Chawla, all in their 40s, had admitted to conspiring to help foreigners get into the country illegally and were sentenced last week at the Inner London Crown Court.

The whole system of immigration is completely undermined. It was a large-scale operation for financial gains, Judge Nigel Seed told them. Daljit was jailed for seven years, Harmit for four-and-a-half years and Chawla, a member of the extended family, for seven-and-a-half years.

The gang was paid more than 9,000 pounds for each family they got into the UK, smuggling about 70 people into the country. They travelled to France and handed over passports to waiting immigrants and then collected them once they safely got within UK territory.

Once the immigrants got into the UK, the gang would recycle the passports, passing them on to others trying to sneak into the country. All passports shown by the Afghans had photos of Sikhs wearing turbans. The border staff failed to spot the difference.  PTI
New York, July 15

At least three people were killed on Friday after a fire broke out in a high-rise apartment building in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Several others are feared trapped in surrounding units and the death toll is likely to rise, reports the Fox News.

Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt David Jenkins said more than 60 firefighters responded to the multiple-alarm fire at the Marco Polo apartments that started on the 26th floor. The fire spread to at least the 27th floor and several units. The building was reportedly built in 1971, before the city began requiring sprinkler systems.

In a deadly fire last month, at least 80 people were killed in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower apartments in London.

A criminal investigation into the incident revealed that the exterior cladding attached to building during a recent renovation failed safety tests. ANI
Dhaka, July 15

A 25-year-old medical student from India was allegedly stabbed to death by his compatriot who then tried to commit suicide at their flat in Bangladeshs northeastern port city of Chittagong, the police said today. Ateef Sheikh died after being stabbed by Winson Maisnam Singh, 23, on their fourth floor flat of the six-storey building in Akbar Shah area last night.

Sheikh, a final year student of the private University of Science and Technology Chittagong, was rushed to USTC hospital and later to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Singh was rescued by other roommates when he tried to hang himself. Police suspect Singh stabbed Sheikh and then tried to hang himself.

The four students hailed from Manipur and it appeared to be an incident of involuntary murder as a sequel of altercations between Singh and Sheikh. Police said there were several wounds from a sharp weapon on Sheikhs body.  PTI
Shenyang, July 15

Deceased Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobos ashes were scattered at sea on Saturday, Lius brother said, in a move described by a family friend as an effort to erase any memory of him.

Liu, 61, died of multiple organ failure on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where he was being treated for late-stage liver cancer, having been given medical parole but not freed. He had been jailed for 11 years in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power after helping to write a petition known as Charter 08 calling for sweeping political reforms.

His widow, Liu Xia, has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, but had been allowed to visit him in prison about once a month. She has never been formally charged with any crime.

Speaking at a government-arranged news conference, Liu Xiaobos eldest brother Liu Xiaoguang offered thanks several times to the Communist Party for its thoughtful care considering the dissidents special situation.

Why has Liu Xia not come here? Her health is very weak at the moment, Liu Xiaoguang said, sitting in between an English-language interpreter and a Shenyang government official.

So she cant come here. Its very regretful. After speaking for about 20 minutes, Liu was escorted out by two unidentified women, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, and did not answer questions from journalists who surrounded him. The government then showed reporters images of the ashes being scattered from a boat.

City government information official Zhang Qingyang said Liu Xia and Liu Xiaoguang had decided upon the scattering of ashes at sea.

But close friend and fellow dissident Hu Jia said the motivation behind the sea burial was so that there was nothing to remember him by on Chinese soil and so that supporters could not create a shrine to pay tribute to him.

We know that Liu Xiaobos home is Beijing, his spiritual home is here, his love was also found here, he said.

Hu said it was well-known among Lius friends that his elder brother did not agree with his political views and that it was a cynical move for him to be presented to the media as representing Liu Xia and the family.

The extent to what the authorities are capable of always exceeds our imagination, they always have something worse than imagined planned, Hu said of the news conference.

China has repeatedly attacked foreign governments for their concern about Liu and calls to allow Liu Xia to leave the country if she wishes, and foreign reporters in Shenyang have been closely monitored by plainclothes security.

Efforts are being made to secure permission from Chinese authorities for Liu Xia and her brother Liu Hui to leave, a Western diplomat said on Friday. The last Nobel Peace Prize winner to live out his dying days under state surveillance was Carl von Ossietzky, a pacifist who died in Berlin in Nazi Germany in 1938.  Reuters

Wife free so far: Beijing

The death of Liu, who was sentenced in 2009 for 11 years on the charges of sedition and incarcerated since then has brought the focus on the future of his activist wife Liu Xia, who has also been confined to house detention

Liu Xia, who was also an artist, poet and a long-time associate of Liu in his uncompromising fight for democracy in China, was allowed to be with him after he was granted medical parole last month

After Lius death pressure was mounted by the international community on China to allow Liu Xia to travel abroad to receive the Noble Prize awarded in absentia to her husband in 2010.

Asked about Liu Xias condition, Zhang said, Liu Xia is a Chinese citizen, and Chinese relevant departments will protect her legal interests and rights in accordance with the law.

Thousands hold vigil in Hong Kong

Rights groups and Western governments have mourned Liu Xiaobos death and urged authorities to grant freedom of movement to his wife and the rest of his family. Several thousand people in Hong Kong held an evening vigil for Liu, holding up candles and white roses in a largely silent march to Chinas main representative office. Some carried banners calling Liu a peoples hero and demanding Liu Xia be truly freed.
Washington, July 15

Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian- born mathematician who was the first woman to win the coveted Fields Medal, has died in a US hospital after a battle with cancer. She was 40. Mirzakhani friend Firouz Naderi announced her death on Saturday on Instagram, and her relatives confirmed the death to the Mehr agency in Iran.

Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University in California, died after the cancer she had been battling for four years spread to her bone marrow, Iranian media said.

In 2014 Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics, which is awarded by the International Congress of Mathematicians.

The award recognized her sophisticated and highly original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres. She had already won the 2009 Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics and the 2013 Satter Prize of the American Mathematical Society. Born and raised in Tehran, Mirzakhani initially dreamed of becoming a writer, but by the time she started high school her affinity for solving mathematical problems and working on proofs had shifted her sights.

It is funits like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case, she said when she won the Fields Medal. I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path.

Mirzakhani became known on the international mathematics scene as a teenager, winning gold medals at both the 1994 and 1995 International Math Olympiadsfinishing with a perfect score in the latter competition. In 2008 she became a professor of mathematics at Stanford. She is survived by her husband and young daughter.  AFP
Vatican City, July 14

If anyone had any doubts how Pope Francis feels about people who always complain, the answer is now tacked to the door of his frugal suite in a Vatican residence: No whining.

Under the explicit warning, the red-and-white Italian language sign goes on to say that violators are subject to a syndrome of always feeling like a victim and the consequent reduction of your sense of humour and capacity to solve problems.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The sign is adorned with the international symbol for no  a backslash in a circle.

It adds: The penalty is doubled if the violation takes place in the presence of children. To get the best out of yourself, concentrate on your potential and not on your limitations. Then the closing zinger: Stop complaining and take steps to improve your life.

The sign was given to the Pope recently by Italian psychologist and self-help author Salvo Noe. Francis promised Noe he would put it up in his office for a laugh.

Francis has had no shortage of complainers in the Vatican and in the Church since his election in 2013. He has tried to steer the 1.2 billion-member Church on a more inclusive and merciful path, angering conservatives who say he is sowing doctrinal confusion.

One recent episode involved Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a German whom the Pope removed last month from his post as Vatican doctrinal chief at the end of a five-year term.

Mueller, who disagrees with the Pope on a number of issues, apparently expected his mandate to be renewed automatically. Mueller later told a German newspaper that the way he was treated was unacceptable.  Reuters
Washington, July 15

The Trump administration has moved the Supreme Court to block a federal judge's ruling that weakened the president's ban on travellers from six Muslim- majority nations by expanding the list of family relationships with US citizens that visa applicants can use to get into America.

In a filing before the US Supreme Court late evening yesterday, the Department of Justice sought to overturn the ruling of a federal judge in Hawaii this week which sought to limit the number of people affected by the travel ban.

The Supreme Court is currently not in session, but can take emergency cases.

US District Judge Derrick Watson this week had ordered the Trump administration not to enforce the ban on grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the US.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson said in his ruling.

Watson had also ruled that the government may not exclude refugees who have formal assurance from a resettlement agency in the US.

Opposing the Hawaii court ruling, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the district court has issued decisions that are entrusted to the executive branch, undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion, and violated a proper respect for separation of powers.

"The Supreme Court has had to correct this lower court once, and we will now reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the executive branch's duty to protect the nation," Sessions said.

"Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security," he argued.

Sessions alleged that by its decision, the district court had "improperly substituted" its policy preferences for the national security judgements of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court.

Following Session's remarks, the Department of Justice approached the Supreme Court to overturn the Hawaii judge order.

The US Supreme Court had last month allowed a scaled- back version of the ban to go into effect before it hears the case in October, exempting visa applicants from the ban if they can prove a "bona fide" relationship with a US citizen.

The Supreme Court's ruling had allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees to come into force. PTI
If words were fists, Tracie Chandler would be a bare-knuckled brawler.

I was taught, No. 1, stand up for what you believe in, even if you have to stand alone, the longtime north Tulsa advocate said. And I have a strong sense for what is right and wrong. I cannot stand  and I do not understand  mans inhumanity to man.

At 69, Chandler remains resolute in her fight to improve north Tulsa.

Among her latest pet projects is the 36th Street North Corridor small area plan, a guide for future development there that was approved by the City Council in late 2013. As president of the Phoenix Development Council, formed earlier that year, she is the pulse of the neighborhood, working with the city to help implement the plan.

What we really like about the (name) Phoenix is that we wanted not just to return (north Tulsa) to its former economic glory but to exceed it with each passing year, Chandler said this week during an interview at Crossover Health Services. As president, Ive had some major challenges. But Ive been having fun. Ive been having the time of my life.

Chandler has worked with more than a dozen groups to champion causes such as voter registration, financial literacy, the formation of an African-American Affairs Commission and a brick-paver fundraiser for a planned grocery store at 36th Street North and Peoria Avenue.

At her right-hand is Cheryl Lawson, Phoenix vice president and founder of Social Media Tulsa.

Having her (Chandlers) voice is really important, because for us, 36th Street North is home, and its our neighborhood, Lawson said. But to people outside of this neighborhood, its just a blip. Its just a street in north Tulsa. With Tracies advocacy, more and more people are starting to feel pride in it. 

It really is great to have her be the voice in some of the those uncomfortable conversations. Some people you have to kind of stay on because were not always the priority.

The 36th Street North Corridor is underserved by commercial development and suffers from negative perceptions, but adjacent single-family neighborhoods have roots that reach back generations.

Under the small area plan, recommendations for future development fall into categories of land use and environmental features, transportation, economic development, housing, parks and open spaces, and legacies and urban designs.

People should come and invest out here, Chandler said. Why? Because were close to downtown  less than 10 minutes, and less than 15 to the airport. You have the Gilcrease Museum. Youve got the Aerospace Museum. Youve got the zoo. This is a prime area for development, and there are a lot of places open for development.

Chandler said she spent 36 years as a school teacher in Tulsa. But she has been just as passionate about her community as she was in the classroom.

Im a person who tells it like it is, Chandler said. Thats what I do. People get upset about that, but thats who I am.
FOYIL  Ed Galloway did not build Totem Pole Park, an iconic stop along historic Route 66, as a tourist attraction.

However, more than 10,000 people have stopped and signed the visitors book in the past year.

On the recent Fourth of July week, there were visitors from Sweden, Paris and the Channel Islands (English Channel near Normandy, France). A family of four from Connecticut was re-tracing a Route 66 family trip from 22 years ago on a recent day, because we wanted our kids to see this.

However, when the totem pole was completed in 1942, Oklahoma 28A was still a dirt road. There was no sign on Route 66 to direct travelers 3.5 miles east to the park.

Yet, the park was packed all the time with local folks and Tulsans on their way to Grand Lake because we were about halfway.

Galloway would be surprised, and probably very pleased, that so many people now consider his park a must stop on any trip down historic Route 66.

He would be more than surprised, said David Anderson, who is co-director of Totem Pole Park with his wife, Patsy. And, hed be pretty happy that the totem pole and the park have been brought back to life.

John Wooley, a noted Oklahoma author and Foyil native, has lived just a mile from the park for most of his life. He recently completed a book, Ed Galloways Totem Pole Park, that tells the story of the park and the artist who built it.

Very, very surprised if he knew that people were coming here to visit his park from all over the world, said Wooley. He built it as a place for local folks to have a picnic. I can remember coming here after church to have a picnic.

These days, you can come into the Fiddle House (a small shop and museum at the park) just about any day of the week and hear someone speaking a foreign language. That kind of amazes me.

Just as Route 66 has experienced a renaissance in recent years, so have many of the attractions along the Mother Road.

The totem pole, the self-proclaimed largest concrete totem pole in the world (90 feet tall), is the centerpiece of a small park that has other smaller totem poles and decorative picnic tables and chairs. It is operated by the Rogers County Historical Society.

Totem Pole Park underwent a $42,000 renovation in the last eight years, including some final painting near the top of the totem pole in the past two years.

It is the perfect example of the type of roadside attractions that popped up along Route 66.

It was a brightly colored, unique and odd attraction for weary travelers.

There wasnt any advertising or anything like that, said Anderson. It was word of mouth. It was a Chelsea and Foyil thing.

Folks from Tulsa headed to Grand Lake would often stop for a picnic. The park was about the halfway point to the lake. Otherwise, it was just people telling other people.

Word spread fast. By the mid-1940s and throughout the 1950s and early 1960s  even without a sign on Route 66  a steady stream of cars made the short detour off Route 66 to stop at Totem Pole Park.

Joes Grocery Store was next door and they did quite a business, said Wooley.

When Galloway died in 1962, the park and totem pole both deteriorated.

It was neglected, said Anderson. The paint was peeling off. For about 20 years, the park got no attention and really started to go downhill.

The park was in serious decline until Wooley wrote a story for the Tulsa World in 1982 about the park, publicity that generated a new-found enthusiasm to preserve it.

It was amazing, said Wooley, a long time staffer and hall-of-fame writer at the Tulsa World. That was the first story I wrote for the Tulsa World, and the amount of interest it generated taught me a valuable journalism lesson. A lot of people read the newspaper and you have to be accurate.

The story generated interest to start painting projects to save the totem poles and picnic tables. The private residence on the park, Galloways home, was renovated.

So was the Fiddle House, home to not only souvenirs and a small museum, but an exhibit space for the nearly 120 fiddles that Galloway carved from wood sent to him from all over the world.

He was the manual-training teacher at Charles Pages Sand Springs Home, said Wooley. He loved to build all types of things but he was especially fond of carving wood.

Thats why he made all of these fiddles. Occasionally, we hear from folks that have some furniture he made. He was a very creative guy.

As such, hed probably be very happy to know that his Totem Pole Park, fresh from new paint and updates, is now considered one of Americas greatest examples of folk art.

And, more than 1,000 people from overseas visited his park last year.

The number of people who stop here from all over the world is the most incredible thing to me, said Anderson. I grew up around here. I drove by this place thousands of times over the years.

To think people come from all over the world to visit this place is amazing. Im so happy and proud that weve been able to preserve it. It is our little interesting corner of the world right here in Foyil.
The attorney for a man charged in a teens death during an alleged theft of fireworks said Friday that the district attorneys decision to prosecute his client is outrageous.

The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office filed a first-degree manslaughter charge Friday morning against 32-year-old Johnny Mize Jr. under two theories: that he fatally shot 15-year-old Jake Ulrich during a period of anger and that Mizes decision to shoot Ulrich was an overreaction to Ulrich and his cousin, Jack Ulrich, stealing from the fireworks stand owned by Mizes father.

Authorities said they found Jake Ulrichs body slumped over in the cab of Jack Ulrichs truck, which had been abandoned in the 6500 block of West Edison Street. The fireworks stand was in the 600 block of South 65th West Avenue.

Jack Ulrich, 27, faces a misdemeanor larceny count in the theft. First Assistant District Attorney Erik Grayless said the value of what hes accused of stealing, $600, no longer meets the threshold for a felony charge because of a change in the law that took effect this month.

By that rationale, Ulrich cannot be charged with felony murder, a charge that can be applied when a death occurs during the commission of a felony.

Tulsa-based attorney Nathan Milner, who represents the Ulrich family, told the Tulsa World the family is pleased to see charges filed against Mize. Jail records indicate that Mize posted $50,000 bond and was out of custody as of Friday afternoon.

Weve been adamant that this was unjustified and unwarranted, Milner said of the shooting. This (incident) was a larceny at best  a misdemeanor.

But defense attorney Kevin Adams told the World the prosecution is blaming the wrong person for Jake Ulrichs death. He said the evidence clearly shows Mize is innocent of any crime, and he alleged that the District Attorneys Office seems to be just anti-Second Amendment based on its handling of the case and others such as that of former Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby.

I cannot believe they did this to the Mize family, Adams said. Its mind-blowing that this is the decision theyve decided to make.

Grayless said the Sheriffs Offices affidavit gave the state cause to question Mize Jr.s actions in the altercation both due to his emotional state and what he said the Ulrich cousins did. He said the states second manslaughter theory, which isnt used as often as a basis for prosecution, fits well for a situation such as the one involving Mize Jr.

Im not speaking about the facts of this case, but just to give the easiest example, two kids walk into a convenience store. One of them steals gum, and they attempt to flee, Grayless said. The store owner shoots one of them. Wed all agree that was an unnecessary and overreaching act to prevent that stolen gum. In other words, he took it too far.

A probable cause affidavit states that Mize told Tulsa County Sheriffs Office detectives that he saw two people in a green truck steal a box of fireworks, which prompted him to jump over the counter and point a gun at the people to scare them. Mize said he thought someone fired a shot at him because he heard a pop sound, and he told deputies he fired his gun after hearing the noise but wasnt sure what, if anything, he hit.

Mize said he then jumped into the bed of the pickup, but he told detectives the driver of the truck swerved in an effort to throw him from the truck bed. He said he then shot out one of the pickups tires and that the driver fled on foot after the pickup came to a stop.

Jack Ulrich was interviewed about the events July 6 and was released.

Although Mize said he remembered the driver, later identified as Jack Ulrich, yelling after the truck stopped, he said he couldnt remember details because he might have blacked out.

Mizes father, Johnny Mize Sr., said in his interview with deputies that he saw a flash come from the green pickup before his son shot at it.

Mize Sr. said he also tried to jump into the truck bed but was unable to when it fled from the fireworks stand at a high rate of speed. Once he caught up with his son at Edison Street, Mize Sr. said both loaded the stolen fireworks from the green truck into their vehicle and drove back to the stand.

Nobody likes to be stolen from, and we understand that, but there are rules about guns and when to use them, Milner said Friday.

Adams said he and his co-counsel, Stephen Lee, will represent the Mizes even if they cant afford to pay them because this case is that outrageous and the defense attorneys dont think some nerd with a law degree should tell a working-class family how to defend their business from criminal activity.

My guy was doing the right thing trying to protect himself, Adams said.
In Part Two of Australian Storys profile of Rosie Ayliffe the UK mum lobbies for a central register of certified farms and hostels and a safe farm-work scheme.

When you do this kind of work that that we have to do to get the second-year visa you encounter a lot of bad stuff. Djuro, backpacker

The farmer kind of went down a back sort of side road. I got out of the car, ended up kind of falling backwards into a ditch. He came around the truck and got on top of me.Chelsey, backpacker

You cant say that weve actually made progress until these stories stop coming in. Its all still happening and while its all still happening, Im not prepared to stop. Rosie Ayliffe

When Rosie Ayliffes daughter, Mia Ayliffe-Chung, was murdered last August in a backpackers hostel in north Queensland it made headlines around the world.

The 20-year-old from Derbyshire was allegedly stabbed by a French backpacker, Smail Ayad, who also allegedly murdered the man who came to her aid, British backpacker Tom Jackson.

Mia and Tom were both undertaking 88 days of farm work in order to extend their 417 visas for a second year.

Their parents knew little about the scheme when their children embarked upon it but say they later discovered widespread financial, sexual and psychological abuse of the young travellers who signed up for it.

Not long after her daughters death, Rosie Ayliffe began a media campaign highlighting what she sees as the schemes shortcomings and demanding greater government oversight.

In May this year, after becoming frustrated by the lack of change on the ground, she decided to come to Australia to talk directly to people involved in the industry.

Australian Story followed her on that journey as she met farmers, backpackers and politicians to discuss problems and solutions.

One female backpacker, Chelsey, told Rosie she had been sexually assaulted by a farmer who went on to assault another backpacker. He was convicted but not put on the sex offenders register.

Numerous backpackers told her how they went to hostels on the promise of work when there was none, ending up in debt.

A resident in one small town told her that some farmers demand sex for sign off, refusing to certify the 88 days work unless the traveller agrees to perform sexual acts.

Rosie also made an emotional visit to the hostel where Mia died, hearing distressing details of her daughters last moments. Even with chest injuries, even after a blow to the heart, Mia was still fighting for her life, says said. I took the experience from Home Hill with me for the rest of the journey.

During the trip Rosie became convinced of the need to immediately create a website to help direct young travellers to safe farms and hostels.

But that is only an interim measure. This week she is in Australia to lobby for greater government action, for the creation of a central register of certified farms and hostels and for a safe and fair 88-day farm-work scheme.

8pm Monday on ABC.
0: France and Germany did not concede a goal in qualifying.

1: Five teams are making their first UEFA Women's EURO finals appearances  Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland and Switzerland.

2: Only two nations have reached past finals without ever winning and they have both done so twice  England (1984 and 2009) and Italy (1993 and 1997).

3: Only three nations have won this title  Germany (eight times), Norway (twice) and Sweden (once).

4: Only one player has managed four goals in a UEFA Women's EURO finals match  Norway's Marianne Pettersen in a 5-0 grop defeat of Denmark in 1997. It is also the joint-largest finals win with Germany v Russia in 2001 and Sweden v Finland in 2013.

Getty Images

5: Italy's Melania Gabbiadini is the only player with a career total of five goals in UEFA Women's EURO finals group stages.

6: Germany's Inka Grings managed a record six goals in the 2009 finals to finish as top scorer for the second straight tournament.

7: The seven finals venues sharing the 31 games are Breda, Deventer, Doetinchem, Enschede, Rotterdam, Tilburg and Utrecht.

8: Four teams managed a perfect eight wins in qualifying  France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

9: Belgium's Tessa Wullaert was the top provider in qualifying with nine assists.

10: Three players managed ten goals in qualifying  Norway's Ada Hegerberg, Iceland's Harpa Thorsteinsdottir and Scotland's Jane Ross.

16: For the first time there are 16 teams in the finals, up from the 12 in 2009 and 2013 and eight prior to that.

19: Celia Sasic (nee Okoyino da Mbabi) scored a record 19 goals in Germany's run to the 2013 title, including qualifying.

20: Years since the last hat-trick in a UEFA Women's EURO final tournament  Angelique Roujas for France in their 3-1 win against Russia in the group stage on 2 July 1997.



Highlights: Great Germany goals from the past 20 years

22: Years Germany have been reigning champions, winning the title back from Norway in 1995 and retaining it in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013.

34: The oldest scorer in a post-1991 final tournament is Patrizia Panico aged 34 years 208 days for Italy in a 2009 quarter-final with Germany. Outfield players that could break that record this time are Ife Dieke and Leanne Ross of Scotland.

40: Germany's Birgit Prinz has scored a record 40 UEFA Women's EURO goals including ten in finals (a mark she shares with Grings). Prinz also has a record 23 finals appearances and five titles (1995, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009).

47: A record 47 nations entered the 2017 competition.

55: Patrizia Panico played in a record 55 UEFA Women's EURO games including qualifiers and, now retired, is absent from the finals for the first time since the group stage was introduced in 1997.

104: Germany became the first team to pass 100 finals goals during the 2013 edition and are now up to 104. They have conceded just 23 in those 44 games, of which 35 were won and just two lost.

FPF

105: Minute of the second leg of their play-off against Romania in which Portugal got their decisive extra-time away goal, scored by debutant substitute Andreia Norton.

200: Last Friday Gemma Fay won her 200th cap for Scotland, the only player in the finals to be on a double century.

368: A record number of players are featuring in this largest-ever finals.

41,301: The competition record crowd that watched Germany beat Norway 1-0 in the 2013 final at Friends Arena, Stockholm.

216,888: The total number of people that watched the 25 games in the 2013 finals in Sweden.
Wyoming Business Tips for July 23-29

A weekly look at Wyoming business questions from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC), part of WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Sarah Hamlin, WSBDC Network regional director

How can I improve my businesss online visibility? Krista, Riverton

Google search trends show that 97 percent of consumers scan the internet to find local goods and services, but only 37 percent of business owners have a claimed local directory listing.

During this busy season, and with the Great American Eclipse just one month away, it is time to make sure your business information is displayed correctly online.

Googles Get Your Business Online program offers free Google directory and Google map listings for your business. When returning search results, Google is looking at the following factors:

-- Relevance: How well does a business listing match the search query? If your listing is detailed and up to date, Google will have a better idea of what your business does.

-- Distance: How close is your business to the searcher or the area specified?

-- Prominence: It is gauged by how well known your business is based on the information that Google can find across the internet. This is where having consistent information about your business -- such as name, location and hours -- is important. Consistent business information helps Google evaluate that you are a real business.

All businesses with storefronts -- or owners who see customers in a local service area -- are eligible to have Google listings. Google offers a free diagnostic tool to help you evaluate, or get started, with your business directory listing.

Here are some tips to get started:

-- You will need a Google email address or have registered another email address with Google to start your listing. The listing does not take the place of your other online activity. It is meant to complement your website, social networks, etc.

-- Your business name should match the legal name. Nicknames and slogans should not be included.

-- You will need to include a physical street address. If you work in a home office and do not see clients at your place of business, click I deliver goods and services to my customers at their location. This will allow you to hide your physical address and create a service area for your business. Remember, this is meant to help you optimize your local search ranking. You want to a pick a service radius that makes sense for your business.

-- P.O. boxes are not allowed, because Google is trying to direct people to your physical location.

-- Google will make you verify that you are the business owner. This will be done, most frequently, with a pin number that comes via postal mail.

-- Take the time to add photos, your hours and website to your listing. Completed listings are believed to be two times more reputable than other listings.

A blog version of this article and an opportunity to post comments are available at www.wyomingsbdc.org/blog1/.

For more information, call the WSBDC Network Procurement Technical Assistance Center at (307) 772-7372 or email amlewis@uwyo.edu.

The WSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming. To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.
Exceeding performance targets

According to PetroVietnams business report, the corporation received a revenue of VND247 trillion ($10.8 billion) in the first six months of 2016, up VND31.5 trillion ($1.3 billion) compared to the same period last year, including after tax profit of VND13.1 trillion ($572.8 million), up VND2.6 trillion ($113.6 million).

PetroVietnams leader explained that the increase in revenue and profit was because the average price of crude oil during these six months was $54.4 per barrel, $4.4 (or 8 per cent) higher than the corporations projection.

PetroVietnam sees increased profit thanks to higher-than-expected oil price

To reach the reported result, PetroVietnam has exploited 13.15 million tonnes of oil equivalents, including 7.9 million tonnes of crude oil, most of which was exploited from domestic oil fields, with only 0.97 million tonnes imported. The corporation has also produced 11.11 billion kWh of electricity, 2.29 million tonnes of petroleum, and 909,000 tonnes of fertilisers.

PetroVietnam has contributed VND44.2 trillion ($1.9 billion) to the national budget, accounting for 59 per cent of the 2017 plan. The corporation has also saved more than VND4.7 trillion ($205.5 million) from cutting costs at all subsidiaries.

Existing problems

While the increased revenue and profit show positive signs of recovery, there are still many challenges ahead for the second largest oil and gas distributor in Vietnam.

Despite the recent increase, crude oil price still fluctuates at a low level and is likely to drop again in the last six months of 2017, according to estimations by PetroVietnam.

Additionally, in the past year, PetroVietnam has also been plagued with scandals of mismanagement and huge losses incurred from a series of unprofitable projects.

Earlier this month, at a meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to discuss measures to deal with 12 loss-making projects, five of which is developed by PetroVietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue openly criticised the corporation for its failure to effectively handle the matter.

PetroVietnams deputy general director Nguyen Hung Dung has attributed the lack of progress in the handling process to financial hurdles, but the Deputy Prime Minister and MoIT affirmed that the state will not spend any more money on these projects.

PetroVietnam has formed a task force shortly after the meeting to focus on handling the five loss-making projects. MoIT has approved the bankruptcy proceedings for Phu Tho Ethanol Biofuel Plant and Dung Quat Ship Building Industry Company.

For the Binh Phuoc ethanol biofuel plant, due to its role in the implementation of E5 biofuel starting from 2018, MoIT has instructed PetroVietnam to work with foreign investors and resume operations soon. The remaining two projects, Dung Quat Ethanol Biofuel project and Dinh Vu Yarn Plant, are to be restarted before divestment.

Dung Quat Ship Building Industry Company

According to PetroTimes, PetroVietnam has held a conference to summarise business activities in the first six months and plans for the last six months of 2017. PetroVietnams leader affirmed its commitment to achieve the target of exploiting 13.28 million tonnes of crude oil and 10.61 billion cubic metres of natural gas in accordance with the directions issued by the prime minister and MoIT.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai noted the important contribution of PetroVietnam to the Vietnamese economy, and affirmed that MoIT will work with PetroVietnam and strive to overcome this difficult, challenging period.
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.
This has been a pretty big summer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel has launched two movies in the same year that will finish above $300 million domestically, a first for the studio (which still has Thor: Ragnarok on its way this winter). Still, theres something even bigger brewing next summer, and today at Disneys D23 Expo in Anaheim, we got our first significant look at it. Avengers: Infinity War will bring back the classic Avengers team, relatively recent additions like Ant-Man and Spider-Man, as well as new recruits including Doctor Strange and the faces in Guardians of the Galaxy, all of whom will be tested by the mad titan Thanos and his powerful space minions.

Back in 2011, Marvel dropped the very first footage of the initial Avengers film at D23, so its fitting that they brought a mammoth teaser-trailer for Infinity War here today. But what did we see from the film that general audiences and next weeks Comic-Con crowds havent yet been privy to? Read on.

As you might remember, when we last saw our Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, things werent so hunky dory: A rift between Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) split our superheroes in two factions, and thats not even taking into account the fact that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) were somewhere else in the universe, doing their own thing. Well learn more about Thor and the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok, but the Infinity War trailer opened with the Asgardian being flung against the windshield of the Milano, the ship commanded by Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) from Guardians of the Galaxy. Get it off! shouts Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), as though a particularly ugly bug had been smushed there.

Mantis (Pom Klementieff) brings Thor back to life, and he promptly greets our Guardians with an unfriendly, Who the hell are you? (To be fair, Star-Lord had just told his fellow Guardians, This might be dangerous, so lets put on our mean faces.) It then seems like Thor joins forces with the Guardians to guide them to Earth, where we see the following things go down, in quick succession.

Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) seems to cut a flaming car in half. It looks like her beau, Vision (Paul Bettany), might be trapped nearby, and to judge from their faces, something sad and bad is going down.

Death follows him like a shadow, we hear, as Josh Brolins ultimate villain Thanos is teased.

Suddenly, Tom Hiddlestons Loki appears, cutting through flaming wreckage to grab the Tesseract, which holds one of the Infinity Stones. Is this what Scarlet Witch and Vision were trying to prevent?

Next, theres a glimpse of Tom Hollands Peter Parker on his school bus. The hair on his arms stands up. Hows that for some trouble-activated spider-sense?

Hes come to us, someone says, as some alien ships crash-land on a wrecked Earth. A worried Mantis stands with Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, and the other heroes as the aircrafts approach.

This does put a smile on my face, intones Thanos, as Gamora (Zoe Saldana) takes in the wreckage of the room kept by the Collector (Benicio del Toro). More Infinity Stones pillaged.

And thats when Thanos walks through a portal onto Earth  big and hulking and boasting a shit-eating grin. Star-Lord and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) leap into action, harnessing magic and airborne stepping stones. Even Spider-Man swings into the scene, wearing a cool new suit  perhaps the one teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming?

Briefly, we see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), whos blonde now, and Captain America, whos bearded now. Listen, I know the fate of the universe is at stake, but dont we all feel a little refreshed after spending valuable time on an undercover makeover? Talk to Wonder Woman about that, she knows whats up.

In the final moments, things get truly heightened. Thanos grabs Thors head in his meaty paw and regards it like a grape hes about to squish. Maybe he saw that scary black-and-white episode of Twin Peaks and wants to practice storming radio stations and breaking open heads?

You can run from it, growls Thanos, but your destiny still arrives. And then he holds up one hand and seemingly destroys a planet far away in the sky  or, if this scene is taking place on earth, our freaking moon  and heaves the remains of it at our Avengers in a single shot.

Its a whole hell of a lot. Youll see the footage whenever Marvel decides to put it online, though the entire Infinity War  or half of it, since this is the first installment of an Avengers two-parter that concludes the following year  will be in theaters May 4, 2018.
Photo: beyonce/Instagram

Mere hours after Beyonce blessed us with the first images of her twins, Sir and Rumi, she shared three more images on Instagram. Each of the pictures shows off the chic outfit she wore to a Thursday event with Jay-Z and also serves as a reminder that only one month after giving birth to two (2) babies, Beyonce looks like a queen at all times  whether shes wearing an extravagant silk organza robe or a miniskirt.
Photo: Mike Windle/Getty Images

Its been four long years since Leonardo DiCaprio starred in a Martin Scorsese project, provided you dont count Scorseses short film promoting the opening of a Chinese luxury resort and casino The Audition, which, you probably shouldnt. According to Variety, the pair are now reportedly developing a project based on Lost City of Z author David Granns nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Flower Moon delves into the murder spree perpetrated against the Osage Nation in Osage, Oklahoma, from 1921 to 1925. A precursor to the FBI investigated the crimes as dozens of Native American residents were murdered in an attempt to steal the rights to oil production on their land. DiCaprio has also long been attached to play serial killer H.H. Holmes in Scorseses film adaptation of Erik Larsons The Devil in the White City. Depending on the order in which they complete the films, you could soon be watching all the worst parts of American history starring Leonardo DiCaprio in chronological order. Maybe its a good idea to throw in some casino shorts once in a while. Theyre both going to need a palate cleanser.
The Incredibles fans attending D23, Disneys fan expo, were surprised and delighted to catch up with the franchises persnickety superhero fashion designer in the Pixar-made tribute video above. Even more surprising is how deeply everyone from Andre Leon Talley to Rachel Zoe and Heidi Klum to Zac Posen committed to pretending Edna Mode is an actual person. How is this all of their most impressive onscreen roles to date? You barely even remember Edna is made out of  whatever computer generated images are made out of. Letters and numbers? An extremely chic and fashion-forward collection of letters and numbers to be sure, one which will be headed your way via The Incredibles 2, scheduled to hit theaters on June 15, 2018.
Project Promise, a three-week summer program that has served low-income Waco ISD students for 18 years, soon may disappear if organizers cant convince the Waco City Council to fund it for next year.

Officials with the program will plead their case to the council Tuesday to keep its share of about $180,000 in Community Development Block Grant money the city has split between 11 public service programs for the past several years, they said.

The city has slated Project Promise and two programs administered by Mission Waco to quit receiving the money in the citys next budget cycle.

The city is working to spread its shrinking pool of grant money among fewer organizations, said Melett Harrison, the citys housing and economic development director.

The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the city can only use about 15 percent, or about $180,000 for next year, toward public services, Harrison said.

Thats predominately the nonprofits in this community, and they all do very good and important work, Harrison said. We just dont have a lot of money to spend there.

The grant requires monitoring of the programs, and its not worth distributing a small amount of money when the administrative costs are so steep, she said.

The city is looking at a $50,000 minimum threshold, and Project Promise has gotten about $37,000 in recent years.

HUD representatives told the city giving small grants to numerous agencies isnt an effective approach, Harrison said.

The city took cues from Prosper Wacos priorities of health, education and financial security in its first look at trimming the number of programs it funds. Project promise scored the lowest. A youth workforce training program and a similar adult program by Mission Waco are the other two on the chopping block.

Project Promise, which already has ended for this summer, allows about 60 students to attend the Baylor University School of Educations University for Young People. It offers two classes a day for three weeks for fourth- through 12th-grade gifted and talented students, according to Baylors website.

In addition to the $37,000 from the city, program has also received about $10,000 the past two summers from the Independent Bank Foundation, and Baylor contributes an equal share to pay for people, infrastructure and space for UYP, said Susan Johnsen, Project Promises principal investigator for the grant.

The other contributions arent enough to continue the program, she said.

The recommendation to quit funding the program has left representatives befuddled, especially since the program has been successful, Johnsen said.

Essentially all Project Promise students graduate high school, and more than 90 percent continue into higher education, she said.

More than 15 percent of students who completed the program have an associates degree, 34 percent have a bachelors and 9 percent have a masters degree, she said. And the program just had its first student go on to complete a doctoral degree, she said.

Most of the students are first-generation college students and Project Promise is often the place they learn to believe college is an option, Johnsen said.

We understand its a difficult decision because more programs are competing for shrinking amounts of funding, Waco ISD Superintendent A. Marcus Nelson wrote in a statement Friday. Project Promise is a great program, and perhaps the entities can work together to find a sustainable model to continue benefiting Waco ISD students.

Parents, instructors, mentors and students will make statements about the impact of the program at the 6 p.m. city council meeting, but Harrison isnt entirely sure what good it will do, she said. If anything, the city will be cutting more programs from the list it funds.

The goal would probably be to have only four or five tops in the public service category.  That would be the goal. I do not know if we will get there, Harrison said.

The decision will ultimately be up to the city council, she said.

Its a great program. Theres nobody that argues against that, Harrison said. Maybe, by what theyre doing next Tuesday, there will be some people who step up.  There are arguments on both sides to either fund really good programs or dont fund them forever. Prop them up, get them going and then move on to the other needs in the community.
An attorney representing RE/MAX Centex real estate agent Jody Scoggins and two family members says allegations that the agent illegally obtained more than $1 million in assets from a disabled man in the past year are baseless and will be proven untrue.

Waco attorney David Dumas, who is representing Scoggins in a civil lawsuit, issued a statement Thursday after the family of David and Brenda Menefee filed a civil lawsuit last week against Jody Scoggins; his wife, Kim Scoggins; his mother, Debbie Scoggins; Scoggins Real Estate Team LLC; Scoggins Enterprises LLC; Hessco Roofing & Remodeling LLC; 1st Choice Fencing Inc.; and Pennybags LLC.

Scoggins is a part owner of all the businesses listed as defendants, except Scoggins Real Estate Team, according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims the defendants committed a civil conspiracy, misappropriated and stole the Menefee familys property, used a fraudulent signature to deed over assets, and fraudulently obtained power of attorney to gain access to David Menefees financial information. David Menefee suffers from blindness and dementia, according to the lawsuit.

Dumas wrote Thursday that David Menefee was a lifelong friend of the Scoggins family.

Based on our investigation, the allegations will ultimately be proven to be false, Dumas wrote. It is unfortunate that these unsubstantiated claims have the potential to damage their reputations simply because they have been made. The truth is that Mr. Menefee has been a lifelong friend of the Scoggins family and their attempts to help him through the years have been twisted into this fabricated story and turned against Jody and his family.

Waco attorney Ross Russell filed the lawsuit, claiming more than $1 million in property, mineral rights and cash was taken from David Menefee without his full understanding because of his health conditions. The suit alleges David Menefee had moved into a nursing home when Jody Scoggins rerouted his mail to Scoggins business and blocked Brenda Menefees cell phone number from her husband.

Typically, our office doesnt respond to allegations made in the press or social media, but we did not feel these unsubstantiated allegations should go unchallenged, and we look forward to formally responding in court and clearing their names, Dumas said.

Waco police arrested Scoggins July 6, the day after the civil lawsuit was filed, on a second-degree felony charge of securing the execution of a document by deception and a third-degree felony charge of exploitation of a disabled person.

According to the arrest affidavit, Scoggins befriended David Menefee and took control of mineral rights in Hood County, which had been passed down through his family. Police documents state that the mineral rights were valued between $85,900 and $143,280, but David Menefee sold the rights to Scoggins for $10.

David Menefee told police he would never sign over his mineral rights because they had been in in his family and because they were his main source of income, according to the affidavit.

Waco attorney Phil Frederick, who represents Scoggins in the criminal case, said he looks forward to vigorously defending him.
Abdel-Magied's savaging has been so grotesque in its meanness, ugly in its intolerance and alarming in its violence, that it's obvious something else is going on, too  something has been legitimised and unleashed. And it seems to be hostility to Islam, as well as women. Just two years ago, Abdel-Magied was made Queensland's Young Australian of the Year for her work in founding Youth Without Borders, an organisation that helps young people work for positive change in their communities. In Yassmin's own words, "I do not hold an elected office, I do not officially represent any racial or cultural group, and I have never been part of a political party, union or even political student organisation ... if a few words that I put together are enough to terrify institutions into attacking me  then one has to ask, what are they so afraid of?" What, indeed? Racism, sexism and Islamophobia make a potent brew. Almost 90,000 words, by one estimate, have been written about Abdel-Magied in three months. She gets daily death threats, has had to change her phone number and move house. Then, when she said she was moving to London, trolls sent songs: "You are a c---." Others taunted her "funny hat" and asked why it took so long, adding "good bloody riddance"; now "London will be an Islamic shithole", "don't f---ing come back", "hope you never return".

And foolish  Abdel-Magied's most vehement critics are those who say they oppose extreme Islam. Most experts will tell you their best shot of doing this is through empowering progressive Muslims. But when one sticks their head above the parapet, they are shot down. So how many will want to enter the fray now? After all, Abdel-Magied is also attacked by conservative Muslims for who she is, how she looks and how she thinks. Remember when we ostensibly invaded Afghanistan so Muslim women could be more free? We seem more comfortable with Muslim women being victims than being actors  even worse, assertive actors using their freedom to freely disagree. This week, a multi-university report found Muslim women were the victims of two-thirds of all Islamaphobic attacks in Australia. Globally, when antipathy to and anxiety about Islam flares, it is the women who get burnt. Last month a bag of vomit was thrown at Muslim women driving in Lancashire. A pregnant Muslim woman was kicked in the stomach in a UK supermarket and lost her baby. A Scottish Muslim woman visiting New York had her shirt set on fire when she was standing in the street. In Sydney in May, four women wearing the hijab were assaulted by a 39-year-old woman who said in court: "Only thing I did was ... hit a Muslim. I don't see any problem with that." On Wednesday, Abdel-Magied tweeted: "Striving to always respond from a place of forgiveness and grace, inshallah."
Malcolm Turnbull heads the 1999 Australian Republican Movement campaign, whose failure has been tipped as a wake-up call to those who plan to push for same-sex marriage. Credit:AP "The level of support amongst Australians for the Queen is enormous," says Australian Monarchist League spokesperson Rachel Bailes. "Her Majesty is a meaningful anchor of stability and endurance for the Australian people." This is a far cry from public perceptions of the Queen 20 years ago, as an out-of-touch monarch presiding over a dysfunctional family. The 1990s seemed to have bring one disaster after another for the Queen, from Charles and Di's messy divorce, to Fergie's cringe-worthy toe sucking incident and Diana's tragic death. In a recent article in the Australian Journal of Political Science, Luke Mansillo notes there have been "considerable improvements" in the monarchy's public profile with Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding and the arrival of their children George and Charlotte in 2013 and 2015. Along with these positive happenings, the young royals have remained scandal-free (apart from the odd Nazi costume). They also appear more modern than previous generations, speaking out on issues such as mental health and doing relevant jobs, such as serving in Afghanistan or working as an air ambulance helicopter pilot. Says Sydney University's Mansillo, young Australians who don't have constitutional angst over the 1975 Dismissal or memories of the Charles and Di mayhem have "no reason to dislike the monarchy".

The gossip magazines (and mainstream news sites) continue to whir with breathless minor updates of Kate, William and Harry's exploits. This has recently included the news that the Duchess of Cambridge attended Wimbledon, had a haircut and wore a tiara that Diana used to like. "[The royals] are the ultimate celebrities in a way, they don't disappear," Mansillo adds. And yet, despite the good press  and the squeamishness around republic chatter while the Queen is alive  polling indicates that goodwill towards the Queen is not overwhelming. The Australian National University's Australian Election Study tracks attitudes towards the Queen since the 1960s. In 2016, 43 per cent of respondents rated the Queen as "important", up from a low of 30 per cent in 1998  a year after Diana's death  but still below a high of 54 per cent at the end of the 1970s. Social researcher at Essential Media, Rebecca Huntley, cautions that there is no significant research to indicate whether being fond of the royal family means people are less likely to be republican. Dr Huntley adds it is possible to be interested in the monarchy  and say, the latest updates about Prince George's cheeks  and still back a republic. "We could look at the young royals and think we really admire them. But does the system represent us?"

But the do-nothing Elizabethan argument is helped by the fact that there is little buzz around a republic. According to the ANU poll, only a slim majority of Australians support a republic. As of 2016, 53 per cent favoured the change, down from 66 per cent in 1998 ahead of the referendum. The Australian Republic Movement, however, reports it has been revitalised in recent years. While he will not specify numbers, national director Michael Cooney says membership has grown "five fold" in the past two years. The ARM is pushing for a plebiscite in 2020 to determine the model for a republic, followed by a referendum in 2022 and is devoting its energies to generating grassroots support. "We're moving from being a lobby association to being a campaign," says Cooney. Cooney, a former adviser to prime minister Julia Gillard, dismisses the idea that the republic can't be contemplated while Queen Elizabeth is alive. "The Queen herself is undoubtedly more popular than the institution of the monarchy. [But] we don't get to choose who the next one is. And we basically get a Queen Elizabeth every 400 years." Australian National University emeritus professor and former ARM chair, John Warhust, cautions the Elizabethan argument puts the republic on a "hiding to nothing", given the popularity of the William and Co. coming up behind their grandmother.
"Even the most amazing things didn't make me happy," he says. The day his son was born, Joshua was watching the clock, waiting for the moment he could slink away into one of the hospital's bathroom cubicles to place his bets. "Nothing registered. Nothing made me happy, or made me feel anything but empty. Not being a father, or a husband. Nothing." Joshua says. "Except sex." The diagnosis that doesn't exist

"Sex addiction" is a fraught phrase. Its very existence is at the crux of long-running debates between proponents and critics among psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counsellors and others in the medical and addiction fields. The tensions traverse a litany of clinical and cultural landmines, from adequate evidence-based diagnostic criteria to vested interests and social taboos and moralism. But the core contention is whether "sex addiction" strays dangerously close to medicalising normal sexual behaviour. Could people with hearty sexual appetites be slapped with a psychiatric diagnosis? Or has it become a convenient excuse for unfaithful partners that attracts pity instead of divorce proceedings, promoted by high-profile celebrities publicly detailing their own sex addiction demons? Is one person's sexual addiction another's weekend of endless orgasms?

Proponents argue it's a fitting diagnosis for patients experiencing a preoccupation with sex to the point of obsession. Sex addicts have lost control over their sexual urges, fantasies and behaviours, causing severe damage to their wellbeing. It ruins relationships, careers, finances, and mental health. It often piggybacks substance addictions, or other behavioural addictions like drugs and alcohol. The shame of the addiction alone can be devastating, according to the US-based International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals, which runs a certified sex addiction therapist program. Sexual disorders are not recognised as addictions in the two medical tomes used to categorise mental illness. "Sex Addiction" and "Hypersexual disorder'' were rejected for inclusion in the current psychiatrist's bible, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual published in 2013. The DSM-5 does include an intriguing list of eight paraphilic disorders  or sexual disorders  exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism (rubbing one's genitals against an unsuspecting stranger, usually in a public place), paedophilia (attraction to prepubescent children), voyeurism, transvestic fetishism (sexually arousing cross-dressing), sadism and masochism. Sexual disorders had a fraught history of medicalising sexual appetites. Credit:Dionne Gain The manual also includes the catch-all "paraphilic disorder not otherwise specified" (PDNOS), a diagnostic home for the dozen or more paraphilias identified including necrophilia (attraction to corpses), zoophilia (sexual fixation on animals) and podophilia (foot fetishism).

Sex addiction is also absent from the World Health Organisation's ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Disease). However, the diagnosis "excessive sexual drive" is included as a compulsive behavioural disorder. But some psychiatry academics have suggested doctors use loopholes to diagnose their sex addict patients (especially in the US, where insurance is predicated on an official diagnosis) most commonly the DSM-5 categories "other specified sexual dysfunction" and "unspecified sexual dysfunction". "It's highly contentious," former Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry president Dr Mal Hopwood says. "There is certainly not universal agreement about there it should be diagnosed at all. "Australian psychiatrists in general view it as something to be considered with great caution," Hopwood says.

No large epidemiological studies have investigated the prevalence of sexual addiction. A systematic literature review estimated people with symptoms of compulsive sexual behaviour could be somewhere between 3 to 6 per cent, though critics argue this is excessive. Despite the lack of an official diagnosis, private rehabilitation clinics have catered to a boom in behavioural addictions in recent years, including sex addiction. The RANZCP has called for increasing regulation for private addiction treatment centres in Australia and overseas. The rise of for-profit private operators providing services to vulnerable people for a contentious condition warranted scrutiny, Hopwood says. But there was little doubt patients that are trying to wrest back control of their lives.

"All addiction problems [alcohol, drug, behavioural] share the fact that they can have a dreadful impact on people's lives and that of their partners and children,"Hopwood says. Finding treatment for a taboo Joshua's wife gave him an ultimatum: go to rehab or she would leave him. She took their children and moved interstate. "She said she'd get a lawyer, divorce me and I'd only have visitations with my kids," Joshua says. "I was so worn down. I had to sell my car, my boat. I had hit rock bottom and I was heading for suicide. I thought that was it, that I'd never see my kids again. So I gave in."

His wife did her research and footed the $14,000 bill for a 28-day program at The Cabin, Chiang Mai, Thailand, a rehabilitation centre for alcohol, drug and process, or behavioural addictions. "All I had to do was book the flight and that alone was a really big deal. It meant admitting I had a problem, but I didn't know what it was " he says. A lack of an official diagnosis leaves vulnerable patients caught in the middle of the sex addiction debate, says psychotherapist and sex addiction therapist at The Cabin, Brian Russman. "People look at sex addiction as immoral or from a religious standpoint and say to someone with a possible sex addiction that they are weak-willed because we don't have a legitimate diagnosis and it makes it difficult to offer them treatment," Russman says. The safeguard should be straightforward: to diagnose sex addiction  or any mental illness  the tipping point must be whether a person's symptoms are causing them harm.

"We don't make diagnoses on behaviours," Russman says. "If someone has kinks, fetishes, or even has a lot of sex that wouldn't necessarily make them a sex addict. "What defines a sex addict is the same addiction criteria we see in other process [behavioural] and chemical addictions. Preoccupation, withdrawal, negative consequences, internal conflict, shame, guilt, the inability to control, moderate or manage sexual activity." Historically the "harm" failsafe has been monumentally flawed for conditions that flaunt cultural taboos. When harm includes shame, isolation, depression and anxiety, the way a society moralises sex could be the difference between a mental illness diagnosis or a Casanova.

"We need to be very careful of how we make diagnoses subject to ambiguity of social and cultural views," Hopwood says. "There are significant cultural variations in a lot of flux. What we might have thought was problematic 15 years ago, we clearly have different ideas now." Madness From The Womb The history of sexual disorders is paved with women whose sexuality has been poked, prodded and derided by the clinical fraternity. Seventeenth century France, physician Lazare Riviere described a malady of epidemic proportions affecting French women. He declared unchaste women with insatiable sexual appetites and young girls pleasuring themselves were afflicted with "madness from the womb", in which noxious gases from their "seed" would infect their nervous systems and mental faculties.

Riviere's treatments for women so afflicted included leeches applied to the labia, baths filled cold lettuce heads, and shunning dances and romance stories. "Even a normally pious and reserved woman could go insane with passion this way," New Zealand academic Jesse Bering wrote in Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us. In the Victorian era, women and teenage girls with particularly stubborn cases of persistent masturbation underwent surgical clitoridectomies (female circumcision) to quell their ability to feel sexual pleasure, in some cases without their consent. The current ICD-10 still uses the gendered and archaic categories "satyriasis" for men and "nymphomania" for women. "Whereas mere masturbation was often enough to get a woman diagnosed with nymphomania, a man had to exhibit an extraordinary degree of carnality to receive a diagnosis of satyriasis," Bering wrote.

Men were also much more likely to be punished as criminals than treated as patients. Not so anymore. Men are diagnosed in far greater numbers than women, and make up the bulk of patients treated in rehab centres. Russman says "sex addiction" is no crutch or excuse for an unfaithful spouse. He doesn't allow patients to abdicate responsibility, and neither should their families. "Consequences are incredibly important for driving change and recognising the need to make changes in their life," Russman says. "I believe addiction is an illness and disease, however I don't believe it is an excuse to accept unacceptable behaviour. Loved ones need to make a decision about what's safe and appropriate for them.

"[They may say] 'I love you to death, but I'm not going to stick around for your addiction'." The Cabin After Joshua touched down in Thailand, the first person he met was a recovering addict. All counsellors at the Cabin are recovering addicts. Experience of addiction is a core part of the treatment process as staff can both embody hope of recovery and have a keen understanding of an addict's thought processes. "An addict will die an addict," several counsellors and clients say, regardless the length of their sobriety. Addiction is a constant. The compulsion is ingrained, but can be managed.

In appearance, The Cabin in the foothills of north Thailand's mountains is less rehab centre and more luxury holiday resort, in keeping with the property's previous career. The Cabin, Chiang Mai looks more luxury resort than rehab centre. The steep cost is more affordable than many Australian rehab clinics. There is little indication that guests are addiction patients. But there are a few incongruous inclusions. On arrival, luggage is rigorously searched for contraband by staff familiar with ways to hide drugs or pornography. Male and female living quarters are separated, and internet access is strictly controlled.

All clients must commit to complete sobriety, regardless of their addiction. No drugs, alcohol, sexual activity including masturbation, pornography or gambling. Sex and sobriety The first step is getting a person sober. Sexually sober, Russman says. "The foundation of sobriety is essential." But sobriety for sex addicts is not as cut-and-dry as it is for alcohol or drug addictions.

"We treat it a lot like eating disorders. You can't give up food and thankfully for sex addicts it's not about giving up sex entirely forever," Russman says. "It's about identifying behaviours that are addictive and unhealthy and will lead them back to full blown addiction, whether it be pornography, anonymous sex or sex work." The Cabin's inpatient program involves talk therapies, including psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy, the "12-Steps method", and a holistic approach to managing addiction including investigating core beliefs, mindfulness, meditation, and making lifestyle changes including nutrition, sleep hygiene, as well as psycho education. "We teach these guys what's going on in their brains to help them understand why we do the things we do," Russman says. "The evidence for sex addiction is much more concrete that it has previously been."

Sex addiction therapist Brian Russman during a psychoeducation session at The Cabin, Chiang Mai But the research-base for treatment models is as contentious as the diagnosis itself. "There is clear evidence about what works for traditional addictions like alcohol and opiates. There are well-established models for psychiatrist therapy, social rehabilitation and pharmacotherapy," Hopwood says. "We don't have clear evidence about what effective treatment are for behavioural addictions."

Even with evidence-based treatment, Hopwood says the relapse rate for addiction in general is "very high". The relapse rate is between 40 and 60 per cent, according to the US National Institute of Drug Abuse. The Cabin records a high recovery rate among its patients, which measures how many complete its inpatient program, but does not keep records of long-term recovery rates. For Joshua and other patients who spoke to Fairfax Media, The Cabin's most potent antidote for addiction was the connection they made with other addicts. "Knowing that I wasn't alone. I can't tell you how important that was. I realised that I wasn't the only one with these problems and my problems weren't the worst in the world," Joshua says.

"You're not ostracised. You're sitting in a room all suffering from the same disease. I barely drink and barely used drugs, but you hear the story of an alcoholic and you put their blueprint over my own? It's exactly the same." Joshua had been back in Australia and 84 days sober when he spoke to Fairfax Media. "It's a battle, but I take recovery three minutes at a time," he says. "My wife has moments where she gets triggered because of the things I've done. But she says that I'm such a different person now. She says 'I've never seen you so happy and content'." He found ways to connect with her in unlikely forms.
Homicide Squad detectives continue to investigate the death of a woman whose body was found inside a car on the Mitchell Freeway.

The victim is believed to be a 35-year-old woman.

A forensic tent was set up by homicide detectives on the Mitchell Freeway on Saturday after the discovery of a woman's body. Credit:David Allan-Petale

Police found her body in a Mitsubishi Lancer being driven on the Cedric Street off-ramp at around 12.35am on Saturday morning.

The driver of the Mitsubishi Lancer, a 49-year-old man, was assisting police with their inquiries on Saturday.
Arahmaiani Feisal's Handle Without Care 1, 1996-97. Credit:Courtesy of the artist More than 20 years later Aaron Seeto, the Australian director of Museum MACAN  Indonesia's first world-class museum dedicated to international modern and contemporary art  told Arahmaiani the museum had purchased Lingga-Yoni 1994. "We hunted it down and found this work," Seeto says. "It's really important to the history of contemporary Indonesian art." Arahmaiani is still emotional when she speaks about it. "When Aaron told me Museum MACAN bought this one, you could not go inside my brain, I thought no, that is not possible. The work has very deep meaning for me, although it is also quite traumatic. I don't how to explain." About four years ago Arahmaiani created a new version of the artwork for a solo show in New York, which is now in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. But this is not the same as a museum in Indonesia.

"It's New York, it's not my country," she says. "Now, when I heard ... this work is back in Indonesia and it will be in Museum MACAN  wow! It's really exciting." There is no shortage of hype surrounding Museum MACAN, which will open to the public in early November. (MACAN stands for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, a term for the Indonesian archipelago.) The Guardian has included it in its top 10 new museum openings of 2017. The BBC asked whether Jakarta's new museum would put the "often crazy but artistically rich capital" on the map. "We really hope we are part of that broader city infrastructure," Seeto says. "In the same way when you travel on holidays you will probably go to a museum, we want to be part of people's cultural experience of a city." But more than that: Arahmaiani's elation over her art coming home is an example of what the museum means to Indonesian artists. "Artists want to have a place where their work can be seen and work can be cared for into the future," Seeto says. "Actually there is very little museum culture here in Indonesia. This will be the first of its kind." Museum MACAN's founder is Indonesian businessman and philanthropist Haryanto Adikoesoemo, whose art collection comprises more than 800 works from around the world.

Haryanto, the president director of logistics company PT AKR Corporindo, began collecting Indonesian modern and contemporary artwork 25 years ago. He was guided by a passion for art and a desire to support local artists but as his interests grew, his focus expanded internationally. His collection includes the works of acclaimed Indonesian artists such as Raden Saleh, FX Harsono, Heri Dono and Affandi, renowned modern artists Damien Hirst, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat and international contemporary artists Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Tracey Emin. "He often talks about how art allowed him to think differently about how to do things in his day to day business life," Seeto says. The purpose-built museum to share this art with the public  fully funded by Haryanto  will be in an office and residential tower in the Kebon Jeruk neighbourhood of West Jakarta.

"Even though we are privately funded we are actually a museum for Indonesia, a museum for the public, so alongside that there is a whole program for education, outreach, all of those things," Seeto says. Museum MACAN follows a similar model to David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art, credited with getting Hobart humming, and Judith Neilson's White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney. "There's some really great private collections, not just in Australia but popping up all over the world and especially here in the region," Seeto says. "The private sector has taken up a lot of the conversations that we in the West would expect the public sector to do. Also in parts of North America even, there is a much more fluid relationship between public and private. I think in Australia we are slightly sheltered from that reality." Seeto is a veteran of the Australian art scene. Artist Lindy Lee described him as "one of Australia's most important Asian Australian curators and artists". "Not any more, that was another life," demurs Seeto when asked about his own art. (For the record, his photographic work included the series Oblivion, which reproduced internet-sourced images of the Cronulla riots as daguerreotypes to examine how they were reported and understood.) For eight years Seeto was the director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, where he worked with some of the Indonesian artists now featured at Museum MACAN.

It was there that Arahmaiani worked on a three-year project, Edge of Elsewhere, with Indigenous Australians, Muslim immigrants and Tibetan refugees. She says Seeto will make a huge contribution to contemporary art in Jakarta. "In Indonesia, that's what's lacking, we don't have that kind of [museum] infrastructure. Unless art can be explained in a historical context, she says, what has been done is lost and artists have to start again rather than further develop. It will be really really beneficial for the coming generation." In 2015 Seeto moved to the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art to take up the role of curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific Art. When Haryanto approached him almost two years later "it was completely out of the blue", he says.

The move was a tough decision: Seeto had a fascinating job, a young family, and would have to leave the stability of the public system. "I was leading the team for the Asia Pacific Triennial [of Contemporary Art]. I wasn't looking for a job and I wasn't looking to necessarily move but it's very rare to have an opportunity to not just lead a museum but also build one." Indonesia has a vibrant arts scene and an extensive network of private collectors but the works are often not widely accessible to the public. Seeto says Haryanto's vision for Museum MACAN aligned with his own belief that art is something that can be appreciated by everyone and is "not just for certain kinds of elites". "Arts transformation allows us to think differently about how we live, about our histories, how we engage with other people. Our conversations along those lines made us realise there were similarities between our world views and at least the way we believe art plays such an important role in society."

Museum MACAN's opening in early November has been deliberately timed to coincide with two of Indonesia's biggest art events  the Jakarta Biennale and Biennale Jogja. In the lead-up to the opening, artists including Arahmaiani and FX Harsono will stage performance art previews at the museum in August and September. Arahmaiani will go back to her roots: a performance exploring the Javanese religious tradition of kejawen, which syncretises aspects of different religions. This year has seen a rise of Islamic conservatism in Indonesia, with radical groups spearheading massive protests against the former Christian governor of Jakarta, known as Ahok, whom they said had insulted Islam. Ahok lost his re-election bid in the gubernatorial elections and was jailed for two years for blasphemy.
Ronald Bailey, at the Reason.com blog Hit & Run points us to Matt Ridleys 2017 Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture to the Centre for Policy Studies where Ridley argues that the champions of markets and enterprise need to recapture their radicalism, to reassert the right to be a disruptive, even subversive, not a reactionary, force in the world.

Read the summary at Reason here

Read the entire lecture here

Download a pdf here

Here's a few quotes:

"My title is free-market anticapitalism. I want to argue that the champions of markets and enterprise need to recapture their radicalism, to reassert the right to be a disruptive, even subversive, not a reactionary, force in the world.

"They need to distinguish between free markets serving consumers, on the one hand, and crony capitalism addicted to corporate welfare on the other, because it is the corporatism that people dislike, but it leads them to distrust free markets because they do not perceive the difference."

"Remember that we have run two very careful randomized controlled trials to see if full-blown socialism or half-hearted free enterprise works better. One in the Korean peninsula, the other in Germany. And the results were unambiguous. Socialism was a humanitarian catastrophe."

"...today in London roughly ten million people ate lunch. Working out just how much of each type of food to have available in the right places at the right time to ensure that this happened was a problem of mind-boggling complexity, made all the harder by the fact people made up their mind what to eat mostly at the last minute.

"Who was in charge of this astonishing feat? Who is Londons lunch commissioner and why does he get so little credit? Why is this system not subsidized? How can it be so lightly regulated?"

"In short, the evidence is overwhelming that markets do not just make people richer, they make people nicer too, less likely to fight and more likely to help each other.

"Its obvious really: if you want to sell somebody something, or buy something from somebody, it pays not to kill them, or annoy them.

"Free markets vastly increase social mobility and make us more equal too.

"In an advanced economy, competition ensures that roughly 85 to 90 per cent of the returns from production go to the workers. Markets drive down margins.

"Today in the UK, the richest 1% pay as much tax as the poorest 50%, contributing the most to welfare, as indeed they should."
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 15, 2017 | 10:18 AM | PADUCAH, KY

A man facing manslaughter charges in the death of a county official must stay in jail until his trial.McCracken Co. Sheriff Jon Hayden confirmed to West Kentucky Star that Willie G. Holsapple appeared before McCracken Circuit Judge Tim Kaltenbach Friday, after his arrest on a contempt of court warrant July 4. The warrant was issued after Holsapple was pulled over July 2 in Lyon County and he was cited for driving on a suspended license.At that time, Holsapple was out on bond for charges of second degree manslaughter and unsworn falsification to authorities. His indictment in March followed the McCracken County Sheriff Departments investigation into the death of former McCracken County Judge Executive Van Newberry, who was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in October of 2016.After testimony from law enforcement at Friday's court appearance, McCracken County Commonwealth Attorney Dan Boaz argued that Holsapple knowingly violated the law and his bond agreement by continuing to drive after surrendering his license at the indictment.Hayden said Judge Kaltenbach agreed and revoked Holsapple's bond, saying he should remain in jail until his trial in January.

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Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the big buzzwords in business these days is disruptive, which when coupled with innovation, refers to developments unseating traditional products and methods of doing things.

Its an apt description for what is taking place these days on North American soybean farms, as herbicide companies release new products to help farmers address the growing issue of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Its been disruptive, all right  and not in a good way.

Adrian Wyld / Canadian Press files North American soybean farmers are struggling with the unintended consequences of herbicide companies attempts to tackle resistant weeds with new products.

When crops such as soybeans were modified so farmers could spray them with glyphosate and not kill them, weed control initially became much simpler. Farmers could use just one herbicide to kill off weedy competition in their fields.

But the weeds evolved so they too could tolerate glyphosate applications. Competition from weeds such as Palmer amaranth  a type of pigweed  has forced farmers in the deep southern states to resort to hired labour with hoes to protect soybeans and cotton crops because they no longer have working herbicide options.

The crop-protection industrys response has been to further modify crops so they can now withstand applications of glyphosate and other herbicides combined, in this instance dicamba. As solutions go, it is temporary at best  the weeds will continue to evolve.

With these varieties now starting to roll out commercially, some unintended consequences have started to roll in. Its proven so disruptive in the United States that state officials in Arkansas and Missouri stepped in this summer with temporary bans, fines and restrictions on how farmers can use dicamba products in their fields. There have been hundreds of complaints from farmers in those states as well as Mississippi and Tennessee about dicamba damage.

The problem isnt with the soybean crops, produced under the RoundupReady 2 Xtend brand. The issue is the dicamba formulations farmers have been applying to protect their tolerant crops are prone to drifting into neighbouring fields containing non-tolerant crops.

Its pitting neighbour against neighbour and providing lots of ammunition to organizations opposing farmers use of herbicides altogether. Some farmers have complained they feel they are being forced to convert to the new dicamba-tolerant varieties of soybeans to avoid losing their crop when their neighbour sprays.

The situation partly stems from the fact the tolerant soybean varieties were released to market before the less drift-prone formulations of dicamba designed to be used on them were fully approved by state authorities.

So farmers have been using traditional formulations.

But it also reinforces the need for a better interface between the planned application of new technology and real-world conditions.

In theory, these products will always be used according to label, and applied when environmental conditions minimize the risk of drift.

In the real world, farmers have a narrow window to work with when protecting their crops from weedy competition.

If they miss that window, the weeds get too big and numerous, which can significantly decrease yield as well as increase the content of weed seeds for which they are penalized when they deliver to an elevator.

That pressure can unduly influence ones judgment of wind speeds and other factors that increase the risk of drift.

Dicamba-tolerant varieties of soybeans were first made available to Manitoba farmers this year, but officials here arent anticipating problems to the same degree. The two biggest crops on the Prairies, canola and wheat, tolerate dicamba. However, non-tolerant varieties of soybeans  which are now a major crop in Manitoba  and many of the other crops grown here are at risk.

So Canadian officials have been monitoring the situation in the U.S. closely and warning farmers here to take extra precautions to avoid spraying when it is windy, or when its dead calm and there is potential for a weather phenomenon called a temperature inversion.

They also need to pay attention to heat, humidity and the potential for rain in the forecast.

As anyone who has tried to plan an outdoor event in Manitoba knows, getting just right, conditions is a rare achievement.

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 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of unionized workers staged a labour demonstration Friday at the Richardson International Airport to draw attention to the possibility of a strike as early as next weekend.

The colourful noon-hour display featured union workers pacing back and forth outside doors of the Winnipeg airports departures platform, waving flags, holding picket signs and blowing whistles.

Pickets parted for departing travellers, with one elderly couple offering a friendly wave as they walked through a gap in the line to get to the airports parkade.

Union official Teresa Eschuk, poses with picket sign Friday during a noon-hour protest by support and maintenance workers over a contract dispute with the Winnipeg Airport Authority.

Both sides say essential service agreements are in place, so the travelling public will likely notice little change if mediation fails.

The strike deadline is one minute after midnight July 22.

This isnt about money at this point. This is about contracting out and saving their jobs, said Teresa Eschuk, regional vice-president of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, an arm of the federal union for civil service, the 170,000-member Public Service Alliance.

Union and airport management sat down with a federal mediator Monday in final effort to settle the dispute.

Were entering into mediation, the last stage, on (Monday) and were prepared to be there all week and into the late hours on the weekend, if we have to, Eschuk said.

Wed prefer not to strike. Wed prefer to have a contract, but we dont feel the employer is bargaining fairly.

Winnipeg Airport Authority spokesman Tyler MacAfee confirmed agreements are in place for essential services and said management hopes a deal can be struck before the strike deadline.

Were continuing to talk and were happy to talk with the union and we respect the (bargaining) process, he said.

The union insists the airport is trying to contract out jobs, which they say includes about 150 posts (duty managers, administrative support staff, tradespeople, IT workers, airfield maintenance and labourers).

Union officials contend the authority has systematically contracted-out union jobs since the new airport opened in 2011.

Wed prefer not to strike. Wed prefer to have a contract, but we dont feel the employer is bargaining fairly Teresa Eschuk, regional vice-president of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees

However, MacAfee said the dispute is not about contracting out jobs and denied such a campaign has occurred.

Thats really a key point and thats inaccurate information theyre providing, he said, adding the number of union jobs has increased as the facilitys number of overall employees rose.

Its working the other way, MacAfee said.

Union officials countered, saying they have grievances against management to prove otherwise.

The Winnipeg airport employs about 1,500 people. Management did not provide a breakdown on what percentage are unionized.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question

 James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Over the decades the now-elderly, Polish-born woman had written in search of an answer from a pope, a prime minister and a famous piano player.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Undiscovered artist and would-be-published author Grazyna (Grace) Brown surrounded by her art at her home in the North End.

All Grazyna Anna-Marie Brown wanted was one of them to take the time to read her fable-like story about Canada and its First People and offer their impressions of her writing and the fine art that she created to illustrate her hoped-for book. I knew none of that kind of detail last May when I took a call from a longtime friend of Grace  as she was known when they worked together at the Magic Room. June Patson asked if I would meet with her friend, a former esthetician whose gentle touch had been well-known by her clients.

Graces other gift as an artist was all but unknown. It was such a simple request, so I said yes. What I didnt tell June was that I was of no mind to write about her friend, only to listen.

I said that not knowing  not understanding  that this was the story of a lifelong quest and passion that all of us can relate to.

A month later, after Grace had called my office twice, wondering where I was, we made a date to meet over lunch at the McDonalds on the corner of Main Street and Mountain Avenue. Over the phone, Grace suggested it was just a short walk from the North End house where she has lived for years. What I hadnt realized, until we met, was that this now-77-year-old widow, who has been weakened by a stroke, had struggled to walk there with a cane in her right hand and a large art portfolio case in the other. When she arrived, the fast-food restaurant was too crowded. Just up Main Street we found Billy Mosienko Lanes; there, we were ushered into a private back room so Grace could tell her story and unveil her art.

As we sat down, Grace said she was nervous.

I didnt expect even that you would meet me, she said in voice heavily accented by the Polish that is her first language.

In 1971, she began, she was 30 when she arrived in Canada to visit family friends in Montreal. The trip had been inspired by books her grandmother read to her as a little girl  stories about the Canadian North and the Inuit that had created a romantic vision of our land and its First People. And it was those stories, years later, that would compel her to write her own book featuring a grandmother telling stories. The 36-page manuscript reveals a fairy-tale-like legend. It begins with the Princess Aurora, her long hair flowing with shimmering light, arriving in the northern night sky from the distant star Kingdom of Borealis. She has come to guide a grandmother to a baby who has been left on the snow for her to find. The child named Gracious grows up with his grandmothers story-telling to champion the cultures of the Indigenous peoples, brotherhood and the importance of caring for the worlds fragile northern regions.

The manuscript is in need of an edit.

What clearly needs no touching up, though, is the art on the wall of her North End house and the illustrations that spilled out of her portfolio case at the bowling alley  along with the acknowledgement letters she has received in more than three decades of trying to get the attention of people she hoped could help her. One, dated Jan. 19, 1984, was a response from a secretary for the late piano-playing showman Liberace.

To be certain that your lovely Polish paintings dont get lost or misplaced, please dont send them to him. Liberace tours Canada every other year and perhaps, when he is near Winnipeg, you might arrange to contact his manager and arrange for him to see them.

Of course, that never happened.

Then there was one, dated Dec. 2, 1999. In it, then-prime minister Jean Chretiens correspondence assistant refers to her childrens book, entitled Goodness Gracious.

Thank you for sending the Prime Minister a copy of the books manuscript and the six, beautiful illustrations. Unfortunately, due to the many demands of his schedule, the Prime Minister is unable to reply personally to the large volume of mail  numbering around 650,000 annually  that he receives on a wide variety of issues. The Prime Minister has, however, asked me to extend his best wishes to you. Again, thank you for writing, and the best of luck with your book.

Photos by WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Above, undiscovered artist and would-be-published author Grazyna (Grace) Brown sits surrounded by her art at her home in the North End. At left, Browns tempera painting Aurora From The Distant Stars Kingdom Of Borealis.

Grace would receive a similar response when, more recently, she wrote to Pope Francis with the hope that he would answer her prayers.

All of those polite but indirect responses are understandable, of course.

What isnt is how, despite her other efforts locally, Grace the artist has remained virtually invisible. Only rarely have her paintings been displayed publicly; once after she cold-called former mayor Bill Norrie at city hall, Grace said he arranged for her work to be included in an art-in-the-park setting and even sent a car to pick her up and take her there.

Still, Grace said, she has never sold a painting.

Maybe, some people suggest, she should try putting them in a garage sale. Thats an insult for a proud woman who said she majored in art at university and taught it in Polish schools.

This brings me to what her friend June didnt explain until we spoke again Friday. It was that dismissive garage-sale attitude, June suggested, that compelled her to call me last May without first informing Grace.

I was angry, June said  angry about all the years that had gone by, and how Grace had been treated. Particularly, June said, when Grace dropped by the Aboriginal Centre and someone told her she couldnt express herself about Indigenous culture because she isnt Indigenous.

I guess they thought she was a nobody, June said.

But, then, as I was suggesting, thats the part of Grazyna Anna-Marie Browns story with which we should all be able to relate, because one doesnt have to be an artist to understand the need to be listened to, to be heard and, finally, to be appreciated.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As some Canadians seethe over former child soldier Omar Khadr receiving a $10.5-million settlement from the federal government, a widow of the 9/11 terror attacks sees it as the right thing to do.

If we want to fully ensure our charter rights, we have to be certain that those rights will apply to everyone, said Winnipegs Ellen Judd, whose spouse, Chris Egan, died while visiting her brother at the World Trade Center in New York when it was hit by terrorists in hijacked planes Sept. 11, 2001.

In 2002, 15-year-old Canadian Khadr was in Afghanistan with his al-Qaida-connected dad, who handed young Omar over to an insurgent fighting force to become a child soldier.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Widow Ellen Judd lost her spouse Christine Egan to the terror attacks in New York City on 9/11 but thinks Khadrs rights were violated.

The teen was injured in a firefight with U.S. forces that were trying to root out terrorism.

Khadr was accused of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. special forces medic Christopher Speer.

The young Canadian was flown to the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was ultimately charged with war crimes by a military commission and held there until 2012.

In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Canadian intelligence officials visiting the base at Guantanamo in 2003 obtained evidence from Khadr under oppressive circumstances, including sleep deprivation, and then shared that evidence with U.S officials.

Allowing governments to get away with violating its citizens charter rights and internationally recognized human rights hurts everyone, Judd said.

The government has to provide a remedy This is all about preserving the charter rights of Canadian citizens.

Khadr filed a lawsuit for $20 million against the federal government.

Rather than spending millions of taxpayer dollars trying to fight a case the countrys highest court had already decided, the current government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau settled for $10.5 million.

I do support what the government of Canada is doing in seeking a settlement, said Judd, an anthropology professor at the University of Manitoba.

The reason for that is what has been going through the courts for many years, she said.

The issue is whether the government of Canada must protect its citizens charter rights and rights under international law. Thats what the Canadian court case is about.

Judd said she understands some of the anger surrounding the settlement.

The punishment ends up having to be paid by the taxpayer, she said.

Underlying all of this are the charges against Omar Khadr and all that is happening in American courts.

In October 2010, Khadr was sentenced under the terms of a plea agreement to an eight-year prison term that included time already served.

He was required to serve at least one more year at Guantanamo Bay before being eligible for a prisoner transfer to Canada.

Delays by the Canadian government were such that he spent one more year at Guantanamo Bay before his transfer in September 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence.

He was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.

He entered a guilty plea under legal advice that thats how he could get out of Guantanamo, said Judd, who has followed Khadrs case over the years.

Hes still appealing the original charges.

Im interested in whats happening at Guantanamo Bay, and he was the only Canadian there. Its not a new case to me.

Judd said she sympathizes with the widow of the U.S. medic who filed a wrongful death claim against Khadr in a U.S. court that subsequently awarded her US$134 million.

The widow tried and failed this week to get an Ontario court to block Khadrs monetary settlement from the federal government.

My heart goes out to Tabitha Speer, said Judd.

She had a terrible loss.

Most of those fuming over the Canadian governments settlement with Khadr likely have never had their human rights violated in a life-changing way or been personally touched by a terror attack, she said.

They dont understand what the consequences are, said Judd.

Judd has listened to Khadrs response to his situation and the settlement and has heard something hopeful.

He said he doesnt know whether hes responsible for that grenade. He regrets some of the things he did when he was younger, but hes trying to (rehabilitate and to) live a good life now, she said.

We have an opening here to think about what constitutes justice.

Its not about retribution. Its about having safety and security for all of us. We need, somehow, to think about a more vigorous concept of justice that will allow people caught up in war and the justice system to have a peaceful route out, she said.

Its not that Im sympathetic to anyone killing anybody, said the 9/11 widow.

I think its terrible and people need to be accountable.

To restore the peace, though, people on all sides who want to quit fighting need to be able to do that, she said.

Every war has to end, and we need exit routes, Judd said.

Much of this involves things that are really hard to think about  things wed like to think are fixable, but some are not.

We need a concept of justice that can handle that. Nothing here is going to bring back any life lost or make the bereaved feel better, she said.

Its not possible. The only thing we can try to do is prevent more of this from happening.

We need to go into that uncomfortable space and make that possible. Its the only way that things can be better in any sense.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An unprecedented case of hiding the remains of six dead babies has ended with an 8.5-year sentence for a Winnipeg mother.

Andrea Giesbrecht, 43, has just under eight years left to serve behind bars after being given credit for the time she spent locked up before she was released on bail. She displayed no visible emotion and exchanged a brief word with her husband as court sheriffs officers arrived to take her into custody.

These were not victimless crimes, provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said in his decision Friday, speaking about the lengthy police investigation and court case that began after Giesbrecht failed to make rental payments on the storage locker that contained the dead bodies within bags and plastic totes.

JUSTIN SAMANSKI-LANGILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Andrea Giesbrecht is rushed into a waiting car outside the court house Friday following her sentencing hearing.

It is difficult to describe the disturbing impact of viewing the remains or photographs of fully formed, decomposing fetuses and their autopsies. There are just some things you cannot unsee, Thompson said.

Giesbrecht has never shown remorse or offered any explanation for the crimes. She was convicted on six counts of concealing a childs body after the decomposed remains of five boys and one girl were discovered by staff at a McPhillips Street U-Haul storage facility in October 2014. She faced a maximum 12-year sentence.

Despite her pathological behaviour, Giesbrecht has not been diagnosed with a mental disorder, the judge said, but she does have a record of dishonesty. She was twice convicted of fraud over $5,000 and has an admitted gambling addiction for which shes undergoing counselling.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky said he would recommend his client appeal the sentence, of which Giesbrecht has 7.8 years left to serve. She spent about six months in custody after her arrest, for which she was given time-and-a-half credit. Her defence lawyer had argued his client should avoid further jail time. He said Friday she was upset that she would be away from her two teen sons for so long.

She feels very bad. Shes separated from her family. She didnt want to put her family through all this, Brodsky said outside court following the judges decision Friday.

Thompson imposed the sentence Friday afternoon after he dismissed a last-minute attempt by Giesbrechts defence team to have the charges tossed because of court delays. He was clear about Giesbrechts history of lacking empathy, and the dignity she stole from the babies after they were born.

Giesbrecht concealed each of these six pregnancies, even from her husband. She bagged each of the bodies, sealed them or encased them in cement or powder, all in an effort to contain the smell of human decomposition and decay, the judge said in his decision.

There are just some things you cannot unsee provincial court Judge Murray Thompson on the impact of evidence presented at trial

Although the bodies were too badly decomposed for investigators to figure out how the babies died or whether they had ever taken a breath, medical experts testified they were likely born alive, at or near full-term. They were all between 34 and 42 weeks gestation and there was no evidence that Giesbrecht tried to self-abort the pregnancies. Any attempt to do so at such a late stage in the pregnancy would likely have had life-threatening consequences for Giesbrecht, court heard.

The harm to society is significant, Thompson said. And perhaps most aggravating, she has defeated the police investigation into the cause of death of six infants.

There has never been a case in Canadian law involving so many charges of concealing infants remains, making Giesbrecht the worst offender for this type of charge, Crown prosecutors had argued.

Each count carried a maximum two-year sentence, and the judge decided Giesbrechts extreme moral culapability would have increased after the first time she disposed of an infants body. He sentenced her to six months for the first count, one year for the second, and two years each for the remaining four dead fetuses.

A 9.5-year sentence would have been crushing to Giesbrecht because of her family and work involvement, Thompson said, reducing the total sentence to 8.5 years.

Outside court Friday, Brodsky continued to refer to the six dead babies as products of conception and emphasized that Giesbrecht was never charged with a homicide offence.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Andrea Giesbrecht's lawyer Greg Brodsky speaks to media outside the Law Courts Friday after his client was given an 8.5-year sentence for hiding the remains of six dead babies.

Brodsky also said he was taken aback that to inform his decision, the judge preferred a probation officers description of Giesbrecht as verbally aggressive and angry during a meeting after she was convicted over a glowing letter of support written by her bail supervisors at the Elizabeth Fry Society of Manitoba. The judge said the Elizabeth Fry Society letter amounted to advocacy while the probation officer was an objective source of information.

In interviews with the probation officer who prepared her pre-sentence report, Giesbrecht didnt talk about the offences. Citing legal advice, she also declined to discuss her history with pregnancy.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two-and-a-half pages. Eighteenth-century legal paper, likely borrowed from a fur-trade ledger, the kind Hudsons Bay Co. forts had to record accounts.

The pages are yellowing with age, covered margin to margin with spidery calligraphy, ink faded to sepia. All the hallmarks of an historical document are here.

This is the Selkirk Treaty.

The Selkirk Treaty, which was signed at the site July 18, 1817. (Archives of Manitoba)

Attached is an ink map of the Red River, from Lake Winnipeg to Red Lake River to the south. It depicts a dozen little rivers swimming out like tadpole tails.

The biggest, of course, is the Assiniboine River, running west until it fades into the bottom of a fat fish, a drawing labelled Lake Manitoba.

The map accompanying the Selkirk Treaty. (Archives of Manitoba)

Lined up on the margin is a puzzling row of animal graphics.

Even today, people cant figure them all out. A bear, for sure. A catfish or two. Something that might be a salamander. Something that might be a wolf, or a marten.

The whole thing looks like it was done in a hurry, which it probably was.

Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk and founder and financier of the Red River Colony, was desperate to end the fur-trade skirmishes and outright warfare that had burned and chased out his dispossessed Highland Settlers not once, but twice, in the five years before.

Hed long had the idea of making an end-run around the fractious North West Company and dealing directly with the First Nations, asking for a gift of land to his people. He got his chance in 1817 on the Red River. He was there; five chiefs led by Chief Peguis were there, too.

Lord Selkirk seized the moment.

So if the treaty looks a little cramped, for lack of paper maybe it was, and maybe it was written up in a single morning and signed that same afternoon.

For one of the most important and certainly singular documents in the history of Western Canada, the Selkirk Treaty holds a lot of intriguing elements, not the least of which is it has been ignored, almost on purpose by government policy since 1867s Confederation.

Thats despite a reluctant nod of recognition in 1871 the document was indeed a kind of treaty, even though it wasnt signed under the Crown.

Theres no surrender of anyones rights in these yellowed pages, so markedly different from the numbered treaties that followed it, where all of Western Canada was described as ceded and surrendered.

Theres also no 49th parallel to mark the boundary between Canada and the United States because the former didnt exist at the time and the latter not this far west in 1817.

More stuff is missing. No fancy vellum parchment. No royal signatures. No heraldic shields. No official seals in lumpy crimson wax to give it that official feel.

Selkirk Treaty is the official name, but today many call it the Peguis Selkirk Treaty.

To review what any school kid knows, or should know, the document was signed July 18, 1817, at the site of Hudson Bay Co.s Fort Douglas on the west bank of the Red River, just north of the present-day Alexander Docks.

Indigenous leaders agreed to grant Selkirks settlers farmland lots to have and to hold forever, stretching two miles back from the banks of both the Red and the Assiniboine rivers.

All together, the grant amounted to 24 square miles and helped give birth to the postage-stamp-shaped province 52 years later.

In return, Selkirk promised to send annual presents (also described as quit-rents) of 100 pounds of tobacco each to be delivered to the Saulteaux at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine and the Cree at Portage la Prairie.

An 1817 sketch of Fort Douglas. (Archives of Manitoba)

He never paid, dying young just three years after the treaty was inked.

His estate handled the treaty until the mid-1800s before handing control back to the Hudsons Bay Co. In 1870, the colony formed the basis of Manitobas entry into Confederation.

Lord Selkirk died three years after the treaty signing.

Im taking a serious look at the Selkirk Treaty, said Manitoba treaty commissioner Loretta Ross. Ive come to understand it was the precursor before the numbered treaties. It set the stage for the numbered treaties and it has an important place in history.

In a wider context, the Selkirk Treaty is a forgotten keystone to a side of Manitoba history people dont often think about, Ross said.

I dont think the Selkirk Treaty has been given the place it deserves, in the context of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. On both sides, they had to find a way to co-exist and they did that in the Selkirk Treaty. That spirit and intent was there. It bears further study and its so interesting to understand the significance it plays in the history of relations between First Nation and the Crown, as well as with the province of Manitoba, for our local history, she said.

The important thing now is to get people to think about this and start asking questions.

Peguis: The best friend a settler could ever have (Archives of Manitoba)

History is kind to Chief Peguis. Hes remembered as a loyal friend  the best friend a settler could ever have, Selkirk Settlers recalled in their own accounts of early days on the Red.

And theres probably no more poignant moment of his leadership than what happened a year before the treaty was signed.

In 1816, a brash, arrogant military man and the HBC governor at Fort Douglas thought he could bluster down an armed charge by Highland Cree trader Cuthbert Grant Jr.

Gov. Robert Semple was dead wrong and the result was the Battle of Seven Oaks.

It was Peguis and his people who helped the survivors flee and then buried the dead. The image that stick out in those accounts is personal: Peguis holding a then-dead Semple in his arms and weeping.

After decades of silence, many, including both Indigenous and non-Indigenous descendants, say the treatys legacy is stronger than ever, offering signposts for the journey of reconciliation Canada now faces.

Bill Shead is one of a handful of people at ease bridging the Indigenous-non-Indigenous silos in Manitoba. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

A couple of years ago, Cree Bill Shead and Brokenhead Ojibway Nation Chief Jim Bear got together and started a conversation about whether to mark the treatys 200th anniversary. Both trace their roots back to St. Peters, the home of Chief Peguis and community that took its roots from the treaty.

That was the beginning of it It took off from there, recalled Bear, a direct descendant of Peguis.

Shead, a retired career military man, former mayor of Selkirk and a Peguis First Nation band member, is one of a handful of people at ease bridging the Indigenous-non-Indigenous silos in Manitoba.

Shead is co-chairman of a committee poised to throw a huge party recognizing the 200th anniversary of the Selkirk Treaty signing, with events in Winnipeg, Brokenhead, Selkirk and Peguis. The current Lord Selkirk arrives Saturday and hell be on hand for re-enactments, social events and celebrations of the ties between the Scots and the Ojibway.

The Selkirk Treaty is the first treaty in Western Canada and it was signed before there even was a Canada. It marked the beginning of the relationship between First Nations and the Crown and cemented a friendship between Chief Peguis and Lord Selkirk. It shaped not only Winnipeg and Manitoba but the nation itself, the committee said in a statement in June.

John Perrin, former St. Andrews Society president, is the other committee co-chairman.

John Perrin's family traces its roots back to Col. Garnet Wolseley, who led the Wolseley expedition to put down the Red River Rebellion.

Perrin is from a distinguished family that traces its roots back to Col. Garnet Wolseley, who led the Wolseley expedition, the force prime minister John A. Macdonald authorized to put down the Red River Rebellion in 1870.

You could take in the big picture and think of Peguis himself as an architect of Canada. He was the architect of peace and order on the Red River. He always did honour the treaty and St. Peters (reserve) was very successful.

This treaty created a positive outcome at the time and led to peaceful settlement. And it might be something people now want to take into consideration when it comes to reconciliation and how Canada should honour these treaties, Perrin said.

Glenn Hudson, current Peguis First Nation chief, said the fact the treaty was never honoured means theres an opportunity to renegotiate it.

Thats something we need to bring light to, and educate people on, that being, it was the one of the very first treaties in Western Canada, Hudson said.

A re-enactment planned at Peguis next week will focus on a headdress chief Eddie Thompson gave to George Douglas-Hamilton, the 10th Earl of Selkirk, in 1967. The current Lord Selkirk, James Douglas-Hamilton, initiated the return. It is currently held at the Manitoba Museum.

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press Files Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson wants to show Premier Brian Pallister a study, which he says will prove Winnipeg can support another casino.

Two years ago, Maureen Matthews, the museums curator of cultural anthropology, flew to Scotland to retrieved the floor-length headdress and powwow regalia that Selkirk and his wife received during the couples visit to the First Nation 50 years ago.

The interesting thing about the Selkirk Treaty is that it reflects the Indigenous interpretation of treaties, that they are ongoing, that they mark the start of an ongoing relationship, Matthews said. And this one reflects an ongoing relationship between Peguis First Nation and Lord Selkirk.

The treaty wasnt about giving up land. It was about sharing land. And, interestingly, it was like a reserve for the settlers and they were policed by Peguis people.

The group behind the bicentennial events is diverse, but behind all the diversity, theres a single current running through the effort. Just about everyone involved has a personal family tie back to the early settlement, either Indigenous or non-Indigenous.

That bond has continued for sure, noted Bear, who has a personal connection with the current Lord Selkirk. These connections just keep happening.

It could be those kinship ties between clan-based societies, as the Scots and the Ojibway were at the time, turn out to be the greatest legacy of the treaty.

View of the Red River Settlement around 1817, possibly drawn by Lord Selkirk. (Provincial Archives of Manitoba)

The signatories and their symbols

Two hundred years ago, on July 18, 1817, the Selkirk Treaty was signed at Fort Douglas. The exact location, just off Waterfront Drive and north of the Alexander Docks, is marked with a monument in honour of the Selkirk Settlers.

The map thats part of the Selkirk Treaty is signed by five chiefs, each with an animal symbol. For 200 years, those symbols have puzzled people: were they personal symbols or clan symbols?

The current thinking is they were symbols to indicate each chiefs relationship to a particular territory and they also indicate a wider meaning, related to Indigenous cultural practices and beliefs that stretch back thousands of years.

Based on interviews and research by people such as Seven Oaks House Museum curator Eric Napier Strong and material from books, including Donna Sutherlands Peguis, a Noble Friend, the Free Press fills in a few blanks on these mysterious elements.

Le Sonnant

The sign of Le Sonnant

Mache Whesab (Many Sitting Eagles) is the only Cree chief to sign the treaty. He had occupied the region longer than the other signatories. He was then in the Portage la Prairie area.

His people later migrated west and settled in Saskatchewans Quappelle Valley. His son signed Treaty 4.

He drew a symbol of a lizard or a salamander to represent his territory.

La Robe Noire

The sign of La Robe Noire

Mechkadewikonaie was an Ojibway chief, also from Portage, in the area of the White Mud River and Rat River at Totogan, south of Lake Manitoba, and to people now living in Long Plain, Swan Lake and Sandy Bay.

Some accounts link him to people in Dakota Tipi, as well. It is also reported he had a famous descendant, Yellow Quill, who signed Treaty 1. He drew the symbol of a fish to represent his lands between The Forks and Musk Rat Root River west of current Portage la Prairie.

LHomme Noir

The sign of L'Homme Noir

Kagiwoksbmoa is recorded by at least one fur trader of the time as being from Lake of the Woods. Written records dont note anything about him or his people after 1817.

He also signed with the symbol of a fish and shared land in the treaty on the Red River south of Pembina to Red Lake (Minnesota).

Le Premier

The sign of Le Premier

Oukidoat, an Ojibway chief, was noted to be one of the most powerful leaders in the Red River area, before Peguis eclipsed him in stature with the growth of the settlement. Fur-trade records place him in the Rainy Lake area in 1804.

In 1814, he gave a speech at The Forks, condemning the presumptuous attitude and actions of the Selkirk Settlers, which the North West Co. widely circulated as part of its campaign to get rid of the settlement.

His lands were along the Red River south to Pembina. His symbol was the bear.

Peguis

Peguis was the Ojibway chief who befriended the settlers and lived the rest of his life along the Red River, a peacemaker and diplomat dedicated to the relationships he believed were at the heart of the treaty.

The sign of Peguis

He was also known as Cut Nose after the tip of his nose was bitten off in a fight when he was a young man. He took the name William King, and gave the last name Prince to his children, in recognition of the treaty.

Most accounts say he took the name decades later, when he converted to Christianity, but at least one oral tradition links the name to the day the treaty was signed.

In any case, Peguis took the name King in recognition of the treaty and his belief it placed him as the equal to Selkirks sovereign, the British king. The name Prince indicated his children were expected to build on his work for peaceful, co-operative relations on the Red.

Some interpret his symbol as a wolf. Others say it was a marten.

Broken promises, lasting bonds

Canada turned pre-Confederation co-operation with Indigenous people into cruelty and contempt, but many descendants of the Selkirk Settlers know how Peguis and his followers helped the newcomers

Every year, the people of Peguis come back to the old stone church near Selkirk on Fathers Day.

The St. Peters Dynevor Anglican Church is the only thing left of the once-vibrant St. Peters reserve, home of Chief Peguis and his community that took its roots from the Selkirk Treaty. It was a two-mile parish lot, just like the rest of the Red River settlement lots.

The St. Peters Dynevor Anglican Church is the only thing left of the once-vibrant St. Peters reserve, home of Chief Peguis and his community. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

St. Peters was an Anglican parish and known as the most Christian Indigenous settlement in Canada. Homeowners had property rights. Farmers sold surplus crops at the settlers markets, camping overnight along Peguiss favourite pathway off the Red, through what is now known as Kildonan Park.

By the 1850s, St. Peters boasted the only harness maker and tinsmith in the entire Red River Colony.

Unlike other settlements, which were established behind a frontier or along a coast, Selkirks colony was isolated from other settlements by thousands of miles and did not have a ready escape route to the sea. The settlers had to depend on developing goodwill and co-operation with First Nations which surrounded them in great numbers, Indigenous author and historian Rarihokwats wrote in his online History of the Ojibway Nation in Manitoba.

Olive Lillie, 81, outside her original homestead. Despite the forced resettlement of the St. Peters reserve, Lillies ancestors were allowed to stay. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

In 1907, that rich farmland was swindled from the Peguis people.

They were sent north to swampland in the Interlake where Peguis First Nation still battles yearly spring floods. In recent years, Peguis negotiated a $126-million compensation settlement with Ottawa over the illegal land surrender.

The forced removal of the people is a sorry chapter in a First Nation-settler arrangement considered unique in the history of European settlement in North America.

Not everyone went north. The people of Peguis scattered; some stayed in Selkirk, such as Olive Lillie and Bill Shead and their families. Descendants of St. Peters now live in Brokenhead, Sagkeeng, Long Plain and Sandy Bay First Nations, and even Saskatchewan.

It is principally the descendants in Selkirk, Brokenhead and Peguis who pay homage to their ancestors at the old stone church. Their family plots are well-maintained by Lillies descendants. Her family bought a farm across the river the same year as the removal and theyve been there ever since.

Olive Lillie's family stayed in the Selkirk area after the forced removal from Peguis. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

Shead grew up a couple of kilometres away from the old St. Peters reserve. My grandmother is buried here. Her grandparents lived at St. Peters, he said.

On a walk through the graveyard, he pointed out his family plot and others, such as the woman whose nephew was a key shipbuilder in Belfast. He help build the Titanic, the grand ship that wasnt supposed to sink.

Sketches exist that show this place. There was the church, there were schools, homes, roads. They werent living in teepees or lean-tos. What they had was substantial. Thats what we had 50 years before Confederation, Shead said.

Even after Confederation, when an influx of newcomers and Canadian ways marginalized St. Peters, a lot of old connections held.

The Selkirk Treaty was basically ignored by the government of Canada, and what they did with the numbered treaties was to start from scratch. There are two things I think are important here: theres Peguis and then theres the people of Peguis. They continued to be loyal to their friends and that included non-Indigenous people and they got involved in everything that was helpful to their friends, Shead said.

The graves at St. Peters are symbolic of the loyalty and friendship spawned by the treaty, Bill Shead says. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

A military man retired after a long career in Canadas navy, Shead takes a special interest in the veterans of St. Peters and Peguis. Theres a history right here in the ground that shows the loyalty of the people of Peguis to their friends, the descendants of the Selkirk settlers, he said.

Like the rivermen recruited from St. Peters to ply the waters of the Nile River for the Wolseley expedition in Egypt in the 1880s. A British empire war forgotten by many, but not by Peguis people.

I mean, who else would go up the Nile except for personal friendship? Its not the Crown, its not the flag and its not the country. You dont go out to save someones life because of that. You go out because hes your buddy and thats the history of wartime service, Shead said.

St. Peters graves and the stories of the men and women in them reflect the loyalty to friends that goes back to 1817, Shead said.

The Settlers

Descendants of settlers marked the first 100 years of the Selkirk Treaty with two monuments to Chief Peguis.

One is a statue at Winnipegs Kildonan Park, erected in 1923 on the site of a former settlement farm, near Frog Plain. The location was chosen in memory of Peguiss well-travelled path. His frequent visits up and down the colony over the decades almost always included a short cut through the old McKay farm.

Monument on the grounds of the Old Stone Church in East Selkirk along the Red River to honour Chief Peguis. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

The second monument was erected in 1924 near Selkirk at St. Peters Dynevor Anglican Church. Its pretty much all thats left of the original St. Peters reserve where Peguis and his people lived in the early decades of Red River settlement.

In many ways, erecting the statues were moves of defiance for the Scots, coming a few years after the illegal surrender of the original St. Peters reserve. Everyone was forced off, the current Peguis First Nation was created and the removal is known now as Canadas Trail of Tears.

They may have talked about putting up a statue to Lord Selkirk, but when it got down to it, they put the monuments up to Chief Peguis, said Gordon Cameron, a descendant of Selkirk Settler Donald Gunn.

In 1912, the second and third generations of the original settlers formed the Lord Selkirk Association of Ruperts Land. To this day, membership is restricted to descendants of settlers from 1812 to 1836.

I had the impression theres a closer tie to Peguis than to the treaty. The connection was personal. We always learned, it was our personal history. We were always taught how Peguis had helped its well known that Chief Peguis and his people helped the settlers, Cameron said.

Scots Gordon Cameron and John Perrin (right) with the Chief Peguis statute at Kildonan Park. Cameron is a direct descendant of Selkirk settler Donald Gunn. Perrin is a former president of the St. Andrews Society and head of the Scottish Heritage Council. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

Many descendants of Selkirks settlers, such as Cameron, describe the forced removal of Peguis people as a direct betrayal of their own history.

People forget for a small group of Manitobans, connections with Peguis and the Metis remain strong, bonded by blood in ties of intermarriage that cross Scottish, francophone, Metis, Ojibwa and Cree in Manitoba.

Its interesting when you think of the Selkirk Treaty. The settlers were essentially on a reserve, and it was defined, two miles in up and down the river. The rest was outside, for the First Nations, Cameron said. I always get a smile when I say that.

But when you think about it, when you go back to, say, the 1820s, Peguis could go anywhere. If he wanted to bring food back to help people, he could. There was a different relationship between the two peoples. And I guess its one of power. Once Canada took over, it changed. They held the power of the land and we know what followed, he said.

An image is burned in his memory, based on bittersweet recollections of the monuments unveiling at the old stone church.

You know what something looks like if its only been abandoned for about five years. The church was still there. But when they put that monument up, you would have still seen the foundations of St. Peters, the collapsing homes of the old settlement, Cameron said.

The association wanted to mark the place, and the place they indelibly marked was St. Peters and Kildonan.

Its interesting, the value of carving things in stone. Hundreds of people go to the park, they pass the statue, see the quote. And thats important. Peguis was the leader of that group and he was a friend, Cameron said.

The Metis

Its strange to think Metis leader Louis Riel might never have been born or become a father of Manitoba if it hadnt been for Chief Peguis, Lord Selkirk and their connections to the Lagimodiere family.

Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere and Marie Anne Gaboury were Louis Riels grandparents, their Selkirk settlement farm his birthplace, their long experience in the Red River Colony his first memories.

Alan Lagimodiere is a direct descendant of Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere and Marie Anne Gaboury, Louis Riel's grandparents. (Bartley Kives / Winnipeg Free Press files)

So its odd but fitting a clerical error on the copy of Riels death certificate after he was hanged in Regina as a traitor to Canada names him as Louis Lagimodiere, says Alan Lagimodiere, a direct descendant of Lagimodiere and Gaboury.

After Riel was hung and they sent his body body to Winnipeg, the death certificate actually had Lagimodiere on it. And that is crossed off and Riel written in behind it.

Lagimodiere, a veterinarian and Conservative MLA for the riding of Selkirk, is intensely keen on his familys history with early Manitoba. He believes theres probably good reason for the mistake.

The Lagimodiere family name stood out, because of their links to the Metis and the Selkirk settlement.

Jean Baptistes wife, Gaboury, was the first woman of European descent to settle in what is now Western Canada; for that she is widely known as the Grandmother of the Red River.

History records her as the mother of the first legitimate non-Indigenous baby born in the region.

Jean Baptiste played a key role stabilizing the colony with an act of sheer bravery; he got past a North West Company blockade intended to cut the fledgling colony off from the outside world and slipped critical communications from Fort Douglas directly into the hands of Lord Selkirk, then in Montreal.

Chief Peguis, immortalized in statue at Kildonan Park. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

It was astounding feat, given he had only a musket and a rabbit snare with him when he set out on the 2,900-kilometre trek.

Walking, mainly walking, Alan Lagimodiere emphasized.

Selkirk repaid the couple with land, making them one of the original Selkirk Settlers. Their farm, now a park, became the first francophone settlement in Western Canada.

Chief Peguis took in Gaboury and their children the winter of 1817 while Jean Baptiste was away.

Nobody seems to remember that part of the history, Lagimodiere said.

Our family, I was told, remembered my grandmother for being a very learned person with a close association to Chief Peguis at the time. I would think she understood fairly well the intent of the treaty. And we were told the intent of the treaty was to have peaceful relations with the new settlers and to share the land with them.

Looking back, Lagimodiere wonders if Peguiss long talks with Gaboury percolated into Riels actions 50 years later, when he tried to set up a provisional government based on principles of equality and Indigenous values and ended up fighting the Red River Rebellion.

No document more important

Q&A with Niigaan Sinclair on the Selkirk Treaty

Indigenous nations held the balance of power on the Red River in the early 1800s and the Selkirk Treaty reflects that reality, making it different from the treaties Canada settled starting in 1871, with Treaty 1. It wasnt about a land purchase. It was about creating new relationships of peace, order and mutual co-operation.

The Selkirk Treaty is the most important document in Manitobas history, says Niigaan Sinclair. (Justin Samanski-Langille / Winnipeg Free Press)

Niigaan Sinclair, an associate professor in the University of Manitobas native studies department, considers the Selkirk Treaty the most important document in Manitoba history for those reasons.

Free Press: Why is the Selkirk Treaty significant?

Sinclair: It sets the groundwork for non-Indigenous relationships throughout the Prairies. There is no document more important. And its also the most ignored because its the document that bucks the trend of the last 150 years of genocide.

FP: So lets go back 200 years. What was Chief Peguis thinking when he agreed, along with the four other chiefs, to grant rights settlement to Lord Selkirks people?

Sinclair: Peguis makes an agreement with Lord Selkirk to share land on the Red River. Now, some people have interpreted that as the sale of land along the river, but Ive never heard that. Peguis worked very hard to try to teach Selkirk there was law along the Red River and the law was: when you come into this territory, you are joining something. Youre not dominating it. Theres already an entire system of relationship-making and international trade the Red River embodied.

FP: The early 1800s were turbulent times and Peguis, himself, had only recently moved in, right?

Sinclair: Youve got to think that the world of the 18th century is a different world than it is now. Simply put, Indigenous people held the balance of power in that world.

For years, Peguis had been settling lands up in Netley Creek, but he and other people from the Sault (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) had been using that land for hundreds of years and thats well-documented.

The Anishinaabe were well-known along the Red. We didnt have the extensive network the Cree did, but we certainly had relationships.

The Red River was one of the boundary lands between us, the Assiniboine and the Dakota and Nakota.

Niigaan Sinclair pays tribute to the Selkirk Treaty with a tattoo on his arm featuring the treatys accompanying map. (Justin Samanski-Langille / Winnipeg Free Press)

FP: Ive heard you talk about something called the white wall, that the settlers were a kind of cushion between the Anishinaabe and the Dakota over the buffalo. Whats that about?

Sinclair: Peguiss got this struggle the buffalo are travelling at the same time and theres a kind of ongoing conflict with the Assiniboine. What Peguis was saying is, you can have access to this territory and we will share it with you.

That didnt mean they would have it all. It also involved a strategy of Peguis and the other chiefs to put up a wall of white people in the path of the buffalo migration, a way of stopping the Assiniboine from having access to the buffalo, and (to) give the Ojibwa a monopoly on the buffalo in that region.

Peguis took over lands left after a smallpox epidemic decimated Cree and Assiniboine on Netley Creek. Accounts he later gave to settlers like Donald Gunn indicate those survivors welcomed him and his band. They actually told him they were sick of trodding on the bones of their dead and he was welcome to it.

Theres sickness happening throughout Indian country in these days as food lines are disrupted, but Indigenous people still hold the balance of power.

This all begins to shift after the War of 1812. Theres tremendous stress on immigration into the West, an influx of settlement, Selkirk and the rest.

As people are coming into Manitoba, Peguis sees the writing on the wall. He saw a world that was dawning, and he saw how bad it could get in Upper and Lower Canada and he didnt want that to happen in Manitoba.

He wanted people to have an understanding how to create healthy and sustainable relationships. The hope was the Red River Settlement would be this bastion of international trade, that people would constantly recreate relationships of peace, kindness and family along the Red River.

FP: Under the treaty, Selkirk was supposed to pay gifts of tobacco every year. He didnt, did he?

Sinclair: Selkirk took off and died after that and he never returned. For Peguis, that was an egregious pain, a violation of the treaty. In fact, he wrote letters all the way to the king, saying the Silver Chief (the name Peguis gave Selkirk as part of the treaty process), he said he would come back.

The letter, in 1859, to the king, his son wrote it and he said: the Silver Chief never returned and we no longer recognize this treaty. Why are your people still here? You need to send your representative and remake this treaty with us.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police have made seven arrests connected to a Canada Day weekend fight that sent three people to hospital with stab wounds.

The arrests follow an incredibly complex investigation, Const. Rob Carver said Friday.

Officers responded to a report of a large fight just after midnight July 2 at the intersection of Smith Street and St. Mary Avenue, where they found three men with stab wounds. One of them, a 22-year-old, was rushed to hospital in critical condition; he has since been released, police said.

The two other men  ages 27 and 26  were treated and released.

Among those arrested, Evan Ryan Bettles, 26, faces five charges, including aggravated assault and unauthorized possession of a firearm with ammunition. He is in custody.

Anthony Evaristo Gonzales, 27, is charged with aggravated assault and assault.

Jonathon Paul Ortiz, 23, is charged with aggravated assault.

A 23-year-old woman and three men  26, 27 and 28 years old  also face assault-related charges.

The protagonists in this fight had lengthy and numerous gang affiliations. We believe that probably helped precipitate this incident, Carver said.

Police are also searching for the occupants of a late-model silver or grey Nissan Rogue seen near the intersection at the time of the incident. They are wanted for questioning as witnesses, not suspects, Carver said.

Police are asking anyone with information in connection with the case to contact the major crimes unit at 204-986-6219.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Manitobas largest annexations in recent history can be put down to goodwill, foresight and some good old-fashioned horse trading, the two parties involved say.

The Municipal Board this week approved the friendly annexation of 2,800 acres  a little more than 11 square kilometres  by the City of Steinbach from the RM of Hanover.

The annexation is to allow Steinbach to continue its growth trajectory of 3.5 per cent to four per cent annually for the next 30 years.

It isnt the 7,300 acres the municipalities originally negotiated  to support Steinbachs 50-year growth projection  but its still a transaction of historic proportions and on a scale other cities, such as Winnipeg, can only drool over.

The agreement is a result of the increasing co-operation between Steinbach, Manitobas third-largest city, and the rural municipality that surrounds it. For example, Steinbach provides Hanover with fire and landfill services, and they share an emergency co-ordinator.

As well, Hanover Reeve Stan Toews has been around long enough to remember a lot of ill feelings between the municipalities stymied progress in the past.

Often, councils think they just have to protect their own turf. Im a firm believer you have to think outside your borders, as well, he said.

For example, helping Steinbach grow means not only more consumer choices for Hanover residents but more jobs close to home so families dont have to move to Winnipeg. (Hanover is one of Manitobas largest rural municipalities, with a population of more than 16,000.)

If one entity grows, it helps everyone, Toews said. And if Hanover grows, it helps Steinbach because now there are more people to shop there.

In return for the land, Hanover will receive a payment of more than $400,000 over eight years from Steinbach  essentially Hanovers tax revenue loss from residents who will become part of Steinbach. Steinbach will also assume responsibility for maintenance of border roads that was previously cost-shared.

The big benefit to Hanover is Steinbach will no longer block commercial development on corridors leading into the city.

It currently holds a 2.4-km buffer on Highways 52 and 12. Hanover will now be able to zone commercially Highway 52 from Mitchell to Steinbach, and Highway 12 from Blumenort to Steinbach. Hanover officials see buffer zones as great opportunities for commercial development.

Friendly annexations are hard to come by, said Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen. Over the last decade, both councils decided were better off working together than separately.

Goertzen was disappointed in January when the Municipal Board ruled against its agreement with Hanover for an annexation of 7,300 acres. The provincial board pointed to complaints from farm owners in the annexed zone, and summarized by calling the annexation overly ambitious.

Steinbach currently is 6,300 acres in size.

City council is certainly pleased. A lot of hard work has gone into this deal, Goertzen said of the new deal.

Indigenous and Municipal Relations Minister Eileen Clarke must still approve the ruling, but ministers rarely go against the Municipal Board.

Steinbach still has within its borders 1,600 acres available to develop, the equivalent of 15 years of population growth. The additional 2,800 acres will add another 15 years.

A consultants report last year projected Steinbachs population could top 100,000 within 50 years.

Its population in the 2016 Census was 15,829.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first thing to know, as Jimmy Carter bid his second and likely final farewell to Winnipeg, is that he felt fine.

There were other things on Carters mind, when he sat down with the Free Press on Friday: thoughts about justice and housing, human rights and ballooning income inequality. Thoughts about a love over seven decades strong.

All in good time. First things first: after collapsing at the Habitat for Humanity build in St. James on Thursday and spending a night in St. Boniface Hospital with his wife, Rosalynn, by his side, Carter bounced back and felt fine.

In fact, the former U.S. president adds, he felt fairly good the day before too, after he recovered. Its just that hed been working too hard in the scorching sun, he says, sawing boards for what will be a Lyle S treet homes front steps.

When that happened, international media snapped to attention. Carters collapse drew a flurry of headlines; thousands of his admirers tweeted into the ether, urging the nonagenarian ex-president not to work too hard.

Carter lets out a hearty laugh, hearing that. Then again, hes heard that advice so many times before.

The doctors emphasized that last night too, he says, and flashes a familiar smile from so many old photos.

Yet, Carter is unlikely to take it too easy, to let go of the work, to rest on his laurels. Its not that his age isnt showing: at 92, the president walks gingerly, and with a slight stoop. Its that the hopes of so many rest on those shoulders.

His close relationship with Habitat is an example. This years Carter Work Project build, split between Edmonton and Winnipeg, is the 34th annual edition; in all those years he skipped only once, in 2015, when he was battling cancer.

Habitat has made it easy for us to accommodate the circumstances as they change, Carter says, a tacit nod to his age. Its diverse enough to keep it challenging, and interesting, and adventurous, and gratifying.

To think, it started before many of this weeks volunteers were even born. In 1984, the Carters led a bus full of 40 Habitat volunteers to New York City, where they renovated a six-storey building and slept in a church dormitory.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Volunteers were back at it Friday morning finishing up homes on Lyle St. for the Habitat for Humanitys 34th Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

At the time, Carter says, he wouldnt have imagined hed still be travelling to build houses in 2017  I didnt dream Id live this long, he says.

But with his support, Habitats profile soared; today, he remains its most valuable asset.

Yet, if Habitat needs Jimmy Carter, it seems as if Carter needs them too. On the build site in St. James, staff from his Georgia-based Carter Center made fond quips about his work ethic; its what keeps him going, one staffer said.

They love him, too. Thats notable. Even in casual conversation, staff speak of their boss with obvious affection; the gentleness, they say, is the real Carter too. With the 39th president, one said, what you see really is what you get.

In conversation, that seems true. Security and media protocols surrounding the president are tight, but Carter himself is warm and personable. (When a Free Press photographer asked if she could shake his hand, the president looked surprised she would even ask. Of course, he said. I like that.)

He is eager to talk, too, about the issues battering the world today. Habitat for Humanity staff were understandably keen to keep media questions non-political, asking to focus on the Habitat build, and affordable housing in general.

Still, thats difficult. Presidents  even 36 years after they leave office  are inextricably linked with the political visions of entire generations. People sometimes mark the passage of their lives by presidential administrations.

With Carter, that nostalgia is magnified. His dutiful post-presidency humanitarian work has made him beloved to many; the stark contrast to the bellicose tone of the current American president is almost too obvious, too easy.

So visiting American volunteers sighed, and noted wistfully how they wished the world had more Jimmy Carters; others bluntly described how United States President Donald Trumps election inspired them to sign up for this years Carter Work Project.

In truth, its not difficult to draw a line connecting these dots. One of the reasons that few cities have taken a truly aggressive approach to ensuring affordable housing, Carter muses, is the disconnect between people and power.

I think theres an inadequate understanding by the people that are in power, quite often the most favoured citizens of a country or a community, and whove had everything themselves, Carter says.

Quite often they dont pay adequate attention to the low-income people, who are struggling for life.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Carter being interviewed by Free Press columnist Melissa Martin and videographer Mike Deal at the Carter Habitat for Humanity site.

To solve this, Carter thinks, nations need to work to close the income inequality gap; income inequality in the United States has ballooned since he left office in 1981, and wages for the vast majority of workers are now stagnant.

One of the reasons we had, I would say a somewhat disappointing election in 2016 in the United States, was that people didnt believe they were getting a fair deal, he says.

Average, hardworking middle-income people just felt their lives were not any better than they had been a few years back, and didnt have any prospect of getting better in the future.

With that sense of discouragement, they turned to almost any alternative that was offered to them.

If theres a way out of that sense of frustration, he believes, its to recommit to the basics, and focus on human rights. He points to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lists adequate housing among its 30 core tenets.

He points out too, as he did in a 2012 New York Times op-ed, that the United States has violated a number of those tenets. He mentions the founding ideals of the United Nations, the noble vision of the human rights declaration.

In a way, he says, both of those ambitions have been abandoned.

But behind him, 21 new houses rise in St. James, almost ready to welcome their owners. In the grand scheme of things, it is a drop in the bucket, a vast global need; but at least, Carter agrees, it is getting us back to basics.

I think so, he says. Just building houses, just hammering a nail or putting in a screw, or sawing a board  in a way, that is our small contribution, I think, to human rights.

The interview glides to a close; the Carters time in Winnipeg was growing short. One last bit of work to do, before they headed out: they visited each of the 21 houses, posing for photos with beaming volunteers and homeowners.

That night, the president was set to visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights  Im very interested in that, he says  where he looked forward to browsing the galleries before attending the Habitat builds closing ceremonies.

Then it will be time for the Carters to go: back to their home in Plains, Ga., and to the Maranatha Baptist Church where hes slated to teach a Bible class on Sunday. Back to their work and the time-honoured routines of their life.

Last week, the Carters celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary.

When the couple first arrived at the build site on Thursday, he made a beeline to Rosalynn to take hold of her hand; they do that a lot, he says, and they always have.

His advice for a long marriage draws on tradition: every night, Carter says, they still read Bible passages to each other. They try to resolve arguments before they go to bed.

Through that, he says, there are more ups than downs.

We give each other plenty of space, he says, with a gentle nod.

She does her things that she loves, we do the things we both love together and I do the things I like to do as well. We dont interfere with each other.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay  In coming weeks, cannabis-seeking citizens in this small South American nation will be able to walk into a pharmacy and buy government-approved marijuana for the state-mandated price of US$1.30 a gram. No questions asked. No doctors note required.

If that sounds like an attempt to create a stoner republic on the south Atlantic, would-be tourists should know a few things.

Uruguay is the worlds first country to fully legalize the production, sale and consumption of marijuana. But under its strict rules, there will be no Amsterdam-style smoking cafes, and foreigners wont have access to the national stash.

Nick Miroff / for The Washington Post Marijuana club operator Marco Algorta is growing a strain known as Colombian Red in a rooftop greenhouse in Montevideo, Uruguay, the worlds first nation to fully legalize cannabis.

Nor will there be shops selling ganja candies, psychedelic pastries or any of the other edible derivatives offered in pot-permissive U.S. states such as Colorado and Washington, where entrepreneurial capitalism fertilizes the United States incipient marijuana industry.

Instead, Uruguays government has developed a legalization model with the apparent goal of making marijuana use as boring as possible. A vast regulatory bureaucracy will determine everything from the genetic makeup of the plants to the percentage of psychoactive compounds in their flowers.

The endeavour puts Uruguay (population: 3.4 million) at the forefront of a growing list of nations experimenting with marijuana. Pot has been legalized for recreational or medical use in more than half of U.S. states and Washington, D.C., but it remains essentially prohibited under federal law. American activists have been bracing for a confrontation with the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who opposes the liberalization trend.

Canada, Mexico, Colombia and other nations across the Americas also are moving to legalize cannabis on a limited basis. But only Uruguay has set up a comprehensive system to regulate every facet of the plants life cycle, from tiny seed to smoky haze.

Uruguayans say their model is designed to strike a balance between prohibition and the kind of exuberant marijuana economy emerging in some U.S. states, where well-funded businesses may have incentive to encourage consumption.

In Uruguay, anything that smacks of commercial marijuana branding or advertising is banned. The two private firms authorized to supply the pharmacies with industrial quantities of dope  nearly four tonnes annually  cant even put their company labels on the packaging.

The risk of what theyre doing in Colorado is that you end up with something like the tobacco industry, said Julio Calzada, one of the public health officials who designed Uruguays regulatory model after lawmakers approved legalization in 2013.

He said the country wont allow a competitive industry peddling pot versions of Marlboro and Camel. The concept here is totally different.

To us, marijuana is a vegetable substance with a capacity to generate addiction, so what were trying to do is control the production, distribution and consumption of that substance as effectively as possible, he said.

Its no fluke that this is happening in socially liberal Uruguay. Gambling and prostitution are legal and regulated here. Uruguay is also the only Latin American nation outside Cuba that has broadly legalized abortion, and it was one of the first to recognize civil unions and adoption by same-sex couples.

Uruguay also is accustomed to relatively high levels of regulation and a big state role in the economy, with an array of government-owned banks, gas stations and utilities. Over the years, activists began to argue: why not weed?

The experiment is not without skeptics and detractors  one reason it has taken longer than expected to fully implement the countrys legalization model. Marijuana cultivation and consumption has been allowed for personal use, and the country now has at least 60 cannabis clubs that provide members with a monthly supply. But the government has been slow to roll out its system of pharmacy-based commercial sales to the general population.

Anyone over age 18 who registers in a government database will be able to buy up to 40 grams per month at one of three dozen participating commercial pharmacies. Instead of showing ID, buyers will place their thumb on a scanner that links to a government database and tells the pharmacy how much marijuana they are eligible to purchase.

Nearly 4,500 Uruguayans have registered for the system, according to the IRCCA website, and officials are expecting that number to increase substantially once marijuana users realize that the product sold in pharmacies is vastly superior to the low-grade weed sold illegally on the streets.

Some marijuana users have chafed at the idea of registering with the government. But even legalization advocates concede that such a safeguard is necessary to prevent traffickers from buying up pharmacy stocks and smuggling Uruguays crop into Brazil and Argentina, the countrys much-larger neighbours.

A lot of consumers here dont like the fingerprint system and point out that they dont have to do anything like that to buy a bottle of wine, said Martin Fernandez, a human rights attorney in Montevideo who has become an expert on the countrys cannabis law. But we see it as something transitional that could disappear with time.

Access to the user database will be provided only with a judges order and as part of a criminal investigation, Fernandez said, so its not something a prospective employer or government social service agency could check. The police dont even have access to it, he said.

Officials say the new system will drain away customers from the black-market marijuana economy, where a kind of pot known as Paraguayan Pressed predominates. Its similar to cheap, low-potency marijuana that reaches U.S. streets from Mexico and is cultivated on large outdoor farms. The final product is littered with seeds and plant stems.

Its levels of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient, are typically below five per cent, while the state-approved version soon to be sold in pharmacies will be available in seedless flowers (buds) at strengths of five and 10 per cent THC, according to Eduardo Blasina, an agronomist who set up one of the two growing operations on state-leased land adjacent to the countrys maximum-security prison.

Its one of the most secure places in the country, he said.

One irony of the Uruguay model is that its pharmacies will be selling marijuana, even though the country hasnt approved commercial sales of medical or health products derived from the plants.

But it was pharmacy owners who petitioned the government to give them responsibility for retail sales, citing their experience handling controlled substances, said Alejandro Antalich, whose pharmacy trade association represents 300 stores. The neighbourhood pharmacist is one of the most trusted figures in Uruguayan society, he said.

Uruguays cannabis connoisseurs have little interest in this marijuana-for-the-masses. Nearly 7,000 have registered to grow plants for personal use (limit: six flowering plants), while others have signed up for one of the clubs that provide them with a monthly supply of pot far stronger than what the pharmacies will sell.

Marco Algorta, who started one of the countrys first clubs, said that he and several of his fellow founders come from prominent Uruguayan families and that this has helped their young industry gain acceptance in elite circles.

Now he wants the government to create the legal infrastructure for marijuana-derivative businesses to take off.

Uruguay has an opportunity to become in cannabis what Switzerland is for chocolate or France is for wines, Algorta said. We need to stop seeing it as a drug and start seeing it as an industry.

 Washington Post
A new report from the University of Minnesotas Energy Transition Lab shows adding energy storage is becoming a cost effective way to meet electricity demand in the state.

The report looked at several scenarios, including a common one in the summer: A hot day when electricity demand is much higher than usual because of air conditioning.

What would be more cost effective: to build a conventional plant or to put in a big battery? Or, alternatively, to put in a big battery and a big solar array at the same time? [The consultants] found that putting in solar plus storage was actually cost effective right now, said Ellen Anderson, who directs the Energy Transition Lab.

Anderson said about 1,800 megawatts of new natural gas plants are planned for Minnesota by 2028, primarily to meet that peak demand. Natural gas power plants are used for peak demand because they can be ramped up and down quickly.

Solar arrays with batteries have the ability to soak in the suns rays during the day and store the energy for distribution when theres more demand in the evening. Most of Minnesotas current solar arrays are only feeding electricity to the grid during the day.

The report shows storage could also be used to better utilize Minnesotas wind energy resources. Right now, if energy supply exceeds demand, wind turbine blades are adjusted so that the turbines dont generate as much electricity.

The consultants from Strategen Consulting and Vibrant Clean Energy found the states reliance on natural gas for electricity would jump dramatically without energy storage as coal plants face retirement. With storage, Minnesota could boost its renewable energy generation, the report says.

What were seeing is were right on that precipice where now its actually today viable to put some in the ground, said Chris Clack with Vibrant Clean Energy.

Clack said he expects that as more storage is added to the grid, the benefits will become obvious and drive even more implementation.

The cost of storage has come down dramatically. The technology itself is getting cheaper, plus theres a federal production tax credit can be applied to facilities.

In addition, Minnesota has adopted policies that require utilities to look at the environmental impacts of new energy facilities, and in some cases solar energy projects are assigned a higher value than electricity produced from fossil fuels.

All these factors help the math work out in favor of storage, said Ed Burgess of Strategen.

Its really an opportune time to re-look at storage and how it would fit into a place like Minnesota, he said.

Minnesota has very little energy storage today, but Connexus, a distribution cooperative located in Ramsey, is planning a 20 megawatt energy storage system. Bids for that project have come in lower than expected, Anderson said.

The Energy Transition Lab report was presented to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday. A group of stakeholders evaluated the report and recommended the state pursue some energy storage pilot projects.
JUNEAU  A 32-year-old Horicon man was found guilty Friday of burglarizing The Cooper Shop Saloon, 30 Main St., Kekoskee.

Lucas M. Mueller entered a no contest plea to felony charges of burglary of a building and bail jumping. Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Steven Bauer accepted his plea and dismissed but read into record charges for possession of burglarious tools, criminal damage to property, theft, resisting an officer and several bail jumping charges.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled.

According to the criminal complaint, a Dodge County Sheriffs Deputy responded to the saloon March 18 at 10 a.m. about a burglary that occurred sometime during the night. A patio window was broken and money was missing from the bar. The money had been hidden, so the caller felt that the person knew where to get it.

When the deputy arrived, he noticed that muddy footprints went directly to the room where the money was kept. The owners said they store their startup money for the next day in that room.

A female employee gave him a sheet of paper with Muellers name on it and said a male employee at the business might have something to do with the theft. The deputy also viewed security footage that showed a man walking up to the entry door around 5 a.m. March 18. His face was covered with a hat. He entered through the broken window. At one point, the man removed his hat and was crawling on the floor after apparently trying to find something he lost in the dark. He then got back up and faced the camera.

The employee who gave the name also went to Muellers home and took photos of the shoes that matched the ones in the video.

Police spoke to Mueller, who told them that he was too old to do something like that.
When looking for a new home in Beaver Dam, Ken Thomas wanted to find something as a neutral background for his ever-growing collection of antiques.

Ive often believed that even a simple space can be transformed with the addition of extraordinary things, said Thomas. They dont necessarily need to cost much, but they have to have a big impact. The more beautiful they are and the better the quality, the better the outcome.

That principle is reinforced by many decorators. Their most sage advice is to buy the best you can afford and to build a room using something like a piece of art, a piece of furniture or a rug as a springboard for design. Some decorators call it an inspiration piece.

In his search for a Beaver Dam home, Thomas was frustrated by an agents showings of run-down duplexes  the only thing that seemingly fit into his price range. Finally he spotted a repossessed story-and-a-half bungalow on DeClark Street. Before he could negotiate a price, the mortgage was sold to another bank and the house was no longer on the market. Following a months-long waiting game, he finally bought it for $70,000. It was a high price considering the fact that the roof was leaking and just about everything needed to be replaced.

The insurance company wouldnt touch it, Thomas said. After a bit of creative maneuvering we came to an agreement, and work began.

Thomas did as much of the unskilled work as he could handle.

I did all the demolition and hired contractors to do the major work, said Thomas. I hired good people, overall, and wherever I skimped it came back to haunt me.

Unfortunate discoveries included knob and tube wiring, corroded steel pipes, lead water service, cracked plaster walls beneath dark paneling, cracked and missing plaster ceilings beneath composite tiles, six to seven layers of cedar shake roofing, bats, mice, a hugely compromised structure, an aged furnace and air conditioning unit and horrible metal cabinets in the kitchen.

The structure was the first urgent repair.

One of the main joists was broken and you could bounce on it like a trampoline, said Thomas. Other joists were cut off to fit heating ducts. There was very little holding up the second floor.

A local contractor reinforced them, jacking them up to straighten a noticeable dip in the center of the rooms.

The good things included Anderson window replacements, maple floors beneath glued-down carpet, a large living room which includes the enclosed front porch, two complete bathrooms and tolerable steel siding.

Like the house I had in Mayville, I soon learned that starting from scratch might have been a better option. Thomas said. I gutted the entire first floor and took down some ceilings upstairs. There is not a surface anywhere that hasnt been touched, and I realized later that I should have kept on going. Still, I did the best I could, and looking back I cant imagine tearing out any more than I did. There are limits to how much one person can stand.

Friends and relatives helped as dumpster after dumpster was filled and emptied. Thomas attempted things he had never before faced, like taking down the chimney as he stood on it, two bricks at a time.

At one point I was trapped in the attic when the chimney filled up with bricks and I had nowhere to go, Thomas said. I managed to climb through the attic hatch and took the rest down from inside the house.

He nearly panicked after he took out a large window and wasnt quite sure how to fill the void.

By evening I had cut some plywood to cover the hole and stapled tar paper over it to keep the inside dry. Its amazing what you can do when you dont have another choice.

Other large changes included closing an opening to a main floor dining room creating valuable wall space, and removing a wall upstairs to create a master bedroom/sitting room.

Originally the upstairs bedrooms were so small you could barely get a bed and a dresser into each, Thomas said. Luckily the joists ran the right way so there was nothing keeping me from taking the wall at least partially down.

Triumphs included the reveal of maple floors in all of the downstairs rooms, re-creation of the old moldings that had been replaced with plastic ones decades earlier, thorough upgrades to every system, replacement of all second floor windows, a new garage door and a host of other improvements.

Obstacles were overcome and the house was filled with things gathered from around the world. Every trip Thomas took yielded something and every item has a story.

Thats what makes them special, Thomas said. Each object recalls a place, an experience or a person and each is dear to me.

Along the way Thomas has specialized in collecting Jacobean oak furniture (from the 1900s to the 1980s), German and Chinese porcelain, oil paintings, lead crystal, clocks both old and not very old, antique lighting, anything Scottish, anything English, anything with acorns and/or oak leaves and a host of other accumulations.

I collect way too many things, Thomas said. Nothing is worth all that much, but I hope people are impressed when they see it all together.

Among his favorite objects are the oil portrait of his grandmother (Hattie) painted by a young Madison artist, German porcelain plates and figurines, eight running (and chiming) clocks, and several lights that he built using pieces from other fixtures.

The chandelier in the living room has parts from about 20 different fixtures, from the heavy brass wheel in the center to the ornate finial at the bottom, Thomas said. I chipped a tooth taking it down once to add a different finial. The light probably weighs 50 pounds, and theres not another one like it in the world.

It has been 20 years since he moved in, and the house and yard remain works in progress.

I dont like the kitchen cabinets and theres still a leak in the first floor bathroom roof  despite a complete remodel, Thomas said. There are still a lot of things that are unfinished.

He added, I feel like Sarah Winchester of the Winchester Mystery house in San Jose, California, who was afraid that as soon as she finished her house she would die.

I hope not to die any time soon  at least thats my lame excuse, he said.
President Donald Trumps performance at the G-20 summit in Germany produced a wave of commentary claiming the United States has abdicated its role as world leader.

ABC News contemplated A World Without U.S. Leadership. CNN reported that Trump exchanged an aggressive, traditional American leadership role for isolation in a club of one. The liberal activist Neera Tanden tweeted, Can we just admit that the era of American global leadership is over under Trump?

The talking point quickly became conventional wisdom in Europe. In the UK, the Independent wrote, The G-20 proves it. Because of Trump, the world no longer looks to America for leadership.

While there were disagreements in Hamburg between Trump and the other 19 nations on lots of things, including trade, the main factor in all the end-of-American-leadership talk was the presidents decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

The idea is that, by not going along with the other 19 nations or entities  Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the European Union  the United States is no longer leading.

In other words: One can only lead by following the group.

Its an odd formulation, reminiscent of the old Barack Obama leading from behind jokes, but its the principle underlying the end-of-American-leadership talk. And its not working with some of the presidents key supporters on Capitol Hill.

Im glad that President Trump cares more about electricity rates in Paris, Arkansas than he does the Paris Climate Accord, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said in a text exchange Sunday. Hollow agreements aside, the United States will continue to lead the world in environmental protection, while also exporting oil and gas abroad. In particular, American global energy dominance will help break Europes dependence on Russian oil and gas, if only Germany would stop posturing at one moment, while cozying up to Putin in the next.

It seems safe to say that as the U.S. further develops its energy output, it will also achieve its own voluntary emissions goals for 2020 and beyond. (Each country in the non-binding Paris deal got to set its own.) But if Trump sticks with his decision, the U.S. will not take part in the vast, billions-and-billions-of-dollars global wealth-redistribution system that is part of the Paris Agreement.

It was of course well-known ahead of time that the other G-20 leaders opposed Trumps move. The question in Hamburg was what they would say about it in a formal statement. The Guardian reported that tensions ran particularly high between French and U.S. officials, who fought over whether the final G-20 statement would include a mention of the U.S. helping other countries to access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently. (It did.)

At the same time, Trumps decision made the other countries want to showcase the depth of their commitment to the Paris deal. We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the G-20 leaders final declaration said. Then: The leaders of the other G-20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.

To American ears, the irreversible part sounded a little strange. In the context of government, what does irreversible mean? Americans, like all other humans, reverse things all the time. Even the Constitution can be amended. But the Paris Agreement  which former President Obama imposed by executive authority without seeking the approval of the Senate in the normal treaty process  that is irreversible?

And even for the G-20, what does irreversible mean? It certainly does not mean inflexible. The 19 leaders noted that they are moving swiftly towards its full implementation in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances. In other words, in a non-binding agreement like Paris, individual countries can do what they have to do.

That, according to the commentators, is the definition of leadership. Donald Trump chose to take the United States on a different course, which according to the same commentators is the abdication of leadership.

In an alternate universe, one could imagine analysis of Trumps European trip noting that the president is in fact leading  leading, for example, in the defense of Western values. Bob Dole, the former Republican presidential candidate and senator, said just that, praising Trump for restoring proud and strong American leadership and helping restore our position as leader of the free world.

But Dole, and Cotton, and other Trump supporters dont see leadership in the same way as the critics. For Trumps opponents, at least as far as the G-20 is concerned, leading is following, and following is leading.
They say life is a highway, but for Robyn Freidel, its been more of a long and winding trail ride  one thats taken her from the family farm she grew up on to an occupational therapy assistant program at MATC and then back to where she started from.

Today Freidel, 23, and her husband Ryan live in the farmhouse that her grandparents used to call home, on Sanderson Road, seven miles west of Columbus, where they are building a business thats based on her lifelong love of horses.

The couples Winding River Stables is located on 10 acres of land that was carved out of the 300-acre farm that Freidels parents, Dana and Judy Roberts, continue to operate. The younger couples portion of the property includes a big steel-sided barn, outdoor pastures and fenced-in dry lots, where Freidel teaches riding lessons, conducts day camps for kids, leads trail rides and boards and leases horses. Her husband, who also works full-time off the farm, handles the businesss bookwork and property maintenance.

Hooked on horses

Freidel, the youngest of seven, got hooked on horses after shed gone trail riding with a friend one day when she was just a kid. She came home afterward and announced to her parents that she wanted a horse. Her mom  whod all but given up hope that any of her children would follow in her horse-loving footsteps  was thrilled.

She was so overjoyed, Freidel said. Thats pretty much the reason that Im able to have all this because its been her lifelong passion, and she was just thrilled that one of her kids wanted to carry on her passion.

Freidel ventured off the farm after high school to pursue an occupational therapy assistant program at MATC. She wasnt sure where she wanted to go after college, but since she already had her horses back home and her parents were willing to help out, she decided shed start teaching riding lessons and leading trail rides.

My initial goal was just to get started and see what would happen, Freidel said. We have a lot of space and its really beautiful out here. So my initial idea was, lets see what we can do and if it can attract people.

Attract people it did.

It just took off immediately the first summer, Freidel said. Trail rides were a big hit, and then we started to get more lesson kids and then we started to get boarders.

The couple built their barn, which has 10 stalls, an indoor arena and a lean-to to store their hay in, in 2015, and theyve kept on improving the property and growing the business ever since.

At present Freidel has 11 horses on site, including five of her own and six that are boarded, and she teaches lessons three days a week, to everyone from beginners to advanced riders, in a wide range of ages.

I have a 65-year-old and I have a 5-year-old, she said.

She has also started teaching therapeutic riding, which refers to recreational horseback riding lessons that are adapted to people with special needs.

Therapeutic riding

Freidel was introduced to the concept of therapeutic riding when she was a student at MATC. There is a lot of overlap between occupational therapy and therapeutic riding, she said, and once her business started taking off, she decided to take online classes and complete an internship, in order to get certified to teach it.

She completed her certification last October, so this is her first summer teaching therapeutic riding, and shes really enjoying it.

For kids with special needs, horseback riding can be life-changing, Freidel said. People with problems ranging from cerebral palsy to down syndrome to depression and anger issues can all benefit from being around the calming influence of a horse.

Until you get to know the horse, you dont realize how much the horse knows and how much personality they have, Freidel said. You can see their personality come out as you get to know them more. Theyre such a big animal, and yet you can control them and make them listen to you. You dont have to force them at all. To have them listen to you is just a cool experience for people.

Right now, Freidel is working with three therapeutic riding students, including two with autism and one who has an unspecified learning disability. She hopes that continues to grow and becomes an area she can specialize in in the future.

Theres really nowhere around here that offers therapeutic riding, Freidel said. I think theres a big need, so thats my goal right now, to expand and bring more students in for therapeutic riding.
Everyone who knows me knows that I love coffee. I dont mean the kind my mother made, perk coffee that sat on the stove for hours on end, but good coffee that I make fresh with the right kind of beans. Straight-up coffee, flavored, espresso or cappuccino  when I talk about it or even write this column, I can just smell and taste it. Yummy.

Now, I dont overdo it, although my wife, Penny, might say I do. But if I kept track of how much coffee I drink, its probably six cups a day. Not six mugs a day, but six cups, with a cup being 8 ounces. Mugs are often twice that amount. I mention this because the studies below define a cup as 8 ounces. Keep that in mind.

Whether coffee is healthy is so important because three out of four people drink it, with most of them drinking it regularly. So if its bad, its an important public health message for us to know that. It turns out, though, that the opposite is true.

Drink coffee, live longer. Its that simple. Coffee is an elixir of life. And, interestingly, its not the caffeine. Because regular coffee and decaf carry the same protection.

The theory is that chemical compounds known as polyphenols along with other antioxidants in this gift from Mother Nature carry properties associated with reduced inflammation and reduced insulin resistance, which could be why previous studies have shown that coffee may protect us from diabetes. Still other studies have shown that coffee promotes health of the liver, that rarely discussed organ that does so much for us and never asks for so much as a simple thank you in return.

Now to discuss two more recent studies published in the American College of Physicians Annals of Internal Medicine.

The first was a mammoth study from 10 European countries that involved more than 500,000 men and women. Researchers found that those drinking three cups of coffee per day lived longer. Most noticeable was a reduction in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract such as colon cancer, but also diminished heart attacks and strokes.

The second study came out of the University of Southern California. Again, it was a mammoth study, including 185,000 people of all different ethnicities. And guess what? It showed the same thing: Drink coffee, live longer.

The strength of these new studies is that theyre really, really large  more than half a million people followed for 16 years. Large and long make for good data.

Now, you can argue there are other factors that might impact the results found in these studies  behavioral factors. Coffee drinkers just might be more active, they might be more engaged with their life, they might eat differently, things like that.

That notion was addressed in the editorial content that accompanied the studies results. The writers said we should hold our horses before doctors rush to recommend to everyone that they drink coffee. And they may be right.

If the concern is about drinking too much caffeine, consider that previous studies have shown up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day is OK for most adults. Thats about four cups of coffee a day. For pregnant women, its recommended to stick with three cups per day.

My spin: The naysayers who say coffee is bad for you should fold up their tents and go home. They are wrong. Coffee, whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, is not bad for you at all. And there are so many studies that show it has a salutatory effect that perhaps we should consider it a vitamin.

Maybe we should call coffee the new Vitamin C2. Ill drink to that  make it a coffee, of course. Stay well.
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing was a military action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in the Kosovo War. The operation involved airstrikes and bombing that began on March 24, 1999, and ended on June 10, 1999. The NATO operation code was officially known as the Operation Allied Forces. The bombings did not stop until the two parties Belgrade and the Kosovar Albanians reached an agreement that the Yugoslavian armed forces were to be withdrawn from Kosovo and this led to the creation of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) which began the mission of peacekeeping in Kosovo.

Historical Background

Kosovo experienced a state organized oppression after its quest for self-governance was dismissed. Albanian language television, newspapers, and Radio were restricted and shut in the 1990s. This followed the firing of Kosovar Albanians who worked in the institutions and public enterprises. The University of Pristina was dissolved in 1991 and later in September that year when the new school year began, Kosovar Albanian teachers were barred from accessing school premises, this forced the students to do home study. In 1996, Kosovo Liberation Army was formed that led the resistance against the Belgrade. Clashes between the two parties erupted in 1998. This resulted in the signing of a NATO treaty later that year that was supposed to end the fighting but this agreement was broken and fighting resumed two months later. NATO decided to form a military peacekeeping force that could stop the fighting in January 1999 after the killing of 45 Kosovar Albanians. In March that year, the negotiations of installing external peacekeeping forces broke as Yugoslavia rejected the idea. That forced NATO to install peacekeeping forced against their will.

Objectives Of The Operation

Following the meeting held at the NATO headquarters on April 12, 1999, the organization established objectives in resolving the Kosovo conflict. Their primary goal was to end the military action by the two parties and bring the fighting to an end. Other goals of NATO was to withdraw all police and military forces from Kosovo, station UN peacekeeping in Kosovo, foresee the safe return of refugees and people who were displaced, and to establish a political framework for Kosovo that was to conform with the international law.

What Happened During The Operation?

On March 23, 1999, the Yugoslavian government announced a state of emergency at its national television and claimed that NATO forces threatened to attack them. The government set troops and invested a lot of resources to engage in the war. Javier Solana, the Secretary General of NATO, directed the Supreme Allied Commander to begin air operation in FRY and the bombing started the following day. NATO used 1,000 aircraft in its bombing campaign. The first batch to bomb Belgrade was the Spanish Air Force. NATO military continued to attack the Yugoslavian military on the ground as well as in the air. April that year, ethnic Albanians who had been used as shields by the Yugoslavian forces were bombed. On May, the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was mistakenly bombed by NATO as they targeted the Yugoslavian military. This was followed by an apology and by NATO and the United States to the Republic of China. The bombing was suspended on June 10, 1999, when the Yugoslavian government agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosovo and the war came to an end on June 11.

Outcome Of The Operation

The Human Rights Watch reported that several hundred civilian deaths were witnessed. NATO military forces suffered less damage the only one being the plane crash on a night mission in Albania.

The Yugoslavian government claimed that the bombing caused an economic loss of $100 billion. The operation also led to the withdrawal of the Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and this restored peace as the United Nations supervised Kosovo politically.

Criticisms

Amnesty International reported that NATO forces targeted civilians deliberately, but NATO dismissed this report. Others also accused NATO of exaggerating casualties to justify their bombing. There was criticism from Moscow that the campaign was a breach of international law.
The Kingdom of Morocco adopted its national flag and state ensign on November 17, 1915. When Morocco fell under the control of French and Spanish colonizers, the flag could only be used inland, with its use at sea was prohibited. After regaining independence in 1955, Morocco restored its national flag. The flag was designed by Mulay Yusef, Sultan of the Alaouite Dynasty who ruled the kingdom between 1912 and 1927. The Moroccan flag used during the Alaouite dynasty, between 1666 and 1915, was a simple red banner with no markings.

The Moroccan national flag is rectangular with a proportion of 2:3. The flag is red with an open green star, which has five points, at the center. The star has five continuous branches, each having a width of one-twentieth its length. According to the constitution, one point should always point upward. The red color is significant in Morocco as it proclaims descent from the Alaouite dynasty, and therefore red in the flag symbolizes strength, bravery, valor, and hardiness. Green represents for hope, peace, love, wisdom, joy, and is also the color of Islam. The five-pointed star represents the five pillars of Islam.

Historical National Flags

The dynasties of Idrisid and Almoravid, which ruled Morocco from 780 until 974 and from 1070 until 1147, respectively, used white silk banners which were primarily use in battle. The latter, however, included an Arabic inscription which translates to There is no god but God, and Mohammad is His Prophet. The Almohad dynasty that ruled between 1147 and 1269 had a red flag with a charge at the center resembling a chess board with 64 black and white squares. The Marinid dynasty took over from 1258 until 1420 and used a red flag bearing an octagon star and an outline along the edges, both in yellow. The Saadi dynasty also used this flag during its reign, which began in 1554 and ended in 1659. From 1666 until 1915, the Alaouite dynasty ruled Morocco and had a red flag with no markings.

Other Moroccan National Flags

Other flags used in Morocco include the civil and naval ensigns. The civil ensign is similar to the national flag, but also includes a yellow crown and yellow star located in the canton (upper left corner). The naval ensign in Morocco resembles the civil ensign, but with a yellow crown and star in all of four corners. The Kingdom of Morocco also uses a naval jack which is similar to the national flag but is swallow-tailed and has a yellow borderline. The Royal Standard of Morocco is green and bears the Moroccan Coat of arms at the center.
The system of education in Canada is twofold, featuring both public and private institutions at all levels. Generally speaking, education begins at primary school and continues to secondary school. Children usually begin kindergarten at age 4 or 5 and may attend for 1 or 2 years. The majority of students attend first grade at 6 years of age. The school year follows the typical North American schedule, which begins in September and ends in June.

A secondary school may finish in either grade 11 or 12, depending on the province. At a national level, education is required until at least the age of 16. Providing public education, however, is the responsibility of the provinces. The age requirement, therefore, may be higher depending on the province. Once finished secondary school, students may move on to a technical college, career school, community college, or university.

Canada has approximately 15,500 primary and secondary schools and 5.3 million enrolled students. These schools are further divided as follows: primary (10,100), secondary (3,400), and mixed primary and secondary (2,000). Each school has an average student body of 350.

Role of Government in Education

As mentioned, public education is the responsibility of each province. It is provided at no cost to students as long as age and residency requirements are met. Each province has an independent board or department of education that oversees issues concerning the curriculum, budget, and staff of public schools. This board is managed by a minister, who is usually elected by the local legislative body and officially appointed by the local head of government. The board or department members are usually elected by the general public.

Public funding for education in Canada comes from all levels of government (federal, provincial, and local). Local communities usually pay a tax in order to support the local school district. The budget of each school is based on various factors, including student body size, location, and any unique needs of the school or community.

Role of Language in the Education System

Canada is a bilingual country with two official languages: English and French. The majority of French-speaking citizens live in the province of Quebec. However, the language rights of French-speaking citizens living outside of Quebec and English-speaking citizens living within Quebec are protected by federal law. This protection means that regardless of where a student lives, they have the right to an education that is provided in their first language that is either English or French. To carry out this rule, each province has created school boards specifically for French-language schools, and Quebec has the same for English-language schools.

Role of Religion in the Education System

Just as a language in school is constitutionally protected in Canada, so too is religion, in some instances. The government of Canada also provides funding for separate religious schools, but only if the school was established before the province officially became part of Canada. Today, this federal protection is afforded only in 3 provinces: Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario.
The State of Qatar is an absolute hereditary monarchy ruled by the Al Thani family. The Emir of Qatar is a monarch and serves as head of state and head of government. The House of Thani established their dynasty in the late 19th century and resumed power after Qatar gained independence from Britain in 1971. The western Asian country is supposed to exist as a constitutional monarchy under the constitution adopted in 2004. However, the ruling family allows no opposition from political factions and bans the existence of political parties.

Executive Branch of Government

The council of ministers serves as the executive body of the government Qatar. An advisory council in making policy decisions assists the emir, an all-powerful leader who answers to no one. The emir, however, should uphold the Islamic Sharia law. Also in the executive are the prime minister, the prime minister's deputy and cabinet ministers who are selected and dismissed by the emir.

Consultative Assembly Qatar

The consultative assembly holds the legislative power of Qatar. The assembly consists of 30 elected members and 15 appointees of the emir. The unicameral assembly has three primary roles according to the constitution. These roles include approving the national budget, passing legislation proposed by the executive, and monitoring the activities of the cabinet members. For laws to pass in the assembly, they requires a two-third majority vote. Members of the assembly who are appointed by the monarch serve for unlimited terms while the elected members serve for four-year renewable terms.

The Legal System of Qatar

The legal system of Qatar is derived mainly from the Islamic law. The country accepts corporal punishments, death sentences, flogging and stoning for offenders. Sharia law is the primary basis for judicial procedures. The country has stringent regulations on alcohol consumption, sexual relations, and dress code. Muslim nationals are, for example, banned from consuming alcohol or pork while non-Muslim expatriates need a license to drink alcohol or consume pork. The laws of Qatar are binding even to foreigners. For instance, engaging in illicit sexual affairs will attract a flogging as a punishment. The judiciary is an independent body made up of several courts. Courts in the country include the supreme court, court of appeal, criminal courts (higher and lower), civil court, and labor courts.

Human Rights in Qatar

The state of human rights in Qatar is of concern to international bodies. Practices such as flogging and stoning amount to torture. Furthermore, the restrictive labor rules to foreign laborers (especially low-income earners and domestic workers) expose them to harsh conditions, such as the inability to change employers or jobs, low or no pay, as well as restrictions on leaving the country. These conditions leave most foreign laborers in a life of servitude and fear of fighting for their rights. Like most Islamic nations, women's rights are not entirely appreciated. Qatar is, however, outstanding for its media freedom, by establishing the Al Jazeera satellite station, the first of its kind in the Arab world.

Foreign Relations of Qatar

Qatar has diplomatic relations with other nations and is a member of several regional and international bodies, such as OPEC, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United Nations, Interpol, and the World Health Organization. Qatar maintains defense relations with countries like Iran. Presently, there are many countries in Asia and the Middle East with sour relations because Qatar is suspected of supporting terrorist and other extremist groups.
Located in West Africa, Sierra Leone gained independence from the British in 1961. The constitution is the supreme law in Sierra Leone and establishes the nation as a constitutional republic with a unicameral legislature, a free judiciary and having the president serving as head of both the government as well as head of state.

President of Sierra Leone

The president is a title enshrined in the constitution which dictates that the president is the head of state as well as head of government. The president, in the capacity as head of government, wields executive authority and is responsible for the appointing the vice president, as well as the cabinet ministers. The president of the country is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Sierra Leone. The president is elected through direct adult suffrage in a popular vote to serve a five-year term subject to only one reelection. Candidates interested in the position of president are required to have to meet certain requirements including, which include minimum age of 40 years, and should be born in Sierra Leone, among other conditions. The cabinet is made up of seven ministers who head their respective ministries, which cut across all sectors of the economy.

Legislative Branch of Government

The legislature of Sierra Leone is the arm of government tasked by the constitution to formulate and enact legislation. The country has a unicameral parliamentary system with one chamber and is made up of 124 seats, where 112 seats are allocated to elected lawmakers, while 12 seats are assigned to tribal chiefs drawn from each of the 12 districts in the country. Members of parliament are elected by proportional representation to serve five-year terms and are required to have attained several qualifications, including being a Sierra Leone citizen by birth, being at least 21 years of age, and having the ability to express themselves in English. In the current parliament, all elected members are drawn from the two principal political parties in the country; the All Peoples Congress (70 seats) and the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (42 seats). The speaker is the leader of parliament, and the primary role is presiding over parliamentary proceedings. The deputy speaker assumes the role of the speaker in the absence of the speaker. Parliament is dissolved at least 30 days and at most 90 days before the general elections, but can be recalled back to session through a proclamation from the president. The commencement of each session of parliament is marked by the State of the Nation Address from the president who outlines the government achievements and plans to the members of parliament.

Judicial Branch of Government

The judiciary is the arm of government mandated to interpret and apply the law, as well as the administration of impartial justice to all based on the set laws and principles. The independence of the judiciary from other arms of government is enshrined and protected by the constitution. The supreme court is the judicial office with the final jurisdiction in constitutional, criminal and civil disputes, and is headed by the chief justice. The magistrate courts fall under the supreme court and are located in all judicial districts across the country. The local courts are the lowest courts in the country and are based on local customs and traditions, with legal proceedings being held by local elected leaders. All judges in the major judicial offices, including the chief justice, are appointed by the president and subject to parliamentary approval.
JEROME  A program in Jerome where students learn in both English and Spanish is so popular its expanding next school year  and theres already a waiting list.

The Jerome School District is adding second grade to its dual immersion program at Jefferson Elementary School. Its part of a long-term plan: adding one grade level each year as children progress through school.

Dual immersion supporters say it has many benefits such as helping students academically and with cognitive reasoning skills. And in many countries outside the United States, its common for children to grow up learning multiple languages.

Jerome parent Megan Williams, who helped start the dual immersion program, said shes excited for the expansion. Her 7-year-old son was in first-grade dual immersion last year and will continue with the program this fall.

With Jeromes diversity, the program is a good fit for the community, Williams said. Of about 11,300 residents in the city, 34 percent are Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

It just seemed like the ideal setup to allow my child to grow and develop his brain, and also allow other children to learn in a more constructive way (in) both English and Spanish, Williams said. It seemed like a no-brainer for our community.

Jeromes dual immersion program started in fall 2016 with two kindergarten classes and two first-grade classes. The program has a nearly 50-50 mix of native English and Spanish speakers.

In kindergarten, students stay with one teacher the entire day but use two languages. First and second-graders go between two classrooms  one with instruction in English and the other with instruction in Spanish.

The program accommodates 50 children in each grade level from kindergarten through second grades. Dual immersion kindergarten is already full for this fall and theres a waiting list.

After spring break, Jefferson Elementary started accepting applications for kindergarten dual immersion. It received about 60.

We tried to accommodate as many of the families as we could through the lottery, school principal Angie Brulotte said, which was held in mid-May.

If a child didnt get into dual immersion kindergarten, theres a chance they could start up until January of their first-grade year if a spot becomes available, Brulotte said. Thats considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the child.

The school has even received a few calls from families in surrounding Magic Valley communities asking about dual immersion.

The Jerome School District typically accepts out-of-district transfers, but for a specialized program like this, we obviously have to open it up to Jerome families first, Brulotte said.

There havent been any openings left for out-of-district students.

The desire for dual immersion programs has definitely grown, she said. Were so close to Utah where its the norm.

The Utah State Board of Education has a huge dual immersion program for schools. Brulotte said her school is following Utahs model. Theyve been incredibly generous with us for professional development.

For the upcoming school year, Jefferson Elementary has hired two Idaho residents as new dual immersion teachers.

A new kindergarten teacher worked for 10 years in Mexico. She married a Magic Valley resident and was working as a school paraprofessional while she finished up her teaching certification.

For the new second grade Spanish class, the new teacher already lives in Idaho and previously taught for 10 years in Lima, Peru.

With the challenges of a statewide teacher shortage  plus finding bi-literate teachers  Brulotte said the school is incredibly fortunate to have excellent dual immersion teachers.

A rare program

After a couple of years of work by parents and school administrators to launch a dual immersion program, the Jerome school board approved it in spring 2015.

The conditions: It cant create extra costs for the school district, and there cant be a cost for participating families.

The district has used donations, grants and support from the Jerome School District Foundation. Williams is one of the foundations directors.

Across Idaho, dual immersion is rare, with fewer than a dozen public schools with offerings.

The Idaho Department of Education doesnt have any formal reporting requirements for dual immersion programs and doesnt have funding specifically for the offerings.

Its up to local school boards to decide whether to create and pay for a program.

Blaine County is the only other south-central Idaho district with a program, with about 800 students  25 percent of its student body  enrolled.

A dual immersion magnet school, Alturas Elementary School, opened in 2014 in Hailey. It was previously Woodside Elementary School, but non-dual immersion students now go to other schools.

At Gooding Elementary School, a kindergarten dual-immersion class was offered in 2014. But it was discontinued after one year  largely due to budget constraints.

The results

Erin Coppin came up with the idea for Jeromes dual immersion program after her family moved from Utah.

Her daughter, who turns seven this summer, was in the dual immersion first-grade class last school year.

I am just blown away with just how great its been, Coppin said.

She said her daughter was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder during the school year, but even still, she is still picking up the Spanish.

Coppins husband speaks Spanish. Coppin said her daughter isnt fluent in the language, but understands a lot of it.

Coppin also has a daughter whos 3 years old and shes starting to pick up some Spanish words for colors by listening to her older sister. Coppins son is 9 and missed out on the opportunity to be in Jeromes dual immersion program.

Williams observed her son and classmates conversing in Spanish by the end of the school year.

I think I was surprised with how much progress students made within one year, she said. I think its just fun to watch them grow in that confidence.

English is the first language for Williams son, but his father knows how to speak Spanish.

Nationwide, one criticism of dual immersion is some children learning in two languages struggle with reading and writing.

For Jefferson Elementarys dual immersion students, their test scores were similar to their classmates last school year  what Brulotte was expecting.

Research typically shows an acceleration from about fifth grade onward, she said. Academically, thats when you start to really see them peak in their academic achievement scores.

Going into the programs second year, Williams said its exciting to see it expand. She hopes the school district will be able to offer more dual immersion classes in the future to keep up with demand so no child is turned away.
Cash Seized From Offenders Helps Pay For Crime Protection For Deaf People

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jul 15th, 2017

A campaign has been launched to help protect deaf people from becoming the victims of crime  paid for by money seized from criminals.

The North Wales Deaf Association have organised a series of Crime Prevention Workshops thanks to a 5,000 grant from special fund set up by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones.

The Your Community, Your Choice initiative is also supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT).

Much of the money was recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, using cash seized from offenders with the rest coming from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

It was one of 15 grants totalling over 40,000 given to support schemes by community organisations with an online vote deciding the successful applicants and almost 10,000 votes cast.

The latest of the workshops, which have also been held in Flintshire and Wrexham, was at the Centre of Sign-Sight-Sound in Colwyn Bay and covered safety in the home, the internet, anti-social behaviour, scams and cold callers, domestic violence and hate crimes.

The event, which featured advice from former North Wales Police Detective Constable Ifan Hughes and a question and answer session, was video recorded and is to be posted on social media so that it can be used by others from the nationwide deaf community.

Lyndon Williams, from Conwy, who has been deaf from birth, videoed the event and also runs iPad courses at the Centre. He signed: This has been a really good exercise and has provided a lot of useful information for the deaf community.

With police officers now carrying video cameras that could also prove useful for the deaf as what theyre signing could be recorded.

The session was also attended by Ann Griffith, the Deputy Commissioner, who said: It is very important that we reach out to all communities in North Wales and this has been very useful for me in raising my awareness of the issues.

Deaf people do have difficulty accessing crime prevention information which isnt readily available in British Sign Language (BSL).

This makes them more liable to be the victims of crime than people with hearing and they are often unsure or unaware how they can report a crime.

They are also more likely to be a victim of hate crimes and we believe this project addresses issues which have been identified by the deaf community, by providing information and advice on crime prevention that they cannot normally access.

Its important that all communities across North Wales, including the deaf, can access information and know how to deal with scams and cold callers as well as what to do in a 999 emergency.

The Police and Crime Commissioners office takes their responsibility towards the deaf community very seriously and we have leaflets on Hate Crime Awareness and How to Report a Crime translated into BSL and available on our website and deaf people can text 999 to a special service in case of emergency.

We would also like to put the Police and Crime Plan into BSL very soon.
Prince Charles Officially Opens Moneypennys Distinctive New Head Office

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jul 15th, 2017

Yesterday Prince Charles officially opened Moneypennys award winning head office  complete with a visit to their famous tree house and pub!

The Prince of Wales was joined at the event by local dignitaries Deputy Lord Lieutenant Lloyd Fitzhugh, High Sheriff of Clwyd Charlotte Howard, Mayor of Wrexham Cllr John Pritchard and Wrexhams AM Lesley Griffiths.

Moneypenny, who look after 10 million telephone calls a year and digital media platforms for 10,000 businesses of all shapes and sizes, described the visit as a momentous occasion.

The new offices are 90,000 square feet in size and boast a treehouse, a pub and sun terrace, all features that were requested by the staff in a survey to find out their wish list for the new Headquarters  you can have a look around in this earlier article.

Captured on film, here are the highlights of HRH The Prince of Wales visiting Moneypenny this morning. Enjoy! #HRHinWales @ClarenceHouse pic.twitter.com/sAB07trdhV  Moneypenny (@Moneypenny) July 14, 2017

Ed Reeves, co-founder of Moneypenny, comments: We were delighted to welcome His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to officially open our stunning offices here in Wrexham and to meet our extraordinary staff. We are extremely proud that Moneypenny is recognised as a business that is constantly pushing boundaries, both for its clients and our staff, as is shown in our mould-breaking offices.

Prince Charles received a tour of the offices and met various Moneypenny team members. As Patron of the Canal and River Trust it was also timely that The Prince of Wales was able to meet the team of PAs who look after the Canal and River Trust telephone, email and social media customer services  a service Moneypenny has provided to them for over five years.

Prince Charles also met with a group of five previous winners of the The Fellows, a staff awards scheme which recognises and rewards outstanding achievements and extraordinary customer service, and also found time to listen in to a call.

The visit concluded with co-founder Rachel Clacher introducing the Prince to staff gathered in the atrium and inviting him to officially open the firms new offices by unveiling a commemorative stone.

Top Pic: HRH Prince Charles coming out of Moneypennys Tree House in Wrexham with Co Founder Ed Reeves
TWIN FALLS  Firefighters are battling a large fire in Rock Creek Canyon and campers were evacuated from the area Saturday afternoon.

A Twin Falls sheriffs deputy first spotted the fire at 3:12 pm Saturday, and for a while there was a mandatory evacuation of campers from Third Fork to Foothills Road, spokeswoman Lori Stewart said. As of about 9:30 p.m., the evacuation order had been lifted and the roads had been reopened.

Lightning started the fire and it is currently at 130 acres burning in grass and brush, Forest Service spokeswoman Julie Thomas said a little after 9 p.m Saturday. One type two helicopter, four engines, a rural water tender and a 20-person type two hand crew are battling the blaze.

The fire is expected to be contained by 4:30 p.m. Sunday and controlled by 8 p.m. Monday. No people have been injured or buildings burned down.

Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and Rock Creek firefighters are battling the blaze with the help of sheriffs deputies.
A new study reveals findings that will come as no surprise to most American workers and youth: In the United States, your level of income defines your access to health care, the quality of care you receive, and whether you will meet with an early death because of it. The US also has the poorest health overall among high-income countries.

Using survey data to measure and compare patient and physician experiences across 11 countries, the Commonwealth Funds Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparisons Reflect Flaws and Opportunities for Better US Health Care finds that the US ranks last overall on providing equally accessible and high-quality health care, regardless of income.

The report compares health care system performance in the US with that of 10 other high-income countries, ranking them in five areas: care process, access, administrative efficiency, equity and health care outcomes. The US ranks last overall, and last in all but one area studied, care process, in which it came in fifth.

If the United States were a politically healthy society, the release of this report would sound alarm bells in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Why, in the greatest country on earth, is the health of its citizens in such a deplorable state? What can be done to remedy what can only be described as a health care emergency of crisis proportions?

Instead, the studys release follows the unveiling Thursday of the Senate Republicans latest version of their Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), which proposes to slash $772 billion from the Medicaid program for the poor, and the Affordable Care Acts expansion of Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that an earlier version of the bill would leave 22 million more uninsured by 2026 than under current law.

The Commonwealth study points to factors contributing to this appalling US health report card, which will only be worsened under whatever health care reform is hatched in Washington. Life expectancy, after improving in recent years, has been aggravated by the opioid crisis. As the baby boom population ages, more people in the US are living with age-related disease, placing increased pressure on the health care system.

These are problems that could be confronted with timely and accessible health care, but these services are woefully inadequate. In particular, poor access to primary care has contributed to inadequate prevention and management of diseases. And in the US, far more than any other country studied, lower-income people are far more likely to lack access to affordable care, and to suffer and die because of it.

Forty-four percent of lower income people reported financial barriers to care, compared to 26 percent of those with higher incomes. By comparison, in the UK only 7 percent of people with lower incomes and 4 percent with higher incomes reported that costs prevented them from getting care.

According to the study, in the US population as whole in the past year:

 33 percent had cost-related access problems to medical care.

 32 percent skipped dental care or check-ups due to cost.

 27 percent were denied insurance payment for care or did not receive as much as expected.

 20 percent had serious problems paying or were unable to pay medical bills.

 60 percent of doctors reported patients often had difficulty paying for medications or out-of-pocket costs.

 54 percent of doctors reported time spent on insurance claims is a major problem.

 54 percent of doctors reported a major problem getting patients needed medications or treatment because of insurance coverage restrictions.

These problems are worse in the low-income segment of the US population. For example, 44 percent of this group had a cost-related access problem to medical care, and 45 percent skipped dental care or a check-up due to cost. There is also a 24 percent gap between those in the above average and below average income groups who skipped dental care due to cost.

The study uses average income, which was about $75,000 in 2016, as the dividing line between upper and lower income. However, multimillionaires and billionaires skew this average upwards, and due to the growing income inequality in the US, the health care problems of those living in poverty in the below average group are most likely underrepresented.

Some of the most shocking statistics presented are on population mortality, in which the US ranked last in every category studied compared to the other 10 countries.

 Infant mortality: 6 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to Sweden, with 2.2 (the lowest)

 Life expectancy at age 60: 23.5 years in the US, compared to 25.7 in France (the highest)

The study also examined mortality amenable to health care, or deaths considered preventable by timely and effective medical care. The US had 112 deaths per 100,000 people that could have been prevented with timely and effective care. This is more than twice the rate in Switzerland, at 55 per 100,000.

The US also had a much lower decline in these preventable deaths over 10 years, falling by only 16 percent compared to 34 percent in the Netherlands.

The US spent $9,364 per person on health care in 2016, compared to $4,094 in the UK, which ranked first overall in health care. In other words, while spending far more per person, the US population has poorer health than the other 10 countries studied.

Such figures evoke howls from both big business parties for spending to be slashed. Typical were the recent comments of Trumps Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price who said, while claiming to be committed to fighting the opioid epidemic that killed 60,000 people in the US last year, We dont need to be throwing money at the crisis.

What goes unmentioned in such statements is the root cause of the health care crisis in America: a health care system based on capitalist profit. The for-profit insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and giant health care chains are not in business to promote the health of the American people, but to boost their bottom lines.

Whatever health care legislation is passed in Congresseither by the Republicans, or in a bipartisan compromise with the Democratswill be based on this capitalist model. The Republicans House and Senate health bills are, in fact, based on Obamacare, incorporating the structures set up under the Democratic legislation.

The central purpose of Obamacare was to shift costs from the government and corporations to the working class, with health care increasingly rationed on a class basis. The Commonwealth Funds findings on the state of US health care, particularly those on mortality, are an indication of the preliminary results of this bipartisan strategy.

Behind the BCRAs proposals to gut Medicaid, and to give the private insurers even more latitude to boost profits through offering shabby, high-cost coverage, lies a calculated effort to reduce life expectancy for working people, and to send many of the old, sick or disabled to an early grave.

The author also recommends:

US Senate Republicans revised health bill maintains draconian Medicaid cuts

[14 July 2017]

The policy of social murder behind the US health care debate

[5 July 2017]

The emerging class struggle over health care in the US

[29 June 2017]
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature by writing to comments@wsws.org.

Asia

Hyundai Motor workers to vote on strike action

Over 51,000 Hyundai Motor union members in South Korea were voting this week on whether to strike for increases in wages and benefits. The ballot closed Friday. The union wants monthly basic wages increased by 154,883 won ($US136) and a bonus of 30 percent of the company's 2016 full-year net profit.

Union members at Kia Motors, Hyundais sister company, will soon vote on whether to strike after negotiations with management were halted. Kia workers demands are the same as their counterparts at Hyundai.

India: Kerala nurses on state-wide strike

Over 80,000 nurses from state-government hospitals in Kerala escalated ongoing industrial action and called a national stoppage on Tuesday after failed talks with government officials on Monday. Indian Nurses Association (INA) and United Nurses Association (UNA) members began strike action at the end of June to demand a wage increase. INA members are also holding a hunger strike outside the Secretariat in Kochi.

The 9,500 rupees ($US148) monthly minimum wage for nurses was established in 2013. Nurses claim that most hospitals are paying below this minimum and want it increased to 20,000 rupees.

UNA members from 328 private hospitals in Kerala are on strike to demand the same minimum pay as government hospital nurses. They claim that some hospitals keep them as trainees indefinitely and only pay a 6,500-rupee monthly stipend.

The nurses rejected a pay offer of 17,500 rupees, including allowances, from the government and the Private Hospitals Association. The Kerala industrial relations committee is to decide on the nurses demands on July 20.

Chennai sanitation workers on strike

Sanitation workers from the Greater Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu struck work on July 7 over the corporations plans to extend privatisation of garbage collection to more than 70 percent of the city.

Over 300 permanent and temporary workers from CITUs affiliated Red Flag Union demonstrated near the Chepauk state guest house. They are concerned that privatisation will reduce their wages and could render them jobless. They also claim that their meagre 295-rupee daily wage is often cut by their supervisors. The workers have threatened to begin indefinite strike action at the end of July if their demands are not met.

Andhra Pradesh municipal contract workers strike

Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) contract workers struck for three days on Tuesday in opposition to the Andhra Pradesh governments proposed sanitation privatisation order GO279. The walkout was part of state-wide action coordinated by the Joint Action Committee.

Last month, a large group of workers, representing over 3,400 fellow GVMC contract employees, demonstrated outside the corporations headquarters in protest against plans to privatise sanitation services. Sanitation, water supply, lighting and park workers, drivers and contract workers were involved in the protest.

The GVMC Contract Workers Union claims that the corporation had reduced the sanitation workforce from 4,000 to 3,400 even though the citys population is now two million.

Hyderabad hospital sanitation workers strike

Around 250 sanitation workers at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad walked off the job indefinitely on Tuesday over the non-payment of salaries. Workers said they have faced the same issue three times in the past six months and have only been paid after taking strike action. They said they would not return to work until the salary arrears are paid.

East Delhi sanitation workers call another strike

The union representing over 25,000 sanitation workers from the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has threatened to call an indefinite strike on July 27 if the corporation fails to distribute unpaid wages and entitlements. It will be the fifth time in a year that these workers have walked out over the issue.

According to their union, the Swatantra Mazdoor Vikas Sanyukt Morcha, the workers have not received their salaries and pensions for three months as well as pay arrears outstanding three years ago, and promised cashless medical cards. A spokesman said workers will begin strike action on July 27 and continue until their demands are met.

Last month, 600 members of the All Municipal Corporation Staff Union and All Municipal Corporation Sanitation Supervisors Union ended a four-day strike over unpaid wages after EDMC invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). Sanitation supervisors were demanding two months wages, filling of vacant supervisory positions, promotions and distribution of cashless medical facilities cards. EDMC said it would meet most of their demands.

Pakistan: Islamabad charity workers protest

Employees of the not-for-profit National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) demonstrated in Islamabad on Tuesday demanding minimum salaries as per the law. Protesters, mostly teachers and workers from provincial areas, demonstrated outside the NCHD offices in Blue Area and then marched to the National Press Club.

A workers representative told the media that NCHD employees had been denied benefits and allowances since 2013 in defiance of Islamabad High Court orders.

Sri Lankan government surveyors strike

Around 800 surveyors from Sri Lankas Survey Department held a two-day sick-leave strike on July 11 over six demands, including wages, financial benefits and improved working condition. The surveyors also want long-term solutions for the shortage of survey field assistants.

Sri Lanka Government Surveyors Association members demonstrated outside the land ministry office to demand a meeting with the minister. The surveyors association decided to call an indefinite strike on Thursday following failed talks with the minister.

Bangladeshi municipal workers protest

Hundreds of workers from the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) demonstrated on Monday in a dispute over unpaid wages and a pay increase. They occupied the RCC building and locked the compound gates.

The RCC Workers Union has made 11 demands. These include promotion of permanent employees based on seniority, access to bank loans for permanent workers, preferential hiring for relatives of dead and retired workers and implementation of the governments revised wage structure from May 24, 2016.

The union says that employees working on a daily basis currently are only paid 300 taka ($US4) but the official fixed daily rate is 450 taka. The workers action followed several demonstrations in June after which RCC falsely told workers their grievances would be resolved after Eid religious holiday. Union leaders warned that the strike would continue until workers demands are met.

Australia and the Pacific

Cash delivery guards in South Australia and Northern Territory strike

Prosegur cash delivery guards in South Australia and the Northern Territory struck for four hours on Tuesday to demand higher pay. A spokesman for the Transport Workers Union claimed that the enterprise agreement offered to workers by the international cash management company include an inferior flat pay rate that attacks penalties and allowances. The union has said there could be further industrial action over the dispute.

Solomon Islands doctors issue strike notice

The Solomon Islands Medical Association (SIMA) issued a strike notice to the government on June 23 after six months of failed negotiations for a review of the doctors work agreement. A SIMA representative said that the doctors are working under an agreement that has not changed since 2005.

SIMA said that the government has ignored the 28-day strike notice and that doctors would begin strike action in escalating stages from July 21 when the notice expires.

New Caledonia pilots strike

Pilots from Air Caledonia, the countrys flagship carrier, walked off the job without notice on Thursday in a dispute over managements disciplinary methods. All flights by the airline have been cancelled. Few details have been made public but the pilots were still on strike yesterday morning.
Georgia O'Keeffe, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, April 22-July 30, 2017

On its only stop in North America, at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Georgia O  Keeffe features more than 100 works of art by the American artist. Organized by the Tate Modern in Britain in collaboration with the AGO, the exhibition, presenting Georgia OKeeffes varied styles and subjects in drawings, paintings, photography and sculpture, spans her lengthy art career and demonstrates her versatility.

OKeeffe (1887-1986) is perhaps the best known female artist the US has produced and as such has been subject to outsized scrutiny, analysis and commercial promotion. Though she is best known for her large, erotic floral paintings and her still-lifes and landscapes of the American Southwest, the early abstract work emerges as her most vital and urgent.

The artwork in the AGO show varies in quality as well as style--and not all of it is OKeeffe at her best. A painting such as Calla Lilies on Red (1928), for instance, while it reveals the sort of strong graphic quality in much of her painting, is emotionally distant, even affected. This is a recurring weakness in her art. The desert subjects of her later years are competent technical explorations, but lack a strong emotional commitment.

Though OKeeffe explicitly rejected association with any particular artistic school or movement and boasted she had never been to Europe, she was nevertheless profoundly rooted in the modern art world through her own influences and interests, as well as directly through famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she eventually married. He introduced OKeeffe to the American avant-garde in New York early in her career at his pioneering Gallery 291.

Her disavowals aside (she also famously declared that she didnt like looking at art), it is known that OKeeffe attended cubist and post-impressionist exhibitions and various other shows while living in New York. In any event, it is apparent from her work that she was subject to the modernist artistic ferment--and, of course, the social ferment that produced it. Various works at the AGO can be seen as fine examples of symbolism, cubism, surrealism, futurism and even abstract expressionism, and this sheer diversity is a noteworthy strength of the show.

When OKeeffe began her art career, before women even had the right to vote in most of the United States, female artists undoubtedly faced particular challenges. However, she always resented her qualification by the press and critics as a female painter because of its demeaning implications. Later in life OKeeffe regularly rejected the claims made for her work by feminists and others.

Because issues of gender weighed so heavily in her critical treatment during her lifetime, one of the stated aims of the AGO exhibition is to shift the conversation away from these factors and to offer the artist the multiple readings she has previously been denied. Regardless of the packaging, some of OKeefes work holds up and some of it doesnt.

American Midwest modern

OKeeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, but her family moved to Williamsburg, Virginia when she was 15. Her mother, who had aspired to be a doctor, placed a premium on her childrens education, making sure they were given drawing and painting lessons at home.

OKeeffe distinguished herself in her art education, first at the Art Institute of Chicago and then the Art Students League in New York, where she won a summer scholarship. She began teaching in 1911, but continued her art studies at the University of Virginia.

She developed a friendship around this time with photographer and suffragette Anita Pollitzer, through whom she became involved with the womens right to vote movement, and who was instrumental in introducing her to Stieglitz. The two met in 1916 and embarked on a love affair and a life-long relationship.

Deeply affected by the outbreak of war in 1914, OKeeffe was greatly distressed when her brother Alexis joined the military in 1917. Teaching at a college in Canyon, Texas (near Amarillo) she found herself at odds with much of her community over her opposition to the war and her sympathies with German culture.

Stieglitz did not formally dissolve his quarter-century marriage to wed OKeeffe until 1924, but in the interim their bond had grown through creative collaboration, as had their correspondence, which eventually swelled to some 25,000 pages. Georgia later asserted a greater independence and Stieglitz found himself increasingly alienated from her both geographically and intellectually. They stayed married, but both found other partners. OKeeffe came to prefer solitude in her later life.

OKeeffe found her way to life and art in New Mexico by the late 1920s and early 1930s. In her paintings from this period, she returned to representation of the landscape, abstracted and interpreted in her own distinctive style. A particularly strong work in the AGO exhibition, From the Faraway, Nearby (1937), depicts desiccated animal horns, which, along with skulls and bones, were among her favorite subjects. The work reveals a distinctly surrealist influence, although OKeeffe made clear she did not embrace the ideas advanced by the surrealists, including their political-revolutionary conclusions. She did, however, maintain a dialogue with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who was deeply impressed with the surrealists aims.

During the Second World War, the dark and desolate landscape paintings conveyed OKeeffes response to the unfolding tragedy, even as she kept her distance from society and friends in the East. She evinced a certain aversion to human society throughout her life and even a degree of misanthropy. Speaking in 1944 of New Mexicos blue skies and her paintings of animal pelvic bones, she commented that they were most wonderful against the blue--that blue that will always be there as it is now after all mans destruction is finished. Indeed, around that time the first atomic bomb was being developed just over an hour away from her Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

In 1946 Stieglitz opened the final show he was to have of OKeeffes work at his new gallery, An American Place. He died some months later, but not before his wife had the first exhibition devoted to a female painter by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the years following, OKeeffe continued to paint and to travel, incorporating the cultural influences especially of the Hopi and Pueblo Indians, but also of Greek, Egyptian, Asian and South American art.

Interpretations and sources

By the time OKeeffe came across his Gallery 291 in 1915, Stieglitz was among the most influential figures in the New York modern art community. Intent on promoting the advances of modern artists centered largely in Europe well before they were brought to public attention in the renowned Armory Show of 1913, he was especially intent on developing a distinctively American brand of modernism.

Never terribly comfortable with art theory, OKeeffes own approach could best be described as intuitive. She was inclined at first to accept the views of Stieglitz and the avant-garde intellectuals around him, but embittered by some of the unwelcome or misguided attention she received, she grew wary and developed the view that there are as many philosophies (I add ideas on Art) as there are temperaments.

As a successful woman in a field dominated by men, she was almost inevitably a controversial figure and continues to inspire both boosters and detractors for secondary reasons such as gender.

Under the difficult intellectual conditions of the 1930s and 1940s, decades whose social and political traumas produced a deep disillusionment and turn inward in artistic circles (including toward Freud and psychoanalysis), it was also perhaps inevitable that an artist such as OKeeffe would find means of expression obsessively at times bound up with her own physicality.

Her flower paintings--only a few of which are present at the AGO--have been interpreted in a sexualized manner and it is difficult not to see this sort of intimate imagery in a work like Grey Lines with Black, Blue and Yellow (1923). Objecting to such interpretations of her work, OKeeffe countered, The subject matter of a painting should never obscure its form and color; which are its real thematic contents. Her reluctance to acknowledge these subjects in her own work parallels her attitudes to society generally, which she also found uncongenial. These formal preoccupations or claims suggest a retreat from a painful, difficult world.

If OKeeffes flower paintings, as she insisted, are devoid of sexual meaning, then however beautifully rendered, they are merely decorative. Either way, the concerns seem somewhat limited, given the convulsions of the century.

A fixation on OKeeffes gender has undoubtedly obstructed an objective assessment of her work, but this is something that cuts both ways: on balance, it would seem that her art has been paid both too little and too much attention. One need not concur with the harsh assessment of art critic Clement Greenbergthat her work amounted to little more than tinted photography to agree that her merits have been inflated.

In any event, while the innovations of the cubists and futurists in the 1910s were shaking the art world in Europe and Russia, the inroads in abstraction that OKeeffe was making when she came to public attention were still unusual in America. Much of the work she did around this time is indeed striking for its inventiveness, passion and audacity--qualities that distinguish a good deal of the successful abstract art of the period.

Works such as Early Abstraction (1915) and Special No. 9 (1915) are among the most successful in the exhibition, representative of the strength of her craft and imagination during this period. Her early paintings of New York City, a challenging subject for any artist, such as New York, Night (1928-1929), are especially evocative of the city and the time.

Reflecting an honesty and compassion evident in what I think is her best work, one of OKeeffes sculptures, a small bronze figure simply titled Abstraction done in memoriam to her mother who died in 1916, is of special note in the AGO exhibition. Elegiac and somber, it is among the most memorable of her images. Here she demonstrated the creativity, heart and sincerity that set her apart.
Karond Cheatum lay face down, shirtless and handcuffed behind his back, last Sunday afternoon, as police officers let loose a K-9 police dog on him. Two videos captured the incident and were subsequently posted on social media, sparking outrage. The footage has been shared and viewed over 3 million times since it was first posted last weekend.

Cheatum was left with a large wound on his arm as the dog clamped down on him for over 30 seconds. The officer issued no command for the dog to release his arm while Cheatum struggled to get the dog off.

Officers with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) were sent downtown after a number of reports were called in about an individual acting erraticly, jumping on cars, pulling stop signs from the ground and challenging individuals nearby to fight. Reports also accused Cheatum of punching a taxi driver and attempting to steal a motorcycle.

In the first video, the police confront Cheatum, with the officer holding the canine by the leash. The police dog pounces on top of Cheatum. He can be heard saying, Okay! Okay! while the officer simply yells at him, Give me your hand! while the dog is on top of him.

San Diego K-9

In the second video, the police dog can be seen latching onto Cheatums arm for at least 30 seconds. One bystander asks the police officers, Why cant you call your dog off? Cheatum, anguished in pain, screams and shouts Uncomfortable! Two more officers appear in the video holding down the mans legs. Once the canine is finally pulled off, the officers pat down Cheatum. There is no indication from the video that the police officers ask if he is okay or offer medical attention. (Both videos are included above).

Cheatums aunt spoke to the local NBC affiliate about her nephew. She said: He has a history of mental health issues; hes been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. So yeah, if youre living out on the street, how do we expect one to act? According to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, San Diego County is home to 9,116 homeless people, an increase of 5 percent over last year.

An SDPD spokesman was quick to cover the officers tracks and justify the attack on Cheatum. While these videos can be graphic in nature to view, keep in mind our canines are extremely effective at de-escalating situations and preventing elevated levels of force to take people into custody, San Diego police Lt. Scott Wahl said.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Rob Berman, a forensic expert who works on litigating dog bites, said: The K-9 in this video malfunctioned. Once the suspect is subdued and in handcuffs the handler is supposed to release the dog, which may have happened here but to no avail. It is clear that the dog is not responding to his handler, who is trying to get the dog to release. In the video another bystander can be heard telling the officers, You guys got three guys versus one. You cant get the dog off? The officers respond with, Hey, shut up! Get back!

K-9 units around the world are trained for a find-and-bark approach, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. However, police dogs in the US are trained for a find-and-bite approach because barking has been deemed too unrealistic. This can cause serious harm to bystanders. In one example alone, in Pierce County, Washington, a police dog attacked a 53-year-old woman as it was tracking a suspect.

There are an untold number of disturbing videos of police officers in the US, without care or remorse, using dogs to attack the individuals they are pursuing.

Just last year, a San Diego police body camera was released showing a cop ordering a police dog to attack an unarmed naked man. The K-9 officer ordered the canine to attack without giving any warnings to the unarmed naked man, noting in his report that due to the immediate threat I did not have an opportunity to give K-9 warnings, and that the man, with clearly no visible weapon, posed an immediate threat to officers due to the fact he was clinching his fist and walking towards them. The police dog bit the mans leg for more than 44 seconds and the city ended up paying $385,000 to the man that was mauled.

The ability of K-9 officers to indiscriminately unleash their attack dogs was vindicated in a recent 10-1 ruling by the 9th US Circuit of Appeals. The court upheld the right of police officers to use police dogs to protect themselves from a potential threat.

The case was brought forward by Sara Lowry, who was bitten by a police dog after she fell asleep in her office building after going out for drinks with her co-workers. Lowry accidentally tripped a security alarm when she went to use the restroom.

Police officers arrived at the scene believing they were dealing with an active burglary. The officers released the dog to find the suspect, pouncing on Lowry as she was asleep on the couch, with the dog biting her through the lip.

The decision overturned an opinion reached last year by a three-person panel that ruled that the unleashing of the police dog could be considered a severe use of force and a jury should decide the case. In the dissenting opinion in the Circuit Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Sidney Thomas wrote, Because a reasonable jury could find that the City of San Diegos use of a police dog was unreasonable under the circumstances presented here, I must respectfully dissent.
Some 2,000 workers at Fiat-Chryslers (FCA) Kragujevac plant in central Serbia, 60 miles southeast of Belgrade, have been on strike for two weeks. The workers, who are combatting starvation wages and terrible working conditions, confront a united front of corporate management, the Serb government and the trade unions.

Under pressure from the unions, the workers agreed to call off the strike from Friday to Sunday for negotiations with management. Workers will be informed about possible solutions on Sunday, according to Zoran Michajlovic from the association of independent trade unions.

The workers are demanding a wage increase from the current average monthly salary of 38,000 dinar (316 or $US362) to 50,000 dinar. The management of the Italian company has responded in an extremely provocative manner. They have essentially called for an end to the walkout, and refused to negotiate otherwise. Information from sources in the strike leadership suggests that a miserable management offer of around 350 is on the table.

The workers, who often labour up to 60 hours per week, were forced into strike action. Many are no longer able to provide for their families in the face of rising food prices and taxes. Seven hundred workers were laid off last year, reducing the workforce to 2,500, while at the same time the workload of those remaining increased. Since then, two shifts have been producing 400 vehicles daily.

The strike has had a major impact. According to press reports, 4,000 fewer Fiat 500L vehicles have been produced than planned.

The FCA plant is an important economic factor and one of the largest exporters in Serbia. Three percent of the countrys GDP is dependent upon FCA, as well as 8 percent of national exports. Approximately 67 percent of FCA is owned by Fiat-Chrysler and 33 percent is in state hands.

Immediately after the strike broke out, FCA management threatened that Fiat could withdraw from Serbia and close the Kragujevac plant. The government has also applied pressure on the strikers with this threat.

Kragujevac has been the site of auto production in Serbia for decades. This was the location of the Yugoslav automaker Zastavas production facilities. Vehicles have been produced since the 1950s, first under licence from Fiat and later as an independent brand. The best known model was the Zastava Yugo 45. During the civil war in the 1990s, production came to a standstill and air strikes almost completely destroyed the facility. Following the war, the factory suffered a fate similar to that of other industries in the former Yugoslavia.

In 2000, the factory began producing Zastavas again, but only at a fraction of its former production level. In 2008, Fiat took over the plant and concluded a contract with the Serb government for ten years. Encouraged by extremely low wages, minimal taxes and willing political authorities, Fiat invested approximately 1 billion to modernise the plant.

FCA has been cooperating closely with the Serb government ever since. A few days after the outbreak of the strike, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic travelled to the area to, as she put it, mediate. In fact, Brnabic explicitly threatened the workers and called on them to end the strike immediately. The Tanjug news agency reported Brnabic as saying on Monday that the strike endangered the Serb economy and workers would lose more if they continued the strike. She confirmed that Fiat would not engage in negotiations until the strike ended. In addition, she claimed the strike violated an agreement with the company. According to the report, she said, It will be very difficult for us in the future to bring new investors when there is no certainty that workers will honour contracts between unions and employers.

Brnabic is a typical representative of a corrupt layer that has enriched itself and, since the reintroduction of capitalism, consolidated power in its hands and created the best conditions for international corporations to exploit workers. She studied business management in the US and Britain before becoming Serb director of the subsidiary to the American energy firm Continental Wind. In 2015, she defended the director of the state-run energy provider Elektromreza Srbije, Nikola Petrovic, a close confidante of President Alexander Vucic, against corruption charges. Several months later, President Vucic appointed her prime minister. She is considered to be an unconditional advocate of the Vucic governments right-wing agenda, which has intensified tensions with neighbouring states in recent months.

But FCA workers do not only confront an aggressive management and reactionary government. The trade unions view the workers with mounting opposition and outright hostility.

Since the late 1990s, when governments enforced social cuts, and the destruction and privatisation of the formerly state-run industries under pressure from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the Serb trade unions have been fully implicated in the attacks on workers and support them.

In what almost amounted to full-scale deregulation, the government launched a wide-ranging assault on labour laws in early 2014. The unions suppressed all working class opposition to this and backed the governments plans. The same applies to the major cuts imposed on wages and pensions in the public sector, which were imposed in close cooperation with the unions so as to secure additional loan payments from the IMF. None of the major union centres has opposed the transition reforms of the past 25 years, stated sociologist Nada Novakovic, according to Balkaninsight.

Some union officials are company managers, while other unions have been openly bought by companies. Trade union representatives receive lucrative posts in company management. Others enrich themselves through per diems, travel expenses, mobile phone expenses, cars, lunches, various extras, according to Novakovic.

The close collaboration between the unions and political parties is exploited by many union officials as a springboard into a position in a party or the state, which offers even more opportunities for self-enrichment.

The strike heralds mounting opposition to these phenomena. When the economy minister once again called for an immediate end to the strike last week, the workers responded with a new strike vote in which the vast majority voted to continue the struggle.

The recent walkout by Volkswagen workers in Bratislava already made clear that major class struggles have begun in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. To be successful in these struggles, workers must combat the bankrupt nationalist conceptions of the trade unions.

The struggle against low wages and social cuts requires a socialist perspective and an internationalist strategy. The strike can only attain the strength and endurance it requires for victory if it is guided by a policy that seeks to unite workers internationally against capitalism, regardless of their origin or nationality.

We call upon all workers to actively support and expand the strike in Kragujevac.
A process to update Idahos wolf management plan has rekindled the sort of hot emotions scarcely seen since the days the animals were still protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Officials at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are likely to release a draft of their plan next month, and wolf critics claim the agency is going soft on the animals, while wolf advocates say the state is putting too much pressure on them. Both sides are upset the agency no longer intends to count wolves the way it has for the past 20 years  with the annual release of a minimum population, pack and breeding pair estimates.

Critics are steamed the new plan is not likely to include an official population goal that matches management objectives that grew out of the states 2002 Idaho Wolf Management and Conservation Plan. The document sets a threshold of 15 wolf packs. Above that number, wolves will be managed like other predators in the state. When the population falls below the threshold, management becomes more conservative, with an eye toward preventing animals from reverting to federal protection.

The 2002 plan doesnt mention a population goal of 150 wolves, but over time it became understood the state would strive to maintain a minimum of 15 packs and 150 animals as a way to prevent the population hitting the threshold of 10 breeding pairs and 100 animals established as a recovery goal when wolves were reintroduced to Idaho in the 1990s.

Wolf critics want the new plan to adopt the 150 goal and for the state to aggressively manage the animals until it is met. Without the goal, they say wildlife managers wont keep pressure on the animals.

Butch Suor of Stites acknowledges the wolf population isnt likely to dip to 150 animals, but he still wants that to be the stated goal.

We are not even going to be close to that, but the goal still has to be 15 and 150  period, he said.

Jim Hagedorn of Viola is accusing wildlife managers of aiming for a higher wolf population so the department can continue to sell wolf tags.

We want that target down lower than what they are managing them at now, he said. They would like to manage it for a lot more wolves. They want to sell wolf tags and they know they can sell a lot of wolf tags if there are wolves out there bothering people. They dont want to have any limitations on the number of wolves, and that wont fly.

Wolf advocates sounded the alarm this week when the department asked for public comment on a rule change that would allow hunters to use bait such as road-kill deer and elk to lure wolves into shooting range.

Its just horrific, the ideas that have come out in terms of how people in Idaho want to manage wolves, said Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife at Boise. They seem to have forgotten about fair chase and any sense of ethics in hunting. Those things seem to go out the door when people talk about wolves.

At the end of 2015, the state had an estimated minimum wolf population of about 780 wolves. Stone said Idaho may be underestimating the number of wolves killed illegally and thus underestimating the population.

Hagedorn suspects the population is much higher  perhaps 1,500 to 2,000.

Idaho no longer is required to submit an annual wolf report to the federal government, as it was for five years following the animals removal from the endangered species list. The state did not release an estimate for wolf numbers at the end of last year. Jim Hayden, the states lead wolf manager, said the revised plan is unlikely to call for annual wolf population estimates and will instead aim to keep tabs on population trends through things like harvest information and remote monitoring through a system of game cameras.

Nor is the plan likely to have a population goal. Instead, he said the departments management goal will be to reduce conflict.

What we have seen is a decrease in the number of wolves in Idaho, Hayden said. We want to make absolutely sure they remain a state animal and are not relisted and manage the population to minimize depredation on livestock and ensure predation on ungulates is not unreasonable, particularly in those areas that ungulates are not meeting management goals.

Deputy Director Ed Schriever at Boise said the department has the ability to continue to monitor wolves the same way it did during the first five years following delisting. But he said doing so would drain resources. Instead, he said the department is managing wolves much like it does black bears and mountain lions.

Its a question of prioritization. We would rather utilize those resources to really learn and understand the impacts that wolves might be causing more than an absolute number with a confidence interval around it, he said. By knowing what is going on with our deer and elk herds and determining the specific causes of those mortalities, we can know if we have an issue. Just knowing the number of wolves doesnt let you know what their relative impacts are.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to hear from Hayden about wolf management at its meeting in Bonners Ferry later this month. Commissioner Dan Blanco of Moscow said he intends to fight for a population goal to be included in the plan. He said doing so is important to the hunters who recently supported the departments fee increase legislation.

I have pretty much said I cant support a wolf plan that isnt 150, he said.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Students from all over the state are in Tallahassee at the Florida A&M Marching 100 Summer Band Camp.

The camp is in it's 25th year.

Middle and high school students have the opportunity to improve their marching skills, play in small chamber groups, as well as perform concert band and jazz ensemble music.

This morning students participated in field rehearsals on the FAMU track.

The camp held their annual parade marching from Whannish Way to the FAMU Student Union.

The final day of camp is Saturday, July 15.
After media scrutiny forced Donald Trump Jr. to reveal the email chain that showed President Donald Trumps top advisers met with a Russian lawyer to gain information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government, the Trump camp adopted the retroactive spin that Trump Jr. had actually shown admirable transparency about this meeting. Trump Jr. went on Sean Hannitys show to do damage control, leading the president to exult: He was open, transparent and innocent.

But this new scoop from NBC News will make that posture a lot harder to sustain:

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist  a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.

The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

The Associated Press has identified the lobbyist as Rinat Akhmetshin. It is not yet clear what the significance of this is, in terms of what it says about what exactly transpired at the meeting. Trump Jr. has dismissed the meeting as insignificant, because no meaningful information came of it, but this news invites more scrutiny of that claim. As NBC News notes, such matters will be of great interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators.

But right now, heres what we can say: This news once again underscores that we are seeing a pattern of what we might call obfuscation by omission. This new detail should lead us to look anew at two key facts: First, that the president reportedly signed off on the initial statement from Trump Jr. that covered up the real reason for the meeting. And second, that top White House advisers are now reportedly reluctant to defend this meeting, because they could be opening themselves up to legal vulnerability. Heres the pattern so far:

After the news broke that Trump Jr. had met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr. put out a statement that only said the meeting was primarily about a program about the adoption of Russian children. Sources told the Times that the president signed off on that statement. Given that he did so on Air Force One, as the Trump team debated how to handle the developing story, its likely that he had been briefed on the contents of the full email chain at that point. Yet he reportedly assented to that false statement anyway.

Additionally, CNN reports that sources are now leaking that Trumps lawyer claims he was not part of the process of signing off on that statement. The Trump camp claims the president didnt actually sign off on it. But there is no reason to doubt the Timess reportingits hard to imagine the president wouldnt have been involved in those discussions. And as CNN notes, if that happened and Trumps lawyer was not part of it, the president may have opened himself up to new legal issues not covered by attorney-client privilege. Remember, Trump may have participated in crafting a statement covering up the real reason for the meeting.

That initial effort at obfuscation was then demolished when it was disclosed that according to sources who had seen the email chain, the meeting was really about sharing material about Clinton that came from the Russian government. That compelled Trump Jr. to issue another statement conceding that such information had been offered to him. But that statement carefully noted that Trump Jr. did not know the name of the lawyer, in effect suggesting he had no idea what the source of the information was.

That effort at obfuscation, too, was blown up when the emails themselves came to light. Trump Jr. issued them only under duress, as the Times was preparing to publish them. It is after all of this happened that the president hailed Trump Jr.s transparency.

Yet that claim of transparency, too, has now been blown apart, now that NBC News has reported on the previously undisclosed presence of a former Soviet counter-intelligence officer who is suspected by U.S. officials of current ties to Russian intelligence.

Now note this Politico report, which claims that Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner (who was also at the meeting, along with then-campaign chair Paul Manafort) wants a more aggressive press response to this story, but other top White House advisers are demurring:

But some of the communications aides, including press secretary Sean Spicer, and other senior staffers have expressed reservations. They say its best to leave it to outside counsel to handle the furor around Trump Jr., and fear inviting further legal jeopardy if Trump aides and allies more forcefully defend a meeting that they dont fully know the details of, according to the sources.

Gee, ya think? The NBC News report should only intensify these fears of defending the unknown. Heres the bottom line: While we dont yet know how significant this meeting will prove, legally or otherwise, every additional revelation about it  and about the Russia scandal more generally  has only come to the light through the pressure of aggressive press scrutiny. Trump seems to have participated in an active effort to mislead the country about this meeting, which is the first concrete evidence that his top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russias efforts to sabotage our democratic process. And Trumps deception efforts should themselves now receive more intense scrutiny.
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Cheer

Congratulations to the owners of Elevation 486 and the Twin Falls Urban Renewal Agency, which has approved the restaurateurs plans to open a casual-style, fine-dining restaurant in the Historic Ballroom.

The restaurant is exactly what downtown Twin Falls needs as it heads to the finish line of a massive makeover.

And its what city planners want too, especially because the ballroom will now undergo a $3.5 million remodel. Once finished, Cycle Therapy, a bicycle shop, will also move into the space and offer spinning classes in the basement. The citys economic development plan calls for more businesses like Cycle Therapy  those that cater to outdoor recreation, a selling point and recruiting tool for the booming city  to open downtown.

Plus, the remodel will open up new professional office space above the ballroom, at 205 Shoshone St. N., potentially increasing the number of people who work downtown.

Developers plan to keep intact key historical elements of the Historic Ballrooms design, including the grand lobby and staircase, balancing our regions history with our new economy.

Deals like this one are sure to help continue transforming Twin Falls into a place where people want to live, work, play  and eat.

Jeer

A big jeer to those pulling high jinks ahead of an employee vote at Lamb Weston on whether to unionize.

Business reporter Heather Kennison has been reporting out the issue over the past few weeks, speaking to both pro- and anti-union workers.

Weve no opinion on how workers should vote  that should be up to the workers. But we do have problems with people pulling underhanded tricks in an effort to sway the vote, such as spreading misinformation and harassing coworkers.

Accusations have come from both sides.

The final round of voting takes place today, but whatever the outcome, workers have been pitted against one another and potentially long-lasting damage has been done to morale.

What a shame for one of the regions largest and most widely known employers.

Cheer

Cheers to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who on Thursday announced that Craters of the Moon National Monument was no longer on a federal list for potential modification.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April calling for a review of monuments created since 1996, 27 in all.

When the president and I began the monument review process we absolutely realized that not all monuments are the same and that not all monuments would require modifications, Zinke said.

The 54,000 acre Craters of the Moon north of Burley was established in 1924 and expanded in 2000. Locals have recently called for the monument to become Idahos first national park.

Removing the park from the federal modifications list keeps that hope alive and dashes concerns the feds could have made changes at the monument that would have riled Idahoans.
Abera Mengistu didnt cross my level of media interest. Thats my harsh truth and his. I realized that this week, when several activists held up a sharp mirror to my face for his sake. They approached me, I responded automatically, and then came the thought and finally the following recognition.

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Many people are vaguely familiar with Mengistus story. A young man of Ethiopian descent from a poor family, who crossed the border fence and was taken captive by Hamas. Allegedly, Israel doesnt leave anyone behindas Operation Entebbe, Operation Isotope and the battle heritage proveunless its a mentally ill young man who intentionally got into trouble. Its possible he wanted to commit suicide and, on the way, get us entangled in an unnecessary terrorist release deal. No one knows, and most of us dont exactly want to know.

But what if he were a different young man? Lets assume that his name was Yoaz Hendel from a moshav in the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, who had become mentally ill as a result of the vicissitudes of fate or genetics? One day, he wakes up delusional and overwhelmed and decides to cross the border to Gaza due to suicidal tendencies. Or what would we have done if his name was Shitrit, a former Paratroopers Brigade fighter from Ashkelon, or Friedman, a former Golani Brigade fighter from Ofra? Lets engage in some guided imagery: Is there a slim chance that months would have gone by without any of us knowing that they were being held on the other side of the border? Would journalists like me have pushed them to the back of their mind? Would we have not spent time thinking about them and about their families? Of course not. Not a chance.

Avera Mengistu's parents. If he had a different name, would we have not spent time thinking about him and his family? (Photo: Tomeriko)

The feeling of mutual responsibility goes beyond common sense. In the United States, such a person could rot in the North Korean prison for years. In Israel, however, people like Hendel, Shitrit and Friedman would spark a public campaign. But not Mengistu. Not Ethiopian immigrants who live in a slum. He doesnt have a glorious combat service behind him, or friends from school or from the unit, which is why the common Israeli has nothing to identify with. And if that were not enough, the color of his skin is black, and not black as an expression of the ethnic demon which is raised and shelved for election purposes.

And heres the harsh truth: We arent interested because hes not considered a part of us, because the circumstances dont evoke enough empathy, and because the potential price could be higher than what we would be willing to pay for one Mengistu.

One does not ransom captives for more than their value because of Tikkun Olam, according to Mishna Gittinthe essence of the proper strategy for dealing with the abduction of citizens and soldiers. Before the fear of religionization, this sentence turned into a directive. Before the Jibril and Shalit prisoner exchange deals, Israel insisted on two basic rules: There will be no negotiations with terrorists, and murderers with blood on their hands wont released. Israel uses force to fix what terror organizations do. Thats the reason we sent soldiers all the way to Entebbe, thats the reason Captain Nir Poraz was killed in the rescue mission for IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman, and thats the reason Netanyahu explicitly wrote in his book A Place Among the Nations that Israel does not negotiate with terrorists.

But those days are over. The Jibril deal set an insane price, and the Shalit deal proved why A Place Among the Nations illustrates the difference between words and action. The damage caused by those deals is ongoing, and now we have to deal with Mengistu: An Israeli of Ethiopian descent who wasnt sent to Hamas by anyone, except his own internal demons, and a whose value is rated very low by the public.

Israel is in a catch-22 situation: The lightness in which previous governments allowed themselves to carry out harmful prisoner exchange deals put a conceptual end to the option of exerting force and pressure to solve the problem. Considering that Hamas allegedly has assets with a low price tag, this could be an opportunity to go back to a tough policy like aggravating Palestinian prisoners conditions in Israeli jails and pressuring the Hamas leadership. Thinking outside the box we have gotten used topaying a price in terrorists or finding a way to ignore it. There are two fallen IDF soldiers and a citizen named Abera Mengistu there, and the message is that we will claim the price.
Twice rejected for US visas, an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan arrived in Washington early Saturday after an extraordinary, last-minute intervention by President Donald Trump.

Six girls from the team and their chaperone completed their journey from their hometown of Herat, Afghanistan, to enter their ball-sorting robot in the three-day competition starting Sunday in the US capital. Awaiting them at the gate at Washington Dulles International Airport were a US special envoy and Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, who described it as a rare moment of celebration for his beleaguered nation.

"Seventeen years ago, this would not have been possible at all," Mohib said in an interview. "They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict. These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community."
A large police force arrived on Friday to Umm al-Fahm and dispersed the crowd gathered at the mourners' tents erected by the family of the terrorists who carried out Friday's deadly attack at Temple Mount. Police also raided the families' homes and asked neighborhood residents to stay indoors. Hundreds of police personnel were dispatched to the city.

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Two policemen were killed and a third was lightly wounded in a terror attack on Friday morning when three terrorists opened fire at Border Police forces at the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. The three attackers were shot and killed by police.

Dispersing the mourners' tents

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The attack was carried out by three Arab terrorists from Umm al-Fahm, all of them without a prior links to acts of terrorism. They are Ahmed Muhammad Jabarin (29), Muhammad Hamed Abed al-Latif Jabarin (19) and Muhammad Ahmed Mafdel Jabarin (19).

The moment of the attack

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The three terrorists arrived at the Temple Mount at around 7am armed with two Carl Gustav rifles and a handgun. As they approached the Lions' Gate, they noticed Israeli patrol officers and started shooting at them.

Police chase after terrorists (:  )

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The terrorists then fled towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount complex. Police gave chase, shooting and killing all three.

Police disperse mourners' tents

A video of the attack shows one of the terrorists, who was initially declared "neutralized," get up and try to hurt an Israeli officer, who then shot and killed him.

Temple Mount following attack (Photo: AFP)

Two of the policemen, Ha'il Satawi and Kamil Shnaan, were taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus in critical condition, where they succumbed to their wounds. The third policeman, 39, was hurt from shrapnel and was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital in light condition.

Temple Mount (Photo: AFP)

During an emergency security meeting that followed the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that the mourning tents set up in Umm al-Fahm be dismantled. Netanyahu also decided that following a security assessment on Sunday, the Temple Mount could gradually be reopened to worshippers.

Photo: Reuters

The meeting was also attended by Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, Shin Bet director Nadav Argemon and head of COGAT, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai.

Emergency forces tending to hte wounded at Temple Mount (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

A relative of one of the terrorists responded with shock upon learning that he had assisted in carrying it out. "We're still in shock. If we would have known, we would have immediately stopped them. It's not like we lack troubles. We're against such acts. This shooting helps with nothing but destroys everything. Now everyone will attack us.

"When I got the message, I thought there must have been some mistake in identifying (the terroristsed), because my family member is a quiet person whp wouldn't think of shooting police men. This kind of event never should have happened."

The three killed terrorists lived in two neighboring blocks, and a mourners' tent was erected in them Friday morning.

Shafiq Jabarin, who is Muhammad's uncle, said, "We did not know of the event. If I would have known, I wouldn't have allowed him to do it. We're not terrorists, heaven forbid. No one in the family knows exactly what happened there."

He added that no one in is accepting the act of terrorism. "I can't process it. No one condones such a thing, not in the Arab sector and not in the Jewish sector. We're don't heaven forbid to enemy forces that we would want to do something bad to people."
A resident of the Palestinian village of Beitin was very lightly wounded Saturday morning from a drive-by shooting at his own vehicle, while driving between the Palestinian village of Um Safa and settlement of Ateret, near Ramallah.

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The car hit during the drive-by shooting (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)





The car hit during the drive-by shooting

The driver, a Brazilian married to a Palestinian, alerted IDF forces in charge of the Binyamin region. The DF issued a statement, saying they were sweeping the area in search of the suspects. The man injured was treated by the IDF and did not need to be taken to the hospital.
Unknown assailants threw a stun grenade at a mosque in the Muslim neighborhood in the Arab town of Maghar, located in Israel's Northern District, east of Carmiel. The incident was likely a reaction to a status published by a young woman in the village, expressing support of Friday's Jerusalem terror attack at Temple Mount. There were no injuries or property damage in the grenade incident, and the status was deleted following it.

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Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi, a resident of Maghar, was one of two soldiers murdered in the attack, along with Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan.

Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi, who was killed in the terrorist attack at Temple Mount

A Maghar resident responded Friday night to the events, saying, "From what we could gather, the girl posted a status on Facebook, supporting the residents of Umm al-Fahm who had carried out the attack, which angered a lot of the residents, who denounced the act. After posting the status, a grenade was thrown at the mosque. The girl erased the status and apologized for posting it."

"Druze and Muslims live in the village and we all get along well. We're always helping one another. A lot of Muslims attended that funeral of the slain police officer. It's very important not to pay attention to people only out to incite. This is the time to band together against all acts that could harm us as human beings. Each person is responsible for their actions. You shouldn't punish an entire population because of a serious act carried out by a few individuals."

Abbas Mansour, another Maghar resient and an activist in the Islamic Movement, said that "our village is calm, and its residents are on good terms with one another. This is an unusual event that has nothing to do with the mosque, but has to do with what happened on the street. I call on people to exhibit caution regarding announcements in the media."

Thousands of mourners attended the funerals of Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi, 30, and Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, 22, of Maghar and Hurfeish, respectively, who were both murdered in a terrorist attack Friday morning at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Satawi is survived by his three-week-old son, his wife, parents and three brothers.

Numerous government officials attended both funerals, including Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay, Opposition Chairman Yitzhak Herzog, Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and MK Amir Peretz.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh spoke at Satawi's funeral, saying, "Today you shouldn't have been at the Temple Mount, but you switched with a friend who needed help. That is who you were, ready to volunteer for any mission."

Alsheikh continued, saying, "As usual, you were the first to run to the source of the shooting, and unfortunately for us, you found your death with your head held high, you and Kamil. Ha'il, your friends cannot digest the fact that you are not among the living anymore.

"More and more security missions are falling to the police; police who serve on the frontline on a daily basis. You served in the most sensitive place in the world, in order to preserve freedom of worship. There, vile people decided to thwart this right. We will not allow it."

Through tears, Kamil's father, former MK Shachiv Shnaan, said, "I am proud of my son, who is here wrapped in the flag of the country. I saw the reports about the attack and the headlines, and I did not imagine that I was the father of one of the fallen.

"He did not answer his phone and I realized that something had happened. In the name of the people of Israel, I wish these will be the last of the fallen. My heart is also with the Satawi family and I wish a speedy recovery to our brothers, the Kablan family. Enough of the crying and tears. It is my prayer that the rifle is replaced with the flower."
The Arab world on Friday condemned Israel for closing the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa mosque for worship following the shooting attack on Friday morning in which two policemen were killed. Jordan made do with a very weak condemnation of the attack and also harshly criticized Israel, while Egypt and Turkey issued balanced statements and called on all parties to maintain restraint.

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The Arab League said in a statement yesterday that "the Al-Aqsa Mosque should be opened immediately to worshipers and that any attempt to change the natural and historical status quo in the mosque should be stopped." The League warned of "the dangerous consequences of Israel's escalating move to close the Al-Aqsa mosque and prevent Friday prayers." It also strongly condemned Israel for "continuing its assaults and attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque" and condemned Israel for "inflaming the religious conflict and exacerbating the phenomenon of terrorism and violence in the region in order to thwart any effort and chance for peace."





The Arab League (Photo: EPA)

In statement also expressed pride at the "steadfastness of the residents of east Jerusalem and the Palestinian people in defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque," and demanded that the international community take responsibility, implement its decisions, protect the holy sites of Islam and Christianity and provide protection for the Palestinian people.

Israel to Jordan: 'Instead of condemning the attack, you chose to attack'

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Mumni said that Israel should immediately open the Al-Aqsa mosque to worshipers and not take steps that could change the historic status quo in Jerusalem and the mosque. "The Jordanian government opposes any attack against Muslims in carrying out religious rituals in their holy places freely and without any obstacles," it said.

Photo: AFP

Al-Muamni condemned the escalation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and demanded an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the incident. He clarified that "Jordan's principled position is condemnation of violence." It further claimed that the Jordanian government conducted intensive contacts to exert pressure to open the Al-Aqsa mosque immediately: "Jordan has exploited and exploited all the diplomatic, legal and diplomatic tools to block any attempt to change the legal and historical status quo in Jerusalem."

Political sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Jordan's announcement yesterday, saying that "instead of condemning the attack, Jordan has chosen to attack Israel. All the parties involved, including Jordan, should maintain restraint and refrain from fanning the flames." They also said that Israel "protects the worshipers and preserves freedom of worship in the area, and Israel will not tolerate attacks on the holy places, and it maintains the status quo in them."

L to R: Egyptian Pres. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Jordanian King Abdallah II and Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)

Egypt and Turkey renounce terrorist act

Taking a different tone than the Arab League, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry expressed "great sorrow over the violent events in the Temple Mount compound," warning of "the dangerous consequences of these events and of moves that could sabotage regional and international efforts to encourage Israel and the Palestinians to renew negotiations and revive the peace process." A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry asked all parties to maintain restraint and not to be dragged into a "vicious cycle" of violence. Egypt also asked the parties not to take steps that would affect the freedom of religious worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a manner that would lead to unrest.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement in a similar vein: "We express our regret over the incident and the loss of human life this morning at the Temple Mount. We would like to remind that it is a legal and humanitarian duty to respect the sanctity and historical status of religious sites in East Jerusalem, The Temple Mount must remain open to worship and the closure of the compound decided upon by Israel should be immediately canceled, and quiet must be restored as soon as possible."

During a security meeting on Friday afternoon, Netanyahu declared that the Temple Mount will not be reopened until Sunday. The Prime Minister's Office stated that Netanyahu instructed the Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who also attended the meeting, to significantly strengthen the security arrangements at the Temple Mount, and received an update on the investigation concerning the Temple Mount area incident.

Police at the Temple Mount following the attack (Photo: Israel Police)

Abbas criticizes attack, while one of his associates criticizes Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Netanyahu to condemn the attack, but also called for the reopening of the Temple Mount, as he expressed his opposition to acts of violence on either side. Abbas warned of the implications of closing the Temple Mount to worshippers, or of exploiting it to change the religious and historical status quo. Netanyahu reportedly assured him there would be no permanent change in the current situation.

The PMO stated that "Netanyahu made it clear that Israel will take all necessary actions to ensure security on the Temple Mount, without any change in the status quo." Palestinian sources defined the conversation as good and matter-of-fact, noting that the conversation was relatively long.

Abbas (Photo: AFP)

However, a close associate of Abbas's and his religious advisor, Mahmoud al-Habash, condemned closing the Temple Mount gates during a Friday sermon in the Muqata. "This is a serious step that acts as a crime and an aggression against religion, which will drag the region into a merciless religious war in which everyone will lose," said al-Habash.

"The closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time since 1969 will increase the existing tension, since Muslims will never accept the fact that they are prevented from praying in their mosque freely," he added. "Al-Aqsa Mosque is our mosque, our right, part of our faith and religion. The occupation remains the main cause of instability in the Middle East and the world. Israeli bullying in the alleys and holy squares of Jerusalem will only lead to an increase in tension and violence. "
The deadly attack on the Temple Mount on Friday, in which two Druze policemen, Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi and Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, were killed by Arab Israelis from Umm al-Fahm, triggered mixed reactions in the Arab sector. In addition to condemnation by the Monitoring Committee of Arab citizens in Israel and many social activists, MKs from the Joint List said they "reject all forms of violence" but stressed that "Israel is responsible for the volatility at the Temple Mount." They later condemned the government's actions without mentioning the terrorists themselves and warned against "the right exploiting the event by inciting against Arabs."

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Monitoring Committee of Arab citizens in Israel Head Muhammad Barakeh condemned the attack, saying that it did not contribute to the Arab public's struggle to defend its rights and holy places. The committee also warned against the implications of the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the decision not to allow prayer at the site until Sunday.

"Since 1969, we have been participating in a public struggle that has proven its success over the years," he said. "The deviation from our path, as we saw yesterday in Jerusalem, will not help anything, and we warn the government against exploiting the shooting with the aim of inciting against the Arab public."

Barakeh (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Arab MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) strongly renounced the deadly attack. "Israeli civilians killed Israeli policemen at the entrance to a holy site. There is no way to describe the horror, or even to try to understand it," he said. "We must shake off people who have left our midst. The dimensions of the hatred blinded them until they chose to kill their countrymen."

Tibi (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

"They exploit the attack to incite against Arabs"

MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) said in response to the events, "We place the full responsibility of everything that is happening on Israel's occupation policy, aggression and murder of the Palestinian people. It is impossible to sever what is happening from Israel's policy. The settlers' takeover of Al-Aqsa has lead to deeper feelings of humiliation and injustice, and anyone who does not want to recognize the connection and insists on linking the responses to incitement and extremists is the one who decides to sacrifice the citizens.

Zoabi (Photo: Yehuda Peretz)

"The Israeli establishment knows that we support a political struggle, it knows that we are fighting for an end to the occupation and the policy of Judaization and political purge, and that we even call for the confiscation of weapons, that the police themselves know where they are and who holds them, though it refuses to confiscate it, as long as it harms us and not the Jews, She added. "All the scare and intimidation tactics are doomed to fail."

Officers killed in the attack: Satawi (R) and Shnaan (L)

The reactions of MKs Ahmad Tibi and Osama Sa'adi (Joint List) jointly warned against exploiting the events for incitement, and they also urged the government to allow prayer on the Temple Mount. "The position of the Arab leadership has always been that the use of weapons is not the instrument of struggle of the Arab citizens of Israel," they said. "Our struggle is political and public, nonviolent and unarmed. We reject violence of any kind, including in holy places, and we regret the loss of human life. Our opinion is that the bloodshed must be stopped, so that families and parents will not kill their sons and loved ones.

Two of the three killed terrorists: Two of the three terrorists: Muhammad Hamed Jabarin (L) and Muhammad Jabarin

"It is indeed time to emphasize that the continuation of the occupation, including the occupation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites, is the root of all evil, and that the occupation should be ended to save lives on all sides. The right wing is exploiting what happened due a campaign of incitement against the Arab public in general and Umm al-Fahm in particular, despite the Arab public's position published by the Monitoring Committee."
After hosting the seventh round of Syrian peace talks, the UN envoy for Syria say he has seen no sign that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has given any ground on possible political transition.

Instead, Staffan de Mistura wrapped up the latest session of the intra-Syrian talks aimed to help end the country's blistering six-year war by turning his focus to one of the Assad government's main talking points: The fight against terrorism.

Syria's main opposition group has strived unsuccessfully to put the spotlight on "political transition" as sought under a Security Council resolution in December 2015. It has been a bedrock text upon which de Mistura's efforts have been based. The UN envoy said Friday "I don't have any indication" that Assad's envoys will ever address political transition.
The change in attitude towards American policy in the Middle East presents a critical chance for Israel to shape the regional environment in a way that would be favorable to Israel, a former IDF chief of Military Intelligence said Thursday.

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However, he added the lack of strategy and leadership on the part of Israels political echelon puts the country at risk of squandering a historic opportunity.'

Amos Yadlin (Photo: Herzl Yosef)

Israel is very strong, even with all the threats around. There is no nuclear Iran, we have peace with Egypt and Jordan, the Syrian military is gone, there is a lot of identical convergence of interests with the Arab world, the president of the US that basically I think his heart is with us, said Amos Yadlin, who also served as commander of the IDF Military Colleges and the National Defense College and is now the Executive Director of Tel Aviv Universitys Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)

We have an opportunity here that may not have existed since the founding of the state, to go forwardwith the Arabs, with the Americansto advance peace with the Palestinians according to Israeli parameters. But our government lacks a coherent strategy and leadership.

"It is time to take the initiative and capitalize on the good conditions we have at the moment. They will not continue to exist forever; there will be a Democratic president in the US that may not be so supportive of Israel. So what keeps me awake at night: that we are not taking advantage of this historical opportunity, Yadlin said.

Photo: AFP

Speaking to reporters at a briefing in Jerusalem, Yadlin also addressed Lebanons Hezbollah group, which effectively is the ruling power in that country today, saying Irans involvement in the war in Syria has forced Tehran to cut funding to the terror group.

He said that Hezbollahs participation in the war has also exacted a steep price with the Shiite terror group losing more than 1700 killed in action, hundreds more wounded.

In addition, Hezbollah is facing domestic pressure not to provoke Israel out of fear of its response. But Yadlin warned that the threat from Israels northern neighbor is far stronger than it was a decade ago, and that another round of fighting would look radically different than the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Today they have 100,000 rockets aimed at every part of Israel. Their weapons have bigger warheads, carry bigger payloads, and are longer range and more accurate than the ones they fired at us in 2006.

Hezbollah terrorist (Photo: AFP)

Yadlin said the deterrence created by the 2006 Second Lebanon War has lasted 11 years so far, but he added that one mistake could inadvertently force regional leaders to throw caution to the wind.

Remember in 2015, when Israel attacked a convoy headed for Hezbollah? Well, Hezbollah felt the attack was a violation of an unwritten agreement between Israel and Hezbollah that Israel can attack at will in Syria, but wont attack over the border in Lebanon.

"So Nasrallah fired seven missiles at an Israeli convoymost of the Israelis managed to get out of the way, but two soldiers were killed. But there could easily have been 30 or 40 soldiers killed, which is the kind of thing that could easily lead to all-out war, he warned.
Ben Gurion International Airport has been ranked as one of the top ten best airports in the world according to a survey conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine.

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Ben Gurion airport came in eighth place, while Singapore's Changi Airport came in first place, followed by Qatar's Hamad International Airport in Doha and Dubai International Airport. Abu Dhabi International Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol both ranked behind Ben Gurion to round out the top ten.

Ben Gurion International Airport (Photo: Shutterstock)

Apart from the world's top airports, the magazine also publishes lists of top accommodations and ranks cities by region. Here too, Israel made an appearance.

The travel magazine listed Jerusalem as the second best city in Africa and the Middle East for 2016, following Cape Town, South Africa. In the category of best city hotels in Africa and the Middle East, Jerusalem's Waldorf Astoria came in second place, while Tel Aviv's Norman Hotel came in seventh.

Jerusalem (Photo: Shutterstock)

Jerusalem's Waldorf Astoria (:   :  )

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Norman Hotel Tel Aviv

The hotel rankings are especially of note, considering Israel is in a region with many of the top hotels in the world, such as the Jumeirah At Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, which topped the list.
Following the accidental pollution of the Nahal Ashalim in the Negev, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) found two more dead ibexes near the stream. The ibexes, male and female, located on Thursday, raise the total amount of ibexes found since the ecological disaster to eight, out of a herd of 26.

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INPA Director Gilad Gabai said, "This is a relatively rare wild animal of great importance to the environment. It is painful and frustrating to see the damage to the ibex and other wildlife in the area. This damage could lead to continued damage to the flora and fauna in the area that will take years to rehabilitate."

Dead ibex found near Nahal Ashalim (Photo: INPA)

In a sad case of irony, the INPA's symbol is the ibex.

The INPA notes that the circumstances of the deaths of the ibexes are still under investigation, but there is a very high probability that these are were due to the damage caused by the leakage and pollution of the stream.

Another dead ibex found near the stream (Photo: INPA)

Dr. Assaf Tzuar, an INPA ecologist, noted that, "The ibex is very rare in the Middle East and Israel is one of the last countries to have wild herds of them that are relatively protected from hunting. Nahal Ashalim is of great importance because it is an important pathway that links the Judean ibex population to that of the Negev."

The polluted stream and the affected wild animals (Photo: INPA)

While the INPA is making efforts to minimize the damages of the disaster, it is also preparing to begin the implementation of the Ashalim Stream monitoring program in cooperation with NGO HaMaarag, a research body on behalf of Tel Aviv University which specializes in environmental monitoring and rehabilitation programs.

In the coming week, the INPA will examine the possibility of pouring clean water into some of the river areas in order to examine the effect of the flow on water acidity.

INPA researcher testing the stream's acidity level (:     )

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The Nature and Parks Authority's assessment is that the entry of travelers to the area will not be possible in the coming year, even after the winter floods, should there be any.

Earlier this month, the Rotem Amfert acid pool was breached, causing the stream to be polluted, thus killing many of the animals in the area. The Ministry of Environmental Protection opened a criminal investigation against the plant and its parent company, Israel Chemicals.
The Iraqi government has announced that it is conducting an investigation into a video posted on social media allegedly depicting Iraqi soldiers executing ISIS prisoners in revenge for attacks committed by the group.

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In the video, uniformed soldiers are seen leading an unarmed man to a cliff before hurling him ten meters down onto the body of another man thrown off before. Soldiers then proceeded to open fire at the bodies of both men to ensure they were dead.

A spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry told the BBC that if the video was true, those involved would be prosecuted.

Iraqi soldiers throw ISIS suspects from cliff

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Image from the video showing body at base of cliff

Gen. Yehia Rasul, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command of the Iraqi Army, said, "We are looking into this matter in depth, and all the commanders of the Iraqi forces want to get to the bottom of the matter. If there was any violation of human rights by any forcebe it an anti-terror force, the police or the armythose responsible will stand trial and be treated severely."

However, Rasul stressed that the video may not be genuine. "Do not forget that those who want to hurt the joy and confidence we have achieved in this victory may fake such videos."

Iraqi soldier from video

The manner in which the video was filmed is reminiscent of ISIS' method of executing spies and homosexuals. The terrorists would throw suspects from the roofs of buildingsto the sounds of cheers from spectatorsbefore shooting their bodies.

In recent months, international officials have expressed concern following the liberation of Mosul by Iraqi security forces that the largely Shiite forces will carry out revenge attacks against Sunni civilians accused of being ISIS collaborators.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that it had verified the credibility of the video through satellite imagery and found it was filmed in west Mosul.
Twenty-nine-year-old Taylor Force survived military tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but never returned home from a visit to Israel. In March 2016, the US veteran was stabbed to death in Jaffa (located adjacent to Tel Aviv), a victim of a months-long violent uprisingdubbed the Stabbing Intifadawhich killed dozens of Israelis and resulted in the deaths of more than 200 Palestinians (mostly attackers subsequently killed by security forces).

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Bitter memories of the bloodshed will be rekindled Wednesday, when the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a hearing on proposed legislation, The Taylor Force Act, that would cut off American funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) so long as it continues to financially supportto the tune of over $100 million per year, or nearly 10% of the PAs entire budgetprisoners convicted of violent crimes by Israeli courts, as well as their families.





PM Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas meet at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (Photo: AFP)

The bill has garnered increased attention in the wake of Donald Trumps visit to Israel and the West bank in March; when the US president pushed the issue high onto the peace process agenda, reportedly engaging in a heated discussion over the matter in a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Washingtons firm stance has provided leverage for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to double down on his own position. The first test of peace is to say to them (the Palestinians), Hey, you want peace? Prove it. Confront terrorism; stop rewarding terrorism; stop paying terrorists,' the premier recently stated. He then asked, rhetorically, How can you speak about peace with Israel and at the same time pay murderers who spill the blood of innocent Israelis?

Former Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon echoed these sentiments, telling The Media Line that, first off, The Taylor Force Act is necessary from a moral standpoint. Ayalon, also the former Israeli ambassador to the US, believes that, From a political point of view, the legislation is also very useful because it is the only way to put pressure on the Palestinians, (while) still leaving it up to them to make a decision if they are serious about peace.

If they continue to finance terror, he continues, we then know what their priorities are.

Ayalon describes the bill as a breath of fresh air and an example of thinking outside the box because, he suggests, it is the only way to find out whether the peace process can move forward. For the last 25 years, the policy has been to give in to the Palestinian preconditions and we know the results. Many Israelis dead, and Palestinians as well.

Taylor Force (Photo: AP)

For its part, the Palestinian leadership has vehemently opposed the demand, with a close aide to Abbas describing proponents of the initiative as mad. Former Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, Ashraf al-Ajrami, explained to The Media Line that, This is a very sensitive issue, as the prisoners are considered freedom fighters. The Palestinian people believe there is a right to resist the occupation and thus reject the label of terrorist.'

Al-Ajrami also notes that there are extremist entitieslike Hamas and Iranthat would fill the void if the PA discontinues paying the salaries, and this is not even in the interest of Israel.

Hence the debate over the utility of The Taylor Force Act, especially given its potential to derail the renewal of peace talks before they even begin. There is additional concern that the legislation has become overly politicized, as opinions on the issue break down largely along partisan lines.

US President Donald Trump and Abbas (Photo: AFP)

For example, former US ambassador to Israel under Democratic president Barack Obama, Daniel Shapiro, who is slated to testify at Wednesdays Senate hearing, penned a high-profile article against the Act. While well intended, Shapiro wrote, enacting (the law) would lead to a number of unintended consequences that would worsen things for Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States.

Basing his arguments primarily on maintaining economic stability and satisfactory humanitarian conditions in the West Bank, Shapiro advocates for amending the bill, or, at the very least, including a waiver in it which would allow for continued, unconditional American funding of the PA in the event the White House defines doing so as national security interest (ironically, a similar waiver introduced into The Jerusalem Embassy Act, requiring that the American embassy in Israel be relocated to Jerusalem, has been signed by US presidents every six months since 1995, effectively preventing the move).

On the other hand, former assistant secretary of state under Republican president George W. Bush, Elliott Abrams, who will also appear before the Senate committee, favors the legislation. In Stop Supporting Palestinian Terror, Abrams argued that, Its time to end this scandalous American policy and insist that the Palestinians meet standards we would apply to any other aid recipients anywhere else in the world.

Mahmoud Abbas at an Arab League summit (Photo: AFP)

The Taylor Force Act has caused such a cavernous split precisely because it goes to the heart of the conflict by identifyingrightly or wronglya root cause and offering a pathway towards solving it.

In this respect, the legislation is widely supported by those who believe that Palestinian rejectionismwhich manifests in terrorism, and the support thereofis the core issue. Enacting it, they claim, would effectively hold the Palestinians to account for what is viewed as an inflexible irredentism, which accounts for the refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish State.

By contrast, the Act represents a roadblock to peace for those who view the occupation as the major impediment to ending the conflict. According to this line of thinking, the bills passage will lead only to additional Palestinian suffering, thus the hardening of their positions; which, effectively, would push the two peoples further apart and preclude the possibility of any future breakthrough.

Seeming to acknowledge the intricacies and delicate nature of the situation, in advance of Wednesdays Senate hearing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told members of Congress that an active bilateral discussion was ongoing to resolve the matter.

Irrespective of which side of the aisle one sits on, most people invested in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would likely agree to at least one point: More talks about talks does not bode well for peace.
The United States backed Israels temporary closure of the Temple Mount in a statement Saturday, urging Muslim nations to be patient until the holy site can be reopened following a deadly attack on Friday.

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"The people of the United States strongly condemn the terror attack," the White House statement said. "There must be zero tolerance for terrorism. It is incompatible for achieving peace and we must condemn it in the strongest terms, defeat it and eradicate it."

Muslims praying outside of Temple Mount following its temporary closure (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"The attack forced the government of Israel to temporarily close the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif to conduct its investigation," the statement said, noting that Israel has vowed to reopen the site on Sunday

The US called this "a decision which the United States applauds and welcomes," urging "all leaders and people of good faith to be understanding as this proceeds and reaches its conclusion."

Security forces searches for weapons at the Temple Mount

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich spoke on Friday about the possibility of the terrorists using weapons that were stashed in the Temple Mount, saying that the police "are conducting thorough searches at the site, one of which is a survey of the entire compound to ensure that there are no more weapons (hidden there). We will do so in an orderly and thorough manner."

The decision to close the Temple Mount in light of Friday morning's terrorist attackin which two policemen were killed and a third was lightly woundedhas raised ire among Muslims across the region and the world, even prompting the Jordanian government and PA President Mahmoud Abbas to call Netanyahu and demand the compound be reopened.
Newly elected Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay joined the 33rd consecutive Saturday night protest outside the home of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in Petah Tikva, demanding that the government be dissolved.

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Addressing protestors, Gabbay said, "I came here to support good Israelis who vote for all partiesBayit Hayehudi, Kulanu, Shas, Likudand they do not want corruption. Neither personal corruption nor public corruption. They say 'stop hiding behind procedures.'

Avi Gabbay at Saturday's protest (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"The Prime Minister received hundreds of thousands of shekels in (illicit) gifts, there is no dispute about this," said Gabbay. "This isn't just a legal matter. I'm not talking about the attorney general here. I know that the demonstration here is mainly against him. I am talking about the heads of the coalition factions: Make the decision and dismantle the government."

Commenting on Gabbay's remarks that there's "no dispute" that Netanyahu received illicit gifts, The Likud Party said: "You bet there's a dispute over the lies that Avi Gabbay spread. What is indisputable is that Avi Gabai himself was sent to house arrest in over the Bezeq scandal of 2005 and received more than NIS 50 million from Bezeq immediately after he finished his job at the Finance Ministry, where he dealt mainly with issues related to the media and Bezeq."

Across the street gathered some 30 pro-Netanyahu protestors, one who said, "He is the best prime minister for Israel. This won't help you. There is witch hunt against him."

"Brothers in the fight against the corrupt" (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Protestors frequently allege that Mandelblit is working slowly in investigating the claims of corruption against Netanyahu. However, two weeks ago Mandelblit referred to the claims and said that police need to be allowed to do their jobs.

"I am aware of the importance of completing the investigation within a short period of time, but alongside the importance of acting quickly, it is important to clarify the suspicions in the best possible manner and to collect evidence in a proper and professional manner," said Mandelblit.

However, Mandelblit emphasized, "The investigation is proceeding with great vigor and as soon as it is over, we will make a decision."
YORK  The discovery of 11  pounds of marijuana and a loaded 9 mm handgun might lead to prison time for a 23-year-old man from Des Moines, Iowa.

Alex J. Holland changed his plea this past week in York County District Court, pleading guilty to possession of more than a pound of marijuana, a Class 4 felony, and carrying a concealed weapon, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

All totaled, he could be facing a possible maximum of three years of incarceration, according to York County District Judge James Stecker.

He was initially charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver while in possession of a firearm, which was a Class 2 felony. That was amended as part of a plea agreement.

According to court documents, Holland, along with his co-defendant Timothy S. Craker, 60, also of Des Moines, was arrested after a traffic stop on Interstate 80 at the Bradshaw exit.

After a drug dog alerted to the presence of narcotics, their vehicle was searched. Troopers said they found three 5-gallon buckets of high grade marijuana and a loaded handgun that was located under the seat.

Sentencing has been set for early September.
The following questions were asked recently on the Wonderline:

Q: Regarding the additional $250,000 for the railroad crossing signal on East 25th, this is a rural crossing, not within the city limits of York. How can the city sales tax money be used for this project? Why did the city council take official action on this specific crossing and shouldnt the legal action have been taken by the county board? What will be the total cost of just the one crossing on East 25th to make it acceptable for the quiet zone? Who is responsible for the continued upkeep of that one crossing and at what estimated costs?

A: According to Mitch Doht, public works director for the city of York, the city has yet to coordinate the proposed changes to the railroad crossing at County Road 14 with the county. We are on the agenda for the commissioners meeting on Tuesday, July 18, at 11 a.m., to request county action on a revised Notice of Intent to Establish a Quiet Zone for that particular crossing. This document will start the clock on a 60-day review period for BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad) and various state agencies to consider our revised plan.

The county was aware of and supportive of wayside horns at that crossing, but the plan now calls for concrete paving, raised medians, and new crossing arms and signage at that location in lieu of wayside horns. This will all be communicated to county officials next week for their consideration.

Current cost estimates for the new crossing at County Road 14 total around $400,000. This is $250,000 higher than the original wayside horn plan, which would have been around $150,000, but it eliminates the maintenance and liability requirements for the horns.

Q: The recent news article specifically talks about liability concerns for the East 25th railroad crossing to meet the quiet zone project needs. Does the railroad or the City of York or the County of York shoulder the liability item should something happen at that railroad crossing because of making that crossing legal for the quiet zone project?

A: Mitch Doht, public works director for the city of York, responded as follows: City sales tax revenue can be used for projects that benefit the city, regardless of jurisdiction. In fact, other future sales tax funded projects will likely involve projects on York Public Schools property. Funding for the quiet zone project was voted on and passed by the voters of York, so we really want to make it happen for them as soon as we can. It is a top priority for the city right now, so next weeks meeting with the commissioners is key. If they are OK with the changes and supportive of the Notice of Intent, we will draft and present an interlocal agreement to clearly delegate all project costs and future maintenance of the facility to the city, as well as any public agency liability for accidents at the crossing.

Obviously this crossing will be built to the highest railroad standards with the latest in safety technology to protect the public to the greatest extent possible. In fact, studies show that the new crossing will be safer than the existing crossing, even without train horns blowing. Liability for an accident at any railroad crossing is highly specific to the particular accident. After quiet zone modifications are made to that crossing, the railroad will still operate and maintain the gates, controls, and crossing panels. The city would only be required to maintain the paving, medians, and delineators, like we currently do at our other three at-grade crossings.

Q: Why are the city-wide garage sales held the same day as the sidewalk sales in York? Isnt that taking away from downtown businesses?

A: Madonna Mogul, the director of the York Chamber of Commerce, explained that when the Chamber was approached last year about having city-wide garage sales on the same day as sidewalk sales, we thought this to be a good time to have community involvement. Typically garage sales are early in the morning. While residents are hunting down bargains at garage sales, the downtown merchants are setting out their products to be ready for them. At the conclusion of the sidewalk sales last year, we did ask merchants for feedback and we specifically asked if they felt city-wide garage sales helped or hindered their sales. The response was that they helped or they remained the same. The general feeling was that they liked knowing people were out and about town. We are looking forward to a lot of activity in town this Saturday!

Q: I was curious why the big word of Hope is out by the York sign at the fairgrounds.

A: That lettering/signage was installed as part of the Relay for Life.

Q: Is there a rule regarding how long before a public meeting is held that the agenda can be changed? Is there a clause about that in the open meetings act?

A: Under Section 84-1411, an agenda maintained at the office of a public body for public inspection must be kept continually current and may not be altered later than 24 hours before the scheduled commencement of the public meeting. A public body may modify an agenda to include items of an emergency nature only at such public meeting.

This provision was added in 1983 to prevent the addition of last minute matters to an agenda which did not really represent emergencies.

Q: A week or two ago, Melanie Wilkinson wrote an article about the one-room school house tradition that was part of our states history for so many years. What Im wondering is how many one-room school houses were there in Nebraska, at the height of our early population, and when did they start to dwindle?

A: We found information from a number of sources, including Nebraska Life Magazine, which said by 1918, Nebraska had nearly 7,000 one-room school houses.

And the state really didnt let go of them very quickly. In 1986, there were still 385 one-room school houses  which at that time were more than any other state and 45 percent of the entire U.S. total.

But two decades later, they were all gone. The reclassification policy placed the schools in larger districts.

Q: How many registered sex offenders are in York County?

A: According to the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry, there are 45 registered sex offenders living in York County.

Q: I am interested in running for a political office in the county. Can I go in and file my candidacy now or is there a certain date that filing for next years election process starts?

A: According to the Nebraska Secretary of States office, candidate filing will begin on Dec. 1.

Q: Can inmates in the Nebraska prison system receive mail?

A: According to the Nebraska Department of Corrections, inmates may receive in the U.S. Mail cards, letters, pictures (no Polaroids, they must be non-violent, no nudity, no criminal/gang activity depictions), money orders and checks. Personal property, cash, blank stationary, envelopes, stamps and jewelry are items that are not allowed through the mail. Inmates may receive books if they are sent directly to the inmate from a publisher or bookstore with a paid receipt. They may also receive religious books and publications from churches or religious entities.

Inmate mail should include the inmates first and last name and institutional number on the envelope.

The following items are considered contraband and are not permitted: tape or stickers, perfume sprayed on the letter or envelope, lipstick, laminated items, music or audible greeting cards.

Q: How many cemeteries are in York County? And what are they called?

A: There are 34 cemeteries in York County, according to a listing compiled by the York County Historical Society that is included on the City of York website.

The cemeteries are: Arborville; Bethel (Benedict); Bethesda (Lutheran); Bethesda Mennonite (Henderson); Blue Ridge (by Gresham); Blue Vale; Brabham Family (Zion); Cashler (Union) Cemetery; Cedar Lawn (Gresham); Council; Ebenezer (Waco); Faith Evangelical Bible (Henderson); Farmers Valley (Henderson); Gilmore Cemetery; Greenwood Cemetery (McCool Junction); Greenwood (York); Holoch (Bussard) Cemetery; Lincoln Creek; McCool Junction Cemetery; Mennonite Brethren (Henderson); Mennonite (Buller, Henderson); Palo (Mt. Zion, Thayer); Plainfield (Bradshaw); Pleasant Hill (Benedict); Pleasant Ridge (McCool Junction); Rosemonde (Rose, Thayer); St. Johns (Waco); St. Josephs (York); St. Pauls Lutheran; St. Peters Lutheran (Gresham); United Methodist (Hays, Lushton); Vernon (Pettis); Waco; Zion Lutheran (Thayer).

Q: What is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States?

A: The hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States was on July 10, 1913, at Death Valley, Calif. The temperature was measured at 134 degrees.

Q: A while back, in the Amish Cook column in your newspaper, there was a recipe for zucchini and butterscotch bars. I have zucchini now and want to make them. My neighbor made some when the recipe was printed and they were really, really good. She didnt hold onto the recipe, as she made it right out of the newspaper and didnt clip the recipe out. I was wondering if you guys have a way of going back in your files to see if you could find it. I tried to look on your website, but Im not good with computers and didnt get very far. So then my neighbor suggested that I just ask if you guys could find it (because you would know how) and then run it in the Wonderline. Thanks so much! Hope you can find it!

A: We found Lovinas Butterscotch Zucchini Bars recipe that ran in an Amish Cook column back in the day in the York News-Times. We hope the reader and her neighbor . . . and whoever else wants to try it . . . really enjoy it!

OK, here we go.

Beat together three eggs, two cups of sugar, 2/3 cup of vegetable oil and two teaspoons of vanilla.

Beat in two teaspoons of baking soda, one teaspoon salt and  teaspoon baking powder.

Mix in 2  cups of flour until well mixed.

Stir in two cups of finely shredded zucchini, packed.

Pour into a greased 15x10x1-inch pan.

In a bowl, mix together  cup brown sugar and one cup of butterscotch chips. Then sprinkle that mixture over the batter in the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until it tests done with a toothpick.

Q: The other day, a medical helicopter  or maybe two  kept landing and taking off at the hospital in York. It happened a number of times and people were wondering what was happening. What was going on?

A: It was all part of a training exercise.
Washington: The United States (US) Congress has made it difficult for Pakistan to get the US funding in the name of fight against terror.

Now, the US Secretary of Defense will have to certify that Pakistan is not providing military, financial, or logistical support to any individuals designated by the US as a terrorist operating in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

But, the current limitations on military reimbursement funding to Pakistan only apply to one terrorist group: the Haqqani Network.

The new restrictions came into force after the US Congress passed National Defence Authorization Act for 2017.

Pak amendments were proposed by Republican Congressman Ted Poe, who tweeted: "Today, Congress took a step forward to end Pakistan's betrayal of the US with the addition of an additional certification requirement."

In a statement, Poe said, "Today, the House-passed bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act that helps to rebuild our military, increases funding to close readiness gaps, and gives our troops their biggest pay raise in eight years."

He further added that "this bill included two of my amendments to strengthen border security and require that the Pentagon assess Pakistan's support for known terrorists before handing over US dollars to Islamabad."

He termed Pakistan as a Benedict Arnold ally who supports multiple terrorist organizations, including groups that target Americans working to stabilize Afghanistan.

Benedict Arnold was an American general who defected to the British army in 18th century.

Poe, who is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation & Trade, along with Democrat Congressman Rick Nolan in January introduced the bipartisan bill seeking to revoke Pakistan's status as a major non-Nato ally (MNNA), which was granted in 2004 by then US President George W Bush.

They had argued that since Pakistan has failed to effectively fight terrorism, it no longer deserves US economic and military assistance.

It is notable that Rahmatullah Nabil, former chief of Afghan Spy Agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), has disclosed classified documents, which reveal that the money provided by the United States Government to the Pakistan military for fighting terrorism is being spent by the country's intelligence agency, ISI, for promoting and supporting terrorism.

The US Congress also asked Pakistan to release Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence in the city.

The US Congress said that "Dr Shakil Afridi is an international hero and that the government of Pakistan should release him immediately from prison".

The National Defence Authorization Act for 2017 has good news for India as the US Congress has asked the Department of Defence and State Department to take specified actions to increase defense and security cooperation with India.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on July 15 held a meeting with IDS Deputy Director Alberico Parente and Managing Director of Technology and Science Dynamics (TSD) Vahan Shakaryan, press service of the Government told Armenpress.

On July 14 IDS and TSD companies announced starting cooperation in IT field and establishing scientific-research laboratory with an investment of 10 million Euros and a new branch of forensic production of high technologies.

The PM welcomed and attached importance to initiating an investment program in IT field in Armenia and assured that the Italian company and foreign investors in general have a reliable partner in the face of the Armenian Government.

Alberico Parente thanked the PM for the readiness to assist and highly appreciated the active work of the Development Foundation of Armenia (DFA) to start cooperation. IDS Deputy Director stated that Armenia has good grounds for carrying out activity in scientific-research sphere, and at the initial stage the company plans to make investments in forensic sphere, however, it will not be limited only to this sphere.

The two officials presented details to the PM over the investment program. It was stated that the program will be implemented within 5 years, and a separate center will be established in line with the increase of the volume.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Two German tourists were killed in a knife attack in Hurghada, Egypt, the German federal foreign ministry said in a statement, reports TASS.

Now we have reliable information that two citizens of Germany were killed as a result of the attack on tourists in Hurghada. In this difficult moment we extend our condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims, the ministry said.

The foreign ministry informed that the German authorities are in constant contact with the Egyptian government and receive all the necessary information.

Two German tourists were killed, two Armenian citizens, one Czech and one Russian tourists were wounded as an unknown knife-wielding assailant attacked tourists in Hurghada.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. A man has attacked people with a knife at one of metro stations in Tehran, Iran, reports TASS.

The incident occurred at a station located in Rey, a suburb of the Iranian capital. A man attacked a clergy with a knife at a station. After the stab attack, the passengers interfered in the conflict. Police had to open fire to detain the assailant. At least 15 people were wounded.







The clergy and others were hospitalized, and the attacker died in the hospital.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. High temperature is expected in Armenia on July 17-20, the Emergency Situations Ministry told Armenpress.

In the daytime up to 38...39 degrees above zero and high risk of fire are predicted in the valleys of Yerevan, Syunik province and the Ararat Valley. The air temperature will be 5-7 degrees higher than normal.

On July 16 short rain with thunderstorm is expected in Armenias northern regions. During thunderstorm the wind speed will exceed up to 15-20 m/s. Hail is possible in separate places.

No precipitation is expected from July 17 to 20.

Southwest wind speed is 3-8 m/s.

Air temperature will gradually increase by 3-4 degrees.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. The two Armenian citizens who were wounded in a knife attack in Egypts Hurghada resort town are women, Tigran Balayan  spokesperson of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, told Armenpress.

Balayan informed that one of the women is still in intensive care unit.

Both citizens are women. One of them is still in intensive care unit, and the other one will be discharged probably tomorrow, Balayan said, adding that he has no information on when they will return to Armenia.

An unknown individual attacked tourists in a hotel in Hurghada, Egypt. The assailant was armed with a knife. Two German citizens have been killed.

Reports suggest four others have been wounded. The attacker entered the hotel and randomly attacked the tourists.

At the same time, the countrys interior ministry said six people have been wounded in the attack and their citizenship is being clarified. The victims have been hospitalized.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. According to the statistics of January-May 2017, there are positive economic trends in the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Aram Safaryan  chairman of Integration and Development NGO, coordinator of Eurasian expert club, told a press conference in Armenpress while presenting Armenias economic figures in the first 5 months of 2017 in the context of membership to the EAEU.

Safaryan said the President of the Russian Central Bank announced that Russia enters new stage of economic development and a good year is predicted for Russia.

Here it is important to note that major rating organizations have revised the figures for Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia and promised new growth rates. According to those figures, compared to what has been predicted previously, Armenia can record from 2.5 up to 3, even up to 3.4 economic development rate within the course of the year. This is quite high figure, Aram Safaryan said, adding that Armenia completed last year with 0.2% economic growth rate. He said Armenias economy can develop at higher rates in 2018.

Aram Safaryan stated that the highest rate ensuring economic growth is in export field and here already a double-digit economic growth has been recorded within five months, moreover, through the export of ready-made products.

We can solve employment, social and other issues in our country only through increase and export of the volume of ready-made product. We are optimistic over the development of spheres which were previously exhausted  textile, footwear production, which seemed were hopeless. However, we see that these fields received a chance to develop under the EAEU, he stated.

He also attached importance to the activeness registered in tourism field, stating that the number of Russian tourists visiting Armenia has increased. It is expected this trend will continue in future.

According to Safaryan, as the overall expectations are positive, here the issues on how the tax, customs agencies, state structures, credit organizations and banks will work become important, as well as on how the political figures will negotiate on increasing the opportunities and etc. The development of upcoming years will greatly depend on this.

He added that Armenia doesnt take part in procurement market since the public sector doesnt cooperate with the private sector to submit competitive proposals with famous Russian standards. The other countries have serious lobbying opportunities. The culture of participating in the procurement process in another country has not yet been formed in Armenia, and, according to Safaryan, active work and cooperation at various directions are necessary.
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.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned Botswana on Friday against hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is due to visit there next month, saying it hoped Botswana could make the "correct" decision about the trip. The Dalai Lama is expected to address a human rights conference in the capital, Gaborone, on Aug. 17-19 and will also meet Botswana's president. China is a major investor in Botswana's economy. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing that the Dalai Lama wears the cloak of religion to engage in anti-China, separatist activities and China opposes any foreign official meeting him in any form. "We hope the relevant country can clearly recognize the essence of who the Dalai Lama is, earnestly respect China's core concerns, and make the correct decision on this issue," Geng said. He did not elaborate. The Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has long been at loggerheads with China, which brands him a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom and genuine autonomy for Tibet. Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China. It often retaliates by stopping high-level meetings or taking economic steps, like last year when it imposed new border fees following a visit by the Dalai Lama to Mongolia. Botswana's neighbor South Africa has denied a visa to the Buddhist monk three times since 2009 in what opposition parties there, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, say shows the extent of Beijing's influence over Pretoria. China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With talks to renegotiate the NAFTA trade pact just weeks away, U.S. farm groups and lawmakers from rural states are intensifying lobbying of President Donald Trump's administration with one central message: leave farming out of it. Trump blames the North American Free Trade Agreement - the "worst trade deal ever" in his words - for millions of lost manufacturing jobs and promises to tilt it in America's favor. But for U.S. farmers the 23-year old pact secures access to stable, lucrative markets in Mexico and Canada that now account for over a quarter of U.S. farm exports. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2tNMtlc) Now they fear this access could become a bargaining chip in efforts to get a better deal for U.S. manufacturers. "Perhaps some other sectors of our economy are given better terms and in exchange for that agriculture tariffs would be reintroduced," said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation in Denver, Colorado. Another concern is that the mere uncertainty of open-ended trade talks could drive Mexico to alternative suppliers of grains, dairy products, beef and pork. Mexico became even more crucial after Trump's pullout from a vast Pacific Rim trade pact negotiated under Barack Obama dashed farmers' hopes of free access to more markets. Next week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is due to outline the administration's goals for the NAFTA talks to Congress and the farm lobby has turned up the heat in the past weeks to ensure that its interests will make Lighthizer's list. Operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade, more than 130 commodity groups and agribusiness giants since Trump's inauguration have been bombarding the new administration with phone calls and letters, public comments to USTR and face-to-face meetings with top officials who have Trump's ear. "Our first ask is to do no harm," said Cassandra Kuball, the head of the umbrella group. Lobbyists said that Lighthizer, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have been receptive, but the wild card is how Trump ultimately will come down on the talks. They also wonder what concessions Mexico will seek from Washington in the talks due to start in mid-August. Among the groups involved are the American Soybean Association, Corn Refiners Association and National Grain and Feed Association and firms such as Land O'Lakes, Inc., Tyson Foods , Inc., Louis Dreyfus Company North America, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and others. For example, U.S. cotton producers, marketers and shippers in mid-June warned the Trump administration that any weakening of NAFTA "would threaten the health of the U.S. industry and the jobs of the 125,000 Americans employed by it." QUADRUPLING EXPORTS Annual U.S. farm exports to Mexico have grown from about $4 billion in 1994, when NAFTA began, to an estimated $18.5 billion this year. With Canada included, that number is forecast to reach $40 billion, quadrupling under NAFTA. Republican lawmakers from rural states that have backed Trump in the 2016 election have sought to leverage their political clout to press farmers' case at a time when they struggle with low crop prices. Pat Roberts, Republican senator from Kansas, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he used an unexpected invitation for a private White House meeting with Trump to plug in agriculture's cause in NAFTA and beyond. "He (Trump) wanted to know what was happening in farmland," Roberts said. "I told him we went through a very rough patch and if we did not have a strong, robust, predictable trade policy, it's going to make life much more difficult in farm country," Roberts said of the 45-minute meeting in late June. In May, 18 Republican senators, mainly from pro-Trump farming states, wrote the administration about the "tremendous growth" in U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada as a result of NAFTA. "Efforts to abandon the agreement or impose unnecessary restrictions on trade with our North American partners will have devastating economic consequences," they warned. Trump's pledges to crack down on immigration and calls for a wall along the border with Mexico also vex farm state lawmakers. "What I really need is a good, solid immigration system, South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds said. Given his state's low unemployment rate of just around 2.8 percent, farmers and ranchers need better access to legal foreign labor, he said. STORM OVER SUNNY SLOPE Agriculture Secretary Perdue got a taste of farmers' angst when met cattle ranchers in Nebraska on May 20. The event was held shortly after Washington agreed with China to resume beef exports, but some 60 ranchers who gathered at U.S. Senator Deb Fischer's Sunny Slope Ranch quickly turned to NAFTA. "If the president wants to renegotiate that agreement with our neighbors and partners in Mexico and Canada please leave the ag portion of that discussion out," said Pete McClymont, executive vice president of Nebraska Cattlemen, summarizing the discussion. While lobbying in Washington, some Republican lawmakers have also met with Mexico's ambassador and U.S. farming representatives traveled south to assure their partners unsettled by Trump's "America First" mantra. "The common comment is: 'why are you here? The problem is not with us. The problem is in Washington. Why are you talking to us?'" said Tom Sleight, president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council. "The new normal is that feed buyers, millers, grain buyers are actively looking at alternative sources," he said. It will take months to find out how effective the lobbying was. Meantime, some are willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Daryl Haack, a corn and soybean farmer from Primghar in northwest Iowa, like others fears retaliation from either Canada or Mexico, but is optimistic it will not come to that. "I think President Trump is a negotiator," he said. "I think he runs bluffs. A lot of negotiators will do that." (Reporting By Richard Cowan, Additional reporting by Mark Weinraub, Karl Plume and Theopolis Waters in Chicago; Editing by Caren Bohan and Tomasz Janowski)
In another sign of the United States determination to help the nations of Africa combat terrorism, millions of dollars in rewards are being offered for information on several top leaders of the al Qaeda-linked, Somalia-based terrorist organization, Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahidin or al-Shabaab.

The group, listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 2008, is battling that nations government for control of Somalia and has also carried out a string of attacks in Kenya. It is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Somali civilians, peace activists, international aid workers, journalists, and civilians, as well as African Union peacekeepers who are helping to restore stability and prosperity to the region. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes amid the fighting.

Under the terrorist designation, the United States imposed financial and other restrictions on the group, blocking property and prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with its members. Now the U.S. is offering rewards for information leading to the location of five of its leaders.

Rewards of up to $5 million each are offered for information on the location Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, a dual Somali and Swedish national also known as Fuad Songale; and Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud, an al-Shabaab military commander believed to have been born between 1979 and 1982.

A reward of up to $3 million is offered for information on the location of Abdullahi Yare, the head of media for al-Shabaab.

The U.S. guarantees that all credible reports will be investigated and the identity of all informants will be kept confidential. If appropriate, the U.S. is prepared to protect informants by relocating them. If you have information on any of these men, contact the Regional Security Office at the nearest U.S. Embassy, and the tip line at www.rewardsforjustice.net or e-mail information to info@rewardsforjustice.net. In North America, call 1-800-877-3927.

Anncr: That was an international public service announcement by the United States Government.
During the recent G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, President Donald Trump met with foreign leaders to reinforce alliances and forge new ones.

Deputy White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders noted that the President had successfully achieved his objectives on behalf of the American people.

On the fight against terrorism, President Trump underscored the need for nations to join together to strip terrorists of their funding, territory and ideological support.

On North Korea, Mr. Trump urged every nation to isolate the regime and cut off all ties of trade and commerce. He called his bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping excellent, as the two leaders discussed additional ways to counter the threat posed by a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea. The two leaders also agreed to move ahead with security cooperation.

On trade, President Trump emphasized the need to end unfair trade practices and to provide American workers with a level playing field. In addition, he hailed the launch of the World Banks Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, of which the United States is a founding member, to help empower women across the world and drive economic growth.

During his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump raised the issue of Russian interference in the U.S. election, a matter of great concern for the American people. The two leaders also discussed other issues of bilateral interest. An example of such possible cooperation emerged July 7, when it was announced that the United States, Russia and Jordan had reached an agreement for a cease-fire in the southwestern area of Syria.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the cease-fire the first indication of the U.S. and Russia being able to work together in Syria. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said it was the beginning of an attempt to end the humanitarian suffering in Syria and to build a bridge toward an enduring political settlement.

Deputy White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders said President Trumps participation in the G20 summit, along with his earlier visit to Poland, has given the President tremendous cause for hope. He returned to the United States, she added, with great optimism for the future andexcitement for what lies ahead.
The spread of violent extremism and terrorism pose significant challenges to Africas security, long-term development goals, and democratic gains, said U.S Ambassador to the African Union Mary Beth Leonard. These threats to the global community, she warned, can only be addressed with a global response.

Ambassador Leonards remarks were made at a workshop, earlier this month, co-hosted by the U.S. Mission to the African Union and the AU Commission on preventing and countering violent extremism.

The workshop highlighted the use of public diplomacy resources such as exchanges and TechCamps as successful examples of coordination to build security expertise within the AU, furthering the Mission objective of advancing peace and security.

The workshop supported the AUs 2002 Plan of Action for the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism, identified areas of potential collaboration, and charted a way for future engagement.

On this continent as elsewhere, a comprehensive approach, where Africans are empowered to lead and devise their own solutions to address the drivers of violent extremism is critical to not only advancing the United States foreign policy goals but to realizing the aims of Agenda 2063 an African continent that is peaceful and prosperous.

The United States stands as your steadfast partner in achieving these goals, said Ambassador Leonard.

With almost 70 percent of Africans under 25 years of age, Ambassador Leonard noted, it is important that all stakeholders see youth as partners for peace rather than as the cause of conflict. Additionally, when women are included in peace and security effortsin peace keeping missions, peace negotiations, and political decision-makingcommunities are safer.

I know from experience that the security challenges in Africa are formidable, but by marshaling our values, our partnerships, and our resources, Im confident that together we can overcome them, she said. I would like to end by reiterating that the United States remains a steadfast partner for Africa and continues to stand by the AU in its bold vision for sustainable peace and prosperity.
U.S. sanctions on Russia will remain until Russia reverses the actions that triggered those sanctions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated at a recent press conference in Kyiv. In the case of eastern Ukraine, that means full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Secretary Tillerson added the United States is disappointed by the lack of progress under the Minsk agreements and introduced Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, Kurt Volker, who will be spearheading U.S. efforts to achieve the objectives set out in the Minsk agreements.

"We do call on Russia to honor its commitments that were made under the Minsk accords and to exercise influence over the separatists in the regionwhom they do hold complete control overand we call on them, again, to immediately call on their proxies to cease the violence that is ongoing in east Ukraine, said Secretary Tillerson.

The Minsk agreements consist of three separate documents that commit the sides to ensure a stable, reliable, and lasting cease-fire, to withdraw troops and heavy weapons, to create a buffer security zone, to release hostages, and to allow observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, to oversee the process. The long-term plan for peace also details a political process for re-integrating eastern Ukraine, including empowering local governments by decentralizing some political powers from the center and holding new, OSCE-compliant elections.

Now, despite signing the agreements, Russia is failing to live up to its most basic commitmentsquieting the gunsunder the Minsk agreements. Russia must take steps to improve security in eastern Ukraine and ensure the safety of OSCEs Special Monitoring Mission, or SMM. SMMs 700 volunteers are entrusted with recording any violations of the ceasefire, as well as other aspects of the violence in eastern Ukraine. If it wanted to, Russia could take steps to stop this harassment.

Secretary of State Tillerson called on Russia to honor its commitments:

Again, we call on them to allow the monitors full access to all areas to perform their mission not only along the line of contact but ultimately along the border itself."

Secretary Tillerson called securing eastern Ukraine a fundamental element to Ukraines sovereignty.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 15

By Samir Ali  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Turkey have common joy and sorrow, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral said July 15.

He made the remarks at an event in the Heydar Mosque in Baku where a prayer was performed due to the anniversary of the death of the martyrs during the military coup attempt in Turkey July 15, 2016.

On July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country as a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. More than 200 people were killed during the attempted coup.

Ozoral noted that Azerbaijan was the first to support Turkey during the last years military coup attempt in the country.

We have been historically bound by the ties of brotherhood, Ozoral said. Azerbaijan was always with Turkey in difficult days.

The diplomat noted that during the terror that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was the first to support Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Today we honor those killed during the coup attempt in Turkey, said the Turkish ambassador. Our martyrs are your martyrs, too. Those who died for the independence of Azerbaijan on January 20 [1990], in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as two-year-old Zahra and her grandmother who died on July 4 [2017] during the Armenian provocation in the Alkhanli village of the Fuzuli district are our martyrs.

When little Zahra died, the president of Turkey was the first who called the Azerbaijani president, because we are fraternal and friendly countries, the ambassador said.

He noted that all the troubles of Azerbaijan are the troubles of Turkey.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 15

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree on transferring the Main State Tax Service to the countrys Finance Ministry, the Turkmen government said in a message, Turkmenistan State News Agency reported.

Tax system is the most active tool of state regulation of social and economic development, investment strategy, foreign economic activity, accelerated development of priority industries, as well as structural changes in production, the report said.

Reliable legal framework and effective activity of tax authorities are important elements of the tax system, according to the report.

Taxation terms should be equal for all enterprises operating in the same industry, said the report. Not only increasing budget revenues, but also ensuring entrepreneurship and business activity should become the main priority.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 15

By Demir Azizov Trend:

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde wrote in her letter to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev following the visit of the Uzbek delegation to the headquarters of the IMF that she welcomed efforts on reforming the Uzbek economy, Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) reported.

The delegation of Uzbekistan held the first round of talks regarding options for reforming the monetary policy of the country at the IMF headquarters in Washington July 4-9. The delegation included the heads of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, the countrys Ministry of Finance and the Fund for Reconstruction and Development.

The IMF is ready to support the measures on reforming the Uzbek economy through the provision of technical assistance and recommendations on economic policy issues, said the letter.

The IMF managing director expressed confidence that the government of Uzbekistan and the IMF staff will be able to soon hold discussions dedicated to supporting liberalization of the Uzbek monetary system by reforms in other directions in order to improve the investment climate in the country, including measures to improve economic statistics.

Uzbekistan joined the IMF in 1992, the country has its office since 1993.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 15

By Dalga Khatinoglu  Trend:

Iran is preparing for the second winter after Turkmenistan cut the supply of gas to the Islamic Republic in January 1, 2017, due to long-delayed $2 billion debts.

It is preparing to complete a pipeline to north east region, increasing underground gas storage facilities capacity as well as developing new fields in area.

Mohammad Mam Beygi, the head of East Oil and Gas Production Company (EOGPC), a subsidiary of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC) said on July 14 that the company is preparing to develop Tous field to produce 3-5 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas. The field contains 60 bcm of gas reserves, of which 75-80 percent is recoverable.

However, the field wouldnt add to gross gas production level of EOGPC, which stood at 15.8 bcm during the last fiscal year (ended at March 20). It would compensate and replace the gas fall in the very old Mozdoran field, a very rare field with 3.5 percent sulphur and 6.5 percent Co2 content. The demand of north east region is above 25bn m3 of sweet gas.

The other problem of EOGPC is that, according to Mam Beygi, the gas reserves of the fields under its operation area contained 647 bcm of which 347 bcm was extracted. Mozdoran and North Gonbad fields are very close to becoming non-operational, while Khangiran field is in its second half life.

Iran imported about 5.86 bcm gas from Turkmenistan during the last fiscal year, about 53 percent less than the previous year.

EOGPC operates four fields close to border with Turkmenistan and Afganistan, of which about 95 percent came from Khangiran field.

Iran also decided to conduct exploration operation in Koppeh Dagh (or Kopet Dag) located on the border with Turkmenistan, but no information has been released about the project yet.

Iran has also accelerated the construction of Neka-Damghan pipeline to supply gas to north and north east, Hamid Reza Araghi, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company told Mehr June 6.

Iran has completed 110 km and would be going 150 km further. Araghi said that the pipeline would become operational in one or two months.

It is not clear how much the pipeline would transit gas to the mentioned region because Iran only relies on increasing the gas compressor stations capacity instead of construction new cross-country pipelines, to transit South Pars gas field to north regions.

Iran has kept its focus on the South Pars gas field and increased its nominal output capacity from 285 mcm/d in 2013 to 515 mcm/d currently. Iran also continues the development of the field to increase the production capacity to 720 mcm/d by early 2020.

Further, Iran has defined a project for building a cross-country pipeline (Igat 11) worth $4.3 billion, but it hasnt started the construction. The capacity of the pipeline is 110mn m3/year, aimed to transit gas from South Pars to north east.

On the other hand, Iran plans to invest $3 billion to increase the underground gas storage capacity at five plants from the current 3 bcm to about 11.5 bcm by 2018. All of these storage facilities  Sarajeh, Shourijeh, Yurtesha, Nasrabad and Ghezel Tapeh  are in the north and northeast, according to an official document, prepared by Irans Oil Ministry and seen by Trend.

Iran injected 2.145 bcm of gas to Sarajeh, Shourijeh during the warm months of the last fiscal year, of which 2.071 bcm was re-extracted in winter, according to another document, prepared by National Iranian Gas Company.

The gas storage capacity in the north region is important, because Irans housing sectors demands three times more gas during winter. Last year, this sector consumed 98.08 bcm of gas, or about 48 percent of Irans total refined gas production.

According to an agreement, revised in late 2007, Iran should have imported 14 billion m3/year of Turkmen gas, after launching the second gas delivery route to Iran in 2010, named the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline, which increased the gas transit capacity from 8 billion m3/year to above 14 billion m3/year.

However, according to official statistics of Irans Oil Ministry, Iran has imported only average of 6.88 billion cm/year during 2006-2016.

Source: Iran Oil Ministrys official statistics

Iran has prepared documents to sue Turkmenistan for cutting gas export to Iran, Araghi said on May 8.

However he added that If Turkmengaz and NIGC reach a common point in gas dispute, the suit won't follow. It refers to continuance of Irans reliance on Turkmen gas import.

According to him, Iran would sue Turkmenistan for three disputes: gas price, damage from sudden gas export cut to Iran as well as the quality of gas.



Araghi said that the documents would be submitted to The International Criminal Court (ICC) and Turkmenistan has already been informed about the issue.

--

Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agencys Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 15

By Fatih Karimov Trend:

Special envoy of Russian President for Syria Affairs Alexander Lavrentiev met with Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council on July 15, Tasnim news agency reported.

The meeting was focused at reviewing stances of governments involved in Syria crisis, truce process and the latest developments in confronting terrorist groups.

Shamkhani said that all countries involved in the Syria peace talks must respect the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity.

No agreement should undermine this unchangeable principle or prepare grounds for breakdown of Syria, he added.

He accused Israel of making efforts for weakening the Syrian government and changing the security and political equation, in order to undermine the resistance front [Lebanese Hezbollah group].

Tehran and Moscow share the same stance towards Syria, supporting the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Tehran has always expressed support for the Syrian government since it sees the Assad regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as a part of an "axis of resistance" against Israel.

Lavrentiev, for his part, briefed Shamkhani on the recent talks among Russia, the US and Jordan over de-escalation zones in southwestern Syria.

He also underlined that strategic cooperation between Tehran, Moscow, and Damascus will continue until the complete eradication of terrorism.
Three soldiers have been killed as a fresh round of infighting erupts in a barracks in Ivory Coast, PressTV reported.

A military officer said on Saturday that the soldiers were killed in a shooting that began overnight in a barracks at Korhogo, a city in the north of Ivory Coast.

"There are three dead soldiers," said the officer without elaborating. Other sources in the area said three bodies in military fatigues and with gunshot wounds had been taken to a local morgue.

Residents in the capital Abidjan reported similar gunfire in a former UN base near the city. They said the shooting lasted from about 1:30 a.m. to after 3:00 a.m.

"We were all very scared. We don't know what's going on," said a resident. Local sources said calm was restored in the area on Saturday morning.

For months, Ivory Coast's army has been battered by tension and infighting. Elements within the military have staged mutinies to demand promised bonuses. A payoff of 12,000 CFA francs (18,000 euros) per head was eventually agreed by the government in May, five months after the revolt started.

Most of the mutineers are former rebel soldiers who were incorporated into the countrys armed forces after the end of a decade-long civil war in 2011. There are also about 6,000 "demobilized" rebels who have not been integrated into the military and have been pressing for similar demands on bonuses.

Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa, mostly relies on export of cocoa to finance its budget and falling prices has badly affected government coffers. That comes as security forces have become tougher in dealing with the tension in the armed forces. Two former rebel leaders were jailed on Tuesday for obstructing a road in the central city of Bouake.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a statement on Saturday that veteran Washington lawyer Ty Cobb will serve as special counsel, and sources familiar with the hiring said Cobb would handle the White House's response to Russia-related investigations, Reuters reported.

Cobb, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington, is expected to be an intermediary between the White House and Congress, as well as outside attorneys as probes into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia continue.

A federal special counsel and several congressional panels are investigating allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

Moscow has denied any interference and the president has denied any collusion.

The last person to hold a similar position to Cobb's was lawyer Emmet Flood, who worked in the George W. Bush administration to respond to Congressional inquiries.
Hundreds of civil servants, who were dismissed for suspected links to a terrorist group accused of trying to overthrow the government, have been reinstated, the official gazette said Friday, Anadolu reported.

The civil servants were suspected of being members or linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The statutory decree said the 312 reinstated civil servants include two deputy governors and employees from the interior, health, justice, education ministries and from universities, the Directorate of Religious Affairs and other state institutions.

They will recover all the financial and social rights and benefits that they lost when they were dismissed.

They were among thousands of public officials dismissed nationwide in the wake of the deadly July 15 coup attempt. Many others employees remain under investigation.

Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, FETO is accused of orchestrating the defeated coup attempt and of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and the judiciary.
Ankara, Turkey, July 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey highly appreciates the support of the Azerbaijani government in the fight against FETO [Fethullah Gulens movement], which was provided from the first days, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli in an exclusive interview with Trend.

According to him, after the July 15 military coup attempt, most countries realized the regional and global danger of Fethullah Gulens terrorist organization.

Some countries have also begun to realize that the Gulens movement poses a threat to internal stability and peace in those countries, said the Turkish official.

Given this, not only Turkey should fight against FETO, and there should be a joint fight, added Canikli.

The deputy prime minister said that the countries, which take the initiative in the fight against FETO, are trying to get rid of this organization.

Friendly and fraternal country, Azerbaijan, understands these realities, and I am grateful to its people and government for the fight against FETO, noted the Turkish official.

He said that currently, Turkey and Azerbaijan are strategic partners that support each other in all spheres.

Our hearts beat together at all times in trouble and in joy, noted Canikli adding that Turkey and Azerbaijan are one nation, two states and a whole.

Turkey, he added, is making great efforts to let the whole world know about the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, in particular Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as crimes against humanity that were committed as a result of this occupation.

Azerbaijans support for Turkey and the Turkish people during the military coup attempt is a clear example of solidarity and mutual support between our peoples, he noted.

According to him, on July 15, Turkey faced a terrorist act, as a result of which it was planned to seize power in the country. Currently, work is underway to completely eliminate the terrorist organization, which is headed by Fethullah Gulen, added Canikli.

Unfortunately, this terrorist organization of a person, who considers himself a universal imam, continues to exist and conducts activities outside Turkey, said the deputy prime minister.

Turkey also conducts an active fight against this structure outside the country, said Canikli. The fight against FETO outside of Turkey is conducted under the coordination of the countrys Foreign Ministry, he added.

We explain to our colleagues the danger of FETO, which poses a threat to their countries. To our foreign colleagues, we emphasize the fact that FETO uses almost the same methods in all countries, noted the Turkish official.

According to him, for FETO, the use of any means is acceptable so that the people zombied in the educational institutions of this organization could penetrate into the state and economic structures.

Blackmail, bribery, illegal wiretapping is just a part of the methods of this insidious organization, said Canikli.

On July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country as a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. More than 200 people were killed during the attempted coup.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Thousands of people have flocked to Istanbul's iconic July 15 Martyrs' Bridge to mark the first anniversary of the defeated coup attempt, Anadolu reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to attend the national unity march at the bridge over the Bosphorous, which was renamed to honor the martyrs after the coup attempt.

Having gathered in Beylerbeyi, Cengelkoy, Altunizade and Kisikli districts of the Asian side of the city, people marched to the bridge amid tight security.

The bridge was closed by putschists on the night of the coup attempt and dozens people were killed on it.

The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 14, 2017 - 20:18 | World, All

China on Friday brushed off criticism from the United States and some other foreign countries over the death of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said China has already lodged "solemn representations" expressing "strong dissatisfaction" to the United States and other countries making "irresponsible" statements about its way of dealing with Liu and his illness.

At a press briefing, filled with questions about Liu from foreign journalists, Geng Shuang said the statements do not represent the voices of the international community, repeating many times that he was a "criminal" and going on to say that what he had done ran counter to the purpose of the peace prize.

The 61-year-old died of multiple organ failure on Thursday while serving a lengthy sentence for his writings promoting peaceful political reforms in China.

The dissident's supporters and foreign leaders mourned his death after he was denied permission to leave China for treatment for terminal liver cancer.

Following Liu's death, police have bolstered security in many parts of the country for possible protest activities and placed supporters of him under house arrest, Hu Jia, a famous Chinese activist, told Kyodo News.

Top foreign diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, have now stepped up calls on Beijing to release Liu's widow, Liu Xia, from house arrest and let her depart China in line with her wishes.

"Liu Xiaobo should have been allowed to choose his own medical treatment overseas, which the Chinese authorities repeatedly denied him," Johnson said in a statement. "This was wrong and I now urge them to lift all restrictions on his widow."

Whether Chinese authorities will comply with such requests is the next focus. Liu's wife, a poet, was put under house arrest in Beijing without trial after he won the 2010 prize.

The hospital in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, which treated Liu, told a press conference on Thursday night that he died at 5:35 p.m. surrounded by his family.

"Have a good life," it quoted Liu as saying in his final words to his wife.

Liu rose to prominence for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

The outspoken critic of China's Communist Party was last detained in December 2008 and was sentenced a year later to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" for his role in drafting a manifesto calling for peaceful democratic reform, known as Charter 08.

Liu was awarded the peace prize in 2010 "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China" while he was behind bars.

Despite his international reputation as a prominent intellectual, he is not well known among ordinary Chinese as Beijing has almost completely suppressed information about him.

China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported the death only in a brief English story, without touching on Liu's achievements, but noted that his condition continued to worsen despite all-out efforts by the country's "top-rated cancer experts."

No major newspapers in China other than the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid, ran stories about Liu on Friday.

The Global Times, affiliated with the Communist Party, published an editorial asserting that Liu was a "victim" led astray by the West.

"They used Liu's illness as a tool to boost their image and demonize China. They aren't really interested in prolonging Liu's life," the editorial said.

"Liu lived in an era when China witnessed the most rapid growth in recent history, but he attempted to confront Chinese mainstream society under Western support," it said. "This has determined his tragic life. Even if he could live longer, he would never have achieved his political goals that are in opposition to the path of history."
- Wife of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Dolapo is celebrating her 50th birthday today July, 15, 2017

- Her husband took to social media to celebrate her special day

- Cake and some sweet words were involved

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and his family members are currently in a happy mood as his wife and mother of his kids Dolapo turned 50 years old on July, 15, 2017.

Taking to his official Twitter account, Mr Osinbajo wrote that Dolapo was Gods gift to him as well as his treasure.

See his full post below:

READ ALSO: Wizkids songs are so sweet - Bobrisky

Little did we know that the Ag. President had other things in store for his wife. She took to her Instagram account to post a photo of the cake she got at midnight.

Talk about true love.

Born on July 15, 1967, Dolapo and Professor Osinbajo are blessed with three lovely children, a boy and two daughters, Kanyinsola, Kiki, and Fiyinfoluwa.

A known supporter of getting street urchins off the roads and into homes, Mrs Osinbajo even wrote a book about her experiences with street boys titled They Call Me Mama, From the Under Bridge Diaries. The book was launched in 2014.

Watch NAIJ TVs coverage of Acting President Osinbajo delivering a speech in Biafra below:

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria

Source: Legit.ng
American Airlines Boeing 757 (1)

On Wednesday, American Airlines announced its decision to sever its code-share agreements with Etihad and Qatar Airways.

According to the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline, Etihad and Qatar were both given notice on June 29 of its decision to end code-share flights after the close of business on March 24, 2018.

The cancellation of the agreements, which allow the airlines to sell tickets on one another's flights as if they were their own, comes amid a tense dispute between US airlines and their Middle Eastern rivals over allegations of illegal subsidies.

On Thursday, American confirmed that Qatar Airways intended to continue with its plan to acquire an unsolicited equity stake in the airline.

In a statement, American Airlines wrote:

"In light of our ongoing dispute over the Open Skies agreements, American Airlines notified Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways on June 29 of our decision to terminate our code-share relationships.

"Given the extremely strong public stance that American has taken on the ME3 issue, we have reached the conclusion that the code-sharing relationships between American and these carriers no longer make sense for us. This decision has no material financial impact on American and is an extension of our stance against the illegal subsidies that these carriers receive from their governments.

"We are committed to doing everything we can to continue to support our team members and ensure that there is fair competition between American and the Gulf carriers."

Qatar Airways declined to comment on the matter. However, an Etihad spokesman called American's decision to end the code-share agreement, in place since 2009, "anticompetitive and anti-consumer" in an email to Business Insider.

Qatar Airways Q Suite

The Etihad spokesman said the airline's six daily flights to the US "in no way threaten American Airlines, which, together with its regional partner American Eagle, operates 6,700 flights daily to 350 destinations in 50 countries." He added that the Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based airline was "committed to the US market and American consumers" and was "taking all possible measures to ensure that the flying public is not harmed by this decision."

Story continues

However, American's decision to end the code-share agreements with Etihad and Qatar doesn't mean an end to their business relationships. Vinay Bhaskara, a senior business analyst at Airways, believes the decision is mostly posturing by American in support of its employees.

According to Etihad, its interline relationship with American remains intact, which means its passengers can continue to fly on American's aircraft and vice versa. Qatar Airways and American's relationship is closer and more contentious.

Etihad Airbus A380

The interline agreement between American and Qatar Airways is also firmly in place through their membership in the Oneworld airline alliance. On top of its pending equity stake in American, Qatar Airways owns 20% of IAG  one of American's closest partners.

Code shares allow American to sell tickets on flights operated by another airline using an AA flight number so American's passengers can enjoy the same frequent-flier miles and perks, such as priority boarding, that they would on one of the airline's own flights.

On the other hand, an interline relationship allows passengers and luggage from one airline to flow seamlessly to another. For instance, this allows Qatar Airways to sell flights fly from Doha, Qatar, to Charlotte, North Carolina, by transferring its passengers to an American Airlines flight in Philadelphia or Chicago.

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ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / July 13, 2017 / Yesterday, after market close, Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD.V) announced to acquire 243 hectares centered around the 2 diamondiferous Black Wolf and White Wolf Kimberlites in northeastern Finland, about 17 km from the town of Kuusamo and 24 km west of the Russian border.

On top of that, Arctic filed an application for an approximate 95,700 hectares "Exploration Reservation" around the 243 hectares property, which would give Arctic the exclusive claim staking rights for 2 years. Roy Spencer, who discovered the Wolf Kimberlites as well as the multi-billion-dollar Grib Kimberlites in Russia, has joined Arctic's Board of Directors and commented in today's press-release:

"Kimberlites are likely to occur in fields - also known as clusters - which typically contain 30 or more separate kimberlites. The Wolf kimberlites are just the first discoveries in a more extensive cluster. There is good evidence for the existence of this field in the public domain. This data shows regional distribution of kimberlitic indicator minerals and diamonds in surficial tills. The Exploration Reservation will allow Arctic Star to explore the entire region."

Buddy Doyle (Arctic's VP Exploration), who discovered the multi-billion dollar Diavik Kimberlite in Canada, said:

"Arctic Star views this new Project as a unique opportunity to advance a new diamond district. The 100%-owned Project offers diamond bearing kimberlites that allow for immediate further work to assess their economic potential. The Project is road accessible, and located on excellent infrastructure in mining friendly Finland. The opportunity for an economic discovery at Timantti is substantially improved by easier access than companies face in in northern Canada and Siberia. The Wolf kimberlites represent the first discoveries in a possibly more extensive diamondiferous kimberlite field."

The full report can be accessed with the following links:

Story continues

English (PDF):

http://rockstone-research.com/images/PDF/ArcticStar4en.pdf

English (Webversion):

http://rockstone-research.com/index.php/en/research-reports/3283-Another-Grib-Diamond-Mine-in-Finland

German (PDF):

http://rockstone-research.com/images/PDF/ArcticStar4de.pdf

Disclaimer: Please read the full disclaimer within the full research report as a PDF as fundamental risks and conflicts of interest exist.

SOURCE: Rockstone Research
Mr Dimon said he wished the US invested more in infrastructure: Getty

The chief executive of the USs largest bank has voiced his frustration with political gridlock in Washington and said it was sometimes an embarrassment being an American citizen.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co, is known for his frequently outspoken comments. Last year, he turned down an opportunity to become Donald Trumps Treasury Secretary.

His bank reported a profit of $7.03bn for the second quarter, 13 per cent higher than last year. It has made $26.5bn over the past 12 months, a record profit for a US bank, according to the Associated Press.

$JPM reports 2Q17 net income of $7.0B; $1.82 EPS on revenue of $26.4B; ROTCE of 14% https://t.co/fd6YicK60w  J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) July 14, 2017

Despite that, Mr Dimon had colourful words for journalists and analysts who participated in a conference call to discuss his latest results.

Its almost an embarrassment being an American citizen travelling around the world ... listening to the stupid s*** we have to deal with in this country, he said. At one point we all have to get our act together or we wont do what were supposed to do for the average Americans.

Mr Dimon also called on the media to focus less on the the quarter-to-quarter changes in his business, and look at larger issues, such as infrastructure, the opioid epidemic, taxation and jobs.

[The media] should be writing a lot more about that the stuff that is holding back and hurting average Americans. Who really cares about fixed-income trading in the last two weeks of June, I mean seriously, he said.

He paid particular attention to the issue of infrastructure, comparing the USs failure to invest, particularly when compared to the situation in other countries.

I was just in France. I recently in Argentina, was in Israel, was in Ireland. We met with the prime minister of India and China, said Mr Dimon.

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Its amazing to me that every single one of these countries understands that practical policies that promote business and growth is good for the average citizens of this countries, for jobs and wages, and that somehow, this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.

He added: The American business sector is powerful and strong, and its going to grow regardless. What Im saying is, it will be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and we were not gridlocked.


marijuana dispensary las vegas nevada

On July 1, Nevada locals and tourists visiting from out of state waited hours in line in triple-digit temperatures to become the first in the state to purchase legal recreational marijuana.

Less than two weeks later, the 47 retailers licensed to sell the drug are running out of supply.

The Nevada Tax Commission, a subsidiary of the state Department of Taxation, has passed a new regulation to address the shortage in a unanimous vote.

The commission found that the current pool of stores licensed to distribute marijuana is insufficient to support the market. It will reopen applications and allow dispensaries previously operating in the medical marijuana program to vie for a spot in the recreational market.

The regulation come as a response to a "statement of emergency" issued by the department and endorsed by Governor Brian Sandoval late last week.

The governor did not declare a "state of emergency," which is typically used in times of natural disaster when local government requires the help of state agencies. Rather, a statement of emergency allows for swift changes in regulations during temporary scenarios, said Mari St. Martin, communications director of the Office of Governor Brian Sandoval, in a statement.

Nearly 50 dispensaries in the Las Vegas area have licenses to sell marijuana for recreational use. When sales got underway on July 1, those retailers could sell their inventory to anyone over the age of 21 with a valid ID. But those same stores cannot legally restock their supply.

Alcohol wholesalers have the exclusive rights to move marijuana from growers to retailers in Nevada, as part of a temporary court order that was extended in June. The rule aims to "promote the goal of regulating marijuana similar to alcohol"  and protect liquor stores from losing business as the demand for recreational marijuana rises.

Nevada is the only state with legal marijuana that has such an arrangement. The state intends to appeal the order, so that its medical pot shops can obtain distribution licenses.

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marijuana dispensary las vegas nevada

On Thursday, purveyors of both alcohol and marijuana packed a government building in Carson City, Nevada, where the Nevada Tax Commission met to discuss the situation.<

Deonne Contine, executive director of the state Department of Taxation, warned regulators that a marijuana shortage could create a budget shortfall in Nevada. A 15% tax on the plant's cultivation generates revenue that the state spends on public education.

The industry could bring the state more than $1.1 billion in tax revenue over the next eight years, according to a study by Las Vegas-based RCG Economics.

Neal Gidvani, senior counsel with Greenspoon Marder's Cannabis Law practice in Las Vegas, called the commission's decision "a step in the right direction for the cannabis marketplace."

"It is imperative that all those involved with the industry work together to ensure consumers have adequate access to the product and can purchase marijuana in a safe environment," Gidvani said.

Regulators pried open a channel for distribution in the hours before the commission meeting. The state awarded its first distribution license to Crooked Wine Company, which has partnered with a medical marijuana logistics company to transport recreational weed from farm to store.

There are approximately 70 licensed alcohol wholesalers in the state, but only seven applied for marijuana distribution licenses as of Thursday. Contine said the department has issued two total licenses to alcohol wholesalers, but the other five submitted incomplete applications.

Several dispensaries told state officials they expected to run out of product within the week.

The first four days of legal sales resulted in over 40,000 retail transactions and generated $3 million in sales, according to the Taxation Department and the Nevada Dispensary Association.

NOW WATCH: This is how the legal marijuana industry is affecting Mexican drug cartels





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Donald Trump Jr

A man who says he is a previously unreported attendee of the controversial meeting in June 2016 between top Trump campaign advisers and a Russian lawyer said the attorney presented the men with documents.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military, told The Associated Press on Friday that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, presented documents that she believed detailed the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee.

In Akhmetshin's recounting, Veselnitskaya suggested to those in the meeting  including Donald Trump Jr.; President Donald Trump's campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort; and Jared Kushner, who's now a White House senior adviser  that they make the contents of the documents public. She said that doing so could help Trump's campaign, Akhmetshin said.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money," he recalled her saying.

Akhmetshin said Trump Jr. then asked whether she had evidence to back up the assertion, to which Veselnitskaya said the campaign would have to do more research on the subject. That's when Trump Jr. lost interest, Akhmetshin said.

"They couldn't wait for the meeting to end," he said, adding that he believes she left the documents with the Trump associates but that it was unclear whether she handed the documents to one of the three men or left them in the room.

Akhmetshin told the AP he did not know whether the documents were provided by the Russian government.

Manafort's spokesman declined to comment to the AP on Akhmetshin's involvement in the meeting. Kushner's spokesman and Trump Jr.'s attorney, Alan Futerfas, did not respond to the AP's request for comment.

Akhmetshin told the AP he tagged along with Veselnitskaya for the meeting, where they were also joined by an interpreter. Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist who represents a Russian pop star with ties to Trump and helped arrange the meeting, previously told the AP he was in on the meeting. Goldstone checked into Trump Tower on Facebook on June 9, 2016, the day of the meeting, with the comment "preparing for meeting."

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Trump Jr. did not disclose Akhmetshin's participation in the meeting, nor has he made mention of any documents presented or left behind.

When the story of the meeting broke on Saturday, Trump's eldest son initially said the discussion with Veselnitskaya focused on adoption policy, specifically the Magnitsky Act, a US law that blacklists Russians accused of human-rights abuses. The law so enraged Russian President Vladimir Putin that he retaliated by barring US citizens from adopting Russian children.

Trump Jr. amended his statement the next day in accordance with further reporting by The New York Times, saying the premise of the meeting was obtaining damaging information on Hillary Clinton. He said Veselnitskaya never supplied such information and that she instead pivoted to discuss the Magnitsky Act. He said the meeting lasted roughly 30 minutes.

"After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton," Trump Jr. said in that statement. "Her statements were vague, ambiguous, and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."

But on Tuesday, after The Times alerted Trump Jr. that it was about to publish his email correspondence with Goldstone, Trump Jr. published what he said was the full email chain, which had the subject line "Russia  Clinton  private and confidential," and released another statement. In those emails, Goldstone identified Veselnitskaya as a "Russian government attorney" who wanted to share some information about Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

Goldstone said in his initial email to Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."

To that, Trump Jr. responded, "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

The ordeal has put a dent in the White House's narrative that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia to meddle in the election, which is a focus of the FBI investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Taking a meeting under the premise of obtaining damaging information on Clinton  regardless of whether any such information was provided  would in all likelihood be a violation of campaign law, experts said.

Meanwhile, Democrats have taken aim at Kushner in recent days, calling for his security clearance to be revoked.

NOW WATCH: Here's the TV segment that prompted Trump's vicious Twitter attack on Mika Brzezinski





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Two-step authentication might not be keeping you as safe as you hoped.

Justin Williams did the right things to secure his PayPal (PYPL) account. And for his trouble he got hacked anyway.

The Denver-based app developer had protected his PayPal account with his mobile number, ensuring that nobody could log in without first entering a random code sent to him via text. And his account at his wireless service, AT&T (T), was itself locked with a passcode separate from his password.

But an attacker kept calling AT&T and eventually got a support representative to ignore the passcode requirement and transfer Williams number to a new SIM card. As Williams wrote in his recap, the attacker used that to take over his PayPal account and withdraw a surprisingly low sum: $200 Australian, or about $155.

And thats how a system meant to keep your money safe could instead leave it in danger  just not as much as if you relied on a password alone.

Your number has to stay your number

But thats not how phone-based two-step verification should work. Your phone number is supposed to stick to the handset in your pocket, ensuring that only you see the text sent to confirm your login and that only you can enter that number at the site asking for the confirmation.

AT&T media-relations vice president Fletcher Cook said in a statement forwarded by a publicist that the carriers various security measures and protocols werent followed this time. He then add: We are taking additional steps to prevent it from happening again.

Williams said that after I asked AT&T and PayPal about his case, the carrier offered him a few months of service credit and PayPal refunded the fraudulent withdrawal.

AT&Ts competitors Sprint (S), T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon (VZ) offer similar secondary-security systems. Sprints is mandatory, while T-Mobile and Verizons are optional; the former requires you to call in to set up an account verification code, while the latter lets you create an account PIN online.

But if somebody can employ pleasant persuasiveness  social engineering  to convince an account rep to transfer a number, youre not much safer than you were with a password alone protecting your account.

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Data breaches can also compromise your account. On Wednesday, the security-research firm Upguard reported that its research director Chris Vickery had found a database of as many as 14 million Verizon subscribers  including some account PINs  left accessible online by a contractor.

In a post later that day, Yahoo Finances parent firm put the number at 6 million and said the only outsider to view that data was Upguards researcher.

SMS cant be the only 2FA option

In Williams case, AT&Ts mistake intersected with PayPals decision to limit two-step verification  sometimes also called two-factor authentication, 2FA for short  to text confirmations.

The firm once advertised an alternate way to secure a login: using a physical security key or Symantecs VIP app to generate one-time codes.

You cant navigate to that option anymore from your account, but a link in an Electronic Frontier Foundation post from December worked Friday morning, allowing me to enable that app to verify my logins. (Tip: When it asks for a serial number, enter the Credential ID shown in the app.) PayPal publicists did not explain this.

PayPal shouldnt keep this as an undocumented option  and should support the widely-used Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Authenticator app. But its not the only company to assume SMS suffices, as the unofficial Two Factor Auth database shows.

(Besides, wireless numbers are useless on planes and, unless your carrier has sufficiently generous international roaming, when overseas.)

That is becoming an increasingly practical avenue of attack, Stephan Somogyi, security product manager at Google, said in a phone interview Wednesday. You are only as secure as a companys front-line customer service is trained.

Google lets you remove a phone number as a two-step verification option once youve enabled others, although its online help doesnt make that obvious. Sign into your accounts security settings, click 2-Step Verification and click the pencil next to Voice or text message.

Thursday, Google announced in a blog post that it would begin pushing users of its G Suite mail and productivity services to stop relying on phones for two-step verification.

Yahoo defaults to phone 2FA too, but enabling Security Key login confirmation in its mobile apps will disable that.

But the other alternatives may be worse

The hard-core security advice is not to rely on phone numbers for account verification at all. But the usual alternative, switching to apps like Authenticator that generate login codes in real time or let you confirm a login by responding to a push notification, breaks once you change phones.

You must then associate the new device with the old account somehow. If you dont have text-based 2FA, youll generally need to enter one of the backup codes you were shown and told to print out when you set up two-step verification.

It is a complete, total and unmitigated pain, Somogyi said.

A newer option, USB security keys that you associate with your account and then plug into a device to confirm a login, keep working as you upgrade devices. But so-called U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) keys work in far fewer services and in even fewer browsers  Chrome and Opera are the only ones to support this standard.

They also cost money, often $10 and up. Ill admit that one reason I use them is that I got two for free at Googles 2015 I/O conference.

Meanwhile, most peoples threat model doesnt involve determined, personalized attacks. They just need to be more secure than the next random user  and phone-based authentication has the advantage of being free and reasonably simple.

So we may be stuck with it for a while, and the alternative could be much worse. As Somogyi said: SMS-based two-factor is by far better than not having two-factor at all.

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.




Donald Trump

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday night that his proposed wall along the US-Mexico border would need to be see-through so that people on the US side wouldn't get hit by massive sacks of drugs tossed over it.

The comments were part of a lengthy statement Trump gave on the status of the wall, which was a central promise of his campaign. It was the most in-depth Trump had gone into discussing the wall publicly in months.

"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency," Trump said. "You have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can't see through that wall  so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall.

"And I'll give you an example: As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them  they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Trump continued. "As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall. But we have some incredible designs."

The idea of people tossing large amounts of drugs across the border is not far-fetched. For example, in September, Mexican authorities came across a panel van that had been modified to carry a "cannon" that was possibly used to launch drugs into the US. Additionally, US authorities have said since 2012 that traffickers have used such cannons to launch drugs.

[Money Basics: What are dividends?]

Trump also told reporters he was serious about pursuing a wall covered in solar panels, which he said at a rally last month would allow for Mexico to "pay much less" for the structure because of the energy created as a result.

"No, not joking, no," he said. "There is a chance that we can do a solar wall. We have major companies looking at that. Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border  the southern border. And there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good. But there is a very good chance we could do a solar wall."

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He later said, "We are seriously looking at a solar wall."

During a face-to-face meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto last week at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Trump said he "absolutely" still wanted Mexico to pay for the wall, aimed at controlling the flow of illegal immigration over the southern border of the US, as he had insisted during the campaign. Mexico has repeatedly said it would not pay for a wall.

House Republicans proposed allocating $1.6 billion in the next fiscal year to fund construction of a wall, saying that would provide what is necessary to begin the project, CBS News reported.

The comments aboard Air Force One were originally off the record. But after Trump asked New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman why she didn't publish anything he said during the 70-minute conversation, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released excerpts of the discussion to reporters.

NOW WATCH: 'You're inflaming everybody!': Watch reporters clash with Sanders over press coverage





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Mike Pence

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe took a shot at Vice President Mike Pence on Friday while introducing him at the National Governors Association's summer meeting, praising Pence for expanding Medicaid as the governor of Indiana.

"I thank Vice President Pence  he showed true backbone himself in Indiana when he expanded Medicaid for his citizens," McAuliffe, a Democrat and the chairman of the NGA, told the audience gathered in Rhode Island. "So he understands the challenges that we as governors face to make sure we're providing that quality care."

Pence, who was one of 10 Republican governors to expand Medicaid, the government's health-insurance program for low-income Americans, now supports the GOP's proposal to make significant cuts to the program included in a bill to replace Obamacare, the healthcare law officially called the Affordable Care Act. Thirty-two states expanded access to Medicaid under Obamacare, extending health coverage to more than 11 million Americans.

McAuliffe  who has been critical of the GOP's healthcare bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which has not gotten any Democratic support  said Pence understood the importance of working across the aisle on key issues, including healthcare.

"He understands that we want to work together in a bipartisan way," he said. "We want to work together on infrastructure. We want to work together on tax reform. And we want to work together on healthcare, so that we can provide the best quality healthcare for our citizens."

Pence responded to McAuliffe's comments during his speech to the group.

"Let me speak to you as a former governor and as someone who, as Terry McAuliffe pointed out, I made the decision in Indiana to expand Medicaid under a waiver," Pence said. "You all know your states. You know your people. You know how to create the innovative solutions to address the unique healthcare needs of the people of your states."

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Pence argued that the GOP plan would give governors the flexibility to "act on your own ideas" and emphasized his position that his party's bill "secures Medicaid for the neediest in our society," which he also tweeted on Friday afternoon.

The Congressional Budget Office projected in June that the BCRA would cut Medicaid spending by $772 billion by 2026.

NOW WATCH: Trump's history with WWE explains a lot about his persona





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The Bureau of Foreign Trade of Taiwan has launched Meet Taiwan, a Mice (meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibitions) promotion in Manila, ahead of the lifting of visa requirement for Filipino travelers later this year.

To make events easier and hassle-free, Taiwan plans to extend visa-free privilege to Filipinos, with a formal announcement expected by September 2017.

Holders of valid visa or permanent resident certificate issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of the Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States, are eligible for the visa exemption program.

Meet Taiwans first networking event in Manila aims to introduce to the country Taiwans vast incentive travel options, Mice facilities and numerous resources.

Meet Taiwan executive director Lily Su, brought over participants from Taiwan hotel representatives, travel agencies, professional conference and exhibition organizers, events companies to meet Philippine corporate buyers, and travel trade executives.

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Meet Taiwan introduces three themes woven into its Asia Super Team marketing campaign for Southeast Asian countries: team building, work and life balance and CSR activities.

The Mice agencies in Taiwan particularly travel agencies, hotels and conference/exhibition companies are famous for their creativity and innovation. We hope more companies in the Philippines would come to join us and learn about Taiwans vast MICE opportunities, Su said.

The networking event in Manila also targeted Taiwanese companies operating in the Philippines and who may bring their employees to Taiwan for meetings, trainings and leisure/travel. With this program, Taiwan hopes to bring more Mice visitors from the Philippines.

A Mice (meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibitions) activity in Taiwan

Meet Taiwan underscores the regions strengths and privileges that hope to put Taiwan in the Mice spotlight in the Southeast Asian region.

It has implemented a number of successful programs that push for Taiwans role as a major player in Mice in the Southeast Asian region.

The Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs have been aggressively improving Taiwans Mice industry since 2009. For continued investment in the industry, Taiwans Mice Promotion Program or Meet Taiwan, was launched to steer Taiwans Mice industry to penetrate the global market.

Taiwans Mice Promotion Program is aimed at turning Taiwan into a leader for outstanding Mice services with the long-term objective to enhance the quality and efficiency of services, strengthen Taiwans brand and sharpen the competitive edge in the global market and make Taiwan one of the top destinations for Mice business.

The task force under the program will continue to exploit advantages of Taiwans Mice industry to attract more business opportunities, maximize the visibility of Meet Taiwan and increase international recognition of Taiwans Mice industry.

By doing so, Taiwans Mice industry services could become more visible internationally, bringing more international Mice events to Taiwan.

Meet Taiwan provides incentives and measures to land better business opportunities and boost industry growth.

Mice initiatives have helped bolster Philippines-Taiwan relations in recent years. Taiwan has been among the countrys top five sources of investments.

A major investor throughout Southeast Asia, Taiwan has made a strong imprint in a wide variety of industries in the Philippines, among them electronics, telecommunications, information technology and construction.

Founded in 2015, Meet Taiwan has achieved significant gains since its inception. According to statistics released by the International Congress and Convention Association, Taiwan ranked fourth in Asia, exceeding Singapore, Thailand and India in 2015.

Taiwan, the 24th largest economy in the world, is the eighth-largest trading partner of the Philippines, with $7.1 billion worth of bilateral trade in 2016, according to Global Trade Atlas.

Corresponding to Taiwans New Southbound Policy, an important program objective for 2017 is to increase the visibility of Taiwan companies at major events in Asean.

More efforts will go to attract visitors/buyers from 10 Asean countries including the Philippines, six South Asian countries, New Zealand and Australia through Mice events.

Taiwan is looking forward to substantially expand its economy through infrastructure and public enterprise investments in 2017.

Taiwan currently hosts some 135,000 Filipino workers and has consistently been a source of substantial development cooperation assistance, particularly in industrial design, agriculture, aquaculture, weather forecasting and technical skills training.

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U.S. forces have killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch in a raid in the northeastern province of Kunar, the Pentagon said on July 14.

"U.S. forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) -- in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement, using an alternative name for the group.

"The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan," the statement said.

IS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and U.S. forces killed the previous ISIS-K leaders -- Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July last year and Abdul Hasib in late April.

"Afghan and U.S. forces launched a counter-ISIS-K offensive in early March 2017 to drive fighters from Nangarhar [Province] and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan," the statement said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
After the Second World War, unionism in the Japanese auto industry was company-based, with separate unions in each auto company. Most company unions played no independent role in bargaining shop-floor issues or pressing autoworkers' grievances. In a 1981 survey, for example, fewer than 1 percent of workers said they sought union assistance for work-related problems, while 43 percent said they turned to management instead. There was little to distinguish the two in any case: most union officers were foremen or middle-level managers, and the union's role was primarily one of passive support for company goals. Conflict occasionally disrupted this cooperative relationshipone company union's opposition to the productivity campaigns of the early 1980s has been cited as such a case. In 1986, however, a caucus led by the Foreman's Association forced the union's leadership out of office and returned the union's policy to one of passive cooperation. In the United States, the potential for such company unionism grew after 1979, but it had difficulty taking hold in the auto industry, where a single union represented workers from all companies, particularly since federal law prohibited foremen from joining or leading industrial unions.



The Japanese model was often invoked as one in which authority decentralized to the shop floor empowered production workers to make key decisions. What these claims failed to recognize was that the actual delegation of authority was to the foreman, not the workers. The foreman exercised discretion over job assignments, training, transfers, and promotions; worker initiative was limited to suggestions that fine-tuned a management-controlled production process. Rather than being proactive, Japanese workers were forced to be reactive, the range of their responsibilities being far wider than their span of control. For example, the founder of one production system, Taichi Ohno, routinely gave department managers only 90 percent of the resources needed for production. As soon as workers could meet production goals without working overtime, 10 percent of remaining resources would be removed. Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."





Show Spoiler OA:B

1. The passage is primarily concerned with



(A) contrasting the role of unions in the Japanese auto industry with the role of unions in the United

States auto industry after the Second World War

(B) describing unionism and the situation of workers in the Japanese auto industry after the Second World War

(C) providing examples of grievances of Japanese auto workers against the auto industry after the Second World War

(D) correcting a misconception about the role of the foreman in the Japanese auto industry's union system after the Second World War

(E) reasserting the traditional view of the company's role in Japanese auto workers' unions after the Second World War





Show Spoiler OA:A

2. According to the passage, a foreman in a United States auto company differed from a foreman in a Japanese auto company in that the foreman in the United States would



(A) not have been a member of an auto workers' union

(B) have been unlikely to support the goals of company management

(C) have been able to control production processes to a large extent

(D) have experienced greater stress

(E) have experienced less conflict with workers





Show Spoiler OA:B

3. The author of the passage mentions the "OH! NO!" system primarily in order to



(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry

(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry

(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan

(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing

(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry





Show Spoiler OA:C

4. It can be inferred that the author of the passage sees which of the following as the primary advantage to companies in implementing the "OH! NO!" system?



(A) It permitted the foreman to take initiative.

(B) It minimized the effort required to produce automobiles.

(C) It ensured that production costs would be as low as possible.

(D) It allowed the foreman to control the production process.

(E) It required considerable worker empowerment to achieve managers' goals.

(A) contrasting the role of unions in the Japanese auto industry with the role of unions in the UnitedStates auto industry after the Second World War(B) describing unionism and the situation of workers in the Japanese auto industry after the Second World War(C) providing examples of grievances of Japanese auto workers against the auto industry after the Second World War(D) correcting a misconception about the role of the foreman in the Japanese auto industry's union system after the Second World War(E) reasserting the traditional view of the company's role in Japanese auto workers' unions after the Second World War(A) not have been a member of an auto workers' union(B) have been unlikely to support the goals of company management(C) have been able to control production processes to a large extent(D) have experienced greater stress(E) have experienced less conflict with workers(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry(A) It permitted the foreman to take initiative.(B) It minimized the effort required to produce automobiles.(C) It ensured that production costs would be as low as possible.(D) It allowed the foreman to control the production process.(E) It required considerable worker empowerment to achieve managers' goals.
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): The humanitarian situation in Eritrea a which is quite isolated and off the media radars a is aon a positive trajectorya but international donors need to give malnourishment and food insecurity continued attention, a senior United Nations relief official on Thursday said.

Back from a three-day fact finding trip to the east African country, John Ging, Director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told journalists in New York that food and security remains a key concern there.

Eighty per cent of the population depends on subsistence agriculture. The country is susceptible to harsh climatic conditions, especially what we saw with El Nino, he said.

He noted that half of all children under the age of five in Eritrea suffer from stunting, and 39 per cent are underweight.

We have to work very actively in that particular area to make sure we are addressing those who are suffering, said Ging, noting an extensive programme to aid children in the country run by the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF).

Among other concerns, he mentioned the need to lower infant mortality, to provide people with greater access to clean drinking water and to improve sanitation.

Eritrea, which has a population of roughly 3.5 million, sits at number 179 out of 188 countries on the UNs Human Development Index, which measures indicators such as life expectancy and education.

The UN is assisting at nutritional feeding centres and health clinics, and has helped Eritrea achieve a lot of progress on the universal development goals.

I dont want to overstate the progress  it is significant because it is on a positive trajectory  but we have a long way to go, Ging said.

He noted the modest appeal under way for $328 million over the next five years to sustain and build on these programmes. The previous programme was 83 per cent funded.

The momentum is there but there is a long way to go, so we have to give attention so it continues on that trajectory, he reiterated.

Photo: UN

Source: www.justearthnews.com
The United Nations refugee agency has alerted the humanitarian community about the violence and continued displacement of civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from the Kasai region where the estimated number of displaced people now exceeds 1.3 million, describing the situation as particularly worrying.

Delivering assistance and protection to internally displaced people is a huge challenge, given the size of the area impacted  the Kasai region is about the size of Germany  but has difficult road conditions and lacks security, said William Spindler, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at a press briefing in Geneva Friday.

The conflict in the Kasai region, which started in late 2016 between a local traditional leader  the Kamuina Nsapu  and state authorities, continues to expand, with other armed groups springing up and committing severe human rights abuses against civilians, the UN agency recalled.

Spindler noted that during recent missions to two provinces bordering the main conflict region, Kwilu and Lualaba, UNHCRs team met some extremely vulnerable new arrivals.

Many said that they spent weeks fleeing through the dense forest without food, drinking water, medicine or clothes and saw people dying on the way, including women and children, he said.

He warned that the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation makes the situation particularly worrying, as many children and women fled on their own and some unaccompanied minors are without proper foster care arrangements.

The majority of those displaced are being accommodated by host communities, despite limited resources.

UNHCR is strengthening its response on the ground, closely working with national partner organizations to distribute more than 267,000 hot meals daily in five provinces affected by the displacement, namely Kasai, Kasai Central, Kwango, Kwilu and Lualaba.

A first distribution of essential household items to some 20,000 vulnerable people in Lualaba province will also start in the coming days, Mr. Spindler said.


Three leading aid groups have launched an effort to help children of refugees and migrant workers in Europe.

The groups say they are concerned about thousands of refugee and migrant children are traveling alone or have been separated from their families. They say these boys and girls risk trafficking, abuse and violence because European asylum countries have failed to protect them.

To correct this situation, the groups have developed a plan to protect vulnerable children arriving and staying in Europe. It is called a Roadmap for Action.

The three organizations are the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N.s refugee agency (UNHCR).

Diane Goodman is with the UNHCR.

She said, While the total number of arrivals to Europe has decreased, the situation of unaccompanied and separated children remains an emergency. It is wrong to assume that children are safe as soon as they reach Europe. They are not. In fact, many children experience violence, abuse and exploitation while in Europe, and Europe is failing these extremely vulnerable children.

Goodman noted that the children are often detained when they arrive in Europe. She says many are placed in large centers with adults. Others live in empty buildings, train stations or on the streets.

Without safe and appropriate care, we will never be able to establish trust or find a solution in the childs best interests, Goodman said.

UNICEF says millions of people are affected by fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It says these conflicts often force children and their families to make the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea.

The Roadmap was developed after discussions with 100 people knowledgeable about the problems facing vulnerable children. The group includes legal guardians, social workers and lawyers, as well as officials from several European countries and the European Union.

Annalisa Brusati is the child protection senior technical adviser at the IRC. She noted that information provided by refugee and migrant children was used in the development of the Roadmap. She said a 14-year-old boy from Algeria told aid workers that all children my age are not feeling safe. They are forced to go into war and they are all dying. We deserve a normal childhood like other children in the world.

A 17-year old Afghan boy said he and other children felt unprotected during their trip to Europe. He said: We were forced to trust the smugglers.

The Roadmap says vulnerable children should be identified and a relationship of trust created with them as early as possible. It also says a well-trained guardian should take immediate responsibility for the child.

David Mcloughlin of UNICEF told VOA that this is a really important part because every child needs to feel safe as soon as possible. They need someone who is responsible that can be trusted as a guardian.

Since July 2015 more than 130,000 unaccompanied and separated children have arrived in Europe. The United Nations reports more than 5,000 children traveled to Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Spain during the first three months of this year. It says almost 70 percent of them traveled alone.

In March, Italys parliament passed a law to support and protect the record number of unaccompanied and separated children who had arrived in the country. Almost 26,000 did so in 2016. That number is expected to increase this year.

The aid agencies report that most unaccompanied children arriving in Europe were boys between the ages of 15 and 17.

They reported that 94 percent of the 3,714 children who arrived in Italy were unaccompanied or separated. Most came from Bangladesh, Gambia, Guinea and Ivory Coast.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Lisa Schlein reported this story from Geneva for VOANews.com. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

vulnerable  adj. easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally or emotionally

unaccompanied  adj. without another person

assume  v. to think that something is true or probably true without knowing that it is true

exploit  v. to use (someone or something) in a way that helps you unfairly; to abuse someone

appropriate  adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

deserve  v. used to say that someone or something should or should not have or be given something

smuggler  n. someone who moves (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly


The number of hate crimes seems to be increasing in the United States.

Hate crimes include attacks on Muslim women who wear hijabs and threats against Jewish community centers.

But the true number of such crimes is not known. Experts say that is because such crimes are under-reported. So policymakers are discussing ways to change that.

A system to report hate crimes

In March, two Democratic lawmakers -- Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Don Beyer -- wrote a bill that would help make better use of a reporting system known as the National Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS.

Two months later, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a meeting to discuss religious hate crimes. Several Democratic members of the committee promised to support a plan to require hate crimes to be reported.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at a meeting about hate crimes. He said he had created a group to help find ways to improve the reporting of such crimes.

Jonathan Greenblatt leads the Anti-Defamation League. He told the Senate committee that there are very real consequences to this lack of comprehensive reporting. It is well documented that victims are far more likely to report a hate crime if they know a special reporting system is in place -- if they believe the police are ready and able to respond effectively.

The FBIs definition of hate crime is a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole, or in part, by an offenders bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."

Under-reporting

Experts say many hate crimes are not reported.

The FBIs Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has gathered crime statistics since 1930. The bureau began including information about hate crimes in its yearly report after the passage of the 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act.

However, the law did not require that police departments report such crimes. So thousands of the nations 18,000 law enforcement agencies either chose not to take part in the program or do not report any hate crimes.

The FBIs most recent report was released in November. It showed 5,850 bias-motivated offenses in 2015. Yet a national study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that about 250,000 hate crimes took place in 2015.

Brian Levin is the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. He says the gap between the two numbers shows how large the under-reporting of hate crimes is.

This is not only because of an absence of trainings, model policies, executive leadership, outreach and coordination, but also because the reporting system itself is not mandatory, Levin said.

Levin presented information about hate crimes reporting at the meeting last week at which Sessions spoke. Levin told the meeting that activists strongly support making hate crimes reporting mandatory.

Should reporting hate crimes be mandatory?

The FBI says the southern state of Tennessee is the only state that requires all law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes to the states bureau of investigations.

We have a 100 percent participation rate, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said. All agencies in Tennessee are currently in compliance with the states crime reporting system.

DeVine says the agency gives training to the states more than 550 law enforcement agencies.

What were trying to do in talking about hate crime statistics in Tennessee is to create a culture and a climate where people realize that even one of these is a problem, and its not something we stand for as Tennesseans, DeVine said.

The FBI has admitted for some time that its voluntary UCR reporting system is not perfect.

There are jurisdictions that fail to report hate crime statistics, then-FBI Director James Comey said in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League in 2014. Others claim there were no hate crimes in their community -- a fact that would be welcome, if true.

In 2015, almost 15,000 law enforcement agencies gave information about crimes in their area. But Greenblatt said just 12 percent of them actively reported on hate crimes. He said 66 cities with a population of more than 100,000 did not report hate crimes.

It is absolutely clear that the data we have now significantly understates the true number of hate crimes committed in our nation, Greenblatt said.

While Democrats have voiced support for a mandatory crime reporting system, many Republicans have not.

If law enforcement is unwilling to call a crime a hate crime, I dont see how a change in the law to require reporting of hate crime will change the current situation of spotty data and missed opportunities, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley said.

Im Alice Bryant.

And I'm Bryan Lynn.

Masood Farivar reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

motivate  v. to give (someone) a reason for doing something; to be a reason for (something)

offender  n. a person who commits a crime

bias  n. a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly

statistics  n. a number that represents a piece of information (such as information about how often something is done, how common something is, etc.)

gap  n. a difference between two people, groups or things (often + between)

outreach  n. the activity or process of bringing information or services to people

in compliance with  expression in the way that is required by (a rule, law, etc.)

jurisdiction  n. an area within which a particular system of laws is used

understate  v. to say that (something) is smaller, less important, etc., than it really is

spotty  adj. not always good; good in some parts or at some times but not others (chiefly US)
Designer Annie Selke is behind the Annie Selke Companies, a group of textile and home furnishing brands that include Pine Cone Hill, Dash & Albert and Annie Selke Luxe. For more than 20 years, Selke and her team have focused on color, comfort and approachable elegance that brings happiness into a home. Selke is an avid traveler and flea-market treasure hunter. Her new home in California's Palm Desert inspired Selke to create a line of bright new home furnishings with a bit of West Coast cool.

Every week, Jura Koncius helps you in your quest to achieve domestic bliss. She and weekly guests, whether Martha Stewart, the Property Brothers or Nate Berkus, answer your decorating and design questions. Jura is always happy to whip out her paint chips, track down a hard-to-find piece of furniture or offer her seasoned advice on practical living and decluttering. For more than 10 years, Home Front has been an online conversation about the best way to make your home comfortable, stylish and fun. We invite you to submit questions and share you own great tips, ideas and gripes. No problem is too big or too small, send them over.
US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

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

Italy's Ambassador to Armenia visits Gyumri

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

Chinese MFA: China is not distancing itself from Russia, as Biden believes

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Marukyan: Azerbaijans Aliyev admitted that his country started 2nd Karabakh war, despite previously insisting opposite

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

China reveals new giant drone that could point to the future of air warfare

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

Newspaper: Armenia parliament committee of inquiry into 2020 war circumstances is inactive

U.S. will no longer consider Russia a country with a market economy

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

UAE is going to launch flying cabs from airports

Volvo Cars expects to introduce electric SUV by 2024

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
Senators for tougher sanctions against Russia

By Messenger Staff

The US Senate could soon vote on additional sanctions against Russia, following months of angst among senators on both sides of the aisle who have wanted harsher US action against Russia for meddling in last year's presidential election, CNN reports.Talks were underway Wednesday among Senate leaders to hash out an amendment to attach to a separate bill related to more sanctions on Iran, which the Senate is expected to vote on in the coming days.Negotiators are angling for the language that will guarantee bipartisan support. The move would send a signal to President Donald Trump, who earlier this year suggested he would be open to lifting sanctions if Russia cooperated with the US in the fight against terrorism."I think he's going to get a clear message from Congress that we want tougher sanctions on Russia," said Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.Cardin told reporters that a consensus has not been reached yet and members are still sorting out provisions from different bills that have already been introduced this year, including two by Cardin, who teamed up with Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham.Russia continues its annexation of foreign lands, including 20 percent of Georgia's total territory.Russian occupant forces also continue creeping occupation of Georgias territory and erect new border signs nearly on daily basis.Now they are too close to Georgias central highway, connecting the countrys western parts to the east.Russians may use the situation to provoke Georgia at any time.Without support, real support from the international community, it is impossible for Georgia to stop Russia with its military forces alone.Russia must face strong sanctions from influential foreign countries to step back.
YEREVAN.  Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on Friday chaired a meeting of the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development Council of Armenia, in the Office of Government.

The first issue on the agenda was the clarification of some of Tax Code provisions relating to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the press office of the government informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. In this connection, it was noted that as a result of joint discussions with stakeholder agencies and business associations, several matters related to SME activities were included in the package of legislative amendments under consideration.

Next, the discussants conferred on the findings of a survey, which recommends the warning as a preliminary administrative measure for outstanding tax payments, the leasing as an alternative financial instrument, and the expediency of decriminalizing a series of economic offenses that are subject to prosecution under the Criminal Code.

Karapetyan instructed those concerned to follow up on this discussion in order to clarify the proposals raised during the talk, and within the shortest possible timeframe.

The meeting reviewed a number of other issues as well.
Earlier this week, Chicago Tribune reporter Josh Noel challenged three Chicago craft brewers  Jim Cibak of Revolution Brewing, Matt Gallagher of Half Acre Beer Company and Brian Pawola of Pollyanna Brewing Company  to a blind taste test of 16 "macro" beers.

Noel wanted to answer the question "Whats the best macro beer in America?" And guess what? Milwaukee beers prevailed, with Hamms coming in first and Miller Lite and Pabst Blue Ribbon tied for second.

The beers were scored by a five-point system created by Noel:

5: Sure! I'd be happy to drink this after work and keep it in my fridge at home.

4: Not bad. Works fine for a ballgame or a barbecue.

3: Meh. Not egregious, but macro beer's flaws are starting to show.

2: Bad. This is why I got into craft beer.

1: Abysmal. Someone hand me an IPA, quick! I need this taste out of my mouth!

Read the entire article here and congratulations, Milwaukee breweries. Nice to get some Chicago love.

The 16 best macro beers in America:

Hamm's (Miller Coors) 4.5

Miller Lite (Miller Coors) 4.3

Pabst Blue Ribbon (Pabst Brewing) 4.3

Keystone Light (Miller Coors) 4

Old Style (Pabst Brewing) 4

Coors Banquet (Miller Coors) 3.7

Coors Light (Miller Coors) 3.7

Busch Light (Anheuser-Busch) 3.5

Michelob Ultra (Anheuser-Busch) 3.5

Miller High Life (Miller Coors) 3.5

Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) 3.3

Busch (Anheuser-Busch) 3.2

Bud Light (Anheuser-Busch) 3

Natural Ice (Anheuser-Busch) 3

Schlitz (Pabst Brewing) 3

Icehouse (Miller Coors) 2.7
Made in Milwaukee is new series about the businesses that sell to the world but call Milwaukee home. Presented by House of Harley-Davidson, Milwaukee's locally owned Harley dealer, we're shining a spotlight on these iconic companies  their histories and their futures.

Year founded: 2004

CEO: Guy Rehorst, founder

Number of employees: 18

Location: 616 W. Virginia St.

Guy Rehorst  the founder and owner of Great Lakes Distillery  became curious about distilling after homebrewing what he describes as "a really bad batch of beer."

"I couldnt even get my friends to drink it," says Rehorst.

He started researching the distilling process with the hope that he could transform his sub-par home-brew into something more desirable.

"It was much better, but I still couldnt get my friends to drink it," says Rehorst. "However it got me curious enough to continue experimenting and learning about the process."

Rehorst started distilling regularly as a hobbyist while running his Mequon-based VHS/CD/DVD duplication business. At one time, Rehorst, who has a background in broadcast engineering, worked as the chief engineer for the countrys first tape duplication company. However, the industry began to wane due to advances in technology and Rehorst knew it was time to start a different venture.

At first, the thought of opening a distillery didnt even cross Rehorsts mind. But one night, while having a drink before dinner, he had an epiphany.

"I saw all of the local craft beers on tap and then I looked behind the bar and saw that most of the spirits came from Kentucky or Europe," he says. "I asked the bartender if any of the spirits were made in Wisconsin and he said no."

That night, Rehorst went home and started to heavily research the legality of starting a small-batch distillery in Wisconsin. He learned it was legal, although there were numerous archaic laws that would make aspects of the business challenging. Rehorst moved forward anyway.

"At that point, no one was thinking about local, small-scale distilleries the same way they were thinking about craft beer and wine," says Rehorst.

In 2004, after a year and nine months of building out the space and securing the necessary permits, Rehorst opened Great Lakes Distillery in a multi-use building on Holton Street in Riverwest. At the time, there were 30 small distilleries in the country; today there are more than 1,300 and the industry is growing.

Great Lakes Distillery became the first distillery in Wisconsin since Prohibition, with the exception of National Distilling. National Distilling produced whiskey, gin and bourbon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but started to produce yeast during Prohibition. After Prohibition ended, National went back to distilling gin for a brief period of time, but decided the future of yeast was more profitable. Thus, the company renamed itself Red Star Yeast and stopped distilling. (Longtime Milwaukeeans, you remember the yeast smell on I-94.)

Rehorst Vodka was GLDs first spirit and continues to be the most popular today. Its so popular, as is Rehorst Gin, that people often think Rehorst is the name of the distillery.

"It can be confusing. I always try to explain to people in terms of local, craft beer. The brewery is not Riverwest Stein Brewery, its Lakefront Brewery," says Rehorst.

Being the first local distillery in almost 70 years meant most Milwaukee's knew nothing about the industry. Multiple generations had drank the same macro spirits and needed to be introduced as well as educated about the benefits of craft spirits.

"There were no others to really compare it to, so at first, it was tough. Now you can go into any bar and present your product and they generally are familiar with the concept," says Rehorst. "The growth of the industry has helped my job get easier. Well, a little easier."

Space and legal restrictions became daily challenges for Rehorst. Great Lakes Distillery was quickly outgrowing its Riverwest location and Rehorst started to look for a larger facility. He also wanted to allow the public to visit, but knew that would be a legal hurdle to clear. At the time, it was illegal to sample or sell spirits on-site.

In 2008, Rehorst moved his business to its current Walkers Point location into a free-standing, two story building with plenty of room for expansion as well as room for a public tasting room someday. The very same month, the Iron Horse Hotel opened across the roundabout from GLD.

"It was a turning point for that part of the neighborhood," says Rehorst.

Great Lakes Distillery offered tours for the first time in its new location; however, because of the strict laws, the tour groups walked across the roundabout to the Iron Horse to sample the spirits at the end of the tour.

"This obviously wasnt very efficient and people were taking their lives in their hands trying to cross that roundabout," Rehorst says. "Something had to change."

Rehorst spent the next two years working with legislators to change the definition of what a distillery can do. In 2010, Rehorst was able to convince the Joint Finance Committee at the Capitol that it was in the state's best fiscal interest to collect sales tax on distillery sales.

"This allowed a distillery to sell its own products at its distillery," says Rehorst.

Great Lake Distillerys tasting room offers a variety of signature and seasonal cocktails, bar snacks such as pretzels and cheese curds, bottles to go and a gift shop.

Rehorst spearheaded an effort to change the law that prohibited liquor stores from offering samples of spirits.

"We worked on that for many years before it passed," says Rehorst. "Unfortunately the opponents of allowing spirits tastings like to spread misinformation. Typically they like to paint a picture of people going on drunken rampages in stores; they claim that havoc will break out when people are doing 'shots' in the super market aisles."

Rehorst would like to change another law in the near future that would permit him to open another tasting room  or multiple tasting rooms  in other locations in Wisconsin.

"Slowly but surely were chipping away at a really outdated system with ridiculous limitations for small spirits producers," says Rehorst.

Today, GLD makes Rehorst Vodka, Rehorst Gin, Rehorst Citrus Honey Vodka, Roaring Dans Rum, Kinnickinnic Whiskey, Pumpkin Seasonal Spirit, Absinthe, Good Land orange and Spice Liqueur, Artisan Series Brandy and numerous limited-supply spirits. Many of the spirits have won awards.

Because of all the time spent on legislature and other aspects of running the business, Rehorst spends less time actually making spirits these days.

"Actually, (my employees) dont let me," he says, chuckling. "But my philosophy is to hire people who do your job better than you do. And Ive done that. I still like to collaborate on ideas, but these days I spend little time with my hands on the still."

Great Lakes Distillerys Tasting Room is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m. to midnight. For more information on tours, go here.

GLD will host an "Adult Ice Cream Social" on Thursday, July 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. with the Milwaukee Fire department to raise money for winter jackets for kids. Purple Door Ice Cream will reveal a new flavor at the event.
The News in Brief

Georgia in the OSCE PAs Minsk Declaration



The OSCE Parliamentary Assemblys annual session in Minsk adopted on July 9 a final declaration, containing more than dozen of non-binding resolutions on broad range of issues with Georgia raised in one of the resolutions.



In the Political Affairs and Security Committee resolution on peace and prosperity in the OSCE region, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly voiced its regret over the lack of progress towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Georgia based on the norms and principles of international law, and expressed concern over the humanitarian and security situation in occupied Abkhazia, Georgia, and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia.



The resolution also called for the full implementation of the EU-brokered Six-Point Ceasefire Agreement of August 12, 2008, which ended the conflicts in Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia, as well as for the free access of humanitarian aid into the regions.



Georgia featured in the report for the OSCE PAs Political Affairs and Security Committee as well. Authored by the Swedish lawmaker Margareta Cederfelt, the report said that the OSCE PA needs to strengthen its political involvement to address the consequences of the August 2008 conflict between the Russian Federation and the territory of Georgia.



Russia should implement the EU-brokered Six-Point Ceasefire Agreement of 12 August 2008 which ended the conflicts in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and refrain from using and withdraw its military forces in order to create conditions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the document reads.



According to the report, parliamentary diplomacy should enhance confidence-building between both sides and create an atmosphere of co-operation and mutual trust.



However, we reject the holding of parliamentary elections in Abkhazia and the approval of a military deal between South Ossetia and the Russian Federation. Unilateral decisions such as holding Presidential elections in South Ossetia and changing the name of the region, as well as the opening of a Russian Embassy in Abkhazia, undermine the peace process on the territory of Georgia, it added.



The issue of conflicts in Georgia was raised in number of other resolutions adopted previously by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, including in its Tbilisi Declaration in 2016.



The Assembly is the parliamentary dimension of the OSCE with 323 lawmakers from the organizations 57 participating states, including Russia.

(Civil.ge)







Separatists deny leader injured in car crash visiting other breakaway region



Separatists in one of Georgias two breakaway regions denied a report in Russian media that their leader was injured in a car crash Saturday while visiting another separatist region.



Anatoly Bibilov, the de facto president of the tiny enclave of South Ossetia, was hospitalized along with two members of his security detail after being involved in a traffic accident during a visit to Abkhazia, Russian news agency Interfax reported.



The news agency based its report on a source among medical circles.



Bibilovs injuries are not life threatening, the report further stated. Two members of his security detail have also been hospitalized and undergone surgeries.



However, de facto authorities in South Ossetia denied the report. They said that a car with several members of the South Ossetian delegation veered off the road and had to undergo a medical examination. However, neither Bibilov nor any of his security detail were injured, the separatist authorities stated.



Bibilov and his entourage have now departed for Abkhazia, the statement continued.



This was Anatoly Bibilovs first official visit to Abkhazia since winning the presidential election in April this year. He met with Abkhazias de facto leader, Raul Khajimba, and laid a wreath on the monument of fallen soldiers.

(DF watch)




Like thousands of other local students, Schivon Young, 32, had to start from scratch when a new GED test based more on critical thinking than memorization was rolled out nationwide in 2014. Young, who was only one test short of obtaining her GED in 2013, is now only weeks away from obtaining a high school equivalency diploma (HSED).

Young is enrolled in YWCAs 5.09 HSED program, a 20-week-course focused on classroom attendance and project completion, according to Jake Gorges, learning lab manager at YWCA of Southeastern Wisconsin. The local YWCA branch is part of a national effort to combine racial justice education with economic empowerment programs for women and families.

Gorges and Shana Piaskoski, chief development officer at YWCA, worked with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to develop YWCAs 5.09 program in response to the struggles YWCA students had with the new GED test. The 5.09 HSED program is a competency-based program that is approved by the state superintendent. The program is also offered at Social Development Commission (SDC), Milwaukee Achiever and other locations, though each program is different.

Similar to what happened at other Milwaukee-area GED testing centers and around the nation, students at YWCA, 1915 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., struggled mightily with the new GED exam. The number of students who passed the test dropped from 481 in 2013 to just two in 2014.

The new GED test was devastating not just to students, but to teachers as well, according to Tim Foran, who teaches adult education at YWCA.

"It got to the point where I didnt know what I could do to help them anymore. They needed jobs now," Foran said.

The YWCA decided to explore other avenues leading to high school-level credentials for its students, Gorges said.

Creating the 5.09 program was an arduous process, said Gorges, who reviewed years of YWCA data to determine how likely it would be for adult learners to obtain the GED. He found that it would take most YWCA students 18 months to prepare for the GED test if they came to class twice a week, with no guarantee that they would pass, Gorges said.

"Life happens. Sometimes people lose their child care or something else happens and very suddenly they cant come in to class anymore," Gorges said.

However, he noted that many of his students have a great work ethic. Creating a 20-week-program expedited the process to get them into jobs, he added.

The program has already propelled Whitney Burks, 28, into the workforce. Since beginning it in February, shes gotten her own cleaning business off the ground. Burks credits the 5.09 program with providing a comfortable setting, and for helping her learn the discipline it takes to run her own small business. She also credits the program with helping her gain will power, a trait she hopes to pass on to her 4-year-old daughter.

"Even if she slips and falls like I did, I want her to get back up and keep trying," said Burks, who said she failed to obtain her GED before enrolling in the 5.09 program.

One of the main benefits of YWCAs 5.09 program is that it is a departure from standardized testing, which many low-income minority students struggle with, according to Piaskoski. The curriculum includes soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace, and real-world projects that help students learn how to budget and understand rental agreements and workplace safety manuals, as well as how to complete math and reading assignments.

In addition to obtaining a HSED, participants obtain a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) after completing the program, which is the approved readiness credential of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

"Having a workforce-focused curriculum makes the learning relevant for adults. Having skills that can benefit the adults in their occupations or at home is extremely beneficial to them," said Paula Penebaker, president and CEO of YWCA.

The first four weeks of YWCAs 5.09 program focus on soft skills, health and employability. Students are only allowed one absence during that period. Once theyve built some confidence, the curriculum turns to math and science for eight weeks, which is the most challenging for students, according to Foran.

Curriculum for the final eight-week session includes reasoning using language arts and social studies skills. Students proofread a policies and procedures manual, email their boss and write a letter to their representative in Congress.

To pass, students must achieve 80 percent on all their competencies, according to Gorges. Those who havent reached that level have an additional four weeks to do so, during which they receive more individual support from YWCA instructors. Students who have completed a section but are forced to drop out have a calendar year to come in and complete their remaining sessions.

Since launching the program in August 2015, the graduation rate is about 85 percent, according to Gorges, with 80 percent also earning workforce readiness certificates. For each graduate, a cream-colored "brick" is placed on the wall that students pass on their way to class. Once there are 100 bricks on the wall class members will form it into a structure of their choice.

The 100th brick will be from Youngs cohort. For Young, who first took GED prep classes in 2005, its been a long time coming. "I finally found a program that was right for me," she said.
Before the low oxygen period, bivalves were larger and more numerous. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin/Rowan Martindale

Using a combination of fossils and chemical markers, scientists have tracked how a period of globally low ocean-oxygen turned an Early Jurassic marine ecosystem into a stressed community inhabited by only a few species.

The research was led by Rowan Martindale, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, and published in print in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoeconology on July 15. The study was co-authored by Martin Aberhan, a curator at the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany.

The study zeroes in on a recently discovered fossil site in Canada located at Ya Ha Tinda Ranch near Banff National Park in southwest Alberta. The site records fossils of organisms that lived about 183 million years ago during the Early Jurassic in a shallow sea that once covered the region.

The fossil site broadens the scientific record of the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, a period of low oxygen in shallow ocean waters which is hypothesized to be triggered by massive volcanic eruptions. The Oceanic Anoxic Event was identified at this site by the geochemical record preserved in the rocks. These geochemical data were collected in a previous research project led by Benjamin Gill and Theodore Them of Virginia Tech. The oxygen level of the surrounding environment during the Early Jurassic influences the type and amount of carbon preserved in rocks, making the geochemical record an important method for tracking an anoxic event.

"We have this beautiful geochemical record that gives us a backbone for the timing of the Oceanic Anoxic Event," said Martindale, a researcher in the Jackson School's Department of Geological Sciences. "So with that framework we can look at the benthic community, the organisms that are living on the bottom of the ocean, and ask 'how did this community respond to the anoxic event?"

The low oxygen environment affected the growth and number of bivalves, reducing their number and population. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin/Rowan Martindale

The fossils show that before the anoxic event, the Ya Ha Tinda marine community was diverse, and included fish, ichthyosaurs (extinct marine reptiles that looked like dolphins), sea lilies, lobsters, clams and oysters, ammonites, and coleoids (squid-like octopods). During the anoxic event the community collapsed, restructured, and the organisms living in it shrunk. The clams that were most abundant in the community before the anoxic event were completely wiped out and replaced by different species.

The clams that survived during and after the event were much smaller than the clams from before the event, suggesting that low oxygen levels limited their growth.

The sea life recorded at Ya Ha Tinda before and during the anoxic event is similar to fossils found at European sites. Crispin Little, a senior lecturer in paleontology at The University of Leeds who was not involved with the research, said that the similarity between the sites underscores the widespread nature of the anoxic event.

"This confirms previous work suggesting that the T-OAE (anoxic event) was genuinely a global event," Little said.

However, while other sites were recovering from the anoxic event, the environment at Ya Ha Tinda continued to face stress. Even for small, hardy bivalves, life was tough.

Fieldwork at Ya Ha Tinda Ranch, where the fossils were found. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin/Rowan Martindale

"One of the interesting things about the recovery [at Ya Ha Tinda] is that we actually see fewer individuals at a time when we're supposed to be seeing community recovery," Martindale said.

The fossils suggest that the environment was undergoing local stresses that kept oxygen low, Martindale said. More research is needed to untangle why life at Ya Ha Tinda didn't recover at the same rate as other places.

Since the oceanic anoxic event was a side-effect of climate change, looking back at ancient marine communities could be a window into the potential impacts of ongoing and future climate change, said co-author Martin Aberhan.

"One lesson we can learn from this study is that, on a human time scale, climate-related stresses can have very long-lasting effects, with no signs of recovery for hundred thousands of years, and that the communities before and after a climatic crises can look quite different in composition and ecological functioning," Aberhan said.
It is unlikely, however, that Space Corps will come into being just yet, as the Senate's version of the NDAA has no such provision for it

US lawmakers on Friday advanced a defense bill that includes a provision to establish a new branch of the militarydubbed "Space Corps"that would focus on space operations.

The space force measure has met stiff resistance from the Trump administration, which says there's no need to establish another tier of military bureaucracy.

But proponents and some lawmakers see the military's space assets and its massive reliance on satellites as needing a stand-alone branch to protect and monitor them.

The huge National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) spending bill, approved by the House of Representatives on Friday, includes an amendment that would create a Space Corps by taking functions currently under the Air Force and placing these in a separate command.

It is unlikely, however, that Space Corps will come into being just yet, as the Senate's version of the NDAA has no such provision.

And Pentagon chief Jim Mattis made his feelings known in a letter to a congressman this week.

"At a time when we are trying to integrate the department's joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations," Mattis wrote to Congressman Michael Turner, who is also against the creation of Space Corps.

It would be "premature to add additional organizational and administrative tail to the Department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead," he added.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told lawmakers she too opposed Space Corps.

"To get focused on a large organizational change would actually slow us down right now," she said.

"It would actually move us in the wrong direction, slow us down from where we need to go.

Still, the effort to build a new military branch for space highlights the critical dependence the armed services have on space for many aspects of warfighting.

GPS systems are built into many military technologies and a network of sensors and satellites floating in orbit provide continual and vital intelligence.

 2017 AFP
Mathematiciangenius Maryam Mirzakhani won a string of honours during her career including the coveted Fields Medal in 2014

Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born mathematician who was the first woman to win the coveted Fields Medal, died Saturday in a US hospital after a battle with cancer. She was 40.

Mirzakhani's friend Firouz Naderi, a former director of Solar Systems Exploration at NASA, announced her death on Instagram.

"A light was turned off today. It breaks my heart ..... gone far too soon," he wrote, later adding: "A genius? Yes. But also a daughter, a mother and a wife."

Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University in California, died after the cancer she had been battling for four years spread to her bone marrow, Iranian media said.

In 2014 Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics, which is awarded by the International Congress of Mathematicians.

The award recognized her sophisticated and original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres.

Born in 1977 and raised in Tehran, Mirzakhani initially dreamed of becoming a writer, but by the time she started high school and showed an affinity for solving math problems she shifted her sights.

"It is funit's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case," she said when she won the Fields Medal.

"I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path."

Mirzakhani said she enjoyed pure mathematics because of the elegance and longevity of the questions she studies.

"It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out," she added.

In 2008 she became a professor of mathematics at Stanford. She is survived by her husband, Stanford mathematician Jan Vondrak, and her young daughter Anahita.

"Great sorrow"

In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said that Mirzakhani's "doleful passing" has caused "great sorrow," state media reported.

Rouhani praised the "unprecedented brilliance of this creative scientist and modest human being, who made Iran's name resonate in the world's scientific forums, (and) was a turning point in showing the great will of Iranian women and young people on the path towards reaching the peaks of glory ... in various international arenas."

Separately on Instagram, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Mirzakhani's death is a cause for grief for all Iranians.

Mirzakhani's impact "will live on for the thousands of women she inspired to pursue math and science," said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

He described her as "a humble person who accepted honors only with the hope that it might encourage others to follow her path."

The university said via Stanford News that Mirzakhani's preferred method of working "was to doodle on large sheets of white paper, scribbling formulas on the periphery of her drawings. Her young daughter described her mother at work as 'painting.'"

Mirzakhani became known on the international mathematics scene as a teenager, winning gold medals at both the 1994 and 1995 International Math Olympiadsand finished with a perfect score in the latter competition.

She went on to win the 2009 Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics, and the 2013 Satter Prize of the American Mathematical Society.

Mirzakhani studied mathematics at Sharif University in Iran and earned a PhD degree from Harvard in 2004. She then taught at Princeton University before moving to Stanford in 2008.

The Fields Medal, which she won in 2014, is given out every four years, often to multiple winners aged 40 or younger.

Mirzakhani also collaborated with Alex Eskin, a University of Chicago mathematician "to take on another of the most-vexing problems in the field: the trajectory of a billiards ball around a polygonal table," Stanford News said.

"The challenge began as a thought exercise among physicists a century ago and had yet to be solved."

The duo published a 200-page long paper on the subject in 2014 hailed as "the beginning of a new era" in mathematics, according to Stanford News.

 2017 AFP
With summer travel kicking off, we're offering several tips on how to really disconnect from work electronically. After all, isn't taking a minute to enjoy a breathtaking view or your child's laughter more important than a corporate email? We think so.

Disable email. Actually, disable everything. Turn off your work email, and really hide it. For example, on an iPhone, go to Settings and then Mail. Go to Accounts, and swipe the button to turn off your work email account, so it won't automatically download emails or show the red number of new messages. You can also temporarily move your mail icon into a folder, so it's hidden.

Also, disable alerts. We do not understand why people feel the need to have a palm-sized list of updates from Homes You Might Like and News That May Scare You. Create a smartphone environment where you seek out information.

Another way to do that? Log out of everything. We don't download apps for everything. And we don't save all passwords. So when we check social media, it requires actually typing in a website, username and password. Each layer serves as a check to see whether it's really more important than whatever you're doing in real life.

Remove calendars from your phone. If you're the type who has work calendars, or any calendars, connected to your smartphone, remove them. Some people might feel comfort in having everything constantly and electronically at their fingertips. But if you can stomach it, remove the calendar and, with it, those constant appointment pings. You don't need an alert reminder of the weekly team meeting popping up as you order a mojito. Your only appointment is with the beach, the mountains or a good book.

Set up a solid out-of-office message. Do this early, so that you're not stressing about typing it out before heading to the airport. You can say, "I'm out of the office until (enter date). Try me then." Short, to the point, and this clarifies that you will not be available or responsive until after a certain time.

Use airplane mode, even after landing. Many people suggest swiping that airplane icon up whenever you can. Airplane mode doesn't allow accessing the internet for everything you need, but it does put an end to alerts, in case you didn't have the strength to disable alerts. Airplane mode at least keeps your phone somewhat muted, and again, connecting requires you to stop and think whether you really need to look at your phone.

Get a real camera. If you can, bring along a real camera. That's right, one of the old-school versions that's separate from your phone. Taking a photo is often why we reach for our smartphone, which too easily translates to just refreshing a website or checking in with a text. Save yourself the need to reach for your phone, and instead simply capture the moment. Maybe even reach for nothing, and enjoy the view.

2017 Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Cuban President Raul Castro on Friday said that Donald Trump's hardline stance towards the country marks "a setback" in relations with the United States after ties were gradually restored in 2015. "The announcements made by the current president... mean a setback in bilateral relations," Castro said in remarks, broadcast on state television, at the closing of the first session of Cuba's Parliament. Castro criticized Trump's partial rollback of his predecessor Barack Obama's rapprochement with the communist island in comments made less than a week before the second anniversary of Havana embassy's reopening in Washington on July 20. The remarks came after Trump in June -- standing before a crowd of anti-Castro activists in Miami's Little Havana -- announced tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo. The US president framed his measures as a move against a "cruel and brutal" regime, saying progress on bilateral relations would be hinged on concessions related to human rights. Castro, 86, called the new measures a toughening of the US embargo against the island, imposed since 1962, saying they evoked "an old and hostile rhetoric that characterized the Cold War." He also denounced "the manipulation" of Cuba over human rights issues. "Cuba has much to be proud of, and it does not have to receive lessons from the United States or anyone else," he said during the session, which international press does not have access to. "Any strategy that seeks to destroy the revolution, whether through coercion or pressure or through subtle methods, will fail," he said. Castro -- who will leave the Cuban presidency in February 2018 -- reiterated his willingness to continue "respectful dialogue" and negotiate bilateral issues "on the basis of equality" and recognition of "the sovereignty and independence of our country." The original Cuban government response to Trump's declaration was restrained, expressing rejection of the tightened policy but emphasizing openness to continuing "respectful" negotiation.
Three soldiers died after shooting erupted overnight at a base in Ivory Coast, which has been gripped by tensions within the military, security sources said Saturday. Gunfire was heard coming from the barracks at Korhogo, a city in the north of the the West African country, at around 1:00 am (0100 GMT), Adama Coulibaly, a local carpenter reached by phone said. "There are three dead soldiers," an officer told AFP separately, without giving further details. A source at the local morgue said three bodies in military fatigues and with gunshot wounds had been taken to the facility. In a separate incident, shooting was heard from a former UN base near Abidjan, lasting from about 1.30 am to after 3:00 am, a local resident in the nearby district of Abobo said. "We were all very scared. We don't know what's going on," another resident said. Calm returned on Saturday morning. The incident took place against a backdrop of months-long tensions within the country's armed forces. The former French colony suffered a decade-long civil war, splitting the country in two. Thousands of rebels were incorporated into the army after President Laurent Gbagbo was ousted in 2011 by Alassane Ouattara. But a string of revolts erupted from January to May this year after they mutinied to press demands for a promised bonus. They eventually received a payoff of 12,000 CFA francs (18,000 euros) per head from the state. There are also 6,000 "demobilised" rebels who have not been integrated into the military, and are also demanding a bonus. Four of them were shot dead in May when security forces intervened to disperse a protest. And on Tuesday, two former rebel leaders who obstructed a road in the central city of Bouake were jailed. The government last year unveiled plans to modernise the 22,000-strong military, part of which would involve the departure of several thousand men, particularly ex-rebels. But falling cocoa prices have severely crimped the government's coffers.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office called on Bahrain on Friday to "unconditionally and immediately" release rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced to two years in jail this week. Rajab, a leading figure in a 2011 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the government, was sentenced on Monday, supporters said, for allegedly making "false or malicious" statements about authorities. "Human rights defenders in Bahrain must be able to carry out their work without fear of reprisals and should not face detention or prosecution for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Criticising the government should not be a crime," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a Geneva news briefing. "We note that Mr Rajab has been detention since June 2016. We call on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him," she said. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)
Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company. It engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The company operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Wealth; Corporate and Commercial Banking; and Insurance Holdings. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC.
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Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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@alextdaugherty

Carlos Curbelo touts himself as a rare Republican in Washington willing to criticize Donald Trump and conservative members of his own party.

And after months of talk and lots of tweeting, Curbelos effort to build a bloc of moderate Republicans capable of swaying anti-climate-change legislation appears to have paid off.

Curbelos Climate Solutions Caucus, a group of 24 Republicans and 24 Democrats who are concerned about the impacts of climate change, voted en masse on Thursday against a proposal to nix a Defense Department report on the threats posed by climate change to military installations.

A bipartisan majority of Members are on the record saying climate change and sea level rise must be taken into account when planning for our national defense, Curbelo said in a statement. With military bases like Naval Air Station Key West extremely vulnerable to sea level rise, this vote was a huge win for our coastal military communities. Im proud of the Climate Solutions Caucus Members who worked to defeat this amendment and I look forward to continuing to build momentum for this cause in the Congress.

A Curbelo staffer said that an informal vote-counting push by Climate Solutions Caucus Republicans occurred before the vote. Every Republican on the caucus voted against the proposal by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., with the exception of Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., who voted in favor, and Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., who was absent. The full House vote was 234-185.

Curbelo, who represents a Miami-to-Key West district, identified Thursdays vote, part of the massive annual Defense Department funding bill which passed on Friday, as an area where moderate Republicans can make an impact.

But environmental groups are keeping a close eye on moderates like Curbelo and making sure their future votes match their rhetoric.

Its important to give the Pentagon the tools to plan for this threat to our military readiness, but of course we need to take a lot more concrete steps to solve this carbon solution before its too late, said League of Conservation Voters deputy legislative director Alex Taurel.

Taurel said that funding for green energy, preparing for the effects of climate change and stopping offshore drilling are three policy areas where moderate Republicans could join Democrats, but that more Republicans must speak about ways to reduce carbon emissions.

This is called the Climate Solutions Caucus, so thats the key kind of yardstick they should be measured by, Taurel said. To what extent are they supporting solutions to climate change?

Curbelo argues hes doing his part by urging his colleagues to buck conservatives in Congress.

I assume that now when we get into appropriations season there will be many amendments where I assume our group is going to be critical to blocking bad policy, Curbelo said last month.

On Thursday, two Republican members of the climate caucus, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, took to the House floor to oppose Perrys amendment before the vote.

I have a Coast Guard base in my district... located right there on the water in Miami Beach and we know the impact of sea-level rise in that area, Ros-Lehtinen said. As a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus I urge my colleagues to oppose this Perry amendment.

Read more here.
Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software. The company also offers REVit, an automated real time stick-slip mitigation system; ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. As of December 31, 2021, the company marketed approximately 301 rigs for land-based drilling operations in the United States, Canada, and in 20 other countries worldwide; and 29 rigs for offshore platform drilling operations in the United States and internationally. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
UGI Corporation distributes, stores, transports, and markets energy products and related services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: AmeriGas Propane, UGI International, Midstream & Marketing, and UGI Utilities. It distributes propane to approximately 1.4 million residential, commercial/industrial, motor fuel, agricultural, and wholesale customers through 1,600 propane distribution location. The company also distributes liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, wholesale and automobile fuel customers; and provides logistics, storage, and other services to third-party LPG distributors. In addition, it engages in the retail sale of natural gas, liquid fuels, and electricity to approximately 12,600 residential, commercial, and industrial customers at 42,400 locations. Further, the company distributes natural gas to approximately 672,000 customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania counties through its distribution system of approximately 12,400 miles of gas mains; and supplies electricity to approximately 62,500 customers in northeastern Pennsylvania through 2,600 miles of lines and 14 substations. Additionally, it operates electric generation facilities, which include coal-fired, landfill gas-fueled, solar-powered, and natural gas-fueled facilities; a natural gas liquefaction, storage, and vaporization facility; propane storage and propane-air mixing stations; and rail transshipment terminals. It also manages natural gas pipeline and storage contracts; develops, owns, and operates pipelines, gathering infrastructure, and gas storage facilities. UGI Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
@alextdaugherty

The money race for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's open congressional seat is underway.

Two Democrats, Miami Beach commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and Miami City commissioner Ken Russell, told the Miami Herald they both raised over $100,000 during the second quarter of 2017.

Rosen Gonzalez told the Miami Herald she has raised $193,000 with $171,000 cash on hand. Russell told the Miami Herald he raised $133,000 and has $128,000 cash on hand.

Both totals have not been publicly released yet.

National Democrats see Ros-Lehtinen's seat, which includes major portions of Miami Beach and the city of Miami, as a prime pickup opportunity in 2018. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 20 percentage points in Ros-Lehtinen's district, the highest margin of any seat in the country currently held by a Republican.

Other Democrats in the running include state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, state Rep. David Richardson, academic adviser Michael A. Hepburn and Mark Anthony Person. Rodriguez and Richardson officially declared their candidacies in July and therefore won't have fundraising totals in the latest quarter, which ended on June 30.

Rosen Gonzalez said she was running before Ros-Lehtinen announced her retirement and filed her candidacy on April 13, meaning she was fundraising throughout most of the quarter.

"My campaign is using an unconventional local team to make sure that our donors' dollars are put to the best use possible," Rosen Gonzalez said in an email. "While I know that raising money is important, I want to stay focused on meeting people. My campaign finances reflect a diverse group of people who believe in me, especially Miami Beach, where I currently serve."

Russell isn't officially in the race. He filed an exploratory committee to gauge interest and began fundraising about four weeks ago. Russell said he'll make a decision one way or the other by the end of the summer.

"Anyone who declares right off the bat is going to be the first out the gate and get the attention and publicity around that," Russell said. "For me, its more methodical, its more having a proper plan in place so that when I do declare Ill be geared up."

Republican Bruno Barreiro, a Miami-Dade County commissioner, raised $176,000 during the quarter, he told the Miami Herald earlier this week. Barreiro is one of three Republicans, including former Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and school board member Raquel Regalado and Maria Peiro, planning to run in the Republican primary.
LONDON (Reuters) - British budget airline easyJet said on Friday it would establish a new airline in Austria to protect its flying rights in the European Union once Britain leaves the bloc. The new airline, easyJet Europe, will be headquartered in Vienna. The budget airline must have a licence and an air operator's certificate (AOC) in an EU member to allow it to continue flying between and within EU countries after Brexit. The new airline licence in Austria will protect these flights regardless of what happens in negotiations over the status of flights between Britain and the EU after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019. EasyJet said it will re-register 110 planes to fly under the new AOC and it planned to complete this process before Britain leaves the EU. It has said the process will cost 10 million pounds ($13 million), mainly for the re-registering of aircraft. "The accreditation process is now well advanced and easyJet hopes to receive the AOC and licence in the near future," easyJet said in a statement. The airline reports third-quarter results next Thursday. EasyJet is headquartered in Luton, 30 miles north of London, and said jobs there would be unaffected. The airline already has a Swiss licence and AOC. Lufthansa also selected an Austrian operating licence for its budget unit Eurowings. Lufthansa management drew criticism from German unions for the move which they viewed as a way of avoiding more expensive German labour contracts. EasyJet said it had selected Austria because of its strict implementation of European safety regulations and the fact that it should be able to handle large numbers of planes thanks to its experience with other major airlines. The move will create jobs in Vienna, easyJet said, though most of the roles at the new airline would go to people based in EU countries already. Austria welcomed the airline's decision. "The quality of the country won in competition with 27 other European countries, not tax dumping. The better one won, not the cheaper one," Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said in a statement. "This is a victory that was heavily fought for, but which is all the more beautiful for Austria." Brexit poses many challenges for the aviation industry, with Jet2.com owner Dart Group on Thursday saying it would alter its articles of incorporation to ensure shareholder rules on ownership of airlines were met post-Brexit. EasyJet said it was "confident that it will remain majority EU owned post Brexit." Founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his family, who account for 33 percent of easyJet's shares, hold Cypriot passports. The airline reiterated that it would continue to push for a deal between Britain and EU to enable flights to continue and keep the aviation market as open as possible. A spokeswoman for Theresa May said the decision was a commercial one for easyJet, and reiterated that the government would aim to get the best Brexit deal for business. ($1 = 0.7714 pounds) (Reporting by Alistair Smout in London, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna and Victoria Bryan in Berlin; editing by Kate Holton and David Evans)
By Tom Allard and Bernadette Christina Munthe JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia renamed the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea on Friday, the latest act of resistance by Southeast Asian nations to China's territorial ambitions in the maritime region. Seen by analysts as an assertion of Indonesian sovereignty, part of the renamed sea is claimed by China under its contentious maritime boundary, known as the 'nine-dash line', that encompasses most of the resource-rich sea. Several Southeast Asian states dispute China's territorial claims and are competing with China to exploit the South China Sea's abundant hydrocarbon and fishing resources. China has raised the ante by deploying military assets on artificial islands constructed on shoals and reefs in disputed parts of the sea. Indonesia insists it's a non-claimant state in the South China Sea dispute but has clashed with China over fishing rights around the Natuna Islands, detaining Chinese fishermen and expanding its military presence in the area over the past 18 months. Unveiling the new official map, the deputy of maritime sovereignty at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, noted the northern side of its exclusive economic zone was the site of oil and gas activity. "We want to update the naming of the sea [and] we gave a new name in line with the usual practice: the North Natuna Sea," he told reporters. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he didn't know anything about the details of the issue, but said the name South China Sea had broad international recognition and clear geographic limits. "Certain countries' so-called renaming is totally meaningless," he told a daily news briefing. "We hope the relevant country can meet China halfway and properly maintain the present good situation in the South China Sea region, which has not come easily." 'CLEAR MESSAGE' I Made Andi Arsana, an expert on the Law of the Sea from Indonesia's Universitas Gadjah Mada, said the renaming carried no legal force but was a political and diplomatic statement. "It will be seen as a big step by Indonesia to state its sovereignty," he told Reuters. "It will send a clear message, both to the Indonesian people and diplomatically speaking." Euan Graham, director of the international security programme at the Lowy Institute, said Indonesia's action followed renewed resistance to Chinese territorial claims by other Southeast Asian states. "This will be noticed in Beijing," he said. Last week, Vietnam extended an Indian oil concession off its coast while a joint venture led by state-owned PetroVietnam commenced drilling further south. China has a territorial claim in both areas. Meanwhile, the director of the Philippines Energy Resource Development Bureau, Ismael Ocampo, said on Wednesday that the country could lift a suspension on oil and gas drilling on the Reed Bank by December. The underwater mountain, lying 85 nautical miles off the Philippines coast, is also claimed by China. Exploration activity was suspended in late 2014 as the Philippines sought an international ruling on China's territorial claim. The Philippines won the case in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague one year ago. China refused to recognise the decision. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office on June 30 last year, expressed reluctance about enforcing the decision at the time, as he sought deeper diplomatic and economic ties with China. However, the Philippines lately has become more assertive about its sovereignty. More than two dozen oil, gas and coal blocks, including additional areas in disputed waters, may be offered during the December bidding, Ocampo said on Wednesday. (Reporting by Tom Allard and Bernadette Christina Munthe; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
By Julia Harte and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities should search through any intercepted communications of Fethullah Gulen to seek evidence backing Turkey's accusation that the U.S.-based Muslim cleric orchestrated last years failed coup, Turkeys envoy to Washington said on Friday. In an interview with Reuters almost a year after the coup attempt, Ambassador Serdar Kilic expressed frustration over the halting U.S. response to its request for Gulens extradition and urged Washington to use its data-collection capabilities to help prove Ankaras accusations against him. They should help us in this regard. We don't have national intelligence authority in the United States," he said at the Turkish embassy. President Donald Trump's administration is taking Turkey's extradition request more seriously than Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, Kilic told a news conference later on Friday, but he did not elaborate. Kilic said the United States had not given any sign of when it would decide what to do with Gulen, who denies any involvement in the July 15, 2016, coup attempt. Kilic cited confessions by some alleged coup plotters and visits he said they paid Gulen at his Pennsylvania compound in the days leading up to the failed putsch as proof that the 79-year-old cleric was behind the coup, in which more than 240 people were killed. However, Kilic acknowledged in the Reuters interview that more concrete evidence of direct involvement by Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999, remains elusive. "If you are asking for a written instruction by Fethullah Gulen to the members of the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization in the army, that would be a futile request, Kilic said, adding that the planning was done in secrecy. Alp Aslandogan, Gulen's media adviser, said the cleric does not own a cellphone, the land line at his compound is attended by staff members and he does not use email, suggesting that any effort to scour Gulen's communications might yield little. He also said he had not seen any signs of the Trump administration giving the Gulen extradition case a higher priority. He said confessions of coup plotters implicating Gulen were suspect because of accusations that their testimony was "obtained under duress and sometimes torture." Ankara has repeatedly denied the accusations while saying a firm security posture is needed in the face of dangers it also faces from Kurdish militants as well as wars in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. The U.S. Justice Department declined any comment on the case. STALLED EXTRADITION President Tayyip Erdogan said in May he would pursue "to the end" Gulens extradition and has waged a post-coup crackdown on his followers. Kilic told reporters on Friday that U.S. officials had requested further evidence, in addition to 84 boxes of documents already provided, and that Turkey was working to comply. He said in the meantime Turkey wants the United States to limit Gulen's freedom of movement. Aslandogan said the call for such restrictions on Gulen, who is frail-looking and walks with a shuffle, was part of a "harassment campaign" by the Turkish government. Prospects for the U.S. extradition of Gulen appeared to dim in February when Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned over his failure to disclose the extent of his contacts with Russia. Kilic said he met Flynn, who was outspoken in favour of Gulen's extradition, a couple of times, described him as visionary" and said he wished Flynn were still in office. (Reporting By Matt Spetalnick and Julia Harte; Editing by Yara Bayoumy)
From couch potatoes watching movies to fitness buffs working out.

The space formerly occupied by Hastings at Lomas and Juan Tabo NE will be converted into a Crunch Fitness, a New York-based gym concept.

The location is 22,529 square feet and has a wide open floor plan, perfect for a fitness center, said Rob Powell, a broker with AllenSigmon Real Estate Group, one of several brokers representing the Manzano Shopping Center Landlords, Eisenberg Manzano LLC.

This will be the first Crunch Fitness franchise in Albuquerque. Construction is to begin immediately, according to Powell, and the hope is for an opening date in early 2018. The first New Mexico location is set to open in Las Cruces this year.

Crunch Fitness specializes in classes ranging from spin to pole-dancing to yoga. It also offers a full gym and personal trainers.

Michael Butler, managing partner for Lockehouse Retail Group, the firm representing Crunch Fitness said the company is looking to add two or three more Albuquerque locations in the next two years.

The AllenSigmon team  Powell, Jeff Martinez, Austin Tidwell and Daniel Kearney  has worked to fill the large space since Hastings liquidated last fall and has had to overcome a number of hurdles.

There is a bunch of box space out there, said Powell. So when Hastings vacated the market, they left this square footage and the (difficulty) was in trying to find different users for that type.

Though progress in filling the former Hastings locations has been slow, there has been movement throughout the state.

Peterson Properties has leased two locations in New Mexico recently. One, a 28,532-square foot space in Farmington, was leased to EntertainMart, a company similar to Hastings. According to Peterson, EntertainMart bought the top five Hastings locations in the region with the intention of carrying on the same model.

In Alamogordo, Peterson has also leased a 22,500-square-foot space to Burkes Outlet, a discount store.

The Crunch Fitness lease represents the first Hastings location to be sold or leased in the Albuquerque area, according to the AllenSigmon team.

The site was chosen because of the visibility and traffic in and around the shopping center, Butler said. Crunch is attracted to this particularly dense trade area.

Powell and Martinez say the addition has the potential to help revitalize the Manzano Shopping Center at Juan Tabo and Lomas NE.

We are excited about it because I think  bringing more traffic to the center only helps the tenants around it, Martinez said.

Other tenants include Dollar General, Metro PCS, Liberty Tax, Dr. Dental and Rustic Tea.
The privately funded campaign of Robert Aragon raised and spent the most of the 14 candidates seeking seats on the City Council, according to finance reports filed Friday.

Aragon, one of three candidates for the open District 5 seat, received $38,150 in contributions  including $15,000 he contributed to his own campaign  and spent $11,917, he reported.

An attorney and former state representative, Aragon received the most in contributions of the eight privately financed candidates in the period April 1 through July 13.

Aragon received 16 contributions of $850 each. They are:

Antoinette Greenlee and James Greenlee, construction and engineering; Dominique Trujillo, real estate; Ashlee Aragon, health care and medical; Robert Moss, law; Zeke Chavez, insurance; Josie Aragon, retired; Christina Chen, health care and medical; Robert Jenkins II, law; Angie Muller, retired; The New Beginnings, disability services; Christine Ann Valdez, health care and medical; Kylee Aragon, general business; Max Garcia, retired; Bernice Herrera, retired; and Monique Alarcon, general business.

Another privately financed candidate, Councilor Klarissa Pena, the District 3 incumbent, received $9,821 in contributions and spent $1,465.

Pena receive two contributions of $800 each from Bosque Investment, a business group, and Walter Gordahl, a real estate professional.

Paul Ryan McKenney, a District 9 candidate, received an $875 contribution from Albuquerque attorney Don Bruckner.

Six City Council candidates have qualified for public funding. Publicly financed candidates receive $1 for every voter in their district, ranging from $38,131 in District 1 to $46,382 in District 7.

Publicly funded candidates reported their expenditures. They are: Javier Benavidez, District 1, $9,394; Johnny Luevano, District 1, $5,456; Ken Sanchez, District 1 incumbent, $655; Cynthia Borrego, District 5, $4,119; Diane Gibson, District 7 incumbent, $2,489; and Don Harris, District 9 incumbent, $7,282.
SANTA FE  Damian Herrera, accused of killing five people in a bloody rampage across northern New Mexico last month, maintains he was forced to shoot his stepfather because the elder man had shot Herreras brother and mother  contrary to the eyewitness account of another family member.

In a statement recorded by police the day of the killings, Herrera also contends it was self-defense when he later shot two complete strangers he encountered separately and by chance.

Herrera, 21, is charged with five counts of capital murder after allegedly killing three family members, a man who gave him a ride when he ran out of gas and later, a fifth victim who happened to be filling up at a gas station when Herrera pulled in.

Herrera was arrested after crashing a stolen truck shortly after he allegedly killed the final victim, 59-year-old Manuel Serrano, at a gas station in Abiquiu. State Police Agent Joey Gallegos interviewed Herrera in the back of a Rio Arriba County Sheriffs Office vehicle after he was arrested.

In a transcript of the recording obtained by the Journal, Herrera told Gallegos that he and his stepfather, 55-year-old Max Trujillo, got into a fight about spilled gasoline at the familys home in La Madera. Herrera said Trujillo got his .38 handgun and shot a round at him. He said he tried to take the gun away from Trujillo and that his brother, 20-year-old Brendon Herrera, and his mother, 49-year-old Maria Rosita Brenda Gallegos, got caught in the crossfire.

And like I already told you, he started shooting at me, Herrera said. My brother went to go and break us up. He (expletive) shot my brother. I wrestled with him for the gun. My mom got in the middle of it. He shot her. And I had to shoot him dude.

That guy has anger man anger issues, Herrera added. History of anger issues. Hes been in the court of law with other people because hes an alcoholic, he has shot people, hes been shot, hes just  its been crazy.  And I was just trying to help him man I have my own place. I was at my own house being peaceful by myself and I just wanted to go help my parents get some wood for winter

Online court records show that Trujillos only criminal offense in the state was a speeding ticket in 2014.

Herreras account conflicts with what his sister, 16-year-old Carissa Herrera, told officers.

She said she was inside the house with Brendon Herrera and Gallegos when they heard gunshots and found Trujillo outside with wounds to his chest. She saw Brendon and Damian struggling over the .38 before Damian pinned his brother against a wall and shot him in the neck. Damian then shot his mother in the head, Carissa said.

The teen was able to make it to a neighbors house and call for help.

Police say Herrera then drove off and ran out of gas near Tres Piedras, where he was picked up by 61-year-old Michael Kyte, a retired U.S. Forest Service archaeologist. Herrera killed Kyte outside his house and stole his Chevrolet truck, police say.

And that guy, I asked him for gas and he (expletive), he took me to his house to get gasoline and I dont know what the (expletive) his deal was, Herrera told Gallegos. He was (expletive) trying to push me out of his truck as soon as we got to his house.  And I was just defending myself dude.  I dont know what that guys deal was either. I just asked him for gas because I was low on gas.

Police say Herrera drove Kytes truck to Antonito, Colo., before driving back south to Chama and then to Abiquiu, where he said he again acted to defend himself by firing two shots at Serrano, who worked in security at the nearby home of the late artist Georgia OKeeffe.

That (expletive) guy, I was cleaning my windows and he (expletive), I dont even know what the (expletive) he was telling me in Spanish dude and then I was just like calm down and he (expletive) started rushing me, Herrera said.
The University of New Mexico is a dynamic research institution that has repeatedly demonstrated its value to our state and its communities  value rooted in the education of our students, in driving innovation to meet the most challenging societal problems, in advancing health care for our citizens and in our service to the public good. For the sixth year in a row, UNM has topped its previous four-year graduation rate. UNM was recently ranked third in the nation for helping students improve their critical-thinking skills. The university consistently receives national recognition for ground-breaking research. The UNM Health Sciences Center just reported a record $203 million in external research dollars in fiscal 2017, while the main campus and branches garnered $142.5 million in awards in 2017. While we can all be rightfully proud of these accomplishments, it is equally critical for the university to demonstrate that we are careful stewards of the public funds entrusted to us.

As the recently appointed chair of the UNM Board of Regents Audit Committee and the interim President of New Mexicos flagship institution, we are committed to improving both internal and externals reviews, and the audit planning process. This is a challenging task, given our limited resources and a growing list of issues that fall under the audit umbrella, including: administration of financial resources and fraud; compliance with federal laws, such as the Clery Act and Title IX; ethical conduct; minors on campus; and safety and risk management. While it has been argued that we have been insufficiently proactive, we can assure the public that we are continually strengthening and reinventing the way we approach and manage our operations, test our systems and train our people. This does not mean there is no room for improvement. In the months ahead, we will continue to assess UNMs audit practices and take decisive steps to make any necessary changes or improvements. Given the states tight financial circumstances and the increasing burden of student debt, we are well aware of the need to re-engineer processes and systems to meet the growing complexities of our universitys mission and its operations.

We also need to infuse a culture of continuous improvement that enables efficiency, transparency and accountability so that we may fulfill our mission to its greatest potential. This requires thoughtful examination of our practices and long-term outcomes throughout our enterprise  and it starts at the top. Just as we ask our students to learn from their setbacks and apply creative solutions to hurdles that stand between them and success, so must we do the same and lead by example.

This is an institutional issue for which we are responsible at the highest level. The university  not just an individual department  is named as responsive to any external audits and, as such, any flaws in our systems reflect on the strength of the entire enterprise. We have openly disclosed our institutional shortcomings in many of the above-mentioned areas of risk. We have also responded aggressively with changes, the goal being to keep our students and campus community safe and secure, and our operations efficient, transparent and fiscally accountable.

We cannot emphasize it too much: the status quo is unsustainable in the context of the rapidly changing landscape of higher education business models, and therefore unacceptable if we are to maintain the high standard of excellence, trust and transparency that we expect for ourselves and that is expected of us. The UNM Board of Regents and president are committed to creating a vibrant, competitive institution that maximizes the efficient use of resources, generates a high-quality education for New Mexican students, meets the highest standards of ethical behavior, and supports and improves the quality of life in our community. The way in which we make this happen is how we show our value and what we value.
As Russiagate becomes a full-blown conflagration threatening to consume Donald Trumps presidency, his denial of human-induced global warming continues to threaten a planet already on fire. The world reeled on June 1 when Trump made good on his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. Since then, governments around the world have criticized the move, vowing to accelerate their commitments to combating climate change with or without Donald Trump and the United States. The time remaining to prevent irreversible climate change is short.

Trump was notably isolated at the G-20 meeting in Hamburg last week. Over 100,000 protesters marched despite a massive, and at times violent, police crackdown. Inside, the 19 other world leaders took a stand against Trumps rejection of the Paris climate agreement. Yet, as the group Oil Change International pointed out this week, the G-20 nations collectively provide $72 billion in subsidies annually to the fossil-fuel industry  four times what they spend on renewable energy.

While its excellent that the other G-20 leaders put Donald Trump in a corner, Oil Changes Alex Doukas said on the Democracy Now! news hour, its not enough to simply confront his climate denial. These leaders have to act. They need to be putting their money where their mouths are. Oil Change details the subsidies in a report published during the recent summit, Talk is Cheap: How G20 Governments are Financing Climate Disaster. Oil Change is calling on G-20 governments to end all fossil-fuel subsidies by 2020 and move the funds into support for renewable energy.

Most of the pollution released since 1988 comes from just 100 companies, according to another just-released report, the Carbon Majors Report 2017. It notes, Since 1988, more than half of global industrial greenhouse gasses (GHGs) can be traced to just 25 corporate and state producers. Chinas state-owned coal industry tops the list, along with others like Saudi Arabias and Irans petroleum companies. Corporations like ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are among the worst polluters. As the G-20 wrapped up, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, left for Istanbul, Turkey, to get a World Petroleum Congress lifetime achievement award, where he called the industry marvelous, then embarked for Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, back at home, the impacts of global warming are everywhere. In the North American West, from near the Mexican border up into British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska, wildfires are raging. The U.S. governments interagency National Wildfire Coordinating Group listed 109 active wildfires in the United States alone. In Phoenix last month, when temperatures reached 120 degrees F, smaller jets were unable to take off or land, and American Airlines canceled close to 50 flights.

The Union of Concerned Scientists just published a comprehensive study on the increasing impacts of sea level rise on U.S. coastal communities. By 2035, about 170 communities  roughly twice as many as today  will face chronic inundation, the report states. By 2100, the number climbs to almost 500 communities, including Galveston, Texas, most of greater New Orleans, Miami and Boston. Climate change, along with human overpopulation and consumption, is responsible for the Earths sixth mass extinction, which scientists this week labeled an ongoing biological annihilation.

There is even more breaking climate change news  ice-breaking news. A section of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica has broken off, an iceberg the size of Delaware, four times the size of London. Scientists predict f all Antarctic ice melts, global sea levels could rise by as much as 160 feet.

Because many of the polluting corporations among the Carbon Majors are publicly traded, they can be influenced by shareholder actions. The movement to shift money from fossil-fuel corporations toward renewable energy is Divest/Invest. As of December, investors have pledged to move over $5 trillion. While the U.S. government has withdrawn from the global climate action pact, under We Are Still In seven states, including California and New York, have been joined by hundreds of cities and thousands of businesses and universities committed to reducing carbon emissions.

Trump may have elevated his climate change denialism to dangerous heights, but the resistance is real, strong and growing, and that cannot be denied.

This column was trimmed for print.
WASHINGTON  The Russia scandal has entered a new phase, and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Donald Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 1940s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors  Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine  that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.

Krauthammers columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail to letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Attorney General Hector Balderas on Friday said officials with Presbyterian Healthcare Services, New Mexicos largest health insurance provider, had bullied state regulators who raised questions about the appropriateness of amending decade-old tax filings to claim roughly $18 million in credits.

The salvo came a day after Presbyterian officials strongly denied allegations in a lawsuit filed by the Attorney Generals Office, saying the company had worked closely with state regulators in determining its tax liability.

When Presbyterian issues bills to patients, they expect immediate payment, Balderas told the Journal. To somehow be afforded a decade of delay and then assert a cash grab  is simply obscene.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Santa Fe by the AGs Office accuses Presbyterian of fraudulently scheming to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in taxes on health insurance premiums by falsifying Medicaid deductions and credits amended tax returns it filed in 2013.

Presbyterian may not be the only insurer on the hot seat for nonpayment of taxes on insurance premiums, as auditors are scrutinizing possible underpayments by other insurers in recent years as well.

The AGs Office said it also was investigating other insurers besides Presbyterian but could not discuss ongoing investigations.

Meanwhile, Balderas also said his offices criminal division has maintained a monitoring presence in the Presbyterian case, though no criminal charges have been filed.

Presbyterian has not filed a formal response to the lawsuit and has 30 days to do so from the lawsuits filing. The company could seek to dismiss the lawsuit or approach the Attorney Generals Office about a possible settlement in the case, according to the AGs Office.

On Thursday, Presbyterian officials said they were blindsided by the lawsuit and called the allegations misleading and unfair.

The AGs Office said it investigated the allegations and notified Presbyterian after filing the suit, as is the normal procedure.

Some exemptions eliminated

New Mexico health insurers are required to pay about 4 percent in taxes on surcharges on health insurance premiums, which are not subject to the states gross receipts tax. Premiums on some policies, such as those covering state government workers, are exempt from the tax.

State lawmakers in 2003 approved a change in state law that eliminated some exemptions, including Medicaid premiums, while a separate bill approved that same year slightly increased the premium tax rate but did not alter exemptions.

Presbyterian officials say they believe the law changes allowed them to file amended tax returns claiming millions of dollars in tax deductions, but the AGs Office says that was never the laws intent.

I think we allege pretty clearly in the complaint that isnt a reasonable interpretation, especially by a sophisticated actor like Presbyterian, Assistant Attorney General Sean Cunniff, the states lead attorney on the case, said Friday.

Presbyterian officials have maintained that independent firms and state agencies audited the insurers state taxes numerous times for returns filed during the 15-year period covered in the lawsuit.

After they decided they had overpaid taxes in 2003 and 2004, Presbyterian officials said, they worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance on how to file the amended tax returns in 2013.

An OSI spokeswoman said Friday that it would be premature and counterproductive for the regulatory agency to weigh in on Presbyterians claims, because an outside audit is still ongoing.

The case against Presbyterian was initially brought to the attorney general more than a year ago by three whistleblowers  all employees at the OSI  and was filed by the Attorney Generals Office after Balderas decided to pursue the case, which is allowable under the state Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.

After filing the amended returns in 2013, Balderas said, Presbyterian tried to box in the OSI, seeking a settlement agreement that would have immunized the company against tax liability claims. That deal was never finalized.

They exploited and abused the very process that theyre now claiming they complied with, Balderas said. I think theyre being disingenuous when they say that they fully complied with a process that they bullied.

Dale Maxwell, the health systems CEO and president, did not respond to the comments Balderas made Friday.

He issued the following statement: Presbyterian takes our responsibility as stewards of taxpayer dollars very seriously and is committed to positively resolving this matter. We remain focused on our purpose to improve the health of our fellow New Mexicans.

Dividend payments

In a related announcement, New Mexico Auditor Tim Keller said Friday that he is trying to prevent health insurance companies from paying out certain dividends to shareholders or other investors pending the ongoing audit related to premium taxes.

Dividends are reviewed by the OSI to determine whether the insurers have enough money to pay claims to New Mexicans.

Keller says the state has been allowing the companies to drain millions of dollars that may be needed for settlements. He says companies, including Presbyterian and Lovelace, have had approved dividends of more than $100 million.

Its prudent to put the brakes on this until we get to the bottom of what taxpayers are owed, Keller said in a statement.

The state insurance agency did not immediately comment on Kellers request but said earlier this week that the work related to questions about the collection of premium taxes was ongoing.

Presbyterian officials said Friday that the network does not have shareholders and that any dividends are reinvested in health care. They reiterated that the company has paid more than $345 million in premium taxes since 2001.

According to Ron Stern, CEO of Lovelace Health System, The previously authorized dividend from our reserved monies did not impact our ability to satisfy any potential outstanding financial obligations. Furthermore, the release of the health systems funds will enable us to continue to reinvest in the health and wellness of our community by improving coordination of care with the implementation of a new health information system.

Lovelace is owned by a private-equity firm.
Towering walls, armed security, a pungent smell, and young zoned out kids.

Those were some of the concerns raised as more than 50 Corrales citizens packed the village council meeting Tuesday night to take sides on whether to allow the commercial growth of marijuana in the village going forward.

At issue is a proposed ordinance that would ban the cultivation, processing and sale of cannabis and cannabis-derived products within the village  a measure spurred by a planned medical marijuana farm that would be adjacent to residential areas.

If passed, the ordinance would not affect people with medical marijuana cards and a personal production license from the state or currently existing medical marijuana farms within Corrales, according to a explanatory memo to the council.

Councilor George Wright, the sponsor of the measure, cited concerns about a planned medical marijuana farm on the north end of Corrales, and the possible future effects of legalization on the village as a whole.

The 8,500 or so residents of Corrales are directly in the path of a cannabis tsunami that began with authorization of recreational use in Colorado and has advanced to western Oregon, California, Alaska and most recently Nevada, Wright said during Tuesdays meeting.

The proposed farm is awaiting building permits and is not yet under construction.

Steve Gutierrez, a resident who rents properties next to the proposed farm at 7648 Corrales Road, submitted a petition with 135 signatures against its construction.

Gutierrez said the state of New Mexico has put control on marijuana operations within local jurisdictions such as Corrales.

I think thats important for us to take advantage of, to decide what the industry should look like in our village, he said. In the future, if it does become beneficial to the village to consider this type of thing, its probably easier to open up to this activity rather than trying to limit the activity when already there is a strong presence.

The majority of citizens at the meeting, like Gutierrez, expressed worry that allowing commercial marijuana farming in Corrales could have negative effects if restrictions arent put in place now.

They said those negative effects ranged from changing the face of Corrales, with industrial fans and lights used in farming marijuana, to the village possibly becoming more attractive to commercial growers.

But other residents, including Dirk Gibson, spoke against the ordinance to murmurs of disapproval from the crowd.

I wouldnt be alive today if it werent for medical cannabis, said Gibson, a University of New Mexico professor and medical marijuana patient. Medical pot is no joke. This is not Cheech and Chong go to medical school and prescribe goodies for their friends.

Gibson tried to allay the fears of his fellow Corralenos, emphasizing that medical marijuana has nothing to do with legalization and is a constrained service with established procedures and medical certification by multiple doctors.

After residents spoke, councilors went back and forth on the issue  debating on the very nature of legalization and ethics of a ban on medical marijuana.

The proposed ordinance recognizes that agricultural activities are a permissive use on lands throughout most of the village and would exclude cannabis from the definition of agricultural activities.

I feel that the village is schizophrenic in this whole thing, Councilor Jim Fahey said in opposition to the ordinance. Here you are talking about preserving farmland and now were trying to restrict someones ability to grow a product.

Fahey said marijuana, unlike opiates prescribed today, has few side effects and few effects on the environment while treating everything from Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases to chronic pain.

The councilors argued for over a half hour  with citizens chiming in often  bringing Councilor David Dornburg to suggest a postponement of the ordinance vote to discuss possible alternatives, such as a zoning ordinance that would prevent such farms from existing near residential lands.

Councilor Ennio Garcia-Miera agreed with Dornburg, calling the ban overkill.

I think we need to think this through, he said.

Some heated exchanges between councilors followed  accusations of fear mongering and objections to objections  leading Mayor Scott Kominiak to bang his gravel multiple times to bring the meeting to order.

Councilor Wright worried that a postponement could jeopardize the ordinance being an option at all.

I think time really is of the essence, Wright said, adding that the only thing standing in the way of the proposed farms construction is a few building permits.

I want to protect the folks in my district by getting things on the books right away, he said.

The motion to postpone further discussion failed 4-2 and the subsequent vote to post the ordinance passed 4-2, with Kominiak reminding everyone that nothing is set in stone and amendments can be made when the ordinance is brought for a full vote at the next meeting on Aug. 8.

I would urge everyone to sharpen up your pencils and get busy with your suggestions on what the final version ought to look like, he said.
SANTA FE  An ad hoc commission appointed by the state Supreme Court to evaluate the guardianship process in New Mexico voted Friday to ask the state attorney general whether it should be complying with the state Open Meetings Act.

The 16-member commission, which held its fourth meeting on Friday, unanimously agreed to ask for a formal AG opinion at the urging of commission member Georgia Armijo-Brasher, who is the city of Albuquerques director of the Department of Senior Affairs.

I ask myself why would we not want to be as open as possible,she said. This effort and charge of the commission is the one most single important chance we have to make a significant difference in the guardianship process and it shouldnt be status quo.

Vice chairwoman Patricia Galindo, who works for the Administrative Office of the Courts, noted that audio recordings of each of the all-day commission meetings are posted on the courts website. The public can file written comments online and agendas are available at least 72 hours before a meeting, if not earlier.

She said the courts are excluded from having to comply with the law, but the commission has nevertheless adhered to the spirit and intent of the law.

Compliance with the law would include posting minutes of each meeting, voting on minutes and requiring that any votes or action items be listed on the agenda, Armijo-Brasher said in an email.

But Armijo-Brasher said, This commission came about because there exists a clear public concern that the existing guardianship process is too secret and too much of an insider game. We would do the public and ourselves a disservice if we do not proceed in the most open manner possible.

Armijo-Brasher said shes received complaints about the lack of meeting minutes.

People come to me and say I have to listen to the whole thing (recording online) to get to the point of what I wanted to hear  they dont have hours to sit and listen.

The committee chairwoman, retired Albuquerque District Judge Wendy York, in a letter to the commission, defended her decision to ask the public to refrain from naming names when speaking or writing to the commission about specific guardianship cases.

York, who was out of the country on Friday, wrote that she made the decision before the commission first met April 28 after receiving letters from both lawyers and family members who wanted to level accusations against each other. She said the commission, which is to make its first initial report to the Supreme Court on Oct. 1, doesnt have the time to get into personal disputes but is charged with making recommendations on improving the system.

York also proposed that she set aside a day to meet personally with people who may be reluctant for a variety of reasons to speak to the commission. The commission might also consider recommending an ombudsman or special court commissioner to field individual concerns on a regular basis, her letter stated.
A field of six 3-year-olds has been entered in todays 1-1/16-mile, $55,000 Charles Taylor Derby at Albuquerque Downs.

The Charles Taylor Derby will be the sixth race on Albuquerque Downs 10-race Saturday program. Estimated post time for the stakes is set for 8:10 p.m. The complete lineup, including jockey assignments and morning-line odds:

General Council (Elvin Gonzalez), 7-2

Outrageous Green (Karlo Lopez), 5-1

Passed By Paul (Tracy Hebert), 4-1

Ol Drunk Daddy (Alfredo Sigala), 3-1

Wine N Divine (J. Martin Bourdieu), 5-2

Stand Up Stand Out (Alejandro Medellin), 8-1

Passed By Paul, a $30,000 claim at Santa Anita Park on April 28, drew post 3. Trained by Dick Cappelucci for owners Eli Diamant, Manuel Mangia, and Jeff Stinson, Passed By Paul will be making his first-ever start outside of California.

Other contenders include Dewey Williams Outrageous Green, a stakes winner during the current Arapahoe Park meet. Outrageous Green has earned $45,095 from eight races this year. He won by a half-length in the 6-furlong, $30,000 Inaugural Stakes at Arapahoe on May 21.

Outrageous Green drew post 2 and rides for trainer Eugene Burns.

NOTES: Albuquerque Downs annual Pink Day: The Race to Whip Cancer will be held this Sunday. The event will include a silent auction of donated items and individual race sponsorships and is organized by Jamie Zamora, a longtime New Mexico-based horsewoman and Albuquerque resident. All proceeds from the event will benefit breast cancer research and prevention. A breast cancer survivor, Zamora was honored by the American Quarter Horse Association with its Millie Vessels Achievement Award in 2014.

 Through the first 11 days of the Albuquerque Downs meet, J. Martin Bourdieu leads all Thoroughbred jockeys with 11 wins from 38 mounts. Justin Evans tops the Thoroughbred trainer standings with 15 winners from 46 starters. Isaias Cardenas is the meets leading Quarter Horse jockey with five wins from 26 mounts. Jesus Carrete tops the Quarter Horse trainer standings with five winners from 13 starters.

Albuquerque Downs Racetrack and Casino is located at Expo New Mexico. General admission and parking (via the casino entrance on Louisiana and Central) are free.
WASHINGTON  A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer said he was at a meeting between a Russian lawyer and President Donald Trumps son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump teams evolving explanations about the June 2016 session.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his involvement to The Associated Press in a Friday interview. He had not been previously identified as a participant in the meeting at Trump Tower in New York, which was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republicans White House campaign.

The meeting has heightened questions about whether Trumps associates coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election  to help him and thwart Hillary Clinton  and whether theyve been forthcoming about their foreign contacts. Federal and congressional investigators are probing possible connections between the campaign and Moscow.

While Trump Jr. has confirmed that Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the meeting, he has not disclosed Akhmetshins presence.

Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence, a characterization he dismisses as a smear campaign. Hes a well-known Washington presence, lobbying for Russian interests trying to undermine the allegations of a lawyer who died in a Russian prison and is the namesake of a U.S. sanctions law.

Akhmetshin told the AP he served in the Soviet military in a unit that was part of counterintelligence but he was never formally trained as a spy.

In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr. earlier this week, a music publicist said he arranged the meeting because a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Clinton. The go-between stated that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate.

The presidents son has publicly discounted the meeting, saying he did not receive the information he was promised.

In a statement Sunday, Trump Jr. said the attorney had said she had information that people tied to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Clinton, a description that Akhmetshin backed up in his interview with the AP.

In his first public interview about the meeting, Akhmetshin said he accompanied Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower where they met an interpreter. He said he had learned about the meeting only that day when Veselnitskaya asked him to attend. He said he showed up in jeans and a T-shirt.

Veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democrats, Akhmetshin said. Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the campaign, he said.

This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money, Akhmetshin recalled her saying.

Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had sufficient evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.

They couldnt wait for the meeting to end, he said.

Akhmetshin said he does not know if Veselnitskayas documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials with the Trump associates. It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room or simply left them behind, he said.

Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting. Akhmetshin said he recognized Kushner and Trump Jr. He also said he recognized Manafort because they worked in adjacent political circles but never together.

He said there were others in the room but he didnt know them. Publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the meeting via email with Trump Jr., has told the AP that he was there.

Asked about Akhmetshins participation, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni declined comment. Trump Jr.s attorney did not respond to inquiries, nor did a spokesman for Kushner. Veselnitskaya has denied having any ties to the Russian government. When reached by the AP this week, she declined comment. She did not respond to additional attempts to contact her Friday.

The confirmation of Akhmetshins participation in the meeting drew swift reaction from the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who said he wanted Akhmetshin to appear before the committee and provide any relevant documents and information.

Schiff said whether Akhmetshin is connected to Russian intelligence or not it is clear the Kremlin got the message that Donald Trump welcomed the help of the Russian government in providing dirt on Hillary Clinton. Schiff said Trump Jr.s omission of Akhmetshins role in his public account of the meeting and the presidents sons shifting explanations paint a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit.

Kushner disclosed the meeting on his security clearance paperwork, but Schiff said the Akhmetshin revelation raises questions about how much Kushner disclosed about it. He said he believes Kushners clearance should be reviewed, and if he was not perfectly candid, the clearance should be revoked.

Akhmetshin, who spoke to the AP while on vacation in France where he said he has been surfing, said the meeting was not substantive and he actually expected more serious discussion.

I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest, he said.

The Russian government has denied any involvement or knowledge of the June 2016 meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: We dont know anything about this person.

Akhmetshin has been identified in media reports as a former officer in Russias military intelligence service known as the GRU. He has denied that, saying he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft. He said his unit operated in the Baltics and was loosely part of counterintelligence.

Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by the U.S. special counsels office or the FBI about the meeting with Trump Jr. He said hes willing to talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman has pressed the Justice Department about why Akhmetshin has not registered as a foreign agent.

The chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said in a March letter that Akhmetshin has reportedly admitted to being a Soviet counterintelligence officer and has a long history of lobbying the U.S. government for pro-Russia matters.

Akhmetshin said that the Justice Departments Foreign Agents Registration Act unit sent him a letter in April and told him, it has come to our attention you should have filed for FARA. He said he didnt believe he needed to file. He has previously registered with Congress for the lobbying work, and he plans to raise this issue before Grassleys committee.

I think I have a legal right to tell my story, he said.

Separately on Friday, the data and digital director for Trumps presidential campaign said he will speak with the House Intelligence committee later this month as part of its own Russia probe.

Brad Parscale said in a statement that he is unaware of any Russian involvement in the data and digital operations but will voluntarily appear before the panel.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Stephen Braun and Julie Pace contributed to this report.

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Submit a confidential tip to The Associated Press: https://www.ap.org/tips

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Follow Desmond Butler and Chad Day on Twitter: https://twitter.com/desmondbutler and https://twitter.com/ChadSDay
RODEZ, France  Having scaled the Jura and Vosges mountains in the east and the Pyrenees in the south, the Tour de France winds into the Massif Central, the fourth of five ranges the race is riding through. The Alps are last, next week.

Laissac-Severac LEglise, the start on Sunday of Stage 15 in the agricultural Aveyron region, is known for its weekly cattle and sheep market, Frances second largest. Le Puy-en-Velay, the finish of the 189.5-kilometer (117-mile) trek, is the start of a famous Christian pilgrimage route and provides all of France with a prized brand of lentils.

BAGUETTE AND BUTTER: With four notable climbs  including a tough opening uphill slog in the first half-hour  the bumpy stage promises hard racing between top riders battling for the overall win. The scenery through the rugged, rocky and sometimes austere Massif Central also will be spectacular.

PLAT DU JOUR: Le Puys small, slate-green lentils are used in soups or stewed with chunks of lard, onions, carrots, a sprig of thyme and, for those seeking extra flavor, a smoked sausage or two. Cooked lentils are also served cold with vinaigrette as a starter. Although generally eaten al dente, some prefer their lentils cooked for longer until they are almost mushy, like Indian dhal, and then lubricate the mixture with generous lashings of olive oil.

VIN DU JOUR: Not a wine but a strong alcohol, the bright green Verveine du Velay. Made with a flowering plant, verbena. Its leaves are either macerated in alcohol for weeks or distilled with alcohol. Sugar, spices and herbs are added. Family recipes for the liquor are handed down from one generation to the next. Drunk iced or with tonic water.

CULTURE: Pilgrims have come to Le Puy since the 5th century. Plan for 65 days of walking to cover the 1,568-kilometer (974-mile) pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. After morning mass in the Cathedral of Notre Dame du Puy, pilgrims introduce themselves to a statue of their patron saint, St. James, and say where they have come from and how far they plan to walk.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: I didnt think I could get back the jersey on a stage like this  Chris Froome, who took the yellow jersey back off Fabio Aru on Saturday. Aru got left behind on the final short, sharp climb at the finish in Rodez, in the south of France. Having led Froome by six seconds at the start of the stage in Blagnac, home to European aircraft maker Airbus, Aru trails Froome by 18 seconds.

STAT OF THE DAY: 29. The gap, in seconds, between the top four riders overall  unusually close at this stage of the race.

NEXT ORDER: Monday is a rest day, the second and last of this 104th Tour. Riders will take it easy ahead and recharge their batteries for two tough days of climbs in Alps coming on Wednesday and Thursday.
AUSTIN, Texas  A funeral for the American tourist who was fatally beaten in Greece took place Saturday in his hometown of Austin, Texas, King-Tears Mortuary, the funeral home handling the body, confirmed.

The service began at 11 a.m. Saturday at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church in Austin, according to King-Tears Mortuary.

Greek police say 22-year-old Bakari Henderson was beaten to death outside a bar July 7 on the Greek island of Zakynthos. Henderson had recently graduated with a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Arizona and was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch a clothing line, his family said. Friends described him as fun-loving with a friendly demeanor.

Hes the kind of guy who literally makes friends anywhere he goes, John Gramlich, Hendersons childhood friend, told The Associated Press earlier this month.

Its not in his character at all to be aggressive or instigate anything, Gramlich said. Hes always the guy who is calming people down, really.

Greek police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos has said that the exact cause of the fight was unclear, but that it started shortly after Henderson took a selfie with one of the bars waitresses.

A fight broke out and Henderson was chased down the street. Video footage from a security camera that aired on Greek television shows Henderson running down the sidewalk and being pursued. One man tackled him, throwing him onto a parked car before others joined in the beating. Some in the group attempted, and eventually did, stop the others from beating Henderson.

Police have confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Also Saturday, the last suspect charged in Hendersons death appeared in court and was ordered to remain in custody pending trial. The 33-year-old Serbian man is among nine people, all ages 18 to 34, charged in the fatal beating.

A total of seven suspects  five Serbs, one British citizen of Serb origin and a Greek  have been jailed. Two 22-year-old Serbs have been released on bail of 5,000 euros ($5,730). No trial date has been set.

Authorities believe the man jailed Saturday landed the first blow on Henderson.
A group of citizens used a pair of toy handcuffs and some pepper spray to the face to stop a convicted felon who allegedly threatened them with a sawed-off shotgun, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

On Friday afternoon, Albuquerque police said that Lillian Henderson, the property manager at an apartment near the 200 block of Dallas NE, saw a man she didnt recognize walking around the property with a blue bag. Police later identified that man in a criminal complaint as Roy Holliday, 37.

Because of the high rate of crime in the area, Henderson asked what Holliday was doing there, according to the complaint.

Holliday said he was looking for a camera that had been thrown onto the property. When Henderson told him to leave, he pulled a 12-gauge shotgun from the bag and pointed it at her face, according to the complaint.

Thats when Valdemar Munos, a resident at the complex, grabbed the gun. Henderson also tried to get the weapon from Holliday and then Kenneth Therrel, another resident, joined the struggle and the citizens were able to overpower Holliday and take the weapon, according to the complaint.

While the men held Holliday to the ground, Henderson ran into a residence and grabbed pepper spray and toy handcuffs. She sprayed him in the face and then put the restraints on him, according to the complaint.

Police wrote in the complaint that when they arrived they replaced the toy cuffs with real ones and had Holliday transported to a local hospital to be checked out because of the pepper spray.

According to police, Holliday had a felony warrant for his arrest at the time of Fridays incident. Jail records show that he was suspected of violating his conditions of release for a January arrest for stolen vehicle charges.

He also is a convicted felon, according to police. A state court website shows that Holliday has stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing of law enforcement, battery on a police officer and felony drug possession convictions in cases dating back to 2005.

Holliday was booked into jail Friday night on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held without bond.
It wouldnt be wrong to say that this has been a week (July 10-15, 2017) of movements and organisational restructure.

Monday started with Creativeland Asia announcing its restructure as a group, wherein it will evolve from a communications company into a complete creative eco-system by investing in creating a group that will have a formidable presence across all key strategic creative marketing verticals. To lead this new group, Rana Barua has come on board as Chief Executive Officer.

https://www.adgully.com/creativeland-asia-restructures-as-a-group-brings-in-rana-barua-as-ceo-73120.html

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Ogilvy India also effected several changes in its organisation, starting with Sonal Dabral, former Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group, joining Ogilvy India as Group Chief Creative Officer & Vice Chairman. Meanwhile, the agencys National Creative Director, Rajiv Rao, has decided to move on and pursue a career in film-making. Thats not all. Ajay Gahlaut, Executive Creative Director, O&M, Delhi, has been elevated to the role of Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy North and Deputy CCO, Ogilvy India. Sukesh Nayak, Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha have been made Chief Creative Officers, Ogilvy West. Mahesh Gharat and Azazul Haque have been named Chief Creative Officers, Ogilvy South. Meanwhile, Sumanto Chattopadhyay has been appointed as Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Soho Square.

https://www.adgully.com/ogilvy-india-ncd-rajiv-rao-quits-to-turn-film-maker-73177.html

https://www.adgully.com/more-organisational-restructure-afoot-at-ogilvy-india-73211.html

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On Monday, Zee Media Corporation too announced the restructuring of its regional news operations following Jagdish Chandra, CEO, Regional News Network, Zee Media, expressing his desire to lighten the load of his current responsibilities of all regional news network as well as DNA (all editions).

https://www.adgully.com/zee-rejigs-its-regional-news-ops-as-jagdish-chandra-s-role-is-reduced-73132.html

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Tuesday saw Publicis Communications announcing the launch of its brand activation and experiential shopper agency  Arc Worldwide  in India. Arc will work closely with all Publicis Communications India agencies  The Leo Group, Publicis Worldwide (including Marcel), Publicis Beehive, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, and MSLGroup.

https://www.adgully.com/publicis-communications-launches-arc-worldwide-in-india-73149.html

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Meanwhile, Dentsu Webchutney also announced a new venture this week. The digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network introduced its newly established B2B Marketing Division, which will be headed by Samera Khan, EVP  Strategy, Dentsu Webchutney. Businesses that work with Dentsu Webchutney will have specialised services available to help them with Online and Offline Marketing, Market Research, Publicity, and most importantly, a focus on Content Marketing and Distribution Strategy.

https://www.adgully.com/dentsu-webchutney-announces-b2b-marketing-division-73174.html

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This week, J. Walter Thompson was on a roll, bagging the creative mandates for premium kitchen and home appliances brand Morphy Richards and FM player Red FM. It may be recalled that last week, the agency had added the creative duties of The Times of India to its kitty.

https://www.adgully.com/morphy-richards-appoints-j-walter-thompson-as-their-creative-agency-73196.html

https://www.adgully.com/93-5-red-fm-gets-j-walter-thompson-on-board-73156.html

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Also this week, Havas Media Group, India announced its strategic partnership with Kerala-based advertising agency IMC Advertising to strengthen its footprint in the southern markets. As part of the deal, Havas Media Group will be handling the integrated media mandate of Malabar Gold & Diamonds (an estimated business of Rs 50 crore), and further consolidating its presence in the South, which currently comprises of brands like Quikr, BlueStone, Swiggy, Strides Shasun, HolidayIQ, Moneyview, Darshan International & Embassy Group, among others.

https://www.adgully.com/havas-media-group-ties-up-with-imc-advertising-73173.html

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Meanwhile, as per BARC India ratings for Week 27 (July 1-7) [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals], Zee TV jumped four places to reach the numero uno spot; the channel was placed at No. 5 in the previous week. Two of its shows  talent hunt show Amul Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs and Kumkum Bhagya  were the most watched shows on Hindi GECs in Rural+Urban this week.

https://www.adgully.com/barc-wk-27-ratings-saregama-kumkum-bhagya-propel-zee-to-no-1-73194.html
On that fateful Thursday, the Viper as we know it will cease to exist for one particularly obvious reason. Ralph Gilles let it slip that the end is nigh during a speech at an automotive show in February, but this time around, Fiat Chrysler confirmed that Conner Assembly Plant will grind to an ominous halt.Operational since the mid-1960s and purchased by Chrysler in the 1990s, the factory located at 20000 Conner St. on the East Side of Detroit is kept alive thanks to a workforce of 87 employees. The closure, however, will see the workers be offered positions at other locations. The automaker, meanwhile, says that the closure will indeed be permanent.Conner Assembly Plant is the place where the Viper has been manufactured, mostly by hand, since 2012. That's the year the generation known as Phase VX entered the scene, a family of models that gave birth to one of the best track tools to wear license plates: the unapologetic ACR.For those who tend to see the glass as being half full instead of half empty, the upside is that plenty 2017 Viper vehicles are sitting around in dealer lots. Pricing for the 2017 Viper kicks off from $90,495 excluding destination, while the $121,395 Viper ACR rounds off the lineup nicely.And so, we get down to the question present on everybodys lips: does FCA has a replacement in the offing for the Viper, a model that will serve as an heir-apparent to the naturally aspirated V10-powered berserker? Yes, it has . Probably. Likely. Hopefully.Given the architectural development within the brand [i.e. the Alfa Romeo Giorgio rear-wheel-drive platform ], there is a possibility that a new version of the Viper may surface. Whether it will surface in time [to replace the current model, whose production ends on August 31, 2017] is unclear to me, declared head honcho Sergio Marchionne early in 2016.
Authorities in Sonoma, California, are investigating whether the deployment of a Cirrus whole-plane parachute at low level was a factor in the death of the pilot. Pilot Bill Goldman was killed and his son, daughter and their nanny were seriously hurt in the crash. The SR22T took off from Sonoma Skypark on Friday morning and airport manager Ron Price told the local ABC affiliate that the engine quit shortly after departure. When the engine stopped it became a glider, the nose was down, it looked really good and I was just hoping it would make a landing out in that field, he said. Instead, Goldman apparently pulled the parachute handle at what Price estimated was an altitude of 300 feet.

Cirrus literature says the chute can be effective above 400 feet but didnt comment directly on this incident. The Cirrus Aircraft whole-plane parachute system has been deployed 72 times over the last 18 years, resulting in 148 saved lives who were returned to their families, the company said in response to a query from the TV station. Photos from the scene show the wreckage in a large open and relatively flat field.
A new survey, conducted in mid-June by Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Politico, reveals how party affiliation defines what will motivate voters in the 2018 midterm elections.

Data: POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan poll conducted June 14-18, 2017; Chart: Chris Canipe / Axios
15 July 2017 11:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The 2017 has been an outstanding year, the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the official visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Paris on March 14, said Frances ambassador to Azerbaijan Aurelia Bouchez during the event dedicated to the French National Day, Bastille Day.

She noted that the meeting with Francois Hollande confirmed the excellent quality of political dialogue between the two countries on all topics.



"It stressed the key role played by Azerbaijan for EU energy security," said the ambassador.



During the visit by President Aliyev to France, the importance of reaching a negotiated and lasting solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was once again underlined by France as the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, added the ambassador.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Bollywood Men & Their Mantastic Moustache Styles As They Arrive At The IIFA 2017 Venue Hair Care oi-Kripa

Exactly like the dazzling divas, men at the IIFA ceremony also are setting fashion goals every year and there is no exception to it this time as well. Few of the Khans, some from the 90s and the fresh young men, who have landed there are flaunting either their hair, or goggles, attires and last but not the least, definitely their moustache styles.

Not that all have a defined moustache to take note of, but even when it comes to the clean look of celebs, we got to keep an eye on it.

So, without further ado, have a look at the ten Bollywood men and their beard and moustache styles, with which they landed at New York for the IIFA ceremony 2017.

Armaan Malik: Scruffy Moustache Always remembered for his innocent looks, at the IIFA this year, Armaan Malik makes a dashing appearance with his scruffy moustache, which might not look very clean but the messiness adds to his blithe appearance. Karan Johar: Old-School Clean Shave Have you ever seen him in any other beard style over the decades? The film-maker this time is stealing the show with his goggles and attires, keeping the hair, moustache and appearance exactly like every other time. Karan Singh Grover: Beatnik Moustache Previously attempted by so many Bollywood actors, Karan Singh Grover this time is resembling the coffee house poet look with his moustache and goatee, though both are not connected. The rest of the beard is well shaved, which shows that the actor, along with his gym sessions, does not miss on regular salon visits. Karan Wahi: Full Beard Cropped Hair Look The youngest Karan who made to the IIFA this time is continuing his unpretentious casual look with a face full of beard, yet his hair is well cropped. Will he trim his beard by the IIFA ceremony? Let's wait and watch. Saif Ali Khan: Cowboy Moustache One of the Khans who has landed early and is busy in the rehearsals for the IIFA awards 2017, Saif Ali Khan this time is in a neat cowboy moustache with a clean shave. Though he looks princely, it is very similar to the actor's look in his 2011 film Aarakshan. Salman Khan: The Three-in-One Beard Style Salman spotted at the New York airport with mom Helen this time has a moustache, goatee and french cut around the chin. Together, the three make him look very similar to what we had seen him at, last year. A little more twist to his beard would have allowed us to pen a few more lines. Shahid Kapoor: Full-Length Beard Shahid arrived along with his family and is looking breathtaking in his full beard that starts from the hair. Must say, the 'Ishq Vishq' boy is now a grown-up man all set to fire at the IIFA red carpet and ceremony this weekend. Sunil Shetty: Half-Length Beard With A Moustache This time Mr. Shetty has half-covered his face with beard and mostache that is very slightly connected to the hair. This beard and moustache style has diminished his numerical age and has wooed so many female fans. Sushant Singh Rajput: Buzzed Beard With A Pencil Moustache Sushant's IIFA looks is already being criticised by fashionista and fashion buffs. Though this beard still makes him look child like, but dear Sushant, it's the IIFA and you can be a little more perfect over your casual clothes and appearances. Varun Dhawan: Classic Clean Shaved Varun this time is looking really youthful with his clean beard look. Not experimenting much with either clothes, appearnces, hair or beard. This man ensures his fashion quotient is at a status quo always.
How To Prevent Memory Decline In Old Age With Yoga Wellness ians-Lekhaka

Doing yoga for a long time could change the structure of your brain and protect it against cognitive decline in old age, suggests new research.

When the researchers imaged elderly female yoga practitioners' brains, they found that the "yoginis" have greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex, in brain areas associated with cognitive functions like attention and memory.

As we age, the structure and functionality of our brains change and this often leads to cognitive decline, including impaired attention or memory.

One such change in the brain involves the cerebral cortex becoming thinner, which scientists have shown is correlated with cognitive decline.

So, how can we slow or reverse these changes?

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, suggest that the answer could lie in contemplative practices like yoga.

"In the same way as muscles, the brain develops through training," explained one of the researchers, Elisa Kozasa of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil, involved in the study.

"Like any contemplative practice, yoga has a cognitive component in which attention and concentration are important," Kozasa added.

Foods that can HURT your Brain, BEWARE!!! | Boldsky

The research team wanted to see if elderly long-term yoga practitioners had any differences in terms of brain structure compared with healthy elderly people who had never practiced yoga.

They recruited a small group of female yoga practitioners (also known as yoginis) who had practiced yoga at least twice a week for a minimum of eight years, although the group had an average of nearly 15 years of yoga practice.

The researchers compared the yoginis with another group of healthy women who had never practiced yoga, meditation or any other contemplative practices, but who were well-matched to the yoginis in terms of their age (all the participants were 60 or over) and levels of physical activity.

The researchers scanned the participants' brains using magnetic resonance imaging to see if there were any differences in brain structure.

"We found greater thickness in the left prefrontal cortex in the yoginis, in brain regions associated with cognitive functions such as attention and memory," Rui Afonso from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo added.

With Inputs From IANS

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 14:28 [IST]
Legend Associated With Teej Mata: The Goddess Of Teej Praise God oi-Lekhaka

Teej is a festival that is dedicated to Goddess Parvati and her spouse Lord Shiva. The festival is symbolic of the love they share and marks the day of their union. In the year 2017, Hariyali Teej will be celebrated on the 26th of July, as per the Gregorian calendar.

According to the lunar-solar calendar that the Hindus follow, it is celebrated on the third day of the bright fortnight in the month of Savan or on the Tritiya of the Shukla Paksha.

Goddess Parvati is worshipped and she is known as Teej mata to the people who celebrate the festival of Teej. Both unmarried and married women keep fasts and perform poojas to please the Goddess Parvati.

It is believed that the unmarried girls who observe the fast obtain a husband of their dreams. Married women are blessed with long and healthy lives for their husbands. It is said that any woman who performs the pooja is given the blessing to spend all her life with her husband and when she dies, she will attain moksha.



The Legend Of Teej Mata & Hariyali Teej

The legend has it that when Goddess Sati passed away, Lord Shiva went into a rampage out of anger. When he was finally calmed down, he settled into a deep and intense meditation.

Meanwhile, Goddess Sati took birth again and performed a hard penance. This way, she took 108 births, in which she performed a rigorous penance. It was only in the last and final birth as Parvata Raj's daughter, Parvati, that she reunited with her consort. It was on the auspicious day of Teej that Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati got married.

Details About The Teej Mata Procession On The Occasion Of Teej

On the last day of the three-day celebration of Teej, Teej mata's idol is brought out from the pat. Pat is the sacred place where Teej mata's idol is placed. The idol is cleaned and painted with fresh colours and paint. The idol of Teej Mata is then decorated with jewellery made out of gold and other precious stones. Clothes of bright and shiny colours are then offered to the Goddess.

Pandits, poojaris or saints perform the pooja for the idol of Teej Mata. Milk, fruits, nookti, ghewar, chappati and water are offered to the idol of Teej Mata during the worship. Holy mantras and shlokas are chanted to please the Goddess Teej Mata.

The idol of Teej Mata is then placed in a palki, which is covered with a flower canopy or an umbrella. The palki is called the 'Teej Mata Palki' or 'Takth-e Rawan'. The palki is carried by men dressed in red and the number of men needs to be eight.

The palki is taken out on to the streets, so that everyone can gaze upon Teej Mata and earn her blessings. This is seen especially in the city of Jaipur, Rajasthan. It is said that whoever prays to Teej Mata during the procession gets their wishes fulfilled.

The procession of the Teej Mata Palki often contains band-baaja. The procession also consists of a number of elephants and horses that are well adorned and decorated. People dance and sing as the procession passes through the streets. Carts drawn by camels and bulls are also seen in the procession. Prasad is distributed to the devotees who attend the procession.

As the procession passes through the crowd, the devotees offer gold, silver and other precious items of jewellery to the Teej Mata. It is said that by the time the procession ends, the idol becomes covered with precious jewellery.



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Story first published: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 10:09 [IST]
Three Forest Service engineers, an accountant and a forester took a hike through the Bob Marshall Wilderness in 1975.

It rained every night except the first one, one of the engineers, Darrell McNenny of Missoula, remembered Thursday.

We had a ritual every morning," said Dick Haines, another engineer and the other one of the five who ended up in Missoula. "Get up, light a big fire and dry out the sleeping bags. Youd stand around with steam coming out of the end of them.

The sights and smells of a backpacking trip among Forest Service friends 42 Julys ago brought four of the five trekkers back together for a day and a half this week at the Haines home in Miller Creek.

Jim Abernathy traveled from Federal Way, Washington. John Morrison, the Forest Service accountant, came from Lakewood, Colorado. McNenny drove up from 39th Street.

Only Bob Wynecoop, the forester among the five, was missing. At 81, hes battling Parkinsons disease in a senior care facility in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

The men in Missoula signed each others copies of a hard-backed photo book from the 1975 trip. Haines son, Bob, just put it together from his dads pile of old slides. They ribbed and reminisced as old friends do. And they prayed.

When (Haines) prayed for us the other night, he said, Ill never see some of you again, Abernathy related. So its good that were together.

Haines, a former state legislator who finished the second of two terms on the Missoula City Council in 2013, has prostate cancer.

Hes had it for six years, but the disease has advanced into the lymph nodes, his wife Bunny said. Haines underwent chemotherapy last year and had 10 radiation treatments in November, but the cancer, he said, is "very aggressive."

"It's not a curable disease,"said Haines, who has been under home hospice care since March.

Theres some emotion attached to all of this, McNenny allowed. Cant help it.

***

So they traveled back to 1975.

U.S. and Soviet spacecraft were docking in space on the Apollo programs last mission. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band were finishing off the classic Born to Run album.

In Montana, Haines parents dropped off the five men and their gear at a trailhead on a fork of the Teton River out of Choteau.

Over Headquarters Creek Pass on the first day. Through Gates Park, where the big fire of 88 would roar. Big Prairie and the South Fork of the Flathead, and over and out at Holland Lake. Six days and five nights of pristine, wet wilderness.

"We went when we went because we wanted to go at a dry time of the year," McNenny said.

The only night it didn't rain buckets, the men were too tired to set up tents. They woke up soaked by a heavy dew, and McNenny fought a sneezing cold the rest of the trip.

They love to bandy about the distance: 96 miles? Or was it 98?

It was a 100-mile trip any way you look at it, Abernathy said with finality.

They dined on big, beautiful cutthroat from the White River, wrapped in tinfoil and roasted over the fire. There were no grizzly encounters, but lots of signs the second night in at My Lake. Abernathy reminded his friends of a rare wolverine sighting, something none of them had experienced before or has since.

Mosquitoes were not bad anywhere on the trip, McNenny said, but along (Holland) Lake they just ate us alive. We were tired and we were beat, and we just wanted to run and get away from that pile of swarming mosquitoes.

The coup d grace: The truck that awaited them at Owl Creek and, specifically, a cooler that sat within.

God, that beer was good, Abernathy sighed.

It was half a lifetime ago for the four men who sat around a table at the Haines home. They range in age from 75 (Morrison and Abernathy) to 81 (Haines). Each was well into his Forest Service career in 1975.

Their collective friendship is rooted in the North Fork Ranger District at Orofino, Idaho, where Wynecoop, Haines, Abernathy and Morrison arrived in 1968. McNenny had been there for a couple of years. Only Abernathy was still in Orofino by the summer of their hike through the Bob, but the men had forged a lifetime friendship via backpacking, hunting and fishing expeditions.

We decided to make a hike across the Bob Marshall Wilderness on our own time, Haines said.

They were in their mid- to late 30s and all five were married. They still are  to the same wives  and each couple's 50th wedding anniversary is in the distant rearview mirror.

The five men went separate ways in their Forest Service careers but met, intact or in twos or threes, to hunt elk, fish or hike together. Morrison and McNenny, whos 79, are still active backpackers. The wives are fast friends, and they were in Missoula this week as well.

The Bloomsday Run in Spokane became a common meeting ground each May and continued so until a dozen years ago.

I finally decided I couldnt run any more and ended up walking the last two, Haines said.

The last time all five men were together was at Abernathys retirement from the Forest Service in December 2004 in Beaverton, Oregon.

Its been a while, but weve seen each other independently since then, Abernathy said.

And now the meeting in Missoula, one spiced by laughter and a tinge of sadness.

Haines uses a walker but remains vibrant and opinionated. The cancer prognosis is uncertain, but its not good.

You finally have to back off and say everybodys got a time. Your time comes and thats it, he said Thursday.

Thank God I got to do things like this hike. Weve hunted together, weve been all over the country together. Someday, if you want to hear real stories, ask about our elk hunting stories.
Layoffs and cost-cutting measures could likely "impact people" at one of western Montana's largest private employers, although the timeline and specifics are murky.

Providence Health & Services, the health care organization based in Renton, Washington, that owns and operates St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson and numerous clinics in western Montana, is planning an "aggressive cost-cutting campaign that will include layoffs," according to The Oregonian, the largest newspaper in Oregon.

Reporter Jeff Manning, citing multiple sources, said that the nonprofit organization is looking to cut costs across its seven-state network. The Oregonian also reported that Providence posted an operating loss of more than $255 million in 2016, although its annual revenues topped $22 billion.

It is unclear how the cutbacks will affect western Montana.

"The national trend in reduced payments continues to challenge our ability to keep pace with the rising cost of delivering care," said Joyce Dombrouski, chief executive of Providence Health & Services Western Montana. "Quite frankly, thats not a sustainable equation, and its intensified by the uncertainty of federal legislation and the future of Medicaid."

Dombrouski made it clear that nothing is certain yet for Providence's employees in Montana.

"Our larger organization  Providence St. Joseph Health  continues to take measures to react to the new economic realities, and some of those measures will, most likely, impact people," she said. "But, here in Montana, we dont have formal plans for cost-reduction measures or layoffs at this time."

Providence employs more than 2,000 people in western Montana, although that number is constantly fluctuating. St. Patrick Hospital alone employs over 1,000 people, according to the Missoula Economic Partnership.

Providence spokeswoman Colleen Wadden told the Oregonian that Providence was forced to subsidize the unfunded portion of 1 million Medicaid patient visits at a cost exceeding $1 billion last year.

Providence Western Montana served a total of 17,772 Medicaid patients at St. Pat's, St. Joe's and all the clinics in 2016, and a total of roughly $14.7 million was uncompensated, meaning the hospital provided that care for patients who were unable to pay.

The American Hospital Association has estimated that Providence would lose more than $9.5 billion in revenue over the next 10 years if Medicaid expansion is rolled back, which the GOP is signaling it may do in Washington, D.C.

In the U.S. Senate, Republicans are trying to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and their replacement plan so far is opposed by the American Hospital Association.

Dombrouski has come out against the GOP's "Better Care Reconciliation Act," saying the cuts to Medicaid it includes would have "disastrous, far reaching effects."

Dombrouski also noted that more than 200,000 people in Montana depend on Medicaid for their care.

It has been a tumultuous year for the staff at St. Patrick Hospital. This past March, the medical staff voted no confidence in the hospital's administrative structure, citing a lack of local control. Several longtime physicians resigned in frustration after Providence let go longtime CEO Jeff Fee in a cost-cutting move last September. However, work is underway on a $2.7 million expansion of the International Heart Institute at the hospital to keep up with growing demand.
Boston Scientific Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices for use in various interventional medical specialties worldwide. It operates through three segments: MedSurg, Rhythm and Neuro, and Cardiovascular. The company offers devices to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions; devices to treat various urological and pelvic conditions; implantable cardioverter and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators; pacemakers and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers; and remote patient management systems. It also provides medical technologies to diagnose and treat rate and rhythm disorders of the heart comprising 3-D cardiac mapping and navigation solutions, ablation catheters, diagnostic catheters, mapping catheters, intracardiac ultrasound catheters, delivery sheaths, and other accessories; spinal cord stimulator systems for the management of chronic pain; indirect decompression systems; and deep brain stimulation systems. In addition, the company offers interventional cardiology products, including drug-eluting coronary stent systems used in the treatment of coronary artery disease; percutaneous coronary interventions products to treat atherosclerosis; intravascular catheter-directed ultrasound imaging catheters, fractional flow reserve devices, and systems for use in coronary arteries and heart chambers, as well as various peripheral vessels; and structural heart therapies. Further, it provides stents, balloon catheters, wires, and atherectomy systems to treat arterial diseases; thrombectomy and acoustic pulse thrombolysis systems, wires, and stents to treat venous diseases; and peripheral embolization devices, radioactive microspheres, ablation systems, cryotherapy ablation systems, and micro and drainage catheters to treat cancer. The company was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
A little over a week ago, Evelyn Gisselbeck woke to the terrified bleating of a goat. When she went outside, she found a yearling dead in its pen. Two days later she and Eugene, her husband, would find four kids dead.

One was left with its shoulder eaten, evidence of a lion attack.

The Department of Agriculture sent out a trapper, Ted North, who set a lion trap after the second attacks, but the Gisselbecks are worried that the lion might come back.

Eugene Gisselbeck, 91, and his 88-year-old wife Evelyn have lived up Butler Creek Road for 43 years. In those four decades, mountain lions have attacked their goats three times.

Eighteen years ago, North killed a mountain lion and cubs in the same area after they took a Gisselbeck goat. This week, North left two chickens as bait for the lion, if it comes back.

Jamie Jonkel, wildlife management specialist at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Missoula and its outlying areas have about 25 mountain lions at any given time.

"There's very little tolerance when lions are too comfortable," Jonkel said, "and the animal is removed."

When captured, the lion is killed, not relocated.

For the Gisselbecks, the goats are more than just livestock. Theyve been raising them since 1968, when they had five children and got tired of feeding them powdered milk, Eugene said.

Goats were cheaper than cows, and more and more came in until the Gisselbecks had some 300 at the peak of their ranching, their herd consisting of Toggenburgs, Lamanchas and Alpine goats.

Now theyre down to 36, give or take, according to Eugene after the lion attacks. A year and a half ago, a lion took a goat but the trappers got the lion before we knew the goat was gone, Eugene said, chuckling.

Evelyn was milking a big white Lamancha goat named Sunshine and listening to Montana Public Radio when interviewed Friday morning. Classical music calms the goats, she said. They get wild when they hear the other stuff.

When they moved to their 13.76-acre homestead from Missoula, they only had two nanny goats and three kids. There wasnt a thing up here, Evelyn said.

A friend had a CAT D4 tractor and leveled a road, a space for their trailer, and dug a root cellar, and the Gisselbecks have been there ever since.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
American Water Works Company, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states serving approximately 3.4 million active customers. The company serves residential customers; commercial customers, including food and beverage providers, commercial property developers and proprietors, and energy suppliers; fire service and private fire customers; industrial customers, such as large-scale manufacturers, mining, and production operations; public authorities comprising government buildings and other public sector facilities, such as schools and universities; and other utilities and community water and wastewater systems. It also provides water and wastewater services on various military installations; and undertakes contracts with municipal customers, primarily to operate and manage water and wastewater facilities, as well as offers other related services. In addition, the company operates approximately 80 surface water treatment plants; 480 groundwater treatment plants; 160 wastewater treatment plants; 52,500 miles of transmission, distribution, and collection mains and pipes; 1,100 groundwater wells; 1,700 water and wastewater pumping stations; 1,300 treated water storage facilities; and 76 dams. It serves approximately 14 million people with drinking water, wastewater, and other related services in 24 states. American Water Works Company, Inc. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
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.
Oregon Coast Drone Rules, Laws: Stay Away from Wildlife or Face Fines

Published 07/13/2017 at 6:44 PM PDT - Updated 07/13/2017 at 7:14 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  The rising popularity of drones equipped with cameras has resulted in a deluge of lovely sights and scenes from photographers and videographers along the Oregon coast, but at least one agency has a warning about their use. It must be done responsibly, say officials at Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Drones are classified as small aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration, and it has issued numerous regulations about their use. This includes flying below 400 feet as to not interfere with aircraft.

More importantly to the coastline, drone pilots need to steer clear of wildlife. According to Newport's BLM office  which oversees Yaquina Head Outstand Natural Area  drone use is not even allowed there due to the likelihood it would disturb wildlife. Animals may see drones as predators or some kind of threat, causing them to panic and possibly hurt themselves  or certainly cause them undue stress.

In fact, use of drones is not allowed near any offshore rock or any wildlife refuge area. This includes Cape Meares, Cannon Beach's Haystack Rock, Seal Rock and more. The basic idea is any place that has wildlife nesting or resting on it, such as seals, sea lions or bird colonies. These all fall under federal laws regarding unmanned aerial systems, or UAS.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife: Launch the UAS more than 100 meters (328 feet) from wildlife. Never approach animals or birds vertically with the UAS.

BLM's site manager at Yaquina Head, Janet Johnson, said that in spite of the best intentions of drone flyers, staff there have seen wildlife heavily disturbed by their presence.

So weve taken a no-tolerance approach to their use, Johnson said.

In June 2014, the National Park Service issued a temporary ban on drones in all of its parks, monuments and historic sites. The ban, while temporary, is in effect indefinitely until a permanent decision regarding drone use is reached. This included any lands within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge spans the entire coast and encompasses 1,800 offshore rocks, reefs and islands. These landforms provide habitat for a wide variety of marine wildlife, including seabirds, seals and sea lions.

According to Kelly Moroney, Project Leader for the Oregon Coastal Refuge Complex, drones can disturb seabird colonies, which may result in nests being destroyed or abandoned. About one million birds call these places home each year.

One way we can help protect this resource for future generations enjoyment is by reducing human-caused disturbance, Moroney said.

Visitors can enjoy the precious natural resources on the Oregon coast, provided that they respect wildlife first, Moroney said: Boats and aircraft (including drones) are required to stay at least 500 feet away from offshore rocks and islands included within Oregon Islands Refuge. Disturbing seabirds and marine mammals is illegal; violators can be fined hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on the location and severity of the disturbance.

In Oregon, most of the entire coastline is essentially part of the state parks system  some 363 miles. Just about of it is managed by Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and their rules are somewhat different because not all areas are wildlife refuges. Drone use is allowed on most beaches and within other state parks, with some restrictions. Drones cannot approach or disturb wildlife, and they cannot be flown within campgrounds, according to Dylan Anderson, Park Manager for the Beverly Beach Management Unit in Newport.

As an agency, we support any measures that safeguard our natural resources as well as the well-being of our visitors, Anderson said. We understand that visitors can fly their drones responsibly on our beaches, but they must be cognizant of wildlife and the privacy of other visitors. At certain sites that are considered more ecologically sensitive - such as Seal Rock State Wayside, which hosts nesting seabirds during the summer - drone use may be more restricted, and a ranger might be stationed there to enforce the restriction.

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POLSON  Patricia Joanne Cook Hutchin died peacefully at her home in Polson with her husband by her side Wednesday, July 12, 2017, at the age of 74. Pat was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrigs disease in June of this year and had quickly deteriorated from this horrible disease since that time.

Pat was born Oct. 19, 1942, to Arthur R. and Gertrude J. Overlade in the Cottonwood hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pat was the first of five girls. On Aug. 7, 1960, Pat married her childhood sweetheart, Kenneth Levon Rowley in Salt Lake. In 1962, Pat and her husband moved to Polson after Ken's military service in Washington State and later moved into Ken's parents home on Finley Point. They have four children together  Wendy Marie Rowley (Alt), Brent Scott Rowley, Steven Levon Rowley and David Arthur Rowley. For the past 27 years, Pat has been with the love of her life, Mike Hutchin, where they have homes in Polson and Saltese and Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada.

Patricia held numerous prestigious jobs, most notably being the Lake County Treasurer for 22 years. Pat worked for Lake County 34 years, including working for Will Tiddy in the Assessors Department, Ledger entry for the Lake County Plat Department, including drafting for Harry Medland, a Lake County surveyor, and Lake County Treasurer Tax and Motor Vehicle Division. During her tenure as Treasurer, Gov. Marc Racicot appointed Pat to the Local Government Study Commission, representing Montana county treasurers. She also served as president and secretary of the Montana County Treasurers Association.

After retiring from Lake County in 2006, Pat took on a job working for Black Mountain Software, support division, where she provided technical assistance for numerous state agencies and county treasurer departments. Pat was excellent in her vocational fields and extremely professional and personable with her employees and everyone she came in contact with. Pat was admired and respected by her peers and was truly an inspiration to many.

Pat had many talents. Her interactions with people in addition to her expertise of knitting and crocheting, many were receivers of her wonderful work and acts of kindness. Pat was very generous to her family and friends  always thinking of their welfare and never her own. Pat had a passion for the outdoors, traveling to remote places with her family in side-by-sides and such. She enjoyed playing cards with her special friends Sharon Sampson, Gail Herried and Barb Proud.

Pat is preceded in death by her parents, Arthur R and Gertrude Overlade and mother and father-in-law Wray and Helen Hutchin and step son K.C. Hutchin. Survivors include her four sisters, Judith Anne Molitor, Norma Lynne Overlade, Linda Louise Lockwood and Laurie Ellenwood; her four children: Wendy Marie Alt, Brent Scott Rowley (Beth), Steven Levon Rowley (Heather), David Arthur Rowley (Cher); grandchildren: Justin Bykari, Brynn Rowley, Bridger Rowley, Albert Rowley, and Kenny and Martina Rowley, and two great-grandchildren: Jace and Aubrey Bykari.

Patricia will sorely be missed by those she touched. Patricia will be cremated, and upon her request, there will be no service following. Messages of condolence may be sent to the family online at lakefuneralhomeandcremation.com. Arrangements are under the direction of The Lake Funeral Home and Crematory, Polson.
As churches shut down summer activities, Berlin 'dismayed and furious' over murder of German women in Egypt

German officials said on Saturday they had been left 'dismayed and furious' by the stabbing of two German women at an Egyptian beach resort, calling it a deliberate attack on foreign tourists.

An Egyptian man stabbed the two German tourists to death and wounded at least four others on Friday at a popular seaside vacation spot on the Red Sea, officials and witnesses said.

The knifeman killed the two German women and wounded two other tourists at the Zahabia hotel in Hurghada, then swam to a neighbouring beach to attack at least two more people at the Sunny Days El Palacio resort before being caught by staff and arrested, officials and security sources said.

It was the first major attack on foreign tourists since a similar assault on the same resort more than a year ago, and comes as Egypt struggles to revive a tourism industry hurt by security threats and years of political upheaval.

It comes as churches of Egypt have stated they are closing down their special summer activities because of new terror threats. The closures are expected to last three weeks. Hundreds of Christians have been murdered already by Islamist extremists.

'We now have the sad certainty that two German women were killed in the attack in Hurghada,' a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

'According to what we know, the act was a deliberate attack on foreign tourists - a particularly devious and criminal act that leaves us sad, dismayed and furious,' she added.

Sources close to the investigation told Reuters the attacker was taken to Cairo for questioning by prosecutors after officers from Egypt's domestic security agency conducted an initial inquiry.

The suspect, from a village in the southern Kafr al-Sheikh province, arrived in Hurghada at 5 a.m. on Friday in a public bus and waited until shops opened before buying a knife, the sources said.

The entrance of the beach of the Zahabia hotel resort, seen after an Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others in Hurghada, south of the capital Cairo, Egypt, July 14, 2017.

He then bought a ticket for 100 Egyptian pounds (4.27 pounds) to enter a beach where he killed the two German tourists and injured two others before jumping over a wall, swimming to the neighbouring beach and carrying out more stabbings.

Police questioned the shop owner who sold the attacker the knife but later released him. The knife was found in the water by divers, a source in the Sunny Days El Palacio resort said.

One wounded woman was airlifted to a hospital in Cairo due to the seriousness of her injuries. Sources did not specify her nationality.

Zahabia hotel's beach was sealed off and placed under the control of security forces. Authorities ramped up security measures in Hurghada and are applying greater scrutiny with regards to letting Egyptians enter hotels.

A security official at the El Palacio hotel told Reuters two of the injured were Czech and two Armenian, but other officials said one of the women was Russian. They were being treated at a local hospital. The Czech Foreign Ministry tweeted that one Czech woman had sustained a minor leg injury.

The attacker's motive was still under investigation, the Interior Ministry said.

Egypt is fighting Islamist insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula, where they mainly target security forces, but militants have also attacked tourist targets in the past, as well as Coptic Christians and churches.
How a Christian charity is reaching out to thousands in desperate need in Mosul

The violent recapturing of Mosul may have come to its gritty conclusion, but for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis the desperate reality of being displaced far from home is just beginning.

Tearfund is working in the region to offer immediate humanitarian assistance, including providing safe water and sanitation access, psychosocial support and cash grants, the Christian charity said in a statement.

It is estimated that since the beginning of the Mosul offensive, 920,000 civilians have fled their homes and close to 700,000 people are still displaced, with nearly half living in nineteen emergency camps.

According to the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, many of the people who have fled have lost everything.

She said: 'They need shelter, food, healthcare, water, sanitation and emergency kits. The levels of trauma we are seeing are some of the highest anywhere. What people have experienced is nearly unimaginable.'

Ali and his family escaped from Mosul during the military campaign to retake the city which began on 17 October 2016.

He said: 'One night we had a call from my relatives. My house and all my belongings have been destroyed, we have nothing in Mosul now, and we have nothing here'.

He left behind his job as a salesman, and fled with few possessions. He and his family have set up home in an unfinished building in Northern Iraq  not by choice, but by necessity.

Ali's story is not unusual, says Tearfund. As people fled with relatively little, they often lack the basic necessities of life and employment opportunities for displaced people are extremely limited.

Cash grants have helped them to meet their immediate needs and also are supporting the reconstruction and recovery of areas damaged in the conflict around Mosul to provide communities with access to water.

'Cash assistance enables people to prioritise their most urgent needs, giving them flexibility and dignity of choice,' said Ninos, Tearfund's Project Officer.

There are also further benefits for the regional economy, as money is spent on local goods and services.

Tearfund's Iraq Response Director Betsy Baldwin said: 'We have met many people who have lost family members, their homes and have limited ability to afford rent.

'Tearfund is working to support thousands of people both in their place of displacement and when they can safely return home with cash, clothing, water, sanitation and shelter. With the Mosul operation drawing to a close there are many thousands of people who have urgent needs and are only now able to receive assistance. There are many more thousands who are still out of reach from aid organisations, who we are preparing to assist once they become accessible.'

Tearfund is urging prayers for families like Ali's who have fled their homes and lost nearly everything, prayers for healing for those who have experienced highly traumatic events and prayers for the recovery of communities, infrastructure and the economy in Mosul and across Iraq.
KALISPELL  With conditions going from bad to worse, a northwest Montana interagency group of local, state and federal fire officials raised the fire danger to very high Friday.

When the danger reaches that point, fires will both start easily and then spread rapidly.

Glacier National Park, the Flathead National Forest, state and county officials made the decision to raise the danger level in hopes the public will take note. Since July 1, there have been 69 reported wildfires in northwest Montana. More than half were human-caused.

While Weyerhaeuser made the decision to ban campfires on its property in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders and Ravalli counties due to the very high fire danger, the interagency fire officials are watching to see how people respond before putting those restrictions in place.

They encourage people to stay on roadways, not to park in dry grass or brush, and check spark arresters on off-road vehicles, chainsaws and other equipment. People also need to be very careful with campfires and make sure they are completely extinguished and cold to the touch before leaving them.

The Lolo National Forest is already at very high fire danger.

Firefighters are battling two fires in the Rock Creek area that were discovered Thursday.

The Slide Rock fire was at about 15 acres at noon Friday with spot fires flaring out over a 100-acre area.

Lolo National Forest spokesman Boyd Hartwig said Friday that an additional heavy tanker has been ordered to assist the Hotshot crew, initial attack crew and three three-person fire modules fighting the blaze. The ground crews were assisted by both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Hartwig said the fire was active Friday afternoon, but it didnt appear that it spread much.

I dont think the footprint has really changed all that much so far, he said. Its getting windy out there. That could make a difference.

The fire is located about nine miles south of Beavertail Pond and one mile southwest of Slide Rock Mountain.

A second smaller fire was discovered late Thursday about three miles southwest of Bitterroot Flat Campground. That fire was about two to three acres at noon Friday. It is located in remote terrain without any nearby road access.

A heavy tanker and SEAT aircraft are currently assigned to that fire.

Both fires were likely started by lightning.

Firefighters battling five blazes in northwest Montana are bracing for the potential of thunderstorms that could pack high winds and dry lightning Saturday.

On Thursday, crews on the 1,145-acre Lazier Creek 3 fire saw some increased fire activity that included some tree torching and spotting due to warmer weather and gusty winds.

In the afternoon, there was a little more wind than what was expected, said Fire Information Officer Anna Callahan. They werent super-strong winds, but they were sustained.

The winds caused a small spot fire outside the fire line on the southeast edge of the fire burning south of Highway 2 and west of the Thompson River Road.

Two more Hotshot crews arrived to help with the fire Thursday, which brings the number of firefighters assigned to Lazier Creek to 300.

The fire is now considered 35 percent contained. It didnt grow Thursday.

The 78-acre Rogers Mountain fire burning three miles northwest of Happys Inn is now 60 percent contained. Crews completed laying hose around the perimeter of the fire. Fridays efforts focused on the southern edge where the fire was most active Thursday.

There are 69 firefighters assigned to that fire.

The other three smaller fires burning in the complex are either considered completely contained or nearly so. Crews were focused on extinguishing the remaining hot spots and other mop-up work.

The National Weather Service is calling for the potential of strong isolated thunderstorms Saturday in northwest Montana with temperatures expected to rise in the mid-90s for the area. The storms could bring lightning and gusty winds.

Cooler temperatures are in the forecast after Saturday.

The containment of the Lazier Creek fire continues to go up slowly, Callahan said. We want to wait and see what comes through tomorrow. After that, we might have a better idea on how long its going to take to contain this fire.
The following companies are subsidiares of PepsiCo: Alimentos Quaker Oats y Compania Limitada, Alimentos del Istmo S.A., Amavale Agricola Ltda., Anderson Hill Insurance Limited, Asia Bottlers Limited, BAESA Capital Corporation Ltd., BFY Brands, BFY Brands LLC, BFY Brands Limited, BUG de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Balmoral Industries LLC, Bare Foods Co., Barrhead LLC, Be & Cheery, Beaman Bottling Company, Bebidas Sudamerica S.A., Beech Limited, Bell Taco Funding Syndicate, Bendler Investments II Ltd, Bendler Investments S.a r.l, Beverage Services Limited, Beverages Foods & Service Industries Inc., Bishkeksut OJSC, Blaue NC S. de R.L. de C.V., Blue Cloud Distribution Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arizona Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arkansas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Colorado Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Florida Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Georgia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Illinois Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Indiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Iowa Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Kentucky Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Louisiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Minnesota Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Mississippi Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Missouri Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nebraska Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nevada Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of North Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Ohio Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Oklahoma Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Pennsylvania Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of South Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Tennessee Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Texas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Virginia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Wisconsin Inc., Blue Ridge Sales LLC, Bluebird Foods Limited, Bluecan Holdings Unlimited Company, Bokomo Zambia Limited, Bolsherechensky Molkombinat JSC, Boquitas Fiestas LLC, Boquitas Fiestas S.R.L., Bottling Group Financing LLC, Bottling Group Holdings LLC, Bottling Group LLC, Bronte Industries Ltd, C & I Leasing Inc., CB Manufacturing Company Inc., CEME Holdings LLC, CMC Investment Company, Caroni Investments LLC, Centro-Mediterranea de Bebidas Carbonicas PepsiCo S.L., Ceres Fruit Juices Pty Ltd, ChampBev Inc., China Concentrate Holdings Hong Kong Limited, Chipsy International for Food Industries S.A.E., Chipsy for Food Industries S.A.E., Chitos Internacional y Cia Ltda, Cipa Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cipa Nordeste Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cocina Autentica Inc., Comercializadora CMC Investment y Compania Limitada, Comercializadora Nacional SAS Ltda., Comercializadora PepsiCo Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Compania de Bebidas PepsiCo S.L., Concentrate Holding Uruguay Pte. Ltd., Concentrate Manufacturing Singapore Pte. Ltd., Confiteria Alegro S. de R.L. de C.V., Copella Fruit Juices Limited, Copper Beech International LLC, Corina Snacks Limited, Corporativo Internacional Mexicano S. de R.L. de C.V., CytoSport Holdings Inc., CytoSport Inc., Davlyn Realty Corporation, Defosto Holdings Limited, Desarrollo Inmobiliario Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Dilexis S.A., Donon Holdings Limited, Drinkfinity USA Inc., Drinkstation Inc., Drinkstation Innovation Co. Ltd., Drinkstation Limited, Dutch Snacks Holding S.A. de C.V., Duyvis Production B.V., EPIC Enterprises Inc., Echo Bay Holdings Inc., Elaboradora Argentina de Cereales S.R.L., Enter Logistica LLC, Environ at Inverrary Partnership, Environ of Inverrary Inc., Eridanus Investments S.a r.l, Evercrisp Snack Productos de Chile S.A., FL Transportation Inc., FLI Andean LLC, FLI Colombia LLC, FLI Snacks Andean GP LLC, Fabrica PepsiCo Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Fabrica de Productos Alimenticios Rene y Cia S.C.A., Fairlight International SRL, Far East Bottlers Hong Kong Limited, Food Concepts Pioneer Ltd., Forest Akers Nederland B.V., Forty-Six Peaks Holding Inc., Fovarosi Asvanyviz es Uditoipari Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Freshwater International B.V., Frito Lay Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Frito Lay Poland Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay de Guatemala y Compania Limitada, Frito-Lay Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Frito-Lay Dip Company Inc., Frito-Lay Dominicana S.A., Frito-Lay Global Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Inc., Frito-Lay Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Manufacturing LLC, Frito-Lay Netherlands Holding B.V., Frito-Lay North America Inc., Frito-Lay Sales Inc., Frito-Lay Trading Company Europe GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company Poland GmbH, Frito-Lay Trinidad Unlimited, Fruko Mesrubat Sanayi Limited Sirketi, GB Czech LLC, GB International Inc., GB Russia LLC, GB Slovak LLC, GMP Manufacturing Inc., Gambrinus Investments Limited, Gamesa LLC, Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Gas Natural de Merida S. A. de C. V., Gatorade Puerto Rico Company, General Bottlers of Hungary Inc., Golden Grain Company, Goveh S.R.L., Grayhawk Leasing LLC, Green Hemlock International LLC, Grupo Frito Lay y Compania Limitada, Grupo Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Grupo Mabel, Grupo Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Gulkevichskiy Maslozavod JSC, Hangzhou Baicaowei Corporate Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co, Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Tao Dao Technology Co. Ltd., Health Warrior, Health Warrior Inc., Heathland LP, Helioscope Limited, Hillbrook Inc., Hillgrove Inc., Hillwood Bottling LLC, Hogganfield Limited Partnership, Holding Company "Opolie" JSC, Homefinding Company of Texas, Hudson Valley Insurance Company, IC Equities Inc., IZZE Beverage Co., Inmobiliaria Interamericana S.A. De C.V., Integrated Beverage Services Bangladesh Limited, Integrated Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd., International Bottlers Management Co. LLC, International KAS Aktiengesellschaft, Inversiones Borneo S.R.L., Inversiones PFI Chile Limitada, Inviting Foods Holdings Inc., Inviting Foods LLC, KAS Anorthosis S.a r.l, KAS S.L., KFC, Kevita Inc., Kinvara LLC, Kungursky Molkombinat JSC, Larragana S.L., Latin American Holdings Ltd., Latin American Snack Foods ApS, Latin Foods International LLC, Lebedyansky, Lebedyansky Holdings LLC, Lebedyansky LLC, Limited Liability Company "Sandora", Linkbay Limited, Lithuanian Snacks UAB, Mabel, Marbo Product d.o.o. Beograd, Marbo d.o.o. Laktasi, Matudis - Comercio de Produtos Alimentares Limitada, Matutano - Sociedade de Produtos Alimentares Lda., Mid-America Improvement Corporation, Mountainview Insurance Company Inc., Muscle Milk, NCJV LLC, New Bern Transport Corporation, New Century Beverage Company LLC, Noble Leasing LLC, Northeast Hot-Fill Co-op Inc., Office at Solyanka LLC, Onbiso Inversiones S.L., One World Enterprises LLC, One World Investors Inc., P-A Barbados Bottling Company LLC, P-A Bottlers Barbados SRL, P-Americas LLC, PAS Luxembourg S.a r.l, PAS Netherlands B.V., PBG Canada Holdings II LLC, PBG Canada Holdings Inc., PBG Cyprus Holdings Limited, PBG Investment Partnership, PBG Midwest Holdings S.a r.l, PBG Soda Can Holdings S.a r.l, PCBL LLC, PCNA Manufacturing Inc., PR Beverages Cyprus Holding Limited, PR Beverages Cyprus Russia Holding Limited, PRB Luxembourg S.a r.l, PRS Inc., PSAS Inversiones LLC, PSE Logistica S.R.L., PT Quaker Indonesia, Papas Chips S.A., Pei N.V., Pep Trade LLC, Pepsi B.V., Pepsi Beverages Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Global Finance LLC, Pepsi Bottling Group GmbH, Pepsi Bottling Group Hoosiers B.V., Pepsi Bottling Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bugshan Investments S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Colombia Ltda, Pepsi Cola Egypt S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Panamericana S.R.L., Pepsi Cola Servis Ve Dagitim Limited Sirketi, Pepsi Cola Trading Ireland, Pepsi Logistics Company Inc., Pepsi Northwest Beverages LLC, Pepsi Overseas Investments Partnership, Pepsi Promotions Inc., Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Marketing Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bermuda Limited, Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Holding C.V., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company Of St. Louis Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach LLC, Pepsi-Cola Company, Pepsi-Cola Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Pepsi-Cola Far East Trade Development Co. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Finance LLC, Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers Poland Sp. z o.o., Pepsi-Cola Industrial da Amazonia Ltda., Pepsi-Cola International Cork, Pepsi-Cola International LLC, Pepsi-Cola International Limited, Pepsi-Cola International Limited U.S.A., Pepsi-Cola International Private Limited, Pepsi-Cola Korea Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Management and Administrative Services Inc., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Company Of Uruguay S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing International Limited, Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Mediterranean Limited, Pepsi-Cola Marketing Corp. Of P.R. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mediterranean Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Metropolitan Bottling Company Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mexicana Holdings LLC, Pepsi-Cola Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Pepsi-Cola National Marketing LLC, Pepsi-Cola Operating Company Of Chesapeake And Indianapolis, Pepsi-Cola Sales and Distribution Inc., Pepsi-Cola Technical Operations Inc., Pepsi-Cola Thai Trading Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola de Honduras S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola of Corvallis Inc., PepsiAmericas Nemzetkozi Szolgaltato Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, PepsiCo ANZ Holdings Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Alimentos Antioquia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Colombia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Ecuador Cia. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Z.F. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos de Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Amacoco Bebidas Do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCo Asia Research & Development Center Company Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Cyprus Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Limited Partnership, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 1 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 2 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Australia Holdings Pty Limited, PepsiCo Australia International, PepsiCo Austria Services GmbH, PepsiCo Azerbaijan Limited Liability Company, PepsiCo BeLux BV, PepsiCo Beverage Sales LLC, PepsiCo Beverage Singapore Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Beverages Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Beverages International Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Italia Societa' A Responsabilita' Limitata, PepsiCo Canada Finance LLC, PepsiCo Canada Holdings ULC, PepsiCo Canada Investment ULC, PepsiCo Canada ULC, PepsiCo Captive Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Caribbean Inc., PepsiCo China Limited, PepsiCo Consulting Polska Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo De Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Del Paraguay S.R.L., PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH, PepsiCo Eesti AS, PepsiCo Euro Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Euro Finance Antilles B.V., PepsiCo Europe Support Center S.L., PepsiCo Finance Americas Company, PepsiCo Finance Antilles A N.V., PepsiCo Finance Antilles B N.V., PepsiCo Finance South Africa Proprietary Limited, PepsiCo Financial Shared Services Inc., PepsiCo Food & Beverage Holdings Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Foods A.I.E., PepsiCo Foods China Company Limited, PepsiCo Foods Group Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Foods Guangdong Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Nigeria Limited, PepsiCo Foods Private Limited, PepsiCo Foods Sichuan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Taiwan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Vietnam Company, PepsiCo France SAS, PepsiCo Global Business Services India LLP, PepsiCo Global Business Services Poland Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Global Holdings Limited, PepsiCo Global Investments B.V., PepsiCo Global Investments S.a r.l, PepsiCo Global Mobility LLC, PepsiCo Global Real Estate Inc., PepsiCo Global Trading Solutions Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Golden Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Group Finance International B.V., PepsiCo Group Holdings International B.V., PepsiCo Group Spotswood Holdings S.a r.l, PepsiCo Gulf International FZE, PepsiCo Hellas Single Member Industrial and Commercial Societe Anonyme, PepsiCo Holding de Espana S.L., PepsiCo Holdings, PepsiCo Holdings LLC, PepsiCo Holdings Toshkent LLC, PepsiCo Hong Kong LLC, PepsiCo Iberia Servicios Centrales S.L., PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited, PepsiCo India Sales Private Limited, PepsiCo Internacional Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., PepsiCo International Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo International Limited, PepsiCo International Pte Ltd., PepsiCo Investments Europe I B.V., PepsiCo Investments Ltd., PepsiCo Ireland Food & Beverages Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Japan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Light B.V., PepsiCo Logistyka Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., PepsiCo Management Services SAS, PepsiCo Manufacturing A.I.E., PepsiCo Max B.V., PepsiCo Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo Nederland B.V., PepsiCo Nordic Denmark ApS, PepsiCo Nordic Finland Oy, PepsiCo Nordic Norway AS, PepsiCo Nutrition Trading DMCC, PepsiCo One B.V., PepsiCo Overseas Corporation, PepsiCo Overseas Financing Partnership, PepsiCo Panimex Inc, PepsiCo Products B.V., PepsiCo Products FLLC, PepsiCo Puerto Rico Inc., PepsiCo Sales Inc., PepsiCo Sales LLC, PepsiCo Services Asia Ltd., PepsiCo Services CZ s.r.o., PepsiCo Services LLC, PepsiCo Twist B.V., PepsiCo UK Pension Plan Trustee Limited, PepsiCo Ventures B.V., PepsiCo Wave Holdings LLC, PepsiCo World Trading Company Inc., PepsiCo Y LLC, PepsiCo de Argentina S.R.L., PepsiCo de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo do Brasil Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Ltda., PepsiCo do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCola Interamericana de Guatemala S.A., Pet Iberia S.L., Pete & Johnny Limited, Pine International LLC, Pine International Limited, Pinstripe Leasing LLC, Pioneer Food Group Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Groceries Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Group Ltd., Pioneer Foods Holdings Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods UK Ltd, Pioneer Foods Wellingtons Pty Ltd, Pipers Crisps Limited, PlayCo Inc., Pop corners, PopCorners Holdings Inc., Portfolio Concentrate Solutions Unlimited Company, Premier Nutrition Trading L.L.C., Prestwick LLC, Prev PepsiCo Sociedade Previdenciaria, Productos Alimenticios Rene LLC, Productos S.A.S. C.V., Productos SAS Management B.V., Punch N.V., Punica Getranke GmbH, Q O Puerto Rico Inc., QFL OHQ Sdn. Bhd., QTG Development Inc., QTG Services Inc., Quadrant - Amroq Beverages S.R.L., Quaker Development B.V., Quaker European Beverages LLC, Quaker European Investments B.V., Quaker Foods, Quaker Global Investments B.V., Quaker Holdings UK Limited, Quaker Manufacturing LLC, Quaker Oats Asia Inc., Quaker Oats Australia Pty Ltd, Quaker Oats B.V., Quaker Oats Capital Corporation, Quaker Oats Europe Inc., Quaker Oats Europe LLC, Quaker Oats Limited, Quaker Sales & Distribution Inc, Raptas Finance S.a r.l., Rare Fare Foods LLC, Rare Fare Holdings Inc., Reading Industries Ltd, Real Estate Holdings LLC, Rockstar Energy Drink, Rolling Frito-Lay Sales LP, S & T of Mississippi Inc., SIH International LLC, SVC Logistics Inc., SVC Manufacturing Inc., SVE Russia Holdings GmbH, Sabritas LLC, Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Sabritas Snacks America Latina de Nicaragua y Cia Ltda, Sabritas de Costa Rica S. de R.L., Sabritas y Cia. S en C de C.V., Sakata Rice Snacks Australia Pty Ltd, Sandora Holdings B.V., Saudi Snack Foods Company Limited, Sea Eagle International SRL, Seepoint Holdings Ltd., Senselet Food Processing PLC, Senselet Holding B.V., Servicios GBF Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Servicios GFLG y Compania Limitada, Servicios Gamesa Puerto Rico L.L.C., Servicios SYC S. de R.L. de C.V., Seven-Up Asia Inc., Seven-Up Light B.V., Seven-Up Nederland B.V., Shanghai PepsiCo Snack Company Limited, Shanghai YuHo Agricultural Development Co. Ltd, Shoebill LLC, Simba (Proprietary) Limited, Simba Proprietary Limited, Sitka Spruce, Smartfoods Inc., Smiles and Bites Holdings S.de R.L. de C.V., Smiths Crisps Limited, Snack Food Investments GmbH, Snack Food Investments II GmbH, Snack Food Investments Limited, Snack Food-Beverage Asia Products Limited, Snacks America Latina S.R.L., Snacks Guatemala Ltd., So Spark Ltd., Soda-Club CO2 Atlantic GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 Ltd., Soda-Club Switzerland GmbH, Soda-Club Worldwide B.V., SodaStream, SodaStream Australia Pty Ltd, SodaStream CO2 SA, SodaStream Canada Ltd., SodaStream Enterprises N.V., SodaStream France SAS, SodaStream GmbH, SodaStream Iberia S.L., SodaStream Industries Ltd., SodaStream International B.V., SodaStream International Ltd., SodaStream Israel Ltd., SodaStream K.K., SodaStream New Zealand Ltd., SodaStream Nordics AB, SodaStream Poland Sp. z o.o., SodaStream SA Pty Ltd., SodaStream Switzerland GmbH, SodaStream USA Inc., SodaStream Osterreich GmbH, South Beach Beverage Company Inc., South Properties Inc., Spitz International Inc., Sportmex Internacional S.A. de C.V., Springboig Industries Ltd, Spruce Limited, Stacy's Pita Chip Company Incorporated, Star Foods E.M. S.R.L., Stokely-Van Camp Inc., Stratosphere Communications Pty Ltd, Stratosphere Holdings 2018 Limited, Streamfoods Ltd, TFL Holdings LLC, Tasman Finance S.a r.l, The Gatorade Company, The Good Carb Food Company Ltd., The Pepsi Bottling Group Canada ULC, The Quaker Oats Company, The Smith's Snackfood Company Pty Limited, Thomond Group Holdings Limited, Tobago Snack Holdings LLC, Tropicana Alvalle S.L., Tropicana Beverages Limited, Tropicana Europe N.V., Tropicana United Kingdom Limited, Troya-Ultra LLC, United Foods Companies Restaurantes S.A., V-Water, VentureCo Israel Ltd, Veurne Snack Foods BV, Vitamin Brands Ltd., Walkers Crisps Limited, Walkers Group Limited, Walkers Snack Foods Limited, Walkers Snacks Distribution Limited, Walkers Snacks Limited, Whitman Corporation, Whitman Insurance Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Beverages JSC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Brands Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Central Asia-Almaty LLP, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods LLC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Georgia Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann JSC, and Wimm-Bill-Dann Ukraine PJSC.

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Ecopetrol S.A. operates as an integrated energy company. The company operates through four segments: Exploration and Production; Transport and Logistics; Refining, Petrochemical and Biofuels; and Electric Power Transmission and Toll Roads Concessions. It engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas; transportation of crude oil, motor fuels, fuel oil, and other refined products, including diesel, jet, and biofuels; processing and refining crude oil; distribution of natural gas and LPG; sale of refined and petrochemical products; supplying of electric power transmission services; design, development, construction, operation, and maintenance of road and energy infrastructure projects; and supplying of information technology and telecommunications services. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 9,127 kilometers of crude oil and multi-purpose pipelines. It also produces and commercializes polypropylene resins and compounds, and masterbatches; and offers industrial service sales to customers and specialized management services. It has operations in Colombia, the United States, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and internationally. The company was formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos and changed its name to Ecopetrol S.A. in June 2003. Ecopetrol S.A. was incorporated in 1948 and is based in Bogota, Colombia.
Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers. It also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches; and juniper access points, which provide Wi-Fi access and performance. In addition, the company offers security products comprising SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP. Further, it offers Junos OS, a network operating system; Contrail networking, which provides an open-source and standards-based platform for SDN; Mist AI-driven Wired, Wireless, and WAN assurance solutions to set and measure key metrics; Mist AI-driven Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which identifies the root cause of issues; Juniper Paragon Automation, a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications; and Juniper Apstra to automate the network lifecycle in a single system. Additionally, the company provides software-as-a-service, technical support, maintenance, and professional services, as well as education and training programs. It sells its products through direct sales, distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturers to end-users in the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Koninklijke Philips N.V. operates as a health technology company in North America and internationally. It operates through Diagnosis & Treatment Businesses, Connected Care Businesses, and Personal Health Businesses segments. The company provides diagnostic imaging solutions, includes magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography (CT) systems, X-ray systems, and detector-based spectral CT solutions, as well as molecular and hybrid imaging solutions for nuclear medicine; integrated interventional systems; echography solutions focused on diagnosis, treatment planning and guidance for cardiology, general imaging, obstetrics/gynecology, and point-of-care applications; proprietary software to enable diagnostics and intervention; and enterprise diagnostic informatics products and services. It also offers acute patient management solutions; emergency care solutions; sleep and respiratory care solutions; and electronic medical record and care management solutions. In addition, the company provides power toothbrushes, brush heads, and interdental cleaning and teeth whitening products; infant feeding and digital parental solutions; and male grooming and beauty products and solutions. It has a strategic collaboration with Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. to jointly promote the digital pathology and AI solutions to hospitals, health networks, and pathology laboratories worldwide, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with NICO.LAB. The company was formerly known as Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. and changed its name to Koninklijke Philips N.V. in May 2013. Koninklijke Philips N.V. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan.

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The Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) said that it expects 900,000 passengers to visit the Port of Keelung in 2017, 34 percent up on 2016.

The TIPC said, in a prepared statement, that the rise was due to more large ships visiting regularly, and offering domestic travelers a wide range of vacation options.

Bruce Krumrine, vice president, shore excursions of Holland America Group, was recently in Taiwan for in-depth talks, according to the TIPC.

The in-depth discussions during the visit centered on ongoing cruise-related infrastructure improvements at Keelung and Mr. Krumrines practical suggestions, the statement read.

Mr. Krumrine noted that the Port of Keelung possessed the rare advantage of being able to receive large cruise ships in the heart of the city. He further noted that Taiwan already holds an important place in the Asia cruise travel market. The Port of Keelung, he suggested, while retaining its advantageous inner harbor cruise-ship births, should add new cruise ship wharves along the outer harbor in order to ensure adequate parking for tour buses and space for baggage handling facilities.

Current plans call for the potential of up to three cruise ship homeport wharves which will add significant capacity to Keelung, which is coming off a record day on June 30 when it hosted the Majestic Princess, SuperStar Virgo and SuperStar Aquarius, as well as two smaller local vessels.

There are improvements underway in Kaohsiung as well, as new boarding bridges were recently introduced to better serve large vessels. The new bridge system was first put to the test with a call from the SuperStar Virgo. The new passenger bridges are 10 meters high and 31 meters long, and can be extended to meet the tip. They weigh 45 tons and span three levels.

In addition, the Port of Kaohsiung has recently opened an air-conditioned, enclosed corridor linking the cruise-ship wharf to the International Travel Center. The corridor, which keeps cruise passengers in comfort and safe from the elements, is lined with photographs of Kaohsiung City sites and photographs of the port.

Port administrators noted that when the new Port of Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center is completed, it will be connected by a pair of suspension bridges that lead directly to the ship.
Enbridge Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States. The Gas Transmission and Midstream segment invests in natural gas pipelines, and gathering and processing facilities in Canada and the United States. The Gas Distribution and Storage segment is involved in natural gas utility operations serving residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Ontario, as well as natural gas distribution and energy transportation activities in Quebec. The Renewable Power Generation segment operates power generating assets, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and waste heat recovery facilities; and transmission assets in North America and Europe. The Energy Services segment provides energy marketing services to refiners, producers, and other customers; and physical commodity marketing and logistical services in Canada and the United States. The company was formerly known as IPL Energy Inc. and changed its name to Enbridge Inc. in October 1998. Enbridge Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
The country that gave the world the siesta is taking midday sleep to a whole new level. At Siesta & Go, Madrids first nap bar, patrons craving R&R can book space to take a snooze break before going back to their busy lives.

Siesta & Go is Spains first centre dedicated solely to slumber. Guests can book space by the minute or by the hour, or just walk in and see if any of the 19 beds are available. Siesta & Go offers both private and shared rooms, as well as cosy armchairs and workspace if you need to catch up on emails. A private room will set you back around US$15 per hour, while the cheapest option, a top bunk in a shared room, runs about US$9.

Like a hotel, the nap bar also offers amenities. There are newspapers, slippers, earplugs, nightshirts, and Wi-Fi, as well as coffee (which seems at odds with the sleep theme, but who are we to question the experts?). All bedding and clothing is single-use and professionally cleaned between patrons.

Its funny that were known for the siesta, but we havent been professional about it, said Maria Estrella Jorro De Inza, the nap bars 32-year-old founder, to Bloomberg. We get a lot of men in suits who just want to relax and women wanting to take their heels off. Lunch break is the busiest time.

Madrid isnt the first city to experiment with sleep-focused establishments. Airports around the world are increasingly adding dedicated nap zones to their offerings, and capitals like London and Tokyo have tested concepts similar to Siesta & Go. In fact, it was Japans capsule hotels and nap cafes that initially inspired De Inza to bring the idea to Spain.

Siesta & Go, which opened in May, is proving to be an ideal place to recover from a red eye or recharge between bouts of sightseeing and tapas. Should you find yourself in Madrid, heres where you can book a bed for some afternoon Zzzz
Robots need to guess what they're seeing better, even when parts are hidden from view

DURHAM, N.C. -- Autonomous robots can inspect nuclear power plants, clean up oil spills in the ocean, accompany fighter planes into combat and explore the surface of Mars.

Yet for all their talents, robots still can't make a cup of tea.

That's because tasks such as turning the stove on, fetching the kettle and finding the milk and sugar require perceptual abilities that, for most machines, are still a fantasy.

Among them is the ability to make sense of 3-D objects. While it's relatively straightforward for robots to "see" objects with cameras and other sensors, interpreting what they see, from a single glimpse, is more difficult.

Duke University graduate student Ben Burchfiel says the most sophisticated robots in the world can't yet do what most children do automatically, but he and his colleagues may be closer to a solution.

Burchfiel and his thesis advisor George Konidaris, now an assistant professor of computer science at Brown University, have developed new technology that enables machines to make sense of 3-D objects in a richer and more human-like way.

A robot that clears dishes off a table, for example, must be able to adapt to an enormous variety of bowls, platters and plates in different sizes and shapes, left in disarray on a cluttered surface.

Humans can glance at a new object and intuitively know what it is, whether it is right side up, upside down or sideways, in full view or partially obscured by other objects.

Even when an object is partially hidden, we mentally fill in the parts we can't see.

Their robot perception algorithm can simultaneously guess what a new object is, and how it's oriented, without examining it from multiple angles first. It can also "imagine" any parts that are out of view.

A robot with this technology wouldn't need to see every side of a teapot, for example, to know that it probably has a handle, a lid and a spout, and whether it is sitting upright or off-kilter on the stove.

The researchers say their approach, which they presented July 12 at the 2017 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, makes fewer mistakes and is three times faster than the best current methods.

This is an important step toward robots that function alongside humans in homes and other real-world settings, which are less orderly and predictable than the highly controlled environment of the lab or the factory floor, Burchfiel said.

With their framework, the robot is given a limited number of training examples, and uses them to generalize to new objects.

"It's impractical to assume a robot has a detailed 3-D model of every possible object it might encounter, in advance," Burchfiel said.

The researchers trained their algorithm on a dataset of roughly 4,000 complete 3-D scans of common household objects: an assortment of bathtubs, beds, chairs, desks, dressers, monitors, nightstands, sofas, tables and toilets.

Each 3-D scan was converted into tens of thousands of little cubes, or voxels, stacked on top of each other like LEGO blocks to make them easier to process.

The algorithm learned categories of objects by combing through examples of each one and figuring out how they vary and how they stay the same, using a version of a technique called probabilistic principal component analysis.

When a robot spots something new -- say, a bunk bed -- it doesn't have to sift through its entire mental catalogue for a match. It learns, from prior examples, what characteristics beds tend to have.

Based on that prior knowledge, it has the power to generalize like a person would -- to understand that two objects may be different, yet share properties that make them both a particular type of furniture.

To test the approach, the researchers fed the algorithm 908 new 3-D examples of the same 10 kinds of household items, viewed from the top.

From this single vantage point, the algorithm correctly guessed what most objects were, and what their overall 3-D shapes should be, including the concealed parts, about 75 percent of the time -- compared with just over 50 percent for the state-of-the-art alternative.

It was also capable of recognizing objects that were rotated in various ways, which the best competing approaches can't do.

While the system is reasonably fast -- the whole process takes about a second -- it is still a far cry from human vision, Burchfiel said.

For one, both their algorithm and previous methods were easily fooled by objects that, from certain perspectives, look similar in shape. They might see a table from above, and mistake it for a dresser.

"Overall, we make a mistake a little less than 25 percent of the time, and the best alternative makes a mistake almost half the time, so it is a big improvement," Burchfiel said. "But it still isn't ready to move into your house. You don't want it putting a pillow in the dishwasher."

Now the team is working on scaling up their approach to enable robots to distinguish between thousands of types of objects at a time.

"Researchers have been teaching robots to recognize 3-D objects for a while now," Burchfield said. What's new, he explained, is the ability to both recognize something and fill in the blind spots in its field of vision, to reconstruct the parts it can't see.

"That has the potential to be invaluable in a lot of robotic applications," Burchfiel said.

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This research was supported in part by The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA (D15AP00104).

CITATION: "Bayesian Eigenobjects: A Unified Framework for 3D Robot Perception," Benjamin Burchfiel and George Konidaris. RSS 2017, July 12-16, 2017, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Heavy rain resulted in significant flooding in the U.S. Midwest over the week of July 7 to 14, 2017. Using satellite data, NASA estimated the amount of rain that fell over those areas and used satellite data to create 3-D imagery of severe storms.

NASA's Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data were used to show estimates of rainfall accumulation in the Midwest during the period from July 7 to 14, 2017. The analysis was conducted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and indicates that parts of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio had the highest rainfall totals during the period with more than 6 inches (152.4 mm) of rain being seen in many areas.

On July 9, 10 and 11, severe thunderstorms spawned tornadoes in the Midwest. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission, or GPM, core observatory satellite flew above the area when tornadoes were being sighted in northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio storms on July 10 at 9:01 p.m. EDT (July 11 at 0101 UTC). One of those tornadoes was spotted in Huntington County, Indiana, at almost the same time that the satellite was scanning that area. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

At NASA Goddard a 3-D view of the rainfall structure in the July 10 storm was constructed using data collected when GPM's Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instrument scanned the storm. Those GPM radar data showed that a few powerful thunderstorms had tops that were reaching altitudes above 9.1 miles (14.7 km). Rain was measured by GPM's Radar (DPR Ku Band) falling at a rate of more than 2.5 inches (64 mm) per hour.

Water from the storms over those seven days flowing into the Fox River in northeastern Illinois caused serious flooding in that area. Central Indiana and central Ohio have also had remarkable flooding.

On Friday July 14 NOAA's National Weather Service in Milwaukee issued a flood statement for the Fox River at Burlington and near New Munster in addition to the Root River Canal at Raymond.

NOAA's National Weather Service in Chicago continued river flood warnings for the Des Plaines River and the Fox River. The warning included the Des Plaines River: near Russell, near Gurnee and at Lincolnshire, all affecting Lake County. Additional warnings affecting Cook County included the Des Plaines River near Des Plaines, at River Forest and at Riverside. The Flood Warning continues for the Fox River at Algonquin Tailwater affecting Kane and McHenry Counties and the Fox River at Montgomery affecting Kane and Kendall Counties.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.weather.gov.

###
PHOENIX and TEMPE, Ariz. -- July 12, 2017 -- Researchers led by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have identified altered expression of a gene called ANK1, which only recently has been associated with memory robbing Alzheimer's disease, in specific cells in the brain.

Using an extremely precise method of isolating cells called "laser capture microdissection," researchers looked at three specific cell types -- microglia, astrocytes and neurons -- in the brain tissue of individuals with a pathological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, and compared them to brain samples from healthy individuals and those with Parkinson's disease.

Following sequencing of each of these cell types, the ASU-TGen led team found that altered ANK1 expression originates in microglia, a type of immune cell found in the brain and central nervous system, according to the study published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

"Although previous genetic and epigenetic-wide association studies had shown a significant association between ANK1 and AD, they were unable to identify the class of cells that may be responsible for such association because of the use of brain homogenates. Here, we provide evidence that microglia are the source of the previously observed differential expression patterns in the ANK1 gene in Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Diego Mastroeni, an Assistant Research Professor at Biodesign's ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, and the study's lead author.

All three of the cell types in this study were derived from the hippocampus, a small looping structure shaped like a seahorse (its name derives from the Greek words for horse and sea monster). The hippocampus resides deep inside the human brain and plays important roles in the consolidation of both short-term and long-term memory, and in the spatial memory that enables the body to navigate.

In Alzheimer's disease -- and other forms of dementia -- the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage, resulting in short-term memory loss and disorientation. Individuals with extensive damage to the hippocampus are unable to form and retain new memories.

"Using our unique data set, we show that in the hippocampus, ANK1 is significantly increased four-fold in Alzheimer's disease microglia, but not in neurons or astrocytes from the same individuals," said Dr. Winnie Liang, an Assistant Professor, Director of TGen Scientific Operations and Director of TGen's Collaborative Sequencing Center. "These findings emphasize that expression analysis of defined classes of cells is required to understand what genes and pathways are dysregulated in Alzheimer's."

Alzheimer's features many signs of chronic inflammation, and microglia are key regulators of the inflammatory cascade, proposed as an early event in the development of Alzheimer's, the study said.

Because the study found that ANK1 also was increased two-fold in Parkinson's disease, "these data suggest that alterations in ANK1, at lease in microglia, may not be disease specific, but rather a response, or phenotype associated with neurodegeneration ... more specifically, neuroinflammation."

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, an irreversible and progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory, thinking skills and eventually the ability to conduct even the simplest of tasks. For most patients, symptoms first appear in the mid-60s. For older Americans, it is the third leading cause of death, following heart disease and cancer, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"The success of this, and many other studies, owes a great deal to the support and collaborative nature of the people of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium. The results obtained in this work emphasize the importance of methods that enable us to characterize the molecular profile of defined cells, either as a group or as single cells, that have been defined by any of several means," said Dr. Paul Coleman, Research Professor at Biodesign's ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, and the study's senior author.

Dr. Eric Reiman, Director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium and Clinical Director of Neurogenomics at TGen, said: "This study demonstrates the value of bringing together talented researchers from different disciplines and organizations to advance the scientific fight against Alzheimer's disease."

###

Also contributing to this study were: Banner Sun Health Research Institute; University of Exeter Medical School; and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London.

The study -- ANK1 is up-regulated in Laser Captured Microglia in Alzheimer's brain; the importance of addressing cellular heterogeneity -- was funded by the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission, and the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium. The consortium's annual scientific symposium was May 18 at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix, where the authors presented details of these findings.

About TGen

Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. TGen is focused on helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer, and diabetes, through cutting edge translational research (the process of rapidly moving research towards patient benefit). TGen physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of both common and rare complex diseases in adults and children. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities literally worldwide, TGen makes a substantial contribution to help our patients through efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. TGen is allied with City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and cancer and diabetes treatment center. This precision medicine alliance enables both institutes to complement each other in research and patient care, with City of Hope providing a significant clinical setting to advance scientific discoveries made by TGen. For more information, visit: http://www.tgen.org. Follow TGen on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @TGen.

Media Contact:

Steve Yozwiak

TGen Senior Science Writer

602-343-8704

syozwiak@tgen.org

About the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium

The Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium (AAC) is the nation's leading model of statewide collaboration in Alzheimer's disease research. Established in 1998, the Consortium capitalizes on its participating institutions' complementary strengths in brain imaging computer science, genomics, the basic and cognitive neurosciences and clinical and neuropathology research to promote the scientific understanding and early detection of Alzheimer's disease and find effective disease-stopping and prevention therapies. It also seeks to educate Arizona residents about Alzheimer's disease, research progress in the state and the resources needed to help patients, families and professionals manage the disease. For more information, visit: azalz.org.
Despite 15 years of investment in the Afghan health care sector by the international community, vulnerable groups -- including persons with disabilities -- cite a growing rate of insufficient access to quality health care, finds a new Washington University in St. Louis study published July 14 in the journal Lancet Global Health.

"We find that access to quality health care has decreased significantly between 2004 and 2014," said Jean-Francois Trani, associate professor and lead author of the study, "Assessment of Progress Towards Universal Health Coverage for People with Disabilities in Afghanistan: A Multilevel Analysis of Repeated Cross-sectional Surveys."

The study used data from two representative household surveys, one done in 2005 and one in 2013, in 13 provinces of Afghanistan. Surveys included questions about activity limitations and functioning difficulties, socioeconomic factors, perceived availability of health care and experience with coverage of health care needs.

Between 2005 and 2013, Trani wrote in the study, there was a striking, 25-percent increase in the proportion of survey respondents for whom health care was not available (31 percent to 56 percent) and whose experience with coverage of health care needs was negative (23 percent to 55 percent).

Respondents with disabilities in the 2013 survey were more than three times less likely to report availability of health care than those in the 2005 survey.

Even after taking village remoteness into account, the time for people with disabilities to reach a health care facility was longer and connectivity by paved roads was worse in 2013 than in 2005.

To reverse this trend, a multilevel intervention is necessary to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 3 of universal healthcare coverage, Trani said.

"First, we must promote a community-based health care and education system to promote hygiene and prevention of diseases, treat common childhood disorders, communicable diseases, such as malaria, and provide basic reproductive health advice, which will contribute to the prevention of many disabilities," he said.

"We need to train community health workers to assess disabilities, address stigma associated with disability and increase referral and providing of free transportation and free access to hospitals," said Trani, a member of the university's Global Research on Inclusion and Disability team.

"Yet, such a program will only be effective if a political solution to the ongoing conflict is successfully sought," he said.

###

Co-authors on the paper are Brown School graduate students Ellis Ballard and Praveen Kumar, and Tarani Chandola of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester.

The study was funded by the Swedish International Development Agency.
Fire managers continued to use aviation Saturday to monitor the Slide Rock fire, which covers 40 acres about 27 miles east of Missoula. Strong and gusty winds Friday afternoon pushed the fire slightly to the northeast, but there was no significant fire growth.

The fire covers remote and inaccessible terrain, so crews are using both ground and air resources to contain it. One heavy tanker, two single-engine air tankers and three helicopters were assigned to the fire. There are no communities near the fire, but trail and road closures are in place.

Firefighters continue to fight five blazes elsewhere in northwestern Montana as chances of dry lightning and storms loomed Saturday afternoon. A total of 455 personnel are working to contain the fires.

On Saturday, 300 firefighters battled the 1,145-acre Lazier Creek 3 fire, south of Highway 2 and west of Thompson River Road. The fire was 40 percent contained.

Were just keeping an eye on the weather, said Fire Information Officer Anna Callahan. They did expect potentially gusty winds with some of these storms, but it is cooler so it might ease up a little bit.

The Rogers Mountain fire, located 3 miles northwest of Happys Inn, was 75 percent contained, with 69 firefighters battling the blaze.

The three smaller fires in the area are all either completely contained, or at least 90 percent contained. Crews focused on monitoring the fully contained Grubb fire north of Pleasant Valley, which covers 16 acres. The other two, northwest Meadow Peak fire and the 2645 fire, were being mopped up 200 feet from the control edge area into the burned area.

Callahan said Fridays thunder storms didnt start any new fires in the area.

An expected cold front Sunday could bring gusty winds to the area. Temperatures are expected to drop to the mid-80s.

The Thompson River Road is closed at the junction with Highway 2 south to the 28 mile marker.

Officials continue to warn people not to park in dry grass or shrubbery, as exhaust pipes and vehicle undercarriages can get extremely hot and could ignite new fires.
Saturday, July 15, 2017

In the second letter of her column on July 14, Dear Abby ran a letter from a woman whose father put all his vital information into a notebook he called Jacks Doomsday Book. It contained account numbers and balances, names of banks, passwords, locations of documents and other detailed instructions on how to take over his responsibilities if he was incapacitated. He always said that if something happened to him, to find that notebook in which everything was written down.

This is excellent advice. I hope you are taking note of this tip and actually pulling this information together. Why is this a good idea?

The author wrote: I didnt have to go searching through paperwork to figure out what was what. I knew the banks I had to go to and what to bring. It was all there, down to the changes he had made after Mom passed. Even our financial adviser was impressed at how easy Dad made everything for us. Everyone should have a doomsday book.

Dear Abby replied:

I couldnt agree more. I admire your fathers pragmatism. Too many adults fail to plan ahead for this kind of inevitability, which causes additional problems for survivors at a time when they are trying to cope with their grief. Readers, if you havent already done something similar, you should consider it.

If you need some motivation to pull your information together, download the free 50-point Executors Checklist from KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Seeing everything that needs to be done to close down an estate is a sobering reminder of how vital it is to create your own Doomsday Book.

You can also get a good start on collecting the information needed with the free planning form at AGoodGoodbye.com. Just enter your name, email and zip code in the box on the right side of the screen and youll get instant access to a downloadable Word or PDF document.

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Disney (DIS 5.03%) is hosting its D23 fan expo this weekend, and theme park buffs already know that the big presentation will take place on Saturday afternoon when Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek takes the stage. His presentation will feature a glimpse into upcoming attractions at Disney's global network of theme parks.

Disney World remains Disney's largest resort, home to four of the country's five most visited theme parks. Disney's theme parks business represents just 31% of Disney's revenue and 21% of its segment operating income, but as the larger cable business continues to languish it's going to have to step up and carry the growth baton. Upgrades at all four of its Disney World parks is important, especially after attendance declined last year.

We know that Toy Story Land is coming in 2018 and Star Wars Land in 2019. Chapek is likely to peel back the curtain of new attractions that Disney has to officially announce. The internet's alive with chatter, but most of it will never happen. Let's go park by park, handicapping the chances of the rumored additions being announced Saturday afternoon.

Epcot

Chapek announced late last year that Epcot will be going through a major transformation. It's been Disney's slowest growing park in recent years, and the addition of Frozen Ever After and a globally inspired Soarin' update failed to drum up guest visits. Epcot needs to turn things up a notch, and Disney knows it.

Guardians of the Galaxy ride (3-to-1 odds) -- Disney is limited in the Marvel properties that it can incorporate into its Florida parks given the licensing deal that Marvel struck with Comcast 's CMCSA 3.81% )

's Ratatouille (4-to-1) -- Disney's World Showcase has become a popular place for folks seeking international cuisine and libations, but there's not a lack of rides for folks interested in a more traditional Disney experience. A trackless dark ride themed to Pixar's Ratatouille starring the French rodent chef opened in Disneyland Paris in 2014. There's also some permit filing that suggests it may be coming to the World Showcase adjacent to the France pavilion.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney World's least visited park is finally getting the TLC it's been needing for years. One would think that Toy Story Land and more importantly Star Wars Land will be enough, but that may not be all that's in store for the park.

The Great Mickey Ride (8-to-1) -- One of the few original remaining attractions at Disney's Hollywood Studios is The Great Movie Ride, a tribute to Hollywood classics over the decades. The attraction is housed behind the facade of the iconic Grauman's Chinese Theater. Its contract with TCM supposedly expires next year, freeing Disney to give the space a long overdue Mickey Mouse-themed ride. Recent permit requests suggest that changes may be coming to The Great Movie Ride, breathing new life into this earlier rumor.

Disney's Hollywood Adventure (10-to-1) -- Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed two years ago -- at the company's shareholder meeting -- that Disney's Hollywood Studios was considering a name change. The park has been shuttering its studio-centric attractions including a backlot tram tour and its animation clinics. A popular replacement name that's been bandied about for a couple of years is Disney's Hollywood Adventure. A name change will come, but it may wait until after Star Wars Land opens as the mother of all exclamation points.

Magic Kingdom

Disney World's Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park on the planet, but even it isn't immune to needle-moving expansions. It's been a few years since New Fantasyland opened, making it a prime candidate for something new.

Wreck-It Ralph attraction (4-to-1) -- A Wreck-It Ralph themed update to the offbeat Stitch Encounter attraction is being mentioned in several online circles. It's an odd suggestion since it doesn't make sense in Tomorrowland. Disney also just closed DisneyQuest, its haven for gamers that included a proprietary Wreck-It Ralph video game. However, Stitch Encounter is due for a makeover, and more importantly there's a Wreck-It Ralph sequel hitting theaters come March 2018.

Tron Lightcycle Power Run (12-to-1) -- A Tron-themed coaster where guests board glowing motorbikes is a big hit at Shanghai Disneyland, and WDW News Today "confirmed" earlier this month that the thrill ride will replace the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland Speedway. It doesn't seem like a big enough footprint to duplicate the Shanghai attraction, and it may be too soon to announce unless the speedway will be closing soon.

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Announcing a major addition to Disney's animal-centric park is unlikely. The park is still basking from May's debut of Pandora -- The World of Avatar. However, fans can always dream about Disneyland's Indiana Jones ride coming over. The only realistic thing that may be announced for Disney's Animal Kingdom is the Club 33 high-end membership lounge expansion that Disney revealed earlier this year would be coming to all four Disney World parks.

Saturday afternoon is going to be interesting for both Disney theme park fans as well as investors who realize how much of the heavy lifting will have to come from this segment.
Despite the support of OPEC, crude prices remain in the doldrums again this year. While many initially expected that oil would stay in the mid-$50s, it has fallen well short of those forecasts, spending most of the year in the $40s. Driving down prices has been a combination of weaker demand growth and unexpectedly robust production from U.S. shale producers as well as Libya and Nigeria, which are both exempt from OPEC's output cuts.

That said, the longer oil stays lower, the greater the risk it rockets higher in the future. That's because weaker pricing continues to cause producers to curb long-term investment. In fact, the industry has deferred or delayed $2 trillion of oil projects due to pricing. It's a situation that might cause an oil supply shortage as early as 2020, which could send prices higher.

Sounding the alarm

Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) put out an update to its five-year oil market forecast. The IEA's conclusion was that "global oil supply could struggle to keep pace with demand after 2020, risking a sharp increase in prices, unless new projects are approved soon." It's not alone in issuing a warning to the industry that it needs to start green-lighting new oil projects. One of the most recent voices of concern came from Mark Richard, who is a senior executive for oil-field services giant Halliburton (HAL 2.46%). He recently told the World Petroleum Congress that "the market is going to catch up... you'll see some kind of spike in the price of oil. Maybe somewhere around 2020-2021, but it's got to catch up sooner or later."

Two factors are fueling this concern. First, global oil demand continues to expand. In fact, after a weak first quarter where it only grew by 1 million barrels per day (MMbpd), the IEA noted that demand growth accelerated to 1.5 MMbpd in the second quarter. That led the agency to boost its full-year demand forecast by 100,000 bpd to 1.4 MMbpd, with expectations that the market will expand by another 1.4 MMbpd next year and reach an average of 99.4 MMbpd. Overall, the IEA doesn't expect oil demand to stop expanding until 2040, though growth in the future should come at a slower pace.

Meanwhile, global crude supplies from legacy fields continue to decline and deplete. According to a study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the output from the average oil field outside of OPEC drops by 5% per year. Consequently, the industry needs to add 2.8 MMbpd of new supply just to replace this lost production. When you add in demand growth, the gap widens.

Shale can't rescue the market

While surging output from U.S. shale plays will help fill some of that gap, it alone can't plug that hole. According to the IEA, if oil averages $60 per barrel, shale drillers could potentially add 1.4 MMpbd of new supply per day by 2022. Fueling that growth are companies like EOG Resources (EOG 3.37%) and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD 4.15%), which thanks to their low costs, can expand output at a brisk pace even at lower prices. In EOG Resources case, it could grow its oil production by 25% annually through 2020 at $60 oil. Meanwhile, Pioneer Natural Resource can increase its oil equivalent production by a 15% annual rate for nearly a decade at $55 oil. That said, other shale drillers need higher oil prices to drive that level of growth, which is why the IEA thinks that the industry could expand production by 3 MMbpd barrels per day by 2022, topping 7 MMbpd, if oil climbed to $80 a barrel.

However, with demand expected to reach 104 MMbpd by 2022, the industry needs more than just shale. The problem is that other oil projects take much longer to develop. While EOG Resources can turn a shale well into production in a matter of months, a large offshore project takes years and billions of dollars to develop. For example, Chevron (CVX 2.85%), Hess (HES 4.11%), and other partners are developing the Stampede deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico. Initially sanctioned in 2014, the Hess-operated project won't deliver first oil until next year, though at its peak, the $6 billion oil project should produce about 80,000 bpd.

Given that long lead time, major oil producers like Chevron will need to sanction additional long-term oil projects to meet the market's anticipated demand early next decade. That said, given where oil is right now, producers are reluctant to make those commitments until they can get costs down. Because of that, Halliburton's Richard stated that the timing of new project approvals "depends how quickly we can get to those price points [down] and how quickly our customers are able to see that their investment is going to be solid for the long term."

That's what Chevron is trying to do with its Rosebank project in the U.K. North Sea. The oil giant was initially on track to approve the $10 billion project in 2013, but it put those plans on hold due to rising costs. Chevron is now working on a scaled-down version that it hopes to sanction by 2019. However, even if it meets that accelerated timeline, the project still wouldn't produce a drop of oil until 2022. That long lead time means that the industry is going to have to look at approving more medium-term projects just to ensure that it has the oil it needs come 2020, when supplies could really start to tighten.

Investor takeaway

Oil might be down right now, but it doesn't look like it will stay there forever. Steady depletion of legacy fields, when met with consistent demand growth, could cause a growing shortfall in just a few years. That could push prices exponentially higher unless the industry starts approving more major projects that would come on line in a few years when the industry will need the supply. That forecast suggests that low-cost oil producers could thrive in the years ahead, which is why investors should consider parking some money in the oil patch.
From the Romanian border to the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in occupied Crimea is a distance of less than 200 miles by boat (or warplane). A Su-27 fighter jet stationed in Moldova's breakaway Russian-backed province of Transnistria could reach the Romanian border -- just 75 miles -- in less than three minutes.

Those two facts tell you why NATO member Romania wants to beef up its air defenses, and why the U.S. government is going to oblige it with that request.

Missiles for peace

Last week, in a busy day for Congress, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified legislators of multiple arms sale contracts in the works. As DSCA advised, the U.S. State Department has approved plans to sell 120mm tank rounds to Australia, ship Hellfire missiles to the Netherlands, and yes -- sell Romania a whopping $3.9 billion worth of Patriot air defense systems and missiles for them to shoot.

As DSCA related, Romania wants to buy:

twenty-eight M903 launching stations from Raytheon RTN)

56 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-TBM (GEM-T) missiles (also from Raytheon).

168 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles manufactured by Lockheed Martin LMT -5.48% )

So 28 launchers, and eight missiles per launcher in total.

DSCA was coy in describing its reasons for wanting to make the sale, confiding that the Patriot missiles will "improve the security of a NATO ally," "deter regional threats" and "guard against aggression." Security against (and threats and aggression from) whom was left unsaid. But just to the right of the map up above looms the shadow of Russia, which has invaded two states friendly to NATO in the past decade, and may be hungry for more.

Russia's recent history of aggression in the region explains why Romania wants to buy its Patriots. But what does this sale mean to investors?

What it means to investors

At an average cost of about $3 million apiece, the actual missiles in this missile sale are the smallest part of the deal, comprising only about $672 million of the total sales price. The bulk of this sale, when it becomes final (and it will -- Congress has never rejected an arms deal notified to it by DSCA, ever), will be made up of the sale of the launching systems, control stations, and radar -- which are built by Raytheon.

Thus, while DSCA named both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin as "prime contractors" on the Patriot deal, it's likely that Raytheon will reap the bulk of the revenue -- as much as $3.4 billion out of the $3.9 billion sale. At the robust 14.3% operating profit margin that S&P Global Market Intelligence shows Raytheon earning on these kinds of deals, that means about $485 million more profit in Raytheon's pocket.

Which is a good day's work for Raytheon, indeed.
Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom India launch likely pegged for August News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is coming soon to India.

At the CES 2017 tech show held in January, Asus announced the ZenFone AR and the ZenFone 3 Zoom. It was on Thursday that the ZenFone AR was launched in India at a price point of Rs. 49,999.

Now, it looks like it is time for the company to launch the ZenFone 3 Zoom in India. On the sidelines of the ZenFone AR launch event, the Asus' South Asia and Country Regional Head, Peter Chang stated that they are in plans to launch the ZenFone 3 Zoom sometime soon in India.

Though Chang hasn't revealed any specific launch date for the smartphone in the country, a report 91mobiles report citing their sources claims that the device will be launched in India in the second half of August.

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom boasts of a 5.5-inch FHD 1080p AMOLED display with the Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Under its hood, there is an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor paired with Adreno 506 graphics unit. The device has been announced in different RAM and storage variants such as 3GB/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB/128GB storage space that can be expanded up to 2TB using a microSD card.

Running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow topped with Zen UI 3.0, the ZenFone 3 Zoom features a hybrid dual SIM card slot, 4G VoLTE support, USB Type-C port and a 5000mAh battery. The imaging aspects comprise of a 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, laser AR, PDAF and f/1.7 aperture. Also, there is a secondary camera with f/2.0 aperture and 5P Largen lens. Up front, there is a 13MP selfie camera with a similar aperture and Sony IMX214 sensor.

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Vertu, the luxury phone maker shuts down News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Its time to bid adieu to Vertu phones.

Vertu, the luxury smartphone manufacturer is shutting down their operations in the U.s. In 2015, a Chinese holding firm acquired the company. Following this, in early 2017, a Turkish businessman, Murat Hakan Uzan acquired it for 50 million.

There are reports pointing out that Vertu was running by 128 million deficit despite the fact that it is known for making jewel-crusted and high-end smartphones. It looks like Vertu couldn't fare well lately as it started facing competition from other companies that make smartphones with precious materials. Eventually, they have decided to shut down their operations resulting in the loss of job of their 200 employees. Uzan, the Turkey-based businessman will retain the ownership of the Vertu brand, design licenses, and technology. He is currently residing in Paris.

Vertu, the luxury phone brand was originally launched in 1998. Originally, it was a part of Nokia, the Finnish phone manufacturer that was dominating the market back then.

Vertu is known for making smartphones with diamond, alligator leather, titanium frames, gold and sapphire screens. These smartphones are aimed at the users from the luxury or affluent class. They have always had only a limited market across the globe.

The latest launch from Vertu is the Signature Touch collection ranging from $9,000 to $20,000. Besides the luxury smartphones, the company also offered concierge services 24/7 at part of the device's cost.

Though the operations of Vertu are closed for now, it looks like the businessman Uzan is looking forward to revive the company in the future. However, there is no clarity on the matter for now.

Source: BBC

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Haiti - Justice : The Anti-Spoliation Brigade soon into operation





Following the announcement on July 6 of the creation of a "Task Force", the "Intervention Brigade Against Land Insecurity" (BRICIF) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html , composed of the MJSP, the Office of the Secretary of State for Public Security, the Port-au-Prince Public Prosecutor's Office and the National Police of Haiti (PNH), the Minister of Justice Heidi Fortune, confirms that this new Brigade is already constituted and is waiting for the publication of the presidential decree to mobilize.



If for now this new structure targets firstly the Courts of First Instance (TPI) of Port au Prince andof the roix des Bouquets, BRICIF will eventually extend its actions throughout the national territory.



Minister Fortune welcomes the establishment of BRICIF and reiterates its will to repress with rigor the acts of spoliation and the various attacks on private property throughout the national territory recalling that "Private property being a sacred right recognized by the Constitution, the laws of the Republic and international conventions of which Haiti is a signatory."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21515-haiti-politics-3-draft-decrees-and-a-draft-bill-adopted.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Novelist David Abramss life has departed three times from his planned course.

Most recently was when he wrote his second novel, Brave Deeds, which is due out Aug. 1. The author of Fobbit, the 2012 novel based on Abrams's tour of duty during the Iraq War, didnt intend to write another war novel. The Butte-based novelist has Butte stories to tell, he said.

But, at least for now, the subject of the Iraq War continues to dog the 54-year-old writer. Not only is Brave Deeds his second Iraq War novel, he also has a new short story, Red, White and Butte, which is also about an Iraq War soldier, but set in Butte. That story will appear in an anthology of short stories called Montana Noir Sept. 5.

With Brave Deeds, Abrams took another departure in the form of tone, though that, he says, was intentional. But fans of Abrams's debut novel, Fobbit, may be surprised. While Fobbits long-lens look at the absurdity of war led to comparisons to Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five and Joseph Hellers Catch-22, Brave Deeds is a serious rendering of one of our more recent forays into military action.

Like Fobbit, Brave Deeds is set in Baghdad, but thats about it for similarity. Told from the collective perspective of a six-man unit, Brave Deeds is about these men who set out on an unauthorized trip across Iraqs capital to attend a memorial service for the leader of their unit. But before they get very far, their Humvee runs into trouble, forcing the men to make the rest of the trip on foot.

Library Journal called the book an excellent novel, and Publishers Weekly says it is filled with vivid characterizations and memorable moments and that it turns a single military action into a microcosm of an entire war.

How Abrams wrote the novel

While Fobbit was based largely on Abrams's personal experience of his time in Iraq, the inspiration for Brave Deeds came from a story Abrams read in The Washington Post. The article reported that 27 men partially walked across Baghdad to attend a memorial service for a fallen fellow soldier, led by commanders and protected by gunners, in 2007. Abrams, who was still working then on Fobbit, filed the story away until 2012 when he began noodling with the idea that bloomed into Brave Deeds in his upstairs office overlooking his backyard.

What if, instead of an authorized walk across Baghdad, the walk was unauthorized, he asked himself.

What if, instead of 27 men, the group contained six, he mused.

What if, instead of protected by gunners, the men were on their own and all alone?

The answer is 254 pages of tension-filled drama about a group of American soldiers showing loyalty, bravery, and their own forms of human frailty as they persevere in what appears to be a doomed mission across hostile territory.

The book is pure fiction, says Abrams, sitting comfortably in his two-story, Craftsman-style home on Argyle Street. He retired from the Army in 2008 and came to Butte to work for the Bureau of Land Management.

I never walked across Baghdad, Abrams said. But I know what its like to walk in 115 degree heat with 40 pounds of gear on.

The first divergence

What are Abrams's other moments when his life diverged off the planned path?

The first time is connected to his wife, Jean.

Shortly after the pair met (love at first sight) in 1983, Abrams gave her a short story of his to read. He also invited her to see him perform on stage in a Wild West melodrama in Jackson, Wyoming. Even though Abrams was then a theater major at the University of Wyoming, Jean reportedly told her new boyfriend he was a better writer than an actor.

The short stories were terrible, so that speaks a lot about how bad my acting was, Abrams said.

Despite her criticism, they married a short time later. He hasnt acted on stage since.

But the son of a Baptist minister and outdoor columnist, Abrams has never been estranged from books. He started reading before kindergarten and got his first paid job working at the Teton County Library in Jackson, Wyoming, at the age of 13.

Abrams said one of his finest moments was when he got up to read a chapter from Fobbit soon after its publication in 2012 at Country Bookshelf in Bozeman and his parents, who retired to Montana from their previous home in Wyoming, were there.

It was a full-circle moment, he said.

The second divergence

The other time Abrams's life diverged was when he joined the Army shortly after college. With two of the couple's three children already in tow, Abrams gave up on working as a reporter at the Livingston Enterprise. He needed a bigger paycheck.

But he was scared.

I dont think there were too many guys in basic training whod been in an Igor Stravinsky ballet, Abrams said.

But not only did he survive, he lived to tell the tale  literally.

Although Abrams didnt see his first novel published until he was 49, he says he never faltered in his belief that it would happen, some day. But the surprise, he says, is the warm reception his books have gotten  in addition to comfortable book sales and glowing reviews, Fobbit has been optioned for a possible Hollywood venture. He is also being published by Grove Atlantic, a preeminent literary New York publishing house.

I imagined a really tiny press and not making a ripple anywhere, he said.
Earlier this month I observed a difficult situation playing out at hotel where I was a guest, and it provided an invaluable reminder of just how important effective leadership is when things go wrong in the hotel business.

The story is that I was traveling back from a trip to the Middle East where I had taken my college age daughter to practice the Arabic she is learning at University. To split up 16 hours of flying time, I planned for us to stay overnight in Rome, Italy at a hotel I had used previously and knew was directly connected by a walkway to the airport. Since we landed about 8pm, we would be able to grab our bags, walk to the hotel, secure our room and drop the luggage, and take a cab to city center so I could show her the famous Roman Colosseum.

All went as planned with the flights, baggage claim, and immigration, and since the hotel I'd booked carried the flag of one of the oldest, largest and most respected International hotel brands, as we entered the lobby I was confident that my plan had worked out!

First thing I noticed was that the lines were moving very slowly. After about 15 minutes it was our turn and Giulia, who I noticed had a "trainee" badge on, warmly welcomed my daughter and I and thanked me for being a member of the brand loyalty program.

Although it was spoken kindly, her next statement that shocked me; there were no rooms ready and she would buy us drinks in the bar while we waited for the 30 or so minutes it would take. "What? 9pm and no rooms?" I asked, as she had not acknowledged that this was a major shortcoming and it was about 5 hours after their posted check-in time. Being in the business, I tried to be as polite as possible, especially since she was obviously new and doing her best. I pointed out out that my daughter was only 19 and I don't drink alcohol, and asking if there was instead a place to get a bottle of water or snack.

To my surprise there was no other option, so we proceeded to the bar where we found it overcrowded and understaffed as was the restaurant. After a long wait, my daughter was able to flag down the bartender and get water but no snacks. We changed clothes in the lobby restroom and then went back to the desk. "Good news," Giulia said, "your room is ready" and off we went. Yet to our surprise the room key did not work and then a young man came to the door of the room we were assigned to explain that he was already staying there.

Back to the desk we went to explain the situation, still maintaining a polite demeanor. Yet when another guest nearby heard our story he practically shouted out "You TOO? WHAT is going on here?" Then I realized that most of the guests who were originally in line with us about 45 minutes ago were still in the lobby also waiting for their rooms.

As my daughter and I stood patiently waiting once again, I heard at numerous other guests who had lost their cool explaining various versions of how high their brand loyalty status is, how often they travel, and how this was their worst hotel experience ever. I also noticed that of the four people at the desk, two had trainee badges and no one had a management title on their nametag. (I should add that all seemed to be handing the situation as well as possible and maintaining their hospitality demeanor.) Several guests were asking to speak with "THE" manager, but the only ones I saw responding seemed to be shift supervisors and they were certainly doing all they could as well.

Finally, our trainee issued a new key to another room and although this time it was not occupied, it did smell strongly of fresh smoke and the mini bar was half emptied, but at least it was clean. We dropped the bags, grabbed our taxi, and ended up having a memorable dinner at my favorite street cafe right across from the Colosseum.

Reflecting back on this situation, I first of all felt bad for the frontline staff who were left to deal with such angry guests and such a difficult situation without proper leadership there to support them. I felt especially bad for the two bright young front desk staffers who were wearing those "trainee" badges; what a terrible first impression of the hotel industry to go to work for a top tier hotel brand and observe this big of a gap in service. I also felt bad for the other travelers who were counting on this reputable hotel brand to deliver a place to rest for the weary international airline passenger, especially the families with young children and elderly.

Once good thing about being a hotel trainer though is that incidents of bad service like these give us plenty of new material to write about in training articles such as this one! So here are my training tips for this month, which I hope will serve as reminders for managers who will inevidibly one day face a similar situation:

This was obviously a predictable over-book situation and leadership should never have left their poor frontline workers to face it alone. A lack of leadership is probably why this hotel has so much turnover that two of four staffers on that shift were wearing "trainee" badges. Had the executive leadership team pro-actively managed this situation, it would have played out completely differently.

Knowing the hotel was overbooked and needing to wait for evening departures (such as the many airline crews we saw walking out the door while we waited) management should have scheduled extra staffing for all affected departments.

A mid or executive level manager should have been right there inside the front door greeting guests upon arrival, politely explaining the circumstance, humbly apologizing and gently asking for patience.

They should have provided drinks and snacks, especially knowing that most guests are arriving from International flights. With no place in the hotel other than the bar to buy refreshments, offering bottled water, juices, fruit and some snacks would have gone a long way and some complimentary beer or wine would have soothed the drinkers.

The bar and restaurant should have been properly staffed for a sold-out / over-sold night. Likewise, the bell staff should have been staffed accordingly (there was only one bellman.)

Extra housekeeping supervisors should have been called in to speed up room inspections.

Guests who were first sent to occupied rooms should have thereafter been escorted to the second room by a manager or at least a frontline colleague.

To avoid this whole situation, the hotel should have asked early on in the day for volunteers who were willing to be relocated to a discounted (or comp) room at a neighboring hotel, much like the airlines do by asking for volunteers for oversold flights.

The executive level managers should have followed-up with guests who had this bad experience with personalized emails to apologize.

Instead, this hotel suffered a loss of guest loyalty to go along with plenty of negative social media exposure. I know my daughter had this all over SnapChat and I'm sure most guests were doing their Facebook rants like I was. I hardly ever take time to do online reviews, but this time I vented to both TripAdvisor and Booking.com. (By the way, the management did respond to my one-star TripAdvisor review  but it was a generic and canned apology with no reference to my personal situation. For me this was worse than no reply at all and showed an even greater lack of empathy.)

I hope these lessons help managers understand that although bad situations are bound to occur in the hotel business, because if leaders pro-actively manage them the situation can be made better for all parties. Most of all, I hope those two trainees don't give up on their careers in the hotel industry after this! I suggest they apply elsewhere as soon as possible.
New Delhi, July 15 (IBNS) The government has set July 30 the date as the deadline for registration of GST.

"As per the GST laws, one is required to take registration on or before 30thJuly, 2017. All traders are requested to register now without waiting for the last date," the government said in a statement.

"If one is carrying-out any business and have an Annual Aggregate turnover in the preceding Financial Year exceeding Rs. 20 lakh (Rs. 10 lakh in Special Category States), you need to register in all the States/Union Territories from where you are making taxable supplies," it said.

However, one need not register if one is engaged exclusively in the supply of exempted goods or services or both.
Srinagar, Jul 15 (IBNS): At least three militants were killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces on Saturday morning in Tral area of Pulwama district of South Kashmir.

According to reports, security forces launched a search operation in Satoora Gujjar Basti in Wantiwen forest area of Tral, based on information about the presence of militants there.

Reports further stated that the search operation turned into an encounter after militants opened fire on security forces.

Three Militants were killed during two hour long gun battle, all three bodies have been recovered by the forces from the area along with arms, said senior police official.

The official further said that the search operation is still on in the area as reports suggested the presence of more militants hiding in the area.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Srinagar, Jul 15 (IBNS) : Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday detained driver of the ruling People's Democratic Party legislator Aijaz Ahmad Mir for questioning in connection with this week's terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

Touseef Amhad, the detained man, is a resident of Pulwama.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 21 injured in the attack on the pilgrims who were travelling in a bus near Batengoo in Anantnag on Monday.

Touseef had been deputed by the security wing of J & K police as the MLA's driver.

Touseef and his two associates were detained on the charges of militant links and there are possibilities that they are involved in the deadly Amarnath attack, a senior police official in Srinagar told India Blooms pleading anonymity.

Superintendent of police Shopian, Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar, however, said Touseef was picked up only for questioning related to other militannt activities and his detention in not in connection with the Amarnath terror attack.

Wait for some days and truth will come forward and we will update you accordingly, he told India Blooms.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Christians can fairly be called New Testament people; people who believe our salvation comes through Jesus Christ; people who consider ourselves disciples of Christ. The Great Commandment of Jesus was simple and straightforward: Love God; love your neighbor as yourself. All the commandments rolled into one. And in ordinary times, this New Testament faith carries us through lifes difficulties.

But these are not ordinary times in America. We are used to a stable government; a government separated constitutionally from our religion; a government we may criticize freely but generally rely on. In the past few months, these norms have been badly shaken. Anger and anxiety are the new norm. Churches are speaking out against harsh treatment of refugees, immigrants, minorities, and the poor, but others claiming the name of Christian are instigating hatred and violence and condoning such harsh treatment.

Maybe its time to re-consider the Old Testament; to remember that the God of love is also a God of justice, a God who demands that we feed the hungry, care for the poor and the sick, welcome the stranger, shelter the homeless. The prophet Hosea says that what God requires of us is to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. In New Testament and Old Testament alike, we are told in no uncertain terms that greed, selfishness, dishonest dealings, and taking advantage of your neighbor are wrong and will bring judgment. It turns out that the justice God demands necessarily involves judgment, and that God will judge those who harm others; that justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. The psalmist writes: The Lord watches over the stranger; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

And so we have hope, because God is both merciful and just. He will give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute; rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 82:3-4)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (IBNS) : Assuring that national security will have bigger priority over politics, leading parties have extended their support to the NDA Government's approach to resolve the present border standoff with China amicably and peacefully through diplomatic process, reports said.

Their support came at an all-party meeting convened by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday to apprise mainly the opposition parties of the Government's measures following the military standoff at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction and the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Kashmir.

The purpose of the meeting was also to garner the opposition backing, particularly ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday.

"We conveyed our concerns to the Government and proposed diplomacy be employed to ease tensions," senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters.

Stressing the need for maintaining peace, Sharma said attempts must be made to defuse the tension to which the Government agreed, saying the recent agreement forged with China was a pointer to its intention of taking measures against fresh disputes and de-escalating the situation.

The meeting was attended by 19 lawmakers representing different political parties who were briefed by senior ministers and top officials.

There will be a second round of meeting tomorrow for the remaining political parties.

The ongoing standoff has heightened tension at Doklam, a disputed territory claimed by both Bhutan and China, where the Indian Army have reached to stop China from building a road.

Taking a serious note of the Chinese activities, Delhi has described it as a major security concern since it gives China access to the narrow strip of land connecting mainland India to its north-eastern states.

China has accused India of trespassing into its territory and demanded withdrawal of troops leading to a heated exchange.

While India and Bhutan say the land belongs to the tiny Himalayan kingdom and that the Indian troops are there at the request of Bhutan, China has warned that it will not accept any dialogue till Indian soldiers pull out from Doklam.

"China has explicitly pointed out that the illegal trespass of Indian border troops into China's territory this time took place at the defined Sikkim section of the China-India boundary, which is utterly different in nature from the previous frictions between the two sides at the undefined sections of the China-India boundary," Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang has recently said.

In reply, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the India of 2017 is different from the India of 1962.

The opposition, particularly the Congress, has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the confrontation and the way the situation is being handled.




Srinagar, July 15 (IBNS): A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper was seriously injured when terrorists hurled grenade on a patrol party in Kulgam district of south Kashmir on Saturday, police said.

According to reports, suspected militants lobbed a grenade on CRPF patrol party , which left the jawan injured.

The injured trooper was shifted to a hospital for treatment.

More details are awaited.

Earlier, at least three militants were killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces on Saturday morning in Tral area of Pulwama district of South Kashmir.

According to reports, security forces launched a search operation in Satoora Gujjar Basti in Wantiwen forest area of Tral, based on information about the presence of militants there.

Reports further stated that the search operation turned into an encounter after militants opened fire on security forces.

Three Militants were killed during two hour long gun battle, all three bodies have been recovered by the forces from the area along with arms, said senior police official.

The official further said that the search operation is still on in the area as reports suggested the presence of more militants hiding in the area.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Thiruvananthapuram, July 15 (IBNS):Malayalam actor Dileep, who was arrested over allegedly abducting and molestating of an actress, was denied bail by the court on Saturday, media reports said.

The actor's bail plea was rejected by the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.

He will have to remain in police custody till July 25.

The special prosecutor argued in the court to say that the accused would destroy the evidences against him, if he is granted bail.

Malayalam actor Dileep, who was arrested for conspiracy in the actress abduction and molestation case, was sent to two days police custody by a Kerala court on Wednesday.

The actress, who shared screen with Dileep in several films, stated in her complaint that she was abducted on the night of Feb 19 this year while she was travelling from Thrissur to Kochi.

She alleged that she was molested and her pictures taken by the abductors who later dropped her by the roadside near the house of a film producer, according to media reports.

The actress also named Sunil Kumar or Pulsar Suni as the leader of the gang who abducted her, in her police complaint, reports suggested.

Suni was later arrested by the police.

Image: Wikimedia Commons
Kolkata, Jul 15 (IBNS): In an incident similar to the Mocambo controversy, Quest Mall, a shopping centre located in Kolkata, triggered a row after its authority allegedly stopped filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak from entering for wearing 'dhoti-kurta'.

Last year, Kolkata's Mocambo restaurant faced a huge backlash for allegedly preventing a cabby from entering the eatery as his dress did not meet the restaurant's 'standard'.

Bengali actress Debleena Sen, who was accompanying Ashish Avikunthak that time, filmed the entire episode on her mobile phone and later she expressed her anger through a Facebook post.

Besides posting two videos and an image she clicked that time, Debleena Sen described the entire incident they witnessed at Quest Mall on Saturday morning.

"A man wearing a dhoti and kurta was not allowed to enter Quest Mall in Kolkata today. Apparently wearing dhoti or lungi isn't allowed in this particular mall anymore," Debleena wrote on her Facebook wall.

Describing the incident, she wrote: "The guards outside stopped him and confirmed with someone over the Walky-talky and then let him enter only because the man in question argued in ENGLISH. When inside we approached the management team there and the man clearly stated that they DO NOT ALLOW people wearing dhoti and lungi to enter."

Debleena alleged that the mall's manager tried to prevent her from shooting the incident.

"Further more when the manager of the place ( some woman) came in and sat down to talk asked me strictly that I cannot video record anything even though I clearly have the right to record anything in a public space," the actress wrote on social media.

Hours after Debleena Sen shared the matter on Facebook, it became viral and the post has been shared by more than 1200 people so far.

However, no reaction has been received from the Quest Mall authority so far.

Quest Mall is a four-year-old luxurious shopping complex developed by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and its located at Beckbagan area near Park Circus Seven Point crossing in south part of the city.

Earlier in September, 2016, Dilashi Hemnani, Marketing Manager at Tata Motors, posted a status on Facebook claiming that Mocambo, a 60-year-old popular fine dining restaurant in Kolkata's Park Street area, prevented her driver from entering the restaurant for not wearing well cloths.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
Ottawa, Jul 15 (IBNS): Parks Day is being celebrated in Canada on Jul 15 and offers a great opportunity for all to discover Canada's natural beauty and connect with their heritage, Parks Canada said.

In commemoration of Canada's 150th year of Confederation this year, Parks Canada offers free visits to its heritage of national parks, historic sites, and marine conservation that include 46 national parks, 171 national historic sites, four national marine conservation areas and one national urban park.

"As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the government is inviting Canadians to experience the natural beauty of our country and learn more about our heritage," said Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada.

"With free admission to Parks Canada places in 2017, it's a great time to head outdoors with family and friends on Parks Day, have some fun, and create amazing memories that will connect you with nature," the minister added.

Parks Canada, which manages extensive protected natural systems and cultural heritage areas, is encouraging visitors to plan their trips to discover new and exciting destinations in 2017 by consulting Parks Canada's website, or downloading the new Parks Canada's Mobile App for a list of hidden places and parks.

Parks Canada is responsible for protecting and presenting nationally significant examples of Canada's natural and cultural heritage, Canada's national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas.



Minister McKenna, and President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for KingsHants, Scott Brison, announced last week that it was investing $925,000 in Grand-Pre National Historic Site in Nova Scotia.

Grand-Pre is a place where the indigenous Mikmaq people greeted people in peace and friendship, and formed an alliance with the Acadians creating one of the first treaties in Canadian history.

Today the Landscape of Grand-Pre is also recognized as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

"As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the Government of Canada is proud to invest in the protection and conservation of Grand-Pre National Historic Site," McKenna said.

"Through infrastructure investments at Parks Canada places, we are creating middle class jobs and sustained economic growth, while ensuring high-quality and meaningful visitor experiences for years to come. I encourage Canadians to visit Parks Canada destinations across Nova Scotia as part of Canada 150 to experience the province's natural and cultural treasures," she added.

Brison said, "This year, we are proudly celebrating both Canada 150 and the 100th anniversary of national historic sites across the country."

"Our government is committed to preserving and protecting our historic places and this investment is a further confirmation of that. This funding will go a long way to ensuring that all Canadians can experience Grand-Pre to its fullest for generations to come," he added.

Parks Canada and University of Alberta had celebrated Mountains 101 on Jul 6 to commemorate the achievements of the University of Alberta's Mountains 101 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in interdisciplinary mountain studies.

More than 3,000 people from across Canada and around the world have completed the course so far.



"Mountains, in large part, define Alberta, and Mountains 101 has been a successful innovation in taking the knowledge of mountains resident at the University of Alberta and giving it, literally, to the world," said Kerry Mummery, Dean, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation.

Speaking about the course, Mummery added, "With more than 18,000 students from 140 countries registered in the program, Mountains 101 has successfully demonstrated the ability of the University of Alberta to extend its educational reach across the globe."

McKenna, will take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony for the official opening of the new Point Wolfe Beach Trail in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick.

She will be accompanied by Alaina Lockhart, Member of Parliament for Fundy Royal.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
Islamabad, July 15 (IBNS): Noble prize winner Malala Yousafzai shares a strong bond with her brother.

The love was reflected when brother Khushal sent a hand written letter to his sister to wish her on birthday.

Malala was quick in posting the letter on her Twitter page.

She joined the world of micro-blogging site recently.

Sharing the letter, she tweeted: "My brother's birthday card to me. Ok, I will follow you @Khushal_KY - but just for today. Make it count! ."

In the letter, Khushal wrote: "You are not just an amazing person but you are also an amazing sister."

"But to become great like me, you have to follow my ways. So follow me on Twitter," the letter further said.

Image: Malala Yousafzai Twitter page
Kabul, July 15 (IBNS): At least two policemen were killed in a Taliban attack in Zabul province of Afghanistan on Saturday, media reports said.

The attack left one person injured, reports said.

A security source, who did not want to be named, told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident happened this morning in Kabul-Kandahar highway on the outskirts of Qalat city, the provincial capital.

The attackers reportedly took away two vehicles and some ammunition from the cops.

More detail are awaited.
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 15)

Myanmar specialty coffee is sold in Washington DC in the US. A new nation-wide business index aims to tackle red tape and make doing business in Myanmars regions and states more efficient. / Ruthy Mu / Reuters

JobsNet Announces Awards for Best Employers

The first awards system recognizing leading Myanmar employers has been announced by the jobs portal JobNet.com.

The Myanmar Employer Awards will consider firms conducting best practices in human resources, including organizational development, talent recruitment, compensation and benefits, and workplace culture and design.

Nurturing human talent is critical to boosting productivity, general standards of living and long- term economic growth in Myanmar, according to JobNet.

The Myanmar Employer Awards will create awareness among local and international employers, government bodies and the community as a whole regarding the importance of talent management to drive business profitability and the growth of Myanmar as a stronger nation, said Matt de Luca of the company.

Combining international practices with Myanmar work culture is a delicate process which must be nurtured if the fast pace [of growth] is going to be sustained, according to a company statement.

The awards will be given to local and international companies and will include an Overall Best of the Best, Peoples Choice Award, Best Learning & Development, Excellence in Workplace Environment, Best Use of Internal Marketing for Company Pride, Best Career Advancement Program, and the Best Use of Rewards & Recognition.

A panel of nine local and international judges will be headed by Prof. Dr. Aung Tun Thet, former government economic advisor. Deloitte Myanmar will participate as the verifying partner.

Companies may start submitting applications from July 28. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Sule Shangri-La Hotel in Yangon on November 24. Further information is at www.myanmaremployerawards.com.

Shell Petrol and Retail Stations on the way

Max Energy has signed a license agreement with the international energy firm Shell to introduce its brand of retail sites in Myanmar, DealStreet Asia reported.

The deal is with Shell Brands International AG, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, and it will see a nationwide roll-out of the branded petrol stations and retail outlets on sites owned and operated by Max Myanmar over three years.

Fuel supply will be handled by Shell International Eastern Trading Company based in Singapore, the company announced.

This will benefit Myanmar by raising the quality and standard of fuels and providing an unrivalled customer service and experience for people, said U Zaw Zaw, chairman of Max Myanmar.

Max Energy currently has 18 fuel stations in Yangon and others in the Ayeyarwady Region, Mandalay, Bago, Naypyidaw, Sagaing Region and Mon State.

This long-term agreement with Max Energy will provide the people of Myanmar with Shells high quality fuels and lubricants, excellent customer service and a range of convenience products and services designed to meet the needs of busy motorists and other customers, said Yasuko Yoshida, country chair of Shell Myanmar.

Moreh-Imphal Highway Upgrade Gets Go-Ahead

Indias government said on Thursday that it has given the green light to widen and upgrade a 65-kilometre stretch of highway from Imphal in Manipur to Moreh on the Myanmar border, the Economic Times reported.

The upgrade is part of the fulfilment of Indias Look East policy, according to an Indian government statement.

Indias roads and transport minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters that the project was being developed with loans assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Road Connectivity Investment Program. The program aims to upgrade road infrastructure in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India (BBIN) in order to improve regional connectivity.

The road section is also a part of the long-touted Asian Highway project which aims to boost connectivity throughout Asia and improve links to Europe.

After completion of the four-lane upgrade, travel time on the journey is estimated to reduce from the current three-and-a-half hours to one-and-a-half hours.

Road safety features including underpasses, crash barriers, lay-bys, road signs and service roads to segregate slow-and fast-moving traffic, will reduce accidents and help save fuel costs, an Indian government statement said.

Program Aims to Boost Business in the Regions

A three-year plan to improve business competitiveness and economic growth in the states and regions has been launched by the Asia Foundation and the DaNa Facility, with funding from the UKs Department for International Development.

The keystone of the program will be a survey called the Myanmar Business Environment Index (Myanmar BEI), which will identify constraints and areas for improvement in the regulatory environment for business at the state and regional level.

The goal is to facilitate private sector development and remove unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles as well as opportunities for rent-seeking.

In this way, the survey will serve as a diagnostic tool for evaluating the local business environment, according to an Asia Foundation statement.

For many Myanmar micro, small, and medium enterprises, the first engagement with government is at the township level, whether this involves business registration, tax collection, or inspection of a business, said Dr. Kim Ninh, country representative for foundation. To improve the business environment in Myanmar, a better understanding is needed of the aspects of local economic governance that facilitate or restrain day-to-day business activity.

Achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth in Myanmar requires a better business environment in each of Myanmars states and regions, said Peter Brimble, team leader for the DaNa Facility which will operate the program.

The BEI will also reinforce efforts to develop state and region investment promotion and facilitation strategies.

The project will involve nationwide surveys in the first and third years, with extensive outreach and dissemination in years two and three.

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization which works governance and law, economic development, womens empowerment, environment, and regional cooperation.

It has pioneered and implemented similar business indices in other locations, including Vietnams Provincial Competitiveness Index, along with related tools in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Mongolia.

Banks Must Maintain 20 percent Liquidity Ratio

The Central Bank issued a regulation last week that requires all banks to maintain a liquidity ratio of 20 percent at all times.

Banks must calculate their liquidity ratio daily and report weekly averages to the Central Bank, according to the regulation.

Penalties apply in the case of the non-compliance with the regulation issued under the Financial Institutions Law and the Central Bank of Myanmar Law, which went into immediate effect.
Dateline Dateline Irrawaddy: Telecoms Law Must be Amended to Serve Its Intent

The Irrawaddy discusses the new proposed draft of the Telecommunications Law, the controversial Article 66(d) and recent arrests of journalists.

Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. This week, well discuss the Telecommunications Law, one of Myanmars more controversial laws. There were over 70 lawsuits filed under the Telecommunications Law over the last year. Now, the President has made public the draft law amending it. Well discuss whether the draft law will serve as good legislation for the people, and its pros and cons. Ko Than Zaw Aung of Myanmar Media Lawyers Network and Ko Zeyar Hlaing, editor of Mawkun Magazine, join me to discuss this. Im The Irrawaddys English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe.

Weve read the draft law, which amends the Telecommunications Law. The law has roused much controversy among journalists; it was enacted under U Thein Seins government in 2013, but it has been applied more frequently since the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi assumed office. So far, seven cases have been filed by the military, six by the NLD [National League for Democracy], and around eight by a third party on behalf of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Of all these, 14 cases have involved charges against journalists. This is a high rate of incidence for just one years time. Ko Than Zaw Aung, you might have read the draft lawwhat do you think are its advantages, and what disadvantages remain?

Than Zaw Aung: It is good that the draft law requires general power be granted [in order for a third party to file a lawsuit on behalf of an aggrieved party]. What is not good is that there is no [communications ministry] sanction required for courts to accept the lawsuit. There have been many cases brought forward, even while the [ministrys] approval has been necessary. So if the ministrys approval is made unnecessary, I wonder how the validity of lawsuits, especially from a technological perspective, will be determined. If a fake account defames somebody, who will take responsibility to determine who should be sued?

KZM: By approval, you mean that the approval of the Ministry of Communications and Transport is required for courts to accept the lawsuit according to the existing law. But in the draft law

TZA: It is no longer needed to seek the ministrys approval to file lawsuit under Article 66(d). If the ministrys sanction is no longer necessary, who will take responsibility for checking if the [Facebook] accounts [that defame somebody] are fake accounts? I havent seen judges taking expert opinions into consideration when hearing those cases at trial. Again, judges who administer justice for those cases might not be technologically literate.

KZM: The existing law allows the third party to file a lawsuit on somebodys behalf. As we have mentioned, any supporter of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi can file a lawsuit on her behalf if she is deemed to have been defamed. The court can accept the lawsuit, administer justice, and issue a jail sentence to the defendant. It is also the case for defamation involving the army chief: a soldier, or anyone, can file a lawsuit on his behalf. So, these new changes can be said to be positive as they no longer allow a third party to file a lawsuit.

TZA: Yes, it is good. It complies with the code of criminal procedures that a third party can file a lawsuit only with the general power given by the aggrieved party. But under the existing law, lawsuits are filed with or without general power.

KZM: We media feel that Article 66(d) [of the Telecommunications Law] is a real threat to the press. What is your assessment of Article 66(d) and the draft law?

Zeyar Hlaing: This concerns not only the media but also every netizen in the country, I think. We need to look at the intent of the law. It was intended to prevent coercion, defamation, disturbances, and so on. We should review whether the law has been applied for this purpose. As far as Im concerned, the [communications] ministry has not been able to identify fake accounts [regarding the lawsuits filed under Article 66(d)]. Again, there is a need to review how many of those who use fake accounts in those lawsuits have been arrested. So far, I have found that only those who use real profiles have been punished under this law [as opposed to those who use fake accounts to defame and are still at large because the ministry could not identify them].

There is a need to review how many fake accountswhich spread hate speech and make threats against other organizationshave been punished under this law. Otherwise, this law is not able to prevent coercion and defamation as it was intended to do. So, we need to amend the law to make sure the law serves its intent. So far the law has only affected those who use real profiles and take responsibility for their words. Facebook pages of media outletsfor example, The Voicethough being present on social media, only publish reports that have been edited by editors with responsibility and accountability. This law has only been able to bully such people, but has not been able to stop those who are coercing others and spreading hate speech.

KZM: There were only seven such cases under U Thein Seins government, and penalties were given in five cases. The number of cases has increased significantly under the new government. The question is to what extent the law serves its stated purpose. Another question is whether this law has been misused for political purposes; there have been more lawsuits filed for political reasons than for other reasons. What is your overall assessment of it?

TZA: My personal view is that Article 66(d) should not be enforced, as is the case for Article 34(d) of the Electronic Transactions Law. The draft law [amending the Telecommunications Law] does not introduce changes regarding punishment. There are provisions in the penal code that cover coercion, disturbances and so on. And there is Article 500 that deals with defamation. The government needs to consider that while the penal code carries two years imprisonment [for defamation], the Telecommunications Law prescribes three years imprisonment. The whole law was intended for the development of telecoms operators and telecoms networks. But it has been increasingly misused, and is less effective for its stated intentions.

KZM: Ko Zeyar Hlaing, what is your view? Do you support scrapping it, or do you have something else in mind?

ZYH: There are already existing provisions to sue for defamation. But more weight has been placed on it [because of the use of Article 66(d)], and this has put a heavier burden on the people. Particularly if a government calls itself a democratic government, it should respect and ensure the freedom of expression of individuals. In many cases, this article directly or indirectly affects freedom of expression, so the government needs to review this. When we told government officials that the penal code already had provisions concerning defamation, they said it only covered defamation in everyday quarrels between individuals, but that this form of defamation [penalized under Article 66(d)] is about online posts that can spread to the entire world within a short time.

KZM: They mean that such defamation could have a greater impact

ZYH: Their argument is based on their own opinions. Those who use Facebook are not passive users, but active users. For example, Ko Kyaw Zwa Moe, if you write a fallacious or defamatory post, there will be people who defend your argument, and there will be a debate under your post. Social media platforms are different from traditional media If you think somebody has written something wrong, you can respond to it within seconds or minutes. So, there are questionsdont the concerned authorities understand this, or are they technologically illiterate, or are they just basing this on their own opinions?

KZM: More than one year after the NLD government came to power, this article remains unchanged. The government is taking steps to change it now after it has caused much controversy. Anyway, now we can draw the definite conclusion that the neither the government nor the Parliament will scrap this law. It will remain, though there will be changes. So, to what extent do you think the new changes will prevent the law from being misused?

ZYH: Well see when the [final] draft law comes out. Nearly two-dozen civil society organizations, including groups lobbying for the amending of 66(d), have proposed a dozen changes to the law. Those groups have reviewed the law and presented recommendations. And we also met with the communications minister some three weeks ago. But our recommendations were not adopted in the draft law. This indicates the [lack of] goodwill from the government. The Parliament will hold a public hearing on the law, so if those groups can go and explain [their recommendations] in the Parliamentand if the parliamentarians have goodwillhopefully the law can be changed, more or less. But then again, since both the [majority of] Parliament and the government belong to the same party, there is not much hope of change. However, this is my personal view.

KZM: Ko Than Zaw Aung, Ko Zeyar Hlaing, our discussion has mainly been about 66(d). But as everyone knows, one reporter from our news agency The Irrawaddy and two from DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] were charged [by the military] recently under Section 17(1) [of the Unlawful Associations Act]. But at the same time, there is a Media Law. Everyone says that they were just doing their jobs as journalists and must be able to communicate with armed groups or rebels. In such cases, to what extent does the media law can protect journalists? Or to what extent can the [Myanmar] Press Council or the Information Ministry intervene in line with law?

TZA: As you see, those things happened, and there was no chance for negotiation. The Media Law itself has no negotiating power, though the law says negotiations may be made. Again, it does not include provisions for the protection of journalists, though it includes a list of guidelinesfor example, how to gather news in conflict areas. Besides Section 17(1), there are many other articles in legislation and in the penal code that can be used to prosecute journalists. The Media Law must be changed to ensure that journalists are charged only under this law itself, in case they are prosecuted in connection with their jobs as reporters. And the Press Council now needs to think about how to intervene in real time in such cases. In the case of the arrest of three journalists, we didnt see such interventions.

KZM: As Ko Than Zaw has said, the concerned organization and ministry have not taken any active steps toward intervening. Frankly speaking, the Ministry of Information and the Myanmar Press Council are responsible for doing this. What are your recommendations for them regarding the protection of journalists if they are arrested for doing their jobs?

ZYH: I think the information ministry only cares about publishing the news of the government. It doesnt seem to have an agenda to promote press freedom and protect journalists. However, the Myanmar Press Council is responsible for promoting and protecting freedom of expression according to the Media Law.

KZM: It is its mission

ZYH: It should keep its mission [alive]. And as far as Im concerned, the new government has oppressed the mainstream media. The government has started this and sued Eleven Media. And the military sued The Voice, which is one of the leading newspapers in the country. And it sued [reporters from] The Irrawaddy and DVB, which have been active media outlets since they were in exile. I think the authorities are doing this to make an example of them. Such an idea has been deep-rooted in our country since previous eras. I believe authorities have made an example of them, and journalists will have to exercise extra caution.

KZM: As Ko Zeyar Hlaing and Ko Than Zaw Aung have discussed, this will largely depend on the Parliament. Well wait and see to what extent things will develop in a positive direction. Thank you for your contributions!
Frank Little to be honored on anniversary

The Missoula General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will be holding the 100-year memorial of the life and work of IWW leader Frank Little, who was murdered in Butte on Aug. 1, 1917, with a commemoration at his grave in Mountain View Cemetery at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Following the graveside ceremony, participants will caravan to a picnic area near the Milwaukee Bridge where he was hanged, before going to the trestle to lay a wreath for Little.

Music by the Caverns July 23

WHITEHALL  Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park will host its second of three annual music days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 23.

This is a family-friendly event to gather the community together to support local music and to support Montana State Parks. The event will highlight several local artists from the surrounding area including Mike Gurzi and Jesse Maw and Del Lonnie Lonnquist, an 82-year-old guitar and banjo player who has driven 76,000 miles coast-to-coast on his motorcycle through all the lower 48 states in the past three years.

Gurzi has been playing in and around Bozeman for many years. As one of the founding members of the Story Mansion Bluegrass Jam and a guitar educator, he has established himself as one of the premier local artists. Virtuosic fiddler Jesse Maw has been exciting music lovers throughout Montana since he began playing at age 5. Drawing upon both classic fiddle and jazz influences, he has honed himself into one of the most polished, exciting musicians in Montana.

Some chairs will be available to use, but guests are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket, water and snacks.

Sage Mountain to host free tour

Enjoy a drive into the mountains to see the high altitude food production grounds of Sage Mountain Center, 79 Sage Mountain Trail, Whitehall. A free tour is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 22. The drive is about 20 minutes from Butte.

The center features include edible landscapes, permaculture designs, cultivars of herbs, fruits trees, vegetables, flowers, as well as, water retention techniques, and mulching options. At 6,300-feet, the solar water heated straw bale greenhouse provides an abundance of tomatoes, figs and chilies in the summer and fresh crops of veggies during the winter. Visitors might also be amazed at what can be grown without pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.

Details: 406-494-9875, email smc@sagemountain.org and for directions print out the map at http://sagemountain.org/contact/. Reservations are not required. Please leave pets at home.

Aldersgate planning Bible school

The Aldersgate United Methodist Church will have a Vacation Bible School from 6 to 8:30 p.m. July 31-Aug. 3, at 1621 Thornton Ave. This years theme is Hero Central.

The class is for children first through sixth grade, and preregistration is required. To register, call Arlene at 406-782-2425 or Sylvia at 406-494-3680.
Burma Landmine Explosion Kills Teenager, Two Men in Rakhine

Rohingya Muslim children stand in U Shey Kya village outside Maungdaw in Rakhine state, Myanmar on October 27, 2016. / Soe Zayar Tun / Reuters

YANGON  A teenager and two men were killed in a landmine explosion in Pyaung Pike village of northern Maungdaw, Rakhine State, on Saturday morning.

Four Muslimsthe teenager, two men and a boywere farming a paddy field between Ngasar Kyu and Pyaung Pike villages when the mine exploded, according to a statement from the State Counselors communication team.

The group are thought to be Rohingya, a stateless minority in the region, although the government does not use the term, referring to them instead as Bengali, implying they are migrants from Bangladesh.

Sweyut Dula, 14, was killed on the spot, while Pheran, 60 and Usman, 17, died after police brought them to Maungdaw general hospital at around 1 p.m., according to a police official. A fourth victim12-year-old Kiman Husaungwas also taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The statement said the farmers were returning to a hill for lunch at 11 a.m. when they stepped on the mine, adding that security forces cleared the mine blast area afterwards. It is unclear who planted the mine.

Earlier this week, the government gave access to 15 local and international media outlets to visit the conflict-torn Maungdaw for the first time since a military crackdown in the region in October, triggered by a group of insurgents attacking border posts.

The reporters planned to visit villages in northern Rakhine where state security forces have been accused of raping and killing Rohingya Muslims among other claims of human rights abuses during the crackdown. The press pack returned from Maungdaw to Rakhine State capital Sittwe on Saturday.

Security forces killed two militants and arrested another in northern Buthidaung Townships Tin May village last week, according to state media. Security forces are on high alert after a recent spate of machete killings in Rakhines northern villages.

Correction: A previous version of this story reported that the press pack returned from Maungdaw to Sittwe on the advice of government officials after the mine exploded. The press pack were in fact scheduled to leave Maungdaw on Saturday, July 15. Their return was not related to the mine explosion.
Burma This Week in Parliament (July 10-14)

Members of Parliament attend a meeting at Myanmars Lower House in Naypyitaw in March 2016. / Reuters

Monday (July 10)

In the Lower House, in response to a question from Mingin Township lawmaker U Maung Myint, Minister for Transport and Communications U Kyaw Myo said his ministry had acquired lands for a National Database Center in Naypyitaws Zabuthiri Township and would begin construction in 2018; and that infrastructure had been built across the country to share the information from the center in real time.

The Upper House approved a discussion of the proposal of Bago lawmaker Dr. Win Myint, which urged the Union government to open a fishery university for the sustainable development of the fishing industry, conservation of fish stocks and water resources, food sufficiency, rural development and poverty reduction.

Tuesday (July 11)

In the Union Parliament, Union Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win explained the Presidents proposals to ratify the Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Wednesday (July 12)

In the Lower House, Pyin Oo Lwin Township lawmaker Dr. Aung Khin asked the government if it would implement the Yadanabon Cyber City Project near Pyin Oo Lwin on nearly 10,000 acres of lands seized for the project as soon as possible, or return the inactive lands to local farmers. Deputy Construction Minister U Kyaw Lin said his ministry had no plan to return the 9,893 acres of seized land for farming, and that the project would continue.

In the Upper House, lawmakers discussed regional development works in their respective constituencies.

Thursday (July 13)

Mingin Township lawmaker U Maung Myint of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) urged the Union government to regulate literary talks, claiming that some talks were rallying support for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its government. Union Information Minister U Pe Myint replied that every citizen was entitled to freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution, and his ministry had imposed regulations to make sure people did not exploit this freedom.

The Lower House approved discussion of the proposal of Mandalay Division lawmaker Dr. U Hla Moe, which urged the Union government to air an educational TV channel to facilitate the countrys educational reforms.

It also approved discussion of the proposal of Magwe Division lawmaker U Kyaw Aung Lwin, which urged the Union government to effectively tackle widespread illegal logging across the country in line with the law.

It also approved discussion of Kachin State lawmaker U Lin Lin Oos proposal, which urged the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and the Kachin State government to take the lead in handling illegal gold and amber mining in Kachin States Tanai and Hpakant townships.

In the Upper House, Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications U Kyaw Myo submitted the draft law to amend the controversial 2013 Myanmar Telecommunications Law. The draft law proposes five changes, including granting bail for defendants in certain cases and no longer allowing third parties to file lawsuits on behalf of an aggrieved party.

Friday (July 14)

In Union Parliament, Planning and Finance Minister U Kyaw Win put forward the Aungbarlay State Lottery draft law, which includes an electronic lottery system in which people can buy lottery tickets through their mobile devices and computers.
News Govt Warns Legal Action Against Ma Ba Tha For Ignoring Orders

Ma Ba Tha members in Mandalay celebrate the enacting of the Race and Religion Protection Laws in March, 2015. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The government will take legal action against the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, known by its Myanmar acronym Ma Ba Tha, if it does not remove its signboards across the country by Saturday, according to state media.

The State Buddhist Sangha authorityalso known by its Myanmar acronym Ma Ha Nabanned Ma Ba Tha, a hardline nationalist group, from operating under its current name on May 23 and ordered it to take down its signboards by July 15.

In an announcement published on Saturday in state-run newspapers, the government said the groups members from Mandalay and Hpa-an of Karen State have been failing to follow the orders despite Ma Ba Tha leading monks agreeing to the restrictions.

As the Ma Ba Tha members failure to follow the order would harm the dignity of Ma Ha Na and the state stability, the legal action would be taken inevitably, read the announcement.
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TeleSur |  

Al Jazeera said it rejects any external intervention and reiterates its independence and professional editorial stance.

The four Arab countries currently boycotting Qatar are set to drop their demand that the Al Jazeera Media Network be shut down, a United Arab Emirates minister said.

The closure of the Qatar-based broadcaster and its affiliates was one of 13 demands issued by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt as the price for lifting a political and economic blockade against Qatar, which began on June 5.

Noura al-Kaabi, the UAE minister for the federal national council, said in an interview published by The Times newspaper on Wednesday that the UAE sought fundamental change and restructuring of Al Jazeera rather than shutting it down.

The staff at the channel can keep their jobs and Qatar can still fund a TV channel but not one which provides a platform for extremists and where the English channel is a protective shield for the much more radical Arabic one, Kaabi told The Times.

She also said that the Saudi-led group was ready to negotiate with Qatar.

We need a diplomatic solution, she said. We are not looking for an escalation.

The list of demands also included Doha ending its alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood, downgrading diplomatic ties with Iran and shutting down a Turkish military base. The Saudi-led group previously said the list was non-negotiable.

In response to the UAE ministers comment, Al Jazeera said it rejects any external intervention and reiterates its independence and professional editorial stance.

Al Jazeera continues to stand by journalists and media institutions globally for their right to practice journalism without fear or intimidation, the network said in a statement.

One of the cornerstones of free media is ensuring its ability to operate independently, without interference or censorship from governments or any other party.

Press freedom advocates, journalists, and social media users from around the world have condemned the demand to shut down Al Jazeera as unacceptable.

Whether or not you watch it, like it, or agree with its editorial standpoints, Al Jazeeras Arabic and English channels are legitimate and have many millions of viewers, U.N. High Commissioner Zeid Raad al-Husseins spokesman Rupert Colville said last month.

He added that if a closure were to happen, it would open a Pandoras Box of powerful individual states or groups of states seriously undermining the right to freedom of expression and opinion in other states, as well as in their own.

In the letter to the U.N., the UAE claims freedom of expression cannot be used to justify and shield the promotion of extremist narratives, adding that there was a direct connection between its broadcasts and terrorist acts.

Al Jazeera is a platform for spreading terrorist ideology by conducting interviews with leaders of various terror organizations such as Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki of al-Qaida, UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said in the letter.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Al Jazeera English: Whats behind Gulf demands to shut down Al Jazeera?  Inside Story
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By Zara Rahman | ( GlobalVoices.org) |  

Eight of Turkeys most respected human rights defenders were arrested last week, along with two information technology trainers from Sweden and Germany. All ten of those arrested are still in police custody but have not been charged with any crime.

The group had gathered for digital security and information management workshop on one of Istanbuls islands, Buyukada, on July 5 when police raided the workshop, detained the participants, and confiscated electronic equipment including computers and mobile phones. Among those arrested was the director of Amnesty International Turkey, Idil Eser.

Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet reported that police also raided the homes of some of the human rights defenders who was arrested, and seized books, CDs, phones and digital devices. On July 11, Hurriyet Daily News reported that house raids on detainees addresses were still ongoing.

Amnesty International announced on July 11 that all ten people will remain in detention for at least seven more days.

Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty described the arrests as a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country.

Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, described the situation as a repressive new low for the Turkish state, and called for their immediate release.

When he was questioned about the detentions at a July 8 press conference at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that the meeting would constitute almost a continuation of the 15th July events, referencing the failed coup attempt of 2016.

Turkish authorities have provided no evidence to the media or the public of the Presidents assertion. All ten of those detained demonstrate a commitment peaceful, constructive protection of the rights of all Turkish people as they are enshrined by local laws and international human rights norms.

In a tweet on behalf of their staff, Amnesty International recalled their efforts to protect Erdogan when he was arrested in 1998 during a stint as Istanbuls mayor.

Governments and intergovernmental agencies from around the world have expressed concern about a lack of due process and abuse of power on the part of the regime. Former Prime Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, described the arrests as a very worrying sign:

Dutch Member of European Parliament Kati Piri joined in the calls for the release of the group.

Supporters of the human rights defenders are using Facebook to share updates and news on the group via the Free Rights Defenders  Hak Savunucularna Dokunma group. On Twitter, supporters are using the hashtags #HakSavunucularnaDokunma, #FreeRightsDefenders and #Istanbul10 to share information.

The World Organisation Against Torture also issued a statement which has been signed by 40 human rights organisations from around the world, stating human rights work should not be criminalized and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all ten detained participants.

Via GlobalVoices.org



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Turkey one year after the failed coup | DW Documentary
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By Mike Eckel | ( RFE/RL) |  

WASHINGTON  As recently as last year, Rinat Akhmetshin could be seen regularly pedaling through downtown Washington, D.C., nattily dressed, with a pocket square and heavy-framed thick glasses, riding a retro hipster orange bicycle.

He also showed an affinity for vintage motorcycles, which he parked for two years in the Washington driveway of renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

Hersh later gave a public endorsement to a controversial film linked to Akhmetshin that sought to undermine a 2012 U.S. law that infuriated the Kremlin.

Now Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen who has both denied and bragged about being a former Soviet military intelligence officer, is at the center of a growing scandal reaching high into President Donald Trumps White House.

U.S. media reported that he attended a June 9, 2016, meeting with Trumps son, Donald Jr., accompanying a Russian lawyer who was also seeking to undermine the 2012 law.

Akhmetshin did not respond to an e-mail, text messages, or a voice mail from RFE/RL on July 14. But he told the Associated Press that the lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, gave Trump associates at the meeting information on what she said were funds being illegally funneled to the Democratic National Committee and suggested the information could help the Trump campaign.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the [Democratic National Committee] is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin was quoted as recalling Veselnitskaya saying.

Until last year, Akhmetshins longtime behind-the-scenes work in and around Washington lobbying circles had escaped wider notice. But his work is substantial, stretching back two decades.

He has been a key figure in past PR campaigns to bolster Kazakh opposition figures, to discredit a Russian member of parliament, to lobby on Azerbaijani politics, and to undermine a Russian-owned mining company that sued another in a Dutch lawsuit.

Its not cheap work, as Akhmetshin himself stated in an affidavit as part of a 2015 lawsuit: He said he charged $450 an hour for his services.

In 1998, Akhmetshin said he founded the Washington office of an organization called the International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, to help expand democracy and the rule of law in Eurasia.

In the late 1990s, he organized meetings with journalists, elected officials, and policymakers in Washington for opposition lawmakers from Kazakhstan. Later, he worked to undermine a businessman and diplomat who was divorced from the daughter of Kazakhstans longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, and then had a falling out with Nazarbaev.

In 2011, Akhmetshin was accused of involvement in a smear campaign aimed at maligning a former Russian lawmaker who sought political asylum in the United States.

The goal, according to court documents, was to persuade U.S. officials to revoke the lawmakers asylum status, and force him to return to Russia, where he was involved in a dispute with a billionaire businessman over a Moscow hotel project.

Akhmetshin was not the target of the lawsuit but, according to the complaint, he was enlisted, along with a Washington public relations company and private investigators, to portray the lawmaker as anti-Semitic.

During the suit, Akhmetshin fought to keep his e-mails from being released to the opposing lawyers.

Some of my clients are national governments or high ranking officials in those governments, he said in an August 21, 2012, affidavit. My government clients have highly sensitive discussions in my emails concerning the location or relocation of American military bases in areas within the former Soviet Union.

The underlying lawsuit, and a related countersuit, were dismissed in March 2014.

A more recent legal fight concerned a $1 billion dispute over a potash mining operation in central Russia. While the main fight took place in European courts, a sideshow unfolded in U.S. courts beginning in 2014 when Akhmetshin was accused of hacking into the opposing parties computers.

Court papers filed New York State Supreme Court accused Akhmetshin of being a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer who developed a special expertise in running negative public relations campaigns.

In e-mail and in-person interviews with RFE/RL last year, Akhmetshin denied working for Soviet or Russian military intelligence. However, in private conversations and other published reports, he spoke openly about it.

The campaign he was associated with last year focused on the 2012 Magnitsky Act. That law imposed visa bans and other measures against Russian officials involved in the death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky and the $230 million tax-fraud scheme he helped uncover.

The campaign was two-pronged. The first involved the ban on adoptions of Russian children by American parents, which President Vladimir Putin imposed in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act.

Akhmetshin set up a benign-sounding organization to lobby Congress ostensibly in an effort to restore Russian adoptions. He enlisted former congressmen, and set up meetings with current members, including Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-California), long known for his rosy rhetoric regarding the Kremlin.

Veselnitskaya said she discussed the adoption issue in her meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

The second involved organizing  screening at Washingtons Newseum of a Russian directors film that took a semifictionalized look at Magnitskys whistle-blowing and his death. The screening happened on June 13, 2016, four days after he joined Veselnitskaya at the meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr.

Veselnitskaya, who also attended the screening, served as a lawyer for a Russian-owned company known as Prevezon that U.S. prosecutors had accused of laundering some of the Magnitsky tax-fraud money. In May 2017, that case was settled on the eve of its trial with Prevezon admitting no wrongdoing and paying $6 million.

Another Washington public relations firm, along with Akhmetshin, was also connected to the effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act: Fusion GPS, which was behind the so-called Steele dossier, a compilation of damaging information about Donald Trump that was put together by a former British spy.

In May, Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican-Iowa) asked the Justice Department to investigate both Fusion and Akhmetshin, suggesting that they were unregistered agents of Russian interests.

Prior to the screening, Hersh, the renowned investigative reporter, told RFE/RL that he had seen the film a few months prior at Akhmetshins behest. Hersh said he was intrigued enough by it that he agreed to Akhmetshins request to host a postscreening discussion free of charge.

Hersh also told RFE/RL that he knew Akhmetshin through mutual acquaintances and that he had let Akhmetshin park several antique motorcycles in the driveway of his Washington-area home, motorcycles he said Akhmetshin had bought thinking they dated from World War II but in fact they were of German manufacture and had been painted over to look like Soviet motorcycles.

At the conclusion of the June 13 film screening, as the discussion turned loud and rowdy, Hersh said the film goes a long way toward deconstructing a myth.

Via RFE/RL

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.



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What We know About The Russians Who Met With Donald Trump Jr. | MSNBC

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Fayetteville, NC  A Cumberland County woman faces felony cruelty to animal charges after authorities condemned her mobile home just outside Fayetteville after the rescue of several cats.

A county property inspector posted signs Tuesday morning on the Redfish Drive property that read, This building is deemed to be unsafe for human occupancy. Sheriffs deputies went to the mobile home community Monday to conduct a welfare check at the request of management and neighbors who noticed an odor coming from the home.

Cumberland County Animal Control director John Lauby said workers removed three living cats from the home, one of which required euthanasia. Animal Control also recovered one dead cat, but were unable to search the home for other animals.

There could be more in there, but until the filth is removed, its not safe to go in. You literally need fire type respirators to breathe, to go in the house. You cant go in the house and stand for 30 seconds and breathe, you have to come back outside. its awful, Lauby said.

The other two may develop problems with that along the way because of youre breathing in that almost pure ammonia thats in the air from cat urine and cat feces over time.

Investigators said one neighbor reported seeing the homeowner stop by at times to open the front door, toss cat food inside, and then leave. Lauby said thats information he wished Animal Control knew about much earlier, as they could have acted sooner.

He said it is important for the community to report cases of animal cruelty.

When youre dealing with hoarders, they think theyre caring for the animals and they think theyre helping the animals. Then the next thing you know, they have 30 or 40 or 50 cats living in their home with them, and it just overwhelms them, Lauby said.

Robert Harrington lives down the street from the home and said he had no idea about the situation inside.

She never gave nobody no problems. She was always a nice lady. She always spoke but always kept to herself. I just hate this happened. Its just something we cant control, neighbor Robert Harrington said.

She works, she comes home, she minded her business, wouldnt be mingling out here with the other folks, but maybe that should have been a warning sign there, I think.

Harrington said he didnt know the womans name, but called on his neighbor to turn herself in to law enforcement. Deputies said Tuesday afternoon they had not made any arrests in the animal cruelty case but expected to do so soon.

Cumberland County Animal Control has had a few cases of animal hoarding in the past three years where they received 20 or so pets at a time. However, Lauby said the bigger issue is irresponsible dog and cat owners who allow their pets to roam free and fail to get them vaccinated, spayed, or neutered.

Animal Control officers pick up an average of 100 cats and dogs each day between April and November. The shelter has space for 300, which Lauby said results in putting to sleep about one out of every three animals.

It just breaks my (staffs) heart. Every day they have to come to work knowing that theyre going to have to put a healthy, adoptable animal to sleep because there are not enough people adopting them, Lauby said.

The 35 percent euthanasia rate is a big improvement on the 75 percent rate a few years ago, and is in large part due to the work of rescue and foster groups. However, the shelter director said there is a problem of animal hoarders attempting to adopt additional cats and dogs.

The shelter has a rescue-foster coordinator who requires forms and documents in order for people to qualify. Lauby said animal activists across the state also file reports when they believe a person identifying themselves as rescuers may actually be a hoarder.

Lou Ann Cain was charged with three counts of felony cruelty to animals.

Her bond was set at $10,000 unsecured.

She was released on the condition she appears in court later Wednesday.
By Jung Min-ho

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) opened an office in Almaty, the largest metropolis of Kazakhstan, Friday, as part of its efforts to tap into new markets.

According to the KTO, the new office will be in charge of promoting Korea's culture, values and products to the Central Asian country and others in the region such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

The KTO said it invited government officials, local travel agents and journalists to the ceremony to celebrate the opening.

The KTO believes Kazakhstan is a great potential market. About 34,000 of its citizens visited Korea last year, up nearly 30 percent from the previous year. Many of them were big spenders.

KTO international marketing director Park Jung-ha said the office there will be the base for its promotional activities tapping the great economic potential of the region.
A magnitude-5.8 earthquake that occurred off North Korea's east coast Thursday (local time) was not caused by a nuclear test, the U.S. Geological Survey said.



The tremor occurred at 4:18 a.m. North Korean time at a depth of 537.6 km below the East Sea, 176 kilometers east-southeast of Hoemul-li, North Korea, the agency said on its website.



The quake does not appear to have been caused by a nuclear test, a USGS official said.



"It occurred at 500 km below the seabed. There's no way it was caused by a nuclear test. It's a natural earthquake," John Bellini, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, told Yonhap by phone.



Pentagon spokesman Maj. Jamie Davis also dismissed the possibility of a nuclear test, pointing to its location and depth, Reuters reported.



North Korea has conducted five underground nuclear tests since 2006. It is widely expected to carry out more tests following its test-launch last week of an intercontinental ballistic missile.



Ultimately, the communist nation aims to build an ICBM capable of hitting the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead fitted on top.



The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center reported Thursday's earthquake to be of magnitude 5.9. It occurred 537 km below the seabed and 193 km southeast of Rajin, northeastern North Korea, the center said.



The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued no alerts as a result of the quake. (Yonhap)




By Doug Bandow





HONG KONG  China recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of regaining control of Hong Kong. President Xi Jinping visited the former British colony to commemorate the takeover. But many residents of the territory lament rather than praise Beijing's control.

The territory never governed itself. Grabbed by Great Britain from Imperial China, most of Hong Kong (the "New Territories") was on a 99-year lease. When the agreement's expiration approached a less dominant Britain negotiated with a rising People's Republic of China.

The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong was born. The SAR was to retain "a high degree of autonomy," including its residents' Western-style liberties, through 2047, after which the territory would fully revert to China.

Nervous residents doubted Beijing's word. But one Hong Konger who feared the transition told me he couldn't think of anything that he once could do that the new regime prevented him from doing.

However, this era may be coming to an end as President Xi's campaign against liberal freedoms and Western thinking intensifies. Three years ago Beijing announced its new election plan: all residents could vote, but only for nominees chosen by a committee controlled by PRC partisans.

This ruling triggered the Umbrella Movement, in which demonstrators, mostly young, demanded free elections. The government finally dispersed the protestors and arrested the leaders after 79 days. However, the Legislative Council, or LegCo, ended up in deadlock.

In 2015 the PRC apparently kidnapped or detained five Hong Kong publishers who produced books banned in China. Four eventually returned to Hong KongGui Minhai, a Swedish citizen, is still being heldbut only one discussed his imprisonment and forced "confession." Earlier this year Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese born billionaire with Canadian citizenship, apparently was taken from his Hong Kong apartment by Chinese security agents.

Before last fall's LegCo elections, the government disqualified six "localist" candidates who election officials deemed to harbor pro-independence sentiments. Nevertheless, several pro-democracy candidates, including Yau Wai-ching and (Sixtus "Baggio") Leung Chung-hang, won.

The latter two added "Hong Kong nation" to their oaths and Leung used an obscenity against China. Their oaths were rejected, setting in motion a government suit to prevent them from taking their seats and the intervention of the National People's Congress in Beijing. Then the Hong Kong government challenged the seating of another four legislators, who had protested Beijing's control in other ways.

These attacks on Hong Kong's autonomy triggered renewed public protests. However, after the LegCo fiasco activists found greater resistance to their message.

Still, while Beijing has establishment backers, the PRC holds little allure for many of the young. Only three percent of 18-to-29-year-olds view themselves as Chinese, down from 32 percent during the changeover (94 percent now say they are Hong Kongers).

Since the changeover, nearly a million mainlanders have moved to Hong Kong. Many of them are Chinese students studying in Hong Kong who stay after they graduate. Contrary to the fears of some, migrants have not brought Communist orthodoxy to the territory. Rather, most immigrants enjoy their new liberties.

Despite its political struggles, Hong Kong still gets much rightit tops annual international ratings of economic openness, such as the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World and Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. However, political discontent could grow.

Thus, for China the SAR has become a source of dissent, even treason, and potential disorder. At the same time, Hong Kong matters far less commercially to a country which has fully engaged the world.

So Beijing is setting red lines. President Xi announced: "Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or use Hong Kong for infiltration or sabotage activities against the mainland, is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible." And President Xi left no doubt as to the basis of his government's authority when he visited the local People's Liberation Army garrison.

A few hours after Xi flew home tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents marched for democracy. Hong Kongers must remain vigilant.

However, they also must exercise wisdom. Unfortunately, pursuing radical but unattainable ends risks the survival of today's freedoms. Especially since Hong Kong fights alone.

The struggle for Hong Kong's future will continue. Much depends on China's forbearance. But even more the future depends on the people of Hong Kong. They must actively defend their basic freedoms while tempering their passion with prudence.





Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan.
By Lee Hyo-sik



Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) failed to gain approval from its board to suspend the construction of the No. 5 and 6 reactors at the Shin-Kori Nuclear Power Plant, due to its union's protest, the company said Thursday.



The state-run firm had initially planned to hold the board of directors' meeting at its headquarters in Gyeongju, South Gyeongsang Province, at 3 p.m. But the seven outside directors weren't able to take part as unionized workers physically stopped them from entering the building.



The union has been protesting the Moon Jae-in administration's decision to halt the ongoing project.



KHNP CEO Lee Kwan-seop and five other internal directors were inside the building but the company could not organize the meeting without the presence of the seven outside directors, who are professors and private-sector nuclear experts.



The directors confronted the protesting workers for 30 minutes but in the end gave up participating in the meeting.



"The board of directors' meeting could not be held as scheduled," a KHNP official said. "We don't know when the next one will be held."



The meeting was called to deal with the Shin-Kori plant, two weeks after President Moon issued an administrative order to stop construction. Moon has been pledging to scrap all plans to build new nuclear reactors in order to make Korea nuclear free.



During his first Cabinet meeting June 27, Moon ordered the temporary halt of the Shin-Kori project until a committee reached a consensus on its future.



The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy instructed KHNP to halt construction. The state-run firm then delivered the order to the Shin-Kori project contractors.



Citing the Cabinet meeting and the relevant law, the public company planned to make the suspension legally binding by having its board of directors approve it.



The failure is expected to delay the government's plan to form its ad-hoc committee, consisting of nine private-sector experts that will decide over the next three months whether to permanently stop building the two Shin-Kori reactors.



However, this unprecedented move has been drawing fierce protest from builders and other contractors taking part in the construction project. KHNP employees and some residents nearby the plant site have also been opposing the suspension.



A consortium led by Samsung Construction & Trade has been protesting the halt. The company claimed that KHNP unilaterally stopped the project for no legitimate reason while failing to suggest any plans to reimburse them for additional expenses caused by the measure.



The other two main contractors, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and SK Engineering & Construction, are also demanding appropriate compensation from KHNP if the project is halted.




This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

It's hard to make sense of cannabis regulation.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to categorize marijuana as a Schedule I drug. That means the government believes it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," putting it in the same league as LSD and heroin. The Trump administration has expressly voiced skepticism of marijuana's medical benefits, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling them "hyped." Yet, legal pot has become a multi-billion-dollar industry that stuffs the coffers of eight states where voters have approved its legal recreational use. And nearly 30 states have legalized pot for medicinal purposes so far.

This burgeoning industry has also witnessed the issuance of dozens of patents related to cannabinoids and various strains of cannabis, including ones on marijuana-laced lozenges, plant-breeding techniques and methods for making pot-spiked beverages. Some of these products contain a significant amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that makes people high.

As a professor who researches and teaches in the area of patent law, I have been monitoring how private companies are quietly securing these patents on cannabis-based products and methods of production, even though marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug. An even richer irony is that the government itself has patented a method of "administering a therapeutically effective amount of a cannabinoids."

This engagement with the patent system raises several interesting questions as the legal pot industry grows and medical research on cannabis advances.

Patenting living things

First of all, how can anyone or any entity obtain a patent on a living substance that grows in the wild and has been known for about 5,000 years?

In a landmark 1980 opinion, then-U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that eligibility for patent protection does not depend on whether the substance is living or nonliving. Rather, the key question is whether the inventor has altered nature's handiwork to the extent the resulting invention can be deemed a nonnaturally occurring substance.

Moreover, two federal statutes expressly recognize patent protection on plant varieties, including the 1930 Plant Protection Act, which defined the constitutional term "inventor" as including not only someone who created something new but also someone who is "a discoverer, one who finds or finds out."

Accordingly, sexually or asexually reproduced plants  whether geraniums, strawberries or roses  enjoy patent protection. The same goes for different versions, or strains, of the naturally occurring Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica plants, both of which are better known as marijuana.

No judgment

And so why, you might ask, does the federal government issue (and own) patents on a substance it says cannot be possessed, sold or grown without breaking the law? And can the people, companies or other entities that hold those patents enforce their rights in a federal court if someone violates them?

Unlike European patent law, which prohibits patents on inventions considered "contrary to public order or morality," U.S. patent law is amoral and nonjudgmental.

U.S. courts have ruled that the Patent and Trademark Office should treat the mundane  bicycles or can openers  and the controversial  such as birth-control devices, genetically altered mice and ammunition  the same way.

That is why all strains of flowering plants, be they tomatoes or cannabis, bud on the same even playing field.

However, the Patent and Trademark Office, part of the Commerce Department, and the DEA, a Justice Department agency, follow distinct rules and regulations regarding controlled substances.

Conflicting laws

No surprise here, but sometimes these federal rules and regulations over weed conflict. Say the owner of a patent on a particular strain of cannabis sues a marijuana grower in Colorado  which legalized pot for recreational use  for patent infringement in a federal court.

Patent law is exclusively federal. Therefore, the grower cannot successfully argue that patent law doesn't matter. Yet the grower can assert that the patent is unenforceable. Not because it fails to satisfy the patent laws, but because the patent covers an illegal substance.

The grower could argue that the patent owner can't stop him from doing something that a state's law permits, and that federal law forbids the patent owners from doing.

The patent owner may respond that federal law gives him the right to stop others from using (or growing) their patented invention.

Therefore, a patent on a particular strain of pot may be used to stop someone from growing or selling it, even in a state that has legalized weed.

In theory, patent owners may sue to stop anyone from growing specific kinds of patented pot plants in any state or territory  whether or not pot is legal there. To date, this hasn't happened.

Prospecting for pot strains

Finally, why would anyone patent a cannabis strain knowing that their invention is an outlawed Schedule I substance?

A plausible answer is prospecting. Where there is money to be made now or in the future, entrepreneurs will take risks.

Growers are already (or soon will be) acting legally under state law in Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington  and with some limitations in the District of Columbia (opens in new tab). Many cannabis patent applicants are positioning themselves today for what they expect to see within the foreseeable post-Trump (opens in new tab) future: marijuana being legal for recreational and medical use from coast to coast according to federal and state laws alike.

Not everybody in the cannabis industry has such high hopes (sorry), however.

Smaller breeders, scientists who alter naturally occuring marijuana plants for medicinal purposes, fear that bioagricultural companies like Monsanto and Syngenta will arm themselves with cannabis-based patents and deploy their considerable economic power to position themselves as dominant forces in a promising market.

Full legalization  slated to happen next year in Canada  is probably years away on this side of the border, given the current political climate. Yet how this looming legal battle plays out will have significant consequences for innovation and the potential for cannabis-derived drugs.

Craig Nard, Galen J. Roush Professor of Law; Director, Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology & the Arts and the FUSION Certificate Program in Design, Innovation & IP Management, Case Western Reserve University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Carter's, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, sources, and markets branded childrenswear under the Carter's, OshKosh, Skip Hop, Child of Mine, Just One You, Simple Joys, Carter's My First Love, little planet, and other brands in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Retail, U.S. Wholesale, and International. Its Carter's products include babies and young children products, such as bodysuits, pants, dresses, knit sets, blankets, layette essentials, bibs, booties, sleep and play products, rompers, and jumpers; and OshKosh brand products comprise playclothes, such as denim apparel products with multiple wash treatments and coordinating garments, overalls, woven bottoms, knit tops, and bodysuits. The company also provides products for playtime, travel, mealtime, bathtime, and homegear, as well as kid's bags and diaper bags under the Skip Hop brand. In addition, it offers bedding, cribs, diaper bags, footwear, gift sets, hair accessories, jewelry, outerwear, paper goods, socks, shoes, swimwear, and toys. The company operates 18,800 wholesale locations, including department stores, national chain stores, and specialty stores. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 980 retail stores. The company also sells its products through its eCommerce websites, such as carters.com, oshkoshbgosh.com, oshkosh.com, and skiphop.com, as well as other international wholesale accounts and licensees. Carter's, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
11:20pm: Mas seems like a surefire favorite, writes Heyman, though he notes that the finalization of a deal may yet take as many as two weeks. Heyman agrees with the $1.17 billion figure that Ozanian reported yesterday. Mas involvement in the Miami community is seen as a big plus by the league, Heyman writes, and he also notes that Jeters group consists mostly of investors that are committing money in $10-50MM increments. Mas, on the other hand, has a net worth of more than $2 billion and has a couple other investors, Heyman writes, which obviously makes the transaction less complicated.

Jeter was, at one point, offered a spot in Mas ownership group, according to Heyman. He preferred to continue his own efforts due to his desire to be the ownership groups control person.

10:05pm: Manfred said today that three bids are all comparable in terms of price, as Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes. With final negotiations playing out, Loria will soon have to make a decision on which bid to accept. Loria refused to offer much of a comment when asked by reporters today, Healey adds. ESPNs Jerry Crasnick did note that Loria firmly denied that theres any deal in place.

JULY 11, 10:20am: Perhaps its too soon to count out the group led by Romney and Wayne Rothbaum. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets that its members are still expressing confidence in landing the club. Indeed, it has even added another local celebrity to its slate of investors in hopes of boosting the bid (thus making for another odd twist in this particular saga). Per Jackson, Armando Christian Perez  once the Marlins DJ and now famous by his stage name, Pitbull  is now a part of the bidding group (along with former Jeter compatriot Jeb Bush, Hall of Fame hurler Tom Glavine, recently fired D-Backs GM Dave Stewart and others).

JULY 10: With all eyes on Marlins Park as it hosts this years All-Star Game festivities, the ongoing efforts to find a buyer for the Miami organization appear to be reaching a boiling point. Though a deal obviously wasnt struck before the mid-summer classic, as had been hoped, commissioner Rob Manfred suggested today that the process will likely come to a conclusion in the near-term.

Notably, per Manfred, that uncertainty does not mean that the league will be looking at any deadline activities. They dont need my permission to make player moves, the commissioner said. While sale considerations could still influence the decisionmaking, then, its notable that other organizations wont need to worry about the leagues position in attempting to structure deals with the Marlins.

Despite the apparent momentum, its still uncertain just how the bidding will turn out. Multiple reports disagree, in fact, as to which direction the winds are blowing. Since the information currently occupying the newswire can best be described as deeply conflicting, well run through the latest chatter to get a sense of the state of play.

Kicking things off today was a report from Mike Ozanian of Forbes, in which he said an agreement is in place between current owner Jeffrey Loria and Miami billionaire Jorge Mas. Per Ozanian, the deal will be finalized at a $1.17B price tag  unless an unusual twist scuttles things.

Both the current ownership group and the would-be buyer, though, told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that no agreement was in place. Such a public stance may not be fully incompatible with that report, but others cast more doubt. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag, for example, hears that Mas is in the lead  but also that he has yet to secure a deal with Loria.

In the face of all that, then, came a New York Post report indicating that Mas likely wont land the Fish. Instead, per Josh Krosman, Ken Davidoff, and Claire Atkinson, its the Derek Jeter-led bidding group (which now also includes Michael Jordan) that seems to be closing in on a deal with Loria. The Post pegs the price at $1.2B and suggests the entire affair will be finished by next week.

If its possible to draw any conclusions at this point, it seems that the bidding is now a two-horse race  with the Tagg Romney-led group now falling largely out of the picture. Beyond that, however, theres a total lack of certainty even as the organization weighs potential trade scenarios for large portions of its MLB roster.
15.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14, 2017 -Ayo Makun, the popular Nigerian comedian who is known in showbiz circles as AY, will be hosting the third edition of the much anticipated Golden Movie Awards Africa (GMAA) to be held next Saturday, July 22 in Accra.

The multi-talented showbiz personality is expected to bring his funny side, his acting abilities and his sterling master of ceremony process when he mounts the stage next Saturday to compere one of the leading film industry events on the African continent.

According to the organisers of GMAA, NMJ Ghana, the decision to choose AY as the host of the third edition of the show was one anchored on the fact that he is an excellent example of someone who has cross appeal among different genres of the arts both in Nigerian and across the continent.

Over the years AY has built his profile in showbiz by excelling in all areas he has attempted to exercise his talent, says Mimi Andani, a director of the GMAA. AY started as a comedian and has since become a master of many things including being an actor, radio and T.V presenter, writer, director and MC.

They believe his addition will complement the event positively by projecting the GMAA as the pan-African film awards its known to be.AY, whose previous movies 30 Days in Atlanta and A Trip to Jamaica (nominated for 2017 GMAA) won critical acclaim, is currently promoting his latest movie 10 Days in Sun City.

Supporting AY to host the GMAA is Nigerian-American multi-talented showbiz personality OsasIghodaroAjibade. Osas who was born in America to Nigerian parents has featured in many films as well as in television and theatre productions.

The repertoire of films she has featured in include Ratnik (2016), Put a Ring on It (2016), Restless City (2011) and Killa Season (2006). Her television production appearances include Tinsel (2012-2014), 12 Steps to Recovery (2012) and Meet the Browns (2010). She co-hosted the 2014 edition of the Golden Movie Awards Africa (AMVCA) held in Lagos.

Osas is a young actress who has achieved a lot at her age and she is a fast rising star at that. We think she has earned her place as a co-host of the glamourous Golden Movie Awards to be staged in Accra next Saturday, says Mimi Andani.

The event which is billed to take place at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra will start with red carpet for celebrities from all over Africa from 7pm to 9pm with the main event taking place immediately afterwards from 9pm.

We have been known to stick strictly to our time over the period that we have been organising this prestigious event and we are not going to depart from that this time, Mimi noted about the time. She also noted that the show is planned to be a very entertaining event with good music, comedy and a host of other interesting elements for those who will make it to the Movenpick on Saturday.

Hint hint, we have the hottest music diva in Ghana at the moment Ebony performing along with others like Joey B and a big surprise we would like to keep to unleash on the night, she said. Trust me, we are cooking a glamorous show with all the pizazz that befits the name of the Golden Movie Awards Africa

Tickets for the event are selling at the Airport Shell in Accra at GHS400.00 for VVIP, GHS200 for VIP and GHS100.00 for regular. The organisers assure those who would purchase any category of tickets that they would certainly have their moneys worth.

The Golden Movie Awards Africa (GMAA) is an annual event that seeks to award excellence in movie making on the African continent and the African diaspora. Entries for this years GMAA came from West, East, Central and Southern Africa. Countries from which entries were received include Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Cameroon, South Africa and Kenya.

Instituted and organized by NMJ Ghana and its partners, the GMAA brings together professionals in filmmaking in Africa once every year to celebrate, promote and reward those who have excelled in their area of the film industry.

Find below the list of nominees for the 2017:

GOLDEN MOVIE AWARDS AFRICA

LIST OF NOMINEES FOR THE 2017 EDITION

GOLDEN ACTOR (COMEDY)

NOMINEES

Ayo Makun (A Trip To Jamaica) Richard Asante (Amakye&Dde) Majid Michel (Amakye& Dede)

GOLDEN ACTOR (DRAMA)

NOMINEES

O.C Ukeye(Catch.ER) Eddie Watson (3 Is A Crowd) Chris Okagbue (Lotanna) SambasaNzeribe (Slow Country) EnyinnaNwigwe (Hire A Man) Femi Jacob (Just Married)

GOLDEN ACTOR (SERIES)

NOMINEES

Jordan Adgualor (The Idiot And I) Adjetey Annang (Table Of Men) LirothaMcdonald (Samba) James Gadner (Everyday People) John Peasah (Yolo) Kweku Elliot (Everyday People)

GOLDEN ACTRESS (COMEDY)

NOMINEES

Priscilla Agyeman (Amakye& Dede) FunkeAkindele (Trip To Jamaica) ZynellZuh ( Hire A Man ) Lydia Forson (Keteke)

GOLDEN ACTRESS ( DRAMA )

NOMINEES

KalsumSinare (Sala) Beverly Naya (Catch.ER) Ivie Okujaye (Slow Country) AdesuaEtomi (Ayama) ZynellZuh (Just Married)

GOLDEN ACTRESS (SERIES)

NOMINEES

Naa Ashorkor (Table Of Men) Ade Kelly (Samba) Judith Asante (Sunshine Avenue) Gloria Sarfo (Living With Trisha) Ivy Adjima (Yolo) Jessica Williams (Table Of Men)

GOLDEN ART DIRECTOR

NOMINEES

TocaMacbaror (Lotanna) Quist &Twedie (Keteke) Behind The Wheels Slow Country

GOLDEN CENIMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES

Kelly Doe (Keteke) Kelly Doe (Amakye& Dede) Robert Peter (A Trip To Jamaica) TocaMacbaror (Lotanna) Tom Robson (3 Is A Crowd)

GOLDEN COSTUMIER

NOMINEES

Samba 3 Is A Crowd Lotanna Keteke

GOLDEN DIRECTOR

NOMINEES

TocaMacbaror (Lotanna) Desmond Elliot (3 Is A Crowd) Kobi Rana (Sala) Robert Peter (A Trip To Jamaica) Kofi Asamoah (Amakye& Dede)

GOLDEN DISCOVERY ACTOR/ACTRESS

NOMINEES

HauwaAllahbura (3 Is A Crowd) EmmanSinare (Sala) Nancy Isime (Hire A Man) Jessica Larny (Everyday People) Paula Obaseke (Reverse)

GOLDEN EDITOR

NOMINEES

Laurenne Abdullah & Peter Sedufia (Keteke) TocaMacbaror (Lotanna) Tunde & Patrick (A Trip To Jamaica) Afra Marley & Peter (Sala) Kofi Asamoah (Amakye& Dede)

GOLDEN INDIGENOUS

NOMINEES

Utopia Daggers Of Life Perfect Love

GOLDEN MAKEUP

NOMIEES

Sala Lotanna Slow Country Ayama Trip To Jamaica

GOLDEN MAKEUP ARTIST

NOMINEES

Emeka Lam (Lotanna) Sandra & Hakim (Slow Country) Sandra (Amakye& Dede) Divine Page (Trip To Jamaica)

GOLDEN MOST PROMIMISING ACTOR/ACTRESS

NOMINEES

HauwaAllahbura (3 Is A Crowd) EmmanSinare (Sala) Nancy Isime (Hire A Man) Jessica Williams (The Devil Between My Legs) Jessica Larny (Everyday People)

GOLDEN MOVIE COMEDY

NOMINEES

Keteke Amakye& Dede A Trip To Jamaica Hire A Man

GOLDEN MOVIE

NOMINEES

(3 Is A Crowd) Sala Lotanna A Trip To Jamaica Ayamma

GOLDEN SHORT FILM

NOMINEES

Ivieme Running Bitter Sweet Wine Dabara Broken

GOLDEN SOUND

NOMINEES

Lotanna Trip To Jamaica Sala Keteke

GLODEN STORY (DRAMA)

NOMINEES

Catch.ER Sala (3 Is A Crowd) Slow Country

GOLDEN SUPPORTING ACTOR (COMEDY)

NOMINEES

Majid Michel (Amakye& Dede) Ike Ogbona (Hire A Man) Dan Davies (A Trip To Jamaica) John Dumelo (Amakye& Dede)

GOLDEN SUPPORTING ACTOR ( DRAMA )

NOMINEES

Victor Deker (Lotanna) Fred Amugi (Sala) Desmond Elliot (3 Is A Crowd) Wale Ojo ( Ayama) Blossom Chukwujekwu (Catch.ER)

GOLDEN SUPPORTING ACTRESS ( COMEDY )

NOMINEES

NseIkpeEtim (Trip To Jamaica) Shaffy Bello (Hire A Man) Roslyn Ngissah (Amakye& Dede) Nancy Isime (Hire A Man)

GOLDEN SUPPORTING ACTRESS ( DRAMA )

NOMINEES

EmmanSinare (Sala) Liz Benson (3 Is A Crowd) HauwaAllahbura (Reverse) Jackie Appiah (Sala)

GOLDEN TV SERIES

NOMINEES

Samba Table Of Men Sunshine Avenue Yolo The Idiot And I

GOLDEN WRITER COMEDY

NOMINEES

Peter Sedufia (Keteke) Ayo Makun (Trip To Jamaica) Kofi Asamoh (Amakye& Dede) Writers Ink (Hire A Man)

GOLDEN WRITER DRAMA

NOMINEES
The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has disclosed that it will by the middle of August 2017 remove all check points that have impeded trade activities in the country.

The plan is ahead of a September deadline to get all barriers and checkpoints removed to facilitate the movement of goods, persons and services within the country and across the sub-region.

According to the Commissioner of Customs at the GRA, Isaac Crentsil, his outfit has crafted a plan that will culminate in the September timeline by the Vice President.

He explains that the exercise is scheduled to commence in the Northern region by the end of July 2017.

When his Excellency the Vice President issued the directive, the customs division put a team together to ensure that we get all internal barriers removed. We are going to do that on a pilot basis after meeting the Trade Ministry, Police service as well as Ghana Immigration Service,

By 31st July, we are going to remove all internal barriers in the Northern region. We will then proceed to the Southern part of the country so that at the end of August, we will have an evaluation and in September, we take off, the Commissioner of Customs remarked.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has instructed that all internal barriers be removed by September 1 this year.

This he believes will reduce corruption at the various checkpoints.

The Commissioner of Customs, Isaac Crentsil tells Citi Business News the move will make Ghana competitive within Africa.

Mr. Crentsil however disclosed that his outfit will push for some international barriers to be maintained so as not to breach international best practices.

In all, four barriers are expected to be maintained after the implementation of the policy.

These include the central corridor from Tema to Paga which has the Offinso and Savelugu check points along the route.

The second is the Lagos Abidjan corridor which spans from Dabala through to Agona Junction in the Western region.

The removal of the internal checks will not bring any serious mishaps to the country because there are about four main checks that we are talking with government to have us maintain them. We have ECOWAS mandated check points that we need to maintain; so not all the border checks that will go, Mr. Crentsil explained.

He added, At least it will serve as a deterrent to our willful smugglers those who desire to smuggle. We are also aware of the proliferation of small arms which we ensure that we nib them in the bud.

The Commissioner of Customs made the remarks when he met with the Comptroller General of the Ghana Immigration Service, Kwame Asuah Takyi on Friday.

The two officers met to discuss strategies on integrated border management between the two agencies.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
Koforidua, July 14, GNA - The church has been asked to give strong support to the promotion of sexual health education.

Ms. Golda Asante, Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit of the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC), said it should help provide the people, particularly the youth, with access to adequate information about their sexuality and sexual relationship.

She was speaking at a meeting held with the Men's Fellowship of the Ascension Presbyterian Church in Koforidua.

It provided the platform to discuss ways of curbing the rising prostitution, homosexuality and lesbianism in the area.

Ms. Asante said the church should double its effort to assist people to make the right decisions and choices.

She indicated that this should be done through education and information, saying, people needed to take decisions on their sexual orientation and relationship from 'well informed position'.

Enforcement of the law on sex alone was not enough to make people to change their sexual orientation and this was why the church's involvement was important, she stated.

Ms. Asante said given the church's tremendous influence, there could be no doubt that it could help to make a difference.

She encouraged Christian parents to have the confidence to talk and discuss sex with their children.

Opening up to them, she said, would enable them to instill the family's sexual values in the young ones, she added.

Ms. Asante made reference to campaign to get people in the region to voluntarily go for HIV-AIDS test, and said, the response had been encouraging.

She announced that in excess of 8,000 people went for the voluntary test within a space of three days - during this year's Kwahu Easter Festival.

GNA

By Edmund Quaynor, GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14, GNA - The National Youth Ministry, Ghana, of Victory Bible Church International (VBCI), will from Wednesday, July 19 to Sunday - July 23, organise a national Young Adult Camp Meeting on the theme: 'Heaven on Earth.'

The five -day event to be held at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Kasoa in the Central Region, would be under the auspices of the Presiding Bishop Right Reverend N.A Tackie-Yarboi.

Pastor Samuel Nii Sarkor Sackey, the National Youth Director, told Ghana News Agency in Accra that this year's Young Adults Camp would be a notch higher than previous camps.

According to him, the schedule for the camp has been thoughtfully put together to be life changing, educative and an experience of heaven on earth.

Pastor Sackey called on the youth yearning for an unforgettable experience in the presence of God to join in the divine encounter with the Bishop.

VBCI is blessed with growing and thriving churches within the communities and the world at large, with its mission of converting people in all creative ways and developing them into fully functioning followers of Christ.

Its headquarters is in Awoshie; Junction Baah Yard, in the Greater Accra Region.

GNA

By Racheal Dwamena Akenteng, GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14, GNA - Members of the Paediatric Society of Ghana (PSG) on Friday, converged in Accra for a two-day annual conference on the theme: 'Every Child Matters', to address issues regarding the general well-being of children and young people.

The conference would also create the platform for members to review the past performances of the Society, open up for new membership and encourage networking for enhanced paediatric health care delivery, to the redress of the challenges leading to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

Dr Ebenezer Badoe, the President of the Paediatric Society of Ghana, in his welcome address said there was currently a host of challenges affecting the health dynamics of the country, citing the population growth, rapid urbanisation, poor health leading of Ghanaians, leading to high birth and death as well as morbidity rates, poor infrastructure, and the huge health expenditure resulting in poor quality of services as a wake-up call for action.

He said child psychiatric disorders had also become a common phenomenon in cases seen daily in the various health facilities, most of them attributable to poor antenatal and neonatal care.

He said the enormous challenges ahead required strengthened collaboration with all stakeholders with the requisite knowledge and skills, as well as a multi-disciplinary approach in terms of training and financing, to deal with the childhood health problems of Ghanaians.

He called for the need to look at the national context and improve services for children in order to attain the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that aimed at addressing the root causes of poverty and a universal need for development for all people.

Dr Issabella Sagoe Moses, the Director of the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, said although Ghana had made some strides in reducing under five mortality and morbidity rates, by introducing interventions to reduce the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition, there was still more work to be done.

She said the Society must champion advocacy and sharpen their skills on universal child health provision, with particular focus on children with disabilities, their rehabilitation, rights, nutrition and care.

Professor Jennifer Welbeck, an Associate Professor in Paediatrics at the Department of Child Health at the University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry, addressing a topic on the 'Paediatric care in Ghana: The past, the Present and the Future', said neo-natal mortality had not seen much gains over the past years, which contributed to the failure in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

She however expressed the hope that with the current doubled efforts by all stakeholders, infrastructure upgrades, scaled up training by nursing and midwifery institutions, and political commitment, the minimum resources available to the health sector could be effectively utilised to address the challenges.

Dr Hilda Mantebea Boye, the Secretary to the Greater Accra Branch of the Society, gave highlights on Neo-natal Jaundice, which was a major cause of brain damage in infants, citing some of the cause as infection in baby's blood, viral or bacterial infections, incompatibility between the mother and the baby's blood, liver malfunction as well as enzyme deficiency.

She cited some of the reasons for the late presentation of such cases by mother to ignorance, misconception, myths as well as misinformation by health professionals.

She called for intensified public education on Neo-natal Jaundice, which was currently a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in children.

GNA

By Christabel Addo/Linda Baah, GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14, GNA - The 20th Union Africa conference on lung health, has ended in Accra with a challenge to participants to work in the spirit of Pan-Africanism to address the continent's unique wellness problems.

Dr Muyabala Munachitombwe-Muna, the President of the Union Africa Region, commended the delegates and resource persons for their insightful contributions towards accelerating implementation of policies and programmes to end Tuberculosis (TB) and other lung-related diseases.

He also commended the local, international and scientific Organising Committees, as well as the host country for the hard work done to ensure the smooth running of the conference, and also the sponsors for their technical and financial assistance.

He described the event, which coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the Union Africa Regional conference which were hosted every two years, and had its first roots to Ghana, as very successful and historic.

The four-day conference which was on the theme: 'Accelerating implementation through partnerships to end TB, HIV/TB, Tobacco and related NCDs,' had more than 800 delegates involving scientists, researchers, academia and civil society groups from North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Africa, to share knowledge, experiences and chart a new course to ensure lung health and end TB by 2030.

He urged the Union members to double their efforts by remaining resolute in their fight against TB and all the other related lung diseases, and to be solution creators and problem solvers in their respective continents.

Dr Munachitombwe-Muna said the conference provided a platform to evaluate progress so far, enhanced the capacities of civil society to enable them to effectively engage with policy makers and get their support and understanding on the need to commit more resources to end TB by 2030.

He, however, said a lot more emphasis must be laid on preventive methods at conferences empower medical staff and other health care professionals with the requisite knowledge on TB and lung health in general and address the issue of stigma through intensified public education, to help find the missing cases of diseases for effective treatment.

Dr Frank Bonsu, who was the Conference Chair and also President of the Ghana Society for the Prevention of TB, said there was a total of 253 abstracts on varied topics from 35 countries, in 19 sessions.

He said it was hoped that having defined the huge continental burden of TB where statistics shows that 2.7 million new TB cases were recorded annually, 226,667 new cases every month, 7,452 new TB cases every day and 311 new TB cases die every hour, there was the urgent need to strengthen partnerships to address the gaps for effective outcomes.

GNA

By Christabel Addo, GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14, GNA - Mrs Mawuena Trebarh, Chief Business Strategist at Inspire Africa Consult Limited, has called for the participation of more women in the media.

She said data from Women in Film TV Media showed that the percentage of women in film making was negligible.

Also, findings from the Women's Media Center (WMC) on 'Divided 2017: The Media Gender Gap' said men produced 62.1 per cent of news compared to 37.3 per cent by women.

'Clearly there's a deficit and this is the sort of data we need in order to take an informed decision about what areas we can target to develop an enterprise that perhaps has not yet reached the market,' she said.

Mrs Trebarh who was the guest speaker of an online dialogue series organised by the Alliance for Women in Media, Africa (AMWA) and spoke on the topic: 'Creating Enterprise Opportunities from Media.'

She took participants through how to identify commercially viable enterprise as well as critical success factors to consider in starting a media enterprise via a virtual online platform.

She said one must satisfy a need but also have unique specialisation, a sound financial analysis, technology and innovation required, and a viable business plan, which included revenue generation and profitability.

Mrs Trebarh encouraged participants to get support in designing a business plan.

'Never think this is something you have to do on your own, there is tremendous expertise out there to help you to define a business plan that you can defend efficiently and effectively.'

She urged participants to consider multiple funding options, potential partnerships and be unapologetic about targets.

Special guests for the event included Madam Dzifa Gomashie, Madam Elizabeth Ohene, and Madam Sophia Bosompem.

Madam Joyce Sackitey, Head of Corporate Communications at Voltic moderated the discussion which saw 145 participants, including Kokui Selormey, Anita Erskine, Gifty Andoh Appiah, Lorrencia Nkrumah, Matilda Asiedu-Asante, and Belinda Ayamgha.

AMWA founded by Shamima Muslim Alhassan, is a non-governmental organisation comprising women in the communications industry in Ghana.

GNA

By Caroline Pomeyie, GNA
Washington (AFP) - The US Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to block a federal judge's ruling that exempted grandparents of people living in the United States from President Donald Trump's travel ban.

In a filing on Friday, the Trump administration asked the nine Supreme Court justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a federal judge in Hawaii that placed limits on the measure temporarily barring refugees and other travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump's March 6 executive order bars visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and refugees for 120 days. The administration insists it is necessary to keep violent extremists out of the country.

After a series of judicial roadblocks in the lower courts, the administration scored a partial victory in June, when the Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed with the ban, though people with a "bona fide relationship" to a US person or entity were exempt.

The ruling, which capped months of legal wrangling, left unclear the question of just who had such a "credible claim."

The Trump administration provided a list defining the category as including parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- or half-siblings.

But federal Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii ruled that the administration's criteria unfairly excluded grandparents and grandchildren, expanding the list of "bona fide" relatives to include them, along with brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States.

Watson's "interpretation empties the (Supreme) Court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members," Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall said in the administration's filing.

However, arguing -- before a panel of justices aged 49 to 84 -- that grandparents and grandchildren are not "close" relatives may be an uphill battle.

And it was unclear how quickly the Supreme Court -- now in summer recess but able to act on emergency motions -- might respond, and when or if the expanded terms set by the Hawaii judge might take effect. If they do, thousands of potential travelers could be affected.

'Antithesis of common sense'

In his ruling, Watson said the government's distinction of what constitutes "close" family was "the antithesis of common sense."

The judge also ruled that the government could not exclude refugees who have assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States.

But the Justice Department said in its filing with the Supreme Court that Watson's decision as concerns refugees would render the related portion of the high court's decision "effectively meaningless."

The original ban, announced days after Trump became president on January 20, was successfully challenged in lower courts on the grounds that it overstepped Trump's presidential authority and discriminated against Muslims in violation of the US constitution. A revised version also did not pass legal muster.

Judges in lower courts had cited Trump's repeated statements during the presidential campaign that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Oral arguments are due to take place after the court returns for a new session in October over whether the ban violates the US Constitution.
15.07.2017 LISTEN

The man called Sydney Casely Hayford must be told in plain language that he either chooses to be Ghanaian or claim British nationality. He has had the penchant over the years since he got this platform on Citi's "BIG ISSUE", to run people who do not share his opnion down and often times engage in naked insults like "STUPID", "IDIOT" and sometimes other disparaging phrases.

The current reference by a Member of Parliament to his uncultured behaviour as raised in Parliament has even made him to insult Ghanaians -further. Listening to him explain himself away in Star-FM news this morning, he sought to JUSTIFY using the word "STUPID" because he is of British ancestry and it is not unsavoury to use such terms.

I personally take it as RACIST remark which must not be taken lightly. Parliament should not allow him go free, because what he has simply told us, based on his explanation is that we are STUPID because we do not understand his language and culture.

If Sydney Casely Hayford, who is about a fourth generation half-caste of British-Ghanaian origin and cannot adopt to the Ghanaian culture, is rather unfortunate. Where does he belong, Britain or Ghana?

As captured in the first paragraph, it has always been his attitude to be seeing himself as a super knowledgeable person who considers persons who share opinions different from his as "STUPID".

Unfortunately the host of the "BIG ISSUE" has done little to sanitize the man's preferred choice of going it rough with people, who are sometimes not present to react to such aspersions. I must thinly admit that on a few occasions, the then host of the show, Mr. Richard Skyy, trys asking him to withdraw such offensive words which he normally succeeds with difficulty.

I am personally glad that his near being hauled before the Legislators has made him eat humble-pie, but rather with another 'look down on people attitude'. Yes, there is Freedom of Speech for us to say whatever we want to say - but it must have the Ghanaian cultural blend.

In the Ghanaian cultural build-up, the word STUUPIID is a heart tearing insult and the man must take it, irrespective of where his ancestory originates.
It is gladdening to learn that at long last the free SHS promise is going to be made good. As a flagship project of the government of President Akufo-Addo and his party the New Patriotic Party (NPP), it is our take that all the necessary ingredients are provided to reduce the hitches which usually accompany novelties of such magnitude.

They said it was only a campaign gimmick, nowhere near being implemented but now nobody indeed not even propagandists on the side of the largest opposition party can doubt the sincerity of the initiative. They might still want to play the usual propaganda pranks on persons who are hard at understanding such initiatives but inside them they understand it is coming and pronto.

The number of kids who fall out at the end of their JHS education unable to proceed to that level is enormous and worrying. It is reason all Ghanaians who are the stakeholders in this matter must support the initiative regardless of their political colours. Ghana comes first before our political affiliations and not the pettiness some of us trade in the name of partisan politics.

We recall with pain the efforts by some Ghanaians to derail the project and wondered how some of us can be so mean in our practice of politics.

We have come a long way from independence that children roaming the streets for want of support to attend school should be anathema.

The initial hiccups which would be experienced when the project is launched should provide us with important lessons for fine tuning. Such challenges should not be used to castigate officials at the forefront of the implementation of the project as we are wont to do.

The initiative is too critical for our human resource development that we must ensure its success come what may. Indeed we can make it shine and become a source of admiration for other African countries.

Finland and how the country is benefitting from the dividends of education is a shining example of how education even in the absence of natural resources can ensure the growth of a nation. Overlooking this crucial subject would not be in the interest of our development even as we strive to hit this mark and all the attributes associated with this status.

There are within us as a people and in the education system bad persons who would rather the project fails. Such persons would resort to varied ploys as means of throwing spanners into the works.

We ask that the eyes of the Ghana Education Service be riveted on the schools with a view to finding those who would want to tread on this tangent.

Help desks should be created in the various districts where parents who encounter deliberately created challenges can go for redress.

Those found to have hindered the success of the project must be named, shamed and sanctioned.
15.07.2017 LISTEN

The 1992 constitution is the supreme law of Ghana, and any other law, found to be inconsistent with any provision of the constitution, shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void (Article 1(2)). Simple and plain English!

The former assembly member, Mr. Supi, exercised his right under Article 41 of the 1992 constitution, which confers on Ghanaians the duty to protect public funds and property.

He didn't get up and marched to UEW with like minded individuals to barricade the offices of any of the UEW officials, alleged to have misappropriated public funds. But rather, he used the law court to protect the public purse, and this is someone who don't even have a first degree.

Now you have a UTAG President and Secretary, who hold PhD's or something along those lines, (I say this because, UTAG UEW never called an emergency meeting of UTAG members, after the court hearing on Friday the 14th of July 2017, to get a resolution before declaring their two-man show of power strike), who are aggrieved because of a court order, and instead of using the due process to seek redress, rather resorted to radical actions that Mr. Supi, who has never completed university, never contemplated doing.

Maybe some people need re-education regarding an Act of Parliament serving as an enabling Act of an institution or organisation. Being established by an Act of Parliament doesn't mean that the state should fold its arms and allow illegalities to go on in the name of some people misplaced interpretation of autonomy. Even the Electoral Commission (EC), whose independence is guaranteed under Article 46 of the 1992 constitution, cannot claim autonomy. When laws are breached, the courts and other agencies empowered by the constitution and other laws have to come in and hold the individuals responsible, accountable. EC is currently under investigation by EOCO. So, what autonomy are some members of UTAG talking about?

If anyone does not want the laws of Ghana to apply to them, nothing stops them from creating their own country outside the shores of Ghana. Even Judges whose job security is guaranteed under the 1992 constitution, have been removed from office, as a result of misconduct (Justice Derry & others). Under which provision in the 1992 constitution or Act 672, is the position of a VC or Finance Officer, guaranteed?

There is a law in this country called the Public Procurement Act (PPA). All contracts in the public sector, must follow the laid down procedures as spelt out under this Act. UEW is a public institution, and therefore, any contract awarded must be in conformity with the provisions of this Act. Mr. Supi is alleging among several others that, some contracts were awarded by UEW, which did not conform to the provisions of the PPA. UEW only have to go to court and prove that, those contracts were actually awarded in accordance with the provisions of the PPA, end of story!

So if someone decided to sidestep the PPA and awarded contracts according to their own guidelines, and not according to the provisions of the PPA, what business has UTAG got in that? Is UTAG now saying that, its members are above the laws of Ghana? Even the President of the Republic is subject to the laws of Ghana.

The injunction placed on the VC and Finance Officer, will not be lifted because of the strike declared by the President and Secretary of UTAG UEW.

I can clearly foresee some individuals who have no respect for the laws of this country, being tried for contempt of court! No radical action by UTAG can compel the court to rescind its decision. It is only through a court action that UTAG may get the injunction lifted.

If a court should vary its decision, simply because of the radical actions of a Trade Union, then Ghana would be worse than a failed state!

No wonder the standard of graduates being churned out by the country's universities, falls below employers expectations!

I will restrain myself from mentioning the visit to an ex president to impress upon him to talk to the current president to intervene in the ongoing UEW litigation. We come back to the same ignorance of the law. A President has no power to direct a court to discontinue a case! Anyway, if you haven't done anything wrong, why lobby for a case against you to be dropped?

Again UTAG is disputing the legal basis of the Pro VCs powers to run UEW, by churning out class one chap arguments. Just to shred that argument to pieces, a President is elected to office with his running mate. The running mates picture or name does not appear on the ballot paper, but if the President is either forced out of office, resigns or dies, the Vice President takes over, even if the President lied to get elected (the case of Delma Rousseff of Brazil).

Alhassan Salifu Bawah

(Son of a peasant farmer)
Mr. Samuel Ntow, the Director for Private Schools in the Ghana Education Service (GES), said efforts were being made to strengthen the operations of the Service so as to make it more responsive to the changing needs of individuals and the nation.

Speaking at a stakeholders meeting organised by the USAID Partnership for Education/Learning on improving the reading habits of pupils, Mr. Ntow said the GES had started restructuring and strengthening its activities in order to produce responsible and self-reliant citizens for the country.

GES is in the process of restructuring its operations so as to be in line with the educational policy initiatives and programmes of the Government.

The CRDD and the Teacher Education Division (TED), for instance, have now been merged with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and the National Teaching Council (NTC) respectively to facilitate the production of good-quality instructional materials and teachers for our schools and institutions, he said.

Dr. Guitele Nicoleau, the Chief of Party for USAID Partnership for Education/Learning, said her agency would continue to support the government to provide quality education through reading to its citizens.

We will continue to work with other stakeholders to improve performance in the teaching and learning of literacy in the early grades of formal education in the country, she said.

The USAID Partnership for Education/Learning is a five-year activity aimed at improving the reading habits of approximately 1.1 million kindergarten and lower primary pupils in 100 districts in Ghana.

The writer is an educationist and a public relations officer at the Headquarters of the Ghana Education Service in Accra.
15.07.2017 LISTEN

The Jomoro District Assembly of the Western Region, July 12, 2017, has for the second time rejected the nomination of Mr Eric Muah as District Chief Executive (DCE).

In an election organised by the Jomoro District Electoral Officer,Mr Isaac Ano Otoo and witnessed by Western Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the DCE nominee failed to get the required two-thirds votes of the assembly members as stated by law.

Out of the 48 Assembly Members present, 26 voted YES for the nominee, while 22 voted NO against him.

Mr Eric Muah suffered a similar fate in May 9 this year, when 25 Assembly Members approved his nomination, while 23 rejected it.

However, with the nominee securing 54%, he has automatically qualified to be voted on the position for the third time at a date to be announced later by the Electoral Commission.

Earlier in a speech by the Western Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie appealed through the traditional authorities present to impress upon the Assembly Members to give the nominee the mantle to bring his experience to bear on the development of the District.

He further asked them to unite and resist the temptations of being misled by people, since that had the potential to retard development.

The Regional Minister also went on his knees to beg the Assembly Members to forgive the nominee if he has done something wrong to anybody and confirm him but the Minister's appeal fell on deaf ears.

Earlier on, the Western Regional Minister appealed to Assembly Members to meet him in close door for five minutes for some deliberation but the Assembly Members denied him the opportunity.

After the declaration of the result, the Western Regional Minister expressed his displeasure indicating that the Assembly Members have the democratic right to reject the President's nominee. He added, "I'm going to inform the President about what has happened here".

After the rejection of the DCE nominee, many people including some of the chiefs present spoke to Daniel Kaku (freelance journalist) and expressed their disappointment at the failure of Mr Eric Muah to get the nod despite leadership skills and his in-depth knowledge of local governance.

As a result, the Assembly's meeting to vote over the DCE nominee was marked by a very charged atmosphere.

A crowd made up of people believed to be sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party gathered in front of the Assembly hall, clad in red, holding various placards and chanting songs that appeared to warn members not to vote against the nominee.

The angry supporters allegedly accused the District Police Commander and Jomoro District Coordinating Director for paying moneys to some members to vote against the President's nominee.

They chanted, "Police Commander know your right, stop influencing Assembly members to vote against the President nominee, Commander what has the DCE nominee done to you, Mr Coordinating Director next time don't try to pay money to some Assembly members to reject the President's nominee, we will not allow that to happen again, we swear"

Speaking to the media, the President's nominee, Mr Eric Muah advised the NPP angry supporters to remain calm and avoid any attack.

"Everybody should exercise constraint and nobody should insult any Assembly Members, this is democracy, I still give thanks to President Nana Addo for giving me the second chance and I also thank the Assembly Members for given 54% although I couldn't get the required two-third majority, thanks to my party executives especially my Acting Western Regional Chairman, Mr Francis Ndede Siah for the unflinching support he has shown and the NPP party, I love you all", Mr Eric Muah.

The confirmation of the President's nominee was heavily characterized by security men comprising policemen, navy, fire service men and armed forces.

Present at the confirmation to offer their support to Mr Eric Muah were the Western Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Member of Parliament for Jomoro who doubles as a Deputy Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Hon Paul Essien, Acting Western Regional Chairman for NPP, Mr Francis Ndede Siah, Deputy National Youth Organizer for NPP, Mr Dominic Eduah, NPP Western Regional Youth Organizer, Mr Eric Amoabeng, MCE for Nzema East Municipal, Hon Frank Okpeyen, NPP Constituency Chairman for Ellembelle, Mr Francis Akainyah alias Atito and among others.
Residents of Akatsi in the Akatsi South District of the Volta Region were thrown into a state of shock on Friday, when a businesswoman in her late 50s was slaughtered in her shop.

Madam Evelyn Abbah, popularly known as Mamator, had her lifeless body lay in cold blood when her workers forced the shop open after unyielding calls on her to open it.

According to eyewitnesses, the late Mamator has an inner apartment in her shop located at the 4-Junction, a suburb of Akatsi where she sleeps at night.

The deceased, who usually opens the shop early in the morning, failed to do so when her workers got to the shop in the morning.

This raised an alarm compelling her workers to forcefully open the shop.

Reports suggested a violent struggle led to her murder with the shop being ransacked by unknown persons and her body inflicted with cutlass wounds.

The Akatsi South District Police Commander, Supt Bismarck Agyapong, who confirmed the incident to Citi News, said his outfit is gathering information surrounding the murder, and called on the public to volunteer information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

The corpse has since been deposited at the St Paul's Morgue in Akatsi.



By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Former Minister of State at the Presidency, Rashid Pelpuo, is warning government against the use of the three development authorities as a tool for needless politicking.

According to him, the establishment of particularly the Northern Development Authority out of the remnants of SADA should not operate in a way that puts Northern Ghana at a disadvantage because the electoral fortunes of the NPP is not the best in that part of the country.

His comments follow the expected laying of the bills for the Northern, Middle Belt and Coastal Development Authorities in Parliament next week.

Speaking to Citi News' Duke Mensah Opoku on Friday, Rashid Pelpuo said government must come clean on why it added other areas apart from the northern belt which has peculiar challenges.

It's a normal thing for any government that wants to undertake a development agenda to develop a policy that will translate it into a legal frame. So that's why I see government couching their policy on the development sectors  the northern, middle belt and the coast belt, couching it on a bill which will appear before parliament soon. We are looking forward to examine the details of how that policy initiative if translated into law will come out. We want to see how that development bill will correspond to the peculiar needs of the various areas and why government decided to separate them into three development areas.

He explained that during the NDC's regime, they limited the areas to places that have challenges in development.

So it is important to pull the north along so that we can have a good average for the country. But now if you are adding other places, there must be a reason to add those other places. Maybe they too have those kinds of challenges but that would depend on some feasibility study, he added.

Nana Addo approves Act establishing 3 dev't authorities

President Akufo Addo has approved an act establishing the three development authorities to be laid before Parliament on Wednesday.

The Coastal, Middle and Northern Belt Development Authorities according to the government, will be key in the administration of the one million dollars for every constituency each year.

Also, the Bill establishing the Zongo Development Fund will be laid before the House on Wednesday.

Dr. Muntaka Alolo, a Technical Economic Adviser at the Office of the Vice President, told Citi News that government is ready to fulfill those promises to Ghanaians.

On Wednesday, the draft Bill will be made in Parliament for the establishment of the three development authorities but once it is made , the necessary parliamentary processes will take off so the bills are packed and the authorities will be established Dr. Alolo said.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
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 []
Mr. Anthony Kwaku Amoah, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Ghana Education Service (GES), has urged school authorities to intensify their engagements with parents and stakeholders on how to instill discipline in schools.

Speaking at a ceremony to present some supplementary books to Ansaru-Deen Islamic Basic School at Sukura, near Dansoman, in Accra, Mr. Amoah said it was disheartening to see pupils play at home and indulge in illicit activities.

He said students had resort to smoking, drinking and gambling when they were supposed to be in school, and urged that School authorities should extensively engage parents and stakeholders over how to fight the rising cases of indiscipline which have hit hard our schools in recent times.

It is an act of indiscipline to be absent from school for no good reason. Dodging school and classes on such days like Fridays is not just a bad attitude but also against the teachings of God.

As pupils, you should respect your parents, teachers and other people so that they will continue to give you good education and for you to become great leaders in future, he said.

Mr. SibaSalifuShakibu, the Head-teacher of the school, thanked the PRO for his gesture and appealed for more resources to help the school to provide quality educationand training to its pupils.
There are times when ones ears tell one that a speech by someone else that one is listening to, could have come from ones own lips.

That is how I felt when I heard the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, address the traditional rulers of Ghana earlier this week. And like music which one produces oneself, the presidents words sounded very sweet, indeed, to me.

Everyone knows how powerful a president is. All those appointments that are his to make. All the people who want to be photographed with him. The uncountable people who would like to see him to discuss the problems of their regions, districts and towns and villages with him.

And someone who has toiled and embraced untold hardship, in order to get to that enviable position, states publicly that he is prepared to put it (his presidency) on the line, to end the scourge of galamsey to safeguard Ghanas future?

Magnificent as it sounds, it is not the first time the president has made this pledge to end galamsey. Perhaps, the people engaged in the evil enterprise will now take him seriously?

They had better do so. For if they do not listen, they will feel the full force of the state of Ghana deployed against them in the next few weeks.

The president, who is a very far-minded person, called our traditional rulers together to appeal to them to use their influence  such as it is  to persuade their people to leave the galamsey areas before the governments heavy hand descends upon them.

In doing so, the president made it clear that he has no illusions about the involvement of some of the chiefs in galamsey operations in the lands they are supposed to preserve for future generations. All kinds of people from all walks of our national life are engaged in this exercise  security personnel, political leaders, businessmen, some chiefs  all are involved, the president said.

He vowed: I cannot oversee that because it would be a betrayal of the trust that the people of Ghana put in me on 7 January 2017.

And he urged the traditional rulers not to sit back and allow the activities of the illegal miners to jeopardise the very survival of our nation. They should, Nana Akufo-Addo pleaded, support the fight against illegal mining because his personal commitment alone was not enough to end the menace.

The president, in somewhat flattering terms, acknowledge the fact that any serious social mobilisation in Ghana, since time immemorial, (has) involved our chiefs; without them, nothing can happen. So the reason why you have been brought here today is to have the opportunity to share with you, our thoughts, our strategy, [and] our thinking. And I ask of you, in the name of the generations yet unborn, for your support and active involvement in bringing the menace of galamsey to an end.

I am sure the chiefs were all of one mind in assuring the president that they were with him in the battle against galamsey. But the most important question is: will their commitment last? When theyve gone back to their stations and are enticed with money and gifts by galamsey operators, will they remember the presidents words, namely, that the land and the rivers and streams thereon must be observed for generations yet unborn?

Human nature being what it is, the president would be well advised to go by the dictum (coined by a man I would not normally quote, but whose words seem more appropriate here than anyone elses that I know of, the US president, Ronald Reagan!) Trust but verify!

This means President Akufo-Addo must use an intelligence-led approach in the strategy he wants to use against galamsey. The security agencies must be asked to furnish the government with accurate reports about the state-of-play in each galamsey district and region, before the military and the police are deployed there in large numbers. Where a chief is named in a report, an emissary must be sent to inform him that the government has been apprised of his involvement but that out of respect, he is being asked to co-operate to weed out galamsey in his vicinity. Henceforth, his activities would be monitored, and if it is seen that he is continuing to work against his own peoples interests and those of their unborn children he would be named, shamed and prosecuted.

Similarly, the political leaders and businessmen whom the president said were behind galamsey, must be given an opportunity to co-operate, or else. The government must not be apprehensive of using its mailed fist against such people, for they have been extremely provocative in carrying out galamsey. Numerous excavators and heavy earth-moving machinery, as well as other mobile equipment, have been driven along our roads to the galamsey sites, which are often deep in the bush.

Did none of the police posts dotted all over the country see them? If the police did not see them, what about the farmers and ordinary people? Did they become suspicious, and if they did, did they report their suspicions to the police and/or their chiefs?

It is almost certain that many ordinary have been sickened by the devastation they have observed at the galamsey sites but have given up caring, largely because they strongly believe that people higher-up the social ladder are involved in galamsey and that it is dangerous for ordinary, powerless people to go against them by reporting their observations and suspicions to policemen and chiefs who might well be working in cahoots with the galamseyers.

By Cameron Duodu
15.07.2017 LISTEN

Hon. Justina Marigold Assan, the Agona West Municipal Chief (MCE) has admonished Supporters and sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to forge ahead in unity to ensure successful tenure of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo led NPP government.

According to her, Nana Addo's government could only succeed if supporters at the grassroot level rally behind him in unity and cooperation because they form the pillar of the government.

" Ghanaians voted massively for Nana Addo and the NPP because they believe we can change the fortune of the country. We are now in government and expectations are high. What we ought to do is to relay with government appointees to inform the masses about positive measures put in place to cushion them.

It therefore behooves on us to eork handnin hand with the administration and inform them accordingly to merit the confidence imposed in the NPP government. If we live in disunity, policies and programs set up to improve the living conditions of of the ordinary Ghanaians would be materialized"

Hon. Justina Marigold Assan stated these when addressing delegates conference of the Agona West constituency branch of the NPP at Agona Swedru recently.

She expressed her appreciation to the delegates, party supporters, sympathizers and the Agona West community for their unflinching support towards her administration.

The MCE pledged to ensure policies of the government would be fully implemented in the municipality adding that jobs would be created to absorb the teeming unemployed youth.

" Youth unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing our municipality. As the old adage goes "the devil finds work for idle hands" every effort would be made to create opportunities for the unemployed youth to acquire skills which will enable them set up their own businesses.

I wish to task you to be ambassadors in your various communities by propagating the achievement of the NPP government. Let your people understand programs and policies that had been put in place for Ghana to work again"

The Central Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Joe Donkor urged the delegates to monitor activities of government appointees in ministries and department closely to work in conformity with programs and policies of Nana Addo led NPP government.

He encouraged them to report rots if found in any sector for appropriate action to be taken against those who want to sabotage the system.

The NPP Member of Parliament, Hon. Cynthia Morrison announced a facelift projects for the constituency. She noted that town roads were to be reshaped to enhance smooth transportation of goods and services to boost economic activities in the area.

According to her, Agona Swedru, Lower and Upper Bobikuma, Nyakrom, Nkum would see improvement in their town roads.

"Additionaly, I will soon distribute furniture to all community and durbar centers in the constituency to reduce finacial burden associated with funerals, festivals, weddings and other ceremonies which add up to economic hardships."
Ghana producing 30% of the world production of cocoa beans  the best in the world  is number two behind Ivory Coast in this industry. As much as Ghana used to be called Gold Coast, the identity of Ghana is not the precious metal in which big players are involved mainly, but cocoa. Long time when Gold will be no more in Ghanas soil, cocoa beans will be with Ghanaians for thousands of years to come. Cocoa is the identity of Ghanaians!

Again this year, an annual ritual, Ghana Cocoa Board is borrowing USD 1, 7 Billion on the international market to buy cocoa beans from Ghanaian farmers. The price that is fixed daily on the international market is not the price the farmer gets for his cherished harvest, in fact far less. The difference in price should have enabled Ghana Cocoa Board to better the situation of their farmers. Partially it is used to subsidize fertilizer, finance the Cocoa Institute and free seedling Programmes. The Board in itself is costly, inefficient and corrupt from top to bottom and does not understand how to make profit out of this business to better the conditions of the farmers60 years after Independence!

The money in this industry is NOT made by producing the cocoa beans, but in trade and production which is done outside and mainly by white people, representatives of the formers Colonial Masters. The Cocoa Boycott of 1946-48 had ended but is still very present in this sector with Ghana having not learnt its lesson. While in the sector of Rubber production, Brazil had seen lots of very rich Barons enjoying luxioures lives to build Opera Houses in the Amazon Jungle, while cocoa farmers struggle year in and year out to make ends meet. African mind still bows down its head to the injustice done to them and instrumentalizes it in form of Cocoa Board. While the white man is enjoying the nonsense committed on African soil with Champaign parties, the black farmers are worried for the school fees to be paid and hospital bills to be settled.

In unity we stand firm and are strong, might be a good slogan on paper, but when wanting to be effective and powerful, must be strategized on the ground in real terms in the right manner.

The price of cocoa on the international market goes down all the time as the market power is in the hands of speculative Brokers in New York and London that have no sense for cocoa and chocolate, but only how best to make lots of money with commodities like pig halves, sugar, cocoa, soya and wheat. Speculation on finished products, golden wedding rings, sausages and bread or chocolate, is never done due to the numbers and complexity of players involved. Nothing stops Ghanaians to set up their own chocolate productions and limit the export of raw cocoa beansonly Ghanaians themselves limit themselves. Machineries can be bought, recipes can be seen on the internet and know-how of Experts can be bought at an instance.

Ghanaians do not understand the immense power they hold in their hands with the little cocoa bean but look unto Gold, Oil and Gas. While the white man has identified the power that is in this beautiful natural product and exploits it before the very eyes of the black man, the black man still does not see but tries to harm the community of chocolate lovers with homemade products available on the local market. The white man has no interest to see this industry in the hands of the black mansimple as that.

FairTrade chocolate, the new trend in the world of the white man, is nothing but the modern version to deprive the black man from enjoying a product he should dominate and the white man should be gladly enjoying alongside him. This industry is still Imperialism with the support of the Africans themselves.

In this vital sector not Unity as One, but Diversity as One is the way forward. While a restructured and newly mandated Cocoa Board should set a framework for the industry (negotiation with other countries to form a Cartel, supervising Research Facilities and seedling plantation besides setting working standards, environmental protection regulations, constructing Cocoa Roads and other related aspects), the power should be given back into the hands of the framers. They should form regional Associations managed by a voluntary team of leaders that gives out the prices for Buyers and coordinates along all involved aspects. Money paid for the beans goes directly and immediately to the farmers with no time and money lost. Different Associations will discuss ideas of prices and offer them in a set bracket to Buyers. The Government will ensure that these bracket is not undermined by any player and if so, has the power to stop the export of cocoa beans when the price falls below a set margin. The legal entity is no longer one body, the Government, but the local Associations on the ground in which every farmer as his voice and is free to join any Association in case the favourite one is no longer working in his best interest.

Profit generated on a local level can faster and more efficient benefit the farmers in the communities they operate in. Unlike Co-Operatives (history has exposed the strong inner capability of such a structure to be corrupted over time), Associations stand in competition to each other making the process more efficient and profitable for the farmers. The Tax the farmers need to pay can cover the costs for the overall initiatives and interventions mentioned above. Qualified and eager farmers will emerge out of the various Associations and take dominion over their local areas which will eventually see rich Barons in this industry and take out inefficiency in the system. As long as the playing field is accessible for all farmers and equal to them, it is a race for the Best in them and subsequently the industry at large for which reason the profit making machine Cocoa Beans and Chocolate.

Institutions never make profit nor drive an industry, it is the Individual in his heart, soul and spirit that drives an economy and makes himself rich. Nations only must set the right framework that gives the Individual the freedom to perform best.

Ghana: Do not allow yourself to be seen as foolish by the white man and taken chances of for Generations to comewake up!

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono, Tema West, Ghana, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 12.07.2017
15.07.2017 LISTEN

Majority of UEW lecturers have been quietly following and monitoring the goings on of the court matters involving our great UEW. It is important to first note that this quiet and cool attitude of the majority of lecturers should not be interpreted to mean lack of concern.

It is rather a trait of people who are mature and deep in thoughts. Let no one make the mistake of considering this trait to mean docility or weakness.

Upon all the priding of ourselves with intellectualism, it had to take Mr Supi Kwayera (whom we shamelessly claim is an akpeteshie seller) to open our eyes to Procurement breaches and illegalities in our own University! Are we not ashamed of ourselves? Or have we been blinded by intellectualism?

When, way back in 2013, the Hon Alex Afenyo Markin started drawing government and our attention to the ramifications of an improperly constituted governing council, where were we? Shame on us!!

Since May 23rd, 2017, when the writ was issued and our University started going to court, no UTAG general meeting has been held; yet, it was said at one point that UTAG wanted to join the case. Those 2 or 3 executives went ahead and hired an attorney. When our case was subsequently thrown out and UTAG was fined GHC 3,000 as well (which we presume will come from our dues) no UTAG meeting was held to even brief us on anything. Then, when today, 14th July, 2017, the Winneba High Court among other things, ordered the VC and FO to step aside, we hear on radio that UTAG-UEW has declared an indefinite strike, again, without any consultation with the general UTAG population. What kind of leaders do we have on UTAG-UEW, and what do they take us for? You (UTAG Executives) cannot arrogate to yourselves powers that you do not have. We elected you into office and gave you the mandate to conduct yourselves properly! You cannot sit in your bedrooms and decide for us! Why do you disrespect us like that? We want to assure you that you will cough out every pesewa that you have wasted on this useless and unwarranted legal fight, because we never gave you permission to go to court. It is clear that you knew we would not agree going to court, so you refused to hold a general meeting. It is also clear that you, the so called executives, are seeking Your Own personal interests; but we want to assure you that, you will not use us to advance your selfish agenda. Be assured that your days of this wanton arrogation of non existent power are over, so prepare to meet the full fury of the general membership.

We wish, on this note, to assure the general public and the whole world that, UTAG-UEW IS NOT ON STRIKE. Members on all our campuses (Ajumako, Mampong, Kumasi, Winneba) are not in favour of this illegal strike, and anyone can visit our campuses on Monday and you will see lecturers working.

We wish, furthermore, to inform all our Sandwich Students to disregard this hoax strike and come to school. The purported strike is for the selfish UTAG-UEW executives, who have failed already in the discharge of their duties as leaders and we will not make them our leaders again. They have neglected their core duties to fight for members' welfare and they are now fighting for their own selfish interests. If you do not believe us, come and see the kind of living and office accommodations we occupy; with porous security, coupled with the injustices meted out to us, then you will know the kind of UTAG executives we have!

When the Registrar of the University, Dr C. Y. Acquah-Mensah told us not too long ago that as lecturers we did not need offices, and that we could sit under trees or in our cars and work; to the extent that an office complex built for lecturers was taken away from us and converted to Office of the Registrar, what did our leaders do? It shows you the kind of UTAG executives we have!!!

We will not allow you, few self-seeking leeches and vampires, to destroy where we take our daily bread. The University is running and will run. Do not dare try anything funny this time else you will regret it.

We are also calling on government to constitute our Governing Council as soon as possible!

MAJORITY UTAG VOICE
Desmond Ntow

15.07.2017 LISTEN

The National Organizer of Peoples National Convention (PNC), Mr. Desmond Twumasi Ntow, says their 2016 Flag-bearer, Dr. Edward Mahama only run his 2016 national campaign in his Dome based clinic yet expecting to win the elections.

He was reacting to Dr. Edward Mahamas acquisition that the national executives of the PNC did not support him during the 2016 elections hence his abysmal performance at the polls.

According to the renowned gynecologist, it was evidently clear that some of his own national executives worked against him during the campaign at a time he had given his all for the PNC.

However, speaking to Awake News Korsi Senyo in an interview, Mr. Twumasi Ntow rublish Dr. Mahamas claims adding that he (Dr. Mahama) was part of the reasons why the PNC was even disqualified at the beginning of the election.

Mr. Ntow said, their flag-bear, whiles he should have collaborated with the party executives to get his forms endorsed he (Dr. Mahama) put his nomination forms in his clinic and brought them later at the last hours.

According to him, when they picked the presidential nomination forms, the party leadership met and suggested to Dr. Mahama that the partys organizing structures must tour the country to get the forms endorsed. A suggestion he said Dr. Mahama told them he will consider and get back to them but never returned until about 5days to the closing of the nominations before he (Dr. Mahama) brought the forms from his car for them to go and endorse.

When he finally brought the forms from his car, we had to rush with things coupled with lack of funds. So why will he turn around now saying we did not support him

This is coming at the backdrop when President Akufo-Addo has announced the appointment of Dr. Edward Nasigri Mahama on Monday, July 10, 2017, as ambassador at-large. His portfolio, Ambassador at Large, was granted him at an event held at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Monday, July 10, 2017.

Mr. Ntow said their leaders appointment came as a huge surprise to the party leadership because he has not consulted or informed them just like the attitude he (Dr. Mahama) posed during the 2016 election to run a one man show campaign in his clinic.

Responding to the question from Korsi Senyo that if the party has regretted voting out Mr. Hasan Ayariga, this is what the National Organizer has to say:

Infact, with Dr. Mahamas experience in the party, we never knew things could go this way. Most of the party members really regretted voting out Hasan Ayariga at the congress.
The United Volta Association a New York-based non-profit socio-cultural ethnic organization popularly referred as UVA put up a spectacular traditionally oriented public show at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Building plaza in Harlem NY, to announce their preparedness as the host of this years 24th annual CEANA Festival and also whet appetite of prospective congregants on what to expect from August 31-September 4.

The mega concert staged on Saturday July 8 at the African Squarethe famous 125th Street in New York City in conjunction with the African Studies Faculty of Binghamton University was to send the strong signal that, in a situation where fresh leaves become combustible, one should expect heavy fire from the dry foliage!

Indeed, the splendid traditional performances had the ecstatic crowd dazzled as they yearned for more even when it was obvious the show had come to an end. Many were those who had verbally expressed their regrets for missing the occasion and had already booked their tickets to avoid being bitten twice.

The concert dubbed the Pre-CEANA African Cultural and Arts Exhibition Expo charged the atmosphere with skillful display of various repertoire of African drumming and dances interlaced with live band African music, awesome acrobatic display and illusionism.

The occasion was that single stone that the association used to kill three birds in the sense that, it was meant to re-outdoor the existence of the association since her incorporation in October 1996 and also showcase the priceless indigenous traditions of Africans especially that of the Ewe heritage from Ghana, Togo, Benin and part of Nigeria.

Also, and worth noting, the event was used to create awareness to the general public of our pending 24th annual Convention of Ewe Associations in North America (CEANA) festival slated for August 31-September 4, 2017 at Westchester Marriott Hotel, Tarrytown, NY.

The CEANA as it explicitly implies, is the Mother Organization of all the Ewe Associations in North American geographical areas. Its core objective is to supplement the crawling developmental projects and poverty reduction ambitions in Eweland by the respective Governments in Ghana, Togo and Benin through yearly rotational fundraising conventions amongst member associations.

This year, UVA has the mandate to host the event under the theme Improving Healthcare Delivery System in Eweland of which proceeds will be channeled to construct, equip and support earmarked healthcare related projects. Past CEANA projects undertaken includes building new schools, supplying school logistics, construction of boreholes for good drinking water, health fairs, and many more.

The general public (especially those within the geographical location) is invited to come and witness the Grand-Mother of all CEANAs in Tarrytown, NY especially from September 1-3, 2017. We are also appeal to all benevolent hearts donations (material or cash) to support our kith and kin in Eweland. Discounted Hotel Reservation codes are available and transportation to be coordinated upon request (from NYC to Tarrytown).

Performers at the event were the UVA Youth Cultural Troupe led by Prof. Nyamuame Elikem, Vida Mawufemor, Atsu Agbeko, Christian Horla Kutte and Komla Dossou; the Nukporfe African Dance Ensemble from Binghamton University also led by Prof Nyamuame; former Ghana National Dance Ensemble members like Yawuza Alhassan, Iddrisu Alhassan Abdulai, Francis Akotuah, Comfort Tetteh and Adjetey Leslie Kluffio supported by Ben Paulding, Scott Mordecai and Isaac Hirt-Meihermer. Others are Eseli Normanyo-Nutakor and her Misago Ladies from Maryland, the Gbolo Ladies from UVA and Ahenema Kete Group from Bronx, NY. Mohammed Alidu and the Bisung Family Band thrills the fans to live band music whilst Eric Ansuade and his African Warrior Acrobatic Group left fans with gazed-eyes and awestruck. Veteran MC Mr. Mawuli Agbenu sailed the concert.

The performance in Harlem was to gather the fire-woods; we are going to light the Fire in Tarrytown!

For more info: Email: [email protected] , www.UnitedVoltaAssociationInc.org and www.facebook.com/UVA.newyork .

Frank Goka,

[email protected]

(UVA PRO/Organizing Secretary)
Dear Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin 11, As we celebrate our great festival, Ohum, this blog wishes you and all Okyenman's Nananom, Happy Ohum! Nana, Okyenman, yen enma ensei da! May the rest of our new year see a more resilient Okyenman take control of its natural heritage.

Nana, today, thanks to the resolve of President Akufo-Addo, and his able minister for lands and natural resources, Hon. John Peter Amewu, the existential menace that illegal gold mining, illegal logging and hunting represent for our dear Okyenman is now abating somewhat.

Luckily, as it happens, such are the advances being made in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that in the not too distant future, robots and driverless electric heavy equipment will undertake virtually the whole process of mining minerals with precision, without polluting and degrading the natural environment. In light of that, instead of allowing a few selfish and greedy people to continue destroying what God Almighty in his wisdom blessed Okyenman with so generously - in their never ending quest for gold and untold riches - should we not rather follow the example of Thailand, which last year (2016) earned an astonishing U.S.$71 billion from the 31 million visitors it hosted?

Nana, let us resolve to leverage the comparative advantage God gave us, to create an unrivaled ecotourism destination anchored on our forests, streams and and mighty rivers - to create wealth that stays in Okyenman: and jobs galore for many of our young people. Sir, as you know, Okyenman's many friends - such as A Rocha Ghana and the Embassy of the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands for example - stand ready to collaborate with Okyenman to create a sustainable green local economy based on ecotourism.

In that regard, Okyenman's Nananom could also collaborate with the Thai Royal Family, to create cooperatives of young people with expertise in the use of vertiver grass to remove heavy metals and toxic chemicals from mined out sites across Ghana - prior to planting trees in agroforestry plantations to regenerate such degraded lands in Okyenman and elsewhere in Ghana, as a green business model.

Finally, Sir, as you are well aware, the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have a collective carbon footprint that is one of the world's largest. Helping the GCC neutralise some of that massive collective carbon footprint, represents a green business opportunity for Okyenman - which could fund the work of the specialist land-restorative agro-forestry cooperatives owned by our younger generations mentioned above.

Nana, towards that end, should Okyenman's Nananom not initiate a conversation with the GCC - with a view to signing low-carbon development deals similar to the one between Norway and Guyana: that enables that South American nation and its fringe-forest communities to benefit financially from preserving its forests? Happy Ohum to you and all Okyenman's Nananom, Sir! Yours in the service of Okyenman and Ghana, Kofi.
Ghana's Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has asserted that if the post of an Ambassador-at-Large is seen as that of an errand boy of the President then all Ambassadors are automatically errand boys.

According to him, since the job of an Ambassador is to represent one's country in another country, their mandate is to follow the directives of the President hence if the post of an Ambassador-at-Large is seen as that of an errand boy then all Ambassadors are errand boys.

He made this assertion after President Akufo -Addo on Monday July 10, 2017 released a list of 22 Ambassadors who amongst them is the five-time Presidential candidate for the People's National Convention (PNC) Dr. Edward Nasigri Mahama to the position of an Ambassador-at-Large.

Among the many people deliberating on his new position is the Founder and Flagbearer of the All People's Congress (APC) Hassan Ayariga who has likened the Ambassadorial post of Edward Mahama as that of an errand boy and a position too low for Dr. Mahama.

However, Ambassador Victor Smith as he is affectionately called in an interview with Akwasi Boateng host of "Maakye" educative show on Hot93.9fm, said he doesn't see the reason why people are reading meanings to the fact that the President has appointed Dr. Mahama as an Ambassador-at-Large since it is the Prerogative of the President to do so.

"An Ambassador is a representative and it is in the Prerogative of the President to appoint someone as an Ambassador-at-Large with special duties and as such, he can just be given an assignment by the President to represent the country in another countries without any boundaries since he was not assigned to a particular country and i do not see anything wrong in that.

...If the post of an Ambassador-at-Large is seen as that of an errand boy, then all Ambassadors are errand boys because Ambassadors work for their country on the directives of their President in another country just as Ministers of State, they all follow the directives of the President." He stated.

He concluded by advising Politicians to be bold and make certain decision that will be beneficial to the country.

"He made the decision himself to accept the appointment the President has given to him and as a politician, I think you should be bold to make some decisions of yours and if the time comes for you to defend that decision you do that so I don't see anything wrong with it personally if he[Edward Mahama] can help in building this country, I think it is a decision he took for himself and for Ghana if I may put it that way." He added.
International business leader and CEO of Airtel Ghana, Lucy Quist, has encouraged young people to redefine and position themselves to drive growth and innovation in the various industries they find themselves.

She spoke at the African Internship Academy as part of her Bold New Normal Tour; an initiative to engage and empower young people to challenge the status quo and take bold steps to create a prosperous future for themselves and for the rest of Africa.

Her talk focused on how African millennials can thrive in an ever changing global landscape  whether they choose to pursue a career or venture into entrepreneurship. Lucy Quist touched on the areas of technology, globalization and consistent self-improvement as crucial elements that will enable young Africansto make positive impact at all levels.

She highlighted the trends in global and local employment and encouraged young people to appreciate the changes taking place as they plan their careers. She said You live in a connected world where your competition is not the guy sitting next to you, for you the human factoror your competition could be someone sitting in Canada, the UK or Australia. The human factor is bridged and access to a job isno longer dependent on location. Increasingly you will find people who are able to do your job remotely. That is a real fact and challenge which means over time your career will face competitive pressure that is not local.

Some of the jobs we have today will be eroded, sometimes by technology but mostly by someone else who has found a more efficient way of doing and delivering it over the internet.Globally, people are paying attention to trends including skillsets required for jobs in Africa in the next decade. You cannot afford to be left out of this conversation. As young people, you need to position yourselves to take advantage of the current and future opportunities by staying relevant and informed. She concluded

Leslie Addae, co-founder of the Africa Internship Academy - thehosting organisation for this event- commented on the talk saying, Having Lucy at the Internship House to speak on Careers with our fellows was a good opportunity for our fellows to have a better appreciation of the skill set they need to succeed in the work place.

At Africa Internship Academy,we provide work-readiness training for the students and graduates. The training covers the basics of work life, time management, communications and language skills, computer skills, budgeting and many other skills needed to be successful in your job, he concluded.

The Bold New Normal is a new way of thinking that Lucy Quist advocates for. The Bold New Normal Tour is a series of interactive sessions focusing on empowering young entrepreneurial minds to take bold steps away from the norm and to create prosperity for themselves, their country and for Africa.

The third event under this tour was held at the Africa Internship Academy , a self-sustaining social enterprise that prepares students and connects leading African employers with diverse qualified talents.

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.
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returned home on Saturday after medical treatment in Singapore, the state broadcaster said, putting to rest speculation over the 93-year-old's whereabouts.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said Mugabe, who left for Singapore last Saturday, "had eye surgery in the Asian country a few years ago" and had returned for a "routine medical check-up".

This week's trip there is Mugabe's third there this year.

Public hospitals in Zimbabwe often suffer from chronic shortages of drugs and staff as the economy has struggled to rebound following years of mismanagement.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was forced to postpone a rally on Friday at which he was due to address supporters, triggering speculation about his whereabouts.

Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from British colonial rule in 1980, is his party's presidential candidate for next year's elections despite concerns over his age and fitness to rule.

Early in 2015, he tripped and fell as he left a podium after addressing supporters who had gathered at Harare airport to welcome him back from a foreign trip.

The same year he also read a speech to parliament apparently unaware that he had delivered the same speech before.

Mugabe's party is sharply divided over his succession. Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe's wife Grace are seen as likely contenders to take over in the event of his death or retirement.

Opposition parties have formed a coalition to fight Mugabe's party in next year's vote.
Hurghada (Egypt) (AFP) - Police on Saturday questioned the suspected jihadist who stabbed to death two German women and wounded four others at a Red Sea beach resort, adding to the woes of Egypt's hobbled tourism industry.

Judicial sources said the man who had swum ashore from a public beach in Hurghada to carry out Friday's attack confessed to sharing the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group, although there was no IS claim of responsibility.

The sources said the suspect is a 28-year-old from Kafr al-Sheikh province in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.

The streets of Hurghada were being heavily patrolled and security stepped up outside hotels on Saturday.

"I was sitting down in my shop when we heard people shouting. We ran outside and heard that someone had swum to the next door hotel and was attacking foreigners," said Rafic Rushdi, the owner of a hotel shop.

"After killing two women, he ran towards our hotel. He was shouting that he was not after Egyptians, and some Egyptians intervened to stop him."

'Cowardly crime'

After initial confusion over the nationality of the women killed, Berlin on Saturday said they were both German nationals, rather than Ukrainians as earlier reported.

"I am very upset by this cowardly crime, my condolences to the families of the victims," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.

Among the four others wounded were two Armenian women and a woman from the Czech Republic, according to authorities in those countries.

Map of Egypt locating Hurghada in Egypt

It was not the first attack in Hurghada. In January 2016, three tourists were wounded in a stabbing assault in the resort by two assailants with apparent IS sympathies.

In Tunisia, IS claimed a beach attack in June 2015 when a student armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades went on a rampage near the Mediterranean resort of Sousse killing 38 holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, before being shot dead by police.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and other European tourists.

Egyptian authorities say they have boosted security at the country's tourist sites, as the industry provides the Arab world's most populous country with much-needed revenues.

An IS bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a resort in the south of the Sinai Peninsula in 2015 killed all 224 people on board and decimated the country's tourism sector.

Russia suspended all flights to Egypt in response and has yet to resume them.

IS has been waging a deadly insurgency concentrated in the north of the Sinai that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

Police, Copts also targeted

Also on Friday, unknown assailants shot dead five policemen just south of Cairo, in the latest of a series of attacks targeting Egypt's security forces.

A beach is pictured July 15, 2017 in the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada, Egypt, where an Egyptian man on Friday stabbed to death two German women and wounded four others

The ministry said three gunmen opened fire on a police car and then fled, killing an officer, three conscripts and a police employee.

As with the beach stabbing, there has not yet been any claim of responsibility for the attack.

The killings came as police and the army said they were closing in on militants and jihadists following a spate of deadly attacks in the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has struggled to quell IS jihadists based in the Sinai and smaller militant groups in the mainland since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on his supporters.

While smaller groups such as the Hasam militant movement have mostly targeted policemen and government officials, IS has also attacked foreign tourists and Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Dozens of Christians have been killed in church bombings and shootings since last December in attacks claimed by IS.

The jihadists have threatened to carry out further attacks on Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million people.

On Thursday, churches in Egypt said they were suspending some activities such as conferences and religious trips for three weeks over security concerns.
Gaborone (Botswana) (AFP) - China piled pressure on Botswana on Saturday over a scheduled visit to the southern African country by the Dalai Lama, who it considers a dissident separatist threat.

Botswana's President Ian Khama announced on Wednesday he would meet the Tibetan spiritual leader during his visit to the country next month, prompting a stern response from Beijing.

"China's stance is clear...," said a statement from Beijing-based foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang issued by the embassy.

"The 14th Dalai is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion with the attempt to split Tibet from China."

Beijing opposed any visit by the Dalai Lama and any kind of contact with any official, the statement added.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, is due to speak at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone on August 19.

The Dalai Lama says he is seeking more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

But China is a key investor across Africa and the continent's largest trade partner and in Botswana it has helped build coal-fired power plants, road networks, bridges and schools.

Many on the continent see Beijing as a counterbalance to Western influence, but the relationship has also raised accusations of colonial behaviour.
Dakar (AFP) - Senegalese-American rapper Akon announced Saturday he would purchase 50 percent of African music download service Musik Bi, as the platform struggles to gain a foothold after its launch 18 months ago.

Africa's first home-grown platform for legal music downloads, Musik Bi launched in Senegal in February 2016 with a mission to promote African artists, pay them properly, and fight internet piracy.

Akon, whose real name is Aliaune Badara Thiam, announced in Dakar he would become the majority shareholder in the service, describing Musik Bi as "the platform of the future".

"It's not just a platform for Senegal but for Africa," he added, refusing to be drawn on what he had paid for the transaction.

Best known for his singles "Locked Up" and "Smack That", Akon has devoted more of his time in recent years to his Lighting Africa solar energy initiative and other charitable pursuits.

He launched his latest single "Khalice", a collaboration with Senegalese superstar Youssou Ndour, exclusively on Musik Bi.

More than 200 internationally famous musicians, along with younger rappers, jazz artists and Christian and Muslim vocalists, initially agreed to put their music on Musik Bi, where users can download it using their phone credit.

CEO Moustapha Diop, whose company Solid pioneered the project, said ongoing disputes with phone companies over their cut of takings had hindered Musik Bi's reach.

"We have the ambition of developing across Africa and being 'the' musical distribution platform in Africa," Diop told journalists.

"The profit made by the operators is problematic because it goes against the interests of the artists and the platform in general. We will keep pushing to get a reasonable deal," he added.

After mobile operators took their share, artists keep 60 percent of their income from the service, while Musik Bi take the remaining 40 percent.

The platform also hopes to broaden into a music festival, television channel and a streaming service, Akon said.

Piracy and changing consumer habits have seen record sales drop across the continent, with illegal downloads tempting African consumers looking online for music while copyright enforcement remains relatively weak.
Pupils from the school for the deaf and blind in Mampong and Akropong in the Eastern Region were overwhelmed with gratitude when First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo on donated items worth thousands of Ghana cedis to the institutions.

The items which included mattresses, dining tables and chairs, sanitary pads, clothes and provisions were to help the two institutions give better care to the children.

Receiving the items on behalf of Mampong School for the Deaf, the Assistant Headmaster, Goodluck Akufo Kpeli said the school was grateful for the kind gesture by the first lady.

According to him, although some challenges faced by the institution will be addressed by the donation, the completion of a dormitory block will help to admit more physically challenged persons into the school. He also appealed for a new generator set to help the pupils communicate through sign language at night.

The completion of the dormitory block will help ease congestion in our dormitories. We will also need government to help construct a vocational block to help accommodate the long list of students who are seeking admission. Also, the construction of an assembly hall complex with Information Communication and Technology (ICT) centre and administration block. Finally, a stand by generator is needed by the school since the existing one has broken down beyond repairs.

On her part, the headmistress of Akropong School for the Blind Mahela Narh urged government to take more interest in the affairs of such institutions as the most vulnerable are found there.

According to her, the uncompleted nature of the school's wall allows recalcitrant people to stroll in and out of the school, increasing theft and causing fear and panic among the blind students.

She however, thank the first lady for keeping an earlier promise to the school and donating the over 300 mattresses which will bring an end to the issue of bed bugs.

Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo on her part assured the two institutions of her continuous support through her Rebecca foundation project.

I have heard all the challenges you face here and I have come to address a few of them. I know it hasn't been easy. The education system has a lot of challenges and so this government has promised to address a whole lot of them.Giving time, things will be better for you here. We will make sure that the government helps you out so you can bringout young men and women who will contribute to society.

I know that is possible, that you as deaf and blind students can achieve a lot in your life for our country and so under my Rebecca foundation I have come to help you today and I promise to also try and help with the long list of demand I have been given. We will try and address them one at a time. So today I have brought this and tomorrow I will bring something else, she added.



By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Minority in Parliament is demanding an immediate intervention by government in the current impasse that has rocked the University of Education, Winneba.

They want the Minister of Education Matthew Opoku Prempeh to mediate in the crisis which affected the smooth running of the school.

A Winneba High Court on Friday ordered the Vice Chancellor of the university to step aside in an ongoing suit challenging the legitimacy of the school's Governing Council and some administrators.

Lectures in the school have declared a strike to protest against the ruling.

Speaking to Citi News the Minority Spokesperson on Education, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe lashed out at the Minister of Education for doing little about the situation.

I am of the view that the intervention of the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, will go a long way to resolve the matter. This is what I have been expecting from him for a long time now. If he had intervened earlier I'm sure matters wouldn't have reached the level it has gotten to now. So I feel that if he does that help in bringing normalcy to the university.

He said it is rather unfortunate that only two principal positions out of three appointed by the governing board have been asked to step aside.

Now they have asked two of the three officers appointed by that authority to step aside and honour over to the third person who is was also appointed. That is where I'm not comfortable because if three are appointed and we say they are not legally recognized then the three of them should go away not hand over to another person who was appointed by that authority. That is where the problem is and that is what UTAG is not happy about. Because if you say A and B should not be there why should C remain in office? That is where I expect the minister to come in, he added.

Court orders UEW Vice Chancellor to step aside

Nortsu-Kotoe's remark comes on the back of a High Court order to the Vice Chancellor of UEW, Professor Mawutor Avokeh, to step aside until a case brought against him is determined.

The court order also affected the school's Finance Officer.

The court made the order in a case brought before it by one, Supi Kofi Kwayera who insisted the Vice Chancellor and the Finance Officer were operating under the institution's defunct governing council.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Ghana immigration Service has rescued some 150 girls from human traffickers along the countries border post.

The service embarked on the rescue mission few weeks ago.

Ghana has been identified as one of the countries in the world with a high rate of human trafficking.

Analysts have predicted that the situation if not checked may lead to a cut in aid from major foreign donors.

Speaking to Citi News, the Comptroller General of the Ghana Immigration Service, Kwame Asuah Takyi said his outfit will intensify its operations to check the menace.

About travelling outside the country, especially to this gulf region, for now within the three regions we have intercepted one hundred and fifty girls ranging between the ages of eighteen to twenty eight attempting to travel outside the country.

According to Kwame Asuah Takyi, as part of initiatives to clamp down trafficking, the service is strengthening its security along the country's borders which is yielding results.

Our officers and men are on the ground; we've been taking risk to protect of our boarders making sure these ladies are not sent out. Yesterday, four were even brought from Aflao, he added.

This comes in the back of Government's GHc1.5 million allocation to the Human Trafficking Secretariate under the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to fight such cases in the country and protect victims from exploitation.

The sector minister, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba said her outfit will not relent until the activity was reduced drastically.



By: Melvin Clottey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
By Julius K. Satsi/ Ernestina S. Asante

Accra, July 15, GNA - The Accra Technical University (ATU) on Saturday joined the world to celebrate this year's World Youth Skills Day on the theme: 'Development to Improve Youth Employment'.

To mark the commemoration of the day, there was a three-day national skills exhibition programme by all Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions across the country.

Mr Zogblah Theophilus Tetteh, the Coordinator of Occupational Standards at the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) said the annual celebration was to inform governments to implement pragmatic interventions to support hands-on job creation.

Mr Tetteh noted that the day was designated by the United Nations to generate greater awareness on the importance of technical education and the development of other relevant skills for the development of global and national economies.

He indicated that the maiden edition of the Skills exhibition had come to stay, urging all other TVET institutions to collaborate with the Association of Ghana Industries as well as other stakeholders to tap into it to give meaning to skills development.

Mr Tetteh said TVET was a 'must' developmental area to focus the energy of the country on because of its enormous significance to industrialising the economy and its potentials to serve as a catalyst for job creation.

He said TVET was concurrent to a nation's productivity and competitiveness by preparing for a vocation or specialised occupations.

Mr Tetteh noted: 'For sustainable development to take place, significant investment must be made in upgrading the skills of the youth workforce.

Ghana needs TVET to grow more industries and create jobs for the youth and for secured future'.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Ms Shadrachlina Akotuah, a final year student of Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management department of ATU, who also had the opportunity to exhibit, expressed excitement for being part of the maiden edition of the national youth skills exhibition.

Ms Akotuah said: 'The exhibition has given us the opportunity to showcase what we have learnt over the last three years and I hope this programme will continue.'

GNA
It was a sad tail for one banker who goes by the name Kingsley as his five weeks old marriage was suddenly brought to an end by kidnappers in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

The banker during an interview with Punch newspaper disclosed that he and his wife were on their way back to Port Harcourt from Ekpoma, Esan-West in Edo State, when they were attacked by these heavily looking men.

He explained that on sighting them, he was about to reverse his car when they started shooting and he had to stop as they came to hit them and picked them in two different groups.

When they saw that I was making an attempt to escape, they began to shoot at the bonnet sporadically and the engine of my car stopped immediately. They came and dragged us out of the car and moved us into the bush.

The kidnappers were in two groups; one of the groups took my wife to one direction while the other took me to another direction. We were attacked and taken away at about 3.40pm. I was asking them (kidnappers) about my wifes whereabouts and they assured me that she was with the other group.

By the time I saw my wife, she had collapsed and her face was swollen. I became afraid and begged them that they should release us so that I could take her to the hospital. They gave me the beating of my life. That was about 8pm.

When I continued to beg them, they allowed me to call a friend of mine (James) to drive down to the main road that night to pick my wife and rush her to the hospital. The kidnappers ordered me to carry her to the road while they followed me.

The entire place was dark and I carried my wife and tried to wait and have a rest, the kidnappers would again begin to beat me. This continued until we got to the road. I was told to lay my unconscious wife by the side of the highway with some leaves used to surround her for easy identification.

They immediately marched me back to the bush. My friend, who knew that we were kidnapped, travelled from Port Harcourt that night to the point where my unconscious wife was dropped. He eventually took her to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead, sad Kingsley added in tears.
Highway 120 and Sims Road vegetation Fire View Photos

Update at 4:14 p.m.: CAL Fire reports that the fire near Chinese Camp, as reported below, has been contained at or around five acres and no structures were damaged.

All air and incoming resources have been cancelled. The cause is currently being assessed by investigators on-scene.

Update at 4:03 p.m.: According to CAL Fire spokesperson Lindy Shoff, resources arriving on-scene of a vegetation fire in Chinese Camp estimate it as about five acres in size and moving in an easterly direction.

Shoff says at this time it appears that one structure is being threatened but good progress is being made. She adds that the fire center is located in the 9000 block of Highway 120 and 13000 block of Sims Road.

Original Post at 3:58 p.m.: Chinese Camp, CA  Columbia air and multiple ground resources are heading to a reported vegetation fire in the area of Highway 120 near Sims Road in Chinese Camp.

Sims Road is located between Chinese Camp Elementary and the Sierra Pacific Industries yard. There is no word on whether any structures are threatened. Motorists along Highway 120 through the Chinese Camp and Montezuma Junction area should exercise extra caution. We will provide more details as they come into the news center.
Washington D.C.  The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the House of Representatives, but did not gain the support of local Congressman Tom McClintock. The $696 billion defense policy bill would exceed the presidents $603 billion defense budget request and also exceeds the $549 billion cap on defense spending set under the 2011 Budget Control Act by about $72 billion. For the bill to be implemented lawmakers also need to increase or repeal those budget caps. The house passed the legislation 344-81 on July 14 with Congressman McClintock one of eight republicans who voted against the bill, 117 Democrats voted for the bill.

McClintock offered an amendment to remove the prohibition on Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) reviews stating, We seem to care HOW MUCH money is being spent, but not HOW it is being spent. That is a catastrophic failure of Congressional oversight. In his newest blog McClintock spoke in favor on his amendment noting the Pentagon should be allowed to continue BRAC reviews citing, In recent years, the Pentagon has warned that its infrastructure is 22 percent bigger than necessary. He continues, Just last month, Secretary Mattis urged resumption of BRAC. He believes it will save $2 billion a year  20 billion over ten years.

Congressman McClintocks full comments are in his new blog Natl Defense Act here.
TCVB Marketing Special Projects Coordinator Anna Davies is holding the ribbons View Photos

View Video

Sacramento, CA  The Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau (TCVB) reached a milestone as Friday night marked a decade of gold ribbons for its eye-popping and informative booths at the California State Fair.

According to TCVB Marketing Special Projects Coordinator Anna Davies, this is the tenth win in a row for the bureaus booth. Every year, a new display must be built in order to meet the annual theme. Besides the gold, the Bureaus booth, with the theme Postcard Perfect, Memories in the Making, also grabbed the fairs best marketing award. Pictures and video of the booth filled with postcards showing the beauty of the Mother Lode and all the fun adventures to be had here are in the image box.

The awards were handed out during a ceremony last night in Sacramento attended by Tuolumne County Representatives Lisa Mayo, Anna Davis, Jennifer Lopez and Ronaldo Pascuall. The builder of the booth was Richard Bay.

The State Fair is located at the Cal Expo Grounds east of Sacramento. It runs through Sunday, July 30th. Click here for the fair schedule.
- The Nigeria Police Force will recruit 31,000 personnel annually to address the challenges of inadequate manpower

- The Inspector-General, Ibrahim Idris says the fight against crime cannot be successful without adequate manpower

The Nigeria Police Force will recruit 155,000 personnel within five years to bridge its manpower shortage, according to the Inspector-General, Mr Ibrahim Idris.

Idris told newsmen on Friday in Kano that 31,000 personnel would be recruited every year, for five years.

READ ALSO: Go, tell the Hyenas and the Jackals that PDP is back by Jude Ndukwe

He said that the force did not recruit rank and file personnel between 2011 and 2016, a development that had created a huge gap.

We want to meet the UN standard of one police man to 400 people; the fight against crime and criminality cannot be successful without adequate manpower, he said.

On the quit notice issued to Igbo people by some northern youths organizations, the police boss declared that no individual had the authority to eject any Nigerian from any section of the country.

Idris, who was in Kano to condole the family of Yusuf Maitama Sule, said that the demise of the former Permanent Representative to the UN was a great loss to the state and the entire country.

According to an earlier report by Legit.ng, the inspector general of police said the total amount of money that the force annually need is N1.13 trillion but only got N36.1billion in 2017 budget.

Idris made this known on Tuesday, July 11, while delivering a speech on a bill for an act to establish the Nigeria police reform trust fund and for other related matters.

He said: What is required to run the force excluding major capital projects like arms and ammunition, purchase of new vehicles, gun boats, helicopters and other technological needs is conservatively put at N14.132,532,142,242."

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Watch this Legit.ng TV Video of what Nigerian parents are saying whether they would support their children to join the Nigeria Police Force for obvious reasons:

Source: Legit.ng
Ignorance kills faster than you can imagine. You might have heard of the saying that "what you dont know wont kill you", but this does not work in all cases, your health should not be taken for granted.

I have decided to take this time out to enlighten readers on this condition (hemorrhoids) and my own experience which I thought would have claimed my life. Thank God I survived it in a natural way http://bit.ly/2sZl1NE did the miracle.

CONDITION: HEMORRHOIDS otherwise known as pile.

Hemorrhoids are swollen veins in the lowest part of ones rectum anus. The walls of these blood vessels stretch so thin that the veins bulge and get irritated, especially when you excrete. It is a common cause of rectal bleeding. http://bit.ly/2sZl1NE

TYPES

External hemorrhoids: They are under the skin around the anus. One would feel pain in this area because there are pain sensing nerves in that region the condition hurts and leads to bleeding.

They are under the skin around the anus. One would feel pain in this area because there are pain sensing nerves in that region the condition hurts and leads to bleeding. INTERNAL HEMORRHOID: They are most dangerous because they are unseen and pains might not be felt because there are no pains sensing nerves in this region but there are drops of blood during excretion. One has to be vigilant. http://bit.ly/2sZl1NE

CAUSES

The few possible causes include the following;

Hereditary from family members especially parents

A buildup of pressure in ones lower rectum can affect blood flow and make the veins swell. Obesity or pregnancy can trigger this

Constipation and diarrhea that doesnt clear up can be a cause

PREVENTION

Eat foods that has fiber in them examples vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts beans and legumes

Drink adequate water always it helps in avoidance of hard stool and constipation

Use toilet as soon as you feel the urge

Regular exercise can also help keep the blood and bowel moving http://bit.ly/2sZl1NE

MY EXPERIENCE AND SURVIVAL STORY COULD SAVE A SOUL

I had hemorrhoid 2 years ago and the post operation was really painful.

I remember the buckets of tears I cried because of pain before the doctor (who was with other patients) finally instructed the nurse to inject me a pain reliever. Apparently, the oral medicine I took didnt help much on relieving the pain.

Ever since, Ive been cautious of the food I eat. I should have fruits every day, drink lots of water and so on. But then seven months after, I had to strain when I went to the toilet. Days after that, I feel pain every time I go to the toilet. Finally, I saw blood. So i went to see a doctor only to realize I have hemorrhoids again and worse, anal fissures! The doctor said its not impossible to have reoccurring piles. So long as it can be tamed by medication, nothing to worry about.

Well, the sole fact that I have hemorrhoids again worried me! I was given some antibiotics hoping the hemorrhoids and fissures will be gone after a week. When the pain wasnt alleviated I tried the natural way I heard of online from http://bit.ly/2sZl1NE this was how I got totally delivered and received my perfect healing.

[Sponsored]

Source: Legit.ng
- Afenifere chieftain Ayo Adebanjo bashed the military regime of Sani Abacha which saddled Nigeria with the burden of a false constitution

- He stated that northern states heavily cheated other states in the federation because they give so little and get so much

- He called for a change in the status-quo while accusing president Muhammadu Buhari of defending the current situation because it greatly favors his northern kinsmen

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a chieftain of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and elder statesman has stated that the country may cease to exist after 2019.

In an interview with Punch, Adebanjo stated that if political leaders fail to heed the call to restructure the country, Nigeria may cease to exist.

He noted that except for a few northern elites like Atiku Abubakar, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.), Col. Umar, etc who have been calling for restructuring, most of the elites of northern origin seem to be irritated by the word restructuring.

READ ALSO: Senator Melaye vows to battle Governor Bello for Kogi workers unpaid salaries

He stated: Of course, without restructuring, there might be no Nigeria. Its as clear as that.

I often say that the word restructuring came into our political lexicon after the military coup. Why? When the military came, they suspended the constitution and then created one-line government.

When they wanted us to return to civilian regime, they didnt want us to have it under that constitution.

In 1993, Abacha made that fraudulent document (constitution); he died and Abdulsalami Abubakar sustained it which was handed over to Obasanjo in 1999.

Yet, they are saying we have to live together on the constitution made by the North.

He stated further: "I give you an example.

Lagos and Kano had identical population. The military created Jigawa from Kano and then created local governments so much so that from the two states you have over 70 local governments.

Lagos still has 20 LGAs. This is one of the inequities in this constitution that the opposition to restructuring wants us to retain.

There are a lot of bad things in this constitution. We dont want violence, so lets sit down together and talk.

The military men changed our structure and laid down strange conditions for distributing our revenue, like using land mass, whether productive or not.

With what is in this constitution now, the North is contributing 1 and they are collecting 1,000. That would be the sum total of the situation. They contribute N1 but they are taking N20,000.

They used all the conditions that favour them as the basis for distributing the allocation they dont contribute to. These are the injustices.

You see why the South opposing this constitution. And they are doing that because of the crude oil. Let them refute it.

They cant counter it other than to be politically correct because their leader doesnt want it.

And I accuse Buhari that it is because his people are the beneficiaries, that is why he is defending it. They want it to continue, but it wont continue.

And we are in this position again today because Asiwaju Bola Tinubu led the Yoruba into an alliance with APC.

At 89, what else am I looking for? Im only sorry for your generation. When people should do something positive, they are playing with words because they want to cheat you.

I want you to emphasize that the reluctance is because they want the country to separate or they want to impose unity on us, which I call the unity of the horse and the rider.

The North would be the rider and the South the horse. We say no, it will not happen.

For a democracy that would work, we need to go back to the constitution we had at independence, which our founding fathers gave us. How can you be cheating me and you want me to keep quiet?

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that acting president Yemi Osinbajo said the federal government will soon address calls for restructuring made by some Nigerians.

The acting president made the statement at the presentation and launch of a book titled: Nigeria: The Restructuring Controversy, in Abuja.

Osinbajo, who was represented by his special adviser on political matters, Babafemi Ojudu, said the federal government was aware of debate for the restructuring of the country by Nigerians and has noted issues about the debate.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking Nigerians if they want the country to be restructured or to split

Source: Legit.ng
- Sodipo was deported from the US in 1995 but returned to the country four years later to commit fraud

- He claimed to be a US citizen and voted in at least two general elections in the US

- Williams stole data from schools and other data storage and used the information to illegally enrich himself

Kunle Sodipo Williams, a Nigerian man living in the United States has pleaded guilty to several cases of fraud in that country.

According to a report by Vanguard, Williams faces 20 years in jail for mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud and illegally re-entering the US after being initially deported.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Departments Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Carrie Costantin for the Eastern District of Missouri said Sodipo pleaded guilty in a Federal court in Alabama.

READ ALSO: Senate gives Osinbajo 3 conditions to settle rift with National Assembly

Kunle Sodipo Williams stole data and used them to illegally enrich himself. Source: Vanguard

According to documents filed with the court, Sodipo in conjunction with some other people stole public school employees IDs from a payroll company and used them to electronically file more than 2,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $12 million in refunds.

He also stole several return preparers Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs) which he used to get tax-related bank products and services.

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Williams used the blank stock to print checks funded by the fraudulent refunds and directed some of the refunds onto debit cards.

Williams previously entered the United States from Nigeria under the name Kunlay Sodipo, but was deported in 1995. In 1999, Williams illegally returned to the United States from Nigeria using the last name Williams. In 2012, Williams registered to vote in federal, state and local elections by falsely claiming that he was a U.S. citizen and voted in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

Williams will be sentenced on October 13 by Chief U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for mail fraud, 10 years in prison for illegal reentry, five years in prison for each voter fraud count and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

Recall that, Legit.ng also reported recently that three Nigerian men arrested for their involvement in online scam have been sentenced to several years in prison by a court in Mississippi, United States.

The men have reportedly made millions of dollars from duping unsuspecting people through the internet.

Legit.ng learnt that Oladimeji Seun Ayelotan, 30, was sentenced to 95 years in prison; Rasaq Aderoju Raheem, 31, was given 115 years and Femi Alexander Mewase, 45, got 25 years behind bars.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Nigerians sharing their opinion on notorious billionaire kidnapper Evans who was arrested by police

Source: Legit.ng
- President Muhammadu Buhari's medical vacation in London has not prevented him from keeping tabs with developments in Nigeria

- Acting President Yemi Osinbajo's visit to the president is a testament to the fact that the president is in constant touch with those back home

- Efforts to enable Senate President Bukola Saraki meet the president in London recently was not successful

A report by the Nigerian Tribune indicates that there were plans by President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with Senate President Bukola Saraki in London.

Saraki had earlier this week, traveled to London to attend the graduation ceremony of his son at the London School of Economics.

Sources quoted in the report stated that that the Senate President, who left Nigeria on Wednesday, July 12 was billed to meet with President Buhari later in the day.

While a government source said the meeting was underway as at press time, another source in Sarakis media office said tersely that there was no meeting and that the Senate president would come back to Nigeria today, Saturday, July 15.

President Buhari is said to be worried about the disunity in his government. Photo credit: Aso Rock

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Other sources quoted in the report, however, said the meeting was to be a follow-up to Tuesdays meeting of the president with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Legit.ng gathered that the meeting was geared towards uniting key officials of the government.

Saraki had also on Wednesday, July 12 met with Osinbajo on the tension between the National Assembly and the executive in recent weeks.

Another source quoted in the report said the president was worried by the seeming intractable crisis between the executive and the legislature leading to a near shutdown of the government.

We have it on good authority that the president is disturbed that a near collapse of his administration could be at hand following the all-out battle between the executive and the legislature.

The president is seeking a resolution of all issues in contention and when he comes, he will be able to mend fences where necessary, the source stated.

It was gathered that President Buhari and Saraki planned to further iron out certain outstanding issues during the meeting scheduled for Friday evening.

Besides, the meeting between Buhari and Saraki, it was gathered, was in an effort to keep the government united despite Buharis absence.

President Buhari had met Acting President Osinbajo in London earlier this week. Photo credit: Aso Rock

Meanwhile, a civil society group, Coalition for Sustainable Democracy, has issued a warning to federal government officials reportedly making clandestine moves to undermine President Buhari.

In a statement sent to Legit.ng by its chairman, Mohammed Yakubu, the group said those planning to take government through the back door will be resisted.

They stated that they are keenly following developments in the polity and vowed to do everything within their powers to protect the current democratic system in the country.

READ ALSO: Senate gives Osinbajo 3 conditions to settle rift with National Assembly

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report of the newly reopened Nyanya bus station in Abuja after it was bombed by Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
- Ogungbeje says Evans is being kept unnecessarily because the police does not have evidence to charge him

- An unnamed family member says there are worries among Evans' people that he may have been allegedly killed by the police

- He says there were reports that Evans was imprisoned in an underground cell

Olukoya Ogungbeje, lawyer to notorious kidnapper Evans, has revealed that the Nigeria Police Force is yet to charge the suspect to court because it had no evidence against him.

Ogungbeje told The Sun that the police is holding his client unnecessarily since his arrest on June 10 and trying to brainwash him.

He said: We are not saying that we want to ensure that our client escapes justice at all costs. What we are saying is that we were given letter of representation and properly briefed and we have the claim to represent him within the confines of the law.

READ ALSO: Presidency moves to stop one-sided, secret recruitment in government agencies (see proof)

As we speak, there is no single evidence of the matter, do you know that there is no single witness in that matter, do you know that no single case file has been opened on that matter? He has been moved to Abuja.

Someone that we did not have access to while in Lagos Police Command, how do you think that we will be able to access him in Abuja? The police keep on brainwashing him, they keep on threatening him, they keep on deceiving him. Take him to court, that is what the law says. The police are only playing the ostrich.

Do you know as his lawyer, I have been denied access to him, do you know that the father, his mother, his wife and children have been denied access to him? The police are not telling the truth. Why have they not published the court order they claimed to have got? Let them name the judge.

They are only misinforming the public. They are not bold enough to publish the order. In short, they don?t have it. The police have been mischievous. There is more to it than meet the eye. The matter is in court and we should allow the court to handle the case and wait for the outcome of the matter.

Ogungbeje said he was not the only one barred from seeing Evan as even his wife, children and parents have been refused access to him since he was arrested.

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There is also worry that Evans may have been killed by the police since nobody has access to him.

A south-east based member of Evans family, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said:

We are scared something terrible may have happened to him because of the way police has handled this matter so far especially the way his movement from Lagos was shrouded in secrecy. How would we have known if not your paper (Saturday Sun) which exposed the move in your report last weekend?

From our own investigation, we learnt he was first dumped in an underground cell at the force headquarters in Abuja. Though we have also heard that he has been moved to a secret location believed to be the FCID cell in Garki area of Abuja, we are yet to confirm that or his exact location and wellbeing as we speak?

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported earlier that Speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly Mudashiru Obasa hinted that alleged notorious kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, better known as Evans, may be prosecuted in the state.

The argument is that most of his alleged criminal activities were carried out in Lagos state where he was also arrested in his Magodo estate mansion.

Obasa gave the hint on Thursday, July, 13, at the 2nd edition of the state House of Assembly/Media and Civil Society organisations parley where issues relating to security dominated discussions.

Watch this video of a visit by the Legit.ng TV crew to the home of Evans, the billionaire kidnapper

Source: Legit.ng
- Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote is no doubt a firm believer in the prospects of Nigeria

- The Kano-born billionaire has his hands on major sectors of the economy

- The next in line for the man with a touch of gold is dairy production

Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote has revealed that he plans to invest $800 million in dairy production in Nigeria, Ventures Africa reports.

According to the report, the plan is part of Dangotes diversification plans into the Nigerian agricultural sector.

Following Nigeria's recent economic woes as a result of depending on oil for about 75 percent of its revenue, the federal government has been canvassing for economic diversification and Dangote is leading the charge in the agricultural sector.

Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote has keyed into the economic diversification programme of the federal government. Photo credit: World Economic Forum

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The Nigerian government have opened the doors of opportunities in the agricultural sector, which has attracted the interest of so many Nigerians, which includes the youths.

Most youths have seen agriculture as a source of livelihood owing to the high rate of unemployment and under employment in the country.

Prior to the recession, which the country is gradually coming out from, Nigeria relied so much on importing foods there by making the local production to be less appealing.

Dangote has now also joined the train of invests in the Nigerian agricultural sector in order to help the government in its diversification plans that will bring the country out of recession.

In May, the Dangote Group announced that it was investing about $1 billion in rice cultivation through its out-grower scheme.

Dangote has an out-growers scheme where thousands of farmers are empowered with improved seeds and items needed to cultivate rice.

A few days ago the company announced again that it was investing $3.8 billion Dollars into sugar and rice production.

The conglomerate plans to increase its production of sugar to 1.5 million tonnes a year by 2020 from 100,000 tonnes that it currently produces. It also seeks to add one million tonnes of rice.

Apart from increasing the production of sugar and rice, Dangote also plans to invest $800 million (over 250 billion) in dairy production in Nigeria. The company plans to breed 50,000 cows to produce 500 million litres of milk a year by 2019.

According to research, Nigeria spends about $1.3 billion on the importation of dairy products and Dangotes investment could help meet up with domestic consumption and if possible export some of its product.

With a population of about 180 million people, the country is currently going through a shortage in local milk production, while importing more than 70 percent of its dairy products.

President Buhari has been canvassing for economic diversification since he came into power

Meanwhile, a notable political figure in the Niger Delta, Chief Bernard Agai has said the economic diversification policy of the present administration is a northern agenda.

Chief Agai canvassed for full control of resources by the state and suggested that the states to pay revenue to the federal government.

Let every state pay revenue to the federal government. If you know you cannot maintain a state, you can join another one. But they use our own oil money to diversify their economy, he said.

READ ALSO: Professor Anya chides Buhari for his comments after 2015 elections

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report of the newly reopened Nyanya bus station in Abuja after it was bombed by Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
In May, 2017, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced they successfully fired hypersonic projectiles with an enhanced Guidance Electronics Unit (GEU). They were successful in tests during multiple firings from their three mega joule (3 MJ) Blitzer railgun system. The enhanced GEU containing a new battery configuration and running GA-EMS developed Guidance, Navigation, and Control software, completed testing at launch accelerations over 30,000 Gees at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

Were continuing to test at an impressive pace, building on the successes over the past year to advance both our Blitzer railgun systems and hypersonic projectile capabilities, stated Nick Bucci, vice president Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS. We are on track to conduct another series of tests using the Blitzer 10 MJ railgun system later this year. With each new firing, we continue maturing the technologies and performing risk reduction toward a multi-mission railgun weapon system that supports future operation on land and at sea.

The GEU tests also successfully demonstrated a continuous two-way data link between the in-flight projectiles and the ground station over the Dugway Proving Ground open range. In addition to the GEU, a new lightweight composite sabot was tested, demonstrating successful sabot separation and in bore structural integrity at the high acceleration levels.

GA-EMS has internally funded the Blitzer railgun systems and hypersonic projectile development. Blitzer railguns are test assets that include a launcher, high density pulsed power, and weapon fire control system. GA-EMS recently announced the development and completion of the High Energy Pulsed Power Container (HEPPC) which provides twice the energy density of existing pulsed power systems. The HEPPC is intended to reduce the footprint for pulsed power required to launch projectiles, offering greater flexibility for future Navy and Army railgun applications.

GA demonstrated a new lightweight composite sabot, achieving successful sabot separation and maintaining in-bore structural integrity at high acceleration levels.

General Atomics Electro Magnetic Systems (GA-EMS) is assembling a 10 MJ railgun in preparation for shipping to Utah, where the company will begin readying the weapon system for testing in 2018.

BAE Systems has a competing railgun. A 32 Megajoule prototype was delivered by BAE Systems. BAEs railgun can shoot up to 220 miles in range, around 10 times the distance capable of standard ship mounted guns with rounds landing more swiftly and with little or no warning compared to a volley of Tomahawk cruise missiles.

BAE is working to increasing the firing rate of their railgun and to build a barrel that can last for 1000 shots or more.
Liu Xiaobo Nobel Lecture

I Have No Enemies:

My Final Statement

Nobel Lecture in Absentia, December 10, 2010

Statement of December 23, 2009

Read by Liv Ullmann

[TRANSLATION BY HRIC*]

In the course of my life, for more than half a century, June 1989 was the major turning point. Up to that point, I was a member of the first class to enter university when college entrance examinations were reinstated following the Cultural Revolution (Class of 77). From BA to MA and on to PhD, my academic career was all smooth sailing. Upon receiving my degrees, I stayed on to teach at Beijing NormalUniversity. As a teacher, I was well received by the students. At the same time, I was a public intellectual, writing articles and books that created quite a stir during the 1980s, frequently receiving invitations to give talks around the country, and going abroad as a visiting scholar upon invitation from Europe and America. What I demanded of myself was this: whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity. After that, because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 Movement, I was thrown into prison for the crime of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement. I also lost my beloved lectern and could no longer publish essays or give talks in China. Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly. This is a tragedy, both for me personally and for a China that has already seen thirty years of Reform and Opening Up.

When I think about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have been, surprisingly, associated with courts: My two opportunities to address the public have both been provided by trial sessions at the Beijing Municipal Intermediate Peoples Court, once in January 1991, and again today. Although the crimes I have been charged with on the two occasions are different in name, their real substance is basically the same  both are speech crimes.

Twenty years have passed, but the ghosts of June Fourth have not yet been laid to rest. Upon release from Qincheng Prison in 1991, I, who had been led onto the path of political dissent by the psychological chains of June Fourth, lost the right to speak publicly in my own country and could only speak through the foreign media. Because of this, I was subjected to yearround monitoring, kept under residential surveillance (May 1995 to January 1996) and sent to ReeducationThroughLabor (October 1996 to October 1999). And now I have been once again shoved into the dock by the enemy mentality of the regime. But I still want to say to this regime, which is depriving me of my freedom, that I stand by the convictions I expressed in my June Second Hunger Strike Declaration twenty years ago  I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies. Although there is no way I can accept your monitoring, arrests, indictments, and verdicts, I respect your professions and your integrity, including those of the two prosecutors, Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing, who are now bringing charges against me on behalf of the prosecution. During interrogation on December 3, I could sense your respect and your good faith.

Hatred can rot away at a persons intelligence and conscience. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a societys tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nations progress toward freedom and democracy. That is why I hope to be able to transcend my personal experiences as I look upon our nations development and social change, to counter the regimes hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love.

Everyone knows that it was Reform and Opening Up that brought about our countrys development and social change. In my view, Reform and Opening Up began with the abandonment of the using class struggle as guiding principle government policy of the Mao era and, in its place, a commitment to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the philosophy of struggle was also a process of gradual weakening of the enemy mentality and elimination of the psychology of hatred, and a process of squeezing out the wolfs milk that had seeped into human nature. It was this process that provided a relaxed climate, at home and abroad, for Reform and Opening Up, gentle and humane grounds for restoring mutual affection among people and peaceful coexistence among those with different interests and values, thereby providing encouragement in keeping with humanity for the bursting forth of creativity and the restoration of compassion among our countrymen. One could say that relinquishing the antiimperialist and antirevisionist stance in foreign relations and class struggle at home has been the basic premise that has enabled Reform and Opening Up to continue to this very day. The market trend in the economy, the diversification of culture, and the gradual shift in social order toward the rule of law have all benefitted from the weakening of the enemy mentality. Even in the political arena, where progress is slowest, the weakening of the enemy mentality has led to an evergrowing tolerance for social pluralism on the part of the regime and substantial decrease in the force of persecution of political dissidents, and the official designation of the 1989 Movement has also been changed from turmoil and riot to political disturbance. The weakening of the enemy mentality has paved the way for the regime to gradually accept the universality of human rights. In [1997 and] 1998 the Chinese government made a commitment to sign two major United Nations international human rights covenants, signaling Chinas acceptance of universal human rights standards. In 2004, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) amended the Constitution, writing into the Constitution for the first time that the state respects and guarantees human rights, signaling that human rights have already become one of the fundamental principles of Chinas rule of law. At the same time, the current regime puts forth the ideas of putting people first and Creating a harmonious society, signaling progress in the CPCs concept of rule.

I have also been able to feel this progress on the macro level through my own personal experience since my arrest.

Although I continue to maintain that I am innocent and that the charges against me are unconstitutional, during the one plus year since I have lost my freedom, I have been locked up at two different locations and gone through four pretrial police interrogators, three prosecutors, and two judges, but in handling my case, they have not been disrespectful, overstepped time limitations, or tried to force a confession. Their manner has been moderate and reasonable; moreover, they have often shown goodwill. On June 23, I was moved from a location where I was kept under residential surveillance to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureaus No. 1 Detention Center, known as Beikan. During my six months at Beikan, I saw improvements in prison management.

In 1996, I spent time at the old Beikan (located at Banbuqiao). Compared to the old Beikan of more than a decade ago, the present Beikan is a huge improvement, both in terms of the hardware  the facilities  and the software  the management. In particular, the humane management pioneered by the new Beikan, based on respect for the rights and integrity of detainees, has brought flexible management to bear on every aspect of the behavior of the correctional staff, and has found expression in the comforting broadcasts, Repentance magazine, and music before meals, on waking and at bedtime. This style of management allows detainees to experience a sense of dignity and warmth, and stirs their consciousness in maintaining prison order and opposing the bullies among inmates. Not only has it provided a humane living environment for detainees, it has also greatly improved the environment for their litigation to take place and their state of mind. Ive had close contact with correctional officer Liu Zheng, who has been in charge of me in my cell, and his respect and care for detainees could be seen in every detail of his work, permeating his every word and deed, and giving one a warm feeling. It was perhaps my good fortune to have gotten to know this sincere, honest, conscientious, and kind correctional officer during my time at Beikan.

It is precisely because of such convictions and personal experience that I firmly believe that Chinas political progress will not stop, and I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become.a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme. I also hope that this sort of progress can be reflected in this trial as I await the impartial ruling of the collegial bench  a ruling that will withstand the test of history.

If I may be permitted to say so, the most fortunate experience of these past twenty years has been the selfless love I have received from my wife, Liu Xia. She could not be present as an observer in court today, but I still want to say to you, my dear, that I firmly believe your love for me will remain the same as it has always been. Throughout all these years that I have lived without freedom, our love was full of bitterness imposed by outside circumstances, but as I savor its aftertaste, it remains boundless. I am serving my sentence in a tangible prison, while you wait in the intangible prison of the heart. Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning. My love for you, on the other hand, is so full of remorse and regret that it at times makes me stagger under its weight. I am an insensate stone in the wilderness, whipped by fierce wind and torrential rain, so cold that no one dares touch me. But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.

My dear, with your love I can calmly face my impending trial, having no regrets about the choices Ive made and optimistically awaiting tomorrow. I look forward to [the day] when my country is a land with freedom of expression, where the speech of every citizen will be treated equally well; where different values, ideas, beliefs, and political views  can both compete with each other and peacefully coexist; where both majority and minority views will be equally guaranteed, and where the political views that differ from those currently in power, in particular, will be fully respected and protected; where all political views will spread out under the sun for people to choose from, where every citizen can state political views without fear, and where no one can under any circumstances suffer political persecution for voicing divergent political views. I hope that I will be the last victim of Chinas endless literary inquisitions and that from now on no one will be incriminated because of speech.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.

In order to exercise the right to freedom of speech conferred by the Constitution, one should fulfill the social responsibility of a Chinese citizen. There is nothing criminal in anything I have done. [But] if charges are brought against me because of this, I have no complaints.

Thank you, everyone.

Based on a translation by J. Latourelle.

Copyright  The Nobel Foundation 2010

To cite this section

MLA style: Liu Xiaobo  Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Sat. 12 Nov 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2010/xiaobo/lecture/>
From Beat The Press

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney had a Wall Street Journal column highlighting the benefits of "MAGAnomics." The piece can best be described as a combination of Groundhog Day and outright lies.

In terms of Groundhog Day, we have actually tried MAGAnomics twice before and it didn't work. We had huge cuts in taxes and regulation under both President Reagan and George W. Bush. In neither case was there any huge uptick in growth and investment. In fact, the Bush years were striking for the weak growth in the economy and especially the labor market. We saw what was at the time the longest period without net job growth since the Great Depression. And of course his policy of giving finance free rein gave us the housing bubble and the Great Recession.



The story of the 1980s was somewhat better, but hardly follows the MAGAnomics script. The economy did bounce back in 1983, following a steep recession in 1981-1982. That is generally what economies do following steep recessions that were not caused by collapsed asset bubbles. Furthermore, the bounceback was based on increased consumption, not investment as the MAGAnomics folks claim. In fact, investment in the late 1980s fell to extraordinarily low levels. It is also worth pointing out that following both tax cuts, the deficit exploded, just as conventional economics predicts.





We are now seeing very slow labor force growth due to the retirement of the baby boom cohort and the fact that the secular rise in female labor force participation rate is largely at an end. MAGAnomics can do nothing about either of these facts. Slower labor force growth translates into slower overall growth.




The Supreme Court of Pakistan is expected to decide the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when it takes up the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on Monday, July 17. The JIT has charged the ruling family with perjury, having disproportionate income and living beyond their means.

Two judges of the court have already declared the Prime Minister as not being truthful. If three judges agree on the findings of the JIT, Nawaz Sharif could face disqualification from politics.

The JIT, probing the Panama Papers, pointed out failure on the part of the Sharifs to produce the required information that would confirm their "known sources of income", saying that prima facie, it amounted to saying that they were not able to reconcile their assets with their means of income.

The assets of Prime Minister's family were revealed in the findings published by the Panama Papers in April last year.

The JIT report said the financial structure and wealth of companies in Pakistan that are linked to the Sharifs also do not substantiate the family's wealth and a significant disparity exists between the wealth declared by the Sharifs and the means through which they generated income.

Moreover, the report highlights the "irregular movement of huge amounts in shape of loans and gifts" from the Saudi-based company Hill Metals Establish ment, the UK-based Flag ship Investments Limited and the UAE-based Capital FZE, to Nawaz Sharif, his son Hus sain Nawaz and the Pakistan-based companies of the prime minister and his family.

"The role of offshore companies is critically important as several offshore companies (Nescoll Limited, Niel son Enterprises Limited, Alanna Services Ltd, Lam kin S.A. Coomber Group Inc and Hiltern International Ltd) have been identified to be linked with their businesses in UK," the report states.

These companies, it said, were mainly used for "inflow of funds into UK-based companies, which not only acquired expensive properties in UK from such funds but also revolve these funds amongst their companies of United Kingdom (UK), Saudi Arab, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan".

A major part of the JIT probe involved intricate foreign financial transactions that had taken place over the years through the offshore companies owned by the Sharif family.

On July 10, the JIT submitted its findings and declared that the Prime Minister remained chairman of FZE Capital Company in Dubai, contrary to his statement in Parliament that he was not part of any business since 1998.

The JIT accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam and her brothers of signing forged documents to obscure ownership of offshore companies used to buy posh London flats.

Nawaz Sharif rejects demands for resignation

Tellingly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), remain defiant in the face of the opposition's call for his ouster, with the ruling party vowing to challenge the JIT report.

Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said he would not step down in the wake of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report, which concluded that him and his family not only concealed assets from tax authorities, but also committed perjury by submitting fake documents to conceal information.

"I will not resign on the demand of a group of conspirators. The journey of progress will not be allowed to derail as the country has already paid a huge price due to political crises in the past," he was quoted as saying by the state-run media.

But Opposition parties have persisted with the resignation demand. Opposition leaders Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) and Bilawal Bhutto of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have warned that "democracy could be in danger" if Mr. Sharif did not agree to step down.

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2017.02.25 Rally in Support of Affordable Care Act #ACA Washington, DC USA 01295

(Image by tedeytan) Details DMCA



From Robert Reich Blog

What about Richard Nixon? He resigned early in this process, before the House had even voted on articles of impeachment. And then his successor, who had been his vice president, Gerald Ford, gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president.

This isn't to say Trump couldn't or won't be impeached. Only that it's a long and drawn-out process.

It all revolves around Article I, Sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution, and rules in the House and the Senate implementing those provisions.

Step 1. It starts in the House Judiciary Committee, when a majority of the members vote in favor of what's called an "inquiry of impeachment" resolution.

Step 2. That resolution goes to the full House of Representatives where a majority has to vote in favor. And then votes to authorize and fund a full investigation by the Judiciary Committee into whether sufficient grounds exist for impeachment.

Step 3. The House Judiciary Committee investigates. That investigation doesn't have to be from scratch. It can rely on data and conclusions of other investigations undertaken by, say, the FBI.

Step 4: A majority of the Judiciary Committee members decides there are sufficient grounds for impeachment, and the Committee issues a "Resolution of Impeachment," setting forth specific allegations of misconduct in one or more articles of impeachment.

Step 5: The full House then considers that Resolution and votes in favor of it -- as a whole or on each article separately. The full House isn't bound by the Committee's work. The House may vote to impeach even if the Committee doesn't recommend impeachment.

Step 6: The matter then goes to the Senate for a trial. The House's Resolution of Impeachment becomes in effect the charges in this trial.

Step 7: The Senate issues a summons to the president, who is now effectively the defendant, informing him of the charges and the date by which he has to answer them. If the president chooses not to answer or appear, it's as if he entered a "not guilty" plea.

Step 8 is the trial in the Senate. In that trial, those who are representing the House -- that is, the prosecution -- and counsel for the president, both make opening arguments. They then introduce evidence and put on witnesses as in any trial. Witnesses are subject to examination and cross-examination. The trial is presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court -- who has the authority to rule on evidentiary questions or may put such questions to a vote of the Senate. The House managers and counsel for the president then make closing arguments.

Step 9: The Senate meets in closed session to deliberate.

Step 10: The Senate returns in open session to vote on whether to convict the president on the articles of impeachment. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate. Conviction on one or more articles of impeachment results in removal from office. Such a conviction also disqualifies the now former president from holding any other public office. And it doesn't bar additional legal proceedings against that former president, and punishment.

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The administration late Friday appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court against the latest decision by a Hawaii District Court to limit the scope of President Trump's Muslim travel ban.

A federal judge in Hawaii ruled Thursday that grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and siblings-in-law must be added to the list of close family members who can still get visas to travel to the United States during the 90 days while the executive order is in force.

The State Department said on June 29 that only parents, parents-in-law, spouses, fiance's, children, and children-in-law would be exempt from the ban on visas for travel to the United States from six Muslim countries - Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

In appealing directly to the Supreme Court, the administration bypassed the San Francisco-based 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

In its appeal, the U.S. Justice Department said Judge Watson's interpretation of the Supreme Court's ruling on what family relationships qualify refugees and visitors from the six Muslim countries to enter the U.S. "empties the court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members. Treating all of these relationships as 'close familial relationship(s)' reads the term 'close' out of the Court's decision."

Only the Supreme Court can decide these issues surrounding the travel ban, the Justice Department said. "Only this Court can definitively settle whether the government's reasonable implementation is consistent with this Court's stay," it said.

Watson's ruling Thursday was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nation's high court in October, the Associated Press said.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

"Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety," she said. "This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely."

"Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. "By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats."

After many setbacks in lower courts, the Trump administration submitted a new version of the Muslim ban (known as Muslim Ban 3) to the Supreme Court on June 29th. Although the Supreme Court order explicitly stated that the ban could not be applied to close family members of U.S persons, the Trump Administration still decided to extend the ban to include grandparents and other family members of Americans with roots in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Thursday, the U.S District Court from Hawaii declared that the updated Muslim ban was still unconstitutional, and stated that the Trump administration's interpretation of "bona fide relationship" was too narrow and "represents the antithesis of common sense."
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From The Guardian

Republicans make excuses for Trump's behavior, but continue to back him. All this anti-Trump energy would be better spent organizing for the coming election.

The latest New York Times blockbuster revealing the president's son, Donald Trump Jr, knowingly accepting a meeting in 2016 with a Russian lawyer in the hope of getting damaging information on Hillary Clinton is making waves across Washington DC. But if people think that this latest story is definitely going to lead to criminal charges against Trump Jr, or force the president from office, it's time for a reality check.

The journalism displayed by the Times and the Washington Post pushing the Trump-Russia story forward has unquestionably been laudable, but the real question is where does this leave the Trump administration.

While pro-impeachment advocates scream "treason!" on Twitter every time a new story is published, the truth is much more complicated. Some legal experts wonder whether the Trump clan actually did break any laws in their interactions with Russian nationals, even if their behavior pre-election was incredibly shady, unethical and nefarious.

Look no further than Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes, two prominent national security figures and Trump critics, who explained in Foreign Policy last week that "collusion," in and of itself may not be a criminal problem for Trump so much as a political one. (Hennessy and Witte's article came before the latest Trump Jr story, but there's also reason to be skeptical about assertions that Trump Jr broke the law by taking a meeting with the Russian lawyer as well.)

The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation into Trump and Russia could take years to complete. And it probably won't directly lead to Trump himself being indicted. Mueller is likely to submit his findings on Trump himself to Congress for action rather than bringing an indictment. And if people really think Republicans are going to impeach Trump, they are kidding themselves.

At almost every turn, Republicans have made countless excuses for Trump's behavior and demurred on aggressively pursuing any action against him that would irreparably handicap his presidency.

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Man on cell phone with woman playing with her hair in the foreground

"Innocence is complicity". That's a quote from an old Chris Hedges column writing about Americans. It struck me then and still resonates to this day.

I believe we're a nation of those who see themselves as "innocent" as in "I didn't do anything wrong so how could I be responsible?"-never mind "complicit". That's a concept requiring reflection.

After the Snowden revelations came out I was talking with a neighbor who I occasionally talked politics. I asked her what she thought of the NSA surveillance of everyone's electronic communications and her response was, "I haven't done anything wrong so why should I worry".

That took me aback. Our discussion ended there. There was no need to elaborate what the spooks were doing was illegal and against the Constitution, something they took an oath to defend.

It still baffles me. Snowden wanted the American people to know the truth and let them decide. That was his motivation and I believe he has no regrets.

Yet what does he now think of the American people not demanding their government immediately cease the NSA's surveillance of Americans?

I think my neighbors response is the clue. Americans see themselves as innocent so what's to worry about?

That the surveillance is illegal and un-Constitutional? I don't think most Americans let themselves even consider that.

No most Americans have drunk the kool-aid. Fully absorbed the government's propaganda, been thoroughly indoctrinated without really thinking about it. Then it's all reinforced by the governments unofficial mouth piece, the complicit, enabling corporate MSM. And like the "good German's in Hitler's 1930's Germany are the "good Americans" of today.

So with most Americans insouciant, without a care what does the government have to worry about?

Nothing. If a few of the unwashed natives get restless, start protesting and demonstrating they'll soon be subverted, co-opted by agent provocateurs who'll initiate some violence get the militarized police to arrest a few and then the whole thing will be put down.

Sinclair Lewis in his 1935 novel, "It Can't Happen Here" put it succinctly, "In America-fascism with a smile".

Regrettably most Americans believe in American exceptionalism, the indispensible country the "Land of the free and the home of the brave", from sea to shining sea, bringing freedom and democracy to the world, our Navy a "Force for good", yadda, yadda.

It's still my country even though at times I don't recognize it.

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From Other Words

A scathing review of the president's performance at a recent global summit should raise red flags.



G20 Meeting

(Image by (Photo: Flickr/The White House)) Details DMCA



Donald Trump recently returned from meeting with the other powerful countries of the G20 group -- one of his first big performances on the world stage. So how did it go?

Not swell, according to a no-holds-barred account delivered by Chris Uhlmann, an Australian journalist. Uhlmann made four main points about how the rest of the world sees the U.S. president.

First, Uhlmann charged, Trump has "no desire or capacity to lead the world." He called him "a man who barks out bile in 140 characters" and "wastes his precious days as president at war with the west's institutions, like the judiciary, independent government agencies, and the free press."

It's hard to refute that latter point. How much time has Trump wasted watching cable news, or insisting that he got more votes or had bigger crowds at his inauguration than he really did?

How much time has our entire country wasted focusing on nasty tweets, such as the recent one claiming that TV personality Mika Brzezinski has a low IQ?

Second, Uhlmann concluded, Trump "craves power because it burnishes his celebrity. To be constantly talking and talked about is all that matters." Worse still, he said, "There's no value placed on the meaning of words. What's said one day can be discarded the next."

That's a reasonable conclusion about an administration whose lies are flimsy and easily debunked, but delivered forcefully all the same. Moreover, Trump himself has shown little shame in making hateful remarks that would embarrass any other leader, from making fun of a disabled journalist to bragging about sexually assaulting women.

Third, Uhlmann warned, one must not "confuse the speeches written for Trump with the thoughts of the man himself," because " it's the unscripted Trump that's real."

Again, he isn't wrong. This can be said to some degree of all presidents. The words of a speechwriter or the tactics of a clever political strategist may be executed at the White House, but they don't necessarily represent the thoughts or feelings of the president.

This is less of a problem when written speeches and unscripted remarks are similar. But Trump often reads a well-scripted speech and then turns around right afterward to make entirely contradictory off the cuff remarks.

And last, Uhlmann assessed, as a result of all this, "the G20 became the G19" and "the U.S. was left isolated and friendless."

You may disagree with parts of this assessment. Perhaps you like Trump. Maybe you think his policy proposals are good ones.

But it's impossible to refute this last point -- that under Trump, the U.S. has forfeited its position of leadership in the world. Note that the other 19 countries had to issue their own statement about addressing climate change, now that Trump has pulled the U.S. out of those discussions.

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From Alternet

Humanitarianism wars are easier to fund than the humanitarian peace.



A U.S. soldier stands guard duty near a burning oil well in the Rumaila oil field in 2003.

(Image by Arlo K. Abrahamson / U.S. Navy) Details DMCA



On 10 July 2017, Iraqi's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in the city of Mosul to declare it liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesperson of the Iraqi forces, told Iraqi television, "Their fictitious state has fallen."

Prime Minister al-Abadi has been a senior member of one Iraqi government after the other since the illegal US invasion and occupation of that country in 2003. He was dismayed by the privatization plans of the US Viceroy in Iraq, Paul Bremer, and he participated in the lawsuit against the US mercenary army -- the private company called Blackwater. At the same time, al-Abadi participated in governments led largely by his Islamic Dawa Party (which he joined in 1967 at the age of 15). This party has overseen -- with US aid and encouragement -- the breakdown of Iraqi society. The brutality of the US invasion and occupation as well as the sectarian policies of the Islamic Dawa Party drove the creation of ISIS in 2006 and then its expansion by 2014. This is a man with a front-row seat for the unraveling of his country.

What did al-Abadi see when he looked across the expanse of Mosul, one of Iraq's largest cities? He would have seen not only the violence visited by ISIS upon this historic city -- including destroying a large part of its Great Mosque of al-Nuri -- but also the destruction of the city by this current onslaught that has lasted nine months. A million civilians fled Mosul; many thousands of civilians have been killed. They live in 19 emergency camps -- each wanting in basic needs. "The levels of trauma we are seeing are some of the highest anywhere," said Lise Grande of the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. "What people have experienced is nearly unimaginable." The UN requested nearly $1 billion of the international community. It has received just over 40 percent of what is required. With oil prices down, Iraq simply does not have the revenue to rebuild this destroyed city. It will need help.

Humanitarianism wars are easier to fund than the humanitarian peace.

"Our city is in ruins," said Ayman who lives in the western part of Mosul. "They have treated us like we are absolutely nothing." Who is the "they" in Ayman's statement? ISIS surely, but also the Iraqi military and its US allies.

Ayman's statement appears in an Amnesty International report that was released on 11 July -- At Any Cost: The Civilian Catastrophe in West Mosul. It is a careful report, but with a point that should not be ignored. Amnesty suggests that the United States and the Iraqi forces "carried out a series of unlawful attacks in west Mosul." The report further says, "Even in attacks that seem to have struck their intended military target, the use of unsuitable weapons or failure to take other necessary precautions resulted in needless loss of civilian lives and in some cases appears to have constituted disproportionate attacks."

The United States government attacked Amnesty for its conclusions. Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend said, in Washington, "I reject any notion that coalition fires were in any way imprecise, unlawful or excessively targeted civilians."

Airwars, the group that studies aerial bombardment, shows -- in a new report -- that the US aerial bombardment of western Mosul increased by 21 percent in the past month, with the munitions concentrated on certain neighborhoods. This has led, Airwars says, to increased civilian deaths. Chris Woods of Airwars says, "The speed and intensity of these attacks -- which the US now describes as a war of 'annihilation' -- have placed civilians at far greater risk of harm. Heavy weapons also continue to be used on densely populated areas. The consequences are inevitable." Lt. General Townsend has not commented yet on the Airwars report. The term "annihilation" is chilling.

The numbers put out by Airwars are deflated. "It is highly probable," the report notes, "that the death toll is substantially higher than this Airwars estimate, with multiple reports referencing thousands of corpses still trapped under the rubble." Reports from the ground suggest the use of illegal weapons -- including white phosphorus (although the US has denied this) -- as well as "horrific scenes of bodies scattering the streets." It will take a great deal of investigation to piece together the full-scale of the human tragedy first in the ISIS capture of Mosul and then in the US-Iraqi assault on the city.

Al-Abadi would also know that ISIS was able to expand in 2013 and 2014 partly because the Iraqi government crushed any attempt by ordinary Iraqis to get a better deal. A major political uprising from 2011 brought together groups such as the Union of the Unemployed of Iraq with the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. Their demands were for the recreation of their destroyed society, for an economy that benefits Iraqis and for a political project that unifies the people and does not tear open sectarian divides.

The government did not listen to them. The path of nonviolent resistance was blocked in 2011, and then sent backwards when Iraqi security forces massacred peaceful protestors in al-Hawija in April 2013. After the massacre, ISIS scouts came into al-Hawija to recruit fighters. They said, "You tried the peaceful route. What did it bring you? Now come with us." Many did. Al-Hawija remains in ISIS hands. In fact, after the apparent death of ISIS emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of al-Hawija -- Abu Haitham al-Obaidi -- declared that he was the new caliph. His forces are arrayed in the western part of al-Hawija, ready for a major battle.

Little wonder that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights -- Zeid al-Hussein -- said that "dialogue between communities needs to begin now to try to halt the cycle of violence." Much water has slipped under the bridge. Not only the history of the brutality of the US invasion and occupation -- which razed many of the cities in Anbar Province such as Fallujah and Ramadi -- but also the ruthlessness of the Iraqi government as well as of the US-Iraqi war on Mosul. The way one fights a war suggests to the defeated the terms of the future. A brutal war can only mean that there will be no real "dialogue" to prevent precisely the "cycle of violence."

ISIS fighters fled Mosul for other parts of Iraq as well as for Syria. The battle is far from over. US aerial assaults on the Syrian cities of Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir Ezzor continue, increasing with great ferocity. Airwars suggests that the number of civilian deaths from the US-led air war in Syria is at the highest it has been for a long while. What is most startling is the assertion by Airwars that "casualty events attributed to the [US-led] Coalition in Iraq and Syria outpaced those reportedly carried out by Russia in Syria" for the sixth consecutive month. That means that the civilian toll from US airstrikes has been greater than the casualty toll from the Russian strikes. Yet it is the latter that gets the attention by the Western media, while the former is largely -- if not entirely -- ignored. There is a theory, as I have written about previously, that Western bombing is benevolent, whereas Eastern bombing is malevolent. This seems to operate for the Western media.

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The establishment of a diplomatic mission in Kuwait as a measure of checking the maltreatment of Ghanaians in the Gulf region is in advanced stages.



This is according to Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botwe.



She contends that the physical presence of the Ghanaian state in Kuwait would help government deal better with the numerous instances of Ghanaian domestic workers in that country who are subjected to human rights abuses.



She also indicated that so far 800 Ghanaians had turned themselves in at the Saudi Mission to be brought back home.



Speaking to Citi News, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway said very soon, we will have a physical presence in Kuwait.



I can also tell you that we are at the very final stage of opening a mission. It shouldnt take us more than a month or two, she added.



On claims of maltreatment against some Ghanaian deportees in Qatar, the Minister said her outfit has taken the matter up.



So far, I have had meetings with the foreign missions here and I have complained and expressed governments displeasure about the way our nationals are being treated. Ive had meeting with ambassadors of the Gulf region.



So they are aware that we are not happy with it. just a couple of days ago, when the Qatari ambassador presented his letters of credence to the president, the present also expressed that state governments concern about what is happening to our nationals who go there. And also asked him that the authorities are aware of the fact that we are not happy with what is happening and we want to engage them on this particular matter. So its not just Qatar so all the gulf state. We will continue to do what we can to ensure that our citizens are safe, protected and their rights are protected within the gulf region, she added.



There have been a series of reports on of maltreatment of Ghanaian recruits who work as house-helps in that Kuwait.



Meanwhile, National Security has been tasked to probe allegations of maltreatment meted out to some 63 Ghanaians who were recently deported.



According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, this has become necessary due to conflicting reports received from the deportees and the US Embassy on the treatment on the board a chartered flight to Ghana.



This particular matter is the word of the US authorities against that of the Ghanaians who were repatriated but we havent instituted any investigation into the matter because that lies in the domain of the national security and we expect them to do so, she added.

Source: citifmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The maternal family of the late President John Evans Atta Mills has said it would support any attempt by the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the late head of state.



Prof. Mills died suddenly on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 when he was preparing to contest for a second term in office. Since then, details about what caused his death are still shrouded in secrecy.



We wont mind if the new government probes what actually caused the death of our brother, the President. We dont mind if they do that so that everything will be clarified, Ato Harry Brew, an 85-year-old first cousin of the late president, told Daily Guide in an exclusive chat in Accra on Monday.



If the opinion of the country is that it should be done, then it has to be done, he said from his Ashongman Estates residence when he took Daily Guide through the family history of the late president.



He said the maternal family of Prof Mills  who was a Tax Law Expert  is called Nkuma-Kyerba Twidan Ebusua of Tantri, Cape Coast.



Mr. Harry Brews mother (Emma Dawson-Ahmoah or Nee Emma Dawson Brew) and the late President Mills mother (Mercy Dawson-Ahmoah/Nee Mercy Dawson Atta Mills) are sisters from the same mother called Kyereba aka Esi Yaunde or Esi Amoanua (because she was born in Cameroon) from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast.



Mr. Harry Brew, who is the first African Cocoa Insect Pollinator Biologist/Taxonomist, said, I fully support what Cadman said if the investigation into what killed President Mills was done during the NDCs tenure, many people would not have believed the outcome.



I feel once there is a new government we should all, especially the family, get to know the circumstances surrounding his death, if that is what a lot of Ghanaians want.



He said the NDC administration blocked the family from sending President Mills to the United States for further medical attention because the government officials said the 2012 general election was getting close.



They said they were going to have election and when they send him to the US it will affect the election and all that. I said but he is a human being and he is my brother; if he is sick and we are taking him, what is their problem? Mr Harry Brew, who is still a consultant in industrial etymology, disclosed, adding, It was politicized. I am telling you I told Cadman to take him to the US for medical attention.



I saw him on Saturday but he was speaking through the nose.



He debunked rumours that Prof Mills body was sent to South Africa for autopsy. They even said the body was dressed in South Africa. It was all untrue.



The Lashibi Funeral Home where he was kept belongs to my wifes sister. It was there the government put my brothers body. They had removed him from the 37 Military Hospital Morgue. So it was never true that the body was flown to South Africa, he cleared the air.



When asked whether the government disclosed any autopsy results to him as family head, Mr Ato Harry Brew asked rhetorically, Would they even do that?



Cape Coast/Otuam Debate



Taking Daily Guide through volumes of documents, including archival images dating back to the 1890s, he slammed all those who are claiming that President Mills came from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region.



Of course, we are matrilineal. We are not from Ekumfi Otuam. It was his father who came from Otuam. We are from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast, he underscored.



He said it was President Mills father called John Evans Atta Mills Senior who hailed from Otuam; and once Fantes practise matrilineal inheritance, the family could not be said to be coming from that town.



If you want gains you can formulate something and that has misfired so long as I am alive, he stressed, adding, The Otuam people cannot lay claim to President Mills. We are matrilineal and we are Akans and therefore, nobody can use a false tongue to change and hang anything on our necks. These things must cease before the fifth anniversary comes.



Twin Myth



Mr. Harry Brew also said that President Mills was never a twin but was rather named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills.



Prof. Mills was named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills and the Fantes called him Mbir Atta. The name was however, Anglicised to Atta Mills, he explained.



Some have strongly claimed that his twin brother is Cadman Mills, but the family head said that cannot also be true.



Prof was born in 1944 and Cadman was born in 1946 so how can they be twins? Mr Brew wondered.

Read the full exclusive interview with Mr Ato Harry Brew tomorrow.







Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Greens poster boy and renowned good hair-haver Scott Ludlam tendered his surprise resignation yesterday, when it was revealed that he holds dual citizenship with New Zealand, and is therefore ineligible to hold a seat in the Senate.

Overnight, the man who blew Ludlams cover was revealed as Dr John Cameron, a Perth barrister who evidently went to great lengths to procure the relevant documents from authorities in New Zealand.

Speaking to The Weekend Australian, Cameron insisted that he was not politically motivated, and that he merely acted as a citizen with a keen interest in the workings of the Australian Constitution.

Cameron says he was checking into the eligibility of Ludlam as well as fellow Senator Derryn Hinch when he made the discovery. He told the publication that he was surprised, saying:

I checked about three weeks ago with the NZ Department of Internal Affairs and applied to search the register in relation to Mr Ludlam and Senator Hinch. I expected the human headline may not have done it and Mr Ludlam would have done it, but it was the other way around. I received the certificate for Mr Ludlam which showed he was still a citizen but for Mr Hinch the certificate shows that he renounced his citizenship before the last election. I sent the certificate to the clerk of the Senate, however out of a courtesy a few days ago I provided Senator Ludlam with a copy of the certificate. This is not driven by political ideology. I think the Australian Constitution is important. It is the basic law of our country.

Ludlams office confirmed that they received Camerons communication last week, but waited several days to contact the New Zealand High Commission to verify the information.

Tendering his resignation yesterday, Ludlam expressed deep regret that he failed to renounce his dual citizenship at the time of his election, saying he is personally devastated to learn that an avoidable oversight a decade ago.

It remains unclear whether Ludlam will be pursued to repay some or all of the wages or entitlements he earned while in the Senate, as well as the wages of his staff.

He has vowed to fight any such move, saying that his current assets amount to a fast computer and a nice pair of shoes.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott took to Twitter overnight to shut down rumours that he himself was a dual citizen while in office, posting a copy of a 1993 letter confirming his renunciation of his British citizenship.

22-year-old university student and disability advocate Jordon Steele-John, who himself renounced British citizenship when he entered politics at the age of 18, has been touted as a possible replacement for Ludlam.

Source: The Australian.

Photo: Scott Barbour / Getty.
BIKE CHECK Ancillotti Scarab BY: Ben Winder Enduro racer Andrea Gamenara with his Ancillotti Scarab.

One of the most exciting and down to earth bike companies around is Ancillotti, a small Italian bike brand with a strong heritage in both motor bikes and mountain bikes. More importantly, they've got a great ethos: If something isnt right, they design something that is. To that end, they also build their own coil shocks and modified forks. I caught up with founder Tomaso Ancillotti at the second round of the Superenduro to talk through their latest offering and bike setup - and I and had the opportunity to do a quick bike check with Andrea Gamenara and his Scarab race bike.

Seven Questions With Founder Tamaso Ancillotti

Ben Winder: Is there any special geometry for Andrea's Scarab?

Winder: What's Andrea's bike setup like?

Winder: How does his bike compare to a bike a customer could buy?

Winder: Do you give a suggestion as to where riders should run the linkage?

Winder: Is there a special shock tune?

Winder: Why do you build your own shocks? It must take a lot of time.

Winder: So, you wouldnt run air?

Andrea Gamenara takes advantage of his Ancillotti Scarab's adjustable geometry to switch head angles between 64.3 and 65.3 degrees depending upon the race venue.

Ancillotti's trademark suspension is a single-pivot swingarm that drives the shock with a bottom-mounted pull-shaft. A look at the underside of the Scarab chassis shows its adjustable pull shaft and the tunnel-mounted rocker link that drives the shock.

Ancillotti builds his frames with significantly smaller-diameter tubes than current fashion, preferring to heavily gusset high-stress areas.

Numbers:

 Head angle: 64.3 - 65.3 degrees

 Wheelbase: 1240 mm

 BB drop: 43.5-44 mm

 Chainstay: 43.5 mm

 Bar Height: 105 mm

 Bar width: 770mm

 Seat tube angle: Real 67, virtual 77 degrees

 Reach: 460mm

 Seat Tube Length: 450mm

 Top Tube Length: 615mm

 Spring: Hard and medium linkage

 Weight with DH tires 14.3kg (31.5 pounds)





Components:

 Fork: Formula Selva - Custom tune

 Shock: Ancillotti RL Racing Shox

 Drivetrain: SRAM XO

 Chainguide: Custom

 Stem: Renthal Apex, 50mm

 Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Carbon 30mm Rise

 Brakes: Formula Cura

 Grips: Nukeproof Element

 Wheels: Formula Linea 3

 Tyres: Maxxis Minion DHF 27,5 x 2.5 3C DD, Minion DHR II 27,5 x 2.3 3c DD

 Saddle: WTB Silverado

 Pedals: Shimano M530 SPD

 Seatpost : Yep Uptimizer dropper, 125mm

 Fork: Formula Selva - Custom tune Shock: Ancillotti RL Racing Shox Drivetrain: SRAM XO Chainguide: Custom Stem: Renthal Apex, 50mm Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Carbon 30mm Rise Brakes: Formula Cura Grips: Nukeproof Element Wheels: Formula Linea 3 Tyres: Maxxis Minion DHF 27,5 x 2.5 3C DD, Minion DHR II 27,5 x 2.3 3c DD Saddle: WTB Silverado Pedals: Shimano M530 SPD Seatpost : Yep Uptimizer dropper, 125mm



Tomaso Ancillotti: Yes. Weve been working with Andrea for five years now, hes helped us to develop the bike, weve been experimenting with lots of different angles and sizes. So the bike is kind of special to him.Ancillotti: Yeah, he prefers to ride the fork stiff on the front. He rides over the front end, so he needs a slightly stiffer fork. The head angle is adjustable via the linkage, so he can adjust it how he wants. Its between 64.3 and 65.3 degrees, so we have one degree of adjustment, which we change depending on the type of race.Ancillotti: The geometry isnt that different, because we make the same frame for our customers. We think, if the geometry is good for our team riders, its also good for the customers. We have a lot of adjustment on the bike, so each rider can make little changes on the bike to suit their riding style. We make custom sizes for the customer, but every rider rides slightly different - some over the front, some over the back - so we have to find the right balance for each one. We have an adjustment linkage on the bottom that can be set to the perfect position for the rider. Our system allows you to make very fine adjustments. This allows riders to find their perfect geometry.Ancillotti: I give them the bike with the linkage position in which I think will work for them, I then encourage the customer to play with the linkage because I think every rider has a personal feeling for the bike, and not just whats supposed to work on paper. We made a system that is very easy to adjust, so we say try it to find your right balance.Ancillotti: Yes, every shock is different. We build them to suit each rider. Andrea prefers it to be very smooth at the start of the stroke, for the small bumps then he needs it to ramp up really well because he rides quite hard, this is created by the shims inside the shock. We build the shock, we design everything, a factory builds the parts for us with cnc machines, but then I build the shocks.Ancillotti: Well, I think its the key for a good bike. We also work a lot on the front suspension. Its such an important part of the bike, and we think its better. We only use coil suspension.Ancillotti: Weve tried a lot, but each time we end up back on the coil shock. I think the air shock is good for big companies, who just sell a bike and dont know who will be buying it. All you need is a shock pump and you can set it up for yourself. But, as were a smaller company, we know all our riders. We can give a good tune and set up a coil shock for each person. A coil shock is more plush at the beginning, to give good grip. You can play with the progression that you want. Adjust the linkage. I think its always better. Also, on longer tracks, the air changes quite a lot. You can fine tune it by one PSI or two PSI, but the shock is cold at the top and the hot at the bottom - it changes so much.
After graduating from Napa High School in 2010, like many in the valley, Jarrod Ebeling got a job in the wine industry.

However, I realized it wasnt for me, Ebeling said. Im a hands-on individual, so the best way for me to learn is to get my hands on my work.

Ebelings older brother Kyle had gone through a welding program at Napa Valley College. He recommended the program to his brother and since enrolling, Ive been hooked ever since, said Ebeling.

Jobs are plentiful in the local area and our students are in demand, said NVC welding instructor Eric Wade. I am pleased with our 100 percent employment rate and the quality of student we are turning out. They are showing great skills and a desire to succeed.

One key to that success is that Wades students continue to surpass industry pass rates for qualification tests. On May 19, for example, 22 students took a certification test and 17 were certified, including three who earned two certifications.

Because the new welders are so successful, he said, the college will start a new program in August that will allow students to be certified within two semesters rather than four.

This will allow students to enter the workforce sooner and will cut costs for the students, Wade said.

We will have three more certificates on line next year, and students will earn them as they complete the program. This will give our students an edge over the surrounding programs with verifiable skill sets to fill the training gap we are currently experiencing in the welding industry.

Ebeling, who has earned four American Welding Society certifications, said the working atmosphere in Wades class encourages students to help each other.

Welding has given me the opportunity to literally recreate myself from the ground up. Its projected a new outlook on what it means to work hard and stay humble when new challenges are thrown my way.

You have to have a sense of competition in this industry, but at the same time, if Mr. Wade is busy, Im going to help a fellow classmate and give a tip or a trick to help a fellow student progress to the next stage. Thats how Mr. Wade sets the program up.

To have a guy like Mr. Wade, who spent a tremendous amount of years in the industry, to come back here to teach, is a pretty special thing.

Christian Garrity moved to California from Vancouver, started a family and then enrolled in the welding program.

I had to get my butt in gear and figure out how to earn some money, he said. Garrity has already earned two welding certificates and will finish classes this fall.

Welding has showed me that hard work pays off. If you put your mind to something, and really want to achieve it, through hard work and practice you can do it. It has also given me job security. There will always be a need for welders, no matter where you go.

Mr. Wade plugs us in with jobs if he can, said the young father. Im not too picky, and will work wherever there is a need. He is a phenomenal teacher. Theres no way we would be as good as we are without him.

Napa native Steven Johnson heard that Nova Group, a Napa engineering contractor specializing in waterfront and utility construction, needed welders. He enrolled in welding courses at NVC, where he earned five welding certifications and is scheduled to earn an associate degree next June. In the meantime, he is already getting job offers.

The Napa Valley College welding program, gave me a straight path toward accomplishing my goal of obtaining a career thats meaningful and profitable, said Johnson.

I feel lucky to have found a trade I enjoy. My family is strongly urging me to get a degree, he said. I love it. I do it for fun now and even bought welding equipment for my home.

He said Wade has created a work environment at the college that emphasizes teamwork.

We are all learning, so we support each other and share, like a little family, helping each other. Theres no competition.

Johnson said he plans to work with structural steel, on bridges, buildings and pipelines, but he also is keeping an eye on opening his own welding fabrication shop.

William Fusco, a Sonoma resident, said he chose Napa Valley Colleges welding program because it is one of the best programs in the area.

In 18 months, he already has earned four AWS welding certifications.

When he graduates in August, he plans to go to work in the oil and gas industry.

Employers come to Mr. Wade because they recognize his program is highly rated, said Fusco.

Wade grew up on horse and cattle ranches, repairing tractors and welding. He attended Modesto Junior College, Butte College, and earned his bachelors degree at Chico State University.

He started teaching welding in 1990 at Butte College. He has maintained a welding business since 1980 and has been a volunteer and paid call firefighter in Fresno County, Calif. Wade retired in June of 2010 from firefighting.

At Napa Valley College, he said his goal is to get students to get out of their shell, be bold, honest and friendly, but not to back off.

I tell them the absolute truth, if their behaviors are detrimental to getting a job. I dont spare their feelings, but I dont attack them.

I have a 10-point rule. If they show up on time and stay they get 10 points each day. If they dont do both, they get zilch.

Wade talks quite a bit about his top students who have been placed in high-profile jobs all over the world.

Some are working for the Department of Defense, including one who is 24 years of age and is a go-to guy for all four branches of the military.

He also explains how welding can help a student earn money after transferring to a four-year college.

If weve got a motivated individual who wants to go to a four-year, they can pick up a trade and skill, earn double the minimum wage and afford to go to the four-year. The four-years are usually in areas surrounded by industry, 24/7. A student can pick up a night shift or a Friday-Saturday-Sunday shift and be comfortable at college.

Wade lives with his wife Donna in Madison, Calif. They have seven kids, and twelve grandchildren including two welder sons and two daughters who can weld.
In the last six months, the Mandana Drug Task Force has seized more than $750,000 worth of controlled substances and arrested 55 individuals suspected to be involved in illegal drug activity on the island.

Approximately 13,607 grams of marijuana, 556 grams of methamphetamine and 749 prescription pills were seized during the execution of dozens of search warrants conducted by the task force, according to information provided by GPD.

Drugs affect the whole family

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What has been difficult for many of the task force members and law enforcement is seeing first-hand the harm drugs have caused on families, most especially young children.

Authorities have seen some of the most deplorable conditions while executing search warrants at homes around the island.

Residents can call Guam Crime Stoppers to report a crime, the nearest precinct, or the Mandana Drug Task Force about any illegal drug activity in their neighborhood. Lets come together and reduce the flow of meth.  Joseph Cruz, chief of police, Guam Police Department

Some of the island's families live in makeshift shelters, such as pop-up tents and canopies with dirt floors, and many dont have power or running water as a result of a family member's drug addiction.

Cruz said it isnt uncommon for authorities to find spoiled food  or no food at all  and dirty living conditions at homes during raids.

Unfortunately, the children are accustomed to their living conditions, said Joseph Cruz, the chief of police.

When the task force sees young children in these conditions, they call Child Protective Services.

All walks of life

Police are seeing people from all walks of life getting involved in drug activity. Methamphetamine does not discriminate against any race, religion, color, or whether you are rich or poor, the chief said.

The task force was created through an executive order, signed by Gov. Eddie Calvo on Feb. 10. The group was formed to combat the islands growing drug problem and consists of seven officers from the Guam Police Department, one officer from the Department of Corrections, one officer from the Guam Airport Police, one officer from the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency, one officer from the Port Authority of Guam, and one analyst from the Guam Army National Guard Counter Drug Task Force.

The current street value of marijuana is $100 per 3 grams, $500 per gram for methamphetamine, and a pharmacist concluded that the 749 prescription pills seized by authorities totaled more than $21,807.

The prescription pills seized included:

 Concerta/Ritalin, used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;

 Ativan, also known as Lorazepam, used to treat anxiety disorders, trouble sleeping and active seizures;

 Klonopin, also known as Clonozepam, which is used to treat seizures and epilepsy;

 Valium, also known as Diazepam, used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms and muscle spasms;

 Oxycodone hydrochloride, also known as Percocet, a pain reliever; and

 Exalgo/Diaudid, also known as a Hydromorphone, used to treat pain.

37 search warrants

The task force has executed 37 search warrants since its inception, resulting in 55 felony arrests and the confiscation of $198,289 in drug proceeds.

Cruz said authorities carefully plan out the operations and are always cautious and alert, especially when conducting drug investigations.

Firearms and drugs are synonymous when conducting drug investigations, Cruz said. Suspects use firearms to protect themselves and drug operations.

In recent months, police have encountered several individuals who engaged in shootouts with officers during attempted traffic stops, and dozens of firearms have been confiscated during raids of drug users homes.

Cruz said authorities cannot fight the war on drugs on the island by themselves and it will take the entire community working together. Residents can call Guam Crime Stoppers to report a crime, the nearest precinct, or the Mandana Drug Task Force about any illegal drug activity in their neighborhood, he said. Lets come together and reduce the flow of meth.
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.




South African author Meyer combines a whodunit with a chillingly plausible end-of-the-world scenario in Fever (Atlantic Monthly, Sept.).

What interested you about writing a postapocalyptic novel, and what did adding a murder mystery element enable you to do what you couldnt have done otherwise?

As a crime and thriller author, Im pretty used to contributing to a very crowded genre, so the comparatively few postapocalyptic novels out there seemed more of an opportunity than a threat. I believed my story was unique and absorbing enough to bring something new and exciting to this field. From page one, the reader knows that the father of the narrator is going to be killed. I was hoping that this structure would add two things to the novelsuspense (who did it, and why), and much greater importance to the relationship between father and son.

What themes, if any, does Fever share with your other crime fiction?

Crime and postapocalyptic fiction are both about restoring order. Murder brings a society closer to chaos, and by solving the case and ensuring justice, the detective reimposes one of the most essential conditions of a stable societylaw and order. In most postapocalyptic fiction, the society is probably in total chaos, and the protagonists are in a life-and-death battle to reestablish order, a cornerstone of their survival.

Youve written that you like doing hands-on research for your books; how did you go about making your imagined future as plausible as possible?

I approached really smart people for advice, and received much more than I deserved. For instance, I asked Wolfgang Preiser, the head of the division of medical virology in the department of pathology at the University of Stellenbosch to design a virus for Fever. I consulted champion aerobatics pilot Cliff Lotter about the Cessna in the novel, and even flew with him. I also had long chats with one of South Africas most famous ecologists, Dave Pepler, and the countrys expert on hydro-electricity, Anton-Louis Olivier.

Did creating your own vision of the future give you more freedom to innovate?

I had the pressure of a responsibility to my agents, publishers, and readers to do a good job, considering the fact that I expected them to trust me with something a little different. But it certainly was the most enjoyable creative process of my career. Being free from the conventions, traditions, and specific structural demands of crime fiction was very liberating, and allowed me to take a few risks. I also have a sneaking suspicion that my crime fictionIm writing a new Benny Griessel mystery at the momentwill benefit from lessons learned in the wild.
HMH Kids Nabs Debut at Auction

In a North American rights agreement, Catherine Onder, HMH Books for Young Readers senior v-p and publisher, bought three books by Crystal Smith at auction. The first book in the deal, Bloodleaf, is a retelling of the fairy tale The Goose Girl and is slated for fall 2018. HMH said the book is equal parts love story, ghostly mystery, and epic fantasy. In it, a princess finds herself destitute and stripped of her title; in order to win back her crown, she has to unravel the mystery binding her to an enigmatic prince, the unquiet ghost of an ancient queen, and a magical plant called bloodleaf. Smith was represented by Peter Knapp at Park Literary and Media.

Producers Ex to TarcherPerigee with Family Book

Mashonda Tifrere, ex-wife of producer Swizz Beatz, closed a six-figure deal for a book about coparenting with Sara Carder at TarcherPerigee. The world rights deal, which closed at auction, was brokered by Wendy Sherman and Cherise Fisher at Wendy Sherman Associates. Blend chronicles how Tifrere, after splitting from Swizz Beatz, worked with her ex-husband and his new wife (Alicia Keys) to create a loving family unit for her son, Kasseem. Written with the blessing of both Swizz Beatz and Keyshe wrote a chapter and she provided a forewordthe book offers advice on how to effectively coparent, which, the publisher noted, is a challenge now faced by nearly half of all American adults.

Bestsellers Resist in New Collection

For Macmillans Wednesday Books imprint, which launched last year and focuses on books with coming-of-age themes, Sara Goodman bought world rights to an essay collection called How I Resist. The book, which is subtitled Activism and Hope for the Next Generation, features contributions from a collection of bestselling YA and adult authors, as well as some big Hollywood names, including Libba Bray, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jennifer Weiner, and Joss Whedon. YA authors Maureen Johnson (The Shades of London series) and Tim Federle (Better Nate Than Ever) are editing (and contributing to) the book. Johnson was represented by Kate Testerman at KT Literary, and Federle was represented by Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. The book is set for a spring/summer 2018 release.

Daniels Inks Triple at HQN

Bestselling romance author B.J. Daniels inked a three-book deal with HQN Books for a new Western suspense trilogy. The Montana-set books, which Denise Zaza bought world rights to, follow three brothers who work at a guest ranch in Big Sky country that, the publisher explained, offers the perfect place for escapeor murder. Daniels, who has written more than 40 novels and sold, according to HQN, over nine million copies worldwide, was represented by Lisa Erbach Vance at the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. The first book in the series is slated for spring 2019.

Viking Prevails in Auction for Middle Grade Debut

After a six-house auction, Vikings Kendra Levin took North American rights to Laura Tuckers first middle grade novel, All the Greys on Greene Street. The book, which is set in New York Citys SoHo neighborhood circa 1981, follows a 12-year-old girl named Olympia whose father abruptly leaves her mother for another woman. Faye Bender at the Book Group, who represented Tucker, elaborated on the books plot by saying that, after Olympias father runs off to France with a woman she and her mom call Vouley Voo and her mom gets into bed and doesnt get up, somethings got to give. The book is currently scheduled for a 2019 release.

Mother and Advocate Sells Gun Violence Book

For her 37 Ink imprint at Atria Books, Dawn Davis took U.S., Canadian, and open market rights to Lucy McBaths Standing My Ground. McBath, the national spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety, is the mother of Jordan Davis, an African- American teenager who was fatally shot in 2012 at a gas station by another patron who complained that the music coming from Daviss car was too loud. Agent Stuart Krichevsky, who has an eponymous shingle, represented McBath; he described the book as part memoir, part manifesto and said it will explore the role of God and faith in the debate around gun violence. Davis said she hopes the book infuses questions of morality and faith into the discussion around the Second Amendment.
Its been a good half a year for two particular adult dystopian science-fiction backlist titles. In the months following the election of President Trump, George Orwells 1984 and Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale shot to the top of the charts. Both titles landed on the NPD BookScan and Amazon bestseller lists for print and Kindle e-books, respectively, for the first half of 2017, and both were newly released in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April.

So why arent there more sci-fi dystopian titles from the deep backlist on the bestselling lists?

In a way, the time was particularly right for these two titles. 1984, set in a world ruled by an authoritarian government that monitors how its population acts, speaks, and thinks, skyrocketed to the top of the charts after the use of the term alternative facts by Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway reminded readers of the novels famous term doublespeak. The Handmaids Tale, set in a world run by a small group of white, straight men, imagines the persecution and subjugation of people of color, LGBTQ people, and women. It didnt hurt that Hulu adapted The Handmaids Tale into a TV series with Mad Men star Elizabeth Moss earlier this year.

Yet other titles appear to be equally relevant. John Brunners Club of Rome Quartetcomprised of the novels Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, The Sheep Look Up, and The Shockwave Riderwas released in the late 1960s and 70s and correctly predicted, respectively, overpopulation, a U.S. mired in weapons proliferation and interracial violence, pollution-related ecological disasters, and the emergence of computer viruses.

Or consider, on the more popular end, Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, which Harper published in a new hardcover edition this May for the books 85th anniversary. The novel predicts a situation in which advances in mass production, reproduction, and medical treatments have led to a society dominated by a rigid class structure and the intake of antidepressant and hallucinogenic drugs.

Yet Brunner remains all but ignored in the media cycle, and the new hardcover of Brave New World has sold 525 copies to date, according to NPD BookScan (although the trade paperback, ever a classroom favorite, has sold more than 80,000 this year, with 4,000 in the first week of July alone).

Jaime Levine, publisher at Diversion Books, said her company publishes the e-book versions of C.L. Moores quintessential dystopian book, Doomsday Morning, and Ursula LeGuins environmental sci-fi classic The Lathe of Heaven. But, she added, I cant say that I had been monitoring an uptick in trend.

Shes not the only one. There isnt a spike of interest in Stand on Zanzibar, although weve got a lot of books like that in our deep backlist, said Tor Books associate publisher Patrick Nielsen Hayden. I love that book. Im part of the reason we brought it back into print [in 2011]. But its kind of an artifact of its time.

That said, Tor is taking some advantage in the upsurge of activism, Nielsen Hayden added, by marketing more recent backlist titles like Cory Doctorows Little Brother and Kristen Simmonss Article Five directly to indie booksellers, including, in the case of the Doctorow, a mailing from the author.

On the other hand, John Siciliano, executive editor Penguin Classics, has seen a lot of demand for Yevgeny Zamyatins We, a Russian dystopian novel that inspired 1984, and William Goldings Lord of the Flies, along with its sister imprint Signets successes with Sinclair Lewiss It Cant Happen Here. And Open Road Integrated Media, which publishes the other three Brunner titles in e-book (and The Sheep Look Up in paperback, as of 2016), acquired those rights and re-released those titles in 2014, and has promoted the e-books in four pieces on its digital media verticals The Portalist and Early Bird Books.

The reason we do these is twofold, said executive v-p of marketing Mary McAveney. We want to keep pushing these books out, and were seeing that there are consumers looking for them. From a marketing perspective, I feel like nothing that is backlist is getting enough attention these days.

Betsy Mitchell, who works as a consultant for Open Road acquiring and republishing backlist sci-fi and fantasy, adds that the publisher also has the e-book versions of Octavia Butlers Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. She was ahead of her time, Mitchell added. She actually has a demagogic president whose tagline is Make America Great Again. 

What seems clear, thanks to Orwell and Atwood, is that backlist dystopian sci-fi titles can be a gold mine for publishers who promote them at just the right timeand theres no better time for sci-fi than a period of political upheaval. Or, as Nielsen Hayden puts it, I think one of the underrated reasons that people read science fiction in particular is that its a great tool for figuring out what you think about how the world works.
Ten years ago, many publishing professionals would likely have struggled to find Sharjah on a map. But today, the tiny emirate next to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is home to a blossoming publishing sceneincluding the Sharjah International Book Fair, now among the top professional book events in the worldand has become a nexus for publishing in the region. The new Sharjah Publishing City, a 200,000-sq.-ft. facility that will offer administrative and logistical support for those looking to publish, print, and distribute books throughout the region, is slated to open in November. Rental space in the facility is nearly sold out, said Ahmed Al Ameri, chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority.

While Al Ameri has been the public face of the Sharjah Book Authority, Sheika Bodour Al Qasimi has been Sharjahs unofficial publishing ambassador. The sheika has been a regular fixture at book fairs around the world for the past decade, representing Kalimat, the Arabic-language childrens publishing house she founded in 2007.

The inspiration for the publishing house came from her daughter. I started reading to my daughter when she was only a few months old, Bodour said. But I soon learned that the bookshops in the United Arab Emirates and the region did not offer Arabic books that would capture the imagination of a 21st-century child. This is what led me to found the publishing house. It was my hope that we would pioneer childrens Arabic books in a way that would appeal to those Arabic children, make them look forward to visit bookshops again, andas a consequenceinstill a love of reading.

Since its launch, Kalimat has gone on to publish 175 books, including a Bologna Ragazzi Award winner: Lisanak Hisanak (Tongue Twisters), by Fatima Sharafeddine, the first Arabic-language book to win the Bologna prize.

All along, Kalimat has benefited from good timing. When it launched, there was growing awareness throughout the Gulf region and the rest of the world of the need to provide Arabic-language readers with a wider and more engaging array of reading materials. And the publisher has since expanded, spinning off several subsidiaries, including Horouf, which produces digital and print educational tools in Arabic; Rewayat, a YA imprint; and Maktaba, a bookstore and cafe in Sharjah. More recently, the house has been able to capitalize on growing interest in Arabic literature abroad and has sold rights to publishers in the U.K., including Bloomsbury, Orion, and Quarto, as well as to Gallimard in France.

Professional development has been a top priority for Bodour, who took the lead in developing the Emirates Publishers Association and getting it admitted to the International Publishers Association, of which she later was elected to the executive committee. From there, she supported and defended the controversial elevation of the nearby Saudi Publishers Association to full voting membership in the IPA in 2015. She is also a member of the IPAs influential Freedom to Publish committee.

Reflecting on her publishing journey these past 10 years, Bodour said, As a proud Arab, I am always keen to have an Arab voice in the world of childrens books that speaks for Arab culture and civilization in a modern way, and the books that Kalimat has been publishing are a testament to that.

She added that the Arab world has been changing rapidly over the past several decades, and books offer a strong medium for cultural exchange, dialogue, and understanding. Once again, standing on the horizon of hope, after building Kalimat from scratch, I can say this much with certainty: books are powerful and are an infinite source for hope, inspiration and motivation, which is, practically speaking, all that a child needs to change his or her outlook on life.
Napans hoping to save time and hassle at airport security checkpoints are making a detour in their travel plans to a specially marked mobile van now parked behind the county courthouse.

Gathering birth certificates, passports, drivers licenses or other forms of ID, locals are visiting the IdentoGO TSA PreCheck mobile enrollment RV to apply for the TSA PreCheck program.

TSA PreCheck is an expedited screening program that enables identified low-risk air travelers to enjoy an efficient screening experience. For TSA PreCheck travelers, there is no need to remove shoes, liquids, laptops, light outerwear or belts.

U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are eligible for TSA PreCheck.

Applicants pay an $85 processing fee, which gives them five years of access to TSA PreCheck.

Once approved, travelers will receive a known traveler number (which can be added to a travelers airline profile and reservations) and will have the opportunity to utilize TSA PreCheck lanes at select security checkpoints when flying on the more than 30 carriers that currently participate in TSA PreCheck.

On Monday, David Margolati of American Canyon exited the TSA PreCheck RV after completing his application. It was easy, said Margolati. It only took about 15 minutes.

Im starting to travel a lot more in the U.S., Margolati said, and he wanted to apply for TSA PreCheck so I dont have to strip down in security lines.

Its worth paying the $85 if youre going to the airport more than a couple times a year, he said.

Yoke May Robinson and her husband Bill also visited the mobile PreCheck RV on Monday.

Its wonderful, said Yoke May Robinson. Having the mobile van in Napa saves time and hassle for those who would otherwise have to travel outside of Napa County to apply. The closest other IdentoGO center is in Martinez.

Im glad theyre here, said Bill Robinson. If you went to a bigger city to apply, you could get stuck in a line a mile long. Having the mobile van come right to Napa is much more convenient, he said.

Napans Peter and Sallyann Berendsen also visited the PreCheck mobile RV on Monday.

We travel a lot and it will allow us to speed through, we hope, he said. The two hoped to get a walk-in appointment but facing a longer wait, decided to make an appointment online and return at a later date.

Following other successful PreCheck enrollment events with high demand in the region, IdentoGO partnered with the Napa County Sheriffs office to set up the Napa visit, said Charlie Carroll, head of IdentoGOs TSA PreCheck enrollment services.

The van was originally scheduled to be in Napa for two weeks, but IdentoGO extended the RV tour by a week until July 28 because of the high demand for enrollment in the region, said Carroll. Nearly all enrollment appointments for the initial RV tour were booked before the third week was added.

During the appointment, agents verify approved identity documents (a birth certificate or passport and another government issued ID) and obtain biographic information before live-scanning applicants fingerprints and securely transmitting the application package to TSA for review.

The in-person enrollment process takes just a few minutes and the entire application process takes a few days to a few weeks to complete, said Carroll.

IdentoGO can accommodate 72 appointments per day. Each person wishing to enroll in the PreCheck program should pre-enroll and schedule an appointment. Most appointments that are still available are for the last week, but walk-ins may be accommodated if there are cancellations. Those people should still pre-enroll online.

In total, the service is hoping to enroll more than 1,000 people during the Napa enrollment RV tour.

The mobile RV has steps and is not wheelchair accessible. If needed, residents are encouraged to locate the nearest permanent location, all of which are ADA compliant, said Carroll.

Megan Hays of Napa said she also wanted to apply for PreCheck to save time at airports. Knowing that the PreCheck designation would allow her to pass through a shorter security line gives you that peace of mind, she said.

The TSA PreCheck line is always significantly shorter at airports, said Hays. Paying $85 is worth it in time savings.

If someone cant get to the mobile van before July 28, nearby enrollment centers are located in Martinez and Alameda. There is also a temporary enrollment event at Oakland Airport through July 21.

TSA PreCheck has more than 450 lanes at more than 180 U.S. airports.
French media giant Altice has reached an agreement to acquire a 94.7% stake owned by Spains Prisa in Media Capital, Portugals largest media group.

Through this move, Altice will reinforce its leading position in Portugals media market, as it is already the second largest pay-TV operator through the MEO and Cabovisao units. Media Capital owns TVI, Portugals most-watched free-to-air (FTA) channel, which generates over 60% of the groups revenues.According to the information sent by Prisa to Spains stock market authority (CNMV), the acquisition values Media Capital at an enterprise value of 440 million. However, both companies have agreed to ink the transaction for 321 million.By acquiring Portugals largest FTA and radio broadcaster, Altice aims to strengthen its global convergence strategy, as it has done in France, the US and Israel.The Netherlands-based media group has already announced that it will use Media Capitals Plural as a global content production hub, export Portuguese content to other Altice territories (especially France and the US), invest in digital expansion and develop new TV channels and formats.The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions including approval by Prisa shareholders and regulatory approval. Altice has also launched a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining 5.3% of Media Capital owned by Spanish bank NCG Banco.It is a unique opportunity to invest more capital in a market which has been our home for many years. We want to capture the many growth opportunities Media Capital offers not just in Portugal but also internationally based on an ambitious agenda focused on more digital, more content and more innovation, said Michel Combes, CEO of Altice
In Afghanistan's staunchly patriarchal society, women are often publicly identified by the names of their male relatives.

Their identity derives from their relationship with men -- who are seen as their owners.

Afghan women live their lives as someones daughter, sister, or wife and often dont have an identity of their own.

When girls are born in Afghanistan, it takes some families weeks to give them a name -- and when a woman dies, her death notice and tombstone will often bear the name of her husband.

For Afghan men, revealing the names of their female relatives in public is considered shameful and dishonorable.

But a group of young women are trying to eradicate many of these long-standing taboos in their lives and help women reclaim their identities.

They have launched a campaign called Where is My Name? to highlight the issue and push men and, even women, to address women by their names.

In the first place, they say women should be identified by their given names and not those of their fathers and husbands.

The group says it believes giving women back their names is the first important step in encouraging them to assert their rights in a society where violence and abuse against women remain major problems.

Twenty-five-year-old Laleh Osmany, who initiated the campaign from the western Afghan city of Herat, tells RFE/RL that the movement wants to help women regain their most basic right.

Were fighting to win back our name and our identity, she said. We want women to be recognized as independent human beings with an identity.

Osmany says that in all families when a woman dies her name doesnt appear on her death notice; when a woman gets married her name doesnt appear on her wedding announcement; and womens names are not mentioned on doctors prescriptions either.

Tahmineh Rashiq, another campaign founder, told RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan that men should be able to utter the name of their mother, sister, and wife in public without feeling ashamed.

It shouldnt be shameful, she said in an interview in her home in Kabul.

Rashiq said she and many other women are fed up with being identified with someone else.

Im tired of being called the daughter or mother of someone, she said.

The Where Is My Name? campaign is gaining support among women and also men who have been posting on social media under the campaigns hashtag, #whereismyname, and changing their profile picture to the campaigns flyer.

I joined this campaign and proudly posted the name of my mother and wife on Facebook, campaign supporter Saadat Musavi told RFE/RL.

Osmany says the campaign has even started a debate within the country.

We launched the campaign in cyberspace and we made good use of it," she said. "The issue is now being debated in the real world -- people and media are now talking about it.

Many have praised the campaign for highlighting discrimination against women and attempting to raise awareness.

But there is also criticism.

Is [this] really the main concern of Afghan women? If they're being called by their names, will their problems be resolved? read a comment posted on Facebook.

But campaign organizers say without having their own identity, women will remain invisible and powerless in society.

A woman without a concrete identity will not defend her rights, campaign supporter Khadijeh Nabiyar told the Afghan daily 8am.

Since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan women have, among other things, regained the right to go to school, to vote, and to work. But many still face violence at the hands of male relatives that too often goes unpunished.

Osmany hopes her campaign to help allow women have an identity is the beginning of a movement that could help improve Afghan women's lives in many ways.

With reporting by Radio Free Afghanistan broadcaster Tameem Akhgar
A blast destroyed a school in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz Province on July 15, Afghan officials said.

Three people, including the school's gatekeeper, were injured in the blast in Khoja Mashhad, a school in the city of Kunduz, Mahfozullah Akbari, a spokesman for the northern police zone, told the media.

According to a provincial council member, Sayed Assadullah Sadat, four to five people in neighboring houses were injured by flying glass shards. However, there were no students present that early in the morning.

It was not clear who was responsible for the blast.

Afghan officials such as Mahfozullah Akbari blamed it on a U.S. air strike.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that "invader planes" had bombed a school in Kunduz.

However, U.S. forces spokesman William Salvin told RFE/RL that allegations of U.S. air strikes on a school in Kunduz province are "false."

Salvin said U.S. forces did launch air strikes in Kunduz, but their targets were Taliban positions, and voiced "confidence" that the strikes had been succsessful. He said Afghan officials told him the fire and explosion at the school were caused by a kitchen fire.

With additional reporting by dpa
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that Kherson is "ours after his special forces entered the strategic southern city following the retreat of Russian troops, marking another dramatic battlefield victory in Kyivs drive to recapture territory occupied by Russia since the start of its unprovoked invasion.

The Ukrainian military also said on November 11 that its troops had advanced all the way to the western bank of the Dnieper River in some areas of the Kherson region as Moscow said its forces had completed their withdrawal to the eastern bank in the face of Ukraines powerful counteroffensive.

"Our people -- Ours. Kherson," Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post that also included what appeared to be a video of Ukrainian troops celebrating with local residents.

Today is a historic day, Zelenskiy said in the post. We are returning Kherson. As of now, our defenders are on the approaches to the city. But special units are already in the city.

Various videos on social media from Kherson showed resident cheering and waving flags as the first Ukrainian troops reached the center of the city, the only provincial capital captured by Russian forces following their February 24 invasion.

"Kherson is returning to the control of Ukraine," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said earlier in the day. "Units of the armed forces of Ukraine are entering the city."

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region. Other footage from the village of Blahodatne in the Kherson region shows a massive cache of abandoned weapons left by the Russian troops after their retreat.

"The Russian occupiers' routes of retreat are under the direct fire of the Ukrainian Army," the statement added. "Any Russian soldier who resists will be killed."

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet that "Ukraine is gaining another important victory right now and proves that whatever Russia says or does, Ukraine will win." The tweet included a video purporting to show Kherson residents removing a billboard that proclaimed "Russia is here forever."

Serhiy Khlan, a deputy for the Kherson Regional Council, said a Ukrainian flag had been raised in Kherson, as multiple videos circulating on social media purportedly showed Ukrainian soldiers planting their yellow-and-blue flag on administrative buildings in the city and local residents celebrating.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had finished the pullout from Kherson city and the region at 5 a.m. on November 11 and that no military equipment had been left behind, in an another embarrassing blow to Moscow's war effort, which it refers to as a "special military operation."



"In total, more than 30,000 Russian servicemen, about 5,000 pieces of hardware, and military equipment and materiel have been withdrawn," the ministry said. "Not a single piece of military equipment or weaponry was left on the right (western) bank," he added, although the report could not immediately be confirmed.

Khlan said some Russian soldiers had been unable to leave the city and had changed into civilian clothing and urged local residents to stay at home while Ukrainian troops cleared the city.

"The number of these people is not known," he told a news briefing, without citing evidence for the claim.

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.

Khlan also said, without citing evidence, that many Russian troops had drowned attempting to flee across the river.

The head of the joint coordination press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Natalya Humenyuk, said Russian troops "have been changing into civilian clothes for two weeks."

"This should focus our forces as it means saboteur operations cannot be ruled out," Humenyuk told a separate briefing.

"Because of this, we are not rushing to announce our successes in other directions and in other towns."

Russia did not immediately comment on Khlan's or Humenyuk's remarks.

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.

Kherson controls both the only land route to Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnieper, which bisects Ukraine.

Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine with a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's public broadcaster quoted local residents as saying on November 11 that the Antonivskiy Bridge, the only nearby road crossing from Kherson city to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnieper, had 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 kilometers from Kherson city.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the 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.

The Ukrainian 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.

Elsewhere, 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 Mykolayiv 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 had been liberated.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
European Union chief Donald Tusk on July declined to give Serbia a fixed timetable for joining the bloc, but encouraged the Balkan nation to stick to the good governance and anticorruption reforms needed to seal the deal.

After talks in Brussels with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who had pressed him for an accession timetable,Tusk said that any timing will depend on how fast Belgrade can push through the reforms.

Tusk sought to encourage Belgrade's ambitions, however, saying that "the end game of the dialogue and Serbia's reform efforts is full membership."

Tusk did not repeat the EU's insistence that Serbia must resolve its disputes with Kosovo as a condition of membership. Serbia has never recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Both nations aspire to join the EU.

Vucic acknowledged on July 14 that for the time being, with the EU still regrouping in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the bloc, "it is not possible to get an exact date" for joining the bloc.

Serbia started its accession talks three years ago.

Based on reporting by AP
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
Around 2,000 people held a rally in the Georgian capital on July 14, demanding the deportation of illegal immigrants and a toughening of the country's immigration law. Rally participants also called for restrictions on granting residence permits to foreigners and a ban on foreign funding of civil society organizations. The protesters, who are said to have nationalist and pro-Russian views, warned that if the government does not fulfill their demands soon they will launch more protests. (RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
The Kremlin-backed strongman leader of Chechnya has lashed out at accusations that the Russian republic has tortured and killed gay men, and denied even the existence of homosexual men in his region.

Ramzan Kadyrov, in an interview with a U.S. television channel HBO, said those who have accused Chechen authorities of torturing gay men are "devils" who should be damned.

"This is nonsense. We don't have those kinds of people here. We don't have any gays, Kadyrov claimed in excerpts from the interview posted online on July 14.

And if there are some, please take them to Canada. Praise be to God, take them far from us so we don't have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them," Kadyrov added, without elaborating on his mentioning Canada.

After an initial report in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on April 1 that said gay men in Chechnya were being rounded up, tortured, and killed, several media outlets, including RFE/RL, spoke to Chechens who have fled the alleged abuse.

One gay man told RFE/RL that he spent 10 days in a secret jail, being beaten and humiliated and tortured with electric shocks.

In a report on May 26, Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed that police in Russia's Chechnya region tortured and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men during the spring of 2017 in "an apparent effort to purge them from Chechen society."

Chechen authorities have denied the reports.

"They are devils. They are for sale. They are not people. God damn them for what they are accusing us of," Kadyrov said when asked whether he is concerned by reports citing statements by young men who say theyve been tortured.

Security forces controlled by Kremlin-installed Kadyrov have been accused of gross human-rights abuses for many years, including abductions, torture, and killings.

One of the unsolved cases is that of Natalya Estemirova, renowned for her writing and activism on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus. Estemirova was kidnapped in Chechnya and found dead in the Ingushetia region of Russia exactly eight years ago -- on July 15, 2009.

Neither Estemirova's killers nor those who may have ordered her kidnapping and murder have been brought to justice, prompting the U.S. State Department on July 14 to once again call on Russia to find and bring to justice the people responsible for her death.

Kadyrov also said in the interview that the United States is too weak to be an enemy of Russia.

"We have a strong government and are a nuclear state, Kadyrov said.

"America is conducting a policy against Russia, against the country's leadership," he added.

"They know that I'm ready to give my life for Russia and that I have a good army capable of attacking and defending. Well see how things go for everyone.

The interview was conducted by HBO Real Sports reporter David Scott, who went to Grozny to film a feature on Kadyrov's mixed martial arts progam.

The full program will be aired on July 18.

With reporting by HBO, TASS, and Outsports.com


The Kremlin warned on July 14 that it would reject any preconditions for the return of Russian diplomatic property seized by the United States.

The warning was in response to comments made on CNN by Sebastian Gorka, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, that linked the compounds' return to Russia's adherence to a recent U.S-Russian cease-fire deal in southwest Syria.

"Return of the diplomatic property to Russia must not depend on any conditions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "This totally contradicts international law."

In December, then-President Barack Obama ordered the seizure of Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats he said were spies, in a series of measures aimed at punishing Russia for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to immediately retaliate over the expulsions and property seizure, saying he would wait to see what the Trump administration would do.

But Peskov and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the Kremlin is running out of patience and will retaliate by expelling U.S. diplomats and seizing American property in Russia unless an agreement to return the seized compounds comes out of high-level talks due to resume on July 17.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and Interfax


U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 14 that the United States cannot prove that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.

Earlier this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had "confirmed information" that Baghdadi was killed. And Russia's army said last month that it was seeking to verify that it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.

But U.S. and Iraqi officials have been skeptical.

"If we knew, we would tell you. Right now, I can't confirm or deny it," Mattis said. "Our approach is we assume that he's alive until it is proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove it otherwise."

Mattis added that a cease-fire in southwestern Syria that the United States negotiated with Russia is holding so far.

The cease-fire deal was announced after U.S. President Donald Trump's first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Germany.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
The Associated Press is reporting that a Russian lobbyist who met with U.S. President Donald Trump's son last year gave him a portfolio of information she said was damaging to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr. and his father have repeatedly insisted that nothing came out of the meeting at Trump Tower in New York during the presidential campaign in June 2016.

But in an interview with AP on July 14, Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer, said he was present at the meeting when Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya told Trump Jr. that people tied to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and illegally supporting Clinton's campaign.

Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democrats.

Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to Trump Jr. and suggested that making the information public could help the campaign, he told AP.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin recalled Veselnitskaya saying.

Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had sufficient evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more.

After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.

"They couldn't wait for the meeting to end," he said.

Akhmetshin told AP he does not know if Veselnitskaya's documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials in Trump's office.

It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room or simply left them behind, he said.

The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representative's Intelligence Committee said he wants Akhmetshin to testify before the committee, which is one of several panels in Congress that are investigating alleged Russian efforts to influence the presidential election.

Based on information disclosed thus far about the Trump Tower meeting, "it is clear the Kremlin got the message that Donald Trump welcomed the help of the Russian government in providing dirt on Hillary Clinton," said Representative Adam Schiff.

Schiff called "deeply disturbing" the emergence this week of Akhmetshin, who told AP he was "loosely part of Russian counterintelligence" when he was in the Soviet Army, though Trump Jr. never mentioned or acknowledged he was at the meeting.

Moreover, Trump Jr.'s shifting explanations about what occurred at the meeting -- seemingly changing each time media reports disclose new information about it -- also shows a "deeply worrying trend," Schiff said.

Akhmetshin, who spoke to AP while on vacation in France, said the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" discussion.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest," he said.

The Russian government has denied any involvement or knowledge of the meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: "We don't know anything about this person."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters


Over the course of a week, Aleksandr Turovsky became a cause celebre among Kremlin opponents after he was severely beaten by police who raided opposition leader Aleksei Navalnys presidential campaign headquarters in Moscow.



Turovsky, 25, was manning the office early in the morning on July 6 when police burst in under the pretext of investigating alleged lease violations involving the building where Navalny rented space -- one of a dozen raids on his campaign headquarters in cities nationwide that day.



He was subsequently beaten by police -- allegedly after resisting an officer and failing to show his passport. According to a police report, police used a Soviet-developed martial-arts technique known as Sambo against him.

Turovsky was hospitalized with a concussion and heavily bruised face. His supporters say police officers taunted him at the Moscow hospital, kept him from sleeping, and pressured doctors to release him early so he could face misdemeanor charges in court.





The activist appeared well on his way to becoming a powerful symbol of the ruthlessness with which Russian authorities -- alongside vigilante Kremlin-loyal groups -- are targeting Navalny and his supporters as he attempts to run for Russias presidency next year.



But the story took an unexpected turn this week when Turovsky took to Facebook to accuse Navalny of exploiting him and others as foot soldiers and then throwing them under the bus.



From the moment of the attack on the headquarters, dozens, hundreds of simple folks, volunteers, have helped me.... But I havent seen any help from Navalny. I havent heard a single word of support or involvement in the fate of a person who participated in his campaign literally at the risk of his own life, Turovsky wrote in a July 13 Facebook post.



Under Pressure?



Turovskys criticism, which Navalny and his associates called unfounded, has jolted the opposition leaders campaign for the March 2018 election, which is expected to hand President Vladimir Putin another six-year term.



Navalnys broad base of volunteers like Turovsky and other supporters has become arguably Russias most significant grassroots movement in a political landscape tightly controlled by the Kremlin.



They formed the backbone of two nationwide anticorruption protests this year that led to hundreds of detentions and rattled authorities by attracting a substantial youth turnout -- a digital-savvy demographic that Navalny has courted with his deft and prolific online activism.



But Navalny has also faced blowback for his street-politics tactics among those in Russias fractious liberal opposition, including accusations echoing criticism lobbed at him by Kremlin supporters: namely that he is using idealistic young activists as political cannon fodder.

Turovskys allegation of Navalnys indifference was met with surprise and confusion by the opposition politician and his key associates, who at first suggested the volunteer may not have written the post. Turovsky later confirmed to Russian media outlets that he was indeed the author.



On a scale of one to 10 in terms of surprise, with 10 being the highest level of surprise, this would be an eight or a nine, Ivan Zhdanov, a top lawyer for Navalny, told RFE/RL in a telephone interview.



Zhdanov noted that Navalnys organization had assigned three lawyers to Turovskys case and supported the injured volunteer in other ways as well.



Its even more sad because it seems to me we need to draw attention to a completely different problem: the problem of law-enforcement authorities, Zhdanov said.



Turovsky, who was fined 500 rubles ($8.50) by a Moscow court on July 7 after it ruled that he resisted a police officer, did not respond to a request for comment via Facebook.



But he posted a follow-up video to his original post in which he again said that he had written the text himself and that he had not been pressured to do so.



Our Comrade And Colleague



Navalny himself addressed the issue on his website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel. In a July 13 video, he said that his organization had provided as much assistance as it could to Turovsky.



Navalny added that he called the volunteer as soon as the opposition leader was released from a Moscow detention center on July 7 after serving 25 days under administrative arrest in connection with nationwide protests he spearheaded on June 12.



We still believe this post was written under some kind of pressure order under some extraordinary circumstances that we would like to clarify, Navalny said in a video on his YouTube channel.



He repeated his invitation to Turovsky to come into Navalnys office to talks.



We consider you our comrade and colleague, Navalny said.



Navalnys campaign has come under both official pressure from law-enforcement authorities and from vigilante groups that have carried out attacks against him and his activists.



In May, he underwent eye surgery in Spain after an assailant tossed a green antiseptic known as zelyonka in his eye.



Such pressure continued on July 14, when police conducted searches of Navalnys campaign office in the Siberian city of Kemerovo and the office in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk was vandalized.



Russian election officials last month said Navalny would not be allowed to run in next year's presidential election, citing a criminal conviction that he calls a politically motivated bid to keep him off the ballot.
The United States called on Russia on July 14 to find and bring to justice the people responsible for murdering two journalists in Russia.

Natalya Estemirova, renowned for her writing and activism on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus, was kidnapped in Chechnya and found dead in the Ingushetia region of Russia on July 15, 2009.

American journalist and editor Paul Klebnikov, who exposed official corruption and graft while working for Forbes magazine in Russia, was gunned down near the Forbes offices in Moscow on July 9, 2004.

Neither the killers nor those who may have ordered the crimes have been brought to justice in either case.

"The United States once again calls for an end to the longstanding climate of impunity for extrajudicial killings  including the murder of journalists  in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

"We commend the efforts of brave journalists and human rights defenders who expose corruption and human rights abuses, and we urge the Russian Government to protect all of its citizens in accordance with international law."


Lt. Col Pinaki Bani posted an advertisement online to sell his Maruti Zen. Jigar Patel noted this advertisement and showed interest to purchase the said vehicle. He visited the home of the Colonel at Delhi Cantonment, befriended him and even went out for dinner with the Col at the Sabre officers mess in Delhi Cantt.

Jigar Patel from Gujarat viewed the Zen but had his eyes on the Colonels BMW X5 SUV which was parked at the mess. He asked Col. Bani about whether he would like to sell this car and though the Colonel refused, Patel pressurized him to allow him to take the vehicle for a test drive.

Col. Bani agreed, but accompanied Patel on the ride. Patel then pretended to have difficulty in starting the vehicle after which Col Bani exited the car to help. Patel then sprayed chilli powder in the colonels eyes and sped away in the BMW.

Patel slammed through the iron gates and was on his way the BMW X5. He thought he had successfully stolen the X5, but fate was waiting for him. Just outside the gate, Patel got stuck in a traffic jam. After realising he is stuck, with army guards behind him, he decided to run away from the spot on foot. Watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1fw7kG7meA

Armed guards at the gates tried to run after Patel but failed to catch up with him. The police are investigating further and trying to ascertain the identity of the robber.

Online transactions should be ventured into with caution. This is also not the first and nor will it be the last time that sellers get conned by buyers and precautions should be taken to avoid such instances. But it is surprising that a thief had the confidence of entering a guarded army premise and steal a car from there.
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North Korea's latest missile test has brought simmering tensions between the notoriously reclusive country and the United States to a head. But are fears of nuclear war premature? Are North Korean rockets capable of reaching American shores?

It's possible, according to John Schilling, an American aerospace engineer and North Korea analyst.

Schilling, whose experience includes developing rockets for the U.S. Air Force, said the latest North Korean missile is the first with sufficient range and payload capacity to deliver a single nuclear warhead into United States territory. [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

The July 4 test launch was "definitely unprecedented," Schilling told Live Science. "They've used bits of technology that they've been testing in smaller missiles, but this is the first time they've tested a missile of this scale."

Schilling is a consultant for 38 North, a website devoted to expert analysis of North Korea, run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The North Korean news agency KCNA broadcast a video of the launch and reported that the missile reached a maximum altitude of 1,741 miles (2,802 kilometers) and flew for 39 minutes before it impacted in the Sea of Japan "more than 930 km" (580 miles) from its launch site near Kusong, in the northwest of the country.

In a blog post, David Wright, director of the Global Security Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated that the new missile has a theoretical maximum range of around 4,160 miles (6,700 km) from launch sites in North Korea.

"In its present form, it couldn't reach much farther than Alaska or maybe Hawaii," Schilling said, "but we think it can be fairly easily extended to cover the West Coast of the United States."

Nuclear threat

There can be little doubt about North Korea's intended targets for its missiles  the country's state media regularly issues dire warnings to South Korea, Japan and the United States, which it accuses of meddling in Korean affairs. [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare]

"I expect they will eventually try to develop something bigger to cover the entire United States, but would expect this one to go into service as a weapon, at least in the near term, over the next year or two," Schilling said.

That means North Korea is on the verge of creating a truly intercontinental nuclear threat: "Missiles of this scale are almost always equipped with nuclear warheads," he said. "It's just not cost-effective with anything less."

Schilling estimated that North Korea could have around 20 nuclear warheads that could be used on such a missile, "but there is substantial uncertainty on that," he said.

He also noted that, unlike earlier North Korean missiles, the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was tested earlier this month is fitted with a payload shroud, which hides the payload from external view.

"That sort of design suggests that they're planning on incorporating decoys, in addition to just a single warhead  but that would be several years down the road, requiring additional development and testing," Schilling said.

Home grown

North Korea's nuclear missile program is made possible by a massive commitment of money and resources, reported the Washington Post, even though the country is thought to be one of the poorest in the world, and where inhabitants endure frequent power outages and shortages of basic supplies.

Schilling said each rocket based on the Hwasong-14 would probably costs tens of millions of dollars to build, and the North Koreans are expected to put several such rockets into service over the next few years.

The technologies used in the latest rocket also showed how North Korea's missile technology has advanced since its earlier reliance on missile technology from post-Soviet Russia, in addition to covert assistance in the past from Pakistan and Iran.

"We think this is a home-grown design." Schilling said. "Getting to this stage over the last 20 years has involved some foreign collaboration, but at this point, we think that they've taken the training wheels off, and they're doing this on their own, with just an incredibly focused effort from a relatively poor nation."

Reliability risk

Schilling said North Korea still faces many engineering challenges before the Hwasong-14 can be an effective weapon, particularly when it comes to ensuring that the missiles can function under the haste and uncertainty of combat conditions.

"We are actually surprised that this one worked at all  their missiles rarely work on the first try," he said.

Developing precise guidance systems for the missiles would be another challenge: "They've done launches which suggest they have guidance technology that would at least be accurate enough to hit city-sized targets," Schilling said. "Anything more precise than that would probably require a great deal of testing to calibrate the guidance systems."

The next stages of North Korea's missile development will probably only be known when it tests another missile. And only North Korea knows when that may be.

"That's hard to read," Schilling said. "They may just consider this success to be sufficient for the moment, and not risk embarrassing themselves with a failure."

Original article on Live Science.
A new view from space shows Antarctica's newest bouncing baby iceberg.

This baby's a behemoth: At approximately 2,200 square miles (5,800 square kilometers), the iceberg represents about 10 percent of the Larsen C ice shelf, which it was a part of until it broke off this week. The 'berg is slightly bigger than Delaware in area and similarly proportioned: While the Blue Hen State is 96 miles (154 km) long, the Larsen C iceberg measures about 99 miles (159 km) from end to end, meaning it would take a little over an hour and a half to traverse it by car, assuming you had a car that could manage 60 mph (nearly 100 km/h) on uneven, floating sea ice. [In Photos: Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf Through Time]

An instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite snapped one of the first images of this new iceberg on July 12, 2017, using thermal measurements to distinguish between ice and open water. The image shows the iceberg floating between the rest of the Larsen C ice shelf off the Antarctic Peninsula and the fractured sea ice floating on the Weddell Sea.

The rift that led to the iceberg's calving has existed since the 1960s, according to NASA, but it didn't start growing until 2014. Scientists have been monitoring the crack closely since then. By April 2017, only 10 miles (16 km) of ice connected the iceberg to the main ice sheet, according to the U.K.-based research group Project MIDAS. In late June, the same group reported that the speed of the ice was increasing to levels never before measured on Larsen C, indicating an imminent calving event.

The final break occurred sometime between July 10 and July 12. The ice that broke away weighs more than 1.1 trillion tons (1 trillion metric tons), but it won't substantially affect sea levels on its own, as it was already floating. The Larsen C ice shelf has now retreated farther back than at any time in recorded history, according to Project MIDAS glaciologist Martin O'Leary of Swansea University; the loss of the iceberg could make the shelf vulnerable to collapse. A collapse of the shelf would have an impact on sea levels, as land-based ice on the Antarctic continent would have a clearer route to the sea. However, scientists aren't yet sure what the future holds for Larsen C.

"In the ensuing months and years, the ice shelf could either gradually regrow, or may suffer further calving events which may eventually lead to collapse  opinions in the scientific community are divided," Swansea University glaciologist Adrian Luckman said in a statement. "Our models say it will be less stable, but any future collapse remains years or decades away."

Original article on Live Science.
Chinese scientists have just shattered a record in teleportation. No, they haven't beamed anyone up to a spaceship. Rather, they sent a packet of information from Tibet to a satellite in orbit, up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

More specifically, the scientists beamed the quantum state of a photon (information about how it is polarized) into orbit.

Not only did the team set a record for quantum teleportation distance, they also showed that one can build a practical system for long-distance quantum communications. Such a communication system would be impossible to eavesdrop on without alerting the users, which would make online communications much more secure.

Experiments like this have been done before, but Howard Wiseman, director of the Center for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, told Live Science in an email that this one expands the possibilities for the technology. [10 Futuristic Technologies 'Star Trek' Fans Would Love to See]

"This is much more difficult, because it is to a rapidly moving target, and you have your quantum detectors way out in space where they have to work without anyone fiddling with them," he said. "It is a big step towards global-scale quantum communication."

Spooky pairs

The experiment takes advantage of one of several phenomena that describes quantum mechanics: entanglement, or "spooky action at a distance," as Albert Einstein called it. When two particles are entangled, they remain connected so that an action performed on one affects the other as well, no matter how far apart the two are. In the same vein, when one measures the state of one particle in the entangled duo, you'd automatically know the state of the second. Physicists call the states "correlated," because if one particle  a photon, for example  is in an "up" state, its entangled partner will be in a "down" state  a kind of mirror image. (Strictly speaking, there are four possible combinations for the two particles to be in).

The weird part is that once the state of the first particle is measured, the second one somehow "knows" what state it should be in. The information seems to travel instantaneously, without a speed-of-light limit. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]

Teleporting information

In June, the same researchers reported another feat in quantum teleportation: They sent entangled photons from the Micius satellite to two ground stations over distances between 994 miles and 1,490 miles (1,600 and 2,400 km), depending on the location of the satellite in its orbit. While this experiment showed that entanglement can happen over long distances, the new experiment uses that entanglement to transmit a photon's quantum state to a distant location.

In their latest experiment, the Chinese team, led by Ji-Gang Ren at the University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, fired a laser from a ground station in Tibet to a satellite in orbit. That laser beam carried a photon entangled with another photon on the ground. They then entangled the photon on the ground with a third photon, and measured their quantum states. But the scientists didn't actually reveal the states themselves. They just asked whether their states (in this case, their vertical or horizontal polarizations) were the same or different. There are four possible combinations: vertical-vertical, vertical-horizontal, horizontal-vertical and horizontal-horizontal. Since the states of the particles on the ground were correlated with the one on the satellite, an observer looking at the satellite's photon, meanwhile, would know that that photon has to be in one of four possible states that correlate with the two photons on the ground.

If there were a person riding in the satellite, once they were told that the states of the ground-based photons were the same or different, they would know enough to be able reconstruct the state of the ground-based photons and to duplicate it in their single photon on board. The photons on the ground would have had their quantum state teleported to orbit.

While it sounds like information is traveling faster than light, there's no way to use this property as an instantaneous messaging system. That's because even though the states of entangled particles are correlated, you can't know what they are before you measure them, nor can you control the state.

But what entangled particles can do is act as perfect authenticators for messages. The reason is that the act of observing a particle changes its behavior. If an eavesdropper were trying to intercept the transmission between the satellite and the ground in this recent experiment, the quantum states of the photons (as measured by the scientists) would not be correctly correlated.

The Chinese team managed to make entanglement work over distances of 310 miles (500 km) to 870 miles (1,400 km), the maximum distance to the satellite. This is farther than anyone has ever managed to send entangled states. Entangled photons can't interact with anything else on the way to their destination, because once they do, their states have been "observed"  revealed by the interaction. Hence, the teleportation doesn't work if the photons are observed before they get to their destination. When scientists conduct experiments like this one, they don't just send single photons, one at a time; to get the measurements they want, they need to send lots of them. Even in the vacuum of space, out of millions of photons sent, the satellite was only able to reliably receive 911 of them, according to the study. [Infographic: How Quantum Entanglement Works]

If these same photons were sent over fiber-optic cables, rather than through space, the connection between the photons would be destroyed by interference from factors such as heat and vibration, or even random interactions with the cable. As such, it could take 380 billion years to get a measurement from an entangled photon. A satellite, on the other hand, is outside of the atmosphere, and there's much less chance of the entangled photon getting spoiled.

"With fiber you lose many of the photons," said Bill Munro, a senior research scientist at NTT's basic research laboratory, in an interview with Live Science. Beaming photons to orbit means that you could build an actual communications system. "You could beam from China to Washington or New York." The problem of reducing the interference with the signals and getting more photons through, Munro said, is a technical and engineering problem that can be solved.

Both Munro and Wiseman noted that often people think of teleportation as moving an actual object (or a photon) form one place to another. "People have this 'Star Trek' approach," Munro said. "They think of atoms being teleported. What we're moving is information from one [quantum] bit to another [quantum] bit. There's no matter  only information. That's hard to get your head around."

The study appeared in the ArXiv on July 4.

Originally published on Live Science.
Occupied Aaiun ,04 July 2017 (SPS) - The Moroccan occupation authorities on Monday prevented two Spanish observers from visiting the occupied city of Aaiun (Laura Moreno Torricrosa and Andrea Siez de Eigliath), who were in the process of organizing several meetings with the Sahrawi legal, political and media activists and the assessment of human rights situation in the territory.

The Moroccan occupation authorities prevented the two observers from entering in the airport of the occupied city of Aaiun, forcing them to return on the same plane to Casablanca airport without giving any justification for this illegal act.

It should be noted that the Moroccan authorities deliberately close the territory of Western Sahara to foreign delegations and missions, preventing them from monitoring the situation in the occupied territory of Western Sahara, imposing a military and media siege the territory.SPS.

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T he Government came under fire today after it admitted it did not carry out a formal assessment of the impact of quitting the Euratom agency.

Former minister Ed Vaizey said the failure was surprising because of possible consequences for jobs, energy supplies, research and medicine.

MPs stepped up pressure on ministers this morning by holding a Commons debate on a decision they suspect was taken in 10 Downing Street with minimal consultation.

They were demanding to see the legal advice that led the Government to insist that Britain had to leave at the same time as quitting the European Union.

Euratom is the body that governs the transportation of radioactive materials needed in nuclear energy and research.

Without new international agreements to replace it, MPs fear Britain could run short of materials needed for scientific work and to produce electricity.

An impact assessment is a detailed study by impartial Government officials and economists of the likely costs and benefits of a policy decision or regulation.

Asked by the Evening Standard to disclose any such study in relation to quitting Euratom, a spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy admitted there had been none.

A spokeswoman said: Although no formal Impact Assessment was carried out, government did assess the impact; the nuclear industry, the R&D community and the Office for Nuclear Regulation will all confirm this as government is in continuous dialogue with the industry on this.

Mr Vaizey said: Its very surprising that the Government has not carried out a formal Impact Assessment on the impact that leaving Euratom will have on our world-class nuclear industry.

He said the review could have been key to deciding whether it was right to leave Euratom.

Meanwhile, Brexit Secretary David Davis declined to defend Boris Johnson for remarks saying the EU could go whistle for the money it is seeking from Britain in a Brexit settlement.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Foreign Secretary of arrogance. But Mr Davis chuckled and told MPs: You will have to get the Foreign Secretary here to explain his views if you really wanted to. Im not going to comment on other ministers.
Earlier this year, the Public Policy Institute of California issued a warning about a looming collision between Californias demographic and economic trends.

Baby boomers, a huge proportion of the states workforce, are retiring in droves. The oldest are at least 70, the youngest in their early 50s. By 2030, the vast majority will not be working.

Meanwhile, the states economy is continuing to evolve, creating an ever-increasing demand for well-educated workers, particularly in technical fields.

In 2030, if current trends persist, 38 percent of jobs will require at least a bachelors degree, PPIC said. But population and education trends suggest that only 33 percent of working-age adults in California will have bachelors degrees by 2030  a shortfall of 1.1 million college graduates.

However, while the need for action is obvious, the state is stuck with a half-century-old master plan for higher education that is woefully outdated.

It assumes that the three collegiate sectors  the University of California, the California State University System (CSUS) and the locally governed community college system  will collaborate seamlessly. But in fact, they compete fiercely for capital and operational funds and incessantly wage turf battles over course and degree offerings.

As a result, students face daunting hurdles to get the degrees they  and the state  need to prosper, not to mention ever-rising fees and other costs even when they nail down the courses leading to those degrees.

For decades, governors and legislators have refused to update the master plan, unwilling to take on the systems entrenched bureaucratic, political and union stakeholders. Instead, there have been piecemeal, one-bill-at-a-time reform efforts.

A promising approach  one widely adopted in other states  is to break down artificial barriers that separate the systems. But its been a tough slog in California.

The University of California resisted efforts by CSUS to gain authority to issue some doctorate degrees, for example, while CSUS objected to community colleges offering four-year baccalaureate degrees.

The latter is an especially critical element in higher education reform, because it would allow more students, especially those in rural areas, to gain professional degrees without the expense of going away to college  even if they can win fierce competitions for admission.

Three years ago, the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown finally approved a very limited experiment, allowing 15 community college districts to offer one four-year degree each in a field that UC and CSUS ignored.

Ten of those programs are up and running, mostly in technical fields, including dental hygiene, mortuary science, respiratory care and, at Feather River College in Quincy, equine industry. The remaining five districts will begin their baccalaureate programs this year.

Sen. Jerry Hill, a Democrat from San Mateo, introduced a bill this year to expand the experiment to 25 districts and give it longer to prove itself. And the Senate agreed.

However, Senate Bill 769 faced tough opposition from UC, CSUS, the California Faculty Association and the California Teachers Association, and last week Hill dropped the expansion, leaving only a five-year extension of the current 15-district authorization.

Well never know how many students will be denied educational opportunities by that retreat. But we do know that without decisive action, Californias higher education deficit will worsen. And we should know that the master plans antiquated and artificial lines of collegiate turf are hurting students and the states economic future.
On July 2nd, for the second time in less than a year, one of Chinas Long March 5 satellite launcher rockets failed and this time a Chinese communications satellite was lost. Back in August 2016 a Chinese Long March 4C rocket failed and lost a very expensive Gaofen 10 photo reconnaissance satellite. The Long March 4C has been in service since 2006 and had 19 successful launches since then. The September failure was the first for the Long March since 2013 and had proved reliable. The most recent failure was to the Long March 5 model, developed for carrying the heaviest loads (25 tons low orbit or 14 tons high orbit). The Long March 5 is the heaviest launcher (at 867 tons) China has and the only one that can lift certain cargoes, like portions of the new Chinese space station or major space missions, like the upcoming second Chinese mission to put robot exploration vehicles on the moon.

The Long March type rockets have been in use since 1970 and have failed only the 13 times out of 249 launches. Thats a 95 percent success rate, which is quite good. But China has yet to fully explain the 2016 failure and why two of the last fifteen Long March launches failed. Thats only an 87 percent success rate and something commercial customers and their insurance companies pay a lot of attention to. Long March is mainly used for commercial launches and that is big business that China is seeking to dominate.

The Long March series has always been China's main satellite launcher and that is largely because it is based on Russian designs. That means it is simple, cheap and reliable. This has made China a major player in the satellite launching business where minimum levels of reliability are mandatory. China can handle the mandatory requirements and competes on price. The U.S. Space Shuttle was retired because it was the most expensive way to get stuff into orbit. Satellites sent up via the Space Shuttle cost $25 million a ton put in orbit. The Russians and Chinese will do it for under $10 million a ton. But insurance can more than double that cost if there have been a number of recent failures with Russian and Chinese boosters. This keeps more reliable American and European boosters in business.

The Long March has a failure rate of about five percent, which was a little higher than twice the rate for the most used Russian launcher. The Space Shuttle failure rate was two percent, as were most Western satellite launchers. While the Russians are also having problems with their satellite launchers thats because the Russian government has less money to invest in its space program or satellite launchers in general. In addition Russia has been losing skilled personnel (from manufacturing workers to rocket scientists) since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. In the same time period China has been increasing the quantity and quality of personnel as its space and satellite launcher programs grew enormously. China also pays better, for the same skills, than Russia. Whatever problems China is having with the Long March they are much better able to deal with than the Russians who suffer from a growing list of failures in that area and defense manufacturing in general.

The Long March 3 and 4 have been doing most of the Chinese commercial launches since the 1980s. Currently the largest Long March 3 model weighs over 400 tons and can put 12 tons in low earth orbit and 5.5 tons in a high one (geostationary transfer orbit). The Chinese took their time to perfect Long March, requiring 28 years to make the first fifty launches, and nine years for the next fifty. So far, Long March has carried out over 230 successful launches.

While military satellites get more media attention, the real business of space, and where the Chinese put most of their efforts, is in commercial satellites. The Chinese have noted that since the 1980s space satellites have gone from big business to huge business. By 2012 there were about 1,000 active satellites in orbit, and nearly half of them were American. The number of satellites has been going down a bit since then because individual satellites last longer and can do more. It is expected that the number of satellites will now start to rise rapidly because of the popularity of mini-satellites (under 100 kg/220 pounds). Some of these mini-sats are much smaller (under ten kg) and still useful. In some cases dozens of mini-sats are put into orbit by one launcher.

About 75 percent of all satellites are non-military. Most of them are commercial, the rest government non-military birds. Since 2001 satellite industry revenues more than doubled, from $86 billion (in 2014 dollars) a year to over $200 billion now. The cost of the satellites is less than ten percent of annual satellite revenues. About four percent of the money comes from launching all those satellites and 36 percent of those launches are military. The U.S. has about a third of the launch business, mainly because of the requirement that U.S. classified satellites be launched by American rockets. About half the satellite launches (and two-thirds of the satellites) were for communications, which generates the most income (mostly for TV, followed by data). The U.S. remains the major manufacturer of commercial satellites, with over half of the market. China sees opportunity in all this and has come a long way in a short time to take advantage of it. Russia and the United States have both been using retired ICBMs as cheap satellite launchers and that started with older liquid fuel models. China does not have many older liquid fuel ICBMs and has concentrated on developing more reliable and cheaper solid fuel rockets. This is paying off. Moreover China will sell launch service to just about anyone who can pay, no questions asked.

Space satellites are a relatively new thing. In 1957 the Russian Sputnik was the first satellite ever put in orbit. The U.S. followed in 1958. Since then, ten other nations have done the same. France launched its first satellite in 1965, Japan and China in 1970, Britain in 1971, and India in 1980. Israel launched its first satellite in 1988. Ukraine did so in 1995. Iran claims to have put a satellite in orbit, but there is no conclusive proof. North Korea put a dead (non-responsive) satellite up in December 2012 and South Korea followed with a successful launch of a very active satellite a month later.

Since 2010 China has launched about 20 satellites a year and by the end of the decade expect to have 200 satellites in orbit. This is about a fifth of the total and nearly half as many as the United States. At that point China expects to be launching 30 satellites a year and accounting for over a quarter of the worldwide launch capability. All this momentum has been the result of three decades of effort and an enormous spurt of activity since 2010. In the two decades after 1990 China carried out 30 commercial satellite launches, putting 36 satellites in orbit. Now China puts that many satellites up in 18 months.

In late 2015 China successfully tested the latest version of its Long March satellite launcher; Long March 6 (LM 6). This version is optimized for putting multiple small satellites in orbit on the same mission and on short notice. The test launch put twenty small scientific satellites into orbit. LM 6 is a 103 ton liquid fueled rocket that can put a ton of payload into a 700 kilometers high orbit. LM 6 can operate from a standard satellite launch facility or from a TEL (transporter erector launcher) vehicle (which is basically a slightly larger trailer similar to those used for hauling tanks). LM 6 was also designed to be made ready for launch quickly (six days or so) giving it a military capability. That means if China has to get a surveillance or communications satellite in orbit quickly, LM 6 is the solution. China is also developing small surveillance and communications satellites for such emergencies.
A final peace deal with the rebellious Tuareg in the north was signed in early 2015 and is being observed, sort of. The reality is that the CMA (the Tuareg separatist coalition) and the pro-government Tuareg coalition have not resolved all their clan and family disputes. These local, and often ancient, disagreements and feuds are often not connected with the 2012 rebellion in the north nor the continuing Islamic terrorism problems but they do cause security problems that interfere with rebuilding the economy and much else.

Meanwhile Islamic terrorism is spreading to the more populous south but not because of unrest in the north but because Islamic radicalism is extremely popular with young Moslems these days. You can thank global communications and all that oil money spent on subsidizing hardcore Islam worldwide.

The Tuareg peace deal was stalled for over a year because the black majority in the south did not want to grant as much autonomy as the Tuaregs demanded. The two groups have always been at odds but were only united in the same country by the colonial French in the 19th century. Like most African countries, dividing the nation is not an acceptable option and the colonial borders are considered sacrosanct. The current mess began when France took swift action in January 2013 by leading a military operation to clear Islamic terrorists out of northern Mali. Aided by Chad and a growing number of other African peacekeeping contingents, this effort continues and is somewhat open ended. The French acted because in 2012 Tuareg tribal rebels (with the help of al Qaeda affiliated Islamic terrorists) in northern Mali chased out government forces and declared a separate Tuareg state. The Mali army mutinied (because of lack of support from the corrupt government) down south and took control of the capital. The army soon backed off when neighboring nations threatened to intervene.

T he thinly populated northern two-thirds of the country has a population of less than two million, out of 15 million for all of Mali. The north was very poor in the best of times, and over a year of violence there has halted tourism (a major source of income, especially in the three major cities up there) and the movement of many goods. Mali still has internal problems (mainly corruption) and continued unrest in the north. National GDP increases about five percent a year but the corruption is still thriving and there is not a lot of evidence nationwide that the economy is getting better.

A lot depends on whether the majority in the south can reduce corruption and deal fairly with the Tuaregs and other minorities (like Arabs) in the north or the restless Fulani in central Mali. The elected Mali government is back in power but appears to be as corrupt as ever and under growing pressure from donor nations to either clean up the corruption or see most of the aid disappear. Meanwhile foreign trainers have only been able to put about 10,000 Malian troops through a Western style training course. Currently Mali has 7,000 soldiers on active duty and 8,000 reservists. There is still a problem with the quality (and honesty) of the officers who tend to be most influenced by the rampant corruption.

United We Survive

The local Islamic terror groups are, by their own standards, not doing well. They are carrying out fewer attacks and trying to concentrate on staging ones that will generate maximum publicity or cash (or both). A very visible sign of this occurred earlier in 2017 when the main local Islamic terror groups consolidated by forming JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems). In part this is a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Ansar Dine, FLM (Macina Liberation Front), and al Mourabitoun (an al Qaeda splinter group). Another reason for merging is to make it easier to pool resources (including information and advice) and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the area. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. The FLM is Fulani while the other groups are largely Tuareg, Arab and some foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM or al Mourabitoun, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. Al Mourabitoun is believed to have largely rejoined al Qaeda. Internal politics for Islamic terror groups is a lot messier than these religious zealots like to admit. Thats mainly because each group believes they are uniquely qualified to be the supreme leader of all Islam. Coping with this aspect of Islamic radicalism has proved burdensome and ultimately becomes a major reason for Islamic terror movements to fade away (via desertion and other forms of self-destruction).

July 9, 2017: In the north (outside Gao) Islamic terrorists ambushed a military convoy and ten soldiers were apparently captured.

July 2, 2017: France has proposed that Mali allow Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger to raise another 5,000 peacekeepers to deal with Islamic terrorism in the Sahel (the band of semi-desert lands south of the Sahara). France would continue leading a Western coalition providing the trainers, equipment and financial support for the additional peacekeepers.

July 1, 2017: JNIM released a video showing the six foreigners (from France, Australia, South Africa, Romania, Switzerland and Colombia) they are holding for ransom in northern Mali. JNIM is apparently soliciting discreet offers. Most governments no longer pay ransoms because they have come to understand that this only makes their citizens, especially when overseas, more likely to be kidnapped. As an alternative the Islamic terrorists will sometimes try to get a swap (for a jailed Islamic terrorist) deal. Making a video of the hostage being killed (usually by beheading) is also a possibility but this has been shown to increase the efforts to track down and kill the kidnappers. These videos still get made, but not usually in the Sahel where the Islamic terrorists are more concerned about the money. AQIM in particular was always more mercenary, and quite good at it. But it is a lot more difficult to get multi-million dollar ransoms these days because it is not only illegal but frowned upon globally and to be done it must be very clandestine.

June 24, 2017: In the north (outside Timbuktu) a Swedish man, held captive since 2011, was released by his Islamic terrorist captors. Sweden has a policy of not paying ransom and the group that captured the Swede were demanding a minimum of $5 million. The former hostage, now 42, was in good health and unable or unwilling to provide details of why or how he was freed.

June 18, 2017: In the south, JNIM attacked a tourist resort outside the capital (Bamako), killing five people (including three foreigners). Police responded killing four of the attackers and soon arresting four more. JNIM described the attackers as Fulani.

June 17, 2017: In the north (outside Timbuktu) JNIM attacked an army base, killing five and wounding eight soldiers while one of the attackers was killed. JNIM looted the camp, destroyed eight vehicles and made off with one vehicle plus some weapons and ammo. Several soldiers may have been taken prisoner as well.
Hundreds of protesters are expected to march across Wairoa Bridge tomorrow.

The march is the third organised protest to show opposition to the government handing Bay of Plenty property rights to Waikato iwi, without consultation.

Tomorrows march along State Highway 2 is a continuation from the protest in Kaitkati last week and the harbour protest on June 15.

The Hauraki collective is claiming redress through Treaty of Waitangi claims over two areas in Tauranga Moana.

Tauranga Moana iwi are fighting a plan by the Office of Treaty Settlements to sign a deal that will give rights in Tauranga to a collection of Hauraki iwi.

Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhaio previously told SunLive the Hauraki iwi are using dubious history to establish ownership rights where they have only ever had interests through some shared histories, marriages, previous individual residences. Since 1840 there has been no presence on an iwi basis, says Charlie.

Chair of the Hauraki Collective Paul Majurey says Tauranga iwi leadership agreed to those parts of the Pare Hauraki collective Treaty settlement which they are now protesting against.

Paul Majurey.

He says the negotiation team for Pare Hauraki - the 12 iwi of Hauraki - spent many months during 2012-2014 negotiating redress in the Tauranga harbour catchment area alongside leaders from Tauranga iwi.

The Waitangi Tribunals 2004 Tauranga Moana report confirmed the centuries old customary interests of Pare Hauraki in these areas. The Tribunal recognised the overlapping and shared interests between Pare Hauraki and Tauranga iwi. These findings have never been challenged by Tauranga iwi.

Following this report, Treaty redress was negotiated and agreed between us. Pare Hauraki and Tauranga iwi, for example, agreed the split of Athenree Forest (60:40 in favour of Pare Hauraki) and an equal number of first right of refusal properties in the area between Athenree and Te Puna. There is extensive documentation of these negotiations [see photo].

Yet, we are now being accused of being foreigners. Its strange that Tauranga iwi would spend years negotiating and reaching Treaty agreements with outsiders for areas well inside the Tauranga harbour catchment.

Pare Hauraki are also being accused of trying to take over the harbour. This is a reference to the co-governance entity for the harbour and catchments  the Tauranga Moana Governance Group," says Paul.

Pare Hauraki have one seat of 10 on this governance group. We will be there because of our customary interests  as recognised by the Waitangi Tribunal. Tauranga iwi leadership have known about our seat since 2014. They also knew this was the arrangement when they signed their collective settlement in 2015 which provided for this regime.

To be now accused of secret deals, of being foreigners and of taking over Tauranga is as bizarre and insulting as it is wrong. Pare Hauraki are the target of a Tauranga iwi PR campaign against our Treaty settlements. They have incited ill-temper which could escalate if left unchecked.

The evolving Tauranga iwi story now claims a tikanga process (doing what is right) is required and that Pare Hauraki has interests but not rights. Yet, throughout those 2012-14 joint negotiations, they recognised not only our interests but also our rights to Treaty redress.

It is our tikanga to honour agreements. If that is not Taurangas tikanga, no amount of talking on the marae will provide a solution.

Whatever the authenticity of any interests/rights distinction, the complex and interwoven nature of customary interests is real. If the Treaty settlement process does not accommodate shared and overlapping interests, there would be no settlements in many parts of the country.

Pare Hauraki has lost many of our old people since we began negotiations in 2009. It is a travesty they did not live to see what they put in motion. It is time for Tauranga iwi to shelve the PR stunts and honour their agreements. It is time for us to work together to protect the taonga to which we belong. Its time to settle.

Protest schedule

From 9am to 10am, buses will carry protesters from Maramatanga Park to Te Puna Station Rd bend, before the Hikoi departs at 10.30am.

Protesters are expected to arrive at Taniwha Place for a mass haka and speeches around 12.15pm.
A burbling stream, the bush-clad slopes of the Kaimai Ranges above and the sparkling waters of the inner harbour in the distance. What better way to spend a Saturday?

The trade-off will be donning a pair of gloves and some sturdy shoes to help plant trees along the banks of the Tahawai Stream near Katikati at a community planting day today.

The stream restoration project is a joint venture between landowners Rod and Maryanne Calver, and Uretara Estuary Managers, supported by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

Uretara Estuary Managers has already fenced and planted 8000 metres of stream bank in indigenous plants and trees, cutting down erosion and siltation into the estuary.

The group has planted 123 metres so far with the aim of completing 1250 metres  5000 trees  by the end of winter 2018. Each metre costs $33 to plant and donations can be made by scrolling to the Tahawai Stream project on the Million Metres website

The community is invited to assist with the planting of these trees along the streambank of the Tahawai Stream on Saturday, July 15.

The site is easily found at Aberfeldy Farm, 164 Lindermann Rd, Katikati. Parking will be indicated by flags.

The planting day will be in two sessions, 10am-noon and 1-3pm.

A demonstration on stream monitoring and stream life will be provided at 11.45am, a barbeque lunch at 12.15pm and afternoon tea at 3pm.

No spades are required as all the holes are pre dug. Sturdy shoes, gloves and a small trowel are an advantage, and all are welcome.

For more information phone Lawrie on 07 549 0471 or 021 859 929 or Sue on 027 549 4627.
Its pretty much a case of lock it or lose it.

This is the message from Papamoa Police following recent theft of bikes in the Papamoa area.

Sergeant Tristan Murray advises people who do lock their bikes up, to use a high quality bike lock which cant easily be cut with bolt-cutters.

Often these bicycles which are stolen are unlocked and belong to kids.

Tristan urges parents to make sure their children have bike locks and use them at all times.

Why give these criminals an opportunity?

On a good news front we have recovered two bikes so far in July which have been stolen and both those offenders have been referred to the Police Youth Aid Section.

One bicycle was stolen from Grenada St and the other from outside KFC on Domain Rd.

On another note, Tristan is hoping to identity the two men pictured in the images above, following two recent bicycle thefts from Papamoa Plaza.

Both bikes werent locked and were easily targeted and ridden away by the thieves pictured.

People with information about the theft are asked to contact Papamoa Police Station on 572 2440.

People can also call Tauranga Police Station on 07 577 4300 and ask to speak with Tristan.

Alternatively, information can be left anonymously via the Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 line.
3D Systems Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides 3D printing and digital manufacturing solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers 3D printers, such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering, direct metal printing, multi jet printing, color jet printing, and extrusion and SLA based bioprinting that transform digital data input generated by 3D design software, computer aided design (CAD) software, or other 3D design tools into printed parts. It also develops, blends, and markets various print materials, such as plastic, nylon, metal, composite, elastomeric, wax, polymeric dental, and bio-compatible materials. In addition, the company provides digital design tools, including software, scanners, and haptic devices, as well as solutions for product design, simulation, mold and die design, 3D scan-to-print, reverse engineering, production machining, metrology, and inspection and manufacturing workflows under the Geomagic brand. Further, it offers 3D Sprint and 3DXpert, a proprietary software to prepare and optimize CAD data and manage the additive manufacturing processes, which provides automated support building and placement, build platform management, print simulation, and print queue management; and Bioprint Pro, a software solution that allows researchers to design and bioprint repeatable experiments. Additionally, the company provides maintenance and training services; manufacturing services; and software and precision healthcare services. It primarily serves companies and small and midsize businesses in medical, dental, automotive, aerospace, durable good, government, defense, technology, jewelry, electronic, education, consumer good, energy, biotechnology, and other industries through direct sales force, channel partners, and appointed distributors. 3D Systems Corporation was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electric utility, banking, and renewable/sustainable infrastructure investment businesses in the state of Hawaii. It operates in three segments: Electric Utility, Bank, and Other. The Electric Utility segment engages in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. Its renewable energy sources and potential sources include wind, solar, photovoltaic, geothermal, wave, hydroelectric, municipal waste, and other biofuels. This segment serves suburban communities, resorts, the United States armed forces installations, and agricultural operations. The Bank segment operates a community bank that offers banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses, including savings and checking accounts; and loans comprising residential and commercial real estate, residential mortgage, construction and development, multifamily residential and commercial real estate, consumer, and commercial loans. This segment operates 42 branches, including 29 branches in Oahu, 6 branches in Maui, 4 branches in Hawaii, 2 branches in Kauai, and 1 branch in Molokai. The Other segment invests in non-regulated renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure in the State of Hawaii. Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. was incorporated in 1891 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Telefonica, S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Europe and Latin America. The company's mobile and related services and products comprise mobile voice, value added, mobile data and Internet, wholesale, corporate, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone services; local, domestic, and international long-distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; supplementary value-added services; video telephony; intelligent network; and telephony information services, as well as leases and sells handset equipment. The company also provides Internet and broadband multimedia services comprising Internet service provider, portal and network, retail and wholesale broadband access, narrowband switched access, high-speed Internet through fibre to the home, and voice over Internet protocol services. In addition, it offers leased line, virtual private network, fibre optics, web hosting and application, outsourcing and consultancy, desktop, and system integration and professional services. Further, the company offers wholesale services for telecommunication operators, including domestic interconnection and international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators; and local loop leasing services, as well as bit stream services, wholesale line rental accesses, and leased ducts for other operators' fiber deployment. Additionally, it provides video/TV services; smart connectivity and services, and consumer IoT products; financial and other payment, security, cloud computing, advertising, big data, and digital telco experience services; virtual assistants; digital home platforms; and Movistar Home devices. It also offers online telemedicine, home insurance, music streaming, and consumer loan services. The company was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
International Business Machines Corporation provides integrated solutions and services worldwide. The company operates through four business segments: Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing. The Software segment offers hybrid cloud platform and software solutions, such as Red Hat, an enterprise open-source solutions; software for business automation, AIOps and management, integration, and application servers; data and artificial intelligence solutions; and security software and services for threat, data, and identity. This segment also provides transaction processing software that supports clients' mission-critical and on-premise workloads in banking, airlines, and retail industries. The Consulting segment offers business transformation services, including strategy, business process design and operations, data and analytics, and system integration services; technology consulting services; and application and cloud platform services. The Infrastructure segment provides on-premises and cloud-based server and storage solutions for its clients' mission-critical and regulated workloads; and support services and solutions for hybrid cloud infrastructure, as well as remanufacturing and remarketing services for used equipment. The Financing segment offers lease, installment payment, loan financing, and short-term working capital financing services. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. International Business Machines Corporation was incorporated in 1911 and is headquartered in Armonk, New York.
China Mobile Limited provides mobile telecommunications and related services in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The company offers local calls; domestic and international long distance calls and roaming services; and value-added services, such as caller identity display, call waiting, conference calls, and others. It also provides wireless Internet service, as well as digital applications comprising music, video, reading, gaming, and animation; wireline broadband services; and wireline voice services. In addition, it offers dedicated line and IDC services to corporate customers in a range of industry sectors; and basic corporate communication products comprising corporate VPMN and SMS, and tailor made solutions. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, which includes IDD, roaming, Internet, MNC, and value added business services. Additionally, it offers telecommunications network planning, design, and consulting services; roaming clearance, IT system operation, and technology support services; value-added platform development and maintenance services; mobile data, and system integration and development services; network construction and maintenance, network planning and optimizing, and training services; electronic communication products design and sale of related products; and non-banking financial services. It also provides mobile cloud research and development services; call center services; e-payment, e-commerce, and Internet finance services; and mobile Internet digital content services, as well as operates a network and business coordination center. The company serves 950 million mobile customers and 187 million wireline broadband customers. The company was formerly known as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited and changed its name to China Mobile Limited in May 2006. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. China Mobile Limited is a subsidiary of China Mobile Hong Kong (BVI) Limited.
In two recent interviews, President Donald Trump made the argument that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton in the White House. Even if that's correct, it's not for the reasons Trump mentioned. QuickTake Vladimir Putin

Trump's argument is that he "campaigned on strong military, strong borders, and low oil prices" and these goals don't benefit Putin:

"Look what I've done - oil prices have been driven down. We're sending LNG to Poland, massive shipments to Poland. That's not what Putin wants. And for the military, we've got $56 billion more of equipment than anybody ever thought of, in the last budget. Putin doesn't want that - so why would Putin want me?""

Under Clinton, Trump said, the U.S. military would be "decimated" and oil prices would be higher:

"We're going to be exporting energy - he doesn't want that. He would like Hillary where she wants to have windmills. He would much rather have that because energy prices would go up and Russia as you know relies very much on energy."

On these two points -- the military and energy -- a President Clinton counterfactual is easy to envisage. It's not in Trump's favor.

In contrast to Candidate Trump, Candidate Clinton wasn't interested in expanding the U.S. military's numbers and arsenal, preferring to talk about its modernization. But Putin doesn't care whether the U.S. standing army exceeds half a million or not, or whether the U.S. Navy has more ships. Even during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was a much bigger country than today's Russia, it couldn't outspend the U.S. on defense. Today, the U.S. military vastly outnumbers the Russian one, and once other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries are added in, Russia is dwarfed, frankly. That, however, doesn't matter because both countries' vast nuclear arsenals deter them from ever having an all-out war, and for possible local and proxy clashes, numerical strength isn't important.

Russia and the U.S. back different sides in the Syrian war. There, Trump is doing roughly what Clinton intended to do to defeat Islamic State. He intensified the U.S. air campaign and stepped up support for rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. He has also launched isolated attacks on Assad's forces, ostensibly to restrain them from using chemical weapons or striking U.S. allies, but perhaps also to make sure the U.S.-backed forces don't have to compete for areas they're clearing of IS fighters.

President Barack Obama refrained from such aggressive actions, but Clinton, who established herself as a Syria hawk, likely would have acted along the same lines. Many feared she would have been more insistent on removing Assad -- she has called it a "number one priority" -- but if she did, that would hardly have made her Putin's preferred candidate, since he continues to stand by Assad as an ally.

On energy, too, President Clinton would have been an equal or greater nuisance to Putin. She received large donations from oil and gas interests, and she never showed any principled opposition to U.S. oil and gas exports. In 1996, President Bill Clinton ended a 23-year ban on oil exports from fields on Alaska's North Slope. Hillary Clinton opposed Republican attempts to lift the general export ban, but only because she believed the government should extract concessions from the oil industry in exchange.

Her clean energy plans would have made more U.S. fossil fuels available for export, potentially driving global prices lower. Besides, as secretary of state, Clinton lobbied for more diversity in energy supplies to Europe, Russia's traditional market, pushing for the interests of U.S. nuclear power company Westinghouse and for U.S. oil and gas firms' fracking projects. As president, she would hardly be friendlier to Russian energy interests.

Democratic members of Congress currently support a bill broadening Russia sanctions to include energy pipeline projects, another indication that Clinton probably would have pushed through similar measures to retaliate for what she, in the summer of 2016, came to see as a major Russian effort to defeat her.

Whether Putin would have preferred Clinton as president hinges on more esoteric considerations than whether or not she would have followed traditional U.S. military and energy policies, which have always clashed with Russian interests and to which the Kremlin has long adapted.

The biggest question is whether Putin prefers the chaos, unpredictability and amateurishness of Trump's administration or the predictable, unimaginative formulas and cliches Clinton offered during her campaign and probably would have stuck to as president. His distrust of the U.S. is deep. No American leader would be able to do anything about that. Putin has said many times he'd be willing to work with any U.S. president, meaning it would be equally tough going. But would Putin prefer the stability of a known, well-researched negative or the potential for ad-hoc gains and losses?

Clearly, given the role the Russian propaganda machine took on during the 2016 campaign, Putin was interested in short-term destabilization and in mocking U.S. democracy. But he has given no indication that he wants instability in the U.S. over the long term. It's not clear how it can benefit the Kremlin except by diverting attention from its quieter exploits, such as the long-term, slow movement of the Russian border into Georgian territory occupied by Russia's puppet state of South Ossetia.

The diversion, however, can be costly. No one knows what Trump might do to spite a TV pundit or lift sinking poll ratings. Meanwhile, the never-ending stream of scandals makes Russia too toxic for business relationships, as evidenced by the recent Trump administration decision to ban the products of the antivirus maker Kaspersky from use on federal systems.

At some point, even laughing at the panic of U.S. political elites, as Putin's circle has been doing for months, can get pointlessly repetitive. If Putin is learning anything from the chain of events following Trump's election, it's probably a deepening conviction that he can't get any traction with the U.S. because its institutions are inherently hostile toward someone like him.
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The single number that Senate Republicans should dwell on before they vote next week on health care will not bear the imprimatur of the Congressional Budget Office. Rather the most relevant statistic comes courtesy of the Gallup poll: Democrats hold a 19-point edge (55 percent to 36 percent) as the party most trusted to handle health care.

With a majority of voters in many polls now also approving of the Affordable Care Act, the politically prudent move for Mitch McConnell would have been to develop a sudden case of amnesia about the expression repeal and replace. The Senate majority leader, if pressed, could always claim that the Trump familys memory lapses about Russian ties were contagious.

Instead, McConnell has taken on the role of drum major leading the Republican march of folly. All the legislative tinkering in the world will not save the GOP from being saddled with an unpopular bill that will haunt Republican incumbents in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

Why are the Senate Republicans persisting in this desperate attempt at legislative alchemy?

No Republican on the ballot in 2018with the possible exception of Ted Cruz in Texasrisks retribution for a failure to repeal Obamacare. Placating Donald Trump seems a bizarre rationale because the president has already betrayed House Republicans by calling their version of the bill mean.

The cynical rationale had been that the Republican health-care push was, in truth, a camouflaged tax cut for the affluent. All prior versions of the legislation included $231 billion in tax cuts by eliminating Barack Obamas taxes on investment income and an upper income Medicare surcharge.

But McConnell, belatedly bowing to political atmospherics, eliminated these backdoor tax cuts from the latest version of the legislation that was unveiled Thursday. As a result, anti-tax crusaders such as Grover Norquist immediately called upon the Senate Leadership to make it clear that those taxes will be abolished in tax reform this year.

Another theory is that Obamacare has been the unlucky bystander in legislation that is really designed to strangle Medicaid. According to the CBOs analysis last month of the initial Senate bill, the cutbacks in Medicaid subsidies beginning in 2020 would lead to 15 million fewer Americans being enrolled in the program in 2026.

The updated Senate bill retains these sharp Medicaid reductions, which seems a strange way to woo wavering moderate senators such as Rob Portman and Shelley Moore Capito. But, according to news reports, McConnell has been whispering that this is all boob bait for the suckers since future Congresses would almost certainly roll back these meat-cleaver cuts.

But the public assault on Medicaid would all but guarantee that health care would be a major issue in the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns. And it is impossible to see how the Republicans would benefit from a political debate over nursing home coverage for Aunt Sally. Most Americans may not know the intricacies of health care law, but they do know that Medicaid is the last-resort safety net for the elderly who have exhausted their life savings.

So why are McConnell and company so determined to fight it out on this line?

By placating Cruz with a tweak that would allow insurers to sell health plans that cover little more than burns from volcanic eruptions, the new Senate bill invites endless horror stories about high deductibles and rejected requests for care.

The more that these fig-leaf coverage plans attract healthy Americans, the shakier the financing will be for standard policies that cover those with pre-existing conditions and higher medical costs. It is easy to imagine that a Democratic refrain in 2018 and 2020 will be, Where are the lower premiums and the lower deductibles?

Every time a heart-rending story about a family unable to cope with their medical bills would appear on cable TV, the president would be tempted to bat out a tweet attacking the Congress for passing such a cruel health care bill.

So what if Trump signed the legislation himself? Such glaring inconsistencies have not stopped the president from venting his rage in the past.

In truth, the Senate Republicans seem to be motivated by a misunderstanding of the Trump transformation. These days, traditional conservative abstractions about balanced budgets and limited government mean little to Rust Belt voters worried about jobs, health care and their childrens education.

Aside from $45 billion to fight opioid addiction (which should have been appropriated by Congress long ago), there is almost nothing in the latest Republican health care bill that will improve life for anyone. It is hard to think of any piece of major legislation that so wantonly violates the ancient medical injunction: First, do no harm.

If Republicans are so stubbornly wedded to their pledge to repeal Obamacare, there is a safe, albeit sneaky, way to keep this promise without jeopardizing health care coverage for millions of Americans.

All they need is to pass a single-sentence piece of legislation that reads in its entirety: Obamacare is rescinded for now and all eternity.

Of course, under this scheme, the actual Affordable Care Act would remain in force, offering health care coverage to millions of Americans who otherwise would live in fear of the slightest cough. And with Obamacare (a word that never appears in the law) out of the way, Senate Republicans could finally turn to their true love object, tax cuts.
"Colonization" is a euphemism for institutionalized racism. Colonization has never ever been beneficial to indigenous peoples. Why would any intelligent person argue that colonization today is a protector of indigenous peoples especially here in the Napa Valley ("Don't open the door to assimilation," May 31)?

Assimilation is a goal of institutionalized racism-oops- I meant colonization. United States public schools have tried to force assimilation down indigenous, black, and brown throats using violence and psychological abuse; attempting to use force to wipe out languages and ban indigenous religious practices, segregating our children and allowing them to harm one another within a white supremacist paradigm. Our public schools operate as agents of our federal and state governments in the communities in which we live. These governments from which white people benefit have lied, stolen and murdered indigenous people with little action taken to truly make amends.

An Indian mascot in a public school is easily interpreted as malicious and meant to demean, humiliate, denigrate, and mock indigenous spirituality. It is plagiarism and theft. An Indian mascot is racist, an Indian mascot is deeply abusive. An Indian mascot others indigenous students.

Every day that our community allows the Napa High Indian to remain a mascot at Napa High we condone abuse and hostility in our public schools.

I am asking the the NVUSD school board cease and desist in supporting this abuse and that the Napa community at large actively stand behind them.

Timothy Metson River

Napa
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 21:37:34|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the Dalai Lama's anti-China separatist activities and opposes him meeting with officials of any country, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Media reported that the Dalai Lama will visit Botswana and meet with its president next month. In response, Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing that China opposes any foreign official's contact with the Dalai Lama in any form.

The Dalai Lama is a political exile who has long engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the guise of religion, he said.

"We hope the country will clearly recognize the nature of the Dalai Lama, earnestly respect China's core concerns, and make the correct decision on this issue," Geng said.
As Tiffany & Co.s new chief executive officer settles into the job, he faces a crisis that runs deeper than sluggish retail traffic: Americans are losing their passion for jewelry.

From indifferent millennials to declining marriage rates and synthetic imitations, few product categories are contending with as many headwinds as jewelry. Companies are scrambling to halt slumping sales and shutter unprofitable stores as discretionary spending falls and shareholder unrest bubbles over.

The $60-billion (U.S.) jewelry market contracted 6.3 per cent last year and the declines will continue until at least 2022, the research firm Euromonitor estimates. Jewelry store closures accelerated 53 per cent in 2016, according to the Jewelers Board of Trade.

My concern is always for the long-term health of our industry, says Anthony Capuano, who heads the board. I think there will always be jewelry sales. But right now, I think there is not as much interest in jewelries.

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Tiffany & Co. names new CEOTiffany & Co. names new CEO

Tiffanys outlook reflects this clearly: Fewer shoppers are going into its stores and its been unable to draw in millennials  who are famously lukewarm on many products and feel the same way about jewelry. Same-store sales have dropped in the past five out of six quarters.

Amid the turmoil, Tiffany is betting industry veteran Alessandro Bogliolo will be able to right the ship and reinvigorate the chains 180-year-old brand. He will take over efforts to attract younger shoppers by renovating stores and introducing new designs.

Citigroup Inc. has likened Tiffanys balancing act of attracting millennials without alienating its older customers as Lady Gaga versus Audrey Hepburn. (Gaga promotes the Hardwear collection on sale at Tiffanys, while Hepburn wore the famous Tiffany Diamond in publicity shots for the classic 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffanys.)

Activist investor Jana Partners has said Tiffanys shares are undervalued, while another investor, CtW Investment Group, is pushing for more diversity and younger directors on the jewellers aging board.

Signet Jewelers Ltd., the owner of the Kay, Zales and Jared brands, also has storms on the horizon. The company is closing as many as 170 mall-based stores as it seeks to leave behind a gem-swapping scandal and allegations of gender discrimination.

Signet sees improvements to its web portal as key to competing with new rivals that are capturing market share. These include Blue Nile Inc. and JamesAllen.com, which offers shoppers a virtual ring sizer, 360-degree views of gemstones and an interface for customers to design their own rings.

Competition is also heating up from regional players that have their fingers on the pulse of local communities, Capuano said.

Jewelry has definitely been tough and millennials are shifting their spending to experience, said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. That limits your ability to show a lot of growth.

Signet shares have lost more than a third of their value this year, though they were up less than 1 per cent to $60.82 last Friday. Tiffany has fared better, helped by a board shakeup that brought investors optimism that the company could turn things around. Tiffany shares were little changed Friday.

An additional problem, according to the head of an industry group, is that jewelry sellers have lost a deeper connection with their customers.

The industry has become so impersonal in many ways. Weve lost the emotion, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, CEO of the Diamond Producers Association, said in an interview in New York.

He points to retailers efforts to focus shopper attention on certificates that verify a diamonds quality  perhaps only slightly more romantic than a low-risk mutual fund. Stores must get clients hearts racing, he says, and his group has boosted advertising to help inspire change.

The ads seek to up the drama quotient: One short film that aired at the Academy Awards titled Runaways tells an actors story of how he eloped with his partner. Another shows a young New York couple getting engaged on camera.

The decline in marriage rates has hurt the industry. Fewer than half of U.S. adults are married today, compared with 72 per cent in 1960, according to Pew Research Center.

Despite the array of challenges, Capuano of the Jewelers Board warns that jewelry has always been a cyclical business.

Its an evolution, he said. Its change that we need to adapt to.

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SAN FRANCISCOWhen Jen ONeal was raising money for her travel start-up two years ago, she was invited to pitch to all the partners and associates at a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

The conference table was huge and the slides for her presentation were projected onto a massive screen. As she began to address the room, she glanced around. Four women, none of them investing partners, were all squeezed into small chairs against the side wall.

I dont think I fully appreciated the expression to have a seat at the table until that day, says ONeal, CEO of Tripping.com, which crawls the web for vacation property and home-sharing listings and has raised $55 million in venture capital.

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No women or minorities? Most investors, entrepreneurs respond with a shrug

Tech sector struggling with gender diversity says key is to involve girls

Yet thats the reality in Silicon Valley, where men control the power and the purse: Very few women get a seat on either side of the table.

Industry studies for years have documented the sizable gender gap in funding startups. The common explanation for women raising a sliver of the financing essential to the growth of Facebook, Google and Uber is that venture capitalists tend to back entrepreneurs who have succeeded before or who fit a certain mould. Think Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page: Young and geeky, white or Asian male, often in jeans and T-shirt, who dreamed up an idea while banging out the code in a dorm room or garage.

In recent weeks, another explanation has emerged: A pattern of suggestive remarks and sexual propositions, casual misogyny, groping and assaults that is too often a part of the capital-raising process for women.

Women have come forward to describe the sexual advances that come with negotiating financing, jobs and partnerships  and retaliation, such as an abrupt end to the business conversation if they rebuff a sexual come-on. They recall interviews with investors that quickly show theyre not taken seriously, or situations that make clear theyre outsiders who need to prove themselves far more than men do.

Hanna AASE, founder and CEO of video-profile platform Wonderloop, recalls sessions pitching investors for capital that often resulted in more pickup lines than term sheets.

The second question I get after What do you do? is What do you do for fun? she says. The third investor question: Do you like being called Hannah Montana?

Some women have thrown up their hands, frustrated by years of pitches that go nowhere or quickly segue into invitations for a late-night drink. A small but growing number of women are forming women-only investment networks, or raising starter capital in other ways.

With venture capitals big money bro-culture behaviour coming to light, theres a new fear, mingled with the relief: That, in reaction, male financiers will avoid female founders altogether. Theres talk of some men following the Mike Pence rule, referring to the vice presidents comment years ago that he does not eat alone with any women other than his wife.

Lisa Curtis, founder and CEO of food start-up Kuli Kuli, says she has already heard of investors cancelling meetings with female founders and shes worried. I think thats the wrong reaction, Curtis says.

Gaining access to the capital, counsel and contacts they need to turn a big idea into the next big thing is already tough enough, women say.

When Tripping.coms ONeal walks into the room, she says shes usually the only woman in it. In hundreds of pitch meetings, she has only ever encountered a handful of female venture capitalists.

Chrissa McFarlane, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based start-up Patientory.com, which uses blockchain to secure digital health records, says when she was trying to raise seed money in Silicon Valley, she was the only African-American woman  and the only African American, period  anywhere in sight. She says shes sure she would have had more luck landing an investment had she been a white or Asian man in a hoodie.

Even as women  and women of colour  scale corporate ranks, the number of female investing partners at venture capital firms is shrinking. In 1999, 10 per cent of the partners were women. By 2014, it was 6 per cent. Many top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley dont have a single female investing partner. And, when they do, many female investors feel so heavily scrutinized for taking risks on other women that they limit how frequently they make those investments.

Thats a significant challenge for women, who are starting their own tech companies in greater numbers even as the funding gap between male- and female-led startups keeps widening. Last year male entrepreneurs received $58.2 billion in venture capital. Women received $1.5 billion, or just 2.5 per cent.

None of the most highly valued tech startups, called unicorns, has a female chief executive, though studies show that companies with female leadership perform better than those with male leadership. According to venture firm First Round Capital, its investments in companies with at least one female founder performed 63 per cent better than the all-male founder teams.

Until recently, bringing home some big returns has insulated venture capital from criticism over the lopsided demographics of investments. But being outed for sexist and discriminatory behaviour is drawing troubling parallels to the boom-boom room era of Wall Street in the 1980s and 1990s.

So far, the uproar has prompted the resignations of two investors who purportedly used their positions to make unwanted sexual advances to women. This week, Ignition Partners, a venture firm in Bellevue, Wash., said it asked for a partners resignation after a complaint of misconduct.

Several women who are trying to raise money for their startups said they are still too fearful of reprisals to publicly complain about inappropriate behaviour. But more women are speaking out about their experiences.

Melinda Epler, founder and CEO of Change Catalyst, a group that promotes diversity in the tech industry, says she scrapped her plans to open an accelerator for women-led companies shortly after meeting with a potential investor and diversity ally at a coffee shop.

He moved his hand close to hers, let his knee brush against hers and advised her that male investors would find her attractive and she should say nothing when they spoke to her or touched her in inappropriate ways. Dont complain, dont talk about it, he said. Because investors talk to each other, youll be blacklisted and youll never be able to raise money.

Some investors and trade groups are exploring ways to stamp out this sort of behaviour. LinkedIn founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman has called on venture capitalists to sign a decency pledge. Sallie Krawcheck, the Wall Street veteran who is now CEO and founder of digital investment platform for women Ellevest, says they should sign a funding pledge instead.

Women say they cant always be sure lacking a Y chromosome is the reason they dont land funding, but they know the playing field is far from equal. It takes them longer to secure funding and the checks are frequently smaller, the valuations lower.

Research shows that women seeking funding are asked very different questions than men (about risks versus prospects) and are held to higher standards (judged on what they have already achieved versus what they have the potential to achieve), both of which affect how much, if any, capital they receive. A study in Sweden found that venture capitalists describe male entrepreneurs as young and promising and female entrepreneurs as young and inexperienced.

If they are pitching a product targeted at women, female founders frequently get told: Ill check with my wife.

Its still common for women to be mistaken for someones assistant and asked to fetch coffee when they arrive to pitch a start-upor to be ignored. In the early years of her company, ONeal says she prepared the pitch decks and led the pitch meetings but investors only addressed her male co-founder. Hed shake his head, point at her and say: You should ask the CEO that question.

Unlike men, women say they have to strike the right balance during these presentations. They cant come off too aggressive (then they are labelled a bitch) or too soft (then they couldnt possibly run a billion-dollar corporation).

Wonderloops AASE says business meeting questions often turn to probing talk of her personal life.

You must have other needs than work, they say to her. What does your boyfriend say about you travelling for work so much? they ask. She eventually raised $350,000 from private investors and angel investors.

So many men behaving badly  even ones who publicly claim to support women in technology  has driven some women to seek alternative forms of funding.

Change Catalysts Epler, who went on to start conferences and career fairs that promote inclusion in the tech industry, says she frequently advises women and underrepresented minorities not to waste their time trying to raise money from venture capitalists.

Carmen Benitez, founder and managing director of a Singapore tech start-up called Fetch Plus, says shes one tech entrepreneur who no longer bothers.

Benitez was delighted while working in an incubator to meet two well-known American investors. She says they dangled the potential of funding to get her to socialize with them. Months later when no funding came through, she cut ties. It was all part of their game, she says.

In 2014, Lisa Wang met with a Silicon Valley venture firm to seek funding for her on-demand, late-night munchies delivery service Fooze. The partners mistook her as the assistant to her chief operating officer, who was an older man.

An angel investor who expressed interest in Fooze invited her to drinks. When she arrived for the meeting, she found herself at a dance club where business wasnt discussed. At 2 a.m. when the investor pressured her to take him back to her place, she refused. She never heard from him again with the exception of one terse text message.

Eventually Wang decided to ditch her pursuit of venture funding. Fooze was eventually sold to a serial entrepreneur on the East Coast this year for an undisclosed sum. Today Wang runs SheWorx, a collective of 20,000 female entrepreneurs trying to close the funding gap.

Whats alarming to Wang and others: That funding gap could have lasting consequences. The nations booming tech sector is the 21st centurys gold rush, forging companies and fortunes for decades to come.

Theres plenty of risk in maintaining status quo for venture capitalists as well, warns diversity advocate and venture capitalist Freada Kapor Klein. With rapidly shifting demographics, neglecting to fund businesses started by women and people of colour could significantly undercut returns for venture capital firms, she says.

There are going to be more and more women, more women of colour and more men of colour who are going to be founders. The employees and consumers of those businesses, even if we are just talking in the U.S., are increasingly people of colour, Klein says. Unless (venture capitalists) have diversity at the table, they are going to miss out on a huge opportunity.

Take Curtis. The first time she raised money, a seed round, for Kuli Kuli, it took nearly a year. She says potential investors kept writing her off.

Its hard to put your finger on it. Is this why somebody said no versus something else? I am pretty sure no male investors were consciously saying, We turned down this venture because she was a woman. But fundraising for my seed round was hard, she said. It felt like I had to be twice as good.

The second time around, her company that makes powders, bars, teas and energy shots out of plant protein from the moringa tree had gained traction with health-conscious consumers. Products were on store shelves, sales had surpassed $1 million. In a matter of several months, she raised $4.25 million.

I think once I could point to a lot of outside credible factors, it definitely got easier, Curtis said. It gets easier regardless of your gender.

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Last year, Richard Laermer decided to let his employees work from home on a regular basis. We hire adults, they shouldnt be tied to the office five days a week, said Laermer, who owns a New York-based public relations firm. I always assumed that you can get your work done anywhere, as long as you actually get it done.

Turns out, he was wrong.

Employees took advantage of the perk, Laermer said. One was unavailable for hours at a time. Another wouldnt communicate with co-workers all day, which Laermer found suspicious. The last straw, he said, was when someone refused to come in for a meeting because she had plans to go to the Hamptons. That was the most unbelievably nervy thing Id heard in years, he said.

Ten months in, he scrapped the benefit and now requires all of his employees to come into the office every day.

While telecommuting, the umbrella term for any work occurring outside the traditional office, has ballooned over the last 20 years, some offices are rethinking overly broad policies. Flexible work remains popular at many organizations, but most companies want workers at work at least some  if not most  of the time. More than 60 per cent of organizations surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management this year said they allow some type of telecommuting, up from 20 per cent in 1996. But telecommuting comes in many flavours, and 77 per cent of organizations dont let people work from home on a full-time basis. Most employers allow ad hoc remote work for the person who needs to stay home for the plumber or wait for a package.

Technology such as chat programs and collaboration software made remote work feasible for many white collar workers in the last couple of decades. Employees love flexibility, often rating it high on benefits surveys. Parents in particular say its extremely important, a 2013 Pew survey found. Researchers have argued that unconventional work hours could even help close the pay gap.

In a bid to attract and retain employees  and cut down on real estate costs  companies permitted more remote work, and employees took advantage.

At the same time, work has also become more team-based. Only 38 per cent of companies are functionally organized today with workers grouped together by job type, a 2016 Deloitte survey found. Most comprise collaborative groups that shift depending on the work. Deloitte found that one California organization was made up of over 30,000 constantly shifting teams. I think thats why were seeing remote work come back in, said Erica Volini, a U.S. Human Capital Leader at Deloitte. In order to work in teams, you need a higher level of collaboration.

Some organizations found the most lenient work-from-home policies kept workers too isolated for that kind of work. These companies took it to the extreme on virtual work, added Volini.

International Business Machines Corp. is one such company. Earlier this year the tech giant called tens of thousands of workers back to the office who had previously been working from home. Facing 20 consecutive quarters of falling revenue, IBM hopes that bringing people back together will lead to faster, more productive and more creative workers. (A 2012 report from IBM found that companies with flexible work policies reported improvements in productivity and cost savings.)

IBMs strategy is about adopting the best work method for the work being done, said an IBM spokesperson. For example, small, multidisciplinary teams of engineers, coders, project managers and designers work in proximity, often directly with clients or end-users, continually generating and refining ideas.

One of the challenges with ending remote work is keeping employees happy. Its going to require organizations to think about how to still provide flexibility for their workforce, said Deloittes Volini. Companies removing the perk risk employee backlash and attrition. IBM, for instance, has been careful not to eliminate all flexible work arrangements. The company still offers ad hoc work-from-home arrangements to accommodate appointments and child-care needs.

Having everyone in the office has had quite a positive impact on business, said Laermer. Meetings are more productive, and employee morale has improved, he said. Laermer claims that employees didnt mind losing their freedom. Youngish people need structure, he said, adding that they have small apartments and might not have a good place to work, anyway. He still offers flex time and lets workers leave at 3 p.m. on Fridays.

I think people have to be trusted, Laermer said. But the working-from-home thing has to be on a per-person basis, and it cant be very often. It just doesnt work.

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Fourth in a series taking a second look at Torontos architectural showpieces 10 years after the building boom.

Its hard to imagine that anyone  including perhaps Frank Gehry himself  knows the Art Gallery of Ontario quite as intimately as Roman Baron.

After all, hes worked security at the AGO for 28 years, ever since he was an OCAD student double-majoring in fine arts and photography who spent so much time in the gallery next door gazing at Emily Carr paintings or a memorable Jacques Lipchitz exhibit that he eventually figured he might as well work there.

In the nearly three decades since, Baron was there to see the post-modernist wing by Barton Myers and KPMB Architects erected in 1992 and demolished a little over a decade later, and he was of course also there to witness every step in the construction of Gehrys expansion until its November 2008 opening. He remembers the adrenaline rush of that opening weekend, how when he finally took a break, he wandered outside to see a line stretching down McCaul Street from Dundas to Queen and wondered: How come theres no end to this?

Hype, of course, subsides, but Barons enthusiasm for the building hasnt. Commuting two hours each way from St. Catharines every day, the 48-year-old father of three looks at the building with a parents pride.

Over the years, that feeling has just really sunk in how lucky I am to work in such a beautiful building, Baron said. The building has been finished but the kudos just keep coming. Some people have come back 10 or 15 times and theyre still overwhelmed by unique spaces they didnt discover the first times they were here.

Im a huge fan, he added. I dont think you could have done anything to make it more beautiful or even more bold.

At the time of its opening, Torontonians were just as unguarded in their giddy pride over Gehrys grand homecoming monument.

The Stars Christopher Hume declared the $306 million revamped AGO the easiest, most effortless and relaxed architectural masterpiece this city has seen, while The Globe and Mails headline trumpeted a monumental moment.

By then, it had been eight years since AGO director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, Frank Gehry and Ken Thomson first met in May 2000 to discuss what would become known as Transformation AGO. As fundraising churned ahead, AGO leadership spent a year soul-searching until they assembled a 12-point priority checklist, which included improving flow between galleries, creating more space for art, re-establishing Walker Courts central prominence, and creating a cultural landmark in the city, recalls Mike Mahoney, the AGOs executive director of corporate special projects and director of building operations.

Gallery leadership also wanted to respect previous transformations, a challenge given that since first shifting to its current location in the early 1910s, the AGO had been subject to a series of expansions and reinventions authored by different architects.

Its very difficult to create significant great architecture when theres been previous architects working on the building over the past 100 years, Mahoney said.

Compared to the audacious scratch-made classics Gehry had recently turned out to worldwide acclaim  1997s astonishing Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, of course, or 2003s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles  he was going to be, in some ways, restrained simply based on the realities of the site.

Yet several critics now believe those limiting circumstances ultimately benefited the project.

Gehry was doing extremely high-budget, big-gesture projects at that point in his career, and this one didnt allow for that, said Richard Sommer, dean of the University of Torontos Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Hes sometimes at his best when he has to do something scrappier.

Its a very successful project and I find it interesting that people have been critical of it for not being Gehry-esque enough or more spectacular. I see that as a plus, agreed Marco Polo, former editor of Canadian Architect magazine and professor in Ryerson Universitys department of architectural science.

What you get is a building that has a few really expressive gestures, but the expressive gestures dont overwhelm the project.

Subtle though it might be, Gehrys reinvention was rich in enchanting features: the airy Galleria Italia framed by glue-laminated Douglas-fir timbers; the newly resplendent Walker Court, restored to well-deserved central prominence; and the slithering staircase at the centre.

The new AGO has certainly seemed to carry a persuasive sway over tourists. In 2004-05, the final year of full operations before the gallery began closing public spaces for renovation, the AGO drew 665,425 visitors. For the most recent fiscal year, that number had leapt to 965,689. Part of the draw might be the building itself and another might be the blockbuster exhibits the new space has made possible, including popular showcases featuring Ai Weiwei, David Bowie, Lawren Harris and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

If theres a criticism still lingering around Gehrys AGO, its that the gallery spaces still dont flow with fluidity. The Wall Street Journal wrote of the pre-Gehry gallery that getting lost at the AGO, which inevitably happened, was confusing, often annoying. Some would argue that Gehrys redesign didnt resolve the issue.

The challenge of that project had to do with the way in which its funding model required a lot of very discrete galleries, said Sommer. I think that the gallery experience is a bit too discontinuous.

Baron, meanwhile, finds visitors are typically more overwhelmed by the buildings beauty than its layout. One such awestruck visitor? Robert De Niro.

Baron recalls that the actor was one of several celebrities to visit the AGOs 2010 Julian Schnabel exhibit. One aim of the reinvented AGO was to reflect the wonders of the neighbourhood (especially now that the revitalized Grange Park has been opened), and Baron indeed recalls De Niro pausing to admire the AGOs surroundings and marvel at the rate of development in Toronto; he actually counted the cranes nearby.

Eventually, the Goodfellas star was running late, and sleek SUVs arrived to whisk him away. But he wasnt done exploring. Outside, De Niro asked Baron if he could take an up-close look at the front facade, having only gazed at it in passing. Eyes fixated up on the building, De Niro slowly wandered into the road to get a better look. Suddenly, a streetcar began shuttling down the street extremely quickly toward the two-time Oscar winner, and Baron got nervous.

I said, Mr. De Niro, the streetcar is approaching really quickly. You better be careful, he recalled. He says to me in his New York accent: Its all right. Im a New Yorker.

He was fearless. He saw the streetcar coming and still had another glance at the architecture. He didnt step back until it was two or three metres away.

Facts and Figures

Gehrys redesign added 97,000 square feet of newly built space, allowing for the addition of thousands of works including the Thomson Collection.

The glass-and-wood facade spans 600 feet along Dundas Street and soars 70 feet above street level, while the sculpture gallery extends 450 feet along the north side of the building.

In total, the building size increased by 20 per cent.

Art viewing space increased by 47 per cent and total gallery space by 129,000 net square feet.

The first Transformation AGO Open House for the public on January 22, 2003 drew more than 2,400 people.

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A Billings man accused of robbing Western Security Bank in downtown Billings in April has denied federal charges.

In an arraignment on July 5 in U.S. District Court in Billings, Randy Ray Starnes, 60, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with bank robbery.

The indictment accuses him of robbing the bank, located at 2812 First Ave. N., on April 7.

Police officials said shortly after the robbery that a male suspect walked into the bank at about 9:13 a.m. and handed the teller a note saying he had a gun and wanted money. The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money, and the robber left the building. No one was injured.

If convicted, Starnes faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan ordered Starnes to remain in custody. The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:14:13|Editor: ying

Rwandan presidential candidate Paul Kagame, the incumbent President of Rwanda, speaks at a presidential campaign rally in Ruhango, Rwanda, on July 14, 2017. Rwanda's presidential campaigns officially kicked off on Friday. The ruling party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)'s presidential candidate Paul Kagame, who is seeking a third term, has launched his campaigns in his childhood home town of Ruhango District, Southern Rwanda. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

KIGALI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's presidential campaigns officially kicked off Friday as all three candidates launched their respective campaigns across the countryside.

According to National Electoral Commission (NEC), Presidential campaigns officially begin on July 14 and end on August 3, just a day before the elections.

The ruling party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)'s presidential candidate Paul Kagame, who is seeking a third term, has launched his campaigns in his childhood home town of Ruhango District, Southern Rwanda.

Incumbent President Kagame has been president since 2000 when he was elected transitional president by ministers and members of parliament following the resignation of then President Pasteur Bizimungu. Kagame was then reelected in 2003 and 2010.

Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's Frank Habineza, who is running for presidency for the first time, kicked off his presidential campaign in Rusizi District, Western Rwanda, while Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate, launched his presidential bid in Bugesera District, Eastern Province.

Upon his arrival at the campaign venue in Ruhango District, Kagame was welcomed by thousands of his supporters chanting RPF slogans and songs.

"Despite what we have achieved under the current government, this is the time to even double the effort to take our country where it deserves to be. I promise you, we will achieve more than what has been registered in the country seven years ago," Kagame told supporters amidst thunderous applause from the audience.

Habineza managed to grab attention of scores of supporters in Rusizi District who came to listen to his manifesto.

"I will make sure that under my party's government, we shall achieve what the current regime has failed to achieve," he noted.

Mpayimana moved around the town of Bugesera district presenting his manifesto to supporters after he struggled to get supporters at his campaign venue.

"During my term of office, I will focus primarily on reducing taxes. I want to ensure taxes that are affordable to every Rwandan," he said.

RPF and Kagame's campaign materials are by far the dominant feature across Capital Kigali and main towns around the country.

About 6.8 million will participate in the election from 5.7 million who participated in 2010 presidential elections, according to NEC.
When 90-year-old Vicki Edney stood on the edge of a platform 365 metres in the air, taking in Torontos skyline while leaning forward on strong rope supports, she knew she was on the verge of fulfilling a decades-old dream.

The dream originated in the 70s, with a defiant attempt to prove that she could do anything her husband could do and more. Her husband had received his pilots licence, so after we separated . . . I decided that if he could take flying lessons and pass . . . I could do it too!

She enrolled in the lessons  and loved them. On one occasion, a pilot instructing Edney offered to take her up on a skydiving jump.

I didnt go because I had to get home and feed the kids and the animals, because I lived on a farm.

Shes kicked herself ever since. When she turned 90 last December, she decided shed waited long enough.

I thought this is my last kick at the can! I thought Id try it.

Thats what brought Edney to the CN Tower EdgeWalk last week. Her family convinced her that the experience  traversing the exterior of Canadas tallest building on a platform the width of a sidewalk  would be an exhilarating substitute to the riskier act of skydiving.

The verdict? It was bliss.

You get to see the whole city, Edney said, immediately following the walk. All of the hotels and all the different shapes of the buildings, and the colours. Fabulous! I loved it.

Edneys latest adventure was particularly special because she used the opportunity to raise money for the Fresh Air Fund.

The Fresh Air Fund is a childrens charity that was founded by Joseph Atkinson, then publisher of the Toronto Star, in 1901. The fund aims to help 25,000 disadvantaged and special needs children attend one of more than 100 summer camps each year, where they build skills, friendships, and connections to the outdoors.

Edney, who said that her family is a longtime supporter of the charity, wants to support the Fresh Air Fund because every cent goes towards the kids.

She also knows firsthand the impact that going to camp can have on kids  when she was young, camp helped conquer her fear of swimming.

I knew that if I just kept moving that I wouldnt drown. I figured that out, she said.

Confronting fears has been a theme in Edneys life ever since, and her willingness to do so has brought her some of her most cherished memories. Shes travelled to Hawaii and Africa, and even went paintballing at the age of 80, for one of her sons birthdays.

Edney hopes that by raising money for Fresh Air, she will be able to help kids realize the joys of conquering fears, too. She has been collecting donations at the reception desk of the Roxborough Retirement Residence in Newmarket, where she lives, since July 1.

Edneys efforts also inspire those around her. Ian Maxwell, general manager of the Roxborough, said that Edneys project has been a very powerful topic of conversation among the seniors who live there.

Someone who is a senior going and hanging over the edge of the CN Tower  that takes chutzpah, he said.

Daughter-in-law Carol Bates, and grandson John Collier went along for the EdgeWalk with Edney.

Bates and Collier both admitted to some level of apprehension about the walk (Bates said prior to going that she was afraid of heights, and Collier admitted that leaning back on the supports  the quintessential EdgeWalk photo moment  was scary at first).

But both were inspired to follow through by the courage of the woman they accompanied. I think Vicki is a great role model to her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids, Bates said.

Edney said she feels proud that her courage has been an inspiration to her family.

Ive always encouraged them to go out and conquer the world, she said.

Goal: $650,000

To date: $509,992

How to donate

With your gift, the Fresh Air Fund can help send 25,000 disadvantaged and special needs children to camp. The experience gives these children much more than relief from summer heat; it gives these children a break in life and memories to last a lifetime. Our target is $650,000.

By cheque: Mail to the Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund, One Yonge St., Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6

By credit card: Visa, MasterCard, AMEX or Discover, call 416-869-4847

For instant donations, use our secure form at: thestar.com/freshairfund .

The Star does not authorize anyone to solicit on its behalf. Tax receipts will be issued in September.

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To the regular readers of this column, my apologies in advance for inflicting upon you the sorry apology issued by the abomination that is Shia LaBeouf.

If youre like me  that is, the wrong demographic  that might be a name youve come across once or twice for, what was that again? Hollywood guy in trouble with the cops for drunken driving or bar fights or one of those crimes that Hollywood types are regularly in trouble for without real consequences.

But hey, isnt he one of the good guys, the outspoken anti-Trump man, with the four-year-long art project  a live video stream in which LaBeouf and others chant You will not divide us. His arrest in January happened because of a fight he got into with a man who said Hitler did no wrong into the camera. See? Great guy.

Sadly, as he showed this week, the world isnt divided into two groups: racists and anti-Trump-ites. In other words, opposing Trump doesnt exempt you from being racist.

On July 8, LaBeouf was arrested and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstruction in Savannah, Ga.

Read more: Shia LaBeouf arrested in Georgia for public drunkenness

You are going straight to hell, bro he told the police officers in footage captured on video.

You especially, deputy, he said. And eventually, Cause you a Black man.

He then accused the deputy of being racist for being a Black man, who arrested me for being white.

At another point, he jeers at one of the officers, Hey, when you go home to your wife, what do you tell her at night? You know she watches porn . . . likes looking at Black d---.

You get the picture.

This is one of those guys who, instead of working on the biases that exist in all of us, merely represses their expression when sober.

An apology came  eventually  on July 13.

My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst, LaBeouf said. It is a new low. A low I hope is bottom.

Really, LaBeouf? You thought disrespect for authority was your biggest problem there? Anything else? Theres a clue in your own apology, I am grateful for their restraint.

Yeah, about that.

You know that had you been Black or brown-skinned you would not be able to: struggle, get aggressive with police, yell profanities at them, run away when they were trying to arrest you without possibly deadly consequences. You know further that being openly racist to police and accusing them of being racist are actions that result in a few angry tweets, a few raised eyebrows and calls to help you, that they are textbook examples of the unearned privilege conferred upon you for the colour of your skin.

Do you think the words racist or race or racism deserved a place in your apology? No? Well, why would you?

In your world, being racist isnt a crime. Only those who live with the consequences of racism are treated like criminals. Overt racism is never your fault. Its invariably the fault of addiction or mental illness. Its an act that cries out for compassion and forgiveness.

The system works for people like you. It works to erase the bits that reflect badly on other people like you. Look at all the stories eager to exonerate you.

Heres CNN: Body camera video released by authorities showed a surly, unco-operative LaBeouf yelling profanities at police.

The very progressive Rolling Stone says, the actor apologized for his language, in a story that doesnt mention the racist rants at all.

The headline in Variety: Shia LaBeouf Calls Police Officer Dumb F in Arrest Footage

It does list his racial tirade in another piece about the apology, but doesnt mention that he didnt apologize for the racism.

Turns out that in 2017, we still live in a place where profanities offend puritanical morals. Racism, not so much.

Shree Paradkar tackles issues of race and gender. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

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PROVIDENCE, R.I.U.S. President Donald Trumps nominee to serve as ambassador to Canada will undergo her Senate confirmation hearing next Thursday, in an effort to have her in place in Ottawa as NAFTA negotiations commence.

The U.S. Senate foreign relations committee is responsible for approving diplomatic appointments and it announced Friday that Kelly Knight Craft and two other presidential nominees will have their hearing at a joint session next week, where they will face questions from lawmakers.

She will be testifying alongside Trumps picks for ambassador to NATO and the UK.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

The Trump administration wants to have its ambassador in Canada as soon as possible, given that NAFTA negotiations are expected to start next month. News of Knight Crafts hearing comes on the same day that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heard plaudits about her from the governor of her home state of Kentucky.

She is a well-connected political donor and philanthropist in the state, is married to a prominent coal magnate, and helped organize the governors inauguration festivities.

Youre going to have a good colleague, Bevin told the prime minister during a meeting at a conference of U.S. state governors.

Youre getting someone whos gracious, and very well-networked. Very respected.

Trudeau replied that this will make two straight envoys to Canada with Kentucky ties.

He informed the governor that the wife of the last ambassador to Canada, Vicki Heyman, was also from his state.

I have to say, Ottawa had gotten fond of the previous ambassadors wife whos a proud Kentuckian as well, Vicki Heyman... She did Kentucky Derby parties every year, Trudeau said.

So that traditions gonna continue!

Its unclear how many questions Knight Craft might face. At Bruce Heymans hearing, he got only a few questions while nominees to other posts got grilled.

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Chinese democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was remembered for his courageous fight for human rights Friday evening in Toronto.

Close to 200 people gathered outside the Consulate-General of the Peoples Republic of China on St. George Street to honour Liu for his efforts to end human rights abuses and bring freedoms of speech, the press and assembly to China.

He has sacrificed even his life in order to promote democracy and freedom in China, said Gloria Fung, the president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, one of the organizations that hosted the vigil.

His spirit has inspired a lot of us around the world, she said.

Until the very last moment, he still insisted on using very peaceful means in achieving social change in China.

Liu, who had been imprisoned since 2009, died at age 61 on July 13 from liver cancer.

He was an intellectual and a visionary, said Dora Nipp, a spokesperson for the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

Hes Chinas greatest loss.

As she spoke, a black canvas with an empty white chair on it billowed gently in the breeze. It was a symbolic gesture. In 2010, Chinas government would not allow Liu, who was imprisoned, to accept his Nobel Peace Prize so the Nobel committee left an empty chair on stage at the ceremony.

Chinas ego is fragile, Nipp said. The country couldnt handle the worlds adoration of Liu or manage to transform into a world leader, she said.

Liu devoted his life to free people in China, added Rollor Lou, the Secretary General of the Canadian branch of the Federation for a Democratic China.

He sacrificed his own freedom, said Lou.

Liu was imprisoned four times over his life, punishment he incurred in his fight for human rights.

In 2009, he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for inciting subversion of state power, after being arrested the year before for co-authoring Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto for China.

The next year Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.

For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wrote in 2010.

Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.

Liu also spent two years in prison for participating in the 1989 student protests in Beijings Tiananmen Square and three years in a labour camp for criticizing the countrys one-party system, the Nobel Prize website notes.

Over the last two years, human rights abuses in China have worsened, internal reports from Global Affairs Canada, obtained through access to information by the Canadian Press, show. Restrictions on media, including the imprisonment of journalists, and concerns about academic freedom and freedom of expression, have grown.

In Hong Kong, which was transferred back to the Chinese government in 1997 from the British, the human rights conditions, freedom of speech, individual freedom are really deteriorating in the recent years, especially, said Wendy Wong, a researcher with the York Centre for Asian Research, who left Hong Kong in 2001 and attended the vigil Friday.

People need to know more about whats going on, she said.

All of us should continue to urge the Canadian government and world leaders not to sacrifice the universal values of democracy, rule of law, freedom, and human rights for the economy, said Fung.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

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Anti-intellectualism in the United States may have reached a new high with this weeks stunning finding from the Pew Research Center: most Republican-leaning citizens now believe that colleges and universities are bad for America.

Higher education hasnt traditionally been a partisan issue in the United States. In 2010, 58 per cent of Republicans and 65 per cent of Democrats said that colleges and universities had a positive influence on the country. Now, like many other things in the U.S., views are much more polarized.

In this latest Pew survey, 72 per cent of Democrats felt positively about colleges and universities, while only 36 per cent of Republicans said the same. In Donald Trumps America, nearly six in 10 Republicans  58 per cent  believe that higher education is not a force for good in the nation.

Canadians, well most of us, are likely to have two reactions to this news. The first is simply, wow, thats how bad things are in American political culture in 2017: the country now is divided about whether more learning is a good thing. And secondly, most of us (I think) would hope this trend doesnt move northward.

Some Americans have been sounding alarm bells about this survey result. David Graham, writing in The Atlantic, called the results stunning and worrying  a possible portent of declining post-secondary prospects for Americans overall.

In the Washington Post, Philip Bump suggested that the decline was at least in part the product of conservative media attacks on colleges and universities, particularly the increasing attention being paid to the notion of safe spaces.

This is a relatively new term, defined by Merriam-Webster as a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism or potentially threatening actions, ideas or conversations.

Conservatives in the U.S. have tended to portray these safe spaces as left-wing constraints to freedom of speech.

Now this sounds familiar. Conservatives in Canada have also been taking up the freedom-of-speech cause, including the new Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer, who would like federal funding to be denied to colleges and universities that fail to protect free speech.

In a fundraising letter sent out in April, Scheer wrote that freedom of speech is under attack on our campuses.

The letter went on to warn: More and more, the establishment of safe spaces, forbidden topics and the banning of speakers and campus clubs, are making our colleges and universities no-go zones for open dialogue.

Leaving politics or partisanship aside, we might worry that a decline in regard for colleges and universities is a symptom of a wider loss of hope or aspiration in the middle class overall. In other words, people may not see the point of spending money and time getting more education in a precarious economy.

Post-secondary education used to be seen as a guaranteed ticket to good jobs and income stability. But thats less true now than it was even 20 years ago. Thats at least partly because degrees and diplomas are more plentiful among the population.

As Laval Universitys Stephen Gordon wrote on a Canadian economics blog late last month: In 1997, one full-time worker in five had a university degree; now one in three do. And in 1997, one in six did not have a high school diploma; thats now only the case for one full-time worker in 14.

It seems unlikely that Canadians will ever see higher education as something negative, but then again, who ever expected any Americans to think that way?

In one area, at least, the new political climate in Trumps America is proving to be good for Canadian colleges and universities. The BBC reported this week on the phenomenon of increasing foreign enrolment at Canadian post-secondary institutions  students who might have once wanted to go to school in the U.S., now choosing this country in the face of American travel bans and anti-immigration sentiment.

Its another sign of how weird things have become since Trump became president. Education, which you wouldnt expect to be controversial, is now a partisan issue in the United States, and a mark of distinction between Canada and the world south of the 49th parallel.

Note to readers: Last weeks column on changing minds in politics prompted a lot of reaction. Thank you to all who got in touch. Some people said they wanted to hear more about how views can shift in politics, so Im working on that this summer. If you have a story of how your (or others) political views shifted on a big issue  assisted dying, marijuana legalization, or even on party preference since the last election  Id like to hear from you. Email me: sdelacourt@bell.net

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MOSUL, IRAQ  The streets of Mosuls Old City are littered with bodies, tangled between shattered stones and remnants of the lives they left behind.

In the baking summer heat, exhausted rescue crews are now sifting through the debris of the toughest battle against Daesh, also known as ISIS, in what became its final redoubt in the city.

As Iraqi ground troops, U.S.-led coalition jets and Daesh militants pulverized the Old Citys winding maze of streets last week, thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire.

But the area is now deserted. Its inhabitants evacuated to houses, camps or prison cells across the province in recent months.

A week after Iraqi officials declared victory in Mosul, all that remains in the Old City is rubble and unknown hundreds of bodies.

Read more: Iraqi PM declares victory in Mosul, a major blow to Daesh

Aid groups say that thousands of civilians were killed in the nine-month offensive. A final death toll is unlikely to ever be known, robbing families of answers and a grave for their grief.

Across western Mosul, hundreds of families are still waiting for news. Others know exactly where their loved ones were killed but are still unable to reach them.

On Friday, Sumaya Sarhan, 48, waited in the rescue workers sun-parched yard for her brothers remains, three months after the airstrike that killed him.

We lived opposite and tried so many times to get him out. But it was too dangerous, there was too much fighting. Today, I finally saw him pulled from the rubble.

Staring resolutely forward, for a moment Sarhan looked lost amid the bustle of the workers around her. Then she started to cry.

Hes just bones. Just bones, she said.

The task of cutting bodies from their homes in this, the most devastated swath of the city, has fallen to a 25-man civil defence unit with one bulldozer, a forklift truck and a single vehicle to carry the corpses.

They have found hundreds of people suffocated under the ruins of their homes. Then, there are those Daesh fighters shot as they tried to flee, their bodies left to rot in the sunshine as a message to anyone else who might attempt to escape.

It was slow going today. Mainly women and children, said one of the rescue workers, Daoud Salem Mahmoud, stooping over a green canvas bag he had pulled from the rubble.

It was bulging, apparently packed by its owner as they waited for rescue. And as Daoud laid out its contents one by one, the shape of a life emerged.

In the back of an Iraqi passport, a black-and-white image of a dark-haired young woman smiled out at the camera. A green purse was empty aside from the business card of a Mosul wedding photographer. And then came her jewelry: gold bangles, small rings, a single heart-shaped earring.

Sitting quietly on the step of a hut nearby, 21-year-old Ahmed Salem said the woman was a relative, killed when an airstrike hit their home. He was waiting to collect her body, alongside those of seven cousins, most of them already stacked in body bags on the back of a rescue truck.

The teams vehicles were parked on one side of the yard, all of them battered from months of overuse.

In another corner of the civil defence base, four men gathered around a teenager as he unzipped one of the body bags.

It was hard to distinguish its charred contents as the remnants of a person.

How do you know its him? Are we sure? asked one man.

I recognize his blanket. It has to be, the teenager said. He closed the bag.

Mosuls Old City had more than 5,000 buildings, many of them high-ceilinged houses built around traditional courtyards.

Almost a third were damaged or destroyed during the final three weeks of fighting, according to the United Nations.

Across the entire city, which had a population of almost 2 million before Daesh arrived, satellite imagery shows battle scars or total destruction across more than 10,000 buildings. Although life has returned to the relatively less damaged eastern districts, which were retaken by Iraqi forces months earlier, the infrastructure in the west has been devastated.

As the rubble is cleared, the streets have become a theatre for quiet scenes of grief. In dozens of interviews, Washington Post reporters did not meet a single person in the area who had not lost a friend or relative in the fighting.

Rescue work has been slowed by a lack of funding. Lt. Col. Rabia Ibrahim Hassan, who leads west Mosuls civil defence team, said he had asked authorities for more equipment but hadnt received an answer.

Our men are doing this work with practically nothing. Just a bulldozer, a forklift truck and small equipment. The work continues, but we are exhausted, he said.

Much of the team remained in Mosul under Daesh rule. Of course we worked under them. You didnt have a choice, said Sgt. Mohammed Shaaban Hodour, insisting that the militants did not interfere with their work during their three years of control.

In a time of war, you cannot do without us. Well stay here until our work is done.

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ISTANBULWaving large red Turkish flags, tens of thousands joined a national unity march in Istanbul on Saturday, converging at the iconic July 15 Martyrs Bridge to mark the anniversary of the failed military coup attempt that 250 people died resisting.

As part of the commemoration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul on Saturday and was photographed waving at a fighter jet escorting his aircraft. Accompanied by his grandchildren wearing shirts with Turkish flags and relatives of the deceased, Erdogan then joined the crowd on the bridge where he was to unveil a Martyrs Memorial to honour those who died opposing the coup.

It has been exactly one year since Turkeys darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the peoples legend, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier in the day at a special parliamentary session in Ankara, the capital, attended by Erdogan.

The massive crowd, waving flags on the bridge and the highway connecting to it, was filmed with drones. Photographs of the martyrs were displayed on monitors on the bridge and their names were also announced. Marches will also be taking place in Ankara.

Read more: Turkish President Erdogan emerges from coup attempt triumphant

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016. The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the countrys parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Erdogan had been on vacation. But Erdogan had already left and the coup attempt was put down by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks. Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

Yildirim thanked the thousands who heeded a call by Erdogan to flood the streets to resist the coup.

We are able to come together again here today because of our 250 heroic martyrs, 2,193 heroic veterans and the great Turkish people. Your country is grateful to you, Yildirim said.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey declared a state of emergency that has been in place ever since, which has allowed the government to rule by decree and to dismiss tens of thousands of people from their jobs. More than 50,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for orchestrating the failed coup, and other terror groups.

Gulen has denied the allegations.

In the latest government decree published Friday evening, 7,395 more state employees were fired, including teachers, academics, military and police officers, bringing the number of dismissed to more than 110,000. The government calls the crackdown necessary to purge state institutions of those linked to Gulen, but critics say the dismissals are arbitrary and the victims paths to recourse severely curtailed.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday issued a statement praising the bravery of the Turkish people who took to the streets to preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society.

The preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms, the agency said, warning that curbs on those key freedoms erode the foundations of democratic society.

More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times, the statement said.

Read more: Turkish newspaper staff accused of aiding terrorism, report says

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg paid homage to those who lost lives resisting the coup and said attempts to undermine democracy in any one of the allied nations was unacceptable.

July 15 has been declared a national holiday in Turkey.

Public transportation in Istanbul and Ankara is free over the weekend and bus destination signs displayed messages of congratulations.

As they did on the night of the 2016 coup attempt, after midnight Saturday mosques across Turkey will simultaneously recite a verse, usually read before Friday prayers, to alert and invite Muslims to the streets.

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Re: Police identify Ontario men who drowned near Wasaga Beach, July 9

Police identify Ontario men who drowned near Wasaga Beach, July 9

This is getting beyond belief. After numerous drownings there are still no lifeguards at Wasaga Beach. Even after decades of public and editorial support, and multiple preventable drownings. Enough is enough.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry should be ashamed of itself, and so should the town of Wasaga Beach.

Ive always said the point at river where it meets the bay is the most dangerous area. While the entire 14-kilometre stretch of beach is dangerous, the main beach is especially so. An offshore breeze and strong winds can blow people on rafts far out into the water. We used to have a preventative lifeguard system. Highly trained guards who used binoculars and stood on high towers could warn people of danger. We used two-way radios, and had two boats, rover guards, spotters on lookout towers. Even in the worst case scenario, we were able to use this system to rescue victims. We trained daily to prepare for events like these, with numerous mock rescues in rough water conditions.

Two summers ago, another woman drowned close by. Her death caused public and political outcry. After 20 years of advocacy, I was very optimistic that lifeguards would be back for the summer of 2016.

Now, the ministry and the town, which boasts the largest freshwater beach, have lost all credibility on beach safety. After a 2010 coroners report supporting my recommendation to bring back lifeguards, nothing has happened.

The lifeguard program requires a very small budget, that could be supported through commercially or through sponsored funds.

It is now beyond the critical moment for the town and province to act. A preventative lifeguard system should be implemented by the 2018 season. If not, the mayor should resign, along with staff person at Queens Park responsible for public beach safety.

John Watt, water safety advocate and ex-Wasaga Beach lifeguard, and Elaine Tanner, OC, triple Olympic medallist swimmer and water safety advocate.

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This story is part of the Stars trust initiative, where we take readers behind the scenes of our journalism. This week, we focus on why the Star seeks access to information and hearings that are not typically in the public eye.

The Toronto Star has long followed the principle that in order for society to have confidence in its institutions  the courts, police and government, for example  the public must be able to observe how they operate. And further, that the media can play a role in this by acting as the eyes and ears of citizens, most of whom have busy lives.

This philosophy often leads Star reporters to find themselves at odds with officials in our courts, or in quasi-judicial forums, such as tribunals, boards or panels, over how transparent these publicly funded institutions should be.

If the Star believes information of vital public interest is being withheld, the paper will, often with the help of lawyers, challenge publication bans, file access-to-information appeals or petition courts for access. For example, in February the Star launched a legal challenge with the goal of ending secrecy in Ontarios tribunal system that deals with things like police misconduct, human rights abuses and environmental offences. The challenge is ongoing.

Veteran Star reporter Peter Edwards and photographer Steve Russell found themselves in a situation in which they were forced to defend the publics right to know during a January Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada hearing in Rexdale. The journalists were there to cover a deportation hearing for Selva Kumar Subbiah, a convicted serial rapist originally from Malaysia who had just finished serving 24 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting 30 women in Canada.

Edwards only found out about the hearing from a source, as the board had made no public announcement. It was not clear whether the board would deport Subbiah to his native Malaysia or return him to the streets of Toronto, a prospect that terrified many of his victims. Prison staff told a 2016 parole hearing that Subbiah, if granted parole, was likely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person.

Edwards and Russell say they thought it was important that the public, including Subbiahs victims, be allowed to see what he looked like now in the event he was released, but they werent hopeful that the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) would allow photography. As with court proceedings in Ontario, photography by the public is not allowed in IRB hearing rooms.

When I got there, I was 99 per cent sure I wasnt going to get anything, said Russell.

Predictably, the journalists were told by IRB officials that photography wasnt allowed, but that they could make a submission to the chair of the hearing stating why an exception should be made in this case. The journalists were told that even if the Stars request was granted, they couldnt enter the hearing room but could only take photos of a TV screen showing what was going on inside.

Edwards quickly grabbed a piece of paper and began drafting an argument in favour of letting the Star take a picture of Subbiah, recalling as he did a conversation he had with one of Subbiahs victims.

What I tried to do was pretend that she was writing it as much as I could, he said. The woman said that every time a man walked by her home, shed wonder. She knew he had changed his appearance and she wanted some sort of order in her life and to at least know what the other side looked like. It had affected her home life, her trust of men.

Edwards said he also submitted that the broader public has a right to know what goes on in immigration hearings, especially when they involve individuals deemed a risk to society.

This is our system and it works as well as we make it work. So if were blindfolded, its not going to work that well, Edwards said.

At the same time, Subbiah submitted his own arguments as to why the Star shouldnt be allowed to take his photo.

In the end, the chairman sided with the Star. But that left Russell with another challenge: take a photo of an image of Subbiah on a TV screen that was of high enough quality for publication.

Yet another challenge: aware that the Star was now trying to take his photo, Subbiah turned his face to the floor so that all that was visible was the top of his head.

Russell pointed his camera at the screen and waited, keeping one eye looking through his viewfinder and another on the whole screen. Minutes ticked by. No movement.

He just kept his head down. He knew what was going on, Russell recalled.

Then, for just one instant, Subbiah looked up slightly. Russell was ready.

I knew at some point he was going to have to look up. The picture ran on the front of the GTA section.

As the famous quote goes, news is what someone somewhere wants to keep secret. Everything else is advertising, said Toronto Star Editor Michael Cooke. When our elected and appointed officials want to keep something secret from us, the public, you can bet its something we should and need to know about.

Email your questions to trust@thestar.ca

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Combo photo shows that missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying (L) and Brendt Christensen (R), arrested in connection with the disappearance of Zhang on June 9, 2017, in Champaign, the U.S. state of Illinois. (Courtesy: Macon County Sheriff's Office)

CHICAGO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Champaign County Crime Stoppers Friday announced a rise in the reward for clues leading to whereabouts of missing Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang to 50,000 U.S. dollars at the request of Zhang's family.

Crime Stoppers representatives and Zhang's family jointly made the statement at a news conference held in the auditorium of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, Champaign.

The reward money will come from community donations to an online fundraising effort.

With the 10,000 dollars offered by FBI added, the total reward will be 60,000 dollars.

Zhang's family hoped that new information could aid the ongoing investigation.

In a statement Zhang's family made at the news conference, Zhang's family expressed their gratitude for the help and support they have got. "Yingying is our pride and joy. She is smart, hard-working, brave and kind," Zhang's family said. "We continue to maintain hope that she has survived this ordeal until we find her."

Zhang's family said they would consider additional reward if anyone can bring Zhang back safely.

Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was last seen entering a black Saturn Astra car driven by 28-year-old Brendt Christensen on June 9. Police arrested Christensen for kidnapping 26-year-old Zhang on June 30, but Zhang's location is still unknown.

The FBI believes Zhang is deceased, based on facts presented in court and court documents and other facts uncovered during the ongoing investigation.

Christensen was indicted on July 12 by a federal grand jury on a criminal charge related to Zhang's abduction. He remains in custody.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 04:46:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LOS ANGELES, July 14 (Xinhua) -- An African American girl Tatyana Hargrove was beaten by police officers of Bakersfield of California and attacked by a police dog for she was mistakenly identified as a male suspect.

The video posted on social media trigger an outrage around the nation and an internal investigation, the Los Angeles Times website reported Thursday night.

The incident happened on June 18, the day before Father's Day. 19-year-old Tatyana Hargrove said in a video posted on NAACP (National Association for The Advanced Colored People)'s Facebook page that, she went to a grocery store nearby to pick up a gift for her father, where she met three patrol cruisers and one police officer pointing at her with a gun.

That day was very hot, Hargrove said, she got a back pack with three bottles of water. The police asked her to hand over the back pack, at first she asked if he had a warrant, but the police didn't answer, just pointed at a big K-9 police dog, she was so scared, then had to follow the order.

After that, an officer grabbed her wrist, neck and punched her. They also threw her onto the ground, when the K-9 dog started eating her legs. After Hargrove was rolled around, the officer put his knees on her back and head, she stated.

"I told him I can't breathe. I can't breathe," she said. "and then I started yelling out: "Somebody help me. Somebody help me. They are going to kill me."

Over 6,000 people commented on this video till Friday morning, most of them denounced the police and sympathize on Hargrove's encounter.

"That is disgusting. That girl needs an apology and compensation for the ordeal, for the injuries and for the mental abuse of it all, Facebook user Sheena Bowen said.

However what policemen described after the incident was very different from Hargrove's.

According to officer Christopher Moore who wrote the report, Hargrove was arrested on suspicion of resisting an officer and assaulting on a peace officer, even though he knew he made a wrong about Hargrove's gender.

"She appeared to be a male and matched the description of the suspect that had brandished the machete and was also within the same complex the suspect had fled to," Moore wrote.

When Hargrove was carried back to the patrol cruiser, she told officers her name is Tatyana, Moore said: "Don't lie to me, that's a girl's name. What is your name?" She said, "I am a girl, I just don't dress like one." That's the first time Moore discovered she was a female, LA Times reported.

Bakersfield police Sgt. Ryan Kroeker, a department spokesman, declined to comment on the allegations, only said "there are two sides to every story."

So far the officers involved in Hargrove's arrest have not been placed on leave, LA Times reported, adding that Hargrove is still suffering from the wounds from the dog bite, and cuts to her face and right knee.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 04:46:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A Moroccan anti-terror court sentenced 11 people to a maximum of 20 years in prison for terror-related crimes, local media reported on Friday.

The principal defendant was given 20 years in prison, while two were sentenced to 18 years, five to 10 years and three others to 5 years, the Moroccan Hepress.com news site said.

The defendants were convicted of "forming a gang to commit terrorist attacks within the framework of a collective plot to seriously undermine public order, possessing arms and praising terrorist acts," the news website added.

The 11 people were arrested in 2015 when the police busted a terror cell, which was active in several Moroccan cities and linked to the terror group Islamic State.
RBC Bearings Incorporated manufactures and markets engineered precision bearings and components in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Aerospace/Defense and Industrial. The company produces plain bearings with self-lubricating or metal-to-metal designs, including rod end bearings, spherical plain bearings, and journal bearings; roller bearings, such as tapered roller bearings, needle roller bearings, and needle bearing track rollers and cam followers, which are anti-friction products that are used in industrial applications and military aircraft platforms; and ball bearings include high precision aerospace, airframe control, thin section, and industrial ball bearings that utilize high precision ball elements to reduce friction in high-speed applications. It also offers mounted bearing products include mounted ball bearings, mounted roller bearings, and mounted plain bearings; and enclosed gearing product lines, including quantis gearmotor, torque arm, tigear, magnagear & maxum, and controlled start transmission. In addition, the company produces power transmission components include mechanical drive components, couplings, and conveyor components; engineered hydraulics and valves for aircraft and submarine applications, and aerospace and defense aftermarket services; fasteners; precision mechanical components, which are used in various general industrial applications; and machine tool collets that are used for holding circulars or rod-like pieces. It serves automotive, tool holding, agricultural and semiconductor machinery, commercial and defense aerospace, ground defense, construction and mining, oil and natural resource extraction, heavy truck, marine, rail and train, packaging, food and beverage, packaging and canning, wind, and general industrial markets through its direct sales force, as well as a network of industrial and aerospace distributors. The company was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Oxford, Connecticut.
TechnipFMC plc engages in the oil and gas projects, technologies, and systems and services businesses in Europe, Central Asia, North and Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. The Subsea segment engages in the design, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, fabrication, installation, and life of field services for subsea systems, subsea field infrastructure, and subsea pipe systems used in oil and gas production and transportation. It provides subsea production and processing systems; subsea umbilicals, risers, and flowlines; vessels; and Subsea Studio for optimizing the development, execution, and operation of current and future subsea fields. This segment also offers well and asset services; research, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain; and product management services. The Surface Technologies segment designs, manufactures, and services products and systems used in land and shallow water exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. This segment offers drilling and completion systems; surface wellheads and production trees systems; iComplete, a digitally enabled pressure control system; fracturing tree and manifold systems; pressure pumping; well service pumps; well control, safety and integrity systems, multiphase meter modules, in-line separation and processing systems, and standard pumps; flowback and well testing services; skid systems; automation and digital systems; and flow measurement and automation solutions. It also offers planning, testing and installation, commissioning, operations, replacement and upgrade, maintenance, storage, preservation, intervention, integrity, decommissioning, and abandonment; and supplies flexible lines and flowline products and services. TechnipFMC plc has a strategic alliance with Talos Energy Inc. to develop and deliver technical and commercial solutions to Carbon Capture and Storage projects. The company was founded in 1884 and is based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the United Kingdom.
Photo taken on July 13, 2017 shows that the Field Museum of Natural History's New QingMing beer tap is installed beside other special brews in the dining hall of the museum in Chicago, the United States. (Xinhua Photo)

CHICAGO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History teamed up with Off Color Brewing to create a new beer inspired by artifacts discovered during archaeological digs in Taixi and a Changzikou tomb dating back to the Late Shang/Western Zhou Dynasties.

The new beer was unveiled Thursday night at an official launch party at the museum.

The beer was named QingMing after the Chinese festival in April and the famous 12th Century scroll by Zhang Zeduan. The Field Museum displays a 17th Century reproduction of the scroll in its Cyrus Tang Hall of China along with many other Chinese artifacts. Among the artifacts on display at the launch party includes a 18th Century bronze "pitch pot" from Beijing, a popular drinking game.

Photo taken on July 13, 2017 shows a glass of QingMing beer at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the United States. (Xinhua Photo)

Gary M. Feinman, MacArthur Curator of East Asian Anthropology at the Field Museum, gathered literature on early Chinese alcohol production for John Laffler at Off Color Brewing. Laffler was inspired by the fruits incorporated in making certain Chinese alcohols as well as the mold saccharification of rice.

"I've always been interested in mold-based saccharification," Laffler told Xinhua. "It's really fun for us as brewers coming from Western traditions where we use grain-based enzymatic degradation of starch and simple sugars."

Crossing cultures and centuries to recreate flavors from ancient Chinese alcohols was a challenge for Off Color Brewing. While sourcing ingredients Laffler found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed some of the ingredients and flavorings necessary for brewing the alcohols are not currently legal.The end result of the Off Color brewing process is a modern recreation of Chang and a stronger, drier herbal version of Li, a low alcohol rice or millet-based beer with a flavor profile of peaches and lemon rind with aromas of tea, bubblegum, and sake followed by a complex fruit, herbal, and floral character. The finish, as the alcohol evaporates off the tongue, leaves hints of nectar, honey, and perfumed rice.

Feinman presented the historical significance of alcohol in China at the QingMing Beer launch, revealing that analysis of archaeological evidence from various excavations shows alcohol has been consumed in China for at least 5,000 years.

"Alcohol is not only an important part of early rituals in China, it actually is very important to almost any cultural region you want to look at," Feinman told Xinhua. In his presentation, Feinman explained the connection to alcohol as something that breaks down inhibitions and helps to solidify the links and ties between people if used in the proper context that goes along with building communities.

"I think it's neat that here at the Field Museum we have this event that brings in the community to see the historical significance of alcohol, get together and in a sense use alcohol the way it' s always served humankind," said Feinman.

The QingMing Beer launch party drew nearly a hundred history and beer enthusiasts from all over the country. Michael, a resident of Washington D.C. was visiting the Field Museum when he saw the event.

"I've been to the Field Museum many times," Michael told Xinhua. "I saw this event was today and I enjoy good beer, especially craft and specialty type beers, so it was a great opportunity to try something new."

QingMing Beer will be distributed to thirty-nine states in limited numbers starting Monday, July 17, but is already available at the Field Museum and Off Color Brewing's online Bottle Shop. The Field Museum plans to continue teaming up with Off Color to create unique beers that can accompany their exhibitions.
Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technology solutions in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It operates through two segments, Service Center Based Distribution, and Fluid Power & Flow Control. The company distributes bearings, power transmission products, engineered fluid power components and systems, specialty flow control solutions, advanced automation products, industrial rubber products, linear motion components, automation solutions, tools, safety products, oilfield supplies, and other industrial and maintenance supplies; and motors, belting, drives, couplings, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic components, filtration supplies, valves, fittings, process instrumentation, actuators, and hoses, filtration supplies, as well as other related supplies for general operational needs of customers' machinery and equipment. It also operates fabricated rubber shops and service field crews that install, modify, and repair conveyor belts and rubber linings, as well as offer hose assemblies. In addition, the company provides equipment repair and technical support services. It distributes industrial products through a network of service centers. The company serves various industries, including agriculture and food processing, cement, chemicals and petrochemicals, fabricated metals, forest products, industrial machinery and equipment, life sciences, mining, oil and gas, primary metals, technology, transportation, and utilities, as well as government entities. The company was formerly known as Bearings, Inc. and changed its to name to Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. in 1997. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Photo shows the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, the United States. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)

LOS ANGELES, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The blazing sun beats on the coastal city of Los Angeles, one of the centers of contemporary art in the world, from early morning. The Broad Museum, located in the city center, is welcoming the peak season for tourism as summer vocation has begun.

The 1,1000-square-meter honeycomb-structured museum, built with 140 million U.S. dollars donated by philanthropist and art collector couple Eli Broad and Edythe Broad, has become one of the art landmarks of the "City of Angels."

"We want to share our contemporary art collection with the widest possible audience," Mr. Broad told Xinhua Tuesday, who has donated 2,000 works of art of their private collection to the museum together with his wife, including the famous Infinity Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, and Jeff Koons's Balloon Dog. The museum also boasts the largest collection of works of Cindy Sherman and Jeff Koons worldwide.

A visitor looks at a work of art at the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, the United States, on July 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Gaoshan)

"Good art evokes emotion," Mr. Broad said, "it (contemporary art) is the art of our time. It gives me and others an education of how others see the world. Spending time with the artists I've learned to have a different view of the world."

Mr. Broad, who has built two Fortune 500 companies and was ranked the 174th wealthiest person by Forbes in 2017, is one of the most powerful collectors in the United States or even in the world.

In order to enable as many people as possible to have access to the museum without being restricted by money, the museum has been free to the public since opening in September 2015.

Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti acclaimed the Broad Museum for consolidating Los Angeles's position as one of the contemporary art centers in the world by attracting affluent tourists worldwide.

The museum, which boasts one of the most important collections of postwar and contemporary art in the world, has received more than 1.2 million visitors during the past two years or less. In its inaugural year, it attracted more than 820,000 visitors, 13 percent of whom were international visitors.It has created a miracle by being listed among top 80 of the most popular art museums in the world and top 15 in the United States within one year after inauguration.

Only 38 percent of its visitors are white people, much lower than that of other museums in the United States. Besides, the average age of its visitors is 33 years old, about 12 years younger than that of other museums.

"The fact that they (the visitors) are keeping coming back is very encouraging," Mr. Broad said. He told Xinhua that since the museum can only showcase 250 to 300 art pieces once, it rotates exhibitions from time to time, which attracts many visitors to come again. "It is an experience that you have to look at once or twice, people come back and reflect on what they have seen."

Photo taken on July 11, 2017 shows the famous Infinity Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusama in the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, the United States. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)

Mr. Broad, aged 84, has visited China for three times, and has been to a multitude of museums and galleries in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"I was very impressed by works of some Chinese contemporary artists," Mr. Broad told Xinhua, adding that although his museum does not have any Chinese contemporary artworks now, yet "they will come."

The Broad Museum not only invites people across the world to come and enjoy contemporary art in Los Angeles, it also lends its artworks to museums in other countries. Till now, the museum has made more than 8,500 loans of its exhibits to over 500 museums and galleries worldwide.

"Art is international. It doesn't have any boundaries," Mr. Broad said, "we still lend. We don't want to just have the art in storage. We want to share with the broadest possible public, whether they are here in the United States or elsewhere."
Kazakhstan has purchased the Ukrainian AN-74 plane, the ordering customer already paid $15 million.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman wrote this on Facebook.

"Good news! Ukrainian AN-74, made in Kharkiv, will go to Kazakhstan, the customer has already paid $15 million for the plane," Groysman said.

According to the prime minister, there are plans to continue working on new markets and develop the export potential.

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The United States House Committee on Appropriations suggests allocating at least $410 million to Ukraine in 2018.

This is reported by the Embassy of Ukraine to the United States on its Facebook page.

According to the report, this is stipulated in the appropriation bill on needs of the State Department, foreign operations and related programs for fiscal year 2018, which allocates funds for programs to support Ukraine.

"Despite a significant reduction in the overall budget of the State Department, the estimate of aid to Ukraine by the United States Department of Foreign Affairs and related agencies is maintained at the level of 2017 - at least $410.465 million," the embassy informed.

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The European Union believes that Ukraine needs an effective anti-corruption judicial institution.

The official employee of the governing body of the European Union in Brussels said this, commenting on the statement made by President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker that the EU no longer insisted on the creation of a specialized anti-corruption court in Ukraine.

"President Juncker said clearly that the fight against corruption is crucial and needs to be further accelerated and intensified. It is important to create an independent and effective judicial body with the necessary powers and resources," the EU stressed.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 07:32:01|Editor: ying

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A genome sequencing test developed at the University of California, San Francisco, that can rapidly pinpoint the cause of a bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic infection from among a huge range of possibilities is now available across the United States.

The next-gen precision diagnostics is expected to help physicians diagnose mysterious cases of neurological infection in acutely ill patients.

Researchers at UCSF have used the test on a trial basis to diagnose a number of patients, including the well-known case of a 14-year-old boy who was near death with swelling in his brain. The boy had undergone months of unsuccessful attempts to identify the cause of his illness with conventional lab tests, expensive imaging technologies, and invasive procedures, including a brain biopsy.

By sequencing his cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), UCSF researchers found that the boy had a bacterial infection called leptospirosis, and he rapidly recovered after receiving targeted treatment with penicillin.

The test is now approved for clinical use.

UCSF physicians and researchers have examined the utility of the test using CSF collected from more than 200 patients enrolled in a nationwide study. All of these patients suffered from acute neurological illnesses, including meningitis, namely inflammation of the coverings around the brain and spinal cord; encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain; and myelitism, which is the inflammation of the spinal cord. Doctors often have trouble figuring out why these tissues become inflamed, as these conditions can have many causes, including infection, cancer, and autoimmune disease. This can lead to inappropriate treatment.

The new sequencing test can help overcome the uncertainly by pinpointing the genomic signatures of a wide range of pathogens, including fungi, bacteria, viruses, and parasites, all at once. If no pathogen is detected using this comprehensive test, doctors can be more confident in pursuing other non-infectious causes of the illness. While the test does not always establish the cause of inflammation, it has the potential to speed up the diagnostic process significantly, and to spare patients from having to undergo a large number of diagnostic tests and invasive procedures.

The technique, known as metagenomic next-generation sequencing, or mNGS, is a "shotgun" approach in which all of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) in a clinical sample are sequenced at very high depth, with the generation of 10 to 20 million reads per sample.

"Too many patients die or suffer unnecessarily because the cause of their illness cannot be determined in a timely fashion," Charles Chiu, an associate professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and principal investigator of the mNGS study, was quoted as saying in a news release. "We now have a single diagnostic tool that can be used to comprehensively diagnose or exclude infections in hospitalized patients with mysterious illnesses."
Music Time in Africa is VOAs longest running English language program. Since 1965, this award-winning program has featured pan African music that spans all genres and generations. Ethnomusicologist and Host Heather Maxwell keeps you up to date on whats happening in African music with exclusive interviews, cultural information, and of course, great music -- including rare recordings from the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music.
President Donald Trump turned up the heat Friday on fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate to pass a bill dismantling the Obamacare law, but with their retooled health care plan drawing fire within the party even one more defection would doom it.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has planned for a vote next week on revised legislation, unveiled on Thursday, and he has his work cut out for him in the coming days to get the 50 "yes" votes needed for passage. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin and cannot afford to lose more than two from within their ranks because of united Democratic opposition, but two Republican senators already have declared opposition.

"After all of these years of suffering thru Obamacare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised," Trump, who made gutting Obamacare one of his central campaign promises last year, wrote on Twitter from Paris, where he attended Bastille Day celebrations.

The top U.S. doctors' group, the American Medical Association, on Friday called the new bill inadequate and said more bipartisan collaboration is needed in the months ahead to improve the delivery and financing of health care. Hospital and medical advocacy groups also have criticized the bill.

"The revised bill does not address the key concerns of physicians and patients regarding proposed Medicaid cuts and inadequate subsidies that will result in millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage," AMA President Dr. David Barbe said, referring to the government insurance program for the poor and disabled.

A major test for McConnell's legislation expected early next week is an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which last month forecast that the prior version of the bill would have resulted in 22 million Americans losing insurance over the next decade.

A day after that CBO analysis was issued, McConnell postponed a planned vote on the legislation because of a revolt within his own party, including moderates and hard-line conservatives.

While the bill's prospects may look precarious, the same could have been said of health care legislation that ultimately was passed by the House of Representatives. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan called off a vote in March in the face of a rebellion involving the disparate factions of the party, but managed to coax enough lawmakers to back it and engineered narrow approval on May 4.

Vice President Mike Pence sought to shore up support among the nation's governors at a meeting in Rhode Island, but a key Republican governor, Ohio's John Kasich, came out strongly against the revised bill, saying its Medicaid cuts were too deep and it does too little to stabilize the insurance market.

Alternative options

If the current Senate legislation collapses, some lawmakers have raised the possibility of seeking bipartisan legislation to fix parts of Obamacare but leaving intact the structure of the Affordable Care Act, Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, commonly known as Obamacare. "There are changes that need to be made to the law," Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told MSNBC, citing "a bipartisan appetite to tackle this issue."

Moderate Susan Collins and conservative Rand Paul already oppose the revised Senate bill. Other Republican senators have either expressed concern or remained noncommittal, including Rob Portman, Mike Lee, Shelley Moore Capito, John McCain, Dean Heller, John Hoeven, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, Cory Gardner, Todd Young and Thom Tillis. Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy floated an alternative plan.

The new version was crafted to satisfy the Republican Party's various elements, including moderates worried about Americans who would be left without medical coverage and hard-line conservatives who demand less government regulation of health insurance.

Insurance groups balk

A provision championed by Republican Senator Ted Cruz and aimed at attracting conservatives would let insurers sell cheap, bare-bones insurance policies that would not have to cover broad benefits mandated under Obamacare.

But two major health insurance groups, America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, called on McConnell to drop the Cruz proposal, saying it would undermine protections for pre-existing medical conditions, raise insurance premiums and destabilize the individual insurance market.

The bill retained certain Obamacare taxes on the wealthy that the earlier version would have eliminated, a step moderates could embrace. But it kept the core of the earlier bill, including ending the expansion of Medicaid that was instrumental in enabling Obamacare to expand coverage to 20 million people, and restructuring that social safety-net program.

John Thune, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, said in order to complete work on the bill by the end of next week, Senate leaders would have to try to formally begin debate Tuesday or Wednesday, a move that requires a majority vote.
As U.S. and Afghan security forces battle Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, thousands of families who fled their homes in the region say the provincial government has not provided assistance and their living conditions are dire.

More than 2,000 families from eastern Achin district have sought refuge in nearby districts after IS militants attempted to establish a stronger presence in the district's Mamand and Bandar valleys.

U.S. military and Afghan security forces have launched ground and air operations to oust IS fighters from the region.

The displaced families also include those who left the area before the U.S. Air Force dropped a Massive Ordinance Air Bomb (MOAB), informally known as "the mother of all bombs," on an IS stronghold in Achin in April.

The displaced families say the provincial government has not provided assistance as they endure brutal summer conditions with temperatures rising well above 40 degrees C (104 degrees F).

We need assistance, we need shelter. We have nothing, Juma Khan, who fled Achin along with his family before the MOAB was dropped, told VOA's Afghan service. We have not received any sort of assistance. No one cares about us.

Makeshift camps

Many of the displaced families live in makeshift camps that lack basic facilities. Some, however, have received temporary accommodations from relatives and friends.

The provincial government, however, said many of the displaced families have received assistance and claims the assistance program will continue.

Assistance has been provided to the displaced families from Mamand and Bandar valleys. Even some of them have received assistance multiple times, Attaullah Khogyani, Nangarhar provincial government spokesperson, told VOA. Some families may not have received assistance yet, but we are trying to identify and help them.

The IS terror group has been active in several districts in Nangarhar, as well as in nearby Kunar and Nuristan provinces.

Militants have allegedly stormed villages and government facilities repeatedly. Hundreds of people have been killed and abducted in IS attacks, according to reports. The group also has set homes and markets on fire and destroyed local schools, officials said.

IS actions have caused tens of thousands of people in several districts of Nangarhar to flee their homes during the past two years. Afghan and U.S. forces have launched operations against IS militants and said many areas have been cleared of militants.

U.S military forces and the Afghan government have promised to eliminate IS from Afghanistan by the end of 2017.
Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team has arrived in the U.S. for a competition after President Donald Trump personally intervened to allow them into the country.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month for unknown reasons.

However, VOA's White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported Wednesday that Trump granted the girls what is known as a parole  reversing the earlier decision to bar them from the U.S.  that will allow them to come to Washington for 20 days.

A student team from Gambia also was granted visas last week after initially being rejected.

The president of FIRST Global, which organized the robotics competition, is former Democratic congressman and retired U.S. Navy Admiral Joe Sestak. He thanked the White House and the State Department for clearing obstacles to the Afghan and Gambian students' travel to the United States. Teams from all 157 countries that have entered the competition now will be taking part, he added.

The three-day robotics competition begins Sunday in Washington.

FIRST Global Challenge holds the yearly contest to build up interest in science, technology, engineering and math across the world.

The group says the focus of the competition is finding solutions to problems in such fields as water, energy, medicine and food production.
A senior adviser to Irans Supreme Leader has described Iraqs liberation of Mosul from Islamic State (IS) as a victory for Tehran.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told reporters, Liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul from the hands of IS marks a triumph for Iran as well as for Iraq.

Majid Rafizadeh, a political scientist at Harvard University, said the victory by Iraqi forces helped Tehran tip the regional balance of power against its Sunni-dominated rivals such as Saudi Arabia.

The emergence of IS characteristically paved the road for Tehran to pursue its geopolitical, financial and strategic ambitions beyond its borders and helped Iranians to establish their manifestation through networks of affiliated proxy groups, Rafizadeh added.

Tensions between Iran and longtime rival Saudi Arabia have escalated in recent weeks, since the Saudis and their Persian Gulf partners cut ties to Qatar, citing, in part, Qatars association with Iran and Tehrans alleged link to terrorism.

Irans role

Two days after Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claimed victory in Mosul over Islamic State, the commander of Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, detailed the role IRGC played in leading Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in their fight against Islamic State.

We didnt limit ourselves to sharing advice to our Iraqi brothers, but we extended our support by giving them the key to our ammunition depot and backed their operations with IRGC Sukhoi squadron, Soleimani said.

The exact number of PMF troops is unclear, but its estimated to be between 100,000 and 120,000.

Iraqs parliament approved the integration of PMF as an official wing of Iraqis security forces in November 2016, a move that has increased Tehrans role in Iraqs security and military sectors.

Iranian officials have rejected the notion that Tehrans support of the PMF and other Iraqi military sectors is aimed at increasing its regional clout. But a recent speech by Soleimani appeared to contradict those statements.

Iraqs national army is on its way to internalize [Shiite] ideology, Soleimani said. We have also helped in the procedure of purifying the Iraqi army from Baathi elements and it is moving toward becoming a Hezbollah-like army.

Iranian influence

Some analysts believe Soleimanis comment reveals some aspects of Tehrans outreach to boost its influence in Iraq institutionally.

Tehran has deeply penetrated into security and military sectors of Iraq, Rasool Nafisi, a Virginia-based Middle East expert, said. Many of the Iraqi officials have pledged allegiance to Irans leader and see themselves committed to Tehran.

Iran may use its influence in Iraqi institutions not only to promote its regional ambition of confronting the Sunni powers, but in possibly challenging Washington, some analysts believe.

US in the region

U.S. President Donald Trump has portrayed Iranian influence as a global threat on par with IS and al-Qaida. In reaction to ISs twin attacks in Tehran last month, Trump implied that the Iranian government was ultimately to blame.

We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote, he said in a White House statement.

In recent comments, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said regime change will be necessary before the U.S. and Iran can have substantially positive relations.

In response, the deputy chief of staff of Irans armed forces, Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri, said Friday that Iran is determined to drive all foreign troops out of the region. Americans are not welcome here and must leave immediately.

Analysts warn some PMF groups may turn against the U.S. forces if tensions arise between Washington and Tehran.

If there is a perception that the U.S. will keep its military presence in Iraq and will have a mission more than just training the Iraqi security forces, then that will increase the incentive for the Shiite militias to more directly apply pressure on the United States to leave, said Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.

U.S. officials said there wont be a hasty withdrawal of more than 9,000 U.S. and coalition forces after Mosuls liberation. And one aim is to stabilize the region outside Mosul, where more than 25,000 Iraqi troops, including paramilitary forces made up of Sunni tribal fighters and Shiite militiamen, have been clearing IS from villages.

Washington and Tehran look at the regional stabilization through different lenses, Harvard political scientist Rafizadeh said.
Australia wants to pass new laws to force major tech companies to decode encrypted messages and hand them over to crime fighters. The government in Canberra says the measures are needed to fight extremism, drug smuggling and child abuse. But technology experts say it is difficult to see how the legislation would work in practice.

The cybersecurity law would compel international technology giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook to help law enforcement agencies by helping to decode encrypted messages sent by suspected extremists and other criminals.

The proposed legislation would be modelled on Britains Investigatory Powers Act, which has given UK intelligence services some of the most broad-ranging surveillance powers in the Western world.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants Australia to have the same capabilities.

Increasingly, communications across the internet, whether it is messaging applications or voice applications, are encrypted end-to-end, and that means while they can be intercepted they cannot be read. So, what we are seeking to do, working with the other leading economies in the world, is to ensure that the brilliant tech companies in Silicon Valley and their emulators bring their brilliance to bear to assist the rule of law, Turnbull said.

The Australian Federal Police say the legislation would not change or expand what the authorities could currently legally intercept, but would give them the ability to see material that is scrambled by encryption applications.

Resistance expected

The Turnbull administration is expecting resistance from some tech companies, including many based in the United States. Apple boss Tim Cook has previously rejected co-operation with governments that could undermine the security of its products.

Professor Nigel Phair, director of the Center for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra, says the Australian plan is fraught with problems.

There is no silver bullet to catching these people and as soon as we create, or try to create, a backdoor in one messaging app, they are just going create their own messaging app which will not cooperate with government. So there is other players out there that will not cooperate with government. They might be domiciled in a foreign jurisdiction that does not abide by the way we play, and, of course, the criminals will just use that app, Phair said.

Australian authorities say that 65 percent of their investigations into serious crime, including terrorism and pedophile rings, involve some sort of encryption.

Ministers hope to introduce the laws in parliament in the next few months.
U.S. officials interviewing refugees held in an Australian-run offshore detention center left the facility abruptly, three detainees told Reuters on Saturday, throwing further doubt over a plan to resettle many of the detainees in America.

U.S. officials halted screening interviews and departed the Pacific island of Nauru on Friday, two weeks short of their scheduled timetable and a day after Washington said the United States had reached its annual refugee intake cap.

"U.S. (officials) were scheduled to be on Nauru until July 26 but they left on Friday," one refugee told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he did not want to jeopardize his application for U.S. resettlement.

In the United States, a senior member of the union that represents refugee officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a Department of Homeland Security agency, told Reuters his own trip to Nauru was not going forward as scheduled.

Jason Marks, chief steward of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924, told Reuters his trip has now been pushed back and it was unclear whether it will actually happen.

The USCIS said on Saturday that the program would continue but offered no details.

"We do not discuss the exact dates of USCIS' circuit rides to adjudicate refugees' applications. However, we are planning return trips," the agency said in a statement.

"It is not uncommon for the dates of tentatively-planned refugee circuit ride trips worldwide to change due to a wide variety of factors."

The Australian Immigration Department declined to comment on the whereabouts of the U.S. officials or the future of a refugee swap agreement between Australia and the United States that President Donald Trump earlier this year branded a "dumb deal".

An indefinite postponement of the deal would have significant repercussions for Australia's pledge to close a second detention center on Papua New Guinea's Manus island on Oct 31. Only 70 refugees, less than 10 percent of the total detainees held in the camp, have completed U.S. processing.

"The U.S. deal looks more and more doubtful," Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said. "The U.S. deal was never the solution the Australian government pretended it to be."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama agreed a deal with Australia late last year to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers, a deal the Trump administration said it would only honor to maintain a strong relationship with Australia and then only on condition that refugees satisfied strict checks.

In exchange, Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a center in Costa Rica, where the United States has taken in a larger number of people in recent years.

The swap is designed, in part, to help Australia close both Manus and Nauru, which are expensive to run and have been widely criticized by the United Nations and others over treatment of detainees.

The U.S. government confirmed on Thursday that its refugee intake cap of 50,000 people had been reached with the new intake year not due to begin until Oct. 1.

Exemptions could be made for those who have a "credible claim to a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States", following a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court last month reviving elements of Trump's travel ban while it considers the legality of the order.

Given the risky boat journey the refugees in Manus and Nauru undertook to reach Australia, it is unlikely many of them have strong family ties to the United States, experts said. The majority of the detainees interviewed on both Manus and Nauru by U.S. officials in April are from Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Australia's hard-line immigration policy requires asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent for processing to camps at Manus and on the South Pacific island of Nauru. They are told they will never be settled in Australia.

Trump's resistance to the refugee deal had strained relations with a key Asia Pacific ally, triggering a fractious phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year.

Trump's concession and a series of high-level visits by U.S. dignities has since help mend connections between the two countries.

Australia has already offered detainees up to $25,000 to voluntarily return to their home countries, an offer few have taken up.
A Chinese legal activist who founded a loose network of socially conscious citizens was released from prison Saturday at the end of a four-year sentence, his lawyer said.



Xu Zhiyong helped found the New Citizens Movement, which at the time organized monthly dinners to discuss Chinas constitution and other legal issues.



Zhang Qingfang, Xus attorney, said he was freed Saturday morning from a prison in Beijing. He said Xu was in good health, but had no further details to share.

Disrupting order



It was not immediately clear if despite his release Xus movement continued to be restricted. Authorities commonly place activists seen as politically sensitive under some form of house arrest to prevent them from speaking publicly. Xu could not be reached on his cellphone.



Xu was convicted in January 2014 of disrupting order in public places, a vaguely defined charge that activists say has been used to muzzle government critics.



Xus arrest in 2013 and imprisonment was seen as dealing a major blow to the groups efforts to develop a socially conscious public aware of their rights as citizens to call for greater official accountability in anything from corruption to equal rights to education.



Xu and his supporters purposely kept the movement unstructured so as not to challenge the partys zero intolerance on organized movements. They downplayed any political appeals and championed causes that were in line with the partys own stated goals.

Others arrested



Still, Xus fledgling campaign became a target after it inspired people across the country to gather for dinner parties to discuss social issues and occasionally to unfurl banners in public places in small rallies.



Several of his supporters had also been sentenced to prison in 2014 in prosecutions that raised concerns among Western governments and human rights groups. American and European diplomats made unsuccessful attempts to attend the trials.



The sentences, decried by other dissidents as excessively heavy, reflect the increasingly hard line that Chinas Communist Party has taken against political dissent, no matter how peacefully expressed or loosely organized. Party leaders have been wary of any independent social force with the potential to threaten the partys rule by mobilizing groups of people.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 09:53:01|Editor: Mengjie

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A trade and investment forum between provinces in China and the U.S. state of Washington is scheduled for later this month.

The event, to take place on July 20 in Seattle, is organized by the Trade Development Bureau of China's Commerce Ministry and the U.S. Commerce Department of Washington, and supported by the Consulate General of China in San Francisco and the State Government of Washington.

While announcing the upcoming event on Friday, China's Consulate General in San Francisco said the forum is a follow-up to the "Hundred Days Plan" initiated after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Largo in April.

Over 100 Chinese representatives from the provinces of Shaanxi, Liaoning, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hunan will discuss with their counterparts cooperating in the information industry, high-end manufacturing, life sciences, financial services, e-commerce, food processing and real estate.

China has become Washington's largest trading partner outside North America in recent years.
Imagine being lost and unable to find the nearest bus stop.

Now imagine looking for that same bus stop as a person who is blind.

If there are no sighted people available to guide you, said Luiza Aguiar, executive director of Perkins Solution. You are out of luck.

Someone with blindness typically relies on a smartphones voiceover and GPS functions to help them get around, but theres a big catch: Devices with GPS usually get people within 30 feet of their final destination.

But that last 30 feet, when you are blind, is the last 30 feet of frustration, because you cant get to your precise goal, Aguiar said.

Crowdsourcing the solution

To address the problem, Perkins Solutions, a division of the Boston-based Perkins School for the Blind, has built a technological solution, the BlindWays app, which Aguiar recently showed off at the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow conference. The iPhone app is assisting the blind and visually impaired in Boston, guiding them to the nearest bus stop.

Crucial to the apps usefulness is help from the sighted. They are invited to also download the app and become contributors, reporting landmarks near a transit stop  a fire hydrant, a bench, a tree.

The landmarks offer tactile clues for the blind user. For example, they can include specific descriptions such as thick metal pole or thin square pole.

Through the public crowdsourcing, contributors have provided these sorts of clues for 5,200 of Bostons 7,800 bus stops.

Expanding to other cities

The apps creators want to replicate their efforts in other cities with Los Angeles and San Francisco governments having expressed interest, Aguiar said.

The app gives back a degree of independence and autonomy to blind users.

Not having to rely on, you know, more segregated types of transportation, thats really what visually impaired people want, Aguiar said.

BlindWays crowdsourcing model is one that Aguiar believes will be part of a larger trend in technologies that help the blind and visually impaired, especially since almost everyone has a smartphone these days.

Were all getting more and more used to living in a mobile world and therefore, we could contribute anywhere and anytime to help a colleague or somebody in our community, Aguiar said. Its a powerful model for us, I think were going to see more.
Germany has confirmed that two of its nationals were stabbed to death in an attack at an Egyptian resort hotel.

A German Foreign Ministry statement said "We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada."

Officials say the female tourists were killed Friday when the assailant swam ashore from another Red Sea beach.

Egyptian authorities say the man has been arrested.

A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, "According to what we know, the act was a deliberate attack on foreign tourists - a particularly devious and criminal act that leaves us sad, dismayed and furious."

Four other people were wounded in the incident.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most popular beach resorts, especially with Europeans.
Indonesia says its blocking web versions of the encrypted Telegram instant messaging app and will block the app completely if it continues to be a forum for radical propaganda and violent militants.



The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a statement Friday evening that it has asked internet companies in the worlds most populous Muslim nation to block access to 11 addresses that the web version is available through.



It said this blocking must be done because many channels in the service are used to recruit Indonesians into militant groups and to spread hate and methods for carrying out attacks including bomb making.



Samuel Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at the ministry, said they are preparing for the complete closure of Telegram in Indonesia if it does not develop procedures to block unlawful content.



The measures against Telegram come as Southeast Asian nations are stepping up efforts to combat Islamic radicalism following the capture of the southern Philippine city of Marawi by IS-linked militants.



Nearly two months after the initial assault, Philippine forces are still battling to regain complete control of the city. Experts fear the southern Philippines could become a new base for IS, including Indonesian and Malaysian militants returning from the Middle East, as an international coalition retakes territory held by IS in Syria and Iraq.



But the government move has sparked a public outcry in Indonesia, with Twitter and Facebook exploding with negative comments and some people reporting they were unable to access the web.telegram.org domain. Indonesians are among of the worlds biggest users of social media.



Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Suspected militants arrested by Indonesian police recently have told authorities that they have communicated with fellow members of their group via Telegram and received orders and directions to carry out attacks through the app, including from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian with the Islamic State group in Syria accused of orchestrating several attacks in the past 18 months.



Founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, Telegram is a free messaging service that can be used as a smartphone app and on computers through a web interface or desktop messenger. Its strong encryption has contributed to its popularity with those concerned about privacy and secure communications in the digital era but also made it useful to militant groups and other criminal elements.
Utah's accelerated special election to replace Jason Chaffetz in Congress doesn't seem to allow enough time for new political parties to get on the ballot, including one recently formed by the son of a former U.S. senator, a federal judge said Friday.

Judge David Nuffer said at a hearing that he's not ready to rule on whether he'll order state officials to include Jim Bennett, the son of the late U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, and his United Utah Party on the November ballot. But he said he intended to decide soon.

Bennett contends in lawsuit that Utah elections officials violated his constitutional rights by telling him they didn't have time to verify his new party, a centrist alternative in the GOP-dominated state. His father served 18 years in the U.S. Senate as a Republican before he was ousted in 2010.

Utah's elections office said there wasn't time to accommodate Jim Bennett and his party without shutting out other potential United Utah candidates or delaying the entire election.

Chaffetz made a surprise announcement May 18 that he was resigning at the end of June. Utah elections officials announced May 19 that those who wanted to run as political parties' nominees had one week to file their candidacies with the state, starting that day.

On the last day of the weeklong filing period, Bennett and his United Utah Party submitted documents to create the party and run Bennett as its first candidate.

Certification problem

The Utah lieutenant governor's office, which oversees elections, said it couldn't certify the party in time and couldn't allow a candidate to run as a party's nominee if the party didn't officially exist.

Nuffer said Friday that the special election timeline set by Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox didn't appear to offer enough time for a new political party to participate.

Assistant Attorney General David Wolf, who represents the lieutenant governor, said it typically takes about 30 days to certify a new political party and United Utah could have been on the ballot if it had started the process earlier.

Bennett and his lawyers pointed out that they couldn't have kick-started their nascent party sooner because they didn't know Chaffetz was resigning until Chaffetz made the announcement.

The judge seemed sympathetic to that argument.

"If what one has to do to get on the ballot is be a soothsayer, then that is a pretty high burden," Nuffer said.

He's expected to rule soon on whether Bennett should be included on the ballot, but the lawsuit isn't expected to derail the special election because Bennett isn't challenging the rest of the process.

Several lawsuits

It's one of several lawsuits that have been filed over the process to replace Chaffetz in Utah's 3rd Congressional District, which covers Salt Lake City's southeastern suburbs and desert towns in southeastern Utah.

Another potential candidate, Brigham Young University professor Chia-Chi Teng, sued the state because he wasn't allowed to file via video conference to run as a Republican candidate.

Teng is teaching in China this summer and said he couldn't return to Utah and file in person, as the law requires. A judge sided with state elections officials who denied his candidacy.

The primary election to replace Chaffetz is August 15, and the general election is November 7.
China says the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer, has been cremated.

The government of the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, where Liu was treated, said in a briefing that the cremation took place Saturday morning in a ceremony attended by family and friends.

The wife and other family members of China's best-known political prisoner have been closely guarded by Chinese authorities and largely out of contact with the outside world.

Liu died Thursday from multiple organ failure. Foreign governments and Liu's supporters had urged China to release Liu and his wife to allow them to seek treatment abroad, but Beijing dismissed those requests.
The ashes of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo were scattered at sea Saturday after a muted cremation ceremony that was under government watch in the Chinese city of Shenyang.

Liu, who was often called China's best-known human rights prisoner, died Thursday at age 61 following a high-profile battle with liver cancer that made his death as controversial as his life.

He spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience and died at a hospital in Shenyang, where he had been moved from his prison cell in the final stage of his illness. The judicial bureau in Shenyang announced the cause of death as "multiple organ failure."

Officials showed reporters a slide show of photographs of the ceremony that was attended by his wife, Liu Xia, Liu's two brothers and a brother of Liu's wife. The government said Liu's friends also attended the funeral. Of the estimated 10 people in attendance, close friends of the couple did not appear to be among them in the government images.

One picture showed Liu's widow wearing dark sunglasses and clutching a photograph of her late husband. Just hours after the ceremony, a government video showed Liu Xia and others lowering an urn into the water, depriving family and supporters of a physical location to pay their respects to China's only Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Shenyang municipal government official Zhang Qingyang said Liu's body was cremated "in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs."

Liu's older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, thanked the Communist Party for its "humanistic care" of his late brother at a news conference orchestrated by Shenyang municipal officials.

Beijing blamed for heavy responsibility in Liu's death

The leader of the Norwegian Nobel committee said earlier this week the Chinese government bore a "heavy responsibility" Liu's his death. "We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," said Berit Reiss-Andersen. "The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death," she said in an emailed statement.

China has lodged complaints against Germany, France, the U.S. and the United Nations human rights high commissioner over criticism about the handling of Liu's death.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang blasted "certain countries" for interfering in China's "judicial sovereignty."

"China is a country under the rule of law. The handling of Liu Xiaobo's case belongs to China's internal affairs, and foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks," Geng said.

The ruling Communist Party newspaper said Liu lived a "tragic life." The Global Times said, "Lui's last days were politicized by the forces overseas. They used Liu's illness as a tool to boost their image and demonize China."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for China to release Liu's widow from house arrest. "I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes."

"Even as Liu Xiaobo's illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment," said Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch. "The Chinese government's arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking - but Liu's struggle for a rights-respecting Democratic China will live on."
Pakistan says it finds it necessary to build a fence along its long porous border with Afghanistan, in part because of a lack of cooperation from authorities in Kabul. The border region has long been a source of instability, with militant groups, terrorists and smugglers using the remote, mountainous terrain as cover.

Pakistan says it is now moving forward unilaterally to improve security in the region, and increase the monitoring of millions of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

Afghanistan opposes the border fencing plans because it disputes the demarcation of the border, which was set by the former British rulers of the Indian subcontinent. Afghan leaders also accuse Pakistans military and its ISI spy agency of helping Taliban insurgents and their dreaded Haqqani network ally sustain the insurgency in Afghanistan. The allegations have long strained bilateral relations and Islamabads border fencing project has fueled tensions.

No option

Speaking at an international conference in Islamabad this week, army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor said that the military has deployed over 200,000 troops along the border and established nearly 1,000 posts while Afghans have maintained just over 200 outposts.

This has left a large portion of the nearly 2,600-kilometer border unguarded, making it impossible to control illegal cross-border movement, he complained.

So, under compulsion we had no option but to go for unilateral border management. So, what we have done is that we have started to construct new border posts and new forts along the border. On the average, every 1.5 kilometer will have either a border post or the fort where our troops will be there, the general explained.

Islamabad dismisses traditional Afghan objections to the international frontier between the two countries. Officials also deny Pakistan is supporting Afghan insurgents, saying the charges are an attempt by the Kabul government to divert attention from their internal political and security challenges.

Ghafoor said As long as Afghanistan looks towards Pakistan through the lens of anti-Pakistan forces, the region will never be stable. The day Afghanistan looks towards Pakistan from the lens of their own national interest, it will be stable."

Pakistan also accuses rival India of using growing influence within Afghan security institutions to destabilize Kabuls ties with Islamabad, accusations Afghan and Indian officials deny.

Refugee population

Ghafoor said that presence of 2.7-million Afghan refugees in the country, an estimated 44 percent of them undocumented, is another prime driver of blame game between the two countries and a security challenge for Pakistan.

For long the displaced population, particularly unregistered Afghans, have lived in Pakistan with no checks on their movement, encouraging militants to exploit the situation, he said. But a recently concluded national census has now enabled authorities to identify every Afghan citizen living in the country, disclosed the general.

We desire an early, smooth, honorable and socio-economically gainful and possibly irreversible repatriation of all Afghan refugees, Ghafoor reiterated.

Increased monitoring of the refugee population coupled with border restrictions and raise in financial assistance by UNHCR for voluntary repatriation in 2016 prompted more than 750,000 Afghans to return to their homeland amid allegations of forced evictions and harassment by Pakistani authorities, according to officials in Kabul.

But the Afghan government faced challenges in handling the returnees and reintegrating them in the society, along with increased insecurity in most parts of Afghanistan. A reduction in financial assistance for the voluntary repatriation has led to a significant decline in the number of returning families this year. As of early July fewer than 40,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan, according to UNHCR.

The development investments in the high-return communities and areas in Afghanistan have not been commensurate to the demands and the needs, said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR chief in Pakistan, while addressing the conference.

'Slow process'



Afghanistans ambassador to Islamabad, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, says that despite its limitations, Kabul is doing all it can to absorb returnees and dismisses assertions the refugees are a source of terrorism in the host country.

In this year [repatriation] is a slow process, particularly because the pool of refugees has certainly shrunk but at the same time of course the security situation is worse than it was a year ago, Zakhilwal told the conference organized by National University of Science and Technology (NUST).

But about those who have returned I am very glad to say that you will find very few refugees who regret their decision to have returned to their country, Zakhilwal asserted. The Afghan envoy also disagreed with official Pakistani assertions that the refugee population is a cause of insecurity for the host country.
As recently as last year, Rinat Akhmetshin could be seen regularly pedaling through downtown Washington, D.C., nattily dressed, with a pocket square and heavy-framed thick glasses, riding a retro hipster orange bicycle.

He also showed an affinity for vintage motorcycles, which he parked for two years in the Washington driveway of renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

Hersh later gave a public endorsement to a controversial film linked to Akhmetshin that sought to undermine a 2012 U.S. law that infuriated the Kremlin.

At the center of scandal

Now Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen who has both denied and bragged about being a former Soviet military intelligence officer, is at the center of a growing scandal reaching high into President Donald Trumps White House.

U.S. media reported that he attended a June 9, 2016, meeting with Trumps son, Donald Jr., accompanying a Russian lawyer who was also seeking to undermine the 2012 law.

Akhmetshin did not respond to an e-mail, text messages, or a voice mail from RFE/RL on July 14. But he told the Associated Press that the lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, gave Trump associates at the meeting information on what she said were funds being illegally funneled to the Democratic National Committee and suggested the information could help the Trump campaign.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the [Democratic National Committee] is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin was quoted as recalling Veselnitskaya saying.

Decades behind the scenes

Until last year, Akhmetshins longtime behind-the-scenes work in and around Washington lobbying circles had escaped wider notice. But his work is substantial, stretching back two decades.

He has been a key figure in past PR campaigns to bolster Kazakh opposition figures, to discredit a Russian member of parliament, to lobby on Azerbaijani politics, and to undermine a Russian-owned mining company that sued another in a Dutch lawsuit.

Its not cheap work, as Akhmetshin himself stated in an affidavit as part of a 2015 lawsuit: He said he charged $450 an hour for his services.

In 1998, Akhmetshin said he founded the Washington office of an organization called the International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, to help expand democracy and the rule of law in Eurasia.

In the late 1990s, he organized meetings with journalists, elected officials, and policymakers in Washington for opposition lawmakers from Kazakhstan. Later, he worked to undermine a businessman and diplomat who was divorced from the daughter of Kazakhstans longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, and then had a falling out with Nazarbaev.

Accused in smear campaign

In 2011, Akhmetshin was accused of involvement in a smear campaign aimed at maligning a former Russian lawmaker who sought political asylum in the United States.

The goal, according to court documents, was to persuade U.S. officials to revoke the lawmakers asylum status and force him to return to Russia, where he was involved in a dispute with a billionaire businessman over a Moscow hotel project.

Akhmetshin was not the target of the lawsuit but, according to the complaint, he was enlisted, along with a Washington public relations company and private investigators, to portray the lawmaker as anti-Semitic.

During the suit, Akhmetshin fought to keep his e-mails from being released to the opposing lawyers.

Some of my clients are national governments or high ranking officials in those governments, he said in an Aug. 21, 2012, affidavit. My government clients have highly sensitive discussions in my emails concerning the location or relocation of American military bases in areas within the former Soviet Union.

The underlying lawsuit, and a related countersuit, were dismissed in March 2014.

Hacking accusations

A more recent legal fight concerned a $1 billion dispute over a potash mining operation in central Russia. While the main fight took place in European courts, a sideshow unfolded in U.S. courts beginning in 2014 when Akhmetshin was accused of hacking into the opposing parties computers.

Court papers filed New York State Supreme Court accused Akhmetshin of being a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer who developed a special expertise in running negative public relations campaigns.

In e-mail and in-person interviews with RFE/RL last year, Akhmetshin denied working for Soviet or Russian military intelligence. However, in private conversations and other published reports, he spoke openly about it.

The campaign he was associated with last year focused on the 2012 Magnitsky Act. That law imposed visa bans and other measures against Russian officials involved in the death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky and the $230 million tax-fraud scheme he helped uncover.

The campaign was two-pronged. The first involved the ban on adoptions of Russian children by American parents, which President Vladimir Putin imposed in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act.

Akhmetshin set up a benign-sounding organization to lobby Congress ostensibly in an effort to restore Russian adoptions. He enlisted former congressmen, and set up meetings with current members, including Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), long known for his rosy rhetoric regarding the Kremlin.

Veselnitskaya said she discussed the adoption issue in her meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

The second involved organizing  screening at Washingtons Newseum of a Russian directors film that took a semifictionalized look at Magnitskys whistle-blowing and his death. The screening happened June 13, 2016, four days after he joined Veselnitskaya at the meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr.

Veselnitskaya, who also attended the screening, served as a lawyer for a Russian-owned company known as Prevezon that U.S. prosecutors had accused of laundering some of the Magnitsky tax-fraud money. In May 2017, that case was settled on the eve of its trial with Prevezon admitting no wrongdoing and paying $6 million.

Another Washington public relations firm, along with Akhmetshin, was also connected to the effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act: Fusion GPS, which was behind the so-called Steele dossier, a compilation of damaging information about Donald Trump that was put together by a former British spy.

In May, Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican-Iowa) asked the Justice Department to investigate both Fusion and Akhmetshin, suggesting that they were unregistered agents of Russian interests.

Before the screening, Hersh, the renowned investigative reporter, told RFE/RL that he had seen the film a few months earlier at Akhmetshins behest. Hersh said he was intrigued enough by it that he agreed to Akhmetshins request to host a postscreening discussion free of charge.

Hersh also told RFE/RL that he knew Akhmetshin through mutual acquaintances and that he had let Akhmetshin park several antique motorcycles in the driveway of his Washington-area home, motorcycles he said Akhmetshin had bought thinking they dated from World War II but in fact they were of German manufacture and had been painted over to look like Soviet motorcycles.

At the conclusion of the June 13 film screening, as the discussion turned loud and rowdy, Hersh said the film goes a long way toward deconstructing a myth.
The United Nations envoy to Syria has ended the latest round of peace talks, saying there have been no major breakthroughs but that incremental progress was made.

We have made, as we were expecting and hoping, incremental progress. No breakthrough, no breakdown, no one walking out, United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.

He said he planned to convene an eighth round of indirect peace talks in early September between President Bashar Assads government and opposition leaders and said he has asked Assads envoys to be ready to address the political process in the next session.

International involvement

De Mistura said that by the next round of talks he hopes the international community will be able to push all sides to finally sit in the same room and start talking about substance. So far, the sides have been meeting separately with de Mistura.

When asked if he has seen any sign that the government of Assad has given any ground on a possible political transition, he said, no, I dont have any indication.

He noted, however, that there was an increase in mutual trust between different Syrian opposition groups. De Mistura wants to merge the three opposition groups participating in the talks before holding direct talks between the government and a unified opposition delegation.

De Mistura also said he warmly welcomes a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for the creation of a contact group made up of U.N. Security Council members and regional powers that would support a political road map for Syria.

I dont see any problem in having any maximum help in making sure that we get into serious negotiation, he said.

Repeated positions

Assads government and the opposition repeated long-held positions before leaving Geneva on Friday.

Assads delegation, led by Syrias U.N. ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari, said his side focused on counterterrorism issues.

The chief delegate for the main opposition High Negotiations Committee, Nasr al-Hariri, told reporters that the talks need to focus on the future of Assad, and he accused the government delegation of stalling the process.

Lets speak frankly, the Syrian regime, until this moment, is refusing any engagements and discussion or negotiation, he said.

Assads delegation has declared the presidents fate off-limits, while the opposition wants the matter to be part of the negotiations.

Cease-fire holding

The Syrian peace talks, meditated by the United Nations, began two years ago and have focused on finding a political solution to the six-year civil war.

This past round of talks opened with increased optimism as a cease-fire was recently put in place in southwest Syria, worked out by the United States, Russia, and Jordan.

Only sporadic violence has occurred since the truce went into force this past Sunday.

The United Nations reports the Syrian war, which has entered its seventh year, has killed about 400,000 people, displaced more than 6 million within the country and prompted nearly 5 million to flee as refugees to neighboring countries.
A court decision on President Donald Trumps travel ban has reopened a window for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, and the government is looking to quickly close it.

The administration late Friday appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal judge in Hawaii ordered it to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson also vastly expanded the list of U.S. family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.

24,000 vetted refugees

The ruling Thursday was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nations high court in October.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.

Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety, she said. This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely.

Citing a need to review its vetting process to ensure national security, the administration capped refugee admissions at 50,000 for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, a ceiling it hit this week.

The federal budget can accommodate up to 75,000 refugees, but admissions have slowed under Trump, and the government could hold them to a trickle, resettlement agencies say.

Absolutely this is good news for refugees, but theres a lot of uncertainty, said Melanie Nezer, spokeswoman for HIAS, a resettlement agency. Its really going to depend on how the administration reacts to this.

Sessions to ask Supreme Court

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration will ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, bypassing the San Francisco-based 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against it in the case.

The Supreme Court allowed a scaled-back version of the travel ban to take effect last month.

Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal executive branch related to our national security, Sessions said. By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats.

A State Department spokesperson said, "The Hawaii courts decision granted in part and denied in part the plaintiffs motion to modify the preliminary injunction following the June 26 Supreme Court decision. In consultation with the Department of Justice (DOJ), we are working to ensure the Hawaii District Court ruling is implemented immediately."

The administration took a first step by filing a notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit, allowing it to use a rule to petition the high court directly. Theres no timetable for the Supreme Court to act, but the administration will be seeking quick action that clarifies the courts June opinion.

The justices now are scattered during their summer recess, so any short-term action would come in written filings.

Travel ban challenges

The administration has lost most legal challenges on the travel ban, which applies to citizens of Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

The Supreme Courts ruling exempted a large swath of refugees and travelers with a bona fide relationship with a person or an entity in the U.S. The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.

The Trump administration defined the relationships as people who had a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling in the U.S.

Watson enlarged that group to include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin, who sought the broader definition, said Thursdays ruling makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit.

Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough, Chin said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 11:53:26|Editor: ZD

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HAVANA, July. 15 (Xinhua)-- Cuban President Raul Castro Friday ratified his administration's willingness to continue engagement with the United States despite a setback in relations between the two countries.

At the closing of the parliament's plenary session in its 8th Legislature, Castro expressed the island's desire to push forward negotiations on pending bilateral issues "on the basis of equality and the respect for sovereignty and independence."

"Cuba and the United States can cooperate and coexist by respecting their differences and promoting everything that benefits their peoples," Castro said, referring to the change of U.S. policy towards Cuba -- announced by President Donald Trump on June 16 -- as a "setback in bilateral relations."

Castro said that Trump's decisions ignored large sectors of the U.S. and most Cuban emigrants in support of lifting the embargo and normalizing bilateral ties, and merely satisfied a small group in Florida.

Castro recalled the previous U.S. administration of Barack Obama, who restored the diplomatic ties with Havana and made progress on issues of mutual interest "on the basis of bilateral respect."

"We demonstrated that it is possible to live in a civilized way despite our profound differences," the Cuban leader told members of parliament gathered for an ordinary session at the Havana Convention Center.

"We reject the manipulation of the human rights issues over Cuba. Our country has many achievements to be proud of, and we do not need to take lessons from the U.S. or anybody else," said Castro, affirming that any strategy aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution "will fail."

"Cuba will not make concessions concerning to its sovereignty and independence, nor negotiate its principles," Castro added.

Formal ties between Cuba and the United States broke off in March 1961 due to ideological differences during the Cold War, and were resumed in July 2015 after more than a year of secret negotiations by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.

Since then the two nations agreed to cooperate in such areas as combating drug and human trafficking, transportation and protecting the environment.

Trump proclaimed during his presidential campaign that if he were elected he would roll back ties with Cuba due to human rights concerns and seek "a better deal with its government."

He fulfilled his promise in June by signing a set of measures in Miami that limit American business opportunities and travels on the island.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says those behind last year's failed coup in Turkey are "traitors" who should be beheaded.

Erdogan spoke as Turkey celebrated the anniversary with a national holiday, unveiling a "Martyrs Memorial" on the iconic Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul to commemorate the estimated 250 people who died in clashes opposing the coup. The bridge, renamed Saturday as Martyrs Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and military tanks.

In a speech later in the day, Erdogan said the perpetrators of the coup should be killed or imprisoned in a facility like the United States' Guantanamo Bay prison. He said if Turkey's parliament passed a law authorizing the death penalty for those instigators, he would sign it.

"They showed no mercy when they pointed their guns at my people," Erdogan said, referring to the coup leaders. "What did my people have? They had their flags  just as they do today  and something much more important: They had their faith."

Thousands march

Saturday's marchers waved hundreds of red Turkish flags emblazoned with the star and crescent. Thousands marched through the streets of Istanbul in an act of unity, converging at the bridge where Turkish citizens clashed with tanks and members of the military who were trying to assume control. Some of the marchers carried photographs of those who died in the fighting, which included a bomb attack on parliament.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu made a statement Saturday, too. His recalled the changes in Turkey since the coup attempt that culminated in a referendum in April that awarded Erdogan sweeping executive powers.

"This parliament, which withstood bombs, has been rendered obsolete and its authority removed," Kilicdaroglu said. "In the past year, justice has been destroyed. Instead of rapid normalization, a permanent state of emergency has been implemented."

The Turkish government also marked the anniversary by firing nearly 7,400 additional civil servants.

Divisions widen

Erdogan had previously dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he characterized as supporters of the aborted coup and arrested another 50,000 people. The scale of the purge has widened political divisions in Turkey, with government opponents denouncing it as an attempt to silence Erdogan's detractors.

At a special parliamentary session Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim described the aborted coup as "Turkey's darkest and longest night," which was "transformed into a bright day."

Giant posters designed by the Erdogan administration have been placed on billboards in Istanbul displaying images portraying significant events such as the surrender of opposition troops.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Friday applauding Turkish people "of all backgrounds and political views" who "took to the streets to preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society."

"Their actions continue to remind us that the preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms," the statement added.

Opposition rally

The celebrations are occurring less than one week after the opposition leader, Kilicdaroglu, organized the largest opposition rally in Turkey in years.

Kilicdaroglu called for a full explanation of what happened on the night of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, including when government authorities first learned the uprising was afoot.

The Turkish opposition says that Erdogan's government is moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown on rights is necessary to thwart security threats to the ruling government.

Erdogan claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades. Gulen denies any involvement.

In a statement released Saturday, Gulen said the Turkish government's "treatment of innocent citizens during the past year is dragging Turkey into the category of the countries with the worst record of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the world." Gulen's statement also said the Turkish people "are being rallied en masse around hate messages."

About 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured last year when a disgruntled army faction commandeered tanks and warplanes in a bid to overthrow Erdogan after 1 decades in power. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.
President Donald Trump has apparently dismissed news accounts of the latest revelations about a meeting between members of his presidential campaign and a Russian lawyer, as discussion rages on about whether the campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to influence last year's U.S. election.

Trump, spending the weekend at his golf resort in Bedminister, New Jersey, tweeted Saturday that stock valuations were continuing to climb despite media coverage of new developments in the Russia story.

The tweet followed reports Friday that there were other participants in the controversial meeting, which occurred at Trump Tower in New York City in June 2016.

Two Russian Americans  Anatoly Samochornov and Rinat Akhmetshin  were identified by news outlets as having accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the meeting, which the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., originally said was arranged to talk only about a Russian ban on Americans adopting Russian children.

This week, Trump Jr. revealed that he attended the meeting because he had been promised some incriminating information about Trump's election opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Akhmetshin told The Washington Post on Friday that he participated in the meeting, after his role was first reported by other news sources. MSNBC reported later Friday that Samochornov, a translator, also was present. He is believed to have worked as a project manager for the U.S. State Department.

Named in complaint

Both Akhmetshin and Samochornov are named in an April 2017 complaint by the Senate Judiciary Committee examining the question of possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

Akhmetshin, who became a U.S. citizen in 2009 but retains his Russian citizenship, has lobbied against U.S. sanctions on Russia for human rights violations, the result of a U.S. law known as the Magnitsky Act.

Akhmetshin told the Post that his attendance at the meeting was a last-minute decision. He said he had been having lunch with Veselnitskaya a few blocks north of Trump Tower when Veselnitskaya invited him to attend the meeting later that day.

Akhmetshin has told media outlets that he once worked in Soviet counterintelligence, but only during his two years in the Russian military in the mid-1980s. He says he was drafted into the military, like most young Soviet citizens, at age 18.

"Just because I was born in Russia doesn't mean I am an agent of [the] Kremlin," he told Politico recently.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley in March questioned whether Akhmetshin might be downplaying the strength of his Russian ties. In March, Grassley, an Iowa Republican, filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians involved with the fight against the human rights sanctions on Russia.

Grassley's complaint questions whether the Russians, including Akhmetshin, should have registered as foreign agents "for their efforts to bring down a U.S. law on behalf of the Kremlin."

Supportive of son

On Thursday, President Trump defended his eldest son's attendance at the Trump Tower meeting.

"I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said of his son's decision to talk with the lawyer after being told by an intermediary that she was a Russian government attorney and would offer him material as part of Moscow's election support of Trump.

"It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. That's very standard in politics; politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information," Trump said as he stood alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a Paris news conference.

Trump, who has endured months of investigations in the U.S. about his aides' contacts with Russians during his run to the White House, said, "Nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and, honestly, I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people will do.

"As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man," Trump said. "He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting, it was a meeting that went very, very quickly; very fast."

Trump was asked whether he agreed with Christopher Wray, his nominee to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that his son should have called FBI investigators when offered the meeting because it was supposedly coming from a foreign adversary, Russia. But Trump deflected the question and simply praised his appointment of Wray.

Seeking Trump Jr.'s testimony

In Washington, Grassley, a key lawmaker investigating Russia's meddling in the election, sent a letter to the younger Trump asking him to testify about his June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. Trump Jr. has said he is willing to testify voluntarily, but Grassley said he would be subpoenaed if need be.

Grassley said no questions would be off limits as the panel investigates what the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was Moscow's election interference, personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, into the 2016 U.S. election.

Grassley's committee is one of several congressional panels investigating the Trump campaign's links with Russia, while Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, is heading a criminal probe into the election interference and whether the president obstructed justice by firing another FBI director, James Comey, while he was heading the Russia probe before Mueller took over.

The leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, urged Trump Jr. to honor Grassley's request that he testify.

"I think any witness who's been asked to testify in Congress should do that," Ryan said.
After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyber war against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials.



Under the plans, U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.



Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity.



The goal, they said, is to give U.S. Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA, which is responsible for monitoring and collecting telephone, internet and other intelligence data from around the world - a responsibility that can sometimes clash with military operations against enemy forces.



Making cyber an independent military command will put the fight in digital space on the same footing as more traditional realms of battle on land, in the air, at sea and in space. The move reflects the escalating threat of cyberattacks and intrusions from other nation states, terrorist groups and hackers, and comes as the U.S. faces ever-widening fears about Russian hacking following Moscow's efforts to meddle in the 2016 American election.



The U.S. has long operated quietly in cyberspace, using it to collect information, disrupt enemy networks and aid conventional military missions. But as other nations and foes expand their use of cyber-spying and attacks, the U.S. is determined to improve its ability to incorporate cyber operations into its everyday warfighting.



Experts said the command will need time to find its footing.

Right now I think it's inevitable, but it's on a very slow glide path, said Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But, he added, A new entity is not going to be able to duplicate NSA's capabilities.



The NSA, for example, has 300 of the country's leading mathematicians and a gigantic super computer, Lewis said. Things like this are hard to duplicate.



He added, however, that over time, the U.S. has increasingly used cyber as a tactical weapon, bolstering the argument for separating it from the NSA.



The two highly secretive organizations, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, have been under the same four-star commander since Cyber Command's creation in 2009.



But the Defense Department has been agitating for a separation, perceiving the NSA and intelligence community as resistant to more aggressive cyberwarfare, particularly after the Islamic State's transformation in recent years from an obscure insurgent force into an organization holding significant territory across Iraq and Syria and with a worldwide recruiting network.



While the military wanted to attack IS networks, intelligence objectives prioritized gathering information from them, according to U.S. officials familiar with the debate. They weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly and requested anonymity.

Then-defense secretary Ash Carter sent a plan to president Barack Obama last year to make Cyber Command an independent military headquarters and break it away from the NSA, believing that the agency's desire to collect intelligence was at times preventing the military from eliminating IS' ability to raise money, inspire attacks and command its widely dispersed network of fighters.



Carter, at the time, also pushed for the ouster of Adm. Mike Rogers, who still heads both bodies. The Pentagon, he warned, was losing the war in the cyber domain, focusing on cyber threats from nations such as Iran, Russia and China, rather than on countering the communications and propaganda campaigns of internet-savvy insurgents.



Officials also grew alarmed by the growing number of cyberattacks against the U.S. government, including several serious, high-level Defense Department breaches that occurred under Rogers' watch.



NSA is truly an intelligence-collection organization, said Lauren Fish, a research associate with the Center for a New American Security. It should be collecting information, writing reports on it. Cyber Command is meant to be an organization that uses tools to have military operational effect.



After President Donald Trump's inauguration, officials said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis endorsed much of the plan. But debate over details has dragged on for months.



It's unclear how fast the Cyber Command will break off on its own. Some officials believe the new command isn't battle-ready, given its current reliance on the NSA's expertise, staff and equipment. That effort will require the department to continue to attract and retain cyber experts.



Cyber Command was created in 2009 by the Obama administration to address threats of cyber espionage and other attacks. It was set up as a sub-unit under U.S. Strategic Command to coordinate the Pentagon's ability to conduct cyberwarfare and to defend its own networks, including those that are used by combat forces in battle.



Officials originally said the new cyber effort would likely involve hundreds, rather than thousands, of new employees.



Since then, the command has grown to more than 700 military and civilian employees. The military services also have their own cyber units, with a goal of having 133 fully operational teams with as many as 6,200 personnel.



Its proposed budget for next year is $647 million. Rogers told Congress in May that represents a 16 percent increase over this year's budget to cover costs associated with building the cyber force, fighting IS and becoming an independent command.



Under the new plan being forwarded by the Pentagon to the White House, officials said Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville would be nominated to lead Cyber Command. Leadership of the NSA could be turned over to a civilian.



Mayville is currently the director of the military's joint staff and has extensive experience as a combat-hardened commander. He deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, leading the 173rd Airborne Brigade when it made its assault into Iraq in March 2003 and later heading coalition operations in eastern Afghanistan.
U.S. governors met for their annual meeting in Rhode Island on Friday for talks that centered mostly on health care and the North American Free Trade agreement.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended as a guest speaker, along with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Trudeau told the governors not to take politically tempting shortcuts when the two countries renegotiate NAFTA and emphasized the importance of the trading relationship between the United States and Canada.

NAFTA

Trudeau warned that protectionist measures could lead to a race to the bottom, where all sides lose.

The Canadian prime minister met individually with several U.S. governors, including those from Kentucky, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Iowa, to highlight the importance of U.S.-Canadian trade.

Trudeau said Canada is America's biggest, best customer, pointing out that Canada buys more from the United States than it does from China, Japan and Britain combined. He also noted that more than 75 percent of Canada's exports and 98 percent of its oil exports go to the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to renegotiate NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, calling it a bad deal for U.S. companies and workers.

In addressing the group of governors, Pence also spoke about NAFTA and said the Trump administration was looking forward to renegotiating the deal in a way that will equally benefit the United States and Canada.

Health care

Pence focused much of his speech on health care reform, as the Senate considers a bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, passed during the administration of former President Barack Obama. He said Trump believes the latest health care reform bill is the right bill at the right time to begin the end of Obamacare.

Pence urged governors to support the bill before the Senate and said he and Trump hope lawmakers can take it up as soon as next week. We believe the Senate health care bill begins to make the president's vision a reality, he added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has planned for a vote next week on the revised legislation but could have a difficult time getting the 50 yes votes needed for passage.

At least two Republicans have said they will vote against the bill, and several others are noncommittal. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin and cannot afford to lose more than two of their own votes as Democrats are expected to remain united against the bill.



Trump tweeted on Friday from Paris, where he attended Bastille Day celebrations, After all of these years of suffering thru Obamacare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised.

Several Republican governors told Pence on Friday that they have concerns about the health care bill, including Ohio's John Kasich and Nevada's Brian Sandoval.
Venezuela's chief prosecutor has requested the conditional release of a Utah man and his wife detained for over a year on weapons charges.

The petition to have Joshua Holt and his wife, Thamara Candelo, freed but barred from leaving Venezuela while awaiting trial was made Friday because of what the prosecutor's office said were undue delays in his prosecution.

The 25-year-old Holt was arrested a little more than a year ago after traveling to Venezuela to wed Candelo. Both are Mormons and met on the internet when Holt wanted to practice his Spanish.

Authorities accused Holt of hiding an assault rifle and grenades at the apartment where the two were living. Authorities have suggested he was linked to a U.S.-backed conspiracy to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Zimbabwes Environment Management Agency has ordered the food industry to stop using containers made of expanded polystyrene and replace them with recyclable or biodegradable ones.

The agency recommends restaurants use paper packaging or encourage patrons to partake of their food on site.

The ban on expanded polystyrene (EPS) went into effect immediately, upsetting business owners left with unused stocks.

I think this is quite unfair, said Denford Mutashu, the president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers.

We are going to comply, he said, but we would prefer that it becomes gradual because we need a period where it has to be phased out.

However, Steady Kangata, the spokesman of the Environmental Management Agency, says this regulation dates back to 2012 and businesses were made aware.

We have made wide consultations already, he said. The instrument that we have activated is an instrument of 2012, so the time lag between activation and promulgation, or gazetting of the regulation, they [the businesses] had promised us that they would come up with something tangible, but up to now nothing has come to fruition. So there is no going back. What they should be doing is looking at alternatives, because alternatives are there and are so many and diverse.

EPS is a plastic foam, also known as a kaylite. The government says EPS is dangerous because it emits toxic chemicals when the containers are burned, and garbage is routinely burned in Zimbabwe.

Another issue is litter. The containers are among the garbage clogging drainage in Harare and contributing to flooding.

Environmentalists in Zimbabwe are applauding the ban but say the government hasnt gone nearly far enough. Other African countries, including most recently Kenya, have banned the use of plastic bags.

Plastics, when they get into the environment, especially in the food chain, are dangerous to animals, said Christopher Magadza, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Zimbabwe. And the thing is, people say some plastics are biodegradable. There is no biodegradable plastic. It just breaks up into smaller and smaller bits.  And when plastic catches fire, we breathe it and [it] spoils the air.

The government says anyone found flouting the EPS ban will be fined between $30 and $5,000.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he hoped for further dialogue with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump after their meeting in Hamburg earlier this month on the fringes of the G20 summit.

"If the dialogue were to go on, as you've said in this sense, in a humanitarian sense, there is the chance to hope that the dialogue develops further," Putin said during a meeting with workers from the Lebedinsky mine in the Belgorod region.

The meeting was aired by the Russia 24 TV channel. Putin once again praised Trump's ability "to listen."

"He reacts to the interlocutor, at the reasons, he is involved in the discussion even if he doesn't like something and he doesn't agree with something, he asks some questions, reacts to the interlocutor's reasoning," Putin said.

In Hamburg, Putin said he believed he had already established a personal relationship with Trump, adding that "the TV Trump is very different from the person in reality."

Speaking about crisis in Ukraine, Putin said on Friday that he hope it would eventually be resolved "bloodlessly" and via "democratic processes."
South Sudanese judges said Friday that despite President Salva Kiir's decision to fire 14 of their colleagues, they will continue their strike until their demands are met.

The judges went on strike May 1, demanding that Kiir increase their pay, improve working conditions and remove Chief Justice Chan Reec Madut from the bench for ignoring their demands.

At a news conference in Juba, Justice Bold Lul Wang, chairman of a general assembly representing South Sudan's judges, said judges were shocked by Kiir's move, announced in a presidential decree Wednesday.

"We are expecting the presidency should look into the problem which we submitted, because when someone comes to you to complain, you cannot punish the complainant. You have to answer his demand or say to him, I'm sorry I cannot help your demand,' " Wang said.

Wang said South Sudanese judges held an urgent meeting Friday in Juba and other towns across the country to talk about the fired judges.

"The [judges'] general assembly has resolved to continue the general strike in solidarity with our honorable dismissed judges and justices until all our demands are met," Wang said.

The judges are calling on the president to immediately reinstate the sacked judges and reconsider their demands. Wang said all judges stand in solidarity with their fired colleagues.

"We are, therefore, placing the matter into the able authority of his excellency, the president of the republic, to either meet all our demands  including the immediate reinstatement of our dismissed honorable colleagues who have been championing our cause  or to dismiss us all who are on strike," Wang said.

When Kiir fired the 14 judges, which Wang believes was recommended by Chief Justice Madut, he said the president did not follow proper procedure.

"The president has the power to remove some judges, but through certain procedures which were not met. And in our humble view, we think that the chief justice has misled the president because he is the one to guide the president through the right procedure," Wang said.

Most South Sudanese courts are backlogged with criminal cases because there are not enough judges to hear the cases and conduct trials.
People hold up laptops while filming a video underneath signage outside a YouTube Inc. office in Los Angeles. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)

With the money from CDs and digital downloads disappearing, the music industry has pinned its hope for the future on online song streaming, which now accounts for the majority of the $7.7 billion U.S. music market.

But the biggest player in this future isnt one of the names most associated with streaming  Spotify, Amazon, Pandora or Apple. Its YouTube, the site best known for viral videos, which accounts for 25 percent of all music streamed worldwide, far more than any other site.

Now, YouTube is locked in an increasingly bitter battle with music labels over how much it pays to stream their songs  and at stake is not just the finances of the music industry but also the way that millions of people around the world have grown accustomed to listening to music: free of cost.

Music labels accuse YouTube of using a legal loophole to pay less for songs than traditional music-streaming sites, calling YouTube the biggest threat since song piracy crippled the industry in the early 2000s. The industry has pressed its case to regulators around the world in hopes of forcing a change.

I do think YouTube is starting to panic a little bit, said Mitch Glazier, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.

But YouTube is not backing down, stressing the benefits to musicians of promotion on one of the Webs most popular sites  which allows ordinary users to integrate music into their uploads. YouTube also warns against attacks that could reduce competition among streaming services.

The industry should be really, really careful because they could close their eyes and wake up with their revenue really concentrated in two, three sources, said Lyor Cohen, YouTubes global head of music, referring to Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music. (Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

The music industry counters they are backed into a corner when negotiating with YouTube  a unit of Google-parent Alphabet  which is mostly shielded by federal law from being responsible for what users post on the site.

It isnt a level playing field, said one executive at a major music label who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to talk, because ultimately youre negotiating with a party who is going to have your content no matter what.

Now, the battle is heating up as the European Union is expected to release new rules later this year for how services such as YouTube handle music, potentially upending some of the copyright protections that undergird the Internet.

Online streaming works like a digital jukebox, with fractions of a penny paid each time a song is played. The money comes from ads and subscriptions.

The E.U. has formally recognized that there is a value gap between song royalties and what user-upload services such as YouTube earn from selling ads while playing music. YouTube is by far the largest user-upload site.

How such a law would address the gap is still being decided, but the E.U. has indicated it plans to focus on ensuring copyright holders are properly remunerated.

Even the value gaps existence is disputed.

A recent economic study commissioned by YouTube found no value gap  in fact, the report said YouTube promotes the music industry, and if YouTube stopped playing music, 85 percent of users would flock to services that offered lower or no royalties.

A different study by an independent consulting group pegged the YouTube value gap at more than $650 million in the United States alone.

YouTube is viewed as a giant obstacle in the path to success for the streaming marketplace, Glazier said.

The dispute boils down to what YouTube pays for songs.

Musicians from Arcade Fire to Garth Brooks to Pharrell Williams say they earn significantly less when their songs are played on YouTube than on a site such as Spotify  even though many listeners use these services in the same way. Both YouTube and Spotify allow users to search for music and find song recommendations. On YouTube, users can find music alongside cat videos and toy reviews in what is generally a free-for-all of content, while people go to Spotify and the like for a more refined experience. Some audiophiles argue the sound quality on music streaming sites is superior.

YouTube pays an estimated $1 per 1,000 plays on average, while Spotify and Apple music pay a rate closer to $7.

Irving Azoff, the legendary manager for acts such as the Eagles and Christina Aguilera, said he has one artist  whom he declined to name  who gets 33 percent of her online streams from YouTube but only 10 percent of her streaming revenue.

Smaller acts see it, too. Zoe Keating, an instrumental cello player, showed The Washington Post a statement from YouTube showing that she earned $261 from 1.42 million views on YouTube. In comparison, she earned $940 from 230,000 streams on Spotify.

YouTube revenue is so negligible that I stopped paying attention to it, Keating said.

YouTube admits that it pays less for songs.

But the reason for this disparity is where the two sides split.

The music industry claims YouTube has avoided paying a fair-market rate by hiding behind broad legal protections. In the United States, thats the safe harbor provision, which essentially says YouTube is not to blame if someone uploads a copy-protected song unless the copyright holder complains.

This, the music industry argues, leads to a costly game of Whac-A-Mole: hunting for illicit song uploads and filing notices with YouTube.

You cant prevent something from going up on YouTube. All you can do is ask them to take it down, said Stephen Carlisle, who runs the copyright office at Nova Southeastern University. At some point, its not worth it to do this.

YouTube says it has the solution: Its Content ID system automatically checks for violations by comparing songs detected in new uploads against a database of claimed songs, capturing 99.5 percent of complaints. The company says it averages fewer than 1,500 traditional copyright claims from the music industry a week.

YouTube also pointed out that it has licensing deals with music labels large and small.

Earlier this year, Warner Music Group  one of the big three music labels  signed a new licensing deal with YouTube, and a memo from Warner chief executive Steve Cooper leaked out, saying the deal was signed under very difficult circumstances.

Theres no getting around the fact that, even if YouTube doesnt have licenses, our music will still be available but not monetized at all, the memo continued.

Warner confirmed the memos authenticity, but, like the other major labels, declined to comment for this article.

Coopers complaints surprised Cohen, who worked at Warner until leaving for YouTube last year.

I never heard that from his mouth during the entire negotiation, Cohen said.

Cohens move to YouTube created waves in the industry. After all, Cohen was famous for taking one of the hardest stands against YouTube when, in 2008, he pulled Warners entire song catalogue from the video service to protest low song royalties. It was the nuclear option.

And it failed. After nine months and spending $2 million trying to keep its music off YouTube, Warner capitulated.

Cohen said he was sympathetic to his former colleagues complaints. But YouTube pays $1 billion in song royalties worldwide each year. Cohen said his company has been hindered by its global reach  ad rates are lower outside the United States  and its slower rollout of a subscription option, YouTube Red. Song royalties are higher with monthly subscriptions than ads.

What Im trying to do with YouTube is be a cheerleader to build a subscription business that the industry can be proud of, Cohen said.

Nabila Hisham, 22, is a music fan on YouTube. Recently, the college student in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has been playing one song repeatedly: Despacito, a chart-topping Latin pop remix featuring Justin Bieber. The YouTube video  which has a total of 412 million plays  is a photo of Biebers tattooed neck. The video is beside the point. For, Hisham, its about the music.

Im glad that YouTube exists, she said.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated YouTubes ContentID system automatically handles 98 percent of copyright management for songs. The system handles 99.5 percent.
After winning the gold medal in the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, Seong-Jin Cho knew his immediate future was set. (Harold Hoffman/Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon )

Nothing captures the ambivalence many musicians feel toward piano competitions  those high-stakes Olympics of the musical world  better than the reaction of the rising South Korean star Seong-Jin Cho, to winning the legendary International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015.

I was really happy, because I wouldnt have to play in any more competitions, Cho recalls.

Cho, then 21, had endured three nerve-racking weeks of competition in Warsaw. He won over the 17-member jury with his rare combination of technical bravura, artistic maturity and freshness of insight across the range of Chopins piano writing.

Cho was remarkable, said Garrick Ohlsson, the 1970 Chopin competition gold medalist who served on the 2015 jury, speaking by telephone from North Carolina last month. He was such a complete young artist.

With his gold medal, Cho knew his immediate future was set  or as set as any young classical musicians can be. He was propelled to overnight celebrity in his home country, and he secured major concert dates and a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. He could leave behind the pressure-filled, circuslike and often political world of piano competitions.

The prestige of the Chopin competition will precede Cho, now 23, everywhere he goes in the coming years. In a telephone interview from Berlin, where he was recording a new Debussy album last month, Cho spoke pragmatically about why a major competition win helped his career.

His victory opened the doors to Carnegie Hall, where Cho made a sold-out recital debut in February. It surely brought him his Washington-area debut July 28 at Wolf Trap, where he will be performing Beethovens Emperor Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra. But it is also carries with it some baggage.

Despite an illustrious list of past winners, the Chopin competition, like all major competitions, has a mixed track record of predicting success and longevity. Its record is, in fact, better than most. But for every legendary Chopin winner such as Maurizio Pollini (1960) or Martha Argerich (1965), there is also a mostly forgotten name, such as Dang Thai Son (1980) or Stanislav Bunin (1985). Not since 1975, when Krystian Zimerman became the first Polish gold medalist, has the winner of the Chopin competition gone on to lasting international stardom.

The reality is that, with the proliferation of musical competitions worldwide, there are far more gold medals awarded each year than there are potential world-class artists. A Murray Perahia does not come along every day, no matter who wins a competition, Ohlsson said. Any competition just cant create such an artist.

Competitions, in fact, have gained a reputation for selecting bland compromise winners  competent but uninspiring technicians  rather than more distinctive artists who might polarize juries. Even the most gifted winners do not necessarily adapt to the lifestyle that comes with a fledging international career: the grueling travel schedule, the demands of publicity and career management, and the relentless pressure to win over conductors, orchestras, critics and audiences in each new city.

Cho appears to have the musical potential to take his place alongside the greats of the past. He has earned praise, not only for his bulletproof technique, but also for his artistic voice: his sense of drama, his natural nobility and his youthfully searching interpretations.

Critic Joshua Kosman, reviewing one of Chos recitals in March for the San Francisco Chronicle, summed it up: Dont let the competition medal fool you. This guys an artist.

Cho has gained allies, including the influential Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. Last year, Gergiev introduced Cho to incoming NSO Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, who would later conduct the London Symphony Orchestra on Chos beautiful and nuanced studio recording of Chopins First Piano Concerto. As a prolific opera conductor, the Italian maestro marveled at the bel canto quality Cho brought to the concertos slow movement. He made the piano really sing. Noseda said by telephone from Turin, Italy. Noseda was originally scheduled to conduct Chos NSO debut but canceled because of emergency back surgery.

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Korea, Cho was encouraged by his parents to learn the piano at an early age so he wouldnt be lonely as an only child. He began serious studies at age 10 and gave his first public recital at 12. As a teenager, he rode the international junior competition circuit, making a precocious third-place showing at the 2011 Tchaikovsky competition at 17. In 2012, he left Korea for the Paris Conservatory, and he once again took third prize at a major competition  this time, the Rubinstein in 2014  before his breakthrough in Warsaw.

Chos second album features Chopins Four Ballades, and he recalls being captivated by the dramatic qualities of Zimermans classic recording of those works as a teenager. I listened to that album every day, Cho says. Each piece had a different story. These days, however, Cho no longer listens to other pianists, as he develops his own artistic voice.

I dont know if its a good thing or a bad thing, but it helps me to bring new ideas, he says.

In its elegant command of narrative structures, Chos recording of the Chopin Ballades bears a resemblance to Zimermans, but Chos readings are also enlivened by a freshness of detail.

At the same time, there is a coolness and reserve, especially in the First and Fourth Ballades, that suggest a young artist not quite capturing the intensity of live performance in the recording studio.

Its very difficult in the studio, because I have less adrenaline, so [there is] less excitement, Cho admits. I play a little bit slower.

Chos forthcoming Debussy album appears to be, in part, a declaration that he is more than a Chopin specialist.

There are so many special composers to me, Chopins not the only one, Im sorry to say, he says, laughing. Cho is an unabashed Francophile and has had a lifelong interest in French music. He credits his teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Michel Beroff, but he also says the experience of simply living in the historic French capital  seeing a painting in a gallery or wandering the streets  has given him insights into the atmosphere and color of Debussys music.

For Cho, who otherwise seems to be taking his musical achievements in stride, his celebrity status back home in Korea feels surreal. As the first Korean winner of the Chopin competition, Cho became a national sensation overnight. His debut album rocketed to the top of Koreas Gaon Chartnot the classical chart, but the equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100  for a week in 2015. One writer has even coined the term Cho Seong-Jin syndrome to refer to the unprecedented boom in interest in classical music in Korea after Chos victory

It was really shocking for me, Cho says about the moment when he knocked the stars of K-pop off their perch. But he is also level-headed enough to realize that it was an essentially unrepeatable, once-in-a-lifetime achievement, a moment when the confluence of Korean history and the trajectory of his promising musical career brought the stars into perfect alignment.

Although it is impossible to predict how a rising young artist will cope with the demands of a musical career  and how the larger world will receive him  Cho has already won over discerning and veteran musicians. I have utter confidence that he really knows what hes doing, Ohlsson said.

Noseda concurred: Seong-Jin has all the qualities  the human qualities, the technical qualities, artistic qualities  to succeed in the music world for years to come.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 12:18:33|Editor: ZD

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) talks with French President Emmanuel Macron (R) during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Concorde Square in Paris, France on July 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Jack Chan)

PARIS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- While U.S. President Donald Trump describes the friendship between the United States and France as "unbreakable," and the country as a "strategic ally," divergence remains regarding climate issues.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, let's see what happens," said Trump, indicating a possible change in his stance on the Paris Agreement, out of which he pulled the United States in early June.

But whether the U.S. returns to the accord remains to be seen, and no one's holding their breath.

The U.S. president is on his third trip to Europe since taking office and second in a week amid a political crisis at home surrounding a meeting between his son and a Russian lawyer during last year's presidential campaign. The trips come at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) has soured.

SHARED VALUES BUT DIFFERENT PATHS

Europe is still adapting to President Trump, although changes are emerging on the continent.

"Six months after Trump one can detect gradually shifting geopolitical alliances and a European gradual self awareness," said Dr. David Criekemans, Assistant Professor in International Politics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

"To a certain degree it has strengthened the European cooperation and the realization that EU countries need to work more together."

However, U.S. absence in matters of European and international cooperation on climate protection and global trade has frayed its global image and influence, not to mention that its exit from the Paris Accord aroused criticism from both home and abroad.

"The 'America first policy' is against European policy, which defends open markets. The new American policy is undermining international institutions and a multilateral global order, which is very much supported by the EU," said Gerhard Stahl, former Secretary General of the European Committee of the Regions, an advisory body representing local and regional authorities and their citizens in the EU.

"The policy of the American president is in some key areas in contradiction with the mainstream of European governments and European citizens," he said.

LIVING APART TOGETHER

"If Trump retains his current position on climate change and protecting old industries such as coal, the tensions will remain," said Criekemans.

If the US is not interested in taking part in combating this global challenge, he said, Europe will look to other partners.

"In terms of tackling climate change, countries like China are now seen as better potential partners than the U.S. The EU countries are planning to work less with Washington on climate change and more with some American states directly," he added.

Seen as no more than a diplomatic photo-op, Trump's visit to France drew limited expectations for concrete results, said Stahl.

"The other reason is that President Macron supports clearly the EU policy," he said.

Future relations between the United States and Europe is not clear. But at least one thing is certain: the bond of common values may not be so sticky for either side.

"Basing a relationship on one issue is not enough to make it sustainable," said Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, Director of the Paris Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan American public policy think tank.

"Macron's initiative to host a climate conference in Paris in December allows him to keep the pressure on Trump. On counter-terrorism, Macron will press Trump to contribute financially to the G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force," she wrote in Le Monde, a French daily newspaper.

The relationship between the EU-US will continue to be defined as "living apart together," largely because of the incoherence of Trump's foreign policy, Criekemans said.


The pinball machines are a nice draw, but Lymans Tavern is much too young to be considered a dive. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

Tell someone that you dont consider their favorite watering hole a dive bar and you might have a fight on your hands. Why is there so much power in the word dive? Is it really that much cooler to brag about hanging out in a dive instead of enjoying a solid neighborhood bar with good food and affordable drinks?

Here are some local bars that are frequently called dive bars, along with our justifications for why theyre not, in fact, dives. Yet.

[The best true dive bars in the D.C. area]

The Big Hunt : More than 30 beers on tap, none of them Bud or Miller. 1345 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Bravo Bar: It has the soul of a dive, but not the age (it opened in 2014) or thin veneer of grease. 2917 Georgia Ave. NW.

Lymans Tavern : Pinball machines and a great jukebox are dive staples, but having them doesnt make you a dive. 3720 14th St. NW.

The Post Pub : A dive bar does not serve a New York strip steak. 1422 L St. NW.

The Pug : Probably the closest thing to a classic dive, thanks to cheap beers, year-round Christmas lights and deplorable bathrooms, but the H Street NE staple loses points for its youth (opened in 2007) and because you can buy iPhone cables and high-end pork rinds from its fancy vending machine. 1234 H St. NE.



The Red Derbys roof deck, pictured in 2011, before a slew of upgrades, is a red flag. (Evy Mages/For The Washington Post)

The Red Derby : Two words: roof deck. 3718 14th St. NW.

Showtime Lounge : A cash-only policy, $5 beer-and-a-shot combos, a CD jukebox, Redskins wallpaper in the bathroom, a house band fronted by an octogenarian  Showtimes getting there, but the Bloomingdale bar is barely four years old. Be patient. 113 Rhode Island Ave. NW.

[Is the Tune Inn on Capitol Hill still a dive bar?]

Stained Glass Pub: All that pizza attracts all those kids. Plus, points docked for having two locations. 12510 Layhill Rd., Silver Spring; 6751 Dorsey Rd., Elkridge.



Stan's Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge bartender Mike Blocker, left, jokes with Krystal West, middle, and LaShawn Slayton. With prime rib and salmon on the menu, Stans cant claim true dive status. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Stans Restaurant and Lounge : The place takes its food offerings too seriously, supplementing its fried fare with black Angus prime rib and grilled salmon stuffed with crab imperial. 1029 Vermont Ave. NW.

Vienna Inn : Last time we visited Vienna Inn, there were enough Little Leaguers in uniform to play a round-robin tournament. If you have to watch your language, its not a dive. 120 E. Maple Ave., Vienna.

Wonderland Ballroom: This Columbia Heights spot, with its Ms. Pac-Man machine and collection of vintage signs, is just a little too self-aware of its hipness  its house beer is the Belgian Delirium Tremens and it hosts an annual Sundress Fest block party  to count as a true dive. 1101 Kenyon St. NW.
Exceptional Excellent Very Good



(Jennifer Chase/For The Washington Post)

If your red wine seems to wilt in the summer heat, give it a chill in the refrigerator or an ice bucket. Or even better, shake things up with a chilled sparkling red Lambrusco from northern Italy. This weeks wines include a great example, plus a French rose, a spicy Austrian red, a tropical Aussie chardonnay and a bargain wine from Spain.

 Dave McIntyre

GREAT VALUE

Fiorini Becco Rosso Lambrusco Grasparossa 2015/2016

Italy, $16

We tend not to think of Lambrusco, unless its a memory of the jug our mothers used to keep in the refrigerator door. And we dont normally think of red sparkling wine. But chill this and its perfect for summer. Lambrusco offers smoky, woodsy flavors and pairs well with ham, charcuterie, pizza and spicy Asian dishes. Just about anything, actually. The distributors have recently transitioned to the 2016 vintage, which I tasted, but dont hesitate to try the 2015 if you find it on store shelves. Alcohol by volume: 11.5 percent.

Distributed by Bacchus in the District and Maryland, Free Run in Virginia: Available in the District at A. Litteri, Grand Cata; on the list at Centrolina, Dinos Grotto, Kapnos, Proof, Rasika (Penn Quarter), Red Apron (Penn Quarter, Union Market). Available in Maryland at Bin 201 Wine Sellers and Wine Source in Baltimore; on the list at Pacci Neapolitan Pizzeria in Silver Spring, Pizzeria Da Marco in Bethesda. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Cheese in Arlington, Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview), Vinosity in Culpeper; on the list at Pizzeria Orso in Falls Church, Red Apron in Fairfax.

Domaines Bunan, Mas de la Rouviere 2016

Bandol, France, $23

Bandol, a small region east of Marseille along the Mediterranean coast of France, is famous for its rose. That means they can command a price over $20, like the sought-after Sancerre roses from the Loire Valley further north. But we also gain depth and complexity. This may not be the rose for slaking your thirst on a hot summer day, but it is an ideal partner for some of the summer dishes that help us cool down. Salade Nicoise, sil vous plait! ABV: 14 percent.

Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Cairo Wine & Liquor, Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits, Circle Wine & Liquor, Eye Street Cellars, Metro Wine & Spirits, Morris Miller Wine & Liquor, Pearsons, Prego Again, Rodmans, Safeway (Georgetown), Sherrys Fine Wine & Spirits, Wagshals Deli, Whole Foods Market (Foggy Bottom, P Street). Available in Maryland at Beer Wine & Co. and Cork 57 Beer and Wine in Bethesda; Choice Wine & Beer in Wheaton; Dawsons Market in Rockville; Franklins Restaurant, Brewery and General Store in Hyattsville; Hunt Valley Wine, Liquor & Beer in Cockeysville; Jasons Wine & Spirits and Pine Orchard Liquors in Ellicott City; Old Farm Liquors in Frederick; World Gourmet Wine & Beer in Potomac; on the list at Elements in Lexington Park. Available in Virginia at Wegmans (various locations).

GREAT VALUE

Evolucio Blaufrankisch 2014

Weinland, Austria, $12

This is a spicy, delicious red wine with vibrant acidity and flavors of black cherry, raspberry, caraway and fenugreek. It has enough weight and balance to drink on its own, but that spicy character calls for food. Give it a slight chill and try it with grilled meats or Indian cuisine. This is the private label of Philadelphia-based importer Boutique Wine Selections, and someone did a very good job sourcing this juice. ABV: 13.5 percent.

Distributed by Siema: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits. Available in Maryland at Cranberry Liquors in Westminster, Crescent Beer & Wine in Bowie, Fenwick Beer & Wine in Silver Spring, Wine Market in Baltimore, Friendship Wine & Liquor in Abingdon, Midway Discount Liquors in Joppa, Old Town Market in Kensington, Spin the Bottle Wine Co. and Ye Old Spirit Shop in Frederick, Wine Bin in Ellicott City. Available in Virginia at Culpeper Cheese Company in Culpeper, Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview).

Domaine Naturaliste Chardonnay 2015

Margaret River, Australia, $22

Heres a case study in why we shouldnt rely on snap judgments when tasting wine. My first sip of this Australian chardonnay, just liberated from under its screw cap, was a bit reductive and sulfury. But I could tell there was good fruit underneath. So I poured a glass through an aerator, a device designed to let wine breathe in a hurry. It tasted better, more fruity. Then after an hour or so, the wine showed tropical fruit and nice richness, with a savory acidity that called for rich seafood or poultry dishes. So if you do find a screw-capped wine tasting a bit off at first, give it some air  pour it in a decanter and slosh it around a bit. Liberate that fruit! ABV: 13 percent.

Distributed by Artisans & Vines: Available in the District at Broad Branch Market, Cork & Fork, Rodmans, Schneiders of Capitol Hill. Available in Maryland at Cork & Fork in Bethesda, Fenwick Beer & Wine in Silver Spring, Takoma Park-Silver Spring Co-Op in Takoma Park, the Wine Harvest in Potomac. Available in Virginia at Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview); on the list at Lake Anne Coffee House & Wine Bar in Reston.

GREAT VALUE

Demba Garnacha 2015

Carinena, Spain, $10

Spain has long been a source of good quality bargain wines made from garnacha (known as grenache in France). The Demba is another example: a juicy red with a hint of sunshine and dry earth. ABV: 14 percent.

Distributed by Stefano Selections: Available in the District at Calvert Woodley, Connecticut Avenue Wine & Liquor, Potomac Wines & Spirits. Available in Maryland at Aloha Liquor in Baltimore.

Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor.
THE DISTRICT

Man charged after

multiple robberies

D.C. police arrested a man Friday who they say is responsible for five robberies in 17 days in Northeast Washington.

Abdullah Malik Thomas of Southeast Washington was charged him with five counts of armed robbery.

Three of his targets were restaurants on the same block of Minnesota Avenue, and one was hit twice. Two other robberies occurred at a grocery store two blocks away on Benning Road, according to police.

The largest amount of money stolen was $659, but the usual take was $200 or less, police said in reports. All of the businesses were targeted between the end of June and mid-July. The man wore a mask or red bandanna over his mouth during some of the robberies, police said.

 Peter Hermann

MARYLAND

Baby giraffe dies

at zoo in Baltimore

Julius, the month-old giraffe born at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, was euthanized Saturday morning after a prolonged illness and intense efforts to restore his health, the zoo announced.

The death came hours after the zoo said Juliuss condition had deteriorated Thursday night into Friday and that his chances of survival were slim. The six-foot-tall calf had been receiving a life-supporting solution intravenously.

In a statement, Don Hutchinson, president of the zoo, said the veterinary staff and our animal care team put their lives on hold to try and nurse Julius back to health, and every avenue was explored. Sadly, he was unable to survive in spite of their Herculean efforts.

The zoo noted that Julius had a very challenging start to life, with difficulties nursing.

 Peter Hermann

VIRGINIA

Deaths at McLean home

are called murder-suicide

Two women whose bodies were found in a house in McLean on Friday died in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Saturday.

The women were identified as Helen Lorena Hargan, 23, and her mother, Pamela Denise Hansen Hargan, 63. The younger Hargan shot her mother and then herself, police said.

Police said the bodies were found in a home in the 6700 block of Dean Drive after they received a call  it is not clear from whom  that someone there might have been killed. Police arrived after they were unable to contact anyone at the house.

A 7-year-old girl, thought to be the younger Hargans niece and a frequent visitor to the home, was not present at the time of the shooting and is safe with her mother, police said.

 Martin Weil

THE REGION
A student walks along a hallway after the graduation ceremony at Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, Va. A hot issue in education today is whether many high school graduates are squeaking through via online credit-recovery courses. (Gabriella Demczuk /For The Washington Post )

The hottest issue in high schools these days is the sharp rise in U.S. graduation rates  up to a record 83 percent  and whether it is real or an elaborate scam.

I think the latter.

There has been an accelerated use of online credit-recovery courses, which allow students to substitute a few weeks of work online for a course that usually takes months in a classroom. But there is no research showing students learn much in the courses  used by 88 percent of school districts  that got them to commencement.

Some students squeaked by with a few multiple-choice answers after reading short passages. Some were told which questions they got wrong and were urged to try again  quick before you forget!

But after reporting such dishonest shortcuts, I have revealed myself to be another villain in the ruination of our nation by suggesting we let those kids graduate anyway. School is torture to them. They are going to drop out, so why not give them diplomas so they can get some job while they mature and decide what kind of additional schooling they want?

[Why surging high school graduation rates might be a mirage]

To help me with such contradictory thoughts, I have asked several experts if they think I am wrong, and why. They are not comfortable with the notion of diplomas as farewell gifts, but they admit the problem is not easily solved.

Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said, I would not condone inferior, watered-down courses under any circumstances. He prefers a move toward personalized learning that he says is already underway.

At-risk students do have the opportunity to work at a pace appropriate to their needs and, without seat-time requirements, expand learning time to include the home, the library and anywhere that they can get online, he said. Unfortunately, he added, not all states have gone in that direction.

Robert Gira is executive vice president of Advancement Via Individual Determination, the nations largest college preparatory program. He agreed with me that students who fail courses resist repeating them. But he thought credit recovery could work if the courses are monitored to make sure they produce significant learning. The best schools, he said, tie all student work to an overall plan for their futures.

Joseph Hawkins, a veteran education researcher based in Montgomery County, Md., said administrators should check credit-recovery courses for effectiveness. A kid who, for example, recovers credit in Algebra must actually sit and pass an Algebra exam, he said.

Creative thinking is needed, Hawkins said. He said high schools could set up an academic plan with a ninth-grader at risk that might take five years, but at a pace they could handle.

Finding quick ways to graduate as many seniors as possible is not new. It has been evident in nearly all high schools I have studied the past 30 years. Retired D.C. history teacher Erich Martel has been exposing diplomas granted for inadequate credit for more than a decade. Claims that school officials in Prince Georges County, Md., altered the grades of students to meet graduation-rate targets may be making the headlines now, but nearly all teachers can tell stories about such happenings in their buildings. Often it is nice people trying to ease students out of schools that can no longer help them.

[State lawmakers seek broad probe of graduation rates]

Only one expert shared my view of the inevitability of such activity. Jerry Heverly, a veteran English teacher in California, saw this as part of our culture, like hot dogs on Independence Day.

Ive felt for many years that a high school diploma is not a measure of academic achievement in most of America, he said. It is more akin to a quinceanera or bar mitzvah. It means you are officially an adult. Its a rite of passage. . . . Counselors and administrators buttonhole teachers the last weeks of school pleading for consideration for that nice kid who only needs one more class to graduate. Who wants to be the Grinch that kept Sally from walking the stage?

Twelfth grade is too late for tough talk. Graduation requirements can work if taken seriously in ninth grade. But we seem to prefer slick makeup courses that take just a few weeks.


Yonathan Dawit studies math at Bridges Academy, a private D.C. school where the majority of students get federally funded vouchers to pay tuition. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Congress dedicates $15 million a year to a program that helps low-income D.C. students pay tuition at private schools, but its impossible for taxpayers to find out where their money goes: The administrator of the D.C. voucher program refuses to say how many students attend each school or how many public dollars they receive.

Its also not clear how students are performing in each school. When Congress created the program in 2004, it did not require individual private schools to disclose anything about student performance. And private schools can continue receiving voucher dollars no matter how poorly their students fare.

President Trump has said the D.C. voucher program is what winning for young children and kids from all over the country looks like, and he has freed up millions of dollars in federal funds to expand it, allowing nearly triple the number of students to participate by next school year.

He and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have also pledged to expand private-school choice programs across the country, many of which now make it difficult to track how tax dollars are spent and whether theyre improving student achievement.

For DeVos, who has spent three decades supporting the expansion of state-level voucher programs, its more important for parents to have choices than it is for the public to have data.

Parents know  or can figure out  what learning environment is best for their child, and we must give them the right to choose where that may be, DeVos said in May. Every school receiving public money should be held accountable, she said, but they should be directly accountable to parents and communities, not to Washington, D.C., bureaucrats.

[DeVos praises this Florida program. Heres what it means for school choice.]

Of the ten largest private-school choice programs in the nation, at least three do not publish information about how many students are served at each school or how much money those schools receive, according to a Washington Post review.

Seven of the programs either dont require that voucher students take standardized tests to make it possible to compare their performance with that of peers at public schools, or, if they do, they do not require schools to make those scores public.

And at least eight have no minimum performance requirements, meaning that a school can do exceedingly poorly and continue to receive taxpayer funds.

Asked to comment on whether DeVos views the lack of public information as a problem, Liz Hill, her spokeswoman, wrote that parents dont need more data sets, they need more options.

A childs progress  or lack thereof  is fully transparent to his or her parents, Hill said. When a robust choice program exists and students are no longer stuck in a mandated system, the ultimate accountability for schools is whether or not parents choose to send their children there.

The view that parents can hold schools accountable for results is a striking departure from the federal governments approach over the past 15 years, which  under presidents of both parties  has sought to improve public schools by publicizing test scores and forcing change at those with persistently low achievement.

DeVos has declared that approach a failure for too many struggling students, and her public argument in favor of alternatives to traditional public schools centers on the experiences of individual students whose lives were changed by the opportunity to attend the school of their choice.



Quienten Bennett is headed to the U.S. Naval Academy after graduating from St. Johns College High School with help from the Districts voucher program. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

There is no question that some students have benefited tremendously from the D.C. voucher program, known as the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Quienten Bennett, a recent graduate of the Districts St. Johns College High, turned down the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Georgetown University to attend the U.S. Naval Academy  a school that admits just nine percent of applicants  in the fall.

His mother, Vernell Bennett, is a single parent who lives in what she described as the bad part of Southeast Washington. She said none of her sons prestigious college options would have been available to him if not for the voucher that allowed him to attend St. Johns, where tuition tops $18,000 year.

Her two other children also received D.C. vouchers, graduated from private high schools and went on to well-regarded colleges. The Opportunity Scholarship has given three of my kids the opportunity to not be a statistic, Bennett said. It introduced them to another world.

But critics of the D.C. voucher program  the only one funded by the federal government  say theres no way to know whether the Bennetts experience is the norm or the exception.

D.C.s charter experiment

A Republican-led Congress created the Districts program in 2004, and although it is small  serving only 1,100 students this year  it has attracted attention over the years as an experiment in school choice conducted in the nations capital.

It currently provides poor children with scholarships of up to $8,452 to attend a private elementary or middle school and up to $12,679 for high school.

The program has undoubtedly allowed some students an escape from troubled neighborhood schools. But there have long been questions about whether oversight of the program is adequate.

[From the archive: Quality controls lacking for D.C. schools accepting federal vouchers]

Private schools receiving D.C. voucher dollars must become accredited by 2021, but they otherwise face few requirements beyond showing that they are in good financial standing and comply with basic health and safety laws.

Schools must also administer nationally standardized math and reading tests to voucher students each year, and they must release those scores to parents and to the Education Department to be used in evaluations of the program.

But they do not report test results publicly, as public schools are required to, which makes it impossible for policymakers  not to mention prospective students and their families  to compare how voucher students fare at different schools.

On the whole, voucher recipients performed worse on standardized tests a year after transferring into private schools than their peers who stayed in public school did, according to a federal study published in April. Previous studies found that voucher recipients graduate from high school at far higher rates than their public-school counterparts.

[Nations only federally funded voucher program has negative effect on student achievement, study finds]

Voucher advocates emphasize that parents care far less about test scores than education policy wonks do and that they should be trusted to choose schools that work well for their children.

Something magical happens when parents feel they have the power to decide where their kids go to school and they actually shop around, said Kevin Chavous, a former D.C. council member who lobbied Congress for the voucher program. For families whose income is less than $21,000 a year, the chance to exercise control in education is a landmark thing in urban America, he said.

Tommy Schultz, a spokesman for the American Federation for Children  an advocacy group DeVos founded and chaired before becoming education secretary  said tax dollars often flow to public schools that consistently fail students.

While we continue to advocate for policies that create strong programs and improve existing ones, our opponents in the education establishment and the self-interested unions are content to sit on their hands and let chronically languishing schools with dismal track records of performance continue to shuffle students through the doors with no other options.

Relying on vouchers

While spending by public schools in D.C. and elsewhere is public information, it is not clear where the voucher money goes.

Congress sends about $15 million each year to a nonprofit administrator of the program that, in turn, gives scholarships to District children for use at private schools. The nonprofit, Serving Our Children, refused a request for data on the number of students who attend each school and the number of voucher dollars that flow to each school.

Lawyers advised against releasing such information to avoid violating a clause in the law that prohibits the disclosure of personally identifiable information, according to Rachel Sotsky, executive director of the organization.



Students study in two classrooms at Bridges Academy, in Northwest Washington. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Of the 47 private schools that participate in the program, 15 responded to Washington Post inquiries about the number of voucher students they serve. That limited information shows that although some of Washingtons elite private schools enroll just a few students, or none at all, others  many of them small operations run out of churches or storefronts  rely heavily on voucher dollars.

Beauvoir, an elementary school on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral where tuition tops $35,000, enrolled no voucher students in 2017, school officials said. Sidwell Friends, famous for educating the children of presidents, including Barack Obama, has enrolled one or two voucher recipients each year.

But at the Academy for Ideal Education  which offers stress free, holistic learning that helps students integrate the right and left hemispheres of their brains, according to its website  27 of 30 students are on vouchers, according to a receptionist at the school, housed in a low-slung brick building alongside a church in Northeast Washington. The owner, Paulette Jones-Bell Imaan, refused to speak to a reporter.

Thirty-nine of 45 students  87 percent  of students at Academia de la Recta Porta International Christian Day School, a small school run out of a storefront along Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington, are on vouchers, according to Annette Miles, who runs the school. Eighty-one percent of students at Calvary Christian Academy, in a church in Brentwood, pay tuition with vouchers.

All eight of Jamie Youngbloods children attend or attended Bridges Academy, a K-8 school in Brightwood where 69 percent of students use vouchers.

Bridges prepared her children for high school in a way Youngblood doubted her neighborhood school in Southeast would have done, she said. It offers small classes and a well-rounded set of experiences, from an etiquette class where her sons learned to tie a necktie to class trips to places as diverse as Bermuda, Seattle and Tennessee.

The voucher program, she said, is one of the best things theyve done for our kids education.

Critics also say some students with special needs have a hard time using vouchers. Private-school profiles published by Serving Our Children, the voucher administrator, show that one in five do not serve students with learning disabilities; half dont serve students with physical disabilities; and two-thirds dont serve students learning English as a second language.

Vouchers provide schools with fewer dollars per child, on average, than public school funding does for its students. Abigail Smith, who served as deputy mayor for education under Mayor Vincent Gray, said shes concerned that schools that rely heavily on vouchers therefore must cut corners and pay low teacher salaries or refuse to serve children with the most intensive needs.

The lack of transparency means there is no way to know which schools rely heavily on vouchers, what those schools offer or how their students fare, Smith said.

If theres no visibility into it, you just cant know, she said. The lack of information really concerns me.



Lillette Campbell founded Bridges Academy along Georgia Avenue 37 years ago. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

This article was produced in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, where McLaren is a student.
Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born mathematician who in 2014 became the first woman awarded the Fields Medal, often called the most prestigious prize in mathematics, died July 14. She was 40.

Stanford University, where she had been a professor since 2008, announced her death but did not say where she died. The cause was breast cancer.

Dr. Mirzakhani grew up in Tehran and came to the United States in 1999 for graduate study at Harvard University. Her mathematical interests included the theoretical study of complex geometric shapes and the movement of billiard balls across surfaces.

Her work was deeply theoretical, but other mathematicians considered it boldly original and of untold future importance. Her doctoral dissertation, which she completed in 2004, solved two long-standing mathematical problems and led to publications in three major mathematics journals.

She has a fearless ambition when it comes to mathematics, her Harvard mentor, Curtis McMullen, a past Fields Medal winner, told Quanta Magazine in 2014.

Another academic collaborator, University of Chicago mathematician Alex Eskin, described her contributions as the kind of mathematics you immediately recognize belongs in a textbook.

Dr. Mirzakhani was particularly interested in the geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces, Stanford said in a statement. These surfaces included spheres, amoebas and complex hyperbolic structures, or saddle-shaped or doughnut-shaped abstract objects with multiple openings. She also studied the dynamics of how particles move or flow across surfaces  like the trajectory of billiard balls rolling on tables of different configurations.

Her work is already widely influential in mathematics, with possible future use in engineering, cryptography and theoretical physics, including studies of the origin of the universe.

In 2014, she was one of four mathematicians to receive the Fields Medal  officially called the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, which is awarded by the International Mathematical Union. Sometimes called the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, it is presented every four years to no more than four mathematicians under the age of 40.

When Dr. Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal, it was considered a moment of great symbolic importance for women in mathematics and science. She is the only woman to have received the medal, named for Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, since it was first awarded in 1936.

She often sketched mathematical proofs on large sheets of paper  a process her young daughter called painting and which Dr. Mirzakhani likened to composing a novel.

There are different characters, and you are getting to know them better, she told Quanta Magazine. Things evolve, and then you look back at a character, and its completely different from your first impression.

Maryam Mirzakhani was born May 3, 1977, in Tehran. In the few interviews she gave, she said that as a child, she wanted to be a writer, but she revealed nothing about her parents or their occupations.

She did say that she became interested in mathematics after her older brother told her about a shorthand way to add all the numbers from 1 to 100. The trick, devised in the 18th century by Carl Friedrich Gauss, is to add the outermost pairs of numbers: 1 plus 100, 2 plus 99, 3 plus 98, and so on. Each time, the sum is 101. There are 50 pairs of numbers. Multiplying 50 by 101 yields the answer: 5,050.

While attending a girls high school in Tehran, Dr. Mirzakhani earned gold medals in international math competitions, including a perfect score in 1995. She graduated from Tehrans Sharif University of Technology in 1999 and received her doctorate in mathematics from Harvard in 2004.

She taught at Princeton University and was a research fellow with the Clay Mathematics Institute in New Hampshire before joining the Stanford faculty. Dr. Mirzakhanis death was noted in a statement issued by Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran.

Survivors include her husband, computer scientist Jan Vondrak of Stanford, Calif.; and their 6-year-old daughter, Anahita.

I dont have any particular recipe, Dr. Mirzakhani said in 2014 after winning the Fields Medal. But she said she derived a deep sense of joy from exploring mathematical problems.

It is like being lost in a jungle, she said, and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the date of Dr. Mirzakhanis death. It was July 14, not July 15. The story has been revised.
The cranes 66-foot-long arm reached down to the flatbed truck, spread its giant claws and grabbed hold of four dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles.

The crane operator, perched high above, raised his prey into the air and swung it around, placing the vehicles gently on a conveyor belt. Within seconds, a machine separated metal from plastic and rubber, and 450-pound steel teeth transformed the bikes and ATVs into 14,180 pounds of shredded metal that will be sold all over the world.

A single dirt bike  whose riders travel in packs, flouting traffic laws and agitating motorists and pedestrians by popping wheelies on sidewalks  can be compacted into a fist-sized cube of metal.

D.C. police on Saturday destroyed 62 dirt bikes and ATVs, hauled to an area scrap yard in five trucks. All had either been abandoned, seized as part of a criminal investigation or taken because they were not registered and never claimed.

But instead of auctioning the bikes, and as they do with seized firearms, police decided to send a different message.

The cranes claw carries several vehicles to their crushing end. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post)

[Watch dirt bikes shredded on this police video]

We dont want them to return to the street, said Bill Sarvis, director of the D.C. police corporate support bureau, which is responsible for managing equipment, supplies and the agencys fleet of vehicles.

Dirt-bike riders are fixtures in Baltimore and the District, drawing complaints from residents and frustrations from police who prohibit officers from chasing them, saying it is too dangerous. Instead, police use surveillance photographs to try to identify bikes and riders, as well as tips from the public to seize the vehicles. People who provide information to the police that leads to seizure of an illegal bike can receive an award of up to $250.

On June 25, more than 100 riders cruised through the H Street corridor of Northeast Washington and the streets of the National Harbor in Prince Georges County. Police sent up helicopters to follow the group, which wove through Sunday evening traffic and turned sidewalks into roadways for more than a half an hour.

[More than 100 dirt bikes, ATVs roar through District, National Harbor]

D.C. police publicized 54 pictures of riders and bikes hoping to get tips. Police Chief Peter Newsham termed the event terrorizing.

We hope those who illegally and recklessly operate these vehicles will see [the shredding] as a symbolic gesture that this type of behavior wont be tolerated in the District of Columbia, Newsham said in a statement. The community is fed up with this behavior. As long as they continue endangering the lives of everyone on our streets, [the Metropolitan Police Department] will continue confiscating and destroying these vehicles.

D.C. police on Saturday destroyed 62 dirt bikes and ATVs. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post)

In 2016, D.C. police arrested 56 people on charges of illegally driving dirt bikes and ATVs, as well as seizing 41 vehicles. Police have made more than 20 arrests and confiscated 10 bikes so far this year.

Owners of the company that crushed the bikes Saturday allowed access to a reporter and photographer on the condition that the name and location not be published. A company official said they feared the bikes owners would come looking for vehicles or seek retribution.

[D.C. police videos, pictures of dirt bike, ATV riders being sought]

The vast scrap yard is filled with piles of metal, including old cars, washing machines, grocery carts and oil drums. It takes 30 seconds to compress a car into a suitcase-sized cube. But most of the vehicles are shredded into small bits of metal to be turned into steel rods, beams and pipes.

Charles Thompson Jr., a supervisor at the D.C. police maintenance lot at Blue Plains in Southeast Washington, said he rides dirt bikes, but he keeps them off-road.

Theyre illegal on the street, so dont ride them there, he said after driving one of the flatbed trucks tied down with more than a dozen bikes. These are some bikes that wont be used by riders to kick the sides of police cars.

When the fifth truck emptied, Thompson climbed onto the bed with a large push broom and swept some of the debris that had fallen from the clutches of the crane  a headlight, a handlebar and some broken glass. The job over, he jumped down and glanced up at the last of the bikes heading up the conveyor belt and toward the 450-pound teeth.

These wont terrorize anyone anymore, Thompson said.
Demonstrators and police clash on the streets of the nations capital on Inauguration Day in January. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Major technology companies and civil liberties groups have joined Facebook in a closed courtroom battle over secret government access to social media records.

Facebook is fighting a court order that prohibits it from letting users know when law enforcement investigators ask to search their political communications  a ban that Facebook contends tramples First Amendment protections of the company and individuals.

Most of the details of the case in the nations capital are under wraps, but the timing of the investigation, and references in public court documents, suggest the search warrants relate to demonstrations during President Trumps inauguration. More than 200 people were detained and many have been charged with felony rioting in the Jan. 20 protests that injured police and damaged property in an area of downtown Washington.

The Facebook battle in the D.C. Court of Appeals is similar to challenges percolating throughout the country from technology companies objecting to how the government seeks access to Internet data in emails or social media accounts during criminal investigations.

The D.C. case has implications for the First Amendment rights of Facebook users and others who are politically active online.

The Constitution can only protect the targets of an investigation, according to the court filings, if they know their rights are under threat.

[D.C. police infiltrated inauguration protest group, court papers show]

Prosecutors are trying to prevent Facebook from giving users a heads up about search warrants connected to an investigation into potential felony charges. Prosecutors typically ask judges for nondisclosure orders when they are concerned that tipped-off targets will destroy evidence, flee or otherwise undermine an investigation.

The wording of the search warrants at the crux of the case seek all contents of communications, identifying information and other records and designate three accounts for a three-month period in each request, according to a Facebook court filing that is publicly viewable.

In April, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Facebooks request to get rid of the gag order and directed the company to turn over the records covered by the search warrants to law enforcement.

Facebook appealed. The appeals court allowed the company to share some details of the sealed case to seek legal support for its cause from other businesses and organizations. Those organizations have since filed public legal briefs backing Facebook.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office declined to comment on the sealed case that is scheduled for argument in September.

Nate Cardozo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which filed in support of Facebooks objections to the gag order, said the government has routinely overused nondisclosure orders to try to keep its surveillance activities secret.

When a criminal investigation, such as the one into Inauguration Day protesters, is widely covered, he said, there is no need for it to remain secret.

In its public court filing, Facebook says it should be able to notify users in advance of the search because the public is already aware of the investigation. Neither the governments investigation nor its interest in Facebook user information was secret, the company says in its brief. The company also says it has preserved the records prosecutors are seeking.

The American Civil Liberties Union, EFF and the coalition of technology companies and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press say the targeted Facebook users should have an opportunity to challenge the warrants in court when their rights to engage in anonymous political speech are at stake and when the government investigation is not a secret.

The warrants broad sweep would enable the government to review the targets communications with third-parties, their political and social affiliations, their reading habits, and their views on a plethora of political, social, religious and personal issues, according to the ACLU brief filed by Arthur B. Spitzer.

[Inauguration Day rioter is sentenced to four months in jail]

Prosecutions of the Inauguration Day demonstrators are playing out in D.C. Superior Court with trials scheduled to begin later this year and run through 2018.

Jason Flores-Williams, an attorney representing three protesters, tried unsuccessfully to block a separate subpoena for the Facebook information of one of his clients.

In a court filing early this year, Flores-Williams said college student Marisa Matthews was notified by Facebook that the government requested access to her online profile.

In the last six months of 2016, Facebook reported about 41,000 requests for information from the government and said it provided some data in 83 percent of those cases.

In trying to obtain Ms. Matthews Facebook information, the government is effectively obtaining information about her friends and colleagues, which violates the right of association, Flores-Williams said in his court motion that was denied.

The governments subpoenas/records requests are squarely aimed at identifying and mapping the associational movements of individuals it believes are involved in political expression: specifically, protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump, which is highly-protected, if not the most protected, form of speech.
A judge declared a mistrial Friday in the case of a former Fairfax County parks worker charged with second-degree murder for stabbing a woman after a tension-filled wedding reception that ended in a fight over folding chairs.

The Fairfax County Circuit Court jury deliberated for more than six hours before announcing they could not reach a verdict in the case against Kempton A. Bonds, 20.

Bonds was working at the wedding reception at a Chantilly, Va., park in August 2016 when he stabbed 35-year-old Tyonne Johns, who was the caterer at the event and a friend of the bride and groom.

Prosecutors argued Bonds had been rude to wedding guests throughout the evening and ultimately lashed out violently. Bonds said Johns put her hands around his neck during the dispute over the chairs, and argued he was acting in self-defense when he pulled out his knife.

[Simmering feud at park wedding ended in argument over chairs, fatal stabbing, witness testifies]

(Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney at Fairfax County Government)

Johnss mother left the courtroom crying after Judge Daniel E. Ortiz declared a mistrial.

While conferencing with his attorneys and his mother after hearing the jury was hung, Bonds appeared scared. At one point he put his hand on his head and looked down as defense attorney Peter Greenspun spoke to the group.

Look at his face. . .God I just want to hug him, Karyn Clifton, 45, said to those sitting by her in the courtroom. Clifton had testified about Bonds, who was a regular babysitter for her three children.

During the five-day trial, jurors also heard from the bride, wedding guests and the defendant himself about how the evening of August 6, 2016 unfolded at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park.

Those at the wedding testified that Bondss near-constant presence at the wedding reception was excessive and he was curt when people tried to speak with him. He angered guests and the bride by turning off the music minutes after the 9 p.m. deadline in the contract, even though the bride and groom hadnt had their first dance.

Greenspun argued the young man was just doing his job. Those who know Bonds, including his mother, testified that hes polite and trustworthy. Bonds had been working for the Fairfax County Park Authority since July 2015 and Bondss boss Zane Stivers, told the jury that he had considered Bonds one of his best hires.

Both sides agreed that tension between Bonds and the wedding party and guests grew throughout the evening.

The defenses argument relied on the claim that Johns attacked Bonds, choking him to the point where he couldnt breathe. The bride and a wedding guest testified that they never saw Johns touch Bonds.

Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Brandon Shapiro said that the defenses version contradicted Bondss behavior immediately after the incident. Bonds, who carries an inhaler for asthma, did not sound like someone who could barely breathe during the 911 call he placed after the stabbing, Shapiro told the jurors.

But even if Johns had choked Bonds, Shapiro said in his closing argument, stabbing her twice with a three-inch blade, and twisting that blade upward, showed Bonds meant to kill.

It was by far not an accident. He did this with malice. He antagonized, he baited. . .he took that knife and he stuck it three inches into her, Shapiro said. Bonds was, he argued, going for death.

Greenspun told jurors that the people at the wedding had become foul and vile and disrespectful to Bonds.

When the situation became increasingly strained after Bonds shut off the music, he called his boss and police to explain that he felt threatened. Instead of sticking around to monitor the situation like Bonds thought officers would do, the police abandoned him, Greenspun said.

Before the stabbing, Greenspun said, Bonds was cornered, outnumbered and verbally assaulted by those at the wedding.

[Park employee testifies that he fatally stabbed the caterer as she choked him]

Bonds explained to the jurors why he stabbed Johns during his testimony Thursday: I was trying to get her off of me so that I could breathe.

When cross examined, Bonds didnt waver: I was afraid for my life.
Only a few months after the Montana legislature opened the door for a Lockwood high school, a community group is gearing up for an election push.

Lockwood School trustees signed off on putting the first phase of a high school proposal on a November ballot at their June meeting. The vote will simply be whether to pursue a more detailed high school proposal to be voted on within two years.

Chad Hanson, whose child will be a second-grader at Lockwood, is spearheading a community group that met June 28 to discuss a campaign supporting the high school proposal. He doesnt want to wait any longer to try to capitalize on the bills passage.

Theres a lot of momentum, he said. People are aware of the situation.

He specifically cited dissatisfaction with School District 2s high school redistricting process; Lockwood students previously were the only students in the district to have the option of attending Senior or Skyview high schools. New boundaries set two years ago pulled that choice and assigned most students to Skyview. He also said he prefers a smaller school atmosphere.

However, the upcoming fiscal year could be especially challenging in an area of Montana often resistant to passing tax hikes.

Schools across the state will see their automatically levied mills go up after legislators cut a state payment, effectively triggering a $40 million tax raise over the next two years before the payment is eventually back filled. Individual tax bills depend on changes in individual property value and overall tax base value, but the change is likely to raise taxes for many people.

Lockwood is also using a new state law passed this spring that allows officials to automatically levy money for building maintenance and repairs, specifically to fix a crumbling roof. The levy is six mills, which will increase taxes about $8 per year on a $100,000 home.

Even before those changes, school levy elections were often tough sells in Eastern Montana. This May, a Lockwood general fund levy that would have raised taxes about $6 per year on a $100,000 home failed by only 14 votes. Lockwoods district voted much more heavily against an SD2 high school levy that failed.

The good news for Lockwood high school advocates is that the initial vote wont have a price tag attached.

The high school expansion law passed this spring requires K-8 school districts with more than 1,000 students to pass a pair of ballot initiatives in order to break away from the high school districts they feed into. The first is a conceptual vote to establish a high school district. The second is to pass a bond with the price tag of a new high school. Districts have one shot to pass both proposals every five years.

Getting everyone to pay for it will be a different story. Thats a lot more work, Hanson said.

He said supporters hes talked to dont want to wait any longer to start the process.

They want their kids to be in there as soon as possible, he said. They want the fourth-graders now in there, not the second-graders now.

Hanson said that specifics of a high school proposal are farther down the road, though hes heard support for things like an auditorium, career and technical education facilities and facilities to support an FFA program. He also floated striking an agreement with Billings to allow Lockwood students to attend Billings Career Center.

Lockwood Superintendent Tobin Novasio has previously said he would prefer a premier facility, while acknowledging that school trustees make the final decision. Lockwood would also have to purchase land for a new building, as the current elementary and middle school campus isnt large enough for a high school.

Novasio previously estimated that after a yes vote, it could take between five and 10 years to establish a new high school district.

SD2 impact

Breaking away from SD2 would impact Billings tax base; Lockwoods elementary tax base was about $24 million last school year, and it currently funnels into SD2s $268 million high school tax base.

Removing that is likely to cause a small increase in Billings taxes, according to projections by the Gazette and state legislative researchers. That assumes that all high school students living in Lockwood would attend that high school, and students within the Billings boundary would continue attending Billings high schools; with fewer students, the school budget is smaller.

School officials from both Lockwood and Billings have speculated that either school might draw students from the other district.

The prospect of a split could also complicate district planning; Billings plans to update a facilities master plan and demographic study and enrollment forecast within the next school year.

The new law does allow schools only one shot at high school expansion every five years, which SD2 School Board chairwoman Greta Besch Moen has said is preferable to waiting on legislative cycles.

SD2 Superintendent Terry Bouck said that the ballot authorization alone doesnt affect current district planning, but that could change down the road.

It depends on whether it passes or not, he said.

Hanson said Lockwood supporters will likely form a political action group.

I would think that our big push is going to be September and October, he said. I think its more education. I think the high school sells itself if they get the facts.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 13:18:57|Editor: Mengjie

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BUCHAREST, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Some party leaders from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries expressed willingness here Friday to cooperate with China on the Belt and Road Initiative and promote China-Europe ties.

"An old Chinese adage says he who does not climb the mountain, does not know how high the sky is. In my opinion, Europe and China should climb the mountain together to get to know the benefits of economic development, which brings prosperity to both countries," said Chairman of Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea at the China-CEE countries political parties dialogue.

"China is a trustful ally of Europe, and I believe Central and Eastern Europe are a gate to economic and commercial cooperation between the two continents that have two important pillars: China and the European Union (EU)," he noted.

He hailed the contact between the EU and China under the the Belt and Road Initiative, and believed both sides will come together on projects of mutual interest.

Jan Hamacek, Speaker of the Czech Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), also quoted a Chinese proverb, saying: "A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step."

"This was very much the case with the remarkable transformation of Czech-Chinese relations we have witnessed over the span of just last four years," he said.

He took pride in the fact that the Czech Republic has become a leader in spearheading the Belt and Road Initiative in the region.

"Last year in Riga, we signed the Action Plan for Cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Now we are about to launch the Czech-Chinese Center for Cooperation, the first center of its kind established in the region," Hamacek said.

"This initiative is a great example of peaceful cooperation among nations," he noted.

The Czech Republic is keen to further deepen cooperation between China and the 16 CEE countries as well as actively pursue the deepening of the EU-China strategic partnership, the parliament speaker added.

Piotr Zgorzelski, Secretary of the Supreme Executive Committee of the Polish People's Party echoed Hamacek's view. "Technological progress forces us to look at sub-national cooperation in a much wider context that we are used to do. The Belt and Road Initiative is a great example of such view," he said.

"Its pillar is an overland route of transportation of goods connecting China with Europe via Russia and Poland. Chineurope is born, the most powerful land economic structure ever created," he announced.

Zgorzelski expressed belief that investment in the initiative will deepen integration among related countries, and intensify economic cooperation.

"The project itself is a chance for thousands of companies, employees and businessman from dozens of countries," he said.

According to Jiri Dolejs, Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia & Moravia in the Czech Republic, the Belt and Road Initiative has become a strategic framework of cooperation between China and the EU.

"It gives an opportunity to the countries of Central Europe, too, to participate in this global initiative" based on a "win-win' principle," he said.

The dialogue between political parties from China and the CEE was held here on Friday, with Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan giving a keynote speech calling for broader cooperation between China and the CEE.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) wants to again allow insurers to sell bare bones health-care plans. Critics say his amendment to the Senate GOP health-care bill could destabilize insurance markets. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)

Before the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies could offer any combination of benefits in most states and legally call them a health insurance policy. A huge deductible? Coverage for only one night of hospitalization? Nothing for maternity care, mental health or medication?

If consumers were willing to buy such bare bones plans  and some people did, usually at very low prices  those policies were considered health insurance coverage.

If they sold you a policy that covered [only] a toothbrush, that qualified, said Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The ACA did away with that, mainly by requiring that all health plans on the individual and small-group market include certain essential benefits for everyone: prescription drugs, lab services, even maternity care, to name a few.

Now Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) wants to again allow insurers to sell whatever bare-bones coverage they desire and consumers to purchase it. To qualify, insurers would just have to offer one plan that complies with the ACAs comprehensive benefits standard.

It may sound good in theory  free markets and freedom of choice  and its an idea that has long been popular with conservatives. But experts say insurance simply doesnt work this way, and the Cruz amendment would unleash destructive forces for individuals without employer-sponsored coverage as well as for the system.

The senator and his allies have been very clear, said Sarah Lueck, a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. They want lower premiums, and they think that keeping healthy people and sick people separate keeps premiums lower. Well, it does. For healthy people.

But, she added, From an insurance perspective, and from a consumer protection perspective, it wouldnt work.

The insurance industry echoed that late Friday, strongly opposing Cruzs Consumer Freedom Option in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)

It is unworkable in any form and would undermine protections for those with significant medical conditions, increase premiums and could lead to widespread loss of coverage for people currently enrolled in the individual market, wrote the main industry trade group, Americas Health Insurance Plans, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Ultimately, the starkly explicit letter warned, This provision will lead to far fewer, if any, coverage options for consumers who purchase their plan in the individual market. As a result, millions of more individuals will become uninsured.

Heres how this all would play out: Insurance premiums paid by the vast majority of healthy people, who use relatively few medical services each year, cover the costs for those who are ill and require the care provided by the worlds most expensive health system. Leaving aside myriad complexities of insurance markets, ideally it balances out. People are covered for much of the care they get, insurance companies make a profit, and health care providers are reimbursed for their services.

Yet if the sick and the well are sorted  or sort themselves  into separate pools, the system can start to fall apart. With the well no longer subsidizing the sick, the latter may face ever-escalating premiums or fewer choices entirely if insurers no longer are required to sell to anyone who wants to buy a policy.

And in a related scenario, people who are priced out of the market because of a preexisting medical condition, who turn to a health plan with minimal coverage, can find themselves unexpectedly facing very high bills. So can individuals on such a plan who are diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer.

Meanwhile, everyone else who receives insurance through the workplace or can afford to purchase robust coverage continues in a de facto separate system.

Its just Insurance 101, Lueck said. You dont create two disparate markets and then let healthy people leave your marketplace.

Under the Senate bill, the ACAs premium subsidies would still be available to those earning up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level, blunting the cost for many. But middle-income Americans who earn more could face skyrocketing costs without the same consumer protections afforded under the 2010 health-care law.

Those Americans would still be subject to a penalty if they didnt maintain continuous coverage. The Senate legislation erases the ACAs individual mandate to buy coverage, replacing it with a six-month waiting period for those who have been uninsured for at least two months in the previous year.

The Cruz amendment would go an extra step, potentially prodding millions of people with problems like diabetes or heart conditions to stay insured. But depending on what they purchase, it wouldnt guarantee them the ACAs consumer safeguards.

Conservatives have criticized the Cruz amendment as well. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget Office director under president George W. Bush, warned that it would send premiums skyrocketing for older and sicker people.

But Holtz-Eakin was more positive about the latest iteration of the Senate GOP legislation, which provides an additional $72 billion that states could use to stabilize their individual marketplaces.

Everyone will want to stay on the exchange and use that money to subsidize off-exchange people, Holtz-Eakin said. All that money is fungible.

The idea of minimal coverage was tried before the ACA became law, with little success. In 2009, during the Great Recession, Consumer Reports noted that an estimated 14,000 people a day were losing employer-based health insurance. When some turned to individual or small-group plans, they found that they had purchased coverage so riddled with loopholes, limits, exclusions, and gotchas that it wont come close to covering their expenses if they fall seriously ill, the magazine wrote.

At the time, the system favored young, healthy people who wanted to buy cheaper plans without all the frills. And indeed, those are the people have shied away from many of the Obamacare marketplaces, frustrated by premium hikes and willing to instead pay the relatively small fine for lacking coverage.

But there were also some consumers who bought lower-cost coverage without understanding the limitations of such plans, which companies and brokers marketed heavily, said Pollitz at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

People dont really get health insurance, she said. They mostly price-shopped, and if a policy was only 50 bucks a month, they said I can afford that. 

As Republicans have focused on repealing and replacing the ACA this year, conservative lawmakers have started defining success by just one benchmark: Whether a GOP bill would lower insurance premiums. That wouldnt necessarily make plans affordable, however; many compensate with much higher deductibles and copays.

Cruz has fully embraced the narrower goal. The ultimate test of success, he said in May, is whether a final GOP plan lowers premiums.

If we drive down the cost of premiums so that people who are struggling can more easily afford health insurance for their family, we will have succeeded, he said. If the cost of premiums continues to skyrocket, as they have under the last seven years under Obamacare, than we will have failed.
Overturned cars and damaged homes remain a day after a tornado touched down outside New Orleans in February. (MAX BECHERER/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The tornado hit the suburbs east of New Orleans at lunchtime on a mild Tuesday in February.

The twister spun across midcentury ranch houses still bearing spray-painted symbols that search-and-rescue squads left after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At its calmest, the tornado tugged at asphalt shingles. At its most vicious, it flipped cars and snatched entire roofs and walls.

Winds of roughly 150 mph hopped over Chef Menteur Highway, and by the time the tornado fizzled out over Lake Borgne, it had caused millions of dollars in damage. Together with a cluster of other windstorms, it became the seventh presidentially declared major disaster of 2017.

States have come to rely on these declarations, and since the 1980s the federal government has been on the hook for the majority of recovery costs when a disaster is declared.

But as the country faces an increasing number of billion-dollar disasters, federal officials are considering scaling back that spending to save taxpayer money and encourage states to prepare for disasters with their own resources.

And that has some local officials worried, fearing that other programs and services would suffer, said Bryan Koon, Floridas emergency management director. Areas hit with major damage would be miserable places to live, and if you have a large enough disaster, they would be destroyed.

The proposed pullback, along with the threat of more-frequent and more-intense natural disasters linked to climate change, is forcing cities and states to change the way they prepare for and recover from events such as tornadoes, forest fires, floods and hurricanes.

Preparing now for a billion-dollar storm that may be decades away can be a hard sell for officials who also have to come up with money for schools, roads and other essentials.

Some states that have a rainy-day fund . . . for them, it might be easy, Koon said. For most legislatures, [the money] is not going to magically appear.

Nobody knows how much states spend on disasters before and after they hit, but a study last year by the Government Accountability Office found that 17 federal agencies spent at least $277.6 billion on disasters between 2005 and 2014.

Counting on federal funds

Generally, states qualify for the Federal Emergency Management Agencys public assistance program  which provides money to replace and repair infrastructure  if they sustain damage that exceeds a certain dollar threshold, now set at $1.43 per state resident.

Critics say that the rate is too low and that some declarations are issued when the damage is relatively minor.

The federal government did not begin to set money aside to support disaster-stricken states until 1950. By 1953, what started as a $5 million allocation had grown to $52 million.

Now, the federal government is on the hook for at least three-quarters of the recovery costs of presidentially declared major disasters, giving states little incentive to set aside their own money to pay for them.

Like most cities, Baton Rouge  where thousands of residents found themselves underwater last August after two feet of rain doused the area  sets aside no funds to recover from a major disaster.

We have to use existing staff and those folks who already had 40-hour-a-week jobs, said Rowdy Gaudet, an assistant chief administrative officer for the city.

The flooding was so expansive and destructive that FEMA is paying 90 percent of the public safety and infrastructure rebuilding costs in Baton Rouge and surrounding localities.

So far, FEMA has approved $360 million in recovery costs, and the state is picking up the remaining 10 percent, using congressionally allocated Community Development Block Grant funds.

Typically, block grant money would go directly to homeowners, but in Baton Rouge it is being redirected because the public infrastructure need is so significant, Gaudet said.

Theyre taking resources that could go toward homeowners to help out local governments, Gaudet said. Because the reality is some local governments would not be able to meet that 10 percent threshold.

States in the game

The federal money that Baton Rouge relied on may not always be around.

President Trump has taken aim at disaster funding, proposing a budget that cuts FEMA by 11 percent and targets emergency preparedness grants to state and local governments.

FEMA has twice asked for public comments on a proposal that would set varying rates for states based on their risk and what they have done to prepare for disasters.

Proponents of that plan say it would encourage states to save money and design more-resilient communities. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, which funds Stateline, has expressed support for the idea.)

It would relieve taxpayers in non-disaster states from continually subsidizing taxpayers elsewhere, Diane Katz, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, wrote in her comments to FEMA.

New York, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi and Texas received the most federal disaster assistance between 1999 and 2015, averaging a $623.2 million a year. Idaho and Wyoming received, on average, only $687,985 and $763,162 in relief during that time.

But some jurisdictions say the deductible is unfair to disaster-prone states with small budgets.

For example, the FEMA proposal would require Louisiana to meet a $73.9 million deductible by fortifying communities and setting aside money for recovery spending, even though the state is much smaller than others, like Texas, with similar proposed deductibles.

A warming planet

Pat Forbes, executive director of the state division of administration in Louisiana, which collected $16.6 billion in federal disaster assistance between 1999 and 2015, said disasters are unpredictable and could hit any place at any time.

When the disaster, especially one as catastrophic as [last years Baton Rouge floods,] happens in your community, you cant recover without outside help, Forbes said.

Although scientists dont know exactly how climate change will affect particular disasters, a warmer planet will mean changes in weather events, said Ken Kunkel of the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies.

Rising sea levels will lead to more coastal flooding. Warmer oceans probably will cause more heavy rain events. And hotter temperatures and depleted soil moisture could lead to wildfires that are more intense.

We have adapted . . . to a certain kind of world, Kunkel said. Were not going to have exactly that kind of world in the future.

Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they believe that in 2015, wildfires in Alaska, a drought in Washington state and a sunny day flood in the Miami region all were related to rising global temperatures.

Places that werent built to withstand major disasters will probably have to grapple with them down the road, said Quinn Dauer, an assistant professor at Indiana University Southeast who studies natural and technological disasters.

Really what makes a disaster is humans engaging in an environment in a way thats going to increase their vulnerability to one of these physical forces, Dauer said.

 Stateline

Stateline is an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.


The waiting room fills at the Blum Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Reno on July 13. A week after Nevada started recreational sales, the dispensary sold out of much of its inventory. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Nevadas fast-developing experiment with legal sales of recreational marijuana was an instant hit, and the Fourth of July weekend gave the Silver State a taste of the green rush.

In the first few days of sales, dispensaries reported more than 40,000 recreational transactions, a push that created two situations here: A rudimentary distribution system meant there wasnt enough marijuana to stock the shelves, and high demand confirmed state officials sense that weed sales could help bolster state coffers.

The lack of product was the result of a distribution problem the state discovered at the last minute and didnt solve before sales were allowed July 1. Although state revenue projections estimated that the burgeoning marijuana industry could provide an extra $100 million to the budget during the next two years, the state rushed to get it on sale without entirely figuring out how to get it to customers.

The new state marijuana law gave exclusive distribution rights to wholesale alcohol distributors for 18 months, but when the first sales were allowed July 1, none had met the requirements for a license. Dispensaries, which had been handling medical marijuana sales for two years, stocked up. Sales were far greater  in some cases several times greater  than anyone expected.

So, worried that potential tax revenue could be at risk, the Nevada Department of Taxation declared a state of emergency, proposing regulations that would enable the expansion of distribution beyond the liquor industry.

Deonne Contine, executive director of the Department of Taxation, got to the heart of the matter Thursday as officials considered emergency fixes: Dispensaries will run out of product  theyre already running out of some products  and there will be a budget shortfall if that happens. Because if these businesses cant sell products, then we cant collect tax.

On Thursday, the state Tax Commission unanimously approved the emergency regulations after several hours of public commentary. Two distributors won licenses this week, and Contine is determined to get more licenses awarded as soon as possible. Obviously, as more licenses are awarded, more sales will occur and revenue will increase, she said.



The legal limit of one ounce of marijuana is purchased by a customer at the Blum Medical Marijuana Dispensary. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Looking to crack down on the black market and maximize tax revenue, the state moved to start sales of recreational marijuana six months after voters approved a ballot initiative.

Whatever legislators in this Republican state thought of the idea before, now that recreational marijuana has been legalized in Nevada, they want to make sure the state is getting its cut. Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) has put a 15 percent excise tax on wholesalers and a 10 percent retail sales tax on recreational sales. About $70 million of the $100 million in marijuana tax revenue is expected to come from recreational sales and is earmarked to shore up the states funding for K-12 education, which is facing a $40 million shortfall.

The pot business here has been booming. Outside the Blum dispensary in Reno, the store has had to add a row of about 20 folding chairs on the sidewalk, with a cooler of water because people have been waiting an hour or more in 100-degree weather.

I was here the first night, and they stayed open all night because they didnt want anyone who had been in line to not be served, said David Flint, who has been back to the dispensary more than once because he likes its offerings variety. Its more expensive, but then you can get exactly what you want, and you dont have to deal with a street dealer.

The crowd along Virginia Street, the citys main drag, is varied. Young and old, clean-cut and scruffy, casual users and veterans. Some felt a little exposed waiting outside for something that wasnt legal just days ago.

I feel like a college student with a fake ID and like my parents are going to bust me any minute, said one woman, who declined to give her name because she teaches at a local university and is worried about what her students and employer might think.



A line forms outside the Blum Medical Marijuana Dispensary on July 13. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Every 10 minutes or so a security guard comes out to get the next eight patrons. They show their identification at a glassed-in desk before gaining access to the interior wait room, which looks a bit like the lobby of a high-end medical office, earthy tones with chrome and white accessories. Inside, a dozen or so people wait to be called into the retail space  a long, backlit counter that resembles a jewelry display case but for its variety of cannabis products. Bud tenders, many of whom are recent hires to meet the demand, help customers pick out what they want, ring them up and send them on their way with large white child-safe pouches.

Though off to a fast start, the Nevada marijuana industry is, like all others across the country, viewed as illicit in Washington. Marijuana sales and possession still remain federal crimes, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was in Las Vegas this week, is an opponent of recreational use.

He could shut us down at any time, and hes very anti-weed, said Mikel Alvarez, director of retail for Terra Tech, which operates the four Blum dispensaries in Nevada.

Alcohol distributors have cited reservations over federal regulations as one reason theyre hesitant to make the investments required to get marijuana distribution licenses. Dispensaries in Nevada and elsewhere largely shy away from using the U.S. banking system because of fears of a federal crackdown that could affect their funds.

The regulatory fight  which alcohol distributors are committed to, having filed lawsuits against the state and alleging the emergency regulations are invalid  is just one example that opponents of the new law point to when arguing that Nevada was too quick to get into recreational marijuana.

Nevada stands alone with this six-month rush, said Jim Hartman, an attorney and president of Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy. Why? What is the hurry here?
The vaudeville show thats running at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue didnt book itself into the White House. Nearly 63 million Americans sent that burlesque comedy with headliner Donald Trump to Washington. That 66 million other voters thought otherwise is beside the point. Trump didnt anoint himself president. Millions put him in office.

What does that tell us about the country?

Was hatred of President Barack Obama, fear of Hillary Clinton, outrage over Americas perceived direction enough to transfer the reins to Trump?

Its not as if the Trump on display in the Oval Office is not the same Trump we saw on the campaign trail or on reality TV or out and about touting his businesses. He was, by any yardstick, the most unqualified presidential nominee in modern history.

Trump didnt seize the presidency by deception. For months on end, he was out there for all voters to see, measure and judge. Some of us did offer our preelection assessments, based upon his campaign, well before time came to cast ballots.

In my view, Trump showed himself to be one who could be neither out-demagogued nor out-nastied.

Well in advance of the vote, the country heard Trumps vile insults and claims: Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists; Obama wasnt born in the United States and was an illegitimate president.

And his attacks on people. Megyn Kelly: You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. Jews: The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): Hes not a war hero . . . I like people that werent captured. My journalist colleague Serge Kovaleski, who has limited mobility in his arms: Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy, Trump said, before contorting his arms in an apparent impersonation.

Trump the candidate showed himself to be an ignorant, undisciplined, ranting bully who exaggerated and lied without shame. A man who wore a tough-guy masculinity but was actually a coward, who picked on women, demeaned minorities and was thoroughly lacking in human decency.

Trumps character defects were on full display well before the polls opened.

President Trumps behavior in the White House has been equally as disgusting and beneath the dignity of that high office.

And now our nations capital is being wrenched apart by the Trump-Russia scandal and congressional and federal investigations into the Kremlins intrusion in the election.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The country cant claim not to have seen this coming.

On Oct. 7, one month before the election, U.S. officials put it out there: The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. . . . These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. . . . We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.

Questions, serious questions, surfaced about whether Trump associates or campaign staff had any role in assisting Moscows meddling in the election to hurt Clinton and elect Trump. And answers are coming in.

Trumps ties and affinities to Russia were no secret, either.

Two months before Election Day, reports appeared in The Post, including in this column, that there was strong evidence that Trumps businesses had received significant funding from Russian investors  thus adding to a growing sense that the Russians may have had their hooks in him and his associates.

Turn over the keys to Trump, I wrote, who mingles with Putins Russian oligarchs, hustles business opportunities in Moscow, blithely looks past Putins annexation of Crimea, and glosses over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its support for Iran and Bashar al-Assad in Syria? Who says the NATO-member Baltic states can count on our help only if threatened by Russia if they have fulfilled their obligations to us? Who says of Russian election meddling: Im not going to tell Putin what to do?

No wonder Putin, covert manipulator of the West, smirks. In Donald Trump, Russia will never have had it so good, I wrote, adding: Something voters may wish to think about.

Well, millions did, taking in all that Trump  by word, thought and deed  had to offer. And they decided to swallow the Kool-Aid and enter the Trump Show with the unquestioned obedience of an adoring audience.

Now what does that say about us?

Read more from Colbert Kings archive.
Predictably and sensibly, a three-judge panel of the nations second-most-important court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, recently dismissed, unanimously, a lawsuit brought by a Yemeni man, two of whose relatives were collateral fatalities in a 2012 U.S. drone attack that killed three terrorists. The suit asked the court to declare the attacks illegal under several U.S. statutes.

The court, however, invoked the political question doctrine: Some politically charged and technical matters are not justiciable because courts are inappropriate forums for answering them. They include the wisdom of military actions. What was sensible but not predictable was that Judge Janice Rogers Brown, in addition to writing the opinion for the court, added a blistering opinion in which she upbraided the other branches for dereliction of duties regarding unfettered presidential warmaking, particularly with precision-strike weapons.

There is pitifully little oversight within the Executive. . . . Congressional oversight is a joke  and a bad one at that. . . . The spread of drones cannot be stopped, but the U.S. can still influence how they are used in the global community  including, someday, seeking recourse should our enemies turn these powerful weapons 180 degrees to target our homeland. The Executive and Congress must establish a clear policy for drone strikes and precise avenues for accountability. Brown asked: If judges will not check this outsized [executive] power, then who will?

Unfortunately, in this, as in so many other areas, Congress is in perpetual flight from responsibility. It should begin by revisiting the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was enacted while the World Trade Center and Pentagon still smoldered.

The AUMF authorized the president to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons. As Rosa Brooks, a former Pentagon official and now Georgetown University law professor, crisply notes, five and three of those words especially matter.

In her simultaneously witty and disturbing book How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything (2016), Brooks notes that the AUMF does not authorize force against anyone, anywhere, anytime but only against those who planned, authorized, committed or aided 9/11. And it authorizes force for a specific purpose  to prevent any future acts against this nation by such entities, not to prevent all future bad acts committed by anyone, anywhere.

In October, thought to be for the first time ever, a U.S. Navy vessel fired SM-2 interceptor missiles to defend itself against a missile attack. The attack came from Yemen, where U.S. forces are involved  they have made more than 80 airstrikes this year and 150 others since 2012  in that countrys civil war. Most, but not all, have targeted al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Last month, a U.S. F/A-18 shot down a Syrian government fighter aircraft that was threatening rebel forces attempting to overthrow the Syrian regime. In May, U.S. forces repeatedly attacked government forces, or the governments proxy forces, in Syria. U.S. forces are occupying Syrian territory. Hundreds of Marines are manning fire bases in northern Syria. This intervention resembles a slow-motion invasion.

Some, most or all current U.S. military activities might be sensible. Few, however, are clearly authorized.

Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) have introduced legislation to authorize the use of force against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State for five years. It would create a process by which presidents could designate other radical Islamist groups as associated forces and Congress could reject such an expansion of force.

Last month, the House Appropriations Committee voted  by voice, perhaps unanimously  to include in a defense measure a provision repealing the 16-year-old AUMF, for the purpose of forcing the writing of one responsive to 2017 realities. Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) opposed using an appropriations bill for this purpose (although nowadays the House appropriations process is rarely used for its intended purpose  timely passage of appropriations bills). But Rep. Tom Cole, an eight-term Oklahoma Republican on the committee, said, I dont know any other way to get [the congressional leaderships and the administrations] attention because weve been talking about it for years.

Congress is permanently in Annie mode. It will deal with its war responsibilities, like its myriad other forfeited powers, tomorrow, which is always a day away.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 13:54:07|Editor: ying

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NEW DELHI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed and 23 others injured when a passenger bus collided with a steel laden truck in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, police said Saturday.

The accident took place on an overbridge in Vallam town in Thanjavur district, 373 km south of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

"Last evening a truck collied with passenger bus in Thanjavur killing 10 people and injuring 23 others," a police official said, "The steel rods pierced some of the bus passengers."

The state-run passenger bus was carrying around 60 local passengers on an inter-district route.

The deceased include eight passengers and drivers of the two ill-fated vehicles.

"The injured people have been admitted to Thanjavur medical college hospital," health officials said.

Police said they were ascertaining the cause of the accident.

"We are trying to ascertain the actual cause of the accident but preliminary investigations point out at over speeding," police said.

The local government has expressed grief over the accident and announced a monetary relief for killed and injured in the mishap.

Deadly road accidents are common in India often caused due to overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.

India's ministry of road transport in 2015 said 146,133 people were killed and 500,279 others injured in 501,423 road accidents across the country.

Global Road Safety Report 2015 released by WHO last year however said India accounts for more than 200,000 deaths annually due to road accidents.
As a political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi relied on the exiled television station Democratic Voice of Burma and magazine Irrawaddy to tell her story. But in June, her government arrested three reporters from these organizations after they covered an ethnic insurgency in Shan state. They have been charged under the Unlawful Associations Act  a law that was used by the military junta to silence critics  and could face up to three years in prison. The arrests are a sign that, though military rule in Burma officially ended in 2011, the legacy of repression lives on.

Burmas new government is no stranger to allegations of human rights abuses. Its scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state led to reports of torture, mass rape and extrajudicial killing, forcing 65,000 civilians to escape to Bangladesh. Many other members of that minority people live in squalid camps with little or no access to humanitarian aid. Most recently, the World Food Program announced that thousands of Rohingya children are suffering from acute malnutrition because of the governments arbitrary restrictions on movement.

Now, a new report from Amnesty International shows that the violations extend well beyond Rakhine state. Civilians in the countrys Kachin and northern Shan states have reportedly been tortured, abducted, arrested and summarily executed by military forces. Researchers also identified a culture of impunity among government troops. While ethnic minorities have faced the most persecution, the imprisonment of the three reporters in Shan state suggests that not even the independent media  Aung San Suu Kyis erstwhile ally  is safe.

In the face of these allegations, Aung San Suu Kyi has remained largely silent. She rejected the necessity of a U.N. fact-finding mission, however, and claimed that it could create greater hostility between the different communities. It is hard to imagine how this could be possible. She may be wary of alienating the countrys military leaders  who are guaranteed by the constitution one quarter of the seats in parliament, key cabinet positions and control of the armed forces  but she should not stand in the way of an international mission.

The Obama administration encouraged democratization in Burma, also known as Myanmar, but was too quick to claim victory. Congress and the Trump administration have an opportunity to recalibrate and play a useful role. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley made an encouraging start on July 10, when she called on Burma to issue visas to the three-person investigative team. This is a crucial step, but it will yield results only if it is part of a broader strategy. As Congress weighs expanding U.S. military engagement with Burma, it should consider attaching conditions, including a vetting process to ensure that human rights violators do not become partners. After years of encouraging democratic reform in Burma, Congress should not sit by as things move in the wrong direction.
As a Foreign Service officer and consular officer for 45 years, now retired, I take exception to the White House proposal to move the Bureau of Consular Affairs from the State Department to the Department of Homeland Security, as reported in Josh Rogins July 10 op-ed, Who decides who gets into America? 

Consular officers adjudicate visas, issue reports of birth and death of Americans overseas, adjudicate U.S. passport applications and assist Americans who get into trouble in foreign countries (get arrested, get sick, etc.). This requires every staffer, from the lowest worker to the highest, to have a good knowledge of the host country and thorough knowledge of the geography (are people from a particular neighborhood more or less likely to stay in the United States?). Consular officers, as do all Foreign Service officers, liaise with local officials, but for consular officers, those local officials include police officers, jailers, doctors and those in the foreign ministry.

In other words, consular officers have a much wider span of duties than merely adjudicating visas. These additional duties prepare consular officers for other duties within the State Department. Immigration officers are not trained in diplomacy, nor should they be, because they have other responsibilities requiring other skills.

This is why the consular function must remain within the State Department.

Brian McNamara, Alexandria
People line up for early voting in the 2016 presidential election at the Chevy Chase Community Center in Washington on Oct. 29, 2016. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

The July 3 Style article Ivankas complex world said of Ivanka Trump, She asks herself why her opinion is more right than the 46 percent of the country who put her father in office.

The fact is that 46 percent of people who voted in the 2016 presidential election put Donald Trump in office. Given that nearly half of eligible voters did not vote, the sentence should have read: She asks herself why her opinion is more right than the 46 percent of voters who put her father in office.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that reporters (and not just from The Post) have made this small but critical error. It masks the reality that relatively few Americans selected this president. In the future, please say either 46 percent of voters or 25 percent of the country (or, more accurately, 25 percent of eligible voters) voted for Trump.

Sharon McGroder, Sterling
FOR YEARS, classifieds website Backpage.com has denied reports that it was involved in facilitating child sex trafficking and exploitation. It insisted that it was a passive host of third-party content and had no control over its sex-related ads  many of which featured children. Reporting from The Posts Tom Jackman and Jonathan OConnell raises new questions about these claims.

According to documents provided to The Post from an unrelated legal dispute, a contractor for Backpage in the Philippines has been aggressively soliciting and creating sex-related ads for the website. Emails from a Backpage.com address directed the contractor to find ads from rival websites and explicitly mentioned ads for adult services, suggesting that at least someone at Backpage was aware of the contractors activities. This revelation builds on the results of a recent Senate investigation, which found that Backpage was editing ads to remove language that explicitly referred to underage girls, rather than deleting the ads altogether. The website also advised users on how to conceal illicit activity from its screening process.

Experts have long alleged that ads published in Backpage play a major role in facilitating human trafficking, including of children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 73 percent of the 10,000 child trafficking reports it receives annually involve Backpage in some way. The website faces pending litigation in California, Washington state and Florida, among other states.

Backpage touted its extensive efforts to prevent, screen and block improper ads in a 2015 court filing in the District. But instead of fully cooperating with authorities, it has repeatedly resisted official investigations into its practices. It refused to comply with a Senate subpoena to hand over documents last year and was unanimously held in contempt of Congress  the first time such an action was taken in over two decades. When it was finally compelled to shut down its adult ad section in January, it claimed that it had been unconstitutionally censored. Backpage has also filed lawsuits over state and federal laws that tackle online sex trafficking.

In response to the latest revelations, three senators have recommended the Justice Department conduct a criminal review. Legislators also are debating whether to amend the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which gives third-party hosts such as Backpage wide-ranging immunity for content posted by its users. This immunity has been vital to the development of free speech on the Internet, but can also provide a loophole for companies that tacitly facilitate human trafficking. It is for Congress to see if it can amend the act without infringing on First Amendment rights, or if passing some other preventive measure is more viable.

What is clear is that something must be done. At the Senate hearing on Backpage in January, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) remarked, Children were sold, and they simply tried to sanitize it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of evil. Given the contents of these new documents, we understand how she feels.
A TOP Education Department official has apologized for saying that 90 percent of campus sexual assault claims result from both parties being drunk. In this case, though, apology isnt enough. Having expressed her true opinion, she needs to resign. There are complex and arguable questions to be sorted out in the area of how sexual assaults on campus should be policed and punished. But someone who doesnt think sexual assault on campus is a real problem in the first place is not qualified to do that sorting.

The controversial comments by acting assistant secretary for civil rights Candice Jackson, who has a record of questionable statements, came as the department considers whether to continue the Obama administrations aggressive approach that forced colleges and universities to take seriously allegations of sexual assault. After a series of meetings Thursday with advocates for victims and those who have been accused, as well as subject-matter experts and representatives of educational institutions, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said there has been unfairness resulting from the current policy but gave no clue about possible changes.

Victims advocates fearing that protections will be rolled back were appropriately alarmed by what Ms. Jackson told the New York Times on the eve of Thursdays meetings. In investigations brought under Title IX, Ms. Jackson said, theres not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman. . . . [They] fall into the category of we were both drunk, we broke up and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.  In the backlash, Ms. Jackson, pointing out she is a rape survivor, said she was sorry for being flippant.

What she should have apologized for is continuing the myth that women are prone to bringing false accusations of rape. Rape is an underreported crime, and the prevalence of false accusations has been estimated at between 2 and 10 percent. Victims often dont step forward precisely because they dont think they will be believed or they fear punishment and retaliation from the authorities who are supposed to protect them.

Indeed, for far too long that was the norm at colleges and universities across the country as a blind eye was turned to sexual misconduct and the student drinking that often factors into these cases. Victims were discouraged from making reports, and attackers went unpunished as institutions worried more about protecting their image. The Obama administration was right to call universities to account for how they handled these cases and remind them they stood to lose federal funding because sexual assault is sex discrimination, which is prohibited under Title IX.

No question that colleges and universities face challenges in putting in place disciplinary systems that fairly and effectively deal with allegations of sexual misconduct. There is the need not only to support victims but also to provide due process to guard against mistakes and injustice. Whether the guidance issued by the Obama administration resulted, as some argue, in unintended consequences and needs adjustment is worthy of careful study and debate  which Ms. Jackson is unqualified to lead.
ENERGY SECRETARY Rick Perry traveled to Capitol Hill last month , asking Congress for $28 billion in funding for everything from nuclear weapons to clean-coal research. Yet one of the most controversial elements in his departments budget proposal was a request for a relatively tiny $120 million  to restart work on Nevadas Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site.

Congress decided in the 1980s that Yucca was to be the permanent home of the countrys large and increasing pile of spent nuclear fuel. In a forbidding desert landscape about 100 miles outside Las Vegas, the site would appear to be an ideal choice for an unbreachable underground vault. The federal government spent more than $15 billion studying the place. Just a couple of years ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that the facility would be technically sound, considering everything from seismic activity to accidental human intrusion, on time scales of up to a million years. Locals in Nye County, which would stand to benefit from employment related to the site, are on board.

But practically everyone else in Nevada opposes the Yucca project, and state leaders have waged a so-far successful not-in-my-back-yard campaign, even though federal law is clear that the site is to be the nations nuclear waste storehouse. The state has denied the Energy Department the water rights it would need to build the depository. For years, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) successfully blocked funding for its development, with the help of President Barack Obama, who made an exception for swing-state Nevada from his pledge to run a science-based administration.

With Mr. Reid and Mr. Obama both retired, the Trump administration and GOP leaders are trying to revive the project. Work is furthest along in the House, where a bill jump-starting Yuccas approval is advancing quickly. Yet it faces a tough road: Nevadas congressional delegation will fight it tooth-and-nail.

Its past time the opposition was sidelined for good. The nations nuclear regulators have found that technical hurdles can be overcome; the biggest barriers to developing the site are political. Congress should re-fund Yucca Mountain and finally end this gratuitous fight.

But that is hardly all lawmakers need to do. No matter what happens with Yucca, the country should move its stocks of waste, which have piled up at nuclear plants, to interim storage sites, where they will be secured more safely and cheaply while the permanent depository is permitted and constructed. With the messy Yucca process in mind, an Obama-era blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste recommended enticing localities to volunteer to host waste sites with the significant economic benefits that such facilities can bring to isolated communities. Though perhaps few places would volunteer, a cooperative approach could result in a smoother process and is worth a try. Congress has considered legislation along these lines before. It should do so again.

The nations nuclear power plants generate massive amounts of electricity with practically no carbon dioxide emissions. Answer the waste question, and the technology will look all the more valuable.
Tom Donilon was national security adviser to President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2013. In 2016, he chaired the Presidents Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

We now know that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a comprehensive effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. This mission involved the cybertheft and strategic publication of politically sensitive emails, the placement and amplification of misinformation on social media, overt propaganda and efforts to penetrate the systems of dozens of state election authorities.

This is not speculation or political posturing; it is the public and high-confidence conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community. And it is wholly consistent with past Soviet and Russian use of active measures  intelligence operations meant to shape an adversarys political decisions  with the strategic goal of undermining the integrity of and confidence in the West. Modern technology has only increased the speed, scale and efficacy of such actions.

This would be alarming even as a one-time occurrence, but as former FBI director James B. Comey recently warned, They will be back. The fact is that, so far, Putin has paid too small a price to meaningfully deter him in the future.

Here are five concrete steps the United States should take to meet this ongoing threat to our democracy:

First, President Trump must unequivocally acknowledge Russias attack on the 2016 election and clearly state that any future attack on our democratic institutions will not be tolerated. One of the oddest aspects of the presidents foreign policy to date is his refusal to criticize  let alone condemn  Russian hostility, be it directed at our elections or Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan. The president continued to make inconsistent statements in Warsaw, claiming that nobody really knows whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election. No president should accept the representations of a foreign adversary over the considered conclusions of his own intelligence services. In all events, the president should demand a plan from his national security team to deter and prevent election attacks.

Second, the Department of Homeland Security and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) should lead a process to develop election baseline cybersecurity guidelines and help states implement these best practices. For example, most people agree that every electronic voting machine should create a paper record that can be audited, but about a quarter of voters cast their ballots on machines that leave no paper trail. DHS is best positioned to harness governments cybersecurity expertise, while the EAC, created after the 2000 recount, is experienced at working with state and local election authorities. The process should be collaborative, just as it was when the National Institute of Standards and Technology partnered with the private sector to develop a framework of measures and practices widely heralded as the gold standard in industrial cybersecurity. This process should ensure that every state establishes a comprehensive election cybersecurity plan. And Congress should establish a grant program to help states get there.

Third, we must develop a better system for sharing information between state and federal officials. While the U.S. election system is decentralized, the threats against it are not confined to state borders. In the lead-up to 2016, state officials were not adequately discussing election security with one another and the federal government. Even today, a number of officials are reportedly still in the dark about whether Russian hackers penetrated their systems. The federal government should create a cyber-FEMA to help detect threats to state and local election systems and then coordinate among Homeland Security, the FBI and the EAC to provide necessary intelligence and assistance.

Fourth, we must engage in a national policy discussion about the roles and responsibilities of our social media platforms and the steps they should take to protect our democracy from malign interference. The crown jewels of our economy, these companies have enormous reach and influence in our lives; we should not allow them to be co-opted for foreign information warfare. Understanding this, they have started to take steps to protect our citizenry from misinformation campaigns. Facebook recently began employing third-party fact-checking outlets to evaluate questionable news items and give them less prominence in users news feeds. In April, Google announced plans to rework algorithms to avoid driving traffic to sites promoting bogus claims. These measures are a start, but to develop a truly comprehensive solution we must engage all stakeholders and discuss the roles these companies, the government and individuals must play in protecting our democracy.

Fifth, the United States should work within international forums to establish the principle that an attack on election systems violates the principles of noninterference and sovereignty and would justify a robust response. A foreign attack on a bridge in New York or a skyscraper in Chicago would surely rouse condemnation as a violation of international norms; an attack on our election system  the very foundation of our democracy  is just as serious. But for norms to have teeth, they must be enforced. With the recent disclosure of penetration by Russia into states election-related computer systems, the United States should promptly impose additional sanctions on Russian assets and individuals. If not confronted, Putin will see no constraints.

These are steps we can take to help secure the future of our democratic institutions in the cyber-age. We are on notice. We must act now.
Every week  nearly every day  brings fresh, stomach-churning evidence of President Trumps unfitness for office. The latest may be the most revolting.

Confronted with incontrovertible proof that his son leapt at the prospect of meeting with a Russian government attorney offering to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for his candidacy, the president took the position that this was political business as usual.

His first public reaction, in an interview with Reuters, was that many people would have held that meeting. The next day, Trump ratcheted up that astonishing assertion, from many to most, asserting, I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. . . . Politics isnt the nicest business in the world, but its very standard.

No. It. Isnt.

Donald Trump Jr. at least had the decency to admit, in his interview with Fox Newss Sean Hannity, that, in retrospect, I probably wouldve done things a little differently. Not his father. I know being Trump means never having to say youre sorry. I understand the fierce parental instinct to defend your erring child, even if that child is a 39-year-old father of five.

(Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

But this meeting was unacceptable. It was not even in the exurbs of appropriate. Hard to believe this really requires spelling out, but apparently it does, so here goes: A candidate for president of the United States and his campaign have no business, none, trucking with an emissary of a foreign government peddling incriminating information about their opponent.

That this meeting was explicitly described as an element of a Russian plot to influence the U.S. election is icing on an already repulsive cake. That the target of this feeler  the candidates son  embraced such meddling rather than recoiling from it only adds to the sordidness of the episode.

And that the intended beneficiary, now the sitting president of the United States, is unable and unwilling to accept that fact should be chilling to every patriotic American. Perhaps he is incapable of ever acknowledging wrongdoing. That only adds to the chill.

As does Trumps staggering refusal to recognize the reality of Russian attempts to interfere in the election. What was Trump doing, at this late stage, asking Russian President Vladimir Putin if he meddled?

I said, Did you do it? And he said, No, I did not. Absolutely not, Trump told Reuters. I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not.

That isnt the point. The intelligence community has told Trump that Russia interfered. The president shouldnt be inquiring  he should be informing Putin about the consequences of this unacceptable behavior. But Trump continues to dispute reality. Somebody did say if [Putin] did do it, you wouldnt have found out about it, Trump added.

We are at risk of suffering outrage overload here. So many troubling things have happened, and Trump continues to make so many beyond-the-pale statements, that we are losing our capacity to respond to all of it with appropriate concern.

Meanwhile, the alarm bells clang. Trump, we are told, didnt know about the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya until a few days before it became public. Except, maybe, he did. In fact, maybe it was mentioned at some point, Trump acknowledged in a conversation with pool reporters  part of an off-the-record, then on-the-record encounter not included in the official White House transcript.

Was he talking about Russian adoption or the meeting itself? Unclear  but at this point, the White House deserves little presumption of honesty or full disclosure. The latest evidence: NBC Newss report that the Trump Tower meeting was also attended by a former Soviet counterintelligence officer. So much for Trumpian back-patting about transparency.

I hear the what-aboutists stirring. But what about Democrats and Ukraine? According to a January report in Politico, a Ukrainian American consultant to the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia. Problematic? Perhaps. But Ukraine is not a U.S. adversary. The scope of its reported involvement is far different from a Putin-directed effort to illegally hack emails to help elect Trump.

If there is one silver lining to this staggering news, it is that it serves to strengthen special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Trump continues to cry witch hunt. Yet there can no longer be any doubt that there is something for Mueller to investigate. And even this supine Republican Congress would not tolerate his summary firing. Would it?

Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
I have reached the age when I read the obituaries regularly. I admire a lifes work and wonder how I will be remembered, not by The Post, just by family and friends. I was touched by the story of one of Hollywoods great stuntmen, Loren Janes, and the irony that so often accompanies our fates  sometimes a lesson, sometimes a gift [Stuntman drove car for McQueen in Bullitt, obituaries, July 3]. I read that Janes died at 85 and had Alzheimers disease.

At the close of the account of Janess amazing accomplishments, we learn that last year a fire destroyed Janess home and much of the memorabilia he had collected during his career. I pondered whether his illness may have served to ease the pain of that loss. And I thanked The Post for remembering for us so that Janes did not die in darkness.

Dan Thompson, Silver Spring
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 13:59:08|Editor: Mengjie

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TAIPEI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- About 94 percent of employees in Taiwan are considering searching for a new job, indicating rigid new work rules as a major reason, a survey released by Taiwan's 1111 Job Bank showed on Friday.

Among those who intended to change jobs within three months, 37 percent said their reason for wanting to change jobs was the result of new work rules introduced in December, according to the survey.

A total of 20.1 percent of interviewees said their salary had fallen and welfare worsened due to the new rules, according to the poll.

Some of those dissatisfied with the new work rules said they were concerned about their prospects since the new regulations caused higher operation costs, while others were unhappy that their responsibilities or work schedules had changed due to the new rules.

Under the new regulations, the maximum number of work hours is 40 hours per week, with one mandatory day off and one flexible rest day. Employers are required to pay overtime for work carried out on the flexible day off.

Daniel Lee, vice president of 1111 Job Bank, said many employers and employees have complained that the rigid work rules leave less leeway for more flexible work schedules.

"The overtime pay is quite high, so some employers prefer to hire dispatch workers to cut costs, whereas employees on the payroll receive lower wages than before since their work hours are reduced. Those who cannot put up with the loss want to make a change. This is a main reason for the job-hopping boom," Lee said.

A poll released by the job bank on July 5 showed that 56 percent of the employees in Taiwan feel the new rules have affected their lives and more than 78 percent said the rules have resulted in growing tension between them and their employers, said Lee.

Friday's survey also showed that 31 percent of respondents considering a job change said that the economic recovery on the island made them confident about looking for a better job.

Taiwan's unemployment rate dropped to a two-year low to 3.66 percent in May and the authority has raised its economic growth forecast from 1.92 percent to 2.05 percent for 2017.

Meanwhile, the survey showed most employees in Taiwan are frequent job-hoppers, with 85.3 percent of respondents saying they had moved to another job within three months after they started a job and 24.5 percent of them even saying they had quit a job on the same day they started it.
President Trump has chosen a new lawyer to join the White House and take the lead on issues related to ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Ty Cobb, a former prosecutor and defense lawyer at Hogan Lovells, will seek to play the role of crisis manager and disciplinarian in a White House that has struggled to deal with continuing questions about the federal and congressional probes that have dominated the early months of Trumps presidency.

Ever since the Justice Department appointed a special counsel for the Russia investigation in May, the administration has endured week after week of revelations about meetings that top officials did not disclose and previous statements that proved partial or misleading. Trump has complained that special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation is a witch hunt that is unfairly stalling his agenda.

[Russian American lobbyist was present at Trump Jr.s meeting with lawyer]

The president has been searching in recent weeks for a lawyer who could work inside the White House on the matter in an attempt to instill some sense of order to what can be a chaotic environment. He had considered Emmet Flood, William Burck and several others for the position.

(Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

On Friday, a White House spokesperson said it was not ready to issue a statement on the presidents choice of a new lawyer and Cobbs office said he was traveling and was not immediately available for comment.

The president was reported to have met with Cobb on July 3.

Trump will continue to be personally represented by his longtime New York-based lawyer Marc E. Kasowitz.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, has decided that veteran Washington defense lawyer Abbe Lowell will take the lead in representing him in the Russia-related inquiries being conducted by Mueller and congressional committees, according to a statement and three people briefed on the decision. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter, had originally hired well-known Washington criminal-defense lawyer Jamie Gorelick to represent them on matters related to their government service, but Kushner recently added Lowell to the team to avoid the potential conflict created because Gorelick and Mueller both worked at the law firm WilmerHale. Gorelick will continue to represent Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Of course I am still part of Jared Kushners legal team, Gorelick said in a statement. As we have stated, once Bob Mueller and three of our partners left the firm to form the Special Counsels Office, we advised Jared to get independent legal advice on whether to continue with us as counsel. As a result of this process, Jared decided that Abbe would represent him in the Russia-related inquiries. We are currently helping Abbes team.

The investigations into Russias meddling in the 2016 election and whether any members of the Trump campaign worked with Russian officials to hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have hung over the White House for months and have proved to be a constant irritant to the president.

Muellers investigation has grown to look at whether the president obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May, and he is also closely scrutinizing two key aides to Trump  Paul Manafort, his onetime campaign manager, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Cobb won an injunction against the Department of Energy that led to the Grand Canyon Protection Act in 1990. He also defended Eli Segal, a Clinton official who was under investigation by an independent counsel for conflict of interest and later cleared.

Rosalind Helderman, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
By most measures, Republicans face a nearly impossible task of finding enough votes to pass their long-promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act through a Senate that seems irreconcilably divided.

A core group of moderates and mainstream conservatives remains resistant to the Republican proposal that slashes Medicaid funding, while a small but critical bloc of conservatives keeps pushing to move the bill further in their direction.

Yet by one measure, Republicans have never been closer to repealing large chunks of what they dismiss as Obamacare. Within two or three short weeks, the GOP will probably either be reveling in its unexpected victory or mired in deep infighting over the partys failure to live up to a pledge it has made over the past seven years.

Some Republicans remain optimistic  and Democrats fearful  that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can pull off the negotiating tricks necessary, but he still faces an uphill fight in winning the votes to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act by his tentative deadline by the end of this month.

If McConnell can make it happen, House Republicans seem ready to quickly pass the Senate version of the legislation and send it to President Trumps desk for his signature.

(Lee Powell,Rhonda Colvin,Victoria Walker,Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

[White House launches aggressive push to flip GOP governors opposed to Senate health bill]

At least thats the assessment of two key House negotiators, one from the conservative and one from the moderate flank.

I have no doubt in my mind that if it passes the Senate  in something close to what its like now  that it will pass the House, said Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), a moderate who negotiated portions of the bill that passed the House in early May.

His conservative counterpart, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), called the latest Senate version a step in the right direction and suggested it would have to be a big move away from the current draft to sink the bill in the House. Either way, he said, conservatives will not object if House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) takes the Senate bill and places it on the House floor in a take-it-or-leave-it moment.

I realize the reality is, were not going to change it when it comes back here, said Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative group in Congress.

Ryan has gone out of his way to avoid comment on specifics of the Senate version of legislation. But Ryan has informed the House to expect immediate consideration if the Senate can find the votes. If Senate is going to give us a health-care bill, were going to stay and finish the health-care bill, he told reporters Thursday.

[Graphic: Where Senate Republicans stand on the new health-care bill]

This is a reversal of the standard operating procedure of the last 6 years of the GOP majority in the House. Time and again, House Republicans pulled a legislative face plant and relied on McConnell to clean up their mess. In 2011, the then-Senate minority leader had to step in after House Speaker John A. Boehners failed talks with President Barack Obama left the nation on the brink of default, and in 2013, Boehners House GOP drove the strategy into a federal government shutdown, which ended only through McConnells dealmaking. But this time, the negotiating failure could be on McConnell.

If McConnell works his magic, theres no guarantee Ryan can ram the Senate bill through the House, where the original bill passed in May by a slim margin, 217 to 213. Some House conservatives are balking at the Senates refusal to repeal all of the taxes that were included by Democrats when they passed the 2010 law, and some moderates are wary of a provision Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) won that would allow insurers to sell low-cost plans in addition to those that meet higher standards imposed by the ACA.

But MacArthur and Meadows believe that in its current form, the Senate bill can probably pass the House  and if it does happen, it will pass quickly.

For several weeks they have provided a feedback loop to key Senate negotiators over what they think their allies in the House would accept without too much debate.

After votes ended Friday, Meadows stuck around Washington rather than making his usual eight-hour drive to western North Carolina. He had a call with Cruz, a key ally to the Freedom Caucus, and his schedule called for a White House meeting this weekend with people he would only identify as senior administration officials to discuss the Senate legislation.

[ Trump administration tells moderates to trust it on health care]

MacArthurs role negotiating with Meadows cost him his leadership role in the Tuesday Group, particularly because of their provision that would eliminate guaranteed coverage for some preexisting conditions. The moderate caucus of House Republicans split ranks on the House vote, and shortly thereafter MacArthur stepped down as co-chairman of the Tuesday Group.

But he has remained in talks with the moderates who did support the House bill, and in recent weeks he has had extended talks with a half-dozen Senate Republicans. MacArthur was particularly pleased that McConnell added a $45 billion fund to fight the opioid epidemic.

Overall, MacArthur thinks the emerging Senate bill is pretty similar to what the House already supported. The Cruz amendment is not that different from what he and Meadows were trying to do on the preexisting condition issue.

Their bill is on the framework that we sent them; they didnt start from scratch. And so theyre making adjustments around the edges, but directionality, theyre doing the same things we did, he said.

Meadowss biggest worry is that McConnell will yield to the Republicans from Medicaid-expansion states who believe the Senate version goes too far in cutting the entitlement program, even after adding about $115 billion to help with premium costs and fight opioids. If it shifts hard to the left, it doesnt get out of the Senate, and even if it does, its dead here, he said.

MacArthur, who now has drawn several Democratic challengers for next year, has told colleagues that there is no political gain from switching their yes vote to a no vote. If you voted the bill out of committee, if you voted for it on the floor, the ads are already written against you. And to try to change now, I think, gets you nothing. You know, its all the calories and half the flavor, he said.

As he left the Capitol on Friday, Meadows had to temper his optimism about the bills chances in the House  because he knows that McConnell still hasnt locked down its passage in the Senate.

Were still not there, though; were still several senators short, he said.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
More than any other Republican in the country right now, centrist Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, seen attending the National Governors Associations summer meeting in Providence, R.I., could hold the power to sink or salvage the health-care bill that Senate GOP leaders are hoping to pass in the coming days. (Stephan Savoia/AP)

Brian Sandoval spent his Saturday morning 3,000 miles from home tucked away in a convention center ballroom where two top Trump administration officials tried to convince him that everything would be okay under their plan to dramatically alter the nations health-care system.

They couldnt.

As a result, the Republican Partys seven-year quest to overhaul the Affordable Care Act remains at serious risk. Senate Republicans were expected to try to move toward a vote on the measure this week, but late Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced a delay in starting the debate because Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will have to stay in Arizona recuperating from surgery for a blood clot above his left eye.

Whether the unexpected postponement will provide Senate leaders with the time to round up the votes they need for passage or merely freeze the process or even harden the opposition was not immediately clear. But the sudden change in plans marked another unexpected twist in the saga of the G OPs struggles over health care this year.

The delay, however, does not change the potentially central role for Sandoval. More than any other Republican in the country right now, the centrist governor of Nevada could hold the power to sink or salvage the health-care bill that Senate GOP leaders had hoped might get a vote in the coming days.

Vice President Pence addresses a National Governors Association session in Providence, R.I. He has tried to persuade Sandoval that the Senate health-care bill would not hurt his Nevada constituents despite its deep federal spending cuts to Medicaid. (Stephan Savoia/AP)

Among the 32 state executives who attended the National Governors Association summer meeting here this weekend, no one drew more attention and interest than Sandoval, a square-jawed 53-year-old with neatly parted dark hair, a made-for-TV smile and a political disposition that is the antithesis of President Trump.

All weekend, he has been besieged  by reporters taking his temperature and by administration officials, including Vice President Pence, trying to persuade him that the Senate bill would not hurt his Nevada constituents despite its deep federal spending cuts to Medicaid.

So far, he isnt buying what the administration is selling. Im no different than I was, Sandoval told reporters after a governors-only meeting Saturday morning with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Seema Verma, administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Sandoval said he is likely to come to a final decision early next week.

The Trump administration mounted a full-court effort here in Providence, recognizing the resistance not only by Sandoval but other Republican governors who are potentially influential with their states senators. Despite a heavy public and private effort, however, the administration appeared to have changed no minds  and may even have hardened some of the opposition.

One moment in particular drew private criticism from governors of both parties  when Pence openly targeted Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), a vociferous opponent of the Republican health-care proposal, seeming to incorrectly link the length of disabled waiting lists to the expansion of Medicaid.

A spokesman for the vice president said Saturday evening that Pence was not trying to link the two but was only talking about need for reforms.

At a meeting Saturday morning with governors, Price and Verma sought to discredit other analyses showing potentially devastating consequences for states under the Senate bill, including a yet-to-be released analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and an independent analysis by the health-care firm Avalere, which was presented at the meeting.

(Lee Powell,Rhonda Colvin,Victoria Walker,Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

Other key Republican governors also expressed skepticism about the bill after the closed-door gathering, highlighting the Trump administrations struggles. Theres still work to be done, said Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson theorized that the Senate bill is probably not the bill thats actually going to be voted on.

Heller cited Sandoval when he announced his opposition to an earlier version of the Senate bill. The two men and their staffs are in close contact analyzing the newer version.

Sandoval, first elected in 2010, was the first Republican governor in the nation to decide to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

And he well recognizes the position he holds in the freighted debate over the future of Obamacare  and with it perhaps the future of the Republican Party. Of course I am, he replied when a reporter asked him if he is feeling the weight of his position. Thats part of what being a governor is all about.

A lot of peoples lives and health and health care and quality of life is in the balance, he added. Im a former judge. I take in all the information, and then I make a decision, and thats what Im doing now.

The Senate Republican proposal would cut $772 billion from Medicaid over the next decade and result in 22 million fewer Americans with insurance compared with current law, according to a CBO assessment of an earlier version. An updated score is expected as soon as Monday.

The Avalere study presented Saturday morning projected federal Medicaid funding reductions in all 50 states, ranging from 27 percent to 39 percent by 2036. In Nevada, the study projected a 37 percent reduction.

Administration officials including Pence argue that Medicaid is not sustainable in the future and that what they are doing is saving the program over the long run by reining it in. They also argue that no one stands to lose coverage in the face of clear data suggesting otherwise.

Sandoval is not relying on those arguments. He said his team is running its own numbers back home. He said he has not spoken to Trump in the last few days. But he plans to speak to Heller on Sunday or Monday.

The political pressure Trump can apply on more conservative Republicans does not apply as much to Sandoval. He hails from a state where Trump lost, and he rose through the ranks in a different wing of the Republican Party than the president.

Some Democratic colleagues who know Sandoval well are deeply skeptical that he will support the Senate bill. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe thinks there is zero chance that Sandoval comes out in support. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Sandoval, as he always does with every issue, asks the right questions. Hes trying to do it for the right reasons.

The prospect of voting on the health-care bill in the coming days was cast into doubt late Saturday when Sen. John McCains office said he would be in Arizona this week recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.

On the advice of his doctors, Senator McCain will be recovering in Arizona next week, said McCain (R-Ariz.) spokeswoman Julie Tarallo.

Two Republican senators  Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine)  have said they do not intend to vote yes to proceed to the bill. Along with all 48 senators in the Democratic caucus  and without McCain  that would be enough to block the bill from proceeding to debate.

A McConnell spokesman did not immediately respond to request for comment on whether the Senate still planned to vote.

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), a former governor, said he spoke at the meeting about the need to hit the pause button and reset with a more deliberative and inclusive approach to the health-care bill.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said the Senate effort reminded him of the House endeavor  which proceeded in fits and starts before ultimately passing. He predicted eventual success in the Senate, though he declined to offer a time frame.

Without Sandoval, few believe that is possible. Asked whether the administration officials changed any minds over the weekend, the Nevada governor was blunt.

Here? Likely not, he said.

Read more at PowerPost
A crowd waves Turkish flags at a rally on Saturday in Istanbul commemorating the first anniversary of a failed coup against the government. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday used the first anniversary of a coup attempt against his government to accuse his main political opponent of treason and portray civilian resistance to the plot as a triumph of the Muslim faithful.

Erdogans fiery speech before a huge crowd in Istanbul highlighted the lingering trauma of the failed coup, which killed 250 people over the course of a terrifying night and day of violence.

The speech also showed how the events have become an increasingly important political cudgel for the president and his Islamist supporters, with the victory over the coup plotters seen as a critical part of the governments popular mandate.

The government has blamed the coup attempt on loyalists of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.

On that night, authorities said, renegade soldiers loyal to Gulen used tanks, planes and helicopters to occupy or attack television stations and public buildings, including parliament, and were defeated after Erdogan rallied citizens to the streets.

The events provided at least a momentary sense of unity in polarized Turkey: a shared shock and revulsion at the willingness of soldiers to crush people under armored vehicles and strafe crowds from the air with cannon fire.

That unity, though, has dissipated as the government cast a wide net in pursuit of its enemies, sweeping up the failed coups alleged accomplices but also dissidents.

The still-murky background to the coup attempt and the staggering number of people caught up in the ensuing crackdown have fueled the apprehension. About 150,000 people have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs, and 50,000 have been arrested.

A state of emergency that gives the government extraordinary powers has remained in effect for almost a year, prompting critics to charge that Erdogan seized on the coup attempt to bolster his power.

[As Erdogan gains power in Turkey, a weakened opposition tries to stand in his way]

The president has argued that Turkey is united and that the events of that night clarified the line between loyalty and sedition.

The commemorative events on Saturday, planned in meticulous detail by the government, seemed designed to convey the sense of a national coming-together.

The country was blanketed by posters depicting scenes from the failed coup in the manner of epic paintings. Public transportation and cellphone services were provided free of charge. Photo exhibits were set up in public squares, narrating the chilling sequence of events.

Today is the day the country was saved, Ibrahim Agagul said as he looked at the pictures Saturday outside an Istanbul municipal building where 20 people were killed. Today, the people wrote a saga.

In his speech, Erdogan focused on the notion of shared sacrifice. The treachery we face makes us stronger, he said, speaking at a bridge that was the scene of major clashes during the July 2016 violence.

His most pointed comments were a response to statements made this year by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition party, suggesting that the coup had unfolded with the governments knowledge. Over the past few weeks, Kilicdaroglu led a 260-mile march that was an effort to highlight the purge by the authorities.

You should be ashamed of yourself, Erdogan said of Kilicdaroglu. This nation is not a coward like you. This nation has a heart.

Read more:

In divided Turkey, president defends victory in referendum granting new powers

Turkeys opposition stages massive rally in a show of strength against Erdogan

March for justice by Erdogan opponents in Turkey gains momentum and alarms government

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Members of the public hold up messages outside the Kensington and Chelsea council meeting about the Grenfell fire on June 29, in London. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

For nearly five hours last month, Antonio Roncolato waited to be rescued as a monstrous blaze consumed the London high-rise he had called home for more than a quarter-century. When firefighters found him, he was wearing swimming goggles to protect his eyes from the advancing smoke and flames.

Now hes waiting again  for the replacement home that authorities promised him to compensate for the fire at Grenfell Tower, which rendered him and hundreds of others homeless and killed at least 80 people.

So far, the wait has been in vain.

Should I receive something below what we had? asked the 57-year-old restaurant manager. No way. Im saying the same level. At least the same level.

But in London, where affordable housing has become an endangered species, that is proving exceptionally difficult to find.

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scene after flames engulfed a high-rise in London View Photos At least 80 people were killed and dozens were injured in a fire that ripped through an apartment building. Caption At least 12 people were killed and dozens were injured in a fire that ripped through an apartment building. June 14, 2017 Police gather at the scene as a huge fire engulfs Grenfell Tower in London. The massive fire ripped through the 24-story building and forced hundreds of people to evacuate quickly. At least six people are reported dead. Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

Of the 158 families who survived the blaze and have been offered new homes by authorities, just 14 had accepted as of Wednesday. Most of the others remain in hotels, having declined options they see as falling short of what they had at Grenfell.

Roncolato is hardly surprised.

Of course they dont have them, Roncolato said. London is a place where they build and build and build  but for the richest and well-off.

[What the Grenfell Tower fire tells us about Londons housing crisis]

The Grenfell fire illustrated in searing fashion the perils of life in Britains public housing high-rises, where years of unheeded warnings, slashed costs and deregulation all added up to a tragedy unlike any Britain has seen in at least a century.

But the aftermath has shined a spotlight on a different problem with Britains strained-to-the-breaking-point housing system  a severe shortage of affordable options that has left people desperate for a roof over their heads.

The lack of viable alternatives helps explain why there has been no mass exodus from Britains public housing towers, even after cladding at 190 buildings has failed fire-safety tests ordered in the wake of the Grenfell disaster.

(Karla Adam,Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Until the cladding is removed, the buildings could be vulnerable. But at least residents have a home in a public housing system suffering from a grievous mismatch between supply and demand.

The overall quantity of social housing has declined and the number of people needing it has risen, said Anne Power, a social-policy professor at the London School of Economics. So the pressures on social housing have expanded enormously.

The pressure can be seen in the statistics, which show that some 1.4 million families are on waiting lists for public housing across England and Scotland. Once people are on the list, their wait times can stretch well over a year.

As opportunities to live in public housing have dwindled, the number of people in substandard private housing has grown as rents rapidly rise. The ranks of the homeless have also surged, increasing by 17 percent over the past five years, according to the housing advocacy group Shelter.

Many local authorities simply dont have enough affordable accommodation for those on low incomes, Anne Baxendale, Shelters director of policy, said in a statement. Its a similar story across all London boroughs and the country more widely.

[Britain to test schools and hospitals after 75 out of 75 high-rise buildings fail fire safety tests]

How it got to be that way is a story decades in the making. As of 1980, about a third of homes in Britain were considered public housing. Today, that number has been cut nearly in half.

Starting with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, successive Conservative governments have pushed people away from public housing in an effort to reduce dependence on government.

Most critically, Thatcher allowed public-housing tenants the right to buy their homes at deep discounts. Conservatives celebrate the program as a boon to social mobility.

But housing that was once reserved for societys most vulnerable has become unaffordable as it has been sold up the property ladder.

One of the consequences of [right-to-buy] is to turn a council property into a speculative free-for-all, Power said.

In the meantime, budgets for local authorities have been slashed, and construction of new public housing has dramatically slowed since the 1960s and 1970s, when a building boom yielded hundreds of concrete-block towers, including Grenfell.

After the fire, London Mayor Sadiq Khan floated the idea of demolishing those towers, writing in the Guardian that it may well be the defining outcome of this tragedy that the worst mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s are systematically torn down.

Khan said his proposal was contingent on new public housing being built to replace the old. But Power and other housing experts are leery of any moves that could further reduce the supply, especially in booming areas such as London, where low-income people are already being crowded out.

We should not be demolishing social housing, she said. We cant afford to replace it. But we also have to be a lot more careful about how we upgrade it.

[Could the catastrophic London high-rise fire have been prevented?]

Experts say it was an upgrade at Grenfell that may have contributed to the fires astonishingly fast spread. Within minutes, the blaze evolved from a short-circuiting fourth-floor refrigerator to an inferno that scorched all 24 floors and burned with such intensity that authorities say they may never know the final death toll.

Investigators have said they believe the buildings exterior cladding, added during a recent renovation and cheaper than a fire-resistant model, helped transmit the blaze from one floor to the next.

To many residents, it was just the latest evidence of mismanagement and negligence that they say they had been warning about for years.

You destroyed my house, Roncolato said of the officials he blames for the failures. Your negligence, incompetence and the cost-cutting  you killed people.

Roncolato moved into Grenfell in 1990 with his then-wife as they were expecting a child.

It was very simple, but we made it up very, very nice, he said. I was very happy there. Beautiful view, beautiful everything.

He said the surrounding area gained immensely from the surge of interest  much of it American  that followed the 1999 film Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.

Suddenly, there were new cafes, new restaurants. It became very trendy, he said.

But now he worries that he and his son wont be able to stay in the area they love.

He has declined two offers of new housing  one outside the borough, the other in a basement on a busy road  and is still waiting for authorities to make good on their vows to rehouse people locally in units comparable with the ones they had at Grenfell.

We pay our rent, council tax, road tax, parking permit, whatever needs to be done, he said. Im not expecting anything for free. I just want what I had before.

Terror in London seems to confirm Muslims growing dread

Frustration and fury boil over in London as prime minister is heckled visiting fire victims

British Conservatives complain that May bungled election and is now bungling aftermath

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with President Trump as first lady Melania Trump looks on after the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris, July 14. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

If the potential for a productive relationship between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron initially seemed a scant possibility, Trumps whirlwind Bastille Day visit to France suggested that the two may be en route to establishing a partnership of the kind the U.S. president currently shares with few other world leaders, especially in Western Europe.

Despite Trumps staggering unpopularity in France  not to mention the outrage over Macrons decision to invite his American counterpart to this countrys signature national holiday  the newly minted French president appeared to make a daring gamble. With the United States increasingly isolated on the global stage, Macron sought to position himself as Trumps principal interlocutor in a region that has shown the White House little but disdain.

At least for the moment, that role is Macrons for the taking  and he may succeed in securing it.

In a rare news conference Thursday  in which each president took two questions  Trump made no secret of his delight at Macrons invitation.

France is Americas first and oldest ally. A lot of people dont know that, he said. It was a long time ago, but we are together. And I think together, perhaps, more so than ever. The relationship is very good.

Despite the historic special relationship between the United States and Britain, Trump has shown little interest in British affairs since his inauguration, further delaying a traditional visit to the country until 2018. And although German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently tried to patch things up with Trump at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, she has done little to hide her distaste.

[Trump and Macron, once cast as adversaries, show they have much in common]

Enter Macron, an outspoken advocate of globalization and an ever closer European Union who initially seemed an anti-Trump figure on the world stage  and even a temporary antagonist of the U.S. president.

After Trump essentially supported Macrons rival, the far-right Marine Le Pen, in this years French presidential election, Macron then strong-armed Trump in a six-second handshake when the two men met for the first time in Brussels in May.

The next week, Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, carefully enunciating that he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris. Macron responded  in English  in a speech in which he urged people the world over to Make our planet great again, a clear play on Trumps campaign slogan.

The Paris visit, however, seemed to establish the inklings of a working relationship between these two seemingly incompatible figures.

1 of 42 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  See President Trump and the first lady on their visit to France View Photos Beginning a 24-hour trip that coincides with Frances national day and the 100th anniversary of U.S. involvement in World War I, President Trump arrived in Paris for a visit filled with Bastille Day pomp. Caption Beginning a 24-hour trip that coincides with Frances national day and the 100th anniversary of U.S. involvement in World War I, President Trump arrived in Paris for a visit filled with Bastille Day pomp. July 14, 2017 French President Emmanuel Macron and President Trump watch the Bastille Day military parade in Paris. They are joined by their wives, Melania Trump and Brigitte Marcon, and the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, left. Julien De Rosa/European Pressphoto Agency Wait 1 second to continue.

Although Trump has been known to change his mind abruptly, his initial reaction to the Paris visit was markedly positive.

First, there was yet another dramatic handshake, this one suggesting comity rather than animosity. At the end of the Bastille Day military parade, as he was preparing to leave for the airport, Trump forcefully shook Macrons hand, then patted their clasped hands while shaking that of Macrons wife, Brigitte, as well.

Then came the tweets.

In a series of posts after his departure, Trump wished Macron congratulations on Bastille Day, offered his condolences for the victims of the Nice terrorist attack last year and thanked his host for what he characterized as a worthwhile meeting.

Great conversations with President Emmanuel Macron and his representatives on trade, military and security, Trump tweeted.

[Trump revels in French military pomp far from White House turmoil]

In France, the jury was out as to Macrons precise motives in inviting  and embracing  Trump.

For some, even those in Macrons inner circle, the principal motivation was a version of the ancient proverb: Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.

Emmanuel Macron wants to try to prevent the president of the United States being isolated, Christophe Castaner, a spokesman for Macron, told French reporters this month. He sometimes makes decisions that we disagree with, on climate change, for example.

To that end, Macron made no secret of those differences in his joint appearance with Trump on Thursday.

I very much respect the decision taken by President Trump, Macron said at the news conference. He will work on implementing his campaign promises, and as far as Im concerned, I remain attached to the Paris accord and will make sure that step by step we can do everything which is in the accord.

But as Castaner put it: We can do two things. Either you can say, Were not speaking, because you havent been nice, or we can reach out to him to keep him in the circle.

To others, inviting Trump was a means for Macron to bolster the international image of France  notably before his presidency is put to its first major domestic test this fall, when the French president will attempt to shove a controversial labor reform effort through Parliament.

In late May, Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he confronted in a bilateral news conference about the activities of state-owned Russian media.

With this visit, analysts say, he sought to do the same.

It makes Macron the man who invites the powerful people of the world, said Francois Heisbourg, a French national security expert who advised the Macron campaign on terrorism. It instantaneously reset the image of France as a player.

The signal was that France is back again  now, whether thats lasting, only time will tell.

Read more

Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in France. So why didnt Parisians protest his visit?

Trump loves a military parade  its one reason hes heading to Paris

Macron is the president Trump wishes he could be

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Samaher Saddam cleans the entrance of her damaged house on the west side of Mosul on July 13, 2017, a few days after the Iraqi government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city from the Islamic State. (Felipe Dana/AP)

The streets of Mosuls Old City are littered with bodies, tangled between shattered stones and remnants of the lives they left behind.

In the baking summer heat, exhausted rescue crews are now sifting through the debris of the toughest battle against the Islamic State in what became its final redoubt in the city.

As Iraqi ground troops, U.S.-led coalition jets and Islamic State militants pulverized the Old Citys winding maze of streets, thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire.

But the area is now deserted, its inhabitants evacuated to houses, camps or prison cells across the province in recent months.

A week after Iraqi officials declared victory in Mosul, all that remains in the Old City is rubble and unknown hundreds of bodies.

Aid groups say that thousands of civilians were killed in the nine-month offensive. A final death toll is unlikely to ever be known, robbing families of answers and a grave for their grief.

Across western Mosul, hundreds of families are still waiting for news. Others know exactly where their loved ones were killed but are unable to reach them.

On Friday, Sumaya Sarhan, 48, waited in the rescue workers sun-parched yard for her brothers remains, three months after the airstrike that killed him.

We lived opposite and tried so many times to get him out. But it was too dangerous, there was too much fighting. Today, I finally saw him pulled from the rubble.

Staring resolutely forward, for a moment Sarhan looked lost amid the bustle of the workers around her. Then she started to cry.

Hes just bones. Just bones, she said.

[It could take more than a decade to clear Mosul of explosives]

The task of cutting bodies from their homes in this, the most devastated swath of the city, has fallen to a 25-man civil defense unit with one bulldozer, a forklift truck and a single vehicle to carry the corpses.

They have found hundreds of people suffocated under the ruins of their homes. Then, there are those the Islamic State shot as they tried to flee, their bodies left to rot in the sunshine as a message to anyone else who might attempt to escape.

It was slow going today. Mainly women and children, said one of the rescue workers, Daoud Salem Mahmoud, stooping over a green canvas bag he had pulled from the rubble.

It was bulging, apparently packed by its owner while waiting for rescue. And as Mahmoud laid out its contents one by one, the shape of a life emerged.

In the back of an Iraqi passport, a black-and-white image showed a dark-haired young woman smiling at the camera. A green purse was empty aside from the business card of a Mosul wedding photographer. And then came her jewelry: gold bangles, small rings, a single heart-shaped earring.

Sitting quietly on the step of a hut nearby, 21-year-old Ahmed Salem said the woman was a relative, killed when an airstrike hit their home. He was waiting to collect her body, alongside those of seven cousins, most of them already stacked in body bags on the back of a rescue truck.

The teams vehicles were parked on one side of the yard, all of them battered from months of overuse.

In another corner of the civil defense base, four men gathered around a teenager as he unzipped one of the body bags.

It was hard to distinguish its charred contents as the remnants of a person.

How do you know its him? Are we sure? asked one man.

I recognize his blanket. It has to be, the teenager said. He closed the bag.

Mosuls Old City had more than 5,000 buildings, many of them high-ceilinged houses built around traditional courtyards.

Almost a third were damaged or destroyed during the final three weeks of fighting, according to the United Nations.

Across the entire city, which had a population of almost 2 million before the Islamic State arrived, satellite imagery shows battle scars or total destruction across more than 10,000 buildings. Although life has returned to the relatively less damaged eastern districts, which were retaken by Iraqi forces months earlier, the infrastructure in the west has been devastated.

The streets have become a theater for quiet scenes of grief as the rubble is cleared. In dozens of interviews, Washington Post reporters did not meet a single person in the area who had not lost a friend or relative in the fighting.

Rescue work has been slowed by a lack of funding. Lt. Col. Rabia Ibrahim Hassan, who leads west Mosuls civil defense team, said he had asked authorities for more equipment but hadnt received an answer.

Our men are doing this work with practically nothing. Just a bulldozer, a forklift truck and small equipment. The work continues, but we are exhausted, he said.

Much of the team remained in Mosul under Islamic State rule. Of course we worked under them. You didnt have a choice, said Sgt. Mohammed Shaaban Hodour, insisting that during their three years of control, the militants did not interfere with the teams work.

In a time of war, you cannot do without us. Well stay here until our work is done.

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

Read more:

Iraqi authorities urged to investigate allegations of Mosul prisoner abuse

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The Trump administration is weighing a new policy to dramatically expand the Department of Homeland Securitys powers to expedite the deportations of some illegal immigrants.

Since 2004, the agency has been authorized to bypass immigration courts only for immigrants who had been living in the country illegally for less than two weeks and were apprehended within 100 miles of the border.

Under the proposal, the agency would be empowered to seek the expedited removal of illegal immigrants apprehended anywhere in the United States who cannot prove they have lived in the country continuously for more than 90 days, according to a 13-page internal agency memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The new guidelines, if enacted, would represent a major expansion of the agencys authority to speed up deportations under President Trump, who has made border security a top priority.

Two administration officials confirmed that the proposed new policy, which would not require congressional approval, is under review. The memo was circulated at the White House in May, and DHS is reviewing comments on the document from the Office of Management and Budget, according to one administration official familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Joanne F. Talbot said that no final decisions on the draft memo have been made by Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, above. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Joanne F. Talbot, a DHS spokeswoman, said she had not seen the memo. She described it as a draft and emphasized that no final decisions have been made by Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly.

The potential changes would allow DHS to more efficiently use resources to remove persons who have been illegally present for relatively brief periods of time while still observing due-process requirements, Talbot said.

Immigrant rights advocates denounced the proposed expansion of the expedited deportation authority, warning that the policy would strip more immigrants of due-process rights to seek asylum or other legal protections that would allow them to remain in the country.

This is a radical departure from current policy and practice, which takes one giant step towards implementing Trumps deportation force across the nation, said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

DHS officials disputed such characterizations, saying that the new policy would simply allow the agency to take advantage of its discretion that has been permitted under federal law for more than two decades.

In 1996, Congress authorized the use of expedited deportations for illegal immigrants apprehended anywhere in the country who could not prove they had been physically present in the country two years before their apprehension. The powers were used almost exclusively at the border, however, and in 2004 the George W. Bush administration issued guidelines stipulating that the expedited removals could be used for those apprehended within 100 miles of the border who had lived in the country fewer than 14 days.

The use of expedited removals rose substantially in the decade after the administration implemented its guidelines, spiking from about 50,000 immigrants in 2004 to 193,000 in 2013  about 44 percent of the total number of people deported that year, according to the American Immigration Council.

In a pair of immigration executive orders signed in January, Trump sought to expand the use of expedited deportations, as one of several strategies to crack down on illegal immigration. Trump also has called for an additional 10,000 immigration agents and 5,000 border agents, penalties for sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with immigration agents, a big, beautiful wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and dozens of new immigration judges to slash the immigration courts backlog of roughly 600,000 cases.

Trump has also lifted the Obama-era restrictions that shielded millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation if they had no criminal histories or were the parents of American-citizen children. Now, immigration agents are free to arrest anyone who is in the United States illegally.

In May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was arresting more than 400 immigrants a day. In the presidents first three months in office, ICE arrested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year. Most had criminal records, but the largest increase was among immigrants with no records at all.

The internal DHS memo states that the expanded authority for expedited removals will enhance national security and public safety by alleviating the historic backlogs at the nations immigration courts that have led to delays in hearings for more than two years. At the start of this year, there were more than 534,000 removal cases pending in immigration courts, according to the memo.

That is compared with a total of 168,000 cases in 2004, when the Bush-era guidelines were implemented. President Barack Obamas administration maintained those guidelines.

The Trump administrations proposed new policy would eliminate incentives not only to enter the country unlawfully but also to attempt to quickly travel into the interior of the United States in an effort to avoid the application of expedited removal, the memo states.

Unaccompanied minors are not currently subject to expedited deportations, nor would they be under the new guidelines that are under review, officials said.

One Trump administration official involved in the internal deliberations said the new policy would have a deterrent effect on immigrants who are considering entering the country illegally or overstaying their visas. This official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decisions have been made, said immigrant rights groups take advantage of existing laws to try to drag out court proceedings as long as possible.

Anyone who is surprised that the administration is considering lawfully expanding the use of expedited removal has not been paying attention, Talbot said. The expansion you describe is explicitly allowed under federal law.

According to the DHS memo, those immigrants placed into the expedited deportation process under the new guidelines would still be afforded the opportunity to claim a credible fear of persecution or torture and to be interviewed by an asylum officer under those circumstances, who would determine whether the fear is credible. If credible fear is found, that person would be referred to an immigration judge for further consideration of their case, just as they are now, the memo states.

Immigrant rights advocates said that federal authorities have abused the expedited removals process and that border authorities do not always grant apprehended immigrants their rights to seek legal protections.

An expansion of the expedited removals process would be a recipe for disaster, said Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Immigrants Rights Project.

If you have to give people genuine due process, you cant just move people out of the country with the snap of your fingers, Gelernt said. But once you start instituting summary removal processes all over the country, then you can start seeing mass deportations.

Right now, someone apprehended in St. Louis would be entitled to a full hearing, he said. With expedited removal, you pick a person up, and they could be gone immediately.

The potential changes come as the number of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has fallen sharply since Trump took office, a shift that administration officials have credited to immigrant fears of harsher Trump policies.

Yet the DHS memo cites figures from last fall, when the level of illegal border crossings was much higher, to make the case that the agencys resources have been strained, creating unacceptable national security and public safety vulnerabilities.

Maria Sacchetti contributed to this report
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 14:39:21|Editor: An

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AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch collector should disclose the identity of a disputed statue's new holder, demanded the Chinese villagers at the first Amsterdam court public hearing on Friday afternoon.

The Buddha statue with an intact mummified body inside was bought by Amsterdam collector Oscar van Overeem in 1996, who now claims to have swapped with another buyer for several Buddhist art objects.

Villagers in China's southeastern province of Fujian recognized it as their stolen Zhang Gong statue when the statue was on exhibition in Hungary in March 2015.

Van Overeem agreed that the Buddha comes from the province of Fujian, but insisted that it is not the statue stolen from the villagers' temple.

He once agreed to return it if his conditions were met. When negotiations failed, the villagers filed a lawsuit against him in the Dutch court.

WHO IS THE NEW HOLDER

At the hearing, van Overeem stated that the new holder of the statue is a "collector-investor-intermediary," who "is aware of the mummy controversy and political sensitivities and prefers to remain anonymous."

When asked to disclose the name of the new holder, or email exchanges that reflect the negotiation of the deal and the conditions under which there was an exchange, the Dutch collector refused.

Under the Dutch Civil Code, such an agreement is contrary to good morals, and is an affront to decency and public order, therefore is void, Dutch lawyer Jan Holthuis representing the Chinese villagers told the court.

The lawyer cited an email signed and submitted by Van Overeem as proof which states that the Dutch collector reached this agreement when he learned that the villagers hired lawyers to take legal action in the Netherlands.

"By taking the statue away, the collector caused a presumption of a fraudulent act, namely preventing the enforcement of a claim to return Zhang Gong, if the court would so decide," commented Holthuis.

Two weeks ago, the villagers filed a demand asking the court to require the defendant to disclose the identity of the new holder.

Van Overeem asked the court to dismiss the demand by the villagers immediately on formal grounds. But the judge refused and ordered him to submit a statement to challenge the claim within six weeks.

"This is good. The other party has the right to make a statement on the reason why they think they cannot disclose the identity, and we can still reply to their statement. Then the judge will make a decision on it. It might take months," Holthuis told the press.

When the new holder is known, the Chinese villagers will seek to make him part of the legal proceedings to answer their claims that the Zhang Gong Buddha statue should return home, he said.

IS THE BUDDHA ZHANG GONG?

The nearly three-hour hearing was also dominated by the debate over the identity of the statue. Is he Zhang Gong, the 11th century monk who has been worshipped for generations in two Chinese villages, or not?

"It is not their statue," van Overeem reiterated to Xinhua after the hearing.

In court he read several reports, emails and a CT scan to show that a hole in the hand and a wobbling head, two characterstics of the Zhang Gong statue, did not exist in the statue he bought.

When asked about the Chinese characters of "Liu Quan," the name of Zhang Gong, as well as "Pu Zhao Tang," the name of the village temple, written on the linen roll found in the statue, he said "the linens were added 200, 250 years later. It is not an automatic proof that it belongs to the mummy."

When the judge inquired about the possibility of seeing the Buddha for an evidence check, van Overeem said the new holder wants to remain unanimous.

On behalf of the villagers, Holthuis showed the court numerous similarities between the statue and Zhang Gong, arguing that the villagers are entitled to have their statue returned to its original place.

"There is objective evidence that Zhang Gong is Zhang Gong. Each time Mr. Van Overeem comes back to two arguments -- no hole in one hand and no loose head. But we have no independent investigation because he did the CT scan, and now the Buddha is no longer in his possession," he told Xinhua.

BURDEN OF PROOF

The Dutch lawyer argued for "reversal of the burden of proof" in this case.

"Mr. Van Overeem does not have a purchase invoice, nor any document to show the origin of the Buddha," Holthuis told the court. "Registers of the Chinese government do not show any export permit for this Buddha. Besides, a permit for export of the Zhang Gong Buddha would never have been granted."

"A comparative study of the statue for proof or return is no longer possible because of his actions," he added.

Invoking recommendations adopted by the Ekkart Committee, a Dutch government body in charge of returning looted artworks from World War II that remain in the hands of the Dutch state, the lawyer argued that it is up to van Overeem to prove that the statue is not Zhang Gong.

Its recommendations are recognized by the Dutch Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the parliament.

Since the villagers' ownership of the Buddha statue has been proven with a high degree of probability and van Overeem has not provided legally convincing indications to the contrary, "it is up to Mr. Van Overeem to prove that the Buddha is not Zhang Gong," Holthuis told Xinhua.

A UNIQUE CASE

Other issues were brought up in court such as the legality of Chinese villagers standing in Dutch court, whether or not van Overeem bought the statue in good faith and questions over the mummified monk being a 'corpse' and therefore not subject to ownership under Dutch law.

The defendant claimed that the "Chinese village committee is not to be referred to as a natural person or legal person" under the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure and "the claimants should be declared inadmissible in their claims."

"We already argued that the village committee is a special legal person under the Chinese law and there is jurisprudence or case law in the Netherlands saying that even when you do not have legal presentation in terms of a legal entity, you can still file a claim," Holthuis told the press.

The lawyer nonetheless admitted the case is an interesting and unique one.

"A lot of issues of this case have no case law," he told Xinhua. "Each time we almost have to invent the next step. But it doesn't mean we will fail."
WABCO Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, supplies electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, and aerodynamic products worldwide. The company engineers, develops, manufactures, and sells braking, stability, suspension, steering, transmission automation, and air management systems primarily for commercial vehicles. The company's products include pneumatic anti-lock braking systems, electronic braking systems, electronic stability control systems, brake controls, automated manual transmission systems, and air disc brakes; and various conventional mechanical products, such as actuators, air compressors, and air control valves for medium and heavy-duty trucks, buses, and trailers. It also offers pneumatic and hydraulic braking and control systems for off-highway vehicles; conventional braking systems; electronic and conventional air suspension systems; steering technologies; and vehicle electronic stability control and roll stability support products, and advanced driver assistance systems. In addition, the company supplies electronic suspension controls and vacuum pumps to the passenger car and SUV markets, as well as provides remanufacturing services. Further, it offers replacement parts, fleet management solutions, diagnostic tools, training, and other expert services for commercial vehicle aftermarket distributors and service partners, and fleet operators. The company sells its products primarily to truck and bus original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), trailer OEMs, and car manufacturers; and manufacturers of heavy duty and off-highway vehicles in agriculture, construction, mining, and other industries. WABCO Holdings Inc. was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. engages in the natural gas midstream, and intrastate transportation and storage businesses in the United States. The company's Intrastate Transportation and Storage segment transports natural gas from various natural gas producing areas through connections with other pipeline systems, as well as through its ET Fuel System and HPL System. This segment owns and operates approximately 7,900 miles of natural gas transportation pipelines and three natural gas storage facilities in Texas. Its Interstate Transportation and Storage segment provides natural gas transportation and storage services; owns and operates approximately 11,800 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines; and has interests in various natural gas pipelines. The company's Midstream segment gathers, compresses, treats, blends, processes, and markets natural gas. It owns and operates natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) gathering pipelines, natural gas processing plants, natural gas treating facilities, and natural gas conditioning facilities. The company's NGL and Refined Products Transportation and Services segment transports mixed NGLs and other hydrocarbons; stores mixed NGLs, NGL products, and petrochemical products; and separates mixed NGL streams into purity products. This segment owns and operates various NGL pipelines, NGL and propane fractionation facilities, and NGL storage facilities. Its Crude Oil Transportation and Services segment engages in the transportation, terminalling, and acquisition and marketing of crude oil; and operates crude oil trunk and gathering pipelines. The company's All Other segment engages in the natural gas compression equipment business; provides natural gas compression equipment and compression services; manages coal and natural resources property, sells standing timber, and leases coal-related infrastructure facilities; and generates electrical power. Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. was founded in 1995 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of Stryker: 2Hip Holdings SAS, ActiViews, Aimago SA, Alcott Indemnity Company, Arrinex Inc., Arrinex Inc., Ascent Healthcare Solutions, Berchtold, Berchtold + Fritz GmbH, Berchtold Consulting GmbH, Berchtold Corporation, Berchtold GmbH & Co. KG, Berchtold Holding Switzerland GmbH, BioMimetic Therapeutics LLC, BioMimetic Therapeutics USA Inc., CHG Hospital Beds, Cactus LLC, Cardan Robotics, Cartiva Inc., Changzhou Orthomed Medical Instrument Company Limited, Concentric Medical, EnMovi Ltd., Entellus Medical, Entellus Medical Inc., GYS Tech LLC, Gauss Surgical, Gauss Surgical Inc., Gauss Surgical Singapore Pte. Ltd., Gaymar Industries, Gongping (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., Groupe Bertec, HeartSine Technologies LLC, HeartSine Technologies Limited, Howmedica International S. de R.L., Howmedica Osteonics Corp., Hygia Health Services, Hygia Healthcare Services Inc., HyperBranch, HyperBranch Medical Technologies Inc., HyperBranch Medical Technology, Image Guided Technologies, Imascap SAS, Imorphics Limited, Infinity MSD Corp., Infinity MSF Corp., Infomedix Communications, Instratek, InstruMedics L.L.C, Invuity, Invuity Inc., Ivy Sports Medicine, Ivy Sports Medicine LLC, Jiangsu Chuangyi Medical Instrument Company Limited, Jolife AB, K2M Group, K2M Group Holdings Inc., K2M Holdings Inc., K2M Inc., K2M UK Limited, Loon Intermediateco LLC, MAKO Surgical, MAKO Surgical Corp, Memometal Technologies, Mobius Imaging, Mobius Imaging LLC, Muka Metal, Muka Metal Ticaret ve Sanayi Anaonim Sirketi, NV Stryker SA, Nettrick Limited, Novadaq Corp, Novadaq Technologies, Novadaq Technologies ULC, OOO "Stryker", Orneo Ozel Saglk Hizmetleri Medikal Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Ortho-Space Ltd., OrthoHelix Surgical Designs Inc., OrthoSensor, OrthoSensor Korea Ltd, OrthoSpace, OrthoSpace US Inc., Orthomed (Hong Kong) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Orthosensor Inc., Orthovita, Orthovita Inc., OtisMed, P.C. Sweden Holding AB, PTH West LLC, Patient Safety Technologies, Patton Surgical, Physio-Control, Physio-Control (Shanghai) Sales Co. Ltd., Physio-Control Brazil Vendas Ltda., Physio-Control Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Physio-Control Holdings Inc, Physio-Control Inc., Physio-Control Investments LLC, Physio-Control Lebanon Sales Offshore s.a.l., Physio-Control Manufacturing Inc., Physio-Control Operations Netherlands B.V., Physio-Control Sales Limited Liability Company, Pivot Medical, PlasmaSol, Porex Technologies, SCI Calyx SA, SSI Divestiture Inc., SYK Costa Rica Services Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, SafeAir AG, SafeWire, Sage Products, Sage Products Coperatief U.A., Sage Products Holdings II LLC, Sage Products Holdings III LLC, Sage Products LLC, Scopis, Scopis GmbH, Sightline Technologies, Small Bone Innovations, SpineCore, Spirox Inc., Stanmore Implants Worldwide, Stanmore Implants Worldwide Limited, Stanmore Inc., Stryker (Barbados) Foreign Sales Corporation, Stryker (Beijing) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Shanghai) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Suzhou) Medical Technology Co Ltd, Stryker (Thailand) Limited, Stryker AB, Stryker Acquisitions B.V., Stryker Asia Holdings C.V., Stryker Australia LLC, Stryker Australia Pty. Ltd., Stryker Austria GmbH, Stryker B.V., Stryker Berchtold B.V., Stryker Beteiligungs GmbH, Stryker Canada Holding Company ULC, Stryker Canada Manufacturing ULC, Stryker Canada ULC, Stryker Canadian Management ULC, Stryker Capital B.V., Stryker China Limited, Stryker Colombia SAS, Stryker Communications Inc., Stryker Corporation (Chile) y Compania Limitada, Stryker Corporation (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Stryker Customs Brokers LLC, Stryker Czech Republic s.r.o., Stryker Delaware Inc., Stryker EMEA Supply Chain Services B.V., Stryker Employment Company LLC, Stryker European Holdings Cooperatief U.A, Stryker European Holdings LLC, Stryker European Operations B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings I B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings II B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings III B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings LLC, Stryker European Operations Limited, Stryker Far East Inc., Stryker Foreign Acquisitions Inc., Stryker France SAS, Stryker Funding B.V., Stryker Global Technology Center Private Limited, Stryker GmbH, Stryker GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Grundstucks GmbH & Co KG, Stryker Grundstucks Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Holdings B.V., Stryker IFSC Designated Activity Company, Stryker Iberia S.L. Unipersonal, Stryker India Private Limited, Stryker International Acquisitions B.V., Stryker International Holdings B.V., Stryker Ireland Limited, Stryker Italia S.r.l., Stryker Japan K.K., Stryker Korea Ltd., Stryker Lebanon (Offshore) S.A.L., Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Luxembourg Sarl, Stryker Malta Holdings Limited, Stryker Manufacturing Holdings B.V., Stryker Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Mauritius Holding Ltd., Stryker Medical London LP, Stryker Medtech K.K., Stryker Medtech Limited, Stryker Mexico Holdings B.V., Stryker Mexico SA de CV, Stryker NV Operations Limited, Stryker Nederland B.V., Stryker New Zealand Limited, Stryker Osteonics AG, Stryker Pacific Limited, Stryker Performance Solutions LLC, Stryker Poland Services sp. z o.o., Stryker Polska Sp.z.o.o., Stryker Portugal - Produtos Medicos Unipessoal Lda., Stryker Professional Latin America S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Puerto Rico Holdings B.V., Stryker Puerto Rico LLC, Stryker Puerto Rico Sales LLC, Stryker Renovation Services LLC, Stryker Romania SRL, Stryker Sales LLC, Stryker Servicios Administrativos S.de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Singapore Private Limited, Stryker South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Stryker Spine SAS, Stryker Spine Sarl, Stryker Sustainability Solutions Inc., Stryker Tibbi Cihazlan Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Stryker Tijuana Operations S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Trauma GmbH, Stryker Turkish Holdings B.V., Stryker UK Limited, Stryker Unite Ltd., Stryker Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Vietnam Company Limited, Stryker do Brasil Ltda, Surpass Medical, Synergetics, TMG France SAS, TMJ Solutions LLC, TSO3 Corporation, TSO3 Inc., Thermedx LLC, Tornier Inc., Tornier Orthopedics Ireland Limited, Tornier Pty Ltd., Tornier SAS, Tornier Scandinavia A/S, Tornier UK Limited, Tornier US Holdings Inc., Trauson, Trauson (China) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Trauson (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (B.V.I.) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings Company Limited, Trooper Holdings Inc., Vexim, Vocera, Vocera Communications, Wright DutchCo B.V., Wright Medical Australia Pty Limited, Wright Medical Brasil Ltda, Wright Medical Costa Rica S.A., Wright Medical Device (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Wright Medical Group, Wright Medical Group Inc., Wright Medical Netherlands B.V., Wright Medical Singapore Pte Ltd, Wright Medical Technology Inc., Wright Medical UK Ltd, Wright PacRim Inc., ZipLine Medical Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ZipLine Medical Hong Kong Limited, ZipLine Medical Inc., and eTrauma.com.

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GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
Greenhill & Co., Inc., an independent investment bank, provides financial and strategic advisory services to corporations, partnerships, institutional investors, and governments worldwide. The company offers advisory services related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, financings, private capital raising, and other similar transactions. It also advises clients on strategic matters, including activist shareholder defense, special committee projects, licensing deals, and joint ventures; and valuation, negotiation tactics, industry dynamics, structuring alternatives, and timing and pricing of transactions, as well as financing alternatives. In addition, the company provides restructuring advisory services to debtors, creditors, governments, and other stakeholders, and acquirers of distressed companies and assets; and advice on restructuring alternatives, capital structures, and sales or recapitalizations. Further, it assists clients in identifying and capitalizing on incremental sources of value; and on court-assisted reorganizations by developing and seeking approval for plans of reorganization, as well as the implementation of such plans. Additionally, the company advises on private placements of debt and structured equity, refinancing of existing debt facilities, negotiating the modification, and amendment of covenants, as well as acts as an independent advisor. It also offers financial advisory services to pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors on transactions involving alternative assets; and advice to alternative asset fund sponsors for private capital raising, financing, restructuring, liquidity options, valuation, and related services. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 14:54:31|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Some Western media have reported that China may deviate from its non-interference policy due to growing overseas interests, which will tarnish China's efforts to shoulder due responsibilities commensurate with its economic status.

Such reports are obviously groundless as the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries has been and will always be a cornerstone of China's foreign policy.

In the new era, China has advocated the principle of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation as a new model of global governance.

As China suffered from the bitterness of Western powers interfering in its internal affairs in history, it is more unwilling to see other countries experience the same.

Currently, China remains the biggest contributor of peacekeeping forces among the five UN Security Council permanent members in terms of the number of personnel. More than 30,000 Chinese peacekeepers have served overseas since China began participating in peacekeeping missions in 1990.

In April 2015, a Chinese navy frigate helped evacuate foreign nationals stuck in war-torn Yemen, the first time China evacuated foreign nationals from danger zones. In 2013, China sent its first peacekeeping infantry battalion to South Sudan to protect UN personnel and civilians.

The increase of China's involvement in foreign peacekeeping missions corresponds with the growth in the country's national power, and also matches the expectations of the international community for China's greater contribution to global affairs.

"When we have disturbances or unrest in protection of the civilians, they [Chinese peacekeepers] have shown very quick reaction that I appreciate very much," Ellen Magrethe Loej, then UN Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, told Xinhua in 2016.

Facts speak louder than words. China has helped Africa build up its ability to sustain its own development and create win-win scenarios. In 2015, China announced that it would roll out 10 major plans to boost cooperation with Africa in areas ranging from industrialization to infrastructure services, with 60 billion U.S. dollars of funding support.

China has made tangible contributions to the betterment of living and working conditions in Africa without attaching any political strings.

Compared with China's assistance to Africa, the continuous turmoil in the Middle East has proved that interference in others' internal affairs brings disasters not only to the region, but also to the West itself.

In recent years, China's non-interference policy has helped relax international tensions and build stability around the world. China has played a positive role in solving problems including the Iran nuclear issue and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

China holds that only when relations among countries, big and small, are based on respect for equality, non-interference and sovereignty, will there be peace and harmony in the world.

This was reaffirmed in June, when China and Panama established formal diplomatic relations, and the two sides stressed the development of friendly relations will be based on the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence.

It is advisable that the West discard their Cold War mentality of zero sum and hegemonism. Defamation will not eclipse China's honesty and sincerity to carry out win-win cooperation with others.
AutoZone, Inc. retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories. The company offers various products for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products. Its products include A/C compressors, batteries and accessories, bearings, belts and hoses, calipers, chassis, clutches, CV axles, engines, fuel pumps, fuses, ignition and lighting products, mufflers, radiators, starters and alternators, thermostats, and water pumps, as well as tire repairs. In addition, the company offers maintenance products, such as antifreeze and windshield washer fluids; brake drums, rotors, shoes, and pads; brake and power steering fluids, and oil and fuel additives; oil and transmission fluids; oil, cabin, air, fuel, and transmission filters; oxygen sensors; paints and accessories; refrigerants and accessories; shock absorbers and struts; spark plugs and wires; and windshield wipers. Further, it provides air fresheners, cell phone accessories, drinks and snacks, floor mats and seat covers, interior and exterior accessories, mirrors, performance products, protectants and cleaners, sealants and adhesives, steering wheel covers, stereos and radios, tools, and wash and wax products, as well as towing services. Additionally, the company provides a sales program that offers commercial credit and delivery of parts and other products; sells automotive diagnostic and repair software under the ALLDATA brand through alldata.com; and automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products through autozone.com. As of August 27, 2022, it operated 6,168 stores in the United States; 703 stores in Mexico; and 72 stores in Brazil. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Memphis, Tennessee.
In a closed-door meeting Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program that grants work permits to more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants, will likely soon be dismantled.

The announcement comes two weeks after officials in 11 states wrote to Attorney General Jefferson Sessions threatening to sue the federal government if it did not rescind Obamas DACA program by Sept. 5.

DACA was implemented in mid-2012 under the Obama Administration to boost Obamas credentials among Latino voters. The move was not opposed by immigration officials, who saw it as an opportunity to accumulate lists of youth living in the US without documentation. As the WSWS wrote in 2012:

The implementation of the DACA program came three months before the presidential election. Implementation of the initiativeproviding limited rights to a narrow section of immigrantsis at best a cynical gesture in an effort to court Latino voters. At worst, the information gathered in the application process could be used against immigrants and their families. The Obama administration has pursued an aggressive anti-immigrant agenda, rounding up immigrants in wide-scale sweeps and deporting them in record numbers, and this policy will not end with DACA.

The worst case scenario is now coming to fruition. All of the personal information needed to carry out deportations of these children and their families is conveniently in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. The thousands of children who lined up for the chance at the limited rights offered by the program gave their names, addresses, countries of origin, their personal histories and signed a document admitting to being in the country illegally. The cost of this program was paid for by the immigrants themselves at $465 dollars apiece.

In addition to DACA participants, the status of many Central American immigrants was also called into question by the Trump administration during Kellys meeting. Members of the Hispanic Caucus reported that Kelly suggested that many federal programs which grant Haitians, Salvadorans and Hondurans temporary protected status (TPS) due to past disasters in their homelands are also at risk of being canceled or not renewed by the Trump administration. For Haiti and El Salvador, TPS faces renewal in January 2018, while El Salvadors program currently ends next March.

TPS is intended to protect migrants from being deported to a country currently embroiled in war, environmental disaster or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. In June, the governments of El Salvador and Honduras pleaded with the US to extend TPS for their residents, fearing that the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants will provoke a social explosion.

Deporting immigrants who have fled countries such as Haiti, El Salvador and Honduras could very likely be a death sentence for many of these people. These countries all share a common history of relentless intervention by American imperialism, leaving them each in a state of extreme poverty and with dire social conditions.

Five percent of the unaccompanied minors who cross the border come from the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras. The city has the worlds highest murder rate, 187 murders per 100,000 in 2012, more than twice the countrys average of 90.4. The murder rates in El Salvador (41.2) and Honduras (60) are amongst the worst in Latin America.

Those who choose to flee do so out of dire necessity. Many make the decision, and risk their lives to make the dangerous journey, in hopes of offering their children a better life. Many of their children have grown up thoroughly integrated into US culture, with some having no memory of their home country or knowledge of its norms or language.

These developments mark a significant ramping up of the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration. In addition to the threats laid out by Kelly this week, there have been numerous reports of asylum seekers being intimidated and even unlawfully turned away at the border by ICE agents. An initiative which aimed at arresting undocumented parents suspected of having paid to have their children ushered into the country by smugglers has been put into effect. All these measures are meant to terrorize and intimidate not only the immigrant population, but the working class as a whole.

The dismantling of DACA, the rescinding of asylum programs and the other anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration have little support among the American people.
On Friday, prosecutors in Pennsylvania filed homicide charges against two 20-year-old men in the case of four slain young men who vanished more than a week ago but were found days ago buried on a Solebury farm that belongs to the family of one of the suspects.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub announced the charges during a Friday press conference, alleging Cosmo DiNardo of Bensalem killed 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick on July 5 and buried him on his parents farmland.

Two days later, DiNardo  allegedly assisted by Sean Kratz, DiNardos cousin  allegedly killed 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 21-year-old Thomas Meo, and 22-year-old Mark Sturgis. Their bodies were unearthed Wednesday in a 12-foot-deep common grave located elsewhere on the farm.

All four men had been shot, according to a probable cause affidavit, which said the suspects both gave statements to police on Thursday.

All four victims have been positively identified, according to Weintraub, and their family members have all been briefed on the details of the case.

DiNardo allegedly told investigators that he agreed to sell Patrick four pounds of marijuana for $8,000 on July 5. He allegedly told investigators he drove to Patricks home, picked him up, and drove him to the DiNardo farm.

When they arrived, DiNardo said Patrick only had $800. Instead, DiNardo offered to sell him a shotgun for that amount, according to the affidavit, obtained by PEOPLE. Both men walked to a remote area of the property, where DiNardo allegedly said he fatally shot Patrick with a .22 caliber rifle, according to the affidavit.

DiNardo then allegedly used a backhoe to dig a hole about 6-feet deep, and buried Patrick inside.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

DiNardo told investigators he agreed to sell a quarter-pound of marijuana to Finocchiaro for about $700 on July 7. Instead, the affidavit alleges DiNardo and Kratz drove to Finocchiaros home to rob him.

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DiNardo allegedly said he gave Kratz a .357 handgun before driving all three to the DiNardo farm. According to the affidavit, DiNardo allegedly said Kratz shot Finocchiaro in the head as they were leaving a barn on the site. DiNardo allegedly told investigators he then took the gun and shot Finocchiaro a second time as the victim lay on the ground.

That same day, DiNardo told detectives he met Meo and Sturgis at a church parking lot in Peddlers Village. DiNardo told investigators that he had a marijuana deal set up with Meo, the affidavit states.

Dean Finocchiaro, Jimi Tar Patrick, Tom Meo, and Mark Sturgis

Meo and Sturgis followed DiNardo to the Solebury property in Meos Nissan Maxima, DiNardo told investigators. They picked up his car, and DiNardo drove Meo and Sturgis to a remote location nearby, where Kratz was waiting.

The three men exited the truck, according to the affidavit, and DiNardo allegedly shot Meo in the back with a .357 handgun, then fired several times at Sturgis as he ran.

Sturgis dropped to the ground as a bullet struck him. The affidavit alleges DiNardo confessed he then ran over Meo with the backhoe before using it to lift both bodies into a metal oil tank, where he had already placed Finocchiaros corpse.

The following day, Dinardo told police he and Kratz returned to the property, where DiNardo allegedly used the backhoe to dig a deep hole and bury the tank containing the three bodies, according to the affidavit.

Kratz provided investigators with a similar statement Thursday night, the affidavit says, but told police he did not shoot Finocchiaro.

DiNardo and Kratz also face abuse of corpse and robbery charges. It is unclear if either man has entered a plea to the charges against them. Kratz has yet to retain legal counsel who could comment on his behalf.

Prosecutors confirmed DiNardo will not face the death penalty after agreeing to plead guilty to four first-degree murder counts.

Prosecutors further revealed they were led to the DiNardo farm after pinging one of the missing mens cellphones.

Im satisfied at this time that we have the two men locked up that need to be brought to justice, Weintraub said at the press conference.

DiNardo Suffered Brain Injury Within Year: Affidavit

In addition to selling drugs, DiNardo also allegedly dealt handguns to area residents.

He was initially arrested on Monday and released on bail the following day. DiNardo was re-arrested on Wednesday after investigators unearthed a mass grave at the farmland his family owns.

In requesting his $5 million cash bail, prosecutors revealed DiNardo is a diagnosed schizophrenic who sustained frontal lobe damage in an ATV accident within the past year. DiNardo was allegedly stranded in the woods for a day after the crash and suffered a severe brain bleed.

Authorities had arrested DiNardo earlier in the week. According to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by PEOPLE, DiNardo allegedly illegally possessed a Savage Arms 20 gauge shotgun. He also owned the ammunition needed for the gun.

But DiNardo was prohibited from owning such a weapon, the document alleges, as he was known to be suffering from a mental illness following his involuntary commitment to a mental institution.

Records indicate Kratz has two pending burglary cases in Philadelphia courts. One stems from a December 2016 incident that resulted in the filing of burglary, criminal trespassing, theft, receiving stolen property, and other charges.

In June 2016, Kratz allegedly stole more than $1,000 in yard tools. He is also accused of stealing $450 worth of jewelry, court records show.

Kratz was also arrested for alleged shoplifting in Montgomery County last December, but that case was closed and PEOPLE was unable to determine how it was resolved.

DiNardo is being held on $5 million cash bail. Kratzs is being on an unspecified bail amount.

PEOPLE could not reach any of the missing mens family members for comment.
Milan (AFP) - Twenty years ago, stylist Gianni Versace was gunned down in Miami, plunging his fashion house into crisis. Two decades on, it is one of the world's top global luxury brands thanks to his little sister, Donatella.

He had gone out for the morning papers: as Versace returned to his Miami beach mansion on July 15, 1997, he was shot dead by Andrew Cunanan, a homosexual prostitute known for his obsession with all things luxury.

The fashion world mourned deeply. The stylist to celebrities from Madonna to Elton John had been just 50 years old.

"He was a 360-degrees creator, a real artist, he had a pure creative vision on colours and materials," Stefania Saviolo, director of the luxury and fashion centre at Bocconi University, told AFP In Milan.

The group he had created with his brother Santo in 1978 had been one of the hottest fashion brands in the world.

It fell to Versace's platinum blonde sister Donatella -- to whom Gianni had entrusted the casual line Versus -- to take over as artistic director.

But the brand struggled to recover from Versace's murder. Donatella, who had worked for 14 years alongside Gianni, was severely affected by the loss of her brother and confessed to feeling "vulnerable".

- Depression and cocaine -

"You can't invent yourself as an artistic director overnight," says Saviolo, particularly as Donatella took over "at a time when fashion was changing a lot, with many collections and great pressure on artistic directors".

Donatella, instantly recognisable for her famous locks and perpetual tan, sank into a period of depression and cocaine use before detoxifying in 2005.

The year before, the brand had acquired a new CEO in Giancarlo Di Risio. The former Fendi boss refocused the Medusa on the luxury market, streamlining licensing and franchising deals and developing the accessories range.

Amid rumours in the press of a fall-out between the family and Di Risio over planned cuts, he was replaced in 2009 by Gian Giacomo Ferraris, who moved over from the Jil Sander fashion house.

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Ferraris wasted no time in launching an extensive reorganisation plan to return Versace to profitability, cutting 25 percent of its workforce and closing some boutiques before opening new ones as the books improved.

His intervention "doubled the turnover, which rose from 268 million euros in 2009 to 645 million in 2015," according to David Pambianco, who heads up a consultancy company in his name.

By 2011 the historic brand had returned to profit after a gruelling three years of losses.

- 'So much potential' -

"The right balance was struck between Ferraris and Donatella, the dialogue between them was good and there was great respect for Donatella's creativity and vision," Saviolo said.

The family, which had always refused to relinquish control to a luxury conglomerate like so many of its fellow Italian fashion houses, finally yielded a 20 percent stake in 2014 to the US private equity firm Blackstone.

The move, which Donatella said would allow Versace to "achieve its potential", resulted in a cash injection into the luxury designer and boosted its presence in emerging markets.

The bet paid off: despite a difficult global context, sales increased by some 17 percent in 2014 and in 2015.

The house said it was time to "move onto the next phase" and Ferraris was replaced in May 2016 by Jonathan Akeroyd, former CEO of Alexander McQueen.

Results last year were mixed, with sales up 3.7 percent to 668 million euros but the company admitting a loss of 7.4 million euros due in particular to funds sunk into its network of boutiques.

These results "have caused some uncertainty", but "the company is healthy, certainly more than 10 years ago," said Pambianco.

"Versace remains one of the most beautiful brands in the world in the luxury sector" and has "still so much potential to express", he said, pointing out that luxury house Gucci for example "has a turnover that is seven times higher".

Saviolo agrees: "Versace has recovered its lost "red carpet DNA" and its style is currently "very daring, very strong."
Men who say they were falsely accused of sexual assault and harassment in college left their meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday feeling encouraged that a government official had seen their side of the story, they said. But advocates for sexual assault victims who met separately with DeVos on the same day had the opposite reaction, leaving with deep concerns about how the Education Department is approaching the issue of sexual violence on campus and fears that it could roll back more stringent guidelines implemented by the Obama administration.

DeVos is wading into a complex problem that has ignited protests and yielded policy changes on college campuses in recent years. Advocates for the rights of the accused are hopeful that the new administration presents an opportunity to reform a system they see as one-sided. But victims advocates worry that elevating talk of false accusations will fuel a narrative that sexual assault reports do not need to be taken seriously.

The meetings were preceded by controversy this week after Candice Jackson, the head of the departments Office for Civil Rights, told the New York Times that 90% of campus sexual assault accusations fall into the category of we were both drunk.' She later apologized for the flippant remark in a statement and again at the meeting with assault victims.

Jonathon Andrews  who said he was falsely accused of sexual assault by two members of his Hanover College fraternity in 2015, after one of them sexually assaulted him  participated in one of the three meetings DeVos held Thursday. It was very uplifting to me. It was a moment where you felt like you were finally being seen, he said. Just to meet with somebody and show them that were human meant a lot.

Andrews, 23, works with Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), a nonprofit group that advocates to lawmakers and university officials for the due process rights of those accused of sexual assault. The group was labeled misogynistic by the Southern Poverty Law Center after it published a set of key facts about domestic violence that said female initiation of partner violence is the leading reason for the woman becoming a victim of subsequent injury.

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The Education Departments decision to meet with SAVE  along with the National Coalition for Men Carolinas, a mens rights organization, and Families Advocating for Campus Equality, a nonprofit founded by mothers of sons who were falsely accused of sexual misconduct in college  concerned people who say the groups are hostile to accusers.

It is disturbing that the Department of Education would place these radical groups on the same level as those working tirelessly to confront the crisis of sexual assault on our campuses, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, said in a letter to DeVos on Wednesday, calling the meeting a slap in the face to the victims of campus sexual assault.

A separate meeting with victims advocates on Thursday included Jess Davidson, the managing director of the group End Rape on Campus. Davidson said she was glad DeVos spent most of the meeting listening very intently to survivors, but she remained skeptical of how the department will handle the issue. It did not assuage my concerns. I will feel more confident when the department makes good on promises to continue meeting with survivors, Davidson said.

I was concerned that, yet again, we dont have a commitment from the Secretary to enforce Title IX, she added, referring to the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Under former President Obama, controversial guidance issued by the Office for Civil Rights in 2011 told universities they were obligated to implement policies defining sexual assault and harassment under Title IX or risk losing federal funding. The 2011 guidance also established a requirement that college disciplinary proceedings rely on a preponderance of evidence when adjudicating cases of sexual assault  a lower burden of proof than is required in criminal courts.

Its not yet clear whether DeVos plans to overturn that guidance, though she told reporters on Thursday that change is necessary. This is an issue were not getting right, she said, according to Politico. The Office for Civil Rights has already changed some policies, including ending a requirement for local officials to report mishandled college sexual assault investigations to the central office in Washington, the New York Times reported in June.

Joseph Roberts, who said he was wrongfully accused of sexual harassment in 2013 and suspended from Savannah State University without a hearing, said his meeting on Thursday was the first time Ive ever had the chance to sit across from a lawmaker or a decision-maker that I felt like cared. Roberts, 36, faulted the Obama-era guidance for causing a crackdown on sexual assault that he thinks has made it too easy to file a false accusation. If you want a guy to suffer, all youve got to do is Title IX them, he said.

That kind of rhetoric alarms victims advocates, who are quick to note that many victims of sexual assault never see justice.

There continues to be heinous injustice across this country, Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said at a rally Thursday outside the Department of Education, where activists and lawmakers read the stories of sexual assault victims. This should be about decency, this should be about justice  not false ideology. So I urge Secretary DeVos and everyone else who works in the Department of Education to listen. Listen to these survivors stories. Listen to what happened to them.

Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Womens Law Center, said that in Thursdays meeting she called on DeVos to show leadership in rejectingoutdated ideas and myths about rape, including the prevalence of false accusations. A 2015 study published in the journal Violence Against Women found that false accusations made up 2% to 10% of sexual assault claims.

While the interest groups who met with DeVos differ on how to solve the problem, they all agreed the current system isnt working.

I think students, both those who have reported assault and those who have been accused, probably want, in truth, similar things from their schools, Graves said. They want their schools to be fair to them, they want their schools to be transparent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:04:34|Editor: Liangyu

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BUCHAREST, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Some party leaders from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries expressed willingness here Friday to further cooperate with China on the Belt and Road Initiative and promote China-Europe ties.

CHINA-EU COOPERATION

"An old Chinese adage says he who does not climb the mountain, does not know how high the sky is. In my opinion, Europe and China should climb the mountain together to get to know the benefits of economic development, which brings prosperity to both countries," said Chairman of Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea at the China-CEE countries political parties dialogue.

"China is a trustful ally of Europe, and I believe Central and Eastern Europe are a gate to economic and commercial cooperation between the two continents that have two important pillars: China and the European Union (EU)," he noted.

He hailed the contact between the EU and China under the the Belt and Road Initiative, and believed both sides will come together on projects of mutual interest.

Jan Hamacek, Speaker of the Czech Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), also quoted a Chinese proverb, saying: "A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step."

"This was very much the case with the remarkable transformation of Czech-Chinese relations we have witnessed over the span of just last four years," he said.

The Czech Republic is keen to further deepen cooperation between China and the 16 CEE countries as well as actively pursue the deepening of the EU-China strategic partnership, he added.

At his keynote speech, senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan said both being emerging markets, China and the CEE countries face the same historic task of promoting development.

He proposed both sides champion the vision of win-win outcomes and reject the notion of the zero-sum game or winner taking all, and identify converging points of interests and the biggest common ground for cooperation.

BELT & ROAD PARTICIPATION

Hamacek took pride in the fact that the Czech Republic has become a leader in spearheading the Belt and Road Initiative in the CEE region.

"Last year in Riga, we signed the Action Plan for Cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Now we are about to launch the Czech-Chinese Center for Cooperation, the first center of its kind established in the region," he said.

"This initiative is a great example of peaceful cooperation among nations," he added.

Piotr Zgorzelski, Secretary of the Supreme Executive Committee of the Polish People's Party echoed Hamacek's view. "Technological progress forces us to look at sub-national cooperation in a much wider context that we are used to do. The Belt and Road Initiative is a great example of such view," he said.

"Its pillar is an overland route of transportation of goods connecting China with Europe via Russia and Poland. Chineurope is born, the most powerful land economic structure ever created," he announced.

Zgorzelski expressed belief that investment in the initiative will deepen integration among related countries, and intensify economic cooperation.

"The project itself is a chance for thousands of companies, employees and businessman from dozens of countries," he said.

According to Jiri Dolejs, Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia & Moravia in the Czech Republic, the Belt and Road Initiative has become a strategic framework of cooperation between China and the EU.

"It gives an opportunity to the countries of Central Europe, too, to participate in this global initiative based on a 'win-win' principle," he said.

For his part, Liu, the visiting senior CPC official, said the Belt and Road Initiative has become a public good welcomed by the international community and will provide sustained dynamism for world development and prosperity.

"As the Belt and Road Initiative injects new dynamism into economic globalization, China and the CEE countries should champion the spirit of openness and inclusiveness," Liu said.

The dialogue between political parties from China and the CEE was held here on Friday. The dialogue, the first of its kind within the China-CEE 16+1 cooperation mechanism, was inaugurated in 2016 in Budapest.
Correction appended July 27

It was late at night in 2015, and Samir Hussain was walking out of a movie near his West Sussex hometown. The late-night screening of Straight Outta Compton had been ok, but disturbed by two aggressive men throwing candy at him and his friend Yasir. Then, in the parking lot, the two men approached them again. Catcalls escalated into a fistfight, and suddenly one of them doused the 29-year-old in a liquid that he says felt too heavy to be water.

Then it began to burn. The liquid was sulphuric acid, which sears and blisters the skin on contact. I could just about open one of my eyes, I could see him smiling at me, Hussain tells TIME of his attacker. It was sinister. Although the man, Michael McPherson, was later tried and jailed for eight years, the corrosive liquid did its dreadful work. Now, Hussain wears a mask to help heal the scars that cover three-quarters of his face. He will bear these marks for the rest of his life.

The retail phone-shop workers horrific ordeal is just one incident in what has become a disturbing trend in the U.K., especially in the capital city of London. According to the Metropolitan Police, assaults using corrosive materials rose by nearly 80% (458) in 2016, having risen steadily over the past three years. This year alone, 199 attacks have been recorded so far. On April 9, acid was flung on a Chinese family as they took a stroll in North London, leaving the father with what police described as life-changing injuries. Later in the month, the then-boyfriend of British television presenter Ferne McCann was arrested in connection with an incident where acid was thrown over partygoers at a nightclub. In May, a gang squirted a noxious chemical on people seated in a van during a robbery in south-east London. Then, on Thursday night, five people were attacked with acid within the space of 90 minutes in separate attacks across north-east London. The suspects arrested on Friday were aged 15 and 16.

The trend is being driven not by a common motive, but by the ease with which corrosive materials can be acquired by those seeking to do harm. Corrosive alkalis typically found in drain cleaners, bleaches and sulfuric acid in battery fluid can be bought for as little $1 in discount stores and supermarkets across the country. What we are seeing is the ease in obtaining these types of substances, the majority of which can be found under kitchen sinks, Detective Chief Inspector Mike West, the Metropolitan Polices lead for corrosive-based crime tells TIME. With anything, people see other people doing it so they will naturally pick it up, he says.

The lack of a pattern in the types of victims makes it difficult to police a response to the increase in crimes. Unlike in South Asia, where women are disproportionately targeted by acid attackers, here, two-thirds of victims are men, Jaf Shah, executive director of Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), tells TIME. Early data suggests that the majority of both attackers and victims are white British men, he says, but the motives span from revenge attacks to hate crimes, domestic abuse, gang crime and organized crime. This complex picture is muddied by the lack of a standardized approach to recording these crimes, he says. You need to have the data otherwise there is a blanket response that doesnt tackle or reach those communities, he says.

The law is also yet to catch up to the new trend. Carrying a bottle of acid is not illegal in Britain, but carrying a firearm or concealed knife is. The police force have their arms tied behind their backs, Labour Party lawmaker Stephen Timms, who is the member of parliament for East Ham, tells TIME. While the laws are not in place, that means they cant arrest anyone walking around with sulphuric acid.

The use of corrosive materials is not a new phenomenon in Britain. Sulphuric acid, which used to be referred to as vitriol, was first manufactured on an industrial scale in the country during the 18th century. A Glasgow newspaper, Reformers Gazette, recorded in 1832 that a man was hung for throwing vitriol on a fellow servant while he slept and soon a term was was coined for acid attacks, vitriolage. Later in the 20th century, popular culture began making references to it. Notably in Graham Greenes 1938 book Brighton Rock the young anti-hero carries a vial of vitriol that becomes the eventual cause of his demise.

Now, young Britons are arming themselves with acid once again. Teenagers from deprived areas are bringing bottles of acid to school as a form of self-defense, according to the London Times. The bottles can evade metal detectors installed in certain schools to tackle knife crime. West, from the Metropolitan Police, suggests that those under the age of 18 should be banned from buying corrosive materials, similar to restrictions on buying knives.

Timms, constituency is in the London borough which has seen the highest rate of attacks in the city, wants that to go further. I think there is a strong case being made by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) for buyers of sulphur-based acids to hold a license, he says. The Home Office is now considering new restrictions on a range of products, but the National Police Chiefs Council on July 6 warned that it would be virtually impossible to put restrictions on the sale of all corrosive substances from drain cleaner to anti-freeze.

The public is now beginning to awaken to the trend. A national petition calling for tougher licensing laws has so far received nearly 400,000 signatures. It was created in response to a high-profile attack in June, when an aspiring model Resham Khan and her cousin suffered horrific face and neck injuries when sulphuric acid was poured on them as they waited in traffic in east London. It was an apparent hate crime, and unprovoked. Timms, who is the minister of the constituency where the attack happened in East London, has arranged for a debate in the U.K. Parliament about the issue.

Thursdays attacks have only intensified calls for some form of response from the government. The difficulty is if someone has a a knife it is pretty obvious, you look at it and its a knife, Home Office Minister Sarah Newton told the BBC on Friday of the difficulty authorities have in preventing attacks. Some of these acids are concealed, like in a bottle of Lucozade, so it is much more difficult issue to tackle she says. But we will do everything we can to make sure an appropriate workable regime to reduce these appalling crimes she says.

All of this comes too late for Hussain, who says he suffers from post-traumatic stress, and has lost his ability to trust new people. He just hopes this new burst of political consensus will prevent others from what happened to him. Nobody should go through something like this he says.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the chemical makeup of drain cleaners and battery fluids. Drain cleaners are typically alkalis and include components like lye, and battery fluids typically are acidic and include components like sulphuric acid, not the other way around.
Hong Kong (AFP) - Activists accused Beijing of crippling Hong Kong's parliament Friday after four pro-democracy lawmakers were disqualified.

More than 1,000 people protested near the government offices Friday night in response to the decision.

The High Court judgement came as a massive blow for the democracy movement as it means the balance of power in the partially elected legislature swings further to the pro-China camp because opponents do not have enough seats to veto bills.

Former Umbrella Movement protest leader Nathan Law was among those barred in a case brought by the semi-autonomous city's Beijing-friendly government after the four changed their oaths of office to reflect frustrations with Chinese authorities.

Law was one of several rebel lawmakers to secure a foothold in parliament at citywide elections in September.

But that triumph was soon jeopardised after Beijing issued a special interpretation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution in November to insist oaths be taken in a "sincere and solemn" manner.

The unprecedented intervention was prompted by a string of protests during the swearing in of lawmakers the month before.

The High Court said Friday Beijing's ruling was "binding" and the court's decision to bar the four retrospectively was not politically motivated.

Concerns China is squeezing Hong Kong have sparked calls by some activists for self-determination or even independence for the city, angering Beijing.

The dismissed legislators were not staunchly pro-independence but at least two of them have advocated self-determination for Hong Kong.

Law's party Demosisto condemned "the manifest interference of the Beijing government to cripple Hong Kong's legislative power".

The 24-year-old was one of the most popular candidates to win a seat, gaining 50,000 votes.

Human Rights Watch described the judgement as a "another alarming blow" to Hong Kong's autonomy.

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Amnesty International said the decision confirmed the government wanted to "silence and effectively punish" criticism of the political system.

At the rally Friday night, banned lawmaker Edward Yiu described it as "the darkest day in Hong Kong politics".

"The whole thing has gone insane," said protester Peggy Sui.

"I don't know how to describe how I feel besides anger."

Artist and activist Sampson Wong voiced pessimism at the rally.

"Everyone in their speeches said although it feels hopeless, we need to persist... but they can't seem to say how it's possible to stop these things from happening again," said Wong.

- Xi's 'red line' -

The court judgement comes two weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping warned any challenge to Beijing's control over Hong Kong crossed a "red line" when he visited the city to mark 20 years since it was handed back to China by Britain.

The handover agreement enshrined liberties unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary, but Beijing has been accused of trampling the deal.

Two pro-independence legislators have already been disqualified by the High Court over their oaths.

The cases against them and the other four lawmakers were initiated under the previous Hong Kong administration, led by unpopular former chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

He was succeeded by Carrie Lam on July 1, who is also seen as a puppet of Beijing by critics.

The oath requires lawmakers to repeatedly describe Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of China.

Law quoted Gandhi before taking his pledge, saying: "You will never imprison my mind", and used intonation to make his oath sound like a question.

The judgement said Law "was objectively expressing a doubt on or disrespect of the status of the People's Republic of China as Hong Kong's legitimate sovereign country".

Veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung raised a yellow umbrella -- a symbol of the democracy movement -- which the court said did not reflect the "importance and seriousness" of the ceremony.

Former protest leader Lau Siu-lai failed to convey the oath's proper meaning by reading her pledge at a snail's pace, the court ruled.

Edward Yiu added lines to his oath, saying he would "fight for general universal suffrage", which rendered his pledge invalid according to the judgement.
(PROVIDENCE, R.I.)  U.S. governors say the latest Republican health care overhaul is dominating private conversations at their summer meeting, and they plan to talk to Vice President Mike Pence about it.

Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to speak at the National Governors Association meeting in Providence on Friday.

Some Democratic governors gathered Friday morning to publicly criticize the revised health care bill, which was released Thursday. They spoke about how unwinding the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act would hurt their states.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said Republicans in Congress are still trying to put lipstick on a pig, but guess what? Its still a pig.

Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said she plans to voice strong opposition to Pence when she meets with him privately.

Its on everyones minds, Raimondo said. Its whats in every private conversation. Theres a high degree of anxiety. Even Republican governors will say that theyre worried, especially the ones that have taken the Medicaid expansion.

Nevada expanded its Medicaid program. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval said hes already told Pence hes concerned about protecting people newly eligible for Medicaid. He plans to reiterate those concerns to Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

And Im sure that theyre going to come back to me and explain why they feel like those individuals that are receiving Medicaid now, the newly eligibles, wont be harmed, he said. Its my obligation to hear them out, which is what I will do.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to keep in place Medicaid cuts GOP governors and Senate moderates have objected to. No Democrats are supporting the plan.

The latest changes are geared toward increasing access to bare-bones private insurance. Theres also an additional $45 billion to help states confronting the opioid epidemic. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, of North Carolina, called that funding a fig leaf. Many of the flimsy policies that will be allowed under the legislation wouldnt cover substance abuse treatment, he said.

What it is going to cost us to get out of this opioid crisis is significant, and health care coverage is important to that process, Cooper said. This needs to be a bipartisan effort, just like were working on the opioid fight in a bipartisan effort.
President Donald Trump's outside counsel lambasted a random emailer after the man suggested he step down following reports that explored why he had not sought a security clearance.

In a series of emails obtained by ProPublica, attorney Marc Kasowitz used profanity and threatened the man. One of his four messages says: "I already know where you live. I'm on you."

The man's email referred to a ProPublica report alleging Mr Kasowitz had a history of alcohol abuse which could rule him out for the security clearance needed to defend Mr Trump in the Russia inquiry - a claim which Kr Kasowitz's spokesman has said is false.

Mr Kasowitz replied with four emails in 33 minutes, according to ProPublica's report.

"You are f****** with me now Let's see who you are Watch your back, b****", one of the emails read.

In another email he urged the emailer to call him: "Don't be afraid, you piece of s***. Stand up. If you don't call, you're just afraid."

Mr Kasowitz is Mr Trump's longtime personal lawyer Credit: Anadolu

Mr Kasowitz's spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the emails and says Mr Kasowitz "intends to apologize" to the man.

Spokesman Mike Sitrick added that the missives were sent at the end of a "very long day."

"The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion and I should not have responded in that inappropriate manner," Mr Kasowitz said in the statement. "I intend to send him an email stating just that. This is one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock, but of course I can't."

On Tuesday, ProPublica published a story examining Mr Kasowitz's lack of security clearance and past behavior at his law firm.

Mr Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Mr Kasowitz leads the outside legal team handling the president's response to investigations led by special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees looking into Russia's meddling in the election and any potential coordination with Trump associates.

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Mr Kasowitz is well-known in New York business and real estate circles for his rough-and-tumble courtroom demeanor, though he has little criminal defense experience or expertise in navigating politically charged Washington investigations.

Last month, he entered the Russia investigation fray as the public face of Mr Trump's rebuttal to former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate intelligence committee. Mr Comey testified that he believed he was fired because of the FBI's Russia investigation.

The White House referred questions about the emails to Mr Kasowitz and his legal team.
Photo credit: McDonald's

From Delish

When McDonald's gave away 10,000 bottles of its Big Mac sauce in January, it created a frenzy online. People started selling their bottles of limited edition sauce on eBay for more than $100 on average and one person even listed their bottle for $10,000. If that wasn't enough, McDonald's continued to tease us by releasing a line of Big Mac sauce, Filet-O-Fish tartar sauce and McChicken sauce at grocery stores only in Canada this spring.

But we finally have some good news for Big Mac lovers here in America.

While pining after an Instagram from @candyhunting of all those bottles of McD's sauce in Canada, we noticed that one commenter mentioned you could buy it in on Amazon right here in America.

So of course we had to check it out, for the sake of journalism (and tasty burger sauce, of course).

He was right. For $12.70, you can get your hands on a 12-ounce bottle of Big Mac sauce imported from Canada. Plus, it comes with Prime free one-day shipping, which should help justify paying more than $5 for a bottle of dressing. If you're more of a McChicken or Filet-O-Fish person, you can also pick those up on Amazon too.

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Here in Istanbuls Cengelkoy neighborhood, people remember the blood in the streets the morning after Turkish military officers attempted to overthrow the government on the night of July 15, 2016.

After soldiers attempted to commander the local police station, residents fought back, rolling cars into the street to stop military vehicles from reaching the nearby Bosphorus Bridge, recently renamed the July 15 Martyrs Bridge. In total, 22 civilians died in the area. Restaurant manager Ismet Morgul, 59, said he was taken prisoner by the mutinous soldiers and forced to lie on the ground for hours. When he and his neighbors were finally freed, the crowd attacked the officers before they were stopped by police. We were beating them to death, he recalled on Friday.

The night of the coup was a remarkable moment of unity in Turkey. As soldiers fired on crowds of demonstrators and fighter jets bombed the parliament building, all four major political parties and the vast majority of the public stood against the coup, which left more than 200 people dead. President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government is marking the anniversary of the coup attempt this week with great solemnity. But Turkey is once again bitterly divided, returning to the polarization that defined the countrys politics prior to the failed military takeover last July.

Since the coup, Erdogans government has prosecuted a sweeping crackdown on perceived opponents. The clampdown began with people suspected of involvement in the coup or with the followers of Fethullah Gulen, the enigmatic U.S.-based religious leader who the government blames for organizing the putsch. But numerous journalists, academics, opposition politicians and activists have also been among the more than 50,000 people arrested in the past year. The official events commemorating the coup focus on the heroism of the ordinary people who resisted the coup attempt, but the tension created by the crackdown casts a pall over the proceedings.

Less than a week ago, hundreds of thousands of people attended a rally against the crackdown in the largest display of opposition in years. Still, members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are stressing the themes of unity and resistance in the face of the coup.

We have to protect our rights and freedoms, but at the same time we have to punish all those who committed this crime against our people, said former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in an interview with TIME. Davutoglu visited Cengelkoy on Friday to meet with some of the civilians who fought against the coup, sitting around a table at a restaurant along the Bosphorus Strait.

Asked about the crackdown, Davutoglu added, If there is any criticism, we can consider those criticisms. In these types of cases, there could be some mistakes that could be also assessed through proper judicial processes. But if the reality is not being seen, that the parliament was attacked, that the people were attacked, then the criticisms will be invalid.

AKP officials argue that the successful suppression of the coup, which was aided by the loyal branches of the military, was a historic turning point that effectively ended the era of military intervention in Turkish politics. In Turkey, the military has forced a change of government four times since 1960, sometimes with brutal consequences. Following a coup in 1960, elected Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was hanged. Its a killing that haunts Erdogan. In an oft-repeated story, confidants say the President remembers his father weeping over a news broadcast announcing the hanging.

Erdogan and his supporters seem to want the failure of the coup to mark a transition that transcends politics, a foundational moment for a the country. In a speech on Thursday, Erdogan likened the coup attempt to the battle of Gallipoli, in which the Ottoman empire repelled a massive allied assault in 1915 and 1916. From now on, nothing will be the same as it was before July 15, the President was quoted as saying.

Still, Turkeys deep political discord has continued. Prime Minsister Binali Yildirim said Friday that the government would extend the state of emergency first announced in the aftermath of the coup. The decision permits the government to rule by decree and grants greater power to restrict street protests and media. Bulent Tezcan, the deputy leader of the mainstream opposition Republican Peoples Party, responded by saying the governments use of emergency rule has become like a drug addiction.

The plans for the anniversary include the inauguration of a monument near the Martyrs Bridge, where demonstrators faced down soldiers on the night of the coup. Erdogan will speak. In a recreation of the protests a year ago, the anti-coup demonstrations are expected to last all night. Mosques will broadcast a call to prayer, as they did late on the night of the coup. During the weekly noon prayer at mosques throughout the country on Firday, the state-mandated sermon celebrated the heroism of the martyrs who died fighting the coup. A nation was born from the ashes, the sermon said.

They are trying to come up with an alternative legitimacy myth, if one could call it that, that is going to underpin the new Turkey, the second Turkish republic, says Selim Sezak, a Turkish political analyst, referring to the ruling party. I dont know if this mythology is going to have as big an audience as they thought it would, but theyre definitely intent on building one, he says.
Shenyang (China) (AFP) - The ashes of China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo were buried at sea on Saturday, depriving his supporters of a place to pay tribute to the pro-democracy dissident.

Officials showed a video in which his wife, Liu Xia, and relatives lowered a white round urn into the water off the northeastern coastal city of Dalian, two days after the democracy advocate died of liver cancer aged 61 while in custody.

His supporters said the authorities wanted to avoid giving him a pilgrimage site where they could remember a writer whose calls for political reform angered the Communist regime and led to his arrest in 2008.

Officials "fear that if someone who is as emblematic a symbol as Liu Xiaobo had a burial ground, it would become a place where his supporters would gather on his memorial day, the day he received the Nobel or any other such occasions to express their desire to chase after freedom," activist and family friend Ye Du told AFP.

Liu Xiaobo's older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, said at a news conference organised by the authorities that the government had followed the family's wishes.

He thanked the Communist Party for its "humanistic care" of his brother during his hospitalisation and death. He did not take any questions before being escorted out by two women.

Zhang Qingyang, an official from the Shenyang city municipal office, said the cremation was "in accordance with the will of his family members and local customs".

Liu's supporters said it was impossible to verify if it was really his wish to be buried at sea as the authorities have severely restricted access to his family. They also said Liu Xiaoguang did not agree with Liu Xiaobo's political leanings.

"It is deplorable how the Chinese government has forced the family to cremate Liu Xiaobo, bury him at sea, and then coerced Liu's brother to make robotic statements to the media about the great care of the government and superiority of its health care system," Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, told AFP.

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- 'Disgusting' funeral' -

Authorities also released photos of a private ceremony attended by his family, including his wife, whose fate worries supporters hoping the government will cede to international pressure to release her and let her leave China.

Liu Xia, a poet, stood with her brother, and two of Liu Xiaobo's brothers in front of the body, which was covered with white petals.

Zhang said "friends" also attended the ceremony.

But Amnesty International's China researcher Patrick Poon told AFP he did not recognise any in the row of non-family members in the official photo and people close to the Liu couple identified at least one "state security police officer" among them.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who lives in Berlin, tweeted a photo of the funeral and called the display "disgusting" and a "violation" of the deceased.

In Hong Kong thousands took part in a candlelit march Saturday night in memory of Liu. "He was a great scholar who woke up young people, especially of my generation," said Beijing-born Steven Wong, 45, who travelled from Singapore to attend the march.

- Wife is 'incommunicado' -

China's government faced a global backlash for denying Liu Xiaobo's wish to be treated abroad, and the United States and European Union have called on the government to free Liu Xia.

She has been under house arrest since 2010, but she was allowed to see her husband after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in Shenyang following his diagnosis of late-stage liver cancer in late May.

Liu Xiaoguang said Liu Xia was in "weak condition" and experiencing such "great sorrow" and that she may need hospital treatment.

"As far as I know, Liu Xia is in a free condition," municipal official Zhang said.

But Genser said she was still being held "incommunicado" and he has "seen no sign that the government is going to let her go".

At Liu Xiaobo's funeral, Liu Xia "fixed her eyes on him a long time, mumbling to say farewell," Zhang said, adding that she was "in very low spirits".

"It's best for her not to receive too much outside interference during this period," he said.

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. The veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

"The most preposterous thing is that even during his cremation and funeral he still was not free," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist and family friend, told AFP.

"And now it's been passed on to his wife, who will continue to lead on that same freedom-less existence."
Jezebel

Its been nearly two decades since actress and former Scientologist, Leah Remini, has been looking for Shelly Miscavige, the missing wife (and First Lady) of the Church of Scientologys de facto leader, David Miscavige. Shes dedicated entire episodes of her A&E series to her investigation, mentioned it innumerable times in the press, and even confronted church officials with questions at Tom Cruises 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes. Now, via viral thread on Twitter, Remini has detailed a new devel
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:04:35|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Kabul, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior commander of Islamic State (IS) has been killed following a U.S. airstrikes in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, U.S. forces in Afghanistan said in a statement released on Saturday.

"U.S. Forces-Afghanistan confirms that Abu Sayed, the Emir of Islamic State, Khorasan Province in Afghanistan was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province on July 11," said the statement.

"This operation is another success for defeating IS in Afghanistan", the statement said.

"Abu Sayed was the third IS leader we have killed since the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated," NATO-led Resolute Support mission commander Gen. Nicholson said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Afghan forces have killed nine IS fighters and injured five others during a military operation in Pachiragam district of eastern Nangarhar province, the provincial government spokesperson Attaullah Khogiani told Xinhua.

Hundreds of IS militants including their top three commanders have been killed during the Afghan and NATO forces operations over the past year.

In April, U.S. forces dropped a massive bomb on IS complex tunnel and hideout in Nangarhar province and reportedly killed more than 100 fighters.
Defending Donald Trump Jr. against charges that he may have broken U.S. campaign finance law by meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 to obtain damaging info about Hillary Clinton, some Trump supporters and conservative media outlets have argued that Democrats have done the same. They cite an instance last year when a Democratic National Committee (DNC) consultant collaborated with Ukrainian Embassy staff on opposition research into Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort  research that the consultant may have shared with the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Based on the available public information, however, it remains unclear whether or not the consultants actions  and, by extension, those of the Clinton campaign  violated U.S. laws.

The Trump Jr. defenses often begin with assertions that Trump Jr. was merely looking for opposition research, which is perfectly normal behavior for campaign operatives. Most people would have taken that meeting, President Trump told reporters in Paris Thursday. Opposition research is, indeed, very common. But its illegal to solicit it, free of charge, from a foreigner  as Don Jr. may have done.

Typically, campaigns task one or two staffers with researching damaging information on opponents, as Henry Gomez at Buzzfeed has reported. Some may hire a full-time opposition researcher, and others might rely on outside political groups like super PACs or allied advocacy organizations to dig up the dirt. But before grabbing the Republican nomination, the Trump campaign had no research team.

Although less common, paying a foreign national to compile opposition research is perfectly legal. And a domestic individual may donate the research to a campaign, constituting an in-kind donation which is subject to the same contribution limits that govern cash donations.

Did the Clinton campaign and the DNC also solicit free opposition research from a foreign national? The answer to this question is more complex.

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A Manafort Investigation

The DNC employed a staff member, who then became a consultant, who likely solicited damaging information from the Ukrainian Embassy on Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign manager as of June 2016. Its unclear whether she shared the information with the DNC and the Clinton campaign.

According to a January investigation by Politico, Alexandra Chalupa, who was reportedly hired by the DNC for outreach purposes, was independently researching the connections between Manafort, Viktor Yanukovychs Ukrainian government and Russian interests. Sometimes, according to Chalupa, she shared her findings with the DNC and with the Clinton campaign. Chalupa traded information with staff at the Ukrainian Embassy, and once, with the DNCs encouragement, attempted to set up an interview with current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko so he could describe Manaforts relationship with Yanukovych. (The embassy declined this request.)

In order to determine whether there was a violation of the law, wed want to know more information and the nature of the interaction between the DNC consultant and the Ukrainian embassy, Brendan Fischer, director of federal and FEC reform at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, told International Business Times. If Ukraine was spending money to conduct research on Paul Manafort for the purpose of influencing the U.S. election and provided that information to the DNC with the intent of influencing the election, it would be a violation of campaign finance law, he said. If, in her capacity as a DNC consultant, Chalupa solicited this research with the same intent, she would have violated that same law.

Breaking the law is contingent on the information being something of value, making it a campaign donation. Experts have said that damaging opposition research likely qualifies. Soliciting a campaign donation from a foreign national is considered a felony.

Chalupa claimed the embassy was very careful because they were dealing with a political issue, and they didnt want to get involved politically because they couldnt. However, a former political officer in the embassy told Politico that a top aide to the ambassador directed him to help Chalupa with the Manafort research. The embassy was coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa, he said. It worked very closely with Chalupa.

Chalupa planned to share her Manafort dirt, including a big Trump component, according to a leaked email, with the DNC, although the DNC says she was a consultant paid for outreach and that she investigated Manafort on her own.

Its not clear whether the DNC or the Clinton campaign asked for this information, though the attempted Poroshenko interview may indicate that the DNC did seek it. If the DNC or the campaign knew the information came from a foreign national, that would be a violation.

The DNC did not return a request from IBT for comment. IBT was unable to reach Chalupa with questions. The DNC told Politico that it did not incorporate Chalupas findings in its dossier on Trump, Manafort and Russia.

New York Times reporter Ken Vogel, who co-authored the Politico piece in January, tweeted Wednesday that it would be illegal for the DNC to accept opposition research from the Ukrainian government.

Without complete information, its impossible to know whether Ukrainian nationals, Chalupa, the DNC and/or the Clinton campaign broke campaign finance laws, although that is a possibility.

The Dossier

Another allegation is that the Clinton campaign hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to compile the controversial dossier on Trump and his alleged Russia connections  and that this was essentially the same thing that Trump Jr. did. These claims are false.

Initially, an unnamed Republican supporter hired a firm called Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump during the Republican primary election. Once Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee for president, that Republican stopped paying the firm, but some pro-Clinton Democrats  not the DNC or the Clinton campaign  began picking up the tab for more opposition research. Around that time, the firm enlisted Steele to conduct the research.

Unlike the dirt that Trump Jr. hoped to glean from the Russian lawyer, Steeles intel was paid research and it was conducted for private citizens and not political groups or campaigns (although who commissioned the research is legally irrelevant in this case). There is nothing illegal in this scenario. Steele, concerned with what hed found about Trump and Russia, eventually shared much of his work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Trump Jr.s apparent attempt to solicit opposition research from the Kremlin to help his father win the presidency may be more significant than a DNC consultant sharing dirt, possibly partially compiled by Ukrainian Embassy staff, on Trumps campaign manager with the DNC or the Clinton campaign. But there is a real possibility that Chalupa, the DNC and the Clinton campaign may indeed have broken a campaign finance law.

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Its another scorching hot, downright boring day on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Twenty-year-old Alejandro (not his real name) has spent the past four weeks loitering at a migrant shelter here, trying to figure out how to cross the vast desert that lies before him so that he can begin making money to send back to Honduras. With each passing day, its becoming increasingly clear that he may have only one ally to assist him in crossing into the United States: the mafia.

On the Mexican side of the border, organized criminal groups control all the northbound smuggling (of humans and goods), charging a tax on every illicit movement into their territory. To pass through, migrants need to hire a smuggler, who then pays the required tax to that citys dominant criminal group. There are no exceptions. Migrants looking to cross alone or smugglers trying to sneak someone across without paying the required dues are considered to be committing a serious underworld crime, punishable by death.

The brutally enforced business scheme is nothing new in the world of illicit migration, but steadily increasing U.S. border enforcement has directly influenced how it looks today. On the U.S. side, strategically placed walls, fences, surveillance technologies, and border patrol agents shut off the areas that are easiest to cross and push migrants into more desolate and dangerous zones. The results have been high body counts despite falling apprehensions  with over 80 bodies recovered from Arizonas desert this year  and higher smuggling fees.

These pricier smuggling services reveal a lot about the economics of migrant smuggling markets. For decades, as border enforcement efforts have intensified, the crossing price has shifted upward from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Today, along the western part of the border, the smuggling price hovers around $4,000, with half demanded upfront and half upon arrival. For most people, scraping together this money on short notice would be tough, but for the poorest and least-connected migrants who lack U.S.-based family or friends, its downright impossible.

These migrants have only one way across the border: with a backpack.

This option  described as backpacking or burro-ing,  is well known among the most marginalized migrants. All they need to do is show up in specific border towns and say they want to cross with a backpack. At that point, they are assigned to a group, loaded down with a 50-pound backpack of marijuana, along with four gallons of water and food, and sent off on a guided eight- to 10-day trek into the desert. When they reach the predetermined place on the U.S. side, they drop the backpack, hopefully collect the promised $1,500 for their services, and head off into the United States.

Not all migrants, even the most desperate, are sold on the arrangement. Its so dangerous, Alejandro sighs. If you cant take the weight or the desert heat, theyll just pluck off your backpack and leave you there. Getting caught also means five years in a U.S. jail and deportation back to Honduras.

Its a risk that Alejandro hesitates to take. In fact, Alejandro had left Honduras only hoping to reach Mexico City. But when the job he had been promised never materialized, he thought his best bet was to keep heading north. At the border, his family could scrabble together only $1,800, less than half of what he needed to hire a smuggler. When he sought out work to earn the rest, he couldnt find any Mexicans willing to hire an undocumented Central American even for a few hours.

Now, Alejandro is back to spending his days hanging around the shelter, debating whether to cross into the United States with the backpack or head back empty-handed to Honduras.

Only a small subset of unauthorized migrants crosses into the United States with a backpack of drugs (and the marijuana they haul is but a small portion of the drugs moving across the border). But like Alejandro, these migrants tend to be the poorest and the least connected in a migrant population that is itself generally low-income and marginalized. These are the migrants who were priced out of the smuggling market as border security blocked off the easiest crossing routes, and then effectively funneled into drug trafficking operations as cheap, expendable labor.

When I left home, crossing with a backpack was never in my plans, really, Alejandro says again quietly as we say goodbye. Its not an explicit confirmation, but it also doesnt feel as if hell be voluntarily heading home anytime soon. On the U.S.-Mexico border, with thousands of miles already behind him and a single drug-stuffed backpack between him and the United States, what may not have been his original plan is now his only option.

Photo credit: John Moore/Getty Images
The return to duty of 19 police officers that participated in the killing of Philippine mayor Rolando Espinosa last year has sparked outrage among the countrys senators, who only months before determined that those officers had carried out a premeditated murder.

Duterte not only set the murderers free, he now gave back their badges and guns so they could murder again with impunity, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said in a text message to reporters Thursday, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Trillanes  who has been the presidents most outspoken critic since the jailing of Senator Leila de Lima in February  went on to allege that their reinstatement is part of a cover up. Duterte fears that these policemen might rat out on him for what they know about his involvement in the Espinosa murder, he said.

The Leyte mayor was shot dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial on drug charges last November. The police team that killed him claimed Espinosa and Raul Yap the inmate of the adjacent cell who was also killed  had engaged them in a gunfight as they were trying to serve a warrant.

But a senatorial inquiry, and a separate investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Philippine version of the FBI, determined that story was bunk. The police killing of Espinosa was a rub out that could be part of a much larger conspiracy, according to NBI investigators.

Read more: Thee Man in the Yellow Shirt Is Now Dead. Heres How That Could Upend the Philippine Drug War

The Philippine president sprung to the officers defense, however. I will not allow these guys to go to prison, even if the NBI says it was murder. After all, the NBI is under me, the Department of Justice, he said in a mixture of Tagalog and English soon after the NBIs December ruling.

The Department of Justice then downgraded the officers charges from murder to homicide and allowed them to post bail. On Wednesday, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa announced their return to work after a six month suspension, the Inquirer reports. They have been reinstated, he told reporters. The administrative case against them has been resolved.

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There is nothing unusual about Philippine police murdering with impunity. Investigations by Human Rights Watch, Reuters, local and international journalists, and others have exposed a plethora of fabricated stories and coverups. In January, law enforcement officers murdered a South Korean businessman inside the Philippine National Police headquarters after kidnapping him under the guise of an anti-drugs operation and then extorting his relatives for ransom.

Nevertheless, the reinstatement of Espinosas killers is a new low for the countrys justice system. If the killers of high profile mayor  whose death was subject to probes by the upper house and the countrys top investigatory arm  can escape justice, then there is scant hope of justice for anyone else.

This is outright obstruction of justice from the highest level of governance and executive promotion of extrajudicial killings, Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a statement. For those who still deny that there are state-sanctioned killings, here is damning proof.

[PDI]
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Eleven people were found dead in a home in the city of Tizayuca in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, state authorities said in a statement on Thursday. The circumstances surrounding the deaths were unclear and authorities said they were investigating. The people had been murdered, and they were from the state of Mexico, according to a source at the state attorney general's office who was not authorized to speak to the media. More than 100,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2007, when former President Felipe Calderon sent in the military to battle the cartels, and at least 30,000 people are missing. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito & Liz Diaz; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
By Mark Hosenball (Reuters) - A lobbyist who was once a Soviet counter-intelligence officer participated last year in a meeting with senior aides to U.S. President Donald Trump, including his son, and a Russian lawyer, NBC News reported on Friday, adding to allegations of possible connections between Moscow and the November election. NBC News, which did not identify the Russian-American lobbyist, said some U.S. officials suspected him of still having ties to Russian intelligence, something he denied to the network. The Associated Press said the lobbyist, whom it identified as Rinat Akhmetshin, confirmed that he had attended the June 2016 meeting in New York's Trump Tower. A source familiar with the participants of the meeting confirmed to Reuters that Akhmetshin was in the room. The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump's election campaign and Russia, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign adviser Paul Manafort were also at the meeting, which Donald Trump Jr. agreed to attend because he believed he could get damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, did not mention Akhmetshin's presence when he released a series of emails about the meeting earlier this week. 'DEEPLY DISTURBING' Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the report about Akhmetshin "if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting." Akhmetshin was not available for comment on Friday. There was no answer at the door of his house in Washington. The White House had no immediate comment about the NBC News report of a Russian-American lobbyist at the meeting. Kushner's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Manafort's spokesman Jason Maloni said Manafort had no comment on the meeting. A former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, told reporters after he testified to the House Intelligence Committee in closed session on Friday that he had no contact with Russians and never heard of anyone in the campaign "talking with Russians." Accusations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated the Republican president's first months in office. Russia denies the allegations, and Trump says there was no collusion. The agencies said earlier this year that Russia sought to help Trump win the election by hacking private emails from Democratic Party officials and disseminating false information online. Akhmetshin has been accused in federal and state courts in the United States of engaging in hacking conspiracies, although the allegations were later withdrawn, according to court records. In 2015, lawyers for the Russian mining company International Mineral Resources claimed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia that Akhmetshin helped organize the hack, theft and dissemination of private documents. That case was dropped. The same company filed a lawsuit against Akhmetshin in the New York Supreme Court but withdrew it last year. U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley described Akhmetshin in a letter to the Justice Department in March as "a former member of the Russian military intelligence services (GRU)" who was working to overturn the 2012 "Magnitsky Act" of Congress, which blacklists Russians for human rights abuses. The Kremlin has often complained about the act. Congressional records show that Akhmetshin lobbied Congress last year for the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group that says it is working to lift laws that prevent U.S. residents from adopting Russian children. Those laws were put in place by Moscow in response to the Magnitsky Act. Trump told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not know about his son's meeting last year until recently. But in a conversation with reporters later that day, Trump said: "In fact, maybe (the meeting) was mentioned at some point," adding he was not told it was about Clinton. Trump Jr.'s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, said he had talked with a person who came to the meeting between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Trump aides. "He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question," Futerfas told NBC News. It was not immediately clear if the person he referred to was Akhmetshin. The lawyer said Trump Jr. knew nothing about the man's background at the time of the meeting. The Russian lawyer in the meeting, Veselnitskaya, has said she was not working for Russian authorities, but she told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Friday that she was meeting with Russian authorities regularly. She said she shared information about a U.S.-born fund manager who lobbied for passage of the Magnitsky Act with the Russian prosecutor generals office, including with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, a top official appointed by the Kremlin, the Journal said. (Reporting by Eric Walsh, Julia Ainsley, Mark Hosenball, Jonathan Landay, Fatima Bhojani and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Ned Parker and Karen Freifeld in New York; Writing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Grant McCool)
By Joseph Sipalan KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has put on hold a $2 billion plan to replace its aging fleet of combat aircraft, looking instead to upgrade its aerial surveillance capabilities to confront the growing threat of militancy inspired by the Islamic State group, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Southeast Asia's third-largest economy has for several years been weighing the competing merits of France's Rafale jet and the Eurofighter Typhoon, built by Britain's BAE Systems, as it looks to buy up to 18 jets to replace its Russian MiG-29 fighters - nearly half of which are grounded. The Rafale fighter - built by Dassault Aviation SA - was until recently seen as the frontrunner, with the support of key officials in Malaysia's defense ministry. But Malaysia has shelved those plans for now as it looks to boost aerial surveillance that will be critical in its fight against militancy, a defense ministry source told Reuters. The decision comes as Islamist fighters continue to battle security forces in Marawi in the southern Philippines. Malaysia and Indonesia, which share the nearby island of Borneo, are working with the Philippines to conduct air and maritime patrols along their shared borders in the Sulu Sea. "With regards to Rafale, France is still pushing for it as evidenced during the recent air show in Paris," said the source, on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media on the discussions. "However, due to the current situation, Malaysia is focusing more on maritime patrol aircraft rather than multi-role combat aircraft." More than 400 people have been killed in fighting in Marawi, on the Philippine island of Mindanao, which was seized by pro-Islamic State militants on May 23. The crisis in Marawi has unnerved governments across Southeast Asia, worried the region could potentially become the next base for the Islamic State, especially with fighters returning home from Iraq after the fall of the group's Mosul stronghold. Besides conducting joint patrols, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have also agreed to pool intelligence and tackle militant financing. TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED Discussions for fighter jet procurements typically take years and an impending general election, which must be called by June 2018 but is expected this year, was already expected to delay Malaysia's final decision. The source said Malaysia's jet fighter talks were only "temporarily suspended" and could resume in the future, but the priority was to secure new surveillance planes by 2020. Malaysia's decision to suspend its jet fighter acquisition program will come as a blow to Dassault's Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon, the two main competitors for the deal to replace the Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) squadron of Russian MiG-29s. Spokesmen for Dassault and Eurofighter, a consortium including Airbus BAE Systems and Leonardo of Italy, declined to comment. BAE Systems did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Najib Razak said in March that the Rafale deal was discussed during then French President Francois Hollande's visit to the Southeast Asian nation, but that Malaysia was "not ready yet to make a decision". Dassault was awarded a contract in September last year to deliver 36 Rafale jets to India, and hopes to make additional sales to New Delhi. Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier said in May that the company was "notably in talks" with Malaysia and India to secure one new contract by 2018. BAE Systems, which leads the regional sales campaign for the Typhoon, is looking to kick off its entry into Southeast Asia with the sale of its multi-role combat aircraft to Malaysia. Malaysia has four Beechcraft BT200T surveillance aircraft, but one of the planes crashed in December killing the pilot. The defense ministry source said Kuala Lumpur was looking at acquiring four more surveillance planes that were larger and had a longer range than its existing assets, such as aircraft built by Lockheed Martin. "We're looking at a commercial-based platform, which is more affordable, compared to a military specific platform," the source said. (For a graphic on Rafale and Typhoon specs, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2ubRrti) (Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Praveen Menon and Alex Richardson)
Mike Worthington and his daughter Asia have become social media stars for their adorable hair tutorials. (Photo: Instagram /Ice Mike Loves Asia)

A father-daughter duo have become social media superstars, thanks to their sweet style and beauty-themed photo shoots.

Single father Mike Worthington, 30, and his 6-year-old daughter Asia love going shopping, trying out new hairstyles, and playing dress-up. The pair chronicles their stylish lifestyle on the Instagram page Ice Mike Love Asia, which boasts more than 790,000 followers.

Their latest video, posted to Instagram on July 8, received more than 111,000 likes and features Worthington using styling cream to fashion Asias hair into Minnie Mouse buns, a look he discovered on YouTube.

When your dad does your hair @darecare_ A post shared by Icemikeloveasia (@icemikeloveasia) on Jul 8, 2017 at 3:44pm PDT

Asia and I spend a lot of time together  her mom and I share custody  and I would struggle to make her hair look nice, Worthington tells Yahoo Beauty. I didnt want her hair to look crazy or have to rely on my mother or sisters, so I decided to learn myself from watching YouTube or reading magazines.

Once an aspiring photographer, the online marketing professional bought photography equipment and set up a ministudio in his Dallas home, where he shoots the majority of his work.

Raising A Mini Boss @asialovesdaddy  A post shared by Icemikeloveasia (@icemikeloveasia) on Jul 2, 2017 at 9:56am PDT

Worthingtons followers also make style suggestions for Asia, and he sends them photos of the results.

OldieLittle a A post shared by Icemikeloveasia (@icemikeloveasia) on Apr 25, 2017 at 9:09pm PDT

Asia and her father make regular trips to the Childrens Place, where Asia is allowed to pick out two outfits while her father shops the rest. The little girl prefers statement and graphic T-shirts and dresses. She also loves lip gloss, which her father permits, provided the tube stays at home (no reapplying allowed).

She wants to be a Disney star and her favorite actress is Zendaya, says Worthington. She also shoots her own videos on her iPad.

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#ss A post shared by Icemikeloveasia (@icemikeloveasia) on Apr 16, 2017 at 9:31am PDT

The pair have become so celebrated that in June 2016, Target offered them a deal to model clothes from its signature line, Cat & Jack, on their social media sites.

Worthington says that aside from a few naysayers who claim he shares his life for attention, hes inundated with support and requests for his tips on custody issues, raising daughters, relationships, and hairstyling.

I just say to them, Try your hardest and live through your daughter, says Worthington. Fathers set the tone in a girls life and theres no greater bond. Whether its through cooking, watching movies, or playing, time spent is far greater than money spent.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
Rinat Akhmetshin, an alleged former Soviet intelligence operative, confirmed Friday to the Associated Press that he was present during the infamous June 9, 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskya.

Akhmetshin's presence at the meeting added another layer to the ever-expanding narrative surrounding the meeting and the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Jr. did not disclose Akhmetshin's presence during his "transparent" tweet of the emails Tuesday, nor in the subsequent explanations for the meeting.

READ: Donald Trump Jr. May Have Broken Campaign Finance Laws. Did Clinton Backers Do The Same?

Akhmetshin confirmed to the AP that he was present at the meeting in June 2016. The former Soviet operative thought it was "not substantive" and that he "actually expected more serious" discussion.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest," he told the AP Friday.

Akhmetshin recalled that the Russian lawyer, Veselnitskaya, presented the three members of the Trump campaign  Kushner, Manafort, and Trump Jr. with "details of what she believed were illicit funds that had been funneled to the Democratic National Committee."

She suggested, according to Akhmetshin, that if the information was revealed to the public, it would help the Trump campaign and expose the DNC as corrupt. "This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin recalled her saying.

Trump Jr. pressed the Russian lawyer for evidence but Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. Trump Jr. then lost apparent interest, according to Akhmetshin.

"They couldnt wait for the meeting to end," Akhmetshin said.

Akhmetshin also denied that he was a former Soviet spy. He said that he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 but was not trained in spy tradecraft.

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"That is not correct," Akhmetshin said bluntly, adding that he would be willing to meet with the Senate Judiciary Committee after Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Ia.) wrote a letter to Homeland Security seeking information about him because he was not registered as a foreign agent.

Akhmetshin pushed back against Grassley's calls to have him register as a foreign agent, saying that he had previously registered with Congress for the lobbying work and that he planned to raise this issue before the judiciary committee.

"I think I have a legal right to tell my story," he said.

It was revealed by the New York Times last week that Trump Jr. met with Veselnitskya, which he confirmed when he tweeted out an email chain he'd responded to before the meeting with music publicist Rob Goldstone.

READ: Why Did Donald Trump Jr. Meet With A Russian Lawyer?

The email chain sparked widespread outrage by Trump's political opponents who have pointed to the meeting as hard evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia against the rival campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Initially, Akhmetshin's identity was withheld when NBC reported Friday that a "Russian-born American lobbyist" who had "served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S." accompanied Veselnitskya to the meeting.

Just reported on @Morning_Joe: Don Jr.'s lawyer now tells NBC there was a *third* person in room (in addition to the Trump Team). pic.twitter.com/ZA1MLrh3Hl  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 14, 2017

Another NBC report Friday stated that there was an additional sixth person in the June 9 meeting, although their identity has yet to be revealed.

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By Timothy Mclaughlin

(Reuters) - A Kentucky lawyer who is on the run from law enforcement was sentenced in absentia on Friday to 12 years in prison for participating in a more than $550 million disability fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Eric Christopher Conn, 56, pleaded guilty on March 24 to charges stemming from what prosecutors said was his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $550 million in federal disability payments for thousands of people.

Conn is a fugitive who has been on the run since last month and was not at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky in Lexington, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Scott White, an attorney for Conn, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

White told a Kentucky television station last month that Conn should surrender.

Conn must also pay around $106 million in restitution to the Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Justice Department said in Friday's statement.

Prosecutors said that from 2004 to 2016, Conn, of Pikeville, Kentucky, participated in a scheme that involved submitting thousands of falsified medical documents to the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Two other co-consiprators, a retired administrative law judge from the U.S. Social Security Administration and a clinical psychologist, are awaiting sentencing for their roles in the scheme.

Conn fled home detention last month using a truck registered by one of his co-conspirators. The truck was discovered in New Mexico near the border with Mexico, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Friday.

The statement did not say when the truck was discovered or which co-conspirator gave him the truck. A spokesman for the FBI was not immediately available for comment.

Along the way, Conn made several stops including at a gas station and a Wal-Mart store in New Mexico where he was captured on video surveillance. There is no indication Conn crossed the border into Mexico, the FBI said.

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There is a $20,000 reward from the FBI for information leading to Conn's location and arrest.

The FBI's account of Conn's escape contradicts a report last month by the Lexington Herald-Leader, which said Conn fled the United States using a fake passport after the newspaper exchanged emails with an individual it identified as Conn.

The FBI statement "shows that the account of the escape by the person claiming to be Conn was false," the newspaper reported on Friday.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:14:42|Editor: Zhou Xin

The United Nations Security Council votes on a resolution at the UN headquarters in New York July 14, 2017. The UN Security Council on Friday extended the mandate of the UN political mission in Iraq until July 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Friday extended the mandate of the United Nations political mission in Iraq until July 31, 2018.

Unanimously adopting a resolution, the Security Council decided the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the secretary-general's special representative would continue to pursue their mandates, outlined at the time of the previous mandate extension in 2016.

The UN body also called on the Iraqi government to continue providing security and logistical support to the UN's presence on the ground.

The UNAMI is a political mission established in 2003 by the UN Security Council Resolution 1500, at the request of the Iraqi government. The mission supports Iraq's development efforts on political, electoral and humanitarian levels.

The 15-nation council said it took into account a June 14 letter from Iraq's foreign minister to the secretary-general, in which the Iraqi government reaffirmed UNAMI's important role, particularly given that the country's security forces "are about to rid Iraq of the terrorist gangs of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) and to wipe them out once and for all."

Iraq formally announced on Monday that Mosul has been freed from the IS after nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in the country.

Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, came under IS control since June 2014 when government forces fled.
Jahed Choudhury and Sean Rogan were married this week and have been receiving both support and threats since their story has come out. (Photo: Facebook)

Earlier this week, Jahed Choudhury and Sean Rogan made headlines around the world when the two men were married in the U.K., in whats been described as Britains first Muslim gay wedding. (Another man named Dennis Harper disputes that, claiming his marriage in 2016 was actually the first.) Choudhury, 24, and Rogan, 19, were married in their local registry office on Tuesday, and both men wore traditional Bangladeshi wedding attire for their ceremony. Following the wedding and the subsequent media attention, Choudhury has been discussing the extent of abuse and threats he and his partner have faced.

Appearing on the BBC, Choudhury said to host Victoria Derbyshire that he and Rogan have faced threats both online and in real life, including death threats and acid attacks. I have people spitting on me and calling me pig  all the nasty stuff, he said. I just keep walking.

At the same time, the couple have been receiving positive messages of support, and people have told them theyve inspired them to come out, despite taboos and fear of ostracism or violence.

Choudhury has also described how difficult it was to deal with being homosexual due to his upbringing, religion, and culture. His family is Muslim and hails from Bangladesh. My family think its a disease and can be cured; some of my family still call it a phase, he told the BBC. In fact, the two men met, according to Choudhury, shortly after he was released from the hospital following a failed suicide attempt. Choudhury was crying on a park bench and Rogan approached him.

While mainstream cultural attitudes about homosexuality have clearly opened up in the last few generations, 52 percent of Muslims in the United Kingdom actually believe homosexuality should be illegal, according to a poll conducted by Channel 4, compared with a mere 5 percent of the general population.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in England since 2014.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed, was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, the Pentagon said on Friday. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement that other members of the Islamic State group were also killed in the strike on Tuesday. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters, "The significance is you kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back ... it is obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back, it is the right direction." Sayed is the third Islamic State leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2016. Former leader Abdul Hasib was killed in a joint U.S. and Afghan operation on April 27 in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Hasib's predecessor Hafiz Saeed Khan died in a U.S. drone strike in 2016. Afghan troops, backed by U.S. warplanes and special forces, have been battling militants linked to Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan for years. The local affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban and Afghan and U.S. forces. General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has vowed to defeat Islamic State there this year. (Reporting by Idrees Ali, editing by G Crosse)
By William Ho and Jasper Ng HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's high court on Friday expelled four opposition lawmakers from the city's legislature after it invalidated their oaths of office, a ruling that undermines the influence of the opposition in favor of pro-China legislators. A former British colony, Hong Kong reverted to China 20 years ago under a "one country, two systems" formula that guaranteed a range of freedoms not enjoyed in China, including a direct vote for half of the 70-seat legislative assembly. A group of young political activists chaffing against what they see as undue Beijing interference, won seats in an assembly election last year, and some made gestures of defiance at their swearing-in, which authorities have said ruled them out. Activists say the city government's efforts in disqualifying democratically elected lawmakers is a direct assault on the city's freedoms. In reaching his verdict, judge Thomas Au referred to a November ruling by China's parliament that city lawmakers must swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China and that candidates would be disqualified if they changed the wording of their oath or if they failed to take it in a sincere and solemn manner. The November ruling was considered Beijing's most direct intervention in the city's legal and political system since the 1997 handover, and it effectively barred two elected pro-independence politicians from office. Among the four disqualified on Friday was Nathan Law, 24, the youngest person to win in a seat and a leader of the "Umbrella movement" protests in 2014. Law was disqualified for adding words to his oath and adopting a tone of voice that "expressed a doubt on or disrespect of the status of the PRC as a legitimate sovereign of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," the court said in a summary of its ruling, referring to the People's Republic of China. Another of those disqualified was veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as "Long Hair". At his swearing-in he had brandished a yellow umbrella - the symbol of the 2014 protests - bearing pro-democracy messages, tore up a piece of paper with more protest messages and truncated his oath. Lecturer Lau Siu-lai, who spoke to crowds about democracy during the protests, was disqualified for reading out her oath very slowly, and surveyor Edward Yiu was removed because he added words to his oath. In issuing the verdict, judge Au, who disqualified the two pro-independence lawmakers in November, said concern about political pressure behind the verdict was "at best speculative and the conclusions are illogical". 'RIG THE SYSTEM' The disqualified lawmakers said they were looking into filing appeals. "Political suppression is not the scariest. What's the scariest is if people become used to it and aren't willing to fight against it," Law said. About 60 of supporters of the four shouted "shame" outside the court while about 30 Beijing supporters shouted "rubbish legislators, kick them out". Human Rights Watch senior Maya Wang said the verdicts represented "another alarming blow to Hong Kong's fast deteriorating autonomy". "It is used to excise some elected pro-democracy activists from the legislature, to rig the system further in favor of pro-Beijing politicians," she said in an email. The opposition won 30 of the Legislative Council's 70 seats last September, giving it a comfortable margin in maintaining a veto over most legislation and, most critically, the 24 votes needed for a one-third bloc to veto changes to the city's mini constitution, the Basic Law. But the bloc shrunk in November after the disqualification of the two activists. Now with 24 seats - one held by a centrist lawmaker - and with four more of them facing legal battles - the opposition risks losing its veto power. Separately, Hong Kong's new chief executive, Carrie Lam, who has vowed to build a stronger relationship with the opposition, said she would not intervene in the case. "I don't think this chief executive, or any government official, should compromise on the rule of law just because we want to be friendly," she said at a Reuters Newsmaker event. (Reporting by William Ho and Jasper Ng; Additional reporting by Pak Yiu, James Pomfret, Martin Howell, Venus Wu and Clare Baldwin; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
Members of the US Marine Corps (USMC) return from a run in Brooklyn's Prospect Park: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The US House of Representatives has passed a massive defence policy bill that exceeds Donald Trump's budget request by $18.5bn.

The National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) would allocate $696bn for defence spending in fiscal year 2018, blowing past Mr Trumps requested $603bn budget  a budget the White House had previously touted as a historic increase in defence spending.

The proposal also exceeds long-standing caps on defence spending in Congress. Since 2011, the legislature has capped its defence spending at $549bn. For the new funding plan to work, Congress would need to strike a deal to increase or repeal those caps.

The prospects for such a deal looked good from the House floor on Friday. The NDAA received bipartisan support, with 117 Democrats and all but eight Republicans voting in its favour.

Republicans support the bill as the first step in rebuilding the US military, while many Democrats are eager to lift caps on both defence and domestic spending.

A surprising line of opposition may come from the White House, which supports increases in defence spending but takes issue with Congress's failure to authorise more military base realignments and closures.

The White House also opposes the bills proposal for a Space Corps military branch devoted entirely to combat in space. Mr Trump, however, has not threatened to veto the bill.

The #NDAA provides the biggest troop pay raise in 8 years and ensures our military has the tools they need to defeat terror. #FY18NDAA https://t.co/qrs1GZAboK  GOP (@GOP) July 14, 2017

The Houses NDAA would allocate $621.5bn for national defence programmes and add another $75m to war funding. It would increase missile defence funding by 25 per cent, allocate $6bn to expanding the Navys fleet, and increase the number of active-duty troops in the Army.

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Troops would also get a 2.4 per cent pay raise under the bill  the largest in the last eight years.

Two controversial proposals were ultimately left out of the bill: An amendment to end funding for gender-reassignment surgery for transgender service members, and an amendment to stop the Pentagon from implementing anti-climate-change policies.

American defence spending previously peaked in 2009, at $691 billion, and has declined in the years since then. Mr Trump has called cuts to defence spending under former President Barack Obama a disaster, and claimed the Democrat depleted the US military.

In Mr Obamas last year in office, the US spent more on its defence than the next eight top-spending countries combined.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where the Armed Services Committee has already passed its version of the legislation. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this year.
Surabaya (Indonesia) (AFP) - Indonesian authorities have detained an alleged wildlife trafficker and seized nine protected slow lorises and a wreathed hornbill, an official said Friday.

The threatened species had been smuggled from Java and Sumatra, a vast, jungle-covered island home to many rare animals.

Officials seized the suspect in the city of Kediri, East Java province Thursday after receiving numerous reports and monitoring various social media accounts where animal smugglers often sell their prey.

"We have caught one suspect, the seller aged 23. We've been monitoring this for a long time," Beny Bastiawan, a senior official at the environment and forestry ministry told AFP.

The suspect planned to sell the animals for 200,000 rupiah ($15) each in the local market but officials estimated they would have been worth 2 million rupiah if sold in China, Bastiawan added.

The 10 endangered animals are now under the surveillance of vets at the environment and forestry ministry.

Under Indonesian law, a person caught selling protected animals faces a maximum of five years in jail and a 100 million rupiah ($7,500) fine.

The slow loris, a small primate known for its big eyes and grey fur, is closely related to the lemur and found across Southeast Asia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature categorises the lorises in Sumatra as vulnerable while the wreathed hornbill is listed as a threatened species.
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police displayed 23 vehicles that had been turned into car bombs and also an anti-aircraft gun, all captured from Islamic State militants during the battle for the city of Mosul. The vehicles shown to the media were mostly civilian cars, covered in thick metal armor, with small glass ports for a driver to see through, and had been equipped with bombs. They appear similar to vehicles used in apparent suicide attacks shown in Islamic State propaganda. Many had been painted in camouflage or blue, the color of Iraqi Federal Police vehicles, in a bid to fool surveillance aircraft into mistaking them for Iraqi forces' vehicles. "Heroes of the Emergency Rapid Division and the Federal Police seized these cars in successful night raids," Iraqi Federal Police captain Bassam Hillo Kadhim said. Most eye-catching among the vehicles was a tank turret, complete with its gun, mounted on the back of a large truck, which police officials said had been designed to target military aircraft and ground troops from a distance. Iraqi forces plan to destroy the vehicles. On Friday Iraqi forces were still facing pockets of resistance from Islamic State in Mosul's Old City, four days after the prime minister declared victory over the militants. (Reporting by Reuters TV, writing by Mark Hanrahan in London, editing by Gareth Jones)
Israels police chief says two officers were killed in an attack by Palestinian assailants near a major Jerusalem shrine.

Roni Alsheich says the policemen died of wounds sustained in the attack earlier Friday. He spoke after three Arab citizens of Israel opened fire on police near one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem. The compound is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam. Spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attack happened Friday near a gate of Jerusalems Old City and the shooters then fled toward a mosque at the nearby holy site. Police gave chase and they were shot dead at the compound.

The holy compound is known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary. It is the holiest site to Jews and the third holiest in Islam.Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist. In that time, Israeli forces have killed more than 254 Palestinians, most of them said by Israel to be attackers.

Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to preserve long-standing access arrangements at a contested Jerusalem holy site, in an apparent attempt to allay Muslim fears after Israel ordered the volatile shrine closed for a day following a Palestinian shooting attack there. The status quo governing the site will be preserved, he said.

The site has been a flashpoint for violence in the past, with friction there sparking major rounds of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the National Governors Association summer meeting: Reuters

Justin Trudeau has made a barely disguised jab at Donald Trump's inward-focused 'America First' doctrine, imploring governors from across the US to promote a "thinner border" with Canada.

Becoming the first Canadian Prime Minister to speak at the National Governors' Association - he told the the US governors gathered in Providence, Rhode Island, that the US-Canada relationship was "a model for the world" and both sides must continue to work to "get it right".

"Sometimes getting it right means refusing to take the politically tempting shortcuts. More trade barriers, more local content provisions, more preferential access for homegrown players and government procurement, for example, does not help working families over the long term or even the midterm," he said.

Mr Trudeau to be referring to the US stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between the US, Canada and Mexico, which Mr Trump has threatened to rip up if he can't make it "fairer" to America.

The Canadian leader said isolationism between the nations could lead to "a race for the bottom" that hurts workers in all nations.

Canada doesn't want to go there. If anything, we'd like a thinner border for trade, not a thicker one," Mr Trudeau said.

He also urged the governors to get involved in the federal government's negotiations on the agreement to protect their own citizens.

"To boil this down to one point: Canada is the [America's] biggest, best customer  by far," Mr Trudeau said.

Nafta went into effect in 1994 and allows for tariff-free between the three nations, but Mr Trump repeatedly called it "a horrible deal" for the US, "a defective agreement," and "the worst trade deal maybe ever" at various points on the campaign trail and in office.

On 18 May, the administration informed Congress of its intent to re-negotiate the deal, which could start as soon as mid-August.

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Though the US Chamber of Commerce have acknowledged the need to "modernise" the agreement, it also acknowledged that 14 million American jobs directly depend on it.

Mr Trump accused Canada and other countries of "dumping" lower-priced goods in the US market, pushing out American competitors and wants to eliminate the portion of Nafta that allows those disputes to be brought in front of a panel of judges.

"Free trade has worked...but Nafta isn't perfect," Mr Trudeau acknowledged, adding that the agreement can be "updated...as it has been a dozen times".

Mr Trudeau, along with nearly every leader around the world, has split with the US president over climate change as well.

Mr Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, signed by almost 200 countries in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and help poorer countries adapt to an already-changed planet.

Technically, the US will only be withdrawn on the eve of the 2020 US presidential election, but for all intents and purposes Mr Trump has said the federal government would not contribute to global funds of domestic efforts to meet targets the Obama administration agreed to in December 2015.

However, nearly a 1000 states, city mayors, and CEOs in the US have pledged in some way to work towards achieving those targets.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was optimistic about the sub-national actors' actions.

Among those states committed to combatting global warming are Washington and California. Neither governor was in attendance at Mr Trudeau's speech due to concerns in their state legislatures.

However, Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Communications Director Jamie Smith told The Independent that Mr Inslee and Mr Trudeau met and "spent quite a bit of time discussing clean energy and climate change and how states like Washington are moving forward on aggressive carbon reduction policies."

Mr Inslee is helping to lead the US Climate Alliance along with California Governor Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo.

Ms Smith also said that Mr Inslee thinks "there are multiple issues where the states will have to pick up the mantle of leadership and collaboration with other nations" in light of the Trump administration's "America First" policies.

"Trade and climate change are two of the big ones," she noted, adding that Washington state "stand[s] as ready as ever to work together on climate, create jobs and grow our economy, and embrace people from around the world who are seeking refuge or opportunity."

For Mr Brown's part, he has organised a separate climate summit centred around the Paris Agreement to be held in San Francisco in 2018.

He announced Global Action Climate Summit in a video message to the public at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

"[Mr Trump] doesn't speak for the rest of America," Mr Brown said in the video announcement.
Kwajalein, a tiny atoll in the Marshall Islands, is home to a state-of-the-art radar installation called Space Fence. The U.S. government awarded Lockheed Martin a nearly $1 billion contract in 2014 to build the new system, meant to help protect U.S. satellites and spacecraft from space debris when it becomes operational next year.

Theres just one problem. Kwajalein is a mere 10 feet above sea level, putting Space Fence at high risk for frequent flooding as sea levels rise over the coming decades.

Its one of many U.S. military installations threatened by climate change around the world. One study last year found that rising oceans threaten 128 military installations on the coasts, including naval facilities worth around $100 billion.

The Pentagon has been aware for years of the looming danger represented by climate change. But partisan infighting in Congress, budget sequestration, and the toxic nature of the climate debate have hamstrung the Defense Dept. from taking steps to protect key assets  or even identifying which facilities face the most serious threats.

This week, though, the Pentagon may have gotten a boost  from the unlikeliest of places. The Republican-controlled House retained an amendment to the 2018 defense funding bill affirming that climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States. It orders defense officials to draw up a report laying out which facilities would be most affected.

This is a reflection that some Republicans at least are waking up to this reality and voting to affirm the work that DoD is doing, said Andrew Holland, director of studies and senior fellow for energy and climate at the nonpartisan policy organization American Security Project.

Defense authorizations have included similar language before: In 2008, then-Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) included a similar amendment. But that was a Democratic-controlled Congress; this time, some 45 Republicans voted for the climate-change language, and lawmakers from both sides shot down an attempt to strike the focus on climate change.

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I think its maybe the beginning of a turning point in Congress, Holland said.

For more than a decade, the Pentagon has been clear-eyed about the risks posed by climate change. Rising sea levels threaten coastal installations, while floods, famines, and droughts promise waves of instability and conflict across big chunks of the planet. Even in the climate-change denying Trump administration, Defense Secretary James Mattis has reiterated what is by now the Pentagons standard line.

I agree that the effects of a changing climate  such as increased maritime access to the Arctic, rising sea levels, desertification, among others  impact our security situation, Mattis expressed in testimony prior to his confirmation.

But climate change is deeply polarizing in Congress, where many Republicans still believe it is a hoax, or not caused by human activities. That makes the issue toxic to Pentagon staffers who need to squeeze money out of Congress, said retired Rear Admiral David Titley, former naval chief oceanographer and now a professor at Pennsylvania State University. Officers tend to run in the other direction when anyone says climate change, afraid to appear before Congress to argue for more resources for fear that what funding they do have will be cut.

Years of sequestration have squeezed even the fundamentals of military readiness. And while the Obama administration talked up the security threats from climate change, additional funding never came.

I dont think the Department of Defense today could give you some sort of ranking [of facilities] that are most under threat, said Titley. Especially if you consider the issues  sea level rise, water stress, impact from wildfires  and crosscut that with the military value of that particular base.

Rising seas, extreme weather, and water stress wont just affect domestic military infrastructure. Americas ability to project power around the world  and particularly in the Middle East  is likely to be weakened if no action is taken. In a 2012 report, the American Security Project ranked the top five U.S. military facilities most at risk from climate change  Norfolk, Guam, Eglin in Florida, Bahrain, and Diego Garcia, a shown on the map below:

The latter is the most threatened high-value base. Located on a British atoll, the U.S. base on Diego Garcia is a major hub for operations in the Middle East, allowing large bombers to deploy without being based in Saudi Arabia or Qatar and giving expeditionary access to the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea. But due to its location on a low-lying atoll, its the most threatened of all.

It legitimately could disappear in a certain amount of years, said Holland.

Closer to home, the worlds biggest naval base is an even starker illustration of what lies in store. The Hampton Roads region of Virginia, headquarters of the Atlantic fleet, is already buffeted by increasingly extreme weather and frequent flooding. The sea there has already risen by more than a foot in the past 100 years, and the base currently floods about 10 times a year. Its going to get much worse  the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that Norfolk may flood 280 times a year by 2100.

Hampton Roads is a climate change crucible, retired Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, who previously headed a Navy task force on climate change, said at a July 12 House roundtable on climate change and the military. We have nearly every climate-related challenge in our future.

She noted that that crucial ship-repair facilities are located at sea level on the Elizabeth River.

They are right there on the waterfront. The challenge becomes, how do you resolve this issue? Do you move them? Or should the military start planning to build a wall thats really needed, to keep out the rising seas and modifying dry docks to make them safer?

Having that conversation openly is something that has not quite happened yet, she added.

Titley is optimistic that such a conversation may finally take place. The bipartisan effort to keep climate change in the defense authorization could be a sign of the end of the beginning of climate debate, said Titley, who noted that more than 40 Republicans clambered on board.

I think thats huge, he said.

Image credit: American Security Project

Correction, July 14, 2017: John Warner was a Republican senator from Virginia. A previous version of this article incorrectly identified him as a Democrat.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:19:44|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Shooting was heard at the Shahr-e-Ray subway station in the southern district of Iran's capital Tehran on Saturday morning, semi-official Meher news agency reported.

In the incident, a person attacked a cleric with a knife in the subway and injured him. Another person was also injured by the attacker.

The security forces arrested the assailant, shut down the gates of the metro station and halted the operations in the subway, local media reported.
The family of China's Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo was by his side when he died on Thursday after his condition abruptly deteriorated days earlier, his doctors said.

Liu was "primarily saying goodbye to his wife" and telling her to "live well" in his last moments, doctor Teng Yue'e told a news conference hours after the democracy advocate died.

Liu, who died aged 61, was transferred from prison to First Hospital of China Medical University in the northeastern city of Shenyang after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in late May.

US and German cancer experts visited Liu last weekend and issued a statement on Sunday saying he was still strong enough to fulfil his wish to be treated abroad, contradicting their Chinese counterparts.

But Liu Yunpeng, the hospital's head of internal medicine, said that Liu's condition deteriorated shortly after the foreign doctors asked for an assessment on whether he could travel.

"In just the 20-minute period of the examination, his condition drastically changed for the worse. At the time our collective assessment was that it would be very difficult for him to be moved for a long distance or period. The danger was extremely great," Liu Yunpeng said.

China's government rejected international calls to fulfil Liu's request to receive treatment abroad, while human rights groups slammed the continued detention of the peaceful democracy activist.

Liu Yunpeng said a patient is not obligated to get treatment from them and "you can go to where you desire to receive treatment".

But when asked whether other people prevented Liu from leaving, he said: "This is not a medical question. I'm not so clear on these other matters."

Liu's wife, the poet and artist Liu Xia, and his other relatives could not be reached Thursday evening.

Liu Xia was placed under house arrest after her husband won the Nobel in 2010, and her contact with the outside world remained highly restricted through his hospitalisation.
Nearly one in every seven Americans makes money outside their full-time jobs, according to a new Bankrate survey of more than 1,000 adults.

While so-called side hustles provide the obvious benefits of additional income and a potential creative outlet, second jobs can also bring unforeseen challenges.

Overall, side hustles can be a great thing for both employer and employee. Picking up a job on nights and weekends can help people get new skills, try on different types of experiences, and expand their networksall of which can benefit their full-time work, says Adrian Granzella Larssen, editor-at-large at online career site The Muse.

But people can overextend themselves and potential conflicts of interest may even result in legal ramifications. You shouldnt hide your side hustle from your employer just because it might present conflicts, though.

Speak to your full-time employer ASAP

The best way to avoid any kerfuffle at all is to speak with your full-time employer or human resources manager, says Justin Cupler, editor and savings expert at personal finance site The Penny Hoarder.

Every employer has a different policy, so before you even take on a side gig, look at your employee handbook and read the fine print on non-company-related work, adds Larssen.

Many employers allow employees to have side gigs, as long as the work is not a conflict of interest and doesnt hinder your ability to get your job done. In some cases, your employer will also want you to disclose what youre working on, says Larssen.

This next tip might seem like a no-brainer: But a key thing to remember when youre trying to balance both jobs is not to use any of your employer-owned tools, including laptops, cellphones and any software programs.

It might seem easy enough if your boss doesnt mind you bringing your computer home, says Larssen, but to avoid any backlash from your employer, you want to keep everything absolutely separate.

As technology has facilitated the ability to switch from one job to the next with a single click, employees can get easily tempted to pursue their side gigs while on their day jobs.

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Employers can also run into workers who cant resist the urge to do their side gig work at their full-time job. Even something as small as checking an email can be enough to draw the workers attention away from their full-time work, Cupler says.

Beyond keeping your devices separate, make sure the intellectual property is yours  not your full-time employers, advises Larssen.

Say, for example, you are building a startup on the side: Your employer might find that there are grounds to claim the IP belongs to the company.

If you create a side project while employed, it could technically be property of the company you work for. If you have any questions about them, talk to an attorney or set up a meeting with HR, she says.

Source: TaskRabbit

The real danger of burnout

Even if you have jumped through all the hoops to get approval and even accolades of your employer for picking up a side job, the lines can blur very quickly.

Start slowly and feel out your workload before diving in. It is easy to get burned out working a side hustle, and this can result in you losing both your side hustle and full-time job, warns Cupler.

When employees pick up a side gig, they may not get the rest and decompression time they need. That can bleed into their full-time job and result in less-than-ideal performance or attitude, he adds.

Michael Tidwell, founder of the blog sidehustleinspiration.com, works in the publishing industry but has been running an online store on the side for four years. Hes found it to be as profitable as his full-time job but noted that, especially in the beginning, it can be particularly challenging.

I was working many nights after the family went to bed. Sometimes I would roll into bed at about 3 a.m.. My advice is to set a certain time for your side hustle. You might have to get up at 4 a.m. and get an hour or two before going to work.

You might also need to have a conversation with your boss. Explain that you love your job and have no plans of leaving. But you should add that you need to make more money so you have started a side hustle and will be unavailable during certain times of the evening.

Why some employers look to hire people with side gigs

While side hustles come with pitfalls, they may actually make you more appealing to employers. Josh Emig, WeWorks head of R&D, says hes most curious about what prospective employees do in their free time when hes looking to fill positions.

Im really intrigued by people who have diverse and varied backgrounds, Emig says. But whats more important is their attitude and what they do outside of work  were looking for passionate people. Employees with a side hustle tend to possess both openness and curiosity in the workplace, according to Emig.

Hiring managers get excited by candidates whove taken on side gigs because it shows they have initiative to take on something outside of work and drive to make two jobs happen, says Larssen.

Emig has hired a psychologist, writer, climate scientist and even a filmmaker to join his team, but he notes that its vital for his employees to find a separation between individual projects and their day-to-day tasks.

While most hold onto their full-time jobs for the benefits like health care and retirement plans, some take the plunge to transform their part-time passions into full-time careers.

Cupler has firsthand experience ditching his day job to pursue his dream. He started as an auto repair shop manager and wrote technical how-to articles on car repair on the side. Several months later, he took a job as a freelance writer, which has since evolved to a full-time career.

Melody Hahm is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering entrepreneurship, technology and real estate. Follow her on Twitter @melodyhahm. Read more:
Mark Cropp says his DEVAST8 facial tattoo has stopped him from getting a job - Caters News Agency

A New Zealand man with a large DEVAST8 face tattoo says it is preventing him from finding a job.

Mark Cropp got the tattoo - done by his brother - a few months ago when he was drunk on contraband homebrew in prison, but admits he now regrets the decision.

The amateur inking covers his cheeks, mouth and chin Credit: Caters

The 19-year-old told the New Zealand Herald that he has struggled to find work since his release from prison after contacting several recruitment agencies.

In a desperate attempt to find work, he posted a selfie on the Auckland Jobs Facebook group appealing for someone to give him a job.

Mark Cropp with his girlfriend Taneia Ruki Credit: Caters

Im keen as to work but have one thing that is stopping me and thats my tattoo on my face, he wrote.

I dont have a CV as of yet but have worked at NZ brick distributors before, also a scrap metal yard  Keen as on job or work place that will take me on.

Bad celebrity tattoos

He told the New Zealand Herald: One employment place said to me I wouldn't employ you with that on your face, I wouldnt even take a second look at you. Ive had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me.

I just want any job at the end of the day  Im sick of being on the dole.

Cropp pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery after pulling a knife on a tourist in 2015 and was given a two-year sentence.

The teens determination to find work has paid off and he has received job offers in scaffolding and construction since posting on Facebook.

A tattoo laser removal company has also offered to remove the DEVAST8 from his face for free.

Surprising celebrity tattoos
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and other lawmakers head to the Senate on July 13 for a meeting on the revised Republican health care bill, which has been under attack from within the party, including Murkowski. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The latest version of the Senate health care bill has a host of provisions designed to woo hesitant lawmakers  but perhaps none is more blatant than a change targeted at Alaskas two GOP senators.

Both Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have not committed to supporting the proposal, and Murkowski has been one of the harshest critics of the bills closed-door drafting process.

She has also expressed reservations about cuts to Planned Parenthood and Medicaid, which would especially affect her state.

The [Affordable Care Act] allowed for Medicaid expansion. The ACA didnt address traditional Medicaid.  Why do we not focus on the urgency of the concerns with the ACA? Murkowski told Politico earlier this week. Lets deal with the urgency of the issue. Lets set Medicaid off to the side.

After Senate Republicans unveiled their revised version of the health care plan, Murkowski said she was still reviewing the legislation. If she were to oppose the bill, its progress would likely be sunk in its current form. Two other senators, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have come out firmly against even bringing the bill to a vote on the floor. Republicans can afford to lose only two of their 52 members amid united Democratic opposition against any effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

In an effort to prevent this from happening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., apparently hopes to appeal to Murkowski by slipping in a provision that could allow her state to access more than $1 billion in federal money.

States with high premiums would receive access to a $182 billion fund designed to stabilize their insurance exchanges. One percent of that money would be earmarked specifically for states that have premiums more than 75 percent higher than the national average  and Alaska is the only state that would meet the standard.

This means the state could get more than $1.8 billion over the next decade. Alaska has some of the highest health care costs in the nation because of its remoteness and lack of medical facilities in many rural areas.

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Sullivan said that the program, dubbed the Kodiak Kickback or Polar Payoff by pundits, would serve as a big boost for his state.

One percent doesnt sound like a lot, but 1 percent of a multibillion-dollar fund could be very helpful for Alaska, Sullivan told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, arrives at the Capitol for a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was announcing the release of the Republicans initial health care bill on June 22. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

But it is not clear based on past comments if the carve-out would be enough to secure Murkowskis vote. She told reporters last month that even if the state did gain access to more funds, Alaska would still be at risk if other parts of the bill, including cuts to Medicaid, went through.

Think about it: If you had subsidy changes that only affect Alaska, but dont do anything with regards to the impact of Medicaid cuts, I dont see how that can help the balance here, she said.

Murkowski expressed more openness to the idea Thursday, telling reporters that she had been working with Sullivan on the proposal for weeks.

We have been working to make sure high-cost states have some way forward, and I think you see weve done it in that provision, she said.

Regardless, the plan has already drawn criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, with some labeling it a blatant attempt by McConnell to bribe Murkowski and Sullivan.

Conservatives have compared it to the so-called Cornhusker Kickback, when top Democrats attempted to win over moderate then-Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., on Obamacare with extra money for his home state. The widely criticized provision was eventually removed.
Article vetted by the Vatican offers scathing critique of Steve Bannon, who is Catholic, the Trump White House and evangelical fundamentalism in the US

Pope Francis met with Donald Trump, Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump at the Vatican on 24 May 2017. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AFP/Getty Images

An explosive article written by two close associates of Pope Francis has accused Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist, of espousing an apocalyptic geopolitics whose roots are not too far apart from that of Islamist extremism.

The article in La Civilta Cattolica, which is vetted by the Vatican before publication, lays out a scathing critique of evangelical fundamentalism in the US, arguing that, on issues ranging from climate change to migrants and Muslims, proponents of the ideology have adopted a twisted reading of scripture and the Old Testament that promotes conflict and war above all else.

The piece was published just days after evangelical leaders met US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House and laid hands on him in prayer following discussions about religious freedom, support for Israel and healthcare reform.

Such an honor to pray within the Oval Office for @POTUS & @VP . pic.twitter.com/JrDOSJyFeN  Johnnie Moore  (@JohnnieM) July 12, 2017

Trump has never convincingly spoken of having religious faith, but won the overwhelming support of white evangelical Christians in the 2016 election.



Vatican experts said the article would have had the explicit backing of the church and Pope Francis. Its authors, Antonio Spadaro, the editor-in-chief of the publication, and Marcelo Figueroa, the editor-in-chief of the Argentinian edition of the Vatican newspaper LOsservatore Romano, are known as confidantes of theArgentinian pope.

Bannon, the former editor of the rightwing Breitbart news website, is Catholic, and while he is only briefly mentioned in the article, the piece undoubtedly takes aim at the Trump White House.

Story continues

It claims that fake religious arguments are being used to demonise segments of the population  particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims  and to promote the US as a nation that is blessed by God, without ever taking into account the bond between capital and profits and arms sales.

Steve Bannon in Washington DC on 1 June 2017. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

In this Manichaean vision [where the world is divided between good and evil], belligerence can acquire a theological justification and there are pastors who seek a biblical foundation for it, using scriptural texts out of context, the authors write.

The article refers to the controversial evangelical theologist John Rushdoony as the father of todays American Christian fundamentalism, and calls Bannon an exponent of this philosophy.

Rushdoonys doctrine maintains a theocratic necessity: submit the state to the Bible with a logic that is no different from the one that inspires Islamic fundamentalism. At heart, the narrative of terror shapes the worldviews of jihadists and the new crusaders and is imbibed from wells that are not too far apart, the authors state. We must not forget that the theopolitics spread by Isis is based on the same cult of an apocalypse that needs to be brought about as soon as possible.

In contrast, Pope Francis  with his emphasis on the need to build bridges, not walls, and his adamant refusal to conflate Islam and Islamic terrorism  is attempting to counter this narrative of fear, the article says.

One Catholic publication, Crux, called the article the latest chapter in the tempestuous relationship between Francis and Trump.

While the two leaders were seen as having a generally cordial  though somewhat joyless  meeting in May at the Vatican, the relationship suffered a significant setback following Trumps decision to back out of the Paris climate accord just a week later. Argentinian bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the head of the Vaticans Academy of Sciences, called it a slap in the face to the Vatican.

Crux noted that La Civilta Cattolica is reviewed by the Vaticans secretary of state before publication, and that Spadaro has been considered one of the foremost vehicles for understanding the views of the current pontificate.

The article says that Christian fundamentalism and Old Testament appeals to the apocalypse have shown themselves not to be the product of a religious experience but a poor and abusive perversion of it.

This is why Francis is carrying forward a systematic counter-narration with respect to the narrative of fear. There is a need to fight against the manipulation of this season of anxiety and fear.

It also criticizes conservative American Catholics who have aligned themselves with fundamentalist Protestants on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, saying that what really united the groups was a nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:24:46|Editor: Liangyu

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by Xinhua Writers Zhong Ya, Wang Yi

BEIJING/PRAGUE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The first Chinese Sichuan Food Festival held in Celakovice, a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic on Friday, introduced locals to oriental cuisine and facilitated people-to-people and cultural exchanges between both countries.

The food festival, jointly held by China's Chengdu Restaurant and the government of Celakovice, invited Sichuan chef Xie Junxian to the scene to introduce the cooking concepts of Chinese food.

"Healthy is the nature of Chinese food, and pursuing excellent color, smell and flavor is the soul of Chinese cuisine," he said.

Xie also performed cutting food blindfolded, food carving and other cooking skills, which were eye-openers for the local audience.

Sichuan food features bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from the liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, while Czech food is known for its thickness, white color and diverse flavors, yet is seldom spicy.

"Every nation has its own food culture, but we have pursuing good flavor in common. Delicious cuisine binds us together. Only the most outstanding chefs can create the best flavor, and Mr. Xie is one of them. I feel so honored to have Mr. Xie here to provide us with Chinese delicacies," Mayor of Celakovice Petr Patek said at the opening ceremony of the food festival.

The visitors took an active part in various activities organized by the food festival, such as making dumplings, a kind of food enjoyed by people in both the Asian country and the Central European country that are thousands of miles apart.

"This is the first time for Chinese restaurants and the local government to jointly hold a Chinese food festival in the Czech Republic. The next food festival will also include Czech food and even cooking contests between Chinese and Czech chefs, to make the festival more fun and abundant, thus building a platform for China-Czech cultural exchanges," said Wang Yong, the CEO of Chengdu Restaurant, co-host of the food festival.

Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan arrived in Romania on July 12 for a week-long official goodwill visit both to Romania and the Czech Republic.

Liu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, invited by Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of the Czech Republic Jan Hamacek, also speaker of the Czech lower house of parliament, will stay in the Czech Republic until July 19.

China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries need to promote institutionalized people-to-people exchanges and help people of both sides to gain a better understanding of one another, Liu said at the China-CEE countries' political parties dialogue held in Romania on Friday.

"The CPC is willing to work together with political parties of the CEE countries to build bridges of communication to facilitate cooperation between the localities and businesses of China and the CEE countries," he said.
Donald Trump described meeting Pope Francis as the 'honour of a lifetime': AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trumps administration is responsible for promoting an apocalyptic geopolitics with roots similar to those of Islamist extremism, two allies of Pope Francis have said.

Writing in La Civilta Cattolica, the newspapers editor-in-chief, Antonio Spadaro, and Marcelo Figueroa, the editor-in-chief of the Argentinian edition of the Vatican newspaper, accused Steve Bannon, the US Presidents chief strategist, of being a supporter of apocalyptic geopolitics and claimed Mr Trumps team promote an evangelical fundamentalism that twists Christian scripture to promote conflict and war.

Both Mr Spadaro and Mr Figueroa are known to be close associates of the Argentinian pope. La Civilta Cattolica is vetted by the Vatican before being published, meaning the article would have had the approval of church authorities.

In the article, the authors accuse Mr Trumps team of using a selective interpretation of the Bible to demonise the migrants and the Muslims.

Within this narrative, whatever pushes toward conflict is not off limits, they write.

It does not take into account the bond between capital and profits and arms sales. Quite the opposite, often war itself is assimilated to the heroic conquests of the Lord of Hosts of Gideon and David. In this Manichaean vision, belligerence can acquire a theological justification and there are pastors who seek a biblical foundation for it, using the scriptural texts out of context.

They say the belief that leaders should submit the state to the Bible is no different from the one that inspires Islamic fundamentalism.

At heart, the narrative of terror shapes the worldviews of jihadists and the new crusaders and is imbibed from wells that are not too far apart, the authors write.

We must not forget that the theopolitics spread by Isis is based on the same cult of an apocalypse that needs to be brought about as soon as possible.

The article is likely to deepen tensions between the White House and the Vatican.

Story continues

During last years US presidential campaign, Mr Trump called Pope Francis disgraceful for saying the Republican was not a Christian because of his plans to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian, the Pope said.

Mr Trump responded: For a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful.

No leader, especially a religious leader, has the right to question another mans religion or faith.

The pair have enjoyed a more cordial relationship since Mr Trump took office in January, and the Republican described meeting the Pope in May as the honour of a lifetime.

However, tensions re-emerged following the billionaire businessmans decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change  a move strongly condemned by the Vatican.
(WASHINGTON)  President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will be very angry if the Senate fails to pass a revamped Republican health care bill and said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must pull it off, intensifying pressure on party leaders laboring to win over unhappy GOP senators and preserve the teetering measure.

Trumps remarks came a day before McConnell, R-Ky., planned to release his revised legislation to a closed-door meeting of GOP senators. The new legislation would keep most of the initial Medicaid cuts and makes other changes aimed at nailing down support, but internal GOP disputes lingered that were threatening to sink it.

With all Democrats set to vote no, McConnell was moving toward a do-or-die roll call next week on beginning debate, a motion that will require backing from 50 of the 52 GOP senators.

Conservative Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Wednesday he would oppose the motion and moderate Republican Susan Collins of Maine seemed all but sure to do the same  leaving McConnell with zero margin for error to sustain his partys goal of toppling President Barack Obamas health care law. Several other GOP senators were holdouts as well, leaving McConnell and his lieutenants just days to win them over or face a major defeat.

In a White House interview conducted Wednesday for the Christian Broadcasting Networks The 700 Club, Trump said it was time for action by congressional Republicans who cast scores of votes that didnt mean anything to repeal the 2010 law while Obama was still president.

Well, I dont even want to talk about it because I think it would be very bad, he said when network founder Pat Robertson asked what would happen if the effort fails. I will be very angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset.

Asked if McConnell would succeed, Trump said, Mitch has to pull it off.

Trump has played a limited role in cajoling GOP senators to back the legislation. Asked Wednesday about the presidents involvement, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the White House was providing technical assistance.

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McConnells new bill was expected to offer only modest departures from the original version.

Its key elements remain easing Obamas requirements that insurers cover specified services like hospital care and cutting the Medicaid health care program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients. Obamas penalties on people who dont buy coverage would be eliminated and federal health care subsidies would be less generous.

The new package would eliminate tax increases the statute imposed on the health care industry. But it would retain Obama tax boosts on upper-income people, and use the revenue to help some lower earners afford coverage, provide $45 billion to help states combat drug abuse and give extra money to some hospitals in states that didnt use Obamas law to expand Medicaid.

Paul told reporters the revised measure didnt go far enough.

I dont see anything in here really remotely resembling repeal, he said.

Collins has long complained the measure will toss millions off coverage. Spokeswoman Annie Clarke said Collins would vote no next week if the Medicaid cuts remain the same as those that have been discussed.

Besides Paul and Collins, at least three other Republican senators publicly said they hadnt decided whether to back McConnell on the initial vote: conservative Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Utahs Mike Lee and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Cruz and Lee are chief authors of a proposal backed by other conservatives that would let an insurer sell low-premium, bare-bones policies as long as the company also sold a plan covering all the services  like substance abuse treatment  required by Obamas law.

Their plan has alienated moderates worried it will mean unaffordable coverage for people with serious medical conditions because healthier people would flock to cheaper, skimpier plans. Party leaders have not determined if the proposal will be in their measure, and there have been talks about altering it to limit premium boosts on full-coverage policies.

If there are not meaningful protections for consumer freedom that will significantly lower premiums then the bill will not have the votes to go forward, Cruz told reporters.

Lee has said he wants their proposal in the bill, or something else relaxing Obamas coverage requirements, for him to support it.

Their proposal endured another blow when the insurance industrys largest trade group, Americas Health Insurance Plans, said it would lead to unstable health insurance markets and said people with serious pre-existing medical conditions could lose access to comprehensive or reasonably priced coverage.

Scott said he was still trying to determine if the legislation would help families and consumers with pre-existing medical problems.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who has fought to ease the bills Medicaid reductions, has also yet to commit to back the measure next week.

McConnell withdrew an initial package two weeks ago in the face of Republican discord that would have spelled certain defeat.
President Trump's interaction with Frances First Lady Brigitte Macron is raising eyebrows.

Read: Melania Visits Children in French Hospital During Trump's Bastille Day Trip

He was heard telling her: "you're in such good shape!" and added that she was beautiful.

Video of the moment was posted on President Emmanuel Macron's Facebook page.

Trump also commented on the French First Lady's looks to her husband.

Shes in such good physical shape, Trump said.

Read: What Does the Body Language of President Trump and Vladimir Putin Say About Their First Meeting?

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Paris Thursday for a two-day visit to celebrate Bastille Day.

Later in the day, Melania Trump visited Frances oldest childrens hospital, while her husband met with Macron. The Trumps also visited the tomb of Napoleon.

The first family was also in Europe last week for the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Watch: President Trump Called Out for Singling Out Irish Reporter in Oval Office: 'Just Creepy'

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A police officer directs a fire truck A police officer directs a fire truck at the Marco Polo apartment building after a fire broke out in it in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 14, 2017. (Photo: Hugh Gentry/Reuters)

Honolulu fire officials on Saturday were hoping to determine the cause of a blaze that tore through three upper floors of a 36-story residential tower in Hawaiis capital, killing at least three people.

The blaze on Friday, which took firefighters about four hours to extinguish, caused debris to rain down from the Marco Polo tower overlooking a beachfront tourist district, forcing the closure of a major road and sending thick, black smoke billowing over the city.

It also highlighted the absence of sprinkler systems in some older buildings, which became mandatory in Honolulu high-rises in 1974. The Marco Polo opened three years earlier.

Without a doubt if there was sprinklers in this apartment, the fire would be contained to the unit of origin, Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters, adding that it took more than 100 firefighters to control the blaze.

The blaze erupted a month to the day after the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, the London high-rise where at least 80 people died in a fire in an older building also unequipped with sprinklers. (Reuters)

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson concluded a week of shuttle diplomacy in the Persian Gulf crisis on Thursday bearing no promise of an imminent breakthrough, but he voiced optimism that Qatar and its four Arab neighbors might soon at least be willing to talk face to face.

Tillerson traveled to tiny, gas-rich Qatar for a second time for a lunch meeting with 37-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, following talks earlier in the week in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. As he flew back to Washington, Tillerson told reporters that the discussions had been helpful and that the U.S. planned to keep at it.

In my view, theres a changed sense of willingness to at least be open to talking to one another, and that was not the case before I came, Tillerson said.

It was a far cry from a U.S.-brokered resolution to the crisis that has now spanned more than a month, and no meeting of the feuding nations has yet been announced. But Tillersons aides had said ahead of time they didnt expect a quick solution would result from his four days of talks.

Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil CEO with deep experience in the oil-rich Gulf, has been shuttling between Qatar, Saudi Arabia and mediator Kuwait since Monday trying to repair a rift that is dividing some of Americas most important Mideast allies. Ahead of the trip, the U.S. said the crisis was at an impasse, but on Thursday the State Department said that was no longer the case.

Tillersons clearest achievement was to secure a memorandum of understanding with Qatar to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding. That deal goes to the core of the anti-Qatar quartets complaints against the natural gas-rich state: that it provides support for extremist groups.

Qatar vehemently denies the allegation, though it has provided aid that helps Islamist groups that others have branded as terrorists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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The anti-Qatar bloc  Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates  argues that the pressure and demands it has placed on Qatar helped lead to the counterterrorism pact, but it says the agreement does not go far enough to end the dispute.

Those countries are holding fast to their insistence that Qatar bow to a 13-point list of demands that includes shutting down Qatars flagship Al-Jazeera network and other news outlets, cutting ties with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limiting Qatars ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the tiny Gulf country.

As he returned to Washington, Tillerson hed sought to catalog the Arab nations concerns in written documents and sort them into buckets so they would be easier to address. He said some categories of concerns could be addressed up front fairly quickly but others were more complex and would take longer to resolve.

If we can begin to have some success beginning to take some of these issues off the table, because we now have a way to move forward, then Im hoping that will start the process of returning, normalizing relations, Tillerson said.

Qatar has rejected the demands, saying that agreeing to them wholesale would undermine its sovereignty. It is intent on waiting out the crisis despite its neighbors attempts to isolate it.

Shipping companies have set up alternate routes to get supplies into Qatar without going through the blockading countries, and flag carrier Qatar Airways continues to operate its 200-strong fleet by detouring over friendlier airspace.

The government says it is covering a tenfold increase in shipping costs for essentials. Ally Turkey and nearby Iran have also boosted exports to Qatar, and the country has even taken to importing cows to meet a dairy shortfall caused by the closure of its only land border with Saudi Arabia.

Still, the rift is causing hardship for some.

Human Rights Watch said Thursday the dispute has left families separated, forced students out of their universities, and impeded medical care, including for a child who missed a scheduled brain surgery.

The rights group also raised concerns about migrant workers based in Qatar who have been left stranded in Saudi Arabia and others in Doha who are struggling with a rise in food costs because of the blockade.

Gulf autocrats political disputes are violating the rights of peaceful Gulf residents who were living their lives and caring for their families, Sarah Leah Whitson, the groups Mideast director, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the squabble among five of its Mideast allies has put the United States in an uncomfortable position and risks complicating the Pentagons operations in the region.

Qatar hosts al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East and hub for U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navys 5th Fleet, while American surveillance planes and other aircraft fly from the UAE.
Former Soviet counter-intelligence officer, a US citizen, trumpeted his links to Russian operations amid years working in Washington DC

Rinat Akhmetshin has said he attended an infamous meeting between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr. Composite: Reuters/AP

Rinat Akhmetshin was not one to hide his connections to Russian intelligence.

During his years working in the shadowy Washington DC world of corporate intelligence, his connections to former Russian agents were pitched as a valuable asset to private clients. Akhmetshin  who courted journalists and politicians alike  was known for speaking as candidly about his years of military service in Afghanistan as his objectives on Capitol Hill.

On Friday, Akhmetshin, who is an American citizen, said that he also attended the 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr described as part of a Russian government attempt to undermine Hillary Clintons election campaign. The revelation raises new questions about the purpose of the encounter, and why the presidents son  who promised to be transparent about the meeting in Trump Tower  did not admit that Akhmetshin was also in the room.

Akhmetshin began his career working for central Asian oligarchs who needed a helping hand in Washington for one problem or another. But in recent years, his lobbying work seemed to take on a singular focus: reversing the 2012 Magnitsky Act, a law passed by Barack Obama that infuriated Russias president, Vladimir Putin, and was designed to punish Russia for the 2009 prison death of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

One attorney who knows Akhmetshin and has hired him in the past said that far from being seen as pro-Putin, the Russian American lobbyist assiduously avoided politics. In his business dealings with prospective clients, however, he used his connections to Russian intelligence as a selling point.

His background and history was an asset he sold to clients, whoever came into the door. He has quite a diverse group of clients, the person said, adding: I know he was engaged by people who wanted to get rid of Magnitsky [Act].

Story continues

He is a former GRU person for sure, but he once said there is no such thing as former, the person added with a laugh.

That fact that Akhmetshin, who told Politico last year that he once served as a Soviet counter-intelligence officer, is an American citizen also suggests that he would have at least been known to US officials.

Akhmetshin did not respond to calls or emails from the Guardian. But in an exchange in May, the lobbyist downplayed the Russia-Trump scandal, telling a reporter he did not believe that the Kremlin was involved in colluding with the Trump campaign and that allegations of frequent contacts between Russian agents and Trump campaign officials had probably been fabricated.

At the same time, he acknowledged that he was facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill for his efforts to reverse the Magnitsky Act, which has made him a target of the Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.

It isnt the first time he has been in hot water. Akhmetshin is not registered as representing foreign agents or governments, but his client list is long. Over the years it has included members of Kazakhstans political opposition. He was also accused in a US lawsuit of engaging in a campaign to encourage US officials to reverse the asylum status of Ashot Egiazaryan, a former deputy of the Russian Duma.

Last year, Akhmetshin was seen walking around Congress by a congressional staffer, Kyle Parker, who was described by Politico as the driving force behind the original Magnitsky Act. Parker reportedly warned colleagues that he was alarmed because Akhmetshin was known for specialising in active measures campaigns.

Confronted with the allegation, Akhmetshin seemed to shrug it off, telling Politico: Just because I was born in Russia doesnt mean I am an agent of the Kremlin.
Shia LaBeouf will reportedly abstain from alcohol while shooting his upcoming movie, "The Peanut Butter Falcon," his attorney Doug Andrews told TMZ Friday. The Savannah, Georgia-based lawyer claimed LaBeouf "doesn't have an uncontrollable urge to drink," but he finds himself in trouble when he consumes alcohol.

LaBeouf returned to the work Monday. Before his arrest, the actor had reportedly been "professional" and "well-prepared" on set, despite the cast and crews initial concerns that his public antics would be a distraction at the shoot.

Read: Shia LaBeouf Arrested At Anti-Trump Protest He Will Not Divide Us

LaBeouf's return to "The Peanut Butter Falcon" followed the actor's Saturday arrest for disorderly conduct in Savannah, Georgia, among other charges. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 31-year-old actor was reportedly released from the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD) on a $7,000 bond.

LaBeouf was intoxicated and lost control of himself in public prior to his arrest, which stemmed from an outburst he made after approaching a bystander and police officer for a cigarette.

LaBeouf was taken in by the SCMPD at 4 a.m. EDT on disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and obstruction. The SCMPD tweeted about the arrest, saying: "Metro Arrests LaBeouf after Disorderly Behavior Downtown." Local law enforcement later released a statement on LaBeouf's arrest to their website, clarifying the reason behind the incident.

"When LaBeouf wasnt given a cigarette, he became disorderly, using profanities and vulgar language in front of the women and children present," SCMPD wrote in a statement on their website. "He was told to leave the area and refused, becoming aggressive toward the officer. When the officer attempted to place LaBeouf under arrest, LaBeouf ran to a nearby hotel."

Metro Arrests LaBeouf after Disorderly Behavior Downtown - https://t.co/OSmxM1unJl pic.twitter.com/RRnF8hkcbE  SCMPD (@scmpd) July 8, 2017

LaBeouf was found by the local authorities in the hotel lobby, who arrested him on the scene. The "Transformers" star reportedly continued to behave in a disorderly manner upon being charged.

Story continues

Read: 'Indiana Jones 5' To Be Released In July 2019; Unclear If Shia LaBeouf Will Be Returning Alongside Harrison Ford

This isn't LaBeouf's first brush with the law. He was arrested by the New York Police Department in January at an Anti-Trump rally on a misdemeanor assault and harassment charge after getting into a physical altercation.

https://t.co/7y83TPB4d1



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Museum of the Moving Image, New York pic.twitter.com/uhaqLufjo2  Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 20, 2017

LaBeouf's legal troubles, however, stretch back to 2008. He injured his hand in a 2008 car accident, with the police suspecting him of being intoxicated. He's also reportedly been accused of multiple counts of plagiarism and has found himself in several bar fights.

The Los Angeles native was open about his arrest history when he wrote the essay "Error Breeds Sense" in 2015 for the book "Prison Ramen." He revealed his first brush with the law happened when he was 9 years old.

"I have been incarcerated five times," LaBeouf wrote. "The first time I was only nine years old. It was in Pacoima, California. I was arrested for stealing a pair of Nike Cortezes from a local shop and held for six hours."

He shared details of his second arrest, adding: "The second time I was eleven, in the city of Tujunga, California. I was arrested for stealing a Gameboy Pokemon from Kmart. That time, too, I was in a substation for about six hours."

Shia LaBeouf

Photo: Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter @dory_jackson

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From Popular Mechanics

(Image: The U.S. Air Force's X-37B unmanned spaceplane that orbits for hundreds of days at a time on classified missions.)

Perhaps the biggest question regarding the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) currently being debated by the House is whether the legislation will require the Air Force to create a new branch of the military to operate and defend assets in space: the Space Corps. Provisions requiring a Space Corps to be established by 2019 are already in the NDAA, and the bill was approved 60 to 1 by the House Armed Services Committee last month.

But the Space Corps has some major opposition, including Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Chief of Staff General David Goldfein, and perhaps most significantly, Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It is the opinion of the White House and the Air Force leadership that a new Space Corps would create burdensome bureaucracy and actually work to counteract the Air Force's efforts to defend assets in space against emerging threats from nations like China and Russia.

"The Pentagon is complicated enough," Wilson said last month. "We're trying to simplify. This will make it more complex, add more boxes to the organization chart, and cost more money."

"The Pentagon is complicated enough. This will make it more complex."

Mattis recently echoed the sentiment when he wrote a letter to Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the Republican Chairman of the House Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee who is leading an effort to oppose the Space Corps. Mattis wrote that he feared a Space Corps would create a burdensome "additional organizational and administrative tail."

"At a time when we are trying to integrate the Department's joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations," Mattis wrote.

However, those in favor of a Space Corps just won another legislative victory. A measure was recently introduced by Turner to derail the Space Corps and replace the legislation with a study on space defense, but it failed to get approval from the House Rules Committee for a public debate on the House floor. The result was a setback for Mattis and Air Force leadership and a win for the Congressmen pushing for a distinct Space Corps.

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The primary champion of a Space Corps is Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee and introduced the Space Corps provision to the NDAA. Rogers has the support of the House Armed Services Committee when he argues that a distinct Space Corps would give the leadership overseeing space defense more authority and more resources to address threats.

Rogers and other lawmakers worry that China or Russia could cripple U.S. surveillance and communications capabilities by taking out DoD satellites, particularly since China shot down a defunct weather satellite with a missile in January 2007 as a test. Currently, Rogers argues, the space contingency of the Air Force is getting short shrift. And he's not alone.

"The Air Force doesn't have enough space personnel, and the space personnel they do have, unfortunately, have the lowest promotion rates in the Air Force," said Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn last month, whose Colorado district includes the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base. "Not enough people, who don't get promoted enough, and who are also way underrepresented in Air Force leadership."

Rogers' own comments last month at a House Armed Services Committee markup session were a bit more blunt.

"As we say in Alabama, I'm pissed."

"When I see arguments that we are actually going to set back efforts to respond to adversary space threats, well, as we say in Alabama, I'm pissed," Rogers said. He went on to say of the Air Force's opposition: "They better shape up or they'll figure out who is in charge here. I'll let you in on a secret: It's the branch of our government that controls the purse strings."

The White House and the Air Force oppose a Space Corps, while most of the House Armed Services Committee supports it. The full House of Representatives could vote on the NDAA as early as this week or next.

But there is one more camp that has yet to weigh in on the Space Corps: the Senate. So far, the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by John McCain, has remained silent about the proposed sixth military branch. McCain could be the swing opinion that pushes the Space Corps through despite White House opposition, or he could be the final nail in the Space Corps coffin.

Regardless of the opinion of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the NDAA still needs to go through debates and votes from the full House and Senate, with opportunities for additional lawmakers to weigh in. So the Space Corps has a long way to go, but even with opposition from Mattis, it's not dead yet.

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Alfred Angelo bridal retail stores have closed, leaving brides wondering if theyll get their wedding dresses. (Photo: Getty Photos)

Alfred Angelo bridal retail stores across the country closed suddenly this week, apparently leaving brides and bridesmaids in the lurch. On Thursday, reports of local stores closing began trickling in, with no one sure whether this was happening anywhere else. Then in Florida, the Palm Beach Post reported that all the employees at the 80-year-old companys Delray Beach headquarters were seen exiting the building, carrying cardboard boxes and plants. Though the company has yet to issue an official statement, it is reportedly about to file for bankruptcy.

This is scary news for women who have already paid for their dresses but have yet to receive them from the store.

Im getting married in 64 days, and Im starting from scratch with no dress money anymore, Amber McGraw tells Yahoo Style. The college student had found her perfect dress at the Alfred Angelo store in Dublin, Ohio, in June. She didnt buy it right away because she had to attend her National Guard summer training. Unfortunately, she was delayed further by an accident in training that broke both her feet. In late June, someone from the store called to tell her they were no longer ordering dresses, but she could buy hers off the rack.

McGraw went in this Tuesday to try to buy her dress off the rack. It was two sizes too big, but the sales associate said that was all they could offer. She told me there was a new president or CEO in charge of the company and they were changing the way they were going to run it, McGraw says. The store employee also said this restructuring meant they couldnt take credit cards. She went back on Wednesday with a personal check for $1,000.

They took my check and said that they found my same dress in Nebraska at one of their other stores that was in better condition, McGraw says. So I walked out with an IOU and a receipt. I woke up today to my fiance calling saying, You need to look at the news.'

The closed Alfred Angelo store in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo: Courtesy Amber McGraw)

Brides all over the country are in the same boat, tweeting about their woes with the hashtag #alfredangelo, and commenting on the companys Facebook page.

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Some brides have formed a support group on Facebook, where in addition to commiserating, they are trying to swap donated dresses. Ive seen three people offer their dresses on Twitter, McGraw says. But theyre very petite ladies. Im between a 14 and 15 dress size.

#alfredangelo if youve been affected and can send proof, I will give you my dress for free. DM me. Needs to be cleaned and shipped. pic.twitter.com/X4jADWp1uA  Cassandra Duck (@CassieDuck814) July 14, 2017

Many have also spared a moment in their panic to express sympathy for the Alfred Angelo employees who lost their jobs.

Hey @AlfredAngelo your employees stayed all day to ensure brides got dresses. What did you give them in return. #alfredangelo  Laura Roach (@L_RO12) July 14, 2017

On the door of many of the shuttered stores is the email address of Patricia Redmond, a lawyer in Florida representing the company. Though Redmond has not yet responded to Yahoos request for comment, WZZM 13 in Grand Rapids, Mich., reached her on Friday. Redmond said the company is planning on filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate its assets and is working on a plan to deliver dresses to customers.

It typically always gets better after the bankruptcy filing for customers who have goods that have already been purchased, Redmond told the news outlet. I will have a list of dresses that have been sold and are on hand, and we will go through them to get them delivered as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Davids Bridal has stepped in to help customers of its (now former) rival. The company announced on Facebook and its website that anyone who purchased a gown at Alfred Angelo could present their receipt to get 30 percent off bridal gowns, 20 percent off bridesmaid dresses, and have rush fees for alterations waived.

With 300+ stores nationwide, many in close proximity to Alfred Angelo locations, we are in a unique position to help brides find the dress of their dreams, Paul Pressler, chairman and CEO of Davids Bridal, said in a statement sent to Yahoo Style. While we do not celebrate the closure of a respected competitor, we are honored and fortunate to have the resources and ability to help assist customers impacted by this news.

McGraw says 30 percent off wont help her, as the $1,000 she spent was almost all of her budget.

Im really hoping that by some magical powers either [my Alfred Angelo dress] is going to show up on my doorstep, or someone will drop off another dress at my doorstep, McGraw says.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

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Female legislators from opposing camps had their hands on each other's throats as a dozen colleagues pushed and shouted trying to separate them - AFP

Taiwanese lawmakers tried to choke each other and threw water bombs during a chaotic session at the island's parliament Thursday as the government of President Tsai Ing-wen pressed ahead with controversial reforms.

Female legislators from opposing camps had their hands on each other's throats as a dozen colleagues pushed and shouted trying to separate them in the main chamber during a review of the budget for a major infrastructure project.

The opposition Kuomintang party is against the plan, saying it favours cities and counties faithful to Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and has been devised to secure support for the party ahead of next year's regional elections.

The project includes light rail lines, flood control measures and green energy facilities.

Critics have also questioned whether the whopping Tw$420 billion (10.7 billion) cost of the project is really worthwhile.

Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan walks into to Parliament as legislators from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) display the placards to boycott the forward-looking project at the Parliament in Taipei on July 13 Credit: SAM YEH/AFP

The morning review hearing was suspended following the brawl as Kuomintang lawmakers occupied the podium.

Lunch failed to calm tensions and the clashes continued into the afternoon when opposition lawmakers honked air horns and tried to throw balloons filled with water at premier Lin Chuan.

One of the balloons flew near Lin and burst mid-air. He was forced to leave the chamber without delivering a report on the budget and the session was again abandoned.

The DPP condemned what it called the KMT'S "violent boycott" and demanded an apology.

"We call for rational discussions ...to resolve differences," it said in a statement.

Legislators from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Part (PFP) display placards that read "refuse to examine the illegal budget" in a call to boycott a major infrastructure project, at the Parliament in Taipei on July 13 Credit: SAM YEH/AFP

Tsai has seen her popularity plummet to under 40 percent from nearly 70 percent when she took office in May last year as her government attempts to tackle a range of controversial issues from gay marriage to pension and judicial reforms.

Violent protests erupted outside the parliament in April when opponents of pension reforms attacked politicians and scuffled with police, prompting Tsai to call for calm and restraint.

Parliament was also plunged into chaos late last year when opposing lawmakers brawled in the chamber, as labour activists set off smoke bombs outside in protest at proposed holiday cuts.
Who knows when someone might need a spiritual lift?

Rabbinical students Leibel Kaplan, 19, and JJ Polter, 20, found themselves in a check-out line at the Great Falls Walmart the other day when a man in line with them spoke up.

He said shalom, how are you? Youre Jewish!  Kaplan said in an interview on Friday. And hes like, Ive been dying to see a rabbi for the past seven years.

That the two, garbed in dress shirts and suit coats, with yarmulkes (or skull caps) on their heads, were easy to spot in the central Montana town. The pair spent time with the man, helping him connect with God.

Kaplan called that meeting and the others like it since the two arrived in Montana on June 29 divine providence. Its made their first visit to Montana memorable.

Theres no words to describe it, to bring light to these Jews and to inspire and help them out, he said.

Kaplan, who lives in Toronto, and Polter, from just outside Detroit, are both in training to be rabbis. Kaplan will spend a year in Brazil and Polter his second in Los Angeles toward that goal.

But this summer, the two men joined more than 350 other rabbinical students traveling in the United States and in 100 other countries, encouraging other Jews in their faith. Both are members of Chabad-Lubavitch, a branch of Orthodox Judaism that has its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

A tenet of the movement, which has its roots in 1700 Lithuania, is to care for the spiritual and material needs of Jews everywhere. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the community outreach program founded by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, revered leader of the group.

Kaplan and Polter arrived in Bozeman in June at the invitation of Rabbi Chaim Bruk, who opened a permanent Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Bozeman in 2007.

He is the statewide rabbi for Chabad, Kaplan said. He helps them however he can.

Many of the names of people Kaplan and Polter have met with were provided by Bruk. Other meetings, like the one with the man in Great Falls, were what Kaplan might call perfect timing.

The two students have driven probably close to 1,000 miles in the past two weeks, Polter said, traveling literally just all over, from Conrad to Sidney to Miles City to Billings and many towns in between.

A major focus during the visits involves Polter and Kaplan encouraging the others to pray using tefillin (small leather boxes with part of the Torah inside) strapped to their left arm and their head, Kaplan said.

The way I like to put this is the tefillin is the original high-speed download, he said, adding its use goes back to early Jewish history. It connects us straight to God.

Every Jewish boy starts putting on tefillin at age 13, when he is bar mitzvahed, when he becomes a man in the faith and is responsible for his deeds, Polter said.

We put it on every day for the morning prayer, he explained.

Sharing this teaching with those they've met in Montana ignites a spark in them, Polter said.

The pair will leave Montana on Thursday and go their separate ways. But they will take the inspiration they gained in sharing their faith with others.

Its been very enlightening, very eye-opening and uplifting, he said. Especially going all over Montana has been a very cool ride. I look forward to doing it again.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:29:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Police forces shot the attacker of Tehran subway station dead on Saturday morning, Hadi Tamhidi, the governor of Shahr-e-Ray district in the south of Iran's capital Tehran, said.

On the day, a person attacked a cleric with a knife in the Shahr-e-Ray subway station and injured him. The cleric was transferred to the hospital, Tamhidi told state IRIB TV.

In the attack, another person who helped the cleric, was injured by the attacker, he said.

The assailant, who had been injured by the police fire, died later, he added.

After a halt in the operation of subway station for a period of time, the gates were opened and the situation turned back to its normal status, Tamhidi said.

The identity of the assailant has not been revealed, and there has been no report about the terrorist intentions in the attack so far.
A section of the US-Mexico border wall at Sunland Park opposite the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez: Reuters

Donald Trump has conceded his much-touted southern wall along the US-Mexican border may end up covering less than half of the 2,000-mile frontier.

The US President said natural barriers such as rivers and mountains meant a man-made structure along the entire length of the border was not necessary.

He also said that some areas were so remote that a wall would not be needed.

The finished project is unlikely to exceed 900 miles, he added.

Mr Trumps comments, made on Air Force One as it flew from Washington to Paris, represent a significant row back on plans that became a central part of his election campaign.

He told reporters aboard the presidential jet: "You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious.

You have some areas that are so far away that you don't really have people crossing.

"But you'll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles."

He also said it was important that border agents and others should be able to see through the wall so they could be aware of oncoming dangers, suggesting whatever structure ends up being built would likely be closer to a slatted fence than a solid wall.

"As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Mr Trump said.

One of the Republican billionaires major campaign promises was to build a border wall to fight illegal immigration.

His vow that Mexico would pay for the wall, which the Mexican government has insisted it will not do, has strained relations between the two neighbours.

Mr Trump has since said he will find a way for Mexico to repay the US for construction of the wall, but that Congress would need to fund it first.

However, almost six months into his presidency, he has so far asked Congress for only $1.6bn (1.2bn) for a project estimated to cost more than $20bn (15bn).

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The border, which stretches across four US states, already has 600 miles (965 km) of barriers, including fences and walls.

Additional reporting Reuters
Paris (AFP) - Dinner up the Eiffel Tower, a military parade and a controversial moment with the French president's wife: AFP looks at the key moments of Donald Trump's trip to Paris.

- Detente -

In talks Thursday at the presidential Elysee Palace followed by a joint news conference, Trump and his host Emmanuel Macron appeared to set differences aside, notably over the Paris climate accord.

The body language was warm throughout the two-day visit, with the pair frequently seen clapping each other on the back or touching an elbow.

In his speech at the Bastille Day parade, Macron said "nothing will ever separate" France and the United States, adding that Trump's presence was "the sign of a friendship across the ages" between their countries.

- 'Dinner between friends' -

The men and their wives, Melania and Brigitte, enjoyed a glittering dinner up the Eiffel Tower prepared by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse -- beef with truffle sauce and warm strawberry and yogurt sorbet.

Macron had said beforehand that he was looking forward to a "dinner between friends".

- Brigitte in 'great shape' -

But there was one possible faux pas.

"You know, you're in such great shape... beautiful," Trump told 64-year-old Brigitte Macron, who was sporting a short white Louis Vuitton dress and stiletto heels, during their visit to Napoleon's tomb.

A cellphone video posted on the presidential Facebook page and picked up by media around the world sparked a firestorm on social media, with critics saying Trump was alluding to her age -- she is 25 years older than her husband.

The age gap is similar between Trump, 71, and his 47-year-old wife Melania, herself dressed in a red Dior dress with her hair pulled up in a chignon.

- Champs-Elysee parade -

Trump and Macron appeared relaxed and happy in each other's company as they watched the traditional Bastille Day parade along Paris's Champs-Elysees on Friday, frequently exchanging comments and grins.

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The parade, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the US entry into World War I, was led by an American contingent in the uniforms of the "Sammies" -- as US soldiers were nicknamed a century ago, after Uncle Sam.

The traditional flyover of the French aerobatic team with red, white and blue vapour trails was preceded this year by a US Air Force display that included two F-22 stealth fighter jets.

The pomp and ceremony gave way to a light-hearted break from tradition when a French military band struck up a rendition of "Get Lucky" by French electro superstars Daft Punk.

They stole the show with a tightly choreographed routine, swinging their trumpets and tubas while strutting around in their starched uniforms.
Virgin chief tells audience in Brooklyn Trumps decision is very, very strange

French president Macron is hopeful US will reverse decision

Donald Trump regrets the bizarre mistake of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, Sir Richard Branson has said. The British billionaire also urged the president to help phase out the ailing US coal industry.

Speaking in Brooklyn on Friday, the Virgin Group founder said businesses and cities were firmly behind a transition to low-carbon energy, which made Trumps decision to exit the Paris deal very, very strange.

With climate change, its America first and our beautiful globe last, and that seems incredibly sad, said Branson. Ive got a feeling that the president is regretting what he did. Maybe his children and son in law [adviser Jared Kushner] are saying, Look, I told you so. Hopefully there is a positive change of mind.

On Sunday, French president Emmanuel Macron said he was hopeful that Trump would reverse his decision, according to the newspaper Dimanche.

(Trump) told me that he would try to find a solution in the coming months, Macron told the paper, referring to meetings the two leaders had this week in Paris. We spoke in detail about the things that could make him come back to the Paris accord.

The US is set to become one of only three sovereign nations in the world not to be part of the Paris accord, which aims to stem dangerous global warming. Of the other two, Nicaragua feels the agreement does not go far enough, and Syria is mired in a disastrous civil war.

Branson said his companies would join the We are still in campaign  a coalition of hundreds of businesses, cities and universities committed to keeping to the USs emissions reduction goals. Companies from Apple and Facebook to oil giants Exxon and BP urged Trump to stick with the Paris agreement, only for the president to fulfill his election pledge to jettison the pact.

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Theres no guarantee hell change his mind. Who knows what goes on in there. The Paris decision was a bizarre mistake Sir Richard Branson

Trump had hundreds of the most influential business leaders in the world speaking to him and he ignored them, so theres no guarantee that hell change his mind, Branson said.

Who knows what goes in there, he added, pointing to his head. The Paris decision was a bizarre mistake.

You have people in America who believe the world was made 5,000 years ago. There are some strange people out there who have got into heady positions in the American government. You have the strange position of a cabal of people with very influential positions in America making these decisions.

Branson admitted that he was unlikely to sway Trump, given his previous criticism of the president. In October, the British entrepreneur recalled a one-on-one lunch several years ago during which the future president explained how he was going to destroy five people who were unwilling to help him after one of his bankruptcies.

Branson said the lunch was bizarre and showed Trumps vindictive streak. However, he said he would advise Trump to drop his pro-fossil fuels stance and help transition coalminers into new work.

Coalmining is not the nicest of jobs, Branson said, adding that in Britain miners have largely moved into jobs far more pleasant, far less dangerous and far better for their health.

Id suggest that the government should help coalminers move into alternative jobs, such as clean energy. Clean energy needs hundreds of thousands of people. That would be good for the coalminers, good for America and good for the world.

Now is the time to get massive investments into alternative energies. The vast majority of governments in the world are all still going in the right direction and companies in America are stepping into the breach.

Branson was joined in a panel discussion by Andrew Liveris, chief executive of Dow Chemical and part of a group that advises the White House on manufacturing. Liveris said chemicals companies have moved on from full frontal denial of climate change and that businesses now grasp the seriousness of global warming.

We are leaving governments behind, its completely inverted, he said. I believe we will find a way back into Paris. Thats not coming from any deep knowledge, but because of the engagement on the issue.

Branson was in New York to promote DS Virgin Racing, which competes in the Formula E electric racing series. Another of his companies, Virgin Atlantic, is part of an airline industry responsible for around 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. He said cleaner fuel and more efficient plane designs were getting closer step by step.

I was told 10 years ago it wasnt possible to get across the Atlantic with a plane carrying a battery powered by clean energy before 2050, because of the weight of it and so on, he said.

But the way things are moving, its quite possible that a battery driven plane could carry a plane full of passengers across the Atlantic by 2030. The airline industry could tick that box [on reducing emissions] before some other industries.

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By Ayesha Rascoe PARIS (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said the wall he wants to build on the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S.-Mexico frontier may not need to cover the entire border because of existing natural barriers, according to remarks released by the White House on Thursday. On a flight to Paris from Washington, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: "You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don't really have people crossing. "But you'll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles." Trump also told reporters on the plane it was important that border agents and others should be able to see through the wall so they could be aware of oncoming dangers. "As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Trump said. One of Trump's major 2016 campaign promises was to build a border wall to fight illegal immigration. His vow that Mexico would pay for the wall, which the Mexican government has insisted it will not do, has strained relations between the two neighbors. Trump has since said he will find a way for Mexico to repay the United States for construction of the wall but that Congress would need to fund it first. But almost six months into his presidency, he has so far asked Congress for only $1.6 billion for a project estimated to cost more than $20 billion. The border, which stretches across four U.S. states, already has 600 miles (965 km) of barriers, including fences and walls. Republicans on the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee introduced a bill on Tuesday that funded the $1.6 billion request, but Senate Democrats are likely to oppose it. (Writing by Julia Edwards Ainsley; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
The Oklahoma police officer who was acquitted in the shooting death of an unarmed black man has resigned.

Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby announced her resignation on Friday in a statement released by her union, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93. The resignation is effective August 3, according to the statement.

Since being reinstated, I have found that sitting behind a desk, isolated from all of my fellow officers and the citizens of Tulsa, is just not for me, Shelby said.

Shelby was acquitted of manslaughter in the September 2016 fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher. Shelby in May testified that she fired her weapon out of fear because Crutcher did not obey her commands to lie on the ground and appeared to reach into his vehicle for what Shelby thought was a gun. Crutchers high-profile killing and Shelbys acquittal sparked protests in Tulsa.

In her statement, Shelby thanked her colleagues and the people of Tulsa and extended prayers for the healing of Crutchers family.

As I have stated before, the incident with Terence Crutcher was a tragedy for everyone involved, and I am sorry he lost his life, she said.
People wave flags People wave Turkeys national flags as they attend a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the attempted coup at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, July 15, 2017. (Photo: Osman Orsal/Reuters)

Waving large red Turkish flags, tens of thousands joined a national unity march in Istanbul on Saturday, converging at the iconic July 15 Martyrs Bridge to mark the anniversary of the failed military coup attempt that 250 people died resisting.

As part of the commemoration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul on Saturday and was photographed waving at a fighter jet escorting his aircraft. Accompanied by children wearing shirts with Turkish flags and relatives of the deceased, Erdogan then joined the crowd near the bridge where he was to unveil a Martyrs Memorial to honor those who died opposing the coup.

It has been exactly one year since Turkeys darkest and longest night was transformed into a bright day, since an enemy occupation turned into the peoples legend, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier in the day at a special parliamentary session in Ankara, the capital, attended by Erdogan.

Marches were also taking place in Ankara.

Turkish soldiers attempted to overthrow the government and the president using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on July 15, 2016. The coup plotters declared their seizure of power on the state broadcaster, bombed the countrys parliament and other key locations, and raided an Aegean resort where Erdogan had been on vacation. But Erdogan had already left and the coup attempt was put down by civilians and security forces.

The Bosporus Bridge, now called the July 15 Martyrs Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks. Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed. (AP)

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's staunch regional ally in its dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors, hopes to visit the Gulf soon to discuss efforts to resolve the crisis, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it funds terrorist groups and is allying with their arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the accusations. "All our efforts are focused on a solution that suits the laws of brotherly relations," Cavusoglu told reporters after talks in Ankara with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. Erdogan has criticized a list of demands made by the four Arab states to end the sanctions, including a requirement for Turkey's military base in Qatar to be closed. Turkey has also sent 200 cargo planes with supplies to Qatar since its Gulf neighbors cut air and sea links. Qatar's only land border is with Saudi Arabia. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar on Thursday after a tour of Gulf Arab countries aimed at easing the worst regional dispute in years, saying he had made proposals that would help resolve the crisis. During his trip Tillerson signed a U.S.-Qatari accord on combating the financing of terrorism in an effort to help ease the crisis. Qatar's opponents said it fell short of allaying their concerns, but Cavusoglu said it showed the Gulf state's sincerity. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Ece Toksabay; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional negotiators are making progress on resolving a dispute that has stalled a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia, congressional aides said on Thursday, and one lawmaker said the matter could be resolved as soon as Friday. "I think as soon as tomorrow, the House (of Representatives) could pass it out," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an author of the bill, told reporters. He said he expected the House to make changes that would not affect the bill's overall character and to address issues that have worried energy companies, such as a provision that oil firms said could block them out of international exploration projects if Russian firms were also involved. Hoping to send a message to President Donald Trump to maintain a strong line against Moscow, the Senate passed the sanctions on Russia, part of a broader measure also imposing new sanctions on Iran, by 98-2 on June 15. The bill has been mired in the House ever since. The delay has frustrated Democrats, and some of Trump's fellow Republicans, who think the president is so eager to improve relations with Russia that he will not retaliate for Moscow's international aggression. This week, Trump has been defending his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Republicans, who control Congress, said the House could not vote on the Senate bill because it violated a constitutional requirement that legislation affecting government revenues originate in the House. Democrats accused Republicans of stalling because of Trump administration concern about a provision setting up a process for Congress to approve any effort by the president to ease sanctions on Russia. Seeking a greater influence in foreign policy, Congress has included such "review" provisions in a few recent major bills, starting with Corker's 2015 legislation forcing congressional review of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. Corker said he thought there should be more congressional review of foreign policy. "It's been my goal as chairman just to bring back our equivalent status to the executive branch, and this is one way of doing so." House aides said negotiations on the Russia bill were continuing. "No deal has been reached, but talks have been productive and will continue," said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)
As France celebrates the Bastille Day also known as its National Day on Tuesday, the historic parade that has been continuing in the country since 1880, will witness a difference this year.

Around 150 American troops would march beside the French army to commemorate hundred years of U.S. joining the First World War in 1917. The parade that also includes fly past is held in Paris in front of the French President, officials and foreign guests. U.S. President Donald Trump will join French President Emmanuel Macron at the event, reports said.

READ: How Did Trump And Macron's Latest Handshake In France Go?

Bastille Day is celebrated to mark the historic event of storming the Bastille on July 14, 1789, during the beginning of French Revolution. The Bastille was a military fortress and prison that symbolized the tyranny of French monarchy especially King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, reports said.

The Bastille was built in 1300 at the time when the war against the English was ongoing. The purpose of the building was to protect the eastern entrance to the city of Paris.

The massive structure had hundred feet walls and the building was protected by more than 100 guards. The building acted as a prison for political dissidents like writers and philosophers or others who spoke against the monarchy. Most of them were locked without proper trials.

During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as France stood on verge of economic disaster, the people were angered by the over the spending of the monarch. In 1788, the situation got worse due to crop failure and drought. Unemployment became a major concern for the people at the time. Prices of food items shot up triggering people to revolt. Soon, violent food riots began all over the country.

On July 14, 1789, angry revolutionaries surrounded the fortress. While the talks between the governor Bernard-Rene de Launay and the representatives of the revolutionaries were going on, the crowd grew restless. Some men climbed the outer wall first and made way for the crowd. While initially the governor said he would not fire at the protesters, soldiers started shooting at the men. About 100 attackers died in the incident and many others sustained injuries.

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However, later in the afternoon, two detachment of French Guards defected and joined the protesters. While the protesters did not know how to handle weapons, the French Guards played an important role and started firing at the Bastille, reports said.

READ: Protests Planned As Trump Arrives In France For Bastille Day Celebrations

Governor de Launay was taken as a prisoner, paraded in the hall and was murdered by the crowd. Along with the governor, some other soldiers too lost their lives at the hands of the crowd. After the storming, the Bastille was systematically dismantled. In the present day, Bastille Day is celebrate much like Fourth of July in the U.S. Fireworks and celebrations are held across the country to mark the day.

While the country is celebrating its national day, not everyone is happy with the presence of the U.S. president at the parade.Protesters and activists are planning to take to the streets on the French National Day to create a "no Trump zone." A group called "Paris Against Trump" sent out messages on social media saying Trump was not welcome in the country. The group has planned a rally at the symbolic Place des Etats-Unis, which is full of memorials depicting the ties between the two nations.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 15:29:50|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BAGHDAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's military on Saturday paraded in Baghdad Green Zone to celebrate the landmark victory over the Islamic State (IS) group in Mosul, the Iraqi government said.

The parade was held in early morning at the Celebrations Square in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the main government offices and foreign embassies, a brief statement by the office of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on its website.

The parade was attended by Abadi, who is the Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, and top officers from the ministries of defense and interior, as well as leaders of the government-backed paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units, the statement said.

According to a security source, the parade was held in the morning hours to avoid the scorching weather of Iraq's summer as temperatures could reach to 50 degrees Celsius at midday.

Most of the local and international media were not invited to cover the parade for security reasons, the source anonymously told Xinhua.

This came after Abadi on July 10 formally declared Mosul liberated from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that an attack that killed two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem could ignite more violence and said all sides must avoid escalation.

Three attackers opened fire near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, killing the officers, and the police immediately shot them dead in one of the most serious incidents in the city in recent years.

Guterres condemned the attack, adding: "This incident has the potential to ignite further violence. All must act responsibly to avoid escalation."

The UN chief praised Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for swiftly condemning the violence and offering assurances that the holy sites in Jerusalem will be respected.

"The sanctity of religious sites should be respected as places for reflection, not violence," Guterres said.

Security forces locked down the area and the Al-Aqsa mosque was closed to Friday prayers after the attack in a highly unusual move.
Investigators at the Justice Department and the House and Senate Intelligence committees are examining possible collusion between the digital operation of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, led by Jared Kushnerand Russias online propaganda efforts, McClatchy reported.

The investigators are looking to see if the Trump campaign had any role in directing Russian operatives to target voters in several key states with a flood of fake news designed to harm Hillary Clinton.

Read: Hillary Clinton Blames 'Weaponizing Technology' Used By Russians For 2016 Election Loss

The inquires will also look into the possibility that Trump associates and members of the now-presidents campaign in 2016 coordinate the release of thousands of emails stolen from the accounts of top Democratic operatives, including Clinton confidant John Podesta.

The focus on the emails also suggests a possible involvement with Wikileaks, the transparency website founded by Julian Assange. Because Wikileaks was the primary publisher or most of the stolen emails, it is possible one party was communicating with the publication to orchestrate releases.

While it is unclear what role the Trump campaign played in orchestrating Russian activity, intelligence agencies have made it clear that Russia did attempt to impact the U.S. election, going so far as to target voting software companies and local election officials.

Russian hackers were able to successfully gain access to some voter rolls and stole voter data and personal information. It is not believed the hackers were able to gain access or modify any vote totals that would have changed the outcome of the election.

Congressman Adam Schiff, D-CA, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told McClatchy he wants to find out whether the fake or damaging news stories pushed by Russian operations were coordinated in any way in terms of targeting or in terms of timing or in terms of any other measure  with the (Trump) campaign.

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Following the 2016 presidential election, BuzzFeed published an analysis that found fake news stories spread via social media campaigns were getting more traction than actual news stories reported by reputable outlets.

Read: Twitter Considers 'Fake News' Feature To Flag False Or Misleading Content

Of the most popular stories to spread during the campaign were claims that Hillary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS while she was serving as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama and a false story about the pope endorsing Trump.

It is believed many of those stories were pushed into their viral cycle by a network of bots operated by Russians agents. The bots can quickly share and spread stories, generating interest in them and leading others to view and share them as well.

According to McClatchy, investigators at the Justice Department believe it would be difficult for the Russians controlling the botnets to know where to target voters with the false stories without some sort of direction with knowledge of the U.S. electorate.

The Trump campaign touted its digital operation before and after the election, crediting its digital branch in large part for its victory. The initiative was run by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, who is currently serving in the administration as a senior advisor.

Earlier this year, Kushner was named as a person of interest by the Justice Department in its investigation. It was recently revealed that Kushner sat in on a meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have compromising information on Hillary Clinton. The meeting, organized by Donald Trump, Jr., has further raised suspicions of the possibility of collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government.

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Ivanka Trump in a pink dress at the G-20 summit in Hamburg on July 8. (Photo: AP)

There were plenty of political criticisms lobbed at the Trump administration for its decision to let Ivanka Trump sit in for her father at part of the G-20 summit in Germany on Saturday while he attended a separate meeting. But perhaps none sparked more debate than the conversation about what the presidents daughter wore for the occasion.

That back-and-forth began with The Nations Joan Walsh when she appeared on MSNBC Live Sunday. With big bows on her sleeve, Walsh began her critique. I mean, I dont mean to sound sexist  it can be dangerous to comment on what women wear  but the fact that she sat in for her father in a dress that was so incredibly ornamental was such a contradiction in terms.  Thats not a dress thats made for work. Thats not a dress thats made to go out in the world and make a difference. That is a dress that is designed to show off your girliness  and, you know, God bless her, show it off, but dont then tell us that youre crusading for an equal place for women at the table, because youre not.

As predicted, commentators on the right immediately blasted Walsh for attacking Ivanka.

Walshs remarks are yet another demonstration that there is no feminist principle left-wing commentators wont throw overboard to attack the Trump women, Inez Feltscher wrote on The Federalist.

Executive image consultant Silvie di Giusto explained one reason for these different interpretations: confirmation bias rearing its ugly head. If people have a specific [belief] in their head that she is a feminist or not a feminist, they are looking for proof, Di Giusto tells Yahoo Style. One group of voters looks at this pink dress and says, Wow, look at her, how feminine it is, and how much she supports women. Others look at the same dress and have the opposite opinion.

In other words, its possible that Trump supporters and detractors would argue about what she wore no matter what it was.

The blowback Walsh received from more left-leaning writers, however, was slightly more surprising.

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Obviously, its sexist to use a womans appearance or outfit choice to disparage her, Eve Peyser wrote on Vice. But Walsh took it to the next level when she singled out Trumps outfits overt femininity as a problem.

Peyser characterized Walshs opinion as antiquated second-wave feminism of the bra-burning 1960s and 70s. But in 2017, she wrote, what it means to be a feminist has shifted radically, and wearing push-up bras or participating in the Miss America pageant or wearing a pink dress during an important meeting does not preclude you from championing womens rights.

Twitter users from both the left and the right found themselves in strange, unfamiliar ground of agreeing with each other.

The feminist movement wants to replace the old patriarchy that ruled women with a new feminist monarchy that rules women.  Antonio Martinez (@djtechchicago) July 13, 2017

Though others agreed with Walsh, too.

I think @joanwalsh was right on. @IvankaTrump dresses to please men and to come across as non-threatening. She also seeks to SELL 1/  Jodi Jacobson (@jljacobson) July 13, 2017

Rather than weighing in on whether pastel pink and pink bows are proper attire for a global summit, Di Giusto says that the challenge the first daughter faces in these situations is to avoid any kind of sartorial distraction.

If people start talking about your outfit, you have done something wrong, Di Giusto said. You want them to talk about the things that you fight for, that you stand for  the added value that you bring to such an important meeting.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected demands by Jordan Friday night to immediately reopen the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was closed following a terrorist attack Friday morning

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According to officials, Netanyahu said, "Instead of denouncing the terror attack, Jordan chose to attack Israel. It is appropriate that all parties involved, including Jordan, maintain restraint and refrain from flaming the atmosphere."

Photo: AFP

Officials also noted that Israel "protects the worshipers and preserves freedom of worship in the area. Israel will not tolerate attacks on the holy places and it maintains the status quo in them."

In a statement issued Friday afternoon by Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani, Jordan demanded that Israel immediately open the Al-Aqsa mosque to worshipers and not take steps that could change the historic status quo in Jerusalem and the mosque.

"The Jordanian government opposes any attack against Muslims in carrying out religious rituals in their holy places freely and without any obstacles," wrote Al Momani.

Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg

Al Momni condemned the escalation on the Temple Mount and demanded an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the incident. He did however clarify that "Jordan's principled position is condemnation of violence."

Al Momani further claimed that Jordan exerted intense pressure to reopen the mosque immediately, noting, "Jordan will continue to take utilize all diplomatic, legal and political tools to block any attempt to change the legal and historical status quo in Jerusalem."

Despite Netanyahu's rejection of the Jordanian demand to reopen the mosque immediately, Netanyahu did indicate that the area would be "gradually reopened" to worshippers Sunday.
Gaza's militant Hamas rulers are calling on Palestinians to attack Israeli forces in Jerusalem after the Temple Mount was closed until Sunday, this following a deadly terrorist assault there. Hamas has already staged a rally celebrating the attack.

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Hamas described the closure of the siteknown to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mountin a statement Saturday as a "religious war" and Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on the Palestinian "uprising" to target the Israeli army and West Bank settlers.





Hamas Head Ismail Haniyeh speaking at a support rally (Photo: AP)

Israel made the rare move after three Palestinian assailants opened fire there Friday, killing two Israeli police officers before being shot dead. The attackers were devout Muslim Israeli citizens.

Hamas militants (Photo: AFP)

Monitoring Committee of Arab citizens in Israel Head Muhammad Barakeh condemned the attack, saying that it did not contribute to the Arab public's struggle to defend its rights and holy places. The committee also warned against the implications of the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the decision not to allow prayer at the site until Sunday.

"Since 1969, we have been participating in a public struggle that has proven its success over the years," he said. "The deviation from our path, as we saw yesterday in Jerusalem, will not help anything, and we warn the government against exploiting the shooting with the aim of inciting against the Arab public."

Arab MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) strongly renounced the deadly attack. "Israeli civilians killed Israeli policemen at the entrance to a holy site. There is no way to describe the horror, or even to try to understand it," he said. "We must shake off people who have left our midst. The dimensions of the hatred blinded them until they chose to kill their countrymen."

MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) said in response to the events, "We place the full responsibility of everything that is happening on Israel's occupation policy, aggression and murder of the Palestinian people. It is impossible to sever what is happening from Israel's policy. The settlers' takeover of Al-Aqsa has lead to deeper feelings of humiliation and injustice, and anyone who does not want to recognize the connection and insists on linking the responses to incitement and extremists is the one who decides to sacrifice the citizens.

"The Israeli establishment knows that we support a political struggle, it knows that we are fighting for an end to the occupation and the policy of Judaization and political purge, and that we even call for the confiscation of weapons, that the police themselves know where they are and who holds them, though it refuses to confiscate it, as long as it harms us and not the Jews, She added. "All the scare and intimidation tactics are doomed to fail."

The reactions of MKs Ahmad Tibi and Osama Sa'adi (Joint List) jointly warned against exploiting the events for incitement, and they also urged the government to allow prayer on the Temple Mount. "The position of the Arab leadership has always been that the use of weapons is not the instrument of struggle of the Arab citizens of Israel," they said. "Our struggle is political and public, nonviolent and unarmed. We reject violence of any kind, including in holy places, and we regret the loss of human life. Our opinion is that the bloodshed must be stopped, so that families and parents will not kill their sons and loved ones.

"It is indeed time to emphasize that the continuation of the occupation, including the occupation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites, is the root of all evil, and that the occupation should be ended to save lives on all sides. The right wing is exploiting what happened due a campaign of incitement against the Arab public in general and Umm al-Fahm in particular, despite the Arab public's position published by the Monitoring Committee."
Indian energy companies will take part in the bidding for natural gas and oil licenses in Israels economic waters, Indias Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan told his Israeli counterpart Yuval Steinitz, during a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday.

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The two met on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress and agreed to set up joint work teams to strengthen energy cooperation between the two countries. The announcement comes a week after a historic visit to Israel by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which trade deals worth billions of dollars were signed.

Yuval Steinitz (Photo: Reuters)

Israel issued tenders last November for licenses to drill in 24 blocs of up to 400 square kilometers in size, however it was forced to extend the deadline for a second time in June after only one bid was submitted. Steinitz said after the extension that he was convinced Israel would succeed in bringing here at least three or four sizeable companies to take part.

According to an evaluation released by the Ministry of Energy when bidding for the licenses was announced, the Levant Basin still contains yet-to-find reserves of 75 billion TCF of natural gas and 6.6 BBL of oil. Israel has proven gas reserves of over 35 billion TCF.

Meanwhile, Steinitz also met with Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak for talks on the construction of a natural gas pipeline between the two countries.

Hopefully, Mr. Albayrak will pay a visit to Israel this year in 2017, which will help us accelerate and try to conclude this agreement, Steinitz said.

We want to build a pipeline stretching from Israel to Turkey in order to able to export natural gas to Turkey, he added.

Israel is also negotiating with Greece and Cyprus over a 2,000 kilometer East-Med pipeline that could deliver natural gas from Israeli and Cypriot reserves to Europe. At a trilateral meeting in Greece in June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said they would expedite efforts to build the $6 billion project.
The immediate-past president, John Mahama, on Friday visited the widow and children of the late Major Maxwell Mahama in Accra.

Click here to get the latest news in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Fella Makafui is chilling with Rawlings in Accra and YEN.com.gh has photos

Mahama met Barbara and her two children at their Burma Camp residence in the nation's capital.

The former president later shared photos of his meeting with the late soldier's family on Facebook.

He said he made the visit to determine how the Barbara and the children were doing.

Barbara and other members of the late major's family could be seen in black dresses, indicating that they were still in mourning.

Major Mahama, an officer in the Ghana army, was killed by a brutal mob at the Central Regional town of Denkyira Obuasi in May.

According to police, the mob mistook the then army captain for a thief and lynched him.

The late Major Maxwell Mahama

His death drew condemnation from many Ghanaians and sparked a relentless campaign against mob violence.

READ ALSO: Here are photos of the policeman who was killed by robbers in Accra

Tell us what you make of this story in the comments section below.

Send us tips, information or stories for publication in YEN. We are on Facebook and can be contacted via email at info@YEN.com.gh.

Source: YEN.com.gh
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 17:35:47|Editor: An

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COTONOU, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Benin's government has increased to 3 billion Cfa francs (5.24 million US dollars) the budget of the program to provide very poor people with microcredit to reduce poverty.

The money marked an increase from the initial budget of 1.2 billion Cfa and is purposed "to lift out of poverty thousands of women and unemployed graduates", source close to the ministry of social affairs said here in Cotonou on Friday.

Initiated in 2007, the program "microcredit for very poor people" has enabled over 2 million people to get out of hand-to-mouth existence in Benin.

Recent report from the United Nations development program described poverty situation as critical in Benin, underscoring that 40.1 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

The same report estimates the Human development indicator in the country at 0.48 in 2015, ranking thus Benin 166th out of 188 countries.

Thibaut Assogba, an economics teacher in a private university in Cotonou, believes a major source of poverty in Benin is the lack of financing mechanisms appropriate to the activities and the needs of populations.

He lamented that a large part of the populations is ineligible for classical bank financing, while about ten commercial banks operate in the market of savings collection in Benin.

"Poverty occurs in various forms in Benin: lack of income and insufficient productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods", Thibaut Assogba said.

In the light of the situation, he explained that the program to provide microcredit to very poor people has been successful over the past few years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 17:40:49|Editor: An

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TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran and the European Union (EU) have launched a joint project to cooperate on nuclear safety programs, Financial Tribune daily reported on Saturday.

Following the Wednesday meeting between the visiting EU delegation headed by Olivier Luyckx, the director of EU nuclear safety unit, and Hojjatollah Salehi, the director of Iran's nuclear safety center, both sides officially announced the start of the 2.85-million-U.S.-dollar project.

The project is part of a 5.7-million-U.S.-dollar package approved in 2016 with regard to Iran-EU cooperation on nuclear safety to enhance Iran's nuclear safety capabilities in various spheres, including the establishment of a nuclear safety center, the report said.

Under the agreement which will last for three and a half years, the EU will support the Iranian Nuclear Regulatory Authority to develop a nuclear regulatory framework and will support Iran's accession to several international nuclear conventions.

The project, signed within the framework of Iran's nuclear deal, also seeks to provide more training opportunities to Iranian experts on nuclear safety procedures.

Iran and six world powers, including Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue on July 14, 2015, which put it on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.

The deal set limits on Iran's nuclear activities as it would take Tehran at least one year to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, and allowed regular inspections of the facilities inside Iran.

In return, the United States and the European Union will suspend nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, including recalling all past UN Security Council sanction resolutions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 18:10:59|Editor: An

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RABAT, July 15 (Xinhua) -- An extraordinary meeting of the parliament of Morocco's ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party kicked off here on Saturday amid unprecedented division in the party.

The extraordinary meeting aims to adopt documents paving the way for electing new leadership during the general assembly of the party by the end of this year.

Since the ousting of its charismatic leader Abdelilah Benkirane as Prime Minister and his replacement by Saadeddine El Othmani, number two in the party, the latter has been witnessing a growing internal crisis.

In March, Morocco's king Mohammed VI decided to dismiss Benkirane and appointed El Othmani, after the former had failed to form a government since October 2016 parliamentary elections, which made PJD the first party to lead a government for a second consecutive term in the modern history of the kingdom.

While the party approved the king's decision, many leaders of the party as well as a wide segments of its grassroots have strongly criticized El Othmani for making "too much concessions" to his partnering parties.

After being nominated as PM, El Othmani changed his predecessor's position to acquiesce to a major alliance party's demands to widen coalition talks. The current PM added up two parties to the former coalition government.

Apart from the criticism on the media, a clear sign of the party's crisis was its failure to hold a meeting of its leadership for three months, and when it was hold, it did not succeed to release a statement as the party used to do.

One of the controversial issues is the election of a new leader of the party.

Benkirane, currently serving his second term as PJD Secretary General since 2008, cannot run for a third mandate unless internal laws of the party are changed.

While many members of the party support the change of the internal laws of the party, many see in such move a contradiction with the party's widely reputed democratic conduct.

Benkirane is one of the most popular politicians in the country. Since his election in 2008, he has led PJD to three major wins in Moroccan parliamentary and municipal elections in 2011, 2015, and 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 18:16:01|Editor: An

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CHANGSHA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A former mayor in central China's Hunan Province who made headlines for drug use has been sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges.

The Intermediate People's Court in Yueyang City handed down the verdict Friday to Gong Weiguo, former mayor of Linxiang City, after convicting him of taking bribes and abuse of power.

Gong was put under investigation by police following accusations he had used drugs in April 2015. Months later, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from his public post for "serious disciplinary violations," including corruption and his drug use.

The court found that Gong accepted bribes worth 1.5 million yuan (230,000 U.S. dollars) and in return helped others obtain benefits from 2007 to 2015, when he worked in the cities of Miluo, Yueyang and Linxiang.

In addition, he illegally exempted real estate developers from administrative fees, resulting in government losses of nearly 16 million yuan.

Gong was also fined 300,000 yuan and had his illegal gains confiscated.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks during a campaign rally at Maili 46 in Kajiado county, Kenya, July 5, 2017. Uhuru Kenyatta said that the only way to serve Kenyans and unite them was through development and shunning tribalism and not inciting negative ethnicity. (Xinhua/John Okoyo)

NAIROBI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vowed Friday to take stern action against aspirants for elective seats linked to sponsoring violence during campaigns.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati told journalists in Nairobi that a crackdown on individuals suspected of involvement in campaign violence has commenced to ensure Kenya conducts free, credible and transparent polls in August.

"The commission will not tolerate any act of political intolerance and any aspirant for public office who violates electoral code of conduct to engage in violent campaigns will be liable for persecution," Chebukati said.

He spoke to reporters in Nairobi against a backdrop of campaign violence witnessed in three counties of Kisumu, Baringo and Kiambu this week.

During an incident in Western Kenya city of Kisumu, which is an opposition, the National Super Alliance (NASA) stronghold, rowdy youths heckled at an entourage led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto after they commissioned projects on Wednesday.

The NASA Presidential Flag bearer, Raila Odinga and his co-principals on the same day faced hostilities while on a campaign tour of Jubilee Party stronghold in Baringo County in northwest region.

Kenya's opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga addresses his supporters in Thika town, about 40 kilometers northeast of Nairobi, capital of Kenya, July 13, 2017. Raila Odinga on Thursday cut short his campaigns in Thika town after hostile crowds at various stopovers heckled and stoned his motorcade. (Xinhua/John Okoyo)

Odinga and his entourage on Thursday was again heckled by rowdy youth while on a campaign tour of Kenyatta's backyard in Kiambu County.

A cross section of Kenyans including religious and political leaders, private sector lobby and heads of independent institutions condemned acts of hooliganism during campaigns.

Chebukati revealed that the electoral body has deployed a team of investigators to the counties that were affected by the latest campaign violence to unearth the identity of perpetrators.

"We have dispatched our investigators to collect more information on the sponsors of the recent campaign violence. Our findings will be made public in the next couple of days," said Chebukati

He added the electoral agency has put solid measures in place to ensure the August 8 polls are free from violence, intimidation and voter bribery.

Meanwhile, Speaking in Laikipia in central Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned leaders fomenting violence ahead of August elections that they would be met with the full force of the law, and promised the restive county of a peaceful election.

"Those thinking that they will incite violence, community against community, that they will cause trouble --let me tell them, they are dreaming," Kenyatta said.

"It will not happen. We will not let you. You will see, you will see tough action," the President said of local politicians blamed for conflicts over grazing land, as well as attacks on private ranches in Laikipia.

President Kenyatta said that individuals would also not be allowed to invade private land and destroy private property in the name of politics or protecting tribal interests.

The President spoke as leaders at the funeral called for a meeting of leaders from Laikipia, Samburu, Turkana and Baringo to try to find a lasting solution to perennial conflicts among mainly pastoralist communities in the region.

He urged both leaders and residents to uphold dialogue in addressing challenges facing the region instead of engaging in violence and lawlessness.

The president's remarks came after six Kenyan police officers were killed and four others seriously injured on Wednesday after being ambushed by bandits in Laikipia County.

Laikipia area is increasingly becoming a conflict zone as people and wildlife are killed with impunity, livestock stolen, houses razed and property looted.
File photo taken on Jan. 2, 2017 shows the scene of a suicide attack in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia.(Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

MOGADISHU, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military confirmed Friday its special forces conducted airstrikes in southern Somalia early Thursday but did not say the number of militants who were killed in the operation.

The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) spokesman Patrick Barnes said the airstrikes which were conducted in Kunyo Barrow targeted the militant group which he said, presents a threat to Americans and American interests.

"The U.S. forces conducted an advise and assist mission against Al-Shabaab with members of the Somali National Army July 12 in Kunyo Barrow," Barnes told Xinhua.

"I can also tell you that there were no U.S. casualties during the operation. Because it was a Somali-led operation, you will have to contact Somalia National Army officials for further details," Barnes said.

The U.S. forces, in cooperation with Somalia government, are conducting operations against Al-Shabaab in Somalia to degrade the al-Qaida affiliate's ability to recruit, train and plot external terror attacks throughout the region and in America.
Photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows an aerial view of the coast of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

CAPE TOWN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The 38th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) kicked off on Thursday with the aim of luring more film producers to South Africa.

The DIFF, which will last till July 23, is an annual film festival held in the coastal city of Durban and one of the oldest and largest film festivals in southern Africa.

In a congratulatory message, South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said his department was participating in the DIFF which "is one of the best platforms a country can promote and showcase the country's creative skills."

The SA Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was funding workshops, dialogues and screening of productions in support of the festival.

Davies said the platform will be used to market the department's South African Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive and target producers who qualify.

The incentive includes a rebate of up to 50 percent for the first 6 million rand (about 450,000 U.S. dollars) of the Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE) and 25 percent thereafter.

"The incentive objective is still to create an environment that takes advantage of the country's diverse and unique locations as well as low production costs and favorable exchange rates, which makes it significantly more cost-effective to produce a movie in South Africa than in Europe, the United States or Australia," said Davies.

The film industry has enormous potential in bringing the necessary currency into the economy and can act as an important vehicle through which technology is transferred and South African skills base is upgraded, the minister said.

The SA government spent 468 million rand with projected investment of 3.4 billion rand in the 2015/2016 financial year supporting the sector.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 19:16:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MANILA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Saturday that the death toll in the ongoing conflict in the southern city of Marawi has reached 537, including 93 soldiers and policemen.

AFP spokesman Restituto Padilla said that as of 7 p.m. local time Friday, the military has also recorded deaths of at least 399 Islamic militants and 45 civilians. The death toll is expected to rise as the fighting to retake rebel-controlled areas within the city continues, he said.

Fighting broke out in the Philippines' only Islamic city on May 23 when militants allied with Islamic State (IS) attacked a hospital, a school and government buildings in a failed attempt to control the city.

The military said the attack was part of the militants' big plan to establish an IS caliphate in the southern Philippines, home to Filipino Muslims and several groups of Muslim insurgents that have plagued the country for decades.

The militants laid the siege while President Rodrigo Duterte and all his security officials were on an official visit to Russia. Duterte and his defense chief Delfin Lorenzana have admitted that the government has underestimated the capability of the armed insurgents that spearheaded the attack.

The military said foreign IS fighters based in Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Middle East like Syria have helped in planning and executing the attack.

Marawi City's more than 200,000 residents have fled the fierce fighting and military airstrikes that have damaged or destroyed several buildings and houses. Most of the evacuees, including women and children, are now housed in different evacuation centers in Iligan City and nearby areas.

The military is still conducting clearing operations to retake the city from about 100 militants who are still hiding inside some buildings and mosques in some parts of the city.

Duterte has placed the entire Mindanao Island under 60-day martial rule in the wake of the deadly attack. The AFP is currently studying whether to extend or lift the martial law, Padilla said, adding the final assessment report and recommendation will be submitted to Duterte this coming week before the martial law declaration expires on July 22.
People walk past a logo of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, March 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

ROME, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Representatives from Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, have shared their experience of rural finance and poverty-alleviation efforts with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN's specialized agency leading international efforts to defeat hunger.

During Investment Days 2017, a knowledge sharing event hosted by FAO Investment Center on Thursday in Rome, Chen Jiayi, head of Rural Finance Business Unit of Ant Financial, told stories about three Chinese farmers on how they got rid of poverty through digital inclusive finance.

Ai Huangxi, a 51-year-old farmer, was one of them who received loans from Ant Financial. He was lift out of poverty after applying for a loan via his mobile phone from Ant Financial Services Group.

He bought a tricycle and makes a living in his hometown by transporting goods instead of being forced to coastal cities to find a job. He now repays his loans via Alipay, a leading mobile payment platform in China.

As in other countries, in China lack of collateral prevents farmers from securing a loan from financial institutions and in turn it's difficult for them to get rid of poverty and become better off. But the developed e-commerce industry, which covers every corner of the country, and fintech giants find a way to break the circle.

Cooperating with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) Microfinance, a social enterprise with 3,000 representatives operating in 245 of China's poorest counties, Ant Financial explored an "online + offline" lending model -- leveraging the power of partners' knowledge of loan applicants -- to meet the financial needs of rural people.

In addition to CFPA Microfinance, Ant Financial also works with Rural Taobao to identify risks in lending process.

"We want to bring equal access to finance to farmers," Chen Jiayi told FAO officials and specialists.

According to Chen, Ant Financial also grants loans to farmers through MYbank, an internet bank without physical branch and value chain model. The former model allows farmers to apply for loans in three minutes and without any manual intervention while the latter leverages key agri-enterprises' credit and data (both upstream and downstream) to issue loans to farmers.

Data shows that as of March, Ant Financial has provided more than 160 million rural residents with financial services including payment, wealth management, insurance purchases and loans. A total of 1.757 million rural businesses, self-employed businesses, and farmers benefited from these services.

Carlo Bravi, project coordinator of Investment Center Division under FAO's Technical Cooperation Department, said that Ant Financial's rural finance model is really innovative, given to the fact that e-commerce is not being used to sell agricultural products from small producers.

"It was relevant to our business model which has poverty reduction as the final goal... The presentation was effective in conveying the message that a strong digitalized ecosystem, covering urban but also increasingly in rural areas, can be effective in contributing to rural poverty reduction," he said.

He indicated a "strong interest in establishing collaboration" between Ant Financial and the FAO. This can materialize between Rural Taobao plus Ant Financial on one side and FAO as a whole, but also more specifically with the Investment Center of FAO around targeted investment operation, Bravi said.

Niu Xueming, senior economist with FAO, said Ant Financial brings equal and convenient inclusive finance to rural users and small businesses via its technology and ecosystem, which is a good example for other countries and worth replicating in developing countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 19:46:30|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief for Egypt Chris Jarvis has voiced "strong support for Cairo's economic reform program," according to official news agency MENA on Saturday.

"Measures taken by the Egyptian government, such as increasing the prices of fuel and electricity and imposing the value-added tax, should have a positive impact on the budget," Jarvis said in statement to MENA.

"Such measures help achieve initial surplus in the budget of the Egyptian government for the first time in 10 years," he added, describing it as "an important achievement."

Increasing the prices of fuel and electricity was part of the Egyptian government plan to reduce energy subsidy to secure more funds for better education and social protection programs, the IMF's official said.

The IMF said Thursday that it had approved a second loan installment worth 1.25 billion dollars for Egypt.

Egypt agreed to a three-year, 12 billion dollars loan program in November that is tied to ambitious economic reforms such as subsidy cuts and tax hikes.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 20:01:34|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge late Thursday ruled that the Trump administration's travel ban could not stop grandparents and other close relatives of residents from entering the United States.

Judge Derrick K. Watson of the Federal District Court in Honolulu wrote in a decision that grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of persons in the United States will be considered to have sufficiently close family relationships to gain entry into the country.

Opponents of the travel ban cheered the ruling, while U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday he would appeal it directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the ruling stands, it will be another heavy blow that President Donald Trump has to suffer over his controversial travel ban.

In January -- a week after his inauguration -- Trump signed an executive order barring people from majority-Muslim Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days, and Syrians from entering until he decides otherwise.

However, the ban was quickly blocked by several courts, as judges believed Trump's decision was unconstitutional.

Last month, the Supreme Court finally greenlighted a scaled-back version of the travel ban. But it also pointed out that applicants who have a "bona fide relationship" with a person in the United States would be exempt from the ban, without specifying what kind of relationship qualifies as "bona fide."

The U.S. State Department said "bona fide relationships" include spouses, parents, parents-in-law, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, fiances and siblings. Grandparents, along with other relatives, should not be recognized as such.

Disagreeing with the administration's interpretation, Hawaii's Attorney General Doug Chin brought the issue to the court where Judge Watson found the interpretation incorrect.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson said in his ruling. "Indeed grandparents are the epitome of close family members."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 20:06:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

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GENEVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A new round of talks will be convened in early September to end the war that has ravaged Syria since 2011, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told a press conference Friday.

"We have just concluded the seventh round of talks. We have made incremental progress, no breakthrough, no breakdowns, no one walked out," the UN envoy told reporters.

The peace process to end the six-year Syrian civil war has been long, but so far unfruitful.

However, after reconvening for a week, some small steps were made toward the goal of de Mistura.

The Italian-Swedish diplomat, who has headed the UN peace efforts in Syria since July 2014, spelled out that during the week-long talks, he asked all involved parties to discuss substantial issues on four topics: governance, constitution, re-elections and anti-terrorism.

The last UN-led talks aimed at brokering a political solution between Syria's warring factions ended on May 19 without going deeper into the scheduled topics.

De Mistura stressed that this week had involved "preparatory work" aimed at getting people "closer to each other" and he had sought to "assist the opposition to start working closely together."

He met and spoke to the Syrian government delegation and opposition members separately, hoping to push them all to finally "sit in the same room."

The UN-led peace talks in Geneva are important in the process for a political solution to the Syrian conflict and the most important thing now is to maintain the peace process in a sustainable manner without disruption or stalling, China's special envoy on the Syrian issue Xie Xiaoyan told Xinhua.

Xie said China supports the UN in playing a leading mediation role and is willing to make positive contributions to the talks to achieve concrete results as soon as possible.

"At present, there are still big differences between and among the Syrian government and the oppositions, so a step-by-step approach should be taken to handle the relatively easier problems first so as to forge more consensus and accumulate mutual trust," he said.

Before Friday's meeting with the press, de Mistura had engaged with members of the UN Security Council in New York by telephone about progress in the seventh round of talks that started on Monday.

UN negotiators have in the past noted the inability of the Security Council to achieve unanimity on Syria as a stumbling block in the peace process, but de Mistura said Friday that he noticed "quite a change in tone" among them.

"It was a meeting in which I detected complete, total and unanimous support to what we are trying to do here," said the UN envoy.

De Mistura noted the precursor to the latest Geneva talks included a May meeting involving Russia and Turkey in Astana, Kazakhstan, followed by an agreement earlier this month in Amman brokered by the United States, Russia, and Jordan for a ceasefire in southern Syria, which coincided with the G20 summit in Hamburg where Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

De Mistura also spoke about a contact group set up by France and said he had been "quite intensively" in contact with a team led by French President Emmanuel Macron recently on how France could contribute to working with the UN on Syria.

The UN negotiator cited Macron as saying that "We want to put in a contact group and I feel very comfortable with that ... The only way to have fruitful negotiations is through the UN process."

This meshed with what Chinese envoy Xie said in the interview who stressed that another priority now is to consolidate the ceasefire on the ground and at the same time achieve some periodical results.

"Negotiation itself is not the purpose. Some phased fruits are needed to give confidence to both sides of the negotiations and to the regional and international community," he said.

It is also important to adhere to the principle of self-determination in the political process of the Syrian issue, namely, to let the Syrian people decide their own future, said the Chinese senior diplomat.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 20:36:47|Editor: An

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the National Financial Work Conference which is held from July 14 to 15, in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China will set up a commission under the State Council to oversee financial stability and development, according to President Xi Jinping.

The country will resolutely deepen financial reforms including improving financial regulation coordination and shoring up weak links in supervision, Xi told a two-day National Financial Work Conference that ended Saturday.

China's central bank will play a stronger role in macro prudential management and guarding against systemic risks, Xi added.

Financial regulators should carry out their duties with dedication to monitor, warn against and deal with risks in a timely fashion, he said.

The government will also enhance coordination and connectivity of financial infrastructure and promote sharing of statistics and supervision information, according to Xi.

The conference has been convened every five years since 1997 and is widely considered to set the tone for financial reforms.

Related:

President Xi urges stronger financial regulation to contain risks

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping called for stronger financial regulation to contain risks at a two-day National Financial Work Conference that ended Saturday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 20:51:57|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RIYADH, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Saudi police have killed three terrorists in cross fire in Qatif region in the Eastern Province, sources confirmed to Sabq online news on Saturday.

The three were involved in a number of terrorist crimes against citizens and security personnel, it said.

Meanwhile, Al Arabiya local news highlighted that one of the three was a Bahraini terrorist, while his brother was arrested.

The Bahraini was a fugitive in a terrorist list of nine individuals. Now the list has only six fugitives to be arrested, and the government announced 266,553 U.S. dollars as a reward for providing information about any of the wanted.

The police announced on Friday that a Saudi soldier was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Qatif.

Saudi Arabia executed four local extremists convicted in numerous terror attacks in Qatif last week. The ministry confirmed that they were involved in several terror attacks since 2011, including shooting, using weapons and explosive devices that targeted the Tarut police station and several security patrol units in the restive Eastern province area.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 21:02:02|Editor: Zhou Xin

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JAKARTA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 struck off Gorontlo province of central Indonesia on Saturday evening, but was not potential for tsunami, the meteorology and geophysics agency said here.

The quake rocked at 19 : 12 p.m. Jakarta time (1212 GMT) with epicenter at 40 km southwest of Boalemo town and the depth at 100 km under seabed, official of the agency Wahyu Kurniawan told Xinhua by phone.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it sits on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 22:04:03|Editor: An

Contestants from Yuxi City show their ethnic dressing during an ethnic dress festival held in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 14, 2017. The final competition of the ethnic dress festival was held in Chuxiong on Friday. (Xinhua/Yang Zongyou)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 21:37:20|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ISTANBUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkey marked its national holiday of "democracy and unity" on Saturday in bid to celebrate the anniversary of foiling the failed coup launched last July.

Turkey has embarked on the major purge in Turkey's history, arresting 50,000 people and sacking over 100,000 more. Erdogan also shored up his position by winning a referendum on enhancing his powers earlier this year.

In the recent wave of dismissals ordered just hours another 7,563 police, soldiers and other state employees were fired under the state of emergency that has been in place since July 20 last year.

The coup bid also frayed ties between the United States and European Union with NATO member Turkey, which accused its allies of failing to show solidarity.

Gulen has always denied involvement in the coup bid and in a new statement Friday said the accusations were "baseless, politically motivated slanders" and slammed a "witch hunt" of Erdogan's critics.

Saturday's commemorations target at etching July 15, 2016 into the minds of Turks as a key date in the history of the modern state.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 21:52:28|Editor: Lu Hui

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China has been making progress in judicial protection of human rights since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, according to a signed article written by Qi Ju and carried by Xinhua.

The judiciary is the last line of defense to safeguard social fairness and justice. Since 2012, significant achievements have been made in promoting legislation based on rational analysis, strict law enforcement, judicial justice, and observance of the law by all citizens, it said.

The country has strengthened the mechanism of judicial protection of human rights, including efforts to allocate judicial powers and responsibilities in a more rational way, improving the judicial accountability system, promoting judicial transparency and advancing the reform of trial-centered litigation.

China ensures lawyers' right of practice so that lawyers play a bigger role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned.

The country has abolished the system of reeducation through labor and established a national judicial assistance system.

China continues to improve the judicial guarantee procedure of human rights. Reforms have been advanced to ensure that cases are filed and properly handled. Judicial organs have implemented principles of presumption of innocence and exclusion of unlawful evidence to protect the legitimate rights of suspects.

China strictly limits the death penalty and employs it with prudence.

Detainees' legitimate rights and interests are guaranteed by the improving conditions of prisons and detention houses and enhanced scrutiny of supervisory activities and the execution of punishment. The country has standardized commutation, parole, and execution of sentences outside prison and safeguards the detainees' personal dignity, safety, legal property, and legitimate rights including the rights to defense, to appeal, to complain, and to report violations of the law.

National amnesty has been implemented to highlight humanitarianism.

PROTECTING LAWYERS' RIGHT OF PRACTICE

China has made or revised laws and regulations to ensure lawyers' right of practice. In 2015, regulations were issued to make clear various measures to protect lawyers' right of practice, including the rights to know, to meet their clients and read case files.

In 2016, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued opinions on advancing reform in the lawyer system, aiming to safeguard lawyers' litigation rights, improving the mechanism for governments to purchase legal services and improving social security policies for lawyers.

By March 2017, all 31 provincial-level lawyer associations had established lawyers' rights protection centers. In April, a circular was jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, and Ministry of Justice to further clarify different departments' duties in safeguarding lawyers' right to practice.

REDRESSING MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

Judicial organs nationwide have implemented the principle of presumption of innocence to prevent and correct the miscarriage of justice.

In 2013, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular on improving law enforcement to prevent miscarriage of justice, along with other documents to prevent cases of wrong verdicts and to strengthen comprehensive, complete and real-time scrutiny of law enforcement to prevent miscarriage of justice at the source.

The Ministry of Justice issued the Opinions on Maximizing the Functions of the Forensic Assessment System to Prevent Miscarriages of Justice to strengthen forensic assessment management and further regulate such activities.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate released a circular to prevent and correct miscarriage of justice by better performing procuratorial functions, including scrutinizing all activities concerning evidence, procedures and application of laws, improving the system of discovery, correction, and prevention of wrong verdicts, and holding those responsible accountable.

Moreover, the Supreme People's Court issued the Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Working Mechanisms for the Prevention of Miscarriages of Justice in Criminal Cases, stipulating that the defendants should be acquitted for lack of evidence, and no one should be prosecuted without criminal evidence.

A number of wrongful convictions have been overturned in accordance with the law.

EXCLUSION OF UNLAWFUL EVIDENCE

China has clarified rules to exclude unlawful evidence in its laws to protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects, according to the article.

The Criminal Procedure Law revised in 2012 makes it clear that confessions extorted through illegal means, such as torture, and witness testimony and depositions of victims obtained illegally, such as by violence or threats, should be excluded during the trials.

In June 2017, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice jointly released a regulation on the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence in criminal cases, clarifying identification criteria and procedures to exclude unlawful evidence.

For example, the regulation makes it clear that forced self-incrimination is prohibited.

According to the regulation, confessions, witness testimony and depositions of victims obtained by force will no longer be accepted as evidence.

Defenders of criminal suspects are allowed to apply for illegal evidence to be ruled out during the investigation, empowering lawyers with a more effective role in procedural defense.

China has made well-acknowledged achievements in advancing the rule of law, guaranteeing the rights of legal practitioners and judicial protection of human rights since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012.
Our choice of a congressperson has made Montana citizens a subject of criticism and judgment throughout the United States.

All I can say to the out-of-state critics is, I agree with you. But I agree with a caveat. We were given a choice of two candidates by the leaders of Montanas Democratic and Republican parties. These candidates werent chosen because the Republican and Democrat leaders thought they could win, i.e., name recognition. The only ability they demonstrated was they were able to run campaigns as mean-spirited and vicious as a seasoned political veteran.

So I say to the out-of-state critics, if you are going to judge us, dont judge us only on our politicians, but by our renowned citizens, such as Christina and Dani Aragon.

These sisters are not only two of best runners in America, but the fact that they were accepted by and are successful at Stanford and Notre Dame, attest to their integrity, intelligence and ability to work had among other qualities. Give us a break, out-of-staters. We Montanans have a great many citizens we can be proud of.

Vince Ruegamer

Billings
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 22:02:37|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RIYADH, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Jalaluddin al-Tunisi, head of the Islamic State (IS) faction in Libya, is most likely to become the new IS leader after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a report said Saturday.

Al-Tunisi is one of the most important candidates to succeed al-Baghdadi, as the terror group seeks to survive and even expand in North Africa after its losses in Iraq and Syria, the Saudi TV station Al Arabiya reported.

The IS has confirmed the death of al-Baghdadi, who was reportedly killed in a Russian airstrike in Syria, the Iraqi news agency al-Sumaria News reported Tuesday.

The IS circulated a brief statement through its media in the town of Tal Afar in the west of Mosul, confirming the killing of al-Baghdadi while claiming that the name of a new leader would be announced soon.

The news report came a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared Mosul liberated from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting.

IS desperately needs a new leader in order to seek survival and ensure its continued existence after its recent losses in Iraq and Syria.

A few IS leaders are left now, and al-Tunisi is one of the most important names qualified to succeed Baghdadi, Al Arabiya reported.

Al-Tunisi, whose real name is Mohamed Ben Salem al-Ayouni, was born in 1982 in the Masaken region of the coastal province of Sousse in Tunisia.

Al-Tunisi immigrated to France since the 1990s and obtained French citizenship before returning to Tunisia upon the revolution.

In 2011, he moved to Syria to participate in the civil war there. He announced in 2014 to join IS after the killing of the commander of the "Ghoraba battalion."

Al-Tunisi has been very close to al-Baghdadi, who named him last year as the IS leader in Libya, believing that he was able to win battles and maintain good relations with other extremist groups in North Africa, Al Arabia reported.

North Africa is at the top of the regions where IS is seeking to survive and expand in the future. Libya, especially its insecure south, provides a safe haven for terrorists as they can operate freely there and secure the financing through smuggling goods.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 22:07:40|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Iran's navy forces attended a joint exercise in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Russian fleet, including Russia's Makhachkala battleship from the country's Caspian Sea Marine Brigade, took part in the drills.

The fleet had berthed at Iran's northern port city of Anzali on Wednesday as part of programs intended to boost military cooperation between the two countries.

It was the fifth Russian naval flotilla visiting the Iranian Caspian port in the past decade as parts of their naval vessels making regular "friendly port calls."

Iran has also dispatched fleets to the Russian ports on similar missions.

In October 2016, a Russian naval flotilla arrived in Anzali in response to the dispatch of Iran's naval fleets to Astrakhan in southern Russia in September. The visits aimed to convey messages of peace and to help improve bilateral ties.

More fleets from Caspian littoral states would arrive in Iran's northern ports in the future, said Iran's Rear Admiral Afshin Rezaei Haddad.

He added that the navies of five Caspian littoral countries are cooperating to secure it as the sea for peace, mutual respect and good-neighborliness.

Iran has sent several fleets with the same mission from the country's northern and southern waters to the high seas.
A crew member stands on the deck of the Russian Navy's Buyan-class missile corvette Serpukhov during the International Maritime Defence Show in Saint Petersburg on June 28, 2017. (AFP Photo)

TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Iran's navy forces attended a joint exercise in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Russian fleet, including Russia's Makhachkala battleship from the country's Caspian Sea Marine Brigade, took part in the drills.

The fleet had berthed at Iran's northern port city of Anzali on Wednesday as part of programs intended to boost military cooperation between the two countries.

It was the fifth Russian naval flotilla visiting the Iranian Caspian port in the past decade as parts of their naval vessels making regular "friendly port calls."

Iran has also dispatched fleets to the Russian ports on similar missions.

In October 2016, a Russian naval flotilla arrived in Anzali in response to the dispatch of Iran's naval fleets to Astrakhan in southern Russia in September. The visits aimed to convey messages of peace and to help improve bilateral ties.

More fleets from Caspian littoral states would arrive in Iran's northern ports in the future, said Iran's Rear Admiral Afshin Rezaei Haddad.

He added that the navies of five Caspian littoral countries are cooperating to secure it as the sea for peace, mutual respect and good-neighborliness.

Iran has sent several fleets with the same mission from the country's northern and southern waters to the high seas.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 22:27:48|Editor: An

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Boeing has received more than 60 orders and commitments from China for its newly launched 737 MAX 10, a member of the 737 MAX single-aisle aircraft family, according to Boeing China on Saturday.

The orders come from emerging airlines such as Ruili Airlines, as well as all-Boeing-fleet airlines such as Xiamen Airlines, OK Airlines and Donghai Airlines and some Chinese releasing companies, said Boeing China.

It is quite noteworthy to see Chinese clients become launch customers of Boeing's new aircraft model, said Darren Hulst, Managing Director of Marketing for Northeast Asia at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Boeing launched the 737 MAX 10, the largest member of the 737 MAX aircraft family, at the 2017 Paris Airshow in June.

Installed with CFM LEAP-1B engines, the 737 MAX 10 is capable of flying at a maximum range of 5,955 kilometers.

It is capable of carrying up to 230 passengers with a single-class layout in an all economy-seat version. The aircraft has a body length of 43.8 meters.

The 737 MAX 10 will better serve Chinese airlines to meet the surging demand in high-density air routes with large passenger flows and tense flight schedules, said Hulst.

The 737 MAX aircraft family continues to be the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history, gaining more than 3,800 orders from 88 customers worldwide.
Some migrants sit on a rubber boat near the coast of Tripoli, Libya, on Oct. 5, 2015. Libyan coast guard intercepted a batch of migrants trying to reach Europe off Tripoli coast. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

GENEVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The UN migration agency IOM reported Friday that 103,175 migrants and refugees had entered Europe by sea in 2017 as of July 12.

Up to that date, there were 2,357 deaths during Mediterranean Sea crossings involving migrants and refugees trying to get to Europe.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the figures showed that almost 85 percent of people had arrived in Italy and the remainder came to Greece, Cyprus and Spain. Many of the migrants had left from Libya in North Africa.

By contrast, in the same period last year, there were 240,014 people who had landed in Europe after making perilous sea crossings.

IOM said its Rome spokesperson, Flavio Di Giacomo, reported that as of July 9, a total of 86,121 migrants had arrived in Italy by sea.

He explained that the total did not include most of the 7,721 migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean route between July 10 and 12.

IOM's spokesperson in Libya, Christine Petre reported that on July 13, some 263 migrants were rescued at sea in two separate incidents.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 22:42:53|Editor: MJ

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LONDON, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Saturday that Britain could remain in the European Union(EU), despite its Brexit referendum vote.

In his biggest intervention yet in the Brexit saga, Blair has outlined his views in an article for his Institute for Global Change. This was followed by a series of high-profile media interviews.

Blair, a strong supporter of Britain remaining with the EU, said "It is absolutely necessary that it doesn't happen". Brexit, he said, is the biggest political decision since the Second World War.

According to media reports, Blair said EU leaders would be willing to change their rules on immigration and free movement to enable Britain to stay in the 28-nation trading and economic bloc. But pressed in interviews, he declined to identify the sources who had indicated which leaders he was referring to.

Blair said in interviews that the option of reversing Brexit must be kept on the table, claiming large numbers of the population do not back a so-called hard exit of the EU.

He suggested the will of the people may be changing as the difficulties of Brexit negotiations become apparent. Blair urged a proper debate over the different options, including remaining in a reformed EU.

In his article, Blair outlined his views of the current situation in Britain.

"This time last year we were the fastest growing economy in the G7. We are now the slowest," he said, "The international investment community is negative on us. The savings rate is at its lowest in 50 years. Incomes are stagnating. The international reputation of Britain is rapidly losing altitude. There is a daily drip of worrying news on Brexit.The Grenfell Tower tragedy sums up for many the sorry condition of our social cohesion."

He described Britain as feel like a country which has lost its footing and is stumbling, but seemingly with no choice but to stagger on.

"The Macron (French President Emmanuel Macron) victory (in France) changes the political dynamics of Europe. The members of the Euro zone will integrate economic decision-making. Inevitably, therefore, Europe will comprise an inner and outer circle. Reform is now on Europe's agenda. The European leaders, certainly from my discussions, are willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain, including around freedom of movement," added Blair, saying the 27 remaining EU members will stick together in defending the rules of the Single Market.

He said rational consideration of the options would sensibly include the option of negotiating for Britain to stay within a Europe itself prepared to reform and "meet us half way", wrote Blair.

Blair told Sky News Saturday: "I think it's absolutely necessary that it (Brexit) doesn't happen because I think every day is bringing us fresh evidence that it's doing us damage economically, certainly doing us damage politically."

Blair served as British prime minister for 10 years from 1997, winning a landslide victory that kept the Labour government in power for years.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following meetings in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, May 16, 2017. (AFP Photo)

TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) - Iran on Saturday slammed the U.S. President Trump's description of the country as a rogue state, Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted the foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

"Trump ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi.

President Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syriaand the governments that finance and support them."

Senior Iranian officials have blamed U.S-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 23:43:16|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Kashmiri people carry the body of a militant during his funeral procession at a village in Pulwama district, about 30 km south of Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 16, 2017. Three militants were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight with troops in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Three militants were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight with troops in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The gunfight between militants and government forces broke out at Satoora village of Tral in Pulwama district, about 50 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"A gunfight triggered at Satoora-Tral today in which three militants were killed," a police spokesman said. "The stand-off was going on in the forest area."

According to police spokesman, the area was cordoned off on specific intelligence inputs about presence of militants.

The identity of slain militants was being ascertained.

Reports said while the gunfight was going on, villagers hit the roads and tried to march to the gunfight sight to clash with government forces to help militants escape but they were chased by police. Police fired dozens of tear smoke shells and warning shots to chase the protesters. Six people were reportedly injured in the clashes.

According to police, government forces have not suffered any damage during the stand-off.

On Wednesday, three militants were killed in a gunfight in Budgam district.

Meanwhile, a paramilitary trooper of India's Central Reserve Police Force was wounded Saturday evening after militants hurled a grenade towards them in Kulgam town.

So far no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A guerrilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the region since 1989. Gunfights often take place between the two sides.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.
A sign of peace and the Rabaa sign, symbolizing support for the Muslim Brotherhood, are seen behind bars as defendants accused of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor sit in a cage in a courtroom, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, June 17, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday decided to defer to July 30 the retrial of former president Mohamed Morsi and several Muslim Brotherhood members on prison break charges.

The defendants also face charges of attacking police facilities and killing police officers in the wake of the January 25 Revolution, according to the state-run MENA news agency.

In November 2016, the Cassation Court overruled previous sentences against the defendants that had been issued by a Cairo court, and ordered a retrial.

In June 2015, Cairo Criminal Court had sentenced to death by hanging Morsi, supreme guide of the MB group Mohamed Badie and his deputy Rashad el Bayoumi, as well as MB member Mohie Hamed, MB leader Esssam el Eryan and former parliament speaker Mohamed el Katatny.

Twenty other defendants had been sentenced to life in prison and two more defendants received prison terms.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 23:53:21|Editor: MJ

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CAPE TOWN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- South African Deputy President Ramaphosa on Saturday voiced opposition to an attempt seeking a court ruling to order him to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the allegations of state capture.

This came after several civil organizations fielded an application to the Constitutional Court, requesting the court to order Ramaphosa to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the alleged state capture.

Ramaphosa said he opposes this application based on his understanding that the Constitution does not permit the Deputy President to exercise presidential powers.

However, Ramaphosa reiterated his widely stated support for the establishment, without delay, of a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.

In the court bid, the AfriForum, the Quaker Peace Centre and the F.W. de Klerk Foundation are seeking a ruling to get President Jacob Zuma to recuse himself from appointing such a judicial commission.

They ask the Constitutional Court to declare Zuma unable to appoint the commission's judge, as he was "conflicted". Instead they want an order to compel Ramaphosa to appoint the Commission of Inquiry.

Zuma is embroiled in the alleged state capture, which refers to systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state's decision-making processes to their own advantage.

The case in point is Zuma's close ties with the wealthy Indian Gupta family which has wielded undue influence on Zuma in the appointment of cabinet ministers and the awarding of lucrative contracts with state-owned enterprieses.

Both Zuma and the Guptas have denied the allegations.

Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela last year called for a judicial commission to be established to investigate state capture allegations.

Zuma has said he was not opposed to the commission, but his legal team had advised him that the Public Protector had no legal or constitutional right to tell him what to do.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 23:58:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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QUITO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 people were killed and 26 injured Friday night in a bus accident on the highway in central Ecuador, local authorities said Saturday.

The accident occurred around 10 p.m. Friday evening on the highway linking the capital Quito and the city of La Mana when a bus overturned and caught fire later, according to local police.

The injured were rushed to seven surrounding hospitals, according to the Ministry of Public Health. The local authorities are working on the identification of the deceased passengers and finding the cause of the accident.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 00:28:33|Editor: Yamei

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi shakes hands with a military officer before a celebration for liberation of Mosul in Mosul, Iraq, July 10, 2017. Haider al-Abadi on Monday formally declared Mosul liberated from Islamic State (IS) militant group after nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

by Jamal Hashim

BAGHDAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraq needs careful and wise plan to deal with division among factions and ensure lasting stability, as post-Islamic State (IS) stage came after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared historical victory over IS in Mosul, experts said.

Despite the landmark victory, the Iraqi forces still have to wage a new offensive to liberate less important IS redoubts.

Abadi formally declared Mosul liberated from IS on Monday after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

However, the military prevail is still not gained in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria, including Aana, Rawa, and al-Qaim.

Besides, there is a risk that the Iraqi factions, who united in front of battle against IS group, would fight each other for the spoils or their old arguments after IS was defeated.

Najib al-Jubouri, an Iraqi political expert, related the division to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying that the invasion has substantially decimated the fabric of the Iraqi society, sparking hatred and deep division among Iraqis.

"The occupation empowered some Iraqi factions and disenfranchised others, making co-existence among Iraqis difficult and sometimes almost impossible," he said, referring to the factions of the Iraqi security forces, predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units, Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Kurds took advantage of the collapse of the Iraqi security forces against IS in June 2014. It took control of large swaths of territories and named disputed areas outside their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. For the Kurds, the seized areas are hard to voluntarily abandon.

As for the Sunni Arab community, who are overwhelmingly relief for the liberation of their territories from IS militants, there is also fears about the Shiite-led government and the future.

The Sunnis believe that Baghdad Shiite-led government has long been ignoring complaints of the Sunni community, Jubouri said. "They also accuse the Shiite-dominated security forces and Iranian-backed militias of indiscriminately arresting, torturing and killing their sons," he added.

"Such complaints are very serious. Whether they were true, or partially true, the angry Sunnis went into more than a-year-long demonstrations and sit-in protests against the former Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who responded to the Sunni demands by storming their sit-in camps in Hawijah and Ramadi, sparking fierce armed conflict and bloodshed. Such policy by Maliki was a perfect opportunity for the extremist groups, including IS, to thrive," he said.

In the wake of widespread destruction and allegations of abuses, the Iraqi government should work on approaches to regain the trust of the Sunni Arabs and bring them back effectively to the political process, thus preventing the re-emergence of violent extremism.

It would be ideal to keep the unity of all Iraqi factions against IS militants, and make it strong enough to continue to forge a national identity that would make all Iraqi factions follow the best interests of all the people of Iraq rather than their own parties.

It requires careful and wise planning "to deal with the political and social division among the Iraqi factions, mainly the major factions Kurds and Sunni Arabs," said Jubouri.

"There is also a need for coordination between the Iraqi government, neighboring countries and the international community in order to curb the interventions that fuel the struggle inside Iraq," Jubouri added.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Safi, representative of Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, conveyed on Friday Sistani's advice to the political leaders to plan carefully for the post-IS stage.

"Everyone should be aware that resorting to violence, oppression and sectarian provocation would only lead to more bloodshed and destruction of the country, and would open the door wide for regional and international interventions," Safi said in the weekly Friday prayer in the holy Shiite city of Karbala.

Meanwhile, Abbas al-Baiyati, a Turkoman Shiite lawmaker said in an interview with Iraqi local television that the failure of the post-invasion governments to meet their citizens' economic and security needs had created conditions for the terrorist group to thrive, as well as continued infighting and corrupting inside the government.

Therefore, there is a need for a change in the political rhetoric of the government and the politicians as well to be more inclusive to all Iraqi factions, he said.

"There is also a need for the next general elections to change the politicians and for the political entities to adopt national rhetoric in their election campaigns and dismiss the factional attitudes," Baiyati added.

"Since the regime change in 2003, Iraq has failed to build a stable and pluralistic state, but with IS group is on the run elsewhere in Iraq after the great victory in Mosul, Iraqis should seize the opportunity to give life to the political process and give themselves peace after years of chaos and bloodshed," Jubouri concluded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 02:23:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Any agreement on Syria should observe its integrity, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said here on Saturday, Press TV reported.

He made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting Russia's special envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, saying any agreement should observe an "unchangeable principle" that it "should not prepare the ground for Syria's disintegration."

All sides involved in the Syrian talks must respect the country's national sovereignty, he stressed.

The Iranian security official warned that Israel and its allies are at work to undermine the sovereignty of the legal Syrian government.

He described as "unacceptable" the moves by some "terrorist" groups to take advantage of political talks and cease-fire to restore power.

Lavrentiev said Iran, Russia and Syria are playing a leading and determining role in the fight against terrorism.

Iran and Russia have emerged as staunch regional allies of Syria in the country's long-lasting conflict.

On July 10, the chairman of Iran parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission reiterated that Iran would continue its military advisory mission to Syria in its fight against terrorism.

"We reserve our right to support the Syrian people and government in the fight against terrorists," Alaeddin Boroujerdi said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 02:23:54|Editor: Liangyu

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by Xinhua writers Tian Ying, Ren Ke

BERLIN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- In a classroom in Dortmund-based vocational training center, Berufsfoerderungswerk (BFW), 12 Chinese teenagers, working in pairs, are assembling pneumatic cylinders while discussing with their partners in Sichuan dialect.

The teenagers, mostly aged 17, are students of the Pujiang vocational Secondary School in Pujiang county of southwest China's Sichuan province. Financed partly by the county government, they are on a study tour from July 2 to 21 to get a glimpse of Germany's vocational training savvy, with courses at BFW as main activities.

Back home, they are among the first 28 Chinese students in Pujiang to receive a German-style duel system of vocational education on a demonstration project jointly initiated by the German Chambers of Commerce (AHK) in Shanghai, the Pujiang government and a technical college in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

Across China, the China-German AHK demonstration programs have been carried out by more than 10 institutes in various economic hubs.

Bridged by the AHK in Shanghai, the 12 students got the opportunity to study in BFW, a professional rehabilitation center offering quality vocational training for those who want to find or change jobs.

In the BFW classroom, desks, chairs and a blackboard are installed in the front, while operation platforms for various devices in the back. The Chinese students took to operation platforms to practice right after listening to instructions on pneumatic circuit by Tobias Haehnel, their German teacher, aided by an interpreter.

Seeing that cylinder assembled by most students worked, Tobias said "I think these students have grasped what I've lectured."

The Chinese students were most impressed by the state-of-the-arts machineries used in BFW. "Components I manufactured with German tuning mills here are of great precision," said Yang Kailun, one of the students.

Huang Yike, another student, marveled at rigorous implementation of the 5S, a workplace management methodology, by German teachers and practitioners. "We were required to remove all the scraps and vacuum leftovers after using the turning mill, as delicate maintenance helps sustain precision of the tuning mill."

"Our students' horizon has been broadened," said Xiong Jiping, a Chinese teacher with the Pujiang Vocational Secondary School heading the group. He found out Germany's strong suit in vocational training lied in quality machineries adopted in teaching and teachers with both substantial theoretical training and hands-on experience.

"The lecturer who taught our kids digitally controlled programming is an expert from Siemens, and he worked in BFW on a part-time basis," Xiong said.

Meanwhile, Xiong also noted the progresses made in China's vocational training. "Nowadays, both the government and schools have become aware of the necessity of the dual system." The dual system in Germany was marked by participation of both schools and enterprises in vocational education.

The progresses came partly as a result of closer cooperation between China and Germany in vocational training.

Xiong believed, as China's economic restructuring demands sufficient supply of high-end technicians, cooperation in vocational training between the two countries will be closer.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 03:49:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIGA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Around 6,000 pigs will have to be culled at an eastern Latvian farm that has been hit by African swine fever (ASF) this week, the Latvian veterinary authority informed on Saturday.

The Latgales Bekons farm in Viski municipality in Daugavpils district is the third large pig farm stricken by the deadly porcine infection in Latvia this year.

The Food and Veterinary Service has dispatched its staff to Latgales Bekons to take preventive measures, cull the pigs and conduct an epidemiological inquiry to find out how the infection could get into the farm.

Since the affected farm is registered with the Agricultural Data Center its owner can claim compensation for the killed animals, said the Food and Veterinary Service's spokeswoman Ilze Meistere.

As part of the routine preventive measures, quarantine has been declared ten kilometers around the affected farm. In this territory, veterinary inspectors will be monitoring biosafety measures, the health pigs and the movement of transport vehicles carrying animals or meat products.

Latgales Bekons, currently the largest swine breeding farm in Latgale, has been involved in this business for more than 40 years.

Dzintra Lejniece, the head of the Latvian Association of Pig Producers, said that the company commanded a substantial market share in the region of Latgale and had not only been growing pigs but also processing and selling pork.

Lejniece described the outbreak of African swine fever at Latgles Bekons as a disaster, admitting that for the time being it was not clear how the deadly virus could spread to the farm known for high biosafety standards.

At the beginning of this year, the Latvian pig farming industry suffered serious damage as African swine fever was found on two other large pig farms, which also had to cull thousands of animals to stem the outbreak.

The virus causes no threat to people but is lethal in pigs and boars.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 04:14:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Lyu Tianran, Mohammed M.Mupenda and James Gashumba

KIGALI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Rwandans will go to polls on August 4 to decide the presidency for the next seven years. Various achievements have been made under the current government led by Incumbent President Paul Kagame, and Rwandans said they believe in their own path for development.

Kagame, who represents the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), is seeking re-election. Other two presidential candidates are Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate.

The government's achievements in the past seven years include unity, poverty reduction, peace, security, fighting corruption, inclusive development, accountability and justice as foundation for sustainable development, infrastructure development and environment conservation, women empowerment, according to Anastase Shyaka, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board.

Government has various social protection programs. Elderly or disabled are given subsistence allowances. Rwanda alongside Mauritius was ranked the third least corrupt country in sub-Saharan Africa on the global Corruption Perception Index released in January 2017.

According to the Rwandan Household Living Conditions Survey released by the government in 2012, at least 1 million Rwandans have been lifted out of poverty in five years.

Over the past seven years, more than 7,000 households were given cows, over 100 schools were constructed in Gisagara district, read RPF's daily campaign brief issued after Kagame joined presidential campaigns in the district. In Nyaruguru district, 33 kilometers of feeder roads were built, the bridges increased to 40 from 26 in 2010, the number of households connected to the grid has increased by 20 percent since 2010.

Kagame has been president since 2000 when he was elected transitional president by ministers and members of parliament following the resignation of then President Pasteur Bizimungu. He was then reelected in 2003 and 2010.

"Some people have said that the result of the election is a foregone conclusion. They are not wrong. Rwandans made their position clear in 2015," Kagame said at his first campaign rally in Ruhango District in Southern Province.

Rwandans in 2015 voted in a constitutional referendum that allowed Kagame to seek re-election after his term expires in 2017. Some 98 percent of voters voted "yes."

The United States expressed "disappointment" that the referendum was called on short notice to amend the Rwandan constitution and introduce exceptions to term limits. The Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda also expressed concern that the one week run-up to the referendum in Rwanda neither fully explained the constitutional changes, nor offered sufficient time and space for debate.

After the referendum, Kagame in a veiled message said statements that depict Rwandans as people incapable of either thought or feeling are "deliberately abusive."

Rwandans expect a democracy in which public office is routinely transferred from one individual of their choice to another, he said at annual national dialogue council after the referendum, adding that "Rwandans want a good politics that keeps delivering results, and respects the fundamental principles in our Constitution."

Rwanda has decided to use its own democratic way based on commonly accepted principles of democracy, to which it has subscribed including free and fair elections, human rights, rule of law, citizens' participation in shaping their future, inclusiveness for all, social protection and so on, Director General of Rwanda Management Institute Wellars Gasamagera told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Rwanda refused the western style of a copy and refused to paste the shortcut in the exercise of the democratic agenda, said Gasamagera.

"The country instituted such mechanisms like the forum of political parties based on constitutional principles of seeking consensual settlement of disputes while respecting differences," he said.

There are 11 political parties in Rwanda, among them RPF and eight opposition parities back Kagame in this year's election. "Those who think this specialty of Rwanda is not democracy, their studies on democracy were a waste of time because everywhere in the world what comes first in democracy is people's wish," Kagame said at his campaign rally.

"It's a wish based on many things such as how they see themselves, how they benefit, how they feel and how they want it. The decision that is made is of the majority but it respects the rights of all including those who don't agree with us."

The 1994's Rwanda genocide claimed over 1 million lives, mostly ethnic Tutsis. After ending the genocide, RPF formed a coalition government, which brought parties that did not participate in the genocide together, and started the journey of reconstruction and reconciliation.

Throughout Rwanda's reconstruction, Rwanda learned to count on its own efforts, secure its dignity, ensure that its path to development is based on self-reliance and not on western charity, said Gasamagera.

"I does not care about democracy for the westerners or wherever, what I care much is security, human rights, development, people's value, social well-being and prosperity," a 28-year-old Rwandan journalist, Anne Marie Dushimimana, told Xinhua.

She said she will vote for someone who is able to maintain security of Rwanda, has a clear vision for the country, and understands the value of the people.

Rwanda has a consensual form of democracy based on power sharing and this came into force in the 2003 constitution, said Kayumba Christopher, senior lecturer at the University of Rwanda. Those who usually criticize Rwanda, they should know that the country has laws, institutions and citizens' vote, he said in an interview.

Christopher said he will vote for the leader who understands the country's problems and know how to solve them.

Hamza Rukundo, a 19-year-old student, said he would vote for a leader who will bring security, keep the citizens employed regardless of their status.

Campaigns for the three qualified presidential candidates started on July 14 and will end on August 3, just a day before the voting day.

About 6.8 million people will participate in this year's presidential elections, up from 5.7 million who participated in 2010 presidential elections, according to the National Electoral Commission of Rwanda.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 04:34:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan authorities on Saturday handed over a 17th-century stolen painting to Italy.

The painting, worth up to 6 million euros (6.9 million U.S. dollars), was stolen from a church in the northern Italian city of Modena in 2014, and was recovered lately in a local market in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

During a ceremony held in Casablanca, Moroccan police officially handed over the painting, known as "The Squinter," to the Italian ambassador to Morocco.

The 17th-century painting by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, was recovered thanks to a wealthy Moroccan businessman and art collector, who acquired it for 1 million dollars.

After the businessman informed the police, they arrested four people who offered the painting. The Moroccan police also tipped off Italian authorities, which later arrested another Moroccan migrant who stole the painting from Italy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 05:10:05|Editor: MJ

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KHARTOUM, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is to begin on Sunday a tour to Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, according to information minister.

"President al-Bashir will begin on Sunday a visit to Kuwait and the UAE to contain the Gulf crisis and boost the efforts of settlement within the Arab framework," said Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman in a statement.

Meanwhile, official SUNA news agency, for its part, said that "President al-Bashir will on Monday leave for the UAE as part of a tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabia."

It added that al-Bashir would meet with the UAE leadership to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern.

The agency further said that al-Bashir would arrive in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a three-day visit to hold talks with King Salman bin Abdulaziz and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In the meantime, the Sudanese information ministry stressed the government's continued support for the Kuwaiti mediation.

"The government stands on one distance between the parties to the conflict and works with the brothers in the countries of the crisis and all friends and international partners to overcome this conflict and bring matters back to normal among the brothers in the Gulf States," the ministry noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 06:10:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ISTANBUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday night reaffirmed his readiness to reinstate the death penalty at a mass rally held in Istanbul to mark the first anniversary of a bloody coup attempt.

"If it comes to me after parliament, I will sign it," the president told the rally on the Bosphorus Bridge, renamed July 15 Martyrs Bridge in the wake of the coup bid, echoing a refrain he has repeated time and again ever since.

In the crowd, some were seen holding nooses as they chanted "We want death penalty!"

The European Union has threatened to end Turkey's accession bid if it moves to reintroduce the capital punishment that was abolished in 2004.

Saying that terror organizations have been used as pawns in the coup plot like those on the chessboard, Erdogan vowed to "chop off the heads of those traitors" as "without beating the pawns we cannot say checkmate."

Thirty-six people were killed on the bridge, the scene of first clashes between civilians and coup soldiers on the night of July 15, 2016.

Some 250 lights were set around the rally area to commemorate 250 people killed during the coup bid, the Hurriyet daily said.

Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim led a so-called "national unity march" on the bridge with families and relatives of those killed.

The coup attempt was foiled hours later, as Turks flooded the streets to stand against the plotters upon the call of Erdogan and others.

Ankara accuses U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the putsch and has been pushing for his extradition, an episode that has contributed to strained ties between the two NATO allies.

In his speech on the Bosphorus Bridge, Erdogan cautioned that terror groups like the movement led by Gulen, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Islamic State would continue to undermine the country and that Turkey knows very well who are behind them.

As in other places across the country, thousands of people were gathering in the main squares of Istanbul for the so-called "democracy watch" rallies, as they did last year after the coup was foiled.

The post-coup crackdown is continuing, as more than 50,000 Turks have been jailed and over 100,000 public servants dismissed from their posts, according to press reports.

The Turkish government is set to extend the state of emergency once again that was imposed five days after the coup failed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-16 07:10:36|Editor: MJ

Photo taken on July 15, 2017 shows the site of a bus accident on the highway linking the capital Quito and the city of La Mana, in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. At least 14 people were killed and 26 injured Friday night in a bus accident on the highway in central Ecuador, local authorities said Saturday. (Xinhua/Str)

QUITO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 14 people were killed and 26 were injured after a road accident on Friday night, involving a passenger bus travelling from Quito to La Mana, the country's emergency service, ECU 911, announced on Saturday.

The accident was reported to ECU 911 at 9:44 p.m. by a citizen who alerted authorities about a bus being on fire along the highway, ECU 911's national operations director, Diego Ripalda, told the press.

According to local media, the bus turned over and caught fire, causing the victims to be trapped inside by the flames. The injured people were taken to various hospitals around the capital Quito.

"Immediately upon learning of the event, response units from the Ministry of Public Health, the corps of firefighters and from the national police were activated, and arrived in under 10 minutes," Ripalda said.

Cristian Barreiro, an expert from the Road Accidents Investigations Service (SIAT), announced that a team had analyzed the area and determined that the accident was caused by an impact, followed by the overturning and the bus leaving the road.

Road accidents are one of the main causes of death in Ecuador, with the government blaming poor driving and excessive speeds.
Many are familiar with Lawrence Welk, Bobby Vee, Peggy Lee and Lynn Anderson, accomplished North Dakota musicians. All four artists were inducted into the North Dakota Music Hall of Fame in 2015 and 2016.

According to Marlo Anderson, North Dakota Music Hall of Fame president, an art display to honor the four inductees will be erected in Dykshoorn Park in downtown Mandan later in the year. The "North Dakota Music Lane" project will be on the southside area of the park. The display will replace the old steel fencing with new white fencing and feature four panels of the inductees' images created by a North Dakota artist.

Anderson said he came up with the idea for the North Dakota Music Hall of Fame about three years ago. He added that the ultimate goal was to have a facility open in 2019. "Our goal is to have it in Mandan," said Anderson.

"I think that Mandan is a great fit for this," said Anderson. "When you think about events and music, Mandan really comes to the forefront."

Dawn Kleppe, executive director of the hall of fame and part of the 2017 Leadership Bismarck-Mandan team, said she came up with the idea for the art display. "We want to celebrate North Dakotas musical heritage by recognizing individuals who have significantly impacted the musical arts. Our vibrant art display aims to enhance the character and image of downtown Mandan and further advance local arts and culture," she said.

On June 12, the Hall of Fall in conjunction with the 2017 Leadership Bismarck-Mandan team and the Mandan Beautification Committee asked artists to submit their work for a chance to have it displayed in Dykshoorn Park. Open submissions ended July 10.

Funds totaling $15,000 are being raised to help support the cost of the project.

For more information on the North Dakota Music Hall of Fame visit www.facebook.com/NorthDakotaMusicHallOfFame.
A Grand Forks man accused of calling 911 dispatchers dozens of times, at times saying he supported ISIS, has signed a plea agreement.

Mohamed Aweis Mohamed, 31, was charged with three counts of harassment and one count of criminal mischief, all Class A misdemeanors. A plea agreement signed Thursday, July 13, by Mohamed dismisses two of the harassment charges and downgrades the other two charges to Class B misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct.

If approved by a judge, Mohamed would be ordered to spend 36 days in jail or complete 360 hours of community service, according to the plea agreement. A Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison.

The two charges that would be dismissed stem from two early February reports. The first, from Feb. 3, accused Mohamed of calling dispatchers with Grand Forks Public Safety Answering Point 44 times. Charging documents accuse him of saying he supported ISIS, disliked President Donald Trump and women, felt that he had no freedom in the U.S. and wanted to go home or to Canada to get out of this country. Mohamed allegedly told police he had been drinking.

The second charge that would be dismissed relates to a Feb. 10 report in which Mohamed is accused of calling 911 dispatchers 15 times in five hours to say he needed an ambulance but later admitted he only wanted a taxi, according to court documents.

The third harassment charged being downgraded to disorderly conduct accuses Mohamed of calling dispatchers more than 10 times in late February.

He continuously yelled at the dispatchers and would not stop calling, court documents state.

The criminal mischief charge accuses Mohamed of vandalism while jailed at the Grand Forks County Correctional Center. According to court documents, he broke several sprinkler heads -- at one point he allegedly threw his shoe at one sprinkler -- and threw feces at a camera on Feb. 28.

Mohamed said he was diagnosed with alcoholism and depression after his arrest and that he doesnt remember the calls to 911, saying he blacked out. He also said he was seeking treatment for mental health problems.

Grand Forks Police Lt. Derik Zimmel previously said there was no evidence time to indicate Mohamed is a threat to the public.
WILLISTON  The stepson of Kathleen Neset, chairwoman of the State Board of Higher Education and a potential GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, was shot to death here.

Police took a 27-year-old Minot man into custody Friday morning for the shooting death hours earlier of a 43-year-old Vance Neset of Williston.

The family is absolutely shocked, Kathleen Neset said. He was just a wonderful, fun-loving guy. Everybody loved Vance.

Vance Neset worked for Kathleen Nesets oil consulting firm, Neset Consulting, as a shop hand and gas technician, she said.

Big guy and a heart of gold, she added.

Neset recently has been mentioned as a possible Republican challenger for the Senate seat held by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who will be up for re-election next year if she chooses to run again.

Charges are pending against Alex Eggleston, who was arrested by the Williams County Special Operations and Response Team between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. Friday, according to Capt. Amy Nickoloff of the Williston Police Department.

Nickoloff said police don't believe Eggleston and Neset knew each other and are looking for a motive.

The shooting was witnessed by someone with Neset, who called police to report it, she said. Interviews with witnesses and review of surveillance videos from several businesses led them to Eggleston as a suspect.

According to a police news release, dispatchers received a call shortly before 3 a.m. Friday reporting a man had been shot in the 2300 block of Second Avenue West. The man was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Law enforcement had a section of the parking lot between Quinn's Bar and Grill and the Super 8 Motel blocked off, along with a portion of the street. Multiple agencies are investigating.

Nesets body was taken to the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy and the investigation into his death is ongoing, Nickoloff said. Police were interviewing Eggleston and the results of that, along with the results of search warrants being served by police, would be forwarded to the Williams County States Attorneys office to determine charges.

Prior to Friday, the most recent shooting death in Williston came in May 2016, when two men were shot in an apartment. Lamar Putney was arrested several months later and charged with two counts of murder. His trial is scheduled for September.
 

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http://freebeacon.com/national-security/intelligence-report-warns-growing-missile-threats/

Intelligence Report Warns of Growing Missile Threats

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea building up missile forces to threaten U.S. homeland and allies

China's CSS-5 Mod 5 MRBM

BY:

The United States faces a growing threat of ballistic and cruise missiles from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, according to a military intelligence report.

"Ballistic and cruise missiles present a significant threat to U.S. and allied forces overseas, and to the United States and its territories," states the latest report by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio.

The report warns that both China and Russia are expanding their force of strategic nuclear missiles with new multi-warhead weapons.

North Korea now has three intercontinental-range missiles and is moving ahead with a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The report was published days before North Korea on July 4 conducted the first flight test of the new Hwasong-14 missile, described in the report as a new road-mobile ICBM first unveiled in October 2015.

In addition to that missile, North Korea also has another road-mobile ICBM called Hwasong-13, also known as the KN-08, and the Taepo Dong-2.

"Any of these systems could be exported to other countries in the future," the report said.

Iran appears to be on a path to developing long-range missiles as part of what the report said was "Tehran's desire to have a strategic counter to the United States."

Multiple test firings of Iran's Simorgh space launch vehicle are viewed as a test bed for developing long-range missiles.

"In 2015, Iran publicized the launch of the Emad-1, which officials claim is Iran's first long-range missile that is guided throughout flight and capable of hitting its targets with high-precision," the report said.

"Iranian officials have also announced plans for an Emad-2 with greater precision as well as a new Sejjil which can also be guided all the way to the target."

The proliferation of missile systems and technology has resulted in over 20 nations having ballistic missiles that the report said "likely will be a threat in future conflicts involving U.S. forces."

In the past 30 years, missiles were used in several wars, including the Iran-Iraq war, the Afghan civil war, the war in Yemen, the 1991 and 2003 Persian Gulf conflicts, Russian military actions in Chechnya and Georgia, and most recently in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

The NASIC missile threat report is published periodically and is the first report since 2013.

For the first time, the center reveals new details about China's force of "close-range" missiles that could be used in an attack on Taiwan.

The report also warns that new "hypersonic" missiles are being developed that have characteristics of both ballistic and cruise missiles. Ballistic missiles travel in space on a trajectory to their targets while cruise missiles often fly close to land or sea.

Russia's SS-27 ICBM

Hypersonic missiles are maneuvering weapons launched atop ballistic missiles that glide to their targets. They are being developed by China and Russia as both strategic nuclear and conventional weapons capable of passing through U.S. missile defenses, often at speeds of up to 7,500 miles per hour.

"Overall, the threats posed by ballistic missile delivery systems are likely to continue to increase and grow more complex," the report said.

"Adversary ballistic missile systems are becoming more mobile, survivable, reliable, and accurate while also achieving longer ranges. Hypersonic glide vehicles delivered by ballistic missile boosters are an emerging threat that will pose new challenges to missile defense systems."

China's missile forces are expanding in both numbers and types.

"China continues to have the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world," the report said. "It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses."

Beijing's nuclear missile forces are expanding with multiple-warhead systems that will expand China's warhead stockpile in the coming years.

On China's close-range missiles, which can be used in artillery salvos during a conflict with Taiwan or against ships in the South China Sea from newly militarized islands, the report identified 19 different missiles with ranges of between 24 miles to 173 miles.

Russia, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, and India also have close-range missiles some of which are precision guided.

To defeat increasingly effective missile defenses, short-range missile manufacturers are working on countermeasures, such as maneuverable reentry vehicles called MaRVs.

New missiles with ranges of between 620 miles and 3,400 miles are in development by China, North Korea, Iran, India, and Pakistan, and many will be armed with nuclear or other unconventional warheads.

"All of these countries except Iran have tested nuclear weapons," the report said.

Iran has promised to give up developing nuclear weapons for the next 10 years under the deal reached in 2016. Critics note that the continued development of Iran's long-range missiles is an indication Tehran plans to break out of the treaty in the future.

The report for the first time mentions Russia's new hypersonic missile called the "object 4202" that will be used to penetrate missile defenses. Several other new long-range missiles, including a heavy ICBM called the Sarmat, are being deployed or are in development.

China also is building a new DF-41 road-mobile ICBM that will carry multiple warheads.

"The number of warheads on Chinese ICBMs capable of threatening the United States is expected to grow to well over 100 in the next five years," the report said.

For submarine-launched missiles, the report identified Russia's submarine forces as "substantial" and undergoing modernization. New long-range submarine nuclear missiles include the SS-N-32 Bulava, along with upgraded SS-N-23s.

The intelligence report for the first time confirms that China's new CSS-N-14 submarine-launched missile is deployed on four missile submarines.

"This missile will, for the first time, allow Chinese SSBNs to target portions of the United States from operating areas located near the Chinese coast," the report said.

Cruise missile threats, those that are guided by satellite navigation, also are increasing.

"The cruise missile threat to U.S. forces is increasing in the number of countries possessing [land attack cruise missiles], the number of LACMs, and the number of LACMs possessing advanced capabilities," the report said.

China has a new DH-10 long-range cruise missile and Iran has developed a Soumar cruise missile, based on Russia's AS-15 air launched cruise missile.

Russia's Club-K cruise missile is dubbed the "container launcher" weapon that is fired from what appears as a standard shipping container, making it easy to hide and fire from cargo ships, trains, or commercial trucks.

"The majority of LACMs will still be subsonic, but supersonic and hypersonic missile will be deployed in the future," the report said.

Missile weapons are sought by many nations because they can be used effectively against adversaries with formidable air defenses that make using aircraft impractical or too costly, the report concludes.

"In addition, missiles can be used as a deterrent or an instrument of coercion. Even limited use of these weapons could have devastating consequences if armed with chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads."

Rick Fisher, a military affairs analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the report for the first time details China's growing arsenal of very accurate close-range missiles.

Fisher said China is a world leader in developing new, longer range and precision guided artillery rockets like the 124-mile-range CSS-X-16, and the new 174-mile range CSS-14 Mod-X-2. A third is the 161-miles range CSS-9 Mod-X-2.

"NASIC, however, does not mention that these new systems have the potential to carry five to eight missiles per launcher, so they could rapidly increase the number of missile targeting Taiwan into the multiple thousands, when considering potential reloads," he said.

As a result of the close-range missile threat from China, the United States should speed up development of energy weapon defenses, like rail-guns and lasers that can defeat large numbers of the close-range missiles, he said.

Fisher also notes that the report understates China's potential warhead expansion.

"If China modifies all of its DF-5 to the 10 warhead DF-5C standard, as it has started to modify the older single-warhead DF-5A with the three-to-five warhead DF-5B warhead bus, this type of ICBM alone could account for over 200 warheads," he said.

"Then to this you add the road and rail mobile 10 warhead DF-41, with at least two units of six missiles accounting for 120 warheads. Many times 100 Chinese warheads is much more than well over.'"

U.S. warhead cuts under the Obama administration should be reconsidered, he said.

"China's potential to approach at least 1,000 warheads over the next decade, plus Russia's missiles, means the United States must prepare to exceed existing limitations on deployed weapons or face the possibility of coordinated nuclear blackmail from China and Russia," Fisher said.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear missile expert with the National Institute for Public Policy, said the report reveals that Russia's 3M-14 Kalibr cruise missile, capable of being fired from the ground, ships, or submarines, has a range of 1,553 miles.

"This is obviously the INF Treaty violation," he said of the 1987 U.S.-Russian accord banning all ground launched cruise missiles with range of between 620 and 3,420 miles.

The U.S. government has accused Russia of violating the INF treaty but has not provided details of the cruise missile Moscow has deployed in violation of the accord.
Still no birth certificate

Because of legal requirements, there can be no death certificate issued, without a birth being registered and a certificate issued.

And with no death certificate, no funeral and disposal of the body can be done.

Only on Thursday evening, medical doctor Ronald Budhooram, 60, was released from police custody in relation to the find in the freezer compartment of a fridge on Monday.

On the morning of July 1 and at seven months into her pregnancy, Cindy Gail Sooknanan, 22, gave birth to her son in a wagon in the driveway of relatives home at Chatoor Avenue, Fyzabad.

After the newborn was delivered, Sooknanan of Sewlal Trace, Fyzabad told police she dropped off the child in the care of a doctor.

Sooknanan and her boyfriend Kimraj Jorai subsequently learnt that the child had died and assumed the body was taken to hospital to be kept at the morgue.

But when a party of police officers from Homicide Bureau Region III and Mon Repos CID searched the doctors office, they discovered the tiny body secured in a black plastic bag.

They then detained Budhooram on Monday.

Forensic pathologist Dr Valerie Alexandrov performed an autopsy on Tuesday and concluded the baby died of complications arising out of being born prematurely.

On Thursday Budhooram was released from the San Fernando CID shortly after his attorney Subhas Panday filed a writ of habeas corpus in the San Fernando High Court.
Guns, ammo, drugs seized  18 arrested

The building, located just off the San Fernando By-Pass, has been an eyesore for many years in the community. According to a police report, the assault rifle was one of three guns seized in the southern division during a 24 hour, anti-crime exercise which started on Wednesday night.

A party of officers led by ASP Mohammed, Head of San Fernando CID Insp Don Gajadhar, Sgt Parasram, Sgt Ramroop, Sgt Ifill and others also recovered two .38 revolvers, one in George Street, La Romaine and the other in Marabella.

Police seized several packets of cocaine and marijuana. During the exercise, 18 people were detained in connection with various offences including narcotics possession, break-ins and larceny.

During a joint police/army operation in the Central Division, officers seized an Uzi sub-machine gun along with 50 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition and 27 rounds of 9 mm ammunition in a swampy area off London Street in Longdenville.

The officers also found six kilos of compressed marijuana with a street value of $600,000. No arrest was made.
Kidnap suspect still in custody

ACP (Crime) Irwin Hackshaw said the man has a criminal record for robbery, shooting and rape.

On Thursday, Sijiu Zhang - the driver of Chinese Ambassador Song Yumin - was snatched along Hayes Street in St Clair shortly after 7 am. A call was made to the Embassy and a $20,000 ransom demanded. Arrangements were made for the money to be dropped off at the Roxy roundabout at 11 am. However, the kidnapped was unaware that the stolen car he used to transport Zhang, was outfitted with GPS and it was intercepted and forced to come to a halt by police.

Zhang was rescued and taken to hospital while the suspect was arrested and taken into custody.

Yesterday, officials of the Chinese Embassy maintained their silence on the matter although police sources confirmed that additional security measures are being implemented at the Embassy and among its staff members in light of the kidnapping.
Suspects for ID parades

The suspects, who are between the ages 18 and 32, were wanted for robberies in the districts of Mon Repos, Marabella and San Fernando. Police believe that whenever the men committed the crimes, they often went to the South-western division to hide out. On Monday at about 2.30 pm, gunmen stormed Ginxin Chinese Supermarket at Lower High Street, Siparia, when they robbed the proprietor of a quantity of alcohol, cigarettes, phone cards, and an estimated 4,000 in cash. The men escaped in a vehicle which minutes later, police intercepted at San Francique Road in Penal. Police recovered a gun with ammunition as well as the stolen items in the vehicle and detained the suspects who are from Marabella and San Fernando. They are expected to be placed on several identification parades.

Investigations are continuing.
Jaggasar thrills with music blends

Jaggasar held the second edition of her concert La Casa de Fusion at Kaiso Blues Cafe on Woodford Street, Newtown, last Saturday and provided her audience with memorable music that will last a lifetime.

No one in the audience was expecting what was performed during the two-hour concert.

Jaggasar presented music genres from Brazil (samba/bossa), Cuba (mambo), Puerto Rico/Cuba (salsa), the Dominican Republic (bachata), Venezuela (parang), TT and India (bollyrang), French islands (zouk) and the Portuguese- influenced mozambique.

Best of all, Jaggasar and her band under the musical direction of Jeanine Ruiz gave soca and calypso music breathing space.

This blending and merging of Latin music with our music pumped new life into the genres and the audience showed its appreciation.

The sensual, mid-tempo, acoustic version of Voices Far From Finished (bachata) was mind-blowing. Ruizs interpretation and vocal arrangements were off the charts.

The concert began with the introduction, Cantando in Zouk, followed by Portrait of Trinidad in salsa to thunderous applause.

Todo Lo Que Soy followed before the band took on Calypso Roses Leave Me Alone which was done in a bossa/salsa.

The audience got its first taste of parang as the group played Music, an original piece by Jaggasar.

Another original Es Su Amor was done with a groovy salsa beat and the audience just loved it.

It was then the first surprise came with Far From Finished done in mambo/salsa style. This was followed with Cuando Yo Pienso.

Engineer for the night Carl Jacobs had a big smile on his face as Jaggasar and her chorus, Lorraine and Lisa, moved into From Now On, a 1987 love song made popular by Jacobs and his wife Carol. It was music for dancing.

Jaggasar closed off the first half with a samba version of Lord Nelsons La La and had the audience singing.

The band returned to the stage with a salsa version of Solamente, this was followed by the Portuguese-infused mozambique version of Rikki Jais Sumintra which left some people in the audience stunned. To bring them back to earth, Jaggasar kicked off a salsa version of Explainers classic Lloraine and the audience became one big chorus.

The excitement continued as the band moved into a Cuban 6/8 beat and a smiling Jaggasar began Sparrows Magarita and again had the audience lapping it up. Still wanting to show what they can do, the merengue version of Scrunters Woman on the Bass mashed up Kaiso Blues Cafe.

The audience settled and returned to normal with the salsa version of Vivir Mi Vida.

Jaggasar then introduced her guest Neval Chatelal. The duo performed Tukur Tukur, a song from the romantic comedy Dilwale made popular by Sha Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanori in a style they call bollyrang. Jaggasar showed her versatility in what was the second surprise of the night. They received a standing ovation for their performance.

Keeping it on the edge, Jaggasar called out John Thomas from the audience and the popular tenor sung a verse and chorus of the classic Spanish love song Besame Mucho to the delight of the audience.

The 2017 Road March, Full Extreme, done in salsa/meringue style brought the curtain down on a very well-put-together concert and the audience left Kaiso Blues still jamming to the Latin songs of calypso and soca music.

In an interview after the show Jaggasar said the reason behind La Casa de Fusion is twofold.

First I want to keep parang musicians relevant throughout the year. They should not be heard and seen only at Christmas time.

Secondly, I want to penetrate the Carnival market, the all-inclusive fetes. I want to bring something different with the same music soca artistes are performing. Asked about the songs they played, Jaggasar said, I choose the songs I feel the people would like. I then send them to Jeanine and allow her the freedom to do as she sees fit. I must say I am very pleased with her arrangements. There is a repeat of La Casa de Fusion this today at Kaiso Blues Cafe but this time the guest artiste will be sweet soca man Baron.
Bahamas celebrates 44 years

Davis summed up the business of The Bahamas over the last year with one word, hope.

She said the entire world now appears to be in turmoil, with us taking things and people for granted, losing respect for law and order, and losing the values which mould, guide and grow nations, because we want to get there fast, wherever there is, and we do not want to stop and take the time to develop our skills, personalities and potential for sustainability.

Davis then stated that with hope, all this can change.

She explained Hope as Helping Our People Evolve then said the h is for helping, in ways that do not necessarily rely on funding, but rather to renew a faith in themselves and in the world, and to regain hope. O - opportunities are available to everyone. We just need to figure out a way to encourage people to decide what they would like to do, and find a way to get it done. P - people, She said we need to tap into personal God-given and God-driven resources, and E - every day is a new beginning.

Expect something good to happen every day, and it will. She said: We need to let people in difficult circumstances know this.

It is imperative for them to believe that nothing lasts forever. Before toasting to TT Davis raised a toast to Bahamass new Prime Minister Dr Hubert Alexander Minnis who took office just two months ago.

In her own response, Jennifer Daniel, permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, first congratulated Davis, on her appointment as the new Dean of the Consular Corps and also congratulated Minnison his election.

Daniel then said TT endorses Minnis call for the regions leaders to act together to harness the regions tremendous mutual potential, while facing shared challenges.

It is indeed very appropriate that this years independence celebrations shall be based on the theme Toward the Rising Sun: One CELEBRATES from page 4B God, One People, One Bahamas, for it poses a clear reminder that as a united front, all challenges can be faced and overcome. She then affirmed TT s readiness to continue to pursue initiatives that will be of mutual benefit to the two countries, and reaffirmed the Govts commitment to strengthen the ties of friendship between our countries.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos home state education chief thinks her department is sending some conflicting signals when it comes to the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Brian J. Whiston, the state superintendent, said the message hes heard from DeVos has been all about state leadership and leeway.

But he got a very different sound bite from Jason Botel, the acting assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. Botel called the state earlier this month to talk about what the department sees as missing from its ESSA plan, in advance of an official feedback letter.

I didnt like the tone of the phone call, Whiston said. DeVos, he said, told chiefs in a closed meeting that, even if you dont know all your answers in terms of your plan, file it anyway. ... The call was the opposite. We did what the secretary told us to do, and now we seem to be getting beat up.

Botel isnt the only one who sees problems with Michigans plan. More on that below.

Whiston said he realizes that he does need to clear up aspects of the draft plan that Michigan filed , which gives a range of options for accountability systems. The state, he said, has since settled on a dashboard approach and will be updating its plan. But he said some other things that Botel was asking for, including more specificity on student-achievement goals, didnt make sense.

Botel talked about how we didnt put in long-term goals and didnt put in graduation goals, Whiston said, both inaccurate criticisms, to his mind. Hes reviewing 50 different plans, he might have been confused.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whistons remarks.

Whiston doesnt anticipate making major changes to Michigans proposal based on Botels criticisms.

The plan in Michigan was built by Michigan people really focusing in on whats best for Michigan and having maximum flexibility for solving the problems at the local level, he said. Our plan is to continue to move forward with the Michigan plan.

And he thinks DeVos own comments to state chiefs give him reason to stick to his guns.

Were going to depend on what the secretary told us face to face, which is maximum flexibility, do whats best for your state, Whiston said. If the bureaucracy within the department wont embrace that, at some point we may have to engage with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education panel, and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who heads up the House education committee.

Alexander expressed his own concerns about Botel earlier this week , saying that comments the official made to the New York Times about feedback to Delaware is evidence he doesnt really understand the law. And Foxx is holding a hearing on ESSA oversight in her committee next week.

Whats more, other state officials have taken issue with the departments ESSA feedback, which has generated wonky outrage inside and far beyond the Beltway . Laura Stefon, the chief of staff for Connecticuts department of education told the Connecticut Mirror that the states feedback on its ESSA plan showed that, USED appears to be resorting to very traditional and narrow ways of interpreting student and school performance. They are relying on approaches that failed under NCLB and go against the research consensus.

Botel isnt the only one who thinks the Wolverine States proposal could use some revision.

Back in April, Brian Calley, Michigans lieutenant governor, said the Education Department should send back the states plan because it doesnt have high enough standards for students with disabilities. (Calley, a Republican, is a rumored gubernatorial candidate.)

And Kerry Moll, the vice president of policy at Stand for Children, a state and district advocacy organizationwho also reviewed Michigans planthought it had big blanks.

We felt the plan was incomplete, Moll said of herself and others who examined the plan for the Collaborative for Student Success, a nonprofit that promotes high academic standards. We really struggled to review the document. There was not enough information in each of the sections.

Moll praised Michigans push to consider things like arts and physical education in school ratings, but said the state needed to provide much more detailed information on goals, accountability, and identification of subgroups of students (think English-language learners and students in special education). More here.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Man searching for his wife

He is seeking the publics help in finding her.

At about 9.20 pm on Thursday, Ramsundar of Waterloo Road in Carapichaima went to Freeport Police Station and reported the woman missing.

According to the report, the worried husband said he last saw her at 4.25 pm on Thursday at their home in Carapichima.

He described her as being of East Indian descent, five feet six inches tall, slim built, of brown complexion with long black hair.

Anisha was last seen wearing a green polo shirt, a pair of three quarter pants and a pair of gold earrings.

The search is also continuing for Merlena James, a 13-yearold student of Holy Name Convent, Point Fortin.

James of Industry Road, La Brea went missing from her home last Saturday.

She is of African descent and relatives said she was last seen wearing a white sun dress and a pair of pink and gold sandals. She is five feet seven inches tall, thick built, dark brown in complexion with long black hair., Anyone with information on the whereabouts of these missing persons can call 800-TIPS or contact the police at 555, 999, 911 or any police station
Port police to Govt: Stop sticking

The government is taking too much time, said Branch Board executive Sgt Richards. It has been 72 months and we cannot hear a word from the minister of finance the line minister, or anyone for that matter. We are only being told that a meeting has to take place with the Minister of Finance, and until that meeting is held, backpay cannot be paid, Richards added that every month the government tarries on the negotiations, the bill for the port gets higher. Since the 2008-2011 period of negotiations, port police officers have been lobbying for a raise of pay and better conditions.

However their calls have fallen on deaf ears. In an earlier report port police officers complained of missing several financial opportunities, as well as losing morale as a result of the stalled negotiations.

Yesterday, he told Newsday that not only are the wage negotiations stalling but government is also taking too long to treat with the health and safety issues that the port police are facing. We are still waiting on a report with regard to the level of safety in the administration building. We have had calls to refuse to work because of the health concerns at the checkin back gate. Animals go there and sleep.

There are holes in the flooring. One of our workers was damaged there recently and is now on disability leave for a few days. The government is mismanaging the negotiation process in the same manner that they have mismanaged the ferry operations. Anything that happens from here on, the government should be held responsible and not the port police, he warned
CL Financial ready to repay $$

Are you going to liquidate a company worth $40 billion to get $15 billion, he asked in relation to a petition Government has lodged in the High Court to wind up CL Financial.

The petition, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said, is to obtain from CLF, all funds owed to taxpayers.

The funds owed by Clico to the Governmen, and by extension taxpayers, Imbert said, are already the subject of a court-approved resolution plan. He said the taxpayers bailout of CLF was over $23 billion, not including legal costs or consultancy fees or all contingent liabilities.

About $7.5 billion has already been recovered, Imbert said, and the remaining debt is in excess of $15 billion.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys estimate of $27 billion given in another forum, Imbert said, takes into account all of the costs incurred and all estimated contingent liabilities and would be over $23 billion.

Speaking on behalf of DALCO, CLF largest shareholder, and the United Shareholders Limited representing CLF shareholders, yesterday at a joint press conference with the Clico Policyholders Group at One Woodbrook Place, Reis said, he understood that the petition was served but shareholders have not gotten a copy. All we know is what we saw in the newspaper. At this time we are seeking legal advice. We have requested a copy of the petition, he said.

Expressing gratitude for Governments move in bailing out CL Financial and Clico, Reis said, We believe we are in a position right now to repay the debt. We want to pay. Clico Policyholders Group chairman Peter Purmell said the shareholders have joined forces with them to oppose Governments plan to liquidate CL Financial and ultimately Clico. Reis said that shareholders has tried to negotiate with Government, made numerous attempts since 2013 to now, but was never acknowledged. We have been oppressed by the government, he said.

I dont think these guys intend to hand back the company, he added.

Wanting to get back the company, he said, We want to get in the drivers seat. We have plans on how to stimulate the company, and we could create jobs and help to develop Trinidad and Tobagos economy in this depressed state.

GOVT LIKE A CANCER

Claiming that the shareholders have been ignored by Government, he said, over the last eight years Government has converted CL Financial and Clico into a State enterprise.

They have been running their affairs and doing what they want inside of there and at this stage they do not want to let go of CLF and Clico.

They are like a cancer in it. We want them out, he said. Calling on Government directors to resign with immediate effect, he said, shareholders want to negotiate with Government and to share its rebirth plan. A lot of people want to invest in Trinidad and Tobago, he said, but with Govermment making a move like a gangster to take control of a financial conglomerate would not be encouraging.

The manner of the removal of CLF shareholders director and managing director, he said, was illegal.

The government did not build this empire so they can shake it down, he said. We made a commitment to policy holders that when we get back there everyone is going to be paid. He said that the payment of policy holders was not so much a problem.

It is only when the Government came in, that problem started, he said. Asked about the role Lawrence Duprey, the single largest shareholder would play in the company if it goes back to shareholders, Reis said, Duprey has apologised for what occurred and looks forward to advising a new management team.

Duprey, now in his 80s, he said, will not be in the forefront. Nobody understands the group as he does. He built the empire, he said.

NO NEED TO LIQUIDATE

Meanwhile, Peter Permell, Chairman of the Clico Policyholders Group questioned why Government would want to trigger a liquidation when shareholders want to pay. Policyholders views the move to liquidatation, he said, as an unfortunate and unnecessary act of desperation, which comes as no surprise to our group, and more importantly is not in the best interest of taxpayers, policy holders, employees, and shareholders of CL Financial and Clico. As any such move would only benefit the liquidator, lawyers, and big businesses who are already salivating at the thought of getting their hands on CLF assets, he said.

A subset of this group, he said, are party financiers who would have financed the campaign of the current administration.

He said the petition will fail because Government is not a direct creditor of CL Financial, the company was not insolvent, and it has sufficient assets to settle all outstanding debts among other reasons.

Claiming that CLF has been solvent since 2013, yet, he said, there was no audited financial statements for the company. So CL Financial has been shrouded in secrecy all these years. The petition, he said, is a scare tactic to precipitate certain actions on the part of CL Financial stakeholders. Any liquidation, he said, can be equated to a fire sale in which goods are sold for significant discounts.

Questioning whether there is a hidden agenda for the liquidation of a solvent company, Purmell said, Even Mrs Kamla Persad Bissessar (former prime minister) in the Parliament had said No fire sale! We are not going the route of liquidation because that would mean a fire sale.
CAL: No engine fire took place

She said the cockpit crew and flight attendants followed all the proper steps and displayed professionalism in keeping the passengers calm. In response to a journalists suggestion that it was a common thing for warning lights to come on in the cockpits of the ATR aircraft, Ligoure said it was the first time such an incident had happened with this particular plane but admitted that there had been such incidents with other ATR aircraft.

Initial reports in several publications said the pilot had informed airport officials of an engine fire, but the plane landed safely shortly after 3 PM and was met by emergency services. There were no reported injuries among the 68 passengers aboard. Ligoure said the airline business is a highly regulated one and that independent bodies have to inspect the aircraft after an incident.

She said the aircraft cannot return to service without particular and rigorous inspections being made and the affected aircraft had remained on the ground so that those inspections could take place and returned to Trinidad yesterday after they were completed. However, she said she could not say when the aircraft will return to service since further inspections have to be done. Caribbean Airlines has five ATRs in service. The aircraft left Trinidad at 2PM for St. Lucias George Charles airport with Captain Avinash Sookdeo and First Officer Kevin Alexander at the controls.

Flight attendants Lisa Marie Ramcharan and Jamilia Richards comprised the cabin crew.
Soldier: Why is TTDF victimising me?

Stephens is seeking a meeting with Ag Chief of Defence Staff Hayden Pritchard to have this issue dealt with.

Stephens said that in September 2014, he was a driver assigned to a senior military officer. He said the senior was involved in a relationship with a Siparia woman who was engaged to another man. Stephens said he was asked to drive the senior to Siparia to meet the woman.

He said that on arrival in Siparia, there was a heated argument between the woman, her fiance and the senior officer. Stephens said he contacted Regiment Headquarters and told officials what was happening.

Stephens said he told the senior this situation had nothing to do with the Regiment and that they should proceed back to Regiment Headquarters.

The following day, Stephens said, the same senior officer whom he drove, accused him of going to Siparia alone and without the Regiments permission. Stephens said he was transferred to Camp Ogden.

When I could take the victimisation no more, I requested to be discharged and was sent on holiday leave. I was told I would be contacted so all procedures relating to my discharge from the service would be put in motion. Stephens said he never received a call from the Defence Force, his salary was stopped and later on, his photo posted to social media indicating he was not to be allowed onto any military compound.

Three years later, Stephens said he is yet to receive his discharge orders which means he is technically still employed with the Defence Force and is 36 months salary. Contacted by Newsday, a senior Defence Force officer who asked not to be identified, yesterday claimed ignorance of Stephens situation but assured an investigation will be done.
4,000 vehicles using CNG

Mohammed was speaking at a press conference at Diamond Motors Showroom, corner Richmond and Charles streets, Port-of-Spain.

He said although there is not a register of CNG vehicles at this time to easily access, Mohammed said the number one incentive gravitating people to use CNG vehicles is the price.

Price is the main driver in Trinidad and Tobago and so far we have been seeing for CNG corporate customers tend to think a little more than just price, they are thinking about the carbon for print, it is less polluting, it certainly makes a very significant difference on exhaust on the nations roads and people have been picking up on that, driving behind these vehicles there is no exhaust, but at this point in time the primary motivator would be price. After handing over the keys to two JinBei or the Golden Cup (as it is known in China) CNG Mini Bus with 100 percent OEM CNG tanks as well as a Diesel Mini Bus, all units 15 seaters, to George La Vende, president of the Private School Transport Association of T, Mohammed thanked the association for their support.

He said the purpose of the handover is to acknowledge the investment of the private sector transportation in TT and to congratulate them on their movement toward sustainable energy. Mohammed said the government will normally offer VAT free taxes, but customers are still required to pay their duties.

He said NGC and CNG itself offers a significant amount of incentives, and they are tailored at the moment around public transportation. Mohammed said they have arrangements that are on the table with PTSC, for the converting of buses, as well as arrangements with Maxi Taxis.

We will give them a grant, which have been made known to the public, for big and small ones. We have incentives for conventions of exiting vehicles with Maxi Taxi. We dont have any specific incentive for the general public because our key market right now will be the place that makes the biggest difference, which is public transportation. He said with the availability of the JinBei models, Mohammed said he was pleased to say, the vehicle market is continuing its shift toward CNG vehicles.

In 2014, PTSC started the movement with the purchase of 35 OEM CNG buses.

A little more than two years ago Classic Motors, picked up the momentum with the Honda City CNG model, which has had phenomenal success.
Leaking roofs at Lions Gate

Several residents yesterday told Newsday they have reached a point where they are totally fed up.

A resident said they are living in dry weather town houses, because every time it rains the process of cleaning up begins and they have to be constantly buying over household items.

Its more than two years we are faced with this problem of leakage.

We are in the rainy season again, and nothing is being done to fix the problem.

Recently HDC sent four contractors to fix the roofs, but whatever they tried to do is not working. Just the other day with the passing of Tropical Storm Bret, we had no rest in cleaning up. All the water came through the roof as though there was none. The resident continued, The water is coming through the roof and running down the walls of the apartments.

The problem is very frustrating and tiresome.

These are homes we are renting and they should do something about it or relocate us. I spent all my savings fixing this place and I am still not comfortable. She said they have all reported the matter to HDC on numerous occasions and they feel their complaints are falling on deaf ears. Another resident said when it rains she has to cut and place Chubby bottles under her furniture to prevent them from getting soaked. How can someone live like this? I invested in my home and it is not fair to us to suffer like this. We have to be cleaning all the time. One day I came home from work and my entire living room was water-logged because rain fell earlier in th day. The situation is just terrible. When contacted yesterday HDC Head of Communications Marissa Findlay said they remain very concerned about the condition at Lions Gate Units for which they have employed several technical solutions to remedy the conditions of the units.

That particular building system has proven to be extremely challenging at that construction site was handed over to the HDC with several areas of difficulties.

We remain concerns about the plight of the residents at Lions Gate community where we have employed several solutions to remedy some of the defects in those units.

Over the years, we have specialist teams to do sealing where water is seeping through the structures.
Hinds: Epidemic of crime

Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Fitzgerald Hinds (the JSCs chairman) and other committee members voiced their concerns as they conducted a site visit of the port with officials from the Port Authority, Customs and Excise Division and Port Authority Police.

Hinds was particularly concerned when JSC members toured a fixed mobile scanner which was commissioned in 2014 under the then Peoples Partnership (PP) government but was never operationalised.

Port officials said there is a $1.5 million facility to ensure the scanner is maintained.

JSC members were told by Port officials that the main reason why the scanner is not operational because of claims raised by the Public Services Association (PSA) about unsafe radiation at the facility. The officials said the Health Ministry has already certified that the scanner poses no risk to anyone. We are saying that the activities that you conduct here, cannot be business as usual.

You have to go beyond whatever you have been doing, Hinds told them.

He said, We do have an epidemic of illegal guns which are killing your staff members, wives, daughters, neighbours and everybody in TT has had a trouble with crime. Hinds was disappointed that this scanner was an initiative first articulated in 2005 but is yet to become a reality. At the Spectrum Yard of the port where new and foreign used vehicles are examined, the JSC members were shown that it was difficult to carry out detailed searches of the vehicle to see whether any contraband was concealed in the interior of the vehicles.

Hinds observed this is a situation where security concerns are not adequately met. Independent Senator Paul Richards was concerned that only 60 percent of the cargo entering the port was automatically scanned. He told port officials, Looking under a vehicle is not a specialist operation. Hinds said he was advised that people operating on the port, receive instructions to expedite certain containers or set aside containers and leave them alone. The minister added, An employee swore that to me. Customs officer Glen Singh told Hinds this may be possible as long as there are human beings involved. On the issue of searching vehicles for contraband, Singh said, In the case where we have evidence or even an inkling of something, a different approach will be taken. He explained that to do the kind of search described by Hinds and other JSC members, it could result in vehicles never being delivered on time to their purchasers.

Hinds also told Singh there is the perception by some people in society that some customs officers do very well financially.

He said it would not be long before these people will be made to account for their wealth through civil asset forefeiture legislation which Government will be bringing to Parliament.
PM, Kamla meet next week

Government sources yesterday confirmed this. On July 10, Rowley wrote to Persad-Bissessar requesting a private meeting for preliminary discussion on selected matters of national interest. While no agenda has been announced for the meeting, reports claim that crime, the economy and the imbroligio involving the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) could be some of the topics Rowley and Persad- Bissessar discuss. The Prime Minister proposed that the meeting take place between July 12 and July 19 in a suitable room at the Parliament since Parliament is currently in recess.

Depending on the outcome of the talks between Rowley and Persad-Bissessar, there is a possibility that Parliament could be reconvened if both of them agree on the need to treat with any urgent legislative matter.

This meeting was roundly criticised by OWTU and JTUM leader Ancel Roget earlier this week when he slammed PM Rowley for extending an invitation to the Opposition Leader but not meeting with the trade union movement to discuss urgent matters despite an MOU being in place to facilitate such meetings between the PNM and the labour front.
A recent dispute over an electronic database used in thousands of schools in the U.S. is a reminder of the precarious balance between access and censorshipespecially now that more teachers and schools are using primary sources and online materials to supplement or replace textbooks.

The dispute centers on EBSCO, an online databases and resources company with programs that are used in tens of thousands of schools around the world. Schools and districts pay thousands of dollars for access to the databases, some of which were developed specifically for K-12 students and schools. EBSCO says it aims to select the most appropriate, educationally-valuable content to include in these databases without imposing EBSCO beliefs or biases in the selection process.

But now, critics say that students may have been able to access explicit content through the database. A Colorado family notified an anti-pornography group, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, after the parents found articles with links to sexual content on their teenaged daughters EBSCO account. (NCOSE was formerly known as Morality in Media .) The NCOSE placed EBSCO on its Dirty Dozen List  a list of organizations it describes as major contributors to sexual exploitation, and which, this year, also included the American Library Association and the online-retailer Amazon.com.

Schools have no idea

NCOSEs executive director, Dawn Hawkins, said she was shocked to find that EBSCO databases could be used to search for information about sexual terms. Some articles found in the databases, including those in publications like Mens Health, included articles with sexual, but not pornographic, content; others included active links to websites that included pornography, she said.

Schools have no idea this is happening, Hawkins said, arguing that administrators sign up for EBSCOs products assuming they are fully vetted and age-appropriate. She said students who see such material might assume it is school-approved and not report it to administrators or parents.

In an email, EBSCO spokeswoman Kathleen McEvoy said that EBSCO was not aware of any instances of students using its databases to access pornography or other explicit materials. She said she believed that the searches NCOSE was concerned about had been conducted by adults actively searching for graphic materials, often on home computers that dont have the kinds of controls and filters common on school computers.

But, she said, EBSCO had identified some issues after hearing of NCOSEs concerns and made changes to their processes and programsincluding removing active links in some articles in the database, such as those NCOSE found linking to pornography sites  after hearing of the Colorado case. McEvoy said that the company took the NCOSEs concerns seriously and is disheartened to be described as aiding in exploitation.

Its difficult to know whether other online repositories aimed at K-12 students might face similar criticisms. The NCOSE hasnt examined other online databases used in schools.

Its also unclear how many schools and districts use the database; EBSCO says that information is proprietary.

Legal Issues

Questions of just what materials students should be able to access through their computers has been debated basically as long as computers have been available in schools. In 2003 , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case called United States v. the American Library Association, Inc. that s chools could not receive federal funding for internet access unless they had filters to screen out pornography installed.

James LaRue, the director of the American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom, said he did not believe the search results that NCOSE objects to would run afoul of that court ruling.

He argued that students have a right to receive information, even about topics some groups deign inappropriate, he said. He said NCOSE seems to aim to get rid of any piece of content that will offend any parent in America. In a country with diverse standards, thats a near-impossible task.

I feel theyre certainly within their rights to advocate for greater restrictions on access to sexual content, but my observation is, they often do this by pushing for filters or suppression of content, LaRue said. You move from, I have my standards, to Im trying to impose those standards on every other family. Thats where the ALA would say that that starts to look like censorship.

He said he would err on the side of teaching students how to weed through and understand the wide array of information online instead of relying on filters, which, he said, are often imperfect anyway.

Of the ALAs placement on the anti-pornography groups Dirty Dozen list, LaRue said, Im happy to go pick [an award] up.

New systems at EBSCO

In her email, McEvoy said EBSCO had taken steps to improve its filtering in recent months, including removing several unspecified publications from its school databases (its database content is also proprietary), improving systems to block certain search terms, and removing links to third-party sites. Its also added new filters and tools to allow librarians to exclude other content at their discretion.

Hawkins said that while there has been improvement, the problem had not been solved. She said that she had conducted searches on the school databases even after EBSCO made those changes, and that, while there were improvements, some inappropriate material could still be found. She pointed to articles in magazines about different sexual practices like bondage. Wed argue that [articles such as these are] not tools for sex education, she said.

McEvoy said some schools and districts provide students with access to databases and resources that arent specifically targeted to K-12 studentssometimes intentionally, in order to grant access to more materials, and sometimes unintentionally. EBSCO had not been able to replicate the searches the NCOSE raised concerns about, she added.

We understand how concerning the inflammatory language used heresuch as pornography in schoolscan be to parents and educators and we understand that NCOSE wants to rally attention to its cause, but we are working with them and believe these latest findings do not accurately reflect the content included in Primary Search and Middle Search Plus [databases used in elementary and middle schools], McEvoy wrote. We are confident that the curation process and the editorial processes we have in place would prevent the results NCOSE claims to have found from appearing in Primary Search and Middle Search Plus.

Districts respond

In Colorado, a CBS station reported that the Adams 12 Five Star school district, near Denver, had shut down access to its EBSCO databases when they realized some inappropriate materials could be accessed through it. The district then worked with EBSCO to remove objectionable materials. Another district, Cherry Creek, said it had asked EBSCO to block content in objectionable periodicals but said it would continue to contract with EBSCO in order to access its valuable research materials. EBSCO confirmed that it had worked with both districts to make sure they understood which databases students had access to.

The concerned parents told CBS that while they knew pornographic and sexual information is already accessible online to savvy teens, they are concerned that it is provided through an in-school service like EBSCO.

The ALAs LaRue, however, expressed disbelief that the problem was widespread.

Trust me, he said. The problem isnt that teenagers are doing too much library research.

Related stories:
Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal 2018 is forecast to increase 1.4 pct from the previous year in price-adjusted real terms, the Cabinet Office said Friday.

The growth for the year starting next April is seen edging down from a 1.5 pct rise projected for fiscal 2017, due mainly to a drop in public investment.

The government expects that personal spending will continue to recover moderately on the back of an improvement in the income situation.

The forecasts were submitted to the day's meeting of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy.
At first glance, Sora Tob Sakana is aimed squarely at the pre-teen market. After all, the pop group's four members are 14 to 16-year-old girls who sport ponytails and cutesy frilly dresses and pump out bubblegum tunes accompanied by wobbly dancing.

Yet at a festival of similar "idol" bands in Yokohoma on July 9, the fans were mostly single men aged between 20 and 50 who might well describe themselves as otaku - nerds. When asked, some men say they do not need to marry; their idols give them the romantic fulfilment they need.

Creepy? It is true, says Rei Kazama, one of the band members, looking slightly uncomfortable, that many of the fans are ojisan - middle-aged blokes. She would prefer a younger audience. But, she adds, the ojisan are supportive: "It's like they're nurturing us as we grow up." Purity, a band manager says, is a selling point. The girls are under contract not to have boyfriends - presumably to encourage fans to project their own fantasies on to their favourite band members. (When a member of Japan's biggest selling idol band, AKB48, recently announced that she was leaving to get married, fans were as outraged as jilted lovers.) Also essential is offering fans the chance to meet band members, including photographs and 20-second handshakes. It is all part of the setto, as in a set menu, and can cost 4000 ($35) a pop. The promoters have found lots of ways to part otaku from their money. This is the more palatable end of Japan's striking knack for transmuting sexual urges into efficient industries. Akihabara, Tokyo's mecca for manga and anime, is also the heart of a fetish for schoolgirls and their uniforms. There, in "JK salons" (joshi kosei means high school girl) a young woman in uniform will tell your fortune. Or, for 3000 for 20 minutes, you can lie next to her. In many places that is all you may do. But sex is on offer if otaku know where to look. A new city ordinance barring girls of 17 or younger from working in the JK business may serve only to drive it underground - or on to the internet.

It is, to many, proof of the misogyny of Japanese society: often demeaning and sometimes dangerous to women. Yet some sociologists argue that life in Japan is not much fun for men, either. As evidence, they point to the decline of marriage and romantic relationships. Three-fifths of men between the ages of 25 and 35 remain unmarried. A survey by the research arm of Meiji Yasuda, an insurer, found that 53 per cent of men in their 20s had never gone out (vaguely defined) with a woman; in contrast, 64 per cent of American men claim to have had sex by the age of 20.

Labour practices forged during a high-growth industrial era do men no favours. Male-dominated workforces are expected to put in long hours, often without overtime pay - and then stay drinking in smoky bars with the boss until the last train home. The assumption is that employees have a spouse who is a full-time housewife. But even young employees lucky enough to be on permanent contracts struggle to raise a family on a single income.

As for the growing "precariat" of young Japanese men on non-permanent contracts - forget it. Now that women have more, if hardly stellar, work options, they can afford to hold out for a better partner; that is, one earning a good salary. In canvassing opinion among unmarried women seeking a partner, 7m a year seems a common floor among the better educated.
A new study suggests less may be more when it comes to illustrations in storybooks for young children.

Researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom have determined that preschoolers learn more words when there is only one illustration per page.

Their study, Two Sides to Every Story: Children Learn Words Better From One Storybook Page at a Time was published online in June in the journal Infant and Child Development.

The researchers divided 36 3  -year-old children into three groups. One group was read a storybook with one illustration on the right page and the left page blank. Another group was read a storybook with an illustration on both pages. A third group acted as a control and was read a storybook with one oversized illustration on the right page.

All of the children heard the same story and saw the same illustrations.

At the end of the story, the children were asked to rank their enjoyment of it. The researchers found no difference in the childrens enjoyment based on which book had been read to them. But when they tested the children on the new vocabulary that had been introduced to them in the books, the children who had been read stories with just one illustration learned twice as many words as the children who had been read stories with illustration on each page.

Experiment Two

The researchers added 12 more children of the same age and read them the storybook with an illustration on both pages. But this time the reader used a sweeping gesture across the page to indicate which page he or she was reading.

These children were also asked to rank their enjoyment of the story and then were tested on the new vocabulary presented to them in the book. These students learned just as many new words as the students who had been exposed to only one illustration per page in the first experiment, and they enjoyed the stories equally.

Takeaways

So should early childhood educators and parents look for books with fewer illustrations?

Zoe Flack is the doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex who designed the study with her advisor. She also ran the study with the help of some fellow students.

We certainly wouldnt advocate avoiding any types of booksdeveloping a love of books early is helpful for later life and different books provide different experiences, all of which are important, wrote Flack in an email. At this young age though, children are still learning how to learn from books. So helping them get the most out of storybooks, without taking away any of the pleasure can really boost their chances.

She says that can be accomplished through simple gestures.

I think the main message should be for adult readers to be guiding childrens attention towards the page they are reading from as a minimum, wrote Flack. Pointing to features in the illustrations children may not know the words for, whilst reading, is also a really good way to help them pick up new words too.

Photo: These are the three books that researchers read to the preschoolers in the study. Courtesy Zoe Flack
Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, stands as a peaceful oasis of religious tolerance and coexistence between Jews and Muslims, said NBC news in an article on its website.

Titled, For Jews and Muslims of Morocco, a Supportive Relationship Built on a Complex History, the article sheds light on centuries-old history of Jewish existence in Morocco, noting that the North African Kingdom is home to the largest Jewish community in the MENA region.

The article features interviews with eminent Jewish figures in Morocco and artists championing religious tolerance in the country and highlights the ancient roots of the Moroccan Jewish community.

Speaking to NBC news, Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who spent two years living in Morocco while researching his book, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories of the Holocausts Long Reach into Arab Lands explained Jews were better off in Morocco compared to elsewhere in the Muslim world.

He added that King Mohammed VI is the only leader in the region who actively protects religious tolerance and coexistence.

The article also cites Andre Azoulay, a Jewish Senior Adviser to the King, who shed light on facets of Moroccos protection of Jews. Judaism in Morocco is in the roots, the identity, the mindset of the Moroccan people, Azoulay said.

For his part, Kamal Hachkar, a Moroccan Muslim historian and filmmaker called the flight of Moroccos Jews a big loss for Morocco, adding, Its important to preserve the long history between Jews and Muslims here.

In 2011, Morocco adopted a new Constitution recognizing Judaism as a facet of the Moroccan identity. Today, Jews account for less than 3,000 of Moroccos 35 million residents  a small fraction of the nearly 300,000 who lived here before the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In detaining a vessel loaded with Sahara phosphates bound for New Zealand, the ruling party in South Africa, the ANC, is reconnecting with its anachronistic populist marxist ideology, putting politics above justice in a hostile action that threatens to derail a peace process led by the UN, said the US public policy think tank, The American Enterprise Institute.

In an analysis issued after the pulling out of Moroccos phosphates giant, the OCP and its Sahara subsidiary Phosboucraa, from proceeding on the core of the case in South Africa, the Think Tank deplored South Africas intransigence to put partisan ideology above law, threatening to derail international processes, reward terror, and effectively encourage piracy.

The Institute deplores the decision of the South African court to maintain the ship detained in Port Elizabeth with 55,000 tons of phosphates worth $5 million on board.

The author of the analysis Michael Rubin said that South Africas justice had better follow the example of Panamanian authorities who decreed that the Polisario had no jurisdictional competence in the matter. In doing so, the Panamanian government and court recognized that allowing self-styled governments and groups to seize shipping amounted to piracy.

Groups like the Polisario would then use the proceeds to finance terrorism and the lavish lifestyle of the Polisarios politburo, and the precedent could disrupt diplomacy worldwide, warned Rubin.

In the face of the blatant partiality and violations by the South African justice system of the international law of the sea, the OCP declared their withdrawal from the judicial proceedings on grounds that the court has no legitimacy to pursue the question of whether the Polisario Front should be able to seize the Cherry Blossoms cargo, he explained.

The arbitrary detention of the ship will have a fallout on the locals in the Sahara, the author went on to say, noting that One hundred percent of the profits from Phosboucraa mine, whose product is being shipped by Cherry Blossom, are invested into the local community. Moreover, the author of the analysis said, 50 local Western Sahara companies subcontract with the firm, creating even greater employment. More than three-quarters of the work force is from Western Sahara as opposed to the rest of Morocco.

He added that Phosboucraa operates in line with the UN legal framework and international law governing the exploitation of international resources.

Less than two percent of Moroccos phosphate exports originate in the Western Sahara and the Moroccan kingdom spends more per capita on residents of the south than it does on any of Moroccos other regions, Michael Rubin explained.

In siding with the Polisario, South Africa defends a militia that locks people in abhorrent living conditions in Tindouf camps, and the self-proclaimed SADR republic is a criminal group accused of embezzling humanitarian aid and of connivance with terrorist groups, he said.

The unlawful decision of the South African court also sets dangerous precedent, as the SADR republic is not the only separatist group seeking international recognition.

If the South African court seizes the Cherry Blossoms cargo to hand it to a Marxist hold-over in a dusty corner of Africa, then it effectively is declaring open season on international trade and an end to talks as the primary means of resolving conflict, underlined the author of the analysis.
Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Kris Kobach, co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and strong candidate in the ultra-competitive scariest person in the Trump Administration sweepstakes, sees voter fraud everywhere. No matter that the phenomenon barely exists, Kobach bravely battles it anyway. In his noble quest, hes like King Arthur, if King Arthur were really into disenfranchising minorities.

When Kobachs commission recently sent a letter to states requesting sensitive voter information, it was rebuffed by almost all of them. (Mississippis secretary of State memorably responded, They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.) But Kobach has nevertheless already accomplished his central goal of cutting down the voter rolls. In a piece of utterly depressing news, the Denver Post reports that almost 3,400 Coloradans canceled their registration after hearing about the commissions request. Officials told the Post that the voters had typically given them two reasons for the withdrawals: They dont trust President Donald Trumps voter integrity commission, and they didnt realize how much of their voter registration information was already public under state law.

Like many states, Colorado merely offered to hand over information to Kobach that was already public (though its secretary of State was unusually warm in his response to the commission). Such information varies by state, but in Colorado, it includes name, address, birth year, and voting status  apparently enough to spook a significant number of people, with undoubtedly more to come. And, of course, this is only one state; we dont know what voting-roll attrition looks like elsewhere.

Kobachs reaction to all this offers a window into his conspiracy-addled worldview. In an interview with Breitbart News, he offered this perspective on why people might cancel their registration:

It could be a number of things. It could be, actually, people who are not qualified to vote, perhaps someone who is a felon and is disqualified that way or someone who is not a U.S. citizen saying, Im withdrawing my voter registration because I am not able to vote, he said. It could be a political stunt  people who are trying to discredit the commission and withdrawing temporarily because they are politically active but planning to get back on the voter rolls before the election next November.

Many factors are working against Kobach and his zealot colleagues in their attempts to undermine Americas voting laws. For one thing, there are the facts: Study after study after study confirms that voter fraud is not a significant problem. Kobachs two-year investigation during his tenure as secretary of State of Kansas turned up a total of nine cases. Then there are the legal hurdles: Though he calls himself the A.C.L.U.s worst nightmare, he is 0 for 4 against them in court. Theres also the incompetence, a hallmark of the Trump administration. Slates Mark Joseph Stern details how the commissions complete disregard for laws and statutes has opened it up to multiple lawsuits (one from its familiar foe, the ACLU) to the point that the commission has had to pause its collection of voter data while it cleans up its own messes.

So, Kobachs vision of kicking millions off the voter rolls may or may not be fulfilled. But the reports out of Colorado make it clear that his mere attempt, justified by Donald Trumps conspiracy theory about the popular vote, is already damaging our democracy.
he prolly paid them off lbr.



check ha emails

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lol i came in here to say this

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exaggerating is telling a truthful story but making some details seem better/worse than it was. ryan completely lied and said one thing happened when the opposite did.



but sure why not. a rich & famous guy getting away with a crime is business as usual in this world.

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Good thing he's white

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smh. i hope we never see his face again unless he like gets hit by a car 'cause his dumb ass decided to sleep in the middle of the road.

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what a surprise

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Lochte did not break the law in exaggerating the details of an incident at a gas station



Lying to the authorities isn't a crime anymore, happy days!



Edited at 2017-07-15 10:06 am (UTC)

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should've locked him up, smh

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I can't believe you missed the opportunity to make the "they should LOCHTE'M up" pun sis

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This whole thing was such an absolute clusterfuck of a mess. Lochte remains an idiot.

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unsurprising, to be qwhite honest. he was just a kid!



Lochte did not break the law in exaggerating the details of an incident at a gas station



yeah, fuck the fact he disrespected an entire nation, fuck the laws of said nation, because it's just a country full of dirty brown people so their laws don't apply to stupid ass gringos pendejos. hope this nigga chokes.

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I thought that more than 40% of Brazil was White?





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I remember watching a documentary saying that 90% of Brazil would be considered of color in America. Racial mixing was really prevalent

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we have the largest percentage of black people outside of Africa.

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Most of the people who self-declare as White would not be considered white in the US.

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He's an idiot, at least this is good news for his baby that was born not too long ago.

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Oh to be a rich white male

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In before "he's Cuban"

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I swear to God, Cubans are like the whitest of the white Latinos. I feel like most people who have Cuban ancestry look like straight up run of the mill whites. Like you can't even make a just argument about them being POC. Cameron Diaz, Bella Thorn, Frany Muniz, Lauren from 5H, the daughter from Reba, the son from 7th Heaven...etc

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he's a white cuban then

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I hate his smug face UGH

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The framework is true? How can that be when he lied about everything?

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I wanna be hyped for this. But I feel like, being a black movie nerd is the only reason I'm seeing it.



Haven't heard a soul mention it..

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That's a really good point, I kept thinking they had time for the promo to kick in, but now it's only a few weeks away from opening and I haven't seen any of the stars out doing interviews.



I hope Annapurna doesn't bungle its release.

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The only thing i've seen is the premiere in Detroit is on the 25th, and John posted that on his twitter.

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they had a whole segment on NPR this morning about the movie coming out and interviewing people who were around in the riots (so they were at least 14/15 in 1967)

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Can't wait

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I'm gonna have to psyche myself up to watch this. I still haven't seen Fruitvale Station or 12 Years a Slave ;_;

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I havent either bc there's only so much "black ppl suffering bc white ppl/supremacy" shit that I can take and I think I met that quota when I tried to watch Amistad one time for school and basically burst into tears.



I'm weak and cannot deal at all.





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there's only so much "black ppl suffering bc white ppl/supremacy" shit that I can take



That's exactly it for me too. Like if I wanted to watch black folks struggle because of whiteness, I could just walk outside lol On the other hand, I know it's important for us to bear witness to stories like that so I'll have to suck it up one day. I really do want to see the movies, but I have to be in the right mindset.



I remember thinking I would be all right to see Django Unchained and then we got to that scene where Kerry Washington got whipped and I had to turn the movie off. I'm right there with you, I can't deal at all.

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I'm the same way. But I'm glad this story is being told because I've never heard of this part of history before.

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same girl

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I'm still pressed Michael B Jordan didn't get an Oscar nom for Fruitvale Station. That was the first movie in ages that brought me to tears, he was so damn good in it.

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What really pushed me to watch Fruitvale Station is that I'm a local, and I pass that station all the time while on the way to my cousin's. I cried so many fucking buckets. It's well done, but it hurts

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It's well made but you could probably skip 12 YAS.



Fruitvale is super sad though.

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I hear you, I feel the same way! I'm actually more looking forward to escapism type films like Black Panther and the like...

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I haven't seen either of those movies, also. That shit just stays with you. It fucking sucks because that's the world. That's life. Like, these aren't JUST movies and it kills me.

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I've seen 12 years when it came out (I recommend it) but I can't bring myself to watch fruitvale station

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i randomly thought of fruitvale a few days ago and remembered what an incredible movie that was. i recommend that over 12yas.

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I showed Fruitvale Station to my students last year and they were really moved. One of my students even went online to try and find contact info for Oscar Grant's mother, so she could write to her and tell her how sorry she was for what happened

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..I'm FROM Michigan and I've never heard of this holy shit ._. Terrifying secrets indeed X_X

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You and me both, girl.

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Academy Award-winning propagandist switches her focus to Black people in America.

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Is that... bad?

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only temporarily. she's working on more terrorism movies

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isn't the crew all white, too

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I'll buy a ticket to support this and then go see something else bc I can't watch stuff like without wanting set the world on fire.



I hope John B does well tho.

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I'm excited for this.

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I was trying to figure out what this was based on, since the trailer was kinda vague if you don't know the history. Anyone know if they're any good books about this?

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I haven't read it, but someone here said they liked The Algiers Motel Incident by John Hersey.

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Thanks I will pick it up. I would like to read something about this before watching the movie, since things get dramatized or changed.







And I meant there are, darn phone. Lol

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Also I'm 99% sure her role is tiny but Samira Wiley has a part in this!

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There is no hype for this, I don't think that black audiences are here for it. Which is the audience they need to generate WOM.

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i wish a poc had directed this

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This

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mte



ditto for kings, which also has a white director/writer and crew

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Should I be worried that this is coming out in august? That's dump month.

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I think Annapurna was trying to time it so it coincided with the actual anniversary of the riots (which is in late July). But their handling of this has been really weird so far, I wish they had brought it to a festival first or were letting it build word of mouth.



I'm not really worried about quality but I am worried that Annapurna is going to bungle the release because this is the first film that they're distributing on their own.

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Ah okay! I'm looking forward to this so let's hope Annapurna doesn't fuck this up.

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Are the actors really big enough for the poster to be just their faces and their last names being laid out like that?

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as a casual movie goer, i only know who the first 2 are.

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Semi OT but I'm watching her movie Strange Days rn and it's eerie how prescient that movie was when it comes to race relations in the US. It's a very strong theme that I didn't expect. The movie's from 1995 but that aspect of it is so relevant. Other parts of the movie such as the violence and sexual violence aspects are pretty messy although it's also a comment on it, idk idk. Anyway, Angela Bassett is great in it but she always is <3 (And I wonder whether that Black Mirror episode The Entire History of You was inspired by the premise of people being able to watch/live through other people's memories...)

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that what I've thought while rewatching La Haine not to long ago. The movie could easily pass for recent film with protests against police brutality, Le Pen running for president (and obsesstion with sport streetwear lol)

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yeah i know what you mean. i felt the same watching Do the Right Thing for the first time, it's from 1989 yet still so relevant. i don't think it's eerie but a sad and true depiction of anti-blackness, that has always permeated in society

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Abu Dhabi looks to publicly list parts of its national oil company

The United Arab Emirates plans to list part of its national oil company on public markets in order to create new revenue streams and gain access to new markets amid low oil prices. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is considering an IPO of minority stakes in some of its services business, reports CNBC.

How much of the company Abu Dhabi plans to list is still unclear, but its chief executive Sultan al-Jaber said ADNOC will remain fully owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.

ADNOC has been talking to banks about the listings, with the companys profitable businesses likely to be floated, reports Reuters. Abu Dhabi plans to offer equity in its business sometime this year.

ADNOC is seeking large trading houses, international pension funds, private equity investors and global infrastructure specialists rather than just national oil companies and international oil companies, the National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, reported.

It is looking to the new investors to support it in securing market access for its products, especially in Asia and a new co-investment approach would lead to a more open partnership model, Jaber said.

The company would remain the major shareholder but would offer strategic partnerships and co-investments across our service and refining businesses and select infrastructure assets, such as ADNOC pipelines and storage facilities, he said.

Potential areas for partnership include the development and expansion of a leading, regional drilling company and a new energy infrastructure venture as well as downstream ventures, The National reported. Related: Is Wall Street Funding A Shale Failure?

Shifting global trends are creating a new energy landscape where new rules of engagement are required, Jaber said in a statement. In this new energy era, we need more creative strategies and more flexible business models to capture growth.

Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries look to public markets

OPECs largest producer, Saudi Arabia, also hopes to enter public markets in the future, with the country believing an offering could amount to a valuation of $1 to $2 trillion for its state-run Saudi Aramco. Unlike the planned ADNOC offering, Saudi Arabia plans to offer shares in the main business and will list internationally, while the U.A.E. producer plans to list domestically.

Oman, the largest non-OPEC oil producer in the Middle East, also said it plans to sell shares in some state-owned downstream energy companies to the public, joining its neighbors in the Persian Gulf in approaching public markets.

Low oil prices have forced many countries in the Middle East, which rely on income from exported crude oil for the majority of their budget, to dig deep into their sovereign wealth funds.

With low oil prices persisting, many are now having to turn parts of their state-owned oil giants public to generate income. Investors are often wary of putting money into international oil companies, however, for fear that the state will use its majority stake to further political goals rather than economic ones.

When OPEC members offer equity, the goal is more than an immediate influx of cash

For the countries offering equity, the goals are more than an immediate influx of cash, says Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. Many of these countries hope to reduce the dominant role oil plays in their economies over the next decade.

Its about diversification, said Croft. They need oil money to build world-class investment vehicles.

By Oil and Gas 360

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Iranian officials continue to encourage multinational fossil fuel companies to pursue production deals in the country, despite disconcerting rhetoric from the White House that suggests the 2015 nuclear deal, which allowed Tehran to re-enter international oil markets after six years of isolation, could unravel at President Donald Trumps whim.

Our hand are full, said Irans Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia during the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul this week. We think that the situation is normal enough for major international oil business to get engaged in Iran.

Frances Total recently committed to spending $1 billion on a gas project this month, but such an investment in Iran from a European oil major is an exception, not the rule. If the United States backs out of the nuclear deal, the companies could be exposed to sanctions imposed by the White House on projects on American lands and waters. This dynamic keeps enthusiasm towards developing oil resources in Iranthe third-largest producer in OPECat a low, even though the legal barriers to doing business with Tehran are currently non-existent.

But Iran insists that new contracts worth $92 billion will raise oil production by a third and boost gas exports 15-fold in just four years. Thats a 2021 deadline in a bearish market that shows no signs of relenting.

Regarding the current geopolitical standoff between the United States and Iran, Zamaninia said BPs decision to be cautious on Iran [was] a ripple effect of the American agenda against conducting business in the Middle Eastern country. This attitude represents a shift in Iranian political sentiments against the United States since Trumps swearing-in ceremony. Related: Shell Nigeria Declares Force Majeure On Nigerian Light Oil Exports

Whereas President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry sought to bring Iran out of its dark economic times, President Trump has repeatedly stated that the nuclear deal with Iran was rubbish, and is reviewing Irans compliance at regular intervals. Over the course of 2016, Kerry used his international platform to clarify that non-American companies could freely invest in new Iranian projects without fear of retaliation from U.S. authorities. But that was back when it was assumed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 elections and continue the bulk of the Obama doctrine.

In April, the last time an official White House approval of Iranian compliance was required, Trumps State Department certified Tehrans adherence to the deal. But the thumbs-up came with the news that the deal was under official review to determine whether the lifting of sanctions was, in fact, in the United States national security interest.

The position of the White House has contributed to Saudi Arabias belief that it has gained a true ally against its key Middle Eastern rival. According to Saudi Arabia, Qatars recent estrangement from its Gulf allies stems partially from Dohas willingness to maintain relations with Iran  the nation with which it shares the gargantuan South Pars old field.

As the United States increases its oil exports and moves closer to becoming the worlds top LNG exporter, stifling Qatar, currently the No. 1 exporter of liquified national gas, and sanctioning Iran, a significant oil exporter, could indeed further the United States energy dominance agenda.

Iran is not without interest from China, India and Russia, which could allow it to secure billions in funding, but the White House could tear up the nuclear deal at any moment, catapulting Tehran back into economic isolation, with the KSA ready to hammer the nails into the Iranian oil sectors coffin.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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The Ukrainian state operator of power transmission lines, Ukrenergo, signed an agreement on June 28 with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) to integrate Ukraines power grid with the European one. Neighboring Moldova is also about to sign a similar agreement with ENTSO-E. Ukraine recently approved a law to transform its electricity sector in line with free market principles, which made it possible to sign the agreement. Integration with the European power grid should enable Ukraine to boost power exports to the European Union. It also should remove the need for Ukraine to turn to a hostile Russia in case of a power shortage, as was the case in late 2014.

Ukrenergo CEO Vsevolod Kovalchuk said the agreement was the starting point for Ukraines integration with the European power grid. He said that although integration with ENTSO-E was, in technical terms, similar to work with such neighbors as Russia or Belarus, it would be based on a completely different economic model, requiring the restructuring of the domestic power market so that Ukrainian consumers should be able to import electricity from any EU country, and any electricity producer [should be able to] export it to the final consumer in Europe. Kovalchuk noted that synchronization with ENTSO-E would be impossible without the full implementation by Ukraine of such a model, to be based on the European Third Energy Package, which was rejected by Russia (Ua.energy, June 29).

Ukraine has undertaken to introduce the new model by approving a new law on the power market. It was signed by President Petro Poroshenko in early June (UNIAN, June 8). The parliament passed the bill on April 13. It had been agreed with Ukraines donors and creditors in 2014, but its earlier approval had been thwarted by populist and nationalist parties. According to the law, Ukraine will have to replace, within two years, the current corruption-prone single power market structure managed by the government with a multi-layer structure similar to the ones in place in EU countries and consisting of a day-ahead market, an intraday market, a balancing market, a retail market, a market of auxiliary services, and a market of bilateral contracts (Pravda.com.ua, April 13).

Related: The Major Wildcard That Could Send Oil To $120

Through the integration of its power grid with the European one, Ukrenergo hopes to boost power exports from around 5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) to 1820 billion kWh, potentially increasing Ukraines power export revenue to $1.5 billion. Also, Ukraines power plants should receive access to the European market to balance peak loads on the grid, earning yet more (Oilreview.kiev.ua, May 24).

In spite of the continuing blockade of the Moscow/rebel-held areas in the east, which has produced chronic coal shortages for local thermal power plants (TPPs), Ukraine still has excessive power capacities. It used to export a great deal of electricity to neighboring Belarus, but Belarus will have excess power capacity itself after the launch of its first nuclear plant, expected in 20192020. Therefore, it is important for Ukraine to find new customers in the EU, and time is running out. Even with the signing of the agreement with ENTSO-E and the adoption of the new power market law, Ukrenergo estimates that full integration into the ENTSO-E system will take five years (Interfax, June 29). Ukraine increased power exports by 40 percent year on year to 2.6 billion kWh in JanuaryMay. Most of that went to EU neighbors Hungary (52 percent) and Poland (20 percent). In May alone, Ukraine was able to double power exports year on year to 0.6 billion kWh (UNIAN, July 4).

In addition to more export-generated profits, the national energy grids integration into Europe is likely to enhance Ukraines energy security. The hybrid war launched by Russia several years ago has been affecting Ukraines energy sector. Since the Russian incursion into Donbas, the countrys main coal region, Ukrainian TPPs have been experiencing problems with the coal supply. In December 2014, when the TPPs ran out of coal amid frosts, Ukraine found no other solution but to turn to a hostile Russia for electricity, which was humiliating and damaging to national security. Now that the TPPs are short of coal again because of the blockade of the occupied areas, introduced by Poroshenko last March (see EDM, March 29), Ukraine again may need to turn to Russia, a country that caused the problem in the first place. But by integrating with the European power grid, Ukraine will have a wide choice of foreign suppliers in an emergency. That is already the case with natural gas, which Ukraine has not been buying from Russia since 2015, having secured access to suppliers from the EU via Slovakia, Hungary and Poland (see EDM, February 11, 2016).

By The Jamestown Foundation

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Kuwatis OPEC governor, Haitham Al-Ghais, said on Friday that it was not yet time to curb crude oil production in Libya and Nigeriathe two OPEC members with the largest production increases over the last two months.

The reason for OPECs unwillingness to pull the trigger on a cap for its two African members, according to Al-Ghais, is that both countries need to stabilize further.

Both countries have seen a significant increase in oil production in May and June.

For the month of May, Libya accounted for OPECs sharpest increase for the month, producing an average of 178,200 barrels per day more than April 2017. Nigeria accounted for the second largest monthly increase, producing an average of 174,200 barrels per day more in May.

In June, Libya and Nigeria once again saw the largest increases in oil production, with Libya producing 127,000 barrels per day more in June than in May, and Nigeria producing 96,700 barrels per day more on a month over month basis.

Even if OPEC were to cap both Nigeria and Libya at their current output levels, it is unclear what effect this would have on OPECs market rebalancing efforts, which some analysts say hasnt even started yet.

Combined, Libya and Nigeria have increased output from 2.048 million bpd in April to 2.585 million bpd in June, and a cap would merely hold steady these levels of production, and would still take away from OPEC/NOPEC production quotas that promised to cut production by 1.8 million bpd.

While Kuwait said OPEC is not yet ready to assign cuts to Libya and Nigeria, it did say, according to Bloomberg, that they may be asked to join in limiting production. OPEC members have invited the two producers to the July 24 meeting in St. Petersburg to discuss the stability of their production. If Libya and Nigeria agree to limit production, it would at least remove two major sources of increasing supply from the market, making OPECs goal of rebalancing the oil market more achievable.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
From June 9th to June 18th, Oregon Catalyst conducted an online poll of 500, self-identified Republican voters. The goal of this poll was to see how Republican voters currently feel about the gubernatorial primary election that occurs in May of 2018. It is likely that the winner of that election would challenge Governor Kate Brown in the November election.

TOPLINE SURVEY RESULTS

If the 2018 Republican Primary Election for Governor of Oregon were held today, for whom would you vote?

Dennis Richardson  26%

Bill Post  23%

Bud Pierce  12%

Knute Buehler  9%

Lori Chavez-DeRemer  8%

Allen Alley  4%

Sam Carpenter  4%

Other  11%

Undecided  3%

>> DOWNLOAD CROSSTABS <<

Analysis

This field is much more divided than we anticipated its quite early even for primary season, which means there is plenty of time for voters to make up their mind. No one is running away with the nomination at this point which means anyone who can raise the money to get noticed has a chance to win.

As Oregons most senior Republican in state government, Dennis Richardson is an obvious choice to run. He has high name ID, fundraising power, and is the only potential candidate who has won a statewide general election. Richardson performs best among Republicans in Southern Oregon (receiving 44% of vote there) who are most familiar with him because he was a state representative in the areafor many years. He also does best with 55+ voters. We did expect him to run away with it more than he did. Its possible that some Republicans feel he should should remain Secretary of State for the rest of his term before seeking higher office.

Bill Post has been continually raising his profile (especially online) ever since he was elected to the Oregon House. He has been semi-publicly considering a run for Governor over the last several weeks. Post performs best in the Mid-Willamette Valley region (receiving 39% of votes from that area).

It makes sense that Bud Pierce is in the top three. Although he didnt win, Pierce put together a statewide campaign after winning a competitive primary in 2016. His name ID is likely to still be fairly high from his 2016 run. Pierce doesnt win any particular subgroup but does perform moderately well in most of them.

Buehler has run for statewide office before. He ran against Kate Brown for Secretary of State in 2012. If he wins the primary, he would likely have a rematch on his hands. Buehler is in the top two with voters in Central Oregon. He also gets high marks with voters 18-34 and moderate Republicans.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer is the mayor of Happy Valley and only narrowly lost a race for State Representative in 2016. She is currently exploring a run for Governor. She does best among Tri-County Republicans (receiving 21%). Her highest marks come with voters 18-34. Here DeRemer gets 35% of young voters. She is nearly tied with Buehler in the top two among Moderate Republicans (she has 20%, Buehler has 19%). Theyu would likely split the vote among moderates if they both entered the primary.

Alley and Carpenter havent announced intentions to run in 2018. Its likely their poll numbers are suffering because of that. Every other potential candidate has recently received at least one headline in the media.

Respondant Breakdown

OREGON REGION

Tri-County  31%, Mid-Wilamette  26%, Coast  7%, Southern -17%, Eastern  8%, Central  10%.

IDEOLOGY

Conservative  79%, Moderate  17%, Liberal  0%, Other  4%

2016 VOTED (PRIMARY)

Voted  98%, Did Not Vote  2%

AGE

18-34  12%, 35-54  37%, 55+  51%

GENDER

Male  48%, Female  52%

Methodology

We weighted the poll to match (as closely as possible) turnout for a statewide election. It is likely that the readership of Oregon Catalyst is informed differently than the broader Republican electorate in Oregon.

In the interest of full disclosure, the listed (potential) candidates promoted the poll to their followers on social media. It is likely this influenced the results. Its difficult to determine how much.

We think this poll is more accurate than a straw poll but still less accurate than a traditional poll conducted via telephone. Below you can download the full crosstabs to evaluate the poll for yourself. We collected additional data from the poll that we will be releasing later in the month. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].
Imran Khan following Fethullah Gulen model to destabilise government: Ahsan Iqbal 15 July, 2017



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Woke Bingo Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was following Turkey's Fethullah Gulen's model to destabilise the government.



Talking to meiamen on Friday, the minister compared Imran Khan to Fethullah Gulen who, according to him, harboured a network in the political apparatus of Turkey through which he was trying to control the political system while he himself was in exile.



On the same pattern, Imran Khan was trying to destabilise the government with the help of like-minded officials and supporters, whether they are in the government institutions or politics, Iqbal claimed.



"He [Khan] is also manipulating our democratic process for his interests. He held Dharna 1, in which he used his sympathisers in various departments. Then he held Dharna 2, which was also a failed attempt and to some extent, he also played a role in this case.



"The judiciary told us that our speeches were aggressive. What about the speeches of Imran Khan when he was threatening that he will mobilise the masses against the JIT if it failed to pass a judgement against PM Sharif," Iqbal said.



Talking about Turkey's failed coup, he said he does not know if Khan has some sympathisers in the Army or not. He maintained that the Army is a professional force but Khan wants to follow the same model [to topple the government] as Gulen did.



"We had already said, even before the submission of its report, that the manner in which the joint investigation team was constituted and the way in which it conducted itself, it depicts political bias and a vested agenda was seen behind the scene," the minister maintained.



"As per our reservations and expectations, the report contained concocted and fabricated evidence. The media is demolishing (the points raised in the report) one by one and our lawyers have still to appear before the court."



Iqbal said that he believed all this to be "political theatre aimed at destabilising the government, sabotaging the economic journey which is going to provide the basis for PML-N's success in the next general elections, and creating hurdles against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)."



"It is aimed to weaken the supremacy of elected leadership in Pakistan. So, our party has taken a deliberated decision that we will confront this conspiracy. And we will contest this case in the court and prove that it was based on mala fide intentions."



When asked how the premier would run the country when he was facing allegations of corruption, Iqbal said it was not a new phenomenon as oppositions across the world level allegations against governments.



"For instance, allegations were levelled against the prime minister and the president of Turkey, as well as Malaysia, but systems kept functioning there. An opposition is supposed to level allegations."



Commenting on the point that the SC empowered JIT has already submitted a report in the court, the minister responded that the JIT report was even less important than secondary comments written by a station house officer in the file of a case.



"They (the JIT members) themselves have written that the so-called evidence was acquired by agencies, which keeps no weight as per the law and the Constitution."



Secondly, Iqbal said, the report contains several contradictions and it clearly shows that the JIT members framed particular questions to elicit answers that suit their agenda. "So, we should wait for the court proceeding on the report, during which our legal team will prove that the report was baseless."



"We are glad to know that despite all their grudges against the government, the JIT could not identify a single example of corruption in our ongoing tenure," the minister said.



Talking about Capital FZE, he said that the JIT portrayed in media that they have found an offshore company belonging to the prime minister; however, the matter of fact is that the company was owned by the son of the prime minister, and he was named chairman in the documents due to some legal issues in connection with acquiring resident visa.



When asked about documents that say that the prime minister had been drawing a salary since 2006 until 2014, he maintained that the son of the PM has already announced that he is ready to accept any punishment if the JIT proves that Nawaz Sharif has drawn even a single salary.



"Being chairman of a company does not translate into being a shareholder of the company. The premier had been keeping the office of the chairman as it was not a governmental post, neither did it translate into a clash of interest."



There are so many loopholes in the JIT report that the people of Pakistan will automatically know that the report was compiled to please the political agenda of a certain party, the minister maintained.



"It will also expose that someone has decided to undo the government through a judicial coup and someone wants to give rebirth to judicial 58 2(B).



"We have contributed to the freedom of judiciary and we do believe that the judiciary will decide as per the law of the land and the Constitution, and not as per the political likes and dislikes of anyone."



When asked to elaborate the term of judicial 58 2(B), he referred to the recent press conference of Javed Hashmi, saying that Hashmi revealed in the presser that Imran Khan had told him [Hashmi] that Nawaz Sharif would be defeated with the help of judges so you could not call it marshal law, "instead it would be a sort of judicial coup".



"Pakistan has paid the price for it and we have lost the decade of the 90s when we were suffering from the curse of Article 58 2(B). Now if someone is seeking to send back the premier or the government home through judicial means, then it could be called a judicial 58 2(B)."



The federal minister said that the nation was fully aware that the country was moving towards economic rehabilitation. "At a time when the country is moving forward, the common man wants the journey to continue. If you (Khan) are so great then let people decide in the 2018 general elections, which are just 10 months away," he said.



He also alleged that Imran Khan was not willing to finalise the electoral reforms; instead he was busy in political dramas. "This is the real issue, which will take six to eight months for completion."



Talking about the resignation of the premier, he said that in the current scenario tendering a resignation is tantamount to political suicide.



"It is impossible for the government to surrender when the JIT report is proven baseless and the resignation is being demanded by those who have been rejected by the masses. We are answerable to our voters, not Imran Khan.
It is time for reconciliation, not confrontation: Shahbaz Sharif 15 July, 2017



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

Woke Bingo ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo on Friday advised the partys top leadership to avoid hawkish approach and act sane in the current scenario.



It is time for reconciliation, not confrontation, a source within the party quoted Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as having told the specially called meeting of the PML-Ns parliamentary party.



Like in the cabinets meeting a day earlier, all the members present at the parliamentary party meeting endorsed prime ministers decision to not step down and fight his case on both legal as well as political fronts and thumped desks to expressed solidarity as soon as their supreme leader entered the meeting hall. However, Shahbaz Sharif was an exception, who, during his brief address to the participants, publicly urged the close aides of the prime minister to refrain from unnecessarily indulging in confrontation with all the state institutions, especially the Supreme Court bench hearing the Panama Papers case and the military establishment, and adopt a practical approach instead.



Rather than turning the judges hearing the Panama Papers case furious by useless bashing, we should focus our energies on preparing a strong rejoinder to the JIT report and developing a comprehensive strategy to fight our case on the legal grounds in the Supreme Court, he opined. Legal matters must always be dealt with legally.



Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan looked conspicuous by his absence in the parliamentary party meeting amid rumours of widening gap between him and the party top leadership. The relationship between Ch Nisar, who has on the record declared that he would be the first person to sever ties if corruption charges against Sharif family are proved, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has often been uneasy during the four-year term of the current regime. However, Nisar has fairly good terms with Shahbaz Sharif who would bring him round every time he tendered resignation over differences with the prime minister.



A day earlier in the cabinet meeting, Ch Nisar reportedly told the prime minister to see the writing on the wall and decide in the best interest of the party as well as the country. However, a spokesman of the Interior Ministry on Friday was quick to dispel the impression of any internal rift, maintaining that Ch Nisar could not attend the parliamentary party meeting due to personal engagements, as even before he also could not attend several parliamentary party meetings.



This aspect should not be wrongly interpreted. The minister will inform about his position through media about the current situation in the next few days, the spokesman added, in a statement released to the media.



While addressing the parliamentary party meeting as chief of the PML-N, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated that the controversial report by the JIT in Panama case was mere a pack of accusations by opponents that lacked any substantive evidence. He categorically told his party that he had a clean conscience and would never resign on the demands of those who were rejected by the masses not once but several times.



While thanking the nation and his party for standing with him with unity and devotion, he expressed confidence that the court will also give due attention to his apprehensions regarding the JIT report. In an apparent reference to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the prime minister said that an uncalled-for campaign was launched against him soon after his success in the 2013 general election, including the dharnas. "Now this is the third attack ... but Allah Almighty is with us, and so is our nation," he said.



Nawaz said the JIT report targeted his family's 62 years of business matters only through allegations, accusations and source reports. "Mention if you know about even a minuscule corruption case against me during my five tenures of government, or even against Shahbaz Sharif," he said, in an apparent challenge to his political opponents. "None of the contracts and tenders relating to hundreds of projects worth billions during our tenure is blemished with commissions, kickbacks or corruption."



Recounting his 'services' for the independence of judiciary, the prime minister said he took out a long march for the restoration of judiciary risking his own life, whereas those claiming to be 'bigger leaders' went underground. He said several American and British leaders advised him not to endanger his life by leading the long march. "But I believe in democracy, rule of law and independence of judiciary. Long march was a difficult mission, which ended in success by the grace of Allah Almighty and due to our sincerity," he said. The joint opposition too held a meeting on Friday to agree on a consensus stance over JIT's report in the Panama Papers case. While all the major political parties refused to inch away from their demand for immediate resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) believed that the opposition should wait for the final decision by SC in the case. Though differences persisted over seeking immediate resignation of the prime minister, the whole opposition was united over the point that the democratic process must continue and the current parliament should complete its five-year tenure. The two-hour-long meeting held at the chamber of Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khurshid Shah was attended by Sherry Rehman and Syed Naveed Qamar of PPP, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shireen Mazari of PTI, Sirajul Haq of Jamaat-e-Islami, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and Tariq Bashir Cheema of PML-Q, Farooq Sattar of MQM-Pakistan, Aftab Sherpao of QWP, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed of Awami Muslim League and Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the ANP.
USA adopted bill for tightening restrictions on US assistance to Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives passed on Friday a sweeping $696 billion defence policy bill that would exceed President Donald Trumps budget request and break through longstanding caps on national defence spending.



The bill adopted decisively by 344 to 81 votes includes provisions for tightening restrictions on US assistance to Pakistan.



Late on Thursday, another congressional panel approved by voice vote the State and Foreign Operations bill that also suggests increased restrictions on US civil and military assistance to Pakistan. The foreign affairs bill now goes to the full House for voting.



The defence bill authorises $696bn in defence spending for the 2018 fiscal year, including nearly $30bn more for core Pentagon operations than President Donald Trump requested.



All but eight Republicans and 117 Democrats voted for the bill, which surpasses the $549bn cap on defence spending set under the 2011 Budget Control Act by about $72bn.



The other legislation, however, would reduce funding for the State Department and foreign operations by $10bn, down from about $57.4bn in fiscal 2017. Still, the cuts are not as deep as those in the Trump administrations budget proposal, which included roughly $37bn for the state.



In total, the bill provides $47.4bn in both regular discretionary and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. This total is $10bn below the fiscal year 2017 enacted level, when counting additional funds provided in the Security Assistance Appropriations Act of 2017.



Within this amount, OCO funding totals $12bn, which supports operations and assistance in areas of conflict, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.



The text of the bill, released earlier this week, includes provisions to make the civil and military aid to Pakistan conditional to Islamabad stopping its alleged support to the Haqqani network and other militant groups in the South Asian regions.



Although the text focuses on the groups that fight US and official Afghan forces in Afghanistan, some groups named in the text also operate in the Indian occupied Kashmir.



In recent days, senior US officials and lawmakers have both sent clear messages to Pakistan, urging it to help the United States and the Afghan government defeat the Taliban militants. They also said that the failure to do so would force the United States to reconsider its relationship with Pakistan.



US officials and lawmakers, however, have left open the option to hold peace talks with the Taliban.



In April, US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson told Americas Nato allies in Brussels that an eventual settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban is the ultimate goal of the Trump administration.



The ongoing commitment of Nato allies and partners to peace in Afghanistan, including to an eventual settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, protects this alliances interests, and, when successful, ensures that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists, he said.



Although in power since Jan 20, the Trump administration is still finalising a policy for the Pak-Afghan region and recent leaks to the media indicate that while the new strategy would suggest both qualitative and numerical increase in US military presence in Afghanistan, it will also continue to seek a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict.



At a recent news briefing, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert avoided categorising the Taliban as a terrorist outfit.



Our Afghan policy review is still under way. That has not been announced just yet, said Ms Nauert when asked if the Trump administration is going to brand the Taliban as terrorists.
As Rakhine States Mrauk-U expands with the ballooning needs of a modern, urban center, local politicians are proposing moving it to a new location away from the ancient capital, which is in the process of bidding for world heritage status.

The new city project would entail relocating the modern city of Mrauk-U to a 2,700-acre site near the road to Kayuktaw, according to U Aung Kyaw Zan, the Rakhine State Minister of Electricity, Industry and Transportation.

A draft proposal was submitted to the state parliament by MP U Tun Thar Sein from Mrauk U Constituency 1. The plan was discussed in hluttaw on July 13.

We will start with planning for 500 acres of land. Then we will reveal the plans for the project to the public and continue to carry it out, Minister U Aung Kyaw Zan told the MPs.

He added that Mrauk-U is currently located within the ancient archaeological zone, and said the city has become ugly due to overpopulation, flooding, the disappearance of cannels, the mushrooming shantytowns that have cropped up adjacent to the stream and the continual problems with the garbage disposal system.

Mrauk-U is full of ancient buildings and we are currently working together with UNESCO to apply for adding it to the World Heritage list, he said. The new city relocation project would allow the urban center to thrive and pursue economic growth without bringing it into confrontation with the attempts to conserve the ancient heritage, he added.

Mrauk-U was built in the 15th century and was the capital for the Arakanese Kingdom until 1784 when the Burmese conquered it.

The Department of Urban and Housing Development proposed a Mrauk-U new city project in 2015 under the previous administration. At the time, the proposed location was discovered to be problematic as it was on a floodplain too near the Lemro River, and was also still within the vicinity of the ancient zone.
Kokrokoo Charities led by ace broadcaster and host of Peace FM's flagship programme "Kokrokoo", Kwami Sefa Kayi has donated two incubators to help save lives at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.



The incubators were donated to support the "Save-A-Child, Save-A-Mother" campaign spearheaded by First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo.



Kokrokoo Charities made the donation to redeem a pledge made at the first fundraiser in Accra.



Presenting the items, the multiple award winning Presenter Sefa Kayi was optimistic the equipment worth $20000 willl effectively serve the purpose of saving lives at the hospital.



The "Save-A-Child, Save-A-Mother" campaign was organized by Mrs. Akufo-Addo and the Multimedia Group Limited, to raise funds for the construction of a new maternity and mother and baby unit for the hospital.



She believed the construction will reduce the congestion at the Komfo Anokye Hospital.



The First Lady was pleased with the donation and expressed profound gratitude to Kokrokoo Charities for their support.



The two incubators to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital bring into total 8 incubators that the Kokrokoo Charities has made so far as part of their commitment in the 100 incubators project by the Kokrokoo production team.



Three different entities made the donations on Friday, July 14, 2017 towards the campaign to save lives at the Teaching Hospital.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Constituency delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Builsa South Constituency in Upper East Region, have called for the amendment of the Partys Constitution to include Constituency Secretaries to the membership of the Regional Executive Committee and be given voting rights too.



Currently, the Regional Executive Committees of the Party across the country are made up of the Regional Executive Officers and all Constituency Chairmen/women, which the Builsa South Constituency delegates think was not complete, hence, their call for the amendment.



The Constituency delegates also asked members of the NPP who will be participating in the National Delegates Congress to be held from August 25 to 27, at Cape Coast in the Central Region, to support their call for the amendment of the Partys Constitution, so as to make all executive positions elected positions.



The Builsa South Constituency Secretary of the Party, Joseph Apandiok in an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE, after the Annual Constituency Delegates Congress at Fumbisi said, recent situations and behaviours of some appointed Executives of the Party have necesitated that all Executives be made to compete for their positions, so as to handle the positions with care.



The Constituency Chairman of the NPP, Kofi Atafoe commended all delegates for their roles in the 2016 elections, saying, even though the NPP could not win the Parliamentary Seat, their efforts contributed to the Partys victory in 2016.



The Upper East Regional Organizer of the Party, Jerry Asamani, said the Akufo-Addo led government has come to improve the lives of the citizenry, especially the poor, hence, the need for all hands on deck to hasten the development of the country.



District Chief Executive for Builsa South, Daniel Kwame Gariba, said the district is lagging behind in terms of development and called on the Partys delegates and the entire district to support his efforts at attracting development projects to the area.

Source: Daily Guide









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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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



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OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


FORT EDWARD -- A Ticonderoga woman who drove intoxicated to a court appearance with a child in her vehicle has pleaded guilty to two charges and faces a jail term.

Sandy L. Keech, 45, pleaded guilty in Washington County Court to a felony charge of DWI and misdemeanor charge of DWI for two arrests in January.

Keech was first charged with misdemeanor DWI after a one-vehicle accident on Route 22 in Dresden. Twelve days later, she was arrested at Dresden Town Court after she went to a court appearance there impaired, and police determined she had driven an 8-year-old to the court appearance.

Keech agreed to a plea deal that will include 6 months in Washington County Jail and 5 years on probation when sentenced Aug. 11 by Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan.
Former Glens Falls Citizens Bank manager Brennyn Molloy is returning to the area in a very different role, as an intuitive medium.

Molloy, who said she was influenced at a young age by her fathers connection to the Lakota Native American Indian practices, left her traditional banking position, moved to Virginia Beach and started her own business, The House of Compassionate Gratitude.

Molloy is an intuitive psychic medium with Edgar Cayces Association of Research and Enlightenment.

And from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, she will be at The Queensbury Hotel, 88 Ridge St., to help those attending connect to the souls who have already passed, she said.

I will communicate with any souls that come to me, she said. I always advise my clients to take time to pray and invite those who have passed away to come through to us.

Admission is $35 per person general admission; and a VIP front-row ticket that includes a 30-minute meet-and-greet with Molloy after the event is $55.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 802-353-5495 or at TheHouseofCompassionateGratitude.com.
LAKE GEORGE  Lake George has shut down a dormitory housing international workers after receiving complaints that too many students were being crammed into a room.

Village Mayor Robert Blais said students were staying in a house in back of the Hillside Motel.

We got a complaint from someone who was there saying that they were putting 10, 12 people in one room. The room was very tiny, he said.

Village Code Enforcement Officer Doug Frost and the Warren County fire inspector visited the site and ordered that the property be shut down, according to Blais.

We secured new rooms for some of those kids that had to get out of there, Blais said.

Housing is still a major issue for the Student Connection, which is advocating for the rights of student workers. Eight complaints were received regarding inadequate living conditions, according to Blais.

Others properties had minor offenses. In some instances, the housing barely met the code, Blais said. Sometimes, students were promised cooking facilities, but there were not any.

Some of the housing that is being rented to international students is in housekeeping cottages and older motels, according to Blais.

Blais said he has not been receiving as many complaints about poor housing or other issues regarding students, which he attributed perhaps to media publicity.

Two local businesses, which Blais did not identify, had not paid students for three to four weeks because of inclement weather and had not been living up to their employment contract. Blais said the village is reporting these problems to the Labor Department.

The Student Connection is already looking ahead to next summer. Blais estimates that the number of international workers is closer to 1,500, more than he thought previously. There is a lack of adequate housing.

Blais said he has invited the companies that employ many of these guest workers to a meeting in September to plan for the 2018 season. He wants to work on a list of acceptable housing options for these students.

Were going to inventory all the places where the students are staying and our intention is to try to inspect ones that are housing multiple students, he said.

SUNY Adirondack President Kristine Duffy has also indicated she would make the campus residence hall available next summer for international students, according to Blais.

She was kind enough to offer emergency housing this year if we needed it. We have not had to take advantage of it, he said.

Transportation would be required, but Blais believes a shuttle service could be established.

Blais said he would also like to get a student workers bill of rights drafted and posted.

He said the village also would like to extend its hours at the Lake George Visitors Center to open at 8 a.m., so people can field complaints. Most of the inquiries at the center are from students seeking second jobs, according to Blais.

The Student Connection is looking for sponsors and will apply for grants to cover the costs of these projects, according to Blais. It would like to bring a full-time director on board.

The committee is seeking free passes for area attractions and is planning a possible hike, boat cruise and luncheon for students.

The town and village of Lake George and the towns of Queensbury and Bolton are partners in the Student Connection.

Tutoring in English is being done at the Caldwell Library and St. James Church, according to Blais. TD Bank also has been a resource because it has bilingual employees and has allowed the workers to open accounts and receive debit cards before obtaining their Social Security cards.

We have a great group of volunteers who have devoted many hours to making our initial efforts a success, Blais said in a news release. Our local faith community, the library and some local citizens and employers have dedicated themselves to making certain our students have a pleasurable experience in Lake George.

The complaints we hear about unscrupulous landlords and employers never ceases to amaze me, but by 2018 we will weed them out or bring them into compliance, he added.
Voters in parts of Washington County had an issue with casting their vote because of an error in the way the ballots were printed.
Editor:

My first introduction to the Fourth of July was in 1946 at a children's camp in the Black Forest, Germany.

Kids of various nationalities were sent by American military to camps in the forest for their health.

One late evening, there were loud, explosive sounds like those of an air raid which all of us were familiar with. We hid in our beds, under blankets, any place at all that might look like a hiding place; prayed or cried hysterically. The camp director brought us all out on the lawn, explained that the American soldiers stationed close by were celebrating the birthday of their country. The noise is called "fireworks." Same soldiers had sent over a lot of Hershey bars which we all shared.

The giving of the chocolate to us, the bedraggled kids, is priceless. That kind of kindness is particularly American. Was then and still exists in this culture. So was the length of parachute material given to each bride by the American military, for a wedding dress, if she were to be married in the DP Camp.

There are, all across the world, mid-80s and late-80s former refugee women who still have that dress as a memory. They were hand sewn by a mom or a grandmother. That act also tells the world of understanding of tradition, caring and sharing with those who do not have. We still do it in this country, just look around.

Gunta Krasts Voutyras, Glens Falls
Donald Trump is running a national-scale voter-suppression effort, billed as a "Voter Fraud Commission," whose first act was to illegally demand that state election officials dox every registered voter by sending their lifelong voter records to the White House.



Not only did the states object to this  including red states with GOP governors  but so did many ordinary Americans, who wrote to Trump to tell them that they thought this was a bad idea.

The White House carefully gathered all of those letters from concerned voters, and published them, all 112 pages' worth, without redacting those voters' names, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and places of employment.



The Washington Post is not publishing any of this information because in most cases it does not appear that the individuals were aware their comments would be shared by the White House. The emails were sent to the Election Integrity Commissions' email address that the administration asked U.S. secretaries of state to send data files to. "This request is very concerning," wrote one. "The federal government is attempting to get the name, address, birth date, political party, and social security number of every voter in the country." That email, published by the White House, contained the sender's name and home address. "DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA PERIOD," wrote one voter whose name and email address was published by the White House. "Beefed up the security on this email address yet?" asked another voter whose name and email address were also published by the White House. "The request for private voter information is offensive," wrote one voter whose name, home address and email address were published by the White House. "I removed my name from voter rolls. And I'm a Republican!" wrote one voter whose name was published by the White House.

White House releases sensitive personal information of voters worried about their sensitive personal information

[Christopher Ingraham/Washington Post]

(Image: Trumpshair)
Senior Resources

Senior Resources is located in the Shepley Building, 1808 Mulberry Ave., Muscatine. Hours are 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays. The agency provides services to Muscatine County residents ages 60 or older and programs and activities each month for all seniors. For more information, call 563-263-7292 or 888-667-2026.

Adult Day Center

Senior Resources Adult Day Center provides loved ones with socialization and programs while caregivers complete errands and appointments. Senior Resources also offers bathing and a low-stimulus room. For more information, call 563-263-7292 or 888-667-2026.

Advance Care Planning

Honoring Your Wishes is a community-wide program that helps people create an advance care plan so people can outline their future health care goals. You will then make a written plan that will describe your wishes to others if you cannot communicate. This service is available at no cost for adults ages 18 years or older. Call Senior Resources for more information.

Chore Program

The Chore Program helps seniors ages 60 or over, in Muscatine County, with lawn mowing, snow shoveling and heavy household cleaning. A sliding fee scale is used to calculate the rate. Please call Senior Resource if you have any questions.

Home Repair Program

The Home Repair Program is offered by Senior Resources and helps seniors ages 60 or over, in Muscatine County, to fix or repair minor household problems. A sliding fee scale is used to calculate reimbursement for labor. Please call Senior Resource if you have any questions 263-7292.

Meals on Wheels

Senior Resources Meals on Wheels program consists of a lunch-time meal delivered by volunteers to area seniors who have trouble cooking for themselves, possibly live alone and have no one in the home to cook for them or for someone who has just gotten out of the hospital and needs help temporarily with meals until they get back on their feet. If you would like more information or to sign up for the program, please call Shannon at 563-263-7292 or email to meals@sr-resources.org.

Medical equipment

Senior Resources and sponsor Trinity Episcopal Church are offering the Durable Medical Equipment Lending Closet. The program, which lends medical items free of charge, is available to residents of Muscatine and the surrounding area, but not limited to seniors. Anyone borrowing equipment is asked to sign it out and agree to bring it back. There is no time limit. Items include: bath benches, canes, commodes, crutches, walkers, walkers with wheels and wheelchairs. Donations for this program can be dropped off at Senior Resources, 1808 Mulberry Ave., or Trinity Episcopal Church, 211 Walnut St. Pickups also can be arranged by calling Senior Resources at 563-263-7292 from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; or Trinity Episcopal Church at 563-263-2177 from 8 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday.

Outreach

The Outreach program helps seniors file paperwork with the state Department of Human Services, gives referrals to other agencies, and makes friendly visits along with other special projects. Available in Spanish. Call Laura at 563-263-7292 for more information.

SHIIP program

Senior Resources offers free and confidential Medicare counseling through its Senior Health Insurance Information Program. This service is offered through the State of Iowa to help people sort through confusing information about Medicare and health insurance. For more information, call Laura at 563-263-7292.

Volunteers needed

Senior Resources is looking for volunteers to deliver Meals On Wheels. We have five routes that go out from Trinity Muscatine hospital Monday-Friday. We have two routes that go out Saturday mornings. The routes take about an hour. For more information call Shannon at 263-7292.
Hail, hail, the bands all here. Oompah-pah. Community bands are growing, and so are their audiences. The community band is a cultural link with a small-town past. It only takes a few marches, some show tunes and a comfortable lawn chair to make a cool summer evening feel just like home.

Once, community bands surrendered to the lure of TV or, more recently, the internet. But now they are back with such vigor and size that John Philip Sousa would bust his brass buttons.

We have a half-dozen or so community bands within a circle of our Quad-Cities. Most rehearse only one night a week and show off their talents maybe a dozen or so times at this time of year. Were half-past summer, which is community band season.

A COMMUNITY band is a spirit of fellowship. Age doesnt make a tad of difference. Its not unusual to see an 84-year-old playing his slide trombone alongside a junior high schooler who has been playing for only a year. Middle agers or baby boomers who put away their instruments years ago are getting them out again and joining community bands.

Some communities join forces, like the Tri-County Band, with musicians from Muscatine, Cedar and Scott counties. Their bandmaster is Pete Wyatt, whose 40-piece band is good music and Wyatt says, We just have fun.

The audience for a community band performance is informal. No one dresses up. Some bring their pets. Our dog, Molly sits, acting like she is enjoying the music, ignoring a woman with a cat.

COMMUNITY BANDS take pride in the kinship of family members. Tony Hamilton, manager of the Orion, Illinois, community band, says there are five members of one family in the band. The dad, Bryan Engelbrecht, plays alto sax; wife Christine, plays flute; son Ben, oboe; daughter Katie, oboe; son Caleb, drums and also trombone.

Nothing much can stop a community band from playing a concert. Orions band is an example. The great trombonist, Bill Allred, is an Orion native and once brought his big band to Orion to play a concert with our community band, says Hamilton. "That night, a storm blew out power to the bandstand. Total darkness until someone climbed the town water tower and took down the generator. We hooked it up and got lights again to the bandstand. It was a memorable night.

Bettendorfs Park Band, led by Brian Hughes, is like all the rest, playing what people like to hear. Hell mix in some long-hair tunes, that fit in well on a balmy summer night.

There are few rules for membership in a community band. Hamilton says, You have to have fun. Thats the credo, too, of Tri-Countys conductor, Pete Wyatt. We cant take anything too serious. One thing is true; if its a rehearsal or a concert, the musicians will leave feeling better.
Some years ago, we moved into a house in Missouri in time to enjoy Independence Day. The boys had a great time throwing the firecrackers from our deck off the kitchen, which was raised from the ground enough to make it ideal for enjoying our best Fourth of July ever.

The following year, we were informed by a next door neighbor that it had so affected their dog, that they had to have him sedated. We were not about to put them through that again, so we packed up our fireworks and drove the short distance out of town to the dark, lonely fields of the flood plain.
DES MOINES - President Donald Trump is making progress in implementing his agenda, but that doesn't come through amid the "noise" generated by opponents and social media that overwhelms the news, one of his key advisors told Iowans Saturday.

Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway told about 1,000 people attending the Family Leader Foundation's annual summit of evangelical and social conservatives she grew up in an era when Americans closed ranks after an election to support the president but that's been the case given the "venom and rancor" that has followed the 2016 election in which Trump landed the electoral ballots needed for victory after trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton in the overall popular vote.

Conway, 50, said the Trump era has been marked by a positive U.S. stock market reaction, growth in job creation and that fact that "ISIS is on the run." Those successes aren't necessarily at the forefront, not because of biased news coverage but rather due to what she viewed as incomplete coverage.

"People aren't telling you the news, they're giving you the noise," said Conway, who sat for a public interview with Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats as part of his group's summit and later attended a private reception with about 50 Iowa Republicans but did not meet with Iowa reporters during her brief visit.

"Progress is being made," Conway told the Family Leader forum. "It's just our job every day to focus on the news and cut out the noise."

Vander Plaats hailed Conway as a trailblazer for women by breaking a glass ceiling in 2016 in becoming the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign. She attributed much of that success to having a candidate who could connect with people by articulating an uplifting message that gave them hope of a better future while holding out hope that someday Americans would elect a woman president.

"Clearly the country is ready for a female president, just not that one at that time," said Conway. "I do hope and I fully expect that we will have a female president someday' she added, but noted she might not encourage any of her three daughters to seek elective office "because in addition to having to have the fire in your belly, you have to swallow a lot of bile in your throat."

The presidential counselor said she has had to endure a lot of criticism that has been gender based, telling the crowd "I saw some of it this morning; I would use it as examples but this is a family audience." At another point during her remarks, she drew applause when she told the gathering "I'm old enough to remember when comedians were funny. I kind of miss those days."

In response to a Vander Plaats question about civility, Conway said "I understand that we're nation of charged opinions and partisan rancor but I do find most of the vitriol comes from people who don't know and who are very brave on social media - which means they're not brave at all."

She note Trump likes to call himself a "counterpuncher" and she has adopted a similar style, telling the evangelical and social Christians "I really throughout my life have never tried to draw first blood, but when attacked, you can turn the other cheek or you can also just kind of put people in their place sometimes."

Growing up the child of a single mom, Conway held herself out as an example of someone who reached "an American dream unexpectedly" and while ascending to the "rarified air" of the White House is the "greatest professional privilege of my life," she said "the greatest privilege of my life by far is being mother to those four children."

Conway did not mention the health care bill pending in the U.S. Senate during her Family Leadership appearance, but Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said it was a major topic during the party fundraiser at a Des Moines country club and whether majority Republicans would have the votes for passage.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has planned for a vote this week on revised legislation to dismantle the Obamacare law. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin and cannot afford to lose more than two from within their ranks because of united Democratic opposition, but two Republican senators already have declared opposition.

"It was certainly not a negative presentation of woe is us, it's not going to pass. She made no predictions other than to say this is absolutely crucial," Kaufmann said of Conway's meeting with Iowa Republicans.

"I walked away from there with a renewed sense that they are working on it," he added, "it is an absolute priority and I heard nothing in her speech today to dissuade me from the fact that I believe it is going to pass. I cannot emphasize enough that she did not say we believe it's going to pass," Kaufmann added, "but I also didn't hear any doomsday."

Talking with Iowa reporters, Vander Plaats said the political base he represents voted for a full repeal of Obamacare and that's what GOP candidates have championed for eight years.

"Mitch McConnell (said) "we're going to rip it out by the roots, everything it going to be gone. That's not true, even with this one," said Vander Plaats. "This is very much watered down. This isn't really getting rid of Obamacare, this is modifying Obamacare and now you're going to own it.

"What we voted for and what they promised is that they were going to repeal Obamacare and they were going to restore private-market principles. But now it seems like we're trying to hand out a lot of different things again to make it palatable for people to pass. That's when you get bad legislation," he added.

Grassley and Ernst have not publicly stated how they will vote on the Senate bill and they didn't discuss the issue during separate speeches to the Family Leader summit.

They did draw cheers from the attendees by noting the appointment of a conservative to the U.S. Supreme Court and efforts to "defund" Planned Parenthood by cutting off government funding to abortion providers.

Grassley told the group he was subjected to "blunt personal smear attacks" by Senate Democrats last year because he refused to hold a hearing for President Obama's choice to fill the court vacancy.
Thumbs down to yet another delay for Chicago-to-Moline passenger rail. Earlier this week, an Illinois official told us the state is making plans to ask for yet another extension to complete the passenger rail connection. If that happens, it will be the second consecutive year that Illinois has asked for more time.

Last fall, the Federal Railroad Administration granted Illinois' request to extend the federal funding through the end of September. At the time, the state said it also would submit a detailed schedule to the federal government.

Its funny and a little bit sad to read our coverage over the past decade, watching the communitys hopes rise and fall with each delay. Headlines in 2010 announce the application for federal funds  $248 million, with $45 million in matching funds from the state of Illinois. We got a promise of $177 million that same year. Then we waited. At one point, Illinois officials had said the service could begin in 2013. But that didnt happen. A headline in 2013 reads, Station could beat passenger rail to Moline. It did. Work on the rail, negotiations, state budget issues piled up like calendar pages.

We were awarded the federal funding during the Obama administration, and now were into a new administration, which is rethinking the way infrastructure projects are funded.

Were not sure whats next for passenger rail, but we know a station is waiting and hotels and developments are planned around a dream that is moving toward a decade in the making.

Thumbs up to a chance for Iowans to voice their opinions on the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to reduce the amount of renewable fuels, including corn-based ethanol, in the nations fuel system in 2018. The amount for 2018 is set at 4.24 billion gallons, down from 4.28 billion gallons this year. The proposal is preliminary. Iowa leadership and lawmakers varied in their response, calling the target by turns a campaign promise kept or a campaign promise broken.

Trump consistently promised his support for ethanol during stops in Iowa. A poll in January from the pro-ethanol group Growth Energy, said 83 percent of Trump voters think its important that American-made biofuels continue to be blended into the nations fuel supply.

In May, during a stop in Nevada, Iowa, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told a crowd, You have nothing to worry about regarding the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard. That day he was wearing a Dont Mess with the RFS pin.

If you have an opinion on this issue, its especially important to speak up  either way  as this is the first time the Trump administration has weighed in on targets for renewable fuels. Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0091, at regulations.gov. Then follow the instructions.

Thumbs up to those who volunteer their time and energy as school board members. This coming election, almost 50 years of experience will retire off of school boards in Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and North Scott. And they wont easily be replaced. Its difficult to find people willing to volunteer for four-year terms in unpaid positions, where they will have to sort through thinning budgets and fight through the occasional controversy. That said, its a great place for someone seeking their first public office to learn the ropes, and theres no denying that the work of ensuring a quality education is available to our children is one of the most important roles within our government.

If youve ever considered running, now is the time. Those interested can take out papers now with a deadline to get them returned by 5 p.m. Aug. 3. Pick up your paperwork from the secretary in your school district. School board elections are Tuesday, Sept. 12.
As governor of South Dakota, financial stewardship is one of my top priorities. When it comes to balancing the budget, managing the retirement system and maintaining our AAA credit ratings, I dive into the details. Although it may take time, responsible stewardship can bring financial rewards.

The latest example of this can be found in South Dakotas unemployment insurance trust fund. In 2004, the cost of our states unemployment benefits began to exceed normal revenue. Continuing on the same path would mean the trust fund would decline and eventually become insolvent. The Rounds Administration and the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council addressed the problem by adopting a series of comprehensive solvency packages which began working to restore solvency.

Then in 2008, the Great Recession arrived in full force. Thousands of South Dakotans lost their jobs and made claims for unemployment. Weekly benefit payments from the trust fund were unprecedented. The trust fund balance was dropping faster than any predictions. By the end of 2009, South Dakota was forced to obtain federal loans to make benefit payments.

Emergency legislation was proposed during the 2010 Legislative Session which increased the taxable wage base through 2015, established higher tax rates for employers with negative account balances and raised the maximum tax rate to 9.5 percent. These reforms did the trick. In June 2010, the trust fund had steadily increased, and South Dakota was able to repay the federal loan of $24 million and start rebuilding.

Four years later, the trust fund was back in a good position, so we brought legislation reducing employer taxes starting Jan. 1, 2015. Even with the reduction, the trust fund continued to grow at a steady pace. Recognizing the need to plan for the future, the Advisory Council recommended that the unemployment trust fund be maintained at a level which could pay 19 months of benefits at the average highest cost rate.

As a result of this recommendation, last legislative session, the Legislature passed and I signed a bill to revise the current UI tax rates and provide a tax break to employers. Under this new law, employers receive a permanent tax break of 0.05 percent effective Jan. 1, 2018. This will save employers $2.3 million annually. Additionally, each year, if the trust fund balance on June 30 reaches the 19-month safety net threshold, employer tax rates will be reduced by another 0.1 percent. Based on the current balance of the trust fund  this means employers will save an additional $5 million for 2018.

Through much diligence and ongoing evaluation, South Dakotas unemployment insurance trust fund is healthier now than it has ever been. I thank the Advisory Council, the SD Department of Labor and Regulation, and legislators for advancing policies that have put the fund in this unprecedented condition.

They recognize, as I do, that employers have enough hurdles in front of them and we should give them a break when we can.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

FORMER South Africa President Thabo Mbeki has said the British policy of seeking illegal regime change in Zimbabwe is not for the benefit of the local majority but to serve the interests of the former colonial master's kith and kin.Mr Mbeki, who brokered the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in 2009 which ushered in the Inclusive Government that ran up to 2013, said the British joined the chorus of criticising South Africa for "quiet" diplomacy on Zimbabwe as part of its regime change agenda."So you are not surprised when the UK continues to pay this particular attention to Zimbabwe, their paying attention to Zimbabwe is not because they are interested in the future of Zimbabwe but because they are interested in the welfare of their kith and kin. That's what drove the British policy in Zimbabwe," he said during a talk show with a South African radio station on Thursday night.Mr Mbeki insisted that the stance South Africa took on Zimbabwe at the time was to allow the country to solve its own problems."In the context of resolving the conflict there (Zimbabwe), the view we took then which I would still hold on to today, it really is the responsibility of the people of Zimbabwe to determine their future, it's the responsibility of the people of South Africa to determine our future," said Mr Mbeki.He said South Africa refused to be pressured to apply external force on Zimbabwe because they believed that domestic problems needed domestic solutions.Mr Mbeki dismissed claims that South Africa, which was assisted by Zimbabwe to get its Independence did not do much in terms of intervention after the inconclusive 2008 elections."They talk about things that cannot be compared. An apartheid South Africa is very different from an independent Zimbabwe. You say you want to impose sanctions against apartheid of course you can, of course you must but to resolve a problem among the Zimbabweans in independent Zimbabwe, our view was and remains, let the people of Zimbabwe get together and sort out this thing among themselves," said Mr Mbeki."Particularly because, given among other things, all my experience tells me, an external solution that gets imposed on the people, when something goes wrong, the locals won't take ownership of it, they will say this thing is not ours."To make an agreement stick and so on you have to get the owners of the problem to own the solution and that's what we said to Zimbabwe. In the end they entered into negotiations which we facilitated and they concluded what we called the Global Political Agreement."Mr Mbeki said they insisted that the solutions on Zimbabwe at the time would not come from any other place but Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans much to the chagrin of Britain and her allies."The problem we had, the reason you have this funny argument that we resorted to quiet diplomacy, diplomacy is diplomacy, once you campaign on a platform it's no longer diplomacy but a political campaign. For instance the reason the British joined that chorus is because they wanted regime change," he said.Mr Mbeki said Zimbabwe, South Africa, Algeria and Kenya had the biggest white European settler populations on the content."You still had a significant number of white people in Zimbabwe after Independence."Part of the argument used by Margaret Thatcher, when she was against the imposition of sanctions against the (Ian) Smith regime, was that, 'we have a lot of kith and kin in Zimbabwe. If we impose sanctions which actually work, you will then get a half of a million or a quarter of a million Zimbabweans or whatever emigrating to England and suddenly we will be landed with a large refugee population coming from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).'"This was Margaret Thatcher's argument. 'And we don't want to do that and therefore that is why we don't want to impose sanctions.' It was the same argument when Smith declared that UDI in 1965. The Prime Minister of the UK at the time was Harold Wilson of the Labour party and again the Africans took the position that this was a rebellion against the British Crown and wherever you had a rebellion against the British crown, the British crown has responded in order to suppress rebellion and let that happen to Zimbabwe. The argument of the British government at the time was this is kith and kin."
WAGNER | Police and fire departments in southeast South Dakota have played in a softball game to fundraise for an injured resident who helped an officer being assaulted.

The departments organized Thursday's game in Wagner to fundraise for 53-year-old Wayne Joseph, 53.

Officer James Flynn alleges he was assaulted by Jubal Grant Jr. in June when attempting to arrest the teenager on previous warrants. A bystander, Joseph tried to assist Flynn and was also assaulted. He is unable to work for 13 weeks and is struggling financially, the Mitchell Daily Republic reported.

"He just never even thought twice, he jumped in to help someone else and that's huge for our department," Wagner officer Brian McGuire said. "It really represents the good people in the community and we owe him."

Thursday's game featured officials from more than 10 agencies.

"When a citizen steps in and helps the police, they're really helping the whole community, so we were more than willing to jump in and help," Wagner Fire Department member David Woods said.

Police have also organized a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to raise donations, and are considering other benefits to help offset the father of 14's medical and living expenses. The web page has raised more than $1,000 as of Thursday. Police said donations can also be dropped off at the department.

Officer Jerry Renken told The Associated Press that Grant was arrested later that night by the Yankton Sioux Tribal Police Department because non-tribal law enforcement is barred from arresting someone on tribal land. Grant is being held at Charles Mix County Jail on several charges the jail said can't yet be disclosed due to jail policy.
Editor's Note This is the sixth installment in our "Eight Over Seven" series exploring the eight named peaks in the Black Hills that are 7,000 feet or higher in elevation. The series began June 10 and will publish weekly on Saturdays through July 29.

After more than 6,000 hours on the summit, Colleen Weisert has not grown tired of the view from Bear Mountain.

Weisert has probably spent about that much time during the past seven wildfire seasons working for the Black Hills National Forest as a fire lookout on the 7,166-foot summit. Her office is a cab, about the size of a small bedroom, atop a 30-foot metal tower.

While she is on duty eight hours a day, five days a week during the fire season, she lives in a camper at the base of the tower.

What keeps her coming back?

Its because of the views, Weisert said.

Bear Mountain makes an outstanding vantage point because it is on the rim of a plateau bounded by limestone cliffs. West of the cliffs is the rural high country of the Black Hills, where grassy meadows abound, and where cattle and wildlife outnumber tourists. East of the plateau lies the more populated and tourist-traveled granite interior of the Hills.

The plateau is so elevated in the Bear Mountain area that three of the eight recognized peaks standing 7,000 feet or higher in the Black Hills are located along a roughly six-mile stretch of the plateaus edge. One of the three is Bear Mountain, the third highest peak in the Black Hills, from which the second highest peak in the Black Hills, Odakota Mountain, can be seen about four miles to the north. Another couple of miles to the northwest is the fourth-highest peak, Green Mountain.

Also visible from Bear Mountain are the highest peak in the Black Hills, Black Elk Peak, about 10 miles to the east, and the eighth-highest, Sylvan Peak, eight miles to the southeast. Far to the west and southwest, beyond the edge of the Black Hills, the plains of Wyoming ebb into the horizon.

Weisert spends a lot of time in silence in the Bear Mountain Lookout Tower while she peers out the windows, looking for smoke to report. But she also receives visitors, who are welcome to climb the tower steps between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Last season, she counted 1,500 visitors to the peak, although not all of them came up the tower.

To visit Bear Mountain yourself, youll need to drive 50 miles southwest of Rapid City. For the easiest route, take U.S. Highways 16 and 385 through Hill City and past Crazy Horse Memorial, and take a right on Medicine Mountain Road. You'll be on gravel the rest of the way.

After about three-fourths of a mile on Medicine Mountain Road, veer left onto Custer Limestone Road.

Go about three miles on Custer Limestone Road, and veer right onto County Road 285.

After about a half-mile on 285, go left on Elliot Road/County Road 292. That will take you about four miles to a T-intersection, where youll turn right on Forest Road 291. Its about a mile on that road until a right turn onto Forest Road 293, which will take you to the summit.

Along the way, you will see brown signs with directional arrows pointing you toward the Bear Mountain Lookout.

The mountains name is said to have been inspired by the bears that once roamed it, before bears were pushed out of the Hills by the encroachment of modern civilization. You wont see bears on Bear Mountain anymore, but you might see mountain bikers, motorcyclists and other recreational enthusiasts  including snowmobilers in the winter  using a network of trails in the area.

And if you climb the stairs of the lookout tower, youll get to enjoy the view that Weisert sees every workday from about mid-May to mid-October. There are six other active lookout towers throughout the Black Hills, but none is higher in elevation, and Weisert likes it that way.

As she further explained why she comes back every season, she gestured toward the scenery beyond her window-lined cabin.
Two local Family Thrift Centers and the Prairie Market on the north side of Rapid City will close in October.

The Family Thrift Center at 855 Omaha St., Family Thrift Express at 3464 Sturgis Road and Prairie Market at 11 New York St. will be shuttering their doors as part of a reconsolidation effort by their parent company, SpartanNash.

An exact date for the closings has not been determined.

We take every store closing very seriously, and this is by no means a reflection of our great team that works at those stores, said Meredith Gremel, vice president of corporate affairs and communications for SpartanNash. This is not a reflection of what is going on on the national platform by any means.

Gremel explained that the planned closings come as two other local Family Thrift centers  at 1516 E. Saint Patrick St. and 751 Mountain View Road  undergo remodeling. Employees at the closing stores will have an opportunity to transfer to the remodeled stores, Gremel said.

The three stores employ around 100 people.

We made the decision to consolidate our resources into remodeling and reinvesting into those two stores so we can continue to provide the best service, she said, adding that the leases at two of the closing stores will expire in the next 18 months.

The closing is in cadence with the remodeling efforts of the other two stores. It made sense to do it at this time.

Associates at the affected stores were notified Wednesday, Gremel said, and some of the stores prescription services are being sold to local Walgreens stores.

SpartanNash, a food distributor and grocery store retailer based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has 151 corporate stores across 10 states, according to Gremel. The nations fifth-largest food distributor, it distributes to 2,100 independent locations across 47 states and is also the leading distributor to U.S. commissaries throughout the world.

The Prairie Market on New York Street and the Family Thrift Express on Sturgis Road have been owned by SpartanNash for more than 20 years. The Family Thirft Center on Omaha Street was purchased from the Albertson family in 2008, Gremel said.

Tom Stephens, 62, who buys his prescriptions from the Omaha Street store, said he was disappointed to learn it would be closing this fall. Its going to be hard for all of Rapid City because weve gotten all our prescriptions there for years, Stephens said. I dont know what options we got.

Stephens, who lives near Johnson Siding, said an employee at the store told him that his prescriptions were being transferred to the Walgreens on Mount Rushmore Road.

He said he hopes another company purchases the building so he can continue buying his medicine at the Omaha Street location.

Mary Corbine, food security manager of Feeding South Dakota, said the closings "will impact a lot of people, and not just the people who are food insecure."

Corbine has been working with a food security committee through Rapid City Collective Impact, which has been tracking data on Rapid City's food deserts since March.

Food deserts are considered areas devoid of fresh and healthful foods and usually occur in impoverished areas.

The food security committee was planning to release the information within the next few weeks, but after learning that three grocery stores are closing, Corbine said their data may shift.
The officer-involved shooting in a north Rapid City neighborhood last month that ended in the death of a heavily armed man under the influence of multiple drugs has been ruled a justified use of lethal force, according to an investigation summary released Friday by state Attorney General Marty Jackleys office.

The Division of Criminal Investigations findings say Joseph Hogan, 48, "was a clear and present danger" to Rapid City Police Officer Derek Uebel and other law enforcement when Uebel shot him. It was the second officer-involved shooting in Rapid City this year.

The DCI report details a 30-minute standoff between police and Hogan on the afternoon of June 17. Around 12:16 p.m., a 911 caller reported that a man was firing guns near the residence at 310 Viking Drive.

When they arrived, officers heard multiple gunshots coming from the garage of the home, where Hogan could reportedly be seen with a scoped rifle in his hands. Officers then began to set up a loudspeaker to communicate with Hogan.

A witness later told investigators that he heard officers use the loudspeaker to repeatedly tell Hogan to drop his weapons and offer assurances that they didnt want to hurt him.

In his interview with investigators, Uebel said he parked his patrol car about 300 meters away to block traffic and made his way toward the home on foot to help set up a perimeter. Taking cover next to a neighbors garage, Uebel reported that he saw wood splinters explode off the building as a shot was fired in his direction.

Uebel said he then moved to a new area of cover southeast of 310 Viking Drive, where he had a clear view of the driveway. According to the DCI report, officers saw Hogan step out of the garage into the driveway at 12:46 p.m. with a rifle and pistol in his hands. He began firing.

Uebels view of Hogan was obstructed at first, but after repositioning himself he saw the man raise his weapon. Uebel said that he shouted at Hogan to drop the gun, which is when the armed man wheeled in his direction.

Uebel told investigators that he saw a muzzle flash and heard a loud crack from the gun in Hogans hands. Uebel then ducked and fired back at Hogan three times with his .223-caliber patrol rifle. Hogan was struck by a single bullet in the head.

Officer Uebel said he fired his weapon because he was in fear of his life and thought that he was going to be shot, the DCI report reads, which goes on to say that Uebels account of the events is consistent with witness statements and a patrol cars video recording of the incident.

Inside the garage, crime scene investigators found two long rifles, a shotgun, a handgun and a several shell casings on the floor. The garage building itself was riddled with bullet holes.

Investigators recovered two guns near Hogans body in the driveway: a .45-caliber pistol with three unspent bullets and a .308-caliber semi-automatic assault rifle equipped with a scope and bipod and loaded with 18 rounds. Hogan had an empty holster on his belt and another magazine for the .45-caliber pistol in one of his pockets.

An autopsy revealed that Hogan was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, and toxicology results revealed methamphetamine and multiple prescription drugs in his system.

Officer Uebel was placed on administrative leave for a few days after the incident but was soon placed back on active duty, according to police spokesman Brendyn Medina.

"This case illustrates the dangerous situations that all law enforcement officers are willing to face to protect our community from violence, Rapid City Police Chief Karl Jegeris said in a statement. I am extremely proud of all of our officers' actions while facing this active shooter situation, and I join Attorney General Jackley in offering condolences to the family of Mr. Hogan.

The incident between Hogan and Uebel is the second fatal officer-involved shooting in Rapid City in the last two months. On April 27, Tim Holmgren was shot and killed by a South Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper in his Harmony Heights apartment after he barricaded himself inside and told law enforcement the building was "wired" with explosives.
Unfortunately, school shootings are not a new phenomenon. During the 1800s, shootings at schools seem to occur on a fairly regular basis. Yet the number of people killed and wounded during those times did not compare to modern school massacres. These have included Columbine School in Littleton, Colorado in 1990 (15 dead); Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2007 (33 dead) and Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 (28 dead). However tragic these shootings were, there was an even more lethal school killing spree that happened 90 years ago in the little town of Bath, Michigan.

Andrew Kehoe was born in Tecumseh, Michigan, in 1872. After he graduated from high school, Kehoe studied electrical engineering at Michigan State College. Later, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he worked as an electrician. Eventually, Kehoe returned to his fathers farm in Michigan.

In September 1911, the familys oil stove exploded as his stepmother was trying to light it. She subsequently died from her injuries. Whispers circulated that Andrew himself was the real cause of the fire.

At the age of 40, Andrew Kehoe married Nellie Price. By 1919, the couple had moved to a farm outside the town of Bath. While Kehoe often did favors for his neighbors, he was also known to be impatient with anyone who disagreed with his views. His proclivity toward violence was demonstrated when he killed a neighbors barking dog who had wandered onto his property. He also had beaten one of his horses to death because it didnt perform as well as he wanted.

Even so, Kehoe got elected in 1924 as a trustee and treasurer on the school board. He argued incessantly for lower taxes, and even fought against expenditures that were considered necessary. His fellow board members found him difficult to get along with, often wanting his own way. In addition, he was constantly at odds with the school superintendent, repeatedly accusing him of financial mismanagement.

Two years later, the 55-year-old Kehoe was defeated when he ran for township clerk. Angered by his defeat and financial woes, he began to hatch his deadly plan to exact revenge. During the 1926 summer vacation, he began buying more than a ton of incendiary explosives in small quantities, so as to not arouse suspicion. Because he had easy access to the school building, he used this opportunity to plant various explosives in and around the school.

Sometime in 1927, between May 16 and May 18, Kehoe murdered his chronically-ill wife Nellie. He then set off a series of explosive and incendiary devices on his homestead early on the morning of May 18, causing the house and other farm buildings to be destroyed.

Virtually at the same time, a huge explosion devastated the north wing of the Bath Consolidated School building, killing 38 schoolchildren and two teachers and injuring 58 other people. Kehoe had used a timed detonator to ignite hundreds of pounds of dynamite and incendiary devices. Not yet done with his heinous scheme, Kehoe drove up near the school and detonated dynamite inside his truck filled with shrapnel, killing himself, the school superintendent, and several bystanders. After the blast, rescuers discovered an additional 500 pounds of explosives, which Kehoe had intended to use to blow up the rest of the school.

The Bath massacre is still the deadliest mass murder to take place at a school in United States history.
America must return to conservative principles of less government,reduced taxes, less spending and a balanced budget! Cut,cap and balance!
Guwahati : Assam forest department personnel on Friday morning had arrested five poachers and recovered several wild animal parts in lower Assam's Barpeta district, officials said.

A top official of the state forest department said that, following a tip-off, the personnel of Panbari forest range under Manas National Park had arrested the poacher gang near the park.

The forest personnel had also recovered one skin a panther tiger, 157 pieces of tiger bones and one handmade gun in possession from them.

The arrested poachers were identified as Sunil Bodo, Sanjiv Basumutary, Ranjan Daimary, Bonaru Bodo and Badu Bodo.

'During the preliminary interrogation, the poachers confessed that, they had killed a tiger inside the national park on April 25 last,'A the forest official said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
via Pamela Philipose

The case of Zohra, a domestic worker in Noida. Notice how the residents of the buildings close ranks and how the police come out to support them, no questions asked.

This is a report from some activists who had gone to meet the workers in the basti where Zohra, the domestic worker who works in Noida Sector 78 lives:

Today, a team of us went to meet Zohra, her family and the others in her colony in Noida in Sector 78.

In this brutal case of violence against a domestic worker who works for a meagre amount of Rs.1500 for a month, Zohra went missing from Tuesday evening onwards. The family immediately approached the police but they didnt do anything about it. Her husband was shooed away by the guards and the landlords saying that she was not in the complex premises, while the register did not mark her as exit at the gate. The next morning, when hundreds of domestic workers along with their families went to put pressure on the landlord, she was actually brought out from the very premises by the security guards and her employers.

In the confrontation that followed, the guards did three rounds of air firing too. Zohra was taken away by the police, and was finally dropped at her home much later upon pressure from her family.

On the night of 12th, over 3-4 vehicle full of police barged into the colony and picked up all the men, including Zohras eldest son who is only 15 years old. Today, 13 people have been framed under Attempt to Murder and Rioting charges.

Threats of eviction and continuous intimidation of the workers continue.

Today, the media and the RWA along with the police are on an all out witch hunt against these very workers who toiled in their houses cleaning all their filth. It didnt take them seconds to show their class unity, and they have filed 3 FIRs against the workers, alleging them to be illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Meanwhile absolutely no action has been take on the first complaint and FIR that was filed by Zohras husband and family members. The Sethis and rest of the RWA continue to threaten all the workers and have barred them from entering the premises till the case is settled!

Zohras case is not an isolated and exceptional case. Hundreds of domestic workers, all living in colonies around these modern high-rise buildings work from morning to evening, cleaning, cooking and washing huge houses for meagre salaries of Rs.1200, Rs.1500 or Rs.2000 per month. Most workers said that they dont even get time to eat their food.

Zohra said, as we met her, "if i was rich enough to throw 10 rupees at them, some action wouldve been taken by now against them."

Let us remember Ranjitha, a Bodo A

ssamese domestic worker who was forced to kill herself by jumping from the 11th floor of a DLF building in Gurgaon just two months back.

Let us also uphold the militant fight put up by Zohras family and the hundreds of her fellow workers who came together to rescue her and shook that upper class arrogance.

Red salute to the struggles of toiling women like Zohra and her friends.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A MACHEKE man allegedly killed his wife's lover after catching them red-handed, with his wife confirming their affair.Godfrey Nyamasoka and Lovemore Mhakayakora are said to have been church mates and knew each other very well before the fateful day.Nyamasoka pleaded not guilty to the murder charge when he appeared this week before High Court judge, Justice Clement Phiri.Prosecutor Douglas Chesa presented that on October 15, 2016, Nyamasoka went to the Motali homestead at Chikumbakwe village in Macheke, where he was to meet his wife, Gladys Makamura, who had gone to visit relatives at Barrymore Farm to settle a family dispute.The court heard that on arrival at the homestead, where her aunt resided, both his wife and the aunt were not home, but the latter arrived at 6pm and found him seated by the veranda.After a while, the court heard, Nyamasoka left the homestead and headed in the direction which he assumed had been taken by his wife and her aunt and came across Mhakayakora, a distance away from the homestead.The State alleges he fought and stabbed Mhakayakora several times with a homemade knife and after killing him, he returned home and called his wife's aunt to go and witness what he had done, before he went and handed himself over to the police.In his defence, Nyamasoka dismissed the State's assertion, saying on the day in question, he caught his wife red-handed engaging in sex with Mhakayakora after following her to her aunt's place."After walking for a short distance, he (Nyamasoka) went to a rock and saw his wife and the deceased indulging in sex," Nyamasoka said through his lawyer."His wife was making some sounds. He approached at a distance of about two metres and asked them what they were doing."The accused said Mhakayakora then raised his head, saw him and then jumped at him, held him by the collar and started assaulting him."Accused fought back to free himself and the two continued to fight, hitting each other until the accused, who was losing the fight, called for people to come to the scene."At that juncture, the deceased drew a knife from his pocket and cut accused on his thumb, but accused managed to fight back, as deceased continued to attack."The parties struggled for the knife and in the process, the deceased was stabbed by the knife on the side, but he kept fighting."Shortly, thereafter, the deceased ran-off to the spot where he died."Nyamasoka said he wanted to defend himself from Mhakayakora.
 Is there much to  or much to say about  reasonableness review a decade after Rita, Gall, and Kimbrough? | Main | "The Political Economy of Mass Incarceration: An Analytical Model" 

July 15, 2017

Notable high-profile functionality of the dysfunctional Pennsylvania death penalty

Long-time readers surely recall some (of many) prior posts, including ones here and here, highlighting some (of many) dysfunctional realities of the death penalty in Pennsylvania. But this local article about horrible multiple murders getting national attention highlights how even a dysfunctional death penalty can still serve a significant function. The article is headlined "Legal experts praise Bucks deal that led to murder confession," and here are excerpts:

The deal that spared Cosmo DiNardo the death penalty in exchange for a murder confession in a case thats captivated the region and drawn national attention was lauded Friday by legal experts, who said the agreement was a swift and shrewd way to bring the gruesome case nearer to a close. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, confessed to participating in the killings of four men. DiNardo also agreed to tell investigators where to find the bodies and lead them to an accomplice. In exchange for the cooperation, his defense lawyer Paul Lang said, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. DiNardos four victims, young men from Bucks and Montgomery Counties, disappeared last week. Their families fears were confirmed when human remains were discovered in a 12-foot grave on a farm owned by DiNardos parents. On Friday, DiNardo was charged with murder and related offenses. Authorities also arrested his cousin and alleged accomplice, Sean Kratz, 20, on the same charges. And also Friday, they discovered the body of one of the missing men, Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, on the farm. The remains of Dean A. Finocchiaro, 19; Thomas C. Meo, 21; and Mark R. Sturgis, 22, had been discovered elsewhere on the sprawling property Wednesday. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub on Friday credited DiNardos confession with implicating Kratz and leading investigators to Patricks body, which had been buried separately from the others. Id like to think he wanted to help us get these boys home, he said, describing the cooperation agreement with DiNardo as critical to solving the case. In interviews Friday, several legal experts agreed. It was absolutely the right thing to do, Jack McMahon, a former prosecutor who is now a prominent defense lawyer, said of the deal. I think both sides did the right thing. With evidence mounting in a case this serious, McMahon said, the defense probably realized that the evidence against his client was pretty overwhelming. He had only one chip to play, and he used it to leverage for a life sentence. Marc Bookman, a former public defender who is director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Center City, said the agreement had clear benefits for DiNardo and for prosecutors. In a case like this, theres a give and take, he said. For the defense, Bookman said, youve got four bodies. Any defense lawyer is thinking, Theres no real defense to the killing of four people. There are defenses to a murder case, but its difficult to conceive of a legitimate defense to four bodies buried 12 feet in the ground. The severity of the crime made it a clear candidate for a death penalty prosecution, legal experts agreed, giving the prosecution leverage and the defense reason to seek a deal. The defense is giving the prosecutor something compelling, Bookman said. He said he would direct them to where the bodies are. Youve got four grieving families who desperately want closure, however sad that closure might be. And hes asking for something in exchange. For prosecutors, the threat of life on death row  if not actual execution in a state with a moratorium on the death penalty  upon conviction proved persuasive. Its good to have the death penalty for cases like this  whether you agree with it or not, said former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, whose tenure was marked by an aggressive willingness to pursue the death penalty in murder cases. The prosecutor had a bargaining chip, and the defense attorney used it to bargain away [the possibility of] being on death row for 25 to 40 years.... The deal DiNardos lawyers reached with prosecutors spares the families of the four victims a painful trial and saves taxpayers the expense. In addition, Abraham said, it saves hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars spent on the appeals offered to all defendants convicted in capital cases. Those often go on for decades. Dennis J. Cogan, a former prosecutor and veteran defense lawyer, called the agreement a win-win. Without the confession, he said, the crime might have proved a tough case for prosecutors. With the deal Weintraub struck with DiNardos lawyers, Cogan said, they get the guy, they get the accomplice, and hopefully they bring closure for the families.

July 15, 2017 at 12:47 PM | Permalink

Comments

One advantage of a lawyer over a pro se litigant is experience. Does this defense lawyer meet the first prong of the Strickland test by failing to inform the defendant that the chance of being executed in Pennsylvania is nil? The defendants may decide on the plea in accordance with their consciences, but not in accordance any empty threat by a really stupid prosecutor. I think there was inadequate representation here.

Did it prejudice the outcome? It did not.

If you like these serial murders, thank the lawyer profession. They kept alive, privileged, protected and empowered the serial killers instead of killing them at 14. No evolving standard of decency here, as a guy short of money for a drug deal, gets run over with a backhoe.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 15, 2017 6:14:08 PM

Once the identities of the legal authorities that protected these serial killers are known, they need to be driven from the state.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 15, 2017 11:17:37 PM

30 run-ins with Bensalem, PA police from age 14, for this serial killer. Murders were 100% the fault of the lawyer profession. he should not have been on the street. He was not functioning. Yet, the lawyer profession coddled, protected, and empowered him.

http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20170716/from-small-crimes-cousins-allegedly-move-to-killing-4-men-but-motive-remains-unknown

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 16, 2017 10:06:56 AM

When I heard the deal, my first thought was

Incompetent defense counsel.

The starting point for plea bargains, for a capital case, in Pa., is life with parole eligibility.

Only "volunteers" are executed in Pa, as all defense counsel and prosecutors in Pa know.

The death penalty is a totally empty threat, oterwise.

Posted by: Dudley Sharp | Jul 16, 2017 11:59:27 AM

Can you come up with something even more disgusting as a rationale for executing people, DAB?

Posted by: anon | Jul 16, 2017 12:42:27 PM

Can you more fully explain, anon, what you think is "disgusting" about a plea that provides quick closure for the families of those murdered by these defendants? Do you consider the crimes here "disgusting" or only the way PA is trying to respond to them?

I am not trying to troll you, anon, but I am genuinely eager to understand why and how you find disgust in state case processing here in response to a mass murder.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jul 16, 2017 1:19:42 PM

Very bad news for all of you. In Italy (we are 60M) murders passed from 475 in 2015 to less than 400 in 2016.

Posted by: Claudio Giusti | Jul 16, 2017 2:54:11 PM

Hi, Claudio. Criminals are intimidated by the high likelihood of being tortured by the police. That is not even a crime in Italy.

Then you have an extra lively death penalty, calling it suicide in prison. I have advocated adopting the "Italian Model" of the death penalty in the USA.

You are a Euro trash hypocrite.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 17, 2017 12:40:19 AM

Yes, Anon. I have to second Doug. You have a dangling participle. Rewrite your comment. Use simple declarative sentences with subject, verb and predicate. To what is "disgusting" referring? Disgusting is an adjective. To what noun does it refer?

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 17, 2017 12:43:23 AM

Hey Ciccio !!! In Usa torture wasn't legal in Gitmo and everywhere ????

Posted by: Claudio Giusti | Jul 17, 2017 6:39:08 AM

Hey Ciccio !!! In Usa torture wasn't legal in Gitmo and everywhere ????

Posted by: Claudio Giusti | Jul 17, 2017 6:39:08 AM

No, Claudio. Gitmo prisoners lived 10 times better than where they came from. There was no torture. Just beating up the person, that is in Italy. No death penalty in Italy. It is not necessary. Your police beats up and kills people during the investigation. I have proposed adopting this great Italian Model in all the states. There is not even a policy statement against torture, let alone any law against it in Italy. I love the Italian criminal justice system.

I also love Italian inquisitorial judges, and have repeatedly argued we should have them in the USA.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 17, 2017 11:34:03 AM

There's something unseemly about a law used to extract guilty pleas when the threatened punishment is so unlikely to ever occur.

Posted by: justme | Jul 17, 2017 12:04:20 PM

DB is the classical nasty American, that who all the world likes to hate.

Posted by: Claudio Giusti | Jul 19, 2017 1:15:02 PM

Post a comment
 Notable high-profile functionality of the dysfunctional Pennsylvania death penalty | Main | DAG Rosenstein makes the case for his boss's new charging and sentencing directive to federal prosecutors 

July 15, 2017

"The Political Economy of Mass Incarceration: An Analytical Model"

The title of this post is the title of this paper recently posted to SSRN authored by Peter Temin. Here is the abstract:

This paper presents a model of mass incarceration in the United States, which has the largest proportion of its population imprisoned among advanced countries. The United States began to differ from other countries in the 1970s in response to changes in judicial policies. Although the Kerner Commission recommended integrating the black community into the larger American community, judicial policies went in the opposite direction. The model draws from several accounts of these changes and demonstrates that the United States has moved from one equilibrium position to another. It is driven by two equations, one for incarceration and one for crime. It explains why the growth of prisoners has ceased in the last decade and what would be needed to return to the original equilibrium.

July 15, 2017 at 12:57 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment
San Franciscans have plenty to bitch, moan, and complain about when it comes to parking in our traffic-congested Bay Area, what with rampant abuse of disabled placards, bizarrely inconsistent enforcement, and those infernal parklets taking up all the best spaces. (Though we love the parklets whenever were not looking for parking!) But someone has finally quantified our suffering in precise average annual terms, providing metrics for your parking complaints  San Francisco drivers spend on average 83 hours a year looking for parking, they blow $1,735 per year on wasted fuel and emissions, and the average time it takes to find a parking space is 12 minutes.

Yes, San Francisco is the worst, but its not The Worst. New York City takes top honors in all of the above inconvenience metrics, with Los Angeles unsurprisingly in second place, and San Francisco third.





The report comes from a big-data traffic analysis firm called Inrix, and analyzed 6,000 U.S. drivers in 10 American cities. While San Francisco is ranked the third-worst city for parking, our average time spent looking for parking and fuel costs wasted on looking for parking are five times the national average.

On average, U.S. drivers spend 17 hours per year searching for parking at a cost of $345 per driver in wasted time, fuel and emissions, the report says.

On the bright side, San Francisco drivers average less than one parking ticket per year! We apparently average 0.89 parking tickets per year, according to the study  which must mean that non-full-time drivers and extra-fastidious parkers are bringing the average way down for all of you who get five or nine tickets a year  with an average parking ticket cost of $64.

Related:

What If Everyone In SF Reported Every Sidewalk Parker They See?

It's Official: San Francisco And Oakland Are The Worst Cities For Drivers


A shooting that occurred in Berkeley last night after bars and other businesses shut down near the Telegraph Avenue commercial district sent three men to the hospital, and led to the arrest of two suspects.

Berkeleyside reports that the shooting occurred just after 2:40 a.m. Saturday near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Bowditch Street, one block from the UC Berkeley campus. The ShotSpotter system pinpointed the first shot at 2532 Durant, and they report that all the victims were found along Bowditch between Durant and Channing Way.

Berkeley police Sgt. Cesar Melero tells CBS 5 that two groups of men got into a fight which escalated to the shooting, and that the two groups both tried to flee from police. Police were able to apprehend two suspects, who are in custody, and they seized a firearm.

Scanner transmissions, according to Berkeleyside, indicated that one victim was struck in the lower leg, one in the foot, and another in the knee. All the injuries are considered non-life-threatening.
During a reception in Hanoi yesterday, the PM expressed his delight at the fact that several Kanagawa firms have taken steps to do business in Vietnam, adding a recent survey by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) indicated that most Japanese enterprises are interested in expanding their operations in Vietnam.



He asked for efforts to create a new Japanese investment wave in Vietnam towards turning Japan into the largest source of foreign direct investment in the country. The host hailed Kanagawas initiative to promote medical ties with Vietnam to improve healthcare for locals, and wished that the two sides would enhance collaboration in labour and tourism by receiving more Vietnamese trainees and boosting the two countries images.

Yuji, for his part, said he is accompanied by 17 local businesses during the visit. Via seminars and exchanges, two of them have decided to invest in Vietnam while four others expressed interest and readiness for ventures in the country. Four Vietnamese companies also plan to operate in the prefecture.

He informed his host that the delegation worked with the health ministry on nutrition in healthcare and improving longevity and life quality.

The guest expressed hope that the prefecture could work with Vietnam in healthcare and offer medicals tours.

He expected a list of Vietnamese information technology firms working in Japan to be announced soon, noting that Kanagawa prefecture commits to offering all possible support to them.

VNS
News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr Chris Mushohwe, has castigated politicians who fight factional battles using the media, saying they were abusing their Constitutional right to freedom of expression. Mnangagwa allies have been fighting Professor Jonathan Moyo using Zimpapers' Command journalists.Dr Mushohwe said the electronic, print and social media should not be used as arsenal or battle ground for political or factional battles.In his speech in Gweru to officially launch 98.4 Midlands FM which is owned AB Communications Group yesterday, Dr Mushohwe said government supports freedom of speech as enshrined in the Constitution."Let me take this opportunity ladies and gentlemen to reiterate that as government we support freedom of expression as enshrined in our Constitution. In this vein, I would want to caution our friends in the media, both electronic and print, that while it is a right, it is not a licence to propagate hate speech and spreading unsubstantiated and malicious stories about our country. The electronic, print and social media should not be used as an arsenal or battle ground for political or factional battles," said the Minister who was accompanied by the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mr George Charamba.Dr Mushohwe said the media is supposed to be a vehicle for the promotion of Zim-Asset programmes, unity and the national interest.The media, he said, should always be factual and portray a positive image of the country."As broadcasters you have an obligation to be professional, factual and impartial in the dissemination of information. Ladies and gentlemen I want to remind you that radio, television and other media platforms should know that their role is exclusively to inform, entertain, educate and not as I have said to be used as whips by political gladiators. Anything to the contrary is unacceptable," said the Minister.He said abusing the media especially radio can lead to genocide."Radio can be used to build or destroy societies if its use is left unguarded. During the build-up and execution of the Rwandan genocide, radio was used as a tool of propaganda to communicate and instil hate for the Tutsi minority. The radios did this by first broadcasting music that was popular to draw attention before they disseminated hateful information about the Tutsis, a minority ethnic group in Rwanda," the Minister said."In a largely illiterate population, the radio station soon had a very large audience who found it immensely entertaining. During the genocide, radio was broadcasting lists of people to be killed and instructed killers on where to find them."Media executives Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza and Fedinard Nahimana were arrested and convicted. They were sentenced to 35 years and life in prison respectively at the United Nations tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania for their role in the media campaign to incite ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994."He said during the Bosnian war in 1992, the media especially radio, was used as a propaganda tool during a military campaign to exterminate Bosnian Croats and Muslims and quell the Bosnian movement for independence."Ladies and gentlemen from these few examples it is clear that the media, radio in particular, can be used to create disharmony and in worst cases it can be used to exterminate whole populations as witnessed in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia situation. This must not be tolerated in Zimbabwe and elsewhere," Dr Mushohwe said.He said the government has successfully opened the airwaves in line with provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act of 2001."As government we are pleased to note that eight regional stations have started full stream broadcasting. In total over the last five years, 10 radio stations have been opened either at regional or national level."This is in line with Government efforts to promote Zim-Asset by providing an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation. In line with the goals of the digitalisation programme, information dissemination becomes truly a basic human rights entitlement," said Dr Mushohwe.He said government was about to complete the digitalisation process.The Minister said the completion of the process is set to benefit the nation through local content creation especially the 75 percent local content policy.He said government strongly believes the digitalisation process shall allow local broadcasters to operate at par with global players.
SIOUX CITY | About 100 kids gave their best grins at the River-Cade Smile Contest Saturday.

Event Coordinator Phil Claeys said the contest at the Southern Hills Mall shines perfectly with the festival's mantra.

"Let's face it, when you got happy smiling children, our theme, 'we create fun,' is at its blissful best," said Claeys. "... Some of them just explode with such beauty and joy. It's just a goosebumps time."

Judged by this year's River-Cade royalty, 12 finalists were chosen Saturday to grin again on a float in The Big River-Cade Parade at 6 p.m. Wednesday downtown. The best smiles of the finalists will be awarded prizes at the ice cream social on Fourth Street afterward.

Cindy Foland brought three of her four children to compete Saturday.

"I think this is great for the kids," said Foland, of Sioux City. "They get to come out here and interact with other kids and try to do their best in something. I just think it is a good experience all the way around."

She thinks her kids may have a leg up when it comes to good-looking grins.

"But I'm a little biased," she said.

The 54th annual River-Cade started May 6 with the Barstool Open Mini Pub Crawl and will go to the 14th annual Kingdom of Riverssance Festival at Riverside Park on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Claeys said the event is designed to celebrate the importance of the Missouri River to the region.
SIOUX CITY | The former Warrior Hotel and Davidson Building would be converted into a 146-room Marriott brand hotel under a $56 million restoration plan that also calls for transforming other space in the historic buildings into luxury apartments, bars, restaurants and other retail outlets.

Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2018, with completion anticipated for summer of 2019, said Roger Caudron, a spokesman for longtime Sioux City developer Lew Weinberg, whose investment company owns the two towering structures in the 500 block of Sixth Street.

Weinberg's company has agreed to a deal with a St. Louis-based firm to develop the 200,000 square feet of combined space. The developer, Restoration St. Louis, has completed more than 300 historic renovations, which includes a similar restoration of the Blackhawk Hotel in downtown Davenport, Iowa.

As part of the agreement, Restoration St. Louis would manage the Warrior/Davidson hotel, which would be branded as a Marriott Autograph or Marriott Tribute, Caudron said. The specific line of the worldwide upscale hotel chain would be determined at a later date, he said.

Warrior/Davidson officials also continue to negotiate with city leaders, with a final plan anticipated within 15 to 30 days, Caudron said. One goal is to secure a skywalk across an alley to connect the Warrior and Davidson buildings and another bridge across Sixth Street to connect the Warrior lobby with the historic Orpheum Theatre.

Both the Warrior and Davidson are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Warrior, built in 1930, was long considered one of Sioux City's most elegant hotels, but has been vacant for more than 40 years, despite a series of efforts to bring the property back to its former grandeur. Since the late 1990s, the boarded-up structure has been red-tagged by the city for building code violations.

To comply with strict federal standards required to qualify for historic tax credits to help finance the project, Restoration St. Louis would completely restore the exterior of the brick exterior of the Art Deco-style hotel, which features Terra Cotta ornamentation and flourishes like ornate buffalo heads. The second-floor lobby, front desk and ballroom would be returned to its original look as well. The ballroom would seat roughly 350 for banquets, Caudron said.

The upper floors of the Warrior would be turned into 92 guest rooms. An additional 54 rooms would be carved out of the second, third and fourth floors of the Davidson Building, which was built in 1913 as the city's first office building.

Twenty-two upscale apartments, ranging in size from studios to three-bedrooms, would be built on the two floors of the Davidson. Apartment owners would have access to all hotel services.

"If you want a mint every night on the pillow of your bed in your apartment, arrangements can be made with the hotel," Caudron said.

A 100-seat full-service restaurant operated by the hotel is planned for the Warrior's first floor. There also would be space for a second hotel and other retail space, Caudron said.

The rooftop of the Warrior would be home to a bistro and bar called Warrior 360.

In the basement of the Warrior, amenities would include a six-lane bowling alley, swimming pool and full fitness center.

The centerpiece of the first floor would be a 100-seat, full-service restaurant that would be operated by the hotel. There would be room space for another restaurant and other retail, such as a coffee shop and barber shop.

Plans for additional space in the Davidson include the current Fuji Bay restaurant on the first floor, and perhaps another restaurant, Caudron said.

Weinberg's company now controls the entire block the Davidson and Warrior sits on, including the building that formerly housed the Crary law offices. On the Pierce Street side, north of the Davidson, there are plans to build a one-story storefront that hopefully will be home to Great Western Bank, which is the current main tenant on the first floor of the Davidson, Caudron said.

Hotel guests and patrons of the Warrior and Davidson buildings would have access to 130 surface parking spaces on the north half of the property. An additional 487 covered spaces are available across Sixth Street in the Martin Luther King Jr. Transportation Center ramp.

The Warrior/Davidson would become one of three Marriott-branded hotels planned for metro Sioux City. The Marina Inn in South Sioux City is in the process of converting to a Delta Hotels by Marriott in September. The Sioux City Council recently approved a deal with an eastern Iowa developer to build a 150-room Courtyard by Marriott in the parking lot next to the Convention Center.

The Courtyard by Marriott and a proposed parking ramp are part of the city's application for $14 million in future hotel and sales taxes through the state's Reinvestment District program. The application is awaiting final approval from the state Economic Development Authority Board.

Caudron noted the Warrior and Davidson are within the reinvestment district drawn by the city, and the restoration project would enhance the city's bid. It's too early to know whether the Warrior/Davidson developers would seek a portion of the state incentives, he added.

A number of elements of the restoration plan were incorporated into the most recent effort to save the Warrior. The historic hotel was the centerpiece of a $122 million casino project in 2013, led by Ho-Chunk Inc., the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska's economic development corporation. That Warrior project lost its bid for a state gaming license when the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission instead picked a competing proposal, today's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City.

Since the late 1990s, the boarded-up structure has been red-tagged by the city for building code violations. The City Council could have voted to raze it at any time, but held off indefinitely due to the building's historical significance and, perhaps more importantly, the hefty price of demolition, roughly estimated at around $5 million.
DES MOINES  Republicans in the Iowa Senate were significantly more conservative in 2017 than previous years.

Thats according to the calculations of one national conservative groups legislative scorecard, which was published recently.

But such a declaration would come as little surprise to anyone who followed the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature, during which Republicans used their unfettered control of the state lawmaking agenda to pass a slew of conservative priorities, including restrictions on abortion, lawsuits and public employee collective bargaining, changes to state gun regulations and an identification requirement for voters.

Legislative scorecards are published by advocacy groups to show whether lawmakers vote with priorities declared by the groups. The groups hope these scorecards inform voters and perhaps pressure lawmakers to consider crucial votes.

But legislators and experts question whether the scorecards are effective to either of those ends.

High conservative marks

Such scorecards more commonly rate members of Congress. But the American Conservative Union Foundation also publishes an annual scorecard on state lawmakers. The group identifies conservative bills that were introduced during a session and then notes the vote of each lawmaker from all political parties.

The groups scorecard for the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature said all 29 Republicans in the Senate voted with the groups priorities at least 89 percent of the time. Sen. Rick Bertrand, from Sioux City, was the lowest rated with a score of 89 percent.

But Bertrand and each of the other 22 Republicans who also were in the Senate in 2016 showed a double-digit rating increase to this year.

Did Republicans in the Iowa Senate suddenly become more conservative in 2017? Or were other factors at play that influenced the scorecards results?

Some Senate Republicans made small jumps in the American Conservative Union Foundations scores from 2016 to 2017, while others made giant leaps. The scores of Sens. Mark Segebart, from Vail, and Dan Zumbach, from Ryan, each increased more than 40 percent.

Eight more GOP senators scores increased at least 30 percent. The scores for Sen. Bill Anderson, of Pierson, jumped by 31 percent, from 60 percent to 91 percent, and Sen. Randy Feenstra, of Orange City, by 29 percent, from 63 percent to 92 percent. Bertrand's score increased 22 percent, from 67 percent in 2016.

It may boil down to opportunity. In 2017, Iowa Statehouse Republicans for the first time in 20 years had complete control of the state lawmaking process: majorities in the House and Senate to go along with a GOP governor.

Given how long the Democrats held the Senate, it was not surprising that there was a buildup in the number of bills that Republicans would like to see passed, said Tim Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa. The 2017 session was the Republicans first opportunity to get such legislation through, so there was a lot of it.

Perhaps just as notable is the unity in the Senate Republican caucus. All 29 Senate Republicans were rated by the conservative group between 89 percent and 95 percent. Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, posted a 92 percent score in 2017, up from 80 percent the previous year.

Sen. David Johnson, an independent from Ocheyedan, who withdrew from the Republican caucus in 2016, had a 38 percent score in 2017, down from 50 percent the prior year.

While the percentages varied in part because some legislators missed a few votes, the caucus voting was remarkably consistent: Of the 24 bills the American Conservative Union Foundation tracked, Senate Republicans voted in unison in favor of all 24. In terms of the foundation's ratings, however, the Iowa senators lost points, because the foundation wanted "no" votes on two of the bills.

The rankings confirm the solidarity and conservativeness of the GOP in the Iowa Senate, said Christopher Larimer, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa. With the exception of one, all Republican Senators were in the 90th to 100th percentile. Given how far right the Legislature moved on certain tax and social issues this past session, the rankings were not particularly surprising.

There was slightly more fluctuation in the House Republican ratings. The highest House GOP scores were in the low 90s, while the lowest Republican score was a 70 percent from Rep. Clel Baudler of Greenfield.

Nine GOP House members from Northwest Iowa -- Jim Carlin, Sioux City; Steven Holt, Denison; Megan Jones; Sioux Rapids; Dan Huseman, Aurelia; Chuck Holz, Le Mars; Skyler Wheeler, Orange City; John Wills, Spirit Lake; Matt Windschitl, Missouri Valley; and Gary Worthan, voted with the conservative group between 89 and 90 percent.

There was a bit of a conservative wave this last election (2016), and I think the (Republican) House and Senate members are about where our base is, said Jeff Kaufmann, state GOP chairman. I think theyre where a vast majority of Iowans are.

Even though the American Conservative Union Foundation pushes for a conservative agenda, it also graded Democrats votes on the same bills. And the Democrats actually had a little more disparity in their  obviously low  scores.

For example, there were Senate Democrats who scored in the low single digits; Sens. Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City and Janet Petersen of Des Moines voted with the group 4 percent of the time, on one of 24 bills. That bill was a reform of the states civil asset forfeiture process.

But the range of Democratic scores goes all the way to the 50 percent for Sen. Tod Bowman of Maquoketa. Bowman represents largely rural Jackson County in eastern Iowa.

Two Sioux City Democrats, Rep. Chris Hall and Tim Kacena, received scores of 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Playing a role

Kaufmann, who is a former member of the Iowa House, said state legislators like to check out ratings such as the American Conservative Union Foundations, but he said that is motivated more by curiosity than to influence a vote on a piece of legislation.

Bertrand said he does not see legislative scorecards unless someone shows them to him.

Bertrand said legislators are more motivated to vote with the desires of voters in their districts than to cast a vote in order to obtain a higher rating from an issue advocacy group. As an example, he notes the vote he cast in 2015 in favor of a 10-cent increase on the states gas tax. At the time, the state transportation department said the tax increase was necessary to support its road repair and construction budget.

Bertrand said even though his vote in support of the gas tax increase betrayed his conservative principles, it was the right vote to cast for his district in order to help hasten the completion of a four-lane highway expansion.

More legislators need to make decisions based on their districts, not strictly their ideology, Bertrand said. (With the gas tax vote) I understood the importance of Highway 20s completion and what it meant to this side of the state. ... At the end of the day, it was a vote I had to take, and its a vote Im proud of.

Legislators also sometimes use scorecard ratings on the campaign trail. Especially if a legislator receives a challenge from within his or her party, a good rating from, for example, a conservative group can look good on a Republican candidates resume when making a campaign pitch to voters or prospective donors.

I think legislators pay attention to such rankings to some extent, particularly when it comes to fundraising and touting conservative credentials in the lead up to a primary, Larimer said. Democrats may be even more likely to tout such rankings in their own primaries in 2018 as evidence of their rejection of the GOP agenda, particularly given how partisan the 2017 legislative session was in terms of votes and issues raised.

Experts were more skeptical that legislative scorecards carry any weight with or influence voters.

I think your average Iowa voter does not even know these scores exist, said Kedron Bardwell, a political science professor at Simpson College. These scorecards are mainly for activists and people who already get involved each year by contacting legislators on an issue or problem they care about a lot.
Game on.

That was the essence of Ron Corbetts message as he stood in front of reporters Wednesday in Des Moines.

Corbett said that in the first three weeks since he officially launched his campaign for Iowa governor, he accumulated more than $1 million in campaign donations and pledges.

It was a clear signal from Corbett that he thinks he, the outgoing Cedar Rapids mayor, will be able to develop the support and resources  and by resources, we mean money  necessary to mount a legitimate challenge to Gov. Kim Reynolds, the successor incumbent in the Republican primary race.

One of the early questions surrounding Corbetts campaign was whether he  or any Republican, really  could present a serious challenge to Reynolds, who has built-in advantages of serving in the office, an already healthy campaign account of more than $1 million as of late 2016 and support from much of the GOP establishment.

Corbett aimed to answer that question with Wednesdays announcement.

What this shows is that people around the state of Iowa arent bought into this establishment narrative that the race is over before it starts. The race is just beginning, Corbett said at the news conference in Des Moines. I think it shows that Iowans around the state arent exactly comfortable with Kim Reynolds carrying the status-quo baton for the next four years, that theyre really open to new faces with a new agenda and a new game plan.

Corbett also challenged Reynolds to reject donations from political action committees and national organizations, including the Republican Governors Association.

Thats not likely a challenge the Reynolds campaign will accept, although a spokesman did point out to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids that the vast majority of her fundraising has come from Iowa donors.

Of the $652,740 Reynolds raised in 2016, while she was lieutenant governor, 87 percent came from Iowa donors, according to state campaign finance records online.

If the intent is to keep support coming from Iowans, obviously, weve sort of checked that box, Reynolds campaign manager Phil Valenziano told The Gazette.

Regardless of what comes of the out-of-state fundraising challenge, Corbett said his early fundraising haul proves he is a true competitor in the GOP gubernatorial primary race.

I realize the establishment is trying to not have a primary, and theyve done a lot of work trying to convince people that I dont have a chance, he said. That narrative is a fake narrative. I do have shot.

New state law causing dispute

Yet another of the significant pieces of legislation signed into law during the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature may be headed for the courts.

The defunding of state money to Planned Parenthood and the restriction of public employee collective bargaining rights are among the new state laws that are being challenged in Iowa courts. A provision in a package of gun regulations may soon join them.

The gun regulations bill passed this year by the Republican-led Legislature reinforces the state law that does not allow weapons bans in public buildings by providing an avenue for residents to sue local governments that enforce such a ban.

But shortly before that law went into effect, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady issued a court order stating firearms should not be allowed in Iowa courthouses.

That set into motion a dispute in Woodbury County, where Sheriff David Drew has pledged to uphold Cadys order and maintain a weapons ban in the courthouse, drawing a rebuke from some county supervisors. Drew and Supervisor Matthew Ung have in recent days traded accusations of politicizing the issue.

It may eventually fall upon the courts to determine whether local law enforcement may continue to enforce firearms bans or restrictions in courthouses.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Democratic Republic of Congo leader President Joseph Kabila has expressed gratitude to President Mugabe and other African leaders for standing by his country to ward off moves by Western countries to impose illegal sanctions on Kinshasa.The mineral rich country has been witnessing disturbances especially in the eastern region fuelled by M23 rebels. The European Union and United States have imposed sanctions on some DRC government officials alleging "serious human rights violations" and have been targeting to weaken the country's economy.The sanctions include travel bans, assets freezes, and a ban on making funds or economic resources available to, or engaging in transactions with the listed individuals.Kinshasa representative in Harare, who is also the Dean of African Diplomats, Mr Mwanampanga Mwana Nanga conveyed President Kabila's appreciation when he met Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday."We went around the issues of African diplomacy, how African countries have to come together," Mr Mwana Nanga said after the meeting."You recall that the African Union Summit took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and my President and President Mugabe were there. You also know that we have the same enemies left, right and centre who are trying to put sanctions on our leaders. My principal went there (to the Summit) and explained that the things on which the Western countries wanted to base their sanctions on are internal affairs and we needed the support of our African brothers to put an end to this."He added: "All the African Union leaders rallied behind the DRC, so I had to come personally to express the thank you message from my principal to President Mugabe through my brother the Vice President."Mr Mwana Nanga said the political situation in DRC was no longer volatile."DRC is a big country and there are a lot of issues left and right but as I speak, the situation is under control," he said."Some of the volatility was coming from opposition leaders who were inciting people in their areas to create insecurity so that they could blame it on the government. Guess what, when they found out that they were some opportunistic leaders, the leaders were exfiltrated from DRC and the West is putting sanctions instead on the economy. All in all, the country is coming back together thanks to the solidarity of African brothers."He said elections in the DRC were likely to be held next year. "On elections, we had two agreements one in October last year and another in December that same year," Mr Mwana Nanga said."When the time of President Kabila came to an end, we negotiated, went to the Constitutional Court which said the President would remain until elections are organised. Two dates were agreed the first one was April 2018 but at the second agreement in December, the radical opposition said we have to have elections end of 2017. But the electoral commission has said we cannot have elections at the end of this year because we are still enrolling, as they could not do so because of disturbances in some regions. They said they had enrolled 33 million people but needed to enroll 42 million. They are asking for a delay and most likely elections will be held next year but they will take place."He said the Government would not amend the Constitution as alleged by some opposition elements.
CHICAGO -- The concept of "executive function" was popularized by social science research showing that young children who can control their impulses, pay attention, remember details, manage their time and plan are more likely to be successful in school.

According to an article recently published in the journal Police Quarterly, executive function may also play a role in how likely police officers are to respond with deadly force to an altercation.

In "Quick on the Draw: Assessing the Relationship Between Low Self-Control and Officer-Involved Police Shootings," researchers from Loyola University in Chicago, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of South Florida analyzed administrative records -- background files, academy training records and personnel information that could represent possible predictors of negative police behavior -- from the Philadelphia Police Department.

They found that officers who had problems with their finances and their interpersonal relationships, past brushes with the law and/or lower levels of education -- situations linked to low executive functioning -- exhibited a higher likelihood of discharging their firearms. The study's statistical regression found that a one-unit increase in low self-control was associated with a 21 percent increase in the odds of police officers discharging their firearms.

That these officers were likelier to be male will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever come into contact with a wriggly boy who didn't fare terribly well in early elementary school classrooms' culture of sitting quietly.

But another interesting detail about these officers who were prone to discharging their firearms is that -- in this one, limited study -- they were also likelier to be black.

"We found male and black officers were more likely than white officers or female officers to use deadly force," said Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Texas at Dallas and a co-author of the study. "This can seem surprising because a lot of the narrative on use of force is driven by what we see on social media. Twenty years ago we didn't have phones on which to take video to share on social networks. The stories and images of white officers running rampant on black victims ... some of that is true, but we're not sure that's really reflective of the majority of officers. In fact, the majority of all officers never shoot their guns in their whole careers."

Importantly, this study of the Philadelphia police was unique because of its access to such a deep trove of information on officers, as most departments do not make such data available.

"There's not a lot of very good information on police officer use-of-force incidents from small to medium to most severe, such as discharging their firearms," Piquero told me. "We don't have a database of officer shootings and we simply don't have access to such data."

This speaks to why we cannot answer the million-dollar question: Why might black police officers discharge their firearms more often?

"We don't know," Piquero said. "It could be deployment issues. For instance, black police officers may be assigned to patrol certain parts of their communities in which the types of incidents that result in use of force are likelier to occur. We just don't know because police departments are hesitant to make their use-of-force statistics public -- they're concerned with how it could look on the front page of the newspaper. However, I would argue that that level of transparency would build trust and credibility with the community."

If we are to take anything from one study's conclusion that police officers with lower executive function are likelier to use force and that they tend toward being male and black -- and it is important to reiterate that it's never a good idea to generalize too broadly from the results of a single study -- it is that we should reconsider the belief that simply hiring more police officers who reflect the ethnicity and racial composition of a community will improve matters.

As demonstrated by high-profile police shootings involving two minorities -- like the recent acquittal of Dominique Heaggan-Brown, the Milwaukee police officer who had been charged with first-degree reckless homicide of Sylville K. Smith, both of whom were black -- solving policing issues requires that we look beyond an officer's race.

Investigating a variety of factors including better training for how and when to engage in use of force, and an understanding of an officer's strengths or weaknesses in the area of self-control, may have far more impact on community safety.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




Driver Dan Noble continues to be on a hot streak as he captured both $40,000 Ohio Sires Stakes splits for three-year-old trotting fillies on Friday night (July 14) at Scioto Downs.

The 34-year-old Xenia, Ohio native first scored with Gabbysloosechange in 1:58 and then with Vatanna in 1:55.4 in the third leg for sophomore diagonally-gaited distaffs.

The latter is conditioned by Jim Arledge, Jr., whom he owns in partnership with Dustin Arledge, Mt Sterling, OH; Jude Jacobs; and Mary McLoughlin, Lancaster, OH. The sophomore daughter by Dejarmbro is the ninth foal out of the Armbro Iliad world champion mare DJ Babe, 5, 1:55.2f ($395,746), who was also campaigned by Arledge, Jr., to numerous Ohio divisional titles. The 34-race winner was named Ohio Three-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year and Aged Trotter of the Year in 1998 and 2000.

Arledge, Jr. says Vatanna is an extremely talented filly who has been a bit slow to mature, and hopes shell continue to gain confidence in herself.

Shes kind of lacked confidence all along and is just coming into her own, he admitted. She trained down well prior to this season, and as good as her mom was, I really believe that Vatanna is the best foal out of her, and that her best efforts are ahead of her.

Vatanna is a half-sister to the Mr Vic mare Pink Ribbons, the first foal out of DJ Babe, who won 13 races and earned $236,525 en route to scoring a 1:54.3s record as a four-year-old. Vatanna also has half-siblings in Silly Dreams (by Pegasus Spur) 3, 2:01.3h ($27,215) and Stand Up Please (by Sand Vic) 2, 2:02h ($20,259).

This latest victory in her Ohio Sires Stakes event was certainly Vatannas most impressive, in part to the deft steer she received from Noble, who moved her three-wide at the 1:27.1 three-quarter mile clocking. She continued to race wide in the stretch and literally mowed down the leading 6-5 Rose Run Sydney (Jason Brewer) to score her second career win in 16 tries by a nose over her rival. Chim Swift (Aaron Merriman) notched show honors, six lengths behind.

Vatanna, sent off at 13-1 odds, returned $29.80 to win and pushed her career earnings to $51,215. She had previously finished third on June 17 at Northfield Park after a fifth-place finish on May 1 at Miami Valley Raceway.

Gabbysloosechange, a Chris Beaver trainee, was the 1-5 favourite in her OSS contest and did not disappoint her backers, going wire-to-wire with Noble sitting chilly in the sulky as his filly drew off by 2-3/4 lengths. The Marty Wollam-trained Purple Sona (7-1, Kurt Sugg) nabbed second, with 6-1 Away My Baby (Chris Page) getting up for third.

The Triumphant Caviar lass has yet to be bested in OSS competition this year as she won the first two legs of this series easily for Noblein 1:57.2 (Leg 1) at Miami Valley Raceway on May 1 and in a career-best clocking of 1:54.4 (Leg 2) on June 17 at Northfield Park.

Beaver owns Gabbysloosechange in partnership with breeder Johanna Beaver of Deleon Springs, FL. This solidly-gaited trotting lass pushed her lifetime earnings to $68,500 with this latest victory, the fifth of her career in seven starts. She was unraced as a two-year-old.

Ohio Sires Stakes continue Monday (July 17) with five divisions of two-year-old pacing fillies vying at Northfield Park in the second leg of the series.

(Ohio Sires Stakes)
In today's Rewind Robert Smith reminds us that this year Canadian harness racing will quietly observe a rather important milestone in its long and colourful history. It was the introduction of the mobile starting gate 70 years ago. Included today are great old photos of a number of earlier starting gates and also the mention of a few of those who served as starters down through the years.



An early starting gate owned and operated by Art Whitesell of Tillsonburg, Ont. is shown at his hometown track in 1953. An early starting gate owned and operated by Art Whitesell of Tillsonburg, Ont. is shown at his hometown track in 1953.



I think that if all the so called historians of harness racing were polled to ask what the greatest innovation in the past 75 years of our sport has been, one common answer would undoubtedly prevail. The introduction of the mobile starting gate back in 1946 (in the U.S.) and 1947 in Canada, would have to be at the top. It is credited with "saving" the sport from sure extinction if the old method of open scoring had continued much longer. It has been said that the scoring method in use prior to this was driving people away in droves.

While a number of attempts were made in various parts of Canada previously, the generally accepted first appearance of the mobile gate as we know it today happened in May of 1947. A man named Tom McDonnell of Hamilton put together a workable gate and was able to persuade enough people of its worthiness and on the afternoon of May 24, 1947 his new invention went into action at Sarnia, Ontario. The McDonnell gate was mounted on the family car, a 1939 Plymouth coupe. When required for race days it could be quickly outfitted for track duty including removal of the trunk lid, and when the day was finished, it went back to its usual purpose.

A number of descendants of the original McDonnell family took an interest in becoming starters and to this day the name remains. Tom's only son, Wm. worked with his father for many years on the gate and as an announcer and later pursued a lifetime in other areas of the sport until his passing in 2015. Tom's brother Alex became a starter and his sons have followed.





This is the original starting gate, the first one ever used in Ontario. It was built by Tom McDonnell and debuted at Sarnia, Ont. in 1947. This is the original starting gate, the first one ever used in Ontario. It was built by Tom McDonnell and debuted at Sarnia, Ont. in 1947.





An early starting gate owned and operated by Tom McDonnell of Hamilton is shown above from the mid 1950's. An early starting gate owned and operated by Tom McDonnell of Hamilton is shown above from the mid 1950's.

Later that same year in 1947, Art Whitesell a Tillsonburg car dealer unveiled his gate at Grand Valley, Ont. on Labour Day weekend. Art performed the starter's duties at virtually every small Town track in Southwestern Ontario for many years. When London opened their doors for night time racing in 1961 he served as their first starter and filled that position until his passing.

The gate's acceptance was immediate and with it came the ability to greatly improve the staging of races. The starts were accomplished quickly and fairly, and race post times could be adhered to with precision. This single innovation seemed to advance the sport in a sort of quantum leap!

While the starter draws little attention in the staging of races, their job is tremendously important .Down through the years many people have served as starters and were usually highly respected and appreciated in their "home " area. 

If readers have special memories about starters from days gone by feel free to share them.

I have assembled a collage of old photographs related to starting gates. As the pictures portray, the gates have changed considerably over the years.



The vehicle shown above was a very early starting gate as evidenced by the vehicle. I do not have specific information about this photo. The vehicle shown above was a very early starting gate as evidenced by the vehicle. I do not have specific information about this photo.



Starter Archie Cochrane was a well known starter in his home area around Oshawa and Orono for many years. Here he is shown sending a field away at the Lindsay Exhibition. Starter Archie Cochrane was a well known starter in his home area around Oshawa and Orono for many years. Here he is shown sending a field away at the Lindsay Exhibition.



Harold Wilson served as a starter for many years at the big Montreal tracks. He not only communicated with the drivers he also spoke to horses. Here he chats with Checkout from the Miron stable to see how the fields should be sent away. (Harness Horse) Harold Wilson served as a starter for many years at the big Montreal tracks. He not only communicated with the drivers he also spoke to horses. Here he chats with Checkout from the Miron stable to see how the fields should be sent away. (Harness Horse)



Officials at Blue Bonnets gather to pay tribute to long time starter Harold Wilson (in light coat) in recognition of his 2,500th start. From left: Mike MacCormack, Bill Slack, Bob Chicone, Bob Pare, Wilson and PR Director Albert Trottier. Raymond Lemay, far right does the presenting in this 1966 photo (Harness Horse) Officials at Blue Bonnets gather to pay tribute to long time starter Harold Wilson (in light coat) in recognition of his 2,500th start. From left: Mike MacCormack, Bill Slack, Bob Chicone, Bob Pare, Wilson and PR Director Albert Trottier. Raymond Lemay, far right does the presenting in this 1966 photo (Harness Horse)



When Thorncliffe Park opened in 1950 they showcased a very modern and "jazzy" starting car which was manned by Cliff Bradley (Michael Burns)

When Thorncliffe Park opened in 1950 they showcased a very modern and "jazzy" starting car which was manned by Cliff Bradley (Michael Burns)



This scene is from the 1950 Little Brown Jug as the field approaches the starting line. That year's Jug winner was Dudley Hanover driven by Delvin Miller (Hoof Beats) This scene is from the 1950 Little Brown Jug as the field approaches the starting line. That year's Jug winner was Dudley Hanover driven by Delvin Miller (Hoof Beats)



Ernie Brown, longtime starter at the Ontario Jockey Club Circuit Ernie Brown, longtime starter at the Ontario Jockey Club Circuit



The above gate was operated by Andy Foster in Western Canada. This photo is from Virden, Manitoba around 1954. Is that a Packard? The above gate was operated by Andy Foster in Western Canada. This photo is from Virden, Manitoba around 1954. Is that a Packard?



Above is starter Steve Phillips, an Ohio native and the man credited with inventing and perfecting the modern day starting gate. His first gate was mounted on a 1930 Ford chassis which he took to North Randall Ohio in the 1930's but Grand Circuit officials refused to allow him to use it on race days. His attempts persisted and in 1946 he convinced officials at the then fairly new Roosevelt Raceway to try his gate. This one on a Chrysler car reportedly became an immediate success, in fact some say it took just one race to convince Mr. Levy. Acclaimed as the best starter ever in his 50 year career, Phillips operated it for many years at both Roosevelt and Yonkers, retiring in the mid 1960's. This gentleman always wore a shirt and tie and reportedly never the same one two days in a row. (Roosevelt Raceway archives) Above is starter Steve Phillips, an Ohio native and the man credited with inventing and perfecting the modern day starting gate. His first gate was mounted on a 1930 Ford chassis which he took to North Randall Ohio in the 1930's but Grand Circuit officials refused to allow him to use it on race days. His attempts persisted and in 1946 he convinced officials at the then fairly new Roosevelt Raceway to try his gate. This one on a Chrysler car reportedly became an immediate success, in fact some say it took just one race to convince Mr. Levy. Acclaimed as the best starter ever in his 50 year career, Phillips operated it for many years at both Roosevelt and Yonkers, retiring in the mid 1960's. This gentleman always wore a shirt and tie and reportedly never the same one two days in a row. (Roosevelt Raceway archives)



Above is Roger Nagle of Salford, Ont., who travelled with Art Whitesell for many years and later worked with Bob Belore as a driver and starter. This photo was taken trackside at Simcoe, Ont. Above is Roger Nagle of Salford, Ont., who travelled with Art Whitesell for many years and later worked with Bob Belore as a driver and starter. This photo was taken trackside at Simcoe, Ont.



Officials at a California track are shown in front of a 1947 Ford truck outfitted for starting harness races .It is believed to be one of the first of its kind on the West Coast. Officials at a California track are shown in front of a 1947 Ford truck outfitted for starting harness races .It is believed to be one of the first of its kind on the West Coast.

TRIVIA QUESTION: What were the names of the well known duo that started races for many years in near Eastern Ontario (Peterborough area)? The car driver also drove horses...
Bring A Friend continues today (July 15) at five racetracks across Canada including Hiawatha Horse Park, Kawartha Downs, Hanover Raceway, Northside Downs and Mohawk Racetrack. Each track has organized a fun-filled evening to provide race fans and guests with an unforgettable racing experience!

Northside Downs will host the Bring A Friend promotion today (July 15) with an afternoon post time of 1:00 p.m. The first 25 Bring A Friend guests who sign-in at the on-track registration table will receive a free program along with a $2 betting voucher. Sulky rides will be offered by drivers and trainers and guests will also have the chance to enter into a variety of prize draws for betting vouchers, t-shirts, and program loyalty cards.

To view the entries for Saturday, click one of the following links:

 Entries

 Program Pages

Hiawatha Horse Park in Sarnia, Ont., will host the BAF promotion today with the first race going to post at 6:30 p.m. There are a variety of activities trackside for racing guests including a sign-up for rides in the starting gate car, free programs for all and will have chicken and ribs with fries available for $12.95 + tax. There will also be special draws for a number of prize packages, putting together an evening that wont disappoint!

 Entries

 Program Pages

Kawartha Downs in Fraserville, Ont., will open their gates for live racing action at 5:00 p.m. with a post time of 7:00 p.m. The BAF promotion coincides with their 45th season of racing. Free programs will be provided for Bring A Friend guests along with a $2 betting voucher. To make the evening extra special they have organized a beginner handicapping workshop hosted by Nick Boyd and Gord Brown that begins at 6:00 p.m. They also have planned draws for a paddock tour and winners circle presentation. In addition, Kawarthas Meet & Greet horse for the evening will be Mr Tasty who still holds the record for the fastest mile ever trotted at Kawartha (1:54).

Mini exhibits featuring old photos and programs will also be on display to commemorate the anniversary.

 Entries

 Program Pages

Hanover Raceway will go to post at 7:15 p.m. and they will be giving away free programs and $2 bets to the first 25 Bring A Friend guests. They have organized t-shirt and hat tosses throughout the night and there will be a special appearance from their mascot Black Beauty!

 Entries

 Program Pages

Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville, Ont., will open their gates for guests at 6:00 p.m. with a post time of 7:30 p.m. They havee planned an exciting evening for Bring A Friend guests giving out free programs and $2 bets to the first 50 people who sign-in at the on-track Bring A Friend registration table. T-shirts and hats will be given away on the tarmac between races and there will also be draws for sulky rides and a paddock tour!

 Entries

 Program Pages

The Bring A Friend promotion will continue on Sunday at Century Downs Racetrack & Casino, Clinton Raceway, Dresden Raceway, Rideau Carleton Raceway, Georgian Downs and Truro Raceway.

Make sure you sign in at your tracks Bring A Friend Registration Table because those who sign-up will be entered into two exclusive draws from the Fan Club for a $100 gift card to any Canadian harness racetrack and a $50 I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club Prize Package.

Dont forget to capture your Bring A Friend memories on your smartphone or camera and enter your photos in Julys Zoom Contest Friends at the Races.

Check out these tips on how to have a great time at the races with your friends. Lets share our passion for harness racing while enjoying a great day at the track! See you there!

To view a detailed list of the activities taking place at each track this weekend, visit SC's Bring A Friend page.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

Student leaders from the Mnangagwa alligned Zimbabwe Congress of Students' Union (Zicosu) yesterday castigated Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo for neglecting them and expending his energy on attacking Government programmes and officials.In a statement yesterday, Zicosu president Takudzwa Gambiza said students had suffered a great deal of ridicule from Professor Moyo who dismissed those who were studying commercial, humanities and social science as wasting their time.The student leader also called on President Mugabe to rein in "all unruly and loose cannons" in his Cabinet and Politburo.Gambiza said Professor Moyo had, during a public lecture at the Midlands State University in March this year, said the students would not contribute anything to Zimbabwe's economic development after completing their studies."His continued Twitter rants and statements are a slap in the face of the students' community whom he has seemingly neglected," he said.Gambiza said tuition fees has risen sharply under Prof Moyo's watch. He noted the recent increase in fees for medical students at the University of Zimbabwe as an example. The students where later thrown out of their hostels after an impasse with college authorities."Ironically, the School of Medicine falls under the STEM enterprise that the minister is fronting. We have upheld and embraced as a good programme."However, our question remains; why is the Professor's ministry not using Zimdef money to subsidise fees for students in tertiary institutions and bond them after completing their studies," he said.The student body further accused Professor Moyo of encroaching into Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education's territory.Gambiza said Professor Moyo had abandoned his constituency in overstepping his mandate.He said Zicosu had noted with great concern and utmost disgust Professor Moyo's malevolent attacks on Government initatives such as the Command Agriculture programme.He said such initiatives including the Presidential Input Support Scheme had borne visible fruition at household levels while contributing to the country's economic growth."The superfluous and unjustifiable attacks on the successful programmes that have seen the Food Security and Nutrition Cluster within the Zim-Asset policy document has sent massive shock across the intellectual community, both in our institutions and the academic fraternity," he said.Gambiza said Professor Moyo's attack on the Command Agriculture initiative, described by President Mugabe as "beautiful", was a sign of total disrespect and malicious disregard of the country's leadership.He said Professor Moyo had totally undermined Cabinet processes which gives him a platform to constructively criticise the initiatives."Professor Moyo has, however, chosen his Twitter handle to emasculate the programme and, subsequently, cause unprecedented discord and disharmony in Government," he said."The utterances by our minister, if left unrestrained, may lead the country descend into anarchy."Gambiza said Professor Moyo's attacks on fellow Cabinet ministers and members of the security forces were akin on the MDC attacks on the late Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe."Zimbabwe is a peaceful nation and we cannot afford to watch senior Government officials making reckless statements that may be misunderstood leading to mayhem. It is imperative that we attract Foreign Direct Investment to grow our economy and as such we need to portray a united front."Public from senior Government officials exude glorified confusion and are doing a great disservice which may result in Zimbabwe being shunned by investors, robbing our generation and the rest of Zimbabwe of opportunities and growth."The student leader encouraged Professor Moyo to refrain from such dangerous acts and promote unity, peace and development."His unrepentant attacks on senior military personnel as a popularity gimmick may compromise the state security, especially when coming from a senior Government official," Gambiza said.He said Professor Moyo should use proper channels within the bureaucratic system to constructively criticise his peers. Zicosu is a patriotic students' body drawing membership from all national higher and tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe.It is also a student advocacy platform with focus on all issues affecting students during and after their studies.
Filmmaker of New Suicide Movie Explains Why '13 Reasons Why' Death-Scene is 'A Horrible Mistake'

Contact: Jen Thompson, 800-437-1893, jthompson@livingwaters.com LOS ANGELES, July 14, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- The wildly popular Netflix program called "13 Reasons Why" has started a massive controversy. It not only details why the main character took her own life, garnering sympathy, but it shows her committing suicide. She doesn't jump off a bridge, leaving what happened to her to the imagination. Rather, she sits in a bathtub fully clothed, takes a razor blade, and slits her wrists lengthwise.Ray Comfort, whose movies have been seen by millions, said, "I forced myself to watch the scene, and even though I know it's only acting, with special effects, I found it horrific. It brought me to tears."The controversy is over whether this scene will deter young people from committing suicide or will stir up copycat suicides because the character seen taking her life is a celebrity in their eyes.Comfort added, "I believe it was a horrible mistake. This is because I greatly value my life, and the thought of taking a razor blade and cutting three-inch slits in my wrists sends me into a shudder of horror. I had a similar feeling as I interviewed a suicidal girl for our new movie, 'EXIT: The Appeal of Suicide.' She said that she wanted to end her life, and explained to me that very few are able to kill themselves by overdosing with pills, because of complications. She then described why other means of suicide were very difficult. We left that part of the interview out of the film for fear of giving ideas to vulnerable people."Comfort then explained that when he asked her if it was scary to be continually contemplating suicide, she said, "You get used to it.""And there is my concern with the death scene in '13 Reasons Why.' It seems that the series producers didn't take into account the thousands of young people known as 'cutters.' These people regularly cut their skin and draw blood, and in doing so repeatedly, they get used to it. It loses its intuitive horror. Studies show that 40 percent of cutters have thought of suicide. In essence, many cutters may be actually rehearsing their own deaths. Someone slitting their wrists is not as horrific to them as it would be to you and me. Couple that mentality with a celebrity hero who slits her wrists and you have potential copycats."The parents of two teenage girls in San Francisco, who committed suicide in separate incidents, are blaming their deaths on "13 Reasons Why." Both girls had viewed the series two days before they took their lives.Newsweek said, "Decades of research prove that a startling range of emotions and behaviors can be contagiousfrom moodiness to yawning. Young people are especially susceptible; they obsess over fads and fashion trends and copy illicit behaviors from peers, such as smoking, drinking or speeding. Or suicide." www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/teen-suicide-contagious-colorado-springs-511365.html The award-winning producer also said, "Although 'EXIT' includes clips of two suicide jumpers leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge, we have left their hitting the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay to the imagination. There are big differences between the two films. The people shown in 'EXIT' are not actors; nor are they celebrities. And most importantly, the film offers the solution to the tragic problem of suicide. It doesn't leave viewers hopeless in the face of the horror of death, as '13 Reasons Why' does. 'EXIT' gives people a reason to live, and explains that we all have great worth because we are made in the image of God."The film's trailer and other details can be seen on www.theEXITmovie.com . It will be freely released on YouTube mid-August.For interviews contact: Jen Thompson jthompson@livingwaters.com 800-437-1893
What was once simply an idea has now become a serious option: the Cowlitz County 911 Center could become a standalone entity separate from the county.

According to 911 Director Deanna Wells, the 911 E-Board met with Reinke & Associates, a Thorp-based consulting firm, twice already to make tentative plans for setting up a governance board. Meetings with the consulting firm will take place every month until November, when the board must make a final decision.

Consultant Steve Reinke explored three different options with the board, according to Wells: Continue as a Cowlitz County department, merge with another countys 911 center  most likely Clark County  or become an independent entity.

Wells said the stakeholders from the board, which include representatives from the cities of Longview and Kelso, the county, and the countys Fire Officials Association, all leaned towards the latter idea.

Moving to a separate agency would help streamline the 911 centers processes and eliminate conflicts, according to Kelso City Manager and E-board vice chair Steve Taylor.

There will be clearer direction and clearer calls of authority to carry out the policy that the user agencies want to see implemented, Taylor said. Because the 911 department is a department of the county, the county has its own sovereignty and its own rules.

Currently, Taylor said, the countys management of the department does sometimes come into conflict with the 911 centers users.

Taylor said the tentative plan is to create a new nine-member board just for the new 911 center. There would likely be three members from the city of Longview, two from Cowlitz County, one from the city of Kelso, one from Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue. The last two members may rotate between the countys smaller cities and fire districts.

E-Board member and Cowlitz 2 Commissioner Alan Headley agreed with Taylor that a separate 911 department would simplify things for the call center.

The current governance structure is fairly complex, and I think it causes some confusion at times, as far as chain of command, he said. I think a more streamlined governance structure is a good thing.

Wells has voiced her grievances with the 911 call centers complicated power structure in the past.

Currently, she answers to the E-Board, the 911 council, and the county commissioners. Although the E-Board is meant to be her main supervisor, the Commissioners wrote in a January 2016 letter that because she is a county employee, and the 911 Center uses county equipment, they have sway over the centers decisions.

This left Wells and the center in limbo.

I supposedly answer to the 911 board, but nobody knows who my boss is, Wells told The Daily News in October 2016.

E-Board members hope severing the 911 center from Cowlitz County will alleviate this conflict.

However, Headley warned, nothing is carved in stone yet.

There are pros and cons of each with of the three options, according to meeting notes. Reinke agreed that becoming an independent agency would give the center a more simple decision-making process and a clearer line of governance.

However, Reinke also warned the board that severing the 911 agency would result in higher administrative and overhead costs, as well as increased staff turnover due to the change.

When contacted by The Daily News, Reinke declined to comment on the meetings.

Wells said other Washington 911 call centers already have split from their counties, including Grays Harbor and Kitsap counties. Chelan and Douglas counties formed an independent 911 center together, since the Wenatchee area is split between the two counties.

Richard Kurton, director of Kitsap 911, said his center split from Kitsap County in December 2016 and views the move as a success.

We realized that we needed a 911 center that was much more nimble, he said. Not to complain about anything related to the county, we have a great working relationship with them, but the county employs well over 1,000 people, and county government has some built-in checks and balances that cause processes to slow down.

Wells said as long as the various stakeholders involved agree on a plan for the 911 center, shell be happy, noting theres been a call for more control for the 27 years shes worked there.

I feel like when you empower people and they have input, you work together a lot smoother, because you all have a stake in it, she said. You want it to work, and this is the direction that the stakeholders are going. So if this is what everyone agrees is the best thing, this is the direction we should go.

Wells also said the 911 council and E-Board have yet to decide on a new location for the call center, which is currently housed in the Hall of Justice basement. This issue may end up being solved by the 911 centers new board in the future.
A man reportedly threatened to kill security guards at PeaceHealth St. Johns Medical Center and then tried to punch one of the guards Thursday evening, according to Longview police.

Security guards called police around 8:30 p.m. to report an intoxicated man trespassing on hospital property, according to Officer Branden McNew.

James R. Young, 48, was allegedly yelling and screaming at the security guards, threatening to kill them, while attempting to punch one, McNew said. Security officers were able to detain the man until Longview police arrived.

Young was arrested on suspicion of felony harassment, fourth-degree assault, and interfering with a health care facility.
A $12.9 million Toledo school bond will likely head to voters on the November ballot after the school board accepted a proposal Thursday night.

The bond measure still has to be officially approved at the school boards special meeting the last week of July, but it is unlikely that anything will change before then, Toledo Superintendent Chris Rust said.

The proposed bond would cost district voters about $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value annually for 21 years. The proposal includes updates to all district schools but about $10.7 million would be designated for improvements to the high school.

In March, voters rejected a $14.2 million bond proposal fell short of the 60 percent supermajority required to pass. Since that time, a facilities committee examined other potential options for refurbishing the schools. The committee ultimately kept the same projects on the bond proposal except for a few repairs they accomplished with existing money.

Reducing the soft costs for permits, sales taxes and architects fees also helped bring down the total amount.

There was some disagreement at the Thursday meeting as to when the bond should appear on a ballot. Some advocated for a February ballot measure because there is a more successful history for bonds at that time.

[But] the feeling of the board was weve done quite a bit of work getting ready for the last February measure and there was a bit of momentum that they didnt want to lose, Rust said.

In addition, since the high school is more than 30 years old, the school district estimates it would qualify for about $8.2 million in matching funds from the State Construction Assistance Program (SCAP).

However, placing the bond on a February ballot could delay the SCAP funds by another year. If the bond measure is passed in November of this year, Toledo schools could start receiving state reimbursement funds by June 2018. If the measure is not passed until February 2018, the school district would not be in line for funding until January 2019 and would not receive the funds until June that same year.

This delay in reimbursements could create a cash flow problem and jeopardize some projects, Rust said.

Board chair Brad Dykstra said he is hopeful the bond will pass this time around because the board specifically invited people who voted no on the previous proposal to be on the facilities committee.

The fate of the bond proposal will come down to communication, he said.

I think its important that this is a community effort and not the school board telling the community how they should vote, Dykstra said. It should be the community telling us we need to run a bond to improve the schools.
News / National

by Staff reporter

POLICE are hunting for five thieves who raided a home in Bulawayo pretending to be cops.The gang allegedly pretended to be investigating a crime and dug a pit at the complainant's home last Sunday at around 9PM. They allegedly robbed the homeowner of two cellphones.The intentions of the five wanted men are still unknown.National police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi yesterday said the five men are on the run.He said they presented themselves as Criminal Investigations Detectives (CID) before digging up a concrete slab saying something was hidden under it.The police did not provide details of the suburb where the crime occurred. Chief Supt Nyathi has since warned the public to guard against criminals masquerading as law enforcement agents."The complainant arrived from church and found five male adults chatting with his wife. The accused persons purported to be members of the police from the CID and wanted to retrieve some exhibits hidden underground by a certain accused person," he said."The accused persons started to dig a concrete slab in front of the house and took two cellphones, a Nokia c and a Nokia 5250 belonging to the complainant and his wife citing that they might interfere with investigations."Chief Supt Nyathi the two cellphones valued at $60 were not recovered.He urged the public to be alert as some criminals were impersonating police officers to commit crime."The ZRP continues to urge the public to be on the outlook for people who masquerade as police officers. It is their right to ask for police identification if they are not certain of the identity of people claiming to be police officers before permitting strangers access into their homes," Chief Supt Nyathi said adding that the public can also contact the nearest police stations if they come across suspicious activities. This week, police in Bulawayo arrested a 29-year-old male cop impersonator who had kidnapped two pupils from Mhali Primary School.
tech2 News Staff

Available only on iOS, for now, Facebook is testing its inbuilt GIF maker through its camera mode.

The feature is available with the tap of a GIF button which appears on the camera screen. The recorded GIF can be posted either as a profile picture, in the photo gallery or as a Facebook story. However, for Android users, this feature is not available on their Facebook apps.

According to The Next Web, this feature is on a gradual rollout. Facebook had initially started with the GIF feature available only in the comment section, however, considering its popularity, the feature seems to be shifting to the camera section. Facebook's transition to GIF support has been slow as compared to contemporary social media websites like Twitter. Facebook, which has users more than 1.2 billion, allowed GIFs on its newsfeed only in 2015.

On 15 June, the US tech giant celebrated 30 years of GIF by rolling out support for it in its comment section.

Recently, Facebook brought advertisements to the Messenger app after successful trials in Australia and Thailand. In the home section of the Messenger, the users will find tabs for various shopping brands, clicking them will then take users to the portals website or its webchat.
Anirudh Regidi

A week ago, if someone had asked me what I thought about Dyson, I would have scratched my head and asked them if they were talking about the company that makes those fancy fans and vacuum cleaners. For many in India, especially for those who havent experienced a Dyson product first hand, this is, I think, a normal reaction.

As someone who spends his days messing with the latest gadgets and writing about technology for a living, Dysons products have always left me a little cold. I mean, why would I be interested in a fan or a vacuum cleaner in the first place, especially one that could match a GTX 1070 for price? And anyway, Id rather be tinkering with my PC than vacuuming my floors.

Therefore, when Dyson invited me (and a handful of other journalists) over to its headquarters in Malmesbury, UK, I was a little bemused, but also a little intrigued. Why did a maker of vacuum cleaners and hair dryers want to invite a technology journalist? A little research was in order.

The cyclone filter

Dysons claim to fame is the cyclone filter. Briefly, the story is as follows: Dyson bought a vacuum cleaner, got frustrated that it got clogged so fast, and then resolved to make a better vacuum cleaner.

The problem, he discovered, was that the traditional bag-based vacuum cleaners would rapidly lose efficiency. Apparently, this is because the suction happens through the bag, clogging its pores with dust. Since the bag is clogged, airflow is impeded and the vacuum cleaner is less efficient.

Sir James Dyson, the founder of the company, hit upon a solution when visiting a local sawmill. The sawmill used a large, industrial cyclone to suck up the dirt and separate it. The technology had never been applied on a smaller scale before. Dyson jury-rigged a miniature cyclone separator using cardboard and a Hoover vacuum cleaner (sans the bag). Thus, the first bagless vacuum cleaner was born.

This was just a proof-of-concept, however, and there was still a lot of work to be done. As several Dyson engineers reminded us time and time again, it was only after five years and 5,127 revisions that the first, working prototype was created.

It took some time and a trip to Japan before the design was even accepted by the public, but once it took off, it helped transform the company into the multi-billion-dollar enterprise that it is today.

But is that all there is to Dyson?

At first blush, it certainly seems so. A British engineer builds this awesome new filter, thoroughly patents the design and then proceeds to live off the royalties for the rest of his life.

One day at Dyson HQ was enough to prove to me how wrong I was.

Engineering marvels

Dysons headquarters in the UK is in a little town called Malmesbury, which is located 100 miles to the east of London. Several things stand out when one first arrives at the place, but most notable is the Harrier Jump Jet that sits opposite the entrance. Glance around and youll spot a partially stripped down, 1959 Mini. Look around a bit more and youll see an amphibious landing craft in the parking area. If that wasnt enough, theres a stunning English Electric Lightning mounted on the ceiling of one of the cafeterias and a jet engine in one of the halls. There are supposed to be assorted engineering marvels scattered around the place as well, but we didnt have time to see all of them.

Oh, and the only working example of the Whittle Jet engine also resides at Dyson HQ.

Ive spent half my childhood sketching aircraft in notebooks and to find two iconic aircraft take pride of place at the HQ was heartening, to say the least.

The marvels didnt stop there. The conference room we were assigned to featured a glass table that appeared to be held in place by nothing more than steel wire. On closer inspection, it was indeed held in place by nothing more than steel wire. I say 'held in place', and not 'suspended' (like a lamp), because the table wasnt hanging from the ceiling, it was rigidly held in place a few feet off the floor with nothing but four stands of wire.

As Sir James Dyson himself explained later, the secret to the rigidity was the crossing of the wires. The table is his design.

He wrote in a piece on Wired, I am fascinated by ideas that seem impossible. A vacuum without a bag. A bridge without supports. A jet that jumps into the air.

This fascination with unique aircraft and engineering should give you some idea of the kind of man that Dyson is. Hes an engineer at heart, a problem solver, and its this passion for engineering that seems to drive the company. As Dyson and its engineers are so fond of saying, Dyson is a technology-driven company, not a market-driven one.

Failure is an option, compromise isnt

The companys commitment to that ethos is seen in the millions  7 million a week  that its investing in research. Of the products that Dyson develops, maybe one in three or one in four see the light of day, say the engineers.

Dyson explains that the engineers focus on building what they think is a solution to a given problem. To that end, theyre encouraged to fail and fail fast, its the only way to move forward and develop a better product. The idea is to fail early so that the projects dont drag on for years.

Despite all this effort and money, a product may not even be successful. The Dyson washing machine is testament to this fact. A brilliant design involving counter-rotating drums, the machine failed commercially because it was simply too expensive. Rather than brush it under the carpet, the machine (and its prototype) reside beside one of the entrances to Dysons research facility. Another reminder of such a failure takes the shape of a jet engine from the Concorde, which also resides in the facility. As an engineer explained, the engine is a reminder that one can get everything right, in an engineering sense, and still fail.

The mantra at Dyson is try-test-fail-repeat, and you keep doing this till you have a winner. Dyson is also a big fan of Newtons approach to iterative design, which is that you make just one change and test again. With this approach, you better understand the impact that the change has on the design. Its part of the reason why it took Dyson 5,127 iterations to come up with a viable vacuum cleaner.

The engineers tell us that the companys willingness to invest in research and development gives them more resources, freedom and a stronger sense of responsibility, allowing them to explore new ideas.

To enable all of this, Dyson does all its prototyping and designing in-house. In fact, it does so much prototyping that Dyson is apparently the largest consumer of nylon powder in Britain. This powder is used in 3D printing.

Attention to detail

Take Dysons Supersonic Hair Dryer, for instance, it took the company over five years to develop the product. Why? There was a lot to learn and a great many problems to fix. When they started out, for example, the engineers didnt know that hair dryers could damage the hair (the heat can get too intense, it seems).

There were other issues as well, like the noise from the motor. Dyson maintains an anechoic chamber for the sole purpose of testing the sound signature of the products it designs. In the case of the Supersonic, one of the initial prototypes was found to make a high-pitched noise in the 15 kHz range. This frequency is particularly disturbing to human ears. The noise is primarily a result of the fan blades chopping the air at regular intervals, creating pressure waves and hence, the sound. The high frequency is a result of the high speed of the motor.

The solution, the engineers discovered, was to simply increase the blade count from 11 to 13, pushing the noise into the 17 kHz range, making for a more pleasant aural experience. The engineer also explained that there is a subjective appreciation of quality through sound. A premium product must sound premium, if that makes sense.

Such examples of attention to details arent new, HP is known to do the same when designing its printers. The point here is the attention to detail that Dyson is also encouraging.

And speaking of sound, youll have to take my word for it, but that motor sounds like a miniature turbine engine. With a tiny little 13-blade fan spinning at over 100,000 rpm, this is understandable.

The fan used in the hair dryer is tiny and the tolerances in the structure are finer than a strand of spider silk, says one of the engineers.

You might be wondering if such a powerful motor would suck up dust and blow it in your face, and it would have, if Dyson hadnt placed a dust filter at the inlet.

The design of the vacuum cleaners is no less fascinating. The cyclone filters used today are an unrecognisable evolution of the original design. The current model can separate dust by generating a centrifugal force in excess of 200g (200 times the force of gravity). The new, portable vacuum cleaner uses batteries that are designed to last eight to ten years, the bristles at the cleaning head include carbon-fibre strips to prevent the floor and dust particles from getting electrically charged, HEPA filters prevent even the smallest of dust particles from escaping. Even the cleaning mechanism is so well designed that you neednt touch the dust when emptying the vacuum cleaners drum.

The battery isnt designed to be replaceable. The engineers tell us that this is because a user-replaceable battery can get damaged. Even damage to the connectors can reduce engine efficiency. If youre worried about battery life, the engineers tell us that the battery is designed to give you 40 minutes of usage on a 3.5-hour charge and that it will continue to do so for many years. If the batteries do get damaged, they can be serviced.

Everything about the products, be it the vacuum cleaners or the air filters and fans, is elegantly and ergonomically designed. I could interact with everything with impressive ease. Parts that needed to be serviced were easy to access, the fans remote control is magnetically mounted, some parts are colour-coded by usage, everything slots in comfortably and so on.

Its small touches like this that define Dyson products and have made it the brand it is today.

A product endorsement?

Please dont mistake my enthusiasm for Dyson as a whole-hearted product endorsement, however. The vacuum cleaners and hair dryer might be marvels of engineering, but theyre still vacuum cleaners and hair dryers, and very expensive ones at that  the bulk of the portfolio seems to sell in the 300-400 range.

You can pick up a generic table fan or a hair dryer for Rs 1,000 and an air purifier or vacuum cleaner for Rs 10,000, and theyll do their jobs reasonably well. Theres no compulsion to pick up a Dyson product.

But then again, theres no reason why youd want an Apple iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy S8. Its not like you cant pick up a phone for under Rs 10,000 or a budget flagship for Rs 30,000. Its not like these phones wont make calls or take excellent pictures.

You know all this, but in the back of your mind, there are those of you who know that you want that iPhone or that S8. The justification for it may not be entirely rational, maybe even hedonistic, but once you get a taste for that quality, its hard to get back. Its the difference between a McDonald's burger and one made by Heston Blumenthal.

That, in a nutshell, is the appeal of Dysons products.

Dyson seems to understand this very well. Sir James Dyson himself said that Dyson products are expensive, aspirational even, and theyve embraced that notion.

In what sounds remarkably like an Apple Store, the Dyson stores are designed to be experience zones. There are no check-out counters or boxes lining the shelves. All you see are products on demo and are given the freedom to try them out. Theres even a row of shelves with different kinds of dirt so you can put the vacuum cleaners through their paces.

Dyson points out that the similarity to Apple Stores isnt coincidence. Dyson apparently pioneered this type of store long before Apple did.

And another thing, these products may even be over-engineered. A couple of people we spoke to (UK residents) suggested that they had been using the same Dyson product for over a decade.

The India connection

Dyson has now, finally, set its eyes on India. After establishing itself in China and a number of other countries, the brand is headed to India later this year. The company is already prepared to invest 150 million in the country, the bulk of which will go towards establishing 20 flagship stores here.

Dyson believes that Indians are tech savvy and that they like doing things in a new way. He also has a particular attachment to the country, owing to his father, and is also vocal about his support for commonwealth countries.

Dyson sees the air purifier range as a good fit for the country and expects it to sell well here. He points out that India does have a severe pollution problem and that air indoors can be five times as polluted as that outdoors. He adds that professional couples are a good target for the companys products.

Later on, hed like to invest in education in the country and believes that design and technology needs to be an integral part of the school system. The recently established Dyson University in UK focuses on exactly this. Students are, in fact, employees who learn through working. They only spend one day a week on core academics. The rest of the time is spent with Dysons engineers in Dysons research facilities.

The trip to the Dyson HQ allowed for a fascinating insight into one of the most unique and successful technology brands in the world today. While I'm still in no hurry to rush out and grab a 399 vacuum cleaner or hair dryer, Im now convinced that even vacuum cleaners can be exceedingly cool.

Disclaimer: This correspondent was invited by Dyson Ltd. to explore its headquarters in UK. Dyson Ltd. was responsible for the flights, accommodation and other related expenditure for the duration of the visit.
Aditya Madanapalle

Two teenage girls in Punjab were taking a stroll along a canal, when a phone they were taking a selfie with fell into the water. The girls were swept away when they tried to retrieve the phone. This is the latest in a spate of selfie related deaths in the country. A few days ago, eight men in a boat drowned after gathering one one side to snap a selfie. According to a report in The Hindu, the men were so busy focusing on the selfie, that they did not notice water flooding the boat.

In June, a girl was washed away in Marine Drive on Mumbai, reportedly while attempting to take selfies, a claim dismissed by the Mumbai Police. None of these incidents have yet made it to the Wikipedia list of selfie related deaths, a page on which Incidents in India appear with chilling frequency. In 2017 alone, twelve Indians have died taking selfies according to the list. A study published in November 2016 showed that 76 Indians have died taking selfies since March 2014. To put that number in context, the next highest number was 9, in Pakistan.

The research was part of the development of an AI based application to warn people when they are taking a dangerous selfie. In India, most of the deaths have occurred after the selfie was taken around water bodies. A location that is both at a height and around a water body is a decidedly lethal combination. Wells, dams, reservoirs, and waterfalls are particularly dangerous.

Using data farmed from the Wikipedia list, it is even more clear that water bodies are responsible for the most selfie related deaths in India. In many of the accidents, multiple people are involved, either in trying to rescue those who are drowning, or when boats capsize. In one instance in Hyderabad, a girl taking a selfie slipped and fell into a water reservoir. Five people who tried to rescue her drowned in the attempt, but the girl herself managed to reach the shore, according to a report in The Hindustan Times.

After water bodies, the next most dangerous place to take a selfie is on trains. The deaths can range from being run over by trains, being electrocuted on top of trains, or falling off the footboard. In one accident reported by The Hindustan Times, four men jumped out of a train to rescue a friend who had fallen off while taking a selfie while leaning out of the train. A train coming from the opposite direction mowed them all down.

After water bodies and trains, selfie related deaths are caused by falling from heights, or while posing with firearms. The Wikipedia list is by no means comprehensive. For example, it does not include the death of a fifteen year old boy in Bihar, while attempting to take a selfie with a wild elephant on a rampage in the maize fields. The most dangerous places to take selfies are heights, water bodies, water and heights, trains, weapons, vehicles, electricity and animals. An impressive photo on your social media feeds is no reason to throw your life away.
hidden

A US judge did not reach a decision on 14 July in Western Digital Corp's bid to temporarily block Toshiba Corp from selling its flash memory business in an $18 billion deal but proposed requiring Toshiba to give Western Digital two weeks' notice before closing.

Toshiba is scrambling to sell its flash memory unit to cover losses from its nuclear reactor business.

In late June, Toshiba announced its preferred bidder was a group made up of Bain Capital, South Korean chip maker SK Hynix and Japanese-government backed banks that offered $18 billion.

Western Digital, which is also bidding, sued Toshiba in San Francisco County Superior Court in mid-June, saying it believed a joint venture with Toshiba means Toshiba needs its consent to sell the flash business.

Western Digital's joint venture with Toshiba helps finance equipment at Toshiba's plants in exchange for some of their output.

Separately from the California lawsuit, Western Digital is also contesting its consent rights in an international arbitration tribunal. Western Digital filed its lawsuit in San Francisco to prevent Toshiba from closing the sale of its memory unit before arbitration has a chance to play out.

At the hearing, Judge Kahn proposed requiring Toshiba to give Western Digital two weeks notice if it believed it would close the sale before the arbitration finished.

Toshiba's attorney said they were concerned about agreeing to be bound by the San Francisco court's jurisdiction. Toshiba has argued that because it is a Japanese company and the deal is taking place mostly in Japan, the court should not have jurisdiction.

Attorneys for Western Digital subsidiary SanDisk, which is formally party to the case, expressed concern that any order in which Toshiba did not agree to the court's jurisdiction would not be enforceable.

The two sides could not agree, so Judge Kahn instructed them to come up with final language for his proposed order and set a new hearing for 28 July, when a related dispute between the two will be heard.

In a statement, Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan called the proposed order and postponement a "victory."

"Our entire goal was to preserve and protect our rights through the binding arbitration process, and thats precisely what the court has done today," Milligan said.

Toshiba called Judge Kahn's proposed order "a 'finessed' alternative to issuing a preliminary injunction" and confirmed it agreed not to close a sale before 28 July.

Reuters
Two years on, nuclear deal has fewer friends in US and Iran

Barack Obama speaks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, ahead of the signing of the nuclear agreement, a key part of the former US president\'s legacy.

AFP, Washington :

Signed with pomp and fanfare on July 14, 2015, the Iranian nuclear agreement was heralded as a triumph for American diplomacy and international cooperation on nonproliferation.

Two years later, it has few friends in the Trump administration or in Tehran.

When it was signed in Vienna, President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, claimed the pact-commonly known as JCPOA, for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action-as an undeniable success.

Their Iranian counterparts, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, were equally ebullient. The pact was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, lending it additional weight.

In force since January 16, 2016, the JCPOA provides for international monitoring of Tehran's nuclear program to ensure its purely peaceful, civilian use.

In exchange, Tehran was promised the gradual lifting of the international sanctions that have strangled the Iranian economy for years. But during his presidential campaign, billionaire Republican Donald Trump made the accord a favorite target. In campaign speech after campaign speech, he pronounced it "the worst deal ever," and he vowed, if elected, to "rip it up."

As president, however, Trump has not carried out his threat.

In May, the Trump administration even decided to pursue the Obama policy of easing some sanctions at least while completing a JCPOA review to decide-in principle by Monday-whether to continue lifting sanctions.

After vowing to drop out of the Paris climate agreement and questioning the Obama-era opening to Cuba, Trump would be dealing a terrible blow to his predecessor's legacy if he decided to abandon the JCPOA.

The former real estate mogul has already staked out contrary positions to Obama in the Middle East, tightening US ties to Saudi Arabia's Sunni leaders while calling for the "isolation" of their Shiite rivals in Iran.

Washington accuses Tehran of posing a regional "threat" that "destabilizes" Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, either directly or through its "terrorist" proxies.
Touhid Ebrahim :The country which produces a generation of talented, hardworking, dutiful and responsible youth goes ahead along the path of development. It is difficult creating quality citizens across the country and any intervention making better citizens cannot be achieved overnight. However, if the school, college, and university going students can be transformed into skilled human resources, the country can go ahead speedily. Students are treated as the productive section and vital organs of a developed country. They are prospective heirs of a country and the pillars on which beautiful edifices can be built. They can make their nation great with their thinking, dreaming, and achievement. So, they should be well equipped with sound moral, political, and economic views.A student is a learner who attends a formal educational institution. We can say more specifically, a student is a person who attends or undertakes a course of study at a school, a college, a university, or in some other establishments. The student life is the most important period of one's life because this is the preparation time. Our future hopes and dreams mostly depend upon what we have done here. At this time, our mind is like clay. Clay is a very soft thing which potters use to make different things. Like clay our mind also can be shaped in different ways. If a potter make a pot for once, its shape cannot be changed until its life is over. In the same way, if our character is once formed in a better way, it cannot be changed easily. If we receive good education and grooming in our student life, we shall be good citizens in our future life. On the other hand, if we do not receive good training, we shall not be good citizens in future. A boy with mean character always thinks evils and can never be a great man. Therefore, we should be very conscious about how our mind is being shaped. We must be an ideal student and take care of our mind so that we may receive good training in our student life.Now the question can be asked, who is an ideal student? What are the duties and responsibilities of an ideal student? What should be the daily routine of aspiring student like? Who should they spend time with? To me, there is no definite answer to that because there are many qualities and responsibilities that together define an ideal student. An ideal student is the embodiment of good qualities and is a role model to follow. The most important quality of an ideal student is to study with proper concentration throughout his educational life, analyze what they have studied or observed, and relate the learning to real life. S/he studies regularly and works hard to improve her/his performances in each examination. Of course, the goal of studying can never be scoring only good marks or grades even at the cost of honesty. Other than this, a student should have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and an interest to learn more about everything s/he observes.Apart from studies, an ideal student actively get involves in other activities. A proverb goes that, "The more you read, the more you learn." But studying from only books will not help a student develop, I trust. In order to be really good, an ideal student must strive in multiple areas: reading, traveling, information and communication technology, social activities, helping classmates and others. A genuine and proactive student never shows lame excuse blaming the unfavorable situation of the campus and the learning environment rather than s/he makes the situation and environment favorable to study; actively takes part in academic as well as co-curricular activities like games and sports, physical exercise, travelling, debates, speeches, cultural programs, and seminars, obeys existing rules and regulations of the society and the state; has noble aims and cultivates values and virtues like honesty, sincerity, regularity, co-operation, compassion, kindness, politeness, dutifulness, truthfulness, perseverance, forbearance, etc. A sincere student gives utmost priority to develop his/her moral character, s/he leads a strictly disciplined life and never indulges in evil thoughts; s/he is a true patriot and works hard for the development of society. In times of crisis s/he is the first person to stand by the nation; treats their parents, teachers, and elders with respect and speaks politely to everybody. Additionally, a potential student reads newspapers, magazines, journals, and widens his/her positive outlook. We may call a student an ideal student when s/he possesses the above qualities.In Bangladesh, we see most of the students are indifferent to studies as well as duties and responsibilities. They search every opportunity for cheating in the examinations. In order to cheat, they use their political influences. In the past, history of our country bears the testimony, the students contributed a lot to the welfare and well-being of the country. Their achievements in different movements including the language movement and the liberation war of our beloved motherland were really glorious. But that politics has changed a lot, and is responsible for the degradation in the students' morality. Some of the students are now derailed and they disturb others. In my college life, I have never heard students chanting slogans for books in the library, for extra classes, or for modern teaching-learning materials.A certain quarter always tries to use common students for their personal interests. Sometimes some of the students come in contact with drugs and spoil their most valuable time of life. They just waste their parents' hard-earned money. Although they pass in the examinations using unfair means, their certificates cannot provide them with a good job. As an ultimate result, they fall into a completely hopeless situation. Being dishonored in the family as well as in the society they often go for stealing, hijacking, and all sorts of misdeeds to procure money. But an ideal student must refrain himself/herself from such misdoings.The student life is the golden period of one's life. During this time, a student is usually free from cares and anxieties. Although some of the students have to suffer financial crises because of coming off a disadvantaged family, for future betterment, they must concentrate to study. If we invest our time now, we will see better days in future. Finally, I would like to request all of the students, let us study together, be friend of each other, stop harassing junior students in the name of ragging and come back to right track. We will together make a better Bangladesh where there will be no enmity and ill-feelings between the citizens.(The writer is a third year 'Bachelor of Education' honours student at Govt. Teachers' Training College, Dhaka. He can be reached at email: [email protected]
Castro blames Trump for `setback` in US-Cuba relations

Cuba\\\'s President Raul Castro listens to the playing of national hymns during his welcome ceremony at Miraflores presidential palace before the start of an emergency ALBA meeting in Caracas, Venezuela.

AP, Washington :

A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer said he was at a meeting between a Russian lawyer and President Donald Trump's son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump team's evolving explanations about the June 2016 session.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his involvement to The Associated Press in a Friday interview. He had not been previously identified as a participant in the meeting at Trump Tower in New York, which was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican's White House campaign.

The meeting has heightened questions about whether Trump's associates coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election - to help him and thwart Hillary Clinton - and whether they've been forthcoming about their foreign contacts. Federal and congressional investigators are probing possible connections between the campaign and Moscow.

While Trump Jr. has confirmed that Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the meeting, he has not disclosed Akhmetshin's presence.

Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence, a characterization he dismisses as a "smear campaign." He's a well-known Washington presence, lobbying for Russian interests trying to undermine the allegations of a lawyer who died in a Russian prison and is the namesake of a U.S. sanctions law.

Akhmetshin told the AP he served in the Soviet military in a unit that was part of counterintelligence but he was never formally trained as a spy.

In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr. earlier this week, a music publicist said he arranged the meeting because a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Clinton. The go-between stated that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate.

The president's son has publicly discounted the meeting, saying he did not receive the information he was promised.

In a statement Sunday, Trump Jr. said the attorney had said she had information that people tied to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Clinton, a description that Akhmetshin backed up in his interview with the AP.

In his first public interview about the meeting, Akhmetshin said he accompanied Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower where they met an interpreter. He said he had learned about the meeting only that day when Veselnitskaya asked him to attend. He said he showed up in jeans and a T-shirt.
News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Government has released civil servants' pay dates for this month with the military expected to get their salaries on Tuesday.Workers in the health sector will be paid next Friday while the police and Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services are expected to be paid on July 25.Those in the education sector will get their salaries on July 28 while the rest of the civil servants are expected to get their money on August 2.Pensioners will receive their allowances on August 7 while grant-aided institutions will be paid on August 10.Zimbabwe Teachers' Association's chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu yesterday said it was encouraging that the Government was consistently paying civil servant their salaries. "What is important is that there is assurance of payment of salaries within the same month for most of the civil servants. That's a relief for most of the employees because in other sectors some workers go for several months without salary," said Mr Ndlovu.He acknowledged that the rest of the civil servants, pensioners and grant aided institutions were getting their payments the following month.Mr Ndlovu said it was the employees' hope for them to receive their salaries within the month of working.Due to economic challenges the Government has adopted the staggered approach to payment of civil servants salaries.
President for exploring trade between BD and Sri Lanka



President M Abdul Hamid stressed the need for exploring potentials in trade and investment in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka by taking joint-venture initiatives.

"There are good potentials for exports of ceramics, vegetables, plastic products, pharmaceutical products, electronics, footwear, iron and steel etc. from Bangladesh . . . both the countries may look into the possibility of widening the spectrum of tradable goods," Abdul Hamid said this on Friday during a call on with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena at Credential Hall of Bangabhaban here.

Welcoming his Sri Lankan counterpart and his entourages in Bangladesh, Abdul Hamid said Bangladesh and Sri Lanaka have longstanding and historical relations.

He expressed the hope that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would continue their traditionally close cooperation for strengthening the socio-economic development and emancipation of the people of the South Asia region.

President Abdul Hamid mentioned that the two countries as members of various regional and international organizations, including UN, Commonwealth, SAARC, BIMSTEC and LORA, share a commonality of views on many issues of mutual concern in all these forums.

The President hoped that Sri Lanka would take the opportunity and increase its investment in readymade garments (RMG), textile, banking and service sectors in Bangladesh.

He said the two countries may explore other avenues of bilateral cooperation including ICT, tourism, fisheries and agriculture, health, environment, natural disaster management and climate change issues.

Terming the visit of his Sri Lankan counterpart to Bangladesh as a milestone, President Abdul Hamid said, "It will definitely explore the multilateral relations between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka."

President Abdul Hamid hoped that Sri Lanka would accelerate its overall development through ensuring its current reconciliation.

During the meeting, Sri Lankan President said Sri Lanka always considers Bangladesh as a tested friend, hoping that the development and progress of Bangladesh would accelerate in days ahead.

Earlier, President Hamid welcomed Sirisena with bouquet on his arrival at Bangabhaban at 7 pm.

Foreign Minister AH Mahood Ali, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, secretaries concerned to Bangabhaban and Foreign Ministry were, among others, present.

Later, President Abdul Hamid hosted a cultural function followed by a dinner at Darbar Hall in honour of the visiting Sri Lankan President.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Chief Justice S K Sinha, Opposition Leader Raushon Ershad, among others, attended the dinner.
Aamir Khan upset as he will miss

Aamir Khan has made his way to global stardom with his film Dangal breaking all box-office records worldwide. The actor who's known as Mr. Perfectionist expressed his sadness for not being able to Ranbir Kapoor - Katrina Kaif starrer much awaited film Jagga Jasoos, directed by Anurag Basu.

Jagga Jasoos is a musical adventure comedy film, which got released yesterday under Disney and Pictureshuru Productions. Aamir took to his Facebook and wrote, "Am most upset that I am not in the country and will miss watching Jagga Jasoos. Have been looking forward to the film for so long! Good luck guys !!!"

Aww isn't that very sweet of the superstar to send so much love and good wishes to team Jagga Jasoos. Aamir is currently in Malta shooting for his next, Thugs of Hindostan.
Nuclear ban approved, now what?

Tharanga Yakupitiyage :

More than seven decades after the deployment of deadly atomic bombs in Japan, the UN has passed a historic treaty banning nuclear weapons around the world. Though it has sparked hope for a future without nuclear weapons, uncertainty in the success of the treaty still lingers.

More than 122 countries, representing two-thirds of the 192-member UN, adopted the historic treaty banning nuclear weapons after months of talks.

"We have managed to sow the first seeds of a world free of nuclear weaponsthe world has been waiting for this legal norm for 70 years," said Elayne Whyte Gomez, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica and the president of the UN conference which negotiated the treaty.

Nuclear Disarmament Program Manager for the civil society organization PAX Susi Snyder similarly highlighted the importance of the occasion to IPS, stating: "People have been working for decades on the issue, myself included, and to have a moment that you know, to the very tips of your toes, that history is being made? That's a moment to feel all the feelings."

There are approximately 15,000 nuclear warheads globally, more than 90 percent of which belong to the United States and Russia.

Unlike the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which allowed five countries to possess such arms, the new instrument is an explicit prohibition on the direct or indirect use, threat of use, possession, acquisition, and development of nuclear weapons.

It also for the first time includes obligations to provide assistance to victims of nuclear weapons testing and use as well as environmental remediation of areas contaminated a result of nuclear weapon activities.

"This normative treaty highlights the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons-it is a huge achievement especially for the Hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Arms Control Association's (ACA) Researcher Alicia Sanders-Zakre told IPS.

Reference to such consequences can be seen throughout the treaty, including the deep concern "about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any use of nuclear weapons" and the persistent risk to humanity posed by the "continued existence of nuclear weapons."

Though the awareness of nuclear weapons' devastating humanitarian ramifications is certainly not new, both Snyder and Sanders-Zakre noted that states still legitimize nuclear weapons in their security approaches.

"Some states negotiating the treaty would say that by having a security doctrine of nuclear deterrence, nuclear weapons states legitimize nuclear weapons and distract from their humanitarian consequenceswhich are often not in the forefront of the security stage," said Sanders-Zakre.

The new treaty aims to strip nuclear weapons of their prestige by making them unacceptable under international law.

The world's nine nuclear-armed states as well as the majority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) members boycotted the negotiations, except for the Netherlands which voted against the document.

Among the most vocal critics is the United States who, since the beginning of the talks, said that the process was not "realistic," especially in the wake of rising tensions between the North American nation and North Korea.

"There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons, but we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?" asked U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

In a joint statement, the U.S., United Kingdom, and France announced that they do not ever intend to sign, ratify, or become party to the treaty.

"A purported ban on nuclear weapons that does not address the security concerns that continue to make nuclear deterrence necessary cannot result in the elimination of a single nuclear weapon and will not enhance any country's security, nor international peace and security," they stated, reiterating their continued commitment to the NPT.

Snyder told IPS that it was not surprising that such nations did not participate due to a desire to retain the political power associated with nuclear weapons. However, she criticised the joint move as it may be in violation of the NPT.

Article 6 of the NPT, which the majority of member States have signed, states that each party must "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at at an early date and to nuclear disarmament."

Snyder noted that negotiations were considered by the majority to be an "effective measure" in the pursuit of disarmament.

"While this prohibition is not the final effort to achieve and maintain a nuclear weapons free world, it is certainly a key element of a world without nuclear weapons. It was an absence that is embarrassing for the nuclear armed states, demonstrating their commitment to inhumane weapons over humanity," she continued.

However, nuclear-armed nations would argue that they are not violating the NPT as they do not consider that the prohibition will result in the elimination of nuclear weapons and is thus not an "effective measure," said Sanders-Zakre.

The treaty reflects a growing divide between nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states on visions of disarmament.

Additional frustrations have arisen concerning the treaty's prohibition on the stationing, installation or deployment of nuclear weapons on territories as it puts many NATO members in nuclear sharing agreements in a sticky situation.

Five nations, including Germany and Turkey, currently host U.S. nuclear weapons as part of NATO's nuclear sharing policy. In order for NATO members to join, they will have to reverse or withdraw from their obligations.

"One the one hand, the treaty seeks to be universal to include many members. But at the same time, it is a prohibition treaty and having a member of a prohibition treaty that has nuclear weapons on their soil would be contradictory," Sanders-Zakre told IPS.

Snyder and Sanders-Zakre say yes.

"The treaty sets a norm, and the nuclear armed states have a history of following norms even when they don't sign up to the treaties behind them," said Snyder, referencing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which, despite not being ratified by all nations and not entering into force, has set a norm in which nuclear testing is condemned.

"That norm will grow from this treaty as well, and will likely result in ongoing substantive condemnation of the activities of the nuclear armed states that are not disarmament," Snyder continued.

Sanders-Zakre noted that there might be some obstacles in the way before the treaty's entry into force, including potential lobbying by nuclear weapon states to dissuade others from ratifying the instrument or a general decrease in political momentum.

But, with or without the nuclear weapon states, the treaty will mark a significant normative step towards disarmament if all 122 states which negotiated the instrument sign and ratify.

"My hope is that this treaty will be the first step towards more productive disarmament dialogue, and that it will serve as a wake-up call to nuclear weapon states that have not seriously been pursuing disarmament negotiations for quite some time," Sanders-Zakre said.

Snyder similarly described the historic occasion as the first step of many, stating:

"This treaty will help towards the elimination of nuclear weapons-it's not the last thing that will get them out of the world forever, but it helps by reaffirming the complete illegitimacy of such inhumane weapons and offers a pathway for elimination."

The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons will be open for signature by member states on 20 September, marking the beginning of the 72nd Session of the General Assembly. It will enter into legal force 90 days after it has been ratified by 50 countries.

Earlier this year, atomic scientists set the Doomsday Clock to two and a half minutes before midnight, reflecting a fear that the world is closer to a nuclear disaster than it has been since 1953 after the U.S. and Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs.

Courtesy: IPS
Diplomatic failure to cause problems for migrants in EU

THE European Union (EU) has said it will continue to press Bangladesh to conclude the negotiations on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the return of irregular migrants from the EU by the end of July. A 'lack of progress' on these negotiations meant that no agreement could be reached on a timeframe for concluding the negotiations on the SOPs.



The European Union has expressed its regret at the 'lack of progress' on these negotiations, as per a report of this daily. The European Union and Bangladesh had an in-depth discussion on migration during the Eighth Joint Commission held on Wednesday in Brussels. The Bangladeshi delegation provided at the meeting their amendments to the draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the return of irregular migrants from the European Union, which were submitted to them in June 2016.



As regards trade and investment, Bangladesh and the European Union reiterated their joint commitment to the Sustainability Compact, including the respect of labour rights, in particular with regard to freedom of association.



The outcome document of the meeting mentioned that Bangladesh has made efforts to effectively implement the ILO's recent recommendations in this respect. However, the EU strongly underlined the high importance of further addressing the ILO's recent recommendations swiftly through concrete actions and timelines. The EU also emphasised the need for making progress under the EU-Bangladesh Business Climate Dialogue, which aims to improve conditions for European Union businesses.



Bangladeshi illegal migrants are economic migrants to Europe -they don't fall into the political category as Syrians and other who are fleeing war do. As such they are among the most well behaved migrants in Europe. Most Bangladeshis migrated to the UK, with which it had historical and colonial ties - in fact, over 80 percent of the total number of Bangladeshi migrants in the EU are in the UK. That leaves about roughly 100,000 migrants spread out among the EU - a statistically insignificant number when we consider that the total number of Bangladeshi migrants worldwide number 7.2 million, according to the UN.



Why then, does the EU worry about such a statistically insignificant number? The main reason is due to the fact that the tremendous influx of Syrian refugees over the past two years has created sharp fault lines in Europe. Every EU nation wants some other nation to share the burden - eg Greece wants Germany and France to take in their fair share of migrants while Germany and France, on the other hand, want Greece to do more to tighten its leaky borders and stop the inflows of migrants. It has resulted in a situation where every one wants someone else to take up the burden - but it is a burden which no one wants. Hence the push by the EU to repatriate such illegal migrants.
Miscreants rule open spaces beneath flyovers?

WHOSE JOB IS MAINTAINING THESE OPEN SPACES BENEATH FLYOVERS? The pictures (clockwise) taken on Saturday show a mango market illegally sprang up, three persons including a woman taking drugs, a man urinating and garbages piled up on the open spaces beneath

Sanwar Hossain :

The open spaces beneath the city's flyovers that remain uncared and abandoned for long have now turned into waste dumping zones, toilets, storage of businesses and a den of drug addicts and vagabonds, thanks to the apathy of the authorities concerned.

The situation is the same in the five flyovers - Khilgaon Flyover, Kuril Flyover, Mohakhali Flyover, Maghbazar Flyover and Mayor Hanif Flyover.

While visiting these spaces, this correspondent found some makeshift markets selling tea to chicken, fish to fruit and food. These have become a safe zone for drug addicts and miscreants as well, who help grow anti-social, criminal activities.

Jamil Siddique, a resident of East Jatrabari area, complained about different incidents like hijacking along with anti-social activities carried by the miscreants, drug addicts and roaming vagabonds taking shelter beneath the Hanif Flyover. "Some miscreants taking shelter on the open space beneath the flyover take drugs openly, which is degrading social values among the youths in our area. The open space is also a home to poor people who lead a miserable life and burn flamable items, causing serious air pollution," Jamil claimed.

He also said these vagabonds often go for hijacking, steal valuables from the adjacent homes. The authorities should take care of such spaces and drive those miscreants out of the area and secure public safety, he suggested.

President of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Professor Dr A k Abul Kalam told the New Nation that the city corporations should address the issue and take immediate action for beautification and alternative usage of open spaces beneath the flyovers.

"City spaces are costly and limited, in this situation, if the authorities leave these spaces abandoned for long, it is usual that it will be grabbed illegally and dumped heavily. Marginal people will be interested to grab those," Kalam said.

When contracted, Public Relations Officer Naif Uddin Khan of Orion Group, the firm that constructed the Hanif Flyover, told the New Nation that the maintenance of the space beneath the flyover is not their responsibility anymore. Now the responsibility lies with the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), he added.

"Earlier we had started the beautification of such spaces but massive dumping and security issues have made it different to start. It required extra attention to protect those spaces from encroachment. The DSCC is now taking care of such space," said Naif.

Chief Urban Planner of DSCC Md Sirajul Islam told the New Nation that they had chalked out a master plan for the space beneath Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover, especially.

"The master plan is not considering vegetation for the space rather it is considering alternative utilisation and security issues for the public safety. We have submitted recently the design to the Engineering Department of DSCC for its implementation," said Islam.

DSCC Chief Engineer Farazi Shahbuddin Ahmed has confirmed that they have received the master plan and sought allocation of fund.

"The master plan will be implemented in the 2017-18 fiscal," said Ahmed.

"The space beneath the flyover will be utilized," Ahmed asserted.

On the other hand, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has evicted all the establishments beneath the Mohakhali Flyover. The DNCC has taken up a beautification project where they have filled it with soil and erected iron fence for further beautification works.

When contacted, Dr. Tariq bin Yusuf, the Suprintendent Engineer, Climate and Disaster Management Circle of DNCC, told the New Nation: " We will finish the partial beautification of the space by next week".

The DNCC has evicted all illegal establishments from there, he added.


Trump for good ties with Qatar

Al Jazeera News :

The US will maintain good relations with Qatar, President Donald Trump has told an American news channel, adding that the US airbase will not be moved out of the Middle Eastern country despite the diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Doha by the Saudi-led group. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar on June 5. Qatar is home to the Al-Udeid airbase that holds the forward headquarters of Central Command and hosts around 10,000 American troops.

But while saying there are "10 countries willing to build us another base", Trump said "we will not have a problem with the military base". "We are going to have a good relationship with Qatar and not going to have a problem with the military base," Trump said in an interview with CBN News aired on Wednesday.

"If we ever had to leave, we'd have 10 countries willing to build us another one. And they'll pay for it. The days of us paying for things are largely over."

Following the Arab countries' decision to impose the blockade on Qatar last month, Trump, in a series of tweets, seemed to back the move, saying his trip to the Middle East is "already paying off" after he "stated there can no longer be funding of radical Ideology". "I made a speech in Saudi. I said we got to stop funding of terrorism. They [Qatar] were known as funders of terrorism. We can't have wealthy countries funding terrorism," Trump said in Wednesday's interview. He visited Saudi Arabia in May on the first leg of his first foreign trip since taking office and held a series of meetings with the king and other Arab and Muslim leaders.

During the two-day visit, Trump also signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth almost $110bn - something he alluded to in the interview. "Saudi Arabia put up hundreds of billions of dollars of money going into buying our planes and our military equipment and investing in our country. And I said, 'You have to do that otherwise I am not going.' So they spent hundreds of billions of dollars right in front of us," Trump said.

"I mean they were signing big people from the biggest countries and companies, General Electric and all of the big companies, many of them were there getting contracts, all good work for our workers - that was one of the things." Qatar is also among the countries which purchases military equipment from the United States.

Last month, the United States and Qatar signed a deal for the purchase of F-15 fighter jets with an initial cost of $12bn. On Thursday, the White House said Trump spoke to the Saudi King Salman by phone and discussed efforts to resolve the dispute. The anti-Doha quartet issued a list of 13 demands that included shutting down Qatar's Al Jazeera Media Network, sever all alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and with other groups, including Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and ISIL (also known as ISIS), limiting Qatar's ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country. Qatar denies the charges of extremism and called the demands "unrealistic". In an interview published by The Times newspaper on Wednesday, Noura al-Kaabi, the UAE minister for the federal national council, said the Emirates sought "fundamental change and restructuring" of Al Jazeera rather than to shut it. "The staff at the channel can keep their jobs and Qatar can still fund a TV channel but not one which provides a platform for extremists and where the English channel is a protective shield for the much more radical Arabic one," Kaabi told The Times. Foreign diplomats, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, visited the region and called for direct talks to solve the crisis. During Tillerson's visit to Doha, Qatar and the US also signed an agreement to help combat "terrorism financing".
Indian student stabbed to death

A Correspondent :

An Indian student was stabbed to death allegedly by another one in Khulsi area under Akbar Shah thana in city early Saturday.

The deceased was identified as Asif Seth, 25, a student of University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC).

Jakir Hossain Bhuiyan, sub-inspector of Akbar Shah Police Station, said that the two Indian students Asif and Tarun Wilson, 26, used to live in a rented room in 'Bilkis Mansion' adjacent to Foy's Lake.

They were taking liquor in their room around 1:00 am. At one stage, they locked into an altercation.
DNCC mayor apologises for his comments on chikunguniya

Staff Reporter :

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq on Saturday apologised for his Friday's comment on Chikunguniya.

The mayor on Friday at a press conference in the DNCC Nagar Bhaban said, "Aedes mosquitoes breed in clear water mostly inside residences. We cannot go into people's residences to stop mosquitoes from spreading."

On Saturday, before starting of a rally on creating awareness in controlling mosquitoes in front of the DNCC headquarters at Gulshan-2, Dhaka, Annisul Huq said that he could not present himself properly.

"I failed to convey what I wanted to say properly," he said.

"We wanted to say, we don't have the right to go into city residences. If anyone is hurt by my speech, we are sorry," he said.

"A journalist friend asked me the question whether we are creating awareness on mosquito nets. I said it showing the photograph of a mosquito net from one of our awareness posters," he said.

Annisul Huq on Friday blamed the mosquito population inside people's houses for the Chikunguniya outbreak.

He claimed the viral disease was spreading fast because of the mosquitoes inside households, rather than those growing in the city's drainage system.
Police intervention denounced

Staff Reporter :

Different political leaders, including BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, have denounced the police intervention in the meeting at the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction President ASM Abdur Rab's Uttara residence in the city on Thursday.

However, Rob said that it was an informal gathering after Eid and alleged that the police tried to prevent them from gathering, citing "instructions from the higher authorities.

"Police intervention in the meeting of civil and political leaders convened by Abdur Rab again proved that the government has lost its patience and democratic values," said Khaleda Zia in a statement on Saturday.

"The key purpose of it was to create a serious fear in the society and the people so that none can utter any sound against the government," she said.

A group of politicians who attend the meeting included Bikalpadhara President Professor Dr. AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Krishak Sramik Janata League President Kader Siddiqui and Nagorik Oikyo Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna.

The other leaders were Biplabi Workers Party General Secretary Saiful Haque, Gana Forum presidium members Subrata Chowdhury and AOM Shafiullah, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BaSaD) General Secretary Khalekuzzaman and party leader Bazlur Rashid Firoz, JSD General Secretary Abdul Malek Ratan, Bikalpadhara Joint Secretary General Mahi B Chowdhury and General Secretary of Sujan, the citizens' platform Badiul Alam Majumder.

The JSD leaders have described the assembly of the politicians at Rab's residence on Thursday evening as a normal 'tea party'.

Khaleda Zaia said that police were used to obstruct meeting at Rab's house as a part of the incumbent government's various ways to eliminate its opponent to hold absolute power with the aid of law enforcement agencies.

Badiul Alam Majumder, who went to Rab's home at around 8:00pm, said, "I was surprised when the police suddenly moved in. This was a social event. The police came and said permission was a prerequisite for holding such meeting and they needed to be informed beforehand."

However, at one stage police stepped out of the house to let them hold the "informal meeting", but took position in front of the house.

Meanwhile, the leaders who attended the Thursday's 'tea party' at Rab's residence joined a protest meeting in front of the National Press Club in the city on Saturday.

ASM Abdur Rab, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, trusty of Ganosaystho trust, Mahi B Chowdhury, JSD General Secretary Abdul Malek Ratan, Comrade Khalequazzaman, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, among others, spoke at the meeting.

They condemned the police action in the event. They urged the government to stay away from such a move in future.

Speaking at the meeting, Rab said that police intervention in the indoor meeting of the politicians in his residence was an attack against democracy.

"It was an attack against the democracy, the values of liberation war and human rights. The government is trying to make the next polls as a controlled election," he said.

He also alleged that there was no safety of the people in the country.

The JSD president also said, "I had invited some veteran politicians and senior citizens in the country. The police intervened twice and asked to close the programme. Then the police tried to end the programme shortly. It was totally unacceptable

When contacted, JSD GS Abdul Malek Ratan, told The New Nation, "Police intervention in Abdur Rab's tea party with the senior leaders of the country was unacceptable."

He said, they are trying to form an alternative political alliance.

"We have started preliminary discussion to form an alliance. It must get a shape as the nation is waiting for an alternative political platform," he said.


Opinion / Columnist

Zimbabwe is hurtling towards elections and it's getting exciting, as usual.Think of what man and woman are doing: self-positioning, deal-cutting, love-making and falling out well before consummation of whatever they would have hoped for.Man is driven by ambition, by ego and by dreams.Politicians want to tell us that the people  that much abused abstract  drive them and give them mandates to lead. The big dreams and egos are stowed and couched away conveniently, safely and deceptively.This is how somebody can ghost into the arena such as Zimbabwe's politics and proclaim to the world that he has been sent by the people to represent them.We have about 40 such characters at the moment, and we are still counting. The men and women who would be Kings and Queens! Think of one Nkosana Moyo who a few weeks ago announced that he would be running for the Presidency."I must heed the call to run for President of Zimbabwe, a call from diverse Zimbabweans," Moyo announced. He has christened his party the Alliance for the People's Agenda.Moyo's entry into the political arena has been met with something between derision and mistrust.Some have called him too elitist, whatever that means, and others have called him a Zanu-PF project.Regarding the former accusation, you must have seen the cartoon in the Daily News in which he is depicted sitting atop a tree called Meikles Hotel while people stand underneath, failing to access him.Moyo says: "I'm launching a people's movement . . ." But one man asks: "Why is he not launching his party under this tree?"A woman with a baby strapped on her back says: "How do we get up to him?" and a despondent-looking young man remarks, walking away, "Maybe he doesn't want us up there."That is how Tony Namate can be brutal!A plain folkAnd it would seem that Moyo got the message loud and clear. The accusations have been flying around and he was even challenged by someone to tell us where Tafara or Mbire are found.Poor Nkosana Moyo!And he has responded in the most comical and farcical fashion.Over the past week, we saw pictures of him doing the most banal of things trying to impress those who doubt his connectedness to the people.He was pictured eating sugar cane  in that gross and rudimentary way we do it.He was pictured sitting in a kombi.He was caught attending to a car tyre.You should have seen the pictures: they are so comical and pathetic as Moyo tries hard to be like all of us, the ordinary folk!Those that have studied communication immediately recall a technique called "plain folk".One of the many thousands of results returned from a simple search on the Internet is: "The Plain Folks Appeal is a technique very commonly used in political advertising. It makes it appear that the candidate is a regular person just like everyone else and that they understand the common person because they are one! You will often see pictures of the candidate along with kids, animals or other objects that make them seem like they are just a normal person like you and me."That is how the sugar-cane eating Moyo wants us to know and accept him.We can see how uneasy and uncomfortable he is in the poor PR job. But he has to do it.He will have to try harder  and the harder he tries the more ridiculous he will get!Raila Odinga's studentThere is a story that has received scant discussion  perhaps rightly so.A few weeks ago, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai went to Kenya and met Raila Odinga the leading opposition figure there now leading a coalition outfit called National Super Alliance.Tsvangirai and Odinga are old buddies.Nay, Odinga is the big brother and Tsvangirai has apparently been seeking a lot of inspiration from Odinga who in 2008 became Prime Minister of Kenya in a power-sharing arrangement with President Mwai Kibaki on the back of a bloody election the previous December.Tsvangirai has been trying to follow Odinga's footsteps, including holding the violence card as a mayhem option.Incidentally, Tsvangirai became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 2009 after an indecisive poll in 2008.In 2011, while he was Prime Minister, Tsvangirai invited Odinga to officiate at the MDC-T congress.Odinga came and went.The statement that the visitation made was clear enough: here were two men who appeared to see their fate twinned, entwined and written in the stars.They imagined that they would eventually lead their respective countries.Only it has not turned out that way.In fact, it may never happen.In 2013 elections Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy lost elections to the Jubilee Alliance led by Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto.Elections are again beckoning in Kenya.Odinga faces Uhuru again.All indications point to him losing, again.Will he concede defeat?This is the question that is in the minds of many Kenyans, who have fresh memories of the carnage that took place in 2007.Odinga is facing his last chance  in all probability.August is likely to finish him off.He has run his race, albeit on the less successful side, and age is likely to catch up with him as well.He is 72.On Thursday, the Nation newspaper wrote that authorities were worried that Odinga would not concede defeat and urged him to pledge to accept the results of the August 8 general election.This was after Odinga made public statements threatening to reject the outcomes of the elections.In a statement State House said: "The wild assertions are intended to wilfully undermine public confidence in our democratic system required to ensure an incident-free, fair, transparent and credible electoral process where the will of Kenyans is exercised."In an effort to derail the coming elections, Odinga has reportedly filed "more than 30 cases" in the courts.Odinga has also made a number of demands including the most recent one that they must be included in the tender committee to procure ballot papers for the forthcoming elections.A State House spokesman noted: "Common sense dictates that there is no bigger interference on the independence of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) than that of dictating how, when and where they run their affairs."Birds of a featherKen Kimanthi is a Kenyan journalist who is not lost to the strange relationship between Odinga and our Tsvangirai and in an exchange this week he drew our attention to interesting parallels.Says Kimanthi: "This is the last election he (Odinga) will be vying because with his age, according to the constitution, he will be barred. So he must fight hard to win this particular one."He claims the electoral commission has recruited police officers to act as returning officers in order to help Jubilee rig the election."Raila also complained of a Dubai firm given the tender to print presidential ballot papers . . . went to the High Court which directed the electoral commission to do a fresh tender, but it appealed the ruling in the Court of Appeal . . . a five judge starts hearing the case today (Friday) . . . note that we are slightly over 20 days to the election," said Kimanthi."He is unlikely to concede defeat . . . All major opposition parties merged to form what is known as Nasa . . . He believes the merger will help him clinch the ever elusive presidency," added the journalist.What a coincidence!Just remove the name of Raila Odinga and put that of our poor old Morgan it all makes sense; perfect sense.The complaints here about Zimbabwe Electoral Commission; about tender to supply BVR kits and how MDC-T wanted to influence the process and the idea of a coalition.Tsvangirai has apparently learnt a lot from Odinga.The unfortunate thing is that he is like the proverbial fly that followed the corpse into the grave.(P.S.: At the time of writing Tsvangirai was unwell and off to South Africa where a newspaper there reportedly suggested that a doctor had given him some depressingly few months to live due to his affliction by cancer. We wish him well.)
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United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. DAVIEL SALINAS-ACEVEDO, Defendant, Appellant. No. 13-2072 Decided: July 11, 2017

Before Torruella, Lipez, and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

ORDER OF COURT

Daviel Salinas-Acevedo (Salinas-Acevedo) has filed a petition for a rehearing or rehearing en banc alleging the panel decision conflicts with a decision  of the court to which the petition is addressed. Fed. R. App. P. 35(b)(1)(A). Salinas-Acevedo asserts that the panel's January 13, 2017 decision, affirming the district court's refusal to permit him to make an entrapment defense, conflicts with our prior holding in United States v. Gendron, where we noted that [c]ourts have found a basis for sending the entrapment issue to the jury  where government officials  used 'repeated suggestions' which succeeded only when defendant had lost his job and needed money for his family's food and rent. 18 F.3d 955, 961 (1st Cir. 1994) (quoting United States v. Kessee, 992 F.2d 1001, 1003 (9th Cir. 1993)). Because our January 13, 2017 decision does not conflict with Gendron, but instead finds the facts of this case distinguishable such that an entrapment instruction was not necessary, Salinas-Acevedo's petition for panel rehearing is denied.

In our ruling rejecting Salinas-Acevedo's argument that he was entitled to an entrapment defense, we first assumed that Salinas-Acevedo properly preserved his entrapment arguments, affording him the benefit of de novo review. We noted that a defendant seeking to present an entrapment defense at trial must demonstrate (1) improper inducement and (2) that he was not already predisposed to commit the crime. See United States v. Sanchez-Berrios, 424 F.3d 76 (1st Cir. 2005). Salinas-Acevedo's argument relied on a derivative theory of entrapment, where a middleman's actions can be attributable to the government if:

(1) a government agent specifically targeted the defendant in order to induce him to commit illegal conduct; (2) the agent acted through the middleman after other government attempts at inducing the defendant had failed; (3) the government agent requested, encouraged, or instructed the middleman to employ a specified inducement, which could be found improper, against the targeted defendant; (4) the agent's actions led the middleman to do what the government sought, even if the government did not use improper means to influence the middleman; and (5) as a result of the middleman's inducement, the targeted defendant in fact engaged in the illegal conduct.

United States v. Luisi, 482 F.3d 43, 55 (1st Cir. 2007).

We noted that while Salinas-Acevedo met elements (1) and (2), he failed to meet his burden with regard to element (3) -- namely, demonstrating that the government agent (Camacho) requested, encouraged, or instructed a middleman (Rullan-Santiago or Mendez-Perez) to employ a specified improper inducement. Although Salinas-Acevedo was presented with repeated opportunities to engage in the illegal activity and it is undisputed that he was facing difficult financial times, we found Camacho's specific instructions not to pressure Salinas-Acevedo, along with other facts in this case, to be sufficient evidence that Camacho did not instruct the middlemen to engage in improper inducement.

In denying Salinas-Acevedo's petition for rehearing, we take this moment to further clarify our holding in this case. Inducement requires not only giving the defendant the opportunity to commit the crime but also a 'plus' factor of government overreaching. United States v. Gonzalez-Perez, 778 F.3d 3, 11 (1st Cir. 2015) (quoting United States v. Guevara, 706 F.3d 38, 46 (1st Cir. 2013)). In Gonzalez-Perez, 778 F.3d at 12, another Operation Guard Shack defendant similarly claimed, as Salinas-Acevedo does here, that he had been targeted because of his difficult financial situation and had been repeatedly solicited despite his initial resistance. There, we held that the circumstances did not amount to improper government inducement because the government had employed no arm-twisting or undue coercive method. Id. Additionally, we held that the defendant's circumstances in that case -- he had various part-time jobs  and  thought that the high payment offered by [the government agent] would help him solve his financial situation -- was not enough to constitute inducement. Id. Here, we hold that Salinas-Acevedo has similarly failed to produce any evidence of government overreach or arm-twisting.

Indeed, the record indicates and the parties assert that Salinas-Acevedo was solicited, at most, a total of three times. The first time took place at some point before March 9, 2010. During a call on March 9, 2010, Rullan-Santiago informed Camacho that at the last minute Salinas-Acevedo had decided not to participate in a sham drug deal. Rullan-Santiago told Camacho that Salinas-Acevedo had cited his daughter as the reason he could not participate. Rullan-Santiago also informed Camacho that in response to Salinas-Acevedo's decision not to participate, Rullan-Santiago had told Salinas-Acevedo [l]ook, [sic] is all right, bro and to [f]orget it, cool. That's cool.

The second time that a middleman solicited Salinas-Acevedo to take part in the sham drug deals presumably occurred after another recorded call. In that call Camacho spoke with Mendez-Perez, brought up Salinas-Acevedo, and asked Mendez-Perez what he thought of Salinas-Acevedo. The call is somewhat confusing, but ends with Camacho asking Mendez-Perez to talk to Salinas-Acevedo, and Mendez-Perez indicating that he would go to Salinas-Acevedo's home to talk to him. Camacho specifically instructed Mendez-Perez not to pressure Salinas-Acevedo, stating that if he gives you a lot of crap  [t]his isn't compulsory, this is for those who want to and know what it is.

The last indication in the record of Camacho instructing a middleman to recruit Salinas-Acevedo occurred sometime after March 19, 2010. During a call on that date, Camacho offers Rullan-Santiago an opportunity to work another sham drug deal. Rullan-Santiago jumps at the opportunity and Camacho asks him to get that guy that you tried to find last time. Rullan-Santiago responded that he would see if Salinas-Acevedo was available, stating [o]kay, let me see if, if that dog is around here. Camacho then tells Rullan-Santiago to let him know for sure whether Salinas-Acevedo would participate because he did not want him to do the same shitty thing to me like you did last week -- when Salinas-Acevedo decided not to participate at the last minute.

Given these facts, we find the three requests here, over approximately a ten-day period, do not amount to improper coercion or inducement by the government. Although Salinas-Acevedo was facing financial difficulties with the impending arrival of a second child, financial distress alone does not render the repeated presentation of an opportunity to commit a crime improper. See United States v. Baltas, 236 F.3d 27, 36 (1st Cir. 2001) (Improper inducement goes beyond providing an ordinary opportunity to commit a crime. An inducement consists of an 'opportunity' plus something else -- typically, excessive pressure by the government upon the defendant or the government's taking advantage of an alternative, non-criminal type of motive. (citations omitted)). And while we noted in Gendron, 18 F.3d at 961, that repeated suggestions in light of a defendant's financial straits may merit an entrapment instruction, the facts of this case are distinguishable.

Unlike the defendant in Kessee, Salinas-Acevedo at no time faced any sudden change in means and therefore did not suffer from any increased vulnerability that would make the government's later repeated offers to participate more objectionable. See Kessee, 992 F.2d at 1004 (noting that the repeated entreaties  only became successful when Kessee had lost both his jobs and did not know where he would get the money for rent and food for his family). Moreover, the government agent here expressly instructed at least one middleman (Mendez-Perez) not to pressure Salinas-Acevedo. And although the second middleman (Rullan-Santiago) was never given such direct instructions, during the March 19, 2010 call when Camacho suggested that Rullan-Santiago get that guy that you tried to find last time (in reference to Salinas-Acevedo), Camacho also made clear that he simply wanted Rullan-Santiago to bring an associate to participate in the deal -- not necessarily Salinas-Acevedo, but someone.

Indeed, Rullan-Santiago understood that if Salinas-Acevedo declined to participate and he could not get someone else to join, they might postpone the deal. Camacho even made a specific suggestion that Rullan-Santiago could seek out an alternative participant (if Salinas-Acevedo was not available), such as another individual from Maricao, I don't know, the one you had told me about. Thus, Camacho never instructed Rullan-Santiago to employ inappropriate means to recruit Salinas-Acevedo, but merely instructed him to provide Salinas-Acevedo with an opportunity -- Salinas-Acevedo was free to decline and Camacho was only interested in Rullan-Santiago recruiting a second corrupt officer to participate. Indeed, this lines up with the overall design of the sting operation to hire corrupt law enforcement officers to provide armed security at the staged drug deals, and then have those officers recruit others to participate in subsequent deals, thereby unwittingly assisting the sting in ferreting out additional corrupt officers. The dissent seems to find it important that Camacho never gave Rullan-Santiago explicit instructions not to pressure Salinas-Acevedo (like those given to Mendez-Perez); however, the absence of such an instruction does not establish that the government instructed Rullan-Santiago to employ a specific improper method of inducement. And Rullan-Santiago was explicitly instructed only to recruit another corrupt cop, be it Salinas-Acevedo or some other officer. In sum, merely providing the opportunity to commit a crime, even if repeatedly, does not by itself rise to the level of improper government overreach. See Baltas, 236 F.3d at 37. We find that there is no evidence of an improper attempt to persuade Salinas-Acevedo to participate and that the government merely presented Salinas-Acevedo with an opportunity to commit a crime.

Although we believe the dissent takes several creative liberties in its reading of the record, drawing conclusions and inferences which are, in our view, unfounded, we briefly address a few of its concerns. As mentioned by the dissent, we are well aware that Salinas-Acevedo only has to present sufficient evidence that if believed by a rational juror would create a reasonable doubt that he committed the crime of his own accord. And as mentioned above, such a showing requires some evidence of improper inducement by the government. Unlike the dissent, we find that no such evidence exists here.

While we ultimately disagree with the dissent, we note the importance of the issue before us. On the one hand, we do not want to support a position, like the dissent's, where all a defendant would have to show in order to be entitled to an entrapment defense is financial struggles and repeated asks by the government. On the other hand, we also do not want to affirm a standard so stringent that a defendant must essentially prove improper inducement beyond a reasonable doubt in order to be afforded an entrapment jury instruction. While mindful of these competing concerns, here, we struggle to find any evidence of improper government inducement. The mere fact that Salinas-Acevedo had some level of financial difficulty and was asked on more than one occasion if he wanted to participate in the sham drug deals without more is insufficient -- there must be a plus factor of government overreach. The record provides no information regarding the specifics of Salinas-Acevedo's financial situation beyond the fact that he was concerned about providing for his family with the arrival of his second child. But the record does indicate that Salinas-Acevedo was employed as a police officer. And while Salinas-Acevedo may have felt internal pressures to participate in the drug deals for money, there is no evidence in the record of improper attempts by the government to exploit that fact or improperly induce him to participate.

To be clear, we are not holding that repeated entreaties on any defendant, regardless of the facts, would be permissible and insufficient to merit an entrapment defense. We merely hold that where, as here, we have a defendant who declines to participate in illegal activity at the last minute, but later decides to commit the offensive act without any evidence that he eventually succumbed to governmental pressures due to changed financial means, the presentation of multiple opportunities to commit the crime without more is insufficient to amount to improper government inducement or coercion. The dissent simply disagrees with our reading of the record. This disagreement does not warrant rehearing.

I cannot agree with the majority's view that the present matter is merely a disagreement about how we read the record, and thus not worthy of rehearing. I believe our disagreement is more fundamental than that. It entails whether we recognize the legitimate role of the jury, or whether we will engage in a usurpation of that role. Our role as presented by the record in this case is to determine whether the evidence is enough, 'if believed by a rational juror, to create a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime of his own accord.' United States v. Gonzalez-Perez, 778 F.3d 3, 11 (1st Cir. 2015) (internal citations omitted). However, the majority, while paying lip service to this role, proceeds to invert it: it reasons that because, on the record, it might be true that Salinas was not entrapped, Salinas is therefore not allowed to argue to the jury that he was entrapped. Thus, the majority requires Salinas to prove his defense twice: once to the court, and then once more to the jury. In my view, this is not how things work.

The majority now recognizes that repeated requests can give rise to an entrapment defense, but does not incorporate that understanding into its reasoning at the most crucial point. Thus, the majority believes there is no evidence that Camacho (the government agent) instructed any of the middlemen to use improper means, hence, the majority reasons, an entrapment defense is inappropriate because there was no plus factor. What the majority misses is that the use of repeated requests is itself the kind of improper inducement or plus factor that gives rise to an entrapment defense. United States v. Gendron, 18 F.3d 961 (1st Cir. 1994) (Some examples of improper 'inducement' may help. Courts have found a basis for sending the entrapment issue to the jury (or finding entrapment established as a matter of law) where government officials:  used 'repeated suggestions' which succeeded only when defendant had lost his job and needed money for his family's food and rent.) (citing United States v. Kessee, 992 F.2d 1001, 1003 (9th Cir.1993)). As I will explain below, the majority also misapplies Kessee (which found that an entrapment defense was required, and which we cited with approval in Gendron and United States v. Gonzalez-Perez, 778 F.3d 3, 11-13 (1st Cir. 2015) (where we found that no entrapment defense was required)).

Before turning to these precedents, however, it is essential to turn to the record and the effects it can have on a rational juror. Let me be clear, however, that I do not argue that the disturbing aspects of the record are the improper inducement that is required for an entrapment defense; the repeated requests are the improper inducement. However, the record underscores that there is more than enough in this case for a rational juror to conclude that there is a reasonable doubt that Salinas would have committed the crime of his own accord. Three aspects of the record deserve particular attention:

1. In its January 13, 2017 decision, the majority claimed that Salinas had agreed to participate in the drug deal after the first request, and then reneged at the last minute. In fact, as the majority now concedes, the record does not provide any affirmative evidence of Salinas-Acevedo's initial agreement to participate after the first request.

2. The majority claims that there were at most three requests. In fact, the record supports the inference there were more than three requests.

3. In its January 13, 2017 decision, the majority claimed that the government gave both middlemen the instruction not to pressure Salinas. In fact, as the majority now concedes, only Mendez-Perez received this instruction, whereas Rullan-Santiago - - who finally broke Salinas's resistance -- received no such instruction, but was told to get that guy and was given a financial incentive to do so.

As the majority now concedes, there is no evidence Salinas agreed to participate in the drug deal after the first request. The record reveals that Rullan-Santiago (the middleman) informed Camacho (the government agent) that [Salinas] sort of said it was no good, and no, no, no, no. You know? No. As a reason for his refusal to participate in the drug deal, Salinas said [s]orry, it is gonna be difficult for me because of the little girl and the like. At no point in this transcript, or at any other place in the record, does it say that Salinas had ever agreed to participate in the drug deal -- nor does the government even claim this in its brief. Rather, the only evidence is that Salinas repeated no at least six times.

It is misleading to say, as the majority does, that there were at most three requests. It is true that the record contains the transcripts of three conversations between the government agent and the two middlemen. Those transcripts do not reveal, however, how many times the middlemen requested Salinas's participation. Especially the second and third transcripts imply that each of the middlemen asked Salinas multiple times to participate in the drug deal. In the second transcript, it is Camacho (the government agent) who brings up the topic of Salinas. Mendez-Perez (a middleman), who was buddies with Salinas and who was fully aware of Salinas's financial troubles, would go to Salinas's house. The government agent instructed this middleman that if [Salinas] gives you a lot of crap, then the middleman should leave Salinas alone. The government agent did not say  crap or any resistance, or something to that effect -- he said a lot of crap. That is, the middleman had instructions to keep making requests until he got a lot of crap. Thus, numerous requests likely occurred until the middleman received the requisite amount of pushback from Salinas. In the third transcript, the government agent simply tells Rullan-Santiago to get that guy -- meaning Salinas. When Rullan-Santiago asks whether he has to bring someone to the drug deal, the agent replies What? Of course, and then tells the middleman to [f]ind that guy. That is, Rullan-Santiago will not be allowed to participate in the deal -- and thus not be allowed to make money -- unless he succeeds in bringing someone. Rullan-Santiago, in the meantime, had referred to Salinas as that dog. Given such unambiguous instructions to get Salinas, given Rullan-Santiago's financial incentive to do so, and given Rullan-Santiago's apparent contempt for Salinas, a rational jury could conclude that multiple, persistent requests by Rullan-Santiago finally broke Salinas's resistance. Note that while Camacho had instructed Mendez-Perez to leave Salinas alone if Salinas gave him a lot of crap, Rullan-Santiago received no similar instruction. He was never told that this deal was only for those who wanted it. He was never told not to apply pressure. But he was told to get that guy.

The majority here accuses the dissent of speculation. But the dissent is, in fact, fulfilling the proper role of the court in this situation:

[i]n order to be entitled to an instruction on entrapment, the record must show some hard evidence of both government inducement and the defendant's lack of predisposition. This evidence must be more than uncorroborated self-serving assertions. In assessing the sufficiency of this evidence, the district court may not weigh the evidence, make credibility determinations or resolve conflicts in the evidence. Rather, it must determine whether the evidence is enough, if believed by a rational juror, to create a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime of his own accord.

Gonzalez-Perez, 778 F.3d at 11 (internal citations omitted) (emphasis added). The dissent merely shows that Salinas has squarely met his burden of presenting enough evidence to prevail on his entrapment defense in front of a rational jury. The majority, however, fully ignores what Salinas's burden in fact is, and instead proceeds to do precisely what a court is prohibited from doing here: to resolve conflicts in the evidence. Thus, the majority notes that, after Camacho told Rullan-Santiago to get that guy, there was also a brief reference in the conversation to someone from Maricao as a potential alternative to Salinas, and promptly concludes that Camacho merely instructed his middleman to provide Salinas with an opportunity. Even if it were the case that this cursory reference to an alternative target could somehow negate the clear instruction to get that guy, it is emphatically not the court's role to resolve this conflict in the evidence.

It is precisely the evidence that Salinas has presented that distinguishes the present case from Gonzalez-Perez, on which the majority relies. In Gonzalez-Perez, the defendant provided only a bare assertion that [the confidential informant] called him several times and [the defendant] declined previous invitations to commit offenses  778 F.3d at 12. Indeed, the evidence in Gonzalez-Perez showed that the defendant was so eager to avail himself of the opportunities to commit the crimes that he repeatedly told [a government agent] that he was 'very grateful' and 'at his service,' and exclaimed 'Oh wow! That's awesome, dude,' upon learning of an additional opportunity to provide armed security. Id. at 13. In addition, Gonzalez-Perez cite[d] no evidence indicating that his financial situation was such that he was at a particularly vulnerable point in his life. Id. at 12. Salinas, however, has provided hard evidence -- in the form of the transcripts of recorded conversations -- of his several refusals to participate in the drug deal as well as of his desperate financial situation. There is also no evidence to show that Salinas was eager to participate in this deal -- to the contrary, he was apparently going to jump off the balcony when he sees [the drugs].

The present case is not, however, distinguishable from Kessee. As the majority correctly points out, in Kessee, the repeated entreaties  only became successful when Kessee had lost both his jobs and did not know where he would get the money for rent and food for his family. Kessee, 992 F.2d at 1004. Like the defendant in Kessee, Salinas did not know how to provide for his family now that his wife was pregnant with their second child. The majority appears to believe that it is important that in Kessee, the defendant refused the requests to participate in a drug deal while he was still employed, but then gave in once he had lost his jobs. That is, Kessee's resistance ceased once his finances worsened. Salinas, however, kept resisting even though his finances were desperate. If anything, Salinas has shown more resistance to committing a crime than Kessee had shown, not less, and is therefore all the more deserving of an entrapment defense.

The majority also appears to suggest that the compressed time period of approximately ten days during which the repeated requests took place works against Salinas. However, the short intervals between the repeated requests only increase the intensity of the pressure on Salinas, and thus only strengthen his case. Already in a desperate situation, Salinas was given little respite from the pressure. First, Rullan-Santiago asked him to participate in the deal; Salinas refused. Then, Mendez-Perez came to his home; again, Salinas refused. Finally, Rullan-Santiago was out to get him; Salinas finally gave in. Still, he appeared to do so reluctantly, afraid of what he was getting himself into; in the words of Rullan-Santiago: [Salinas] is going to jump off the balcony when he sees [the drugs].

This case presents the exact situation that the entrapment defense serves to protect against:

When the Government's quest for conviction leads to the apprehension of an otherwise law-abiding citizen who, if left to his own devices, likely would have never run afoul of the law, the courts should intervene.

Gendron, 18 F.3d at 961 (quoting Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540, 543 (1992) and adding emphasis). Salinas has no criminal record, nor was there even the slightest indication that he had ever been engaged in any police corruption. Rather, he approached Rullan-Santiago to look for a legitimate job in order to support his family. Rullan-Santiago was at that time moonlighting as the head of security at Comp USA, and Salinas hoped to find a job as a part-time security officer at Comp USA. He explained his dire situation to Rullan-Santiago. Rullan-Santiago informed him that no such jobs were available. This took place some four months before the sham drug transaction for which Salinas is now in prison. Salinas never sought to participate in a crime, and, if left alone by the government agent and his middlemen, likely never would have. The injustice reaped upon Salinas by the decision of this court in foreclosing his presentation of a legitimate claim to an entrapment defense cannot be accepted without my most fervent objection.

I dissent.

By the Court:

Margaret Carter, Clerk

FOOTNOTES

. The dissent argues that it is misleading to say that there were only three solicitation requests. The dissent would have us speculate as to an infinite number of requests. However, we rely on the record as well as the parties' representations and decline to speculate where the record is silent.

. As noted in our original opinion, Mendez-Perez may have never followed through on his plans to recruit Salinas-Acevedo as indicated during this call. See United States v. Rivera-Ruperto, 846 F.3d 417, 429 n.8 (1st Cir. 2017). We, however, assume arguendo that this solicitation actually took place although the record is silent as to what was actually asked of or said to Salinas-Acevedo.

. The dissent misleadingly contends that the majority makes several concessions, which we do not make. Our January 13, 2017 opinion does note that Salinas-Acevedo backed out of the first transaction at the last minute. We still believe this to be true and supported by the record. However, we acknowledge that the record does not provide any affirmative evidence of Salinas-Acevedo's initial agreement to participate after the first request. The record indicates, however, that Salinas-Acevedo intended to participate in the first transaction until he realized that his daughter's daycare was closed on the Wednesday when the first transaction was scheduled and he had no one to watch her ([Salinas-Acevedo is] the one who takes care of [his daughter] and on that Wednesday when the initial transaction was scheduled, the daycare for Salinas-Acevedo's daughter was closed -- they had no classes. There was no school [UI] and [Salinas-Acevedo] couldn't [participate]). Additionally, Salinas-Acevedo informed Rullan-Santiago that he would not participate in the first transaction the day before the transaction was scheduled.

. The plus factors identified by the dissent appear to be an assertion that Rullan-Santiago possessed some form of contempt for Salinas-Acevedo because he referred to him as a dog and the dissent's insistence that there were multiple, persistent requests by Rullan-Santiago. The record simply does not bear these facts out. First, the inferential leap that Rullan-Santiago possessed some sort of contempt or was out to get Salinas-Acevedo specifically is speculative at best and contradicted by the record. Rullan-Santiago used foul language constantly when referencing individuals or circumstances. For instance, in one conversation, Rullan-Santiago referred to various individuals as cunt, motherfucker, liar, and dick. The fact that Rullan-Santiago, an often foul-talking individual, also referred to Salinas-Acevedo as cabron or dog or cuckold as detailed by the dissent does not demonstrate that Rullan-Santiago possessed some overarching contempt driving him to persistently pursue Salinas-Acevedo. Second, even the dissent concedes that the transcripts do not reveal, however, how many times the middlemen requested Salinas's participation. Thus, the dissent's contention that a jury could conclude that multiple, persistent requests by Rullan-Santiago finally broke Salinas's resistance is unsupported by the record -- there is no evidence beyond the three calls referenced above of requests being made to Salinas-Acevedo. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, even if the dissent's take on the facts and record were true and well-supported, none of these facts demonstrate government overreach -- the government agent (Camacho) never instructed either middleman to employ a specific improper tactic. And merely instructing a middleman to offer Salinas-Acevedo an opportunity to participate is insufficient.

. The majority finds that the record indicates this. First, the question before us is whether a rational juror could find for Salinas, not whether a rational juror could find against him. Suggestions in the record that favor Salinas are therefore appropriate; suggestions that go against him are inapposite. In any event, the suggestions the majority relies on is a reference to his daughter being in daycare and him taking care of her made some two weeks after he declined to participate in the first drug deal. Note also that the middleman did not believe the explanation.

. The majority appears to emphasize that Salinas refused to participate in the transaction at the last minute. It is unclear what the significance of this timing is for the present case -- Salinas refused when he was approached by Rullan-Santiago, and it was thus Rullan-Santiago who chose the timing. In any event, the record only shows that Rullan-Santiago informed Camacho on Tuesday morning of Salinas's refusal to participate in the Wednesday transaction. The record is silent as to when Salinas in fact refused to participate.

. The majority claims -- without citing to the record -- that the parties agreed that there were only three requests. The dissent has found no support for this in the record. If anything, Salinas emphasizes the intensity with which his resistance was broken down.

. In fact, Rullan-Santiago called Salinas a cabron. This Spanish word is far more offensive than the English word dog, and is more accurately translated as cuckold.

. The majority does not believe that Rullan-Santiago's use of foul language signifies any contempt for Salinas, because, as the majority details, Rullan-Santiago used foul language frequently. This only makes it more likely, however, that Rullan-Santiago's requests that Salinas participate in a drug transaction were not polite requests -- but rather ones filled with intimating foul language -- and the fact that the government agent knowingly chose exactly this middleman to get that guy does not help the majority's case either.
Dogs and puppies

Kristi, a 9-week-old Terrier-mix, is sure to steal your heart (case 478).

Carol, a 10-week-old Labrador-mix, is looking for her forever home (case 477).

Comet, a 6-month-old Shepherd/Labrador-mix, loves treats and toys (case 472).

Prancer, an 18-month-old male Labrador-mix, wants to be your best friend (case 471)

Joy, a 6-month-old female Shepherd/Labrador-mix, is very sweet (case 470).

Tina, a 2-year-old female Carolina-mix, wants a friend to play with (case 466).

Holly, a 9-week-old female Labrador-mix, loves to be held (case 461).

Yancy, a 3-month-old male Labrador-mix, is very playful (case 457).

Ranger, a 3-month-old male Terrier-mix, needs lots of love and attention (case 436).

Rose, a 5-year-old female Staffie-mix, is very loving (case 433).

Polly, a 6-week-old female Shepherd-mix, loves attention (case 432).

Suzy, a 6-week-old female Shepherd-mix, is fluffy like a teddy bear (case 431).

Kelley, an 8-month-old female Hound-mix, needs a lot of love (case 428).

Piper, a 2-year-old male Labrador/Pointer-mix, who loves attention and other pets (case 424).

Daphne, a 16-month-old female Carolina-mix, is as sweet as she can be (case 423).

Willie, a 2-year-old male Boxer-mix, who is very affectionate and playful (case 422).

Blade, an 8-month-old male Lab/Hound-mix, loves belly rubs (case 421).

Domino, an 8-month-old male Lab/Hound-mix, loves to give puppy kisses (case 420).

Addie, an 18-month-old female Boxer/Pit-mix, must have a fenced yard (case 0418).

Haley, a 3-month-old female Labrador-mix, is a perfect little lady (case 0348).

Skippy, a 2-year-old male Dachshund/Chihuahua-mix, needs an experienced owner (case 0338).

Sweet Potato, a 1-year-old female Hound-mix, is as sweet as her name (case 0161).

Oscar, a 9-month-old male black Lab-mix, wants to be your new best friend (case 0156).

Cats and kittens

Sunny, a 12-week-old female muted calico, loves to play (case 414).

Sophia, a 3-month-old orange tabby, is a typical little girl (case 417).

Susie, a 3-month-old female patched tabby, is a diva in the making (case 403).

Sebastian, a 3-month-old orange male, thinks he's a tiger (case 402).

Pumpkin, a 9-month-old female orange cat who loves to snuggle (case 360).

Mellie, a 6-month-old black-and-white female, was left in a box at the front door (case 343).

Grace, a 10-month-old female tortie loves attention (case 342).

Tasha, a 6-month-old female tortie is just a little reserved (case 333).

Scotti, a 6-month-old orange female, is a real lover (case 295).

Zora, a 7-month-old black-and-white female loves belly rubs (case 294).

Grady, a 7-month-old orange male, is a typical little boy (case 238).

Moppett, a 7-month-old black male who loves to snuggle (case 212)

Kylee, a 7-month-old gray female, has the ticket to a lifetime of happiness (case 199).

Sosa, a 7-month-old gray male, whose little motor runs all the time (case 196).

Carson, a 7-month-old black-and-white male, loves to explore (case 195).

Casey, a 1-year-old black female, is sweet and playful (case 191).

Jenny, a 1-year-old black female, has a gorgeous coat (case 202).

Kiki , a 2-year-old female diluted calico DLH, needs some TLC (case 385).

Chloe, a 2-year-old black-and-white female, loves to purr (case 311).

The SPCA will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, for adoptions. The Orangeburg SPCA's normal adoption hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the first and third Saturdays. They are located at 225 Ruf Road and the phone number is 803-536-3918. Check out available adoptions online at orangeburgspca.petfinder.com, interactive website at www.OrangeburgSPCA.org and Facebook page at Orangeburg SPCA. Email any questions to adopt@orangeburgspca.org.
A man who went missing July 3 near Eutawville is reportedly safe in his home state of Ohio, Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office spokesman Richard Walker reported Friday.

The circumstances surrounding his return to Ohio are unknown at this time, Walker said.

He said 41-year-old Anthony Scott Sizemore did not suffer any injuries during the period that he was missing.

He is considered safe, Walker said.

Sizemore told his girlfriend at 11 p.m. on July 1 that he was going to Mill Creek Bar and Grill with a friend, according to a sheriffs office incident report.

His girlfriend woke up the next morning and discovered Sizemore wasnt at their campsite. She said she spoke with Sizemores friend and was told that he never went to the bar. The friend said Sizemore left Friday night in a brown Buick Skylark with paper license plates, the report states.

As the woman walked down the road to use a telephone, she saw Sizemore walk out of a wooded area wearing blue plaid boxers and a T-shirt wrapped around his head, the report notes. The woman said when she returned with clothes for him, Sizemore was gone.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. SHAVONDA BAILEY, as Next Friend of K.A. and P.A.; VIVIAN LAMPKINS, as Next Friend of J.L.; BELINDA CARRANCO, as Next Friend of Z.A.; BRANDIE OLIVER, as Next Friend of A.O.; CHRISTINE OWENS, as Next Friend of M.O., Plaintiffs - Appellants v. NATHAN PRESTON, Individually; VIDAL DIAZ, Individually; MICHAEL FLETCHER, Individually; FRANCISCO GALVAN, Individually; MATTHEW FLORES, Individually; AUBREY PLAUCHE, Individually; MATTHEW QUINTANILLA, Individually; ROBERT TAMEZ, Individually; PAUL TRIGO, Individually, Defendants - Appellees No. 16-50391 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before WIENER, DENNIS, and HAYNES, Circuit Judges.

Pierre Abernathy died after a struggle with several San Antonio police officers. The mothers of his children filed suit against the officers (1) under 42 U.S.C.  1983 for excessive force and for failure to intervene to prevent the use of excessive force, and (2) under Texas state law for assault and battery. The district court granted the officers' motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity and dismissed the claims against them. We affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

In August 2011, after leading San Antonio police officers on a 14.4-mile pursuit by car, Abernathy pulled over in front of the house where his mother and sister lived. Abernathy, a 5'11, 240-pound male with paranoid schizophrenia, initially complied with the officers' directives to exit the car, put his hands in the air, and get on the ground, at which point the officers were able to place handcuffs on one of Abernathy's hands.

Shortly thereafter, however, Abernathy began to resist and pushed himself up off the ground to a standing position. A struggle ensued, and Abernathy was tased at least five times, struck with asp batons four times, punched, kicked, and bitten by a K9 dog. Several officers reported that they repeatedly tried to handcuff Abernathy's other hand but that he continued to resist. The uncontroverted evidence reflects that, once the officers were finally able to handcuff Abernathy, they no longer used any force against him.

Abernathy, who officers said was initially breathing after the struggle, stopped breathing. Emergency Medical Services personnel transported Abernathy to a hospital, where staff pronounced him dead shortly after his arrival. The autopsy concluded that Abernathy's manner of death was a homicide and that he died as a result of the combined effects of intoxication with cocaine, a prolonged struggle, and a cardiomyopathy (an enlarged heart).

The mothers of Abernathy's children sued the officers on scene in their individual capacities, asserting claims under 42 U.S.C.  1983 for excessive force and for failure to intervene to prevent the use of excessive force. They also brought claims under Texas state law for assault and battery. The officers moved for a summary judgment of dismissal of all claims, asserting, inter alia, that they were entitled to qualified immunity on the plaintiffs'  1983 claim for use of excessive force. The district court granted the officers' motion and dismissed the plaintiffs' claims. The court concluded that the defendants deployed force that was neither clearly excessive nor clearly unreasonable. The plaintiffs timely appealed, claiming only that the district court erred in granting summary judgment on the plaintiffs'  1983 claim for use of excessive force.

II.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity and apply the same standards as the district court. Summary judgment is proper when the pleadings and evidence demonstrate that no genuine issue of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We construe all facts and inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. In reviewing the evidence, the court must refrain from making credibility determinations or weighing the evidence.

III.

ANALYSIS

To state a claim under  1983, a plaintiff must first show a violation of the Constitution or of federal law, and then show that the violation was committed by someone acting under color of state law. The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials from civil damages liability when their actions could reasonably have been believed to be legal. When a defendant raises the qualified-immunity defense, the plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating the inapplicability of that defense. In resolving questions of qualified immunity at summary judgment, we engage in a two-pronged inquiry: (1) whether the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, show that the officer's conduct violated a federal right; and (2) whether the right in question was clearly established at the time of the violation. Like the district court, we have the discretion to decide which prong of the qualified-immunity analysis to address first. [Q]ualified immunity may be granted without deciding the first prong. Deciding the second prong first is often advisable[.] We choose to begin with the second prong of the qualified-immunity analysis.

The instant defendants are entitled to qualified immunity if their use of force was objectively reasonable in light of clearly established law at the time the challenged conduct occurred. [W]hile the right to be free from excessive force is clearly established in a general sense, the right to be free from the degree of force employed in a particular situation may not have been clear to a reasonable officer at the scene. The central concept is that of fair warning: The law can be clearly established despite notable factual distinctions between the precedents relied on and the cases then before the Court, so long as the prior decisions gave reasonable warning that the conduct then at issue violated constitutional rights.  There need not be a case directly on point, but existing precedent must have placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate. If officers of reasonable competence could disagree as to whether the plaintiff's rights were violated, the officer's qualified immunity remains intact.

In their brief, the appellants failed to address whether the officers' force was excessive in light of clearly established law. When pressed at oral argument, counsel for appellants cited Ramirez v. Martinez as demonstrating that in 2011 the law was clearly established that the force the officers used in this case was excessive. But Ramirez is distinguishable. The plaintiff in Ramirez alleged that he posed no threat to the officers and yet was tased twice, including once after he was handcuffed and subdued while lying face down on the ground, and the district court found that the plaintiff's account was supported by the summary-judgment record. In Ramirez, this court emphasized that, although our circuit has not addressed a fact pattern precisely on point,  we have held the use of certain force after an arrestee has been restrained and handcuffed is excessive and unreasonable.

The Ramirez panel concluded that the officer's alleged conduct violated clearly established law. It relied on (1) Newman v. Guedry, in which another panel of this court had explained in 2012 that the [l]awfulness of force  does not depend on the precise instrument used to apply it, and (2) Bush v. Strain, in which we held an officer used excessive and unreasonable force when he forcefully slammed an arrestee's face into a vehicle when the arrestee was handcuffed and subdued. These cases are inapposite here because the uncontroverted evidence reflects that the officers in the instant case stopped using force on Abernathy once he was handcuffed.

The burden in this case is on the appellants to demonstrate the inapplicability of the qualified-immunity defense by showing, inter alia, thatunder the specific facts of this casethe officers' use of force was objectively unreasonable in light of clearly established law. But the appellants have made no showing that, under these facts, Abernathy's right to be free from excessive force was clearly established and thus have not satisfied their burden. Therefore, we need notand do notreach the first prong of the qualified-immunity analysis.

IV.

CONCLUSION

The district court's summary judgment dismissing this action with prejudice is AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. One officer had a camera on his dashboard recording audio and video, but almost all of the struggle took place off-camera: Abernathy is seen on video only once after getting out of his car, running across the frame followed by a dog and six officers. The camera's microphone shut off for nearly two minutes and thus failed to capture the audio of most of the struggle.

. Because the appellants do not raise the failure-to-intervene claim and do not adequately address their assault-and-battery claim on appeal, the only issue before us is whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment on their  1983 claim for use of excessive force. See Gen. Universal Sys., Inc. v. HAL, Inc., 500 F.3d 444, 453 (5th Cir. 2007) ([F]ailure to advance arguments in the body of the appellant's brief, even when those issues were referenced in the Statement of Issues section, resulted in waiver of those arguments.); Melton v. Teachers Ins. & Annuity Ass'n of Am., 114 F.3d 557, 561 (5th Cir. 1997); Yohey v. Collins, 985 F.2d 222, 225 (5th Cir. 1993); see also FED. R. APP. P. 28(a).

. Curtis v. Anthony, 710 F.3d 587, 593 (5th Cir. 2013) (per curiam); Davila v. United States, 713 F.3d 248, 257 (5th Cir. 2013).

. Pluet v. Frasier, 355 F.3d 381, 383 (5th Cir. 2004); see FED. R. CIV. P. 56.

. Poole v. City of Shreveport, 691 F.3d 624, 627 (5th Cir. 2012).

. Deville v. Marcantel, 567 F.3d 156, 164 (5th Cir. 2009) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted).

. Atteberry v. Nocona Gen. Hosp., 430 F.3d 245, 25253 (5th Cir. 2005).

. Morgan v. Swanson, 659 F.3d 359, 370 (5th Cir. 2011) (en banc).

. Atteberry, 430 F.3d at 253.

. Tolan v. Cotton, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 186566 (2014) (citing Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001); Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 739 (2002)).

. Morgan, 659 F.3d at 371.

. Newman v. Guedry, 703 F.3d 757, 766 (5th Cir. 2012) (citation omitted).

. Bush v. Strain, 513 F.3d 492, 501 (5th Cir. 2008).

. Id. at 502; see also Poole, 691 F.3d at 62728; Deville, 567 F.3d at 169.

. Kinney v. Weaver, 367 F.3d 337, 350 (5th Cir. 2004) (en banc) (quoting Hope, 536 U.S. at 740).

. Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 741 (2011).

. Tarver v. City of Edna, 410 F.3d 745, 750 (5th Cir. 2005).

. In an obvious case, the excessive-force factors outlined in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), can clearly establish the answer, even without a body of relevant case law. Brousseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194, 199 (2004) (per curiam); see also Hanks v. Rogers, 853 F.3d 738, 747 (5th Cir. 2017); Newman, 703 F.3d at 764. This case, however, is not an obvious one. In Graham, the Supreme Court instructed courts to consider a case's facts and circumstances when determining whether the force used was objectively reasonable, including [1] the severity of the crime at issue, [2] whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and [3] whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. Graham, 490 U.S. at 396. Further, it is well established that the need for force determines how much force is constitutionally permissible. Bush, 513 F.3d at 501. The parties dispute the extent to which Abernathy posed a threat and to which he was actively resisting arrest, and it is not obvious in light of Graham that the force the officers used was excessive to the force necessary to subdue Abernathy.

. Ramirez v. Martinez, 716 F.3d 369 (5th Cir. 2013).

. Id. at 379.

. Id. at 378 (emphasis added).

. Id. at 379 (quoting Newman, 703 F.3d at 76364).

. Id. (citing Bush, 513 F.3d at 501).

. Bush, 513 F.3d at 501; Atteberry, 430 F.3d at 253; McClendon v. City of Columbia, 305 F.3d 314, 323 (5th Cir. 2002) (en banc) (per curiam).

. See Cass v. City of Abilene, 814 F.3d 721, 732 (5th Cir. 2016) (per curiam) (Appellants  have the burden to show that Smith violated Cass's clearly established rights. Appellants' entire argument on this second prong of the qualified immunity test is that it is clearly established in the law that citizens are protected against unjustified, excessive police force. This general statement is insufficient to meet Appellants' burden.); Thompson v. Mercer, 762 F.3d 433, 437 (5th Cir. 2014) (quoting Saucier, 533 U.S. at 201).

. See Thompson, 762 F.3d at 437.

. Our holding is limited to the circumstances of this case and is based solely on the appellants' failure to demonstrate that Abernathy's right to be free from the force used was clearly established. We note that an officer's repeated tasing of a non-dangerous, even non-compliant suspect could constitute a violation of the suspect's clearly established Fourth Amendment rights, especially given the advancing medical and scientific knowledge about the potential deadly effects of tasing.

PER CURIAM:*
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Travellers expectations have changed drastically during the pandemic and the travel industry needs to better understand the behaviours and expectations of the new traveller in order to respond to them, says Roshan Mendis of Sabre.
The UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has welcomed Qatar's recent signing of an anti-terrorism agreement with the US, but expressed concern that the nation might not follow through with it, said a report.



"Qatar signed two agreements with the GCC countries, but it did not abide by them, state news agency Wam quoted him as saying.



The country needs to do more to improve confidence in what it signs and what it actually implements, he stated.



"We of course welcome Qatar's signing of this agreement, but Qatar must also double its efforts to change the impression of many countries over its harbouring, supporting, and funding of terrorism, as well as for voicing extremist views, inciting violence and hatred," said Sheikh Abdullah.



"Our countries wish to achieve this, but only if Qatar is committed to changing this path," he stated.



"We in the region have decided not to allow any kind of tolerance towards extremist groups, terrorist groups and hate groups," he added.



He pointed out that the region had suffered enough and hence this tough decision. With nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt having decided to do that, we are optimistic," said the Emirati minister.



"If Qatar wants to be a member of this alliance then they are more than welcome but if it wants to be on the other side, then as we say in Arabic, its time to bid 'good bye'," he stated in a veiled warning to the neighbouring state.



"We believe that there are two ways of dealing with things, one is to try and ease tension and the other to address a problem," Sheikh Abdullah said in response to a question about what his expectations were from the meeting that US Secretary of State with the foreign ministers of the four countries.



"We do not believe that an attempt to ease the tension will address the matter, but will lead to delaying the problem, which will lead to a doubling of the situation in the future," he was quoted as saying in the Wam.



Sheikh Abdullah admitted that mistakes had indeed been committed in the past by everyone and it was time to rectify them.



"All of us - the United States and even Europe committed these mistakes - when we decided one day to support the so-called Mujahideen in Afghanistan and then the matter was not resolved and Afghanistan suffered a civil war," he stated.



"The same thing happened in Somalia and Iraq, and today we see it happening in Syria and Libya, and I think if we start to blame, and blame certain issues, it will not be ended," he pointed out.



Slamming Qatar for its support to terror groups, Sheikh Abdullah said: "The difference between our countries and Qatar is this: our countries are working with care and attention to confront and deter terrorism and extremism."



"It is true that our systems may not be the best possible situation, but the development of our systems, laws and structures significantly helps in countering these issues. However, the Qatari state is funding extremism, terrorism and fueling hatred, which provides these terrorists with shelter and a platform," he stated.



"Of course we have to work better to counter extremism and terrorism and we need more allies and friends to face it," said the top Emirati minister.



"It is not fair to see that some countries want to fight and face extremism and terrorism, while others do not. What we are asking today from Qatar is what we ask of ourselves. We will not ask Qatar to take any action or steps we do not ask of, or commit to, ourselves as nations," he added.



Urging Qatar to join the fight against terror, Sheikh Abdullah said: "Let us try to work together as the issue of extremism and terrorism is a long process and needs a real effort from all countries, including Europe, which unfortunately also allowed an environment that led to the growth of extremism and terrorism by not putting in place the appropriate laws and regulations to confront them, including the growing Yemeni extremist voices."



"We believe that everyone has a great responsibility to work together to combat extremism and terrorism. I talk about extremism and terrorism together because we cannot fight terrorism if we do not fight extremism," he added.
Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia plans to launch MyCorporate, a suite of products exclusively made with the business traveller in mind.



MyCorporate consists of three bundle options, depending on the requirements of the traveller and the company budget - Fare Only, Corporate Lite and Corporate Full Flex.



The Fare Only product is the air fare only, with all add-ons available for a fee.



The Corporate Lite bundle includes air fare, a complimentary meal, standard seat assignment and dedicated check-in counter. Guests can also change their flight once up to 24 hours before departure with no flight change fee.



The Corporate Full Flex bundle includes air fare, a complimentary meal, Hot Seat assignment, 20kg baggage allowance, dedicated check-in counter, XPress immigration, Xpress Baggage, Premium Red Lounge access, priority boarding, travel insurance and full flexibility with unlimited flight changes up to two hours before departure with no flight change fee.



Corporate Full Flex guests will also be able to enjoy GoShow, an exclusive product allowing them to standby on an earlier flight on the same day, to the same destination, with no added fees or fare charges.



Companies signed up to MyCorporate will have access to a convenient, easy-to-use online booking system and comprehensive reporting to keep track of corporate travelling expenses.



AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said: With our extensive network and frequency across the group, we have seen a rise in the number of those travelling for business on AirAsia. With the launch of MyCorporate, we believe we have a programme that serves the needs of both the traveller and the company to further capture our share of this important segment.



AirAsia Group corporate sales head Barry Klipp said: This is the next evolution for AirAsia corporate products. With MyCorporate, we are better able to offer the right product to our corporate clients needs and budgets. Whether they require just a seat with no add-ons, a Lite product with basic benefits or if they wish to take advantage of our fully loaded product designed to make business travel more convenient and flexible, including our latest offering GoShow. - TradeArabia News Service
Emaar Properties has joined hands with Dubais Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) to the mark the Year of Giving by providing all UAE residents the opportunity to visit At the Top, Burj Khalifa, Dubais iconic attraction, at a preferred rate of only Dh65 per person.



Emirates ID holders can access At the Top, Burj Khalifa, ordinarily priced Dh125, for just about half the price by claiming discount vouchers from all 47 Dubai Metro stations, with the campaign to be held throughout July and August for tours from 9 am to 1 pm.



Adding value to Dubai Metro users, the exclusive opportunity will enable visitors to tour Levels 124 and 125, and take in sweeping views of the city and beyond. The voucher obtained from the Dubai Metro stations are to be presented at the ticket counters of At the Top, Burj Khalifa, located on the ground floor of The Dubai Mall, where too they must present the Emirates ID at the counter.



The offer is expected to benefit hundreds of thousands of Dubai Metro users and the public, who have the convenience to access Burj Khalifa via the Dubai Metro, said a statement.



Level 125 of the At the Top, Burj Khalifa experience serves as a tribute to Arab arts and culture. Here, visitors can take in 360 degree views of the city with signature Viewfinders and explore the city from a unique perspective through Dubai  A Falcons Eye View.



Recently, a new attraction has been added to the At the Top, Burj Khalifa experience: A brand-new spiral flight connecting Levels 124 and Levels 125. The spiral flight, with 36 steps in white oak and spanning a length of 100 m, is adorned with a crystal LED chandelier, and enclosed in a glass clad facade that open to scintillating views of the city. Level 124 also features advanced telescopes that feature full HD camera with high zoom that offer giga-panoramic views.



With an additional purchase, visitors can also tour At the Top, Burj Khalifa SKY, which is the Highest Observation Deck in the world with an outdoor terrace. At 555 m (1,821 ft) high, it is one-of-its-kind, must-experience journey to Level 148 offering visitors unprecedented views of the city and beyond from an outdoor terrace, and warm hospitality at a premium lounge, it said.  TradeArabia News Service


Cody, Wyoming / September 5, 1918June 21, 2017

Jerrene Jerry Allen, 98, passed away peacefully of congestive heart failure on June 21, 2017 at Spirit Mountain Hospice House in Cody, WY. Her son was by her side. She was born September 5, 1918 in Bayard, NE to Lou and Sam Cross and had an older brother and a sister who preceded her in death.

Upon graduation from high school, Jerry moved to Chicago to attend the American Conservatory of Music where she excelled in vocal music. She eventually moved to Cody, WY in 1950 and was married on December 1, 1951 to R. Sam Allen who was the cashier and later became president of the Shoshone First National Bank. Jerry faithfully directed the choir at the First Presbyterian Church in Cody for over 30 years and served as an Elder and was on several pastor seeking committees and worship commissions. She also served as an early board chair of the Cody Community Concerts and was active in the Cody Music Club. She was elected to serve as treasurer of the Cody School Board and was president of several local Chapters of PEO and also served as Worthy Matron of the local Order of the Eastern Star.

Jerry is survived by a daughter from a previous marriage in Chicago, Beverly Roberts, of 19732 40th Ave. S. in Seatec, WA 98188; and a granddaughter and great-granddaughter. Also, from her 43 year marriage to R. Sam Allen her survivors include a son, Sam and his wife, Mindy at 11636 W. 74th Way in Arvada, CO 80005; as well as two grandsons and two great-grandsons who were the light of her life.

A memorial service honoring Jerry will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Cody at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 22, 2017.

Donations may be made in lieu of flowers and in her memory to the Presbyterian Church Deacons Fund, First Presbyterian Church of Cody, 2025 23rd St. in Cody, WY 82414.

An online memorial is also available at www.BallardFH.com.
A Casper man pleaded not guilty Friday morning to two charges alleging he kidnapped his girlfriend and choked her.

Damon Flanagan, 47, pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of strangulation of a household member at his arraignment in Natrona County District Court.

Casper police arrested Flanagan on May 30 after people reported that a man forced a woman into his van in the 1200 block of South Cedar Street. Officers later located the van near the Sunrise Shopping Center, though Flanagan drove away when a officer approached his door.

He stopped again about four blocks later and police forcefully removed him from the van. According to the court documents, officers believed that Flanagan was under the influence of a central nervous stimulant at the time.

The woman, who was in a dating relationship with Flanagan, told police that Flanagan had held her down and choked her at various times during her ride in the van while someone else was driving. She said that at one point she was foaming from the mouth and throwing up from being choked.

She told police that Flanagan drove them both up Casper Mountain and threatened to kill her and himself, according to court documents.

Flanagan told police that he was attempting to take the woman to the Wyoming Behavioral Institute, because he was worried about her mental health.

If convicted of the aggravated kidnapping charge, Flanagan could face between five years to life imprisonment. The strangulation charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Flanagan remained in custody Friday morning on $50,000 bond.
Wyomings Republican congressional delegation emphasized the importance of the independent investigation into interference in last years presidential election, following the revelation that President Donald Trumps eldest son met during the campaign with someone he believed was a representative of the Russian government.

Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged Monday he made time for the meeting hoping to get information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Vladimir Putin and his cronies are not Americas friends, they are adversaries who deserve to be treated as such, Rep. Liz Cheney, the states lone representative in the U.S. House, said in a statement Friday.

A longtime critic of Russia, Cheney called for the Department of Justices independent investigation to continue so that the FBI and bipartisan committees in Congress have the opportunity to follow the facts where they lead.

Liz Cheney, Republicans criticize Trump on Putin comments President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire for improved relations with Moscow, but h

Some election law experts said a discussion of potentially damaging information on Clinton could prompt scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in light of federal laws barring foreign contributions to campaigns.

Sen. John Barrasso said the Senates Select Committee on Intelligence would investigate the meeting as part of the larger question of Russian interference in the presidential election.

The American people deserve answers, Barrasso said in a statement. Were going to get to the bottom of this.

Wyomings senior senator, Mike Enzi, was the most cautious of the three. His spokesman called for restraint in order to preserve the integrity of both Muellers investigation and those being overseen by the House and Senate.

Senator Enzi believes we need the full facts before we jump to any conclusions or take any necessary action, spokesman Max DOnofrio wrote in a statement.

Trump Jr. released an email chain Tuesday between himself and an associate arranging a June 2016 meeting between the presidents son and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-linked lawyer, promising damaging information about Clinton.

When offered Russian help in defeating Clinton, he emailed: I love it.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from providing anything of value to campaigns, though the law typically applies to monetary campaign contributions.

Trump Jr.s meeting, which was also attended by then-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, has proved a major distraction for the White House during a week that Republicans hoped to focus on gaining support for repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Enzi, Barrasso talk repeal and replace As plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act roll onward, Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso sa

Barrasso, who has been closely involved with the healthcare legislation, said the scandal would not interfere with his work on the issue.

The Senate will continue to work on health reform as scheduled next week, Barrasso said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Mande Menne (WENTZVILLE, Mo.) -- A Missouri mom is asking strangers to lift her son's spirits with postcards as he battles a cancer diagnosis.



Mande Menne of Wentzville, Missouri, posted her request for postcards from all 50 states on Facebook, where it received over 1,100 shares. Now, people are promising to send mail from as far as Africa.



"It's made me so me so happy because I wasn't expecting this," Menne told ABC News on Friday. "He seemed so down at first but now he's really excited about the postcards coming. There's so many people out there who care. It's like he has something to look forward to."



Sullivan "Sulley" Menne, 15, was diagnosed with leukemia on June 13. He has recently begun chemotherapy at St Louis Children's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, his mother said.



To take his mind off treatment, Sulley's grandmother, Zara Stone, came up with a plan to try and get people to send him postcards from every state in America. She even bought him a map so he can pin the locations of where he received a postcard from.



"I decided to roll with her idea and put it on Facebook thinking we'd get more postcards, but I never thought we'd get this much attention," Menne said.



Since Tuesday, Sulley has received 17 postcards containing well wishes but has been promised mail from Poland, Italy, Australia, Germany and Africa.



"I think that would be really cool to see how far my story could go," Sulley told ABC News. "If I can get a postcard from anywhere in the world? Maybe Ireland would be cool [since] I'm Irish.



"It's been tough," he added of his diagnosis. "But I'm going to get through it."



If you'd like to send a postcard to Sulley, please send to:



Sulley Menne

799 Autumn Bluff Lane

Wentzville, MO 63385

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
photo by Patrick O'Hagan photo by Patrick O'Hagan photo by Patrick O'Hagan photo by Patrick O'Hagan Previous Next

Sir Paul McCartney brought his One on One Tour to Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, GA on Thursday night for a sold-out crowd.

As soon as the former Beatle hit the stage the audience that was buzzing with chatter and finding their seats moments before suddenly stood mesmerized at the legend that stood before them. A mostly older crowd, as would be expected, still put off a lot of noise with constant cheering at anything he said.

McCartney took the time to stop between songs and read signs that fans had brought along in hopes of catching his eye. He also told a lot of stories  about playing in Russia, bumming cab rides from the Rolling Stones, and that one time Jimi Hendrix needed Eric Clapton to tune his guitar.

Speaking of Hendrix, he paid tribute to the late, great guitarist with a Foxy Lady rendition. McCartney took the lead guitar for himself and further exemplified his impressive musical diversity. He also played the ukulele in his tribute to George Harrison, and of course took to the piano at several points in his set including for his performance of "My Valentine" for his wife Nancy who was in the audience.

While most bands play about 20 songs, McCartney, who turned 75 last month, and his band played for nearly three hours running through 39 hits.

Highlights included the pyrotechnics during "Live and Let Die" and the stage rising into the air during his touching performance of "Blackbird."

Although he joked about how phones lit up the arena during Beatles songs like a galaxy and then went dark when they play new stuff, the crowd really did seem to love every second of it.

The setlist from the show:

A Hard Days Night

Save Us

Cant Buy Me Love

Letting Go

Temporary Secretary

Let Me Roll It

Ive Got a Feeling

My Valentine

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five

Maybe Im Amazed

We Can Work It Out

In Spite of All the Danger

You Wont See Me

Love Me Do

And I Love Her

Blackbird

Here Today

Queenie Eye

New

The Fool on the Hill

Lady Madonna

FourFiveSeconds

Eleanor Rigby

I Wanna Be Your Man

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

Something

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Band on the Run

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Let It Be

Live and Let Die

Hey Jude

Yesterday

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Hi, Hi, Hi

Birthday

Golden Slumbers

Carry That Weight

The End
JACKSON  Alyssa Fairbanks holds her phone in front of her, smiling into the screen as she FaceTimes her toddler from a hospital bed in Jackson.

Its a Sunday night, and shes been in Room 125 of St. Johns Medical Center  a suite shes been in before  for more than 24 hours. Its her sixth hospital admission since she had a liver transplant in December.

The hospital gown hangs on her bony shoulders. Shes worn a lot of these flimsy, back-tied garments in the past six months. This one, she says, is pretty comfy. Shed pulled her short dark hair, once long and thick, away from her face. She chopped it above her shoulders a few weeks ago when it started falling out in clumps.

Her neck is scarred by a cluster of purple tracks from needle sticks and catheter lines. A port hangs from her left bicep, recently capped after she administered a nightly dose of an anti-fungal medication. The abdominal pain that landed her in the hospital is creeping back and she winces a bit as she wraps her arm around her stomach.

But Fairbanks smiles when she looks at her son, Paxton, and asks him about his dinner. They talk about the sleepover hes having at a friends house, and she promises shell see him before he heads to preschool the next morning.

Its the small slice of normal shell have for the day.

The rest is a reminder that, while six months out from a live liver transplant and three out from a second transplant, shes still not healthy. She wont be for months, even if she doesnt hit another devastating setback.

Fairbanks underwent a live liver transplant over the winter, a procedure expected to save her from a diagnosis shes been battling since she was a teen. The disease  primary sclerosing cholangitis  erodes the bile ducts in the liver, causing cirrhosis of the organ. Its a death sentence without a transplant.

The first transplant, a live liver donation from a family friend, failed a few months after it was completed at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Fairbanks health plummeted as her MELD score  a number that examines three organ values for those in liver failure  rose. By the time she received a second transplant in March she had the highest score possible: 40.

Shes had blood clots and infections, five open abdominal surgeries, including the two transplants. Of the long list of possible post-surgical complications, shes faced almost all of them.

It doesnt feel like it, and some days it doesnt look like it, but she is getting better. This is recovery.

Its just one complication after another, said Jenny Christensen-McIver, a co-worker-turned-close-friend of Fairbanks. Some of them arent that surprising. I worked for a general surgeon. I know that some of those complications can happen.

Its just frustrating to watch her not catch a break, she said. Do we have to hit every one of them? Should we have just made a list of boxes and crossed every single one of them off?

 -

Fairbanks counts 20 surgical procedures in the past six months.

Shes lost nearly 40 pounds. She has bald patches on her scalp and her cheeks are puffy from the prednisone she takes as part of a cocktail of other anti-rejection meds, some shes expected to take the rest of her life.

Its not common for a transplant patient to need a second transplant, a re-transplant, as Dr. Kunam Reddy calls it.

Reddy, Fairbanks surgeon, performed both transplants. Only about 5 to 10 percent of patients need to go down that road, he said.

A live transplant, her first surgery, is a complex procedure. One team of doctors slices a liver lobe from the living donor while another team removes the recipients diseased liver and prepares for the transplant.

There are a lot of connections between recipient and donor  ducts, blood vessels  a lot of sutures and a lot of potential places for problems, Reddy said. Its more complicated than a transplant from a deceased donor, which is still a delicate process.

Anytime you put in sutures, they can have some scar formation, Reddy said. But the scar formation got worse with the bile leak.

Fairbanks developed the leak shortly after the first transplant. She was readmitted to the Mayo Clinic twice for sepsis.

Most of the time, Reddy said, even seemingly serious issues can be managed without surgery. But Fairbanks case was more complicated. Her bile ducts were destroyed by her disease before the first transplant, so when the operation was performed, Reddy removed and reconstructed her ducts from pieces of her bowel.

To put it simply, Thats always a little bit more complicated, he said.

Less than a month after the transplant she was back on the table for doctors to flush out a growing infection and spot the source of the leak. She started to show some post-op improvement and built enough strength to get back home to Jackson.

It was a short-lived step forward. Pain in her abdomen started to build again, landing her at St. Johns in early February. She was flown back to Phoenix a few weeks later.

Alyssa has a challenging liver disease  its one of those immune-mediated liver diseases, said Dr. Bashar Aqel, a transplant hematologist at the Mayo Clinic. Despite all the complications she had because of her disease, her MELD score was always low. Her only chance was somebody  a loved one, a friend  coming forward and donating a liver to her.

The MELD score, developed at the Mayo Clinic and initially named as such  the Mayo End-stage Liver Disease score  prioritizes transplant recipients for deceased donors. The score accounts for three organ values, two of which are unaffected by primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Its difficult for these patients to get on the deceased donor list, even as their health continues to steadily decline.

Finding Leslie Still, a family friend who was willing to donate a lobe of her liver, gave Fairbanks new hope for survival.

The two women went through a slew of blood tests and scans before the procedure, but Fairbanks continued to hold her breath while Still went under the knife on Dec. 6. The final test in determining if two people are a match comes down to the surgical suite, when surgeons physically inspect the organ. Still was the perfect match for Fairbanks, and the transplant was completed.

The bile leak discovered shortly after kicked off a series of problems, starting with infection. Infection worsened the expected scarring. Scarring narrowed vital vessels, like the hepatic artery and the portal vein.

While the transplanted liver continued to function, it was slowly losing blood supply.

Its almost like a snowball effect, Aqel said. It started with one complication. We addressed that, and it moved to another one.

Blood cultures taken in February showed that vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, a bacterial strain resistant to antibiotic therapy, was growing in her body.

Thats when we looked at the whole picture, Aqel said. We all invested in a transplant, and we have excellent outcomes from living-donor liver transplants. But we came to a conclusion as a team that, despite the fact that we may be able to get things better for somebody young like her, most likely she would end with some residual dysfunction.

Fairbanks was relisted for a transplant a few weeks later and underwent a second surgery on March 24.

It was a huge setback.

But one, Christensen-McIver said, that was necessary for progress.

She would have never gotten that sick if she had never attempted, Christensen-McIver said. Its a blessing in disguise. If she had never had a live donor, she never would have gotten sick enough to get on the deceased list.

Fairbanks used to want the scar in the shape of a Mercedes symbol running down her sternum and under her rib cage. It would be a badge of pride, a sign that she got the organ she needed for a normal and healthy life.

Before the transplant, her poorly functioning liver had led to toxins building in the body, seen in her yellow-tinged skin and felt in lethargy and nausea. The accumulation of ammonia made her bones more brittle and her mind foggy. At 28 years old it was exhausting to exist.

Her family knows this disease well  her father, Duane, died from complications of primary sclerosing cholangitis in 2008. There is no cure, aside from a transplant. He died while waiting.

Shes struggled with anxiety and depression since her father died, and admits she feels hopeless at times. She once saw a future for herself as a nurse  a profession she worked in up until a few years ago  but as her health has declined and she continues to be hit with waves of obstacles, its hard to look far ahead.

Going through a liver transplant just once is hard enough. Its a long road to recovery for most people, said Heidi Harrold, a physician assistant who treated Fairbanks after both procedures. But to go through two transplants in a three-, four-month period as well as have complications between  shes a very strong individual.

Fairbanks finds herself counting time in days, sometimes hours. Last week she threw a birthday party for Paxton, a summer celebration for his third birthday. Shed been talking to him about his Happy Day for several days, and a small group was expected to stop by for pizza and cake.

But come the day of the party, she was tucked away in a bedroom at her moms house, too nauseated, exhausted and in pain to get up. She kept her eye on the clock, slowly crossing off the things on her list she wanted to do  put together party bags, pick out a pile of presents  and narrowed to only the things she had to do: get dressed and pick up the cake.

Its frustrating that such normal things are so difficult, some days impossible.

By the time she was able to get up in the afternoon, anxiety had set in. Nothing was going to be ready in time.

She walked out to find her mom had completed nearly all of the party prep. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at the decorations and table of gifts.

My shoulders just shrunk a little bit, she said. I was so relieved. I wouldnt have been able to do this, but I had promised him. Im lucky my mom was there.

She hates having to rely on so many people around her. She also hates letting people down.

She struggles with the line between independence and asking for help. When she was young her father told her this disease wouldnt hold her back  she couldnt let it. On hard days she clings to that sentiment.

She needs some autonomy and she wants to do it, Christensen-McIver said. But its hard to watch her struggle between wanting to do it and not having the energy.

So much about Fairbanks most recent St. Johns stay felt familiar  the scans, the frequent checks from nurses, the trays of hospital food that she picked at. But there was a part that felt different, too. It was less scary to be there.

Unlike other times she has landed in the hospital, her local team felt confident her pain could be managed in Jackson, something she prays for whenever theres a chance shell be admitted. Shes often quickly flown to Salt Lake City or Phoenix, to a bigger facility with more resources.

But this time her pain, attributed to the dose of one of her medications and lingering gastrointestinal issues, could be addressed here.

She was released within 48 hours.

Fairbanks admits shes angry sometimes, bitter that shes faced so many complications. She shouldnt have needed a second surgery. She shouldnt be so gangly that she cant recognize herself in the mirror anymore. Shes embarrassed to be in public.

Some days things feel very unfair.

But theyre getting fewer and farther between. She is getting better. Shes gained eight pounds since she got back home in Jackson. Shes able to climb the 16 steps to her apartment a little more easily She feels comfortable driving a car again.

With a bit of optimism she dares to say shes recovering.

I really do feel like Im on the actual road to recovery, she said. I feel like we got off the dirt road  maybe  and now there wont be so many bumps.
CHEYENNE  This year began with massive womens marches all over the world in support of human rights, including womens rights.

Midway through 2017, this has not become the year of the woman.

Yet changes are afoot in the tumultuous national political scene and even in relentlessly red Wyoming.

The Wyoming Democratic Partyremember them?  is getting stoked for the 2018 interim elections.

The part is under new leadership; the new chairman is Joe Barbuto, a former legislator and Bernie Sanders supporter.

On Saturday the Democrats held a fundraiser in Thermopolis, of all places, with former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley as guest speaker.

I dont think weve had an event in the Big Horn Basin in a long time, Barbuto said last week in an interview.

Usually the party holds its events in Cheyenne or Rawlins, say. Places with some Democrats.

In Hot Springs County, home of Thermopolis, there are only 311 Democrats compared with 2,095 Republicans, according to the May 1 count in the Secretary of States election office.

Having the event in Republican territory is a bold move to kick off the partys new push.

Given that the Wyoming Democratic Party has not to held a majority in Wyoming elected offices since the mid 1960s, its doubtful they are going to engage in a coup this year or next.

But they could make some inroads. With the Legislature, the only way is up.

Although the party has an eye on the wild and wacky national political scene as a positive for Democrats in the 2018 elections, of more importance, Barbuto said, is the internal work of rebuilding and reorganization.

Several groups of volunteers and interns are starting early by training as canvass workers for the interim elections.

So the minority party is wiggling its toes and is getting warmed up for next year.

What is healthy is that women in general are getting interested in running for office.

The political veterans, like EMILYs List organizers, are accustomed to periodic displays of womens enthusiasm for change and for elected office and are wary of whether it can be sustained.

EMILYs List is an organization that helps Democratic women.

This surge of womens fervor for change happened before.

Remember The Year of the Woman? That was in 1992, which saw historic number of women elected to office.

One catalyst was the Anita Hill case in October 1991, when the 35-year-old law professor testified before three days before the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee about sexual harassment she claimed she experienced while working for Clarence Thomas, who was being vetted for a U.S. Supreme Court seat.

The all white-all male committee went on to confirm Thomas nomination.

Women were paying attention, and the dismissal of Hills claims resonated with many.

In Wyoming, the 1992 elections resulted in 17 women elected to the 60-member House and five women to the 30-member Senate.

Today there are only two women in the Senate and seven in the House.

One of them, Rep. Cathy Connolly, a Laramie Democrat and a professor of womens studies at the University of Wyoming, is co-chair of a bipartisan caucus that is trying to recruit women to run for office.

Connollys work is mentioned in a June column by Gail Collins, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.

The column is about the enthusiasm national organizers are finding among women to the extent that they have waiting lists for their seminars and training courses.

Collins noted that the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University ranked Wyomings Legislature last in the percentage of women, which is extremely sad for a place that calls itself the Equality State because it was the first to give women the right to vote.

Connolly pointed out that Wyomings legislative schedule was set up to accommodate ranchers: We work around the clock for 40 days one year and 20 the other in the dead of the winter.  Its disproportionately retired men.

Connolly also is feeling a surge of interest among women.

So maybe we can have another Year Of The Woman like 1992.
Every day we see more stories in the news about health insurance premiums rising and options for affordable health care disappearing.

People all across Wyoming are rightly concerned about how they will protect their families health. So it is no surprise that the debate over health care reform in the Senate is passionate. What is surprising is the amount of misleading rhetoric that has found its way into the debate.

We would like to set the record straight about what the latest Senate proposal will actually do and how it will help the people of Wyoming.

The proposal protects people with pre-existing conditions. It still lets young people stay on their parents policies until theyre 26 years old. There are still no lifetime limits, and the plan makes no changes to Medicare. And according to initial estimates by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, premiums would be 30 percent lower in 2020 than under current law.

One the most immediate steps it takes is to stabilize the exchanges that many people use to purchase insurance. This year, people living in 70 percent of U.S. counties will have little or no choice of insurers on the exchanges. Next year, at least 40 counties are expected to have no insurer at all on their exchange.

In Wyoming, we have only one insurer and some of the highest premiums in the country. As competition disappears, prices continue to rise. Premiums nationwide have more than doubled over the past four years.

The Senate health care plan shores up these collapsing Obamacare markets that threaten to leave millions of Americans with no affordable options for health care. It also repeals a long list of Obamacares taxes, which raised prices even more.

Next, the Senate proposal makes important reforms to Medicaid, to better provide health care for Americas most vulnerable people.

Today Medicaid is adding significantly to our national debt. The Senate bill makes a common-sense change on how states get the money.

Instead of a blank check, future funding is based on the number and types of patients enrolled in Medicaid. This is an idea that previously received bipartisan support. The Senate bill gives states much more flexibility on how to provide services, so they can make the program work better in local communities.

States like Wyoming would get more money than they get now. Under the Senate proposal, Medicaid spending would increase from $393 billion this year to $464 billion in 2027, an 18 percent increase. Only in Washington, D.C., is that considered a cut.

Wyoming has a responsible and well-managed Medicaid program. The Senate proposal would give it more freedom to work even better and would improve the program in the rest of the country.

The Senate plan also closes the coverage gap that Obamacare created. Under the law, millions of low-income Americans get no help paying for their premiums. This includes people making less than $12,000 a year.

In Wyoming, more than 10,000 people who fall into this gap. The Senate plan would make it easier for them to buy private health insurance coverage on the exchange. It also provides financial help to lower-income families struggling to afford the out-of-pocket costs of health care.

Wyoming could expect to see an increase in funding for hospitals that care for the most vulnerable patients. Under Obamacare, our state receives about $2 million in these funds. Under the Senate plan, these payments would total more than $100 million between 2018 and 2026.

Americas health care system is in grave danger. We need reform urgently. This reform should give as much flexibility as possible to patients, families, and states. What works best for California or New York hardly ever works well for Wyoming. Our state should be able to do what works for people here.

As senators, we have worked for many years to find the best answers for health care reform. The best interest of people in Wyoming have always guided our efforts and our votes.

The stakes are high, and the rhetoric is sometimes heated. Now both sides must work together to make sure we give Americans access to the health care they deserve.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 15 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.
Photos: The Best, Weirdest & Grossest Candy At The 2017 Sweets & Snacks Expo

By Rachel Cromidas in Food on Jul 12, 2017 8:00PM



Every spring, Chicago hosts a massive trade show devoted to candy and savory snack products known as the Sweet and Snacks Expo. And like last year, we were there to sample from the bounty of gummies, jerky, chips and more.

We rounded up about 30 of the most intriguing, odd, and new products that we wanted to try, and reviewed them for our readers, because service journalism. This year Chicagoist Food Editor Anthony Todd couldn't make it to the expo, so editors Rachel Cromidas and Stephen Gossett served as taste testers, along with our resident gummy expert David Wolff.

Above, you'll find a gallery of the snacks with our notes attached, and you can also read more of our notes below. As in years past, some trends quickly emerged: For example, this year Sriracha spice was out, and Mexican spice flavors were in. We also noted a continued push for more varied and appetizing gluten-free options (with mixed results) and the continued popularity of so-called "healthy" options.

Our two favorites this year were the Best Bites cured pork snacks and the Creative Snacks Co. Almond Clusters. Our least favorite: Edible Shots. You read that rightand whatever you're picturing is not horrible enough, so check them out in the gallery above. And before we forget, the award for Most Perplexing Candy goes to the Chocolate Tree Stumps. Why, you ask? Why indeed.

Here's the full list of snacks we sampled:

On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina - Nacho cheese chips

Stephen: It looks like a classic Dorito. I feel like it's milder than a Dorito, which I'm not sure is a good thing. I could eat these... when I'm feeling bad about myself.

David: it's more powdery than Doritos.

Rachel: It's thicker than a Dorito. But it will still turn your fingers neon orange.

Mini Baked Frosted Rice Snacks

David: It's a crunchy cloud. It melts into nothing. A little sweet.

Rachel: It says "original. Sweet with a hint of sea salt," but there is no sea salt.

Black Thunder Chocolate

It's a chocolate covered cookie bar made in Japan.

Rachel: The coating instantly melted off in my hands. I hate anything that does that.

Stephen: I'm pleasantly surprised, since the design is so atrocious, the design almost looks like a meat snack. It's messy and I feel like it's going to be stuck in my teeth.

David: I'm not used to that texture. It's like pieces of cookie.



Kadunks Green Apple

Chewy candy with sour candy dip

David: I don't like snacks that have to have a process behind eating them. It looks like the slime from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a very unflavored gummy.

Stephen: This is scary. like the sewer goo from Ghostbusters. I really don't want to dip this in the goo. It tastes like Gushers, but they overly complicated Gushers by having that gelatinous goo that doesn't break off. I can't imagine eating a whole package of those

David: That's some goopy sour stuff right there. I could also see parents not wanting to buy that because that stuff would get on their [kids'] hands, on the furniture, etc.

Off The Eaten Path - Hummus crisps, olive oil and herb flavored, made with real chickpeas.

-Stephen: That is potent. It feels like I accidentally spilled the spice cabinet on it.

-David: It really hits you with that herb flavor. Like I took a bite off a brick of oregano and gargled it.

Rachel: This is why people who require gluten-free foods complain; it's almost there, but it's not good.

Mountain Thins, a dark chocolate wildberry bar.

Rachel: I'd be happy to eat this... if I had no choice.

David: It's like an after dinner chocolate.

Stephen: It's a very slight berry taste, which is good. If that was at a movie theater, I could see myself reaching for that.

TCHO Orange Toffee Dark Chocolate

Rachel: The orange flavor is perfect, the toffee is crunchy, and it's dark chocolate, which is less common, I would usually expect to see this with milk chocolate and toffee. I like it.

Stephen: The orange is an off flavor. If somebody just handed this to me, I'd feel like I was eating dark chocolate with an off flavor. If we're going dark chocolate, I'd prefer another flavor like the wildberry that we had before.

Sweet Tarts "whipped and tangy"

David: I assumed it's a gummy at first, but then it has a marshmallow-y spring to it, and then it kind of dissolves in your mouth. I'm not a huge fan of the sweet tarts flavoring, but I like it.

Stephen: I like this, it's almost like Peeps meets Sour Patch Kids, in a good way.

"Hi, I'm Skinny Sticks" with real sweet potato. Hundred-calorie snack bag.

Stephen: the taste is there right up front, and then it completely disappears

Rachel: the taste of a sweet potato french fry hits you, and it's great, and then it immediately disappears. And then there's nothing once it disappears.

Beer Salt - Lemon Lime

You can put the salt on the rim of a glass a drink, or they also suggest you put the salt directly in the beer. We tried it with Tecate Original.

David: It's flavor salt. I get a bit of the lemon lime flavor. There's a reason that people put a lime in their beer. It works, and it's simpler than this. Just put a lime in your beer and call it a day.

Stephen: All I taste is salty beer. I cannot see this taking off in any way. And I avoid anything that has a "flow agent" as one of the ingredients.



Chocolate Tree Stumps

David: Because why wouldn't you grab "the chocolate tree stump" snack from Japan.

Stephen: I like the character, he looks like a little Nintendo 64 hero.

David: If I saw it in stores, I would definitely buy it based on the packaging. It's like a biscuit.

Rachel: I like it because it's not too sweet. I like how chewy it is. The chocolate has a metallic aftertaste, however.

Stephen: The cookie is good, but that waxy chocolate coatingI cant get over.

David: I like that they look like chocolate tree stumps. The package is not lying about what they are doing.

Rachel: It just seems like a lot of effort to go through to have this thing the size of your thumb shaped like a tree stump.

Stephen: I think they may have had the results before the concept.

Best Bites - country prime meats salt and pepper, pork

The ingredients are really basic: pork, water, sea-salt, really going after as few ingredients as possible.

David: It does not have a greasy feeling at all

Rachel: It's delicious and bite-sized. Keeps it simple.

Stephen: I love it. A decent snack. Sometimes meet snacks are super spicy. This just takes like a good piece of pork. That's my favorite so far.

Jelly Belly - Krispy Kreme Donut

Rachel: Krispy Kreme Donut is the flavor. So they're like 15 years late on the trend.

David: late on the trend, but it does taste like a Krispy Kreme donut. But what's so appealing about a donut is the texture, and you're not going to get that out of a jellybean.

Stephen: Does it? I taste no donuts. I was really excited for donuts, and I don't taste them.



Chocoretas by Ricolino

David: These are reminiscent of thin mints, but also taste like an after dinner mint.

Stephen: It's my problem with most mint candy: it just tastes like chemicals.



Oven Baked Pizza Chips by Napoli's

"Made from real pizza dough, tomato basil"

Stephen: Lotta oven-baked products here. It's not as oppressively oregano-stuffed as the other one, but there's nothing else going on.

Rachel: Ah, they're shaped like pizzas. Very good. Too herby, though. Fails to live up to its name as pizza.

David: The pizza theme made more sense in the '90s.

Mango Revolcado by Jovy

Mexican spices and heat were the big flavor trend this year, and that's reflected in this classic mango-flavored spicy lollipop.

David: It has a very, very odd shape. It looks like a Kidney. It says "chili covered," and it tastes like chili. I think most Americans would find it too spicy.

Stephen: It looks like something out of a Cronenberg movie.

Warheads Hot Heads Mini Worms

They are known for their sour flavor and have an extreme heat. So it's a gummy candy, that's sour and then you get the heat from it later.

Stephen: Seeing this package, it's like my Proustian madeleine, it thrusts me into my childhood. This candy makes no sense. I feel like I just completed a dare. And I love Warheads, I love that extremity. But I'd eat one of these to say I did it, and never have to do it again. It feels like Malort.

David: It is what it advertises itself as.

Larvets "Original Worm Snax"

These worm snacks are flavored with Mexican spice, in keeping with the Mexican spice trend.

Rachel: I'm going to stop dwelling on what they look like. In terms of flavor, it's the mildest spice flavor. They're super airy, not substantial at all.

David: It's a pleasant taste. It's fun, like dare food.

Stephen: I can definitely tell that I'm eating a worm, but I was fine with that. And they spelled "snax" with an x, that's pretty cool.

Clever Cookie - baked, not fried

Rachel: A churro is supposed to be really light and cripsy. It has a delicious flavor. This is not that.

Stephen: Aside from the flavor, I feel like I could eat a bag of those.

Yum Earth, organic, gluten free pomegranate licorice.

David: It's super chewy, way harder than a gummy. I like the flavor though, it has a pleasant taste.

Stephen: It's almost inedible it's so chewy, and it's not overwhelmingly licorice-y. It would take an hour to chew though.

Invite - Donut Cake

Stephen: It looks very old fashioned. It looks like something my grandfather might pass along to me. It also looks stale, hopefully it doesn't taste stale. It smells buttery.

David: It does not look so appealing.

Rachel: It has a weird fruitcake flavor that just overpowers it. I do like the spongey texture. The fruit flavor is too much though, the whole thing shouldn't taste like fruit.

Spitz Sunflower Seeds - spicy sweet chili

Rachel: It is a spicy sweet chili sunflower seed. It's exactly what the package says it is.

David: This just goes in my meh category.

Stephen: My main criticisms is that it's not a very good sunflower seed. There's no roast to it at all.

Fini Tornadoes

Stephen: This is truly awful. I hope somebody lost their job for this... As I take another bite, it hurts my teeth.

David: Nope. Nope. It's like concentrated pixie stick sugar on the inside, bad chewy candy on the outside.

Double Bubble Birthday Cake Bubble Gum

Stephen: It's vaguely cakey. If I was 7, and I wanted an obnoxious piece of gum. The flavor, it's still there, but it's fading quick... You can't blow a bubble with it. It says bubble on the package... Actually you can, with skill. It takes some time.

David: I'd get birthday cake ice cream instead, that makes more sense.

Kenny's Krumbs - Crumb Cake

"The best part of the crumb cake, now in a cookie."

Rachel: I want it to be kind of like a Mexican wedding cookie. But it's way too Cinnamon-y. Is it as good as just picking the crumbs off of crumb cake? No.

Stephen: If anything, I feel like it's designed to be as inoffensive as possible, and therefore it's not much of anything.

Warheads Smash Ups - "extreme sour cherry lime"

David: When I was in fourth grade, these were currency. These were precious. So I'm curious if it's still as sour as it used to be.... Yes, still sour.

Stephen: It's pretty extreme. The cherry flavor is pretty strong. But it's all up front, and then there's no point in eating the Warhead anymore.

Edible Shots

"As seen on Shark Tank, Mexico"

Rachel: The instructions say make sure you add lemon and salt. Serve them chilled. is this supposed to be for children??

Stephen: I hate squirty foods. No squirty foods. So is the shot glass part of it edible? Oh no. who are they selling this to, Spring Breakers? I can't even imagine some dude named Chad in Cancun doing this. I do think there's an unspoken agreement that it doesn't matter what the f*** this tastes like, because it's purely for novelty. They could try to make it a little better. It doesn't feel like there was much thought whatsoever in making it palatable.

David: It holds liquid... Everything you want in candy. Oh my god, it's like thick fruit leather. Try to bite into the base. Somewhere they would charge you three dollars more for a shot, so you could do it out of this.



Awake Energy Granola Cinnamon, with caffeine plus B vitamins

Stephen: it doesn't really taste like dark chocolate. There are so many bar options right now, you really have to nail your lane. Is it just hyper-caffeinated, maybe?

Rachel: It's a chewy bar. 100 milligrams of caffeine, gluten-free. I find the owl branding very comforting though, he looks trustworthy.

David: Maybe it's meant for high school students who don't want to drink coffee.

Creative Snacks Co. Almond Clusters

Baked with cashews pumpkin seeds cayenne turmeric and honey

Stephen: this is my favorite of the not-sausages. It's very sweet, but in a different way. This has real honey. It's spicy, substantial.

Rachel: I had just a small handful and I feel like I ate an oatmeal cookie. I would buy that, it's my favorite

Duke's - Chorizo and Lime-smoked shorty sausages

Rachel: I get the lime and the chorizo. It's not sweaty, it's not greasy. I'm a big fan of the flavor. I'd bring that on a camping trip.

Stephen: They work well together.

Pureral Gummy Candy "made with real fruit juice, high vitamin C."

David: This is another gummy candy from Japan. It's like, your adult Gusher. Which sounds bad when you put those words together, but it's OK. It's a fancy Gusher.

Stephen: I didn't get any gush. Did I get a defective one? Maybe that's a good thing, it's light on gush. The base tastes really exactly like a watermelon Sour Patch Kids. if you like watermelon Sour Patch Kids, but maybe scrape a little bit of that s*** off them because they're too overwhelming, then this is what you're looking for.

David: It's a little different than the typical American gummy texture. I like them, I think they're cool. For a sweet, I think this is one of the better ones.


A Pima County program that teaches teens about the criminal justice system celebrated its 25th anniversary Friday with the graduation of 30 students who spent the last seven weeks working in local courts.

The program was created in 1992 after retired Arizona Superior Court Judge Norman Fenton saw news reports of social unrest following the Rodney King verdict in Southern California, according to the programs website.

Believing it was important to show young people that the legal system could be fair, Fenton launched Courts Are Us.

Each year, the program hosts 30 high school students who become paid employees with the Pima County courts, working 30 hours per week.

Students partner with supervisors to learn about the different roles in the system and work in divisions including Adult Probation, Office of the Court Interpreter, Pretrial Services, Clerk of the Court, Consolidated Justice and Tucson City courts.

Daiva Scovil, a recent University High School graduate, spent a majority of her time shadowing a support clerk.

Ive been doing filing, Ive been delivering the case files to judges, Ive also been able to go to court hearings and sit in on some policy meetings which have been really interesting, Scovil said. She looks forward to studying pre-law at Arizona State University.

Corina Cunes, an incoming freshman at Flowing Wells High School, said the program could help shape her career path.

On Mondays we go to Superior Court and weve gone into the different courts and sat in on different trials and things, she said.

Being a lawyer does seem pretty interesting; its something I might think about doing.

Over the years, participants have returned to work in Superior Court, Adult Probation and City Court, but many also have gone on to work at the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court, the Pima County Attorneys Office and the Pima County Legal Defenders Office.

Many of the students supervisors are previous participants who are able to share their own stories about the program with interns.

Working with the kids is something thats always been near and dear to my heart, trying to get them to talk to more people where they want to be, said Armando Garcia, who has been working with students for years. The courts a great jump-start to get them to know more of what they want to do.

Garcia said former students who still keep in touch remember their involvement with the program.

Theyre coming back from college to see their younger siblings doing it and they say that was the best time theyve ever had at a job, he said.

Krisanne LoGalbo, Superior Courts community-relations coordinator, said she hopes the program makes a lasting impact on students.

We hope to provide them the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in a professional environment and give them tools theyll need to be successful in life, she said.

Once a week, the students take trips or are given the opportunity to learn from guest lecturers.

When representatives of the Sheriffs Department recently came to speak to the students, Scovil said she met three other students who will be attending Arizona State University with her in the fall.

Each year, the culminating event of the program is a mock trial where the students play different roles.

At Fridays graduation ceremony, the Pima County Board of Supervisors and courts honored Fenton, who spent 25 years as a judge before his retirement in 1992.

It amazes me that Judge Fentons vision has enabled nearly 750 Pima County youth to see a different (and) better side of the justice system and propelled them into fields theyd have never considered prior to their participation, LoGalbo said.
PHOENIX  Federal prosecutors are offering to tell defendants in the Arizona Corporation Commission bribery case who and what else theyre investigating, but only if they agree not to share the information.

The proposal, made in a new court filing, comes as attorneys for former utility regulator Gary Pierce, his wife, a lobbyist, and a water company executive seek details of the FBI inquiry that led to their indictment in May on multiple federal charges. The lawyers say they need that information to prepare their defense for the Oct. 3 trial.

The prosecutors essentially admit they came across the facts that led to the bribery charges against the four during a much larger and more intensive investigation. They provided no specifics.

But in communications with defense attorneys, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Battista, who is leading the legal team, said he does not want to tip off those other targets.

In the latest court filing, Battista conceded the government has to disclose information needed by the defense lawyers. He said they can have pretty much what they want if they keep anything not related directly to this case confidential.

We do not seek a blanket gag order, he told U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi in the pleadings. And a defense claim that we do is incorrect.

Battista said the demand for confidentiality of his offices disclosures not only protects the other  and larger  ongoing investigation, but ensures that others with information do not refuse to come forward because their names will end up splashed across headlines.

That excuse holds no water for attorney Ashley Adams, who represents defendant Sherry Pierce, saying prosecutors havent told her what else theyre investigating that they want to keep secret.

I think we can all take a pretty good educated guess what it relates to, she said.

Adams is not guessing, at least not publicly.

But the federal probe appears to be an outgrowth of an investigation originally started at the state Attorney Generals Office. It included allegations that executives of the Arizona Public Service Co. met secretly with regulators while the utility was in the middle of a rate case before the commission.

Gary Pierce confirmed to Capitol Media Services after being interviewed last year that FBI agents questioned him about the 2014 election, a race in which his son, Justin, was running for secretary of state. There also have been questions about whether Bob Stump, then chairman of the commission and not up for reelection, was coordinating spending by outside groups, including APS, on behalf of commission candidates Doug Little and Tom Forese.

APS has acknowledged that at least one of its officials also had been interviewed by the FBI.

Whatever else prosecutors are pursuing, Adams said she and the other defense lawyers should not be hampered in what they can do with the evidence disclosed to them because of that other not-yet-completed probe.

The government decided to indict our clients at this time, she said. If there is another investigation that is related to this, I think they maybe should have thought about that before they indicted.

According to the indictment, George H. Johnson, who runs a water and sewer company that bears his name, funneled money to Gary Pierce, who at the time was commission chairman, in exchange for favorable votes on two issues.

One involved a 2011 vote to increase the value of the company, a move that allowed it to collect more from customers. The other is a change in policy crafted by Pierce allowing the owners of small companies like Johnson Utilities to recover some of their personal income taxes through higher rates.

The bribe, according to the indictment, was $31,500 provided by Johnson through lobbyist Jim Norton to Sherry Pierce for what prosecutors say was minimal work, money that wound up in the couples joint bank account.

All four have denied guilt.
The National Weather Service is trying to confirm whether a landspout tornado hit ground this evening in Pinal County near Marana, as indicated by two photos posted on Twitter.

One photo, tweeted by KVOA-TV and attributed to Toni Leon, showed the possible tornado in the sky over the Rancho Marana/Gladden Farms area.

Another, shared with the Arizona Daily Star and with KOLD-TV, was taken by Rachel Hess from a park in Gladden Farms just before 6 p.m.

A landspout tornado is a dust devil that connects to a funnel cloud, essentially "a weak tornado," said Rob Howlett, a weather service meteorologist.

Marana police said they had no reports of damage in their jurisdiction, which is in Pima County, and that the weather incident was in Pinal County. Pinal County authorities didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

"At first, everyone at the park thought it was a dust devil," Hess said, "but as it truly came to form we all realized it was forming from the sky down and not from the ground up. It was really cool to see. It's the first one I've ever seen in my life. Glad it was small and not something that would cause any damage!"

It appeared to touch down in Pinal County, but the weather service hasn't been able to confirm, said service meteorologist Jordan Pegram.

This cames as the weather service issued a tornado warning in the Red Rock area, in the Interstate 10 corridor north of Tucson, until 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 14.

The warning was prompted by rotation shown on radar in the mid-levels of the atmosphere for a couple of hours Friday evening, "which concerned us, moving toward the I-10 area," said Howlett. The rotation was starting to weaken shortly before 7:30 p.m., he said.

Video posted on Twitter showed heavy rain and low visibility on I-10 in the Marana area as of 7 p.m.

There is also a severe thunderstorm warning for much of Southern Arizona, from Green Valley-Sahuarita north through Tucson and on to the Phoenix area, until 11 p.m., with wind gusts up to 75 mph possible, along with hail and lightning, the weather service says.
A Tucson man was arrested on charges of animal cruelty, after his dog  left in 115-degree heat without food and water  died, police reports show.

Phil Carreon, 37, was cited for two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty in connection with the incident.

On June 27, police received a call from a witness saying that the house behind him had been vacant for weeks but two dogs had remained in the backyard, according to the incident report from Tucson Police Department.

The witness told police that several days before, hed noticed a strong odor like something dead coming from the empty house and found one of the dogs dead, the report said.

The second dog was malnourished, dehydrated and had a tick infestation on her face. The witness cleaned up and cared for the dog before taking it to a local vet clinic.

The witness called his landlord before calling 911, and by the time police arrived, the deceased dog was gone but there were bloodstains on the concrete and a strong smell of bleach, the report said.

Police spoke to the resident of the home, who said that hed lived there for two years but the house belonged to his father.

He told police that hed moved out of the house five or six weeks before but had been coming back, the report said.

Carreon told police that hed gone to Phoenix for the weekend, leaving the dogs outside, and had come back to find his dog, Charger, dead in the laundry room, according to the report.

When police spoke to the witness, he told them that no one had been at the house for at least five days and there was no food or water left out for the dogs, the report said.

Police said that when Carreon was informed his second dog was at the vet, he declined to pick it up, saying he didnt want it.

The dog has since been adopted.

Carreon has a pretrial conference scheduled for Aug. 22.
ROLLING ALONG Bikers travel north on Peninsula Drive in Millcreek Township, Pa., toward Presque Isle State Park during Thunder on the Isle: The Mayors Ride.

Hawaii

Fire rages in high-rise apartment building

HONOLULU  More than 60 firefighters battled a multiple-alarm fire in a Honolulu high-rise apartment building Friday, and fire department officials confirmed at least three people dead.

The blaze at the Marco Polo apartments started on the 26th floor and spread to at least the 27th floor and several units, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Jenkins.

Oklahoma

Tulsa officer cleared

of wrongdoing resigns

OKLAHOMA CITY  A white police officer recently acquitted of fatally shooting an unarmed black man submitted her resignation from the Tulsa Police Department Friday, saying the desk job where she had been assigned made her feel isolated from fellow officers.

Officer Betty Shelbys resignation is effective Aug. 3, according to a news release from the Tulsa branch of a national police union. She also said she was praying for healing for the family of Terence Crutcher, who died after she opened fire in September.

As I have stated before, the incident with Terence Crutcher was a tragedy for everyone involved, and I am sorry he lost his life, Shelby said. I will continue to pray for the unity of our community, the safety of our citizens and our police officers.

Washington

$15M to family of man killed by police sniper

SEATTLE  A federal jury has awarded nearly $15 million to the family of an unarmed black man shot and killed by police in front of his young son near Tacoma, finding police had no reason to use deadly force.

The award includes $3 million in punitive damages against SWAT commander Mike Zaro during the 2013 standoff; another $1.5 million against Lakewood Officer Michael Wiley, who led an assault on the home and shot the family dog; and $2 million against Lakewood Sgt. Brian Markert, the sniper who shot Leonard Thomas from 90 feet away, The Seattle Times reported Friday.

Thomas was shot outside his home in Fife when he grabbed for his son after police used explosives to enter the home.

West Virginia

Records: Governors company owes $1M

CHARLESTON  West Virginia Tax Department officials have filed four new liens for almost $1 million against one of the coal companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, court records show.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that the liens are against Tams Management Inc. for unpaid severance taxes for mining coal and unpaid reclamation taxes for cleaning up abandoned mine sites.

Records on file at the Kanawha County Courthouse show Tams Management owes the state nearly $972,000 in taxes, interest and penalties.

An attorney for James C. Justice Cos. Inc. said Tams remains committed to honoring its tax obligations.

California

Last sand mine in US to shut down in 2020

MARINA  The last remaining sand mine in the United States will close in 2020.

The California Coastal Commission unanimously approved an agreement Thursday to shut down the Lapis Sand Plant located on a remote beach in Monterey County.

Experts say the operation has caused devastating erosion in Monterey Bay. The company denies that the plant was the cause.
Cook County Lays Off 300 Employees, With Proposed Soda Tax Stalled

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jul 14, 2017 10:38PM



The expensive stuff / Getty Images / Photo: Justin Sullivan

Cook County had to lay off over 300 employees Friday, after a lawsuit stalled the adoption of a county soda tax proposal that was supposed to help fill a budget shortfall.

The cuts, plus an estimated 600 vacant positions that will now go unfilled, are the result of a need for each department across the county to cut its budget by 10 percent, according to County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. It's going to be a big blow to many offices that were already feeling short-staffed, or are dealing with a backlog of County matters.

One area that is especially expected to feel the squeeze is the county's courts. The Tribune found that the state's attorney's office laid off 17 prosecutors and 22 other staff members, and the public defender's office laid off 69 employees, "most of whom are lawyers." Public Defender Amy Campanelli told the Tribune that the loss would be "devastating" and would delay trials and trial resolutions.

The tax on soda and other similar beverages was projected to bring in some $67.5 million in revenue in the 2017 fiscal year, and over $200 million in the next, according to county officials, but just a day before it was slated to go into effect July 1, a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association successfully stalled the tax. The suit argues that the law is unconstitutional, and there is now a temporary restraining order on the tax that must be lifted for it to go into effect.
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An artist performs during a cultural festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Beixinqiao Street in Beijing's Dongcheng district is hosting a cultural festival through Aug 25. The festival features cultural activities and live performances.

Performances of Pingju opera, cross-talk, puppet show and children's theater are staged during the festival. Activities also include lectures on vocal music and children's theater, and workshops on the craftsmanship of traditional Beijing dough models.

The festival will also invite renowned artists from China National Acrobatic Troupe, the China Puppet Troupe, China Pingju Opera Theater, Beijing Dance Drama and Opera Theater, Beijing Children's Art Theater and Beijing Opera Group.
Help India!

Mumbai, (IANS): Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Friday said everybody has a right to eat beef and promised action against cow vigilantes who assault and lynch people in the name of cow protection.

Addressing the media, he said in recent months, many people have been beaten, some of whom lost their lives, for suspected possession or transport of beef or meat of other animals.

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Even Prime Minster Narendra Modi has expressed concern over this and warned that such incidents would not be tolerated. Yet, such incidents have not stopped, Athawale said, adding that such incidents will not be tolerated any more and the self-styled cow vigilantes will be dealt with sternly.

Everybody in the country has a right to eat beef. The gau rakshaks have the right to lodge a police complaint However, they dont have the authority to take the law in their hands and beat or lynch anybody, said Athavale, who is President of NDA constituent, the Republican Party of India-A.

The ministers statement came days after Maharashtra was rocked by beef-related incidents  two in Pune and one in Nagpur  in which four persons were arrested and a former BJP activist brutally assaulted on suspicions of transporting beef by a mob of cow vigilantes respectively.
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Lucknow, (IANS): Three people were detained on Friday for attacking a Muslim family on board a train in Uttar Pradeshs Mainpuri after a video of the brutal assault went viral on social media. Police is also on the look out for others involved in the incident.

The 11 members of the family were on way to Farukkhabad when both men and women were assaulted brutally by a group of two dozen men, armed with iron rods and sticks, leaving them with multiple fractures and internal injuries. The incident occurred on Wednesday.

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The Government Railway Police have filed a case and detained three men.

In the video, the family members are seen pleading, as the miscreants attacked them and even a mentally challenged 17-year-old. The 53-year-old head of the family, Shakir Ali told the police of the entire ordeal on Friday.

They are residents of Kayamganj in Farukkhabad district and were on board the passenger train plying between Shikohabad and Kasganj.

Superintendent of Police O.P. said that many members of the family had been bleeding from the stomach due to the internal injuries suffered during the attack.and some others had suffered head injuries and fractures.

The assailants are also alleged to have misbehaved with the women wearing burqas and molested them during the attack. Security on the train has been beefed up and police is on the lookout to find the people responsible for the crime, an official told IANS.
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The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has vehemently condemned the dastardly attack on unarmed, innocent Amarnath Yatra pilgrims from Gujarat wherein seven precious lives were lost and 19 others were injured in Batingu, near Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir on July 10. However, the party smells conspiracy stating serious doubts about the whole tragedy and its fallout therein.

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SDPI national president A. Sayeed in a statement expressed apprehension that the whole tragedy may be a stage-managed conspiracy by the BJP to bolster its nose-diving fortunes in the face of Patidar agitation led by Hardik Patel in Gujarat. The Patidar stir has virtually put the state and the central BJP leadership on its toes in view of fast approaching Gujarat state Assembly polls slated to be held in December this year. While condoling the deaths of the deceased, the party blamed the intelligence agencies of the government of having failed in their duty to anticipate such heinous attack by the extremists and save the lives of the citizens of the country.

Sayeed has demanded a probe into attack by an impartial agency to spell out whether it was just mayhem by some militant group or there was something more than that meets the eye.

Sayeed said, However, it is almost certain that the BJP in Gujarat will use the millitant attack to whip up pre-election frenzy, with the attack, terrorism, Kashmir, Muslims all again becoming part of what the party members themselves expect now to be a high voltage campaign prior to the December polls for the Gujarat state legislative assembly.

Among other designs, the attack appears to have been carried out with the sinister aim to wreck communal harmony and create mass disorder in the state and in the rest of the country. Perhaps the perpetrators of this attack need a few lessons on how and why the secular fabric of the Valley has survived despite the conflict of the decades, said Sayeed in the press statement.

He pointed out that this years yatra was being organised under the highest-ever multi-tier security setup as intelligence agencies had warned that militants were planning to target 100 policemen and as many pilgrims participating in the Amarnath Yatra. That despite heightened security the terrorists managed to do their despicable act shows that there are chinks in our armour.

Meanwhile, Sayeed hailed that Kashmiris, individually and in organisations, along with others in the country have come out in strong condemnation of the attack. This kind of a response by Kashmiris certainly offers hope, especially at a time when the right-wing frenzy is disturbingly finding its roots in the rest of the country. Common Kashmiris, who have always welcomed and facilitated the Amarnath Yatris, are shocked by this coward but horrific act which has been taken as an attack against the timeless values of Kashmiri plural ethos and identity.
Help India!

By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain, TwoCircles.net

The dead bodies of 11 Indians who died of asphyxiation in Southern Saudi Arabias Narjan, and working for city-based Eamar Almotahedon Co. Ltd. and Contracting Company are likely to be dispatched from the morgue and their bodies will be sent to India by Saturday. The other six injured in the incident are now recovering and are out of danger.

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Moin Akhtar, an officer at the Consulate Press Information and Culture, who is handling this case, said, We forwarded the requisite documents and sought affidavits of the dead persons from their families claiming them as the guardian or family relatives and once we get the affidavits we will proceed to send the dead bodies. He also said that the External Ministry is regularly in touch with the victims families and trying their best to complete the formalities as soon as possible.

Explaining the reason of their death, Akhtar said there was a short circuit in the floor where these labourers were staying. As the short circuit took place early morning, all the windows of six rooms where they are sleeping were closed at that time which led to their death due to asphyxiation.

He also said that one officer is stationed at the hospital with the victims round the clock so that he can be accessible in time of their need. He added that though offices remain closed on Fridays and Saturdays in Saudi Arabia, the External Ministry has remained offices open to accelerate the proceedings for the dispatch of the dead bodies.

The said Company is also in touch with the External Ministry as well as the victims and they are trying their best to assist the Ministry so that the dead bodies could be sent to their families as soon as possible.

The authority of the Company have already talked about the compensation for the victims families with Indian Embassy and assured the Indian Embassy that it will be given as per the Islamic law of the Country. A commission has been set up by the local Governor along with some members from other Ministry to investigate the case. Once, it completes, the amount of compensation will be declared as per the countrys law, Akhtar said. He added that Indian Embassy, the Governor and the Company for the time being are paving the way to dispatch the dead bodies to their respective families.
Help India!

By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain Twocircles.net

Taking a cue from Not in My Name and various other protests meant to counter the growing communalisation in India, students of Aliah University, Kolkata, also took out a march on Friday, July 14 in an attempt to strengthen Hindu-Muslim relationship in the backdrop of recent Baduria- Basirhat communal tensions. Teachers, students and non-teaching staffs participated in this procession urging communal harmony throughout the state.

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At around 2 pm, after the Jumma Namaz, the rally started at the Park Circus Campus and went to Moulali through Ramlila Maidan and turned back after a 5-6km march. There were more than 250 participants in this peaceful rally including 15-20 teachers and two non-teaching staffs. The local police escorted the rally all the way

Aliah Universitys step also becomes important because it was the only University whose students took out a march against the recent communal tensions. After Kalyani University which took walking for peace and communal harmony in the last week, No other University in Bengal did something similar; although it must be pointed out that some of those students did participate in other rallies.

The procession did not comprise of any slogans or lectures except numerous posters that students carried along with them that read Walk for Peace, walk for harmony and banners like the whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love, compassion, patience and humanity. To mark a sort of bond of communal harmony, threads were tied on the hands of the passerby, shop owners on streets and to the pedestrians in course of the march.

Amzed Hossein, the Head of the Department of English, said, Since our state has already a very great tradition of living in peaceful coexistence, this march has great effect and contribution ensuring mutual understanding among different communities and it will help in increasing the inter communal harmony in our state. He added, this march for peace and harmony will strengthen that already situation in the state.

Sharmistha Chaterjee Sriwastav, associate professor and one of the conveners of this peaceful march, said, We were planning this kind of harmonious procession for a long time and it came out today. Since this is a place of learning, a place of good thought, a place of brotherhood, we are trying to encourage our students to grip the message of love and fraternity by saying that they are first citizens of the country, human being, and then they are Muslims or Hindus and their resources are made for the positive contribution of the nation. She also said that this university is no less than any other universities to stand with their resourceful contribution for the making of the nation.

Tajuddin Ahmed, another Assistant Professor of this University and also one of the conveners, said, this(march) is the need of the hour for our state as well as our country. We know that this may not change the situation drastically or dramatically, but at least we should give a kind of attempt, we must have to contribution something little bit that we can do, thats why Aliah University arranged something like this.

Najmul Arefin, a final-year student from the Department of Arabic said that he joined this walk for peace to calm down intolerance thats going on throughout the country and draw attention of the government to ensure security, safety of the countrymen.
Following just a few short months in the White House, Donald Trump is facing daily criticism in regards to the ongoing scandal involving Russia. As the pressure continues to mount, the president has once again put the focus on Hillary Clinton.

Trump on Twitter

Not long after Donald Trump announced that he was running for president he was hit with allegations of being linked back to Russia. Trump's behavior during the 2016 presidential election continued to raise questions around the issue, including his refusal to release his tax returns and his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, several past and present advisers and associates of Trump have been caught with their own ties to the Kremlin, casting further doubt over the head of the former host of "The Apprentice." Since his shocking upset win over Hillary Clinton last November, multiple well-respected news outlets, as well as various government agencies, have released information that links Trump and his administration to Russia. As expected, Trump and his team have denied any wrongdoing, with the president repeatedly referring to the allegations against him as a "witch hunt." On Wednesday night, the latest twist in the story was revealed to be that the president is now under investigation for possible obstruction of justice.

After addressing the issue in a morning social media rant, Trump returned to Twitter on June 15 to express his outrage.

Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump decided to push back against the claims against him, while taking several shots at the former Secretary of State.

"Why is that Hillary Clinton's family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?" Trump rhetorically asked in a tweet.

Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017

Not stopping there, Donald Trump went back on the attack in a follow-up tweet, once against smearing Hillary Clinton in the process.

"Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?" he wrote.

Moving forward

As new information continues to be released in regards to the Russian Scandal and investigation, Donald Trump is being backed into a corner where he is having trouble defending himself. The commander in chief and his administration have remained defiant, dismissing the report against him as "fake news," as Trump stands his ground. While it's unknown how the scandal will play out in the future, it's expected that the White House will not back down anytime soon.
One of two lawyers retained by White House senior adviser jared kushner to represent him during the Russian investigation quit. The New York Daily News reported that veteran Lawyer Jamie Gorelick resigned as attorney for the son-in-law of President Donald Trump due to concerns over conflict of interest.

She left the team as Robert Mueller, the special counsel for the Russia probe, used to work at Wilmer Hale -- which Gorelick owns. Three other members of Muellers team also came from the same law firm. Other than the conflict of interest, Gorelick, a Democrat, has been criticized for being part of the Trump legal defense team.

Still advising Kushner

The defense of Kushner currently rests in the hands of Abbe Lowell, but Gorelick said she would still advise Kushner. She is currently guiding the presidents son-in-law in matters of his security clearance and ethics compliance.

The president also got a new lawyer on his team, Ty Cobb. Mashable reported that Cobb, the high-powered attorney who represented people during the term of President Bill Clinton, is known for his handlebar mustache. The addition of a lawyer comes after evidence of apparent Russian interference emerged when Donald Jr. tweeted a copy of the emails from British publicist Rob Goldstone. The emails arranged for Donald Jr. to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who claimed to have evidence that the Democratic National Convention allegedly received dirty money.

The money was a contribution from an American hedge fund that dodged taxes in Russia and backed the Magnitsky sanctions.

Kushner has the most to lose

The Washington Post, in an editorial, pointed out that among the three Trump campaign staff who attended the June 9 meeting at Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer and a former Soviet counterintelligence officer, it is Kushner who stands to lose the most with the Russia probe.

The newspaper noted that Donald Jr. had no operational role in the campaign.

Manafort was known for his shady deals with Russians and Ukrainians, while Kushner was tasked with oversight of the Trump campaigns digital operations. His problems stem from the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled with the election and the interference took place mostly in cyberspace.

Kushner is also a White House official as a senior adviser to his father-in-law. His security clearance, which the Democrats had questioned, could be revoked. Ivankas husband also failed to include a lot in his disclosures, such as the meeting with Veselnitskaya in his application for security clearance. Gorelick is helping him comply with the requirements.
China should build an international standards system for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) while playing an important role in promoting development of international medicine, according to Wang Xiaopin, an expert and leading official of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM).

Wang Xiaopin, the director of the Department of Medical Administration of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, gives an exclusive interview to China.org.cn on the sidelines of the BRICS Health Ministers Meeting held in Tianjin on July 6-7, 2017. [Photo/China.org.cn]



In an exclusive interview with China.org.cn on the sidelines of the BRICS Health Ministers Meeting held in Tianjin July 6-7, Wang, who is director of the Department of Medical Administration, answered questions on TCM's going global and strengthening international cooperation and exchanges.

She said traditional Chinese medicine had so far spread to 183 countries and regions. Last December, the Development Plan of the Belt and Road for Traditional Chinese Medicine (2016-2020) was jointly issued by the SATCM and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

According to the Plan, China will facilitate TCM cooperation and development in countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative. "China will build 30 TCM centers along the route and work with international experts and scholars to formulate and promulgate a series of international standards for TCM," Wang said.

"At the same time, the Chinese government strongly supports Chinese enterprises to go global and register Chinese medicine products in the international market," she added.

According to the communique adopted at the BRICS Health Ministers Meeting, the five originating members  Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa  will share experiences and jointly promote research and development of health care products.

"The communique is of great significance," Wang said, stressing that the ministers had agreed to follow the consensus reached in the communique, establishing a government cooperation mechanism and promoting TCM to be included in the healthcare policy systems of other countries.

Speaking of the influence and unique function of traditional medicine, Wang said it was closely related to the history, culture and tradition of their respective nations and regions. "From human health and reproduction to cultural heritage, traditional medicine is indispensable and its value is enormous.

"However, the mainstream medical system nowadays is based on the modern medical system, so the value of traditional medicine has been somewhat underestimated."

Wang said traditional medicine contains a great deal of wisdom and know-how to solve contemporary people's health problems. She cited some examples  traditional medicine can solve such problems as dealing with newly-emerging infectious diseases, aged-related diseases and rising medical costs because of its exact curative effect, convenient use and low price.

She said the current international market scale of the TCM industry was around US$50 billion, but "this figure only involves Chinese medicine clinics, acupuncture clinics, and the doctors who offer related services, and does not involve TCM products themselves.

"Internationally, those items similar to Chinese medicine products are herbal supplements and health food products, and the related figure is very high according to different calculations. So, there is a big potential for our TCM products to go global, but we will face some barriers and difficulties."

Wang suggested Chinese medical technicians cooperate with their international peers and explore new development methods so as to fully display the distinctive characteristics of TCM products.

"At the same time, we should bring in talents from overseas to promote the development of our products through all kinds of services," she said.
A top Russian-American lobbyist and military officer during the Soviet era were among those who attended a meeting with Trump Jr., son-in-law and campaign leader last year, the lobbyist admitted on Friday. His comments have added a new outline of the Trump teams growing explanations about the June 2016 controversial meeting, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to reporters. He hadnt been previously recognized as being involved in the Trump Tower meeting in New York, which it is believed was arranged as part of an attempt by the Russian government to collude with the Republican campaign.

The controversial meeting

The meeting raised doubts whether Trump's aides colluded with Russia to join the presidential election - to help and frustrate Hillary Clinton - and whether they were close to their contacts abroad. Federal investigators and congressmen are investigating potential links between the campaign and Russia.

Akhmetshin was said to have a relationship with Russian intelligence, a claim he dismissed as a libel campaign. He is known to be in Washington, lobbying for Russia's interest in trying to undermine the accusations of a US lawyer who was jailed in Russia and later died in prison.

US News wrote that he told reporters that he was in the service of the Soviet Army in the counter-intelligence unit, but was never officially trained as a spy.

In an e-mail released by Donald Trump son this week, the musician's publicist admitted he hosted a meeting because the Russian lawyer wanted to distribute harmful information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The mediator said the discussion was part of a plot by the Russian government to assist the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

Although Trump Jr. Confirmed that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya attended the meeting, he did not disclose the presence of Akkmmetin. The younger Trump publicly denounced the meeting, claiming he had not received the promised information.

Donald Trump Jr.'s statement

On Sunday, The Presidents son released a statement saying that the lawyer said there was information that people linked to Russia had funded the Democratic National Committee and aided the Democratic candidate Clinton, a position that Akhmetshin supported in his statement.

In his initial public comment about the meeting, Akhmetshin said that Veselnitskaya followed him to the Trump Tower in New York where they both met with the interpreter. He said that he learned of the meeting on the day when Veselinzic asked him to attend. He said he appeared in jeans and T-shirt.
U.S. House of Representatives passed early on Friday, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2018. The said act includes the strengthening of ties with Taiwan through expanded military exchanges with the small island nation.

What does the NDAA entail for Taiwan?

The said bill contains what is termed as the sense of Congress to provide a timely review of request for military aids for countries like Taiwan to maintain self-defense capability. This entails a detailed review of military exchanges with Taiwan and the continued asymmetrical self-defense coming from the United States.

It's aim is to provide Taiwan the necessary budget to maintain a defensive capability sufficient enough to safeguard its sovereignty from threatening forces.

Also, included in the amendment, NDAA is the feasibility and advisability of U.S. Navy warships to make Ports Of Call in Taiwan and allowing in turn, Taiwanese ships to make ports of call on American naval bases in the Pacific. Regular training, military exercises and sharing of technology with the Taiwanese military is also included in the act.

The United States is hoping to strengthen its relationship with Taiwan especially with the growing threat of North Korea and the expansionist policy of China. Beijing had been asserting itself more vigorously during the past decade on the South and East China Sea.

The growing Chinese navy is also a cause for concern as its presence in these areas are slowly stifling U.S. warship navigation in the highly contested region.

How will China react to a strong U.S. backed Taiwan?

Ever since Taiwan broke off from mainland China during the Cold war, animosity between the two nation grew stronger.

Sentiments flare over the perceived sovereignty of Taiwan and how China refuses to acknowledge the small island is now recognized worldwide as a separate country. China continually views Taiwan as a rebellious province, which in time will return back to the mainland in reunification.The United States is the main supporter of a free Taiwan, which is a remnant of the divide created by the Cold War between Communist and Capitalist countries.

China is currently in the process of revamping their military to be on par with neighboring countries such as Japan and South Korea. Beijing is also clamping on its claimed territories in the South China Sea, even though the international community have condemned its expansionist policy. However, the biggest problem with allowing the U.S. - Taiwan relationship to grow stronger is that America demands China to pressure North Korea.

A strong U.S. presence in the East China Sea, will give military leverage to effectively push China into action especially in tandem with Trump's decision to sanction Chinese banks and businesses with active transactions with Pyongyang.
"Alaskan Bush People" Season 7 premiered on June 14 with a recap of what the family had been through in the past seasons. There have been a lot of rumors surrounding the Brown family, specifically about Ami Brown's health condition.

Update on Ami's condition

While many fans were disappointed with the first episode, the show promises an all-new episode next week. The preview clip confirms that "Alaskan Bush People" Season 7 would cover Ami's health condition, as well as Matt's recent accident. In the clip, the family brings Ami in the hospital. Ami tries to be optimistic, saying that they survived a sinking ship with babies, so she can handle her current condition.

"I'm tough," she told her husband Billy.

Billy previously confirmed that his wife is sick. It is not yet clear what Ami is suffering from, but rumors say that she has cancer. The family is reportedly in Los Angeles now as their matriarch is receiving treatment. Based on the synopsis for next week's episode, Noah was left in Browntown to take care of their home.

Matt's accident

The new season of "Alaskan Bush People" would also feature the recent accident involving Matt. The preview clip shows the crew calling a medic. Matt's head was bleeding as the responders put him into the ambulance. Last week, the reality star updated his fans that he is now recovering with his family.

"This year has been tough for us but your positive thoughts mean so much and keep us hopeful.

Thank you again," he said in a statement via the "Alaskan Bush People" official Facebook page.

Brown family leaving the bush

The Brown family is weighing in on the possibility of leaving their life in Alaska given Ami's condition. In the teaser video, Matt was talking to Noah saying that their lives are changing and they may have to pack up and leave.

Ami also told Billy, "Well shut the book on the forest, and well open a new book." These suggest that whatever Ami is going through, it is serious enough to result in the whole family leaving Browntown.

Could this be the end of the "Alaskan Bush People"? Probably. But, it is also possible to continue the show as there are other things to watch out for the Browns.

Even if they leave Alaska, the show could focus on how they would be able to keep their way of life away from their home for three decades. Then there's the engagement of Noah and Rhain, who are already planning their wedding.

Watch "Alaskan Bush People" every Wednesday on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. ET.
Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants to have access to encrypted messages of tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and others to assist the rule of law even as he warned that encrypted messaging apps could be used by terrorists and criminals, the BBC reported.

Mr. Turnbull made a recent pitch to reporters about his interest in prying into encrypted messages but he seems instead to be reviving the alleged spy leaks by Edward Snowden, who is still in asylum in Russia after facing espionage charges in 2013 by the U.S. government.

Lancaster Online reported this week that "Edward Snowden's leaks still has NSA in damage-control mode."

Need to pry into encrypted messages

Encrypted messages are considered secure online messages that could not be easily intercepted by hackers, terrorists, and criminals. The encrypted messages cannot be handed over by messaging companies as they do not receive a legible copy.

WhatsApp, for one, uses end-to-end encryption, and its encrypted messages if ever they are intercepted are unreadable. Mr. Turnbull wanted for these encrypted messages be accessed by government spies, an action which could not possibly have any headway without earning a backlash on its citizens freedom of privacy.

There are fears from Australian authorities that this type of messaging has been used by terrorists and criminals.

Not seeking a 'backdoor'

Mr. Turnbull told journalists that he is not seeking a backdoor by the government into the systems of the tech companies but only wanted the encrypted messages to be accessed and understood like information processed offline.

He said that the access to encrypted messages would assist the rule of the law but tech experts are saying that giving into this would mean that criminals and terrorists could also use the same.

Turnbull's "backdoor" talks have revived government spy talks after Snowden exposed the U.S. governments snooping activities while tech experts and legal communities favoring privacy are again bracing for repercussions as the Australian government presses to have access to encrypted messages.

Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA, leaked to the media the extensive surveillance activities by American intelligence in internet and phone companies in the U.S.

in June early June 2013.

He exposed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting telephone records of tens of millions of U.S. citizens. The Guardian newspaper published a secret court order favoring NSA for the telecommunications company Verizon to provide it with its telephone data on a daily basis.

Subsequent exposes of the Washington Post and the Guardian bared that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google, like a backbone to monitor communications via a surveillance program named Prism.

But Prism was also cracked by a British electronic eavesdropping company named GCHQ. Snowden was later uncovered to be the one behind the leak. There was a widespread search for him until he was found to be already in Russia, where he was granted asylum.
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The increasingly important role an arbitration court plays in facilitating trade and investment was highlighted at a seminar jointly held by Vietnamese and South Korean legal entities in Ha Noi on Thursday.  Photo voh.com.vn

HA NOI  The increasingly important role an arbitration court plays in facilitating trade and investment was highlighted at a seminar jointly held by Vietnamese and South Korean legal entities in Ha Noi on Thursday.

The seminar was titled A Strategic Approach to International Arbitration in Viet Nam and Korea: Commerce, Investment and Infrastructure.

It focused on practical topics of common interest for both countries, including arbitration related to infrastructure projects, and recent developments in both nations arbitration frameworks.

Participants studied international disputes that both the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Viet Nam have faced, as well as methods for foreign investors to make claims regarding international infrastructure disputes in Viet Nam.

Vu Anh Duong, Secretary General of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC), said that as a stable country with high economic growth, Viet Nam was becoming an attractive investment for foreign investors.

In such a setting, the demand for new methods of dispute settlement in business is rising, given the large sums involved and the complex nature of disagreements.

In fact, there is urgent need for a strong, transparent and accessible set of legal frameworks, including the arbitration court, in order to protect and support the rights of businesses, both local and foreign, he said.

This need has to be met if the country wants to continue win investors trust and funding, Duong said.

Building on its success last year, the seminar created an opportunity to discuss and learn from current issues on international infrastructure disputes.

The opinions and analyses offered by expert professionals would benefit both Vietnamese and South Korean firms, organisers said.

Ji Sung-Bae, President of the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), said that RoK was the largest foreign investor in Viet Nam with businesses investing a total of US$15 billion in the country, and the prospects of this increasing further were bright.

As business opportunities increase, so do legal disputes, and an arbitration court was one of the most effective means of settlement recommended by experts, he said.

Shin Hi-Teak, Chairman of the Seoul International Dispute Resolution Center (SIDRC), said that his institution hopes to collaborate and help Vietnamese arbitration courts in solving any legal dispute that may arise between businesses of both countries and other countries in the future.

Le Hong Hanh, Chairman of the VIACs Legal Science Council, said that at present, the legal framework for arbitration in Viet Nam relied on several important documents like the Ordinance on Commercial Arbitration in 2003, the Law on Commercial Arbitration in 2010 and the 22/2017/ND-CP Decree on Commercial Mediation in 2017.

This showed gradual improvement in the legal framework department, with notable changes like the removal of the requirement on arbitrators nationality and more detailed descriptions of the civil courts role in supporting the arbitration courts decisions.

Hanh also commented that the VIAC has noted the rising number of cases successfully resolved by the arbitration court in Viet Nam.

Right now the country has 18 arbitration centres with the VIAC acting as the most renowned and reliable entity among them.

However, the VIAC has also found that since many business entities in Viet Nam are small and medium sized, they tend to approach the civil court instead of an arbitration court, and this has hindered the growth of this commercial mediation method.

Kim Byoung-Pil, Partner at Bae, Kim and Lee LLC, said that in the next 10 years, Viet Nam will be walking the same development path as the RoK once did.

He said advised businesses trying to have their disputes settled by the arbitration court should provide the court and lawyer with professionally gathered data and hire trained experts to advice and represent them. He hoped that such professionalism would become a rising trend in Viet Nam.

o Trong Hai, Managing Partner at Bizlink Lawyers, said that the main sources of disputes were mistakes in the contracts, parties failure to uphold their part of the contract, ineffective project management, and payment failure.

The seminar was jointly organised by the KCAB, the VIAC, and the IDRC.  VNS
HCM CITY  Investment in industrial parks (IP) and export processing zones (EPZ) rose more than 39 per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year to US$384.3 million, according to the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza).

Foreign direct investment (FDI) was worth more than $159 million, a year-on-year increase of 24 per cent, said Tran Viet Ha, head of the investment management department.

Investment by domestic enterprises rose by 52.7 per cent to $224.34 million.

Most of the new projects are in food processing, services, mechanical engineering and textiles.

South Korea was the largest investor, accounting for 55 per cent of the investment, followed by Taiwan and Japan.

In May, CJ Cau Tre Food JSC received an investment registration certificate to develop a 7.1-hectare complex at Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone in Nha Be District.

The project, with investment of VN1.2 trillion ($53.33 million), to process meat and seafood and produce tea and confectionery products contributed to the FDI surge in IPs and EPZs over the first half of the year, Ha said at a press meeting held on July 14.

CJ CheilJedang Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, raised its stake to 71.6 per cent in the former Cau Tre Export Processing JSC late last year.

Nguyen Tan Phuoc, deputy head of Hepza, attributed the increase in investment to an upgrade of infrastructure in IPs and EPZs.

During the period, the area of leased land was 68 hectares, a 1.7-fold increase compared to the same period last year.

Around 5.9 hectares of factory were leased, a 2.5-fold year-on-year rise, Phuoc said.

Hepza continues to encourage investment in high-tech and supporting industries as well as the four key industries of mechanical engineering, electronics and IT, chemicals, and food processing.

Labour-intensive projects and those with high risk of pollution were rejected despite large investment capital, he said.

Exports by enterprises in the IPs and EPZs rose by 27.24 per cent to $2.75 billion.

The target of $6 billion for this years exports is feasible as exports by enterprises in IPs and EPZs will increase for the remaining six months.

A total of 1,461 projects with combined investment of $9.71 billion, including 551 FDI projects worth a total of $5.55 billion, are operating in IPs and EPZs.

The number of labourers working in IPs and EPZs rose by 1,450 people to reach more than 285,900, including 2,660 foreign workers. VNS




Viet Nam is likely to reach total export turnover of US$200 billion for 2017, increasing more than 13 per cent from last year and exceeding the set target.  Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI  Viet Nam is likely to reach total export turnover of US$200 billion for 2017, increasing more than 13 per cent from last year and exceeding the set target, deputy minister of Industry and Trade o Thang Hai claimed at a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday.

Hai said that exports of garments, footwear and wooden products will enjoy substantial increases in the second half of the year.

In stark contrast, imports are forecast to taper off as most equipment firms plan to buy was purchased at the beginning of the year. Import value is estimated at $205 billion.

The countrys trade deficit is estimated at $5 billion, or 2.5 per cent of export turnover and lower than the National Assemblys goal.

To realise the objective, the ministry is focusing on addressing difficulties for exporters, promoting market information to tackle market barriers and popularising free trade deals.

Hai said that various measures will be implemented to support domestic enterprises in meeting quality standards of importers and increasing the value of export products, especially agro-forestry-fishery goods.

The ministry also plans to help farm produce enter new markets and to tighten management of import-export activities for the rest of the year.

He added that the ministry will work to tackle businesses difficulties through tax and fee policies to help them reduce costs, helping them develop markets and compete with imported products.

In addition, the ministry will review delayed projects to bring them into operation as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will create a competitive market to protect local production, especially steel, automobile, fertiliser and chemical sectors, he added.

The deputy minister said the predicted growth rate of more than 8 per cent in the last months of the year would be driven by the processing and manufacturing sectors.

The mineral exploitation industry was expected to see difficulties due to weather conditions and low market demand and exports, he said.

MoIT and Viet Nams overseas rep. office jointly promote trade

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh expected that the heads of Viet Nams representative offices under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will seek pork consumption markets to help animal breeders overcome plunging prices.

Anh made the statement in a meeting with heads of Viet Nams representative offices in Ha Noi yesterday, saying the offices should provide information to help the ministry build mechanisms and policies to develop sustainable production and export chains.

Viet Nam has not built a value chain despite having 21 exported products with value of more than $1 billion each. Its exports therefore are not sustainable.

He hoped that the heads of the offices would pay attention to increasing export value in the countrys two main export markets of the US and EU. In addition, they were urged to seek exports to China.

He expected the offices to support the ministry in resolving difficulties. --VNS
HA NOI  Shares fell on both local markets on Friday, ending a three-day rise as investors increased selling to lock in short-term profits for their portfolios.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.09 per cent to close at 777.60 points.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange dropped 0.33 per cent to end at 100.43 points.

Fridays declines also ended a rally on both local bourses with the VN Index advancing total 1.5 per cent in the previous three sessions and the HNX Index going up 0.4 per cent.

Fridays session also closed a volatile trading week for both local indices. The VN Index posted a weekly gain of 0.2 per cent while the HNX Index fell 1.1 per cent.

More than 272.6 million shares were traded on both local bourses, worth VN4.21 trillion (US$187.4 million).

Fridays trading figures increased by 4.2 per cent in volume and 1.2 per cent in value compared to Thursday.

Large-stocks performance was negative as 17 shares among the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation declined while only nine advanced.

Bank stocks were among the sectors that posted the worst falls on Friday with six of the nine listed banks suffering and only Vietcombank (VCB) inching up 0.1 per cent.

Losers included Sacombank (STB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).

The agriculture sector, led by Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG) and its subsidiary HAGL Agrico (HNG), also fell.

HAG lost 1.7 per cent and HNG was down 1.1 per cent after having risen total 8.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent in the previous three sessions.

Among other large-cap stocks that suffered from profit-taking were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), ICT group FPT Corp (FPT) and HCM City Infrastructure Investment (CII).

On the opposite side, shares of pharmaceutical companies traded in positive territory after DHG Pharmaceutical Co (DHG) proposed to its shareholders to approve a lift in the companys foreign ownership limit. DHG jumped 4.6 per cent.

The benchmark VN Index moved in a narrow margin between 776.88 and 780.65 points and started to decline towards the end of the day when it touched the short-term peak of 780 points, according to BIDV Securities Co (BSC).

The brokerage said in its daily report that large-cap stocks began to suffer from investors short-term profit-taking after having risen during the previous three consecutive days.

The market would move sideways in coming sessions between 775 and 780 points, BSC said, adding that there is a chance that the VN Index can break through the level of 780 points if trading liquidity remains positive enough.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) receives Governor of Japans Kanagawa prefecture Kuroiwa Yuji in Ha Noi yesterday. VNA/VNNS Photo Doan Tan

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assured the Governor of Japans Kanagawa prefecture Kuroiwa Yuji that the Vietnamese government is improving the domestic business climate.

During a reception in Ha Noi yesterday, the PM expressed his delight at the fact that several Kanagawa firms have taken steps to do business in Viet Nam, adding a recent survey by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) indicated that most Japanese enterprises are interested in expanding their operations in Viet Nam.

He asked for efforts to create a new Japanese investment wave in Viet Nam towards turning Japan into the largest source of foreign direct investment in the country. The host hailed Kanagawas initiative to promote medical ties with Viet Nam to improve healthcare for locals, and wished that the two sides would enhance collaboration in labour and tourism by receiving more Vietnamese trainees and boosting the two countries images.

Yuji, for his part, said he is accompanied by 17 local businesses during the visit. Via seminars and exchanges, two of them have decided to invest in Viet Nam while four others expressed interest and readiness for ventures in the country. Four Vietnamese companies also plan to operate in the prefecture.

He informed his host that the delegation worked with the health ministry on nutrition in healthcare and improving longevity and life quality.

The guest expressed hope that the prefecture could work with Viet Nam in healthcare and offer medicals tours.

He expected a list of Vietnamese information technology firms working in Japan to be announced soon, noting that Kanagawa prefecture commits to offering all possible support to them.  VNS
Viet Nam and Singapore share concerns over terrorism in the region and the world, and are willing to join hands in the fight against extreme violence, leaders of both countries said yesterday.  VNA/VNS Van SInh

HA NOI  Viet Nam and Singapore share concerns over terrorism in the region and the world, and are willing to join hands in the fight against extreme violence, leaders of both countries said yesterday.

They shared concern was expressed in talks held in Singapore between visiting Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh and his Singaporean counterpart Teo Chee Hean. Binh concludes his three-day visit to Singapore today.

In their talks, both sides agreed to persist with exchange visits at levels between the Party, State and other government channels while stepping up people-to-people exchanges.

They also agreed on effectively tapping strategic consultation mechanisms and enhancing ties between the two countries defence forces, particularly in naval and aviation sectors, anti-piracy co-operation and search and rescue operations.

The Singaporean side pledged to boost security collaboration with Viet Nam, especially in cyber security, sharing of anti-terrorism intelligence, immigration management, information security and personnel training.

Underscoring the strong growth of trade and investment, considering it a pillar of their bilateral strategic partnership, Singapore vowed to assist Viet Nam in economic reforms, constructive governance and opening up of the market. Vietnamese firms should join the global supply chain and serve as a bridge connecting Viet Nam and the Southeast Asia, officials said.

Singapore offered to share experiences in policy making on urban management, corruption prevention, administrative reform, e-government and personnel training, and said it stands ready to send experts to Viet Nam for training in these areas.

On regional and global issues, both sides stressed the need for a united ASEAN playing a central role in dealing with strategic issues in the region, especially the East Sea (South China Sea) issue.

Both sides affirmed the importance of the peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), respect to diplomatic and legal process without the use of force or threat to use force and full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards reaching a legally-binding and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Deputy PM Binh spoke highly of Singapores role in coordinating ASEAN-China ties and affirmed that Viet Nam would continue working closely with Singapore for the latter to successfully assume the role of ASEAN Chair in 2018.
 Flash

The 2017 China-CEE Countries Political Parties Dialogue concluded in Bucharest, Romania, on July 14. [Photo by Guo Xiaohong/China.org.cn]

The Belt and Road Initiative has brought tangible benefits to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, who are looking forward to broader cooperation, according the assessment of the 2017 China-CEE Countries Political Parties Dialogue, ending in Bucharest, Romania, on July 14.

The meeting brought together 600 political party leaders, representatives and entrepreneurs from China and the 16 CEE countries, who discussed new philosophies, ideas and measures for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.

Rapid development of direct China-Europe freight train services as well as e-commerce industry in China has effectively upgraded Poland's agricultural exports to China, said Michal Ludwikowski, general director of Polish Economic Congress Foundation.

Fresh, natural apples in Poland, one of the largest producers in Europe, have entered more and more households in China, a blessing both for Chinese consumers and Polish farmers, as freight trains ensure the transport speed and quality of agricultural products.

Poland aims to have more comprehensive collaboration with China in the future in terms of infrastructure and transport connectivity, which is of great importance to countries with a strong agricultural sector like Poland, Ludwikowski said. He also wanted to seek ways to develop bilateral tourism.

The Czech Republic is a leader in spearheading the Belt and Road Initiative in the region. As a time-honored Chinese friend and an active participant of the Belt and Road Initiative, it has made striking improvements in such areas as finance, regional development, healthcare and cultural cooperation, said Jan Hamacek, Speaker of the Czech Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party in the Dialogue.

Three direct flights between Prague and China have been opened, Chinese investment has steadily increased, and companies of both countries are keen to cooperate; meanwhile, the country is greeting an increasing number of Chinese tourists. All these factors are increasing trade and creating jobs.

What we need now are more concrete projects to improve connectivity between Europe and China in order to benefit EU and Chinese citizens, added Hamacek.

Other countries including Serbia and Hungary also lauded the Initiative as bringing solid results for their peoples.

China-CEE trade increased to US$58.7 billion in 2016 from US$43.9 billion in 2010, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. The share of China-CEE trade in China's overall trade with Europe expanded to 9.8 percent in 2016.

The Dialogue, jointly held by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Romania's Social Democrat Party, is the second of its kind, the first being held in Budapest last year under the China-CEE cooperative mechanism dubbed as 16+1 framework. It has become a platform for political parties to discuss development strategies regardless of ideological and geographical differences.

The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as put forward by President Xi Jinping during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013.
HOA BINH  Many households in Hoa Binh Province have destroyed their farms to mine gold illegally, falsely informing local authorities that they are digging shrimp ponds.

Some have even sold their own land to illegal gold miners.

Local authorities have admitted their impotence, saying that they need more higher-level support to deal with the problem.

In Kim Boi Districts Mi Hoa Commune, the illegal gold mining has been blatant. With many machines like excavators, bulldozers, drilling and pumping machines operating in each plot of land, the din is deafening.

The damage to the top soil has been severe, with the digging going down to four or five metres.

A plot of land belonging to commune resident inh Cong iep, located on the main road in ong Hoa 2 Village, is a deep hole. Miners can be seen panning for gold just a few steps away.

Diep told online newspaper danviet.vn that he was digging a fish pond because growing rice on the land was not bringing much profit.

To avoid the attention from local authorities, iep has covered his pond with a black net and planted some banana trees outside.

Many other residents are doing the same.

Quach Cong Trinh, head of ong Hoa 2 Village, claimed there were no gold mining activities, adding that the residents were switching from rice cultivation to fish farming.

However, the switching process has being going on for three years.

Particularly noteworthy is that the illegal gold mining area is located right in front of the Mi Hoa Communes Peoples Committee.

Chairman of the committee, Bui Xuan Hoan, said his office has tried its best to protect local agricultural land from being destroyed by illegal gold mining.

He said that 20 years ago, part of the Boi River passing the commune had been seriously destroyed by a rumor saying that there was gold under the riverbed. After searching in vain for a short time, the miners, mostly from outside, left the area.

However, four years ago, some residents in the commune surprisingly discovered pieces of gold when digging wells. The story spread quickly, and all residents began digging up their land in the hope of striking it rich.

So far, no gold has been found, but agricultural land had been seriously destroyed.

Hoan also said that since 2013, the committee has conducted many inspections, suspending illegal gold mining by five households and seizing 30 machines. In three cases, fines of VN2 million (US$88) each have been levied.

However, these measures have failed to top households from continuing their exploitation.

Hoan said the Peoples Committee has recorded 20 households selling their arable land to gold miners.

It has held meetings between local residents and police, and encouraged miners to stop their behavior. It has also reported the situation to authorities in Kim Boi District as well as the provincial administration. Provincial police have inspected the area, but the situation has not improved.

The committee has currently asked the local electricity company to stop power supply to households violating the law, and continued reporting on the situation to district, he said.  VNS
TAY NINH  The Tay Ninh Province Department of Transport has green lighted Tay Ninh Tourist Trading Joint-stock Companys proposal to operate electric buses on a trial basis in downtown Tay Ninh city and Hoa Thanh District from early next year.

They will go around the foot of Ba en (Black Virgin) Mountain and the citys main streets and to Long Hoa Market in Hoa Thanh District.

A total of 20 14-seater buses will be used.

Tourists can hire these buses by the hour.

Now the company uses 14-23-seat electric buses to transport tourists inside the Ba en Mountain National Tourism Area. In future the company hopes to expand the electric bus services city-wide to improve traffic, protect the environment and dovetail with urban and socio-economic development plans.  VNS
Cardinal joins WORKSAFE

WATERLOO  Cardinal Construction Inc. is partnering with Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration Consultation and Master Builders of Iowa by enrolling its project, Hawkeye Community College Adult Learning Center, in the WORKSAFE program. The project is located in downtown Waterloo and is scheduled to be completed August 2018.

Parents group gets credentials

WATERLOO  The Iowa Department of Management and Public Health has announced the Young Parents Together of Black Hawk County has earned the Iowa Family Support credential.

The Iowa Family Support standards are based on the most up-to-date, evidence-based practice in the family support field. Adherence to the standards indicates the program is providing high quality services that will result in positive outcomes for young children and their families.

Young Parents Together is a weekly support and education group for teens who are pregnant or parenting.

Hospital honored

WEST DES MOINES  The American Hospital Associations Health Forum has named UnityPoint Health a 2017 Most Wired Advanced Health System.

UnityPoint Health is the only health system in Iowa and Illinois to achieve advanced status.

Allen Hospital in Waterloo, Finley Hospital in Dubuque and St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids are all affiliates of UnityPoint Health.

The Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study recognizes hospitals and health systems for excellence in information technology.

Becks Taproom opens in C.R.

WATERLOO  Becks Taproom Grill will open a second location in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids in August.

It will open in the former Hurricane Grill & Wings location.

The restaurant features a beer wall where patrons pour their own beer. Becks is part of Barmuda Companies, founded in 1986 by Darin Beck of Cedar Falls.

Farmland meeting slated

INDEPENDENCE  Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Buchanan County and BankIowa will host a farmland leasing meeting at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 7 to address questions land owners, tenants or other interested individuals have about farmland leasing.

The meeting will be held at Heartland Acres Events Center, 2600 Swan Lake Blvd., in Independence for about 2 1/2 hours.

Attorney Melissa ORourke, ISU Extension Farm & Agribusiness Management specialist, will present topics related to farmland values and leasing.

The seminar has a fee of $8 per person if pre-registered, and $10 per person at the door.

Though registration is not required, it is encouraged. Registration will include a 100-page workbook. Thanks to sponsorship from BankIowa the cost of this program is reduced.

To register, call Buchanan County ISU Extension and Outreach at 334-7161. Make checks payable and send to Buchanan County ISU Extension and Outreach, 2600 Swan Lake Blvd., Ste. A, Independence, IA 50644.

Vinton pasture walk planned

VINTON  Neal Siela of Vinton will host a pasture walk at 6 p.m. July 27.

He is developing a managed grazing system, including a well with buried water lines, subdivision fences and weed control. He also interseeded a winter annual to increase grazing days in the spring.

Tina Cibula, Benton County NRCS District conservationist, will speak on cost share opportunities to improve pastures and soil health, and Denise Schwab, ISUEO beef specialist, will discuss grazing efficiency.

The pasture is located at 2211 57th St. Trail, Vinton. From Vinton, go north on U.S. Highway 218, continue straight (slight right) onto V61/22nd Ave Trl toward Mount Auburn about 2 miles, turn southwest (left) onto 57th St Trl about 1 mile.

Medical center to expand focus

WATERLOO  Beginning Aug. 1, the Cedar Valley Center for ENT and Sinus will become the Cedar Valley Center for ENT, Sinus & Allergy and will expand to include allergy testing and therapy.

The new services will include sublingual immunotherapy, or SLIT, drops that are self- administered at home and offer an alternative to traditional allergy shot treatments.

The Cedar Valley Center for ENT, Sinus & Allergy will remain at its current 1753 W. Ridgeway Ave., Suite 111 location in the United Medical Park in Waterloo.

Allen receives national honor

WATERLOO  UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital is one of 22 hospitals recognized by Premier Inc. for reducing preventable hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions.

It was part of their participation during the federal Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Network 2.0 initiative.

During the national initiative, Premier worked with more than 450 hospitals to meet goals in 11 harm areas and make improvement in 30-day readmissions.
ARLINGTON -- The Fayette County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate an assault between contractors working on repair of the track at Starmont High School in Arlington earlier this month.

The incident was reported July 9 at about 11:50 a.m. in the parking lot of the school. Deputies released information about the incident on Friday.

After an investigation, deputies said Jake Adkins, 31, of Marshalltown, assaulted Douglas Parades, 55, of Perry, who was employed by Fisher Tracks, a company that had been hired to repair the track for Starmont School.

Parades sustained major injuries as a result of the assault and was transported by ambulance to Regional Medical Center in Manchester, and later flown by helicopter to University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. Criminal charges are pending.
TOLEDO  A lawyer for Tait Purk, convicted of killing his fiancee in 2000, asked a judge Friday for a new trial, arguing there was lack of evidence, unfair prejudice and possibly jury misconduct.

Scott Hunter, Purks lawyer, argued the jury may have unfairly judged his client because of testimony submitted about previous offenses of domestic violence, which included he had choked fiancee Cora Okonski once before, a burglary of a convenience store, stealing a vehicle and drug sales. He said the court should have excluded those from evidence.

Not to mention whether Okonski is even dead is in dispute because a body was never recovered, Hunter pointed out.

Purk, 50, was convicted by Iowa County jury in May of killing Okonski, 23, of Tama, on April 16, 2000. The trial was moved from Tama based on pretrial publicity. Although her body was never found, prosecutors during trial argued Purk buried her body in a remote area, based on witnesses testimony.

The defense argued at trial there was no evidence to suggest Okonski was even dead, since a body was never found.

Hunter said the states evidence was weak that Purk killed Okonski because she knew he committed a burglary of the Jiffy convenience store in Tama and was going to turn him into police. Its not credible motive because Okonski also was involved in the burglary, he added.

Purk, during his testimony, admitted he stole the truck and for the first time admitted he broke into the convenience store, but he denied killing Okonski.

The state also argued Okonski was going to tell police about Purk dealing drugs, which makes no sense because there was evidence Okonski was a drug user herself, Hunter said.

The evidence of prior domestic abuse incidents of Purk allegedly choking her out and that he burned her clothes also shouldnt have been submitted, Hunter said.

The jury could have convicted him solely based on prior bad acts  the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence, Hunter said.

Hunter also pointed out two of the witnesses were jailhouse snitches who are felons that were under the belief they would benefit from their testimony. Hunter said he didnt know if they did received less prison time but they thought they might.

During trial, Chad Rogers testified Purk told him, while both were in a halfway house, he killed Okonski because she was going to tell police about his involvement in stealing a truck and a store burglary.

Sean Ward testified Purk told him in 2005  while both were serving time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.  he grabbed Okonski by the throat and choke slammed her. Purk thought he had knocked her unconscious but then realized he had broken her neck.

Another witness, Ricky Jo Sanchez, a neighbor and friend, said Okonski told her Purk threatened to kill her the day she went missing.

Hunter also argued one of the jurors telling the others she felt threatened by Purks family staring at her caused improper bias against Purk and none of the jurors were asked about it after the judge found out following the verdict.

Judge Mitchell Turner said he recalls they talked to the court attendant, who wasnt under oath, that day of the verdict and she said one of the jurors felt the family was staring at her and another juror said they didnt think that was the case.

Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren, in resisting a new trial, said there wasnt specific factual allegations to support jury misconduct.

Heeren said he understands the defense disputes the facts of the case and thats why it goes to a jury. In this case, the jury reviewed all the evidence and made a decision.

Heeren argued the testimony of Sanchez and others testified about what happened that day and in previous times showed premeditation and two witnesses said Purk confessed the crime to them. All the statements corroborate each other when taken together.

Turner said he would make a ruling regarding the motion for a new trial within a week or so. Purks sentencing is set for July 28.

For years, Okonskis disappearance was treated as a missing persons case until investigators took another look in 2015 and ultimately charged Purk with first-degree murder in December 2016.

Purk, before being charged in this case, already was serving time in a federal prison in Kansas for manufacturing methamphetamine and a firearms violation.
DES MOINES (AP)  U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated criticism of Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act to a receptive crowd in Iowa on Saturday, calling a bill moving through the Senate "disastrous."

The Vermont senator highlighted his thoughts on the bill while blasting Donald Trump, claiming the Republican president has not kept a promise to work for the middle class and to deliver a bill that provides health care for all.

"Donald Trump lied," he said, later adding the president is supporting "the most anti-working class legislation ever presented."

Sanders' remarks, delivered to a large group of community organizers in Des Moines, marked his first time back in the state since the 2016 presidential election. The independent, who almost secured the Democratic nomination for president, made similar comments earlier this month in West Virginia.

Hours earlier inside the same building complex, senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told a conservative audience that repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law was needed to stabilize the health care insurance market.

"That's not just keeping a campaign promise, it's a moral imperative," she told people attending the Family Leader organization's annual summit.

The GOP-controlled Congress has failed to enact legislation through both chambers to repeal the law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has delayed an August recess in part to try to pass a proposal. But Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate, and some moderates in his party have expressed reservations.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated an initial bill backed by McConnell would lead to 22 million additional people uninsured if passed. The office is expected to release its analysis of a revised bill early next week, including a provision supported by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that would allow the sale of bare bones health insurance policies. Major insurance groups have said the provision is "unworkable in any form."

U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst also addressed the conservative audience in the morning. Sanders asked the senators in his speech to reject the proposal.

"I beg of them," he said. "Please vote no on this legislation."

Roughly 1,100 people gathered to hear Sanders address the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund convention. He touched on issues that raised his political profile and nearly gave him a win in the first-in-the-nation caucus state: income inequality, the high costs of a college education and the need for more civic engagement. He also pushed back on voter identification laws he said suppress voting.

It's unclear how much of Sanders' progressive agenda will show up next year as Democrats seek to regain majority control of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. Democratic hopes of a closely watched special election in Georgia for a House seat didn't produce a Democratic win despite the party spending millions in the race.

It's also unclear whether Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, will seek higher office again. The senator remains popular within his base, though Democrats may try to push for fresh faces. Sanders will be 76 in September.
WATERLOO  The city may extend a property tax incentive program designed to encourage new home construction.

Grow Residential Opportunities in Waterloo  a committee of Realtors, bankers, developers and others  have proposed adding five more years to the City Limits Urban Revitalization Area set to expire at the end of this year.

Members of the citys Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission have unanimously endorsed the measure, which allows those building new one- and two-family homes to avoid paying property taxes for three years.

The CLURA was established by the City Council in 2011 on the advice of the GROW committee, which was looking for ways to keep new home starts Waterloo was losing to Cedar Falls and surrounding communities.

The tax abatement was that value saver, said Kevin Fittro of Midwest Development Co. That was the key to holding somebody in Waterloo and providing them with value there.

Midwest Development, which had been building mostly in Cedar Falls, started a subdivision in Waterloo following the CLURAs adoption.

Another GROW committee member, John Rooff of Black Hawk Contracting and Development, said the abatement program is working, and we need housing in Waterloo.

Adrienne Miller, of the citys planning and zoning office, said the city was averaging 37 new one- and two-family home starts in the five years before the CLURA. That jumped to 73 new homes a year on average during the programs first five years.

The CLURA was originally adopted for three years in 2011 and was extended for another three years in 2014. A suggestion last year to extend the program indefinitely drew concerns from some council members who believed it should have a sunset clause to force periodic reviews.

The committee wanted to keep a sense of urgency to build within the community but also allow for an extended period of time for developers to fill lots within their developments, Miller said of the five-year recommendation.

The proposal drew little debate during the planning commission meeting last week.

It increases the tax base, which reduces the tax amount the rest of us pay, said chairman Craig Holdiman. So Im all in favor of it.

But some residents have criticized the program in the past, saying the incentive to build new homes lowers the value and makes it harder to sell existing houses in established neighborhoods.

Commission member Tavis Hall encouraged the GROW committee and city to continue looking at ways to motivate reinvestment in the citys existing housing stock too.
WATERLOO  An Iowa body armor manufacturer with local ties has been invited to the White House to represent the state in a Made in America event hosted by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

RMA Armament, co-owned by former Dysart officer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Blake Waldrop and Burke Skeet Miehe of American Pattern & CNC Works in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, is to be featured at the White House event Monday, along with other firms from around the country, the duo said.

Very few companies have been invited, so Im humbled and excited, Waldrop said. He and other manufacturers will set up a display on the south lawn of the White House. He received the invitation from White House staff Thursday morning.

The president and vice president are going to personally meet with everyone and well get two or three minutes, Waldrop said. I dont know what the hell Im going to say, but Im sure Ill have it figured out by Monday!

Waldrop, who now lives in the Quad-Cities, patented and produced a new, more resilient type of body armor for use by law officers. In ballistics tests, the material has repeatedly held up under gunfire from high-powered sniper rifles and armor piercing bullets.

RMA now has done business with more than 100 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states, Waldrop said, including the Waterloo Police Department and several Iowa police forces.

RMA owns and operates a 20,000-square-foot factory in a former Iowa National Guard armory in Centerville. It located there in 2016. The armor initially was made from molds produced by American Pattern in Cedar Falls.

American Pattern is still a supplier of the tooling we use in our presses to build the armor plates, RMA vice president of operations Adam Huff said. American Pattern is producing some tooling for some ballistic floor mats RMA is manufacturing for the 2017 Ford Interceptor Police Cruiser. RMA is building the floor mats for a company named Attack Mats, based in Cedar Rapids. Waldrop said the Interceptors for which the floor mats are being fitted were ordered by the City of New York Police Department.

Waldrop, a Michigan native, came up with the body armor idea as a result of his service in the Marines in 2001-05 and his subsequent experience in law enforcement  a career that took him to Rawlins, Wyo., and eventually to Dysart.

Thats where he met Miehe in 2013 through longtime Dysart businessman and real estate agent Dwayne Luze.

He sure makes the effort to make things happen, Miehe said of Waldrop.

Waldrop also became acquainted with the presidents son Donald Trump Jr. last year when he and the presidents son attended then-Gov. Terry Branstads annual deer hunt. Waldrop was told the administration has been following RMAs through national media reports.

RMA was initially featured in a February 2015 Courier article.

Web Button: See a video of a body armor test at wcfcourier.com
ST. LUCAS  Misty Cook says the past five years have brought about a sort of rebirth.

When her 10-year-old daughter, Lyric Cook-Morrissey, was abducted and killed in Evansdale along with a cousin in 2012, Cook said she felt as though she wasnt living her own life.

She was disassociated and numb, just going through the paces. She fell back into drugs and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014.

But now, as she holds her infant daughter in her home in St. Lucas with her boyfriend, its as though life has returned for Cook.

After Lyric, I didnt think I would be willing to have any more kids, and God had other plans, and we were really, really blessed to have her in my life, Cook said in a phone interview. Its amazing.

Cook is overjoyed with her 5-month-old daughter, Abigail, she said. The family lives in the northern Fayette County town of fewer than 200 people.

The town lacks crime and the people are nice, she said. The pace of the small town is slower than the Cedar Valley, which she appreciates. Returning to Evansdale to visit family conjures anxiety.

She cares for baby chicks on a farm, along with her boyfriend, Zack Frazer. The work is hard, and the days are hot. They like to go camping and have fun as a family.

It is quintessential small-town Iowa life and its just what she needs, Cook said.

But its hard to let go of Lyrics death and the unknowns surrounding it.

Im living again and thats good, but its tainted every day with a sadness and a loss, just something thats deeply missing from my life, Cook said.

When Lyric and her cousin, Elizabeth Collins, disappeared, Cook went from a nonchalant life to one that was thrust in the spotlight. People judged and critiqued her, Cook said, passing on unfounded beliefs her drug addiction was one of the reasons Lyric was killed.

She couldnt leave her house for a year, even for simple tasks like going to the store, she said.

She worried if someone saw her face, they would judge her, blame her for the worst loss in her life. She and Dan Morrissey, Lyrics father, are now divorced.

Somehow, through this whole thing, my drug history became such a focal point in peoples eyes in relation to their disappearance, Cook said. It was absolutely crippling and its really, really hard to get over.

Cook said shes been frustrated to not hear from law enforcement agencies about the investigation of the girls deaths.

Knowing no arrest has been made also is painful. She worries the person is out there, watching her family.

The turning point for Cook came when she was in prison.

Sitting in a cell, she wondered whether there would be a life for her once she was released.

After Lyrics death, she said, she was angry with God. But in this moment, she had to decide what her life was going to be like.

I decided that (God) was going to give me a good life, she said. He was going to make this worth it. So I decided to just move forward again.

While she was at the hospital with her baby, Cook was aware of the locations of doors and exits. She doesnt let her daughter leave her sight, except when shes working.

Moving on with her life hardly erases Lyrics tragedy.

When she first brought Abigail to daycare at 3 months old, Cook said, she cried every day for weeks. She called constantly and needed to know how she was doing.

To this day, she said, she cant bear to put up pictures of Lyric in her home.

But Abigail has brought her joy she thought she would never experience again.

Here I am. I am living, and Im doing lots of things, Cook said. Im amazed every day how beautiful things are and how happy I can be and how much I can enjoy my family and home.

I just wish that Lyric and Elizabeth were here to enjoy that with us.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 14, 2017 | MAYFIELD, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 14, 2017 | 04:27 PM | MAYFIELD, KY

Two Mayfield residents were arrested Friday after several dogs were discovered at their home living in what authorities describe as deplorable conditions.



Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon says his office got a report Friday about animal cruelty on West Slaughter Road. Deputies and animal control officers arrived and found a dog on the property with a leg injury. The landlord told officers there were several other dogs in the home, and there was no power or water.



When the tennants arrived they let several dogs out of the home. Officers said the conditions were deplorable and the stench was almost unbearable. The inside of the home was reportedly covered with feces and urine. There was a water bowl and food in the home, but it was reportedly very dirty.



Deputies arrested the residents, 35-year-old Ashley Sullivan and 40-year-old Doman Coffey. Both are charged with 11 counts of 2nd degree animal cruelty.
Vogtle 2 to load chromia fuel

13 July 2017

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Advanced fuel assemblies featuring chromia-doped fuel pellets and chromium-coated fuel cladding are to be loaded into a US nuclear power reactor. The fuel, developed by Areva NP under the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) program, will be loaded into the Vogtle 2 plant in Georgia.

Vogtle units 1 and 2 (Image: Southern Nuclear/NRC)



Areva NP yesterday said four lead test assemblies featuring chromia additions to the fuel pellets and a chromium coating to the fuel rod cladding will be loaded into Vogtle unit 2 in spring 2019. The company will begin manufacturing the chromia-doped fuel pellets at its facility in Richland, Washington, later this year.

John Williams, nuclear fuel director for Southern Nuclear Operating Company, which operates Vogtle on behalf of Georgia Power and the plant's other co-owners, said advanced technology fuel assemblies would make plants "even safer" and result in more flexible operations. "This game-changing technology is not a small step, but a leap for our industry," he said.

The fuel technology aims to offer reactor operators more time to respond in emergency situations. Chromia-doped fuel pellets have a higher density and help to reduce fission gas release should a reactor lose cooling. The addition of a chromium coating to the fuel's existing zirconium alloy cladding offers advantages including improved resistance to oxidation at high temperatures, the reduction of hydrogen generation, and resistance to wear.

Earlier this year Areva advanced to the second phase of the DOE's EATF program after four years of initial research to identify promising new technologies. The DOE awarded the company a $10 million, two-year grant, plus the continued use and support of the DOE's national laboratory facilities, to design and develop the advanced nuclear fuel concept.

Robert Freeman, vice president of Areva NP's Commercial and Customer Centre for North America said the company's approach of incorporating advanced fuel characteristics into its proven GAIA fuel design, enables the fuel to be deployed into reactors more quickly.

The development of the chromia-doped fuel is the near-term solution of Areva's EATF program. The next step will be the development of fuel using silicon carbide cladding with chromia-doped fuel pellets. The company is supported by partners including US national laboratories, universities and utilities, and is deploying and further improving its technology as part of the DOE's Fuel Cycle Technologies program.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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A startup needs to test an idea quickly. For this, an MVP is created. MVP, Minimal Viable Product  a test version of a product or service with a minimum set of functions (up to one or two), which allows you to see the product's value for consumers and the market. MVP is created to test hypotheses and check the viability of the intended product: is it worth developing the project further, what changes should be made? The sooner a startup brings its MVP to market and tests the idea, the better. This article will look at how no-code technology can help founders achieve their business goals.

This article will try to cover everything that a founder needs to know about no-code at the initial stage of creating a startup.

What is no-code?

No-code, zero-code platform is a tool for creating websites, applications, chatbots, and other programs without the need for direct code writing by programmers. No-code is a valuable alternative to traditional development.

No-code is confused with low-code, but there is a difference in these terms. Low-code includes no-code and the ability to "finish code", add parts of code and the functionality.

A user of a no-code platform usually does not need to know layout, programming languages, or hire a team of programmers. The user of the no-code tool creates an application using a visual block constructor, which he fills with the necessary content and functions, and the no-code platform itself does the processing of requests, compiling the application and other "magic." It generates code using AI and/or contains blocks of code pre-written by programmers.

No-code allows the startup founder to create an MVP himself, entrust it to his employee with basic technical literacy and understanding of the project, or hire a no-code developer. Even in the case of hiring a no-code developer, the cost of creating an MVP will be significantly lower than with classical development with programmers. For example, you can read the interview of a startup and no-code developer on our website, who initially worked as a Product Manager and was able to master no-code for his project himself.

Benefits of no-code for a startup founder

There are the following key advantages for a startup founder in using no-code technology:

a large selection of no-code tools, platforms, and their integrations at the moment  already in 2022, there are many tools and platforms for creating an MVP, a larger project, or even a finished product on no-code, but few people still know about them, and others are far from all startups and founders use their potential;

cost  no-code development saves the money by speeding up the development process, not hiring professional programmers or no need to maintain a developer department, monitoring functions and quick bug fixes, avoiding or reducing the growth of technical debt;

speed is the main advantage over classical development  no-code allows you to build a simple application in a weekend, and a more complex one can be built in a month. In this way, you can test an MVP and even several versions of an MVP very quickly;

low entry threshold  to master a no-code platform, you often do not need technical education at all, but only an understanding of a company's business processes or product from the inside. In the case of pro-level no-code platforms, technical education is required, but you can get used to it hundreds of times faster than with any programming language. This makes no-code available to almost everyone who wants to work with technology;

ease of use  no need to write hundreds of code lines  just move the blocks and assign links between them. Work on a project can be entrusted to your employee without communicating with a team of third-party developers. You can speak "in your language" without the need to understand the "inner kitchen" of developers;

flexibility  with the help of no-code, it is easy for a startup founder to add new functionality and new features right during a project or a MVP testing without a significant increase in development costs.

Possible disadvantages of no-code for a startup founder

As often, any property can be, under certain conditions, both a disadvantage and an advantage. In no-code, many of the benefits with the wrong choice of tool can turn into disadvantages:

no-code is not always a budget solution for a project. Sometimes in a no-code development package, you get unnecessary functions and additions (on AppMaster.io you can separately connect the frontend and pay only for the backend or only for those functions that you are using); if you do not understand the needs of your project, then you can make a mistake with the choice of a no-code tool and not be able to implement the necessary functions on it, or it will be too difficult to implement them; often, no-code tools fail to ensure proper data security and contribute to data leakage (but AppMaster.io allows you to host a finished application on any server); no-code tools often do not provide the ability to upload source code or provide uploading in an inconvenient format, which makes it difficult to move to another tool or to your development. You have to choose a no-code tool "once and forever immediately" (AppMaster. io gives you the ability to download the source code. Also, we generate human-readable code and you will not have any difficulties with its transportation); most no-code tools on the market are not suitable for creating a finished product, and there are significant difficulties with scaling the project if the MVP is successful (AppMaster.io is a professional no-code platform and our capabilities allow us to implement and support the finished product and scale it in the future).

Forewarned is forearmed. Choose your no-code tool wisely and take full advantage of your choice.

Types of no-code platforms

Conventionally, all no-code tools can be divided into several types: no-code devices with a low entry threshold (you can create frontend and not very powerful backend on them), integrators that help connect applications and services, and professional no-code platforms (they strive to replace the code completely, provide the ability to create a robust backend and high bandwidth).

The basic principle of operation of your MVP and the choice of a no-code platform depend on such a conditional division into types. For example, if you make a simple application like a diary, you can limit yourself to a no-code tool with a low entry threshold and a beautiful design.

If your application has powerful potential, high bandwidth, multi-user interface, and works with large amounts of data or real-time data, it is better to choose a professional no-code platform like AppMaster.io or Direcual.

If you use several services at once, link them on integrators like Integromat and Zapier.

Adalo

An easy-to-learn designer with a relatively user-friendly interface. The free version is helpful for learning. The free version contains Adalo watermarks and does not allow you to upload your applications to GooglePlayMarket and AppStore. Beginners often choose this no-code platform to create their first applications with simple logic.

Bubble

It will take more time to learn Bubble , but the platform allows you to work with the backend, databases, business processes, and layout. There are many plugins. The free plan allows you to master the tool, and you can start developing at the middle rate. The price increase is due to the rise in the number of users.

Integromat

It is an integrator. Experts talk about it as a simple and affordable platform for linking applications and services. Scenarios can be created personally, or you can use templates. If you need to connect an application with a service not from the Integromat database, fill out the form and connect to its API via HTTP.

Zapier

This is an integrator for linking applications with each other or with other external services. You can transfer data between thousands of applications. There is a script constructor (one event starts a chain of necessary actions).

Directual

The no-code platform positions itself for creating MVP applications (Minimal Viable Product, minimum viable product) and full-fledged applications of finished products. Scenarios are the backbone of the platform. Using scripts, you can automate the backend logic of the application, create and combine workflows. The Directual catalog includes out-of-the-box connectors, HTTP requests, webhooks, database listeners, and integration with popular services.

AppMaster.io

No-code next-generation platform for creating native and web applications on a real backend. Visual drag-and-drop designer, user-friendly business process designer, one-click app publishing to AppMaster Cloud, or integration with any cloud platform. Push notifications, authorization using social networks. Networks, email, and more. Connect applications to hundreds of services or programmatically access them using APIs. The ability to upload source code and documentation in a human-readable format and transfer it to your servers. Documentation auto-generation. Modern and fast language GoLang at the core.

No-code perspectives for startups

No-code development is gradually gaining popularity around the world. There are already more than 500 no-code tools for creating websites and various types of applications.

According to the forecasts of IT world experts, no-code will develop more and more actively and capture parts of the market responsible for medicine, small online business, small business, and all niches where it is possibly necessary to optimize and automate development processes.

The mass shift of businesses and their customers online and to gadgets has increased the demand for the fast and inexpensive creation of mobile applications that would work according to a single quality standard and have a simple, understandable, user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

No-code is visual programming in the form of a constructor without directly writing code. Usually, basic knowledge in development is enough to build applications on no-code.

The logic of no-code constructors is intuitive: the application interface is assembled from blocks, icons, buttons, and text which are connected to the database. Usually, you can choose a suitable template or do everything from scratch. Speed and economy are the main advantages of no-code tools.

No-code is suitable for creating an MVP, testing an idea or new features in a product, saving time for solving standard tasks. PRO level no-code platforms can provide you with a finished product, an application.

If you don't have an account on AppMaster.io yet, join us. After registration, you will be given a free trial period for 14 days, in which all the basic functionality of the platform is available. It will allow you to learn the intricacies of working with a professional-level no-code platform and understand its potential.
Jul 15, 2017 | By Tess

In 1971, American artist Duane Hanson stunned the art world with his both humoristic and provocative sculpture, the Supermarket Lady. Much like the name evokes, the piece is a representation of a middle-aged woman in hair rollers, with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, pushing a shopping cart full of frozen meals and other grocery store junk food.

Computer scientist Leif Kobbelt (left) and head of the Ludwig Forum Andreas Beitin stand with Supermarket Lady

(Image: Aachener Zeitung / Michael Jaspers)

The iconic piece, which has been housed at the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen, Germany for many years (after having toured in New York and across Europe until the late 1980s), has understandably suffered some wear and tear.

In an effort to restore, or at the very least capture, the sculpture before it ages even more, Hansons Supermarket Lady sculpturea still relevant critique of consumerismwas recently 3D scanned. The scanning project, which was led by computer scientist Leif Kobbelt and his Aachen-based team, was part of the Geometry Lab, a 3D festival being hosted at the Ludwig Forum for International Art this fall.

According to German press, the 3D scans of the sculpture will be used as a model to 3D print the Supermarket Lady sculpture in full scale at the Geometry Lab festival in front of the public. As part of the event, Kobbelt will also be offering a workshop in which visitors will have the chance to build their own 3D printer and bring it home with them.

(Image: Aachener Zeitung / Michael Jaspers)

The Geometry Lab, which will take place in Aachen from November 3 to 5, 2017, will bring together art, science, and technology through a number of events, workshops, and performances. In addition to the 3D printing of the Supermarket Lady, the Geometry Lab will feature guided tours and lectures, as well as an electronic music concert.

The 3D scanning follows an intensive restoration initiative for the Supermarket Lady sculpture which was undertaken in 2003 thanks to funding from Dr. Irene Ludwig. The project was a big one, largely because of the various materials Hanson used in his original sculpture, which included glass fibre reinforced polyester resin, an oil painted surface, off-the-rack clothing, and a number of plastic accessories.

As the restorers commented in the sculptures damage report: The types of damage are as varied as the materials used in the piece. Now, however, whether or not the original Supermarket Lady last another for decades, well at least always have a digital version of Hansons masterpiece, and perhaps even a 3D printed replica of it to admire.

Duane Hanson, who died in 1996, was an active member of the hyperrealism and pop art art movements. He is best known for his realistic sculptures of people, including Woman Eating (1971) and Man on Bench (1977). The Aachen-based 3D scanning project could very well mark the first time one of Hansons pieces has been captured digitally with 3D scanning.

Posted in 3D Scanning

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An only child, Donovan lost his father decades before his mother began showing signs of dementia. When she broke a hip a few years ago at age 84, he returned home to care for her, but doctors said her mental and physical condition required nursing home care. Donovan disagreed. He plunged into a new role as a family caregiver, exhausting the $60,000 hed saved to buy an apartment to provide care for his mother. She lived to age 89, cared for by her son in her own home, which gave both of us great comfort, he said.

Lujan Grisham became a family caregiver as a child of 10, joining her family in tending to her younger sister, who had developed disabilities following surgery on a brain tumor at age 2. When told she should place the child in a health care facility, Grishams mother would have none of it. The family cared for her sister at home and blew through the lifetime insurance cap by the time she was 3. Her sister died at age 21.

Thus began a lifetime of caregiving for Lujan Grisham, who also took on the task for her father until he died and now takes care of her mother. Caregiving is a 24-hour job, and it involves the whole family, she said.

Raised by her grandparents, Baldwin said she unhesitatingly became her grandmothers caregiver when the need arose. It was my honor to give back after everything she and my grandfather had done for me, she said, adding that she struggled to find the best resources and assistance in her community. I was in my 30s, and I was unprepared, she said.

Ernst discussed the enormous challenge for a rural state with a booming aging populace: It has nowhere near enough facilities to accommodate the many older residents who want to remain in their homes and communities.

House and Senate versions of the Credit for Caring Act were introduced in May. The House bill now has 14 cosponsors from both parties, and the Senate version has eight.

AARP urges Congress to pass the Credit for Caring Act.
Another recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society found a link between long-term use of the sleeping pill zolpidem (Ambien) and Alzheimer's. The same holds true for over-the-counter sleep aids such as diphenhydramine or doxylamine (Unisom). These medications, found in the PM versions of Tylenol, Aleve and Advil as well as allergy meds such as Zyrtec and Benadryl, are anticholinergics, a type of drug that has been linked to lower cognitive ability and possibly even dementia in elderly adults, according to a study published in JAMA Neurology.

Sleep itself is important for brain health, because it gives your body a chance to clean out all the waste, such as beta-amyloid plaques that raise risk of developing dementia, Small says. But rather than relying on meds, you're better off practicing good sleep habits such as cutting out all caffeine after lunch, staying away from electronic devices for a couple of hours before bed, and maintaining regular sleep and wake times every day.

Stay connected as much as possible

Social isolation is a major risk factor for dementia, says Small. If you normally enjoy activities such as a book club or game night, try to arrange them virtually. My wife and I play the card game hearts online with our friends a couple times a week, Small says. Or use the Zoom conferencing platform to create a virtual party where you can hang out with close family and friends. One landmark University of Michigan study found that just 10 minutes of talking to another person can help boost memory and cognitive performance.

You can also try connecting a little more deeply on social media; if you normally just click Like on friends Facebook posts, for example, Fotuhi suggests actually commenting on them. When you write something, chances are they will reply, and it's a way to have a virtual conversation with them, he says.

If possible, volunteer  whether it's making cloth masks for a homeless shelter, or making weekly phone calls for your house of worship to check in on the homebound. Seniors who do so have lower rates of dementia, according to a 2017 study. It kills two birds with one stone, because it forces you to engage with others while doing something at the same time that works your brain, Tan says.

Use the internet strategically

While it can be a great tool in helping you stay connected, our natural tendency is to go online and surf incessantly, which doesn't accomplish anything except to fill up idle time, Tan says. Instead, he recommends making a list of things you've always been curious about  learning Japanese, playing guitar, visiting New Zealand  and focusing your browsing on that. Smithsonian magazine, for example, allows you to explore Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, participate in a virtual wine tasting and venture through various museums without ever leaving your house. Limit your time on news websites, Tan adds, which can be anxiety-producing.

If you feel like you don't even have the bandwidth for new online experiences, no worries. Even seemingly little things like reading the paper every day or playing Monopoly with your partner or kids instead of watching TV can reap real benefits. A Chinese study of more than 15,000 people over age 65 published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2018 found that those who regularly participated in intellectual activities such as reading books or newspapers, or playing board games, card games or mah-jongg, had significantly lower risk of dementia. Do anything you can do that's not passive, but forces you to think critically and interact with others,  Tan says.